Previous Entry
Writing these things has made me realize how different I sound these days. Back when all this started I’m not sure I even spoke English and I certainly didn’t speak like I do now but to be honest, I don’t remember. Trying to recall things to write has made me realize exactly how many little things I’ve forgotten over the years. The sights, the sounds, all those fade into the background of most events.
Even something as visceral as Archer’s basement still takes me a while to recall clearly. I wonder if it’s more than just my long life, we do age after all. I mentioned before that sunlight is not deadly to vampires like myself but very unpleasant, that and it makes us more normal. In the sun I won’t be as strong as I would be in the dark and by my assessment I age in the sun as well. Not any faster than a normal person but I do age, its why I don’t still look like that little boy stuck in Paris anymore.
I did spend quite some time in Paris before I left or rather, escaped. I’m not sure I ever would have left if not for the war. I didn’t have many friends there save for other… I’m not sure what to call them… entities? Whatever you want to cal it I had some friends in the more supernatural parts of the city. A vampire named Belle had become a sort of mother figure to me over the years spent there.
I met her by chance one night as I sated myself in an alley. I was ready to fight but she just laughed and flashed her own fangs at me, ridiculing me for being so careless. It was under her wing where I learned everything I know now about vampires. It’s where I realized not all vampires endure sunlight as well as I do, if anything that one trait is what’s most unique about me according to her. But thats not the story I want to tell on these pages tonight. I want to tell the story of lieutenant Marsh and the real beginnings of the organization that would become Chimera.
When war came to Paris that summer I was unprepared. I never expected the war to spiral out of hand so quickly or for it to force me out of my home. I was with Belle and a few more of her friends whose names escape me waiting out the worst of it and hoping things would blow over in the city soon. Obviously we were completely misguided, it was that sense of invulnerability again just the same as when I was a boy. The world was our playground and nothing could hurt us. It didn’t help that in some ways I really was invulnerable and it went straight to my head.
Only flashes of my memory from that day remain. I remember the nazi soldier kicking in the door and firing at Belle’s friends. I remember the screaming that abruptly ended in a single gunshot. I remember the trail of blood leading to her friends body where it lay staked to the ground in the sun. We heal fast, not instantly but much faster than a human. Put us in sunlight though, and we’re just as fragile as a normal person. It was the first time I’d seen someone with abilities like ours die and it made me feel mortal again for the first time in decades.
The rest of the day is a disjointed blur. Belle and I fled the city, I blank out on the specifics of it but we made it out with some difficulty. After that we hunkered down for the night in a rickety old shack. I remember wanting to push on through the day but Belle protested, she didn’t deal with the sun as well as I did. When night finally fell we fled to the coast and managed to catch a ship heading towards the United States.
The trip was unpleasant to say the least, neither of us made good stowaways. We weren’t living life in the lap of luxury before by any means but we lived comfortably. This was a far cry from what we were used to in Paris and the welcome we received was even worse. Apparently fleeing for your own survival is a crime, both of us were separated and sent to prison on our arrival to the states for stowing away on the ship.
That was the last time I ever saw Belle, I get letters from her every now and then but I haven’t seen her in person since. She does well for herself, works in D.C. as a sort of handler for the supernatural. Regrettably she does work with Chimera, says they have the best interests at heart for the supernatural but she doesn’t see what I see out here. She doesn’t know the part I played in its creation, what it really stood for in the beginning. Chimera tends to kill first these days rather than actually try to help or give the supernatural some kind of place in the world. I think thats why I haven’t been to visit her, I just don’t want to argue with a friend as old as her. Funnily enough I don’t think anyone knows she’s a vampire. I doubt they’d take that very well, she’d probably lose her position. They must have suspicions though because theres no way she’d be able to get letters to me without Baelen knowing about it. Every few months they keep showing up though and I always make sure to write her back.
Anyways I’m getting off topic, back to my story. I was in prison for months until an offer came my way, serve the rest of my sentence or enlist in the army and be a free man when I came back, if I came back. Of course I took the offer, I didn’t realize how suspicious that deal sounded at the time but it actually played out exactly as they said. I also didn’t have much of a choice in the matter either. It was hard to get my hands on any blood when I was almost constantly under watch and I could feel the effects it was having on me. I figured it would be best to get a change of scenery.
The next week I was off to training then not long after, we shipped out to the trenches and met the commander of the platoon I’d been assigned to. That’s the first time I met Lieutenant Johnson Marsh and what a man he was. That first day I was convinced I’d never see a smile ever again, the trenches were a horrible depressing place. But there Marsh was, laughing and smiling and just generally enjoying life with the rest of the platoon. He was either crazy or stupid, thats what my first thoughts about him were. I remember those clearly even today but I couldn’t have been more wrong. If anything he may have turned out to be one of the smartest men I ever knew.
The first few weeks were spent holding our position from the germans. It was brutal but I found I was a decent shot with the rifle I was given. Marsh on the other hand spent those weeks barking orders at us and keeping us in line. He never used a rifle like most of the soldiers used. Instead he kept a Beretta m9 with him at all times. That weapon was the only one I ever saw him use. I remember the name only because he was so found of explaining everything there was to know about the gun to me whenever I questioned him about it. You could immediately recognize the pistol as his by its strange grip. One side of it had a picture of an idyllic scene of a manor house in the middle of a sprawling field. The other had a painting of a woman, his wife I’d guess but he never actually told me if that was there case. He seemed to spend the nights staring with longing at each side of the artistic grip.
I’d never really had a family, even with Belle I’d always felt like I was a bit of an outsider. There was so much I didn’t know about how normal people lived. Even though I’d had friends in Paris we were always kind of hidden away in our own personal corner. There was this separation between us and normal life, even between the other supernaturals in the area.
Here I felt like I was part of something though. Sure I was still lost but so was everyone else, we could be lost together and Marsh would always set us straight in the end. There was something about the man, some piece of him that just understood what we were all going through. He expected a lot from us but he was never unreasonable and several times even argued with command on our behalf when ridiculous orders came our way. I actually wanted to serve with him. The rest of the platoon wasn’t bad but they’d all been given the same deal as me. They were all just there to get out of prison. I’m still not sure what Marsh’s story was, he always kept that to himself but any of us would’ve taken a bullet for that man.
Our first real assignment came maybe three months into my period of indentured service. Our platoon was tasked with rescuing a captured American scientist and capturing a German scientist. The scientists in question were Frank Smith and Stein Hoffman and no, the irony of those names is not lost on me, fits the two of them though. I’m sure doctor Frankenstein wishes he was successful as those two. But before those orders could be acted on we had to overtake a German trench surrounding the compound they were staying in.
That fight was bloody and we lost several good men in the chaos. At one point a trench gun was shoved into my arms and I launched myself into the German trench. I wouldn’t be surprised if ghost stories are still passed around of what I did that day. After I made my way over and into the German trench I lashed out with all I had. Moving with superhuman speed and lashing out with both the bayonet affixed to my gun and my fangs, I fell upon the Germans. They stood little chance as I tore into them and all by my lonesome I ensured we’d face no more resistance.
Marsh was the first over into the now silent trench, I’m glad it was him because I’m not sure anyone else would’ve understood like him. I was holding the German officer to the trench wall, fangs buried in his neck as I fed when I heard footsteps behind me. I dropped him and turned to see Marsh staring questioningly at me. I must’ve been a sight to see, blood dripping from my mouth and covering my bullet torn uniform. Marsh steadied himself for a moment and shouted back to the rest of the platoon,
“Boys hold up a second! Just get down and stay up there a minute won’tcha!”
All of a sudden he took a step forward and a well mannered grin took its usual place on his lips.
“Though You didn’t care for sauerkraut J.?”
The joke stunned me, I fully expected him to shoot me then and there, put me down like the abomination I must’ve looked like to him.
“Lieutenant I…”
But Marsh raised his hands to cut me off.
“Command’d probably want me to shoot’cha, hell maybe I aught’a but I don’t think it’d be right. You seem decent, little odd sure but you’ve got heart, I see it in the way you look out for the boys. Plus I always figured there was some’n off about you. The way you stay out’a the light always seem a little faster and stronger than anyone got the right to be just didn’t figure it’d be…. That.”
Marsh told me pointing to the punctures in the officers neck.
“Thank you lieutenant, Could we keep this between us though sir?”
“Drop the formalities J. Jesus! We’re all friends here.”
“I just don’t want the others to know, they may not be as understanding as you.”
“No can do, but you can tell em’ yourself. Alright men, get on down here!”
In all my years I’d never had to explain myself to anyone up until that point. I guess that day my number was up but I never knew just how understanding people, normal people could be. I’d always lived around the supernatural in Paris, didn’t interact much with the normal people I saw in the streets every day, I didn’t have to. I’d always assumed there was a reason for that but in the moment I realized there wasn’t, not really. I’d just avoided normal people because I feared what they’d think if it came out that I wasn’t like them.
Of course There were some of the men that objected to… what I was. Most of them took after Marsh though. They didn’t really care what I was, I’d proven to them I was a good person and thats all that mattered. I just wish they’d been right about me back then because the truth was I still hadn’t learned to care, not really. Even the ones who objected came around eventually and that night Marsh finally came clean to me about why exactly he was so accepting.
According to him he’d always assumed there was more out there, things beyond human that lived on the fringes of society. Even he always thought he sounded crazy. I was the proof he needed to convince himself he wasn’t. Marsh also told me what we were really doing with the scientists. Both Frank and Stein researched the supernatural, their projects were as secret as secret could be. Marsh’s interests and theories, as personal as he tried to keep them showed up in his file somewhere. The higher ups had handpicked him for this mission because of it. The official story was that Frank had been captured but in reality he defected to further his own research with a like minded individual. Our mission was really to force Frank back into the fold and take Stein along with him.
The more he talked the more I could tell his heart was fully committed to this mission and the final assault tomorrow. I’d never seen someone so… alive. In my extremely long life I don’t think Id ever felt that kind of conviction myself. So I promised him I’d have his back tomorrow no matter what.
Morning broke and with it our assault began. Intel on the German defenses was shoddy at best but we never expected what we’d actually run into. At least three times our number acted as guards so a distraction was in order to give us a window of entry. A few of the men would handle the distraction “however they saw fit” to quote Marsh. Then Marsh and I would make our way into the compound itself and the rest of the platoon would cover us.
For what its worth most of the plan went off without a hitch. A tremendous explosion signaled Marsh and I to press the advantage and rush the confused soldiers that lay in front of us. Some actually turned and ran from me, apparently word of my stunt in the trenches yesterday had spread quickly. The rest of the platoon followed behind us but then our luck ran out with the roar of an engine.
An honest to god panzer tank rolled out of a tunnel we hadn’t seen that ran under the compound and turned its barrel towards us. I almost didn’t hear the blast from how slow time seemed to move. But move it did as the explosion of the shell’s impact scattered bodies left and right. The shell impacted behind us but the sheer force of the blast threw Marsh and I to the ground, knocking us unconscious.
When I slowly came to my eyes couldn’t believe what I was seeing. A man dressed in red priestly robes with a matching red top hat was walking between the bodies. When he approached one that groaned out with agony he’d kneel down and whisper things I couldn’t hear to them, after that he’d snap his fingers. sometimes the person he was talking with would disappear other times they would fall silent and sometimes it didn’t appear that anything happened at all.
Just the sight of the man terrified me and I wasn’t sure why. It was an instinctual reaction, the second I lay eyes on him I froze up and ice cold fear crept its way up my spine. When people accuse me of being the devil this man is who I think of. Even today I’m not sure what it is he does or why. What I do know is that he never looks the same. I’ve seen him appear as male, female, even as an animal on a few occasions but I can always tell. The second I’m near him no matter what he looks like the same old feeling comes over me.
Once my vision had finally focused in on the man he seemed to notice without ever looking at me. I blinked and suddenly he was there, kneeling over me.
“Would you like to live.”
He rasped down at me with a voice that seemed to boom around me no matter how quiet it must’ve actually been. I felt like a child again, staring at Archer for the first time. I’d never really had to fear death before but here I was, sure I was about to meet my end right here. In all honestly I wasn’t injured all that bad, I probably could’ve survived with or without this man help. But something told me that if I said no he’d make sure I would die right here.
“Ye…y… yes”
I stuttered out, barley able to form the words through the pain that stabbed throughout my body.
“You will be my instrument for one night at a time of me choosing.”
The man replied. I stayed silent as I stared into his eyes, trying to determine if the sunglasses he wore were tinted or if his eyes really did burn with an infernal red light. The man cocked his head as if waiting for a response to his question. I’m not sure if question was the right word though, there wasn’t much of a choice for me.
Looking back there was always a choice, maybe I could’ve survived on my own merits, found another way. In the years to come I’d wish I just said no, even if it would’ve cost me my life. But thats not what happened. I nodded and the deal maker snapped his fingers. As soon as he had dark clouds flooded the sky and blocked out the sun, allowing my body to begin repairing itself. The man moved on to where Marsh’s body lay and probably made him the same deal as I felt my body healing. Despite that, my consciousness faded again as I strained to try and hear what the man would say to Marsh.
We never actually discussed the man at all. Not then and not in the years since. Maybe that was all an unspoken part of Marsh’s deal. Maybe both of us just wished that man was nothing more than a waking dream, a vivid hallucination. Whatever the case neither of us ever mentioned that man to each other.
The next time I woke up I was chained to a table next to Marsh. We had been captured and brought before the very scientists we were here to apprehend. There were guards around but they all seemed to be waiting for some kind of order. I was certainly surprised when that order came in perfect English, even more surprised when the order was to let us down so we could talk.
Frank and Stein ended up being quite reasonable people. The two let us stay in relative comfort in the compound as long as we agreed to stay and leave them to their work. That was all the convincing it took for me. I understand that the men I’d served with were all dead and that these two were in some way responsible. Maybe that should’ve bothered me more, today it certainly would’ve. Back then I didn’t think the same way, they accepted me for what I was but only briefly, only out of respect for Marsh. What did the lives of people I’d known for so short a time really matter? Writing this now just makes me realize how cold I was before, I didn’t care for anything beyond myself. I’d made no efforts to find Belle since we were separated and how long had I known her, 100 years, more? I may have pretended I cared but when push came to shove I simply tried to make sure I survived.
Marsh wasn’t as cold as me, in fact he almost immediately reached for where his pistol should’ve been when he was unchained. It took Frank, Stein, and myself weeks to convince him that helping would be the right decision. He didn’t like it at first but little by little I think the scientists grew on him. The guards I’d seen our first day here seemed to thin out the longer we stayed. Wether that was a gesture of trust or simply because they were needed for more important duties I don’t know but it certainly eased Marsh’s mind.
I merely observed the scientists most of the time until Stein asked me for a sample of my blood. It didn’t surprise me that he knew what I was but for obvious reasons I was hesitant to give it to him, especially considering what I’d seen so called doctors do with vampire blood. Eventually he wore me down and I gave let him take a sample just to shut him up. After that I became more involved in their research though not by choice. They had me showcasing my abilities and tested the effects of sunlight on my blood. On a few rare occasions Stein even injected it into other prisoners that were brought in, something I put a stop to very quickly. T
hat sample of blood is why Frank and Stein are still around today. Somehow they managed to isolate whatever part of my DNA allows me to age so much slower than a normal person. They took that and spliced it into their own DNA against my recommendations. The crazy thing was it actually worked. Sure they had a newfound appreciation for rare steaks but beyond that I didn’t notice any of the effects that combining vampire DNA with your own would usually have.
As Marsh and I assisted the scientist’s research however we could we both came to the realization that they needed each other to function. Stein lacked a moral compass and was prone to suggest unethical or risky procedures, sometimes going so far as to carry them out without informing Frank. Frank on the other hand preferred caution in everything he did and sometimes I noticed him personally taking and shredding requests Stein had written for test subjects, hazardous materials, or samples from supernatural entities. The two kept a very delicate dance of checks and balances. Stein ever the daring mad scientist and Frank always playing the role of overly cautious genius.
Marsh and Frank got along extremely well near the end. The two would be up at all hours of the night as Frank explained what kind of things really existed in the world. Marsh always shared these ideas of a world where the supernatural and the normal could live together and I think Frank shared that vision. It wasn’t possible, still isn’t but treating the supernatural as something other than monsters couldn’t possibly be a bad thing. I think thats where the idea of the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs really came from, those talks Marsh had with anyone who would listen.
Overtime one of our favorite conversations was what we would do when the war was over and we could leave this compound. Stein wasn’t sure he would, if his research wasn’t going to a man who’d simply use it to cause more conflict he wouldn’t mind staying. Frank wanted to return home, if that was even possible and he asked if Stein would join him. Those two had also become close friends through our months in the lab. That checks and balances relationship they had made them basically inseparable. Marsh’s answer surprised me though, he said he wanted to get out of the military and start a program, something to help the supernatural live closer to normal lives. At least keep tabs on them so that the quality of their lives might improve. I was stunned, I couldn’t believe he’d throw his career away just to chase this pipe dream of his. I didn’t even know Marsh was concerned with that kind of thing. I didn’t have an answer of my own so I said I’d join Marsh and help with this program idea of his. Actually, even Frank and Stein seemed to agree with Marsh’s way of thinking. Little did we know the war would end less than a month after our talk and we’d all get the chance to actually put Marsh’s little idea to the test.
Once the Americans had come and discovered the compound pretty much abandoned aside from us we were all taken prisoner and shipped back to America. We were all interrogated and they either heard what they wanted to hear, or decided anyone we’d talk to about our experiences would assume we were just crazy. We were released back into society under constant surveillance. They even gave us a sizable home in D.C., it was certainly bugged to its core but thats exactly what we wanted.
Through the next year we used Frank and Steins knowledge and my supernatural nature to track down entities all over the country. We made sure that everything was discussed and planned out in the house. That way however was listening knew exactly what we were doing and how successful it was. It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows though, some entities would rather we didn’t know about them. Others were naturally aggressive but some we were actually able to help.
Our escapades as a group of four didn’t last much past the first year. Mostly because our master plan of using the bugs worked perfectly. Ol’ uncle Sam had been listening in and wanted his chance at calling the shots but it meant we became a legitimate organization, the BSA. Technically the acronym was already taken but no one ever complained and Marsh never came up with anything better.
We spent 4 years doing everything we could to improve the lives of supernatural beings everywhere. Not every one of our endeavors was a success but we did some good in the world. One such project was blood banks for vampires. While the blood that gets donated is used for transfusions and the like some was put into cold storage for the BSA. That got distributed to vampires who had come to an agreement with us to stop hunting humans for blood. Some vampires were even selected for jobs at these blood banks, under the supervision of BSA agents of course.
The more human supernaturals like werewolves, vampires, and succubi even used us to find jobs in the world. We made in roads for the supernatural in daily life because of it. Werewolves would use their strength for government construction. Vampire’s long lives made them excellent archivists or history teachers because they actually been there for those events. A succubus’s ability to understand and control someones emotions and reactions made them excellent therapists and conflict deescalation specialists. Those are just some of the fields we managed to get the supernatural involved in. While they usually had to hide their natural they were wildly successful.
Everything went well until that fourth year when I first met Baelen. He was headstrong from the beginning, the powers that be were grooming him for leadership. He was everything they wanted, he followed orders and didn’t question things to much. In short, he was the perfect solution to the inconvenience the four of us caused running the organization as we saw fit. But baleen had a mean streak, he didn’t want to protect the supernatural so much as he wanted to put them in their place. Unfortunately a lot of the research we provided had scared pretty much everyone above us who had never even entertained the idea of the supernatural until now. That meant Baelen’s ideas of monitoring and segregating the supernatural population were popular. So popular that suggesting culling their numbers to keep them in check and under the thumb of the BSA was an idea they actually entertained. That sentiment caught on and our orders became more and more militant.
Every time we disregarded them to do things the way we had envisioned the consequence grew steeper. Eventually Frank, Stein, Marsh, and I just couldn’t stand to see what our BSA had become so we left. We couldn’t do anything else to stop what was coming from the inside, no point in going down with the ship.
After that Baelen quickly ended up heading the whole operation. He still took orders directly from government officials and when the BSA became part of homeland security it became Chimera division. Why they chose such a stupid name I’ll never know but the organization was a shadow of its former self. Before we looked out for the supernatural, tried to help. Under Baelen Chimera just exists to monitor the supernatural and “correct” any issues uncle Sam decides to have with them. They’re glorified enforcers that don’t give a damn how the supernatural actually have it. That’s not to say some good people don’t work for them, people like Belle and even Marsh’s own daughter as far as I’m aware.
It sickens me to think I was a part of it though, for all the good we did maybe it would’ve been better if Johnson Marsh’s pipe dream would’ve stayed just that. I can do a lot but I can’t change the past so I guess we’ll never know. A while ago I heard that something had happened in a little nowhere town out in New Mexico. Pretty much dropped off the face of the Earth. The only reason I even heard about it was through Belle’s letters. Apparently Chimera had to do some huge cover up job and decided it was better if the town just never existed. Maybe I should go myself and see if I can’t piece what happened together. Could be that someone else out there has it in for Chimera and is a whole lot more direct about it than me. I’m just imaging it was some runaway experiment Frank and Stein got up to. I wonder where those two ended up, I’ll have to check up on them sometime. This journal writing is digging up a lot of memories for me but thats probably a good thing. Write them down before I forget again. I think that’ll be all for today then, why do I keep addressing these like someone’s reading them? Not much point to that is there?

i'm done with my 1st semester in one of the hardest colleges in my country. i joined a startup for a coding related internship (web dev) this monday for a 9 to 5 internship and even after sleeping 10 hours the night prior, i'm usually fighting to stay awake by 1pm. My job description basically is to code and learn for the 8 hours im there with a 40 minute break in between (it's an unpaid internship for experience). The travel to my workplace also takes around an hour, so 2 hours total for travel. When i'm home by 5, i'm usually so fucking exhausted and tired i just lay in my bed and don't do anything. No energy for the gym, meditation, making music or any other self improvement thing. I managed to drag my ass to the gym today but man, i am beyond exhausted.
I've been a topper in school and college throughout my life and usually work my ass off to get good grades but it has not been this physically taxing on me ever. I was really just wondering, for all the people who have been doing 9 to 5 office jobs for years, when do you get used to it and stop feeling this extra exhaustion i'm feeling right now? I hate feeling tired and out of energy for the whole day i'm there. It's only going to get more hectic since now i'm gonna start using the bus system (alot of switching buses) to travel now that i'm familiar with the routes.

Quinn's extremely childish and irresponsible reaction to Debra's refusal to marry him in season 6 was really pathetic. She's not ready to marry him, so he tries to pressure her into accepting, and when he realizes that this heart-shaped cake he made later won't be changing her mind, he slams the door and goes sulking like an angry 4 year-old kid, and then proceeds to immediately break up with her and fuck as many women as possible, including one person of interest in a major investigation, all of this in a lamentable attempt at making Debra jealous, as if that could possibly... what, suddenly make her want him so badly that she'll accept to marry him? What kind of logic is that?? Or was his goal simply to hurt her? If so, why??
Her rejection of his proposal was perfectly reasonable! I mean, come on, Quinn, think about it: the one previous time where a guy professed his love for Debra and asked her to marry him, it didn't go very well for her now did it? Quinn should know that! Besides, she was just promoted to lieutenant, she's leading the team in charge of capturing the new serial killer who put a dismembered dead body on four horses and had them walk in the streets in the middle of the day without getting caught or even identified, so she doesn't have the time for that bullshit! And then he knowingly fucks a suspect in that very same investigation and when Debra is understandably and rightfully mad about this, he assumes that oh it's because she's just so jealous that the loser who broke up with her decided to screw another woman, that no, it can't possibly be because he's endangering this first major investigation she's leading! Ugh.
Oh, and did I forget to mention that he also goes on a drinking binge, manages to forget his gun in some random lady's car, gets high on marijuana when he's supposed to be on duty and crashed Debra's party while drunk and very rudely and inappropriately hits on Batista's younger sister (who's clearly not interested in him at all)? Yeah. Great work, Quinn, really. Clearly you're the best at not letting your personal life influence your professional one. Almost as bad as season 2's Esmée.
On top of that, his proposal to Debra was very clumsy and obviously not the right thing to do when it comes to Debra specifically. He shouldn't have proposed in the first place, nonetheless the way he did it was also inadequate for her. We've seen that Debra is into romantic stuff - in the first season, it's clear that she loves it when "Rudy" brings her flowers and says cheesy romantic things, and she seemed to really love his proposal with a shitload of flowers, costly champagne, a yacht and overall in ridiculously expensive and way over the top surroundings (I'll never understand the point of wasting money like that, but at any rate, Debra appeared to appreciate it a lot; maybe she just likes the idea of some guy spending that much money solely to please her? Who knows). Now, after her misadventure (to put it lightly) with "Rudy", obviously Debra isn't going to like anything too similar to what he did, however I'm assuming that her core tastes did not change - which means that she still likes classical romantic things; in consequence, proposing to her first thing in the morning, by putting the ring in the freaking fridge (was that really the only place Quinn could think of?) while they're making breakfast and pancakes are being cooked, was definitely not the best method. Furthermore, correct me if I'm misremembering, but wasn't it the morning of a work day? What, he couldn't wait until the evening, or better the weekend to propose, when they'll have way more time to talk about that and have fun? Personally I don't get why a specific setting is necessary to propose (just like I don't get most romantic things tbh), but I do understand pragmatism - which was obviously completely absent from Quinn's proposal. Was he so sure that she'd want to marry him (when she's never discussed marriage with him before and considering the debacle with her previous fiancé) that he thought she would say yes at once, and then they could go right back to eating breakfast and going to work without being late and that's it, it will be settled? Or was he trying to pressure her into accepting at once? If so, what a fucking dick. That marriage would never work. Oh, and the fact that they left the fridge open for like a whole minute was annoying - you're not supposed to leave the door of the fridge open for so damn long! You're supposed to just take what you need and then close it, so the food will stay cold! Grrr. Perhaps that's just me, because some of my relatives have the bad habit of uselessly leaving the door of the fridge open for too long, but anyway. And the pancakes burning was 100% predictable.
I'm not even a fan of Debra (maybe I'll elaborate on that in another post, and I'll do my best to not just repeat what others who dislike her have already mentioned about her), but in that situation I think she was entirely right to reject Quinn and that he was completely out of line.
I don’t know if anyone at all will give this a read, that’s just my opinion, but lately I feel like there’s been a little many so-called shitposts on this subreddit, and though sometimes it can be funny overall I much prefer discussion, so I decided to contribute to it. I’ve already seen some about Quinn, however I don’t think there’s been any about this particular element of that character in the sixth season.
So agree/disagree about this take? If you think there’s anything I got wrong, feel free to point it out!

I'm a 14 year old guy, 9th grader. Imma shorten it and dump most context but this is what is important. There's this girl in my grade, who I quite like, I don't know if specifically in a romantic way but I would like to get closer to her. We know each other but very very shallowly since she's a friend of some good friends of mine. Me and her don't really speak very often, and usually whenever we see each other, which is mostly during school, we just kinda give each other a little smile and move on. As I said, we don't really talk and whenever we do, it's quite short. For example, today I met her after school when she was going to visit a friend of hers and I was walking to the post office. This time, we hugged (for I think the second time ever) and had a short conversation that was basically: (her:) "hi how are you" "hey, I'm good, you?" "I'm good too (me: "good") thanks, I didn't know you live in Town A" "yeah I do, about a minute from here, are you going to visit Friend B? (It was on Friend B's street so I guessed)" "Yeah I am" "cool, bye" "bye". This time, and always, she initiated the conversation/smiling. I never do. I don't really know why, I just don't really feel close enough to her to initiate anything. So on one hand, she's always the one that starts this thing we do, which makes me believe she is fine with me, or even more, but on the other, as written above, we barely know each other and don't really talk often, and maybe she's just being friendly because we're 2nd degree friends. I don't know where I stand here, or where she does, or where anything is. I don't know what my next step is, should I even take one, does she even care about me and would like to get closer, or anything at all. I am a tad bit lost. Thank you for reading this absolute mess of a post.

Hello vinyl enthusiasts of Reddit, I'm seeking your wisdom and advice on my situation.
I've been selling things online for a while, and started this year with used vinyl. It's feeling pretty promising, and I want to seriously pursue this as a full time business. Right now I have ~3k records individually listed on eBay (store is ebay.com/stpzasupply). About 2k are 45s, and 1k are regular 12". Sold 539 this year so far.
I personally dont have much experience with records, and I'm still learning about artists and pricing, as well as clearly communicating the condition to buyers. I've been sourcing unsorted records in big lots, then listing each one for sale on ebay, except for any that are broken or unplayable. Mostly 45s now, as they're much easier to deal with in a lot of ways.
I only make a few dollars on each sale, but inventory is cheap and it only takes a few minutes to list and ship each record, making it worthwhile to sell less desirable items.
I want to grow my inventory, as well as start selling on more marketplaces. I do not want to sell in person - each record is in a numbered sleeve all in order on shelving, which makes it impossible for people to browse through.
How can I reach more buyers, and not be 100% reliant on eBay? I was considering maybe etsy, google shopping, facebook(?), or starting a new website. Not sure what makes sense or where to go, I would appreciate any and all thoughts and advice. Thanks!

After giving months of hard work and dedication to this company I get let go after a customer complained about my team giving him wet bags of mulch not even five hours after it rained. Long story short he came in and wanted 25 bags of mulch so me and my crew started loading them and when he got angry and started yelling at us over the bags being wet I calmly put a bag down and went to help another customer, he requested a manger which I immediately called for him and let the situation go. About thirty minutes after that interaction the store received 5 calls complaining about me saying that I had been rude to them all day and that I “didn’t give anyone the time of day” and that I “had an attitude with simple requests”. Crazy how you can go from being called the “most reliable and efficient worker” to nothing over one interaction.

I hope you are doing better today than yesterday. (TLDR at the end; or enjoy my story :) )

Why:

About 11 months ago, I launched my app for the first time on lonely because I had previously experienced loneliness myself during grad school. I wanted to reach out to people going through similar experiences by providing them with what would’ve helped me in the past.
I felt this was an important mission for me and a much more rewarding one than my day job that I quit my job to work on the app full-time.
It was necessary because I did not come from a programming background. I knew how to program in the sense of running scientific simulations on MATLAB, but creating the front-end and back-end for a consumer app was totally new to me, so I had to learn from scratch.
I enjoyed everyday going to a cafe to learn from programming crash courses on YouTube, developing the app little by little, and eventually launching the app! The initial response was actually pretty great: 220 upvotes for the app launch post, which I proudly pinned in my bio :)

How:

I made the app to be based on voice, and nothing else: no profiles, no profile photos, and even no texts. The reason for that was I felt a lot of people felt lonely and had trouble finding meaningful online connections because of the modern communication medium which actually promotes superficial and viral contents over authentic and long-form contents. It is easy to see from examples: TikTok’s 30 second videos, Instagram’s eye-popping photos by beautiful people from the globe, and Twitter(X)’s 140-char spicy takes. Sure, these platforms offer us information about DIYs, trends, and news that can enrich our lives and entertain us, but they don’t by all means help us feel more connected to individuals. Even on Reddit, the contents tend to be more wholesome and there are hilarious comments that build on top of each other, but the actual sense of connection you feel with the users is tenuous.
Focusing on voice worked! It was incredible listening to the heartfelt messages from strangers from all over the world who opened up about their loneliness and didn’t mind being vulnerable to other strangers. I have personally spoke with everyone that came by. The 14k minutes of voice messages do not include my own voice messages; they are all messages that people left for their own posts, to each other, or as replies to me.

Highlights:

There were some incredible moments, which would be too long to share in this post (leave a comment if you want to hear more!), but some of the highlights were (note: these are all from public conversations):

• Lady in New Brunswick, Canada was extremely depressed after a difficult divorce and felt being on the life’s edge. She was getting scammed left and right on dating apps and was losing hope. She told me that I was the only one that she felt she could trust and talk to, and she probably wouldn’t be here if I ever stopped talking to her. Thankfully, she eventually managed to find a boyfriend and she thanked me for having always been there for her. She still came back to the app to act as a supporter for other lonely souls for a while!
• Gentleman in New York, USA felt isolated in a farm and felt he had no real connections with anyone. He shared with me and other users about his life growing various vegetables, but stopped coming on the app for a couple of months. When he came back, he was pleasantly surprised by the app’s development, felt I really believed in my mission to help lonely souls, and became an evangelist for my app :) He posted on several forums on Reddit and engaged in conversations with many users on the app.

What was also incredible was that there were not only people experiencing loneliness here, but also people who did not feel lonely but were on the app to support others going through loneliness. They would share stories and studies related to loneliness in their posts, and also try to talk to some lonely folks on the app who seemed very hardened by their experience of loneliness which made them cynical and pessimistic. The concept of compassionate listening by Thich Nhat Hanh and Polyvagal theory that explains 3 levels of our nervous system are a few things they mentioned that come to my mind. Unfortunately, these efforts by supporters were often, so to speak, ineffective in solving people’s loneliness.

What I learned:

And that was part of what made it so hard to have a sustainable ecosystem on my app: many people who have been lonely for a long period of time had their personalities and social skills hardened to the point that they either:

• did not know how to engage with others by understanding social cues and sharing stories about themselves that allow themselves to be vulnerable to others, which allows for deeper social connections
• felt they are never good enough, they are stuck in their situation, and there is nothing that can help them get better. Any help or suggestions offered by others would only work on others and did not apply to them.

My hope for the app was to help people who experience loneliness find and support each other. By providing the platform for them to voice out their stories, have them be heard by others, and find others who resonate and reply, I thought they would finally find friends whom they can relate to, share their lives with, and would no longer have to feel lonely again.
However, the reality was that many were hardened by loneliness and it was hard for such connections to materialize. Plus, one of the main ways for an app like this to grow is by word of mouth. Unfortunately, most people experiencing loneliness did not have anyone to share the app with, which stunted the app’s growth and mostly depended on me manually bringing users onto the platform.
With fewer chances of having good interactions, even the people who really resonated with the app and shared stories slowly stopped coming back. Some just suddenly ghosted, which made the experience on the app painful for other engaged people on the app.

My hope for the future:

I still believe that there are more people out there experiencing loneliness who have the deep desire to share their stories and find the long-term friends across the globe who understand each other and can share slices of their lives with.
So, if you are someone that can benefit from sharing stories and solve your loneliness this way, feel free to check out my app at https://bubblic.app
Also, if you know of any way I can improve the app to better help people experiencing loneliness, please leave a comment.
Lastly, word of mouth would really help. If you like the app, or if you know someone who would benefit from the app, please share it with others!

TLDR:

I created an app focused on voice communication to help lonely people connect, inspired by my own experiences. Despite an encouraging start and meaningful interactions, many users struggled to form lasting connections due to the deep impact of their loneliness. Growth has been slow, mainly reliant on my efforts. If you know someone who might benefit, please share my app: https://bubblic.app. Feedback is also welcome! Tech stack used:
Backend

• AWS Websocket, DynamoDB, Cognito, S3, Lambda

AI

• WhisperX model running on laptop locally

Frontend

• Flutter

I’m the last person to curse but bro literally what the fuck was today. I live in south Delhi near vasant kung and I had to go all the bloody way to GT Karnal road for a fucking 45 minute exam in the middle of no fucking where. Bhenchod the exam centre was next to a warehouse. Pehle toh it’s so hot, ki lagta hai mar jaogey. Uske upar sey expectation tha Ki Achcha CBT exam hai toh AC wala centre hoga. But fuck no. Jeevan mey kuch dhanka toh hona nahi hai. There were just fans which seemed to be giving out hot air. So many kids, so many overheated desktops, and bhai paseeney Ke smell sey ulti aane wali thi. Exam Ke beech mey, computer chalna band hogaya mera so they shifted me to another one but paach minute mere gaye and I didn’t get extra time. Thankfully paper easy tha toh time sey khatam hogaya but genuinely itna zyada kabhi gaali dene ka mann nahi kiya hai kisiko.
Fuck you nta. I hope every single entitled jackass organising this gets to drink hot boiling water in this shitass weather.

So my lab's SOPs mandate we use Type II water to fill our waterbath, and we have a Sartorius Type II water dispenser, with the dispense button in a not so ergonomic position (on the top of the back of the pistol shaped handle), with the spring on the button being pretty stiff for me. The locking pin to keep the water dispensing without holding the button broke off, and we are still waiting on repairs. Our waterbath requires 12L of water, and takes 8-10 minutes to dispense 6L.
I'm personally not a very strong person, and none of my coworkers were busy at the moment (just sitting in the office talking). I dispensed the first 6L myself, and by the end my hand was cramping. I tried using some labtape to hold down the button, but it ripped right through. We didn't have any rubber bands to hold the button down either. So I asked my coworkers "I am experiencing physical discomfort , bordering on pain doing this lab task, I have 6 of the 12L dispensed, does anyone mind dispensing the other 6L?"
Their response is that I need to go to the gym, if they can do it, I can do it, they aren't going to get up from their desks, put on a labcoat, just to press and hold a button, it's a petty request, and it's my responsibility for the week, not theirs. I kinda understand where they are coming from, but I feel that a) we are in an outstanding circumstance where a piece of equipment is partially broken, requiring more effort than normal (this a lab job, not a construction job), and b) I am expressing that I am in physical discomfort doing this task. If one of my coworkers told me they were in pain/having discomfort, and asked for help with a task, I would hop on to help in a heartbeat. Am I crazy for asking for help?
Personally I think we should have an automated volumetric water dispenser, use tap water with a water softener, or just buy the water (we already do that for ELISAs, but not in enough volume for the waterbath), but I don't make the budget.

I want to talk about politics and one of my favorite shows for a minute. Who would the characters vote for in the 2024 election assuming they are alive in 2024?

​
Hello! Sorry for any grammar mistakes in advance, I'm Hungarian. So I've been dealing with this problem since last October. I bought an Asus TUF RX 6900 XT near the end of 2022 and it worked flawlessly for nearly a year then these random black screens started to appear. I shouldn't even say black screen because the monitor just doesn't get any signal. My MSI motherboard does the 1 long 2 short beeps that indicates graphics card issue according to their site. After this I have to power down the PC. The reset button doesn't work. I tried so many things already:
- Changing the cable, trying both HDMI and displayport in different ports on both the monitor and the card - Did a DDU session, even resinstalled Windows and upgraded to 11 from 10 - Updated the drivers many times since the issue started to appear.
-I updated the motherboard chipset drivers as well and even the BIOS in my desperation - I took out the card, cleaned it, plugged in different power cables after re inserting it - Checked the temps while gaming and they are completely fine. Edge temp is barely above 60 and hotspot is around 75. - I did a VRAM test and everything was fine - Undervolted and underclocked the card
- Run different stress tests: Built in Adrenalin, Furmark and Furmark 2, Superposition but these never produced a crash even after half an hour. If you think the PSU might be at fault, well not very likely. Even after I used MPT and let my card pull 410 watts while I also stress tested my overclocked Ryzen 5 5600 that also pulled nearly 90 watts, my Thermaltake Toughpower 850W platinum was doing just fine. Meanhwile crashes still happen when my card only uses about 200w in certain games. Funny thing is I managed to overlock my card to get 12414 points in Superposition 1080p extreme which is among the best air cooled RX 6900 XTs LOL.
- I changed my 4x8 Gb Corsair ram kits to 2x16 G.skill - The warranty is still active but guess what? All they did was running a 3D Mark stress test for 10 minutes and of course that didn't crashed so they said the card is fine...
So about the games. Some games are straight up unplayable like the new Indika or Horizon Zero Dawn and crashes happen after a few minutes or even seconds, meanwhile Death Stranding (that uses the same engine) has never crashed. There is also a middle ground with other games like Cyberpunk, Baldur's Gate 3 or Fallout 76 that can run for hours but still produce a crash sometimes. Some of these games use different launchers and they are on different SSD's. One SSD is NVME the other one is SATA. So quite a lot of things are already ruled out.
Next I'm planning to change the CPU to a Ryzen 7 5700X but I highly doubt that would solve the problem.
Any ideas what else could be done?

Hello there! I've still not entirely recovered after finishing Rebirth, that ending was just whoa. I believe I've watched/read most of the theories out there regarding the game's finale and Aerith's fate, but none of them managed to explain everything sufficiently. I admit I'm in the "I hope Aerith lives" camp, but I understand the corner the developers wrote themselves into: Aerith fans and the japanese fanbase at large will riot if she dies for good, and purists will riot if one of the games' central themes (coping with loss, grieving) is broken. A textbook case of trying to have your cake and eat it too. Unless they find a way to do both?
Trying to get my mind off FF7, I replayed Zero Escape: Virtue's Last reward (seriously try it if you were more impressed than annoyed by FF7R's multiverse shenanigans, it's the real good stuff), and one of the puzzles caused a bit of a eureka moment to me. A secondary solution to a puzzle in one of the rooms is the sentence "SHE KNOWS EVERYTHING". It obviously hints at a character in the game and not FF7, but with the implications of the two games thus far in the remake continuity (plus AC), one character in Zero Escape bears a striking resemblance to Aerith: Akane Kurashiki (Big spoiler for the first game in ZE: 9 hours 9 persons 9 doors).
Both are capable of jumping between their selves in different timelines and have awareness of it. Akane is trying to prevent her own death by gathering information she needs to escape death via incineration, from other timelines and in the future. Would Aerith resign to her own fate even in command of such a power? Pre-chapter 13 it's heavily implied she wouldn't, why would discovering that she's basically omniscient change this?
Unless she has a plan cooking. She's being relentlessly hunted by someone who also has multiversal knowledge and could overpower and kill her any day of the week. She needs to throw Sephiroth off her trail somehow. If you played Persona 5, the situation might be familiar to you... (spoilers for Persona 5 follow)
In that game, the protagonist Joker and his fellow phantom thieves are being cornered by the detective Akechi, who at that point is a traitor amongst them. How do they get out of the situation? By failing an infiltration, Joker getting caught, the tricking Akechi into a cognitive version of the interrogation room he's being held in and letting him kill Joker there. Akechi is in the belief that he killed Joker in the real world.
This got me thinking: what if Aerith pulled a similar trick? Her situation is a bit more complicated, in that she knows Cloud is under Sephiroth's control, so she has to fool the party as well to fool Sephiroth. Her mournfulness in the Ch14 date could come from her impending doom - or the guilty conscience from what she has to put the party and especially Cloud through and that she may doom one of her alternate timeline selves to death.
As for the how, there are multiple possibilities, but the one I find most likely is that she swapped her consciousness with the comatose Aerith from Zack's world. As for when it happened, I believe it was at the moment when everyone was distracted by the smoke and mirrors - the moment Cloud deflected Sephiroth's blade. Whether this happened for real and created a timeline shift, one where Aerith lived and one where she was impaled, or just in Cloud's mind, it doesn't matter. It's the ultimate red herring. Cloud can have a revelation at some point in the 3rd game that she failed to save Aerith, he still won't know that the body Sephiroth stabbed didn't have Beagle!Aerith's soul in it, but Terrier!Aerith's comatose and possibly damaged soul. Such a last-second switch of a would-be-victim isn't the first time Square pulled this. It's what happened in Chrono trigger too! Remember what Marlene said about Terrier!Aerith to Zack? "When Aerith wakes up, she will be killed." Why does she wake up? Because she switched places with Beagle!Aerith!! Terrier!Aerith's body now contains Beagle!Aerith's soul, the one that prayed at the Forgotten Capital, the one that's whole, healthy and undamaged. Marlene was right, although the "multiple versions of Aerith" thing went over her head, understandably.
And if Cloud split the timeline again by deflecting Masamune, and can see both timelines? All the better. Where is the real black materia? Hidden in the void between worlds. Where Cloud's mind is right now. That may be why he finds the black materia in his pocket. That will draw Sephiroth's attention, lure him towards his OG plan of summoning Meteor, a threat Aerith can deal with once the party defeats Sephiroth at the northern crater.
As for who fights beside Cloud in Rebirth's final boss battle? I believe it's omni!Aerith, the one who gave premonitions of the future to her self in Remake, the one who visited Cloud in his dream in Remake chapter 14.
Why do I think this explanation could predict what happens in Part 3? Because this way, the writers can keep their cake until the very last minute, then eat it. The party and the player can go through coping with Aerith's "death", then have her return at the very last minute to appease those who yearn for her survival, at the climax of the game, when Sephiroth is weakened, on his last phase and Meteor needs to be stopped. This way, she can be kept out of the plot for the most part, and her presence, both story- and gameplaywise can be a postgame reward. Not to mention the mindblowing revelation of her complex plot at the end.
Anyway, that's just my theory, I needed to write it out of me. 2027(?) can't come soon enough.

It is really scary and frightening to me that Verizon won't send you transcripts of conversations you personally have with them (without a subpoena) and sometimes even "lose" the transcripts, such that they are supposedly completely unrecoverable. You also can't easily select the text and "copy/paste" it into another program after changes to the website -- you essentially have to take screenshots constantly to record interactions with them.
Be aware and be concerned!
tl;dr: Multiple Verizon customer support agents tried to secretly add services multiple times, lied directly to me, and then an executive PR person tried to smooth it over by still refusing to give transcripts after thinking I would send the transcript to news media or something.
Long story version:
The story in my case was I talked with some customer service reps and was trying to cancel my TV (since I hadn't used it in like ~7+ months and the previous times I tried to cancel it I gave up after being frustrated due to not being able to find a way to cancel it without talking to someone) and went down a dark pattern rabbit hole both on the Verizon website and through customer service / PR actions. Luckily, I took screenshots of a lot of the conversations. Just writing this all down here for my records and to vent my frustrations.
After spending some time with a customer service rep explaining my issue (trying to cancel TV and the website continually re-adding the TV plan and other things in checkout), I was immediately transferred to another agent without warning -- not a big deal, but was odd since I didn't get a chance to confirm that was okay. The next agent I walked through everything again, saying how it kept re-adding TV and/or changing other parts of the plan. Eventually, after about an hour and multiple weird typos ("As you mentioned, you want to remove remote and check the bill?" / "I am really sorry I am Tv." / "I am getting Type sorry 😬"), the agent finally understood my request and went to cancel the TV. However, in asking for confirmation to cancel it, they had randomly added 1 Gig-streaming and a few other things ( https://i.imgur.com/rZ7gKk6.png ) without my consent and tried to pass it off as being the new plan -- they did this a second time after I first spotted it ( https://i.imgur.com/7346CFF.png ). Then, on the third time around, they still tried to change my phone service to "Home 3.0" ($5 more a month than our current plan) without consent directly after literally saying they wouldn't make changes without approval ( https://i.imgur.com/6PRTvT3.png ).
When confronted on this, the agent said that was already my plan ( https://i.imgur.com/tPeM05T.png ) when it most certainly wasn't ( https://i.imgur.com/nMBnTRS.png ). When they checked for the 5th time, they finally did confirm that my plan was the $20 one but they couldn't select it because it wasn't an option anymore, but I had just found the buried option to cancel the TV itself without changing the rest of my plans and explained to them how they were wrong ( https://i.imgur.com/Xkhctd4.png / https://i.imgur.com/zx8fJeE.png ). Extremely frustrated that the agent kept adding things and lying to me, I asked for a transcript of the chat -- which they said they couldn't do and could only give me a chat ID which would only be usable on Verizon's end. Whatever, I figured, I'll just try escalating the issue to get the transcript and/or stuff dealt with after getting the message ID ( https://i.imgur.com/0zRSV82.png ). I was transferred, at least this time with my approval, to a "loyalty specialist agent" who basically said they could do nothing, couldn't help me, couldn't escalate the issue, but could read the message from the chat ID but couldn't send it to me or quote anything from it to me either. After trying to get them to cancel the TV and hearing the same lies and randomly added services from before, I just canceled it manually myself and ended the chat in anger.
While talking to the "loyalty specialist agent" I was also talking to a Verizon support agent on X/Twitter. They said they couldn't access messages on other platforms, but corporate Verizon could and if I wanted to escalate the message I could try contacting corporate leadership ( https://www.verizon.com/about/our-company/executive-bios ) and suggested contacting "Sowmyanarayan Sampath (Sampath) - Executive Vice President and CEO Verizon Consumer Group" out of everyone on that list. That Verizon support agent was actually helpful -- a shocking change of pace from the past 3-4 agents I've dealt with!
And so I sent a short version of this story to Sampath on that website detailing my issues and frustrations and what they should do to improve these issues, remove the dark patterns, and create a better experience for their customers ( https://i.imgur.com/T2Sr6Ff.png ). About 30 minutes later a PR agent from executive called me, she said she read my complaint, got the messages from that chat ID, and wanted to make sure my concerns were taken care of. I told her the main thing I wanted was a transcript of my messages, my complaint and issues with dark patterns to be taken seriously, and maybe some account credit for all the time and hassle (going on nearly 4 hours at this point). She asked why I wanted the transcript -- was it just for my own records or to send to some news media or something. I told her I already had multiple screenshots (which she agreed, strangely enough, was good practice) and just wanted them for my records, but I might consider sending them to others. She said she would look into doing what she could, both with sending me the transcript and getting compensation, without mentioning any of the dark patterns or other issues I raised, and would get back to me in a day or two.
After dealing with all that I figured I'd also go through and update some of my account info and verify some new phone numbers. But nothing on the website was working properly and clicking on multiple confirmation links (both sent to email and two different text messages) weren't doing anything. How foolish of me to try customer support again... who this time tried to help me by sending me a confirmation link only for that not to work. After debugging some stuff, I found it was a mobile link, and even when opened on mobile it wouldn't work. The agent said I needed the Verizon app and to just download and install it. I told them I didn't want to and shouldn't have to because that is silly -- I should be able to verify an updated phone number without having to download an entire app. They insisted it was the only way and nothing else would verify me ( https://i.imgur.com/RGYaKA8.png ). This again made no sense and due to all the constant frustrations I was facing I asked for another chat ID (just in case they were lying again and it wasn't the only way to verify) and I ended the chat, called it for the day, and poured myself a large glass of whiskey.
I kept waiting and waiting for this executive PR agent to call me back and figured they were just going to ignore me and never call back. However, she finally called me back just a few hours ago, 8 days later, with some bad news. For the frustration of dealing with all this (4+ hours and being transferred around, secret product upgrades / services pushed on me, and being lied to), they would give me half off for a single month (whoopee), and couldn't do anything else. As for the transcripts? The original conversation she said not only couldn't be sent to me, but couldn't be viewed anymore and was apparently completely lost. She explained that sometimes they use third party companies to handle support and they must have deleted it or lost it or something -- which again seems odd to me since I asked them specifically to save and send me the transcript so you'd think they would keep it, but I guess not ("C.Y,A. Policy" anyone?). I mentioned I did have some screenshots, and again she agreed that was good practice. But what about the other conversations? She said that Verizon couldn't and wouldn't send it to me unless they had a subpoena for it, as that was corporate policy.
So, since Verizon clearly doesn't care about these systemic issues, hidden upgrades, lying support agents, website dark patterns, lack of transparency, and refusal to send transcripts ... remember to protect yourself by *ALWAYS* saving and recording all your conversations with this borderline monopolistic evil mega corp.

Hello! Sorry for any grammar mistakes in advance, I'm Hungarian.
So I've been dealing with this problem since last October. I bought an Asus TUF RX 6900 XT near the end of 2022 and it worked flawlessly for nearly a year then these random black screens started to appear. I shouldn't even say black screen because the monitor just doesn't get any signal. My MSI motherboard does the 1 long 2 short beeps that indicates graphics card issue according to their site. After this I have to power down the PC. The reset button doesn't work. I tried so many things already:
- Changing the cable, trying both HDMI and displayport in different ports on both the monitor and the card
- Did a DDU session, even resinstalled Windows and upgraded to 11 from 10
- Updated the drivers many times since the issue started to appear.
-I updated the motherboard chipset drivers as well and even the BIOS in my desperation
- I took out the card, cleaned it, plugged in different power cables after re inserting it
- Checked the temps while gaming and they are completely fine. Edge temp is barely above 60 and hotspot is around 75.
- I did a VRAM test and everything was fine
- Undervolted and underclocked the card
- Run different stress tests: Built in Adrenalin, Furmark and Furmark 2, Superposition but these never produced a crash even after half an hour.
If you think the PSU might be at fault, well not very likely. Even after I used MPT and let my card pull
410 watts while I also stress tested my overclocked Ryzen 5 5600 that also pulled nearly 90 watts,
my Thermaltake Toughpower 850W platinum was doing just fine. Meanhwile crashes still happen
when my card only uses about 200w in certain games.
Funny thing is I managed to overlock my card to get 12414 points in Superposition 1080p extreme which is among the best air cooled RX 6900 XTs LOL.
- I changed my 4x8 Gb Corsair ram kits to 2x16 G.skill
- The warranty is still active but guess what? All they did was running a 3D Mark stress test for 10 minutes and of course that didn't crashed so they said the card is fine...
So about the games. Some games are straight up unplayable like the new Indika or Horizon Zero Dawn and crashes happen after a few minutes or even seconds, meanwhile Death Stranding (that uses the same engine) has never crashed. There is also a middle ground with other games like Cyberpunk, Baldur's Gate 3 or Fallout 76 that can run for hours but still produce a crash sometimes. Some of these games use different launchers and they are on different SSD's. One SSD is NVME the other one is SATA. So quite a lot of things are already ruled out.
Next I'm planning to change the CPU to a Ryzen 7 5700X but I highly doubt that would solve the problem.
Any ideas what else could be done?

I didn't see the GDT bot make one, so I'm putting one here. If the bot does make one, I'll take this down. Unfortunately, I can't update to-the-minute like a bot can.
The stakes:

• Canada vs Slovakia is set as a quarterfinal.
• Sweden vs Finland is set as a quarterfinal.
• If Switzerland wins: SUI-GER, USA-CZE
• If Finland wins: CZE-GER, USA-SUI
• This game has no effect on the quarterfinal picture. For Sweden, they need to win in regulation to stay in pursuit of a perfect record, and the Infront Team Jackpot (1,000,000 CHF) that comes with it.

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My dad bought a brawn electric razor for 40$ 3 months ago and it worked great until today, where it charges and works for 1 minute on a charge cycle. It just suddenly started doing this, and my dad wants a refund. Is there anyway he can get one without a receipt? I think he has the bank transaction info.

I didn't see the GDT bot make one, so I'm putting one here. If the bot does make one, I'll take this down. Unfortunately, I can't update to-the-minute like a bot can.
The stakes:

• Canada vs Slovakia is set as a quarterfinal.
• Sweden vs Finland is set as a quarterfinal.
• If Switzerland wins: SUI-GER, USA-CZE
• If Finland wins: CZE-GER, USA-SUI

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My Chihuahua had Been sick and I kept taking her to Vet. They did test and offered No solution why but she was in pain with her stomach. I kept her on pain meds and kept taking her back to the Vet. I was hard to pick her up as she was the larger Chi and I have scoliosis and had cancer. On her last day I asked my husband to help me as the Vet wanted me to bring her in As her left eye was very red. He couldn’t go as he was going to shoot pool with his friend. Asked for him to go and help.h he said no.i bought a buggy to help me. i put my Chi in the car on blankets on the floor. At the Vet I held her and rubbed herbelly and she laid against my chest. I kissed her and told her I loved her for 30 minutes waiting on another X ray. I was told we were done and being sent home with more pain meds and antibiotics. I put my baby in the buggy and was trying to zip it when she kep pushing her nose in the way. I gently pushed back 3 times and told her we were going home. I put her on the floor of the car and started home. She died on the floor. I feel so guilty. I’m mad at the vet.Did she know My dog was dieing. I hate my husband since he was a jerk and I said I needed help my dog.My back was hurting and my hip. His comment was everybody‘s got pain. my Heart hurts and I hate my husband . If he would have helped me, I could of held her and she wouldn’t die on the floor. My husband is retired. Is pool games with his buddies so important for one time? He claims he isn’t enjoying his retirement . My comment” I never stopped you from doing what you want” he blames me for my health. I have had 50 years too many with him. I’m at a cross road.