THE BASICS

Q. I've listened to today's album but why I can't rate it?
A. That's by design. You won't be able to submit your review and star rating until the next day's album is generated, around approximately 3AM GMT.
Q. Can I have more than one album per day generated?
A. No, the site was designed to be one per day. Some users have created a second or third project in order to have more than one a day.
Q. Who decided I needed to hear this album? Who created this list? Was this a user-submitted album?
A. The first 1089 albums you'll hear are taken from the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. The list was compiled by Robert Dimery, along with a team of music critics.
The user-submitted albums are optional (to submit and to listen to) only once you've finished the original 1089.
Q. 1089 albums... huh? I thought it was 1001?
A. There have been several editions of the book. Each time, some albums are removed in favour of newer albums. The generator includes any album as long as it was in at least one edition of the book. As of 2024, this is 1089 albums total.
Q. What happens if I don't visit the website for awhile?
A. Your account will pause automatically if you don't visit the site or rate an album for 5 days in a row. However, pressing the "Did Not Listen" button counts as activity, and your account will stay active.
You can also pause and unpause your account whenever you want from the Info tab in the menu.
Q. What happens if I push "Did Not Listen"? Will the album get generated for me later or is it lost forever?
A. Neither, it will be listed on your History page, where you can rate it any time.
Additionally, once you select "Did Not Listen," the next album will be generated.
Q. If I've already listened to some of the albums beforehand, can I mark them as complete so they won't be generated for me?
A. No, unfortunately there is no way to do that.
Q. Where can I see the entire list of albums?
A. The best way would be to support the book's creators and purchase a physical copy of the book. You can also visit this unofficial site but it hasn't been updated for the most recent edition of the book. This List Challenges quiz is currently the most up-to-date list online.
If you don't mind looking at some code, the generator's site map shows the full list as well.

CHANGES AND EDITS

Q. Can I change a rating or edit my review?
A. Not on your own on the site. DM with your project name and the rating you'd like changed.
Q. How can I shut off weekend albums?
A. DM your project name and ask him to do this.
Q. I originally decided to exclude a certain genre of music but I've changed my mind! How can I get it back?
A. DM your project name and ask him to do this.
Q. How can I show people my project?
A. Use the URL in your address bar after navigating to the Summary page from the main menu. It's advised not to give out the URL with your actual project name, as anyone will be able to go in and add reviews to anything you haven't rated yet, or delete any draft reviews you have.
Q. How can I reinstall the web app?
A. If you go to the browser's menu there is usually something like "Download" or "Install app." It's a Progressive Web App (PWA), so if you can't find it, Google "how to install pwa on [your browser]."

GROUPS

Q. How does it work going from an individual project to group?
A. If you are the creator of the group and your project already had more than 5 albums generated, there is a checkbox whether you want to include those albums in the group history or not.
By default this is not checked. This means that your group will "start over" and get all albums generated again. You'll get duplicates and you can rate them again. Your individual project history will have some albums twice, but the group page will only have them once.
If you did click that checkbox, then those albums will appear in the group history page. Those who join the group will then get an option to earn them into their history and catch up. You won't get any duplicates and the group will never get them generated.
Basically no matter how you created it, your family members won't miss out on any! It's just a matter of whether they have to catch up via a backlog or if you all want to listen to all albums as a group.
Q. How can I turn on weekend albums in my group?
A. DM your project name and ask him to do this.
Q. I'm in a group but can't rate the albums from the group page?
A. Correct, you rate albums from your own page. The group page is just for showing your groups stats (rating for each album, favourite genre, etc).

OTHER

Q. The streaming link was to an extended edition. Should I listen to the extra material?
A. Stick to the original unless you're in the mood for some extra stuff. Feel free to report it here and u/SidledsGunnar will change the link so it goes to the original version.
Q. What is the Controversial Artists section on my page all about?
A. These are artists whose albums you rated very differently. For example, if you loved Hunky Dory but hated Ziggy Stardust, David Bowie will show up as one of your controversial artists.
Q. What if I can't find an album to listen to it?
A. YouTube often has music missing from other streaming platforms. Otherwise, it's up to you. You can leave it unrated on your history page, or you can rate it and note you couldn't find it. So far, every single album has been tracked down by other users, though.
Q. Is there an API?
A. Yep, it's pretty basic, though. See it here.
Q. Who made this generator and how can I support it?
A. Reddit user u/SidledsGunnar created this and runs it on his own. If you'd like to contribute to help keep the site running, you have a few options: Patreon / Paypal / Ko-Fi / Bitcoin Wallet number: 3KVcBJpB2K1WcG5qu9rae822SxfgbQoPc8
You can also support u/SidledsGunnar by purchasing albums from the Rough Trade links on the site as he gets a small commission from each sale.

Does anyone have recommendation on textbooks for I/O drivers cell design? Mainly for digital single-ended drivers. Anything that covers transistor sizing, ESD, and layout would be good. In particular, I'm looking to develop flip-chip I/O driver IP for a new PDK.
Weste & Harris has maybe a couple pages on it, but it's not to the level of detail I'm looking for, and also the example isn't flip-chip.
Basic ESD and I/O Design by Dabral and Maloney has come up in searches, but I'm worried that a 25-year-old book is probably out of date (we are looking at a finFET process).

I JUST saw this question asked but now I’m not seeing it and there wasn’t an answer at that time. so sorry for a repost :)
Qatar partner search returns tons of availability - but because I don’t have the avios in the account, i only get a brief flash of the checkout page before telling me i don’t have enough.
For example CX Biz SFO —HKG on 6/15 shows in qatar as available and like i COULD check out if I had the avios, but it is NOT available directly through Cathay.
Does anyone have any clarity on this? (or happen to see ANY availability ANYWHERE from SFO to basically anywhere in asia on 6/15 or 6/16..? ideally with avios as they are orphaned at BA but any C1 or Amex partner will do…)
Thank you so much - this is such an amazing community.

Number 41:

1. Creative Authority: Signifies creative leadership, authority, and innovative thinking.
2. The Ace of Wands (in some decks): Tarot card representing new opportunities, inspiration, and potential.
3. Inspired Beginnings: Reflects new creative ventures, potential, and enthusiasm.
4. Entrepreneurial Spirit: Symbolizes ambition, creative ideas, and taking initiative.
5. Creative Leadership: Embodies innovative thinking, initiative, and leading by example.

Number 42:

1. Nurturing Stability: Signifies a secure foundation, family stability, and providing comfort.
2. The Two of Pentacles (in some decks): Tarot card embodying balance, juggling priorities, and adaptability.
3. Balancing Priorities: Reflects managing responsibilities, juggling tasks, and adaptability.
4. Financial Stability: Symbolizes stability in finances, balancing resources, and adaptability.
5. Adaptable Support: Embodies support in various areas, flexibility, and resource management.

Number 43:

1. Innovative Communication: Signifies creative expression, communication skills, and original ideas.
2. The Three of Swords (in some decks): Tarot card representing heartache, sorrow, and emotional pain.
3. Emotional Turmoil: Reflects heartbreak, sorrow, and dealing with emotional pain.
4. Healing Communication: Symbolizes communication to mend, seeking resolution, and emotional recovery.
5. Emotional Expression: Embodies expressing emotions, healing through words, and seeking closure.

Number 44:

1. Foundational Stability: Signifies a solid foundation, stability, and practicality in endeavors.
2. The Four of Swords (in some decks): Tarot card embodying rest, contemplation, and recuperation.
3. Rest and Recuperation: Reflects taking a break, rejuvenation, and recuperating energy.
4. Mental Peace: Symbolizes mental tranquility, contemplation, and inner peace.
5. Stable Mindset: Embodies a calm approach, stability, and peaceful contemplation.

Number 45:

1. Creative Solutions: Signifies creativity, resourcefulness, and finding innovative solutions.
2. The Five of Wands (in some decks): Tarot card representing competition, conflict, and struggles.
3. Competitive Energy: Reflects competitive situations, conflicts, and differing opinions.
4. Resolving Conflicts: Symbolizes finding solutions, overcoming challenges, and conflict resolution.
5. Adapting to Challenges: Embodies facing challenges, seeking solutions, and adapting strategies.

Number 46:

1. Balanced Partnerships: Signifies balanced relationships, cooperation, and partnership harmony.
2. The Six of Pentacles (in some decks): Tarot card embodying generosity, sharing wealth, and giving back.
3. Generous Assistance: Reflects giving and receiving, philanthropy, and sharing resources.
4. Balanced Exchange: Symbolizes fairness in transactions, charitable acts, and reciprocity.
5. Harmonious Cooperation: Embodies teamwork, mutual support, and cooperation.

Number 47:

1. Intellectual Curiosity: Signifies intellectual pursuits, curiosity, and seeking knowledge.
2. The Seven of Cups (in some decks): Tarot card representing illusion, choices, and imagination.
3. Multiple Options: Reflects diverse choices, illusions, and being lost in fantasies.
4. Clarity through Choices: Symbolizes making decisions, clarity amidst confusion, and focused imagination.
5. Imagination and Choice: Embodies imaginative thinking, exploring options, and making decisions.

Number 48:

1. Stable Foundations: Signifies stability, discipline, and building a strong base.
2. The Eight of Swords (in some decks): Tarot card embodying restriction, feeling trapped, and limited options.
3. Self-imposed Limitations: Reflects feeling restricted, limiting beliefs, and self-imposed barriers.
4. Breaking Free: Symbolizes breaking barriers, finding solutions, and liberating oneself.
5. Release from Restraints: Embodies overcoming obstacles, seeking solutions, and freeing oneself.

Number 49:

1. Compassionate Visionary: Signifies compassionate leadership, humanitarian efforts, and foresight.
2. The Nine of Wands (in some decks): Tarot card representing resilience, strength, and endurance.
3. Endurance and Strength: Reflects resilience, determination, and standing strong against challenges.
4. Guarded Perseverance: Symbolizes protection, preparedness, and standing your ground.
5. Protective Vision: Embodies safeguarding, perseverance, and defending beliefs.

Number 50:

1. Innovative Solutions: Signifies original ideas, creativity, and problem-solving abilities.
2. The Ten of Swords (in some decks): Tarot card embodying endings, betrayal, and painful conclusions.
3. Closure and Endings: Reflects painful endings, betrayal, and reaching rock bottom.
4. New Beginnings: Symbolizes closure, new opportunities, and embracing change.
5. Transformation after Pain: Embodies recovery, acceptance, and moving forward.

Number 51:

1. Elevated Vision: Signifies higher knowledge, spiritual insight, and wisdom.
2. The Page of Cups (in some decks): Tarot card representing creative ideas, intuition, and emotional exploration.
3. Exploration of Emotions: Reflects curiosity, emotional depth, and imaginative ideas.
4. Creative Intuition: Symbolizes intuitive insights, emotional creativity, and exploring feelings.
5. Emotional Discovery: Embodies emotional exploration, creative inspiration, and imaginative expression.

Number 52:

1. Balanced Exploration: Signifies exploration, adaptability, and seeking equilibrium.
2. The Knight of Swords (in some decks): Tarot card embodying action, ambition, and determination.
3. Determined Pursuit: Reflects ambitious actions, decisiveness, and swift movements.
4. Assertive Communication: Symbolizes directness, clarity in communication, and assertive approach.
5. Active Adaptation: Embodies quick thinking, adaptability, and focused determination.

Number 53:

1. Harmonious Growth: Signifies growth, expansion, and creating a harmonious environment.
2. The Queen of Swords (in some decks): Tarot card symbolizing clear communication, independence, and intellectual maturity.
3. Clear Communication: Reflects assertive expression, independence, and intellectual wisdom.
4. Intellectual Clarity: Symbolizes mental strength, strategic thinking, and independence in thought.
5. Balanced Judgment: Embodies fairness, intellectual maturity, and clear-sightedness.

Number 54:

1. Stable Foundations: Signifies stability, discipline, and building a solid base.
2. The King of Wands (in some decks): Tarot card representing leadership, vision, and entrepreneurial spirit.
3. Visionary Leadership: Reflects influential leadership, boldness, and entrepreneurial pursuits.
4. Creative Authority: Symbolizes innovative thinking,

Hi everyone. This is my first Reddit post, so please pardon if I am using some wrong format.
I want to learn about Fine Tuning LLMs such as LLama-2, Gemma models, Llama-3. I have read plenty of medium articles and have been exposed to plenty of new topics such as LoRA, QLoRA, PEFT, etc. I have tried my best to understand them. But while implementing the code by following along the medium articles, I sometimes come across numerous parameters that are initialized without explanation which is overwhelming sometimes. I have also been exposed to Unsloth. I want to know where can I begin from. Should I begin with understanding how to fine-tune small models such as BERT, T5, etc using PyTorch and Transformers library? If you would like to provide some roadmap it would be really helpful. Thank you for your time.
I am attaching an example of the code I struggled to understand. How does one know which parameters are supposed to be used and which not?

model_name = "NousResearch/Llama-2-7b-chat-hf" dataset_name = "mlabonne/guanaco-llama2-1k" new_model = "Llama-2-7b-chat-finetune" # QLoRA parameters lora_r = 64 lora_alpha = 16 lora_dropout = 0.1 #bitsandbytes parameters #activate 4-bit precision base model loading use_4bit = True #compute dtype for 4-bit base models bnb_4bit_compute_dtype = "float16" #quantization type fp4 or nf4 bnb_4bit_quant_type = "nf4" #activate nested quantization for 4 bit base models use_nested_quant = False #training parameters #output dir output_dir = "./results" #no. of training epochs num_train_epochs = 1 fp16 = False bf16 = False per_device_train_batch_size = 4 per_device_eval_batch_size = 4 gradient_accumulation_steps = 1 gradient_checkpointing = True max_grad_norm = 0.3 learning_rate = 2e-4 weight_decay = 0.001 optim = "paged_adamw_32bit" lr_scheduler_type = "cosine" max_steps = -1 warmup_ratio = 0.03 group_by_length = True save_steps = 0 logging_steps = 25 # SFT Parameters # Maximum sequence length to use max_seq_length = None # Pack multiple short examples in the same input sequence to increase efficiency packing = False # Load the entire model on the GPU 0 device_map = {"": 0} # Load dataset (you can process it here) dataset = load_dataset(dataset_name, split="train") # Load tokenizer and model with QLoRA configuration compute_dtype = getattr(torch, bnb_4bit_compute_dtype) bnb_config = BitsAndBytesConfig( load_in_4bit=use_4bit, bnb_4bit_quant_type=bnb_4bit_quant_type, bnb_4bit_compute_dtype=compute_dtype, bnb_4bit_use_double_quant=use_nested_quant, ) # Check GPU compatibility with bfloat16 if compute_dtype == torch.float16 and use_4bit: major, _ = torch.cuda.get_device_capability() if major >= 8: print("=" * 80) print("Your GPU supports bfloat16: accelerate training with bf16=True") print("=" * 80) # Load base model model = AutoModelForCausalLM.from_pretrained( model_name, quantization_config=bnb_config, device_map=device_map ) model.config.use_cache = False model.config.pretraining_tp = 1 # Load LLaMA tokenizer tokenizer = AutoTokenizer.from_pretrained(model_name, trust_remote_code=True) tokenizer.pad_token = tokenizer.eos_token tokenizer.padding_side = "right" # Fix weird overflow issue with fp16 training # Load LoRA configuration peft_config = LoraConfig( lora_alpha=lora_alpha, lora_dropout=lora_dropout, r=lora_r, bias="none", task_type="CAUSAL_LM", ) # Set training parameters training_arguments = TrainingArguments( output_dir=output_dir, num_train_epochs=num_train_epochs, per_device_train_batch_size=per_device_train_batch_size, gradient_accumulation_steps=gradient_accumulation_steps, optim=optim, save_steps=save_steps, logging_steps=logging_steps, learning_rate=learning_rate, weight_decay=weight_decay, fp16=fp16, bf16=bf16, max_grad_norm=max_grad_norm, max_steps=max_steps, warmup_ratio=warmup_ratio, group_by_length=group_by_length, lr_scheduler_type=lr_scheduler_type, report_to="tensorboard" ) # Set supervised fine-tuning parameters trainer = SFTTrainer( model=model, train_dataset=dataset, peft_config=peft_config, dataset_text_field="text", max_seq_length=max_seq_length, tokenizer=tokenizer, args=training_arguments, packing=packing, ) # Train model trainer.train() 

I have a client na 1month makeover sa IG. So while discovery call, nakiusap sya na isali ko paggawa ng website. Simple lang naman sya, just a landing page. She bought the website builder sa domain dot com and it's just drag and drop. She already bought that even before pa kami nagdiscovery call. Pjnagawa nya sa kakilala pero di natapos kaya sa akin pinagawa (with additional payment sa akin)
The problem kasi eh halos linggo2x gusto nya ng meeting, umaabot ng 3hours. Parang nagiging business coach na ako. Even the decision kung gagamit ba ng calendly, paano magbo-book yung students nya ako pa magdedecide. I told her before na pwede namin ilagay sa website nya lahat ng way to book - in person, via Calendly, telephone etc. Then she'd ask paano daw magbabayad. Sabi ko may paypal, bank transfer, digital wallets. Sumasakit na ulo ko kasi I keep changing the info din sa website. How do I tell her gently na di na dapat yun kasali sa service ko? Supposedly dapat alam na nya ang system nya, then I'll just help her setup. At first, I'll try to help her kaso pabago-bago ng isip. I think she's in an online program kaso advanced yung program that she'll need a VA to maintain it kaso wala syang budget for retainer.
Sabi ko if she wants after the contract namin, she can pay me hourly, yung need lang ipapagawa para di masakit sa bulsa. Then she offered mag-exchange daw kami ng service. Example, 1hour yoga in exchange of my service. Sabi ko di pwede. 🙄 $15/hr rate ko, sya naman $70/yoga session so lugi ako kasi for 1hour yoga, 3hrs service ko na haha. Anyways, hinging advice + rant ko na din tong post.

Hello! I just bought a fireTV stick and I've been setting it up on my TV.
I created different profiles for me, my sister which is still a kid, and my parents, so that we can all watch our own things and not mix our algorithms.
My plan was to go to each profile and then access apps like YouTube with the different emails each of us already has on our phones and for my sister I was actually trying to make her profile as a 'Kids' one.
However, after making the profiles on the FireTv, I realized we all shared the same profiles in those apps, for example from my parents' YT profile I can see my own page with my email, and even though I can add different emails, everyone can still see what the others are watching.
And for my sister, even though I failed to put Parental Control on only her FireTv profile, I at least wanted to limit her access to some apps, and make a Kids profile on Youtube, Netflix etc, but again, even if I create them, she can still just change the profile on YouTube and see my page or my parents'.
I am sorry for my messy explanation, I hope it makes sense somehow, but please tell this can be fixed, or else what is the point of creating different profiles??

Hello guys! I have a question about the time, turns and rounds. The last two are clear, they are used in fights, and are time range from few seconds to a minute. But what about the time outside of fights? For example players are trapped inside the radioactive storm. So they take two dices of rad damage every turn. But the turns „don’t exist” right now. How am I supposed to know how much damage I should give them? Same thing with poisons etc. If the explanation is in the rule book, give me the page please. Thanks y’all.

When I released web-view 6 months ago, I said I was "weeks" away from releasing a framework for interactive web apps built on top of it. Well it's been 26 weeks, and it's finally ready!
Hyperbole makes it easy to create fully interactive HTML applications with type-safe serverside Haskell. It's inspired by HTMX, Elm, and Phoenix LiveView

• Hackage
• Github

Motivation
I've been a web developer since before "Ajax". I rode the wave of Single Page Applications (SPAs) and loved how interactive we could make things. I've written fancy apps in React and Elm. But ultimately SPAs mean writing two applications, a Javascript client and a server, plus an API between them. They're a huge pain to write and maintain. I missed serverside web apps.
Instead of an SPA, Hyperbole allows us instead to write a single Haskell program which runs exclusively on the server. All user interactions are sent to the server for processing, and a sub-section of the page is updated with the resulting HTML.
There are frameworks that support this in different ways, including HTMX, Phoenix LiveView, and others. Hyperbole has the following advantages

1. 100% Haskell
2. Type safe views, actions, routes, and forms
3. Elegant interface with little boilerplate
4. VirtualDOM updates over sockets, fallback to HTTP
5. Easy to use

Like HTMX, Hyperbole extends the capability of UI elements, but it uses Haskell's type-system to prevent common errors and provide default functionality. Specifically, a page has multiple update targets called HyperViews. These are automatically targeted by any UI element that triggers an action inside them. The compiler makes sure that actions and targets match.
Like Phoenix LiveView, it upgrades the page to a WebSocket connection and uses VirtualDOM for live updates
Like Elm, it relies on an update function to handle actions, but greatly simplifies the Elm Architecture by handling state with extensible effects. forms are easy to use with minimal boilerplate
Depends heavily on the following frameworks

• Effectful
• Web View

Simple Example

{-# LANGUAGE DeriveAnyClass #-} {-# LANGUAGE OverloadedStrings #-} {-# LANGUAGE TypeFamilies #-} import Web.Hyperbole main = do run 3000 $ do liveApp (basicDocument "Example") (page mainPage) mainPage = do handle message load $ do pure $ do el bold "My Page" hyper (Message 1) $ messageView "Hello" hyper (Message 2) $ messageView "World!" data Message = Message Int deriving (Generic, Param) data MessageAction = Louder Text deriving (Generic, Param) instance HyperView Message where type Action Message = MessageAction message :: Message -> MessageAction -> Eff es (View Message ()) message _ (Louder m) = do let new = m <> "!" pure $ messageView new messageView :: Text -> View Message () messageView m = do el_ $ text m button (Louder m) id "Louder" 

Learn More
Hackage has a better intro and good docs
Examples demonstrating different features
Feedback
Any questions and comments appreciated! Please let me know if anything isn't clear from the docs.

To the Board of Directors, Advisory Board, and Instructors at the Global Center for Religious Research:
When I first came across an advertisement for the Global Center for Religious Research’s courses, I got excited, especially because the instructors weren’t all old white guys like me. I wanted to get a broad range of experiences. I intended not only to sign up for the courses, but to see whether or not I might be able to offer courses through GCRR in the future. I pictured a future in which I would have a whole new set of colleagues who, like me, treat clients who have experienced religious trauma.
Before buying anything, I decided to join the “Religious Trauma Studies” Facebook group that GCRR is running. It took me less than an hour to become very concerned about the behavior of GCRR and its leader, Darren Slade.
While GCRR’s advertisements give the impression of professionalism and research, Slade himself is traumatizing and even harassing his/your own customers. Do you not see it? Best case scenario: he’ll keep embarrassing you. Worst case scenario: someone (especially if you ever have employees) is going to sue you. If he publicly treats his customers with this much contempt, how will he treat his employees, if he ever gets this business off the ground?
To illustrate, I am attaching several documents printed (customer names redacted) from the GCRR’s “Religious Trauma Studies” Facebook group. It’s messy, but you can go look up the Facebook group and find the originals.

• In his comments, Darren Slade keeps referring to “We”, as in “here’s how we do things around here”. He has a lot of people listed on his website as his “International Advisory Board” and as instructors of his courses. Did you all get together and advise him to be this condescending and hostile to your own customers? Do you want him to talk to women with this much contempt?
• He expresses pride several times about the fact that this group is “not a safe space”. IN A GROUP ABOUT TRAUMA??!
• Maybe you think this is fine, because everyone is offensive on the Internet? But if "the boss" at any company in America tacked any one of these memes or notes to an office bulletin board, each one would be an instant, valid complaint to the Human Resources department. And Darren Slade’s replies to the complaints would warrant another complaint. When his/your customers complain on Facebook, he rolls his eyes and tells them that he’s not responsible for their “triggers”. If he talks to his customers this way, how will he talk to his subordinates in the future? Especially young women subordinates? Do you see him expressing any respect here, for anyone, especially if they don’t agree with him?
• He refers to himself and the entire GCRR repeatedly as “inappropriate”, “unprofessional” “offensive”, and even “creepy”, and he says "we" like it that way. Do you like being represented that way? Are you part of this, or is this guy a runaway ego train?
• Some of you are trained as therapists. I'm a retired psychologist. You know that the following behaviors are cause for concern in anyone who is promoting himself as the leader of any kind of group. You'll find several examples of each of these circled in the attached document:
  • Slade sees himself as both the hero and the victim in every story he tells. He talks a lot about the death threats he has supposedly receives.
  • Regularly expresses condescension, contempt, and hostility toward his own customers, especially women. If a woman points out that he's being sexist, he claims that she is being sexist against him.
  • Constantly talks about his Ph.D. Most of my colleagues put “PhD” after their names and leave it at that… but this guy? This guy needs to mention his PhD at least a couple times a week.
  • Makes sexually demeaning/harassing comments to women if they disagree with him (see the “Google Complaint” document), tries to get the whole community to join him in this, and then gets even more condescending and contemptuous if a woman customer complains. He sees accusations of sexism against him as being unfair accusations leveled at him “because he identifies as ‘male’”
  • When people try to help him not be a jackass, he just turns up the hostility and tells them to leave if they don't like it.
  • Repeatedly fails to show empathy, especially with anyone who disagrees with him.
  • Presents a professional face to the world (GCRR ads), but behind closed doors is abusive and inflammatory.

If you’re a therapist, do you not see how much credibility you lose by associating yourself with an organization that mocks your own therapy clients for being triggered and having feelings? And Slade's approach isn't just annoying or unprofessional, it’s aggressive. Surely you can see what I’m talking about? Why are you supporting this guy?
At one point in the attached document (while accusing a woman of being sexist against him for saying he's being sexist), Slade even claims that men are constantly discriminated against just for speaking, and that "oppression and marginalization cut both ways". (About 1/3 of the way down page 3). You are all experts in religious trauma, and I first became interested in GCRR's courses because I saw some women and people of color among the instructors and advisors. Do you, as a group, actually believe that "oppression and marginalization cuts both ways"? Do you believe that racism, sexism, and homophobia oppress and marginalize straight white men just as much as people of color, women, and LGBT people? If so, I'll be warning people away from your whole organization.
Our job is to help people put an end to this kind of abuse, not to perpetuate it. Our job is to help people to recover from their traumas, not inflict more trauma, and certainly not to belittle them for speaking up.
If I had gotten involved without checking out how Slade treats his customers, I'd be embarrassed now, so I'm taking the time to give you the professional heads-up that I would want were I in your shoes.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/128aqrYsIlbCBLcWfAiYu6JdaDeZ_1Ouo/view?usp=sharing

Welcome prospective citizen of the stars!

Use my code STAR-F3V9-NVLK when signing up (or click this link: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/enlist?referral=STAR-F3V9-NVLK ) to nab an extra 5,000 of the game's currency UEC when the game is eventually finished (as well as after wipes, like the most recent one which happened for 3.18). Note that you cannot add a code after creating your account!
Bonus? What bonus?!
The bonus stuff happens once you have spent at least USD40 in the pledge store; for example, in case there is a referral bonus going on when you go past that USD40 spend, using my code here would also let you get in on that if you pass that threshold during that period. Doing it any other time will still land you that 5,000 UEC, but it's usually a neat bonus and it'd be a shame to miss out on it :)
The most recent bonus ended on the 2nd of May, so there may well be a bit of a wait until the next one. There is usually one during the two large events each year, including Invictus, however since the most recent one was, well, so recent, there is not one for Invictus this year. You can always create an account with my code, and give me a poke here to send you a note when it's on (i do this for free-fly events as well, read on for that).
Free Fly Time
But! Don't spend until you're ready. Invictus Launch Week (or fortnight as it happens) is currently happening, which means the game is fully and entirely free to try out until the 29th of May. The full details are over on the ILW mini site, but the short of the long is: If you are wanting to try out the game, always do that first, before paying. It also shows the game at its roughest (because of the influx of new people), so if you can deal with how the game runs then, you'll be ok when it runs better. Importantly, until you're pretty sure you want to get in, don't spend.
To try out the game (why you're here), all you need to do is sign up for an account, and then download the client, log in, download the game itself, and then launch it. No codes or anything, just that. Click here to use my code https://robertsspaceindustries.com/enlist?referral=STAR-F3V9-NVLK and then just follow the instructions on the site to get the client, and don't sleep on the little helpful things in the client - while the game is downloading, check out the guides and such there, perhaps even find youself an actual guide, which is other players who are volunteering to show new people around.
Invictus Launch Week is a now two week long celebration of all the military focused ships in the game (nominally at least), and not only will get have an Avenger Titan (the wonderful space penguin) to fly around with for the duration of the event, but you can get a free short-term rental of a whole pile of ships, by going to the Bevic Convention Center in Area 18 on the planet of ArcCorp in game and pick from any of the ships that are on the daily list, which then will become just as though it was your own ship, for 48 hours. If you need guidance, just ask in global chat in game, someone should be able to help you out (though remember, many will be new, just like yourself, be patient and don't be that gamer). The schedule of what ships are available when can be found here, along with links to more information on the whole event itself, including more specific details on how to get there, and how to rent things and so on: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/19914-Invictus-Launch-Week-2954-Schedule
A fun little detail is, too, that if you attend the convention in-game at least three different days (that is, as the game counts it - they roll over 1600 UTC, so keep that in mind), you will get both a badge over on Spectrum (CIG's bespoke communications platform, with both forums and chat), and a Medivac Beacon, which is a hand gadget that you can use for, well, making yourself known as either in need of or being a supplier of medical assistance when out and about.
What Do?
If you do decide to pledge now, however: As a new player, you will likely want to hop on and actually do the tutorial that has (finally) been added. It's a fairly short one, but it'll get you familiar with the basics of the game (on-foot navigation, interaction, flight controls, that sort of stuff), and you even get a set of armour and a bit of cash at the end of it. In short, simple, but worth your time. You can also use the Guide system, which you can find over on Spectrum once you've signed up: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/spectrum/guide - sometimes there's little bonuses for doing that as well, but it's always useful, as it's a real person, who plays the game, who is there to help you work out how to do things in the game.
For the moment, the servers seem to be pretty happy, but as the game is still in development, there's going to be bugs, sometimes light, sometimes extreme. So while the general gameplay is decently smooth, of course the old "it's an alpha" always applies, and you should always treat this game as one to make sure your expectations are at the correct level for jankiness. That said, you just might be able to have some outright gameplay type fun out in the big sandbox that is out little star system of Stanton.
In addition to Invictus Launch Week itself (and DefenseCon, the Drake "we are not down with the UEE" counterpart to ILW - lore stuff ;) ), the game is also currently playing host to a huge new chain of missions, which can arguably be done solo (according to some), but which are outright amazing with other people. There's even permanent bonus gifts for you if you complete the chain! I won't go into it too deeply here, but the page here has all the information you need to take part, and as you will see, it's quite a lot: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/19753-Overdrive-Initiative
What Game Package To Get
Most importantly, when picking what to get: Anything called a "starter pack" will get you in the game, and spending more doesn't equal a better ship. Specifically, don't get something called a Standalone Ship, as that will not include game access. It says as much on the store, but there is a lot of text, so it bears pointing out here.
Right now, one of the two largest sales of the year is going on, which means there is a sale on two specific starter packs as well, and either of the two will do you very well as a starter: The Aurora MR Invictus Starter Pack is 10% off the usual price, and the Avenger Titan Invictus Starter Pack is a full 25% off, which lands it as an absolutely amazing value for the cash. Both of these come with a nifty paint as well, as well as a bit of extra starting cash, and longer insurance than the default (though do note, insurance currently doesn't matter, that's going to be more a thing later on, though CIG's word on the topic is also that you'd never completely lose anything you spent cash money on).
Either of the two will do you just fine, but the Titan is one of the best small ships in the game, outright, and would be my recommendation in general. That one can be found here: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/pledge/Packages/Avenger-Titan-Invictus-Starter-Pack-Warbond
If you want the cheapest option to get the game, forever, the Aurora pack should be your pick. It also is genuinely not a bad ship at all, and there is essentially nothing you can't try out in the game, outside of perhaps cargo running (though even with the Titan's larger capacity of , that still would be just dipping your toes rather than actually doing it as a career). The Aurora pack can be found here: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/pledge/Packages/Aurora-MR-Invictus-Starter-Pack-Warbond
Don't forget that you can buy any ship in game, including that Titan (minus perhaps the fancy paint).
Definitely don't spend until you're ready, though - especially given it's Invictus, where you'll be able to try out a whole pile of ships, including the Titan Avenger, which will be your ship during the free-fly.
Thanks!
Thanks for you consideration, and o7 to all our new citizens from captain leinir! If you need any help, feel free to give me a poke here, and i'll be happy to try and help you (we can even do the guide thing) - in particular the basics of the game and its quirks, or if you need help working out which starter pack to buy in the pledge store.
So either use my code STAR-F3V9-NVLK when signing up, or just click right here to create a new account: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/enlist?referral=STAR-F3V9-NVLK

Our team recently did a rewrite of a product in a new, much faster backend stack. Done that, we always aligned to some UI principles like "give the user feedback if he has to wait for something" and so on. In fact whenever we feel that a action/request might take longer than some time (let’s say more than 200ms for example), we show a loading indicator (be it inside a component, e.g a button overlay, or globally e.g. a page mask). Now the situation: We discovered that certain requests have "low peaks" where the timing is roughly 50-100ms. We are using this kind of mechanism to set the loading state: ```typescript const foo = async () => { setLoading(true);
await bar(); // might be slow, might be super fast; flickers if less than e.g. 100ms
setLoading(false); } ```
In this scenario the component, which relies on the loading flag, flickers if the state changes too fast. What is your way to deal with this? I was hoping for a hook, that produces some kind of threshold state update (like the use-debounced-state hooks available out there), but in the end this would only move the problems to slower requests.
I appreciate any feedback, resources, ideas or suggestions. Thank you!

At the end of March, I set a goal to start publishing a weekly newsletter on Beehiiv. I had started before on Mailchimp but couldn't make it past three weeks. Editing and making the email look acceptable was a pain, and I couldn't get into a flow. Then, Beehiiv came along and looked too good to be true.
I got pulled into the shiny new platform and restarted with Beehiiv, and I am so glad I did. I am running a six-week streak, and I am going as motivated as I was on day one. I have never written so much in my life.
Importing from Mailchimp was super easy, and I could edit some of the old posts within Beehiiv to update the links, for example.
I didn't do too much on the initial styling. I changed the color scheme, added a description, and slapped a logo together. I just wanted to get back to writing. And I wanted a system. I wanted a task each day that brought me to complete my weekly post without distractions or detours.
The platform makes it easy to focus on precisely that. After sending the initial two emails, with my style and structure evolving, it was easy to repeat the same steps week after week to get my post out (Research, Outline, Writing, Edit, Final Prep).
I usually style while writing and a bit more during the edit. After six weeks, writing and using the "/" commands continuously feels so simple—I don't have to think about the tool and can focus 100% on the content.
As I had my weekly rhythm going, I had a bit of time for the "tool" again. I set up Google Analytics, SEO, Tag Manager, Indexing my page, etc.,
The YouTube videos Beehiiv puts out make it super simple to learn and understand (no background knowledge needed). Even if the Beehiiv UI had changed (with the new Website builder), the comment section of the videos had these updates. Huge kudos to the guides!
Now that I have content and trackers on all the things, diving into the Growth section makes sense.
The analytics section about where subscribers come from is helpful, but I have not gotten any organic growth yet, which brings me to the "improvable."
Remember why I stopped MailChimp? I had to do too much outside of creating my content. This is how organic growth (cross-posting on social media, etc.) feels to me. But I know that without it, I am not seeing any growth. I understand that that's a task that is on me. I just wish I had a clear path.
I have a small number of subscribers (50), most of whom were gathered from a subscription form on Medium posts and brought over from MailChimp. But outside of that, I have seen no growth.
I will try the Referral program next, but I don't yet know how to optimize my organic growth system.
I feel like the benefit of a follow/follow back commenting system (community) on other platforms is that the newsletter gets promoted indirectly. Pure interaction might spark some growth.
On Beehiiv, I have to go outside the platform and "plug" my newsletter, and I have not yet figured out how to best do that without feeling like I am promoting it too much. The Medium posts, I posted on Medium first and added a form below. But I do want to post on my newsletter first, not on Medium, do I them cross-post there? Would that hurt SEO?
This would be another cool YT tutorial section, or maybe that exists or maybe I need to do a digital growth marketing course to get better at it. But if I have 5 hours per week, I'd rather put that into creating my content, and maybe the referral feature is my best bet?
Would love to hear your thoughts on that and am excited to post a 12-week streak update if anyone is interested.

Every mod page has this weird wording when describing mod loader order, usually using words like Before and After. I looked through many posts and I can't really find a straight forward answer and no real visual image examples, but just to make sure I need to ask cause its bugging me.
When you Filter the numerical order 0 to 2 (example number), 0 is at the top and 2 is at the bottom. If Mod A needs Mod B to be after, is Mod A at 1 and Mod B 0? Or is it a numerical after, where they mean Mod A is 0 and B is 1?
Example 1 (Mod A after B in my brain): 0 - Mod B 1 - Mod A
Example 2 (Mod A after B in logical sense): 0 - Mod A 1 - Mod B
Inwhich case, sometimes mod authors say top or bottom of load order, but you can then filter by numerical order 2 to 0. If After is numerical in this case, why is 2 to 0 not default? That way my brain is automatically like, oh after means Mod A is 0 and Mod B is 1. Then that way if they say before or after, it somewhat makes sense.
Example 1 (Mod A after B): 1 - Mod B 0 - Mod A
Example 2 (Mod A before B): 1 - Mod A 0 - Mod B
Maybe I am overthinking things or somehow stuck in the brain department. I somewhat wish mod authors had atleast one screenshot showing an example of load order on the page, especially if it's multiple mods or something. Instead of just the words before and after, I like to see the order visually to understand it.

For example if I wanted to cite page 145 and page 85 as pincites for the supporting quote how would I do that? Would it be
Ex. Erick Ackelson, The New Jersey Pitbulls 85, 145 (2015)?
Doing it this way doesn’t look right because 85 isn’t the starting page of the fake book. I’m just trying to quote two pages. HELP PLEASE ALL YOU JOURNAL PEOPLE!

Here's my notes throughout the Google Marketing Live. Some stuff may be omitted and I phrased everything how they would have in the presentation (overly positive).

Google Marketing Live 2024

~Philipp Schindler – Introduction~
New era of AI
-A few years ago the conversation was: What is AI?
-Now the question is: What can AI do for me and how can I implement it as fast as possible?

15% of searches are new on Google every day
-This number has held steady for more than a decade
“The perfect search engine should understand exactly what you mean and give you back exactly what you need.”

AI Overviews

• People who use AI Overviews use search more
• Higher quality clicks/more time on site
• Rolling out to US

Trend 1 – The “Exactly-What-I-Want” search
The volume of searches with 5 or more words grew 1.5x as fast

• Instead of “men’s running shoes”
• “how to pick the right running shoes for a runner beginner with high arches”

Trend 2 – Complex Search Made Easy
“What are good options for aa day out in dallas for kids? What are some options with ice cream shops nearby?”

Trend 3 – Search Beyond Words

• Search for things that are difficult to describe.
• 12 billion visual searches a month using lens
• 1 in 4 visual searches has commercial intent
• You will soon be able to search with visual

Circle to Search
Search anything on your screen with just a circle, highlight, or tap.

Trend 4 – Beyond Answers
Some people are not looking for answer, they are looking to explore, or be inspired.

• “Outfit Ideas”
• “Best Places to Eat with Kids”
• “Rainy Day Activities”

Rather than just getting a simple AI response, they will be getting a catered ai page specifically created for their request.

Small YouTube Blurb

• YouTube #1 most watched streaming platform
• 1B hours of YouTube on CTV daily
• Generative AI is the next playground for YouTube creators

Gen AI x Creativity

• Suite of tools for content creators

~Vidhya Srinivasan~
People have limitless options to browse across devices

• 2 out of 3 consumers say making purchase decisions requires more effort than ever
• Have to be on every surface consumers touch
  • Grab their attention
  • Show them you are their solution
• Google is supposed to be the matchmaker for consumers and businesses
• Showing the perfect ad on every surface is difficult

“This is where Gen AI will unlock enormous opportunities”

• Last year they were just getting started with images
• They’re applying the latest Gemini models to teach their other models
  • EX: teaching their algorithm about queries that have never been seen before
• Gen AI is still early-stage tech so they won’t get everything right
• Will become more powerful and helpful as they learn about your business

AI will influence the entire marketing cycle

• Creative
  • Building creative will only take days/hours
  • AI will draw on hero assets and create variations
  • Every ad will be a better match for each consumer’s intent in the moment
• Media
  • No trade-offs between precise targeting and growth
• Measurement
  • Real-time adjustments based on campaign results

"AI doesn’t have taste, it doesn’t have ingenuity, creativity, and strategic insights"

Google Search – Generative AI

• Search in new ways
  • More complex questions
  • Searching with images
• AI overviews will appear in search results when they are particularly helpful beyond SERPs
  • They will be stay focused on sending valuable traffic to publishers and creative
• More choice leads to more opportunity for advertisers
• The will be testing search and shopping ads being integrated into AI overviews
  • Not just above or below
• Match the ads, not just to query context, but also with the information within the AI overview
  • Example: “How do I get wrinkles out of my clothes without an iron”
    • AI overview gives tips
    • Within the AI generated blurb, a wrinkle free spray sponsored ad appears

~Sylvanus Bent~
AI Applications in Search Ads

• Ads in Visual Search
  • EX: You see a piece of luggage at the airport you love, but you don’t know how to describe it or what brand it is. Use visual lens to search for it, then sponsored product ads will show up within the results
• Every search ad is more than an offer, it’s an experience
• Exploring AI ads with recommendations across different verticles
  • EX: Search for “short term storage” – ad shows up, but now you can click into a new dynamic ad experience, where you can customize your needs.
• Takes the definition of a helpful ad to the next level

Conversational Experience in Google Ads

• Can give your URL to Google Ads to generate relevant assets
  • Helpful for smaller businesses

Power Pair

• Combination of Search and Performance Max campaigns
• Delivers the strongest ROI

Profit Optimization

• Making it a new goal in PMAX and shopping campaigns
• Maximize profit by optimizing bidding for gross profit on products

~Tim Frank – Asset Generation~
Advertisers who improve their PMAX ad strength to Excellent see 6% more conversions on average.

Creative Controls & Customization

• Brand Colors
• Brand Fonts – only closely matched
• Upload reference images for AI to generate based on

Additional Reporting & Controls

• Placement reporting and exclusions for YouTube
• Asset Level Reporting
  • Asset reporting for each creative asset

~Nicky Rettke – YouTube~
AI-Powered Video Campaigns

• Video Reach drive awareness
• Video View drive consideration
• Introduced Demand Gen
  • Reaches over 3 billion monthly users
  • Demand Gen will roll out to Display and Video 360 and Search Ads 360
  • Audience list threshold lowered to 100 users for Demand Gen lookalike audiences
• Over 40% increase in view through rate when utilizing vertical video
• Viewers can swipe left on shorts ads to go directly to a landing page
• Introducing animated image ads
  • Pulls images from your product feed and animates them in on unite
• Demand Gen with Product feeds
  • 33% more conversions at a similar CPA
• Shop while you watch

~Matt Madrigal – Shopping~
Product Studio

• Create custom scenes
• Change backdrops
• 2 new features
  • Create visuals that match brand style w/ reference image
  • Image to video
• Brand profile on search
  • To be rolled out in the coming months

Shopping Ads

• Will start highlighting key attributes and stuff from reviews
• 3D shopping ad formats
• Immersive Ad Experiences
• Virtual Try-On
• Video Highlights
  • Rolling out for beauty brands first

~Gaurav Bhaya – The Data Guy~
Good AI requires good data

• First party data delivers better results and helps protect your campaigns against privacy changes
• Collect, protect, and use your data.
• Google Ads Data Manager is now available to everyone
• Simplifies putting first-party management all in one place
• Have an active pipeline from all data sources to one place
• Measurement diagnostics is being introduced to Google Ads
  • Check Engine Light for your site
• Google’s goal is for us to not have to worry about first-party data

Measurement

• Generated Insights and Reports
• Generate a report with a prompt.
• Generated insights

Marketing Mix Models
Meridian is Google’s Open Source MMM and will be available later this year.
tl;dr - very tasty nothing burger.

WEEKLY COVID STATEWIDE REPORT FOR MAY 21, 2024
TOTAL NEW COVID CASES REPORTED WEEK (Sun-Sat) OF: 02/04-02/10: 6,191 (VDH corrected from 5,663) 02/11-02/17: 5,432 (VDH corrected from 4,814) 02/18-02/24: 4,978 (VDH corrected from 4,494) 02/15-03/02: 3,891 (Figure is estimated from VDH data) 03/03-03/09: 3,134 (VDH corrected from 2,843) 03/10-03/16: 2,118 (VDH corrected from 1,909) 03/17-03/23: 1,764 (VDH corrected from 1,591) 03/24-03/30: 1,667 (VDH corrected from 1,449) 03/31-04/06: 1,255 (VDH corrected from 1,273) 04/07-04/13: 1,232 (VDH corrected from 1,113) 04/14-04/20: 1,151 (VDH corrected from 1,029) 04/21-04/27: 991 (VDH corrected from 899) 04/28-05/04: 885 (VDH corrected from 782) 05/05-05/11: 830 (VDH corrected from 730) 05/12-05/18: 903 (preliminary figure) Counts reported after 4/30/24 are incomplete
VDH's reporting of the numbers above (Sun-Sat) is by illness date.
COVID CASES SINCE LAST REPORT BY DAY This runs report day to report day, not Sun-Sat Case numbers are from the previous day unless indicated otherwise Previous week's cases day count in parentheses after this week's day count Report covers 05/15/2024 to 05/21/2024

Wed: 166 cases (162) Thu: 186 cases (138) Fri: 169 cases (180) Sat: 158 cases (149) Sun: 103 cases ( 91) Mon: 85 cases ( 51) Tue: 218 cases (157) 

As counts reported after 4/30/24 may be incomplete, I will not be computing percentages as accuracy can not be guaranteed. I will post what the 13-week graph shows.
Total new cases reported (Wed-Tues): 1,085 (928 previous Wed-Tues) 7-day average of new cases: 155.0 (132.6 last report) Cases per 100,000 Population: 1.747 (1.494 last report) Some Figures and Percentages are usually slightly rounded by VDH
The 13-week graph has been posted. Curve shows a +16.92% increase. This may or may not be accurate due to voluntary reporting. But cases seem to be have been increasing for the past two weeks.
REPORTED DEATHS PER WEEK Week of: 04/21-04/27: 1 (VDH corrected from 5) 04/28-05/04: 3 (VDH corrected from 2) 05/05-05/11: 4 (VDH corrected from 3) 05/12-05/18: 0 (preliminary figure)
The VDH death rate is never put out completely up to date due to delays in death data, which can run months. The death data above has been corrected to current reported deaths from VDH sources and is always subject to change.
The larger updated death chart covering more past weeks had not been updated when I posted, so it was not uploaded. Sometimes it seems they update it late, or even later in the week.
CURRENT POSITIVITY RATE AS OF MAY 17, 2024 CDC Region 3 7-Day Positivity Rate: 1.9% (was 2.2%, -13.64%) US National level is 3.2% (was 3.3%, revised, last week). Highest is Region 9 (AZ, CA, HI, NV) at 6.5% These are preliminary figures which the CDC may revise next week.
Tests this week were done on 1,395 samples, which is low. A low sample rate can cause the Positivity Rate to report lower.
Region 3 has the lowest Positivity Rate in the U.S., but low sampling numbers may cause a correction next Friday.
HOSPITALS
NOTE: COVID-19 hospital reporting requirements expired April 30, 2024. Data is incomplete after this date.
After more thought, I am changing the Weekly's Hospital report. The only graph that has meaning now is the ER visits. All others are corrupted by a lack of reporting (and labeled as so). I saw one report on X/Twitter that in one State, 91% of hospitals were voluntary reporting. By the next week it dropped to just over 50%. So bed counts, admissions, etc., are all guesses and may lead to the wrong conclusion. But it seems hospitals are still required to report how many Covid people they diagnosed. I noticed it tracks with the Covid rates for the past several months quite closely.
VDH reported an increase of +9.7% in ER visits last week that were diagnosed as Covid (0.34% of visits). Corrected last four weeks are now listed as 0.37%, 0.34%, 0.31% and 0.34% of ER visits. Graph posted. This graph has no special wording on it about the end of hospital reporting, so it is now the only hospital chart that is accurate week-to-week.
The stopping of formal reporting, has made, for now, the hospital admissions and bed count graphs inaccurate. So while watching them and hoping of more info, I am not going to post them in the future unless reporting is restarted in the Fall. For example, this week Covid bed use dropped by -16.7% which conflicts with the increase of ER visits. The admissions chart is basically empty.
You can look at all the charts here.
FINAL NOTES
My best guess is we bottomed out a couple of weeks ago, and are starting to see a slow increase in cases (+9% to +15% in the past week). We'll have to watch the ER chart, Positivity data, and wastewater to try and get an idea of what is going on in Virginia.
LAYOUT
First up is the total number of new Covid Cases for last week based on Sunday to Saturday. As the corrections VDH is putting in a week after the initial release makes following a trend impossible, I have stopped computing in this area as it would probably be incorrect.
Next is a listing of the cases from the last report to this one. It usually runs from last Wednesday to Tuesday, but could move based on holidays.
Reported deaths are next, which are based on Sunday to Saturday for the weeks listed.
The CDC Region 3 7-Day Positivity Rate is next, which at the moment just confirms or changes what the CDC put out Friday. They do another run on Monday nights taking a second look at things.
Hospital information for last week is next.
VDH's main summary page is located here. You can see all the latest trends at the link above - most graphics are interactive
EXPLANATION OF FIGURES ABOVE
Total New COVID Cases Reported Week (Sun-Sat) Of: cases reported for last week running Sunday to Saturday.
Reported Deaths Per Week: Number of deaths reported in the week (Sunday-Saturday) to VDH by dates listed.
Covid cases since last report by day: The previous 7-days since VDH's last update listed by day.
7-day average of new cases: Average number of daily COVID cases over the last 7-days
Cases per 100,000 population 7-day average: Within 100,000 people, how many were positive for COVID on a rolling 7-day cycle.
CDC Region 3 7-Day Positivity Rate (if included): The last state average percentage of PCR coronavirus tests performed that are positive. The lower the better.
Hospitals: Hospital information for last Sunday-Saturday.
Data from VDH, CDC

Right below this post on my overview page, you'll see a serious, sober reply I gave to somebody's perhaps not altogether serious question about galaxies named "Snickers," bringing up a mildly interesting tidbit from the History of Astronomy. Read it there, because you'll never be able to see it anywhere else. It was deleted, almost instantly, with no reason given, a perfect example of what can happen on a site adults use to discuss serious matters, when the adolescents are so often in charge.
If you are new to Reddit, no, that was not a snarky joke. So-called "power mods" have, in the past, turned out to be minors, well under the age of 18, nothing more than dull-witted children with far too much time on their hands, and an overpowering desire to be in control. When governmental policy was being set in keeping with the consenses set by the social media mobs, a few years ago, these are the people who effectively had the power to decide who would be free to speak about what, and about how full grown adults would be forced to conduct their affairs - the sort of adolescents that, in the days before the Internet was invented, would have been shunned by their peers, and with good reason.
I went to mention this most recent moderator power flex on RedditCensors, and discovered that it had been banned by Reddit, which I understand has created a rule that prohibits public complaints about a moderator's abuse of power - literally, an anti-transparency rule. Those are inherently corrupt and on a platform where freedom of speech is effectively put to a vote through the downvoting process, corrupting.
If it ever was anything else, Reddit has become a place where neurotic teens and tweens have gone to live out their dreams of power, as they've been allowed to control the public consensus by being given the ability to quietly silence the voices of dissent with their mad reign of error. Some tried to excuse this inexcusable reality, a few years ago, by mentioning the stress so many people were under due to the "Pandemic," and arguing that free and open discussion of serious issues would be more than people could cope with during the drama, and perhaps they would again, but let us be serious. That was a nonsensical defense even then, and 2024 is not 2020. Sanity might not have returned, but the panic has passed, and at this point there can be no serious question about Reddit's role in that time of panic. The admins and mods eagerly got down and dirty to encourage that panic and haven't reformed, since.
Strictly speaking, this has cost Reddit its safe harbor protection, since it is in no way running a neutral platform, but we already know how much the law matters when a large Internet firm breaks it - not at all. By now, we all know that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and those hearings of his are a joke. They are there to defuse anger, not to start any real sort of move toward justice.
One could respond to this ugly reality by jumping over to a supposedly uncensored platform - like Gab, to cite the best known example. But when one goes to that supposed alternative to the censorious lunacy of Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, et al., what does one find? Literal neo-Nazis, flat earth conspiracy theories and endless death threats and targeted harassment, while the staff looks the other way and refuses to enforce its own rules, because the founder is, himself, not so far from being a Nazi, himself. To attempt to have a serious discussion there would be like breaking into a gathering of the Ku Klux Klan, and trying to have a town hall meeting during it.
At some point, one has to be willing to see that something has been tried and proven to be such a trainwreck, so consistently, that to put much more time and effort into it would seem like madness. That is how I've come to see the social web, and perhaps even the Internet in general. You can see the links to my other sites and you're welcome to follow me on them, but I'm not sure that I'm ever going to bother to post to them, because I'm at a loss when I try to think of a good reason for doing so. Certainly, I incur a massive opportunity cost by getting down in the trenches with the losers - compare what I was getting paid to answer student's questions about Mathematics in the real world ($120/ hour as an independent tutor before Covid) with what I get here, where I get repaid only in aggravation. In person, at an art fair, I can be (and have been) approached by the editor of a literary journal and asked to submit. Online, if I'm lucky, I'll see a fraction of the audience I'd get at an open mic night, run into censorship because somebody with well developed psychiatric problems though he sensed a hidden agenda behind my words, and then get to deal with scrapers afterwards.
The Internet has, for the most part, neither proved a pleasant, nor a profitable, nor a productive experience, so why get deeply invested in it, at all? I'll be shutting down my groups on this and other sites, as I reduce the role of the Internet in my life to being what it should always have been: a place for posting announcements, along maybe with a tiny amount of free content as a loss leader, in order to get other people to link to the page with my event announcements and other notices. I'm going to turn off the computer and get back outside, more, as I really should have back in 2020. As everybody should have, really.
The Internet, properly used, is a bulletin board, not a community. Life was better when people remembered it, and for me, it's going to be better, again. If other people want to go on being immersed in a miserable, futile effort to succeed where all others have failed before for structural reasons, they're free to do so, but I think they'll find that other serious people will be making the same choice I have, and for the same reasons. The power mods will still be there, and so will the trolls, but when they're nearly all that remains, when the Internet is firmly linked to the craziest members of society in the minds of the general public, just how much influence will it go on having?
Sometimes the best thing to do is nothing at all. Over and out, for now, and probably permanently. There's a nice, sunny day waiting for me, just outside my window and I'm going to go enjoy it.

The following is a comparative study of the Wan Ling Record, other wise known as the Wan-ling Lu, as translated by John Blofeld compared to Jeffrey M. Leahy.
Please note this is the final section as it relates to the comparison. Up until this point I have utilized Blofeld's numbering for the text, however since this remaining section is actually quite long I will be shifting to numbering the remaining sections according to how Leahy broke up the text. Which will leave us with a few parts to this section, 26-1 through 26-10 for example.
Another note, Blofeld's translation continues into what he titles "THE ANECDOTES", and the Chinese versions of the Wanling Lu I have found end with this last section, as seen in Leahy's work which also ends at this section.
云何識自心。即如 今言語者正是汝心。若不言語又不作用心體。如虛空相似。無有相 貌亦無方所。亦不一向是無有而不可見。故祖師云。真性心地藏。 無頭亦無尾。應緣而化物。方便呼為智若不應緣之時。不可言其有 無。正應之時。亦無蹤跡。既知如此。如今但向無中棲泊。即是行 諸佛路。經云。應無所住而生其心。一切眾生輪迴生死者。意緣走 8 作心。於六道不停。致使受種種苦。

Blofeld:

Q: How, then, does a man accomplish this comprehension of his own Mind? A: That which asked the question Is your own Mind; but if you were to remain quiescent and to refrain from the smallest mental activity, its substance would be seen as a void—you would find it formless, occupying no point in space and falling neither into the category of existence nor into that of non-existence. Because it is imperceptible, Bodhidharma said: ‘Mind, which is our real nature, is the unbegotten and indestructible Womb; in response to circumstances, it transforms itself into phenomena. For the sake of convenience, we speak of Mind as the intelligence; but when it does not respond to circumstances,! it cannot be spoken of in such dualistic terms as existence or non-existence. Besides, even when engaged in creating objects in response to causality, it is still imperceptible. If you know this and rest tranquilly in nothingness—then you are indeed following the Way of the Buddhas. Therefore does the sutra say: ‘Develop a mind which rests on no thing whatever.’ Every one of the sentient beings bound to the wheel of alternating life and death is re-created from the karma of his own desires! Endlessly their hearts remain bound to the six states of existence, thereby involving them in all sorts of sorrow and pain.

Leahy:

"It is said, 'How does one understand one's own mind?' This, which today has spoken those words, is truly your own mind. If you do not speak and also do not make effort, the mind-essence thus appears like the empty sky. Non-existence has no features and also has no dimensions. Isn't it always non-existent and also cannot be seen? For this reason the Patriarchal Master said, 'The true nature of mind is Ksitigarbha. There is no head and also no tail. It transforms beings according to their conditions. As an expedient means, it is called wisdom.'¹
If it is uncaused, it cannot be said that it exists or does not exist. When it responds to causes, it also does not leave footprints. Just understand in this way. Today I only direct you to abide in silence. This is practicing the All-Buddhas-Vehicle. The sutra says, 'You should give birth to a mind that is without anything upon which to stand.'² All of the sentient beings in the wheel of birth and death; thinking causes them to move along the wheel. Create thoughts and you will be endlessly within the six paths. This will cause you to be afflicted with suffering and all kinds of bitterness."

• ¹ This is a four line verse attributed to the twenty-sixth patriarch, Puryamitra. See the Zongjing lu.
• ² This quote is from the Diamond Sutra

Parts: [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10], [11], [12], [13], [14], [15], [16], [17], [18], [19], [20], [21], [22], [23], [24], [25]
Reference material:
Huang Po on the Transmission of Mind by John Blofeld Page 86
The Wanling record of Chan Master Huangbo Duanji by Jeffrey M. Leahy Page 42
《 黃檗斷際禪師宛陵錄》CBETA No. 2012B

Hi, sorry if this post doesn't make sense but i recently bought some of the manga and started reading it for the first time when i noticed some awkward phrasing.
for example on the first page instead of saying "psychics" it said "spirit mediums" and overall some words and phrases just seem unusual. (extra examples: Reigen saying "2 birds 1 stone" he says "2 birds and one brick bat" and Reigen using the phrase "haters gonna hate" which seemed..unnatural for him to say)
the manga is still readable and tolerable but it weirded me out cuz i had read some of it on a piracy site and the language used was entirely different, then i started thinking that maybe the one i bought was localised for another English speaking area?
just wondering if someone else knew anything about this occurrence, my manga says it was translated by Kumar Sivasubramian if that helps, thx.

I apologize in advance for the length of this thread, but by far this is the user that wrote the most comments in the video of our song. At first, he suggested Scepter and Reign, but he debunked this lead by saying: "Scepter and Reign can be crossed off. I have been corresponding with the lady whose name is mentioned in the legal document, Naomi (first name used with her permission, and only her first name) since Thursday. She was legitimately shocked her name was on the document because in all these years NOBODY ever contacted her regarding it. She thinks they may have realized how much money it would cost and probably withdrew. She knew both bands fairly well, scale of 1-10 she answered "6.5 maybe 7'ish". She designed 1 "logo" for each band that was literally just a sketch she made with their band names on them she could print out in the Xerox store she worked at. Scepter's original name was actually "Dungeon Master" but they changed it to fit their name on her design. As for the abandoned demo from Scepter, she said they abandoned it because they couldn't afford to produce it. They didn't even make it far enough to name their 3 or 4 songs. So, on to the big question, are either bands involved with this song? According to her both bands came out in 1985, and according to her this "The Falling King" song predates both bands by a year or 2. This is not Scepter or Reign, this song is older than both bands. According to her, she first heard this song on a Detroit station while visiting family. Even back then, the Detroit station personnel had absolutely NO CLUE who this was. She remembers her father making fun of the singers accent claiming it was a "Posh" accent and also used to think the lyric was "The fall, the fall in the king" lol. I explained how this song was recorded off of several stations in 1987 and she replied "How many songs do you hear on the radio that are several years old?". She was stumped this was played on Z-Rock because this does not sound like an amateur band to her. She is not the only person to make comments that this does not sound like an amateur band, this sounds professionally recorded and produced, something EXTREMELY few amateugarage bands could have done. I thought i had something, but at least i tried. By the way, apparently Reign still performs in the Pittsburgh area under the name "Metallic Thunder"." (THIS IS HIS LATEST COMMENT) If this is true, it means our search will be even more difficult.
In one of his earliest comments he said this: "My 2 oldest sisters (born in 1970 and 1972) actually remember this song being played by garage bands and local talents in the Coatesville PA area. However, they both swear on mom and dads ashes that the first time they heard this song, a local music festival in Exton PA, I was NOT born yet (I was born in 1984). Even back then nobody could say who it was or what the title was. In fact the one band from Downingtown PA used to refer to it as "The Dungeons and Dragons song". And by that i mean, according to my sisters the lead singers girlfriend (or his sister....they could never tell?) would be in the crowd and when they were ready to end their performance she would shout "Play the Dungeons and Dragons song". My sisters also remember the adults thinking this song was somehow a promotional thing for the PA Renaissance Fair. Unfortunately they cannot offer any clues to the identity of this band or songs title, their guess, back then and still today, was Manowar."
At first, he claims our band is Manowar, explaining: "I do not think Manowar is an obscure band, nor do my sisters. The "obscure" bands mentioned in my postings are all the local garage/amateur bands that they remember playing this song and most of those garage/amateur bands even back then, along with my sisters, were under the impression this was a Manowar song. Many people, not just on this post but others feel this is Manowar "pitch" song, other bands thrown around have been Iron Maiden, Overdrive (Or Overkill, i'm not sure if it's the same band?), Blackmane, Axis and Cirith Ungol (spelling?). Keep this in mind, it's not that uncommon for mainstream/well known bands to have unreleased music in their "library". A good example, ask the most diehard Rammstein fans what their first song ever was, they'll probably answer Du Recht So Gut or Rammstein. Most people have never heard their 1992-1993 pitch song, "Tier" (Monster, beast). In fact, Till Linderman himself stated in 2018 he was unaware Tier was ever recorded by anyone, yet alone put up on the internet. Like this "Fall of the King" song, "Tier" was toted as an mystery song for years but was in a group of 4 or 5 other songs that Rammstein did but never released. One of my favorite bands, Corvus Corax, actually had something similar happen, a song they did back in the early 90's, "Vampire", opening for another band was recorded by a fan in the audience and made rounds on the Neo Folk community ages later. Corvus Corax themselves heard it on a radio station in Denmark roughly 2009'ish and called them asking how and when they got that song because they NEVER recorded it for public use. Personally i cannot give a wager who this is? I am not that good with this genre so i go with what people older than me and much better with this music say. To me it could be Manowar, something they never intended to be released publicly, it could be the Z'Rose a bunch of people feel it is, it could be Overdrive/Overkill (i do not know if these names are the same band or 2 separate ones?), it could be me time traveling impersonating my great uncle Fred......ok that last one was just meant to be a joke lol." Then someone says: "has your sister contacted erik to see about the the song?" and he says "OH HELL NO!!! They haven't spoken since they broke up in 1991-1992. I did reach out to his brother probably a year ago and never heard back."
He suggests it's either Manowar or Sarissa (he mispelled them): "@aSome1 There's some confusion, my sisters never said Z'Rose was playing the song in our hometown area. Local teenage to early college yrs bands were playing it. They recognized this song when I was on a family Zoom chat, i had this song on in the background (by accident actually lol) and my oldest sister (#1 born in '70) asked what i was listening to. I turned it up and she shook her head and asked the other sister (#2 born in '72) "Oh my gosh isn't that that stupid Manowar song Erik and his brother used to play all the time?". Erik was the name of her high school boyfriend. They remember hearing it first at an amateur music fest when my brother (born in '82) was still a baby. Mainly they remember mom fitting all of them in her old "Batmobile" station wagon. By the time i was born in '84 that station wagon was gone for at least several months. The band names they specifically remember playing this, and keep in mind these were "Garage bands" from the 80's were: Venomous Vomit, Razors in your Coffee (Erik's band), Ash to Ash, Cauldron Kings, Coven of Metal, Pridesville, South of Hell and Purgatory. They said there were a few more, but didn't remember....or care....to know their names. (Disclaimer: Several peoples associated with those mentioned bands have been contacted by me and several have replied.....the most common reply is "How the hell do you know us!?" lol)
"I have actually been looking at this song for almost 3yrs. I've had some "good leads" and some "bad leads" and i've also had "WTF leads".......but at the end it is still unsolved. So far the biggest contenders, from people way better with this music than me (I'm more a symphonic or extreme metal person) have been: Manowar, Iron Maiden, OverDrive, Overkill, Onslaught of Destruction and Sonic Mahem. My sisters really believe it is possibly an unreleased or "pitch demo" of Manowar but they also said it might be a Greek band from the early 80's called Sarassa or something like that?"
Then he denies it's Z-Rose: "@lostwavefinder587 I have seen that name tossed around a lot on forums and random chats (this being one of them). Most people way smarter and better with this music than myself seem to have the opinion that it is not Z'Rose. They range in reason from: the equipment sound professional and they were not, the dates don't add up, Z'Rose only did covers so even it is them in the recordings it's still not their song.....one individual (a supervisor at work who lived in Texas during this time frame) actually said "Z'Rose wouldn't have been sober enough to finish that song". I have only heard 1 Z'Rose recording, and unfortunately the person who recorded it (I think the date says 1989?) spends the majority of the 5 minute video talking during the performance so all i hear is them and not the singer. I have to emphasize about %99 of this info i'm presenting is NOT from me but people who know this genre of music way better than me....i'm more Symphonic metal and neo folk (Corvus Corax, Heilung, Faun etc."
"Out of curiosity, since a lot people think this might be Z'Rose, has anyone contacted the family/families of Nick or Joe Cavazos? My "team" is looking into a blog page from 2018 of a pretty intense exchange between a blogger and a woman who is believed to be "Rocker Joe's daughter. In this exchange she states this song is NOT her dad and uncle's band. But it gets pretty rough because the blogger keeps pressing and let's just say some NSFW language is exchanged. I will only say this, the woman's name does match one of the names in Julio "Joe" Cavazos obituary, but they can't tell if it is actually HER or someone posing. I also find it interesting that in another posting of this song someone is claiming to be the nephew of both Nick and Joe.....but about a dozen people ask about this song and he does not answer them......but someone else will ask something unrelated to this song and he answers??"
"About a year ago on another posting of this song, someone had a link to a conversation with a woman who was allegedly Joe Cavazos daughter. She very adamantly denied this was her dads band, Z'Rose. They person kept pressing her and she did not budge a single inch, "NO, its not my dad's band". The only thing that could be confirmed was the woman's name did match a name in Julio "Joe" Cavazos obituary as his daughter. But if it was her or not I can't say? Many peoples on other postings and on forums have all claimed to have gotten in contact with Z'Rose and stated they responded "No" to this being theirs.
So the "Kings Fall" song by Bernard Cavazos is actually a completely different song. He is also not related to the Z'Rose Cavazos. Somewhere I read that the "Kings Fall"/"Fallen King" song by Bernard Cavazos is about a corrupt politician or mafia like "king" not an actual king. Again none of this is from me, it's from things I read, not me.
When 'Wang' did a video about several mystery songs he included this one. In his video (I don't know if he made more than one?) he talked about how that Bernard Cavazos has been contacted and has denied this is his Fall of the King song. If my memory is correct Wang read a message from him explaining his "king" was a corrupt politician or gang leader like king. Wang also mentioned there was another Bernard Cavazos who was a doctor and he is sick and tired of people contacting him about this song"
Someone that replied to him said:
"@CharlesMarkward probably this tape recording was an attempt from them to make something of their own, many bands have started this way, an example is the Brazilian power metal band Angra, they were first meant to be an Iron Maiden tribute but as things went by, they have decided to release things of their own...I couldn't find anything about this "Z'Rose" band in metal-archives, neither at Google with a simple research, but the data gathered until this moment make sense: the Z Rock radio is from Texas, the so called "Z'Rose" band is also from Texas, it was the 80's, so, without internet, this was the way bands used to promote their work...but your story adds some drifts from this sensible data available until now...they are/were from Texas, ok...but until then, they weren't any big group, which means they were probably 9 to 5 salarymen whose musician activity was on weekends and the money earned wasn't enough to keep up with, so, a trip from TX to PA is a long ranged one and expensive for their then standards, I can remember when I've read the Mick Wall's Metallica biography, in which they highlight how hard was for them to go all the way from CA to NY to record Kill em' All, well, unless someone sponsored the so called "Z'Rose from Texas" (like the Zazula couple to Metallica) to play in the events you've mentioned in PA...which means they were good and had potential (this "mysterious recording" doesn't let me lie), because it takes a lot for someone at the other eastern extreme of a big country like the USA to call someone all the way from TX to play in an event when probably there were good bands around and without the need of a sponsorship to travel and get some place to sleep and eat..."
Therefore Charles says: "Also, i am not the one saying it's not them. People much better with much more access to metal archives/records are saying it's not them. BUT, everything you said makes perfect sense to me and I have no argument against any of it. It would make perfect sense if it was a possible pitch demo Z'Rose recorded and kept along for a few years before a station played it. My sisters are %98 certain it was a Manowar song, the only other band they mentioned as a possibility is a Greek band i can't find anything about called something like Sarassa??"
Someone told him to contact Erik: "A little bit ago someone in here suggested i contact my sisters ex and ask where he got this song. I could not get a hold of him, but i did get in contact with his brother he played with. According to the brother they got the song from their aunt who lived in Philly (Center City) and would send them tapes of songs to play. This song was on a tape sandwiched between "4 or 5" Manowar songs. He specifically remembered this for 2 reasons: 1, their aunt wrote "Killing of the king by No Name" and 2, the last song on the this tape was labled as a Venom song (he did not recall which) but was actually "Melody of Love" by Bobby Vinton😂. So i think this is why my sisters keep saying it's Manowar, because if it was on a tape with a bunch of their songs that chances are they heard a crapload of times?"
He contacted Erik's brother (Erik is supposedly the ex boyfriend of one of his sisters) and received this reply: "Erik's brother returned another email I sent about this song. I made a post about it about a week ago. The brother says their aunt who lived in Philly included this song on a mix tape of stuff for him and his brother to play. This song was sandwiched between several Manowar songs and the last song on the tape was supposed to be a Venom song but was actually Bobby Vinton's "Melody of Love" 🤣"
Therefore debunking the possibility it's a Manowar song, he also adds: "She (the aunt) passed in 2014. She would record songs off the radio for them. She lived in Philly (Center City) but also had a place in Florida, so he was never sure which cities radio stations she would record from. This song she wrote "Killing the King?" As the title and "???" as the band name, but it was between several Manowar songs. I think this might be why my oldest sisters are so insistent this is a Manowar song because they may have listened to it with Erik and his brother.....it's a theory lol"
He also thought of Iced Earth as the possible band: "lostwavefinder587 I immediately thought of Iced Earth when I heard this song. Although it's likely just a coincidence, it's interesting to note that Iced Earth was originally called "The Rose".
Someone said to him: "if that's any help, the Greek band's name you're talking about is probably Sarissa. I don't think it's them, though: the vox sound kinda different, and their songs are mostly Ancient Greece-themed." And he replied: "Yes, thank you! All this time I've been spelling it wrong. I gave a quick listen to a demo of theirs from '86. In terms of sound and beat and tempo etc, they are pretty close to this song. In terms of vocals, they sound nothing alike." Therefore, he debunked Sarissa himself.
Now here he changed his version and provides a new lead given by his sisters:
"Holy crap for some reason my last post got cut in half and didn't include the following info, sorry! So the individual i spoke to and got the new possible lead is the former singer of the one band my sisters mentioned, Purgatory, (i do NOT have his permission to use his real name but his stage name was Tarantula). He confirmed he played this song "once or twice" but didn't know the lyrics so they just repeated several "blocks" over and over again. He heard it from a band in NJ and when he asked if he could use the song they replied along the lines of "It's not our song, we don't care" but gave no indication who it was or they even knew who it was? He suggested the band "Knightmare" because they were from Texas and he remembers all of their songs being medieval or medieval fantasy related. Supposedly they wore what looked like full on plate armor (he does not know if it was actual metal armor or something made to look like it). He saw them perform a handful of times because he spent summers in Texas on his grandfathers (mistakenly said uncle in my last post, sorry) ranch and would sneak off at night to "the metal scene" (i do not know if that was a club name or if he just meant that in general?). He began visiting his grandfathers ranch in 1980 and stopped when his grandfather retired in 1992. He gave an estimated timeline for "Knightmare" of 1981-1989."
He corrects himself by saying they are not called "Knightmare": Interestingly, my supervisor at work lived in Texas during this timeline (roughly mid 70's to mid 90's from what i can gather?) and when I asked him about Knightmare he had no idea. But when i mentioned they dressed up like knights in armor he suddenly looked startled and said "That wasn't their name, their name was Battle Battalion or some s*** like that".
But then he says: "So i posted a few months ago about this song, my sisters remember garage bands in the area playing this… I checked every band called Knightmare on Metal Encyclopedia and it doesn’t look like it’s our band." "Forgive my French.....Damn. I thought maybe it could have been a lead but i guess like dozens of others I've come across, dead end. I did a quick search for Knightmare a few weeks ago and I got all excited i saw one band dressed up like monks or Druids, but that band only came out in 2017. I think it's safe to say the name has been used by many bands."
Then someone asks him: "Does the name "Battle Battalion" show up on any Metal "pedia" sites? That's what my supervisor claims this "dressed up in medieval armor" bands name was?" and another one told him: "I saw some bands with Battalion on the metal encyclopedia and discogs and none of them are our band. I don’t think we should go based on what a band wears as our lead."
Then he debunks the Knightmare (and the Conquest) lead: "So a little bit ago i mentioned a band name "Knightmare" as a possibility for this song. Well the band was actually called "KnyghtBlyde" (Knight Blade) and i got in contact with the daughter of the vocalist last night. I played this song for her and after some confliction/hesitation she said it is NOT her dad. The biggest thing was all of her dads songs were based of Aruthurian lore and filled with references to Camelot, Arthur, Morgana, Lancelot, Excalibur etc. Since this song has none of that, its not them. She has no idea who this is. I did a quick search "Conquest 80's metal band Texas" and found 3 results. Conquest from San Antonio, split in either '85 or '87. Conquest from Dallas, '86 - '90. Khan'quest (possibly same band as Khanquistador?), no location given but split up in '88 then reformed in 2000 then......nothing? I could not find anything about any of their songs or demos or releases or band members. But it's obvious I was thinking of the wrong Conquest bands 😂 Conquest was ruled out. Someone who owns the tape was contacted and told us this isn't them."
And he says the singer of KnyghtBlade is convinced this song is from Battallion:
"So a little bit ago I mentioned getting in contact with KnyghtBlyde singers daughter who states that this is NOT her dad. She contacted me this morning, her father thinks this song might be by a band called Battalion. But her father said Battalion also went by the name AAA, Anti Aircraft Assault (or Artillery) in their early days. According to her father AAA/Battalion were from Texas but at least 2 of their members were originally from Chicago. Has anyone ever heard of either Battalion or AAA, Anti Aircraft Assault? The closest I can say is my one supervisor at work mentioned a band Battle Battalion from Texas when he lived there."
Then someone replies to him: "you are right there is a band named Battalion formed in 1984" He says: "I cannot find a single piece of music from this particular "Battalion"? From what I could find they formed between 1983 and 1985, split, reformed under a few possible names, split, repeat. 2 people I asked did say they remember a band of some sort from "out west" Anti Aircraft A-something, but neither could give any info."
Now here, he suggests it could be a Talon song:
"So here's a potential lead for everyone: I was just playing this song for a friend who is obsessed with all metal music. She asked me "Where did you get that Talon song?" Talon was/is a German heavy metal band from the early 80's that released several demos and full on albums between '83-'89. Almost all of there songs were medieval themed, especially their 2 demos. Herr's the thing, they supposedly have 3 unnamed tracks from both demos, one allegedly called "King Slayer". I listened to a bunch of there songs and I have to say there are several songs where the singer sounds exactly like our mystery singer, but then the next song they sound nothing alike. There was one song called something like "Execution" that the opening guitar sounds like this songs opening only slower? I'm not saying it is Talon, but it is possibly something to look into or at least consider?"
He also claimed the singer sounds like Bruce Dickinson (which has been suggested many times):
"I've said many times that I personally feel this vocalist sounds extremely close to Bruce Dickinson. There is a clip of Bruce singing Tom Jones' "Delilah" on either a talk or game show, and his opening of that song is nearly identical to this Fall of the King vocals! Tone, tempo, cadence, pitch......it's really really on spot. I am NOT saying it is Bruce, I'm just saying whoever it is does a good job singing like him."
He says this song could be made by Eviscerator:
"Hello again everyone, has anyone ever heard of a band from Britain, late 70's through late 80's called "Eviscerator"? Very very long story short: I played this song at a Viking/Pagan/Neo-Folk/Black Metal "bar" about half a mile up the road from my place and the one patron who looked like Elvira and Lilith Bathory had a daughter together (HOT HOT HOT) comes over and asked me to replay it and she sang along with the recording with about %95 accuracy! Oddly, at the end after the 4 or 5 "The Fall of the King"s, she suddenly sang "The evil one now wears the crown, all hail the evil one" and head banged for a few moments. According to her, this song was by a band called "Eviscerator" and they always claimed this song was written as a pitch track for the movie Heavy Metal? I mentioned how this song by numerous accounts was recorded here in the USA in 86-87 from stations in Texas, Chicago, Cleveland, NYC and (by only one account) possibly Florida. She didn't feel there was an issue with that as stations will often play random things just to fill the spot including songs that are several years older. I asked about her added line at the end and she stated "I didn't add s*** bud, whoever recorded it must have cut it off before they got to it". I mentioned how numerous people strongly believe this is the work of Z'Rose, she said they probably covered it a bunch of times but it is not their song and even stated that this particular recording sounds like it could be them covering. She was more familiar with Z'Rose than me, she commented "The 3 Cavlaros brothers from Texas right? The singer was the oldest brother Jeff?" (I know that's not their name, i only included it for aunthenticity per context of our discussion, the last name is Cavazos and there was only 2 of them right?). She also told me Z'Rose had about a dozen other names through their years including "Gypsy Rose". I asked how she knew this British band "Eviscerator" and she answered that she lived in London from 78-85 and this song was played a lot on "amateur hour" on several stations, especially university stations. This kind of took me by surprise because i thought she looked younger than me (I'm 39) but she lived in England for college and her first husband in the late 70's??"
"In my last comments i mentioned a bar i went to was going to have a mini concert featuring bands that specialize in black metal and 80's tribute metal and i would play this song to see if any of the band peoples or concert goers would chime in. I did just that and got a few hits on the radar with a few of the band members. The one band, Inviaat, the singer says he remembers this song being played on a radio station in Philly PA for an entire summer because that station was trying to find the band. He does not remember the specific station but said it was near the Taylor University campus (my understanding is that there is several?) because the station thought it was the students from that university's music program. When i asked him when exactly that would have been he said Summer of 1983 because he was married on Halloween 1983 and was hoping the station would find the band so they could play at his wedding. A member from the local band "inductus Mortis" said he recalls that song being played "somewhere in the mid 80's" but does not remember if he heard it in Chicago or Cleveland because he bounced between them. I asked several bands, include the Venom tribute band Poisonous Whisper if anyone had ever heard of a band name Eviscerator from the 80's. Only one person thought he heard the name but it wasn't a band name it was a compilation album of NWOBHM from roughly '83-'84, but couldn't tell me anything other than that. As for the other concert goers, the #1 response i got from them was along the lines of "Dude you can sing, you should go pro!".....in other words they thought it was me promoting myself (I wish i could sing like that!!). the #2 response was people thought it was Manowar. After those 2 the guesses were the usual ones i have seen here and everywhere else this topic comes up: Blackmaine, Axis, Overkill, Overdrive, Black Sabath, Iron Maiden, Anthrax, Slayer, WitchAxe and 2 people even asked if it was an Ozzy Osbourne demo."
"I asked around, including my oldest sisters I've mentioned in my postings, about Eviscerator. The only person who heard of them, the one from this time-frame not the other 8 or 9 bands from the 2000's with that name, said they were a generic ManowaIron Maiden/Judas Priest tribute or more accurately, ripoff, band who sucked. I am not saying I buy this woman's account, but i'm also not discrediting it or calling her a liar. Her familiarity with this song and her accuracy with the lyrics makes me believe she knows this song from somewhere.....what that somewhere is, i can't comment because i don't know?"
"So far my friends and I have several "pings" to look into, the name Eviscerator has absolutely nothing from the time frame we're looking at. But there is (was?) a "Lee Lesaat" Canadian/British "mercenary" (did not belong to any band but would play for others) drummer who now lives in NYC my friends are looking into.
There is an 80's metal/black metal tribute concert this Saturday at the bar I was at last weekend. After the bands play their sets they have an open mic like set up where you can play your own music (as long as it fits the theme). I'm going to try and play this song and see if anyone, bands or crowd or food vendors etc, have any reaction.
And by "pings" I just mean responses/possible possible long shot leads. The guy or girl claiming to be a psychic vampire who time traveled and wrote this song for The Lost Boys movie is NOT going to be one of them😂"
Then someone asks: "What band is this Eviscerator ? I found a band that was formed in 2012 . Furthermore tthe song is not in the metal archives I searched through lyrics was not found." He says: "Allegedly they were in England in the 1980's, but the woman stated 2 of them had New York accents. If all of her account is true and accurate, they were NOT a professional big name band. I did find several bands with the title "Eviscerator" (in different variations) but all of them were from the 2000's. The only "pro" band with that title I could find was a Hungarian band from the mid 2000's. I asked Satanic lady if she remembered any of the other bands that played alongside "Eviscerator" and she only remembered 3: "Band-Shee" (an all female band....get it?) Gargoyle, and Werewolf Tears."
"I have a very very small update for everyone, but it's still an update nonetheless. The mystery succubus looking woman who said this song was by Eviscerator and sang along to it (even when I "accidentally" muted my phone to see if she was just repeating what she was hearing.....she was not) has been identified by my journalist friend! We are going to try and get in contact with her and see if there is anything else she can remember about "Eviscerator" that could help. I'm not going to get my hopes up, but her familiarity with this songs lyrics and the fact she sang almost in perfect synch with the beat makes me feel she really did know this song from somewhere in her past. That or she is a very good actress? Lol
I found only 1 solid, confirmed band with that name but they were from mid 2000's Hungary. But several peoples now and then tell me they remember hearing that name in the 80's as various things; crappy garage band, NWOHBM compilation album/work, some sort of event space or name, most recently someone claimed he thought it was the stage name of a singer but didn't know who or what band. I'm trying to get in touch with the woman who originally mentioned that name."
He posted this comment that lead nowhere: "2 very small updates for everyone:
1) The Viking/Pagan/Goth/Black Metal themed bar just around the corner from me is having a New Years event tomorrow night. They actually agree to give me a "booth" where i can have a "guess this song" set up. And, it will be right next to where the bands play...I'm going to be between the "stage" and the food truck lol
2) The one radio station i submitted this song to will play it on their "X hour" on 1/8/24. It is not a hugely popular segment, maybe a few hundred listeners, but it's better than nothing.
Here's to the New Year and hope this song and numerous others get solved!"
"So the station played this song Sunday night/Monday morning. They played it 4 times between 2:07am - 3:12am. They received 9 calls about it and about a dozen emails (I seriously didn't know they had an email!?!?!?). Unfortunately the majority of contacts were people either asking for them to replay it or people thinking it was Manowar. There were a few Iron Maidens and one or 2 Ozzy Osborne's. Only 2 people stated they heard this song before. Unfortunately they heard it from "some kilt wearing guy at blank bar plays it, I think it's him self promoting". Yes that's me they referenced and no it is not me singing lol"
He suggest matrixx as a possibility: "There's a band called matrixx that has been giving me interest. They were only around for two years due to financial struggles in their stage. If you look up attaxe and fiinal notice they share two members of matrixx. Their drummer and guitarist sound very similar to the band from this song. It's pretty crazy too because they have a song called defy the king. They also had a label to produce their songs which is called Suma Recording Studios. This may be the reason why the audio sounds too good for a small band. I hope that this is the band! Too many good clues that I found"
He debunks the Steven Lindfield lead: "One of the names thrown about here and there on posts about this song is a Steven Linfield ("Lindi") who bounced between Chicago and NYC in the 1980's. His alleged involvement varries between being the DJ who allegedly played it on a NYC station, to being a Chicago stations record manageclerk etc etc. I got in contact with him yesterday. He denies having ANYTHING to do with the airing of this song and does not know how or why his name came up. While he did work at 2 stations (NYC, then Chicago during the summer) he was an overnight watchman (security). However, he does recall this song being played on "some amateur hour crapshoot" in '86 in NYC a bunch of times. At that point in '86 he claims people were referencing it as "The King Song" or "The song of the King" (drawn out to match the singers "The Faaaalllll, the fall of the kiiiiiing") and it was already 2 or 3 years old at that time. He did explain that at least at the Chicago station there was an amateur drop-off slot that the dj's would pick through and play random "no namers" labeling them as "space filler". Because they would be played, literally just to fill space, they were NOT mandated to keep any records of them. Sometimes the dj's would just make up names to some of these. One of his main duties was to check the drop-off to make sure there were no bad things thrown in there instead of cassettes. Another dead end, but at least we rulled out one theory......silver lining??😂 LINDFIELD, not Linfield. Darn autocorrect on this phone."
He is convinced it's a professional band's demo: Thats why a lot people I have introduced to this song think it's a professional band, or at the extreme least an amateur band playing with top level equipment/sponsor? 1983 guy stated they sound like they have equipment his garage band "couldn't even afford to dream about looking at yet alone use". It's also one of the reasons my 2 oldest sisters insist this is a professional band (sister #1 says Manowar, #2 says Manowar or Sarissa) because there are no goofs or mistakes or errors. My sisters gave an example of a garage band from their Kutztown university days, "Freefall Abyss" that self released a demo and in one song you can hear a telephone ringing in the background and in another you can hear a fan or ac unit going.
He contacted a girl named Della: "This song was actually played on an old Philly/NJ station on the segment "Della names your tune" in 2009. I was able to get in contact with "Della" (real name withheld by her request) who at first stated "I played thousands of unnamed songs bud, I probably played this one 100 times, sorry i wont be much help" . Then a few days later replied "I do recall this one, it was sent in from a local listener who had it labeled as Dungeon Master or maybe Dragon Master on a CD with a bunch of old early Manowar, JudaPriest, Iron Maiden, Megadead, Metallica and AngelWitch songs. He or she claimed their father had this song on a tape from his college days. Nobody knew what or who it was back in '09 or '10 and as far as I know nobody figured it out when I left the program in '15." The only name she gave, and I don't know if this was even a real name or the drummers "stage name" was Leopald Lestat.........I do have 2 people looking into it (from a metal dating site of all places). Disclaimer: I know some of those bands are misspelled, I purposefully left it that way because that's how she sent it to me."
"I went down that road, you nailed it right on the head. There is no way to track down who that listener was. The only hint she had, in the form of the note attached to the CD was the person said they were from Radnor PA. I couldn't tell you because the other songs kind of bounce around in terms of year: there's a Judas Priest and an Angel Witch song both from 1980 but then there's a song from Megadeath (I believe Megadeath came out in '85?) and a Metallica song from '86? For some reason my one comment didn't show up? Della gave a pretty big hint, she said the mailing address on the CD was from Radnor PA, but the phone number included was a landline for a Chicago address. Her and the station managers assumed it was a "shadow number" and didn't bother keeping record of it. A lot of her requests had local addresses with out of state phone numbers, cellular and landline."
He suggests Dungeon Masters: "I have a potential lead, "Dungeon Masters" from Pittsburgh PA? Long story short: everyone at work talks about a "hot nerdy chick" who works at the one antique book store in town and she is a music genius and knows EVERY song people play. So i decided to test it. I played this song and she stated "I think thats Dungeon Masters, they were from my hometown of Pittsburgh PA back in the early to late 80's. Thats either Dungeon Masters or someone doing an incredible job imitating them?". Given that Cleveland is only a 2-3 hr drive from Pittsburgh (from what Steelers players say) i think this could be a possible lead and explain the Cleveland recording? Again, this is only a POSSIBLE lead, but i think it has potential?
Currently my one "source" is looking into it. He is not always accurate (as evidenced when we were looking into Conquest) but its better than nothing."
And someone adds this: "Della said the same Dungeon Masters so better look into it"
But he says this: "Close, "Della" stated the listener who sent in the CD had this song labeled as "Dungeon Master?", not a band name. But I am looking into it as best as I can. I found a Pittsburgh band "Dungeon" but they're NOT metal they're an Omnia/Faun like band (neo-folk I think is the term?) formed in 2018. I sent word out to the people I know and my "team". Now it is a waiting game."

In a bit of a pickle, I have been in QA for about 8 years as a manual tester for music tech and smart home companies testing ecosystems of hardware, firmware, software, and apps. I recently was in contact with a recruiter that said all the jobs in his network required experience with selenium/cypress/Java for automated test writing and execution.
I am taking online classes to learn these tech stacks and I have gotten decently far in learning them. When I do finally have a decent understanding, or in a spot where I have exhausted myself on the learning side, what is the best way to prove to potential employers that you know these tech stacks and could potentially help in their development environment?
Would making a GitHub page with example work, or working on open source projects be valid or is there a better way for some one to break into these types of QA automation jobs?