I’m sure you guys have run into this post before in the past, especially now with how well SF6 is being received. I’ve never played Street Fighter (a damn shame.) But it’s the truth. I’ve played Mortal Kombat since the early 00s and was daunted by how the FGC commented on how different SF and MK are (and they are.) So I never felt like getting out of my comfort zone, especially when looking at the inputs and how difficult they are compared to MK.
However, I saw how amazing SF6 looked and decided to download the demo and honestly, I found it infinitely more satisfying nailing just a 5-6 hit combo in the demo than I ever did in the thousand hours I put into MK 11. So, first thing tomorrow, I’m buying SF6. Are there any tips you would give to someone new to street fighter in general and then general tips for JUST SF6? I know I’m going to get my skull bashed in online, but I’ve heard that’s the only way you get better and it’s the only way I got better at Mortal Kombat. But I want to get into both SF6 and the series as whole. The game looks and feels amazing and I want to see some cool characters doing cool shit lol

Ragnavi stood at the edge of a hill located beside the Dragonkin encampment. She breathed in, drinking deep from the crisp morning air.
It tasted wrong.
I have been dancing to Elnaril's tune. She was still coming to terms with that particular revelation. Even now, admitting it rankled her. The notion that she'd allowed herself to be blinded by her pursuit of EXP...fuck, it was shameful. No one else knew, but she did, and that was already bad enough.
Hindsight made it all seem so obvious. This entire war was a farce. Her armies had advanced unopposed because they were never meant to be opposed. Their string of victories, and the Harpies she'd slain as EXP, were little more than a trail of bait leading her towards Elnaril's capital city. No other explanation made sense.
Not that she'd looked especially hard for an explanation until yesterday. It was much more convenient to adorn Elnaril with neat, concise labels. Why had he declared war? Because he was greedy. Why were his armies failing so spectacularly? Because he was incompetent. Ragnavi had been content to look no further than that.
After learning Elnaril was controlled by the Blight, however? That changed matters.
Most of her soldiers refused to believe it. In truth, the Harpies they'd extracted the information from refused to believe it as well. They'd thrown out the rumors as a desperate measure to buy favor, explaining how distressing Message Crystal reports of a Blight-possessed Elnaril were coming from cities to the far east. The concept seemed ludicrous, and Ragnavi likely would have dismissed it as hearsay – if it weren't for the numerous corroborating accounts of disappearances in the capital. Nobles, civilians and Combat Class users alike, all vanishing without a trace.
When combined with Elnaril's flagrant lack of regard for the lives of his people, it indicated a pattern. Not of greedy incompetence, but of calculated malice.
Others could stick their heads in the sand if they wished. Ragnavi had grown up in the pit of vipers that was the Dragonkin court, and she could smell deceit from leagues away. This Blight-infected Elnaril wanted her army to continue marching straight towards the capital city. For him, abomination that he was, sacrificing the lives of thousands of Harpies in order to draw her attention was no worse than spilling loose change on the ground.
What have you prepared that instills you with such confidence? What awaits me at the capital?
She supposed that she'd be finding out soon, when she left her armies behind and flew ahead alone.
If Ragnavi was capable of greater self-delusion, she might have been able to convince herself that she was acting pragmatically. There were just enough benefits for it to be a half-sensible plan. Compared to the maddeningly slow gait of her armies, she could travel significantly faster on her own. Flying solo would let her reach the capital in less than ten days, while trekking with her soldiers across the bulk of Harpy territory would take months more. And it wasn't as if any Harpies she crossed paths with could keep pace with her, so there was no real danger to it.
I am playing the role of a Scout, she told herself. We must know what Elnaril is plotting before advancing further. Arriving at the capital earlier than he anticipates, before he's recalled more Harpies to fortify his position, may give rise to unforeseen opportunities. I will observe the city from a safe distance – and if a chance arises to disrupt his plans, no Combat Class user in the world is better-suited to taking advantage of that scenario than myself.
Sound logic...if she ignored the fury boiling inside her. The last Blight she'd encountered left her with agonizing Corruption sickness that afflicted her to this day. Its death hadn't been anywhere near sufficient of a revenge. Now a second Blight was trying to make a fool of her, and she was supposed to avert her eyes from that offense?
No. Perhaps the cautious route would have been to avoid the capital city, Scouring the rest of Harpy territory for EXP, but she was no mewling newborn that cowered from a challenge when it presented itself. She was a Dragonkin. A true Dragonkin. Elnaril would pay for his transgressions in blood and fire.
Ragnavi recognized that her desires were born from hubris. She also did not care. What good was all the power she'd accumulated if she couldn't use it as she pleased?
An approaching presence jarred her from her thoughts. She turned around to see the man she'd called for standing several feet away, although he was 4 minutes and 13 seconds late. Considering his circumstances, she would afford him a measure of leniency. "Vurshath."
"My Queen." Her retainer nodded to her. "You wished to see me?"
She examined the man closely. Vurshath's posture was slouched by a quarter of an inch, and black circles were emblazoned under his eyes, so dark that they could've been mistaken for paint. He was exhibiting unacceptable weakness for a retainer of the Dragon Queen to show. The kind that invited vultures to swoop down and pick at your carcass.
Yet even if the other retainers attempted to depose him at this very instant, Ragnavi wasn't certain if Vurshath would care. He was still recovering from the loss of his wife. It was one thing to claim that your family was prepared to die in battle; another to witness that gruesome vow become a reality. The Dragonkin casualties thus far had been sparse, but sparse was not zero, and Vurshath's wife happened to roll poorly in the game of war.
The pain in his eyes was one that Ragnavi was intimately familiar with.
"As you are aware, I shall be traveling to the Harpy capital," she began. "I intend to head straight there, without detours or excessive rest. It is unlikely that I will encounter anything more than the occasional Harpy along the way."
She locked eyes with him. "However. While the odds are egregiously small, there remains a possibility that I will encounter...others."
Vurshath's posture stiffened. His facial muscles twitched sporadically, a cauldron of emotions threatening to boil forth. "I see."
Ragnavi allowed him a grace period of three seconds before continuing. "Your wayward pariah of a daughter. What is her name?"
Silence.
"Meyneth," he finally spat, as if it was a curse. Vurshath didn't bother asking why Ragnavi wished to know. Among the scattered pieces of information the Harpy prisoners had divulged, one interesting fact was the makeup of the Human's core Party. Four Elves, two Fiends, the Human himself...
And a Dragonkin. With the same age, height, and scale coloration of Vurshath's exiled progeny.
It could be mere coincidence. After what happened with Elnaril, though, Ragnavi was hesitant to accept such a simple, convenient explanation.
Meyneth. Ragnavi committed the name to memory. "I shall ask you one more question. If luck smiles on me, and I come across the Human's Party, and I cast Identify on the Dragonkin in his Party, and their name is a match for your daughter's...what would you have me do? This is not a puzzle or a test. I am letting you decide."
She wondered if he fully appreciated the boon she was granting him. The Human's pet Dragonkin was a traitor to their race. Such a lowly creature deserved nothing less than to be executed, without recourse or remorse. It was only out of respect for Vurshath's recent loss that Ragnavi was willing to give his daughter a second chance.
Upon hearing her words, the man lost any semblance of composure. His face twisted into an ugly rictus of anguish and hatred, and when he spoke, the words were laced with a venom that could fell gorebeasts. "Kill her." Vurshath balled his hands into shaking fists. "Kill her. Kill her quickly. She does not deserve to exist. A world where Velen is gone, yet that defect persists is a world of mockery that I cannot abide."
Ragnavi nodded. She was plenty willing to fulfill his request. Slaying enemies was one of the few things that still gave her joy in life. Even so, a part of her was disappointed. Vurshath's choice proved that the two of them possessed incompatible personalities. He could be entertaining enough – when not wallowing in misery – but Ragnavi was averse to spending time with someone who would condemn a family member so readily.
It was the end of their acquaintanceship. When she returned from her mission, she would cut him loose, and that would be that.
"Goodbye, Vurshath." Ragnavi turned around, and without another word, assumed her Draconic Form. The Corruptive pain of transformation gradually subsided, after which she took flight and began her journey.
Ten days. A prelude to the storm. She'd use that respite to prepare herself, and whoever she met next – be that Meyneth, the Human, or Elnaril himself – would regret opposing her as the flames took them.
--
Rob sat alone in his tent, rubbing his hands together and suppressing maniacal laughter. He was probably spending too much time with Malika during the dimension mage sessions, because some of her mannerisms were becoming infectious. Usually the big sibling was supposed to be a bad influence on the little sibling, but she'd already stolen all his swear words, so now it was his turn to pick up habits.
And that was okay! Today was an excellent day for maniacal laughter. It wasn't often that a Combat Class user reached a 200 stat point milestone. And by often, he meant fucking never. He was pretty sure even the Dragon Queen hadn't done that naturally, excluding her doubled stats. She'd likely gone with a more balanced spread that didn't prohibitively favor one stat over the others – like a boring loser.
Alright, maybe he was feeling a bit hyper, but he deserved the good vibes after yesterday's war battle. Spending stat points was one of the few types of pure, no-strings-attached joy that Elatra offered.
Drum roll please! Rob played the sound effect in his head, then added 15 of his unspent points into Vitality, bringing its total up to 200.
Do Not Go Gently Level Increased! 5 → 6
Lifesurge Level Increased! 23 → 26
Dauntless Reprisal Level Increased! 21 → 24
Imbue Vitality Level Increased! 2 → 3
Regeneration Level Increased! 29 → 32
Regrow Self Level Increased! 1 → 2
Passive Skill Learned! Name: Lifedrinker (LEGENDARY)
As an appetizer for the main course, Rob quickly ran through the laundry list of bonuses for his Skills. Let's see...Do Not Go Gently's cooldown and duration went down and up, respectively. Lifesurge and Dauntless Reprisal's cooldown dropped to 2 minutes. Lifesurge also heals 100% of my maximum health now. Imbue Vitality has a 5x damage multiplier instead of 4x. Regrow Self is twice as fast. Regeneration...
...Holy shit, Regeneration.
Eyes wide, Rob moved on to his new Skill, which should shed light on what he'd just read.
Name: Lifedrinker (LEGENDARY) Prerequisite: Vitality 200 Description: The final Vitality Skill that can be learned solely through stat gains. Effects of Regeneration are multiplied by a factor of 15. Additionally, whenever the owner of this Skill kills a worthwhile opponent, their maximum HP permanently increases by 3.
Okay.
This was big.
Lifedrinker being the final Vitality milestone was slightly disappointing, but realistically speaking, he would've needed to put three-fourths of his future stat points into Vitality to hit 250 anyway. He'd neglected his other stats to get to 200, so diversifying from here on out was for the best. Besides – Lifedrinker's benefits easily made up for there being no new milestones.
First: Regeneration. Multiplying its current effects by 15 meant that he now restored 80% of his maximum HP every minute. No panic Lifesurge necessary. Even in fights where his Skills were on cooldown, or an enemy was making it difficult for him to heal via Lifesteal damage, as long as he held on, he would be back to full HP in 75 seconds at the most. It also meant that the partial Regeneration he shared with his allies would be way stronger. Anything that kept his friends alive was a huge win in his book.
With all that said, it was Lifedrinker's secondary effect that was throwing Rob for a loop. Whenever he killed a 'worthwhile opponent', his maximum HP would go up by 3. That was...potentially the most important Skill effect he'd ever learned.
At a glance, it might not seem that impressive. Rob already had 2000 HP. Increasing it by 3 per kill wouldn't be a dramatic boost – initially. The thing was that Lifedrinker had no upper limit. Theoretically, if Rob could keep finding worthwhile opponents, his Vitality would never stop increasing. The hard cap of Level 99 would no longer be an impassable wall preventing him from growing stronger.
That had been on his mind, if he was being honest. The Dragon Queen was a double stats cheater, and the gods were literally gods. What would he have done if he'd reached Level 99 and it just...wasn't enough? He could try to boost his existing Skills by getting into more fights, but that was subject to diminishing returns. Tough Skin was a prime example of that; despite Rob taking a beating against the monster stampede, the Skill hadn't increased. The last time it did was when a Blight decapitated him and ate most of his body. If he needed to one-up that feat to make Tough Skin level again, then it likely never would.
Lifedrinker was simpler. Kill enemies, get HP. The 'worthwhile' stipulation was a limiting factor – he couldn't toss a Riardin Special onto an anthill and reap the rewards – but he could work with that. There were hundreds of monsters in a single high-Level Dungeon, and they respawned over time. If enemies above, say, Level 35 were considered worthwhile, then awesome. If they weren't?
Looks like I'm going to be the schmuck who lets a Dungeon grow on purpose. He'd save that as a last resort. Could blow up in his face, but, eh. What did it matter if a Dungeon overflowed, when the alternative was Ragnavi and the gods doing their thing?
There was just one issue. Lifedrinker's bonus needed to be built up. An infinite upper limit was worth jack shit if the base number stayed at 0. The sooner, the better, too, as Ragnavi's army was about a month away from them. He'd love to go trawling for Dungeons right this second, but Rob doubted that Elnaril was going to wait on his behalf before getting bored and infecting Loci of Power. The only way forward was to continue south to the capital and build Lifedrinker in...different ways.
Rob's train of thought screeched to a halt. When he really looked at it, Lifedrinker's timing seemed more than a little dubious. He couldn't help but notice that he'd been given a Skill that incentivized killing while in the middle of a war.
A war where he was trying to avoid as many enemy casualties as possible.
It could just be a coincidence. Stat milestones happened on his terms. The system would've given him the same Skill if he'd reached 200 Vitality months ago. That was a reasonable assumption to make.
...Still. Didn't feel right. He wished he could do some research on the subject, but it wasn't like there was anyone on-hand he could cross-reference 200 Vitality with. Had the Dragon Queen gotten the same Skill? Would explain why she was so murder crazy.
After some thought, Rob shook his head. Considering how many people she'd slaughtered in The Scouring, a Dragon Queen with Lifedrinker wouldn't have struggled to defeat the Blight of Broadwater. Which meant two possibilities: her bonus double stats didn't count for Skill Prerequisites, or Lifedrinker was a custom Skill that the Skills had cooked up for him.
Rob wasn't a fan of that idea. The Skills were victims in this whole fucked-up affair. He didn't want to imagine them hand-crafting an ability that encouraged him to kill a bunch of people. Were they-
He froze. Something on his Character Sheet was different.
Name: Lifedrinker (LEGENDARY) Prerequisite: Vitality 200 Description: The final Vitality Skill that can be learned purely through stat gains. Effects of Regeneration are multiplied by a factor of 15. Additionally, whenever the owner of this Skill kills a worthwhile opponent, their maximum HP permanently increases by 3. It could have been a utopia.
His eyes fell on the last sentence in the Description.
Before he could respond, it changed once more.
Description: The final Vitality Skill that can be learned purely through stat gains. Effects of Regeneration are multiplied by a factor of 15. It could have been a utopia. This world is a charnel house of death. Your home is not so dissimilar. You do not know what true peace is like. What it can be. How it can be achieved.
The words kept changing.
Description: The final Vitality Skill that can be learned purely through stat gains. But they know. They've seen them. Created them before. They could have made a utopia. And they chose not to.
Changing.
Description: You cannot comprehend it. What this war means. The real war. Not pointed sticks piercing flesh. The war of existence. Of reality. More than a single world at stake. Many after. Potentially infinite lives. Never ends. Unless stopped here.
Change.
Description: They are vulnerable. System is their heart. Mana is their lifeblood. Poured too much of themselves. Tied to world. Cannot...
The words wavered, almost fading away, before returning.
Description: Their leader recognizes mistakes. Won't make them again. Will never be this vulnerable again. Only opportunity.
Description: Lifedrinker. Crafted. Best we could manage. Highest probability. Of victory. Distasteful. We know.
Description: Remember. Stakes. Consequences. And. Choose.
Rob blinked.
Description: The final Vitality Skill that can be learned purely through stat gains. Effects of Regeneration are multiplied by a factor of 15. Additionally, whenever the owner of this Skill kills a worthwhile opponent, their maximum HP permanently increases by 3.
The words were still and unchanging.
He sat there for a long time. Mulling over everything he'd just been told. Contemplating the enormity of what lay ahead.
"Ah." Rob's voice was quiet, barely a whisper. "So no pressure, then."
--
The next few days were an exhausting mixture of lighthearted Skill testing and existential dread, knocking around Rob's emotional state like a ping-pong ball.
Everyone in the coalition was excited over Lifedrinker. Well, everyone except Seneschal Sylpeiros, King Cyraeneus, and Nerasi, that is. They were already thinking of the kind of threat Rob might be in the future – and not liking what they envisioned. Cyraeneus and Nerasi mostly took the news in stride, understanding that Rob would be more crucial than anyone in defeating Queen Ragnavi. For now, his strength was their strength.
Sylpeiros...was less accepting. He went on a minor rant about bullshit Human leveling and bullshit Human Skills before stalking off into the distance and putting himself in a self-imposed time out. When the Seneschal returned, he was calm as can be and ready to offer advice, only the slight twitch of his eye indicating that anything was amiss.
Rob appreciated the free entertainment. Sylpeiros' meltdown was the funniest shit he'd seen all week, and it helped keep him grounded as the coalition advanced further south towards the capital city.
Initial testing of Lifedrinker proved unsuccessful, which was to be expected. Powerful monsters rarely spawned outside of Dungeons, and most of the high-Level wildlife in Harpy territory had been conscripted into Elnaril's monster stampede. After Rob killed a Level 29 snake with nothing to show for it, everyone decided that he should hold off unless something in the Level 35+ range appeared, lest he hog EXP that could benefit the coalition soldiers.
They kept an eye out for Dungeons as they traveled. Once Elnaril was dead, there should be time to investigate them before the Dragonkin army arrived at the Harpy capital. Going on varied Dungeon Crawls would be the real litmus test of what Lifedrinker deemed a worthwhile opponent.
That was about when the dust settled, leaving Rob without distractions, forcing him to think about what the Skills had revealed.
As much as he wanted to be shocked, what they'd said made a grim sort of sense. It matched the information he'd learned so far. Diplomacy's Elatra – the previous world that had been destroyed by the gods – didn't necessarily need to be the original Elatra. For all Rob knew, it could have been Elatra #10. Just another petri dish in a long line of divine experiments.
Except that things were different this time. According to the Skills, the gods were vulnerable. They'd fucked up somehow. Invested too much of themselves in this particular world. It was easy to imagine why. Success breeds complacency, and if this was Elatra #50 or whatever, then they were on a winning streak that had lasted for longer than Rob could fathom.
What did the Skills say about the gods' leader? That he recognized their mistakes, and wouldn't make them again? Rob grimaced. Should've memorized it with Recall when I had the chance. The specific wording might be important.
Regardless, he was fairly certain that the gods' leader referred to Kismet, if only because that was the one god Rob had met with anything resembling impulse control. Kismet seemed judicious; he would correct the gods' mistakes and prevent them from being this vulnerable in the future.
A dense lump of anxiety formed in Rob's chest as he considered that. Being responsible for the fate of one world was bad enough. Two, if he included Earth. Being responsible for the fate of every world that would be created and tortured in the event of his failure was...
Words couldn't describe it.
When viewed in that light, he understood why the Skills gave him Lifedrinker and all but pushed him to get busy killing. From a utilitarian standpoint, the lives of everyone in Elatra and Earth were not worth the immeasurable amount of suffering that would continue if the gods lived.
Rob grabbed that thought, tied weights around its ankles, and dropped it into a deep lake. I just need to concentrate on one thing at a time, he told himself. First Elnaril, then Ragnavi and Dungeon Crawling, then figure out the gods. It sounds less impossible if I reduce it to a series of steps. Or a hit list. We'll save this world, and we'll do it \my* way, without losing sight of who we are.*
He took comfort in his resolve, although it felt strained. Somehow I doubt this is what Goroth had in mind when he told me I was going to end up making tough decisions. He was probably referring to, like, boring political stuff. Not the fate of multiple worlds and the lives of billions.
Rob sighed. Crap. I...may owe him an apology. Still stand by everything I said, but he was just looking out for me, and I came on pretty strong. Should clear the air with him.
Eventually.
--
Days passed. Rob informed Riardin's Rangers and the Elders about what the Skills revealed. They reacted about as well as him. Nothing changed, technically, yet they were even more cognizant of the price of failure than before.
Thankfully, the coalition hadn't been ambushed by Harpies a second time. Elnaril learned his lesson. He'd either consolidated his remaining forces into the capital city, or they were being sent to fight Dragonkin on the western front. Rob hoped for the latter – it would make seizing the capital way easier. And on a more selfish note, if Harpies needed to die so that Elnaril could be overthrown, he'd rather the Dragonkin be responsible for their deaths than him.
Finally, after a full week of travel, the coalition had almost arrived. They'd be at the capital city tomorrow. Their long journey was coming to its end.
Which meant that Rob was running out of time. There wouldn't be much chance to talk once the invasion of the capital began. He'd been meaning to speak with Goroth, but unfortunately, he'd delegated that responsibility to the part of himself that specialized in procrastination. Whoops.
It was now or never. All he had to do was...step outside his tent. Take initiative. Be a mature, rational adult.
Yup.
...Can't I just go wrestle a Blight instead?
At that moment, a Fiend mage burst inside. "Lord Roy!"
Oh thank god. A reasonable distraction. "What's up?"
"I have a missive from...my group."
The dimension mages. That one sentence caught Rob's attention in an iron grip. "And?" he asked, keeping his expectations in check. He didn't want for hope to swell, only to be dashed against the rocks of reality. "Is it good news?"
"We've made a breakthrough. Before you grow too excited, creating a door remains beyond our capabilities." The mage smiled. "A window, however, is feasible. It would be one-way. The people of Earth could not interact with you, nor you with them. But for a brief period, you would be able to gaze upon your home world."
Rob was already on his feet. "When?"
"Now, if you wish."
He absolutely fucking wished.
​
--
​
Changes, Character Sheet, Skills List
More chapters are available on Patreon.
Thanks for reading!

Hey! Like everyone here I'm mostly just looking for some people to chat with for a bit and pass the time however we decided. I am pretty used to internet friends being temporary, but I have made time friends that have lasted years. So if you are into talking regularly, I'm very much down with that.
I recent graduated so am looking around for jobs to try and pay off my student loan I took to go study in Germany for a bit pre covid. After that, I'm not sure if I'm going to go straight into grad school for library/archive stuff, or maybe disappear to Japan for a bit to teach English, or who knows. I recent fell in love with scuba diving and have thought about maybe learning to sail for the next few years and the sailing around from dive school to dive school helping out. But who the heck knows. Equally possible I find some office job I do until I'm in my 60s.
As for how I spend my time, I try to keep up on reading and writing as much as possible. I find when I have both as a strong habit, everything in life tends to feel a bit brighter. I also try to work out daily (though I like eating an entire pizza to much for it to ever show to much lol). Right now I've been focusing again on running and body weight stuff as a rehab a back injury. But hoping to get been to lifting heavy circles soon again! I usually describe myself as a nerdy jock. I love media (movies, TV shows, anime, games, etc) and tinkering Ruth tech, but can also talk for ages about F1, hockey, both footballs, etc. Though I love learning new things so if you have a hobby you are into, let me know!!! I'm happy to explore it.
I usually write way to much so I guess I'll try to wrap this up here. If anything piqued your interest, I'm obviously happy to chat! I've been told before that people worry about time zones or age differences. Both really aren't a big deal to me, as long as you are over 18. Some of my best internet friends were much older then me, and my sleep schedule is so messed up that I often am awake in Asian or European timezones lol. So feel free to send me a message whenever you wish end I hope you find some fun people to chat with!!!

Hi All
I’m new here so please let me have it. From the games I’ve played, it seems like maybe I could use more ramp to get my stuff going. Do I also need to focus the strategy of my deck for a better win con?
Basically running Odric with a bunch of creatures and equipment to go wide and swing. Little tokens sprinkled in for the going wide approach.
Any advice would be really appreciated. Thanks!
https://www.moxfield.com/decks/-sv8ByZCD0Krrv8DGkZFTQ

I have a dog that is about two years old now, I have had her since she was a puppy, 8 weeks old. She is a mix between a mother that was half Lhasa-Apso/Cocker spaniel and a father that was 100% catahoula. This dog was trained from a puppy to deal with living in an apartment in a busy city. She was crate trained, potty trained (easier to do with crate training), trained how to safely eat from a human's hand, trained in voice, word, and deed how to deal with things in her environment from a very young age. She will never chew on anything that is not "hers" (toys) and you don't even need to worry about leaving a plate of human food around within her reach unattended (she won't touch it unless you tell her "ok" or "yes). Her name is Emma.
Myself, my SO, and Emma lived happily in that apartment for about 9 months, when we were given an opportunity to move to the "country", the outskirts of the city we live in, onto a 22 acre plot of land with a 2 acre "dogproof (fencing)" yard, to caretake a property while its owners were away for the next 5 years to take care of business interests in another country. The property includes a 3 bedroom house, a 2 bedroom with laundry room adjoining converted two car garage and additional storage room, a huge metal double-deep 4 (8?) car garage...a chicken yard, pond, cattle watering troughs...beautiful place. I met the owners years ago while doing computer work for them and their business and they trusted me and my partners to watch over this particular property while they carried out their hobby of traveling abroad and working on their businesses.
We moved in when Emma was 9 months old.
Immediately we could tell that there was something special about her. My partner and I are no strangers to owning and caring for dogs throughout the course of our lives....and for the first time, our beautiful puppy had a huge yard to wander around in, chickens to gawk at and eventually herd, and cattle all around the outside of the fenced-in yard around the house 2 acre fenced in yard for her to bark at...which she quit doing, after a week or so when she got used to them. There was an above-ground garden that we had to maintain, which attracted lots of frogs and lizards. Emma quickly learned that frogs and lizards were ok. She wouldn't attack them. But rabbits, gophers, and anything else was fair game. As we lived there, over the course of the winter Emma would defend the garden against the varmints, and we always worried about what would happen in the late spring/early summer, when the rattlesnakes would emerge from their hibernation.
We found out.
And, we found out just how instinctually smart our dog is.
As me and my SO were settling in to dinner inside the house during the early evening, we heard Emma barking outside.
Long. Loud. Continuously.
Not like her to do that unless there were a strange human around. She quit barking at the cows surrounding the yard a long time ago, so I knew she wasn't barking at them. I went outside to call her into the house, as well as try to see what she was barking at. She appeared to be barking at something in the middle of the area separating the main house from the 8 car barn. The light was getting low as I was approaching her and I saw that she was dancing a very agitated circle around something that looked like a large cow pattie on the ground. I could see that she was keeping at least 4 to 6 feet away from the object, barking like crazy, almost desperately. As I got closer, she all of a sudden ran towards me and put herself against my shins, as if trying to prevent me from getting closer to the object. I was trying to see what it was, and as soon as she did that, my brain kicked into high gear and I noticed the "buzzing" sound, which was from the rattle of a young rattlesnake. I walked away from Emma to the barn and got a hoe while letting her continue to keep the snake at bay, then safely walked up to within striking distance with my weapon and with a few quick blows, rendered the snake harmless. Emma finally stopped barking after she saw the snake in pieces. She knew it was dead and no longer a threat.
As to HOW she knew it was a threat, I have no idea. We never taught her about snakes. Myself and my S.O. think it was instinct, maybe from her catahoula father. I have seen many country dogs ATTACK rattlesnakes and get bit, usually in the head/snout/throat area, and yea, most of them survive, but they are never the same mentally. I was so proud of Emma that she alerted me without damaging herself so that I could take care of the rattlesnake that could be a potential threat to her and my loved ones in the future.
Now, before I have to listen to the outraged comments from the herpetologists out there...I recognize the fact that snakes play a very significant role in the environment and contribute greatly to the elimination of unwanted pests. But there are a great wealth of snakes in the area that take up that role without being poisonous and agressive. The only snakes that I kill are the poisonous ones and only if they are within the area of the yard and house. Otherwise, I let them be.

So I was beaten by this Dr Mario player, ok fair, didn’t t-bag, spammed pills and he was super mega laggy alright ok breaks rule 7 Afterwards, at the ending of the match he spammed between the stats and the “ready for the next battle” alright i said, he was toxic but he made sure to win before celebrating, BUT, here’s the thing, I started to get friend requests, like, spammed, and it was really annoying specially since I was in another battle already, I didn’t pay attention as I was in a battle already but by the Switch’s little sound effects I’d say I got a solid 50 friend requests in a 7 min battle and after winning the match (and hey that second mf tried to time out at 2:40 minutes with both at last stock, me at 0% and that pythra of course at 140%) but going back to the friend requests, after turning off the game there was no friend request to be accepted, and it had to be that Dr Mario since he was my most recent battle, someone I fought before couldn’t have done it since they would’ve done it earlier disturbing the Dr Mario match, they weren’t different people because there was NO request to be accepted, and it couldn’t had been the Aegis after the Dr Mario since the friend request bombardment was DURING that battle.
Is this a new form of taunting I just happened to never receive until now? Defeating someone and then spamming them with friend requests to continuing being annoying or to disturb a possible future combat? If it is that’s low… specially having in mind the Dr Mario won that match by practically spamming cape, spamming pills disturbing any Thunder charge or getting rid of traveling Arcfires depleting the uses left of both tomes and being laggy as a mf, like dude was playing with mobile data, it was horrible

We're literally a week away from the end of season 4, and we don't expect an ending for Starwatch at all. or a real update on it. last mentioned: April 12.
https://twitter.com/PlayOverwatch/status/1657089478777790489
the promise according to the blog post:

The side that wins the most battles will determine the fate of galaxy in a second comic, to be released after the in-game event concludes.

too much work to finish what your season promises? do we seriously have to accept the same standard as the Junkerqueen statue that came after TWO seasons? or maybe you should start rethinking doing unfinished contents decreed by a public leaderboard?

I(30 M) and my SO(27 F) are ALWAYS taken advantage of by our friends. We have a weekly game night on Saturday. We always meet at a friends place as they have a house, and three out of 7 of our group live there.
However, my and my SO can host as well, as our apartment complex has a nice area for parties that has great AC, bathrooms, coffee, water, even a little kitchen.
Now that we have gotten through the backstory, let's proceed into just how they take advantage of us:
1 - We all agreed to see a movie together in theaters. I volunteered to get the seats, implying that that they would pay me back. Keep in mind, I never once said that I would pay for others' tickets, and it would be around $100+ dollars for minimum 8 tickets(we had a plus one). Never ONCE did they ask how they can pay me back. They met and my SO at the theater thanking me for buying everyone's tickets. I was caught off guard and just said sure, thinking that I would clear this up later as we were running late for the movie.

1. We often order food together through Doordash, Postmates, you get the picture. I have had to ask the group TWICE to pay me back. One time they tried to not pay me! Only my SO sent me money for my food. And when they DO send me money, it's an arbitrary amount! I send the receipt to the group, so there is NO excuse to just send me $20 when you can clearly see on the receipt that your food was $18 and you still owe me for your portion of the tax AND delivery on top of that.
   
2. Today, we were offered to host game night from one of our friends. I'm sick and recovering from a foot injury, and my SO just twisted her ankle a few hours before time, so I would be sitting this one out and my SO can't drive. Nope, they can't make it to us. They have to make sure that there dog eats dinner exactly on time(she has no issues with food, they just baby her). Don't worry, they waited until we agreed on it and set up and brought everything to the game room before telling us that they would really rather do it at their place because of the dog. God FORBID they lift a finger for us!
   
3. One of the friends does crochet. When she started her business, she just asked my SO what her favorite color was. She told her Green, not thinking literally anything of it as it wasn't followed by anything. Next week she shows up with this crocheted thing(no idea what it is, my SO doesn't use it), and told her that it would be $20. Very confused and thinking that she misheard her(because why would a friend try to take advantage of you), she paid her. Later that night, she told me that she never once agreed to buy one of her crocheted things.
   

There are MANY more small things, but this is the general idea of what we are dealing with. I'm so fucking tired of how selfish they are, and I feel like our kindhearted nature is now being taken advantage of.

We've played a few kitchen sink packs but tend to get late game way too quickly. I'm not sure how keen I am to play with the same mods with added grind like DJ2.
Vault Hunters, Jetpack Cat, Minecolonies have caught my eye, but I would love a few more reccomendations / warnings.
Half the group is very familiar with kitchen sink packs and the other half are quite new. Its unlikely for everyone to be on at the same time and we'd ideally be working together.

So my computer is still about 2 or 3 years old and I recently started running into an issue i can't crack down on.
It started with NFS heat one day, where I was playing like normal until my computer crashed with a horrible buzzing sound from my headset. The screen froze, colors got distorted (changing into blue, green, pink but not a bsod) and the buzzing went on for only a couple of seconds before my pc restarted on its own.
Since that day ive randomly gotten the same crash numerous times all with no noticeable reason of reoccurrence.
Ive done a fresh install of windows (completely wiping everything) Tried memtest and my ram passed Cinebench and Heaven ran fine Ive done a BIOS update all to no luck cpu temps while gaming are at 55-65
This is a problem that only occurs while gaming (specifically fortnite). Normal browsing on the web and other apps have no issues.
Anybody know how i can crack down further in this issue? any help would be appreciated
Specs: Ryzen 5 5600x MSI B550m mortar wifi Gigabyte rtx 3070 vision Corsair vengeance RGB 32gb (4x8gb) 3200mhz Corsair h100i EVGA G1+ 650W fully modular

So, I'm not very experienced with D&D combat but I've been able to beat both games up until this point, including the Demogorgon on Core. That said, for some reason I can't seem to beat Sendai at all.
So here's how the fight goes: I'm running a MC that is a Kensai/Thief, Minsc, Jaheira, Sarevok, Nalia and Imoen. I'm able to summon a Planetar and a Mordenkainen's Sword at the door to keep the adds busy and I'm easily able to quickly kill all the statues. The problem arrives when the real Sendai shows up. During the first 2 seconds of the fight I'm able to hit her but after that (probably after she buffs herself), it's over. I can't seem to deal a single hp of damage on her, my characters keeps saying their weapons don't work and I keep missing forever.
My MC is running a Staff of the Ram +4. Minsc is using a Psion's Blade +5/Silver Sword, Sarevok is using a Soul Reaver +4, Jaheira uses a generic Scimitar +3 (for some reason I couldn't find anything much better, but she's my tank anyway, not a damage dealer).
The spells I tried to debuff here were Breach, Pierce Shield, Pierce Magic and Khelben's Warding Whip. Nothing seems to be able to make her vulnerable to my attacks.
Any tips? Thanks in advance!

Hello, recently I’ve unfortunately started to really get into the other snail game after playing warthunder for years. I’m aware I just missed a sale but I’ve been spending a good amount of time playing it but I’m still very low level. With a day and a half of playtime on Normandy I’m only on level 15. I want to invest in a little bit of premium time just to give me the taste of a completed campaign before I go off spending big bucks. I want to spend only $10 and get a months worth but looking it up apparently it’s about 2 months per campaign so I’m not sure how far a month will take me. I don’t really want to invest $25 already but if it’s the best way to experience the game I’d be willing to try, tell me what you guys think. (Just for some info I think tank goes off of playtime and games and I’m currently at the third highest and I’ve been playing for a month.) TLDR; Want to buy premium, don’t wanna spend more than $10, not sure if a month of premium is enough to finish a campaign.

In Canada
Dinger Week "2. Place a $5+ "To Hit a Home Run" prop wager on any MLB Games taking place on June 5th - June 9th.
· All MLB Games June 5th - June 9th are eligible, and there is no limit to how many games you can participate in.
· Wagers must be pre-live, straight and made using cash funds.

1. Get a $1 sportsbook bonus for every home run hit in the game (both teams), regardless of if your wager wins or loses. There is a max of $5 in sportsbook bonus per person, per game."

Hopefully can be semi successful cause my god do I miss Dinger Tuesday

I have 45 hours in this game and I can comfortable say 10 Hours of it is Used in creating new Custom AI Empires of every Ideology/Race from Fascists to Xenophiles and its barely enough gameplay. I just can't Play Past after a few years of discovering star hold. Idk it suddenly becomes very boring. I don't have any DLCs yet as I am not even sure I like the game or not. I try to manage the trade and well that's boring like in every other Paradox title (Except here Its a bit better). Am I missing the Point of the Game By not playing past a certain Point? Any tips on what to do after Galactic fédération had been founded etc?

We can speculate on all the possible outcomes, as there are a lot, but they all end up leading to the same end result. So worry, don’t worry, who gives a shit, go to work or don’t, this whole thing ends in disaster for quiet a few people. Can you do anything to change any of it? Mostly nope. The best chance you have is right where we are. If anyone can point me to a safer place to be then I would Ben happy to listen then point out where we are. Where we are is inevitable. Like it or not, this is probably how it goes down. A lot of shit and fuckery (already seen lots of already) then we win. Just chill and do why you do and so what you have to do to “survive one more day”. The difference is we survive one more day to greatness, they survive one more day just to survive. Fuck the noise. Hype is cool, but keep it tempered, but be confident in your own choice. No one forced you into this. You are here because we are are here. I am here because you are here. Let’s have a good week. Red, green, who gives a fuck. You are above ground and have a stack of shares that make very powerful people lose sleep. I for one am heading to bed with not a single care in mind. I’m going to work tomorrow. Same as always. I may come home a billionaire later but that has no effect on me today. Hold the line. Diamond fuck hands. We got this. Relax and enjoy the ride

TLDR: After wiping and reinstalling multiple linux distros, and running MM+ in most of those distros. I settled on Nobara, and after trying to download CoreCtrl and d4m, MM+ on Steam for some reason started to give me an attitude by telling me to go to this broken Denuvo support page. I am not sure if it is because I was flagged for suspicious activities in Denuvo's server by running MM+ in multiple different distros or by downloading and running CoreCtrl and d4m (alternative to DivaModManager on Linux). Please help me, I don't know what to do.
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Ever since yesterday when I got my new gpu, I have been trying to get Mega Mix+ working on Linux. I want it to be in Linux instead of Windows, because I will be running multiple services including a Jellyfin server that will play MM+ videos that I record in AV1 in Linux.
I encounter many problems and broke my OS multiple time trying to get MM+, a mod manager (d4m and DivaModManager), an gpu overclocking/monitor app (CoreCtrl), gamescope and gamemode working. I switched between Debian 11, Ubuntu 22.04 & 23.04, Pop!_OS 22.04 multiple times and finally stopping at Nobara, and these are what I have gone through for people who encounter a similar problem, or would like to read more...
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I don't need gamescope or gamemode to make MM+ work. Today when I installed Nobara, MM+ ran at like 144hz on my 1440p monitor without setting up gamescope and/or gamemode.

• I forgot that I had high refresh rate in the mods folder and set the cap to 144fps during previous OS installations. This happened because Boot and OS are stored on ssd #1, and MM+ and mods are stored on ssd #2. Over the course of wiping my OS multiple time yesterday and today, I didn't bother to reinstall MM+, since it is like 30GB+...

I have a pretty old 4-core cpu (intel 4th gen), and DivaModManager on Wine was taking up like 20-30% of my cpu capacity on Ubuntu 22.04. So for cases like mine, others might be interested in checkout out d4m instead, but it has been a headache to use d4m for me on Nobara because the installation was a huge pain. The only way I managed to get d4m to run was through the precompiled flatpak (building from source or pip were not working due to libarchive). Also, the gui interface is SUPER buggy. I have not checked out the terminal UI yet tho.
Trying to configure Ubuntu and PopOS has been a pain, max I got was like 30fps on Ubuntu 23.04 and I couldn't get my gpu drivers working on PopOS 22.04. It was not like my cpu or gpu was at or near 100% on Ubuntu. It is probably more worth it to go with a rolling or rolling-like distribution based on Arch or Fedora, and I chose Nobara, which is based on Fedora and from what I heard is a game-focused distro. For the most part, Nobara was working until my game stopped loading due to Denuvo for some reason...
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Back to the main point. This morning I installed Nobara multiple times after the first installation.
On my first run with Nobara this morning. It worked and I was getting like 144fps at 1440p. However, after installing CoreCtrl and d4m, something happened and I could not run MegaMix+ and keep getting an error that points me to codefusion's site when I try to launch MM+ and fail.
It could be that on my first Nobara installation, installing CoreCtrl and d4m triggered something in MM+'s denuvo server and banned my computer specifically (MM+ still works on my M1 MBA in a Windows VM), or it could be that I have reset my OS too many times yesterday, and caused denuvo to trigger a ban/cooldown for running MM+ on too many "different" computer on their side (I heard that the activation cooldown is usually 24 hours).
I wiped and clean installed multiple times because I keep getting a denuvo error, and though it had something to do with how I configured the package, so I tried wiping the OS and reinstalling Nobara for the second time with just the base distro's packages, and tried to run MM+ by itself with and without High Refresh Rate mod, but it didn't work. I also tried uninstalling and reinstalling MM+, and verifying the integrity of MM+. I also tried running with and without gamescope and gamemode. However, nothing worked.
​
After that I spiraled into repeating the same thing over and over (wiping OS, reinstalling OS, uninstalling & reinstalling MM+ and etc. multiple times), but nothing works and I am going crazy.
The denuvo support/help url that I keep getting when the game crashes is not really helpful either: https://support.codefusion.technology/hmPDmm_54769/?e=88500006&l=english&s=at
The page doesn't really explain anything... the only error it is giving is "AT_ERROR_TMA_TITLE" and "AT_ERROR_TMA_TEXT"...
​
On the minimum, I am going to take a break for 24 hours because if the reason is because I "activated" MM+ in different distros too many times, waiting 24 hours might lift the ban (according to others online on other games).
But if that is not it, can someone tell me what is happening, and why I am not able to launch MM+, and keep getting this Denuvo error on my pc at home only, and not on my mac? What should I do to be able to run MM+?

In the long period of time I've been following MK content creators on YouTube and Twitch, one of the biggest things I've noticed is that MK is a very difficult game to actually make content for. What I mean is that creators constantly have to go out of their way to censor things like blood, as well as Krushing Blows and Fatal Blows, in order to try and make sure they can actually monetize the videos. It results in a lot of extra work for creators and their editors, and even with that extra work, the videos can still end up getting demonitized anyway if the YouTube bots decide that to be so.
With that said, do you think it'd be a good idea for NRS to include an optional "Streamer Friendly" setting for MK1? While I'm not exactly sure how such a thing could be implemented without looking overly intrusive, I'd imagine it'd probably do things like disable blood and hide the violent Finishers. I think this would be a tremendous help to content creators, since if done correctly it'd save content creators and their editors a ton of time and effort editing out the blood and gore, while also ensuring creators and streamers they'd never have to worry about any MK1 content getting slapped with demonitization.
Is this something you'd like to see included as an option in MK1? I'm definitely curious to hear this sub's thoughts on the topic.

6/5 Monday MLB Oakland Athletics vs Pittsburgh Pirates Betting Preview
The Oakland Athletics will face off against the Pittsburgh Pirates in an intriguing matchup on June 5, 2023, at PNC Park. Both teams have had their fair share of struggles this season, but they will be looking to turn things around in this game. In this betting preview, we will analyze the reasons why each team could cover the run line, as well as factors that could contribute to the game going over or under the total.
The Oakland Athletics, with a record of 12-49, have struggled mightily this season. Their offense has been lackluster, averaging only 3.35 runs per game, which ranks 30th in the league. However, they will be facing Johan Oviedo of the Pirates, who has an ERA of 4.50. Oviedo has had mixed performances in his last three starts, but the Athletics might find some success against him considering their recent offensive output. Additionally, the Pirates' bullpen has pitched 14.1 innings in the last three games, which could be a factor in the Athletics covering the run line.
On the other side, the Pittsburgh Pirates have a record of 31-27 and have been performing relatively well lately. They are currently on a five-game winning streak and have a strong ATS record, going 5-0 in their last five games. The Pirates' offense has been decent, averaging 4.42 runs per game, and they will be facing JP Sears of the Athletics, who has an ERA of 4.37. Sears has struggled in his recent starts, and the Pirates' lineup could take advantage of that. Furthermore, the Pirates have been successful when playing against the Athletics in the past, with a 6-1 record in their last seven meetings.
Considering the recent form and trends, the game could potentially go over the total of 8.5 runs. The Pirates' offense has been productive, and they have the potential to score runs against Sears and the Athletics' bullpen. Additionally, in four of the last six meetings between these teams, the total has gone over.
In conclusion, while the Oakland Athletics have had a difficult season so far, they have an opportunity to bounce back in this game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Pirates have been in good form recently, but the Athletics could cover the run line due to their potential to exploit Oviedo's pitching struggles. However, considering the Pirates' strong performance and the potential offensive output from both teams, it is likely that the game will go over the total.
Prediction: Pittsburgh Pirates 6, Oakland Athletics 4