Hello,
I am a senior systems engineer with ambitions to be a back-end developer. I have programmed in various programming languages and do not have much issues picking up one as needed. I have a GitHub with about 6 example projects in different languages and technologies (python, ruby, Terraform, bash and docker). Additionally, I completed a FlatIron Bootcamp ~3 years ago.
The problem I am having is I cannot complete all but the most basic coding interview questions. To that end, I purchased AlgoExpert and began working through their questions (~last 3 months). However, it does not appear I am retaining anything from the questions. The question is where I should go from here.

Part 23 Oh, So Many Horrors (Part 1) (Part 22)
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"So, let me see if I got all of this right." General Andrews held up his notepad and adjusted his reading glasses as he quickly glanced over what he had written down. "The red and brown crabs are fascists who will eat you as soon as talk to you, the little gray men are slavers who genuinely believe they own you by default, and there's some kind of eldritch horrors that just float around in space and consume any biomass they detect? And that's just who's in the local area?"
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"Yes. And also, there are Bandari, the… uh… frog pirates who steal things and kidnap people as their chosen profession." Considering how this was all for the benefit of the General, as well as Mik, Tarki was doing her best to speak in English and mimic the neutral accent Andrews had been using.
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"Almost forgot about them." The General turned a page back on his notepad to read what he had written down about the flamboyant reptilians the golden avian had described at the very beginning of the presentation. "But they don't seem anywhere near as bad as the rest."
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"That's because they're not." Msko chimed in, the translated voice in Andrews's ear features hints of boredom as the War Chief nonchalantly sat on a table a few paces away. "You can actually have a conversation with 'em sometimes. But they could still be a serious threat to Sol and Earth if an entire fleet showed up for a raid."
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"But your fleet could handle them, right?" General Andrews shot back with a tone that implied he already knew the answer. Receiving only a bored smile and nod as an answer, he continued. "Well, isn't that just convenient for you? It seems that without your fleet, we Earthlings would be completely at the mercy of an uncaring at best, and outright hostile at worst, galaxy full of horrors."
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Though the General shot Msko a snide look, the War Chief simply shrugged and nodded towards Tarki for her to explain.
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"To a certain degree, that is correct. However, if it were not the Nishnabe Confederacy performing the initial security and evaluation of this system, who are members of your own species might I mention," Tarki let that fact hang in the air for a second before continuing, "it would have been either the Qui’ztar Fifth Matriarchy or the Nukatov Unified Coalition's Second Sphere, neither of which are… as nice or familiar as the Nishnabe."
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"Yes, yes, I've already had the pleasure of a conversation with Fleet Admiral Atxika." Andrews half snorted as he thought about how brazen and confident that woman was towards him. "She was not what I would consider a friendly person."
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"Atxika is from the Third Matriarchy, not the Fifth, and is actually quite kind if you show her the proper amount of respect. She has been an Admiral for nearly 20 years, after all. The Fifth Matriarchy, on the other hand, are… culturally far more aggressive and far less tolerant of disrespect. The Nukatovs, as a species, just really like to fight and will take any excuse to do so." Tarki pressed a few buttons on her data tablet and triggered a large hologram of the Milky Way galaxy to appear with hundreds of divided up sections. With a few more commands, Tarki caused the map to zoom in on a familiar area vaguely familiar to the General. "This is the pre-Ascension exclusion zone around the Sol System, which has a roughly 750 light-year radius. As you can see, it sits squared between the patrol sectors of the Third Matriarchy and the Second Sphere. Until your species reaches galactic standards of technology, one of them would have provided security in and around your star system, assuming you didn't already have exceptionally competent cousins capable of doing so."
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"You all just assume we are incapable of defending ourselves?" Though he was now aware of the major threats Earth, Mars, and the rest of the solar system faced, the General couldn't help but feel like this was all too convenient. Or, more specifically, that there was some critical piece of information being left out.
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"That isn't an assumption, General. It is a fact." Though the expression on the avian's face was unfamiliar to the human, he could still tell she was being deadly serious. "Your people have yet to independently develop active shielding, your standard firearm-based weapons are incredibly inefficient, and the most advanced technology native to this system is the FTL drive Mikhail developed, which is still highly experimental. The only other technology at or above galactic standards would be the mechanized combat walker suits that Mikhail also owns."
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"Don't forget about my ship." Mik chimed in from the corner of the room he and Tens were smoking in. "Not the 'dewbi, but the one NAN's buildin' for me."
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"How in the hell did you get access to alien technology already?" The General actually had hints of jealousy in his voice as he turned in his chair and fully redirected his attention towards the Martian.
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"I bought the mechs, and the ship was a gift." The beard man shrugged then took a long drag off of Tens's somewhat small and short pipe.
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"Bought? Gift?!?" General Andrews's jealousy was now mixed with anger. "So MarsGov was given access to alien weapons of war? And neither the US nor UN-E were given that same opportunity? That-" Before the rant could start, Msko cut General Andrews off.
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"No, those are Mik's personal property and he has agreed not to take full possession of them until we can get all of this drama sorted out. However, humanity as a whole will absolutely have full access to the most advanced technologies in the galaxy, some of which we have developed ourselves, once we feel we can trust you." Msko was starting to get annoyed by how the General was treating everything as a threat despite the War Chief's best efforts to help him understand the situation. "We genuinely had the intention of gifting you, our long separated but never forgotten cousins, a fleet of dozens of ships, vast amounts of resources and production capabilities, and all of the knowledge and wisdom we have acquired over the centuries. However, the governments of Earth have proven they cannot be trusted yet, especially your government."
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"And MarsGov can be trusted?" The General scoffed at the implication that he or his military couldn't be trusted but their primary adversary could be.
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"I didn't say that, did I?" Msko shot back with a dismissive chuckle. "No offense Mik, but there are a lot of very angry people in your government. And they seem to be almost completely incapable of forming any kind of consensus, except in the face of the most extreme and pressing issues. I am not in the habit of giving potentially-violent agitators access to technologies that could be used for mass destruction."
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"Fair enough." Mik chuckled as he let out a cloud of smoke which was quickly absorbed by the nearby air vent. "There's a reason I don't talk to my pops anymore. If I let him have access to my mechs, he'd make your life hell, Rob."
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"And what exactly were your plans with the equipment you acquired, Dr. River?" General Andrews ignored the overly personal way Mik had just addressed him and focused on his more pressing concerns. "Be completely honest with me, how much land were you gonna try to take back?"
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"None! I swear!" Mik's smile had suddenly vanished as his medium tan became slightly pale. "I just wanna see the stars and have some mech-fighting competitions, man, not start a goddamn war! Hell, if anythin' I'd just buy the fuckin' land back."
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"You really expect me to believe that?" Though the General flat out refused to accept the concept of 'mech-fighting competitions' with military hardware, the Martian looked about as honest as a person could.
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"Look man, there're aliens right there!" Mik motioned towards Tarki at the front of the room and then at Binko who was silently perched next to Tens. "No offense, you two. But damn, General, how can yah still be thinking about the bullshit between UN-E and MarsGov when there's a literal alien who just explained to yah the kinda shit that's just waiting to kick down our door?"
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"My job is to protect American interests, first and foremost." The General retorted while folding his arms in a show of indifference which Msko took offense to.
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"And wouldn't it be in your country's best interest to not let greedy business people undermine your future among the stars?" Msko blurted out with a genuinely shocked and frustrated tone. "Look, we aren't here to tell y'all how to live your lives or force you to be any sort of way. We just don't want to see our cousins become the next Arnehilians!" The War Chief almost shouted that last sentence before pausing for a moment to calm himself and continuing. "I don't give a fuck about your corporations as long as they aren't enslaving people, building autonomous combat-AI without proper oversight, or pulling some other illegal bullshit like that. I don't want to see my people’s homeworld get quarantined by Military Command because y'all can't act like responsible adults and treat people right."
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"Alright, boys," Tarki quickly interjected with a motherly, if exhausted, tone in a desperate attempt to avoid the one thing she had been leaving out, "let's bring it down a bit. The gravity of this Deathworld is stressing me out enough, I don't need the pouting and yelling making it worse. Your species is still very young and there are many fresh wounds between your diverse peoples. Please, take a moment to reflect on that fact and think about the kind of relationship you want to have with each other while I take a moment to rest."
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The General’s eyes watched carefully as Binko sprang from his perch and was instantly at his wife's side to support her in their walk towards a door that led outside. Their slow and awkward gait, though somewhat human-like, was almost concerning to the hardened veteran as each step looked like a struggle. As soon as the pair were through the door and it had closed behind them, the General turned towards the other men and spoke in a surprisingly compassionate manner.
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"Is she alright?" The genuine way the question was asked caught all three of the men in the room off guard.
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"Yeah, yeah, Earth just has pretty high gravity for a Kroke." Tens was the first to break through the shock of Andrews's concern and tried to explain as simply as he could. "Their species evolved on a planet with around 6.2 meters per second squared of gravity and the galactic standard for interspecies ships and stations is only 4 m/s2."
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"Ah, is that why she referred to Earth as a Deathworld? Our gravity is relatively high?" There was something in Andrews's eyes that seemed to imply he had no intention of continuing the official discussion until the neutral diplomat returned.
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"Well, Earth is classified as a Class 17 Deathworld, but it's more than just the gravity." Tens reached up to press the lens he was wearing then brought his hand back down and began making very slight and subtle gestures. "Hold on a second, let me bring up the official GCC classification…. Nope, I was wrong. It was updated to a Class 18, basically the very limit of what the Center of Xenology predicted was possible for Ascended life to evolve on. Between the extreme weather patterns, highly destructive geological activity, commonality of lethal diseases, and hyper-competitive and violent food web, it's a miracle our species survived long enough to independently develop space flight."
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"Ah, it's not that bad." Andrews chuckled like a weathered old gentleman in response. "Sure, you may be freezin' in the winter and meltin' in the summer in some places. But there's a lot of really nice places too."
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"I've heard Hawaii's beautiful year-round, but it's an active volcano." Mik commented then took another puff off of Tens's pipe before passing it back to the Nishnabe next to him. "Same thin' with California, 'cept they got earthquakes that'll topple buildin's instead."
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"A little lava and shaking ain't the end of the world. I swear, you Matrians got it made in the shade with your climate controlled stations and colonies." The seasoned General couldn’t stop himself from letting out a bit-too-friendly of a laugh. Something about this entire interaction so far, though somewhat intimidating, simply felt so personal to him, in a good way, that he found himself relaxing after catching a whiff of the smoke pouring from the pipe. "Oh, and by the way, is that Virgina Cherry tobacco I'm smelling?"
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"No, but it's better." Mik quickly answered while Tens and Msko looked at the General and then towards the pipe in Tens’s hand with mildly confused expressions. "It's got that same kinda flavor, but it's sweeter, richer, and smoother. Hands down, the single best mix I've ever tried."
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"It doesn't have any of that Martian stanky shit in it, does it?" Andrews's retort had just the right amount of friendly sarcasm to put a smirk on Mik's face.
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"Nah, I got that right here." The Martian shot the General a cheeky wink and partially pulled a metal cigar tube from a purpose-built pocket sewn into his jacket. "I figured you'd be a square and I didn't wanna be that guy. But it seems we got ourselves a connoisseur with refined tastes."
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"I haven't partaken in the green vice since I was in high school." Andrews let out such a sincere and hearty laugh that put a smile on the faces of the three other men. "But I do find myself drawn to the sweet smoke of good tobacco mix on occasion."
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"Would you wanna try some?" Tens interjected with the question the General had been waiting for. "It would be an honor to share sema with you, General."
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"Wait, hold on." Msko interrupted with a somewhat serious tone. "You're a high ranking military officer, right?"
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"Why, yes. In fact, I am the highest ranking officer in the US Army and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff." Andrews responded with just a hint of confusion before Msko's smile suddenly grew incredibly wide.
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"Well, in that case, we should use my pipe." The War Chief quickly followed up. "Tens has great taste in smoke, but his choice of utensil leaves a lot to be desired. A person of your status deserves something special!"
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Mik and General Andrews watched with bated breath as the War Chief reached into his large, finely decorated leather satchel and pulled out a smaller, but still quite long, leather pouch covered in micro-bead designs. The slow and reverential process of taking out the pipe bag, removing the carefully stowed stem and head, then assembling the two pieces was almost ritualistic in nature. The bulky head made of a metallic stone carved into an effigy of an eagle's head on the front, tomahawk blade on the bottom, and bowl at the top was perfectly complemented by the long, thick dark-wood stem decorated with more micro-beads, intricate silver inlays, and a variety of feathers. While Mik could do nothing but stare, General Robert Andrews was thrown back to a very particular and cherished memory from his early childhood.
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"If only my great-grandfather were still here to see that." Andrews had a genuinely pleasant expression as he reminisced. "His grandfather was a member of one of the Chippewa nations and a pipe maker, but as a mixed grandkid, he didn't have enough blood quantum to enroll. I remember all the stories he used to tell me about how happy he was working in his grandfather's workshop and helping with the beading. But also how sad he was that he couldn’t really participate in the rest of the culture."
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"I didn't know you were Native, Rob!" Mik instantly blurted out while both Tens and Msko once again had confusion written all across their faces. "And Nish, too!"
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"Well…" There was clear hesitation from the General, both at how Mik had addressed him and how to explain this in front of the Nishnabe warriors. "If my great-grandpa wasn't Native enough to enroll, I can hardly call myself Native now, can I? I don't know the language, practice the culture, or even really know much. It's just a small part of my genealogy."
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"Meh, blood quantum is stupid." The Martian retorted with a scoff while Msko and Tens locked eyes with deeply concerned looks. "If you have a real ancestral connection and you actively try to embrace it, that's what's important."
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"What is 'blood quantum'?" Tens finally broke his silence and tried to repeat the phrase in English. As he leaned over slightly and tossed Msko his tobacco pouch, he was visibly struggling with what his translator had said to him. "My translator is contextualizing it as… uh… well, it doesn't makes sense to me."
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"Hold on a second." Msko quickly interjected after catching the pouch with his left hand, then placing it over his heart and closing his eyes for a moment. The room was silent for the few seconds it took the War Chief to say a silent prayer to his ancestors before he opened his eyes, began packing the bowl, and continued. "Ok, so, what is this 'blood quantum' bullshit and why does it sound so exclusionary?"
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"That's because it is." Mik plainly admitted. "It was part of the attempt to at genocide and some of the Tribes ended up internalizing it. I try not to judge other Tribal governments and the vast majority have moved on to lineage now. But there were a lot of people who couldn't enroll and lost all connection to their Tribe and culture because of that."
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"But that doesn't really answer my question." Msko wasn't quite glaring at Mik, though the look on in those neon green eyes was quite serious. "What does the 'quantity of Native American blood' even mean? How can part of your blood be from a certain culture but the rest isn't? That's not how biology or social systems work."  "Well… uh…" Mik was struggling to think of a way to explain this without giving a lecture longer than the presentation they had just sat through, which prompted the General to explain for him.
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"What I'm about to say is off the record and is my personal opinion, not official policy of the United States Army or government." Andrews looked over at Msko with a very particular expression that was immediately understood. After the War Chief pressed a few buttons on his wrist, he casually crossed the short distance between himself and the General, and offered him the pipe with a knowing nod. "Thank you, I truly appreciate this. Now, if I say the words 'integration' and 'assimilation', how does your translator contextualize them?"
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"Integration is something like accepting other people and their cultures while assimilation is forcing others into your…" Msko suddenly looked as if he was have a realization that he really didn't like. "Oh… and let me guess, the United States has a policy of assimilation, not integration."
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"Well, the word assimilation doesn't exist in any of our official policy statements. And, again, if you try to quote me on this I'll deny it." The General paused for a moment to pull out his US Army branded lighter, bring the pipe up to his lips, and take an experienced puff. Allowing the smoke to linger in his mouth before inhaling slightly, he continued speaking while smooth smoke tumbled out of his mouth. "But Dr. River is right about both about this absolutely delicious tobacco and the genocide of Native Americans. And, to be completely honest with you, the irony of that statement is palpable. When Europeans first contacted Native Americans and were introduced to tobacco, they didn't integrate the traditional understanding and use of tobacco. No, what they did with tobacco is the same thing that happened with the damn near everything else here, it was assimilated into European practices and cultures without any consideration for the local people."
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"To be completely fair, Rob," Mik chimed as he and Tens walked over and formed a smoking circle with the General and the War Chief, "Europeans have done that all across the world, not just the Americas. And I'd say it wasn't just the Europeans neither. There're bastards all over the world who think they have the right to force people to be a certain kinda way. Shit like that just ain't right."
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"So, blood quantum was a way to forcefully assimilate Native Americans?" Tens asked while watching the General respectfully passing the pipe back to Msko.
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"In short, yes." Andrews had a genuinely remorseful expression on face as the War Chief took a puff off the pipe and passed it Tens. "Up until the disbandment era, the US government recognized Native American Nations as sovereign, dependent nations. However, in the first couple hundred years of this country's history, there was a requirement that any enrolled member of a Native Nation must have a certain portion of their heritage associated with a specific Nation to be recognized by the US government. It was usually between a half and a quarter, meaning at least one parent or grandparent had to be full blood, to enroll. Some Nations changed that rule when they were given the opportunity, but not all of them. I believe some of the Tribal governments on Mars still use blood quantum to a certain degree, though I'm sure Dr. River will correct me on that."
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"Nah, you're right, and it pisses me off!" Mik's tone and expression showed how bothered he was by the continued use of this exclusionary practice. "Blood quantum was just the colonizer's attempt to breed us out of existence. Like, I try not to judge other Tribes and how they run their governments, but some shit just makes me mad. When I see a person who lives by the Teaching and honors their ancestors get denied enrollment, or, even worse, when a supposedly full blood Native thinks they're better than me just cuz my ma was Ukrainian, it just makes my fuckin' blood boil."
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"This whole concept is confusing the hell out of me." Tens spoke up while passing the pipe to Mik. "I can understand cultural differences and people losing touch with their ancestors' culture, and thus forming a new culture. Or, a person leaving one cultural group and joining another. But I just don't understand how people can divide each other based on genetics when our species is one of the most homogenous in the entire galaxy. And that isn't just within the Nishnabe. The medical report I just looked up shows all of us on Earth, Mars, and Shkegpewen are between 99.6 and 99.9 percent identical on a genetic level."
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"That's cuz it ain't genetic, man, it's goddamn skin color." Mik replied after taking a moment to really examine the smoking utensil in his hand and taking a long drag. "I'm Citizen Potawatomi and my Tribe's blood quantum was initially determined by some drunk White guy who couldn't tell the difference between a tan and skin tone. Fucker decided that some parents and grandparents were less Native than their kids cuz the kids had been outside and runnin' around all summer and adults had been spending alotta time inside."
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"Oh, that is so fucking stupid." Msko blurted out while rubbing the bridge of his nose. "So, someone looked at you, a person who is trying to speak the language, practice the culture, and live by the Teachings, and said, 'I'm better than you cuz I'm darker'? I would smack the ever-loving shit outta anyone who said that to me. There are Hi-Koth, Kyim'ayik, and a few other species that live with us and follow the Teachings better than Tens here while still practicing their traditional cultures. And we absolutely consider them as full citizens of the Nishnabe Confederacy regardless of what they look like, where they're from, or their specific cultural practices."
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"In theory, that is kind of how the United States is supposed to work as well." The General spoke up while Mik passed him the pipe. “We’re supposed to accept anyone and everyone. However, historically, that has come at the cost of a person's traditional cultural identity. People here aren’t British or Chinese or Nigerian, they’re Americans. All of them. For good or bad, we try to be accepting of everyone and have largely moved past things like skin color as a means of dividing people. In the 2050s, there were even reparations given out to the descendants of former slaves, and that kicked off about 100 years of healing the racial divides in America. It really is a shame that the tribes were disbanded about 50 years ago because, besides that, this country really has come a long way towards becoming who we should have been this whole time.”
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“A corporate-State run for the benefit of the ultra-wealthy?” Mik’s snarky remark caused the General’s eyes to roll with annoyance while taking a drag off the pipe.
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“I said, ‘in theory’, damn it!” The sarcastic chuckle Andrews let out was the only thing that stopped Msko from lambasting Mik for the snide remark.
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There was progress being made, official or otherwise, and the War Chief didn't want inappropriate jokes or comments to ruin that. As the General took a puff off the pipe, still chuckling to himself as he did so, Msko felt his wrist-mounted communicator begin to vibrate. Though he didn't want to upset the flow of this positive interaction, he trusted that his orders to only disturb him if there was an emergency were being followed. With a sharp chirp-like whistle, he drew the group's attention to his now flashing communicator and pressed a button to activate it.
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"Report." The War Chief barked with a deepened voice.
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"War Chief, we have a situation at the South East gate of the facility." A feminine voice answered. "There is a growing crowd of people at the south gate to the facility, including some reporters."

This is a long post that discusses cube design philosophy from my point of view. If you want to take a peek into the head of someone who enjoys a good mix of synergy, power and fun but isn't afraid to admit failure, this is just for you. If you're looking for a clear guide on how to design your cube, then maybe not?
You'll find my cube here. It's a 720 card fully foiled legacy cube that I've maintained for 10 years. Power level is high, but you'll also find cards that aren't in your mainstream cubes.
Before I start, I just want to say that I’ve enjoyed this community for years and have now and again been motivated to take part in the discussion with varying levels of intensity. There are several cube enthusiasts here whose opinion I value greatly and consider this subreddit a major influence in my own design choices.
I will also point out a few things about me to preface all this. I consider “fun” a major proponent in my design decisions and as fun is something of a subjective matter, our views may vary. Regardless, I will try to keep this post as objective as possible but do keep in mind that the subject matter is based primarily on my own design and the meta of my playgroup.
On to the topic!
I’ll wager that most of us look to a number of other cubes and the opinions of others when validating our own design decisions. At least personally I generally consider the cubes of wtwlf, Chirdaki, steve_man and Fannybabbs as benchmarks in their own right. They have their differences - but these are cubes that are solid in what they’re doing, consistent and in a word: Powerful. This is one of my design cornerstones and I prefer to keep my power level high and mix in my own flavor as best as I can.
I’m something of an experimenter when it comes to cube design. I like to make changes that are sweeping and there are patches where I’ve changed up to 7% of my cube’s cards in one go. These are rare and characterized by archetype swaps in a color pairing from one to another but I post this to give you a foundation of my design principles. Here, I will discuss two archetypes that might be valid in some contexts but didn’t in my local meta and I will attempt to discuss why they didn’t make it here. My playgroup appreciates the consistently high power that my cube has and also the fact that it constantly evolves.
I have a few examples to discuss here today, though I could do so for many other color pairs as well.
*The identity (or the lack thereof) of Orzhov * Now I know that must be a hot take for some. Orzhov lacking identity? What about all your Vindicates and Lingering Souls and what have you for a midrange deck bristling with value and answers to everything? Before I get into that let’s go over how my Orzhov has evolved over the last 10 years.
Now, funnily enough there are gold cards that were good 10 years ago that are still good today like Vindicate, Gerrard’s Verdict and Lingering Souls but a lot has happened since then to give B/W distinct directions.
I took one of those directions some 8~ years ago and committed to a B/W lifegain deck. Soul Sisters, Aristocrats, payoffs for lifegain and the works. The deck received a term of endearment: “B/W shit” as it came to be known in our group. It never made it past 2-1 but people consistently enjoyed playing it. It was fun to try and draft that synergistic pile but it just kept falling short at the finish line and couldn’t get there. And the reasons why it got to 2-1’s was mostly because the individual cards were good as standalones rather than the synergy being good and what kept it from winning was that the complex machine the players were trying to assemble was just that: Too complex.
The issue I had was that it was my pet deck. I loved the thing and it could do no wrong. Daddy Karlov was my boy and it was us against the meta decks. The one time I saw that soul sister into Karlov curve made all the doubts I ever had vanish away.
Well. I did learn my lesson eventually. I figured, hey: It’s time to put it out to pasture and I did. It was one of those monumental shifts that I did, which then gave way to Aristocrats. I didn’t quite let go of everything I liked about that deck but tried to make it more competitive, more compelling and more consistent. Hidden Stockpile, Cruel Celebrant, Corpse Knight: These are all aristocrats cards, right?
Well, the issue there - as it turns out - we simultaneously got “this but better” in Rakdos so between Judith, Mayhem Devil and the whole gang we had two competing versions of the same deck and Rakdos was able to present 3-0’s and seemed to be the more competitive of the two. I will also add that while all of this was happening, the creature quality in White especially skyrocketed with aggressive cards in every slot, which meant that a synergistic aristocrat didn’t seem at all compelling for the white drafter.
That may be a design flaw I have: Since I do prioritize power, I will not shy away from your White Plume Adventurers etc. but that does kind of eat whatever foundation a synergistic deck would stand to have in that color since the straightforward plan is more compelling. All the while we’ve received good ETB effects and as a result of overall creature power creep and the consistency white has, it is a high performing standalone color. The “modern” B/W decks that I see in my meta have simply started to disregard the gold cards and opted just for the good value cards in their both respective colors and that has also proved to be a 3-0 -capable deck. ** So where did I go wrong?**
I like archetypes. I like to try and make them viable and I am probably too slow to react. In my defense, I only get a handful of drafts in and it’s harder to determine what truly works and what just didn’t “show up”, which is a real thing in a 720 card cube. In some time, however, one is able to determine if a thing isn’t really a thing and I’m there with B/W aristocrats now and rather than trying to really “force” an archetype down my drafter’s throats I’m rather looking to support what they’re doing.
So, I’ll be going back to what it was 10 years ago: Grindy, value midrange. Lesson learned. I’m still not done with the archetype cards entirely and if there’s going to be something of an identity here, it’s going to be recursion in addition to the token generation provided by many of the cards and Lurrus will be staying and getting Invasion of Tolvada to go along with the recursion theme. So, B/W is about tokens and recursion and this is also supported in the mono colors and easily accommodates different color pairings as well. Should’ve believed my benchmarks, huh?
This is getting me some nice space in white as I’ve considered Lingering Souls, Damn and Shaile as monowhite cards and will just move them into Orzhov to replace Hidden Stockpile Elas Il-Kor and Cruel Celebrant. Corpse Knight is being replaced by Invasion of Tolvada already and I’ll have 3 slots in white which is huge and will make my LotR set inclusions much easier.
The other side of testing
Now, I didn’t just want to go over how “I went wrong” and I don’t think the experimentation was bad at all and my group, including myself enjoyed playing those decks even if they weren’t that competitive for a number of reasons discussed and alleged to above.
On the other side of the coin I’d like to share a positive end result from testing. Similar to Orzhov, Gruul was also something of a “blob” when I first started. BBE, Huntmaster of the Fells, Firespout, Atarka etc. Cards that to me always felt like they belonged in different decks and didn’t really give a compelling reason to be Gruul.
I ran that generic stack for several years but due to it not really being all that compelling I figured I wanted to give it some spice. So, a couple of years back we started getting “lands” cards in Gruul and leaned into it. Oh did I lean into it. It straight sucked but I loved the theory of it. I had Seismic Assault etc. in my cube. They were always dead last in packs but I didn’t care. Never made more than 2-1 and I think even that was a singular event. But true to myself, I loved my own design. Recent cards like Invasion of Kaldheim had me side-eyeing the thing once again so I guess I’m not over it either.
Beatings continued until morale improved and I suppose I did reach a turning point some time last year when I started noticing that hey, there’s now a critical mass of cards that either give haste in Green and/or Red, are competitive or care about Haste and while I didn’t play Magic when the deck was a thing, “Gruul Fires” is an institution and that the second coming of that institution compelled me enough to commit into trying it.
So here we were once again, looking at something like 50 cards changed in a single sitting. One of the challenges of 720 is that you can’t really half-ass anything. You have to full-ass things if you want to give them a fighting chance so I full-assed it. Rabbit Battery, Reckless Stormseeker, Halana & Alena, Invigorating Hot Springs and Rhythm of the Wild there was now enough consistency to actually reliably know that you can draft a “fires” style deck without it being embarrassing. Add to the mix payoffs like Ardoz, Minsc & Boo (which, granted is a deck by itself) and most recently Samut from the Aftermath in addition to the 30~ some hasty creatures in red and you do have a deck. In its first showing it came out with a 3-0 and has scored another one shortly after. This also had a benefit I didn’t design for, but with Gruul becoming such a compelling deck (along with Rakdos, as discussed in the Orzhov section) I made drafting Mono Red a much more challenging affair. MonoR was the police due to you being able to consistently get the pieces you want but now with its pieces in high demand elsewhere I got this added benefit, if you can call it that. As the type of designer you see me being from this post, I never enjoyed mono red being such a prominent deck because of how “simple” it is.
So, that’s my success story in experimentation. I see the Gruul “Fires” or “Stompy” getting some traction in other articles as well so I suppose I’m not alone in my findings either.
That concludes my text for today. It’s long, probably winded for everyone except yours truly but I wanted to write out my experiences with testing. I suppose I don’t have a concrete conclusion here either. I will continue testing and I wholeheartedly support you figuring out your own thing as well. Benchmarks are well and good and a lot of the time true, but every now and then you can find some really fun things if you just dare to try. You’ll find me in the less commented spoiler posts frothing about some corner case card that just might make it.
Do you want more of these musings? I found this therapeutic so even if you fine people didn’t find this a good read, it was important for me to write it out. Thanks for reading!

Just wanted to give back to the community as a thank you for all the people modifying games like FO4VSkyrimVR that I love so much.
I recently upgraded my system and ran into some typical Vive Wireless and other common VR issues.
Like many I got frustrated with blue screen issues. I think it is quite resolvable unless a person truly has faulty hardware.
My wireless experience is now amazing and hoping some of my tips my help others with wireless issue.
Troubleshooting Tips:
Check for the obvious off first:

1. Update MB, VR hardware etc. firmware/bios.
2. Update GPU, VR, MB hardware drivers.

fpsVR is good at helping determine in real time GPU or CPU frame timings. (or other free options)
A) CPU frame times:
CPU Frametime example issue
CPU frame time issues are a much larger issue compared to GPU frame issues. If your game is getting constant CPU frame time spikes either your CPU is underpowered, has RAM speed (maybe XMP not enabled), or weird P/E core issues. If your CPU often spikes frame time then no amount of GPU will help you get a smooth VR experience (and some games are worse offenders than others: FO4VR (single core), SkyrimVR and DCS etc.)
B) GPU frame time issues:
GPU Frametime example issue
Good news here is that you have options. Drop GPU in game settings. Drop rendering resolutions etc. Anytime you can make your GPU render fast enough to prevent GPU frame time within your headset refresh rate zone (or to a point that you can live with it). First dial settings down, then add back after all other issues are resolved.
C) Marching of the dreaded purple line on GPU frame time chart or what feels like a micro stutter:
Example Purple Line on GPU Frametime Chart
Often caused by background monitoring processes like Corsair (suxs), MSI etc. You can write a .bat script that can be run before each VR session. Kill all unnecessary processes. Locate by looking at TaskManager > Details > Sort by CPU or Memory usage. Read up dont kill stop critical MS OS processes. Some processes be so embedded that it's best to uninstall them altogether.
taskkill /IM "exact_exe_name.exe" /F
Ex: taskkill /IM "WhatsApp.exe" /F
Stop all unnecessary services. Locate by looking at TaskManager > Services > Sort by Status and look for Running. Read up dont kill stop critical MS OS services.
net stop "exact service name"
Ex: net stop "ROG Live Service"
Purple lines are normal during major CPU/HDD tasks like game start or major texture loading. However, once your game is up or new areas loaded you should NEVER see them, if not you have a symptom of a larger underlying problem.
Here is an example of a "good" purple line during loading of an area
D) Intel WiGig Wireless issue: Streaming image in headset “blurry” or “pixelated” either main game or even SteamVR home
Not enough CPU allocated either SteamVR processes or Intel WiGig process:

1. vrcompositor.exe
2. vrserver.exe
3. HtcConnectionUtility.exe

There is a chance if you are running P and E cores that some of your SteamVR process are running on an E core. My 13900KS did just that! You could either try hinting your VR processes to force use P cores or brute force disabling all E cores and see if issue persist. As P/E core technology matures hopefully this will become less of an issue. But I can 100% attest that my random “blurry/picilabed” vr image stream issue was resolved by ensuring that all my steam VR process and game run on P cores only.
If you are running an old CPU and depending on game -- you may not be able to resolve this at all.
You could also set the priority of you all you’re the important SteamVR, game and Intel WiGig process, I don’t recommend using “Realtime” ever. “High” is as high as I would go.
Example:
wmic process where name="vrcompositor.exe" CALL setpriority "high priority"timeout 1 > NULwmic process where name="vrserver.exe" CALL setpriority "high priority"timeout 1 > NULwmic process where name="Fallout4VR.exe" CALL setpriority "high priority"timeout 1 > NULwmic process where name="HtcConnectionUtility.exe" CALL setpriority "high priority"timeout 1 > NUL:: Example of game:wmic process where name="Fallout4VR.exe" CALL setpriority "high priority"timeout 1 > NUL
But don’t mess with CPU affinity setting IMO just let the OS do its thing, else you may end up with CPU core overallocated.E) Vive-pro headset blue or grey screen:
Get the obvious out the way, make sure decent line of site from camera to wireless headpiece. Much less of an issue IMO also you can clearly see your signal strength. You could also try different channels, but that too is not major impact.
Actual Intel WiGig card Temperture is the number 1 cause in my opinion. I placed my card right over a fresh air intake fan and ran fans at max and have not had a single headset blue screen since. I am tempted to add a fixed fan connected to the MB header as a permanent measure. This card is passively cooled, so if your case gets hot inside you can run into blue/grey screen issues.
Example card placement in my pc case
A well known heat issue is the Vive wireless headset unit: Easily fixed by googling and buy headset fan mod. Vive wireless logs will show if you have this issue, normally you will get blue/grey screen crashes after 80c … if you are running around 45-50c you are probably fine.
Vive Wireless Headset Fan Link
3D Print Mold Link
If you have fpsVR there is a checkbox to allow showing real time wireless adapter temp too.
Ensure your WiGig process never loses power
You can locate the physical card and ensure Windows never cut its power.
Device Manager > View > Devices by Connection Type > System Devices
Example Link for example in my case, all under 7A3C you change the power setting to
Uncheck - Allow the comp. to turn off device power
Uncheck above box for all subs
Ensure SteamVR never turn off power to VR related USB devices
SteamVR Developer Disable Power Management
Loose USB connection between battery pack and wireless head piece. Probably less of a cause but can easily get a USB 3.0 replacement cable with better shielding.
USB Cable option -- not needed IMO
Length of coaxial cable from WiGig card to wireless sensor camera. Mixed feelings about this. I extended mine by about 3’ … I have zero issues, but increasing the distance could add to image qualify issues. If your troubleshooting remove it from your loop.
Example of extension cable Link
Replacement battery pack. If the power is clean, you should be fine. I don't suggest using 3rd party battery packs. Use original when troubleshooting.
I firmly believe the Intel WiGig card and Vive Wireless adapter heat are the biggest culprits to blue/grey screens.
F) Weird perceived in game lag, latencies or what feels like missed frames but without purple line on.
Do not change or add artificial FPS caps either using vsync, or MSI or Steam command line hints etc. One may mistakenly think that for example if your headset is 90Hz that artificially capping your FPS at 90 may be beneficial to remove additional wireless load -- But you actually adding problems with timings that maybe wont even show in fpsVR. Remove caps and aim for max fps.
G) My thoughts on overlocking:
Some posts argue that overclocking, or RAM XMP can be RC for blue screens. My view is that if you overclock and RAM tests are stable, you should not worry about it as you need all the CPU/RAM speed you can get for good VR.
H) Re-projection
I get a bit more reprojection with wireless compared to tethered with cable, but since it adds no latency to my gameplay (that I can tell), it does not bother me. OVR will show your stats. Keep an eye on reprojection and dropped frames. Reprojection is close to non-issue imo.
I) Other tools
latencymon -- somewhat useful to see if you have driver latencies
J) My Hardware
Recently upgraded and built new PC, from 9900KS/3090 to 13900KS/4090 (water-cooled). VR: VivePro (set to 150% rendering with lens mod and vive wireless. Still using old OG Vive lighthouses, Index knuckle controllers and sometimes old Vive wands. I have tried other VR headsets, but OLED, lens mod (clear) and total freedom of wireless to me are subjectively better. I don’t like the SDE I get, but can give up wireless and lens mod and OLED.
VR games I enjoy: Mostly FO4VR and SkyrimVR My VR play space and setup
Pancake Games: 1400p x3 screens DCS, E:D etc. My old setup flight sim
What "good times" in FO4VR can look like:
Looks for frame times and temperatures, Vive Wireless temp. at very bottom.
Diamond City loading in image
Diamond City After Load In
Rain and other effects ongoing
Signal
Hope this helps someone, took me some time to put this all down!

History:
Hello all. My mother has a lengthy medical history. I will start from the top. She is 44 years old, was diagnosed (but incorrectly staged) with HER2 positive breast cancer 5 years ago. She was originally staged at Stage II, but before her double mastectomy she got a second opinion from another hospital, where a panel of doctors reviewed her scans and re-staged her at Stage IIIB. From what I can recall, I know that she obviously had malignant tumor(s?) in the breast tissue itself, on both sides, and I know for a fact that it had spread to the lymph nodes on both sides of her body. She had another tumor that I do not know was ever classified, but they considered it to be in the "breast region" so treated the tumor as though it was a part of her breast cancer. So I imagine that would be considered a tumor in the chest wall (?). She successfully beat cancer a few months after harsh treatment, and had a double mastectomy and affected lymph nodes removed. Successfully completed radiation, and has been in remission since early 2019. After the mastectomy, she also had spacers and eventually implants put in.
​
Presenting problems:
Fast forward to recently. She had an unrelated MRI or CT (can't remember which) roughly a year ago that showed a 1.3cm (?) cyst on one of her ovaries. No follow-up was recommended for the cyst I believe, they ruled it to not be a cause for concern. About a month ago, she had a regular visit with her OB, where they did an ultrasound to show that the cyst had grown to 3cm. Further imaging and tests showed that it was just a cyst, no malignancy. After my mother's mastectomy, I thought it would be wise of her to also have a hysterectomy. Given her age and her positive HPV status, I just thought it was the best course of action, but she was against it. Now with the cyst, she automatically jumped to talking about a hysto. In the same day, she had a biopsy on one of her breasts, because she had some kind of skin thing that she described as "a bruise that hasn't gone away". Biopsy showed no malignancy for whatever it was, but the biopsy left her with a hole in her skin, about the size of hole punch. When you looked through the hole, you could literally see the surface of her implant, and if you were smart enough to shine a flashlight on it, you could clearly tell it was her implant you were looking at. I don't know if that's standard practice or what. It seems odd to me, like you're asking for an infection that way, but we were aware of that risk so she kept it covered after the biopsy.
So, hopping back to the hysterectomy. Her OB also thought that at this point with her clear symptoms of the beginning of menopause, age, HPV status, cancer history, and cyst, that it was probably a good time to talk about a hysto. My mother eagerly agreed, not wanting even the smallest hairline of a possibility of cancer ever being in the conversation ever again. She was scheduled very quickly for a hysterectomy. In the meantime, the hole in her skin was not closing. At one point the skin seemed to thin and stretch around, creating a smaller hole but thinner skin, which I imagine was the hole closing. However, even two weeks after the biopsy, the skin remained red, warm to the touch, and irritated. She revisits the oncology office that did the biopsy. Here comes the fucked up part.
The first person that visits her in the oncology office (PA? I don't know, wasn't there) examines the hole in her skin WITHOUT GLOVES- that part I think needs to be made very abundantly clear. This physician immediately says that we're looking at a scab, not her implant. My mother is insistent. "That's not a scab" she says. This physician brings in another physician, who is thankfully gloved, and this physician- a true genius, probably top of their class- decides they can't tell. So they do what I did (not a doctor or brilliant by any means) the commonsense approach, turned out the lights and used their flashlight and confirmed that we were in fact looking at her implant. This doctor says "Walk quickly across the street to your plastic surgeon, he needs to see this. I think the implant may need to come out".
So that was the long story. Here comes the shorter part. The plastic surgeon was on the fence about removing the implant. He decided to try sewing the hole, and seeing what happened. Shocker: it didn't fix anything. I don't think his actions made anything worse- I think it was "worse" to begin with. The skin became more inflamed and irritated. Plastics said "Well add on implant removal to your scheduled hysterectomy. If anything gets worse or you start to feel weird, go to the hospital immediately". So exactly that happens. 4 days before surgery she starts to feel off and immediately goes to the hospital. They check her out, WBC and bloodwork are good, she checks in with her surgeons who give her the OK to go back home. That lasted one whole day. Closer to the end of the day 1 day later, she starts feeling significantly worse- infection feels like its traveling, shoulder starts hurting, head is pounding, more skin on her breast is now red and inflamed, hole is oozing. So she finds herself back in the hospital. WBC is not only elevated, but a good jump from where it had been previously. Different WBC components are also not only elevated, some are now double what they were 36 hours ago. So she's admitted, given more IV antibiotics, and she stays until the day of her surgery.
Surgery:
Surgery goes well. Very well. Cultures are taken of the infection, sent off for testing. Recovery was brutal at first but she's exactly 1 week post-op now and doing very well. However, we just got the results back from the culture of the infection, and I have never been more pissed off and ready to attack someone in my entire life. The culture from the infection states this exactly: "Occasional staphylococcus epidermidis. Possible skin contaminant. No further workup. No neutrophils noted. No anaerobes isolated." One quick Google search tells me that this type of staph infection is commonly called the "accidental pathogen" and is most likely caused by MEDICAL DEVICE CONTAMINATION. So, correct me if I'm wrong. My mother has been a nurse and worked in the lab pretty much her entire life. She knows how to care for a wound, and was properly taking care of the wound and keeping it covered. No one I know has any present staph infection.
​
Does this mean that my mother needed to have an additional surgery on top of her hysto because of SOMEONE ELSE'S mistake??? How easy is it to obtain this type of infection on your own, in your own home?? She doesn't go to the gym or public places (other than the hospital I guess) and she most certainly kept it covered, but also, it's on her breast- so not only covered to keep it sanitary, but also under her bra, under her shirt. I'm just incredibly frustrated because her plastic surgeon said from the beginning that what they did (which part of it he's never specified) is not right and should have never happened. It really doesn't help my faith in my local hospitals that are supposed to take care of me.
So please, feel free to drop any information you have, medical mumbojumbo and all. I want to know everything I can about this type of infection- how easily you can pick it up, how easily it is transferred, and how likely it is that she obtained it from either the biopsy or the medical office that examined her without gloves.

For starters, let's establish a couple key things.
Timelords are known to have relatively English-sounding names. Like Rassilon for instance. Three syllables, easy for an English-speaking tongue to pronounce and read, simple.
Next, River telling the 10th Doctor his real name also only took about a second and a couple movements of the mouth.
I bring up both of these things to establish that despite being a completely alien race, their naming conventions are pretty close to our own. And the Doctor's name can't be his timeline or anything like that, which is a theory I've seen before.
Bearing this in mind, this is what I believe the Doctor's real name is:

Doctor Who.

"Doctor" being the first name, "Who" being the surname.
The first name is "Doctor" as in, just "a doctor". Not THE Doctor - the definite article.
The Doctor stressing this point, that he is not "a doctor" (common noun) but "the doctor" (proper noun) is something he's been doing since at least Tom Baker's incarnation, and sporadically emphasising it even up to Peter Capaldi's.
What if this was secretly an attempt by the Doctor, who wants to disguise his true name, getting people to think of him as his alias "The Doctor" when they accidentally call him just Doctor - his actual real name.
In addition to that, the most common dialogue that happens when people ask him what his real name is goes as follows:

"Doctor Who?"
"Just The Doctor"

People want to know his real name. They then ask "Doctor Who?"
In their minds, they're asking what name comes after the title of "Doctor".
For the Doctor, "Doctor Who?" is them putting forward the guess that "Doctor Who" is the real name they're looking for, to which the Doctor has to then shut that down, and tell them that "The Doctor" is what they should call him instead.
Want more proof?
Well firstly there's the obvious meta reason. It's the title of the show and the central character is called the Doctor. People less familiar with the show wrongly refer to the Doctor as Doctor Who. But what if they weren't wrong after all?
The episode A Good Man Goes To War takes place in Series 6 - the era of the show where the most emphasis was placed on the question of the Doctor's real name (the series literally ending with the question "Doctor Who?" being asked again and again).
And in that episode, River Song gives a speech to the Doctor suggesting that the word "doctor", "known throughout the universe as the word for healer or wise man" may come to mean something else if the Doctor stops being a good person.
This speech heavily implies that the word "doctor" is known throughout the universe to mean "a healer or wise man" because of our Doctor's actions as a healewise man throughout time and space, thereby in a circular fashion creating the word that the Doctor would at some point go on to use as his alias.
The interesting thing is that River Song at some point learns the Doctor's true name. We never learn for certain when she did. However we do know that by the time she meets him in this scene, she has spent significant amounts of time offscreen alone with him, such as him taking her out for her birthday which was established at the start of this very episode. Meaning, that it's entirely possible that by the time of this scene the Doctor has already told her his real name.
If this is the case, then River, who by this point knows the Doctor's real name, is having a conversation to the Doctor about the meaning of his name - Doctor. And we assume that she's only talking about his false name. But what if she was talking about his real name the whole time?
And there is actually one small detail that backs this up:
The fact that, in giving a definition of the word doctor, she must necessarily be talking about the common noun, despite the fact that the Doctor has emphasised so many times that his alias is The Doctor, thereby making it the proper noun. And yet River (who again, knows the Doctor's real name) is referring to the Doctor as though his name is the common noun version.
Maybe because... it actually is?
This also explains why people such as the Time Lords who not only...

1. Know the Doctor's real name,
2. In some cases should only know the Doctor's real name (such as in the Master's first appearance, despite the Master not having access to the god-like information and omniscience that the Troughton-era Time Lords did),
3. Have no reason to respect his decision to only be called his alias...

Still refer to him as just: "Doctor". As that is also his real name.
There's also the symbolism of the Doctor's TARDIS (which is stated and proven many times to be inseparable from the Doctor, the only thing that's stuck with him since the beginning and thereby an extension of him) being something that also hides in plain sight.
There's a scene in the Series 1 episode Boom Town where Mickey asks how no one ever questions (like the oldest question in the universe) the existence of a giant blue 1960s-era phone box in the middle of the street. To which the Doctor's response is, quote:
"Ricky, let me tell you something about the human race. You put a mysterious blue box slap bang in the middle of town, and what do they do? Walk past it."
Despite the TARDIS' chameleon circuit being "broken", it still works as good as any other disguise. Well the same explanation exists for the Doctor's own disguise of his name. It's one that is also effectively "broken" ("Doctor" changed to "The Doctor") yet it still works as good as any other disguise. People nonetheless simply "walk right past it".
Maybe this is the reason he gravitates towards humans so strongly. In this line he attributes this ability to miss something hiding in plain sight as being indicative of "the human race". So he's comfortable spending so much time around them because they have the smallest chance of figuring out his true name. Seeing past the broken chameleon circuit.
But wait, there's more.
When the Doctor first encounters the existence of another Time Lord (and thus someone who knows his true name) in the Master, after he thought they were all wiped out in the Time War, what is the first method of attack he jumps towards? Perception filters. Y'know, the technology that literally allows you to hide in plain sight.
And how does the Doctor end up actually defeating the Master, the person he believes at this point to be the only other person who knows his true name? By getting every member of the human race to say the name "Doctor" at the same time, and then resetting all their memories of ever doing so. In other words, he defeats the one man who could reveal the secret by revealing the secret to the entire race of people he believes could never otherwise find it out, and then wiping the slate clean along with the "death" of this very man. Symbolic.
And speaking of the Master.
Apparently the original plan was for the Doctor and the Master to be revealed as brothers. If this was the case, they would have the same surname. And if I'm right, this surname would be "Who", thereby giving away the twist that at least the Doctor's surname is "Who", and from there it would be pretty easy to guess that his first name is Doctor.
Hence why the idea of them being brothers was never canonised.
Hence why the Master also goes by an alias to disguise his true name.
"But why would the Doctor would go to such great lengths to keep his name a secret if it's literally just Doctor?"
Well in my opinion, it all comes back to River's speech in Season 6.
River says that the word "Doctor" exists throughout the universe to mean "healer and wise man" because of the Doctor travelling throughout history and acting as a healer and wise man. And assumedly, the Doctor picked the alias "The Doctor" because that word meant "healer and wise man" which is what he wanted to embody.
This means that if, like River warned, the Doctor stops acting as a healer or a wise man and instead acts as say, a warrior, throughout the universe, then that would mean he would have originally never picked "Doctor" as his alias, instead picking whatever new word meant healer or wise man instead.
This isn't so bad on its own, all it would mean is that the word for "healer and wise man" would become something else, and the Doctor would call himself that.
However, although the effects of paradoxes are extremely inconsistent in Doctor Who, one thing that's pretty consistent is that they're rarely ever good. And in my opinion, I think it's possible that if the Doctor changed just his name alone. that would either massively mess up the universe in a very similar fashion to the final episodes of Series 5 or 6, or stop the Doctor from ever existing, just like the end of Series 7
Don't you think it's interesting that all the Matt Smith series' climaxes revolve around the negative consequences of key moments in the Doctor's story being changed? The Matt Smith era of the show also being the one most focused on the mystery of the Doctor's name? Almost as though these two things are linked.
Hell, the title of Series 7's final episode, the one where the Doctor's past is changed causing him to cease to exist throughout history, is literally The Name of the Doctor. And the Doctor's real name has to be said to access the Doctor's timestream.
All this, for me, paints a clear picture.
Once upon a time, a Time Lord named Doctor Who was born. And as every Time Lord child has to do, he looked into the time vortex. Everyone sees something different here. And Doctor Who saw himself acting as a healer and a wise man throughout time and space to such a great extent that his very name, Doctor, became the word for healer and wise man.
He saw that if he didn't follow the path that caused the word "doctor" to mean healer and wise man, that the universe would be messed up, and he would cease to exist. And so he had to make sure that the word "Doctor" meant healewise man.
And so, the first step he takes upon beginning this journey, is changing his name from "Doctor" as in "any old doctor" to "The Doctor" - the Doctor, the definite article, the man which all other uses of the word Doctor are based off of, or in the words of Tom Baker, "the original, you might say." All for the very purpose of ensuring that the word "Doctor" comes to represent the healer and the wise man that he is, thereby avoiding the paradox.
In short, why would the Doctor want to hide his real name if his real name is "Doctor Who"? Because if the word "doctor" represents him as a stuffy Time Lord, and not the healer and wise man he later became, he would never have picked "The Doctor" as his alias, which would cause such a change in his timeline that he would cease to exist and the universe probably would too.
Final thing. Steven Moffatt is the guy who wrote nearly every episode where the Doctor's real name was presented as a serious mystery. Forest of the Dead, A Good Man Goes to War, The Wedding of River Song, The Name of the Doctor. And he literally said the Doctor's real name was Doctor Who.
lol.

Let's do the shotgun approach. I'm going to be discussing all five earning plays in one post, and then put my conclusions at the end. All of these stocks are putting out earnings today, after hours. Yesterday I posted about HPQ going down, and it went down, puts up ~80%. So let's get into the details of this post.
Starting with CrowdStrike Holdings (CRWD), where analysts are predicting earnings of $0.509 per share compared to earnings of $0.310 per share in the same quarter of the previous year. They are also expecting the company to report $677.4 million, an increase of over the prior year quarter when the company reported $487.8 million. With regard to the current fiscal year, analysts expect a profit per share of $2.33, while the previous year saw a profit of $1.54.
CrowdStrike’s first-quarter fiscal 2024 results are likely to reflect the benefits of the continued solid demand for its products, given the healthy environment of the global security market. The increasing number of people logging into employers' networks has triggered a greater need for security and might have spurred the demand for CRWD’s products in the fiscal first quarter. A strong pipeline of deals indicates the same.
Stellar revenue growth in subscriptions might have contributed significantly to the first quarter’s top line. Further, the increasing number of net new subscription customers may have acted as a tailwind.
Moreover, CrowdStrike’s collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS) is an upside, benefiting the company from its products’ availability on the AWS platform. The expansion in the volume of transactions through Amazon’s AWS Marketplace, growth in co-selling opportunities with AWS salesforce and the uptake of AWS service integrations are likely to have contributed to CRWD’s earnings in the to-be-reported quarter.
However, elevated expenses for enhancing sales and marketing capabilities and increased investments in research and development are likely to have weighed on the company’s fiscal first-quarter bottom line.
Next is the software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider Salesforce (CRM), wallstreet expects CRM to post adjusted earnings of $1.61 per share, which is on the higher end of the company’s guidance and nearly double that of the Q1FY23 figure of $0.98 per share. CRM has consistently beaten earnings expectations in the past eight quarters, with a strategically built portfolio covering virtually all aspects of digital transformation. So far this year, the stock has gained 59.9%, outperforming the S&P 500's 10% gain.
Similarly, the analysts expect Salesforce to post revenue of $8.18 billion, which is also on the higher end of the company’s outlook and represents a 10.4% year-over-year growth. However, sequentially, the revenue expectation shows a modest decline of 2.4%.
Salesforce’s first-quarter performance is likely to have gained from its focus on building and expanding relationships with leading brands across industries and geographies. Also, significant growth opportunities in the public sector are expected to have been a tailwind in the fiscal first quarter.
The company’s ability to offer integrated solutions for customers’ business problems is likely to have been a key growth driver. The firm’s products, like Trailhead and myTrailhead, are helping companies through their transformation processes and increasing business scale with modern technology.
Salesforce’s quarterly performance is likely to have benefited from the robust demand environment as customers are undergoing a major digital transformation. The customer relationship management software provider’s focus on introducing more aligned products per customer needs is expected to have boosted its top line in the quarter.
Also, the acquisitions of Slack, Mobify and Vlocity are anticipated to have aided CRM’s top line during the to-be-reported quarter. Growth across its four major cloud service offerings, Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Platform, and Other and Marketing & Commerce Cloud, is anticipated to have boosted Salesforce’s subscriptions and supported its revenues.
However, a decline in software spending by small and medium businesses amid the macroeconomic uncertainty due to the pandemic and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war might have affected Salesforce’s fiscal first-quarter performance. Further, stiff competition from Oracle and Microsoft is a concern, along with forex headwinds.
On May 26, Goldman Sachs analyst Kash Rangan reiterated his Buy rating on CRM stock ahead of its earnings report. Rangan has set a price target of $325, implying a massive 50.8% upside potential from current levels.
Rangan is highly optimistic about Salesforce’s quarterly winning streak and the potential tailwind from the artificial intelligence (AI) race. Even so, the analyst cited that this will be the first time that CRM will recognize a sequential decline in subscription revenue.
Despite that, Rangan noted, “As a system of record with a plethora of customer data that can help train its LLM (large language models), CRM can benefit from Generative AI. As the macro begins to inflect, we see CRM being well positioned as it realizes the benefits from sales efficiency efforts and workforce reductions of recent quarters.” Salesforce said it will integrate its generative AI Einstein GPT into every facet of the company - sales, service, marketing, commerce and IT interaction. Pricing details were not disclosed.
I know everyone wants to hear it, next is C3.ai (AI). There's no denying it, the growing popularity of artificial intelligence, in particular ChatGPT, is more than just hype. It is real. As you may have noticed, one company that's riding high on the AI wave is C3.ai, which has seen its stock more than doubled as interest among investors surge. The stock has gone on a breathtaking run over the past thirty days, rising close to 90%, compared with the 3% rise in the S&P 500 index. On a year-to-date basis the performance looks even more astonishing, skyrocketing 194% compared with the 10% rise in the S&P 500 index. How much higher can its shares go?
C3.ai is benefiting from the increasing adoption of its services, including C3 Generative AI Product Suite, C3 AI Ex Machina (wasn't that a movie?), C3 AI ESG and C3 AI CRM. An expanding product portfolio is expected to have remained a key catalyst in driving demand for the company’s fully-integrated AI products in the fiscal fourth quarter.
During the to-be-reported quarter, the company made significant development toward its Generative AI platform, facilitating the ease of use and the capability of its enterprise AI applications. This is expected to have driven the top line.
C3.ai has been benefiting from strengthening industry and technology-specific partnerships. From its industry partnerships with the likes of Baker Hughes in oil & gas & chemical markets and Booz Allen in government defense sector, C3.ai has been leveraging domain expertise to expand its customer footprint.
With its tech partners, C3 has been benefiting from strength in its sales capabilities besides tech and product functionality. Partnerships with the likes of Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure and Accenture are expected to have driven the top line in the to-be-reported quarter.
Aside from recently announcing that its generative AI product suite is now available as a public offer on Alphabet's Google (GOOG , GOOGL) Cloud Marketplace, the company also issued preliminary results that included positive cash flow in FQ4. This suggests that the company’s $800 million cash currently on its balance sheet will grow. Its management has sought to change the company’s business model, shifting the business away from short-term revenues to a transaction-based pricing method, while boosting long-term revenues by growing its customer base.
Those initiatives appear to be working with growth rates starting to re-accelerate. CEO Thomas Siebel said, "Since we announced C3 Generative AI, we've had intense interest from current customers and prospects to get these capabilities deployed and in use across their systems.” The product suite features enterprise search, allowing businesses to search across their database to locate and retrieve relevant information. On Wednesday, the company will look to prove that it is here to stay and has a sustainable path towards profitability.
For the three months that ended April, Wall Street expects the Redwood City, Calif.-based company to post a per-share loss of 17 cents on revenue of $71.32 million. This compares to the year-ago quarter when the loss was 21 cents per share on revenue of $72.32 million. For the full year, the loss is expected to be 46 cents per share, narrowing from 73 cents a year ago, while full-year revenue of $265.67 million would rise 5.1% year over year.
The company still has a lot to prove and important questions to answer. Namely, does it have a strong enough moat to establish a leadership position in enterprise AI software? C3.ai ended Q3 with 236 customers, the same total reported at the end of Q2. In other words, there has been no sequential growth in the customer base, suggesting there’s a lack in competitive advantage and/or product interest.
As noted earlier, a few quarters ago, the company moved towards a new pricing model to help onboard new customers at a lower startup cost. This will allow the company to charge more when these same customers utilize the software at higher levels. As a result of the pricing change, there was a noticeable dip in Q3 revenues. Although the company surpassed consensus estimates, producing Q3 revenue $66.67 million, the figure declined 4.45% year over year.
The Q3 adjusted loss of 6 cents per share did surpass estimates by 16 cents. Despite the nearly 5% dip in revenues, the stock soared higher. Investors looked beyond the current numbers and instead focused on the fact that the trough in revenues had been reached. The belief is that the company’s consumption-based pricing model is now poised to generate even more revenue than the subscription model it once used. As such, the guidance the company provides today will be a key factor in the stock’s near-term direction.
Strong demand for the company’s Enterprise AI software, driven by accelerated digital modernization across major industries, is expected to have aided fiscal fourth-quarter performance.
Okta, Inc (OKTA) is next. analysts expect earnings of $0.118 per share compared to losses of $0.270 per share from the same quarter last year. They expect Okta to report sales of $511.0 million, an increase of 23.16% over the same period last year. Looking at the full year, analysts expect a profit of $0.760 per share. In the previous year there was a profit of $0.040 per share.
The company’s first-quarter fiscal 2024 results are expected to reflect the benefits of increased use cases of identity solutions and an expanding product portfolio.
Okta is expected to have experienced strong demand for its Workforce and Customer Identity solutions. Continuous innovation in its solutions have helped Okta score notable enterprises such as Sonos, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, MassMutual and OpenAI. Its products’ ability to automate processes, secure data and reduce costs has been another positive.
Demand for the company’s solutions has been strong due to the deployment of cloud and hybrid IT, digital transformation projects and the adoption of Zero Trust security. The momentum is expected to have continued in the to-be-reported quarter.
These factors are expected to have expanded the customer base in the fiscal first quarter. In the fiscal fourth quarter, Okta added 550 customers, bringing the total customer count to 17,600, up 17% year over year. Customers with more than $100K in Annual Contract Value increased 27% year over year.
However, Okta is expected to have faced challenges in execution and heightened attrition. Challenging macro environment and unfavourable forex are potential headwinds. These factors are expected to have hurt its fiscal fourth-quarter prospects.
Finally, let's take a look at Nordstrom (JWN). Their first-quarter fiscal 2023 results are expected to reflect the significant impacts of decelerating demand trends. Reduced consumer spending amid lower income groups, stemming from the tough macroeconomic environment, has been hurting revenues across both banners. Analysts expect losses of $0.105 per share compared to losses of $0.060 per share in the same quarter of the previous year. They also are expecting the company to report $3.16 billion, an decrease of 11.59% over the prior year quarter. With regard to the current fiscal year, analysts expect a profit per share of $1.87, while the previous year saw a profit of $1.69.
Management expects the impact of the winding down of Canada operations to hurt revenues in fiscal 2023. The impacts of the closure are likely to get reflected in the fiscal first-quarter results. I anticipate a decline in revenues in the to-be-reported quarter. Moreover, I expect sales to decline for both the Nordstrom banner and the Nordstrom Rack segment.
In order to maintain healthy inventory levels, Nordstrom has been undertaking additional markdowns. The higher markdowns have been weighing on gross margin, which is likely to have continued in the to-be-reported quarter.
However, the company is committed to enhancing customer experience via its Closer to You strategy, optimized supply chain and better efficiency. These endeavors are expected to have slightly offset the aforementioned declines.
Nordstrom has been focused on technology advancement by boosting e-commerce and digital networks, supply-chain channel improvement, and marketing efforts. The digital business has been witnessing gains from improved digital traffic across both Nordstrom and Nordstrom Rack, as well as increased utilization of Buy Online, Pick Up In-Store service. Its mobile app has also been performing well. Alongside these, the integration of Rack.com into Nordstrom.com is anticipated to have contributed to the company's top line in the to-be-reported quarter.
So what to do for earnings?
Just to keep it sweet and simple, I'm getting calls on CRWD, CRM, AI, and OKTA. And I'm getting puts on JWN. I don't expect all of them to hit, I just like to throw my money on the table and see what flies. Keep in mind tho, as with all my other posts, these are entirely meant to just educate people about what we tend to look for when making an earning prediction. It by no means can be considered financial or investment advice.

Hi folks - can I get some critique on this please?
Does it feel too simplistic, basic. Should I be more dynamic and varied with sentence structure? Does it feel amateurish?
This is like the 2nd chapter of a short story
So Joe Montague settled into his new life. He rose with the dawn sun. Shovel in hand, he worked the backyard, clearing it of the gnarled nettle bushes. He removed the rusted sheets of metal roofing the shed, and hammered in a new set. On Friday, he tripped to the mill seeking employment but was told to return the following month. He ran errands for Ms Darle. But as much as he tried to quieten it, the harp strings of his old life grew louder in Joe's mind. No, this was not a yearning for his wife but his old friends: Dean, Mearl and Arnie. The friends he'd known before leaving for the war. During the nights, Joe stood by the window and peered into the darkness covering the town. His mind reeled back to those nights he'd sit in watch, waiting for men to show their faces, waiting to catch the moon's glint on their pointed pistols. In the second week of his stay, he turned in his bed often, itching to make a visit to the old pack of rats. Then on Sunday morning, as he hefted a bag of flour and a carton of milk back to the house for Ms Darle, Joe decided would go to see his old friends.
Ms Darle was sitting in the kitchen taking a call when Joe set down the grocery. "Now you listen here Morty. I have never once in my life cheated you, even when we were kids. Even when ma and pa and all the others took you for a fool." Ms Darle stood from the chair, pressing a hand at her temple. Joe did not think it proper for him to stay and he walked out into the hall. "Now that house belongs to me too Morty,' he heard the old lady say before he stepped out the front door. It wasn't the first time he'd heard her despair. The calls had grown more frequent in the past week, and not once did the house phone ring.
The morning skies hung clear and blue. The sun beat hot. Joe walked down Mulvane Street on his way to Sal's Bar. Before he was shipped out to fight, Joe would go there with his pack of friends. It was hardly a drinkery. In fact, at any given time the Sal had only a keg of beer. One keg his uncle at the shipyard would have slipped him. The two men would split the profits. The bar was in a small room in an alley behind a row of shops. Inside, Sal would be sitting on a stool against the far wall, the keg set beside his feet. On a small table he had glasses, ready to be dunked following an order. There was no counter. The cash register was Sal's pocket in which he also held a liquor licence. He'd found the old piece of paper on the streets one day, outside a storage unit. He took it home and carefully bleached it before he etched in his name, not pressing too hard with the pen. Before the war, Joe, Dean, Mearl and Arnie could be found there every weekend. Joe turned into Finch Street, a road lined with low rise homes and a small church right in the middle of it. At the end of the road was the alley. Between two tree trunks, his eyes caught Ms Heartmeyer stood outside the church. The last time he'd seen her, she held his hand and told him to be careful. A shyness came over Joe, and he turned his head towards the ground. He did not want to be seen. He did not like the shame which came about him when he spoke to God fearing. He thought the gravel scratched too loud against his shoes. "Joe, is that you?" she asked, stepping along the footpath, her head tilted for a better look.

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Harmony Pillow Support:
Support is essential for maintaining proper spinal alignment during sleep, and the Harmony Pillow delivers exceptional support. The memory foam core molds to the contours of your head and neck, providing customized support and relieving pressure points. This support helps alleviate muscle tension and reduces the strain on your neck and shoulders, enabling you to wake up feeling rejuvenated and ready to tackle the day.
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Brace yourselves, this is gonna be a long one.
Table of Contents
1…… The Main Goal
2…… What I’m Seeking
3…… Personality
4…… Interests
5…… Physical Characteristics (with pics)
6…… Expectations of You
7…… Living Situation
8…… Deal Breakers
9…… Closing Remarks
(1)
The Main Goal:
Well if you’re browsing this subreddit then much like me, you were alone this weekend and I’m sure you’d like to change that as much as me. I won’t lie, I am going through a rough part of my life right now. It’s difficult for me to find the energy for anything at the moment and I’m just really seeking affection in general, anything that will give me a push. I don’t want to be that person who brings everyone down but I could really use someone to talk to right now. I’d really like to find someone who’s similar to me so much to the point that we do everything together and talk about everything while not having to pretend to be interested. I want someone with whom we can mutually spew our emotions onto and have those feelings reciprocated. Not an emotional punching bag, but an emotional teddy bear to hug and cuddle until everything feels better as many times as we need. There’s people who I’m sure have told you the same, they’ll be there no matter how many times you need the support, no matter how many times the insecurities and bad thoughts come back but they don’t mean it. I will be the exception, I’m not so ignorant to think some nice words and tales of relating to you will magically forever heal whatever ails you then get mad when you seek the same support again. Mental ailments are rarely temporary and I don’t care about someone because they’re perfect, caring about someone means being there no matter how many times they need you to be. It doesn’t feel like a chore, it doesn’t get old, and it never will.
(2)
(2.a)
What I'm Seeking:
I will upfront let you know if I’m clicking better with someone else or if you’re the one, I’m not here to tread the sea of fish or keep my options open, I’m here for one singular person.
(2.b)
Relationship:
A relationship is difficult for me right now, it’s been nearly half a year since I got out of my last relationship and the reasons for it ending are partially responsible for how I’ve been feeling and why it’s so hard for me to seek the comfort I so desperately crave. I will tell you about it but for the sake of not treating the entirety of the internet as my therapist, it’ll be in private. I really need the comfort of intimacy and the warmth of someone who cares. I'm not going to feel better if I just sulk and don’t move on. This is my attempt to get better, I’ll admit I’m not great right now and I don’t expect you to be either. If we can help each other heal, then I’d be more than happy :) A relationship isn’t just being there for when someone’s at their best. Even if a relationship is hard at the moment, I do want a life partner and I don’t want to be alone. Things aren’t going to get easier without you so I don’t want to hesitate. I view my other as an equal, I don’t like categorizing us into specific roles. We take care of each other and treat each other how we like to be treated, whatever that is, it's as simple as that. I don't care if you're "successful" or not, living simple lives with our days filled with love is the ultimate measure of success to me.
(3)
Personality:
(3.a)
On the Surface:
As you can tell I can be rather… stoic but that’s largely due to my current stressors, I truthfully am goofy and fun loving but I just can’t find it in me right now. I want to return to that but without someone to light up my world it’s been difficult to just have fun and enjoy stuff. I’m definitely more introverted, you won’t catch me at any parties or really outside at all. I definitely prefer being home though the occasional outing is not out of the question and one day I’d like to travel to other countries because I think that kind of perspective is important.
(3.b)
The Core of My Being:
I like being a spectator to it all and if we bear witness to humanity burning or its miraculous recovery, I want to watch it with you. I enjoy watching humanity advance, less so when it devolves but I want to watch it to the end nonetheless. I’m both a realist and someone who lives with my head in the clouds dreaming of scenarios or worlds that don’t exist. I’m saying that I enjoy a good narrative and can suspend my disbelief to enjoy something but you won’t catch me refusing vaccines or ignoring blatant facts for the sake of some pseudo science or witch doctor’s remedy. I’m an atheist but I do not rule out existence after death, not because I’m agnostic but because due to the nature of potentially infinite time at some point after how many googol years with a googol amount of 0s after that, something’s bound to replicate your consciousness perfectly at some point. It’s actually a really fascinating topic I like talking about. If infinite time and infinite possibilities exist, does non existence exist? Though that’s an awfully existentially dreadful thought process considering the ramifications of infinite existence and infinite possibilities during said infinite existence. I would say I’m confidently left leaning and I don’t think I could truly get along with anyone right leaning, at least America’s definition of right leaning. Left and right seems to have just become; do people deserve to suffer or do they deserve to live good lives? Being political is not something I expected to become but how can you not be when crimes against human rights are being passed on a daily basis and at the end of the day, everything’s political. Oftentimes I imagine the perfect moment as relaxing with my significant other playing games or cuddling in a cold room under blankets.
I value that special someone above all of the existential thoughts, the bad of the world, the good of the world, they practically become my world. So many worries wash away when I’m with them. I don’t know if that’s the defense mechanism my brain created to not feel bad 24/7 but if it is, I’m currently without it.
(3.c)
Insecurities:
I talk of philosophy and politics here but really I spend most of my time just playing games, watching stuff, and trying to not be sleep deprived. I’m also nowhere near as well spoken, heck sometimes I feel like my speech is broken. I won’t claim to be something I’m not, I sit at home while I complain about the world doing nothing about it wishing I had someone here with me. I’m not noble nor do I really want to be, I have morals I uphold but much like most other hypocrites I acknowledge that my comfortable life is built on the suffering of others without doing anything about it. Why? My sleep problems? Am I depressed? Is that why I have no energy to do anything? Do I just think nothing I could do could help? I can’t nail it down myself, maybe it’s a mix of everything, maybe I’m just a bad person. I have always told myself that if I had wealth I would help people but if I get that kind of wealth will I just become a wealth hoarder who tries to justify my riches as something I earned rather than something given to me through incredibly lucky circumstances? If I do help people is it because I’m a good person or out of guilt? Will I die alone? I feel like I drive everyone away with my clinginess, I get paranoid often and need reassurance often. It’s something I want to work on, something I’ve been trying to work on. Hearing that someone cares about me just never gets old. I value self awareness even if it’s painful.
(3.d)
Socializing:
I’m definitely a socially anxious/awkward mess, especially around strangers. I do feel a large amount of anxiety in public, people can’t tell by looking at my face since I kind of go stone faced in an attempt to block everything out but yeah you’ll notice that if we go out in public. Growing up my pediatrician said I was probably autistic, never got a formal diagnosis so that’s just great. But yeah that explains why I can’t make eye contact with people, I kinda just stare at the ground and avoid their gaze at all costs. A lot of these social struggles go away to a great degree once I know you for a bit but yeah I apologize for how terrible I am at socializing at first. Don’t let my social struggles fool you though, I love cuddling and being close with my person.
(3.e)
Sexuality:
I am a heterosexual male, though I’m not very masculine like at all. I may even be a bit feminine sometimes. Not that I believe any activity or manner of acting belongs to a gender but I don’t know how else to describe it. I’m definitely super affectionate and love it when my partner is too. I am open to dating demi people but I do have a libido so I don't think asexual would work out.
(4)
Interests:
(4.a)
Video Games:
As stated before, I do spend a lot of my time playing video games. It’s been hard lately with me having no energy but I really do want to play more games and have a good time playing them with you! I primarily play on PC though I do have a switch. I’m primarily into platform fighters, roguelikes, open world, survival, and sandbox games. As for single player story games, I enjoy watching them through twitch or youtube but for the most part I don’t play them myself. I’d watch you play them though!
Here’s a list of games we can play:
-Minecraft (Java)
-Risk of Rain 2
-Gunfire Reborn
-Roboquest
-7 Days to Die
-Phasmophobia
-Rust
-Unturned
-Bloons TD 6
-Platform fighters: Super Smash Bros. Melee, Slap City, Multiversus, Flash Party, Fraymakers
Whatever you want to play I’ll give it a shot! I will say that League bores me to death but I’ll play it for you :) I try to avoid MMOs, not because I don’t like them but because of how addicted I can get to them. I enjoy learning games in-depth so MMOs can be a fast track to addiction.
I recently got Kerbal Space Program 2 and ehhh not really worth it right now but hopefully later it will be? I’m super excited for Tears of the Kingdom! In the far off future I’m excited for Rivals of Aether 2 which is a platform fighter releasing in 2024, let me know of your most anticipated releases and I’ll see if I could play them with you!
Also I never got into FPS games but I could totally see myself playing like CoD with you or Escape From Tarkov. Any FPS really, I’m down.
I am a fan of Pokemon but with how things have been lately I don’t know how long that will last. Pixelmon is a common Pokemon mod I play for Minecraft if you want to play that! Also if I say I want to play something with you I mean it but there are often times when no matter how much I want to I'm just drained and can do little more than lay in bed so please don't think I'm making an excuse.
(4.b)
Science:
I really enjoy keeping up with the latest advances in pretty much everything, it could be biology, technology, astronomy, anything! I love seeing progression and I love talking about it! Really I could go on and on about what I’m obsessing about that day. I particularly love technology, ask me for my laptop specs I dare you. When I was little I always wanted to be a scientist of any kind but then insomnia and fear of college stuff hit me like a truck aaaand that’s the end of that dream.
(4.c)
Anime:
You got me, I like anime but I’d like to think my tastes are benign.
Here’s some of my favorites I can list from the top of my head:
- To Your Eternity
- Vinland Saga
- Spice and Wolf
- Re:Zero
- Mob Psycho
- Dr. Stone
- Attack on Titan
- Spy x Family
- My Hero Academia
- Ranking of Kings
- Demon Slayer
Okay I can go on and on but I will say I don’t like pointless fan service and the spamming of cliche anime moments. I mostly enjoy action and anything well animated if it doesn’t have a potato story. Heck Demon Slayer could be my top 3 out of season 2’s animation alone. I don’t watch slice of life often or romance but I would with you!
(4.d)
Misc:
I’m not going to go on and on about the tiniest little things when the main ones are covered but I’ll watch pretty much any show with you and anything really. I like random youtube videos that explain some kind of lore or mystery, sometimes mini documentaries too.
As for food I looove sushi and I’m a sucker for fast food. Okay and candy, definitely candy.
I used to play tennis but haven’t really had the opportunity nor friends to play it with and I’m way too socially anxious to seek it out. Also I will say that when we move to something like discord I type waaaay more casually. I’m not going to expect long paragraphs back and forth like we’re writing English papers for each other, I do enjoy long conversations but seriously don’t worry about having to put the utmost effort into every response, I just like making good first impressions I guess.
(5)
(5.a)
My Physical Characteristics:
I’m 5’8 (172cm), 128 pounds (58kg), with curly brown hair and blue eyes. I like keeping my hair long in the winter and cutting it in the summer. I’m pretty slim in general so if you’re looking for someone large, that’s not me. I don’t work out but my work is pretty physical so at least I’m not totally inactive. I don’t have the urge to work out or gain muscle but I do want to maintain my slim figure so if I start losing control of that I’ll work out. I like to keep my face shaved because I don’t think I look good with a beard/mustache so if you’re into those I apologize. I have an average amount of body hair? I’d prefer to be completely shaved but it’s easy to lose motivation with that battle, if you prefer shaved then I’d have no problem complying. Anyways here’s what I look like: https://imgur.com/a/MZZgf2t
(5.b)
My Physical Preferences:
Having physical preferences makes me feel shallow, if I could make myself not have them I would but unfortunately that’s now how that works. I don’t care if you’re shorter or taller than me and I don’t care if you weigh more or less than me. All I ask is that you’re slim-average weight. I would never ask for someone to be something I’m not. I don’t care about tattoos or piercings.**(6)Expectations of You (Relationship Only):**I am not looking for someone “exciting” or someone to “keep me on my toes” I’m not looking for someone to cater to my every whim or anything like that. I don’t care if you’re “boring” or if you aren’t “successful”. I know it’s a common thing for people to not want a “boring” relationship and to seek something argumentative or something with constant challenges but I just want to be with you. During the exciting times, the boring times, and everything in-between, all of it will be great with you! Maybe we do argue sometimes or maybe there will be challenges but that will never be something I purposefully seek out and I don’t want that to be something you seek out either. I will not play tricks on you and I will not play mind games, I expect the same from you. We all have personal measures of success we may or may not have lived up to but what I care about most is our commitment to each other. If we have each other we can get through tough times, near the ends of our lives I want us to look back and feel that this life together was worth more than anything. That’s not saying I want us to be haphazard, I don’t want us to make poor decisions for the sake of yolo and I want us to always be rational, especially with each other. I want you to be someone I can trust to make decisions and weigh the options with a level head, I’ll try my best to live up to the same for you. Most of all I want empathy, understanding, someone to feel the utmost comfort and trust in.
(7)
Living Situation:
Currently my life is pretty relaxed, I work 3 times a week as a night shift stocker. I currently live in a 2 bedroom apartment with my roommate but we’re looking to move into someplace larger by the end of the year if everything works out. The internet is weirdly great for Ohio too like I have fiber and later this year we’re supposed to be getting dedicated fiber so that’s neat. I’m not attached to Ohio so the ultimate goal living location wise is probably moving to a country that won’t send you into a lifetime of dealing with the repercussions from one medical emergency.
(8)
Deal Breakers:
Might as well make this simple and make it a list.
- Anti-vaxxers
- Unironically believing astrology
- Right wingers
- Hard drugs (occasional 420 and alcohol is fine, may even join you)
- Wanting children, there was a time when I was younger when I wanted children but with the state of the word that’s a definite no and I feel like I wouldn’t be able to handle the stress. I’d love a stress free life with as much time with you as possible.
- Homophobic
- Transphobic
- Racist
- Super Religious
- Don’t be a bigot and don’t deny facts.
(9)
Closing Remarks:
Well you made it, I was thinking that finding someone I’d be willing to put a lifetime of effort into at least required this much effort. If I think of anything more I’ll update the post. Also about timezones, it really doesn’t matter where in the world you are. I don’t have a sleep schedule and I have most of the week off from work so it really doesn’t matter.
I request that in your response you do put effort into it, it doesn’t have to be anywhere near as long as this but at least enough so I know that you read this and enough about you so I know why you saw potential compatibility. I will seriously read all of it and respond the best I can. I do also request a pic included in your response (sfw please) or one soon after we start talking to prove identity, I’ll send identity proving pics too. As long as this post is up, you can send a reply!

The episode faded back in to a close-up of the Chris logo emblazoned on the side of the Total Drama Jumbo Jet's tail fin. "Welcome back to resource rich Alberta, Canada," the host greeted as the camera panned down to him, the Final Four, and a pair of interns standing by the open rear of the plane. Topher had regained control of his post digger, and a pyramid of oil drums stood behind the host.
"The interns were supposed," the two interns looked down in shame, "to bury these barrels full of maple syrup, sugar, spiders, and rattlesnakes," Chris explained, knocking on the top barrel causing it to rattle and hiss. The cast flinched in fear. "Long story short, the interns buried our reserve fuel barrels instead," the host continued angrily, knocking the top barrel over onto the interns. The lid fell off immediately, and while the black intern ran screaming, the white intern was quickly covered in a swarm of angry snakes and spiders.
"Since Izzy came in second," Chris said holding up a pickaxe and metal pan, "she gets this rusty old prospector kit."
"Sick!" Izzy cheered excitedly as she caught the tools that were tossed to her.
"And Ezekiel takes third place!" Chris added, the camera panning to the crochet boy as the host approached him holding a small plastic pail and shovel, the former red and the latter yellow.
"A child's pail and shovel?" Ezekiel asked.
"You're welcome," Chris told him. "And for coming in dead last...!" he said, looking towards the final teen with empty hands.
"I built a real T-Rex," Mal said in disbelief. "That should get me something!"
Chris laughed, a whistle now in his hand. "Yeah, you'd think so," he told the troublemaker. "First one back with a barrel of my oil wins immunity!"
"There are probably twenty square miles of badlands," Ezekiel said as he looked around, the perspective following his gaze across the wide barren landscape. "This could take a while."
"Oh! I forgot to mention!" Chris spoke up. "We'll be pummeling you with the occasional boulder." He laughed, then added "Funny, right?"
The Final Four just glared at him, and the whistle was blown.
\
The scene flashed ahead to some isolated spot in the rocky badlands, the camera panning to the right onto Mal digging with his hands. He was looking rather annoyed, and even more so when Izzy walked up behind him with her pickaxe and pan in hand.
"And this is the guy who looked down on us for the duration of the season," Izzy teased. "Currently digging the dirt with his bare hands."
"I didn't have a choice," Mal replied bitterly as he dug harder. "My dinosaur somehow managed to score worse than all of yours."
"That's because we don't like you at all," Izzy chirped.
"Don't you have somewhere to dig?" Mal shot back.
"Do you want to borrow my pickaxe?" Izzy held out the object.
"Are you being serious?" Mal raised an eyebrow.
"Psyche!" Izzy retracted her words. "It's likely against the rules, and I don't want to break them like you do."
Mal growled. "When are you never annoying? Leave me!"
"I will, but watching you dig without any tools is more enjoyable to watch," Izzy admitted.
"GET! OUT!" Mal roared in Izzy's face.
"Okay bye!" Izzy zipped away.
Confessional: Izzy
"I enjoy being playful, and although I am considered obnoxious, I only play it up when I'm around those I dislike, like my lying ex-boyfriend," Izzy sharply glared at the camera.
Confessional Ends
The shot cut to the glaring sun, then the camera panned down to Topher and Ezekiel strolling together with their prizes.
"If you want, we can trade our prizes," Ezekiel slyly offered.
"And work with a baby shovel? Not a chance," Topher denied before setting his post digger down and digging right through the dirt.
"I know we joined forces to vote out Mal, but I'm not sure if that makes us friends," Ezekiel called out.
"Why would you even say that?" Topher asked.
"Before Mal exposed himself, we rarely, if ever, had a conversation with each other," Ezekiel brought up, "and you were perfectly comfortable with eliminating Sadie."
"I was focusing on the game instead of Chris for once, and Sadie would've gotten more hurt if she was still here," Topher said.
"You do have a point there," Ezekiel slightly agreed, "but-"
Topher noticed something approaching off-screen. "Incoming!" he shouted, tackling Ezekiel out of the way just as a boulder crashed down in the spot Ezekiel had been standing.
\
The scene flashed to Chef sweating heavily as he carried another boulder to the bucket of a catapult. He set it in place, then leaned against it to catch his breath in the harsh heat.
"This, is the life," Chris said, the shot zooming out to show him standing at the front of the catapult holding some kind of drink in half a coconut. He casually leaned against the siege weapon, accidentally pushing the lever and causing it to launch the boulder, and a screaming Chef, into the air.
"Uh oh...," the host said as he watched his assistant fly off.
\
The shot cut back to Topher and Ezekiel, focusing on the discarded post digger before panning leftward to the boys lying on the ground next to the pail and pickaxe.
"Now that was a close call," Topher said as he started to pick himself up off the ground.
"Thanks for the save," Ezekiel added as the two stood back up. "I would have been dead."
"And I didn't want that to happen," Topher told him. "Letting people die is a line I won't cross." As he spoke, a familiar scream rose up in the background just before Chef and the boulder he was clinging to flew past behind the boys.
"I thought you would've left me under that boulder," Ezekiel replied as Chef landed with a crash just out-of-sight, "but I was wrong." In the background, Chef ran back the way he'd flown in from with a look of fierce determination on his face.
"There's more to me than just my talents and good looks," Topher said. "Now let's get back to digging." Ezekiel nodded, and the two picked up their tools.
Topher turned on his post digger, and Ezekiel started to dig with his shovel.
Confessional: Topher
"At first, I didn't think much of Ezekiel. I thought he was easy to eliminate before the merge, but he surprised me to the point of reaching the final four with me," Topher commented. "I applaud him for that, and I'm happy to call him a friend."
Confessional: Ezekiel
"I'm not gonna be ungrateful towards Topher after he rescued me from that boulder," Ezekiel admitted. "He has his flaws, but I have mine as well. He's not so annoying now that I think about it."
Confessionals End
Topher's post digger immediately produced a metallic clang beneath the dirt. "What did you hit?" Ezekiel asked, prompting Topher to stop the post digger so he could look down.
A particularly thick black liquid was oozing up around the spot Topher's tool was still embedded. "That's a barrel of oil!" Topher exclaimed.
\
The scene cut to multiple holes that were dug on the ground courtesy of Izzy, who wasn't on-screen right now.
A familiar scream was heard approaching, and Chris soon fell from the sky clinging to another boulder...which landed on top of him.
The camera cut left to Izzy using her pickaxe to dig a hole she was currently in. After a few more hits, she stopped to take a break.
"How am I supposed to find a barrel of oil out here in Drumheller?" Izzy grunted and hurled her pickaxe away. A clang was heard, and she went over to discover that her pickaxe had hit a barrel of oil, the oil leaking on the dirt.
"Hello, oil!" the wild child gazed at it. She soon saw a boulder coming her way, and it inspired her to hastily scurry out of the hole she was in before the boulder closed it.
"I could've been stuck in there, but thankfully I'm not," Izzy said to herself and focused on the oil.
\
The scene skipped ahead to a close-up of the oil barrel being rolled across the ground, a trickle of oil leaking from a small hole in the side near the lid.
"But if I take the barrel," Topher said as the shot zoomed out to show Ezekiel rolling the barrel, "you wouldn't get your first immunity."
"One of us should have immunity, and you deserve it," Ezekiel said after he stopped rolling the barrel.
"Really?" Topher asked.
"It's my way of saying thank you for saving me," Ezekiel proposed. "I'll find my own barrel."
"We don't need to convince Izzy to vote for Mal. She's as onboard with us as a captain on a ship," Topher said.
"Now go give that barrel to Chris before Mal does!" Ezekiel ordered Topher, who complied and rolled his barrel away from Ezekiel.
\
Another flash took the focus to the plane, where Chef and Chris were outside next to a grill; Chef cooking a hot dog and Chris eating a burger. They looked up when they heard the telltale pants of exertion, and saw Topher approaching with the leaking barrel.
"Congratulations, Topher. You just won yourself immunity!" Chris greeted as his fan rolled the fuel barrel up next to the plane.
"Can I go inside the plane for a while?" Topher requested.
"But we've got a final three barbecue ready. And you've got a very rare chance to hang alone with the host with the most," Chris glorified.
"That has been my lifelong dream!" Tooher marveled. "I'll party with you after I cook something first."
He ran off into the plane, leaving Chris and Chef to share a confused look. "Yeah, I don't get him either," Chris said idly.
\
The camera cut to where Mal was frantically digging another hole. "Must...get...barrel...," he muttered to himself, flinging dirt behind him. He stopped and grinned, the shot cutting in for a closer look and revealing the metal surface he'd just uncovered. "Perfect!"
A shadow fell on his back a few seconds later, and the perspective changed again to reveal it as Izzy standing next to her barrel. "Looks like I doubted you," she began. "You were able to dig up a barrel."
Mal stopped and briefly looked back over his shoulder to peek at her. "Unlike you, I did it all by myself and without any equipment," he gloated, "so that does not make me inferior to you."
"It doesn't, but I did find a barrel before you, so top that!" Izzy mocked the malevolent one.
It was then that Chris entered the scene, accompanied by the dings and icon that signaled a musical number. "Guess what!" he told Mal and Izzy, grinning impishly.
///\
[The scene changed to a dark lit room. Two castles rose up on opposite sides. The one on the left was colored gray and the one on the right was colored black. Both castles consisted of a cannon, two catapults, and two boulders, and a flag of the two contestants' faces were waving. The music began to play like one heard in war as Izzy rose from the gray castle and Mal rose from the black castle.]
"My dearest Izzy, you know I am a twisted man. Of my virtue I am truly proud."
[Mal started off the song in a deep and melodramatic tune. "What are you saying?" Izzy asked.]
"My chaotic Izzy, you know that thing called harmony, of which we lack that makes us stand from the crowd."
[Mal continued and Izzy added "Okay, that is true."]
"Then tell me, you big nut. Why you see them as your friends? Why do these normies touch your soul?"
[Mal sang as the floor started to blaze up and Mal's castle started to become bigger.]
"They see you, they fear you. The sun caught in your fiery hair, is blazing at them out of all control."
[He criticized the fiery haired girl and he and his castle began to tower over Izzy's.]
"Unlike chaos, their kindness, will help keep you contained."
"It's burning, it's maddening, it only causes you pain."
[Mal emphasized his next verse diligently. The ground below him blazed up with fire more, and Izzy looked at it with surprise before she steeled her glaze at Mal.]
"I am crazy!"
[Izzy began her verse, leading Mal to comment "Established!"]
"I am insane!"
[She continued. "Yep!" Mal said snidely.]
"But unlike you, I do not wish to cause pain!"
[Izzy sang, her tower increasing in width like Mal's did.]
"I love destruction and chaos, but I know too much is bad for us!"
[Izzy sung out, the fire circling around both of their castles.]
"Let go of my friend Mike! His body is his to own! Your heart consists of nothing but stone!"
[Izzy became serious as her tower rose up to reach eye level with Mal.]
"I will stop your plans to destroy my friends and my foes! We'll see how the final battle goes!"
[After Izzy said that part, the rivals readied their weapons to attack each other.]
"I've taken out your group! Now it's your turn to go!"
[Mal launched the boulders with the slingshots, creating holes on both sides of Izzy's castle. He let the rising fire lit the fuse of his cannon.]
"I have my integrity! Don't make me stoop this low!"
[Izzy performed the same actions Mal did and did damage to his castle as her cannon's fuse was lit as well.
Eventually, the cannons shot their balls out, and the two balls flew towards each other. They finally struck, and it created an explosion that covered the screen.]
///
"Say what you want about me, but I will never succumb to your levels of insanity," Izzy told Mal seriously. "You can take down my friends, but you can't turn me against them."
"And I want you to know that you'll never stop me from conquering Mike and his pathetic alters," Mal retorted. "Once I'm done with this show, I'll get the attention I ever desired."
Confessional: Mal
"Mike is trapped for good, and with him home, I can steal his hopes and dreams and make them mine!" Mal promised. "I will not burn down in a blaze of glory doing it though."
Confessional: Izzy
"And people say I'm a lunatic," Izzy grumbled. "You should compare me to Mal and reconsider."
Confessionals End
The footage flashed ahead, showing Izzy and Mal arriving at the plane with their barrels at the same time, though Izzy's was leaking.
"Where is everybody?" Mal asked.
"Ezekiel or Topher already got immunity, which means we're both obviously up for voting," Izzy said and turned mischievous, "or should that be you!"
Confessional: Izzy
"This is it! Mal didn't win immunity and this sure as heck ain't a non-elimination episode," Izzy whooped in the confessional. "The only person that'd get a vote is me, but Mal will obviously cast it."
"You should vote for yourself if you want a tiebreaker!" Mal cried outside the bathroom.
Izzy scowled at the door. "Not going to happen in your life!"
Confessional Ends
Crickets were chirping as the footage resumed, the camera pulling away from a close-up of a string of Chinese lanterns to show the Final Four assembled on boxes around a nighttime campfire.
"I've got a little season one tribute treat here for you!" Chris told them, holding up a marshmallow. The shot moved in front to show the platter he was holding with two other marshmallows and the stack of passport votes, and he continued. "Remember, Topher has invincibility, so there better not be any votes against him. So, Topher, you get tonight's first marshmallow."
He tossed the bit of sugary white fluff to the Chris fan, who caught it and examined it. "I remember watching them get passed to the contestants a lot," he remarked, "and now I get one to myself? Amazing." He shoved it into his mouth.
"Tonight's second marshmallow goes to," Chris continued, "Ezekiel, who also had no votes against him."
He tossed the second marshmallow to Ezekiel, who caught it and moved to toss it into his mouth.
"Let's read the remaining votes," Chris said, picking up the top passport of the stack, "just for a little suspenseful fun. The first vote goes to...Izzy!"
Izzy tensed up, but Ezekiel placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"One for Mal," Chris continued, the shot cutting to Mal and Topher as Mal's donned a scowl and Topher slyly smiled at him.
Chris looked at the third passport, and said "Another one for Mal!"
Mal was starting to get nervous at this point.
The shot cut back to Chris. "And the last vote goes to...Mal!"
Izzy caught her marshmallow with her mouth. "I can taste the sugar!"
"Finally! You're out of the game!" Ezekiel bashed the angry malevolent boy.
"This calls for a celebration!" Topher got out of his seat. "We've all been through a lot because of Mal. Be right back!"
Topher ran up the ramp of the plane. A few seconds later, he came back holding a rectangular chocolate cake. There were three lit candles on top, and the text 'Goodbye Mal!' was drawn out with chocolate frosting.
"This exquisite chocolate cake was baked by yours truly!" Topher stated as he walked down the ramp, but slipped on the puddle of oil, forcing him to land on his back while the cake splattered on the floor candle first.
"Topher, look out!" Chris, Izzy, Ezekiel, and even Mal yelled in alarm.
"What for?" Topher asked in confusion, unaware of the candle lighting the oil.
The camera quickly panned rightward to the door at the side of the plane; it slammed open and countless animals ran out – a sasquatch, a bear, a horse, a seal, a duck, a bunch of rats and chipmunks, and Ezekiel Clone at the front of it.
The resulting explosion was shown from about a mile away, and the light completely enveloped the once-peaceful nighttime scene.
The dust that had been blown up soon cleared, revealing that the shot had moved back towards the campfire. A tiki head had tipped over and metal debris was falling from the sky, and nobody was seen for about a second before Izzy and Mal leaned back out from behind the other tiki head that had been flanking them.
Ezekiel followed shortly after, standing up from behind the tiki that had fallen over and shouting "Topher!" in overwhelming concern.
"My beautiful plane!" Chris added, popping up in the foreground in panic and grief. Both he and Ezekiel immediately dashed towards the scene of the explosion, and the camera followed them as they ran.
While Chris continued onward to the wreckage, Ezekiel stopped at the stunned and charred form of Topher sitting on the ground. Topher's cake was burnt, and his hair was missing some pieces.
"Are you okay?" Ezekiel asked frantically.
"This cake was chocolate," Topher squeaked out, "and it's destroyed."
"Are you okay?" Izzy asked as she and Mal slid into the scene, only the girl looking genuinely concerned.
"I am not looking okay!" Topher replied as his singed hair crumbled and fell away.
"I gotta say, this is a nice look on you," Mal complimented Topher impolitely, to which the latter chucked the destroyed cake at the farmer's face.
"Chris?" Izzy asked nervously, looking off in the direction the host had run. "We need you!"
"He's fine," Chris said angrily, standing in the wreckage holding what looked like a flatscreen television. "Although I guess with the whole 'blowing up my plane' business," he said, the camera zooming out dramatically to show the full extent of the wrecked Total Drama Jumbo Jet, "he's OUT OF THE GAME!" The four teens were shown looking stunned at the announcement.
"So...the Final Three is me, Izzy, and Ezekiel?" Mal asked after he got the cake off his face.
"Yes, and I'm upset that you even made it to this point while I'm disqualified for an accident by Chris!" Topher glared up at Mal.
"You were just a pawn in my game like everyone else," Mal said before leaving the three.
Izzy and Ezekiel turned their heads over to Topher. "Don't worry about him. The two of us will not give up against that jerk!" Ezekiel assured.
"And given that we've come this far, we're not going to let him win!" Izzy confidently declared.
"Mal's karma will come to him, but I need to find something to cover my bald head," Topher added after looking at it.
\
The scene flashed over to a shot of the slightly-singed picture of Chris on the plane's tail fin.
"Well...," Chris began, audibly distraught, "this was not my best day...ever..." The camera panned down to show him standing amid the wreckage, eyes wide with shock and grief. "Join us next time," his voice cracked. "There...will be a next time, I'm just...not...sure what kinda show it will be," he said, holding back tears, "or where... It will still be called," he struggled to say, raising his right pointer finger as the usual grand music began to play, "Total! Drama! …World Tour...!"
His voice cracked again at the end, and he squeaked out the last two words before finally bursting into tears.
(Roll the Credits)
\
(Bonus Clip)
Chris was standing inside his plane, despite the fact that it was blown up as sad music played in the background.
"If this catastrophic event taught me one thing, it's how important the objects used in the show are," he mentioned seriously before getting down and rumbling through the props on the floor.
"I hope that some of the props were spared!" he begged and faced the camera after grabbing a toothbrush. "On the bright side, my teeth will remain snow white!"
18th: Shawn
17th: Amy
16th: Lindsay
15th: Rodney
14th: Jo
Eliminated: Owen
13th: Duncan
12th: Sky
11th: Heather
10th: Cody
9th: Ella
8th: Noah
7th: Sadie
6th: Owen
5th: Eva
4th: Topher

I believe I followed the preferred mixing method. 12/12/6 for fruit bearing plants. I let my water sit for a few days first. then in separate vessels mixed the masterblend, the Epsom salt,, and finally calcium nitrate. All with cold water. They all seemed to dissolve properly.
I added the masterblend solution into a reservoir partially filled with water, followed by the Epsom salt solution, and lastly the calcium nitrate. mixing after each addition.
I noticed the following day when checking the pH that a crystalline layer had developed on the surface of the solution. I'm guessing now, its either a calcium or magnesium precipitant, or both. I thought I followed the order to prevent nutrient lockout, But apparently I did something wrong. Anyway, I went ahead and transplanted after not getting clear advice.
The plants are thriving but instead of the blossoms bearing fruit, they wither and fall off. Its still early enough in the season that hopefully I can fix whatever I did wrong and still have some form of success. My final thoughts at this point are whatever is floating on the surface seems to neither be helping or hindering the growth of the plants. I wonder if dissolving the appropriate amount of whatever molecule in hot water and reintroducing it to the reservoir would be a fix, or should I prepare a new batch of solution once I understand what went wrong?
Does anyone have any ideas ?

Girls: Izzy
Boys: Ezekiel, Mal, Topher
Episode 23: Awwwwww, Drumheller
"Last time, on Total Drama World Tour!" Chris opened over a shot of the jumbo jet flying away from Rapa Nui. "Mal assaulted a statue for the fun of it," the host said over a clip of Mal kicking Cody's stone statue. "And while we searched for eggs on Easter Island," Mal was seen taking out food from Owen's statue, "some old pals stopped by for a nice visit." Ezekiel was shown finding his egg from the statue of Sadie. "Along with a couple seriously ticked-off condor parents," the host added, the male condor shown chasing Mal through the underground tunnel, and the female pecking at Topher while he sang and eventually swept him off the rocky perch with her wing.
"Sisterhoods were expanded," Chris said over a clip of Izzy giving Eva her egg. "Alliances formed," the host added as Ezekiel, Topher, Izzy, and Eva were shown hiding in a hole. "Ultimately, Eva got the vote off," Chris said as the girl was shown going to the exit, "but not before giving Mal what for!" he finished with a mischievous laugh as Mal was shown being punched in the eye by Eva.
"The Final Four begins," Chris told the camera as the recap montage ended. "Which one of 'em will dig up more trouble this week? Find out right now, on Total! Drama! World Tour!"
It was dawn as the camera zoomed out, and a hot air balloon was rising up nearby the plane. It collided with the wing, popped, and fell with a whimpering hiss.
XXXXX
The episode, as usual, opened with a shot of the Total Drama Jumbo Jet in flight as the sky was still dark. The scene cut inside to show Topher and Izzy lying on their seats and sleeping in economy class.
In first class, Mal and Ezekiel were both reclining in their seats and sleeping. Ezekiel was drooling a bit in his sleep, and the camera went over and focused on Mal, who's eye was covered with a black eye patch. He was snoring before the shot changed to the inside of his head.
\
Mike, Chester, Svetlana, and Vito's backs can be shown as they were walking closer to the tower.
"I hope we hit the club district soon," Vito said.
Chester wasn't on board with the suggestion. "Nah, you ninny. If this place has a club district, I'll eat my pants! Without any catsup! Unless you've got some on ya. Quit holdin' out!" he scolded Vito.
A crackling fire were seen next, and the camera panned out to feature Manitoba Smith next to it. He was holding out his rope, but his leg was chained to a rock behind him.
"Manitoba! Finally!" Mike rejoiced when he spotted him.
"Can't talk now. Big quota to fill," Manitoba said firmly.
"What's Mal making you do?" Mike discovered the conditions Manitoba was in.
"See them clouds?" Manitoba directed everyone's attention to the floating clouds. "Them's your dreams. My job's to get rid of 'em so you can never enjoy 'em again."
Manitoba pulled a cloud down using his rope and it landed in-between him and Mike. The cloud showed a dream of Mike wearing a dark tuxedo and walking down the red carpet while carrying a bunch of gemmies.
"It's the dream I had about walking down the red carpet! Aw, I loved that dream!" Mike told his alters.
"So inspiring!" Svetlana agreed.
Manitoba threw the cloud into the fire, and Mike was shocked to see it disperse. "Don't do that!" Mike freaked out.
"Love to, mate, but Mal's the boss," Manitoba backed up.
Mike groaned in frustration. "Once I regain control, I'll make more of an attempt to be in a red carpet. And Mal won't be able to ruin that!" the comedian promised and got cut off by a cloud getting burnt. "Ah, c'mon! Stop burning up my dreams!"
"Ah, well. We all gotta go sometime," Manitoba stated.
"Don't you want to be free?" Mike asked.
"But even if we could beat Mal, that would just put you back in charge," Manitoba claimed. "So, how's that make me free?"
"No way, he's right," Vito said when he and the others got closer. "Why should you get all the control?"
"'Cause I'm the first. The original," Mike answered.
Chester doubted the fact. "Where's the proof?"
Mike took out his wallet. "Right here. See?" He showed it to his personalities, and they reacted with surprise. Mike checked his wallet, and was surprised to see Mal rather than himself. "Mal is the original personality? I-I can't believe it."
"Me neither. Why have I been listening to you this whole time?" Chester complained.
"Stop!" Svetlana halted everyone. "Who cares who was the first? Mike is the best! He's more patient than me, more generous than Chester, less egotistical than Manitoba, and he's a better dancer than Vito."
Vito sighed. "It's true."
"Aw, thanks," Mike said in gratitude. "But if I'm not the original…"
"Think about it. We're trapped in a world Mal created. So where do you think that license came from?" Manitoba explained.
Mike watched his license turn into a brain. "Nice try, Mal, but you haven't won yet!" He rubbed the brain into a key and unlocked Manitoba's chain, setting him free.
"Took you long enough! C'mon! I know a shortcut to Mal's guard tower!" Manitoba informed the rest
"Guard tower?" Mike got confused.
"This whole place, is a jail. The tower is the only way in or out," Manitoba lectured before he, Svetlana, and Vito made their way to the tower.
"I don't think I can deal with anymore walking. Shortcut or not," Chester mentioned to Mike.
"Fine, I'll give you a piggyback," Mike offered. Chester got on Mike's back with a grunt, and they went off to catch up with the others.
\
The season's world map was shown, the plane icon flying north from Chile to western Canada.
A flash took the scene to a series of rock formations baking under the sun, the Total Drama Jumbo Jet speeding past between them and knocking a precariously-balanced rock off its perch.
Down below, a small burrowing rodent of some sort was just about to complete a house of cards, unaware of the shadow growing around it. It finally paused and looked up at the whooshing sound that was approaching, just as the boulder landed on top of it, the cards, and its hole.
\
"Welcome to Drumheller, Alberta," Chris told the Final Four, who had assembled in the barren canyon outside of the plane, its rear tail hatch visibly lowered as a boarding ramp in the background. "A World Heritage Site," the host continued, the camera zooming in just enough to show a saurian skeleton embedded in a distant cliff. "It has the wickedest collection of dinosaur bones on the planet! In front of you is a giant pit with lots of super ancient dino bones." The camera zoomed out to show more of the surrounding canyon, a few fossils visible in the rock walls. "Grab whatever bones you can find to make your very own life-size dino," Chris continued. "I'm calling it, 'Design-a-saurus'!"
The cast groaned at the pun.
"I know," Chris said with a broad smile. "They should pay me just to come up with titles. I'm that good."
Confessional: Topher
"For the first time, I have to disagree with Chris about his jokes and puns being considered humorous," Topher said.
Confessional Ends
"You have two minutes to rifle through the plane's cargo hold," Chris continued, "and grab whatever you can to help build your creations. Aaaand, go!"
At his signal, Mal shoved Topher to the ground and ran off laughing.
Confessional: Mal
"With Eva gone, that just leaves me, Topher, and Ezekiel as the big four of this season," Mal told the camera. "If you can beat 'em," he punched his palm and fist together, "beat 'em up!"
Confessional Ends
The scene cut to the cargo hold, the lowered boarding ramp visible on the left. Izzy, Mal, and Ezekiel were already searching through boxes and crates, and Topher was the last to arrive.
Izzy quickly managed to find a small box of what looked like art supplies inside a larger crate and smiled. "Glitter glue, stickers, puffy paint? This was meant for me!" As she listed off her supplies, Mal turned a mocking smirk in her direction.
"We're not making grade three art projects here," Mal taunted, and Izzy squirted a tube of glitter glue in his face as a response.
"How mature of you," the malevolent one growled as Izzy walked off.
"I think it was pretty funny," Ezekiel said as he walked past with an open cardboard box. "Not to you, but definitely to me!"
Confessional: Ezekiel
"I'm this close to being this season's winner!" Ezekiel boasted. "And unlike the spelling bee, where I got a hundred dollars, I'll get a lot more than that!"
Confessional Ends
The footage skipped ahead to show Ezekiel sitting on the ground, scooping away the dirt surrounding what looked like the tip of a larger fossil with his hands. He looked up to see Topher coming his way.
"So how was first class like with Mal" Topher wondered.
Ezekiel sighed. "We simply avoided each other. Scratch that. I avoided him while he kept shooting me dirty looks."
"That was what I expected," Topher nodded.
"He can't frighten us anymore," Ezekiel said. "Eva may be out, but we still have Izzy with us."
"We should still watch out for him," Topher advised the home-schooled guy. "Given we're in the final four, he'll do whatever it takes to claim victory."
The focus shifted to Izzy as she hauled a leg bone as long as she was tall through the barren landscape on her back, eventually throwing the bone to the ground next to a pile of smaller bones.
"This is already looking good," Izzy grinned and stood up, but scowled when she saw Mal standing on the other side of the pile.
"Greetings to you!" Mal insincerely said hello.
"If you're here to steal my bones, then you can forget it!" Izzy growled at the malevolent one. "I have the eyes of a hawk!"
"I wasn't going to steal them," Mal told the psycho hose beast. "I know they're yours, so I want to ask if I can have a few."
"No no no no NO!!" Izzy barked. "I will not help you, especially when you're a criminal!"
"And you aren't?" Mal replied. "We've been to the same juvie together."
"True, but what I did to get locked up was accidental," Izzy pointed out while looking at her bones. "You burned down a building when there were people inside!"
Mal scoffed. "And yet you still parade around as the mentally challenged girl. I don't know what Owen ever saw in you."
"You better get out before I make you extinct, Patchy!" Izzy snarled and whacked a bone to her palm.
Seeing that she was being serious, Mal rolled his eyes and departed.
Confessional: Izzy
"To be honest, what he said kind of hurt me, but I'm not going to show any signs of weakness around that guy or he'll eat it up!" Izzy acted intimidating, but sighed softly.
Confessional: Mal
"Most people try to make their words sound professional. I'm not like most people," Mal laughed, "and sooner or later, everybody's spirits will be crushed!"
Confessional Ends
The scene flashed to Mal down on all fours, picking through a small pile of small bones. He casually tossed one over his shoulder, along with another one. He finally looked happy at his third after a short pause.
\
Izzy was shown next, gluing an arm bone into her creation and sprinkling it with glitter.
\
Ezekiel stuck a tail to the back of his fossil.
\
Topher, who was kneeling down, pushed the bony claws onto the foot of his dinosaur.
\
"Time's up!" Chris declared, the footage skipping forward one more time. "Now we'll begin the amazing tour through the ages of imaginary dinosaurs. Let's start with Mal."
The shot cut to Mal looking smug. "I went with the most dangerous of the dinosaurs," he said confidently, turning around as the camera zoomed out to show the complete skeleton of what looked like a Tyrannosaurus Rex standing behind him, "Tyrannosaurus Mal, or T-Mal for short!"
"Wowza," Izzy said in awe as she, Topher, and Ezekiel were shown looking at the first creation.
"That does look cool," Ezekiel admitted.
Topher nodded and crossed his arms. "Even I can't deny that."
"It's gonna be tough to beat that right out of the gate," Chris told him.
"I can do it," Topher said before turning to the side. "Ladies and gentlemen…Chrisasaurus!"
The shot zoomed out dramatically, revealing the Chris wannabe's creation: a mass of bones built into the shape of a Chris pose with the head shaped like Chris.
"The Chrisasaurus is one handsome and charismatic beast," Topher explained. "Like it?"
"Love it!" Chris agreed. "L-U-V, love. Zeke, what have you got?" he asked Ezekiel.
"Meet the Blingoraptor," Ezekiel said, gesturing to his creation: it was a large spherical body made of the dome-like fossils he found earlier. There were two bones raised up as its hands, and the other two were on the ground as its legs. Ezekiel had also put gold chains on its neck and arms. "This dinosaur is hip and cool."
Mal smirked. "Bold choice for the body," he told the home-schooled guy.
"I thought the bones would make this dinosaur work," Ezekiel said proudly.
"They're coprolite fossils," Mal told him.
"What's a coprolite?" Topher asked in confusion.
"Coprolite," Mal repeated. "From Ancient Greek, 'copros' meaning dung, and 'lite' meaning stone."
Ezekiel looked at him blankly for a second before widening his eyes in realization. "You mean it's fossilized poo?!"
"So disgusting!" Izzy winced.
"Izzy," Chris interrupted in annoyance, "please rescue us from Ezekiel's suckitude."
Izzy began her introduction. "My dinosaur is the Aeroraptor," she said, the camera zooming out and panning over to her creation. It was built like a normal raptor, but it has eight legs instead of two, there was a party hat on top of the head, and glitter was everywhere. "Does whatever a dinosaur can, but it's more festive and fun than the others."
"Why is it wearing a party hat when it's nobody's birthday?" Ezekiel asked.
"Today is April Fools' Day," Izzy explained. "That's the day my dad was born, so I made this dinosaur as a gift to him."
"That's…very thoughtful of you," Ezekiel remarked.
"I don't normally see eye-to-eye with my family, but I won't trade them for the world," Izzy said sincerely.
Confessional: Izzy
"Except for my pet cat. She's really clingy," Izzy added.
Confessional Ends
"Enough mush," Chris interrupted sharply. "Iiiit's judgment day! Which dinos will survive, and which ones will be driven to extinction?" he asked the camera.
"Oh, and did I mention who the very special judges are?" Chris asked the cast. "You!" he announced. "With a pretty shocking twist, of course!"
\
The scene skipped forward to a close-up of a large battery, jumper cables connecting it to an electric chair that currently had Topher sitting in it. "Is the electric chair necessary?" he asked, looking down at the device skeptically.
"Yes it is," Chris answered. "It's time to vote for your fave dino," he said. "Can't vote for your own, of course, aaand you might wanna tell the truth. Just saying."
"Well, I think mine was the best, but I guess second can go to Ezekiel." Topher was promptly electrocuted, a puff of smoke coming from his mouth when it stopped.
Chris chuckled. "Yeah, might wanna tell the truth there Topher!" he told him.
Topher sighed. "Fine, Izzy's birthday gift to her father was pretty heartwarming," he admitted. "I'm pretty cheap when it comes to buying or creating gifts for others, and hers required hard work."
"You can say that again," Chris told him with a grin before turning around and calling out "Next!"
\
Mal was next in the chair. "I do find Izzy's spider dinosaur interesting," he said, immediately getting electrocuted. "Alright," he bitterly corrected. "Topher's dinosaur was eye-catching."
"Good enough," Chris told him. "Next!"
\
Izzy was third in the chair. "Although I don't like him and would rather get stung by a bee than be in the same room as him," she began, "Topher's Chris dinosaur really speaks to me, even if Ezekiel's bling dinosaur is really fresh."
"Not as much as me," Chris said with a shrug. "Next!"
\
"I'm surprised that anyone can even remotely like you after all you put us through, but Topher's dedicated to you enough to even make a dinosaur out of your likeness," Ezekiel said. "He gets my vote."
"As the winner," Chris announced as the camera pulled back, "Topher gets this handy-dandy post digger!"
Chef was shown delivering the large two-handled power tool to the fanboy. "A post digger?" he said as he took hold of the thing. "Why would I even need this-" He pressed a button on the machine, turning it on and causing the drill bit to spin. He gasped and let go of it in shock, causing the digger to move around wildly under the power of its own vibrations. It headed straight towards Izzy and Mal, forcing them to scatter as Topher tried to catch up to the machine to regain control of it.
"Topher versus the post digger!" Chris said, sliding in front of the camera. "See who wins next," the post digger continued along behind him, Topher still chasing it, "right here on Total Drama World Tour!"
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(Commercial Break)
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My Gf (23f) and me (26M) have been in a relationship for 2.5 years.
2 years passed and it turns out my GF had something on her mind that bothered her since the last year that she didn't like about me. a few things are:
1. I was being too "cheap" trying to cut-down my living expenses:
(background story: I actually have a good paying job and able to live even higher in expenses but i tried it once and didn't feel that i have to spend that much in a month and didn't live happier anyways, so i cut down and made a budget to how much i should eat in a day, laundry, etc. of course which was realistic imo. in which i was ok with anyways. meaning i can save more for a wedding, short-term goals etc., and invest more and make a big umbrella for those really rainy days)
A few points she said why i was too cheap:
a. Not taking the highway back when NOT in rush hour because it'll cost more but is proportionate to the time saved and the situation at hand. (if i need to go back home quickly take the highway--it pays to get on it in my country and not particulary cheap--, if not i'll use the normal roads. We dont live close-by and we dont live one-way to each other so from my place I have to circle around)
b. Budgeting how much i eat in a day. I was picky with what to eat because i feel like i need to stay on my budget, but i let myself loose once in a while since she said i was too picky. And since i moved to an apartment, i'll cook more often. she would be "just eat whatever, you wont be poor bcs of it"
c. Air Conditioning. Oh man, i personally use it when it's super humid and/or at night or daytime where it's just stinkin hot (rarely happens here) and I cant be in a room where it's super cold for long periods of time. However, she thinks it's a problem later on because she would always uses the AC for very long and very cold which would spike up the bills drastically. and told her that it's actually not healthy to have it like that (she hates the sun while i enjoy it to an extent)
2. Worried if i end up with her she would be "in a worse state" than right now because I was "too cheap" for myself:
a. she actually said she always gets "spoiled" by her dad with buying things that she wants (not like expensive bags or watches, but she always jokes around abt that a lot that made me cringe) but buying her snacks she likes, drinks she likes, and she only accepts if she wasn't "giving a sign" that she wants it. So i shud get her things like that out of the blue. (never did this, but on a very few occassions when she said she's hungry and kind of late i offered and bought her food for her, but she said "what about my mom and my sister and my dad?" i was sort of shocked to hear because im not responsible in feeding her entire family (i know she doesn't mean it that way, but I actually bought her some gifts when i was out of town for her family guess she didn't consider that.
b. Bought her a coffee machine because i realized how much she's into it, did her research about it, and telling me all the details and how happy she explained it to me. I loved that, so i bought that for her birthday because i know she would love it and her family can get a taste of her happiness as well. Turns out she told me if she didn't tell me and "asked" for a coffee machine she wouldn't get anything for her birthday (her birthday is in June so I bought for her in advance and it was on sale so why not i thought) people say it's taboo and whatever but i dont care abt that. Again, perplexed.
c. Got her a vacuum sealed bag with a vacuum 2 years ago, because she travels a lot brings a lot of clothes so i thought she could use it to save more space. Only for her to use for only around 2 months and I didn't thought much to it, but to tell 2 years later that she actually laughed that i bought that for her instead of something more "expensive" like a bracelet or a necklace. I was so torn, when i heard. And finally she "accepted" it 2 years later whatever that means.
d. If we were out together with her family, i would pay my share secretly to her account because if she knows she'll be mad. but then later telling me i "only" pay my share.
Today she said she felt her cholesterol levels were high because last night she ate lots of seafood and I decided bought her a pack of oats and some cholesterol-reducing drinks and although she said thanks she asked if I bought it because she was giving signs or not. but i said no, because she actually needed it. At this point i don't know how she perceives it.
3. Im not what the society here thinks a guy in a relationship should do.
a. I dont take and pick her up from work as often as she'd like. as she compares it with some other guy in the industry we work in. Since we dont live close-by and cut-down costs, I made a promise that i'll take to and pick her up from work on my off days. Though we dont have a definite amount of time per week because it really depends on our work schedules, it goes for both of us, she would have traded a day for work to an off-day or work that finishes on the time i arrive. I respect that, and sometimes i would stay at her place from the night before her working day so i don't have to leave my place too early and take her to work the following day.
b. If we do get married, I should give her "allowance" and apparently it's a requirement because almost every couple here does that. (so a shared account, in addition an account to herself from my duty as a husband) initially i didn't agree because i feel in a marriage we should be equals and although one works and one doesn't we could live just fine with a shared account) but i gave in, just because it's the culture here. Even if a couple is still dating, the guy would "provide" his gf monthly allowances, monthly college tuition or anything such which i think is bs. Marriage is a different thing.
c. Im not independent enough. i like to seek advices from people i know who has a good background or at least experienced about it but I like to rest the decision to myself. I told her this and she doesn't see it that way.
I live away from my family, and she lives with her family. She was never in a situation where she was living alone, living of her income alone, and not having anybody around. She always has someone to lean on to. While I dont really have that although i call my family once in a while
We've been "on hold" for a while and I feel like it's coming to a dead-end. She promised that we dont talk about it to anyone, but turns out she's been sharing it to her friends and because of that she told me "yeah, you can do that too since i did". i have never felt so "cheated". but i never told anyone abt it and feel like this should be done for the 2 of us. But i have to let this one out as it has been draining me a lot recently. She's very sensitive if i meet a new girl (and i haven't, being very passive-aggressive too) but she's been meeting a guy she never told me abt until now that she knows from a friend who agrees with what she thinks. God knows if she's meeting up only with him or with her other girl-friend. And i dont voice out anything
4. Rarely posting on Social Media and not giving her enough of her love-language
a. I personally feel OK either she posts our relationship online or not. However, if i dont repost her stories she doesn't feel "appreciated" or know that I want her. Although behind all that facade, i like to be clingy to her and touchy but not in public. Im ok with holding hands in public, but i don't hold hands while driving while she wants it like that. Telling her it's not safe is not enough somehow. I dont feel ashamed of her, I just dont feel like my relationship has to be floating out there somewhere.
5. She feels she's doing all the efforts herself for this relationship
a. She visits me more than I visit her. So we don't live close by but from both our workplaces, going to my place is one-way to her place. If i would visit her, it'll be a round trip for me. A few instances, she asked if she can visit my place after work, i said dont. just do it on a day-off but if she insists, most of the time so we get something to eat together and sometimes i would pay because she did a lot of work already to visit. I would visit her place once in a while on a day off and rarely after work. She feels i dont visit her enough and feeling i dont put enough effort to the relationship. I agreed, and i told her I would visit you once in my day-offs and since work has been pretty busy and tiring, it became rare for me to visit. usually i would visit 2-3x every 2 weeks.
b.She acknowledges my patience when dealing with her and her tantrums and told me that i mentally support her already, but haven't supported her "financially". She applied for college online and have to pay monthly. She said she need me to pay for her college when she needs me to, because she's also paying her sister's college too and a rather consumeristy-lifestyle her family has and just bad habits really. Initially, i didn't agreed because if she applied for it, she should be able to allocate it. had a big fight, and i realized i was being too harsh. then, i agreed to pay for her college in the month that she needs it the most
Honestly, just needed to vent it out.
Any advices to help me save the relationship and these difference will help.
Thank you if you have been reading appreciate the time and effort to listen in.
TL;DR: GF kept resent for the past year, didn't feel loved. just told me a few days back how she actually feels

1. I was being too "cheap" trying to cut-down my living expenses
2. Worried if i end up with her she would be "in a worse state" than right now because I was "too cheap" for myself
3. Im not what the society here thinks a guy in a relationship should do
4. Rarely posting her on my social media
5. She feels she's doing all the work on the relationship herself

P.S: We live in SE-Asia with SE-Asia cultures if that helps

I have my 2023 DCT bike since mid Feb this year.
So, I have noticed that my exhaust becoming kinda "orangy". It did have some very tiny rust spots in a few places but that orangy look just did not look like rust. There was no flaking and the orangy color looked very uniform on big areas. Rust usually creates hot spots that look dramatically different from the surrounding areas. So, it was not rust. But I did say that rust did start in some very small areas, and it does look like rust, what I'd expect. This orangy look was kind of more reddish than yellow-ish, so, did not look like rust. So, I did try to take pics. Thing is, it looks off when it is right next to something very black. If it is by itself, the effect disappears. The camera was unable to capture this nuance.
First, I have the bike for like 3 months and seeing even small specs rust on exhaust is not good at all, I'd expect to be at least a year of rust free. Secondly, the whole bike is black and the pipes becoming kinda off black with a shift into red/orange.. Not looking its best.
Well, coincidently, why exhaust caught my attention, I was in process of adding cowling to the belly and also had to take the exhaust off for additional wideband oxygen sensors to be welded on.
Since welding is an invasive procedure that requires some paint removal to expose metal, I decided just to repaint the whole exhaust. Did not have confidence in the current paint job.
To remove the paint I used a wire-brush with dremel and the flex shaft for convenience. Probably took an hour, but it was very non-destructive for the metal, just the paint got removed, no scratches on the metal.
So, my observations. The primer is one that is red-orangy, the black paint is very thin. I'd say the black paint on top is probably 5 times thinner than the primer layer. Thus, the paint layer, thin as it is, was simply starting to expose the primer layer. Perhaps riding, wind rubbing, started to wear out the paint layer. Not sure what would be a reason, just Honda cheapness?
Another observation is how well the primer+paint was stuck to the exhaust. I found that the amount of work put to remove the paint was different in different parts of the exhaust. The headers and where the slip-on goes, in these areas the removal of paint was SO EASY. The most difficult part was the catalytic area, specifically the plate where the part number is stamped on. Something is off how this exhaust was painted. The effort to remove the paint should be the same.
So, I feel like there are these points:
1) Seeing some rust after 3 months on a new bike - come on, Honda!
2) Why the paint is so thin? To keep the price low?
3) What is wrong with their paint methodology where it's basically coming off so easily in some areas but not others? Maybe the primer was not dried properly? Bad prep?
So, check your exhausts. Removing it is rather easy, no need to jack up the bike. You do need 2 gaskets for re-installation ($7 each), I decided not to reuse.

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Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse hits theaters on December 14, 2018. Tickets to see the film at your local movie theater are available online here. The film is being released in a wide release so you can watch it in person.
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As a result, no streaming services are authorized to offer Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Movie for free. The film would, however, very definitely be acquired by services like Funimation , Netflix, and Crunchyroll. As a last consideration, which of these outlets will likely distribute the film worldwide?
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Crunchyroll, along with Funimation, has acquired the rights to the film and will be responsible for its distribution in North America.Therefore, we recommend our readers to look for the movie on the streamer in the coming months. subscribers can also watch dark fantasy shows like 'Jujutsu Kaisen.'
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No, 'Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse' is unavailable on Hulu. People who have a subscription to the platform can enjoy 'Afro Samurai Resurrection' or 'Ninja Scroll.'
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Amazon Prime's current catalog does not include 'Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.' However, the film may eventually release on the platform as video-on-demand in the coming months.fantasy movies on Amazon Prime's official website. Viewers who are looking for something similar can watch the original show 'Dororo.'
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Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, the latest installment in the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse franchise, is coming to Disney+ on July 8th! This new movie promises to be just as exciting as the previous ones, with plenty of action and adventure to keep viewers entertained. you're looking forward to watching it, you may be wondering when it will be available for your Disney+ subscription. Here's an answer to that question!
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Is Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse on Funimation?
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Crunchyroll, its official website may include the movie in its catalog in the near future. Meanwhile, people who wish to watch something similar can stream 'Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train.'
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What is Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse About?
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It features an ensemble cast that includes Florence Pugh, Harry Styles, Wilde, Gemma Chan, KiKi Layne, Nick Kroll, and Chris Pine. In the film, a young wife living in a 2250s company town begins to believe there is a sinister secret being kept from her by the man who runs it.
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What is the story of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse?
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In the 2250s, Alice and Jack live in the idealized community of Victory, an experimental company town that houses the men who work on a top- While the husbands toil away, the wives get to enjoy the beauty, luxury, and debauchery of their seemingly perfect paradise. However, when cracks in her idyllic life begin to appear, exposing flashes of something sinister lurking below the surface, Alice can't help but question exactly what she's doing in Victory.
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In ancient Kahndaq, Teth Adam bestowed the almighty powers of the gods. After using these powers for vengeance, he was imprisoned, becoming Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Nearly 5,000 years have passed, and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse has gone from man to myth to legend. Now free, his unique form of justice, born out of rage, is challenged by modern-day heroes who form the Justice Society: Hawkman, Dr. Fate, Atom Smasher, and Cyclone.
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Production companies : Warner Bros. Pictures.
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At San Diego Comic-Con in July, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson had other people raising eyebrows when he said that his long-awaited superhero debut in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse would be the beginning of “a new era” for the DC Extended Universe naturally followed: What did he mean? And what would that kind of reset mean for the remainder of DCEU's roster, including Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the rest of the Justice League, Suicide Squad, Shazam and so
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Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse neared theaters, though, Johnson clarified that statement in a recent sit-down with Yahoo Entertainment (watch above).
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“I feel like this is our opportunity now to expand the DC Universe and what we have in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which I think is really cool just as a fan, is we introduce five new superheroes to the world,” Johnson tells us. Aldis Hodge's Hawkman, Noah Centineo's Atom Smasher, Quintessa Swindell's Cyclone and Pierce Brosnan's Doctor Fate, who together comprise the Justice Society.) “One anti-hero.” (That would be DJ's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.)
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“And what an opportunity. The Justice Society pre-dated the Justice League. So opportunity, expand out the universe, in my mind… all these characters interact. That's why you see in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, we acknowledge everyone: Batman , Superman , Wonder Woman, Flash, we acknowledge everybo****here's also some Easter eggs in there, that's what I meant by the resetting. Maybe resetting' wasn't a good term.only
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In addition to being Johnson's DC Universe debut, “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” is also notable for marking the return of Henry Cavill's Superman. The cameo is likely to set up future showdowns between the two characters, but Hodge was completely unaware of it until he saw the film.
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“They kept that all the way under wraps, and I didn't know until maybe a day or two before the premiere,” he recently said Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) FULLMOVIE ONLINE
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Is Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Available On Hulu?
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Viewers are saying that they want to view the new TV show Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse on Hulu. Unfortunately, this is not possible since Hulu currently does not offer any of the free ****odes of this series streaming at this time. the MTV channel, which you get by subscribing to cable or satellite TV services. You will not be able to watch it on Hulu or any other free streaming service.
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Is Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Streaming on Disney Plus?
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Unfortunately, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is not currently available to stream on Disney Plus and it's not expected that the film will release on Disney Plus until late December at the absolute earliest.
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While Disney eventually releases its various studios' films on Disney Plus for subscribers to watch via its streaming platform, most major releases don't arrive on Disney Plus until at least 45-60 days after the film's theatrical release.
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The sequel opened to $150 million internationally, which Disney reports is 4% ahead of the first film when comparing like for likes at current exchange rates. Overall, the global cume comes to $330 million. Can it become the year's third film to make it past $1 billion worldwide despite China and Russia, which made up around $124 million of the first film's $682 million international box office, being out of play? It may be tough, but it's not impossible. Legging out past $500 million is plausible on the domestic front (that would be a multiplier of at least 2.7), and another $500 million abroad would be a drop of around $58 million from the original after excluding the two MIA markets. It'd be another story if audiences didn't love the film,but the positive reception suggests that Wakanda Forever will outperform the legs on this year's earlier MCU titles (Multiverse of Madness and Love and Thunder had multipliers of 2.2 and 2.3 respectively).
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As for the rest of the box office, there's little to get excited about, with nothing else grossing above $10 million as Hollywood shied away from releasing anything significant not just this weekend but also over the previous two weekends. When Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse opened in 2018, there was no counterprogramming that opened the same weekend, but Peter Rabbit and Fifty Shades Freed were in their second weekends and took second and third with $17.5 million and $17.3 million respectively. That weekend had an overall cume of $287 million compared to $208 million this weekend Take away the $22 million gap between the two Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse films and there's still a $57 million gap between the two weekends. The difference may not feel that large when a mega blockbuster is propping up the grosses,but the contrast is harsher when the mid-level films are the entire box office as we saw in recent months.
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Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which is the biggest grosser of the rough post-summer, pre-Wakanda Forever season, came in second with just $8.6 million. Despite the blockbuster competition that arrived in its fourth weekend, the numbers didn't totally collapse, dropping 53 % for a cume of $151 million. Worldwide it is at $352 million, which isn't a great cume as the grosses start to wind down considering its $200 million budget. Still, it's the biggest of any film since Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, though Wakanda Forever will overtake it any day now.
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Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse came in third place in its fourth weekend, down 29% with $6.1 million, emerging as one of the season's most durable grossers and one of the year's few bright spots when it comes to films for adults. The domestic cume is $56.5 million Fourth place went to Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile, which had a negligible drop of 5% for a $3.2 million sixth weekend and $40.8 million cume., in fact )
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, which isn't surprising considering it's the only family film on the market, and it's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse to grossing four times its $11.4 million opening. Still, the $72.6 million worldwide cume is soft given the $50 million budget , though a number of international markets have yet to open.
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Finishing up the top five is Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which had its biggest weekend drop yet, falling 42% for a $2.3 million seventh weekend. Of course, that's no reason to frown for the horror film, which has a domestic cume of $103 million and global cume of $ 210 million from a budget of just $20 million.

I wanted to post this because I was trying to find a post like this and couldn't find anything satisfactory.
TLDR: So far, my experience with my grinder from df64coffee.com has exceeded expectations, but I don't expect to receive any helpful support from the site if it is needed in the future.

Purchase experience

I purchased from df64coffee.com thinking this was the official DF64 website. It shows up first on google after all! Anyway, I first became suspicious, not when I saw the no return policy online, nor when I saw the suspicious "next 50 grinders are discounted" banner on the site, but instead when the grinder arrived and had no branding on the box and almost no paperwork to boot. It was just not the experience of buying a product that costs 400 dollars that I am used to. Moreover, my grinder had a little metal needle to indicate which grind setting you are on which all the reviews I had seen about this grinder mentioned is notably missing. I started to get pretty worried and that's when I began to look more into this site. They are clearly using fake accounts to post "don't worry this this site isn't sketchy" posts about themselves on reddit which is SO SKETCHY. At this point, I'm getting minorly terrified. 400 dollars is not negligible to me.

Usage experience

Before using, I opened up the grinder and pushed the little rubber sleeves on the springs all the way down as I saw in a video and adjusted the needle so that 0 would indicate the point at which the burrs just barely begin to touch. I don't know if that rubber sleeve trick does anything, but that's what I did. Ok cut to the first shot that I grind. I'm properly dejected at this point, fully sure that my dreams of owning a decent grinder have been crushed. I load up 18 grams of coffee and turn on the machine. So far so good. Everything looks normal. The grind finishes and I pump the bellows a couple times until nothing is coming out. I pop the grinds on to the scale and read out 12 grams of coffee. WTF. People online were complaining about less than a gram of retention, but this was next level. I load up another 6 grams of beans, grind it, and yield 6 grams of grinds. The grind was way too fine and the water couldn't even get through, but that's not really the machine's fault. It took me several adjustments to the grind setting to get a working shot, but once I did it tasted marvelous. Wayyy better than the Breville built in grinder I was using before. Moreover, every dose I ground after that first one had 0 retention. To this day, I suspect I may have made some tare error or something when I ground up that first dose. I usually use the RDT technique, but sometimes I forget and even then I'm getting 0 retention and wonderful tasting coffee. I haven't yet opened up the bottom of the machine where the declumper is so maybe there is just 6 grams of grinds sitting there from my first grind, but I kind of doubt it. I haven't really had the problem with mess and static that everyone talks about, though I usually hold the dosing cup right up to the bottom of the grinder. The grinding itself doesn't make a mess, but when I pump the bellows, it overshoots the cup a little bit if I'm not holding it in the right place.

In conclusion

In conclusion, I now know a bit more about the df64 business model and I'm convinced I received a real DF64. In fact, I think I have received some newer version where they have fixed some of the old problems that people have talked about with the DF64 because I have the little grind indicator needle and based on retention, I don't think my declumper is giving me grief either. All that being said, based on what I've read I don't feel hopeful for any kind of after-sales support so crossing my fingers I don't end up needing it. I probably would not have purchased from the site if I had known what I know now about the support provided by df64coffee.com. However, in retrospect, since it's been going well I'm cautiously happy that I did.

I apologize in advance for this very long post, but i didn't know how else to explain it. So here's the situation: I've been dating this guy since September. I'm a 24-year-old female (24F), and he's a 31-year-old male (31M). We met in a park in January last year, and let's call him K. At the time, I was very new to the city. K approached me, and we started talking. We went out for dinner a couple of times over the following months, but we weren't constantly in touch. During that time, we kissed once, but I made it clear that I wasn't romantically interested. He respected my boundaries and said he still wanted to be friends.
Professionally, K is doing very well. He works at one of the bigger MNCs and holds a senior role. When we meet, we usually talk about work, and he comes across as reserved and unapproachable. He leads a healthy lifestyle, participating in marathons and abstaining from smoking, drinking, or partying. He seems to have a good handle on adulting.
For the longest time, I wondered why K wanted to be friends with me or why he enjoyed my company so much. We have little in common, and I feel like I bring nothing to the table except being a good listener. I even communicated this to him, but he simply said he enjoys spending time with me. He's the kind of guy who gives me cards and surprises me with gifts occasionally, like on New Year's, Valentine's, and my birthday. Whenever we go out, he usually insists on paying for things, even though I suggest splitting the bill.
We come from similar backgrounds—same state, same caste, and similar financial statuses.
Since September last year, we started spending a lot of time together, meeting almost every week. During this time, we had sex. I was single and had recently ended a short-term relationship, so I was open to casual dating and flings. K knew about this and told me he didn't want to restrict me. I also introduced him to a couple of my friends, and he was enthusiastic about meeting them. However, he didn't get along well with my flatmate. While she can be a bit much, she means well, and I made it clear to him that I don't appreciate negative comments about her. This bothered me because my friends are important to me, and I don't like it when people try to isolate me from them. The age difference always lingered in my mind, and his behavior triggered some grooming concerns. However, since we weren't in a committed relationship, I didn't dwell on it too much.
Our conversations deepened, and we talked about family, life, career, friends, and future plans.
In November, I quit my job to prepare for an exam and pursue the opportunity to move abroad. K always encouraged me to do so, sometimes a little too eagerly. He told me about past mistakes where he might have been controlling in relationships and that he didn't want to be that person anymore.
Everything was going smoothly. He knew I wasn't exclusive, but he told me he was and I trusted him. He lives with his mom, and I had no reason to doubt him. He comes across as a well-grounded, old-school guy.
However, because he is successful in his career and older, my friends started jokingly referring to him as my "Sugar Daddy." Although I wasn't benefiting financially from him, we frequently went to fancy places for dinner, and he always insisted on paying because I had taken a career break. Additionally, he gifted me an expensive watch for my birthday.
As time went on, I moved away from casual dating and told him I wanted us to be exclusive. He said he had always been exclusive with me and intended to continue doing so. This conversation took place in March. I also mentioned that if we were going to be exclusive, I had expectations. My plans to move abroad had been postponed for another year, and I was returning to work. He is generally communicative and asked me what I meant by having expectations. I explained that I was looking for a more meaningful connection and, if all went well, I would eventually want to get married. That level of commitment was what I was seeking. He said he needed time, at least another year, to make such a decision because commitment, to him, meant marriage, and right now, he wanted to focus on his career. However, he was open to discussing it further if I was willing to meet him halfway. He expressed that he genuinely liked me and that this was something on the table, but it was a big decision. He even invited me to his elder brother's wedding, but I chose not to attend.
We have completely different lifestyles. I am fiercely independent, having lived away from home since my teenage years. I have a wide circle of friends, enjoy partying, and occasionally indulge in smoking, drinking, and other recreational drugs. I live a spontaneous life and dislike monotony. He is aware of all this. He also knows about my dating history. While discussing commitment, he mentioned that I didn't fit his ideal partner image, and he would have certain expectations from his future partner. He dislikes smoking and drinking, and envisions himself living in a joint family with his mother, elder brother, and their families. He told me I needed to think about these things and decide if I could see myself living that kind of life. He made it clear that he didn't want to restrict me but emphasized that this was a choice I had to make for myself. I suggested giving it more time and focusing on my new job. I told him I didn't want either of us to have expectations until we were in a committed relationship.
Nonetheless, we continued to meet, and he was always there for me whenever I needed him. For the longest time, I had no expectations from him, but he was always supportive. I feel loved and cherished around him. He is affectionate, playing with my hair until I fall asleep, looking at me with starry eyes. No one has treated me this way before. I have been feeling overwhelmed with emotions around him lately. On one hand, I feel he's the right person for me, but on the other hand, I become guarded. I constantly wonder if he has ulterior motives, and my friends jokingly calling him my Sugar Daddy doesn't help.
Last month, I developed a crush on someone I met through mutual friends. He's the typical "fuckboi" type, and we ended up hooking up this week. It was a one-time thing.
Yesterday, I met K and told him about what happened because I was feeling guilty.
Now, here's the catch: K told me I shouldn't feel this way. He said I didn't need to feel guilty because we're not committed, and he acknowledges that he falls short in that regard. He's focused on his career and understands that he may not be able to give his 100% to a relationship at the moment. He assured me that he would mind if we were in a committed relationship, but not now. I became overwhelmed and started crying, and he stayed with me, trying to make me feel better.
He's getting promoted next month and will be taking a lot of international trips for work. He asked if I wanted to accompany him to Dubai for a week. I'm unsure about how to feel about this. I am conflicted. We are still not in a committed relationship. He will take care of most of the expenses because, even though I can afford the trip, I don't want to spend that kind of money. There's also a vague feeling that he might propose during the trip. However, if he doesn't, I worry about the Sugar Daddy aspect. What if he sees me as a young, vulnerable person he can take advantage of? I have known him for 1.5 years, and aside from him not getting along with some of my friends, I haven't noticed any red flags. Yet, 1.5 years is too soon to make any judgments. Wr still lead very different lifestyles. Professionally, I am far behind him and earn only a fraction of what he does.
I don't know how to feel about the entire situation. What would you have done if you were in my shoes? Any advice is welcome. Thanks in advance.

The Unstoppable Force feature of the subclass says: "While raging, you can move through a hostile creature’s space regardless of that creature’s size. When you do so, you must make a Strength (Athletics) check contested by the target’s Strength (Athletics) check. If you move at least 10 feet before moving through a hostile creature’s space, and that creature is your size or smaller, they have disadvantage on the check. If you succeed, you don’t treat the movement as difficult terrain, the creature is pushed 5 feet in a direction of your choice, and you don’t provoke opportunity attacks from that creature until the end of your turn."
*Does the push there count as a Shove?
Additionally, the Onslaught Fighting Style says: "When you would make an ability check to attempt to shove or trip a creature, you can make a melee weapon attack against the target’s AC instead of a contested check."
*Would this work with the checks mentioned in the Unstoppable Force feature?

I've been trying to complete R4D2 with a friend and 2 bots recently. I've noticed some odd behavior in round 2 of the reactor, in the scout bridge/blood door zone. We've always had the spawns take longer than the test round, so we usually end up fighting the last few inside the reactor room. I realized our gunshots weren't setting off the scouts, for some reason.
I've since fired up the map with some mods enabled to test out this behavior, and found I can basically just stand in the doorway and snipe the scouts, no problem, they don't go off at all. I've tried to replicate this on other zones/maps, like the one full of scouts at the end of R4D2, and there the scouts go off like I'd expect.
The usual rules I know for scout abuse like this are:

1. Enemy detection doesn't start working until the door is fully open, you can "quietly" snipe through an opening door.
2. Gunshots are only audible out to 50 meters, if you can somehow get a long enough line of sight, you can safely take shots from far away.
3. If there are two room dividers between you and the scout, you can shoot safely. One isn't sufficient, you must be two rooms away.

None of those seem to be the case in the above clip, so... what happened here? Why does it work on this zone, but not others? Is there just something weird about this bridge tile? I don't at all understand what lets this work, seemingly only on this one zone on this one map.
(And before you ask: no, I know for certain it's not the mods I used for testing just disabling scout detection. I've since replicated this behavior in an actual game, I just didn't record it.)