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2008.12.28 03:12 Giveaways

Place to post giveaways/sweepstakes/contests, either personal or links to other websites doing similar. Reposts are allowed every 48hours. Enjoy :)
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2009.06.16 20:53 Measure76 The Best Exmormon Forum on the Internet!

A forum for ex-mormons and others who have been affected by mormonism to get support and share news, commentary, and comedy about the Mormon church.
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2010.09.28 18:56 ChewWork Concealed Carry Weapons

The CCW (concealed carry weapons) subreddit is a community about sharing articles, tips, and links about various topics that address CCW.
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2024.05.19 10:05 ggwplucky [Abandoned Pools] Sony Connect Track by Track Interview

[Abandoned Pools] Sony Connect Track by Track Interview
A while back I was messing around with the Wayback Machine & came across this diamond in the rough on AP's MySpace page. Also found some photos, but most importantly, a track-by-track [Armed To The Teeth] interview from Sony Connect that they did back in '05 (presumably around the same time they did the Sony Connect set with the acoustic songs).
In the interview, Tommy tells the story behind each track on Armed To The Teeth (except Lucky). You'll also find tidbits about the process, lyrically & sonically of these songs, and much more!
If you want to read it/see it from the "raw" source and discover more, here's a link with the Wayback's capture I found on the interview blog: https://web.archive.org/web/20071005015435/http://www.myspace.com/abandonedpools
Now without further ado, the Sonic Connect Interview:
A track by track discussion of Armed to the Teeth from the Sony Connect Store interview:
LETHAL KILLERS TW: As far as how that [demo of the] song was constructed ... I did this trick where I would take a half-time drum loop and sort of nudge it one way and then put in another track and nudge it the other, and we got this sort of double time, rolling drum feel. So that - plus the sort of round-robin type of guitar parts that we have going - was sort of a very easy construction for a song. And then you start moving the bass part around, and, boom, you've got a song.
But I think that lyrically - I want to make it clear that that song isn't necessarily [about] "church is bad, government's bad." I think it's a little bit more complicated than that, though sometimes if you mix the two of religious power and government power, that can be bad for both of them. And I kinda like the idea of not living a life saying, "Well, you better live life in a certain way because then, you know, everything's gonna be great later in heaven." You know, the idea of, like, if this is all we have now, if that idea was just a little bit more embraced, our world could be a little bit better. I just find that a little bit more satisfying, too, if you think like, this is all you have and then you're gonna die. [Laughs] It seems a little bit more like, "Oh, okay, well!" instead of, like, thinking that there's some other life at some other time and you can put things off.
RABBLE TW: Well, a lot of the songs on this record - about two-thirds of it - have to do with a relationship I had that went south, and you know when you go through relationships you always have such a good 20/20 hindsight about things. And I think "Rabble" is just trying to basically say to somebody, "I just wanted to know you better" . . . It's just one of those things where, with this relationship in particular, I wish it would have turned out better. And there's a lot of things that happened that shouldn't have happened, and it's just sort of one of those "oh, what could have been?" scenarios.
THE CATALYST TW: "The Catalyst" is definitely along the same lines. I think the main line in that one is "I wish I could say something beautiful to make you fall in love again." There's a Coachella reference in there, too: "Love has slowly faded away like spotlights shining into space." Have you ever been to Coachella? Of course you have. You know, there's all those spotlights that shoot up in the air. I just thought that was kinda cool, like, how far do those lights really go? "The Catalyst" was also the last song written for the record. It was demoed while we were in the studio. And it's one of those songs that I said two-thirds of the record was written for somebody. That's one of them.
TIGHTER NOOSE TW: "Tighter Noose" is the oldest song on the record by far. It was probably written back in '99, 2000, or somewhere in there. I was thinking about it for the first record [2001's Humanistic], but it didn't really fit in with those kind of songs, so I kept it around and we'd even play it live occasionally. I think it fits in with these songs way better. [As for what "Tighter Noose" is about,] that song is one of those breaking-off-on-your-own- what-have-you-got-to-lose kind of things, because that was written sort of in the wake of when I was in The Eels. It wasn't a terribly happy situation, so I was like, well screw it, I'm just gonna go off and do my own thing. And then it's sort of like, well, you know: "I'm gonna go start my own thing. Uh, I have to learn to sing and write songs now." [Laughs] It's kinda funny: "Screw you guys! I'm gonna go get a deal!" And then like, "Uh oh." But really, I'm a firm believer in that [idea that] you just gotta go for it. And so it was like, well, this is gonna be difficult, but it's gonna be better than what I had before. And actually, with some distance on that situation, I realized I made the right decision and made a lot more money and was a lot more happy as a result. So that was sort of a leap of faith, you know. I didn't want to be someone's stupid bass player. Now I'm my own stupid bass player.
WAITING TO PANIC TW: There was a lull between record companies. The first record [Humanistic] was on Extasy - I don't know if you know about that company, but we were basically the poster-child for the implosion of an indie label. I came off the road in 2002, the label's folding, and I'm like, well, I'm just gonna go back and give this my best shot and we'll get another deal. It seemed highly unlikely, but we ended up doing it. And there was just a lull in there where nobody was interested. I had attorneys not returning my phone calls - that kinda stuff. It felt like, I'm just waiting around and I'm really anxious. So that was a song of frustration that was written and demoed all in one day - it was a song that just came out of me in like eight hours. We also put an EP out [The Reverb EP] and on the EP is the version of that demo that I did in one day. It doesn't happen [like that] very often. Usually I build bed tracks and come back to it a few weeks later and add something, and then come back a couple of days later. This one was all in one shot.
HUNTING TW: My friend Ross Golan, who has his own band Ross Golan and Molehead, had been following the wake of the relationship. He's like, "You just gotta write her a song and use her name." And I'm like, nah, nah, it's not covered enough. And he's like, "No, just do it. Go for it." So I did. I wrote this song and I wrote it for her for her birthday and I used her name, which is in the first lyric of the song, which is "Ginny." So I just went for it and wrote it. It was basically a birthday gift, and it was basically saying, like, you know, "Oops!" [Laughs] It didn't get me very far, but I like the song. We're friends, she's a good girl, absolutely, but back at that time, it was kinda like, "Erraaghhh! Here's a song!" But I like the song and I just think it was one of those times where I was really putting myself out there, and I know she liked it, too. But then, I think that's a myth where you just write a song and all of a sudden the girl just says, "Oh! Okay!" But, you know, hey. There it is. It's on the record.
That's the romantic notion of how they'll react to the song, at least.
TW: Exactly. And I'm really glad we're past that whole ironic phase, which I was part of with The Eels, where everything was super ironic and we'd play "The Macarena" on stage - [sarcastically] and that was funny! I'm glad we're through all that stuff, even though I was still a Beck fan when he was doing all that stuff, too. But I like being sincere and sappy and romantic. I kinda think that's a great thing.
ARMED TO THE TEETH TW: This is one of the first songs written when we came off the road and I had a lot of momentum. If you look at the state of the industry you can see a lot of corporations that seem to have to buy everything in sight. They just have to own everything, and to what purpose? Does it really make the industry much better? No. There's fewer outlets, there's a lot more gatekeepers. They want to buy stuff and it just kinda makes things bad for everybody. All the radio stations play the same shit - except for Indie 103.1 and KCRW in L.A. In spite of it all, I'm just gonna try to do my best and have a career anyway. When we came off the road I felt like I had a lot of momentum. Performing live is inspiring to writing, so it was just the whole idea of, "Alright, now that I have one record under my belt, I'm gonna really go for it in spite of all the forces that be." Even though they're pretty much indifferent to us, [laughs] their actions do affect us. It's sort of a song of bravado.
Why did you also choose "Armed To The Teeth" as the name of the album, too, which, in turn, implies it as the overall theme?
TW: Yeah, which is funny, since I kinda decided on that theme early on, thinking I was gonna go in a certain way, but then, like I said, two-thirds of the record is love songs. So "Armed To The Teeth" doesn't really fit in a certain way, but I also liked it just because [of] that idea of, like, now I'm really ready to make a record, and also I think it reflects the state of the country a little bit. Everything's a little bit aggressive, we're at war, and I thought it was sort of timely in that way
SOONER OR LATER TW: "Sooner Or Later" is another one of those tracks that was written after we got signed, so it's a newer song. I mentioned that sort of double time drum loop thing with "Lethal Killers" - this is the same thing. It's a half time drum loop that I nudged in one direction and then put in another track and nudge it in the other, then "boom," it's double time. And I like that, it's a good effect. It really sets up this kind of overlapping, rolling sound that a real drummer can't do. And things flam a little bit, and I really like that feel, so this song was constructed in the same manner where you have a rolling drum loop and then you put over a couple of guitar parts here and there and all of a sudden you got a song - I think this song is over six minutes. This is, um, I guess it's a couple things. Lyrically, it's sort of saying, like, whatever you do or whatever you say, there's no point in hiding anything because it all comes out in the end - which is the tagline in the chorus. There's no hiding. And in the verse it says, "Sooner or later / It's all coming down." In some way or another, whether you acknowledge it or if it just eats at your self, you can't really get away with anything. It's sort of fatalistic that way, but also in terms of, like, seeing how I also look at as a bigger picture of, like, politically, and since we're at war right now, it seems like things are getting a little scary. And that's kind of like one of those doomsday scenarios. If you look around a little you can really freak yourself out if you're reading about, like, bio-warfare and things like that. So a lot of this talk about "smoking gun in the shape of a mushroom cloud" and all that, it sort of brought up for me a lot of doomsday scenarios. So it's two-fold: it's that doomsday scenario, in terms of as far as the world is concerned, and then, personally, if you do stupid shit then you're eventually gonna pay for it somehow.
SAILING SEAS TW: Like "Hunting," this is probably the most direct, out-there storytelling song. Instead of using her [real] name, it's switched to "Holly," which is in the chorus. So it's another one of those songs talking straight to somebody. And there's a lot of details in there that I wouldn't talk about in normal conversation. That's the funny thing about songwriting where I wouldn't talk about this, but then I can put it in this song and you can still hear it and you still understand, but it's sort of masked a little bit. It's presented in a certain way where it's somehow okay to say that when you're in a major key or something. Because like, the second verse is about pretending you're outside a room listening to somebody [you love] have sex [with someone else], and that's a situation to put yourself into to really torture yourself. I created this scenario in my head and I put it in a song, and it's kinda brutal, but the [beat of the] song is upbeat and happy.
RENEGADE TW: This is a sample-based type song [with] drum loops. The cello was originally a Bjork sample and we replaced it. This one is sort of hard to explain. To me it’s just sort of like just a creation, because some of the record is social commentary, and I think there's a lot of that in this song, and it's like little snippets and ideas, and not necessarily one unifying idea. I think it's just kind of a song based on looking around and taking stock of things. This song in particular isn't really even about anything. It's just, like, observations, pretty much. And, oh, by the way, Billy Howerdel, the guitarist from A Perfect Circle, is playing guitar on that song. He jumped on that track and he's the one that makes it sound scary.
MAYBE THEN SOMEDAY TW: That was one of the first songs written in the wake of the breakup. It was one of those kind of "well-it-just-didn't-work-out-but-maybe-one-day-we'll-see-what-happens" kind of things. Because the circumstances are such that it wasn't gonna happen immediately so I was kinda like, well, we'll see. I don't have much to say about that; it's just grouped in with "songs about her."
GOODBYE SONG TW: That was also written when there was not a lot going on for me and we hadn't really nailed down the record deal. She [Tommy's ex-girlfriend] always thought she was bad luck - she'd show up and bad things would start happening - so she thought it was her fault that I hadn't got a deal. She actually moved away and soon as she did, we got a deal. [Laughs] I think it's funny to sort of say, like the first line of the song is "I'm not washed up / And you're not bad luck for anyone," so, you know, get off the ledge, really. And it's just one of those things; it's one of those yearning songs. I think with a lot of those songs there's a certain amount of effort spent on presenting evidence, like, "Look, I know this is how you feel, but look at all the other stuff." It's almost like making a case for your self [in a song]. And like I said, it didn't get me far, but it's still a good venting process. And I sort of realize when I say things like, "I wrote this for her" or whatever, it's not really for her. It's more self-indulgent to get this stuff out. And in a way you're saying, "Yeah, I wrote this song for you," but no, you wrote it for yourself so you could say things that you felt like saying. So I realize that and I think I realized that while I was writing them, but my job is to write songs so you take from what's around you to make it happen.
submitted by ggwplucky to AbandonedPools [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 10:01 MarvSee Aizen Power Male Review

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submitted by MarvSee to ReviewsAndTools [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 10:01 AutoModerator Self-Promotion Roundup /// Weekly Discussion - May 19, 2024

What synth projects have you been working on? Products for sale are welcome here. Share your music, hardware, software, or related creations.
This is a participation required thread: if you post your music or related work for others to check out, you need to check out at least one other submission and leave them a comment with substantive feedback within two hours, or your submission will be removed. Repeat offenders will be banned from the thread.
Please do not post link shorteners, link aggregator websites , or auto-subscribe links.
submitted by AutoModerator to synthesizers [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 09:37 SufficientLuck8784 how can i see prof qualifications???

i’m looking to be certified as a psychologist in a few years following my masters and according to the official thing that declares one a psychologist (i forgot the name of them, CASP or something), a professor needs to teach an eligible course and that prof must have a post-graduate degree in a psychology field (ie, it has to have “psychology” in the name, so even if they’re teaching neuropsychology with a neurology or neurobiology post-grad degree, doesn’t count)
i want to plan my courses to be eligible for that registration with profs that do have that “psych” masters or doc’s degree. is there any way i can look profs up to see, other than LinkedIn or the school website, neither of which showing very much????
submitted by SufficientLuck8784 to uAlberta [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 09:36 Yuvraj_Atlas Social Media Marketing Courses In Dubai

IIDE (Indian Institute of Digital Education) is a prominent institute known for its comprehensive courses in digital marketing and related fields. They offer a variety of programs catering to different levels of expertise, from beginners to advanced practitioners. The institute is well-regarded for its industry-relevant curriculum, experienced faculty, and practical approach to learning.
IIDE offers a specialized Social Media Marketing Course that is available online, making it accessible to learners in Dubai and worldwide. This course is designed to equip students with the skills and knowledge needed to excel in social media marketing. Here’s a detailed look at what the course typically includes:

Social Media Marketing Course Details

Duration:

Curriculum:

  1. Introduction to Social Media Marketing:
    • Overview of social media marketing and its importance.
    • Understanding the social media landscape.
  2. Content Creation and Strategy:
    • Developing effective social media content strategies.
    • Content planning, scheduling, and management.
    • Visual and written content creation best practices.
  3. Platform-Specific Strategies:
    • Facebook: Organic and paid strategies, page management, and Facebook Ads.
    • Instagram: Content creation, growth strategies, Instagram Ads.
    • Twitter: Building a Twitter presence, tweet strategies, Twitter Ads.
    • LinkedIn: Professional networking, LinkedIn for business, LinkedIn Ads.
    • YouTube: Video marketing, channel optimization, YouTube Ads.
    • Other Platforms: Emerging social media platforms and their potential.
  4. Community Management and Engagement:
    • Building and nurturing an online community.
    • Best practices for engagement and customer interaction.
  5. Social Media Advertising:
    • Creating and managing social media ad campaigns.
    • Understanding ad targeting and budget allocation.
    • Measuring ad performance and ROI.
  6. Analytics and Reporting:
    • Using social media analytics tools.
    • Interpreting data to make informed decisions.
    • Reporting on social media performance.
  7. Advanced Strategies:
    • Influencer marketing.
    • Social media for e-commerce.
    • Crisis management on social media.

Features:

How to Enroll:

Additional Support:

This course is ideal for marketers, business owners, and anyone looking to enhance their social media marketing skills. The flexibility of online learning makes it accessible to individuals in Dubai, allowing them to learn from top industry professionals without geographical constraints.
submitted by Yuvraj_Atlas to u/Yuvraj_Atlas [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 09:33 Andras77 Good Morning All !

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submitted by Andras77 to SonOfTrump [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 09:32 boydie Rate my idea: B2B reviews and traffic sharing

Business Plan: TrustWave

Executive Summary

Business Name: TrustWave
Business Concept: TrustWave is a global review platform designed specifically for businesses to leave testimonials for one another. The platform provides high-quality reviews and allows businesses to add backlinks to their websites, enhancing SEO and generating relevant traffic. The service includes a testimonial page for WordPress or Shopify websites, an SEO-friendly standalone site option, an easy-to-install plugin for automatic updates, and tools for SMS review requests, social media content creation, and review management.
Target Market: Small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) across various industries worldwide looking to enhance their online presence and credibility.
Competitive Advantage: Unique focus on B2B reviews, integrated SEO benefits, easy-to-use plugin, comprehensive review management tools, and added marketing features.

Business Description

Mission Statement: To empower businesses globally by providing a platform that facilitates the exchange of high-quality testimonials, enhancing their online reputation and SEO performance.
Business Objectives: 1. Launch and establish the TrustWave platform within the first year. 2. Achieve a user base of 20,000 businesses worldwide within two years. 3. Generate a monthly recurring revenue of $100,000 within the first two years. 4. Continuously innovate and add new features based on customer feedback and market trends.

Market Analysis

Industry Overview: The digital marketing and SEO industry is growing rapidly as businesses increasingly recognize the importance of online presence and reputation management. Testimonials and reviews are critical for building credibility and trust.
Target Market: - Demographics: SMBs with an existing online presence globally. - Geographics: Businesses across North America, Europe, Asia, and other regions. - Psychographics: Businesses that value online reputation, SEO, and customer feedback.
Market Needs: Businesses need reliable platforms to gather and showcase testimonials, improve their SEO, and manage their online reputation efficiently.

Competitive Analysis

Direct Competitors: - Trustpilot - Feefo - Google My Business
Indirect Competitors: - Social media platforms (Facebook, LinkedIn) - SEO service providers
Competitive Advantage: - Focus on B2B interactions. - SEO-friendly features. - Integrated review management and marketing tools. - Seamless integration with existing websites.

Marketing Plan

Product: - Review platform for businesses. - WordPress/Shopify plugin. - Standalone SEO-friendly website option. - SMS review requests. - Social media content creation tools. - Review management dashboard.
Price: - Freemium model: Basic features free, premium features at $49/month. - Enterprise plan: Custom pricing for larger businesses with advanced needs.
Place: - Online platform accessible via website and app. - Partnerships with web development agencies and digital marketing firms globally.
Promotion: - Digital marketing campaigns (SEO, PPC, social media). - Content marketing (blogs, webinars, case studies). - Email marketing to SMBs. - Partnerships and collaborations with industry influencers. - Referral programs offering discounts for bringing new users.

Operations Plan

Technology: - Development of the review platform and plugins. - Cloud-based infrastructure for scalability. - Regular updates and feature enhancements.
Customer Service: - 24/7 customer support via chat, email, and phone. - Comprehensive help center with tutorials and FAQs.
Team: - Founders/Management: Overseeing strategy and operations. - Development Team: Building and maintaining the platform. - Marketing Team: Promoting the platform and acquiring users. - Customer Support Team: Assisting users with any issues or inquiries.

Financial Plan

Startup Costs: - Platform development: $100,000 - Marketing and promotion: $50,000 - Operational costs (salaries, office space, utilities): $50,000 - Total: $200,000
Revenue Projections: - Year 1: $100,000 - Year 2: $600,000 - Year 3: $1,200,000

Risk Analysis

Potential Risks: - Slow user adoption. - Competition from established platforms. - Technical issues with the platform or plugins.
Mitigation Strategies: - Aggressive marketing and partnership strategies. - Continuous platform improvements and feature additions. - Robust customer support and regular user feedback sessions.
submitted by boydie to smallbusiness [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 09:29 Secret-Tomatillo5044 I Accepted a Job to Film on the Dark Web pt1

I Accepted a Job to Film on the Dark Web
Man, I am pumped to tell you chronically online content addicts my story. Wait is that too mean of an intro? Will this get taken down for harassment since I painted too accurate a picture of the people on this site? Sorry, everyone, I’m sure you all smell like an expensive bakery and have touched grass this morning. Anyway, I promise I have something interesting. It even involves the dark web you uncreative writers cream yourselves over! I mean, totally real people speaking about their strangely similar experiences. Okay, fine I’ll stop bullying you through the screen before you click off.
This all started when I was seven years old and my parents were killed in front of me in an anti-indigenous hate crime, but let's be real you don’t care. I’m just some annoying Cherokee kid with dead parents so I’ll skip to the good parts. I spent years in an orphanage, gradually becoming more interested in death and violence. As bad as it is, I went out of my way to expose myself to that content in the hopes of desensitizing myself. Which ended up working too well, since now I’m obsessed with causing and viewing pain, though I don’t find any joy in hurting myself.
I got adopted at twelve and after a few months of staying at my new family’s home on the reservation, I went with them to a state sweatier than the average Reddit user, California. Long story short, both of my caretakers, whom I referred to as Uncle and Auntie because they could never be my parents, died. Leaving me in the care of their older son, who I call cousin. I’m not stupid enough to give up any real names, so I’ll call him Brick, cause he’s as dumb as one. He was in his early 20s when he was tasked with taking care of me and is the world’s worst excuse for a babysitter.
I’m almost always alone at the apartment, with him only coming by to drop off supplies and stay for a few hours so the neighbors don’t get too worried. Unless I get in trouble at school, then he’d suddenly give a shit. It's useful because he doesn't about the gory stuff I look at, but some display of interest would be nice. Oh well, ninety percent of the population sucks so he’s just part of the majority. Now, with that said, you’ll be able to understand the perfect storm that led me here. During my time on the deep web, I found a particular website that caught my eye. They had new footage relatively consistently and they were the easiest for me to access since I didn't go too far into the dark web, especially with all the honey pots lying around.
I even bought a couple of files for myself to study and admire. One thing irritated me though, the cameraman. He was always sobbing, breathing, shaking, or some combination of those. It seriously killed the vibe of the killings. Something I commented on under many videos, often saying I would do a better job filming. A choice that in hindsight was me asking to end up in one of those recordings. I didn't think anything of it at the time. I was mostly the only one who commented but I was sure they wouldn't care. I was embarrassingly wrong.
I was staying up like usual, but it was past one AM on a school night, and back then that was a lot so I tried to sleep. Closing my eyes, tossing and turning, the works. I had just started drifting off when I heard the front door open. I remained calm but immediately found it weird since Brick never showed up this late. The thuds of the individual's feet grew louder as they got closer to my bedroom. I tried to convince myself it wasn't a stranger, especially since they got in with ease, but I knew that was wishful thinking.
They hummed as they opened my door. My dumbass had left it unlocked. I remained on my side, trying to look like I was asleep. They turned on the flashlight of their phone, shining it in my face. It was hard but I stayed still while they traced it over my features. I could tell they were smiling as they clicked their tongue.
“Heh, I knew it was a brat,” they whispered to themselves, pulling tangles out of my hair. Something I struggled not to groan from. They pulled up the hair over my ear and got so close spit got on my ear lobe.
“I know you’re awake kid,” they murmured, putting a blade to my neck. I let them grab my shoulder and move me onto my back, I knew how to fight but I wasn't about to take that big a risk with the position they had me in.
“You think you’re so cool saying you can do better than our guy.” they snickered, kneeling, their flashlight still shining in my face.
“Do you seriously believe that?” they questioned, moving the light away.
“Yeah, I do.” I stood my ground, they might have been intimidating but I wasn't gonna let that stop me from being honest.
“I wouldn't sound like I’m gonna piss myself every time it gets gory. I’m confident I could get better footage too, getting up close is something I’ve fantasized about.”
They clicked their tongue again and ran their finger over the bridge of my nose.
”Well, I know you’re a big fan of what we do, and you’re confidence makes me think you got something to back those claims up, so how’d you like a deal?”
I was surprised by how civil they were being aside from the touching and weapon against my throat.
“What kind of deal?” I asked, for all I knew this guy wanted me to lick their feet or some weird shit like that. They placed a finger underneath my eye, tracing a half moon with their nail.
“You have till this Friday to film a video of you killing an animal and put it on a flash drive that I’ll pick up here. If it impresses me and the crew we’ll hire ya with a handsome salary.” They began, moving their hand down to my cheek.
“But if you don't show, or it doesn't meet our standards, then I’m fucking up one of the parts of your face.” They warned, pinching my skin harshly.
“And if I say no to this deal?”
They put their hand over my mouth, scratching my lips.
“That’s cute, if you say no I’ll just slit your throat.” they grinned.
“Or rip it open with my teeth if you got a preference,” they smirked, before running their tongue across their sharp teeth.
“Okay, since I have no choice I’ll go with it, but I’m telling you now I can give you something way better than what you likely expect of me.” I prefaced, looking into their sunken eyes. They scratched my scalp, including the side of my head that was shaved.
“Good choice, I’ll be back to pick it up and if you're not here I’ll assume you don’t have the video. I genuinely wish you luck, because you’ll need it.” they removed the blade from my neck and walked away. I sat still for a few minutes in the dark, processing what had happened and wondering how they got into my apartment with such ease. I was confident I could blow their sniveling excuse of a cameraman out of the water, but I was worried about the people I was getting caught up with.
Sure, I had been on a lot of gore sites over the years but I was always just watching and occasionally commenting. Compared to most in the scene I wasn't much of a threat. I could defend myself and have contemplated killing for years but I hadn't murdered anyone or worse. Plus, I am part of way too many targeted groups to not be constantly at risk. Teenage, fem-leaning, two-spirit, indigenous kid with trauma? Yeah, I might as well be walking sign screaming “Hate crime me”.
So yeah, there was a lot to worry about. Regardless, I couldn't let that fear hold me back. I had a job to do and a group of sickos to appease. The next morning was rough, I got no sleep cause I’d spent all night brainstorming. I barely mustered the energy to change and drank straight mouthwash instead of brushing my teeth. Slogging onto the bus with drool on my cheek, I went to the back like usual. No one sat there cause, the seats were extra worn down, and I scared off anyone who attempted to with my active, rabies-infected bitch face. That day was different though.
I blanked on his name and where I knew him from, but I recognized his wavy hair and prominent curved nose. He glanced at each seat on the bus, before somehow settling on my area. He tried to give me space but ultimately seated himself beside me after realizing it was the only spot that didn't look like it would give him cancer. I glared at him as I did with everyone, but it didn't phase him.
“You know you could pick anywhere else right?” I murmured. He stared at the floor, then at me.
“I’m aware, but a few months ago I started a mission to sit on every part of this bus, and this is the last place.” he smiled, his lips softly curving at the sides.
“What’s the point of that?”
His mouth moved into a more neutral position, but his eyes kept smiling.
“I just thought it would be neat to see the same place from a bunch of different perspectives.” he took out his phone and snapped a photo from the point of view where he was sitting. Maybe my sleepiness made my bitch face less effective, cause he hadn't shown a hint of fear, which kind of annoyed me.
“That’s cool I guess, but I wouldn't do that if I were you. I’ve done some back here alone that would make your skin crawl.” in hindsight my attempt at unnerving him just made me sound like a pervert, which is probably why he held back laughter. Trying to hide a chuckle by clearing his throat.
“Hey, it's not my business what you do, no matter how Haram it is. It’s your life so that’s between you and whatever you believe in. Just don’t shake hands with me.” he joked, playfully putting his hands up. Strangely, I remembered his name at that moment.
“Oh shit, you’re Abdul! We have art together.” I sat up, haphazardly slamming my hand down on my leg.
“Uh yeah, I’ve seen some of your paintings, they’re pretty cool. I like the way you texture them, I’m trying to work on that.” he complimented, seeming more weirded out by my sudden energy than my accidental insinuation. I felt a little stupid for yelling his name but decided not to dwell on it.
“Thanks, you’re stuff is nice, and you’re good at shading.”
He stretched his arms while thanking me. We talked for a few more minutes, taking jabs at each other throughout. Turns out he was better at being an asshole than his artsy charismatic appearance made me think. The thing setting our insults apart being that you could tell he was a loving person underneath. It was the nicest conversation I had with anyone in a while. Though he could tell I was tired so he quieted down, letting me sleep, waking me when we got to school. We went our separate ways until the last two periods we shared. All that time, I spent my remaining energy plotting how I was going to handle the video. What I’d kill, record with, and how to dispose of the evidence. It was a lot to consider, but through three classes I devised a plan.
I’d find a stray around my apartment complex and take it out in my room. Record it on a portable camera since I broke the ones on my phone, no, I will not be answering how that happened. Then once I had my footage I’d put the body in a trash bag, throw it in the complex’s garbage, and clean the blood off my floor. It didn't seem like Brick would come by so he wasn't a factor I thought I’d have to consider. The plan was almost too easy, but I decided to believe in Occam’s razor. I got so lost in thought that by the time I reached Art, which was my second-to-last period, I didn't process that we were moving seats.
“She called your name,” Abdul reminded me. Our teacher placed us next to each other at our four-person table. The two girls sitting with us were already friends, so I didn't bother to say anything, but I was interested in talking to him more.
“So, what do you think of this assignment?” He shrugged, taking out his sketchbook.
“I’m not that good at drawing people, but the idea of combining two people’s faces into a portrait seems interesting. Any ideas on who you’ll pick?”
“Probably the members of the music duo Brain Tumor, they’re my favorite artists and they both look weird as hell.”
“Wow way to talk about your favorites, if that’s what you say about them I can‘t imagine what you have to say about me.” he joked, pulling up reference pictures.
“First, it’s not an insult, second I don’t have anything to say about you. Brain and Tumor have features and styles that make them stand out. Sure they’re ugly, but it just adds to their visual charm. Hot people are boring, there’s nothing to pick at.” I explained, unzipping my bag.
“Oh, so you’re saying you think I’m hot.”
His comment wasn’t serious but it kind of got to me.
“Shit, that’s not what I meant, I was trying to say you’re boring. All hot people are boring, but not all boring people are hot, okay?” I explained, flipping to a clean page.
“Alright, but if I’m so bland then why talk to me?”
I hesitated, contemplating how much of a dick I was gonna be.
“Because it means you probably need some spice in your life, which I can provide.”
He began sketching a head on his paper.
“I like spices, but I feel like you’re the kind of person to dump a cabinet’s worth onto me.”
I flicked my pencil over to his side of the desk, putting on a mocking grin.
“Aww, you scared I’m gonna get you into trouble?”
He picked up the pencil and started using it, putting his on my side.
“No, ‘cause I’m good at setting boundaries. I’m more concerned that you’ll get annoyed with how unafraid of you I am.”
I stared at him for a moment, I hadn't expected to hear that.
“Jeez, man you didn't have to read me like that.”
He shrugged, observing the red paint from past projects that lay on my pencil.
“It's not hard to figure out, just this morning you were trying to push me away on the bus. Lucky, or unlucky, for you I want you to have a friend and you seem like a fun person.”
“Wait are you saying I have no friends?” I squinted at him.
“Well, do you?”
I didn't answer.
“If your response is silence I suggest you take up my offer.”
I was stunned, to be honest. No one had offered to be my friend since 6th grade, and that didn't last long. Of course, I accepted it, but for the rest of the period, there was an awkwardness in my mind. As pathetic as it sounds I wasn't used to others genuinely enjoying my company like he did. Which was partly by design cause I get joy out of scaring people away, but still. I forgot how it felt to have conversations about normal things like art. He had such a nice smile too, usually when I see a grin I want to slap it off, but I liked his. His voice was also nice, it’s hard to describe what in particular but it was easy on the ears.
Okay, I’m starting to get off-topic. I’ll skip to the important part. Toward the end of class, he started talking about how he was interested in filmmaking and got a portable video camera as a gift at last year’s Eid. He didn't have it on him, but he showed me a picture.
“Heh, that’s funny, I bought the same one a month ago.” I pointed out.
“Yeah, it's a popular model, I’m still getting the hang of it though cause I’m so used to using my phone.”
“Well, maybe I could bring you over to my place or vice versa after school and I can help you out.” I suggested.
He smiled, putting his phone back in his pocket.
“I thought you said you’ve only had it for a month? You know I can always look up tutorials from trained professionals.” he reminded me with a notable smugness that I'd used with him before.
“Well those guys are stuffy and I’m a fast learner.”
He redirected his attention back to his page, picking his pencil up.
“Alright, I suggest we go somewhere public instead. You’re not exactly the kind of person I want to bring home to my parents right away. Plus they always need to meet my friends and their guardians before I hang out at their home.”
I gave an exaggerated sigh, stretching my back.
“Aw man, looks like we can’t get high in my murder pit during our first hangout.”
He didn't respond for a solid few seconds.
“Wait, you do know I'm joking right?”
He shrugged, the smile in his eyes appearing again.
“I mean, one of those things is a little less believable than the other.” he snickered, and I laughed with him.
We set up a time and a date, which is where I screwed myself. He ended up being busy with projects from his other classes and family which just left us with Friday, the same day I had to submit the video. Now, did I tell him I wouldn't be able to make it? No, of course not, because I decided to be stupid and even more overconfident. I said that I’d one hundred percent be able to hang out with him after school like I didn't have a mutilator who was going to drop by my place at an unknown time.
The rest of the day went over fine but that bad timing led me to feel like a dick later. When I got home I was able to write out my plan, even sketching a few specifics of what I’d do. It was more exciting than when I’d been brainstorming, but this is when the gravity of the situation began to set in. When I said I’d fantasized about killings I meant it. I mean my teddy with twenty-five stab wounds should say enough. Regardless this would be the first time real blood was on my hands.
It made me feel powerful, but a little afraid. I’ve heard stories of people thinking that it would be an awesome experience and then feeling like shit. I doubted I’d be one of those people but still. Plus, I didn't exactly trust the guy who gave me this job. There was a good chance that this whole situation was rigged and they’d kill me no matter how good the video was. Or worse turn me into the feds and expose my collection. Honestly, if that happened I’d probably eat a shot to avoid going to jail. Wait, can I say that on this platform? Okay to the mods, that was a joke, I want to live a long life. Ugh, I’m doing a terrible job of staying on track. The point is there was a lot up in the air despite it being a matter of life or death.
I knew I’d go through with it but it was still a lot less straightforward than it initially seemed. I wracked my brain to remember where most of the cats stayed and tried to come up with a good way to lure one without raising suspicion. This also proved harder than first thought because I didn't think to account for the cat man, an old guy who lived alone and fed all the cats in our dingy complex while also housing a few. Knowing how obsessive he was he’d probably notice if one of them disappeared. Then again not all the cats return consistently or at all. It makes more sense that he’d think one of them was run over rather than slaughtered. It was getting late again so I rested my head for a moment, a bad move cause I ended up falling asleep at my desk. Not even changing out of the clothes I’d worn before, I woke up late and barely caught the bus the next morning.
I went to my usual spot but Abdul had already taken it. He patted the area next to it, which he’d covered in a towel, a smart move knowing how nasty it was. People gave me a few dirty looks as normal, which I smiled at. I stretched, my mind slightly less out of it than the previous morning.
“Uh, you do realize that-”
“Yeah, I know I’m wearing the same clothes.”
Abdul looked me up and down, his eyes remaining soft, but with a mix of concern and judgment. He set his backpack down and took off his sweater handing it to me.
“Dude what are you-”
“Look I don't know what led to you not being able to change but I think you should at least have a fresh top.”
I was surprised he was offering me something to wear but I took it.
“Uh, thanks, I’ll change into it later.”
He nodded as I put it in my backpack.
“You know you didn't have to do that.” I reminded him.
“Well there’s a lot of stuff I don’t have to do, but I do it because I want to, and I wanted to help you out.”
He smiled, his face still warmer than an Arizona summer. I got a strange feeling in my chest at that moment, I still can’t tell if it was good or bad.
“Well, thanks, I'll give it back to you tomorrow.”
We talked a little more and he mentioned something that caught my attention.
“Have you heard about all the animals that have been turning up dead?”
My eyes widened with surprise.
“No, I haven't, when did you hear about that?”
He pulled on his long-sleeve shirt.
“My sister said her friend who works at a shelter noticed a bunch of animals were getting adopted by people around the same time, and since then gore videos with them have been showing up. She found out through her co-worker who was emailed it by some random creep.”
I covered my mouth and looked away to hide the smile growing on my face. He had just given me the perfect cover-up without knowing. Now if I killed an animal people had an entire violent ring to connect it to instead of me! I stayed quiet for a minute because I could tell he’d likely see through any phony sad sounds I made.
“Oh wow, that’s awful, do you think they’ll ever find out the people behind it?”
He sighed, running his hand through his wavy hair.
“I hope so, for now, all we can do is pray that no more animals get hurt.”
I couldn't contain my grin as he said that so sincerely like animals and people didn't die constantly and that taking down one group would somehow stop the issue.
“Is there some joke I don’t get?” he furrowed his brow.
“Uh, no, sorry I smile when nervous.”
His gaze softened again, and he didn't press further.
His bringing up the animal killings ended up being the exact push I needed to get my hands dirty. I’d spent the entire day before planning so it was time to put that plan into action. I stole some cat treats that the cat man had laid out and spread them around my apartment which was on the bottom floor. Waiting for one of them to take the bate outside my window was pretty boring but one of them came after a few minutes. A scraggly brown and black cat with a tuft of fur missing on one side of his head. It's messed up but I felt like a little less of an asshole for taking him in since he looked like he was already struggling. I scooped him up and he didn't attempt to fight back.
“Hey there buddy” I waved, feeding him some more food. His eyes had a lot of crust on them, it was kinda gross but I don’t have the right to say with how often I wash my jeans. After a minute or two he let me pet him. I knew making any kind of attachment was bad but I thought it was the right thing to do so he’d fall into a sense of security. I was just about to take him into my room when the door opened.
“Hey, I’m back with groceries!” my shithead cousin announced with two plastic bags in his hands. He looked down to see me with the cat, his eyebrows raising.
“Aw come on, you know we can’t afford a pet.”
He groaned placing the bags on a table and unloading them.
“I know, but he doesn't look like he’s got a lot of life in him I at least want to help him feel better before he kicks the bucket!”
Brick rolled his eyes, putting the cereal box on top of the fridge
“Jeez, did you even think about what diseases he might have? His eyes look puffy what if he has something that can get you sick?”
He had valid concerns which was surprising since he’s usually stupid, but I was still annoyed with him.
“I’m sure he’s fine, I’ll even try to wash him, just please let me hold onto him for a little.”
He folded his arms looking down at us.
“Have you even named him?”
I froze for a second, before using the first thing that came to mind, which ended up being pretty awful knowing my plans.
“Cash cow.” I blurted, awkwardly patting his head.
“Honestly that’s better than what I was expecting. I was sure you’d pick ‘Hellspawn Mcgee’ or something else corny.”
He meant to make fun of me but honestly, I would have named him that if I had more time.
“Ugh, anyway I got those dumb chips you like.”
He then pulled out a bag of the wrong chips.
“Dude those are the wrong ones, this is the third time you’ve mixed up the flavors.”
He threw them at me, scaring the cat slightly.
“Well, I pay for it so you shouldn't be so picky. Anyway, while I was in line I picked up something you might be into.”
He then tossed me a trashy teen magazine. One of my least favorite sorry excuses for an influencer on the cover.
“This is a joke, right?”
I couldn't believe my own adopted brother gave such little shit in my interests.
“I don't know, you decided to start being a girl for real this time so I thought the makeup tips on page ten would help you out.”
I scrunched my face at his comment.
“Dude I’ve been this way for years, just because I started wearing more makeup and dresses doesn't mean I’m more of a girl than when I didn't. I know you won’t get the two-spirit thing but come on.”
He shrugged, seeing me done with me even though he’d just shown up.
“Yeah well hey I’m trying. Anyway, just so you know a friend of mine is coming here Friday.”
My heart stopped.
“Wait why here? You live elsewhere why can’t you assholes go there or their place!”
He slammed his fist on the table.
“Will you shut the fuck up!”
He screamed with a phrase I’d grown numb to.
“I don't know, to be honest, something about wanting to move into this complex and this being a way to scout it out. I’m just letting you know now so you don’t act like a complete freak.”
“Jokes on you I’ll piss in whatever shitty beer you bring just cause you said that!”
I yelled back raising my voice higher than his. He face-palmed before putting the plastic bags in the drawer under the sink.
“Whatever, you and your ketamine-addict-looking cat have fun,” he told me while seating himself on the couch. I picked up the cat and walked into the bathroom to clean it. I closed the door and placed him in the dry tub. Using a small disposable mouthwash cup I got a little bit of water. I hadn't had a pet before so I wasn't sure how to approach the task. I dipped my fingers in the water and carefully pet it while pouring s small bit down his back. Any other cat would fight back but he just made pissed-off noises without doing anything.
I scrapped my old shampoo bottle and kneaded it into his thin fur. His skin was bumpy and dry beneath the hair so scrubbing it was uncomfortable. I made sure to avoid getting soap in its eyes but I did pull away some of the crust on its lids. His pupils were so clouded I was surprised that he could see at all, making me feel even more sure that he would be on its way out with or without me.
After drying him I set him on a beat-up shirt I wore when modifying clothes. He sunk his claws into it a few times, playing with a loose string. I ignored him for the rest of the night, hopping into the shower and changing for bed. His meows woke me up a few times but I tuned it out after a while, reminding myself that he wouldn’t be my cat for long.
The next day was Thursday and there wasn't a second that passed by where the weight of the murder I’d have to commit didn't weigh on me. I seriously shot myself in the foot by taking care of that scruffy, pubic hair pile. I was supposed to be hyped about killing it, after all, I’d dreamed and seen way worse than what I was going to do. Yet once I got home and started setting up I felt grosser with each step. I decided to record it in my bathroom instead of my bedroom so it would be harder to connect to me. I set down a few fabric scraps and a worn-out beach towel, placing it all inside a tub for easier cleanup later.
“Okay, I guess it's time,” I mumbled to myself. I brought the cat in and placed it down, setting up my camera once it was comfortable. I also wore my most generic clothes in addition to a mask, putting my hair in a bun for sanitation. When I saw the flicker of red showing that the camera was on I felt I was dreaming. I smiled, excited that I’d get to live out my violent desires. Yet, when I looked down at its pathetic frame and confused expression those urges left me.
I rationalized what I was doing, reminding myself how many animals die all the time and that I’d been forced into this, but it didn't help much in the end. I won’t get into it but under the pressure of impressing the group Cash Cow didn't go out as fast as I would have liked for a first task. Getting rid of the evidence was especially rough, the textures were pretty nasty, to put it mildly. It was surreal watching the blood go down the tub drain and gradually drip off my hands as I rinsed them. I couldn't conjure a single thought the entire time I cleaned it up.
Whether I was wringing out the clothes or putting the remains in plastic bags, it didn't matter. All I could focus on was the task at hand, with hints of disgust along the way. I ended up finishing at three AM. My hands were wrinkled and shook once I settled. I won’t deny that during the murder I didn't hate it. Slashing into something was fun and it made me feel strong. Still, it wasn't nearly as fulfilling as I expected it to be. Part of it was guilt, but it was mostly disappointment. I’d built it up for years and it wasn't earth shatteringly good or bad.
Overall, I expected to feel more, but it just left me hollow with an uncomfortable itch. There was no way I’d ever be able to see the tub the same way, hell I don’t think I’ll ever use it again. Luckily I almost always shower anyway so it's not too big of a deal. I watched a few horror game videos, trashed everything, changed and went to bed.
My scalp hurt like a bitch the morning since I kept my hair in that stupid bun. Despite getting less sleep than the past two days I held myself together a bit better in the morning. I brushed my teeth, changed, and had some fried bread before getting on the bus. Regardless I looked like complete shit and struggled to slump into my seat.
“Rough night?” Abdul asked
“Uh, yeah.” I quietly responded looking to the floor.
He frowned, looking at me with concern.
“You can talk about it if you're comfortable,” he assured me. I contemplated giving him a thinly veiled metaphor or vague explanation so he'd comfort me but stopped myself before my mouth could run a muck. He wouldn't be able to do much of anything and I don’t like opening up.
“Uhm, thanks but it's something I have to deal with alone.”
He nodded, respecting my boundaries.
“You know, I understand if you can’t hang out today it seems like you have a lot going on.”
I avoided eye contact with him as he spoke. For once I was feeling hints of guilt toward a person. I wanted to spend time with him, but I knew that I wasn't in the state to do that.
“Yeah, I think it’ll have to wait, I’m-” I cut myself off before apologizing. A fact about me that should surprise no one is that I hate apologizing. Even when I do feel kinda bad the act fills me with embarrassment.
“You what?” he asked, his eyes telling me that he knew what I was going to say.
“I’m emotionally not great.” I spat out in an admittedly poor attempt to get out of saying sorry. As always he remained calm but I could tell he saw through me.
“Okay, like I said I understand, whatever it is I hope you feel better.”
I told him thank you and we didn't speak for the rest of the day. At home I changed into more comfortable clothes and brushed my teeth. Unfortunately, I wasn't bouncing back from killing nearly as much as I expected.
“It wasn't even that bad! That thing was on its last legs anyway.” I grumbled to myself, smacking my forehead. I was feeling worse than when I did it which is weird. I ended up spontaneously decorating a ratty tie from the bottom of an accessory drawer to distract myself. It helped me get my mind off things, for a little. I had zero plan, just wanting to make something needlessly complex. Hours that felt like minutes passed and soon it was covered in patches, frills, and beads. I just tried it on when I heard the front door open.
“Man, that shit was wild!” I heard Brick laugh groggily. I didn't have to see or smell him to know he’d gotten lit. I rolled my eyes, closing my bedroom door.
“Hey, who’s there?” his friend asked, seemingly referring to me.
“Oh, that’s my little sis, don’t mind her she’s just on her emo shit!” he joked, which pissed me off for the petty reason that I didn't even listen or dress emo.
“Hey, that’s alright with me, I went through one of those phases,” they responded, their words less slurred than my cousin’s.
I fucked up and forgot to lock it when I closed it so they were able to swing it open, almost smacking my desk.
“Hey emo girl!” they waved as Brick haphazardly pulled them back.
“Okay, man, seriously I think she wants to be left alone.”
The way his friend looked at me made me uncomfortable. Like they’d snap my neck if I pissed them off. They clicked their tongue while stepping through the door frame.
“Alright, but I gotta say calling her an emo is inaccurate, they look like they watch gore and most emos just say they do.” they flashed a sharp toothy grin. At that moment I began to connect the dots.
“Easy, she’ll get pissy with you dude, now come on.” Brick warned tugging their opened button pushed him away. They looked me dead in the eyes.
“I don’t think she minds, in truth, I feel like we’ll have a lot to discuss later.” they smiled again, finally walking back into the living room. A chill ran up my spine when I saw them. The sharp teeth, New York accent, unsettling gaze, that motherfucker was the person who recruited me! They were able to get into my place so easily cause my dumbass cousin probably gave them a spare key or the opportunity to make one, and now they were a room away from me!
I dug my hands into my pillow as I contemplated what to do, no matter what happened next, I knew it was gonna be a rough visit.
submitted by Secret-Tomatillo5044 to libraryofshadows [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 09:15 Agneus [Online] [5e] [18+] [GMT+1] Virtues of Essence - Roleplay Focused Mystery and Lore Driven Forgotten Realms Campaign seeking a replacement player

“What defines virtue and how are we to gauge it? An inquiry that reverberates through epochs, its answer as fickle and capricious as the fates of those who deem to ask it. Duty, honor, justice - many over the ages would name these virtues, the conduits through which noble intentions find expression. Yet, as the battlefield of beliefs unfolds, a legion emerges, each as sworn to these principles as to obliterating all who would dare stake alike claim. Thus, battles rage and wars are waged and, in the end, those who are left are no more right than those fell by the blade. Alas, it is the victors whose ideals are etched into monuments for posterity. Except even words chiseled in unyielding stone are fated to fade in time. So is the wicked cycle destined to repeat in all its futility, its ephemeral prize seized again, only to be lost and sought anew. Try and picture, if for but a moment, a world where our rulers paused to reflect on the lessons of yore. They, too, would discern the elixir that enables one to escape the confines of memory—the very burden our fleeting nature forbids us to carry. Progress and evolution. Adaptability and transcendence. Everlasting and yet not stagnant, irrefutable, and yet fluid, these are the only true virtues. Thus, must we ever venture into the uncharted and unfamiliar for only from these unexplored domains may the truly virtuous arise.”
Where: Discord (Video and Voice) + FoundryVTT
When: every Saturday 5 - 9/10 pm GMT+1 (CET), 11 am - 3/4 pm EST
Who: party of 4 players and a DM seeking one extra player
Updates: Recruitment updates will be posted here.
Hello there and well met! If you’ve made it past the flavor text (or skipped it) and through the basic info (hopefully didnt skip past that one) you might very well be at the right address! Without further ado onto the post.

🐲The campaign🐲

Having only just recovered from the Second Sundering and the War of the Silver Marches, the North had been ravaged by a whole new set of tumultuous events - the rise of the Cult of the Dragon and that of the Absolute, the Fall of Eltruel and the short reign of the beholder crime lord Xanathar just some among them. After a brief respite from the twisted and the unnatural the clouds once more begin to gather. Along the Long Road, whole hosts of wild beasts and monsters have been accosting travelers seemingly at random and in the grand metropolis of Waterdeep a sudden rise in crime seems to coincide with strange events passing unnoticed beneath the surface. Amidst all this, in spring of 1493 DR, a party of adventurers delves into a mystery of enchanted gemstones being utilized to nefarious ends by unknown perpetrators all the while navigating the labyrinthine twists of city faction politics.
As implied by the post title, this is an ongoing campaign (we are 12 sessions in at the time of this post). Due to some irl commitments weve recently dropped a player and are looking to replace them.
As the title suggests, this is a roleplay focused mystery/lore driven campaign. Expect an overreaching plot with ample secrets to uncover, conspiracies to unravel and eldritch truths to unearth. The first word of the password is "Doth". On the same level of importance or more important even be that the players preference, there is a variety of subplots to engage with, from small and goofy and random to ones rivaling the main story arc in complexity and variance. Among these, individual character story arcs play a leading role, at times seamlessly intertwined with the current focus of the party, at times separate and independent.
As was already mentioned and is further described below, this is a roleplay focused campaign and a roleplay heavy game. This means that roleplay exists as a unifying concept for all other aspects of the game including exploration, combat, and puzzles. That said DnD is only DnD with all three of its main pillars intact and this campaign is no exception in that regard. I very much enjoy the mechanical side of the game as well besides roleplay and so things like multiphase boss fights and custom magic items are definitely on the table.

🧙‍♂️The DM🧙‍♂️

Hello there, Jay here, 25 yo law student from Central Europe currently working on finishing his master’s degree, trying to stay afloat in the current lease market. I study and work in a law firm by day and DM or play DnD by night (more like evening but night sounded cooler). I have been a big fan of TTRPGs since my early teens and of online DnD for the past five years. I’ve DMed multiple campaigns, finished CoS not least among them and I currently play in a long-term campaign. Before you ask, yes, my schedule is strained but not to the point I am unable to engage with my hobbies.
I would describe my DMing style as driven, realistic, and involved but also very conscious about player agency and collaborative storytelling as core values that make TTRPGs so popular and unique. I spend a lot of time ensuring the worlds I create and the stories I want to tell feel alive. From hand-picked music, to fully voiced NPCs and scenic descriptions designed to breathe life into the campaign setting I daresay my games rival in quality those of the professional DMs that charge for each session.
There is a drawback to this all however. Second word of the password is "thy". I expect a lot from my players as well. Writing a story in DnD is not a one person job. It takes a collective effort of the entire group to create something truly unique, something that one can be proud while looking forward to each session. Unwinding and letting off steam means something else for everyone. For me it means losing myself in the creative process of roleplaying an NPC or describing a scene, watching my players masterfully portray their own characters or having the party derail my plans in an awesome unforeseen and unexpectedly enriching way. If you find yourself in any of what I just described than this may be a game for you. If you don’t, that’s fine. This is definitely not a game for everyone.

🏰The setting🏰

Forgotten Realms is a default setting of Dungeons and Dragons but it is anything but boring and mundane. With now decades worth of lore behind it, it offers an unparalleled opportunity for anyone wanting to build on solid foundations to bring their ideas to life. While it has garnered a lot of attention lately with the release of a certain videogame (more people now know Astarion than a good amount of Hollywood celebrities I’d say) it has had its loyal following even before then, being constantly expanded and living its own life in a host of both online and home games. It’s been a natural choice of mine for a while now and not once have I had any regrets. The third word of the password is "mirror". I feel with how great of a variety of content the Forgotten Realms offer everybody is able to pick something that suits their creative vision. In summary the Forgotten Realms almost feel like a real place with how much worldbuilding has been done with them and offer a diversity of content few other TTRPG settings can boast.
When it comes to setting of the campaign in the world of Faerun I have once again made a somewhat traditional pick and decided to place the onset of the game onto the Sword Coast, more precisely into the city of Waterdeep. If one of the key upsides of Forgotten Realms is diversity of content, Waterdeep is one of the best representations of this. Being the largest settlement on the known Faerun, Waterdeep offers nigh limitless options in terms of main story arc genre, character creation and character backstory implementation. It has everything every large TTRPG settlement ought to have (fickle upper class, enigmatic factions, quaint taverns and extravagant nightclubs, always in bad mood city watch, a castle and a harbor) as well as few pretty original ideas such as colossal definitely not alive statues, a city council where even its members don’t know each other’s identity and a massive dungeon right underneath the city where you can literally fall right from a tavern taproom.
In case you are wondering, while this campagn takes place primarily in the city of Waterdeep itself, there is nothing stopping the players from exploring past the city if they so choose. The final word of the password is "crack?". Different parts of the main plot and various subplots can and will encourage the party to explore Waterdeep environs and sometimes even further.

📃The requirements📃

No exceptions here. Unless otherwise stated, the requirements must be met at the time of application.

🙋‍♂️How to sign up🙋‍♀️

Youve made it all the way to the end of this long post. Congratulations. Or maybe you’ve skipped all the way to the end. In that case I strongly recommended you go back. If not to learn what you are applying for than to make sure you haven’t missed something very important. Now if you are confident that you have what it takes and that this is a game that you could have a lot of fun with, please fill the below attached google questionnaire (if for any strange reason the link doesn’t end up working, please let me know in the comments under this post) and if fortune favors you, I shall get back to you promptly. Best of luck to you and I hope to speak to you soon!
https://forms.gle/5kc4RbwavJPfT8PD9
______________________________________
PS: As a part of the questionnaire, you will be asked to submit a short piece of your narrative writing in a form of a google doc link (not a custom piece of writing, any relevant past one you have will do). Maybe best have that ready beforehand? On that note, dont apply for the game with a detailed backstory of a character you want to play that you arent willing to adapt to the conditions of the setting/campaign.
PSS: Not to discourage you but if you do make it through the questionnaire and into the second group of applicants you will be asked to do a discord interview with your webcam turned on. I am asking you to go through a lot for a game you might not even end up liking I know, but if you do end up liking it, all this effort will be well worth it as I am sure my other players would agree.
submitted by Agneus to lfg [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 09:00 AutoModerator /r/Stellar Weekly Discussion Thread

Welcome to Stellar Weekly Discussion Thread!
Please utilize this thread for all general discussions about Stellar, market speculation about XLM, memes, and speculation about upcoming announcements or projects!

Stellar Communities


Must Read


Scam Alert - Never share your secret key with anyone.

There are NO airdrops, giveaways, staking, inflation mechanisms, or 'free lumens'.
Beware of 'support scams'. There are accounts all over Reddit impersonating as 'support' to steal crypto funds. Please report these accounts to Reddit via https://reddit.com/report. If you receive chat messages, click over the message until a flag appears to report the message to Reddit.
Beware of phishing attempts and spoofed websites. There are fake copies of official and community websites created everyday in order to scam community members.
Stellar Development Foundation will NEVER ask for your Secret Key.
Stellar Development Foundation will NEVER ask you to go to an Account Viewer.
Stellar Development Foundation will NEVER contact you in an email or media platforms to offer a giveaway or ask you to go to an Account Viewer.
Always report those scams so they can be removed to protect our community at https://www.stellar.org/contact
The official links are:

Stellar Weekly Discussion Rules


Disclaimer
Any third party organizations that are named in this and/or any other communication(s) are not an endorsement. Please conduct due diligence and interact with these organizations at your discretion.
submitted by AutoModerator to Stellar [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 08:42 aceredshirt13 Tantei Opera Milky Holmes 2 (PSP)

Hello hello! I keep Google Docs where I collect links to adaptations of old British literature I'm fond of. One of them is a Google Doc where I keep a running list of all known Sherlock Holmes games, regardless of age or language, and I like to pride myself a bit on having what I think might be the most comprehensive Sherlock Holmes game list on the Internet lmao. Anyway, I can't find a ROM of Tantei Opera Milky Holmes 2. I can find them for the first game from 2010, as well as 1.5, but I searched everywhere on the ROM thread for this 2012 sequel and found nothing (NoPayStation, for example, lists it as missing, and the Internet Archive PSP redump links have been taken down). A basic Google Search turned up some typical shady ROM websites, but when one of them claimed I was downloading a ROM yet didn't actually have me download anything, I got too worried to try any other similarly-shady sites. Is there anyone out there who happens to know where to find this one? This Holmes fan would greatly appreciate it.
submitted by aceredshirt13 to Roms [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 08:10 Aksjxbdhsxjsj Human trafficking: Job Offer Scam Bangkok/Mae Sot. Know the Signs!

Let’s make it aware that there is a job offer scam that lies and take you to Scam Factories and you become a slave, and you may even die. Post here all cases of Disappearance of people who may be associated with this type of scam.

Know The Signs! Have you been trafficked? * Did you apply for the job via Social Media (e.g. Facebook, Instagram), WhatsApp, Telegram or an online platform? * Did you have an online interview? * Have you been promised a job with a company in Thailand? * Were you promised a lucrative salary? * Did you receive a letter of confirmation for your new role? * Did you investigate the company you applied to and are they registered? * Do you have an agent or consultant handling details for you?
How to prevent yourself or someone you know from being trafficked * Never give anyone your passport! * Research the company you are applying to join. For example, check their website, search for them on social media and LinkedIn, check the legal registration of the company. * Ask for references (face to face or virtual) from current employees. * Ensure you received an official letter of offer and check the email addresses match the companies contact information. * Research the visa requirements for working in a foreign country. * Notify your countries Immigration Office of your intention to travel or contact your countries Embassy once you arrive at your destination. * If you are about to cross a river in north-west Thailand don’t, it is likely you are being trafficked into Myanmar.
Could this be your situation? If you or someone you know has been trapped in forced criminality, contact your nearest embassy or email the Global Alms Counter Trafficking Unit at admin@globalalms.com with the details.

This is a post for awareness. Let’s help each other. Only serious comments.
Below are more links to other related posts.
https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2023/12/asia/chinese-scam-operations-american-victims-intl-hnk-dst/
http://chinascope.org/archives/32233
https://youtu.be/m6qFCdHvYuI?si=rs2J71V1XIeFF7we
https://www.reddit.com/Thailand/s/L8OTm9Lvye
https://www.globalalms.com/protection
(My account created recently for privacy/scam concerns)
submitted by Aksjxbdhsxjsj to Thailand [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 08:09 john01dav [SMP] [Professionally Run] [TNPL7 + GT:NH + ATM9 + More!] [Very Minimal Banned Items & Rules] [No Griefing] [Enforced Moderator Guidelines] [i9-9900k] Modded Minecraft Club

Quick Links
Discord: https://discord.gg/8EgWdQC
Website: https://www.moddedminecraft.club/
Wiki: https://wiki.moddedminecraft.club/index.php?title=Main_Page
Forums: https://forum.moddedminecraft.club/
Server IPs
Up to date version information is available on our wiki. Versions in this post are updated with each new post.
Pack IP Pack Versions
Feed the Factory ftf.moddedminecraft.club 1.0
All the Mods 9 atm9.moddedminecraft.club 0.2.58
TNP Limitless 7 tnp7.moddedminecraft.club 1.4.0
Gregtech: New Horizons gtnh.moddedminecraft.club 2.5.1
Gregtech: New Horizons (no teleportation) gtnh-im.moddedminecraft.club 2.5.1
Overview
Modded Minecraft Club is a community driven network of multiple modded Minecraft servers. These servers are run by our excellent staff, some of whom have run Minecraft servers since Beta 1.6. Our goal with MMCC is to establish a mid-sized, healthy, community around Modded Minecraft. To accomplish this goal, all griefing is forbidden, griefed or bugged items will be refunded, there is no tolerance for disrespect among community members, and there are written and enforced moderator guidelines to protect against power-tripping staff.
Whitelist
In general, a whitelist is ineffective at preventing bad guys from joining the server, creates unnecessary administrative work, and creates a barrier to legitimate players. Since launch, we have assumed everyone is a legitimate community member from the beginning while also keeping strong anti-grief controls in place. This has been very successful, with very few occurrences of grief because, almost all because the player did not claim their build. If you want to join, come right in!
Rules & Moderator Guidelines
To ensure that we can easily change rules and let players know about the changes, we do not keep the server rules in our advertising posts. Instead, you can view this page on our website that serves as the one true source for the server’s rules. In addition to server rules like most servers have, we also have written and enforced moderator guidelines that are in place to prevent both ineffective moderation and power tripping moderators. If you feel that a moderator has violated these guidelines, you can contact the owners (john01dav@gmail.com, 132ikl@gmail.com) for a swift resolution.
Minimal Server Lag
The servers are located in a professional datacenter in Falkenstein, Germany. They run on a dedicated server with an i9-9900k CPU, 64 GBs of RAM, and a 1000 mbps guaranteed internet speed (both up and down). For full server specifications, see the Hetnzer EX62-NVMe. Many servers make outlandish claims about their complete lack of lag, and many don't have any lag at that moment. What they lack is a future commitment to quickly and effectively solve any and all lag problems that may arise, to the greatest extent that is possible given the realities of modded Minecraft. Extra Notes
We aim for 24/7/365 uptime, although, there are occasional automatic restarts ensure stability and to make modifications along with crashes that come with modded Minecraft. If you have any other questions, feel free to join our Discord server!
submitted by john01dav to feedthebeastservers [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 08:08 Iam-scared-of-myself Venting about people, systems, racism, the world in general. NO HATE TOWARDS ANYONE, THIS IS JUST VENTING FRUSTRATION

*CONTAINS SWEARING*
This is gonna be a hefty and most likely triggering post for specific groups of people out there (meaning people who struggle with anger, people who don't want poltical content/opinions etc), so please stop reading and leave if you figure this is gonna be rough for you. This will (mainly) be about the conflict between Palestine and Israel. (and apparently a long one) No hate towards any specific groups of people, but I do have a lot of *frustration regarding behaviours*.
Before I start, I want you to remember some facts about me as you read;
I am autistic
I am heavily influenced by world peace, hate, racism and other unfair situations
I have incredibly high standards for myself that I strive to not break, including, but not limited to, being kind and respectful *always*, despite being in a bad mood, not liking someone, or disagreeing, especially political disagreements
I have always, and will always, stand against widespread hate, racism and other discrimination towards any specific religions, ethnicities, nationalities, cultures, etc.
I also want you to know that I named this throwaway accordingly.
So let's get this shitshow started then, shall we.
As the details of the conflict stands, it is beyond obvious to me that this is racism and, literally, a Holocaust. Not *the* Holocaust, but *a* Holocaust. Oxford Languages has the term defined as a destruction or slaughter on a mass scale, especially caused by fire or nuclear war . I'd say that's very much accurate. Proof to come.
Regardless, this situation has had me very pressed the last almost 8 months, as I know most other people have been too. Without getting too much into the conflict itself, I want to talk a little about what I've seen from the Jewish community.
This is where I advise anyone who struggles with anger especially to leave and try to keep your day positive. If you have a magical potion to stay stable after this, who am I to stop you...
Alright, onto the dreaded part. And yes, I am stalling.
I have never, and I truly mean *never* had any hateful thoughts or opinions about religions (other than Christianity but that's one for another time), and as we are all aware of, The Holocaust had massive effect on the world some 80 years ago. I have always seen Jews as victims due to this, but in recent times I've realised that a lot of them, too, see themselves as victims. The issue is that they aren't the victims right now. They (Israel) aren't defending themselves, they have nothing to defend themselves against. Israel is currently doing the exact same thing as Germany did to them, to Palestine. Sure, maybe at some point who knows when, Palestine *was* the land of Jews, but since then, multiple religions have been thriving together on that land, including Jews. They were never excluded. From what I've understood, there weren't any wars or conflicts going on within the country that didn't happen elsewhere. The issue began when in the late 1940's zionists brutally murdered families to steal their homes. I'm sure the situation was so much more complex than that, but in a nutshell that is basically it. The fact that everyone today have been so desensitized from the travesties happening around the world is depressing and hope-killing. I truly am well on the way to giving up, and at this point in time I'm so angry all the time due to the Middle East's situation.
So a few weeks ago, probably closing in on months at this point, I randomly got a notification from reddit about someone posting on /Jewish. They didn't say anything explicit, so I pressed the notification and I was met with the worst victimization and ignorance I've ever seen. I truly believed most jews would see this for what it is, and not let some racist maniac spoon-feed them propaganda and hate, but I was brutally and humbly proven wrong. They were mocking proPAL parades, hating on news anchors and civilians alike calling this a genocide, insisting that Israel has no other choice, saying "casualties happens in war", convincing each other that zionism is a good thing, and feeling sorry for themselves when friends and families cut contact because they said they supported Israel and saw this as the only solution. Some might have been genuine problems, idk, but for the most part, that subreddit seems to only be about hating the rest of the world because their great grandparents were killed. I know I sound like a complete asshole, but the world isn't antisemetic anymore - they are actively looking for it and then using that one person telling them to stop feeling so sorry for themselves as proof that everybody in the world wants to throw them back in gas chambers.
I commented on my personal once where I mentioned that judaism and zionism are two separate things and got downvoted to oblivion. Someone replied saying that my comment was very much exactly what they too feel, but I got downvoted *simply because* I referred to them as separate entities. That is another criticism they've recieved lately; the pure idea of zionism is on the complete opposite side from what Judaism stands for. I've seen so many of the members there calling Jews protesting against Israel "self-hating" and traitors.
I've also made so many replies that I never sent because I know for a fact they would do anything in their power to ban me from ever using reddit again, and I wouldn't be surprised if I got doxxed and harrassed IRL from it. I saved them all, though. I found that it was kind of therapeutic to get it out, but it still bugs me that I never found a way to say it to them. I once also made a post about my rage for their behaviour connected to this genocide, but I thankfully stopped myself before I posted it. I'm so enraged by their sheer ignorance and hypocritical behaviour, all the while Gaza is still being eradicated and slaughtered, war crimes happening day in-day out, inhumane atrocities by the IOF being posted and hailed, and they have the audacity to say that they are the victims? That Israel has no other choice but martyring tens of thousands of CHILDREN? Starving the entire Gaza Strip, segregating West Bank, literally teaching their young in school to hate and attack arabs? That last one might not be true as I don't speak Hebrew or Arabic, so anyone could've just made up the translation, but I still feel it's worth mentioning in case it actually *is* real.
My point is that the guts they have to claim to be so moral, yet still be so unfaced from what's happening in Gaza is beside me. Sure, for those living near the Gaza wall, I'm positive that hearing bombs and screams were traumatizing as fuck, but to then leave for work the next day and claim that "shit happens"? It's insane! It's inhumane. They can leave whenever they like, children can play football (soccer) in the streets and not having to worry about shit, hotels and restaurants with 5-star ratings thriving, plants and flowers still blooming, absolutely no threats on a daily basis. The fact that people are still calling this a war, something necessary, is beyond devastating to me. There are millions still siding with zionism, claiming there's nothing wrong with the belief that you have an innate right to some dirt simply because your holy book says that thousands of years ago, your religion lived there, and simply because of that religious fact you are rightfully owed thousands of young lives, the death of an entire country with its own culture, just to feed the irrational religious political system? How in God's name has that ever, *IS* that still okay? If Muslims were the ones saying that shit, they would've been completely destroyed by now, today's generation wouldn't know what the fuck Islam was. They are still being slaughtered though, because they're saying it's *not* okay. How is that not racist again?
My brother and I got into a heated argument a few days ago about this. I am very much *for* Palestine to have human rights and to own their own land - he is very much *against* "ugly blackies" having any rights because they're *not* human. Boi when I tell you I got so angry I started crying. And the worst part about that fight? He claims that Jews aren't any better, however they still deserve to defend themselves against children running on the beach. "But Hamas-" is so over-used and outdated by now, it just proves that he doesn't follow up on statistics and evidence. Even if there only were one-sided news (from Gaza), the fact that the ICJ ruled Israel's actions a genocide and war crimes still proves everything he claims to be "n*****'s propaganda". And the fact that he so underminds my autism and *need* for factual evidence before discussing it also goes to show that he genuinely does not care about anything other than the black "terrorists" being eradicated. I said "So you're not just a racist, you're just plain racist?" he just scoffed and looked at me as if I just said the most nonsensical bullshit gibberish ever, practically saying "I'm not gonna say anything, but it really took you that long to realise?" Either that, or he actually didn't comprehend the words coming out of my mouth, like it was a foreign language or something. Because he genuinely does not have a single reason to be racist.
He can't even blame suicide attacks because 1) not all are carried by muslims, and 2) between 1981-2015 around 45,000 were killed by suicide attacks worldwide, where in 2019 the total death toll was only 1,699 more than amount of attacks; whereas in Gaza, between Oct 7 to present there are about 34,000 confirmed palestinian deaths, and assumed around 42,000 with unconfirmed deaths. If, in 36 years, "muslim terrorism" killed about the same amount as Israel has in almost 8 months, how on earth are Arabs the terrorists?
And I've also seen the argument that 30,000 is nothing compared to the total population in Gaza, as if that makes it okay. I will, again, make example of The Holocaust. When 30,000 Jews were martyred, people were already catching on, and this was without the technology we have today.
How have we been allowing this to happen to Palestinians *with* our technology today? Why haven't people been doing more; striking our jobs, cummute chauffeurs striking, proper permanent boycotts, more coverage from news anchors and private people alike? Even if it is to officially reclaim your love for white supremacy, you're still talking about it. Why are people still not reading up on this? Why does millions still not know that this *didn't* begin on October 7th? And why are there still those who claim that the past doesn't matter today? I have so many questions, and if I do get an answer I will only end up with more questions. How hasn't the world stopped over this? Why are people so okay knowing that there are children being intentionally murdered every single day? How can you go to work and talk about Dave's new tie? Or your 6 year old's birthday party with 15 other 6 year olds? Hasn't it crossed your mind that if the roles were reversed, your precious princess would be the one burried under tons of rubble, dying slowly while simontaniously starving, dehydrating, suffocating and crushing, and *knowing* that absolutely no one cares because you're [skin color] and it's normal for your kids to be horrendously massacred? "Oh but the Taliban-ISIS-Al Qaeda" OKAY so what are you gonna do to help save innocent lives and suffering??? How are you gonna contribute to STOP these organizations that have manipulated and murdered to rule their country and are intentionally making the citicens miserable? Are you even aware that your own govurnment is essentially the same fucking thing, just disguised as a well dressed, polite gentleman? Aren't you sick of all those ads on TV showing brown children with flies in their eyes? Or your mama telling you to think about the starving children in Africa? Because I am.
I am so sick and tired of how inhumane humans have come to be. You don't see animals (and I'm trying my best to not mention how humans *are* animals, guess I failed) intentionally kill another animal simply because they're that animal. They kill prey; polar bears kill seals, seals kill penguins, penguins kill fish, fish kill amoebas, and you can get to that result from absolutely everything. What you don't find as a natural event is a golden, brown mane lion attack and kill an albino lion simply because it's albino. You don't see a school of fish swim away from one with two heads, because "*omg Jared is such a freak with his two heads*." So why the FUCK DID WE START DOING THAT? Where did this hunger for power come from? You *will* see a female lion tell the king that enough is enough, and he *will* accept that. I could go on and on for DAYS if I got the chance, but I don't wanna get too off topic here.
I've started a list of all the universally illegal shit Israel has done, and once I'm satisfied with it, I'll make one comparing Israel to Palestine, and then Arabs/Muslims as a whole. I can guarantee that I will still hear "on-sided sources" still, or "You can't trust Wikipedia!" Have you ever tried to edit or create an article on Wikipedia? I have, and I had to confirm that I had a degree or a current valid work ID to prove that I was elgible to speak on the topic. I tried to make a site for myself... Sure, there are more trustworthy sites, but even in a discussion about wether or not being trans is a mental illness, where I quoted and linked all of the most well known official sources like WHO, I was still slapped with "but this shady ass article from a random Deutch website that explicitly says everything I've said, yet still isn't actually saying the same thing because I misquoted and mixed the words to form my own sentence says that it is" when they literally linked a website called "disabled world". I will say though, I agree with that name. Today's world is so non-funtional for neurotypical, hetero, white MEN, it's no fucking wonder everyone else are classified as disabled or whatever. Also, on that disabled topic, if you've made it this far, please don't say "differently abled". A quote unquote quote (heh geddit? cuz it's rephrased and I don't have the book near me rn to directly quote) from Devon Price's "Unmasking Autism" that I really like: "You wouldn't say "a person with Asianness", you'd say "an Asian person"." We are disabled because today's world isn't made for us, and for the most part isn't even accomodated or accessible to us. We are different, yeah, but literally everyone is. We just got that term because we can't do the same things as you (assuming you're neurotypical) without aid. We are able, just not like you. Of course, if an autistic person tells you they prefer "person with autism", listen to them! But most of us embrace it as a part of us because we can't just get rid of it. Autism is what make me me, I wouldn't be me without my autism, so I *am* autistic, for better or for worse. :)
I find it kinda ironic that I started this as a venting about a lot of Jews' hypocritical behaviour, and now ending up on autism. Yaknow, cuz Dr. Asperger during WW2 experimented and tortured autistic people, and found out that some where more alike him than others, which then coined the term Aspergers for the Autistic Community.
Anywho, I feel better now, so thanks for letting me vent a little (a lot). I want to finish off by restating my intro; I have not, and will not tolerate any hate, racism or discrimination towards any religion, ethnicity, nationality, culture etc. This post is not intended as a rant about how aweful jews are, because they're not. I just wanted to air some frustration over their behaviour regarding I/P genocide. This is also not about *all* Jews, but that's the same discussion as "not all men" so I'll leave it at that.
I will delete this account in a week, so if you have any questions, be fast ig. If you find I've mis-phrased, used irrationally insensitive wording or any other complaints that calls for a repost, I will fix it and post an updated version. My DMs will also be available if that should be of interest, but I will not be responding to hate or personal attacks for my opinions. If the issue is my wording, again, tell me and I'll fix it.
At this point I've written so much that I don't remember if I found anything myself that I figured was worth fixing, and I've proof read it so many times that my eyes are crossing and giving me a headache lol
Gosh I'm scared of posting this. I don't want anyone to read this and think I support what A. H. did in 1940 cuz I cannot begin to describe my hatred for that man
submitted by Iam-scared-of-myself to confessions [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 07:54 taeto_overlord Is it possible for someone to see my gmail account if I use SL to hide it?

So I want to start using SL to hide my gmail address from people I don't trust but have to be in contact with - toxic family members. I considered using gmail aliases but it's apparently very easy for others to see your main address. My family is tech savvy, most of them work in IT, and I want to be sure they can't trace the mailbox linked to the SL alias I give to them.
submitted by taeto_overlord to Simplelogin [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 07:53 scidsg Principles of a Tip Line Platform: A research-based way to evaluate whistleblower systems

Principles of a Tip Line Platform: A research-based way to evaluate whistleblower systems
Article Cover Showing List of Principles and Names of Researchers
Thanks to the good work of academic researchers across the globe, we have a data-driven way to evaluate the quality of whistleblower software. The papers we’ve looked to for this article include:
The authors lists the characteristics of a whistleblower submission system. They include:
  1. Usability of the Software
  2. Authenticity of the Receiver
  3. Plausible Deniability of the Whistleblower
  4. Availability of the System
  5. Anonymity of the Whistleblower
  6. Confidentiality and Integrity of the Disclosures

1. Usability of the Software

Managed Service
Usability is the linchpin of any good software system. No matter what your value proposition is — the most private, secure, or whatever — if your targeted audience cannot use the software, no amount of engineering genius will make a difference. As researcher Joakim Uddholm puts it:
“The system must be usable for both whistleblowers and journalists. Whistleblowers must be able to use the system without the protection features getting too much in the way, and journalists must be able to use the system without it interfering too much with their work routines.”
A key differentiator for Hush Line is that we’re a managed service, meaning you don’t have to host core infrastructure, operate dedicated networks, or hire specialists to start using the service. All a user needs to do to have an anonymous tip line is register an account.
UI for Hush Line Registration page
By providing a centralized service, we significantly reduce the risk of user error, making the service more consistent, predictable, and trustworthy.

Email Delivery

Hush Line can deliver messages directly to your email inbox. Users may enter their preferred SMTP information from Gmail or Riseup, for example, and any message submitted to their tip line will be delivered to their email account. Enabling users to set it and forget it makes using Hush Line effortless and integrates into the systems they’re already using.
SMTP Hush Line Settings

Clearnet and Tor Addresses

Hush Line is also available on both Clearnet and Tor Onion addresses. This approach is critical for users where Tor might be blocked or having anonymizing software on their device could be incriminating, like in the case of Ola Bini in Ecuador.
Screenshot of Ola Bini’s tweet about his conviction.
Since Hush Line can be accessed over a Clearnet address with the default browser already on your phone, your fingerprint will be the same as everyone else who just bought a new phone.

Making PGP Easy

Before, using PGP meant adopting cumbersome workflows that even stumped journalists at the heart of the Snowden disclosures. Journalist Glenn Greenwald didn’t have PGP set up, and didn’t have the time to learn how to do it, resulting in Snowden not being able to securely contact him. Even Snowden forgot to send his PGP key to journalists when initially contacting them.
Inbox view with Mailvelope browser extension.
Hush Line attempts to solve this problem through our integration of Mailvelope, a powerful open-source browser extension for Chrome and Firefox that enables users to create keys, decrypt and encrypt message directly in their browser, and export their public PGP key. For tip line owners, once adding their PGP key to Hush Line, all messages are end-to-end encrypted by default and when a tip comes in, they can read it within the Hush Line app. For whistleblowers, this means they don’t need to do anything to send a secure, anonymous message.

2. Authenticity of the Receiver

Verification System

Hush Line has a verification system for journalists, organizations, activists, or other public figures. Verified accounts receive a special badge on their message submission page so that people submitting messages know they’re contacting the right person. To be verified, users must submit proper information to prove their identity or approval to represent a company.
Submit Message page with a “Verified Account” badge.

Opt-In User Directory

Users may opt-in to a public directory where others can find their address. The default tab is prioritized to make it easy to find verified users. The directory is searchable, and a whistleblower can have confidence of the validity of an address.
Hush Line User Directory page

Account Reporting

The verification system and user directories are two ways to help ensure the authenticity of the receiver, but to help ensure the platform’s health, we enable users who have logged in to report spam or abuse accounts. We will address reported accounts immediately to determine the best next steps, whether deleting the account, sending a warning message, or other appropriate methods.

3. Plausible Deniability of the Whistleblower

No Downloads

Hush Line is accessible over a Clearnet address, so a user doesn’t have to download any new software to send an anonymous message. If someone wants to use a Tor-only tip line service on their mobile device, they must sign in to the Apple App Store or Google Play Store. To download Tor Browser, you need to provide a valid email address or phone number and possibly payment information, all considered personally identifiable information. Now that you’ve downloaded new software on your phone, your “fingerprint” has become unique to who you are. If you only have Robinhood, Tor Browser, Mastodon, Chrome, and Slack on your phone, the likelihood of someone else having only those same apps becomes less likely. If you have even 50 apps, your fingerprint will be more associated with you, possibly entirely unique. The more unique your fingerprint is, the less realistic a plausible deniability claim is.

One-Way Messaging

Most people fail to report information because they fear retaliation and the significant risks of whistleblowing. Hush Line is a one-way messenger explicitly designed to protect the individual submitting the message. If the person submitting a message feels comfortable enough to leave a contact method, they may or can submit a message without any further involvement.

Account-Free for Whistleblowers

Someone submitting a message does not need to create an account to use the app. This crucial feature allows a whistleblower to reduce the trail of information they leave behind. No credentials can be found if you have no username or password to save. And since Hush Line requires no special software, a message can be submitted from any phone or computer, from a pubic library or internet cafe, for example.
Success message after sending a message without an account.

4. Availability of the System

Centralized Services

By providing a centralized service, Hush Line is more reliably available by only requiring a single system to be maintained and secured. Centralizing our services protects users by removing the responsibility of managing specialized infrastructure and following complex workflows, which, if done incorrectly, could have real-world implications.
Decentralized systems help with censorship resistance (and Hush Line can also be self-hosted), but when there are tens, hundreds, or thousands of separate instances all disconnected from each other, there is no way to ensure the quality of those systems. What other software is on the server? Is it updated? Are any ports open? Who currently has or has had access? What hardware are they using? It’s impossible and foolhardy to assume that everyone will follow best practices consistently.
An analogous example of the inherent risks of decentralization is from the Mastodon network — a decentralized version of Twitter where anyone can run an instance. The database for Kolektiva.social, a service tailored to anarchist users, was compromised. In 2023, the home of its admin was raided for an unrelated event, and the FBI seized an unencrypted database backup.
Snippet from the Kolektiva admin account’s post after the raid.

5. Anonymity of the Whistleblower

Leaking IP Addresses

To make Hush Line accessible to as many people as possible, the app is available on a publicly accessible URL, which is what you might expect from any web service. However, when using a Clearnet URL, leaking a user’s IP address is a real possibility.
To help defend against this, we scrub IP addresses from our access logs to minimize the risk of this happening when you use our app. To remove the possibility of IP leaks in high-threat scenarios, we deploy Hush Line as a Tor Onion service.

Tor Support

Tor is a network that anonymizes your internet browsing activity. It acts as a proxy by randomly routing your request through its network of relays, hiding who is making the request. Tor also has a feature called Onion Services. An Onion service makes a website or application accessible through a special .onion address that is only available through the Tor Browser.
Message submission onion site.
When using a regular browser like Chrome or Firefox, when you enter an address like hushline.app the browser needs to know the server address for that URL. A long chain of services helps make it possible, from your ISP to DNS services, the server running the app, and more to make it possible to type something memorable like hushline.app instead of remembering and entering 64.23.155.36. Just as the browser needs to know the IP address of the target web server, your IP address is also necessary to know where to send the information.
Your IP address is essentially your customer ID for your internet service provider. All someone with the necessary authority needs to do is request the information of the owner of that IP, and your real identity is exposed.
Onion services defeat this kind of threat because they don’t operate using the same DNS and IP protocols. Tor Browser is connected to the Tor anonymizing network, and so are the Onion services that exist within it. When someone uses a .onion address, the request from the browser to the server and back never leaves the Tor network, completely sidestepping IP leakage.
To access Hush Line’s information site using our Onion address, enter `http://w25rxxn62dgix7qdbw4ot37m2y4ty7kxfrinspw4ce7jzse7pb6rhaqd.onion/\`, or to access the app’s Onion site, enter `http://ghj4vviaoccj4tj2r3ss52arbnchkfvs7uft4sgtrkuvdha5zjgo6yqd.onion\` in Tor Browser.

Timing Correlation

To know that two people are talking to each other, you don’t need to know the contents of their messages if you have enough metadata about the conversation. One such way to reveal important context about who might be talking to each other is to learn when the messages were sent. If there’s a flurry of activity from two accounts — one after the other, repeatedly, pausing at similar times, being active at similar times— someone analyzing the logs might assume those accounts are talking to each other.
To address this, we do not timestamp messages or relate accounts in any way. An attacker with access to the server cannot relate two messages on the platform, which is largely irrelevant as Hush Line is designed as a one-way messenger.

6. Confidentiality and Integrity of the Disclosures

Message Encryption

Hush Line uses PGP for message encryption, making the key owner the only one technically able to read the decrypted messages. Messages are end-to-end encrypted using OpenPGP.js, meaning our server will never see the decrypted contents.
Hush Line Inbox with an encrypted message.
We’re proactive about communicating with senders and receivers about the importance of the tip line owner adding their public PGP key, and we discourage sharing sensitive information if the receiver doesn’t encrypt their messages.
Unencrypted warning on a message submission page.

HTTPS

We use Let’s Encrypt for HTTPS certificates. When a site uses HTTPS, requests use the TLS protocol to encrypt data in transit from the browser to the server and back. This protects your activity from being monitored or tampered with while using the app.
For an attacker who can monitor network connections, instead of seeing which page you’re on or who you’re submitting a message to, the primary URL is only visible. So if a message submitter is on https://hushline.app/submit_message/artvandelay the recipient remains unobservable, and the only thing visible to a network snoop is https://hushline.app/.

Conclusion

There are many tip-line solutions on the market, and it can be intimidating to choose the right one for you. We hope this article gives you a data-driven way to evaluate the software that fits your needs.

Additional Research

Do you have any questions, comments, or feedback? Follow us on Mastodon at @scidsg@fosstodon.org.
Originally posted on Medium: https://medium.com/p/51beb8b05eb1
submitted by scidsg to HushLine [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 07:44 KneiTeam An edition of Knei Blog: uncertainty reduction theory

An edition of Knei Blog: uncertainty reduction theory
Hello, Knei community members!
This week, we are glad to share with you new material from the Knei Blog. As a reminder, the Blog is the section of the Knei website where we talk about relationship-building tips, models, and theories. The volume of such articles is larger than what can be suitable for Reddit or LinkedIn.
In the new edition, we would like to tell about the uncertainty reduction theory. It is a theory first mentioned by Berger and Calabrese (1975) in their work "Some Explorations in Initial Interaction and Beyond: Toward a Developmental Theory of Interpersonal Communication”. Its primary hypothesis is that an individual perceives uncertainty in relation to others’ personalities and strives to reduce it via different strategies and methods.
https://preview.redd.it/6ju6bzs8nb1d1.jpg?width=6240&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=011817bfd51fb2f72dd330693fe77c8f88cd170f
What we find particularly interesting about the theory is that it, inspired both by studies and common sense, represents an ambitious breadth and applicability; yet, it still has a space for development, especially regarding experimental evidence of proposed theorems.
We encourage you to get acquainted with the main concepts of uncertainty reduction theory at Knei Blog and pick the ones you find the most useful in building your interpersonal relations. Stay in touch!
submitted by KneiTeam to Knei [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 07:16 smellytrashyy My code works properly in Codepen, but not in a website host. Help.

I made this code with the help of AI, I read rule 10 but trust me this kept me up at night (bad at coding). Can somebody please explain why it only works properly in Codepen, but not when I place it in a website host? I saved it as styles.css, index.html, script.js., then to a folder, then zipped it.
When I put it in Codepen, the questions drop down when I choose the gender, this doesn't work in the website host. Any help/tip is appreciated. Thanks!
CSS: body { font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-color: #7074A0; margin: 0; padding: 0; } .container { max-width: 800px; margin: 2rem auto; background: #D5D5D5; padding: 2rem; box-shadow: 0 0 10px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); border-radius: 10px; } h1 { text-align: center; color: #333; } .form-group { margin-bottom: 1.5rem; } label { font-weight: bold; } select, input[type="checkbox"], button { width: 100%; padding: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0.5rem; border: 1px solid #ccc; border-radius: 5px; box-sizing: border-box; } button { background-color: #2C3055; color: white; font-weight: bold; cursor: pointer; transition: background-color 0.3s; } button:hover { background-color: #008080; } #recommendationResult { margin-top: 1.5rem; font-weight: bold; } HTML:      Style Recommendations    

The Fashion Anatomist

JS: const bodyTypes = { male: ["Rectangle", "Triangle", "Upside Down Triangle", "Trapezoid", "Oval"], female: ["Rectangle", "Apple", "Pear", "Hourglass", "Upside Down Triangle"] }; const questions = { male: [ { question: "What is your go-to outfit for a casual day out?", options: ["Jeans and a T-shirt", "Casual shirt and pants", "Athleisure wear", "Vintage finds", "Tailored clothes", "Simple and clean", "Bohemian styles", "Chic and trendy", "Unique and artsy"] }, { question: "Which colors do you prefer to wear?", options: ["Bright and bold", "Neutral tones", "Pastels", "Earthy colors", "Classic black and white", "Monochrome", "Mixed prints", "Sleek and modern", "Vibrant and contrasting"] }, { question: "What kind of shoes do you usually wear?", options: ["Sneakers", "Casual shoes", "Formal shoes", "Boots", "Loafers", "Minimalist shoes", "Ethnic sandals", "Designer shoes", "Artsy shoes"] }, { question: "Which accessory do you never leave the house without?", options: ["Cap", "Scarf", "Statement watch", "Tie", "Belt", "Simple necklace", "Layered bracelets", "Stylish bag", "Artsy accessory"] } ], female: [ { question: "What is your go-to outfit for a casual day out?", options: ["Jeans and a T-shirt", "A dress", "Athleisure wear", "Vintage finds", "Tailored clothes", "Simple and clean", "Bohemian styles", "Chic and trendy", "Unique and artsy"] }, { question: "Which colors do you prefer to wear?", options: ["Bright and bold", "Neutral tones", "Pastels", "Earthy colors", "Classic black and white", "Monochrome", "Mixed prints", "Sleek and modern", "Vibrant and contrasting"] }, { question: "What kind of shoes do you usually wear?", options: ["Sneakers", "Flats", "Heels", "Boots", "Loafers", "Minimalist sandals", "Ethnic sandals", "Designer shoes", "Artsy shoes"] }, { question: "Which accessory do you never leave the house without?", options: ["Cap", "Scarf", "Statement jewelry", "Watch", "Belt", "Simple necklace", "Layered necklaces", "Stylish handbag", "Artsy bag"] } ] }; const styleMap = { "Jeans and a T-shirt": "casual", "Casual shirt and pants": "casual", "A dress": "chic", "Athleisure wear": "casual", "Vintage finds": "vintage", "Tailored clothes": "formal", "Simple and clean": "minimalist", "Bohemian styles": "bohemian", "Chic and trendy": "chic", "Unique and artsy": "artsy", "Bright and bold": "streetwear", "Neutral tones": "casual", "Pastels": "preppy", "Earthy colors": "bohemian", "Classic black and white": "formal", "Monochrome": "minimalist", "Mixed prints": "vintage", "Sleek and modern": "chic", "Vibrant and contrasting": "artsy", "Sneakers": "streetwear", "Casual shoes": "casual", "Formal shoes": "formal", "Boots": "bohemian", "Loafers": "formal", "Minimalist shoes": "minimalist", "Ethnic sandals": "bohemian", "Designer shoes": "chic", "Artsy shoes": "artsy", "Cap": "streetwear", "Scarf": "vintage", "Statement watch": "formal", "Tie": "formal", "Belt": "preppy", "Simple necklace": "minimalist", "Layered bracelets": "bohemian", "Stylish bag": "chic", "Artsy accessory": "artsy", "Statement jewelry": "chic", "Watch": "formal", "Layered necklaces": "bohemian", "Stylish handbag": "chic", "Artsy bag": "artsy" }; const recommendations = { male: { Rectangle: { casual: "Opt for well-fitted t-shirts and straight-cut jeans.", chic: "Tailored pieces with sharp lines and neutral colors.", minimalist: "Stick to monochromatic outfits with clean lines.", vintage: "Go for retro patterns and fitted blazers.", formal: "Choose structured suits with shoulder padding.", bohemian: "Flowy shirts with earthy tones and relaxed pants.", artsy: "Abstract prints and asymmetrical designs." }, Triangle: { casual: "Wear darker colors on top and lighter on the bottom.", chic: "Structured blazers and vertical stripes to elongate the torso.", minimalist: "Neutral tones with minimal layering.", vintage: "High-waisted pants and vintage tees.", formal: "Suits with padded shoulders and tapered pants.", bohemian: "Loose tops with fitted bottoms.", artsy: "Bold, artistic prints and unique cuts." }, "Upside Down Triangle": { casual: "Fitted shirts and loose trousers for balance.", chic: "Tailored jackets and darker colors on top.", minimalist: "Simple and clean lines with solid colors.", vintage: "Classic patterns like houndstooth or plaid.", formal: "Structured suits with well-defined shoulders.", bohemian: "Loose tops with wide-leg pants.", artsy: "Geometric patterns and unconventional designs." }, Trapezoid: { casual: "Fitted tops and straight-leg jeans.", chic: "Structured blazers and well-fitted trousers.", minimalist: "Clean lines and tailored silhouettes.", vintage: "Retro-inspired pieces with a modern twist.", formal: "Tailored suits with balanced proportions.", bohemian: "Relaxed fits with layered textures.", artsy: "Experimental designs and unique accessories." }, Oval: { casual: "Opt for fitted tops and straight-cut bottoms.", chic: "Structured blazers and tailored trousers.", minimalist: "Simple, streamlined outfits with solid colors.", vintage: "Classic pieces with flattering silhouettes.", formal: "Well-tailored suits with structured jackets.", bohemian: "Flowy tops with relaxed bottoms for balance.", artsy: "Statement pieces and bold accessories." } }, female: { Rectangle: { casual: "Tuck in your shirts and pair with skinny jeans.", chic: "Structured blazers and high-waisted pants.", minimalist: "Simple, straight-cut dresses and tops.", vintage: "High-waisted skirts and fitted blouses.", formal: "Peplum tops and pencil skirts.", bohemian: "Flowy dresses with cinched waists.", artsy: "Bold patterns and unique textures." }, Apple: { casual: "V-neck tops and A-line skirts.", chic: "Structured blouses with wide-leg trousers.", minimalist: "Monochrome outfits with clean lines.", vintage: "Empire-waist dresses and skirts.", formal: "Wrap dresses and tailored blazers.", bohemian: "Loose tops with flared pants.", artsy: "Unique cuts and statement accessories." }, Pear: { casual: "Fitted tops and wide-leg pants.", chic: "Blazers with shoulder pads and A-line skirts.", minimalist: "Simple tops with straight-leg pants.", vintage: "High-waisted pants and tucked-in blouses.", formal: "Structured dresses with defined waists.", bohemian: "Flowy tops with fitted bottoms.", artsy: "Layered textures and asymmetrical designs." }, Hourglass: { casual: "Wrap tops and high-waisted jeans.", chic: "Tailored dresses with cinched waists.", minimalist: "Fitted tops with straight-leg trousers.", vintage: "Retro-inspired dresses with belts.", formal: "Bodycon dresses and pencil skirts.", bohemian: "Cinched waists with flowy skirts.", artsy: "Form-fitting pieces with artistic prints." }, "Upside Down Triangle": { casual: "Fitted shirts and loose skirts.", chic: "Structured jackets with flared pants.", minimalist: "Simple tops with wide-leg trousers.", vintage: "A-line dresses with vintage patterns.", formal: "Blazers with shoulder pads and pencil skirts.", bohemian: "Loose tops with flowy bottoms.", artsy: "Bold prints and unique cuts." } } }; document.getElementById('bodyTypeForm').addEventListener('submit', function (e) { e.preventDefault(); const gender = document.getElementById('gender').value; const bodyType = document.getElementById('bodyType').value; const hideRecommendations = document.getElementById('hideRecommendations').checked; if (!gender) { alert("Please select gender."); return; } if (!hideRecommendations && !bodyType) { alert("Please select body type or choose to hide recommendations."); return; } const questionElements = document.querySelectorAll('.questionContainer'); const answers = []; questionElements.forEach(questionElement => { const answer = questionElement.querySelector('select').value; if (!answer) { alert("Please answer all questions."); return; } answers.push(answer); }); const styleCount = {}; answers.forEach(answer => { const style = styleMap[answer]; if (style) { if (!styleCount[style]) { styleCount[style] = 0; } styleCount[style]++; } }); const preferredStyle = Object.keys(styleCount).reduce((a, b) => styleCount[a] > styleCount[b] ? a : b, null); let recommendation = `Your preferred style is ${preferredStyle}.`; if (!hideRecommendations && bodyType) { const bodyTypeRecommendation = recommendations[gender]?.[bodyType]?.[preferredStyle]; if (bodyTypeRecommendation) { recommendation += ` For your ${bodyType} body type, we recommend: ${bodyTypeRecommendation}.`; } else { recommendation += " Please consult a stylist for personalized recommendations."; } } document.getElementById('recommendationResult').innerText = recommendation; }); document.getElementById('gender').addEventListener('change', function (e) { const gender = e.target.value; const bodyTypeSelect = document.getElementById('bodyType'); const hideRecommendationsCheckbox = document.getElementById('hideRecommendations'); if (gender) { bodyTypeSelect.removeAttribute('disabled'); hideRecommendationsCheckbox.removeAttribute('disabled'); } else { bodyTypeSelect.setAttribute('disabled', true); hideRecommendationsCheckbox.setAttribute('disabled', true); } bodyTypeSelect.innerHTML = ''; bodyTypes[gender].forEach(bodyType => { const option = document.createElement('option'); option.value = bodyType; option.innerText = bodyType; bodyTypeSelect.appendChild(option); }); const questionContainer = document.getElementById('questionContainer'); questionContainer.innerHTML = ''; questions[gender].forEach((question, index) => { const questionDiv = document.createElement('div'); questionDiv.className = 'questionContainer'; const questionLabel = document.createElement('label'); questionLabel.innerText = question.question; const questionSelect = document.createElement('select'); questionSelect.innerHTML = ''; question.options.forEach(option => { const optionElement = document.createElement('option'); optionElement.value = option; optionElement.innerText = option; questionSelect.appendChild(optionElement); }); questionDiv.appendChild(questionLabel); questionDiv.appendChild(questionSelect); questionContainer.appendChild(questionDiv); }); }); document.getElementById('hideRecommendations').addEventListener('change', function (e) { const bodyTypeSelect = document.getElementById('bodyType'); if (e.target.checked) { bodyTypeSelect.setAttribute('disabled', true); } else { bodyTypeSelect.removeAttribute('disabled'); } });
submitted by smellytrashyy to CodingHelp [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 07:00 minnel567 Want to talk about this Isekai that is underrated but is actually good

https://ncode.syosetu.com/n5534co/
https://www.novelupdates.com/series/re-tale-of-a-hero/
https://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=141085
I don't really post much but I just want to know if someone in this sub already read about this isekai which for me one of the decent ones out there unfortunately it's not much translated.
It's a WN and have more than 2k chapters of main story and 1k+ chapters of sidestory back in earth.
Genre:Isekai,Harem,Fantasy,Scifi,Tragedy?(Flash back),PoV,Mystery
Main plot A whole school is transported to another world with our mc in it. Surprisingly enough all amenities are still working including water, electricity and sewage. People don't just get powers yhough amd yhey need to learn things to survive. The twist is the MC actually already get isekaid in this world , he even brought the former demon lord with him and is disguising as a student(she's his lover and she's not the only one)and is thinking of going back after creating the magic to do so, he thought it's a little bit early but surprised that he is transported back 500 years in the future. He now plans on guiding the whole school to survive in the background while hiding his powers, that mind you he doesn't really mind if discovered but it's easier for him if they don't know much about it( chaos will ensue if they think he can bring them home just because his op)
Characters: You can check the characters here but I'll mainly talk about MC Kaito Amane, the MC, normaly is a chill dude and level headed his your typical normal black haired mc the only difference is his been describe to be handsome instead of the usual loser mc has a circle of friends but is not one of those every body in school knows him type of popular. That is until he stops restricting his magic then he becomes brash and a little bit arrogant but not the douche type arrogant, just the confident one , he also is a battle maniac even if he doesn't want to admit it, and surprisingly this is actually his real personality the reason for him being so calm and collected type or quite type in his suppressed state is because mana is directly link to the psyche and suppressing it also suppresses his emotions or atleast lessen it.
Socially the guy know how to make friends, he hates slavers to his core (because of past experience) and think owning a slave is one of the worst thing a human can do(depending on how the slave state though , he understood that slaves can only survive as slave sometimes). On the Harem aspect of the story the guy is a chad , no rape (there's just that one time when schatach rape him because she's stronger that time), he don't engage sexual activities with minor(his older than he looks but there's a reason why he still go to highschool) and he does his best to givr time to each other harem mems(going on date and hanging out not just sex) and most of his relationships are actually just natural. Aside from that his a solid homie and us actually wingmans some other guy friends too.
The Story Story is freaking long, and slow burn fights Don't happened much but interactions are gold, when there's fights though it's actually epic and the power system is mwah frech kiss( I won't spoil this because this is one of the best parts although the different power systems are laid slowly). It has different PoVs and The MC don't just steam roll the problems and it make sense, the characters are very distinct to each other and have their own personalities. This WN have other guys not just the MC and not just MC harem and not everyone falls inlove with the mc. Something funny is that one classmate has his own unwanted harem and Kaito gets a feeling of comraderie( Kaito is not supposed to have a harem at first but the other worlds sense of value and sense of duty leads him to having one). Andy favorite part of the story os unveiling Kaitos past because every new thing we learned about Kaito new questions pops up. The story is also linked to earth which is cool. The PoV changes is one thing I enjoyed to here the PoVs are not meant to show the mcs opness (only sometimes) but to build the world to others eyes or just to show their daily life. The tone can change from a drop of a dime at one time it's fun and all and yhe next time you know theres death. The world itself is intriguing and the history for the 500 years that has beem skip is one of the biggest mystery in the story.
I think that's the point I caan think for now. I love it and the author is releasing regularly theres even a yime that he releases 3 chaps a day. It's a solid story that every isekai lover will love( I think ?)so give it a try.
submitted by minnel567 to Isekai [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 07:00 2soccer2bot Daily Discussion

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submitted by 2soccer2bot to soccer [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 06:52 tareekpetareek Brightcom is probably going to be delisted from the stock exchanges. A fun read from last year about some of its accounting shenanigans

Brightcom is probably going to be delisted from the stock exchanges. A fun read from last year about some of its accounting shenanigans
Original Source: https://boringmoney.in/p/brightcom-made-a-profit-by-hiding (my newsletter Boring Money. If you like what you read, do visit the link and subscribe to receive future posts directly in your inbox)

The standard way for a company to make a profit is to produce a thing at some cost, then sell that thing at a higher cost, and pocket the difference. Another, if slightly frowned upon, way of making a profit is to not worry too much about what your company is producing or selling. Instead, at the end of the quarter, you can pick up your financial statements, take a pen, put some nice numbers under “revenue” and erase the numbers under “expenses”. On paper, the company’s making a profit either way.
The risk, apart from running out of money, is that the company might get caught. This month, Brightcom Group, an ad-tech company, got caught. [1] Here’s a SEBI enforcement order describing the stuff Brightcom did, and one of the many things it did was to show profits which didn’t exist.
Some intangible assets are under development
If your company buys, say, a truck, the standard way to account for this expense in your books is by dividing the cost of the truck by the number of years you expect this truck to last, and then adding this number to your expenses every year. This is slightly weird because you do pay cash upfront for the truck. But still, it’s useful to not have to call it an expense just for the first year because it is an asset that lasts many, many years.
If you buy a truck, account for it the standard way I described above, but then the truck meets with an accident and gets trashed the next day? Then that’s it. You have to now account for the full expense of the truck in one go and can’t split it into chunks every year.
In short, as long as an asset is “alive,” you can split its expense into chunks and account for each chunk every year. If it’s “dead,” you have to account for it right away.
Modern accounting is surprisingly thoughtful and there’s a weird in-between “alive” and “dead” that it allows for. Instead of buying an asset, if you’re building it, your asset is in some sense neither dead nor alive. So you can just, umm, add nothing to your expenses until you figure if your asset is actually dead or alive.
Brightcom was spending a lot on salaries, marketing, and stuff, but it didn’t want to show these expenses. So it decided that it wasn’t “spending” but instead “investing” in building an asset. From SEBI’s order, here’s Brightcom’s CFO:
Brightcom was building software and this software would eventually be an intangible asset. But, until Brightcom could figure whether this asset would eventually be dead or alive, it didn’t count any of its expenses as expenses, instead put it under an “intangible assets under development” category. This way, the company could show a nice profit because all its expenses were apparently assets. In all, the company hid ₹863 crore ($100 million) and showed a profit of ₹440 crore ($50 million) in 2020. If its expenses had actually been counted as expenses, Brightcom would’ve shown a loss of ₹428 crore.
https://preview.redd.it/a2xn3xc5bb1d1.jpg?width=762&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8b9bfd5cd84b25807c6025ad9a26980abc57d2da
Asset’s dead but it’s not an expense
One problem with showing your expenses as an “asset under development” is that this asset can’t be under development forever. At some point, depending on if this asset is dead or alive, you have to account for your expenses in some way.
… Or not. If your company makes any money, you put those figures in your profit and loss statement. This is simple and straightforward. But accounting isn’t simple and straightforward. If your company makes money, but it’s not a result of your actual business, then you can’t put it under the P&L. Instead, you have to account for it under a separate subheading called “Other Comprehensive Income”.
The idea behind this new sub-head is that the company's P&L is supposed to reflect its actual ability to make money. If you hold a lot of dollars and the price of the dollar goes up (or down), your company didn’t really do anything to make that profit (or loss) so you’d put it under Other Comprehensive Income and not in your P&L. So stuff like this wouldn’t affect your profit, on paper at least. [2]
Yes, of course, Brightcom recognised the ₹863 crore loss that it had hidden under “intangible assets under development” by categorising it as Other Comprehensive Income. SEBI wasn’t excited about it.
Share this post so that Boring Money can move from “asset under development” to P&L
Sell your stake but keep quiet about it
If a company is doing well, its founders don’t usually sell stock. So if a founder sells some shares, they have to tell everyone about it by regulation, because it could be a sign that things aren’t well.
There are three entities that need to know if a founder sells stock:
  1. The company itself, via its registrar and transfer agent (RTA)
  2. Depositories that hold stock on behalf of investors
  3. Stock exchanges

1 and #2 are important, but they’re obvious. The company has to know if its founders sell stock, and so does the depository that actually moves the stock from one account to another. #3 is how the rest of the rest of the world gets to know. A founder sells some stock, files a disclosure in a stock exchange, the exchange updates its records and screams out that this has happened, and that’s how public investors know.

In March 2014, if you had asked Brightcom’s RTA, a depository, or a stock exchange about how much stake its founders owned, they would’ve all said, “about 40%”. If you asked them again in June 2022, the RTA and the depository would say “about 3.5%”, but the stock exchange would scratch its head and say “18.47%”.
That’s because Brightcom’s founders—primarily CEO Suresh Reddy, his friends and family—sold their stock but didn’t inform the stock exchanges. Here’s what they said when SEBI asked what’s up:
Man, I’m just some dumb guy writing about finance every once in a while, and even I know that if you pledge your shares as collateral to get a loan, you don’t transfer ownership. You just inform your depository and investors about it, and you still own the shares. Reddy & Friends transferred some of their shares to someone else (that is, sold them) and decided not to inform the stock exchanges. Then they used pledging as an excuse and everyone had different answers about how much stock they really owned.
How much money they make tho
When a company’s stock price shoots up in a short period of time, and there’s no concrete reason for it to happen, in all likelihood, it’s a scam. The management of the company may or may not be involved, but it definitely helps if they are.
Last month, I wrote about Sadhna, a company that SEBI charged with running a pump-and-dump. The founders owned a lot of shares, they spread some false news, the share price shot up, then happily sold their stock to naive investors, and made a profit. If you see Brightcom’s share price trajectory without knowing any of the company’s other shenanigans, it might seem a similar story. The stock price was around ₹3 in January 2021. By December, it was at ₹117. 40X in a year is definitely not normal.
In a pump-and-dump, it’s important for those running the fraud to own shares before the price goes up. The fraud that Reddy & Friends are accused of, which I described above, was of selling stock and hiding the fact that they sold it. By early 2021, they had in fact sold 80% of their shares and it’s only later that the share price started going up.
But wait, here’s more from SEBI:
In 2020 and 2021, Brightcom sold a large chunk (almost 15% stake) of shares to a group of investors. [3] Later, Suresh Reddy—who had been selling Brightcom shares all these years—became a partner at these entities that had just bought a large chunk of stock.
It’s all a bit confusing but here’s what I think happened. In late 2020 and early 2021, it had become apparent if you called yourself a tech company, investors would push your price up. The finer details didn’t matter. Brightcom, of course, happened to be an “ad-tech” company. So there was a decent chance that its share price would go up (or it could be made to go up, there are ways). But since Reddy & Friends had already sold nearly all of their shares, they needed to buy more shares so that they could sell them when the price went up. But they couldn’t buy them directly—because how would they justify selling shares so soon?—so they got some proxy investors to do so on their behalf.
As expected, the share price did go up. A lot. Around the same time, SEBI started investigating the company because of all the shady stuff it had done over the years. If the proxy investors were to sell this stock now, SEBI would definitely catch on, it was already investigating them! So instead of selling any shares at crazy high prices, Reddy instead came out with his association with those proxy investors so that the total founder ownership would go back up to the exact amount expected [4] by the public, that is, 18.47%.
It’s possible that Reddy & Friends made some profit but SEBI says it needs more information to be sure about just how much it would be. It would’ve been easier to know had they also run a pump-and-dump for good measure.
Footnotes
[1] Technically, Brightcom got caught earlier when SEBI actually started investigating. But it’s just this month that SEBI put a nice document out with whatever its investigation found.
[2] This “Other Comprehensive Income” should be a small number. If it’s a huge figure more than your actual profit, there’s usually something fishy happening.
[3] Brightcom didn’t directly sell shares to the group of investors. Instead, it issued warrants. What this meant was that the investors had the right, but not the obligation, to buy shares from the company at a fixed price at a later date. This was a good way for these investors (who are now part of the founder group) to not risk too much money buying shares in case the price went down.
[4] Reminder, the reason that the public expected the founder group to own 18.47% was that they hadn’t informed the stock exchanges when they had reduced their stake.
Original Source: https://boringmoney.in/p/brightcom-made-a-profit-by-hiding
submitted by tareekpetareek to IndianStreetBets [link] [comments]


2024.05.19 06:52 tareekpetareek Brightcom is probably going to be delisted from the stock exchanges. A fun read from last year about some of its accounting shenanigans

Original Source: https://boringmoney.in/p/brightcom-made-a-profit-by-hiding (my newsletter Boring Money. If you like what you read, do visit the link and subscribe to receive future posts directly in your inbox)

The standard way for a company to make a profit is to produce a thing at some cost, then sell that thing at a higher cost, and pocket the difference. Another, if slightly frowned upon, way of making a profit is to not worry too much about what your company is producing or selling. Instead, at the end of the quarter, you can pick up your financial statements, take a pen, put some nice numbers under “revenue” and erase the numbers under “expenses”. On paper, the company’s making a profit either way.
The risk, apart from running out of money, is that the company might get caught. This month, Brightcom Group, an ad-tech company, got caught. [1] Here’s a SEBI enforcement order describing the stuff Brightcom did, and one of the many things it did was to show profits which didn’t exist.
Some intangible assets are under development
If your company buys, say, a truck, the standard way to account for this expense in your books is by dividing the cost of the truck by the number of years you expect this truck to last, and then adding this number to your expenses every year. This is slightly weird because you do pay cash upfront for the truck. But still, it’s useful to not have to call it an expense just for the first year because it is an asset that lasts many, many years.
If you buy a truck, account for it the standard way I described above, but then the truck meets with an accident and gets trashed the next day? Then that’s it. You have to now account for the full expense of the truck in one go and can’t split it into chunks every year.
In short, as long as an asset is “alive,” you can split its expense into chunks and account for each chunk every year. If it’s “dead,” you have to account for it right away.
Modern accounting is surprisingly thoughtful and there’s a weird in-between “alive” and “dead” that it allows for. Instead of buying an asset, if you’re building it, your asset is in some sense neither dead nor alive. So you can just, umm, add nothing to your expenses until you figure if your asset is actually dead or alive.
Brightcom was spending a lot on salaries, marketing, and stuff, but it didn’t want to show these expenses. So it decided that it wasn’t “spending” but instead “investing” in building an asset. From SEBI’s order, here’s Brightcom’s CFO:
Brightcom was building software and this software would eventually be an intangible asset. But, until Brightcom could figure whether this asset would eventually be dead or alive, it didn’t count any of its expenses as expenses, instead put it under an “intangible assets under development” category. This way, the company could show a nice profit because all its expenses were apparently assets. In all, the company hid ₹863 crore ($100 million) and showed a profit of ₹440 crore ($50 million) in 2020. If its expenses had actually been counted as expenses, Brightcom would’ve shown a loss of ₹428 crore.
https://preview.redd.it/a2xn3xc5bb1d1.jpg?width=762&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8b9bfd5cd84b25807c6025ad9a26980abc57d2da
Asset’s dead but it’s not an expense
One problem with showing your expenses as an “asset under development” is that this asset can’t be under development forever. At some point, depending on if this asset is dead or alive, you have to account for your expenses in some way.
… Or not. If your company makes any money, you put those figures in your profit and loss statement. This is simple and straightforward. But accounting isn’t simple and straightforward. If your company makes money, but it’s not a result of your actual business, then you can’t put it under the P&L. Instead, you have to account for it under a separate subheading called “Other Comprehensive Income”.
The idea behind this new sub-head is that the company's P&L is supposed to reflect its actual ability to make money. If you hold a lot of dollars and the price of the dollar goes up (or down), your company didn’t really do anything to make that profit (or loss) so you’d put it under Other Comprehensive Income and not in your P&L. So stuff like this wouldn’t affect your profit, on paper at least. [2]
Yes, of course, Brightcom recognised the ₹863 crore loss that it had hidden under “intangible assets under development” by categorising it as Other Comprehensive Income. SEBI wasn’t excited about it.
Share this post so that Boring Money can move from “asset under development” to P&L
Sell your stake but keep quiet about it
If a company is doing well, its founders don’t usually sell stock. So if a founder sells some shares, they have to tell everyone about it by regulation, because it could be a sign that things aren’t well.
There are three entities that need to know if a founder sells stock:
  1. The company itself, via its registrar and transfer agent (RTA)
  2. Depositories that hold stock on behalf of investors
  3. Stock exchanges

1 and #2 are important, but they’re obvious. The company has to know if its founders sell stock, and so does the depository that actually moves the stock from one account to another. #3 is how the rest of the rest of the world gets to know. A founder sells some stock, files a disclosure in a stock exchange, the exchange updates its records and screams out that this has happened, and that’s how public investors know.

In March 2014, if you had asked Brightcom’s RTA, a depository, or a stock exchange about how much stake its founders owned, they would’ve all said, “about 40%”. If you asked them again in June 2022, the RTA and the depository would say “about 3.5%”, but the stock exchange would scratch its head and say “18.47%”.
That’s because Brightcom’s founders—primarily CEO Suresh Reddy, his friends and family—sold their stock but didn’t inform the stock exchanges. Here’s what they said when SEBI asked what’s up:
Man, I’m just some dumb guy writing about finance every once in a while, and even I know that if you pledge your shares as collateral to get a loan, you don’t transfer ownership. You just inform your depository and investors about it, and you still own the shares. Reddy & Friends transferred some of their shares to someone else (that is, sold them) and decided not to inform the stock exchanges. Then they used pledging as an excuse and everyone had different answers about how much stock they really owned.
How much money they make tho
When a company’s stock price shoots up in a short period of time, and there’s no concrete reason for it to happen, in all likelihood, it’s a scam. The management of the company may or may not be involved, but it definitely helps if they are.
Last month, I wrote about Sadhna, a company that SEBI charged with running a pump-and-dump. The founders owned a lot of shares, they spread some false news, the share price shot up, then happily sold their stock to naive investors, and made a profit. If you see Brightcom’s share price trajectory without knowing any of the company’s other shenanigans, it might seem a similar story. The stock price was around ₹3 in January 2021. By December, it was at ₹117. 40X in a year is definitely not normal.
In a pump-and-dump, it’s important for those running the fraud to own shares before the price goes up. The fraud that Reddy & Friends are accused of, which I described above, was of selling stock and hiding the fact that they sold it. By early 2021, they had in fact sold 80% of their shares and it’s only later that the share price started going up.
But wait, here’s more from SEBI:
In 2020 and 2021, Brightcom sold a large chunk (almost 15% stake) of shares to a group of investors. [3] Later, Suresh Reddy—who had been selling Brightcom shares all these years—became a partner at these entities that had just bought a large chunk of stock.
It’s all a bit confusing but here’s what I think happened. In late 2020 and early 2021, it had become apparent if you called yourself a tech company, investors would push your price up. The finer details didn’t matter. Brightcom, of course, happened to be an “ad-tech” company. So there was a decent chance that its share price would go up (or it could be made to go up, there are ways). But since Reddy & Friends had already sold nearly all of their shares, they needed to buy more shares so that they could sell them when the price went up. But they couldn’t buy them directly—because how would they justify selling shares so soon?—so they got some proxy investors to do so on their behalf.
As expected, the share price did go up. A lot. Around the same time, SEBI started investigating the company because of all the shady stuff it had done over the years. If the proxy investors were to sell this stock now, SEBI would definitely catch on, it was already investigating them! So instead of selling any shares at crazy high prices, Reddy instead came out with his association with those proxy investors so that the total founder ownership would go back up to the exact amount expected [4] by the public, that is, 18.47%.
It’s possible that Reddy & Friends made some profit but SEBI says it needs more information to be sure about just how much it would be. It would’ve been easier to know had they also run a pump-and-dump for good measure.
Footnotes
[1] Technically, Brightcom got caught earlier when SEBI actually started investigating. But it’s just this month that SEBI put a nice document out with whatever its investigation found.
[2] This “Other Comprehensive Income” should be a small number. If it’s a huge figure more than your actual profit, there’s usually something fishy happening.
[3] Brightcom didn’t directly sell shares to the group of investors. Instead, it issued warrants. What this meant was that the investors had the right, but not the obligation, to buy shares from the company at a fixed price at a later date. This was a good way for these investors (who are now part of the founder group) to not risk too much money buying shares in case the price went down.
[4] Reminder, the reason that the public expected the founder group to own 18.47% was that they hadn’t informed the stock exchanges when they had reduced their stake.
Original Source: https://boringmoney.in/p/brightcom-made-a-profit-by-hiding
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