So I have this assignment on strings in HLA is honestly a bit complicated to understand being such a low-level language. These are the program instructions: Write an HLA Assembly language program that implements the following function:
procedure strlen( baseStringAddress: dword ); u/nodisplay; u/noframe;
This function should return in AL the number of characters in the string parameter, passed by its base address. Here is a sample program dialogue: Feed Me: asdfasdf The String You Entered: asdfasdf Has Length = 8
NOW THAT IS NOT ALL WE HAVE TO USE THE FOLLOWING IMPLEMENTATION:
String I/O Routines
In effect to assist you in working with strings, I authored the function "gets" and the procedure "puts". As you can see from the example above, gets is used to read a string, while puts is used to write a string. These routines support the following syntax:

Each routine needs to be passed a nicely allocated and null-terminated string by sending its base address (that is, index 0 of the array). In addition, gets takes a second parameter which tells it how many characters it can legally ramm into the array before it overwrites its allocated size.
Both of these routines are provided in the file: cs17string.hla. By stating in your program,

I HAVE WORKED THIS IN C LANGUAGE AND I AM ABLE TO RUN THIS PROBLEM WITH NO ISSUES, THE ISSUE COMES WHEN I TRY TO WRITE IN HLA, IT BECOMES TOO MUCH AND I GET LOST. IF SOME ONE COULD HELPP THAT WOULD BE APPRECIATED. C CODE:

include

include // For the strlen() function

int main() {
char userInput[256]; // Array to store the input string
printf("Feed Me: "); // Prompt the user for input
fgets(userInput, 256, stdin); // Read the input string (including spaces)
// Remove the newline character added by fgets()
userInput[strcspn(userInput, "\n")] = 0;
printf("The String You Entered: %s\n", userInput); // Echo the input
// Use strlen() function to get the length
int length = strlen(userInput);
printf("Has Length = %d\n", length);
return 0;
}

You've finished all 5 LNs, and want more, well this thread has you covered. This will go over what you can read next.

Official Stuff

• Turn Around and Face Me

Well, you've read the LNs, why not read Turn Around and Face Me, the sequel series, set years after the original? May and Aleah Francois are now teenagers, going to an All-Girls Academy. This series is more lighthearted, and won't have any earth-shattering consequences to it. It's just two dumb teenagers in love with people who aren't interested in them. TAFM is still ongoing, and we should be getting chapter 3 fairly soon.

• I'm in Love With the Villainess manga.

Same story from the LNs, with a lot more detail. Aono Shimo's art takes what is already a great light novel series, and brings it to life in greater detail. There is a lot added on here, helping to make this a wonderful experience. It's currently in the Investigation arc, and runs monthly in Yuri Hime.

• Inori's Skeb Stories.

These are commissioned works she's done, and their canoncity is essentially TBD. Only a handful are translated here, I'm unsure as to where the rest are.

• Manwha....sorta?

Look, I'll be real here, there's no legal way to read it in english, nor any illegal ways. If you're Korean, or read Korean, it's here.

Fanfiction

It's the lifeblood of this community, and there are so many talented writers to share. This one will be broken down into a few different categories, to help direct people towards something they might love.

Alternate Universes.

• Before the Morning Rush, AKA Coffee Loop.

Rae Taylor is a coffee shop barista, who has a crush on a regular customer, named Claire Francois. It's your typical Coffee Shop AU, that was one of the first big fics in the community, and continues to influence AU works. The sequel "A Quiet Cup of Cheer" is very good, and I highly recommend.

• Even in the Next One

"Claire Francois awakens to find herself in Japan, where Rae once lived out her past life. It’s not hard to find her wife once more, and given a second life surely it will be easy to live that one out with Rae once again and help Rae as she had helped her in Bauer. It’s hardly as if Rae will need convincing, right?
Rei Oohashi has had a crush on the icy Francois-san ever since university classes started, she is just so pretty. One would not have expected those feelings to be returned nor to have Francois-san claim they were wives in a previous life. And does Francois-san have no memories from this life either… oh no."
Essentially it's a reverse isekai, with Claire being a fish out of water. And it's full of Persona and Dungeon Meshi references. This has a NSFW companion piece from the lovely brooklynapple, which I will not link here.

• I Fragged the Villainess "American high school student Claire Francois has always risen to the occasion in her every endeavor. Now, however, she's facing perhaps her greatest challenge yet -- a first-person shooter game??? Determined to succeed, she logs in every night only to be thwarted again and again by another player with a rather peculiar gamertag. How will she react when she learns that her mysterious rival is actually another student from her school?"

The same writer also did an ESO Crossover, which I recommend reading!

• "The Queen's New Life"

"Rei "Quinn" Oohashi has a decently normal life. A job she excels at, a bothersome sister, a hobby she is undefeatable at. Things start to change when a blonde-haired fashion designer enters her life."
The story isn't very far along, but the writer is definitely having fun with this one.

• Villainess Calling

"Two trans women with very different backgrounds, and personalities. Claire Francois, is the epitome of elegance and grace, her father a wealthy politician. Beneath the facade of elegance however, lies a painful past, that she fears coming to haunt her. The Violin becoming her means of escaping her world, if only for a moment.
Rae Taylor, is a Punk Rock Bassist, who found solace in the raw energy of punk, channeling her anger and frustration into the pounding rhythms of her bass guitar. Running from her past, she attempts to make a fresh start somewhere much different. Despite the lonely pain she feels, she pushes past it, in an attempt to pretend she's someone she's not: Someone confident, and able to hide the pain from everyone around her.
A chance meeting intertwines their paths, forcing them to confront their painful pasts, and embrace their true selves. Through their shared love of music, a bond is formed, that may just help them both find happiness."
Fully admit, this is a shameless self-promotion. The first few chapters are rough, but if you enjoy punk music, or just want to see what it would be like if Rae and Claire, were trans? You'll enjoy this! This also has a NSFW companion piece which I will not link.

• Steam Punk Loop "We enter an era where technology is advancing. Not many of the common folks are capable of magic. Machines are developed to make their lives easier. The discovery of Steam Power has greatly advanced the lives of the Lower Class, at the displeasure of the Aristocrats. Magic, however, is still regarded as a higher power which most Aristocrats still wield and follow traditions. As technology grows, magic starts to fade as a higher power for the Lower Classes and questions arise, why are they bowing to Aristocrats' Magic when Steam is far greater now? Tensions grow, unrest spreads, how will the growing chaos be stopped?

Rae Taylor is the daughter of the General Store owners who sell all kinds of items and are part of the middle class.
Claire Francois is the daughter of one of the most powerful and influential Aristocrats who has control on most of the trades in the metropolis.
How can two hearts from two worlds meet at a time of uncertainty?"
Easily one of the most creative AU series, it's a fun one!

• From Enemies to Lovers.

"Rae Taylor works for the Lilium Mafia House-one of their best agents, never failed a mission. She is send to the Francois House to act as a spy and eventually eliminate their sole daughter-Claire Francois. However, little did she expect that this mission would not be as easy as she deemed."
Mafia Gays? Say no more, I'm in.

• Half-Outlaw, Half-Villainess

"Four years after the Black Mesa Incident, a gang of Outlaws including former Bureaucrat Orla Maguire and her Physicist Step-Brother, Gustavo Freeman are decimated following a disastrous heist in Panama, scattering them to the wind, and sending Orla adrift to another world, with a blonde noble girl glaring down at her.
Claire Francois must now teach this upstart commoner, who appears to go by Rae Taylor, the proper ways to act in the Kingdom of Bauer, while attempting to truly decipher who she is, why she does what she does, and why she keeps talking about 'Home' as if it were some far away place. Rae, formerly Orla Maguire, must hold out and come up with a plan in the scheming shadows of Bauer if she wants any chance of seeing her old world and family again, all while continuing to work for Claire, and realizing they have a much deeper connection than she initially thought.
Meanwhile in Panama, Dr. Gustavo Freeman is surprised by the arrival of another Noblewoman, facing evidence of string theory, and the ever encroaching threat of the so-called 'Combine' Empire that is now aware of Earth's existence. Time will tell, the currents are swirling... can Outlaws and Nobles truly find redemption?"
Half-Life meets ILTV, in an unexpected crossover!

Canon Divergent

These fics cover stories set within the main universe, but diverge from canon in some way.

• In Search of Spring.

"Claire François is madly in love—and that's a problem.
All the things she once valued now stand in her way. The nobility could never accept her loving a commoner. The church could never accept her loving a woman. Her father would be so disappointed in her. None of that matters to her anymore, not as much as creating a future for herself and Rae Taylor. To do that, they'll first have to survive the coming revolution, and to survive, they'll have to change.
But, maybe, even with the entire world is standing against her and her love, if they can change themselves they'll have a chance to change the world. So that's what they'll have to do—whatever it takes."
It's the top rated Wataoshi fic, and for a reason. It's extremely well written, and there is so much care put into this series.

• A Cleaved Soul

"In which Rae's Soul isn't simply a copy of the Demon Queen's Soul Data, but merely one half of the whole."
This has spoilers for LN5, so I recommend avoiding it, if you're reading this and have yet to complete LN5. In addition, the other has written "Memories of Another World" and "I'm in Love With my Best Friend"

• ILTV- Withering Begonia: Maybe in another life

"An exploration of Rei Oohashi's lives with Claire Francois. Major LN5 spoilers.
“Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don't know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of withering, of tarnishing.” -Anias Nin"

• Head Over Heels

"Claire is accidentally hit with a love spell during magic class and suddenly can't keep her hands off of Rae. Rae doesn't know what to do now that Claire is giving her a taste of her own medicine. How will our heroine overcome this daunting challenge?"
Brooklynapple has also written "a day worth celebrating" a cute Claire birthday piece, and "what we deserve"

• Please Don't Leave Me

"Rae's Duel with Manaria goes wrong
She wakes up back in her old life in Japan
Claire is left alone"
From the author of Eitno, we have a tearjerker, that is excellent.

• Perfectly Flawed

"A collection of short stories concerning Manaria Sousse from "I'm in Love With the Villainess." I recommend reading this after at least reading Volume 2, or after reading the whole story."

• Right Person, Different Status

"Rei wakes up in Revolution like in the original but.... She's royalty?"

• Manaria Murder Mystery

"After becoming Queen, Manaria tasks have piled up. However, something sinister has happened. Someone from her family has been murdered! She has to recruit her friends to help her solve the mystery."

• Black Lilies

" As the dust settles, and the world begins to heal, the once mighty Demon Queen, Rei Oohashi has been defeated. But her story does not end with her defeat, it is only just beginning. Rei has been offered a second chance, a chance to repent for her actions as the Demon Queen. Despite her inability to forgive herself, despite her lingering scars, one person sees through them all: Lilly Lilium.
A girl who despite her own scars, from her time as her father's assassin, wishes for nothing more than to help Rei to heal, even if she's incapable of doing so herself. Together they begin a journey spanning the Kingdom of Bauer, and beyond, whilst battling their own inner turmoil."
Again, shameless self-promotion.

• Lilly Lilium Is Not A Princess!

"After deciding to take another pilgrimage, Lilly finds herself in Melica, where a certain chestnut-haired woman waits."
A fic dedicated to an underrated pairing. It's cute, check it out
I realize I am missing quite a few fics, but it's almost 2AM and I'm tired. Is there a fic you enjoy that should be on the list? Comment and I'll add it! Writing your own and need tips? Comment!

My raised planters generate a large amount of biomass after each planting. Whether it’s bean stalks post harvest, or greens that have gone to seed, or corn straw after harvesting, or matured pepper plants, squashes, etc… I have mound of organic matter at any given time.
I don’t particularly enjoy the process of composting, but what I would like to do is use this stuff as mulch. I don’t have much in the way of a lawn, and this is the best source of clean, weed-free green waste I have.
Much of the material is too large or fibrous to be easily cut with a string trimmer. I’ve attempted driving over a pile with a lawnmower but it’s messy and tends to jam the mower. I’ve heard chippers don’t work well on things that aren’t branches.
Googling how to mulch a garden only seems to return articles regarding the benefits of mulching and what can be used as mulch, without telling me how I can generate it myself from large pieces.
What’s the best way to break this down into a uniform mass of mulch that can be spread evenly and will dry quickly, like the texture of fine clippings?

Looking for some advice/guidance on the best way to challenge being designated as an underperformer at work. Some background:
Been at the company for nearly 6 years, never had any performance issues. Original role was back office/support. I changed roles into a hardefront office job (this was a return to work I was previously doing elsewhere- so had experience in it) just about 2 years ago and the first year was great- led a great team, good results, good appraisal in May 2023.
Then I hit a string of bad luck. Was staffed on a project with people who were chasing promotions, so lots of sharp elbows, talking over me, and not inviting me to meetings etc. They were also marginally more senior than me so treated me as a mid-level and assigned me junior tasks. The culture is very toxic so this is common.
December I was given a mid-year appraisal and told I had some development points to address, but specifically told I wasn’t being put on a performance plan or that anyone in the organization thought I was a problem. Basically, my takeaway was all was still good, just some refining of approach.
New project assigned in January. Threw myself in wholeheartedly knowing I had these points to address. Not given a leadership role in the matter so still very much doing what was told. Even worse instances of not being invited to key meetings, not being briefed. I took every initiative- sifted through the team folders to make sure I was up to speed, had convos to brief myself, but I couldn’t help not being invited or told about key meetings. I played a fairly big role on this project producing key work product and driving the matter forward, but just wasn’t the “face” of the project. We had manic deadlines and we worked around the clock. I felt I did well, or at least well enough despite being excluded from participating.
Annual appraisal was just after this project ended (April) and I was told I was underperforming. Senior people had to spend too much time reviewing my work. I wouldn’t get a pay rise or my bonus. It was made clear to me that to them, I was being watched on this last project which was my last chance to impress them that I could do the job, and I apparently failed. And now it’s clear they want me to leave (though I’m not being outright fired).
So how can I challenge this? There wasn’t any communication of this “last chance”, or that I was essentially on probation. The points raised in the December meeting were very different from the points they raised in my annual appraisal. Nobody said anything to me about my work product this whole time.
I’m job hunting anyway, place is so toxic and they clearly don’t want me, but I’d like to get the underperformer status removed so I can have my bonus.

It's like learning python keeps on adding new things. Could anyone please tell how much python should I know for becoming a de. Specifically for attending an job call. Could anyone add if I miss something. To ensure a rigid checklist. Apart from the problem solving part(know that's mandatory)
Generators, Iterators, Closures, Decorators, Multi threading, List comprehension, File handling, Oops, Lists, Tuples, Dictionary, sets, Strings, Lambda, Exception handling, Shallow vs deep copy, Function argument passing, Regex Loops and conditionals Filter,reduce,map,zip Scope.... Please do add if I miss any

I thought this game looked pretty generic at first. It all looked like very basic, bogstandard roguelike business. I saw a few youtube videos propping up the game up but I was still sceptical. I was also tired of roguelikes in general by this point and was convinced that it is a mediocre genre that is plagued with fodder mobs and repetition. But a week ago I saw that it was on sale for only about £4 so I thought "sure why not?".
The introduction at the museum felt slow. Then I started my first few runs. I wasn't used to the lack of inviniciblity frames when you get hit for one. I also found it a bit uncomfortable how scarce gold was. But then I played again and again until the newness wore off and I finally adjusted and got into a flow state with this game.
And all I can say is....
HOLY FUCKING SHIT. I was NOT expecting this level of peak. This game has singlehandedly rejuvenated my faith in the entire genre. Heck, in video games as an entire medium. Video games like this are why I live. This game is objectively a 10/10 and I will eat anyone who says otherwise.
Why?
First off, the difficulty feels brutally honest. Fair but honest. Unlike 99% of games you can't just abuse invincibility frames to back away from enemies when you get hit. You have to make sure you don't put yourself into a situation where you can get hit. This move alone was extremely bold on the devs part but it made all the difference in making the combat feel exciting and difficult to players who enjoy a challenge.
Mobs are very smart, strong, fast and all around ruthless. The basic enemies aren't much of a problem but the beefier realm exclusive soldiers usually have a trick up their sleeve like the wind knights evading your attacks and instantly teleporting behind you or the earth knights unexpectedly guarding your attack. Or enemies with reflect shields. Or that asshole cyclops enemy who can stunlock you into losing like half your health with his laser. You have to constantly stay on top of them and be aware of your surroundings(nearest escape route, positioning yourself away from pits, etc) and your cooldowns because one slip up can lead to you being stunlocked into losing half your health. Mobs move very fast and can even teleport around you, forcing you to stay on the move and make quick decisions on the fly. The fact that you do not always have access to any given spell in your arsenal due to the cooldown system makes you hyper cautious of every decision you make during combat as well as you might need access to a certain spell if you get cornered, further reinforcing this intense, razors edge feel to the combat. Mobs are brutal but at the same time they aren't damage sponges. This is probably the biggest problem I have with some other roguelikes like Warm Snow, Astral Ascent and to an extent Hades. In order to compensate for how busted your damage output can get due to the chaotically unrestrained progression in those games, they design the mobs to get exponentially tankier(without as much of a buff to the aggressiveness and damage output) as the run progresses to the point where most fights you're just mashing the same attack buttons and going through the motions until you reach the next boss. This game nailed mob design and other games should take note.
The bosses are phenomenal. I think the wind and lightning boss were kind of cheap but still very enjoyable. What really sets the bosses apart in this game from other bosses is similar to what makes the mobs great. They have relatively low health but have relentless attack patterns that are hard to dodge and move fast, making battles feel exciting rather than just drawn out and tedious. You can clear out each boss in about a dozen seconds if you're skilled enough but you risk losing a lot of health if you go on the offensive more.
I think part of what allows the combat to be so great is how "controlled" the progression is, both in and out of runs. This is by far the most balanced roguelike i've played in that regard. This isn't one of those roguelikes where you can easily come across broken upgrades or string together broken synergies and just steamroll everything. It's almost impossible to do that with how low the stat buffs are across the board for relics. For example, if you choose the relic which increases max health, you get 50 points of health, increasing it from 500 to merely 550. In Hades(which in all due respect, is relatively balanced for roguelike standards), your health increasing keepsake increases your health by about 50%. There's also the fact that your average damage buff relic only increases by about 10%, sometimes even lower. At most during any given run you can expect about 30-50% of a damage buff maximum whereas that percentage increase number escalates into the hundreds if not thousands(Warm Snow, i'm looking at you!) in other roguelikes. The currency(Gold) is also handed out very scarcely, pushing the player to make careful decisions with how they spend their money. These are just a few examples, I could spend all day comparing how balanced WOL is with other roguelikes.
As for meta progression, it's basically just collect new spells and relics to equip for your run. You don't level up your health, damage, speed or anything like that. The way I see meta progression in roguelikes is a two edged sword. On one hand there is a feel of instant gratification to using points acquired during your run to make yourself overpowered, allowing you to sweep through encounters that were difficult beforehand. But on the other hand this sort of undermines the point of playing roguelikes. You aren't really getting any better that way. You aren't getting more skilled at the game and making use of trial and error to overcome obstacles that once seemed insurmountable. This is what I love about WOL. It doesn't spoil you. It doesn't let you just "cheat" through the campaign. You have to EARN your victories through blood, sweat and tears and it feels ever so rewarding when you finally make a breakthrough with your own skill and hard work, nothing more. That type of satisfaction is far greater than the cheap, visceral thrill of activating nodes on a skill tree.
Also last thing, I think the level design is great. It feels like the perfect blend of arena and exploration style roguelikes, it seamlessly blends between these two modes with little to no hangup. One second you're fighting off a horde of knights and within the next dozen seconds you're in a shop carefully deciding which relic or arcana to buy with the limited amount of gold you have. There are certain areas in a stage which gets walled off and you are trapped with a horde of enemies but the gate opens and closes in about a split second so it feels so seamless. I also think stages are just about the right length. Long enough to get yourself immersed in, but short enough so that they don't seem to be endlessly dragging on. I like that you can challenge the stage end miniboss as soon as you find the "gate" and just progress to the next stage, even if you only clear out like 20% of the stage. This adds somewhat of a risk/reward element to the game where you may miss out on gold, gems and arcana/relics from shops but you dont risk losing health. Players can engage with the levels as they see fit. Lastly, I think the fact that the order in which you tackle each dungeon is randomized between 5 different dungeons(3 of which are present in a run) which cuts out some of the mundane repetition that as I mentioned above, can sour the experience of roguelike games.
The only major flaws I can see with the game is the balancing between arcana spells(signature lightning orb completely overshadows any other single target spell) and how being rewarded with enhanced arcanas after defeating each boss disincentivises you to buy arcanas(which are usually non enhanced) instead of relics. But these issues can easily be overlooked.
I've rambled a lot here but anyway, my overall point is this game is unashamedly nintendo oldschool brutal and I am all here for it! It just shows that roguelites can be god tier games when they don't coddle the player with pathetically weak mobs, broken synergies and meta-progression that trivialises the need to actually git gud and learn how to beat the game through trial and error.
This game is undoubtedly the king of roguelikes. As much as I love Hades, Rogue Legacy 2 or Dead Cells as the next person, this game is just undeniably the GOAT and it is criminal how obscure it is and how it isn't mentioned in the same conversation as those aforementioned roguelike hits.

I was listening to this song and it had me thinking about him. I want to go back and i want to start over. i want to graduate and try again. A part of me hopes he sees my instagram post and another part of me hopes he thinks of me. a lot of me hopes he'll sees that i can change and have changed and want to be better. I want to graduate high school in 2025 and do my best once im graduated. i want him to see that i do love him im just confused by my own emotions. i don't hear everything i don't see everything and i ignore the red flags in my family and him but i love them both. i love him and i love how he made me feel. I cared so much for him and i knew i cared so much for him because i would bawl like a baby when something happened. i lied to him, i argued with him, i yelled at him and i hate myself for it. I wouldn't listen all the time and i wouldn't think all the time and it was a problem and its a problem i want to think. tuning out the world has become so easy and its un involuntary at times. i get lost in the bad stuff but forgot all the good stuff, how he made me tea with painkillers for my migraines, how he would hold my hands and kiss me, i miss how we'd play Minecraft, i miss how we would sing to each other in the dark under my stars and monster cans at late hours, i miss waking up to his good mornings and string of text, i miss the falling asleep in his arms so easily after school. i miss everything and was to focused on the bad. I see what i did wrong and i see how good he was but i still know what he did bad but he could change in a day and i couldn't in a week. i miss calling by 4 letter instead if 6, its upsetting. The "i dint miss you and i cant look at you in the eyes" is a punch to get that i understand. Does he think im a monster though. i don't think I'll ever know. I want a chance again when we're 18, but it wont happen if he sees me as an evil person. and if i never talk to him again i can never show him i changed. But nothing will be the same. not to him but i know people change just some take time and i need time. i still need time but i have had time to figure out and clear my head. i miss him, i want to show him i changed. one day.
i pinned this on my instagram with a song i heard today that fits so well, i hope he sees it, he has insta, i just hope he or someone he knows sees it

Hey everyone,
I'm in need of some guidance regarding my Lenovo Legion laptop. It's been a rollercoaster ride since I purchased it, and I'm hitting a wall with a series of issues.
Two months after buying the laptop, I encountered screen problems. Strange patches suddenly appeared, making it impossible to ignore. This forced me to get the screen replaced, which was a hassle considering it was such a fresh purchase.
Fast forward three months, and I'm facing a whole new set of problems. Firstly, heating has become a persistent issue. Even under moderate usage, the laptop heats up uncomfortably, affecting both performance and user experience. Despite my efforts to maintain airflow and cleanliness, the problem persists.
Adding to the frustration, the touchpad occasionally decides to go on strike. It randomly stops responding, leaving me stranded mid-task and desperate for a solution.
Moreover, the laptop's overall performance seems to have deteriorated. Tasks that once ran smoothly are now plagued with lag and freezing, severely impacting my productivity.
I've exhausted all software-related troubleshooting steps, from driver updates to diagnostics, with no lasting solutions.
Has anyone else encountered a similar string of problems with their Lenovo Legion laptop, particularly after a screen replacement? I'd greatly appreciate any advice or insights you might have. Thanks for lending a hand!
You

I want to throw my XBOX series X, (at times) my XBOX series S, and my new Victus gaming PC out the window. Over the last month or two, I've been having every issue under the sun trying to do basic things, and I'm string to wonder if I'm cursed, going crazy, or just am the biggest newb in history.
My gaming life was going fine until my brother in law gave me a series X XBOX, which I was stoked to accept as I know it's far more capable that the series S I bought way back in 2016ish. I booted it up and played CODMW3 for a few weeks with no problems, then one day I starting having issues. First, the game would freeze and boot me back to the home screen and say something along the lines of "there's a problem with your saved games. To play, you'll need to delete and sync them again. To do this..." yada yada yada. So, I followed the instructions, reset the XBOX, started playing COD, and a few minutes later, it does the same thing. I tolerated this problem for a few days and spent hours troubleshooting it. Upon doing so, and attempting to play other games, I would get various other errors like: "Sys_ Error Disc read error" and "Something went wrong - 0x87e30064" and another code saying something went wrong "0x800705b4". After more hours of troubleshooting and frustration, I decided to factory reset the XBOX, feeling sure that would fix the problem. Nope.
Finaly, I thought perhaps something may be wrong with my XBOX profile(s). I remembered booting up the new XBOX and trying to log in, realizing that I hadn't need to log into my XBOX profile for years, nor did I have the information saved somewhere. I also didn't have access to the old email attached to my profile. I ended up making a new one to see what I could make of it, and after some time (and lots more frustration, learning, and troubleshooting) I deleted my second profile that caused some confusion, and also found that my "XBOX profile" and my "XBOX store" logins we're different, and I ended up finding a way to sync the two. This still didn't solve the problems with the series X.
I decided to buy a gaming PC to replace the useless big black brick (series X), plus I needed a new laptop for work. I downloaded the app, logged in, downloaded Destiny 2, started playing and was super happy with how the game looked and ran. However, one of the games I was really looking forward to play on the PC was PUBG. When I went to browse my library associated with my profile, I found that only a few we're showing up. I tried looking everywhere and playing the with filters to view my library, but no luck. After all, I'm pretty sure this is how I played Destiny 2; by scrolling through my library and thinking "oh, haven't played that in a while." But now, poof, it's gone. I can't seem to view my library on my profile, even after tons of troubleshooting including deleting and reinstalling the XBOX app, resetting my PC, and logging out of the XBOX profile. I can't seem to download PUBG even though there's two ways to do this. Through the XBOX app, or through the XBOX store. PUBG does not show up for me in either, even if I type Player Unknown Battlegrounds. If there's a God, he absolutely DOES NOT want me to use that series X, or play PUBG.
Sorry for the novel, but If anyone has any advice, please share. 🙏

I have my own Lawn care LLC I am getting up and running. If anyone can give me some insight to my questions, I’d great appreciate it.

1. I’ve been doing many jobs with a push mower and other equipment (string trimmer, other similar equipment), push mower is tough on the body and not as efficient as a zero turn. I’d like to get a zero turn, but I’d need to tow it so I’d need a trailer, and perhaps a truck. I could get a zero turn & trailer for, maybe $7k? A beaten up truck for another few grand. Like most, I don’t have ~$14k lying around. Is there anything I can do (business write offs or tax write offs, financing, or anything else.) Should I speak to my family’s accountant for that kind of thing? Zero turn would be important, to do jobs quicker and easier, and open up commercial opportunities. I’m saving for this stuff, but of course it will take a long while.
   
2. Invoices. I am keeping track of all sales with invoices. Is this important for tax purposes only?
   
3. I am getting a better grip on the admin side, what are the things recommended to keep track of for my business? (Expenses like fuel, equipment, electrical cost, mileage tracking? How about customer spreadsheet? Sale history?)
   

I’m sure these questions may seem silly, but as a newer business owner getting my name out there, the ball is rolling, and I want to be sure my business is well oiled and operating at high efficiency. Thanks so much

Recently bought the LXT string trimmer kit and the guard it comes with is on the smaller side. Does Makita make one that’s a bit wider or has anyone installed something different?

TL;DR Vercel is awesome but cold starts have me skeptical for longterm. Heroku seems a great alternative (and cheaper), but if you can't keep it under 512RAM (in my case), you only solved one problem and created another. Should I just go VPS? concerned code below.
I utilized the Google Ads Api and created a Google Shopping App that incorporates all of Google's RMF: Required Minimum Functionality For a Standard Shopping tool. The plan was to just create an app that follows a marketing strategy (just to create structured campaigns) I've been using for while and make it available to other people in ecommerce. By time I was finished and ready to submit, I realized there was a lot more I had to add in order to get approved. Makes sense though because they don't want you to just offer creation functionality, but not editing or removal.
The app itself is roughly 17k lines. 219 files.
Database: MongoDb to store encrypted tokens.
Billing: Stripe
Main resource: Google Ads Api & Google Content for Shopping Api
Authentication: next-auth (Google provider)
Tried Vercel Hobby to start:
I was getting function execution timeouts right out the bat. No chance this would work it seemed. Upgraded to pro...
Vercel Pro $20 p/m:
This works and with some configuration, I was able to have the app fully functional. Most times, it is so fast and I love it, but the cold starts are unpredictable and aren't ideal for many reasons. Still, I submitted the app to google to have my requested access granted and app approved for production and all went well! Given I was able to get the app approved with Vercel, I want to make it work. I tried experimental:

//next.config.js experimental: { bundlePagesExternals: true, }, 

Set my memory to 3009mb and extended my maxDuration to 30 secs in vercel.json. Implemented lazy loading for some of the larger components that are required by RMF but not likely the reason you would use the app.
Still, it seemed this would be the norm... Are things suppose to improve once you get regular traffic? Is it unique to each user or the app itself? I haven't canceled my account yet, but I did remove my domain because I figured I should give Heroku a shot.
Heroku $7 per month - Basic
I saw a post talking about Heroku as an alternative to Vercel, and I already use Heroku (node.js/Express backend) + Firebase (React frontend) for another project. Never had an issue, but I was skeptical about a Next.js app due to the monolithic structure and some of the complex processes this app performs.
The biggest shortcoming for me is the hard 512mb RAM limit. I don't have anymore cold starts, but when I initially started the app up I was hitting memory exceeded (R14) in my logs. On the very first start I also experienced an execution timeout (sigh...). I have been trying to reproduce this error since to see if it will be a common occurrence but, so far It hasn't shown itself again...
Aside from that, It's great, but not without it's own shortcomings (in my case RAM). Even upgrading to Standard would still leave me with the same amount. At that point, It becomes questionable if it's a better solution than Vercel. If I want 1GB of RAM from heroku, I'm looking at $50 minimum p/m?
Context to possible issue:
I believe the issue lies in how I authenticate users and immediately send the first Get request after successful authentication.
NextAuth Callback:
Check if user has account already

let googleUser; try { //check if we have a user under the google email for ads account googleUser = await GoogleAdsAuth.findOne({ email: user?.email }); } catch (err) { console.log( "There was an error with the code - Check GoogleAdsAuth Model also.", err ); } //add existing account id to token - regardless of access & refresh tokens if (googleUser) { token._id = googleUser._id; token.theme = googleUser.theme; token.planExpiryDate = googleUser.planExpiryDate; token.planType = googleUser.planType; token.cleanUpService = googleUser.cleanUpService; token.accountActive = googleUser.accountActive; if (googleUser.googleAccountId && googleUser.googleAccountId !== "") { token.googleAccountId = decryptData(googleUser.googleAccountId); } else { token.googleAccountId = googleUser.googleAccountId; } } 

Check if Google sent an access and/or refresh token:

//check if we have an access token after login with google if (account?.access_token && account?.provider === "google") { //encrypt access token let encryptedAccessToken = encryptData(account?.access_token); //Check if refresh token is available let encryptedRefreshToken = account?.refresh_token ? encryptData(account?.refresh_token) : undefined; //check if user exists, if they do, update the properties for access and refresh tokens if (googleUser) { let googleData: { [key: string]: string } = {}; //update access token with new encrypted access token googleData.access_token = encryptedAccessToken; //if a refresh token is in the response update this too if (account?.refresh_token) { googleData.refresh_token = encryptData(account?.refresh_token); } try { await GoogleAdsAuth.findByIdAndUpdate(googleUser?._id, googleData); token.theme = googleUser?.theme; } catch (err) { console.log("Error updating Tokens for user", err); } } 

If they don't exist create a new account for them.

else if (account?.refresh_token && !googleUser) { //create a new user for that user const startDate = new Date(); const freeTrial = 7 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000; const endDate = new Date(startDate.getTime() + freeTrial); const googleAuthUser = { startPlan: startDate, planExpiryDate: endDate, accountActive: true, planType: "free", email: user?.email, name: user?.name, access_token: encryptedAccessToken, refresh_token: encryptedRefreshToken, cleanUpService: true, createdCampaigns: 0, campaignQuota: 1, totalCreatedCampaigns: 0, stripeCustomerId: "", theme: "light", googleAccountId: "", selectedClientId: "", } as GoogleAuth; const newGoogleAuth = new GoogleAdsAuth(googleAuthUser); try { await newGoogleAuth.save(); //set token id to new user id token._id = newGoogleAuth._id; token.theme = newGoogleAuth.theme; token.googleAccountId = newGoogleAuth.googleAccountId; } catch (err) { console.log("Error adding GoogleAuth Details to DB", err); } 

then...
after this I send them to the app dashboard where a GET request is made immediately after to retrieve all the Shopping performance data. I've cleared my cache, revoked app permisions and deleted my user in the on Mongodb to start the process over again, to see If I can repeat the error, but can't atm.
Anyway, If you read this all, thank you. Am I wrong to immediately send additional requests to Google immediately after authentication? Median Latency for Google Api calls are 625ms and 95% latency is 1200ms.
In case your interested, here is the request I make after successful authentication - /api/...

export default async function (req: NextApiRequest, res: NextApiResponse) { const { id, segment } = req.query; // mongoDb Id an date segment (i.e. 'LAST_7_DAYS') await dbConnect(); let googleUser = await findGoogleAuthById(id as string, res); const decryptedRefreshToken = decryptData(googleUser.refresh_token); const decryptedAccountId = decryptData(googleUser.googleAccountId); const client = getClient(); const customer = client.Customer({ customer_id: decryptedAccountId, //google.googleAccountId could go here refresh_token: decryptedRefreshToken, }); //Query using GAQL const query = getAppAnalyticsQuery(segment as string); let result; try { result = await customer.query(query); res.status(200).json({ analytics: result }); } catch (err) { console.log(err); if (err instanceof errors.GoogleAdsFailure) { googleError(err); //log the Google errors } return res.status(500).json({message: 'unable to retrieve shopping performance data' }); } } 

Sorry If I didn't explain this well. Between weighing up the options to take a 3rd shot at another hosting service or question whether I can better optimize my code to work within Heroku's RAM limits. I definitely would appreciate some feedback or advice. My gut is telling me to go VPS, but I wonder If i may be ignoring a bigger issue at hand. I know my next-auth implementation part could be better optimized and the amount of comments might just piss some of you off (bare with me, it was a pain to set up). I am definitely working on improving it now. Just took time to post this hoping to get additional feedback.
In hindsight, I wish I had structured the app to host have the frontend and backend hosted separately. Oh well, I think I can make this work, but want to be considerate my next steps.

FAIR WARNING THIS WILL BE A WALL OF TEXT
Intro: In a series of reviews that will begin (or return) here; we are going to try and take a critical look at the Chuck series, especially the unfolding of the story as scene through the teleplay. In this case we are assuming multiple things about a potential watcher:

• The watcher is new to the series and does not know about future episodes, but there is an expectation any previous episodes have been watched.
• I will try not to point information out that becomes important for later episodes, though there may be times it's important because of how episodes are filmed and how episodes string together, I will however try and hide these behind a spoiler tag. I say this as a person who has watched Chuck dozens of times, so if I inadvertently spoiler, sorry.
• I will do my best to point out interesting references that are hidden within the Chuck universe, but not at the expense of extended expositions unless in-depth analysis is necessary as it relates to the scene.

What is this all for: This started as a project to improve my critical reviewing skills for a hobby of movie script writing and analysis. Chuck happens to have published 3 original scripts and all the text of every episode has been published to a searchable database. This affords an opportunity to break from my movie writing woes and infinite revisions to just have fun enjoying Chuck and trying to deepen my understanding of the intersection of script writing with filmography and visual editing. Having said this, it should be known I have no affiliation to the show, no additional insider knowledge, and I do not write scripts for a living. So, consequently, feel free to ignore everything I say :). I do hope, however, we can go on this journey together and appreciate the excellence that is a love story called Chuck.
So, don't freak out, and lets get started.
​
Chuck 01x04 (Chuck vs the Wookiee): TEASER - We open with the gang playing "Know Ya!", which isn't actually a real board game, but based on the game Paddles. It's amazing that Morgan can't stand Ellie/Awesome being in love/winning, but marches triumphantly whenever he gets a question correct. I also like we see, in frame, Chuck watching Sarah pick off olives; he's beginning to notice things just like a real spy. The deep sadness and yet storied confliction on Chuck's face when he discovers Peaches 1 and Peaches 2 was great.
For those who don't know about dogs:

• A cocker spaniel is typically smaller; by ~5inches and up to 30lbs lighter than a springer spaniel.
• Springer spaniels also have shorter fur across their bodies, with feathered hair under their chests and legs.
• Only a cocker spaniel will be solid colored
• Springer spaniels have longer muzzles, while cockers have fluffier ears.

I find it very interesting how Sarah has "spidey sense" about potentially being watched. At no point previously did either Sarah nor Casey display this trait and I'm not totally sure how an open window was enough to do this; I wonder if Sarah's comfort being around Chuck's family is causing her to develop a "feeling of being watched" as she is comfortable with the Bartowski's? For those who missed it, Sarah talks about having a sister I think at the time this was just a throw-away line to protect her cover, but in season 5 Sarah does actually have a little sister if you count the little girl she rescues One last thing about Sarah here, when Bryce is being discussed, I really like how it was played where she acts quiet and shocked, but not saying anything. The facial expressions of Yvonne here are really special and you can tell Sarah lives a life of secrets. This is carried outside when Chuck asks Sarah about her relationship with Bryce. She is totally looking down and to the right, a classic indication of an emotional response searching for rationalization (ie. she is clearly lying)
As they end the game and exit to the courtyard, there teleplay of Chuck does something I've been wanting to see forever; they switch perspective to keep both characters in camera and follow them around from a 3rd perspective. We know this is supposed to indicate they are being watched, but I really enjoy getting to see them together reacting and talking instead of the constant close-ups and cuts. Normally Chuck will be shot with something between a medium close up (MCU) and Medium Shot (MS) to emphasize their characters and highlight their faces and expressions. This works really well because Chuck's cameras are typically either shoulder level or hip level based on the operators moving through their space. In many more modern TV shows, the technology of boom cranes and gyroscopic gimbals allows for content to be show from ground level to overhead giving directors the opportunity to tell their story through a variety of shifting profiles. If Chuck were shot today, we would see everything from full body shots all the way to extreme closeups without the need for continual jump-cuts and re-shoots because the technology is there. At least for this episode, it's nice to see the director explore more hip/knee level motion and more cowboy framed shots when having a distant observer perspective. https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/types-of-camera-shots-sizes-in-film/ does a fantastic breakdown of all the different shot type and camera perspectives for you want to read more!
As we transition into Sarah's hotel room, did anyone pick up on how NICE this is? She has double sinks, a king bed, a sitting mirror, free standing tub, and a great view. I doubt any agency in the "real world" would ever spring for something like this for multiple years for one of their agents, it's fancy! Enter Carina, tell me, who saw Sarah fight with a soap sock and think of iCarly and the famous "butter sock". Also during this fight, why is Sarah wearing a golden bikini? I know she is about to get into the shower, but what plausible reason is there for her to a) wear a bikini at all and b) it to be a bright golden yellow?? If you slow this fight scene way down, you will notice Yvonne's strikes actually come close to hitting Mimi as she has had a lot of training, whereas Mimi's strikes are miles from Yvonne and she just over-acts their impact. The most noticeable is the kick into her table, Sarah goes flying back, but we can tell from the angle, Carina missed her by a good 2 ft. This was just some sloppy editing and not getting the camera into position. I give it a pass because you have probably 3 camera operators wearing stabilized camera rigs trying to rotate around a room with 2 girls fighting and they just missed the angle by like 2 feet. I did really like at the end of the fight Carina had the option to go for the gun but instead went for the fish. If you didn't know they were not enemies before, this should have been a big clue! Carina calls Sarah's life in LA boring #1
​
ACT I
​
Carina aka: Maria Elena Argalberdi was born Jun 16, 1978 in Alberdi Argentina with a Buenos Aires passport. Maria Elena is actually the name of a famous song in Mexico and eventually had a movie. This Chuck learns on Flash #1 and is the precursor to meeting the general for the first time. I know I've mentioned this before, but to reiterate; the pictures in Casey's apartment are all wrong; he has photos of Chuck and Morgan that don't happen until season 5 (lost footage) he has a map of Echo Park and Malibu already on display, and he has tactical information for each member of the Buy More (which he has no reason for at this time). It is interesting they talk about an opium cartel in Afghanistan as Afghanistan is known for it's huge poppy fields for heroin drug money.
The NADAN-I-NOOR diamond:

• The Nadan-I-Noor diamond has never been known to be bought or sold and ha only changed owners as a result of theft, conquest, or endowment
• It's listed as having 57 facets + 16 facets on girdle = 73. A facet is comparable with the brilliance of a diamond and is really the flat surfaces of a gemstone arranged in a geometrical pattern. In this case it helps characterize the refraction of light through the diamond interior. The girdle i the outer edge of a diamond surface, having 16 faces is quite large, as the girdle is the largest section of a gem, but also the thinnest when viewed from the side. In this case, having 73 facets puts the Nadan-I-Noor in either the Princess-Cut Diamond or Radiant Cut Diamond category, which are also the most expensive as they have the most possible facets.
• having 4-fold, mirror-image symmetry refers to how the light reflects internally to the diamond and indicates there are no impurities within the crystalline structure.
• interestingly a purity rating is not given, i would expect something like a F or IF (flawless/internally flawless) for a diamond described like this, but one isn't provided.
• the angles of incidence just describe the best way for light to enterefract from the diamond, these numbers are fake, but the metric is real
• there is a lot of sanscript written around the diamond markings, I can't figure out what if anything it means it looks like repeated nonsense
• could be a nod to the Koh-i-noor or "mountain of light" diamond, although this one in Persian is the "fool of light".

We open back to see Carina and Sarah looking at classified files within the restaurant. THIS IS AGAINST THE LAW, you do not look at classified files out in the open and especially not where there are clearly other customers around. Venturing into the BuyMore, there is a monster truck rally on the TV's showing grave digger and reaper, two famous trucks from this time period. Morgan wants to spread his wings and be the fourth wheel to the perpetual 3 wheel party and Sarah, ever the schemer, literally glows when she thinks of the plan to have Carina go on a date with Morgan. I THINK this was just to help maintain their cover, but also maybe Sarah is just needling Carina? If you look in the back of the store when Chuck is talking to Sarah and Carina, there is a really cool Nerd Herd poster that says "Bringing peace to your computer emergency". "if a yawn could yawn" is Carina calling Sarah's job boring #2. One thing I really like with the double data is the way the camera jumps between the couples: boy/girl, boy/boy, girl/girl. I think they way they try and keep private conversations via screen time is a really nice, typical, teleplay trick that really works well here. In a "real" environment, everyone could hear everything, but by splitting the camera focus or playing with perspective, the viewer clearly knows "this is a conversation between girls the boys don't hear it". We see Chuck noticing Sarah picking off olives #2 while they watch a movie about penguins: who mate for life, present their love in the form of rocks, and are pack animals. In Chuck's bedroom as he talks to Morgan, Chuck has a box of King Edward Invincible underneath bongos; for those who don't know this is a famous box for mild tobacco cigars. So I wonder what Chuck is up to in his free time :P.
On the Nerd Herd call with Carina, she opens a bottle of wine with a butter knife. This is actually a pretty famous thing that is done all over the world with everything from a key to a saber. In fact they make a specially type of knife with an extra wide blade for this it Italy. I do want to ask the question; is Carina dressed in red lingerie (Chuck's favorite color she stole from Sarah) really necessary for this scene? I know that Carina is all about improvising and she often uses her sexuality to progress her cause (Casey), but I think we could have gotten away with just the top. I can certainly see the rationalization for going this far, but I think as an artistic choice it wasn't necessary. What IS necessary however is to talk about how Chuck's world implodes when Carina tells him about Sarah and Bryce. Also the perfect act transition ending right at Chuck's jaw dropping and the work boyfriend!
​
ACT II
​
I'll say it again, the back an forth with Chuck and Sarah should have been a medium close up, shoulder level straight on shot instead of the constant cuts. Seeing their reaction in real time would have been easier and it would have allowed the Weinerlicious to be maybe 15 ft smaller to not need so many cameramen rotating. "Unless talking to your boyfriend is a matter of national security, the ketchup bottles won't refill themselves". Why yes it IS a mater of national security for Sarah to talk to Chuck... also if any one of us stood up to our boss like Sarah did, I'm pretty sure we'd be fired on the spot!
Malibu is ~2hours for Echo Park with standard LA traffic. Seriously, how do girls in high heels walk down stairs; we see Carina and Sarah walking sideways so there is enough space on each step to fit their shoes. Girls, how do you do that and not fall especially with narrow staircases and 3-6inch heels! Inside the room with the stone there is a bust of Cesare, archenemies, da vinci, and biblical David. There is also some famous paintings the best of which is Vemieer's "young girl with a pearl earring" which is rather appropriate considering it's meaning. There is also a Van Gogh of man in a wheat field and a Monet in one shot too. If ANY of these paintings were real instead of reproductions, they would be worth millions, in fact the young girl with a pearl is estimated at 40million, which is 1.5x the sell value of the Nadan-I-Noor! If we take a look at the engineering drawing of Flash #2 on the pedestal, we would see this design creates a closed circuit around the tongs the diamond rests on; which might explain it's red hue. If a person were to touch the diamond, it would close the circuit on their body allowing the 4000volts to travel through their heart. A person can die with ~20volts, though it's usually more like 50 in most occurrences. 4000volts is enough to kill a herd of elephants and completely overkill for a person. Also the amount of power that would take is more than the city of Malibu... this is to say the trap is real, the numbers are complete nonsense; thinking lightning! Nice shot by Sarah with the plate (there are some great bloopers on this too where she misses badly)! A remote controlled jet ski... i'm not even going to calculate the nonsense for this; it's just total nonsense. Almost as much nonsense as Casey using his phone to track Carina's call. That would take minutes, even with today's technology to back trace like that and way more power than just pushing a button on a razer flip-phone from the 90's!
back at the house, Chuck i playing halo with the legendary skulls as his weapon; this is nice because in the BuyMore at the end of the episode there are dudes dressed as master chief! I really like the changing perspective here with Chuck and Morgan. Chuck's reactions remain in focus while Morgan tells a story behind him, then it switches as Chuck starts to move around until bringing both into focus for the final line "we still have each other and that's really sad". The side cut to Sarah picking locks to the hotel door is classic early 2000's TV and i'm all for it, even if it is super cheezy. BTW as someone who used to lock pick in college, that's .... not how that works, but good try. We get our Flash #3 on the diamond in Morgan's back nuclear explosions. I wonder if the refractive capability of a diamond this pure is enough to focus laser to induce fission or if the value of selling the diamond is enough to buy nuclear material on the black market? Either way, we end the act with... the man with the golden gun!
​
ACT III
​
Chuck uses Sarah's plate move against Carina, nice inter-episode call back; he's clearly watching/learning, but his aim is terrible. This was actually clever as Sarah has perfect aim for she is a professional, while Chuck is still definitely a civilian and has no aptitude for fighting. I really like both these types of simple call backs but also how seemingly throw-away lines/actions help tell the broad story of the show. Chuck talking to Carina also shows Chuck has this weird, innate aptitude to get people to re-evaluate themselves and grow internally. You can watch Carina "grow in real-time. When we get to the hotel and Carina opens her trunk first there are a few glocks, a couple rugers, and a 1911; then she switches to blades and we see some folders, some strait blades, an illegal gravity blade (still illegal today), and a kbar... nice selection! Carina, always the flirt, gives Chuck some very insightful works about the nature of being a spy, but also maybe some way to get through to Sarah.
Inside the hotel we see Carina and Sarah speaking; Carina is speaking Swedish, while Sarah replies in Polish. "Om jag slänger nycklarna till dig, kommer du tappa dem då?" which is Swedish for "If I throw you the keys, will you drop them?" Sarah answered in Polish: "Tylko jak rzucisz jak twoja mamusia", which means "Only if you throw it like your mommy". This is just great!
I want to talk about how fast Chuck managed to find an address for DC, print a label, open a box, put the label on, and get the diamond there all before the door gets broken. Somehow on screen time this is like 10seconds, but in real life this would have to be like 3minutes minimum? Either that door is remarkably strong or... TV magic??
​
ACT IV
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Even with all the flirting, as we say goodbye to Carina >! for now !< she is still joking with Casey and every the professional. I like how they show when it's "game time" it's all about the job, but spys can be people too! Carina still calls Sarah's life boring #3 (the common trifecta of episode repeats).
Sarah's face when Chuck brings the pizza with no olives is the reason I think Yvonne makes the perfect Sarah. She exudes the hidden beauty needed and has the acting to so such emotion for Chuck being sweet. The whole scene with Chuck and Sarah asking questions, then Chuck backing off, then Sarah acting stoic like she WANTS to open up but doesn't know if she can really trust Chuck, is ready to move on from Bryce, and should for the nature of her job. This was probably the most well acted 20seconds of the entire episode. Finally, we hear Sarah's middle name is Lisa. Now we never officially know if Chuck hears this or not both due to camera focus and distance, it's never officially confirmed in the entire show. When the intersect is updated in season 4 we see Sarah's picture and it lists Lisa as a middle name, so we assume it's official, but it's never confirmed at any point. Finally, I really like how they end the episode with Sarah closing her eyes as the fade to black.
​
Few notes: There are 5 official songs in this episode:

• "Yea Yeah" by Matt and Kim - when the gang is playing board games during group date night. This song is about not worrying about the things you cannot change. Little things that build up and bum you out that you need to just let go.
• "Wild Girl" Matt Pond PA - Chuck and Morgan discussing their relationship problems. This song is about overcoming past struggles and finding hope in the present and future. Describing a sense of resilience and optimism
• "weird science" by does it offend you - Chuck and Carina talk at Peyman' Malibu Compound. This is a remind to break free and embrace individuality and live on your own terms. Be unapologetically ourselves.
• Shy by Mathew Dear - the double date
• "Fall into place" the apartment - the team say's goodby to Carina. Deals with growing up, taking (or not taking) chances. finding oneself in the unpredictability of life. I have to say, we don't actually hear the lyrics to any of these songs during the episode just the melody, but I don't really appreciate the music choices here. I feel like there were better options at key points, so that's a miss from me.
  
• On the DVD for Season One the word Wookiee is spelled incorrectly, leaving off the last E.
  
• "It used to be titled "Chuck Versus the Speedo" because the main bad guy in this show is this dude who wears a Speedo all the time. Then when the casting guy realized he had a good amount -- and by good, I mean healthy, a healthy amount of body hair -- they thought, why not call it "Chuck vs. the Wookiee". So it's this guy who's got this diamond, and we're trying to heist the diamond and all hell breaks loose." ―Zachary Levi quoted by Access Hollywood discussing this episode's title
  

​
I think this was a great episode and really showcased what they can do when additional cast members join the team and when they are not afraid to play with perspective. Mimi as Carina is a great addition to the ensemble and I wish we saw her more, but every time she drops in, it's always a wild episode and it's fantastic. Watching Chuck learn about Sarah and seeing Sarah start to open up is a good way forward and heck Casey had some of the best humor in the episode. Overall, it was fast paced, had some nice character development, as funny in the best way, and moved the main theme along, 8/10.

I’m going to try laser hair removal on my pubic area but my doctor says I need to fully shave and I’m kind of freaked out that my going to irritate the skin and cause more problems.
I bought an electric body hair trimmer but I don’t know if that’s better or worse irritation wise.
Does anyone who’s done laser have any tips on how to do this? I’m female fyi. Thank you

My (37 F) boyfriend’s (45 M) childhood friend (45 M) came to live with us in February. For several months he kept asking my boyfriend if he had a place for him. He was going through a divorce and “homeless”. My boyfriend came to me a couple months before he moved in and told me his friend was homeless and getting divorced and needed somewhere to crash for a few weeks or maybe move in. We were having drinks that night so when he told me I was extra compassionate and said oh I don’t want him to be homeless. Well the thing is, we’ve been dating 5 years and I had never met his friend. The first time I met him was after he had been trying to move in - and he showed up at my boyfriend’s dad’s wake. He did mention while there “hey if you have any open rooms…” I thought that was a bit low to do at his dad’s wake, given he hadn’t seen him for years.
I really didn’t like the idea of him moving in when I was sober and so I said in private a week or so prior “well I said he could, but truthfully, I don’t feel comfortable. But since I said yes, then ok.” My boyfriend was mad at me for this and I had felt bad. But realistically, we each have our own kid and his friend has a known drug problem. He told my boyfriend he was off the percs and my boyfriend believed him. Thing is, he has like 9 siblings, all of which have inexplicably not allowed him to stay with them. He gave various stories to explain it all off, but I was clear to my boyfriend I was uncomfortable. Well my boyfriend decided to say one night “he just needs somewhere to crash for the weekend.”…. They had privately agreed he could move in. I was there setting up his air mattress and giving him free food and Netflix and so on. Then I find out he’s staying. I was pissed. He’s a stranger to me, with a drug problem, and whose siblings have all kicked him out for various reasons. He’s just a nice guy though when you talk to him so you want to believe him. He even started with randomly going into how he felt so blindsided by his wife leaving him. He preemptively told any story he could that he knew was suspect and painted himself the victim.
Anyway. I gave in and gave him all my streamingg services and wifi for free and my boyfriend planned to charge him $900 a month after the first month so he could “get on his feet” - except at the beginning of the second month he didnt pay and then kept asking to borrow money every week. He didnt pay until the end of the second month after my boyfriend called him out. He was like “oh you want me to pay? What like $800 right?” When they had already discussed this. I also saw no benefit financially - I continued to pay my full amount. His room was on the first floor of our split level. He had basically the whole floor for free, taking a spot in my driveway.
He kept stringing my boyfriend along too about buying my boyfriend’s car - while we had to put it on the lawn and ruin the lawn. He couldn’t afford even rent and kept asking to borrow $50 at least once a week. My boyfriend finally said, after months, forget it. Then his friend decided “ok yea I can’t afford it.” (He drives a company van for free….)
So for months he’s coming upstairs and I have no privacy. He’s eating our food. It was upsetting. I find out he told his friend he could stay a year. Meanwhile my son is growing attached.
Well a couple months ago, he inexplicably tripped in our boiler room (why was he in there…??) and broke off the well pump pressure relief valve. The water was spewing all over the basement. I hear some noise and I am like wtf is that. Suddenly his friend is screaming. He’s trying to poorly block it with his body but it’s flooding everywhere. Luckily my dad is a plumber and I FaceTimed him and he helped us stop the damage. We had to flip the breaker and all the lights went out as we’re all screaming ….. so our kids were freaking out in the dark as we screamed. My son is obsessed with the titanic and told my boyfriend’s daughter to prepare like she was about to go into the freezing ocean. My dad came and fixed the valve. His friend was crying and my boyfriend was like… he is messed up. He’s on drugs. But he swore he wasn’t. So time goes on.
Still not paying. My boyfriend is now annoyed and I’m a little less than sympathetic. His friend is diabetic and claiming he can’t get his trulicity. He’s in the hospital a lot (probably trying to cop drugs). He knows I am diabetic and I am on mounjaro. He asked my boyfriend if he could take some of my 10mg because I had extra. He noticed it in my fridge. My boyfriend said no. It’s not extra. I have insurance and I pay for it and it’s MY stockpile due to shortages… I’m the one who drives 45 miles to make sure I have it. I’m militant about it as it’s my only form of diabetic control and a year ago I was so overweight and sick and literally on the verge of a heart attack. So I decided to get my diabetes under control. I keep my boxes in a specific order, same orientation, in the order received, in a clear bin. I take only front the front box and I had 26 pens ahead.
Well a couple weeks ago, I noticed a box in the middle had one pen missing. I showed my boyfriend and he and I were both like WTF. But I couldn’t prove it. I have blink cameras (which he knows) but there’s like zillions of videos. Two days ago I noticed a second pen missing from the middle box. Now I’m positive and so is my boyfriend. I also felt like one extra in the front box would be gone every so often but even tho I was militant, I was gaslighting myself to think I was crazy. The one from 2 weeks ago was right around when his friend apparently passed out in the Dunkin drive thru and the cops all showed up. Maybe that’s what 10 mg mounjaro does when you don’t even take it at all.
He confronts his friend today. I left with the kids. His friend is all offended that I claimed this and said he never would do that. He admitted he’s on percs 30 He admitted he’s stolen change. But he would “never steal my medicine”. Well my boyfriend almost believed him because he swore on his dead mother. All his other friends even agreed this is definetly him lying. But now my boyfriend is giving me attitude and being cold like I am the problem. He accused me of lying because I never wanted his friend to live here. His friend is gone now and I feel like shit but I am not lying and my boyfriend knows it at his core. He’s just mad he had to level with his friend and is not sayin it but treating me like it’s my fault. I’m almost gaslighting myself and obsessively trying to find proof in the cameras. Thing is… his friend had the breaker in his bedroom and the power weirdly went out one day for no reason. That same week pens are missing. He had asked my boyfriend one time for money to buy trulicity and never had any in the fridge downstairs. Then suddenly had a single pen. That to me means he’s buying pens on the street and selling others. For either money or trading. Well I feel like crap because his friend is on the street again but I know I’m not wrong. AITA for getting him kicked out and making him homeless again?
Edited to add: in April he had a talk with him and told him no drugs- we have kids-, to which his friend swore up and down he would never and isn’t on the Percs. Well he is and was. What makes his more credible now? He claims stealing my meds is what a scum bag would do and he never would. But he also had asked to have my meds before…. And then suddenly some go missing after he was told no. I used to have 26 pens ahead and now only have 18 ahead. I’m just so mad my meds are gone and I’m essentially being called a liar even though my boyfriend saw the boxes with his own eyes the days they happened and 1 turned into 2. That we know of.

TL;DR: Shooters have notoriously had a difficult time staying alive while under Nexon's banner.
Go ahead and spam your downvotes, but if you're someone that actually likes to engage in conversation, I urge you to read on.

Intro -- Personal

For starters, The Finals is my favorite FPS game to come out in the last 5 years. I've played since the second CBT and have loved just about every second of it. Prior to my time with The Finals, I was an Apex Legends nerd since release. The pro match hacking incident in Apex Legends is what pushed me over the edge; an edge that I was already barely hanging onto after 3+ years of awful decision-making, balancing, bugs, and tone-deaf MTX offerings. And going even further back 13-ish years (my time with League of Legends), I played Combat Arms for about 4 years and ran a very successful Guild.
Keep Combat Arms in mind for a little later.

The Final(s) Nail In The Coffin

HYENAS
At the time of the first The Finals trailer, HYENAS had been running in closed testing for about 8 months and was luke warm, to say the least. I actually find it very eerie how similar the HYENAS and The Finals were in terms of theming: heisters/contestants fighting for cash in arenas and needing to 'Cash Out'. HYENAS was a game I had on my radar for a bit and was semi-excited to tell my friends about because Apex Legends was in a really rough position and was growing stale in it's growth - we were looking for something else. It had some interesting movement mechanics, which myself and my friends were enamored by in Apex Legends, but nothing too crazy. I was hopeful. After about 2 testing runs, I phased out of HYENAS pretty hard and lost interest as it wasn't really what we were hoping it would be.
Breaking Convention
Fast forward to that 8-month mark, and the trailer for The Finals launches. It's this over-the-top explosive FPS with some crazy arena gimmicks, and holy shit it was pretty. The destruction was incredible, and the developers were touting server-side destruction so that it would be consistent for all players. The gameplay and graphics looked so familiar, and as it turned out, it was made by a bunch of ex-DICE devs. Count me in. Oh, and these were the same cats that released that short but impressive looking trailer for their other game Arc Raiders? Exceptionally promising pedigree, and an already promising duo of upcoming projects to boot. Couldn't be more excited. However... to this day, I don't know if I was getting struck by the Mandella Effect, but I swear I didn't see Nexon's publisher tag in the first few trailers. In any case, by the end of my first beta test, I was well aware and to say I was concerned would be an understatement.
The Good
Embark have done a phenomenal job at creating something unique in a market of Battle Royales and old titans slapping each other with wet noodles on bi-annual cycles. The Finals is insanely unique. Whereas a lot of games that try to break conventions like this tend to have iterations across many years and multiple development studios up to an eventual peak, the formula of The Finals feels like the final iteration of a genre that has never existed. Performance is top notch, the game does what it needs to do graphically and still has additional bells and whistles, and it had a near flawless release (all things considered). Were you to ask me, I could not imagine another game like The Finals existing in it's current exceptionally polished state. The next game like The Finals, whenever it comes out, will likely be exceptionally different. However...
The Bad
Lightning eventually breaks out of the bottle and disappears forever. The Finals, in all of its game design competency, has major issues for lasting in a market like today's and thankfully, for once, it's not actually due to it's MTX implementation and a greedy publisher (I say that cautiously, more on that later). No - the issue that The Finals has and why it's on a trajectory for shuttering is that it has almost zero skill expression. Let me explain.
Were The Finals released 12-ish years ago, it'd be a behemoth of an IP by now and likely would have changed the trajectory of the market in terms of player and audience capture. What do I mean by that? Well, lets look at games 10+ years ago - specifically FPS'. What was the primary appeal and objective? The appeal was an easy to pick-up game which allowed you to get into the action almost immediately. The objective? Click heads faster than your opposition. Game design around that time was rather linear in how it delivered the objective mechanism to the player. Give player gun, player click button; happy player. Competitive games have all existed, but competition now is vastly different.
Today, skill expression is the name of the game. It's not enough to click heads the fastest - that's not how you get your high anymore.
For DayZ, it was a masterful bait and deception. For PUBG, it was about maneuvering long before your opponent did and mastering weapon control. For Fortnite, it was about 'cranking 90s' and building the most optimal structure AROUND your opponent. For Overwatch, it was about chaining a series of abilities together into a combo that 6 players couldn't predict. For Apex Legends, it's about mastering movement in such a way that your opponent gets whiplash. Hell, even in Counterstrike - a game about holding angles - it's about mastering grenade throws.
The Finals... does none of that. You're not baiting anyone around fixed objectives. You're not out maneuvering when spawns are fixed. While structures exist around you, they serve more as an element of chaos than necessarily for control. There's no abilities to string together in some wombo-combo. Grenades are static and don't have a lot of physical attributes to facilitate against the environment like physics. And lastly, and this one hurts me the most because I was absolutely a sweaty try-hard in Apex Legends that spent hours in the shooting range practicing; while there is speed and movement in the game, you're not breaking the game's engineering to manipulate your movement in unintended ways - ways that become SO common... that the developer themselves puts those exploits in future season trailers for the game making them canon mechanics.
In other words, the skill ceiling is about as high as the desk players sit at to play the game. If you can move a mouse or a controller and click buttons, you're in. You just need to get familiar with the maps and weapons and... that's about it. :/
The Ugly
Don't believe me? Lets get numerical. Go look at Twitch stats for The Finals. Now, Twitch isn't an arbiter of truth in terms of a game's performance metrics, but it shows what players are watching. I'll save you the click: The Finals (at the time of writing) is the 215th most watched game. It's a whole 20 rows down on the front page. Now, players love watching high-skill play, but this also shows that even casual viewers still prefer casual games over The Finals. There is no external appeal. As much as I love this game, I'm not above a good joke, so I just wanted to highlight the irony of The Finals being a gameshow... and not being very popular as a show. Lol.
With all of the above said, the game is still in a relatively good position at this moment. Despite having very low player counts (no, I'm not the kind of person to spell doom for a game just because it's player count is dropping - it's on a normal interest decline curve), it requiring a low amount of players to start a game at all is a good thing. Unlike a BR or even a normal TDM-like game, you need a minimum of 9 players to start a round. A 9-player minimum goes a long way in expanding the ability to find a game with only 15,000-ish players. It puts it right in the comfy zone of co-op games like DRG or Vermintide. However, competitive games requiring a stalwart player count to be viable unlike co-op, so that's a bit of a problem right now.
So with that being said, it can always improve right? Something can change to bring back players and bolster it's numbers again, right? Well... um...

Nexon -- The Gravedigger

Nexon & Me -- We Don't Talk About It
My relationship with Nexon is long and... tenuous, at best. To me, Nexon is that family member that only ever comes to larger family get-togethers likes weddings or baby showers. They tend to give out some of the highest ticket gift cards but once the party is over, everyone finds that the giftcards are empty or deactivated. Nexon, over the years since it's arrival in the West in 2005-ish, has been flakey at best, and absent at worst. I'm envious of those who don't have a relationship with Nexon like I do because Nexon has truly been that family figure in my life of gaming since Maplestory - I have been apart of just about every major release pre-2016. I'm 31 now - that's over half of my life. Spoilers: It's not all been good. I'm happy to say that I've been able to communicate with a small handful of you over the last 18 months who have shared my same concerns and have the same history with them that I do.
I played Maplestory religiously. I played Mabinogi diligently. I played Kart Riders confusingly. I played Sudden Attack curiously. I played Combat Arms consistently. I played Vindictus excitedly. All of the previous, and a few more, intermixed with other games not made by Nexon - aside from Runescape, Nexon has been with me just as long, if not longer (depending on how you look at it). I know how Nexon is. I know how Nexon works. I know how Nexon behaves. With that said, it doesn't bring me any joy to pop the virgin cherry for some of you who don't know much about them.
Nexon Doing Nexon Things
I'll only be mentioning relevant titles here to paint the picture that needs to be seen.

• Maplestory - Nexon's most popular MMO. A mere shadow of what it used to be and caught in controversy of trying to be fresh, but appeal to players of the past. Extremely underpopulated now, and generally only played by people who spend money. Maplestory is arguably the birth place of MTX whales in the West. Whaling and spending is so engrained in Maplestory now, it's considered part of it's active culture. Still active, but in perpetual suffering.
  
• Vindictus - One of the very first (if not the first - feel free to correct me) MMO's in the West to introduce brawl-style active combat. Extremely modest MMO at the time. Lackluster story, but very appealing gameplay loop. Practically dead today, and it has succumbed (not necessarily a bad thing) to the 'Korean Developer' trope in introducing a bunch of scantily clad ladies. While the combat loop is still rock-solid, it has aged and others have now done it better (See Blade & Soul, etc). Still alive today, but I'm using that term very loosely.
  

(From here, the only relevant conversation pertaining to this thread will be about FPS')

• Combat Arms - THE absolute F2P FPS behemoth in the West (while Sudden Attack was still in the East). It's both surprising and not surprising how many people don't know or have ever heard about this game. In a time where CSS was still the primary talk in the West, Combat Arms started bringing the Eastern F2P heat. With the largest arsenal of any FPS game to ever be released in the West, Combat Arms was a beacon for the F2P formula behind Maplestory. The beginning of the end occurred with the release of the specialist class which signaled Nexon's decline into P2W depravity. It was now another thorn in the side of players beyond the rampant cheating. Combat Arms declined very quickly beyond that point, and was eventually sold to another company - starts with a 'V'. I can't remember.
  
• Sudden Attack - I'd have to double-check, but I'm fairly confident that this is still the most-played FPS in the world between SK and China primarily due to it's accessibility. While still active today, Western servers were shuttered in 2014. Sudden Attack 2 ceased development less than 2 months after it's release.
  
• Dirty Bomb - After Sudden Attack 1's shuttering, Dirty Bomb came onto the scene. Most people don't know it, but Dirty Bomb was one of the first major contenders to break into the scene that Overwatch eventually solidified. However, Nexon and Splash Damage parted ways, and less than a year later, Dirty Bomb shuttered as well.
  
• LawBreakers - We all remember this well roasted chestnut, don't we?
  

With all of the above information about Nexon's history, its fair to surmise that Nexon has a turbulent cycle serving as a publisher for games. This does not bode well for Embark.
I'd like everyone to remember that the people we engage with on a daily basis in the Discord are passionate Embark folk. This critique of Nexon has no bearing on Embark, however it's important to remember that they'll likely be affected, and it's a shame. Even in the best case scenario that The Finals doesn't shut down, but just maintains a low player-count, it will not serve well under Embark. Unfortunately it will affect Embark's pedigree more than it would ever affect Nexon as Nexon has the same priveledge and power of the likes of EA.
I'll be honest, when I first found out Nexon is the primary publishing house behind Embark, Nexon's history of shuttering games wasn't the first thing I thought of. The first thing I actually thought of was it's history of MTX in it's game. We all joke about horse armor and FIFA packs, but Maplestory led the charge of overbearing MTX in the West. Given today's game market, I was admittedly expecting a lot worse in terms of monetization for The Finals. I'm happy to report that I'm pleasantly surprised with it's current state. I still wouldn't say it's TRUE 'micro' like Helldiver's, but it's way better than a lot of other offerings, especially for me personally coming from a game like Apex Legends.
However, Nexon's influence still can't be ignored. You see, with a history like Nexon's you probably expect what we've all witnessed in the market over the last decade, but Nexon doesn't operate that way. They have a penchant of being rather silent during most, if not all controversies. Hell, just in general - controversies aside. Unlike bodies that we're familiar with like EA, Take-Two, Ubisoft and the like, Nexon doesn't speak outside of their games often, if ever. If you were at a public execution, all of the companies we're familiar with would likely be the Officiant at the pulpit. But Nexon? They're the executioner - completely silent and performing a duty without remorse. This is always how they've acted.

Closing Thoughts

I know I said above that the MTX concerns for The Finals kind of faded away for me as it doesn't seem to be an issue we'll have to worry about, and while it's not the main point of this post, I still find it necessary for players to keep in the back of their head, especially since Embark have other games coming out. Were The Finals not to shutter due to low player count, this is my PSA to all players moving forward, whether it be about The Finals or beyond: Nexon cannot be trusted.
"Well, duh! You can't trust companies anyway, nor should you. It's a company. It's incentive is profit."
To that I say, "That's not my point".
In today's market, we're typically used to a controversy happening in the game on top of whatever PR blunders is going on with the organization, but that's not what would really happen here. The Finals doesn't have any issues beyond it's declining player count, but I want everyone to remain aware of Nexon's moves going forward. Just because we don't necessarily see the smoke here doesn't mean that there isn't a fire somewhere else.
So, for your own interest if you'd like to research on your own, here are some topics of concern:

1. Variety of game closures and sunsets under contentious situations with developers and publishing partners alike.
2. Account security breaches (I guess a more relevant tangent would be GameGuard. Nexon was the first to widely use GameGuard when Maplestory came to the West. I personally don't care, but I know some others would.)
3. Various cases of government scrutiny world-wide due to addictive Gachapon implementations.
4. Speaking of Gachapon (and P2W), their recent suit around manipulating odds for a P2W item outside of it's listed values: https://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20240312050604
5. And lastly, most recently, Nexon pulling back public support for Maplestory's would-be world-first level 300 player when he used the opportunity to address genuine concerns about the game's current state, including the above lawsuit.

• Suppose there are 5 coins (coin1, coin2, coin3,coin4, coin5). Each coin has a p=0.5 of heads at turn=1.
  
• Each turn, the probability of each coin getting heads decreases by 0.01.
  
• When a coin is tails, we stopping flipping it.
  

Here is my R code for this problem:

num_coins <- 5 prob_decrease <- 0.01 prob_heads <- rep(0.5, num_coins) coins <- rep("Heads", num_coins) results <- list() turn <- 0 while(any(coins == "Heads")) { turn <- turn + 1 for (i in 1:num_coins) { if (coins[i] == "Heads") { coins[i] <- ifelse(runif(1) < prob_heads[i], "Heads", "Eliminated") prob_heads[i] <- ifelse(coins[i] == "Heads", prob_heads[i] - prob_decrease, 0) } } results[[turn]] <- data.frame(turn = turn, as.list(c(coins, prob_heads)), stringsAsFactors = FALSE) names(results[[turn]]) <- c("turn", paste0("coin_", 1:num_coins), paste0("p_heads_coin", 1:num_coins)) } results_df <- do.call(rbind, results) print(results_df) 

The results look like this:

 turn coin_1 coin_2 coin_3 coin_4 coin_5 p_heads_coin1 p_heads_coin2 p_heads_coin3 p_heads_coin4 p_heads_coin5 1 1 Tails Heads Heads Heads Heads 0 0.49 0.49 0.49 0.49 2 2 Eliminated Heads Heads Tails Heads 0 0.48 0.48 0 0.48 3 3 Eliminated Tails Tails Eliminated Heads 0 0 0 0 0.47 4 4 Eliminated Eliminated Eliminated Eliminated Heads 0 0 0 0 0.46 5 5 Eliminated Eliminated Eliminated Eliminated Tails 0 0 0 0 0 

I am trying to modify this code such that:
At the start of each turn, we see how many coins have been eliminated. Then, the probability of getting heads for each non-eliminated coin decreases by +( 0.01 * n) each turn (relative to the current decrease).
For example, suppose there 3 coins that have not been eliminated. From now on, the probability of heads with each of these 3 coins will decrease by 0.02 each turn.
Can someone please help me write the code for this? Here is my attempt:

num_coins <- 5 prob_decrease <- 0.01 prob_heads <- rep(0.5, num_coins) coins <- rep("Heads", num_coins) results <- list() turn <- 0 while(any(coins == "Heads")) { turn <- turn + 1 num_eliminated <- sum(coins == "Eliminated") for (i in 1:num_coins) { if (coins[i] == "Heads") { coins[i] <- ifelse(runif(1) < prob_heads[i], "Heads", "Eliminated") prob_heads[i] <- ifelse(coins[i] == "Heads", prob_heads[i] - prob_decrease * (num_eliminated + 1), 0) } } results[[turn]] <- data.frame(turn = turn, as.list(c(coins, prob_heads)), stringsAsFactors = FALSE) names(results[[turn]]) <- c("turn", paste0("coin_", 1:num_coins), paste0("p_heads_coin", 1:num_coins)) } results_df <- do.call(rbind, results) print(results_df) 

Results look like this:

 turn coin_1 coin_2 coin_3 coin_4 coin_5 p_heads_coin1 p_heads_coin2 p_heads_coin3 p_heads_coin4 p_heads_coin5 1 1 Heads Eliminated Heads Heads Heads 0.49 0 0.49 0.49 0.49 2 2 Heads Eliminated Heads Eliminated Eliminated 0.47 0 0.47 0 0 3 3 Eliminated Eliminated Heads Eliminated Eliminated 0 0 0.43 0 0 4 4 Eliminated Eliminated Heads Eliminated Eliminated 0 0 0.38 0 0 5 5 Eliminated Eliminated Heads Eliminated Eliminated 0 0 0.33 0 0 6 6 Eliminated Eliminated Heads Eliminated Eliminated 0 0 0.28 0 0 7 7 Eliminated Eliminated Eliminated Eliminated Eliminated 0 0 0 0 0 

My cello strings are rather high for playing in thumb position and I am looking into how high a new bridge needs to be for the string height to be right, the current height at the end of the finger board is around 3/4ths of an inch, way too high to be comfortable, my instructor let me play his cello today and it was much more comfortable with a height between the string and the end of the finger board of 3/8ths of an inch. It's half my current string height but when I create a ratio to try and figure out the new bridge height I get something like 1.75 inches which is way too short. Is there something I'm doing wrong, is there any hope for this pipe dream of a want any info is helpful