You know how you get in a rut, wanting to get in shape, wanting to get better at something, just want to develop a new habit, and you tell yourself, "I'm going to workout everyday for the next month" "I'm going to do leetcode everyday" etc.? You get all hyped up, and you're super motivated, and you start crushing your goals the next day. Then a week goes by, 2 weeks, and that motivation starts to waver off, and you start skipping a day or two, and eventually it just fizzles out...
Motivation is so fickle, so emotional. It can feel so strong that you feel like it will last forever, but sooner or later, it's gone.
But your motivation can be hacked. A few months ago, I did this fitness challenge with a few friends where we all set goals for a set amount of time (30 min at the gym, 5 times a week, for a month). And we all put down $100 and put it in a pool. Everyone kept track of their workouts, and at the end, only those who succeeded in all their checkins split the pot. While the ones who failed in the middle lost their money. So the winners actually ended up making money.
It was incredibly motivating, the desire to not wanting to lose my $100. The original motivation for starting this challenge (wanting to get in shape) was replaced by the much more real motivation of not wanting to lose money. Money is funny that way, it's so much more real and tangible, it actually keeps you going way better than anything else.
Not to mention how fun the challenge was. We were kind of in competition with each other, trash talking and teasing to try and get the others to not work out. But at the same time it was teamwork. We genuinely wanted everyone to succeed.
Anyways, it was so effective and so fun that I ended up making an app for this. The cool thing about making this into an app is that you don't need to have an immediate group of friends with the same goal. We could create a community of people with goals, and strangers could come together online on the app and do challenges together.
The structure of the app is as follows:

• anyone can create a challenge for anything
• you set how much the buy-in ($) is, how long the challenge should last, and the check-in rules
• up to 5 people can join (small groups means better dynamics)
• everyone pays to join
• you check in daily with a photo upload according to the check-in rules set out by the leader
• chat in the private chatroom, encouraging each other
• in the end, the "survivors" split the pot - they can withdraw the money back out

Hope you find this helpful! The app is called Goalie, you can search it on the app stores.

Hello! I am preparing to take the Washington West B next month. I am an incredibly anxious test taker. I feel pretty ok about the reading and writing section. But math is not my strong suit. Im frustrated that I can’t use a calculator because mental math is where I really struggle. I am still debating whether to take this in person or online. Any support or suggestions you guys have?

Welcome Slayers of Demons! We on /demonssouls understand that from time to time, you may need assistance adjusting the world tendency of your game to help you along in your playthrough, or maybe you require some help attaining the online trophies like 'Return to Form'. However, since the release of the PS5 Remake, this subreddit has been spammed with hundreds and hundreds of threads begging for world or character tendency or online trophy help, and it detracts from the overall experience of the subreddit. Because of this, we have added the following rule:

No tendency & trophy help requests outside of the pinned threads, nor begging for in-game items.

You can read the full rule, here.
To meet those who are making these posts in the middle, we now have weekly threads dedicated specifically to requesting help with world or character tendency, or online trophies. In addition, we would like to remind you of the following resources, which might provide you with more immediate help!

• Demon's Souls (PS5) Discord Server: use the #co-op and #trading channels!
  
• /SummonSign - make sure you format your post properly.
  
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You may use this thread only to request help with your world or character tendency, or online trophies; and to offer help to others. Off-topic comments will be removed.

Have a great week! :D

first
Luna VI query: Set the source to the leaked files of the first reconnaissance operation of Irisa.
Done!
Luna VI query: What did Nathan do during the first hour of the war?
***
From the instant he opened his eyes, Nathan's morning was chaotic. It all began with the ground shaking beneath him, jolting him into a state of awareness. He then was greeted by the sight of Amara. She was leaning against a corner, covered in purple from head to toe as she screamed at someone through an earpiece that she was pressing with one of her claws.
His good morning was overhearing one piece of bad news after the other.
The rest of Amara's group had been ambushed early in the morning; many were dead, injured, or missing.
A war had erupted in the sky and her allies were trying to push back the enemy forces, but the battle persisted; the outcome was uncertain.
Zara was being brought to them, but Amara had lost contact with Igmila's group who was bringing her, only receiving confirmation from another group that a rescue pod was spotted at a distance.
And when he thought that things couldn't get any worse, he heard a bang followed by the AI reporting that Ryo had shot down a drone somewhere near their position.
"Open the tent!" Red had conquered Amara's body.
None of the scenarios Nathan had contemplated the previous night had prepared him for such a chaotic morning. "Give me a second."
He only wanted a chance to get his gun from his backpack and explain why he had it in the first place, even though he suspected Amara was already aware he had it. But she didn't let him. "Now!"
She had never felt so distant to him as the moment she said that single word, which led him to just comply as he stood up and followed her in silence. But this frail silence only masked his morning grumpiness, magnified by the dire circumstances and her cold demeanor toward him.
Nathan had barely caught a glimpse of Ryo and Elysira at a distance when he muttered. "It wouldn't have been so hard to say a few words to fill me in, you know."
Amara's eyes were transfixed on the smoking pieces of the drone when she whipped her head around, glaring at him with her orange eyes. "My people are fighting a war and dying. How can you demand my time when Yelara is hurt and barely escaped alive?"
"Oh, come on, I'm not demanding anything." He scoffed, shaking his head. "I just don't think it would have been so hard to tell me what you intend to do in the next five minutes."
The tip of her tail pressed against his chest, as red and purple coexisted on her skin.
"I am heading up the mountain to find Igmila." She spoke in a detached voice, pulling her tail back and turning around, and then she sprinted in the gap between himself and the tent.
He caught a glimpse of gray on her neck and all his grumpiness was gone, replaced by a cold shiver running down his spine. With his arms moving faster than his thoughts, he grabbed her by the tail, preventing her from going anywhere.
"You absolutely can't do this Amara." Nathan looked down at the tail he held with both hands and swallowed a lump of saliva in fear of her reaction. But that still didn't prevent him from finishing what he had to say, "It's too dangerous."
Amara's eyes sought his, causing him to suspect she would demand to be released or try to free herself by force, but she did something else. "All of this is because of you. Had I not come to your tent, I would be there to assist them."
Nathan caught a glimpse of green around her back spots, which let him know that there was a hint of guilt in her words. But did that justify blaming everything on him and running into danger without thinking?
If not for the awful night followed by an awful morning, Nathan might have just taken the blame and hugged her. But he too had his limits, "How is that fair? Blame me all you want, but nothing will change that you had all the chances in the world to go back and you didn't. I'm not saying that you could have done anything abo-"
"Indeed." Gray flashed for a moment before red flowed among her black spots. "This night was a waste of time." His grip faltered at her words and she pulled her tail back from among his fingers. "I should have stayed with Yelara to help her tend to her wounds."
Nathan bit his lips in frustration. How was it possible to agree with her words, yet still feel the sharp sting in his heart?
And if that was not enough, Ryo had to step in to rub salt in the wound.
Clap.
Clap.
Clap.
With Elysira’s tail wrapped around his wrist as she averted her eyes from Amara, Ryo spoke, "Please don't tell me you're mad because the plant lover couldn't get it up."
Nathan blinked fast not believing his eyes. Ryo was not only shirtless but there were a lot of scratches on his neck and below. Elysira’s long strands were also a mess, but even without that, their physical closeness alone would be enough of a hint of how much fun they had at night.
When Nathan glanced at Amara to gauge her reaction, she had already crossed her arms, looking at him angrily. Which immediately made him feel as if Ryo’s not-funny joke was true although he knew it wasn't.
It took Nathan a considerable amount of self-retainment to not walk up there and rearrange Ryo's handsome face with his fist, or at least attempt to do so.
A few seconds passed before he said, "Why are you here?"
Ryo didn't even bother to look at him, his eyes focusing solely on Amara. "Information. I want her to tell me what she knows about this war."
Amara didn't look pleased to help, but she still informed him about the ambush and even alerted him that even their current position would soon be unsafe.
As If things weren't already bad enough, Ryo frowned and hurried to instruct Elysira to get his things as soon as Amara had finished talking. Nathan felt like he was in a war movie where everything was happening too fast for his emotions and reason to follow.
It was only when he saw Ryo raising his gun skywards that Nathan’s anger subsided, contained by the prospect of how bad their situation was. Ryo movements were fluid and methodical, but he never pulled the trigger on the many drones that appeared high above and, instead, retreated to take cover behind a tree.
Only now the seriousness of the situation sank in for Nathan.
He didn't even care that he hadn't explained to Amara why he had a gun yet, rushing inside the tent after exchanging a glance with her.
After crossing the circular door, he found only a few items on the ground: a pair of boots, his sleeping bag, and his backpack with all his equipment inside.
Nathan was quick, wearing his boots first before retrieving his belt, knife, and holster from the backpack. With a sequence of swift movements, he strapped the sheathed knife and holster to the belt and cinched it around his waist, securing it in place before closing the backpack and dashing out the door with his gun in one hand and the backpack in the other.
Already outside, Nathan found it weirdly reassuring that Ryo was in the same spot as before, but that only lasted until he tried to find Amara, but found nothing no matter where he searched for her.
He dropped his backpack, feeling at a loss. How could he have allowed her to venture beyond his sight when he knew that guilt was clouding her judgment?
Only when he had already cupped his hands around his mouth to scream her name that he felt a touch right above his heel—her tail.
"Psst..."
Wiping his head, Nathan saw Amara's whole body mimicking the colors of his tent, making herself quite hard to spot.
"I thought you were gone." He joined her, stooping down beside the tent as relief washed over him.
"It might be too late to join my soldiers." She didn't allow her colors to change, but the translator conveyed a hint of sadness. "I lost contact with all the teams who were coming here."
"Amara I-"
Nathan was about to attempt to make things right with her when Ryo’s assertive voice reached him. "Listen up, those fuckers are jamming our comms and they will be here at any time. Take the MLBCS and find a clearing to use it, I doubt they can interfere with the laser. Just don't forget that your immediate safety comes first or else you might not be among the living when the pod arrives."
Ryo ran back to his tent as soon as he was done speaking, leaving Nathan questioning his own intelligence. How come he had never even considered leaving the planet? A single glance at Amara and he knew why. But did he have any other option?
Staying and fighting to hold his position was something he briefly considered. But did he have a chance when even Ryo decided to leave after seeing the drones?
Mission control might give him other options, so Nathan decided to try his luck despite Ryo’s warning.
Unable to establish a two-way connection.
He confirmed the interference with the communication with a single thought, kicking his backpack in frustration even though it was expected.
Why did it have to be so hard to accept that Ryo was right and leaving the planet was his best option?
But would Ryo truly leave the planet and leave Elysira behind?
Nathan forgot Amara who was beside him and screamed, not allowing this question to stay in his mind, "Wait, what are you gonna do?"
Ryo replied as he waited for Elysira, "I'm not leaving the planet unless mission control finds a way to save Ely too."
Nathan's eyes widened, feeling like an idiot as he brought up a pop-up window showing the schematics of the rescue pods. They were designed to be fast vehicles capable of transporting a single person to the space station, but Earth's government hadn’t skimped on the design, which included various components that could be discarded, such as medical supplies and search and rescue equipment.
He used the AI to run the calculations and found that Amara would likely be able to go with him, that is if they wedged themselves into the vehicle and discarded everything else.
Nathan was about to share his findings with Ryo when he caught a glimpse of him and Elysira disappearing into the woods, abandoning their tent behind as they ran away.
A sense of urgency struck him at that moment, but it was easily forgotten when Amara's voice struck even harder, "You should go."
"What do you mean?" He sought her eyes, but she avoided his gaze, facing to the ground.
"Do what Ryo suggested." She took a small pause before she went on. "Leave the planet."
"The hell I will!" He punched the tent. "Not without you." He could only assume she was saying this because she didn't know she could leave with him. "You'll come with me, and the pod will take us to the space station."
"Your species will refuse to take me." He saw a hint of purple on her neck. "Before the mission started your people told us you humans will not get involved in our wars." She finally made eye contact, and the purple on her skin intensified. "My best chance to survive this is to hide in the mountains and wait for reinforcements."
"You don’t understand, Amara." He didn't have time for a full explanation of what humans considered not getting involved. "No one in mission control will want to leave you here to die just because of some stupid rule." He then spoke his heart out without a care in the world. "And even if they do, they will take you anyway if say I won't go anywhere without you."
A hint of yellow could be seen among her camouflaged skin, but before she could say what she would do, her tail wrapped around his neck and he felt a strong pull to lower his head and bend his knees for cover.
"The rebels are here," she whispered as her ears twitched.
Nathan was tall enough to see the slope on the other side of the tent by just standing, but Amara struggled to see from above the structure, requiring her to stretch her full height and still take little jumps to take peeks.
And it was after doing so that she dropped her camouflage entirely, letting purple run free among her black spots.
Nathan took interest in what she had seen that had caused such a reaction, and he leaned cautiously against the tent and raised his head slowly, prepared to find a few armed Irisians hidden among the trees. But what he found instead was a never-ending line of Irisian advancing downhill at a fast pace towards them.
He understood Amara's reaction now, pulling back the harmer of the revolver as he stared at her. "I need to... do something."
He made up his mind, determined to shoot. But when activated the infrared view mode and took aim at Irisians descending the slope, Nathan froze for a second. This just lasted a moment, and when found the resolve to fire, he had already lifted the gun enough that it wouldn't hit anyone and it would just be a warning shot.
He fired once, twice, and went on until all six rounds were gone, then he noticed their organized marching had stopped, all of them having activated their camouflage. Some even broke the line and retreated uphill.
When he took cover again, Amara was protecting her ears with both hands, looking at him as if he were some sort of monster. Nathan ignored her and rifled through his backpack in search of more ammunition, finding the small box with shining metal bullets after he had searched for some long seconds.
It was only when he released the cylinder to reload the gun that Nathan noticed something.
His hands were shaking.
He ignored it and pressed the extraction rod the remove the cartridges from the cylinder to make room for the new ones, clumsily dropping a few of them as he reloaded.
Amara saw this and stopped him with her tail before he had filled all the chambers.
"I cannot go with you." Her body had been conquered by purple.
"You think I'll leave you behind?" He almost reached his breaking point when she replied.
"No." Her tail touched his cheek gently. "There are too many of them, Nathan." She pulled her tail back as a hint of gray appeared. "My brother will never let me go, he lost too many ships and soldiers to give up without his prize." The gray intensified, squeezing her black spots. "If you die with me on this planet, your species might abandon Irisa forever.
"My chances of hiding in the mountains are slim, but they exist... and even if I fail I will distract them long enough for you to flee."
Her body blended with the surroundings again and Nathan felt that she was about to do something stupid, but he moved faster and grabbed her shoulders, forcing her to bend her legs and join him on the ground as she stared at him with wide eyes.
"To hell with this self-sacrifice bullshit." Nathan finally decided what he would do. "Do you think I will die that easy? Guess what, you’re wrong." His hands moved from her shoulder to her back and he embraced her. "Let me tell you what we'll do, we take the MLBCS, we find a clearing, and we go to the space station." He released her and added, almost crazily. "You go with me even if I have to drag you by the tail as you scratch me, you hear me?"
He was not kidding; he grabbed her tail with his left hand, leaving her exterior filled with colors ranging from purple to yellow.
Amara was about to reply when the tent produced a thud noise, sounding as if someone had knocked on a cardboard box. When they turned to the side, there was a tiny hole in the tent dangerously close to Amara's head.
She touched the hole with her finger, and then her whole hand pressed against the side of her head, staring at him without saying a word.
Nathan's heart skipped a beat when he realized what had just happened, and consumed by a rage like he never felt before, he pressed the cylinder of his revolver back into place with just the four bullets inside, pulling back the harmer.
This time there was no hesitation, he quickly stood up and used the infrared view mode to survey the now organized groups of Irisians who had taken a defensive formation, choosing as target an Irisian who had climbed a tree and was pointing a long gun at them.
In just a moment Nathan aimed and pulled the trigger, firing one round after another. The first two missed completely, but the others hit the tree right above the target, making this Irisian panic and release his claws from the wood, only to welcome an ugly fall on the rocks below from several meters above the ground.
He took cover again immediately, but this time noise as if he was facing heavy rain under an umbrella struck his eardrums moments after he had taken cover, making him wince every time he heard the distinct noise of a projectile going through one wall of the tent and stopping the other.
With her tail still among his fingers, Nathan and Amara exchanged several anxious glances as the shooting persisted, only calming down when the rebels realized they were wasting ammunition and the barrage of fire slowly started to lose momentum.
Nathan's heart was racing and she was going through all tones of purple when she broke the silence.
"Fine!" She spoke fast. "If you are being so adamant about tying our fates together, we can do it your way." Her tail escaped his grip, but instead of pulling it back, she coiled it around his wrist. "But we are weaker together, Nathan. I will be a burden to you when you run, and you will be a burden to me when we hide."
"Oh, to hell with that too." Despite his harsh words, just knowing that they were on the same page now was enough to give him some hope. "Sorry. I do all the running and you do all the hiding, does that work for you?"
He didn't wait for her reply and loaded the gun again, this time doing it very fast even though his hands were still shaking.
"You do all the running? I fail to understand you." She said as she stood up to take a peek at the enemies, just to recoil in fear and add, "Explain yourself fast, they are losing the fear of your loud gun."
"Sure." He grasped his backpack bottom and overturned it, emptying its contents in a quick motion. With all the items on the ground, Nathan only took the MLBCS and the little box with his drones that he promptly stored in his pocket. "We won't need any of that, which means my back will be free."
"Are you crazy, I am too heavy f-"
"You're not." Nathan was 6′3″, and he had the nanites ensuring he was as healthy as a human could be. This meant that the short Amara—the top of her head only reaching a little below his shoulder—was not a challenging weight for him to carry given her slender body.
Noticing the doubt in her gaze, he lowered his body even more, turning his back towards her in a way it would be easy for her to climb, hoping this would be all the push she needed.
"You take pleasure in testing my trust, do you not?" The tone of her voice hinted at her reluctance, but she still draped her arms over his shoulder, securing her grip in a way her claws wouldn't hurt him.
Even though they had a plan now, Nathan still felt a chill down his spine at the thought of what he would have to do. And despite knowing that he had taken everything he needed, he anxiously patted down his pocket the make sure the box with the drones was there and remembered to take a handful of bullets, filling up his pockets as some of them fell to the ground.
"Ready?" He asked, trying to sound confident.
"See for yourself." Her tail wrapped around his belly, full of tiny black spots surrounded by purple as far as he could see.
Nathan took a few deep breaths and stood up, getting a glimpse of the many groups that were advancing from both sides, trying to surround them.
It didn't even take him a full second before he started firing his revolver indiscriminately at them while his legs moved on their own, not even waiting for his eyes to decide which path he would take.
Amara's weight escaped his thoughts completely, replaced by the fear evoked by the faint noise of metal breaking the sound barrier around them as soon they left the protection of the tent.
He didn't spare a single glance behind, running downhill at full throttle with bursts of adrenalin fueling his speed. He outran the reach of their guns quite fast, hurdling fallen brunches and putting not only distance but also several tree trunks between them and the hostile force behind.
With Amara's solid grip and occasional shifting of her weight to prove that she was fine, Nathan kept his pace as his muscles burned with exertion.
For a little over ten minutes he kept going, jumping over protruding roots and ducking beneath low-hanging branches. But this couldn't go on forever and eventually, he stopped to catch his breath, bending forward and letting go of items in his hand as Amara released her grip to stand on her own two feet.
His breath was coming in ragged bursts, but that didn't keep him from starting to laugh as he stared at her, whose eyes were gentle and her entire body was filled with hints of yellow.
In a split-second though, her whole demeanor changed, all the yellow giving way to purple and red.
She asked a single question, "Is that device of yours supposed to release smoke?"
The tip of her tail was pointing at the MLBCS, which now had a small hole in it from where a whisp of smoke curled upwards, just like a candle after its flame had been extinguished.
Nathan shook his head and touched his forehead; a single word left his mouth, "Fuck."
***
This was an account based on what Nathan did during the first hour of the war. The previous narrative is based on the events of the morning of the twentieth day of the exploratory mission of Irisa. According to your current settings, no queries will be suggested.
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Hello Y'all! I am just reposting the update and adding some insights in case my last post was removed.
OLD POST << Hello, folks! Some people here must have seen my last post about my experience with folliculitis and how it wouldn't stop coming back no matter what I did ( even after a ton of antibiotics and other medication for 6 months ) and I think I found out why. After endless textbooks and science papers, I finally came across some interesting papers :

• Cutaneous larva migrans with folliculitis: report of seven cases and review of the literature ( the most important )

⦁ Hookworm-Related Cutaneous Larva Migrans by Patrick Hochedez and Eric Caumes on Oxford Academic ( PDF online, this one contains very in depth information ) (( Just click on doi ))
⦁ Hookworm: An Uncommon Cause of Folliculitis in Travelers on Pubmed ( PDF online )
⦁ Hookworm folliculitis by Khaled Ezzedine and Thierry Pistone also on Pubmed
⦁ A Creeping holiday souvenir : about a misleading case of hookworm folliculitis on Oxford Academic.
There's a parasite that is so small and easily caught ( they come from animals, mostly dogs and cats ) that has the same characteristics of bacterial folliculitis. In fact, in some of these papers, it is said that if the antibiotics and nothing else works, it's probably this thing. They don't appear on blood tests and sometimes you can't see them even with a biopsy.
( Doctors found out because of a guess, actually. )
One thing that I did not find on textbooks and was surprised to read is: bacterial folliculitis rarely itches. Itching is the main sympton of parasitic folliculitis, in fact, the itching is worse at night. Although it was studied in 1929 at first and they are found everywhere ( principally in tropical and subtropical countries) most doctors end up missing the clues because these little f**ks are not that well known and they don't show the usual characteristics that parasites show ( for example, at first I thought they were scabies, but mine are not contagious so I ruled it out ) but this kind of parasite can be non contagious too.
By the way, I must specify that other kinds of folliculitis CAN itch too. Here they are talking about the difference between bacterial and parasitic folliculitis.
So it explains those past symptoms that I previously talked about :
⦁ Comes back after medication even if weeks later.
⦁ Sugar can make it worse ( parasites like that )
⦁ Heat and sweat make it worse.
⦁ There are no other symptoms like fever or pain ( apparently, the larvae can't reach deeper skin, so it stays trapped on the outer layers of skin. )
⦁ The lesions appear some days after first contact and can take very few days to appear other lesions.
⦁ The lesions follow a TRAIL. They can be linear or just jump from one place to another. They are always close initially before going onto other places.
⦁ It started on my thighs, but besides the thigh it is also common to appear first on the skin of your feet or above the gluteous. And then it goes to the rest of your body.
Yeah, so Doctors can end up misdiagnosing because it can look like scabies or bacterial folliculitis. As one of the papers said, it can last years because the parasite can die but come back. A person can get them anywhere but it's most common to get them after having contact with water or soil contaminated, even stepping on it for a second can be enough.
Another interesting thing is that infections of the skin can look different on everyone, no matter the race, so sometimes they can be parasitic but look like bacterial, virus, fungus folliculitis. Most of them usually have a brown dot in the middle though.
So I ask you guys to read those papers, they may help you. They talk about the medication that was used and apparently it's rare for them to have side effects, and of course, be careful with self medication, if you can please contact a medically qualified professional. I know that choice is not available to everyone but if you can, a second opinion can be very helpful.
Today I went to check with my doctor and everyone was very happy to confirm that that was the actual problem. So I am happy to share this information with you guys.
Cheers! >>
UPDATE ( 2 )
It's working. As I answered someone else back there " The good news is that was exactly the problem. The bad news is that folliculitis is a very uncommon thing to get when it comes to parasites and it's the hardest to get rid of, unfortunately. They basically say " It's hard to get rid of, take the meds until it's gone" because that's something that doesn't happen every day and the doctors and scientists are kind of not totally sure what to do. So I'm taking 12mg ivermectin every monday ( two pills of 6mg ) because that's usually what people do and works most of the time. At the start I had them all over my body, but then months later I took ivermectin for three days and they kind of died, so I had to stop taking any kind of medication for 30 days to take another lab test, but surprise, the lesions did not grow like before ( every 3 days ) , for a whole month I only got two or three new ones and they would die almost immediately. It really depends on the person how many times you'll have to take the medication, in my case , my immune system and overall health is not the best so it makes a bit of sense that it's taking a while."
I'll add a part of Cutaneous larva migrans with folliculitis: report of seven cases and review of the literature here as for some reason the paper is not uploading :
[ We reviewed all cases that were seen in our department from April 1991 to April 2000 of CLM in which creeping eruption was associated with folliculitis. Patients were included if they presented with localized folliculitis and creeping eruption. Folliculitis was defined as pustular follicular cutaneous lesions. Creeping eruption was defined as one (or more) linear or serpiginous mobile cutaneous track(s). The following information was recorded: age, sex, recent travel history, country visited, time from return to clinical onset and presentation, clinical signs, treatment and outcome. All the patients received oral antihelminthic agents, plus topical treatment in one case. Treatment options for CLM in our department include a single dose of oral ivermectin 12 mg weekly until cure, and oral albendazole 400 mg twice daily for three consecutive days.
Five patients were cured with one to three courses of ivermectin (unit dose 12 mg), including one also treated with thiabendazole ointment. Two patients were cured with albendazole 400 mg twice daily for three consecutive days. Lesions of folliculitis took longer to clear than those of creeping eruption.
Folliculitis is an uncommon clinical form of CLM, as only five cases have been reported in the literature. However, it may be more frequent than previously thought. For example, in a 2-year prospective study, CLM was observed in 69 patients, two of whom also had hookworm folliculitis. Folliculitis in a patient returning from (or residing in) an endemic country should lead to consideration of infection by a hookworm (or other nematode), even though bacteria are the most common cause. All the cases of parasitic folliculitis in our series and most of those found in the literature were pruritic, in contrast to most forms due to other microorganisms. The diagnosis of parasitic folliculitis was based on clinical findings alone. Histological studies are unnecessary, but show nematode larvae trapped within the follicular canal, stratum corneum or dermis, together with an inflammatory eosinophilic infiltrate. In three cases, the larvae were identified as Pelodera strongyloides, a free-living nematode belonging to the order Rhabditoidae. In another case of folliculitis the larvae were identified as Ancylostoma caninum, a hookworm. The pathogenesis of parasitic folliculitis may be related to an allergic reaction to the presence of the nematode larva in the follicular canal.
The remaining patient's clinical signs subsided only more than 2 months after presentation. In one case, thiabendazole eradicated the creeping eruption but not the follicular lesions. Our experience is similar. The clinical response to a single 12-mg dose of oral ivermectin was less favourable in our patients with folliculitis that in most other patients with CLM. A single dose of ivermectin cured two of five patients in our series, whereas it usually gives cure rates of 81-100% in CLM. Treatment was repeated until the pruritus disappeared, this symptom being indicative of parasite viability. In conclusion, folliculitis should be added to the dermatological manifestations of CLM. The clinical diagnosis is facilitated by the pruritic nature of the lesions and their association with serpiginous tracks. Treatment is more difficult than in classical forms of CLM. ]
So yeah, hope this helps a bit.
Please be very careful, these medications can be harsh on your organs and I am not exaggerating, drink plenty of water.

Where online or in person could i find (pro or near pro) devs to help me work on a photoreal game project built from the ground up and how much would i expect to pay them a year? Is there any places I could get funding/donations for a game without having to pay anything in return or what options do i have?
Also if I put up design work online of just animations that I would have created in a 3d modeling program, but there is no coding behind it (as in to play), do you think people online may take interest in it and offer their hand without pay or less pay? What if it is just still 2d concept art work or what can I get by with?
Also how many people do you think I'd need on my team in order to have at least a demo (or final work) avaialble until I can get funding from a company (like a major publisher or developer?) that would be willing fund my game yet still keep the vision or most of it I have for the game? Is that even a thing?
Is funding from an outiside source like from a publisher necessary to complete a work? And roughly how long does it take to create a 3d fighting game if there are few people on the team or what are some rough calculations?
I am in San Antonio TX btw

i couldn't think of a better title...
^Disclamer(s: the things i've written are about my thoughts and worries and stuff which aren't particularly logical. the last thing i'd want is for my dumb internal worries to offend any of ya.)
I'm currently 16, and I've been wondering about being trans for the last year or two. I've been having some questions which have bothered me during that time. I've tried to talk to a lot of people and do research, but can't really ask anyone about it irl because I live in a *wonderful* country where people are *so* trans-supportive that the courts declared that changing your gender was illegal last year, and a lot of the things online seem a bit confusing and contradictory to my pea-shaped brain.
One of my main "concerns" is that when I was younger, basically up to the 7th or 8th grade, I was absolutely sure that I was a guy. I had absolutely no interest or thoughts about being trans, even though even then I knew that the option exists (sorta, I knew that my country sucks in that regard). I constantly read how people knew for sure from something like the age of 7, and I just never experienced that at all. The closest thing was that I had a vendetta against gender norms and stuff ever since I was young, which also complicates the whole trans thing for me because I just don't know if I should even bother for something that may end up being meaningless. (for me)
I had a somewhat traumatic childhood, which also sorta ended with the deaths of several family members at around the same time as me being in the 7th grade. After this, a gradual fall into depression followed, which I'm still fighting with and is sorta worse than ever. I fear that my thinking that I may be trans is just a coping mechanism and that I may realize that after transitioning and regret everything. There is also the worse option of me just Ted Kaczynskying this and just trying to blame all of my problems on some factor that feels beyond my control. I guess I just fear that I can't trust my own thoughts
Sometimes I feel fine in my current body, sometimes I just feel a bit iffy, sometimes I just want it all to end just to stop the whirlwind inside my brain.
Also, for me, the onset of anything related to gender, sexuality, and stuff can be pinpointed to a single thing like a YouTube video or such, which just leads me to wonder if I'd think about this if I had never watched it. (I'm not regretting that I watched it, I just wonder how real my thoughts are if they would have never happened otherwise)
I'm sorry for this unweildy wall of text, i just... i don't know...
^{If this post accidentally broke some rule here, i'm really sorry, please delete it.}

Where online or in person could i find (pro or near pro) devs to help me work on a photoreal game project built from the ground up and how much would i expect to pay them a year? Is there any places I could get funding/donations for a game without having to pay anything in return or what options do i have?
Also if I put up design work online of just animations that I would have created in a 3d modeling program, but there is no coding behind it (as in to play), do you think people online may take interest in it and offer their hand without pay or less pay? What if it is just still 2d concept art work or what can I get by with?
Also how many people do you think I'd need on my team in order to have at least a demo (or final work) avaialble until I can get funding from a company (like a major publisher or developer?) that would be willing fund my game yet still keep the vision or most of it I have for the game? Is that even a thing?
Is funding from an outiside source like from a publisher necessary to complete a work? And roughly how long does it take to create a 3d fighting game if there are few people on the team or what are some rough calculations?
I am in San Antonio TX btw

I (m) 25 live with my mom & her Elder Sister ( My Khala), My Father Passed Away 11 Years Ago, And my Kuala Never Got Married and She's A Retired Govt. Employee. And we 3 were Living Pretty Decent Upper Middle Class Life Until The World got hit by Covid. And I Lost Almost All Of My Finances as my Father had a Moderate Level of Textile Business & after My Baba's Death I Took Over it, and Covid Just made me Lost That 1 Source of Income which Both my Parents had Built In a span of 18 Years...
In July 2020, I was Married Earning Around 4-5 Lacs from our Factory.
In May 2021, I was Bankrupted because whole Country's Economy was On Hold... With me 40 People Lost there Jobs which they were doing for Years.. 40 Families lost there Daily Bread & Butter.
My Wife Took Khula from me and went to Dubai as she just completed her MBBS and during that time There was a hell load of Demand of Medical Staff in Middle East..
Rest of a Little Money which was left in my Bank Account (10-12 Lacs) were drowned Like Water on trying to open & Run a few Small Business Projects like Opening a Small Scale 1-2 Dishes Specialized Food Corner, or Selling Electronics and Accessories online & mostly Got Myself Pick-pocketed by my own Childhood friends who were my Brothers as I don't have any Siblings.
Its not like that my m apny ap m barky mar rha hu. But I Have been Raised to become a Well Groomed Guy. Mentally, Ethically, Intellectually, But I never Pursued my Education after Intermediate As I had to become the Only Pillar To my mother who was trying to Raise me and Managing my Baba's Business. And nobody And I Literally mean Not even a single member From our Family Stood Forward to Help us In those Difficult Times.
So why I wrote All those Incidents which are Irrelevant to the Question Asked Above?
At this time I've been Jobless for 2.5 years. And me my, mom & My Khala Relies on my Khala's Pension for our monthly Survival. We live in a Rented House. And This month Due to 1st May's Local Holiday, My Khala's Pension got delayed for 2 days only. And on That Labour's Day We Didn't Ate until Friday when she Finally Got The Amount in his Bank. And I Was Shattered up to my Core by Seeing my Mom and Kahala in that miserable State. My mom is of 64 & my khala is almost 8-10 years Elder than her.
So for me Even 100 Rs. Is Priceless, I can't calculate its Value. I'm So Hurt RightNow that being a Fit Healthy Young Boy I am Unable to Provide for my family.
Still I Am ThankFul to Allah Almighty For Everything.
j I started a YouTube Channel Exactly 1 year Ago. And So Far my Channel have 193 Subscribers. Plz make Dua For the Growth of my Channel as for my mama, This Channel is her last Hope jis sy Unka Ye Nalayak Beta apny Pero py Khara ho jay...
I'm Sorry for sooo lengthy post. May Allah Pak Bless Every One Ameen :)

Hi, sorry if this question seems stupid. I have my driving license in Ireland for 5 years and now I’m living in Malaga I want to buy a car. However, from being a passenger in cars in Malaga I know the drivers here are.. un poco loco. I also just want to know the basic differences in the rules of the road/ general driving here before going out on my own. I can’t find anything online about it. Would it be possible to do some lessons in an autoescuela or something?? I know this is probably not common but I don’t want to go out and crash in the first 5 minutes driving. Thanks

Consuming a lot of YouTube content (pro demonstrations etc.) and in some cases there’s been mentions of scarring on a trunk being a bad thing. Is this something specific to a particular style of bonsai or a type of species (e.g., azalea vs conifer)?
I know there aren’t real rules in bonsai but if we were gatekeeping the traditional attitudes and staying within the classic “rules,” when does scarring in itself get points deducted?
Maybe I’m just dumb and misunderstood but it feels like it comes up from time to time in my passive online learning journey.
Like, instead of working with a scar to add age, when is it considered a better approach to minimize any trunk damage of any kind?

tl;dr summary: complicated tax situation involving marriage, student loans, community property state; I want someone to explain WHY the best scenario for me is the way it is, not just “oh it’s usually not worth it” that I’ve been told.
Up until now, I have been single and without a mortgage. This year, I may be getting married and I purchased property with a mortgage. However, my fiancee has income-based repayment student loans, and we want to avoid filing as married filed jointly if possible. Furthermore, we live in a community property state with high state income taxes, so our incomes are our total incomes divided by two. Whenever I read online or even asked my accountant about how to maximize my tax refund, I always hear “married filed separately is never worth it” and “itemizing deductions isn’t work it anymore either because of the higher standard deduction.” We do not have children. We will be doing backdoor Roth IRAs that will be unaffected by filing status. I don't see any other tax breaks for married filed jointly that apply to us. For the sake of simplicity, I omitted our 401k contributions. With all of these caveats, I’ve read the tax code and came up with my own calculations. It seems I stand to save four to five digits in taxes if I understand the tax code correctly.
For starters, if I were filing as single and with standard deductions: in 2024, I will make $350k. Standard deduction is $14,600. Taxable income is $335,400. The marginal tax rate is 35%. The lower bound of the 35% tax bracket is $243,726. The marginal tax is $32,086. The calculation here is 350000-14600 = 335400, then (335400-243726+1) *0.35 = 32086.
If I have a mortgage where I paid $60k in interest and the principal remaining is $1.5M, then under the federal cap on interest paid on mortgage debt up to $750k, I can deduct $30k from my taxable income. I will have state taxes greater than $10k, so I will max out the SALT deduction. If I were to itemize my deductions, it would be at least $40k deducted from my taxable income. This would bring my taxable income from $350k to $310k. Same marginal tax rate, same lower bound of 35% tax bracket, and marginal tax would be $27,870. This represent a savings of $8,890. The calculation here is 350000-60000 = 310000, then (310000-243726+1)*0.35 = 8890.
Am I missing something? Why is my accountant and the Internet saying itemizing deductions aren’t worth it anymore if I stand to save nearly $8k in taxes just by itemizing deductions as a single filer?
To add to the complexity, after I get married, as I said above, I want to file as married filed separately because of income-based repayment student loans and community property state. My fiancee will make $130k. Our incomes combined will be $480k. Community property state rules means our individual incomes filing as married filed separately will be $240k.
I am going to skip MFS standard deduction here. For MFS itemized deduction, the SALT deduction limit is $5k. The mortgage interest deduction is $15k (because of the $375k limit for MFS). Therefore, the itemized deduction should be $20k. Taxable income is $220k. Marginal tax rate is 32%. Lower bound of tax bracket is $191,951. Marginal tax is $8,976. The calculation is 240000-20000 = 220000, then (220000-191951+1)*0.32 = 8976. Being a community property state where income and deductions are split in half by default, my fiancee will have the same marginal tax. $8976 * 2 = $17952 marginal tax due for both of us combined.
Lastly, the MFJ situation everyone claims is the best. Again, skipping the standard deduction, our combined incomes $480k. SALT deduction limit is $10k. Mortgage interest deduction is once again $30k. Taxable income is $440k. Marginal tax rate Is 32%. Lower bound of tax bracket is $383,901. Marginal tax is $17,952. The calculation here is 480000-10000-30000 = 440000, then (440000-383901+1)*0.32 = 17952.
Am I missing something again? It seems MFS itemized deduction results in the same marginal tax as MFJ itemized deduction.
Please do not say “wow this is too complicated, go ask your accountant.” I did ask my accountant. He just waved his hand and said married filed separately is not worth it, itemizing deductions is not worth it. If my understanding of the tax code and calculations are correct, I will save $14k on my federal taxes going from filing as single and standardized deductions to married filed separately and itemized deductions.
Also, if you want an even more complicated scenario, I will show you my analysis for my state taxes…my state does not conform to the federal mortgage interest deduction limits and also allows property taxes to be deducted from taxable income with no limit.

I'm not entirely sure if this is the right place to ask this question but I didn't see anything against it in the rules so if it isn't allowed I will delete the post.
Basically I have been banking with Barclays for a few years now but the branch in my town recently closed down and it's really inconvenient so I was thinking of changing to either Nationwide or Lloyds bank. I'm a pretty simple person with not much money all I need is a current account, a savings account, and for everything to be pretty simple to do especially online banking.
From what I've seen from some quick Google searches it seems like Nationwide is more commonly accepted as the better bank however a check of the reviews on their app show that the app recently made an update that renders it borderline unusable where as the Lloyds bank app seems fine but people seem to say Lloyds bank isn't as good as nationwide.
TLDR: should I bank with Nationwide or Lloyds bank? (Also I would appreciate if you explain why I should bank with them in terms a banking novice like me would understand)
Thank you for reading the post even if you don't end up responding.

You know how you get in a rut, wanting to get in shape, wanting to get better at something, just want to develop a new habit, and you tell yourself, "I'm going to workout everyday for the next month" "I'm going to do leetcode everyday" etc.? You get all hyped up, and you're super motivated, and you start crushing your goals the next day. Then a week goes by, 2 weeks, and that motivation starts to waver off, and you start skipping a day or two, and eventually it just fizzles out...
Motivation is so fickle, so emotional. It can feel so strong that you feel like it will last forever, but sooner or later, it's gone.
But your motivation can be hacked. A few months ago, I did this fitness challenge with a few friends where we all set goals for a set amount of time (30 min at the gym, 5 times a week, for a month). And we all put down $100 and put it in a pool. Everyone kept track of their workouts, and at the end, only those who succeeded in all their checkins split the pot. While the ones who failed in the middle lost their money. So the winners actually ended up making money.
It was incredibly motivating, the desire to not wanting to lose my $100. The original motivation for starting this challenge (wanting to get in shape) was replaced by the much more real motivation of not wanting to lose money. Money is funny that way, it's so much more real and tangible, it actually keeps you going way better than anything else.
Not to mention how fun the challenge was. We were kind of in competition with each other, trash talking and teasing to try and get the others to not work out. But at the same time it was teamwork. We genuinely wanted everyone to succeed.
Anyways, it was so effective and so fun that I ended up making an app for this. The cool thing about making this into an app is that you don't need to have an immediate group of friends with the same goal. We could create a community of people with goals, and strangers could come together online on the app and do challenges together.
The structure of the app is as follows:

• anyone can create a challenge for anything
• you set how much the buy-in ($) is, how long the challenge should last, and the check-in rules
• up to 5 people can join (small groups means better dynamics)
• everyone pays to join
• you check in daily with a photo upload according to the check-in rules set out by the leader
• chat in the private chatroom, encouraging each other
• in the end, the "survivors" split the pot - they can withdraw the money back out

Hope you find this helpful! The app is called Goalie, you can search it on the app stores.

I’ve been on this journey for a few months. I started with a goal of 1400-1500 calories per day. I’m 5’2, 156 lbs (lost 16lbs so far).
I know I’ve needed to stay in the 1200-1400 range to lose weight; however that didn’t really click until the other day when I actually saw my TDEE data in the Garmin Connect app. I’m sure my Garmin watch isn’t 100% accurate, but gets close enough. I don’t know why I never looked at it before.
I’ve used the online calculators, but it didn’t really hit me until I saw my personal data and after a day where I ran 5 miles and was active the entire rest of the day.
On days when I’ve been active (running, biking, etc.) I’m only at 2,400-2,500 TDEE for the entire day, with 700-900 active calories. My resting calories is about 1,600.
What’s insane and surprising is that I could eat that many (my TDEE 1,800-2,400) calories in two medium meals or one large meal with a dessert, not to mention drinking alcohol.
What I’m learning to accept is that this is a new way of life. Once I reach my goal I may be able to eat a few hundred more calories, but no where close to how I used to eat.
Has anyone else stumble upon something surprising or something that made you look at your journey differently?

You know how you get in a rut, wanting to get in shape, wanting to get better at something, just want to develop a new habit, and you tell yourself, "I'm going to workout everyday for the next month" "I'm going to do leetcode everyday" etc.? You get all hyped up, and you're super motivated, and you start crushing your goals the next day. Then a week goes by, 2 weeks, and that motivation starts to waver off, and you start skipping a day or two, and eventually it just fizzles out...
Motivation is so fickle, so emotional. It can feel so strong that you feel like it will last forever, but sooner or later, it's gone.
But your motivation can be hacked. A few months ago, I did this fitness challenge with a few friends where we all set goals for a set amount of time (30 min at the gym, 5 times a week, for a month). And we all put down $100 and put it in a pool. Everyone kept track of their workouts, and at the end, only those who succeeded in all their checkins split the pot. While the ones who failed in the middle lost their money. So the winners actually ended up making money.
It was incredibly motivating, the desire to not wanting to lose my $100. The original motivation for starting this challenge (wanting to get in shape) was replaced by the much more real motivation of not wanting to lose money. Money is funny that way, it's so much more real and tangible, it actually keeps you going way better than anything else.
Not to mention how fun the challenge was. We were kind of in competition with each other, trash talking and teasing to try and get the others to not work out. But at the same time it was teamwork. We genuinely wanted everyone to succeed.
Anyways, it was so effective and so fun that I ended up making an app for this. The cool thing about making this into an app is that you don't need to have an immediate group of friends with the same goal. We could create a community of people with goals, and strangers could come together online on the app and do challenges together.
The structure of the app is as follows:

• anyone can create a challenge for anything
• you set how much the buy-in ($) is, how long the challenge should last, and the check-in rules
• up to 5 people can join (small groups means better dynamics)
• everyone pays to join
• you check in daily with a photo upload according to the check-in rules set out by the leader
• chat in the private chatroom, encouraging each other
• in the end, the "survivors" split the pot - they can withdraw the money back out

Hope you find this helpful! The app is called Goalie, you can search it on the app stores. I'll also attach the links here.
Apple app store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/goalie-group-challenges/id6480429909
Google play store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.goaliemvmt.twa

Usually people use rectangles for Riemann sums, but you can use various other integration techniques like the trapezoidal rule or even circles. What polygons have you used?

Calling all Halo ODST fans:
I am toying with the idea of making an ODST D&D 5e oneshot for a couple of my friends who are getting into tabletop games with a group of 5 people (including me). I have played BG3 with two of them for many hours and I myself have played 5e for years and DM'd a few games, the last two players are not very experienced, I was thinking of having a boot camp section in the beginning to teach them what's possible in dnd and how skill checks, attacks rolls and saving throws work (I will of course cover the basics during character creation, this is just to get their feet wet and show how creative the system can be).
The thing I'm having a little bit of a struggle with is how character creation should go with adapting modern firearms/spellcasting in a universe that doesn't have it. I saw a few posts online argue that Spartans and their unique abilities can easily be flavored classes or magic, but not much so for just the grunts. I am thinking of starting them at level 3 or level 5, around there. Do I make some presets and have them choose? Allow only Martial classes and no spellcasting? Or do some tomfoolery and allow the magic to "leak" into the world?
I don't want to discourage anyone from playing what they want but:

1. I'm having trouble thinking of what magic could be flavored as if it does end up happening. Maybe have some special grenades that have different effects?
   
2. Spell-casters are pretty complex for a first time player, even if they have played BG3 before.
   
3. I want to keep the game moving and not get bogged down in combat to keep it under 4 hrs. Having mostly Martial classes helps keep things simple.
   

Also any good ideas for which monsters to convert/flavor as classic Covenant or Brute enemies? I am planning for about 3-4 encounters with them increasing in difficulty as they get closer to their objective. I want to keep the game fair and consistent with rulings, but not have everything bogged down with discussions of super realism and obscure rules every time someone wants to try something cool.

Something I was thinking about when I watched the final moments of the most recent EFAP was Mauler’s observation that the internet content creator landscape used to be different when AVGN clones ruled Youtube and his question of how that shifted into video essayists and commentary channels. I thought about that for a while and I thought of some reasons why the landscape changed that I would like to share.
Managers
Something that people might not be aware of is how many Youtubers have people managing their content in the form of things like setting up brand deals and other services that I am not familiar with. Some of them are very public about what they do, some of them are more private. The important thing is how managers worked in the past.
One thing that I liked about Machinima, ScrewAttack, and Channel Awesome that the creators probably didn’t like is that they forced the older creators to stick to a set schedule of uploads and some of them forced creators to follow a set formula. This meant that the manager would make sure that if a creator uploaded a video every Friday at 2pm, they would have an upload every single Friday at 2pm.
How would this work if the creator wanted to take a week off? Well, the creator would have to have a video to upload in advance. What if the creator wanted to spend 3 weeks on a super-duper big video? Well, they could absolutely do that, but it would be a passion project and they’d still have to follow the set schedule for regular uploads.
This created a content landscape that I actually enjoyed a lot as a consumer because it’s probably the way it should be for reviewers. Every week, or every day in rare cases, a movie reviewer would need to review a different movie, which meant that a reviewer might have to force themselves to sit through a movie they don’t want to see like Fifty Shades Of Grey to give it a chance to subvert their expectations and earn a glowing review, or dig deep to find a new indie movie to review to fill that quota if they really didn’t want to sit through Fifty Shades Of Grey.
The promise of Patreon and creators becoming more independent was that creators would exclusively make videos on topics they wanted to do, but I personally think that was the wrong way to go. I’ve maintained a position that I prefer it when content creators are encouraged, or even forced, to talk about things that they don’t want to talk about because oftentimes that’s when reviewers are most interesting. Some of my favorite Roger Ebert reviews were when he reviewed a children’s movie like Space Jam or Pokemon: The First Movie, and some of my favorite Zero Punctuation reviews are when he has to pick out a random indie game and commit to reviewing it regardless of what the indie game turned out to be, like when he reviewed Hell Pie.
What I think has happened is that the lack of managers has encouraged content creators to upload whatever they want, whenever they want, which has usually translated to videos about ‘easy’ topics, like videos about Disney movies, being uploaded weeks, or even months, apart, which has made the content creation landscape, at least for reviewers, a lot less interesting, and a lot less engaging.
It’s actually one of the reasons why EFAP has been losing my interest lately, because although they upload a stream every week the topics they choose are generally ‘easy’ topics because I genuinely think the hosts don’t have the ability to make an EFAP on something more obscure, or even just ‘difficult’ like Baby Reindeer, very interesting, or they just won’t do streams on those topics because, as Rags said: “This is our show, and we can do whatever the fuck we want.”
Honestly, my hot take is that I liked you better when you couldn’t do whatever the fuck you wanted all of the time. In fact, one of my favorite Rags moments on EFAP was when he clearly didn’t want to be involved with the debate with Twin Perfect.
Sponsors
I remember the Adpocalypse and how Youtubers transitioned to sponsors over relying heavily on ad-revenue. What that event transpired into is that audiences were far more accepting of basically any form of making money that Youtubers would use. Patreon became a very dominant part of Youtube, but sponsors also became extremely common and audiences would even cheer in the comment sections when creators would have their first Raid: Shadow Legends sponsorship.
Sponsors are what I want to talk about because I have seen Youtubers show that they have a bunch of videos on their computer that they simply aren’t releasing to the public because they don’t want to upload a single video without a sponsor on their main channel, as well as Youtubers having a second channel where they upload ‘slop’ content without sponsors that most of their audience is usually unaware of or isn’t interested in.
The problem is that the appeal for pretty much all content on Youtube is the personalities of the people creating the content, which is less about the actual personalities and more like “That’s an actual person doing what they actually want to do, that’s so cool,” but that is usually undercut by the presence of sponsors. The fact that Youtubers will sit on a video they made and not upload it unless they can get a sponsor to pay for it always seemed strange to me, especially for Youtubers where the image they present is “I’m just a normal, chill guy who makes Youtube videos for fun,” which needs the caveat of “Uhhhh, I’m actually really poor and if I don’t take this BetterHelp sponsor I can’t afford my rent this month. Please understand, I’m barely making any money on Youtube,” when a sponsor is included in the video.
As weird as this sounds, there are communities of creatives online that don’t expect to ever make any money putting hours, days, weeks, months, and years of work into a project. There are modding communities, bloggers, game developers, fanfiction writers, and artists that only want comments saying “You did a good job,” and Youtubers used to be that way, or they used to present themselves that way before sponsors became as common as they are now.
I don’t say this often enough, but I remember when Youtubers would make videos about not just random pictures on Deviantart, but on fanfictions and pornographic videos. They’d do those videos for things like clout, which is something that I don’t see too often on Youtube.
People might say that there are a bunch of Youtubers that talk about obscure media and Youtubers that make things without any expectation of earning money, which I say “Well, yeah, but that’s not what I’m talking about,” and then I’d point to things like AVGN’s Atari Porn video, and old videos where commentary Youtubers would branch out from their niche to say “Hey, just for fun, we’re going to check out this weird fanfiction story,” or how Yahtzee would include fun projects he created at the end of his Zero Punctuation videos, like how he’d dub over scenes in video games like Half-Life and Painkiller, or how he made a slideshow with Garry’s Mod that depicted a love story between Heavy and Medic.
What I’m saying is that a large part of what made Youtube fun was that not every video from an established creator with 100k subscribers needed to be monetized, or even created with the expectation of being successful or well-received by the community. There was a time when the expectations people had for, say, Jim Sterling was for a high-quality Jimquisition video to be produced and uploaded to the main channel once a week, and for the other days to feature a minimally-edited video where he showed himself trying out a game or reacting to a trailer on his main channel.
In the past I said that I would like it if EFAP would talk about comments and read fanfictions on-stream and I was mocked for it, but I stand by that statement because, although EFAP clearly doesn’t want to do it regularly, when they do read comments on-stream it tends to result in some of the best content because it showcases a side to them that I like. Instead of being totally normal dudes talking to each other about a movie they saw or reacting to a video, they have to use text-to-speech or read the comment using a silly voice or, well, use just a little bit of creativity when reading those comments out-loud.
What I’m kinda saying is that, yes, I think we all like professionally-produced content, and we all accept that sponsors for videos are necessary. But, like, I don’t like how for most successful Youtubers only the monetizable content, often with sponsors, is presented on the main channel, while the other content doesn’t exist, is uploaded to a secondary channel, or is locked behind some kind of paywall.
It just feels strange that these normal, chill, relatable people have gotten themselves into a position where they can earn real money, in some cases a lot of money, to stand in front of a webcam for 10 minutes talking about their favorite movies, chat with a group of friends, or even just play their favorite video game, and in quite a few cases they won’t do any of those things unless there’s a way to monetize it. Imagine how it looks to say “Well, I can’t talk about this cool fanfiction story I read on my main channel to my audience that enjoys my content about that franchise because I can’t get a sponsor for it.”
I wonder if Rags, a regular host of EFAP, appreciates the irony of him criticizing Chris Stuckmann for advocating that filmmakers “Get as much time and money as possible to make their films in the ideal circumstances and for the process to be easy,” when he’s in the position that he’s in where, on EFAP, he has as much freedom as he wants in the ideal circumstances to make money with EFAP, and it’s easy, yet he still will complain if he’s asked to step out of his comfort zone, even a little bit, on stream.
Insecurity
A while ago I had a theory about Cancel Culture which was that usually Cancel Culture is incredibly exaggerated by the audience of the people being canceled, and that most of the people being canceled are perfectly fine. The go-to example is the poor lady who made a joke about AIDS before going to Africa that got off the flight and got fired from her job due to her joke going viral. What people often don’t mention is that she got fired because it’s a terrible look for the company’s PR person to be involved with such a massive PR disaster, and that she got hired at another company a very short time later. Plus, like, she made a racist joke and people were calling her a racist, it wasn’t like she was targeted for absolutely no reason.
My theory is that people think that Cancel Culture absolutely ruins the lives of celebrities and influencers online because of their intense reactions to being canceled. An early example being Seth Macfarlane, who was mocked for his poorly-received hosting of the Oscars and who seemed incredibly bitter about it, making Cancel Culture a plot point in multiple episodes of Family Guy, talking about how bitter he was about it in interviews for years, and even apparently getting emotional support from his friends and family after the ordeal, even going as far as to ask celebrities to say “I liked what he did and I thought he was hilarious, and very handsome.”
What I’m saying is that I think that in the early days of content creation on Youtube the people making videos were more willing to appear on camera and embarrass themselves, like with Spoony screaming at a big gaming event on camera, because even though they were aware of Cancel Culture being a thing they weren’t going to be reduced to tears by someone saying “You’re totally cringe and annoying,” and even went as far as to incorporate those kinds of comments into their video because it was extremely easy content to create. You probably know what I’m talking about, where a creator would read out “This content creator is SOOOOOOO CRINGE,” in a video in a silly voice which you can’t really do as easily with “OMG, I love your content,” and make it entertaining.
That’s changed a lot today with content creators seeming to project an extreme amount of insecurity in every video they’re a part of, which gets even worse in formats like podcasts. It feels like every commentary creator is a chill dude that isn’t offended by anything and only wants to have a good time talking about things they like because, well, that’s what they need to be to avoid being criticized too severely, but they constantly allude to being a very immature and thin-skinned person that is mainly concerned about earning money, to the point where they’ll say “I’m not even having fun producing content at all.”
In college I remember one of my professors saying: “When you were high school kids you were insecure and weren’t confident in your abilities enough to volunteer when you were asked. You’re adults now, and when you graduate you can’t do that at a real job. Part of growing up is being confident in yourself, and if you don’t want to do that, you can always work in fast food where you never need to grow up, while the other adults in your friend group are becoming doctors and construction workers.”
It’s something that I realized with Youtubers which is that a decent amount of them started their careers young and never had to ‘grow up’ the way that my professor said that we needed to. Even with millions of subscribers you still see a lot of Youtubers struggle to commit to any statement they make, and I hear “I’m just a dumb Youtuber who doesn’t know anything and is stupid and socially-awkward and is fat and smells bad,” too many times from rich and successful people.
The thing is, when you’re a teenager, or you’re in your 20s, that insecurity is charming and relatable because you're trying to find a place in the world and discovering the role that you will fill in society. But, when you’re 30 and your role is “I tell people about the latest internet drama and make references to Spongebob,” or “I talk about Star Wars for hours at a time,” even if you make $2 million every day there’s likely a part of you that says: “I don’t like who I am. I don’t like what I do for a living. Yes, I’m rich, but I don’t like why I’m rich, and I don’t like my audience.”
I think that this insecurity leads to people trying to make their content more ‘mature’, but the way they do it isn’t by presenting themselves as a more confident person, or by making a clear separation between the personality in their content and their actual personality so that they can have a good work/life balance, it’s by creating the same content with very superficially mature elements. So, you end up with the video essayists of the past that gained fame by describing the events of a movie and then giving their opinion on whether they liked or disliked it doing the same thing but with quotes from smart people, like Socrates, and making conclusions like “Some people are gonna like this movie, some people are going to hate it. The important thing is that everyone involved with this movie tried really hard and had fun.”
The thing is, teenagers and 20-year-olds get value from a relatable person that comes across as an insecure loser who is too afraid to take a proper stance on anything to commit to a statement. When someone is actually mature they find more value in someone who is willing to do a good job and defend the job that they did, even if they’re like Neil Breen who thinks they did a good job but clearly did a terrible job. A 20-year-old might declare that Twin Perfect’s debate with EFAP wasn’t embarrassing because he was just being himself or something, but a 40-year-old might not tell Twin Perfect that the debate was embarrassing, but they would no longer respect him, and I imagine a lot of 40-year-olds don’t respect a lot of Youtube video essayists because of how eager they seem to be to engage in self-deprecation.
Conclusion
Despite everything that I’ve said, I do think that the content landscape on Youtube is generally ‘better’ than it was in, say, 2010. We weren’t getting a 4+ hour video by The Little Platoon about Rebel Moon, for instance, in 2010.
What I would compare modern Youtube and classic Youtube to is the 1970s movie scene vs. the 1980s movie scene, which Quentin Tarantino has labeled as “The worst period in movie history,” which the EFAP crew have pushed back on.
The thing is, in the early 80s we got Blade Runner, in the same way that nowadays we got the 4+ hour Little Platoon video, but the theatrical release of that film was famously sabotaged by the company that wanted Harrison Ford to provide voiceovers for the film that ‘ruined’ it, or at least, ruined the ending of the movie.
Throughout the 80s films were made which satisfied audiences more than films from the 70s did because Spielberg was producing hugely successful films that are still highly regarded, but there was also a bunch of shady practices going on and a bunch of notoriously poor studio decisions made in order to appeal to a wide demographic, such as the fiasco with Supergirl and Masters Of The Universe, or changing the ending of Brazil.
In the 1970s we not only got more challenging films, but there was also a thriving independent cinema scene that gave us Death Race 2000, Eraserhead, THX-1138, and Duel. There was also Jaws, Star Wars, and A Clockwork Orange, which were big-budget movies that took serious creative risks that paid off immensely which just wouldn’t happen in the 1980s, or would happen very rarely.
I think that I do prefer Youtube back in, say, 2015-2017 when it seemed like we generally got the best of both worlds, challenging content about a diverse range of subjects with production values comparable to what we have now.
To close this, I would like to include a paraphrased interaction I saw on a podcast featuring a pretty big Youtuber that I think illustrates why Youtube has changed in the way that it has.
Youtuber: Look, I don’t need to work as hard on my videos now because not every video needs to be an event. I just want to take it easy now, pump out a video whenever I feel like it, get paid by the sponsors, and then spend time with my family, is that so wrong?
Host: It kind of is. I know your audience of teenagers will be like “He just wants to spend time with his family, dude, have a heart,” but a lot of Youtubers, especially younger Youtubers look up to you for inspiration. If you’re in that position and your attitude is “I’m going to half-ass every video that I make from now on and if anyone calls my content lazy I’ll use my 8-year-old daughter as a shield against criticism,” that’s the attitude that a lot of young Youtubers are going to have. They’re going to half-ass their content and when criticized, they’re going to find their own excuse, like “I have a kid now,” or “I have to eat,” or something.
Youtuber: That’s not my fault, though. I never asked to be a role model.
Host: That’s not how that works. You don’t get to decide whether or not people look up to you, have expectations of you, and emulate your approach to content creation. You only release 2-3 videos a year, and with your status every video should be a major event, but instead every video is half-assed, as you admitted, and then you use your daughter as an excuse for why you don’t put as much effort into your content as you used to. I think you need to have someone in your life, like a friend, that actually makes you feel some shame for your content and encourages you to do better, rather than your social circle being composed of supportive people like your family and the people who pay you through Patreon.
Host 2: He did have that. He fired him two years ago, remember?
Host: Oh, yeah, you fired your friend, or made him quit, whatever the story was. Did that not make you feel bad at all?
Youtuber: Friendships end, that’s just life.
Host: That’s the attitude that I hate that comes across in your content. You can’t just brush aside everything and bumble through life, except if you’re an internet personality, apparently.
Host 2: It worked for the MCU.
Host: It’s not working for the MCU anymore, though, and it isn’t working as well for this Youtuber. It’s probably going to get worse and when he decides to do more work and make better videos, like he used to do, it’s probably going to be too late, or he’ll need to make really good videos to get the views he once did.
Youtuber: My videos are really good, though.
Host: You admitted to half-assing them.