Not all change is bad, but not all change is advantageous either, especially when it involves disfigurations and body part swapping. ‘What doesn’t kill you, only makes you stronger.’ I tend to disagree in certain circumstances. I doubt surviving a train wreck makes you stronger. At this point in my life, I feel as weak as I have ever been. I feel odd and peculiar, a stranger to my own body, a monster to my soul.
Several months ago, as I was lying in bed a wave of red light poured in through my window, accompanied by a hypnotic vibrating purr, that put me in a deep sleep. When I woke up my left hand felt swollen. At first, I thought nothing of it but as I went through my morning routine, things felt different. My grasp wasn’t as strong, but it wasn’t just that, it felt as if I had a different tactile sensation altogether. I finally became conscious of the extent of the difference when I went to brush my teeth.
I grabbed the toothbrush with my right hand and the tube of toothpaste with my left hand. As I tried to line the nozzle to the toothbrush, I noticed that my left hand was slightly bigger than my right hand, and had a darker skin tone. The contrast was striking. I have a very fair skin complexion. My mom always said that I was ‘Irish’ white, that she would lose sight of me walking to the mailbox through a snowstorm.
I dropped the dental toiletries in the sink. I held my hands up in front of my face. I never chewed my nails, but on my left hand, the nails were almost chewed down to the cuticle. I turned my hands over and they were as different as night and day. The left was calloused from hard work and dedicated labor, the other was the pampered hands of a college student. Around the wrist of my new left hand was a bracelet of thick dark stitches, hardly signifying friendship or wealth.
I had to call the police, but when I got my phone, there was a text message:
Don’t go to the police, or we’ll remove your head. No more procedures needed.
I wasn’t too sure what to do at that point. Whoever did this was able to in one night, knock me out, surgically remove my hand and replace with someone else’s hand. If they were able to do that, then I was certain they would be able to get in and do much worse.
Luckily, I was in between semester, no classes to attend, nothing as of yet to explain. Even though it was hot as hell and it was in the middle of Summer, I put on a long sleeve shirt and a pair of gloves. My left glove barely fit, and the phrase ‘If it don’t fit, you must acquit’ popped in my head. I frequented the food truck parked in the convenient store parking lot near my apartment building at least three times a week. They have the best burrito I have ever eaten, bursting with meat and spices, not any of those lean stingy burritos you get at traditional restaurants. But lately, there has been this strange street person hanging out at the corner. He showed up around a month before my ordeal. He was not begging for money but preaching about an invasion. He was always dressed as if it was forty below zero.
Instead of walking along the sidewalk, I decided to climb down the hill from my apartment that led directly to the back of the convenient store. From my deck, I could watch the customers go in and out of the store. The apartment building sat on a high hill overlooking the street below. I could see that the homeless man wasn’t at his usual corner, but I didn’t want to take any chance.
I got down the hill and hopped down from the retaining wall, when all of the sudden he jumped out from behind the dumpster, dressed in a long trench coat, gloves, a ski mask, and a scarf wrapped around his neck.
“They got ya son. They’ve tagged you. I saw the red light. I’ve been tracking them for a while. You ain’t getting away and they ain’t stopping. You need to come with me.”
“Mister, I don’t have any money I can give you.”
“I don’t want your damn money son. I’m here to save your life."
I tried to walk past him, but he blocked my path and pushed me back. As he did so he started unwrapping his scarf and pulling off his ski mask. I resumed my attempt to get to my favorite burrito, but he blocked me again. I was looking down, not paying attention, so I didn’t notice that he was completely unmasked with his trench coat and shirt laying on the ground.
“Look here!”
I looked up to see the most grotesque, confusing human being I had ever perceived. He was a patchwork of different races, different skin tones, and stitched up scars running throughout his body and face like a map of a river and its many tributaries. His nose was completely foreign to his face and both eyes were awkwardly strung together from two different individuals. Worst of all, there was a large scar around his neck, indicating that this head had been removed and reattached.
“They told you that they were done, right?” I nodded my head in agreement. “Well, I’m proof that they are a bunch of damn liars. I hate to tell you this, but your life is over as you know it. You can come with me and stay intact or refuse my help and become what I am today.”
I should have taken his advice, but I wasn’t in a state to comprehend the reality of my situation. I was still unsure of what I had seen this morning. I was trying to convince myself that I had just slept on my hand or had a bad dream and slammed it against the wall. It was just swollen, not someone else’s hand.
“I’m fine man. I just want a burrito. Leave me alone, please.”
“Alright. I’ll still be here when you are ready. There’s a place we like to call the Island of Misfit Toys. You know from Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. You’ll be safe there. I promise you, its not going away.”
I started to walk away, determined to ignore him, but then he said something that caught my attention.
“I bet you are O negative blood type. All us misfit toys are O negative. Universal donor baby. Now how did I know that? You still want to turn a blind eye.”
He was correct, but I persisted in my stubbornness and walked away. That day the burrito just didn’t taste as well as it normally did. Was there a new cook? I didn’t notice. Or worse, had they already replaced my tongue with someone else’s, whoever they were?
There weren’t any other occurrences for the next month. I made sure to sleep in the living room on the couch with the television on. Still, Mr. Frankenstein stood on the corner, waiting for me. I didn’t visit the food truck that entire month, didn’t have the usual craving and sure as hell didn’t want to have another confrontation.
The next month was my wake-up call. I was dozing off when the television shut off by itself. I heard that familiar hum and saw the red light moving through the front window. I put my fingers in my ears, closed my eyes and stumbled to the bathroom. I started singing to myself, hoping to drown out the noise and stay conscious. I opened my eyes for a second and saw that the red light was moving under the door, and bending upwards towards my face. I shut my eyes again.
The bathroom door slammed open. I closed my eyes tighter, so much so that I saw twinkling stars and sparks. I felt two hands grasp me by the shoulders and lift me up in the air. I opened my eyes. There standing before me was tall hairless grey being in a long black cloak. The creature had no eyes, small narrow nostrils, but a large gaping mouth, affixed open as if the creature was unable to close it. On his shoulder was a smaller green creature with a bulbous head and large eyes. It was not clothed and would ever so often lay its forehead against the side of the larger creature’s neck. It seemed to be a symbiotic relationship.
The larger creature lifted up his three-fingered hand. Out of the palm of his hand radiated a red light. The smaller creature was somehow making the humming noise, and within a few seconds I lost consciousness.
The next morning, I woke up in my bedroom upstairs. I frantically searched my entire body but saw nothing, but I wasn’t convinced by that cursory search, and sure enough, my suspicions were correct. Staring back at me was a somewhat unfamiliar face. My right eye was now green instead of blue, and the skin tone around it was darker. Even my eyebrow was more pointed. Encircling a wide area of the eye was a ring of stitches. I fell to the floor, exasperated by what I had seen, and what I had become. It was time to visit Mr. Frankenstein.
I didn’t try to hide my eye. I can easily explain it away as corrective surgery, the first of its kind, if anyone was so bold, or rude, to ask. I found him at the corner as expected. He didn’t gloat or say ‘I told you so.’ He was sympathetic.
“I’m sorry man. Come on. Let me take you to your new home.”
“There’s no way to fight them… or stop them?”
“Maybe in time, but all we know how to do right now is hide and keep them from tracking us.”
“How do you keep them from tracking us?” I asked.
“You’re not going to like it, but we got to dig a tracking device from in between you lower ribcage.”
I wasn’t too thrilled about that but then again, I’d rather go through a little suffering on the front end to avoid any more experimental alien body part swapping.
We walked down the main highway to a backroad where there was an old, abandoned warehouse. He gave a coded knock to let him know that it was a friend and then turned to me.
“By the way, what’s your name?”
“Robert, but you can call me Rob.”
“I’m Frank, as in Frankenstein.”
I laughed and explained to him that I had already begun calling him Mr. Frankenstein. I felt a little weird admitting that, so I apologized.
“No need to apologize. I like the name. I honestly don’t know my real name. I just picked that one.”
The door opened and there was a hooded man with his face hidden.
“Welcome home Frank. Got a new one huh?”
“Yep, sure do Phil. Let’s make him feel at home.”
We walked through the door into a small homemade foyer. Some drywall had been thrown up and fortified with wooden pallets and barbed wire. There was yet another door. It was a thick steel door with a peephole. Phil gave another coded knock. A woman armed with a gun slung over her shoulders opened the door. Her face was riddled with scars and one of her eyes were bulging. She had the same mismatched facial features that Frank had.
“Welcome to the Isle of Misfit Toys,” announced Frank.
It was a big open space with many cots strewn about all four walls. As we walked around and toured my new home, Frank introduced me to everyone. It was all the same. The scars and parts were different, but the procedure was recognizable. There were even children, little misshapen research subjects imprisoned in a world devoid of holidays and birthday parties, or at least in the normal sense. This world tries to operate as normal, but in the end, its difficult to be normal when you’re hidden and locked away in a warehouse. We’re all victims traumatized by our encounters with ghastly reminders etched on our bodies and faces. Our minds are no less effected. There’s a big handwritten sign hanging over the entrance door. It reads: No Red Lights.

Not all change is bad, but not all change is advantageous either, especially when it involves disfigurations and body part swapping. ‘What doesn’t kill you, only makes you stronger.’ I tend to disagree in certain circumstances. I doubt surviving a train wreck makes you stronger. At this point in my life, I feel as weak as I have ever been. I feel odd and peculiar, a stranger to my own body, a monster to my soul.
Several months ago, as I was lying in bed a wave of red light poured in through my window, accompanied by a hypnotic vibrating purr, that put me in a deep sleep. When I woke up my left hand felt swollen. At first, I thought nothing of it but as I went through my morning routine, things felt different. My grasp wasn’t as strong, but it wasn’t just that, it felt as if I had a different tactile sensation altogether. I finally became conscious of the extent of the difference when I went to brush my teeth.
I grabbed the toothbrush with my right hand and the tube of toothpaste with my left hand. As I tried to line the nozzle to the toothbrush, I noticed that my left hand was slightly bigger than my right hand, and had a darker skin tone. The contrast was striking. I have a very fair skin complexion. My mom always said that I was ‘Irish’ white, that she would lose sight of me walking to the mailbox through a snowstorm.
I dropped the dental toiletries in the sink. I held my hands up in front of my face. I never chewed my nails, but on my left hand, the nails were almost chewed down to the cuticle. I turned my hands over and they were as different as night and day. The left was calloused from hard work and dedicated labor, the other was the pampered hands of a college student. Around the wrist of my new left hand was a bracelet of thick dark stitches, hardly signifying friendship or wealth.
I had to call the police, but when I got my phone, there was a text message:
Don’t go to the police, or we’ll remove your head. No more procedures needed.
I wasn’t too sure what to do at that point. Whoever did this was able to in one night, knock me out, surgically remove my hand and replace with someone else’s hand. If they were able to do that, then I was certain they would be able to get in and do much worse.
Luckily, I was in between semester, no classes to attend, nothing as of yet to explain. Even though it was hot as hell and it was in the middle of Summer, I put on a long sleeve shirt and a pair of gloves. My left glove barely fit, and the phrase ‘If it don’t fit, you must acquit’ popped in my head. I frequented the food truck parked in the convenient store parking lot near my apartment building at least three times a week. They have the best burrito I have ever eaten, bursting with meat and spices, not any of those lean stingy burritos you get at traditional restaurants. But lately, there has been this strange street person hanging out at the corner. He showed up around a month before my ordeal. He was not begging for money but preaching about an invasion. He was always dressed as if it was forty below zero.
Instead of walking along the sidewalk, I decided to climb down the hill from my apartment that led directly to the back of the convenient store. From my deck, I could watch the customers go in and out of the store. The apartment building sat on a high hill overlooking the street below. I could see that the homeless man wasn’t at his usual corner, but I didn’t want to take any chance.
I got down the hill and hopped down from the retaining wall, when all of the sudden he jumped out from behind the dumpster, dressed in a long trench coat, gloves, a ski mask, and a scarf wrapped around his neck.
“They got ya son. They’ve tagged you. I saw the red light. I’ve been tracking them for a while. You ain’t getting away and they ain’t stopping. You need to come with me.”
“Mister, I don’t have any money I can give you.”
“I don’t want your damn money son. I’m here to save your life."
I tried to walk past him, but he blocked my path and pushed me back. As he did so he started unwrapping his scarf and pulling off his ski mask. I resumed my attempt to get to my favorite burrito, but he blocked me again. I was looking down, not paying attention, so I didn’t notice that he was completely unmasked with his trench coat and shirt laying on the ground.
“Look here!”
I looked up to see the most grotesque, confusing human being I had ever perceived. He was a patchwork of different races, different skin tones, and stitched up scars running throughout his body and face like a map of a river and its many tributaries. His nose was completely foreign to his face and both eyes were awkwardly strung together from two different individuals. Worst of all, there was a large scar around his neck, indicating that this head had been removed and reattached.
“They told you that they were done, right?” I nodded my head in agreement. “Well, I’m proof that they are a bunch of damn liars. I hate to tell you this, but your life is over as you know it. You can come with me and stay intact or refuse my help and become what I am today.”
I should have taken his advice, but I wasn’t in a state to comprehend the reality of my situation. I was still unsure of what I had seen this morning. I was trying to convince myself that I had just slept on my hand or had a bad dream and slammed it against the wall. It was just swollen, not someone else’s hand.
“I’m fine man. I just want a burrito. Leave me alone, please.”
“Alright. I’ll still be here when you are ready. There’s a place we like to call the Island of Misfit Toys. You know from Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. You’ll be safe there. I promise you, its not going away.”
I started to walk away, determined to ignore him, but then he said something that caught my attention.
“I bet you are O negative blood type. All us misfit toys are O negative. Universal donor baby. Now how did I know that? You still want to turn a blind eye.”
He was correct, but I persisted in my stubbornness and walked away. That day the burrito just didn’t taste as well as it normally did. Was there a new cook? I didn’t notice. Or worse, had they already replaced my tongue with someone else’s, whoever they were?
There weren’t any other occurrences for the next month. I made sure to sleep in the living room on the couch with the television on. Still, Mr. Frankenstein stood on the corner, waiting for me. I didn’t visit the food truck that entire month, didn’t have the usual craving and sure as hell didn’t want to have another confrontation.
The next month was my wake-up call. I was dozing off when the television shut off by itself. I heard that familiar hum and saw the red light moving through the front window. I put my fingers in my ears, closed my eyes and stumbled to the bathroom. I started singing to myself, hoping to drown out the noise and stay conscious. I opened my eyes for a second and saw that the red light was moving under the door, and bending upwards towards my face. I shut my eyes again.
The bathroom door slammed open. I closed my eyes tighter, so much so that I saw twinkling stars and sparks. I felt two hands grasp me by the shoulders and lift me up in the air. I opened my eyes. There standing before me was tall hairless grey being in a long black cloak. The creature had no eyes, small narrow nostrils, but a large gaping mouth, affixed open as if the creature was unable to close it. On his shoulder was a smaller green creature with a bulbous head and large eyes. It was not clothed and would ever so often lay its forehead against the side of the larger creature’s neck. It seemed to be a symbiotic relationship.
The larger creature lifted up his three-fingered hand. Out of the palm of his hand radiated a red light. The smaller creature was somehow making the humming noise, and within a few seconds I lost consciousness.
The next morning, I woke up in my bedroom upstairs. I frantically searched my entire body but saw nothing, but I wasn’t convinced by that cursory search, and sure enough, my suspicions were correct. Staring back at me was a somewhat unfamiliar face. My right eye was now green instead of blue, and the skin tone around it was darker. Even my eyebrow was more pointed. Encircling a wide area of the eye was a ring of stitches. I fell to the floor, exasperated by what I had seen, and what I had become. It was time to visit Mr. Frankenstein.
I didn’t try to hide my eye. I can easily explain it away as corrective surgery, the first of its kind, if anyone was so bold, or rude, to ask. I found him at the corner as expected. He didn’t gloat or say ‘I told you so.’ He was sympathetic.
“I’m sorry man. Come on. Let me take you to your new home.”
“There’s no way to fight them… or stop them?”
“Maybe in time, but all we know how to do right now is hide and keep them from tracking us.”
“How do you keep them from tracking us?” I asked.
“You’re not going to like it, but we got to dig a tracking device from in between you lower ribcage.”
I wasn’t too thrilled about that but then again, I’d rather go through a little suffering on the front end to avoid any more experimental alien body part swapping.
We walked down the main highway to a backroad where there was an old, abandoned warehouse. He gave a coded knock to let him know that it was a friend and then turned to me.
“By the way, what’s your name?”
“Robert, but you can call me Rob.”
“I’m Frank, as in Frankenstein.”
I laughed and explained to him that I had already begun calling him Mr. Frankenstein. I felt a little weird admitting that, so I apologized.
“No need to apologize. I like the name. I honestly don’t know my real name. I just picked that one.”
The door opened and there was a hooded man with his face hidden.
“Welcome home Frank. Got a new one huh?”
“Yep, sure do Phil. Let’s make him feel at home.”
We walked through the door into a small homemade foyer. Some drywall had been thrown up and fortified with wooden pallets and barbed wire. There was yet another door. It was a thick steel door with a peephole. Phil gave another coded knock. A woman armed with a gun slung over her shoulders opened the door. Her face was riddled with scars and one of her eyes were bulging. She had the same mismatched facial features that Frank had.
“Welcome to the Isle of Misfit Toys,” announced Frank.
It was a big open space with many cots strewn about all four walls. As we walked around and toured my new home, Frank introduced me to everyone. It was all the same. The scars and parts were different, but the procedure was recognizable. There were even children, little misshapen research subjects imprisoned in a world devoid of holidays and birthday parties, or at least in the normal sense. This world tries to operate as normal, but in the end, its difficult to be normal when you’re hidden and locked away in a warehouse. We’re all victims traumatized by our encounters with ghastly reminders etched on our bodies and faces. Our minds are no less effected. There’s a big handwritten sign hanging over the entrance door. It reads: No Red Lights.

time stamp https://imgur.com/a/cE5lRsm
unfortunately have to make a hard decision and sell my gun stuff to fund and focus more on my real passion in life so here’s a kit yard sale not much but should help somebody out there im asking $1300 for everything shipped but will work with budgets and negotiate parting things out
10.5 psa upper - bcm quad rail, eotech exps2 red, bcm chopped grip unity mount, radian raptor charging handle, somo gear peq15, surefire airsoft light lol (surprisingly works fine) $800
built battle belt - trex arms Ragnarok, esstac mag pouch, amazon ouchy pouch. 3.5 inch fixed blade plus sheath $200
pmags - 18 pmags total 13 black 5 tan $180

It is also fine if you're reading fantasy that is somehow to do with spirits and religion. June is my reading month, so I wanted to see what books people were devouring most recently.
I'm personally reading the "Illustrated Anthology of Sorcery, Magic and Alchemy" by Emile Grillot De Givry. First edition came out in 1929, the one that's on my desk has been published in 1973. The author died 1 year after the book released, it was rejected by the Christians for condemning Witch trials, it was rejected by occult readers for not making any grand claims, the illustrations being black on white can sometimes be hard to make out, but I honestly enjoy author's analysis of religious paintings and the book boasting 366 illustrations, while being nearly 400 pages long and much larger than your average book in size, it is more of an easy read than what I was reading before.
The author is Christian and sometimes he writes as if the things that are illustrated happened, so not like we're connected by religion, or time, but honestly I'm just here for the journey. Pretty pictures, descriptions of medieval outlook towards demons, hell and witches, I'm all here for it and it is a fun journey to be on.

I recently upgraded the wheels on my 2017 F350 Dually to 20-inch wheels with KO2 tires. I'm excitedly preparing for a long road trip from Oregon to Canada with my dually and fifth wheel attached, and as part of my planning, I want to be ready for any unexpected situations, such as a blowout on a remote road. In case this happens to one of my rear dually wheels, I've decided to carry a spare tire on the cargo carrier on the rooftop of my truck.
To ensure I can handle a tire replacement on my own, I watched a few helpful YouTube videos on manually replacing a tire on a rim. As a result, I'm considering carrying a few pry bars to assist me in the process. I want to be well-prepared and ensure a smooth journey.
Now, I have a question for you. First does this plan seem reasonable? Second, should the spare tire match the exact brand as my current set, or is it acceptable to purchase a different brand with the same specifications? I want to make sure I have the right information before finalizing my plan.
Thank you for your assistance!

Something I have found popping up across critical posts of Helluva Boss is typically people wanting to write off/rewrite Stella to not be an abusive character. Typically this is coupled with villainising Stolas because ‘he broke her heart with his cheating’.
Now I don’t like cheating and I think its a terrible thing to do to someone, however my opinion on Stolas’ infidelity is that it is understandable in his specific situation. He is a gay man who was forced into a marriage with an abusive woman whom he couldn’t leave. Stella also basically admitted to raping Stolas in ‘The Circus’. In his specific situation his cheating was understandable and I find it disgusting that a lot of people view that to be as bad or worse than Stella’s abuse. Cheating is not always black or white.
Back to the main point of this post.
I believe a lot of these criticisms are rooted in misandry and misogyny. Both refusing a male abuse victim’s experiences and in believing that a woman cannot be evil without either a) a long winded tragic backstory or b) without a man wronging her.
Crimson, for example, is a piece of shit abuser who slaughtered his wife with his only real motive being he’s an evil Crime Boss and there was little to no criticisms about his abuse compared to the critiques of Stella’s. They both have around the same amount of development and yet the critiques are no where near equal.
Now you could argue that Stella was introduced earlier, however most episodes are focused on following IMP and they haven’t exactly been to many places where they’d run into her. Stella is a member of the aristocracy and despises imps because the nobles view them as lesser beings, she’s not going to be found in places imps could access easily and the imps aren’t going to be able to easily access places that members of nobility would be found in.
Stella’s reasoning for her abuse is something frequently dogpiled on because enjoying tormenting someone is viewed as a not good enough or realistic reason. The thing is, it is realistic. People do terrible things in real life because they simply enjoy doing them because they think it’s fun. Stella also being a member of the aristocracy who was most likely never reprimanded as a child and being shown to have been violent as a child as well as (and whilst I do feel like this excuse is overused) growing up in Hell it’s really not that far-fetched that she behaves the way she does.
Female characters can just be shitty people, they don’t need to have a tragic backstory for them to behave that way.
Now would I have written/portrayed Stella’s abuse differently? Yes. But I would never write it out. There are few representations of abusive female characters in media and it shouldn’t be avoided because there are female abusers and it being shown in media can help in preventing it being seen as a non-issue (because it unfortunately is).

I have been searching through all the internet, but I didnt see anyone talk about this, thats why I would like to ask. Of course, Akechi does cannonicly say why he named himself like that, but the argument seems a little odd and weak, somehow not deep or iconic enough, especially considering the other Phantom Thieves nicknames. And allthough it could be bearable, I mean, look how perfectly it fits with his Black Mask outfit in comparison. And not only because of the obvious physical resemblence, but also the symbolism. A crow means: - death - intelligence and cunning - change/transformation - revenge (it acctually remembers the faces of those who wronged it) - in mythology generally something bad/evil
Thats why I kind of came to belive he named himself 'Crow' much rather with his true personality in mind, and I keep wondering why. My top guesses are, he: A) just slipped B) kind of wanted to express his true feelings without being too suspicious, like when he tells Joker his backstory, hangs out with him etc. C) gave the hint on purpuse, simply savagely enjoying how oblivious the thieves were despite such a clue right under their noses D) didnt care, just found it amazingly fitting and knew phantin thieves wouldnt get it anyway E) really just meant it for the white outfit
My personal guess is B, but I would really like to know how the fandom looks at this.

Terran year 5201 - 12th of September.
First / Previous
Species: Grogs - Emperor Reith the Third.
I'm currently going to the Galactic Federation Center, we will arrive there in 1 day, and although the Grog Empire has already assembled its fleets, and I'm being escorted by one of them...
In the last few days, the Human factories have been working nonstop to assemble their ships, the majority of them weren't ready when I was last informed, they didn't let me see them sadly, but I was also occupied preparing our economy to the war, so it wasn't like I had the time to contemplate the human ships...
In 1 and a half Galactic Day, the Cleyk Empire will declare war upon us and Humanity, and the worst of all? 8 galactic days ago, our sensors have already detected a war fleet going in direction of Nyrda.
I'm really worried, the fleet is gigantic, the Grog empire doesn't have the time to get there to avoid the conflict, I can only hope that the statement made by the commander Harry, that their first carrier would be ready by tomorrow, and in his words, "we can handle it, don't worry"...
1.4 Galactic Day time skip - 1 Terran hour before the declaration of war.
I was quick to exit my shuttle as soon as it landed. I was anxious and worried, the last war was 70 Galactic Cycles ago... I was not even an egg, yet, here I was, about to be declared war upon....
Everyone glared at me when I entered as usual, I quickly went to the discussion position, where the Cleyk ambassador was already waiting me...
"Well, tomorrow we enter war, how do you feel about that, Reith the Third?" - He asked in a mocking tone
" To be honest, you are making a big mistake..." - I said while looking down...
"The Cleyk Federation does not commit mistakes, also, I summoned this meeting to make a voting of the other species on the war, if they are against it or in favor, or neutral, well then, members of the Galactic Community, you can vote!" - He said in a happy one.
I watched as the big majority voted to stay neutral, some voted against, some in favor, but out of the 1029 members, 938 voted to stay neutral, as if they knew that two titans were about to fight in a fierce battle.
It took a few dozen stricks for the result to be declared, and the Cleyk clearly didn't expect that many to stay neutral..
"Well then, Reith, your empire has chosen the war path, expect us to destroy any military ship of your kind to be destroyed, that's all I have to say, you are all dismissed! - He said with a happy tone...
I really wished they knew what they were about to fight with.....
_____________ UNCS Brazil is ready, war fleet detected, engaging interception maneuvering.... ____________
The War is declared, the 2th Cleyk Attack and Raid Fleet approaches the system of Nyrda (Plok for Terrans).
____________
Species: Cleyk - commander Yuok - commanding the 2th attack and raid fleet, aboard the CFCS Hutylid.
I was anxious for the start of the conflict, it would be a massacre, I didn't expect much resistance from these so called humans, they are greatly weakened.
"Sir! Our long range sensors have detected an Unknown vessel on our path, we will arrive in communication range in 15 galactic time units!" - My Sensor observation officer said.
"Prepare the weapons and arm the shields" - I responded.
I ordered him to arm the shields, something is wrong, no species would send one single ship to intercept a war fleet...
My suspicions were confirmed when we got in visual range, the Vessel that we detected was gigantic, 3 times the length of our carriers, I was impressed, and so was my crew, we were speechless...
"Sir! They are hailing us! Should we let them through?" - My communication officer said.
"Let them through, I want to see what these humans look like."
A few galactic time units later, our translation software finished the translation, and the screen lit up. A pinkish creature, with white and gray hair on the top of his braincase and face, using a suit of green color, with yellow and blue stripes, on the left side of his body, a name, which was translated to 'Fernando da Silva Magalhães', he was clearly tired, a lot wrinkles around his eyes and mouth,2 eyes, 2 appendages for manipulation, bipedal, very different from us, as it's common for species to have 4 eyes...
Then, it spoke in a coarse, low voice, I expected it though, as this individual was clearly old...
"My name is Fernando da Silva Magalhães, commander of the UNCS Brazil, Is this the fleet that's supposed to kill humanity? - he asked.
"Greetings, human, my name is Yuok, commander of this fleet, I offer you a deal, surrender immediately and I promise that your extinction will be quick and you will not suffer with pain." - I said with a serious voice.
Then, something that I wasn't expecting happened, the human started to tear up...
"This is so heart wrenching, kid, you are clearly so young, yet, your leader sent you and dozens of other individuals of your species on a conflict that could be avoided all together, and solved with diplomacy, may I ask you, do you have a family back home, waiting for you?" - He spoke, with more tears forming on his eyes...
"...yes..." - I answered hesitantly.
I then noticed that my had crew stopped what they were doing to listen to him...
"I'm giving you one last chance, kid, please, spare your life and the lives of your crew, I've seen what my species is capable of, I've killed many in the past as part of my job, and it hurts to know that I killed people that had a family, that had someone waiting for them back home, please, if you want to see your family again, go home, don't start a war that isn't needed..." - He asked, almost begging me, while whipping his tears from his face...
I was confused, it was the first time that I thought about it, however, I knew that my family would suffer great consequences if I refused to fight..
"I'm sorry sir, but retreat is not an option for my species." - I spoke
He sighted.
"I'm extremely sorry for what is going to happen now, may the best fleet win."
Then he cut contact
"Sir, we are detecting a big energy surge coming from the enemy! - one of my crew yelled."
When I looked back, I could see thousands of Magnetic cannons charging up and 26 fighters detaching from the vessel, then, the cannons fired.
"ENGAGE EVASIVE MANEUVERING NOW!" - I yelled.
Our ships broke formation, we managed to dodge the majority of the rounds, but some of our ships still got hit, luckily, our shields held up.
Our fighters were struggling to keep their fighters away from us to, I was starting to get worried
"Shields at 50% sir! we can't afford another hit-" my Shield Controller said, before she got interrupted by the computer.
"Multiple nuclear warheads inbound"
They are going nuclear already? damnit!
"Redirect engine power to shield and weapon systems, engage EMP Machines!" - I ordered.
However, it was too late, some of the warheads got destroyed, but the majority of them managed to hit, depleting the shields of the majority of the fleet.
"We lost the CFCS Huoloiyd sir! Our Ships's FTL Core has been damaged! Engines compromised! 2 of our destroyers Reactors detonated! Our anti Projectile defense is crippled!" - One of my crew said, panicking.
I was thinking, how could a single ship dish out so much firepower? But before I could order the remaining ships to rearrange, another alarm appeared...
"Multiple Anti-matter torpedoes inbound, heading for the battleships and the Bridge of the CFCS Hutylid, engage evasive maneuvering, anti projectile defense system offline."
"ENGAGE EVASIVE MANEUVERING, ORDER THE BATTLESHIPS TO FLANK WEST AND EAST, GET OUT OF THE WAY OF THOSE TORPEDOS, IF THEY HIT, WE WILL LOSE THEM!" - I yelled as I started to panic, that's when I failed to realize, that a torpedo was in the direction of our bridge...
When I realized, I just stood there, I knew it was too late to save our ship, I then did something that the Fleyk Federation hadn't done in Hundreds of Galactic Cycles...
"ABANDON SHIP, I REPEAT, ABANDON SHIP!" - I yelled again.
Me and my crew ran through the smoke and fire on the halls to the escape pods, suddenly, the entire ship jerked violently, as the anti matter torpedo collided with us, we fell but quickly resumed running after getting up, I could feel as the atmosphere started to vent out of the hull breach where the torpedo had hit, I failed to notice the glass shard on my arm and the serious bleeding..
When we got the pods, we ejected, knowing that we would probably be killed as well, but,,
We didn't get hit.
I watched as our fleet got destroyed, ship by ship, the enemy vessel, not even a visible dent or scratch on its hull...
I didn't take long for some of the other ships to get abandoned as well, hundreds of escape pods floating as the main ships got destroyed...
Sadly, many didn't make it to their pods before their ships exploded or got destroyed...
Then, the 23 remaining fighters started to collect our pods, I knew that we would get slaved, at least it was what I thought..
Then I faded due to the loss of blood....
When I woke up, I noticed I was in a white room, in a bed, connected to some machines, a weird black blob stuck in my arm, and a weird thing on one of my ears...
I tried to get out of bed, but then, I heard a voice, speaking in perfect Cleikdian...
"You might want to stay in bed, let the nanomachines repair your wound." - A female human in white clothing with a red '+' in his arm said from a chair in the same room, while reading something in a type of data pad, while another, heavily armed human sat besides her, with a type of kinetic weapon on his lap.
"Where am I? - I asked, looking at them
"You are aboard the UNCS Brazil, in the infirmary section, your crew is being treated for their wounds, all of you are now prisoners of war, you will be given a room with a bathroom, 3 meals a day according to the types of food you can consume, and a television with human programs and movies." - the armed human said.
I sighted in relief when he told me that humanity wouldn't turn us into slaves, I guess that they have laws of war, but I still had so many questions...
​
This was long, hope you guys like it

Also have:
Quasar III goal explosion sets - 1.5k ea
Striker NCE black and white alchemist - 17k/4.5k or 20k for both
Striker black NCE vortex - 4.5k
109 orange flamethrowers - 23k all
Helios sets - 4.5k each
Striker black emeralds - 1k ea
Striker black momentum hny inverted - 1k
Hustle brow + mount champ cert sets - 4k each
Striker SB OG humid haze - ?
Striker SSC black wonderment - 17.5k 😮‍💨
Tactician ignition TW ultralex - 1500
Tactician OG TW raijin - 1.5k
Sweeper madness II set - 3k
Scorer FG aether - 1500
Tactician FG and BS fissure boosts - 1k each
Tactician saffron and cobalt Hasher:revolved - 2k for both
TW paragon LFT - 1100
Striker saffron mage glass III - 750
Tact black metal stars - 1600
OG Striker crimson octane abtruse - ?
Striker cb Phoenix wings III - 1k
GE22 Striker black proton boost - ?
OG striker SB reactor - 1500
GK exo cb spyder - 750
CC2 Striker TW lobo - 25k
Striker TW decennium - 2.5k
Vindicator striker Tw and black creepers - 3k each
STW invader, stern, lowrider, Octavian, trahere - ?
FG apex - 1500
Sweeper purple, orange tact, CB GK, BS GK, FG scorer emeralds - ?
FG + victor crimson encryption - 800 / 1k
Purple EQ Trail - 1k
Striker pink GP19 and crimson GK GP22 Equalizer - ?
Sweeper TW triumph kyrios - ?
Black Thanatos - 2300
Lime sniper Phoenix cannon - 1500
OG orange tactician shade raid - ?
FG + orange tunica (unc) - 2k / 2.2k
Striker orange and lime rlcs x octane decals - ?
Fornax BS tactician mamba - ?
Triumph Tactician crimson animus GP: rose king - ?
Tactician TW, lime, fg, crimson and BS slash beam III - ?
Tactician orange, purple and BS super manga-bolt III - ?
Tactician TW, SB, Pink and lime radiant gush - ?
Tactician lime, FG, BS, Orange and black fibre optic II - ?
GK TW(GP19), Purple(triumph), Orange(GP19),Lime(triumph), Grey(triumph) dominus GT: NNTR - ?
CC3 Acrobat takumi: distortion - ?
Tact black SFS vampire bat - 3k
SB SFS vampire bat - 1200
Scorer purple wrathogen - ?
ignition Scorer grey octane:vertebrate BP - ?
Ignition Tact TW ultralex BP - ?
S1 Striker TW dire wolf BP - ?
Auriga TW sweeper carbonator BP - ?
Tactician overdrive orange, crimson and saffron FGSP - ?
Black GK overdrive FGSP - ?
Elevation Striker black discotheque trail - ?
Elevation Playmaker TW nimbus - ?
OG tactician grey octane kana - ?
Striker NC portal cake topper - ?
Striker black and burnt sienna truncheons GG21/22 - ?

Obviously, I am wrong about every one of these but tell me why.
Day 1:
Alisa Amadore: fun, Norah Jones type jazz with her own voice 7/10 on The indie scale
The Beaches: Fun modern rock band with heavy 60s beach rock influence 8/10 indie scale
Talk: raspy Rock and roll, didn't shy away from covers and had a lot of fun doing it 6/10 on the headliner scale
Blue Light Bandits: heavy use of the minor key, very waily, their faster stuff was the best tbh 5/10 on the indie scale
Dropkick Murphys: Old men yell at crowd; crowd yells back 8/10 headliners
Little Fuss: Scott Pilgrim vibes with a female lead with vocals that were flat way more than they should've been. Lots of future potential here if they get a good producer 3/10 indie scale 5/10 when warmed up
Niall Horan: all the way from Brazil(Ireland) along with about 200 raving lunatic women front and center, a very technically sound performance, great use of violin, and oops, I'm now one of the raving women. Discovery of this type of music that was sitting right under my nose is exactly why I came here. Started at 6/10 and built to 9/10
Foo Fighters: wait, who are these guys? 9/10 I think if the drummer went any harder he would ignite fusion and form new elements out of the atmosphere. All gas, no breaks with these guys.
Day 2:
Neemz: R&B/rap performer; the DJ was fantastic and the performance was her singing/rapping over the recording with a very low microphone. Not a bad performance but the style doesn't lend itself well for a live show. 4/10 on the indie scale
Loveless: the world is still producing whiny boy bands and they are pretty good. Okay stage presence. 6/10 headliners scale
The Aces: Buddy Holly meets Funk; I guess that makes them the female Arctic Monkeys. Great stage presence, especially dealing with technical difficulties. I'm not sure what scale to put them on because they were so good. 10/10 indie scale but they won't get that scale next time. Consider me a new fan.
Joy Oladokun: I've heard of her and her one-hit song but I did not expect the sheer joy (pun not intended) she shares on stage. Her other non-hit stuff was a lot less waily and I am now a fan. 8/10 headliner scale
Actor Observer: Maybe because it was hardcore metal but these guys went the hardest of anyone at the festival so far. A lot of musical depth here that really came out when they were harmonizing 9/10 indie scale and this is the reason I wanted to come to this music festival, to discover new music. If you like anything hardcore from rock to metal, check them out. They live right up the street in Boston.
Noah Kahan: local Watertown boy literally draws a bigger crowd than the Lumineers. It was standing room only for the biggest stage and everyone knew the words. I was not incredibly familiar with him before the festival but this was the stage presence that I expected from the Lumineers. The embodiment of northern folk music and it shines bright. 9/10 headliners
The Flaming Lips: Going in not a fan, I saw 15 ft robots, giant balloons popping into confetti on the crowd, and a man singing from an orb. Pure childhood joy bottled, distilled, and injected into your veins. I don't believe in extended scales but the stage presence 100% overcomes any lack of technical talent. 10/10 and they literally stole the show. The words spiritual experience were brought up multiple times from different people.
The Lumineers: maybe the expectations were just too high but these guys had no stage presence. The songs sounded exactly like the album which is skillful and good but not really what live music is about. Great atmosphere in the place made up for it with people dancing and singing along. Obviously, everyone knew the words. It all felt very corporate for folk. 7/10 headliners scale.
Day 3:
Juice: The spiritual successor to Earth Wind and Fire with a lot more depth and variety. Multiple genres, they were the best opening act of the weekend. 8/10 indie scale
Wunderhorse: If you told me that Nirvana had done a colab with White Stripes I would believe you. Stage presence was basically non-existent. 8/10 indie scale because the music was so on point
Workman Song: Christian music that doesn't need to market that way. Blues folk that could stand as the soundtrack to paddle off into the sunset on a southern river. Extra points for some of the chords giving literal chills. 8/10 indie scale
Linda Lindas: Tiny girls as young as 12 sing about their cats. They accidentally rock and roll. What a stage presence... "hey crowd, what's your favorite dinosaur? Stegosaurus ? Trex?" 8/10 headliners scale.
070 Shake: Neemz could learn a thing or two from this performance. Perfect audio levels over the base track. Her vocals really added to a fantastic dj. Probably shouldn't drink mid-performance but it was still fun. 6/10 headliners scale
Sorry Mom: Sorry mom indeed. 9/10 guitar work. Lots of screaming but not so much the vocals to back it up. Don't let the rating fool you, these girls go hard. 5/10 indie scale
Genesis Owusu: Pink Floyd meets the Black Eyed Peas, there's certainly an A+ stage presence and he was all in. 7/10 headliners
Bleachers: Love letter to music production, Queen at Live Aid vibes, they know how to lead a crowd. Perfect music festival act. 8/10 headliners. Bonus points for giant tomatoes and dueling saxophones.
Ali McGuirk: Wonderful blues, Norah Jones if she was really into blues but early on in her career. 7/10 indie
Maren Morris: This woman's voice could single handedly turn the tide of a world war. It was all live and she sang her heart out. Great accompaniment and great blues, the stage was somehow too small. 8/10 headliner
Queens of the Stone Age: Stage presence was hard to determine from where I was but No One Knows was perfectly built into completely making up for any set issues prior. A lot of it felt like just biding time. 8/10 headliners scale
Paramore: What's there to say? Haley's ability to absolutely nail disjunct high notes was there 20 years ago. It hasn't gotten better because it was already perfect. There were some interesting song choices that made the performance drag but the entire stage was set up for them. 9/10
Overall:
All in all it was a fantastic festival. If the goal was to discover new music, it was a complete success. Lots of new Boston locals to appreciate and some headliners that had slipped through. The Flaming Lips, The Aces, Noah Kahan, Nial Horan, and the Linda Lindas all started out barely on my radar and absolutely blew me away.

I'm trying to capture gameplay from my PlayStation 5 into OpenCV. Using PS Remote Play, I'm able to view the live feed on my PC as a window. I then tried to read frames from this window in OpenCV, but the frame is black: Screenshot
I am using code sourced from here: just using the files main.py and windowcapture.py with the window name 'PS Remote Play'. The window does not need to be actually visible on screen, although it does need to be non-minimised.
I tried viewing other windows and had mixed results: Remote Play and Microsoft To Do show black screens, Microsoft Whiteboard shows a white screen (and it's not the board), while Spotify does actually work. So it seems the code is just a bit unreliable. I've copied the actual code I'm using here.
main.py
``` import cv2 as cv import numpy as np import os from time import time from window_capture import WindowCapture

initialize the WindowCapture class

wincap = WindowCapture('PS Remote Play')
loop_time = time() while(True):

# get an updated image of the game screenshot = wincap.get_screenshot() cv.imshow('Computer Vision', screenshot) # press 'q' with the output window focused to exit. # waits 1 ms every loop to process key presses if cv.waitKey(1) == ord('q'): cv.destroyAllWindows() break 

print('Done.') ```
window_capture.py
``` import numpy as np import win32gui, win32ui, win32con
class WindowCapture:

# properties w = 0 h = 0 hwnd = None cropped_x = 0 cropped_y = 0 offset_x = 0 offset_y = 0 # constructor def __init__(self, window_name=None): # find the handle for the window we want to capture. # if no window name is given, capture the entire screen if window_name is None: self.hwnd = win32gui.GetDesktopWindow() else: self.hwnd = win32gui.FindWindow(None, window_name) if not self.hwnd: raise Exception(f'Window not found: {window_name}') # get the window size window_rect = win32gui.GetWindowRect(self.hwnd) self.w = window_rect[2] - window_rect[0] self.h = window_rect[3] - window_rect[1] print(self.w, self.h) # account for the window border and titlebar and cut them off border_pixels = 8 titlebar_pixels = 30 self.w = self.w - (border_pixels * 2) self.h = self.h - titlebar_pixels - border_pixels self.cropped_x = border_pixels self.cropped_y = titlebar_pixels # set the cropped coordinates offset so we can translate screenshot # images into actual screen positions self.offset_x = window_rect[0] + self.cropped_x self.offset_y = window_rect[1] + self.cropped_y def get_screenshot(self): # get the window image data wDC = win32gui.GetWindowDC(self.hwnd) # get device context dcObj = win32ui.CreateDCFromHandle(wDC) cDC = dcObj.CreateCompatibleDC() dataBitMap = win32ui.CreateBitmap() dataBitMap.CreateCompatibleBitmap(dcObj, self.w, self.h) cDC.SelectObject(dataBitMap) cDC.BitBlt((0, 0), (self.w, self.h), dcObj, (self.cropped_x, self.cropped_y), win32con.SRCCOPY) # convert the raw data into a format opencv can read dataBitMap.SaveBitmapFile(cDC, 'debug.bmp') signedIntsArray = dataBitMap.GetBitmapBits(True) img = np.fromstring(signedIntsArray, dtype='uint8') img.shape = (self.h, self.w, 4) # free resources dcObj.DeleteDC() cDC.DeleteDC() win32gui.ReleaseDC(self.hwnd, wDC) win32gui.DeleteObject(dataBitMap.GetHandle()) # drop the alpha channel img = img[...,:3] # make image C_CONTIGUOUS img = np.ascontiguousarray(img) return img # find the name of the window you're interested in. # once you have it, update window_capture() # https://stackoverflow.com/questions/55547940/how-to-get-a-list-of-the-name-of-every-open-window @staticmethod def list_window_names(): def winEnumHandler(hwnd, ctx): if win32gui.IsWindowVisible(hwnd): print(hex(hwnd), win32gui.GetWindowText(hwnd)) win32gui.EnumWindows(winEnumHandler, None) # translate a pixel position on a screenshot image to a pixel position on the screen. # pos = (x, y) # WARNING: if you move the window being captured after execution is started, this will # return incorrect coordinates, because the window position is only calculated in # the __init__ constructor. def get_screen_position(self, pos): return (pos[0] + self.offset_x, pos[1] + self.offset_y) 

```
I realise this will be pretty tough to reproduce, but any advice will be much appreciated.

Hey Sportsfans — it's time for Week 9 of baseball Power Rankings: It may be Tuesday, but still thought about how much we dislike your favorite team 8 Days a Week. Also pool side blackjack is now my favorite part of Las Vegas. John Fisher, please ignore.
Every voter has their own style / system and the only voting instructions are these:

"To an extent determined individually, you must take into account how strong a team is right now and likely to be going forward. You must, to some degree, give weight to the events and games of the previous week."

TRANSPARENCY: This link will show you who voted each team where and has added neat statistics!
New Voter Chance: Are you a fan of the Dodgers? Why? We have a new voter oppening. Please see the info in threa ddetails that will be posted shortly and a link added here. when up.
If something is a little messed up, feel free to pester me let me know.
Total Votes: 28 of 29. So close.

#		Team	Δ	Comment	Record
1		Rays	0	Everyone's favorite myliobatiformes played another good week of baseball with the return of Tyler Glasnow. The Rays took an exciting series against the Dodgers after recharging during a weird mid-series rest day against the Blue Jays. Wander Franco is making his case to be starting SS in the All-Star Game, just make sure you don't accidentally vote for one of his brothers. It's still super weird to watch the offense carry while the bullpen struggles, but with guys coming back it should be f--, wait, Fairbanks is hurt again.	39-17
2		Rangers	+1	Series wins against both the Pirates and Orioles the last week has the club holding the 3rd best overall record in the majors. Go Stars. We're still having fun.	34-19
3		Braves	-1	3-4 last week and we started this week off with a loss against the Oakland "Triple A's" which is not good Bob. On the VERY brightside, we saw Soroka pitch from an MLB mound for the first time in almost 3 years. He pitched well and we need him to perform as we are absolutely depleted by injuries. Riley is starting to come to life. We hold a 4 game lead on the scond place MARLINS. Our division doesn't want to take advantage of our recent struggles, that's fine by me.	32-22
4		Dodgers	+1		33-22
5		Orioles	-1	A few weeks ago, I said if the Orioles can go at least .500 in May then they are for real. They wrapped up a winning month yesterday and have three games to go. They continue to play well, even though they lost the series against the Rangers, and seem to play better away from Camden Yards. They did, however, send Grayson Rodriguez down this week to AAA. He just has some stuff to figure out. He was getting crushed in his past few starts, and it was the right move to make. This solidifies the fact they need a frontline starter if they are going to make a serious push to get to and make noise in the post-season.	34-20
6		Astros	0	Jose Abreu finally hit a home run. All is right with the world. Unless the world's name is Lance McCullers Jr., who had another discomforting setback and we have no idea when we will see him this year. I still blame his hair. Anyway, our other Jose hit a grand slam at MMP this weekend. Where have we heard that before?	31-22
7		Yankees	0	It certainly would’ve been nice to take 2/3 from Baltimore, but it’s very hard to be mad at the Yankees’ month of May. Since May 1, the Yankees are 18-9, a huge turnaround from a .500 April. As we enter the dog days of summer, the top of the AL East is tightening up, but the Yankees don’t face either of the teams ahead of them again until July. The Yankees have to keep playing at this pace, and a Stanton (and maybe Rodon??) return could seriously help that.	33-23
8		D-Backs	+1	The Diamondbacks had a decent week, barely missing out on a sweep of the Phillies before dropping a series to the Red Sox. The offense gets on base but has been allergic to driving in RISP, and the starting rotation continues to be a merry-go-round, as none of the rookie pitchers on the team seem to be able to string together several good starts in a row without getting blown up once or twice.	31-23
9		Blue Jays	+1	The Jays' first series win since May 14th pulled us out of a bad-vibes tailspin the likes of which this fanbase hasn't seen since, well, the last time everybody freaked out over a losing streak. The usual suspects' continued confounding slow starts (Manoah, Kirk, Varsho, etc) have dropped us 10 games back from TB, last place in the best division in baseball. And YET, hope springs. Berrios (3 or fewer ER in 8 of his last 9 starts) finally appears to be pitching to the level expected of him when he was signed, and is pumping out quality starts along with Gausman and Bassitt. Kikuchi has slipped as Kikuchi does but has been very solid for a #5. We don't have the depth to send Manoah down for some needed alone time, but he's pushing it. Vladdy has been scuffling, Springer is heating up, and Bichette is an MVP candidate. With a little bit of lucky regression to the mean with abysmal RISP numbers, this team is just a few turns away from being very good. As long as we don't have to play too many games vs AL East teams. That should be fine.	28-26
10		Twins	-2		28-26
11		Mariners	+4	Just what the doctor ordered - 6-1 in the homestand so far. Some momentum is just what this team needs before two big series with teams they're chasing for playoff spots. If the M's can handle business over the next week, they'll be right back in the thick of it. Bryce Miller, do your thing. Up next: 3 vs. Damn Yankees, 3 @ Globe Life ParkFieldStadiumGardensArenaDomewhatever they're calling it these days	28-26
12		Red Sox	-1	Scoring four runs total while getting swept by the Angels isn't a great look. This team is in many ways aggresively mediocre, always making sure that every win streak is followed up by an equally painful gut-punch. This is mainly due to the reliance on the offense to carry us to victory (2-17 when scoring <=3 runs), when the bats get cold, you're safe to turn off the game. Whitlock returning from injury and Bello/Sale both stepping up their game in May (2.74/2.42 ERA respectively) are good steps towards this team becoming Actually Good™ though. We'll see what June brings us...	28-25
13		Brewers	-1	Taking two of three from the Astros was nice. Barely avoiding a sweep from the Giants was not so sweet. Milwaukee has some issues with hitting in "close" situations. The Brewers either lose after having multiple opportunities to tie it up, or get absolutely blown out.	28-25
14		Angels	0	Did I travel out of state and all the way to Anaheim just to watch the team get swept by the Marlins? Perhaps. Was that objectively worse than what the Reds voter is going through? It's impossible to say.	29-26
15		Mets	-2	The Mets, who I proclaimed to be "good at baseball" last week, ended up dropping 2 of 3 against the Cubs and doing the same against the Rockies. I just don't know what to believe anymore. The only thing I know for sure is that Francisco Alvarez has got that fucking dawg in him, he's GOATed, he's him, he's on fleek, he's poggers, he's a proper legend, he's got an .885 OPS, he's a top bloke, he's got swag, he's fresh, he's Gen Z Mike Piazza, he's lit, he's making me feel old because he was born after 9/11, he's Francisco Alvarez.	27-27
16		Gigantes	+4	The Giants won yesterday, but strictly talking about last week, they went 5- 2 on an extremely acceptable road trip without any off days. Defeating two competent teams like the Twins and Brewers should feel good. On both losses, they gave up 7 runs, on every win they gave up 3, 1, or 0 runs. So, they threw two games out of 7 – that’s allowed. In the bad news department, Joc, Joey, and Thairo all not expected back until June 6th. I think we’re okay with more Bailey Patrick and this also means another look at unpredictable slugger David Villar. Slater continues covering for Joc. Let’s look a the numbers: 13th in MLB in Run Diff (+6 spots), 12th in RS / G (+6), 15th in RA / G (+2), 23rd in Bullpen ERA (+5). All of that is good and especially the bullpen is promising recently. The Giants continue at home vs the Pirates and wrap the homestand with 3 against our orange and black brothers in Baltimore.	28-26
17		Pirates	-1	Would I have been happy to learn on Opening Day that the Pirates would be around .500 at the end of May? Yes. But if you told me they got there after starting 20-8 I would be pretty disappointed. Here's hoping the pendulum swings the other way in June.	26-27
18		Marlins	+3	Yet another appearance of sweepy, the meme that was promised. After a rough series against the rox, we sweep the angels to settle into the third NL wild card spot. Our starting pitching is coming along after a bumpy start to several of our starters. Eury perez is gonna be a stud, just wanna remind yall. Also, shout out to Jorge Soler, who has been crushing baseballs the last week and change. In other miami sports related news, boston is the first city ever to lose two game 7s at home in both the NHL and NBA playoffs in the same year. Go Heat and go Panthers!	28-26
19		Phillies	-2	After losing 2 to the Diamondbacks and going down 5-0 in the 3rd game, the Phillies season looked as bleak as it could in late May while only being 4 games under .500. However, the team rallied and Trea Turner tied it in the 9th before going onto win it in 10. Then, they went down to Atlanta and split a 4 game series. It could've gone far worse. The Phillies most pressing need is now seemingly a 5th starter who isn't a guaranteed loss, as this week they trotted out Dylan Covey, who hadn't started a game since 2019. He got 2 outs and gave up 7 runs. He took the spot of Bailey Falter who, after a surprisingly productive 2022, started the season 0-7. Falter is the far better option, but Dave Dombrowski will likely be looking to upgrade until Andrew Painter can finally return. This week, the NL East road trip continues with their first 3 games against the Mets and 3 in Washington. Here's hoping June Schwarber shows up again this year.	25-28
20		Padres	-1	My Dad tells me it’s ok that the Dad’s lost 2 / 3 to NY; the Dodgers lost 2 / 3 to the Rays! The Pads aren’t in the same stratosphere as the Dodgers right now, though. 5 games under .500, 10th in the NL standings, 3 games out of the last wildcard slot. Of course there’s quite a bit of time to change it, there’s plenty of time to go on a run, or a slow and steady good month to gain ground. With every day that passes however, that goal becomes a bit harder to reach; I don’t think Pads fans were hoping for a wildcard spot by the end of this season, but that’s the position the team has to get to before even thinking of catching LA. The Padres are 4th in the NL West, and only a half game out of last.	24-29
21		Cardinals	-3	2-2 @ CIN; 1-2 @ CLE; 0-1 v KCR; another struggle week for the Cards. The fandom's been a bit kneejerk because of two good weeks before this. Their mistake. I'll say it a third time, the Cards playing at or beyond their expected level doesn't change the rotten FO. Yeah Marmol's pretty close to being fired, that's not a fix when the problem is John Mozeliak.	24-32
22		Tigers	+2	The most fun part of this past week has been watching the resurgence of Akil Baddoo. His energy is infectious and adds an exciting dimension to the lineup. As we head into the last few days of May, Baddoo has sported a .302/.405/.508 slash and a 155 wRC+ this month. Although he's still been hitting mostly in the 6 hole, if this keeps up he might find himself much higher in the order real soon. This week: 2 more vs. TEX and 3 at CWS.	25-27
23		Guardians	0	The Guardians won a series this week. I would like to see them win some games by more than one run, but it's clear this season, we have to take what we get.	24-29
24		Cubs	-2	Another terrible week for the Cubs, as a promising series win against the Mets was followed up by an embarrassing sweep against the Reds. The starting rotation was terrible, and the bullpen was somehow worse. Fans have had enough of David Ross, and Jed Hoyer is starting to come under pressure. Barring a dramatic turnaround, the Cubs will be sellers for the 3rd trade deadline in a row	23-30
25		Reds	+1	Okay guys, I’m here to be calm this week. I have been told by my wife’s attorney, Tom, that they are “aware” of my online activity regarding our impending divorce, so today let’s have a nice, calm, relaxing, perfectly fine, good old fashioned talk about Reds baseball. The Reds are just sorta middling. They’re not great but they’re not horrible. Unlike my marriage. Our starting pitching has resgressed, just like my marriage, and it’s very unfortunate to see, because our bullpen has been quite reliable unlike my wife. We still can’t hit home runs for some reason, but overall unlike my marriage the Reds on the upturn. There, are you happy Tom? I didn’t mention all the crap that’s been going on lately. I didn’t mention how I had to leave the Motel 6 I was at because I found a used needle in the bathroom, and by the way Tom, I know that you’re trying to use that as evidence that I can’t take care of my kids. I don’t even know who’s needle it was, it was like wedged behind the toilet. Believe me, I only found it because I dropped my phone while using the toilet. It wasn’t even visible, I had to like get on my hands and knees and crawl behind the toilet to grab my phone. So it puts the image in my head of some heroin addict or whatever sitting behind a toilet at a Motel 6 trying to get high, which honestly that just seems like an even worse situation than the one i’m in. Do I think it’s a coincidence that the day after I left the Motel 6 because of this, you’re requesting a drug test from me before I can see my kids? Huh Tom? How did you know about this incident Tom? The only people that know are the Motel 6 staff I notified, I don’t think any police showed up, so either you questioned them like i’m some criminal, or you’re following me. I know you’re reading this Tom, you’ve made several references to my posts on the baseball power rankings insinuating it’s me writing them, and yeah Tom you’re right it is me, can everybody in the comments give praise to Tom for being a regular Sherlock Holmes? Yeah everybody come on, Congratulations Tom! You’re the man! I’m gonna let you go home and fuck my sister, oh wait Tom I forgot, YOU ALREADY ARE. When you get home tonight tell Caitlin her brother says hi. Alright, I think I got that out of my system. Anyway, I think once more of our prospects are called up, probably around June or July, we may get hot and finish more closely to .500 than initially thought, and if this division stays like it is, and those prospects can deliver on their promise, it's entirely possible we could be in contention for the division. But a lot of this is gonna depend on if our Starting Rotation can get things back under control. Also we swept the Cubs so lol.	24-29
26		Nationals	-1	Week after week, I expect this Nats team to take a nose dive. I expect them to crumble and slip into a double-digit losing streak but it just isn't happening. They lead the NL in batting average (.267), are third in OBP (.330) and have the lowest strikeout rate in MLB. They still have their own troubles, but this team is alive (4 games out of a WC spot)	23-31
27		Rockies	+1	I don't have time to write a real blurb this week so you don't have to print this. Actually, you probably don't read these, I'm not sure anyone really reads them anyways besides the Reds guy's life breaking down, and this will probably get printed regardless.	24-31
28		White Sox	-1	Liam is back. I can't overstate how great that is to hear. He is one of the best people in the game and it's nothing short of amazing for him to be pitching in May. If you missed it, it was recently revealed that he had stage 4 lymphoma, not an early stage. He started treatment just over 3 months ago! Nothing on the field matters for this team, but at least there's that silver lining.	22-34
29		Royals	0	As of the time that this blurb is being written (Monday at 11:39 AM), only two teams in the majors have a record below .400. Yup, the Royals are there with the A's. I suppose the positive is that the team figured out that they can get rid of useless players in Hunter Dozier, but they still have a lot more work to do.	17-38
30		Atléticos	0	The A's have given up 10+ runs in a game 7 more times than they've won. It's a mix of bad roster building (the bullpen), under-preforming vets (Ramon Laureano 74 wRC+, Tony Kemp 38 wRC+), injuries (Seth Brown and Paul Blackburn are just now returning), and no fans in the stands since 2019. It's soul crushing to watch and the national media's constant condecention toward this particular poor team and it is even more annoying this year.	11-45

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Official Images: Nike Cortez Supersonic
Dropping later on this year, here are official images of the Nike Cortez Supersonic.
Said to be part of a larger Nike Supersonic collection, the Nike Cortez Supersonic comes constructed in a full leather build alongside mesh being used on the tongues and lining. The sneaker is given a White and Light Bone upper contrasted by the Black hits on the Swooshes, heel tabs, tongue labels, and inner lining. The sneaker is highlighted by the unique Supersonic logos stamped onto the heels and graphic insoles. Finishing touches include the 3M reflective Swooshes and heel tabs atop a White, Black, and Sail rubber sole.
The Nike Cortez Supersonic has no release date, but current reports have them making their debut in the coming months at select Nike Sportswear retailers and Nike.com. For a complete guide including official photos, release dates, pricing and where to buy, visit: Nike Cortez Supersonic.
In Nike news, the Nike Zoom Vomero 5 Varsity Maize drops on SNKRS on June 6th.

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Release Date: adidas Ultra 4D Wonder White
Are you a fan of the adidas Ultra 4D? If so, peep the adidas Ultra 4D in the Wonder White colorway that set to arrive just in time for the summer season.
The adidas Ultra 4D is essentially a modified version of the Ultra Boost model (upper) that’s given a 3D-printed 4D midsole resulting in unique cushioning and support that will come in clutch during your next run. This new colorway of the model comes dressed in a Wonder White and Impact Orange color scheme. It consists of a Primeknit upper constructed with at least 50% recycled materials that is then offset by the Orange branding on the tongue labels, heel tabs, and insoles. Other details include the signature plastic caging and heel counter all while being placed atop a 3D-printed midsole.
Retailing for $220, the adidas Ultra 4D Wonder White will release on June 1st at select adidas Originals retailers and adidas.com.
In other news, the Air Jordan 1 Low OG Black Cement is dropping soon.

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Coming Soon: adidas Response CL Sandstorm
Dropping in the coming months, here are official images of the adidas Response CL in the Sandstorm colorway.
The adidas Response CL made its debut back in 2020. This is a model that pays homage to the brand’s running technologies from the 2000s such as the Response Cushion from 2003, to the Response Control 7 from 2007.
This new in-house colorway comes dressed in a Sandstorm, Off White, and Magic Beige color scheme. It is constructed in a mix of mesh with synthetic leather alongside suede overlays. Design details include the TPU Three Stripes on the sides, adidas Trefoil logos on the tongue and heels atop an EVA cushioned midsole. An Off-White midsole and Black rubber outsole is also in play.
Retailing for $130, look for the adidas Response CL Sandstorm to release in the coming months at select retailers and adidas.com.
In other news, the Air Jordan 1 Low OG Black Cement is dropping soon.

Been at this for a bit but I've been working at playing something long term, and what's more long term than Sevtech. So every Age I'm setting myself a list of achievements to complete before I move on to the next Age! I've found it very relaxing to sit back and just take my time with this, and I encourage anyone else with the patience to do this as well, and even add to the list ^^
Age 0
​
Make a farm with every possible crop type

• Wheat
• Pumpkin
• Melon
• Carrot
• Potato
• Beetroot
• Rice
• Canola
• Flax [LOCKED UNTIL ???]
• Coffee
• Hemp
• Barley
• Cotton
• Corn
• Grape
• Chili Pepper
• Tomato [LOCKED UNTIL WOODEN STAKES]
• Wildberry

​
Make a tree farm with every available wood type

• Oak
• Spruce
• Birch
• Jungle
• Acacia
• Dark Oak
• Darklands Oak
• Mulberry
• Sakura (Better with Addons)
• Maple
• Silverbell
• Amaranth
• Tigerwood
• Willow
• Eucalyptus
• Hopseed
• Sakura (Natura)
• Redwood
• Yew
• Olive
• Ironwood
• Red Cedar
• Fir

​
Obtain 100% in all 4 diets, and then all at once

• Fruit
• Grain
• Protein
• Vegetable
• All At Once

​
Build a House

• Build one full floor of a house
• Build a full second floor
• Build a full basement
• Build a full roof
• Build a chimney that wont burn your house down using real fire [MOVED TO AGE 1 FOR BUILDING MATERIALS]

​
Obtain

• Antique Atlas
• Wild Dog Pelt Boots
• A full set of Wolf Pelt Armor
• Bear Claw Paxel
• A full set of Leather Armor
• A Breeding Harness for the memes
• Diamond
• Emerald
• A Lucid Scroll
• A Backpack with a Stone Upgrade
• A Swamp Talisman

​
Fill a 'Shelf' with:

• Bio-Coal or Charcoal in preparation for the Melter
• Plant Twine
• Raw Hide
• Salt
• Ground Resin
• Cobblestone
• Marble
• Yew Sticks
• Yew Arils
• Dirt
• Sand
• Clay
• Gravel
• Thatch
• Sticks
• Worms

​
Get a stack of:

• Shadow Gems
• Bone Arrows
• Flint Arrows
• Leather

​
Build a Totemic area with all totems, large and powerful enough to rival Syrinx, The Sun Dance, and Baykok himself.

• Obtain a Pan's Flute
• Complete the Sun Dance as fast as possible
• Kill Baykok in Age Zero
• Obtain all instruments
• Obtain a Totemic Staff
• Use a Totemic Staff to cancel Totentanz at the very end just because you can

​
Have a flower farm with one two tall flower of each color

• Red
• Orange
• Yellow
• Green
• Blue
• Purple
• Lime [NO SUCH FLOWER EXISTS]
• Magenta
• Light Blue
• Pink
• Cyan [NO SUCH FLOWER EXISTS]
• Brown
• Gray [NO SUCH FLOWER EXISTS]
• Light Gray
• White
• Black [NO SUCH FLOWER EXISTS]

​
Build

• A Kiln, Smelting, & Smeltery area [MOVED TO AGE 1 FOR BUILDING MATERIALS]
• All automatic horse machines, powered by buffalos within chunk borders to prevent lead breaking
• Bridges for all areas so you never have to swim on base
• Name and label all districts so any guests can't possibly get lost
• A wall for defense, complete with auto killing for any mobs who dare to encroach
• A path from spawn to base which is aesthetically pleasing the entire way
• A shack to show off your first work stump
• A leatherworking area, complete with nearby infinite water, a tall barrel, tons of drying racks, and later on a space to put your wooden cauldrons
• A decorative automated cactus farm
• A house for a snow golem

​
Worship of the Elder Gods

• Build a temple for all of the gods besides Cthulhu, he isn't even a god, just a priest [MOVED TO AGE 1 FOR BUILDING MATERIALS]
• Build a shame hole for Cthulhu and lock his Idols away [MOVED TO AGE 1]
• Empty a Shogoth pit through only combat

​
Complete all Advancements BEFORE moving on to Age 1

I am following Shaun Spalding's action RPG tutorial to help learn GML. But for text box, I for the life of me cannot figure out why nothing is appearing. Just to jump ahead of some corrections, the object is in the room and marked as visible. The code is below for my textbox object.
​
Create:

x1 = RESOLUTION_W/2; y1 = RESOLUTION_H-79; x2 = RESOLUTION_W/2; y2 = RESOLUTION_H; x1Target = 0; x2Target = RESOLUTION_W; lerpProgress = 0; textProgress = 0; textmessage = "Default message test" background = 0; 

Step:

lerpProgress += (1 - lerpProgress) / 50; textProgress += global.textSpeed; x1 = lerp(x1,x1Target,lerpProgress); x2 = lerp(x2,x2Target,lerpProgress); if (keyboard_check_pressed(vk_space)) { var _messageLength = string_length(textmessage); if (textProgress >= _messageLength) { instance_destroy() } else { if (textProgress > 2) { textProgress = _messageLength; } } } 

Draw GUI:

draw_sprite_stretched(spr_dialoguebox, background, x1, y1, x2 - x1, y2 - y1) draw_set_font(TestFont); draw_set_halign(fa_center); draw_set_valign(fa_top); draw_set_color(c_black); var _print = string_copy(textmessage,1,textProgress); draw_text((x1+x2)/2+1, y1+5, _print); draw_set_color(c_white); draw_text((x1+x2)/2, y1+4, _print); 

I appreciate the help!

Hi im new to pc building and wanted to make sure i made correct choices
This is what i've come up with and if i need to do corrections.
Intel Core i7 13700KF -
Gigabyte Z790 AORUS ELITE AX -
ASUS TUF Gaming AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT OC
NZXT C850 Gold v2 850w powersuply -
Fractal Design Pop Air - White TG Clear Tint
Noctua NH-D15 - CPU cooler
Corsair Vengeance LPX 6000 mhz ddr5 ram
WD Black SN770 1TB - m2
Thanks :)