I’ve been playing for almost 1.5 years and realistically I consider myself to be at a decent intermediate level. My goal is to play rhythm in a band and also write some songs of mine.
So far I mastered basic open chords as well as power chords and Bar chords (both E and A root). I can play 7th chords consistently and also some basic triads on the B,G,D strings.
I think I got the basic theory down along with keys and scales.
Scale-wise I have fun improvising using major and minor pentatonic but nothing more.
Where should I go next?

Beginning:

• Open early game lunchboxes, at least need to unlock a rare dweller and a good weapons (10+damage)
  
• Send rare dweller to wasteland for half a day, he will find some decent +P, +A, +S outfits for resource rooms
  
• Breeding to get at least 18 dwellers -> unlock Quest, do the Getting Started quest to get a lunchbox and dozen of Nuka Colas (you can use Nuka for the rare dweller to get back quickly)
  
• By now the rare dweller should be LVL 15 or higher -> he will have enough health for early quests. Use him to do Daily Quest and Path of Paula Plumbkin questline, till you completed "Come to Vault 333" quest to get multiple Nuka Colas, weapons, outfits, and a Pet Carrier.
  
• Quickly breed to get at least 32 dwellers, so you can unlock Outfit Workshop, and +S, +P, +A training room. Quickly use your junks to mass produce Soldier Uniforms, Handyman Jumpsuits and Armored Vault Suit for production rooms.
  
• Build +S/P/A training room. assign 6 dwellers to +S, 4 dwellers to +P, 4 dwellers to +A. You can also assign the rare dweller to +A room to increase Agility, which will help when doing Quests.
  
• Take a little break from doing Quests (but still need to do Daily Quests) and train dwellers until they reach +10 in their stats.
  
• By now you will have 6 max-S. 4 max-P and 4 max-A dwellers. Build more production rooms at Level 1 and assign them to those rooms. I prefer 3 three-room Power Plant, 2 three-room Diner and 2 three-room Water Treatment.
  
• Breed 9 more dwellers to unlock +E training rooms. Assign 14 other dwellers to +S/P/A training room and those 9 dwellers to +E training room. Those 9 will be your future quest teams.
  
• Shuffle the dwellers to each training room when they have maxed stats. My goals for this will be:
  
• 12 Dwellers with 10 Strength, 10 Endurance (Power production team)
  
• 8 Dwellers with 10 Perception, 10 Endurance (Water production team)
  
• 8 Dwellers with 10 Agility, 10 Endurance (Food production team)
  
• 9 Dwellers with 10 Perception, 10 Agility, 10 Endurance, 10 Luck (Quest teams)
  

Once you get past that, you should be fine to send the quest teams to wasteland until they get to LV50 and do multiple quests. That should be the end of early game.

Hello, I'm a hobbyist programmer, amateur, not professional. I want to scrape a local page in my country. I've tried many variations and found that running the script in multithread, the best performance is with the same number of threads as the CPU, right? I need to configure a machine for scalable scraping, and my idea is:

• 8 servers with 4 CPUs and 250 Mbps and 16 failover IPs.
  
• One thread takes 1-3 seconds, each IP on each server using 12 seconds (I assume that 10 seconds is the minimum time to avoid a ban). I asked another friend in this group to confirm if my configuration is okay or if I should change the number of servers, CPUs, or my whole philosophy.
  

My goal is to build scrapers that work stably all the time.

Hello, I'm a hobbyist programmer, amateur, not professional. I want to scrape a local page in my country. I've tried many variations and found that running the script in multithread, the best performance is with the same number of threads as the CPU, right? I need to configure a machine for scalable scraping, and my idea is:

• 8 servers with 4 CPUs and 250 Mbps and 16 failover IPs.
  
• One thread takes 1-3 seconds, each IP on each server using 12 seconds (I assume that 10 seconds is the minimum time to avoid a ban). I asked another friend in this group to confirm if my configuration is okay or if I should change the number of servers, CPUs, or my whole philosophy.
  

My goal is to build scrapers that work stably all the time.

Hello, I'm a hobbyist programmer, amateur, not professional. I want to scrape a local page in my country. I've tried many variations and found that running the script in multithread, the best performance is with the same number of threads as the CPU, right? I need to configure a machine for scalable scraping, and my idea is:

• 8 servers with 4 CPUs and 250 Mbps and 16 failover IPs.
  
• One thread takes 1-3 seconds, each IP on each server using 12 seconds (I assume that 10 seconds is the minimum time to avoid a ban). I asked another friend in this group to confirm if my configuration is okay or if I should change the number of servers, CPUs, or my whole philosophy.
  

My goal is to build scrapers that work stably all the time.

Hello, I'm a hobbyist programmer, amateur, not professional. I want to scrape a local page in my country. I've tried many variations and found that running the script in multithread, the best performance is with the same number of threads as the CPU, right? I need to configure a machine for scalable scraping, and my idea is:

• 8 servers with 4 CPUs and 250 Mbps and 16 failover IPs.
  
• One thread takes 1-3 seconds, each IP on each server using 12 seconds (I assume that 10 seconds is the minimum time to avoid a ban). I asked another friend in this group to confirm if my configuration is okay or if I should change the number of servers, CPUs, or my whole philosophy.
  

My goal is to build scrapers that work stably all the time.

I'll be moving in to a new apartment and the living room has 4 bookshelf speakers mounted to the wall and all are nicely wired in the walls. I'm thinking of reusing them, or at least the wiring setup but wanted to gauge some opinions from you guys since I don't know much, and just started reading some posts here recently to learn a bit.
Here is a rough top-down view of the living room, with the following things to note:

• The room is mostly enclosed, except for the top right entrance leading out to an open area.
• The living room itself is about 14'x16'.
• The red boxes represent the speakers that were left there by previous owner, which include:
  • Front left and right Bose 161
  • Rear left and right Onkyo SKM-100
  • All 4 are wall mounted about 7-8ft from the floor, near each corner of the room, angled down/towards the viewer (bottom wall)

I realize those speakers are pretty old, but maybe still usable? I'm going to be coming from literally just a 32" TV, so anything will be an upgrade. My main concern is the placement of them being so high (and if they're actually going to sound better than a modern TV).

Goals/expectations for the home theater setup:

• Movies/TV
  • I have an existing Plex setup on an NVIDIA shield that I plan to keep
    • contains some Atmos content; I may opt for more given a capable setup
  • I will be upgrading to an LG C3 77"
  • Casual movie/TV watching experience, for maybe up to 4-5 people on rare occasions. Main genres being:
    • comedy
    • action/adventure
    • thrillehorror
    • YouTube playback
• Video Games
  • Some casual TV couch gaming from a 4k/120 capable PC
    • going to run a fiber optic HDMI cable to get the length I need
  • Main games being multiplayer co-op and single-player
    • examples such as Rocket League and Resident Evil
• Music
  • Compatible with an Amazon Echo for voice control and playback of music through the speakers
  • BlueTooth compatibility for direct playback from my phone would also be nice
    • main genres being rock, metal, rap
  • As long as it sounds decent and can be heard in the open area nearby, good enough for me; not trying to wake the neighbors

Main questions:

1. Are the Bose 161 and Onkyo SKM-100 usable for casual use - or just worth replacing in 2024?
2. Is the height/placement of the Bose and Onkyo problematic? (wall mounted 7-8ft off the floor)
3. What would be a decent center channel to "match" the existing speakers and recommended AVR?

At least for now, I'd prefer to spend less than $1k and try to preserve at least the speakewiring placement already in place. I was thinking of getting a 7.2ch Denon AVR, and plug the Onkyo rears into the surround ports (not surround back). I could also get a center channel, and a sub later down the line.

Hello, I'm a hobbyist programmer, amateur, not professional. I want to scrape a local page in my country. I've tried many variations and found that running the script in multithread, the best performance is with the same number of threads as the CPU, right? I need to configure a machine for scalable scraping, and my idea is:

• 8 servers with 4 CPUs and 250 Mbps and 16 failover IPs.
  
• One thread takes 1-3 seconds, each IP on each server using 12 seconds (I assume that 10 seconds is the minimum time to avoid a ban). I asked another friend in this group to confirm if my configuration is okay or if I should change the number of servers, CPUs, or my whole philosophy.
  

My goal is to build scrapers that work stably all the time.

Hello, I'm a hobbyist programmer, amateur, not professional. I want to scrape a local page in my country. I've tried many variations and found that running the script in multithread, the best performance is with the same number of threads as the CPU, right? I need to configure a machine for scalable scraping, and my idea is:

• 8 servers with 4 CPUs and 250 Mbps and 16 failover IPs.
  
• One thread takes 1-3 seconds, each IP on each server using 12 seconds (I assume that 10 seconds is the minimum time to avoid a ban). I asked another friend in this group to confirm if my configuration is okay or if I should change the number of servers, CPUs, or my whole philosophy.
  

My goal is to build scrapers that work stably all the time.

Hello, I'm a hobbyist programmer, amateur, not professional. I want to scrape a local page in my country. I've tried many variations and found that running the script in multithread, the best performance is with the same number of threads as the CPU, right? I need to configure a machine for scalable scraping, and my idea is:

• 8 servers with 4 CPUs and 250 Mbps and 16 failover IPs.
  
• One thread takes 1-3 seconds, each IP on each server using 12 seconds (I assume that 10 seconds is the minimum time to avoid a ban). I asked another friend in this group to confirm if my configuration is okay or if I should change the number of servers, CPUs, or my whole philosophy.
  

My goal is to build scrapers that work stably all the time.

Hello, I'm a hobbyist programmer, amateur, not professional. I want to scrape a local page in my country. I've tried many variations and found that running the script in multithread, the best performance is with the same number of threads as the CPU, right? I need to configure a machine for scalable scraping, and my idea is:

• 8 servers with 4 CPUs and 250 Mbps and 16 failover IPs.
  
• One thread takes 1-3 seconds, each IP on each server using 12 seconds (I assume that 10 seconds is the minimum time to avoid a ban). I asked another friend in this group to confirm if my configuration is okay or if I should change the number of servers, CPUs, or my whole philosophy.
  

My goal is to build scrapers that work stably all the time.

Hello, I'm a hobbyist programmer, amateur, not professional. I want to scrape a local page in my country. I've tried many variations and found that running the script in multithread, the best performance is with the same number of threads as the CPU, right? I need to configure a machine for scalable scraping, and my idea is:

• 8 servers with 4 CPUs and 250 Mbps and 16 failover IPs.
  
• One thread takes 1-3 seconds, each IP on each server using 12 seconds (I assume that 10 seconds is the minimum time to avoid a ban). I asked another friend in this group to confirm if my configuration is okay or if I should change the number of servers, CPUs, or my whole philosophy.
  

My goal is to build scrapers that work stably all the time.

What’s the Difference Between On-Page SEO and Off-Page SEO?

On-page SEO focuses on optimizing parts of your website that are within your control, while off-page SEO focuses on increasing the authority of your domain through content creation and earning backlinks from other websites. To further understand the difference between the two, you have to understand, at a basic level, how search engine algorithms work. Let’s break it down.
There are two main buckets that search engines (SEO) look at when evaluating your site compared to other sites on the web.

1. On-page SEO looks at what your site (or your page) is about
2. Off-page SEO looks at how authoritative and popular your site is

On-Page vs. Off-Page SEO: What’s the Difference?

Put simply, what you rank for is largely determined by on-page factors, while how high you rank in the search results is largely determined by off-page factors.

How Does Each Type of SEO Affect Your Rankings?

What is On-Page SEO?

On-page SEO (also known as “on-site” SEO) is the act of optimizing different parts of your website that affect your search engine rankings. Where your website appears in search engine results pages is determined by a number of ranking factors including site accessibility, page speed, optimized content, keywords, title tags, etc. On-page SEO is about optimizing the stuff that you have control over and can change on your own website.

On-page SEO checklist:

How do you make sure your on-page SEO tactics are up to snuff? Here is a helpful checklist for on-site optimizations that can help curate your strategy.

Title Tags

Put your targeted keywords in the title tag of each page on your site. There are many best practices that go into writing an effective title tag.

• Limit your title tags to 55-60 characters (including spaces)
• Push the keyword closer to the beginning of the title (ONLY if it sounds natural)
• Don’t stuff your keywords
• Include brand at the end of the title tag, separated by a pipe bar () Example: “Chicago SEO Digital Third Coast”

Headings (H1)

Headings are usually the largest words on the page, and for that reason, search engines give them a little more weight than your other page copy. It is a good idea to work your target keywords into the headings of each web page but make sure you accurately reflect your page’s great content.
Make sure your H1s limited to one per page, all other headers are H2 or H3

URL structure

Put keywords into your URLs if possible. However, do not go changing all of your current URLs just so they have keywords in them. You shouldn’t change old URLs unless you plan on redirecting your old ones to your new ones. Consult a professional before doing this.

• Label your directories and folders in a way that makes sense for users
• Don’t repeat keywords in your URL more than once. Keywords are helpful, but overdoing it effects user experience. Example: /best-socks-comparison-best-socks-best-socks?
• Keep URLs as short as possible

Alt text for images

Any content management system should allow you to add something called “alt text” to all images on your website. This text isn’t visible to the average visitor – alt text is in fact used by screen reader software to help blind internet users understand the content of your images. Search engines crawl images in a similar way, so inserting some relevant keywords while accurately describing the image will help search engines understand your page’s content.
Writing an alt attribute for each image keeps your website in compliance with WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines). Keep the following things in mind when writing alt text:

• Thoroughly describe the image in 8-10 words
• Include your targeted keyword where it sounds most natural
• Include, if relevant, a geo-locator (e.g., Chicago)

Fast-loading pages, or page load speed

Google wants to help its users find what they’re looking for as quickly as possible to provide the best user experience. Therefore, optimizing your pages to load faster helps your site rank higher in the search results.
Google has a tool called PageSpeed Insights that will analyze your site on both mobile and desktop. and then suggest tips to optimize page speed. There are also several quick fixes to eliminate whatever is bogging your site down and slowing your page load time. Key site speed factors to consider:

• Minimizing HTTP requests
• Making sure server response time is <200ms
• Setting browser caching to at least a week or longer
• Enabling Gzip compression
• Having image sizes under 100kb (.jpg, .png, .gif)
• Placing all CSS in an external style sheet
• Minifying all JS, CSS and HTML
• Prioritizing above the fold content loading

Mobile Friendliness

In recent years, Google has prioritized mobile page loading speed as a key ranking metric.
How do you know if your website is mobile-friendly? Unfortunately, Google recently dropped support for some free public tools that helped. However, you can now use Google Search Console to analyze this type of information. Specifically, the Core Web Vitals report can help you identify if your mobile pages are loading slower than they should be.

Page Content

The content on your pages needs to be useful to people. If they search for something too specific to find your page, they need to be able to find what they’re looking for. It needs to be easy to read and provide value to the end user. Google has various ways to measure if your content is useful.

• Aim for at least 500 words of copy. Although there is no exact formula for how many words a page should have, Google seems to prefer when a page has a lot of relevant and helpful content surrounding your topic.
• Copy must be unique to each page, not duplicated from other pages on your site, and should directly address your visitors’ search queries
• Push the keyword closer to the beginning of the title, but ONLY if it sounds natural

Internal Linking

Linking internally to other pages on your website is useful to visitors and it is also useful to search engines. Here’s an internal link to another blog post on our site that talks more about internal linking. Very meta.
When adding internal links, make sure to have relevant anchor text. Anchor text is the clickable text in a hyperlink (usually indicated by blue font color and underline). To optimize your anchor text, make sure the selected word or phrase is relevant to the page you’re linking to.
On-page SEO ensures that your site can be read by both potential customers and search engine robots. With good on-page SEO, search engines can easily index your web pages, understand what your site is about, and easily navigate the structure and content of your website, thus ranking your site accordingly. As a best practice, make sure your page content includes 1-3 relevant internal links.

Schema Markup

Adding structured data helps Google better understand the content of a page. Google also uses certain types of structured data to display “rich results” in SERPs such as a recipe with start ratings or step-by-step instructions with an image carousel. These rich results often appear at or near the top of SERPs and generally have higher click-through-rates than normal organic listings.
Google prefers structured data to use schema.org vocabulary, and recommends using JSON-LD format. They also provide a handy Rich Results Test tool to check your code. While there are a variety of ways to add structured data to your website (plugins, Google Tag Manager, etc.), it’s always best to get a professional involved if you’re not comfortable writing code.
Check out Google’s guide to structured data and rich results here.

Social Tags

Having your content shared on social tells Google that people find your content relevant, helpful and reputable. Not every page on your site is share-worthy, but you can optimize the pages that are with these tips:

• Make sure you have Open Graph tags and Twitter Cards installed
• Make it easy with “tweet this quote” links, or social share buttons for each post

Core Web Vitals

User experience is key to a website’s long-term success. In spring 2020, Google unveiled Core Web Vitals, a common set of signals that they deem “critical” to all users’ web experiences.
The purpose of these signals is to quantify the user experience with a website, from page visual stability and load time, to interactive experiences.

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) – measures perceived page loading speed and marks the point at which the majority of the page content has downloaded.
• First Input Delay – quantifies user experience of a user’s initial engagement with a page.
• Cumulative Layout Shift – quantifies the amount of layout shift on visible page content and measures visual stability of a page. It’s usually causes by images without dimensions, dynamically injected content, web fonts causing FOIT/FOUT, and other embeds added without dimensions.

To check your LCP score, access your Google PageSpeed Insights and make sure your page hits LCP within 2.5 seconds. To accomplish this, remove unnecessary third-party scripts that may be running, upgrading your web host, activating “lazy loading” so page elements load only as users scroll down the page, and remove any large page elements that may be slowing it down.
One of the simplest ways to optimize cumulative layout shift is to add height and width dimensions to each new site element. Also, avoid adding new content above existing content on a page (unless responding to user interaction).

Page Experience

Google is working on a new ranking signal (likely to come out in 2024) that prioritizes websites with positive user experiences.
The ‘page experience signal’ will consist of Core Web Vitals, plus mobile-friendliness, safe-browsing, HTTPS security, and intrusive interstitial guidelines.
According to Google, “optimizing for these factors makes the web more delightful for users across all web browsers and surfaces, and helps sites evolve towards user expectations on mobile. We believe this will contribute to business success on the web as users grow more engaged and can transact with less friction.”

What is Off-Page SEO?

Off-page SEO focuses on increasing the authority of your domain through the act of getting links from other websites.
A good analogy for how authority works is this. If you have a bathtub with rubber duckies in it (the ducks are your pages), and you start filling the tub with water (links), your duckies are all going to rise to the top.
This is how a site like Wikipedia ranks for pretty much everything under the sun. It has so much water in its bathtub that if you throw another rubber duck in it, it’s going to float to the top without any other effort.
There’s a score called “Domain Authority” that calculates how authoritative your website is compared to other sites. You can type your domain name into here to see your score.

How to optimize for off-page SEO

There are several factors that influence your off-page SEO rankings. While each one is tackled with different strategies, they share an overarching goal of building the trust and reputation of your website from the outside.

1. Inbound links
2. Social media marketing
3. Guest blogging and guest posting
4. Unlinked brand mentions
5. Influencer marketing

The biggest off-page SEO factor is the number and quality of backlinks to your website. Some examples of ways you can build links to your website are:

• Creating awesome content that people want to link to because it is valuable. For example, this super helpful blog post about how to improve about us pages. The post provides a ton of actionable recommendations. People tend to link to content that is useful. Creating an online tool for your industry is another powerful content type. Things like online calculators tend to get the most backlinks out of all content types because they help people accomplish a goal.
• Social media shares of your content that ultimately generate links.
• Outreach e-mails to influencers in your industry that ultimately link to you.
• Guest blogging on sites related to yours. These guest posts will have links back to your site.

While link quantity is still important, content creators and SEO professionals are realizing that link quality is now more important than link quantity. As such, creating shareable content is the first step to earning valuable links and improving your off-page SEO.
How many links do you need for good off-page SEO? That is a tough question and it’s going to be based on the domain authority of your competitors, as you want to make sure you’re playing in the same sandbox.
SEOs also used to believe that buying links was a valid way of link building; however, Google will now penalize you for buying links in an attempt to manipulate page rank. You can also be penalized for submitting your links to link directories whose sole purpose is to increase your domain authority. Again, quality wins out over quantity when it comes to link building.

Is On-Page or Off-Page SEO More Important?

It’s not about choosing between on and off-page SEO, that would be like having to choose between a foundation or a roof for your house. On-page and off-page SEO work together to improve your search engine rankings in a complementary fashion.
However, SEOs generally advise getting your on-page SEO ducks in a row before focusing too much on off-page SEO.
Just like building a house, you want to set the foundation first before building the rest of the house. Like a foundation, you may need to come back and do some maintenance to your on-page SEO from time to time. Balancing the two will help make your website “bilingual” so that your users can understand it as well as the search engine robots- and that’s how your rankings start to improve.

SEO #onpageseo #Offpageseo #Corewebvitals

Hello, I'm a hobbyist programmer, amateur, not professional. I want to scrape a local page in my country. I've tried many variations and found that running the script in multithread, the best performance is with the same number of threads as the CPU, right? I need to configure a machine for scalable scraping, and my idea is:

• 8 servers with 4 CPUs and 250 Mbps and 16 failover IPs.
  
• One thread takes 1-3 seconds, each IP on each server using 12 seconds (I assume that 10 seconds is the minimum time to avoid a ban). I asked another friend in this group to confirm if my configuration is okay or if I should change the number of servers, CPUs, or my whole philosophy.
  

My goal is to build scrapers that work stably all the time.

Hello, I'm a hobbyist programmer, amateur, not professional. I want to scrape a local page in my country. I've tried many variations and found that running the script in multithread, the best performance is with the same number of threads as the CPU, right? I need to configure a machine for scalable scraping, and my idea is:

• 8 servers with 4 CPUs and 250 Mbps and 16 failover IPs.
  
• One thread takes 1-3 seconds, each IP on each server using 12 seconds (I assume that 10 seconds is the minimum time to avoid a ban). I asked another friend in this group to confirm if my configuration is okay or if I should change the number of servers, CPUs, or my whole philosophy.
  

My goal is to build scrapers that work stably all the time.

Hello, I'm a hobbyist programmer, amateur, not professional. I want to scrape a local page in my country. I've tried many variations and found that running the script in multithread, the best performance is with the same number of threads as the CPU, right? I need to configure a machine for scalable scraping, and my idea is:

• 8 servers with 4 CPUs and 250 Mbps and 16 failover IPs.
  
• One thread takes 1-3 seconds, each IP on each server using 12 seconds (I assume that 10 seconds is the minimum time to avoid a ban). I asked another friend in this group to confirm if my configuration is okay or if I should change the number of servers, CPUs, or my whole philosophy.
  

My goal is to build scrapers that work stably all the time.

I’m at a bit of an impasse right now. I want to pursue a graduate degree but I’m worried that I’m not of the caliber to be accepted into any program so I’d appreciate anyone’s advice on what I can do to try to realize this goal. I’ll try to be concise.
So I’m a recent graduate, receiving a B.S. in Chemistry with a concentration in Biochemistry. For many years I’ve known that I wanted to pursue a graduate degree in chemistry. I’m very passionate about chemistry, especially inorganic chemistry from group theory to bonding theories such as crystal field theory I can’t get enough of it.
As for why I yearn for a graduate degree, well I’m am very drawn to research and teaching which are both present in academia. I love the challenge of research and participated in research during my senior year where I started a project with one of my professors, while I am also drawn to teaching because I simply feel joy from helping others understand chemistry, especially when they’re students who feel that chemistry is too hard or “beyond them”. I’ve gone out of my way many times during my undergrad program to help classmates understand our material.
My academic record is mediocre/acceptable. My overall gpa was 3.11 and I’d say my major gpa was similar or slightly higher which I think is hurting my prospects. I faced financial strife on several occasions during my undergrad degree, the first time I had to withdraw while the second and third times I had to move mid-semester due to renters selling their property, but i still kept up with my studies (I’ve never failed a course). I also had to care for a terminally ill family member during my juniosenior years but never felt like I couldn’t keep up with the coursework though I do feel that I may have gotten higher marks if I hadn’t faced these issues.
Following graduation, I did try to apply for a few inorganic chem programs at some UC’s in California. I had no issue getting enough Letters of Recommendation from my professors and I did make mention of my research work, including what I presented at my university regarding it. However I was rejected by every program that I had applied for, though I was only able to apply for 3 due to the cost of application fees (I hadn’t found work at the time so money was limited). I have discussed this with my professoresearch advisor, who seemed surprised that I only received rejections. I suggested to him that maybe I pursue a MS instead first but he seemed to want to dissuade me from that, and suggest that it wasn’t necessary. I shared one of my personal statement drafts with him and am awaiting feedback on if it was perhaps poor.
Other than that I am aiming to apply to many more next time, including programs out of state, but I am beginning to doubt myself and question if I am meant for a graduate program. For those familiar with graduate level chemistry, is there anything I can do to strengthen my application in the future? Will having job experience in industry help me? I really do not want to give up but I feel that I’m just at a loss regarding what I can try to do.

I want to be hopeful and optimistic but the vast number of online disappointments make it difficult. Here are some things I don't want. Please don't contact me if you are not interested in reading the post. or do not want to talk long term and would be planning on ghosting me or disappearing within 1-2 days.
I am someone who is quite a sweet and effortful person. I would love an online connection with someone similar to me and have good, intellectual conversations and also share some laughter and affection. Affection can light us up and make us happy. (Even platonic connection is fine.) I like giving and receiving affection in the form of cute, little nicknames for each other, checking up on each other, asking about each other.
Of late, I have been watching a lot of couple pranks on YouTube. They teach me a lot about couple dynamics (what kind of dynamics are healthy and what are toxic). It would be nice to have someone to discuss these kinds of dynamics with. Sometimes I like those pranks where one pretends to be angry and the other kind of comforts them. It would be nice if we could enact that sometime.
I hope my words sail to some worthwhile eyes on the winds of destiny.
I have grown wary of superficial connections, no effort replies and even abrupt ghosts.
I would like someone with whom I can exchange sweet words with. I am quite a romantic person and I was more so as earlier. A lot of responsibilities were thrust upon me with time, but I have rediscovered that side of myself. I would love to have a pretend romance with an online companion - where we pretend like we are long lost soul mates and trade fiery words of sweet passion for each other.
But, that is completely optional. I am fine with a wholesome, platonic connection as well.
If you've reached this far, it's because of some happy confluence of my words, the Reddit algorithm and fickle fortune.
Our meeting seemed to dangle so much on fate, it's only fair we pay our dues. Give it our best shot. Do justice to the matchmakers of heaven - The directors of this romance.
I'm on the quest for a sweet companion. Someone with a good heart. Kind and empathetic - Like my own. The good person at the end of the romcom when the attractive antagonists lose their allure.
I love bonding with someone through heart to heart conversation. Through exchanging genuine care and concern. Through passionate exchange of our interests and hobbies. Through clockwork logging of our daily lives. Through mindful curiosity in each other's interests. Through mutual preference for glitter over gold, depth over deception, charm over carelessness and symphonies over superficiality.
The conversation starts out with pleasantaries and outward introduction of our demographic information - the most rudimentary. The most formal. Gradually, the outer layers crack and a mild joke cuts across the mask and we're another layer deep. Common or different tastes in art are the usual social custom for making new acquaintances.
Soon, our conversation flows like a roaring river eliciting deep intellectual and emotional responses from both of us.
We're discussing prized memories and cherished fantasies of the future. Chalking out hypotheticals and admiring the other's world views. Pretty soon, we're suddenly bare and feeling a strong bond by virtue of what we've shared.
Small silences punctuated the conversation. These silences were not awkward. It was a comforting waterfall of connection. It was the silence that followed from both of us knowing and enjoying the bond created by our hearts.
I loved the feeling of ending a conversation with a stranger on the first day with the feeling you've known them for years. I harboured romantic beliefs that such a connection must be the byproduct of a relationship in a previous life !
Here are a few things about me -

• I love staying at home.
• I do not drink or smoke and don't like going to noisy pubs. Although there are times when friends or office parties are conducted there, it's something I just tolerate.
• I love reading. I am interested in programming, Mathematics, Chess, Science, Psychology, Geopolitics, Space, Literature (fantasy particularly or late but I like all kinds) and Self Help (Productivity and Positive Psychology) - and a lot more ! I'm generally intellectually curious and a lifelong learner.
• I love following updates on things I'm passionate about and sharing them regularly. I love following podcasts and blogs and videos on them and sharing and discussing them. I also love explaining a new thing I have learnt as it helps me understand it better.
• I tend to be positive and look at the brighter side of life usually. But I also like sharing the problems I am going through and like listening to your's.
• I love animals. I have a lot of pets. I am also quite close to my family and am surrounded by my loving pets (5 dogs and 4 cats). I recovered from dengue last month and they were always around me all the time. It felt very good.
• I love putting in effort into messages and writing effortful messages and generally use complete words and not much abbreviations. I love crafting a symphony of text.
• I am usually quite calm and supportive and remember things that are told to me in conversation. I like getting emotional and expressive and am soft hearted and sensitive. I am also quite mature and enjoy talking to similarly mature people.

Do not reach out to me if you're just bored, did not read the post, don't like anything about me or my profile or don't know what you want or don't want to invest in having a good connection or don't even have the intention for talking for a few weeks. I am already quite hurt at repeated ghosting so please do not even reach out to me if you intend to ghost by tomorrow or next week.
Here's what I would like from us

• Genuine interest, care and empathy for each other - Making each other a priority though we are strangers at first. That's part of the excitement in jumping head first into this ! That does not mean we do not respect each other's busy schedules or commitments. I'm looking for something really genuine.
• Regular effortful messages, and remembering things the other says
• I love sharing or explaining anything new I learn, whether it is a blog post, podcast, video, book or a general thought that came through my mind. It would be great if you love listening to good explanations and are interested in such things. I'd also love it if you too like sharing blogs or podcasts on topics that you are interested in but it's not necessary.
• I also love self improvement and sharing progress or motivation as we are doing things towards our goals and dreams.
• I love voice calls as I love the sound of voice. I would love it if you are someone who is excited at having regular voice calls (2-3 times a week) or at least exchanging voice messages at times !
• We don't need to have similar taste in art (music, TV shows, movies). I am open to learning about new kinds of interests and new subcultures !
• Openly sharing our thoughts on the bigger ideas and arcs of life and also venting about the smaller frustrations
• Being excited at receiving messages from the other person every time we light each other's phones up.
• [Optional] Some online romance where we sometimes say things to each other that make us blush like our first crush. A little romance to brighten each other up. Though this is completely optional. Sometimes sharing sweet, romantic messages with each other and maybe even doing this on voice calls too.

Also would be nice if we can just share photos so we can visualise what we look like as I like sharing photos when I go somewhere. I just like getting this out of the way. It doesn't matter to me what you look like, but I do like to know whom I'm talking to make us blush like our first crush. A little romance to brighten each other up. Though this is completely optional. Sometimes sharing sweet, romantic messages with each other and maybe even doing this on voice calls too.
Also would be nice if we can just share photos so we can visualise what we look like as I like sharing photos when I go somewhere. I just like getting this out of the way. It doesn't matter to me what you look like, but I do like to know whom I'm talking to.

ive been interested in cinema since my childhood, so after my schooling, i decided to persue filmmaking and direction from AAFT noida. my parents are worried if theres any scope in that. if anyone of you can share your experience and struggle itll be helpful. should i persue it, if im deeply interested in it? just for context im a creative kid since my childhood, used to watch movies and curious in, how these movies are made?. My paents are getting too much negative info from diffrent people related directly and indirectly from acting and bollywood. also none of my relative has done something even related to filmmaking so its like a nightmare for them, that im gonna do it. My parents thinking is that youll have to struggle for years after graduation, and the bollywood industry is very toxic and un-suitable, and ill not get any placement after my under grad. my plan for future goes like " ill do my UG from AAFT noida india, after completeing my Bsc in school of cinema and direction, ill get placemenet some where which is temporary as my plan cause ive to arrange my tuition fees also, after doing work for 1-2 yrs ill, go to USA at USC cinematic arts. will do my post grad from there and my final goal will be working for MARVEL STUDIOS.

My baby's first few weeks have been difficult in terms of breastfeeding. He was immediately put on formula supplementation which I seriously regret due to overzealous nurses and bad advice. My self-esteem around breastfeeding, something I've always intended to do without question, was rocked. I have pretty sensitive nipples which blistered quickly after the introduction of a nipple shield. Meanwhile, he's a smaller guy (6 lb/1.8 kg) and at 14 days, he still hasn't really figured out how to open his mouth wide enough to latch.
We've tried multiple positions, the sandwich, we're off the shields thank goodness (I think they really taught him to go narrow), and have seen a lactation consultant. I've watched a million YouTube videos. We have a freezer full of donor milk.
The current situation is that I'm about 200mL shy of his daily consumption and am attempting to feed directly, usually failing, and then pumping while bottle feeding from the last pump mixed with donor supply. My nipples are SORE. My husband and mom who are here supporting me are at their wits end and I am crashing, developing an aversion not only to breastfeeding but to my son which scares the shit out of me. I don't want that. And I don't know what to do.
Last night for the first time ever he really truly latched. It felt different. He did it on both sides. He got a ton of milk really fast, it didn't hurt, I even felt some good hormones. But now the last 3 feeds have been back to our normal hell.
It's Sunday and tomorrow is a holiday so the lactation consultant won't come for several days. What do I do to get through these next few days? Do I pump and bottle feed, keep trying at the expense of my nipples and mental health, what? And is there any way to at least focus on increasing supply over these days, which somehow feels like a less frustrating goal than getting that golden latch I experienced last night? Please help, I'm postpartum and really struggling.

**Prompt 11:
Déjà-rêvé (French) - Dreams Intertwined with Reality**

1. Describe a moment when your character experienced déjà-rêvé, where dreams intertwined with reality, and explore the emotions and sensations that accompanied this surreal blending of realms.
   
2. Delve into the specifics of your character's dreams that often overlap with reality, considering whether certain themes, people, or scenarios consistently resurface.
   
3. How does the recurring déjà-rêvé experience impact your character's perception of both their dreams and waking life, blurring the boundaries between the two?
   
4. Explore whether your character actively seeks out or avoids situations that may trigger déjà-rêvé, and how these choices shape their relationship with the intertwined realms.
   
5. Reflect on the emotional resonance of déjà-rêvé, considering whether it adds an element of wonder and magic to your character's life or if it introduces a layer of complexity and uncertainty.
   
6. Can your character distinguish between a genuine memory and a dream that has come to life through déjà-rêvé, and how does this ambiguity influence their understanding of their own experiences?
   
7. How do others in your character's life react to or perceive these moments of déjà-rêvé, and does it impact their relationships or interactions with your character?
   
8. Explore whether there are specific triggers or patterns that precede déjà-rêvé experiences, and whether your character attempts to control or understand these occurrences.
   
9. Consider how cultural or societal beliefs influence your character's interpretation of déjà-rêvé, and whether they attribute spiritual or symbolic meanings to these intertwined dreams and reality.
   
10. Envision a key scene where déjà-rêvé becomes a central element, shaping your character's decisions, relationships, or contributing to a significant turning point in their narrative.
    

**Prompt 12
: Ephemeralité (French) - Embracing the Transient Beauty of Life**

1. Describe a moment in your character's life when they embraced ephemeralité, appreciating the transient beauty of life, and explore the emotions that accompanied this awareness of impermanence.
   
2. Delve into the specific experiences or phenomena that evoke ephemeralité for your character, considering whether it's tied to nature, relationships, or personal achievements.
   
3. How does the recognition of life's transient nature influence your character's mindset and decision-making, especially in moments of joy, sadness, or uncertainty?
   
4. Explore your character's relationship with time, considering whether they savor the present moment or if there's a constant awareness of the fleeting nature of life.
   
5. Reflect on how ephemeralité impacts your character's relationships, both in terms of appreciating the time spent with loved ones and navigating the complexities of impermanence.
   
6. Can your character find solace or inspiration in the fleeting beauty of life, turning ephemeralité into a source of resilience or motivation for living authentically?
   
7. Consider whether your character actively seeks out or avoids situations that intensify the awareness of life's impermanence, and how these choices shape their experiences.
   
8. Explore the contrast between ephemeralité and more enduring aspects of your character's life, such as long-term goals, aspirations, or their legacy.
   
9. Reflect on cultural or philosophical perspectives that may shape your character's understanding of ephemeralité, and whether they find comfort or conflict in these influences.
   
10. Envision a pivotal scene where ephemeralité becomes a central theme, influencing your character's decisions, relationships, or contributing to a significant turning point in their narrative.