Doordash charged more than receipt

Jeez I thought one potential upside to losing someone you love would be a strengthened ability to focus on what’s important in life and not sweat the small stuff. However in the last year since my dad died I’ve become more and more petty and bitter. I feel like I’m always venting to my wife about people and things that annoy me. I fixate on little injustices at work, or on the flawed thinking of podcast hosts or illogical urban design. I look for ways my friends and family might be revealing their sexism or elitism and how that impacts their perception of me. Our former roommates not doing their dishes was a personal insult. No one offers me the same level of friendship I give them. Blah blah blah. I over-analyze and spiral and am sitting in a puddle of self pity. It’s gross and I didn’t used to be this way. I think I’m missing the support and unconditional love I got from my dad and when other people don’t compare, I lash out (in my head). Or I’m just looking to feel angry rather than sad. Anyway, just an unexpected symptom of grief I want to acknowledge.

Hi there, I need to write about my experience and see if it makes sense to someone else.
I'm a FE dev working on the engineering team at this company for about 4 years. First it was a small company and everything was much better; few meetings, nothing too formal, I would just take care of my tickets and that was it.
Then 6 months after the pandemic started the company was acquired by a bigger company, and things started to change; we have now stupid social meetings, and even if I could just decide not to go to those I would still be forced to meet other teams that I don't care nor need to know about.
It was still ok.
Then I was promoted to a manager position, and I started seeing and feeling things differently. There's so many early morning meetings now talking about 4, 5 project scopes. It's so overwhelming. My manager also has never helped at all, he's one of those who's never satisfied with the work, has "strong but humble opinions" about everything and always wants to do more (meaning he wants us, the team, to do more) even if we're about to close the damn ticket. Lately more than never he's a royal pain in the ass because when I talk about how I approached a project he always has something to say, making me feel like I never do things right.
I see the bureaucracy everywhere I turn, I hear now the other managers talk about their frustration with the higher ups, our computers are getting more and more restricted, my coworkers are also always joking about how "I make more money now than them" which can get to you after they joke about it so much. I'm starting to lose interest in the projects the more I get them shoved down my throat, getting up early is starting to get harder and harder every day, I've dealt with incompetent juniors and I need to talk to so many people all the time. It's starting to be too much for me.
I have vowed I'll leave this job in a few months and save as much as I can in the meantime. I'm also thinking it might be better to never have an office job again. I ended up somehow part of the rat race and I hate it.
Thank you for reading.

link
Finds that it was within the realm of a typical flu season.
This accords with other studies, notably from Sweden.

The results show that the observed number of deaths in 2020 was close to the expected number with respect to the empirical standard deviation; approximately 4,000 excess deaths occurred. By contrast, in 2021, the observed number of deaths was two empirical standard deviations above the expected number and even more than four times the empirical standard deviation in 2022.

The German results are similar to those of British Columbia, where someone did an FOIA request; there was a slight increase in deaths but that could also be explained by other factors. Certainly, this was no "pandemic of the century."
Disturbingly however, the authors of the study do note a significant increase in excess deaths following the rollout of the "vaccines":

The high excess mortality in 2021 and 2022 was mainly due to an increase in deaths in the age groups between 15 and 79 years and started to accumulate only from April 2021 onward. A similar mortality pattern was observed for stillbirths with an increase of about 9.4% in the second quarter and 19.4% in the fourth quarter of the year 2021 compared to previous years.

The superhero movie, seemingly purposely, left no room for any of the post tournament manga arcs. There's numerous statements that contradict and make the timeline impossible. Gohan apparently wasn't doing jack shit post tournament other than secretly training. But in the manga, he's heavily involved in those arcs and fights major fights.
If they wanted to leave it ambiguous, they wouldn't say shit like that outright that is entirely unnecessary to add. This happens several times throughout the film. Little statements, little events, that could have been left out but weren't, that makes it extremely difficult to force 2 full arcs in. No one mentions shit to even allude to other arcs happening either.
It's clear as day they want to keep the anime and manga very sperate.
And frankly, I'm glad. The manga is not up to snuff with the movies toriyama is directly involved in, and the anime plays it safer and less over the top, giving more room for other writers like toriyama to fit in his own specific stories when he wants. There's so much more shit going on in the manga events of arcs, that you'd have to write in or around. Like Goku meeting his dead dad.... That I could just never see toriyama writing. It's fanfiction shit.
I'm surprised toyotoro added super Saiyan 5 yet.

I'm seeking an introductory video-based courses on military strategy. Not focused on the political aspects, nor the smaller tactical stuff.
I'm open to paying a reasonable amount for a course if it's required, but I'm hoping there are free high-quality options out there.
About what exactly?
The closest I found is a series of lectures on YouTube named "Strategic Studies" which covers some military history, weapons systems, types of warfare in different domains (sea, air, land), combined arms operations, and more. In a general/introductory way for beginners, ideally no more than 5h. Link.
What I've tried
After a lot of googling, I haven't found any similar courses on platforms like Coursera, Udemy, The Great Courses Plus, and similar. Found some interesting resources including TRADOC's YouTube channel and sites, but it's too specific and tactical, not the big picture. Like this and this.
I don't have access to Milsuite, which has hindered my search, maybe there's something interesting in there.
Please, only serious offers. Let me know what you have and if it's what I'm here for the deal is yours.

Let's go back to the Puerto Rico DDS days and the isolation and downtime they had there together. What if during this time they started watching old WWF episodes from Degeneration X through NwO?
Then master Danaher (Eric Bischoff) decides to increase their brand and Jiu Jitsu as a whole and they will create a rift. So New Wave (Degeneration X) will have beef with Gordon (Hogan) as he works through his Hero to Heel transition. To throw us off they have Meragali (GoldDust) that they aren't quite sure what to do with.
Then after everything boils over they merge (NWO) and take over the Austin BJJ scene and become bigger and more dominant than ever.
​
Or....they just all did too much weed and gear and really do hate each other.

There was a new ‘high end’ burger joint opening up in our area, and they posted the menu on Facebook – burgers starting at $15. (Ok yeah, I get it – that seems a lot for a burger – but have you checked prices at McDonalds or Applebee’s lately?)
This guy in town posts on the restaurants Facebook page about how it’s outrageous to charge $15 for a burger and he’ll never go there, etc. Literally, about 40 lines of ranting about a restaurant and the cost.
I check the guy's Facebook page: he’s got a new-ish Ford F150, a swimming pool, a pretty nce house, saw a couple of four-wheelers, pictures of him and his family at Disneyworld and other vacations in tropical climates – but GOD FORBID he spends $15 on a hamburger (I’ll guarantee you a burger at Disney costs a least that)
Now, we could say that the truck and house is paid for, the swimming pool was there when he moved in to his house, the four-wheelers could be someone else’s, Disney trip – might have been a gift, etc. but I don’t think ANY of those things is less expensive than a $15 burger, and NONE of those things are required to live – you won’t die without a 4-wheeler and a swimming pool, but apparently $15 for a burger is just TOO MUCH!

Please dont tell me its because I'm not curing for long enough because I do cure for long enough, usually I cure more than 60 seconds.

I have no friends, have never had a partner, and have lost how to communicate with others. Every time I leave for work or college, I check social media and see couples laughing, hugging, kissing, and doing other things that delight me despite the fact that I'll never be in one. Despite the fact that I am only a few years old, love has always been a huge concern for me. Despite the fact that others appreciate my disposition, they rarely express romantic interest in me, and I have come to the conclusion that unless this changes, I will remain lonely. I'm not going to. I'm not going to meet anyone. Despite your conventionally appealing looks, you have an extremely low likelihood of acquiring a romantic partner.
Contrary to popular opinion, people care far more about appearances than they do about personality. I doubt I'll ever experience returned love because I don't have the conventionally attractive appearance that would persuade someone to date me.

Well, I saw another member posting something about League of Legends I believe. And I thought, well it would be nice to have some other people talk about why they decided to stop with World of Tanks or WoT Blitz. If there are of course people who made this decision.
Because I'm having very little people in my direct surroundings who I can talk to about this subject. And actually understand each other what we are talking about. This post might help to get some contact with like minded people and strenghten my decision to stay away from this games. Because, together we are stronger.
Recently I had yet again begun with playing WoT Blitz again on my desktop computer. Because I was reading something I was really interested in and suddenly this thought and instant desire to play the game again came up. And I gave in to this feeling. And suddenly I was back into the game.
Well, not very long. Because the fun wasn't there anymore. The social aspect to it was long gone. And it was very obvious to me that this game was no different than World of Tanks. It's also pay to win. And when even the in-game chat function was gone. I eventually decided to quit and not come back yet again.
World of Tanks I've quite years ago now. Since Wargaming is practically making their game worse than the previous version. And last I was there, it was heavily pay to win. And I don't think that has changed in anyway over time periods. The players were beginning to getting more toxic every game. For them it wasn't about fun and being social. But about being selfish, every player for themselves. And when they lost, blame the team for the lose instead of questioning themselves. And with no historic aspect anymore. Well, that basically did it for me. I decided to quit. There were more reasons but these are the main ones.
I hope this post will stay on the overview. And that this can be a point for me and others to meet and talk with like minded people. And to strengthen each other with their decision to quit one ore two of these games.
Stay strong and stay away from these games. That's hopefully what we will help each other with.

A friend of mine is having trouble deciding between those two programs (both utsg btw). They have passion in doing things with robots but more the coding side of robotics rather than the designing and making of them. I was thinking they should do compsci cause they said computer vision sounds up their alley but what’re people’s thoughts on it?

Recently, we are planning to deploy onboarding + paywall + free-trial subscription, in order to optimize our revenue.
When we implemented such a mechanism in Android app, we notice after free-trial period, out of 100 subscriptions, we only manage to charge 10. So, the success rate is around 10%, which is very low IMO. I believe most of the users are trying to take advantage of free-trial, by providing a temporary disposable card.
I was wondering, in iOS ecosystem, does this situation get better? Maybe Apple is able to provide more proper verfication on users' card, and able to increase success charge rate?
Thanks.

My Girlfriend is being abused
To start off well before we ever started dating I would call her almost every day for multiple hours a day, we would stay up through all hours of the night just talking, she would always tell me about how her parents never told her that they loved her and almost never gave her the time of day, as time went on and we built trust with each other she would tell me about all of her trauma with her parents, about how they would hit her, pull her hair, smash electronics in front of her, and rip up her stuffed animals whenever she received a bad grade or misbehaved. She would tell me that they were constantly yelling at each other and whenever I would call her or play video games with her I could her the yelling, what was even worse was the way she would react to to the yelling regardless if they were yelling at her or at something else, she would almost freeze up, and then try to hide, followed by an episode of freaking out. She would tell me about how her parents never cared for her health either, she had wanted to go to therapy and they would never consider taking her, and whenever she would get sick her dad would always give her ivermectin which is a dog dewormer that has severe side effects when used on humans. Her father made her terrified of any sort of medication and even more fearful of having to ask about it. Whenever she would get really sick they would take her to the ER but her mother would refuse any test the ER would want to give her. There was two times when she got sick and I thought she would never get better, she would miss weeks of school at a time and every time she sent me a picture of herself she looked like she was half dead. And for when we did start dating her parents were very controlling of when we could go on dates as well as who we could go with, and when we could even talk to each other over the phone. Every single moment I spent with her felt so special and so perfect, just for when she would have to go home and me terrorized by her parents with whatever they would come up with (being out for to long, not having good scorers, incomplete chores). What would really catch me off is the fact that once we started dating my girlfriend she was severely underweight, around 80 pounds, I had asked her about it and it turns out that her mother would tell her that she was too fat and ugly, and that no guy would ever love her for looking the way she did. It was over the course of almost 5 months that I helped her put on weight, from encouraging her to try to eat 3 meals a day and supplementing not eating at all for having light snacks. For the last 2 months me and her have been talking about her moving out and getting her help, I had never wanted to force her out of her home, but I did want to give her options. We’ve been talking about all of the abuse and neglect that she has been through and that she said she had Stockholms Syndrome and a trauma bond to her parents, the plan was to move her out by September in order to get her in a more healthy environment and eventually get her into therapy. Friday night I had been talking to her on her way home from work, she was telling me that she was scared of what her parents would do once she got home since she had to help close the store. I was extremely scared for her that night and asked her to check in with me once she got home, I texted her if I needed to call CPS on her behalf that night in which her parents had found out about us discussing their abuse and neglect. Since then I haven’t been able to talk to her other than on Monday when her parents made her call me to officially break up with me, I’m the days that they had with her they have convinced her that all of their abuse and neglect were parenting tactics and justified it by saying not every family is perfect. I had asked her parents if I could come and speak to them and they had called the sheriff to their house for protection, in which he had showed my girlfriend pictures of abuse victims and had told her that I could be her next abuser. They’ve threatened me with litigations, on top of not being able to contact her. Since then I’ve reached out to everyone that I know on advice on what to do and one of the people I talked to called the CPS and reported her family, since then I’ve also made a statement and I’m really trying to trust in the system in hopes that something good will come of it and nothing bad will happen to her or her family. I’m really looking for a direction on what to do next as she is the love of my life and I know she needs help.

My little lovebirds seems to be taking an interest to me more so than before,
whenever I lay on my bed, he comes to sit on my chest. He starts nibbling on my lips and my septum piercing and tries to get my attention. However, he is terrified whenever my hand gets near him, unless I am holding my phone, then he just nibbles on my thumbs. Now I'm curious; is this nibbling a sign that he likes me? I've read that I should pull away if he does because I cant encourage biting, but it isnt like a hard bite intended to hurt me. How come he nibbles my face and comes so close but is still scared of my hands?

Today there was a post on philosophy that is a link to a for profit website. The title was click bait and the theory presented was magical thinking.
https://www.reddit.com/philosophy/comments/13wiqtn/conscious_ai_cannot_exist_ai_systems_are_not/
My comment criticizing the post was removed dubiously under "argue your position" Rule12. I did clearly present my position. The entire concept of the post necessitated magical thinking.
The removal (many other comments were also removed, their content unknown to me) may suggest that the moderators have a favoritism of for-profit content/links. N=1 of course. Just 1 data point.
Given the overall trend in monetizing reddit this is more disturbing than a single data point would suggest.

Hello! I am dealing with a depressive episode right now and I’m having trouble feeding my starter and baking regularly. Previously (July 2022-March 2023) I’d been keeping my starter in the fridge and feeding it about once a week and baking about once a week. I haven’t fed my starter in well over a month now, it’s developed hooch but is still good to use when I have the energy. How can I keep my starter alive if I am not using it more than once a month right now? Should I be keeping part of it in the fridge but freeze some incase a batch goes bad? I have no experience drying the starter for storage but I’m willing to try. Any advice would be helpful!

[←Chapter 49] [Cover Art] [My Links] [Index] [Discord] [Subreddit] [Chapter 51→]
The weather was almost cold enough to imagine that Aya was back home, minus the creeping terror of the fog. She tried to push that last fact out of her mind, but it was ever present, along with its smothering sister from beneath the church. Still, despite the unpleasant edge, it was likely the last time she would get a proper rest before the battle.
The twins were obviously in their own world, Frare picking at the grasses around the tree, Sorore with eyes half-closed. The only people to offer any conversation were the paladins.
“Where… where do you come from, Lillian?” she said, after watching another bank of the fog wander overhead.
Lillian turned to her and gave her a strange look, not angry exactly, more wondering why she’d asked the question. Aya hoped that it wasn’t too much of a rude question back in Angorrah. At least she could always fall back on the excuse of being ignorant if it was.
“I come from Angorrah,” said the paladin.
“No, I mean where does your family come from?” she said.
Lillian’s expression deepened as if she was trying to figure out whether the question had some deeper meaning to it.
“Well, my father’s side of the family reaches back into antiquity. They’ve been on the same land for centuries. My mother is from Nieth, if that is what you mean, lady Aya.”
Aya nodded in encouragement, trying to get the Paladin to expand on the details. She didn’t, looking expectantly for a followup to the question.
“I was… just trying to make conversation,” Aya admitted, her gaze falling to the trodden dirt.
“Oh,” said Lillian, leaning back further as she looked elsewhere trying to abate the awkward realisation, “well, like I said, most of my family comes from my father’s side, and thus Angorrah. My mother is the only one that’s lived outside of it. Supposedly I have some uncles and aunts in Nieth, and some cousins too, but…”
“You’ve never met them?”
Lillian shook her head as she looked out to what was probably south - in the shifting fog it was difficult to tell.
“Never. I was inducted into the church at fifteen, I’ve never been outside of the continent. In fact, your village was the farthest I’ve ever been.”
“Oh. So you live in the actual city, then? Angorrah proper?”
“I might as well,” she laughed, although Aya thought it had a bitter edge to it, “I’ve spent over a decade of my life there.”
Aya sat and digested that for a few moments, before risking a further question.
“But it wasn’t always like that, was it? You lived somewhere else?”
“Yes, I did,” Lillian sighed, but said no more.
“I’ve lived in the city all my life,” Niche offered instead, “with my family. We’ve never known anything but the silver city for our entire lives. Both of my grandfather’s lines, as far as I could trace them, stay within its walls.”
“Would you mind… telling me about it?” Aya said, “I mean, we’re going there. But no one’s bothered to explain what it’s really like. Neither Sorore or Frare talk about it much either.”
“It’s the most beautiful city in the world,” said Niche instantly with absolute conviction.
“Anything else?” Aya said, looking rather unimpressed.
“It’s a- it’s difficult to explain,” said Niche, “the city is split in half.”
She vigorously nodded, hoping that this wouldn’t be the end of the details.
“It’s a city which…” he said, grasping at the words he was failing to find, “you really can’t- it’s something you have to actually see before it can be described.”
“Neither of us are poets, and besides, you’ll be in Angorrah soon enough,” said Lillian, “I can try though, however dry it might be. The city is split into two, like Niche said. On the upper half, the edges of the tributaries of the rivers form a bank where the old buildings sit. You’ll find the ecclesial courts, the palace of purity, and the chief garrison of the path of strength.”
She hovered her hands at different levels to illustrate the relative heights of the city districts.
“There’s a great sandstone cliff, with many small waterfalls coursing down. There’s a path that winds a way up under them - we used to walk them everyday as part of our training, then as part of our patrols. The names of all the founders of Angorrah, and many of the heroes that fought against the crown are etched into the cliff face. Of course, most travellers use the iron elevators that were built nearly a century ago.”
Aya already felt the numbing terror beginning to be forgotten almost, and she encouraged Lillian to continue.
“The lower half represents the majority of the city, both in terms of population and size,” she said, her fingers circling out to represent the relative immensity of this area, “layers upon layers of districts criss-crossed by roads and studded with alleys. It’s quite a lot to figure out.”
“They throw you off the deep end when they’re teaching you to patrol,” Niche said, “I remember just how lost you were the first couple times. Remember when you couldn’t figure out which dock you were at, and the sign was right next to you?”
“It was half-fallen off!” Lillian protested, her ears beginning to flush, “and the paint was practically gone, how was I supposed to realise-”
Aya was just about to ask the question of where she would be staying, when she saw a sharp motion in her periphery. Sorore sat bolt upright, staying at the remains of a leaf brought up to a narrow sliver of sunlight. There was a curious interplay within her expression, fear, excitement, and triumph merging together in the green of her eyes.
By the time that the paladins had turned, she was gesticulating wildly, saying that she had found something. Aya had barely any time to wonder before she’d taken off, leading them around the corner of the church. Apparently what she sought was not there, for she took them into the church and down through the door into the earth.
At the end, before a wall of black stone, they found Efrain with his cat companion. He was holding a black knife, glittering in the gloomy light he’d cast. He turned as Sorore approached him, telling him that she understood what to do. Aya watched as, after a few further questions, he handed her the knife, which dissolved into a liquid in the girl’s palm.
With bated breath, Aya stared as the fluid metal branched out to form a new shape. She realised, with no small amount of envy, that the girl was using magic just as she had. The construction would’ve been a beautiful thing to watch if not for the deathly cold that permeated the catacombs. Aya felt like she could lay down and simply die here if she wasn’t careful.
When it was done, Sorore handed the knife back to Efrain, now solid, which he placed against the stones. They were promptly steered away as he told the Paladins to remove them from whatever lurked behind the door. The party was up the steps and walking past the beds, Frare whispering some consultations to the obviously upset Sorore when they heard the sound.
A long, distant wail, half-lost among the tombs.
Sorore took off running, managing to rend herself free of the paladin’s grip. By the time they managed to catch up, she was at the stairs, taking them two at a time, going deeper and deeper into the earth. The paladins were ahead of Aya with their longer strides, pounding down on the sands as she saw that the passage had changed.
In the distance, past where the black stone wall had been, there was a far distance light, barely visible in the dark. The cold had deepened even further, becoming something hateful to life itself. They were almost to the edge of the hallway, and within moments, they’d passed out through the door and into this new hidden place.
More stones, more elegantly laid and carved, more beds, these ones with carved reliefs of ancient men. Intricate pillars and vaulted ceilings rushed past as they pushed deeper and deeper into the tomb. Aya nearly fell over more than once in the gloom, even as the light grew closer and closer to them.
The paladins finally caught up to Sorore just before the opening to that little light, catching her by the arms and lifting her off her feet. As she struggled, Aya made it past her, finding Frare to her side and a great expanse before her. She caught a brief glance of the gaunt form of the mage, and something large and misshapen beyond him.
Then the scene exploded into light and heat as fire leapt from up and around them.
Her last sight, other than the inferno that rose like a flaming curtain was that of the mage, his black clothes now glittering a dark crimson. In silence, he regarded them, and Aya realised for the first time how empty his eyes were. The twin pits of blackness betrayed nothing about the man behind the mask, no sardonic warmth or cultivated intelligence.
She was carted away from the frightful sight, and back up the hall at a prodigious pace. The paladins had simply slung them over their shoulders and fled. Harder the gauntlets dug to her back, as the catacombs behind them went from darkness to a dull red. The children were not given rest or respite, only carried onwards, through the tombs, up the stairs, to burst out onto the church landing and through the door.
Several of the peasants in the church started and turned at their sudden reemergence. Aya staggered over to the wall, heaving as she tried to sooth her aching chest. The twins were much the same, Sorore fully bent over and wheezing with effort. However, before any of them could settle, they were steered roughly towards the small alcove of the medical bay.
The sights of the swords in hand sent the watching group into alarmed chatter. This was only compounded as Lillian and Niche took up positions from within the door they’d just come through. Moments later, there came the sound of the groaning of wood and stone as they began to shift and strain.
Worse still was the sight of red light from beneath the door and seeping through the joints of the stones. The air began to haze and billow, a hot breeze rushing past them. The door bursting into flame was enough to send some of the frightened defenders running for the church-front. Knights were beginning to gather, pointing and exclaiming their confusion at this new, mysterious threat.
“What is it? What have you done?” called Damafelce, starring in horror at the burning door.
Lillian didn’t even bother to answer, just squared her shoulders and gripped her sword tighter.
Whatever animosity between the two women vanished as Damafelce drew and stood beside Lillian. Sweat began to pool and drip despite the unnatural chill of the fog.
Doubt began to creep into Aya’s heart - perhaps she had indeed been wrong, and perhaps the wisdom and experience of the Paladins had steered them right. The brilliant flames and empty eyes had left their impression upon her. All her interactions with Efrain seemed to be cast in a new light, each comment taking on a sinister cast.
The stones were beginning to glow in their own right, cracking and popping as the mortar disintegrated. A child couldn’t take it anymore and began to scream. It brought to mind the previous evening, the impaling claw lifting the boy into the air. Fear mixed with what must’ve been resolution within Aya ,and she managed to bring herself to lay a hand on a child’s sleeve.
They all looked at her, eyes wide, many brimmed with tears, having already seen far too much.
“It’ll be alright,” she said, squeezing the arm of a girl, “we’ll make it. They’ll protect us.”
There were some sparse nods and hopeful murmurs, but Aya could tell that some of the older ones didn’t believe it.
The stones were now a yellowish orange, and Aya was concerned that they might begin to melt and run like candle wax. The charm of the stones, their strength that almost seemed more akin to a confidence, was now utterly forgotten. The air within grew almost uncomfortably hot, villagers and knights alike holding their breath as they waited for whatever horror was going to emerge.
They waited, and waited, and waited.
The stones were still glowing, but it seemed whatever had come up from the deep had moved on and up. Slowly they faded from yellow, to orange, to red, and by the time they were brown, the peasants were turning to the paladins for guidance. Last to relax was Lillian, though it was only enough to see her sword tip faltered slightly.
“It’s moved to the roof,” she barely managed, such was the tension she held in her jaw.
Damafelce turned to remark, or perhaps to ask a question of the paladin about what she had just witnessed. She didn’t even open her mouth before a long chime echoed through the cooling air. She, along with the rest of her knights turned and rushed for the front doors.
Out from the pan and into the fire - another attack had begun.
Lillian and Niche looked at each other and then at the children, all three watching the stones resume their usual black.
“Mage or monsters?” said Niche, “which first?”
“Stay near the children until I get a better idea of what’s happening,” Lillian said, following the group of knights past the barricade.
Not long after she’d vanished into the night, a group of men burst through the charred door, partially taking what was left off its hinges. Doused in sweat, but otherwise unburnt, they stumbled into the mainstay of the church, and gesticulated wildly all around. When their glances fell on Niche, they began to beseech him, telling him of the living fire that had emerged onto the roof.
Niche picked up one of them that had fallen to the ground in haste or shock, shaking him, trying to get him to elaborate. Stories tumbled out of them of a great inferno, perhaps in the shape of a beast, perhaps not, that emerged, nay erupted, nay crawled from the tower stairs. At the heart of it was a black figure, one of the creatures, no, something horrible, no, the mage!
Niche’s eyes narrowed as he tried to parse some coherent meaning from the disparate stories. In the midst of the confusion, Aya took a half step toward the tower, terror, resolution, and a faint curiosity fighting with each other. Her foot pressed to the floor, and everything around her fell into a crystal clarity.
Bellows of command, clashes of claw and sword, the screams of men and beast, the whimpers of the frightened children. Every line on the stone, every bead of sweat and glance of eye, the smell of sweat and blood, the icy chill and the still-warm air. Everything, everywhere, at all once, clarion and present.
And beyond that, above them, something overshadowing them all, gathering, building itself. A wall of something, fulgent and hot, frothing and bearing down like a river breaking a log dam. Instinct drove her down to the cool stones, flattening her body and covering her head.
Behind her closed eyes, the darkness flipped to bright red, accompanied by a roar so great it became her. The entire building was shaking so violently she was sure she would be thrown out the front doors and to the slavering monsters. Heat rolled over her, smothering her like a quilt, driving away even the terrible chill. When she opened her eyes, she found soldiers, peasants and paladins on the ground, rolling and struggling to stand back up amid a floor of barricade splinters and glass shards.
The heat was reaching unbearable levels, driving Aya up and out, past the barricades in a mad scramble. Stumbling out into the comparatively cooler night, she looked up past the door and roof edge. Above the church extended a halo of fire, blooming outward like the bows of a mighty tree.
The branches fell to the earth, streaming sparks and embers into the evening as they furled across the remaining gardens, destroying all it touched. Most of the men had noticed the source of the heat and light, and were scrambling away desperately. The monsters, apparently having no such presence of mind, drove themselves further, and into the incinerating light.
The darkness came alive with the final screams of the things as they were burnt to ash. The human defenders were left mostly untouched, and the tide spilling over the outer wall were subsumed in the inferno. Aya slumped to the ground, witnessing this miraculous occurrence, not minding the cuts on her hands or knees.
“What…?” she said, watching the fires begin to wink out.
With that, she turned back, leaving the battle and its remnants all behind her. Through the barricades, through the aisle, through the clumsy grab by a still dazed Niche, through the door, up the melted stairs and out onto the roof.
There, across from the exit, lay a pair of slumped figures against the far wall. The mage was crumpled, motionless, saggy robes no longer cutting his trim figure. In his lap laid Innialysia, fur now merely coal black, no longer aglow as it had been.
On the railing of the roof, above the two, stood something faint in the light from the fire below. A shimmering, hazy outline, of a girl, looking down at them. As Aya drew to look at her, she could’ve sworn that the spirit was smiling as it began to fragment and dissipate. With a final gust of the warm breeze, the shimmering remnants were carried out to fade into the now clear stars.
[←Chapter 49] [Cover Art] [My Links] [Index] [Discord] [Subreddit] [Chapter 51→]

Here is what most customers do not understand, DoorDash (and other delivery services like it) is not a driver employer. So what does this mean? It means they work and operate simply as a matching service between customer, restaurant, and an independent driver with some support features for all 3 regarding app operations and potential issues. And this is why that understanding matters: You the customer become responsible for making sure everyone in this operation gets paid to complete “your job” (getting the food you want delivered to your door.)

1. YOU pay inflated menu prices that are set BY THE MERCHANT to cover their cost of being on the Doordash platform as a delivery PARTNER. Doordash typically charges a restaurant 30% of the order total for using their platform. Since margins are already tight at restaurants, You the consumer become responsible for covering that cost to have delivery.
   
2. YOU pay fees to Doordash based on your cart total to pay for their entire operation: the app itself and all its functions, corporate employees, engineers, support agents etc so you can continue to use their app “matching service”.
   
3. YOU pay the driver (a contracted individual) to deliver your order using your tip amount. Since Doordash is again NOT A DRIVER EMPLOYER but a matching service, they are not required to pay a set amount or minimum wage per delivery. As a result, a drivers pay is 80% based on customer tip amount. Doordash also does not compensate drivers for gas, mileage, and vehicle maintenance costs incurred from completing said deliveries as we are NOT their employees.
   

TLDR: Doordash is a matching service and is set up so the customers pay for each part of operation without telling them thats how this works 🤗

Sorry for the long text, I'm describing my somewhat difficult experience with the game and was wondering whether somebody can relate. If you don't want to read all that text I understand and wish you a happy day :)
I understand I'm very late to the party but I recently decided to give this game a try. So far I 've played it for almost 10 hours. At the beginning I really liked the story but I never felt so lost when it comes to enemies or how to play the game in general. From the initial cutscene I understood that you had to be silent around BTs. Actually you shouldn't move or breathe at all. So the first time at the incinerator I was somewhat confused when I realized I had to acutally move around BTs. So I tried to be silent but not knowing that walking slowly is not enough - I found myself immediately confronted with that catcher BT. At that time however I didn't know that this was not supposed to happen. I assumed that this was the ususal BT encounter when you move, since it happened every time. There was nothing indicating otherwise. Only when I arrived at the MULE camp (where you have to retrieve cargo) I was told that there was actually a way to be stealthy. But even then only after me engaging two of them in melee combat. I felt like this game wanted to see me suffer by withholding information and when I arrived more dead than alive at the designated area it suddenly told me "Oh btw you could have approached this stealthy, you know :)". Maybe that was a bug, I don't know.
However, with that information I understood that there was a way to be more stealthy around BTs. But that helped only so much, I still had troubles timing breathing correctly without being detected. Then I got a bike and I thought things would look up, only to find out that neither timefall nor BT territory is a good combination with a bike. Sure, I tried to drive (slowly) through BT Territory with the bike but it catastrophically failed wasn't meant to be. Of course I understand this game-wise. If you get something better, this also means that the game has to be more diffcult for you or else you would suddenly play on easy mode. But for me that meant I had to stay on foot, which was even more frustrating.
All the while I started to look up the death stranding wiki for some advice as to how BTs work and how to avoid them but there it only told me how easy they were and to use weapons I didn't have at that time. Great. So after searching through a lot of threads here I finally found some comments that were very helpful for new players (Thank you!!). What I really hated however was that I had to read a lot of spoilers along the way, which is exactly the reason I don't like to look up details about story driven games.
I hope I'm not being misunderstood - even though I'm very frustrated with the game I'm not saying this is a bad game. Quite the opposite, I think it has an interesting story and I love the way you can cooperate with other players and deliver their cargo. I wish more games would offer a similar system. But this game also offers an endless amount of frustration and I guess I just wasn't prepared for it. At a certain point... another BT attacking... another cargo destroyed... another cargo lost to the river... it was just too much for me. I decided to quit my porter job for now ^^'
Well, sorry again for the long text. I don't know if anyone cares to read my experience with the game so far. I totally understand if you skip this long text from some random stranger, who has troubles that you may never had. But maybe someone had a similar experience and still continued to play it. I would be interested to know what kept you interested. Maybe there is something that I don't see (at the moment).

As of this week, financial services company Fidelity has reduced the value of its equity stake down to $6.55 billion USD, down from $20 billion last October. They estimated that Twitter is now worth about one third of what Musk paid for it (he bought it for $44 billion in October 2022). This makes Musk about as successful in his Twitter investment as the majority of us here are in our crypto investments, at least in the bear market.
However, there’s more to this than meets the eye. Elon is known for his pushing (via Tweets) of meme coins like Doge, Pepe, and Shiba, meme NFT projects like Milady that result in pump and dumps and are a notoriously dangerous area to dabble in for regular investors. However, when a few words from your social media can spark a massive pump, it’s a little easier to make profits in crypto. He’s undoubtedly made money from the pump and dumps, but it’s still questionably enough to offset the enormous upfront cost for Twitter. It definitely begs the question of whether one of the world’s largest microphones was worth the price he paid, and the potential legal implications of using it. Given the SEC and their relentless punishment of celebrities in crypto, it’s also surprising that up until now Musk has been fairly immune to lawsuits as a crypto shiller, given the publicity of each of his related tweets. So while Musk may lose percentages on his upfront investments as much as the rest of us, he’s unfortunately still far different - he controls a lot of the narrative on when coins/NFTs pump, and stands to profit from each. While we all have some pretty huge risks for dabbling in meme and NFT markets, he can predict some spots to exit his positions based on tweets. Be careful out there buying crypto based on social media based crypto shilling!

We have a baby together which makes everything super difficult. But she had started a new job after being unemployed for a while. I had been trying to pick up the slack on her bills while she was looking. She ended up getting a job at a store and we were excited to save money and buy our own home to start our life with our baby. She became friends with a guy at work and I already knew it was going to be an issue when she said that he’s just a friend. Over the next few weeks I noticed they were talking EVERY DAY all day.
Obviously I voiced my concerns which turned into an argument. Fast forward to about 4 weeks ago. She goes to the bar with him and supposedly another coworker, again I voice my concerns because it’s 2 guys she’s going drinking with. But I decided to stay home with the baby. Around here bars close at 2AM but she didn’t stroll in until 4:30. She never left the parking lot. So the next morning I check her watch and see that this dude has been sending her pictures etc, AND she referred to him as her other boyfriend to her sister. That made me sick lol.
I called her out on everything and of course she wanted to turn the blame on me. I don’t communicate, I don’t do anything around the house or for the baby, none of which is true besides the communication part. I struggle with that because I have a fear of getting yelled at or starting fights. I’m a very passive person most of the time. And as for caring for our baby, let’s just say that while I’m working and she was home with the baby, Elmo was babysitting.
She said nothing physical happened but I’m not stupid and will never get the whole truth I’m sure. But despite that I wanted to try to fix things. For our baby. I was willing to put up with unhappiness for the rest of my life to make sure that baby had a family that was together. So she agreed to quit the job and cease all contact. She ended up not needing to quit because he was supposedly fired.
Fast forward to about a week ago, she took the baby to her sisters for the weekend, nothing unusual she did it all the time. But we got into a fight and she decided she wanted to end things and immediately started talking to this dude again. She stayed there until FRIDAY calling into work every day (I mention this because her bills have been WAY behind and she’s looking at a second repo on her car, she can’t afford to call in)
When she did come back she packed some of her stuff and left. I had our baby from Friday to Monday because I had to go into the office for work this week whereas I typically WFH.
But while I had her I know she went out and was seeing this dude. She’s staying with her parents which is down the road, so my kiddo is at least always close.
It just hurts. I feel like I’m not enough. She threw our family away like it was nothing. And she’s already moved on which hurts even more. Like I didn’t want anyone BUT this woman. And she betrayed me. When I don’t have my kiddo it’s hard. It’s so quiet and I don’t really have any outlets or vices. I just sit.
Her family is totally against her decision and thinks it’s the worst one she’s ever made. This dude obviously isn’t a good person or role model so I’m sure she’ll end up used and unhappy.
It’s hard but I think I’ve made the decision that if she tries to come back, it’s a no. I’m worth more than being cheated on the fact she moved on so quickly is just kind of disgusting to me?
I don’t know what to do. It hurts. I can’t sleep. I can’t focus at work. I’ve just gotta think of the baby
I’m sorry if this post is all over the place. My mind is racing a million different ways at once and I just don’t know.
Thanks for reading

way back in january/february when hours we’re getting cut i asked if there was ANY positions in the store they can put me in so i can get hours. then my etl was telling me about on demand but she made it seem way better then what it is. she made it seem like it was a guarantee to get more hours there. now for the past two months i’ve been asking to be put i’ve been asking to get out of on demand cause i’m getting less hours than before. the first time i asked i was told that “we don’t have any positions open right now sorry id recommended you looking elsewhere for work” then in the coming week i’m watching new hires getting hired in positions that were “already overfilled”.