Let's say I want to do business with a Japanese man. But he only speaks japanese and I only speak English. I only have a interpreter that speaks English and Spanish available to me, jack. He only has a interpreter that speaks japanese and french available to him. So we need to find a interpreter that speaks french and Spanish and then we can do businesses together. So all messages outgoing and incoming would flow through these three interpreters. But here's the thing, how do I really know I'm doing business with the japanese man? Jack is the only person I deal with directly. For all I know all messages might be forged by jack. I think I'm doing business with the japanese man but in reality jack might be the only one I'm actually doing business with. And that's a lot like what our relationship with reality is like.
You think you're this flesh and blood body walking the earth. You think you are your brain. But these are just things your reality compels you to believe in. All you really know is what your minds eye tells you. You have no clue if it's telling you the truth. All you can really say is "x is true according to reality" but you don't really know.
I'm sure a lot of you are going to assert that you are your brain and that everything you know is told to you via your senses. Which is just you putting your faith in jack telling you the truth about the existence of the other two enterpreters while neglecting the existence of jack.
Can anyone tell me where in the brain our sensory experience of reality is unified? Can anyone tell me what is projecting this image that exists before me? This image that's constantly before me every waking moment of my life exists somewhere in physical space. It's not in the brain. Just like how the monitor is separate from the computer, the minds eye is separate from the brain and body.
Your minds eye is the bubble that contains everything you are, your entire consciousness. If what your minds eye says is true then it's your minds eye that transmits messages between you and your brain, and from your brain to your body, from your body to objective reality and back again.

My title is the question I want an to answer.
In the past (months ago/almost a year) there’s been something things where I felt my bf friends were inappropriate and my bf didn’t set boundaries towards his friends actions when he hung around them.
Now my bf has since moved further away from them and hasn’t seen them as much or has made the trip/time to hang out with them. He talks to them often, but not as much as he use too. However, the issue is every blue moon when he does get involved with them it seems like he forgets how to act or just remember of the things we’ve talked about. Recently, his friend had came over his place to watch the game and catch up. While this is going on I made two calls to my bf within the span of 4 hours , it’s not like him to not answer my phone call, and if he does he’ll usually call back or leave a text to Lmk when he’ll call back. When he did eventually contact me it was a text message and he apologized saying he “left his phone in the other room and was talking with his friends rn.”
it’s not like him to not not answer calls and get back to me in a timely manner, but once I found out his friends was around him my first reaction was just irritation cause it just seems like when he gets around them he acts out the normal. My response was to be short with him once he did take the time to talk to me, and tell him I didn’t want to talk atm.
He said he was sad and annoyed about how my feelings were being brought into this and how i wanted to feel a way about him not answering the phone and taking it personal. What i didn’t explain to him was how I thinking/feeling about his friends being apart the issue why I was upset, (because this is a conversation we’ve had before.) So he believes that I only got upset with him cause he didn’t answer the phone.
In what way could i have handle it differently? Pick and choose my battles and I should’ve never reacted? Really I’m just trying to figure out how to separate the way I feel about his friends from him and not have it let me treat him a way….my feelings matter just as much but I don’t want to treat him in the way of not wanting to talk to him/and being short, We nvr go a night/evening with out talking, but I did feel a way about what happened.

Hi there, white person here with no ancestral (or any ties really) to the North American Native People (Peoples? I might say wrong things in here, not intended to be disrespectful, just ignorance on my part).
Recently visited the Great Smoky Mountains, and was fortunate to be a guest on the Qualla Boundary, home of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Very beautiful town, I love how the Cherokee language and syllabary is everywhere. This wasn't my first time going through that area, I've been passing through the town of Cherokee since I was a kid, usually headed for TN. About 3 or 4 years ago, I got this feeling when we actually stayed and visited the Boundary (it has nothing to do with like "Oh I feel like I'm Indian," so don't get that idea reading forward). I don't know exactly how to describe it, and it still confuses my head, one of those raw ideas. But the best way to describe it is, I just want to help. I want a part (big part preferably, but I also understand that being non-native, pretty much barred from that) of my life to be about lifting up Indian voices, learning about Native cultures, and just helping out this group that went through these unspeakable horrors that I could never comprehend.
I'm sure you can tell in reading this I sort of have no clue what I'm talking about, and I still don't really. That's the main reason I'm making this post is to actually talk straight to Natives about it. There's a part of me that's like, "Shut up, you're white, you don't really get to do anything here," and there's another part of me that's like, "Damnit, I have to do SOMETHING." So I don't know, lots of jumbling thoughts obviously. I'm probably leaving out some important details or something, so questions are appreciated.
I want to go beyond just land acknowledgement and purchasing Native jewelry, I just don't know what that looks like due to my hearatige and race.
Obviously if this isn't the place for this type of post, or I've accidentally said something horribly offensive, call my ass out on it.
Thanks

I am writing this in hopes for some help and to guide others to not have the same fate as me. I think I have made the biggest mistake of my life. It has been 5 months since it happened and I haven't been able to fix it. This phone is the only connection to the realm of my birth. My original world. I probably cannot undo my mistake but I can guide future players.
My phone it's Android. It has an IR blaster, the only reason I bought it, and for some reason, this phone can hold its network through dimensional change. As if it's a loophole, a glitch in the broken matrix that i was facing. Not that i could actually make any use of it because I am still here.
The people here look like us. They all do. They are very sapient. They look just like us. But my bones know that they don't have the same origin as I do. They are good though. Have the same societal issues, the same intolerable governing body, protestors, and unrealistic agendas, the left wing and right wing at each other's throats. People who should touch some grass have podcasts. People who should have podcasts enjoy their lives. They are humans, just like us, but they are not us.
The rules stated by the urban legend still strike the same to this day if time and space follow the same routine, follow the floor number pattern, pay no heed to the lady that enters the elevator on the 5th floor, leave the building immediately if you return to floor 1, etc. I followed them all correctly, but the rules are no guarantee as to whether you will be safe or alive after your elevator journey is done, the rules only make sure the procedure is correct.
Hey you know what I will write down the rules in short, for your reference to my guidelines but the rules should always be memorized to your bones and spine, this is your SOS and your key. You will find the set of rules on any website. I suggest visiting multiple of them before you start your endeavor. Because each of them gives you different kinds of warnings, something the successful players learned from their own experience. And take this advice of reading through all of those points from this unsuccessful player.
One thing the rules on blog sites don't mention is the choice of which world you want to enter. Because most players enter an identical world with no electronics and no living thing around them. Only a red crossed window that's far stretched away from where ever you look and keeps on moving further away from you. My case was vaguely different.

1. So firstly all you do is enter a building with more than 10 stories.
   
2. Enter the lift via the first floor and only by pressing the "up" button
   
3. Follow a pattern of floors, press 4 then 2 then 6 then 10 then 5.
   
4. On 5 a lady shall or shall not enter your floor. Then press 1
   
5. When you press 1, you will either reach 1. or you will reach 10.
   
6. If you reach 1, get the f out of the building and don't come near it, not in 6-7 months i suggest.
   
7. If you do reach 10 congratulations. your first part of the journey is a success
   

now Something, about the lady. Do not interact with her at any cost because of course she is not a lady, no matter how pretty she looks, oh you looked at her? alas, that's also a grave mistake. don't look at her, don't talk to her. Just ignore her total existence. If you know of the elevator game you are already aware of how you should not interact with the lady and all. But one thing is often left blurry is that what you should do if she does not enter. This was my case.
So my advice here: If the lady on the 5th floor does not enter. Then just hope that you do return to the 1st floor after you press it. if you do no then, and start ascending. continuously press any and every floor button for it to stop, or maybe the emergency or call button so that the staff can stop the elevator. Because if you end up reaching the 10th floor, good chances are you get to meet me and we make a cute therapy consult group for people who can't return back. :)
I remember everything from that night so vividly. I did your usual pattern follow. I entered the lift when no one was using it. I entered 4. went up there, meh nothing happened. Then again I pressed 2. I felt a vague chill around me. As if the mechanism of the ritual was understanding my intention. I pressed 6, then after it reached 6, I pressed 2, then 10 then 5. Oh, 5. The elevator door opened. And there she was, standing with all her glory. I did not look at her. but of course, i could see her from waist to bottom. She was dressed in Russian traditional clothing. not something i was expecting from an urban legend that became popular in Korea and japan. I think her wardrobe is a good collection from all cultures. or maybe there's more like her? Who knows?
I could feel it in my spine she was looking at me. She stopped the elevator with her foot so that the doors don't close and asked, "Baby which floor are you going?"
I followed the rules, did not look at her, did not reply to her, and completely ignored her.
She said, "Not much of a speaker eh? no worries have your ride. I hope you have a better life."
I have no idea why she said that. Looking back I think she knew what was going to happen to me. She knew that I was not going to end up in the world most player venture into. "Better life," she said.
She did not enter the lift and I pressed 1. The ritual, now tainted because she did not enter, worked. I reached the 10th floor. And when the doors opened, it was like nothing changed. The building I entered was a hotel. The housekeeping staff was running around. I heard children crying. Some Karen was screaming at a worker because her coffee, which she made from their amenities tasted bland. It was very confusing for me. I think I assumed the ritual did not work. And the lady was just another lady who could have been high. I walked out of the elevator and I felt great.
"those silly online urban legends, such lies" I probably had muttered to myself.
I took the lift again, reached the ground floor, and walked out of the building. Everything was going well until my head started hurting and spinning. and i was slowly passing out. and that's the exact moment i remembered from one of the posts of an earlier player "Do not at any chance lose your consciousness. and if you do, no matter where you wake up, return to the building, re-follow the exit ritual pattern and return to your own world."
My head felt dizzy as I woke up. In my very room. I thought to myself, was it all a dream? Did I search so much about some damn urban legend that I had such a deeply engraving dream? For heaven's sake. I jerked myself up and got down from my bed. Even my clothing is same as the last evening. I didn't know what was more weird, that i was wearing the clothes from my dream or that i remember the dream so vividly that i can even recall the outfit i was wearing. Also my phone was in my pocket. This is something i just never do. No matter how sleepy i am. i keep my phone on the other end of my table, in case it might just blast if the lithium goes through a thermal runaway.
AND! That is when i noticed. My table. It was completely on the opposite side. No no, it is right beside my bed, just like every day but the bed, and the entire room, its opposite. As if it were mirroring the room i know. Also, It wasn't just a complete mirror. my room was smaller, just a bit in breadth. One wouldn't notice it even if they visit my room on a weekly basis. But it's my damn room of course i would know even if a fly moved differently. Lo and behold, that extra loss on my room, was added to my washroom. Again, one wouldn't just notice it right away.
In a nightmare-like urgency, I rushed down the stairs to call complain my mother, and that is when the realization hit me that I did, in fact, play the elevator game. My dad was there. In the kitchen. Alive and happily married. Figuratively much different from how I remember him. I stood there in shock with my mouth wide open. How could this be? I remember my father. The last time I lived with him was until I was 9. When my parents parted ways. The last time I saw him was when I was 11, when he died. Not that I cried, he was far from what a father is supposed to be. I am 25 now.
"Good morning Sweetie!" His voice sounded oddly different. I was utterly petrified by this moment. There was a quirky yet calming nature to his sound which creeped me out even more. I dashed out of the house while grabbing my backpack from the sofa. I could hear him call out my name in my concern. This is it. This is definitely it. I crossed the borders of the unknown realm. But why are people here? Isn't it supposed to be dark with no one in it? No electricity and all ? But there is everything. This is a whole other world, what went wrong?
I had to return to my world. I ran through the roads and traffic to the hotel. Hotel Sunset. As I crossed the roads I could see it all. Cars stopping at the orange light. People walking in blue. I mean they are still following basic physics by using orange, longer wavelength for stopping cars. but does Red not exist in this world? not it does, OH MY GOD, the road lines are red.
I hurried through the crowd to reach the hotel. I pulled out my phone, which was surprisingly working perfectly. Internet, gps everything. It said i reached my location. "Hotel sunset"
I looked up, it said "Hotel Moon shine". I am surprised it wasn't named "moon rise", it'd would have been the cherry on top then.
I walked in, the Interior looked the same. I waited and waited and waited for the evening to hit and the horde to lessen. I stood up and walked to the lift. I repeated the entire process.
The lift stopped at 5. Instead of the lady, someone else entered. I of course didn't look up, but they entered hurriedly, screaming my name and i had to look up, i was already freaked out at this point. It was me. I was looking at me. she, well me, or wait she? she held the lift by her foot. What's up with women in the elevator game to hold the elevator by the foot?
"what did you do!? " I - I mean she said, one that looked like me.
"what did i do?" i replied back. . Whoever this doppelganger was. sure i was petrified. but here i was.
"DID THE LADY ENTER YOUR LIFT ?" she screamed at me.
"wha?" i was trembling at her screeching was. the white portion of her eyes started to redden.
"OH MY GOD DID SHE OR NOT ENTER WHEN YOU DID THE RITUAL?" she again proclaimed.
"she didn't." i replied and slowly lost my leg strength and somewhat collapsed while sitting down.
"why? why did you complete the ritual then? did you not read before you did? you are supposed to be me, you are supposed to be smart. heck, aren't you supposed to be smarter? oh my god. is that my backpack or yours?"
I just shook my head and handed her the backpack, it was hers definitely. I never put on any anime pins on mine. Speaking of anime pins, naruto here has pink hair. Isn't that cool?
she took out her phone and said "If you want to go back home go to this tumblr account and download the app. The account is called buihotline.tumblr.com "
And she left.
Was that the me of this universe? do we have counterparts in every universe? How many universes are there? are these even universes the way our science teaches us universes?
The lift started to quake. the light started flickering and I could hear some noise. soft noises that slowly grew louder and louder until they became uncontrollable screams. my ear drums were hurting beyond control. until it all stopped and the lift door opened. I stepped outside. Yet I was still there at "Moon shine hotel".
I tried the ritual again. I ended up back here. To floor 1 and I went back "home" to my "dad" and "mom". For the next 7 days, I kept on going back to the elevator, trying the ritual continuously and failing. On my way, I noticed new and new things about their world. These people like to greet each other in a very weird way. They grab each other's throats and smile. Almost sadistic. Language is very similar, but there are a few words and phrases here and there that have changed with customs and traditions. Honey here tastes like metal. Cows don't Moo, and birds chirp, but the sounds are unfamiliar, dogs don't exist. cats are the only domestic animals here. I read similar things in some blogs, but never did I think I would get to experience them for real.
Either way. On every failed ritual, I reached floor 1 and went back home. and repeated the cycle Until the 7th day, I got so fed up, that I kept on trying multiple times. but all I did was end up on floor 1. But I saw the weirdest thing.
Well, I can fill in on what happens if you immediately don't leave the building after playing the elevator game and ending up on floor 1. You see, well better than seeing failing grades or not being able to return to your own world, ghosts. Yep pretty much. Deranged souls that roam around the building. That is exactly what you see. And once they notice your existence, god save you. If there is any.
Mine was rather sarcastic. They did infact noticed me. They all came running towards me, looked right at me, smelled me and then slowly moved away and kept on about roaming. My heart intensified so much, it felt like I just lost a marathon I almost won.
I saw a man, maybe a bit older than me, in his 20s, walk down the entrance come and sit beside me. "They won't attack someone who's like them. You are of no use to them. They used to belong here, but don't anymore. and you never did."
I looked at him with a frightening shock. I took my bag and ran back home. Only when i came back home i realized he could have had answers. But i was so terrified at the moment, the only thing I could think of was getting away from him. I needed answers. I need to enter the website the other me mentioned. I got a new phone from this world. they didn't have Google, but I tell you their search engine is much better, it has AI integrated within. The account never opened from the new phone. Tumblr did. but that account never did. Then I tried my own phone and voila! The page had nothing. A heading, a two-liner bio, and a link. Link to download the app. Tumblr happens to be one of the only few apps that do work in other dimensions. Apparently, it has something to do with the first person who jumped dimensions, not only did they jump, but they also jumped through time and made sure every world had Tumblr. It's kinda funny they could have chosen Reddit, it's much more effective.
I loaded the app. Its a 2010's forum-based app. There are discussion topics under which you make threads. You got a chat box to interact with other users. the main discussion had a guide. I searched through it and finally came to the part "how to enter and leave a mirror world" aaand its blank. well not totally. A couple of reasons saying why you should not enter it. A bullet point that said download this pdf to know how to return back to your own world. I hurriedly clicked on it and boom the file did not open. I have never been so disappointed in my life.
There are so many dimensions else than the one with red cross and mirror dimensions. it is almost like aliens exist because some "humans" look so different. some people probably might even have ended up on my world as well. I wonder how they are taking it.
Apparently, only devices of one world present in another world, or at least have been in a few can open the website and run the apk file. Only androids work across dimensions. There's a conspiracy theory that the creators of android have got something to do with the entire interdimensional rituals and breaking the laws of space and time.
Either way, hoping to get some results I posted on the site wishing for some advice on opening the file or someone just copy-pasting the rules I guess.
I received a DM saying, "Since you have successfully crossed a mirror dimension You are capable of much more than you can imagine. But you should know how to use them, you have to be responsible for every move you make"
Good lord, I am not Spider-Man. The user further said, " I do not know where you are from, but I am from dimension 17391, go to the universal map translator and put the location, "Kairo office main building, st. red 22209". It will automatically give you a few building locations of your world." But the interface is very slow. Because it's not a singular place that has a counterpart in every dimension, there is one in every 4 hours of journey. It's an arbitrary location. It will take some time. maybe days. But you will reach."
I asked the user a dozen questions, how do I find the translator map, how many universes are there, and what do I do when I reach there? Why does everyone speak English? But they never replied. But now I have something, hope. A twinge of hope.
I searched around the app and found the map feature, build within the forum. It was on the top layer, but a confused me couldn't find it right away.
Ever since I found the map It has been nothing but a dilemma. 5 months. 5 months of intense searching and nothing. The first time I entered the location and searched, it landed me at the coordinates of a graveyard. The Irony. The second time, a fish market, the third, 3-storey guest house with the most normal Karen.
I can't even venture out every day. I have a "life" here that I have to maintain. This me had a similar job. Marketing manager at a pretty good company. The pay is almost the same. A bit lower here, but hey cost of living is also lower here. Putting those two together I probably have the exact same pay. But they have more facilities. Better vacation leaves. That is exactly what i took right after i downloaded the app, to understand the world better, and the changes here and there.
Morning, I go to work. where I sort out the place I will visit. and after work, i leave. Some places were nearby, some were far. One was in the neighboring country, luckily, the passport here is strong. But none of them work. I think I have broken the "not your universe? not the place? click again" button. Sundays and Saturdays are for long-distance locations. Also every day i cannot afford to go, even though the pay is good. In my world I used to live alone with Mum visiting me now and then. She and I had a family business along with my job, so all was good. Here I don't have a place of my own. And I gotta pay the bills around the house and sometimes take care of the business as well. Things are so similar yet different. I feel likeIi live in a deja vu.
By now i have crossed out almost 75 locations within 5 months, all of them being complete failures. I have crossed out 60 universes that aren't this one. I have made multiple posts on that app, describing my condition, where i am, and which universe it might be. If i even know this universe number and input it, the map translator will work much much better. I describe my original universe in the posts expecting someone to understand me and maybe send me a picture of my mother and friends, but all i have received are words of sympathy and hopefulness.
A few more people have send me their "kairo" addresses but they all can send only one to two messages before the chatbox stops. One of them managed to message me that i have to enter my universe number in the settings for the interface to work better. I also haven't been able to find the man from the hotel on the app or at the hotel either.
what do I do? Any piece of advice?

So, I'm enrolled in outside of school theater and there is a boy there who I have this huge crush on. I obvioussly won't give his real name, but we can call him Johnny. Johnny and I begun theater last year in September and as soon as I sat with him I found out he was in my school, ever since I've been fool in love with him because he had been all sweet with me. Because I live in a country who is not my own and does not speak my mother language, he always made sure to read our text with me and make sure I understood my part. He often sat with me and did exercises. Though the weirdest part of all of it is that whenever we'd go to school, he'd never talk to me, say hi or even look at me. I always said to myself it was okay because Johnny and I are in a time of our lives where it might be embarassing to him to admit he is hanging out with a girl, and I don't know the nature of his friends so maybe all he wants is to keep that part of his life a secret. So I always ignored it and went to theater, where he was always nice and talktive to me. Whenever I'd pose the question to why he never said hi to me at school, he always avoided the question.
I started doubting that the problem wasn't Johnny's friends because after sometime, all the city knew about our play (we live in a small city so it's not hard to everyone to know about stuff), and they saw our names together. Some of his friends came to talk to me to say how weird because we acted like we didn't even know eachother, that's when I started wondering.
I understand that we have separate lives and we have different needs, but I'm a hopeless romantic wanting for my teenage years to hit and have a bit of love in it, also because I don't have many friends or adults to help me with advice and to hang out with, so a boy showing affection to me had been something new.
In the play we act on, my character and his character are best friends, so we are often in the same rehearsals and in the same scenes.
Me and Johnny often shared memories in theater, including stuff like the time he cried whilst hugging me or when in the middle of our scene he forgot a line and I was forced to make it up to him and afterwards, forgave him and kept comforting with all my heart. And because I love him so much, it hurts a lot to spend like, a whole weekend making memories and making it official to the world we are friends and we know eachother, but when we get to school, he will barely look me in the eye.
And I know it might not be his friends because many know of our friendship and have even come to see the play, they saw me and Johnny act together and laugh with eachother and then just don't talk at all at school.
A lot of people say that he is very arrogant and unpolite for bluntly ignoring me, and maybe my big heart just can't listen to them. Some others say that I should step my foot down and talk to him and say that it does hurt me, but I think maybe he dosen't have the same view on things as me and thinks its normal for us to be friends at theater and then ignore eachother at school. And I don't want to sound like the pick me girl just wanting his attention and begging him to talk to me, so it's been kind of a difficult time. Also like every teenage girl I don't have the faintest courage to talk to him.
pleaseee if someone mature could give me love advice on how to talk to him. Thank you so much for hearing me :)

How would one answer this question? Let's try together! There is one important thing in both Stellaris and our own reality, which is the same: The sun, our g-type main sequence star.
We can therefore indirectly compare energy credits and dollars, using the energy output of the sun.
So, how much energy is the sun producing in a month? Its output is 3.86 x 10²⁶ watts^[1] . Watts are equal to joules per second. A month has 60 x 60 x 24 x 30.42 = 2,628 x 10⁶ seconds (assuming an average amount of days in a month). Multiplying the two we arrive at 1.0107288 x 10³³ joule. Joule itself as a unit isn't terribly helpful yet, so we convert it to kWh, which you may already be familiar with from your energy bill. Dividing the energy value by 3.6 x 10⁶ and we arrive at: 2.80758 x 10²⁶ kWh.
We do have to assume that the dates depicted in Stellaris (which always starts at 2200-01-01) are the same lunar years that we experience. But this should be a fair assumption, considering that Sol is in the game, and the default empire is seemingly meant to be our own civilization.
You may already have heard about the concept of a Dyson Sphere. If you've played with Utopia, or frequent this subreddit, that is. It is a construct around a star (mostly encompassing it, though not exclusively ^{[a] [b] [c] [d] [e]} ), which harvests its full energy. In the game this is equivalent to 4000 energy credits.
It is at this point that we have to concede an inaccuracy: Obviously not all stars have the same luminosity, i.e. the same energy output. However, in the game, all stars are equal to one another, when measured through the Dyson Sphere scale (and we have no other possible scale). Mods do sometimes try to fix this issue (often relying on vague internal "planet" sizes), but as a result we cannot be certain about the value, as we can ascertain neither the actual mass nor luminosity of any star ingame.
As a result, we should not be putting too much effort into calculating an approximate energy price for our own reality either. It would be wasted effort, especially since we also do not know the effiency of future photovoltaic cells. Let it suffice to say, that energy prices through the last few hundred years (when evaluating coal and other energy sources apart from electricity too) have varied greatly, and as a result of inflation, continued to increase. Any estimation will be a rough guess at best.
We will therefore use the average energy price in the US through the years 2020 to 2023, i.e. $0.17 per 1kWh^[2] . If we'd use european data, it'd be 0.24€ per 1kWh^[3] instead (prices vary due to local production). Both values are using consumer pricing for households.
Continuing on, we can now assume 4000 energy credits are (very roughly due to the necessary assumptions) equivalent to

• $4.772886 x 10²⁵
• or 6.738192 x 10²⁵ € respectively, each at the current valuation

Consequently, a single energy credit is worth:

• $11 932 215 000 000 000 000 000
• 16 845 480 000 000 000 000 000 €

A truly unimaginable amount of wealth, compressed into a single digit.
Considering that in 2022 the world economy was recorded as $101 600 000 000 000 (breaking through 100 trillion dollars for the first time), a dyson sphere is worth as much economic power as 5 637 266 900 000 times (5.6372669 x 10¹² ) our own human civilization encompasses. Maybe I should say 'any "early-space age" pre-FTL civilization'?
To put this into perspective (and end on a funny note): Any galactic civilization, with even just a single Dyson Sphere, would care about us approximately two times less than Bill Gates (with a net worth of $128 000 000 000^[4] ) would about picking up a single penny ($0.01). And we know he said he wouldn't do it.
Economically speaking, we would never be contacted by an alien species, before it isn't as easy for them as waving their hand, or "value" in reaching us increases otherwise. Henceforth, I don't think anybody should be scared of (or excited about) aliens contacting us in our lifetime, sorry! (Though actually, with FTL travel existing, it might be that easy after all.)
Also: Upkeep for leaders is way too high. At this point governors aren't just ruling planets, they own them! And being a Clerk doesn't sound so bad anymore... Excuse me for a second, I need to invent time travel.

Daydreams are fantasic and a fun way to pass the time. I love 'what would you do' questions and with the fact that the 'Queen of BL houses', (the death stair house) is up for sale, it got me thinking. If l had the money would l buy it? Which led me on to 'if you had the money to make it happen, what BL related thing would you like to do'.
So that got me thinking and here is my plan. I would organise a trip around the most iconic BL sites that myself and the users l interact with the most often wanted to see. It would be a multi country stop over and last for about a month so we really get to enjoy the area and culture. While we are doing the tour we are thinking up of a series that will be discussed with a producer in Japan and organised during the last few days of our trip. We would all get ownership rights. It would be a psychological very grown up toxic 'adult' 15 episide long series that looks at the mental changes one has to go through as an adult when they realise they are not straight and the person they have fallen hard for is a sexy sexy murderer with morals. They then beome 'murder lovers' travelling the world 'fighting and fuxing'. There are cops after them.
I would assign each of my user friends a role for the project based on what l attribute their skill to be due to our interactions. I have paid for everything and they do not need to spend a penny apart from their own souvenirs. I would have Kimura Tatsunari as the main lead (Togawa from 'Old Fashioned Cupcake) and Takeda Kouhei (Nozue OFC) as the murderer love interest. As a side couple l would have Machida Keita (Kurosawa from Cherry Magic) and Izuka Kenta (Kuzumi from the Pornographer) as the detective partners thrown together to catch the serial killer. They hate each other at first and suspect the other is the killer, but their lust for each other overpowers their reasoning and the fall hard. They get murdered, but not by our main guys.... season 2 plot maybe? We would also have small parts to play that can be shot in one day before we all go home.
Each night during the trip we have a presentation. So everyone gets the chance to Fujin their little hearts out to an audience that just gets it! I fly us all out again for a private screening of the first episode. The whole thing would be phenominal, a true once in a lifetime experience that would be remembered for the rest of our lives.
So if you had the money, what would you do? Also apologies for any spelling mistakes. I am typing this on my phone and l am very excited and thus spelling mistakes will happen as my fingers fly over the small screen.

I have been searching on Reddit/internet and trying on my own, but I have just come to the point where I’m asking for help from any Good Samaritan out there.
I need help with 3 things to make Steam deck perfect for me. 1 pc game, ps3 games, and movies.
1). How can I download and play The Thing pc game on Steam deck? I would like to download/install it from the disc onto my Steam deck. I tried to run it via external disc player, drag over the files but it wouldn’t download. This is the only old pc game I want on here.
2). I installed emu deck and have the rcps3 installed. I have a library of ps3 game discs. I tried a blu ray player drive to try to download it to Steam deck but it didn’t run. I put a usb into my ps3 but it wouldn’t download. I only want to play 2 games- UFC undisputed 3 and Blitz the League 2. Please help, seems like everyone has games on their usb I have no clue how to do that.
3). I have dvd and blu ray discs i would like to have on my external micro sd so I can watch movies offline on the go. VLC only lets me play the movie.. how can I download them to a usb and the external micro sd? Alternatively, if that isn’t an option, I have movies on iTunes. Will Wine let me download my iTunes movies? I know I can go to Movies Anywhere and stream, but my goal is offline movies.
Thank you, oh kind and helpful good samaritans of Reddit! You shall have my sword

Hello All! I'm doing some basic polling and playtesting with an option I'm about 50/50 on for my game Project Chimera: E.C.O. currently in alpha development.
Basic information:
Players take on the role of a black ops super soldier working for a PMSC (Chimera Group International). The game heavily focuses on stealth and social objective completion over combat, ie, there is no incentive for combat, it's a way to achieve an objective, but it's the worst ROI since it is potentially lethal and consumes resources much faster than other methods and doesn't offer special rewards, also there's not really "loot" per se like in a DnD game. Loot is most likely to be information that advances the plot.
The game is crunchy, while easy to learn the core game loops (there's a 1 page overview that will get any experienced RPer able to sit for their first session and 3 points of entry: pregen, table roll/select, and full custom) it's mostly that it has lots of flexibility and character options, which is great for players that want that, but it's a known limitation it will not appeal to rules light/casual gamer preferred experiences.
The game takes place in a five minutes into the future dystopian mirror alt earth with cyberpunk and sci fi elements. Characters have access to things like advanced training, gear, bionics, psionics, super powers, feats, etc. A character's starting template doesn't restrict them, it just figures out their initial boosted areas, ie if you take the bionics aspect, your character will have more bionics than a general build character, you can still access everything else, but it's more a question of where you want the thematic focus of the character to be. All characters are baseline competent in the areas of stealth, socialization, survival and gunplay/combat (you absolutely can use HTH and melee with extensive options, but as one might expect, guns are usually more effective, though those options definitely have their place).As such consider these things to be relevant to potential players, ie if you hate stealth/social, prefer rules light casual, opinions are less relevant in this case because it's not a game built for that kind of player.
The Actual Concern:
Currently I'm considering removing the concept of a critical hit in combat doing double damage automatically and there's a good amount of relevant information:

1. Players have others ways to boost damage
2. This wouldn't remove the option, it just expands the option to more options.

​
The concept works like this:
Characters have 4 meta currencies, one of them is called Essence.
This is a daily regen pool and is used for "enhanced performance" of some kind. Presently it can be used for things like a small bonus to a roll for a save, or gaining +1 standard action on a turn, remove a level of exhaustion, rally, etc., the point being it does have a level of utility. It might be also be used to fuel a special ability from a feat, augment a powepsionic, allow for a special application move, etc.
Crits occur in combat (skills can also crit) similar to PF2e in that you can gain one on a nat 20 or if you exceed the TN by 10+ (in most cases, there are other ways to finagle this but they are niche).
Essence is described in game as:
Essence represents the total abstract humanity of a character as well as their general combined physical and mental well being, focus, and general willpower. It is utilized to overcome general limitations and perform above expectations. Essence is most commonly associated with the concept of the superego.
The proposed change would be a character gains 1 essence (up to max pool, this can be spent immediately if it exceeds) on a crit, but double damage would cost 2 essence.
A typical early level character is likely to have somewhere around 10-20 essence total in the pool (could be more or less but this is an estimated average).
Some positives of this proposed change:
This provides another opportunity for essence regen for players.
This provides additional utility and tactical choice in combat (ie they might opt for double damage and spend the extra, bank it, apply a status effect instead, etc.), particularly because more damage is not always a preferred option. In many cases disabling an opponent quickly and without drawing attention is preferred over killing them, and in some cases capturing a target alive is the mission itself.
This can open up other combat applications for essence use.
Some negatives of the proposed change:
Adding a player choice here can slow down combat for indecisive players.
This puts more emphasis/reward on combat, which isn't really the intent of the game. Essence is easier to earn in game in other ways, but adding incentive in combat assumes that this is a reward for player behavior, when open combat is, by design, meant to be more of an "oops, we screwed up moment". With that said, characters are black ops super soldiers so the game is less about never being in combat and more about trying to stave off combat as much as possible and if you have to enter combat, doing so with control of the battlefield in a smart and tactical manner.
This requires additional book keeping. Not a whole lot, we already have to track essence use, but we now have to consider that it will fluctuate more often (as part of combat).
Why I'm split:
The game is built and meant to be focused on providing experiences other than combat (ie the goal is to get as far away from typical game loop of "punch monster until it drops loot" as possible), but it would be fair to say it also has extremely robust options and tactical choice for combat. To be clear, the combat is highly tactical and has more moves available in and out of combat than probably any other known game on the market, but it's also not meant to appeal specifically to "combat only players" and the system design directly reflects this.Basically my design values are in a bit of conflict here.
Obviously I'll play test this regardless, but I'm curious about:
Are there additional reasons foagainst this?
Given the premises of the game, which do you think is likely to be more fun for you specifically? For the type of gamer this game is meant to appeal to? Why?
View Poll

Hello All! I'm doing some basic polling and playtesting with an option I'm about 50/50 on for my game Project Chimera: E.C.O. currently in alpha development.
Basic information:
Players take on the role of a black ops super soldier working for a PMSC (Chimera Group International). The game heavily focuses on stealth and social objective completion over combat, ie, there is no incentive for combat, it's a way to achieve an objective, but it's the worst ROI since it is potentially lethal and consumes resources much faster than other methods and doesn't offer special rewards, also there's not really "loot" per se like in a DnD game. Loot is most likely to be information that advances the plot.
The game is crunchy, while easy to learn the core game loops (there's a 1 page overview that will get any experienced RPer able to sit for their first session and 3 points of entry: pregen, table roll/select, and full custom) it's mostly that it has lots of flexibility and character options, which is great for players that want that, but it's a known limitation it will not appeal to rules light/casual gamer preferred experiences.
The game takes place in a five minutes into the future dystopian mirror alt earth with cyberpunk and sci fi elements. Characters have access to things like advanced training, gear, bionics, psionics, super powers, feats, etc. A character's starting template doesn't restrict them, it just figures out their initial boosted areas, ie if you take the bionics aspect, your character will have more bionics than a general build character, you can still access everything else, but it's more a question of where you want the thematic focus of the character to be.
All characters are baseline competent in the areas of stealth, socialization, survival and gunplay/combat (you absolutely can use HTH and melee with extensive options, but as one might expect, guns are usually more effective, though those options definitely have their place).As such consider these things to be relevant to potential players, ie if you hate stealth/social, prefer rules light casual, opinions are less relevant in this case because it's not a game built for that kind of player.
The Actual Concern:
Currently I'm considering removing the concept of a critical hit in combat doing double damage automatically and there's a good amount of relevant information:

1. Players have others ways to boost damage
2. This wouldn't remove the option, it just expands the option to more options.

​
The concept works like this:
Characters have 4 meta currencies, one of them is called Essence.
This is a daily regen pool and is used for "enhanced performance" of some kind. Presently it can be used for things like a small bonus to a roll for a save, or gaining +1 standard action on a turn, remove a level of exhaustion, rally, etc., the point being it does have a level of utility. It might be also be used to fuel a special ability from a feat, augment a powepsionic, allow for a special application move, etc.Crits occur in combat (skills can also crit) similar to PF2e in that you can gain one on a nat 20 or if you exceed the TN by 10+ (in most cases, there are other ways to finagle this but they are niche).
Essence is described in game as:
Essence represents the total abstract humanity of a character as well as their general combined physical and mental well being, focus, and general willpower. It is utilized to overcome general limitations and perform above expectaions. Essence is most commonly associated with the concept of the superego.
The proposed change would be a character gains 1 essence (up to max pool, this can be spent immediately if it exceeds) on a crit, but double damage would cost 2 essence.A typical early level character is likely to have somewhere around 10-20 essence total in the pool (could be more or less but this is an estimated average).
Some positives of this proposed change:
This provides another opportunity for essence regen for players.
This provides additional utility and tactical choice in combat (ie they might opt for double damage and spend the extra, bank it, apply a status effect instead, etc.), particularly because more damage is not always a preferred option. In many cases disabling an opponent quickly and without drawing attention is preferred over killing them, and in some cases capturing a target alive is the mission itself.
This can open up other combat applications for essence use.
Some negatives of the proposed change:
Adding a player choice here can slow down combat for indecisive players.
This puts more emphasis/reward on combat, which isn't really the intent of the game. Essence is easier to earn in game in other ways, but adding incentive in combat assumes that this is a reward for player behavior, when open combat is, by design, meant to be more of an "oops, we screwed up moment". With that said, characters are black ops super soldiers so the game is less about never being in combat and more about trying to stave off combat as much as possible and if you have to enter combat, doing so with control of the battlefield in a smart and tactical manner.
This requires additional book keeping. Not a whole lot, we already have to track essence use, but we now have to consider that it will fluctuate more often (as part of combat).
Why I'm split:
The game is built and meant to be focused on providing experiences other than combat (ie the goal is to get as far away from typical game loop of "punch monster until it drops loot" as possible), but it would be fair to say it also has extremely robust options and tactical choice for combat. To be clear, the combat is highly tactical and has more moves available in and out of combat than probably any other known game on the market, but it's also not meant to appeal specifically to "combat only players" and the system design directly reflects this.
Basically my design values are in a bit of conflict here. Obviously I'll play test this regardless, but I'm curious about:
Are there additional reasons foagainst this?
Given the premises of the game, which do you think is likely to be more fun for you specifically? For the type of gamer this game is meant to appeal to? Why?

Broke everything down into several sections. It's a bummer I couldn't watch/discuss while it was airing, so I'd love to hear people's thoughts!
Overall Thoughts/S1 Ending
I thought this show was a great ride. It wasn't perfect and of course was a bit unrealistic, but I found it was less soapy and sensationalist than many shows in the genre. For me, Kate was the star. I felt like they did a good job of explaining why she took the actions she took without villifying her or making her less of a victim. I could see why she lied in many cases, and how it was a larger part of her struggle to reconcile for herself why things happened.
I really liked Jeannette from the start and didn't read into the creepiness as quickly as everyone else did, I was rooting for her the whole time (although I was also rooting for Kate). However, at the end, HOLY **** that last scene messed me up, and in a good way. It definitely changed my retrospective view of things. I also want to add that I don't think it took away from the idea that Martin was the main villain. I thought it was a good and deliberate choice to focus on Kate and Martin's episode in E9 and not show too much of Jeannette, because it allowed us to really see the shitty things Martin was doing in their own light. And his final scene with the gun, I definitely saw as more manipulative than anything. I look forward to a rewatch down the road where I focus more on Jeannette's shitty ways.
In, the finale Jeannette accused Kate of never wanting her life anyway. It sort of got me thinking about how in the end, Kate sort of ended up with parts of Jeannette's life and seemed happier for it. She was bffs with Mallory, and didn't have as wide a network or was as popular, but was fine just smoking pot with her bestie. Jeannette's and Kate's journeys were an interesting trope on "finding oneself" (I put this in quotes bc obviously it was not a good thing that any of this ever happened to Kate). Also the ways in which this happened are super juxtaposed.
A few nitpicks
I was disappointed that the show often flirted with the theme of how women are believed/portrayed in media/are in their dynamics with men, but then it just petered out. It was kind of a backslide to have Jeannette and Jamie be endgame imo, not just because their emotional connection was not at all developed, but also because it was nice to see Jamie realize what an awful person he'd been, and see him own up to it without any hope of redemption. Jeannette is a pyscho imo, but I still felt like it undid some of that to see him get the girl, especially because I thought the earlier plot point of Jamie being awful to both of them and both of them seeing that was quite powerful. There were also signs of this in other dynamics as well (Cindy, for example). It disappointed me that the show introduced it but never fully capitalized on it outside of Kate's (very valid) fears of how her actions would be viewed.
While I loved the final episode, I also wished we'd seen a little bit more of the other characters, maybe a 2 hour episode would be nice. It felt like the dynamics that had happened got thrown out a bit, which was a bummer. I wanted to see a Derek/Ashley fight, maybe see Kate confront Ashley. I wanted to see how Cindy reacted to things with the trial (before the final Jeanette reveal, ofc). I also felt like the Vince/Ben thing, while cute, was super underdeveloped and either should have been given more time or cut. I make these criticisms mostly because they populated the world really well and had a lot of nice, fleshed-out dynamics. I thought it was a bummer they abandoned most of them at the end.
Hot Takes
Maybe public opinion has changed since the initial airing of S1, but I have to say I was kind of shocked at the Mallory (and Cindy) vitriol, and kind of shocked not to see more vitriol for Greg, who, imo, was an awful parent.
Mallory was an annoying, immature teenager, but I fail to see anything truly awful that she did to Jeanette. She was bossy and pushy, but was hardly a criminal - Vince didn't seem to have a problem with her. Jeannette wanted to transcend her dorkiness and be cooler, and she felt like Mallory was dragging her down. Jeannette's constant harping on Mallory for doing things that could get them into trouble while always breaking into the house was super gaslight-y imo and just as pushy as Mallory. I felt like Jeannette's aversions to Mallory's mischief was partly because she didn't want to be associated with what she saw as Mallory's cringe. Not to say Mallory wasn't pushy or ignoring Jeannette's feelings, she was, but I think she was also picking up on Jeannette pulling away, and doubling down out of insecurity. It felt like a super normal teenage rift to me and I think they were both being kinda shitty and shallow, but ultimately not in a super evil way.
I also don't think Mallory not telling Kate about seeing her was that wrong. Imo, Mallory's friendship with Kate did not seem to start out of guilt, in fact, I don't think Mallory intended it to happen (Kate was the one who invited Mal over for her birthday in '94). It was a sharp contrast to Ashely, who eventually genuinely cared about Kate, but also clearly felt guilty for pushing her away and adding to Kate's sense of isolation. Mallory not telling Kate about seeing her seemed in part due to her not wanting to drag up Kate's story inconsistencies, out of a place of protectiveness. As a teenager, I don't know that I would have known how to tell Kate that, either. Even Jeannette pointed out that Mallory hung on to the snowglobe to protect Kate. And Mallory didn't know that this situation was the one Kate was pinning on Jeannette, so I also don't think she was super responsible for that, either. Mallory was the only teen who seemed to want to be supporting Kate because she liked Kate and didn't want anything from her besides friendship. Did I like Mallory that much? No, not for a long time. But she grew on me, I really do not get the outcry, other than I guess people are thinking she's annoying.
My final hot take is that Cindy >> Greg. Was she perfect? No. But Greg was an awful, enabling parent. He let Jeannette get away with everything, and wouldn't listen to his own wife on how she wanted to parent, always insisting Cindy was wrong. When he finally realized Jeannette broke into the house, he dealt with it reasonably well, but failed to learn from the incident that his precious little girl was capable of keeping things for him. The way he (and everyone) treated Cindy was awful, too. I'll admit, I have a soft spot for the actress from Grey's Anatomy, but it was *really* hard to watch everyone in the family hang her out to dry. Jeannette gaslit her mom just bc Cindy was onto her, then continued to pound Cindy for "leaving me" even while we know that Cindy was still trying to be in contact with Jeannette. Greg refuses to listen to her and continually dismisses her basically until Cindy puts her foot down. On their anniversary, Greg gets flowers from a cute girl and is all dopey. Then, when Cindy leaves later that night, Greg goes, "On our anniversary?" as if he actually cared. As soon as he admits Cindy was right about Jeannette (over one thing), he expects Cindy to come back, without taking any responsibility for the deeper issues she'd communicated to him. Meanwhile, he just continues to enable Jeannette then get wasted and complain about how his life sucks for sticking by her, without even trying to actually question her or hold her accountable. He has a right to be upset, but he really seems to just like to blame all the women in his life for his problems then mope around and sleep with someone who gives him free alcohol. I also really don't think Cindy "abandoned" Jeanette, she left for valid reasons and tried to find ways to still be there for her daughter. I know it was the 90's, but people split, and it's not like Jeannette wasn't lying to her continuously. I honestly just felt so bad for Cindy, and again, it was a case of just, "Why do people dislike this character for the crime of being annoying?".
Anyways, thanks for reading!

I have a senior cat I adopted back in October. She is the sweetest thing, a great cuddler, and good with dogs. She is not, however, good with cats. Unfortunately I have 2 other cats that she attacks multiple times throughout the month and makes them very stressed. This has turned into her being locked up at night and when we aren’t at home in a bedroom, and often stays upstairs while the other cats stay downstairs. Of course though, they do get together sometimes and a fight will break loose. It’s not fair to her and my other cats to live in stress and to a degree of isolation.
The other obstacle is that she is on medication, twice a day, for the rest of her life. She’s older than 10 years and needs to be an only cat.
I don’t want to bring her back to the shelter, I won’t. But I’m afraid to rehome her myself cause how can I trust the person getting her won’t hurt her? Does anyone have any suggestions?

When I was a kid I always loved playing detective, running around finding clues all that fun stuff. I have always been good at decoding and solving puzzles. Over time I got better at it, and now I constantly do escape rooms. I love the adrenaline rush, it’s something I would never not love. Now all that information is important.
I went out to a restaurant with my friends, it had great food and was overall a blast. I went to the bathroom not to long after arriving, and not to get to personal here but I have always been a awkward person when it comes to using a urinal so I usually use a stall. When I went to lock it I noticed there were some symbols on the stall. I new exactly what the symbols were, it was pigpen cipher. I took a photo of it used did what I needed to in the bathroom and left. While we waited for food I showed my friends the photo and they decided I should decode it while we wait. So I did. It translated to “4th window to the left from the door.” Which was right behind me, so I got up looked around the window, and boom there was more pigpen. Took a picture went back to the table and decoded it. This one translated to, “3rd streetlight right of door” So when we got done eating and payed, we went out looked and once again found more pigpen. We looked like 4 odd random dudes standing and starring at a random streetlight on some random dark windy night. I decided it and it said, “below in front blacklight” We looked down and saw nothing, me and one of my friends realized we needed to get a blacklight. We went to the family tree right by the place and bought a blacklight, then came back shining the light on the ground. Then there on the ground just as expected we’re words, an address to be exact. We went on Google maps and typed in the address and found out it was some abandoned bar. Us being the dumb 18 year olds we were decided to go, because we didn’t think of what could go wrong. It was some plain abandoned bar, we looked around and shined the blacklight to see if anything was there. We almost gave up cause nothing showed up until the light was shined on the entrance. There were words that said “Please get help” But yet again we didn’t think much of it, we honestly thought this was some dumb prank done by some 13 years olds trying to scare the shit out of people. But that was the stupidest thing we did. We went in looking for clues of any sort, and found a arrow pointing to the back. We were led to a dark room, and then the door shut behind us do to the high winds. So we turned on our phone lights, as me and my friend who was the stronger one tried to open the door, our good at lying friend tried to figure out what we should tell our parents on why we have been gone 2 hours longer then said. Our friend who was the curious one walked further into the room, but he quickly came running back with some disgusted and fearful face. He said we needed to get out now, and started to hyperventilate while crying hard. We all looked at him, worried and started to move a bit quicker at getting out. As soon as we got out he ran around the side to throw up, but ran back bawling his eyes out with a terrified expression. I want to the side of the building to see what he saw, and oh man did I wish we never came here. You could see footprints that looked new, and they where far apart so it looked like someone was running. Then a bit further up was a body, all cut up and bleeding. You could see their bones and tissue, the body looked like it was only there for a few days. Blood was everywhere and the more you looked around the more of peoples body parts you saw. It was mortifying. I threw up so much and ran. I yelled we needed to get out of this area and call the police. We called the police and told them everything that happened that night and what I saw, along with my friend.
That is a night I will never forget, and want to relive. It still replays in my head every day.

08/01/2022 - 06/03/2023
Total reviewed: 465
Watched on: Max
IMDb
Synopsis: Gods pursue Billy Batson and friends after retrieving a powerful relic.
TASTE THE RAINBOW, MOTHERF---!
Not as terrible as I was led to believe. The next installment in the Shazam franchise finds Billy Batson basking in superhero glory as he and his friends work together to protect their city from malfeasance ranging the criminal spectrum... with varying results. As one of the intentionally sillier installments in the DC universe the over-the-top humor in this one has a better fit than the latest, joke-laden features from Marvel.
Zachary Levi is mostly good in the role but seems entirely different from the kid he's supposed to be. Billy is pretty chill and has a measure of charisma where as Shazam seems like a super-douchey try-hard for half of the film. But the other half he's legitimately funny and even hits the heart a little in the end so I'll give him a pass. Honestly, the worst thing about this film is probably the wooden Lucy Liu who just wasn't doing it for me. I guess after you live thousands of years you maybe just expend the great capacity for any emotion you once had? And talk about greatness--the incomparable Helen Mirren is in this film as well, adding an element of reserved ferocity to the movie that helps me take the bad guys a little more seriously.
The CGI isn't terrible but it definitely isn't the best around with many scenes just looking...manufactured. Several of the stunts are obviously just actors being swung around on wires with little regards to the actual physics of the scene. Other times, a scene just looks layered. The worst offender is that one of the baddies rides around on a dragon (for quite a bit of the movie!) and it just looks like them holding some wooden pommels and then being patched into the scene. Which I know is exactly what it is, but it looks like it. However, there are other parts that look really cool. The fight under the dome was pretty sweet and we have one of more badass portrayals of unicorns I can recall. I mean, if they legit look like that, I fucking want one.
A decent sequel that suffers more from production than product. If you liked the first then I'm sure this one will appeal to you as well.
6.5/10

It honestly amazes me how obsessed people have become with screens. As if what is on these screens is always somehow more impressive than the person or the tree -for that matter- in front of you. I try to remember that Reality is actually pretty damn amazing. And adults literally have no self- control. The screens turn us all into those children who cannot resist a marshmallow placed in front of them.
I think those who have said that the worst part about it all is related to the fact that the content is bottomless are correct. Unlike a movie or a song that ends, and you go to bed or carry on with life, it just goes on and on, dangling a carrot in front of you that you never get to savor; like a dog chasing a fake rabbit in endless, pointless laps around a racetrack. Or thirsty man in a desert chasing a mirage.
It creates an insatiable desire because of the sense that with whatever one is doing with these screens at the time there must always be something better just around the corner. Swiping, scrolling endlessly to find it. And you never do. Never giving anything your undivided attention, unable to fully commit to or focus on anything because whatever you are doing now, you are already thinking about the next thing you could be doing that won’t be good enough either.
This drawback is often mentioned with reference to online dating but it’s surprising to me that it’s not often stated that this same mindset permeates everything, making it so much bigger and more damaging than that.
I do not think we have fully come to terms with how miserable and damaging this way of thinking and living is. I don’t think we fully know either what the true repercussions are.
We are becoming something different. Maybe that’s just the way it is from here on out. Like the car before it, the genie is out of the bottle and there is no getting it back in.
It’s just damage control.
That’s my rant for this Saturday afternoon . Thank you

I started this little Sunday morning racing club with 3 or 4 of us a few months ago on GTPlanet. A few weeks ago, I started a discord and it's grown to 73 members quite quickly. The premise was and still is simple - slower cars, generally smaller tracks, but with some full race experiences complete with pit stops, tire and fuel wear. Not something easy for those of us....less skilled.....to experience. We call it OWS (Old, Weird and Slow). We favor those cars that aren't often used. No Gr cars here, and no race cars except the occasional historic one.
We have events that suit a lot of different people -

• Saturday morning races (moved from Sunday) - the usual format is to do a few smaller races, then a main event of at least a half hour, complete with all the racing goodness using accelerated tire wear, fuel consumption and time.
  
  • Petit Gateaux - small cakes? Yes. This is designed as a teaching/learning set of races on Wednesday evening. All skill levels welcome, just be prepared to share your setup on our discord if you do well! Whether you want to get better, or feel you have some things you can help others with, this is a very fun set of races, and is quickly becoming the most popular series.

Time trials - we have 'peasant in a reasonably priced car', based on Top Gear's segment. Drive a bone stock car around a small track and compare times with discord friends. And we have another time trial for those of you who like to tune!
More content coming soon! We have a Kart racing series in the works, and often a room will be started if you just want to race. We're slowly building and having a blast doing it! Here's the discord link, come join us! https://discord.gg/39WuUfnX

Hi everyone,
I’m going to Corfu in September 2023 and I have decided to go to Paxos while I’m there. What is the best ferry to get? I’m getting conflicting information about how reliable the ferrys are, with people on Tripadvisor saying that they often get cancelled on short notice. Please give me any advice you have. Any other ideas or things to do there is appreciated as well. Thanks!

I worked for 4 years now as a software developer and participated in a scrum master training last year. I really like the framework and wanted to explore that part of it. At the start of the year I had the opportunity to co found a new team at my company and am working as their scrum master part time next to my developer position. I like that I can step into both positions. But I have the feeling that I should at some point decide for one of them and commit fully to it. I often have days where I’m constantly switching context and think i could benefit the company more if i focus on one thing. My boss and I talked a few time about it and she’s really supportive and would be fine with either decision. In our last call she told me that the scrum master of my developer team will leave at some point and i could take over. That would mean that I would step away from the developer role there and have two teams where I’m the scrum master.
I’m really torn about what to do. How do you think this could impact my career? I could imagine gaining a few years experience as a scrum master and at some point move to a higher management role. Does that sound realistic or would I be better of working at my developer skills and move upwards that way? Also how could this impact my salary, depending on where you look it says developer > scrum master salary and vice versa.

Basically, I fell out with this girl when I she told me the wrong date and location for a group hangout purposefully. She made a groupchat without me for this and told people I didn't want to come when people asked why I wasn't in the groupchat without telling me the fact that date had change to a date she knew I could make. She seemed to know that this annoyed me since she had told some guy she made the group chat to avoid when previously things have been on the bigger groupchat and this was the first time a chat had been made. The guy said this was reasonable but along with her choosing not to tell me the date changes when I had asked her and instead snapping made me think she was being malicious.
The reason for this is probably that she kept being very snappy and expecting me to go along with it and putting her feelings before my own because she was very stressed - the stress being that a guy confessed his feelings to her despite having a girlfriend but said he didn't want a reltionship. I try to be accomodating but I was going through my own stuff in my home and health and realised she was kind being entitled. Also, she probably doesn't realise it but when she gets stressy she starts yelling. I think when I told her that her comment was probably what offended someone (it was about someone's grandfather) she started yelling at me saying I couldn't say that because she was so stressed and that I had to take the blame with her. I said that I didn't want to do that and that especially at uni, everyone had their own issues. I told her I was going to my room. She said 'do you want to talk about this' but obviously she has this habit with yelling when stressed and also always thinking she's right (apparentlu it weird to floss in the bathroom because according to her it is wrong? also it's weird to eat cheese string by peeling the string? small things like this she is pretty serious about).
I told her I would rather not and went to my room to avoid getting yelled at. I told her I wasn't coming to the party and she was like okay but I added straight afterwrads the only reason I wsn't coming is because I couldn't make the Saturday since I as coming back Sunday morning so she didn't think it was because of her. It's funny because I made a point to say this too which felt weird at the time. She shrugged her shoulders and then straight aftewrards she seems to have made a groupchat. Two days later, I asked her for the timing and details of a hangout which we jointly organised but there seemed to be no talk of to see that if it was late at night I could try and return late Saturday. She kinda just snpped wat me saying 'why aee you asking this' which made me stop because I didn't want to deal with this especially when someone was starting a speech. I assumed there were no changed but that night, I found the silence of the groupchat weird and asked a friend and learnt she made a groupchat without me for this and told people I didn't want to come when people asked why I wasn't in the groupchat without telling me. I thoguht this was somehwat reasonable since I couldn't make the date but apparently it was switched back to Sunday evening - which she knew I could attend from prior conversations. I thought this was silly because I would obviosuly know if something was happening in her room since we're neighbours but she has specifically requested someone else's room.
She seemed to know that this annoyed me since she had told the guy who confessed to her she made the group chat to avoid when previously things have been on the bigger groupchat and this was the first time a chat had been made. The guy said this was reasonable but along with her choosing not to tell me the date changes when I had asked her and instead snapping made me think she was being malicious. Throughout her whole chat he seemed to be mking excuses for her such s she probably dissocited whilst doing this.
After that she kept making new groupchats for many more things which I have been excluded from for the most random events instead of using the larger groupcht. This means we are not often kept up in the loop of things for plans and timings until we learn of the groupchat and someone else tells her to dd us since that girl makes herself the only admin. If it wasn't for another girl I would hve constantly arrived at different times. My friend was joking about how she's trying to make this an exclusive group.
Now, this has been going on for a few months. Two days ago, I met up with the girl who has been nice enough to inform me when she makes new groupchats. She told me towards the end of the trip that this girl has asked to have dinner with her and was planning to meet up with everyone in the group one by one - so the other 6 in the group and likely not me. Logically, this should be no problem because this is better than a group hangout without just me but at the same time this is weird because it feels like another way to isolate me especially since she is meeting with the people she isn't even that close with. For example, the girl who she was to have dinner with barely talks to her.
So what are your thoughts? I would try to see what her problem is but obviously I don't want a one to one meet up with her and am not entitled to one either. Nothing she does is illegal and she seems to convince people that this is reasonable but her whole behaviour seems to have an unusual intent.