Sorry if this is long winded. I struggle to give enough background and detail without giving too much.
I'm still a very noob programmer. Little expertise. Self Taught. Very few hours in any actual programming projects. I'm not the type of person who needs my hand held or needs told to pull myself up by my boot straps - but I don't have any great ideas for what direction I want to go here. One of the biggest motivations that lead me to want to program was that I was playing games that I wanted to automate, (a couple differnet MMORPG's). I started early with basic keyboard/mouse script programs and now I use basic python frameworks to do a real job, non gaming related, doing automated app testing. It's not the same type of 'automation' i was doing but the years of trial and error I gained doing my gaming 'automation' translated in ways I didn't imagine they actually ever would.
The long and short of this is that I don't game as much anymore. I still love to game, I still game in my free time, and my favorite game type is still MMORPG's. The problem is that I recognize how easy it is to spend massive amounts of time on MMORPG games and so i avoid them in order to maintain the productivity i've clawed back from when I used to live on them.
I don't have a specific question here. I'm not necessarily asking for ways to re-motivate myself but moreso wondering if anyone with more programming expertise has experienced anything similar or wondeirng how other people maintain their enjoyment for programming in general.
I don't know if i'll ever find that same motivation that I used to have but i'm not going to stop programming because of that. Sometimes when thinking through this I think I could go back to my MMORPG's and rather than "game 90% 'automate' 10%" I could find a 50/50 or 10/90 happy-area.
I have other small projects that I could work on to get better at my web design languages and either way my work will slowly improve my python skills and skills that are necessity for my current career. But i'm sort of at a loss for projects that I REALLY have motivation to work on so that I can improve more than just while at work, and actually enjoy seeing the fruit of my labors.
FYI 1: I realize that scripts/third party programs break TOS of many games. I do not want that to become any part of this discussion as it won't affect my future decisions in anyway. I do not play my games to make money and do not plan on doing anything that is going to give me an unfair advantage over other people. The only advantage I gain is saving my own real life time and getting to see something I created actually work for a fun reason and not a boring work reason...

How does PSLF work for dentists?
Brother has a 10yr plan, strongly considering going to a FQHC but how do you find out if it’s PSLF eligible and if it is, how do they work?
He searched through the HRSA connector and found some positions with HSA scores in the mid 20’s, but how does PSLF factor in here, and doesn’t TX(his state) give out some loan forgiveness for FQHC/public health? It’s all very confusing and too many acronyms honestly.

Background Currently one calendar year down, and my (F27) 12th cycle trying. I had called our local fertility clinic in the middle of my 11th cycle, because I had heard that it can take many months before getting an appointment. The clinic was able to get us in very quickly, so I figured we would start the process a tad bit early. We don’t need any referral, insurance covers a good amount of fertility testing thankfully, and our clinic doesn’t have any strict rules on when you can start with them.
I have severe anxiety and have read and watched nearly every single HSG related thing I could find.
HSG Experience So to start, the doctor we have already been meeting with for everything was out of town the week of my HSG, and I was seen by another RE from the clinic. The procedure was done at a neighboring radiology spot, by the RE from the fertility clinic. I prepped with a Xanax and 800mg of ibuprofen an hour before. I was more anxious about being anxious on the table than I was about the pain. They take me back to a tiny room with a couple of lockers and have me undress waist down, and put a gown on over my shirt and head to the X-ray room. It was an unfriendly room and I passed through the tiny room with all the computers and a tech. A different tech has me lay on the pad on the flat table with my feet on the corner awkwardly. I had a pillow under my head and focused on taking big deep breaths which helped a lot.
Doctor walks in, explains the first part is like a Pap smear, speculum goes in, he cleans my cervix. The speculum hurt more than I’m used to but not too bad. Then he tries to insert the catheter. I guess I have a small cervix opening so he had to use a different technique to get it in. This is where the pain starts and I’m ready to have everything ripped out of me. 7/10 pain.
Next, I assume is the dye portion(he didn’t tell me when this started) because I started to feel some more weird cramping, almost stinging feeling. And just like that the doctor says everything looks good and removes all the things from me. Relief from pain, but my legs feel a little wobbly.
The pain stayed a 7/10 throughout with some increases here and there, but like others have stated, it only took a few minutes and was all over. It was similar to a period cramp but a little more stinging and overall full feeling.
As I write this I’m 30 minutes post HSG with very mild cramping and ready for a nap from my Xanax.
I’m glad both tubes are clear, and my day 3 ultrasound was good. Now we see how my bloodwork and husband’s(34M) SA is at our follow up next week.

Just speaking from personal experience. I had a 4.5 month streak and then fell off the band wagon again, it took me about a month to try being sober again.
The first try being sober I felt like every milestone was an accomplishment, every month felt long waiting to make it to the next month.
This second time, I’m now at 3 months sober and it felt like this time has flown by! Probably because I knew that I could make it since I proved it to myself last time. Reaching 4.5 months again seems so attainable and almost like a small milestone, and I’m looking out past this time to 5 or 6 months and feeling confident that I can make it.
So TL;DR don’t feel like your relapses are failures. As many of us say it on here, they are part of the journey. Get back on that horse and you’ll realize how the second go around is easier than the first!

35 (almost 36), AMH 1.16, FSH 7.3 Protocol: - Gonal-F 300, Menopur 75 then 150 after day 3, Cetrotide after day 7 - Primed 2 weeks with bc
I’m on day 10 of stims, and my RE has recommended that we cancel this cycle due to only having 3 follicles of viable size. I feel so let down. I’m also frustrated at how long this journey is taking already. We started this process in January, and we have nothing to show for it. It’s been exhausting (waking up at 5:30 am to get to our clinic an hour away for monitoring appointments), time consuming (so many emails and calls with insurance), sometimes painful (HSG test sucked), and emotional (both from the hormones and the nature of the experience). It’s been so stressful on me and on my spouse during an already stressful time with looming layoffs at my company and her mother being diagnosed with cancer.
Most of my close friends are decidedly child-free and can’t understand why I want to have a kid to begin with, and the rest of them are pregnant/recently delivered after just one month of trying (no joke).
We are restarting the process after I get my period with a different protocol: different priming, 150 Menopur from the start, Lupron). I’m increasing my Ubiquinol supplementation (was only taking 100mg). I’m not sure if there’s reasonably anything else I can do.
I had adjusted expectations to have to do a couple rounds of IVF to get some viable blasts, but to get nothing the first round is a punch to the gut. I’m feeling like we’ve been pedaling to get over this mountain for the past 5 months only to break through the clouds and see the mountain has no end in sight.

Looks like a thread on the status of Wayland support (as of late May 2023) might be welcome. (This obviously concerns the 1.2.x nightly releases.) Here are a few bullet points in this regard: 1. Currently, the info on the Rustdesk website, forums, and Github, is far from clear on this issue. The question is, then, is Wayland support currently being worked on? Or is it that Wayland support is at an impasse, and there are no Wayland plans for the immediate future? Is there a concerted and deliberate effort to get Rustdesk working on Wayland, or is it that, aside from random attempts to fix reported bugs, no deliberate efforts are being undertaken in this regard? For short, is Wayland support currently awaiting a miracle? 2. Has anybody managed to make Rustdesk work in Wayland? (A simple yes/no answer should suffice.) 3. Out of those who managed to make Rustdesk work on Wayland, how many managed to make the Flatpak and/or AppImage packages work in Wayland?
Many thanks to those who work on Rustdesk, and also to those who bother chiming in with their answers to the above.

How does PSLF work for dentists?
Brother has a 10yr plan, strongly considering going to a FQHC but how do you find out if it’s PSLF eligible and if it is, how do they work?
He searched through the HRSA connector and found some positions with HSA scores in the mid 20’s, but how does PSLF factor in here, and doesn’t TX(his state) give out some loan forgiveness for FQHC/public health? It’s all very confusing and too many acronyms honestly.

My wife is transitioning, we are about a year in (and been together 5 years). She is wonderful. She makes me so happy and is the one person that understands me completely - we love each other very much. I fully support her transition and anything else she does in life. She is truly amazing and very strong.
However, I've been finding that my experience as her partner during her transition has been quite hard at times - not because of her, because of the world we live in. I am so often stressed that she will be targeted, constantly trying to be vigilant when we are on date nights, worrying about her so much when she's out on her own. We are quite poor, and can't afford anything apart from the essentials and the occasional date, so we can't buy much to help my wife feel good about her outfits or body. If I had the money, I'd help her get everything she needs to feel good and happy, but I have about 12p to my name at time of writing, so that is not an option. Her mental health getting worse as transitioning stress, money stress etc gets to her. She also has a lot of physical symptoms from the stress (aching constantly, headaches, breathlessness, insomnia etc) that we are trying to cope with.
I feel so helpless. I keep doing what I'm doing - working part-time (16-20 hrs / week) , trying to do all the housework and cleaning as she's too burnt out to, and trying to look after her - but I feel like I am not doing enough. Does anyone have any advice on finding strength and supporting your trans loved one? I feel so burned out, we both are, but we don't have many LGBTQIA+ people around us, and everyone else around us seems to be having a great life so we feel like no one in our friends/ family will understand. Is it just us who is finding it hard? How do you cope? Any advice is welcome. I just feel very alone in this. I just want to be the best partner I can be for her.

Hi! I'm NB, 24, 164cm, trying to lose 15kg by the end of this year (going from 75kg to 60kg). I'm kinda confused about my activity level and also if my goal is good (achievable?). I'm new to weight loss. I have been struggling with depression + gender dysphoria because of my weight for a long time, so this year I decided to take care of myself :)
I'm a fulltime home-office worker (9-6, 5d/w) and only do ~30 min walks every day (walking my dog). I have mild scoliosis so I'm always in pain, which is why usually I refrain from exercise. I don't have a car and hate buses so I walk everywhere, but I don't leave my house a lot. I do 2 km a day (3k steps) with my dog consistently, tracking with Google Fit. I have been trying to do ~30 min of Just Dance with my Switch but the feeling of being sweaty disgusts me a lot. I prefer to keep walking instead.
I'm using the app Lose It! and have my exercise level at "Somewhat active" (Equivalent to walking around 3km per day) and have a budget of 1664 calories/day but I'm starting to wonder if this is the right choice. I don't actually eat 1600 calories a day, I do >1400 calories (I don't have breakfast bc I feel sick eating in the morning, my snacks are around 150 calories / day, I'm trying to be mindful of what I eat but I'm someone who typically doesn't like fried/junk food). The "Not active" plan states "equivalent to walking less than 1.5km a day" so I'm a middle between those two.
Should I be choosing "Not Active" and have the safe minimum (1350 calories/day) option on?
I started my journey on May 18th and have lost 1.8kg. The app states that if I eat 1600 I would reach my goal by the end of the year but if my exercise is wrong and should be Not active, I'm actually eating 100cals more than I should to reach it.
I hope my post is not all over the place, my mind is a bit of a scramble right now. I really want to lose the weight and I have been sticking to my plan very good without doing things negatively (I don't say "you're bad if you eat that piece of chocolate, you're over your daily!") but this is probably because I only see good goals because of how the app is set right now. I also don't know if it still would be better for my mental health to keep it as 1600 but try and eat 1400 instead, just so I don't see red numbers with the 1350?
Thanks everyone for reading :)

This is the sixth, and potentially final, article in our revamp of the subreddit wiki, written by members of our discord community. As before, please see the article below and post your comments, critiques, and questions to help make this resource the highest quality possible. The focus is on teaching beginner's the basics, and giving them a starting point for experimentation as they grow and learn.
----------------------------------------------------

Packing

Your bowl, and your tobacco pack, are the two most important parts of your session. Packing your bowl is something that, once learned, can be very simple, but while you’re learning it will take some experimentation and careful thought. Understanding the mechanics behind why certain tobaccos like to be packed a certain way, what happens during the smoking process, and how to maximize your session for the least amount of tobacco are things that will take time, trial and error, and perseverance to learn.
The guidelines below should not be taken as things that are true 100% of the time, but rather as good starting points when approaching a new tobacco or learning a new bowl. Adjustments little by little will reveal how each packing method fares in a certain environment.

Mechanics

When packing, there are some concepts to keep in mind.
The looser, or ‘fluffier’, your pack, the more airflow you’re allowing into your bowl at once. While this means less shisha, and depending on the brand a higher heat sensitivity, this will allow all of your tobacco to heat up from the warm air as you pull easier. Fluffier packs, when done correctly, contribute more to bigger clouds and longer pulls.
The juice from your shisha will slowly drip from the leaves downward, depending on how wet your shisha is and the specific type it will influence whether or not you want to pack in a phunnel bowl to conserve all the juice or in an Egyptian style to allow for greater airflow. As a starting point, when experimenting with a new type of shisha, darker leafs are more comfortable in a phunnel bowl, and blondes in an Egyptian. Remember though, this is not a hard and fast rule.
The height of your pack will influence how quickly your shisha heats up, both initially and throughout your session. A common starting point when experimenting with packing is to have the top of your tobacco about a quarter’s width under the rim, to avoid direct contact with the foil. With some fluffier packs, slight touching of the foil can help with overall flavor, however as a general rule you want to avoid the shisha and the foil directly touching each other to avoid early-session burning.
With these mechanics in mind, some have found success in using a foil poker to poke through the shisha to the bottom of a bowl when using denser packs. Theoretically this allows for some increased airflow and movement of the juice as it heats.

Densities

As a general guide, we can consider there to be three main packing types based on how high and loose your tobacco is placed in your bowl.

• Fluffy
  • A fluffy pack is defined by being very loose, and very high. Using a low amount of shisha, these packs are good for blonde leafs and other tobaccos that enjoy a lot of airflow and help encourage even heating through transfer of warm air.
• Dense
  • Dense packing is when you stuff your shisha deep into the bowl, and layer it on top of itself pressing down as you can to contain as much shisha in your bowl as is reasonable. Dark leafs will often use a dense pack to provide longer sessions, provided strong heating from HMDs or coals. When you dense pack until the shisha is very solid, and almost no more can fit, this is often referred to as a ‘cement pack’.
• Normal
  • Normal packs are an inbetween from fluffy and dense. Pressed down to allow more shisha in your bowl, but still fluffy enough to allow for strong airflow. When first experimenting with a new shisha brand this is often a good place to start.

Packing steps

Basic packing comes in three steps: the pinch, the roll, the pat.
First take your shisha from its container, pinched in between two fingers, to your bowl. Roll your fingers over it to separate leaves that are stuck together and let them individually fall into your bowl. As this happens and you initially fill up your bowl, move your hand around to evenly distribute tobacco. After it’s filled up to just above desired height, use your fingers to gently pat it down to the desired height.
Using your fingers can be a bit messy, and some folks prefer to use a fork instead. Take a forkful of shisha and use the spaces in between the tongs to separate it out, apply pressure with your fingers and letting the leaves ‘roll’ from out between the spaces in the fork. After that use your fingers, a fork, or a foil poker to pat down the shisha in an even distribution to the desired height.
After this you apply your foil, put it on the top of the bowl and then press it down tightly over the rim producing a taught, even surface. Use your foil poker to poke holes all around the foil, avoiding the middle for phunnel bowls. More holes will allow more airflow and decrease pull resistance, although too many holes might effect overall session heat and length if done to an extreme. Generally though, the more holes in an even pattern the better.

• For HMDs that have nubs or ridges, which don’t use foil, pack your shisha to the height where it’s barely touching the nubs of the HMD to allow for heat transfer from the metal to the tobacco.

Troubleshooting

Packing takes experimentation, and trial and error, to find the sweet spot for each brand and flavor of tobacco. Begin with normal packs, but then adjust height, density, and even HMD usage in response to how your sessions perform. *For sessions that heat too much too quickly, pat your shisha down lower or use less overall. *For sessions that don’t fully heat up, try packing in a fluffier manner. Conversely, for those that die too quickly, try adding density to your pack or putting the top of your shisha slightly higher.
Sessions should be evaluated based on length of flavor and flavor potency. Once you are sure you have your heat management on the right track, you can begin to isolate problems in your session to your pack and your tobacco. Little changes and experiments will help guide you, little by little, to what each different situation requires.

Guess I'm a bit late to the party on this one...but honestly, maybe that's for the better. Internet discourse of film, and other narrative based media feels like its at its worst, and I think "Don't Look Up" is a great film to use for opening this discussion.
(...Also, this is secretly a hate-post for "The Batman"...)
For some context, "Don't Look Up" (2021) is an Adam McKay movie centered around an asteroid hitting the earth. The asteroid is an obvious commentary for climate change, and our protagonists are two scientists (played by Leonardo Dicaprio, and Kate Dibiasky) who desperately try to convince the US government to take action. The government has the ability to stop the asteroid, but refuses to because a tech CEO obviously based on Mark Zuckerberg makes a deal with the Republican president (played by Meryl Streep). Leonardo Dicaprio's character sells out to the tech CEO and Republicans, only to regret everything when its too late. The asteroid hits earth, and the top 1% escape on a spaceship.
This film is extremely, and I mean extremely in your face about its sociopolitical critique. The movie constantly makes fun of how working-class Republicans will parrot whatever the president says. The title itself, "Don't Look Up", is a slogan meant to be joke stand-in for Donald Trump's "Make America Great Again". The way the government refuses to take action against the asteroid is an obvious commentary on how our governments barely do against climate change. The film also makes fun of performative progressivism, as with the sellout scientist and concert scene.
Anyway, I've used the word "obviously" so many times now, its clear "Don't Look Up" is a very heavy handed film. I don't know if Adam McKay is the hardcore progressive leftist his film makes him out to be, but regardless, I absolutely love "Don't Look Up". Its heavy handed commentary is what makes this film for me.
However, upon release the film was met with a mixed reception. It currently stands at a 56% on Rotten Tomatoes, and much of the discussion was about how the film was pretentious, due to its heavy-handed message. Especially on Reddit, which seemed to hate this film. And I was really surprised honestly. The internet embodiment of "☝🤓 ermmm, ack-shually!" was calling for more subtly in this film's political commentary? The same website that doesn't shut up about Idioacracy and Blazing Saddles?
But, I think I know why "Don't Look Up" was hit with this reception. It isn't just that don't look up is a heavy handed, in your face kind of movie...its that the themes, messages, and setting, are all directly linked to our current world. It isn't a hypothetical dystopia like Idiocracy, or a century old wild west like Blazing Saddles. "Don't Look Up" takes place in our current political climate.
When "Don't Look Up" criticizes Republicans, it isn't talking about a cartoonish stand-in for the Republicans. Its talking about the current, real world Republicans. When it criticizes media propaganda, it directly references the tactics used by the very real Donald Trump. When it criticizes billionaire CEOs, it uses a character that is identical to our real world billionaire CEOs in all but name.
"Don't Look Up" did what most political commentary is too afraid to to...it directly tackled the issues it was commenting on. Even the fictional asteroid is still really on-the-nose about what its meant to be. It reminds me of when Gareth Marenghi said this...
"I know writers who use subtext...and they're all cowards!:
Maybe he was exaggerating for the bit...but I love this qoute. Because honestly, in our current political climate, what use does subtly have? In America right now, the political climate is constantly getting worse. The removal of women's rights, the attack on LGBTQ+ people, the slow death of the working class, and as "Don't Look Up" shows, the constant enderdagement to our environment. If you're gonna' talk about these very real, very harmful issues...why tiptoe around it? To make the people causing the harm more comfortable?
I think its important to note that on social media, I saw dozens of posts by people in the climate field praise "Don't Look Up", specifically because the on-the-nose nature of this movie represented how they felt. And honestly, that's pretty good proof that being subtle would've been to the detriment of this film. This film did what good political satire is meant to do. It appeased to the people being drowned out by those in power, and relentlessly critiqued those in power.
The funny thing is this...I'm always seeing people post about how they want more "mature" content that tackles real world issues. Especially on Reddit, in which people never shut up about the idea of the "mature reboot". And the thing is...this website actually loves media with heavy-handed messaging. But as I mentioned earlier, people don't want the messaging to actually be directly relevant to a real world topic. They just want media that alludes the the idea of socio-political commentary.
Its why Reddit loves media such as The Witcher III, Idiocracy, Blazing Saddles, early Game Of Thrones, Cyberpunk 2077, Blade Runner 2049. Yes, these pieces of media are very heavy handed in their themes, but because they use fictional stand-ins for their messages, it makes them safer to all audiences, and makes their critisizm less direct in some ways.
But I think the best example of how the internet interprets socio-political commentary, and what kind of commentary this audience is comfortable with, is Matt Reeve's "The Batman" 2022. This movie is currently one of the ineternet's darlings, and people are obsessed with just how "mature" and "deep" this movie is.
Thing is though, as far as socio-political commentary goes...The Batman is a big nothing burger. The movie starts by introducing a bunch of very real socio-political ideas, such as the corrupt police, the politicians being controlled by a few rich people, the underground sex-trafficking in Gotham, or how domestic terrorists use the internet as a means of recruitment. And yet by the end of the film, none of these ideas amount to anything. They're all just window dressing for a fanservice Batman flick whose only moral theme is "Batman doesn't kill", as a corporate apology for Batman Vs. Superman.
The big moral moments of this film are Batman stopping Selina from killing the man who controls all of the corruption in Gotham, and Batman feeling sad because he punched a domestic terrorist too hard. Its almost hilarious honestly, because its clear that the Riddler's terrorist gang was based off of Q-anon, and if anything, the only thing that stopped them on January 6th was when a shot was fired into the inserrectunist crowd. So the whole "Batman needs to be more merciful to the villains" arc is actually the opposite of a real-world critique.
But that's the thing. The Batman isn't actually mature. It has nothing to say about our current world or political state. It just takes real world issues, and uses them as an aesthetic for a moral theme that doesn't actually fit in with said issues. And the thing is, The Batman is an incredibly heavy-handed movie. Just as much as Don't Look Up honestly. But the difference is, The Batman's heavy handed narrative is used only for Batman's "no kill rule", not any of the real world issues the film is introduced with.
And that's kinda' my whole point. There's a reason most people online love movies like The Batman. These movies treat socio-political commentary as window dressing, using some real world issues in the most surface level manner possible, then never making an actual conclusion in them. Because of that, movies like The Batman are incredibly safe movies, and are basically "enlightened centrist" fantasies with no bite.
Whereas something like Don't Look Up will actively target real world issues, and directly build its entire film around them. The film pulls no punches, and its clear what the targets of its commentary are. And because of that, this film's meaning can't be twisted in any way. There's no "both sides are just as bad" narrative here to make all audiences feel comfortable. This film knows what its about, and sticks to it.
And here's the thing...I'm not saying all movies that tackle real socio-political issues need to be super direct, and call out real names like Don't Look Up. The examples I listed before The Batman are good media, and they have a place in the world of film, TV, and gaming.
But what I am saying is that it feels like most audiences are just flat out afraid of any meaningful socio-political commentary. Even when it comes to a political satire, its as if audiences will only feel comfortable as long as the film is vague enough that it never directly makes a statement on a real world issue. And even if it does directly comment on something, as long as its disconnected enough from our reality, they'll be safe with it. Because it means it doesn't have to make them uncomfortable with the current state of our world. And because of that, when they're met with a socio-political commentary that actually has some bite to it, they're immediately bothered by the heavy-handedness of it. Because that means they have to confront real world issues in media, and for a lot of these people, media should be escapism, and nothing more.
To end this off, I'd like to mention the original piece of political satire...Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal". Written to offend the ruling class by comparing their treatment of the poor to cannabilism during a period of mass poverty in Ireland. I can guarantee you that some people thought Swift had went too far with this paper. Thing is, who do you think those people were? And who do you think his supporters were?

I love my cat, I do. She can be so sweet and gentle, but other times it’s like she has been possessed by something malovelent. I have a second cat, her litter sister, who is totally content, but and no matter how much I try with the other one, no how much I redirect or play with her, I can’t stop her.
She is motivated by attention and wants my vision on her at all times, she just wants me to always look at her and acknowledge her and I do my best but I am one person. I need to eat and sleep. She interrupts every meal, every film I watch, wakes me up 300 times every night. She starts out by screaming. Relentlessly. If I put headphones on and try to ignore her she moves onto destructive behaviours. She chews up things we like clothes, books, furniture. She scratches the walls. I lock away everything she can possibly get her teeth into, block off every area she likes to scratch at. She has so many toys that my place looks like a daycare, she has other things to chew and scratch but she doesn’t actually want to play. If I don’t stop what I’m doing after that she will pee on the floor. She does it while making direct eye contact with me. I know it’s about my attention because she doesn’t do any of these things while I’m out of the house, my flatmates confirmed that.
I don’t want to be in the house anymore, because I find it hard to cope and I don’t want to be angry with her because I know she’s an animal and it’s not her fault. But I don’t know what to do, she’s too much to deal with, and there’s not a single hour in this house where she isn’t creating some kind of destruction.

Like I am losing about 29 lp and gaining 19 while playing against people who are literally in the same elo as me. Like when I was plat 4, playing against golds because my MMR was bad, it made sense, but now I'm plat 3 playing against other plat 3 players and getting the same lp deficit. As someone who has played this game for years and knows how the LP system works, I think there is definitely some kind of bug going on right now. The demotion shield tax can't even be a factor since I've been experiencing this for well over 50 games now. This is clearly a bug, and it would explain why I see so many complaining about this too.

My mom (45, female) is dating a man who tried to groom me (28, male). I came on here because I don’t know what to do anymore I’ve tried to speak to my mom, dad, brother, many other family members but it just seems like no one cares and nobody is taking my side. Back when I was 13 my mother just went through a break up with a man who verbally abused her and physically and sexually abused me. Although she only knew about the physical abuse not the sexual abuse. (He is now a husband to a new woman and has a child and I blame myself everyday for not telling anyone about because now I feel like if this child goes through anything it’s my fault but this isn’t what the story is about.) Anyways at the time my mom was a cult like christian and we went to church very often where we met my mom’s now bf. Since day one he was always creeping on young teenage girls until I became one of them he would ask for my number and ask to hang out. At the time I was honestly flattered because I had extreme daddy issues and any male validation or attention meant a lot to me. He began to try and win my mom over so that dating me wouldn’t be a problem. Again I was 13 he was 24 which is a year older than my oldest sister. This went on for a year where he constantly flirt with me at church and ask if I was single he even one time back me in a corner at a wedding in front of my cousin. At this point I began to see how weird and creepy he was and began to distance myself. I just began high school at this point and began crushing on this guy. I told my church friend that I had a crush at school and he over heard and got extremely upset and he began lecturing about how high school relationships are puppy love and is stupid. Anyways one day we noticed he stopped coming to church and we also did because we had an altercation with one the church members and we left and never came back. Years later he reached out to my mom to confide in her of why he left the church. He said he was being accused of grooming a girl the daughter of the church member we had an altercation with so already my mom was biased and believe everything he said me on the other had already knew what the real true story was. He had said he was being nice to the girl she fell in love and he rejected her and she told her parents who confronted him. But I knew that he groomed her and she fell in love and he got caught by the parents. My mom began inviting him to hang out with me and her. One time we were going swimming and we stopped and a gas station where I was in the back seat asleep my mom got off to pay for gas and he pulls my blanket off of me where I was just wearing shorts and a tank. I pulled the blanket back and covered myself and gave him a dirty look. The whole he kept staring at me and kept being weird when my mom wasn’t around. He called her to ask me out on an ice cream date and my mom obviously was weirded out and said no. She was very weirded out and annoyed until he contacted her again and said he was just joking and she believed him. All of a sudden my mom and i stoped hanging out being she was always “busy”. I somehow found out they were hooking up and she invited him to thanksgiving where my dad was. My parents constantly try to coparents but my dad is an alcoholic and constantly tries to argue with her. He noticed her and her bf being flirty and began cussing her out. He also noticed him staring at me and went crazy on him cussing him out left and right. He was intimidated by dad and left and that’s when my mom went with him and left me and brother. I broke down and my brother asked what happened and I told him everything my brother is a very closed off person and doesn’t like to show any emotion towards me so he ended up leaving the house as well. The day after my mom and I got into it where I told her everything and she completely dismissed me. After that my mom began inviting him to family events and began to talk about me saying how I was rebelling against her just like my oldest sister did at my age and everyone and the family keeps telling me so stop being selfish because my mom always did everything to put my happiness before mines so I should do the same. It hurts me so deeply because I genuinely have a good and trusting relationship with my mom but this one thing is really ruining it. I keep telling her what he did to me but she refuses to listen. It feels like no one is listening or taking my side. This has genuinely been taking a huge toll on me and at such a young age began using alcohol as a way to cope and it hurts that after years of keeping quiet after being sexually abused by her ex because I saw how happy SHE was I have to keep getting hurt by her just to keep seeing her be happy. I don’t know what to do anymore all I do is cry at night and just want to leave this earth. I think the betrayal of a mother hurts more than any other.

And I hate that i keep doing this. How many times do I have i come to the same conclusion? How many times do I have to set goals only to just throw them away? When will I finally stick with change? I’m so tired of living like this. I can’t stop it’s pathetic. Every morning I wake up with a cloudy head and spend all day thinking about how evil weed is & how much I hate smoking. Yet, almost every day when I get home the cravings hit. My mind looks for the slightest rationalization & I just immediately run with it. I’m sooooo tired of living like this. I make it 3-4 days tops and then I “reward” myself with smoking. It makes no sense but at the time it certainly did make sense. I’m wasting valuable time in life right now by not doing anything and just letting it pass me by. All I want to do is sit at home and not do anything or go anywhere and I’m living such an unfulfilling life yet I can’t stop. My life would be so much better without it so why do I keep coming back? I need to feel alive, I need to take chances, but most importantly I need to change.

I’m still in love with my high school crush and it’s been 9 years.
I’m still in love with my high school crush and it’s been 9 years, in 2015 to be precise. Here’s the story from the beginning:
We had a class together, but he was a senior and I was a freshman. The class was all about communication, so for the whole entire class, we’d do nothing but talk, like a break.
(All of my friends, including the ones I hung out with during lunch time, were seniors and I was caught up with what prom means and a couple of other things I couldn’t have known if I didn’t met them.)
Anyways, I fell hard for him, blushing, stuttering, rarely speaking to him in public because my heart would beat faster. I’d talk a lot about him and how much I like him with my friends… the twist is, it was crystal clear he liked me back, but I missed the social cues. When sitting next to each other, he’d snap his fingers under the table and close to me, to get my attention.
There were various times where he’d look at me and then look at my privates… wayyy too many times. When he made jokes, I’d catch him laughing and blushing out of embarrassment all while glancing at me to see if I wasn’t noticing. He had a group of friends and at one time, they all came and abruptly sat with me. I noticed he’d wink a lot while looking at me. They were really suspicious, one of them acting as an intermediary (the only one in the group I’d feel comfortable speaking with) to spark up a conversation so she could get the ball rolling and then I could eventually speak with him (my crush).
Within this conversation, he said to the intermediary friend “I feel weird. When I'm in this room, I feel like... I don't know.... Different than being outside with other people... Do you understand me, (intermediary friend’s name)?" Then he raised an eyebrow as if pointing at me.
^ that’s just a snippet of the whole scenario that I wrote down in my notes app back in 2015, so this isn’t something I just came up with right now. I also wrote down what I’d first send him along with different interpretations of that first message, one being something like: “No matter what happens… I will always like you” … I would’ve thought “silly me” but now that’s proving to be true. (That experience happened AFTER the below 👇)
(This happened BEFORE the above) Learning his name, I found him on Facebook and sent him a friend request. He accepted. I went on to message him expressing my feelings for him and he appreciated it. My dummy self tried to be the interviewer, asking him questions about what his favourite movie, song, color, is… we spoke for a while… until he graduated. Months went by, maybe a year went by, and I decided, at around 16, to delete my whole entire Facebook account out of embarrassment for the stuff I had posted on my feed… a year or 2 went by and I played truth or dare with my cousin at a sleepover. I expressed that I still had feelings for him and she dared me to send him a friend request again on my new Facebook account. I did, but he didn’t accept.
Fast forward, 6-7 years later, and my feelings for him remain, very well knowing his whole personality might’ve changed, but despite that, there’s something about him that I love so much. I’m aware of everything that could go on, from the possibility of him being a relationship already, to the possibility of him not accepting my friend request again to maybe perhaps having the luck of reconnecting. I did notice he removed any form of information that would find it easier to find him on facebook (like the “goes to…”, “attended…”, “in a relationship” “works at…” etc.)… so it’d be kinda sus, confusing as to how I was able to find him. His at-that-time intermediary has an Instagram account.
I don’t know what to do since there’s no one I’ve met who’s ever made me feel that extreme attraction. I don’t know if he’s single or taken. (My friend suggested to create a fake account with a fake name and pose as a male friend who hasn’t spoken to him in a long time and just so happen to stumble across his profile. That’s clever until he clicks on it and finds out it’s a brand new account.) I grew up and was a senior, in his shoes, and even then, no one made me feel the same. I mean… went all the way to me having a dream of him on a romantic cruise date in 2015…. and… doing it with him. My subconscious wanted that… what were the chances he wanted that too.
(There were MANY MANY social cues that I missed that hinted he liked me back and I never found out because I didn’t pay attention to them. There were various opportunities where I could’ve spoken to him more or even privately, such as being the last one to enter a room and him holding the door for me. I could’ve used that opportunity to pull him aside. My thinking, I believe at that time, was that the more I ignored him, the harder he’d fall for me, but I let that thought play out till I lost him…)
Ages: 23, and around 27 Female and male
TLDR: I had a high school crush in 2015 who I added on Facebook. We had small conversations in person, but I was too shy, and he was nervous (not a good combo). There were obvious social cues that I missed like snapping his fingers under the table to get my attention, winking at me numerous times and looking at my private part. There were also times I could’ve pulled him aside, like when I was the last person to enter a room and he was the one holding the door. I expressed my feelings to him through message and he appreciated it. I thought the more I ignore him, the more he’ll fall in love with me until I lost him (he graduated). A year later, I deleted my Facebook out of embarrassment. I created another account and added him again as a dare from my cousin. He didn’t accept. I noticed he removed statuses like work, education, relationship etc., making it harder for anyone to find him, but I managed to find him. Since then, 7 years from the dare, I still have feelings for him, I mean it went all the way to having a romantic dream in 2015 and doing it. I don’t know what to do, if I should friend request him again or message his at-that-time intermediary or who else knows what to do?

Here in 2023, what is the status of blender sculpting vs zbrush? Are there any good classes for sculpting in blender, medium to advanced, similar to something like gnomon school's series of zbrush classes?
At first glance, I'm finding it similar, but it seems like theres too many steps involved for some things. I can't just subdivide without changing modes? I haven't tried to see how high poly I could get either.
Thank you

Today I have had numerous people compliment how deep my voice is. I was revising at the library and bumped into and old friend who I haven’t spoken to in months and she said “there’s no way that’s your voice” I took that as a compliment since she hasn’t heard me speak in a while my voice clearly has gotten deeper.
The second encounter was when I was at work and I was serving this customer and I was reading out the total to him and he said “you have got a proper deep voice don’t you” he then went on to speak about how I sound like an old school singer (I forgot the name) but that was also a nice compliment to here.
Keep on retaining brothers there is many more benefits to come.

So as many of you know, spears are being touted as the undisputed most powerful weapons this time around due to their attack speed and the flat damage bonuses of materials making them seem like a clear DPS king. This information is actually incorrect, but not to the player's fault for thinking so.
While lurking through a few TotK discord servers I encountered a discussion about weapon damage and how it seems to be inaccurate, specifically how if you take time to test, spears are doing considerably less damage than other weapons with the same damage number listings. It was discovered that under the hood, weapons have a damage modifier based on type, seemingly a balancing tool to prevent spears from being overpowered. The damage modifiers appear to be as follows:
Light - 1.00 (damage is exactly as listed)
Heavy - 1.05 (damage is actually 5% stronger than listed)
Spears - 0.75 (damage is actually 25% weaker than listed)
If you'd like to test this for yourself, red bokoblins have 25 hp. A light weapon will 1-shot them right at 25 listed damage, a heavy will 1-shot at 24 listed damage, and a spear will 1-shot at 34 listed damage. Any less will not 1-shot them.
I find it strange that they chose to obfuscate this information from the player. I'm assuming it was to make the process feel streamlined by having a flat damage bonus from items to not confuse us, but it's frustrating when there is such a massive disparity between what players are told a spear does, and what it actually does.
I'm left wondering if this hidden modifier is the reason that they didn't bring back the ability to view enemy health (it was removed from the old champion's tunic, and is not present on the new champion's leathers). Since I hadn't seen any posts about this, and also because I still see occasional posts on how spears are so strong now, I thought this would be good information to put out there.

One of my favourite qualities of Betty’s from a character standpoint is the fact that, in many ways (especially early on), she behaves remarkably like a child. I think this says a lot about her and serves to explain why and how she relates to certain people the way she does. There are many examples throughout the show. Some are quite obvious, like the tone she takes when she argues with people (including her kids) or when she was slightly dismayed that Dr. Edna wanted to stop meeting with her (Edna telling her “I’m a child psychologist” was so revealing). I enjoy the subtler moments, too. My personal favourite is the way she literally stomps to the centre of the room huffing in disappointment upon learning that Henry wasn’t coming to the fundraiser at her house (proceeding the next day to visit him in his office and throw the money box at him). All this to say, this is one of the most brilliant character choices for Betty, and January did a great job highlighting this quality in her.
Edit: I forgot to even touch on the Betty and Glen Chronicles… if their strange connection doesn’t exemplify Betty’s tendency to behave and relate to the world as a child, I don’t know what does.

I have a full tire warranty with my new car up to like 5 years and idk how many miles, but I’m under the mileage and years. When the time comes, what’s the best way to take advantage of the warranty? Even the lady at the dealership said “go do some donuts in a construction yard” but I don’t think that’ll actually do it. It’s a pickup truck BTW
it’s a free replacement. I got a nail in one after I got the truck and they just swapped it out.

So there have been many posts about how and why people tell/not tell others about their love of BL. I even did a poll a while ago about if you would tell someone you are dating you watch it. But l want to know how you would feel about someone you know in real life learning about your interactions on this page? Letting others know you like a certain genre of tv is quite different from letting them see how you act within that fandom.
View Poll