Today we're discussing a fun Burkess jump named Generic Wizard. Have a second link to my past discussion posts.

Items

There's nine items here, so we'll just discuss them one by one.
We start off with a simple, powerful, handy, magic staff. It's an arcane focus and amplifier, and when you send someone to horny jail with it you add your magical power to the force behind the bonk. Nice.
The Great Grimoire is a more complex item, it's a sapient spellbook that is your buddy and can learn any kind of magic used against it in battle, as well as take on a battle form where it becomes a book-humanoid and can wield weapons or use martial arts and unarmed strikes to put the beat down on baddies.
You can opt for a pair of Skyrim-style wizard robes that are comfortable and make magic 25% less costly when you're wearing them.
The next item is a sword for spell-swords that can deflect magic and can serve as a casting focus for magic users, allowing you to fire magical projectiles out of it with ease.
Next we come to a case with components for the crafting of golems and other supernatural body guards.
The next item on the list is the steepled hat, which is the "You can share powers with other peeps" item on this list. You put it on somebody and they can use magic, though only basic magic. If a magical person puts it on it spreads magic throughout the setting, if you wanna spruce up something like Generic Roleplayer, Generic Cubicle, Generic School Years, or the like.
Next up we've got a magic bow that can turn spells and spell effects into arrows and magical beings find this process to be instant and easy. The next item is a fully stocked alchemy lab, perfect for the brewing of potions and the final item is a grand wizard tower with a set of ten two way teleporters.
These items are a lot of fun, though none are (probably) transformative unless you're here early OR you have plans for something like a wizard who uses a lot of arcane intensive magic that costs a lot of energy. Still, some of them (like the components case) can be radical in the right settings, such as going from here to Minecraft (or fusing them) since having easy access to golems can DRAMATICALLY make this setting a lot easier.

Perks

The perks here are a lot of fun. We start off with a freebie that gives you the ability to use magic and a pool of energy perfect for casting said magic with, and you have a single spell for free: a magical projectile you can deal damage with.
There are a range of really neat modifiers to how you DO magic here. My personal favorite is the "Daily Casts" one, as I always love abilities that let you use abilities that cost stuff for free which is KIND OF what this does. This gives you the ability to cast spells a number of times per day using the in-jump equivalent of spell slots. To help illustrate this, let's use the magical projectile spell from earlier as an example. With this you can cast that spell five times a day without it costing you any mana or anything like that, even material components, before you begin to have to pay other resources to use magic. These spell slot like things are separated based on power level and as you grow stronger you gain new slots. This perk is WILD, as this lets you do stuff like cast Wish without expending material resources (a certain number of times a day at least), and lets you save other resources for more valuable causes (like bribes when your "Wishes" go awry). Other handy abilities in this category include the Dramatic and Quick Caster perks, which allow you to complicate your spells in terms of casting times and costs for a boost in power or simplify them (sometimes at the cost of them costing a bit more, if they are complicated enough).
This jump offers a few ways to learn new magic, and I have one that I'm particularly fond of: magical skill tree which is a video-game-like perk that lets you learn new magic by beating up foes, getting "essence" from them, and spending it. You can also select Themed Magic; a perk which lets you give yourself a theme and then snag spells based around it and you'll automatically learn more over time. There are also other methods, though those two are my faves.
This jump has ways of letting you make new friends, be it through a familiar perk, a perk to bring stuff to life (and giving living things new forms), perks to animate stuff, and even the Master and Apprentice perk which lets you summon two magical homies one of whom is a powerful magical master and the other of whom is their plucky apprentice who loves learning. Both are your pals and want you to succeed, throwing their weight behind your efforts.
There is a pair of synergizers here, one which offers boosts to your body based on how half of how good a wizard you are and another which does the reserve, enhancing your magic based on how half of your physique. These perks are GREAT for specialists one way or another who either want to become better warriors (and are excellent magicians) or who want to become better magicians (if you're some sort of physical trainer or professional athlete, or otherwise have a strength build).
Some of the perks here improve your body or mind, granting you new skills like a PHD in chemistry, resistance to mind-based attacks based on your willpower, two separate abilities to tie your health and well-being to magic,
There are other perks worth looking at as well, but seeing as there are multiple pages of perks I just wanted to highlight SOME of them.

General & Concluding Thoughts

There is a lot of fun stuff here. The items are probably not necessary (though some of them may serve as decent objects to own in the beginning of a chain, especially the wizard's tower and the case containing the components for constructs), but the perks are neat. Some of these perks are incredibly good and will serve and follow you for the rest of your chain, such as the two synergizers and the magical skill tree, and the Life & Creation magic perk.
I think this could make an incredibly fun first jump, or as a supplement to one's first adventure jump. It's not radically powerful but it has plenty of stuff that ages with you and a lot of neat tricks you can reliably use to turn the tides of future conflicts. I think this is just a nice, fun jump.

Motivation

Chatbots are among the most popular applications of large language models (LLMs). Often, an LLM's internal knowledge base is adequate for answering users questions. However, in those cases, the model may generate outdated, incorrect, or too generic responses when specificity is expected. These challenges can be partially addressed by supplementing the LLM with an external knowledge base and employing the retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) technique.
However, if user queries are complex, it may be necessary to break the task into several sub-parts. In such cases, relying solely on the RAG technique may not be sufficient, and the use of agents may be required.
The fundamental concept of agents involves using a language model to determine a sequence of actions (including the usage of external tools) and their order. One possible action could be retrieving data from an external knowledge base in response to a user's query. In this tutorial, we will develop a simple Agent that accesses multiple data sources and invokes data retrieval when needed. We will use a Dingo framework that allows the development of LLM pipelines and autonomous agents.

RAG Agent Architecture and Technical Stack

The application will consist of the following components:

1. Streamlit: provides a frontend interface for users to interact with a chatbot.
2. FastAPI: facilitates communication between the frontend and backend.
3. Dingo Agent: agent powered by GPT-4 Turbo model from OpenAI that has access to provided knowledge bases and invokes data retrieval from them if needed.
4. LLMs docs: a vector store containing documentation about the recently released Phi-3 (from Microsoft)and Llama 3 (from Meta) models.
5. Audio gen docs: a vector store containing documentation about the recently released OpenVoice model from MyShell.
6. Embedding V3 small model from OpenAI: computes text embeddings.
7. QDrant: vector database that stores embedded chunks of text.

Implementation

Step 0:

Install the Dingo framework:

pip install agent-dingo 

Set the OPENAI_API_KEY environment variable to your OpenAI API key:

export OPENAI_API_KEY=your-api-key 

Step 1:

Create a component.py file, and initialize an embedding model, a chat model, and two vector stores: one for storing documentation of Llama 3 and Phi-3, and another for storing documentation of OpenVoice.

# component.py from agent_dingo.rag.embedders.openai import OpenAIEmbedder from agent_dingo.rag.vector_stores.qdrant import Qdrant from agent_dingo.llm.openai import OpenAI # Initialize an embedding model embedder = OpenAIEmbedder(model="text-embedding-3-small") # Initialize a vector store with information about Phi-3 and Llama 3 models llm_vector_store = Qdrant(collection_name="llm", embedding_size=1536, path="./qdrant_db_llm") # Initialize a vector store with information about OpenVoice model audio_gen_vector_store = Qdrant(collection_name="audio_gen", embedding_size=1536, path="./qdrant_db_audio_gen") # Initialize an LLM llm = OpenAI(model = "gpt-3.5-turbo") 

Step 2:

Create a build.py file. Parse, chunk into smaller pieces, and embed websites containing documentation of the above-mentioned models. The embedded chunks are used to populate the corresponding vector stores.

# build.py from components import llm_vector_store, audio_gen_vector_store, embedder from agent_dingo.rag.readers.web import WebpageReader from agent_dingo.rag.chunkers.recursive import RecursiveChunker # Read the content of the websites reader = WebpageReader() phi_3_docs = reader.read("https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/introducing-phi-3-redefining-whats-possible-with-slms/") llama_3_docs = reader.read("https://ai.meta.com/blog/meta-llama-3/") openvoice_docs = reader.read("https://research.myshell.ai/open-voice") # Chunk the documents chunker = RecursiveChunker(chunk_size=512) phi_3_chunks = chunker.chunk(phi_3_docs) llama_3_chunks = chunker.chunk(llama_3_docs) openvoice_chunks = chunker.chunk(openvoice_docs) # Embed the chunks for doc in [phi_3_chunks, llama_3_chunks, openvoice_chunks]: embedder.embed_chunks(doc) # Populate LLM vector store with embedded chunks about Phi-3 and Llama 3 for chunk in [phi_3_chunks, llama_3_chunks]: llm_vector_store.upsert_chunks(chunk) # Populate audio gen vector store with embedded chunks about OpenVoice audio_gen_vector_store.upsert_chunks(openvoice_chunks) 

Run the script:

python build.py 

At this step, we have successfully created vector stores.

Step 3:

Create serve.py file, and build a RAG pipeline. To access the pipeline from the Streamlit application, we can serve it using the serve_pipeline function, which provides a REST API compatible with the OpenAI API.

# serve.py from agent_dingo.agent import Agent from agent_dingo.serve import serve_pipeline from components import llm_vector_store, audio_gen_vector_store, embedder, llm agent = Agent(llm, max_function_calls=3) # Define a function that an agent can call if needed @agent.function def retrieve(topic: str, query: str) -> str: """Retrieves the documents from the vector store based on the similarity to the query. This function is to be used to retrieve the additional information in order to answer users' queries. Parameters ---------- topic : str The topic, can be either "large_language_models" or "audio_generation_models". "large_language_models" covers the documentation of Phi-3 family of models from Microsoft and Llama 3 model from Meta. "audio_generation_models" covers the documentation of OpenVoice voice cloning model from MyShell. Enum: ["large_language_models", "audio_generation_models"] query : str A string that is used for similarity search of document chunks. Returns ------- str JSON-formatted string with retrieved chunks. """ print(f'called retrieve with topic {topic} and query {query}') if topic == "large_language_models": vs = llm_vector_store elif topic == "audio_generation_models": vs = audio_gen_vector_store else: return "Unknown topic. The topic must be one of `large_language_models` or `audio_generation_models`" query_embedding = embedder.embed(query)[0] retrieved_chunks = vs.retrieve(k=5, query=query_embedding) print(f'retrieved data: {retrieved_chunks}') return str([chunk.content for chunk in retrieved_chunks]) # Create a pipeline pipeline = agent.as_pipeline() # Serve the pipeline serve_pipeline( {"gpt-agent": pipeline}, host="127.0.0.1", port=8000, is_async=False, ) 

Run the script:

python serve.py 

At this stage, we have an openai-compatible backend with a model named gpt-agent, running on http://127.0.0.1:8000/. The Streamlit application will send requests to this backend.

Step 4:

Create app.py file, and build a chatbot UI:

# app.py import streamlit as st from openai import OpenAI st.title("🦊 Agent") # provide any string as an api_key parameter client = OpenAI(base_url="http://127.0.0.1:8000", api_key="123") if "openai_model" not in st.session_state: st.session_state["openai_model"] = "gpt-agent" if "messages" not in st.session_state: st.session_state.messages = [] for message in st.session_state.messages: avatar = "🦊" if message["role"] == "assistant" else "👤" with st.chat_message(message["role"], avatar=avatar): st.markdown(message["content"]) if prompt := st.chat_input("How can I assist you today?"): st.session_state.messages.append({"role": "user", "content": prompt}) with st.chat_message("user", avatar="👤"): st.markdown(prompt) with st.chat_message("assistant", avatar="🦊"): stream = client.chat.completions.create( model=st.session_state["openai_model"], messages=[ {"role": m["role"], "content": m["content"]} for m in st.session_state.messages ], stream=False, ) response = st.write_stream((i for i in stream.choices[0].message.content)) st.session_state.messages.append({"role": "assistant", "content": response}) 

Run the application:

streamlit run app.py 

🎉 We have successfully built an Agent that is augmented with the technical documentation of several newly released generative models and can retrieve information from these documents if necessary.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we have developed a RAG agent that can access external knowledge bases, selectively decide whether to access the external data, which data source to use (and how many times), and how to rewrite the user's query before retrieving the data.
It can be seen that the Dingo framework enhances the development of LLM-based applications by allowing developers to quickly and easily create application prototypes.

Since my TWCS has become glitchy the past few days and my Ministick has given the ghost I need some throttle advice
After lots of research I have the options locked down to the Orion 2 F15ex and the vkb stecs max. The CM3 and Virpil cadet for multiple reasons are out of the running (be it the layout if their buttons, the feel of the hats or the number of hats on the cadet).
However when it comes to these three I see distinct advantages or disadvantages for all of them, and I don’t know what to go for. Main usercase is dcs and some msfs, bms and in the future maybe falcon 5 etc.
Maybe someone who owns both can share their experience, especially regarding the stiction/smoothness of the orion2 and build quality (as some seem to break).
(posted this in /hotas before but since dcs is 80% of the usecase imma repost it here. Replica or generic for me is a nonissue)
WinWing Orion 2 F15EX
Pros: - Nice amount of inputs - looks decent - not as expensive - the springloaded en analogue rotary - better placement of controls compared to the cm3
Cons - Winwing has a mixed reputation - the pinky rotary is said to be very stiff - detents not that great - some people get their orion 2 sticky from factory (per reddit search) - Software, while userfriendly, cannot do much.
VKB stecs
pros - very good detents - very good locking mechanism - switchable buttons - reputation to be smooth - vkb has a better quality control reputation than wingwing - very powerful software (be it not userfriendly)
cons - less overall inputs - thumbstick hat

I (27F) have an older brother, 33M. We didn't get along very much as kids due to the age gap, not for my lack of trying. I never really understood why my brother didn't really like spending time with me, because he was one of my favorite people in the world, despite all his bullying.
For context, I'll give some examples of what my brother has done to me over the years with some vague age ranges of when they occurred.
When I was about 3, my brother convinced me that red was orange and orange was red because I was learning my colors in preschool. He also used to steal food like tater tots off my little high chair tray and would pretend he didn't do anything when my mom checked on why I was crying (I was NOT a fussy baby/toddler, so it set off alarm bells when I did.)
I think when I was 4 or 5, my brother came into my room after I had already been put to bed, and he woke me up. Thing is, he was hovering over me with a scary mask on, only the hallway light, and a butterknife. Not sure I really have to explain why that was traumatic. I'm still afraid of masks to this day.
When I was around 10-12, my brother kept drinking all the milk or kool aid that I would make and never replenish/remake it. I told him to stop, he wouldn't, of course. My mom was fostering other children and didn't have time for squabbles like this. So I very visibly spit on top of the kool aid pitcher and left the lid off so it was seen. What does my (reminder, 17-19) brother do? He wrenches the bowl of cereal I'm currently eating out of my hands, spits in it, and shoves it back at me hard enough that it spilled all over me. Now, I'm not an angry person. I'm not a violent person. But I was still a child and fed up with being bullied by someone who was/almost an adult. I never tried getting physical before because I was so much smaller, but I hit puberty kind of early. So I splashed the bowl back at him to see how he liked it. He threw me to the ground and hit me. My mom had to break us up and told us we were both to blame, so he didn't even get punished.
Several times, he would turn the lights off on me when I was on the other side of the room in the basement away from the switch, because I was afraid of the dark for a very long time.
We had Sonic Adventure 2 we shared. If we ever fought about something, or I reminded him it was my turn, he threatened to say goodbye forever to my chao. I am extremely soft hearted so that accomplished what he wanted.
Sometimes I would notice my things go missing. I had assumed maybe my mom put them away somewhere and forgot, but I'm pretty sure I know what happened to them. Especially gamecube games-- Those discs were tiny! He was pawning them for drug and booze money. One time he was drunk and admitted he had been selling his adderall for other drugs. That came to a head one terrible Christmas Eve. Brother was home for the holiday and I'm not very clear on what events led up to it, but my parents caught my brother in the bathroom with a baggie of various drugs that he was already doing. He insisted it was just weed, but my parents didn't believe that. I wouldn't know, I only briefly saw the bag, but it was full of both a large green ball of like leaves and lots of white powder. It was a vicious screaming match for a few hours. I hid out in my room on a different floor and played a video game as loud as I could so I didn't have to hear my family. The screams died down after a while, and I cautiously went out of my room. My brother had left the house for a while. I had a few holiday assignments and decided to just crank them out while my family cooled off, and I did it at the dining room table because that's where our Christmas tree was too and I desperately needed that good cheer magic. I was quietly writing, not saying anything, not making much noise, when my brother came back in the house. He stopped off at the kitchen for something and muttered something rude and belittling to me. At this point I'm a preeten-early teen and he had already ruined the day that had always been magical to me before, as my grandma used to stay over with us on Christmas Eve. She had died rather recently at the time. And I can't tell you exactly what I said. I think I've blocked out as much as I can. I made some snide remark, something like 'at least I don't do drugs' and in the next second I was yanked out of my chair. My brother picked me up by the neck and slammed me against the wall. I know I clawed and kicked against the wall as hard as I could. I blacked out, and I woke up on the floor with my parents absolutely screaming at him that he could have killed me. As a side note to the whole ordeal, he never apologized, and it's made my adult life a lot harder as weed becomes more and more commonplace. Just the thought of it used to send me in a panic attack, I could feel the hands choking me again. I've gotten better about dealing with it, but I still refuse to have it in any part of my life whatsoever. It's cost me a few relationships.
When I was in college, my brother had moved back in with me and my parents because his girlfriend dumped him for being a piece of shit that worked at walmart and did nothing but drink all day despite having a state paid scholarship, that he wasted, because he couldn't keep his GPA above 2.8. He was a music major. The classes he took were things like 'History of Jimi Hendrix' and 'The Beatles'. He just partied too much to even attend class. He took the dog they got with him, not at all prepared for her. The dog is a high energy breed that is difficult to train, and we had two small 5-10 pound dogs at home. At 1 year old, bro's dog was about 30 pounds. He often left for several hours during summers/breaks when I was home, without telling anyone, knowing that I would either hear the dog cry if he crated them and feel bad and let them out or that I wouldn't banish them to a crate if they were already in a room with me. The dog bullied our other dogs and bit at everyone. Dog was incredibly overly protective of my brother-- Trait of the breed. I was back at college for a few months and had spent a good month mourning the loss of a 5 year relationship. I never really heard anything from him. Then out of the blue, my brother asks me if I can let him and dog stay for the night (we live 2 hours from the college) because my mom had kicked him out. The dog had bit her and she snapped at my brother to control his f'ing dog and he responded by calling her, the woman who birthed him, payed for his other college costs, paid back loans he promised to pay to other family members, never charged him rent, and he called her a f'ing female dog. She snapped. While I agree that my mom was completely in the right to do that, I have too soft of a heart to just leave him with nowhere to go. He promised it was just a night so he could get in touch with some friends closer to home and figure shit out. I let him come to me.
I really regret that decision.
At the time I had a new roommate (she was very nice though, I liked her) and a sort of FWB who doted on me for a little while. I texted FWB and asked if he could bring some alcohol by-- I was still 19 at the time, underage to buy it, but FWB was old enough and agreed the man could probably do with a drink. We stayed out on our little porch area to make sure that we wouldn't be disturbing my roomie in any way while we socialized. My brother got really wasted. He told me terrible things about our deceased grandmother (who he knew I had really loved growing up, and had no idea about who she really was because she had always loved me). And he laughed. He laughed when he saw the discomfort on my face. My FWB was feeling pretty bad for me and suggested we go to bed because it was also like 3 in the morning and both of us had class in the morning, so we go inside. The apartment has a shared common room/living room, little kitchen area, and laundry closet. My bedroom is on one side and roomie's was on the other-- Both bathrooms are also ensuite to the bedroom. So I went in and changed out of my clothes into something comfier to sleep in and crawled into my bed, letting my brother do his own thing in the bathroom. I'm just trying to rest and suddenly my brother is pulling me out of my bed and dragging me out of my own room. He's yelling that he's taking my bed, did I really expect him to take the couch? And I'm not very confrontational. I'm flustered, tired, and honestly a little afraid after the neck choke incident. FWB steps in like a hero and tries to calmly explain that its my bed, and I will sleep in it, I have been kind enough to let him stay and he should not be so ungrateful. Brother fucking loses his mind. Starts screaming his head off about how selfish I am and how reliant I am on our parents and won't be able to do anything on my own as an adult (I was financially dependent on my parents at 19 while in college, shocker). He starts drunkenly trying to pick up his dog's toys and searching for his keys, and both FWB and I step in and tell him he can't go driving like this, after like half a bottle of fireball. He at least needs to sober up before he can drive. I stand in front of the front door, as my brother is still searching for his keys, and there is no way I'm letting him out of here right now. Brother has found his keys, and starts pulling at me and hurting me. Lucky for me, FWB had been a pretty good wrestler in highschool. He got my brother pinned down and I snatched the keys, hiding over by the sink in case I had to throw them in there. He's screaming his head off and my poor roommate comes out and asks what the hell is going on because she knows I'm very quiet and tend to keep visitors in my room. I'm like half sobbing trying to explain and the FWB, still pinning my brother, tells her that we're trying to keep him from drunk driving. My roommate does not play around with that. She was in nursing school, and had recently lost a friend to a drunk driver. I don't know how it worked, but she put on her stern nurse tone and told my brother that he was free to leave when he sobered up, or she herself would be calling the cops on him, and both me and FWB could press additional charges for assault. He reluctantly agreed to this condition and FWB let him off the floor, but sat in front of the front door just in case. When he was sobered up, he left, saying 'I hope you like mom and dad, because I'm not your family anymore'.
And that was devastating. I couldn't stop crying. My FWB went back to bed with me and laid me down in bed and let me cry until I passed out. He skipped his class that day to be there for me. I know I don't paint a good picture of my brother, but I did/do love him. I thought now that we were older that he'd mellowed out and we could be good friends like I always wanted. I mean, I made like 300 fake facebook accounts back in the day to vote for his band to be a headliner at a large concert. Just a few years prior when he was home on a break he introduced me to a TV show we binged and he let my lay on his shoulder. (I was/am very touch starved but paralyzed by fear that I'm annoying the other person, and all my friends were made later in life and are states away). When Pokemon Go came out we would take late night drives around quiet places of town while hunting pokemon together. We traded off the controller on online battlefield games and compared scores and the most ridiculous deaths. I really thought that he loved me too, finally, after years of resentment.
He didn't speak to me for 2 years. I didn't find out until later, but my parents lied for him on my behalf that he still loved me and was just annoyed, and gave me birthday/christmas presents that they told me had been from him, just that he was working. I really treasured those objects when I didn't know the truth about them. I got a really stupid mug with the first letter of my name on it in pink and zebra print (two things I don't really enjoy) but I used that thing every single day.
So, these are glimpses into my previous relationship with my brother. I don't really remember when he started speaking to me again, but I sure know he never apologized. He had finally hit rock bottom and asked my father to put in a good word for him at (insert facility with decent pay and good benefits but hard work), which he had previously rejected by telling my parents that it was a shit job. My brother's name got put closer to the top of the resumes. He got in. It wasn't easy work, or comfy sometimes, but it paid well enough to endure that, I guess. My brother used to be rather athletic.
Between the cut off point and then, my brother had worked at a (also generic job) a town or two over and hated the commute. He also happened to find a girlfriend with an apartment sort of close by. She didn't like having him over because of his dog, and almost never let him do any overnight. But now that my brother had a better paying job, she was willing to move in with him, of course. My brother bought a house in our home town and she came with it. She pays a ridiculously low amount of rent to my brother.
If she was home and brother wasn't, the dog stayed crated up because she didn't want to deal with it. Both of them worked, but her job isn't at all difficult. And yet somehow, sometimes pulling doubles, my brother ended up doing most of everything. My brother, who didn't learn to do his laundry until his 20s, ate pizza every single day, and had left used condoms on the floor of his bedroom in our parents house when he left. He did most of the cooking because she says she's bad at it. But will make pies for her mom. When the holidays came around, instead of discussing or rotating, they will always go to her family first. If my brother can come to ours at all. He often misses entire occassions (we don't go out big, but like, cmon. Hand your dad the gift card on his birthday at least, not 2 weeks later).
I also used to get to hangout or see my brother sometimes. Maybe once every few weeks, and it was fun! It was the friendship I had always dreamt of. Now I can't even get him to do anything online with me from the comfort of his own home. I don't have a single text from him this year past 1/27.
At first, we all understood. She was quirky. I was quirky. We share several similar traits and interests. I used to like that and be excited to have a family member like me, but now I dread the day she becomes family.
Let's start with the smoking car. Me and my parents were driving near his street so we could cut through to the highway, and out of nowhere, black smoke starts coming from the hood. My father tells me and my mom to get out and he'll get it to my brother's and out of the road to look at it and see what was going on. This was like.... early August. It was very hot outside. Since I've 'been in the house before' and 'know what it's like' I am 'allowed' to come into my brother's house to cool off. But GF refuses letting in either of them, referring to the messy state of the house. Which, okay, fair-- But its HER messes. My brother cleans up after her. I learned later that GF snapped at him about his family always coming over unannounced and how she has to hurry to put on a bra and everything is messy and we can't just drop in its rude! She says, as her mother and brother do the exact same thing, in a house she doesn't own. But my family let it be water under the bridge for now. My brother called me a f'in a'hole for telling my mom about the conversation. Because my mom was livid.
The next thing is my father. My dad's family has a pretty big history of strokes and heart attacks, and he's had one heart attack. My dad had been in pain all day and he finally gave up at about 3AM and woke my mom up to drive him to the hospital. I don't have a license at this point, so there's little that I can do. My mom says the surgery he probably needs isn't even done here and they're transferring him, my mom asked me to keep my brother in the loop. So I told him about this and about the time they would reach the hospital, because my mom dad gran and I share locations. I asked if he would take me up, I had a bag full of things that might make him more comfortable or less stressed. The hospital they're taking our dad to is a little over an hour away. Everyone is more or less frantic. My brother is talking to work for him, I'm making sure that for however many hours that our pets will be okay and talking to my mom's work. We drive there and nothing major happens, but it was so... Uncomfortable? Tense. The thing that's hurting my dad is a blocked or enlarged blood vessel that cuts off oxygen to the tissue around it, which, cells die, and you really need your colon, the area my dad has an issue with. The thing is, until they can do the surgery, it was like he was a ticking time bomb. My brother takes me home when visitor hours are over and I hold my dogs tight. The next day is filled with lots of pricks pokes and prods at my dad so we don't go that day. We do go the day after, Friday. My brother's GF is in the truck with him. I'm not really paying attention to much of anything because for all we know my dad could die before we got there. Brothers' GF goes to get some snacks from the long drive and the fact that she's not exactly family yet. My brother, mom and I rotate who is away in the cafe and eating with GF. I see GF and my brother whispering angrily at each other. She's tugging at his arm. I manage to pick up 'We're going to miss my mom's dinner!" And I am just stunned. Her mother has a small family dinner every single friday and makes meatloaf. His GF wanted us to head back from our critical father, because she didn't want to miss a weekly event. And I really have to hand it to my brother for not snapping right then and there. He waited until we were in his truck and out of the hospital parking lot and says "How in the f'ck do you say something to me like that? Like, for real, wtf!" GF starts crying and says its a family tradition and her mom is all she has left-- False. She has her mom, sister, and brother, at least. Her father died in a car incident that hospitalized her as a kid. So my brother snaps again like 'are you seriously telling me you value a f'ing loaf of meat over a life? we have no idea what will happen, my dad could die within the hour and i'm not there, he could die tomorrow, how long d-" And GF cuts him off wailing that her dad is dead. Which, yes, is a horrifyingly traumatic experience. But she does not get to play the 'my dad is dead' card ten years after the fact, to justify leaving our possibly dying father before visiting hours ended. She tried to emotionally blackmail my brother by apologizing to me through tears that this must be so hard for me but honestly I was doing my best to block it out, staring at pictures of dogs in hammocks. I shared my brother's sentiment.
But wait, there's more! Remember that car accident GF had years ago? You would think that, if nothing else, she would be empathetic for someone/their family in a car crash? You'd be wrong! I was rear ended at 60 mph right in front of my house after coming home from work (the ambulance took me straight back to work lmao). The physical damage to me was pretty minimal, bruises and a sprained ankle because my foot was pressed on the brake, waiting for an opportunity to cross into the driveway. This was late October 2020. Covid regulations were pretty strict. So I was alone in a room for a while and in pain. My parents had followed the ambulance. My dad had actually heard the crash and went 'huh she usually comes home now' and runs over after seeing the wreckage. My parents had the crash footage, grainy, but there thanks to the cameras set up outside our house. I hadn't realized it by that point but I had a pretty good concussion, and I was hurt, and scared. I was texting my mom constantly but my dad had left his phone at home in the rush to get my mom and she hadn't charged her phone, they'd been in the parking lot for like an hour and a half already. They promised me they'd be back soon, they'll just pop in and let my brother know since he lives nearby. My parents didn't even ask to like, stay and sit with them instead of a cold car. My mom asked to pee and to borrow a charging cable (they had one, GF has the same model phone) given the, you know, situation. My brother barely cracked the door to speak with them. He said no, because GF was uncomfortable, because they were waiting for their second negative test to come in. Read that again. They had tested negative. It's not like my mom would go near anyone to the bathroom either-- The back door that's used more often is literally inches away from the bathroom door. My brother didn't even try to argue with his GF about his own home and some empathy for someone else dealing with a car crash. It absolutely disgusted my parents. And later on brother told me he got another earful about our parents just dropping in without notice and its like? Excuse me? Its his house!
Unfortunately, a tire popped on my parents' car when we were nearby. It was like, 3 years since the first issue with the car. I went inside and asked my brother to let my mom in because its raining. GF did not like that, and didn't realize I could overhear her down the hall, arguing with my brother and his family again. I went over the next day to my brother and he was actively cleaning up GF's mess so it wouldn't be as 'embarassing' for her. I sat him down and talked to him as realistically as I could. I have depression, anxiety, emotional abuse trauma, agorophobia, and very few friends. But I'm okay. He started very quietly expressing his frustration towards GF. She doesn't do much around the house or contribute financially, lets her family over but not his, him doing most of the cooking despite regularly pulling 12s. I sat there calmly, because of course I knew this. This is what makes the situation somewhat even more sticky. I asked my brother, "Do you actually love someone like that? Or are you afraid to be alone?" He's been in one relationship or another for most of my life. Lately he had been confiding in me about how bad his mental health was falling and I was like 'that's not a slump, that's. that's depression.' So when I asked my brother the question, he hesitated. That spoke loudly enough in my opinion. But then I also saw my brother's face crumpling as he admitted he just didn't want to be alone. GF wants babies but my brother knows with her medical history and condition on top of being so lazy and bluntly told me she would not be a good mother and hopes to God that day doesn't come. He is so unhappy being with her. We both heard the rustling of a comforter and my brother lowered his panicky voice and asked me to leave so she doesn't see me here. That is incredibly messed up, especially since its his name on the house. I haven't seen my brother at his house since then, and that was over 2 years ago.
During COVID, GF started working from home, and it stayed that way. My brother still takes care of most things.
In the mean time, he's proposed to her. Yeah. I managed to save things when all our faces dropped at the Christmas dinner he announced their engagement at. My brother calls her by a nickname that was also the name of a beloved family dog that had passed away only one month ago. My dad and my reactions at that time were genuine confusion and sadness about him bringing up our passed pet. Everything was pretty quiet after that. When we got home, I texted my brother and told him that hearing our dog's name in conversation after losing her so recently shattered us, be we were, in fact, happy for his engagement.
I lied.
None of us want him to marry her. I dread the day that I get a wedding invitation or GF shows up pregnant. She would be a terrible mother. My brother is aware of the fact that my parents think she's a rude, inconsiderate brat that only thinks of herself, from that earlier conversation that I talked to my parents about. My mom snapped that they don't have to like her, all they were required to do was be civil, and we are, so shut up.
At larger family functions GF tends to gravitate around me. Like I said, we have similar interests and personalities. And I have never told her to get lost or had it in me to upfront tell her we don't like her. I am absolutely horrible at confrontation, but my patience is wearing thin.
Last year my parents set up brunch for Mother's Day. We were at the table when my brother called and said they were going to urgent care because GF had another one of her migraines that make her vomit. Which, she takes medicine and has injectable solutions. Some situation always comes up with her right before my brother would come to us.
My parents tried again with the Mother's Day brunch last week. On the day of, he said that he was too tired to come, can we try next week? Please insert the eyeroll of the century.
Because of our clear dislike, my brother doesn't often bring his GF around anymore on the offchance she lets him. It occurred to me that my parents planned the same brunch as last year, and I was dreading my question. "Is GF coming with us for brunch?" They don't know. All my brother did was confirm the time and place. The thought of having to deal with her in the morning and pretend that I don't see her for what she is, is already exhausting me. I can barely get my brother to even play online with me. I feel like this has been festering long enough that at some point, its all going to overflow at once. But I am absolutely disgusted by how she takes advantage of my brother's fear of being alone and how the world revolves around her.
I had a dream the other day, actually, it was a good dream. I was at their wedding, and the priest guy said the standard 'speak now or hold your peace' and I stood up and loudly shouted OBJECTION! Every single person in the room turned to look at me, one because I don't raise my voice like that, two my patience is vast, and three, to upset me to this level of shouldering my anxiety by making a spectacle of myself. I then explained every detail, especially how much she was charged for rent, that my brother admitted he wasn't happy, and I wanted better for him than to just be an ATM maid.
If I bring this up to my brother again, I may lose him forever. But if I don't, he may be miserable together. And on the third side-- Do I actually really want my brothers' friendship at this point? Like, I'm definitely fed up dealing with his GF like she is. Plus, I pointed out and reiterated to him before that he admitted he wasn't happy.
I am very, very quiet by default. Never got into much trouble. I was and still am a gentle soul at my core being. If things get to a point where I cross lines of polite manners and call someone out on their bs, people around know that someone did something almost unforgivable. I'm wondering if my brother would know that.
TLDR; Brother's fiancee is disliked for good reason. My brother has isolated. I miss him, but also never want to see him again. I want to remind him that this marriage isn't a good idea, but I don't want to antagonize him.

This is probably a long shot, but I've been searching for this (kinda trashy and generic) series I read when I was in middle school. There are at least 3 books in the series that I can remember.
The story takes place in a near-future US suffering from the effects of climate change (meat is extremely rare, vegetarian and vegan options are commonplace as one of the characters commented on their nice veggie burger, 15-year-olds are getting drafted). In the first book, a group of American kids/teens who are sent to a boarding school. Unbeknownst to them, the headmaster and other adults are spies for Canada; I remember a scene where the kids are spying on the headmaster as she is watching Canada invade the US while maniacally laughing. The kids escape the boarding school at the end of the book. The second book covers them on the run from the advancing evil!Canadian army; one memorable scene was when they break into a long-disused library to get a map of the area, and comment on how trackpads and trackballs have replaced everything to the point where they barely recognize what a computer mouse is. That book is also where they run into a 15-year-old friend? who has been drafted into the US military/National Guard/police force. I think the third book or later is where they attempt to find one of the main characters' older siblings, who is doing manual labor in some kind of US government facility/factory down south.

I’m really tired of having boot issues. It was running completely fine until power went out and now every reboot I would have weird boot issues but usually with tinkering I could get it working. I’mr new to Linux and don’t know wtf im doing but really like Linux over windows. For some reason I have two Ubuntu boots now not sure what’s causing all these boot options to show up. If you have an answer please let me know because it’s driving me crazy. I really don’t want to switch back to windows but I’m tired of not understanding this boot issue

A species election requirement was issued to select one of three species for examination. The species were technical limitations of an IT field invention (e.g., not based on different embodiments in drawing figures), and each species was presented in different dependent claims. The independent claim is generic. Applicant elected one species without traverse.
After receiving a non-final office action including prior art rejections, can Applicant amend the independent claim to include the limitations of the unelected species/claims? My understanding is that changing the invention after a restriction requirement (express or constructive) is not possible, but is it the same for species election? Since species election is for aiding the search process, incorporating the unelected species into independent claim may be possible but I am not sure.

I have some teak outdoor furniture from one of the luxury Euro brands. Each season I use a teak cleaner with a stiff plastic bristle brush and then apply what they call a protector which is a water based stain and UV repellent.
I've been buying from the furniture manufacturer but these products are expensive, like really expensive. Does anyone know what the generic equivalents of these products might be? I've been searching but most of what I find on the interwebs is rebranded by the outdoor furniture companies.
I don't want a sealer or oil. My only clue on the protector is the bottle says it has fluoroacrylates and butylglycol among a few other more generic ingredients.
Thanks much for any help.

I’ve been running a Bystial Resonator deck that I enjoy playing. However, after a duel versus a Runick stun deck that went 20 turns and over an hour long that ended in me losing by getting decked out, I realized that the deck sorely lacks ways to clear out back rows. I have my copy of feather duster in the deck, but it was banished before I had a chance to draw it. Another method of back row clearance in the deck is the Red Supernova Dragon board nuke, but this effect, nor the effects of my other monsters over level 6 could not be activated due to the trap Grave of the Super Ancient Organism. This has led me to search for more ways to clear back rows. I found the card Scarlet Security, but it requires an RDA to be on the field, which obviously isn’t ideal, but I don’t know of other cards that could fit in the deck to clear back row. Is there any other generic or in-archetype back row clearance I could/should use?

I've been with my bf a year. We had the talk early on in the relationship that we wouldn't watch porn. I had explained I want him to come to me if he has needs. I've provided him explicit photos and a couple videos. He told me he understood and wouldn't.
Fast forward to a month or so ago I went to play a phone game on his phone. When I unlocked his phone his fb was up. I wanted to send a silly message from "him" saying something like I promise to give you all the snuggles tonight. To avoid seeing any messages from anyone else I went to search my name on top but under his recent searches were pages that are dedicated to give provocatively bending over and posing. I didn't say anything because I figured he'd get mad that I snooped. But a week later I checked and he had looked up more. I started to bring it up asking him what he considers porn and saying I don't feel comfortable with him looking at other women. He asked where it was coming from but I chickened out. Fast forward to today when he was getting ready for work I had the feeling I should check. When I opened his fb visits history there were new pages.
I don't know how to bring it up to him. We've been fighting more recently. He's said during fights that I manipulative the conversation, that I twist his words. He gets mad if I don't say anything/if I say I don't know what to say to that, but when I do say things he tells me that what I say is wrong and concerning. A couple months ago he kept complaining that I was too emotional and that it was causing fights. I've tried not to cry but I do easily when I'm Invested in the person. He said its not fair that im the only one who gets to be emotional. He's told me during fights that I don't listen to what he says and that I only care about myself and what I have to say. He's also said I always wave the victim flag.
I've dated other guys before but with my bf I felt he was the one since the first month of dating. We barely had any problems until a few months ago. My depression started getting bad and that probably impacted the relationship. I've told him I don't know what to say around him because it feels like he sees the worst in me when we fight. His response was a generic people say things in fights when they are angry and that he still loves me. I just want some advice how to approach the fb thing. I want to be prepared because I have a feeling it will go bad regardless.

Alright, so I just saw in comments section of an Instagram post (amanwithcoffee - the guy who has the most irregular posting schedule) that such a community exists and I rushed here to reddit and joined it asap!
Alright, so I'm gonna quickly share my coffee journey and I want to ask, how to I proceed from here to further enhance my coffee.
It all started when I went to Starbucks for the first time (please don't bring out your pitchforks already, I hate that place now too, we're probably on the same team here) in 2021, and had their Java Chip frappuccino for the first time. This was the first time I had any kind of freshly brewed coffee, and I freaking loved it! There was something inherently different in its taste!
I tried multiple methods at home to make a similar drink at home, but failed miserably every time, cuz I was using the basic Nescafe instant coffee, and even worse, a generic D-Mart coffee powder.
I also watched multiple videos on YT and also came across Maria Mormora, who was working in a Starbucks at the time, and used to record and put how the different Starbucks drinks were made. (But again, as I have a sane mind, I wasn't able to justify paying 300 for every time I wanted to drink such coffee at my local Starbucks)
Multiple Google searches later, I started getting ads for country bean coffee, and I ordered the hazelnut one.
It was amazing! I started getting close to that frappe taste! And by this time, I figured out my own recipe for making cold coffee at home...
Eventually, in 2022, I ordered Rage Coffee - Hazelnut, Butterscotch & Caramel, after hearing good reviews, and got it with the frother. (Game changer, improved my coffee a lot, and the aroma now spreads across kitchen every time I make coffee.) I like the flavor of the coffee by this point, so I guess I am into flavored coffee.
Late 2022, moved to Nagpur as lockdown was lifted and college resumed, and a friend took me to All That's Coffee.
I tried their cookie frappe, and I can confirm that heaven exists, and it's there.
The first sip of their coffee fired up those neurons in my brain that I didn't even know existed. It is out of the world.
They have proper fresh coffee beans that they grind, tamp, make espresso shots, and blend those with ice cream and tastecraft syrup for the flavor, to make the frappes that taste out of the world.
In parallel, as there was no fridge in hostel, I started developing methods to make hot coffee with instant coffee, milk powder and hot water from kettle, and used to have that the whole time (Nagpur gets cold in rains and very very cold in winters, so hot coffee was the way to go, and kept having the All That's Coffee frappes once in a month or so), and similarly mastered that.
Also hoarded a lot of instant coffee powders in the same time period, from Rage, Tata Coffee Grand, and Bevzilla, and realised that the best tasting one for hot coffee is the blue colored packet of Tata Coffee Grand.
(Most of it got wasted after coming back home because of Mumbai humidity and the rains we had)
Now, after coming back home, I have started making hot coffee with some tata gold instant coffee, pinch of sugar, water, frother and rest milk, and have perfected it (will share the method on this sub after a while, so you guys can try and let me know how you feel about it)
Also, cold coffee formula stays the same for me, with flavored instant coffee, water, frother, ice and milk. (Will share that recipe too)
HOWEVER, I haven't had the same kind of frappe ever since I have moved back to Mumbai.
We don't have All That's Coffee here, and the small shops are also very less.

• Starbucks is expensive and bad and watery now. The same Java Chip frappe that I had three years ago is gone (or maybe I have outgrown it).
• Third Wave Coffee is also decent to good, but still expensive.
• Yet to try Pret and Tim Hortons, but keeping very low expectations.
• Kiosk Kaffee doesn't have THAT kick.
• Local coffee shops making freshly brewed coffee don't seem to exist here.

I finally had 70-80% of that kick from McDonald's Classic Cold Coffee last week after a long while, but yet to find a good frappe place.
Also, want to get some proper equipment to make freshly brewed coffee at home, with medium roast beans (the beans that ATC uses, from Blue Tokai, that's the most info I could get their employee to divulge) and need your help and advise for the same.
Also, if you can suggest me something more/different, I am all ears!
Thank you!

My buddy and I were playing an online shooter game, I was gathering up gear and ammo when we got attacked before I could scrounge up all the loot I wanted, and for some reason I said the line “What about my things? What about my stuff?!!!”. This became sort of a running gag, and my buddy picked up on the inflection of it and we kept saying it. Finally, later on he asked what movie it was from, as it was right on the tip of his tongue. I then realized I couldn’t place it either.
This has been a running gag that’s plagued us for months. We’ve gotten other buddies and our respective girlfriends involved, and everybody sort of vaguely remembers the line/inflection from something, but nobody can place it from where. We sort of have the voice pegged down, a vaguely nasally, high pitched voice, sort of like John calzaghe. What the context of the scene is, some people think it’s from a scene where said character was robbed or had his house broken into. Some picture it as, similar to the initial gaming experience, the speaker has to book it quick or go on the lam and is disconcerted about leaving his things behind.
We’ve deliberated about this nonstop and have all googled it into oblivion in all sorts of variations of the original phrase and have turned up nothing. That said, the phrase is so generic and unremarkable that it doesn’t lend itself much to a google search. We’re not sure if it was from a movie or tv show. As the months have worn on, the general consensus is that this line never existed anywhere, and we were all suffering from a temporary mass hysteria. I’m becoming more inclined to agree with that stance, but my original buddy and I are holding out that it may actually exist. I’ve pasted the line so you can get the gist of what we’re picturing. Again, even if this line actually exists, it may be slightly different that what we’re remembering.
https://voca.ro/1iD7GnE2nKyI

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Hey all,
Currently trying to get my Dynasty league to remove D/ST from the roster. I am getting a surprising amount of pushback but just in case I wanted to chat about the "How" portion and see if anyone has dealt with this. (I did a generic search and most posts are pretty old, unhelpful, etc.) So hopefully this doesn't get pummeled.
I am proposing removing D/ST and replacing with a Flex (or a bench, I don't feel strongly) but figured most people like the idea of having more points vs less.
All other things aside : if this proposal passes, how do we approach "compensation" for teams that have say 1-3 D/ST rostered (Yes...I have MULTIPLE owners that have 2 D/ST and 1 with 3...in dynasty - eating up precious roster spots). We are also a bit smaller than what I gather the standard is. 12 tm, SF - we have 252 rostered players, 2 Taxi and 2 IR - this is NOT counting D/ST - 264 if you consider that.
But, the owner that has 3 D/ST does have a point - they are going to get "punished" for having multiple defenses but they did this to try and create a strategic advantage in weekly matchups. The players available to them on the waiver wire aren't exactly great and our rookie draft has already passed.
Before I ramble much further - I have thought of 2 possible solutions :

1. Compensatory Rookie Picks for 2025 Draft equivalent to how many D/ST they hold OVER 1. Likely after 3rd round.
2. Freeze rosters, hold a quick "draft" from waiver wire.