[First] [Previous] [Next]
Spying on a college student wasn’t exactly riveting, mostly because it was so easy! Connecting to Tav’s computer had been a breeze, and taking over the microphone on her phone wasn’t exactly hard either. Blanco had a good look at the girl’s files, checking her old writings with little to no interest, and then reading through the notes she was taking on a ‘Translation effort’ with legitimate curiosity.

The creature was sitting in the air, slowly sliding from one side of his room to the other, lit only by the lights of the many screens on its walls… all while the grin on his face was only growing wider and wider with each new discovery. So a language, hmm? Wasn’t that the thing that G and Eighty Two had been rambling about for years now? Ohhh, he couldn’t wait to tell them… or, at least, tell G about it.

He had been paid quite the hefty sum to not tell 82 a thing of what they discovered, at least for now… the fight between those two had always struck Blanco as arbitrary and stupid, but alas! It wasn’t his business, really! In fact, that fight had brought much more business to him than anything!

The phone suddenly rings. Speak of the devil! A quick check on the caller ID showed Eighty Two’s private line.

With a broken glass grin covering his otherwise smooth face, Blanco took the phone.

“Bianccio Pizzería! Thickest pizza around! How can I help you?~” Oh how he relished pissing people off.

“Shut up.” A cold, feminine voice came from the other side. Eighty Two always sounded so annoyed… “I need a service. Payment will be in advance, as per our usual accord.”

“Ohhh straight to the point huh? I like it!”

“There’s a new user in Dejima 08. Perform the usual Safety Scan. They claim to have been invited by user ‘Canned Tea’, but we know he has lied about it before.”

“Ok, let me check!” Just to cover, Blanco tapped gibberish on his keyboard while softly going ‘beep boop’ as he worked. “... Alright! Got it!”

“That was fast.”

“Tav. Real name Santino Belnades. A Bastard Mage living in Saüle, Wohl.”

“Is he dangerous?”

“Actually she goes by she now!”

“Is she dangerous?” Mustafá grumbled, more annoyed than usual.

“Nah. Just a college student like many others. She’ll give up or die in a month tops.”

“...” Mustafá remained silent for a moment, ruminating. “So Canned Tea is just covering another random bastard…”

“Ahem. My pay?”

“Why is this kid like this? Can’t he realize that he’s getting them into far more trouble than it’s worth?”

“I thought you said nothing ever happens in that forum of yours. Isn’t that your main complaint?”

“That doesn’t mean nothing ‘can’ happen at any moment. If the Brotherhood finds out about this forum, they could seize all of us for questioning.” The alchemist let out a deep sigh.

“Yeah, real tragic. Pay me.”

“I wonder how this one got turned. Probably some mage’s irresponsible usage of spells…? No, Wohl has such a low magical population, and such a high conscription by the Brotherhood…”

Blanco let out the deepest of sighs, rubbing his smooth face with a hand while spinning slowly on his non-existent chair. This was exactly why he prefered working with G, that and the lack of emotions that witch had…

And people called him inhuman! Hah!

“Keep an eye on her. I will pay you right now.”

There was a loud ‘KA-CHING!’ sound coming from one of the computers in the room. Blanco sighed in relief.

“Thank you for your patronage! I will keep you updated.”

“Good.”

With that, the alchemist hung up. Blanco growled again. No one said ‘Good Bye’ these days now, did they!? Rude pricks. And bad news kept coming up! This ‘Canny’ guy was now telling her that he’ll teach her the glyph for digital security?

“Guess baby time is over.”

He’d have to work a little harder to stay hidden if Tav decided to install that on all of her devices. At least it would keep him entertained! Blanco decided to focus on preparing for when things would get more intense.

After all, he had some time. The kid was going to the library, right? There was only one book she wanted from there, and Blanco had read it several times over already.

Gato’s old scratchbook held no new knowledge for the vampire to be interested.


There is no such thing as an entire section dedicated to recipe books in Saüle University’s Library, but I manage to find that stuff in the ‘miscellany’ section. That’s where all the hobby and self-help material ends up, and even if it took me a moment to come to the conclusion, that’s where I went too.

It takes me even longer to look through every single tome I could in that section, but finally, after all my hard work… I think I have found it.

Canny was right, this is a cheap notebook. Soft covers, spiral-bound, both sides stamped with wizard hats, frogs, potion phials and many other pieces of typically ‘witchy’ imagery. Looking through the pages, it is just a bunch of cake and kuchen recipes, nothing to write home about. It is old, the pages are all yellowish and fragile, and there are stains everywhere.

Then, when I am sure no one is watching… I whispered the words.

“Jantar mantar…?”

It is instantaneous, as soon as I say the password the pages begin to change, words disappearas the ink that wrote them starts gathering in a single, dark blotch, and then begins rearranging again…

Something compels me to close the book, feeling a little embarrassed. For some reason I equated it to catching someone changing up clothes, how outrageous!

Finally, after waiting for a moment, I open it again.

The Bastard’s Guide to Magic
By Gato

Okay, that was certainly a title.

Now that I have it in my hands, I quickly close it again and add it to a pile of books I have picked up. Stuff on ancient symbology and old civilizations. With my loot in my arms, I quickly go over to the main desk and get it all sorted.

The second floor librarian smiles at me for a moment before scanning all the barcodes, giving me a week to return all the books, and then offering me a bag to carry them. I shake my head, setting it all in my backpack.

… Wow, it’s been a while since I've taken this old backpack out to Uni, huh?

“Feeling nostalgic?”

“For the times you were an actually useful member of society?”

Maybe a little bit, to be honest. I still remember when I used to come here with Patricio looking for academic books and I escaped the duties to look for something interesting to read…

“Back when you actually read as a hobby.”

Shut up, I’ve been reading more these days, I am returning to it.

Walking out of the Library, I once again avoid the gaze of any acquaintances and run straight for the streets to take another taxi back home. There aren’t that many people around today anyways, probably because of Winter Vacation.

Maybe I should send Patricio a message…

“Oh yeah? And what will you tell him? That you’re ditching formal studies for a fantasy? That magic is real and shit?”

I… thought of saying hi. That’s what friends do, right?

“When was the last time you spoke to a friend? Pepe? Vito? What about Venus?”

I flinch for a moment.

“We can fix that right now! Let’s go chat with Patricio when we get home!”

I… don’t think I will, no. The mere idea of getting in contact with him makes me a little sick from the nerves, especially considering I don’t really have an answer for what he told me before. I remain as undecided on the whole ‘career’ deal as I was that day.

With a hand I call for a passing taxi, and I have the luck of being acknowledged. You never know with the Taxists these days, it is very well known that they dislike the college students in this city.

Maybe he is hurting for money.

I sit down, tell the man where I need to go, and stop thinking about things for a moment as the car moves… only to feel my phone vibrating.

It vibrates more than once.

That means someone’s calling me.

I start sweating almost immediately, as I carefully pull the thing out. Two possibilities, it js either spam, or it is my parents.

It is my parents.

“Calm down.”

“How do you think they would feel if they knew how fucking distressed their presence make you? Do you think they would ask ‘whatever did we do wrong?’ or something like that?”

“Don’t listen. Just… remember that they’ve never meant anything bad, ok? They will accept you, regardless of your results in college.”

I gulp… and with a deep breath, I put on the mask. All trembling stops, just like that night at the planetarium… although it really pains me to compare mom and dad to the cloaks. With another deep breath, I pick up.

“Mom?”

“Ohhhhh hi there Santi! How are you today? I hope I didn’t catch you too busy!” Mom was as vital and energetic as ever. Despite her old age, she really always acts like a far younger woman. That’s admirable, at least to me.

“She will die eventually, too.”

Saints above, shut up.

“I’m fine mom! I was just returning from the library. We started vacation this week, so I was picking some stuff to read on my own.” Not technically a lie. “How are things over there in Sumpf?”

“Ohhh you know, there’s never much to tell around here. Your dad and Vito always at each other’s throats… I really hope they'll get along a bit better with time.”

“They wont. If anything, it will get worse.”

Vito will grow wiser and dad will grow older, I am sure things will get better.

“Hah, I guess some things never change… what about you? Feeling fine?”

“Oh you know me, I am fine! For now.” She laughed loudly. “And you, Santi? How do you feel?”

“Uh…”

Damn it. I hesitated. I need to give that a reason NOW.

“... Well I had a bit of a toothache before, but beyond that, all’s…” I sigh. “Okay, maybe not so good. Mom, I think I flunked my exams this time…”

“Oh my dear…” She sighed, before going back to her positive self. “Don’t torture yourself over it now. Wait for the actual grade to be announced, then torture yourself!”

“Moom!”

“I am just kidding sweetie.” She chuckled a bit. “It is fine, we all fail sometimes… really, it’s not the end of the world, I swear.”

“She’s trying to soften the blow from the fact that you’re a fucking failure.”

I shudder.

“You are doing your best, that’s all that matters.”

“Are you?”

“We are proud of you, Santi. Never forget that.” She said, probably smiling.

“They were proud. Now? They are just enduring you.”

My lips tremble, a sharp breath escapes me. No, please. I can’t cry in a damn taxi…

“...Mom.”

“Yes, dear?”

“... What if this career isn’t what I am meant to do?”

“We are not ‘meant’ to do things. The Saints put us here to try and improve ourselves, but there’s no one dictated path, dear.”

Sometimes I forget that mom is quite religious, it makes me smile a little bit.

“I know, I know. But that’s not what I meant…” I hesitate again, breathing in and out, trying to keep the panic attack at bay. “... Mom… what if this is not the career I am built for?”

“Well… you can always change, dear! It is no problem, don’t worry about the money. We can afford it, especially with your scholarship!”

I certainly lost that one with my disastrous performance here, but I don’t have the guts to tell Mom that.

“As if she didn’t know already. She’s not stupid.”

“... Thank you mom.”

“Any time, dear. If there’s ANYTHING at all that you feel like telling me, remember that I am always on your side, okay?”

“Yes mom.”

“Yeah yeah, ‘yes mom’, that means ‘shut up already, old lady’, right?” She giggled.

“Mooom!”

“Alright, alright… I hope you can come back soon, okay? We miss you.”

“I miss you too.”

“She doesn’t believe you. None of them do. They think you’re cold, distant and a failure on top of all that.”

“I love you mom.”

“Love you too, Santi.”

Click.

The taxi is not moving, it hasn’t been for a while now. The old man behind the steering wheel looks at me with concern.

“We’re here… kid. If something is wrong, you gotta tell your mom. Trust me… there are many things I wish I told mine before she passed.”

“You don’t know us. You have no idea about us. Stop talking so familiarly to us and go away.”

I flinch, pushing down that response and just sighing.

“I know… thank you.”

After paying the man, I walk out of the taxi and let it go, standing in front of my apartment complex for a moment.

I really don’t want to cry today.

But I already feel some tears going down my face.

Why am I like this?

Just started getting into pour over and ordered my first craft beans and have been reading about the resting period. Do you leave it sealed for around 10 days past the roasting day? Possibly more for lighter roasts? Any more tips?
Using a Kingridner k6, v60 switch, Stagg ekg

• Guatemala Ayarza Wine Series Natura
• Kenya Nyeri Thuti AA
• Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Adame Kebele Grade
• Colombia Huila Aguazul Pink Bourbon

Tips on improving Your mood in the end If You don’t feel to read all the other bs. Be free to scroll down and read the tips 1-4
So I used to be a full on extrovert I liked going to places and travel and be with other people.
Now I just dont care tbh. I have depression but I refuse to take medicine to it and I have mangaed to cope pretty well with natural things see the tips in the end.
Anyway My family was asking if we should Go to a lovely vacation to Italy - Me i’d rather be at home in my room or something? We bought a new summer house like 2 years ago and I have never been there beacause everytime they ask Me to come with them there I dont care to go. Why? I don’t even fully know myself…
Some days are better but not everyday… I can be mad or just empty on off. I’d like to cry but I just fully can’t… I have been struggling more or less with Depression from around 2017 I am not harmful or suicidal to myself in any way anymore. I love life but I just don’t understand the point off it.
I also had problems with My appetite maybe 4months ago and ate like 2 times a day on the worst days and even lost some weight .
Now I have managed to hold a normal eating rhythm and I eat about 4 - 5 times thru the day and even healthy gained some weight Im in a fully normal weight. The only problem is that I eat like only alone either way In my living room or my room. I have not dared to go out eating to a restaurant with friends… Why? Well I mean imagine how embarrassing it is if I’d go and eat to a restaurant and when the food comes My appetite would be gone …
I’m a “ If I can’t do it myself. I can’t do it at all” type off guy… But now I want to get back to fucking normal so tomorrow I took the first step and Im going to the psychiatrict doctor .
I have tried to cope wit my mental health alone for Years so here are Tips on improving You mood that helps Me . I mean it doesn’t mean that it will work for You but You can try…

1. Nature Walks in forest actually is scientifically proven to lower stress levels and help to cope with depression.
   
2. Ice bathing Feels like shit to do but for me My focus disappears from my negative thoughts and You have to focus to breathe normally which can also be calming.
   
3. Sauna Many proven health benefits it also lowers your stress levels.
   
4. Distractions whatever activity You like to do to get You to focus on something else…
   

• I know that we are both struggling but the biggest mistake we can do is to give up . We probably would like to try something new but all we see is every negative thing 10 miles down the street… I will tell You that fear has destroyed more people than failure ever will. Go ahead and try .

Good luck on getting better👋🏻❤️

Texas - About 14 months ago I hired an external new associate to work on my digital-oriented marketing team at a branch office of a major global company. Almost since day one she’s been a problem. Although her resume looks impressive, including an MBA and graduate-level analytics certification, she has struggled mightily with extremely basic Excel, PowerPoint, and even Outlook functionality. I’ve had to explain literally everything to her; not just how our company works and what we need to do on our team (of course I would expect to explain these things to an external hire) but literally why it’s important to take notes during a meeting, how to build a simple project tracker, how to work with partners (tell them the problem you’re trying to solve and ask them for solutions vs demanding the only solution you can think of). On top of the extreme hand-holding, she has a terrible attitude. She always denies any wrong doing or culpability when something is incomplete or inaccurate (which is a daily occurrence) and instead insists that I wasn’t clear or that what I’m asking for is so wildly different from how she’s always done things, she just expected I’d want it differently - basically always turning things back on me, my fault. Literally has never said “Sorry! I messed that up! My bad.” Last year things got even worse when she started being rude and oddly hostile towards other team members and partners. Not in-person or physically threatening, but like demeaning and disrespectful on the phone and over email. When I bring these things to her attention and coach toward better behavior she again denies any wrongdoing “Well, you didn’t hear how they were talking to me! I’m only being firm. They’re mistaking me for someone else” and deflects responsibility back to me “thank you for telling me your preferences for how I should be handling this project NOW, though I wish I’d known this months ago.” Very passive aggressive, very gaslighty. I went in depth into the behavior and performance issues during her yearly review and she didn’t pay any attention to the feedback on her work (her extreme inability to manage or accurately execute it, that is) but went over the top on her reaction to the behavior feedback. She cried, she wailed, she said I was questioning her very character (well, yes, maybe?) and implied I was out to get her. Ultimately she kept saying she hears the feedback but doesn’t believe it and doesn’t want to talk about it anymore, she wants to move forward…ugh. I should mention, I’ve been meeting with HR about her for over a year, and the advice all along has been to document, document, document, which I’ve been trying to do, and I’ve been sending to HR, but so far it hasn’t resulted in anything and it’s extremely taxing to no only deal with this employee daily, do my own work, compensate for her lack of contribution, manage the rest of my team, AND have the energy and time to detail out everything she’s doing that’s terrible (it’s literally 1-3 things daily). HR is saying we’re on our way to a PIP but like, can’t we just fire this girl? HR is obviously super hesitant to do anything and prefers for there not to be an issue (which, same.) but I need HR’s help, I need relief. I’ve emphasized to HR numerous times, I’d rather have nobody than this body, it shouldn’t be a budget issue. I think HR is more worried about litigation if we let her go. They don’t want to transfer her to another department because they “don’t want to pass on a problem”. I agree with this perspective, but I’m the one baring this burden with no end in site. The behavior angle (the being demeaning, disrespectful) looked promising for a separation case, but her behavior toward partners has adjusted since the worst of it in response to my persistent coaching (in her mind; since YOU seem to think I have a problem with respecting people I’m only being suuuuper glossy nice to everyone now- which is true, she’s transitioned to an almost performative level of smarmy sarcastic gloss; “Thank you sooooo much! I hope you all have absolutely incredible evenings! This call has been so wonderful!”) and so now it’s looking like the only angle is a professional “not meeting work expectations” angle, which is much harder to prove. I’ve been documenting every time I provide direction and she’s just unable to handle the thing, but she always counters with “you weren’t clear in your request” or in cases where there’s no room for ambiguity, she’ll technically complete the work, but it’ll be worse than grade level quality and then she’ll claim I wasn’t clear on how deep or whatever she needed to go. Her: “I created an outline like you asked, if you don’t feel like it makes sense and is incomplete then that’s your interpretation, but I think it’s good and I don’t know why you’re always picking on me like this…” Infuriating. What should I do? It’s a true burden that’s been weighing on me for over a year and there’s no end in sight. I’ve spent hours and hours trying to coach and reason with her and she just gaslights our conversations in circles. I should mention she reported me to HR about 2 months ago and her accusations about me meant that HR had to do a full investigation into me. The claims she made ended up being found unsubstantiated, but it cost me a lot of energy and I was stressed about it for weeks. I do get frustrated with her and sometimes get snippy in my voice because I’m taxed. My manager is 100% in the same page as me, but there’s just little in our power we can do. What do I do?? My dream is for her to leave the company on her own, but since she’s still here after a year of terrible feedback, I think she’s immune to self-awareness.

So here’s my grades for grade 11
Functions - 82 Comp sci - 96 Foods - 88 Accounting - 84 English - 80 Chem - 95 Physics - idk I’ll be doing it next year
I am currently doing advanced functions and I have a good mark.
What do I do next year? I am thinking of doing chem ovs, physics grade 11 and food and nutrition first semester to “guarantee” me a high mark by midterms, and English, physics and calc sem 2. Should I do that? I wanna do Mac Eng also.
Also, should I do English sem 1 due to my mark or is it fine if I keep it sem 2

unless you are a hyper god at sniper or never played sniper, you have no idea how heavily soldier counters sniper, im pretty sure soldiers killed me the most togethere with jetpack pyros whenever i play sniper, even worse if the soldier has any unusual, you can kiss goodbye to having a any fun as sniper, cuz lawd, they will shoot rockets at you first, and when you try to snipe them in that phase, you are eighter desperate or underestimate how annoying rockets, and especially crockets are(i personally enjoy random crits almost every time except when it comes to crockets, because the blast damage is extremly, extremly forgiving, so if there is a rocket comming at you while you are zoomed in and with a wall behind you, you might as well stand still and accept your fate because you cant dodge it if you were scoped in even for a second unless the rocket came from really really far away, like blue spawn to point 1 in Mountain lab, you could probably still dodge that)
TL;DR: whenever someone talks about how sniper is op, i have to restrain myself from saying that soldier is op because i know nobody would understand
TL;DRv2: i hate rocket splash damage, demoman greandes are on tho cuz they actually had to calculate the arch to shoot one to you, so i dont complain about them unless they sticky spam with a pocket medic
TL;DR-the-trilogy: fuck the default rocket launcher
also 99.9% of snipers cannot quickscope more than 2 people under 10 seconds unless they are having a really good day, whenever a sniper sucks or doesnt have top-level preformace you simply dont notice that there was one on the other team, or your team, making you notice exclusively good snipers, unlike with the rest of the classes, where ya dont get micro-depressions of being totaly useless, every other class (except spy because lads eighter dont know how disguises work or try to get exclusively montage-level plays) can still assist the team as long as they know how to shoot and move decently, if ya have a bad game as sniper, all you can do is throw jarate to feel remotely usefull, atleast ya get thanked by medics and engies and sometimes other lads when ya extinguish them
frustration rant over turn me into an example of seething/coping/skill issue and/or make memes about this rant or something
tired sniper main signing off

Alright before you send me to the freedom camp hear me out.
TLDR: I want eagle-1 to have hell bomb in a rocket to use against an undemocratic amount of bile titans and factory striders and this should be balanced by making me use my stockpiled requisition slips/medals.
Obviously all the current stratagems should stay as permanent unlocks but I think if the devs should consider adding stratagems that are over powered but are either subscription based in the game with requisition slips, samples and maybe even medals or can be a limited number of times until they have to be bought again. There are 4 reasons for this.
First and least is that it makes sense with the lore of super earth. Super Earth is a corporatist hell hole where you have to pay for a license to receive donations for ammo (Donation Access License ship module). A one time purchase? Where's the profit in that? It would make total sense that the super powerful weapons would be "pay walled" (in the game lore, NOT real money/super credits) with a subscription.
Second is that this would offer a balanced way to let us use "overpowered" stratagems. Big stratagems are fun to use. I love throwing a 500 kg or a 380 mm barrage. Some of the most fun in the game is when I'm being chased by a horde with 3 heavies and 2 super heavies and liberty be blessed there's an undetonated hell bomb just where I need it. 30 kill streak instantly its fantastic. Just let me call an orbital gattling barrage with 380 mm shells.
Third is to have a constant use for requisition slips, medals and samples. Once you get everything the only thing left to do is wait for new stuff and warbonds. I know they're trying to do 1 a month but thats a lot of time to wait to spend your cash. I think it would help with the game's longevity.
Fourth and most important it would give opportunities to make the game harder while still being balanced. With a cracked team helldives can be trivial. I run hell dives almost exclusively and tend to play with randoms because I like to listen to videos when I play. Definitely a non-ideal way to play but its rare that I don't complete the objective. Extracting is another matter but I can reliably do that too if my team isn't too bad. Consequently I don't have all the ship modules unlocked but its given me a consistent goal (see point 3). If I happen to find a lobby where everyone (but me) is above level 100 the run is a breeze. The point is that hell dives are starting to get too easy, and as the player base gets better and better stratagems and weapons are released this will only get worse. With over powered stratagems the devs could make missions way harder but still provide us the tools to carry them out.
A couple points on how I think this should be implemented.

• First and foremost absolutely NO super credits required for this. Don't make helldivers pay to win in real life
• The subscription based strategems should be oribtals, eagles or sentries. They shouldn't be secondary weapons because this could encourage team kill/toxic behavior.
• They shouldn't be passive benefits because this can mess with muscle memory/play styles. i.e. no cool down decreases for 30 seconds EATs or super long stamina.

Alright, off to be executed for making an unauthorized suggestion to my superiors.

📜 Experience the Political Machinations of a Kingdom ruled by a lich in this dark fantasy setting of Dead Gods and a Shattered Sun.
3/5 Seats are Filled and we're starting this Saturday!!!

Overview

The Arisen is a Political Intrigue campaign based around a country ruled by the Lich Queen Estelle. It is heavily inspired by gothic horror genre's, as well as taking influence from sources such as darkest dungeon, dark souls, and bloodborne. Explore a unique political landscape of a country of undead and demons, bordered by a Divine Land and in the sights of the Avexin Empire ruled by The Blood and allies of devils.

The Dead Rise

You are an adventurer of some renown is respected or feared by the select few who’s lives you have directly impacted, and you are dead.
You remember little of your death, perhaps fleeting memories, sensations, and flashing images. You might even remember the events or days leading up to your death clearly. However, the details of your untimely demise are shrouded in mystery.
As you list aimlessly in whatever afterlife you have found yourself in a voice echoes around you. A tether wraps around your neck as your spirit begins to burn. “...come forth lost souls and join me….Aslendus I call upon you...come forth and become Arisen!” Bits and pieces of a chant fill your ears as you can feel the weight of mortal flesh settle upon you once more and, finally, your eyes open once more!

Who are you?

You are five 1st-level adventurers. You met an untimely end, but now have been resurrected by the powers of Estelle Ofros, the Lich Queen. However, the power and abilities you once held seem to be weakened. You find yourself in The Lichdom of Ofros bound to the queen by the Hand of Estelle. How your body got here, the circumstances of your death, and the intricacies of your newfound life are few among the mysteries you must discover answers for.
Even with the cloud of your death filling your mind, what matters most is Estelle’s motives. War is brewing at her borders. Her people are restless, and some of her subjects plot against her. Political intrigue can be found everywhere as the Divine Land of Astrana musters forces and intel on the Lichdom, all while the Avexin Empire, land ruled by devils and The Blood, sit quietly behind the scenes plotting their machinations.
You now find yourself bound to this ancient Queen, rumored to be one of the most powerful liches, second only to The Ruler of Death himself. She who sacrificed her entire country to ascend, turning them into Undead and Demons to save them from the end of an era, from The Black Month.
How will you navigate the political landscape of this odd country ruled by the dead, for the dead? Will you seek to free yourself from the Queen, or help your newfound

Handout

House Rules

You can find more detailed info on the World Lore Here:

💥 Expectations

• Free Session 0 & first session to see how we all vibe.
• We will be starting the game once we get 3 players with the hopes of eventually having 5 players.
• 3 to 4 hour sessions.
• Session every week
• Custom Website for Setting & Campaign Lore.
• All source material is accessible in Foundry VTT.
• Constant Access to Foundry Server through Forge.com hosting.
• Fully integrated and animated Foundry VTT.
• Custom Discord Server for the campaign.
• Custom character backstories and arcs.
• Homebrew rules and custom Bloodlines System. Character creation is performed on FoundryVTT. All races and classes in dnd5e are allowed. As well as a few homebrew options including custom races or Laserllama's alternate classes.

I have multiple resources to help with character creation and I like to be involved if you want. We use Discord for voice chat. Foundry VTT handles the character sheet, items, and rolls.
Backstories are created together to immerse your character. First, you will write something original and creative then I will provide ideas and supplements until the backstory truly comes alive. each player will also write 4 rumors about their character that may be true, false, or partially true. These rumors will be distributed to the other players.
Once the seats are filled, we will run Session 0 and schedule Session 1. Session 0 is a group activity to learn Foundry VTT and to get to know each other. Session 0 is free!
🔎 Want to Join? Please message me with the following... Name or Nickname: Pronouns: Age: Discord: What interested you: How much TTRPG experience do you have: Anything I should know: Questions for me:

I am 42, turning 43 in December .
I had a stroke in August 2022.
I had to relearn how to walk, which was successful.
My vision took a big hit; I have a left field deficit that likely is not coming back. I see double. My ability to read has been severely affected.
My left arm is affected, and is now probably not going to be of much use beyond semi useful decoration.
My left hand is likely and probably going to remain non-functional.
Cognitively, I am pretty much normal. I have noticed myself having"Senior moments", and my "trivia memory"has taken a strike. For example, it takes me a struggle to remember the name of particular actors. I can tell you there IMDb information, but I'll have to be patient on recalling their actual name. For those needing clarification on "senior moments", imagine walking into a room and wondering why you walk in there. Or having to more heavily rely on Google calendar and your phone's alarm clock system to keep track of appointments. Basically, my working memory has taken a strike, so I need to rely on crutches such as these.
So why am I coming here today?
I do not know what to do with myself. Obviously, I am prone to depression from these events and consequences. I feel I have become much smaller.
I have not worked since my stroke. I would like to return to work as I am able to, likely meeting assistive technologies.
In case you are wondering, I am using speech to text to dictate this post. You shall have to excuse mistakes.
I feel like I have no direction, and with that no movement - - or at least no movement of meaning or usefulness to speak of.
In before folks start talking about going to therapy, I have been going through Kaiser for medical. The Kaiser psych department has basically sequestered me to some low tier level of"therapies"which are regulated to blocks of eight sessions max, with referrals to PowerPoint based group sessions involving DBT. While that is all well and good, there's really not much that can offer in terms of addressing specific issues that I won't get into here.
There was a program offered by the state for people who had suffered TBI, and I had attended for several months. However, I have stopped attending, because they offer services geared towards folks with a deficit in cognition. It took a while for them to understand that I knew what people meant when they said the word "spaghetti". Their activities were tantamount to various flavors of vocabulary lessons floating between SAT vocabulary prep and crossword puzzles. Please define these words you have never heard of in your life. Lack of knowledge of words you have never heard of in your life is evidence that you are cognitively impaired excuse me? Explain that one to me. I digress.
As one point of reference, somewhere along the line of trying to gear their offerings more towards what I might find useful I was asked to explain what the phrase "every cloud has a silver lining"meant; fair enough, but they're just seems to be a disconnect between help on offer and help needed.
I came here seeking advice and the experience of others who have gone through similar.
Even if you were fortunate to have your stroke and return straight back into work, I would like to hear your story.
I would also like to hear your story of how you were struck down and were able to rebuild yourself, your life, your world after your apocalypse.
I know that I can do this.
I have no map.
My compass seems to be pointing towards magnetic purple.
I need a clue.
I am looking for reorientation.
Paint me a picture, please.
Crayons might be required, but the crayons do not need to be flavored.
P. S.
I am making efforts to be social out in the real world. I am fortunate enough to be able to get myself to activities, and interact with other people in real life.
However, I do tend to be a homebody.
I am opened to questions.
Thank you in advance.

A lot of people have been asking how to earn money in college and I have done it already. I am in my final semester ( just 3 exams left now). I started freelancing in first year during covid so the circumstances were a bit different.
I will just mention what I did. It is strictly what worked for me(might not for you). This is just for helping juniors and I am not getting anything out of this.
Step 1 : Decided what I liked.
I liked teaching so started providing free classes and got reviews from students.
Step 2 : Promotion
I posted all those on Linkedin and increased my connections on Linkedin.
Step 3: Handling clients
I had to take students at low price because I was still a student myself I upskilled myself in my field and got more certifications which impressed seniors in my field
Step 4 : Dedication
You have to be dedicated in what you are doing. I sometimes spent hours on planning what I would be teaching next and preparing lessons. Sometimes I had difficult students but had to deal with them
Step 5 : Sacrifice
Once I grew my clientele I had to work extra hours which meant missing college events, reducing hangouts etc. If you can manage it it’s great
Starting would be difficult. I found my first ‘free’ student after trying for 6 months so wait and keep working on it. People might consider you ‘young’ and not trust you it’s your job to provide them what they want and prove yourself even if it means working extra. I am not promoting hustle culture this is just what I did.
You might not find something you like immediately I did video editing,content writing and menial jobs for entrepreneurs etc. I liked teaching the most and continued with it.
You have to build up skills and just wait till you get your first break.
Your friends might try to demotivate you or make fun of you because you are doing something a lot of them are not doing.
A person who is dedicated and continues doing things he likes consistently can only freelance in college.

If you're curious about my thoughts on previous Yakuza games, here are my much shorter (except for 4, thats pretty long too) reviews for Kiwami 1, Kiwami 2, Yakuza 3 (Remastered), and Yakuza 4 (Remastered).
This is a Part 2 to my Mega big Yakuza 5 review. In the first part I covered the plot and it was absurdly long because I am psychotic. If you want to read that you can read it here: https://www.reddit.com/yakuzagames/comments/1cvry2x/yakuza_5_a_mega_big_ole_reviewsummary_for_a_big/
Combat and Gameplay: I generally felt Y5 was a bit of a step down in gameplay compared to Y4 sometimes. I think Saejima was way more bearable to use in Y5 but I generally found the combat to just be less? fun? it felt a little bland. Kiryu felt much slower for some reason. Akiyama still felt great to use and at times a little better. Shinada's combat style was not my cup of tea. I can respect a characters combat relying on weapons but his felt repetitve and honestly the weapon to bare handed combat for him didn't feel good either way. Haruka's was great though obviously. I never felt such joy or excitement then when I first started the dancing gameplay in Y5.
The upgrade system was lame I did not enjoy it, I ended up just keeping on auto upgrade so I didnt have to bother. It felt like a downgrade back to Y3.
This game was mostly really easy, granted I do play on easy because I happen to be a shame to the video game community, but I very nearly turned it to normal many times. Haruka's dance stuff was so fun I actually did try it on every difficulty mode, hard mode was so fun!
As sure as random combat encounters are in the streets of Yakuza, my complaining about these encounters after every review is just as, if not more expected. Yeah obviously the mugging in this game was excessive for me. I went everywhere by taxi just to avoid getting attacked a billion times on one street. And it is kind of at it's worst in this game not just because of how often you're getting attacked but also because of the battle fields. At first I was pretty excited because the space you can fight was so large I incorrectly assumed you could just leave the fight, wrong. While a bigger battle space sounds better on paper, it's actually a horrible idea. I cant tell you how many times I would have finished fighting three of the goons but the fight wouldnt finish because there was two more hiding AROUND THE DAMN BLOCK. It was so irritating. They did take a step in the right direction by letting Kiryu have a ward off bracelet that kept the attacks mostly at bay, it was so nice I wish other games did that in case you want to just walk around for a change or better yet the rest of this one! Because as far as I could tell none of the others had similar items, and the mugging was at it's worse with Saejima in his city enviroment. It HAD to be bugged with the amount of times i'd get attacked in that area, I probably fought more people there in the brief stint I was there compared to all of Shinada's area. So basically yeah I hate the random fight encounters and it is always one of my main complaints with these games.
I liked the tower sweeps in this game, but the one you do as Kiryu near the end of his section had a horrible situation that I have to complain about, mostly because i'm an idiot. There's an area midway through the sweep where the doorway is lit on fire. Me being the genius I am, I grab the fire extinguisher, point it at the fire, and simply throw the whole thing into the flames. Cue the next 20 mintues being me panic running and collapsing into the fire trying to get the extinguisher :(.
Side Stories
Yeah so this game on top of its massive plot and its many new areas, also added on entire side stories for each character! I'll go through and talk about my experience with each one.
Kiryu: The Taxi Driver
Oh My God. This did NOT have to be as fun as it was. I was amazed that Kiryu even knew how to drive let alone was this good of a driver. So there are three types of missions you can get with this, Racing, Taxi driving where you drive, and taxi driving where you talk. I did literally every possible thing you could in this side story. The racing is a ton of fun, there is a bit of a plot to it that basically consists of batting a rival gang of street racers and leads into your taxi boss's trauma and whatever, I didn't really care for the plot but all the gameplay was stellar. I found the missions with just the conversations to be a bit boring, but my favorite was actually doing my job and driving people to their destinations. What a blast.
Saejima: The Hunter
Okay now I can talk about the bear plot. Saejima's side story is massive and I did love it. I wont go through and summarize the whole thing but Saejima basically stays in the village with the old man who saved him from that big bear he beat up and dedicates himself to finding the bear and hunting it to help the old man and the village. There's lots of ups and downs and twists and turns and I really enjoyed it! I liked the twist that the old man was an escaped convict/former hitman as well.
As for how the gameplay of this sidestory works, basically you go to the mountain and do hunting. You lay traps, shoot animals, etc. As you work through the plot you have more acess to higher parts of the mountain. I can definitely see this gameplay not being it for some people, but I actually really enjoyed it! I do have some complaints tho, I really wish you didn't have to start all the way at the bottom of the mountain everytime, or ESPECIALLY have to walk all the way back down when you're ready to leave. I had hoped those shacks you built would serve as fast travel spots but nope. Also the gameplay is a bit clunky here, I love clunkiness so it isn't a big deal but the male deer charging at me no matter what everytime got hella irritating. Also I was stupid during one of the evil bear encounters and when I was supposed to run I stayed and thought I was supposed to fight him and I sat there fighting for my life for literally thirty minutes before I was like "hmmm whats taking so long?" Anyways I did like it and did literally every mission I could except one lousy mushroom quest because I rage quit it.
Haruka: She's an idol or whatever
Yeah this is the best one. There's not much of a seperate plot here as it basically directly ties into her main plot but it mostly consists of her doing idol activities in preperation for each level of the Princess League competition and eventually her debut.
There are lots of different types of games here. There are actual performances which duh they're amazing. There's dance battles or solo battles where you basically do a dance battle...alone? those are also always fun. There are handshake events which took awhile for me to get the hang of, I think they needed way better directions to be honest but once I figured it out it was alot of fun. There are interviews, these are fine except I hate that they make me answer under a time limit STRESS. There's TV appearances, these range from going on a comedian interview show where you have to answer questions then do quick time events, to running ?, to doing various yakuza mini games like pool or air hockey and more. The running show was so weird, the producer was always like creepy as hell and I really dont get what the point of that show was. The minigame shows varied on fun depending on if I liked the minigame.
Now dear reader, I know what you've been wondering this whole time, youve been BEGGING to hear. What is Alex's Haruka song ranking? Im so glad you asked.
So not including the dance battle songs cuz duh she doenst even sing them but I do like "Like a Arabesque" the most out of those.

1. So Much More: Like obviously right? This is the greatest song of all time! I should be studied next to Bohemian Rhapsody, Nessun Dorma, and Moonlight Sonata.
2. Dream: Technically a dreamline song but who cares. This shit made me CRY. The lyrics are ssoooooooooooo goddamn.
3. Because I Have You: This might be a hot take because I do think's it's less well made then Lonliness Loop, but I still would just rather listen to this. It's a jam, SUE ME.
4. Lonliness Loop: Honestly not a bad song either, I just find it to be thematically the weakest as well as feeling a little awkward execution wise. Still a jam tho!

What are YOUR song rankings?
I also like that the songs some what reflect Haruka's state of mind at the time of her performing them. At the time of So Much More she is just really excited for her career and incredibly optimistic. Then during Lonliness Loop she's generally dealing with the heaviness of her career and isolation of it and if I remember correctly, Park had just died when she went on to perform it. Then Because I Have You is building up to the eventual decision Haruka will end up making at the end, she's realizing how much she misses her family but her dream is still ahead of her, just super duper close. Lastly Dream, the tear jerker, and tragically not on the OST, is about Haruka's dream finally cultivating. She is in this moment achieving her dream, but she's thinking of her family and is grateful to them for supporting her this way. THIS SONG IS FOR KIRYU. Like bro, amazing.
Shinada: Baseball
Anyways lets talk about baseball. I didn't love it. At first I kind of did because I was like omg thank god baseball is way easier in this game if I'm going to be expected to do it way more often. But omg bro its TOO easy. It's just boring man. There's no room for anything interesting or diverging about it. Kiryu's could be pretty repetitive as it's just driving but they offer three different types of driving games within it, Shinada's is just a bunch of the same hitting the baseball game. Granted I liked the little story with him helping the little boy be a good pitcher. I found the main story within it really boring? I struggled to pay attention but the ending to it was cute. Yeah I guess I just dont have as much to say with this side story. I did most of it too, I think I missed one baseball mission? I did enjoy the coach missions that he sends you on for training. Well most of them...THAT UFO ONE WAS EVIL. I've never seen a machine make you get a stick in a tiny hole (thats what she sai-) before as the goal to get your prize like WHAT?
Side stories final thoughts: And thats the side stories! They were alot of fun (mostly) I wish Akiyama got a side story :(. I can't think of what they'd give him to do but I would take literally anything. Any potential side story ideas for him?
Substories
My god I did like 95% of the substories. I did SO many.
Kiryu had a really good lineup of substories. My favorite was EASILY "From a far-off land" I cried so hard doing it bro. Basically Kiryu thinks of his kids during Christmas time and he sends money to each of them so they can get what they want for Christmas. Thing is he thought alot about each of them, it wasnt him just throwing twenty bucks per kid at them through the ATM, no, he sat there and was like "Well Shiro would really like this book, I think it costs about this much so I'll send around this much to cover it" But he does it with ALL OF THEM and its so stinkin cute I disintigrated. My second favorite goes to "The other Haruka" as you can imagine anything reminding me of the kids will be my favorite. This one is good for obvious reasons. As for a weaker substory, I really didnt care for "A knock on the door" Honorable mention to the series of substories with Yuya in them! This game was tragically the only one that didn't have Kazuki in it at all.
Saejima's were the weakest and here's why. Because you only get one chapter in his city area, all of them are incredibly fast. One of them is literally just briefly talking to a guy like ???. He does also have several substories on the mountain but they're more related to his side story so I dont really count them. Anyways, my favorite of his was easily "The Little Match Girl" I CRIED, listen im a sucker for the little match girl story and this was just really adorable. I also loved the substory where he dressed as Santa and had to escape a bunch of kids. His worst is probably that one where he just talks to that guy.
Haruka wise, I liked any of her substories where she hung out with Akari, but my favorite overall was probably the one where she does the Okinawa magazine interview it was so cute and it made me wanna cri. Least favorite wise, I hated "starbound" it just felt meanspirited. Haha she's fat, grow up.
Akiyama had alot of fun ones. The best probably being either of the two where he DOES A DANCE BATTLE. It was fucking amazing. I also really enjoyed the "Quirky Idol" substory. I did not like "giving up on a dream" Akiyama was once again being mega weird and creepy, I hated that.
Shinada is much better in his substories then he is normally. My favorite's were "Daddy Papa" and "The Scoop Photo", that guy had crazy hair. I did not like the store clerk one because I am incapable of math.
And thats the substories! There's also the Tatsuya quests. Although I like Tatsuya and I made sure to do all of them, I don't think this was well executed. They dont feel very rewarding and taking Tatsuya to the resturaunts is really awkward, I wish they added like mini cutscenes of dialogue where each person got to know Tatsuya with every resturaunt encounter or something. But it wasn't that bad I hope I see him again.
As for the revelations, I am a huge fan of revelations in the Yakuza games. They cut back on them alot in this one sadly but at least we still got some. Also I know there were weapon revelations but I somehow found none of them so Im going to just talk about the normal ones. Well, more like rank them.
Saejima: This was funny in a looney tunes way, I loved it.
Haruka: Okay I hated the substory starbound but this was so stupid I couldn't help but lose it while watching.
Shinada: This was just really cool.
Akiyama: I can respect that performance
Kiryu: Althought I like the guy and respect the situation, the revelation in itself wasn't super memorable.
There you have it!
Lastly, the settings.
Yakuza 5 is wild because every character (except Akiyama) got their own unique area in the game, plus there is also Kamurocho. Saejima actually got TWO if not three if you count the prison. I found Kiryu's to be really lovely, it's probably my favorite honestly, at least out of the new ones. I felt like I really got a good feel of the place and it had such a relaxing atmosphere. Because of the slow nature of this part of the game, it really had time to develop a unique identity especially because Kiryu was so familiar with the locals. The mountain was a better setting for Saejima, I wish they just expanded the mountain rather then have him go to the city. Saejima's city, While I thought this area was my favorite beauty wise. we aren't there long enough and it feels to restrictive on where we can go. Satenbori felt like coming home and it was SO lovely and nice just like I remembered, no notes. Shinada's lacked alot of character. I actually thought it was Kamurocho for way too long because it looks so similar to it. Granted I get Japan can't look too different from well, Japan, it just struggled to stick out in my mind. It's unique feature was the large park area and that was pretty cool but I like never went over there. Lastly, Karmurocho is as lovely as ever, im amazed they still let me go underground even though we barely spend any time in the city, like there was no need for them to let me but they did and I appreciate it. Goodbye intricate rooftop access though, you will be missed. The Kamurocho hills additon made the whole place feel quite unfamiliar honestly. It was a strange feeling walking around it but I still thought it was pretty cool!
Did anyone have a favorite city we visited?
And that concludes my Yakuza 5 ramblings about everything other then the plot. If you read this AND part 1, thank you so much from the bottom of my heart. Im excited to discuss this game with people because I loved it alot! Feel free to comment on either post if you want to, otherwise I'll finally shut up.
8/10

Hello, I'm 14 years old and I've been suffering from death anxiety since 2023.(While I'm writing this I'm scared that I'm manifesting my death) Whenever I think about death and leaving my loved ones I feel my heart fell in stomach. I hate hearing about death or that someone died whenever I'm watching a film or simply watching any video online. Whenever someone dies I think "what if that's a sign and it means I'll die soon" I keep thinking that I'll die on August 22 I'm really afraid of the summer holiday coming. I tried stop worrying but I can't. I keep thinking what If my thoughts are real and something inside me is telling me the truth. Whenever I hear these words (Future, next year, summer, July, August, 10th grade, 2025) Everything related to future, I feel short-term colic in my stomach and then something immediately inside me tells me "you'll die this year". I don't want to listen to that and I always try to stop thinking about it, but it always comes in my mind. It's the first thing I think about it when I wake up and before I sleep. Sometimes I'm afraid to sleep so I don't die. I think "what if this is my last year of school and this is the last time I study this subject and I'll not see my teachers and friends again" and same goes to my parents, they love me and so do I, I'm afraid of leaving them. When someone dies I think " what if that's a sign for me and that I'll die". The thoughts that come are involuntarily, I can't control them and at the same time I don't want to think of them. I feel that my brain is like filling in the blank by itself, like when I hear the word death something say you'll die, I can't control and I don't want to hear it, I try to ignore it but i keep remembering. That sounds crazy I know,but I'm not crazy . That's the only problem ruining my life. Also Whenever I get sick or something hurt me, I think that because I'll die and these are symptoms of death. I know that angel numbers are fake, but I always see the number 11 or 111. I searched about it's meaning, it said that that "you're on the right path, listen to your gut and your inner voice, your thoughts are true and intuition is true". After reading that, I got totally terrified. Does that mean my fear of death is intuition and number 11 is a sign that confirmed that? Like once I saw a reel about how the cell of a organism looks when he die, and all the comments were written before 11 hours. I felt scared and thought it's a sign. I'm really afraid of the summer holiday especially August 22 and that I'll die, I don't want to die. I just want to forget and stop overthinking,
Whenever I'm having fun with friends suddenly something says "you'll die, and this is the last time you'll be happy" IT'S TERRIFYING.I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT
The last thing I want to ask that: Is my fear of death and thinking I'll die in summer holiday or August 22 is intuition and number 11 is a sign, or are these thoughts that my brain remember whenever I see or hear anything related to future and these are just whispers from my subconscious mind because it kept the information that leads to my fear of death?

Let’s use vestigial structures as a specific example of the non-falsifiability of evolution. When it became clear, based on advancing medical science, that the roughly 180 anatomical structures that evolutionists had originally claimed were useless actually were useful, they resorted to a fall-back position, which is a classic post-hoc explanatory device. They now claim that these structures supposedly served some OTHER function in the past, but now they have another function. Crapo in 1985, for example, wrote: “This is precisely how a vestige should be defined: Not as a ‘functionless’ part of an organism, but as a part which does not function in the way that its structure would lead us to expected, given how that structure function in most other organisms.” Notice now Crapo’s analysis here also confirms how important attacking the belief in God as a wise, efficient, benevolent Creator is to evolutionists: “It is the existence of such vestiges in such organisms which evolutionary theory would very naturally predict, but which the belief in an efficient Designer would not lead us to expect a priori.” (Italics removed, Richly Crapo, “Are the vanishing teeth of fetal baleen whales useless?” 1985). This kind of fall-back position for “explaining” vestigial structures illustrates the non-falsifiable nature of evolution. When medical science confirms the a priori viewpoint of the creationist model, that all of these anatomical structures really are useful and God didn’t insert useless organs and structures into the human body, the evolutionists don’t admit that their paradigm is falsified. Instead, they simply retreat into other rationalizations to keep attacking God as a shoddy, careless, unwise engineer. Here once again the viewpoint of Cornelius Hunter’s book “Darwin’s God: Evolution and the Problem of Evil” is confirmed: Evolutionists are engaged in negative natural theology when they argue against a supernatural explanation of the natural world based upon its perceived structural flaws and moral evils. Indeed, they find it crucial and very important to supporting their paradigm to do this. Needless to say, this kind of reasoning is every bit as metaphysical as the theologian who argues that the wonders and complexity of the natural world proves God’s existence. Any claim that evolution, when it enters the world of change above the genus or family taxonomic levels, is more “empirical” than creationism, is simply false.
The example of supposedly “vestigial” organs is also a great example of how the theory of evolution slows down scientific development and research. If an anatomical structure is a priori judged to be “vestigial,” then scientists who are evolutionists aren’t likely to study it carefully for what it really does. For example, tonsils were often removed for decades from children since they were judged to be simply “useless vestiges.” Later on, oops!, it was found out that they actually do fight disease. They weren’t so useless after all. Basically all 180 organs and anatomical structures that were once listed as “useless vestiges” (in one way or another) have been found to have real functions. For instance, the “yolk sac” is used by a developing human embryo to make its first blood cells; death would result without it. The coccyx was claimed to be a remnant of our purported evolutionary ancestors having a tail, but it’s actually a crucial point for muscle attachment needed for our upright posture (and, well, for defecation). So to say this is about “prior functions” as opposed to current functions is a great example of how evolutionists attempt to escape falsification of their paradigm. They assume these “prior functions” really existed a priori, when that remains to be proven. There’s no way to test, predict, observe, reproduce the selective advantage of supposed intermediate structures for the survival of the species in question, which supposedly occurred long ago in the prehistorical past. This is yet another example of circular reasoning by evolutionists, in which they assume what still needs to be proven.
A great, focused book from a creationist viewpoint on this general subject of "vestigial" organs is Jerry Bergman, Ph.D., and George Howe, Ph.d., "'Vestigial Organs' Are Fully Functional," Creation Research Society, St. Joseph, MO, 1990.
Super erudite, extra scholarly addendum, for those interested in grinding the details:
In response to one evolutionist critic in the past, I decided to do some research on this subject in order to be able to reproduce evidence for my reference about when evolutionists said that there were around 180 vestigial organs. The key evolutionist book that originated this specific number on this subject is Robert Wiedersheim, "The Structure of man: an index to his past history," which was published in English in 1895 and translated by H. and M. Bernard (Macmillan, London), which is available online through Google books since it has an expired copyright. According to Jerry Bergman and George Howe, "'Vestigial Organs' Are Fully Functional," p. 5, he developed a detailed list of 86 vestigial organs and "about 100 so-called retrogressive organs." Here I've reproduced the list of the 86 vestigial organs. I suppose someone would have to do more research to get the list of 100 "retrogressive organs," which apparently come from the same book.
If a medical doctor is available to survey this list, would he or she say that these organs are useless? Wasn't Wiedersheim simply wrong? Do evolutionists ever admit to error in the arguments that they make for their theory? Or do they simply keep pushing the same nonsense, regardless of how many times it has been proven false?
Here is Wiedersheim's list of the human body's supposedly useless vestigial organs/anatomical structures: Os coccygis. Cauda humana.Superfluous embryonic notochord and associated somites.Embryonic cervical, lumbar, and sacral ribs.The thirteenth rib of the adult.The seventh cervical rib in the adult.The interarticular cartilage of the sterno-clavicular joint (probable vestige of the episternal apparatus).Ossa supra-sternalia.Certain centres of ossification in the manubrium sterni.The branchial clefts (for the most part) and branchial ridges.Processus styloideus ossis temporis, and the ligamentum stylo-hyoideum.Anterior cornua of the hyoid, for the greater part.Foramen caecum of the tongue.Processus gracilis of the malleus.Post-frontal bone (?)Ossa interparietalia (and ? prseinterparietalia).Processus paramastoideus of exoccipital.Torus occipitalis.Processus frontalis of the temporal.Processus coracoideus .Os centrale carpi.Processus supracondyloideus humeri.Trochanter tertius femoris.The phalanges of the fifth toe, and less conspicuously of the third and fourth toes.Muscles of the pinna and the Musculus occipitalis. LM. transversus nuchae. L. --Facial muscles transformed into tendinous expansions.Mm. plantaris and palmaris longus, when completely tendinous.M. ischio femoralis.The caudal muscles.M. epitrochleo-anconseus.M. latissimo-condyloideus.M. transversus thoracis (triangularis sterni).M. palmaris brevis.The transition bundles between the trapezius and the sterno- cleido-mastoideus.M. levator claviculae.M. rectus thoracis.M. ere master.The primitive hairy covering or lanugo.Vestiges of vibrissaeThe vertex coccygeus, the foveola and glabella coccygea.Certain vortices of hair on the breast.Nipples in men.Supernumerary mammary glands in women.Alleged vestiges of mammary pouchesSupernumerary olfactory ridges.Jacobson's organ, and ductus naso-palatinus.Papilla palatina and foliata.Plica semilunaris of the eye.Vasa hyaloidse (Cloquet's canal) of the embryo the choroidal fissure.Lachrymal glands, in part.The epicanthus.M. orbitalis.Certain varieties of the pinna of the ear, i.e. Darwin's tubercle.The filum terminale of the spinal cord.Glandula pinealis and parietal organ.The parieto-occipital fissure of the brain .The obex, ponticulus, ligula, taeniae medullares, and velum medullare anterius and posterius, of the brain.The hypophysis cerebri (pituitary body).The dorsal roots and ganglia of the hypoglossus nerve.The rami recurrentes of certain cranial nerves.Certain elements of the brachial and lumbo-sacral plexuses.The coccygeal nerve.The glandula coccygea.Palatal ridges.The sublingua.The formation of rudimentary dental papillae before the sinking of the dental ridge.The Wisdom teethThe occurrence of a third premolar (reversionary).The occurrence of a fourth molar (reversionary).The vestiges of a third dentition.The ciliated epithelium of the embryonic oesophagus.Bursa sub- and prehyoidea (ductus thyroglossus).Musculi broncho-oesophagei.The appendix vermiformis.Ventricle of the larynx (Morgagni's pouch).Lobus subpericardiacus of the lung (reversionary).Certain Valves of the veins.Certain structures of a vestigial nature in the heart.Arteria sacralis media.Arteria ischiadica.Superficial plantar arterial arch of the foot.The vena cava superior sinistra.Venae cardinales posteriores, and ductus Cuvieri.Vestiges (in the female) of the mesonephric system, and (in the male) of the Müllerian ducts.Conus inguinalis, and ligamentum inguinale.The area scroti.
See also pages 200-209 of Robert Weidman’s book, which he labels “Conspectus of Organs Mentioned in the Text” and “List of Organs According to Systems.”

I (F23) and my husband (M28) have been married for 2 years, and have been in relationship for 4 years. Generally, he had a very traumatic childhood, with his parents keeping him isolated from outside world. He got out of the toxic household when he was 18, and had a girlfriend. She died a year later, had some medical issues. After that, he's only had ONS's before he met me. He's very regretive of his life in general, that he didn't really had youth - didn't have friends, didn't spend time as young people do, didn't attend university, etc. Recently, he shared with me that although he can make up for all other things (make friends, party, study, communicate with people, enjoy life...) He can never make up for relationships and experience with women he missed out, because that would mean letting me go and he doesn't want to do that. Yet, he regrets stepping in a serious relationship so early (not in terms of age, but in terms of maturity and life experience). This hurt me really bad. We had a long conversation, where his main points are: 1. He started a serious relationship with me too early, without real prior experience 2. He has communication issues with other women (women at work, etc) because he's afraid that moving a work relationship to a more friendly level will make him regret the decision of stepping into relationship more 3. He doesn't want to let me go, he loves me, he just feels sad and as if he's missed out a lot. I'm absolutely devastated, at the point where I'm reconsidering the whole relationship. When I mention divorce or giving each other space, he has a complete meltdown. He's undergoing a therapy, and it has brought him to understand a lot about his feelings that he previously couldn't. I'm noticing that our relationship has faded, and I'm slowly becoming a typical insecure, angry and toxic person. I just can't see the same spark in his eyes as I did 4 years ago. I'm certain that at that time, he wouldn't even consider such thing, he loved me so much, he'd never say that we started our relationship too early, or that he missed out something else. I think this is just a reflection of the fact that he has fallen out, and it makes me sick. To this day, I love him as I did the very first time I told him "I love you" and even more. I think if I won't step out now, the relationship will only go downwards.
TLDR; husband said he missed out a lot by starting a serious relationship with me, yet can't leave because he loves me. I'm considering ending it before it's too late.
Thoughts?

I just passed 3 months last Thursday. I was reflecting about them and thought I’d post here.
Basically, this story starts in 2017 when I (at the time 315 lb 49 F) had a health challenge and changed to a low carb unprocessed (also no sugar no grains ) way of eating. I went from 315 lbs at five foot one to about 203 and then maintained that loss for about three years before the effects of plateau and regain started. Over the next 6 years I regained about thirty pounds which is a miracle considering any other time I’d lost weight, I regained it all and more in months not years.
I educated myself and realized that since only about 2% of people can maintain a weight loss of 10% of their body weight for a year because of the body defence of the higher weight. Hormones make people think they are hungry and need to eat more so they don’t starve to death even though they aren’t starving. These concepts are ones that appear in peer reviewed literature from several sources so I’m not making it up.
While I was a unicorn because I was able to maintain for several years, I believe because with the low carb unprocessed diet, I wasn’t also having high/low blood sugar - this is my theory based on a discussion with a dietician that told me a theory about some people and how they don’t have to be actually hypoglycaemic to have the effects of it ( ie. eating compulsively to bring up sugars). Still, the odds were greatly against me maintaining this loss. When I started experience difficulties in reversing little weight gains, I asked for a referral to a bariatric clinic so I could try things other than lifestyle changes.
Bariatric assessment process wasn’t good for me but in the end it was established that I’m not a good candidate for drugs, there was no point to optifast since I’d already made drastic lifestyle changes, and that my options were probably regain and surgery.
Since I had not screwed up my lifestyle changes, but was battling my body trying to get me to eat more, surgery became the obvious answer.
I was warned that I might not lose much more weight than the amount I’d regained since that amount represents almost thirty percent loss from my former top weight.
Now I’m 56 and post menopause. I was ok with this as long as I was able to maintain my loss more easily. I did not relish the idea of aging as a three hundred plus pound short woman ( getting shorter). I don’t need to be skinny either. I honestly don’t care at this point about my body size since even with my regain my mobility wasn’t hampered and my chronic health issues stayed resolved. Honestly , I haven’t even really noticed my weight loss in any meaningful way because I was already living better. I believe the meaning of health at any size means this. My body size only matters to the extent that I think it does and that includes that I don’t have to be a size zero to be healthier.
I had RNY surgery three months ago. Weight loss has been relatively slow but I’m happy to say that despite some small hitches like throwing up in the early days and low hemoglobin post surgically which has since resolved.
I was completely grossed out by protein supplements so the two weeks following surgery were tough. My surgeon encouraged me to eat according to textures ( which isn’t what the handbook says).
I had no pain after the day of surgery, or since . Things are going pretty well. I’d hoped to have more of a hormonal change to regulate appetite but despite feeling overfilled constantly, I’m losing weight, hitting protein goals with real food and the learning curve is getting less steep. My pre-surgery weight was 232 and this morning I was 194 so obviously it’s working for weight loss. I’m not under any illusion that this has been a perfect solution, but I’m happy to have my stress level lowered daily since my desire to eat is much curved and even if I want to eat, the threat of puking keeps me in line.
Weird things since:
As an Orthodox Jew who keeps kosher I’m having weird cravings for nonkosher foods which includes seafood ( which I’m allergic to!).
I hadn’t eaten sugar or artificially sweetened foods in almost 12 years and now I’m craving keto type sweets which I know affect my cravings. I’m not saying I’m indulging regularly but it’s odd to have the cravings.
Chicken strongly disagrees with me while red meats and lamb don’t.
I was mostly carnivorous prior but I often choose non-meat protein food items more now. I don’t really like beans but the other day I told my husband if he made a chickpea curry I’d eat it. BIZARRE. I am 100% getting all my protein in but beans are higher in carbs which worries me because my original health crisis seven years ago was diabetes related and I’ve been sub-clinical for 6 years. For me, I don’t actually believe in the concept of moderation so it’s disconcerting to say the least.
What’s really interesting is my general disinterest in food and eating. I know I have to eat and I know I have to prioritize protein. I have cravings regularly but ultimately I mostly eat to fill the hunger and don’t much care what as long as it fits the ‘get your protein in first’ model. In the end, since I don’t eat grains or other sweet things, this ultimately ends up looking like a diet of primarily animal protein, with vegetables and a bit of fruit thrown in. I’ve eaten a couple of keto protein bars but it’s not regularly.
For context, I used to be a serious foodie and a food professional and when I went low carb I cared much less. As long as my food was delicious and low carb and I wasn’t hungry, I didn’t care. Since surgery, some of the things i really enjoyed low carb have become sort of icky to me so I’m constantly revisiting what I like and don’t like. It’s a process 🤷🏻‍♀️.
Anyway, I have lots of homework to do ( one of the changes that happened seven years ago when my chronic health issues resolved, was my doctor suggested I go to nursing school) so I’m going to sign off but I wanted to share that though this is an imperfect process, it is one which I’m not sorry to have gone through. I sort of regret not doing it 20 years ago but on the other hand I guess I would not have been mentally ready had I done it much sooner than my health crisis, subsequent sustained weight loss and then learning how obesity actually works. On the other hand, I’m glad I was confident in my new lifestyle before I did it because i understood on a gut level what that meant.
If you read this far, thanks. Feel free to AMA.
Starting Weight 2017 was 315 Surgery weight was 232 ( Feb 2024) CW 194 GW- don’t really have one. I guess it was 203 since I was told I might not lose more than I regained.

I (m 24) have been dating my girlfriend (f 20) for the past 5 months and got in a relationship about 2.5 months ago, it's my first relationship so a lot of stuff for me is new.
She is not from my area, she moved here in September and she's particularly shy so she has not many friends other for people from her city who moved here as well that she previously knew.
Before knowing me she booked a ticket for a theatre show from some actor she follows. Yesterday all of a sudden decided to not go because she thought she was late to the show (due to her not knowing the city well, and I couldn't accompany her because I live 30 min drive from her and was to meet her after the show.
I couldn't convince her to go despite explaining her that she could have gone there in a few minutes.
After telling me that she didn't want to go anymore I felt some deep rooted sadness inside my chest, it was like some ancient trauma resurfaced, because other being sad for her not going, the level of sadness I reached was unjustified, I started sobbing in the car, and I'm usually quite a stoic person who doesn't show much emotion.
When I reached her home she was quite chill about it while I was super distraught; what do you think happened?

This is our 2nd IUI, our first one ended in a miscarriage. They made me wait another month before doing it again and my hormones are still nothing like what they were before. Plus my husbands morphology went to shit in that time so I wasn’t expecting much this cycle anyway, plus, and this sucks to say and think but I kind of didn’t want to get pregnant on some level because I know any baby conceived with his super high dna fragmentation will likely miscarry anyway, and I can’t bare to go through that again. Be that as it may, I let myself get my hopes up because for a couple of days there I was exhausted, and I felt twinges in my uterus like I did last time I got pregnant so I was excited that maybe I would be again. Its only 9 DPO but by now I should have breast pain, I should be way more exhausted than I am, and my cervical mucous should be more creamy and robust, instead I have watery cervical fluid which is also weird because I usually don’t have that in my literal phase. This all is a nightmare trying to tease apart our own bodies hormonal fluctuations every month.

Ever since childhood, I've always had a ceiling to reach. I thought that if I ticked off the checkpoints, I'd at least get some reward for my effort but there was nothing. I thought maybe, it's not about reaching checkpoints. I can only get their approval once I "win" their hearts fully and truly.
When I got the highest grades in class, I wasn't loved. When I got a scholarship in my dream university, I wasn't loved. When I got my first job and license, I still wasn't loved. And when I did not do anything amazing like that, I was much less than loved, less than even acknowledged.
I had just recently started pursuing my postgraduate studies all while maintaining a fulltime job that I am so passionate in and thankful to have. For the first time ever, I felt proud of myself. This was the best I've ever felt career wise and because of how much personal development I've went through over the years.
And I was still not loved. I think I've always known deep inside that I will never reach the ceiling they keep setting. It's clear to me now that it's not normal to have not liked your own child for over 24 whole years. It's clear and it still feels like I'm getting punched with the realization over and over again.
I have some good people in my life right now. I just wish that they could've been some of the people that I could keep close to my heart.

I recently got accepted to a grad program, but I’m currently enrolled in a course that I no longer need. I’m taking the course in a Maymester (3.5 weeks long) and I’m really struggling but I’m scared to take a W. I’m currently at a C- after the first week of classes, and I have about 3 exams left after failing the first two . Im worried that if I don’t drop now, my grade will keep going down and it’ll show up as a Withdraw Fail (WF). What would be the best option?