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Pre-Physician Assistant
2014.11.22 01:13 Bhmbl Pre-Physician Assistant
This is THE subreddit for all pre-physician assistant students seeking help with their applications. Please read our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) before submitting questions. They can be accessed from the sidebar as well as the TOP menu bar. Check out the PAstudent subreddit once accepted and physicianassistant after graduation.
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Reddit's home for wholesome discussion related to pre-medical studies.
2024.05.19 11:17 GuiltlessMaple Best Cardioid Microphones
| https://preview.redd.it/8nkfks0ooc1d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=98151f985b2bdc3afd312e488992c3c98dcea249 Welcome to our comprehensive guide to cardioid microphones! Perfect for capturing clear and accurate audio, these microphones have become a go-to choice for many professionals and hobbyists alike. In this article, we'll be exploring the unique features and applications of cardioid microphones, as well as presenting our top product picks to help you make an informed choice. Stay tuned for all the details you need to know about these essential tools! So, whether you're a musician, podcaster, or just an audiophile looking to enhance your listening experience, our roundup of the best cardioid microphones on the market has you covered. Dive in to learn more about these reliable, versatile microphones, and discover the perfect option to suit your needs. The Top 7 Best Cardioid Microphones - Insignia Wired Cardioid Omnidirectional USB Microphone with LED Indicator - The Insignia NS-LCBM22 Wired Cardioid & Omnidirectional USB Microphone offers an eye-catching design with a desk stand and headphone jack, providing easy-to-use, cardioid/omnidirectional sound options and a comfortable recording experience.
- Nady CM 90: High-Sensitivity Cardioid Condenser Mic with Shockmount - The Nady CM 90 Cardioid Condenser Mic delivers outstanding performance for demanding digital recording and live sound applications, with its versatile design, rugged construction, and exceptional audio quality.
- FDUCE SL40X XLR Dynamic Microphone for Vocal Recording - FDUCE SL40X XLR Dynamic Microphone delivers crisp sound with advanced voice isolation technology and solid, reliable performance for vocal recordings, podcasting, gaming, live streaming, and broadcasting.
- Unidirectional Condenser Microphone Bundles for Studio Recording and Podcasting - Experience crystal-clear sound with Zingyou's BM-800 Studios Condenser Microphone Bundle, complete with a professional bundle for any recording enthusiast.
- AKG C414 XLII/ST Stereo Matched Pair Microphones - The AKG C414 XLII/ST Stereo Matched Pair delivers exceptional sound quality, high-fidelity audio, and versatile polar patterns, making it the perfect choice for professional recording and live sound applications.
- PreSonus PM-2 Matched Pair Cardioid Condenser Microphones - Capture crystal-clear audio with the versatile, affordable, and high-quality PreSonus PM-2 small diaphragm cardioid condenser microphones, perfect for a variety of applications from acoustic instruments to ensembles.
- Top-Ranking Karaoke Dynamic Mic with Shielded Cable - The 5 Core Dynamic Cardiod Karaoke Singing Wired Mic, with a premium-quality ferrite magnet and noise-shielding cable, lets you capture pristine vocals for live performances and recordings while boasting durability with its rugged steel build.
As an Amazon™ Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Reviews https://preview.redd.it/e6w89f9poc1d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e52536d49670b6150bf957755f81409512d64754 The Insignia NS-LCBM22 Wired Cardioid & Omnidirectional USB Microphone is perfect for recording that vlog or podcast you've always wanted to start. With the user-friendly LED lights indicating power and muting, setting up is a breeze. The adjustable desk stand and knob make finding your perfect recording angle hassle-free. Featuring a cardioid and omnidirectional mode, this microphone captures your sound accurately and minimizes background noise. The included headphone jack lets you monitor your recordings in real-time for top-notch results. Although there have been some issues reported by users about the microphone suddenly stopping to work, overall, it's a highly recommended product within a reasonable price range. For those looking for a reliable and budget-friendly device, the Insignia NS-LCBM22 Wired Cardioid & Omnidirectional USB Microphone is an excellent choice! https://preview.redd.it/lekd5i4qoc1d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c07cf81b9c01b2650f9f991192465c017c9a5016 The Nady CM 90 Cardioid Condenser Mic has been a game-changer in my recording studio. I've been using it for capturing the nuances of my acoustic guitar, snare drum, and piano, and it never fails to impress me with its high sensitivity and extended smooth response. The microphone's sturdy turned-brass housing and internal shockmount ensure that it can withstand even the toughest recording sessions. I also appreciate the fact that it comes with a microphone clip, foam windscreen, and a zipper pouch, making it easy to transport safely. One of the standout features of this microphone is its transformerless design, which minimizes self-noise. This has allowed me to capture even the subtlest details of my performances without any unwanted background noise. Additionally, the microphone requires 48V phantom power, so it's compatible with most professional mixing boards. However, there have been a few downsides to using this microphone. For instance, I found that it can sometimes be overly sensitive to certain sound sources, making it difficult to achieve the perfect balance in my recordings. Additionally, the microphone's construction, while sturdy, may not be able to withstand the rigors of constant touring or frequent use in a live environment. Overall, I would highly recommend the Nady CM 90 Cardioid Condenser Mic to anyone looking to capture high-quality audio recordings. Its versatile design, rugged construction, and impressive performance make it a great addition to any recording studio or live sound setup. While it may have a few shortcomings, the benefits far outweigh any drawbacks, making it a top choice for any serious musician or audio enthusiast. https://preview.redd.it/0n1er5bqoc1d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f1d15f830e3d115673e9eb6d887d49ff6dd929c2 The FDUCE Sl40x XLR Dynamic Microphone has been a game-changer in my daily life. As a podcast enthusiast, I was on the hunt for a quality microphone that wouldn't break the bank. This microphone has exceeded my expectations by far! The voice isolation technology is the standout feature for me - it makes my voice sound so clear and pure, perfect for my podcasting needs. Setting it up was a breeze thanks to the plug and play compatibility, working seamlessly with my audio interface and mixer. The build quality is premium, giving me confidence that this microphone will last me for a long time. However, I would've liked if it included some free lessons or software, but that's a minor inconvenience. All in all, this microphone has enhanced my voice and has given my podcasting career a much-needed boost. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a reliable XLR dynamic microphone. https://preview.redd.it/65j6e8pqoc1d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4f0d24417d875b670a641689654d855d4a3d8f6c I recently purchased the Zingyou Condenser Microphone Bundle for my home studio setup, and I must say it has truly exceeded my expectations. I was initially drawn to its user-friendly design, which includes an informative assembly video and easy-to-follow instructions. In terms of performance, this microphone delivers excellent sound quality, capturing even the most subtle nuances of my vocals. The build quality is impressive as well, with a sturdy body that feels like it can withstand daily use without issue. One of the standout features of this microphone is its ease of use. Within minutes of unboxing, I had the entire bundle assembled and ready to go. Furthermore, the size and flexibility of the stand make it easy to position the microphone wherever needed, making it perfect for various recording scenarios. Overall, I believe the Zingyou Condenser Microphone Bundle offers exceptional value for its price, providing professional-grade sound quality and durability without breaking the bank. However, there are a few minor drawbacks worth mentioning. Firstly, some users have reported issues with the sound card not working properly, though I personally have not experienced this issue. Additionally, the microphone requires phantom power to function, which may not be ideal for those who prefer USB-powered options. In conclusion, the Zingyou Condenser Microphone Bundle is a fantastic choice for amateur and professional recording enthusiasts alike. With its affordable price point, top-notch sound quality, and user-friendly design, this product offers incredible value for its cost. So why not give it a shot and see how it can elevate your recording projects? https://preview.redd.it/sc9u184roc1d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4e344495379a587088ceb09d35c96c15a1e63908 I've been using the AKG C414 XLII/ST Stereo Matched Pair for a while now, and I must say, it's a game-changer in my home studio. This pair of condenser microphones has a knack for capturing high-fidelity audio, making my recordings sound much more dynamic. One of the standout features of these microphones is their ability to switch between nine polar patterns. This flexibility allows me to tailor the sound capture for different applications, ranging from vocals to acoustic instruments like guitars or even percussion. The peak hold LED display is also incredibly useful, helping me avoid nasty overload peaks during live performances. The C414 XLII version stands out from its sibling, the C414 XLS, mainly because of its unique capsule design. This design gives the mic a slightly brighter sound compared to the XLS, while also offering impressive spatial reproduction that's reminiscent of the legendary AKG C12 microphone from 1953. On the downside, I've noticed that the C414 XLII can be quite sensitive to noise from surrounding sources, such as air conditioning systems. However, the built-in filter helps mitigate this issue, ensuring that my recordings remain clean and free of unwanted interference. Overall, I've been extremely impressed with the AKG C414 XLII/ST Stereo Matched Pair. It's a versatile, high-quality microphone that has made a significant difference in the quality of my recordings. While it may be a bit pricey, I believe it's a worthwhile investment for anyone serious about capturing professional-sounding audio. https://preview.redd.it/qpxp7gfroc1d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c6278ddb6105dfc0b988ac6239c627666c67775f As a reviewer who's been using the PreSonus PM-2 microphones in my little home studio, I can't help but rave about them. These cardioid condenser mics are a gem, offering a surprising level of clarity and versatility for a budget-friendly price. One of the things that stood out to me was their ability to capture even the most subtle nuances of the acoustic guitar. The cardioid pattern helps deliver an amplified input audio, making it perfect for recording a range of instruments and ensembles. The golden touch doesn't stop there. The gold-sputtered capsule ensures enhanced conductivity, enabling efficient signal transmission. And did I mention how light they are? The ultra-light chassis makes them incredibly easy to handle and convenient to use. However, as with any product, there are some cons. Some users have reported issues of durability, with one microphone stopping working after just six hours of use. While this is a concern, it's important to note that these are budget-friendly mics and may not withstand the same level of abuse as higher-priced models. Overall, I'd say the PreSonus PM-2 microphones are a fantastic choice for anyone looking to create detailed recordings in a studio setting. They offer great sound quality, especially when used in stereo mode. The build quality might not be top-notch, but the value they provide more than makes up for it. So, if you're on the hunt for affordable, high-quality mics, give these a try. https://preview.redd.it/yggyjzsroc1d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5b765ec15f5f3acc76725d974a3f559d2c708f40 I recently purchased the 5 Core Karaoke Singing Wired Mic, and I must say, I am thoroughly impressed! As a frequent performer at weddings and conferences, I needed a reliable microphone that captured my voice perfectly without any background noise interference. The unidirectional Cardioid Pickup Pattern on this microphone did just that, enhancing my performances and keeping the focus on my voice. One of the highlights of this microphone is its sturdy build. The steel mesh windscreen and anti-dent ring make it incredibly durable, while its professional XLR connector ensures seamless compatibility with all PA systems. I also appreciated the brilliant and transparent sound quality it delivers, thanks to its ultra-wide frequency response and built-in Pop filter & windscreen. On the flip side, the 5 Core Karaoke Singing Wired Mic might not be the best option for those who prefer a wireless microphone. Additionally, the lack of an on/off switch may be inconvenient for some users. Overall, I am extremely satisfied with the 5 Core Karaoke Singing Wired Mic. Its combination of performance, durability, and versatility make it an excellent choice for any singer or performer looking to enhance their live performances. If you're in the market for a reliable microphone that won't let you down, I highly recommend giving this one a try! https://preview.redd.it/4300n0esoc1d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2a3b4c5a8c34e693cde2efcc520e29b14602f005 Buyer's Guide https://preview.redd.it/kzn2o1lsoc1d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d73abb828c4fe25c4284c48ac4824f9f22b23f02 Important Features of Cardioid Microphones Cardioid microphones are an essential tool for any recording setup, both in professional and home-studio environments. These microphones offer a directional pickup pattern, primarily capturing sound waves originating directly in front of the microphone while minimizing off-axis sound. This feature makes cardioid microphones particularly useful for reducing unwanted noise and echoes. Here are some important features to consider when looking for a cardioid microphone: - Polar Pattern: Ensure that the microphone has a cardioid (also known as unidirectional) polar pattern. This ensures that it primarily picks up sound waves coming directly from the front and minimizes sound from the rear and sides, helping minimize background noise.
- Sensitivity: Look for a microphone with a high sensitivity rating, as this indicates that it can reproduce quieter sounds more accurately, making it ideal for capturing subtle musical nuances or spoken words.
- Frequency Response: A wide frequency response range will ensure that the microphone can accurately record a variety of instruments and vocal ranges, providing a balanced sound across different frequencies.
- Self-Noise: The lower the self-noise rating, the less noise the microphone will introduce during recording, contributing to a cleaner overall sound quality.
https://preview.redd.it/g3uj7i6toc1d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=99b03e03cc88b1b58fdcd4cf46a5f13316c60784 Considerations for Choosing a Cardioid Microphone When selecting a cardioid microphone, there are several factors you should consider to ensure that you get a microphone that meets your needs. These include: - Application: Determine the specific application you'll be using the microphone for. This could be voice-over work, live performances, studio recording, or podcasting. Different microphones may be better suited for specific applications, so choosing one that aligns with your intended use is crucial.
- Budget: Set a budget for your microphone purchase, as prices can vary greatly. Make sure to prioritize features that are more essential to your needs while staying within your budget constraints.
- Brand Reputation: Research the brand and choose a company with a history of manufacturing high-quality microphones. This will help ensure that you invest in a reliable product that holds up well over time.
- Accessories: Consider whether any additional accessories like stands, mounts, or pop filters are necessary for your setup. Some microphones may include these accessories while others require separate purchases.
https://preview.redd.it/sj9wdlitoc1d1.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4a75e0b020f01dad21b5a5f66caa72a74836a0de General Advice for Using Cardioid Microphones To make the most of your cardioid microphone, consider the following advice: - Proper Placement: Position yourself at an appropriate distance from the microphone, typically between 6 and 12 inches away. This ensures that the microphone effectively captures the desired sound waves while minimizing background noise or plosives.
- Avoid Sibilance: Proper microphone technique is essential to prevent sibilance, which can become evident during recording. Make sure to angle the microphone away from the direct line of the spoken word, and use a pop filter if necessary to further minimize sibilance.
- Reduce Handling Noise: Invest in a high-quality shockmount or boom arm to reduce handling noise while recording in a home studio setup, or implement good microphone handling techniques when using a handheld microphone during live performances.
FAQ - What is a cardioid microphone?
A cardioid microphone is a type of directional microphone that primarily captures sound from its front while minimizing noise from the sides and rear. Its name "cardioid" refers to the heart-shaped audio pickup pattern. These microphones are commonly used in stages, radio stations, and video recordings to capture voices or musical instruments accurately and with minimal background noise. - How do cardioid microphones work?
Cardioid microphones work by having a diaphragm designed to respond more sensitively to sound waves coming from directly in front and less to those coming from the sides or back. This design enables these microphones to isolate the desired sound source and minimize the collection of unwanted noise, thus improving the overall audio quality. - What are some common applications of cardioid microphones?
Cardioid microphones are commonly used in live performances, interviews, podcasts, and video recordings. They are ideal for capturing voices and musical instruments with high precision and minimum background noise. Examples of their applications include on-stage performances, radio interviews, and YouTube vlogs. - How do cardioid microphones compare with other polar patterns?
Cardioid microphones have a heart-shaped pickup pattern that focuses on capturing sound from the front and minimizes noise from the sides and rear. Other polar patterns include omnidirectional (picking up sound from all directions), figure-eight (equal sensitivity to sound from front and back, less from sides), and supercardioid/hypercardioid (narrow frontal pickup and high rejection of side noise). - Which are some popular manufacturers of cardioid microphones?
Some popular manufacturers of cardioid microphones include Rode, Shure, Sennheiser, Audio-Technica, and Blue Microphones. Each brand offers a variety of cardioid microphones, with different features and price points, to cater to various user requirements and budgets. As an Amazon™ Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. submitted by GuiltlessMaple to u/GuiltlessMaple [link] [comments] |
2024.05.19 11:17 Frothy-Pint Cover Letter Advice
I'm currently in the process of applying for office managesupervisor roles and I'm a bit unsure how to go about with cover letters.
I've had decent success getting interviews for jobs that request a personal statement, where I am able to fire out evidence of how I meet all the essential criteria.
However I'm in the process of applying for a role which only asks for a CV and cover letter. From what I've read, the cover letter should be pretty short and focus on why you want the role. The application has about 10 essential criteria points, 5 desirable criteria and another 10 points of desired experience.
If I try and write a cover letter that covers all the essential criteria with a bit of the experience, I'm looking at about a page and a half. I gather this is too long from what I've read.
How would you go about showing you match all the essential criteria and have the experience? Should I be trying to push most of this to my CV? Any advice I'd greatly appreciated.
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2024.05.19 11:02 ApprehensiveRent7775 Looking for cinematographer/editor? Look no further.
2024.05.19 10:05 ggwplucky [Abandoned Pools] Sony Connect Track by Track Interview
| A while back I was messing around with the Wayback Machine & came across this diamond in the rough on AP's MySpace page. Also found some photos, but most importantly, a track-by-track [Armed To The Teeth] interview from Sony Connect that they did back in '05 (presumably around the same time they did the Sony Connect set with the acoustic songs). In the interview, Tommy tells the story behind each track on Armed To The Teeth (except Lucky). You'll also find tidbits about the process, lyrically & sonically of these songs, and much more! If you want to read it/see it from the "raw" source and discover more, here's a link with the Wayback's capture I found on the interview blog: https://web.archive.org/web/20071005015435/http://www.myspace.com/abandonedpools Now without further ado, the Sonic Connect Interview: A track by track discussion of Armed to the Teeth from the Sony Connect Store interview: LETHAL KILLERS TW: As far as how that [demo of the] song was constructed ... I did this trick where I would take a half-time drum loop and sort of nudge it one way and then put in another track and nudge it the other, and we got this sort of double time, rolling drum feel. So that - plus the sort of round-robin type of guitar parts that we have going - was sort of a very easy construction for a song. And then you start moving the bass part around, and, boom, you've got a song. But I think that lyrically - I want to make it clear that that song isn't necessarily [about] "church is bad, government's bad." I think it's a little bit more complicated than that, though sometimes if you mix the two of religious power and government power, that can be bad for both of them. And I kinda like the idea of not living a life saying, "Well, you better live life in a certain way because then, you know, everything's gonna be great later in heaven." You know, the idea of, like, if this is all we have now, if that idea was just a little bit more embraced, our world could be a little bit better. I just find that a little bit more satisfying, too, if you think like, this is all you have and then you're gonna die. [Laughs] It seems a little bit more like, "Oh, okay, well!" instead of, like, thinking that there's some other life at some other time and you can put things off. RABBLE TW: Well, a lot of the songs on this record - about two-thirds of it - have to do with a relationship I had that went south, and you know when you go through relationships you always have such a good 20/20 hindsight about things. And I think "Rabble" is just trying to basically say to somebody, "I just wanted to know you better" . . . It's just one of those things where, with this relationship in particular, I wish it would have turned out better. And there's a lot of things that happened that shouldn't have happened, and it's just sort of one of those "oh, what could have been?" scenarios. THE CATALYST TW: "The Catalyst" is definitely along the same lines. I think the main line in that one is "I wish I could say something beautiful to make you fall in love again." There's a Coachella reference in there, too: "Love has slowly faded away like spotlights shining into space." Have you ever been to Coachella? Of course you have. You know, there's all those spotlights that shoot up in the air. I just thought that was kinda cool, like, how far do those lights really go? "The Catalyst" was also the last song written for the record. It was demoed while we were in the studio. And it's one of those songs that I said two-thirds of the record was written for somebody. That's one of them. TIGHTER NOOSE TW: "Tighter Noose" is the oldest song on the record by far. It was probably written back in '99, 2000, or somewhere in there. I was thinking about it for the first record [2001's Humanistic], but it didn't really fit in with those kind of songs, so I kept it around and we'd even play it live occasionally. I think it fits in with these songs way better. [As for what "Tighter Noose" is about,] that song is one of those breaking-off-on-your-own- what-have-you-got-to-lose kind of things, because that was written sort of in the wake of when I was in The Eels. It wasn't a terribly happy situation, so I was like, well screw it, I'm just gonna go off and do my own thing. And then it's sort of like, well, you know: "I'm gonna go start my own thing. Uh, I have to learn to sing and write songs now." [Laughs] It's kinda funny: "Screw you guys! I'm gonna go get a deal!" And then like, "Uh oh." But really, I'm a firm believer in that [idea that] you just gotta go for it. And so it was like, well, this is gonna be difficult, but it's gonna be better than what I had before. And actually, with some distance on that situation, I realized I made the right decision and made a lot more money and was a lot more happy as a result. So that was sort of a leap of faith, you know. I didn't want to be someone's stupid bass player. Now I'm my own stupid bass player. WAITING TO PANIC TW: There was a lull between record companies. The first record [Humanistic] was on Extasy - I don't know if you know about that company, but we were basically the poster-child for the implosion of an indie label. I came off the road in 2002, the label's folding, and I'm like, well, I'm just gonna go back and give this my best shot and we'll get another deal. It seemed highly unlikely, but we ended up doing it. And there was just a lull in there where nobody was interested. I had attorneys not returning my phone calls - that kinda stuff. It felt like, I'm just waiting around and I'm really anxious. So that was a song of frustration that was written and demoed all in one day - it was a song that just came out of me in like eight hours. We also put an EP out [The Reverb EP] and on the EP is the version of that demo that I did in one day. It doesn't happen [like that] very often. Usually I build bed tracks and come back to it a few weeks later and add something, and then come back a couple of days later. This one was all in one shot. HUNTING TW: My friend Ross Golan, who has his own band Ross Golan and Molehead, had been following the wake of the relationship. He's like, "You just gotta write her a song and use her name." And I'm like, nah, nah, it's not covered enough. And he's like, "No, just do it. Go for it." So I did. I wrote this song and I wrote it for her for her birthday and I used her name, which is in the first lyric of the song, which is "Ginny." So I just went for it and wrote it. It was basically a birthday gift, and it was basically saying, like, you know, "Oops!" [Laughs] It didn't get me very far, but I like the song. We're friends, she's a good girl, absolutely, but back at that time, it was kinda like, "Erraaghhh! Here's a song!" But I like the song and I just think it was one of those times where I was really putting myself out there, and I know she liked it, too. But then, I think that's a myth where you just write a song and all of a sudden the girl just says, "Oh! Okay!" But, you know, hey. There it is. It's on the record. That's the romantic notion of how they'll react to the song, at least. TW: Exactly. And I'm really glad we're past that whole ironic phase, which I was part of with The Eels, where everything was super ironic and we'd play "The Macarena" on stage - [sarcastically] and that was funny! I'm glad we're through all that stuff, even though I was still a Beck fan when he was doing all that stuff, too. But I like being sincere and sappy and romantic. I kinda think that's a great thing. ARMED TO THE TEETH TW: This is one of the first songs written when we came off the road and I had a lot of momentum. If you look at the state of the industry you can see a lot of corporations that seem to have to buy everything in sight. They just have to own everything, and to what purpose? Does it really make the industry much better? No. There's fewer outlets, there's a lot more gatekeepers. They want to buy stuff and it just kinda makes things bad for everybody. All the radio stations play the same shit - except for Indie 103.1 and KCRW in L.A. In spite of it all, I'm just gonna try to do my best and have a career anyway. When we came off the road I felt like I had a lot of momentum. Performing live is inspiring to writing, so it was just the whole idea of, "Alright, now that I have one record under my belt, I'm gonna really go for it in spite of all the forces that be." Even though they're pretty much indifferent to us, [laughs] their actions do affect us. It's sort of a song of bravado. Why did you also choose "Armed To The Teeth" as the name of the album, too, which, in turn, implies it as the overall theme? TW: Yeah, which is funny, since I kinda decided on that theme early on, thinking I was gonna go in a certain way, but then, like I said, two-thirds of the record is love songs. So "Armed To The Teeth" doesn't really fit in a certain way, but I also liked it just because [of] that idea of, like, now I'm really ready to make a record, and also I think it reflects the state of the country a little bit. Everything's a little bit aggressive, we're at war, and I thought it was sort of timely in that way SOONER OR LATER TW: "Sooner Or Later" is another one of those tracks that was written after we got signed, so it's a newer song. I mentioned that sort of double time drum loop thing with "Lethal Killers" - this is the same thing. It's a half time drum loop that I nudged in one direction and then put in another track and nudge it in the other, then "boom," it's double time. And I like that, it's a good effect. It really sets up this kind of overlapping, rolling sound that a real drummer can't do. And things flam a little bit, and I really like that feel, so this song was constructed in the same manner where you have a rolling drum loop and then you put over a couple of guitar parts here and there and all of a sudden you got a song - I think this song is over six minutes. This is, um, I guess it's a couple things. Lyrically, it's sort of saying, like, whatever you do or whatever you say, there's no point in hiding anything because it all comes out in the end - which is the tagline in the chorus. There's no hiding. And in the verse it says, "Sooner or later / It's all coming down." In some way or another, whether you acknowledge it or if it just eats at your self, you can't really get away with anything. It's sort of fatalistic that way, but also in terms of, like, seeing how I also look at as a bigger picture of, like, politically, and since we're at war right now, it seems like things are getting a little scary. And that's kind of like one of those doomsday scenarios. If you look around a little you can really freak yourself out if you're reading about, like, bio-warfare and things like that. So a lot of this talk about "smoking gun in the shape of a mushroom cloud" and all that, it sort of brought up for me a lot of doomsday scenarios. So it's two-fold: it's that doomsday scenario, in terms of as far as the world is concerned, and then, personally, if you do stupid shit then you're eventually gonna pay for it somehow. SAILING SEAS TW: Like "Hunting," this is probably the most direct, out-there storytelling song. Instead of using her [real] name, it's switched to "Holly," which is in the chorus. So it's another one of those songs talking straight to somebody. And there's a lot of details in there that I wouldn't talk about in normal conversation. That's the funny thing about songwriting where I wouldn't talk about this, but then I can put it in this song and you can still hear it and you still understand, but it's sort of masked a little bit. It's presented in a certain way where it's somehow okay to say that when you're in a major key or something. Because like, the second verse is about pretending you're outside a room listening to somebody [you love] have sex [with someone else], and that's a situation to put yourself into to really torture yourself. I created this scenario in my head and I put it in a song, and it's kinda brutal, but the [beat of the] song is upbeat and happy. RENEGADE TW: This is a sample-based type song [with] drum loops. The cello was originally a Bjork sample and we replaced it. This one is sort of hard to explain. To me it’s just sort of like just a creation, because some of the record is social commentary, and I think there's a lot of that in this song, and it's like little snippets and ideas, and not necessarily one unifying idea. I think it's just kind of a song based on looking around and taking stock of things. This song in particular isn't really even about anything. It's just, like, observations, pretty much. And, oh, by the way, Billy Howerdel, the guitarist from A Perfect Circle, is playing guitar on that song. He jumped on that track and he's the one that makes it sound scary. MAYBE THEN SOMEDAY TW: That was one of the first songs written in the wake of the breakup. It was one of those kind of "well-it-just-didn't-work-out-but-maybe-one-day-we'll-see-what-happens" kind of things. Because the circumstances are such that it wasn't gonna happen immediately so I was kinda like, well, we'll see. I don't have much to say about that; it's just grouped in with "songs about her." GOODBYE SONG TW: That was also written when there was not a lot going on for me and we hadn't really nailed down the record deal. She [Tommy's ex-girlfriend] always thought she was bad luck - she'd show up and bad things would start happening - so she thought it was her fault that I hadn't got a deal. She actually moved away and soon as she did, we got a deal. [Laughs] I think it's funny to sort of say, like the first line of the song is "I'm not washed up / And you're not bad luck for anyone," so, you know, get off the ledge, really. And it's just one of those things; it's one of those yearning songs. I think with a lot of those songs there's a certain amount of effort spent on presenting evidence, like, "Look, I know this is how you feel, but look at all the other stuff." It's almost like making a case for your self [in a song]. And like I said, it didn't get me far, but it's still a good venting process. And I sort of realize when I say things like, "I wrote this for her" or whatever, it's not really for her. It's more self-indulgent to get this stuff out. And in a way you're saying, "Yeah, I wrote this song for you," but no, you wrote it for yourself so you could say things that you felt like saying. So I realize that and I think I realized that while I was writing them, but my job is to write songs so you take from what's around you to make it happen. submitted by ggwplucky to AbandonedPools [link] [comments] |
2024.05.19 09:47 Slithan Struggling with difficulty 7-9 bots? Try these tips
I've been playing a lot on Helldiver difficulty, specifically on bots and I've noticed a lot of players struggling and dying a bunch, often leading to a failed mission. Poor spawns happen, and getting overwhelmed does too, but if you're at 10+ deaths on a mission, it's time to learn some new strategies to ensure you stay alive long enough to spread that sweet, sweet liberty.
Having completed a number of full Helldiver difficulty missions with 0 deaths, let me cover a few of my bot related tips that help keep me alive and make sure that I'm able to continue to spread democracy to those who need it.
- Heavy armor is your friend - You'll be taking hits, no doubt about it. Unlike with the bugs, light armor often doesn't cut it anymore, especially vs rocket devastators. I typically take the 50% explosion resistance armor to deal with rocket devastators, cannon towers, factory striders, and the smaller rocket bots that would otherwise one-shot me.
- Smoking is cool - Smoke grenades (and other smoke strategems) can get you out of some pretty hopeless situations vs bots, especially when you're out with no cover. Diving, followed by tossing a smoke grenade in front of you, then getting up to run after it's gone off is a pretty solid way of breaking away from pursuing clankers.
- Orbital Lasers aren't just for enemies anymore - Unlike with bugs, many bot objectives have either mounted turrets, or fabricators attached to them that will spawn enemies that will draw the laser and cause them to explode, either finishing or significantly aiding in the completion of some pretty tough objectives.
- Blow some bubbles - Nearly useless on bugs, the shield generator relay can make some seemingly impossible objectives doable, and on a short cooldown. Need a few more seconds on that sample drill while surrounded by bots? Shield relay. Factory strider dropped within sight of extraction with 30 second to go? Shield relay. Chased by bots across an open field and low on stims? Shield relay, drop a resupply and unload on them from safety. The uses are endless, and only 1 team member can usually cover the whole team.
- Choose your moments - Don't engage every patrol or base, and when you do, try and let your teammates know so they can join you. Many times, if you go together, you can clear the patrol before reinforcements are called, or at least clear one safe path into a base with very little resistance. The alternative is a protracted firefight with a LOT of reinforcements on higher difficulties.
- Be Bait - When you have the attention of a bot with a weak spot, let your team know, and try to keep it's attention (from cover) by potshotting it every so often until they've dealt with it. Be careful of doing with the rocket devastators, and know their "ready to fire" stance well.
- Dive, dive, dive - It's a lot harder to hit a target that is parallel to your direction of fire, so get on your freaking belly soldier! They'll eventually adjust, but you can spam the dive button to get up more quickly, then dive to a new spot, hopefully behind some cover. Remember, even small rocks can be enough to cover you if you're on the ground.
- Hellbomb schmellbomb - Taking out a number of bot objectives requires the use of a hellbomb, unless you're awesome and brought a 500kg bomb or two with you. A well placed 500kg can save a ton of time and headache when dealing with some of the more annoying bot objectives.
- Autocannon - Well known by nearly all, the autocannon can take out fabricators as well as gunships and is a great choice on blitz missions especially. AMR is a solid alternative choice.
- Scorcher - I don't think there is any other weapon other than pre-nerf slugger that I would prefer over the scorcher. The explosive damage makes so many bots a joke, and even the little striders can be taken out by 2 leg joint hits. Highly recommended.
I hope this helps you in your journey to spread democracy across the galaxy and spill oil against Super Earth's sworn enemies. If you have your own tips or suggestions, leave them in the comments!
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2024.05.19 09:20 Heathen249 Screening call + 1500 word unpaid assignment + 3 rds of 1hr interviews = for a content writer role at a small startup. Is this normal?
Week 1
I saw an opening on Linkedin for content writer at this company
SurveySparrow. Looked them up on Glassdoor - US based company, great reviews - so I went ahead and applied.
Week 2
Got a DM from their recruiter on Linkedin asking me to send my CV to another recruiter's email. My CV was already submitted when I applied, so why couldn't you just pass it over? Strange. So I emailed my CV to this second recruiter.
Week 3
Got a call from this second recruiter who asked my experiences for 15 mins. Next day, she gives me a 1500 word unpaid assignment with a deadline of 48 hours. It required a lot of first hand research. Somehow I scrape through it and submit it within time.
Week 4
Recruiters calls me to say that my interview is scheduled tomorrow at 3 PM and she will sent me the interview link. It's almost 2:45 PM but there is no link. I call the recruiter and she tells me the panel is out for some other business and my interview is post-poned for the next week.
Week 6
The next week, I receive an invite for an interview for "Growth Marketer role". I thought I applied for the Content Writer role. Strange.
Interview starts and the guy straight away asks me ...
"Why do you want to get into Content Writing despite having an Engineering background?"
"I don't have an Engineering background".
"Your CV says that you do".
"No, it doesn't".
Turns out, they had the wrong CV of another candidate. The rest of the interview goes awkwardly since he did not have access to my CV nor the assignment I submitted.
Week 6
Recruiter calls me to tell that the panel liked my profile and second interview is scheduled for the next day. The next day, my second interview starts. I ask why my invite says "Growth Marketer". He clarifies that along with content writing, I'll be having some marketing responsibilities as well and that my performance will be measured by my success in these marketing campaigns.
Week 7
Recruiter calls me to tell that the panel liked my profile and third interview is scheduled for the next day. Interview drags on for more than an hour. The guy grilled me thoroughly regarding my marketing expertise (SEO techniques, Digital Marketing campaign success, Social Media Marketing tools, B2B framework etc). Things that I had very little knowledge about.
After asking each question, he had a smirk on his face which made me think that he wasn't really trying to understand my expertise, he was just trying to see how I handle stress. A day letter, I get an email from the company with the headline "Until we meet next time!".
So I just have one question: Is this normal? Have you guys had experiences like this before?
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2024.05.19 09:20 baobao1325 Worth it to appeal an insurance pre-authorization decision?
I was recently diagnosed with a hip labral tear, but my pain in my hip is very mild. I actually initially thought it was a femoral stress fracture, but that has since cleared up as well. My sports doctor prescribed me physical therapy, but my insurance (LifeWise AC, Washington) requires pre-authorization for physical therapy visits. I had my physical therapist submit the forms and medical records for this. Unfortunately, my insurance denied me visits because they deemed physical therapy as not medically necessary. At this point, I would like to know if it is worth it to appeal the decision and bring in a letter of medical necessity from my sports doctor? Or if this is just a waste of time? Or if there are any other suggestions for winning an appeal? I only ever get soreness in my hip occassionally, but I am an active athlete so I don’t want to wait around for my hip to get worse. Thank you!
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2024.05.19 09:05 Alteredchaos 📢 Sunday News - with a focus on carers this week
Ministers apologise and return £7,000 in benefits to woman, 93, with dementia Government ministers have formally apologised and repaid £7,000 to a 93-year-old woman whom they held responsible for running up benefits overpayment debts even though they were told she had dementia and was unable to manage her affairs.
The case, which the minister for disability, Mims Davies, admitted was “disturbing”, was brought to light by the Guardian as part of its investigation into carer's allowance overpayments.
The agreement to write off
the debt of the 93-year-old, whom the Guardian has chosen not to name, comes as ministers have promised to try new ways of sharing information with carers to try to prevent them building up months and years of overpayments.
Read the
full article on theguardian.com
DWP confirmed that it is developing an ‘enhanced notification strategy’ to alert carer’s allowance claimants to possible overpayments Notifications designed to encourage claimants to report changes in income and so reduce the risk of being overpaid.
As part of its policy paper
, Fighting Fraud in the Welfare System: Going Further, that was published earlier this week, the Department says (at paragraph 78) -
'In carer’s allowance we are progressing an enhanced notification strategy as part of our existing commitment to improve customer engagement, building on our existing communications with customers. As part of this notification strategy we are considering all forms of targeted contact to find the most effective and efficient solution, such as exploring the use of targeted text messages or emails to alert claimants and encourage them to contact the Department when the DWP is made aware of a potential overpayment.'
The Department added -
'The new strategy will help claimants understand when they may have received an earnings-related overpayment or are at risk of doing so, and will encourage claimants to contact the DWP to meet their obligation to inform the Department of changes in their income and other relevant circumstances. This will reduce the risk of those customers being overpaid.'
Note: having
expressed concern that the DWP had 'done nothing' to stop carers building up huge overpayments of benefit despite knowing what people are earning, Work and Pensions Committee Chair Stephen Timms
called on the National Audit Office to investigate problems with the carer's allowance system and, in particular, its failure to prevent or rectify overpayments.
Stephen Timms
has also written to Secretary for State for Work and Pensions Mel Stride highlighting concerns about the DWP's lack of progress with overpayments since the
previous committee's report in 2019. Mr Timms' letter repeats the committee's recommendation that the DWP increase the rate of carer's allowance and goes on to call for the DWP to review both the amount and the cliff-edge nature of the earnings limit and for the removal of the 21-hour study rule.
For more information, see
Policy paper: Fighting Fraud in the Welfare System: Going Further from gov.uk
Carers UK has welcomed the DWP's plans, noting this is the 'minimum' they've been calling for to tackle carers' overpayments. However, Director of Policy and Public Affairs Emily Holzhausen also highlights that implementing the strategy is 'urgent', asks that the whole issue be moved out of being branded benefits fraud, and that carer's allowance be reviewed as it should be 'modernised to reflect the realities of caring'.
DWP-commissioned research highlights how the carer’s allowance earnings threshold influences decisions about how many hours carers work Report also makes clear that the Department was made aware three years ago that there was room to improve claimant understanding and possibly reduce mistakes leading to overpayments by improving its communications.
The research,
Experiences of claiming and receiving carer’s allowance, explores how and why people claim carer's allowance; their caring roles; experiences of combining paid work and care; and how well claimants understand the rules associated with the benefit. While carried out in 2020/2021, the research has been published today against a backdrop of calls for the
wholescale reform of carer's allowance as a result of evidence that claimants who have earned above the carer's allowance earnings limit have been left with large overpayments and, in some cases, prosecuted for fraud.
While the research found that many claimants in employment felt there was a practical limit to the hours they could work, with many saying it was only feasible to be working part-time due to their caring responsibilities, it also found that -
- the earnings threshold appeared to influence decisions about how many hours some people worked. Even though claimants often denied that the threshold influenced their choices, they acknowledged being mindful to stay below the threshold. One claimant felt he had to refuse shifts at work that would take him over the threshold;
- in another example, the earnings limit led a claimant to reduce her hours as her wages increased, and eventually she was working so few hours that her employer felt it was not worth employing her due to her limited availability; and
- some claimants in paid work felt they might work more hours if not for the earnings threshold, and even suggested tapering the carer’s allowance earnings rule to encourage claimants to work more.
Published on the same day that the Work and Pensions Select Committee said that there has been
insufficient progress in addressing the problems with carer's allowance that it
highlighted five years ago, the research makes clear that the Department has been aware of the issues for some time. For example, it highlights confusion relating to the complexity of the earnings calculation, including how deductions such as childcare expenses and pension contributions are taken account of, and whether wages can be averaged if you earn more in a particular week.
In addition, with the Chair of the Select Committee Stephen Timms having said recently that the
DWP has done nothing to stop carers building up huge overpayments despite knowing what people are earning, and the Committee having called on the National Audit Office to investigate the problems with the system, the research found that -
- poor communication on the part of the DWP meant that not all of those that had been overpaid benefit were clear on the reason for the overpayment;
- some said that while they were initially notified or questioned about an overpayment there was then no follow-up from the Department; and
- when the overpayment was initially raised, several claimants felt that they were spoken to or treated by DWP as though they had intentionally committed fraud when the overpayment had been a misunderstanding.
As a result, the research says -
'... there is room to improve claimant understanding and possibly reduce mistakes leading to overpayments by improving communications around eligibility criteria. Since claimants did not engage with the detail of their benefit regularly, possibly only considering it once a year when they received their annual letter, more frequent communications may improve clarity of knowledge around carer’s allowance.'
Other key findings include that -
- most claimants cared for close relatives, with two in five caring for a child (39 per cent), a quarter caring for a spouse or partner (25 per cent), and one in five (22 per cent) caring for a parent;
- caring was a long-term and high-intensity commitment, with half of claimants (52 per cent) spending 65 or more hours caring per week and more than half (54 per cent) caring for between 5 and 20 years;
- only 16 per cent of carer's allowance claimants were currently in paid work, tending to work part- time in lower paid jobs that they were able to fit around their caring responsibilities, with most (81 per cent) working 20 hours or less a week;
- of those not currently in paid work, seven in ten (69 per cent) said this was due to their responsibilities as a carer, with other barriers including a lack of flexible working options, claimants’ own health and confidence issues; and
- there was a lag between starting caring and claiming carer's allowance, with seven in ten claimants (70 per cent) caring for 5+ years, but only 3 in 10 (34 per cent) having claimed carer's allowance for that length of time.
For more information, see
Experiences of claiming and receiving carer’s allowance from gov.uk
Almost 135,000 people currently have an outstanding carer's allowance debt, with more than £250 million owed in total, according to figures supplied by DWP Minister Paul Maynard DWP Minister also confirms that women represent 68 per cent of those with an outstanding debt.
Responding to a written question in Parliament from Work and Pensions Committee Chair Stephen Timms, Mr Maynard said -
'As of 14 May 2024, the volume of people who have an outstanding carers allowance debt is 134,800 with a total value of £251 million. This figure represents the total stock and as such the total monetary amount may have been accrued over multiple years. Those who have an outstanding carers allowance debt may no longer be in receipt of the benefit.'
Mr Maynard added that -
'Women make up the majority of carer’s allowance claims, and this is reflected in the proportion of those with an outstanding carer’s allowance debt. As of 14 May 2024, there were 42,800 (32 per cent) males, 91,900 (68 per cent) females and 100 (less than 1 per cent) not identified, with an outstanding carer's allowance debt.'
The Minister also confirmed that, as of November 2023, there were more than 991,000 people in receipt of carer's allowance, consisting of around 271,000 (27 per cent) males and 720,000 (73 per cent) females.
Mr Maynard's written answer is available from parliament.uk
Total value of benefit overpayments in 2023/2024 increased to almost £10 billion, representing 3.7 per cent of benefit expenditure for the year New DWP figures also show that official error underpayments remained at around £1 billion, and that people could have claimed more than £3 billion more 'if they had provided accurate information about their circumstances'.
In
Fraud and error in the benefit system: financial year 2023 to 2024 estimates, the DWP calculates how much money it overpaid or underpaid as a percentage of total benefit expenditure for the year (£266.2bn) - for benefits including universal credit, housing benefit, personal independence payment, employment and support allowance and pension credit - and how many claims were paid an incorrect amount.
Note: the statistics no longer include estimates of claimant error underpayments as these are now published separately, as
confirmed in recent DWP guidance.
In relation to incorrect payment rates across all benefits for the financial year ending (FYE) 2024, the figures show that the total rate of benefit expenditure overpaid was 3.7 per cent (£9.7bn), compared with 3.6 per cent (£8.3bn) in 2022/2023. In addition, the total rate of benefit expenditure underpaid was 0.4 per cent (£1.1bn), compared with 0.5 per cent (£1.2bn) in FYE 2023.
Looking in more detail at the figures for individual benefits, the statistics include data showing that -
- for universal credit, expenditure increased to £51.9bn in 2024 with an overpayment rate of 12.4 per cent (£6.5bn) and underpayment rate of 0.3 per cent (£180m), compared to expenditure of £43.4 bn, overpayments at 12.7 per cent (£5.5bn) and underpayments at 0.6 per cent (£240m) in FYE 2023;
- for personal independence payment (PIP), the overpayment rate was at the lowest recorded level of 0.4 per cent (£90m), compared with 1.1 per cent (£200m) in FYE 2023. However, the underpayment rate went up to 0.4 per cent (£80m), from 0.3 per cent (£60m) the previous year;
- for pension credit, the overpayment rate was 9.7 per cent (£520m) in FYE 2024, compared with 6.8 per cent (£330m) in the previous year, with underpayments remaining unchanged at 0.3 per cent (£50m) for both years; and
- for housing benefit, almost £1bn (£980m) was overpaid in FYE 2024 (6.3 per cent of expenditure), compared with £860m (5.7 per cent) in 2023. Underpayments remained stable at 0.4 per cent of spending (£50m in FYE 2024 and £60m in FYE 2023).
In addition to the fraud and error statistics, the DWP has also issued
Unfulfilled eligibility in the benefit system: Financial Year Ending (FYE) 2024, in line with its decision to remove claimant underpayments from its main fraud and error estimates. The new statistics set out the percentage of benefit expenditure that could have been paid to people with unfulfilled eligibility 'if they had provided the correct information', and show key findings that include -
- the unfulfilled eligibility rate for 2024 is 1.2 per cent of expenditure (£3.1bn), compared with 1.0 per cent (£2.3bn) in the previous year; and
- universal credit, PIP and disability living allowance (DLA) account for around three-quarters of the total value of unfulfilled eligibility (at £730m, £870m and £750m respectively in FYE 2024).
The DWP highlighted that -
'PIP has the second highest unfulfilled eligibility rate [4 per cent] of all benefits and fairly high expenditure [£21.6bn], so due to this combination, PIP accounts for around one-quarter of total unfulfilled eligibility in FYE 2024. DLA has the highest unfulfilled eligibility rate [11.1 per cent] but relatively low expenditure [£6.8m], so even though its rate is higher than PIP, it accounts for a similar amount of total unfulfilled eligibility in FYE 2024. Universal credit has a lower unfulfilled eligibility rate than DLA and PIP [1.4 per cent] but its high expenditure means that it also accounts for a similar amount of total unfulfilled eligibility in FYE 2024.'
For more information, see
Fraud and error in the benefit system: financial year 2023 to 2024 estimates and
Unfulfilled eligibility in the benefit system: financial year 2023 to 2024 estimates from gov.uk
Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride has set out the DWP's plans to scale up its 'fight against fraudsters' New measures include using machine learning to detect and prevent fraudulent claims, as well as introducing a new Bill to enable benefit fraud to be treated like tax fraud.
Issuing a
written statement in the House of Commons on 13th May, Mr Stride said -
'In the continued fight against fraud, today the Government will publish a new paper setting out the progress we have made in tackling fraud and error in the welfare system - Fighting Fraud in the Welfare System: Going Further. The paper sets out the progress we have made in delivering the commitments in the Government's 2022 command paper Fighting Fraud in the Welfare System and it demonstrates where we are going further to protect taxpayers’ money from fraudsters.'
Highlighting that the
Data Protection and Digital Information Bill, currently before Parliament, will enable the Department to
work with third parties such as banks to identify claims that signal potential fraud and error, Mr Stride says that the new measures being introduced include -
- bringing forward a new Fraud Bill in the next parliament to treat benefit fraud like tax fraud, by providing for the ability to make arrests and conduct searches and seizures by warrant;
- exploring a new civil penalty to punish fraudsters, potentially broadening the scope of cases that can receive a penalty when the courts are not prosecuting, and increasing the value of the civil penalty;
- tripling the size of the Targeted Case Review programme to reach almost 6,000 staff with the aim of saving £6.6 billion by 2027/2028; and
- making changes to universal credit including new partly automated checks on self-employed income, new online prompts for claimants to re-declare their circumstances (such as if they have moved in with a partner), and increasing checks on capital when people claim the benefit to ensure they are eligible.
Note: the Department confirms that final decisions on accepting or stopping a claim will, however, continue to be made by a member of DWP staff.
For more information, see
DWP updates Fraud Plan from gov.uk
In response to the above article the Disability News Service reported that the government's fraud policy paper ignores coroner’s concerns over review of disabled woman’s universal credit claim. Read the
DNS article on disabilitynewsservice.com
Less than half of legacy benefit claimants who were sent a migration notice between July 2022 and March 2024 have made a claim for universal credit, according to new figures from the DWP However, new DWP statistics also show that 60 per cent of households that claimed universal credit have been awarded transitional protection.
In
Completing the move to Universal Credit: statistics related to the move of households claiming Tax Credits and DWP benefits to Universal Credit: data to end of March 2024, the DWP sets out figures for the period since July 2022, noting that -
'In the period covered by this bulletin, the vast majority of migration notices have been sent to tax credit households whose likelihood of claiming universal credit and receiving transitional protection may be different from DWP legacy benefit claimants, the majority of whom had not yet been sent a migration notice in the period covered in this bulletin.'
The statistics include that -
- a total of 824,050 individuals (in 540,070 households) were sent migration notices up to March 2024 - up by around 300,000 and 200,000 respectively compared to the totals for December 2023;
- a total of 400,940 individuals (49 per cent of those sent migration notices), living in 275,980 households, have made a claim for universal credit;
- of households that have claimed universal credit, 166,860 (60 per cent) have been awarded transitional protection;
- a total of 238,990 individuals who were sent migration notices are still going through the managed migration process; and
- a total of 184,120 individuals who were sent migration notices have had their legacy benefit claims closed.
Move to Universal Credit statistics, July 2022 to March 2024 is available from gov.uk
Note: the DWP has also published
Universal Credit statistics, 29 April 2013 to 11 April 2024 which show that there were 6.7 million people on universal credit in April 2024 (300,000 more than the 6.4 million in January 2024) and that half of households on universal credit that received a payment in February 2024 included children.
Department for Communities also confirms that claimants in receipt of other legacy benefits will be issued with migration notices 'in the coming months' The Department for Communities (DfC) has confirmed that the 'Move to UC' rollout in Northern Ireland has expanded this week to include people receiving tax credits along with housing benefit.
Announcing the expansion of the process, Deputy Secretary of Work and Health at the DfC Paddy Rooney said -
'We continue to take a measured and carefully managed approach to migrating legacy benefit recipients to universal credit. We have already successfully completed issuing migration notices to tax credit only recipients and we will continue to take every step possible to ensure that everyone receives the help and support they need during this next phase of Move to UC.'
The Department also confirmed that once it has issued migration notices to all those receiving tax credits with housing benefit, the following groups will be contacted in this order -
- people claiming income support;
- people claiming housing benefit only, and those claiming child tax credit with income-related employment and support allowance (ESA); and
- people claiming income-based jobseeker's allowance.
In relation to the bringing forward of managed migration for ESA and ESA/housing benefit claimants in Great Britain,
announced by the Prime Minister on 19 April 2024, the DfC says that it is working to assess the impact of this on the region. It also confirms that it will align with the DWP's aim to complete the migration of legacy benefit claimants to universal credit by March 2025.
For more information, see
Tax credit with housing benefit recipients next to 'Move to UC' and
Rollout of Universal Credit for Tax Credit and Legacy Benefit customers - screening from ni.gov.uk
57,000 adverse universal credit sanction decisions were made in January 2024, according to new DWP statistics DWP statistics also highlight that around 95 per cent of decisions are as a result of failure to attend or participate in a mandatory interview.
In
Benefit sanctions statistics to February 2024, the DWP reports on both the rate and duration of sanctions for universal credit claimants who are in conditionality regimes where they be applied.
Key findings include that -
- in February 2024, 30.1 per cent of claimants were in conditionality regimes that were subject to sanctions and, of these, 6.52 per cent were sanctioned - down 0.64 percentage points from the previous quarter;
- over the last year, 94.9 per cent of adverse sanction decisions were for failure to attend or participate in a mandatory interview; and
- in February 2024, there were 20,000 completed sanctions in the 4 weeks to 13 weeks sanction duration band, 4,800 in the over 13 weeks to 26 weeks duration band, and 4,000 of over 26 weeks duration.
In addition, while the total number of claimants in conditionality regimes where sanctions can be applied has remained largely stable since May 2022 (currently at 1.95 million), the total number of adverse sanction decisions stood at 57,000 in January 2024, the highest since March 2022.
The DWP notes that -
'Comparisons with universal credit prior to February 2024 ... should not be made. This is because the data sources, methodology and rules of the benefits differ from those used for universal credit currently.'
However, it adds that, following the reinstated duration measures and rate methodology improvements, the data is now determined stable and fit for purpose and, as of May 2024, it is published under the 'Official Statistics' label as opposed to 'in development'.
For more information, see
Benefit sanctions statistics to February 2024 from gov.uk
DWP has admitted missing multiple opportunities to record the 'vulnerability' of a disabled woman whose death was later linked by a coroner to failings at the heart of its UC system The Disability News Service reported on the case of Nazerine (known as Naz) Anderson, from Melton Mowbray, who died of an overdose in June last year, after receiving a UC review notice.
According to
a prevention of future deaths (PFD) report sent to the department by coroner Fiona Butler, the DWP missed six opportunities to record Anderson’s “vulnerability” on its IT system while it was reviewing her universal credit claim, and had failed to act on the mental distress she showed in phone calls about her claim. It also repeatedly failed to act on requests to direct its telephone calls and letters to her daughter.
The
DWP admits multiple universal credit failures before disabled woman’s death article is available on disabilitynewsservice.com
Number of emergency food parcels distributed across the UK by the Trussell Trust has increased by 90 per cent over the past five years Food charity reports that it distributed more than three million parcels last year, with more than a million of them going to children.
In
Emergency food parcel distribution in the UK: April 2023 - March 2024, the Trust says that it distributed 3,121,404 food parcels, the most parcels that it has ever distributed in a financial year, representing a four per cent increase on
last year's record-breaking numbers for 2022/2023 and a 94 per cent increase since 2018/2019.
The charity also highlights that the number of parcels provided to children has continued to rise, exceeding 1.1 million in 2023/2024, and that food bank support is provided disproportionately to children, compared to the proportion of children in the UK population. In addition, it notes that pension age households are increasingly likely to need to use a food bank, with food bank support for these households having more than quadrupled between 2018/2019 and 2023/2024 (an increase of 345 per cent), compared to an 81 per cent rise amongst households without someone of pension age.
Also sharing statistics on the reason for referral for an emergency food parcel - which include health, benefit issues, work hour changes, insecure housing, changes in personal circumstances, immigration status and domestic abuse, as well as income and debt levels - the Trussell Trust says -
'Across all households the most common reason for referral was due to issues with income and debt levels. The vital role of the social security system in driving these trends is clear from the fact that the majority (78 per cent) of people referred to food banks were reported to solely have income from the social security system, with a further 8 per cent having earned income as well as income from social security.'
Trussell Trust Chief Executive Emma Revie said -
'It’s 2024 and we’re facing historically high levels of food bank need. As a society, we cannot allow this to continue. We must not let food banks become the new norm ... A supportive social security system is the bedrock on which we end hunger for good. Building on this, we need much more effective employment and financial support for parents, carers and disabled people, and action to ensure everyone can have the security we all need to access opportunities and have hope for the future, through more secure and flexible jobs and investment in social housing. Food banks are not the answer. They will be there to support people as long as they are needed, but our political leaders must take bold action to build a future where everyone has enough money to afford the life’s essentials. The time to act is now.'
For more information, see
End of Year Stats from trusselltrust.org
Employment Minister Jo Churchill has provided a House of Lords Select Committee with an undertaking that the administrative earnings threshold (AET) in universal credit will not be increased again without a 'sound evidence base' However, Minister's evidence to Lords Committee fails to address its dissatisfaction with DWP's explanation for not publishing robust evidence to support previous increases in the threshold.
Further to the Lords Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee's
report on new regulations that implemented a further increase in the AET from 13 May 2024 - that criticised the ‘inexplicable’ lack of data evaluating previous increases in the threshold in
September 2022 and
January 2023 - the Committee held a one-off evidence session yesterday to question the Minister and DWP officials.
Introducing the session, Committee Chair Lord Hunt acknowledged that the DWP had agreed to share its informal findings supporting its AET policy. However Lord Hunt added that -
'... similar, no doubt to the material that the Social Security Advisory Committee saw but correctly declined, if information is not available to the House and the public, then we feel unable to consider it either.'
The Committee then questioned the Minister about the Department's failure to publish evidence providing an assessment of the impact of increasing the AET either before or after implementing the change.
In response, Ms Churchill highlighted that the Department did publish a
randomised controlled trial evaluation in 2018 providing the highest level of evidence on the impacts of increased in-work conditionality that Ministers have had sight of. When challenged that this evidence is somewhat outdated and 'a bit threadbare' - as it has been relied on for three increases in the AET - Ms Churchill indicated that Ministers also had early sight of unpublished research (a Regression Discontinuity Design (RDD) study) that compares the experiences of claimants who are just below and just above the AET.
When pressed on the expected publication dates for this and further evidence, Mr Churchill said -
'I have asked for [the RDD study] to be available as soon as it can be, and the date I was given was spring 2024 ... I would like it out the door as soon as possible, so you have more data ... RDD is the next piece, the next building block and then, the longitudinal study will come through in 2025.'
Concluding the session with a final question, Lord Hunt, speaking on behalf of the whole Committee, said -
'... we're looking for an undertaking from you, not to further expand the cohort until the Department can publish robust evidence of its effects. Are you able to give us that undertaking?
Ms Churchill responded -
'So are you alluding to us holding 15 hours or with this latest laying at 18? Because I could certainly say to you, I think with all confidence that at 18, we want to understand the iterations and make sure that we've got a sound evidence base from there.'
NB - the increase in the AET in January 2023 was based, for individuals, on the equivalent of them working 15 hours per week at the National Living Wage, and this week's increase to the equivalent of them working 18 hours per week.
Despite welcoming the Minister's reply, Lord Hunt went on to say -
'... we accept your undertaking, except we are still as dissatisfied as we were because you haven't provided, in the view of the Committee, sufficient explanation yet. We are awaiting this robust evidence, which I think that we now expect in June 2024.'
The evidence session
Regulations to increase the Administrative Earnings Threshold (Legislative scrutiny) is available from parliament.tv
Work and Pensions Select Committee has called on the government to bring forward proposals to compensate women born in the 1950s who suffered as a result of the DWP's communication failures when their pension age was increased, and asks that it does so in the current parliamentary session Committee chair highlights lengthy delay and urgency for affected women and calls on government to act on Parliamentary Ombudsman recommendations before summer recess.
Writing to Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Mel Stride, Committee Chair Stephen Timms requests government support for 'urgent action' following the
Parliamentary Ombudsman's final report in March 2024 which recommended a remedy based on level 4 of its severity of injustice scale, putting awards at between £1,000 and £2,950.
Mr Timms says that the Committee does not seek to question the Ombudsman's proposal for compensation at level 4, but instead has focused on what a remedy may look like -
'The evidence we received indicated support for a rules-based system. This would be a system where payments would be adjusted within a range (based on the PHSO’s severity of injustice scale) to reflect the extent of change in the individual’s State Pension age and the notice of the change which the individual received. This would mean that the less notice you had of the change and the bigger the change in your SPA, the higher the payment you would receive. While not perfect, the advantages of such a system are that it would be: quick to administer; applying known data to a formula to determine the amount due; and relatively inexpensive (compared to a more bespoke system).'
The Committee's recommendation also includes some flexibility for individuals to make the case for further compensation in the event that they have experienced direct financial loss, for example where a woman whose divorce settlement was less than it would have been because it was based on the expectation that she would receive her state pension at 60.
Mr Timms also asks the government to consider -
'... the need for urgent action, given that the Ombudsman started to look at this issue in 2018 and that every 13 minutes a woman born in the 1950s dies ... Implementing a remedy will need parliamentary time, financial resources, and the data and technical systems only available to your department. It cannot happen without government support. We would ask you to bring forward proposals for a remedy by the summer recess.'
Mr Timms' letter to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions is available from parliament.uk
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2024.05.19 08:54 BOfficeStats Domestic BOT Presale Tracking (May 18). Thursday/EA+THU Comps: Furiosa ($4.49M), Garfield ($1.22M/$1.97M), Bad Boys ($3.64M/$5.30M) and Inside Out 2 ($7.66M).
BoxOfficeTheory Presale Tracking USA Showtimes As of May 17 Presales Data (Google Sheets Link) BoxOfficeReport Previews DOMESTIC PRESALES Furiosa Thursday Comp assuming $5M for keysersoze123: $4.49M - abracadabra1998 ($5.46M Thursday comp. GxK obviously really propping the average up but for now I could see that settling at around $5 Million, still good pace! (May 12). Really good stuff in this market (May 9). Reallyyyyyy good day 1 here. I want to note that: NO I do NOT think preview numbers will be that high; it's just highlighting the fact that this is likely a movie that will be running hot in my market, as cinephile blockbusters usually do. Next update I will have T-14 comps, which will be a lot lower due to the short release window (May 8).)
- AniNate (Encouraging to see the weekend fill out a bit. Been seeing a lot of promotion during the basketball playoffs so general awareness has to be getting there now. (May 15). Skimmed through ThuFri and Valley View (Cleveland vicinity) has sold roughly 60 Furiosa tix so far while Tinseltown (Canton) has sold 40. I'm guessing the upfront audience does lean more toward the urban/cosmopolitan sensibilities (May 9). Presales show there's definitely some hype for this. Regal gonna irritate trackers again, offering no upcharge IMAX for Furiosa (May 8).)
- Charlie Jatinder ($3.05M Thursday comp.)
- el sid ($5.8M average Thursday comp (without Exorcist 2) (May 12). Furiosa continues its strong performance in "my" theaters. The movie yesterday had already 1.310 sold tickets (for Thursday, May 23). Up 15% in ca. 24 hours which isn't bad at all after the first rush. Already comfortably in front of The Fall Guy's final sales (it had 1.071 counted on Thursday for Thursday) and almost on par with Civil War's final sales (1.357) and also the Apes finally had not more than 1.657 sold tickets in my theaters (May 11). I also can't complain about Furiosa's presales in my theaters, not at all. Already 1,138 sold tickets (in all of "my" 7 theaters) for May 23. 14 days left. Promising start. Civil War on Thursday of the release week for Thursday had 1,357 sold tickets and The Fall Guy finally had 1,071 sold tickets (May 9).)
- katnisscinnaplex ($3.94M Thursday comp.)
- keysersoze123 (Definitely chugging along. I am feeling good about 5m+ previews (May 15). It has way stronger sales than Garfield and that is expected. I am thinking of 5m previews for now (May 14). I think this is a solid OD presales. With a short PS window its probably looking at 5m+ previews (May 9).)
- TheFlatLannister ($4.71M Thursday comp. Second straight day of weak growth. Not a great sign (May 18). First meh day since presales started (May 17). Keeps climbing at a strong pace (May 11). This continues to grow at an excellent rate (May 10). Really strong day 2. The short presales is for sure a factor (May 9). Not seeing much of a breakout. Still pretty solid start to presales (May 8).)
- vafrow ($3.5M Thursday comp. A bit of a step back today (May 18). It's starting to heat up (May 17). Comps are showing as steady since the last update, but it actually dipped quite a bit this week before rebounding today. Advance ticket buying has been so off in this market recently for some reason. Holding pace with Apes is a good sign (May 16). It had a good day (May 12). Mediocre day 2 (May 10). Not the hottest start. IMAX is the format of choice though, so, ATP will be high (May 9).)
- YM! (Southeast Wisconsin: Pretty solid I guess for Furiosa. Seems that most of it's business is in the Marcus Theaters in Mequon/Waukesha so not really expecting much a diverse showing but there seems to be a fanbase around it. Feel good in everyone's 4.5-5M previews range (May 17).)
Hit Man - vafrow (Getting a theatrical release up here in Canada, and early signs are that it might get a pretty decent screen count. Not super wide or anything, but a pretty decent amount for a weekend that has a lot of other releases (May 14).)
The Garfield Movie Thursday / EA+Thursday Comp: $1.22M/$1.97M - abracadabra1998 ($0.72M EA comp and $1.19M Thursday comp. The two comps that are most helpful, Wish and Trolls (not PLF, EA on a weekend, family movies) are both pointing to a lot lower than average, so I'm inclined to give those a lot more weight. I'm thinking $500-600k for EA (May 18). Still not really accelerating, and the EA is falling against comps (May 12). Good EA numbers, but many of these comps were PLF-only EA, which this is not, so I think the ATP will be quite lower and that should be adjusted for (May 9).)
- AniNate (EA screenings are pretty filled to the brim here now for what that's worth. Maybe a surge in family demand will present itself later next week (May 17). EA sales look decent now, but this does feel rather weak compared to the IF presales. Not 100% certain what's going on here but based on this I buy the trades' opening estimates over the forum vibes (May 15). I definitely haven't seen as much of a rush here with Garfield as with IF (May 11).)
- el sid (The very even sales are a good sign (May 7). For Sunday, May 19, I can already report that also in my theaters it looks very good for Garfield. They will for sure add shows soon. It has so far only 1 show/theater and the shows are almost sold out, between 1 and 4 seats are still available. So my guess still is that this movie if it's not totally bad (and first reviews here were quite positive) will become a (big) hit. Seems not much on Thursday but it's a step in the right direction (May 6).)
- katnisscinnaplex ($0.91M EA comp and $1.11M Thursday comp. Lightyear probably the best comp here size-wise for Early Access, probably ends around 750-800k (May 18).)
- keysersoze123 (4 days later. Almost no pace so far. Sunday shows are near sellout and so limited growth. Previews are like 35% of Panda 4 and Friday is under 1/3rd. That said this will under index in MTC1 as Panda also did that. Still struggling to see this as a breakout. Looking at the current state, it looks like half of IF as well !!! Of course that had Reynolds and did not finish that great (May 17). Its definitely weaker than even Elemental. That said these movies tend to finish strong and so I am not writing it off so early. Just that the long PS window is irrelevant for them. They could rather start presales like a week before release and it would be all the same. Meh. We have to wait until next week to gauge where its going to finish. It has very low ATP as well and actual would be even lower as its going to see tons of kids tickets (May 14). Early shows are regular digital shows at 1PM this sunday. So ATP will be very low. I think 500k ish at best. Preview let us see how things go in the final week. Presales at this point are almost non existent (May 13).)
- TheFlatLannister ($2.18M Thursday comp. Not much movement at all in the past week. Probably heading to $2M+ (May 17).)
- vafrow ($0.4M Thursday comp. Comps don't paint a pretty picture though. EA shows are doing okay (May 11). Still no sales for my core sample for previews. But I did the larger sweep, which shows the interest right now is the Sunday early access shows. Looking at sales patterns, it's mainly blocks of 3/4 tickets, so likely families grabbing some. It's worth noting that the May holiday in Canada is the weekend of May 17-20th, not the weekend after with Memorial Day. I can see families prioritizing getting out the holiday weekend when they have more time (May 4).)
- YM! (The combined previews total for Garfield is 35 tickets with 23 tickets coming from EA, which is pretty solid. Still thinking around 2-2.75m previews with EA as while not as widespread, the showings seem like they’re filling up nicely. Think Garfield does about the same as IF though OW as due to the likely lower ATP Keyser hinted at iirc and seemingly little screen space with no PLFs. Meh, kids animation doesn't really make much notion until the Monday for release and Garfield seems indicative of that. Thinking the 1.5-2M Thursday previews range folks were spitting out makes sense. Nothing screams breakout though and the fact it's getting one screen, maybe two at most for previews makes me feel like OW might be similar to IF (May 17).)
Bad Boys: Ride or Die Thursday / EA+Thursday comp: $3.64M/$5.30M - abracadabra1998 ($3.78M Thursday comp. These numbers are from last Thursday, as per my post this morning. This is a more walk-up movie a la Aquaman or Apes so I think it's a pretty good start (May 18). Pretty good start for it honestly (May 16).)
- katnisscinnaplex ($5.30M EA+Thursday comp.)
- TheFlatLannister ($3.68M Thursday comp. Well, this is a pretty good start (May 17).)
- YM! (Again, another solid start-ish. I expect Bad Boys to have the most diverse audience. Can't really predict much on previews but I am feeling confident in the 55-60m OW range for the past few weeks (May 17).)
- vafrow ($3.45M Thursday comp. Comps are not the greatest. One, surprisingly hard to find a comparable film with similar start on sales. Plus, I think ticket buying patterns have changed pretty drastically in my market over the last few months. There's very little up front sales compared to late 2023. Dune was the exception (May 17).)
The Lord of the Rings Extended Edition Re-Releases (June 8-10) - BoxOfficePro (Fathom Events has also announced that select Regal Cinemas will present the films in 4DX on June 22/23/24 for Fellowship/Towers/Return respectively (May 14).)
- katnisscinnaplex (Up to ~1,400 shows now with new locations picking it up and others adding a second showing. LotR1 has sold 831 seats OD, LotR2 sold 715 seats OD, and LotR3 sold 735 seats OD. For comparison, Phantom Menace didn't break 800 tickets until T-3 and we're still over a month out. JW3 comp is currently around 9m (it was at 1,670 tickets sold at this point!) (May 6).)
Inside Out 2 Average Thursday Comp: $7.66M - abracadabra1998 ($3.67M Thursday comp. Holy numbers of shows and seats! Multiplexes are really expecting a lot here. Sales off the bat not amazing here sadly, but we shall see where it goes (May 15).)
- AniNate (It is encouraging that Canton is already giving me something to work with with 12 Thursday preview sales. Same number for Fri-Sun. I do see nine sales for first Thursday at Canton now and I think that's a pretty solid start (May 15).)
- charlie Jatinder ($11.37M Thursday comp at MTC2.)
- katnisscinnaplex ($6.21M Thursday comp. Early sales just haven't been there lately except for the extreme fans. $12.27M Mario comp (May 18). Already at 180 shows for previews in my areas and still has a few theaters left to post. For comparison, Godzilla x Kong finished with 197, Kingdom of Apes 190, and Kung Fu Panda 205 (May 14).)
- keysersoze123 (At least the show counts show Plexes are expecting a big OW. I dont remember when we last had a animation movie start with so many shows. I wont count Mario as that was a fan driven movie. Definitely not great presales but this is not a fan driven movie. Let us see where things are in the final week (May 15). Too early to judge presales as ticket sales just started early this morning. Families dont book tickets on weekday mornings. Wait until evening today to judge it. From a release perspective its way bigger than all animation movies seen recently including Panda 4. Easily the biggest I have seen in a long time. Only movie which is not comparable is Mario but that was not just a family flick (May 14).)
- Porthos (VERY BAD COMPS: $8.06M Thursday comp. What a strange pre-sale pattern. Threw in Shazam 2 and Barbie simply due to having nothing suitable at T-27, and I wanted something that was backloaded in pre-sales. Was prepared to make a smart-aleck comment about the unsuitability of the pre-sale pattern of Barbie, but after today's update... Okay, yeah. Still no. But what a weird pattern. Was there some sort of promo that dropped today that I'm not aware of? Either way, just a great day (for this type of movie at this point in pre-sales) (May 17). Fairly strong day today, actually. Was concentrated at a couple of theaters (including a small group sale at one showing), but still, sales are sales (May 16). I really do not have good comps for this movie. Like, at all. Especially for D1. With that in mind, I did some digging and did manage to get the Elemental D1 numbers out of the old Tracking thread: IO2 = 5.45946x Elemental on D1 [13.10m]. Now will Inside Out 2 be as backloaded as Elemental? Well it's tough to literally sell 5.5x times the amount of tickets on the final couple of days that Elemental did, so perhaps not. But it does show how fracking backloaded purely kids animation is. Anyway, this is 30 days out and it isn't a CBM film (like AtSV) or CBM-adjacent film (like Incredibles 2). The Sonic 2 comp is perhaps a little concerning. On the other hand, nearly a weeks more of pre-sales so not exactly a great comp. 3.5% of presales are 3D and 40.1% are PLF (May 15). On the Saturday of release weekend (ie NOT EA) there is a special event screening for IO2: INSIDE OUT 2: FUNKO FAMILY EVENT! (2024) Sat June 15th. Might boost the OW slightly, depending on how wide this event is and how much more these tickets will presumably cost (May 11).)
- TheFlatLannister ($8.97M Thursday comp. Definitely the biggest rollout in showings since I've started tracking Florida. Bigger than even Dune 2 and it's only T-26 (May 18). This is a super super strong day 2. Probably just Orlando overindexing, but yeah starting to lean towards something big brewing. Florida presales are somehow even crazier. Sold 2357 seats and is getting a blockbuster rollout in terms of showing allocations. Kung Fu panda comp day 2: gives me $8.50M (May 15). Well, I can't really tell if this is a breakout or not yet. Looks very good especially in the first few hours. These are probably terrible comps, but might as well try something (May 14).)
- TwoMisfits (I'm kinda shocked at the opening set from my Cinemarks... 2 screens (1 PLF, 1 not) and 6 showings at my PLF 14 for Thursday (and 11 showings on the same screens once it runs full day - 7 PLF b/c 1 is 3d on the reg screen, 4 not)... 3 screens (.75 3d, 2.25 not) and 9 showings at the non-PLF 12 for Thursday (and 12 showings on 2.25 screens once it runs full day)... So, 2 and 2.25 screens for the weekend presale sets... Disney must be charging a huge % for themselves b/c this is an Elemental opening set at my PLF...a little more generous for Thursday at my non-PLF, but then they too drop to an Elemental opening set after the adult Disney base Thursday rush... (May 14).)
- vafrow (No new sales. Whatever glitches in the system on day 1 didn't push sales to day 2. I still think the lack of base ticket options will push families to wait. Cineplex has jacked up the cost of premium formats, plus they're throwing in an increase for opening weekend of major releases. It adds up quickly for families (May 16). With the site glitching yesterday, it might account for the slow start. But, what's interesting is the format breakdown. Nothing is being made available in anything close to a regular showtime. The one non 3D showing in Dolby is a matinee showing. Everything else is carrying a hefty premium. They'll likely release regular showtimes closer to release, but right now, it's priced to get eager fans to pay the premium formats (May 15).)
- YM! (Seems IO2 is playing more like a kid's animation than a family event in start of presales. However, it is pretty solid for what it is. Do not have comparisons for anything but I like that Majestic is healthy and it about 66% of Garfield T-6. Thinking anywhere from 75m-100m OW rn but can change as we go along (May 17). In fairness it's only been an hour but yeah sales are softer than I expected. However, it is a month out and will largely skew more towards kids than say TLM/Across so wasn't expecting a blitz like them. Here at Marcus theaters are going all out for IO2 with it having the lion share of PLFs with it getting both screens when there is two PLFs with tentpole like levels of screens (May 14). Was taking a look at Marcus Cinemas to see that they have preloaded Inside Out 2 showtimes which seem to start at 3:00 pm on a Thursday. It seems like Marcus is going all out on it as judging from showtimes it's taking away all of Bad Boys’ PLFs in that theaters that have two+ PLFs are giving all to IO2 (May 11).)
Deadpool and Wolverine - keysersoze123 (Only number that matters is OD presales. after few days it will hit a trough and then it will plod along until social media reactions and reviews hit close to release. I think we can kind of predict its OW after its OD presales (May 18). RESPONSE TO PORTHOS: Captain Marvel had very strong sales on its OD despite early start. So OD is all about fans. It does not matter if you start 2 weeks before or 9 weeks. They will still book. So it would be interesting to compare OD sales not only with CM for @Porthos but also the big openers in 2022/23 period from MTC perspective. 1) DS2 - 230k ish. 2) Thor 4 - 136k ish. 3) Wakanda - 110k. 4) Ant 3 - 88K. 5) Guardians 3 - 70k ish. I wonder where Deadpool 3 will land. Anything is fine as long as it does pull in a Marvels (May 17).)
- Porthos (No point of comparison for a movie starting presales this early (60+ days before release). Only MCU entry which comes close was Captain Marvel back in Jan of 2019 (T-58 start date). Aside from that, the only other Disney release would be TROS starting at T-59. This is gonna be the longest pre-sale window for a major Disney release since The Last Jedi all the way back in 2017 (which looks to be around 70 days if a cursory check of when tickets went on sale is correct). Hell, it's gonna be the longest major release of any studio since Fast X's execrable 99 day pre-sale window. Have had some that came close-ish, but probably the most on-point recent comparison will be Jurassic World 3's 43 day pre-sale window, which is still over three weeks shorter than this one. I mention this because the sheer length of the pre-sale window will very likely depress the D1/D2/D3 sales somewhat. Maybe not much, but you can't tell me there'd be no difference between a T-21 launch, a T-29 launch, a T-35 launch and a T-65 launch. Sure, it's a matter of smaller degrees when comparing something like a BP2 (starting at T-38), but that extra month is probably gonna slice some numbers off the top of the pile, especially after the first day (May 17).)
Domestic Calendar Dates (last updated May 16): MAY - (May 19) Review Embargo Lifts [Garfield 9 PM EST]
- (May 20) Presales Start [Deadpool and Wolverine (9 AM EST)]
- (May 20) Opening Day [Monday: Spider-Man Homecoming Re-Release]
- (May 22) Presales Start [The Watchers]
- (May 23) Presales Start [Summer Camp]
- (May 23) Thursday Previews [Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga + Hit Man + The Garfield Movie + Sight]
- (May 26) Presales Start [Bikeriders]
- (May 27) Opening Day [Monday: Spider-Man Far From Home Re-Release]
- (May 30) Presales Start [A Quiet Place: Day One]
- (May 30) Thursday Previews [Ezra + Haikyu!! The Dumpster Battle + Summer Camp + Robot Dreams]
JUNE - (June 3) Opening Day [Monday: Spider-Man No Way Home Re-Release]
- (June 5) Presales Start [Despicable Me 4]
- (June 6) Presales Start [Twisters]
- (June 6) Thursday Previews [Bad Boys: Ride or Die + The Watchers]
- (June 8) 1-Saturday Re-Release (1st day) [The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Extended Edition]
- (June 9) 1-Sunday Re-Release (1st day) [The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Extended Edition]
- (June 10) 1-Monday Re-Release (1st day) [The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King Extended Edition]
- (June 13) Thursday Previews [Inside Out 2]
- (June 15) 1-Saturday Re-Release (2nd day) [The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Extended Edition]
- (June 16) 1-Sunday Re-Release (2nd day) [The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Extended Edition]
- (June 17) 1-Monday Re-Release (2nd day) [The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King Extended Edition]
- (June 20) Thursday Previews [The Bikeriders + Janet Planet]
- (June 27) Thursday Previews [Blue Lock The Movie -Episode Nagi- + Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1 + A Quiet Place: Day One]
JULY - (July 1) Presales Start [Longlegs]
- (July 2) Opening Day [Wednesday: Despicable Me 4]
- (July 4) Opening Day [Thursday: Possum Trot]
- (July 4) Thursday Previews [MaXXXine]
- (July 11) Thursday Previews [Fly Me to the Moon + Untitled New Line Horror movie]
- (July 18) Thursday Previews [Twisters]
- (July 25) Thursday Previews [Deadpool and Wolverine + Didi + Fabulous Four]
- (July 29) Presales Start [Alien: Romulus]
AUGUST - (August 1) Thursday Previews [Harold and the Purple Crayon]
- (August 8) Thursday Previews [Borderlands + Colleen Hoover’s It Ends With Us + Cuckoo + The Fire Inside + Trap]
- (August 15) Thursday Previews [Alien: Romulus + Horizon An American Saga Chapter 2 + Ryan’s World the Movie: Titan Universe Adventure]
- (August 22) Thursday Previews [Blink Twice + The Crow + The Forge + Slingshot]
- (August 29) Thursday Previews [City of Dreams + Reagan + They Listen]
Presale Tracking Posts: April 23 April 25 April 27 April 30 May 2 May 4 May 7 May 9 May 11 May 14 May 16 Note: I have removed most tracking data that has not been updated for 2 weeks. I think there is value in keeping data for a week or two but at a certain point they start to lose their value and should not be treated the same as more recent tracking data.
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2024.05.19 08:50 Ok_Jelly_3340 Knoxville Needs Change: Higher Wages and Affordable Housing Now
Facts:
- 30 states have a higher minimum wage than Tennessee's $7.25.
- Tennessee last raised its minimum wage in 2009.
- Since then, inflation has risen by about 36.6%.
- A decent living wage for a single adult in Tennessee is about $13.25 per hour.
Rising Rents in Knoxville
- Rapid Rent Increases: In 2022, rent growth in Knoxville was 9.6%, significantly higher than the national average of 2.3%. This trend has continued, with apartment rents increasing by around 6.06% in 2023 compared to the previous year.
- Forecasted Increases: The trend of rising rents is expected to continue, with forecasts indicating an additional 5% increase over the next year.
- High Occupancy Rates: Despite these rent increases, Knoxville's rental market remains highly competitive with occupancy rates around 96.3%, which is higher than the national average of 94.7%.
Recent Home Price Increases in Knoxville
- Median Home Price: The median home sales price in Knoxville rose to $350,000 in July 2023, representing an increase of around 7.9% compared to the previous year.
- Affordability: As of November 2023, the median home sales price was $346,000, up by about 10.8% from the previous year.
- Income Requirements: The income required to qualify for a mortgage on a median-priced home has risen dramatically, from around $59,000 at the start of 2022 to over $110,000 by August 2023.
- Housing Inventory: Despite the rising prices, the total number of homes available in Knoxville is still around half of pre-pandemic levels, contributing to the increased competition and higher prices.
This information highlights the growing affordability issues in Knoxville, with home prices rising faster than incomes, making it challenging for many residents to purchase homes.
Steps to Raise the Minimum Wage
Step 1: Organize a Petition Drive - Form a Nonpartisan Group: Create or join a group focused solely on raising the minimum wage, without political affiliations. Use platforms like Zoom for virtual meetings, schedule regular meetings, and use social media and local forums to recruit members.
- Research Requirements: For statewide initiatives, the number of signatures required is typically a percentage of the votes cast in the last gubernatorial election. Confirm the exact number with the Tennessee Secretary of State's office. For local initiatives in Knoxville, a charter amendment can be proposed if at least one registered voter files the petition with the county election commission for pre-approval (TCA 2-5-151).
- Tennessee Secretary of State: (615) 741-2819
- Create the Petition: Draft a clear and concise petition for a minimum wage increase. Here is a sample:
Draft Petition: Petition for Increasing the Minimum Wage in Tennessee To the Tennessee General Assembly: We, the undersigned residents of Tennessee, believe that the current minimum wage of $7.25 per hour is insufficient to meet the basic needs of individuals and families in our state. Given the significant rise in living costs and inflation since the last adjustment in 2009, we urgently call for an increase in the state minimum wage to a livable wage of $13.25 per hour. This adjustment will ensure that all working Tennesseans can afford necessities such as housing, food, healthcare, and transportation. By signing this petition, we express our support for this necessary change and urge the Tennessee General Assembly to take immediate action. Name Address Signature Step 2: Collect Signatures - Host Community Events: Organize events like town hall meetings, local fairs, or farmers' markets to gather signatures.
- Utilize Local Networks: Leverage small-town connections where everyone knows each other to spread the word and gather support.
- Set Up Booths: Place booths in high-traffic areas like grocery stores, libraries, and community centers to collect signatures.
- Door-to-Door Campaigning: Go door-to-door in your neighborhood to ask for signatures.
Step 3: Raise Awareness - Social Media Campaign: Use platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to inform the community and encourage them to sign the petition.
- Local Media: Reach out to local newspapers, radio stations, and TV channels to cover your campaign.
- Flyers and Posters: Distribute flyers and put up posters in local businesses and public spaces.
Step 4: Submit the Petition - Verify Signatures: Ensure all collected signatures meet the requirements.
- Submit to Authorities: Submit the petition to the appropriate state or local authority for validation.
Deadlines and Requirements
- Submission Deadline: Typically, signatures must be submitted several months before the general election to allow time for verification. For 2024, check with the Tennessee Secretary of State for specific deadlines and the number of required signatures.
How Petitions Work
In general, for a petition to be effective and get an issue on the ballot or to influence local government action, more signatures are usually needed to demonstrate widespread community support. Here’s a brief overview of the process:
- Single Signature Submission: In some cases, a single well-documented request or petition signed by one person can be submitted to local officials to initiate a discussion. However, this method is less likely to compel action without demonstrating broader community support.
- Gathering Multiple Signatures: To increase the chances of the petition being taken seriously, gathering multiple signatures shows that the issue has significant support within the community. This can influence local officials to take action.
- Specific Requirements: The exact number of signatures required can vary based on local laws and regulations. For example, getting an initiative on the ballot often requires a specific percentage of registered voters' signatures.
Example Scenario: - Submitting a Petition to the City Council: One person can submit a petition to the city council to raise an issue. However, gathering more signatures from residents increases the impact.
- Ballot Initiatives: For ballot initiatives, there are usually legal requirements regarding the number of signatures needed. This varies by jurisdiction.
Strategies to Address Rising Rents
While controlling rent increases directly can be challenging, there are several strategies that can help stabilize the rental market and provide more affordable options:
- Rent Control and Stabilization:
- Implement policies that limit how much rents can be increased annually.
- Increased Tenant Protections:
- Strengthen tenant rights to provide more security and stability, such as "just cause" eviction protections.
- Affordable Housing Development:
- Increase the supply of affordable housing through new developments and mixed-income housing projects.
- Tax Incentives for Landlords:
- Offer tax breaks or incentives to landlords who keep rents affordable.
- Community Land Trusts:
- Establish community land trusts to manage and develop affordable housing.
- Rent Subsidy Programs:
- Expand rent subsidy programs to assist low-income tenants.
Petition Example for Rent Control and Tenant Protections
Petition for Rent Control and Tenant Protections To the Knoxville City Council: We, the undersigned, request that the Knoxville City Council take immediate action to address the rising cost of rent and protect tenants by implementing rent control measures and strengthening tenant protections. Specifically, we propose the following initiatives: - Rent Control: Implement rent control measures that limit annual rent increases to no more than a set percentage, tied to inflation.
- Just Cause Eviction Protections: Establish "just cause" eviction protections to prevent arbitrary evictions and provide stability for tenants.
- Tax Incentives for Affordable Rent: Offer tax breaks or incentives to landlords who commit to keeping rents affordable.
- Encourage Long-Term Leases: Promote the use of long-term leases with fixed rent increases to provide stability for both tenants and landlords.
By implementing these measures, Knoxville can help ensure that housing remains affordable and accessible for all residents, promoting a stable and thriving community. By signing this petition, we express our support for these initiatives and urge the Knoxville City Council to take immediate action to protect tenants and address the rising cost of rent. Signature: _______________
Print Name: _______________
Address: _______________
Email: _______________
Other Strategies to Help Afford Homes
Local Level: - Affordable Housing Programs: Support and expand local programs that provide affordable housing options.
- Down Payment Assistance: Advocate for city or county programs that help with down payments for first-time homebuyers.
- Community Land Trusts: Promote local models where the community owns the land and leases it to homeowners, reducing the cost of purchasing a home.
- Zoning Reforms: Push for zoning changes within Knoxville to allow for more diverse and affordable housing developments.
- Financial Education: Provide resources locally to help individuals better manage their finances and improve their credit scores.
- Rent-to-Own Programs: Implement or support local programs where tenants can rent properties with the option to buy after a certain period.
- Increased Housing Supply: Encourage the construction of more housing units in Knoxville to meet demand.
- Public-Private Partnerships: Foster collaborations between the city and private developers to create affordable housing projects.
- Inclusionary Zoning: Require a portion of new developments in Knoxville to include affordable housing units.
- Tax Incentives: Offer local tax credits or abatements to developers who build affordable housing or to homeowners for property improvements.
- Tiny Homes and ADUs: Promote the development of tiny homes and accessory dwelling units (ADUs) in Knoxville as affordable housing options.
- Housing Cooperatives: Support cooperative housing models locally where residents collectively own and manage their housing.
- Employer-Assisted Housing: Encourage local employers to provide housing assistance or benefits to their employees.
- Energy Efficiency Programs: Implement local programs to improve the energy efficiency of homes, reducing utility costs and overall housing expenses.
- Foreclosure Prevention Programs: Provide local assistance and counseling to homeowners at risk of foreclosure to help them retain their homes.
- Land Banks: Establish land banks at the city level to acquire, manage, and repurpose vacant and foreclosed properties for affordable housing development.
Steps for Local Action: - Petition for Ballot Initiatives: Registered voters can start petitions to get these issues on local ballots. This involves gathering a required number of signatures from the community.
- Engage with Local Officials: Attend city council meetings, contact local representatives, and advocate for these programs and reforms.
- Form or Join Advocacy Groups: Collaborate with local organizations focused on housing and community development to amplify your efforts.
- Raise Public Awareness: Use social media, local news, and community events to inform and mobilize residents around these initiatives.
- Vote: Encourage community members to vote for local leaders and initiatives that support affordable housing and related programs.
Example Petitions:
Petition for Comprehensive Affordable Housing Initiatives To the Knoxville City Council: We, the undersigned, request that the Knoxville City Council take comprehensive action to promote affordable housing through a combination of tax incentives, public-private partnerships, inclusionary zoning, expanded affordable housing programs, and the establishment of land banks. - Tax Incentives: Offer local tax credits or abatements to developers who build affordable housing or to homeowners for property improvements. These incentives will encourage the development and maintenance of affordable housing units, ensuring more options are available for low- and moderate-income families.
- Public-Private Partnerships: Foster collaborations between the city and private developers to create affordable housing projects. By working together, the public and private sectors can pool resources, expertise, and funding to develop housing that meets the community's needs.
- Inclusionary Zoning: Require a portion of new developments in Knoxville to include affordable housing units. Inclusionary zoning ensures that affordable housing is integrated into new developments, promoting economic diversity and increasing the availability of affordable homes.
- Affordable Housing Programs: Support and expand local affordable housing programs to provide quality, affordable housing options for low- and moderate-income residents. Currently, many residents are struggling to find affordable housing, which impacts their quality of life and financial stability. By expanding these programs, we can ensure that more residents have access to safe, decent, and affordable housing.
- Land Banks: Establish land banks at the city level to acquire, manage, and repurpose vacant and foreclosed properties for affordable housing development. Land banks can transform unused or abandoned properties into valuable assets for the community, providing opportunities for affordable housing development and revitalizing neighborhoods.
By implementing these strategies, Knoxville can create a more inclusive and sustainable housing market that supports the needs of all residents. This comprehensive approach will help address the current housing shortage and ensure long-term affordability in our community. By signing this petition, we express our support for these initiatives and urge the Knoxville City Council to take immediate action to promote affordable housing through these measures. Signature: _______________
Print Name: _______________
Address: _______________
Email: _______________
Down Payment Assistance Petition for Down Payment Assistance Programs To the Knoxville City Council: We, the undersigned, urge the Knoxville City Council to advocate for and establish city or county programs that provide down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers. Many residents find it challenging to save enough for a down payment, which is a significant barrier to achieving homeownership. By providing down payment assistance, we can help more residents transition from renting to owning their homes, promoting long-term financial stability and investment in our community. By signing this petition, we express our support for the creation and implementation of down payment assistance programs to help first-time homebuyers in Knoxville. Signature: _______________
Print Name: _______________
Address: _______________
Email: _______________
State or Federal Level:
- Subsidized Housing Vouchers: Increase the availability and funding for housing vouchers that subsidize rent for low-income families.
- Mortgage Credit Certificates (MCC): Promote MCC programs that provide tax credits to first-time homebuyers at the state or federal level.
Combining these approaches with efforts to raise wages can create a more comprehensive solution to housing affordability issues.
How New Jersey Did It:
- Legislative Action: Passed in 2019, the law set a schedule for gradual increases to reach $15 by 2024.
- Annual Adjustments: Provisions for annual increases based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
- Broad Support: Significant political backing from the governor and legislature.
- Sector-Specific Plans: Different timelines and rates for small businesses, seasonal workers, and agricultural employees.
- Economic Advocacy: Studies and advocacy highlighted the benefits, helping to build public and political support.
Tennessee's Business Environment and Minimum Wage:
- Business-Friendly State: It's true Tennessee is known for being business-friendly, which can make raising the minimum wage challenging.
- Jobs Over $12/Hour: While many jobs may pay over $12 an hour, not all workers have access to these opportunities, especially those with limited skills or education.
Steps to Take:
- Educate and Advocate: Inform the community about the benefits of a higher minimum wage for both workers and the economy.
- Highlight Success Stories: Share examples from other states like New Jersey that have successfully raised their minimum wages without harming businesses.
- Promote Nonpartisan Support: Work with groups that focus on worker rights without political affiliations to gather broader support.
By focusing on education and nonpartisan advocacy, it's possible to create a more inclusive conversation around raising the minimum wage.
submitted by
Ok_Jelly_3340 to
Knoxville [link] [comments]
2024.05.19 08:46 m45hd CommSec converted my account from cash to margin without my consent
Aussie ape here, been holding GME for over 3 years now. Have some DRS and some in a broker.
I wanted to make a post as this seems fairly significant and concerning given the past week we have had with the price action. I have a bunch of shares sitting with Australia's biggest bank. Their platform they use is provided by Interactive Brokers (IBKR) and throughout the week I have been watching the price action shoot all over the place.
There was a banner all week on Commsec's site stating they were doing some maintenance on Saturday 18th.
I log in today and I see that there is a section now called 'Excess Liquidity' which was not there all week.
https://preview.redd.it/3hqqhba4vb1d1.png?width=214&format=png&auto=webp&s=b7868d43d8bbace0cc454c7296a29bfcb2cdc6f6 I hover over the exclamation mark and find this:
https://preview.redd.it/a508c40evb1d1.png?width=880&format=png&auto=webp&s=047c214046f306fc5bc7cc45c7b7d62bc0b1a3cb I can now also trade crypto and options! WTF?
https://preview.redd.it/bzofkzfxvb1d1.png?width=803&format=png&auto=webp&s=0af71928c5704317402c6e86d9b6cf22c2446740 After a bit of digging, it looks like IBKR updated its client agreement just 10 days ago on 9th of May which has information about their 'Universal Account' and a section on liquidation...
Registration_v2.formSampleView (interactivebrokers.com) CLIENT AGREES THAT IBKR HAS THE RIGHT, IN ITS SOLE DISCRETION, BUT NOT THE OBLIGATION, TO LIQUIDATE ALL OR ANY PART OF CLIENT'S POSITIONS OR ASSETS IN ANY OF CLIENT'S IBKR ACCOUNTS, INDIVIDUAL OR JOINT, AT ANY TIME AND IN ANY MANNER (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO PRE MARKET/AFTER-MARKET TRADING AND PRIVATE SALES) AND THROUGH ANY MARKET OR DEALER, WITHOUT PRIOR NOTICE OR MARGIN CALL TO CLIENT IF AT ANY TIME
It's an interesting thing to have occurred considering the price action this past fortnight and that I have had this account open with Commsec when they were using Pershing LLC (BNY Mellon) before they moved to IBKR in August 2023.
I'll be calling them as soon as their international trading desk support number opens, but in the meantime, can any other apes with CommSec confirm if this has happened to them?
submitted by
m45hd to
GMEmate [link] [comments]
2024.05.19 08:44 m45hd CommSec converted my account from cash to margin without my consent
| Aussie ape here, been holding GME for over 3 years now. Have some DRS and some in a broker. I wanted to make a post as this seems fairly significant and concerning given the past week we have had with the price action. I have a bunch of shares sitting with Australia's biggest bank. Their platform they use is provided by Interactive Brokers (IBKR) and throughout the week I have been watching the price action shoot all over the place. There was a banner all week on Commsec's site stating they were doing some maintenance on Saturday 18th. I log in today and I see that there is a section now called 'Excess Liquidity' which was not there all week. https://preview.redd.it/3hqqhba4vb1d1.png?width=214&format=png&auto=webp&s=b7868d43d8bbace0cc454c7296a29bfcb2cdc6f6 I hover over the exclamation mark and find this: https://preview.redd.it/a508c40evb1d1.png?width=880&format=png&auto=webp&s=047c214046f306fc5bc7cc45c7b7d62bc0b1a3cb I can now also trade crypto and options! WTF? https://preview.redd.it/bzofkzfxvb1d1.png?width=803&format=png&auto=webp&s=0af71928c5704317402c6e86d9b6cf22c2446740 After a bit of digging, it looks like IBKR updated its client agreement just 10 days ago on 9th of May which has information about their 'Universal Account' and a section on liquidation... Registration_v2.formSampleView (interactivebrokers.com) CLIENT AGREES THAT IBKR HAS THE RIGHT, IN ITS SOLE DISCRETION, BUT NOT THE OBLIGATION, TO LIQUIDATE ALL OR ANY PART OF CLIENT'S POSITIONS OR ASSETS IN ANY OF CLIENT'S IBKR ACCOUNTS, INDIVIDUAL OR JOINT, AT ANY TIME AND IN ANY MANNER (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO PRE MARKET/AFTER-MARKET TRADING AND PRIVATE SALES) AND THROUGH ANY MARKET OR DEALER, WITHOUT PRIOR NOTICE OR MARGIN CALL TO CLIENT IF AT ANY TIME It's an interesting thing to have occurred considering the price action this past fortnight and that I have had this account open with Commsec when they were using Pershing LLC (BNY Mellon) before they moved to IBKR in August 2023. I'll be calling them as soon as their international trading desk support number opens, but in the meantime, can any other Aussie apes with CommSec confirm if this has happened to them? EDIT: this has happened to other apes with CommSec! Things are heating up! https://www.reddit.com/GMEmate/s/qMp4RIygvQ submitted by m45hd to GME [link] [comments] |
2024.05.19 08:22 culturegsv632 Is it really that hard to land a position?
Idk, alot of people on this subreddit say it's tough as fuck to find a job, even for a mid-level QA engineer such as myself. However, it took me literally one month of job hunting to land a position as a QA Engineer for a company in the Netherlands as an American citizen. I'm talking from start to finish: finding the ad -> doing the interviews -> accepting the offer.
Then again, when I applied, I typically submitted a very in-depth resume + personalized cover letter for each role I saw.
If you're open to opportunities anywhere, is it really that hard to land a position for the average engineer?
submitted by
culturegsv632 to
QualityAssurance [link] [comments]
2024.05.19 08:10 Aksjxbdhsxjsj Human trafficking: Job Offer Scam Bangkok/Mae Sot. Know the Signs!
Let’s make it aware that there is a job offer scam that lies and take you to Scam Factories and you become a slave, and you may even die. Post here all cases of Disappearance of people who may be associated with this type of scam.
Know The Signs! Have you been trafficked? * Did you apply for the job via Social Media (e.g. Facebook, Instagram), WhatsApp, Telegram or an online platform? * Did you have an online interview? * Have you been promised a job with a company in Thailand? * Were you promised a lucrative salary? * Did you receive a letter of confirmation for your new role? * Did you investigate the company you applied to and are they registered? * Do you have an agent or consultant handling details for you?
How to prevent yourself or someone you know from being trafficked * Never give anyone your passport! * Research the company you are applying to join. For example, check their website, search for them on social media and LinkedIn, check the legal registration of the company. * Ask for references (face to face or virtual) from current employees. * Ensure you received an official letter of offer and check the email addresses match the companies contact information. * Research the visa requirements for working in a foreign country. * Notify your countries Immigration Office of your intention to travel or contact your countries Embassy once you arrive at your destination. * If you are about to cross a river in north-west Thailand don’t, it is likely you are being trafficked into Myanmar.
Could this be your situation? If you or someone you know has been trapped in forced criminality, contact your nearest embassy or email the Global Alms Counter Trafficking Unit at
admin@globalalms.com with the details.
This is a post for awareness. Let’s help each other. Only serious comments.
Below are more links to other related posts.
https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2023/12/asia/chinese-scam-operations-american-victims-intl-hnk-dst/ http://chinascope.org/archives/32233 https://youtu.be/m6qFCdHvYuI?si=rs2J71V1XIeFF7we https://www.reddit.com/Thailand/s/L8OTm9Lvye https://www.globalalms.com/protection (My account created recently for privacy/scam concerns)
submitted by
Aksjxbdhsxjsj to
Thailand [link] [comments]
2024.05.19 08:04 culturegsv632 Is it really that hard to land a position?
Idk, alot of people on this subreddit say it's tough as fuck to find a job, even for a mid-level QA engineer such as myself. However, it took me literally one month of job hunting to land a position as a QA Engineer for a company in the Netherlands as an American citizen. I'm talking from start to finish: finding the ad -> doing the interviews -> accepting the offer.
Then again, when I applied, I typically submitted a very in-depth resume + personalized cover letter for each role I saw.
If you're open to opportunities anywhere, is it really that hard to land a position for the average engineer?
submitted by
culturegsv632 to
cscareerquestions [link] [comments]
2024.05.19 08:03 hypikachu Tyrion's Paternity: An open question? [Spoilers Extended]
| Listen. I know "Tyrion Targaryen" is a divisive topic. I don't think there's any theory that gets more vehement criticism. I understand why it gets the ire it does, and don't even wholly disagree. Buuuut, if I can play devil's dragonlion's advocate here: The counterarguments to the theory are all...kinda shaky. 1. "It hurts the story" I'll admit it. I (kinda) agree with this assessment. A "Tyrion's a secret Targ" reveal threatens to undermine other big elements of the story. One secret orphaned prince is a tragedy, but a dozen is a farce. It also arguably hurts the Tyrion-Tywin relationship. I don't think it'd be ruinous as many of the critics do. But even if it were, that still wouldn't affect whether or not it's canon. This argument really doesn't address "what is or is not," but rather "what should or shouldn't be." But writers do stuff they arguably shouldn't all the time. Fans of Star Wars will gladly tell you that midi-chlorians undermine the Force. But they're still canon, bc George said so. Martin is no more infallible than Lucas. I love these books, and I think GRRM's the bee's knees. But can you tell me with a straight face that "Joffrey sent the catspaw" was perfectly executed storytelling? Whether something's good or not is a subjective matter for the audience. But whether something's canon is wholly at the whims of the author. And it definitely seems like GRRM's whims are pointing towards A+J. 2. "GRRM was setting it up in the early books, but abandoned the idea at some point." Yes, George is a gardener and doesn't necessarily stick to a rigid story plan. He's removed or changed big elements of the story, like the 5 year gap or the Brightflame cloth dragons. It's definitely possible that Tyrion Targaryen might have been a similarly scrapped plan. (Small Tangent: I'm even pretty open to the idea that it was scrapped in the show. It's totally the kind of thing D&D would hate. But you can ask Griff & Stoneheart if show canon = book canon.) The problem is, there's no clear point where GRRM stopped dropping hints that align with A+J. It still seems front and center in ASOS (2000), when Tywin makes his last on-page appearance. He explicitly calls Tyrion's paternity (and the fidelity of his beloved cousinwife) into question twice in that book, down to his last breath. Bookending Tyrion's first speaking appearance ( AGOT Jon I). The very first thing Tyrion says about Tywin is "he thinks of me as a bastard." The idea of Tyrion's paternity being in doubt hangs over the Tyrion-Tywin relationship from the first moments to the last. The relevant characters' most recent book appearance was the worldbook in 2014. (The same year GRRM gave his now famous explanation of why abandoning setup makes for bad storytelling.) Even then, GRRM was obliquely pointing to the possibility of A+J=T with relentless determination. Every single mention of Joanna is attached directly to a note about how much Aerys pursued her. Tyrion's birth is one paragraph after the tourney of 272. Where the only notable event was Aerys lusting after Joanna, deepening the rift with Tywin. Which moves us nicely from the meta-textual arguments into the in-universe "evidence." 3. "[Pycelle said] Tywin wouldn't have married Joanna if she'd been with Aerys" Pycelle sure did say that. Pycelle is wrong. That's the point. How can we tell? GRRM's choice of wording in Pycelle's rebuttal. As Pycelle insists in his letters, Tywin Lannister would scarce have taken his cousin to wife if that had been true, “for he was ever a proud man and not one accustomed to feasting upon another man’s leavings.” Pictured: Pycelle's wrongness. The 2014 audience already knows Tywin absolutely would do that. The climax of his conflict with Tyrion was him bedding Shae. "Feasting on another man's leavings" is already a defining part of Tywin's relationship with Tyrion. GRRM wrote Pycelle huffing copium. Conspicuously. The fanboy maester's denial depends on a claim the audience explicitly knows is false. It's just basic dramatic irony: the audience knows something the characters don't. If Pycelle's claims rests on false evidence, what is the author saying about the claim? 4. "If Tywin knew/suspected, why didn't he do anything more than try to resign?" I'll be honest, this one blows my mind. The man sacked King's Landing and killed every Targaryen he could find. Tywin's big defining pre-stories action was brutally overthrowing Aerys' whole family. Sure he didn't do it immediately. But when circumstances permitted, Tywin took extreme vengeance. 5. "Tyrion's dragon dreams aren't Dragon Dreams" Why the hell not? Symbolically heavy. Seemingly prophetic. Showing a destiny of magical conflict, with stakes as intimate as family identity, and as broad as globe-spanning war. Tyrion’s dreams check all the boxes for what makes up a Dragon Dream. (Or should I say, “They meet any cry-Tyrion?”) When Tyrion first mentions dreaming of dragons, he’s telling Jon “I know your secret. You dream the same kind of dreams.” Again, dramatic irony time. Tyrion’s saying it as “I know you secretly feel alienation.” But a reader who knows Jon’s lineage knows the real secret is why Jon’s magic dreams fixate on family alienation. Because they’re Dragon Dreams. The very first thing GRRM tells us about Tyrion’s dragon dreams is that they’re comparable to Jon’s Dragon Dreams. And Tyrion’s have actual dragons in them. Oh, and very non-coincidentally, this scene happens only 20ish pages after Dany has the first confirmed on-page Dragon Dream. Which hits all the same elements. Prophesymbolic vision of a buried dragon identity. Which emerges through the crucible of sibling struggle. GRRM returns focus to Tyrion’s dragon dreams in ADWD. He has two such dreams during his journey east from Illyrio’s manse as part of a plot to marry Dany to a guy with a big fighting force behind him. Eagle eyed observers will note that this is exact same setup Dany herself had in AGOT when her Dragon Dreams started. In both the earliest and latest books in the series, GRRM draws immediate parallels between Tyrion’s dragon dreams and Targaryen Dragon Dreams. Just from an economy of storytelling perspective, it would be weird to have Tyrion’s special important dreams-w/dragons-in-them that just happen to be totally unrelated to Jon & Dany’s Special Important Magic Dragon Dreams™️. Caveat: Schrodinger’s Targaryen Despite all of this, I do not think GRRM’s endgame is as simple as “And then we learn Tyrion is 100% definitely Aerys’ son and not Tywin’s.” My strongest hunch is that the plan is for the story to end without a definitive answer, but a pointedly open question. Compare it to other “unresolved Targaryen/dragonrider ancestry mysteries” like Nettles and Daeron T vs Daemon B. GRRM loves this “the mystery is more valuable than the answer” approach to storytelling. In AGOT and ASOS we’re told “Tywin thinks of Tyrion as not his.” In TWOIAF we see maesters publicly speculating about Aerys & Joanna’s relations. I think the in-universe uncertainty is the plotline here. The speculation already exists in Tyrion’s plot, which will come to a fever pitch when (not if) he saddles Viserion. I don’t think there’ll be any raunchy Bran-vision or tearstained secret letter from Joanna that definitively confirms Tyrion’s parentage one way or the other. Tyrion seizes Casterly Rock and there’s a hubbub about legality. Is he a golden trueborn lion, Tywin’s legal heir? Is he the red of a Targaryen dragon and/or a color-inverted Lannister bastard? Who the hell knows? What does it matter? All the truth Tyrion knows is his mother was a lioness, making him a cat regardless of coat. That, plus he has a dragon, with sharp long claws. The dragon reins are all he needs to reign from Castam Casterly Rock. This deliberate open-endedness leaves room for a lot of options. I’m very open to chimera theory. Nerd Tangent: In myth, the chimera is literally a fire-breathing lion-serpent hybrid. All Tyrion needs is some goat imagery and he’s got the whole animal. Plus GRRM keeps making the lady of Casterly Rock mother twins at every point in the timeline. Joanna’s were even fraternal. GRRM even wrote an unpublished conversation whereTyrion talks about Maelys the Monstrous (to whom Tyrion repeatedly compares himself) absorbing his twin in-utero, and imagines the same thing happening in his own mother’s womb. George is doing everything a writer setting up a “genetic chimera” twist reveal would do. Separately, I really like the idea of Tywin misinterpreting prophecy and dooming himself to the fate he was trying to avoid. In perfect parallel to Cersei’s experience with Maggy. Tywin gets some kind of cryptic warning about Aerys’ bloodline displacing his own. Just like Cersei’s valonqar, he jumps to a misplaced suspicion of Tyrion, when he should be examining Jaime and/or Cersei. When TWOIAF bundles the tourney of 272, Tyrion’s birth/Joanna’s death in 273, and Tywin’s role in the Targaryen downfall together, it’s entirely possible that the point is the same as AFFC Cersei constantly telling us “valonqar = Tyrion.” A red herring; there to prompt the audience into thinking about the question. But preserving mystery by laying the false answer on thick while the true answer is surreptitiously sprinkled in. Maybe there’s even in-universe discussion about how an AJT reveal makes a farce of RLJ? “Diluting the reveal by flooding the spot with something similar but even more outlandish” was Tyrion’s own in-universe strategy for dealing with the reveal of Cersei’s royal bastards. This could be GRRM going full circle. “Oh, Ned Stark’s other closely guarded secret about royal bastardy just came out? Well, this counterstory from Tyrion about royal bastards has juicy stuff like clowns and sex with a crazy guy and kids w/physical abnormalities. Once this story spreads, no one’ll know what to believe!” It could even go the same direction the show went for Theon’s identity dualism. Tangent: (Theon is kinda directly connected to Tyrion already, having inherited the “burn Winterfell, torn between Starks & birth family” plotline originally meant for Tyrion.) You can be both a furry apex predator on 4 legs and a mythical beast with long wriggly appendages. Lizard & lion at once. GRRM might even be highlighting this Schrodinger-esque superstate of “both one and the other simultaneously” with Tyrion’s ADWD intro. The first time we see the cat-man after he kills Tywin, he’s drunk himself half to death in a box while on his way to Illyrio. It's the moment when he’s most in limbo– after killing the lion Tywin, but before joining sides with Aerys’ dragonspawn – he’s a half-alive half-dead cat in a box. All I'm saying is that I think, for George, the point is the duality. The uncertainty. The multiplicity of options. Tbh, I’m not arguing that “Aerys is the father” = The Answer™️. I’m just arguing that the story is designed to set up the question. From Tyrion’s first lines to Tywin’s last, GRRM insistently raises the notion of Tyrion not being Tywin’s son. The most recently published account of A, J, T, & T deals heavily with the contentious love triangle. I’m not saying you have to like it. I’m just saying you can’t pretend it’s not there. submitted by hypikachu to asoiaf [link] [comments] |
2024.05.19 07:46 bazmonkey A prometheus exporter for pi-hole version 6
I just wanted to share a prometheus exporter I've been working on that uses the new API in the version 6 beta of pi-hole:
https://github.com/bazmonk/pihole6_exporter I've also got a
dashboard that uses most of the metrics. I just updated the screenshots but the dashboard listing is slow to update. If you click on it in the next few hours and only see one screenshot, that's the old one.
Why another pihole exporter? People have written a bunch already...
Two reasons: first, I couldn't find one that uses the new API in the upcoming version 6. It's undergone a lot of changes. This one uses HTTPS and possibly an app token.
Second, an annoying thing I find in a lot of the existing exporters is that they only provide the per-24h stats that the admin dashboard mostly uses. Tracking that number over time is useless. You see a lot of the "ads blocked over time" graphs are jagged lines instead of increasing ones... that's because they're actually reporting the ads blocked over the last 24h (to the hour), which makes it jump down every hour and never go up overall. With only rolling 24h stats it's difficult/impossible to derive what was actually happening over time.
So, in addition to reporting those numbers (for use as quick-stats), I'm also collecting the counts of queries by [client, type, status, response, upstream destination]
per minute, so that you can actually look up how many queries of some kind happened over arbitrary amounts of time, as opposed to merely what the 24h count was at that time. You can look at the cumulative stats and aggregate stats-over-time for the hour, the week, etc. It's simply more useful data.
What's Prometheus?
It's a system for gathering metrics (numerical data) off computers and putting it into a time-series database for analyzing and looking for trends/problems/etc. Usually it's used along with grafana (a web app for making pretty graphs and dashboards based off that data), and it's often used alongside Loki (a similar system for gathering log data). Folks also use it to generate alerts (e.g. I get slack alerts if I have updates available, or if a user is logged in, or if available memory is too low or CPU pressure too high too long).
While you can host your own prometheus/loki/grafana servers (it's open-source), Grafana also offers a
cloud service that hosts it for you. The free plan (free-free: don't gotta give them payment method or anything) is plenty of space for a few raspberry pi and their logs. They also offer Grafana Alloy, an agent that handles sending up your data securely so you don't have to deal with that aspect. AND, they have a pre-built Raspberry Pi integration that is pre-configured and ready to go. If you go that route, in the README I include a sample blurb you can put into the Alloy configuration to use this exporter along with it.
Aaaanyway, any feedback is welcome!
submitted by
bazmonkey to
pihole [link] [comments]
2024.05.19 07:36 arpaccount2234 Fandoms, F for any playing M
[I'm over 18, you must be over 18, and our characters will be over 18.]
~ I'm looking for a longterm writing partner, not a "quick scene".
~ My time zone is EST but I'm happy to write with anyone of any time zone.
~ I write in third person past tense.
~ I usually write four paragraphs minimum per reply but can easily go beyond that to breaking the Discord character limit.
~ I write as female main characters but I am happy to play various other side characters to help shape the world.
~ If you're interested in writing samples from me please see the pinned posts on my profile.
- What I'm looking for in a partner:
~ Writes as a male character and can also take on various side characters.
~ Writes in third person past tense.
~ Can give at least three paragraphs per reply.
~ Helps shape the plot by bringing ideas and suggestions.
~ Has time to respond to the roleplay at least every couple of days.
~ Has knowledge of the fandoms and characters they're picking.
~ ~ ~
~ I'm looking for writing partners that want to play the male role in any of the pairings listed below. I'd like there to be romance but I prefer slow burn as we build the world and plot around the characters. Slice of life type of events are nice but I'd also like action and adventure, for the characters to face challenges and adversaries together. Mixing in angst and drama, anything along the lines of hurt/comfort, is always fun too.
~ Usually I'd like whatever plot we decide to play out to be canon divergent, different than the actual storyline and something of our own design, while still keeping the structure of the world and keeping any canon characters present true to who they are.
~ In some cases I have pre written intro posts that follow a loose plot that we can further shape to our needs, if you're interested in those ask! (I do not have these for every listed pairing.)
~ I'm open to AUs so bring those ideas if you have them!
~ ~ ~
[Fandoms & Pairings]
& = If you want to do this one bring some ideas.
Hogwarts Legacy/Harry Potter:
- Ominis Gaunt x My Female OC
- Ominis Gaunt & Sebastian Sallow x My Female OC
- Severus Snape x My Female OC
- Your Male OC x My Female OC &
Yu Yu Hakusho:
Naruto:
- Shikamaru Nara x My Female OC
- Sasuke Uchiha x My Female OC
DC Comics:
- Nightwing x Harley Quinn
- Nightwing x Donna Troy
Star Trek:
- Your Male OC x Seven of Nine
Genshin Impact:
- Neuvillette x My Female OC
- Zhongli x My Female OC
- Diluc x My Female OC
- Xiao x My Female OC
- Your Male OC x Raiden Ei &
Avatar the Last Airbender:
The Walking Dead:
- Daryl Dixon x My Female OC &
- Shane Walsh x My Female OC &
submitted by
arpaccount2234 to
roleplaying [link] [comments]
2024.05.19 07:31 forallthebananas Is flagpoling an activity I should avoid?
My situation:
I am currently in the process of waiting for acceptance to several institutions in Canada to study. I have applied for the September 2024 intake. I have not begun the process of securing a student visa or my student permit because the first requirements are the letter of acceptance and the proof of tuition payment.
My parents are encouraging me to go to Canada on my visitor visa so that I can attend open houses to other universities and visit my target institute because I plan on taking a master's degree after my 1 year certification program (I need to take online pre-requisite subjects for the master's degree anyway, but I was advised to have some Canadian education/experience before I apply for a master's degree there so I will be doing my pre-req subjects online in Canada while I complete the 1 year certification program).
My concern is that if I fly there before I receive my student visa and permit, will I be able to claim or activate them through flagpoling? My biometrics were taken less than 6 months ago for my visitor visa and I have collected the necessary documents for the application. I understand that they are only issued from outside Canada itself and a previous poster here posted their own experience 6 months ago:
Went to Rainbow Bridge today. Told the officers in the US side that I will flagpole, they gave me a paper then went straight back to Canada side. They asked me a few questions then went to the immigration office. There, they asked for my documents and after more or less, 20 minutes, my study permit was given to me. Everything happened in less than 40 minutes. I think I got lucky.
For more information, I will be staying with my sister in Canada who will be housing me and feeding me for completely free until my studies in September start. I'm thinking it's a major hassle and I would not want to waste money by flying there on my visitor visa and flying back to my country to get a student permit and visa to reenter as a student. But in the event that I do fly on a visitor, would I be able to claim my student permit and VISA through flagpoling?
submitted by
forallthebananas to
ImmigrationCanada [link] [comments]
2024.05.19 07:26 TheFifthEmperor Should I get a new Police Clearance Certificate (Dhaka)?
Obtained a certificate for my wife on
July 20, 2023, which have a
1 year validity. Got documentarily qualified on
August 15, 2023. From the looks of things, we won't be getting an interview until after the clearance certificate expires.
Did some googling and it turns out I might have to obtain a new one for my wife:
https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/Supplements/Supplements_by_Post/DHK-Dhaka.html#pre_interview_checklist If you are older than 16 years of age: Original police certificate from your country of current residence and any countries of previous residence. If these three items are ~all~ true, you must bring a more recent police certificate to the interview:
- You are older than 16 years of age;
- You obtained a police certificate and submitted it to NVC more than one year ago; and
- You still live in the country that issued the police certificate you submitted to NVC.
Has anyone been in this type of situation before?
submitted by
TheFifthEmperor to
immigration [link] [comments]
2024.05.19 06:57 Big-Pair5172 Graduating M7er here. I finally landed a full-time job with philip morris (Big tobacco). it pays mBB level salary, but i'm worried about social Ostracization from m7 network. should i accept?
Title. Graduating 2nd year at an M7, been struggling to recruit for a full time role ever since I didn't get a return offer from my internship (corporate strategy at a F100). Pre-MBA background in healthcare consulting.
I cast a wide net, across a variety of different roles and industry, initially targeting tech Strategy & Ops, MBB & T2 consulting, and similar mainstream roles. However, I got completely rejected from them.
So I started throwing my apps into my 2nd, 3rd, and 4th tier options.
It was my last choice, but I got an interview callback from Philip Morris International, a Big Tobacco company, which owns extremely famous cigarette brands like Marlboro. They recruit on my campus. It was a strategy oriented role, and after a few rounds, I landed it! And what's crazy is that the pay is straight up a godsend in this horrible job market - it's MBB level pay, $210k+ in total compensation.
The issue, however, is that my role is genuinely a blatant, net negative to society. My role will contribute to strategies on getting more people hooked on tobacco, cigarettes, and nicotine products, which will directly contribute to lung cancer, second hand smoking, deaths etc.
I am worried because on my campus, this type of company and industry is completely against what's socially acceptable. Most people talk about how they want to be equity oriented business leaders, be pro DEI, be pro ESG and try to balance capitalism with giving back to society. Yes, industries like MBB or investment banking or even Big Tech have their demons and societal ills. But while McKinsey helped fuel the opioid crisis and prop up dictators, most of its projects are relatively "benign" and mundane where the people going into consulting have "plausible deniability" that McKinsey isn't completely evil.
That's why you have incoming McKinsey consultants post very pro liberal and progressive political comments on Instagram while not viewing that as cognitive dissonance. Most of my classmates are outwardly liberal, at least on social issues.
Big Tech, investment banking, and consulting is popular on my campus. I have seen people go into Oil & Gas companies like Chevron (they also have a major MBA program) and they've gotten socially ostracized for doing so. Same with someone going to work for a controversial defense or military contractor. CPG Brand Management is an option, with the reception being more mixed. People don't love PepsiCo but are neutral on say deodorant owned by Unilever.
From Wikipedia itself: "With tobacco being addictive and the single greatest cause of preventable death globally, the company is highly controversial, not least because of its history of obfuscating scientific evidence around the health effects of smoking. It has been the subject of litigation and restrictive legislation from governments."
The company claims it supports a long-term vision of a "smoke free future" where cigarettes are replaced with non-smoking tobacco products such as e-cigarettes, vapes, nicotine pouches, and heated cigarettes. But this seems like smoke and mirrors and for the here and now, cigarettes are an essential part of the company's sales strategy & revenue. And even non-smoking tobacco products are extremely addicting with net health negatives. It's the same as Big Oil companies saying they have a clean energy division.
I have a wife and and incoming baby. I need to pay back near $200k in MBA student debt. I didn't have a job lined up, and financially this is a no brainer for me. I don't like that it's unethical, but it doesn't bother me too much.
But people say the biggest long term ROI of the MBA is not just the initial job pivot, but the network. And I feel deliberately joining a Big Tobacco company in a role where I am essentially pro cigarettes and nicotine, would put a Scarlet Letter on my back. I fear people will be reluctant to refer me to future roles, and I could also lose many MBA friendships.
What are your thoughts?
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Big-Pair5172 to
MBA [link] [comments]
2024.05.19 06:42 kainike Delusional Filipino actually turned out fine
im a harbinger of bad luck so cant believe things actually went okay-ish considering im not a competitive applicant
₊˚⊹♡.𖥔 ݁ D
emographics - Gender: Non-Binary
- Race/Ethnicity: Filipino
- Residence: Philippines (international applicant)
- Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): N/A
- High School: Religious private school that isnt the most competitive or well-known in the country but pretty alright.
- Income Bracket: 35k (considered middle class in the Philippines, my father is the sole breadwinner working as a lawyer and I have 2 more siblings who are still studying in private schools)
- EFC: 2k to 3k USD (i needed aid from every school)
₊˚⊹♡.𖥔 ݁ I
ntended Major(s): Media Production / Film and Television Production / Communications / Media Studies
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cademics - GPA: 3.9 for Freshman/Sophomore/Senior year, 3.6 for Junior year
- of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: NONE, my school offered AP classes but I couldnt afford them
- Senior Year Course Load: Mostly humanities and social science classes, I did not have any science or math classes in my coursework.
₊˚⊹♡.𖥔 ݁ S
tandardized Testing - SAT/ACT: Went test optional but I took it once and got a 1230 (LOW AS HELL BYE)
- ENGLISH TEST: Took the Duolingo Test and got 155
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xtracurriculars/Activities: i didnt plan my extracurriculars in high school i sure did a lot and most of them were scattered out HAHA. jack of all trades, master of none moments. i tried to include mostly my media and writing related activities. aside from the ones i listed on my common app, i was immersed in a lot of social justice and political advocacy works + other sports :)
- Elections Project - assistant project head of a city wide youth elections project where we conducted mock elections, podcast interviews with politicians, and daily news coverage of the national 2022 elections.
- National Newspaper - writer contributor of a political editorial article to a national newspaper
- School Play on Social Justice - wrote and directed a play that tackled social justice issues in the country, I was the overall head of the class project and the play had runs with audience members from invited schools
- Student Council - was the student body vice president (junior year) and student body president (senior year), I was the main organizer of projects and events such as the annual school carnival, christmas fundraiser, student assistance programs, family day activities, etc.
- School Newspaper - was the news and sports editor of the school newspaper for 3 years, i also competed in journalism competitions as the representative of my school paper
- Dance Varsity - was part of the hiphop dance varsity team of my school for 4 years, we won in many national competitions
- Photography Business - owned a mini-photography business for 2 years at which I was mostly working on freelance photo editing
- International Screenwriting Competition - won 3rd place in two screenwriting competitions during my junior year
- Elderly Volunteer Organization - was part of an organization that conducted monthly outreach programs to the elderly, I served as the treasurer of the organization for 2 years
- Tutor Services - worked as a tutor of an organization that offered free onsite tutor services to elementary children, i tutored language (Eng and Fil) subjects
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wards/Honors - Academic Honors 9th-12th Grade
- Leadership Recognition 9th-12th Grade
- Community Service Recognition 9th-12th Grade
- Awards for Journalism Competitions
- Awards for Screenwriting Competitions
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ssay - Common App Essay - went with prompt 3, wrote about my favorite author and how my reading habits mirrored my flaws in handling everyday life. 8/10 could have been more fleshed out and i crammed it first week of Jan.
- Supplementals - yeah I just copy and pasted a lot of these from my supplemental essays to other schools. 7/10 to 8/10
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ORs - Media Studies Teacher - 10/10
- English and Literature Teacher - 8/10
I did not read the letters but im basing it on how much they like me as a student. I chose these teachers because I got high grades in their subjects and they got PhDs.
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nterviewss- I got none and I was too busy to go for optional interviews. I really did not display any demonstrated interest.
₊˚⊹♡.𖥔 ݁ D*
ecisionss *(
ALL REGULAR DECISION, actually I filed my international applications late like 2-3 weeks after the deadlines because I was in a depressive episode last January) ACCEPTANCES - UPD, UST, ADMU, DLSU (Top 4 universities in the Philippines)
- University of Denver - Dean Scholar (29k) + International Diversity Award (11k)
- Brandeis University - Presidential Scholarship (15k)
- Syracuse University - Dean Scholarship (10k)
- Marquette University - Pere Marquette Scholarship (29k)
- Hofstra University - Presidential Scholarship (29k)
- Drexel University
- Rutgers New-Brunswick
- University of Maryland
- University of Massachusetts Amherst
- PennState
WAITLISTS - Wake Forest University
- Franklin & Marshall College
REJECTED - Kenyon College
- Sewanee College
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eflection well that was krazy HAHA. ik many people here showcase ivies and T20s and im not that remarkable with my t40s to t100s but i'd like to think its not that shabby for an unknown international from a third world country. my biggest regret is not applying for NYU, its my dream school but again considering my depressive episode from November to January I wasnt able to file my application on time. its a miracle that universities still accept late applications and im grateful for all that I have and received. If i could turn back time I wish I was a little bit stronger and more stable to have been able to apply for NYU, my common app essay about my favorite author was actually an alumni from NYU :")
but we carry the burdens of choice under the merits of luck; even with merit scholarships, I cant afford any of the international schools I was accepted to. more likely i'll have to attend the top university in my country. but i dont want to give up man i'll still try to appeal for financial aid and if that wont work I'll apply for transfer during my sophomore year to ivies and top LACs that give full financial aid to international transfers. the odds are low but never 0 and no harm in trying !! see you all again next year for my transfer results :]
submitted by
kainike to
collegeresults [link] [comments]
http://rodzice.org/