Hi all
I posted yesterday regarding a cube Hyde hybrid but on reflection I think it's wiser to increase my budget a little seeing as though this will be a bike I will use to commute to work and back daily, weather permitting
My cycle to work for the most part would be cycling path along the train line however there is lots of upgrades to the stations along the line occurring meaning lots of the paths are diverted to road and/or gravel temporary paths until the stations are up and running again. Works are expected to be ongoing for at least a year
The ride is mostly flat with some hills. The commute is about 10km each way
I want something relatively comfy that can also take the hard gravel/dirt too
Any suggestions?
So far I've considered the trek dual sport, specialised sirrus x and polygon heist. I'm after a size medium so stock availability is also an important factor (Perth WA based)
Thank you in advance for any help!

Platinum End Theory: Who Is God And Those Mysterious Beings In The Finale Explained
Original link- https://reddit.com/platinumend/comments/sdw2rc/deleted_by_use
Repost cause the original was deleted. I'm not OP. OP is https://www.reddit.com/usemuphenz
Thanks https://www.reddit.com/usecompletelylostcase for the Pastebin link. https://pastebin.com/A8K4bJiD
DISCLAIMER: This theory will go over the entire story of Platinum End, so obvious spoilers ahead. Just a heads up, this theory is posted at the time that only a few episodes of the anime have been released. Depending on how much the anime stays like the manga, details may end up changing. Therefore, the entire theory will be based solely on the manga. I will also leave snippets of the manga with the highlighted text to support my claim. Please be sure to read those as it will help this theory make sense. This theory is completely my own original thoughts. If anyone shares this, please be sure to credit me, Muphenz. Thanks!Hello, my fellow Platinum End fans! If you’re like me, the ending completely caught me off guard and left my head-scratching. Do not worry! I’ve overanalyzed everything and made a theory to possibly explain who god and those beings at the end of the story are, so you don’t have to. Those beings at the end of the manga, chapter 58, are drum roll…humans of the future who have achieved many scientific advancements who existed well before the story of Platinum End takes place and are simulating their own world with fake humans, fake angels, and a fake god. Why are the real humans running this simulation? Simply put, they’re suicidal and no amount of therapy is going to help with that. Why are they wanting to die? In the future, it is predicted by Gaku Yoneda that within 500 years, humans will achieve immortality. Once they achieve immortality, they will eventually master time and space and will be able to do things like teleport, time travel, see the future, etc. And once humans achieve immortality and are able to know all of the future, they will discover that the future cannot be changed according to Dr. Yoneda. Just like Dr. Yoneda’s prediction, the real humans are wanting to die which is why it’s stated by one of the real humans how annoying it is that there is no death. Whatever the process was that made the real humans immortal, it seems that it cannot be reversed to restore one’s mortality. Although it’s not stated how humans will achieve immortality and allow them to control time and space, this will somehow cause humanity’s apocalypse as well, destroying the original Earth. What makes these creatures more human-like than god-like is that they admit they were born on another planet, most likely the original Earth. They are also aware that they too were created by something that is above them. How do we know Dr. Yoneda’s predictions are right? It was stated by Shuji Nakaumi that his past predictions came true. One thing to understand about science is that it’s extremely good at accurately predicting things. Example 1: With Issac Newton’s law of motion, scientists can predict the position of an object at any specific time, past, present, or future. Example 2: In the 1840s, Fitzner astronomer Urbain Le Verrier was analyzing the orbit pathway of Mercury and found that it is changing very slowly over time. With technology limited at that time, it was hard to provide proof. In 1915, the famous German physicist, Albert Einstein was able to calculate the influence of the curved space in Mercury’s orbit. That is 75 years later that science proved its prediction was right. Although science cannot tell future events like a psychic will attempt to, I believe this is what the author was using to help advance the plot for the ending. The real humans already know the future and they’re aware that no matter what they try, death is not a part of that. If they cannot do it, someone else can. That is when these simulations come in. The real humans will create simulated humans. In one of the simulations, the story of Platinum End takes place. This would not be on a computer. This process would involve terraforming an entire planet to support carbon-based life. The planet that the simulated humans live on will be similar to the original Earth as well as the history and advancement of science will be similar to the real humans. As the simulated human’s society progresses, like in Platinum End, they would eventually learn how to become immortal and learn how to control space-time which would lead to them wanting to die just like the real humans. But unlike the real humans, the simulated ones may actually achieve a way to kill themselves once they obtain immortality that the real humans could use. But as we already know stated by the real humans, this specific simulation was a failure. Nothing was created that was capable of killing them. Thus, the real humans will move on to a new simulation. Pay very special attention to this picture. Notice right after all of the humans disappear when the fake god kills himself, the buildings are slowly crumbling away since no one is here to maintain them. According to World Building, it would take an average of 250 years for a building to start to break apart since materials like wood and plastic would be destroyed by the environment if not maintained. Metal would be expanding and no longer able to keep the building's structure in place. This would cause things like windows to fall off and shatter. So after a few hundred years, the real humans return to the planet after the simulated humans disappeared due to the fake god’s suicide. It’s possible that during this time they’re running other simulations on other planets and returned when this simulation was completed. Since the real humans have achieved master over space-time, teleporting to anywhere in the universe would not be out of the question. Since they cannot die, the amount of time it would take for the real humans to travel anywhere in the universe is irrelevant as well. Even though Gaku Yoneda’s predictions about the simulated humanity’s end were wrong, he was technically right. It did come true for the real humans. If Shuji Nakaumi, as the fake god, did not kill himself and wipe out all of the fake humans, they would of most likely learned how to cheat death and to control space-time in the future. Gaku was wrong about the fake god being a product of human belief in order to live. He even admits that the composition of the fake god was wrong. If the fake god required human belief to live, then Shuji would not have erased the memories of those who were not god candidates as it would have affected the fake god's existence if fewer people believed in him. There is one thing that begs the question. Why is a fake god needed to run these simulations? Why do the simulated humans have souls? Why not just create the simulated humans and leave them to figure out how to create an immortal killing machine without the process of a false god? This is because God and souls are actually real and are necessary for life to exist. To clarify, the “God” that Shuji Nakaumi was transmuted into is not the true God that I’m referring to. I’m referring to the first cause of everything, a self-aware creator, a deistic God who existed before time and space who created the universe and does not intervene in its creation. This means no miracles, prophecy, answering prayers, divine revelation, etc. Everything in the universe is governed by physics and these laws cannot be broken. The real humans who are running the simulations are aware that they are a creation made from a creator. However, since a deistic God does not interfere in the universe, the real humans cannot know of him, at least while they are still alive. Considering the real humans can control space-time, I can say for certain at one point, at least one person went to the very beginning of time and saw something that would be evidence of an intelligent designer creating the universe. When the real humans are conversing with each other at the finale, one human suggests identifying what created them and the second one replies that seeking their creator will be a waste of time. If a deistic God won’t intervene in its creation, the real humans would be wasting time by attempting to contact him. Even though they can control space-time, if the creator exists outside of reality, they would not be able to reach this entity. Focusing on figuring out who created them means that time is wasted if they're not figuring out how to die which is why it would take them further away from death. Just as the simulated humans have souls, the real humans also have souls. At some point, the real humans discovered the soul. They are aware that this is needed for life to be sentient. The discovery of the soul could have played a key part in the real humans achieving immortality. The fake god is engineered by the real humans to create souls so that life can be sentient, mimic the universe's deistic God by allowing the simulation to run with no interference, and act as a mod to keep an eye on life with the red and white arrows. The celestial realm was created so the fake god would not be a part of the simulated world. Even though time moves differently in the celestial realm, it is the closest thing that the real humans can engineer to simulate a deist God that is separated from its creation. This fake god does not have the powers of a supreme being. The fake god does not know everything, is not everywhere at once, and does not display any sort of omnipotent ability. There is a lot of things that the fake god admits to not knowing, such as who created him, why are souls preserved, and how long does the merging process take. Although we do see the fake god have the ability to observe humanity, I would say that this is the equivalent of having admin privileges to watch humanity live-streamed on YouTube. The fake god is aware that he is created by someone. The fake god noticed that there are things that had already been created that he was not a part of just by observing everything in the universe. Although he seems to not understand what created him. He even acknowledges the idea that humanity could have created him. All the simulated souls come from the fake god. This is done through a process of emanation, which means to flow from. In the Abrahamic religions, specifically Gnosticism, Jewish Mysticism, and certain sectors of Protestantism, instead of your typical creator being separate from its creation, everything is a spontaneous outflow from God. As pieces of God emanate from him, it becomes less divine, but these pieces will eventually become an individual soul that forms into human spirits, angels, demons, as well as other things that come into reality such as heaven, hell, and the world of the living. Eventually, everything that came from God, will return back to the creator. (If you’re still confused on what emanation is, I would do more research before continuing to read as this will play a key role in understanding who the fake god is.) Emanation is how the fake god created the simulated human and their soul, the fake angels, and the celestial realm. The fake god took a piece of himself and used it to create life. Since everything emanates from the fake god is connected to him, as he is dying, most of the angels are dying too. Due to this connection, when the fake god killed himself, everything that was tied to the fake god disappeared. But because the creation of the fake god is not connected to the physical world, the planet and everything that is not life remained on it. When the simulated human beings die, the soul goes to the celestial realm. This is the returning aspect of emanation. The souls that came from the fake god are returning back to him. You always see all angels, regardless of rank, having the task of carrying the souls to the celestial realm. It seems that the main purpose of the angels is to help with the return part of the emanation process. The more that the emanence is divided, the less divine it becomes. This is why the fake humans are considered sub-celestial in the hierarchy. It appears that there is a certain order to the flow of emanation. The newest creations emanate from the fake god. Kids will be the first in the line for the emanate process and their parents will be behind them. This is why when the fake god committed suicide, the kids were the first ones to disappear, then the adults. All things that emanate from the fake god are returning to the original source in reverse order when the fake god takes his own life. When the fake god merges with a human, this appears to go against the set pattern of the emanation process by breaking the order in which the emanence flows. This is why when Shuji merged with the fake god, it felt like there was something foreign in the fake god's body similar to how an infected person's body acts when the immune system detects foreign bacteria or a virus. The only way to get around it is by the fake god merging with a simulated human and having the fake god take over the new body when the fusion is completedIt is stated by the fake god that it is nothing more than humanity's assumption that God cannot die. This may be true for the deistic God, but not for a fake god. It is already known that the real humans achieved immortality. Although the fake god could have been engineered to be immortal, that would just create another being who would eventually want to die. The fake god was designed to live a long life, compared to humans, that could be extended through the process of merging with one of its emanated counterparts until the simulation was completed. This has been done throughout time in the form of the god choosing process. The fake god confirmed to Shuji that his purpose was to create life. Professor Yoneda confirmed that the fake god was created by human imagination and that its purpose was to end life.On the surface, this may seem like a contradiction. But both of them are right. The fake god’s purpose was to create the simulated humans. God is metaphorically a creation of human imagination. It was not by the simulated human’s imagination as stated by Yoneda, but it was designed and engineered by the minds of the real humans. Since the purpose of the simulation is for the fake humans to achieve immortality and figure out how to reverse it, you can say that the fake god is a part of that process of killing humanity. Right as all of the humans are disappearing, Dr. Yoneda realizes that the composition that makes up the creature is based on a science that the simulated humans have not discovered yet. The composition of the fake god is Aether. In medieval times, a common study among scholars is alchemy, which can be best described as the forerunner for modern-day chemistry mixed with the pseudoscience of metaphysics. According to Charles Gillispie, a historian at Princeton University, in his book, The Edge of Objectivity, An Essay in the History of Scientific Ideas, Aether is the fifth element, along with earth, wind, fire, and water, that are the basic building blocks of the universe. During medieval times, Aether is the substance that is believed to connect the physical world to the spiritual one. It was even a common belief that the Abrahamic God was surrounded by Aether and that all of the angels, demons, and souls that dwelled in the afterlife breathed it in as humans breathed in the air. According to Jakob Bernoulli, a mathematician from the 1600s, believed that Aether is what allowed souls to interact with their human bodies. All of these characteristics of Aether match the composition of the fake god. Aether is what allows life to become sentient, connecting all of the simulated humans back to the fake god from the physical world to the celestial realm. It seems at some point, the real humans discover this element. This discovery most likely led to the discovery of the soul. Using this element, the real humans used Aether to construct the fake god needed for the simulations. Everything that is a part of the simulation, the fake god, angels, the soul, the arrows, is made up of this element. The red arrow is what allows the god candidates to make other humans fall in love with them so much that the person who is under the influence of the arrow will do literally anything the person who is in control wants, even die for them. The white arrow has the ability to kill any life while all inanimate objects are unaffected. These were limits placed on the arrows by the fake god. According to Ogaro, the fake god can use the full power of the arrows at will. The red arrow is more than just making someone fall in love. The arrow does this by taking away their free will. The god candidates were limited to using the arrow on 14 people at once for a period of up to 33 days. With the fake god able to use the full power of the red arrow, he can enslave any or all simulated humans with a snap of his finger for as long as he desired. The red arrow also played a role in creating the first simulated life as well. The fake god stated that if life was left alone, it would multiply. The desire of falling in love and wanting to procreate was implanted by the red arrow when life was created. The white arrow is the opposite of the red arrow. This arrow can kill life instantly. The limit that was placed on this arrow is that only one white arrow can be shot at a time. Just like the red arrow, this arrow has a maximum range of 31.6 meters. When cycling the white arrow, there is a cool down period of 0.3 seconds. If these limiters are removed, the fake god can kill all humans with the white arrows with virtually no limit on distance, any number of arrows can be used simultaneously, and there would be no mandatory cool down period.The creation of the simulated humans involves two key ingredients. The first is the soul which comes from the fake god. The second is a physical body for the soul to be attached to. The real humans asked if it was worth planting another seed and another god as those are two separate things.The making of another god is obviously the fake god. But what is the seed? The seed is what makes the physical embodiment of all plants and animals that all emanence is attached to. I.E., souls attached to bodies. According to the fake god, before he created life on the fake Earth, there was some sort of micro-organism.This seed would be that micro-organism, specifically carbon-based bacteria that is capable of evolution. Around 3 billion years ago, the first life on Earth was bacteria. There are two types of bacteria, a classification of anaerobic bacteria that ate other organic compounds and simple sugars to survive. The other kind is autotrophs bacteria which is capable of self-feeding. Anaerobic bacteria would evolve into modern-day animals. Autotroph bacteria would evolve into modern-day plants that still have the ability to self-feed through a process of photosynthesis. It is possible to send bacteria through space. According to a 2020 study published in the Journal of Frontiers in Microbiology, bacteria were able to survive in space for three years. If the real humans were able to transport the seed through space in less than 3 years, it could easily survive. Considering they achieved immortality, it is within reason to think this would be a piece of cake for them. At some point, part of the anaerobic bacteria would come in contact with the fake god, who was on the fake Earth at that time to make life, recognized the fake god as food, and attempted to feed off of him to survive. The bacteria that fed off the fake god would eventually evolve into Nasse. The bacteria that did not feed off of the fake god would evolve into more complex forms of life on the fake Earth. Since Nasse was accidentally created from this event, it most likely means that she is the first angel that the fake god created. This means that she could serve as inspiration for the fake god to create angels for the celestial realm. The angels don't seem to share any ability to reproduce with each other. There is never any mention of any family heritage. It means that all of the angels were created around the same time. Since Nasse is the only angel that came from the seed/bacteria, her biological makeup differs from all the other angels. While the majority of her is angel, part of the genetic makeup is similar to carbon-based life. Although I would not say Nasse is an angel-human hybrid, she could be considered a type of Nephilim. Due to this biological difference, Nasse is the only angel that can interfere in both the physical world and the celestial realm. Much research has shown that facial expressions are innate among all animals, not just humans. The same animals that display facial expressions when expressing emotions, lying, determination, etc. use similar muscles in the face as humans do. For example, a Psychologist, Paul Ekman, studied facial expression from hours of film and ventured on to multiple isolated tribes who have very little contact with modern society. He showed them pictures of facial expressions and asked them to interpret them. These people were able to match facial expressions and their meaning with high accuracy. This is one of the many studies that show facial expressions are genetic. Even though Nasse is single-minded, she is able to understand facial expressions due to her biological relationship with the simulated life on the fake Earth. But hey, this is just a theory."

I remember playing a certain fantasy RPG on my DS years ago but I forgot the name. It took place on an island and at the start of the game you could choose between multiple main characters with their own unique plot lines, similarly to Octopath Traveler. You would get two other main characters to travel with you in the beginning, and the other characters could be recruited eventually too.
The only main character I actually remember is a busty purple-haired alchemist girl. I remember her skirt being long with a large slit. Her hair covered one eye and looked a lot like Sucy's hairstyle from LWA. Her default weapon was a spear or lance. In the opening cutscene, she is in a tavern disguised as an old woman and two other main characters are eating there. That's all I remember. Thanks in advance to anyone who tries to help me.

I thought I was about to double my bank slots or something. What is the point? Why is it 100M? Make it make sense, I'm about to have burnout on this game because I just wasted my entire cash stack I saved up for so many days.
I'm only like 2 or 3 weeks into playing this game and I want to give up now, help me change my mind and see the silver lining somewhere

Swiatek vs Potapova :

Swiatek had to have been happy with her third round matchup after waking up from the nightmare that Naomi Osaka presented. She made quick work of Bouzkova, who was outmatched in every department. Bouzkova did manage to battle back in the first and make the set close, and she served surprisingly well, but she just doesn’t hit hard enough to beat Swiatek. It was one of those matches where Swiatek looks a bit impatient because she’s supplying all the offense, and it seems like when it takes 3-4 shots to get an opportunity to hit a winner, she tries to just infuse extra pace or spin instead and unforced errors appear. Trying to make the ball explode doesn’t really work, and extra force applied tends to fall short when compared to smooth technique. I watched Rune and Zverev have similar trouble today against their opponents. Players wind up pushing because they hit bigger than their opponent, but don’t want to make errors. It’s accuracy that’s missing, and it’s something for Swiatek to work on in the off-season. I would say that accuracy is the main problem with her serve as well. It has plenty of pace and spin, but the ball lands towards the center of the box way too often. Less pace, and more location will go a long way.
If it feels like I’m levying criticism today, yes. Your turn, Potapova and Wang. Potapova was down 5-0 in the first set, and won 7 games in a row. Wang has a tendency to just go big on her forehand, and she doesn’t stop when she misses. Potapova was an uphill battle, but Wang doesn’t actually need to hit clean winners to score. Her forehand is one of the biggest in the game, and once she locks into a cross-court rally she usually can win provided the ball lands inside the court. Landing the ball inside the court proved difficult, and it felt a bit like watching Struff. All the ability in the world but a sense of urgency that doesn’t really match the moment. Yes you want to stay aggressive, but the weight of shot buys you time in the rally, you don’t need to escape a rally you’re in control of.
Potapova wound up losing the second, and down a break in the third. She dug in admirably, but there were some really poor decisions late in the match. After getting to triple break point by rallying with Wang and keeping the ball deep until Wang missed, she got a simple backhand return off a serve. She went for a clean winner down the line for some reason, and then suddenly the next point mattered. She lost it, and suddenly the “oh F I had it and now it’s gone” fears rose. The game ended up at duece, and she went to tactic B : screaming on every shot. You can’t scream your opponent off the court, so this didn’t really work. In the end, Wang coughed up errors and Potapova won, but it was a match that was managed poorly by both. Potapova was very reactive to misses and makes, which is fine but wastes a bunch of energy and tends to affect your decisionmaking in a readable way. You want to maintain some mystery, and at a minimum not give your opponent any inspiration or hope to work off of while you’re out there.
Swiatek Potapova should be another safe match for Swiatek, but Potapova has good power off both wings and she hits her backhand down the line decent. Swiatek will need more than she brought against Bouzkova, and chances are this won’t be a blowout. Potapova won their last meeting 6-0 in the third on clay, but it was in 2016 at the juniors. Swiatek in 2.

Danilovic vs Vondrousova :

Olga Danilovic has made the 4th round of a major. This changes her career in a major way. Tons of points, at least $250k, and a chance to win more. It’s even sweeter I would imagine because she probably shouldn’t be there. Her match against Donna Vekic was filled with many fumbles. Both players have enough power to hit past the other. Vekic was able to hit inside out forehands to great effect. Danilovic’s pendulum swing on her backhand was able to force errors from Vekic quite often. Her forehand down the line was almost a clean winner anytime she made it. In between all that though, they missed constantly.
The first set was a 6-0 beatdown from Vekic. She played excellent, and likely should have won the second. In the third, she went up a quick break. She gave that back, but broke to serve for the match. Immediately, she threw in a handful of forced dropshots and errors. Luckily, she broke again to serve for the match at 6-5. This gave her the opportunity to come up with a few more bailout dropshots and errors. If you watch highlights, this was an incredible match. If you watched the match, you saw two players whose games were affected by the situation. Vekic forced the issue and missed anytime she got control of the scoreboard, and Danilovic went through bouts of not missing at all followed by sending every ball wide. The tiebreaker was vaguely like watching a junior match. Every miss brought a huge reaction from the player. There were constant gestures and faces made to their boxes, and it was a little difficult to watch two great players struggle to focus and execute. Vekic managed to go up again 6-2 in the tiebreaker, but froze at that point and began hitting most of her shots long. She had trouble serving first serves in for the second half of the entire third set, but she really was unable to respond defensively once Danilovic got a full swing in.
After watching Danilovic down Collins and sort of defeat Vekic, it’s hard to count her out against Vondrousova. Marketa is a clear favorite against most players on clay, but the scorelines of her matches can be hard to predict. Against Paquet she was up a set and cruising up a double break in the second, and wound up back on serve. She closed out, but Vondrousova doesn’t hit that big and mostly thrives by defending and earning errors, so Danilovic will be able to compete. They played in the BJK cup and Vondrousova won in 3, and I’m guessing slower clay will give Vondrousova more of an edge. Vekic’s lack of speed really hurt her, and I think Vondrousova being able to put extra ball consistently in play will make Danilovic’s rough patches more of an issue. The emotional and physical output of Danilovic over the last few rounds has to take a toll, and I think she’ll fall a game or two short here. Vondrousova in 3.

Gauff vs Cocciaretto :

This is an excellent draw for Gauff so far. She’s playing great players, but stylistically they’re not a lot of trouble for her. This round is another good spot. Elisabetta Cocciaretto is a good server and has nice power, but she’s not the fastest around the court and she can make some unforced errors if she’s rushed. This means Gauff’s defense and power give her a great shot to win without trouble. Cocciaretto beating Samsonova was a surprise to me, but Samsonova doesn’t have the speed that Gauff does nor the consistency. This is a criminally short analysis but Gauff in 2.

Tauson vs Jabeur :

Great champions are able to elevate their games. This round, Ons will need to elevate hers. Clara Tauson is playing some great tennis, and coming into this match hers is the higher level. Jabeur was projected to have trouble against Fernandez and she did. It was another match where I felt like a good coach could have gotten their player across the finish line. Fernandez didn’t have a great chance in the first, but Jabeur was very willing to give the second away. Fernandez was able to dig in on defense and rally with Jabeur until she made errors or gave Leylah opportunities. Rather than keep rallying and really punish Jabeur, Fernandez went for winners … and missed them all. I’m not exaggerating here, in the second set she missed almost every offensive shot she went for, and it didn’t feel like she had to go for them. Jabeur hits bigger than Fernandez, so on the court it may have felt like she needed to do a lot, but most of her points come from consistency, so Leylah’s team will want to focus on having her focus on the mental battle going on in her opponent’s head rather than trying to be a big hitter. Physically, it’s just not in the cards for her to be slinging offense. Maybe she landed those same shots in an earlier round, so going for them was fine, but awareness on court is important, and Jabeur was trying to give the set away. After winning, Jabeur celebrated a bit which left me puzzled. It’s natural to be happy when you win, but I feel a little odd about these matches sometimes. Fernandez didn’t land a first serve for the last 20 minutes, threw in a ton of errors, and tried to hit an overhand winner for some reason off a return at 5-5 in the tiebreaker. It was a nice win, but Jabeur made this match hard on herself. I might be in hater mode today and I apologize, but it feels like sometimes players tap their head or pump their fist after overcoming challenges that they themselves created.
Positives for Jabeur were the times she put one extra ball back. She has had a middling season, and seeing her dig in is great. Her racquet skill is some of the best on tour as well, so the gets aren’t just a boost, they’re downright effective. She has the ability to stretch to her forehand and put squash gets back extremely low, and to flick cross-court forehands that seem impossible from how extended her arm is. Jabeur’s depth of talent is why she is still slightly favored in this match, because again, Clara Tauson is coming in at a high level. Tauson beat Ostapenko, and followed it up by putting Kenin through the ringer. Kenin had no chance in the first, but in the second she was able to reel back a break of serve and apply some decent pressure. Frustratingly, she just wasn’t able to execute in the big moments. At 15-30 5-5, Tauson hit a lob that was going a few feet out (to the side). While running backwards, Kenin seemed unaware of where she was in the court. She tried to play it overhead and missed. It was a momentum killer, and she ended up missing the remainder of her offensive opportunities.
Throughout the match, the big difference in the two was Tauson’s ability to score quickly. When she lands first serves, or if you give her a moment to get a full swing anywhere inside the baseline, you are toast. She has the type of power that Anisimova/Collins generate on their backhand, and she has a heavy forehand. That is why I suspect Jabeur will have a tough time winning this quickly. Jabeur has the endurance and variety to frustrate Tauson, but this feels like a battle of two big offenses, and Jabeur’s is a bit less consistent at this point. I want to believe Jabeur wins in 3, but she will need to step up her game and avoid the type of letdown she had in the second against Fernandez. Tauson is several tiers above Leylah and Osorio in terms of offensive opportunities, and both those players were able to get in winning position in at least one set. I’m still going to go with Jabeur in 3. Tauson has beaten some offenses, and some defenses, but Ons is the most complete player she’s faced so it feels very much like “prove it” territory for me.

Arnaldi vs Tsitsipas :

The story in Arnaldi’s match seems to be Rublev’s temper, but don’t let that overshadow Arnaldi’s performance. For me, Rublev’s temper is partially his fault, and partially his team’s. I’m especially sensitive to this after watching the last round, but being reactive to the outcome of points is a bit of a leak. If you are easily moved by events, then you are always able to be moved. It compounds, because if you are really good at something, there is no reason to believe that minor failures will continue, or even matter. It gives your opponent motivation, it wastes your valuable reserves of adrenaline and dopamine (depending on good/bad outcomes), and it’s honestly fairly distracting for an opponent. Just generally speaking, if my opponent is smashing his head with a racquet, I don’t really want to beat him. I’m still going to, but I want to compete and win, I don’t really want to add suffering to someone else. It’s unprofessional, it’s a detriment to his game, and it puts his opponents and umpires in an uncomfortable spot. Of course, he knows this, but it should hit home in this moment that he lost this match because of his lack of composure, and lost it to a player who thrives because of his composure.
Matteo Arnaldi plays steady consistent tennis. He works hard, he constantly works on his game, and he isn’t reactive out there aside from hyping himself up. He beat Fils because of deviations in his level of play and because he made it clear he wouldn’t miss. Fils forced shots and missed because he was unwilling to do the work. He beat Rublev because despite Rublev opening the match hitting clean and crushing winners, he just stayed the course and kept competing. When Christmas disappeared, Rublev noticed, and he did not like it. The crux of the issue is, he did not accept it. If I am upset about the way things are, that is natural. If I grit against the way they are, I suffer. If I accept the way things are, I am (counterintuitively) instantly free to begin working on changing them. It doesn’t mean we celebrate errors or loss, but resetting to the present moment is a major key to winning in professional sports and tennis players in particular have a difficulty with this.
I’m not trying to dump on all these players or attack them here either. All of them are tremendous athletes and are mostly excellent ambassadors and competitors. All of these struggles are natural and we all experiences the highs and lows of competition, but Rublev wants to win and this is something he needs to work on to do that consistently. If his coaches aren’t working on this with him, they’re doing him a disservice. If they are and he isn’t buying into it, he’s doing them a disservice. Everything is fine with Rublev’s game but the holes are clear. He needs more reps at net, he needs to develop dropshots, and he needs to not smash racquets.
For now, it’s Arnaldi vs Tsitsipas. Stefanos has been excellent this event, and he opens as the favorite for a reason. Zhang played solid in round 3, but he was helpless against Tsitsipas. Stef is holding serving quickly, and the speed with which he’s finding a forehand to the open court off of players’ returns is the catalyst of this. His stamina is a major weapon in these conditions and in this format, and his serve/forehand is one of the best left in the event. If Arnaldi wants to win, the plot is simple. Isolate Tsitsipas’ backhand, and get deep in sets. In the late stages of a close set, Tsitsipas is still prone to some shanks. I really do think Arnaldi needs to win the first set to have a shot here, but had Rublev been playing Tsitsipas I think we’d be expecting a somewhat close match so there’s no real argument for Arnaldi to get blown out here. He has a complete game, and he has good discipline. He’s lanky so he might be able to return well, and he can send his backhand down the line so Tsitsipas can’t just camp in his backhand corner. Forehand to forehand though, I think Tsitsipas wins. Losses to Ruud, Jarry, Medvedev make me think that Arnaldi has a bit of a ceiling, but all those were close affairs so Tsitsipas should have his hands full here. Tsitsipas in 4-5.

Alcaraz vs Auger-Aliassume :

Shelton and FAA was fairly hyped, but only Felix delivered. Shelton wasn’t really that bad, but FAA just showed he’s more comfortable on the surface. He faced no break points, and won comfortably in straight sets. His next match will be a lot more difficult, as he plays a version of Carlos Alcaraz that is cruising through the draw without really playing his best tennis. Alcaraz vs Korda was a strange contest. It reminded me a bit of Zverev or Rune playing matches they know they’re going to win. They don’t want to play extra sets, so they play a bit more carefully and just make sure to outlast their opponent. What ends up happening is the score stays close, and the stronger players needs to win a tense tiebreaker or break late in the set. Sure, they still win, but I think that an all-out assault from an earlier moment would allow them to fatigue their opponent.
These guys are all in tremendous shape (even Kotov), but there are levels/paces that they can’t hang at for long. Someone like Alcaraz can push the pace and wear Korda down, and once he breaks from that level, the odds of him winning the next sets easily are more likely. We watched Nadal and Djokovic do this to opponents for a long time, and the late sets were almost always blowouts after frantic openers. We watched Federer do the same thing mentally to opponents with a constant onslaught of offensive shots and tricky slices. If you don’t push the pace to a level your lower-tier opponent can’t hang at, they end up playing at a pace they’re comfortable with and then you play the same level of Korda in set 1 as you do in set 3.
Hater mode continues, but in this case I think it’s all assuming that Alcaraz is totally healthy. If he’s saving his arm for later, he played Korda perfectly. Sebastian continues to battle even with the best players on tour, and in the big moments he doesn’t change his game. 4-4 in a tiebreaker isn’t the time to force anything, but if you’re the underdog and have nothing to lose, it might be a good choice to ratchet up the pace a little, or take some chances. Instead, he seems to throw in rally ball errors. The two forehand misses he had in the tiebreaker were rough, but worse was that they weren’t even shots that were going to score. He was just guiding the ball in straight over the net. I guess in the end, beating Alcaraz, or even playing him even for a time, is a huge ask. It was a great match.
FAA will have his best chance to beat Alcaraz here. Alcaraz’s arm is potentially not 100%, and Korda probably should have won a set. I think the pace alone that Felix brings will wake Carlitos up a bit, and he has beaten FAA the last few times they’ve played so he’ll know which shots to employ and when. Even with his arm a question mark, Alcaraz’s speed around the court and ability to extend rallies are the right assets to score on FAA. Auger-Aliassime’s main issue on tour is that he can overhit forehands and cough up unforced errors. It should be noted also that FAA Shelton was played under a closed roof, which helps Felix’s serve a bit. The weather in Paris looks pretty nice for the rest of the tournament, so it’ll be warm and ideal for Alcaraz to wear him down and isolate his backhand when he can. FAA is good enough to compete at this level, but hasn’t been doing it regularly enough for me to think he can do so here for 3 whole sets. Alcaraz in 4.

Hurkacz vs Dimitrov :

Dimitrov leads this h2h 5-0. All the matches have been close, but you don’t get to 5-0 against Hurkacz unless you can reliably return serve. If you can reliably return serve, you can beat Hurkacz, and on clay it should be even more beneficial. Hurkacz has played excellent in this clay swing considering his status as a servebot, and leading into Wimbledon and the North American swing I think his baseline improves have him primed for some titles. He had a hard test with Shapovalov in round 3, and the new and sort of decent Shapovalov put up a good fight. Dimitrov had an easier time with Zizou Bergs, despite dropping a set. Bergs broke Dimitrov a bunch in this match, but Dimitrov’s slice gave him a lot of trouble. Grigor was content to just keep hitting the court, and it was enough in the end. Bergs had trouble lifting his forehand inside in off of the slice, and it meant going mostly inside out which Dimitrov was only too comfortable with. The quick turnaround is a concern here, but I don’t think the Bergs match was as labor intensive as it could have been. There were numerous rain delays, and the scores were close but only because Dimitrov didn’t redline. He served with control, he hit to big targets, and he secured the bag.
I don’t think Hurkacz gets beaten quickly here, and I don’t think Dimitrov is automatic just because of the h2h. He should win, but Dimitrov lost to Rune/Mensik/Fritz recently and those are all players right around Hurkacz level. If this goes to a 5th, I’d be pretty worried for Dimitrov’s chances. Picking Dimitrov in 4 feels tough, because Bergs got to a 4th and he wasn’t really playing his best today. The h2h is hard to ignore, so I’ll go with Dimitrov in 5. The quick turnaround might leave him tired but he should be able to outduel Hurkacz in most volleys and the low slices will be tough for the big dude to get down on.

Sinner vs Moutet :

Nothing like a seemingly simple one to end a full day of criticizing professional athletes for not being perfect <3. Moutet has been the most entertaining player in this event. He has won and lost lopsided sets, he has gone for every shot possible, he is chatting with the crowd, and he is giving the home country something to believe in. Considering he couldn’t even hit a two-handed backhand for a good chunk of the past year due to wrist surgery, it’s pretty impressive for him to get his game back to a really high level. Ofner was beating him early in the third round, but he was also sweating profusely. The workload of defending against Moutet’s big forehand strokes and his clever dropshots is exhausting, and Ofner’s game dipped as the match went on. It’ll be fun to see Sinner trading with Moutet, and it’ll be another look at his physical ability to see how quickly he moves to the frontcourt and how he defends Moutet’s forehand inside out. Generally with a hip injury, it’s sprinting forward and leaning wide to that side that becomes an issue.
Sinner has sort of entered a big however many group in terms of his results. He is able to beat the lower tier players for the entire match, and is consistently able to do so. There are no holes in his game, and aside from his hip issue there is no reason to think he loses here. Moutet has the game to make this the match of the day, but it feels like he’s spent a lot more time and energy on court and that’ll cost him. Sinner in 3.

A little context. Early 40s, got back into the industry after a five year break. Before I took my hiatus, I was kitchen manager for a large catering company and held a few executive sous chef positions at different local restaurants in the greater DC/Metro area. Had jumped back into management upon my return, but after wasting 9 months I realized at this point in my life I much prefer to just clock in and generally be responsible for me, myself, and I.
Don't get me wrong, I'm always down to help other people with prep, and cleaning, and all that good shit. What I mean is having to worry about getting shifts covered when people call out, showing up an early hour, when already scheduled for a double, to let the guys in to empty the grease trap, etc.
Anyway, fast-forward a couple months and I get a new gig as a line cook at a decent local spot. Really liking it, great team both BOH and FOH. Chef is cool. Owner is cool. One of those rare places where people are there because they want to be, not because they have no other choice. The only issue is the sous chef that the exec brought in is such a piece of shit and it's driving me crazy.
Main thing is he hates cleaning. Tuesday's he works grill. His station is fine, but at end of night when we close together, dude will just wrap up some things on the line and then disappear, or worse, stand there and talk to servers while I scrub the entire line.
Thursday he's supposed to work the line, but Chef is off, so he expos. So not only are we down a cook on the line, but then he just stands there, leaning with his arms crossed on the pass. Until it's time to close, then he goes into the office and hangs out with the FOH manager while me and the other cook scrub the entire line.
Saturdays he works expo from the line while Chef expos from the pass, but when we close, he refuses to clean his station, which really just consists of a small flattop. He'll immediately jump to wrapping stuff on the line. So after I scrub down the 8 burner range and the steam table from my saute station, I have to brick and scrub his flattop.
And as annoying as that shit is, he's now started with passive aggressive comments while I'm doing his job.
Me (30 minutes before we close) - Cool if I clean the flattop?
Sous (while walking away) - We'll surely need it, but go ahead.
Another example.
Sous - What do we need for the prep list?
Me (jokingly) - Man, I don't know, I'm just a line cook!
Sous - Yeah, you and (another cook) don't know shit about the prep list.
I brought the issue up to Chef a month ago, but nothing's changed. Chef hand-picked this guy from another location to be the sous, so I'm not too hopeful.
I've made it clear to Chef, and he is fine with the fact, that I'm not looking for more responsibility, but I'm dependable, will 100% bust my ass while I'm at work, and I take pride in my shit. But I'm at about my limit with this lazy ass sous.
Oh, and the absolute fucking cherry on top?
Dude started there a month after I did, but took over my employee locker and yardsaled all my shit. Took my personal knife and put it with the shitty house knives. Ditched my Sharpies and pens, and put my recipe book in some random bin. Took me a day and a half to find all my shit. I was the bigger man and didn't even confront him about it, but believe I will be airing out all my grievances to his stupid face if I end up quitting lol.
Thanks for letting me rant. Only 8 and a half hours til I have to be back in that bitch to work egg station for brunch. 🫡

So after watching tales of the empire, a series that, in my opinion, fleshes out two characters who have experienced extreme isolation, loss and have veered off their original path, I have considered how Bariss’s and Ahsoka’s relationship might’ve developed through this story
As an aside I can see the choice of Bariss and Morgan as their journey’s mirror one another. I believe that Bariss would have been perfectly ideologically aligned with the witches in the mountains of Dathomir, while Morgan Elsbeth would be right at home with the Inquisitors. It is Morgan’s emotions that drives her forward, but so is the case of Bariss.
Nonetheless, I believe that every part of the Bariss Offee arc is needed to help her realize her path. It is beautiful to watch her embrace her destiny as a healer, not only to atone for the harm she caused but to also center herself in her own meaning of the force and what it means to be Jedi.
I believe Ahsoka and Bariss, when they met, were able to at least agree on the fact that while their relationships with the Jedi have been turbulent, both have maintained their commitments to compassion, mercy and wisdom. Yes, Bariss did unspeakable things and killed her fellow Jedi, but Anakin did much worse (KILLED YOUNGLINGS) and is still seen as redeemable to both Ahsoka and Luke.
You might say that Ahsoka might resent Bariss for the framing of the Jedi Temple Bombing—but I believe both can come to terms with the fact that this event not only awakened Ashoka spiritually, but started the fall leading to Bariss’s redemption.
So perhaps they can look at one another and consider that each was a child during the hostilities of the clone wars, and both make amends for the past.
On a side note, I wish there was a series/medium that portrays Bariss’s journey to disillusionment in the clone wars. I think Bariss’s mild reaction to the Inquisitors’ absolutes and training speaks to just how hardened she was by Luminara’s rational yet callous disposition. You can see how she justifies so much that the inquisitors do (Luminara’s legacy) but draws a line at the murder of innocents. She doesn’t kill those who disagree with her, but instead tries to create the dialogue to connect with her rivals.
The “you’re not alone” line really made me smile. She heals her isolation and inspires others by relating to their fear and grief.
In conclusion I believe that Ahsoka’s great trial wasn’t the framing ordeal, but will be forgiving the lost Jedi who caused her undeniably painful circumstances, but who also grew from their own mistakes.

I'm looking for help on how to edit my batch file so that hexchat opens minimized (to system tray) as opposed to opening up normally. I created a batch file that task scheduler points to with the following line.
start /min "" "C:\Program Files\HexChat\hexchat.exe"
My trigger is "at log on of any user." Running with highest privileges & the action is start a program and points to the batch file with the text above. I set the user account to "Administrators." Seems like the only thing not working is the minimization aspect, the task scheduler is succeeding at opening the program at startup otherwise.
Here is the screenshot of my settings on minimization on hexchat in case it matters.
https://i.gyazo.com/3b54fc4f1e8a587ae406fa564b85162d.png

Hello!! We’ve been looking forward to visiting for a while now and it’s finally here next week! When I travel, I like to really research and learn as much as I can. Learning the do’s & don’ts is important to me and learning any sayings I think is helpful. We’ll have two teenagers with us so definitely stocking up on groceries at CostULess. Should I bring snorkel gear or rent it? No offense to the cruise-ship-goers, but where can we avoid the masses? Also, any bars or places for music & dancing? The teenagers will want to zip line, jet ski probably, maybe fishing, and we’ll be kayaking and hiking too. Appreciate your advice and tips.

HUGtto Precure is the season that marks the fifteenth anniversary of Precure. It's main theme was the past, present and future. Was it a good season of Precure? ...Yeah I'd say so. Did it have flaws? Sadly a lot. So let's look at both of them:
THE CURES
While they're not the best as a group compared to other teams, like sometimes Macherie and Amour feel like their own thing, I can at least think of some pretty good dynamics between each character this season, obviously Macherie and Amour are one, but then you have Yell + Ange, Yell + Amour, Ange + Etoile, etc, overall they're all pretty solid dynamics.
Cure Yell/Hana Nono - I LOVE HANA NONO, like I may be biased because she's my favorite pink lead in all of Precure, but putting that aside, she had really amiable traits, an endearing personality (she's such a clutz), and had flaws that made her pretty relatable. Now, do I think her backstory was kind of random and she was tad bit too much of a genki girl towards the second half? ...As much as I want to deny that, yes. But she was still done right. Bonus points for having one of the healthiest families in all of Precure (this could go for other cures but I just really love the Nono's).
Cure Ange/Saaya Yakushiji - I really loved Saaya... and then by the end she was kind of decent. Her episodes started out really well and by the end they were kinda a chore to get through, it also doesn't help that her development was in the background at a point in time. Still, I like that she's a bit more of a geek for a blue, and I kind of wish her arc of being an actress to a doctor made a bit more sense because realistically... what is that job transition.
Cure Etoile/Homare Kagayaki - ALL OF HOMARE'S EPISODES WERE ANIMATED SO WELL, like I rewatch Episode 4 and Episode 16 specifically because... well duh. Homare had one of my favourite introduction arcs to a Precure and was really cool... but by the second half... her arc became a tad bit... missing when Harry and Bicine got involved and I think her episodes, from a writing perspective, became a bit of a chore though not as much as Saaya's. Still, I like her and she's pretty solid
Cure Macherie - Macherie was silly, I initially thought she was a tad annoying, but then Amour appeared and she became pretty enjoyable. Like imo she's genuinely pretty entertaining and, while she isn't the most... deep Cure ever, she at least had a pretty good presence throughout the show even if she was overused. I thought she was pretty good.
Cure Amour - I WISH SHE WAS STILL MONOTONE, like she peaked really well at the first half of the season because she was monotone as freak and then by the second half she became... creepily like a human pretty fast. Still, I really love Amour and I do think she's really great, though I do think she was misused a lot.
THE FAIRIES
Hugtan - Hugtan is Elle-chan one right, I love Hugtan and the connection between her and Hana. Hugtan really endeared me as a fairy. Hugtan was cute, fun, never really spoke any lines. I wish more baby fairies were like this.
Harry - Harry is really competent, he's like Tarte 2.0 for me. While the stuff involving Homare was a tad... I actually don't remember if it brought down his character at all or if it brought him up, he was still very fun and I always enjoyed his onscreen presence.
THE SIDE-CHARACTERS
These are some really good side characters in Precure... though sometimes they can get overused, some notable standouts I can remember are... the dude from the first episode who was the first monster of the week, the band dude who had a crush on Hana, Hana's grandma, Hana's whole family, those two characters in Episode 16 who were besties, Emiru's older brother... these people I actually take note of (despite not remembering their names but I do know their personalities so shhh) so props to that HUGtto
Henri - I have positive opinions on him and I do think he is one of the best side characters in Precure. He may have been overused like seriously a side character shouldn't be used THIS much, he was still pretty good.
THE VILLAINS
Charaleet - He was fun and pretty intimidating at times but that's really it for his character. I did like him enough but he never necessarily left that much of an impact on me. I did like the stuff they did with him in the second half but maybe that's because I treat villains as an afterthought compared to side-characters.
Papple - I like Papple a little less then Charaleet, I do think she had a bit more interesting stuff going on involving Gelos or Kurai, and I will say she was fun when redeemed but she was kinda there at the second half for the most part
Diagan - Diagan was so... he was a bit forgettable... sometimes he was unintentionally hilarious but other then that... he was meh
Gelos (+ those butlers) - Gelos was honestly pretty fine until... she got dragged down by HUGtto's second half... and then she was kind of... forgettable by the end but she was at least somewhat decent... her butlers were not good though
Bicine - BICINE HAD SO MUCH GOING FOR THEM. Like the yandere they had, their rivalry with Homare, the backstory with Listol... and then they became an afterthought in the finale which really hurt because I enjoyed them... and then they became a bit... meh me personally.
Dr. Traum - Ok... hot take... while I do like Dr. Traum and how he plays into Amour's arc. I'd honestly remove him from the show if I potentially got to rewrite it. HEAR ME OUT. While I think Dr. Traum was entertaining, he was also kind of misused a LOT in the show, like how his final battle was overshadowed with a crossover. Like, I think Amour finding her own identity (and thus adding to how she'll get over her monotone tendencies later in the show) would make for a good arc on her own
Listol - He was intimidating... and he still kind of is... I don't know. Most of his stuff was kind of related to Bicine... and Listol had some good moments but he's the one I kind of forget the most out of the villains.
George Kurai - Kurai was pretty great, he was mysterious at first and was kinda creepy but as the show went on I did feel empathetic towards him... even if his backstory, to me, was just a tad bit vague. Dude might be one of my picks for a top 10's list of best Precure final villains ever.
MISCELLANEOUS (Fights, Music, Character Design, etc)

• I want to live in the city HUGtto takes place in like it's so casual
• THESE ARE SOME OF MY FAVORITE PRECURE DESIGNS EVER
• ok so maybe this is a mild take but the music was a bit forgettable... though that second ending theme and LOVE & LOVE is so good
• The transformations were lowkey forgettable but Macherie + Amour carried
• I loved the fights sometimes, LIKE THERE IS SOME REALLY GOOD ANIMATION IN SOME EPISODES ...but most of the time they were kind of forgettable
• The all stars movie with all the cures was carried by the villain and Hana, everything else was mostly good, I definitely recommend it.

OVERALL
HUGtto Precure could've been good... and it kind of was? It just had many flaws holding it back from being one of the best of all time. Still, for what it's worth, I will take HUGtto any day over some other seasons, and points for HUGtto for always being consistent with it's main theme of time, some of the characters, and somewhat keeping up the spirit of old and new Precure.
I'm giving this season a really high B+ (7/10)

I built a pretty standard +1/+1 counter deck around [[Lae'zel, Vlaakith's Champion]]//[[Master Chef]]. I was not the biggest fan of how the deck was playing in its initial iteration and I wanted to see if I could take things in a new direction. I always like to take the approach of using the whole buffalo where possible in deck building and I felt like I was not using all of Lae'zel's text to my advantage with her ability to put counters on Planeswalkers and myself.
I reinvented the deck as a superfirends deck this time with Planeswalkers that create creature tokens. This works well with Master Chef as my tokens are a bit stronger than normal and Lae'zel can grow Planeswalkers at a good rate. Many of the creatures in the deck have proliferate often allowing me to use a Planeswalkers ultimate on the turn that I cast them often allowing for a surprise emblem. I really liked this new direction I took the deck in as I felt like this was a novel way to build that I have not seen anyone else doing before...
...however despite finding a cool line of play I am still not taking full advantage of Lae'zel's abilities. I have not yet found a practical way of putting counters on myself. Afaik the main options to look at are going to be Experience and Energy. I know with recent releases Energy as gotten a big boon and may be far more viable of an option than before and could be a decent subtheme for the deck. What practical options do we have at this point in GW for token use on a player?
Thank you for your help. I am having difficulty being able to brew this to the full potential.

this is an embarrassing post to make. i easily have about 20 tattoos at this point. i take a lot of time and effort choosing the pieces i want and usually wait months to get them done by my artist that i’ve been mostly loyal to. however, i went on a day trip today and got a matching walk in tattoo with a friend. the design was cute, but the aftermath of it has me feeling like sh*t. the shop was scammy, charged us more than what was quoted, and kept trying to force us to tip even though we both had a negative experience.
i know this is my own error, and it makes me feel even worse. i chose to get the tattoo on my forearm, going from 2 inches below my elbow almost to my wrist. it’s a weird placement and there’s nothing else on this forearm. the more i think about it and look at it, i hate it more. the lines look scratchy and the whole thing looks rushed (mostly bc the artist absolutely rushed).
i want it off of me asap. i would rather have my bare skin again there. i’m already healing another piece that my usual artist did and i really loved it and it made me feel good about myself. this new one destroyed that feeling. what is the best way to get this tattoo faded away asap?
i’ve done laser in the past and i will do it for this as a last resort. the ink is just black if that affects any answers. what can i do during the healing process to prevent the ink from taking? i know picking the flakes will sometimes work. can i use my nail gel UV lamp against it? how soon can i actually go to a laser removal clinic?
any advice is helpful, i know i f*cked up and im desperate. hopefully i will feel better about this whole situation in the morning but ultimately i want this gone.
tldr; i got a tattoo that i hate and i want it as faded as possible. any advice?

Hello fellow Chiari survivors. I (31f) was diagnosed about a year ago, after having more severe headaches more often and finding it in my MRI. I've had headaches my whole life, as well as ringing in my ears. I thought it was normal, and no one believed it was as bad as I said it was. I've learned as I got older, and especially after having kids, that I actually have a pretty high tolerance for pain, but this pain is starting to really weigh on my mental health.
My neurologist (and the one I saw before him) says surgery (of any kind) is out of the question. "No one wants to play around with your brain and leave it unprotected," is what I was told. I've had butalbital/caffeine/aspirin medication in the past that use to work, then stopped working, and my neurologist work prescribe it anymore anyway. I've done three rounds of botox three months apart each. It relieved about 50% of the pain the first two times. The third time I had to wait an additional month because of an insurance issue. This last round about a month ago didn't help AT ALL.
I'm in severe pain again with absolutely NO RELIEF. Over the counter pain meds don't work obviously, or none of us would be here, and my neurologist won't give me anything until my next appointment. Luckily, I have an appointment with the clinical pharmacist in a few days to discuss my next options with medication. I think the next thing they'll have me try is the shots I give myself at home every month, no idea what this is.
This is extremely frustrating being a "married, single mom" with two children under 10, in sports, and a full-time job where I have no help and feel like our small business is resting on my shoulders. Without going further into my pity party, I am EXHAUSTED AND DONE with everything. I feel like no one believes me because I HAVE to keep moving forward for my children. I'm not a nice person a lot of the time, but I'm trying as hard as I can to be "normal." I've taken at least one day off per week for the last two months because of the pain. But I also feel like I'm being a wimp, and the guilt makes the depression worse. I feel so guilty when I have to take time off for my head. My boss is very understanding, but I feel like she can only take so much.
Anyway sorry for the rant. Like I said I feel like no one believes me, that everyone around me thinks this isn't as bad as I think it is. And I know that there are so many people going through so much worse than me. I just need someone who's walking this same line as me to give me something.
I guess I just want to know, has anyone else been told surgery is NOT an option what has helped you, if anything? I appreciate you all!
https://preview.redd.it/d7mhlmgy234d1.jpg?width=2608&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c4c443aac00854f76694988ef036da1d1b7165f0
https://preview.redd.it/13wnxcjz234d1.jpg?width=2634&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bb189878ca5b929890b99f44424ec1015cb7fa2a

Hello there? I am Unemployed Professor. I am currently available to help students boost their GPA in Math, Statistics, CS & Business courses at college and postgraduate levels.

MATH & STAT 

✓ Calculus I
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COMPUTER SCIENCE 

✓ Programming Languages: Java, C, C#, C++ & Python
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....To the snowflake twunt-waffle at Sam's club who decided to denigrate the waiting vehicles in the loading zone...
Shut the fuck up. Seriously. Oh my GAWD you got a little wet! You, who possess the physical capacity to actually unload your own shit into your large, pristine black SUV, with help that was ALSO physically able to assist you.
I bet you "missed" seeing the handicap licences on most of the cars in that line, didn't you? WANNA TRADE PLACES, YOU ONE TRICK HOR(SE)?! I would gladly not have a terminal child in my back seat you LAZY FUCK.
It's not like the fucking loading zone is designed with bollards spaced far enough apart for a goddamn semi to pass by a smaller vehicle still waiting for their shit.
Idk why you're complaining about getting drizzled upon, anyway. I can almost guarantee that your bitter, box-dyed, wrinkly-titted ass hasn't been that moist since your wedding night.

i have a friend (she’s a 25 year old woman) who’s in the shittiest situation ive ever seen in my life.
it’s a long story, so in short: she got pregnant by a guy who she had only known for one month (at the time). they were coworkers who met at mcdonald’s.
my friend is extremely poor, lives in an inherited family trailer with no utilities, water, sewer, etc. i’m not rich, or even wealthy, but when i have extra money i help her. she doesn’t have any family- they have all died from drugs, cancer, or are in prison. her life is very sad.
anyway, she’s pregnant, extremely poor, unsafe living environment, and on top of all this she told me a few nights ago that the man who impregnated her r*ped a 13 year old child. this alone would have been ammunition to abort if i were her, but she still wants to have a fairytale life with this dude.
i am pro choice. so i support a woman’s decision to keep or abort her child. my friend has been teetering the line of both decisions since she was 6 weeks pregnant (she’s 9 weeks now). at 6 weeks i told her i had abortion pills that she could take. she accepted my offer then back tracked because she said her ex who just got out of prison (not the baby daddy, a different man) said he’d marry her and raise the child as his own- this dude beat her and is addicted to heroin and alcohol. i tell her this is not a good idea, and she’d get more benefits from the state as a single poor mom but she says “i just don’t want to be alone”.
i guess i should add, we live in texas. so my friend didn’t take the abortion pills i offered her because 1) she’s afraid she’ll go to jail & 2) she thinks the r*pist baby daddy is going to suddenly change and be a family man
i’ve explained to her countless times, unless she told someone about the abortion pills, no one will know. now that she’s 9 weeks pregnant the pills are no longer an option though (i think).
she’s always complaining to me how depressed she is and how her depression will negatively impact the baby, she called me one night saying she had a gun to her head because she feels alone. she got on her knees and begged her abusive felon ex to take her back when the r*pist blocked her on his social media and said he wanted nothing to do with her anymore.
this woman’s life is in fucking shambles. i’m getting nervous about this baby of hers.
she had so many opportunities to abort with the pills i gave her.
im an outsider in the situation and don’t know what to do. aside from offering the pills i really don’t know what to do as a friend. not to sound like a monster, but the baby should not be born. the r*pists genes do not deserve to be passed on.
also i feel like when the baby is born, it will be in danger and notifying cps would be the best thing to do for the babies safety, but she’s told me several times that she would kill herself if something like that happened.
thank you to whoever read all this. also, i’d like to add i know this sounds like a rage-bait karma farm story. it’s not. east texas is filled with a lot of people like this unfortunately. i just don’t have anyone to talk to this about so im turning to this sub like i always do.

Hi yall! So I matched w a guy recently on hinge about 4-5 days ago, and after a day we moved onto Instagram dms. For reference, we're both 19, and I personally have never been liked back (as far as I'm aware) or in a relationship. Also have not had my first kiss or anything like that.. I rarely ever match w ppl and if I do, I rarely ever talk to them more than a day or two. Boys my age kind of suck lol, as l'm sure many have noticed. However, this one seemed relatively interesting and we were able to get a good convo going more than a couple of times.
I am a really terrible texter who struggles to reply in a timely manner, yet for 2-3 nights in a row, I found myself texting him for like an hour or more at a time up until 2-3am. I NEVER do that, even w my own friends lol. So I took that as a very good sign and it seemed that he did as well, literallt saying he was excited to meet me, if this was how well we got along over text.
I should preface that I'm not a huge flirter and it seems like he isn't either (?) but he definitely flirted more than I did. He said like a corny pick up line as a joke once, then on hinge was like "you're my type in a way that makes me regret that I met you on hinge LOL" like silly things like that.
He told me he looked thru my instagram and was perplexed by how awesome I was. I liked it cause he was never overtly like "you're so beautiful" or whatever it was always some like corny sheepish little message abt how he thought I was cool or "looked great" lol.
Anyways, things seemed to be going well and I was getting excited up until like 2 days ago. We had a flow of texting each other around 10 pm to catch up on our days together and when I texted him he became strangely dry. This continued into the next day, and then a full day passed where he did not text me- I did not text him either because the prior day, I initiated the convo and that was when he was dry for a second time, worse than the first. However, at some point amidst this dry spell, we made official plans to meet this coming Saturday, a week from today. So that also threw me off— why be dry with me but then also go through with making plans?
After 24 hrs of no texting he texts me at like 3am “shit sorry l've been really busy how was ur day" and so today we've continued talking. It's not dry anymore, I think, but definitely not as fast and excitable as our first few convos.
What also is making me hesitate is that as we were texting, I was mentioning how I was a grade above him and he sent a message along the lines of "I like em older " very obviously as a goofy joke, but then deleted it right away. I still saw it though and I'm unsure as to whether he deleted it because he thought it was stupid and inappropriate, or if he did not want to lead me on romantically any further.
The thing abt not liking flirting is that l often end up in these situations where now I can't tell if he's still romantically interested or not. Because he wasn't a huge flirter before but there was obvious interest in our convos, so now that this took a bit of a turn, I can't help but wonder if he's lost interest or something. I should mention that today he told me he had a really stressful day yesterday (the 24 hrs of no texting day) and he had a panic attack. So he very well could've been not texting because of that. But I don't know.. I really can't tell if this is just in my head or if the signs are glaringly obvious. I was really excited about this; as I said, I rarely like guys and never have I been liked back.
So to see the potential of a spark here, I could not help but find myself getting really excited and thinking about him, which I tend to avoid doing as to not set myself up for disappointment. But after that 2 day period of dryness, I can't help but put my walls up again and feel the disappointment lingering in the back of my head...
I will also admit, I do have deep rooted insecurities, especially about my appearance. I was quite the ugly duckling up until midway through highschool, hence my lack of relationships or attention from guys thus far. I think I have a great personality and a lot of other good traits, but I live in a city where I just know boys, especially my age, value appearance over all else. And this guy is pretty darn cute! My friends thought he was okay but I think he's a touch out of my league lol. I also suspect that I may have found what his ex looks like and she is far prettier than me; but it sounds like she messed him up a whole lot.. mentioning all this incase it has to do with me potentially overthinking.
Let me know what yall think. Sorry for the huge ass essay lol, I just wanted to make sure I had as many details up as possible.

My friends are my family and we live together. Ms girl and him have a kid, and they're clashing a lot. Neither of them can relay feelings or emotion to the other, and one is, in my opinion, being extremely selfish. She has a lot she can work on, but it's mainly lifestyle and interpersonal issues. He has a lot to work on, which is mainly emotional and mental. Multiple times in the last two weeks alone he has dropped everything and left to go to his cousins side when he has suicidal episodes (This is not the first instance), and when Ms girl expressed dislike for it happening again today, he told me she was only mad because he woke her up. The fact is, his cousin needs an aide or to be admitted somewhere that will ensure his cousins taking everything, and he understands this, but refuses to see how continuing to drop everything affects anyone else. I asked him where the line was with his cousin and he said he doesn't know, I told him he needs to consider his girl and kid, in the end to sum it up, he's made a decision and he's going to do what he wants regardless of how anyone feels about it. If he can justify it he won't accept anything else. On one hand I get that his cousin is what he has left for family, but he's giving no consideration for the family he's made with Ms girl. From my standpoint he's being extremely selfish, and I'm frustrated and worried for them. I regulate their thoughts but I need someone who can help me figure out my own and what to say to them that gets a point across😞

This is my first time posting to Reddit, so I apologize if there’s any typos or format problems. I (23F) just moved back in with my parents a week ago after living and working far away. Some stuff with my job and finances occurred, so the plan was to stay with my parents temporarily until I have a stable job and income to live by myself again. I was reluctant to move back in cause my relationship with my parents, especially my father, is rocky. My mom is overly critical and pushes for perfection. My dad hurts me emotionally or is manipulative. For example, when I went to live and work far away I was upset that I had to leave my elderly dog. I was talking to her and said that I would be back to see her soon and his response was to say “well she’ll probably be dead before you get back anyway.” He’s bitter and snarky all the time. He will say something snarky to me and when I get upset he antagonizes me further. Sometimes he does this but plays innocent when a third party ( my mom or sibling) is around. They also see his behavior, but say it’s best to tell him he’s being rude and ignore him. I feel like this just enables him. I’ve considered going no contact with my parents many times. So far this week there’s already been a few times that he and I have gotten upset at each other. But yesterday I definitely lost my temper and I’m feeling guilty about it. Especially since it was his birthday. I had ordered a package and was expecting it in a few days. However, whilst out with my mom, sibling, and my siblings toddler, I suddenly got a notification that it had been delivered. Though I won’t say exactly what was in the package as it’s embarrassing to admit on this forum, let’s just say it was something for an adult like myself. I was worried but tried to calm myself because it was in a box and unnoticeable. However, I know my dad opens mail and packages no matter who’s it is. Before he got the package off our porch, I immediately tried to call him but to no avail. I texted him to just leave it be and don’t open it as I would be home soon. However, he didn’t pay attention to his phone. I tried calling him a few more times and then got a text from him saying it was tooooooo late (yes he said it like that). He had opened it. Fortunately, what I had ordered is very discreet and hard to notice unless he specifically inspected it. Plus, I ordered some other things that I had needed. So there’s a good chance he didn’t even notice. However, I was fuming because he constantly crosses the line like this no matter what I say or do. I’ve had discussions with him about boundaries before and he always breaks them. I even thought he may have been joking when he said he opened it cause he is like that. However, he finally called me back. I calmly asked if he actually opened it to which he said yes. This is where I think I’m in the wrong. I lost my temper and started shouting on the phone asking why would he do that. He told me that it was at his house on his porch. I told him it didn’t matter because my name was on it and that opening other people’s mail is illegal anyway. To which he said “then call the feds on me.” He proceeded to say that he didn’t do anything wrong. Eventually, I lost it and said, “when your children don’t want to talk to you one day, don’t be surprised” and hung up the phone. For context, he’s also been making my sister angry recently and she’s been avoiding coming to their house. Even though I was angry, I immediately felt guilty once I realized my sisters almost toddler was within 15 feet of me. I felt awful when I realized she probably heard or saw me getting angry and shouting into my phone. She’s still being pushed in a stroller and can’t speak fully, so I know she probably didn’t see or exactly understand what I said. But I know kids can be affected by something like that and by their environment. I felt very bad because I adore my sisters kid and never want to do anything to negatively affect them. I apologized later on to my sister for it to which she accepted. My dad and I haven’t been talking since then. Yesterday, while he was out, I broke down in front of my mom and sobbed about how I felt and how I didn’t want to be here. I told her that I had been trying to hold in my frustration and sadness but I finally had snapped when he crossed the line yet again. I told her everything I felt in regard to him. She helped me contact a family member about moving in with them next month. Even though I think this will help, I feel a bit guilty about what I said. Especially since it was his birthday. Because he was angry at me he canceled his birthday dinner we were going to have here at our house and went for a long drive. I do still care a lot about him despite everything and worry about him. I feel like my anger and pain are valid, but I feel extreme guilt for how I went about it. AITAH?
*Edited to make shorter

Help me out here, I’m finishing up the ACOTAR series and I’m loving the fantasy aspect as well as the steamy scenes. I do however, absolutely despise the writing. The author uses the same cringey words/phrases far too often to the point where I literally roll my eyes at certain lines because they’re just so bad. I like the storyline, don’t get me wrong, but it’s just poorly written. Any recommendations on similar books that have better writing? Or even just romance novels that are well written (I.e. not cringey)? Are my expectations too high here wanting a well written story AND lots of smutty scenes? Lol thank you in advance!

I've been sending personalised cold emails at scale for 15 years & have A/B tested everything 6 ways past Sunday.
This 3 min post will save you 3 years of testing and learning:
1/
The subject line is everything.
"quick question" used to rule them all, but it's dead now.
Keep it 5 words or less, and include the recipient's 1st name
Longer ALWAYS loses A/B tests and including 1st name always wins.
Better subject line = more opens = more replies
2/
Don't sound professional
Don't sound like a robot
Always sound like an interesting human.
If you aren't interesting or clever, then get help from a friend that is
One of my best performing openers was
"Put down your $17 avocado toast and read this stupid pitch already."
3/
I know gurus preach "it doesn't matter how long your email is as long as your copy is compelling."
That's BS. Full stop.
Your email needs to be shorter than Danny DeVito.
Rule of 5:
5 or less words in subject
5 of less sentences in body
No links or pics in signature.
4/
Are there exceptions to this? Of course. Long copy has made folks billions.
But rarely in email. And your copywriting isn't that good. Neither is mine.
You need to end the pitch with an easy call to action.
Cold emails are no different than fishing. Let me explain
5/
When you go fishing you can't set the hook too soon or too late.
THE PURPOSE OF A COLD EMAIL IS TO START A CONVERSATION. NOT TO SELL!! You're fishing.
Keep the ask very simple in the beginning and don't ask for much.
As you reel them in, as for a little more at a time.
6/
My first email usually ends with:
"Any interest?"
"Thoughts?"
"Mind if I send a little more info?"
Every time you ask someone to hop on a call or a Zoom in the FIRST cold email, an innocent puppy dies.
Don't you freaking do it.
Don't set the hook too soon.
7/
The more times you can get them to reply, the more of a relationship you have.
The more likely they will be to either buy or hop on that stupid Zoom you keep wanting to ask for.
If your cold email can't give them
Money Time Attention
Then they aren't buyin'
8/
Let's talk tools. There are a ton of cold emailing tools. I've used them all.
GMass - Lightweight, cheap, simple. It's great
Lemlist - Feature rich, a bit expensive. Unintuitive UI
Apollo - Solid, affordable, but more targeted towards leadgen and not the email tool itself
9/
Start by sending in batches of 200 per day.
A/B testing 100 at a time.
Keep iterating until open rates are over 50% and reply rates are 15+%
It all depends on your industry, product and pitch, however.
I've seen 90+% open rates and 40+% response rates if targeted enough
10/
The more personalised the emails are, the better response you'll get. Obvious, I know.
You'll always make a tradeoff between scale and response rates.
Pick your poison.
2-3 personalised fields per email is key.
11/
No more than 2 follow ups. PLEASE.
Because hey, I get cold emails too. And when you follow up 3-6x I literally want to murder you.
It does more harm than good.
In general, follow ups are weak. If it's a no on the 1st email it's 90+% chance going to be a no on 2-3 as well
12/
With every word they have to read in the email, the % likelihood of them deleting the email goes up
Friction is not your friend
These same people stop watching a TikTok video after 4 seconds, you think they're gonna read a 400 word enterprise software pitch?
13/
The winning A/B test will be the one that leads to more cash in the bank.
Not the ones with the most opens or replies. Make sense?
Sometimes the lowest response rates are the highest INTENT responses.
You need to track these nuances, not just the numbers.
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