My understanding is that every time the view gets rerendered, the function will rerun if it is in the template. You can use pipes to make it so that a function will only rerun if the input changes, which is great. Does that mean you should never have a function in the template? Even if that's theoretically the case, do you personally ever just say 'screw it' and run a function in the template?

So I saw a few comments in this group of people talking about buying Vitamin E capsules (like the oral kind) and breaking them open to use on their face. I tried it today for the first time and HOLY CRAP it's so thick and sticky?! How do you use this???
I ended up with it all over my fingers and tapped it in on my face, but it stayed tacky until 4PM today! Fortunately I didn't have to go anywhere or wear makeup, but it took ages to absorb. It was so sticky I don't think I'd want to put it on right before bed either as I'm a side sleeper.

Hi all, first time dad here and I have taken the pram, capsule and car seat research on. We have tried a few different prams and have shortlisted a few. Uppababy Cruz V2 and Nuna Mixx are our preferred choices for now.
Both of these strollers can lay flat, would that mean it’s safe for the baby to go directly into the pram from week 1 in the flat position ?
Would we need to buy a bassinet ? Is that bassinet going to be more safer than the direct Pram option ?
From our perspective, it’s just another thing the shop is trying to sell and something we might use once or twice in the 6 months while we are at the cafe.

Hi peeps,
I’ve had quite a few frustrating weeks with DistroKid and I’m posting here because I think I’m flat out of options. I hope this isn’t a repetitive issue but I really don’t know what to do from this point onwards.
I uploaded an album to DistroKid on April 16th, with 5 covers and 3 originals. Luckily, all the cover licenses came within a few days and the album was successfully processed and delivered to stores on April 20th, or so I thought.
The original release date was set to May 10th, as I figured leaving a few weeks was a safe bet. I am writing this post on May 22nd and the album still isn’t live in ANY store. Not Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, instagram, even TikTok! 😂
Out of curiosity I had a chat with Spotify for artists support team, gave them the album name and UPC and they say that the album has not be received and they have no record of it ever being received.
As the album isn’t live in any stores, and it’s confirmed from Spotify that it hasn’t been received, I think it’s a fair assumption to say that despite DistroKid claiming the album is processed and has been sent to stores, that it just simply not true.
I’ve tried contacting support through their stupid chat bot but they just send me the clearly templated email with links to articles about the 5 working day wait time.
At this point, I’m so so frustrated with Distrokid, I’d even take a refund so I can hop onto a service with better support, but I don’t know if they do refunds for the cover songs.
Anyone have any ideas on what I can do next? Is there any other way to contact them? Or should I just give up and give Ditto the business?
Thanks in advanced peeps. I hope this doesn’t come across as too ranty, just a frustrated musician here! :)
TLDR Spotify hasn’t received album despite it being supposedly “delivered” by DistroKid over a month ago. Not sure what to do next.

I was looking for a resume builder and found Rezi on a Google search. I was pleased with the clean and simple interface. The hardest part of building a resume for me is the formatting, especially with the ATS formats these days it is especially important to make your resume easy to read and process for both humans and ATS screeners.
I don't like spending a lot of time fixing margins and fonts, so Rezi fills out everything automatically when you give it your information. I also like the suggestions at the end for adding more details on projects, something I've not seen elsewhere.
The resume that was produced was very organized and exactly what I needed. It looked very professional and easy to read unlike some of the other templates I have seen elsewhere online.
One suggestion I have for Rezi is some of the text on the website was hard to read because the text color was very similar to the background color. I had to highlight it with my mouse to read. Maybe a CSS issue or dark mode would help. Thanks.

Hey Everyone! We just made a new release! Please find release notes below:
🚀 Improvements

• Custom report enhancements.
• Upon clicking bars in the graph, the app will navigate to the transactions list with appropriate filters applied.
• Added daily and weekly intervals to custom reports.
• Transactions page updates:
  • Ability to create a rule from split transactions.
  • Option to disable reconciliation when importing OFX and CSV files.
• Budget table updates:
  • Click on any actual amount to view the transactions that make up that actual.
  • Budget groups can now be collapsed in the budget table.
  • Balances are now shown in category autocompletes.
• Improvements to the Reports overview page, including clearer chart titles.
• Budget vs Actual reports now have color-coded amounts for better clarity when the number is zero.
• Updated frequency labels in the planning/budget template for better understanding:
  • Bi-Weekly: Every two weeks
  • Semi-Monthly: Twice a month
  • Bi-Monthly: Every two months
  • Semi-Annually: Twice a year

🐛🛠 Bug Fixes

• Fixed various bugs and stability issues.
• Resolved issues in the demo warning modal:
  • Budget not resetting after the time limit.
  • Broken button visuals.
• Enhanced the tracking view with spacing changes and added a new row for “NET” for added clarity.
• The budgets file list view now shows when the budget file was created.
• Improved drag and drop functionality to prevent mixed-up order instances.

📱 Mobile Updates

• Budget quick-fillers (such as copy last 3 months average) are now available on mobile.
• Reports can now be accessed on mobile devices.
• Enhanced mobile usability and UX.

Enjoy the updates! ✨

Good morning sisters and brothers, fellow Saints of our aspirational Zion. I was asked to speak and allowed to decide what the topic would be. After a lot of consideration I felt inspired to speak about being Actively Engaged in a Good Cause and how that relates to the full name of the church.
I was glad when President Nelson decided to put more emphasis on the full name of the church. Not that I mind using the term Mormon, but because I do find the full name of the church to be significant. When the church was organized in 1830 it was called the Church of Christ. In 1834 the members voted to change the name of the church to the Church of the Latter-day Saints. Then in 1838 Joseph had a revelation for the name to be The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. While this effectively combined the two previous names, it also highlights something that I think most people overlook. Namely that the church is not only Jesus’s church, but that the church also belongs to us, the Latter-day Saints. We too have ownership of the church. While this may sound strange at first, it actually also fits very well with another concept that Joseph Smith taught: Theodemocracy.
Joseph spoke of this most actively the year before his death when running for President of the United States and when the Council of Fifty was created. The idea also holds in it that while God is in charge, we also have ownership and must have a say, actively vote, propose new ideas, and generally be actively engaged in moving things forward. It is not a theocracy with a fake voting system attached like that of North Korea. However, we have largely seen our own tradition move from one in which we do things by common consent including adding to our canon or as in 1834 voting to change the name of the church, towards something much more akin to voting in North Korea. This has coincided with other shifts in which we have taken less and less ownership of our church and as a result failed to properly sustain and support our leaders.
It is unfair to our leaders for us to sit back and wait for them to do frankly most of the heavy lifting when it comes to the running and functioning of our church, stake, and ward. In the past when I’ve been in callings that required me to be overseeing the assignments of home teaching or really any other church assignments, my experience has been that occasionally some inspiration will strike for some of the assignments, but that for the majority, I felt like I was left to figure out myself what assignments seemed to make the most sense. I know that many leaders that I have spoken to on this topic have also had such experiences. When we as members speak with our leaders, share information with them, it makes it much easier to make the best decisions. Without that feedback much more is left to guesswork.
We need to support and sustain our leaders, but this becomes difficult or challenging if we bring some assumptions to the table when considering how we do this. A major one as I see it is when we put too much trust in the arm of the flesh and grant our leaders infallibility or the lesser but largely equivalent functional infallibility.
As the saying goes: “Catholics say that the Pope is infallible, but none of them believe it. Mormons say that the Prophet is fallible, but none of them believe it.” Brigham Young recognized the potential for harm in this setting and said:
"I am fearful [the Saints will] settle down in a state of blind self-security, trusting their eternal destiny in the hands of their leaders with a reckless confidence that in itself would thwart the purposes of God in their salvation, and weaken the influence they could give to their leaders, did they know for themselves, by the revelations of Jesus, that they are led in the right way.” – Brigham Young 1862 General Conference (quoted in General Conference of the church in 1963 and in 1989)
And this one is also important:
"And none are required to tamely and blindly submit to a man because he has a portion of the priesthood. We have heard men who hold the priesthood remark, that they would do anything they were told to do by those who presided over them, if they knew it was wrong; but such obedience as this is worse than folly to us; it is slavery in the extreme; and the man who would thus willingly degrade himself should not claim a rank among intelligent beings, until he turns from his folly. A man of God… would despise the idea. Others, in the extreme exercise of their almighty authority have taught that such obedience was necessary, and that no matter what the saints were told to do by their presidents, they should do it without asking any questions. When Elders of Israel will so far indulge in these extreme notions of obedience as to teach them to the people, it is generally because they have it in their minds to do wrong themselves.” – Millennial Star, vol.14 #38, pp. 593-95
Yet does this functionally happen in the church? Do we follow this council to find out for ourselves instead of simply assuming everything from our leaders is divine? Apostle Charles W. Penrose, who would later serve as counselor to President Smith, declared:
"President Wilford Woodruff is a man of wisdom and experience, and we respect him, but we do not believe his personal views or utterances are revelations from God; and when ‘Thus saith the Lord’, comes from him, the saints investigate it: they do not shut their eyes and take it down like a pill.” – Millennial Star 54:191
Do we do this? When the prophet says “Thus saith the Lord” do we take the time to investigate it? Do we remember President Kimball’s reaction to Elder Benson’s talk on the “14 fundamentals of following the prophet”?
"Spencer felt concern about the talk, wanting to protect the Church against being misunderstood as espousing ultraconservative politics or an unthinking “follow the leader” mentality. The First Presidency again called Elder Benson in to discuss what he had said and asked him to make explanation to the full Quorum of the Twelve and other General Authorities… A First Presidency spokesman Don LeFevre reiterated to the press the day after the speech that it is “simply not true” that the Church President’s “word is law on all issues—including politics.” – Lengthen Your Stride – Working Draft, by Edward Kimball
I’ve had the opportunity to know some great Mormons who do take this approach, but I’ve also known many who treat quotes from church leaders like downloaded messages from God (no human filters involved).
If we can believe that God is capable of inspiring our leaders, surely we can believe God is capable of letting us know when they’re wrong. If instead we assume that their judgment is always superior to our own, perhaps we’re helping to put up a massive iron gate.
"How often has the Holy Spirit tried to tell us something we needed to know but couldn’t get past the massive iron gate of what we thought we already knew?" – Dieter Uchtdorf 2012 Worldwide Leadership Training
Moses once opined “Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!” We have all been confirmed members of the church and in that confirmation told to receive the Holy Ghost. It is easy to forget that when the spirit tells us something, that is a member of the Godhead speaking to us. If we can believe that God can give guidance to our leaders surely we can also believe God can give us guidance.
Another important and often overlooked point is the context to this oft quoted verse:
"We have learned by sad experience that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion." -D&C 121:39
This statement wasn’t given in a vacuum. It is in the middle of a long discussion of priesthood and priesthood authority. This is talking specifically about priesthood leaders. When we read that “many are called but few are chosen,” we’re reading that many priesthood leaders abuse their power and only few truly honor it. The saints in Joseph’s day understood this. I think we’ve sanitized it over the years to make it seem like an aside, an intermission on the discussion of priesthood. This statement is as true now as ever. This verse, with its proper context, needs to be a lesson for us as members. We need to sustain and support our leaders. This doesn’t mean following them blindly. This doesn’t mean we must become “yes-men” to them. This does mean pray for them to be chosen instead of just called. This does mean to influence our leaders to do God’s will. Remember, one of Brigham’s concerns about us acting as if all our leaders decisions were divine is that it will “weaken the influence [we] could give to [our] leaders.”
What questions our church leaders will take to the Lord are impacted by our own openness to those things. In 1977 President Kimball expressed concern that if the Race-ban on priesthood was removed that there would be pushback from members in the American South and from some in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. When President Hinckley was asked in an interview about the Gender-ban on priesthood his response was that “there’s no agitation for it.” Until we better engage in our own history and understand how we got to where we are now it will be very difficult if not impossible for us as members to be prepared for the removal of the current gender-ban on priesthood.
Sometimes we might justify our own spiritual laziness by saying that while our leaders are fallible that God will never let them lead us astray, granting them a sort of functional infallibility. Nevermind that this was first said when my 3rd-great-grandpa President Woodruff was trying to convince members not to leave over the Manifesto. Nevermind that it means that we’re denying our leaders their agency by assuming that God removes their ability to make mistakes in their callings. Maybe some make such a statement more nuanced. Maybe they think that our leaders can make mistakes, but they won’t be majosignificant mistakes. Well, what is and isn’t significant depends a lot on who you are and how you’re being affected by it. I’m thinking that the women and children who were slaughtered in prophet-sanctioned genocide in the Bible considered that a significant mistake. I’m thinking that the thousands denied temple blessings their entire lives because of the color of their skin might consider that significant.
Let’s just recognize that few are chosen and that we need to give our leaders constructive/interactive support. We place a lot of responsibility on our leaders and they are very likely to make mistakes. Because they are human and doing their best, but as humans we all err from time to time. Recognizing the mistakes of our leaders is essential to giving them true support; it is vital to sustaining them. I would hope that we would avoid enabling or cheerleading bad decisions that friends or family are about to make. Pointing out why a decision will be or was problematic is what we expect of people who we truly love and support us, because it helps us to avoid pain and pitfalls and enables us to be our best.
Here’s a story from our little section of Salt Lake City in which members recognized the potential for mistakes and took ownership of our church. On August 23rd, 1896 Stake President Angus M. Cannon proposed a man to be the bishop of a new ward which was to be divided from the Sugar House Ward. The congregation voted against the proposed new bishop. President Angus M. Cannon then purportedly shouted "Sit down! and shut your mouths, you have no right to speak!" When Cannon engaged in a shouting match with the dissenting congregation, a ward member and policeman threatened to arrest the stake president for disturbing the peace. President Cannon more calmly repeated his attempt but was voted down "again several times." The Secretary of the First Council of the Seventy was in attendance and wrote in his journal: "I have been taught that the appointing power comes from the priesthood and the sustaining power from the people and that they have the right of sustaining or not sustaining appointees.
When it comes to being actively engaged in church endeavors our neighborhood and the general Sugar House area has done a lot. The "stake missionary program" began in the Granite Stake under President Frank Taylor in the early 1900s. It was an idea presented to President Taylor who then prayerfully considered trying it out as a stake. It proved successful and was later picked up by the General Authorities who made it a church-wide program.
The seminary program was also started in our stake after Joseph Merrill (a newly called member of the Granite Stake Presidency) felt inspired to start it and worked out agreements with the school board and got it going at the very new (at the time) Granite High School.
Also, in 1909 the Granite Stake started a monthly family home evening program. After counseling with many sisters and brothers in the stake, the Stake Presidency asked each family to spend Tuesday evening home together. All of these were local things which were eventually picked up and run at the church-wide level. We have a history in our area of being anxiously engaged and pioneering with new ideas.
While those are all instances of members, wards, and stakes starting programs for good causes in our area of Salt Lake City, they are just a few examples of Saints starting inspired efforts which were eventually accepted and promoted by the top church leaders. The relief society started when women in Nauvoo came together to do some good. The Primary program, Sunday school, Mutual Improvement Association, welfare/farming, organized genealogy efforts, and Young Adult programs all also started as members and local leaders were anxiously engaged and thereby gave influence to the top church leaders.
So as we consider how we can more actively engage in the church and look at what we can do now that would help to further the kingdom of God, I’d like to share a few things that have been on my mind which I feel would be steps which we can do now and which doesn’t require any new doctrines, revelations, or organizational adjustments from our leadership.

1. Give leaders their agency and remove the false idol of functional infallibility

I’ve already said a lot about this. The only thing I’ll add is to encourage everyone to read and learn about our history. The church history department has been putting out a lot of new, well-researched material, and there is a very high chance that it will be different than how you learned about things over the last several decades. Interestingly, most historically thorny topics become vastly easier to deal with when we stop denying leaders agency and ability to get things wrong.

1. Stop turning into a time capsule of the 1950s

This is really a small thing, but sometimes small things can have an outsized impact. Assuming someone comes into church for the first time, they will likely be a little weirded out because in dress and culture they walked into a time capsule of the 1950s. The Amish did this with mid-1800s, some Mennonites have as well. FLDS have with when they split in the 1930s/40s. These groups that have followed this pattern of freezing time and culture because they have been integrated into their religious practice are generally ones that are not really growing and have little-to-no impact or relevance in society. If we want to do the most good and build the most bridges, it is easier to do if we don’t continue falling into this pattern. Any efforts on our part to make our meetings look like a place that people in the public could come into and not feel out of place are steps in this direction. Dresses, suits and ties aren’t part of Christ’s gospel. Missionary clothing is changing for similar reasons. New guidelines for missionaries include allowing sisters to wear pants and Elders to go without jackets, so surely we can extend the same to our church attendance.

1. Always speak at church as though the audience is the general public

I have many times felt like I didn’t fit in or belong at church, and many times this has been because people speaking at church have done so with the assumption that everyone in the building must share their views on a given topic. Simply imagining that a gay couple, an ex-mormon, an investigator, some in the midst of a faith crisis, and others who live in our neighborhood are in the audience will help us to make sure that as we teach our lessons, give our talks, etc. that we will do so in the most open and welcoming way possible, which frankly is how i believe Jesus would have spoken. I truly believe that if we try to do this it will drastically improve our lessons and dialogue and help to make church a place that more people want to be. It is a change that (to borrow imagery from Jesus’s parable of the sower) will be akin to tilling and prepping the soil to improve the likelihood of allowing seeds to take root.
There are near infinite ways that we can innovate and get engaged in good causes. Awake and arise, join in the cause of Zion. The aspiration of Zion is to be of one heart and one mind and have no poor among us. I think it is worth noting that being of one mind doesn’t mean agreeing on everything. It means that we are united in love; love for God and for all persons. When this is our top priority, when we worry about how our actions impact others and whether our words and actions are conveying love, we become united. I’ve been a long-time fan of Eugene England’s essay “The church is as true as the gospel.” In it he makes the case that the church is true because it is a vehicle in which we are able to actually try to put the gospel into practice. In doing so we encounter difficulties as we interact with other fallible mortals and try to navigate our interactions in a Christ-like way. We all try and this mix of imperfect people who unite in love and service can help to bring each other and others to Christ. It is my prayer that we can find ways to engage with love, and humble ourselves like little children, to change our ways as needed to come closer to Christ. I leave this with you in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

So, just started a new job and I'm finding that my biggest struggle is the manner of information exchange. It's a meeting-heavy culture, people don't really take notes in meetings, and the biggest challenge for me: seems like there's a PowerPoint presentation required for any meeting over 3 people to exchange information.
Now, l'm about 10 years into my career, and while I can make a good deck, I'm so much more accustomed to a written culture: I'm used to writing ideas succinctly in briefs/plans, sharing them ahead of time and/or creating silent reading time at the beginning of a meeting so folks can get caught up, and using written notes and comments to capture feedback/exchange/ideas.
My biggest challenge in this new, PowerPoint-heavy way of working it the time suck. I think it takes so much more time for me to convey ideas with images and creative layouts. Now, this extra bit is both a help and harm: the company has an extremely finely-tuned set branding assets (PowerPoint templates/layouts, color schemes, etc), and people seem to notice when you depart too far from it.
I've got to imagine there's some GPT tools that can help me accelerate this process, right? But also, am I crazy for thinking that this is kind of wild that th is the status quo?? I just feel like this is such a time suck 🥲

I'm on day 7 now. I started on 40mg 1x per day.
Side effects include feeling spacey and weird. Drowsy during the day and insomnia at night.
In an attempt to reduce side effects, yesterday I opened the capsule and weighed out half and took only half (20mg of medication). The side effects were improved a ton. I called my doc and asked if I am obligated to take the other half so I get the full 40mg or if cutting back is ok to help me handle the side effects better. He said whatever I feel comfortable with is fine. So, I only took 20mg for the day. By the evening I felt quite alert and clear headed and in a much better mood. My sleep is still a struggle but I think I'm managing to get 5 hours so it's tolerable, but not ideal.
Today, I started with 20mg again and felt pretty much normal, so at 12:30PM I took another 20mg, making it 40mg for the day, as originally prescribed. Now, I feel almost totally normal but with lots of energy in my head. It feels a lot like modafinil alertness, but this feels more natural now.
I think the divided dose really helps reduce some of the side effects, at least the one where I felt spacey and sort of dizzy.
I think when it's time to increase I'm going to ask for 25mg 2x per day, and then 30mg 2x per day, until I reach the right dose. This seems like the better approach. I really don't feel like weighing out powder every day so I'd prefer to have the premade capsules.
Note: I have a milligram scale so I am sure that the dosage was split correctly.
Another note: most of the pill's contents is filler. The contents weighed 280mg total so I weighed out 140mg per dose, which gave me 20mg of medication per dose and the rest was filler. I'm not suggesting anyone else do this, but if you don't know what I'm talking about then definitely don't do it.
Does anyone else do divided doses? I saw divided doses mentioned in a lot of the studies and on mayoclinic's website so it's obviously not like some genius new idea. I'm just surprised how well it changed things.

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92 Hours After the First Round of Interloper Interrogations. UNAFS Perseverance (HSR) - Shuttlecraft - 01. En Route to the New Lorisa Forests LZ.
Lysara
“Touching down in ten seconds.” I announced, my voice emanating from the encounter suit’s speakers in a language that, until just days ago, was an enigma.
Yet in a matter of days, this deceptively simple translation suite, a triumph of xenolinguistics, was now able to match my tone perhaps better than ever before.
Which explained exactly why Evina had responded in the way that she did. “Nervous, Lysara?” She offered in a snide, yet well-meaning jab.
I didn’t respond, not yet at least, as the last five minutes on approach were more often than not the most dangerous aspects of aeronautics; that much I learned from the pilots and armed service members I worked with over the years.
It was only after we’d touched down, and the final safety checks were complete, that I finally turned towards Evina. “I would be lying if I didn’t say I wasn’t at least a little bit unnerved about this whole situation.” I offered, gesturing towards the back of the shuttle, as the both of us unbuckled and left our seats. The whole mission was already memorized in our minds as we’d already run through every plan and backup plan we had over the entirety of the flight time down here. “And to be quite frank, I’m surprised you’re taking this whole thing so incredibly well.” I continued, going through the final checklists on the deployment of this platoon’s worth of combat drones as I did so.
“I think we’ve long since sailed past the point of no return the moment you told me that there was an intergalactic, eons-long war going on, Lysara.” The felinor offered with a shrug. “A bunker with potential ties with that aforementioned malevolent cosmic entity is nothing compared to that bombshell.”
“I’d have assumed that the nature of the bunker, and this mission being issued by said interloper, would’ve been the sticking point here.” I offered, genuinely curious as to the nonchalant attitude projected by the felinor.
“Eh. When you’ve lived in the wastes for this long, you’re bound to have heard the whole ‘the aliens did it’ conspiracy more often than you’d like. Now I’m not saying I believe every wastelander with a conspiracy theory… but I can’t admit the fact that the bunker has always been something that radiates a really weird aura about it. I mean, compared to literally everything else out there in the wastes? It exists in almost this time capsule of complete isolation. The beasts that roam the area, preying on anyone that gets close, don’t really help out much in that whole weird vibe either. So yeah, ever since my first iteration tried to drill her way into it, Far-Reach Point has been a point of great mystery amongst the survivors of the waste. Which lends itself really well to the possibility that your alien enemies could actually be behind it.” Evina shrugged once more, before adding a cheeky self deprecating comment. “The fact that it’s been broadcasting all this time should also be a dead giveaway to be honest. Because you definitely won’t see anything felinor-made still functional without constant maintenance after a few years into its lifespan.”
I chuckled at that statement, if only because it seemed to be made in genuine jest. “Well, we can’t say for certain that interloper tech is involved in its construction. What we do know is that the interloper has some vested interest in the facility.” I shot back, attempting to temper the felinor’s expectations and keeping everything to the limited facts we had on hand. “Or more specifically, the individual living within it.”
“And you got all of that just by putting two and two together huh? Your mission to find this person-of-interest, and the weird anomaly that is this signal station.” The felinor shot back with a disquietingly critical stare.
“It’s our one and only lead.” I shrugged. “It’s either that, or we comb through every living felinor on this planet. So in light of this massive lead, my hypothesis is that our person-of-interest, is in fact, somewhere within that facility.”
“Eh.” Evina once more shrugged. “A better conspiracy theory than the nutjobs. Or rather, good enough that I’d buy it.” She grinned, baring her teeth in the process which, at this point, I’d become accustomed to. If anything, it was after hours of ‘cat videos’, as Vir called them; that I finally started to become accustomed to these fangy grins. Moreover, it was becoming a point of endearment more than anything.
“In any case, drones are online and ready to go.” I continued, moving the conversation out of speculation and back into action, as the rear of the shuttle opened to a charred and lifeless forest floor.
“Man, Vir really did a number to this place, didn't he?” Evina whistled out.
“I… do apologize for all of the collateral damage we’ve incurred on your world-”
“Are you kidding me?!” The felinor interjected with a devious grin. “I hate forests! Heck, maybe it’s a carry-over from my perpetually-indoors first iteration, but forests have always been a place of danger and death lurking over every corner! So yeah, nah, don’t worry about it. If anything, Vir did us a favor by doing this; so be sure to like… let’s make sure to grab him a souvenir or something when we come back.”
The felinor’s frankly erratic behavior worried me sometimes.
But then again, this was to be expected given the nature of cultural barriers. As such, I simply ‘smiled’ back a smile of my own, bearing my blunt teeth as best as I could. “Noted, Evina.”
It was around that point where Evina finally donned her helmet, clasping it into place as she began testing the communications suite with surprisingly little difficult.
“Alright. Can you still hear me through this thing?”
“Loud and clear, Evina.” I nodded.
“Right, let’s get this party started.”

92 Hours After the First Round of Interloper Interrogations. New Lorisa Forests LZ, En Route to the Signal Station (Far-Reach Point).
Evina
We were parked approximately seven hundred or so meters from the signal station.
Though that distance was measured from point to point, and definitely didn’t account for the obstacles and terrain that stretched from here to the station.
Despite that, and what my memories had warned me was a treacherous trek through dense and uncompromising foliage, the world outside was now anything but.
However, despite the constant mission briefs and the logical part of my brain telling me that what awaited outside was nothing like my prior iterations recalled… the power of several lifetimes were just too powerful to overcome.
That was, until the exit ramp opened, and I saw the flattened devastation that awaited me. The charred forest, and the open landscape, quickly sent any doubts incurred by my prior iterations back to whence they came from.
So with one of the greatest obstacles out of the way, and the raw and unbridled power of human-driven alien technologies at our disposal, our deployment out of the shuttle and into the forest was a piece of cake.
More than that, I now had front row seats to the shock and uncompromising efficiency of automated combat.
Needless to say, I was more than happy to be on the other side of the barrel when it came to this engagement.
Four distinct squads of robots formed up and ran out of the back of the shuttle, forming into cohesive units comprised of ten or so felinoid bots, accompanied by a whole host of flying, crawling, slithering, and galloping machines that secured the perimeter for us within a matter of seconds.
Upon a single urging from Lysara, we walked out, flanked on all sides by a remaining detachment of bots, consisting of five felinoid units and a flight of five more drones.
For the first time in any of my prior iteration’s lifetimes, I finally felt like I was on the winning side.
It was a good feeling.
And one I hoped continued as we made our leisurely march through the decimated forests and up towards the station.
The whole scene was just so… jarring.
Especially as memory after memory came to the forefront of those trials and tribulations from the lives of my first, second, and third iterations that had all made this trek several times over.
The massive tileroot tree that dominated the area next to the station… was now just gone. The same could be said for the thick pipewood vines that obstructed the path every couple of steps, and even the earltail moss that kept growing thicker and thicker on the front entrance of the bunker.
Most importantly, the air around me was now silent and still, interrupted only by the near-silent whirrs from the robots and the crunching of ashen foliage beneath our boots.
This was perhaps the first time in my life I actually enjoyed the devastation, a thought that was both ironic as it was troubling.
Regardless, we eventually made our way to the front of the facility in a staggering seven minutes; arriving in front of a circular door with gear-like cogs that were sunken into the facility itself.
“So… why didn’t you try blasting through the walls or the other surfaces of the facility?” I inquired bluntly, pointing at parts of the facility that weren't built into the hillside.
“Countermeasures.” Lysara responded, his voice resonating into my ears, a weird and alien sensation that still sent shivers down my spine. “Our scans were incapable of determining the detailed makeup of what was inside. And as a result, we have the be on the lookout for potential countermeasures against unauthorized entry. In addition, given the fact the facility still has enough power to maintain that broadcast, we can be certain that we not only have to worry about passive countermeasures, but active ones as well.”
“Makes sense.” I nodded. “Is this why you wanted my expertise to begin with? In the hopes that I might have some intel on this place?”
“Correct.” Lysara nodded.
“Well thankfully, you’re in luck.” I responded with a cocky grin, pointing towards a not-so-insignificantly sized hole drilled into one of the door’s massive cog-like edges. “Like I told you in the briefing, my first iteration had tried her hand at breaking into this place. It didn’t work out, obviously, but she did have some theories as to how the whole door system works.” I began walking towards the hole, as a flood of memories from my first iteration slammed into me hard. “So, just beyond this hole should be an emergency release mechanism. Apparently most fallout shelter doors have this as a failsafe or something; accessible only from the inside but capable of being accessed from the outside if you're willing to dig through twenty or so meters of solid metal and rock. This is the mechanism I’m talking about here, so not actually the door itself. My memory’s a bit fuzzy on the specifics but… I’m sure that if we drill deeper into that, angling the hole sideways so we don’t actually go through the door itself, we should hit a mechanism that can be manipulated. Now if you have some fiber optic camera wire and a master lockpick or something, I’m sure you can do it in a few days. But considering we have the power of artificial intelligence on our side… I’m sure we can do it in five minutes.”
That vote of confidence for Vir was rewarded with a ping and a notification in front of my visual field. The existence of a HUD was again, just as jarring as literally everything else right now.
With a heavy breath from Lysara, who at this point was scanning the hole with a whole host of scientific instruments, I received my answer as to how it was we were going to proceed. “One of the bots can be repurposed as a multipurpose drone.” He gestured towards a combat bot that was quickly switching from its main weapon, to what looked to be a seriously well-kitted out multitool kit masquerading as a hand. “We should be able to bore through this in about five minutes, from there… I’ll switch things over to Vir, and I’m sure we’ll be inside that bunker in under fifteen.”
The confidence was palpable in Lysara’s voice, giving me hope that today was the day that the burning curiosity in my first iteration’s memories would finally be addressed.
First Previous Next
​
(Author’s Note: We arrive on the planet, and make our way towards the signal station! All the while, we observe the tireless preparations Vir has made in ensuring that the landing zone is cleared of threats! Evina elaborates further on exactly what her first iteration had done in order to try to get in, let's just hope that this time around, they can make more progress than her first iteration! :D The next chapter is already out on Patreon as well if you want to check it out!)
[If you guys want to help support me and these stories, here's my ko-fi ! And my Patreon for early chapter releases (Chapter 97 of this story is already out on there!)]

Hey everyone!
I recently published my boilerplate kit for Next.js to kickstart SaaS projects and save time in the initial setup. So far, it has pre-configured code for features such as:

• Authentication with Clerk
• Prisma ORM and Postgres database
• Subscriptions, billing and secure payments with Lemon Squeezy
• i18n support
• MDX documentation support (the boilerplate is also fully documented)
• Tailwind CSS and shadcn/ui for styling and dark/light themes
• Resend for handling emails
• Sentry for error monitoring
• Google Analytics
• AI integrations coming very soon!

I intend to keep this boilerplate free and continue adding features as I build other projects, but I plan on monetizing fully functional templates for apps built on top of it.
Any feedback is welcome, thank you for checking it out!
Here's the link: https://saasterkit.vercel.app/

[Game Thread] (11) Washington Mystics (0-3) vs (10) Los Angeles Sparks (0-2) ~ Tipoff - May 21st, 2024 10:00PM ET ~ WNBA League Pass

Game Information

Washington Mystics vs Los Angeles Sparks

Game Information

TIME	MEDIA	Location	Broadcast
Eastern: 10:00PM	Game Preview WNBA.com	Walter Pyramid	US: League Pass
Central: 9:00PM	ESPN Gamecast	Long Beach, CA	Canada: NBA TV Canada
Mountain: 8:00PM	WNBA League Pass		Local Home Team Broadcaster: Spectrum SportsNet
Pacific: 7:00PM			Local Road Team Broadcaster: MNMT

Road Team

Washington Mystics

Team Homepage	Team Roster & Coaching Staff
Social Media	Local Television & Broadcast
Twitter	NBC Sports Washington
Instagram	Monumental
Youtube

Home Team

Los Angeles Sparks

Team Homepage	Team Roster & Coaching Staff
Social Media	Local Television & Broadcast
Twitter	Spectrum SportsNet
Instagram
Youtube

Want to use my 2024 WNBA Templates and help contribute posting game threads for wnba? Download here!. A potential 255 Game Threads for the entire for 1 person is a lot of work. Ahayling needs volunteers so he cannot be relied upon.
Read The Flow Chart if you're Watching Games Courtesy of @cwetzel31 on Twitter for those if you're planning to watch the games.

[Game Thread] (5) Phoenix Mercury (1-1) vs (3) Las Vegas Aces (2-0) ~ Tipoff - May 21st, 2024 10:00PM ET ~ WNBA League Pass

Game Information

Phoenix Mercury vs Las Vegas Aces

Game Information

TIME	MEDIA	Location	Broadcast
Eastern: 10:00PM	Game Preview WNBA.com	Michelob ULTRA Arena	US: League Pass
Central: 9:00PM	ESPN Gamecast	Las Vegas, NV	Canada: N/A
Mountain: 8:00PM	WNBA League Pass		Local Home Team Broadcaster: Silver State Sports & Entertainment Network
Pacific: 7:00PM			Local Road Team Broadcaster: Arizona's Family 3TV, Arizona's Family Sports, Mercury Live (Livestream)

Road Team

Phoenix Mercury

Team Homepage	Team Roster & Coaching Staff
Social Media	Local Television & Broadcast
Twitter	AZ Family 3TV
Instagram	AZ Family Sports Network 44
Youtube	Mercury Live (Livestream)

Home Team

Las Vegas Aces

Team Homepage	Team Roster & Coaching Staff
Social Media	Local Television & Broadcast
Twitter	Silver State Sports & Entertainment Network
Instagram	KVVU
Youtube

Want to use my 2024 WNBA Templates and help contribute posting game threads for wnba? Download here!. A potential 255 Game Threads for the entire for 1 person is a lot of work. Ahayling needs volunteers so he cannot be relied upon.
Read The Flow Chart if you're Watching Games Courtesy of @cwetzel31 on Twitter for those if you're planning to watch the games.

[Game Thread] (7) Dallas Wings (1-1) vs (8) Atlanta Dream (1-1) ~ Tipoff - May 21st, 2024 7:30PM ET ~ WNBA League Pass

Game Information

Dallas Wings vs Atlanta Dream

Game Information

TIME	MEDIA	Location	Broadcast
Eastern: 7:30PM	Game Preview WNBA.com	Gateway Center	US: League Pass
Central: 6:30PM	ESPN Gamecast	College Park, GA	Canada: N/A
Mountain: 5:30PM	WNBA League Pass		Local Home Team Broadcaster: PeachtreeTV, Peachtree Sports Network
Pacific: 4:30PM			Local Road Team Broadcaster: Bally Sports Southwest Extra

Road Team

Dallas Wings

Team Homepage	Team Roster & Coaching Staff
Social Media	Local Television & Broadcast
Twitter	Bally Sports South West
Instagram	Bally Sports South West +
Youtube

Atlanta Dream

Team Homepage	Team Roster & Coaching Staff
Social Media	Local Television & Broadcast
Twitter	Peachtree Sports
Instagram
Youtube

Want to use my 2024 WNBA Templates and help contribute posting game threads for wnba? Download here!. A potential 255 Game Threads for the entire for 1 person is a lot of work. Ahayling needs volunteers so he cannot be relied upon.
Read The Flow Chart if you're Watching Games Courtesy of @cwetzel31 on Twitter for those if you're planning to watch the games.

Over the years, I’ve done a lot of different work in the games industry. I want to start this off by saying that I do NOT consider myself a marketing expert; maybe intermediate. I’m making this post to address the most common misconceptions my clients have had regarding marketing. Quite frankly, this is the biggest point of failure for indie games. Take it all with a grain of salt, share your own experiences, and please: correct me wherever you feel I may be wrong.
Marketing should start at the same time as development. You have a great idea for a game — awesome. Do you know who else is going to want to play it? Do you know how you can reach large numbers of those people? How can you make branding and messaging appealing to those people specifically? This should be day one stuff. It almost always isn’t.
Going viral on social media is an outdated concept. Social media wants you to pay for ads. That includes X, Reddit, and everything in between. Many will throttle you for unpaid self-promotion.
Don’t spend money on short-term engagements with content creators. Even if you catch them on a day when they are energized and having a blast playing, their first priority is their audience, not your sales numbers. A one-time payment will not change that.
Don’t hire unverified marketing help. Unfortunately, the indie games space is full of scams. Lots of people offering marketing help have no experience. Ask to see multiple case studies and successful campaigns.
We’ve gone over a lot of stuff that doesn’t work. Let’s cover a few things that do!
Know your ultimate goal. You should strive to create enough of a presence on multiple platforms to start getting noticed organically. Throwing a few hundred bucks at some ads isn’t going to do it. A somewhat successful post on Reddit isn’t going to do it. Align multiple marketing actions in such a way that they help amplify each other — make a new trailer, use it in your media outreach, promote it in various ways, use it to announce a demo and a contest — now we’re talking!
Optimize your Steam page. Make sure all of your art is high-quality, distinct, and gives a player an idea of what they can expect from your game (capsule art especially.) Figure out what the best tags for your game are. https://games-stats.com/steam/tags/ is a decent place to get some insights. Do this ASAP.
Create a community hub. I like to use Discord for this. All of your socials, Steam page, your game demo if you have one, and just as importantly, the game itself — everything should funnel players into one place. This will become an invaluable resource. The first committed members of your community will help provide insights into how to reach your demographic, help you find bugs and quality of life issues, and keep your team motivated. Don’t wait to do it — a year or more ahead of launch is ideal!
Reach out through content creator platforms. The ones I have personally had good results with are drope and lurkit. Your mileage may vary. If you’re lucky, you’ll find a few content creators that love your game and want to keep engaging with it.
Reach out to content creators for free promotion. This is really a numbers game — you might send out 100 emails and get 2 or 3 people who cover it. Focus on creators that absolutely love your genre, and love showcasing promising new content. Send them a free key along with a personalized message. The odds of success are honestly pretty low… Nevertheless, if a sizable YouTuber covers you and is genuinely intrigued by your game, this will be well worth your time.
Run contests, giveaways, or tournaments. Let’s face it — you have a lot of competition. If you want people to line up to try your game, a little extra incentive might help! Make sure that your prize(s) are hefty enough to overcome any barrier-to-entry. A caption contest would have a low barrier-to-entry, while a leaderboard competition would have a fairly high barrier-to-entry. Keep in mind that the likelihood of winning a prize is a barrier-to-entry factor as well. “Winner receives $100” < “10 random contestants receive $10.”
I hope someone finds this helpful. This is not a fully comprehensive guide, just an opportunity to compare notes. If you have questions about any of the things mentioned in this guide, feel free to DM me! If you have something to add or correct, please let me know in the comments.

Hey guys.
I self diagnosed. A long time ago. Very stupid. Anyways. I thought initially it was a B12 deficiency. Took tons of B12 sublingually with Folate. Ended up in some pretty bad bad places. Wasn't until I switched it around that I noticed the relief, strength, skin sensation, rigidity, libido, sleep, etc. Okay. B9. Not B12. I also suffer from Post Orgasm Illness which is basically another B9 Deficiency problem. Key word: ACTIVATED B9 problem. Essentially my methylation is bad. Anyways. I for the life of me cannot find a good dosage that lands me in a place that feels right. I'm using Folinic Acid right now for the B9, but I am wondering if I should switch over to methylfolate.
I realize I have no issue with digesting B12 from capsules, and boy, they can work quite effectively I get into some dreamy places with the capsules. I am familiar with the methylation process of activating vitamin b9, it relies on genes and cofactors like B2, B6, and then B12 to fully activate.
I've already taken the fully active version methyltetrahydrofolic acid, and got the relief. Problem is there's a bunch of other important things that happen while activating B9 like converting Serine to Glycine, etc, that taking the final form of B9 cannot go back on and help. So I would like to take a different form. Methyltetrahydrofolate, the second to last form. I don't know. Just doesn't work well for me. I'm pretty lost in all of this. Just experimenting in my room.
​
​

Let's be honest here, we are not going to get any sort of response from SportsQuack, OneCricket, or SportsBattle or whatever legal entities that they operated under. The best chance any of us have in getting any response, is probably by contacting your state gambling/lottery commission, this link might be useful to finding your individual states contact information. (https://www.nagra.org/State-and-Province-Gaming-Regulatory-Agencies) Some states (including the state i live in) are less clear about who controls and regulates DFS though, so might be helpful to reach out to all of them.
I have reached out to the state of Georgia yesterday (where SQ was headquartered and operating under the name of OneCricket Fantasy Inc) regarding this. Today I received a response that they had received my message and will respond. Below is a boiler plate template to summarize what WE think transpired. I have italicized the body and also bolded some areas that may need to be changed depending on you and who you are sending it to.
It's possible that we are made whole again and the money from our accounts IS refunded to us. However, the lack of any communication on SQs end is really troubling and quite frankly, I doubt we ever get access to our money.
That being said, we should still be using the resources our states have in place to try and force an answer from them. Some states (llike Georgia where SQ is located ) require licensee's to have Surety bonds to maintain "adequate reserves to account for losses suffered by a licensee and owed to bettors" (albeit, with how this all went down, it would not surprise me if SQ even went through the process of acquiring bonds).
If SQ and it's owner were not following proper laws and we never have access to our funds, us notifying the regulators at least allows them to hopefully stop them from ever pulling something like this again and hopefully provides us with some sort of answer.
In the words of former alcoholic lawyer and part time hockey coach Gordon Bombay, "Ducks Fly Together"
Hello,
I am reaching out to you today regarding a daily fantasy sports app named "Sportsquack" (which may be registered as either SportsQuack, SportsBattle, or OneCricket) that ceased operations on Friday May 17th, leaving many users with thousands of dollars they are unable to access. Users have received almost no communication regarding the status of these funds besides one small message that was posted on the app on the day of closure.
The owner has faced lawsuits in multiple states regarding the company (onecricket fantasy inc) in question, primarily due to the factoring of receivables and his failure to pay the other party. His failure to pay other creditors has led many of us to believe that our funds will never returned to us. The highlighted section below may of the most interest to you as it was very atypical of an app to offer these sort of promotions. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at this email or by phone
I am not a resident of Georgia (as I currently reside in XXX state) but am contacting you as I believe your organization oversees the handling of all gambling in the state of Georgia, including DFS apps that operated similar to Sportsquack/Sportsbattle/OneCricket.
The organization as of Friday, May 17th has ceased operations. As a result of them ceasing operations, many users have funds that are currently unavailable to them locked in the app, with users having no ability to withdraw funds. Some users (including myself) having upwards of $1000 in their accounts that are no longer available to us.
In the time since then, many users have been unable to find any information about what will happen to the funds that the users had in the app. Their support is offline, their twitter has been deactivated, and emails have been bounced back.
In addition, the app, in the weeks leading up to being defunct, ran a series of promotional items where users were offered deposit matches, ranging from 25% to 100%. These promotional items were offered multiple times a week. The app also did not allow users to withdraw money while they had promotional money in the app, leading to many users depositing and being unable to withdraw their funds. Many users feel as if these promotional items were run in bad faith and were only used to keep the users funds tied up in the app and to personally enrich the owners of the application. A search of twitter (https://x.com/search?q=sportsquack&src=typed_query&f=live) using the apps name shows a lot of concern that users were defrauded by the organization.
I am sending this message to see what recourse I have to potentially secure my funds and also to make your organization aware of something that may affect the citizens of Georgia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzVeZNO2wlE
I randomly stumbled upon the demo version and idk about anyone else but honestly the lyrics had my hair standing on end and I was like wait wtf is this? Spaghetti where? Captures the essence of genius, flow states, coherence, ecstasy, unity, harmony, etc., stuff along those lines which speak a lot more to Eminem's brilliance as a lyricist imo, and it might be shorter but the original chorus and verses gel together so well. The fact that he doesn't even remember writing it adds to it too. But I like the music of the released version better and thankfully I found this mash-up. Hope you dig it.
Lyrics:
[Intro] Yo, if you could just, for one minute Or one split second in time, forget everything Everything that bothers you All your problems, everything, follow me
[Verse 1] If I was froze inside of a moment If I could capture time inside a capsule, an hourglass full Of sand in the palm of my hand, it passes through it If I can grasp it and just control what happens to it Then I can trap it, so no more time elapses through it If raps could do it, maybe I could tap into it Then I could try to channel it through Cadillacs and Buicks To transmit through 'em, to make you put your ass into it And that's when you hit the roof because you can't sit through it Your passions too much for you to not be dancin' to it And as you do it, your movements become fast and fluent You're mashin' to it, moshin' 'til you're black and bluish You're actin' foolish, this music it has influenced You to be rowdy but in an orderly fashion, true it's Chaotic but it's got your body movin' as a unit Unitin' together tonight, so make it last and you better just—
[Chorus] Lose yourself in this music, this moment We own it, we won't never let it go (Go) You better move yourself 'cause tomorrow's ass can wait There is no time to sit there and procrastinate (You better) Lose yourself in this music, this moment We own it, we won't never let it go (Go) You better move yourself 'cause tomorrow's ass can wait There is no time to sit there and procrastinate You better—
[Verse 2] As we descend together, we begin to move as one In perfect unison just like the moon and sun Illuminate the room and humans soon become aluminum Rhythmically in sync, if you'll excuse the pun But if you could lose it once, I mean if you could let shit go Relax, take a breath, and just let it exit slow To rest your soul, you could leave the rest to me If I could give the world a hit of ecstasy To make 'em feel the feelin' that I'm feelin' right this minute 'Cause I feel like the night won't end until I get finished So close the shades, makin' sure no light gets in it The sky's the limit tonight because the night's infinite A high percentage of black people and white mixed in it But no one really gives a fuck 'cause they just like what's spinnin' His life was spinnin', the whole entire night just spinnin' Like life's beginning So come out from inside your skin and quit hidin' in it
[Chorus] Lose yourself in this music, this moment We own it, we won't never let it go (Go) You better move yourself 'cause tomorrow's ass can wait There is no time to sit there and procrastinate (You better) Lose yourself in this music, this moment We own it, we won't never let it go (Go) You better move yourself 'cause tomorrow's ass can wait There is no time to sit there and procrastinate You better—

Over the years, I’ve done a lot of different work in the games industry. I want to start this off by saying that I do NOT consider myself a marketing expert; maybe intermediate. I’m making this post to address the most common misconceptions my clients have had regarding marketing. Quite frankly, this is the biggest point of failure for indie games. Take it all with a grain of salt, share your own experiences, and please: correct me wherever you feel I may be wrong.
Marketing should start at the same time as development. You have a great idea for a game — awesome. Do you know who else is going to want to play it? Do you know how you can reach large numbers of those people? How can you make branding and messaging appealing to those people specifically? This should be day one stuff. It almost always isn’t.
Going viral on social media is an outdated concept. Social media wants you to pay for ads. That includes X, Reddit, and everything in between. Many will throttle you for unpaid self-promotion.
Don’t spend money on short-term engagements with content creators. Even if you catch them on a day when they are energized and having a blast playing, their first priority is their audience, not your sales numbers. A one-time payment will not change that.
Don’t hire unverified marketing help. Unfortunately, the indie games space is full of scams. Lots of people offering marketing help have no experience. Ask to see multiple case studies and successful campaigns.
We’ve gone over a lot of stuff that doesn’t work. Let’s cover a few things that do!
Know your ultimate goal. You should strive to create enough of a presence on multiple platforms to start getting noticed organically. Throwing a few hundred bucks at some ads isn’t going to do it. A somewhat successful post on Reddit isn’t going to do it. Align multiple marketing actions in such a way that they help amplify each other — make a new trailer, use it in your media outreach, promote it in various ways, use it to announce a demo and a contest — now we’re talking!
Optimize your Steam page. Make sure all of your art is high-quality, distinct, and gives a player an idea of what they can expect from your game (capsule art especially.) Figure out what the best tags for your game are. https://games-stats.com/steam/tags/ is a decent place to get some insights. Do this ASAP.
Create a community hub. I like to use Discord for this. All of your socials, Steam page, your game demo if you have one, and just as importantly, the game itself — everything should funnel players into one place. This will become an invaluable resource. The first committed members of your community will help provide insights into how to reach your demographic, help you find bugs and quality of life issues, and keep your team motivated. Don’t wait to do it — a year or more ahead of launch is ideal!
Reach out through content creator platforms. The ones I have personally had good results with are drope and lurkit. Your mileage may vary. If you’re lucky, you’ll find a few content creators that love your game and want to keep engaging with it.
Reach out to content creators for free promotion. This is really a numbers game — you might send out 100 emails and get 2 or 3 people who cover it. Focus on creators that absolutely love your genre, and love showcasing promising new content. Send them a free key along with a personalized message. The odds of success are honestly pretty low… Nevertheless, if a sizable YouTuber covers you and is genuinely intrigued by your game, this will be well worth your time.
Run contests, giveaways, or tournaments. Let’s face it — you have a lot of competition. If you want people to line up to try your game, a little extra incentive might help! Make sure that your prize(s) are hefty enough to overcome any barrier-to-entry. A caption contest would have a low barrier-to-entry, while a leaderboard competition would have a fairly high barrier-to-entry. Keep in mind that the likelihood of winning a prize is a barrier-to-entry factor as well. “Winner receives $100” < “10 random contestants receive $10.”
I hope someone finds this helpful. This is not a fully comprehensive guide, just an opportunity to compare notes. If you have questions about any of the things mentioned in this guide, feel free to DM me! If you have something to add or correct, please let me know in the comments.

Could really use some tips and good stories about getting off Venlafaxine (efexor). I am so frustrated and without hope that it can succeed right now.
Long story short. Got diagnosed with BP2 last fall after trying to treat a depression for over a year (took me forever to realize that the hypomani wasn’t me getting better). Been dealing with what i thought was stress for years.
So far i have been treated at a private practice (living in Denmark - the waiting time for a public psychiatrist is insane). After many unsuccessful attempts with different medicines, my psychiatrist has chosen to refer me to a public service specializing in BP. But the psychiatrist there has rejected the referral because I take Venlafaxine (efexor) and have not yet tried to be on only stabilizing medication (because from the start they thought it was unipolar depression). I have tried to stop Venlafaxine twice. The first time with the classic method where I got down with 37.5mg. It got so bad - completely unstable and so depressed and insane pain in my body. I was a dysfunctional nervous wreck. Tried again later with just 5mg (measured the contents in the capsules). Again it got so bad that I had to give up.
I have been on it for almost a year. I didn’t know it would be a requirement to get off it before they would help me - and it stresses me out. But now I kind of have no choice and need to try again. This time my psychiatrist said i could try taking extra Quetiapin, hoping that the zombie effect might take a top of going through hell.
Has anyone managed to get off it? any advice would be amazing!