Sample invitations for women s conference

You guys know what an alpine coaster is? They are like a small roller coaster you find in the mountains. They are also called summer toboggans or mountain coasters and I think there’s some long German compound word they are called in parts of Europe. They are like a roller coaster, but with much smaller one or two person sleds you just sit on instead of multi-person cars you ride in, and instead of being built with like a scaffolding or a framework the tracks are just on the ground, using the elevation of the mountain. Basically it’s a coaster track on the side of a mountain where you ride a sled down.
They are pretty fun. Or at least I used to think so. They are more “personal” than roller coasters and although you get nowhere near the speed on them that you do on a good traditional roller coaster and they can’t do corkscrews or loops or anything like that the openness and simplicity of the ride gives an impression of a much greater speed. You’re just sitting there with nothing but a little plastic sled and the track between you and the ground as it goes zooming by. It’s like the difference between how fast a go-cart feels compared to how fast a sports car feels. You know the sports car goes faster but the open, simpleness of a go-cart feels a different kind of fast. There’s plenty of POV Youtube videos if you want to get the basic idea of what they are.
I used to love alpine coasters. Used to.
My family used to go to Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge and up and down the Smokey Mountains for vacations when I was a kid and they are common in that area and I’d always rode them every chance I got.
But as with so many things after I grew up and went to college they just became part of my childhood that slipped away. They aren’t exactly common once you get away from the mountains.
Until one cool spring afternoon in 2004. I was in my final year at college and I was driving back to campus in Tennessee after a short visit to my folks in North Carolina. It was only like a 4 or 5 hour drive via the most efficient route and I had no need to be back at campus early so instead of taking the freeway all the way I got off and took part of my trip through the mountains. The scenery was nicer and I admit I liked pushing my Camaro just a little faster than I should through the twisty mountain roads.
Just after lunchtime happened upon one of those little by-the-highway tourist towns deep somewhere in the Smoky Mountains near the Carolina/Tennessee border. Nothing fancy, a gas station/truck stop, a diner, a couple of places selling tourist merch nestled deep in the mountains. I pulled into the gas station. My tank was getting low and I needed to stretch my legs, maybe grab something to eat. It was still early and I only had another couple of hours. I could kill an hour or so and still make it back to campus at a decent hour.
I pulled into the gas station and was filling my tank when I happened to glance across the road and… well I’ll be damned. There it was. “The Blue Ridge Alpine Coaster.” Nestled on the side of the mountain was a building, a mockup of a red barn, where a single railed track that led up into the mountains, where it soon got lost in the greenery. Wooden hand painted standees of cartoon character bears dressed in stereotypical “Hillbilly” getup stood around, some of them holding signs showing the ride hours and ticket costs and other info. I had to admit, as silly as it was, it made me smile.I finished pumping my gas and, well, nostalgia is a helluva thing. I decided then and there I could waste a little time riding an Alpine Coaster again after all these years before getting back on the road.
I parked my car in a corner of the truck stop's parking lot, put my phone in the center console, this being the days before smart phones when people didn’t keep their phones with them 24/7 and I didn’t want my old Nokia brick phone to fall out during the ride, locked my car and walked across the mountain highway to the Alpine Coaster building.
Getting closer, the place was less inviting. The half hearted attempt at a whimsical faux-Americana kitsch was far less effective when it brushed up against the actual decaying, run down wooden building. Hell calling it a building was generous. It was a wood frame holding up a long roof that covered the area where you got on the sleds. The wood boards creaked under my footsteps.
The only real enclosed structure was a shack that held, what I assumed, was a ticket booth. A door on the side had both a single occupancy bathroom with an out of order sign on it. An old Pepsi machine buzzed and glowed next to it.
Still the place looked alive. Ahead of me a bored looking attendant was helping a mother and her young son into one of the sleds while in a bored monotone repeating the safety brief. A few people were waiting in line at the ticket booth. Up in the mountains the playful shouts of people on the ride echoed down. Fond memories of my own childhood rides flooded my mind.10 minutes and 15 dollars later I was settling into the hard plastic seat of a bright red sled sat atop a simple aluminum rail.
I couldn’t help but grin as the sled slowly climbed the track up the mountains, making click-clack ratcheting sounds that hit my nostalgia centers hard. I felt good. The air was cool and crisp and smelled of pine.Higher and higher in the mountains we went. I don’t know if this is my mind trying to make sense of it after the fact but when I remember these moments, the last good moments, I sometimes think I remember a very slight, very subtle pit of fear in my stomach. I honestly don’t know if I felt it at the time or not or it’s just how my mind tries to make sense of it looking back at.
But either way mostly I was enjoying myself. I smiled. I was a kid again. I could hear riders in front of me let out that initial yell of terrified glee you get at the first drop of any good ride.
It peaked. I glanced around. I could see for miles, rolling hills and mountains. I the sled tipped over and zoomed down the mountain and I let out the same happy yell I heard from the other passengers.The ride zoomed down the mountain, catching speed. The mountain forest floor zoomed past, only a few feet under me. Trees zoomed past. I gave out a happy whoop as the ride banked hard around a curve and then looped back under itself.Another dip, another curve. I closed my eyes, enjoying the feel of the G-forces pulling me every which way.
There was no one exact single moment where things started to go “wrong.” The ride kept going. And going. At this point the first creeping thought entered my head.
The ride… was still going.
It just started to hit me… this ride was going on for a really long time. I had taken a dozen rides on various coasters of this type before that day and they topped out at about 5 minutes or so, and that was the long ones. Longer than a traditional roller coaster but not that long. This one had been going on for what felt like 10, maybe even 15 minutes.
I looked back over my shoulder and could only see trees, moving too fast to really get a bearing on where I was at in relation to anything.
I wasn't exactly really worried yet. Okay so I had found a particularly long alpine coaster. At the time I wasn’t 100% wasn't sure they didn’t exist or anything like that. I was a little… unnerved but nothing was happening that was impossible. Yet.
I was trying to talk myself back into just enjoying the ride and stop overthinking it, and halfway succeeded, when out of nowhere I suddenly banked hard, the track jutting out almost over a sheer cliffside. I gripped the sled more tightly as I was whipped around. The ride then dipped hard and picked up speed, barreling down the side of the mountain.
I was pushed back against the seat by the force of the drop. Jesus I didn’t remember them being this rough. I was feeling slightly nauseous. And where had this elevation drop come from I wondered? I was still in the foothills and I didn’t remember seeing anything but gentle rolling hills and light drops from looking at the ride’s route earlier. How the ride had managed such a long, steep drop in this area I didn’t know. . For the first time I hoped that the ride would be over soon. I had no idea then how much I would want that same hope to be true so much more as time went on.
With a whiplash motion I was whipped forward and then back as the ride leveled out on flat ground again, but by this point I was going fast, too fast. My neck hurt from the mild whiplash and I felt sour in my throat and for a moment the contents of my stomach threatened to come back up. For the first, but hardly the last time the ride felt unsafe. Alpine Coasters are tame affairs, much slower and gentler than full on roller coasters but this thing was throwing me around like no thrill ride I had ever been on.
I looked around. I mean I wasn’t that deep into the woods. I should have been able to see a glimpse of something; the highway, the gas station, the tourist shops, the Alpine Coaster office, something, anything. But nothing. Just trees.
I forced back some panic for the first time. I closed my eyes and counted to ten. The ride zoomed along. I counted to 60. I counted to 60 again. And again. Okay this was getting uncomfortably harder and harder to explain.
Suddenly I noticed that up ahead the track seemed to just end, for one brief, terrible moment I thought the track just ended but I was wrong. Almost without warning the track dipped in an almost vertical drop. I almost screamed as I plummeted for 20, maybe 30 seconds before flattening out again.
By this point the voice in my head that was telling me something was wrong was louder and I could no longer tell myself it was wrong. This ride could not have been this long. I tried to make sense of it, wondering if somehow I had gotten diverted onto some kind of maintenance track or, hell for one brief irrational moment even entertaining the idea that I had wound up on an actual train track somehow. But that was absurd. The rail below me was not a train track, it was still just the simple, aluminum rail of an alpine coaster and there had been no diversions or junctions in the track. I was still on the ride, as insane as that was starting to feel. Had the ride somehow looped? Again after having the thought I immediately dismissed it as crazy. There’s no way I could have missed the ride building where I got on. And what kind of ride loops over and over?
The sled zoomed through the forest, oddly never seeming to lose speed despite the relatively flat grade of the track. I cursed myself for leaving my phone in the car and not wearing a watch. I don’t know exactly how long I had been on the ride at that point but it felt like I had been on the ride for a half hour, maybe more. But time is a funny thing when you’re in a situation you’ve never been in. Could have been more, could have been less, at that point.
My pride finally failed me. I started to scream for help. I screamed out that the ride was broken, to stop it, that I needed help. I did that for about ten minutes or so I think. The ride kept going. Mostly flat, level track with occasional mild dips and turns. But the simple length of the ride grew more and more unnerving and unexplainable.
I thought about just bailing out. But the ride, impossibly, was still not slowing down and chunks of mountain rock and thick tree trunks were all around me. Bailing out without risking smashing into a rock or a tree seemed impossible.
The ride kept going.
Up ahead the forest was clearing out some, I could see the forest brightening, more sunlight making it through the canopy.
I wasn’t prepared for what I saw.
The trees stopped and I had just enough time to take in a flat, open area of rock maybe 40, 50 yards at most before another sheer cliff. The tracks twisted and turned and then shot straight down. But that wasn’t the worst of it. For a moment, a very short moment, I had a clear view for miles and the landscape was, to be blunt, totally impossible. Any possibility that I had just stumbled on some incredibly long ride was blasted out of my head. Barren, volcanic looking rock stretched for miles. Jagged, black rocky outcroppings as far as the eye could see. I was in the goddamn Smoky Mountains. They don’t look like that.
I had a few moments for the terror of that view to settle in before the cart plunged into another horrifying drop. I gripped the handles of the cheap plastic sled until my knuckles turned white. The drop felt completely vertical, like I was falling at terminal velocity. I screamed. My stomach dropped and turned. I imagined the sled coming away from the track and me just plummeting screaming to my death on the rocks below. But somehow the ride still functioned. I closed my eyes tightly and just waited for whatever was going to happen. Eventually after several what felt like a full minute of steep plunging the track again leveled out, and I opened my eyes to see myself moving at breakneck speed over that black, rocky landscape.
Now that I was moving on a more or less flat horizontal track again I took a few deep breaths. I looked over the edge of the track. Nothing but that black, jagged rock, almost looking like obsidian, zooming past. I had no idea how fast the sled was moving now. Fast. Faster than a gravity powered sled should be moving. And the track was higher off the ground now. Alpine slides usually stick pretty close to the ground, but I was 20 feet or so in the air, the track suspended in the air, a simple metal tube tower like a power pylon every few yards.
Without any immediate threat and the sled moving fast but steadily and level I was able to think about my situation again, for all the good that did me. Ahead of me the track just continued to the horizon, nothing but the same rocky landscape as far as I could see. I craned my neck to look back over my shoulder and looked back behind me and it looked the same. Even the mountains were but distant specs on the horizon behind me.
This was insane. There’s not a giant seemingly endless field of black jagged rock in the goddamn Smoky Mountains. There’s no cliff faces tall and steep enough for a multi-minute vertical drop. And alpine coasters were small affairs, not major engineering projects that span miles with pylons and vertical tracks. It made no sense.
Sadly it wasn’t going to start making any more sense anytime soon.
The ride kept going.
I was on this rocky landscape for several hours. I feel comfortable saying this because I could actually notice the sun getting lower in the sky. And the sled wasn’t slowing down despite the grade of the track being flat. I was getting cramped from sitting and stretched my legs and twisted my back as best I could. Didn’t do much help. My eyes were starting to get irritated from the constant wind in them. Worst of all it was starting to get chilly. I only had on a light jacket, a windbreaker, just something to keep the breeze off me, no real insulation. I was cold, my joints were stiff, I was hungry and thirsty. My eyes watered and my throat was so dry it was sore.
But none of that was as bad as just how little sense this all made. There’s nothing like this place anywhere near the Smoky Mountains. This was like some volcanic rock landscape. The more I thought about it the less sense it made.
The ride kept going.
My mind didn’t even try to process this. Whatever I was experiencing simply couldn’t be possible. I was crazy. I was dreaming. The CIA had kidnapped me and dosed me with some new version of LSD and I was in a straightjacket in a padded room at Area 51.
The sled kept zooming along as the sky turned to dusk. Soon the bridge disappeared from my view and I continued on along the endless, rocky, featureless landscape.
I sat back against the sled, mentally and physically numb. I was exhausted. I was thirsty. I was cramping up. I was hungry. I had to pee. I held it for as long as I could, then had no choice but just wet myself. I cried until I had no more tears left. Then I just sat there.
The ride kept going.
By the time the sun dipped below the horizon my throat felt like sandpaper. I dug around in my jacket pockets hoping to find a stick of gum or piece of candy. Nothing. I checked again, having nothing else to do. Under a crumpled store receipt in the inner pocket of my jacket was a single old, forgotten cough drop. I unwrapped it from the paper and popped it in my mouth. Saliva flooded back into my mouth and I was overwhelmed by the methanol and medicine taste. It was something at least, although I knew it would be a brief and temporary fix at best.
I felt my eyes get heavy. It was getting colder. That mountain cold. That deep cold the mountains have even into the early spring when the sun goes down. That kind that just pulls the heat right out of you. I shivered. A terrible, horrible certainty came to me. I would ride until I passed out from exhaustion or the hypothermia set in. My body would tumble off the sled to fall and skip across the rocky ground like a stone skipping across a lake, my bones breaking as I tumbled until my body finally came to a stop. If I was lucky I would be killed and not have to lie for days, broken and bruised, on the ground until death took me.
The ride kept going. The ride kept going. The fucking ride kept going.
“Fuck you” I said to the ride, my voice a horse whisper. I pulled my jacket closer around me, for all the good it did. The cold wind was slowly but surely pulling my body heat away. My shivering got worse, crossing the line from a simple normal shiver into those deep, almost violent full body ones.. I wasn’t anything you could call an experienced outdoorsman, but I knew enough to know that wasn’t a good sign.
It was getting dark. There was a full moon at least so I wasn’t totally in the dark.
About then I noticed something. The landscape, what little I could see in the fading light, was changing. It was smoothing out, becoming less rocky and craggy. Up ahead an odd, shimmering light was starting to appear on the ground.
I was over it before I even realized what it was. The tracks were going over a smooth surface.
Water. It was a lake. The odd lights I had seen were the moon, reflected in ripples on the lake.
Within minutes I was out of the view of the land. After the nearly endless rocky landscape and everything else I had seen, it scared me how little I was shocked. I didn’t like how mentally numb I was getting. I leaned over. There was enough moonlight to see the water, 15 or 20 feet below the track. The pylons holding up the track went into the water, the light wasn’t good enough to even make a guess at how far they went down or how deep the water was.I leaned back in the sled. My eyes were red and bloodshot from the constant wind. I closed them. This was a mistake.I jerked awake. I don’t know if I dozed off for a split second or an hour. My weight had shifted and I caught myself as my center of gravity was in danger of sending me off the sled and into the water.
I screamed in anger. A deep primal scream. I hurt so bad. My joints felt like they were full of glass. My limbs were full of pins and needles. I glanced over at the water. For the first time on the very edges of my brain a tiny voice started to speak up, telling me that I could be all over if I just jumped. I shut the voice up, but it scared me still.
I sat there as the ride went on. It felt like hours. Eventually the lake ended in a rocky shore line. The damned ride. There was no safe place to bail out. If the ride slowed down, it was high in the air, if it moved toward the ground it sped up. Sharp rocks, big trees, nothing you could safely bail out into.
I kept having to force myself awake. I kept dozing off. Once I felt myself falling asleep and drove a vicious uppercut into my own nose to stave it off.
I seriously started to think about how much longer I could hang on. The voice came back again. This time I didn’t shut it up. I wasn’t admitting it to myself yet, but I was starting to think about the best way to land that would end it quickly if I needed to.
Something was ahead. The track seemed to dip into the ground. I was too tired, too beaten to even get scared. I was just resigned to whatever happened at this point.
With little warning the track took my sled into a tunnel in the ground. Everything went completely pitch black. After several moments even the dim moonlight was gone.
This was the worst part. The creepy forest, the immense rocky landscape, the eerie lake… those were bad. But this was just nothing. Nothing to look at, nothing to hear, nothing for reference or sense of where I was going. The walls of the tunnel felt like they were inches from me in every direction. The air felt thick, like there wasn’t enough oxygen.
With every moment I was in that tunnel I lost a little more hope. After a long, long time I made a decision. When I got out of this tunnel, I would jump. I didn’t care anymore. Hopefully there would be a spot where I could be certain the fall would instantly kill me. I was done. The ride had beaten me. I sat there, waiting for a chance to end this on my terms. That was all I had left.
Eventually up ahead, a tiny speck of light appeared. I gathered my strength, ready to end it. I sat up, getting my legs under me so I could jump as soon as we were clear. The sled burst out of the tunnel. The dim light of the full moon was enough to be momentarily blinding after the pitch black of the tunnel.. I gave my eyes a moment to adjust.
I was back in a normal looking Appalachian forest. Rolling hills, green trees. The air smelled of pine again. I heard an owl hoot off somewhere.
Slowly I lowered myself back into a setting position, in shock. At first I refused to believe it but the ride was slowing down. I held still, making sure my mind wasn’t playing tricks on me, but no, the cheap plastic sled that had been my world for what felt like an eternity was slowing down.
Up ahead, a structure was visible, peeking out from among the trees in the dim lighting as the sled moved down the track.
It was the Alpine Slide building. The crappy fake red barn where I had boarded this cursed ride so long ago. I blinked and rubbed my eyes, sure it was either my mind or the cursed ride playing tricks with me. But the building stayed there.
It grew closer and closer. The track leveled completely out. The sled slowed down more. Before I had the time to really come to terms with it I arrived back at the building.
The sled slowed to a stop, gently pumping against another sled parked on the track. I sat there for a few moments, gasping in great big gulping fear breaths, trying to assure myself the ride didn’t have one last trick of its sleeve.
I looked around. The place was empty, deserted. The overhead lights were still on and the old Pepsi machine still glowed and buzzed, but the ticket booth was dark and empty, a metal gate pulled down over the ticket window.
Suddenly it hit me that I was free and I practically leapt out of the sled and onto the platform. I immediately collapsed. My legs were jelly and my head was spinning. I tried to stand up again and doubled over, dry heaving. Have you ever been out on a boat for a day and have that weird reverse motion sickness when you’re back on solid land? It was like that times a hundred. My inner ear was literally pounding, all the motion had really done a number on it.
I laid there for a few moments and eventually forced myself to stand up on my two wobbling legs. I looked around, a horrible certainty creeping into my mind that there would be no exit, no way off the platform but to my relief an exit turnstyle, one of those full height ones, was set into the fence that surrounded the ride property.
I went through it and found myself back on the main road. The truckstop was still there, still open but far less busy. My car sat in the same corner of the parking lot I had left it.
I allowed myself one look back, just one quick one. The metal skeleton of the Alpine Slide track sat there, dark and quiet but otherwise normal.
I stumbled-ran back to my car, dug the keys out of my pocket, and collapsed inside. When the door shut I let out a primal scream, the tons of fear and confusion and anger all fusing into a single, raw emotion. I screamed again and again.
After a few moments I felt like I was emotionally at least back to a place where I could act, although I wasn’t sure yet what to do next. Not really knowing what to do I cranked the car. The A/C had been on low when I shut off the car and it came roaring back to life and cold air blowing on me almost sent me back into a full on panic attack. I fumbled with the climate controls until the air stopped blowing directly on me, then calmed down enough to turn the heat on, helping to get the chill out of my bones. There was a half full bottle of water in the center console cup holder and I grabbed it and chugged it. Nothing ever tasted as good before or sense as that few ounces of water.
That was when I noticed the clock on the radio head unit. It was 4:17 in the morning. It had been about one, one thirty or so in the afternoon when I got on the accursed ride.
Over 15 hours. I had been on the goddamn ride for over 15 hours. Over half a day.
I just sat there. Warming up. Calming down. I was exhausted. I was dehydrated. I can’t even describe how my head felt. I probably had at least a minor case of hypothermia. I thought about going into the gas station and asking for help but what would I even say, and more than anything I just wanted to get away from this place. And I just wanted to get away. I wanted to be nowhere near that damn ride.
I put the Camaro in gear and pulled into the street and in panic I immediately slammed on the brakes. I was lucky there was no traffic on the road at that moment. The feeling of accelerating to just normal surface street speeds made me sick to my stomach. I gathered myself and very slowly accelerated the car I usually treated with a very heavy foot up to 30 miles an hour. Every time I tried to accelerate at a pace faster than “Old Lady Going to Church, Uphill” I would have a panic attack. I was okay once I was up to speed, but accelerating freaked me out after being on that ride.
I drove about 30 minutes, putting some arbitrary amount of distance between myself and the coaster. Eventually I made it back to where the twisty mountain road met back up with a major road that would eventually meet back up with the highway. After a few more minutes of driving I saw the onramp for the highway. There was one of those big truckstop travel plazas and pulled in, parking right up at the door. I smelled like pee and I can only imagine how I looked, but I didn’t care.
I kept a couple of emergency 20s in the back of my wallet and spent it on the biggest bottle of water the store had, an overpriced bottle of eye drops, and a huge travel mug of coffee. The clerk looked at me as if he was expecting me to either drop dead or rob him the entire time.
Back in my car I downed the coffee. I put a few eye drops in each of my eyes and sat there as the caffeine took effect until I felt like I could make it back to my apartment. The sun was just coming up when I finally pulled out of the truck stop and got on the freeway. I slowly, very slowly, accelerated up to highway speed, put the Camaro in cruise control, and let the miles start to drift away. I turned on the radio, I needed to hear human voices. Every time my mind went back to what had just happened I turned the radio up louder, eventually drowning it out with painful levels of rock music. I wasn’t ready to think about it yet. Yes looking back I know I was just in denial. I finally made it back to the crappy little apartment I had off campus, a little two story walk up studio. I let myself in and collapsed on the cheap couch. I was asleep before I even had the time to decide whether or not to do anything else. I woke up later that afternoon. I took a shower and ate a meal and didn’t think about the ride. I washed the pee stained filthy clothes I had been wearing and didn’t think about the ride. I went back to class and didn’t think about the ride. Every time I thought about the ride I forced it out of my head. I’m sure this wasn’t the most mentally healthy thing to do but what can you say?
I didn’t forget about it, don’t be silly. This isn’t the kind of thing you forget. One day while looking up something else in the university’s library my curiosity got the better of me and I looked up the Alpine Slide. No website but a few Google Map and Yelp mentions. None of them mentioned anything weird, certainly nothing even remotely like what I experienced. Near as I can tell it closed sometimes in the winter of 2012.
Life went on. I mean, that’s what it does. The next day was a little better. And the day after that a little better. And the day after that a little better still. I met a nice girl. Graduated. Got married. Got a nice house in the suburbs. Got a dog. Had a daughter. Spent a lot of time happy and not thinking about being trapped on an endless alpine coaster.And that was my life for many, many years after that.
Until a few weeks back when as a very different person I found myself driving a boring and safe mid sized family SUV through those same mountains. My wife Carol, 5 months pregnant, sat in the passenger seat, our 6 year old daughter Emily in a booster seat in the back, and Max our mixed breed mutt next to her. It had been a nice pleasant trip, driving back from visiting her folks.
I hadn’t thought about that fucking ride in so long I barely registered that I was in the same general area until it was too late. Suddenly I realized that little mountain tourist trap town was only a few minutes down the road. I swallowed hard and gripped the steering wheel hard. Carol was looking out the window at the scenery and Emily was deep into some kid’s Youtube video on an iPad. I forced myself to keep my breath steady as we rounded the corner.The town was still there, sorta. Time had not been kind to it. The gas station was still there, at some point it had been bought out by Shell. The tourist trap shops were still there. One of them was now a vape shop. The diner was closed, the building looking like it sat unused for a long time.
But of course that’s not what I cared about. A looked over at the site where the Alpine Coaster once stood. It was gone. The kitschy fake barn was gone. The site was just a bare concrete slab with a chainlink fence around it. Faded “no trespassing” and “for sale” signs hung off the fence. A pile of old, decaying lumber that might have once long ago been part of the structure covered part of the old lot. No sign of the track remained outside of some old concrete support posts dotting the side of the mountain.
I exhaled out a breath I hadn’t even realized I had been holding in. Soon the little town disappeared in my rear view mirror.
About a half hour later we stopped for gas. I pulled up to a gas pump across from a massive motorhome. Max stuck his head out the window and started barking at a little white dog, a toy breed of some kind, in the window of the motorhome. Carol and Emily immediately headed into the store to restock on snacks while I fueled up.
I stood there, a half smile on my lips as Max barked and wagged his tail in an attempt to attract the attention of the other dog while I filled up the tank, said dog doing an admirable job of ignoring him.
Right about the time I finished fueling up and cleaning the bugs off the windshield Carol returned from inside the store, Emily in tow, arms filled with two full sized bags of Salt and Vinegar Potato Chips and what looked to be a half dozen individually wrapped pickles.
I raised an eyebrow at the collection of food but knew better than to question a pregnant woman's snack choices.
“Should we take Max for a quick walk?” Carol asked. The travel plaza had a nice little gated dog walking area off to the side.
“Yeah probably not a bad idea, he’s been cooped up in the car for a few hours.” I said. Max, upon hearing his name and the word “walk” , forgot about the other dog and upgraded from wagging his tail to wagging his entire body while making whining sounds and staring right at me.
About this time I became half aware that the big motor home next to us was pulling away. I didn’t think much of it, outside of doing a quick automatic mental check to make sure Emily was well clear of the moving vehicle, but she was safely between me and our SUV, well out of the way.
But that was when Emily looked behind me and cheerfully yelled “Daddy look a roller coaster! Can I ride the coaster?”
It’s cliche as fuck I know but my blood went cold.
I turned around slowly, certain in my knowledge that terrible old decrepit Alpine Coaster would be there, having just popped into existence to trap me again.
That.. is not what I saw. Sure enough there was a coaster there, one I hadn’t noticed earlier because it had mostly been blocked by the motor home, but there it was. It was even an Alpine Coaster.
But it was not the same coaster I had encountered those years ago. That was immediately obvious. It was a small but modern and newish looking setup with neon lights and a bunch of people. There was an actual building where you bought tickets and a little snack stand.
“Daddy! Can we go on the coaster!” Emily asked again.
My mouth made motions but no words came out. I glanced over at Carol, hoping she’d say we didn’t have time but to my horror she smiled and said “You know what? That does sound like fun. Daddy will take you while I take Max for a walk.”
My mind raced, trying to think of a way to get out of it. But Emily was already dragging me across the parking lot to the entrance.
I patted my pocket, making sure my phone was in it. Every fiber of my being was screaming to run away. I slept walked through the line and the ticket booth while Emily bounced happily.
We got into a two seat plastic sled. This one was actually a lot nicer than the one my mind wouldn’t stop thinking about. It had two nice cushioned seats, big grab handles, even a nice rollbar.
The sled started up the track. I fought back the panic. I swerved my head around, keeping the building in my view. I was terrified of losing sight of it. We made it to the top and Emily did a happy squeal as we started down the side of the mountain.
My heart raced. Any second, any second my mind told me we’d lose sight of the building and then the ride would never end. The ride sped down the mountain. My mind tortured me with thoughts of not only going through it again, but seeing Emily go through it. The ride went around a big, banking turn. Emily kept shouting happily. How long before Carol reported us missing I wondered? Could I keep Emily calm? What if it lasted even longer this time? What if this time it never ended?
And then we were back at the start of the ride. The same attendant who had helped us into the sled was helping Emily out. I stepped out. The attendant gave me a brief look but said nothing. I guess I looked a little wild eyed.
I was fine. Emily was fine. It had been a perfectly normal, fun ride.
“That was fun Daddy! Thank you!” Emily said. I forced a smile back. “It was fun.” I responded, hoping like I sounded like I meant it.
I took Emily’s hand and we walked back to the car. Max saw us coming and barked happily. Carol looked up from the pint of Ben and Jerry’s she had somehow acquired and added to her snack collection while we were gone and smiled at us.
“Did you have fun?” she asked.
“It was so fun Mommy!” Emily said.
Carol smiled down at her, but then looked at me and frowned. “Are you okay?” Carol could read my face a lot better than the attendant could. “You’re pale.”
I smiled and this time the smile felt real. “Ya know what. Yeah, I think I am okay.”
Carol looked a little puzzled, but didn’t press it. We loaded Emily back in her booster seat, stopped Max from trying desperately to eat half a discarded gas station hot dog off the ground and got him back in the car. Carol and her small collection of snack food took her place in the passenger seat and I got in the driver's seat.I smiled. I cranked the car. I put it in gear. I pulled out of the gas station and back on the road, this time accelerating just a little faster than I had in years.

I am an international student graduating from a university in Toronto. In February, I submitted a visitor visa application for my parents to attend my graduation ceremony in June 2024. I included all necessary supporting documents to demonstrate their financial solvency, such as recent bank statements showing ample funds (more than CAD $33,000) for the trip, and a property and fixed asset valuation report from a Chartered Accountant. Additionally, my parents have a strong international travel history including recent visits to the UK, the US and many other countries. I clearly stated in the invitation letter and the purpose of the travel document that their visit was to attend my graduation and that they would return home by the end of June 2024 due to business and property responsibilities.
These were the supporting documents for the application:

• I provided 3 bank statements that accumulate funds equivalent to $33,000 CAD and a fixed asset valuation report of my father’s property from a Chartered Accountant, reflecting its current fair market value of more than 5 Million CAD
  
• ⁠The purpose of travel is to attend my graduation mentioned in the invitation letter and the purpose of the travel document with the proof of solid family ties back home that shows they must come back by the end of June. Both my parents have a good international history with a record of recent visits to the UK, the USA and other countries.
  
• ⁠Documents proving their family ties to Home country are:
  
  • Asset valuation report that reflects property ownership
  • Recent bank statements that accumulates funds of $33,000 CAD
  • The business licence for my enterprise in Home Country
  • Rent receipts from all the tenants of my solely-owned business property with the rental agreement
  • Tax return since 2021
  • National Identity Documents

However, I received a refusal letter from IRCC last night including the following reasons:

I am not satisfied that you will leave Canada at the end of your stay as required by paragraph 179(b) of the IRPR (https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulations/SOR-2002-227/section-179.html). I am refusing your application because you have not established that you will leave Canada, based on the following factors: Your assets and financial situation are insufficient to support the stated purpose of travel for yourself (and any accompanying family member(s), if applicable). The purpose of your visit to Canada is not consistent with a temporary stay given the details you have provided in your application. 

I have 3 options in hand now: 1. Re-apply (Processing Time: 80+ days) 2. Reconsideration (as quickly as 5 business days) 3. Judicial Review (the most expensive and time consuming option)
I decided to submit a reconsideration letter. However, I am not sure how much of a difference it would make. I would appreciate any support on how to prepare an ideal reconsideration letter. Also, I would like to know if this reconsideration request actually makes any difference.
Thank you!

Prompt: The Variants of Vampires. Think of an alternative vampire that survives on something other than blood. Write a story or scene based on this character.
As the sun faded over the horizon, Vlad’s eyes opened slowly. A sigh escaped his cold lips, and he stretched his long legs onto the red velvet lining of his coffin. Another day has come. He thought sadly, as he had everyday for last 206 years.
He checked his timepiece in the left chest pocket of his silk pajamas, 8:36 p.m. Thankful for the spring sun that set earlier than it would in the coming months, he pushed on the heavy hardwood lid of his resting place. With a creak the wood swung open, landing heavily to the side. While a modern coffin would no doubt be lighter, and easier to open every evening, this one was sentimental to him. As he had been buried in this exact coffin 206 years ago, at 35 years old.
With a heavy sigh, Vlad rose and climbed onto the step that sat beside his coffin. His stomach rumbled, and he knew he had no choice but to venture to the kitchen of his estate home. With his head hung low, he began to undress.
You see, Vlad was not like other vampires. His long life was full of loneliness, even for one who was undead. When he had first been turned by his Maker he was optimistic, excited even, for the wonders of the world he would be able to see. With no time limit, no fear of death, and an infinite supply of food walking the earth- the possibilities stretched before him like the vastness of the night sky.
However, Vlad was unable to satiate the hunger that filled him, that turned him into a ravenous beast, night after night. The mere thought of blood churned his stomach, much to his Maker’s chagrin.
Isabel was her name. Even the thought of her filled him with longing. Her had loved her once, and she him, until they learned the truth: Vlad could not be sustained by blood, but one of the things that all Vampires feared: Garlic. Of all things. The thought still flooded him with embarrassment, even after more than two centuries of living as a Vampire.
He climbed the steps from his dirt cellar, whose entrance lay hidden behind a false door that led into the Master bedroom of his estate. He lifted the heavy wooden lever that would propel the door open to his closet. The clever vault disguised by many shelves of his expensive leather shoes. He kept an armoire near his coffin for convenience, as sometimes he awoke before the sun had set. A terrible habit he picked up 50 years prior.
He wound his way from the closet into the room, down the long hallway, and the curved staircase to the first floor. His heavy footsteps echoed eerily in his quiet manse, as his staff had already left at the end of their workday, thinking that he was abroad on business. A ruse which was quickly growing thin. Soon I shall have to replace my staff again, how much easier this dreary life would be if I could simply drink from them. He mused.
Vlad had no excitement for the night, as even the mere smell of his skin repulsed those of his kind. He was unable to rejoin his coven, the one that he had briefly reveled in. Expensive goblets of crisp red blood he could not drink, dances and guests from around the globe each night, the women with their necks adorned with jewels, some thought long lost to the mortals of the world, but safely stashed in the secret rooms of the elites of the Vampire world. The men in their black tuxedos, fashionable hairstyles and long white teeth often exposed in laughter. His tenure in his coven had been short, merely days, but it had been a lifestyle he mourned. He and Isabel had tried to make things work… But this train of thought was far too painful, and his stomach panged once again, so he quickened his steps and focused once again on his coming meal.
He made his way into the back kitchen, not the formal kitchen he would have likely entertained Isabel in (if he was a “normal” Vampire), but into the staff kitchen where the fridges were, and food was prepared and stored. Rows and rows of dried garlic bundles hung from the exposed wooden beams, all harvested from the garden on the grounds.
Vlad once again rued his life, as he wished the preparation of his meal didn’t fall to him each night. But he reached up and took down a bundle, released a corm from its tight knot, and sat at the stool at the quartz countertop, grabbing for one of his Japanese Damascus knives that made his task of slicing his garlic head easy.
Briefly inspired, Vlad decided a garlic comfit would be nice, and he got to work.

Hi everyone, I own a Topo Designs 40L Global Travel bag that I use for 1 week or more trips. But I’m in the market for a smaller bag for overnight to 3-5 day trips. I’ve fallen a little in love with the look of the Bellroy Venture Ready 26L and they have the 1st gen on sale in Navy for $155 (2nd gen is $259 and the only difference is a luggage pass through that I won’t use and an AirTag hidden pocket. I found no other discernible differences in structure size or function).
For context, I do tend to overpack a bit (but I’m working on it, lol) and mainly only travel to warm weather places.
A sample of what my current 3-5 day list looks like:
Wear on plane: Patagonia Capilene Cool Daily Tee, Public Rec Flex shorts, Bombas No Show merino socks, Adidas Climacool mesh boxers, Adidas tank undershirt, Ridge Merino Solstice sun hoodie, Kizik Athens, Mission baseball cap.
Need to pack:
2 Patagonia Capilene Cool Daily tees, 2 Public Rec Go To tee, 1 Public Rec Elevate tee, 1 Public Rec Go To polo shirt.
1 Public Rec Flex shorts, 1 Patagonia Stretch Wavefarer shorts, 1 Western Rise Evo shorts, 1 Western Rise Evo 2.0 pants, 1 Arctic Cool mesh shorts. The Flex and Wavefarer shorts double as swimsuits, and the mesh shorts would just be pajama/lounge shorts.
Fairly certain I can get the tops and bottoms in my 11x11 compression packing cube.
5 Adidas Climacool mesh boxer briefs, 3 Adidas tank undershirts, 3 Bombas No Show merino socks, 2 Mission baseball caps. I always wear a hat and these pack rather easily as they’re unstructured. Also, I wear mesh boxers as a liner while swimming in hybrid shorts so I take more than the number of days.
The underwear, socks and hats should all fit in my 11x7.5 compression packing cubes.
So those two cubes stacked on top of one another are 18.5” in height and 11” in width. The Bellroy is 19.6” tall and 13” wide, so should be good there.
Other things I need to fit in the main bucket compartment would be my Olukai Ohana’s (size 11th pack pretty thin), Matador Refraction Packable Sling (2.5x7x2” would probably go in the clamshell slash pocket), and my 10x7x3” hanging toiletry kit (which may fit in the larger mesh pocket on the clamshell).
My iPad Air 11” would go in the laptop pocket in its keyboard case and my Kindle would go in the tablet pocket.
I would use the top outside tech pocket for my 3-in-1 MagSafe charger, AirPod Pro 2’s, 2 USB-C cables, dual plug brick, and my Nitecore 10k battery pack.
The hidden side stash pocket is where my clear liquids bag would go. And then a 21oz Hydroflask in the water bottle pocket.
I would attach my Matador speed stash for my iPhone and sunglasses.
https://bellroy.com/products/venture-ready-pack?color=nightsky&material=baida_ripstop&size=26l
So two questions…do you think this is all possible to fit in the Bellroy and do any of you own one who can give me an actual unpaid for review?
Thanks for any help, advice, opinions or sarcastic comments!

This is a slightly meandering story. Sorry for the length.
Our daughter - call her Jillian - (38F) got re-married two years ago to, say, Joe (40M). His mother is what I call a "sheeple". She worships the ground a certain Republican walks on. Now we're Republican, but very liberal and I despise this certain 'politician'. Joe warned his mother before we met NOT to bring up politics. We went out to dinner to meet, having a lovely time, then MIL to be starts talking politics. I get up and excuse myself to the restroom. This happened several times, and I always handled it basically the same way. Removing myself from the room.
As an aside, I should mention that I was mobile then. Now I use a rollatewalker because I need a hip replacement and have for several years.
Finally the Thanksgiving before the wedding, I reached my limit. I was in pain and AGAIN MIL to be brings up some case that highlighted gun use. I got up snapped at her something in opposition to what she was saying and starting to "roll" off. She sneered and said I must be a liberal snowflake. My response was that I was a Liberal Republican who believed in women's rights & gay rights. Then I literally told hubby "we're leaving" and stormed out as best I could.
Wedding came, and everything went smooth. MIL sat next to me, we chatted, we were polite. No politics. I thought everything was fine. Though MIL got to sit at head table and we did not. We sat in first table with other family members.
Holidays come around again and we get a phone call from Jillian. We're no longer going to have holidays with her and Joe because they can't put me and MIL together and MIL is single (been divorced for decades), while hubby and I have each other. I was hurt and said it wasn't fair. She has a son from her first marriage - our only grandchiold - and he lives in another state with his father. So we only see him during summer months and a few holidays each year. Jillian decided to compromise. Since her son would be with his Dad at Christmas, she had Easter the following year (2024). She would have us over for Easter,, but MIL would get Thanksgiving. Okay, that sounds fine.
A month before Easter we get a call that our niece and her family would be travelling home from Disney World and spending the Easter weekend with Jillian and Joe. Their house would be too crowded (7 total w/o us), therefore we wouldn't be allowed to spend Easter with them. I wanted to see my niece and her family too. "Maybe you can go out to dinner while they're here." I blew up, I admit it. She has cut us off once before from grandson (don't even remember why), when we ask to be invited to outings with grandson she tells us that it's too difficult for me or I would slow them down. We paid for parts of their wedding, I've given her money when married to first husband to help them out. I have an elderly father in our hometown that she keeps promising to take grandson to visit (he's only met him once and never met Joe), but always has an excuse.
Finally I threw my hands up and have washed them of her. She did send me a text wishing me a "Happy Birthday" last month, but I ignored it. Nothing for Mother's Day. None of us have blocked the others on SM. I just don't want anything to do with her anymore, grandson or not. I'm tired of swallowing my thoughts & feelings so we woudn't be cut off from him. So if we have to lose him too, at this point, so be it. My father is not going to be around many more years and I don't want them at the funeral, either. If she can't be bothered to visit him while he's alive, then don't visit when he passes.
So are WTA in overreacting and should we reach out?

I tried commenting on my last post with this, but I kept getting an error.
Hello! Here is my packing list for an upcoming G Adventures Central America Tour (19 days): Feel free to let me know if there is anything you would add or subtract! Clothing: (in packing cubes) • Sunhat (Athleta) • Tevas • Keds • Rain jacket (Marmot) • 2x Swim tops (Amazon) • 2x Shorts (for swim/pajamas) (Nike) • Sleep tank • 3x Bras • 6x Underwear • 6x Tops (I was planning to cut down, but they all ended up fitting in the cube so I kept them) (Champion and Old Navy) • 2x Pants (North Face Aphrodite 2.0) • Sleep pants (could take these out) • Skirt (Sundry) • Dress (prAna, built in bra!) • Pashima from Italy (for warmth)
Inside personal item: (Kanken) • Water bottle • Charging brick • Sunglasses • 2x Lip balm • Tissues • Pads • Bandages • Sting relief wipes • Pills (allergies, pain, lactaid) • Deodorant • Lip stain (might get thrown out by TSA) • Hair ties • Earplugs • Belt bag with wallet, passport, phone, lip balm
Toiletries: • 3x Clay mask samples • Face cleanser • Moisturizer • Squalane/rose oil • Prescription acne medicine • 3x Conditioner mask samples • Hair serum sample • 5x Sunscreen sample • Toothpaste • Laundry soap liquid • Curly hair stylers (Shea Moisture and Ouidad)
• Solid shampoo and Dove bar soap (to be cut in half) • Q-tips • 2x Travel deodorant • Wide tooth comb • Razor • Toothbrush
Makeup: • Eyeliner • Sparkle eyeshadow • Small eye brush • Blush (Clinique Cheek Pop) • Retractable blush brush • Tube mascara • Liquid lipstick (might replace with solid for TSA) • Berry lip balm
Miscellaneous: • Bag filled with ziplocks • Hair accessories (headbands, clips, hairbands) • Travel clothesline • Pads stash • First aid kit (immodium, Ibuprofen, lactaid, bandaids, tape, antibacterial wipes, sting relief wipes, gauze sponge and roll, burn cream, hand sanitizer) • 8x Liquid IV • Travel microfiber towel (Amazon) • 20x protein bars (hidden throughout onebag) • Reusable tote bag • Bag locks and S-biners • Eyemask for sleeping

One thing I want to make clear before I start writing is that I love my mother with all my heart and I would give my life for hers, that being said she has always displayed some traits that have always seemed weird to me. She hates and when I say hate I mean HATES anything to do with combat sports. I will give some background round on this as my father was a boxer with a amateur record of 95-5 and Professional of 17-0. But anytime I say something related to combat sports she freaks out and acts like I’m throwing my life away to violence or I’m going to be a fighter myself. She also gets very weird and somewhat creepy with the girls I like. I am into Asian women but my mother gets mad at me for this and she is always asking me what type of women I like and when I say Asian she gets pissed and refuses to talk to me until I apologize. Another thing is I do not feel comfortable discussing my future life with her as she will get pissed at me for not living the life she has pictured for me like being a doctor or lawyer. When I brought this up to her she got mad again. Earlier this year I asked if I could go to a sleepover and she said no because she thinks sleepovers are gay for boys. I also asked her if I could join the wrestling team and she asked if I was gay and wanted another man’s crotch in my face. Another thing she does is sexualize everything, for example I used to have a buddy on Xbox Named Gerbals ( yes that is how it was spelt ) and she asked if he liked to shove gerbils up his rectum as that is something that she heard of in the 70s ( I still have no clue what she was referencing ). This list doesn’t mean I have any Ill will towards my mother as I love her and she loves me but I just wanted to get this off my chest. Thank you for reading this and have a great day.

Me and my boyfriend have been together for almost 2 years now and though I’ve been considered part of the family, it’s my first time to be included in her birthday party. It’s usually just their immediate family for their birthday celebrations so being personally invited by her makes me so happy but intimidated as well.
She already has most things you’d think of as she is considerably wealthy. I have a limited budget of 2k pesos as i’m still a college student but I want to give her something heartfelt and maybe memorable.
As vain as it sounds, she is very brand-conscious (stemming from some personal childhood obstacles most probably) and I don’t know if I can give her that due to my current budget restraints.
So, what else can I give her? Her birthday is around 2 weeks from now and I’m still lost. I can give extra details if needed but right now help is very much appreciated!!

I was just thinking that the popular tradwife influencers are those who display a wonderful lifestyle staying at home with their kids. Of course, many of these women hide the fact that 1) their husband is 1% wealthy (not available for most women!), 2) they are making a ton of income via TikTok etc, and/or 3) they actually pay someone to do the heavy/gross parts of home and child care, which is why they can look immaculate while making fancy food for their families.
I know there’s now some influencers who used to be tradwives and had things go horribly wrong and are now struggling.
But I think there’s a huge market for such content and other women could get in on it. Things I’d like to see:
1) Regular SAHMs (without tradwife ideology nor rich husbands) sharing content showing the nitty gritty, gross, frustrating, exhausting aspects to their work. The never ending cleaning, the difficulties of raising babies and toddlers, the constant running around, the difficulty taking any time for oneself. I know this is more personal, but I’m also curious to see how their relationships with their husbands are going, how the husband feels, etc.
2) Divorced former SAHMs, especially aged 50+, who are struggling to make ends meet. The difficulties of the job search, the lousy job options available to them, the impending end of any alimony (usually it only lasts a few years after divorce). The low-mid five figure lifestyle they eventually settle into and live for the rest of their lives. (My own mom is in this category so I’m quite familiar with it.) Again, not the 1% who divorce from rich husbands- I’m curious about the vast majority of divorced wives who receive half assets and debts and find their resulting net worth to be nowhere near enough to stay afloat without working.
Clearly such content isn’t as visually appealing, but I think women would watch it, given how popular the tradwife discourse has become.
(Note: I’m not saying that divorced breadwinner men are in great situations by any means, on average. I think they financially suffer as well, though their advantage is that they have always had a career and can rebuild their finances after divorce much more solidly than their ex spouse can.)
Any content like this out there? I’d love to see much more of it.

How am I seeing videos of women protesting to stop the killing of the guy who light his wife on fire???? This can’t be real? He took someone’s life and they’re protesting. Women like that are the reason why evil men get away with crime and evil. Grown women in niqabis protesting for that guy???????

By Simon Rosenberg (New Democrat Network)
That he raped E. Jean Carroll in a department store dressing room
That he oversaw one of the largest financial frauds in American history, and owes hundreds of millions of dollars in fines and penalties
That he stole America’s secrets, lied to the FBI about it all and shared those secrets with others. It was without question among the most grave security breaches in our history, and the greatest betrayal of the country by a former President
That he tried to overturn an American election, led an armed insurrection against the Congress, fought to end American democracy for all time and has promised to finish the job if he somehow gets into the Oval Office next year
That he and his family have, corruptly, taken more money from foreign governments than any political family in our history
That he was singularly responsible for ending Roe and stripping the rights and freedoms away from the women of America; and last week confirmed, by embracing the states’ rights position, that he supports the most extreme abortion bans in the nation - this making him without question the most dangerous abortion extremist America has ever seen.

Hail, fellow Helldivers!
I’m a game dev with over 20 years experience, half of that on live service games or MMOs, all of it on core combat for action games, on game teams ranging from 10 people to over 600.
I play a ton of hard co-op action games, and I was a huge fan of Helldivers 1. I’m honestly in awe of how good Helldivers 2 is, even after the hundreds of hours I’ve put into it, and how they’ve sustained the pace of updates for so long after launch.
Yes, this is a throwaway Reddit account, I wanted to share some of my thoughts without inviting death threats.
Development
This game must have been in development since shortly after Arrowhead’s last released game, Helldivers 1 (plus whatever DLC and maintenance), so, 8 years give or take (I sent Pilestedt a congratulatory email, but presumably he’s drowning in them, haha).
I ran into the devs at GDC 2019, shared a few drinks and we talked shop about our similar games. They were super cagey but very excited about what they were working on, even moreso when they found out I was a huge fan of HD1. They were clearly already deep in development of HD2 at that point.
This has been discussed elsewhere, but it adds to how impressive this game is: this is the same engine (Autodesk Stingray) as Helldivers 1, a top-down game with 2D gameplay and much lower visual fidelity. Stingray is no longer supported by Autodesk as of sometime after 2018, so most of the features HD2 required would have been built in-house by Arrowhead. To my knowledge there’s only one other studio actively using the engine, and that’s Fat Shark, the developers of (most recently) Warhammer 40,000: Darktide.
The AH team has grown massively in size over the past 8 years. I don’t have the exact numbers, but it’s a 5x to 10x increase in size. Scaling up that fast and not ruining your company culture is super hard, and you can see plenty of other studios that have tried to grow so they can build bigger games and have fallen apart doing it.
Helldivers 2 easily has a AAA level of polish. I’ve gone back to HD1 recently, which at the time looked and played super well, and the improvements are night and day. HD2’s production values compare favorably to any random AAA game released in the last few years
Weapons
Building first or third person weapons to this level of quality is extremely expensive. A unique gun for a AAA first person shooter might take 4-6 weeks of artist time and the same (or more) of designer time to set up and tune the gameplay. For any completely new type of weapon, factor in around 6 months of animator time, and a few weeks for a variant that has a different reload animation or similar. E.g. all rifle-sized shotguns might use the same base shotgun animation set, but the continuous reload shotguns would have a different reload animation than the Breaker family. Then you need VFX and audio too.
Vehicles are even moreso, taking months for each, more if they can seat multiple players or have points that contact the ground (e.g. wheels).
Environments
Building environments that look this good is expensive even if you know what you want, having built a prototype version, you then have to iterate on it while you refine the gameplay and then build the final art. Building environments that look this good and are procedurally generated in as freeform a way as in HD2 is mind-boggling. Let alone doing that in a way that runs fast enough. Sure once it’s all up and running you have a ton of variety for relatively cheap, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen the proc gen create a serious gameplay problem, and that indicates very clever design and thorough testing.
AI
AI that works as well as this is expensive to build, and typically computationally expensive at runtime too. In games like Call of Duty or whatever, you have a static environment, with maybe 10-20 active AI at a time, prebuilt navmesh (which is a hand-drawn or generated map that allows AI to move around the environment without having to calculate valid geometry constantly at runtime), and level or encounter designers have hand scripted a lot of what looks like emergent AI behavior. HD2 can’t do any of that; there can be hundreds of enemies active at once, the environments are procedurally generated, AND terrain can be deformed, buildings can be destroyed etc. The AI can’t be scripted to the same degree as on a static map, probably the devs have hints that are procedurally added to the world and not much more. It helps that all of the enemies we’ve seen so far are the “implacably advancing” kind, typically they don’t have any complex behaviors, and instead the design of the character themselves and their attacks carries the gameplay. Smart design. The Illuminate in HD1 were much sneakier, it’ll be interesting to see how that faction translates to a full 3D game with a lot more enemies active at once.
UI
This game has a lot of quality of life features that it’s easy to take for granted, but are hard to build, and hard to retrofit to an existing game, for example:
· A zoomable, pingable minimap (IMO this is a best-in-class minimap implementation)
· A ping system
· Battlepass implementation allowing for not expiring old battle passes.
And all of this is UI-heavy, where UI is one of the most expensive things to make in AAA games. Every project I’ve shipped, UI has been a bottleneck. It doesn’t help that every company basically builds a UI system from scratch, since engines rarely have something shippable built in, and Scaleform (the most prominent UI middleware) went away. And then it takes a ton of iteration to get to a point where a feature is powerful and intuitive to players.
Gamefeel
If you play much of the most highly-regarded AAA shooters, you might not like the feel of some of the weapons in Helldivers 2 by comparison. They often feel slow to use, hard to aim, and punishing of misses, bad timing or bad positioning. Some of this is a polish thing and probably isn’t intended, e.g. scopes that look janky in first person, misaligned reticles and similar stuff. Most of it though looks deliberate, and supports the gameplay they’re laser-focused on building. The weapons are largely useful in very specific situations, and are not power fantasy moments for the player. There are serious tradeoffs, including “if I’m caught by a melee enemy with a Recoilless Rifle out, I’m in trouble”, the most powerful support weapons preventing you from bringing a shield, the snappiest weapons typically only being useful against weak enemies, etc. Most mass-market shooters sacrifice this extreme level of tradeoff in service of making the game feel better to play, and can lack gameplay variety as a result.
Given all of the above, most of the content that Arrowhead has released post ship must have been built alongside the rest of the game. It’s unlikely that they’re able to turn around 3 new weapons, new giant enemies, new mission types etc every month for several months in a row building them from scratch since ship. And yet, the game at launch still felt complete. This is a hard balance to strike. I wonder how much near-shippable content they have in their war-chest, and whether they’ll be able to generate more quickly enough to satisfy the appetite of the community on an ongoing basis.
Balance
Typically on a live game, the same designers build gameplay, ship it, and then balance it in patches post-ship. Sometimes a studio will have a separate “live team”, either dedicated, or rotating members of the dev team through it, but this isn’t common and it doesn’t look like Arrowhead splits the team up like this.
In any case, players always ask why developers ever nerf anything, and it’s for three reasons:
· Typically only a small number of things (weapons, abilities, heroes) are dominant, and a very large number are OK or weak in the current meta – buffing everything else would be extremely expensive, and since it’s the same people doing this work and building new content, it’d reduce the amount of new content the team could make. So it’s much more efficient to tamp down the overpowered things as a priority, and buff some other options at the same time.
· “No nerf, only buff” results in player power creep over time, which makes the game easier, and eventually will require a correction either in the form of a large scale nerf pass or buffs to enemies – both of these are bad: players hate widespread nerfs, and buffing enemies can put the game in a degenerate state where lethality is skewed, or only the best players can compete because they have all the best gear, or you end up in an arms race between player design and enemy design as both teams try to react to player feedback or overall game difficulty.
· Having a small number of overpowered things is much more destructive to a varied meta than a small number of weak things. Say you have 100 abilities and 3 of them are overpowered. Well, now everyone’s only using 3% of the possible content. Say you have 100 abilities and 3 of them are too weak.The other 97% is viable. Overly simplistic, clearly there’s a gradient, but you get the idea.
BTW the pace at which Arrowhead has updated balance is extremely fast for a large PvE game. Some small PvP-only games can react this quickly to a developing meta, but on large-scale games it takes weeks or months of testing and platform certification to ship balance updates on consoles. And “hotfixes”, i.e. very quick responses to critical issues, have a high level of scrutiny on them, i.e. lots of justifiable red tape, and often require crunch.
Community Interaction
It’s extremely rare for developers from large studios at any level to talk directly to the community, mostly because the gaming community burned those bridges long ago, by doxing devs they don’t agree with, sending them death threats, or just generally abusing them publicly and anonymously. No way in hell would I be public facing, and no one at any studio should be required to unless it’s explicitly part of their job. And even then, I feel for community managers. Direct communication from devs is a precious thing, and not one that should be taken for granted or used as an avenue for abuse.
*Salutes* to Arrowhead
Huge, huge kudos to Arrowhead. This game is an absolute triumph. To go from a small team making top-down games, to a medium-sized AAA team that shipped a game that catapulted right to the top of the most-played charts and game of the year lists and has stayed there is a massive accomplishment. I hope you’re all seeing a big payday from this success!

When I(27F) first met this guy(29M) at a bar two years ago, he liked to binge drink on the weekends and do a lot of Coke. I knew it was just a hook-up, but he constantly rubbed other women in my face. He would show me videos of him hooking up with other women and brag about having group sex.
I never expected so much out of the relationship. I had to beg him to wear a condom the first time that we had sex and the entire time that we had sex. He begged me to take it off and asked me every two seconds to take it off.
The next time we had sex, he had left another woman drunk to hang out with me, and I didn’t know until I saw her texting him. Where did you go and her calling him a bunch? I could tell he was mad the next day that he left to hang out with me, even though he was the one who hit me up first, and he called me five separate times. He said I don’t know why I left so early. I don’t know why I went to hang out with you. He was angry with me the following day and said he didn’t remember the night.
His friends came over, and I hid in the closet because I felt hideous that he hated me and that they didn’t want to see me. He was pissed off about that. He looked like he was sulking, and then he asked me to leave because I hid in the closet the next day. He called me a weirdo and stuff. The next time we had sex, my an*s I was bleeding, and he was laughing about it and making it like it was a joke.
Then I asked him to finish quickly because I get nervous during sex sometimes, and he got super upset. He got in my face and told me that he hated me and that my p*ssy stank. Afterward, I gave him a back rub to try to calm him down, then told him to sleep on the other side of the bed. After that, we didn’t talk to each other for eight months, and then I saw him on Halloween.
We had a fun night, but I asked him to finish quickly again, and he got super angry and upset and didn’t even say goodbye to me. He was speaking on the phone that he was hanging out with frat brothers and not me.
Recently, I saw him, and then after, he ghosted me. I am not proud of myself, but I sent a bunch of angry text messages saying that he was short and that he treated me like sh*t. He completely denied treating me like shit and said that I was crazy and that I needed to stop trying to hit him up. When I first met him. He told me he loved me and called me beautiful and stuff when he was drunk and would call me love. I feel stupid.
Why would a man treat me this way? What did I do to deserve to get treated this way? Did the man mistreat me, or?
He mistreated me multiple times, insulted me on numerous different occasions, and made me bleed during sex, but said that he didn’t mistreat me.
TL; Dr. mistreated me multiple times, insulted me on numerous different occasions, and made me bleed during sex, but said that he didn’t mistreat me. Why did he treat me this way?

Kyle Gordy pops up everywhere. “Famous in the sperm universe”. Uh what??? I had wondered about this sort of thing and if he was a one off or why don’t you hear about this sort of thing. I guess I run in the wrong circles. Or right ones depending how you look at it. And he’s like the ring leader! He hopes to hit 1,000 kids! I’m dumbfounded but I guess I shouldn’t be.
“Gordy is only 33 years old and has been doing this for a decade. In that time he has been partly responsible for the conception of dozens of children. He no longer likes to talk about the exact count, though he told a documentary film crew three years ago that he hopes to hit 1,000. In 2022 he was detained by immigration authorities in Fiji on his way to inseminate multiple women in New Zealand. (Now he’s starring in the current season of 90 Day Fiance, and his history of sperm donation is a major and controversial plotline.)”
https://www.thecut.com/article/sperm-donors-found-in-facebook-groups-fertility.html

I recently got a positive test for Chlamydia. It’s really bothering me because the last time I could have possibly been infected was about 2 years ago. I didn’t have any symptoms hence why I never got checked, I do have reoccurring yeast infections (or so I think that’s what it is). Now the issue is if I did have chlamydia for 2 years, I’ve read that women develop Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID). I don’t really have any symptoms of PID but if the chlamydia test is correct, does that not mean I should have PID? The only symptoms I could think of is bloating, which I usually get after eating things like rice and the yeast like discharge. The discharge doesn’t smell or anything, it’s just clumpy like yeast would be. I’m so scared to have PID because I want children in the future. I’m wondering if the test for chlamydia is a false positive… I took the medication azithromycin – one dose of 1g and it’s currently my 5th day after taking it. I’ve never been so confused and scared in my life

Hey, hopefully everyone is having a nice weekend so far :)! I’ve had success on here in the past and would love to give it another shot again, but hopefully I’ll find my special partner in crime on here🥰I’m looking for a serious, long term/life long relationship, which means eventually moving in together, forming a lifelong bond, and having a family. If u are also looking for this as well please keep reading :)!
I’m Andrew, 25, from Maryland, I graduated this past December, majored in Game Design, and going to start working on a certification soon, currently working retail but hoping to change that soon! I’m about 5’9”, average weight, mixed race, has glasses curly hair, and facial hair. If we bond well I’ll send a pic through DM’s :). I’m a nerdy guy who enjoys playing D&D, LoTR, Transformers, Invincible, Halo, etc., I play video games as well as board games, enjoy spending time with friends and family, work on digital art, as well as game design, and I can cook/bake😋I also have a void loaf🐈‍⬛ :). I’m an introvert extrovert, who can be shy at first, though am improving on that, but will open up and be more talkative the longer we’re talking. I’ve been described by others as funny, but I’ll let u be the judge of that lol. Oh and my love languages are Physical Touch and Positive Affirmations.
Im looking for someone around the age of 21-35, I can do online dating (within the US), but if u are from Maryland that’s a plus! When it comes to physical looks I’m more attracted to plus size women, and any race. For the emotional side, above all else I want someone who’s honest and communicates well!! I also want the obvious when it comes to dating lol, someone who’s loving, caring supportive, sweet/kind, someone I can also see as my friend, wants to do shared activities together, someone who loves giving physical and emotional attention, wants a strong love life, and a bonus is clingy when it comes to affection, love, and communication.
If I seem interesting enough for u and if u seem like a good match for me, please send me a message, and I’ll respond asap! I respond quicker on Discord, which we can exchange either sooner or later, up to u :)! If u read my message, tell me a fun fact about yourself, or tell me your favorite food😋! Looking forward to meeting my soulmate🥰!

i dated this guy for 5 months last year, i could talk on and on about what was wrong with the relationship but i am going to attempt to keep this brief(ish) for now.
last week, a girl that i knew my ex started dating after me (found out it was 2 weeks after!) hit up my instagram dm’s to tell me he had not changed- shocker. one issue in our relationship was distance, we could only see each other on weekends and it became a stressor (taking a weekend off would mean 2 weeks not seeing each other and we never spoke on the phone). i tried to make compromises but he wouldn’t agree to anything. his new girlfriend lived a few minutes away and they still had the same problem.
he lovebombed heavily and i don’t use that word lightly. looking back on it now scares me, i became so vulnerable with my feelings and then he pulled all of that away from me. i stayed and so did she, because he was so amazing in the beginning and we both wanted to believe he could be that person for us again. we uncovered tons of lies and just a bunch of shit he said to both of us.
we decided to reach out to the girlfriend from before me and she was incredibly supportive, he had believed they broke up amicably and while relatively true, she had bad experiences and was devastated to hear he has continued to hurt women he gets into relationships with.
don’t be afraid to reach out to people who knew the person you were dating as long as you feel it’s safe to do so. we have made new friends and i will forever be glad i got to help her heal and we both helped each other recognize that we werent at fault.
hopefully nobody i know sees this lol but if they do heyyyyyy!

The house next to ours seems to house close to 20 people (men, women, and children of all ages - from what we’ve seen, they were originally possibly associated with a church??). We’ve had ongoing issues of them crossing onto our property.
When we originally moved in, one of the people that lives there came over and started helping us move stuff without us asking. Initially it seemed like he was just helping unload everything out of a truck but then he just walked into our house. There is a significant language barrier so we did the best we could to ask him to leave. He then asked us for money and would not stop pulling boxes off our truck and entering our home.
The people of the house will consistently come into our yard and sit on a retaining wall. They’ve asked us, and our tenants, for money multiple times. We share a small stretch of the driveway and they are constantly blocking us in. Most recently, they parked in our yard to unload a large transit van of luggage and what seemed like even more people to live there. They also then peed in our yard.
We have a private property, no trespassing sign in our yard facing their house. They literally sat on the wall right next to the sign. I understand that they may not understand what the sign said so we went out and communicated what the sign said and they left. They then did it again the next day.
I don’t know what our rights are in regards to pursuing anything further. We have yet to call the police because we don’t know much about how these people came to live in this house. We’re not trying to ruin anyone’s lives but we just want them to stay off of our property.

Hello! So, if you remember me - I made a post about how my SO sexually coerced me among other things and it’s been two weeks since I left the relationship.
I made a follow up post about how I was feeling like shit and depressed but the second week has been so much better, specially realizing that I can just… do things. Without having to give him exportations. I reconnected with my friends because I could finally pick up my phone and text them because when I was with him, he’d text me so much I didn’t even want to look at my phone.
Am I still in pain and miss him? Yes, it’s grief after all. But doing so much better.
Now, I needed to get this off my chest: Since the break up, my mom’s EX has been texting me to ask me how I was doing. I had a great relationship with her so I replied to her texts. She asked me to please not to tell him anything about her texting (and I know she’s not lying about this because I know him and know he wouldn’t want that).
However, I feel her texts started to become a “get back with my son please” through time.
At first she only said how sad she was about it because she loves me. But then it was like “you’ve been 5 years together, I don’t understand what happened that you can’t resolve talking”. And I was like… okay, it’s her son, she sees that he’s sad, she’s his mom after all.
Then she texted me a second time, asking me how my mom was doing (she’s been hospitalized but she’s good now), so of course I replied. I asked her how she was doing and she told me she couldn’t stop thinking about what could’ve happened between us, that she doesn’t understand how is something we can’t resolve talking (spoiler: YOUR SON DOESNT KNOW HOW TO HAVE A HEALTHY CONVERSATION WITHOUT MANIPULATION!!)
So I wrote him a long text about how he needed to mature, basically explaining a lot of stuff but decided to delate it because it’s not something she has to know. She later replied with “I don’t know what you delated, I just feel that if you really loved him you’d do the impossible to be with him”
Uhmm… excuse me? I have to do the impossible to be with him??? Why do you think she did nothing wrong???
I didn’t reply to that and she texted a few days later just asking how I was. Nothing more to that.
So… today she texts me again. She said that she didn’t want to bother me, she just wanted to know how I was. I replied that things were complicated. She said that she was sad and then “I’m sorry to ask you this but did he do something wrong? I’d like to know because I can’t understand, you two never fought and suddenly it’s over. I can’t understand it. I’m sorry I have so many questions in my head”
I answered “it’s hard. There were a lot of things that we couldn’t resolve. It was the best for both of us”.
And this is what she replied “it’s ok, I really understand that but he doesn’t want to talk and he told us that he doesn’t know what could’ve happened because you two were in good terms. Also last month you two went together on a trip. But I guess something is happening that you two aren’t giving the relationship another chance. If you don’t want to tell me I understand completely but it’s weird because you were 5 years together, not a month. I won’t bother you anymore, I know now that there’s no turning back. I’m so sorry because he saw because of your eyes”
So… after I spoke to my friends, mom and SIL about it (lol) I decided not to reply to the text. There’s nothing I could take her that would satisfy her enough and I can’t tell her the real reasons because I don’t trust her with that and don’t want to become this into a circus.
I really care for her but she’s overstepping.
However, I came to two conclusions after this:

1. Even after 5 years together and me constantly telling him what was wrong, he still doesn’t understand why I left him and believes everything was fine between us. Five years together and this dude never saw me at all.
   
2. He’s so fucking dependent because of this. His mom (and me at the time) resolved all his problems so he can’t be an independent person at all. Like his mom is talking to me asking for reasons. Wanting to get back together with him. SHE’s doing that, not him. This dude is 26 years old!!
   

I don’t judge her tho, because even though she’s young (around 47yo) she still has that old fashioned mentality that women have to be servants to men and I realized that from the way she acts around her husband. I hope one day she realizes she doesn’t have to be a maid to the men in her life.
Sorry, I know this was a super long post but I needed to get it off my chest!