I’m not generally one to focus on who’s watching my instagram stories— i only remembered the function existed like a month ago, and when I did i checked it out of curiosity, wondering who tends to watch my stories. It’s the usual suspects for the most part, some randoms I didn’t know even followed me, and all my coworkers including the coworker in question (let’s call them D), as well as the instagram account for the company i work for. Now, this struck me as strange. Several people have access, but we’re not really using it for stuff like watching stories.
The first few times i noticed the work account was watching my stories, I assumed i’d done it myself without thinking while logged in for work. But then i made a point to Not do that and it still showed that the work account had watched my story. As time went on, i found myself checking who’d watched my stories with some regularity, and noticed that D had stopped watching my stories entirely, but that the work account never stopped. As far as who has access to the work account, it’s basically just the two of us (me and D). Our other colleagues have access too but i’ve never seen them log in or use it unless they absolutely had to, whereas me and D have to be logged in constantly to reply to messages, upload posts, etc. So there’s one more piece of evidence that supports my theory that D is the one watching my stories from that account. Beyond that, all of my other colleagues watch my stories from their respective accounts. we’re all pretty active on our personal accounts, it’s part of our job. Only outlier is D. Whole thing is just bizarre and the fact i can’t explain it away myself is making it a bigger thing for me than i’d like it to.
It’s so stupid, really, and honestly not a big deal, but because it’s so stupid and strange it’s been needling at me in a way that something more serious probably wouldn’t. And I’m tempted to say something about it, like “who’s the one watching my ig stories from the work account?” (keeping it light and not accusatory ofc) but then again like i said it is really stupid and not a big deal and i could probably live if i never found out who it was. But i’m curious! I want to know! If it is D, then i’m wondering why he only watches my stories from the work account. If it’s someone else, i still want to know why!
So, should I say anything or just let sleeping dogs lie?

This is partly about my MIL and also my in laws generally. Long story short, my parent is having a major invasive surgery and neither of his siblings have bothered to check in with me.
We had plans with his siblings so out of decency and courtesy, I messaged them in our group chat to tell them I wouldn’t be able to join and shared why, and said I hope they have a great time. Both of their SO’s that they live with replied immediately however neither one of them has said anything for a couple of days. No even “reacting” to the message like you can on iMessage to acknowledge it.
So I brought this up to my husband as I’m very communicative with my feelings with him and he has been very supportive in the past. He had already thought about texting them to tell them to respond to my text and then did right then and there. Once he did, his siblings immediately texted me individually both with virtually the exact same text- making an excuse about how they were busy dealing with an issue at the time that I sent the text. They both said the typical “let us know how we can help we are here for you” text and when I responded to them saying that I hope the issue was figured out, they said absolutely nothing back.
However they were clearly not too busy to be posting several times on social media during that period of time. So l've decided to go low contact with them (I already am with my MIL and FIL) and deleted them off social media as well as stop being the person to think of and buy them gifts from my husband and I for every occasion that comes up. I don't know if I'm being too harsh but in my opinion, it's easy to show up for the fun stuff, but it's the tough stuff that really show you someone's character and worthiness to be in your life.
My FIL and MIL have actually checked in on me leading up to the surgery and during to make sure I’m ok (as I don’t live in the same state as my parents) which I very much appreciated. But his siblings haven’t said a thing about it. It’s just mind blowing to me that neither of them would tell their children to have common courtesy? And more than that their own children have absolutely decency at all?!
I know I shouldn’t have had expectations but I guess I did and got burned.

Background for the situation
I live in a large student accomodation tower block in london, i share a flat with 5 people and we have a communal kitchen. Around a month ago at midnight there was a fire in the kitchen, the fire was mostly over the bin bags that were left around the bins in the kitchen, me and one of the other people in my flat grabbed a fire extinguisher and put it out and then evacuated. We never seen an offical report but the night security guard said that the fire bragade thought it was a cigarette that started the fire, me and one of my other flatmates dont smoke im not sure about the 3rd one. Most of the fire damage was on the floor that melted and the wall above was blackened but not burnt through, they replaced a small square of the floor and painted the wall.
Today 2 people from reception knocked on my and 2 other of my flatmates doors who were in the building that night, the other 2 flatmates werent in but they talked to me and said because there was no electrical wires, sockets etc in that part of the wall that the fire had to of been caused by something else, therefore the cost of the repair would be split between the 3 of us, the cost per person i was told was £394 each and that there would be an email sent out to the other 2 flatmates and myself and the ammount that had to be paid would be added to our online account to pay the same way we would for rent.
So i need advice, do i need to pay this?, should i get a lawyer? just need any help, thanks
Attached pictures of the before and after of the fire - https://imgur.com/a/xkEKHvL

Hey all, I (36F) run mostly 10k-marathon but am mixing it up this summer and signed up for a local “track series”. It’s a weekly series with about 4 events each iteration. Exact events will differ each week. It’s a mix of high school athletes, masters, and a few random distance runners like me who are trying something new.
Last week was 800m, 100m, 4x400m relay and 1600m. The events were spaced out over about 2.5 hours to accommodate multiple heats and general crowd management. I did all 4 events and mostly hung around between them. 3 days later am still recovering. Mostly my quads and hamstrings are whooped.
Any recommendations for how to approach the coming series as far as warm up, fueling, recovery, types of runs to do the rest of the week, etc?
I run track workouts as part of my training but have zero experience racing these short distances.
My goals are to have fun, try something new, not break myself and maybe gain some speed in the process. I’m in my off season, so no big races that I’m training for right now.
Thoughts?

I know one is ovbiously gas the other is Electric, but I was looking for a AK for displaying. I heard LCT pretty much makes the AK body for GHK. Is this true? Cause for a display piece theres a good $300-400 price difference.

National Self-Determination Bill 2023

A BILL TO
guarantee British Overseas Territories, Scotland and Wales the right to hold independence and transfer referenda.
BE IT ENACTED by the King's Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Section 1: Definitions
(1) “British overseas territory” has the same meaning as in the British Nationality Act 1981.
(2) “Independence referendum” shall mean a referendum where registered electors of the relevant territory may vote on whether or not to become governed independently.
(3) “Transfer referendum” shall mean a referendum where registered electors of the relevant territory may vote on whether or not to leave the United Kingdom and join another state which has officially indicated to HM Government that they would be willing to accept the territory.

CHAPTER 1: THE CALLING OF REFERENDA

Section 2: Independence and Transfer Referenda
(1) Citizens of a British overseas territory, Scotland, or Wales may present a petition to the Secretary of State to hold an independence or transfer referendum, which will be binding if:-

(a) the petition is signed by 20% of the registered electors of the relevant territory; and
(b) the signatures were collected within a 9-month period; and
(c) a previous unsuccessful referendum was not held within 10 years of the petition beginning to collect signatures.

Section 3: Assent of Devolved or Local Governments
(1) For the purposes of this section, an appropriate person is any of the following-

(a) The First Minister of the relevant territory,
(b) The Chief Minister of the relevant territory, or-
(c) The head of Government of the relevant territory

(2) Should none of the above be available or appropriate, the Secretary of State may designate as an “appropriate person” any person who is a part of the functioning of a devolved or local government in the relevant territory, so long as that person is reasonably able and appropriate to carry out any duties foreseeably arising from this act.
(3) A petition under Section 2 shall not be valid unless an appropriate person representing the relevant territory affirms to the Secretary of State that they support the aim of the petition.
Section 3: Entitlement to Vote
(1) Those entitled to vote in a referendum called under this act in Scotland or Wales are-

(a) the persons ordinarily resident in the territory in question who, on the date of the referendum, would be entitled to vote as electors at a parliamentary election in a constituency within that territory,
(b) the persons ordinarily resident in the territory in question who, on that date, are disqualified by reason of being peers from voting as electors at parliamentary elections but would be entitled to vote as electors at a local government election in any electoral area in Great Britain.

(2) Those entitled to vote in a referendum called under this act in a British Overseas Territory are the persons ordinarily resident in the territory in question who, on the date of the referendum, would be entitled to vote as electors at a general election within that territory,

CHAPTER 2: THE POWERS AND DUTIES OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE

Section 4: Duties of the Secretary of State
(1) Upon the receipt of a valid petition under Section 2 of this Act, the following duties are created for the Secretary of State:

(a) the duty to move an order under this act so as to create a referendum of the type intended by the petition, within one calendar year of the date of receipt,
(b) the duty to produce and publish such regulations that are reasonably necessary and expedient to ensure the smooth, orderly and fair discharge of the referendum in question,
(c) to publish a report detailing the issue at question, and what efforts His Majesty’s Government will take to ensure that an orderly transition between the status quo and proposed constitutional change within the territory in question can occur
(d) to appoint whatever persons the Secretary of State deems reasonably necessary to discharge the functions of the referendum, and-
(e) to provide whatever funds are reasonably necessary to discharge the functions of the referendum.

(2) The Secretary of State may reimburse any reasonable costs incurred by Section (1)(e).
Section 5: The Powers of the Secretary of State
(1) The Secretary of State shall have the power to make regulations specified under Sections 6 and 7 of this act.
(2) The Secretary of State shall have the power to make such regulations as are reasonably required so as to fulfil a duty under Section 4 of this act.
(3) Regulations and Orders under this act shall be subject to the negative procedure.
Section 6: Referendum Orders
(1) The Secretary of State may make an order that a referendum to which this act applies is to be held in the territory in question, so long as they have received a valid petition.
(2) The Secretary of State must, by regulations, appoint the day on which the referendum is to be held.
(3) The Secretary of State shall have a duty to refer the question to appear of the ballot papers to the Electoral Commission, and must ensure that the wording they provide is that which appears on the ballot papers in question.
Section 7: Conduct Regulations
(1) The Secretary of State may by regulations—

(a) make provision about voting in the referendum and otherwise about the conduct of the referendum,
(b) apply for the purposes of the referendum any other enactment relating to elections or referendums, including provisions creating offences;

(2) The Secretary of State may by regulations make provision for and in connection with the combination of the poll for the referendum with any one or more of the following—

(a) the poll for any election specified in the regulations;
(b) the poll for any other referendum specified in the regulations.

(3) Regulations under this act may not change the date of either a referendum called under this act, or any electoral process to which subsection (2) applies.
(4) Before making any regulations under this section, the Secretary of State must consult the Electoral Commission.
Section 8: Short title, commencement, and extent
(1) This Act may be cited as the National Self-Determination Act 2023.
(2) This Act shall come into force immediately upon Royal Assent.
(3) This Act extends to England, Wales, Scotland, and the British Overseas Territories
(4) Nothing in this act shall be construed to have extent to Northern Ireland
This bill was written by The Rt. Hon. NicolasBroaddus MP, Leader of the Opposition, The Most Hon. Marquess of Belfast, the Rt. Hon. Dame SpectacularSalad KG OM GCMG KCB KBE CT PC MP MLA FRS, and The Rt. Hon. Sir mg95000, and was submitted on behalf of His Majesty’s 37th Official Opposition.
Appendix 1: Devolved or Local Governments
For the purposes of this act, the Devolved and Local Governments are:
The Scottish Government
The Welsh Government
The Government of Anguilla
The Government of Saint Helena
The Government of Bermuda
The Government of the British Virgin Islands
The Cayman Islands Government
The Government of Montserrat
The Falkland Islands Government
The Government of Gibraltar
The Government of the Turks and Caicos Islands
The Government of the Pitcairn Islands
The following individuals may be taken to be appropriate persons:
The Administrator of Tristan de Cunha
The Administrator of Ascension Island
The Secretary of State may by regulations amend this Appendix for the purposes of adding or removing Devolved or Local Governments, or appropriate persons where no recognised Government exists.
Deputy Speaker,
I must start by making clear that, while this coalition does not agree with the decision the Commons has made on the Direct Democracy Act, we have no choice but to abide by that decision. However, this puts us now in an even less clear constitutional position on a specific area in which referenda are the only viable and accepted method to be used: independence votes.
We have seen recently, outside of this simulation, the UK Supreme Court decision regarding the legal status of a Scottish independence referendum. While I am sure many here would wish to debate the grounds and arguments made in that particular judgement, that is not the intent of this bill. The intent of this bill is to guarantee the specific right explicitly, so as to prevent this sort of controversial court judgement subverting the will of the people in contravention of Article 15 of the UN Convention on Human Rights. To quote:
“(1) Everyone has the right to a nationality. (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.” To this end this bill will guarantee that right for Scotland, Wales, and the British Overseas Territories. Northern Ireland is specifically not included in this bill so as to remain in compliance with the Belfast Agreement, which supersedes the authority here as a pre-existing mutual agreement. The required signatures and time between possible referendums is based on the previous Brexit referendums and the Fixed Term Parliament Act, respectively.
To be clear on a more metagame angle, independence is still blocked unless it should come to be in real life. This may not apply to British Overseas Territories, given the actions taken regarding the establishment of New Chagos, but this is undoubtedly a less impactful aspect of MHOC remaining recognisable as a simulation of British politics. However, whether or not we can actually hold a referendum in game is irrelevant to the main point at hand: this is legally and morally the correct guarantee to make. The UK has been part of actions taken against other nations by the UN regarding Article 15, we are obliged to also honour its conditions.
This reading will end on 12th June at 10pm BST.

"Ruuk."
I jolted awake, my heart thundering in my chest. I looked around, but didn't see anyone. I sat up on my bed, idly noting that the bedding was different. My bedroom was adorned with carvings dedicated to Bahamut, a small assortment of vestments were arranged on a shelf, as well as an assortment of other things that Tallyn likely had need of.
I stood up, I no longer felt exhausted, but I didn't feel rested. I didn't remember much of my nightmare, only that it was claustrophobic, a memory of the mine collapsing on me? I wasn't certain. I made use of some sort of polish to clean up my armor and some wax to give the spear a nice coating.
We didn't bathe, at least, we didn't go out of our way to use our drinking water for bathing. I usually stuck with Prestidigitation, three quick casts were enough for me. As I got ready for the day, I walked over to the vestments and picked them up. Dyed blue, at least with magic, as far as I knew. The Artificers were good at figuring out all of the things that both mattered and didn't matter.
'The vestments of my faith are a sign of devotion to me.' Bahamut spoke. 'You have your devotion directed elsewhere.'
"I know." I said. "I want to avoid another situation with your faithful, I quite literally went in and gave Mitne a dressing down on little more than spite, and something like that's not going to be ignored, regardless of the situation."
I put the vestments on, and noted a section of the wall had been polished to a reflective sheen.
My once-blind eye was a deep azure, the scars still present on my face, the other was a dull, pale yellow, a sign that Kurtulmak had once been an influence in my life. I realized, as I looked into my reflection, that this was my first time seeing myself since... Since when? There was a memory, certainly. A building, one that was completely different from what I was used to.
'You do not remember your prior home.' Bahamut observed. 'Does it distress you, knowing that you used to live as a Human?"
"I was... a Human?" I asked. I shook my head. "I don't remember ever being one."
'Nobody does.' Bahamut replied. 'There is an entire year you have existed as a soul, the effects of Tiamat's machinations still affected you, their effect forcing you to forget you ever were a Human in the first place.' He paused. 'In many ways, the truth becomes a lie, as the Human named Adrian ceases to exist, with only Ruuk Stingtail remaining.'
"Will there ever be a point where that would become a lie, even to you?" I asked.
'Perhaps when the last memory has faded, and the truth would only serve to cause anguish.' He answered. 'I have had to abide by much I would not normally, simply because adhering to my ideals would have only led to suffering. I do not have the luxuries the other worlds grant me, if my faithful are gone, and you are dead, Tiamat will have total victory.'
I could feel anguish, a distinct feeling of being unclean. I could see visions of acts of great valor, judgments made for the sake of good and justice, a rigid moral code that brooked not even the merest acts of evil. Worlds where faith formed sturdy bridges, easy egress.
And then there was this lone planet, cast aside and forgotten, only the thinnest threads granting any connection.
"You're forced to abide by us, simply because it's the only option you have." I realized.
I saw another vision, of myself, disbelieving. I could feel a fondness, a desire to show myself a world beyond my own imaginings. The lightning was for me, to spark belief, to show a greater truth. I felt such strong joy, seeing myself faithful to him, and I felt the cold, crushing sorrow and disappointment when I refused to leave Kurtulmak behind.
I saw my evil acts, and I felt such devastating loss and self-loathing for allowing pride to get in the way of ensuring my continued devotion to good.
Bahamut had made costly mistakes, and though he hated it, though he despised abiding by it, he was forced to tolerate my actions, he was forced to give me every opportunity to prove that I hadn't fallen so deeply into hatred as to be irretrievable.
Yet, even though he did not believe for a second Kurtulmak was capable of such, the day Garl Glittergold confronted us, my God had shocked him completely,
Looking at my reflection, I realized I liked seeing myself in this.
'You are my agent, Ruuk, because you were the only one who was able to see hypocrisy for what it was. You demanded I give you proof, because nothing less than that would satisfy you. Even at your lowest, you never truly did anything that hadn't been done to you. Your hatred, painful as it was to see, was justified by the hatred directed toward you. Your manipulations to bring about an Empire were no different from Galax's."
He paused. 'The day I directed you to the platinum, that was a test to see who you really were. An irredeemable tyrant would have used it for evil, or hidden its existence entirely. You not only gave it to my Temple, you made what they needed most.'
I felt his presence around me. 'I am proud of what good you have done, and I am ashamed of the evil my actions to you have wrought. And yet I still use you, my gift being little more than a tool, not a true reward.'
"I have promised myself to Kurtulmak." I said. "If you cannot abide by this, then take my brother as your agent, because I will continue to try and bring my God back."
'I abide, for the simple fact that you have done what I believed to be impossible. I do not need your faith, I only need your good and your justice. I shall not make you make promises to me."
I nodded. "Bahamut... If you promise me you will help me bring him back, if that is a promise you can make, I will serve you and him in equal measure, and he will have to accept that since you would have aided me."
'Ruuk Stingtail, this I vow.'
"Then I vow to serve you as I serve my God, I will hold you in the same regard I give him, and when I am able, I will strive to follow your way. Nomeno Si okros."
I felt Bahamut's warmth flow through me. It did not fill in the void Kurtulmak's death left behind, merely outlined it. In the mirror, my blue eye glowed with inner light.
'Go put on your armor.' Bahamut spoke. 'It would not look good for you to serve both of us, yet represent only me.'
I put the armor on, and feeling more determined than ever, I stepped out into my throne room.
The look on my Council's face, and the faces of both the followers of Kurtulmak and Bahamut, indicated nobody expected me to walk out as I had. Carrying Kurtulmak's spear, wearing his armor, yet bearing Bahamut's holy vestments, I most certainly struck quite the sight.
"Kneel." I said, and they all knelt. "From this day forward, I am a servant of both Kurtulmak and Bahamut, for Bahamut has given me his solemn vow to see him restored."
"As my agent upon this world, Tallyn shall be the ultimate authority of my Temple, as guided by me." Bahamut spoke, my eye flashing with his power. "There shall no longer be a High Priest dictating what is my Law. In the days to come, I shall make apparent what is truth, what is deception, and what is simple misinterpretation."
I blinked, his presence retracting, but not retreating. I was as much his, and I was Kurtulmak's, and he was not letting me go any time soon. Not that I minded.
"From this point forward." I said. "The only laws of the Empire are the Tenets of Bahamut, and what laws come forth as needed. All prior laws will be discarded. Moreover, worship to any God is not mandatory. If I see so much as a pamphlet being handed out, I will execute the offender personally. Is this understood?"
"Yes, Imperator."
"Good." I said. "That line of communication is today's top priority. If no significant headway has been made, I will assume either incompetence or malice, and I will personally see to it that the offender is held accountable." I looked at my father. "Baruk, as my father, you have a heavy burden. I know you will not mess this up."
"Of course, Imperator." He said.
"Good. Go out and to what is needed. I will handle the citizens and their criticisms. Make it known that I now command the Temples, and that there will be no High Priest to dictate their lives. Dismissed."
I didn't waste any time, and neither did the people. Of course, they were a little concerned, seeing me wearing Bahamuti vestments when I stepped out onto the gathering area, but I commanded them to give me their criticisms and concerns.
"The Temples are under my command." I said. "As Bahamut's Agent, it is my job to ensure the people are treated with dignity and respect. You will not be forced to believe in anything."
Going through over ten thousand individual papers is exhausting, so I said, "If in the process of going through everything, I have addressed your every concern, feel free to dispose of your paper." This, as it turned out, was a good idea, because by the time I got to the twentieth person, over half of the gathered crowd crumpled up their papers, ignited them, or otherwise got rid of it.
No detail was too insignificant. "As the new head of Bahamut's Temple, I declare your grievances legitimate, if any Cleric or Paladin denies you any recompense, return to me and I will personally kick their ass."
Gradually, I saw hope and happiness restored in their faces.
"I will not be removing Tallyn from his position." I stated in response to one grievance that called him ineffectual. "At present, I need him to ensure shit gets done with the Temple. However, the one who made him ineffectual will be hunted down and executed on sight."
Another thousand papers were disposed of.
As the day wound down to evening, and after a light lunch, the complaints and criticisms grew more granular and petty, I addressed each issue, and by nightfall, I had gone through the entire list. My father reported that the soldiers were willing to set up a direct line of communication, and were glad we were finally cooperating.
"How did they react to me returning from the dead?" I asked.
"I, uh, haven't actually had a chance to really explain that." He said. "It would have bogged things down. They will be getting things ready for our Artificers, who have an idea for a broadcasting device based around the concept of something called Sending Stones. It shouldn't rely on electricity at all."
"Good." I said.
I took a short nap before leaving to do the ritual again. This time, we had a brazier, which we used to burn aromatic herbs. "This time, I shall join, but I will not give devotion, only direction." Bahamut spoke through me.
We were going to need a lot more stuff, but thankfully, we had a convenient supply of gold, silver, and gemstones waiting to be peeled off the walls of a building.
The next day, while the Artificers got to work on the communication devices, we got to work on what I called 'Operation Cleanup'. Kurtulmak's Divine Essence being everywhere was what some would consider A Problem. That was our ultimate goal, and our options were very limited on that front.
So we focused on what we could do.
I did away with the notion of a Temple to Bahamut entirely, instead just having his face carved into a wall that was accessible to everyone, but out of the way enough that anyone who needed to pray could do so without being bothered.
"Until everyone can behave long enough to not need one, there will be no Temple." I stated firmly. "You have The Wall, you will do your praying at The Wall. If this is inconvenient for you, then go out and do what Bahamut commands you to do. Your actions are your prayers, use them."
The Clerics and Paladins were used to long-winded sermons about Bahamut and his deeds. I was very blunt and direct. If Bahamut had a problem with something, it was always something along the lines of 'Bahamut said no. These are the reasons he said no. If you complain, I will poke you with the pointy end of this spear.'
Which was, incidentally, effective. Bahamut's faithful gradually stopped being so insular and uncertain. The Tenets were all they needed, anything else was a judgment call on their part. "Believe in the you that Bahamut believes in, go forth and do good." I would say.
Anything that needed a less strict hand, or a slightly less moral approach, I would deal with it. He didn't like it, but as far as I was concerned, "If I must be Evil, then I shall be necessary." A concept he believed was oxymoronic, but he didn't complain because I still deferred to his judgment on most things that needed it.
The Temple dealt with, I started focusing on the ravening bands of murderhobos below the city, and that was going to require a more delicate touch.
"Arcanik jedark vers!" I snapped, killing a Kobold who was trying to attack me. "Kneel before your Imperator, or by the point of Kurtulmak's spear and the tip of his poisonous tail, I will see every member of your family perish!"
Delicate.
Sufficiently cowed, the recently dead made recently revived, I made it very clear I was in charge. "Tiamat killed me, and I am still here to make it her problem!" I roared.
Bahamut wasn't particularly fond of me using brutality and coercion to get the hostile Kobolds to comply, but considering I wore a replica of Kurtulmak's armor and wielded his actual spear, well, the only thing I was missing was a stinger tail, and I was reasonably certain I could probably finagle some sort of magic that would do that, if it was absolutely necessary.
With them cowed and submissive, I led them out into the daylight, which they of course weren't happy with. With them stood in front of my city, I spoke very clearly. "I am Imperator of this city, its citizens revere me. If you cannot exist peacefully with them, I will not bring you back. We are Kobolds, and Kobolds protect their own."
Contact between the two groups was tense, but they integrated, swapping crude covers for actual clothes and bolstering our workforce. They numbered roughly one hundred. I made it fairly clear that worship of Tiamat was not allowed. "We will not revere a Goddess who attacked us and slaughtered four fifths of our population. If you must revere a God, revere Kurtulmak, whom we will bring back to life, or Bahamut, who has done more for us than Tiamat ever will."
Atheism was, of course, a viable alternative.
The next few days were dedicated to me helping with the smaller, less vital things, taking down banners that were solely dedicated to Bahamut that had been required by law to be hung- anyone who wanted to hang them in their own home or outside of such was welcome to- or arming the populace because Mitne wanted to consolidate power.
And each night, we performed the ritual, even if it ultimately amounted to nothing, we refused to sit back and do nothing.
During the restoration of Kurtulmak's Temple, one of our workers slipped and fell on something sharp, I didn't even think as I yanked it out and healed him, I had one free heal per 'long rest', any further would eat up my supply of spells, which considering I could restore a handful, meant in a rough spot, I could take some burden off any Clerics.
Finally, on the fifth day of my resurrection, the line of communication was made, and I got ready to use it.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Blood-slicked hand, dead eyes gazing into mine, it was either him or me. Thousands of eyes were on me, overcrowded, overwhelming. I told them, this was where we would stay, I told them we would fight our way to the center, we would conquer this land for as long as it was necessary.
They spoke: "Yes, Imperator!"
​
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I know I attempted to get one ten years ago but we couldn’t get it in. I have zero memory of what it looked like or how big it was. The pictures online look like a size I could build up to after a session of dilating. The thing is… I’m less terrified of it being shoved in and more terrified of it being moved around. That’s the part that always REALLY fucking hurts, and it hasn’t improved after a decade of PT. The only thing that’s gotten better is that I can use a bigger dilator size. Medium is my absolute maximum, can barely get it in. Small is comfortable. Extra small is where I started. I can move around with xs and s but the medium size is to big to move around in me without screaming.
The other thing… it’s completely different when I do it compared to other people. If my PT does trigger point release with the xs it will have me screaming and crying. No clue why.
So I’m understandably terrified. I need this done though. I have lidocaine. Historically, lidocaine helps some but not with pain caused by movement. That pain is too internal.
I recently had one of the worst flares I’ve experienced in years. I’m not eager for a repeat. Does anyone have advice? What should I expect? I really wish they would just give me laughing gas or something for this. It’s silly that we have to suffer through the pain when they could just knock us out. : ( I feel like it would be easier for the technician too!
(Edited a bunch of typos)

I’m posting this to encourage others as others have encouraged me. I started Dreaming Spanish from practically zero at the end of June 2022. I had just finished a 10 week basic beginner class in Spanish, once a week lesson for one hour when I heard about CI and DS. I stopped all classes and just started watching the Superbeginner videos, initially on YouTube, then shortly afterwards signed up for the Premium content and started tracking every minute. I started with about an hour a day then got impatient and increased it to 2 hours.
I won’t bore you with the whole history of my progress or tell you about my doubts and struggles. But I will tell you that I am so happy I found this method. In general, the whole process has been reasonably easy and simple to do. It was hard at first to make the habit form but now it has become a core part of my daily routine.
The journey has been mostly plain sailing with just some doubts and struggles. But I have to say that the last 100 hours have felt like a very long time. I think that was because I was just so keen to get to the next level. Also, life or rather death got in the way over the last couple of months due to a family bereavement. That really knocked me and I lost my passion for a while as my heart wasn’t into it so much. However, I would read a couple of posts here and get motivated to get going again and now I’m back to doing the full 120 minutes each day.
It’s important to put in the DS time especially if you want to make rapid progress, but it’s more important to have balance, look after your mental health and the needs of your family and friends. I’m stating the obvious, I know, but I just needed to say it anyway.
Some of you will probably be wanting to know what is my level of Spanish now that I’ve reached this milestone. Well, I will go into all that in detail in another post, but it’s fair and honest to tell you that I am more or less aligned with the famous DS Roadmap. So with that in mind I hope this little post will help you keep the momentum up and encourage you to keep going even when you don’t feel like it. Actually, especially if you don’t feel like it. Vale la pena!

I want to keep this simple because I don’t want to misspeak. When you go to a company and say want a refund or something of that nature. You buy say a gift card or you have an iou
Why are crypto not considered like in house cash? Do companies have to register with the sec their gift cards or like in-house cash as in sag my company is banana world. And I said hey buy these banana cash and you can get a five percent discount. My money is no longer fiat. It’s banana cash and I can only spend it on whatever the hell bananas world sells.
Help me understand. Because honestly the most idiotic part of this whole Americas war on crypto isn’t even the obvious of being idk call this a that and that a this. Why don’t they just stop banks from doing business with cexes. Like idk why they are doing this confusing round about stuff that actually just sounds far more petty than saying f^ck off. We hate crypto citizens will only use the dollar. Boy. Talk about “land of the free” most dated idea in humanity right now.
This might have been a strange analogy but I am curious why it matters considering these coins are used for gas no? But because they had an ico they are now securities?
Someone enlightens me like I’m 3

I’m currently working in a senior(ish) position with a big international bank in London, which is quite lucky for someone in their early 30s. It’s also as high of a company as you can get in my specific field, anything better than this involves equity in high growth startups or being part of a well paid Business Development team. It took me a lot of time and effort to get to this point, as I grew up poor with no generational wealth.
The problem is I can’t stand the people anymore and between alcohol, coffee and excess takeaway food, my coping mechanisms are starting to collapse. It’s affecting my sleep and general well-being, almost feeling a paranoia of backstabbing and manipulative behaviour from (some of) my coworkers.
I’m sure my colleagues have their own issues, but I swear I never encountered such a toxic, manipulative bunch. I’m really scared I might overreact one day and do something I’ll later come to regret. Trying to deal with them formally is pointless, because the management structure owns HR and all internal political machinations. These people will waste unlimited amounts of money just to maintain their status and inflate their ego, so I don’t think it’s wise to try anything like reporting or whistleblowing.
My notice period is 3 months and getting a job that pays so much won’t be possible (I think). I would probably have to take a 2k monthly hit to my existing earnings, which would be hard to swallow. Also, explaining why I’m looking to leave after just over a year would be tricky (I changed jobs almost yearly since before Covid, but that was mainly for progression…obviously money too).
On the other hand I’m constantly paranoid about being made redundant one day, like other people in our wider team have, because of politics and personality clashes. The thing that kept me employed for so long was the expertise I have in my field, but I don’t want to count on it.
Financial situation: * 152k in cash savings with roughly 50k of 0% credit card debt maturing in the next 2 years (hence the 100k “net” in the headline) * pension fund of about 70k * monthly salary of 7.5k * partner monthly salary of 2.2k * mortgage of 1.6k a month, with deal ending in Jan 2027 (390k equity in house worth just under 600k) * nursery 1.5k a month, which I’ll have to keep paying until mid 2026 * discretionary spend/living expenses of 1.5k a month (I try to be sensible but won’t refuse myself or the family many things) * partner pays 1k of her salary for bills and other monthly expenses * I save about 3k a month, plus the possibility of a 20k bonus each January * I was planning on becoming mortgage free if my savings goal and bonuses kept accumulating until 2028
Should I: * wait until January comes and see if I get my bonus, then jump ship to any job I find? * quit and keep the child at home for a while to save on nursery payments? * cash in my equity by selling the house, add my savings and buy something smaller (with 0 Mortgage) and do as little work as possible in this job until (if) they fire me? * combination of the above?

I’m kind of curious on how much bills come out to. Here in California our pg&e bill- which is gas and electricity, can be anywhere from 80-150 (renting in a apartment) . How much are your utility bills? Also what utility provider do you have?
Thanks :)

TL,DR (riassunto breve di tutto ciò che leggerete): A causa di una protesta di gran parte degli utenti di reddit contro l'ultimo aggiornamento riguardante le app di terze part, questo sub verrà chiuso il 12 giugno per 1-2 giorni.
un enorme grazie al ModTeam di Italy per la creazione di questo post, l'originale lo potete trovare qua
Buongiorno a tutti, Comunichiamo che il ModTeam di memeitaliani, a seguito di una consultazione interna, ha deciso di sostenere la protesta di molti sub contro alla politica intrapresa da Reddit nei confronti delle app di terze parti.
Di recente, Reddit ha annunciato alcune modifiche alla loro API che potrebbero avere un impatto piuttosto serio su molti dei suoi utenti. Probabilmente avete già visto diversi post del genere in alcuni degli altri subreddit che frequentate, quindi andiamo subito al sodo.

COSA STA SUCCEDENDO

Le app di terze parti per Reddit (come Apollo, Reddit is Fun e altre) diventeranno incredibilmente più costose per gli sviluppatori da gestire, il che significherà che le app smetteranno di funzionare o comporteranno un canone mensile per gli utenti che scelgono di utilizzare una di queste app per navigare. In poche parole, ogni richiesta a Reddit effettuata tramite queste app mobili costerà denaro allo sviluppatore. Gli sviluppatori di Apollo hanno ricevuto una quotazione di circa 2 milioni di dollari al mese per la quantità attuale di utilizzo.
L'unico modo per queste app di continuare a essere sostenibili per gli sviluppatori è che voi (gli utenti) paghiate un canone mensile, ma realisticamente, molto probabilmente ciò porterà alla loro estinzione. In breve: se utilizzi un'app di terze parti per navigare su Reddit, molto probabilmente non sarai più in grado di farlo, o ti verrà addebitato un canone mensile per mantenerla funzionante.

ULTERIORI INFORMAZIONI

• Alcune persone con problemi di vista hanno difficoltà nell'utilizzo dell'app ufficiale per dispositivi mobili, e la rimozione delle app di terze parti potrebbe ostacolare in modo significativo la loro capacità di navigare su Reddit in generale.
• Molti moderatori saranno notevolmente ostacolati nel moderare le proprie comunità poiché le app mobili di terze parti forniscono strumenti di moderazione non supportati dall'app ufficiale. Ciò significa tempi di attesa più lunghi per l'approvazione dei post, segnalazioni, messaggi di moderazione, ecc.
• Il contenuto per adulti non sarà più disponibile tramite l'API. Ciò significa che, anche se le app di terze parti continueranno a esistere o se paghi un canone per utilizzare un'app di terze parti, non potrai accedere a contenuti per adulti su di essa. Sarai in grado di accedervi solo tramite l'app ufficiale di Reddit. Inoltre, alcuni bot di servizio (come i downloader di video, i bot di promemoria, o il nostro stesso QualityBot) non saranno in grado di accedere a nulla di esplicito. In casi più gravi, potrebbe diventare più difficile per i moderatori dei subreddit per adulti combattere violazioni gravi come il materiale abusivo su minori (CSAM) a causa delle restrizioni nell'accesso ai contenuti per adulti imposte su determinati strumenti di moderazione.

Nota: gran parte di questo testo è stato tratto e ispirato da un fantastico post dei moderatori di wow e di pcgaming che hanno fatto un ottimo lavoro approfondendo l'intera situazione ed è stato copiaincollato dal messaggio di memesita Un grande plauso ai loro team! Puoi leggere i loro post qui e qui

LETTERA APERTA A REDDIT E SCIOPERO

In seguito a quanto accaduto sopra, è stata pubblicata una lettera aperta dalla comunità più ampia dei moderatori e che memesITA sosterrà.
Parte di questa iniziativa prevede uno sciopero potenziale del subreddit (cioè, il subreddit verrà reso privato) il 12 giugno, con una durata di 24-48 ore o più.
Da un lato, è fantastico sperare di avere un impatto sufficiente da influenzare Reddit a cambiare idea su questo tema. Dall'altro lato, solitamente evitiamo questi scioperi e preferiremmo non influire negativamente sull'utilizzo del subreddit.
Saluti,
Il ModTeam di memeitaliani

Some time ago, I made two posts with some of Percy's best feats. The first one can viewed here. And the second: here.
Now I know that Jason isn't the most liked character in the fandom, but I like him. So I wanted to scale him.
Contents: Strength, speed, reaction speed, skill, durability, actual powers, Tl;dscaling, closing segment.
​
He was able to throw a club hard enough to knock down a Venti. Even causing it to curve so that it would hit Dylan when he tried to doge:

Jason threw the club. It seemed useless with the winds so strong, but the club flew right at Dylan, even curving when he tried to dodge, and smacked in the head so hard he fell to his knees
The Lost Hero

He was able to deflect a spear hit from a giant:

Jason raised his javelin to block the giant's next strike-a big mistake. Don't fight force with force, a voice chided him-the wolf Lupa, who told him that long ago. He managed to deflect the spear, but it grazed his shoulder, and his arm went numb.
The Lost Hero

The same giant was able to cause the entire mountain to shake just by slamming the butt of said spear into the ground:

Before they could get very far, Enceladus slammed his spear against the ground. The entire mountain shook.
The Lost Hero

Moving onto House of Hades, we see him casually shatter a metal with a kick, firmly putting him into the superhuman category of strength. Not only that, but he managed to stagger and knocked a giant to his knees:

One last time Jason flew at [Clytius], kicking him in the chest, and the giant's breastplate shattered. Clytius staggered backward..He fell to his knees, and the demigods encircled him
House of Hades

He was able to cut through a statue made of metal with help from Piper:

Piper and Jason went to work on Hygeia. They slashed through the statue's knees
Blood of Olympus

We are now done with Jason it the strength department. Obviously, he lacks many feats in this department, especially compared to Percy, but he is definitely stronger than an average human.
Speed:
He was able to stab a giant:

[Jason] rolled away from the giant's first spear thrust and jabbed Enceladus in the ankle. Jason's javelin managed to pierce the thick dragon hide, and golden ichor-the blood of immortals-trickled down the giant's clawed foot.
The Lost Hero

This might not seem that impressive, but Jason was being slowed down by Gaea. The Giant was being helped by Gaea. Finally, the giant was predicting Jason's attacks:

Enceladus' spear missed him by a millimeter. Jason kept dodging, but the ground stuck to his feet. Gaea was getting stronger, and the giant was getting faster. Enceladus might be slow, but he was not dumb. He began anticipating Jason's moves, and Jason's attacks were only annoying him
The Lost Hero

We see this here again:

Enceladus let him approach, grinning with anticipation. At the last second, Jason faked a strike and rolled between the giant's legs. He came up quickly, thrusting with all his might, ready to stab the giant in the small of his back, but Enceladus anticipated the trick. He stepped aside with too much speed and agility for a giant, as if the earth were helping him move.
The Lost Hero

Reaction/ combat speed. This is where Jason really shines. As he has several impressive feats:
He was able to keep up with Lit. The same guy who was so good, he earned the name Reaper of Men:

Lit charged.
The guy was fast. He slashed and sliced, and Jason could barely dodge the strikes, but his mind went into a different mode-analyzing patterns, learning Lit's style, which was all offense, no defense.
The Lost Hero

He can react to giants:

Jason raised his javelin to block the giant's next strike-a big mistake. Don't fight force with force, a voice chided him-the wolf Lupa, who told him that long ago. He managed to deflect the spear, but it grazed his shoulder, and his arm went numb.
The Lost Hero

He scales to Percy in reaction speed and was able to amaze Piper:

[Piper] rolled to the edge of the road and looked back, dazed and horrified, as [Percy and Jason] crossed swords, gold against bronze. Sparks flew. Their blades blurred-strike and parry-and the pavement trembled. The first exchange only took a second, but Piper couldn't believe the speed of their sword fighting.
Mark of Athena

The same guy who I scaled to have reaction speed as fast as 10 milliseconds. And the average human reacts at 250 milliseconds.
He can react to lightning:

Jason called down another lightning strike, but Ephialtes caught it on his spear and deflected the blast, melting a life-size plastic cow. He slammed a stone column out of his way like a stack of building blocks. Percy tried to keep the lake churning. He didn’t want Otis rising to join this fight, but as Ephialtes closed the last few feet, Percy had to switch focus. Jason and he met the giant’s charge. They lunged around Ephialtes, stabbing and slashing in a blur of gold and bronze, but the giant parried every strike. “I will not yield!” Ephialtes roared. “You may have ruined my spectacle, but Gaea will still destroy your world!” Percy lashed out, slicing the giant’s spear in half. Ephialtes wasn’t even fazed. The giant swept low with the blunt end and knocked Percy off his feet. Percy landed hard on his sword arm, and Riptide clattered out of his grip. Mark of Athena

While technically not reacting to lighting, Percy fought a giant who could, so Ephialtes' reaction speed=Percy's. What I'm getting at here is Ephialtes can react to lightning. Percy can keep up with Ephialtes. So Percy=Ephialtes' reaction speed. Jason=Percy reaction speed. Therefore, Jason=Ephialtes' reaction speed.
Too much for you to follow, here:

Jason swung at the first spirit. His blade passed through it and the creature's smoky form disintegrated. The second spirit let loose a bolt of lightning, but Jason's blade absorbed the charge. Jason stepped in-one quick thrust, and the second storm spirit dissolved into gold powder
The Lost Hero

There you go.
He reacts to arrows:

This time Jason's senses were on high alert. He felt the air ripple as an arrow materialized, racing towards Nico's chest.
Jason intercepted it with his sword and deflected it sideways.
House of Hades

Now, Romans use a type of composite bow called a Sagittarii. Composite bows can shoot arrows as a speed of 250 to 370 feet per second (76 to 113 m/s).
Also keep in mind that he is nearsighted. Giving him even less time to react than normal:

"Oh, of course!" Asclepius said. "You're a bit nearsighted! Simple fix."
He opened the drawer, whipped out a prescription pad and an eyeglasses case. He scribbled something on the pad, then handed the glasses and the scrip to Jason.
Blood of Olympus

So all in all, he has some fast reaction speed. Well above human.
Next up, skill.
He can keep up with Lit, a man so deadly, he was named the Reaper of Men:

Lit charged.
The guy was fast. He slashed and sliced, and Jason could barely dodge the strikes, but his mind went into a different mode-analyzing patterns, learning Lit's style, which was all offense, no defense.
The Lost Hero

He did all of this:

"I slew the Trojan sea monster," Jason continued. "I toppled the black throne of Kronos, and destroyed the Titan Krios with my own hands. And now I'm going to destroy you, Porphyrion, and feed you to your own wolves."
The Lost Hero

He killed the Trojan sea monster and killed a Titan without a weapon.
Durability:
He is immune to, or at least, resistant to electricity:

Dylan's form flickered. "That was enough lightning to kill twenty men!"
The Lost Hero

He survived this:

Enceladus let him approach, grinning with anticipation. At the last second, Jason faked a strike and rolled between the giant's legs. He came up quickly, thrusting with all his might, ready to stab the giant in the small of his back, but Enceladus anticipated the trick. He stepped aside with too much speed and agility for a giant, as if the earth were helping him move. He swept his spear sideways and met Jason's javelin-and with a snap like a shotgun blast, the golden weapon shattered.
The explosion was hotter than the giant's breath, blinding Jason with golden light. The force knocked him off his feet and squeezed the breath out of him.
The Lost Hero

While this is an already impressive feat, we have this to make this even more impressive:

The javlin's destruction had released so much energy, it had blasted a perfect cone-shaped pit thirty feet deep, fusing the dirt and rock into a slick, glassy substance.
The lost Hero

He was uncut by plastic shrapnel:

Together, the giants picked up a fake mountain as big as Percy's New York apartment and hurled it at the demigods. Percy and Jason bolted. They dove into the nearest trench and the mountain shattered above them, spraying them with plastic shrapnel.
Mark of Athena

He can tank a hit from a giant trident, although he was in a lot of pain:

Jason managed to avoid the prongs of the trident again, but the giant swung the other end around and smacked him in the chest.
Jason reeled back, stunned and in pain. Polybotes came in for the kill. Just before the trident would have perforated him, Jason's ventus acted on its own. It spiraled sideways, whisking Jason thirty feet across the courtyard.

Powers. This is another place he is impressive in. He has several abilities he can call on in a clutch:
He can correct aim of things he throws:

Jason threw the club. It seemed useless with the winds so strong, but the club flew right at Dylan, even curving when he tried to dodge, and smacked in the head so hard he fell to his knees
The Lost Hero

He can control air pressure:

[Jason] felt a tugging sensation in his gut, and the air pressure dropped so rapidly his ears popped.
The Lost Hero

He can summon Tempest, a horse made of wind and electricity:

Suddenly the air turned cold. Piper's ears popped. About fifty yards away, a miniature cyclone three stories tall tore across the tops of the sunflowers like a scene from The Wizard of Oz. It touched down on the road next to Jason and took the form of a horse-a misty steed with lightning flickering through its body
Mark of Athena

Jason and Percy working together can create a massive storm:

On the deck of the Argo II, Percy and Jason stood together, their swords crossed. Annabeth got a tingle down her spine as she realized the boys were working together as one, summoning the sky and the sea to do their bidding. Water and wind churned together. Waves heaved against the ramparts and lightning flashed. Giant eagles were knocked out of the sky. Wreckage of the flying chariot burned in the water, and Coach Hedge swung a mounted crossbow, taking potshots at the Roman birds as the flew overhead.
The Mark of Athena

Jason can fly and carry people with him:

Jason summoned the wind to carry him and Piper to shore
Mark of Athena

He can cause water to boil and temporarily blind Piper:

BOOM! Lightning stirred the water into a boiling cauldron, steaming and hissing with electricity. Piper blinked the yellow spots out her eyes as the god Achelous wailed and dissolved under beneath the surface
Mark of Athena

He can use wind offensively:

The demigods rolled to either side, and Jason summoned the wind, using the giant's own momentum to shove him into the water
Mark of Athena

He can get angry enough to generate electricity:

the air turned electric-literally, as Jason started throwing off sparks.
Mark of Athena

He can melt iron and cause gold to steam:

Just then, thunder boomed overhead. Lightning flashed, and the bars on the nearest window burst into sizzling, melted stubs of iron.
Jason flew in like Peter Pan, electricity sparking around him and his gold sword steaming.
House of Hades

Jason has the ability to track people who use winds as a method of transport so things like air spirits can't run from him:

Jason couldn't exactly see him, but he'd had enough experience controlling the wind that he could track the angel's path-a warm wisp of red and gold zipping across the street..
House of Hades

He can control the four winds and even construct this out of wind:

[Jason] thrust out his hand. A swirl of dust shot toward the nearest horse. A lasso-a rope of wind, more tightly wound than any tornado-wrapped around the horse's neck. ..In less than a minute he had tethered all four venti. He reined them in, still whining and bucking, but they couldn't break Jason's rope. It felt like flying four kites in a strong wind-hard, yes, but not impossible.
House of Hades

He uses wind defensively:

Jason summoned gusts of wind to last aside javelins and arrows. He deflected a vial of Greek fire right up the throat of a gryphon, which burst into flames and spiraled into the pit.
House of Hades

He can carry others without having to fly himself:

Three dead Romans rose into the air and flew across the chasm. Then three more joined them. Finally Jason flew himself across and his squad began cutting through some very surprised-looking telkhines
House of Hades

He can use a sword or a javelin:

Jason slashed his gladius in a wide arc, vaporizing the nearest suitors; then he vaulted onto the table and jumped over Antinous' head. In midair he willed his bade to extend into a javelin-a trick he'd never tried with this sword-but somehow he knew it would work.
Blood of Olympus

He once more demonstrates his ability to create objects from air and now he can encase himself in air armor:

[Jason] raised his arm and summoned a lasso of wind... He lashed out with his wind rope, searching for strongest, most ornery *ventus in the storm.
He lassoed a nasty patch of storm cloud and pulled it in. "You're serving me today."
Howling in protest, the ventus encircled him. The storm above the ship seemed to lessen just a bit, as if the other venti were thinking Oh, crud. That guy means business.
Jason levitated off the deck, encased in his own miniature tornado. Spinning like a corkscrew, he plunged into the water.

Jason is capable of summoning weird lightning stuff at the bottom of the ocean. Also worth noting it is still as deadly and didn't shock Percy who was also in the water next to him. On top of that, he can now separate the volts to attack multiple targets instead of just one:

But [Jason] couldn't think of a better option. He thrust up his sword. Immediately the blade glowed red-hot.
A diffuse cloud of yellow light billowed through the depths, like someone had poured liquid neon into the water. The light hit Jason's sword and splayed outward in ten separate tendrils, zapping the basiliks.
Blood of Olympus

He can carry a current throughout his body, holding it for latter:

With a deafening blast, a white-hot bolt arced from the sky, straight through Jason's body as he leaped, wreathed in lightning, at the giant king.
Jason fell on King Porphyrion with such force that the giant crumpled to his knees-blasted with lightning and stabbed in the neck with a golden gladius.

He can blast a 30 foot giant off a clif:

Porphyrion lashed out wildly with his spear, but Jason cut it in half with his gladius. He charged in, jabbing his sword through the giant's breastplate, then summoned the winds and blasted Porphyrion off the edge of the cliff.
Blood of Olympus

Tl;dr and scaling: So Jason is powerful. He is definitely superhuman in al physical states. I am going to say, city level durability. His power level is at mountain level.
Closing segment: Honestly I think he could have been more powerful if we'd seen him in more books. Also I didn't use a Trials of Apollo feats as there I didn't find any. If you see any feats I missed let me know so I can scale them. So what did you think? Did this make you see Jason as more or less powerful than you originally thought? Who else would you like me to scale?
Respect Jason Grace, son of the sky god, Zeus!

My math teacher grades me unfairly so I have no chance of an A+ for the year. To start off, for those who think i’m a nerd that needs straight A+s, maybe i am. But this post is not about how i should be satisfied with my grade, as my teacher (we’ll call her mrs. e, for evil) said, but rather the unfairness of the grading process. So, here’s what happened. A final project “last assignment of the year” is assigned, worth 48 points, and weighted weirdly. Each category is out of 4, then your score is multiplied by whatever the weight of it is (so if you got a 3.5/4 and the section is weighted twice as much, you lose a point off the project). In my opinion, this is pretty stupid, since now you’ll always lose a lot of points for any mistakes. But anyways, half of the criteria is subjective— teaching material is creative, well organized, etc. So, my partner and I work hard to make sure we meet all the rows. She grades it, and I see that we got an 87.5. Ok, but our work was definitely better. I check the rubric, and she says we’re missing something that we have included in both parts of the project. Mrs. E’s excuse? “Sorry, I must have missed that. I’ll go back and fix it.” Ok, thanks Mrs. E. I check back later, and she still took points off. It’s the last day before finals, so I check back during the day and ask her to see the rubric. Lo and behold, Mrs. E has changed her previous grade in a section of creativity, and taken off half a point. This is multiplied by 3, due to the weighting, so I end with a 49.5/52 (another point was taken off for the teaching material not being organized/creative enough— BS, but it’s not as obvious, and i can somewhat see her point). I asked her why she changed it, and she said that after seeing some of my classmate’s games (jeopardy, escape room, etc), our kahoot wasn’t creative enough. Just creativity, not organization or correctness of answer key. Mind you, she had already given those other groups extra credit for their work, and also had initially given a kahoot as an example for a game. Also, other classmates who had also done a kahoot weren’t docked points for creativity, and I’m sure that if she hadn’t had to go back and fix the grade she screwed up by missing part of our project, she wouldn’t have docked us points. I asked her how grading our project based on other teams performance was fair, and she basically told me to screw off, saying it’s a good grade. This subjective grading has happened throughout the whole year— on a test, i rounded an answer from fraction to decimal, and lost a point for not showing the full decimal even though the fraction is the same thing. that was a stupid moment. And this project particularly matters because now it is mathematically impossible for me to get an A+ for the year— i’ll be .03 away, and left to her mercy for rounding up (she generally will do so if your grade is within .1 of the next grade). I brought this isue to the department supervisor, who was patronizing and said that it was Mrs. E’s right to change my grade both up and down, and that if I wanted, he could change it for me (down). Now i’m pissed and want to hear some teacher’s thoughts on the fairness and how I should proceed. Thank you all!

The more I think about it, the less anything about the Adam Martin makes sense. We could talk about how the police jumped on solving a case of a missing adult who was known to leave town, and had no close personal ties. What’s been BOTHERING me though is how Misty handled the cover up. Shauna stabbed Adam with a weapon of opportunity (a knife from his kitchen) and he lived in the “bad part” of town. Wouldn’t have staging a break in been so much easier, and casted so much less suspicion? I feel like any true crime buff would know that. Maybe Misty got so excited to dismember a body logic flew out the window. I’d love to hear y’all’s thoughts on this, and weirdness around adams case in general

For context: One year term ended in May, currently month-to-month. Standard PA Realtor's lease agreement that doesn't say anything specific about pools. After signing a year back, the Code Enforcement officer came to make inspections and recognized the name of the tenants and said something to the effect of "in their last place they tried to build a pool in their backyard. Just a heads up. They'll need approval; can't do it on their own."
Fast forward, they haven't been nightmare tenants. Our interactions have been weird at times, but not necessarily confrontational. Then again, I don't need to be friends and they've maintained the home decently so it is what it is.
Recently there have been some anonymous posts on the community Facebook page asking if anyone knows of someone that can level a slope in the backyard for an above ground pool. The most recent one asked again and said that it has already been purchased.
So here's the deal. We have no idea that it's them other than that they wanted a pool in their previous place and that our backyard has a bit of a slope. So, since we aren't interested in the liability, potential damage to the yard, etc., some of my questions are:

1. I'm wondering if now is the time to just reach out and make it known where we stand on pools? Or do I wait until there actually is one? I'm stuck on how to even approach it without seeming psychotic as we generally try not to be micromanagers of the property.
2. Would leveling the slope in the back yard be considered going against that clause in the agreement regarding "destroy, damage or deface any part of the Property or common areas."
3. Is there some other language in our common lease that we can leverage to prevent this if, in fact, it is their intention?

Our first Community Day of the season is here, and it's high time everyone be able to find themselves a shiny (literally!) new HAXORUS at last, don't you think? How does this funky Dragon look now in PvP battles? The answer to that is mostly right here in our Bottom Line Up Front:

B.L.U.F.

• After some clunkers, this has the look of a genuinely GOOD Community Day for PvPers! New move Breaking Swipe is a straight upgrade for Haxorus in ALL Leagues!
  
• Hax comes with an intriguing movepool already, with two of the very best fast moves in the game AND a varied and effective array of charge moves. There are several ways you can build it, before and still after Community Day... but all of them will now center around Breaking Swipe from here on out.
  
• Master League Haxorus is not surprisingly your top priority (Hax crosses the important 4000 CP barrier), but don't neglect looking for good ones for lower Leagues as well. Even in Great League, Haxorus does appear to have the sauce to (mostly) overcome its scary glassiness. This is a weekend to hunt for several Haxorus' (Haxoruses? Horoxii? 🤷‍♂️) if you can!
  

HAXORUS

Dragon Type
GREAT LEAGUE:
Attack: 151 (149 High Stat Product)
Defense: 96 (98 High Stat Product)
HP: 102 (103 High Stat Product)
(Highest Stat Product IVs: 0-14-13, 1499 CP, Level 15.5)
ULTRA LEAGUE:
Attack: 196 (192 High Stat Product)
Defense: 126 (126 High Stat Product)
HP: 129 (133 High Stat Product)
(Highest Stat Product IVs: 1-15-15, 2495 CP, Level 25.5)
MASTER LEAGUE:
Attack: 251
Defense: 157
HP: 166
(Assuming 15-15-15 IVs, CP 4062 at Level 50)
Real quick, because you're more here for the moves than anything. Haxorus is very frail. Like, the best examples I can give of HOW frail are as follows:

• It has basically the same Attack stat (in Master League) as Therian Landorus, Rayquaza, and Darkrai... but lower bulk than all of them. And NONE of them will ever be labeled as anything close to bulky.
  
• In Ultra League, the closest comp is Chandelure, with nearly identical Attack and (lack of) bulk.
  
• And in Great League, Haxorus' total stat product (basically Attack + bulk) is at #807... out of a list 852. It's roughly the same as falls-over-to-a-stiff-breeze Darmanitan, Breloom, and Honchkrow (all of which have a higher stat product than Haxorus!).
  

Now the typing does help a little bit. Sometimes. As a Dragon, Hax resists all the "elements": Grass, Fire, Water, and Electric, though it is also (rather famously) weak to Fairy, Ice, and other Dragon damage. So... more resistances than vulnerabilities, at least!
But... yeah. Pokemon like this basically require spam to have a chance at making an impact. Thankfully, Haxorus has that in spades, and its new move addition only helps with that, with one of the more interesting movepools in the game!
Fast Moves:

• Counter (Fighting, 4.0 DPT, 3.5 EPT, 1.0 CoolDown)
  
• Dragon Tail (Dragon, 4.33 DPT, 3.0 EPT, 1.5 CD)
  

Counter is the best fast move in the game, bar none. That said, Dragon Tail, especially with the STAB damage is enjoys with Haxorus, is really good too. And its average energy generation is more than compensated for with the charge moves. (We'll get to those in a second.)
Point is, while Counter is the first move you'll likely consider, this is one of those very rare cases where it may not actually be the best. We'll come back to that.
ᴱ - Exclusive (Community Day) Move
Charge Moves:

• Breaking Swipeᴱ (Dragon, 50 damage, 35 energy, Reduces Opponent Attack -1 Stage)
  
• Dragon Claw (Dragon, 50 damage, 35 energy)
  
• Night Slash (Dark, 50 damage, 35 energy, 12.5% Chance to Raise User Attack +2 Stages)
  
• Surf (Water, 65 damage, 40 energy)
  
• Earthquake (Ground, 120 damage, 65 energy)
  

Not one, not two, but THREE moves all costing only 35 energy (tied for cheapest in the game). And then Surf costing only 5 energy more and dealing 15 more damage. THIS is the kind of spam AND unpredicatbility you hope for with something glassy like this! And if the opponent lets it hang around, you can try and punish them with a good closer as well in Earthquake.
The move variety is SO good, in fact, that it can be hard to settle on what to leave out. One choice, however, becomes obvious now. The term "strictly better" is probably overused, even by me, but Breaking Swipe really is strictly better than Dragon Claw, and thus Haxorus itself is strictly better coming out of Community Day than it is going in. So we can safely push Claw off the raft, as it were, just as we did with Rayquaza when it got Breaking Swipe.
So that leaves us with four moves: 35-energy Breaking Swipe and Night Slash, 40-energy Surf, and 65-energy Earthquake.
Now let's start putting those together with the fast moves and see what shakes out! And we're going to go backwards to do it, starting with the league where Hax is most relevant and working down from there.

MASTER LEAGUE

So for comparison, here is Haxorus' former best in Open Master League, and here is Master League Premier, both running Surf/Dragon Claw. Night Slash isn't too far behind Claw, but the latter is better for overpowering Mamoswine and Machamp (the latter of which resists Night Slash), so Claw gets the nod. ALSO note that I used Dragon Tail there, not Counter. Counter certainly is viable (as good as it is, it would be hard NOT to be viable!), and gets some extra wins versus things like Snorlax and Melmetal with a clear weakness to Fighting damage, but Dragon Tail is needed if you want to beat both Giratinas, Yveltal, and to much better guarantee Garchomp. I lean Tail, but I won't say Counter is "wrong"... just different.
Anyway, with Breaking Swipe beign a clear upgrade on Dragon Claw, let's see how much of an upgrade. Swapping Swipe in for Claw and leaving all other factors alone leads to a clear improvement with six new wins: Mewtwo with Focus Blast or Shadow Ball (note, however, that Ice Beam M2 wins with Hax having the winning Swipe fully charged but unable to fire), Yveltal, Groudon, Gyarados, and now Snorlax that was formerly one of Counter's few advantages. Amazing what a simple little nerf to the opponent's Attack strength can do for flimsy Pokemon like Haxorus (as it did for Rayquaza too!). In Premier, it's more of the same, with those Gyarados and Snorlax (and Shadow Snorlax) wins cropping up.
Breaking Swipe's indirect buff to Haxorus' bulk actually allows something even more impressive, though. Whereas before, Earthquake wasn't really an option as Hax would often perish before getting to it in a meaningful spot, Breaking Swipe changes all that. It still unfortunately comes up a little short versus the big Steels (including Diagla), and does give up former wins versus Excadrill and Ice Punch Ursaluna, but it can gain Zacian, folks. (At least, without Play Rough.) Just rolls over it with a big Earthquake. Nice! Similarly, it can also beat Primarina this way now (that's likely just for ML Premier, though).
I will note, however, that Counter doesn't see quite the same bump. It IS better than Claw still, and that shows up more in 2v2 shielding (Claw vs Swipe) as multiple Breaking Swipe debuffs add up, but Dragon Tail is still generally better in 1v1 (and 0v0) shielding and still gets my overall vote. Just too many things that Dragon damage is better for than Fighting damage at this level.
So in short, yes, Breaking Swipe is a clear upgrade for Haxorus in Master League and worth pursuing on Community Day for this purpose. It's still not quite on the level of, say, Dragonite or Kyurem or fellow Swiper ("Swiper, no swiping!") Rayquaza, but I think it defintely moves up into a higher tier of Dragon right there among them.
Master League is what most folks are eyeing going into this weekend, but what about elsewhere?

ULTRA LEAGUE

Similar upgrade here, with Breaking Swipe (this time moreso with Counter... more punchable things at this level than in Master League!) [clearly distancing itself from Dragon Claw... new wins include Swampert, Venusaur, Charizard, Mandibuzz, Guzzlord, Drapion, Golisopod, and of course, Snorlax. (Yeah, CounteClaw/Surf couldn't quite do that before!) Interestingly, it slides backwards in Premier, but in Open? Perhaps it's worth some spice consideration now.
Any better in Master League? Spoiler alert: nah.

GREAT LEAGUE

Lots of punchable things down in Great League as well, where Counter Hax is probably already a bit better than you think, at least on paper. Wins against things like Lanturn, Swampert, Galarian Stunfisk, Registeel, Bastiodon, Victreebel, Talonflame, Mandibuzz, Dunsparce, Diggersby, Alolan Sandslash and Walrein catch the eye, but then Breaking Swipe just goes and makes it better with Drapion, Toxicroak, and even Lickitung! And look how far it can now go in 2v2 shielding! Something so fragile shouldn't enjoy that level of success in longer battles like that in Great League, but here we are!

IM SUMMATION....

I'm surprised to say it, but I think that Breaking Swipe Haxorus may be worth grinding for in all three Leagues! If I had to rank them, it would be Master first, then Great, and then Ultra, but if you find a candidate with good Ultra League or Great League IVs, evolve it while you can get Breaking Swipe, even if you end up short on candy needed to build them all now. We'll get more Axew candy later this year, right?
Gonna wrap it up right here, as Community Day is FAST approaching, and I have Summer Cup (Ultra) analysis to try to get back to anyway!
Until next time, you can always find me on Twitter with near-daily PvP analysis nuggets or Patreon, if you're feeling extra generous.
Good hunting, folks! Do stay safe out there, and catch you next time, Pokéfriends!

And why do I feel like I see a concerning number of posts of upcoming or new grad engineers having trouble finding a job in aerospace? I’ve even seen some having trouble finding internships.
This will probably be a long post and idk if this should have just been posted under the student thread so I apologize if so. A little backstory about me: I’m 1 semester away from graduating with my associate in nursing and becoming an RN. I’ve worked in healthcare for a while, though, and I’m just burnt out. Nursing is an incredibly stressful field right now, short staffed, dangerous patient ratios and relatively low pay for the amount of responsibility - mind you, we are responsible for keeping people alive. One mistake or missed assessment while working under heavy stress and big patient loads could cost a life (and your license). The culture in healthcare is also so toxic. It’s disappointing, because I truly love helping and taking care of people but I worry that I’m not gonna be able to do my job as well as I want and as safely as I want with the current state of healthcare.
That being said, even though I truly feel like the pay does not match the responsibility of the job, it is not terrible money. I’ll be graduating and making anywhere between $36-$38 an hour with my associate degree and minimal debt. But I don’t wanna do a job just for the money, I want to be satisfied with it. I originally wanted to do aerospace engineering when I graduated high school (I’m 25 now) but I did not a financial means to attend the only universities in my area that offer that degree. I frankly don’t have an interest in any other kind of engineering, at least I don’t think I do.
By far, my biggest interest will be in the space side of things and that’s not to say I don’t have an interest in the aeronautical side but the majority of my interest is in astronautics.
Long story short, I guess I’m concerned about going back to school and spending 3 straight years (summers included) while working full time as a nurse (besides the 3 coops I’ll have to complete for the program) and accruing probably close to $50k or $60k of debt just to come out and be worried about not finding a job in the field that I want, or at all for that matter.
I know that a big part of landing a job after college is having experience during your undergrad but I’m not sure how much gaining that experience is going to be under my control. I know the school I’d be going to requires at least three co-ops to be completed and apparently they have good opportunities to get experience. However, I will be working full-time as I have to support myself (aside from the coops).
Long story short, I guess my questions are

1. Am I going to have trouble finding a job in the space industry upon graduation?
2. Even if I can’t land a space job immediately after graduation, how many years do you think it would take me to land in a position like that?
3. How satisfied are you with your day to day job and would you do this all over again given an opportunity to redo it?
4. Am I ultimately crazy for leaving a job that pays me upwards of $40 an hour to pursue engineering?

If all goes well I should be able to graduate by the summer of 2027 if I start in the spring of 2024 since most of my general education requirements are out of the way, and I’ll really only be focusing on the math, science and engineering but even by then I’ll be pushing 30, which isn’t old obviously, but perhaps a later start. And that’s if all goes well. I just don’t want to waste such a significant amount of time and money to come out on the other side disappointed and regretful. But I need to make a choice in the next few months and start working on it if I go this route.