I posted this in the Kindle sub and received no response, so I'm thinking maybe my question is more relevant here.
I'm an avid reader of nonfiction books that I use for research, teaching, personal development, and leading an organization. I've had every generation of Kindle since the very first one (currently own both a Paperwhite and a Scribe). There is absolutely nothing as convenient as a Kindle when it comes to the convenience of reading. However, I struggle to replicate my system of marginalia and therefore struggle with how to best use Kindle for nonfiction even after all these years of use. This results in a love/hate relationship, as well as numerous attempts to start a book in Kindle only to wind up buying the physical copy a day or two later.
Let me give an example. In a physical book, I typically follow the author's structure by using a pen to put brackets around a sentence like, "Here are three outcomes...." And then I circle the words, "First," "Second," "Third," in the following paragraphs. This allows me to easily flip back later and see structure or the flow of a concept or argument. If the structure follows numerous section headings over multiple pages, I will simply write numbers (1, 2, 3, etc.) next to the section heading so that I can easily see the structure when flipping through the book later. I also like use other symbols such as a star or exclamation points in the margin, and sometimes I draw a line down the page next to a paragraph in order to indicate the whole paragraph is important without underlining every sentence, which allows me to then save underlining for the most important sentences that I want to stick out.
After all these years, I've struggled to really replicate this in a Kindle book. I thought maybe the Scribe would fix this issue, but it provides very little real world value to me in terms of annotation and note taking. It is just as easy to make a note on the keyboard. The Kindle app allows for change of color in highlights as well as for putting a star next to certain highlights (a feature that STILL doesn't exist on the Kindle devices after all these years!). I also am familiar with using Readwise and making heading notes (.h1, .h2, etc.). That is useful to an extent, but still not great.
Maybe I'm asking to much of an ereadeebook. However, I'm also sure it could just be me. I know there are many people here who read lots of nonfiction and likely made a transition at some point from physical books to ereaders and had to adapt in the same way. I value your experience and would appreciate any advice you could give, or insight into your own system for marginalia. Thanks in advance!

Worked up the courage to post after reading a few good profile on this sub. Here goes.
Age: Male just turned 27 last month
Height: 5’10” 66 kg
Caste: I do not believe in castes and neither do I associate with one. That being said I belong to an Urdu speaking family and my forefathers migrated from Delhi at the time of partition
Faith: Sunni Muslim (My family do not believe in nazar, niyaz, milad or any other bidah for that matter)
City: Karachi born and bred, would prefer potential matches from Karachi as well so as to make meet-ups easier for the families
Relationship Status: Single, never married/engaged
Education: Bachelors in Engineering
Occupation/Employer: Senior Engineer at a global cloud provider
Family: We’re 4 siblings in total. I’m the 3rd one and 2 of the eldest are married. Father is retired from work and mother is/has always been a homemaker
Do you want kids? Yes but not immediately
Goals/future plans: Settle down, do well professionally, have enough in life and be thankful for it
Ideal timeline for marriage: 1 year but that’s not something rigid and more up to whatever ends up being mutually agreeable
About myself: I am an avid reader and have always had a curious mind so I grew up being the erudite in my family (my teen years were spent watching vsauce on youtube :P). Having a calm/laid back demeanour, I have a practical approach to life with just the right amount of wondejest sprinkled in. There’s not a defined set of hobbies I have at any given point but love for football and a deep appreciation art (of all forms) have always been a mainstay. I value depth of connection with people I interact, depth of narrative/plot with media/content I consume (Succession is the GOAT tv series IMHO) and try to instil the same characteristics in my creative work. My core values are centred around honesty, compassion and genuineness - I am a straight shooter and do not appreciate manipulative tendencies in a person.
Some interesting facts:

• I’ve won Dawn’s spelling bee competition at the district level
• I don’t use any social media except TwitteX and occasionally Reddit when a simple google search doesn’t work
• My personality type INTJ-A
• I am not overtly outgoing and prefer being indoors, needing alone time to recharge myself after being in a prolonged social setting (weddings/dawats etc). Having said that, I do like to travel (have visited Northern Pakistan and would like to visit again)

Views on /Expectations from marriage:
I would like someone whom I can share a holistic experience of life with. I am a sensitive individual with boundless empathy and I’d like to share that compassion with my partner. I wouldn't be more comfortable with someone than who is, first and foremost like a friend. There are some people who you have a quiet/unsaid understanding and that’s how I’d like to build our relationship to be with clear and up-front communication and healthy behaviour patterns.
I’d expect my partner to fulfil their faraiz and strive to be better. I am pretty open-minded about things and operate on high trust but my religious values are rooted within the bounds of our mazhab and the tenets of haya. That being said, no one is perfect and I’m all for doing a bit better today than the last day.
tldr; Everyone is their own person so all in all I’d like to strike a happy balance between being a best friend, knowing my partner by heart and being one out of two unfit pieces of puzzle occasionally wanting to devour each other and merging our souls :D
Deal Breakers/traits unacceptable to me: shallow personality, lack of empathy towards people/animals, intolerant of views/opinions different than yours, emotionally unavailable/immature, deceitful, disingenuous, disorganised, drinking/smoking
Requirements/Preferences: Education: At least 16 years of education
Age range: ~24 - ~27 years
Height: No preference
Religious school of thought: Sunni Muslim (NO nazr, niaz, milad, pimurid etc)
Views on wanting my partner to work: It’s up to them. Working is not a requirement but I would support them if they value their profession and want to pursue their careehigher studies
How soon would I like to involve the families: As soon as it’s mutually apparent that it’d be a good match
People are complex so there isn’t a collection of words or combination of sentences that can perfectly define a person. In the interest of time and dwindling attention spans I tried to keep it as concise as possible. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if ^ catches your interest. Thank you for reading!

I'm an avid reader of nonfiction books that I use for research, teaching, personal development, and leading an organization. I've had every generation of Kindle since the very first one (currently own both a Paperwhite and a Scribe). There is absolutely nothing as convenient as a Kindle when it comes to the convenience of reading. However, I struggle to replicate my system of marginalia and therefore struggle with how to best use Kindle for nonfiction even after all these years of use. This results in a love/hate relationship, as well as numerous attempts to start a book in Kindle only to wind up buying the physical copy a day or two later.
Let me give an example. In a physical book, I typically follow the author's structure by using a pen to put brackets around a sentence like, "Here are three outcomes...." And then I circle the words, "First," "Second," "Third," in the following paragraphs. This allows me to easily flip back later and see structure or the flow of a concept or argument. If the structure follows numerous section headings over multiple pages, I will simply write numbers (1, 2, 3, etc.) next to the section heading so that I can easily see the structure when flipping through the book later. I also like use other symbols such as a star or exclamation points in the margin, and sometimes I draw a line down the page next to a paragraph in order to indicate the whole paragraph is important without underlining every sentence, which allows me to then save underlining for the most important sentences that I want to stick out.
After all these years, I've struggled to really replicate this in a Kindle book. I thought maybe the Scribe would fix this issue, but it provides very little real world value to me in terms of annotation and note taking. It is just as easy to make a note on the keyboard. The Kindle app allows for change of color in highlights as well as for putting a star next to certain highlights (a feature that STILL doesn't exist on the Kindle devices after all these years!). I also am familiar with using Readwise and making heading notes (.h1, .h2, etc.). That is useful to an extent, but still not great.
Maybe I'm asking to much of an ereadeebook. However, I'm also sure it could just be me. I know there are many people here who read lots of nonfiction and likely made a transition at some point from physical books to ereaders and had to adapt in the same way. I value your experience and would appreciate any advice you could give, or insight into your own system for marginalia. Thanks in advance!

I haven’t been feeling like myself for some years now. The best way I could explain it is that my body feels cloudy and sluggish. I just started reading about hypothyroidism and all about the thyroid and I was shocked how similar the symptoms were that I was having. I’ve been feeling some of these symptoms for years:
Fatigue Tiredness Joints hurt (especially knees) Hair thinning Bruise easily Excessive sweating Dry skin High cholesterol Weight gain Brain fog No willingness to do anything
These are just some of the things I have been dealing with over the years. The biggest issues for me would be brain fog, weight gain and hair thinning.
To start, I’ve had horrible brain fog, I don’t remember when it started but I know it’s been well over 5 years. I’m unable to properly think and remember things and I have trouble talking and formulating sentences sometimes. It’s gottten so bad that I avoid social interactions so I don’t make a fool of myself. What sucks is that I know something is wrong with me but I just don’t know how to fix it.
Moving on to the hair thinning, I started having major hair thinning in the middle of my head. I just thought I was losing my hair but it didn’t make sense since no one in my family has hair loss. I will say that I started to take some magnesium tablets a few weeks ago and I see a bit of hair coming back. I don’t know how this would relate to the thyroid.
The biggest indicator that I might have a thyroid problem was my weight gain. I’m 5’8 and 185 lbs and I’m an avid weight lifter and I always eat below or at maintenance calories. With all the working out and eating under low calories, I could never lose weight. In fact I was gaining weight and holding a lot of water. This drove me crazy because I knew I was doing everything right and didn’t understand why I was gaining weight. I even went on the keto diet and even that was hard for me to lose weight.
I only ever truly started losing weight is when I started to do intermittent fasting. When I started fasting, I started dropping weight like crazy. Is there a correlation to fasting and the thyroid?
I basically want to know if you guys think I might have hypothyroidism and if there is anything I can do to fix it. I have a doctor’s appointment scheduled in a few weeks and I plan to do blood work. Any advice? I appreciate it.

I’m a super avid reader, (like, over 150 books in the past year avid) mainly of scifi and fantasy. My fave authors are Neil gaiman and ursula k le guin, but I’m also a huge fan of Becky chambers, Isaac Asimov, terry pratchett, Jeff vandermeer, and a ton more. I go through lots of books v quickly so pretty much anything is welcome
Things that draw me to stories are varied, and don’t need to be there but can be a bonus. These include - Explorations of stories and storytelling - characters trying to uncover mysteries - Layered narratives, esp thru time - Motifs of keys, tarot, gateways/doors - Generational curses, and other reckoning with the past - History, especially objects holding history - Books, libraries, museums, etc. - interesting social structures and explorations of society/ philosophy - transness/ queerness and disability
I’m an adult but tend to avoid things w gratuitous sex scenes (a few sentences is fine)
I just finished the book of speculation by erika swyler and the starless sea by Erin morgensten, both of which I loved.

Read Part 1 HERE.

Let´s see what are the remaining 5 top traders of all times

6. Richard Dennis
Richard Dennis, also known as the “prince of the pot”, is one of the few traders who turned a little money into millions.
When Dennis was 23, he borrowed $1,600 and turned it into $200 million in ten years trading commodities. The most curious thing is that he only used 400 USD of those 1600 USD to operate.
Later in 1973, Richard Dennis made profits of 100,000 USD. The following year, he earned $500,000 more trading in the soybean market, and became a famous millionaire trader by the end of 1974.
But Denis also suffered financial losses during the Black Monday stock market crash of 1987 and the bursting of the dot-com bubble in 2000.
In 1983, Richard Dennis and Bill Eckhardt launched an experiment called the “Turtle Traders Group” to investigate whether trading is an innate skill or something that can be learned. Dennis believed that, like farm turtles, profitable traders could learn and acquire skills. In contrast, Eckhardt assumed that effective learning requires innate abilities; Otherwise, they cannot be taught.
During the experiment, they designed a trading system that gave positive results to the group. Today, traders continue to use his system or its versions. According to a former student, some of these turtle traders made profits of 175 million US dollars in 4 years.

7. John Paulson

Forbes, The Guardian, New York Times and many other media wrote about John Paulson, “the best trader in history”, born in 1955.
Paulson began his career at Boston Consulting Group in 1988, advising companies. After changing jobs several times, he founded his hedge fund, Paulson & Co, with $2 million and one employee in 1994. By 2003, his fund had reached $300 million in assets.
John Paulson's fame and fortune came during the global financial crisis of 2007–2008, when he earned almost US$4 billion and “went from shady money manager to financial legend.” Before the crash, he bought used credit default swaps and used them to effectively bet against the US subprime mortgage market. Some call it the largest operation in history.
In 2010, Paulson made $4.9 billion, mostly by investing in gold. Forbes estimated her net worth at 3 billion US dollars as of January 2023.
However, John's losing investments in some stocks caused investors to flee his hedge fund, Paulson & Co, reducing its assets under management to US$10 billion in January 2020 from a high of US$36 billion in 2011.
The billionaire demonstrated the possibility of diversifying not only assets, but also strategies, combining ideas of a speculative nature and conservative arbitrage strategies with the mandatory division of funds.

8. Steven Cohen

Steven Cohen was born in 1956 in New York. An avid poker player, Stephen spent all the money he earned at cards speculating in stocks while he was still in college, escaping during breaks to the nearest Merrill Lynch bank office.
With a current net worth of around US$16 billion, Cohen began his career at the investment banking firm Gruntal and thus entered the stock market in 1978.
Cohen started out earning $8,000 on his first day, and then went on to earn $100,000 a day for the firm. In 1992, he left Gruntal and founded one of the most successful hedge funds, SAC Capital Partners. In 2013, SAC's average annual profit had reached 25%.
Although Steven achieved success and became rich, his career was not only one of victories, but also several losses. In 2010, SAC was investigated for insider trading by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Although Cohen was not charged, the company pleaded guilty and paid US$1.8 billion in fines. Later, he was forced to close his fund.
But Steven Cohen became famous for his ability to succeed and win under any conditions. He is also a famous stock trader who prefers risks and winning big. He is now the founder and CEO of Point72 Asset Management, a family office in Stamford, Connecticut.

9. David Tepper

David Tepper, the successful hedge fund manager, philanthropist and richest man, was born in 1957 into a Jewish family. David entered the market while still in college. He graduated in Economics from the University of Pittsburgh and earned a master's degree from Carnegie Mellon University in 1982.
After graduating, Tepper got a job at Equibank as a credit analyst and dedicated himself to the financial sector. He went through several companies, including Keystone, and was hired by Goldman Sachs for eight years, mainly dedicated to bankruptcies and special situations. David played a key role in Goldman Sachs' survival after the stock market crash of 1987. He bought commodity bonds in failing financial institutions, whose value soared once the market recovered.
But Tepper struggled to run his own fund and traded aggressively to raise enough money to do so. In early 1993, he founded Appaloosa Management. One of her first and greatest profits was obtained by investing in Conseco and Marconi. Appaloosa was then established as a specialized distressed debt hedge fund, linked to investing in global public equity and fixed income markets.
In 2009, Appaloosa made about US$7 billion buying distressed stocks that recovered that year. Of those profits, $4 billion went to Tepper personally, making him the highest-earning hedge fund manager in 2009.
David Tepper's net worth is $16.7 billion, according to Forbes. In 2020, the largest shares of his portfolio were Alibaba, with 13%, and Amazon, with 11%.

10. Nick Leeson

Famous for bankrupting Barings Bank, Nick Leeson was born in 1967. Without higher education, he held an office job at Coutts Bank that did not require special skills.
But Nick continued to advance his financial knowledge and soon moved to Morgan Stanley, where he was taught how to calculate futures and options quickly. He was then hired by Barings Bank and later moved to Asia, to the Singapore International Monetary Exchange (SIMEX).
This is where his famous story began. In April 1992, Barings opened a futures and options office in Singapore, which executed and cleared trades on SIMEX. At the age of 26, Nick Leeson, in addition to his trading activity, ran the futures and options back office in Singapore and began carrying out unauthorized speculative operations.
Initially, these operations brought Barings huge profits, totaling £10 million, which represented 10% of the company's annual profits. Nick even got a £130,000 bonus to his £50,000 salary. But then fortune faded, and Lesson began using the bank's money from a special error account to cover his own and others' bad trades.
1995 saw the biggest loss and the end for Nick Leeson and Barings. Leeson bought a huge amount of futures contracts to pressure the market, but a strong 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Japan caused these assets to collapse. As a result of the biggest scam, the 233-year-old Barings Bank suffered losses of US$1.4 billion and was sold to Dutch conglomerate ING for £1.
Leeson escaped from the bank leaving a two-word note: “I'm sorry.” He hoped to avoid jail in Singapore, but he was detained and extradited by Germany back to the Asian country, where he served four years in a local prison. The total sentence was 6.5 years. Leeson contracted cancer while in prison, but Singapore's best doctors treated the world-famous prisoner and he recovered.
Today, Nick cannot hold any stock positions, but he still earns more than $100,000 a month from his speaking engagements.
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Hi guys I think I'm writing this post out of slight guilt. It's regarding an interaction at my local Lancôme counter.
I'm an avid user of the rénergie line of products but sometimes I like to have just a general look and feel of products on the counter. See if anything takes my fancy.
However during one of my mooch around the Lancôme counter a sales assistant asked if I needed help. I said "I'm ok thank you" and continued to browse. Immediately she said "can I help you find something" i said "no I'm ok, but thank you I'm just looking" again, immediately she started asking me "any particular item...." To then I turned away and walked away mid sentence.
Now I'm a very conscious person and I can't help but feel like I was incredibly rude cutting someone off. As someone who can get quite socially awkward I have this desire to be left alone while I'm doing my favourite thing (skincare shopping).
Any guys or gals relate to this or any beauty counter folk want to tell me how they feel about it?

It's been a few weeks since I (22F) left my abusive relationship for the second time and I have always questioned if what I experienced was financial abuse. I definetly experienced emotional, verbal and psychological abuse which has been confirmed by my therapist.
We were in a long distance relationship and although we only lived in different states, it was very expensive. My ex (24) had no money, no job and had no interest in getting a job. They would get a bit of money here and there from odd jobs but not enough to live off. We both still live with our parents for context so we both had no rent or other living costs. I'm an avid saver so when I met them I had a very decent amount of money for someone my age. I was always taught to not withdraw my savings for regular spending by my parents and that's what I did until I was in this relationship.
In the beginning of our relationship, almost 2 years ago, I made the massive mistake of letting them know how much I had saved because I had just bought a new car. They were fascinated with how I managed to do that all on my own and I was probably a bit cocky about it. I was dumb and naive. After this I noticed them get antsy about paying for things and I soon found out it was because they didn't have any money. I initially felt bad for them as they pulled the mental health card and how having a job makes them depressed. Pretty soon after this I was being told to "stop being stingy" among many other things and to pay for things because I had all this money. I was often made to feel guilty if I said no or I couldn't afford it because they knew I had money.
I always travelled to them and it ended up being every second weekend because they would get so upset if we went more than two weeks apart. Long distance is hard but they did not contribute equally to travel. Each time it would cost $300-600 just for the plane ticket. They only came to see me 3 times in 2 years and I had to beg.
Whenever I would visit, they would always want to go out and drink so much alcohol and consume other expensive *things* which was all paid for by me. Part of it was because I was a push over at the time and the other part was because they were emotionally and verbally abusing me all the time, I had this belief that buying them things would put me in the good books or finally make them happy. But they always wanted more, nothing was enough. I would go above and beyond for them, mostly to keep the peace but also because of my need to please others. I would never get anything close in return.
During this whole time I was working full time but I was always spending more than I was making. I was drowning the whole time, stressed about my future and stressed about what they would want next. I ended up spending around $40,000 in one year on our relationship, holidays together, the things we did and on gifts for them. I was finally on the same playing field as them, $2000 to my name but the demand for me to spend my money was still the same. I tried to talk to them about my financial worries, insurances and big bills coming up but I was always dismissed with their mantra "money comes back" or accused of not making them a "priority" by having to save my money for my own bills. Writing out that sentence right now sounds so absurd but it's true. They had absolutely no respect for my own financial needs and did not care about how important saving was to me because they were so focused on having a good time, right here right now. I wanted to have a good time but in moderation because my future and plannning is so important to me.
I know that part of this is my fault. I let them walk all over me and at the end of the day, it was me doing the spending. But I always try to remind myself that I was being abused at the same time, separate to the financial aspect of this relationship and so I was broken down to absolutely nothing and just wanted to do what they said to avoid conflict.
I haven't really seen an experience like mine on here in relation to financial abuse so let me know what you think. I'm in a much better place now.

Hello! Not after a diagnosis, just after some guidance around whether a dyslexia screening might be beneficial. I'm 21, I recently got diagnosed with autism and adhd. I never thought I could have dyslexia, I was an avid reader as a kid (although it was the same series and types of book) however, my boyfriend (who is a diagnosed dyslexic) is almost certain I am. I did have a teacher in primary school teacher ask my parents if I was dyslexic after I had some issues spelling I think, but they brushed it off and didn't do anything about it. I am and have always been a VERY slow reader, it often takes me multiple attempts to read a page and comprehend it. I have always been a phonetic speller (one particular memory of struggling to learn to spell "they" because I would always spell it with as "thay" because that's how it's procounced where I live). I didn't really struggled with spelling when it was categorised, e.g. cat, mat, sat, hat, fat, rat (three letter words aren't much of an issue). But as soon as they are in a sentence I do struggle. It took me until I was 14 to learn the differences between their, there, and they're, were, where, we're, and weather, whether (I still have to activatly think about it when I write). I often get i, e, and a mixed up, and sometimes capitalise letters when I'm physically writing in the middle of sentences without realising until I've done it. I can't spell words backwards very well at all, and those words that also spell something backwards just don't compute in my brain. My boyfriend plays this word game to work on his spelling and comprehension skill (wordscapes I think?) and it's so difficult, like almost just as difficult for me as it is for him. He put "was" in as one of the words and I didn't even recognise it as a word lol. "What the fuck is a was (pronounced as waz)". I did a PowerPoint night with my friends and I thought it was fine, proof checked it and everything. Went to present it and my flatmate kept pointing out my errors if I didn't catch them myself. Which brings me to my next point of reading aloud. I've never been good at it, it takes me twice as long to read aloud as it does in my head, and I trip over my words and lose my place and stutter and it's awful. I recently took a Spanish course at uni which I had to drop because I kept falling behind. I could pronounce and read everything wonderfully, it's a phonetic language so that was great, but. THE SPELLING. I could never remember how to spell things, the phonetic aspect made it a bit easier, but overall it just was not sticking. I couldn't remember how to spell the words and they just wouldn't stick in my brain even though I had someone I could practice with everyday. I have been learning sign language for the past two years though and that has been going GREAT. I think in pictures and have a visual memory so I can just see the signs in my head and there is zero written element. I have the same issues with maths but I have suspected dyscalulia for a while. Anyway! Sorry for the novel! Thank you in advance!

Hello, I made up this theory while being an avid spectator and follower of Lostwave and in general, but one song always has stuck with me, and that's La Canción de Alicia or LCDA I have always been fascinated with this but I want to present a theory I feel like nobody has considered at all while trying to search for a full version of the song and I like to call it the Cover Theory.
The Cover Theory is my theory that LCDA is actually a cover of an existing song somewhere on the internet and a cover made only for the psychedelic Alice In Wonderland montage that it is from. This theory has the implications that there is no extended version of the song cover in question that exists because it was never made to begin with. What we have is the full version, and therefore, I believe some people apart of the search should dedicate some time in trying to discover what is the non-cover version of LCDA and locate it. My reasoning for this is because the video feels like it was made as a tribute to Alice In Wonderland and given the short runtime of 1:04, it might have been simply a video a kid made for fun in their spare time given the rather low quality audio and the video being a montage of gifs that people have already the sources for. If you listen closely, the instrumental and singing are at the same volume which means that whoever made it had the instrumental and then added their own singing on top of it as an original vocal track in some video editing software before then adding this "full" version cover on top of a montage they made and completing the video. It does not sound like the person who made it had recorded the instrumental on one device and sang the the "vocal track". My advice would be to find a way in isolating the vocal track and trying to shazam the instrumental although this could be a dead end since there is not any lyrics to go off of but it is a worth a try IMO. Who knows? Maybe Shazam will be able to locate the original song for this cover from the instrumental rather than the whole song considering it wasn't found anywhere else before people finding it.
The song also doesn't feel quite connected to the topic of Alice In Wonderland and is full of coincidences and in fact if anything, the lyrics suggest it is a love song and not about the popular theme of Alice In Wonderland which is growing up. If you read the lyrics closely, it has nothing to do with Alice In Wonderland besides stuff like "but my life is real, just a dream" although this is only one phrase out of others. It is obviously given that if this were a tribute, the song sung wouldn't correlate directly towards Alice In Wonderland however I still should emphasize the disconnect because I believe it is super important into fully explaining why this could be a cover and not an original song or an actual song. Another reason I believe my theory is because if this were a full song then why isn't the singing cut off and importantly the song ends abruptly without there being an indication that it actually continues on since there is a loud noise towards the end of someone saying "WOO", bass boosted which overtakes the singing and instrumental.
Now you might ask "then why isn't this video anywhere on the internet if it were made as a tribute to Alice In Wonderland?". I stipulate that the video might have existed before on YouTube (or Facebook) possibly in the early 2010s or even late 2010s given the whole feel of it in addition to the fact people have already sourced the gifs to make the video. My timeline is that JT downloaded this video somewhere from a Facebook group or YouTube before it was removed and tried to find the full version of the song before giving up and posting the video in various Facebook groups to try and see if anyone else could find the full song. The post also sounds like JT needed help finding out what the song's name is and may imply JT himself has figured out it was a cover although given how short and vague the sentence is, this is a huge stretch.
Anyways, that's my theory and evidence. What do you all think? Is LCDA actually a cover of an existing song, and if so, does that mean that we have will always be the full version since it is a cover sung for a possible tribute video?

Hello, so I'm unsure if theories are allowed to be posted however I made up this theory while being an avid spectator and follower of Lostwave and in general but one song always has stuck with me and that's La Canción de Alicia or LCDA. I have always been fascinated with this but I want to present a theory I feel like nobody has considered at all while trying to search for a full version of the song and I like to call it the Cover Theory.
The Cover Theory is my theory that LCDA is actually a cover of an existing song somewhere on the internet and a cover made only for the psychedelic Alice In Wonderland montage that it is from. This theory has the implications that there is no extended version of the song cover in question that exists because it was never made to begin with. What we have is the full version and therefore I believe some people a part of the search should dedicate some time in trying to discover what is the non-cover version of LCDA and locate it. My reasoning for this is because the video feels like it was made as a tribute to Alice In Wonderland and given the short runtime of 1:04, it might have been simply a video a kid made for fun in their spare time given the rather low quality audio and the video being a montage of gifs that people have already the sources for. If you listen closely, the instrumental and singing are at the same volume which means that whoever made it had the instrumental and then added their own singing on top of it as an original vocal track in some video editing software before then adding this "full" version cover on top of a montage they made and completing the video. It does not sound like the person who made it had recorded the instrumental on one device and sang the the "vocal track". My advice would be to find a way in isolating the vocal track and trying to shazam the instrumental although this could be a dead end since there is not any lyrics to go off of but it is worth a try IMO. Who knows? Maybe Shazam will be able to locate the original song for this cover from the instrumental rather than the whole song considering it wasn't found anywhere else before people found it.
The song also doesn't feel quite connected to the topic of Alice In Wonderland and is full of coincidences and in fact if anything, the lyrics suggest it is a love song and not about the popular theme of Alice In Wonderland which is growing up. If you read the lyrics closely, it has nothing to do with Alice In Wonderland besides stuff like "but my life is real, just a dream" although this is only one phrase out of others. It is obviously given that if this were a tribute, the song sung wouldn't correlate directly towards Alice In Wonderland however I still should emphasize the disconnect because I believe it is super important to fully explain why this could be a cover and not an original song or an actual song. Another reason I believe my theory is because if this were a full song then why isn't the singing cut off and importantly the song ends abruptly without there being an indication that it actually continues on since there is a loud noise towards the end of someone saying "WOO", bass boosted which overtakes the singing and instrumental.
Now you might ask "then why isn't this video anywhere on the internet if it were made as a tribute to Alice In Wonderland?". I stipulate that the video might have existed before on YouTube (or Facebook) possibly in the early 2010s or even late 2010s given the whole feel of it in addition to the fact people have already sourced the gifs to make the video. My timeline is that JT downloaded this video somewhere from a Facebook group or YouTube before it was removed and tried to find the full version of the song before giving up and posting the video in various Facebook groups to try and see if anyone else could find the full song. The post also sounds like JT needed help finding out what the song's name is and may imply JT himself has figured out it was a cover although given how short and vague the sentence is, this is a huge stretch.
Anyways that's my theory and evidence, what do you all think? Is LCDA actually a cover of an existing song and if so, does that mean that it will always be the full version since it is a cover sung for a possible tribute video?

Not a meme, serious discussion. Also my opinion, please give feedback.
Playing this game has been a fun time. The combat is quick and responsive, the exploration is great, the world building is engaging, the soundtrack is hypnotic, character customization is excellent, all that and more… with one exception.
Movement.
TL;DR: Stellar Blade’s clunky movement options turn a near masterpiece into an occasional frustrative nightmare. It could be mostly fixed with more responsive turning and the ability to interrupt/cancel animations.
The Issues
First, I would like to preface this with the fact that for most of the game, the movement is fine. Moving from one location to another and darting between opponents, the movement melts away in the thrill of exploration or combat. Around 90% of the game, really. But it's in that last 10% that you run into the literal walls of the game and what it asks you to do: platforming.
Let me ask you a question: if you were to stand up and spin in a circle, how much space would you need? Most people wouldn’t need much more than a circle a little wider than their shoulders, but EVE? She can’t really do that, as quickly spinning the joystick will make her veer off in one direction before stuttering into a sprint in another. Eventually you can get into a rhythm and make the turns more consistent, but then instead of EVE spinning, she’s running in a circle much wider than her shoulders.
(A frequent but minor irritation is in supply camps, where I wish EVE would just turn to look at the chair for a refresh but she instead jogs past and changes the song or goes shopping.)
EVE’s ability to make turns is wide, and in a game where required platforming is often on relatively slim surfaces, there was a notable number of times where I would die to gravity or fall off because EVE was unable to make a 90 degree turn. This problem becomes even worse when taken mid-air, where EVE becomes more akin to a steamboat while turning. This is bandaid fixed by getting the double jump ability roughly 10 hours into the game, but it only allows you to change directions once.
Additionally, that means nothing if you accidentally run off a cliff before jumping first—you only get your double jump, even if you input a jump before falling. Again, I’ve died to gravity or fallen many times due to this. In other games like Elden Ring, Wo Long, or Sekiro, there is a brief window after running off a ledge that you can still input an initial jump just to avoid that, and the first two of those games aren’t nearly as dependent on platforming as Stellar Blade is.
(And as a side note, these games have much tighter movement in general, being able to complete the spinning I mentioned earlier, and something I’ll get back to later.)
You don’t even get to build momentum, as the fastest you can move in the air is the basic running speed. If you jump while going slip-stream or off the wall-running sections? All the way back down to normal speed. There were a lot of platforming options in the Wasteland that begged to be completed with a running start but couldn’t, only for me to realize much later in the game that they were to be solved by the double jump.
Which brings me to the platforms themselves: they are not consistent. Perhaps the most blatant example of this occurs when you enter the Hypertube area in Spire 4, just beyond the angel corpse if I remember correctly (I can’t check myself, I’m at the beginning of ng+). There are two identical freight containers stacked in stair-like formation. The first one, you can double jump and grab onto the ledge, pulling yourself up. The second? Nope, no grabbing ledge; it basically acts like a wall, even though there’s more than enough space above to jump over if allowed. And there’s no reason it should be that way either, since you can just walk around the wall to get to the same spot anyway.
Much of the same occurs with ladders. Oftentimes you’ll find yourself leaping towards the bottom to get a grip, and sometimes EVE will grab it and other times she’ll just clip right through it. The most flagrant one I can remember is the crate above D1G-g2r’s shop in the Junkyard, where EVE can clip right through the middle of the ladder and not grab it. It is another example of a platforming puzzle being bandaided by the double jump, which you need to complete it.
It’s a recurring theme with the reused assets, like the collapsed desert buildings, where on one ledge, EVE will hesitate to avoid falling, and on another she’ll just waltz off into the void. Not nearly as egregious as the others, as most of the time I would prefer if she didn’t jump off, but gets in the way when I actually do want to jump.
There is also the issue of asset placement—for example, getting the Planet Diving Suit (6th) (if you didn’t pre-order the game) requires you to drop between two dedicated climbing ledges and inputting a sideways dash onto another platform—specifically without dashing anywhere near the wall as you would instead just grab the ledge again. When the mechanics and environment actively clash with each other, it’s extremely difficult not to notice.
Put the janky movement and inconsistent platforms together and you get the worst puzzle rooms possible in the game: the death lasers. Here’s 8 minutes of me dying repeatedly in one of these rooms: The Worst Room - Stellar Blade
I’ve played souls games all my life, completed challenge runs in them, am an avid fan of Foddian-type games—and this was the closest I remember to throwing my controller through the monitor.
You have to complete one of these in order to finish the game.
I believe all of this comes from one reason: EVE’s animation only permits that much movement.
It seems like the developers have decided to use player inputs to serve character animation rather than the other way around. If EVE’s running animation doesn’t allow sharp turns, you cannot make sharp turns. If EVE’s falling animation only happens when in mid air, then you can only double jump. If EVE’s ladder climbing animation needs to include her legs, then you best grab a portion of the ladder she can place her feet on.
And if EVE is in the middle of an animation, you have to wait until it finishes.
You can see this play out regularly in gameplay. If you weren’t being sufficiently distracted by EVE’s ass, you might have noticed that her climbing animations are segmented, waiting for her animation to end before moving to the next, never really stringing together movements like you might see in the Assassin's Creed games for example. And if that last sentence wasn’t booty enough for you, try using Judgement Cut Tempest against a Lurker.
Sure, you might kill the thing instantly, but they get to suck face before they die because guess what? You can’t cancel out of the animation.
There are scarce few exceptions to this: getting hit by an enemy (which is also an animation you cannot interrupt out of, allowing you to get combo’d to death) or in the start-up frames of attack strings with a dodge or parry.
The Fix
Now the way to address most of these issues is relatively simple: prioritize player input over the animations. Do as the aforementioned Elden Ring, Wo Long, and Sekiro do, and sacrifice some of the animation fidelity for more responsive movement. Let animations like attacking, skilling, and using items be the commitments they should be, but allow more expression in the movement that intersperses between them. Maybe even include animation canceling in the survival tree for more seamless integration. Allow that responsiveness in mid-air as well. That way, even if the environment cannot be so easily adjusted, players will be able to work around them with the increased flexibility. And either let the player immediately jump when they hit the button or buffer the animation so that less people fall to their deaths.
Again, I really like this game. I’ve gotten two of the endings and fully intend on getting the platinum trophy. But the movement can be so infuriating to the point of ruining immersion at times, so if there was anything they could improve on, it would be this.
Thanks for taking the time to read all this if you did, and I hope I was able to shine a light on the main thing that somewhat tainted my otherwise fantastic playthrough of this game. Hope it helps… someone.
Extras
Here's a list of other movement tidbits that don't really fit into my argument, but are interesting nonetheless:

• In addition to reading joystick input, the game also seems to read the velocity in which you input them—for example, if you quickly move the joystick from walking in one direction to walking in another, EVE will assume that you mean to run in the other direction, leading her to temporarily breaking into a sprint before quickly assuming a walk again. Kind of funny to be honest.
• EVE will adjust her stance depending on the terrain beneath her, which can lead to some interesting poses in the middle of different animations.
• EVE’s climbing movement is more dependent on camera position than her position—if the camera angle is aimed sideways against the wall, pushing the joystick to the right/left is the input that allows her to climb up or down instead of pushing the joystick up or down, as doing that would move her horizontally.
• While pushing objects, EVE will always prioritize moving the boxes/carts to in front of her, often leading to her doing some drift-like movements if you turn away.
• While in aiming mode, you can dodge out of it—but only if you are not currently shooting or charging a shot.

Just thought it could be fun to do a full review, so here goes. Hope you're sitting comfortably. (Not to be taken too seriously though!)
My paths:
1) Japanese-American prom queen - Princess - Ace - loyal Chloe path 2) Puero Rican athlete - Foxy - Bi - Lilian path (with a bit of Grant) 3) Irish prom queen - Twisted - Pan - romancing everyone
MC looks: 4/5
All the sprites are beautiful, but don't capture me quite as much as my favourite sprites (Lou, Nova etc.). The Japanese American one is my favourite. The Puerto Rican one looks permanently surprised, which is ever so slightly distracting. The body shape difference could be more pronounced, but at least it's not TO2 level of ridiculous window dressing.
MC personality: 3.5/5
I'm generally a sucker for the fish-out-of-water, good-girl-gone-bad trope, so this MC is definitely up my street. I loved the bit where she said that she's too good to be bad, but too poor to be good. All in all, I enjoy her Langley-typical ruminations.. but for me personally, the MC is too immature to fully relate to.
LIs: 2.5/5
I have to give the book credit for balancing the genders and giving roughly equal time to all the LIs - but none of them really floats my boat.
As an avid Bonne romancer, Chloe is probably my favourite, and it's great seeing an LI like her, but at the same time, her neurodivergence seems laid on with a trowel. Literally every single sentence of description and dialogue points at it, down to the valuable info that she only ate cereal as a child. We get it, mkay?
Lilian is lovely, but the way she reveals her penchant for shibari and spanking to a total stranger is somewhat concerning. Also, she said that she would change her milk-soaked top and she didn't, and I take that sort of betrayal seriously.
Grant is.. ok? There is some depth to him that is a little intriguing, but I'm not sure I want to go diving in that particular pond.
Tristan.. would be great if he were 20 years older and didn't sport an emo haircut and formal shorts. And on that note, what the hell is up with all the shorts?? Is that an Ivy league thing? Have I missed a new TikTok trend? I'm not familiar with American traditions, but in Britain, the expression "being in short pants" means "being very young", and primary school children wear shorts as part of their uniform - which is not the kind of association I need when someone's showing me around a BDSM club. Just.. please don't talk to me about spanking when I can see your knobbly knees poking out to enjoy the show.
Setting and backgrounds: 3/5
Ok but nothing special so far. I did like the different room deco though, and I hope that we get to swim in that little balcony pool.
HaiOutfits: 2/5
Low rating purely due to my frustration that I'm forced to take certain options to go with my paths. I'm not allowed to choose, but I AM allowed to pay, so thanks for that, I guess.
Story: 3/5
A college story isn't really my scene, but the spy plot definitely adds enough suspense to have me hooked. I'm glad that we got immersed in the crime plot from the start, and didn't get a few chapters of content-vacant "LI meet & greet". After three chapters, I already have a solid handle on the MC's character, context and motivations, and Langley's rich, sensuous writing is enough to immerse me in the story.
But the flip side is the Langley-typical branching confusion. Some things make much more sense on some paths than others. Why did Lilian ask me to go to the opera with her (and to undress her) when we've only exchanged two words in the cafeteria once? Why does she ask me if I'm interested in her brother on the one path where I've not taken any improvements with her brother? Why does Chloe want to kiss me all of a sudden? Why does TRISTAN want to kiss me? There are many questions, but as with VfV, I'll abandon all logic and enjoy the ride!
Dialogues & Banter: 2.5/5
I really hope this picks up, because the banter in VfV was a 10/5 kind of romp. I miss the wit and innuendo, though I did enjoy the conversations with Chloe that steered into political discourse, and the hint of banter between the boys at Rosewood Club in E3.
Side characters: 4/5
I've got a very soft spot for LGBTQIA+ representation, so having a non-binary best friend made me very, very happy. A gran in a wheelchair, a pair of bickering FBI agents and my seven dwar- I mean BROTHERS promise a fun cast. I hope we'll also see more of the profs teaching the classes, because they also seemed like a colourful bunch.
Favourite LI scene:
Removing the harness from Lilian.. as well as spanking Lillian. Her scenes were definitely the most sensual ones. Even her non-romance diamond scene where she talks about her family was one of the most interesting LI scenes so far.
Favourite non-LI scene:
The signing up for the different classes was exciting! I hope we get at least a glimpse of some of those classes.
Most WTF moment:
The FBI agents abducting the MC. Just.. why?? I'm sure she would have cooperated even without all that drama. I just don't get it.
Most annoying moment:
When Lilian asks "are you interested in my brother?" and MC responds with "I'm ace" 🙄🙄🙄. As if asexual meant the same as aromantic. As if there weren't many ace people who do participate in and enjoy sex. That's exactly what I feared when I first saw the "ace" badge in E1. I would be THRILLED if the story had actually thorough and thoughtful ace rep, but as it is, it only perpetuates stereotypes.
Most petty grievance:
Why can't I romance Simon? 🥹 Give me Simon. (But keep the shorts.) Also, texting is annoying enough in real life, and now I have to patiently wait for gran to finish typing. 😭
Most burning question:
Who took the coke?? I bet it's Jasper or Simon, because they are the only ones who did NOT have straightforward access to MC's room.
Craziest theory:
Chloe is related to Grant in some way. They both have a lot to hide..
Excitement for next update: 3.5/5
Thanks for reading!

Hi everyone. Glad to have found solace in this subreddit as this experience has shook me up today.
Late 30’s, no history of migraine nor am I aware of migraines in my family. I finished with my weekly gym session and walking out to the car, I noticed a “blind spot” in my left eye appear like I looked into a bright light for too long. It had faint zig-zags, subtle rainbow-ish jagged outline with squiggly lines. It reminded me when you take an eye test and try to identify where the hazy circles appear in the visual test if that makes sense. I was rapidly blinking thinking something somehow was floating around in my retina but it wouldn’t disappear. My entire vision started to get distorted to where I couldn’t read a sentence without the first two letters disappearing, and had to read over a sentence several times in order to fully comprehend it. This happened for 30 minutes and my anxiety hit the roof as I thought I was having a mini stroke. The “blind spot” seemed to get “wider” in the vision of my left eye like it was expanding, and then it disappeared and my vision got back to normal. Now, there is a mild background headache I have and my overall mental state just feels heavy. I am quite lethargic mentally at work today and often find myself zoning out.
After browsing through this subreddit, a couple of things stood out to me that could potentially be the “trigger” for what happened:

• Dehydration, which I did not drink enough water yesterday.
• Caffeine. Although I am an avid daily coffee drinker, I drank more than I should have yesterday on top of being dehydrated.
• I had a small soda yesterday. I haven’t drank soda in years and thought it would be a nice treat for myself.
• Lack of sleep + proper recovery from workouts, as I had a hard training session on Sunday and this morning with only 4 hours sleep.

Overall, I had a pretty active and stressful weekend with little hydration. Of course, none of the above could be the main factors after all, but this is just for documentation purposes and perhaps it can shed light with some others with their own “triggers”.
Just want to say it’s comforting this community exists because I really thought for a second I was having a stroke and this experience was unlike anything I’ve ever felt before. Seems like it might be something bound to return at some point, but glad to know I’m not alone with this and it wasn’t my eyes/brain having a freak malfunction on its own.

• Age: 37
• Gender: Female
• Location: Texas, for now. One more miserable summer then I gotta get the hell out of here.
• Values: Progressive, pro-choice, believes in climate change, round earth, moon landing enthusiast.
• Traits: Educated, passionate, and irreverent. Plus size, homebody, heart-on-sleeve, introvert with occasional social flair (nap required afterwards). Avid reader, loves cozy nights in with my dog and a book
• Looking For: Genuine connection, 30-47 age range, friendship or romance. Photo: Hi!

I can also communicate in complete sentences as I hope you can too. 😉

“Ah! Casper my boy!” Exclaimed Zeet. It was the older engineer geckin who had been supporting the young man's progress as a brand new mech pilot. The blue geckin had been the one in the first instance to suggest to the young man that he give piloting a try and so far had been a stalwart ally and straight shooting voice of reason for Casper.
Despite the engineer’s enthusiasm, Zeet had never led Casper astray, nor had any of his machines failed the young man. The human felt he could trust this geckin, as far as his equipment went at the very least.
“Good morning Zeet, I understand it's the moment of truth?” Replied Casper, calmer than he expected. Qik stepped into the room not a single step behind the human and marched over to the correctly sized chairs. She pulled out the centre one and sat directly in front of the High Commander, the black and purple geckin in charge of the geckin people’s military actions.
She would be the one in control of the upcoming operation.
This was when Casper noticed that there was a small crowd of geckins already sitting on the other side of the broad table that dominated the room. With only two chairs on ‘his’ side, it was quite obvious where he was meant to sit. Casper couldn’t help but squint and narrow his eyes at the people arrayed in front of him. Wasn’t it a bit heavy handed? Zeet, Wren, the High Commander and a slew of other geckins that the man had yet to have met, at least as far as he was aware of. Were they all needed to brief the pair of mercenaries?
Zeet seemed undeterred.
“Indeed! The moment of truth! Oh, I can’t w-” Although the older alien couldn’t finish his sentence as a curt, sharp voice cut him off and he went silent instantly.
“Enough Zeet. Casper, why not sit with your… colleague?” Suggested the High Commander, not in the slightest giving him another option. Her tone was mocking, but he had no doubt she held little regard to either Qik or the pair of them.
Casper didn’t say anything, and instead calmly walked over to sit and join Qik at the table. She was perfectly still and a perfect picture of cold, calm and calculating. Casper kept his silence, and waited for someone else to speak.There was a pregnant moment of silence.
The High Commander was the first to break the pause and spoke in a haughty tone.
“As per your contract Qik, we have need to run an op on the same planet as before.” She explained, blinking slowly and looking down her short snout at the lopeljack mercenary. Qik was unphased.
“What’s the gig?” She asked without missing a beat.
“They’re amassing a sizable mechanised force in the former cities. Orbital operations are still at a stand still, neither of us want to have to report the loss of a ship.” The Commander explained, waving a hand dismissing the orbital fleets as if it were a non-issue.
“So you want us to cut them down?” Qik asked, fishing for details.
“Exactly.” The purple and black geckin replied without assisting. Her eyes blinking slowly again, she kept them focused on Qik, pointedly ignoring Casper. He made no attempt to insert himself, he trusted Qik implicitly. The lopel stared the geckin down for a moment before breaking her gaze and shrugging, leaning back into her chair.
“Seems straight forward, I would have thought you would have used us in something more valuable.” She mused aloud, interlocking her fingers and gazing lazily at the geckin. Casper’s eyes narrowed a fraction just as he noticed the scale below her right eye twitch. A tell?
“I am a geckin of my word. This is the first combat operation we need to deploy against. The choice is our own mechanised force, which is a cost and a risk, or we rid ourselves of the two drains upon our resources.” The aloof geckin explained, again, waving her hand in the air without her elbows leaving them table.
“Drains?” Casper asked, unable to bite his tongue in time. The geckin finally turned her attention to the human.
“With your contracts complete you will have no need to stay and we can invest in professionals that mind their business.” Replied the commander, obviously peeved at the pair of them.
The geckin turned her attention back to Qik, despite only being a foot tall, Casper was near certain he saw the mental image of a tank turret, slowly traversing as the High Commander turned and stared at Qik.
The lopel merely stared back.
“Make no mistake, we are not pleased with your interference with Casper and his training.” She explained curtly. Qik shrugged and pulled a uncaring face.
“I trained him how I would train any pilot, just as you’ve asked me to do for the last hundred you sent my way. He’s no different.” She defended calmly. Casper had no idea if that was true. Did she use all her trainees as body pillows?
He kept this thought to himself.
“And yet he’s the first to demand his own contract?” The High Commander demanded.
“Ask him yourself.” Qik offered, gesturing at Casper to her left. The young man tried not to have a heart attack.
“Well?” The High Commander inquired, staring a hole through the centre of Casper’s forehead. Casper swallowed and gathered his thoughts, not sure if he was ready to be put on the spot already. But the man had, had plenty of time to think and consider the matter. Clearing his throat, he offered his explanation, as honestly as he could.
“I’m not geckin ma’am. I would assume your pilots are quite loyal to your people?” He asked slowly.
“Every one of them.” She replied without hesitation.
“I am grateful for your help, but I’m not geckin. There was no plan for me to stay long term. You got me dropped into your lap. This was just an accident, you couldn’t have expected me to stay?” Casper asked, trying to appeal to her common sense. A human to babysit wasn’t exactly a boon to anyone, let alone a government or private organisation that would apparently need to prove he was happy on a regular basis?
Casper wasn’t expecting the cold, sharp, humourless grin to spread across her face.
“Hmph, quite the contrary. We fought for a sizable number of humans to be provided to the geckin territories.” She explained, almost off handedly. It hadn’t been what Casper had expected her to say in slightest. He frowned, outright confused.
“What, why? You don’t know us.” He demanded.
“Politics, as with everything.” She offered, waving her hand as she did.
“So not the kindness of your heart then?”
That got a snort of derision from the small creature. She leant forward and interlaced her fingers, resting her snout beneath her fingers while staring Casper directly in the eye as she spoke next.
Her words were low and intense. She believed every word she uttered with every fibre of her being. Casper was certain of that.
“You are not an idiot so don’t be naive. No. The geckin people are under attack by the cowardly ssypno and their gluttonous nobility. All the while, their queen sits idly while our freedom is crushed within their coils.” The High Commander explained, baring her teeth as she spoke.
“Our very existance is up for debate amongst the high tri-table and we will not merely sit by while the next hunt begins.” She pulled her arms apart, one hand slapping against the table while the other pointed at Casper to emphasise her point.
“Demanding our fair share to the human population that was being divided amongst the other races was a method of establishing our legitimacy to be sat at the table, as frustrating as it is to have to resort to such methods.” She explained, waving awake the unpleasant concept as if it bothered her like a fly.
Casper blinked, turning over this information in his head.
“Humans were… divided up amongst the other races?” He asked.
“Yes. Humans have captured the hearts and minds of every race across the stars. The general populace of every sentient race demand we ‘save’ you.” The geckin snorted. “I will be blunt as there is no harm in being honest at this point.”
She paused, but Casper gave her every ounce of his attention. This was not knowledge that was available to him. He needed to hear this. The High Commander locked eyes with the human and spoke with conviction.
“I do not care if your people die. But while you’re alive, you are the perfect tool for my people. A shield to aggression. No ssypno force, noble or royal, would dare attack a base, city or maybe even planet if there was a single human present.” The High Commander revealed, shocking Casper to his core. He felt his lips part, as if to retort, but no words came out.
“You’re the perfect shield.” She pointed out as if the sky was blue and water was wet.
Casper turned this concept over in his head as he considered this from every angle. He was staring at the wood grain of the table, but wasn’t seeing it.
Until he made the connection, and looked back up at her.
“But now I want off the planet.” He pointed out.
“So we will lose control of you and lose your protection.” She finished. Almost smug in that Casper had to have had this information explained. She was not talking as if she was in a poor position. Why? What was giving her this confidence?
“Why do I feel you have another card up your sleeve?” He asked.
“An odd saying, but yes, my tail has yet to fall off.” She retorted. She paused, and allowed Casper a time to stay there, in his ignorance. Qik also said nothing, but was still avidly watching her. The lopel eyes intense and serious.
Eventually, the geckin spoke again.
“I wonder… How will the many bleeding hearts of the galaxy feel ‘if’ or rather, ‘when’, the ssypno forces fire on a human?” The geckin tilted her head. “We will record and present every moment of your operation. Success or failure, we remove at least some of their forces from the board and weaken the ssypno’s desire to fight.”
The wicked grin returned as the High Commander leaned forward, pressing her fingertips and claws into the table, leaving curled wood at the end of new grooves in the priceless wood.
“The ssypno people will see their nobility attacking their precious humans and revolt. That… is the value you hold.” The High Commander concluded, grinning and licking her absent lips.
Casper had no retort, nothing he could say. He would be used regardless of his actions. Qik however, didn’t care. A job was a job and the sooner she and the human completed it, the sooner they could get to the other side the spiral.
“Fascinating as it is, can we finalise the contracts?” Qik asked disinterestedly, suspending her hand in the air as if offering a solution. The High Commander affixed a ‘smile’ across her features while the rest of the geckins remained perfectly impassive. Casper didn’t like it immediately and the hairs on the back of his neck all slowly raised on end.
The only exception to this and seemingly oblivious to the ongoing power players, was Zeet who immediately piped up and began to present his PDA, turning it briefly.
“Oh! Yes! I have some marvellous plans for you to-”
“Zeet. Shut.” The High Commander demanded. Zeet paused immediately, returning to his chair and hiding the screen from view. Qik narrowed her eyes, glancing from Zeet, back to the High Commander.
“Something you’re not telling us?” She asked, obviously sensing the same issue Casper was. The High Commander acted surprised and grinned again.
“Oh no. You will deploy as you have done in the past with your equipment.” She offered. Qik outright frowned and her voice dropped an octave.
“...What of Casper’s rig?” She demanded, deadly serious.
“Casper doesn’t own a rig.” The High Commander offered, seemingly confused as to why Qik would ask. .
“How do you expect him to fight?” The lopel asked, audibly speaking through clenched teeth.
“I suppose we could… supply a firearm, for free.” The purple and black striped geckin offered pleasantly, as if that was reasonable or acceptable.
Qik was on her feet in an instant, hands on the table, looming over the geckins as best she could.
“This will be a breach of contract, under the ‘unreasonable’ clauses!” She announced, pointing down at the table and punctuating her words. Casper merely sat back and let her work. The geckin merely shrugged, unphased by the lopel’s display.
“We would contest any claim, but we… being reasonable, are willing to offer an amendment to Casper’s contract.” The High Commander offered, leaning back and spreading her hands and arms out, as if a benevolent trader.
The room went still and the temperature dropped.
“What kind?” Qik asked in a calm, steady voice. Too calm. Too steady. She was on edge.
“We will provide a mech of high quality, free of charge until the completion of the operation and contract.” The geckin offered calmly. Everyone waited for the other shoe to drop.
“What for?” Casper asked. Qik glanced in his direction, but otherwise kept her eyes on the geckin, who was now pointedly ignoring the lopel.
“Hmmm, you’re certainly not a simple feral creature like some suggest. There will be a clause that is in our favour.” She admitted.
“What is it?” He asked. The High Commander leaned back and glanced to her left, Casper and Qik’s right. To Wren. The biologist who had been caring for Casper since the beginning. She hadn’t done a great job, but the young man couldn’t fault her attempts to ensure he was okay.
Wren spoke calmly in a practised manner. She seemed to recite her words from memory, rather than form them on the fly.
“In the event of the need to eject the pilot casket, the operation is declared over and the loaned mech and all its contents and components are the property of the XixTech organisation.” The green geckin concluded before sitting back down and going silent. She too, adopted a haughty expression, lifting her muzzle slightly and staring Casper down somewhat.
It honestly didn’t seem like much of an issue. It wasn’t his mech, he’d get his own rig later. Casper breathed in to dismiss and accept the terms, he had no want to take their property, but stopped when Qik’s hand grabbed his thigh.
He glanced over to her as she spoke without breaking eye contact with the High Commander.
“All components?” The lopel demanded.
“Quite.” A nod.
“No deal.”
Casper blinked, turning to Qik.
“What? I can’t fight on foot! I need that rig.” He demanded, thinking about fighting tanks on foot with a single rifle! Qik or no, he’d more likely fall and blow his own head off than destroy a damned tank!
Qik’s expression when she turned to him gave him pause however. Without waiting, she spoke and explained in a slow, clam voice. Devoid of emotion.
“Casper, the pilot in the casket, is included in this.”
Wait.
“If you need to eject, then XixTech will, literally, own you.” Qik concluded.
Wren cleared her through before speaking as everyone turned to her.
“More specifically, as their representative; I will own you.”
Casper frowned, seeing the green doctor in a new light.
“Why?” He asked, confused as to why she’d go this route. If she had asked for anything, he’d likely have just given it to her. She needn’t of gone this way.
“Ignoring that I don’t need to answer that, we can learn more from you.” She began, coolly. “From your connection to the machine to how you handle the load. I hasten to add, it need not be a bad life, you could work with me in researching this.”
Casper said nothing, she continued.
“Or I could put your brain in a jar and ask you questions where you are devoid of distractions like light or sound. I would reward cooperation with stimulation. Otherwise it would be a perfect void for you.”
The green geckin shrugged.
“Either way works for me.”
The lopel stood and swiped her hand through the air, dismissing the whole geckin side.
“No deal. My company is on their way, they will have several things to say about this coercion.” She warned before turning and breathing in to speak with Casper, but was cut off by the High Commander.
“So be it, but you’re not being asked here.” The purple and black geckin turned to the human and pointedly asked; “Casper? Your choice. Freedom, with the chance of failure, or stay here as our permanent resident. We will offer you opportunities to pilot mechs, albeit under our direct control.”
The High Commander turned back to the lopal, although still spoke to Casper.
“We have learnt from our mistakes with our dear Qik here.”
Qik raised her hand, her fingers splayed and brought her palm down in a vertical swipe, holding it in place as if to highlight her words.
“Casper, don’t. There's another way.”
The young man doubted it. The geckins were too sure, the contracts seemed too tight.
“Is there?” He asked.
“The company has lawyers, these idiots aren’t the first to try and strong arm a deal.” She offered. The geckin High Commander retorted again, with an almost gleeful tone.
“No, but we are the first with a human. We checked, your laws are fantastically logical and detailed. It even lists the species… unfortunate ‘human’ is not included.” The finished with a sharp grin.
“They’ve got us cornered.” Casper pointed out.
“No, theres another way.” Qik said, her eyes almost frantic as she mentally searched for an out, finding none.
“Qik.”
“No, just… give me a sec.”
“Qik do you trust in your training?” Casper asked quietly.
“What?” The lopel asked, glancing up at him. He was still sat in his chair as she stood over him. Her fur was beautiful and shiny. He didn’t want to cause her distress, but there wasnt a way out here.
“Do you trust in what you’ve taught me? Could I survive in a fight?” He asked pointedly.
Qik said nothing, searching his face for something. He smiled and shook his head.
“I’m not trying to trick you. Just honesty.” He pressed.
She grimaced and wore a tight smile.
“I’ve taught you all I can. Everything else comes from experience.” She explained, her shoulders sagging.
“Like fighting technicals?” He suggested. Qik frowned, then turned to the gathered board of geckins.
“If… Is it just technicals? By requirements, you need to tell me your intel now.”
One of the side geckins spoke, reviewing a datapad.
“Only scuttle tanks and stationary emplacements. We need those emplacements destroyed, but we do offer bonuses for every additional unit destroyed. The bigger the better.” He offered. His lighter tone a stark difference to the hard tones of the others.
“No enemy pilots?” Qik checked.
“The ssypno are still scrambling after you took out the former ace.” The High Commander offered. Qik turned back to Casper and sighed.
“I think… You got a good chance.”
Casper merely nodded then turned in his seat to directly address the High Commander.
“I’ll accept the contract if you give me a fighting chance. Give me a good mech and I’ll agree.”
“Deal.”
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I recently gave my second attempt for the GRE, a few months after my disappointing score of 316, and scored a 328 (164Q 164V).
Honestly it’s been a longer journey than I intended it to be, took me whole of Jan, February and March to prepare for this exam. I’ve been in this sub-reddit for a while and it was hard seeing everyone else achieve the scores that you wanted, and in the meanwhile you aren’t there yet. I’m not a STEM student and wasn’t an avid reader as a kid, and it did take a whole lot of effort to get some habits in.
I’m just putting my two cents out after having studied for this exam since the turn of the year.
1) I initially suffered on the verbal component on my first attempt and had gotten a 153. What I did different this time around was understand more subtle differences in the vocab like for example the words ‘keen’ and ‘apt’ and of the sort, having different connotations. I wrote down many such double meaning words. The vocab mountain on gregmat should be a base for the vocabulary and not the final boss. You cannot learn 5000+ words but you can effectively learn another 300-400 after gregmat through magoosh app or via noting down words from official material.
2) Except the one passage in the second section, most of these passages now have a para or 2 at max and since there are different types of questions in RC, I suggest honing in the skills individually because in most of the cases, you’ll get either primary purpose, or a highlighting the sentence question to identify its function or an inference. The most important thing to get RC correct is to eliminate answer choices, and find the traps laid down by ETS in these questions and seek to not pick them if you’re stuck in a 50-50 situation.
3) For quant, I did the 5LB book as my base first. Noted down the questions I just couldn’t solve due to a lack of concept knowledge or something else and redid them a few days before the exam. Then I took the quizzes on gregmat which test your fundamentals on each different aspect and noted some problems in Geometry and Algebra and seeked to practice on them more. I was happy with a score of around 165 on quant so I never took the extra initiative to solve the extreme questions on gregmat. The tested tutor (on YouTube) is extremely good at providing cogent explanations for seemingly tricky math concepts.
One thing I would recommend to save time in the quant is to really practice different graph questions, and that’s because a lot of topics like percent change, ratio and fractions are recurring and the quicker you are in solving them, the more time you have on the other questions and also because the graph questions are considered to be the simplest to solve because all the data is just, right there.
4) Try taking the mock tests with all the strategies that you can. You’ll lose time initially, may score less but at least you’ll know what all you can do in that short period of time. Never stick to one math problem, always move on after 2-3 minutes and come back to it later when everything else is answered.
Happy to help. Thank you for the support that is being provided here. Huge shoutout to the gregarious Greg. There’s so many resources at your disposal that you can spend a year and still not finish all his content which covers OLD gre walkthroughs to series of videos on the concepts to literally anything related to the exam. But do remember that your quant, vocab, and strategy practice must be your own, consuming content can only take you so far and doomsday scrolling on this Reddit will not help you xD

I’m using Supernote A6X2 for three to six hours everyday. I like everything about the device. I owned Kindle Oasis, Kobo, two models of Boox, and some other Japanese e-ink/LCD gadgets, and Supernote is by far the best. I am an academic who reads and writes between three to eight hours daily.
I especially like the “digest” function.
I read PDF versions of academic articles on my A6 by zooming in a bit (usually at %120 to minimize the margin). I can maintain the same ratio while turning pages, and this has been working fine with me. But I’d like to see some changes in future updates;

1. Everytime I turn the page while in zoom-in mode, a little window pops up on the right side and I need to click ‘x’ each time. I don’t think people would want to change the ratio everytime they turn over pages. Could you make it not show up, unless I intentionally want to change the ratio?
   
2. While in zoom-in mode, I can’t use my digest or highlight function smoothly. The software doesn’t recognize hand-written [ and ] if they are spread over multiple pages although it does work when the zoom-in reading is off. Same goes for the highlight function; I can’t select the sentences that span two or more pages in one stroke.
   

I’ve used other sizes before and absolutely love A6 for its portability. I’d appreciate it if you consider revising the above gaps in usability in any future updates.
Thank you so much!
Best, an avid fan of Supernote

Hi! I (20F) am pretty new to this whole thing, but I've always wanted to try doing an RP with someone which is why I'm posting here. I've always written stories on my own, but have never had the motivation to finish them, so I hope having someone else to push me will help me advance with my writing. And bouncing off different ideas with another person sounds like a lot of fun!
I'm an avid romance writer though the majority of what I write is plot heavy where the romance is a slow burn. 18+ only please, and I prefer at least one paragraph responses (which means at least three sentences) with no one liners. Good grammar is an absolute must, though sentences don't have to be overly flowery with big words or anything.
I work ten hour shifts four days a week, so my responses will most likely be through the afternoons. My timezone is EST. I'm not that picky when it comes to different plots or tropes (I've read so many manhwas that I still love despite them mostly following the same formula haha), so if you have any ideas to bring to the table or if you want to brainstorm something together, that would be great! I'm down for doing OC x OC or OC x Canon if you fall into any of the fandoms I'm in which I'll list below:
Fandoms
My Hero Academia Jujutsu Kaisen Mystic Messenger Project Sekai: Colorful Stage Detroit Become Human The Legend of Zelda (specifically BOTW/TOTK) Undertale (No AUs) Deltarune (No AUs) A Date With Death
I'd mostly like to RP on Discord, though if you have a preferred platform, dont be afraid to bring it up! Feel free to send me a DM if you think we're a good match and thank you for taking the time to read this!