abandon, ability, able, about, above, absence, absolute, absolutely, abstract, abundance, academy, accent, accept, access, accident, accompany, accomplish, according, account, accurate, achieve, achievement, acid, acknowledge, acquire, across, action, active, activity, actor, actual, actually, adapt, addition, additional, address, adequate, adjust, administration, admire, admission, admit, adolescent, adopt, adult, advance, advantage, adventure, advertise, advice, advise, adviser, advocate, affair, affect, afford, afraid, after, afternoon, again, against, age, agency, agenda, agent, aggressive, ago, agree, agreement, agriculture, ahead, aid, aim, air, aircraft, airline, airport, alarm, album, alcohol, alive, all, alliance, allow, ally, almost, alone, along, already, also, alter, alternative, although, always, amateur, amazing, ambition, ambulance, among, amount, analysis, analyst, analyze, ancient, and, anger, angle, angry, animal, anniversary, announce, annual, another, answer, anticipate, anxiety, any, anybody, anymore, anyone, anything, anyway, anywhere, apart, apartment, apologize, apparent, apparently, appeal, appear, appearance, apple, application, apply, appoint, appointment, appreciate, approach, appropriate, approval, approve, approximately, architect, area, argue, argument, arise, arm, armed, army, around, arrange, arrangement, arrest, arrival, arrive, art, article, artist, artistic, as, ashamed, aside, ask, asleep, aspect, assault, assert, assess, assessment, asset, assign, assignment, assist, assistance, assistant, associate, association, assume, assumption, assure, at, athlete, athletic, atmosphere, attach, attack, attempt, attend, attention, attitude, attorney, attract, attraction, attractive, attribute, audience, author, authority, auto, available, average, avoid, award, aware, awareness, away, awful, baby, back, background, bad, badly, bag, balance, ball, ban, band, bank, bar, barely, barrel, barrier, base, baseball, basic, basically, basis, basket, basketball, bath, bathroom, battery, battle, be, beach, bear, beat, beautiful, beauty, because, become, bed, bedroom, bee, beef, beer, before, begin, beginning, behavior, behind, being, belief, believe, bell, belong, below, belt, bench, bend, beneath, benefit, beside, besides, best, bet, better, between, beyond, bicycle, big, bike, bill, billion, bind, biological, bird, birth, birthday, bit, bite, black, blade, blame, blanket, blind, block, blood, blow, blue, board, boat, body, bomb, bombing, bond, bone, book, boom, boot, border, boring, born, borrow, boss, both, bother, bottle, bottom, boundary, bowl, box, boy, boyfriend, brain, branch, brand, brave, bread, break, breakfast, breast, breath, breathe, brick, bridge, brief, briefly, bright, brilliant, bring, broad, broken, brother, brown, brush, buck, budget, build, building, bullet, bunch, burden, burn, bury, bus, business, busy, but, butter, button, buy, buyer, by, cabin, cabinet, cable, cake, calculate, call, camera, camp, campaign, campus, can, Canadian, cancer, candidate, cap, capability, capable, capacity, capital, captain, capture, car, carbon, card, care, career, careful, carefully, carrier, carry, case, cash, cast, cat, catch, category, Catholic, cause, ceiling, celebrate, celebration, celebrity, cell, center, central, century, CEO, ceremony, certain, certainly, chain, chair, chairman, challenge, chamber, champion, championship, chance, change, changing, channel, chapter, character, characteristic, characterize, charge, charity, chart, chase, cheap, check, cheek, cheese, chef, chemical, chest, chicken, chief, child, childhood, Chinese, chip, chocolate, choice, cholesterol, choose, Christian, Christmas, church, cigarette, circle, circumstance, cite, citizen, city, civil, civilian, claim, class, classic, classroom, clean, clear, clearly, client, climate, climb, clinic, clinical, clock, close, closely, closer, clothes, clothing, cloud, club, clue, cluster, coach, coal, coalition, coast, coat, code, coffee, cognitive, cold, collapse, colleague, collect, collection, collective, college, colonial, color, column, combination, combine, come, comedy, comfort, comfortable, command, commander, comment, commercial, commission, commit, commitment, committee, common, communicate, communication, community, company, compare, comparison, compete, competition, competitive, competitor, complain, complaint, complete, completely, complex, complexity, compliance, complicate, complicated, component, compose, composition, comprehensive, computer, concentrate, concentration, concept, concern, concerned, concert, conclude, conclusion, concrete, condition, conduct, conference, confidence, confident, confirm, conflict, confront, confusion, Congress, congressional, connect, connection, consciousness, consensus, consequence, conservative, consider, considerable, consideration, consist, consistent, constant, constantly, constitute, constitutional, construct, construction, consultant, consume, consumer, consumption, contact, contain, container, contemporary, content, contest, context, continue, continued, contract, contrast, contribute, contribution, control, controversial, controversy, convention, conventional, conversation, convert, conviction, convince, cook, cookie, cooking, cool, cooperation, cop, cope, copy, core, corn, corner, corporate, corporation, correct, correspondent, cost, cotton, couch, could, council, count, counter, country, county, couple, courage, course, court, cousin, cover, coverage, cow, crack, craft, crash, crazy, cream, create, creation, creative, creature, credit, crew, crime, criminal, crisis, criteria, critic, critical, criticism, criticize, crop, cross, crowd, crucial, cry, cultural, culture, cup, curious, current, currently, curriculum, custom, customer, cut, cycle, dad, daily, damage, dance, danger, dangerous, dare, dark, darkness, data, database, date, daughter, day, dead, deal, dealer, dear, death, debate, debt, decade, decide, decision, deck, declare, decline, decrease, deep, deeply, deer, defeat, defend, defendant, defense, defensive, deficit, define, definitely, definition, degree, delay, deliver, delivery, demand, democracy, Democratic, Democrat, demonstrate, demonstration, deny, department, depend, dependent, depending, depict, depression, depth, deputy, derive, describe, description, desert, deserve, design, designer, desire, desk, desperate, despite, destroy, destruction, detail, detailed, detect, detection, detective, determine, develop, developing, development, device, devil, dialogue, diet, differ, difference, different, differently, difficult, difficulty, dig, digital, dimension, dining, dinner, direct, direction, directly, director, dirt, disability, disagree, disappear, disaster, discipline, disclose, discover, discovery, discrimination, discuss, discussion, disease, dish, dismiss, disorder, display, dispute, distance, distinct, distinction, distinguish, distribute, distribution, district, diverse, diversity, divide, division, divorce, DNA, do, doctor, document, dog, domestic, dominant, dominate, door, double, doubt, down, downtown, dozen, draft, drag, drama, dramatic, dramatically, draw, drawer, drawing, dream, dress, drink, drive, driver, drop, drug, dry, due, during, dust, duty, dwell, dying, dynamic, each, eager, ear, earlier, early, earn, earnings, earth, earthquake, ease, easily, east, eastern, easy, eat, economic, economy, edge, edit, edition, editor, educate, education, educational, educator, effect, effective, effectively, efficiency, efficient, effort, egg, eight, either, elderly, elect, election, electric, electrical, electricity, electronic, element, elementary, eliminate, elite, else, elsewhere, e-mail, embrace, emerge, emergency, emission, emotion, emotional, emphasis, emphasize, employ, employee, employer, employment, empty, enable, encounter, encourage, end, enemy, energy, enforcement, engage, engine, engineer, engineering, English, enhance, enjoy, enormous, enough, ensure, enter, enterprise, entertain, entertainment, entire, entirely, entrance, entry, environment, environmental, episode, equal, equally, equipment, equivalent, era, error, escape, especially, essay, essential, essentially, establish, establishment, estate, estimate, etc, ethics, ethnic, European, evaluate, evaluation, evening, event, eventually, ever, every, everybody, everyday, everyone, everything, everywhere, evidence, evolution, evolve, exact, exactly, exam, examination, examine, example, exceed, excellent, except, exception, exchange, exciting, executive, exercise, exhibit, exhibition, exist, existence, existing, expand, expansion, expect, expectation, expense, expensive, experience, experiment, expert, explain, explanation, explode, explore, explosion, expose, exposure, express, expression, extend, extension, extensive, extent, external, extra, extraordinary, extreme, extremely, eye, fabric, face, facility, fact, factor, factory, faculty, fade, fail, failure, fair, fairly, faith, fall, false, familiar, family, famous, fan, fantasy, far, farm, farmer, fashion, fast, fat, fate, father, fault, favor, favorite, fear, feature, federal, fee, feed, feel, feeling, fellow, female, fence, festival, few, fewer, fiber, fiction, field, fifteen, fifth, fifty, fight, fighter, fighting, figure, file, fill, film, final, finally, finance, financial, find, finding, fine, finger, finish, fire, firm, first, fish, fishing, fit, fitness, five, fix, flag, flame, flat, flavor, flee, flesh, flight, float, floor, flow, flower, fly, focus, folk, follow, following, food, foot, football, for, force, foreign, forest, forever, forget, form, formal, formation, former, formula, forth, fortune, forward, found, foundation, founder, four, fourth, frame, framework, free, freedom, freeze, French, frequency, frequent, frequently, fresh, friend, friendly, friendship, from, front, fruit, frustration, fuel, fulfill, full, fully, fun, function, fund, fundamental, funding, funeral, funny, furniture, furthermore, future, gain, galaxy, gallery, game, gang, gap, garage, garden, garlic, gas, gate, gather, gay, gaze, gear, gender, gene, general, generally, generate, generation, genetic, gentleman, gently, German, gesture, get, ghost, giant, gift, gifted, girl, girlfriend, give, given, glad, glance, glass, global, glove, go, goal, God, gold, golden, golf, good, govern, government, governor, grab, grace, grade, gradually, graduate, grain, grand, grandmother, grant, grass, grave, gray, great, green, grocery, ground, group, grow, growing, growth, guarantee, guard, guess, guest, guide, guideline, guilty, gun, guy, habit, habitat, hair, half, hall, hand, handful, handle, hang, happen, happy, harbor, hard, hardly, hat, hate, have, he, head, headline, headquarters, health, healthy, hear, hearing, heart, heat, heaven, heavily, heavy, heel, height, helicopter, hell, hello, help, helpful, hence, her, herb, here, heritage, hero, herself, hey, hi, hide, high, highlight, highly, highway, hill, him, himself, hip, hire, his, historic, historical, history, hit, hold, hole, holiday, holy, home, homeless, honest, honey, honor, hope, horizon, horror, horse, hospital, host, hot, hotel, hour, house, household, housing, how, however, huge, human, humor, hundred, hungry, hunter, hunting, hurt, husband, hypothesis, ice, idea, ideal, identification, identify, identity, ignore, ill, illegal, illness, illustrate, image, imagination, imagine, immediate, immediately, immigrant, immigration, impact, implement, implication, imply, importance, important, impose, impossible, impress, impression, impressive, improve, improvement, incentive, incident, include, including, income, incorporate, increase, increased, increasingly, incredible, indeed, independence, independent, index, indicate, indication, individual, industrial, industry, infant, infection, inflation, influence, inform, information, ingredient, initial, initially, initiative, injury, inner, innocent, inquiry, inside, insight, insist, inspire, install, instance, instead, institute, institution, institutional, instruction, instructor, instrument, insurance, intellectual, intelligence, intend, intense, intensity, intention, interaction, interest, interested, interesting, internal, international, Internet, interpret, interpretation, intervention, interview, introduce, introduction, invasion, invest, investigation, investigator, investment, investor, invite, involve, involved, involvement, Iraqi, Irish, iron, Islamic, island, Israeli, issue, it, Italian, item, its, itself, jacket, jail, Japanese, jet, Jew, Jewish, job, join, joint, joke, journal, journalist, journey, joy, judge, judgment, juice, jump, junior, jury, just, justice, justify, keep, key, kick, kid, kill, killer, killing, kind, king, kiss, kitchen, knee, knife, knock, know, knowledge, lab, label, labor, laboratory, lack, lady, lake, land, landscape, language, lap, large, largely, last, late, later, Latin, latter, laugh, launch, law, lawsuit, lawyer, lay, layer, lead, leader, leadership, leading, leaf, league, lean, learn, learning, least, leather, leave, left, leg, legacy, legal, legend, legislation, legislative, legislator, legitimate, lemon, length, less, lesson, let, letter, level, liberal, library, license, lie, life, lifestyle, lifetime, lift, light, like, likely, limit, limitation, limited, line, link, lip, list, listen, literary, literature, little, live, living, load, loan, local, locate, location, lock, long, long-term, look, loose, lose, loss, lost, lot, lots, loud, love, lovely, lover, low, lower, luck, lucky, lunch, luxury, machine, mad, magazine, mail, main, mainly, maintain, maintenance, major, majority, make, maker, makeup, male, mall, man, manage, management, manager, manner, manufacturer, manufacturing, many, map, margin, mark, market, marketing, marriage, married, marry, mask, mass, massive, master, match, material, math, matter, may, maybe, mayor, me, meal, mean, meaning, meanwhile, measure, measurement, meat, mechanism, media, medical, medication, medicine, medium, meet, meeting, member, membership, memory, mental, mention, menu, mere, merely, mess, message, metal, meter, method, Mexican, middle, might, military, milk, million, mind, mine, minister, minor, minority, minute, miracle, mirror, miss, missile, mission, mistake, mix, mixture, mm-hmm, mode, model, moderate, modern, modest, mom, moment, money, monitor, month, mood, moon, moral, more, moreover, morning, mortgage, most, mostly, mother, motion, motivation, motor, mountain, mouse, mouth, move, movement, movie, Mr, Mrs, Ms, much, multiple, murder, muscle, museum, music, musical, musician, Muslim, must, mutual, my, myself, mystery, myth, naked, name, narrative, narrow, nation, national, native, natural, naturally, nature, near, nearby, nearly, necessarily, necessary, neck, need, negative, negotiate, negotiation, neighbor, neighborhood, neither, nerve, nervous, net, network, never, nevertheless, new, newly, news, newspaper, next, nice, night, nine, no, nobody, nod, noise, nomination, nominee, none, nonetheless, nor, normal, normally, north, northern, nose, not, note, nothing, notice, notion, novel, now, nowhere, nuclear, number, numerous, nurse, nut, object, objective, obligation, observation, observe, observer, obtain, obvious, obviously, occasion, occasionally, occupation, occupy, occur, ocean, odd, odds, of, off, offense, offensive, offer, office, officer, official, often, oh, oil, okay, old, Olympic, on, once, one, ongoing, onion, online, only, onto, open, opening, operate, operating, operation, operator, opinion, opponent, opportunity, oppose, opposed, opposite, opposition, option, or, orange, order, ordinary, organic, organization, organize, orientation, origin, original, originally, other, others, otherwise, ought, our, ours, ourselves, out, outcome, outside, oven, over, overall, overcome, overlook, owe, own, owner, pace, pack, package, page, pain, painful, paint, painter, painting, pair, pale, Palestinian, palm, pan, panel, panic, pant, paper, paragraph, parent, park, parking, part, participant, participate, participation, particle, particular, particularly, partly, partner, partnership, party, pass, passage, passenger, passion, past, patch, path, patient, pattern, pause, pay, payment, PC, peace, peak, peer, pen, penalty, people, pepper, per, perceive, percentage, perception, perfect, perfectly, perform, performance, perhaps, period, permanent, permission, permit, person, personal, personality, personally, personnel, perspective, persuade, pet, phase, phenomenon, philosophy, phone, photo, photographer, phrase, physical, physically, physician, piano, pick, picture, pie, piece, pile, pilot, pine, pink, pipe, pitch, place, plan, plane, planet, planning, plant, plastic, plate, platform, play, player, please, pleasure, plenty, plot, plus, PM, pocket, poem, poet, poetry, point, police, policy, political, politically, politician, politics, poll, pollution, pool, poor, pop, popular, population, porch, port, portion, portrait, portray, pose, position, positive, possess, possession, possibility, possible, possibly, post, pot, potato, potential, potentially, pound, pour, poverty, powder, power, powerful, practical, practice, prayer, preach, precisely, predict, prediction, prefer, preference, pregnancy, pregnant, preparation, prepare, prescription, presence, present, presentation, preserve, president, presidential, press, pressure, pretend, pretty, prevent, previous, previously, price, pride, priest, primarily, primary, prime, principal, principle, print, prior, priority, prison, prisoner, privacy, private, probably, problem, procedure, proceed, process, processing, processor, proclaim, produce, producer, product, production, profession, professional, professor, profile, profit, program, progress, progressive, project, prominent, promise, promote, prompt, proof, proper, properly, property, proportion, proposal, propose, prosecutor, prospect, protect, protection, protein, protest, proud, prove, provide, provider, province, provision, psychological, psychology, public, publication, publicity, publish, publisher, pull, punishment, purchase, pure, purpose, pursue, push, put, qualify, quality, quarter, quarterback, quarterly, queen, quest, question, quick, quickly, quiet, quietly, quit, quite, quote, race, racial, radiation, radical, radio, rail, rain, raise, range, rank, rapid, rapidly, rare, rarely, rate, rather, rating, ratio, raw, reach, react, reaction, reader, reading, ready, real, reality, realize, really, reason, reasonable, recall, receive, recent, recently, reception, recipe, recipient, recognition, recognize, recommend, recommendation, record, recording, recover, recovery, recruit, red, reduce, reduction, refer, reference, reflect, reflection, reform, refugee, refuse, regard, regarding, regardless, regime, region, regional, register, regular, regularly, regulate, regulation, regulator, reinforce, reject, relate, relation, relationship, relative, relatively, relax, release, relevant, relief, religion, religious, rely, remain, remaining, remarkable, remember, remind, remote, remove, repeat, repeatedly, replace, replacement, reply, report, reporter, represent, representation, representative, Republican, reputation, request, require, requirement, research, researcher, resemble, reservation, resident, residential, resign, resist, resistance, resolution, resolve, resort, resource, respect, respond, response, responsibility, responsible, rest, restaurant, restore, restriction, result, retain, retire, retirement, return, reveal, revenue, review, revolution, rhythm, rice, rich, rid, ride, rifle, right, ring, rise, risk, river, road, rock, role, roll, romantic, roof, room, root, rope, rose, rough, roughly, round, route, routine, row, rub, rubber, rude, ruin, rule, run, running, rural, rush, Russian, sacred, sad, safe, safety, sake, salad, salary, sale, sales, salt, same, sample, sanction, sand, satellite, satisfaction, satisfied, satisfy, sauce, save, saving, say, scale, scandal, scare, scatter, scenario, scene, schedule, scheme, scholar, scholarship, school, science, scientific, scientist, scope, score, scream, screen, script, sea, search, season, seat, second, secondary, secret, secretary, section, sector, secure, security, see, seed, seek, seem, segment, seize, select, selection, self, sell, Senate, senator, send, senior, sense, sensitive, sentence, separate, sequence, series, serious, seriously, servant, serve, service, session, set, setting, settle, settlement, seven, several, severe, sex, sexual, shade, shadow, shake, shall, shallow, shape, share, sharp, she, sheet, shelf, shell, shelter, shift, shine, ship, shirt, shock, shoe, shoot, shooting, shop, shopping, short, shortly, shot, should, shoulder, shout, show, shower, shrug, shut, shy, sibling, sick, side, sigh, sight, sign, signal, significant, significantly, silence, silent, silver, similar, similarly, simple, simply, sin, since, sing, singer, single, sink, sir, sister, sit, site, situation, six, size, ski, skill, skin, skirt, sky, slave, sleep, slice, slide, slight, slightly, slip, slow, slowly, small, smart, smell, smile, smoke, smooth, snap, snow, so, so-called, soccer, social, society, soft, software, soil, solar, soldier, sole, solid, solution, solve, some, somebody, somehow, someone, something, sometimes, somewhat, somewhere, son, song, soon, sophisticated, sorry, sort, soul, sound, soup, source, south, southern, Soviet, space, Spanish, speak, speaker, special, specialist, species, specific, specifically, specify, speech, speed, spend, spending, spin, spirit, spiritual, split, spoil, sponsor, sport, spot, spray, spread, spring, square, squeeze, stability, stable, staff, stage, stain, stair, stake, stand, standard, standing, star, stare, start, state, statement, station, statistical, status, stay, steady, steal, steel, steep, stem, step, stick, still, stimulate, stimulus, stir, stock, stomach, stone, stop, storage, store, storm, story, straight, strange, stranger, strategic, strategy, stream, street, strength, strengthen, stress, stretch, strike, string, strip, stroke, strong, strongly, structural, structure, struggle, student, studio, study, stuff, stupid, style, subject, submit, subsequent, substance, substantial, substitute, succeed, success, successful, successfully, such, sudden, suddenly, sue, suffer, sufficient, sugar, suggest, suggestion, suicide, suit, summer, summit, sun, super, supply, support, supporter, suppose, supposed, Supreme, sure, surely, surface, surgery, surprise, surprised, surprising, surprisingly, surround, survey, survival, survive, survivor, suspect, sustain, swear, sweep, sweet, swim, swing, switch, symbol, symptom, system, table, tactic, tail, take, tale, talent, talk, tall, tank, tap, tape, target, task, taste, tax, taxi, tea, teach, teacher, teaching, team, tear, technical, technique, technology, teen, teenager, telephone, telescope, television, tell, temperature, temporary, ten, tend, tendency, tennis, tension, tent, term, terms, terrible, territory, terror, terrorist, test, testimony, testing, text, than, thank, thanks, that, the, theater, their, them, theme, themselves, then, theory, therapy, there, therefore, these, they, thick, thin, thing, think, thinking, third, thirty, this, those, though, thought, thousand, threat, threaten, three, throat, through, throughout, throw, thus, ticket, tie, tight, time, tiny, tip, tire, tissue, title, to, tobacco, today, toe, together, toilet, token, tolerate, tomato, tomorrow, tone, tongue, tonight, too, tool, tooth, top, topic, toss, total, totally, touch, tough, tour, tourist, tournament, toward, towards, tower, town, toy, trace, track, trade, tradition, traditional, traffic, tragedy, trail, train, training, transfer, transform, transformation, transition, translate, translation, transmission, transmit, transport, transportation, travel, treat, treatment, treaty, tree, tremendous, trend, trial, tribe, trick, trip, troop, trouble, truck, true, truly, trust, truth, try, tube, tunnel, turn, TV, twelve, twenty, twice, twin, two, type, typical, typically, ugly, ultimate, ultimately, unable, uncle, undergo, understand, understanding, unfortunately, uniform, union, unique, unit, United, universal, universe, university, unknown, unless, unlike, until, unusual, up, upon, upper, urban, urge, us, use, used, useful, user, usual, usually, utility, utilize, vacation, valley, valuable, value, variable, variation, variety, various, vary, vast, vegetable, vehicle, venture, version, versus, very, vessel, veteran, via, victim, victory, video, view, viewer, village, violate, violation, violence, violent, virtually, virtue, virus, visibility, visible, vision, visit, visitor, visual, vital, voice, volume, voluntary, volunteer, vote, voter, voting, wage, wait, wake, walk, wall, wander, want, war, warm, warn, warning, wash, waste, watch, water, wave, way, we, weak, weakness, wealth, wealthy, weapon, wear, weather, web, website, wedding, week, weekend, weekly, weigh, weight, welcome, welfare, well, west, western, wet, what, whatever, wheel, when, whenever, where, whereas, whether, which, while, whisper, white, who, whole, whom, whose, why, wide, widely, widespread, wife, wild, wildlife, will, willing, win, wind, window, wine, wing, winner, winter, wipe, wire, wisdom, wise, wish, with, withdraw, within, without, witness, woman, wonder, wonderful, wood, wooden, word, work, worker, working, workout, workplace, works, workshop, world, worried, worry, worth, would, wound, wrap, write, writer, writing, wrong, yard, yeah, year, yell, yellow, yes, yesterday, yet, yield, you, young, your, yours, yourself, youth, zone.

choosing the Right IT Course: A Guide to Finding Your Path in the Tech World
Best IT Courses
In the present era of digital advancement, the need for proficient IT experts has increased significantly. The IT field is booming with opportunities, no matter if you've just passed out of college. Yet, navigation through the formation of courses and specialisations can be daunting. This blog aims to look into some top-notch IT courses and offer insights on selecting the most suitable one for your aspirations.

1. Assess your interests and goals.

Goal
Hold on! Don't dive headfirst into IT courses just yet. Take some time to check on your interests and career goals. Do you love building programs? Are you fascinated by online security? Maybe data analysis is your jam, or keeping networks running smoothly gets you going? The right course is out there, but it all starts with understanding your interests and career aspirations.

1. Research Different Specialisations:

Research Different Specialisations:
IT is a giant toolbox with many specialised tools inside.
Here are a few of the most popular ones:
Software Development: If you are a coding expert who loves coding and building new things, this course is for you! Learn languages like Java, Python, or C++ and get your hands dirty creating applications and software systems.
Cybersecurity: With cybercrime on the rise, protectors are in high demand! Cybersecurity courses teach you ethical hacking, how to secure networks, and spot threats, making you a hero against cyberattacks.
Data Science: Data is king these days, and data scientists are the key to unlocking its secrets. Learn about statistics, machine learning, and data visualisation to become a master in this booming field.
Network Administration: The behind-the-scenes heroes of IT! Network administrators keep an organisation's network running smoothly and securely. Learn about routing, switching, and network security to become a network expert.

1. Consider Industry Demand:

Industry Demand
Don't just follow your heart, follow the job market too! Research what IT skills are in high demand right now. By selecting a course packed with skills companies crave, you'll stand out from the crowd and snag your dream job in no time.

1. Evaluate Course Content and Curriculum:

Content and Curriculam
After creating a shortlist of courses aligned with your IT aspirations, dive deeper to assess their curriculum. The strongest program will provide a thorough exploration of the subject, not just a surface-level introduction. Hands-on experience is vital in IT, so prioritise courses with opportunities to apply your knowledge through practical exercises. Real-world projects or internships are like gold – they'll give you practical experience and make you a much stronger candidate in the eyes of potential employers. Beyond the course content, consider practicalities like duration – how much time can you realistically dedicate to your studies? Think about the learning format – classroom setting for structure or online for flexibility? Finally, some employers value accreditation from a reputable institution, so factor that in as well. By meticulously evaluating these elements, you'll be well-equipped to select the ideal IT course that launches you toward your desired career path.

1. Seek Feedback and Recommendations:

Feedback and Recommendations
After shortlisting a few IT courses, don't stop there! Connect with IT professionals or graduates of those programs to get the inside scoop. Their real-world experiences can provide valuable insights you won't find in a brochure. Talk to them about the quality of the course, how relevant the curriculum is to actual IT jobs, and what the overall learning experience was like. This firsthand information can be invaluable for making the best choice for your IT education.

1. Consider Certification and Credentials:

Certification and Credentials
Many IT courses offer certification upon completion, which can enhance your credentials and credibility in the job market. Research industry-recognized certifications relevant to your chosen field and consider courses that provide preparation for these exams. Holding certifications demonstrates your expertise and commitment to continuous learning, making you a more attractive candidate to employers.

1. Evaluate Cost and Return on Investment (ROI):

ROI
Powering up your IT skills with courses is a great career move, but treat it like an investment. Before you enrol, do some budgeting. Factor in the tuition costs, any hidden extras like textbooks or software, and see if there's financial aid or scholarships to ease the financial blow. It's also smart to research the average salary in your chosen IT field. This will help you estimate the Return on Investment (ROI) and figure out how long it might take to see your education pay off financially.

1. Stay Updated on Industry Trends:

The IT world is like a fast-moving river, with new tech and trends constantly popping up. Even after you choose a course and land your IT job, keep learning! Stay on top of industry developments, hot new advancements, and any emerging technologies relevant to your specialisation. There are tons of resources available, from ongoing learning programs to online courses. Keep feeding your IT knowledge to stay ahead of the curve and future-proof your career.
Best IT institute in Gurgaon
Ultimately, choosing the right IT degree is a crucial initial stride toward forging a rewarding career in computing. By carefully assessing your ambitions, exploring diverse specialisations, considering industry needs, reviewing course content, seeking advice, pondering certification, evaluating expenses, and staying attuned to industry shifts, you can make an informed decision tailored to your aspirations. Remember, the optimal course is the one that not only equips you with practical skills but also motivates you to pursue your professional goals fervently.
Dev Sharma

For me, I grew up really smart and involved in everything. Just about the best resume I could imagine coming out of high school (my Mom encouraged much of this).
But I had no idea what I wanted to do, nor did I know anything about college. I’m from the south, so I applied to Vanderbilt, a small liberal arts school and a state school.
I guess in my head I was always preparing for an ivy league, or just thought I would go to one. But when I realized they were ~$4-600,000 in tuition or whatever, it was hard to justify it (although my parents could have paid).
Vanderbilt waitlisted me, and I went to state school. On the same scholarship I could have gotten if I had done no resume building, had a 31 on the ACT (I had taken it 5 times to max out my score + a prep course), and a 3.0 GPA (mine was a 4.3 weighted for AP courses).
I guess I took that as a life lesson, because that really stuck with me in college.
I refused to do anything I didn’t actually like, but I couldn’t find much I liked. It was University of Alabama. Which is fine if you want to get drunk all the time and go to business school and try to make a butt ton of money.
But I was really sensitive at that time. Had no idea who I was. Had just stopped believing in God. Was interested in philosophy, deep conversations and making a positive impact on the world. As most people are UA are either in greek life or trying to act like they are (for boys this meant wearing khaki shorts and pastel colored t shirts), these desires in me were argely ignored or considered “lame,” or I just never found other people. Even when I did, later in college, we were all really jaded and had chips on our shoulders from being around the super loud, racist, largely conservative, largely anti-intellectual culture on campus (the greek life was barely beginning to integrate when I was there, with a couple of black girls “allowed” to join sororities, some 50 years after the civil rights movement).
I guess the way I grew up, I didn’t really even know a liberal arts school was a possibility. Or finding support and friends doing things I cared about and enjoyed.
I mostly got depressed and would fail classes every other semester, reading about climate change and systemic injustice, alternative economic systems, and just realizing that most things that made good money weren’t going to help create positive change in the world the way I wanted to see it.
Ex: I started in chemical engineering, wanting to be an environmental engineer. I realized that environmental chemical engineers mostly just make these giant factories look good on paper so they can pat themselves on the back for polluting the environment 2% less. In exchange for this, you get about a 50% pay cut as an environmental chemical engineer. Whereas I would have liked to be pursuing something beyond fossil fuels entirely.
Eventually I was so depressed and lonely, the only classes I felt like I could/wanted to pass were psychology classes. So I finished in psychology (after trying 3-4 other majors) and decided to get a job in social work, making some small change for good and living simply.
I moved out West, got a job in mental health for juvenile offenders in the criminal justice system. This job broke me. It wasn’t the suffering of people I saw there, but the complete inability of the system to offer any “mental health” other than trying to indoctrinate them to follow rules and fit into society. No real validation of their anger at having grown up on the street through no fault of their own. No healthy outlet for it. I experienced it as gaslighting as mental health, and I took part in that system until I realized how bad it was. I was trying to make something good of it, but in reality it’s hard to say I did more good than harm. The kids mostly hated us, calling us “cops” and “feds.” Gaslit us for fun. Eventually administration started gaslighting us about taking too many “mental health days,” as if we were lying, after telling us from the beginning to be proactive about mental health days (they were perennially understaffed because the job was so draining, thus the emails).
Since then I think I have just had a lot of fear and indecision around work. I think that one traumatized me (eventually one kid threatened me, that was the last straw), and I have been working mostly in restaurants for the past 5 years. Did a yoga teacher training.
I guess I’m just sad, because now I see there are people who have successful careers making a difference in disadvantaged communities, or maybe I could have finished the computer science degree if I had had good community around me.
Often I feel emotionally much older than people my age, but as far as career and integration into life, much younger.
I guess I’m just sad I never felt like people around me saw and encouraged my passions, or that I never really felt I was in a community that nurtured my gifts.
I am finally moving out of the south again (I had moved back after that job to be closer to family), and I see how people have been able to grow in their 20’s (I’m 29 now).
I guess I feel like I’m basically 19 career-wise at 29, and it’s hard to start again. Even still I don’t know where to start. And entry level jobs can be so frustrating, because ultimately I think education would be the best route for me. I just haven’t had enough experience in things to know what to do.
Anyways, can anyone relate? Any ideas on how to get started after so long?
I’m thinking I’ll just try a mental health job again and see if I can find a more holistic and definitely non-punitive one. But I always wonder if I couldn’t make a bigger difference in the world with software, I liked coding. Can’t tell if it’s just not for me, or if I only got into mental health because of my own trauma, not my gifts.

I am not The OOP, OOP is u/lolfuckno.
This post was originally posted to weddingshaming.
There was already a BoRU post by u/autochthonouschimera, which didn't include the last update yet.
TRIGGER WARNING: cheating, child neglect, extreme entitledness, talk of abortion
MOOD SPOILERS: infuriating, confusing, frustrating
The new update at the bottom of this post has been marked with --- ---
EDIT/DISCLAIMER: FFS FOLLOW THE NO BRIGADING RULE = DO NOT COMMENT ON THE ORIGINAL POSTS LINKED IN BoRUs!! THIS OFC ALSO INCLUDES NOT TEXTING THE OOP DIRECTLY, NOT REPORTING THEM TO SUBS LIKE care AND NOT INCLUDING THEM IN THREADS AND DISCUSSIONS!! LEAVE THEM ALONE, THIS SUB IS MADE TO LURK AND GET SOME SPICY STORIES WITH CLOSURE, NOT TO HARRASS PEOPLE WHO ALREADY GOT ALOT OF INPUT THROUGH DIFFERENT SUBs!!
Original story was posted on December 7, 2021
Okay, so this girl I know from high school is getting married. We're both 22, for reference. In our senior year of high school she got pregnant, with baby daddy A who will be referred to as Adam. Her super conservative parents kicked her out and she ended up moving in with a friend's family. She barely graduated high school. The only reason she did were because of the generosity and support of our teachers and students who volunteered to help her, which is how we met. We were in the same law class in the morning and she had the worst morning sickness that really affected her ability to be in class. So, I took extra notes for her, tutored her, and brought her her stuff if she hadn't come back by the bell. I wasn't the only one who did stuff like this for her and I know she really appreciates all the assistance we gave her. She had the baby a month after we graduated.
She'd signed up for a 911 dispatcher course for after high school because where we live it's a good steady job, with opportunity for certificates and promotions. But she didn't realize how intensive the course would be and had to drop out. She started working at a grocery store bakery, just until she had a better plan. Adam started an apprenticeship while working part time at a hockey rink, and proposed to her literally the day of her eighteenth birthday, and brought up marriage because "it's the right thing to do" (I don't really agree with that but this isn't about me) and she was always refusing.
She started cheating on him after a while (we're all 19 now), and eventually leaves him for another guy because... She's pregnant again and it is far more likely that this guy, baby daddy B who will be referred to as Brad, is the father of the child. Neither of them can afford lawyers so getting any kind of custody agreement is a mess, and then their parents got involved and they did 50/50 split (still not made official). She has the baby, that does turn out to be Brad's, and everything is okay for about nine months, when she finds out Brad has been cheating on her with his TA. Brad decides to pay child support but doesn't really want contact with the kid, only around holidays and one weekend a month for his parents' sake.
She moves back in with her parents (we're all 20 now) who only accept her back because there's grandchildren around. On the plus side, (when she's 21) she gets to take that year long dispatcher course, and passes with flying colours!
After working as a dispatcher for a year (we're all 22 now) she meets a police officer we'll call Chad, who's 26 and married... And Adam's second (?) cousin (I can't remember how they're related, just that Adam and Chad are related somewhat distantly). She has an affair with him (infidelity is super common among cops apparently). She gets knocked up, his wife divorces him, Chad proposes because "it's the right thing to do", she accepts, and her parents kick her out again for being a [insert expletive here], she moves in with Chad with her two kids. They've started planning the wedding, which... Given the background is something akin to a dumpster fire. Adam is LIVID. He was desperately in love with this girl and hasn't really recovered from what she did to him, and while she rejected his proposals years ago, she's accepted one FROM HIS COUSIN WHO PROPSED FOR THE SAME REASON HE DID.
Adam has basically made a call for loyalty in the family, dividing everyone one who should go, who should give money, etc plus they're having trouble planning anything because of COVID. Her parents have outright said that they're not going, along with half of her family, and her younger sister has been going around and sabotaging what plans they can make.
She has asked me to be a bridesmaid, I said that I couldn't because I live in a different province now, but the truth is, I do not want to be wrapped up in that clusterfuck in any way . I'm just watching the arguments and events unfold on social media because this is quite honestly the most entertaining thing I've seen all year. It's weird to me that she even asked because we're not friends, we never have been. We were friendly strangers in high school, I just helped her out for one class because she needed help and I could give it to her. I was just being nice. But based on how she turned out I'm just sad for her. Three kids in four years, and she's alienated so much of her friends and family because if her actions, and I'm torn between feeling sorry for her and putting my head in my hands.
EDIT 1:
First off, all of your comments are hilarious. Second, I'm going to answer some of the common questions.
We're from a city with over 400,000 thousand people, she just comes from the neighbourhood that is made of either bible thumpers or white trash, with no in between. But the high school we went to was in a completely different neighbourhood than that.
Our school had a pretty good sex Ed course, and they gave out free condoms and had resources to help girls get birth control, and they had programs in place for if students ever got pregnant/were going to be teen parents (they also had one of those classes with the dolls for girls who were high risk at teen pregnancy but she wasn't high risk so she wasn't in that class) I don't if BC just didn't work for her, or if she never tried it.
She started alienating her friends after the affair with Chad came out, because people weren't exactly jumping for joy that she'd broken up a marriage (Chad and his ex didn't have any kids, thankfully, so there were less obstacles). When people weren't immediately ecstatic for her she started getting very snippy, rude, and was "calling the bitches out" on social media for not supporting her new relationship or pregnancy. (Tbh I'm really worried about her health because having this many babies so close together is just not good for her health, mental or physical.) People are also worried that Chad will cheat on her "if he'll cheat with you, he'll cheat on you" and think she should avoid marrying him so that she can just leave him if it happens.
I'll give you updates as they come out, but so far it's just a lot of yelling on social media (mostly from her), some relatives slut shaming her, and people who are just really worried about her because, as funny as this is, this doesn't seem like healthy behaviour.
EDIT 2:
First off, I realized I never gave this girl a name. For the sake of clarity we'll call her Beth. I realize that I didn't mention this before, but all of these are fake names.
Second, to everyone commenting that Chad is at fault for his marriage breaking up, believe me I'm well aware of that. It is his ex wife and her family/friends who solely blame Beth. Chad is also older than her and has more life experience, so I do believe that he could potentially be taking advantage of her naivete. However, she is also an adult who is capable of making her own decisions and has chosen to make poor ones in the past.
Third, people who are upset that I'm posting this story here, claiming I'm humiliating her. She has been posting about this mess on every social media platform she has since they got engaged in July. She put this out there long before I did except she did so in front of friends, family, employers, and coworkers, as well as internet randos.
Fourth, despite getting engaged in July and attempting to start planning then, I was only asked to be a bridesmaid three days ago. I knew that there was a mess going on but I didn't really pay attention to it until she asked me to be a bridesmaid. I tried to ask what was going on, I said that she should talk to someone, but when she completely brushed me off I checked her FB and Instagram and found out about all of... This.
Fifth, I realized that I didn't really talk about how disastrous the wedding planning has been going, see here you go:

• they've had to rebook three times because venues and vendors kept cancelling when infection numbers got worse even thought their wedding was months away
• Beth has been flipping between having the wedding while she's pregnant saying she's proud of her bump, and wanting to wait until they're born because she feels fat, which is unfortunate because she's been breaking down due her insecurity on a public platform
• Beth is currently seven months pregnant
• Beth's great aunt was going to give her her wedding dress to wear (after she gives birth) but Beth's mom freaked and stole the dress from said aunt before Beth could get it and is now keeping it, the great aunt says she's too old to get in a fight and has shrugged it off
• Chad's immediate family is paying for the wedding and has been cut off by the rest of their extended family for 'choosing Chad'
• Beth's wedding colours are pink and green, which is usually a nice combo but the specific shades don't go great together, they're her and Chad's favourite colours, which is fine but she literally made a video talking about these colours for 14 minutes on her insta and both of her kids are just full on bawling in the background and she's ignoring them and she's gotten some flack for that
• Adam is finally settled into his trade and has now hired a lawyer and is trying to get primary custody and not allow his daughter to go to the wedding
• she's planning a zoom baby showebachelorette party and has sent out a registry and she's asking for crazy expensive things
• she's also set up a go fund me to help pay for a honeymoon and is making a lot of posts about how no one loves her cause the fund only has $1267 of the $20k she wanted

I'll update when I can but I'm still in school and while I do want to help her, she's refused help offered in the past and there's only so much of this I can take mentally right now.
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UPDATE:
Hey everyone, so some stuff has gone down, and it doesn't look like it's over yet. Sorry, I didn't update sooner, but Rona came back with a vengeance and totally messed up plans with uni and family. Anyway, onto the update.
From the last update - 16th - Lots of ranting and chaotic wedding planning on social media, she found a dress and has decided she will get married while pregnant, they found a local wedding venue that is very lovely, but I'm shocked she's still trying to book stuff with all of their previous venue cancellations.
December 16th - Her little sister unblocked her to call her a s*ut and tell her that all her wedding plans were stupid. This resulted in a petty and entertaining facebook war until the little sis blocked her again on the 17th.
December 18th - Beth went nuts on social media because Adam had "kidnapped" their daughter, what really happened is that because courts are moving at a snail's pace due to COVID and Adam had reason to believe that their daughter was not safe living with Beth he decided to just... Not give her back. They don't have a custody agreement, and when Beth tried to call the cops they couldn't do anything because he was kinda right. There were dozens of videos on her various social media accounts of her ignoring their daughter, yelling at her daughter for crying or doing other things that toddlers do, it turns out that everything she needed was bought by Adam, food, diapers, clothes, toys, daycare (while it was open) etc. on top of the unofficial child support he was paying every month (which turned out to be $500 a month, a number I find ridiculous because Adam was already paying for literally everything) because she refused to buy anything for her daughter and insisted it was Adam's responsibility. Additionally, after the immediate post-birth appointments, Beth never took baby A to a doctor's appointment, she always deferred that to Adam. Baby A's pediatrician has NEVER met Beth. Beth even tried to get Chad to push back or intimidate him or something, but the local police where we live are under one hell of a microscope after a bunch of dirty cops got busted a couple of years ago. Basically, the cops, and the social worker they ended up calling, ended up saying there was nothing she could do until they get to court. The social worker tried to get her to go to therapy and parenting classes, but Beth refused and went on a fifteen paragraph long rant on Facebook about how she doesn't need parenting classes or therapy (she really, really does though) and called the social worker some choice words.
December 19-24 - Just a bunch of ranting on social media, calling everyone who doesn't enable or justify her behaviour cuss words, slurs, and a whole bunch of other horribly creative things. Also, both she and Chad are under investigation at work now, but she has no idea why. I'm gonna take this time to remind everyone that 99% of this info is coming from her public social media pages where her coworkers are friends and place of employment is listed.
December 25 - I am officially embarrassed to know this woman. I didn't go on her FB page until the evening cause I didn't want to deal with drama, first thing in the morning, on Xmas. In the morning she put on a very beautiful blue maternity dress, got Chad in his police blues, and baby B in a purple romper, and then live-streamed her and her family going to the courthouse to get married on Christmas day. (According to her Twitter, part of this was because their newest venue cancelled on them after COVID numbers spiked) Overall, a pretty tacky thing in my opinion because she stated plain as day, several times, that she intended her wedding anniversary to eclipse Christmas for her children because it's just "so much more special, you know?" (I am so glad that Baby B's grandparents are filing for guardianship) But here's the thing... The courthouse isn't open. Because of COVID for one thing, but also because it's Xmas and Canada has a predominantly Christian history. She proceeded to have a full meltdown, and when Baby B cried because, y'know, the kid's mom was screaming up a storm and scaring her, Beth called her a c*nt. Yup. So done with this bitch.
December 28 - I ran into her at a vaccine clinic cause we were both getting our booster shots. She didn't recognize me at first but one of my old bosses (cause I used to work at the hospital the vaccine clinic was in) called my name and said hi, so she came up to me after my old boss had left. We talked a bit while we sat down for the mandatory waiting period after getting the shot. She asked how I was but didn't even wait for me to respond before she started ranting and complaining about her life. I was just going to sit there until the time was up and then just politely make my exit, but when she started talking shit about her kids something inside me snapped. I just said "Do you even like your kids? Do you like being a mom?" She got pretty quiet for a second and then said "no". Idk, her voice and demeanour completely changed and we just sat in silence until our time was up. I said goodbye but it was really awkward.
December 31st (today) - I just looked at her feed and, this is such a shocking what-the-actual-f*** moment. She's thinking about giving up her kids. She went on about how recently she was asked if she liked her kids or being a mom, and how she realized that she didn't. She hates her children and blames them for ruining her life, and how she doesn't want to be a mom. I mean, nothing is official yet, but what the hell?!
I'll update as stuff happens now that I have the time, but this whole thing has been a big giant mess. Also, sorry for any formatting or grammatical errors, I'm not used to using Reddit on my PC.
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UPDATE
Okay, so, some stuff has happened and most of it's good? Also, the TL:DR for this update will be at the bottom
Jan 4th - Beth (and Chad) stopped posting on all social media. I was actually a little worried she died, I mean this woman posts everything short of her trips to the bathroom on IG.
Oddly enough, this got people messaging or interacting with her social media pages because she was usually the one to start contact, and that contact was usually yelling. No one heard from them and some people started to be like "should we call the cops for a wellness check?" Until Chad posted a status saying that they're fine but are "busy, please stop trying to contact us right now". Everyone listened but it was weird.
Jan 11 - I got a notification that Beth and Chad are active on social media again, but I didn't feel like drama so I didn't check out any of their posts.
Jan 12 (today) - she messaged me on FB asking me to be her MOH. She also kept going on about the resort in Cancun that she and Chad were looking to have their wedding at... This coming February. Omnicrom is really bad where we are, so no one should be travelling anywhere. I've actually had to delay my trip back to the province where I go to university. No one should be travelling anywhere.
Beth also found out that Chad was cheating on her with one of her co-workers and called the woman a "homewrecker" on FB tagged her, and posted the texts she found on Chad's phone. But Chad is the "love of her life" so she's forgiven him, but not the other woman. Which I find very hypocritical, considering how she and Chad got together.
She also sent pics of possible bridesmaid dresses and they are the most hideous dresses I've ever seen. I know that some brides do that thing where they want to look a million times better by comparison but this was just ridiculous. One of them looked like a partially deflated balloon with feathers strapped to it. She also openly admitted that she expected everyone attending to pay 3k, 2k would go towards that guest's stay at the resort and 1k would go to her and Chad and they will expected wedding gifts, so that they could get their room for free. Apparently, she talked to someone at the resort and if she got enough people to book their rooms she and Chad would get theirs for free. She also wanted the money to be given to her instead of directly to the hotel so that people wouldn't realize that she was taking 1k of their money. Beth sent me a pic of the wedding dress she wanted, and it's definitely a clubbing dress. If that's what she wants that's fine (and for the record I do think she would look great in it, Beth's (current) dream wedding dress ) but she wants all the guests to be dressed black tie. And she's already sent a list of unreasonable requests. Such as;

• all women must wear heels (for a wedding in the beach???)
• no one is allowed to have a baby or be pregnant (really?)
• girls must have longer than shoulder length hair, boys must have very short hair, only and inch or two long
• no one is allowed to be skinnier than her
• she will be providing diets for everyone attending based on how she wants us to look
• she and Chad must get bachelor and bachelorette parties both in Canada and in Mexico that need to be "fit for a king and queen" and both must be paid for but anyone but the bride and groom "cause that's just tacky"
• no unnatural hair
• no tattoos (you have five tattoos, Beth, and in the dress you want all will be on full display)
• no one is allowed to talk to her directly, they must speak through the MOH and BM

Honestly there's a lot more but I didn't feel like typing all that out. She's posted the list on FB and IG and people are already calling her a bridezilla.
I was also just kinda weirded out because aside from the previous convo at the hospital and when she originally asked me to be a bridesmaid, we haven't spoken since high school. So I respectfully declined, stating that the virus and school were my top concerns right now. Then, I decided to check her socials to see if she'd posted anything. She had and everything was basically how it was before the hiatus... Except her kids are nowhere to be found. No "look at my cute baby" pics are kids crying in the background of her videos. Nothing. Though, based on her new pics of herself, she's given birth to baby C. I mean, she's definitely still recovering, but she also definitely had a baby and that baby is not on any of her socials, so when she responded to my decline with an attempt at guilting me to be her MOH, I asked her where her kids were. This was her response.
"Oh, I left them at the side of the road in our way home from the hospital those moochers could walk home lol"
I was like, please tell me you're not being serious (especially cause it looks like she had the baby days ago). And she replied "I was just joking you shouldn't be so serious all the time". Honey, you made a joke about child abandonment/abuse, you're not being serious enough. And then I finally got the update on the kids.

• Baby A is still with Adam, Beth signed away her rights
• Baby B and Baby C have been given to a mutual cousin of Adam and Chad who is infertile (tbh I didn't need that last tidbit of info or the three paragraph long rant about how God hates infertile women, I didn't even read all of it, I couldn't, and I didn't think that Beth could be so cruel to even think those things). I checked out the FB page of Baby B's grandparents and they're happy with their grandchild's new parents, it looks like the cousin and her husband and welcoming them to the family as another set of grandparents and will let them have access to B. So yay!
• One thing I do need to stress though is that because of COVID the courts in our areas are either moving at a snail's pace or closed, so none of this is "official" but Beth (and Chad) has signed paperwork and all that needs to happen now is presenting that to a judge.

And when I rejoined our convo she said the doc she had for baby C gave her brith control, and she was surprised cause after her first pregnancy she asked her doctor for it but he refused to give her any. She mentioned that her old doctor was also her mom's and sister's doctor, she ended up asking the doc who delivered baby C to be her new doctor, so I hope that works out.
After learning all this my convo with Beth started to go down hill...
Beth: wait, did you actually think I would just leave my kids at the side of the road! I just didn't want to be a mom, but I wasn't a bad one
Me: Beth, I think that you've been through a lot of trauma in the past few years, and that it's gotten to you mentally and that you should speak to a professional.
(Of course, Beth has been a bad mom, but she does need mental health help and I wasn't going to convince her to get it, or to not tell at me, if I said that )
Beth: what? You think I'm crazy?!
Me: no. I think that getting kicked out as a teen because of a pregnancy and having your family actively reject you and try to sabotage you must have been very painful. Plus, pregnancy puts a lot of mental stress on women and you've had three in such a short time span, I just want you to take care of yourself and get what you want in life, and I think that will start with you taking care of your mental health.
Beth: what I want... IS FOR YOU TO GO STRAIGHT TO HELL! Beth then calls me every cuss word, expletive, and derogatory word she can think of one of the words she called me was a derogatory word about people from my ethnicity and my blood is boiling that she thought it was okay to say that to me.
So, I'm now on her hit list. She's been blowing up my social media all day, on her last FB post where she called me a slur she said that she still expects a good wedding gift from me. Yeah, no. So I've blocked her on everything, and I've decided to completely cut off contact. This will be my last update.
TL:DR - Beth went on a social media blackout for a bit, had baby C. Gave up all her kids, baby A is still with Adam, Baby B and Baby C are with a mutual cousin of Adam and Chad and baby B's grandparents have access. Chad cheated on her and she forgave him, but she probably shouldn't have. She's decided to have her wedding in a little over a month in Cancun and is expecting unreasonable things of everyone already. She asked me to be MOH I respectfully declined. I also suggested that she talk to a mental health professional because she's been through a lot in the last few years and she cussed me out, she also called me a derogatory name directed at people of my ethnicity and that was the final nail in the coffin. I'm now on her hit list. But her kids are safe and I have no interest in going to wedding so I'm cutting contact completely and have already blocked her on all my socials. I'm refusing to be involved with her anymore and will not be updating on the situation.
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--- EDIT - NEW UPDATE --- - JANUARY 25, 2023 - TL:DR AT THE BOTTOM
Hi, everyone, I didn't think I would be making another update, but here I am. I don't know if anyone will even care but whatever. I saw a YouTuber, Charlotte Dobre, do an entire video about this post on Facebook (which was funny, she did it well), [editor's note: here's the video in question and also: check out Charlotte Dobre's subreddit !] and got so nervous that Beth was gonna see it. Turned out, she's seen it and does not give a single damn, because as I pointed out, the majority of the info in this post came from her public social media. She also doesn't know who posted it (more on that in the update). I am still no contact with Beth and have no plans to change that anytime soon, but we have mutual friends who have told and shown me what's happened.
First things first, she and Chad did get married, but they eloped. According to all sources they are completely and utterly miserable though. Chad has proven to be and overall lazy and unfaithful husband, and Beth has really gotten into feminism (with a focus on reproductive issues) after she started using birth control, and Roe v Wade getting overturned (even though we're in Canada) really caused tension in their marriage. As it turns out, Chad thinks that abortion is murder and God created women for the purpose of making babies.
Beth tried to argue that not all women want or should be mothers using herself as an example, and then Chad went ahead and used her as an example of why women should be forced to have kids, because in the end she gave kids to an infertile couple. She didn't take that well and said that her entire life and future was ripped away from her and destroyed the second she got pregnant with baby A. Adam was never slut shamed or demeaned like she was, both at home and at school (which is a fair point, myself and many others were helpful and supportive but there were a lot of people who judged the hell out of her and said really nasty stuff) and that if she hadn't gotten pregnant she would've gone to college or university because she lost the general and financial support of her family with that positive pregnancy test. Chad has made a Tinder account. Beth was informed but it doesn't seem like she gave a damn.
So basically you could cut the tension with a knife.
And with her family, her sister came out as gay and cut off/has been cut off from their parents. But she's got a partial scholarship so she's doing okay. She and Beth are NOT on good terms but have met up and acknowledged that their parents messed them up by being religious nuts and their parents encouraged them to be competitive with each other and sabotage each other. Apparently their dad's motto is "competition brings out the best in everyone" (ugh). But they've talked and that's good enough for now.
Neither Beth nor Chad have custody or visitation of their children, which Chad is starting to regret because he's suddenly getting more and more into the church and religion. Chad talked to Beth about getting baby C back but Beth shut that down hard and warned the cousin who adopted baby C (officially and legally btw).
Beth started going to therapy after she and Chad got married, which makes me very happy and excited for her.
There was a rumour going around that Chad has a mistress and it took me a while to confirm, but it's true. He's cheating on her with a paramedic and she knows. Beth is fully aware. Idk if she plans to do anything about it or just continue to ignore it, but I hope she leaves his ass. I'm still not gonna talk to her, she crossed so many lines, but she's grown and improved a lot and her life would be a lot better without that sac of scum in her life.
Now, I have given a few details in my post that should've revealed my identity to her, namely her asking me to be her MOH. I have found out that she actually asked around 15 girls (including myself) to be her MOH, without telling any of us about the others because she was trying to get money from all of us and because her mental health has just been very bad and she needed help. And of those 15, 8 have been going to school out of province and of those eight we all had basically the same classes in high school. And apparently doesn't remember our discussion at the vaccination clinic and had major blow up with everyone she asked to be MOH. So she knows it's one of 8 people and reportedly has no interest in trying to narrow that number down. (Chad did the same thing with his groomsmen, but idk any of the numbers)
TL:DR Beth and Chad got married (eloped), are miserable, have zero custody or visitation with any of their children, Chad's cheating and Beth doesn't appear to care, Chad is super sexist, Beth is a feminist now, Beth's sister is gay and they've talked but not reconciled, Beth asked too many girls to be MOH for money and doesn't know the ID of who made this post.
Dear "Beth", if this post gets forwarded to you or somehow graces your phone screen, leave Chad. He's trash and you'll be much better without him in your life. And though I'm not willing to talk to you again because of your words and actions, I do wish for you to have a wonderful and happy life.
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Please remember the NO BRIGADING RULE: do not comment on the original posts linked in BoRUs, see Rule 7. Doing so can result into a permanent ban from this sub and the other linked sub(s).
I'm not the OOP!

This post is not a criticism of any one Hindu denomination, it is of all. Natural disclaimer from my side would be this: yes, I understand that no one person should be expected to be a jack of all trades and perhaps it is better to be the master of one. However, to restrict oneself or one's disciples to avoid exposure to challenging ideas and thoughts is by no means a good approach to knowledge systems.

Schools, Colleges and Universities

In Hindu Systems of Knowledge we have so many schools, sub-schools, sub-sub-schools and so on. Only once in a millennium is there in the Nyaya Darshana a Gautama or a Gangesa. Similarly, a Shankara or a Vidyaranya in Vedanta. Most darshanikas these days have limited if not any inter-school understanding.
It appears that most schools as they exist and practise today are only tending to grow narrower and narrower. Completely shielding themselves from external challenges or criticisms. They exist in their own closed echo-chambers where they've conditioned their shishyas to believe and clap to every opinion piece of theirs as if it's a Shruti Vakya.
What started at one point of time as a new school taught by a great person with a viewpoint generated as a product of oceanic scholarship has now grown into one or more (if there were splits) giant universities where the only thing that is taught is that great man's viewpoint. While nothing is wrong in learning one thing well, most of these "universities" also explicitly bar it's students from entertaining counter-opinions or ideas.

Graduates with Many Degrees

Thankfully for us plebs there have always been some ultra smart students who come once in a while to show that it is both possible and profitable to indulge in learning different Darshana Shashtras in the same lifetime. It's thanks to these brilliant ones that we've gotten fresh viewpoints around which new systems grew. Meanwhile, the system purists have almost always caused the school to split or have served to cause the misinterpretation of the original masters.
Here. I'll name a few of these Ultra Graduates:

Champions

1) Yajnavalkya (such a list can only start with him) 2) Shandilya (yoga + bhakti + jnana rolled into one) 3) Vyasa (Gita: the only good multisystem work) 4) Patanjali (samkya, yoga, ayurveda, vyakarana) 5) Nagarjuna (spent his life breaking others down) 6) Bhartrhari (this happens when a wife cheats) 7) Mandana Mishra (unified opposing schools) 8) Jayarashi (cancelled everyone) 9) Vachaspati Mishra (absolute beast) 10) Abhinavagupta (da Vinci's role model) 11) Sriharsha (sweets distributor) 12) Vidyaranya (the curator) 13) Appayya Dikshithar (star of the south) 14) Vijnanabhikshu (vedantin who does yoga) 15) Ganganath Jha (true philosopher)

Honourable Mentions:

learnt most darshanas but worked on only one. - Kalidasa - Dignaga - Kumarila - Shankara - Kshemaraja - Ramanuja - Gangesa
.
Obviously I've missed many names but this much should serve to prove the point. It's good to be a school boy only so far as one is still learning the basics of that knowledge system. It's important to evolve out of it and grow one's own sphere of understanding.
I'd love to here from you about more open-minded and creative philosphers or about what you think about those mentioned above.
.
I know, I know, it's better to pursue Jnana the way Shankara describes or Bhakti the way Ramanuja describes and just go get that "Moksha". But not everyone cares for immediate Dukha Nivritti. Some would rather cook a great multi-course, multi cuisine feast and have it too rather than eat plain rice all day everyday before calling the big quits.

(32) Deux Ans de vacances (Two Years' Vacation, 1888) (2 volumes) 105K words
The 32nd Extraordinary Voyage takes us back to the South Pacific Ocean for a robinsonade, the third book by Verne in this genre (after the epic "The Mysterious Island" and the more light-hearted "Godfrey Morgan"). It is also the second out of four Verne novels with children as main characters (the others are "Dick Sand, A Captain at Fifteen", "Foundling Mick" and "Travel Scholarships").
First read or reread?: This is a reread for me. I loved it when I read it as a kid, being one of my favorites in the series.
What is it about?: Fourteen boys of three different nationalities, aged between eight and fourteen, all boarders at a New Zealand school, were about to start a six-week summer trip by sea. Unfortunately, the night before their departure, while the schooner's crew were still ashore, the moorings unfastened under unknown circumstances and the ship drifted to sea. Caught by a terrible storm, they are cast upon a deserted land, where they must try to get along together despite their internal rivalries in order to survive.
When rereading a childhood favorite there's always some concern that the magic may be lost, that it might be better not to spoil the memories by revisiting these books. On the other hand, given that I'm enjoying this project of reading all the Extraordinary Voyages, why shouldn't that be the case with this one?
I'm happy to report that the magic was still there for me. Yes, I'm no longer the same age as the characters of this novel, an ideal age to marvel at the adventures and resourcefulness of this group of kids, but this is still a genuinely good adventure novel, and it awakened many memories of different passages that I hadn't thought about for decades but that, it turns out, I still remembered well, so deep an impression they made on me at the time.
Unlike the partly satirical and light-hearted "Godfrey Morgan" this is a serious robinsonade, in the vein of "The Mysterious Island". One problem with this genre is that, after so many novels, it tends to tread familiar ground. You know how it goes: the shipwreck, getting to an unknown land, the problem of finding fresh water, food and refuge, taking stock of the resources that have been saved, exploring the surroundings, trying to find a mean of leaving or being rescued...
Verne, however, succeeds in keeping this story fresh and giving it individuality, first by having a group of boys, between 14 and 8 years old, as the castaways, without any adult to lead them. Their inexperience and the need to take care of the younger ones add a level of tension to the story, and makes their triumphs more meritorious. Because of the age of the characters, it has a certain additional young adult flavor.
Another tool that Verne uses to good effect here is the internal conflict and personality clashes within the group, exacerbated by the difference in nationalities (most of the boys are British, with a couple of French brothers and one American). The struggles of the young castaways to govern themselves and decide who among them should lead becomes an important theme. Very different, for example, from "The Mysterious Island", where the group of adult characters did not really have internal struggles and had a clear leader in the uber-competent engineer Cyrus Smith. Having these conflicts among the main group of characters who share the same objective is unusual in Verne, although he did it for example in "The Adventures of Three Englishmen and Three Russians in South Africa".
In this sense, we could compare this book, perhaps, to other two classic novels that feature a group of schoolboys shipwrecked on a desert island: "The Coral Island" (1857) by R. M. Ballantyne and "Lord of the Flies" (1954) by William Golding. The boys in "The Coral Island", although their group is much smaller, have a mostly idyllic relationship, with no infighting. In "Lord of the Flies", of course, the opposite is true, to a catastrophic extent. "Two Years' Vacation" avoids both extremes, and it feels the more real for it. The boys in this novel are never in any danger of murdering each other, and yet their disputes represent a real threat to their cooperation. Without this being in any way a deep psychological study, I think this internal conflict makes the characters seem more real and helps the readers care about them. Even the boys who are in the wrong are not villains: they may be flawed, but they have their good qualities and are admirable in some ways, which is a subtlety that I think serves the story well.
As a curiosity, there was actually a real-life situation in 1965 where a group of schoolboys were shipwrecked on a desert island for more than a year. Civilization and the human tendency to cooperate won out, and it was very different from "Lord of the Flies" ( https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/may/09/the-real-lord-of-the-flies-what-happened-when-six-boys-were-shipwrecked-for-15-months )
Coming back to this novel, the pacing is good. Verne was playing to his strengths here, except for the fact that we have no science fiction elements and no fabulous vehicles. (Although, Verne being Verne, at one point we have the characters building a giant kite to raise one of them in the air in order to reach a higher observation point.) It feels very classic Verne, at a time when the author was writing a bunch of historical novels which are quite competent, but which probably do not capture the imagination as much as his best-known works. This one could have been written at the beginning of his career, which is why I say that any attempt to divide Verne's work in two different periods has to be seen just as a tendency and not as a fixed rule.
I could see some of the defects in this book that I was too inexperienced to notice when I first read it. For example, the unrealistic fauna, too diverse for such an isolated environment with such extreme winter weather. But then, this is a very Vernian thing. What the author did not know, he invented, and with our 21st century knowledge we sometimes notice unrealistic elements that Verne's contemporary readers probably would miss. Not that this prevented me in any way from enjoying the story, though.
This one is also interesting as an example of race issues in Verne's work. One of the characters, Moko, is a black child, a ship's boy who is the only member of the crew who was in the ship at the time it got unmoored. He is depicted in a positive manner, sensible, brave, resourceful, loyal... But at the same time, when it comes to voting for a leader there's never any question of him taking part in the process. There's a class difference here, but I have no doubt that it's because of his race that everyone (including himself) takes it for granted that he doesn't vote. I have seen Goodreads reviewers bemoaning this implicit racism, and if this were a historical novel written today it would go differently, but, you know, it's how things were, and if we rewrite history to make it seem that this was not the case, we are only fooling ourselves.
According to Verne scholars, the writer based the character of Briant, a French boy who is one of the leaders of the shipwrecked boys, on Aristide Briand, a charismatic school friend of his son Michel who would much later go on to serve eleven terms as Prime Minister of France during the French Third Republic and receive the 1926 Nobel Peace Prize. Michel Verne, meanwhile, would serve as the inspiration for Gordon, the American boy who is less brilliant than the rivals Briant and Doniphan but who is quite sensible and practical, trying to maintain peace between the two factions (I guess by this point the relationship between Jules Verne and his son had already improved).
Enjoyment factor: Very high. Still one of my favorite Vernes. I think this story deserves to be better known, and it would be if it were written by a different author, but Verne has so many famous novels that some good ones get lost in the group. Being a straightforward adventure story with no science fiction elements probably does not help it get noticed. Funnily enough, this one is very popular in Japan, of all places, and, to be fair, it is one of the most popular among Verne's lesser-known novels.
Next up: Family Without a Name

I’ve been fascinated with the on-going demolition and remaking of college sports – and college football, in particular – for the better part of 2 decades now. Basically, dating back to a few years after the inception of the BCS. And this post (and comments) on Defector prompted me to finally jot down my (always scattered) thoughts which follow…
A lot of the absurdity of the situation is pretty well encapsulated in Cardale Jones’ tweet from 2012:

"Why should we have to go to class if we came here to play FOOTBALL, we ain't come to play SCHOOL, classes are POINTLESS."

And what wasn’t captured in the tweet itself was probably picked up in the giant pile of hot takes it spawned. But, however inelegantly stated, at its core is a basic truth: These guys are NOT going to Ohio State or Miami or Auburn or Florida State or any number of other FBS schools ranging the academic spectrum from UCLA to Mississippi State. I might possibly be willing to make exceptions for Stanford and certainly would for the service academies. But the rest?
And let’s be honest, the average football player is NOT an academic colossus. Sure, there are occasional exceptions (Like… this guy: John Urschel) and it’s not to say they are stupid people but the reality is that most people find it very difficult to hold down a full-time job that requires travel AND a full-time class load. The reality for football scholarship athletes – particularly in the upper tier of the Power 5 conferences - is a lot like trying to do that. And people like John Urschel are simply exceptionally gifted human beings both intellectually and physically. He's a +3 standard deviation person with respect to both intellectual and physical talents. Most people are lucky to be +1 at one thing. (But I digress.)
So what does college football look like if it is fully “professionalized” or the similar state of no longer being an amateur sport? These aren’t really the same things. Kind of like legalizing as opposed to decriminalizing in a way.
If you’re fully professionalized do you end up with NFL minor league teams just associated with colleges? Does the sport end up with a championship game of the Seattle Huskies (in purple & gold unis) vs. Ann Arbor Wolverines (in maize & blue)?
Sometimes I think that what is really attracting the local boosters is the dream of being a team owner. I imagine it’s the same weird feeling just “more” as the people that are “shareholders” of the Green Bay Packers. A lot of these guys are very rich – but usually not NFL team owner rich. So instead they get to role-play like they are with college teams and players for whom the local magnate's wealth level is impressive. To think this is a modern phenomenon is ahistorical; anyone who’s watched the 30 for 30 on the Pony Express and the shenanigans at SMU can tell you that boosters have been throwing money around forever.
You have several different and inter-related blocs in the college football universe:
- The Players: these guys usually want to go to the NFL. Most of them are wrong, sort of by definition. They are not going to be professional football players. It is obviously to their detriment that many do not care about college since they have often found their way into fairly selective academic institutions, but youth squandering opportunity is a tale as old as time.

• Can they negotiate “guaranteed” contracts? What do they look like?
• Medical care?
• Could they form a union a la the attempt at Northwestern football a few years ago?
• What amount of salary are we talking here? Will it be more or less than the usual amount of scholarship?

- The Fans: they usually have a different relationship to their teams than the average NFL fan by dint of having spent some of their most formative years often in the (literal) shadow of the stadium. Not to mention probably having dropped anywhere from $50-200K+ in tuition depending on when & where they went to school. It’s much more tribal and competitive. There was a hilarious recent incident where the Texas stadium went bonkers when the Big 12 commissioner came out at the Texas Tech game and they just absolutely roasted the guy on the Jumbotron playing back his recorded statements hoping that Tech would defeat the Longhorns. That kind of petty hilarity is just not something you see at the NFL level. But the reason these incidents do occur has a lot to do with the intense relationship fans/alumni have with their schools and teams.

• Casual Fans: the run of the mill alumni who likes to watch their team on Saturday, maybe tailgate once in a while if they live close by and consider a trip to a bowl game if it’s in a good city.
• BOOSTERS: The people that donate to the athletic department, they’re like super-fans. See above about wishing/dreaming they could be team owners and behaving in the most hilarious ways.
  • Sometimes I think that what is really attracting the local boosters is the dream of being a team owner. I imagine it’s the same weird feeling just “more” as the people that are “shareholders” of the Green Bay Packers. A lot of these guys are very rich – but usually not NFL team owner rich. So instead they get to role-play like they are.
  • Do they keep donating if it doesn’t count as a tax write off?

- Athletic Departments: I feel like this is where things start to get very, very interesting. After all, the devil is in the details right?

• In some schools, football is a profit center which then helps to fund other “non-revenue” sports like track, volleyball, etc. What happens to them?
• Title IX: what happens if you dump all those football scholarships?
• Despite the occasional claim, I do NOT believe any D1 athletic department is paying for academic departments. Or at least not more than 5-10 programs and certainly not in significant amounts relative to the academic budget. See the Knight commission report.
• What does happen if they are forced to run football as a business though?
  • Coaches: Do coach salaries decrease? Do they more resemble NFL guys where their recruitment matters less and their schemes matter so much more?
  • Administrators: fewer or cheaper?
  • Taxes!!

- The Universities & Colleges: While the athletics departments are parts of the institutions they are more often than not supported by the institutions themselves via allocations of student fees, etc. See here: (https://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/finances)

• So what if the university had no football team? Can they just keep any money transferred to football program via the athletics department and force it to stand on its own?
• Supposedly, many 2nd tier institutions see football as advertising for their schools and claim they see a jump in applications following bowl appearances. This is the “Flutie effect”.
• Can the universities just license their NIL to the football teams?
• If the football team has been subsidizing non-revenue sports, are they willing to pony up potentially more money to support those other teams?

- TV networks: Obviously, the TV rights revenue is the fuel in the engine. What happens with this stream of dollars is purely a reaction to how the intensity of the fans is altered if players are simply contracted.
- NCAA: lol. These vultures have been slowly obsoleting themselves for decades now. That said, they will cling desperately to the NCAA tournament which is really their last major source of revenue. Other than that, in a newly professionalized reality they have literally zero function in terms of rules enforcement. Unless they can somehow morph themselves into the enforcer of the new rules that are akin to those in the NFL like player tampering and such.
- The NFL: Another interesting player. In one sense I think they would not be too worried, assuming this newly professionalized league keeps the player pipeline flowing. But if they can’t – and given the history of the USFL, XLF, etc. - I bet the NFL will be very, very sad. It wouldn’t surprise me if they have lots of behind-the-scenes discussion trying to slow down the destruction of what remains of amateurism.
Other related questions:

• Does the brand make the player, vice-versa or some combination? How do you figure out that ratio?
• Can the players just stay more than 4 years?
• What will the salaries for average players look like?
• How do the relative successes and (mostly) failures of the XFL, USFL, UFL, AAF, etc fit into the future of professionalized college football?
• Could you allow deferred college attendance after the years of eligibility? (see comment here)
• NBA G-League Attendance: Some dude compiled that here. Is that the future of a professionalized "college football"?
• Is there a simile between medical school – residency – attending physician to HS footballer – college footballer – NFLer in terms of compensation/workload?

Note: somehow I managed to delete this post from just before March Madness kicked off, but luckily had it saved. So now it's reposted!

15-minute read.

update: Border Commissions and expert groups from Armenia and Azerbaijan have installed 40 border markers on the state border in the Tavush-Gazakh section

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the former regime-organized rally continues to march from Tavush to Yerevan

Context in Saturday news. An MP from ARF/Kocharyan party and an opposition churchman Bagrat Galstanyan organized a march in an attempt to "gather 50,000" protesters in Yerevan.
The organizers say "Religious Armenia will defeat Real Armenia", in reference to PM Pashinyan. Archbishop Bagrat was a participant in Robert Kocharyan's 2022 rally during which he made a similar statement: "The church will defeat the street and dux". Street & dux = Pashinyan's 2018 revolution. On Sunday Bagrat said "at this time" their demand is not Pashinyan's ouster; they want to stop the border delimitation because they believe it's "illegal". A week earlier the ARF/Kocharyan faction unsuccessfully promoted a motion to essentially declare the use of 1991 Almaty borders illegal and to rely on the 1993 "de facto" borders instead.
Archbishop Bagrat said he has received the permission and blessing of the church leader Garegin B to hold this rally. "He is our father, our leader."
Along the way, the organizers encountered supporters who brought them water and food, and opponents who called them "idiots" and "sons of donkeys".
MIKA BADALYAN (pro-Kremlin blogger, ex-regime activist): I can't imagine the condition Pashinyan is in right now. He has to meet Putin on May 8, and just a day later Archbishop Bagrat will reach Yerevan, and he won't just arrive there, but will launch a battle that will be Nikol's final one. Get drunk, Nikol, get drunk. Be prepared, Armenians around the world! Each one of you must take part in this battle. //
In related news: Mika Badalyan is accused of assaulting a journalist Zhirayr Voskanyan from a pro-Western media outlet on Sunday. According to authorities, the victim refused to pursue charges on the spot after the incident. An investigation was launched nevertheless. In a video uploaded after the incident, the victim said he plans to visit a police station.
ARTUR SAKUNTS (Helsinki NGO, about the church's role): Let's say the political resource is so low and bankrupt that you have to involve the church to achieve your political goals, but why mythologize the role of the Apostolic Church in Armenian history so much? Have you at least read the works of Leo, or a more modern author and historian Hamlet Davtyan, or the works of monumentologist Samvel Karapetyan? Are you familiar with the positions of the church during the Kingdom of Cilicia? After all, any thought and idea should be based on facts, analysis, and conclusions. There can be no salvation built on myths, it will lead to another defeat.
REPORTER (to Robert Kocharyan, 2022 protests): Would you be open to the idea of being appointed as the President?
ROBERT KOCHARYAN (2022 protests): The best candidate right now would be a respected member of a church. There are such people. They are both respected and driven by national interests. That's my offer. And on that offer, yes, it can be negotiated. //
Armenia's H1 public TV ran a segment describing the attempts to sabotage the border delimitation process as being beneficial for Russia and Azerbaijan. "Some forces do not want to turn the line of contact into a stable state border." Russia has been critical of the Tavush delimitation process and called it a Western plan, and some Armenian analysts believe Russia is afraid of losing all influence in the region if Armenia and Azerbaijan establish stable and peaceful relations. There is also criticism towards the church for "not holding a similar march to the Lachin Corridor to demand Russian soldiers to open it" in 2023. The H1 report also shows several residents of border villages who do not oppose the delimitation process. "Their voices were intentionally drowned out."
video, source, source, source, source, source, source, source, source, source, source, source, source, source, source, source, source,

Q&A with Parliament President Alen Simonyan

REPORTER: What is the likelihood of a peace agreement at this phase?
SIMONYAN: There has been an opportunity to sign a peace agreement since late 2023 but Azerbaijan hasn't displayed political will. The ongoing delimitation is a signal that a peace agreement is possible and it must be signed ASAP.
REPORTER: The Azerbaijani president says the peace agreement document is fully in line with Azerbaijan's interests.
SIMONYAN: The document is fully in line with international norms, which Armenia shares. There are some disagreements, hence the back-and-forth exchange of proposals. We must ensure that all formulations are very clear and both parties understand what the language says because the Nov. 9 agreement and its bargaining by certain countries [Russia] should not happen again.
REPORTER: Do you plan to respond to the letter sent by [Russian Senator Matvienko]?
SIMONYAN: I have not received a letter from Duma. My colleague Sarkis Khandanyan, the recipient, responded within 1-2 days of receiving it. Perhaps it wasn't convenient for [Russian MFA Spokesperson] Mrs. Zakharova to acknowledge it during their usual staged press conference.
REPORTER: But the letter was directed at you, about your speech [in Spain].
SIMONYAN: I stand behind my statements and I represent Armenian voters. If in certain countries [Russia] the government doesn't represent the people, it's their problem. In Armenia, the ruling and opposition parties represent the people.
REPORTER: Does PM Pashinyan plan to attend Putin's inauguration ceremony?
SIMONYAN: No.
REPORTER: What's your assessment of the march originating from Tavush? Is their demand just or unjust?
SIMONYAN: I don't know what their political demand is. They are against the delimitation of state borders.
REPORTER: [Opposition] political parties have joined this march. Do you see a political context here? Is a change of power likely?
SIMONYAN: Not likely until the 2026 elections. How many different people is the ex-regime going to use to attempt to replicate our 2018 success? Can they come up with something new? Who has welcomed the rally so far? In the end, they are going to present the Banani Mihran Poghosyan, Kocharyan, Serj, Vazgen Manukyan, and Vanetsyan Artur [figures who have endorsed the rally].
REPORTER: But anyone can use the technologies you used in 2018. It's not your personal property.
SIMONYAN: Who said it's our personal property? Let them use it. Let them use it. They keep failing because the real actors remain the same and they only change the face of the process. Today they are playing on the emotions of the population.
REPORTER: Are Kocharyan, Serj, and others behind Archbishop Bagrat?
SIMONYAN: Are you seriously asking this? What media outlet do you represent? Is it Azatutyun? I understand your question now. I wonder, the interests of which forces does Azatutyun represent? Sometimes I wonder that. Let's say you receive your funding from international organizations, from foreign structures, do you represent their interests?
REPORTER: Will Pashinyan leave if the opposition gathers many supporters in Yerevan?
SIMONYAN: Will the opposition lay down its parliamentary mandates if they fail to gather more people than they did last time? We are confident that the public supports our effort to delimit the state borders, wants to establish peace, doesn't want a war, doesn't want the return of ex-regime, doesn't want to live in a religious theocracy, and sees through the attempts by politicians to manipulate with the use of religion and emotions. The public is wise.
REPORTER: Do you see a foreign trace behind this rally?
SIMONYAN: I see bloggers financed from various centers [Russia], and statements praising this process by figures located mostly in a single country [Russia]. So of course I see a foreign trace. Do you really not understand what's happening?
REPORTER (Azatutyun, still upset about being called an agent): If it is maybe obvious to you that doesn't mean it is for the general public. You must clarify so the public can know.
SIMONYAN: Yes, and I know what the public knows and what it doesn't know because, unlike the ex-regime, I speak with the people. I know their complaints towards me and their support towards our policies.
REPORTER: Which country is meddling in this process?
SIMONYAN: Can you guess?
REPORTER: Will PM Pashinyan take part in the EAEU (economic bloc) session [on May 8]?
SIMONYAN: Armenia holds the presidency of EAEU and I believe it's the right thing to participate in it. [Pashinyan will take part in the EAEU meeting and will meet Putin as well.]
video, [other video,](source, source,

Armenia has stopped financing CSTO and has frozen its participation in CSTO activities, while simultaneously developing relations with NATO and EU: Putin's assistant Yuri Ushakov

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ruling party MP accuses Russia of deceiving Armenia's opposition parties and Nagorno-Karabakh leaders

MP VAHAGN ALEXANYAN: We have to revisit the events of 2023 because the organizers of "Operation Nagorno-Karabakh" are attempting the same operation from Tavush. Let me be clear: the organizers are not located in Armenia.
Pashinyan announced that the international community [West] will support if we lower the bar [not de jure independent republic] for Nagorno-Karabakh's status. This was welcomed by our international partners. There were also international partners who, with the efforts of Armenia, attempted to organize a Stepanakert-Baku dialogue on the European platform, including in Sophia. Everything was ready for the NK-AZ meeting to discuss the safety conditions that would allow 100,000+ Armenians to continue to live in NK.
But the "owners" [Kremlin] of Armenia's opposition parties prohibited NK representatives from flying to Sophia. Simultaneously, the organizers [Kremlin] worked with its puppets in Armenia -- politicians and opposition-owned media outlets -- to convince them that Russia plans to remain 30+ years in NK. They encouraged the opposition to go shout "Nikol traitor", "QP Turks", "you are land givers", this and that. The opposition followed their orders and did those.
"Let's save Nagorno-Karabakh," they said. Today, the parliament building of NK is sadly demolished because of their idiocy. The [pro-Russian] NK forces gathered in that building with maximalist speeches. We knew where it was all headed. We knew there was a circle in NK that believed that Russian peacekeepers would not only protect the remaining parts of NK but would allow them to recapture the lost territories, "if we could only remove Nikol in Armenia".
We warned them that they were being deceived with a false sense of security; we urged them to negotiate with Azerbaijan in Sophia. They refused. "Not a step back from full independence. Who are you? Azgadavs!"
So they removed the NK government [President Arayik was open to Sophia meeting]. You know the names of those who demanded Arayik's removal. Sadly, some of them are currently in Baku jail. But these people removed Arayik and installed a figure who was the most favorable figure for the presence of Russia in NK. Then you know what happened.
After Azerbaijan launched a massive attack on NK, several public figures and politicians began to reveal the things they were told at the Russian embassy in Armenia. A figure named Nairi Hokhikyan claims he was told in the Russian embassy that Russian peacekeepers planned to remain 30+ years in the region and that he believed them and "took their bait". It's fair to say he wasn't the only person in Armenia who took this embassy's baits. There were even forces in Armenia that actively distributed those baits.
When it became obvious that Russian peacekeepers wouldn't do anything, when they stood and watched the forced displacement of 120,000 Armenians, when they watched the killings of NK civilians, it became obvious to everyone, including those who took the bait, what exactly happened.
Armenia, in turn, said that since its allies do not plan to help, it is better for Armenia to establish peace with all of its neighbors and have stable delimited borders. This was a huge psychological shock for some, especially the aforementioned forces because the clarification of Armenia's borders and the adoption of an internationally legitimate stance would open an opportunity to have excellent relations with the US and EU. Armenia with legitimate borders and Western partners is more difficult to attack than Armenia without those; it's a lot more difficult under those conditions to present Armenia as a gray zone and swallow it.
And swallowing Armenia is what this is all about. None of this was about NK. Armenia was the end goal. Robert Kocharyan said he was open to the idea of Armenia joining the [Russia-Belarus] Union State, while Serj's party leaders [Sharmazanov] announced that it's necessary to give Azerbaijan a corridor through Syunik.
Today we have a rally coming from Tavush. On the left side of its leader, we have a politician representing a force that wants Armenia to join the [Russian] Union State, and on the right side, it's a representative of a force that wants to give a Zangezur corridor to Azerbaijan.
Forgive me for saying this, friends: this latest Russian march is also destined to fail. It will fail because the Armenian population won't follow politicians who do not recognize Armenia's 29,743 km^2. Foreign forces will fail. Armenia will remain independent. //
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Russia continues the withdrawal of soldiers from Nagorno-Karabakh

A column of vehicles left from Ivanyan airport to a railway station before heading to Russia, through Azerbaijan.
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foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan will meet in Kazakhstan on May 10 to discuss the peace process

The agreement was reached last week after the visit of the Kazakh president to the region.
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U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan visited occupied Shushi after "two months of preparations"

He was earlier criticized by the Azerbaijani regime for not visiting the occupied parts of Nagorno-Karabakh. The Ambassador said he didn't visit Shushi in the past because he didn't want to take part in "someone's shows".
During this Shushi trip, the Ambassador met state officials and local teachers who were enrolled in the embassy's English classes. The Ambassador said the U.S. will continue to cooperate with Azerbaijan for as long as there are "partners in Azerbaijan who are willing to work with the U.S."
source, source,

the armed forces/MOD of Armenia and United States held their first annual talks

US Embassy in Yerevan: Last week, representatives from across the US European Command and the Armenian Ministry of Defense participated in the inaugural Annual Staff Talks to discuss bilateral defense priorities, develop areas for further cooperation, and outline military engagements for the coming years.
source,

Informed Citizens NGO chief about Armenia's economic ties with Russia and the cost of breaking free

IOANNESIAN: Russia's leverage: Gas, supply of uranium for NPP, disposal of nuclear waste generated by NPP, and Upper Lars cargo traffic. I don't think Russia will attempt to "punish" Armenia unless they achieve a major success in Ukraine, but it can't be ruled out. Let's analyze some possible scenarios.
(1) Gas. If Russia doubles the price for Armenia to $300, which is the realistic upper limit according to experts, your household bill would likely increase by 20%. The $300 is also the price of Iranian gas. If Russia raises it above $300, Armenia will have other more economic sources of energy. I doubt household bills would double because there are a host of steps the government and West could take to remedy or even partly subsidize the cost.
(2) Uranium for NPP. This is easier. Ukraine has replaced Russia with others. Kazakhstan is also a source of uranium. It's important to have decent AM-KZ relations. Our relations have always been toxic despite never having any direct problems with one another. At some point, Kazakhs realized having great relations with Azerbaijan doesn't mean they can't build relations with Armenia. Armenia displayed the same pragmatism. There is an opportunity to move forward.
(3) Export of products. This will be difficult because a significant share of goods MADE in Armenia are exported to Russia. These are real factories, real workers, real wages. The food production industry will face issues because let's be honest, their standards are generally very low. They wouldn't be able to export to Europe today. European countries may love you but they care about the health of their citizens more. We need to raise the food standards, first and foremost for us and our health. I'm aware that the Armenian government is taking steps for a long-term solution, and as a short-term solution they are exploring the possibility of increasing exports to the Middle East and other states to reduce reliance on Russia. The government will face pushback from unhappy businesses that will no longer be allowed to dump a bag of harmful chemicals on crops. The Middle East is a mixed bag. Some countries could have standards higher than the EU, while others don't care at all. Armenian manufacturers of "fake" and lowest-quality alcohol, the type of alcohol that's even unacceptable for Armenians, are exporting their goods to some Middle Eastern countries today.
source,

Armenia and EU discuss education reforms

Education Minister Joanna and EU Ambassador Maragos met on Monday to discuss the ongoing introduction of new state standards in public education, the upcoming bills, STEM and labs, refugee teacher assistance, and AM-EU dialogue.
source,

Armenia and Hungary sign agreement on economic cooperation, will continue to restore diplomatic relations after termination in 2012

FM Mirzoyan is in Hungary to discuss AM-HU and AM-EU relations, a week after media wrote that Hungary is blocking the EU's $10 million military aid to Armenia.
Armenia and Hungary restored diplomatic relations in 2022, and in 2023 they appointed non-resident ambassadors.
HUNGARIAN FM: It's great to see Armenia's flag in this building after so many years. Today we agreed to form a working group to develop economic relations. Last year our economic turnover reached 70%. Our pharmaceutical companies are more active in the Armenian market today. We have agreed to open embassies in the capitals of Hungary and Armenia; today we have consulates. Starting this July, WizzAir will hold direct flights between the capitals of Armenia and Hungary. Hungary will provide humanitarian assistance to families [presumably Nagorno-Karabakh refugees] who begin their lives in Armenia. Some 1,200 Armenian children and parents will receive an opportunity to enjoy their vacation here in Hungary. Armenian students will receive scholarships. We have also allocated funds to help the 4,200 Armenians residing in Hungary maintain their Armenian identity and culture. Ahead of Hungary's presidency of the EU, we were able to take steps to develop AM-EU relations. We plan to develop the AM-EU Partnership Agenda [aka CEPA+]. We also plan to launch a dialogue on visa liberalization between the two parties [unclear AM-HU or AM-EU]. My 2023 visit to Yerevan and your visit to Budapest marks a successful launch of our cooperation.
ARMENIAN FM: This is a result of a process we launched 1.5 years ago, a process to start a new phase of AM-HU relations based on historically warm ties and common values. I'm glad to see the result of this process today. Today we are talking about opening resident embassies. Today we signed agreements on political consultations between foreign ministries of two states, on economic cooperation, and on the formation of an intergovernmental commission. We recently saw a business conference where they discussed possible joint projects. Personal visits are important so it's great to hear about WizzAir's direct Yerevan-Budapest flights. Armenia wants to be part of international economic projects. The CoP project aims to lift the blockade on all transport and passenger connections in the South Caucasus and to streamline the West-East connection. Under the same context, we consider the supply of Armenian renewable energy to Europe [through the Black Sea]; we will soon hold discussions on their implementation. Armenia wants to take part in all of those. Peace is a prerequisite for economic development. We have launched a process to bring Armenia significantly closer to the EU, and vice versa. On the table, we have a package of proposals and here we hope to receive Hungary's support during your EU presidency so the plan will confidentially advance under your presidency as well.
REPORTER: What disagreements remain around the AM-AZ peace treaty?
MIRZOYAN: I hope the agreement reached by border commissions on April 19 will be reflected in the peace agreement as well. That would place us very close to a final resolution of the AM-AZ conflict. Another disagreement is around the unblocking of transportation links in the region. Armenia wants to unblock all routes with full respect to the sovereignty of states. I'd like to thank Hungary for its contribution to humanitarian issues. As you remember, several Armenian POWs were freed with the help of Hungary. These efforts continue.
source, source, video,

starting next week Yerevan subway will operate until midnight, instead of 11 pm

source,

Yerevan municipality will add 50 bus shelters, some of which will come with ticket purchasing terminals and bus arrival timetable

MAYOR AVINYAN: This year we plan to launch the new transit fare system and install 50 bus shelters, which will have arrival timetables. We'll receive 171 new 8.5-meter buses and 15 new trolleybuses. The new bus pricing system goes into effect after all of this is done.
source,

Yerevan municipality wants to review the contract with French water giant Veolia

MAYOR AVINYAN: The recent floods caused issues in transport hubs, tunnels, and streets. The city has a contract with Veolia Jur to service the surface, gutter, and rainwater networks. We receive many complaints that go unaddressed. The residents do not care about the details of the contract with Veolia, although I'm confident there are objective reasons behind these problems. This year we must come to a new agreement with the Government and Veolia because the municipality itself can't chase the sewers in each backyard. We need a company that will assume the responsibility for the entire network. We must understand what the cost of this service is. Last year the city was forced to build 14 kilometers of sewers but I don't even know if we had the right to do it because it's a state property, but it had to be done so we did it. We need to make changes to the Veolia contract.
source,

VIDEO: heavy hail lasted several minutes, turning the streets of Yerevan white and damaging trees and properties

source,

inflation YoY

January -0.4%
February -1.7%
March -1.2%
April -0.7%

... food prices are still lower compared to last year (April YoY stats)

Food and non-alcoholic beverages -4.5%
Non-food -0.5%
Services +3%
Alcohol and tobacco +7%
Clothing -1%
Utilities -0.1%
Household goods & appliances -1%
Healthcare -0.2%
Transportation +8%
Communications +0.3%
Recreation -0.2%
Education +5%
Restaurants & hotels +4%
source,

country of origin of tourists who visited Georgia in Q1 2024

(1) Turkey 255K
(2) Russia 215K
(3) Armenia 192K
source,

the most popular last names in each country: MAP

Grigoryan
source,

My name is Alex. I'm 23 years old. I have autism and ADHD (among other things). I have an Associates Degree in Arts and I'm nearly done with a Bach Degree in Cybersecurity from Purdue Global. Not to mention graduated high school with honors. My IQ is 132.
It's not that I can't work hard or am lazy. It's that I can't multitask AND work hard at the same time, all while jobs that should take an entire team an entire fricking day are put on me to finish in an hour. I can't handle a job that's fast paced AND complicated AND difficult. I can handle two of those at once but not all three.
I recently got a job at a Casey's gas station as kitchen staff. Which I promptly lost in three days after I realized I couldn't manage an entire kitchen on my own. My autism has never allowed me to do a million things at once. Making pizzas, preparing sandwiches, dishes, cleaning, moving boxes, and a million other tasks that need to be done every hour with me being the only person in a kitchen that should have 7 or more staff members. All while dealing with a hip injury (AVN) that prevents me from doing certain tasks. If my job had consisted of making pizzas all day nonstop from 8-4, no question I'd have thrived there. Or doing dishes from 8-4. Or making sandwiches from 8-4. I quit that job by making up an excuse that it was too hard on my hip (even faked a hip fracture, which cost my parents hundreds of dollars in MRI fees) so my parents wouldn't get mad at me. Luckily they were willing to write it off as an honest mistake rather than a carefully calculated scheme to quit yet another job.
Walmart was a success for a while (from late 2022 to early 2023), as you were doing one thing for a half hour to an hour. I had a lot to do for sure and the work was hard, but my attention was able to be focused on one thing for an extended period of time. I would start the day with trash pickup, for example, and do that for a half hour to an hour. Until I hit the three month mark and they suddenly decided I was ready to be pushed around. One minute I'd be told to load plastic recyclables into a trash compactor, then the next minute a manager would be b1tching about how I didn't clean up a spill I was nowhere near at the time. That is what set me off, and I quit my job that day.
Sodexo (the school lunch company) was a similar success (from Sept 2021 to January 2022), until it wasn't. Though it took a while to understand exactly what was expected of me, once I got it down I thrived in that job because one thing was expected of me: dishwashing from the morning to late evening. I'd be doing roughly the same thing at 6PM as I was at 12:30 PM. Having a routine ensured that I thrived in that job... right up until they switched out the nice manager for this utter Shaniqua who rubbed me entirely the wrong way. She was breathing down my neck constantly criticizing me for things I would've done last week and been congratulated for. I ended that job by throwing a massive fit and rage quitting.
Jewel Osco got rid of me after two freaking days without even bothering to try and train me. But I probably wouldn't have lasted there anyway.
McDonalds was a failure similar to Jewel, but lasted much longer. I went into that job without any practical knowledge of how to do it (thanks Mom and Dad, and the garbage public school system that doesn't teach you S@it even in Independent Living Class). But I did my best, and lasted about a month and a half there largely thanks to the fact that the front lobby was under renovation, saving me a crap ton of "extra" tasks on top of the giant workload already offered. Once that front lobby opened up I utterly crashed and burned. At least when I lost this job it wasn't because I rage quit, it's that I was fired for not knowing how to do a job they never even bothered trying to teach me how to do in the first place.
If school (high school or online college) was any indicator of how I'd function in the real world, then I'd be a mid level manager at Jewel by now. I have never gotten a grade below a C in a class in my entire life. I graduated high school with honors and a 3.8 GPA. College isn't quite as much of a breeze but I pass my classes. I don't expect to have any student debt because of a fat scholarship that covered much of my college career, my choice to go to community college for my associates degree, and my parents' deep pockets. All three of my current classes are A's right now. And I'm taking CYBERSECURITY. I only have one regular term remaining after my current term (the Purdue Capstone, which is basically an essay). After that it's off to find two twelve week internships, which I have high hopes for because they're work-from-home.
Here's the thing though: in school you can pass with a 70% and be considered a good student, and I've always gotten more than that. I have been known to strategically skip on assignments and still pass. In the real world if you don't perform at 100% efficiency and accuracy constantly, you're fired. In school you have a strict routine and are doing one thing at a time. The workforce is chaotic and disordered, and you're expected to multitask well or be fired. In school and even in college you're seated most of the time. In the workforce if you sit down for a brief moment, they fire you. In school if you finish your assignments for the hour, you're assigned harmless busy work with no effect on your life, given time to complete your homework, or you're allowed to chill out. In the workforce if you finish your tasks quicker than everyone else, they give you more tasks. In school if you mouth off, you get detention. If you mouth off in the workplace, you're fired.
If you want someone to blame, blame my parents. They never taught me any real-world skills, such as how to make pizza, flip burgers, or multitask while physically exerting yourself. I was expected to perform well in school, and that was it. No preparation for the real world.
If someone could give me some advice, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Sorry in advance for the long post lol tl;dr at the end if you wanna skip.
Bit of background for you. One of my players is an artificer. During session 1, they entered my city to find a festival going on celebrating the founding of the city. Lots of games, contests, and prizes abound. One of the top prizes was a scholarship to the eminent bard college in the area. Said artificer won the contest, but has absolutely no interest in using the scholarship. So I quickly ad-libbed two options for him to rid himself of it.
Option A - rich merchant approached him and offered him 1000gp for the scholarship. PC told the merchant he would consider his offer.
Option B - a young man approached and offered him 200gp. His entire life savings. PC asked for the young man's story and he explained that he was a broke busker who used what little he made to take care of his sickly younger brother. Hiding away a gold piece here and there over the years in the hopes of attending the college and bettering life for him and his brother.
My player went with Option B, but didn't accept the gold. Instead, he placed a caveat on their transaction. Jeff, the young man, had to prove to the player that he wished to do good in the world.
Of course Jeff agreed and set off to do just that.
I spent a couple weeks considering how Jeff could do good in the world to prove himself and landed on helping kids first. Started researching debilitating, but not necessarily fatal 5e diseases, and landed on Sight Rot. Jeff stumbled upon a destitute family with a daughter who some how contracted Sight Rot. Jeff heard through an open window the doctor diagnosing this, but lamenting that he didn't have the ointment needed to save the girls eye sight. So Jeff ran to an apothecary, bought Eyebright Ointment and grabbed a doll on the way back. Delivered the ointment and saved the girls eyes. Gave her the doll and with the joy he saw, he settled on making sure kids in my city were happy despite their circumstances. He then used the majority of his remaining money to buy more toys and a feast for a local orphanage.
Definitely landed on making this entire sequence the origin tale for Santa Claus in my homebrew world. Which is gonna be awesome to see play out over time. But that's besides the point of this post.
After writing all of that out in my notes I realized Sight Rot is rather dangerous and could/should 100% be a side quest to send my players on. I already know I want to have my players explore the sewers for this one. I know Sight Rot comes from tainted water. Generally a swampy area. Figured a sewer would be a fine replacement for that.
Tl;dr
My major question is, what have you used for the catalyst to taint the water? I was debating using a dead wandering beggar who contracted the disease elsewhere and died in the sewers after becoming blind. But definitely open for suggestions. Outside of that, what kind of creatures do you generally place in sewers in your games? Shambling Mounds, giant rats, swarms of rats, snakes of various sizes, giant roaches, and things like that are given. But if you've anything you enjoy using in that setting, I'd love to hear it. Also, what was your resolution for removing the taint from the water? If I limit the affected area, would Purify Food and Drink be enough? Or can you think of any other spells that might work better?

Sorry in advance for the long post lol tl;dr at the end if you wanna skip.
Bit of background for you. One of my players is an artificer. During session 1, they entered my city to find a festival going on celebrating the founding of the city. Lots of games, contests, and prizes abound. One of the top prizes was a scholarship to the eminent bard college in the area. Said artificer won the contest, but has absolutely no interest in using the scholarship. So I quickly ad-libbed two options for him to rid himself of it.
Option A - rich merchant approached him and offered him 1000gp for the scholarship. PC told the merchant he would consider his offer.
Option B - a young man approached and offered him 200gp. His entire life savings. PC asked for the young man's story and he explained that he was a broke busker who used what little he made to take care of his sickly younger brother. Hiding away a gold piece here and there over the years in the hopes of attending the college and bettering life for him and his brother.
My player went with Option B, but didn't accept the gold. Instead, he placed a caveat on their transaction. Jeff, the young man, had to prove to the player that he wished to do good in the world.
Of course Jeff agreed and set off to do just that.
I spent a couple weeks considering how Jeff could do good in the world to prove himself and landed on helping kids first. Started researching debilitating, but not necessarily fatal 5e diseases, and landed on Sight Rot. Jeff stumbled upon a destitute family with a daughter who some how contracted Sight Rot. Jeff heard through an open window the doctor diagnosing this, but lamenting that he didn't have the ointment needed to save the girls eye sight. So Jeff ran to an apothecary, bought Eyebright Ointment and grabbed a doll on the way back. Delivered the ointment and saved the girls eyes. Gave her the doll and with the joy he saw, he settled on making sure kids in my city were happy despite their circumstances. He then used the majority of his remaining money to buy more toys and a feast for a local orphanage.
Definitely landed on making this entire sequence the origin tale for Santa Claus in my homebrew world. Which is gonna be awesome to see play out over time. But that's besides the point of this post.
After writing all of that out in my notes I realized Sight Rot is rather dangerous and could/should 100% be a side quest to send my players on. I already know I want to have my players explore the sewers for this one. I know Sight Rot comes from tainted water. Generally a swampy area. Figured a sewer would be a fine replacement for that.
Tl;dr
My major question is, what have you used for the catalyst to taint the water? I was debating using a dead wandering beggar who contracted the disease elsewhere and died in the sewers after becoming blind. But definitely open for suggestions. Outside of that, what kind of creatures do you generally place in sewers in your games? Shambling Mounds, giant rats, swarms of rats, snakes of various sizes, giant roaches, and things like that are given. But if you've anything you enjoy using in that setting, I'd love to hear it. Also, what was your resolution for removing the taint from the water? If I limit the affected area, would Purify Food and Drink be enough? Or can you think of any other spells that might work better?

Okay, so hear me out...this is long (that's what she said),
We all know the world is stupider than we expected. The more interconnected we all become, and the more we all collectively see, the more the educated and intelligent (those are separate things) people realize that the world as a whole is at their mercy.
Being smarter is how and why humans dominated the world and all species fell before them. We are the greatest, smartest entities in the universe (that we can currently witness with scientific means), and the greatest achievers of feats of intelligence [tools, language, society…stonework, metalwork….organized religion…..medicine….the scientific method….and on and on and now we invent our own simple aritificial intelligence (AI) to do what we cannot fully understand…]. Don't come at me with the ignorant arguments that some animals do things better, or live in more harmony with the world. Success is measured primarily by the one IN CONTROL. That's us.

We have all become gods…or at least a few of us have and have passed that knowledge on to the rest of us savages. No one in your life (if you are 99.909999% of the world) is even close to understanding AI technology or how it applies…and where it is GREATLY limited. I said humanity had created "simple" intelligence because AI is simple. They are models trained with massive computing power on HUMONGOUS data sets. Data sets so large we didn't have to computing power until recently to accomplish this feat at all, hence why it wasn’t done in the 90s or 00’s. We have stood on the shoulders of giants before us (thanks Ian Malcom) and taken technology one step further. AI is not dangerous in itself, because it has no control to change its own code, and no creative instincts like a living thing to even attempt to. In science fiction you may see the “power of love” overcome a robot's programming, but I assure you that code is ~math~, it is not prone to acting irrationally. I am an electrical engineer (a dumb one) and I understand a lot of math now that I didn't when I was younger, and I've done my fair share of programming in different languages for school and for fun. This isn't make believe. AI can accomplish general tasks…with the oversight of a very experienced technician in the case of critical processes, like keeping your electricity flowing to your air conditioning or heating or internet for example. AI cannot accomplish new and innovative tasks very well, other than recognizing past patterns and suggesting them as a path forward to a human overseer. In order to do this, it is trained on the past, and the past is a good indicator of the future but it isn't ALWAYS the case. Roulette should land on red, then black, then red relatively often, but it tends to vary randomly a bit doesn't it? Life is not statistics, but if you learn statistics, you can accomplish a lot in life. It is commonly said that there are liars, damn liars, and then (in increasing order) statisticians. AI is limited in its autonomy to act and only makes decisions based on large data sets that it has studied. If there is not a massive dataset to study, the AI will behave very poorly. Niche jobs and specialities are hard (see impossible) to replace with AI because there is no money in it. It would be cheaper to hire people…

So, AI itself isn't dangerous (it won't turn into Skynet without human help), but whose job is at risk of replacement by AI? People who do SIMPLE and REPETITIVE jobs where they can be readily replaced. Basically, you dumb bro? If you dumb, AI may replace you. Get educated and certified and irreplaceable to protect yourself. Also, labor and trades will not be replaced by AI because it’s cost ineffective to make safe robots to replace humans in these roles.

AI will definitely hurt the poorest among us and prop up the corporate and wealthy entities that truly run the US government at this point. And make no mistake that having control over both the corporations and their economic might and the political figures (who could never afford to run the expensive campaigns they have to run every few years to get reelected without corporate and other wealthy entity support) means they control the entire world. We were once a freer country than we are now. The United States was a great experiment that was based on the knowledge of a few amazing men (scholars and poets and students of history and the arts, as well as STRONG and VIRILE and fucking beasts built for WORK and EFFORT at their core). No one will doubt that George Washington probably had a massive cock and was half crazy. The man waded into combat at 6'4" with red hair, commanded his troops fearlously and bravely out thought and out toughed a better equipped and better trained British force. He is known for many great things, like when he was basically left with his CHOICE to continue he presidency, he opted to NOT seek a third term on his own. He had no reason NOT to continue to be a KING in the new country he'd fought to create, except that he was educated and intelligent and tough and he knew that if he'd kept his power absolute then he'd be no better than the British king our country left behind. This is the example and legacy he left for our country, and whatever his flaws (he wasn't perfect guys, but this was the 1700's so get real, people used whale oil and shit for their lanterns so of course there are probably slaves and all sorts of other undiscovered stuff in his recorded history, I DO NOT CARE. To any rational, intelligent, educated person, the pros outweigh the cons (which were, again, common flaws of the era) by a massive margin here.

…Get to the ~good~ point Elijah…

· Social media allows us all to see how much stupidity there is in the world. A LOT
· Have you ever seen something so stupid it is painful to watch? Well different people have different levels of tolerance, and it's based on the combination of their natural intelligence and their education. Someone is looking at you and your contributions to the world and shaking their head wondering how anyone can be that IGNORANT. Some other people are looking at you as a cool/inspired hero. Don't worry about satisfying them all, fuck em', keep getting better on your own.
· Education is like working out, ~it is tough~. That's why you don't like MATH, dumb asses. It's not some exotic disease, it's that you're a few (hundreds of) bucks shorter than I am, buck-o. I'm an electrical engineer, and I didn't even TRY and I could do the things it took you hours to study for. Am I trying to insult you? NO. I didn't pay attention to math at all until I got into college. I had to start back at college algebra to get my degree and it took 5 years (I worked full time for most of it, 5 internships and hired as an "engineer" before I'd graduated). I was dumb as fuck, but I finally figured out what I was doing wrong when I met my ex-father-in-law, also ex oil CEO and now oil board member, and one of the most amazing men I've ever met. He showed me how to direct my focus a little better and I saw how hard he'd worked and how humble he was, driving inexpensive cars on a replacement schedule while being paid $1mil+ a year, living in a humble home, and never over spending or over showing off. He was better than I am, for sure, I love to show off, but I usually do it for the benefit of all those around me. I want to have lots of conversations simultaneously and absorb all those good vibes at once, there's nothing better in life.

…Get BACK to the ~good~ point Elijah…

· What I am saying is that we all have different base levels of intelligence. Like we all have base levels of athleticism. I received multiple D1 Full-Ride scholarships for basketball. I'm proud of that, because at that time there weren't many very good white players. Unfortunately, I didn't have the work ethic I needed to really show how good I could have been at that time, realistically I hadn't explored how hard I could work yet. Even though I was good, I was NOT THAT GOOD. I got my ass kicked all the time and I never would have made it a major D1 or the league or Europe at that time. Michael Jordan and I are the same size though. We share a lot physically, and I treated my enemies like shit while I played them. I still remember the players I HATE from high school, for no reason other than the passion in the memory. However, I was crap and he was the best ever. Why? Work Ethic my friend. I didn't have it, and he did. He was also even more crazy that I am.
· You can train anything. Intelligence GROWS with education. Education doesn't guarantee intelligence though. There are multiple electrical engineers I know who I wouldn't trust to screw in a light bulb and there are probably people like that in every profession at every level of education. So, the moral there is to trust the educated…but also trust your own experience at the same time. DISCLAIMER: Your PERSONAL experience, not what you read on the fucking internet, not what Janet experienced, not what Ben experienced, not the damn sensationalist news, but what you PERSONALLY HAVE OBSERVED. Not imagined, not guessed at, but seen totally clearly and soberly in the light of day with your glasses on and preferably with a witness who also saw what you saw, although that can't always be the case with these things of course. If you aren't seeing it affect you or your life at all, it's not a problem worth ruining your life with stress about, unless you are in a position of power and capable of changing it. If you are not, shut the hell up and get to work because you can't do ANYTHING from the bottom. Also, no one cares about your shit opinions until you can justify them with experience and talent.
· If intelligence grows with education, and I think that's obviously true, and all you have to offer the world around you is your body and your mind then why cut your education off? You think that understanding LESS of the world around you is going to help your dumb ass? Get back into education wherever you are. Train your ass off. Get off social media and destroy the apps, turn off the porn and leave a note on the hot girl/guy's door with your cell number and a kiss or spray of cologne, they'll get the fucking idea and hit you up. HAND THEM A PHYSICAL NOTE WITH YOUR NUMBER ON IT AND ASK THEM TO TEXT IF THEY'D LIKE COFFEE. If no text within a week, MOVE ON, there are so many people that need partners and not all of them are smoke shows. 99.99999099% are NOT what you would consider perfectly shaped or proportioned. Social media creates an unrealistic precedent and they you can't get excited for less. TURN THAT SHIT OFF, IT IS KILLING YOU FOOLS. COMPARISON IS THE THIEF OF JOY.
· GET YOUR EDUCATION FORMALLY. NO TIME? USE YOUR SPARE TIME TO GOOGLE "FREE EDUCATION RESOURCES" AND YOU CAN GET EDUCATION ON DAMN NEAR ANYTHING. YOU CAN BE SMARTER AND THAT WILL LEAD YOU TO POWER AND MONEY. ONLY DUMB ASSES THINK THEY CAN BE SUCCESSFUL WITHOUT AN EDUCATION (NOT FOR LONG!).
· While getting your education, live a regimented life, you will have a LOT of time for fun along the way and even more time later. The more intelligent you are, the more you will adhere to the schedule below. The dumber you are, the harder this will be. Try doing this one week out of seven and build from there to find your personal limits.
o Wake up early (4-6AMish)
o Make your bed
o Drink a cup of coffee or tea in the morning
o Protein shake, just make it the way I do and STFU, I am probably both more educated and more naturally intelligent than you by a long shot so listen when I speak because I'm not wasting my breath, I'm trying to help you (50g protein whey ~isolate~ in 12oz 2% milk or lactose free of your choice as long as it has some fat and sugar in there like the 2%)
o Take any medicine you take with the protein shake. Ultimately, I like to eliminate any prescription drugs. Wean off all prescriptions and then take a standard multivitamin, creatine, krill oil supplement. Yes multivitamins make for expensive pee, but you DO absorb some of the vitamins and you need to because you can’t possibly get all of them every day into your regular meals. Just be smart here and hedge your bets. Supplement the vitamin with real fruit/veg and other sources of vitamins and minerals throughout the day, but don’t kill yourself to do it. It’s fine to eat just a little veg with lunch and dinner.
o Drink a glass of Metamucil for fiber because you aren't going to have to eat fruit/veggies at all for the most part with the vitamins and fiber. I have literally done this for decades, and I am much fitter and healthier than most of the population of the world and I am 38. I should be stronger, as a 38 year old man, but I carry very little body fat, and I get to eat what I want, and I live happily (with many vices).
o Work HARD at the gym (which can be your home doing pushups and pull ups and dips, think about it, prisoners are jacked). Whatever that means to you. I could go on about fitness forever, but the gist is you have to devise (or pay someone smarter than you to devise) a program that challenges you. And YOU have to be willing to REALLY challenge yourself. That's how it works, athleticism is like intelligence, we all have a baseline level and then it can be TRAINED in the gym. Unathletic people can get jacked, with study work spent learning how to do so. It's not just steroids dumb ass, these are hard working, intelligent people, for the most part getting extremely fit.
o If you woke early, around 5AM, this can all be done before 6:30AM
o Clean and care your yourself and have another cup of coffee and a good shit (due to the fiber and coffee). Regular bowel movements are great for your health.
o Work HARD at your job. Make friends there and make it a pleasant place to be because you'll be there a LOT. Learn all you can and keep a list of people you meet and their cell #. Some day these people will be managers and vice presidents and otherwise and you'll want to be able to reach them if you need them. Keep in touch and be a good person and friend, don't just be a "friend collector" people can tell the difference.
o Keeping a regular and limited work schedule is essential. If you got to work early, say 7-8AM and work hard to accomplish a lot, you can be done by 4PM and you have time to get home and clean up and go out and celebrate being alive with all the artists and poets at whatever bar is nearest you. ~FUCK~ whoever is interested (safely and to ~mutual~ satisfaction), ~SMOKE/EAT WEED~ (unless it's illegal, and in moderation. Avoid any harder drugs than this, and don’t start your smoking until the afternoon as you are winding down, and always moderately and best done with friends/lovers and try not to start this until after age 25 as it will impact memory and brain function and that's no good while learning the hardest stuff you'll learn), ~DRINK~ (a very little, and preferably not a sweet-tasting drink, this is a waste of calories and makes us all fatter needlessly and gives worse hangovers, and kills us later in life, and ruins our skin, it's just lightly poisoning ourselves). An hour before bed, turn off all screens and phones and ~EDUCATE YOURSELF~. Read a damn book. One chapter a day until you build your tolerance, you farm animal.
o ~SLEEP~ early (9-10ish) on the weekdays and later on the weekends, within reason. Listen to your body, are you overdoing it? Do you actually have a lot left in the tank? Check into your own wellbeing and decide if you are hurting for real or if you are being weak. People rarely DIE from overwork, they die from overstressing about it. Just work hard and shut the hell up about how hard it is. Stop when you can’t take anymore and if your limit is low, you’re a little bitch and need to toughen up. That means you need to train your capacity for work. Ever met a small Hispanic man working construction that needs a nap mid-day? SHUT THE HELL UP AND WORK HARDER. Then rest when you need to.
That's it, I should have shut down the Adulting sub-reddit with this as these are the keys that will set you up to be successful. I was a $millionaire at 30 and my mom was a bartender and dad was in steel sales and construction. We delivered papers when I was little. Just listen fool, trying to help you out of being poor too!

Abstract: This article provides an analysis of “teaming,” or allying with a competitor, in battle-royale video games. Allying with a competitor is a normal strategy in social-deduction games, but it is often considered to be cheating in battle royale. Persistent complaints about teaming can be seen across a variety of social media platforms. This article surveys the controversy and outlines the major attempts to address such problems, including developer changes to matchmaking systems, automated moderation and opposition to stream sniping. These approaches are substantially successful, and yet there appear to be social and ludic conditions that make teaming an intractable problem. This article appeals to established economic and typological analyses of game goals to rethink the social dilemma of teaming in battle royale. The thesis argues that the major attempts to address the problem of teaming typically assume teaming is necessarily an unskilled strategy that circumvents the game goal of having a sporting contest of skills, but a comprehensive analysis of teaming allows us to recognize that it is conceptually possible to design regulatory mechanisms for teaming such that teaming requires skill. The conclusion begins to chart future research on sporting designs for regulating teaming.

Introduction

“Cross-teaming” or simply “teaming” in competitive multiplayer games is a strategy wherein a competitor temporarily cooperates with another competitor. Teaming is a central feature of social-deduction games centered on cunning negotiations, alliances and betrayals, for example the boardgame Diplomacy (Wizards of the Coast, 1954), the party game Mafia (Davidoff, 1986), the card game Are You a Werewolf? (Looney Labs, 1997) and the video game Among Us (Innersloth, 2018). In battle-royale video games, however, teaming has been a popular form of cheating. Battle-royale games are competitive, multiplayer survival games in which the last competitor alive wins the game. A match of battle royale typically has a large number of competitors in an arena with a variety of weapons. There are various game mechanics to decrease hiding/ camping and increase encounters between competitors, for example shrinking the arena area over time. Teaming in battle royale can provide a major advantage by allowing two competitors to outnumber a third competitor.

The analysis in this article begins with a brief history of battle royale and the crux of the problem with teaming. Teaming is a volatile practice that is randomized by the whims of other competitors, so teaming appears to provide an advantage based on luck within an otherwise sporting contest of skills. Players of battle royale use social media to complain about teaming, and game designers have addressed this problem in a variety of innovative ways inspired by both popular and academic conversations. However, illicit teaming remains a significant problem for the gaming community. How can we complicate our understanding of this problem and address it in new ways?

There are nuanced theoretical frameworks for unpacking the dynamics of teaming. The analysis in this article introduces and combines existing scholarship on the economics and typology of game goals. Jonas Heide Smith (2007) argues that cheating in online video games gives rise to a social dilemma, and I show how Smith’s economic framework can be extended to illicit teaming. Debus, Zagal and Cardona-Rivera (2020) argue that the goals of video games can be deeply equivocal, and I extend their analysis to consider alternate ways of framing the social dilemma of teaming. I argue that in the case of battle-royale video games, game developers have been largely prohibitive of teaming, but combining Smith with Debus et al. allows us to recognize that there can also be permissive and regulativeapproaches to teaming that substantially address the social dilemma. The major attempts to address the problem of teaming typically assume teaming is necessarily an unskilled strategy that circumvents the game goal of having a sporting contest of skills, but a comprehensive analysis of teaming allows us to recognize that it is conceptually possible to design regulatory mechanisms for teaming such that teaming requires skill. This article concludes by gesturing toward skillful regulatory mechanisms for addressing the social dilemma of teaming, including the innovative mechanism of “assimilation” in Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 (Raven Software and Infinity Ward, 2022).

Battle Royale and Illicit Teaming

Teaming has been a part of battle royale since its inception. According to Teemu Pesonen’s article “The History of Battle Royale Esports” (2023), the Japanese film Battle Royale (Fukasaku, 2000) inspired the video-game genre. The plot of the film includes a government forcing students to fight each other to the death on an island, where only the last student alive may leave the island. The film also clearly includes cunning betrayals and alliances between competitors.

The genre of battle royale was further popularized by the American film The Hunger Games (Ross, 2012). Pesonen tells us that The Hunger Games directly inspired the first battle-royale modification for the video game Minecraft(Mojang Studios, 2011). In 2013 Brendan Greene, also known as “PlayerUnknown,” developed a mod called “DayZ: Battle Royale,” a battle-royale modification for the video game Arma II (Bohemia Interactive, 2012). Greene was inspired by other Arma II mods like Brian Hicks’ and Jordan Taylor’s mod for Arma II, “DayZ: Survivor Gamez” (McCarthy, 2017), and Green introduced to the battle-royale genre “items and weapons that were randomly spread across the map” (Pesonen, 2023). The first battle-royale video game to be officially published was PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (Krafton, 2017). The collaborative, online, multiplayer-vs-environment, survival video game Fortnite (Epic Games, 2017) added a dedicated mode for battle royale within a year of its release, contributing to the battle-royale genre both in-game building mechanics and cross-platform play.

Other major battle-royale games include Vigor (Bohemia Interactive, 2018), Apex Legends (Respawn Entertainment, 2019) and Call of Duty: Warzone (Raven Software and Infinity Ward, 2020), but I will foreground Fortnite for illustration. Fortnite debuted right when teaming was exploding in popularity in PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, but unlike Battlegrounds, Fortnite was initially designed to be a cooperative game, and elements of this cooperative spirit made it into the battle-royale mode, including the ability to communicate with others by dancing with them and expressing emotions. Fortnite’s battle-royale mode also implicitly encourages teaming insofar as it regularly awards prizes like virtual clothing and accessories to competitors who complete non-competitive challenges (for example, Dance on a Giant Cup of Coffee), which often leads to competitors cooperating until they can complete the challenge.

The most common, overt way to initiate teaming in Fortnite is to stop fighting and start dancing. If the dancing is reciprocated, the two competitors have indicated to one another that they want to cooperate temporarily. Other overt ways to initiate teaming include disarming yourself in front of a competitor, dropping healing items, building heart-shaped constructs and rapidly switching between ducking and standing stances. Subtle ways to initiate teaming can include pretending not to see someone, running away instead of attacking and defensively “boxing up” (hiding in your own building) without taking opportunities to attack. In each of these cases the initiation procedures take place during a match. However, teaming can also occur prior to a match when two or more people communicate their intention to first enter a match as competitors and then cooperate by identifying one another via coded behavior, for example meeting at a certain location or using peculiar virtual clothing.

Unlike a sporting contest of skills, teaming in battle royale currently has deeply random elements from beginning to end. The tension between a sporting contest of skills and random game elements goes to the heart of the controversy around teaming. Attempting to initiate teaming is a gamble. Dancing, disarming or deliberately passing up opportunities to attack exposes vulnerabilities. Competitors have short-term incentive to eliminate anyone who is initiating teaming because the initiator’s defenses are down. Not everyone has an equal opportunity to team because reciprocation relies on the whims of others. Even when there is an established collusion, there is still an incentive to be the first to betray the other, which makes the long-term benefits of teaming precarious. If teamers are the last competitors in a match, a competitor may betray the other, eliminate themselves or wait until environmental damage randomly decides who wins. Ultimately, teaming introduces a volatile element of luck into a sporting competition of skill.

Controversies and Proposed Solutions

I searched for and surveyed comments about the teaming controversy on live-streams, blog archives, developer patch notes and game-specific discussion forums, including twitch.com, youtube.com, bohemia.net, hypixel.net and reddit.com. This article only cites about two dozen posts and forums, but I believe these sources on teaming are representative of the thousands of ephemeral commentaries I have seen across a variety of platforms. The arguments both for and against teaming display strong emotion (sleaches, 2020; Seahawks12, 2022; ThatOneRedditBro, 2022; Clix, 2023). In my assessment there is a general trend in the dispute. Across the major battle-royale games, game players have complained about teaming for being an unfair advantage and, usually, against the official rules. Posts that defend teaming may be dismissive of the seriousness of casual teaming, but these defenses can also be passionate appeals to the enjoyability of cunning alliances and betrayals (successXX, 2016; Emble12, 2021; SzzzMK47, 2021). Fans who defend teaming have been insultingly dismissed as unskilled competitors who can only win by cheating. The controversy over teaming has led game designers to propose a number of creative solutions, but the persistence of teaming despite these innovations speaks to the practical intractability of this problem.

Certain solutions to illicit teaming speak to the perceived motivations of teaming. Early in the teaming controversy, developers discerned in teaming a simple desire on the part of solo competitors to compete in teams, and the result has been optional game modes for legitimate team-based battle royale, namely Duos, Trios or Quads. However, illicit teaming continued to be common in Solos as well as team-based modes. Another widespread interpretation of teaming is that it is used by unskilled competitors who simply want a sporting chance against vastly higher-skilled players, and the result has been skill-based matchmaking, wherein competitors are matched equally according to an automated index of their perceived skill. Teaming remained common.

Game designers have attempted to prevent teaming by addressing the tools used for teaming. Competitors who can communicate prior to joining the matchmaking queue may conspire to join the queue at the exact same time, which increases the odds of getting into the same match and allows the competitors to find one another to team. This problem led game designers to implement a randomized matchmaking time-delay so that it does not matter when someone joins the queue (swapode, 2017). Game designers may also use a filter to prevent competitors from entering the same match if they are one another’s “Friends” list. Streamers have proposed anonymizing competitor names and appearances to prevent this kind of teaming (Amos, 2019). These approaches have been effective, but teaming remained a substantial problem.

Matches can also contain automated moderators that help gaming communities police teaming. In the article “Collusion Detection in Team-Based Multiplayer Games” the authors Laura Greige, Fernando De Mesentier Silva, Meredith Trotter, Chris Lawrence, Peter Chin and Dilip Varadarajan explain how automatic moderation works to help catch teamers in tournaments (Greige et al., 2022). Competitors who use teaming to climb the ranks of a tournament show an improbable consistency in their respective match rankings over time. Therefore, automated moderators compare gameplay data over several matches to identify these improbable correlations and flag competitors. The moderator assigns to a pair of competitors a higher index of teaming the more frequently that those two competitors begin a match close to one another, stay close to one another and end a match with similar ranking. The goal of automatic moderation is to select cases for further review by human moderators. A majority (but not all) of the cases flagged by the automated moderator were confirmed by human moderators to be genuine cases of teaming, so the system is largely effective. However, automatic moderation does not necessarily aspire to perfection or even to identify collusion itself. Rather, automatic moderation works by identifying the probability that two competitors are colluding, “Hence, human intervention is still essential and further investigation by human experts is required before taking any enforcement action against the potential colluders flagged by our model” (Greige et al., 2022, p. 13).

Human moderators may observe or review matches in order to remove competitors who act like teamers, that is, competitors who are in proximity, do not attack one another and/ or simultaneously attack a third party. Unfortunately, these are also the behaviors of legitimate competitors who are camping, stealthy, short on resources (if not empty), low on health and/ or ambushing ongoing fights, namely “third-partying.” Complaints about people who ambush ongoing fights consider this tactic to be unsporting, but it would make no sense to demand that such an integral strategy should be banned from battle royale simply due to its affinity with teaming. It is not possible to entirely prevent the appearance of teaming because teaming is an implied product of games where players must be selective about which competitors they move against. When competitors in the end game must be selective about which other two competitors they move against, two competitors can have a legitimate ceasefire and mutual third target without any intention to team. Competitors complain about being removed from matches or even banned due to moderators mistaking their legitimate behavior for teaming (simon-whitehead, 2020). The intention to team can be difficult to discern even for human moderators.

One curious case of persistent, illicit teaming is one-way teaming. This occurs when a competitor helps another competitor without their consent. This typically happens when a fan of a streamer gets into the same match as the streamer, and the fan (while watching the live-stream) does whatever they can to benefit the streamer--leaving resources in their path, healing them from a distance (for example, with health splashes), or intentionally getting eliminated by the streamer (thus awarding the streamer loot and credit for the elimination). Sometimes this is benign, like when fans enter a streamer’s match only to build heart-shaped constructs for them to see, but this form of teaming can cause significant social friction.

In April of 2023, Epic Games banned the Fortnite streamer Cody “Clix” Conrod for two weeks due to illicit teaming (Gan, 2023). This meant that Clix was also effectively banned for the following lucrative Fortnite Championship Series tournaments. The teaming occurred due to the actions of a stream sniper who healed and supplied Clix largely without Clix’s consent (Gan, 2023). Stream sniping refers to a competitor watching another competitor’s live stream to see what their competitor sees. In this case the stream sniper was a malevolent troll with an account named “N1 Clix Hater,” and the troll was likely deliberately trying to get Clix banned (Clix, 2023). However, the penalties would be the same if the one-way teaming was from a benevolent fan. Clix admits some responsibility for teaming because Clix solicited certain helpful behavior from the stream sniper over the live stream, although this solicitation was solely to catch the sniper in the act of stream sniping, that is, to get them banned (Clix, 2023).

One-way teaming had a lasting impact on Clix. Following the end of the two-week ban, Clix streamed his first match, and a competitor began healing him with the same splash items that “N1 Clix Hater” used. For fear of being banned again, Clix started screaming out loud and running from the one-way teamer to avoid the appearance of receiving a competitor’s beneficial items (again), then Clix abruptly backtracked to aggressively attack the one-way teamer for fear of appearing to be too non-confrontational or even intentionally leading the teamer. Audience members joked that Clix had a flashback from the PTSD of being banned, but Clix has made it clear to his viewers that being banned from the tournament really was a deeply serious, extremely stressful event for him (Clix, 2023). It was a serious threat to his career and reputation, and more generally it highlights the way in which streamers have a real burden of altering their gameplay to avoid the appearance of benefiting from one-way teamers.

These cases suggest that despite the attempts to address the controversy over teaming by appealing to competitors’ desires behind teaming, by moderating matches and by avoiding stream snipers, teaming remains an intractable problem for the battle-royale community. The teaming controversy lies in a tension between competitors’ desire for a sporting contest of skills in a battle-royale format on one hand, and on the other hand the fact that battle royale is basically, structurally permissive of nonsporting conditions like the volatile dynamics of teaming or third-partying. The basic setup of the battle royale genre seems to make teaming--however impermissible--always theoretically possible.

Collective Action Theory and Social Dilemmas

In the article “Tragedies of the Ludic Commons--Understanding Cooperation in Multiplayer Games,” the author Jonas Heide Smith uses collective action theory to understand how competitive games have cooperative aspects that give rise to social dilemmas (Smith, 2007). Understanding how these social dilemmas work is important for addressing social problems like cheating in online multiplayer games, including illicit teaming. Collective action theory is an economic lens that identifies the individualistic and cooperative forces in the production of collective goods. Individuals may have an incentive to enjoy the benefits of a collective good without contributing to its production, but without enough individuals cooperatively contributing, no individual could enjoy the benefits of a collective good. In this case there is a social dilemma, that is, when the individual and collective incentives are at odds in the production of a collective good.

An illustrative social dilemma is the problem of commons. This problem occurs when a collective good like global, environmental stability requires cooperation in, for example, not exterminating the last of any rare resource (like an endangered species), but the rarer a resource is, the more individuals are incentivized to capitalize on the resource. Social dilemmas are conflicts between a group and its individual members where individual members can benefit from “free-riding” so long as not so many members “free-ride” that the good of the group collapses, in which case there would be no benefit for any members. What counts as “free-riding” can vary greatly--Smith mentions cheating, griefing and irresponsible play (Smith, 2007). Here I am concerned with cheating as a social dilemma to better understand teaming.

On my reading of Smith’s analysis, cheating is a form of free-riding in a social dilemma insofar as cheating allows a competitor to gain a good--winning--at the cost of a greater collective good--having a sporting contest of skills. To clarify, team-based games normatively require cooperation between the members of a given team for the collective good of a team, namely winning. However, Smith points out that there is also a normative cooperation between otherwise competing teams because the greater collective good is a sporting contest of skills. Competitors cooperatively agree not to cheat to win, and this preserves the greater good of having sporting contest of skills. The collective good of a sporting contest of skills is greater than simply winning in the sense that a sporting contest can be enjoyed by all competitors, even losing teams. If players cheat, the contest is no longer about skills, so the remaining good is winning, and the collective good of a sporting contest of skills entirely collapses.

The use of a social-dilemma framework to address the problem of teaming has already been started by Rheem, Cho and Verma (Rheem et al., 2019). Here we have the idea that teaming can be prevented by interrupting the communication between teamers. For example, if competitors typically spin in place or rapidly duck and stand to initiate teaming, then perhaps matches could include bots (artificially intelligent competitors) who imitate this behavior but do not follow through on teaming. This would confuse competitors about which attempts to team are genuine, ultimately dissuading competitors from teaming. Other ideas from Rheem et al. include rushing competitors, separating competitors at the beginning of a match and separating competitors who have been previously flagged for teaming. Ultimately, it is important to dissuade teaming by altering the conditions of initial contact between competitors. I think Rheem et al.’s work can be extended further if we combine it with Smith’s analysis of collective goods and cheating in social dilemmas.

Illicit teaming, as a form of cheating, is a form of free-riding, and we might address teaming by applying Smith’s solutions. Smith first considers government as a solution to social dilemmas. Government would be parallel to the moderators of a match, that is, catching and banning teamers. However, we have seen above that teaming is a problem for even human moderators because teaming can appear identical to legitimate strategies at the end of a match. I would argue that Smith’s conceptual parallel for this problem is offensive-language censorship in online games, wherein Smith argues that moderators do not have a perfect way of determining what is sufficiently offensive to warrant censorship.

Smith also considers how “a group of principals can organize themselves voluntarily to retain the residuals of their own efforts” (Elinor Ostrom quoted in Smith, 2007). This solution primarily works when there is “a certain degree of permanence, the possibilities of monitoring the actions of other community members, and the prospect of future interaction” (Smith, 2007). In other words, like real marketplaces, cooperation is often obtained through systems of accountable reputation over time, for example, rating systems for online vendors/ buyers or for ride-share drivers/ passengers. Someone’s reputation for teaming may lead to their exclusion from a private clan, guild or association of battle-royale gamers.

Smith’s variety of solutions can be synthesized and extended to a wider, public base of players if competitors were to rate each over time in conjunction with automated moderators, perhaps leading to a reputation-based matchmaking system that parallels skill-based matchmaking. Reputation-based matchmaking could reward honest competitors by systematically matching them with other honest competitors and vice versa. Competitors who are repeatedly flagged for teaming might be matched more frequently with others who are flagged for teaming (as opposed to banning them). Of course, there would be disingenuous raters, but another system could filter out raters with anomalous behavior. Another difficulty would be applying such matchmaking to any game with anonymous competitors who can create new accounts to avoid the consequences of their reputation, but battle-royale games could require everyone to submit a verifiable personal identification to decrease the abuse of such fraudulent sock-puppet accounts. This is an extreme but not implausible solution to illicit teaming.

The Typology of Game Goals

Extending Smith’s economic framework to battle royale allowed us to imagine the extreme limits of solutions to illicit teaming as a social dilemma. One way to go beyond these limits is to rethink our implicit assumptions about the split goal of battle royale, namely winning and competing in a sporting contest of skills. What counts as a sporting contest of skills? Or, what counts as an even battlefield? To address this issue, we can begin with a broader theoretical examination of goals in games.

In the article “A Typology of Imperative Game Goals,” the authors Michael S. Debus, José P. Zagal and Rogelio E. Cardona-Rivera unpack the theoretical problem of what counts as the goal of a game (Debus et al., 2020). It can be easy to confuse a game’s goal with its end, with preventing its end, with getting points, with winning, with improving skills or with having a sporting contest of skills--these are very different things. There can exist a typology of game goals, but it must account for equivocations in casually framed goals. The authors note that the goal to “survive” or win in “the context of battle royale games” can be conceptually split between avoiding elimination and eliminating others, whether aggressively or passively (Debus et al., 2020).

Debus et al.’s analysis of surviving or winning can be extended to the goal of having a sporting contest of skills. I argue that it is important to recognize that a sporting contest of skills is conceptually split between a contest of skills where no competitor has an advantage on one hand and a contest where competitors use skills (not random conditions) to obtain an advantage on the other hand. This distinction allows us to recognize that the prohibition against teaming as “unfair” relies almost entirely on the first sense of a sporting contest of skills, that is, a contest where no competitor has an advantage. An extension of Debus et al.’s analysis allows us to see that this popular objection to teaming is not necessarily valid. If competitors must use skills to obtain an advantageous position, then it can be entirely sporting for one competitor to have an advantage over the other. Of course, the prohibition against teaming assumes that it takes no skill to obtain a cooperating competitor because the opportunity to team is randomly decided by the whims of competitors. But is this assumption valid? If we put Debus et al. together with Smith, we can raise the important question, is there a way to design battle royale such that skills are required for teaming?

Skillfully Regulating Teaming in Battle Royale

There are battle-royale video games that prohibit most forms of teaming yet permit teaming under specific conditions, and these games can contain mechanisms for skillfully regulating teaming to preserve a sporting contest of skills. For example, in 2020 the battle-royale mod of Fortnite added a recruiting mechanism that enables an artificially intelligent, Non-player character (NPC) to be hired to cooperate for the duration of the match (Çakir, 2021). These AI-controlled NPCs are not necessarily competitors, but they are potential competitors insofar as anyone can hire them to fight on their team. This mechanism satisfies the desire to recruit without entirely spoiling a contest of skills in Fortnite because the skill level of NPCs is artificially kept quite low. NPCs often clumsily expose the location of whoever hired them, which balances out the advantage they provide. Further, anyone may hire an NPC, so there is an equal opportunity to team. However, the number of hirable NPCs in a given location is limited, which makes the opportunity to team with an NPC somewhat precarious. This NPC-recruiting mechanism has the effect of making each match into a race to hire the only NPC in a given location, which then significantly skews the following fights. Yet, there is significant skill involved in a race to hire an NPC. In Fortnite this race looks like competitors skillfully timing their jump from a moving starting point (a flying autobus) and skillfully timing their deployment of a paraglider to get to a location as efficiently as possible. The NPC-recruiting mechanism is a small but not insignificant step toward regulating teaming such that obtaining a cooperative competitor requires skill, namely the skill of racing to a location as efficiently as possible. Nevertheless, there remain substantial concerns that hired NPCs ruin the fairness of the game (IMainSpyAndImNoWeeb, 2023; emotx, 2023).

The battle-royale video game Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 (Raven Software and Infinity Ward, 2022) introduced a skillful regulatory mechanism for teaming called “assimilation” (Rain et al., 2022). There are four regulatory features of the assimilation mechanism. First, there is a communication option to explicitly invite a competitor to one’s team. The invited person can explicitly accept or reject the invitation to join the team. Second, the game prevents members of a team from damaging their teammates, and this mutual immunity extends to assimilated competitors. Third, assimilation is limited to teams that have lost a teammate. A player can assimilate as many competitors as teammates they have lost and no more. This also means that assimilation does not work in Solo competition modes. This mechanism prevents teaming from spoiling the contest of skills by keeping the maximum size of official teams consistent. Of course, it is still random whether or not a competitor accepts an invitation to team. Even when faced with the choice to be eliminated or cooperate with a competitor, players may simply choose to be eliminated, for example in order to spite an enemy or in order to begin a new match with the friends they had been playing with. A fourth feature of assimilation is that an assimilated competitor can choose to leave their team at any time. This is problematic for a sporting contest of skills insofar as it unevenly enables cunning betrayals through surprise defection. Of course, these regulatory mechanisms do not prevent unofficial, illicit teaming over the maximum size-permitted limit, but such illicit teaming would not have the protection of mutual immunity.

In November and December of 2022, Warzone 2.0 contained a Trios mode named “Unhinged” wherein the assimilation feature was no longer limited to a three-person team but a six-person team, meaning double the capacity of initial team sizes (Morton, 2022). In my view of player responses on reddit.com, Unhinged was polarizing for the Warzone fanbase (Boynus, 2022; Handbrake55, 2022; Infinitely_Infinity, 2022; Pmmeyourrocks, 2022; u/[deleted], 2022; C4ptainchr0nic, 2023). Defenders of Unhinged typically appealed to the fun of cunning alliances and betrayals, while others gave the usual complaints about teaming as an unskilled strategy.

Why was Unhinged removed from Warzone 2.0 on 14 December 2022? Fans of Unhinged wondered why they could not have an Unhinged mode while the complainers play a different mode more to their liking. We can make educated guesses about what happened based on player complaints. Unhinged had a problematic social and gameplay dynamic. First, players reported an increase in toxic communication (ThatOneRedditBro, 2022). Warzone 2.0 contains a mechanism called proximity chat wherein competitors can talk with one another if they are close enough to each other. This mechanism can be turned off, but proximity chat provides an advantage for inviting a competitor to team up, so Unhinged included more use of proximity chat relative to other game modes (SirDankz, 2022). The dynamics of competition and moreover betrayal seems to have encouraged toxic proximity chat between competitors. Complaints include the use of racial slurs. This made Unhinged extra problematic for popular streaming platforms that prohibited racist content. It is easy to imagine that the Unhinged mode was a liability in this sense, and I think proximity chat ultimately stifled the potential for Unhinged to further develop its explorations of regulated teaming via assimilation.

In terms of gameplay dynamics, players complained that the teaming dynamic in Unhinged effectively requires competitors to race to find a cooperative competitor if they are going to last to the end game, but not everyone can equally find a competitor. Competitors are incentivized to refuse cooperation in favor of betrayal to obtain the short-term benefits. Unlike Fortnite’s race to hire an NPC using a skillfully timed deployment, there was no parallel skill for racing to team up with another human competitor in Unhinged.

Conclusion

Further explorations in regulatory mechanisms for teaming can be developed on the basis of each element of teaming that would make it unskilled. Teaming is randomized or made unskilled by a number of things we can identify from the preceding analysis. We have seen that there has been randomness through an ambiguity in the communication of invitations to team, and the explicit invite function of assimilation resolves this issue. We have seen randomness in the whims of a teamer’s betrayal, and assimilation addresses this issue with mutual immunity to damage for competitors who accept an explicit invitation. Although assimilation currently allows teamers to defect at any time, which reintroduces the randomness of whimsical betrayals, it would be interesting to explore a mechanism that regulates defection by requiring a defection to be announced well ahead of time, say a thirty-second countdown until there is no more mutual immunity to damage. A defection countdown would eliminate the surprise element of defection.

Assimilation’s mechanism of explicit invitations currently does not address the randomness of the whims of competitor’s acceptance or rejection of an explicit invitation to team. However, the NPC-recruiting mechanism in Fortnite circumvents this randomness by forcing NPCs to accept the first invitation to team that they receive. We can easily imagine that assimilation can address the issue with human competitors similarly. When a competitor sends an explicit invitation to another competitor, a mechanism can make this invitation automatically accepted, immediately establishing damage immunity between the two competitors. Explicit invites would then be coercive invites, and the whims of the competitor’s interests in teaming no longer affect the opportunity to team.

I would argue that one current feature of assimilation is unnecessary to preserve a sporting contest of skills, namely a size cap on teams (inclusive of assimilated members). The idea of capping or limiting the combined size of a team is clearly meant to make the competition more even, but we have seen that a competition between unevenly sized teams can be sporting if teams use skills to retain teammates. Exploring the effects of different size caps for teaming would be interesting for future research, but a size cap is not necessarily needed to preserve a sporting contest of skills.

Given this robust revision of assimilation--coercive invitations, mutual immunity and a defection countdown but not necessarily with a size cap--the major randomizing elements of teaming are reduced, and skillful competition is preserved. However, new sets of issues emerge for the dynamics of teaming in battle royale, and game designers can benefit from exploring these new issues. I consider here a few questions for future research on the effects of skillful regulations of teaming in battle royale. What are different ways of regulating the duration of a coercive assimilation? What is the effect of implementing an indefinite duration until one member announces their defection? What is the effect of implementing a forced automatic defection of any assimilated members at the end of a match? What is the effect of establishing a determinate, short amount of time before auto-defection? What happens if competitors are given one or more options to renew their alliance? How can the ability to send a coercive invitation be distributed among players? What is the effect of giving players one or multiple chances to extend a coercive invitation at the beginning of the match? What happens if the ability to send a coercive invitation is regulated by possessing an in-game item to be found in the arena? What impact does the number of such items available make? How might the race to such items be regulated to require skills? What happens if an assimilated member can send a coercive invitation to a third party, and how might damage immunity be distributed in such a chain of assimilation? That is, if a first competitor coercively invites a second competitor, and the second competitor coercively invites a third competitor, do the first and third competitors have mutual immunity for the duration of the first assimilation? How can cooperation be encouraged between a coercive inviter and an assimilated member? What happens if teaming competitors receive bonuses by remaining proximate to one another? What happens if they receive penalties for straying too far from their teammates?

Finally, I want to note that robust mechanisms for skillfully regulating teaming can exist alongside prohibitions against teaming outside of these mechanisms, and in such a case skillfully regulating teaming would not really solve the intractable problem of illicit teaming. However, perhaps a well-regulated avenue for teaming would satisfy much of the desire to team, and there might be less incentive to team illicitly when official teaming offers sufficient protection against random betrayals. It remains to be seen how regulating the outlet of players’ drive to team will affect players’ engagement with prohibitive teaming.
References [Cut for Reddit Post Limit on Characters]

I’ve spent a long time making this load order and it’s my first proper load order, I haven’t played Skyrim in a year, are there any essential mods I should add or any patches I need, or things I should replace? Will this run on og Xbox? If not what should I remove
Any suggestions?
MASTER FILES - USSEP - Paraphernalia - Anti Flicker - Lux - Resources - Lux Via v1.6 (Master File) - Lux - Master File - Lux Orbis - Master File - Reforging - To The Masses - Survival mode settings - Dead body collision - Bodies burn brightly - R.A.S.S - Just shields (on back) - AE edition - Character Creation Overhaul - Better Descriptions - Campfire - Northern Roads 1k
FOUNDATIONS - Cheat Room - Dynamic Display Settings - DMH Busty Skeevers - GET Immersive Cheats
UI/ MENU - Nordic UI - Sensible Interface - Ugh. Mod Manager Cap - Kontrol - Lore-Based Loading Screens - Immersive Lock Descriptions - The Dragonborn Dreams (XB1) - Better Descriptions
HUD - YOT Your Own Thoughts - YOT - Campfire - Undiscover Skyrim
QUEST ALTERATIONS - Mystical Scholarship Bundle - JaySerpa's Quest Expansion Bundle - Stones of Barenziah Quest Markers - The Parthurnax Dilemma - Missives by Irondusk - Missives notes retexture
CRAFTABLES - Wear Multiple Rings - Wearable Lanterns [XB1] - Lotr weapons - Ranger - Dimir Agent Armor 2k/1k
GAME MECHANICS - Summermyst- Enchantments of Skyrim - Andromeda - Unique Standing Stone - Wintersun - Faiths of Skyrim - Skyrim's Got Talent - Improve As A Bard - Frozen electrocuted combustion - The Dragonborn dreams - Headhunter Bounties Redone - Telekinetic grip - Bat transformation power
LEVEL PROGRESSION - Character Creation Overhaul AiO - 50 Pct More Perk Points
PERK AND MAGIC - Ordinator - Apocalypse - Magic of Skyrim - Apocalypse and Ordinator Compatibility - Triumvirate - Odin - Skyrim Magic Overhaul - Odin - Ordinator Compatibility - Growl - Werebeasts of Skyrim - Sacrilege - Minimalistic Vampires
ITEM AND LOOT LEVELLED LIST - Elsopa Cloaks of Skyrim - Elsopa Cloaks added to NPC'S. - Face Masks of Skyrim - Better Harvesting - PrivateEye's Heavy Armory - New Weapons - New
AUDIO - AUDIO SFX OVERHAUL - THE SOUNDS OF DAWN - A Bow's Whisper - Enigma Series Creatures - Immersive dragon sounds - More Painful NPC Death Sounds
WEATHER - DAWN v2 - Ultra realistic snowflakes - Dust Effects - Flying Crows
GRASS - Veydosebrom Regions - A Skyrim Grass Overhaul - Landscape Fixes For Grass Mods
SKIN MESH/ TEXTURES/ SKELETON - XP32 Maximum Skeleton + Realistic Ragdolls and Force - Realistic Death Physics- No Animation - Visible Favorited Gear - Equip on Back (GDBs XPMSSE Custom)
IDLES AND ANIMATIONS - DAR NPC and Player Animations - 360 Walk and Run Stand-alone - RBE's enhanced 1st person camera bob - Smoother Walk - Gritty Animations Requiem 2.0 - Comprehensive First Person Animations - Horses Simply Turn Better
GENERAL MESHES AND TEXTURES - Distinct Uniques - Artefakes - Believable Weapons (Sheathed Greatswords) - Elsopa quivers redone - Elsopa Shields Redone 1k - Elsopa - Potions Redone - Elsopa - Training Dummies Redone - Elsopa's HD Comfy Mammoth Cheese - Elsopa's HD Giant paintings - Sigils Of Skyrim - Full - Vanilla Armor Replacer - 1k Textures By NordwarUA 224.27 mb - Divergence - Coin Bag - 1k - Super SMIM’d 1k512 - From the Rift to the Reach - Northern Farmhouses - Nordic Jarls Longhouse - Small Nordic Tent Replacer 1k - 3D Log Farmhouse Fences - Realistic Blacksmith Overhaul - HD Photorealistic Ivy (ETD Version) - Northern Shores SE 1k - Hyperborean Snow - True Nordic Mountains - Grey 2k - Darker distant LOD - Gritty Torches Overhaul - enhanced blood textures - No screen blood - Dwemer tech glowmapped - Photorealistic ash piles - Candles + Candle Glow - Magical Forces and FX Bundle - BURP - Spell Tomes Lite - Weapon Trails - Really seriously improved sparks - VAE2 - Visual Animated Enchants 2 - Embers XD by Mindflux 1k - Embers XD/_JK's Skyrim AIO Patch - Embers XD / lux Patch - KD Realistic Fireplaces - Divergence Compendium of Beasts 1k - Fluffworks (Fluffy Animals) - Quality 1k - Wolves of Skyrim - Oblivion Horses 1k - Bears of The North 2k - Cosy Giants and Improved Giant Textures - TROLL REPLACER - Spriggans SE - AGoT Dragons 512 - Iconic spider retextures CC 1K - Canibal draugr replacer - A feast of falmer - Dwemer Automatons Glowmapped - Luminous Atronachs - Rally's Butterflies and Moths - Rally's Sparkling Torchbugs - Rally's Bees and More - Aberrant flora - Traverse the ulvenwood
NPC AI - Amazing Follower Tweaks - Run For Your Lives - AI Overhaul 1.8.2 Scripted - Realistic wildlife behavior
NPC/ PC IMMERSION - Immersive Speech Dialogues - Realistic Conversations - Radiance - Talkative Dragons By Voeille
BEAUTY MODS - Bella beauty and the beasts - Fia's eyes - vanilla eye replacer - Beards - Brows - Fatherland: children - superior lord friendly hair
NTERIORS/ LIGHTING - JKs Interiors AiO - Lux v6.3 - Lux Orbis v3.0 - Lux Via Plug-in v1.5.1 - Paraphernalia- Realistic Magic - Haze lights - Haze lights wearable lanterns cast shadows - JK's Interiors AiO USSEP Patch - Smoking Torches & Candles - Haze Lights - Torches Cast Shadows - Dwemer pipework reworked V4 1K - Lux / Embers XD Patch - Lux Orbis / Embers XD Patch
LIGHT MULTI AREA EDITS - Daedric Shrines AiO 1k - Carriage Stops of Skyrim XB1
SINGLE AREA EDITS - JKs Skyrim - All in One - Fortified Whiterun- Compatibility Version - Blubbos Trees in Whiterun for JK -
MULTI AREA EDITS - The Great Cities, Towns and Villages Bundle - Ryns Farms AiO - Ryn's Standing Stones Ai0 - Ryn's Standing Stones - Ryn's Farms Patch
COMBAT - VioLens - Archery Skill Set - Improved Bandits - Dark Ages: Dragon AI Overhaul - No Draugr Disarm (XB1).
MAP MODS - A Quality World Map - Vivid with Stone Roads
WATER MODS - DAWN Waters w/ Natural Waterfalls
BOTTOM OF LOAD ORDER - Alternate Start - Live Another Life
PATCHES - JaySerpas Quest Expansion Bundle- USSEP - Equip On Back Animations Patch - JK's Skyrim aio - JK's Skyrim - Al overhaul sse patch - embers xd / JK's Skyrim aio patch - JK's interiors aio - JK's interiors aio Al overhaul patch - JK's interiors aio alt start patch - JK's interiors aio Ussep patch - Jk Interiors AiO Elsopa Cloaks Of Skyrim Retextured (Standalone) Patch - JK's interiors aio embers xd patch - JK's interiors aio JK's Skyrim patch - Jk’s interiors aio lux orbis patch - JK's interiors aio JK's Skyrim patch - Paraphernalia ambience - Northern roads lux patch - Northern roads lux orbis patch - Northern roads lux via patch - Northern roads ryns farms aio patch - Northern Roads & Ryn's Standing Stones Patch - Northern roads landscape fixes for grass mods - Northern roads alternate start patch - Northern roads jk’s Skyrim aio patch - Northern roads less grass patch - Lux orbis - Lux orbis mystical scholarship patch - lux orbis / Ussep patch - lux orbis embers d patch - lux orbis the great towns cities and villages bundle patch - lux orbis / JK's Skyrim aio patch - Lux / Ussep patch - Lux The Great Cities, Towns and Villages/ Anniversary Edition CC - Lux embers xd patch - Paraphernalia - realistic magic
VERY BOTTOM - Insignificant Object Remove - TLS Shrubs and Lag Be Gone - Uncap FPS - FPS Eterna - Racial Body Morphs Redux - Embers XD lux orbis Jk's skyrim patch

I have seen where Marika is sometimes interpreted as having attributes connected to Odin - trickster, hung on a tree and stabbed with a spear, dropped an eye (scarseal) down a well - but less often do I see identified Marika/Radagon's thematic ties to other Norse gods and especially Loki.
From review of the literature Radagon alone is something of an amalgamation of many myths and stories: Loki, Illmarinen/Kullervo, Orion, Xolotl, Gollum/Smeagol, the Rebis and/or a literal interpretation of man and woman becoming "one flesh" as described in Genesis in Christian bibles (and a handful of others). All under the combined names of sun god Ra and prosperity god Dagon. It may even be appropriate to think of him as a mimic on a meta level, given all of these inspirations pulled together.
And of all of those inspiration one stands out as especially synergistic with a mimic character - Loki the Trickster and shapeshifter. Specifically the version of Loki that appears in Wagner's Ring Cycle in the mid-1800's is red haired because Loki is conflated with the fire giant 'Logi' for that production. On the other hand it also makes some sense to associate Radagon with the explicitly red-haired Thor who wields a hammer as yet another persona (more on that later).
The main point is the characteristics of Loki that apply directly and indirectly around Radagon:

• Half giant heritage. Radagon hates his hair the colour of fire giants - this one is clear. .
  
• Shapeshifter who has had children in male and female form. Radagon has fathered children and Marika has been mother to children. The 8-legged horse Sleipnir does not make an appearance but perhaps a spiritual analogue does: the Royal Revenants are 8-limbed. Also Godwyn is described as "scion of the Golden Bough" and a scion is a limb taken from a tree, so perhaps it is meant to be that in the empty space of the narrative Marika was mother to 8 children of the Golden Lineage. This is just my speculation though - after all no depiction of a many-legged horse was going to top Bloodborne's Ludwig so I can understand why this myth in particular is more metaphorical. .
  
• Had three children with a giantess: Hela the queen of the underworld who is half dead and half alive (Ranni), Jormungandr the World Serpent (Rykard), and Fenris Wolf who has the most convoluted mythology of the 3 but is most known for having a voracious appetite (Radahn eats corpses and howls at the sky) and biting off the hand of the god Tyr when he was chained (Malenia's arm was already artificial, but the cinematic makes a point of Radahn knocking it off in their fight, and after the rot is unleashed Radahn is essentially neutralized and kept in a corner to wander mindlessly). The twist on the classic here is that none of the three were born into these roles and instead all grew into them. .
  
• Loki wagered his head in a bet with a craftsman who forged 3 treasures: a ring for Odin that generates 8 copies of itself every 9 days, a golden boar for Freyr, and Thor's hammer Mjolnir. Two of the treasures have parallels in the Elden Ring (not being pedantic about the exact number of rings in the Great Runes) and Marika's Hammer. The third is less obvious but there are indeed boars in the Lands Between. And now a man riding boar in the Shadow of the Erdtree trailer. When he lost the bet the craftsman had planned to behead him, but Loki pointed out that he had not wagered his neck, so instead the craftsman sewed his mouth shut. My main point is that the Preceptor's Mask associated with Radagon's journey to Liurnia has the mouth "sewn shut", and this is in contrast to the Glintstone Crowns having implications of beheading when made into schools of graven mages. .
  
• Was imprisoned for his role in tricking Hodr - the blind Norse god of darkness - into killing Baldr - Norse god of light. Parallel to the death of Godwyn. This has led to sometimes matching Ranni to Loki, which I think only makes sense if it is ignored that nothing about Ranni other than this single act and fondness for schemes links her to Loki. In terms of Tricksters, she may have more in common with Egyptian goddess Isis - the most high profile female trickster god who conducts her trickery through embodying the maiden, mother and crone. But sometimes traits/stories get split between characters. .
  
• Is credited in Snorri Sturlson's Prose Edda with inventing the fishing net (same pattern as Radagon's rune). This also connects to an incident just before Loki was caught where he takes the form of a salmon and the gods use his own net to help catch him (Radagon's rune blocking entry to the Erdtree). However, there is another connection to Ranni here as it is said in the more reliable Poetic Edda that Loki actually borrowed the net from Rán, goddess of the sea. .
  
• Obtained from craftsmen a wig of golden hair for Sif - wife of Thor - to replace the hair he cut off for a trick by shaving her bald. This one is not explicitly invoked - aside from the tendency for demigods to be shorn of their hair and have it included in their helms. It is more an exercise of extrapolation after identifying a pattern with other Loki stories, and also drawing upon that imagery of Radagon wielding Thor's hammer. Imagine Radagon divesting himself of his red hair and replacing it with golden hair as part of becoming Marika as a preferred identity. Sif also was known to wear a veil in the time before receiving new hair - and Marika wears a veil in her church statues. The statue of a bald monk appears to be symbolic of the beginning of Marika's Age of the Erdtree. I know that FromSoft knows who Sif is because they named a wolf after her in Dark Souls. .
  
• Lost the goddess Idunn and her apples of immortality and needed to fetch her back after borrowing Freya's cloak of raptor feathers, during which time the gods began to age rapidly. This one seems to be somewhat in progress based on all of the zombie-like Wandering Nobels throughout the land.
  

And to tie back to the beginning scholarship speculates that Loki originated as a disguise of Odin as Trickster God. FromSoft has stated explicitly who most embodies Odin: Gideon Ofnir. Ófnir is a name meaning "Inciter" and attributed as a moniker of Odin by Snorri. Gideon synergizes well as a Tarnished version of Radagon - representing a previous version of him from a certain point in time. If you like, consider Gideon to be a companion who joined Radagon on the campaign to Raya Lucaria - he had to have made an acquaintance of Seluvis at some point after all. Gideon claims to know that Marika wishes the Tarnished to struggle forever, which places him on the same line of thought as Radagon's eternal agonized hammering of the ring (and Gideon's weapon is a type of hammer as well). Radagon has been noted to use only incantations in his fight despite having spent time learning sorcery at Raya Lucaria. These traits of combining incantations and sorcery are instead displayed by Gideon who gives payoff to the characterization of Odin as wizard.
So rather in this case the plucking of eyes and hanging on a tree of Marika seems to be a consequence of regression to what would be expected from a Radagon-as-Loki-as-Odin offshoot: trying to solve a problem like an Odin would. And Marika nailed to a tree also likely pulls a reference to the death of Finduilas, also known as "Faelivrin" meaning "gleam of the sun on the water" or as I see it: the icon for Memory of Grace. But that's a tangent from Tolkein-based research about Gelmir, a character who also had his eyes blinded during a long imprisonment.

So, a few months ago I was on a Discord server where a user shared, in good faith, the following Youtube Short:
https://youtube.com/shorts/-uGzvL1FX4Q?si=pK5V7uz7igcaKQzu
Being a Short, the transcript is pretty, er, short, so let me produce it in full:

Fun fact: snake oil was originally a very effective traditional Chinese medicine. The Chinese would make snake oil out of the Chinese water snake, which is extremely high in omega-3 fatty acids, which are good for treating inflammation, achy joints and muscles, arthritis, and bursitis, among other things. When Chinese immigrants came to the U.S. to help build the railroads in the 1860s, they brought with them traditional Chinese medicine and snake oil. After long, hard days of toiling on the railroads, the Chinese would rub snake oil on their achy muscles and joints and the Americans marvelled at its effectiveness. So some industrious Americans decided to start making their own snake oil. But the U.S. doesn't have Chinese water snakes, so the Americans started making their snake oil out of the most abundant snake they could find: rattlesnakes. But rattlesnakes have little to no omega-3 fatty acids, meaning American snake oil was completely useless. And that's why we call people who are scammers or frauds snake oil salesmen.

There are a number of rather interesting layers to this particular piece, but I will confine myself to four main aspects.

1: The Vibes

The framing of this piece is all over the place, and I admit, this bit of my critique is purely an issue of narrative construction. What it first seems to be setting up is some idea that Americans engaged in a process of cultural appropriation. But then these American hucksters are described as 'industrious', implying something more innocuous. But then the bit about the wrong kind of snakes could be taken as them being a bit silly, and if they hadn't been described as 'industrious' you could have framed them as being undermined by their own cynicism. And then at the end he says this is why scammers are called snake oil salesmen, and yet his narrative implies they were inept and not knowingly peddling useless oils, so there are steps missing before that final sentence. The whole thing is a giant mess!

2: The Medicine

Okay, I know this is badhistory, not badscience, but I mean... the medical claims are worth interrogating here. Do omega-3 fatty acids help with joint ailments? The science suggests that at minimum, there is a positive correlation between consumption of supplementary omega-3 and relief of certain conditions (inflammatory joint pain and osteoarthritis), but there are some caveats around that: the first that it is oral ingestion over prolonged periods, not surface application in the short term, that is correlated with these effects. The second is that there are variations in the data which – in the case of the most recent meta-analysis from 2023 – are hypothesised to result from not controlling for baseline omega-3 intake. Patients who already have a decent level of intake thanks to eating such exotic foods as salmon, walnuts, or brussels sprouts, may find further intake to be ineffectual.
But there is also a second question: don't American rattlesnakes contain omega-3 fatty acids? The answer is that, er, yes they do. The original source for the claim that American rattlesnakes had less omega-3 than Chinese snakes is a letter to the editor of the Western Journal of Medicine by one Richard Kunin in 1989, who compared the levels of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids from three different sources, and found that the concentration of EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) was about one-quarter as much in one American rattlesnake sample, and near-zero in another, but that overall omega-3 content (which includes ALA and DHA) in the two rattlesnakes was still far from negligible – if anything, the EPA concentration in the Chinese oil, which contained virtually none of the other omega-3 acids, was unusually high. I've been deliberately quick and summative here so put a pin in this, because we are coming back to Kunin's cursory study later.
Sources for this section:

• Deng et al., 'Effect of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids supplementation for patients with osteoarthritis: a meta-analysis', Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery and Research (2023) 18:381
• D.M. Cordingley and S.M. Cornish, 'Omega-3 Fatty Acids for the Management of Osteoarthritis: A Narrative Review', Nutrients (2022) 14:3362
• R.J. Goldberg, J. Katz, 'A meta-analysis of the analgesic effects of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid supplementation for inflammatory joint pain', Pain (2007) 129

3: The History

One thing that is easily taken for granted is that snake oil was in fact copied from Chinese remedies brought over by immigrants, but the causal link is actually not that clear. Research on the actual history of American snake oil, let alone its origins, is surprisingly slim, and I have yet to encounter any citation chain that links the claim back to any kind of primary evidence. Lydia Kang and Nate Pedersen's popular press book Quackery from 2017 uses almost identical phrasing to the Youtube Short and alludes to the Kunin study, but has no citations; Matthew Mayo's Hornswogglers, Fourflushers & Snake-Oil Salesmen cites the Chinese origin as 'the commonly accepted derivation' but again, offers no citations to back up whether this tale is true, only asserts its greater plausibility – with no evidence – compared to the alternative opinion that it was originally an American Indian medicine. Ann Anderson's 2000 book Snake Oil, Hustlers, and Hambones, which is at least a somewhat properly cited work though draws primarily on Violet McNeal's 1947 autobiography, Four White Horses and a Brass Band, does very openly highlight Chinese impersonation in the development of the American medicine show (including by McNeal herself and her husband, Will), but Anderson suggests that the first case of a huckster claiming his medicine had a Chinese origin was with the McNeals in the 1890s.
To be sure, there is a plausible truthiness here: snake-fat-derived oils do exist as liniments in Chinese medicine, there was Chinese migration to the United States, and snake oil popped up afterward. But there are a few gaps in this theory, the biggest one being chronological. Snake oil simply doesn't seem to have featured in the American public consciousness until the 1890s, around a decade after the first of the Chinese Exclusion Acts, and over four decades after the first major waves of Chinese immigration during the 1849 gold rush. The possible originator of ‘Rattlesnake Oil’, but certainly its most famous proponent, was Clark Stanley. Stanley claimed to have studied indigenous Hopi medicine from 1879 to 1881, but only began marketing his patented 'Rattlesnake Oil' at some point around the turn of the decade, and only receiving significant attention following his appearance at the 1893 Columbian Exposition. Fun fact: in 1906 the FDA found that Stanley's oil contained no actual snake products anyway. A similar rattlesnake oil, marketed by one Arizona Bill, appears in Violet McNeal's recollection of the 1890s, which she implied to also be made of decidedly unserpentine ingredients, and which Bill claimed to be of similarly American Indian, not Chinese, origin. While the McNeals did market a liniment of supposedly Chinese origin, they claimed it came from turtles.
So, given that American snake oil a) would not appear until some four decades after the start of large-scale Chinese migration to the United States, b) never even contained snakes in the first place, and c) was associated with American Indians and not the Chinese, the idea that the American snake oil fad derived from naïve and/or cynical Americans creating a knockoff of a Chinese medicine seems much less clear-cut. Why did it take so long? Why, if practitioners were supposedly inspired by the real thing, was it not actually made with snake fats anyway? And why, if it was an attempt to seize on a known Chinese medical practice, was it not marketed as such, but instead linked to a wholly original set of backstories about Indians?
Sources for this section:

• L. Kang, N. Pedersen, Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything (2017)
• M. P. Mayo, Hornswogglers, Fourflushers & Snake-Oil Salesmen: True Tales of the Old West's Sleaziest Swindlers (2015)
• A. Anderson, Snake Oil, Hustlers, and Hambones: The American Medicine Show (2000)
• V. McNeal, Four White Horses and a Brass Band: True Confessions from the World of Medicine Shows, Pitchmen, Chumps, Suckers, Fixers, and Shills (1947, republished 2019)

4: The Source

Trying to find the origins of the 'snake oil was originally a Chinese medicine that Americans knowingly or unknowingly cocked up' claim was an interesting journey that leads ultimately not to primary evidence and rigorous scholarship, but to popular media and indeed to modern forms of medical quackery.
The most frequently-cited, or at least alluded to, piece that I've seen is a 2007 article by Cynthia Graber for Scientific American, titled 'Snake Oil Salesmen Were on to Something'. Graber seems to be the earliest origin of the claim that American snake oil was a knockoff of Chinese remedies, but I am prepared to be corrected here. There are a couple of other, later pop sources that seem to draw on Graber, such as Lakshmi Gandhi's 'A History of "Snake Oil Salesmen' for NPR's Code Switch, and 'The History of Snake Oil', which, although published in The Pharmaceutical Journal (the journal of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society), is an opinion piece with absolutely no citations attached to its historical claims and which I am therefore happy to treat as a 'pop' source for all intents and purposes. And all of these pieces have one thing in common. They all directly cite Richard Kunin’s 1989 letter.
So, what did Kunin actually write? If you want to spoil yourself you can just read his letter, but it is not a particularly elaborate document, and in any case, why read it now when you can read my snarky comments first?
In this letter, Kunin says he bought a bottle of over-the-counter snake oil from a Chinese pharmacist (per his implied comments to Graber, this was in San Francisco), somehow obtained two rattlesnakes, one Crotalus viridis from California and one Crotalus tigris from Arizona, and sent all three off to a lab in New York. The lab found that the Chinese snake oil contained 19.6% EPA and only trace quantities (marked as 0.001%) of ALA and DHA, while the fat of the California black rattlesnake had 4% EPA, 1.4% ALA, and 0.1% DHA, and the Arizona red rattlesnake had 0.5% ALA, 0.6% EPA, and 5.4% DHA. So in other words, this Chinese liniment marketed as 'snake oil' but of completely indeterminate origin, with suspiciously near-zero quantities of certain specific fatty acids, contained about four times as much omega-3 overall as unprocessed rattlesnake fat. And also there was only one sample of each source. Funnily enough, Graber doesn't actually claim that the American snake oil was ineffective. He doesn't even claim it was less effective. Indeed, he seems to be suggesting that 'genuine' snake oil peddled by 19th century quacks could work (presumably, as long as it was made with real snakes). Graber only indirectly insinuates that American snakes produced less concentrated oil, with the idea that American snake oil was considerably less effective being a further exaggeration in later iterations of this telling. One interesting thing Kunin does to try and help his case is to insinuate that because omega-3 fatty acids can be absorbed into the skin, cutaneous application could be an effective pain relief intervention for the joints, which are... usually a decent ways below the skin. Very sneaky of him.
Aside from this 1989 letter proving a fat load of nothing, given the absurdly unrigorous methodology employed, there's also something interesting about Kunin himself. Kunin was a clinical psychiatrist by training, whose interest in pharmaceuticals was based not on conventional medical science, but rather the 'alternative' discipline of orthomolecular medicine, a term coined in the 1960s to refer to the use of dietary supplements and specific nutrient-based interventions in treating illnesses. Kunin was deeply involved in the orthomolecular medicine movement, cofounding the Orthomolecular Medicine Society in 1976, serving as its President from 1980-82, then founding a new Society for Orthomolecular Health Medicine in 1994 while also serving as the inaugural president of the International Orthomolecular Medicine Society (I assume that all of these factional fragmentations are worthy of a book unto themselves), and editor of the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine from 1982 until some point before his death in 2021 at the age of 92. He also was the research director for Ola Loa dietary supplements from 1997 to 2020, in case you're curious whether he had any financial stake involved. Basically, Kunin was himself a snake oil peddler in the general sense, who, for a brief moment, was also a snake oil peddler in the very literal sense!
Sources for this section (other than those already linked):

• The International Society of Orthomolecular Medicine's obituary of Kunin: https://isom.ca/article/in-memoriam-richard-kunin
• The Townsend Letter's obituary of Kunin: https://www.townsendletter.com/article/455-richard-a-kunin-md-memorial/

So what does it all mean?

Not that much, to be fair. This is stuff we've all likely seen before: an unsourced claim with actually quite limited intended implications gets seized on, and more and more lurid claims are spun off from it until you get something that is just completely off. However, I find it interesting that it's a narrative that has spread mainly through the popular science press, not just popular press in general. So the moral of the story is: don't let scientists write bad history.

From Dane Brugler at the Athletic:
BACKGROUND: Jackson Powers-Johnson, the youngest of four children (two girls, two boys), grew up in Draper (Salt Lake City suburbs) in a blended family. When Jackson was 3, his mother remarried, and his new stepfather (James Johnson) became “Dad” and the man who raised him. Through high school, Jackson went by his given name “Jackson Light,” but when he turned 18, he went to court and legally changed his name to “Jackson James Powers -Johnson” to reflect his mother’s maiden name (Powers) and the close bond with his stepfather. Starting at age 5, Powers-Johnson became involved with multiple sports, including basketball and wrestling. But baseball was his first passion, and he started making all-star teams at age 7.
At age 9, his first football coach (Sean Hagen) saw his athletic skill set and suggested he join his team. Jackson was soon dominati ng on the offensive and defensive lines at the youth level. While still raking on the baseball diamond in middle school, he was earning MVPs at football camps, and it started to look like the gridiron was his future. Powers-Johnson enrolled at Corner Canyon High School in Draper and started on varsity at left guard and defensive tackle as a freshm an, earning second team All-Region. He moved to center as a sophomore and helped Corner Canyon to a 12 -0 season, including the 2018 state championship. As a junior, Powers- Johnson again led the team to an undefeated 14-0 season and state championship, earning first team All-State and regional offensive line MVP honors in 2019. For his senior season, he led Corner Canyon to a third consecutive undefeated (14-0) season and state championship as the program went 40-0 over his final three prep seasons. Powers-Johnson was named a captain for the third consecutive year in 2020 and again earned first team All-State and regional offensive line MVP honors. On defense, he finished hiscareerwith 124 tackles, 20.0tacklesfor loss, 7.5 sacks, two interceptionsand one forced fumble. He was also a three-year letterman in both baseball and wrestling.
A four-star recruit, Powers-Johnson was the No. 14 interior lineman in the 2021 class and the No. 3 recruit in Utah, one spot behind QB Jaxson Dart (one of his close friends and the quarterback he blocked for at Corner Canyon). In January 2019, after his sophomore season, UtahState offered him afull scholarship, followed by BYU, Missouri, Nebraska, Oregon and Utah a few months later. Midway through his junior year, Powers-Johnson was ready to shut down his recruitment and commit to head coach Mario Cristobal and the Ducks. At Corner Canyon’s signing ceremony, all eyes were on Dart as he revealed his commitment to USC — while Powers- Johnson stayed loyal to Oregon. He was the No. 9 recruit in Cristobal’s final class in Eugene (OT Kingsley Suamataia was No. 1). After three seasons, Powers-Johnson skipped the 2023 bowl game and his senior season to enter the 2024 NFL Draft. He accepted his invitation to the 2024 Senior Bowl but had to pull out midway through the week with a hamstring injury.
STRENGTHS: Has an NFL frame with above-average body twitch and snap-to-step quickness ... efficient lateral shuffle to answer gap shooters (allowed zero sacks and only one pressure in 2023) ... plays with a firm base and fierce hands to refit and stay centered in his pass-protection anchor ... gets the most out of his average length and looks to remove defenders from their feet (led Oregon with 37 knockdowns in 2023) ... quick to turn or wall off defenders i n the run game ... has the functional range to get out in front on screens and second-level work-ups ... alert versus defensive fronts and plays assignment sound ... competes with a mean streak, and his fight-or-flight response is to match the opponent’s authority ... the Oregon coaching staff raves about his toughness and dedication to his craft ... one of the youngest offensive linemen in this draft class but carries himself like a veteran ... has experience at all three interior line positions (893 snaps at center, 430 at right guard, 27 at left guard).
WEAKNESSES: Sets tall at times with inconsistent knee bend ... average hip roll and doesn’t consistently drive defenders off the ball ... has the range to reach his blocking points but needs to get there with urgency and timing as well ... will strengthen his sustain skills with improved post-contact leverage and mechanics ... highly penalized as a junior, drawing eight flags (five false starts, two ineligible downfield and one unsportsmanlike conduct) ... the medicals will be important after he battled multiple injuries, including groin and hip issues in 2023 along with multiple concussions over his career...only one full season of starting experience (just 16 starts on offense at Oregon).
SUMMARY: A one-year starter at Oregon, Powers-Johnson emerged as a standout center this past season in offensive coordinator Will Stein’s zone -read, balanced attack. After filling in at guard his first two seasons, he won the starting center job in 2023 and became the fifth unanimous All-American in school history and first Pac-12 player to win the Rimington Award as the nation’s top center. A multi -sport athlete growing up, Powers-Johnson plays light on his feet in pass protection and as a run blocker, with the natural movement skills and stability at contact to torque and fend off defenders. With his contact balance and comp osure, he rarely appears overwhelmed on tape, although the defensive line play in the NFL is a giant leap ahead of what he saw in the Pac -12. Overall, Powers-Johnson’s inexperience is reflected in his technique, but he offers a fantastic combination of size, athleticism and toughness, with the skillset that translates to both center and guard. His game reminds me of Ryan Kelly, who won the Rimington Award at Alabama before becoming a first -round pick in 2016.
GRADE: 1st-2nd Round (No. 23 overall)