“Pick one of the weapons inside, and you'll be a warrior." Guardmaster Harian stood with his thick arms folded over the embroidered livery on his tabard. “Pick your feet up and put’em down, boy.” He was frowning at Broin Ven’Maerl, the candlemaker’s son. “I’ve no time for dawdling.”
“Yessir.”
Paidrag leaned out from his position last in line and watched Broin duck a halfhearted cuff from the Guardmaster and hurry through the armory door. A moment later, he called out to the Guardmaster, his voice muffled by the stone wall.
“Something’s holding this sword, sir. Won’t budge.”
Guardmaster Harian tilted his face to the ceiling and heaved a great sigh. “If you can not lift the blade, it is not for you. Choose another.”
Sullen silence followed, and a few minutes later, Broin emerged from the armory holding a polished steel Warhammer. Guardmaster Harian stopped him with an outstretched hand, examined the weapon, looked the boy over, grunted, and motioned for Broin to keep moving. “Report to the Proving Ground.”
Paidrag watched the other three boys in front of him all enter the armory one after another and emerge with their chosen weapons held awkwardly in hands lacking the callouses to wield them. They were grinning proudly. And why shouldn’t they? The Guardmaster went through the same ritual with these three as he had with Broin, inspecting their weapons and looking them over, his face impassive. He then waved them away. “Get you to the Proving Ground.”
There was one boy left in front of Paidrag—the shoemaker’s son. Harian called the lad forward, and Paidrag’s mind turned inward.
Which weapon would he choose when it was his turn? Not a bow; that was not the warrior way. Last year, his brother picked a fine-looking blade of folded steel honed on both sides to a razor edge with a leather-wrapped hilt and cross guard fashioned to resemble two claws. Paidrag had tried Jarrod’s blade, but it felt awkward and unwieldy in his hand; a sword was not the weapon for him. What then? He was a fair hand with a quarterstaff, more than fair; he’d won the games earlier this year in the weapons category. Youngest to ever take the top spot in Keep history.
“Come on, boy,” Guardmaster Harian’s deep growl broke into Paidrag’s thoughts. His great red beard bobbed as he spoke. “Haven’t got all night for you to stand there like a simpleton. Wife has supper waiting, and I need to get to it. Move.”
Paidrag felt his cheeks flush and heard snickers from the nobles and wealthy merchants gathered within the Keep’s armory to witness the once-a-year Quendling when each boy from the lower villages would choose his weapon and become a man, a warrior in training.
He swallowed and stepped forward, looking at the arrogant faces of men dressed in silks and satins worth more than he’d earn in a lifetime. But they didn’t matter. His heart pounded. Sweat beaded his brow. This was his moment.
He stepped through the door.
Inside, shelf after empty shelf covered the stone walls. Footprints made crazed patterns in the dust on the floor, and the only weapons in sight rested on an ornate emberwood rack traced in ivory and gold.
Seeing nothing else, he shuffled over to the rack and felt his eyes drawn past an exquisitely crafted sword with a jeweled handle, past a handsome spear carved to look like a red dragon, to a weapon the likes of which he’d never seen before. He reached out with a trembling hand and laid a finger on the long handle, polished until it gleamed warmly in the torchlight. It looked like a quarterstaff, carved with mighty griffons in silver and boasting leather to strengthen his grip. But this was no ordinary quarterstaff. A foot of fine steel glinted from one end, a blade slightly curved and engraved with fancy scrollwork. A blade that, when he touched it, left a hair-fine line of red weeping from his thumb.
Paidrag yelped and yanked his thumb away, lifting the cut to his lips, his brows rising at such a sharp edge. Then he grinned.
He lifted it from the rack with trembling hands and gave it a gentle spin, slow and careful at first but putting on speed as he went until it whirred in a blur through the air. He worked the bladed staff around the back and over his head, made a figure eight in front of him, grinning in surprise at how perfectly balanced it was, like no steel graced the end.
The staff whirled to a rest at his side, the blade pointed at the ceiling. An odd feeling came over him just then, warm and brotherly, a sense of acceptance. Almost as if the weapon itself approved of him. He shook it off and made his way out of the armory.
Guardmaster Harian’s eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets when he caught sight of the bladed staff resting on Paidrag’s shoulder. He recovered quickly.
“Hold there, lad,” the Guardmaster said, moving forward and extending a muscled arm to bar Paidrag’s way. “Auscheral chose you?”
Paidrag stopped. He glanced at his new staff. “You mean this?” he said, gesturing at the weapon.
“Aye.” Harian eyed the bladed staff with a mixture of reverence and surprise. “Weapons forged of magic have a mind of their own. They choose the hand to wield them. None have bonded in all the years I’ve been a guard here, nor in the days of my father and his father before him. That's why Broin couldn't lift the sword.”
Paidrag felt a stir of fear in his gut. Why was everyone so quiet? Why were they staring at him? He recognized the look staining their faces. Fear.
In Paidrag’s experience it wasn’t good to make men with title afraid.
“Fetch him to the Sage,” he heard someone say. And the next hour was a whirlwind of faces, questions and hands shoving him down winding corridors deep into the Keep and to a room lit by a single candlestick on a polished desk. Books filled the shelves built into the walls from the floor to the ceiling save where a stone hearth glowed red with sputtering embers. An old man sat there swaddled in deep purple robes with a ring of fine wispy white hair on the back of his head. His face was beyond ancient, spotted, deeply lined and paper thin, but his eyes reflected the candle’s fire and showed the vitality of the spirit within.
The Sage peered at him with those fathomless eyes. “Sit,” he said, and Paidrag found himself sitting in a rather uncomfortable wooden chair on his side of the desk but didn’t recall actually moving. He suppressed a yawn with the back of his hand. His eyes felt itchy.
“Yes,” the Sage said, taking Paidrag’s chin in skeletal fingers and looking into his eyes. “There is power here, a well vast and deep, but your future is uncertain.” His bushy white brows drew together. “Clouded. I cannot see the infinite lattice of your destiny. Yet, power churns around you like a sea in a storm.”
The Sage released his chin and sat back, regarding him with an unreadable expression. Paidrag didn’t like this conversation almost as much as he disliked the two hulking guards posted to either side of the chamber’s door.
The old man stirred from his thoughts. He drew out his pipe, stuffed the bowl with tabac, muttered a word Paidrag did not understand and it burst alight. “Such potential,” the Sage muttered in a voice soft as silk. “Could it be? After all these years…”
The Sage fell silent, puffing on his pipe and staring at Paidrag until the boy fidgeted in his seat. Then, the old man’s eyes refocused, sharp as dagger points. He leaned forward and spoke through the coiling smoke.
“Who are you?”
Paidrag opened his mouth to answer but the Sage cut him short.
“They fear you, fear what it means that a weapon chose you.” His eyes glittered with mischief. “They are right to fear.”

What it was like, what happened, and what it is like now... My sobriety date is January 10th, 2016. I had been coming in and out of the program of AA since I was 18 years old, I had a drawer full of white chips, and it wasn't until I was 33 years old that I had finally been beaten down enough and suffered enough consequences due to this disease that I was finally ready to surrender... not because I had any hope that things would get better, but because I was frightened of how they were on their way to getting worse.
I was finally ready to follow through in working all 12 steps with my sponsor, which I did over the course of a year. I moved onto a new sponsor, and worked them through again. I was hungry for this new life and I sought out the oldest of the old timers, women who had more years in sobriety than I had on this earth. I was desperate for change because I was faced with two choices: change, or face a life without my two precious children that had been wisely removed by the court and my ex-husband because of how I'd let this disease impact our lives like a category five hurricane. I learned quickly that it simply wasn't enough that my admission of powerless and taking of the first three steps stopped the proverbial winds of destruction from blowing; like a devastated city by the sea in the aftermath, I had a job of reconstruction ahead of me that wasn't going to be cleaned up over night... it was going to be a process of years before everything would come back together, and be restored to something better than I could have ever dreamed.
What I ended up discovering through the years of consistently working this program wasn't at all what I'd originally sought out. I just wanted the chaos to stop. I just wanted to be able to put down the bottle for good. I thought this was the alpha and omega of it. But this was just the barest beginning.
The cessation of drinking was only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. This program would do more than just divorce me from alcohol and substance abuse... it was going to completely transform me. Little by slowly, the working of the steps began to reshape my perspective as I had to accept a spiritual remedy or return to my own spiral of misery and the onward march to jails, institutions, and death.
Through the working of my inventory, my sponsors helped me to see that everything I resentfully blamed on my ex-husband, my abusive upbringing, my traumatic brain injury in early childhood, everyone who'd ever bullied or abused me had layers. Resentment would poison me; I had to forgive those against whom I harbored resentment not for their sake, but my own. Forgiveness, I discovered, set me free from this self-created prison. Letting go meant a greater freedom than I could have ever known.
And then, further on: most things I blamed on God for allowing to happen to happen to me, such as the loss of my precious children, my sponsors helped me to understand through my inventory were traceable back through so many actions I willfully chose that had a domino effect of consequences that I now had to face and accept as my responsibility. Whether or not other people were involved, I had to let this go, learning a new meaning of powerlessness and acceptance of things I could not change... namely, other people and their own actions... and focused on the only thing I could change: my own choices, moving forward. Understanding that the only way out was through. Bless them, change me wasn't just a catchphrase any longer... I was the only one over whom I had control. When I finally came to this realization, I was able to work through my own defects, see them for what they were, rise into the 6th and 7th steps to pray for their removal, to be taken to something better.
I was then able to identify and accept what "my part" had been in two decades of wrecked relationships with others. I was able to understand to whom I must make amends, and found the genuine willingness to do so, a long list made, a scouring of the internet and social media and looking up all the people upon whose lives I'd had a negative impact, people whom I had hurt. I owned my part, I made the amends and I was surprised at the response I got, overwhelmingly.... not one person told me to go to hell like I rightfully would have deserved, and none of them even expressed anger. Each of them shared with me in their own way how they knew I was very sick, very lost, and they knew inside somewhere I was a good person, I was just hurting and how they had always hoped that I would find recovery, find God, find a way to be who I was. They were happy for me. They had forgiven me long ago.
And as a result of working these steps, persisting through consequences I had to face and accept, finding that the only way out was through... my life was transformed. I was transformed. I got my children back... not instantly, but I began my journey in 2016 and by 2017, I had them back on weekends. By 2018, I had them back in a 50/50 arrangement. And by 2019, circumstances aligned so that they were returned to me full-time, and this was also the year the man who'd stuck by me during the worst moments of my disease and through the ups and downs of early sobriety asked me to marry him, and my girls and I had a whole new family, a whole new life... today, he is the man they call "Dad" and they have their biological father every weekend whom they call "Papa." He, too, has found recovery and is growing into a better life, he dated a great woman who adored my daughters in the same way my new husband has and he is marrying her this summer. As a show of love, she gave each of my daughters a special ring to symbolize her own commitment to them in how much she values the importance. We're now working together as a united front and a blended family for what's best for the girls and it is a blessing.
It has been a challenge, honestly, now that things have gotten better and the promises have come true to stick with a consistent practice of this program. Complacency is probably my biggest struggle, something I continually work on because it is so easy now to let all of the blessings of this program consume my life and cause the program not to take a first place priority. The reality is what it is though: if I forget where I come from, if I rest on my proverbial laurels, I will absolutely lose everything that I've gained and I will end up drunk. I am finding that it was ironically much easier to work the program diligently when I was at rock bottom and this was the only way to climb out.
As such, I know that today, my actions still have consequences, good and bad. Sometimes, as before, the consequences might not show up immediately, but they will always manifest. Fortunately, though, through the working of this program, especially in the initial few years of working through the steps and my inventory, I find that I am making more positive choices than I did once upon a time, and so just as I reaped what I had sewn early on in terms of negative consequences, I now find the same thing is true insomuch as I enjoy positive consequences perhaps to the same degree that I once experienced negative ones. The most solid part of all is the gift that the 12th step provides, practicing these principles in all my affairs, as well as Step 10 that I try my best to keep up with regularly, I am able now to much more quickly identify when I have made a wrong choice, when a resentment crops up, or when I owe someone an amends. It is just like keeping a house clean in a literal sense: doing small things each day maintains a level of consistent cleanliness that is much easier to maintain than letting things get messy and piled up and trying to go in and clean.
And most importantly of all.... when I came into this program, I reached for God and striving for the next right thing because it was either this, or worse consequences than I was already facing. As one day at a time began to flow into weeks, then months, then years, I found myself reaching for God and striving for the next right thing because I was seeing how it was bearing the fruit of my whole life improving. And now, as I am moving toward my 9th year of sobriety, so close to an actual decade... I have never forgotten these former two stages of my own evolution, which have merged into where I find myself now... reaching for God and striving for the next right thing, as it is written, "as unto Him", because I am in a new habit now of right living, right choosing, being a kind of active faith in which I know that, as a line in one of the devotional books said, "When we do the next right thing, all the power of God is behind you."
I can make these choices today especially in my classroom in devoting myself to my occupation as a labor of love, and this in and of itself being its own reward. I was nominated for "Teacher of the Year" this year, but I knew from this moment that it wasn't going to be God's will for me to receive such an accolade and I was perfectly at peace with this. Because doing the right thing as unto God for me today rests on a foundation of just how important anonymity is, in a way I never appreciated until recently. I think of the founders of AA, how Bill W. was offered an honorary PhD in Sociology from Harvard (I think this was he area), how they wanted to erect a huge monument over Dr. Bob and his wife's grave to mark them as founders... I can scarcely imagine how tempting these opportunities would have been, especially when we all have that ego part of ourselves that whispers, "I have worked hard for this and I deserve to be recoginzed!" But they turned these offers down, as so many others that came and went. Anonymity was and still is everything.
My oldest old timer sponsor--the one with more years sober than i had alive-- had to really work hard to make me see something I was stuck in around years 4-6: "I have worked SO HARD to get to where I am today!"
She told me over and over that I was missing the point: I made choices to do the next right thing, but I was incapable of getting myself anywhere but drunk on my own unaided will. It was God who you allowed to work through you.
I understand that a lot more today. I am proud of a strength I possess to be industrious. But "I" don't matter. I do my best to do the next right things because what really only matters is that God sees what I do. Through any talents, abilities, strengths He has given me, they are from Him, and they make me useful as a vessel to be of service. I am a sewer of seeds, and I may never know how my willingness to be of service impacts someone, but He does. My own anonymity protects me from me.
Of myself I am nothing, it is only through the grace of God and this program that I am where I am today. I ask daily in prayer to for Him to get me out of my way, to be made of service, for Him to show me the next right thing one moment at a time, and the power to carry that out.
And this is all that matters.

I saw someone else did something like this recently and thought that I might have something to add to the discussion to help people figure out whether they think this program is right for them, or for people currently in the program to help them plan out classes.
My background is very heavy in statistics and finance (I'm an actuary), so my grounding in calculus, statistics, linear algebra, and business topics was considerably better than most of the other people I interacted with in this program. Conversely, I'm sure my programming skills were probably about average or maybe a little bit below compared to someone with a more targeted background towards those skills.
I started in Fall of 2020 and just finished up this month, Spring 2024. I started out just taking one class a semester and never changed up that plan, would highly recommend doing the same if you're working full time alongside; there's no reason to rush this program. I got a 4.0 GPA overall, although I never really stressed that much about it and definitely did not shy away from "harder" classes in order to bolster GPA. I did this to learn, not to get good grades. The classes I took, in order (my memory of some of the earlier ones might be a bit jumbled as so much time has passed):

1. CSE 6040 - I mentioned how my programming background was weaker relative to my mathematical background. However, reflecting on my experience in this class, it was probably still pretty strong. This class is focused on generalized programming skills, you don't really get into the analytics and modeling that much; it's more of a primer on things like functions, recursion, computer memory management, etc. It's been a few years, but I don't remember struggling with this class at all, and most of the concepts covered (object oriented programming, things like byte encoding, hexadecimal forms, recursion, etc.) were things I was already familiar with in another programming language (this class was in Python) or was relatively easy to pick up. From what I remember, the assignments were auto-graded and you had unlimited attempts, not to mention the fact that most of the prompts were to produce some predetermined result... and, as long as you were able to verify that your code produced that result, you got full points. I didn't miss a single point in this entire class. I believe there were "final exams" which were really just timed window coding assignments much like the homework, and you could do the assignments at any point during a 4-day window or something like that.
2. ISYE 6501 - This class was R-based and focused on basic analytics models. The material was much more applied than 6040. Similarly, the material was not difficult, and I was familiar with a lot of the basic models already (such as GLMs) from having worked with them in my job. The grading was done on a peer-grading framework; based on who anonymously is assigned your homework to grade, you can get someone who's a stickler for every point on the guide, or people who are a bit more lenient. I never really worried much about how things were graded in this class; yeah, I did miss some points arbitrarily, but nothing that made that much of a difference. If you generally put in the work and understand the material, your peers will recognize that. I found this a bit more interesting than 6040 because, rather than a deterministic "right answer", there was some more creativity implied here to solve each problem. There was a final project for this class where you walked through a hypothetical analytics problem and explained how you would go about solving it. I found this an interesting thought exercise and enjoyed this class. The pacing felt a little fast, as you basically had an assignment due each week, but the assignments were small. Like 6040 I found this class to be quite easy but I didn't 100% it due to the peer grading thing.
3. MGT 8803 - I almost applied to be exempt from this class, as my background intersects a lot with the material. The accounting and finance modules for this class literally did not teach me anything new. Supply chain was new for me and I found it interesting. I'm trying to remember what the other module was. I think it was marketing? I didn't like it. Overall I found this class quite easy for the aforementioned reasons, however I've heard from a lot of the other folks without business backgrounds that this class was pretty tough so take my opinions with a grain of salt. Taking this in the summer cut out one of the modules, normally there are 5 but in Summer there are 4. I figured this made sense to take during the truncated semester because I was unlikely to cover that much new material, and it turns out I was right about that. Each module lasted 2 weeks (I think in a normal semester it lasts 3) and has a timed multiple-choice test at the end. A lot of people didn't like this format compared to ISYE 6501 and CSE 6040; I'm not really sure how else this material could've been covered. This class was OK, the material is not really that deep but it's a pretty good primer on a large number of business topics.
4. ISYE 6740 - The first class I took that was actually pretty challenging, which makes sense considering the first 3 courses were just the basic core. This is pretty much an intro to machine learning as a discipline, and the first time I remember digging into academic papers that discuss some machine learning topic and attempting to recreate the results (this is something we did a lot in the more advanced classes going forward and incidentally now that I have graduated is probably one of the best ways to go about learning a new topic). I remember this class as having a format similar to ISYE 6501/CSE6040 in that you had large programming assignments to do, as well as open-book "exams" which were really just timed programming assignments. Assignments are not auto-graded; TA's review each one and thus the assignments have much more of a focus on explaining your findings than producing the exact expected output (unlike 6040). Some of the theory questions have you applying complicated matrix algebra rules that I'm not surprised a lot of people struggled with. The TA responsiveness in this class was pretty good from what I remember, but your mileage may vary. I remember getting 3 weeks to do each assignment but I also remember not thinking that was a lot of time, these assignments are very extensive, have many parts, and take a long time to get through. Like with 6040 I ended up not missing a single point in this class but I did find it difficult and spent significantly more time working on it than in prior classes, probably 10-15 hrs a week, give or take.
5. ISYE 6644 - I was familiar with maybe 50% of the material we covered due to my extensive statistics background, however I was not aware of the exact mechanics of random number generation or the concept of a batched mean, for example. I remember this class having several "check your understanding" quizzes that focused on the mathematical foundations. Didn't struggle with this much in terms of difficulty and found the material very useful. Setting up custom simulation environments is very useful and arena is pretty cool even if it's unlikely you'll ever use it. Some assignments feature similar tools in Python (simpy). There might have been some coverage of R in this as well, or at least the accommodation for people that wanted to use it. There was a project for this class, but you didn't have to come up with the topic on your own, you could pick from a list, and you could do your project on your own if you wanted (which, given the option, was always the choice I made, due to the inherent randomness in picking the right members of a group). However you can do a group project if you want.
6. MGT 6203 - The first of the classes I took that required a group project. I recommend you are proactive in putting together groups in situations like these, posting threads on Ed/whatever the forum is as soon as the class begins. My group was alright; not everyone in it was great, but we had enough going overall to make up for the weaker group members. The project has some arbitrary guidelines from what I remember - you need to put together a midterm report and video presentation that is no more than ~2 minutes long or something like that (if it's 2:01 you get penalized) and the final report is 5 minutes or less, and everyone in the group needs to speak. I honestly don't remember much else about this class, it was pretty forgettable, but not horrible. Not overall that difficult, another business class so a lot of topics I was already familiar with, but there was more new here than in 8803.
7. CSE 6242 - Another class with a group project. Again, I was proactive, and again, overall, my group was... okay. Some people who were really good, some who were... not. This class is characterized by a lot of assignments that are autograded, like 6040, but the assignments are a bit more difficult. Overall not that difficult with the exception of the D3 assignment, but that's more due to the fact that I'm not really sure how the autograder works for that; it tries to determine based on some internal structure of your html code whether or not you're fulfilling the requirements. I got a perfect score on all of the assignments, and they give you the chance to score over 100% on I believe either assignment 1 or assignment 2. A lot of people bombed the D3 assignment (I think it's assignment 2) but still did well in the class because it's not that hard to do well on everything else, so keep that in mind. This class does a great job of exposing you to a lot of new technologies, but there isn't that much depth to it. That's not really the point of this kind of class though, it equips you with the tools to explore things deeper if you so choose.
8. ISYE 8803 - I was a big fan of this class. It's taught in MATLAB but you can use Python if you so choose, you'll see in reviews of this class that you should really just use MATLAB since a lot of the sample code etc. is not in other languages, so that's what I did. However, they must've recently added Python and R code for sample solutions, so feel free to use what you want. MATLAB was interesting, there were parts of one assignment I also used R for (grouped lasso in R is a lot more straightforward). This class is all about high dimensional data and representing it in a more simplified and comprehensive way, think about something like sonar which might have datapoints separated by milliseconds and thus a very dense representation of a signal captured over a short period of time. After ISYE 6740, I found this to be the class that taught me the most up to this point.
9. CS 7642 - Taking this class in summer is kind of rough. There's 6 homework assignments that are autograded, similar format to CSE 6040. There are 3 projects which are much larger programming assignments for which you'll write papers explaining methodology, results, etc. These projects take a while, particularly project 3. I did well on projects 1 and 2 and decently on 3, although I spent the most time on 3 by far; it involves reinforcement learning to simulate a soccer environment and train agents how to play against an AI developed externally. The AI baselines are hard to beat, and I didn't manage to beat them, but I wrote a decent paper explaining what I did. The final exam for this class should be dropped as it doesn't add value to the class, people regularly score extremely low on it, the average score in the class was something like a 45%. I scored a bit lower than average but still got an A in the class because it was heavily curved. Reinforcement learning is a very interesting topic, though, and I would highly recommend this class as a primer on the material. It's probably a good idea not to take it in the summer, though.
10. CS 7643 - This class was pretty difficult but I still think 6740 was tougher. The material is extremely dense. There are parts of programming assignments that are autograded, but also short answer portions that are reviewed by TAs. Grading on those were pretty subjective. This is the only class I can remember really needing to discuss things with TAs to understand what was being asked a little better. Unfortunately, the TAs in the semester I took this weren't the best. They seemed more concerned with unintentionally giving away a bit too much information in any of their responses. I can understand this, but it came off as intentionally opaque most of the time. There was a group project for this course as well, and my group was excellent, probably the best experience I had with a group in this program. I can imagine how much this course would've sucked if I would've had a mediocre/bad group. Based on discussions with my group, some of the grading seemed highly arbitrary, with some TAs grading similar responses to the same question differently. Like I said above, though, I never really worried about this. I never once in this program ever disputed a grade, and I continued with that in this class as well.
11. CSE 6748 - Practicum and final class. For this class you get to choose between a number of pre-determined Georgia Tech sponsors, or form your own project for your own employesome external entity. It was a lot more work to do this, so I just went with one of the pre-determined GTech ones. I really enjoyed this one, I had constant communication with the sponsor as I developed my project and came up with something that I was quite proud of. I wanted to explore a natural language processing task, so I picked a project that I thought would allow me to do this, and was very satisfied with the result. There's a number of videos you have to watch that explain some overarching aspect of analytics that were pretty interesting as well, you can watch all of these in a single day and then focus on the project if you like. It's possible to finish the entire semester's work in just a few weeks, I was able to do the entire project and write the final paper in about a month's time, at which point I coordinated with the sponsor to tailor the work I did to a format that they would be able to implement for their business problem if they wanted to.

I can't comment on the job placement prospects of this program, as I just finished it and was actively employed the entire time I was in it. As an actuary there's not much this program does that my exam certification process didn't in terms of career prospects. However, it did position me much better within the context of the expanding role of data and analytics in insurance going forward, and also opens me up to similarly mathematical roles with a firmer grounding in big data and also some business elements (quantitative finance/data science roles). There were also things I learned in this program that I was able to apply directly to my day-to-day work. If you're considering this program, I would recommend you think about a few things:

1. I'm pretty shocked at how many people I saw during my program who didn't really think that much about why they're doing this. I get that the barrier to entry is low, but it's a serious commitment if you're actually trying to graduate. Most of the people who start this program don't finish, so consider whether you're ready to spend almost 4 years going to school part-time, or if you're able to double up on classes for some of the semesters. Most of the people I know in the program doubled up at least once, I never did but I was never in a hurry. If you must double up, don't make it your first semester. Dip your toe in the water, see how it is, and then reassess. But, above all else, think about why you want to do this, and use that as your guiding goal to bring you through to the end.
2. Something I tended to see pretty much without fail in most of my classes - a lot of the graduate students in this program spend way too much time worrying about minute, particular details that don't really matter. Maybe it was just my philosophy that I would probably never dispute a grade, or that I was never really that concerned with getting a perfect GPA, etc. but I was always marveling at what I saw asked in Ed posts. People would ask whether they could use a certain programming language for an assignment, what packages they were allowed to use, would post screenshots of bugs and ask for TA's to help walk them through it, etc. Generally, without fail, the TAs would respond along the lines of: use whatever programming language you want, as long as you can display your output/submit it in a way that we can verify by running ourselves, we'll make the effort; use the debugger to step through your code to find the problem; etc. Generally, in most cases, the assignments and questions are designed in a way to teach you something, to get you to realize/understand some pattern or data concept that has some underlying logic that makes sense. For example, the idea of saliency maps on image processing takes the 3-channel RGB color pixel shading representation of an image and condenses it into a single channel, and, as a result of that, loses some resolution in suggesting parts of the image driving a model result that might be different depending on the channel; i.e., an image with a very heavily blue-shaded part that detracts from a certain result, but with a red-shaded part somewhere else that increases the probability of the modeled result. This was part of a conceptual question on how saliency maps differed from other pixel influence attribution methods in Deep Learning, and is part of what you should logically understand since it reduces the channels of the image representation from 3 (R, G, B) to 1 (usually grayscale). I think people tend to run to the TA the second they have difficulty with something and don't stop for a second to think it through, one exercise I might recommend is to consider: if you ran into this problem out in the world and you didn't have a TA/managesome other authority figure to explain the answer to you, what do you think it might be? Does the answer even matter? If it still matters and you have no idea how to solve it, maybe then you can go to the TA.
3. In every single group project I worked on, we had an initial planning session where we determined the scope of what we wanted to do. For most of the projects, this was an essential deliverable in addition to the final paper. However, in almost every case, someone in the group was always playing some game of runaway scope where they kept on wanting to add methods/questions to exploration beyond what was initially planned in ways that I intuitively knew would be impossible to manage in just one semester. I often had to say something along the lines of "if we have time we'll do that" or "when we write up our paper, we can put that in the avenues for future exploration section" or something similar. It turns out that we never had time to look into these things, and our initial scope was usually well-defined considering the time we had. I'm not sure why this was always so front-and-center in my focus, maybe since I used to work in consulting and project budgeting/scoping is so unbelievably important in that context. Whatever the case may be, understand that you won't be able to change the world every time you do a project. Make some incremental improvement, reflect on the results, and then include some notes in a "potential avenues for future exploration" section. I was pretty surprised at how many people had so much trouble putting the pencils down at the end. I can practically guarantee that, for the classes where I did a project on my own, I probably did substantially less work than other individual groups for precisely this reason. In general, you probably don't have to do as much work as you think you do.

So, would I recommend the program overall? Absolutely. It's not perfect, I found some of the formats annoying - CS 7642 has no business having that final exam, it adds nothing to the class at all, is arbitrarily extremely difficult and the class is good enough and complete enough with the removal of that exam that its inclusion to me appears to be the result of some arbitrary quota somewhere. I also don't really like the group project format and profoundly disagree with the reasoning that GTech and most other academic institutions give as to why group projects are even good or necessary, however I do acknowledge that from a logistics and resource standpoint it's unmanageable to grade individual projects for every single person in a given class and group projects do decrease the number of papers that TAs will have to read. Considering the scale of what GTech has managed to do, and how many students enroll each year, I'm surprised the program is as well-managed as it is. Yes, it does require a lot of self-teaching, but in most cases you can actively engage with TAs multiple times a week if you're struggling with topics and from what I've seen they were very responsive.
Anyways just wanted to give my perspective as someone who just finished this program and still thinks it's worthwhile despite its flaws.

Just throwing my thoughts out there, Spoilers for the Manga/anime!
So I like to divide them into 2 groups: Those who got screen time and those who didn't:
The group that got screen time:
Rayne Ames - The Sword Cane: The fan fave? Okay so he is basically Byakuya from Bleach and I fucking love him for it. Felt natural for him to take Mash’s side and his rabbit obsession is a fun and not overused gag. Plz just talk to your brother and stop overworking your self man. 8/10 solid dude.
Orter Mádl - The Desert Cane: Ngl when I first saw him I though the author really made Harry potter in this Wizarding world parody be the main antagonist huh? Thought his view were comically extreme at first but he kinda grew on me. Let's face it he has the best drip of all the Dvs. Now stop being a dead-beat brother to Wirth. 3/3 eyes.
Kaldo Gehenna - The Flame Cane: This man dead-ass never casts a single spell. Like the flame from his blade is described as not chanting a spell or something like that. I feel like he has a nice balance between badass DV moments and comedic gag ones… of those he has. Anime adaptation is probably gonna add more scene of him, right!? Questionable food taste/10
Ryoh Grantz - The Light Cane: Love the guy, hate the banana-ass looking hair. I feel like there is some lost potential here regaring the fact that Ryoh is the only confirmed parent/father, and there isn’t some line about him understanding the anxiety around shunning children that lacks magic power. Like I’d imagine the reason why is on the pro Mash side, is cause he wouldn’t let his own son having to grow up in a society were you either magic, or don’t magic and get executed. The manliest man that ever man’ed/10.
The group that did (but not enough)
Renatus Revol - The Immortal Cane: From what little we get he seem chill. Apparently the manga author had a backstory of him that didn’t make it in the story. Before he achieved his immortality he tried to sacrifice himself fro the woman he loved, hence the one scar on him. According to the fanbook: Bodies of deceased wizards leave enormous amounts of magical energy, so it is Renatus' job to make sure there is no theft at cemeteries. Sounds metal af, shame we don’t got to see any of it. 7/10.
Agito tyrone – The dragon Cane: Okay so what little we get from him in the story is; he is like the only religious guy and belives killing is a sin and actively hold a count on how many time he has sinned during the ‘final frontier’ battle. On one hand, why would he agree to take Mash’s life then? On the other why okay I guess he would be most pro execute Mash alongside Orter since magic is a gift from the gods. Oh and ALSO he is a an open masochist, and according to the fanbook his favorite type of opposite sex is married-women. I-THOUGH-HE-WAS-THE-GENTLE-GIANT-WITH-A-CUTE-DRAGON-TYPE-OF-CHARACTE10
Sophina Biblia – The knowledge Cane: Girl blocked Deliasters with a book. Go off Queen. Really would have loved to see more of her personal magic and in general let her have more screentime. I mean besides that it’s worth mentioning the trivia on her that mentions her nickname since her school days was "President". She has served as student president many times as she is very reliable. Makes me wonder what her reasons are for agree to Orter’s decisions. Like if she didn’t, I feel like she would just like Rayne, make it obvious she disagrees, also if both Orter and Ryoh were to bite the dust I guess she would be next in line to be the unoffical leader of the Dvs. 1/4 relevant female character in the story.
Tsurara Halestone - The Ice Cane: So what’s the secret under the eye-patch? Feel like it’s a Black Butler reference idk. I mean besides that the only interesting thing I can think of for Tsuara is the fact they dislike they personal magic and actively states so. Maybe if Mashle was a more traditional shonen battle series we would have gotten some arc/story around the fact that not everyone likes their personal magic and can’t do anything about it. And like Tsuara some types can inconvenience the mage to various degrees. Idk/10.
Tl;dr I wish [Insert character name here] got more screentime.

Warning: I am going to mention interviews with Eric (that guy's basically Tom Holland at this point...) and official trailers, so if you don't want to read about potential spoilers, better skip this thread.
This is about track 8 ("Raglan James") and the TTotBT book.
What we know so far about the show:

1. Daniel mentioned a "researcher" in episode 1
2. Justin Kirk is going to play a character who knows Daniel and also knows that vampires exist, possibly a member of the Talamasca (but we don't know yet if he's that researcher)
3. Eric said in an interview that the Talamasca are going to help him regain memories in some way
4. Eric also keeps mentioning that he's always wanted to play a vampire
5. (In another interview Eric mentioned ^ again in some special way (can't remember what he said exactly and can't find the exact interview) and a lot of people acted like that proved that Daniel would become a vampire for sure at the end of season 2.)

To recap the book:

• Raglan James (old ex-Talamasca member in a young body) asks Lestat if he wants to become human again, Lestat agrees, they switch bodies and Reglan takes off
• Lestat asks David (active Talamasca member who's kind of friends with Lestat) for help to get his body back
• They set up a trap, Lestat manages to get his body back but Raglan takes over David's body, while David ends up in the young body
• Fake-David asks Lestat to turn him, Lestat's been waiting for that but he notices that something's wrong and Reglan ends up in the hospital and dies
• Lestat turns David (still in the young body) forcefully, David leaves and they later meet in NOLA and agree to travel the world with Louis

Since episode 1 I've always thought that the researcher would turn out to be David and that they would use him in the TTotBD adapation (already mentioned by Rolin iirc) and as a connection to the Talamasca (show) but there's also a fan theory that the show will replace David with Daniel.
Let's just assume that Justin Kirk will indeed play Raglan James and that he's the researcher Daniel mentioned, how would that help get to where we need to be?
Daniel doesn't seem like a guy who's a Talamasca member, he is//was a journalist, so exactly the opposite of what you'd expect from one of them. I don't think he's got a lot of money (he agreed to do the interview because he wants to leave the $10mio. to his daughters) but if he was indeed (closely) connected to the Talamasca, money or taking care of his daughters after his death shouldn't be a problem. I don't think Daniel knows how to body switch either, so he wouldn't be of any help to Lestat, apart from that I don't remember them ever talking in the books.
Daniel's going to end up a vampire, that's set in stone, and it's suspicious how often Eric's mentioned wanting to play a vampire in interviews, so I wouldn't be surprised if they had old-Daniel turn to keep Eric around but again, how would that help with the TTotBT story, especially if they do give him David's role? Vampire-Daniel wouldn't be able to catch Lestat's post-QotD body, they needed the daytime to set everything up in the book and human Daniel wouldn't be of much use with that either (parkinson and all).

Good ebening everyone.
Just was seeing if anyone has any reading or audiobook recommendations.
Things I've finished lately that id recommend are:

• Audiobook: the autobiography of Gucci mane
  gave some great insight into the life of Gucci mane. Enjoyed it.
  
• Audiobook: the naked soul of iceberg slim
  

This was pretty intense, but emotional at the same time. Enjoyed it.

• Book/graphic novel: Eight billion genies

Loved the concept behind this story. Got me back into actively reading comics again.
In progress ATM:

• Audiobook: maybe you never cry again

Went on a rabbit hole of Bernie Mac content after that katt Williams interview earlier this year. This is a great find, and also narrated by Bernie himself. So far , it's funny yet sad but worthwhile nonetheless.

• Book: Ask Iwata
  great insight into the life of former Nintendo president Satoru Iwata. I suck at reading, so this is taking me a while to read. It's engaging though, nonetheless.
  
• Comic mini series: Avengers Twilight
  

Just read it. It's about to wrap up, but wow, one of the better things I've read this year as far as comics go.

"Good morning, hell! Today at daybreak the temperature is a balmy 112° under a smoggy vermillion sky. The flowers are wilting, the sun is blistering, and the birds are squawking obscenities--"
"--Fuck you, Tom"
"--that was live coverage of the birds."
"I'll show you, I'll peck your eyes out on live--"
"I hate this show!" Niffty screeches from the ceiling light fixtures she had been dusting. The light swings precariously back and forth. "Can we watch literally anything else?"
"I have a movie I've been dying to watch, myself. I could play it for the whole group." Angel drawls, wiggling his brows, from his spot lounged across the sofa.
"No. That isn't happening again." Vaggie shoots the idea down with her squinting eye, arms crossed and sitting on the small portion of the sofa Angel isn't hogging. He proceeds to drape his legs over her in spite.
At this same moment, Husk rises like the dead from behind the bar, clearly hung over, puts up a finger and readies himself to address Angel.
"Breakfast, everyone!" Calls Charlie brightly from the kitchen. "We have a big day ahead of us, full of fun programmed activities (that are not porn)!"
Husk takes this opportunity to quietly pass away behind the bar again.
Everyone moves to get up from the den and sit in the kitchen, Niffty dangling by her arms from the ceiling light, when Lucifer walks in and sits criss cross applesauce in the middle of the floor, a cardboard box in hand. Everyone pauses mid stride to look at the King of hell sitting on the floor like a 5th grader, tongue poked out and clearly mentally elsewhere.
Time pauses for everyone else as the King of hell opens the box, dust pluming everywhere, and pulls out... A scrapbook. The box is full of scrapbooks. He picks up a particular one with ducks all across the cover, shakes his head 'no' and sets it aside.
He picks the next one 'Lilith my Queen xoxo - Luci my Apple Pie" scrawled in two hands across the front. He again sets this one aside, after a shake of his head 'no'.
Everyone is in trance, now crowded around the short king in the living room. Interested has peaked. The tension in palpable.
The third book is-
"What are we so all so keen about here? Seems I'm missing out on the entertainment." Alastor says from slightly behind the crowd and everyone spooks a bit. He had snuck in silently- likely using shadowalking- but no one had been paying enough attention to notice.
He walks over to the approximate location of ceiling lamp, Niffty letting go of the light fixture and falling into his hair in a practiced maneuver before crawling down and skittering to sit with the rest. Alastor just cocks a brow and waits, tall enough to see the book next in queue from his angle.
"Huh. I was just walking down memory lane, trying to find Charlie's old- What, wait, I don't owe you any answers." Lucifer looks up and notices the intent eyes of everyone at the hotel on him for the first time. "OH hi everyone? I have an audience." He continues uncertainly, reaching into the box and dusting off the third book.
A certain princess's face blooms a bright red, her eyes grow like saucers. Her girlfriend's grip on her arm doubles.
"Charlie's (my brighest morning star- Quack Quack) Baby photos"
End chapter 1

I'm running the latest Nocturnal Phoenix build and all of my OS updates are up to date. Whenever i try loading in new assets (Forgotten Adventures, who would've guessed?) the program seizes almost instantly. It's not just the UI freezing as the resource allocation in the system monitor stops changing as well. That memory leak i keep hearing about doesn't happen as the memory usage never goes up. The advice I usually hear is to load assets 3 or 4 at a time but i can't even load one at a time. I assume this is the program having it's usual issues with thumbnail generation, and i would love to manually insert some thumbnails but i have no idea where those are stored on Linux. On the off chance it matters here's the system info:
System:
Kernel: 5.15.0-107-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.4.0 Desktop: Cinnamon 6.0.4
tk: GTK 3.24.33 wm: muffin vt: 7 dm: LightDM 1.30.0 Distro: Linux Mint 21.3 Virginia
base: Ubuntu 22.04 jammy
Machine:
Type: Laptop System: HP product: HP EliteBook 850 G6 v: N/A serial:
Chassis: type: 10 serial:
Mobo: HP model: 8549 v: KBC Version 52.5C.00 serial: UEFI: HP
v: R70 Ver. 01.04.06 date: 03/23/2020
Battery:
ID-1: BAT0 charge: 28.5 Wh (63.3%) condition: 45.0/45.0 Wh (100.0%) volts: 12.9 min: 11.6
model: Hewlett-Packard Primary type: Li-ion serial: status: Charging
CPU:
Info: quad core model: Intel Core i7-8665U bits: 64 type: MT MCP smt: enabled
arch: Comet/Whiskey Lake note: check rev: C cache: L1: 256 KiB L2: 1024 KiB L3: 8 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 1316 high: 3189 min/max: 400/4800 cores: 1: 800 2: 800 3: 800 4: 800 5: 800
6: 1296 7: 3189 8: 2048 bogomips: 33599
Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
Device-1: Intel WhiskeyLake-U GT2 [UHD Graphics 620] vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: i915
v: kernel ports: active: eDP-1 empty: DP-1, DP-2, DP-3, HDMI-A-1, HDMI-A-2, HDMI-A-3
bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:3ea0 class-ID: 0300
Device-2: Quanta HP HD Camera type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 1-9:3 chip-ID: 0408:5343
class-ID: 0e02 serial:
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.4 driver: X: loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa
gpu: i915 display-ID: :0 screens: 1
Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 508x285mm (20.0x11.2") s-diag: 582mm (22.9")
Monitor-1: eDP-1 model: AU Optronics res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 142
size: 344x194mm (13.5x7.6") diag: 395mm (15.5") modes: 1920x1080
OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics 620 (WHL GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 23.2.1-1ubuntu3.1~22.04.2
direct render: Yes
Audio:
Device-1: Intel Cannon Point-LP High Definition Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard
driver: sof-audio-pci-intel-cnl bus-ID: 00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:9dc8 class-ID: 0401
Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.15.0-107-generic running: yes
Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 15.99.1 running: yes
Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.48 running: yes
Network:
Device-1: Intel Ethernet I219-LM vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: e1000e v: kernel port: N/A
bus-ID: 00:1f.6 chip-ID: 8086:15bd class-ID: 0200
IF: enp0s31f6 state: down mac:
Device-2: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel pcie: speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 1
bus-ID: 3a:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:2723 class-ID: 0280
IF: wlp58s0 state: up mac:
Bluetooth:
Device-1: Intel AX200 Bluetooth type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8 bus-ID: 1-10:4 chip-ID: 8087:0029
class-ID: e001
Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: up address: bt-v: 3.0 lmp-v: 5.2
sub-v: 237e hci-v: 5.2 rev: 237e
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 476.94 GiB used: 86.42 GiB (18.1%)
ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: KIOXIA model: N/A size: 476.94 GiB speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4
type: SSD serial: rev: AGHA5101 temp: 38.9 C scheme: GPT
Partition:
ID-1: / size: 467.89 GiB used: 86.41 GiB (18.5%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2
ID-2: /boot/efi size: 511 MiB used: 6.1 MiB (1.2%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1
Swap:
ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 2 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 file: /swapfile
USB:
Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: Hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 12 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s
chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
Device-1: 1-8:2 info: Synaptics type: driver: N/A interfaces: 1 rev: 2.0
speed: 12 Mb/s power: 100mA chip-ID: 06cb:00b7 class-ID: ff00 serial:
Device-2: 1-9:3 info: Quanta HP HD Camera type: Video driver: uvcvideo interfaces: 4 rev: 2.0
speed: 480 Mb/s power: 500mA chip-ID: 0408:5343 class-ID: 0e02 serial:
Device-3: 1-10:4 info: Intel AX200 Bluetooth type: Bluetooth driver: btusb interfaces: 2
rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s power: 100mA chip-ID: 8087:0029 class-ID: e001
Hub-2: 2-0:1 info: Super-speed hub ports: 6 rev: 3.1 speed: 10 Gb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0003
class-ID: 0900
Hub-3: 3-0:1 info: Hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s
chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
Hub-4: 4-0:1 info: Super-speed hub ports: 2 rev: 3.1 speed: 10 Gb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0003
class-ID: 0900
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 41.0 C pch: 37.0 C mobo: 30.0 C
Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Repos:
Packages: 2327 apt: 2303 flatpak: 24
No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/insync.list
1: deb http: //apt.insync.io/mint virginia non-free contrib
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
1: deb http: //packages.linuxmint.com virginia main upstream import backport
2: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy main restricted universe multiverse
3: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates main restricted universe multiverse
4: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-backports main restricted universe multiverse
5: deb http: //security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jammy-security main restricted universe multiverse
Info:
Processes: 305 Uptime: 18m wakeups: 1 Memory: 31.15 GiB used: 4.05 GiB (13.0%) Init: systemd
v: 249 runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 11.4.0 alt: 11/12 Client: Cinnamon v: 6.0.4 inxi: 3.3.13
I don't know if there's some obscure driver or supplement i need to grab but any help would be appreciate as I'd like to be able to avoid taking my power sucking and too hot gaming laptop with me just to make a few maps over the weekend.

Ello!
Today me and my friends have finished the story as well, there is one strange thing not many people seem to notice and is kinda well hidden in the throne room after (or rather, during) we fight Eparch. ^{(Also I apologize, it was end of chapter 18, I forgot it pops into chapter 19 once I collected the rewards})
There is the EYE. OF. JANTHIR. in the throne room that disappears a bit after we defeat Eparch. We didn't notice it before the fight, but seemed to appear during the fight. It's kind of hard to spot due to the environment but it's there in the right "corner" at the wall next o the throne.
img: https://i.imgur.com/6SwZ0uW.png + https://i.imgur.com/g8YG38H.png ^{sorry for the bad quality, I took it from my recent stream}
Now there is kind of one hint that we kind of know that may actually now make sense for expac 5 possible location(s). Previously That_Shaman told us that the original filename of the teased picture we had of expac 5 was called "DeltaWildBog1920x1080"
We have one visible delta in the game, or at least one I know of that fits with this theory, which is near Janthir Bay. Well what a coincidence that we have a random Eye of Janthir show up after... such a long time to seemingly spy on the event going on between Peitha/us and Eparch and then vanish from the room. Almost like it is spying or something, honestly no clue but is really strange coincidence.
I firmly believe Isles of Janthir or Janthir Bay, even if not the isle, but the woodlands around the Bay itself would make sense as location for the next expansion, considering the "delta".
To add, there is a book during the library event in Amnytas (bastion of Knowledge), where there are options to pick a book (the right one for the event) and there is one book that isn't related to the event that is a "Recent reports on non-Kryptis activity near the Isle of Janthir" which means the astral ward has reported on non-kryptis (thank fudge) activity near that location before.
Tho I don't think we would really get anything related to the Mursaat considering now Lazarus and even Mabon is supposed to be dead, but as an oldie I'm still one curious as of what the purpose of the eye is and what is it being used now, but also WHO might be using it and for what reasons. Maybe we finally find the people who may have originally resided on the isles? Honestly, it can go many ways. A lot of things make sense to me now to connect it to that place in all honesty, especially with the eye now randomly appearing absolutely locks my mind to Isles of Janthir.
Either way, I believe we goin' to the Isles of Janthir in expac 5! Or... really close to it

Edit:

Okay, it could be Mursaat related in one-way or the other, because I've been also told now that Mabon's statue in the last story chapter (where you can go around in the tower) is also... glowing for whatever reason that it normally never did before.
And to follow up on what u/Nebbii said in the comments, I did check and Isgarren does mention that Mabon was a Tyrian Mursaat as he says:
"And like the Tyrian mursaat*, my kind are all dead."* and "He was different, and more so resembled the mursaat I've met external Tyria: brutal, yes, but fair."
Which to me implies that Tyrian Mursaats are now dead, but there are other kinds of Mursaat or so called "external Tyrian Mursaat"? Well there is a lot to think, I wonder now if they will go on this subject for the next expansion.

I feel like an idiot for posting this on Reddit but I don't really feel comfortable venting about this with friends, so here we are!
(21F) It's been two years since I broke up with my ex boyfriend. It was a really healthy relationship and we remain really close friends, it just didn't make sense to me to keep up with it anymore.
Well, I'm a 21 year old girl, and since that breakup my social life hasn't been all that interesting really. I'm a 4th year law student and college ended up being not all that exciting, and even tough I've got to meet my amazing group of friends, I didn't really relate to anyone else. Therefore, this time when you're supposed to meet lots of people and broaden your horizons ended up stagnating a bit for me.
I consider myself an easy going person, I've never in my life find it hard to make friends or getting to know people. It's just that I haven't got many chances to. I spend most my time with my friends I already know or end up meeting people at parties who I don't talk to ever again, and being still in college doesn't give me much time for new activities. Romantic-wise, I've never been the type that cares too much (or even at all) to be in a relationship, and I never really liked the idea of having to chase anything. I thrive on my own most of the time, and whatever happens, happens. But like anyone else, I sometimes miss the occasional flirt and whatever comes with it haha. Intimacy in geral, or just having fun. More than the horny!!!! aspect of it, I really do miss getting to make friends and talk to somebody new.
Well, as I've stated before, I think I'm really easy to talk to, overall funny and outgoing. Charming in a good day, perhaps haha. About my looks, well I wouldn't say I'm stunning but I'm not very insecure, or at least I don't let it get to my head very often. Maybe not the type you'd give a second look or flirt on the subway - unless I'm reading some cool book or something haha - but maybe buy me a drink in the night if we're having a good time lol. I'm usually very friendly with anyone I meet so I don't even know how people make the jump to flirtation these days...
Back to the dating apps: as we've seen here, I'm stagnant. Not even my social media does wonders for me anymore since I've had the stupid idea of soft blocking almost everyone when I've gotten out of high school (so real to be fair), so most of my followers are people I actually know or work with today. There's always a random guy out of nowhere but you know, no one interesting enough !!
That being said, should I overcome my fear of dating apps? I'm NOT gonna lie to you, to this very day I've always been a bit prejudiced about it. Not judgemental of people who use them at all, I just never thought I'd be into it because I don't think that's the coolest way to say I've met a significant other haha. I mean, my future boyfriend can be using a dating app right now, but he surely won't find me in one. At least that's how I like to put it.
Still, I'm reluctant. My brain tells me not to do it, but at the same time my heart is telling me to do so for the plot. I really hate the idea of having to create a profile that appeals to anyone, plus the dynamic of maybe not finding matches???? I don't have many self esteem issues but idk how that would affect me in the long run. Plus, maybe this might sound wrong, but given the fact that I study law people on my field of study expect some odd seriousness of their employees, and as common as they are there's still many preconceptions about dating apps within these firms. I mean, I already hold the weight of my digital footprint being goofy on twitter haha
WELL I don't know what to expect of this! But it's my first post on Reddit so there's that! I ended up writing a lot more than I intended so feel free to engage and talk to me. Or even to call me an idiot. It's late in the night in here and I feel like oversharing SO there's that freedom of opinating about strangers lives on the internet lol
Anyway thanks in advance, and I apologize for any mistake since english ain't my first language!

Galing ako from small companies on my previous jobs, and I was just surprised at how things were going now na I'm at a midsize corpo company.
My first few observation were:

• wow, pano naging close yung iba't ibang departments when there's no time naman na they could be hanging out.
  
• this might be an environment where "evil eye" could be present; i never thought that was ever true until na i realized na some people are really competitive na dumarating sa pagkakaron na ng crab mentality.
  
• akala ko kapag nasa corpo world ka parang tanggap mo nang "disposable" ka, akala ko norm na yung just giving the bare minimum. But no, in my department, didibdibin talaga nila yung work nila na kahit mag overnight pa sila. And take note, they're just juniors lang rin.
  
• it looks like i do really have to get used with bida bidang coworkers. Di ko talaga sila matatakasan. Tipong putak ng putak kahit mali naman pinagsasabi just for the sake of being proactive
  
• and speaking of, i do need to be proactive. I really need to!!! But it's just hard for me if di ko naman talaga ugali. Perfect example of nonchalant. I keep my reactions to myself and always patago ang kilos ko; meaning I can help but di ko ibibida yun. And it also doesnt help na i get tired easily, kaya always akong naka "energy-savings mode".
  
• idk why, pero i'm always thinking about how much will my salary increase if nag jobhop uli ako. I really need to stop thinking about it kasi i think factor talaga why I'm not active. I always have my foot out the door kahit kakapasok ko lang.
  
• i also have to accept the fact that I'm coworkers with achievers. May cum laude, may topnotcher, may from a very nice company. Tapos ako: mortal na tao lang. Di na pwede yung ugali kong nonchalant lang. If before, hinahayaan ko lang if may gustong magpakajollibee sa work dapat ngayon I can prove na I really do deserve to be in the team. I need to study more so I can contribute naman.
  

Ibang iba talaga to from my previous experience na direkta inuutusan na ako kung ano gagawin, like di ko na kailangan mag-isip kasi ginawa na ng seniors ko for me. This time, I'll be thinking of the solution with raw data handed to me. This is gonna be so hard and uncomfortable but I hope I wont cry and give up kasi this is worth learning naman.
A message to myself: you need to experience everything kahit na mahirap, kasi it will be your leverage. Magpakatatag and maging masipag. Don't expect everything will be handed to you. Altho, it will also be helpful if you gather info/knowledge from colleagues. Wag mo na taasan pride mo, ask a lot of questions! This is the perfect opportunity since you're surrounded with competitive people. Wag ka papatalo. Bawal na ang tatamad tamad! Mahalin mo work mo and aim to be promoted ASAP!!! Magpakabida bida ka na, bata ka pa naman

To make the NREMT easier, follow these steps:

1. Buy the EMT Crash Course book: This provides comprehensive preparation.
2. Buy EMT Pocket Prep: Use this for active recall on what you've just learned. This will put you at about $30 for both and greatly increase your chances of passing the test.

Additionally, make sure to learn the medical terminology. For example, "hematemesis" means bloody vomit. Don’t go crazy but understand the simple stuff hepa, polyurea polyphagia etc…
If you still don’t feel comfortable about the test and are unsure, I recommend buying Paramedic Coach. He breaks down complex topics, especially pregnancies and other areas, in a very simple way.
The test was easy for me. I got kicked out at 70 questions and passed but it got hard at the end where I had no idea what the fuck they where talking about just use process of a elimination
EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) Crash Course with Online Practice Test, 3rd Edition: Get a Passing Score in Less Time (EMT Test Preparation): 9780738612874: Medicine & Health Science Books @ Amazon.com (https://www.amazon.com/Emergency-Medical-Technician-Course-Practice/dp/0738612871/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?adgrpid=55688564866&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.2H4LIM444QdmXxHyXKtLHGaFHYUeZwLve16hhIzPYHjVEYYN4BDIUwn6EBbdEdxO70-OQ8Zy4C2nS9_7v3A_fiP95rurT_Ada8cO_IT00icdJ0VvE-jccUOEwcjX6l4WbWSFjw_uY6rO-ieMq-d_rm-aAban5EMYNRqsp4VrAMpct491KsoXTmCAnnfvuQXOEAUgmT0rhXvnIseMAWq9ZA.0k6s769WhjTwqOkBhXJ4zHdFLx4tbLhzUAInrlhsnR8&dib_tag=se&hvadid=410035634099&hvdev=m&hvlocphy=9030615&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=11689681984435800462&hvtargid=kwd-322569324230&hydadcr=15178_11424892&keywords=emt+crash+course&qid=1716329025&sr=8-1)

Hi!
I've had a lot of dental work done recently with my previous dentist (4 wisdom teeth pulled, 6 molars pulled with bone grafts, and 2 root canals all within 1 year). I'm in a very fortunate situation where I have been able to pay for most of this work out of pocket, however, I just got a new insurance that my previous dentist office does not accept, so I had to search for a new dentist. After a lot of phone calls I found an office near me that accepts my new insurance and I scheduled an appointment with them.
During my first appointment we did a consultation and a cleaning. When I went in, I got a weird vibe from the office. The front of the office looked pristine but then when I was taken back to a room, all the walls looked dingy and stained, there was water leaks in the ceiling, and everything just looked dingy and rundown like it hadn't been maintained in a while. I'm not one to judge a book by it's cover, but it did have me kind of concerned. After the cleaning, we scheduled the root canal for 2 weeks later.
Fast forward to today, I had the appointment for the root canal. I was already feeling very nervous because they had called me yesterday to let me know they ran out of gas so they would not be able to use that during my appointment. I have had a very bad experience in the past so now whenever I go in for a procedure I have a lot of anxiety and tend to get panic attacks.
I get taken back to a room and people keep coming in and out getting everything set up and getting me ready. My dentist then comes in and she begins doing the root canal. Mind you, while she is doing the root canal, she is actively on a phone call and employees keep coming in and out of the room speaking to my dentist and the assistant acting like I'm not even there and they are speaking Spanish complaining about a little Bluetooth speaker being missing, apparently an employee stole it. It was pretty off-putting that I was not the main priority during this procedure and that they cared more about their phone calls and speakers than focusing on this procedure that they're doing on me. I understand having to take care of some things, but there is a time and a place for that.
Fast forward about an hour and my dentist keeps saying that I'm bleeding a lot. She keeps repeating that without explaining anything so obviously that's a little jarring. Eventually, after she couldn't get the bleeding to stop, she tells me that we are going to have to finish this another day. She told me she is putting some medicine inside the tooth and she puts a "temporary filling" inside and sends me to the front of the office to schedule another appointment. I get up there and they tell me her next opening isn't for 2.5 weeks.
So now, here I am, sitting here with a half-finished root canal questioning if that is okay to do. I suppose it's more like 1/3 finished since I still have to wait for the temporary crown. She was not able to put in the posts or fill the tooth with the "gutta percha", it is currently just filled with medicine and topped with a temporary filling.
I've never heard of this before and couldn't find anything online about this. As someone who already has a lot of dental anxiety, this is just making it so much worse. Is this ok? Am I fine to wait the 2.5 weeks to get the root canal finished? Or should I just bite the bullet and contact my previous dentist (who I trust greatly) and see about getting this finished.
Thanks in advance!

I hope it is OK to post this here.
I haven't read the books nor will I ever read them. My adhd brain would struggle but I just binged all 9 movies in two days.
Where to start.... The Giulio's and Henry Cavils of the world ruin it for the rest of the mortals. Wet dreams anyone? 🥰
I appreciated how the intimate scenes were handled with such a sensual touch. 😅 The chemistry and passion felt authentic and beautifully erotic without being gratuitous. The longing and desire on all of these scenes were just 🔥
I did find myself however, saying a lot of "oh please!" Couldn't stand Julia's constant dramatic insecurities, they made me cringe. Can't pinpoint exact scenes (too many) but the movies could have gone without.
I was disappointed we never got to witness her completing her PhD. Earning that doctoral degree was nearly as important to her as was finding Gabriel. She went through hell, fought tooth and nail for it. It's a shame they chose not to include that final accomplishment. Depicting a woman achieving such a prestigious academic milestone alongside being a mother would have sent a powerful message. Women are multidimensional - we are so much more than child-bearers. By showcasing her intellectual triumph, it could have inspired viewers and challenged the narrow stereotypes that still confine women's identities. They missed an opportunity to celebrate the multiple roles women can excel in beyond just procreation. Not to mention, the active role fathers should take in a child's life.
Anywho, my two cents. On the flip side, I just discovered Passionflix and it instantly become my guilty pleasure.
All in all, Gabriel's Inferno was a masterclass in capturing the intoxicating dance of sensuality. And now, back to reality 😂😂😂

Monday May 27: Redline
stations: 9
pods: 1
sets: 5
laps: 1
timing:
set 1: 20” work 5” rest
set 2: 30” work 5” rest
set 3: 40” work 5” rest
set 4: 50” work 5” rest
set 5: 60” work 5” rest

1. ski erg regular
2. ybell soft box step ups
3. dumbbell single alternating devil press
4. 2x push ups + 2x sprawls + 2x jumps
5. row erg
6. dumbbell single alternating clean squat
7. hurdles 2 feet jump over kneeling
8. bike erg seated
9. single kb front rack farmers walk

Tuesday May 28: Maximus
Stations: 9
Pods: 3
Sets: 4
Lap: 1
Timing: 40/20, 30/20, 30/20, 30/25 + BW reel at the end of each pod

1. dumbbell lateral raise
2. olympic barbell plate deficit rdl tempo
3. dumbbell box seated shoulder press
4. suspension trainer reverse fly
5. kettlebell unilateral row
6. ybell double racked forward lunge
7. dumbbell flat bench press
8. sandbag squat + upright row
9. slides glute bridge hamstring curl

Wednesday May 29: Bears
Stations: 18
Pods: 1
Laps: 1
Sets: 2
Timing: Set 1: 35” work 10” rest. Set 2: 55” work 20” rest.

1. battle rope 10 singles 5 doubles
2. box squat jump release feet
3. 10x a steps + 2x sprawls
4. ab crunch and twist
5. soft box jump
6. medicine ball russian twist
7. row erg
8. triple switch hold + 5x ice skater
9. slide mid point hold and lateral glide
10. dumbbell bear crawl
11. split jump
12. bike erg standing
13. ybell cross halo + rotational press double grip
14. kettlebell sumo squat upright row unbroken
15. double foot mountain climber
16. dumbbell double jumping jack + press
17. 10x frog squats + 2x push ups
18. ski erg staggered stance

Thursday May 30: Two Fold
Stations: 8
Pods: 3 (Pods 1 & 2 - 3 stations, Pod 3 - 2 stations)
Pod 1 & 2 - 40" work 20" rest, 2 sets, 2 laps
Pod 3 - 40" work 20" rest, 6 combo sets (peak performance + activation)
Upper Body:

1. dumbbell bench incline close grip press
2. ybell double bicep curl centre grip
3. revo double push press
4. medicine ball push up alternating
5. barbell glute bridge tri extension
6. single kb waiters clean + press
7. chin up overhand grip
8. standing t-y-i

Lower Body:

1. deadball alternate staggered bear hug squat
2. plate calf raises pulse
3. sandbag shouldered lunge
4. step trainer alternate leg eccentric pistol squat
5. plate lateral lunges
6. dumbbell box step up unilateral
7. olympic barbel rdl
8. kang squat

Friday May 31: Checkmate
stations: 12
pods: 3
timing:
pod 1: 60” work 25” rest. 1 set. 2 laps.
pod 2: 60” work 25” rest. 2 sets. 1 lap.
pod 3: AMRAP - 4 rounds of 2’30” of continuous work performing 4 movements with a rep format of 2-2-2-2, 4-4-4-4, and so on for as many rounds as possible + 15” of half burpee every 2’30”

1. ski erg regular
2. bike erg seated
3. ybell squat press under grip
4. lateral shoot throughs
5. suspension trainer wide grip rows
6. dumbbell bench arnold press
7. dumbbell rdl
8. deadball step trainer bear hug bulgarian
9. kettlebell squat upright row
10. kettlebell swing
11. kettlebell goblet squat
12. kettlebell t bar row

Saturday June 01: NoHo
Stations: 18
Pods: 1
Laps: 3
Timing:
Lap 1: 20” work 10” rest. 2 sets at each station.
Lap 2: 60” work 20” rest. 1 set at each station.
Lap3: 20” work 10” rest. 1 set at each station.

1. ski erg standing
2. speed squats
3. bike erg in and out of seat
4. push up + pike
5. row erg
6. flutter kick
7. medicine ball circle + 45 degree lunge
8. dumbbell alternate press
9. deadball row + burpee
10. staggered squat jump
11. plate straight arm lateral lunge
12. agility box hurdle lateral jump
13. kettlebell lateral lunge plus row
14. revo squat press
15. dumbbell plank cross body pick up
16. sled push
17. dumbbell sumo deadlift
18. surrender squat

Sunday June 02: Romans
Stations: 9
Pods: 3
Sets: 2
Laps: 2
Timing: 35” work 25” rest

1. revo front raise
2. kettlebell deadlift staggered alternate
3. dumbbell standing arnold press
4. chin station eccentric chins
5. olympic barbell pendlay row
6. dumbbell alternate reverse lunge
7. dumbbell bench flat chest fly
8. sandbag alternate staggered front squat
9. barbell bicep curl pause top squeeze

Just picked up a big muffin deluxe. It worked in the store 45 minutes ago but I can’t get it to work now. It’s lighting up but going silent when I activate the foot switch. I already made sure input and output are correct so I think it might have to do with the power supply but I don’t know a ton about pedals so I’m not really sure. I also replaced the battery and tried that and was still having the same issue

I (20f) have been, what I understand to be, maladaptive daydreaming for most of my life. It wasn’t until recently, about a year ago, that I learned about maladaptive daydreaming and that other people also experience it. This came as a huge shock to me, as I have always been embarrassed and secretive with my form of “daydreaming.” I thought I was the only one who would find solace in my head, playing out different scenarios and scenes with characters from movies, books, tv shows, and even some of my own creation. All with their own back stories and subplots. They were always changing and conforming to whatever hyper-fixation I had at the time. Usually backed with songs blasting in my ears at full volume, allowing me to truly break away from reality.
As I mentioned above, I have been doing this for a very long time, even now. It acts as a form of stress-relief for me, and a moment to get away from life’s problems. The only people who know about my “daydreaming” are my immediate family members and one close best friend, to an extent. I am still deeply embarrassed by this and it makes me uncomfortable to explain to other people. It’s hard for me to put in words how my daydreaming has helped me through extremely difficult times. It’s almost worrying the level of connection I feel and dependence I have on it. I can and have gone many months without doing it, but I always seem to get easily irritated and stressed if I don’t.
This is where my question comes in, I am nervous about the future with this habit. Should I stop this habit altogether and find a new way of stress-relief, or should I continue and just wait for the reliance to wean itself off as time goes on? I should mention that this isn’t the most silent activity of mine (that sounds way worse than it is). I have gathered that others who daydream either pace a room or walk around their home. However, I sit on a spinning stool as I daydream. I found that spinning really fast in one place really helps with the imagination part of the daydream. Thus, why I am so embarrassed by my behavior and am rarely open about it.
As I have read through different stories on this subreddit, I also have had other anxieties pop up about maladaptive daydreaming. Mainly that this may be a form of severe mental illness and an unhealthy detachment from reality. Not that I am entirely concerned about being “normal”(hate that word), moreso if I should be seeking actual medical/therapeutic help for this. I want to add that in no way do I apply these fantasies and dreams to real life. I completely understand that they are in my head and not actual people or events that have taken place.
Overall, I just want to get some feedback from other people who have experienced this and can possibly understand what I am talking about. If anyone has any tips or experience that they could lend me, it would be greatly appreciated. I want to say that this subreddit has really opened my eyes. It has made me feel more comfortable with talking about and acknowledging my daydreaming, for that I am grateful.

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Just finished a 10 day mediterranean cruise on Resilient lady. Having only previously cruised on Scarlet lady in early 2022 at a third capacity on a 5 day Caribbean itinerary, I thought I would share my impressions.

1. This cruise was at capacity which I was worried about how the experience would differ. Overall, it did not feel busy to us. We didn't really have to wait in any lines, we were able to see all the shows we wanted, and we were able to book all the dinner reservations and gym classes we wanted. I will note that we knew to book restaurants as soon as we got on the ship and as soon as the exercise classes opened at 3pm. In comparison, this recent experience was much more lively and active. The previous cruise was creepy at times with venues often being empty.
2. This cruise seemed like a much older crowd than our previous experience- they said average age was 52. We are in our late 30's and it didn't seem like there were many younger passengers. With that said, the 5 day Caribbean itineraries are more likely to have a younger party crowd so we were partly expecting this to be an older demographic. There were a number of people who walked out of some of the performances making comments about having an agenda pushed down their throat, but overall, didn't feel like the "come as you are" vibe was impacted. The only issue I saw was that many of the older passengers seemed to not be aware of the option to order at your table in the galley. Most mornings, there were lines forming at the various breakfast counters unnecessarily, which made it often difficult to walk around. We ordered from the staff at our table and were able to be served and complete our meal within 30 minutes. So keep in mind you can use the red flag to order at the table- no need to line up! Another concern was that there were a lot of obviously sick older people coughing, etc. The amount of times we saw people touch things without using the readily available hand sanitizers after wiping their noses and coughing was quite astonishing. Yes, this happens on all cruises, but this seemed a bit more frequent than we have seen before.
3. All of the port tender and shuttles went really smoothly! Longest we had to wait for a shuttle was about 10 min in Crete. Disembarkation was also super quick as we were off the ship carrying our luggage within 10 min.
4. We bought the 5 day thermal spa pass for $259 each person. We aren't big party people or drinkers, so we would often go to the spa in the evening after dinner. If you do this, note that on one of the days you get a special sugar scrub and lotion to use as part of the mud room which was lovely!
5. We had a $600 bar tab which we used despite not drinking much. We had specialty coffees at each breakfast and also bought non-alcoholic drinks such as Humm Kombucha and Kin Euphorics. Also, each restaurant and bar seemed to have at least one or more non-alcoholic or low alcoholic options. Finally, if we did decide to have a drink, we splurged on expensive glasses of wine (Caymus, Moet, etc) which was a nice experience.
6. We booked an excursion at each port and all were pretty great experiences. Of note, I didn't think the excursion prices were that much more expensive than what I found on trip advisor, etc, so I preferred to book with the ship for flexibility and securing tender spots where needed.
7. One of the few negative experiences we had was the room location. I mentioned we aren't big on partying and treated this trip as more of a wellness and relaxation vacation. We booked an XL sea terrace about a year before the trip using a travel agent. I didn't bother to look at the room location and unfortunately we had 8330Z, which had a speaker from the Red Room right below. I'm not kidding when I say the room shook from the sound system- to the point where we had to disassemble the mini fridge shelves and pull out the drawers as they were knocking around so much and the noise was absurd. Even if you were hard of hearing, the vibration and shaking alone would make it impossible to relax and fall asleep. We reached out to sailor services who said they could offer ear plugs, but that was it. Luckily on the 2nd day, sailor services called us and offered us a room change to 11350A, an XL sea terrace (without hammock), which we gladly accepted. Note that Red Room entertainment goes to 11pm, so this would only be a problem if you are early to bed and early risers like us.
8. We had on board credit so decided to do the behind the scenes tour. It was definitely a good one-time experience and we learned a lot of interesting aspects. For example, all the restaurants cook the plates per order (yes there's prep, but there's not plates just sitting under a warmer waiting to be served). All pastries are made on ship. One of the striking impressions was that the staff seem to genuinely enjoy their job. Several times they said they were promoted quickly, there's lots of perks including being able to eat at the restaurants and book excursions, and they liked that they can show their tattoos, piercings, have hair of any color, etc. They also said there's purposely no visible rankings, uniform differences, or countries of origin listed. They want everyone treated with the same level of respect- you may actually have encountered the captain and not know it. It's a bit refreshing from the over the top interactions that staff on other cruise lines show. Staff seem genuinely in a good mood on Virgin.
9. Overall, this solidified that we love Virgin Voyages. We did an Alaska itinerary on Royal Caribbean (Quantum of the Seas) last summer and Virgin is a much better experience in our opinion. On RC, we felt like everything was an upsell or shopping centric and run down (yes it is an older ship than Resilient but it seemed grimy). Areas were over crowded on RC and overall felt chaotic. Virgin seemed to have longer stays in the ports than we have experienced on RC (less concerned with shopping and casino sales?) Also, not having kids on the cruise makes a big difference. Food is much better on Virgin, apart from us really liking the sushi restaurant on Quantum- note that we did the unlimited specialty restaurant package on Quantum as we thought the dining room quality had gone down and we don't like buffets. Overall, I feel that while Virgin is more expensive up front, it is a better quality experience. We will likely go on another RC cruise as my parents are avid cruisers and won't try another line despite our encouragement, but we are definitely sold on the Virgin experience. We used the book your next voyage promotion on the ship and will be going on Brilliant Lady in 2026 in a suite. Having a suite on the 2022 voyage and an XL terrace on this recent voyage, we feel the cost is worth it for the suite, although the XL sea terrace was still a very nice experience.

Happy to answer any questions you have!

Okay, so for this post there are a lot of people involved (this has been going on for a while) so I'll list up here who's who. This is my wife's family. I'll be using code names when appropriate:
Father-in-law - FIL
Mother-in-law - MIL
Wife(oldest daughter) - Wife
Second daughter - Sarah
Third daughter - Lana
Fourth daughter - Ruth
Second daughter's husband - BIL
Third daughter's fiancee - Karl
My daughter - daughter
Second daughter's older son - Danny
Second daughter's younger son - Aaron
And me as me
I know this is long but bear with me TL;DR Brother-in-law has snapped the last straw for the family and we are all starting to cut ties with him

 BIL's family has their own side of the story that I'm barely familiar with, so it won't be brought up here. We first met BIL way before they got together; Sarah bought a house as a group of friends with her boyfriend at the time, and BIL and his second wife at the time. We didn't interact with him much. We just heard a few stories about him from their friend group. Eventually this situation broke down and BIL and his second wife left and vandalized Sarah's home on the way out. They let their dogs poop all over the floor, stole some miscellaneous items, poured water in their lawn mower gas tank, etc. He did this to Sarah, his future third wife. We thought this guy was out of our lives forever. Sarah eventually came to stay on my couch after she sold the house. She lived with me and my wife for roughly 3 months. Then she went and rented an apartment a few miles away. No sooner than a few weeks did we find out she was dating future BIL, and a few weeks after that we found she was pregnant. He met the family and stated that he wanted to be a part of it. He blamed all his past transgressions on his second wife. We questioned him at the time if he was still with his second wife. He said no, and that he was officially divorced. My wife looked up the public court records and found out that he didn't file divorce papers until 11 days after we asked that question. A small lie but considering our history of knowing him it was concerning. BIL is a big gun enthusiast. About 1 months after they told us Sarah was pregnant, while cleaning a gun at home he shot himself in the hand. Again, we were concerned but Sarah assured us he was a changed man and this was just an unfortunate accident. His hand healed but he didn't do his physical therapy that seriously so his hand is still kind of jacked up. I feel this is important because he kind of has a history of not following through on what he says. During Sarah's pregnancy we found out that BIL seriously beat one of their dogs back when they bought the house together. We also figured out he diagnosed himself with bipolar, but refused to go to a doctor to get an actual diagnosis. The whole family at the time was distracted by all of this because during Sarah's pregnancy my wife went through a major medical struggle that resulted in multiple surgeries and a months-long stay in the hospital. We were so focused on that the BIL details just kind of came and went at that moment. Sarah gave birth to Danny during COVID lockdown. We were so excited and we all were very active in Danny's life. Time would pass and we just kind of got used to BIL being despite the fact that he often would miss family events. BIL and Sarah would move into a house on my in-laws property just down the road from in-laws house. MIL became their primary caregiver as she could work it around her job and still make decent money. As 4 years have passed my MIL, FIL, Lana, my Wife and I all take shifts of watching their now 2 kids for them, for free. MIL also watches my daughter but significantly less that their son's. 2 years would pass after Danny was born and everything seemed OK. There would just be hints in they way he talked about who he really was. He would say something in casual conversation like "man, there seems like there are too many black people in commercials these days" or "I don't know why we are forcing women's sports to be a thing." Bigoted stuff like that, but veiled enough so there was plausible deniability. I would often call him out on it, so he really grew to not like me. This all changed at his 30th bday. He had a big party with a lot of alcohol and weed with dozens of friends. My wife and I didn't go because we are not party people. Lana and Ruth went to the party. Sarah was also there. During this party BIL went outside and decided to "mud" his jeep through the creek beside their house. This was possibly with Karl but I'm not sure of that to this day. Karl has recently come into the picture prior to this event and was previously friends with BIL for a long time. The jeep got stuck and flooded for obvious reasons. After trying to get it out of the creek by multiple means, they gave up and left it there. I believe it took almost 2 days to get it out. He went back to the party and as everyone got progressively drunk and high, my 2 sister-in-laws Lana and Ruth (I believe) criticized BIL for getting his car stuck in a creek while playing. BIL verbally assaulted them and demanded they get out of his house. They left in tears. They drove separately, and Lana had gotten buzzed so they both got in Ruth's car and drove to my house. They sat and vented to my wife and I for a while, and eventually I offered that we should go do something fun to take their minds off of it. My wife and I drove them to Taco Bell and we got some food and drove around town for a while and made jokes in the car. After they cooled off and were in a better mood they said that Lana needed to go get her car from the party. In a flurry she accidentally left her keys inside her sister's and BIL's house. We drove them over just in case anything sketchy happened but Lana and Ruth didn't want us to go inside, so we waited out in the car. She didn't think it would be a big deal to walk in, but as her and Ruth did BIL immediately got in her face and demanding she gets out or else. Ruth went to talk to someone else at the party and didn't notice this at first. BIL shoved Lana against a wall and held her there. Everyone apparently stood in stunned silence as this happened. He then shoved her to the ground, grabbed her around the ankles and started pulling her across the floor. As he was threatening to do even worse, Ruth ran up and jumped on his back and gave him a head lock. She screamed at him to stop but before BIL could anything about this everyone finally woke up and pulled them apart. Ruth helped Lana up and they ran out of the house onto the front porch sobbing. My wife saw this and got out of the car and yelled at them to get back in our car. We drove up to the in-laws house. By then it was past midnight. MIL was about an hour away working her job and FIL was up in his room asleep. The sisters went and woke him up and explained the situation through tears. They also called MIL to inform her of the situation. He got ready and ask me to go with him down to the house to get some answers. The sisters stayed up at the house. We drove down in his car and when we got out the entire party was ready for us and greeted us at the car. Literally over a dozen people, most of whom I did not recognize started screaming what happened at both of us simultaneously. Everyone was clearly very drunk. FIL looked overwhelmed, so I raised my hands and tried asking everyone to stop for a second and go one by one telling their bit of the story. BIL stopped me mid sentence and pointed his finger in my face. I noticed he had his other hand on a holstered hand gun. He yelled out "You don't have a say here! You're barely even part of this family." For context, I had been with my wife for over 11 years at that time and he hadn't even married Sarah yet and had been there about 2 1/2 years. FIL backed up and told me that I need to stop talking and that I was being a problem. I backed off and went over the yard to Sarah and Karl. I asked Sarah what happened and she told me that she didn't see what happened and that she wasn't very aware of what was going on now. Karl would barely answer the same question. I walked back over to FIL but he told me to back off and that I really wasn't needed there. Admittedly I felt pretty insulted and just decided to walk back to his house and get my car and go home with my wife. We eventually left after FIL came back to the house. We found out later that BIL had pulled his gun out and threatened to kill himself if FIL didn't leave. Out of fear of what he would do, my in-laws were pretty afraid to take action at this point. A lot of the situation was his word against someone else's and Sarah went on a tour around to the friends and convinced them not to take any of this to the police. She then tried to smooth things over with the family and offered that BIL would apologize to everyone. He then refused, stating that Ruth was the real aggressor and that she assaulted him. He eventually agreed to apologize to just FIL for causing a problem and I think some half-hearted apologies to Lana and Ruth. The whole situation was swept under the rug but an unease has existed over the family since then. He stopped coming to family events pretty much altogether. About 4 months after this situation, prior to my daughter being born, he told MIL he was going to bring Danny up to their house so she could watch him for a few hours while he took a nap. His job works long hours so this wasn't out of the ordinary. However, he didn't show up for a while and my MIL started questioning what going on. She called but there was no answer. She drove down to his house and knocked but there wasn't an answer, only Danny crying in the background. She let herself in and found BIL asleep on the couch with Danny actively trying to wake him up. MIL tried to wake him up but nothing for a few minutes. She gave up and wrote a note to let him know where Danny was. BIL didn't notice Danny was gone for 2 hours. He finally woke up, drove up to in-laws house, and yelled at my MIL for just taking Danny without informing him. He took Danny and then left. A few months after that, after my daughter was born, He fell asleep while watching Danny again. This time we found out because when he woke up the front door was open and Danny was gone. He called in-laws for help finding him. My in-laws have a large property (about 200 acres) with a ton of it forested. Danny wandered 1/4 of a mile into the woods and I believe it took roughly a little over an hour to find him. Family questioned him hard this time but he just recoiled back into their house and didn't talk to us much. Sarah continued to defend him and said it was just an accident. Again the police were not notified about any of this. There was always this idea that if we went to authorities about any of this they would just run for it. They would then surprise everyone with the news that they were pregnant again, despite the fact that Sarah had used the morning after pill. This whole time they hadn't married yet. They announced that they were getting married but Sarah told Lana that it was mostly just to help BIL not have to go through bankruptcy a second time. I wasn't sure if this would do anything to help that situation, but that's what Sarah said at one point leading up to the wedding. About a month before the wedding, however, he threatened Sarah that if she insisted on inviting my wife to the wedding he would demand to invite a friend of his that Sarah hated. This friend also used to date BIL I believe. This was his ploy to force Sarah to not invite my Wife or me. The 2 other sisters and MIL all stood in solidarity with us and said that they would also not go if we weren't invited. He eventually relented and they got married a little before Aaron was born. As more kids were added, MIL's childcare duties got much harder. Eventually my wife and I started paying her (not much but something at least. $150 a month) to watch our daughter, but we also did chores for her, bought her food often, and eventually my Wife started taking a few shifts to watch all 3 children. To date, BIL and Sarah have never compensated any of us for our work. It's a little frustrating but we've tried to understand because Sarah and BIL seem to be bad with money. They objectively make more than us yet can't afford to pay MIL anything. Last Thanksgiving, in the middle of dinner, Sarah and BIL decided to have an "intervention" and talk about how we were not treating BIL fairly. They addressed everybody but really honed in on me specifically. This seemed to be because the rest of the family kind of dance in eggshells around them, while to be frank I'm pretty honest about how I feel about them. They seemed to think I was causing the family to turn against him and questioned why I would do that. I told him he lacked humility. He said he didn't understand. I told him that if he admitted to his mistakes and actually apologized about any of the stuff I previously wrote, instead of blaming everyone and everything else then the whole family would feel a bit different about him. A lot of talk was about the 30th b-day and other times when I just ignored him and how he had already apologized about the party. I reminded him that he didn't apologize to most of the family and he blamed Ruth. He then stated that Ruth was the cause of a lot of the problems at that party. He also made a big deal about how the family doesn't trust him with my daughter and kept emphasizing how he has never held her. We finally tried to come to an agreement. I told him I would try to talk to him more and try to understand him better and he said he would try to come to family events more. He also wanted more of a relationship with my daughter. We left and my wife and I were skeptical but we said that if this is who Sarah really wanted to be with, as long as BIL wasn't perceived as a threat he could have more contact with our daughter. We have had way more of a relationship with his kids than he has had with our daughter so I tried to sympathize with that imbalance. Karl also stated later that having known BIL for a long time, he thought he was very sincere. To date, BIL has not asked or tried at any family events to spend any time with my daughter, despite having numerous opportunities. Now to the current situation. About a month ago Lana and Karl announced that Lana was pregnant. This was a revelation due to Lana having a medical condition that made it harder to get pregnant. A lot of excitement was brewing in the family because of this. Karl has been seeming like a good partner to Lana, and proposed to her a little before the pregnancy happened. This is especially pertinent because Lana and Karl moved into a house together right beside BIL and Sarah. A few days ago they were over at Sarah and BIL's house when an argument broke out between Sarah and BIL. BIL demanded that Sarah wasn't an "obedient enough wife" and that if she wanted there marriage to work then she was going to have to get better at serving him. She was upset and they weren't coming to an agreement so he was going to leave, but apparently he was very high so Sarah refused to give him the keys to his car. He got extremely mad and then got a gun, held it to his head, and threatened to kill himself if she didn't hand over the keys. Fortunately, Danny and Aaron were taking a nap during all of this. Sarah called the police during this whole exchange and the operator heard a lot of what BIL said over the phone so based on that they arrived at the house. He apparently drove away and it took the police a bit to find him but once they did he turned himself over. They admitted him to a mandatory 72-hour stay at a psychiatric ward for a mental health assessment. Sarah then came up to the rest of the family (not me or my Wife) and gave them Danny and Aaron. She then went and confided with Lana and Karl about how abusive BIL had been and how life was just miserable right now. A lot of us, especially Karl and my in-laws, were telling her that she needs to leave BIL and file for emergency custody of her children. She seemed to be listening to us and turning a corner, but inexplicably the psychiatric ward allowed BIL to have a phone call with Sarah and they had a long conversation. Suddenly, Sarah shut us all out and completely changed her story. She started defending BIL again. BIL was then let out of the psychiatric ward a day early. Since Karl was working at the time, Lana came to stay with us and then over at her in-laws. We are especially concerned about her safety around BIL due to her being pregnant. They have since cut nearly all contact with us for 4 days now. They have only told Karl that they were getting a new TV because the old one mysteriously broke somehow. They have continued to post on social media like nothing has happened. They have spent 2 days with BIL's family so we aren't sure what their opinion of this is, though we do know a sibling of his has also told Sarah to leave him prior to this latest situation. We don't know what their plans for childcare is because they are wholly reliant upon us. Lana is very reluctant to ever be home alone. Ruth is as well. There are so many other details I haven't mentioned. There have been holes in walls they've had to fix. There is some evidence that BIL is cheating on Sarah, but that evidence is somewhat inconclusive. The bigoted comments for a while now have gotten increasingly misogynistic. It's a lot of 'we need to respect proper gender roles' kind of stuff. There's just too much and I've already written a book on here. I don't really know what to do at this point. Because a lot of this stuff has been swept under the rug it's hard to tell how seriously CPS or police would take our claims. FIL has threatened to kick them out of their very cheap rental they're in now. Who knows what they would do in that scenario. I know this post is detailed and because of that BIL or Sarah might see it, but at this point I wonder if I even give a shit. They've already eluded to keeping their sons from us in the past and the vibes we are getting now is that they are already doing it. And from the bottom of my heart, fuck BIL.