A game came out of Africa to the New World, an ancient game brought to the Caribbean sugarcane plantations by enslaved Africans in the seventeenth century. The game resembles a blend of cricket and baseball but is played with sticks. My brother and I learned the game when our family moved to a small sugarcane mill town in Cuba. There we met Don Manuel, an Afro-Cuban elder who worked as a security guard at the railroad yard. This narrative chronicles my coming of age in a unique hybrid culture while learning the ancient African game of Kimbumba and my childhood memories linked to Don Manuel's stories and teaching of the game.
Don Manuel told us about the game’s origins and the legend of its creator, Kimbu. The story has been passed down through oral tradition to generations of young African Congo villagers. I’ve always wanted to write about these pivotal years of my youth and tell the game’s story, but more significantly, I’ve always wanted to share the stories that our Afro-Cuban friend told my brother and me. But life has a way of delaying our goals; thus, it has taken me nearly seventy years to write this narrative.
Don Manuel’s family roots are traced back to the African Congo, where they were abducted and brought to Cuba to work as enslaved people on sugarcane plantations. The story is his intimate account of their sacrifices to gain their freedom. He also taught us to play this ancient game, culminating in a blazing championship match in a sugarcane mill town. All of these experiences are woven into the tapestry of my youth. So, I have attempted to capture fleeting moments that might otherwise be lost in time, like raindrops in the ocean.

My career prospects will heavily rely on where I choose to work more than anything, since it'll likely be something in the public sector (think city govt, MTA, something like that) (Ironically, the movement of people is probably going to be something I study as part of my career). Most people in my department work in NYC and I've been looking into it as a better city than DC (where a lot of my family works) yet I'm still conflicted. I go to college in upstate NY so I've been around Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse but don't know if I can see myself living in these places (though I love how they're much smaller than NYC/DC) due to their isolation/dreariness.
Whatre some options for someone who wants to stay on the east coast (especially NYC or northward), have the benefits of living in a big city (good nightlife, supportive communities, good walkability/transport options) without having the costs of the big city (rent is especially an issue, I'd like to be able to have a studio for around 1.5k since I expect my starting salary to be around 60k-70k)?

Hi all,
I've got a little stuck & I'm wondering if I'm going to have to start my game again :( I had reach the Water Temple boss battle (Mucktorok - or something like that). I tried the battle a few times, kept getting beaten & decided I needed more food. So I teleported out, cooked some grub & came back to the nearest shrine. This wasn't all that near so I had to climb a bit to get back to an area where Sidon greeted me again & I could go back to where the boss battle was.
Trouble is, now I'm here - there's no Mucktorok! The quest marker on the map tells me I need to be here, it's where I was fighting him earlier but he's nowhere to be seen. All the facets are on still, so that's fine. There's also what appears to be a secret stone on something like a flower. I can climb it like a rockface, but that's it.
Any clues on how to restart the battle?!?

I never played Dragons Dogma before because it came out during a time where I couldnt really afford a lot of game and I had to be very selective. Only recently in the last couple of years when rumors of the 2nd being in development did I start thinking of it again because some collogues were in love with it and hype over the rumors. When the news finally broke I have to admit I was super interested despite having no idea about it because it just looked that good. So I went and looked up a bunch of video and clips, especially from this one guy called SheenShots, and this game looks so one of a kind for a game being over a decade old.
Now that Im aware of this game, Im hooked. Like Ive never seen or played anything like this until now. Ive never seen spells implemented in a game like the ones Ive seen here and Im still playing and learning. Sacrificial arrows that take the life of your pawn but bring down entire behemoths, and then you can easily bring that pawn back with no issue or consequence (or at least not that I can tell). Literal maelstrom tornadoes that not only look freaking amazing but are devastating as well. Ricochet arrows that if you plan carefully can turn a tunnel into a death trap. There are so many creative powers and abilities in this one game that I have never seen replicated in any other. I would damn near think Capcom patented them to prevent others from trying to recreate them since everyone else is just stuck on shoots fire, shoots lightning, and shoots ice.
Enemies in this game have actual personalities and traits that you would never guess, even coming with weaknesses and strengths, status effects that do and dont affect them, attacks that will or wont work, crazy environmental and party based conditions that can change the way they behave. Like I was looking through a wiki and found out that ogres giggle if there is a female party member, and their attacks can get stronger and faster the more of them there are in your party. And so many more different conditions, effects, and moves that can executed depending on them and whats going on.
Even something as simple as being able to play with your pawns or completely solo being an option which is surprisingly a rare trait in some games now with the way they are designned being specifically catered to one or the other in mind, and even if it is an option you can tell it wasnt meant to be. Yeah, there seem to be instances where it feels like Im better off with a party member, but it doesnt feel like my experience is hampered by it. And at the same time the party members dont yet feel super annoying to the point where I would want them gone.
I cannot understand why Capcom seemed to give up on this franchise for so long. It has some DNA of Monster Hunter that felt like it became its own IP similar to how DMC was born from RE, and its just crazy how they just let this linger in limbo. Maybe the original team left and they could never find anyone to replicate the work to such a degree they felt comfortable with releasing it? Maybe Deep Down was supposed to be their next attempt? Idk. But all I know is its crazy that this game is so old now and I feel like Ive never played anything like it. While there are some things that are shared among other games in the genre, at the same time it does so many things that are different and ramps up the aspect that make it fun to 11. The spells feel legitimately godlike and invokes such a power fantasy that you actually enjoy just roaming around causing chaos and just fighting for the sake of the gameplay alone. It almost makes me think Capcom patented some aspects of this game and thats why nobody else has tried to replicate it, but of course thats just me overexaggerating.
Then again, Capcom has so many gem IPs that I feel like they forget what they have and dont have, or just dont want to expend the manpower to work on all their different properties. I mean, as crazy as it seems there was a point in time where we didnt get another Street Fighter game for almost a decade until SF4 and now its pumped out like clockwork. Then theres the Mega Man IP and we finally got a collection of Battle Network after how many years, and Dino Crisis...yeah.
Either way, this has gotten me officially pumped for the 2nd game and how much more they can refine and improve upon it. My only hope they keep the specific classes to being separate like they did in this one because I dont like how in recent games they now have this freeform, classless, create your own system because while on paper it seems great, in execution it often leads a lot to be desired for. It feels like at least when you have a class you stick to then youre playstyle is not only specialized but it actually feels like you have to play different and truly play in that class. But thats just me.

I was at a camping event in Calontir (Valor) this past weekend and a camp near me was playing an SCA version of Cards Against Humanity. It was hilarious, but I never worked up the courage to ask them where they got it. Does anyone know?

We are now living in 1930s NAZI Germany where having the wrong political views got people sent to Dachau concentration camp.
Details here:
Dachau was one of the first[a] concentration camps built by Nazi Germany and the longest running one, opening on 22 March 1933. The camp was initially intended to intern Hitler's political opponents which consisted of: communists, social democrats, and other dissidents. It is located on the grounds of an abandoned munitions factory northeast of the medieval town of Dachau, about 16 km (10 mi) northwest of Munich in the state of Bavaria, in southern Germany. After its opening by Heinrich Himmler, its purpose was enlarged to include forced labor,and, eventually, the imprisonment of Jews, Romani, German and Austrian criminals, and, finally, foreign nationals from countries that Germany occupied or invaded. The Dachau camp system grew to include nearly 100 sub-camps, which were mostly work camps or Arbeitskommandos, and were located throughout southern Germany and Austria.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dachau_concentration_camp

I worked as a park ranger in Northern Alaska for years, from when I was in my early twenties until my mid-thirties. At first, when I took the job, I was trying to escape, but over time, I learned to love it- the endless wilderness, the snow-capped mountains, the muffled way everything sounded during blizzards. With no light pollution, the stars up there look like tiny chips of diamond. And during the winter, the Northern Lights roll in, twisting and shimmering in strange, alien colors.
But a few years ago, things got much worse. People up here have started to go missing at an alarming rate. And I started having strange experiences around the park and the nature preserve.
One of the strangest parts of my story started on a freezing, dark night in 2018. I was on a snowmobile out in a terrible blizzard. The conditions were nearly to the point of being impassable. The snow was falling so thick and fast that it looked like a moving, shimmering wall of white on all sides of me.
Another ranger, a huge, lumbering man named ‘Ace’ Acosta, pulled up behind me on a second snowmobile. I looked at him, standing six foot six with majestic peaks stretching up into the night sky, and thought about what a great picture this would make. As I was looking around, I saw the faint tracks in the snow. Ace’s snowmobile lights were pointed in their direction, and I had been standing almost on top of them without realizing it- which is fairly easy to do when a few inches of snow are falling every hour.
At first, I thought it was the frozen tracks of an injured animal. I saw the drops of blood soaked into the superficial ice first. Following their direction with my eyes, I realized there were footprints pressed into the frozen crust leading away from me and towards the flat stretch of the tundra. I squinted, getting down on my knees and leaning inwards. I didn’t want to trample the tracks.
I quickly realized I was looking at human footprints- naked human footprints. But who would be out here in December in -40 degree winds without shoes? They would die rapidly out here. Just for me to drive across the tundra on a snowmobile required me to wear three jackets, long-johns, snow pants, thick jeans, a ski mask and multiple layers of socks and gloves with hand-warmers. I wore special water-proof boots with composite toes that wouldn’t freeze like steel toes. And despite all of this, I was still cold.
I moved forward, and saw handprints mixed in with the footprints, all of them bloody. The ice was thick enough to slice open human hands and feet, undoubtedly. The logical conclusion was unshakable- someone had crawled through here, maybe naked, on all fours, and their frozen body would be somewhere up ahead. I sighed, turning to Acosta. He still stood in the same position, his face covered in a red scarf with only his eyes showing. I saw one ice-covered eyebrow raise questioningly.
“I think we got us a body somewhere nearby,” I said, getting back on my snowmobile and starting it. He did the same.
“What kind of freaked-out tweaker would be walking around here without clothes on?” Ace asked in his deep baritone. “Man, I need a hit of whatever that guy’s on. I’ve got two sweaters and two winter jackets on, and I’m still cold. Eh, Kelton? Eh? What do you say?” He started elbowing me jokingly. I frowned, not responding.
Ace always had a smart aleck remark. He was next to me when I was interviewed for this job originally, down at the recruitment center in Washington state. The old lady doing the interviewing was a bloodless, angry-looking specimen of a woman with huge glasses that magnified her eyes twice over. She spat out each of the questions like a drill sergeant talking to fresh meat in the Army.
“Are you a member of any organized religion?” she had asked brusquely. Ace shook his head.
“No, ma’am, but I am a member of a disorganized religion,” he said. “We call ourselves ‘the Servants of the Old Ones’. We’re waiting for the ancient reptilian gods at the bottom of the ocean to awaken. So far, however, they haven’t responded to any of our texts.” I thought about this as I revved the engine twice, a sign that I was about to pull off and that he should stay close.
We took off, going slow and following the tracks as close as possible without destroying them. But the tracks just kept going, the bloodstains seeming to grow fainter as we moved forward- and strangely enough, the distance between the hand and footprints also started to get longer, as if someone were running on all fours and speeding up. We were nearing the beginning of the forest of evergreens when I saw a white flash just up ahead.
The thing that ran from us was humanoid, but I knew at once that it was no person. It ran on hands and feet, totally naked, its skin a pale, lifeless white color. It turned its head towards the lights of the snowmobiles briefly. I saw a hairless creature with skin that clung tightly to its simian body, its lips permanently pulled back from its mouth as if they were eaten away. Underneath it showed mottled black and red gums covered in thick, clotted blood. Its nose appeared as little more than two irregular holes, and its eyes- they reflected the light of the snowmobiles, like the eyes of a raccoon or opossum. They were huge and sunken in its starving, monstrous face.
And I saw what was leaving the bloody trails. The creature was, as far as I could tell, totally uninjured. In its permanently grinning mouth, between rows of crooked, sharp, blood-stained teeth, it held the body of an infant. The baby’s head lolled from side to side, the neck seemingly broken, and blood dripped constantly from its mouth and nose. It had deep puncture marks in its tiny parka, half-rings of teeth marks that must have broken its ribs. The bloodstains on the snow were becoming fainter, because the heart was no longer pumping in the body of the one leaving them.
I had a loaded rifle inside my snowmobile, and kept a 12-gauge shotgun slung around my back, mostly in case of bear or moose attack. I always kept the shotgun loaded with slugs, which were, in my experience, the most versatile ammunition for stopping any large animal. The .308 might take down a polar bear, at least with a good headshot, or it might just piss it off on a bad day. But a shotgun slug to the head or heart will stop any bear or moose in its tracks.
Of course, this was no polar bear ahead of me. For all I knew, it was something far worse. I looked down at the speedometer to see I was going twenty miles an hour, in the dark, in a blizzard. And yet this strange humanoid creature was still losing us, its seemingly never-ending store of energy still sending it forward at a superhuman speed. Its pale, bony legs and arms pumped back and forth so fast that they were just a blur. It kept its sharp teeth around the nape of the dead infant’s neck, like a mother cat carrying its young.
I kept one hand on the steering wheel while trying to free the strap of my shotgun over my head. I slowed down below twenty, and the creature responded by going even faster. It was making a break for the mountain forests that started only a few hundred feet away. I got the gun free and quickly stopped the snowmobile and raised it. I centered the sights, taking a deep breath to steady myself, and fired.
I missed, though I don’t know by how much. Shotguns had the drawback of being significantly less accurate at further distances than the rifle. But by the time I got the .308 out, I knew the creature would have long since disappeared in the thick brush and trees. By this point, Ace had also stopped and opened fire, but the creature had already gone.
“God damn!” Ace screamed. “That was one fast motherfucker. I can’t believe he got away after all that.” I heaved a deep sigh.
“I think we better go find out where he got that baby from,” I said. “We might have a lot more corpses on our hands than we realize.”
***
We found a radio in the snowmobile and messaged in what had happened, or at least the basic gist of it. I left out the part about naked, half-human abominations, and said that it was an unknown animal. There wasn’t much law enforcement up in these parts, because, hell, there were barely any people. The rangers as well as fish and wildlife agents regularly worked with the police officers in small towns, at least those that had police officers. Dozens of the local tribal villages had no police at all. These people would come to forest rangers and fish and wildlife agents most of all, and were always some of the county’s friendliest and most helpful residents.
By the time we got back to the original blood-stained footprints, the snow had covered up the tracks completely. However, based on the direction that the creature had been going and where the tracks had come from, I thought I knew where it might have started. Following the path in a nearly straight line led to the Lutna Peak Trailer Park. Ace and I drove off at max speed across the rolling hills and flat plains, the snow coming faster and heavier now. They say eskimos have dozens of words for snow, and after being a ranger up here, I can say I’ve seen every variation of it a thousand times. This was turning into the kind that was wet with huge flakes and tended to stick to everything. We would probably have to find refuge soon, especially if it got any heavier.
I heard the screaming before I saw the commotion. As we came around the sharp right turn where the dirt road turned into the trailer park, I saw dozens of people out, flitting like gnats around one of the trailers at the back corner of the park. All of the lights were on in that particular trailer, and I saw one woman comforting another who was bent over and crying.
Even though almost everyone knew us here, I pulled out my badge identifying me as a federal law enforcement officer. Up here, all the rangers were technically federal agents, allowed to carry guns and make arrests like typical police, except we were licensed under the Department of the Interior rather than under state law enforcement agencies.
I ran into the trailer, and after one long glance around the place, I knew there was no need to call for any ambulances. Ace followed close behind me, his heavy, thudding footsteps shaking the trailer slightly as he ascended the steps. We said nothing for a long moment. The entire family was dead.
There was blood everywhere, even spotting the ceilings. Most of it had frozen in the cold, and I wondered how long the door had been left open. Body parts were scattered across the floor, an arm in the corner of the room, a head standing up on the kitchen counter, even a random tooth embedded into the sheetrock. The savagery was brutal, and the amount of strength required to carry out such an attack must have been extraordinary.
“I think we’re going to need a lot more people on this than just me and you,” Ace said. I nodded, already bone-tired, and with so much more work to do tonight before I could go to sleep.
We phoned both state and federal authorities in the area. Since much of the land was tribally owned, we had to deal with multiple branches. Eventually we got CSI out there in the middle of a snowstorm, though they had to come from over three hours away. We just secured the scene while we waited, constantly being brought into neighboring trailers where townsfolk would tell us the latest gossip. They also brought us hot coffee and tried to milk us for any information we might have, as they usually did in such situations.
“No, Maggie, honest,” Ace was saying to one old lady wrapped up in an ancient fur coat, “I don’t know any more about it than you do. You can be sure that you’d know if I did.” By that point, police cars were slowly pulling in, one by one. Ace and I told them a simplified version of the night’s events, said goodnight and left the scene to them. I went home and took a scalding hot shower, trying to force the night’s coldness out of my bones. Then I slept deeply, though I had nightmares of that creature’s face turning to me, holding a dead baby in its mouth and marking me with its emotionless, reflective eyes. I didn’t know it then, but that would be the last time I would sleep in a bed for many days.
***
The state police assigned us an officer the next day, stating they wanted an official representative of their interests involved in the case. It was, by this point, a fairly high-priority case. We didn’t even have many assaults or robberies up here, less likely murders, and the murder of an entire family really stirred up the locals. The fact that the CSI techs couldn’t make heads or tails of it made it even worse. They hadn’t even agreed on whether it was done by humans or animals or a combination of the two, like men with fighting dogs who went berserk. With no leads, they wanted us to go back to where we had seen the creature the previous night and see what we could find.
The police officer who would be tagging us, a woman named Officer Melinda Jansen, had the look of someone who just started a new job, and doesn’t realize how terrible it is yet. She was all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and when she shook my hand, she nearly crushed the bones together under her iron grip. I saw Ace wince slightly when he shook her hand too. When she turned her back, he looked at me with one eyebrow raised, as if he were saying, “What can you do?”
It didn’t take us long to find the spot from the previous night. When we got close to the forest where the creature disappeared, I saw a branch that had been hit by a shotgun blast, and knew we were right on the money. In the daytime, I saw that there was a slight, curving trail through the trees here, maybe an old deer trail. It was just wide enough for us to take our snowmobiles through if we went slow. Occasionally, I would have to get off, being in the lead, and move large branches that lay across the path, but overall it was faster going than I had expected.
The trail followed across the top of a rolling hill, went down and then spiraled up around a mountain. We were high now, at least 7,000 feet above sea level, and the view went for hundreds of miles. It was breath-taking, seeing the frozen white landscape below us, mountains lining one horizon and the Arctic Ocean on another. A couple hundred feet ahead of us, however, the trail just stopped. I saw an opening in the mountain. Slowly bringing my snowmobile up, I looked into it and saw what looked like naturally-formed stone hallways.
The halls sloped down at a steep angle without stairs. An eerie silence radiated from the gradually thickening darkness. The other two snowmobiles cut out right behind mine, and Officer Jansen came walking up, flicking on her LED headlamp. Immediately, I saw a strip of light blue cloth. I walked forward, bending down to confirm what I had already suspected: that this was a piece of the missing infant’s clothing.
“That looks like more than enough cause to me. Let’s do this,” Jansen said. “I’d like to be back before sundown.” She kept walking without waiting for confirmation. Ace and I slung on our packs and turned on our headlamps. I tried using the radios and sat-phone to share our location, but neither was working. The bright, artificial lights showed that the natural stone walls of the hall just kept on descending into the mountain. A warm breeze blew past me, an acrid, sulfuric smell following in its wake.
“This is just a body recovery mission at this point,” I whispered to Ace, giving Officer Jansen a wide space so I could talk. “So why are we potentially risking our lives here? We should be waiting for back-up. We both know that the infant is dead, and has been for a while.”
“You know what I think…” Ace whispered conspiratorially, before a low shriek stopped us all in our tracks and ended conversation. I never did get to hear what he thought. By this point, it was much warmer than it had been outside, and I had the urge to start stripping off jackets. The shrieking had intensified, and was now being answered by dozens of others that surrounded further away in the stone halls.
Officer Jansen had pulled out her gun, which I saw with some astonishment was a .454 Ruger, a large caliber gun with good stopping power. I saw enough magazines strapped around her hips to decimate an entire herd of buffalo. I also pulled off my shotgun, making sure it was filled with lead slugs.
“Do you have any idea what we’re up against?” I asked her. Ace was right behind us, his shotgun already cocked and loaded, the muzzle pointed downwards. I was sweating heavily by this point. The air in the tunnel just kept getting warmer. It felt like I was walking into a sauna. Thin clouds of mist and droplets of hot condensation clung to the smooth granite ceilings. The hall continued to descend at the same steep rate, but now I could see something at the bottom: light.
“Not much more than you, really,” Officer Jansen said with a slight sneer. “My only advice is to shoot first and ask questions later. Kill anything that moves. This place has taken a lot of people already, people who were too fat and slow to watch their own backs…” I squinted as I examined the lights. They seemed to emanate from some sort of organism growing on the stone’s surface.
It wasn’t electrical lights, and it certainly wasn’t natural sunlight. It glowed like the lights of millions of fireflies, a purplish-blue color that painted the granite floors and walls in a totally different light. We were walking as quietly as possible by this point, but I still hadn’t seen anyone. We reached the bottom of the stone halls, where strange mushrooms glowed in the darkness, their mycelium giving off that black-light color everywhere as it stretched across the threshold of the opening. I turned off my LED, seeing my comrades do the same, then poked my head through, looking back and forth.
I saw more of those creatures from before, their lips missing, their skin pale, their eyes huge and rabid. They constantly twisted and snapped their heads to the left or right, as if hearing something only they could perceive. Two were dragging an elk that had been mutilated and torn down the middle. Another was dragging an old man’s dead body forward by the upraised legs. I saw the old man’s head was missing, his wrinkled hands trailing behind the body. I watched where all this activity was headed, then I gasped.
A huge, insectile monster sat lazily against the stone wall as these creatures brought it meat. The monster was so fat that I wasn’t even sure it could stand up. It had a blood-red, chitinous exterior with a hood like a rattlesnake’s that extended around its head. Its teeth trembled together constantly as it shoved more gory offerings into its mouth, sending blood gushing forwards in thick clotted rivulets that dripped down its chin. Its long, thin arms had sharp knife-like digits, and its six legs branched like those of a praying mantis, splayed out on each side of its body, shining a dark red color in the strange light of the chamber. Its belly stretched far in front of its body, and with horror, I saw it drop a cluster of eggs, each as big as a dog. Their surfaces writhed and trembled, looking tight and ready to burst at any moment.
The creatures that fed and cared for this monster rushed over, dragging the eggs to the corner of the warm chamber. I saw that there were dozens more of them over there, and that some had already hatched.
Whatever that monster was, it had already given birth, and now those things were walking around, totally free to kill anything, or anyone, they wanted.

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I dislike my boyfriends mom
I don’t like my boyfriends mom. She took me in when my own parents wanted me out and i needed to leave. I appreciate her for that and will be forever grateful. My parents were charging me $1300 a month in rent for a room $300 of that was for “car insurance” when in actuality i was never on it and they had coverage for friends and family. But his mother took me in at first it was hard because i missed my family and would block all the bad stuff and every time we’d fight i’d think if it was the right thing to do to leave. For context i’m f(19) and he’s m(19). His mother doesn’t have a job. She stays home in bed all day long and only leaves to 1. give plasma and 2. grocery shopping 3 weed not to shame anyone on govt assistance but she has food stamps and lives off of the government. She charges me, my boyfriend, and his brother $1000 a month. making $3000 a month off of the 3 of us at first we all shared a room but now his brother is in his own room. she’s constantly yelling at them and getting on the boys when her younger teen daughter doesn’t do anything either. like mother like daughter she doesn’t do her school she sits down all day on the phone never leaves. i can’t say any of this to my boyfriend and bring up what i feel. she’s threatened me twice now about kicking the both of us out because of something stupid my bf has done like said something wrong and i refuse to let people have that type of control over me which is why i left my old house. honestly she has all of this authority when she doesn’t work and she’s fully capable of doing so because she has to “be home with her daughter” even if it’s not a standard 9-5 she could do uber eats with her daughter . i just want to leave and live on my own at this point the amount of controlling she is as well, she has “kitchen hours” where we’re not allowed to use the kitchen even tho we pay $1000 a month im not allowed to uses the water unless im already in the shower she doesn’t let anyone touch the thermostat the house is constantly at 80° and extremely hot and i live in a hot state where we get close to 120° out. she tries to act like she’s in a relationship with my boyfriend i can’t tell if it’s because she knows i won’t say anything or because she wants me to know. she goes to kiss him and will tell him to kiss her. he always goes to block and get away but it makes me so extremely uncomfortable it’s like she does it right in front of me too as if she needs to show who’s boss i just think i need to leave and have that be that but he wont want to at what point do i have to just leave without him?

Me and my sister go to a Disney-type amusement park with a small water park near the center. We stay there for a while. Once it starts to get dark, my sister leaves. There's a concert starting near the water park that I go to. After I'm done at the concert, I join my parents to go home. There's what seems to be a farmers market with a bunch of different booths. We grab some hot dogs to eat then head out.

I'm 9 months into my first higher-level/director-level role at a mid-largish company (about 300 people). I was added to a weekly meeting last two months with 8 other people to talk about "big picture" topics like: "creating efficiencies", process, operations, "automation".
People go back and forth sort of bloviating about how "we need to connect with so and so in the XYZ department because I think they are actually working with Dave in finance on some process overhaul" "Oh Dave is working with [vendor] and has a meeting set up with them, we can add you to that" "I thought we were working with [other vendor] - when is our contract up?" blah blah blah and it sort of goes on like this for an hour?
I am really perplexed as I've been in like 6 of these meetings and still can't figure out what the fuck anyone is talking about, what exact problems are being solved, etc. I usually have nothing to say and feel pretty bad about it. I'd prefer to just not go to these meetings. I asked my boss offline "hey can I get an example of a problem we're having as an organization? When someone says we need to 'automate' more processes are there any cases where we know people are spending too much time on something manually?" they responded and said this is more big picture and trying to get in front of future problems, we're trying to stay ahead of the curve, and some other non-answers to my question.
Anyway I just wanted to know if this is normal and common, or if it is actually just Office Space bullshit wasting my time (or perhaps both?). I also don't really know how to jump in and involve myself with any commentary on these meetings, or if I can continue to just sit silently and nod along. It's basically at the point where not speaking or even failing to follow along does not seem to have real ramifications, but still I feel concerned that it will one day?

Hello Reddit!
This is — for a change of pace — Cuzi from Team BethelFrankel, here to tell you that the ratings for Leo, Yingel, and Anatoli are now live on the Community Tier List! I’m sorry this took as long as it did. Fourmana was busy, the website was getting updated, and I was playing Honkai Star Rail. No excuses, just a sorry. As always, a “should you pull” section, followed by some big updates in preparation for the upcoming anniversary.

Should You Pull…

Leo - S-/S+ - Leo’s ceiling is nuts. In terms of raw damage, his damage potential is one of — if not the — highest in Forest. This is an impressive feat, considering that Forest is an element with beasts such as Jeriah, Paloma and Areia. His main issue is a large portion of this damage is gated behind requiring both Refinements and team support. This makes him a weird unit to rate; his R0 baseline performance undercuts Forest’s contested S-tier, with his damage scaling up to SS-tier levels the more e-tiles you feed him. The Goldie teams that could let him reach this potential, however, have hotly contested team slots. Jeriah, Naroxel, and Paloma all provide utility alongside their damage that makes them much more indispensable, leaving Leo and Gabriel to duke it out for the last slot in meta e-tile teams. Still, the fact he’s a top contender for that slot at all as a raw damage dealer speaks to his potential. He also fits decently well on other e-tile teams, such as those featuring Minos, Hiiro and Siobhan.
With Leo, you’ll usually want to use his second Active once per Burst turn before dumping all his stacks into it on the final Burst turn. The gimmicks on his first Active are largely flavor text: the second and third effects are difficult to use outside longer stages, while the first effect is only useful in mobbing. All this said, there are a lot of minor optimizations you can do with him. Firstly, his second active is only useful if you can ensure around at least 3-4 Normals including diagonals; saving the stacks to benefit from his Equipment’s Chain Combo buffs may be worthwhile if this is not the case. Second, the CD reduction on his first Active from getting 19 stacks only applies on cast; if you have enough enhanced tiles, saving his first Active to cast during his AT can let you gain maximum value from it. This room for minmaxing offers Leo some appreciated flexibility, cementing him as an excellent option on teams that can feed his appetite for e-tiles.
TL;DR: Pull if you want him and can offer the appropriate support, otherwise probably skip. Meta e-tile Forest has stiff competition for slots, but he’s as good an option as any to round it out after you have the core setup. Outside of e-tile teams, he’s usable but not great.
Yingel - A-/S at BT3 - Yingel is another addition to the “weird converters” we’ve been seeing over the past few patches, but this time placing heavy emphasis on 1x1 content. We did the math on her damage output and her damage leaves much to be desired, even for a sniper. Yingel’s kit is based around using special high-power Normals to stack a powerful defense ignoring buff. This sounds great in theory, but Yingel’s inability to normal attack in between her special Normals severely neuters her; it more or less means her Normal attack damage is the same as most other units, and makes her defense ignore stacking is too slow for it to ever realize its full potential.
Her conversion is similarly restrictive. 5 select tiles on a 2 CD is actually pretty incredible; the issue is her cross-shaped conversion pattern makes it incredibly janky to properly use and get contact tiles with outside of 1x1 content. Her conversion can be cloned by Axelia, but Axelia has so many other choices to clone that it's hardly ever worth considering.
Ultimately, Yingel is a combination of almost all the most powerful effects in all of Alchemy Stars nerfed in every way. This has its place — she’s a pretty good captain for 1x1 content, and better than most of Thunder’s bog-standard snipers even at BT0. You just won’t feel good using her over Luke, Reinhardt or R3 Wrath.
TL;DR: Probably Avoid. While Yingel certainly isn’t bad at BT3, there are significantly better options to go for at this level of investment. With the 2nd Anniversary being the next event, you don’t want to regret pulling on someone that may potentially collect dust on your account.
Anatoli - A - Anatoli is the welfare character for this patch and more or less a Forest Brock, offering niche but potentially valuable Aggro support and decent personal damage for mobbing. His active can also be used as a janky TP and gap closer if only selecting one target, which is… interesting, at the very least, and occasionally useful. However, his EQ is noticeably worse and the element he’s in has much less synergies for him. Forest also is home to some of the best mobbers in the game in Lenore, Migard, and Barton:DB, who are also just overall better units whose value doesn’t nosedive outside their niche. For a welfare, though, Anatoli is admirably effective at what he does — he’s a good investment if you don’t have one of Forest’s myriad mobbers, and will still see use in secondary or tertiary teams in content like Pandora’s even once you do.
Finally, his art and animations are top-tier — he’ll be a staple for those invested in the aesthetics metagame.
TL;DR: Build if you want. He’s very niche, but excellent at it — whether that’s important to you depends on your own account.

Tier List Updates

We’ve made some pretty big changes to the tier list, but none of them should be much of a surprise — it’s more or less just following through on things we had announced in the last update. The most important of these is we have new ratings now! The (N) rating has been added to units whose value dramatically improves in niche situations, while the (T) rating denotes units whose potential is locked behind requiring specific team setups.
Some background on this — the team is forever mentally scarred by Goldie, and I could honestly end the explanation here, refuse to elaborate, and leave. While that is partly a joke, Goldie is the unit that prompted us to think about how we tier things. Goldie is honestly pretty terrible outside dedicated e-tile teams that need very specific units, but said e-tile teams offer some of the best damage in the game. This unit design is a consequence of how the game has evolved — since the game has covered its bases for generalist units like Sinsa and Azure, characters’ roles have become much more specific. The tier list, formulated in the days of yore, couldn’t really account for that. We’re hoping these new ratings fix that.
This isn’t a perfect solution; the most glaring problem is how much it increases clutter in a tier list which already suffered from it. This forces us to be rather conservative about how we give these ratings, and we’ve tried to limit it as much as possible to units where the improvement is fairly drastic or units who are the linchpin of entire strategies. That said, if you feel we’ve missed someone we’re happy to get feedback about it! We’re far from perfect, and constructive criticism is how we can improve.
Finally, we’ve gotten rid of class ratings and nothing of value was really lost. They did more harm than good, and we’ve replaced them with extremely brief descriptions of what the unit actually does. So all that said… let’s delve into the units that got changed!
Goldie - SS(T) (is S-) – Behold, the woman behind the slaughter. Dedicated e-tile teams are incredible, and we’re letting Goldie eat the SS rating for almost all the units that dramatically improve due to it given the setup revolves around her.
Lilica - SS(T) (is S+) – Similar to Goldie, Lilica is taking the SS tiering for all shield synergies because they’re ultimately centered around her. Lilica shield teams offer some of the highest damage in Fire and are surprisingly strong in Water too.
Minos - SS(T) (is S) — Minos already had a note marking him as SS in specific teams, so we’re just adjusting that to fit into the new system. Unlike a lot of other e-tile units he doesn’t depend on Goldie to get the number of e-tiles he needs to shine, so we’re marking him separately.
Tessa - S+(T) (is S-) – Tessa’s interaction with low-CD units is pretty potent. The most notable of these is Axelia + MBT Roy and to a lesser extent Leyn, who push her damage above a good chunk of Thunder’s long list of detonators.
Lucoa - S(T) (is A) — Lucoa’s buff is one of a kind and instrumental in making a lot of Active-based teams work.
May - A(T) (is C+) — May is pretty important for certain Giles nuke setups and serves as the only other good defensive option on Lenore+Jeno setups. That said, neither setup entirely revolves around her which limits her overall tiering.
Axelia - S+(T) (is S) — Axelia’s ability to copy summons gives a lot of notable synergies even outside the aforementioned MBT Roy and Tessa. Of particular note is Reinhardt and Irridon, and her presence on whale Thunder teams is a testament of how much she improves its playability.
Brock - S(N) (is A-) — Brock is absolutely incredible in mobbing; his ability to aggro mob can trivialize waves and his Attack buff in these stages is very potent. The cherry on top is his importance on Giles nuke setups.
Nails - S(N) (is A-) — Nails’ Bleed application is only really contested by Pasolo, and he’s almost required on certain Elysium floors while also being strong on DoT weak enemies outside of that.
Chandra - A-(N) (is C+) — Chandra is amazing for Nightium farming, and the long-term value this provides is actually quite notable.
Giles - SS(N) (is S+) — Updated calcs show that Giles’ damage on shorter fights actually outdoes most of Fire’s S-tier even on 2x2; his ability to trivialize some stages by nuking them combined with his almost unrivaled 1x1 performance puts him at SS in the right situations.
Odi - S+(N) (is S-) — Odi has unrivaled Poison application, allowing her to clear some stages that even meta teams can struggle on.
Noah BT2 - S-(N) (is A-) — Noah’s Lilica synergies paired with the importance of her shield against certain specific damage checks gives her some valuable use cases, even if she usually is outdone by Philyshy.
Raphael - A(N) at BT0 (is B-), S+(N) at BT3 (is S-) — Raphael’s oddball mix of resets, conversion, damage and healing lets her function in a way no other unit really can, and makes certain endgame content like BoredomShatterblast significantly easier.
Erica - A(N) (is B) — Erica is the only reset option in Thunder, so your hands are often tied on certain stages. Still, her Detonator chain and team buff means she’s not deadweight.
Vivian MBT - A+(N) (is B-) — MBT Vivian’s raw conversion value makes her pretty powerful on the right stages. There is nothing quite like letting her paint boards yellow.
Keating - B+(N) (is C+) — Brock and Anatoli have shown that aggro is actually extremely valuable when the situation calls for it. However, Keating is hampered by their brutal cooldown combined with a lack of pre-emptive.
Zhong Xu - S(N) (is A+) — Zhong Xu was extremely disappointing for a unit that was meant to be Fire’s long-awaited select tile converter. That said, his push-pull synergies do make him worth using on some stages, especially alongside Charon and Brock.
Jane - A(N) (is C) — Jane’s ranking is almost entirely based on her ability to reliably auto-farm the penultimate Nightium stage with a specific setup. Outside of this, she’s still pretty bad.
MBT Tina - SS(N) — MBT Tina can be incredible — 4 pseudo-select tiles on 2CD alongside a very janky TP is nothing to scoff at. The issue is all this is contingent on being able to predict enemy movements and plan ahead with her tile placement; this isn’t easy nor reliable, but MBT Tina can even outdo Bethlehem in situations where it’s feasible.

Some Other Tier Shifts

Philishy - S (was S-) – Philyshy was initially downshifted during an era of content involving very high DPR checks. Abyss and Pandora’s Box did a lot to change this, and both game modes seem tailored to reward Philyshy’s absurd healing output and additional utility through her global teleport. She’s more than worth the $1 you may pay for her; while you still aren’t going to use her in most content that has a DPS check, her value is nigh-unparalleled outside of it.
MBT Frostfire - S- (was A+) – Like Philyshy, the higher importance of mobbing makes Frostfire much more valuable — especially given her mobbing capabilities in Fire are only really rivaled by R3 Regina. She’s still extremely reliant on her MBT and is entirely eclipsed by Giles in bossing, but the gap between her and her Old Seal brethren is now far closer than it used to be.
Leona - S- (was A) – Leona is probably the unit that was the most underrated in the tier list for quite some time: her 1x1 and 2x2 numbers are competitive on both fronts with other S tier units. She’s still too reliant on Burn and good conversion to truly be S-tier, but a well-supported Leona can carry you a surprisingly long way.
Barbara A- – Despite her overall numbers being better with the buff and the refinements, Barbara is still a unit that really doesn’t have much in terms of what she brings to the table. You could even argue her equipment buff being element-locked now makes her arguably worse! While that isn’t exactly true, it does go to show how decidedly underwhelming her improvements have been.
Vice R3 - S- (Was A) — R3 Vice’s performance is actually pretty incredible — her 1x1 performance outdoes most of Water’s other snipers, and her mobbing is potent. Her main issue is the competition she faces in both cases. Vice: KS is your go-to option in 1x1 content, and base Vice can’t be used alongside her; meanwhile, Water mobbing is a tightly contested spot between Azure, Fia, Mu Yuebai, Fleur, and Connolly. Still, she is pretty good on her own merits, especially considering she’s completely free.
Vic — While his overall ranking hasn’t changed, Vic’s description has been touched up. As it turns out, he’s one of if not the best option for the 5th slot in Water against purely 1x1 content. His performance tanks with summons, he’s a miserable captain, and his 2x2 performance is laughable — but it was pertinent to mention he does have a pretty well-defined use case for those who like him enough to invest in him. In a way it’s fairly in-character for him: even though he’s good at what he does, he’ll probably spend most of his time in your roster on the bench.

New and Future Content

I'd talked a bit about how tier lists are a pretty inherently flawed format earlier. We're doing our best to circumvent this — for all its failings, it is both straightforward and intuitive. Still, especially as we get closer to Anniversary, the team has found that it might help to branch out in the content we make to help both new and returning players. Recently, you probably saw Eclogia's beginner and advanced guides. If you haven't, you probably should! They're really well written and you can find them in the reddit post here.
We also have a lot more in the works. Trakan is working on an Ultimate Checklist — a super handy tool featuring an Aurorian Tracker, team building customization and even some Cloud Garden tools. Meanwhile, Ivory is working on a polished Lilica guide — a handy walkthrough to help explain one of Alchemy Stars' most unique and nuanced units. This is just the start, too — hopefully there's a lot more to come in the future.

Event CG Archive

Mechhydra here!
I apologize for not showing up for the last event–I got busy, and as a consequence didn't update the Archive for a while. Regardless, both of the past two events are now live for viewing. Stay tuned for the 2nd anniversary, where I'll be making my own standalone archive post for the first time in a long while!
Event Album Doc
Drive Folder

Community News

Sometimes I wonder if Fourmana has a secret vendetta against me. Maybe I wronged him in another life to have been stuck with writing this monster of an update. Perhaps my sins have caught up to me, and the gods commanded him to make me write this post in their displeasure. We’ll never know.
Jokes aside, it’s been an amazing time working with the team to push this update out, and I’m glad Four doesn’t have to deal with it when he already has a lot on his plate — he’s already put overtime into this project. As always, our rankings are tentative and we both appreciate and rely on feedback, especially considering this is my first time making a write-up of this length for Alchemy Stars. The tier list is written for the community, and it’s helpful to hear what you want from it!
And with that, I shall lay my metaphorical pen down to rest. Until next time.
Best regards,
Cuzimori
Team BethelFrankel

I’m not sure where to take this and it’s very strange but basically, my father has very bad anger issues. He is always angry or frustrated about something but his anger slowly builds up until he finds the perfect moment to release it out onto someone, whether it be me or my mother (rarely, my sister). He screams, yells the most horrible of things, throws things around, ya know, the works. I’m terrified of him but I’m not financially stable enough to live away from him yet so I have to put up with it.
Last week, he lashed out at me out of no where, told me about how shitty of a daughter I am and that I’m never going to be good enough to him or my mom, he wouldn’t stop screaming at me even when I was holding my ears and crying because I hate when he screams. I ran out of the house and have been staying with my partner and their family in the meantime.
What I don’t understand is that every time I get confronted by my father like this, I get very sick afterwards. The day after it happened, I developed a very severe cold that I’m still dealing with and this happens every single time we fight. I’m tired of it, I already have to deal with being terrified of my father but now I have to be physically sick when this happens too. Has anyone else experienced something similar or has any idea what this could be?

I have a 2016 Lariat which came with Sync 2.0 (build 16074). I downloaded the update file from Ford's website because I want CarPlay support. I followed the instructions to update using a USB drive and everything went as expected, took about 20 minutes and said update complete at the end.
Now Sync shows it's running version 3 (build 20204) but the whole system is super slow.
Some examples:

• When shifting to reverse, the back up camera comes on quickly, but after shifting out of reverse, the back up camera stays on the screen for 5-10 seconds whereas it used to immediately go back to the normal Sync screen
• Sometimes Bluetooth devices connect normally, but sometimes they take forever to connect (i.e. 30+ seconds for a connected bluetooth phone to show up as an audio source)
• Sometimes changing volume / radio stations / audio sources is also extremely laggy to the point where the time between pressing a button and the display responding is several seconds
• When turning the truck off, prior to the update the screen would shut down almost immediately (within 1-2 seconds). After the update, I've seen some cases where the screen stays on for up to 20 seconds.

After googling this, it seems it's a super common issue, but unfortunately I haven't had a lot of luck finding any solutions.
It doesn't seem to be possible to downgrade back to Sync 2.
I saw a lot of posts suggesting that this slowness issue could be indicative of a failing APIM, but in those cases the slowness occurred out of the blue (not immediately after a software update) so I don't think that is the issue here.
I also saw some say that the issue should sort itself out after a while, unfortunately I did the update two days ago and it doesn't seem to have gotten any better.
I saw some suggestions about trying something called Cyanlabs, which from what I gather is some sort of 3rd party update software. My first impression is to stay away from anything 3rd party since I don't know exactly what it's doing, or what other issues that might introduce, but am curious to see if anyone thinks that could help me.

Disclaimer: Please be understanding. This decision was the most difficult one I've had to make in my life so far, and I would appreciate your kindness and support. I want to share my dog's story and explain what led me to make this heartbreaking decision. When I was 21 years old, I moved out of my parental house to live with my girlfriend. Growing up around dogs (a Jack Russell Terrier and a Greyhound), I felt a strong desire to own a dog myself. However, due to living in a small apartment, I couldn't have one. So, I decided to volunteer at my local animal shelter instead. While volunteering, I connected with dogs that required experienced handlers or were considered "lost causes." One of these dogs was a beautiful American Staffordshire Terrier who had been surrendered by his third owner. He was believed to have a terminal illness called Cerebellar Ataxia, which affected his balance (he would fall over when he tried to pee). The prognosis wasn't good, and he wasn't expected to live past the age of five. Despite this, I fell in love with him, and my girlfriend and I made arrangements with the shelter to adopt him, promising that we would move to a house with a small yard to provide him the care he needed for the time he had left. I continued visiting the shelter daily to walk him and gain his trust while waiting for a change in our living situation. Unfortunately, during this time, he was attacked twice by an Anatolian Shepherd from the same shelter. This dog had a habit of breaking loose whenever he saw my dog. I believe these incidents triggered behavioral issues in my dog. Finally, when we were able to bring him home, it didn't take long for us to realize he had issues when encountering other dogs outside. Inside the house, he was the sweetest soul, but once outside, he would become reactive. As time went by, his Ataxia symptoms miraculously disappeared completely (even though the test results for the disease were negative). We suspect that he had given up on life until we adopted him, and the love and care we provided made a difference. Soon, we agreed that only I should walk him because he proved to be too difficult for my girlfriend to handle outside. Every walk, until the day he passed away, I was constantly on high alert, fearful of every corner, checking both sides before stepping out the door, and dreading the sight of off-leash dogs. Fast forward a couple of years, my girlfriend and I became parents of two kids. There were several incidents where off-leash dogs approached my dog, and he would react instantly. I always made sure we walked in areas where leashes were mandatory, so I never felt at fault. However, one incident left me devastated. Our neighbors got a small Beagle, and whenever my dog knew the other dog was outside, he would charge the fence in an attempt to get to him. I reinforced the fence and kept my dog inside whenever the neighbor's dog was out. For a few months, this arrangement worked well. Then, one summer night, I had just returned home from work and let my dog out in the yard while I went to the kitchen to get something to eat. I heard the Beagle bark, followed by my own dog's bark, a loud crash, and panicked howls. I rushed outside and saw that my dog had crashed through the fence and was latched onto the Beagle. I jumped the fence and separated them, luckily without any harm done because my dog had grabbed the Beagle's collar and not his neck. That night, I was shattered, feeling like I had failed both my dog and those around me (and looking back, I did). The next day, I contacted all the behaviorists I had seen over the years to explain what had happened and seek their recommendations. As some of you might have expected, the recommendations were limited. It was either muzzle my dog 24/7, build an outdoor reinforced kennel, or consider euthanasia, as his behavior couldn't be changed, only managed. In that moment, I knew what the right decision was, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. So, I continued with additional measures to limit my dog's freedom, causing more stress for me and my family. And now, here we are today. My dog was nearing 10 years old, and we had recently moved to the suburbs to give our kids more space. However, this change filled me with dread because there were now multiple exits, a fence that needed replacing, and a front door that had to be constantly locked. My kids were reaching an age where they would wander around the house, opening every door in sight out of curiosity. Moreover, the new neighborhood had many dogs going on off-leash walks, and there were more corners where other animals could appear unexpectedly. It was at this breaking point that I realized I couldn't continue living like this. Constant vigilance, fear during walks, and the looming possibility of my dog escaping and causing harm—it was an unbearable burden. With a heavy heart, I made the painful decision to contact the vet, seek permission, and schedule an appointment for euthanasia. As I write this, tears stream down my face. My dog was the perfect companion inside our home, bringing joy to me, my girlfriend, and our kids. However, when another animal was involved, he would transform into a dog that had no regard for his surroundings and would stop at nothing to pursue his prey. I will miss him deeply and will never forget the wonderful times we had together. I am overwhelmed with regret and grief that it had to come to this, but I believe I made the right choice for him, my family, and our surroundings. Rest in peace, buddy. Know that we all loved you and will forever cherish the memories we shared. When my time comes, I'll look for you.

Would love to hear about some experiences from parents of gifted kids who went to a private school in Seattle versus the SPS program at a gifted school (ie, Decatur, Cascadia etc) versus their usual neighborhood school. While we don't want to pay $40k/year, we can if it's what is needed to support our kiddo.
Our kiddo tested on the very gifted end and is currently having struggles in pre-K, we think related to being bored and then spending the extra time testing boundaries and experimenting. No underlying disorders or neurodiversity. We are not interested in pushing our kiddo for the sake of pushing but rather looking at gifted programs because kiddo currently loves to learn and has an insatiable desire for information and we don't want being bored and getting into trouble at school to take that away. Based on our current experience, we do not think ours would do well 1. left to their own devices to read in the corner or 2. in a classroom where the school/teachers aren't able to differentiate well, whether that's due to resources or experience.
​
We live near an excellent public elementary on paper but are concerned if we get the wrong teacher, it won't be a good fit. Husband and I both went through gifted programs within standard schools and did great, so not opposed to it, but our kiddo is definitely having bigger challenges and is more different than we were.

I’m (22F) moving 1600 miles away from my home state in two months to be with my partner (21M). We’ve known each other for 8 years now, and we’re finally going to be living together!
My cat is 15 years old, I’ve had him since I was 7. My parents didn’t want to deal with a litter box unfortunately, so he’s always been an indoooutdoor cat (which, as I’ve gotten older, I don’t feel extremely comfortable with). We live in the country with about two acres of land, and my cat loves to go outside. He used to get in fights with other cats when he was younger, now he just tends to chill near the house.
When I move, I’ll be living in a very small one bedroom apartment in the city with my partner. My cat will have to be litter box trained before I move, I recently bought a harness and leash to train him on that (I will be taking him outside to the gated breezeway at our apartment when I move), and I’ve been taking him on small drives to get him acclimated to the car, because I will be driving to our new home.
My parents are concerned about this. They think that I will be bringing down his quality of life by making him stay in a small apartment. They’re also worried about my partner and I possibly dealing with my cat yowling during the drive there, or yowling after we’ve moved because he wants to go outside (he already does this at our current home).
I understand their concerns, and I know they love my cat too. He sleeps with them every night (he used to sleep with me until I started closing my door at night, he likes to roam). He loves to sit on my mom during the day while I’m at work, and my dad usually feeds him at the same times he feeds the dogs.
At the same time, though, this is my cat. He was bought for me when I was younger, and I know he thinks of me as his person, too. I’m his first choice for who’s lap to sit in, he yowls at my door to be let in like he yowls at the door to be let outside.
I feel bad for my parents as well, because they won’t be able to adopt another cat until my dogs pass. They weren’t trained well, and they would not do well with a kitten at all. A new older cat probably wouldn’t do well with them, either. My cat is only okay with them because he has been around longer than all of them, and they were all introduced into the house as puppies. They’re still not the nicest to my cat though. They are territorial and sometimes snap at my cat when he just walks near their food. I think my cat would be better off out of the house because of that, too. I’m sure he’d be happy to be able to roam free without a dog harassing him occasionally.
Despite all of this, I am split. I love my cat, and it hurts me to think about leaving him, and not being with him when he eventually passes. But I feel bad taking him away from my parents, and I’m worried about his quality of life after moving as well.
So, WIBTA if I moved my cat half way across the country with me?

I'm not a working mom yet but hope to be soon! I'm nearly finished with my divorce and am currently going through a software engineering program, and I hope to be interviewing for my first position soon. I was formerly a stay at home mom and have never been in the professional world before.
I'm not sure which name should go on my resume and LinkedIn and such. My married name is still technically my name, but in a few months it won't be. I don't want to build connections based on one name and then need to change it in a few months. Is there any problem with using my maiden name and then maybe disclosing in an interview that my name will be changing back to that soon?

INTRO:
Cursed Technique: Equilibrium
An innate cursed technique passed down the Genji clan. A Binding Vow created years ago by clan head, originator of this technique, states that in exchange for extra power and strength, only one person can possess this technique in the entire world at a time.
This cursed technique requires a substantial amount of cursed energy. If a person is born with this technique without a high volume of cursed energy, it will be unusable and useless. The Genji clan is ruthless and have slaughtered previous users if they could not wield the technique in order to quickly pass it onto a different person who could possibly use it.
Equilibrium grants a user flawless control over reverse cursed technique. This means the user has excellent understanding and manipulation of positive energy. If possessing the technique, a user’s cursed energy is directly halved splitting half of their cursed energy into positive energy and leaving the other half negative. This creates an equal state in their body, hence the technique’s name “equilibrium”.
The user’s energy is constantly flowing back and forth from negative and positive.
Equilibrium: Zero
Using the positive energy that Equilibrium constantly maintains in a person’s cursed energy, the user combines their negative energy and positive energy together to equal “zero”. As Equilibrium makes a user’s energy equally negative and positive, adding/subtracting the two energies together creates “zero”.
Having “zero” cursed energy equates to having no cursed energy (for the time the user is using this technique). By the laws of Jujutsu, when the user has zero (no) cursed energy, they are granted a Heavenly Restriction that boosts their physical capabilities in the same manner of Toji and Maki Zenin. The restriction dispels when their cursed energy returns.
Equilibrium: Zero can be a passive technique that the user can enable a simple on/off, making it even more a powerful ability. Those that can use Zero as a passive ability can focus on fighting and other things rather than constantly managing Zero. This improves their strength. However this requires a lot of practice, precision, and no Equilibrium technique users have managed to achieve Zero as a passive ability (yet).
Zero dispels when the user decides or can no longer focus on constantly using this technique.
Equilibrium: Restore
The user is excellent at healing themselves and others with their bountiful positive energy. Restore technique is used to heal people.
A developed version of this technique allows the user to constantly be passively running positive energy throughout their body for instantaneous healing.
Equilibrium: Explosion
The user supports their body with negative cursed energy and multiplies it on hit with a target so an explosion is made every time they punch/kick/hit their opponent, damaging the opponent. A close explosion like this would damage the user as well if not for their multitude of positive energy constantly healing their body.
Equilibrium: Bullet
The user shoots negative cursed energy forward to create a shape and impact like a bullet on an opponent. This is excellent for fighting long range.
*Equilibrium: Maximum *
The user’s cursed energy output increases by 80% and the impact/aura of their cursed energy is enough to scare away lower level curses and sorcerers. This Maximum technique fires hundreds of cursed energy bullets towards targets. The cursed energy now surrounding the user is so immense that it becomes an impenetrable shield protecting the user similar to Gojo’s Infinity. However, it is weaker than Infinity and attacks with enough cursed energy or continuously weakening the shield by attacking it will eventually break it.
When Equilibrium: Maximum is activated, the user can detect all traces of cursed energy in the area, positive and negative. The user can use this to detect incoming dangers before they occur — this works similar to a “danger sense” ability.
Domain Expansion: Heaven’s Final Blessing
A domain with a barrier transporting what the user desires into an area replicating the sky where clouds litter the ground (to stand on) and the landscape is a pretty blue sky. It’s supposed to represent the stereotypical “heaven” in the sky.
In the domain, the user can utilize Equilibrium: Zero passively with ease and turn it off and on instantly whenever (enabling Heavenly Restriction).
The user’s cursed energy (output) increases by 120%, increasing their strength and potential.
It is not a sure-hit domain but in exchange of that, attacks made by the user have increased strength and the user is granted increased durability and endurance.
In the domain, cursed energy bullets rain down from the roof targeted at the user’s opponent. The bullets do not do damage to the user. The user can freely manipulate the bullets as well.
In the domain, the user’s passive healing ability increases in strength making them near invincible. With an overloading amount of positive cursed energy in the domain, the slightest injury made is automatically healed very quickly. As such while in the domain, the user is near-immortal.
The domain lasts 5 minutes or if disabled by the user beforehand. The user can choose to disable the domain whenever or the domain will disable if the user dies.

I wish I found this subreddit sooner so I could expand my research prior visiting Japan. I only found this subreddit after I returned from the trip so after reflecting upon the trip I will write my mistakes that I made and things that I have learned so I can perhaps help other first time travellers going to Japan. It will be also useful for me in the future. PS: forgive my grammar, English is not my first language. Also a late report + numerous trip fumbles ahead so please be kind xDD
Me (30M) and my gf (25F) went on a trip to Japan April 24 - May 11, 2023. This was our first time travelling to Japan and our first time travelling in a different country by ourselves in general. We both had no experience travelling without family/experienced travellers with us so it was a bit stressful but we still had fun in general.
What we learned:

• Get a very good shoes for extensive walking/hiking. I cannot stress this enough. Man, I returned with bunch of callouses on my toes+heels and blisters on my pinky toes that turned into some sort of stage 2 pressure sore. It was not fun walking with pain that I feel bad for unable to keep up with my gf. I had to sit many times to give first aid and end up buying some products for my feet. Was still able to complete all itineraries but it could have been prevented. No more Sketchers for me.
• 1 month prior to flight, my vegetarian gf attempted to become omnivore for the trip. She was sick for a couple of weeks for eating meat but she braved through it because she did not want to miss out on food while in Japan. She adapted in the end although she had nauseous from eating meat at times. In the end, there were actually numerous vegetarian options for her that she did not have to adapt in the first place.
• We needed more time to prepare for the trip. Our trip was kind of spontaneous and we booked the flight ticket around late March so we have to pay hefty amount of money more. The itinerary was too much than we could have accounted for. We should have given ourselves free time in between destinations and not clump them like there is no tomorrow.
• Check the weather forecast. Preparing for the itinerary while considering the weather can be very difficult as the weather in Japan fluctuates very easily. Good thing we group our itineraries that can be done indoors vs outdoors so would switch up the plan depending on the weather. I also did not know cherry blossom forecast was a thing. I visited places expecting some cherry blossoms and they turned out to be green when we get there. This is a good thing to consider while visiting during spring season.
• Be flexible for the trip. Our trip was supposed to be Osaka -> Kyoto -> Nagoya -> Kawaguchiko -> Tokyo. Then we switched up Tokyo and Kawaguchiko due to price increasing during the Golden Week. We visited within the Golden week period (we did not know this event was a thing) and we realized the price of hotels skyrocket within this period. I wanted to experience some high end ryokans in Kawaguchiko with a view of Mount Fuji but then the price was like 3-4 times the price during the Golden week, hence, we switched up the places. We saved money for lodging because of that.
• Popular restaurants + Tourist trap places can have long lines. If you have tighter schedule like we did, I highly suggest making reservations or come earlier to get into the lines. Even a lot of restaurants that open at 11am, I saw a line already around 9:30am. I did not have time for that that we end up visiting not so pupular places and yet still experience delicious food. Tourist trap places tend to be overrated and expensive. It is a good thing that we went to try other places. Our restaurant policy if there are more locals eating vs tourists eating, it is good and most likely cheap. Some restaurants also do not appear on google maps due to not adapting to the English language so you can usually find hidden gems here and there.
• I think it is better to check in a hotel with breakfast services as most restaurants open around 11am. We had hotel with breakfast service and some have dont. We end up buying food at combini and also got lucky with Denny's near our first hotel as it opens at 6am.
• Note for type of train traveling within your station. I only realized this during the middle of our trip. There is Local, Rapid, Express. Local stops station to station, rapid seemed to skip some stations, and express seemed to only stop at key stations. It is good that the stations have English translations and even the train pre recorded voice also had English parts.
• Check exchange rate before withdrawing money from ATMs. The currency exchange fluctuates but it is not a huge difference. It is still good to win as much money in the exchange to have more cash in hand. The money I lost due to the exchange were minuscule at first but they accumulate since I did not check exchange rate until I returned.
• I should not have been afraid to ask for help. I had this impression that Japanese people don't like to be bothered and they seemed resourceful themselves to not bother themselves asking. At least I learned this the second day of the trip. Hotel receptionists are good resource to ask.

What saved us the trip:

• Being an anime fan/hololive fan helped me with the language. I watched so many animes that it surprisingly helped improve my vocabulary and I was able to understand people speaking in Japanese. Although I cannot read their language(thank god google image translate), I was able to hold conversation even though I speak like a toddlekindergartener. It is almost funny that some anime characters speak unnatural that I even used their kind of speech at times. I am ever so proud when some people told me "Nihonggo Jouzu"-d 4 times during this trip. Some people take that as an offense but I was so delighted when I received that.
• Booking online for reservation. We avoided spending more for this trip since we did not go to theme parks and focused on temple visiting as we preferred. We only had few reservations to do without much competition. * Renting wifi device. I was about to use roaming but it was too expensive for a 17 day trip. Thank goodness for renting. Things would have been a disaster without my internet. Everyone should get their internet access as their priority.
• Get a power bank device. Since I use my phone all the time, the device dies easily. There are charging stations around but if you want to keep moving, bring your own and charge them while you walk. I had my 20000mah power bank and it is more than enough for charging 2 phones, 1 tablet, 1 wifi device for the day. I just charge the power bank while I sleep.
• Getting a Suica pass. This is self explanatory. I almost got into the hype of getting a JR pass too but I thought it was too expensive for me. I did not need a JR pass. With the help of google maps and Suica pass, I was able to go to my destination. I am amazed they put the price of the transport that I was able to choose which method of transport should I be getting. No taxis for me in this trip since I heard they tend to be expensive.
• Buying unlimited day pass also saved us some money for transport during the trip. It is a good practise to calculate your itinerary beforehand before deciding whether an unlimited day pass is a good option. There were days we did not buy unlimited pass * Putting Akihabara near end of trip than early. I would have ran out of money to spend for other places if I went there first.

Brief trip report:

• Day 0 (April 25) - Arrive to Osaka after Layover from Narita around 8pm. Checked in the hotel and ate combini food before turning in for the night.
• Day 1 - Osaka Castle (entered with an entrance fee) -> Izakaya Toyo (watched the episode on netflix and decided to visit) -> Sumiyoshi Taisha -> Nagai Park (it was at this part I realized about the Golden Week as we saw construction of stalls as preparation) -> Team Labs Botanical. The botanical experience was underwhelming for me. I was only impressed with the blue lights on the foliage.
• Day 2 - Yoshino. This is the part where I wished I knew about the Cherry blossom forecast. I checked google to see where in Japan has best place for cherry blossom and it recommended Yoshino. The cherry blossom was already over but the place was still very nice and visited some temples there. I will definitely come back for the actual cherry blossom viewing. At least the Blue Symphony train was a cool method of transport to Yoshino. Then spent the rest of the day/evening at Tsutenkaku.
• Day 3 - Shittenoji Temple (they were building stalls for the festival? got few good pictures due to stalls within sights) -> went to Kobe and tried their Kobe beef from a golden cow plate restaurant in Kobe -> cable car to Nunobike Herb Garden -> hang around BE KOBE sign -> Dotonbori for the rest of the evening (VERY CROWDED).
• Day 4 - Nara. Rented bike there and went to various places. Nara Deer Park -> Sage Ike pond -> Kasuga Taisha shrine. Feeding deers everywhere. -> Todaiji temple (entrance fee) -> Kofukuji temple -> Higashimuku Shopping Street -> returned bike then train back to Osaka-> going first time trying bath house in Solaniwa.
• Day 5 - Checked out hotel. Used Kyo Train Garaku to Kyoto. Used a coinlocker since check in starts at 3pm. -> Jonangu Shrine (entrance fee for garden) -> Fushimi Inari Taisha. Attempted to climb up but my poor feet were screaming. We turned back after reaching the second station before Mount Inari. -> Gion for the evening before checking in to the hotel.
• Day 6 - Arashiyama Bamboo Forest (I was underwhelmed by this place as it was small. Make sure to come early as it gets crowded later on) -> Nearby Temples (Nonomiya, Mikami, Jojakkoji, Nisonin) -> Tenryuji Temple (entrance fee but most impressive garden I have visited this trip) -> Tenryuji Shigetsu to experience their vegan cuisine -> Sagano Romantic Train to Kameoka -> train back to shop around Arashiyama -> Kinkakuji Temple -> Nishiki Market for the rest of evening
• Day 7 - Kiyomizu-dera (entrance fee) -> Sannenzaka (they have Starbucks in tatami there, also my gf visited "My Only Fragrance" shop and made her own perfume there). -> Yasaka Shrine (there were numerous food stalls everywhere I think this is how they celebrate Golden Week and I ate good) -> Heian Temple (entrance to garden). They also had numerous food stalls and a concert stage and I ate good -> Kodaiji Temple (entrance fee but they had a nice light show there during the evening)
• Day 8 - Nijo Castle (Expensive entrance fee compared to other entrances. Imo, there are other better places that should be more worth the fee compared to this place). -> Kyoto Imperial Palace (free entrance) -> Rokusonno Shrine -> Higashi Honganji Temple (free entrance. More stall constructions) -> Gion for the rest of evening.
• Day 9 - Check out Hotel. Used Hinotori express train to Nagoya. Always wanted to try capsule hotel and checked in to 9 hours hotel. -> Visited Nagoya Castle (entrance fee but I was disappointed we could not enter the castle itself compared to Osaka Castle). There were also numerous food stalls inside and I ate good. -> Visited their Malls -> Slept at the capsule hotel. To be honest, I slept really well compared to other hotels we have booked. It was surprisingly comfortable despite the random fire alarm that woke me up during that night.
• Day 10 - Checked out Hotel. Used Shinkansen to Tokyo. Checked in at the next hotel. -> Teamlab Planets (way better than Teamlab Botanicals) -> Dinner at Gonpachi (Kill Bill reference). The movie was old and it is the theme of the restaurant. Their food was mid though. It is just a nice ambiance where noise seemed to be welcome here.
• Day 11 - Suga Jinja (Your Name reference). Still surprised there are still visitors there due to that movie. Did some cringe Your Name photos. -> Meiji Jingu -> Explored Harajuku (visited Aoyama flower market tea house) -> Shibuya Crossing (ate good food there). Visited Tower Records + Don Quijote + Miyashita Park. Wanted to do Shibuya Sky but they sold out their tickets. End up getting lost among the crowds for the rest of evening.
• Day 12 - Nezu Shrine -> Sensoji Temple (It was raining too hard that day so we decided to come back another time. -> Shopping at Asakusa ROX + tried their conveyor belt sushi -> Akihabara (spent quite a lot of money here for anime merch). Anime store hopping + visited maid cafe for the first time.
• Day 13 - Sensoji Temple (better weather) -> Ate at Happy Pancake (I find it overrated but I still enjoyed their pancakes) -> Visited a big Muji store in Ginza -> Akihabara part 2 (more anime merch)
• Day 14 - Check out hotel. Left all check in baggages in a coin locker for 3 days prior heading to Kawaguchiko. Used bus from Shinjuku to Kawaguchiko station. Took shuttle bus to hotel. Check in at ryokan with a bath house + footbath on their rooftop with nice view of Mt. Fuji. Walked around the lake + view of Mount Fuji. Found myself a waifu Kawaguchiko-san seemed to be the mascot of the town since I see the character on various tourist spots. Had myself a mini scavenger hunt to find all of her cut outs around the town and I found them all!
• Day 15 - Shopping for souvenirs around. -> Took the boat going around the lake with nice view. Took car cable up to have a better view of Mount Fuji. Walked up more higher to have better vantage point. Proposed to my GF, now I have a fiancée.
• Day 16 - Check out Hotel. Bus back to Shinjuku. One more stop at Akihabara for merch. Retrieved coin locker baggages. Train to Narita Airport then flight back to Canada.

EDIT: post formatting

Inspired by Darktide allowing you to put your charms on your weapons, I had an idea for additional cosmetics: Vermintide could also get a visible charm system, but to make it even more original as well as show a nice bit of character, let it instead be engravings from the other four teammates.
Position: somewhere near the handle on the melee weapon, visible to the player, and on the opposite side as well so a teammate looking closely can see it. For swords, on the ricasso. For spears, on the haft near where the hands hold it. For axes and hammers, on the head near where it meets the handle. Dual weapons could have one or both marked.
It could be done for ranged weapons as well, but I'd prioritize melee weapons first since players will have them out much more often.
The design itself could be greatly varied. But it will always be from another teammate, not the selected character.
Bardin - various dwarf runes, some glowing
Kerillian - engravings of leaves, trees, flowers, arrowheads
Saltzpyre - logos of hammers, purity seals, the Inquisition =I= for the 40k reference
Kruber - imperial province coat of arms, perhaps those of Talabheim, Hochland, Ostland, or Reikland, and also a grail or a crown
Sienna - various fire designs which glow red
And just for fun: Lohner - money, a grudgebringer icon Olesya - the Ulgu icon, a lock of Kruber's hair
One of the five carrying another's mark on their weapon shows how much they mean to each other. Especially Kerillian carrying a spear with a dwarf rune on it, or Sienna using a Witch Hunter-sanctified flaming sword.