Manipedi near me

As I neared the precipice, I prayed with my parents for the god of the volcano to accept me instead of rejecting me like the others.

The End is near for your Empire. You have ruled it well,10000 enemy soldiers stand infront of the Gates of your Capital. Its a summer day in 1444, you sit on your Throne. The enemy is just outside of your Gates, Arrows fly down and wreck havok among the Civilians. You think about peace but that means death. Your Generals have left you, your Queen has fled. Now only my character a Advisor from Austria, named Magdalena remains. She agrees to help you fight. She becomes one of your Generals. Her only condition is that she gets a high government role if you win. You two march into Battle, there is nothing to lose now.
This Roleplay will be centered around this great Battle and what happens after. We control the fight at hands, with strategy we must win this fight. If you are interested DM me, i will reply as fast as possible.

On Sunday I went to a French language meetup in my hometown. I was super nervous and told myself I only had to stay 10 minutes but I ended up staying 2 hours and had some lovely conversations. I wanted to share what got me to the point of being able to converse in simple French.
I learned French at school to the age of 16 but like so many came out being able to say very little. I could do some basic transactional stuff like ask directions and order in a restaurant but wouldn't always understand responses.
Over ten years ago I bought the Paul Noble French course from Audible and that made a huge difference. I worked my way through in fits and starts and felt much more confident in French when I completed it. I would highly recommend it as an effective method to get going. However I was busy with work and family and didn't pursue it further. Over the years when I have visited France I have re-listened to that course a number of times, which I would highly recommend for consolidation purposes, maybe I'm a slow learner but once wasn't enough for me to grasp everything. There's a review at the end of the course which is also very useful for a recap.
In January we booked to stay a month in France this coming August. We'll be staying in an AirBnB with a French lady and her daughter. I became newly motivated to learn French, with the goal of being conversational by August.
To begin with I revisited the Paul Noble French and bought his Next Steps course and worked through that too. I should probably have gone over it again but I was getting bored and wanted to try something different. I will definitely return to the Next Steps course because it is very effective. Both PN courses used spaced repetition and I find that very effective, along with lots of speaking out loud. You won't develop a huge vocabulary but you will get a very good feel for the way the language is put together and be able to speak more confidently. There is no reading or writing element to speak of, but reading/writing is not my main goal so I'm not too worried about that for me and I can get it from some of the other resources detailed below.
I find the Paul Noble has been one of the most effective methods for me and I'd give it a 9/10. I would go for walks or use it while doing household chores, talking to myself in French.
Since then I've been trying a few different things, some of which I have stuck with and some not so much.
I bought Rocket French Level 2 and am working through that. I have definitely learned from it but I think there are huge improvements that could be made to their courses. The "podcast" element involves a huge amount of repetition, which even at level 2 includes repeating "bonjour madame" multiple times when by now that should be a given, which can make the pace feel very slow. I do like the "play it" feature where you can play through conversations in French as a character in a scenario and I am using that feature more than anything else on the site. The grammar lessons feel pretty indegestible and I'm now skipping those. Their other recap tools are also good but it feels like once you have completed a module they never come back to the topic again so you aren't getting that spaced repetition. I've started revisiting lessons rather than moving onto new content as I feel like otherwise I'd end up with word soup rather than language in my head with Rocket; lots of tenuous bits of language I can't quite remember what they mean. It's a shame their flashcards tool isn't more sophisticated too as exporting the vocabulary into a flashcards app is rather onerous and I struggle with Anki (any Flashcard recommendations gratefully received, preferably not expensive). In terms of how much Rocket is helping me, I'd give it a 7/10. I see it as a source of comprehensible input and a conversation practice tool but without so much spaced repetition as Paul Noble does so well. I don't feel I'm making great strides forward with it unfortunately.
I've had more success with Pimsleur. I was put off by the expense of the subscription but took the plunge and haven't looked back. It reminds me of Paul Noble. I'm glad I did PN first as I feel Pimsleur doesn't always give you long enough to respond where PN does, so I'm glad I already had a grounding before starting Pimsleur. My routing is to drop my daughter off at school and then go for a walk of 30 mins to an hour, listening and speaking aloud with Pimsleur. I feel like I am really making progress and retaining what I learn. It's a longer course than PN so I hope I'll be able to speak a lot more by the end of it. Pimsleur gets 9/10.
I also started Duolingo at the end of January. I have found it useful, especially for reminding me about verb endings and consolidating what I learn elsewhere. It's not expensive and I'd definitely recommend it as an added extra but don't expect to be able to learn French quickly with only Duolingo. 7/10.
Anki - I really tried with Anki but I was always ending up with my decks getting mixed up between English to French/French to English when I uploaded lists from Rocket French. I prefer my decks to be English to French. It should be highly effective but I struggled to use it. 4/10.
Assimil - I couldn't engage with at all. I will revisit because I feel like I should have got more from it than I did. I'm not going to give it a mark as I should probably have persevered.
Lingvist - It's a flashcard app, and a good one. I need to expand my vocabulary as Pimsleur won't do that. I'm on the free trial at the moment and really liking it. It is easy to engage with and uses spaced repetition. I am learning. It does seem very pricey for the subscription but I'm considering shelling out. 8/10.
Inner French Podcast It's hard to get interesting comprehensible input but this is one of the best sources I have found. I French teacher living on Poland who puts together beautifully enunciated and well crafted, and above all, interesting podcasts in French that I can understand. I love this podcast. I would also like to shout out for the Duolingo podcast which is even easier to understand and is also super interesting. I'd give them both 10/10.
Coffee Break French I dabbled with CBF podcasts years ago but wasn't sure where to join in and gave up. This time I started at the beginning of season 2 and have got a lot out of it, especially for grammar. I love being able to get on with chores or go for a walk while learning so this suits me great. Grammar is dull but CBF threads it through podcasts in an accessible way, introducing it in scenarios along with useful vocab. This is so much better than the huge slabs of text Rocket French presents you with in their grammar lessons. I paid for a premium course but sadly have to say that I should have saved my money as I don't feel you get much for the money beyond what they give away for free. They do however give a lot away for free and I'm happy to support their project by paying for a product or two. If you are going to buy something, their Travel Diaries course is not so expensive and has a little pronunciation practice exercise which is nice - but Rocket French does that better. The main courses premium content has exercises that you could find in most grammar textbooks, plus lesson notes. The free podcast lessons are excellent though and very engaging. If you want to remember the vocab and phrases effectively, and they give some lovely phrases, you are going to need to put them into a flashcard deck I think. They lessons don't really prompt you to talk or write your own French. Otherwise you can treat the lessons as an excellent grammar guide and a very good source of comprehensible input delivered in an engaging manner. 8/10. 10/10 if you don't pay but you will need other practice opportunities and a way of retaining the vocab.
I paid for a couple of conversation lessons on ITalki. These were invaluable for helping me to understand whether I could actually hold a conversation. I really surprised myself with how much I can say now, even though I was almost dreading my first lesson. Speaking for half an hour, with lots of pauses while I tried to assemble sentences was hard but very worthwhile. This gave me the confidence to go to the local French discussion group, so was priceless. 10/10.
YouTube - has been invaluable for finding out language learning methodologies and learning how to learn a language. I'm very interested by the apparent results of Comprehensible Input and Krashen, but also by Spaced Repetition, which I have found very effective. Youtube is also great for answering questions such as what's the difference between voici and voila which otherwise I'd have to turn to a textbook to find out. 10/10.
My recommendation is to have a mixture of tools to use. The ones I have got the most from are Paul Noble and Pimsleur in terms of actually being able to speak, but I've got so much out of them in part because I have been threading in other learning. So when Pimsleur introduces the "near future" tense I know what they are doing even though it's not really explained on the Pimsleur course because it has been covered in Coffee Break French, as an example. I think that has really helped be to not get confused by Pimsleur's approach. It's like having looked at a map before setting out on a journey. Not one of these resources is enough on it's own and some people will learn just as well without paying for any of these tools, but this has worked for me so far.
What resources have you used and which do you rate highly?

Time stamps https://imgur.com/a/dfB3au9
Sorry for so few photos of the 3090, currently installed and a pain to take out for a few photos. Selling my 3090 Kingpin AIO version, includes the 3 EVGA fans receipt if I can find it and original box. This was purchased in January of 2022. I am also selling along with it a brand new EVGA Kingpin Hydro Copper Kit, these are near impossible to find and it took me way to long to get one. But my build has changed and I am planning on moving to an ITX case and the kingpin is just too big sadly due to its larger PCB size.
I have the original boxes, and the receipt for warranty purposes.
Asking $1100 for the 3090 and an additional $350 for the block for a total of $1450 plus shipping and fees anywhere in Canada, I will add additional insurance at my cost. Not really considering splitting this up at this time.
Thanks for looking.

I know it may be controversial but after hearing about the taming skill idea and some people saying well then how would pets fit alongside it. Pushing the new skill idea aside for now, I think it’s about time pets had a purpose in the game besides cosmetic.
Most pets are already incredibly rare to get and take hundreds if not thousands of hours to obtain. So I think every pet should have 1 small ability to them.
So for example boss pets would give unlimited teleports to near the boss. So you would right click vorki for example and click teleport to get to vorkath. This would be the same scenario for other boss pets like Ikkle hydra would take you to hydra.
I don’t think this is too overpowered as of course even having the pet is rare and then once you are at the boss using the pets teleport feature, you’d fight the boss with that pet out therefore risking 1M to claim your pet back from probhita if you die there.
Skilling pets for example the beaver would give extra logs into your invent when chopping trees. Heron would give a few extra fish. Rocky would give a few extra items from pickpocketing. You get the idea.
That’s all. I have 12 pets and they all sit in the poh not being used so I think this is a way to add use to them that isn’t overpowered.
Let me know your thoughts Thanks for reading

Jacob is awoken to the sound of gun fire and the smell of smoke. As he looks around he notices that the three woman who were with him sre gone, but these observations are cut short as another bomb detonates about 35 feet from him, sending its shrapnel through whatever remained of the way, thankfully keeping him safe.
As jacob stumbled towards the hole in wall, he could see the early morning sky lit up from the light of AA fire and the forms of both kansen and siren planes fighting up in the air. As he takes stock of the battle raging across the harbor, he notices that the three woman who were with him were outside - using their riggings to shoot down enemy air craft. After that he began hearing rapid footsteps approach him. As he turns around he is greeted by the sight of tall, tanned woman, with long silver hair wearing black swim wear and wearing an open black jacket.
As she continues her approach, one of the automated siren planes begins to fire into the opening in the wall. As this happens the woman quickly picks up jacob and begins running away from the exposed area, while firing her AA. After a few seconds of AA fire, the plane is shot down and crashes into a surrounding building, setting it on fire.
After walking for about a minute, the woman finds a safer area for them and proceeds to place jacob back down. As jacob trys to say something, he is cut off as the woman starts speaking. "Are you alright?" She says, jacob trys to nod, but is stopped by a pain on his side. As he looks down he finally realizes that he had been hit by a piece of shrapnel. The woman notices this and speaks again "I'll take you to vestal. Keep preasure on the wound and try to stay awake", jacobs nods as the woman begins to pick him up again, and proceeds to start running out of the building towards the base hospital.
As they are running, jacob looks around and finds that the battle is nearly over. Only a few siren ships and planes remained, but from what he could tell it wasnt as clear a victory as he would've hoped. As he looked at the dock he could see several hulls burning and sinking into the water, and many other hulls on the dock that were set alight - he could also see that many buildings on the base were either damaged or destroyed just like the building that housed his office.
While looking around, jacob doesnt even notice the fact that they reached the clinic or the fact that he was starting to feel light headed, until finally he couldnt keep his eyes open anymore, and drifted off.
Jacob jolted out of the hospital bed with a start, as the memorys of what happend before he passed out start replaying inside of his head. As jacob looks around he notices 5 people around him - Z23, kuybyshev, theseus, the woman who brought him here, and what jacob could best describe as a nun with light lilac hair and blue eyes.
After jolting up, jacob winced in pain as both his abdomen hurt on hid right side, and a pain he didnt notice before on his cheek. After seeing that jacob was awake, the nun looking person started speaking up. "You're a lucky one commander chasler. if masacheussets didnt rush you in here you probaly would have bled out", this statement causes jacob to pale, but without taking notice vestal continues speaking, "thankfully we we're able to stabilise you and were able to remove any pieces of shrapnel that were imbedded in you", after vestal finishes speaking, jacob asks them all a question, "How much damage did the port sustain, and are there any casualties?", after this question the room falls silent for a few moments, during which everyone in the room shifts uncomfortably before vestal begins to speak up "we lost two battleships - arizona and oklahoma, and around 72% of the port has either been damaged or destroyed". After saying that the room reverts back to its silent state for a few minutes before Z23 speaks up, "Commander Chasler, i know this may be a bit much to ask since you've been here for less than 3 hours and have already been through a siren air raid - but the fact of the matter is that base repairs will require extensive amounts of paper work. So it is my belief that once you are able to leave, that you immediately come to conference building which contains an extra office, so we can begin the process of going through the paperwork" after what Z23 said, jacob nods solemenly as he looks out of the window in the room they were in and gazes upon the port - Where many fires were still being put out.

After gazing upon that sight for what felt like an eternity, jacob finally realized that he had a moment to actually think - and he could only think one thing - 'Well this is a shitty first day'

After being discharged from vestals clinic an hour and a half later, jacob begins the process of heading towards the conference building - moving around debris and rubble as he walked through the once majestic port, avoiding any kansen that may be running around bringing supplies here or there, or putting out the odd fire.
After walking for about 10 minutes, jacob finally arrived at the - shockingly - almost fully intact conference building, and walks in. Inside of it, he finds Z23, kuybyshev, and theseus, reading and signing papers at break neck speeds. Jacob doesnt say anything, as he enters, and takes a seat at the desk that was left for him. he proceeds to start going over the paper work - reading, signing, asking for assistance from one of the three woman at times - until finally he realizes that its already night time and more than 3/4 of the papers still need to be reviewed, signed, and sent. So even after everyone else left to turn in for the night - jacob remained in the office, doing as much as he could, until eventually at 2 in the morning, he decided to head back to his room since it was still largely intact.
As he passes by the eagle unions dorm, he spots a kansen sitting down on a bench right outside of its entrance - a woman with long blonde hair, yellow eyes, and old-western styled clothing. as jacob takes a closer look, he see's that the woman has a dark expression on her face, only adding to the fact that her eyes looked as if they had been crying for a while before he got there. So jacob approaches the woman on the bench.
"Is this seat taken?" Jacob asked, the woman looked up at him and replied, "theirs place enough for ya here youngin" she says in what jacob believes was supposed to be a happy tone but was brutally squashed by her other apparent feelings. After that, jacob sits down on the bench with the woman, both of them not saying a word, until finally the silence is broken by the woman, "y'know ma' sis oklahoma, wouldnt hav' wanted me to be mopin about port, but yet here i am, sittin on a bench, cursin' out the world for takin' her" she says - jacob slightly winces as he realizes that this is sister of one of the deceased battleships - nevada.
After she finished speaking, and jacobs apparent realization, they both return to silence. After a few minutes of contemplating, jacob finally figures out what he will say, "Nevada," he says as she turns to face him, "I swear to you, on my name as the new commander of this port, that we will avenge oklahoma, and we will make the sirens pay for what they have done to both all of you and to humanity" jacobs says with a confident finality, that he didnt even know he could accomplish. After a few seconds of nevada looking at jacob with a stunned expression, she slowly begins to chuckle, then that chuckle turned into a full laugh - jacob paled at this, thinking that he made a fool of himself until nevada spoke again, "Well arent ya' the smoothest talka here, pledging revenge for a' womans behalf," she says with a light smile, causing jacob to lightly blush at her comment. Nevada just chuckles again, before speaking up again, "thank ya commander, but dont worry," she says somewhat happily but with flint in her voice, "i'll make sure those siren bastards pay well enough", at this jacob only nods. after about 10 minutes after about 10 minutes after that, nevada gets up and heads back into the eagle unions dorm.
After a few minutes of sitting still, Jacob finally gets up, and makes the journey back to his room, still avoiding any stray debris, until eventually - he makes it back to his partially destroyed building - making his way through the hall and into his bedroom, where he finally lays downs, and falls asleep.
Elsewhere
"Hmm?" Observer Alpha says, as she catalogs the data she has obtained from jacob, "Anomaly after Anomaly and this one is the strangest yet" she muses after going through all of his data.
"Now, lets see how you will handle all of these situations com-man-der~" she says in a mocking tone after inputing new commands into her tablet. As she does this, 10 capsules can be seen, each with a letter denoting its name - A, H, R, S, F, L, J, M, T, Y - and within each capsule resides a female form.
"Prepare Capsule F" Observer Alpha says, as power begins to stream into the capsule, beginning its activation process

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Hello. I'm a 26 year old male. I don't really know what to do anymore. I've been trying to find love for 2 or more years since my last relationship. The last relationship I had was rocky but I could tell that she loved me for who I was. She was a foreign woman who I had to visit out of the country. She became increasingly unhappy at my absence so I let her go. (It's really expensive and complicated to date/marry people from her country)
I was with her for 6 or more years. She found someone new in less than a month who she says is very similar to me as she was using our relationship as an example of what she wants in her partners.
I have been trying to find a woman near me that I can be loving towards and make happy. I have an idea of the kind of woman that would make me happy in return. I consider myself to be handsome, as every time I look in the mirror I like what I see. I'm physically fit and take care of myself.
However, every time I try to meet a new woman I'm either rejected, not considered, flaked on or ignored. It doesn't matter what dating app I use or where I meet the woman. They are simply not interested in me in any meaningful way and often treat me like I don't exist or aren't important enough to give time to. If there's a woman who I think might like me she's working constantly and never in the mood to go out after work.
I don't know what's wrong with me. I think I'm a good partner. There's literally no excuse for me to not be able to find a partner that I can love. I have a lot of interesting hobbies. I cook, paint, play guitar, make music, play video games and exercise. I have a successful career and have overcome more obstacles to succeed than many people can say they have. I'm intellectual and people often come to me for my perspective on things. I'm a supportive friend and go out of my way for others in need.
I've done literally everything right and love constantly evades me. I don't know what to do anymore. It's bothering me so much that I've thought about ending it all.
I keep all of my good qualities at the back of my mind so I don't come off as arrogant to others but when I sit and think about it I'm baffled that I can't even get someone to hang out with me on the weekends.
What is wrong with me?

So I have my sisters wedding coming up and I need a good medium/full coverage foundation. I used to be really into makeup but I’ve fallen out of the loop so I’m not sure what’s good anymore! I have really oily skin and I’ve just been using the L’Oréal tinted serum everyday and love it, but obviously need something more full coverage. I don’t want to buy all new products so I’ll list other products I use so that you can make recs based off that. I thank you in advance!! I also only have an Ulta near me so try to avoid Sephora exclusives if possible! Would like to get a higher end foundation, but will take drug store recs too.
-elf power grip primer -elf hydrating camo concealer (I’m willing to get a different concealer if necessary) -Laura Mercier translucent setting power (I have normal and the ultra-blur. Literally the only powder I’ve ever found that doesn’t break up and make my makeup patchy)

My fiance and I are planning on having a short elopement at Delaware Park, specifically near the flower garden, near the restaurant and Shakespeare in the Park hill. I was wondering if anyone has ever done this or heard of it being done. Basically, it will be just the two of us, an officiant, and a photographer, for like an hour, hour and half. If anyone has heard of anything like this being done in Delaware Park please let me know, We are worried that there would be some sort of issue with either the restaurant or the park itself. Thank you!

Hi, idk if anyone else is in this situation and if it's anything to worry about. I was a fat kid (12-14yo) but always athletic and strong. Could beat anyone in an arm wrestling contest, win fights against boys etc, before I became SLIGHTLY underweight around 16. Nowhere near hospitalisation level.
I'm now 18 at a low-average weight with moderately big muscles and the basic bodyfat to be healthy. I never stopped working out my legs (as in running/hiking, I didn't start weightlifting until recovery) which look so amazing and are strengthening with no issue, but my upper body... Oh lord...
Several short, skinny to normal weight women still overpower me even without having worked out a day in their life, I can't beat my little sister at arm wrestling, I know underweight men who lift heavier than me, I understand men will always overpower me anyway but that's still worrying. When I was restricting, I had terrible chest pain and respiratory problems, which surface if I do chest exercises like pushups. My biceps get shaky and fail easily even with light weights, and it's weird that I'd have to train my arms at the gym to overpower women who do not lift whatsoever.
Anyway, just looking for anyone, male or female, who had a similar experience? Is it possible that fasting/restricting as an adolescent somehow ate all my arm strength? It goes with my fat distribution by the way, when I was underweight all my chest/collarbones/wrist bones were poking, but my thighs stored all the fat of my body.

I came across this neat diagram someone made trying to ascribe meaning to Hiver head shape, and it suddenly hit me like a bale of hemp: Kenshi's Hivers are backwards.
In nature, eye placement is very consistent across ecological niche, with predatory animals favouring forward-rotated eyes to provide good binocular vision, and thus depth perception, while prey creatures have eyes rotated outwards to maximize field of view. Indeed, even pupillary shape tells us multitudes about the ecological niche an animal belongs to.
In Kenshi, however, we see the opposite on display - the comparatively fragile drones are excellently equipped for combat, having closely spaced eyes suited for depth perception and redundancy should one become injured or occluded in combat. On the other hand, the Hive Soldiers have eyes spaced so far apart, one could reliably render them incapable of seeing anything to the left of their midline with a single blow to that side of their head.
Worse, Soldier Drone head shape cause their eyes to be dangerously exposed, such that it's a miracle they aren't permanently blinded by something as simple as walking too near a wall! Contrast, again, to the Worker drone, which at least preserves something of an eyebrow ridge to deflect blows and shield them from being blinded by blood or rain running off their cone head.
The only explanation I can float is that what we call "Soldier Drones" are in fact more apty described as "Sentry Drones", designed to spot predatory animals and threats to the hive quickly via their near-360 degree field of vision. They then react aggressively, not in hopes of defeating the threat, but rather to provide it with an easy meal to drag back to the nest. Indeed, it might be posited that their head shape - bereft of any contour to deflect the full force of any blow aimed at it - is most designed for size, weight, and relative detachability. Indeed, brain tissue, being dense in crucial fats, sugars, and electrolytes, is a prized food to any subsistence hunter. Perhaps, then, it is no coincidence that its anterior protrusion forms a natural handle by which to haul this portable feast around, as though to advertise its very convenience! "Ignore those gangly fellows in the field, all skin and bones, fiddling with their stick-throwing devices. Simply drag this one back and return tomorrow for another". A persuasive strategy!
This explains why the best sniper in the game, Green, is a "lowly" worker - they are the only members of the hive capable of even using a ranged weapon properly (princes being, of course, too regal to dirty themselves with any task of value to the hive), let alone capable of surviving enough combat encounters to gain skill with it. In contrast, the only unique Solider recruit, Ray, is found in a state of abject slavery and possessed of combat skills at parity with his potential for diction.

Hey everyone, I’m currently working on a research project for my ENC1102 class this semester about how people communicate changes after having a near death experience.
Last month, I fell unconscious on the way home from campus and woke up to a voice telling me to “go back” and an impact with a tree at around 35-40 mph. I narrowly avoided death in numerous ways, and almost drowned inside a large lake near where I live if I didn’t hit this tree. Since that day I’ve decided that my research project for this semester will be about people who have had near death experiences and how they’ve affected them personally.
The only problem is, finding individuals that have had any experiences are difficult, and i can’t post about this in the NDE subreddit.
If you or anyone else that you know has had an NDE, and would like to be a part of my primary research collection, it would be very much appreciated. No information would be shared outside of personal DM communication. I just need to turn this in to the professor lol.
For anyone that’s read all the way through, thank you for your time, and have a great day! :D

You know the feeling when an old friend whom you haven’t been in touch with for ages, suddenly texts out of the blue? Why now? Where the hell have they been? Do they genuinely want to get back in contact? Do you?
I had received a whole flurry of texts from various people a few nights ago, which was in itself rather disconcerting for a more-or-less confirmed hermit like me. Or at least, a hermit compared to most other guys my age. Presumably the stars had alighted perfectly for once, or something, prompting a number of my fellow-humans to reach out to me all at the same time. I would’ve found it easier to cope if such communications were more spread out, as it were. That’s me. Never satisfied.
Anyway, I scanned the list automatically registering the names: Tom, Becca, Cody, Devon, Lyn. Plus a bunch of messages from a friendship group that for some unfathomable reason I was part of. I didn’t regard or want them as friends but I hadn’t the guts to tell them that, or even just leave. Yeah, I know. Weak.
I looked through the messages.
Becca: Hey. Wanna catch up this weekend?
Tom: Sorry to dump this on you man (cue a whole long sob story)
Lyn: My dear Jay, how are you? Sorry I haven’t been in touch for a while. Hope you’re keeping well.
Cody: Sending ……
Devon. Hi! Just giving you a heads-up (cue details of a big family meet-up)
Can you guess which of these messages shook me up the most?
Becca’s message, on the face of it, should’ve given me the most joy. She was a girl, and a rather pretty one at that, whom I had recently met at a party - a once-in-a-blue-moon event by my standards. Pretty girls were a species I scarcely ever encountered these days, and I couldn’t tell if she really wanted to get together with me in any meaningful way or not. Evidently my radar concerning such matters was all messed up. But I have to admit her message didn’t stir up as many emotions as the others’.
Tom’s annoyed the hell out of me. He was a work colleague who rarely ever stooped to directly communicate with me but now he was asking me to come in next day – my day off – on a matter of life and death apparently. Devon was a cousin of some sort (I had never quite figured out the exact relationship) inviting me to a family gathering - such family as I still had - in a months’ time. To be fair, he had given me plenty of warning, and I should be able to get my excuses in. Lyn was a sweet old lady who had been a friend and neighbor for years. She evidently saw herself in some kind of mother role towards me, a substitute for the parents I had never really had, and I was grateful for that, but we didn’t keep up as often as we once had since I had moved out of my home district and into my current apartment.
And Cody. The old friend reaching out after almost a year.
It had to be. I didn’t know many other Codys, and it was his old number.
I just sat there for a few moments, the phone in my hand. It was an odd and unexpected message to say the least but before I set myself to ponder just what it could mean I began to reminisce, naturally, over the old days. Cody and I had met in our teens, when we had some unfortunate experiences in common. But I hadn’t seen much of him in the last three years, and the last time I had seen him had been at his homecoming, eighteen months ago. His homecoming from prison.
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It had all begun with that damn fool writing group. I mean, the counselling or support or whatever you want to call it, that goes around recommending writing therapy to people. People that are supposed to be in need of such a thing. People like Cody Erhardt. And, to a lesser extent, me.
Do you really want me to go into the background of it all? Let me just summarize by saying that we were a classic pair of troubled teens, from broken, unloving (etc, etc) homes. Our stories were no different from a hundred thousand others. And we didn’t want to attend counselling. But finally, more out of curiosity than anything else, we did. That was where we first met.
To everyone’s surprise Cody rather took to the writing suggestion when it came up. Honestly you wouldn’t have thought it to look at him. The saying ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ seemed particularly apposite in this case. Nothing bookish about him at all, never had been. I would have thought that writing would be the last thing on earth he would ever want to be involved in. He was too good-looking for one thing. Not that writers can’t be good-looking I suppose. But anyway, I’m drifting off the point. Evidently there was something that had long been hidden in him, a vein of creativity that took off at the slightest encouragement.
At first, I ribbed him a little about the dangers of ending up as a cringy poet or something. But poetry wasn’t his thing. Nor journaling either. Instead the damned group set him afire with the idea of writing stories. Actual stories. And admittedly there was enough material in his life already to set him up. Family dysfunction, substance abuse, dropping out of high school, girlfriend troubles, even a magnificent RTA. Even though we trod similar paths his life had already been crammed with far more significant incident than mine. Whoever heard of a writer with the first name Cody, though? I sure as hell hadn’t. No doubt I’m being too judgemental again but it didn’t seem a literary name to me at all. Maybe he could set a precedent.
As for me, I would be his agent. I wasn’t bitten by the literary bug myself, as such. I just wanted to get involved on the mercenary side of things.
(Yet here I am telling this story – his story, mainly.)
The long and short of it is, I encouraged him to write when no one else did. The writing group fever might have worn off soon enough otherwise, but it was I who kept egging him on.
But before he really got down to it, he said, he had to find even more material. More incident, ever more vivid, dramatic. At least that’s what he believed, but I was of the private opinion that he was in danger of becoming a flat-out bore.
Not long after the counselling sessions, Cody embarked upon a totally wild career. Fights/injuries, a deliberate smash-up this time, and dedicated drug-dealing, not just taking. And only I understood why he was doing these things. Collecting more writing material, to make a sensational novel. Everyone else said, or at least intimated, that it was just the predictable result of his upbringing. I did try to get him to tone things down a bit, but evidently I didn’t try nearly hard enough. I blame myself now for that of course. Before he got too out of control, though, some prison time intervened, as the courts did not look sympathetically on his writing alibi.
He didn’t seem to mind prison at all, in fact he welcomed it as it gave him the chance to get on with his writing. And of course prison life itself furnished him with more material. The best thing, when he came to write it all properly, would be that all this colorful stuff would have the ring of absolute authenticity. He had literally lived all this shit. There would be genuine conviction in every word.
And yet, you know, he still wasn’t quite satisfied.
‘I want to write something original,’ he confided to me seriously on one of my visits.
To be honest, that would be quite an agreeable turn for his literary career to take, and I said so, as tactfully as possible. He shook his head.
‘I don’t mean just – unusual, or offbeat, or anything. That’s what you’re thinking, right?’
I shrugged. ‘Well –‘
There was a faraway look in his eyes. ‘I mean – something really original. Something that literally no one has ever written before. Not ever.’
‘Well, that’s probably impossible,’ I pointed out. ‘There’s nothing new under the sun. Didn’t someone say that over 2000 years ago? And that probably holds truer for literature than anything else,’ I added, rather caustically.
He looked at me with his piercing dark eyes, and grinned suddenly. ‘You were the only one who ever really encouraged me to write. You’ll be the first to get my manuscript when it’s done.’
It sounded less of a promise than a threat, I thought, although no doubt he meant it kindly, in the spirit of our old friendship.
‘Well, thanks,’ I said, trying to make it sound enthusiastic.
‘You’ll see – when I get it all into shape.’
I wondered how many more years that would take, but didn’t say it aloud. Instead, I smiled back. ‘Sure. Look forward to it.’ I added jokingly, ‘Surprise me.’
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​
Like I said, the last time I’d seen him was at his homecoming from prison, arranged by his official girlfriend at the time (a different one to when he’d gone in). Her name was Sophie Redmond and she wasn’t over-friendly, at least to me, but she seemed smitten enough with Cody. During the meal, I sat on one side of him while she sat on the other, and I tried to gauge mentally where he was at. There was something different about him now. That was what prison life can do to you, was my first thought, naturally. But actually, as far as I could gather nothing very terrible had happened and he hadn’t been in for the worst kind of offences anyway. It was just that he seemed more distant than formerly. I asked him about the writing of course. That was the one thing that seemed to jolt him out of his reverie.
‘Going good, thanks,’ he replied shortly. I couldn’t help but feel I had hit a nerve.
‘Got any original ideas?’ I more than half-suspected he hadn’t managed to get anything down at all.
‘You’ll see it when it’s time,’ was all he would say.
And that was the last time I’d seen him. For some reason our once-solid friendship didn’t seem so solid after all. Perhaps his current girlfriend was the hawk-type that kept her claws (not to mention her beak) in him, preventing him from seeing his old friends and all, but then he wasn’t the type to be dominated by anyone. There was just … something on his mind. Not really a matter of re-adjusting to life outside of prison, either, he hadn’t been in that long (he’d served less than two years of a four-year stretch). Maybe he really was just preoccupied with the idea of writing something genuinely original.
In any case, I wasn’t in too much of a hurry to see him again. Mainly, because I regretted ever having encouraged his writing delusions. I’d long ago stopped expecting to make any kind of money out of any kind of literary project, of course, that had only ever been a youthful fantasy. But I regretted ever having encouraged him in his writing when he did all those stupid things just to get his material. Although now he was going to try for something original. Wonder how that would turn out? Anyway, I was happy to give him some space for a while.
And now he was in touch again.
I sat irresolutely for a while, then texted my reply.
Cody! What’s up my man? Long time!!
Reading it over, my message had the odd effect of seeming both effusive and stilted at the same time. That was how I felt about Cody’s sudden re-appearance (in a manner of speaking) after so long.
I waited for his reply. None came. I sent a couple more messages, without result. I tried calling, and the line rang out.
He was playing the cryptic game.
The first sense of unease settled on me but I shook it off impatiently. Mainly I just felt rather bamboozled. And I was being rather slow, because it wasn’t until I went out into the hall, to check my front door was locked, and I saw something lying on the mat, that it hit me just what Cody was on about.
‘Sending’ could only mean one thing, from Cody. All this time he’d been working like a real hermit, shut away in his ivory tower getting his material into shape. And now he had sent his first manuscript to me! Trust him to do it this way, in so sudden and dramatic a fashion. I didn’t know how I felt being the recipient. Mixed emotions for sure. I would have to be honest. But I wasn’t a literary expert. But he knew that anyway. It was just because of our old friendship.
But on stooping to the mat, I saw that ‘manuscript’ was rather a glorified description. It was literally just one sheet of paper – rather thick and rough to be sure, more like an artist’s canvas actually. Although of course a manuscript could just be one sheet, but still… And was this all he had come up with after his seclusion?
I did it.
Hell to the yeah
Watch me burn, man. I’m hot.
That was what I read, in what certainly looked like Cody’s handwriting, but at the time I hardly registered the words, because I had noticed something else that made me gasp. The paper was spattered with what looked, and smelled, uncommonly like dried blood.
I groaned aloud. Was this meant to be some type of artwork! Cryptic messages! And sending his manuscript like this in this ominous fashion, so that it arrived late at night. Damn Cody. He just couldn’t stop with the cliches. He’d made sure to set it up like a goddammed stupid fucking horror movie.
The feeling of unease was strong upon me now. I checked outside my apartment but all was quiet. So he’d come all the way to post it, and then just left before he could be seen? Goddam him.
Shaking my head, I went back to examining the ‘manuscript’.
Those stains – were they actually blood? I’m not exactly a forensic expert but like I said they really did seem to be. Well as long as it was his own blood and no-one else’s, I thought moodily. And not a goddam cat’s or anything, either. But surely he had never been the type to go around sacrificing cats, or was I being too hopeful?
And then I started worrying about the amount of blood. True, the paper wasn’t soaked in it or anything, and the actual writing was just in ordinary blue ink. But the presence of the red stuff on any significant level naturally set alarm bells ringing. Holy shit, what had he cut?
And what did the writing mean? What the hell was it all about?
I checked my phone again. No more messages, of any kind, from anyone.
I just stood for a while, wondering what the hell to do. I even began to think that maybe I should call the police, or something.
But, in the event, it was the police who contacted me.

Hi everyone, this ist my day 60 post :) In the last 2 months I visited this sub daily and your posts gave me the strength to keep this nocaf thing going. I hope this post will help someone of you to survive the day! I'm 38 years old, drank about 5 big cups of coffee per day and for the last 10 years I tried to stop, but I failed again and again. What brougth me back to coffee was the need to work and earn money. Withdrawal made me a zombie without motivation, even after months.
In my early 20s, coffee was not a big thing for me. I drank a lot and without it my univerity and business career would have been impossible. I didn't like my studies and I didn't like my jobs, but coffee made me a working machine. When I was about 28, things started to change - coffee began to make me more and more tremulant, sleepless, anxious, aggressive etc. until the side effects totally dominated my life in a vicious circle of bad sleep and evil side effects. My social life suffered, my longterm girlfriend left me because I was stressed and aggressive all the time. I lost many friends and for the last 5 years I lived like a unhappy hermit. That nearly killed me because I'm a very social person that needs human contact.
60 days ago I became a heavy gastritis, the third time in 6 months. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy :( The doctor told me, I have to stop drinking coffee or otherwise I will have gastric ulcer in a few years. So I sweared to myself, this time I will stop it forever. As always the first 4 weeks were hard withdrawal time. Since that the only 2 remaining symptoms were sleep problems and lack of motivation. But all the other symptoms disappeared. The most important is for me, that I started to enjoy speaking to other people again. I found new friends and reactivated old friends, what made my private life much more happy.
But what still bothered me is the lack of motivation at work. I realized that I don't like my profession, I always worked as a sales guy and project manager for greedy and soulless companys. Since 3 years I also have to work at home most of the time, looking into my laptop 8 hours a day, what really aggravated the hermit thing. So, a week ago I decided to change things completely. I applied for a job at a facility for people with mental disabilities, because in my new working life I want to help other people. They invited me to visit them for a whole day, just to see what it means to work there. I don't know what they expected, but I loved it so much, I didn't want to leave! I would earn less money there but as long as I can survive financially, I don't mind. Just to be happy in my life and to feel joy at work, that's whats I want. They will tell me this friday if I get the job :)
I have the theory that lasting lack of motivation is not a result of caffeine withdrawal, it's just getting obvious when you loose your stimulant. If you want to motivate yourself for doing a job you don't like, caffeine is your best bet. I don't want to tell everybody to retire their jobs and to care for people with disabilities (althouh that would make the world a much better place). But when you still have motivation problems one month after you stopped coffee, then ask yourself if there could be a job out there, that would motivate you to do it without any stimulant. When you can do that job without having to starve, than go for it. You only live once!

Inb4: Hue you're mad you go charged for a pigsty
And no, it's not about cleaning up poop or unwashed floors.
2 kids grew up in my house during the time I was there. That meant lots of crayons and stickers - which can be hard to get off cleanly and oft times popped up faster than I could remove before the little gremlins could find more to put up (people love giving little kids these things randomly...). The intention, obviously, was to remove them - but my entire move timeline got sidelined by car troubles and other high priority items. So come move out day, there was still crayons on some walls (mostly kids room and a hallway where thr scribbling was the worst) and stickers on the fridge & dishwasher.
I asked the inspector about this on inspection day and she downplayed it hard. I could have taken extra time (which would have put severe strain on other aspects of the move, and so was not something i wanted to do if it wasnt super necessary) - but I was worried about damaging the walls in my rush and was overwhelmed and just wanted out.
"Don't worry, we remove that all the time, it won't be much" turned into $400 PER WALL. Then they charged an additional 1.6k to repaint the house. That seems like double dipping to me! And for the stickers they are charging the value of the whole fridge and dishwasher - thousands of dollars. For... stickers?
The kicker is that there was an elbow sized hole in the wall (tripped over my larger dog, braced fall against the wall) which only ran me... $30. Like, it feels like I could have just knocked holes in the walls where my kid scribbled the hardest and been charged so much less!
I've already called them and raised my concerns but everyone is busy/at meetings. I'm halfway to my next base and was expecting around 1.5k for repainting plus a little extra for other minor repairs (said hole in wall plus some other little things I didn't notice had broke due to being out-of-sight). But they ran me up nearly 5x that amount.
My Q to the community is: do I even have a leg to stand on contesting this? I -can- pay out without getting put in financial straits (I manage my money well) - but I really don't want to. It feels less like they are charging fair value for repairs and more like I'm getting wrung for every cent they can.

I really like Tempest. It's my preferred way to play. I also really love the deck of cards and haven't gotten nearly the amount if use out if it i would have liked. While i am sure GW is just waiting to sell us another pack, I wanted to know how compatible the deck might be with 10th.
After reading the rules and the secondary missions, I think the current deck can be used with the new edition without any issue what so ever (given what we know).
Nothing in the ToW rules or the secondaries really keys off of 9th edition rules. In fact, 9th edition is never mentioned. The only potential awkwardness might come from the army mustering rules (everyone I know or follow just uses the current matched play rules for that anyway) and the Raise the Banners secondary. That is the only card that seems to have 9th specific language (ObSec) but it also allows for INFANTRY to complete it.
It appears to me, that from what we know right now, Tempest of War is fully 10tu compatible.
Anyone else think otherwise?

When I was 15, I attended a rock concert with some friends. It ended late, and my legal guardian who I was in the care of came to pick me and my friends up, probably around midnight. Note that my guardian, at this point in time, was a mid-career lawyer (in-house counsel at a large corporation).
He was extremely intoxicated and non-verbal. He was swerving all over the highway and myself and my friends were very scared. Eventually, we forced him to take an exit after nearly colliding with multiple other vehicles. We called the police while they were still driving and, at the first red light, we jumped out of the car. Moments later, he pulled over the car and started walking down the street where we could no longer see him.
When the police arrived on the scene, he calmly approached the police on foot, and they exchanged some words. Then the police approached me and told me that they were clearly intoxicated and they didn't need to use a breathalyzer. However, they asked me if they should arrest him, something that has always struck me as odd.
Scared, I said no. And they let him go in a taxi, and they made him pay for a taxi home for myself and my friends.
On reflecting back on this memory, I'm having difficulty understanding what transpired. How could he not be arrested for this? What could have been said to the police? It's somewhat mind-boggling to look back on.
This happened in Ontario in 2010.

I'm considering applying for a PhD studentship next month in Psychology. I have a high 2.1 in Psychology undergrad and I'm on track for a distinction in my Psychology research masters. The studentship is for a project advertised by my current masters research supervisor which is really similar to the dissertation I'm currently working on for my masters, so she suggested I apply for it if I'm interested as I'll already be familiar with the topic and methods.
I'm still debating whether or not to apply but need to make a decision soon as the deadline is in a month. I think I'm worried that I won't stand a chance of getting it due to not having a First at undergrad and only having limited experience outside of uni (I have completed one psychology research internship in an unrelated area during undergrad, volunteered as an OCD peer support group volunteer, and have just accepted an internship offer for research role in a different department of the uni). I also have to provide 2 references which I think I may struggle with as they both need to be academic. I completed my undergrad nearly 5 years ago now so I'm not sure if my supervisor would remember me enough to write a good reference, and I know my current supervisor would write me a good one but the studentship is for her project so I doubt that would work. The only other person I can think to ask is the supervisor i had for my psychology internship, but I'll still need one more.
I only really want to do a PhD at my current uni as I have just bought a home so it would be a really good opportunity, I have just heard about how competitive it can be so I'm not sure if the issues I've mentioned above would hold me back too much. I'm also not sure how the selection process works as the project is funded by the SPCR research council but it would be working with my current supervisor, so not sure how much say she would have over the selection.
Do you think I stand a chance of getting the studentship if I apply? and is it appropriate to speak to my current supervisor about my concerns and ask for help with the research proposal etc?

All I ever fucking wanted was that. Nothing more. Nothing less. It was just so hard for you to comprehend that. To just choose me when i chose you everyday in and out, even on my worst days i chose you. Yet you couldn’t once choose me over any other person. There always was someone better when im was in the equation. I was always lacking. Always could be better. I tried & yet it was no where near enough for anyone let alone you. I’m tired of trying to be something I’m not.
It would’ve been nice just once to have felt like your first choice and not one of many. That feeling is so fucking foreign to me I would’ve done anything to have felt it. I still would. I’m sick of being someone’s last choice. Someones backup plan. Someones “maybe”. I want to be IT. i want to be first choice. I want to be the first & only. But thats too much to ask for so I’ll settle in the background. Ill watch whilst everyone else gets chosen and im left behind.

Was playing a game as p3 Necro against a PA and snapfire. Lane went really well for a while and then my support roamed to help other lanes when I was around lvl 4. At that point the PA and snap realized they could kill me. They kept back far enough that if I went into XP range they could kill me. Snap stayed near the hard camp so if I went to pull snap could stun me and then they'd be able to kill me. Asked for a rotation to help gank the PA but team was too busy to be able to help.
What am I supposed to do in this situation? Do I just give the lane to PA and go help another lane? Didn't feel like I could do too much without my ult. Should I have just been trying to soak XP best I can without contesting at all until 6 then roam? Looking for any advice, ideally not specific to Necro if possible.