Cool pictures made out of symbols

• Previous posts, since the bulleted list was getting super unwieldy.

Around 34 million Earth years ago, at the end of the very creatively named 18th Era, the boreal and polar regions including the Great Polar Plateau, where Kyanah would eventually evolve, and its surroundings, were a very different place. The climate was at the time cooler and drier than the modern Homeworld, and the plateau was filled with more open boreal savannas and polar barrens rather than the dense scrublands of modern times. These boreal savannas were quite different from the modern ones, as endoskeleton plants had yet to expand in the northern hemisphere beyond the tropics, and single-leaf crawlers (which would go extinct at the end of the era) dominated over the modern multi-leaf crawlers to form the ground cover, the equivalent of Terran grass. The most common Walkers (i.e. tetrapods) on the plateau in the late 18th Era were small to medium-sized grazers, many of which had heavy armor or glands to secrete poisonous substances, as a defense against the top predators of the day. There were also the Kakenkortiors, the ancestors of modern Kyanah and dozens of other species, as well as other carnivore groups that specialized in oasis environments, pursuing the amphibious neuz or small burrowing herbivores. The Kakenkortiors were solitary quadrupedal carnivores roughly the size of small to medium-sized dogs, which were opportunistic carnivores taking on all manner of small prey when they had the chance, but primarily subsisted on scavenging carrion or stealing eggs, and had scaly skin covered in a dense coating of feathers to keep them warm and provide camouflage; notably they had yet to evolve the pack behaviors seen in some of their descendants. However, they themselves often fell victim to the true predators of the time--not true Walkers, but rather an offshoot of the wingbeasts (themselves marsupial creatures with foldable wings that could fly like gliders or walk on all fours on land)--the terrorbeasts. These terrorbeasts gave up their flight in exchange for reaching enormous sizes--over a ton and 3.6 meters tall for the largest species--adopting a permanently quadrupedal and rather uncanny stance, with their forelimbs (formerly wings) being much longer than their rear limbs, while the wings themselves lost the ability to unfold, instead becoming vestigial forelimb frills used for attracting mates. Some terrorbeasts used their height to feed from the tops of exoskeleton plants, but many were carnivorous, developing long necks and elongated, hardened spear-like snouts to peck at grazers from above; it's believed that they sometimes reared up on their hind legs to gain additional height and force. This was in direct contrast with every extant tetrapodal predator of large game, which would prioritize either attacking from below or else taking out their prey's legs to bring them crashing down; as a result most herbivores had the heaviest protection on their bellies and legs, with their backs being comparatively weak. But then again, most creatures on the Kyanah homeworld, both extinct and extent, tend to be wide and low to the ground due to living under 1.4G, not tall and spindly, so the terrorbeasts were a giant middle finger to the biosphere and planet in general. Though their 50 million Earth year reign was cut short by the meteor shower that formed the Homeworld's newest impact range, created the Shatter, and caused the most recent mass extinction, leading to the beginning of the 19th Era.
With the terrorbeasts gone (though not their relatives, the normal, flying wingbeasts), the early 19th Era saw the creatures of the Great Polar Plateau adapt to the changing landscape. A group of species which had evolved thorn-covered backs--essentially made from modified feathers--to protect themselves from the terrorbeasts, also went extinct, and many of the remaining grazers lost their heavy armor due to the sudden dearth of megacarnivores to necessitate it. The Kakenkortiors survived the mass extinction and continued to occupy their old niches, but by around 29-28 million years ago, one branch, known as the Tyorketforms, would shift to a more actively predatory niche, using enlarged dew claws to slash the tendons of prey to drop them to the ground; this branch would eventually lead to the domestic Tyorkets, common Kyanah pets in the modern era. Meanwhile, climatic shifts at the start of the mid 19th Era would lead to the Great Polar Plateau becoming warmer and wetter; the boreal savannas would give way to denser boreal scrublands. Through both speciation and migration, the smaller, armored grazers would be displaced by large unarmored browsers eating leaves and twigs and growing to much bigger sizes in the comparatively plant-dense nutrient-rich environment.
It was only natural that something would evolve to hunt these new browsers. Oddly enough, it would be the Kakenkortiors. The main line would go extinct around 9 million years ago, but long before that, they would produce one more notable sideline, the Ratoryinut, starting around 25 million years ago. Many of the early Ratoryinut would be much larger than both early Kakenkortiors and modern Kyanah, reaching average masses of 150-300 kilograms, depending on the species. Compared to early Kakenkortiors, they had a higher and proportionally slightly narrower, though still relatively broad, profile, with bulkier forelimbs and more dexterous forelimbs--an intermediate stage in developing opposable thumbs--with non-retractable claws, as well as losing their feather coating entirely. By 20-18 million years ago, the Ratoryinut would further split into the Ratorkortyot-forms and the ancestors of the Kyanahforms. The Ratorkortyot-forms (roughly "strong herald beast") would continue to grow in size, with the largest species reaching up to 500 kilograms by 10 million years ago, somewhat resembling large, reptilian bear-like forms with bare, greenish-brown scaly skin. They would also evolve a Parasaurolophus-like crest, which they would use to make loud and elaborate trumpeting noises to attract mates or scare rivals away from a kill, and, as the climate cooled in the mid-late 19th Era and they gravitated towards the poles, many evolved blubber deposits to replace the insulating role of their ancestors' feathers. Ratorkortyot-forms, including the eponymous Ratorkortyot, the most famous species, are still extant and where their ranges overlapped with prehistoric Kyanah, appear to have occasionally killed and eaten packless or young individuals, though the reverse was more common. Most Ratorkortyot-forms are now threatened by habitat destruction and pollution.
As for the Kyanahforms themselves, they took the opposite approach to hunting the soft browsing herbivores that were spreading throughout the boreal scrublands. They began steadily losing raw mass, but underwent a quantum leap in intelligence, with six-core brains rather than the four-core brains of most Walkers; the only other animals with six-core brains, before or since, were a few one-off species of social wingbeasts. Not coincidentally, the modern pack dynamics of modern Kyanah also emerged with early Kyanahforms by around 15 million years ago, with 4-6 adults bonding together for life, having children with each other, and cooperatively raising them to adulthood. It's believed that this pack dynamic evolved from simpler serial pair-bonding in Ratoryinuts and the earliest proto-Kyanahforms as a result of six-core brains enabling more complex social behavior, allowing such relationships to be stable. It also enabled reliable tool using and eventually tool manufacturing (modifying found objects to further enhance their utility), as the Kyanahforms were capable of bipedal movement--though early Kyanah forms still spent most of their time on four legs--and had developed opposable thumbs.
While one minor side-line, the arboreal Kyanahforms, continued to shrink further, taking up omnivorous behavior and living in the taller, shrub-like exoskeleton plant species, the main line continued to gradually optimize for attacking in packs and killing medium-large game on the ground. During the mid-late 19th Era cooling, they would take on migratory behavior, moving to the edge of the Great Polar Plateau in the winter to take advantage of the milder winds from the south, and back north in the summer to hunt the big-ticket game animals further into the plateau. The main line would eventually evolve into tkorks, the closest living relatives of Kyanah, who have been discussed elsewhere. The side-line that would become the true Kyanah diverged from tkorks around 5-6 million years ago, shortly after the evolution of the Tyotonikors (perhaps "strong leaf beast"). These were basically the final, logical conclusion of the trend of large generalist browsers, relying on raw mass rather than armor or numbers to deter predators; it was one of these species that would eventually become the domestic nyruds that are so important to the Kyanah. The largest species, the Tyotonikor, could reach heights of 1.8 meters, with a length of 7.6 meters and males averaging around 4-5 tons--one of the largest known animals in the history of the Kyanah homeworld, and the largest period since the 16th or 17th Era; it was hunted to extinction by prehistoric Kyanah around 8000 years ago. While other related species were not as large, even the smallest averaged 1.5 tons, 3 times bigger than the biggest carnivores in the Great Polar Plateau. With a long, whip-like tail, a wide and stocky frame, and a sturdy beak-like mouth capable of handling even the toughest leaves and twigs, the species under the Tyotonikor classification were quite formidable. Indeed, healthy adults had no natural predators...until the true Kyanah came along.
If it seems like Kyanah were optimized specifically to hunt and kill the giant Tyotonikors that no one else dared eat...well, they were. They shifted from a merely bipedal-capable form to obligate bipeds, enabling them to see over interfering shrubbery to better devise a plan of attack, and also be able to hold tools and weapons at all times. To maintain balance in a bipedal posture, their tails became longer and bulkier, enabling them to flail them around to keep balance, and also use them as a weapon. While their jaw size--and thus snout size--and bite force increased relative to predecessors to better penetrate the thick skin of Tyotonikors, their claws became somewhat shorter and stubbier, optimized more for gripping than piercing, making it easier to hold the sticks and rocks they were increasingly using as force multipliers. An increase in fast-twitch muscles in their legs enabled them to more easily catch fleeing Tyotonikors--which, despite their bulk, could be surprisingly fast, rather like Terran elephants, able to reach speeds above 30 kilometers per hour. The strong legs and gripping claws also made it more feasible to get onto the creatures and deliver devastating top attacks. Their skulls also broadened significantly to enable increased cranial capacity, which enabled them to form even more complex pack hunting strategies and even cooperate with other packs to take down especially large and dangerous prey; this would be a game changer, as tkorks and earlier Kyanahforms would almost always ignore or fight other packs instead of working together. Compared to the tkorks, true Kyanah are basically high-performance, high-maintenance creatures, relying on intelligently applying explosive bursts of strength and speed to quickly take down big-ticket prey, rather than stamina, low resource usage, and gradually accumulating smaller prey items. While having primarily evolved to fill the empty niche of preying on Tyotonikors, the various Kyanah species were more than capable of hunting any medium to large animal, both on and off the Great Polar Plateau, using their sophisticated tactics, high physical strength, and eventually primitive spears, axes, traps, and controlled use of fire. Meanwhile, most tkork species in modern times are endangered or extinct, except for those that have adapted to living in Kyanah cities and feeding off various urban critters and meat that has been thrown out or left unattended by the Kyanah themselves. Those tkork species have done very well for themselves, to the point of being a pest.
Proto-Kyanah would speciate several times, gradually expanding around the edges of the Great Northern Plateau by around 1 million years ago, with some species expanding to the poles and also to the more temperate latitudes by 750k years ago, though modern, main-line Kyanah did not spread off the Great Polar Plateau until around 100k years ago. Remains of the most far-flung Kyanah species, the Dunewalkers, have been discovered from the Shatter to the Western Sector, though they went extinct 84k years ago after the asteroid impact that created the Ikun Crater, which also reduced the main-line Kyanah population to a few thousand, though they, obviously, bounced back and then some. None of these other species remain; the last to go were the Kyanah Brutes, so-named because of their large stature (roughly on par with humans) and proportionally smaller brains compared to main-line Kyanah, dying out around 5500 years ago; it is possible that there were organized efforts by Kyanah proto-civilizations to eradicate the last of them, but also just as possible that the main-line Kyanah merely hunted their prey into extinction. Notably, main-line Kyanah have the largest cranial capacity of any of these species, with Dunewalkers being a close second; there is no evidence that any Kyanah species other than *the* Kyanah ever devised fully fledged language on their own, which made cooperation between multiple packs more frequent and reliable, and made teaching their young more efficient. The presence of bones from multiple species being found together indicates that main-line Kyanah occasionally included members of a couple of the more advanced Kyanah species, like Dunewalkers and Kyanah Brutes, into their own packs, and vice versa. While these species lack the genes associated with independently inventing complex languages, it's believed to be possible that they could be taught it to a limited degree, as they had similar vocalization structures, and even tkorks can be taught to understand simple words and phrases. The exact nature of this relationship, whether these other species were viewed as working animals, slaves, or fellow packmates, is unknown. While they likely interbred, it is also unknown if this led to fertile offspring--but probably not.

Made a golem recently, mostly to defend my ground base (I've BEEN using Save Our Ship, cant play without it honestly, only mentioning this because I know a bunch of people jumping in with it now that its finally updated but I'm not trying to act cool now with my new shiny. in fact, I'm using 1.4!}
actually made it after a mech cluster dropped but then I've had several mech raids so far, and hacked mechs (from what the hack) pop on to the map.
This golem, one of the first things it does to establish dominance is walk right up to that cluster, walk right into the middle of it... everything taking aim on him... I decided its a him... he looks it right in the barrels and grabs one of the older corpses... then walks away not even flinching as the mech cluster lets loose on him. I only noticed because I got the alert of a fire, checked it out to see what was going on... just to see the golem hauling a corpse from the center of the cluster.
I even checked him for damage... nothing. G just said "cute, kthnxbai" (to be fair, most of the shots, I saw, missed.

All right here it is finally, thank you all for your patience and let's hope chapter 5 is a little more expedient. As usual I hope you enjoy and would love to get everyone's thoughts.
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4: Memory transcription subject: Zeak, Harchen orphan, citizen of the Venlil Republic. Date: standardized human time July 13th 2136.
The sky was a roaring mass of fire and pungent black smoke that choked out the light of the sun. As I ran down the street, green blood flowed like a broad shallow river. It splashed up with every step I took, sticking to my scales, the smell of it made me feel sick. As the piercing wail of the emergency sirens seemed to grow louder and louder with every step I took making my ears ring and filling my head with a thunderous pain. My heart pounded, my lungs were on fire, and my legs felt like they were made of lead.
A herd of towering blurry figures appeared out of nowhere and ran past me, some almost knocking me down. In their panic they began to look more like crazed wild animals than people. I cried for help but they couldn't hear me. I waved my paws then grabbed one of them a male Venlil, tightening my grip with all the strength I had hoping this would get his attention. He threw me off like I was trash, less than trash. I turned around and continued pleading for anyone to help me, reaching out for others. But their frantic idiot eyes looked only straight ahead and not down, never down, as the herd passed me.
I turned back around and continued to run, blood splashing up soaking me all the way to my knees. I stumbled, my legs were so tired I could barely stand, and I fell down catching myself, plunging my paws into blood as deep as my wrists. I felt myself scream but I couldn't hear it over the ringing in my ears. A scrap of paper gently floated past me, a single word written on it that echoed in my mind “Weakling.” It passed and four more took its place, “Coward”, “Liar”, “Oath breaker”, “Murderer.” I screamed in rage and slapped the pieces of paper aside, blood splashing onto my snout, but the meanings of those words remained. Getting back up I stumbled forward, and fell down again. Then with an effort born out of sheer desperation I managed to stand again lurching forward. My legs were too tired to run but I had to keep going, I had to save them. Or at least her, please Protector if you're listening please let me save at least her.
It felt like I was searching for an endless time. Lurching forward, stumbling, falling down, getting back up, lurching forward once more. Eventually I saw it and my heart fell into the pit of my stomach. My family's car was turned over on its roof, the driver's side had been caved in. It was engulfed in fire and thick black smoke that rose up into the sky. I struggled forward and when I reached it I collapsed, my knees hitting the hot pavement. The smell of burning metal and something else I didn't know assaulted my senses making my stomach turn. Every muscle in my body begged me to run away. Calling out their names l looked inside, and a wave of nausea and horror flooded through me.
I turned away and vomited, then reached up with my blood soaked paws and covered my eyes. Those words thundered in my head making me think it was going to burst open, as hot tears welled up. “WEAKLING! COWARD! LIAR! OATH BREAKER! MURDERER! MURDERER! MURDERER! MURDERER! “I'm sorry I'm sorry, I should have stayed, I should have helped. Why did I run?” I wailed, still unable to hear myself. Someone rested a delicate paw on my shoulder, and the world went quiet. As the pain in my head melted away.
My eyes snapped open and I was greeted by the gentle ringing of my alarm. In a rush of adrenaline I leaped out of bed not even bothering to wipe the sleep out of my eyes. Running out of my bedroom and down the narrow hallway towards the living room. Convincing myself It had all just been a horrible, horrible nightmare and everything was alright. Mom and Dad would be fixing breakfast, Dad softly singing a Harchen folk song while making something savory and delicious as mom sang along in harmony, preparing something special for my baby sister Naila. Oh yes and Naila, she would probably be sitting on a cushion in the sunny part of the living room. Holding her crooked tail, a birth defect which my parents said could be fixed when she was older. And making excited chirping noises at my arrival, while sunlight shone against her emerald scales. I loved my baby sister, I knew other kids resented having a younger sibling. Dismissing their responsibilities and spending less time with their family and more with their friends. I never once felt that way, the moment Naila hatched I devoted every spare minute I had to her. Finding music that would help her fall asleep, watching over her when my mom needed a break. Excitedly telling her about the day's events and what I learned at school, especially what I learned in computer science which was my favorite class.
“Mom! Dad!” I yelled bursting into the living room. “I just had the worst…” My voice trailed off as I was greeted with nothing “dream.” My heart tightened painfully in my chest, as I frantically ran through the house throwing open every door, knowing that they had to be here somewhere. They were just playing a game on me that was all, a game I would tell them I didn't appreciate. After the final door had been opened and no one was there to yell “Surprise!” My body slumped and I felt heavy as reality set back in, and the memories of what happened hit me like a hammer. I made my way back down the hall to my room, tail dragging behind me as I crawled back into bed. Wrapping myself tightly in a blanket, trying to find some comfort.
It must have been hours I lay there feeling numb all over, wishing I could get up the energy to just cry. I think I might have fallen asleep at one point. If I did it was a dreamless sleep, thank the stars for that. Eventually I did get up, sitting cross-legged on my bed, resting my chin in my paws, staring holes into the wall. I took a deep breath and side numbly looked out the window, searching for anything to distract myself with.
It was overcast, and eerily quiet. The emergency sirens had stopped blaring yesterday mere hours after everyone had gotten to the bunkers. The bodies of the dead had already been collected and their blood cleaned from the pavement. So as to not attract any predators into the neighborhood. I saw my neighbor A'shul was home, his white vehicle was sporting some new dents. I wondered, when he got into his vehicle yesterday morning and drove to the nearest bunker; did he try to help anyone? Or was he thinking only of himself? I suppose it didn't matter really. Nothing mattered.
I turned my head away and looked around my small room taking in everything, every trinket, misplaced item, my old second-hand desk, a big green crackle finished monster. Better suited for a Venlil than a young Harchen, heck I needed a stool just to use it. I had gotten it for basically nothing about a year ago, when the local extermination office was getting rid of their old furniture. All it took was a small bribe and they put it in my bedroom when no one was home. My parents, but especially my mom we're not happy when they saw it the next day. They would tell me at least once a week that It was too big for me and they were going to get rid of that eyesore. “Wouldn't you like something a little more modern dear?” My mom would ask, practically pleading for me to say yes. I used to pray that my parents would just shut up and stop bugging me about that stupid desk. I thought it was great, it made me think of private detective Bal from the exterminators show. Bal was a no nonsense Harchen who was so often pivotal in tracking down the predator or predator diseased person. My desk was very similar to his and that's why I wanted it. But at that moment, I would have given anything to hear those words again.
On the desk there was an ornate wooden box, with a fruit tree in full bloom delicately carved into its lid. There were also scuff marks where it had been dropped, and a deep crack running down the center. It was known as a blessing box, Naila's blessing box to be specific. When she hatched nearly ten months ago the whole neighborhood had been invited to come and write a blessing on a scrap of paper and put it in the box. I had written one too, not a blessing but a promise, a promise I couldn't keep. The belief was that if kept near the infant, the combined power of all those blessings would keep the hatchling safe until their first birthday. Where on that day the box would be set on fire and burned to ash. Releasing those blessings back into the world so they may protect someone else. It was an old tradition and not commonly practiced anymore, but as my dad always said “It is important to keep the old traditions alive my son. Both in song and action.” I remember asking him why? And he looked at me like he had been waiting for that question for a long time. “Because” He said, his tail moving with authority. “Someday when you lose your way, and you don't know where to turn to. You will always have something to guide you back to your center.”
Looking away from the box not wanting to look or think about the damn thing, I shifted my gaze down to my bedside table. There was a little holographic projector showing pictures of me, Mom, Dad and Naila on holiday back on Fahl, the Harchen home world to see family. I was born and raised on Venlil prime, so I didn't really know any of my extended family. There was a picture of my mom and Naila sleeping at the beach. Naila’s crooked tail coiled around mom’s arm, their scales a deep emerald in the light of the sun. The picture changed to me and Dad putting the finishing touches on a sand skyscraper taller than him. I had to sit on his shoulders to place the last bucket full of sand on top. Both of our scales were as blue as the ocean. My tail flicked sadly thinking of that day. I reached over and turned the holo protector off.
My holopad lay next to me flashing, alerting me to an urgent message. I hadn't really looked at my holopad since yesterday morning. Picking it up I tapped the flashing icon. It was an official government statement signed by Governor Tarva herself, saying that the humans Noah and Sarah were peaceful explorers, and that they only wished to be our friends. ‘No, that's impossible, they’re predators. Predators don't want peace, they want to conquer, kill and eat us,’ stunned and confused I kept reading. The rest of the message stated that the two human scientists were completely unaware there was intelligent life of any kind on Venlil prime. ‘No! Lies! Predator lies!’ I yelled inside my head. Something hot began to form in my chest as I read the last bit. Governor Tarver had shown the two predators footage of the Arxur torturing Venlil pups. It said that the humans were capable of empathy and felt deeply saddened and angered by what they saw. They vowed to do everything in their power to get their united nations into the war against the Arxur.
I scrolled all the way down and what I saw stopped me cold. Standing in her office being flanked by General Kam, stood Governor Tarva. Beside them looming over the two Venlil one bigger than the other, both of them covered in some sort of protective suit. Their faces were obscured by dark visored helmets. It said that the larger of the two Noah was male, and the smaller one was Sarah female. Sarah had her hands clasped in front of her, while Noah kept his to his side. Neither were acting threatening, and neither Tarva or Kam looked to be harmed in any way.
Something in me snapped, that hot thing inside my chest erupted and I could feel my scales turn black. I very carefully set my holopad down beside me, then I uncrossed my legs and got out of bed. I stood there in the center of my room shaking slightly, feeling terribly calm as white hot rage flooded my body, spreading to my paws and all the way out to the tip of my long tail. It never had to happen, the panic, the stampede, the death, we could have stayed home and avoided those people. ‘No… no not people,’ a bitter thought came over me. ‘They're not people at all, people stop and help, like that Venlil girl Kayleik, she was a person maybe the only one. But the rest of them were just wild animals, masquerading as sentient beings. ‘Do you really think you're any better, coward?’ Some internal voice said.
A sudden impulse took control of me and I grabbed my desks stool and hurled it against the wall. It dented the wall and bounced off still in one piece. Enraged, I leaped forward grabbing it by the legs, then turned around and slammed it into my desk. The sheet metal dented and the green crackle finish paint flew off, but the stool made of good dense wood from the string fruit tree stayed whole. “DAMN THEM! DAMN THEM! DAMN THEM! DAMN THEM!” I screamed, slamming the stool down again and again, my tail whipping wildly, striking the bed and the floor. The tip of my tail began to hurt, which only fueled my anger. Finally I heard cracking and wood began to splinter off. They didn't have to die, we could have stayed home. The muscles in my shoulders burned and my heart pounded as hot tears began to well up. I brought it down one final time narrowly avoiding the blessing box, and the stool broke in two. I hurled the pieces away from me, one slamming into the corner the other crashing through the window.
I leaned against the desk catching my breath as tears flowed freely. ‘Well that definitely showed them didn't it. Hey I got a great idea! Let's go break some more stuff, that will definitely make you feel better. Idiot!’ That internal voice said all coldness and bitterness. As I cried, the burning in my chest cooled, and I was filled with the same numbness as before. After a while my stomach growled, reminding me I hadn't eaten since yesterday. I moved sluggishly out of my bedroom and went straight to the kitchen, quickly grabbed some fruit and left to go and watch the view screen or something. The moment I entered the living room, memories came flooding back. Mom and Dad laughing, Naila sleeping peacefully, the lingering aroma of breakfast, and the warmth of our home. But now it was all gone and I was alone. For the first time in my life, I had no one to go to.
It was right then I realized I couldn't stay here anymore. This place felt like a tomb, all cold and filled with the memories of the dead. Besides, if I stayed here someone would eventually send the authorities to come and get me. Ship me off to an orphanage, foster care or maybe to my extended family back on Fahl. I balked at the idea of being forced to live with people I didn't know or trust. Memories of yesterday's stampede invaded my mind and I shuddered. I couldn't trust any of them not anymore. No, there was one person I could think of that maybe I could trust. Turning around I went back to my room, found my backpack and grabbed my holopad, the blessing box, the holo projector and my blanket stuffing it into my pack. Then I went to the kitchen and filled my pack up the rest of the way with dried fruit and vegetable snacks. With my backpack looking like it was going to burst I shouldered it and made my way to the front door. When I rested my scaly paw on the door handle I stopped and looked back at the place that was once my home. “Goodbye” I said in a shaky voice, knowing this would be the last time I would never set foot in this house. With my head low I opened the door and stepped out, into the dim light of a new unfamiliar world.

In the small town of Ravensbrook, there was an old tale whispered among the children and shunned by the adults. It was about the Witch of Briar Hollow, a story meant to scare misbehaving kids, but the truth was more sinister than any legend.
Eliza Blackwood was a recluse who lived deep in the woods, in a house that seemed to blend into the shadows. Her presence was marked by an eerie quietness that settled over the trees when she was near. She had no visitors, and the only sign of life were the crows that circled her home.
One autumn, a group of teenagers, eager for a thrill, dared each other to visit Eliza’s house on Halloween night. They gathered at the edge of Briar Hollow as the sun dipped below the horizon, turning the sky into a bruised palette of purples and blacks.
Armed with flashlights and false bravado, they made their way through the dense forest, the path becoming less distinct with each step. The trees seemed to close in around them, and the air grew thick and still. Finally, they saw it—the crooked, weather-beaten house of Eliza Blackwood.
Despite their nerves, they pushed forward, each step crunching on the dead leaves like a chorus of whispered warnings. The door, surprisingly, was ajar, as if expecting visitors. They stepped inside, the floorboards creaking under their weight. The house was dark, the air stale, filled with the scent of herbs and something unidentifiable.
In the dim light of their flashlights, they saw jars lining the shelves, filled with strange, twisted roots and things they couldn’t name. An old, leather-bound book lay open on a table, its pages covered in indecipherable symbols.
Suddenly, the door slammed shut, plunging them into darkness. Their flashlights flickered and died. Panic set in as they fumbled to find their way out. But the house seemed to shift, the walls closing in, the air growing colder.
A voice, soft and raspy, filled the room. “You seek to mock me, children?”
They turned towards the voice, and there she was—Eliza Blackwood. Her eyes were dark pits, her skin as pale as the moonlight that struggled to seep through the boarded windows. She moved with an unnatural grace, her feet barely touching the ground.
“Do you know what happens to those who trespass?” she whispered, her voice like the rustling of dead leaves.
Before they could respond, the room filled with an oppressive force. The air grew thick and heavy, pressing down on their chests. They tried to scream, but no sound came out. One by one, they fell to the ground, unconscious.
When they awoke, they were no longer in the house but scattered across the forest floor, as if they had been thrown from the place. Dazed and terrified, they ran back to town, vowing never to speak of what happened.
But the encounter had left its mark. Over the following days, strange things began to occur. One by one, the teenagers vanished, leaving no trace. The townspeople whispered of Eliza’s curse, of how she claimed those who disturbed her peace.
Years passed, and the tale of the Witch of Briar Hollow became a cautionary legend once more. But the townspeople knew the truth—that deep in the woods, Eliza Blackwood still watched, still waited, and those who dared to seek her out would never return.
And sometimes, on a quiet night, if you listen closely, you can hear the whispers of the lost souls, warning others to stay away from Briar Hollow, where the witch’s curse still lingers, and her hunger for vengeance remains unsatisfied.

Automation Eng Resume
Burner account -
Been casually throwing out resumes for Automation Engineering roles over the past week, and recently a post regarding security automation made me want to put a little more intent behind the process.
My question is, when tailoring my resume, should I list the cool projects I’ve completed, or just kind of keep it simple and explain the projects if I get a call? Started summarizing projects but it’s still 3-5 sentences and seems too lengthy…idk.
“I know Python and PowerShell”
Or
“I wrote this big ass Python script that does a, b, and c…..”
What are your thoughts? Tia.

Ok, so, I used to live in a different state during my childhood than the one I live in now (I live in the Northern US, originally born in this northern state as well). I lived in this other state from the ages of 6 until I was almost 16, and throughout the entirety of my elementary and middle school years up until the middle of 9th grade (which was at the high school, some start at 10th grade instead of 9th).
There were 2 main bullies that I dealt with starting in 1st grade/first school year after moving to this state, and as the years went on, these two girls (let's call them Marie & Clarisse) would get their friends in on bullying me. I wasn't popular by any means, but my mother always had me in sports and extracurricular activities with these girls, so I could never really escape them. It was just as bad outside of anything school related as Marie has two younger brothers that my brother was friends with, so I had to pretend to be the 'best of friends' with Marie from 1st grade up until about the end of 7th grade since our families drifted apart from being "close friends".
As far as typical bullying goes in elementary school, I dealt with constant name-calling and cruel "pranks", mostly aimed towards my weight, I wasn't fat, but I wasn't skinny either despite being in sports and was always active. However, those incidents extended to my stuff being stolen, like my notebooks I'd use for schoolwork, or my box of pencils/pens/etc., forcing me to constantly borrow from the few friends I actually had or from the teachers. I used to be in band (which started in 6th grade in that school district), and I played the clarinet, my stepdad had bought me a very nice/sturdy and somewhat expensive tote bag to put my clarinet, music stand, and music binders in for easier storage and to keep my hands free when transporting my 'equipment'. Us band kids were allowed to keep our instruments behind the curtains of the stage in the school's cafeteria (the stage was against the farthest wall from the kitchen/lunch lines), and out of the ~20 kids in band, only my expensive/sturdy tote bag was stolen within the last 2 days of 6th grade, of course suspects were Marie & Clarisse (I saw Clarisse using my tote bag that summer, as my now-smudged name had been written in permanent marker on the straps and one of the sides of the bag). I left it be because I didn't want any conflict, my stepdad bought me another one after finding out the original one was stolen in the first place.
Middle school wasn't much better as the name calling got extensively more graphic and consisted of slurs (like the F slur, as I'm proudly part of the LGBTQ+ community, specifically AgendeNon-binary), furthering the self-hurting thoughts that had started in 3rd grade. I had continuously tried to tell my mom and stepdad about it, only for my pleas for help to go unheard until one week during the winter season in 7th grade. I had gotten sick for 2 days and stayed home an extra day to recover, but during those three days, Marie, Clarisse and their friends had made an Instagram account, posting very unattractive pictures of fellow classmates (i.e. purposely taking pictures with very unflattering angles, poor lighting, etc) and blamed it on me since they put my address in the private information into that account. My mom had found the account, immediately asking about if I was the one behind it, she unfortunately didn't believe me until *after* she ripped my phone from me to look through it for "evidence" that I made the account. When I returned to school the following Thursday after recovering from the small cold, I was constantly bombarded by fellow students about the account since Marie & Clarisse were the ones that spread the obvious false rumor that I made it. By the end of the day, I had finally snapped, yelling "I didn't make that f-cking account. Why can't everyone just stop bothering me about it?" Of course, that earned plenty of attention from the teachers and students within earshot (and thanks to the tiled floors and walls, my yelling echoed throughout most of the first floor and partly into the second floor of my school), I ended up having to talk with the counselor about the whole ordeal because of my frustrated outburst, which resulted with very little help from the staff, but after a few weeks, people seemed to forget that the account even existed since it ended up deleted within a few days after my outburst.
That following school year, 8th grade, was even worse. Sure, the slurs, the other name-calling and thievery of my belongings continued (more so the slurs/name-calling), but by this year, I was almost constantly committing the self-hurting since my mother was of no help, my stepdad was sympathetic but always working and the therapist my mother found for me was basically a deadbeat with bullying situations (she didn't seem to understand or even want to actually help me with the bullying as she was more of a family therapist than anything else). For the district curriculum, we are required to take health class in 8th grade, and as we were going over the unit that encompassed depression, self-harm, and su!c!dal thoughts/actions, I constantly had to have another staff member in the back of the classroom to watch over me and take me out of the class if any of the course material triggered an episode. Thankfully the staff member was that was there for me was the school's police officer, let's call him Officer Lennox, he was like a protective older brother, especially after finding out about how consistently I was bullied. Near the end of the unit, we had to watch Ronan's Escape (it's on YouTube), and since I was going through my own version of Ronan's situation, I ended up breaking down sobbing in class, only to be laughed at by some of the boys that were close friends with Marie & Clarisse. Officer Lennox snapped at them as professionally as possible while helping me out of the classroom to go sit with the nurse to have some downtime to stop sobbing before I was allowed back to my classes.
Another situation, which is the worst of it in 8th grade, was this one girl, let's call her Ava. She thought it would be hilarious to eavesdrop into my conversations with my best friend (we'll refer to her as Raven since that was a nickname she used) throughout lunch and shared classes, only to take our conversations completely out of context in order to string up a lie that Raven and I were planning to unalive the principle. Of course, this wasn't true, the principle was an a-hole to everyone, and Raven & I would discuss that we greatly disliked him. Ava mostly got away with spreading this lie as her mom was a higher-up in the school district, forcing Raven and I to entirely change our class schedules so we weren't in any classes with Ava, as well as almost being expelled. Thanks to Officer Lennox sticking up for both of us, we only had to have in-school suspension for 3 days instead of being expelled. Sadly, Ava got very little repercussions from this, but Raven and I grew even closer as best friends after "The Incident" as we still refer to it as almost 10 years later.
Summer rolled through without a hitch, leading to 9th grade, the start of high school. I was given more freedom from my mother (she's a helicopter parent and abusive/narcissistic) to dress in clothing that I preferred in comparison to always wearing brightly colored athletic wear. I completely changed my appearance, chopped my hair from just above the small of my back to a punk pixie-styled cut, and started wearing graphic t-shirts, ripped jeans, combat boots, and leather jackets. On top of that, I started becoming more confrontational/combative towards my bullies, since they still wouldn't let up, I earned a "bad@ass/bad b!tch" reputation, made friends with other rebellious and misfit types of people in the grades above me, and just fully became more of "me" despite the disapproval from my mother of the amount of change I undergone.
Despite being 14 at the start of 9th grade, I began dating, specifically one fellow student that was a very close friend and felon, he went to jail/juvie throughout the 2nd half of 7th grade and all of 8th grade. He came to the high school 3 months after the year started, and our friendship-turned-relationship sparked right back up as if he never left. I had kept my dating life secret from my family, mostly my mother because I know how bad her reaction would've been if I told her. With him almost always by my side (excluding classes we didn't share), my brand-new appearance, and my quickly attained delinquent/rebellious reputation, most of my issues dissipated much quicker than before. In spite of that, Marie & Clarisse kept making their remarks, trying to drag down my new confidence and constantly break my felon boyfriend (let's call him Collin) and I up. They got more degrading and verbally abusive with these antics, I eventually was completely fed up with it all. In the middle of the school year, within a couple weeks after Yule (Christmas for the non-pagans) & New Years Break, Marie, Clarisse and their group of friends had stopped me in the hallway, purposely surrounding me (there was about 30 of them in total) on my way to class, continuing with their shtick as usual, I slipped the pocketknife out of my pocket, flicking it open as I finally gave in and threatened to unalive them and everyone they care for if they don't leave me the f-ck alone. They saw the opened knife and knew then & there that I was 100% serious, I turned on my heels, shoving through them only to notice the principal and school's police officer (not officer Lennox) staring at me with concerned expressions, they also noticed the knife as there was a glint from the blade due to the blindly bright lights in the hallway. Not a word was uttered as they walked away, never sending a call to my mother or stepdad about the weapon or the confrontation as they had seen my progression in attitude and the amount of f-cks I had (which was none). After that day, those girls never spoke to me again, would barely glance in my direction, would purposely take alternate routes to class if they saw me in the hallway (or would keep to the wall if they couldn't move quick enough), and if we shared any classes, they'd be on the opposite side of the room from me and would do everything they could to never be partnered/grouped with me in class projects.
Everything was smooth sailing from then on, and now I'm 22 (as of late April this year), happily living with my bio-dad, my brother and my 2-year-old kitty, Ziggy. My mother is out of the picture entirely as she refuses to change her mindset and parenting style. I'm still confrontational towards anyone that tries messing with me, especially if they're anti-LGBTQ+/racist/abusive/etc. And thanks to my continuation of my drastic change from 8th grade to 9th grade, I'm now considered both the protector and the therapist to my friends, always there for them because I grew up knowing what it was like to not have that kind of support. I hope this story of roughly half my life can provide some sort of comfort or proof that it does indeed get better, even if it doesn't seem like it in the moment.

Last week, I messaged a girl from a r4r subreddit. We skyped (I made a new skype with a burner email and no synced contacts) we played for 5 to 10 minutes and each climaxed and the call end. She asked if I wanted to meet in real life, I said no. She said that was cool and to have a good night. She seemed real and her chats matched her actions. In retrospect that was incredibly dumb and risky. I have been on pins and needles since. I haven't been contacted yet, but there could be a video of me out there and maybe through some reverse image search or advanced mechanism, I could be identified and blackmailed. I know you can never be "sure" about not getting blackmail but am I being paranoid?

Sorry if my post is long....Its my first time taking advise from anyone regarding such things.🙈
I have mostly studied in institutes only for girls. As I grew, talking to guys became difficult for me. Also, I was very naive always. I am the " good fun intelligent girl " as per others & "unlike other girls". Due to my family problems & fights, which promotes inferiority complex, I am not someone who considers herself beautiful all the time... to the point that once i didn't want to attend my institute's freshers party but just went there because 2 classmates called me beautiful so I thought i won't look bad maybe ( i am not much of a makeup person) & ended up being the winner ( it included looks, quizzes, debate & games ) So i found out i look pretty if I give few minutes to get ready & take care of myself a bit. I always saw myself as someone a guy won't like but after attending birthday parties etc, girls used to say their boyfriends were talking about me in a very good way later and praising me a lot. They used to feel jealous but not insecure as they saw me as a girl not interesting in dating. I never had a boyfriend. For a long time, I didn't care. Now for past 1 year, I too feel like having someone. Most of the friends who knew me ever use words like " pure " & " decent " for me though I know these things don't define purity or goodness. Have you seen " beautiful people " song video by Edsheeran? I am somewhere between those " beautiful people " & that couple. I don't know if its normal but when guys approach me through insta & start showing romantic interest just in single day, i dislike it.. like you don't even know me dude. I have a big thing for decency & friendship first. & I always have my guards up. It's self destructive maybe.
I have evolved now but since despite being a bright person, I gave up on many good opportunities so currently I don't like the current version of myself much & I feel like i should work on myself & be with others ( even friends ) when i would be a better version of me. This year is crucial for me.
Now, THE MAIN PART - Now... I have an extra anonymous type instagram account. I rarely scroll it but one day, i saw a viral reel of a girl with normal number of followers with her foreigner boyfriend. There were other reels too showing their first meeting in LDR after meeting on a dating app. At first it made me happy & smiling but I remembered something & guess what? I knew about that girl's very very bad intentions ( specially about her plan about how she would manipulate her would be boyfriend & eventually cut him off from his family)..don't ask me what & how but if i tell you.. you would ask to let the innocent man know anyhow. Well.. I dm'd that guy but only hinted indirectly for the sole purpose of humanity ( that anonymous account doesn't indicate my gender or picture ). I also wrote that it was not my main account to signify that i was not a fake troll. To my surprise, he understood the hint & even elaborated a bit & replied that such things may already be happening & he won't fell into such traps. He thanked me & said I could also come from my main account. I didn't think much & followed him from main account. He followed very very very few people but followed me back too. I decided not to talk further on this issue as he had already understood more than i hinted. But he himself thanked me again & said bad things are happening from her side & they are fighting too & he may even break up if it goes on like this. My intention was just to make him aware & at the end of the day, he is in relationship with that girl so I just replied with formal answers. I also became scared later that what if its a trap & they make me viral later picturing me as a villain. I told him this directly but he said i could trust him & he knows the situation himself & understands that I worried genuinely for him. I replied that I did this because every human is precious to their parents. Later i deleted my such texts. He said he wants to learn a language & if I could help him. I said yes. We have talked a bit since then. He seems a nice, well mannered, hardworking guy. Once my closest friend asked me to describe a guy very particularly i would like to go on few dates with just once. So I told her that all nice guys but if you ask me very specifically then a fine guy with this one particular characteristic & of this particular country. & He fulfils both. I have started to like him. It's not a dreamy crush. Believe me. I know what that is. It's more like I would like to get to know him & go on coffee date sometime. But obviously I won't take any step because - i can't even take first step in befriending someone & no matter what, there is a girl in his life. But I think if it would be good or bad if i totally give up on texting him. I can't carry on with short talks.. i am not that of a conversation expert. There is a bit of language barrier too. He likes my stories..only the ones in which i am present. But currently I am focused on important things so I don't even have much to post. He rarely posts his pictures...just work sort of stuff.
Please don't think me as a *^%## waiting for breakup. It's never my intention ever for anyone. I annoyed you by telling about the way i am to show that i just don't wanna regret anything from now on because of introvertedness or naivety or whatever & I am afraid that I might mess it up even if something happens further. I have lost precious friends in the past due to this self inferiority complex & not being able to keep on the conversation & understanding their references later on. Since, I know i have to be better.. should i just keep working on my life & myself till I make myself deserving?
What should I do? Should I just keep liking his posts and be silent... or... I can think of no other option. That's why I am here.

Timestamp
Timestamp is dated for yesterday, I was hoping to have this post made then but time got the better of me.
Good evening rMM! Did some spring cleaning a while back and found way too many things I'm not using, so here's a cleaning out sale!
CONUS Only. PM's only, please comment before doing so! Discounts provided for bundles, as always.

Keyboards	Pricing	Extras	Description/Condition
Bubble75 (Black, Alu Weight)	$170 Shipped OBO	POM plate, all included foams, extra daughterboard cable.	This board is in fair condition. There's a scuff and a bit of anodization chipping on the top of the board from a fall off a broken shelf. See timestamp album for picture of scuff. Ships unbuilt with a PC Plate and includes lubed Durock V2 stabilizers, with an epsi-modded spacebar.
MonsGeek M1 (Red, Lunar New Year)	$65 Shipped OBO	PC plate, all included foams and tape, stock silicone gaskets.	This board is in very good condition, and has been modified to be stack mounted (similarly to how it's done on mode boards). Keyboard is built with stock strawberry bubble gum linear switches on an aluminum plate, with lubed/epsi-modded Durock V2 stabilizers. No keycaps are included.
Gerald65 (Frosted)	$65 Shipped OBO	Unbuilt wrist rest, acrylic plate, foams and extra gaskets.	This board is in very good condition, and is currently gasket mounted with a POM plate. This board is currently built with stock YUNZII/Outemu crystal white linear switches, with lubed/epsi-modded Durock V2 stabilizers. No keycaps are included.

Keycap Sets	Pricing	Description/Condition
GMK Polybius (Base Kit)	$70 Shipped OBO	Shined, moderately used. Scuff on F8 key, scratches on backspace key. Discounted accordingly, see timestamp album for pictures of issues. Ships in bag. Set is complete.
NicePBT Noel (R1)	$20 Shipped OBO	Shined, heavily used. Ships in bag. Set is complete.
CannonCaps 407	$20 Shipped OBO	Shined, heavily used. 6.25u spacebar has loose tolerances and noico installed. Ships in bag. Set is complete.
NicePBT Beach Day	$35 Shipped OBO	BNIB, only opened for pictures, although the caps are out of order from shipping and storage. Can ship in bag for discount.
Bundle for NicePBT/CannonCaps sets	$55 Shipped OBO	This is a bundle offer for NicePBT Noel, CannonCaps 407, and NicePBT Beach Day.

Switches	Pricing	Quantity	Description/Condition
Gateron Yellows	$15 Shipped OBO	62	58 Black Tops, 4 Clear Tops. 205g0 Stem/Bottom Housing, 105 on Stock Springs, Unfilmed
Akko CS Lavender Purple	$15 Shipped OBO	88	205g0 Stem/Bottom Housing (stem legs lightly lubed), 105 on Stock Springs, Unfilmed
KTT HaluHalo	$18 Shipped OBO	65	205g0 on Stem/Bottom Housing, 105 on Stock Springs, Unfilmed
FFFF Tactiles	$20 Shipped OBO	71	Stock
KTT Kang White V3	$20 Shipped OBO PENDING	89	205g0 Stem/Bottom Housing, 51004 on Stock Springs
JWICK Semi-Silent	$25 Shipped OBO	64	205g0 on Stem/Bottom Housing, 51004 on Stock Springs, Unfilmed
Tecsee Purple Pandas (w/Gazzew LT Stems)	$30 Shipped OBO	73	I spring swapped this switch to Gazzew LT stems, making these linear switches. Lubed with 205g0 on stem only, 51004 on aftermarket (unbranded) 67g short springs. Unfilmed. Total travel distance is 3.5mm.
Owlab Neon	$30 Shipped OBO	64	205g0 on Stem/Bottom Housing, 105 on Stock Springs
NovelKeys Cream Clickies	$40 Shipped OBO	70	Stock
C3 Kiwi (w/Tecsee Purple Panda Stems)	$40 Shipped OBO	79	These are a tactile frankenswitch I made a long time ago. 205g0 Stem/Bottom Housing (stem legs lightly lubed) on 63.5g double stage springs lubed with 105, filmed with Deskeys. Total travel distance is 2.8mm.
Holy T1s	$45 Shipped OBO	84	3204 Stem Only (legs untouched), 51004 on aftermarket (unbranded) 60g Short Springs, filmed with Kelowna. Total travel distance is 4.0mm.
Gateron CJs (w/P3 Stems)	$45 Shipped OBO	83	205g0 Stem/Bottom Housing, 105 on Stock Springs, filmed with Deskeys. Total travel distance is 3.9mm.

Freebies (any of the following items are free if bundled, just ask!)	Quantity	Description
Drop Skylight Series Keycaps (Black)	TKL Kit	This set is mostly unused, but I replaced the spacebar for a closely matching dye-sub one I had lying around as the original was damaged.
Cherry MX Retooled Blacks	38	I've had these since 2020, and have never used them. They're completely stock.
Gateron CJ Stems	84	These stems are factory polished and high quality.
Invyr UHMWPE Stems (Batch 2, Version 1)	100+	I tried giving these out a long time ago and they went unclaimed. These stems aren't good and are part of a defective batch.
MX Switch Opener	1	Just a random MX switch opener I got years ago that was painted white. It works okay.
Outemu Blues	120+	Two different kinds of outemu blues in this batch, ones with dustproof stems, ones with traditional stems. These are stock and I salvaged them a long time ago.
Miscellaneous Switch Parts	100+	This contains a bunch of random switch housings and lineatactile stems I've had over time, and I can't really make anything out of these leftover parts.

Last October I was living in the suburbs and took on a work-adjacent project that required me to commute to the city (~1.5 hr drive) once a week. A few people from other companies were involved in the project as well, most of us the same age/in the same field of work. Everyone in the group lived in the city besides me and 1 other person
One of the guys was so gorgeous I saw him across the room on the 1st day and thought “oh no.” Like the kind of hot that fills you with dread instead of excitement. Idk if that makes sense but I don’t really feel like trying to elaborate. Anyway
Throughout the project I got to know him pretty well and he mentioned being single (!!) and I think he also made a move on me at a point (!!!) but I fumbled it because I had an actual regarded moment. Many such cases and whatever but hear me out. He literally said “oh I’ve always wanted to do (mundane hobby I was telling him about) but I don’t have anyone to do it with :/“ and I said “I mean you can just do it alone, that’s what I do” Omg??????
So yeah we finished the project in November and never saw or spoke with each other since. I did end up moving to the city a few months ago though! I was already trying to get out of the suburbs and being in the city for this whole project really solidified it for me.
A few days ago I took a different route home from work and passed by the place that our group used to meet at. I had no idea it was so close to my new office! It made me a little nostalgic even though it wasn’t even that long ago lol but I started thinking about the project and how cool everyone was (I actually became friends with some of the people in the group) and how I probably wouldn’t have taken the leap to move here if I didn’t join it. And then I thought about the hottie and how I should’ve just asked him out or something, or at least tried to keep in touch.
So I was waiting for the bus earlier today and you know who came sauntering up to the stop?? The hottie. He looked at me, I looked at him. Neither of us said anything. He got off at the stop after mine and we walked past each other for some reason, and again, nothing was said.
It’s a huge city so the chances of this happening are pretty slim I’d think? I’ve already had some crazy run-ins here though so idk, might be something in the water. Anyway I think we’re gonna get married.

I’ve been around him since he was 4-5 yrs old. His mom isn’t in the picture, he never met his mom so I understand that’s probably a reason why he misbehaves and such. He’s always had behavior problems and anger but once I moved in because we had a child of our own he started disrespecting me and my role in the family. For example, I’ll ask him to help take out the trash maybe 2 hrs after school when I see him reaching for technology devices ( computer, cell phone) or I’ll ask him to change his school clothes and to pick up around his room and he’ll snap back at me by saying , why do you care? Why are you butting in? Why do I have to listen to you? Why do you tell me ? You’re not my parent or mom. He will start yelling and slamming things and then he starts crying out of frustration and just walks away or slams the door on me. By that point I let him be because I approached him respectfully, calmly and I simply spoke to him any way I would be speaking to my children or anyone else. I don’t raise my voice at all, I never have at him, I know I have to control my anger im the adult and example so I maintain my composure and I don’t call him names, I don’t belittle him I truly don’t see anything wrong with how I approach him at all. When his dad gets home I try then explaining by saying, said name I’m just being a parent and I’m asking you respectfully to please start helping by doing said thing because you haven’t done anything and are now on (device). If his grandparents are over they stay quiet and let him talk to me that way and then proceed to let my bf know that I instigated the child and made him get angry and that if I know he gets angry why am I telling him things. I corrected my bf and let him know his parents were wrong and lying he backed me up and then just tells me to ignore his parents because they don’t understand or agree. They’d rather we not tell our son anything because he has anger issues and just let him be but I’ve explained, that doesn’t do anything for anyone not even our son. If anything they’re showing him he doesn’t have to listen and their are no consequences and that the way he speaks to me is perfectly okay and that I’m the problem for trying to simply parent and show him responsibility at his age. I just don’t understand. I’ve told my partner I don’t even know what my role in the family should be, my in-laws don’t want me parenting him or correcting his behavior but they want me to do all the things a parent does. I’m sorry but I’m pregnant and have a 4 yr old and then to deal with him now makes me just not want to cook for him or do anything at all , the grandpa is here everyday because he has a room in the back so he cooks for him after school now and I understand my bf doesn’t appreciate that but I’m sorry I feel so disrespected and unappreciated and unwanted by his son that it now makes it hard for me to want to cook for him. I’m not saying I never do but after school unless I made a family meal I’m not going out of my way any longer to prepare him a meal, i have fruit and snacks for him of course but just not that. I accept it if I’m wrong but I’ve told my bf I feel so unwanted and it hurt and I don’t even know where I fit in this family. Sometimes I want to leave but then I know he’s a child and it’s our job as parents to go to therapy . I’ve asked my bf for 3 yrs now to have him and us go to therapy but he keeps putting it off. I feel that no one cares or takes my feelings into consideration and then I feel silly because I’m an adult and I feel this way over a 10 yr old.
I’d just like to hear if I’m honestly being unreasonable and should just be butting out like completely not saying anything to him or asking anything of him at all and just let him be. Sorry it’s so long but I appreciate anyone that actually read through it all

So I'm from a server where the new season is coming in about a week's time so I just wanted to get a clearer picture as to what I will be diving into . So these are the few things that I read and understood from what I have seen in this subreddit . As I said, this is from what I have read so please do correct me if I'm wrong !

1. Noble Path - The new season's noblepath rewards were slightly nerfed, there is no more epic selection chest where we can get a free thoran/rowan/etc and they also removed the 20 epic letters which was replaced by rateup letters(unsure of the amount but I'm assuming 20-30) . Which is people are saying is arguably worse, but personally I think it's a fair trade if they give us slightly more rate up tickets in the noble path (maybe 30-40, I would think 30 is fair since 20 epic letters would be almost pity so 30 rateups would make sense) . Also EXP books are given way lesser in the noble path BUT the amount it takes to level up the characters is significantly lesser as well ( I haven't seen anyone do any calculations or anything yet so I'm not sure if the amount of EXP books they give in both seasons are equal in terms of ratio, would be great if someone can give some insight on this) . Other than these 2 rewards, acorns and soulstones should be the same or if not more than what we got from the first season .
2. Server ranking rewards (dream realm, arena, glory expedition) - From what I understand, Server rankings are still a thing, I am unsure if the rewards for server ranking remained unchanged or if it's slightly better ( please give me some numbers, I would love to know, I'm sure some people in the newer servers might want to know as well ) . On top of the server rewards, there are also district ranking rewards, which are better rewards than server ranking rewards . Also, I only know Dream Realm has both server and district ranking rewards, I believe arena technically has it as well, except they are seperated, the new supreme arena rewards is basically the district ranking rewards for arena ( at least that's how I see it, I understand it's technically is kind of a completely different thing ) so I kinda want to know if glory expedition has a server reward and a district ranking reward or how does glory expedition work now ?
3. DPS charts/ranking (honestly quite clueless on this and would love to get more insight) - From what I have seen, since the nerf of true damage, apparently Odie is top dps now, followed by Marilee then comes Alsa/Korin ? I have seen people saying Bryon is a sleeper OP unit as well ? Also I believe that devs(?)/people have been saying/speculating that Marilee/Korin will still be actually STRONG and be better than odie in endless mode with the new artifact .
4. Dream realm ranking - I believe I saw a post saying that the rankings have been alil buggy or that they haven't made it so that we are able to see both server rankings and district rankings ? Has this issue been fixed ? Are you guys in the new season able to see your server ranking and district ranking, have they been separated out ?
5. Glory expedition - I mentioned it slightly in point 2 but I'll ASSUME here first that glory expedition points can ONLY be obtained from district rankings if that's the case, are guilds still server locked ? or are we going to be able to invite people from other servers in your district in a guild ?

Lastly, I'm curious as to how they group each district, how many servers are in each district, aren't all if not most servers going into the new season on different days ? I believe there's only maybe 1-2 servers that are created on the same day itself ? If anyone knows any details to this please enlighten me .
So basically these are the points that I have been seeing on reddit and understood and would love to know if I'm wrong on anything and get a clearer picture of what I will be going into in a week's time . If you have made it this far and read everything, please get yourself a cookie, you for sure deserve it ! Apologies if this is messy, there's quite afew things I laid out and honestly this is not my cleanest/neatest work but hopefully my intentions get through . Thanks in advance for all the answers and everyone that read all of this , cheers !
Edit: MARKIJOURNEY (new promo code) for your troubles of reading through, here's the latest promo code for your troubles

2024-190 / Zedd MAP: 84.08 / MLZ MAP: 86.88 / Score Gap: 2.80
Wikipedia?wprov=sfti1#Plot) / IMDb / Official Trailer / Our Collection
If I’ve never said this out loud before now ((shrug)), I’m just going to go ahead and say it now: I sincerely (sincerely) didn’t like 90s cinema during the last decade of the 20th century. I grew up during the gritty realism of 70s New Hollywood and came of age during the devil-may-care fun of the 80s. Something shifted gears in the 90s and it just didn’t jive with my sensibilities.
If I’m being honest, there was a push for big budget blockbusters and I’m nearly always on my back foot when Hollywood emphasizes flash over storytelling. It’s always been part of the cycle and I just figured, “Hey - movies are for everyone, its just time for those sorts of movie lovers.” I joked about it - if you like loud music punctuating every second of action on screen - 90s cinema is for you.
From IMDb: Two storm chasers on the brink of divorce must work together to create an advanced weather alert system by putting themselves in the cross-hairs of extremely violent tornadoes.
If I’m being even more honest, we didn’t get to the movies very often either - we worked 2, sometimes 3 jobs, always 60+ hours a week. Modesto, CA had lost all its vital industries by then and the only thing out there for the likes of Mrs. Lady Zedd and I were low-paying service sector jobs. So, yeah - we were working our asses off, just to be poor. Movies were an expense we could hardly afford. This ladies and gentleman, is exactly how bias can form: I don’t like the things I can’t afford or have time for anyway.
Bias sucks the roof right off the top of honesty, and unless your personal philosophy revolves around brutal self-honesty, reflection, and rooting out hypocrisy, your personal biases will run unnoticed and unchecked - no bueno if you’re going to spend your time watching, ranking, and writing about the movies. Fortunately, my personal philosophy revolves around brutal self-honesty, reflection, and rooting out hypocrisy.
Here it is: I’m sorry 90s Cinema, I certainly was operating from a place of personal bias - not so much in the past decade or so - but certainly prior to that. While I was always willing to roll the dice on 60s, 70s, and 80s motion pictures - I often left your offerings on the shelf. I hope you see I’ve made strides in amending that and the trend, overall, in my collecting has been more even handed. Was your incidental orchestration too numerous and too loud? Yes - but that’s ok. Just my opinion, and - as my great and wise Great Grandpappy very well might have said, “opinions are like assholes, everybody’s got one and most of them stink.”
What’s (honestly) happened over the last four or five years is, I’ve gained an appreciation for 90s films that was nearly absent during the decade itself. Part of it has to do with seeing the scope of movies like Jurassic Park, Twister, or Armageddon (for instance) and recognizing part of what I hadn’t liked (the movies changed) was, in retrospect, a good thing. The medium was evolving, growing, and filling new spaces. I was the one stuck in the past.
After I became disabled and suddenly had a lot of time on my hands, I did a lot of exploring through all genres and film eras and just this, alone, chipped away at my old biases. I learned so much movie history that I brought to bear on other films - it changed how I saw them. Enhanced my appreciation, across the board.
Watching Twister in 1996, I was full of “that doesn’t look right” and eye-rolls for flying cows and scenes with trucks driving through houses. While I still register these simple crowd-pleasing visuals for what they are, I can also feel the chemistry between our leading stars, understand the drive of the characters, love the resolution of conflict, enjoy the “disaster film” aspects.
MLZ says she just needed this movie, today. There’s something to watching a movie as therapy after you’ve come through a bumpy patch. We’re all safe and sound but we can see the look on Little Miss Zedd and her husband’s faces. They’re glad to be here with us but also, really, just want things repaired so they can go on home. It could be days or weeks - we just don’t know. I did the only thing I could think of: get them safe and comfortable, buy a tv and player for the spare room, hand over movies and tv I know will be that needed distraction.
You all know, movie on can mean many things. It’s equal parts laughs and good feelings when things are going your way / therapy, distraction, and communion when it’s not. We said 2024 was going to be bumpy, we said we’re here to be a safe corner - you’ll never truly know how much it means to us that you, our cinematic siblings, provide that for us right back. Take care of each other - check your personal bias - and above all…
Movie On :]

Hey everyone,
I've recently stumbled upon some mind-blowing information that has led me to believe that the Louisiana Purchase was orchestrated by aliens. Yep, you read that right—extraterrestrials may have played a crucial role in one of the most significant land deals in history. And guess what? All the evidence is being hidden at Area 51.
Here's what I found:

1. Napoleon's Sudden Change of Heart: Historians have long wondered why Napoleon suddenly decided to sell the Louisiana Territory for such a low price. What if he wasn't acting alone? There are rumors that Napoleon had a mysterious encounter before the sale. Some sources suggest he was visited by strange, otherworldly beings who convinced him to make the deal.
2. Lewis and Clark's Expedition: The famous expedition has always been shrouded in mystery. Recently declassified documents hint at the possibility that Lewis and Clark encountered alien technology during their journey. Their detailed maps and sudden ability to navigate the uncharted territory could be attributed to extraterrestrial guidance.
3. Ancient Alien Artifacts: There have been reports of strange artifacts found in the Louisiana Territory, dating back to the early 1800s. These artifacts, made of unknown materials and inscribed with bizarre symbols, are believed to be of alien origin. Conveniently, these items have been confiscated and stored at—you guessed it—Area 51.
4. Thomas Jefferson's Secret Correspondence: Hidden letters between Thomas Jefferson and his close confidants reveal cryptic references to "visitors" and "gifts from the stars." Jefferson's fascination with the cosmos is well-documented, but these letters suggest he may have had knowledge of extraterrestrial involvement in the purchase.
5. Area 51's Hidden Archives: Insiders claim that Area 51 houses a vast archive of documents and artifacts related to alien activities on Earth. Among these, there are said to be detailed records of alien negotiations that influenced major historical events, including the Louisiana Purchase. Why else would the government go to such lengths to keep Area 51 so heavily guarded and secretive?

Why isn't this common knowledge? The government doesn't want us to know that aliens have been meddling in human affairs for centuries. They fear mass hysteria, loss of control, and the collapse of societal structures. By keeping the truth hidden, they maintain their power and keep us in the dark.
It's time we demand transparency. The truth is out there, and it's being kept from us. We need to uncover the secrets hidden at Area 51 and reveal the true history of the Louisiana Purchase and other pivotal events in our past.
Stay curious, stay skeptical, and don't let the truth be buried!
👽🔍 #AlienConspiracy #LouisianaPurchase #Area51 #HiddenHistory

Ive searched on google and saw that there is a hey arnold 3D reboot that was made in 2023, even episode names are out, but i cant find a single picture or video of anyone talking about it or of it, i cant even access paramount+, is this a real reboot?

Hi, I'd like to start with introducing myself. I'm 24F and Last year this time of the year, I was dating a guy who was a follower of the red pill community. We were in a long distance relationship and met only a few times. The relationship was about 8-9 Months long. For people who are not aware about it, Red pill community is a group of guys that blame females for all there problems and they feel that females are privileged and hence, They've always have an upper hand and have ruined their life by taking away their opportunities and what now.
I wasnt aware what i was getting myself into but I want to make others aware. So I'll talk about the various "red flags" of my relationship and how it affected me. I am not longer in a relationship with that guys.

1. Guy Friends: We meet online and his initial communication never showed any hatred for women as such. He seemed interested in me and quickly asked me to date him as well. He would often "praise" that I had no guy friends which was a "green flag". (In reality I had no friends, let alone male friends.) He said girls with boyfriends should not have guy friends. Its disrespectful to the boyfriend. Even thou, He has a female best friend. I took this lightly. Later in our relationship, he made me unfollow a bunch of guys on instagram. They were former classmates and colleagues. I'd not met most of them for years and months. He would often ask me if my dad had female friends or if my mom had male friends and when I would say no. He would say, See because one shouldnt friends of opposite gender
   
2. Clubbing: He hated girls who were open about their sexuality and would call them names. He said girls in a relationship should not go to clubs as thats a "hoe" place to be in. I remember fighting to go to a club when an old friend was visiting me and she wanted to go to one of our fave clubs from our college days. He said he is disappointed in me and that going to clubs with a single friend is the worst as she might try to hook up with guys and I'll be left alone and then someone will hookup with me. He said and I quote "I will not leave my car in a shady areas and pray to god that it doesnt get stolen. It's my mistake I went there at the first place." I ended up going to a bar instead of a club. He made me feel really bad about that as well later.
   
3. Content: After the 2nd month he would send me red pill youtube and reddit content to normalize such preaching and thats when things really got out of hand because I didnt know what to believe and what not to. I thought maybe I was delusional my whole life and that this is the "reality of the world" where women are these "ruthless" beings. (He said I was special because I was trying to make myself aware about it). He specifically showed and talked about this one story where the wife cheats on her husband because he's always busy at work (He said the poor guy is working his ass off for the family and the wife is so ungrateful) The wife cheats and marries her boyfriend and takes the kid and the guy's money and what not. I'm not saying cheating is good but the interruption of every story led to the same conclusion that women are bad. He said this is the reality. I started questioning myself more and more as I got trapped in the red-pill community.
   
4. Future: He was very sure about our future and said that he wanted me to be his wife. He said he doesnt want me to work. Females should stay at home cook and clean and take care of the babies. He said it would hurt him to see me work as he's the man of the house.
   
5. Comments on Body: I'm overweight atm but when I was dating him I used to be in better shape. He said He likes that I take care of my body and anything else would be a disrespect to the person you are dating. One should always look like how they looked when they first started dating. One shouldnt "let go" of their body. He used to go to the gym and would insist that I go to. Later in the relationship towards the end, I started my masters and Couldnt be active. The relationship was taking a toll on me as well and I started gaining weight. He would comment on it. I would share photos with him and the first comment would always be like "you look thin in this" or " Oh! In picture toh you look fine only " He did motivate me to go to the gym which i was grateful about but at that point I only went to make him happy and not because I actually wanted to go.
   

These were some of the red flags I could think about. He cheated on me. He had been cheating the last 3 Months of our relationship. He initially broke up saying I had gained weight and he wasnt attracted to me and also because he couldnt see any future in our LDR. Later he confessed that he had been cheating on me and left me because he started getting physical with the other girl and it was no longer "just talking". He said I was trying to get rid of me for a while but I never let him leave. All in All. It ended. It took me quite some thing to realize how I was brainwashed into accepting a whole new reality masked as ' I love you thats why I'm helping you understand the real world'.
I have trust issues (ofc!) and It's been hard to undo the damage. I started dated a new guy recently and caught myself saying You cant have girl best friends and it broke my heart later when I realized. Its a long healing path for me. If any of you are experiencing something similar, Please be aware.

I have recently lost all faith in the justice system, and it feels like law and order is just a farce. My step father is a monster, and a sociopath, and no matter how hard I try I cannot get anything done. My mother married my step father when I was ten years old, and he began grooming me when I was eleven. Walking around naked and saying it was natural. Making me watch adult movies with him, then escalating to making me watch child p*rn. And then he started to sexually assault, and r*ape me when I was fourteen. And It kept going all the way up to when I was thirty-two. I know that sounds hard to believe, but he controlled our whole lives. I couldn’t get a job so I had no money. We didn’t have any friends. Our family wasn’t allowed to visit. He would tell me that the problem with calling the police is a lot can happen between when you pick up the phone, and they arrive. That it only takes a second to pull a trigger, or to push in a knife. That the sounds people would make when they were stabbed in the chest, would get his heart racing. He would clean his guns when he was angry, often mock pointing at me and pulling the trigger. I sometimes wished that the gun was loaded so I wouldn’t be trapped with him anymore. But worried for my mother. He started to physically abuse my mother too, so we were trapped. When I was younger he would toy with me making me do things like drink anti-freeze, but said it was game. I guess at eleven years old you don‘t know any better. Over the past few years he has begun to get more violent, and started down the anti-government route. Saying stuff that he will be the spark of the revolution. That he will bring this whole thing down. He bought a plate carrier vest (bullet proof vest), for ”when it all goes down”. He has been amassing an arsenal of guns, and recent started to acquire stolen firearms. What he would do is get close when an elderly person who has firearms registered to them, take them, and then tell the police that he “disposed of them” or a “buy back program” so they wouldn’t have to worry about them, and then keep them for himself. He has over 300 firearms, which I have a complete inventory of, as well as the stolen firearms. I know that sounds like a made up amount but there was safes in every corner of the house full of guns. Which he was only one that had keys too. He has been stockpiling ammunition as well, green tips/black tips, hollow point, tracer rounds which all together would be close to 1 million rounds, which I have pictures of. He has has a few hundreds pounds of gun powder, and knowledge of the anarchist cookbook. He claims to be a navy seal, often wearing navy seal shirts, and other clothing, bragging about it to people. But we got in contact with NCIS and the national archives which said he was only a marine for fourteen months. So that was all a lie. I recently was able to leave for the sole reason that I lost my mother. I do not even know if foul play was involved, I just had to leave before I was next. So I was able to escape with the help of family. But now scared that no one is there, what could he be doing? He kept saying how he has the means, that he will be remembered. That he will lead the charge, ignitting the fires of rebellion. I have reported and filed out police reports for a total of four different states police, as well as the FBI and ATF. I have even reached out to my local congressman, because they say they can intervene on your behalf for federal agencies. But all his office said that they submitted a tip as well. I have evidence, other people have submitted reports against him too, but nothing is happening. I keep checking the news, scared that one day I will see his face and that he blew up a government building or took down a plane which he has access too since he works at an airport. I am begging people that he is a danger to the community, that not only is he a pedophile but he will make Timothy McVeigh look like a choir boy. He is a monster, he likes to hurt people, he most definitely will hurt people, and I cannot get anyone to help. Everyone Is more interested in agendas then safety. It’s not a matter of if, but a matter of when. He will kill hundreds of people and no one will stop it. God help us all.

I genuinely think I am going insane. In August 2023, I upgraded my PC from the AM4 platform to the AM5 platform. To provide a comprehensive overview, I will share the PcPartPicker lists for both PCs, along with the detailed specs here.
New: Ryzen 9 7900X3D (PBO enabled) EVGA 3080 Ti FTW3 Asus X670E Crosshair Extreme G.Skill 32GB (2 x 16) 7600mhz CAS36 Trident Z5 2TB Crucial T700 1TB Corsair MP600 Corsair AIO H170i 420mm Corsair 7000D case Corsair HX1500i PSU (ATX 3.0/PCie 5.0) (1500 W)
Old: Ryzen 7 5800X (Overclocked to 4.8 GHz, stable) EVGA 3080 Ti FTW3 MSI X570 Gaming Pro Carbon WI-FI G.Skill 32GB (2 x 16) 4000mhz CAS18 Trident Z 1TB Corsair MP600 2TB Seagate Barracuda HDD MSI AIO MPG CORELIQUID V2 360mm Corsair 7000D case Corsair RM 850x PSU (850 W)
Ever since I upgraded to the AM5 platform, in many games, within the first 1 - 10 minutes of launching (regardless of whether I stay in the lobby or queue into a match), my frames drop below 5 FPS and stay like that from anywhere between 20 seconds to 3 minutes. GPU utilization drops from 20% to 99% (depending on the game) to 1% to 5%. DPC latency for Nvidia and other drivers spikes like crazy. I've attached the LatencyMon reports.
Once it returns to normal, it STAYS normal until I restart my PC. The thing is, there are only some games like this. For example, it always happens in Valorant (not resource intensive) and Apex Legends (resource intensive). I play these two at low settings. However, it never happens in Forza Horizon 5 and Forza Motorsport (2023), and I play both at max settings in 1440p!
I've RMA'd the motherboard and CPU and even tried swapping the graphics card with a 4060, yet the issue still persisted. This never happens when I run Cinebench or casually use my PC. My BIOS, OS (Windows 11 23H2), and every single damn driver on my PC is up-to-date. I check every day for updates on everything. I may be the most up-to-date man in my city. I have also ruled out thermal throttling, as my CPU is stays below 75c when these drops happen, and before.
I've clean-installed Windows 11 countless times with no luck. I've played with no additional software on my PC, just drivers, and it still happens. I contacted NVIDIA support, but customer service couldn't fix it. I got forwarded to "level 2 tech support", and they said, "We will look into it on our side." I followed up consistently for weeks and never got a response back. I even made a new ticket, which got closed with no response. I even emailed their HQ (I think), and never got a response from them either.
I'm considering giving up and getting ready to splurge on a Ryzen 9 9900X when it's released. I believe it has something to do with the 3D-Vcache, and I prefer having a fixed overclock and finding its stable limits. At this point, I am insanely desperate for any fix. Please feel free to ask any questions that would help troubleshoot. Keep in mind that the screenshots were taken a few months ago when I submitted the support ticket to NVIDIA.
CONCLUSION _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Your system appears to be having trouble handling real-time audio and other tasks. You are likely to experience buffer underruns appearing as drop outs, clicks or pops. One or more DPC routines that belong to a driver running in your system appear to be executing for too long. One problem may be related to power management, disable CPU throttling settings in Control Panel and BIOS setup. Check for BIOS updates. LatencyMon has been analyzing your system for 0:05:49 (h:mm:ss) on all processors. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ SYSTEM INFORMATION _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Computer name: MAKEENSPC OS version: Windows 11, 10.0, version 2009, build: 22631 (x64) Hardware: System Product Name, ASUS BIOS: 1904 CPU: AuthenticAMD AMD Ryzen 9 7900X3D 12-Core Processor Logical processors: 24 Processor groups: 1 Processor group size: 24 RAM: 32470 MB total _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CPU SPEED _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Reported CPU speed (WMI): 4401 MHz Reported CPU speed (registry): 440 MHz Note: reported execution times may be calculated based on a fixed reported CPU speed. Disable variable speed settings like Intel Speed Step and AMD Cool N Quiet in the BIOS setup for more accurate results. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ MEASURED INTERRUPT TO USER PROCESS LATENCIES _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The interrupt to process latency reflects the measured interval that a usermode process needed to respond to a hardware request from the moment the interrupt service routine started execution. This includes the scheduling and execution of a DPC routine, the signaling of an event and the waking up of a usermode thread from an idle wait state in response to that event. Highest measured interrupt to process latency (µs): 31512.40 Average measured interrupt to process latency (µs): 11.033801 Highest measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 31504.10 Average measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs): 5.010260 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ REPORTED ISRs _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Interrupt service routines are routines installed by the OS and device drivers that execute in response to a hardware interrupt signal. Highest ISR routine execution time (µs): 414.60 Driver with highest ISR routine execution time: Wdf01000.sys - Kernel Mode Driver Framework Runtime, Microsoft Corporation Highest reported total ISR routine time (%): 0.001667 Driver with highest ISR total time: Wdf01000.sys - Kernel Mode Driver Framework Runtime, Microsoft Corporation Total time spent in ISRs (%) 0.001667 ISR count (execution time <250 µs): 64723 ISR count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0 ISR count (execution time 500-1000 µs): 9 ISR count (execution time 1000-2000 µs): 0 ISR count (execution time 2000-4000 µs): 0 ISR count (execution time >=4000 µs): 0 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ REPORTED DPCs _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ DPC routines are part of the interrupt servicing dispatch mechanism and disable the possibility for a process to utilize the CPU while it is interrupted until the DPC has finished execution. Highest DPC routine execution time (µs): 70738.720 Driver with highest DPC routine execution time: nvlddmkm.sys - NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 551.52 , NVIDIA Corporation Highest reported total DPC routine time (%): 0.055289 Driver with highest DPC total execution time: Wdf01000.sys - Kernel Mode Driver Framework Runtime, Microsoft Corporation Total time spent in DPCs (%) 0.156135 DPC count (execution time <250 µs): 537621 DPC count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0 DPC count (execution time 500-10000 µs): 196 DPC count (execution time 1000-2000 µs): 1698 DPC count (execution time 2000-4000 µs): 109 DPC count (execution time >=4000 µs): 271 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ REPORTED HARD PAGEFAULTS _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Hard pagefaults are events that get triggered by making use of virtual memory that is not resident in RAM but backed by a memory mapped file on disk. The process of resolving the hard pagefault requires reading in the memory from disk while the process is interrupted and blocked from execution. NOTE: some processes were hit by hard pagefaults. If these were programs producing audio, they are likely to interrupt the audio stream resulting in dropouts, clicks and pops. Check the Processes tab to see which programs were hit. Process with highest pagefault count: msmpeng.exe Total number of hard pagefaults 393 Hard pagefault count of hardest hit process: 167 Number of processes hit: 8 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ PER CPU DATA _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CPU 0 Interrupt cycle time (s): 27.763093 CPU 0 ISR highest execution time (µs): 414.60 CPU 0 ISR total execution time (s): 0.108111 CPU 0 ISR count: 33785 CPU 0 DPC highest execution time (µs): 15653.070 CPU 0 DPC total execution time (s): 4.248667 CPU 0 DPC count: 114314 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CPU 1 Interrupt cycle time (s): 61.040177 CPU 1 ISR highest execution time (µs): 247.010 CPU 1 ISR total execution time (s): 0.025783 CPU 1 ISR count: 19964 CPU 1 DPC highest execution time (µs): 70738.720 CPU 1 DPC total execution time (s): 8.533829 CPU 1 DPC count: 406668 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CPU 2 Interrupt cycle time (s): 7.999166 CPU 2 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0 CPU 2 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0 CPU 2 ISR count: 0 CPU 2 DPC highest execution time (µs): 36.660 CPU 2 DPC total execution time (s): 0.003996 CPU 2 DPC count: 1902 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CPU 3 Interrupt cycle time (s): 5.653989 CPU 3 ISR highest execution time (µs): 11.340 CPU 3 ISR total execution time (s): 0.000538 CPU 3 ISR count: 385 CPU 3 DPC highest execution time (µs): 47292.350 CPU 3 DPC total execution time (s): 0.110961 CPU 3 DPC count: 1718 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CPU 4 Interrupt cycle time (s): 5.738759 CPU 4 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0 CPU 4 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0 CPU 4 ISR count: 0 CPU 4 DPC highest execution time (µs): 15736.80 CPU 4 DPC total execution time (s): 0.022466 CPU 4 DPC count: 2477 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CPU 5 Interrupt cycle time (s): 5.353692 CPU 5 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0 CPU 5 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0 CPU 5 ISR count: 0 CPU 5 DPC highest execution time (µs): 39.90 CPU 5 DPC total execution time (s): 0.004773 CPU 5 DPC count: 1614 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CPU 6 Interrupt cycle time (s): 5.838329 CPU 6 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0 CPU 6 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0 CPU 6 ISR count: 0 CPU 6 DPC highest execution time (µs): 15766.450 CPU 6 DPC total execution time (s): 0.018172 CPU 6 DPC count: 940 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CPU 7 Interrupt cycle time (s): 5.835885 CPU 7 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0 CPU 7 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0 CPU 7 ISR count: 0 CPU 7 DPC highest execution time (µs): 15752.740 CPU 7 DPC total execution time (s): 0.017217 CPU 7 DPC count: 646 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CPU 8 Interrupt cycle time (s): 6.119580 CPU 8 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0 CPU 8 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0 CPU 8 ISR count: 0 CPU 8 DPC highest execution time (µs): 47.940 CPU 8 DPC total execution time (s): 0.003918 CPU 8 DPC count: 1225 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CPU 9 Interrupt cycle time (s): 6.123383 CPU 9 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0 CPU 9 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0 CPU 9 ISR count: 0 CPU 9 DPC highest execution time (µs): 15750.870 CPU 9 DPC total execution time (s): 0.018676 CPU 9 DPC count: 854 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CPU 10 Interrupt cycle time (s): 5.654364 CPU 10 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0 CPU 10 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0 CPU 10 ISR count: 0 CPU 10 DPC highest execution time (µs): 36.290 CPU 10 DPC total execution time (s): 0.001585 CPU 10 DPC count: 563 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CPU 11 Interrupt cycle time (s): 4.933098 CPU 11 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0 CPU 11 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0 CPU 11 ISR count: 0 CPU 11 DPC highest execution time (µs): 34.350 CPU 11 DPC total execution time (s): 0.001481 CPU 11 DPC count: 484 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CPU 12 Interrupt cycle time (s): 4.489502 CPU 12 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0 CPU 12 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0 CPU 12 ISR count: 0 CPU 12 DPC highest execution time (µs): 15802.070 CPU 12 DPC total execution time (s): 0.017034 CPU 12 DPC count: 390 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CPU 13 Interrupt cycle time (s): 3.922946 CPU 13 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0 CPU 13 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0 CPU 13 ISR count: 0 CPU 13 DPC highest execution time (µs): 15734.630 CPU 13 DPC total execution time (s): 0.016402 CPU 13 DPC count: 208 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CPU 14 Interrupt cycle time (s): 4.980946 CPU 14 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0 CPU 14 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0 CPU 14 ISR count: 0 CPU 14 DPC highest execution time (µs): 54.90 CPU 14 DPC total execution time (s): 0.003271 CPU 14 DPC count: 851 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CPU 15 Interrupt cycle time (s): 5.329617 CPU 15 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0 CPU 15 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0 CPU 15 ISR count: 0 CPU 15 DPC highest execution time (µs): 15787.0 CPU 15 DPC total execution time (s): 0.016904 CPU 15 DPC count: 390 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CPU 16 Interrupt cycle time (s): 4.531875 CPU 16 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0 CPU 16 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0 CPU 16 ISR count: 0 CPU 16 DPC highest execution time (µs): 15785.580 CPU 16 DPC total execution time (s): 0.017499 CPU 16 DPC count: 453 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CPU 17 Interrupt cycle time (s): 4.592284 CPU 17 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0 CPU 17 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0 CPU 17 ISR count: 0 CPU 17 DPC highest execution time (µs): 46.170 CPU 17 DPC total execution time (s): 0.000798 CPU 17 DPC count: 285 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CPU 18 Interrupt cycle time (s): 3.837475 CPU 18 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0 CPU 18 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0 CPU 18 ISR count: 0 CPU 18 DPC highest execution time (µs): 41.550 CPU 18 DPC total execution time (s): 0.001068 CPU 18 DPC count: 260 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CPU 19 Interrupt cycle time (s): 3.721595 CPU 19 ISR highest execution time (µs): 0.0 CPU 19 ISR total execution time (s): 0.0 CPU 19 ISR count: 0 CPU 19 DPC highest execution time (µs): 15791.680 CPU 19 DPC total execution time (s): 0.016658 CPU 19 DPC count: 228 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CPU 20 Interrupt cycle time (s): 3.620598 CPU 20 ISR highest execution time (µs): 2.740 CPU 20 ISR total execution time (s): 0.000571 CPU 20 ISR count: 1069 CPU 20 DPC highest execution time (µs): 83.530 CPU 20 DPC total execution time (s): 0.001440 CPU 20 DPC count: 343 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CPU 21 Interrupt cycle time (s): 3.626609 CPU 21 ISR highest execution time (µs): 3.250 CPU 21 ISR total execution time (s): 0.001416 CPU 21 ISR count: 2806 CPU 21 DPC highest execution time (µs): 83.180 CPU 21 DPC total execution time (s): 0.003384 CPU 21 DPC count: 940 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CPU 22 Interrupt cycle time (s): 3.571501 CPU 22 ISR highest execution time (µs): 1.960 CPU 22 ISR total execution time (s): 0.000576 CPU 22 ISR count: 1059 CPU 22 DPC highest execution time (µs): 47.140 CPU 22 DPC total execution time (s): 0.009259 CPU 22 DPC count: 1287 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ CPU 23 Interrupt cycle time (s): 3.554794 CPU 23 ISR highest execution time (µs): 8.0 CPU 23 ISR total execution time (s): 0.002821 CPU 23 ISR count: 5664 CPU 23 DPC highest execution time (µs): 64.620 CPU 23 DPC total execution time (s): 0.007121 CPU 23 DPC count: 855 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Over the course of my 4 year marriage to my partner, I have arrived at the position that I was abused, manipulated, and functionally enslaved to a mentally ill partner.
In simplest form, the progression is apparently observable. She was diagnosed with cancer in October of 2019 while we were engaged. Due to the diagnosis, we moved up our actual marriage date (our wedding was still set for mid-April) to December 1, 2019. Her surgery was December 13, 2019. In my compassion for her, I agreed to move our wedding date up to offset her anxiety around who would be responsible for her if things went south with her surgical treatment.
Our first month of marriage was straightforward; she was on pain meds recovering from surgery, so the main engagement that occurred was me walking her up and down the hospital hallway as she recovered and trying to meet her base physical needs of hygiene, food, and presence. We stayed in the hospital for 2-3 weeks (with recurring hospital visits for complications).
Quickly after we figured out our marital living situation in her small 3-bed apartment with 2 roommates, our relationship devolved. Specifically, she was irritable because of the pain she was in, causing her to lash out at me with regular frequency for small things. If I didn’t put clothes away in the right place, didn’t anticipate her needs (without her communicating them), or ate the wrong food in front of her she would shout at me and decry me for my thoughtlessness.
These small, critical engagements were wounding and created a distance between us – and there was no upside. She was never kind, never paid mind to needs I might have, and started down a path of cultivating a root of bitterness in her soul. She quickly revealed herself to be venomous, hateful, and vindictive when she felt like she was wronged — and any observation of concern about our marriage resulted me in being accused of being mean or insensitive, even if I spent hours or days calculating the best way to share my concern (and I have a master’s degree in communication where I focused in studying disagreement — I know how to carefully package concerns).
During this time, I worked hard to provide for us, foreseeing a significant time period where I would have to be primary financial provider and caregiver. I increased my income each year we were married by around 25%, finishing our marriage at >$80,000 in yearly income, compared to starting our marriage at a modest $42,000 salary (including dramatically improving our healthcare). Frankly, I increased my income to provide for us in spite of the lack of support at home.
But to be clear: I don’t think it would have been particularly difficult to provide financially if I had an ounce of support at home.
However, the relentless criticism and expectation of mind-reading continued through the years. I rationalized this abuse for the first year of our marriage because of all the excuses to be cruel, she had a good one – she had cancer. I hung onto a hope that it would stop. Contrary to my hope, as the years went on – and our expenses climbed – and I continued to work myself to the bone – she continued to relentlessly critique and even started being more emotionally demanding, expecting me to take responsibility for her inability to cope with her emotions – I was drowning. She was asking too much of me. There was no deliverance from her abuse.
I was exhausted. In the peak of the abuse I endured at her hand, I was working multiple jobs, sleeping 10+ hours a night and napping frequently during the day around meetings and work, then coping with alcohol to numb myself to the abusive dynamic and fall asleep with no support from her. The only time I could approach her sexually was when I was intoxicated, with inhibitions lowered. The only time I could have a conversation with her was with a counselor in the room. Without something to mitigate opportunity for her to be cruel to me, either a mediator or self-medication, I was scared.
I lived at home in a constant state of alert and cognitive fatigue. No matter how I tried to make sense of my home life, I couldn’t. When she looked at or touched me, I would recoil in fear, anticipating some sort of incisive critique or demand expressed. Then she would criticize me for not responding warmly to her, exacerbating the cycle.
I couldn’t meet her needs – I was utterly exhausted. When I would tell her of the exhaustion I experienced in marital counseling, her responses were typically something along the lines of not believing me, denying what I was saying was true, or calling my exhaustion an ‘excuse’. I could interact happily with my friends… why not her?
I did not deny her demands were legitimate; rather, I expressed my inability to meet them because of how fatigued I was. I said ‘I can’t’ so many times. I realize her demands were small; affection, saying ‘i love you’, complimenting her. But it’s disorienting to be consistently berated and belittled by a person and then asked to compliment them and tell them you love them.
The push and pull of abuse is exhausting to a person who is not mentally because it does not make sense.
Further, in counseling I realized that I have forgotten that I have needs. I have lost the tools to even evaluate what my needs might be because, implicitly and explicitly in my marriage, I was told my needs don’t matter.
My marriage made no sense; I was obviously drowning, exhausted with the demands our life imposed on me. I was doing everything I could to get straight. I was in individual therapy, marital counseling, pastoral counseling, trying different antidepressants (4 in total – all with no effect), changing eating habits, trying to reduce my drinking, getting medical tests to see if I had health issues causing my fatigue, and being vulnerable in my friendships in an attempt to invite others in to process and move forward and figure out my marriage. I desperately shared everything I could about my marriage, hoping someone else would crack the code where I couldn’t.
None of my efforts worked. I could not get out of the exhausted state I was in. It’s worth noting here that within weeks of separating I almost completely cut out alcohol, got into a regular sleep schedule, was waking up at 6-7am every day and reading multiple hours (which I couldn’t do in marriage due to cognitive fatigue/distraction), and experienced a resurgence of energy. I have felt the duress I was under lift and lift and lift and the weeks and months have went on.
In retrospect, I was experiencing cognitive fatigue because I was taking the demands my wife was placing on me seriously, but no matter what I did I could not make sense of them. How could she not see that I was doing everything I could to make ends meet – the ends which she was imposing on me? I did not have additional energy left. She would ask me ‘Do you love me?’ and I didn’t know how to respond. How is my work not at least some symbol of love? My dream was to be a poor professor, which she knew – instead I was grinding myself to the bone, working in digital marketing with multiple freelance projects, picking up a bartending gig and a teaching gig on top of full-time employment.
The last straw was when she accused me of abuse. I took that accusation seriously, and weighed it against my experience. ‘Am I an abuser?’ I asked myself. I sorted through my behavior and how I treated her. I came to the conclusion that I may be a poor husband in serious ways; but I am not an abuser. And the abuse question opened the door to the question… ‘I may not be an abuser… but is there abuse in our marriage?’ And the answer quickly became ‘Yes.’
When we were married, I understood that she wasn’t going to work much for a while. However, she worked the bare minimum she could for 4 years, earning at most in a single year $18,000. As the years went on and my income climbed, our debt continued to climb as well. She was still contributing the same, yet spending frivolously on useless knick knacks for our home and a cat. As I packed up our home to sell, the majority of items were dozens of boxes of useless junk she’d accumulated.
She lived a life of mania around finances. We would go to marital counseling and she would regularly express, ‘I would rather be poor and happy than rich and sad’. We were poor and sad. Sure, my income was the highest it’d ever been – but we were still drowning, with debts climbing. At the end of our marriage, we’d accumulated about $20,000 in consumer debt between credit cards and personal loans.
It was traumatizing (and abusive) to go to counseling and be told by my partner she would ‘rather be poor and happy and than rich and sad’ when the factual scenario we were living was neither. She actively denied reality – both my lived experience and the reality of our finances – at my expense. It was killing me, trying to make sense of what we were going through but being unable to make sense of what I was being told and what I was experiencing.
Throughout this time, it is worth adding that she also leveraged my spiritual leadership to ‘set me straight’. I was in a conservative Evangelical space, believing that men are the ultimate provider in a family unit and primarily responsible for the status of the marriage. Because I was not doing what she wanted me to (lavishing her with affection), I was muscled into multiple groups and meetings where pastoral care intervened to restore our marriage. In the moment, I submitted to my pastoral care because of my trust for them and my faith in God. Now, I believe this dynamic was abusive; my pastoral care did not care in any sense for my soul; they only cared about fixing my marriage. No questions around ‘why’ my marriage was so bad were asked; only what was going on and how it could be fixed. I relish the thought of my pastoral care being held accountable for the abuse they exercised upon me during this time on judgment day, albeit through a shaken faith in a God that would enable this dynamic.
With my spiritual community, I shared that I felt like she was my tormentor; that she it felt as if I were on the ground due to exhaustion, and she was standing on my throat, telling me to ‘get up’ and ‘tell me you love me’; that our metaphorical life was a boat, sinking, and I was desperately bailing out water. All the while, she stood at the other end of the boat, desperately bailing water in and looking at me like I was a maniac.
And yet, because there was no adultery, there was no category for divorce. We had sworn an oath before God and were required to fix this.
As I reflect upon my marriage (and the ongoing divorce proceedings), a few things are clear.
She is an abuser. I don’t think she intends to be, but impact matters. She is mentally ill and unable to reckon with basic reality.
She is a manipulator. She manipulated my spiritual community against me. I was viewed as someone to be corrected while begging for help from my trusted friends and pastoral care, whom I now regret being vulnerable with due to their abuse and denial of my reality because I didn’t fit neatly into their thin theological categories.
She is an enslaver. In divorce proceedings, she is doing everything she can to get every dollar from me, leveraging student loans I did not co-sign, my continually increasing income due to my hard work, and denying every claim of dissipated assets she can.
It is truly a mind-breaking experience to see your compassion leveraged against you for money. I had to sit under an attorney proclaiming to a judge that, since I consented to move up our marriage date before her cancer surgery, ‘I knew what I was getting into’. That she is entitled to large sums of money (that do not exist; we never had more than $3000 in our bank account during marriage) due to that decision.
Even apart from the abuse, I did not know what I was getting into. Including the abuse, I am full of remorse for having invited such an evil, hateful person into my life.
This experience has been the most challenging to my faith. As I endured abuse from her, I trusted God in a few ways. That the compassion I showed would maybe be rewarded – or, at least not punished. That my spiritual community wanted what was best for me. That God was not a punitive, hateful God (like my partner). I do not believe this trust was well placed, but am open to shortcomings in my views here.
I struggle to consent to a God that allowed my experience to occur. I’m open and processing in some kind of faith, but I really don’t know what it looks like to find a place to put this pain and betrayal that I’m experiencing.
I am a survivor of abuse, and the abuse I endured was mind-shattering. I sacrificed everything to support a partner diagnosed with serious bodily illness, which drove her to hate me and deny my lived experience because she could not reconcile it with the hatefulness she cultivated over our marriage, choosing bitterness over any positivity for four years, poisoning my well-being in the process.
What I envisioned to be the most compassionate moment of my life — marrying a person with cancer and promising to support and love them — has become nothing but a symbol of pain and remorse. I envisioned a life where my partner and I would fight against the terror of cancer; instead she hopped to the other side, choosing her ongoing health issues as the ally and myself as the enemy.
It took me 4 years to realize it. And as she drags me through court to leverage every dollar out of me I can, my only regret is that I didn’t leave my abuser to her own devices sooner; self-pity, hatefulness, and a sheer disregard toward taking responsibility for anything.
I am grateful but drowning. As we are negotiating settlement, the end is near, and my abuser will soon be unable to execute any influence in my life.

I'm never really active on reddit but I've decided to write this post about some of my thoughts and experiences as an ex-muslim atheist for almost 10 years who lived his entire life in Egypt, I'm gonna talk about some of my life aspects and how they're affected by my beliefs and how I coped with some of the hardships and challenges being an atheist in this society. So let's think about it as part venting part sharing experiences for anyone whom it might be helpful to.
A bit about my background:
I come from a lower middle class family, Like many Egyptians from such class, I never received the best education, my entire education up until college was in Arabic and most teachers always found a way to teach you some of the Islamic values somehow, being indoctrinated from a young age creates fears in a kid's mind, such as fears from the afterlife, fears from the supernatural and fears from the Islamic apocalypse and the horrific pictures drawn to us which was repeatedly being to reassured to be happening soon. As I grow older and more rational, those things bothered me less with time, I soon realized that it's all nonsense and with time, any feeling that this might be slightly true has vanished, now I'm more concerned about normal adult stuff, like economy, war and the possibility of dying alone....
I've become an atheist in my late teens and now that I'm in my late twenties, the process of leaving the religion itself wasn't that emotionally tough for me particularly, but the difficulty comes from being different in this society, having to hide parts of you from your family and friends is always the toughest part, although my journey wasn't that emotional, I still stuck to some of the Islamic ideas even after deciding to stop believing, after all, it's the one idea that I was brought up to believe, that however faded as time passed and I clung less to this religion as I found out more about it.
Although I was never that open about my beliefs, I've just recently been trying to be a bit more open about them with more people (of course trustworthy people) even if they're not close friends and they don't share the same views, but I try to be careful with the family, although they're not gonna hurt me in anyway, I'm afraid knowing that about me might hurt them, which I find tough, having to hide parts of you from your family, but I'd say try to be as smart as you can regarding that. And of course I try to hide it as much as possible with people I work with, but sometimes some stuff slips through the cracks and it can't be helped, but I don't think it's very wise letting them suspect anything.
I've made some friends years ago who share the same beliefs, or are open minded enough to accept them, but I find my social life unfulfilling now, I'm kinda picky when it comes to people anyway, and finding people who share the same values and who you like is even harder, then you have to invest the energy to build a friendship with them, but I'm lucky enough to have those few people in my life, but it's very hard making friends in this country who I can connect with.
Relationships are much of the same as friendships, it's hard finding a suitable partner in this society, because your mutual values aren't everything, you'll need connection and chemistry and shared life goals, so yeah it's not easy.
How I coped with depression and loneliness:
I've had depression years ago, accompanied by low self-esteem, self hatred, feeling of uselessness, social anxiety and crippling shyness, and I was able to overcome a great deal of those with time and perseverance, some of the things I did was learning new things, new talents helped me boost my self confidence and feel better about myself, even it seemed hard, I just kept going. Realizing my value as a human being helped me a lot, even things as simple as being able to break out of the norm and think for myself is something not everyone does, being able to introspect and realize you were wrong is a very valuable thing on itself, of course everyone has different strengths and weakness, but if you're reading this far, I advise you to think about things that make you special and work on improving them.
Other things that helped me where some philosophies like Stoicism, Stoicism philosophy revolves around that life is gonna be tough, but you'll be able to endure it. Look it up if you're not familiar with it.
That's gonna be it I guess, hopefully this was an enjoyable read and I hope it was of help.