When does lobsterfest end 2022

When I login into my account I get an error saying
"Error on POST https://launcher.escapefromtarkov.com/launchelogin?launcherVersion=12.12.3.1964
Suspicious behavior. CF-RAY: 7d53299f3b02c014-WAW"
I also get information that my access has been denied on every tarkov website, but this is only happening when I am on my better internet that I use to play games. Whenever I try to login using my other internet I can launch the game. Does anyone know what this is caused by? Did anyone have the same problem?
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i am insecure when it comes to my stomach so i prefer to wear higher waisted pants, and most men’s board shorts aren’t. does anyone know any options? it doesn’t have to be men’s but i prefer something masculine in style. affordable would be prefered but if you know any pricey options that’s okay too.

Why does sniping feel god awful when i turn it on? Its really annoying because it feels weird having it on when playing sniper but also weird having it off when playing other guns.. is there an option to turn it off for sniping maybe? It just feels so slow and sticky and u can barely flick on targets. Idk if its the trash input or USA

DISCLAIMER
I almost didn’t post this. Not because I think it’s too wild or doesn’t make any sense. In fact, quite the opposite. The information I present here, which is the result of countless hours spent re-watching videos, listening to audio, and cross-referencing official information, is something that now seems to me to be far too viable not to be correct. I have actually tried to prove this theory wrong and… well basically I can’t. So, please bear this in mind as you read. This could end up being one of those rare occasions when we’re actually onto something. Either way, I hope you enjoy the post.
First point; this is going to be a long post. Given the subject matter, it needs to be. Second point; I have not added any images or videos directly into the post but have instead included a great many links embedded within the text itself. This should ensure that the post is no longer than it needs to be but should still allow you sufficient opportunity to fully scrutinize every part of my theory, so that you can determine for yourself whether or not you think it holds weight.
I have organised all of the information under specific headings designed to make everything more accessible. Each section focuses on a particular aspect of the main theory. Even if you think that some of what you are reading may not be relevant, I can assure you that everything written here has been included as an important part of a much larger puzzle, and so I would advise that you patiently make your way through the entirety of the post. In an effort to ensure that your time invested here is appropriately rewarded, and in the spirit of preserving the scientific method, I have tried to keep flavor text and blind speculation down to an absolute minimum.
Note that I will be listing various aspects of this post as being confirmed correct or incorrect as and when we have official information to verify such facts. So here we are, after five long years of waiting, the inevitable release of Starfield, like the event horizon of some nearby black hole, is almost upon us. With the Showcase now a mere 24 hours away, it is time for us to take a look at what makes this particular game so special, as well as discovering just how we will be given the means to fly among the stars.
And so, without further ado, let us begin.
Hitchhiker's Guide
From watching gameplay footage, and also listening to various devs talk about Starfield, we know that at some along the early part of the story, we will find ourselves on board a Constellation Starship, which is appropriately named Frontier. With us on the ship is VASCO, an adorable robot assistant who will eventually become one of our possible companions. But how did we even end up on this ship? Well firstly, I do not believe that Frontier is our ship, or at least not at first. And so, we’re probably here in the capacity of a ‘guest’ of some kind, or more likely, a hitchhiker.
If we take a look at this scene, we first hear a male shouting “that’s the Crimson Fleet!” and then a female saying “Everybody get ready!” After this, we can see that the group we are with is attacked. We already know that we uncover some kind of unknown artifact whilst mining for ore near the beginning of the Main Quest, and that the aforementioned Crimson Fleet is essentially an organised collective of space pirates. But what we don’t know is why they attacked us. This is not something I will be diving into in this particular post, although I do have some theories about this. But the relevance of the series of events here described cannot be understated, as they seem to be the launching point for our entry into Constellation and the adventures that follow.
Next, if we look a little further, we can see that this seemingly-important member of Constellation is not with us when we arrive at their Headquarters on Jemison, which suggests that he may have been killed during the above mentioned attack. Also note that, in-spite of not having a voiced protagonist this time round, we can clearly hear somebody talking over Frontier’s comms system, which means that there must be a designated pilot. Given the fact that we don’t see anyone who is confirmed as being the pilot (although it may actually be this person), it is safe to assume that this designated individual was with us during the flight but was first injured in the attack on the planet’s surface and was then taken to Medical Bay after we successfully land on Jemison.
It is my belief that, after perhaps being exposed to some kind of energy pulse from a grenade or something similar, the first member of Constellation we see was outright killed (hence why we are then asked to join up ourselves, perhaps to take over his role). The pilot, however, clearly survived as we can hear him talking to Control over the comms system during what is actually an extended two-way conversation, but I think that his vision was somehow compromised so that, even though he is able to speak, he is temporarily unable to see. The good news about this most unfortunate situation is that it opens the door for us to quickly step into the hot seat and, with the pilot acting as our guide, we will experience our very first Starfield flight tutorial.
Radio Chatter
If you listen to the beginning of both the Official Teaser Trailer and Official Gameplay Reveal for Starfield, you will hear both halves of the radio conversation I have referenced above, or at least the parts of it that Bethesda have given us so far. The first of these is spoken by somebody being referred to as Control, and the second by Frontier’s pilot. I previously posted a link to an audio I made and put up on Soundcloud, which gives us all of the confirmed parts of this conversation carefully spliced together and enhanced for clarity. Note that some of the audio, despite these enhancements, is a little hard to make out.
The final, in-game conversation is going to be a fair bit longer than what we have here and will be based on the specific processes that are required before attempting a Grav Jump. I don’t think we will hear this conversation every time we perform a Jump (especially given that our protagonist does not speak), but the first time we experience this early step-out moment, a detailed and appropriate pre-launch conversation will only serve to enhance what I’m sure will be an awe-inspiring experience.
Note that, at the end of this post, I have provided a link to a written transcript detailing what I think is being said in the full version of the above conversation. In the meantime, here is a breakdown of the confirmed parts of this audio. This is slightly different from the version I previously posted, due to new evidence clarifying exactly what is being said here. I have left line-spaces to help show where the missing parts of the audio will eventually go:
PILOT: "Control this is Constellation Starship Frontier."
CONTROL: "Constellation Starship Frontier, we have you on scanners."
PILOT: "We're ready to start on your signal."
CONTROL: "Performing Road Systems check. Helium-3 tanks, check. Seals are intact."
PILOT: "Maintaining Exit Vector course, Steady 'till Ready."
CONTROL: "We are still go."
PILOT: "Coordinates input, plotting Jump course."
CONTROL: "We read you Constellation."
PILOT: "Sky-Bus is converged, we're looking good."
CONTROL: "Jemison route looks good."
PILOT: "Allocating Auxiliary Reactor Power."
CONTROL: "Prepare for departure. Graviton Loop Array Spool, check."
PILOT: "System checks are green across the board."
CONTROL: "Your space Lane is clear."
PILOT: "Grav Jump commencing in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1."
Road-Trip
At first, this seems like a typical, albeit futuristic version of an Air Traffic Control conversation. After all, much of what is being said does sound very familiar, and the rest seems appropriate to Starfield’s apparent Hard Science Fiction theme. But it’s only when you start digging a little deeper that you realize that something else is going on here as well.
Note the following terms taken from the above transcript: Road, Exit, Course, Coordinates, Bus, Route, Departure and Lane. All these words share a very noticeable common theme. They are all in some way related to Road Networks. Note also the phrase “green across the board," which sounds like it could also be a reference to Traffic Lights.
Zooming Along
Next, let’s look at this map, which features the home of a certain Software Development Company you may have heard of. If you zoom out a fair bit, you will see two large Cities, namely Washington and Baltimore. Zoom out a little more, and you can now see the cities of Richmond to the South and Pittsburgh to the North-West. Zoom back in over any of these four major cities, and you will see that there are many more smaller locations within each of the city limits.
Now scroll the map over to any of the areas outside of these cities, and you will find a multitude of other important locations. These include residential areas, airports, medical facilities, sports and leisure facilities, research facilities, manufacturing facilities, tech companies, supermarkets), hotels, places of worship, and many others. All the above locations are important in one way of another to the continued functioning of our society, and all can be placed within two distinct categories. These are Population Centers and Infrastructure.
You’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat
Now imagine that there has been some kind of catastrophic flood in this area, and all these locations, although somehow miraculously intact, are now separated from each other as a series of individual islands in the middle of a newly formed ‘ocean’. Suddenly, the existing Road Network, along with any cars, busses, and other road vehicles, would become useless. You would need to use a completely different system, one designed to properly accommodate these changes, which would of course have to incorporate such elements as harbors, shipping routes, and vehicles capable of travelling along a waterway.
Now let’s zoom out again, this time further. Much, much, further. Each location has now been transformed into either a planet or a moon, spread across various star systems covering a vast region of space. Each one of these planets and moons will have its own individual features, resources, possible inhabitants, and infrastructure requirements. With such a quantum leap in terms of scale, if we now wanted to travel between these locations, which could in many cases end up being several light years apart, we are going to need something far bigger in terms of scale, complexity, and technology.
Shown In 60 Seconds
During the first ever 60 seconds of Starfield footage we all saw, shown in the form of the Official Announcement Teaser at the end of BE3 on June 11th 2018 (which redditor InToddWeTrust2023 has very nicely referenced here), we were given some surprisingly important clues which now form the cornerstone of this theory. Not only have these clues stacked up with every consecutive trailer released, as well as many of the other official videos and various other snippets of information, but their sheer level of consistency places them well outside the realm of possible coincidence.
Some of these additional clues were given to us in the two videos referenced above which contain the comms audio. The second of these two videos, namely the Official Gameplay Reveal, dropped, as would be expected, at the end of last year’s Showcase on June 12th 2022. Some of the most crucial information we have been given to date regarding my theory is actually contained in the 70 seconds shown before Todd even begins to speak. We will discuss the relevance of all of this a little further on in the post.
Lo-go/no go
First, some Space related terminology. In Mission Control speak, a Launch Status Check, also known as a go/no go poll, is part of a very carefully designed system implemented by US Space Agencies to ensure maximum safety and the best possible survival chance of both the ship and its crew prior to launch. This, or something similar, will undoubtedly form an integral part of the pre-launch, or rather, pre-Jump procedures incorporated into Starfield, especially given what we know in relation to its specific influences, attention to detail, and focus on realism.
But let's look for a moment at a different type of launch. Let's look at the process of carefully managing the flow of information when you are launching a long-awaited, multi-million-dollar triple-A video game and you happen to be a major player. With the combined might of Bethesda, Zenimax, and now Microsoft, there is clearly a great deal of scope in terms of how they were able to execute all of the steps involved in this process. One critically important factor, and one that has been masterfully implemented in the promotion of Starfield, is the use of familiar iconography.
If we look at the iconography seen during the promotion of Starfield, we can see that there are two main elements. These are the circular Starfield logo, first unveiled in 2018, and of course the recently updated Bethesda Games Studios logo, which has existed in various iterations since around 2006. Both of these share a common, simplistic yet effective design, and the BGS logo in particular is now light years ahead of its original design as seen on box art and in promotional materials for The Elder Scrolls VI Oblivion. At the time of Oblivion’s release, the long-term use of this particular logo, which incorporates the now familiar Fallout Vault Door, was a little uncertain due to restrictions with the associated licence (more on this below). But once this matter had been resolved, it would make a lot of sense that they would then develop this logo into the much sharper, more modern version we see today.
Licenced to Fly
Way back in April of 2007, Bethesda realized one of their biggest long-term business goals by finally securing the full rights to the highly acclaimed Fallout series. Prior to this, in 2004, they had been granted limited rights which would allow them to develop Fallout 3 and then two additional games, but they clearly wanted full and unrestricted access to the franchise and all of its assets. Since this time, in addition to Fallout 3, we have seen the release of Fallout New Vegas, Fallout 4, and Fallout 76, as well as a number of smaller projects, including Fallout Shelter. This is all the proof you need to confirm the fact that, in-spite of some initial setbacks, Bethesda’s insistence on going the extra mile with regards to securing the full franchise, was most definitely worth it, and was seen by many as a landmark achievement.
Looking at the most recent entry to this ever-expanding series, namely Fallout 76, I would like to draw your attention to two of this particular game’s trailers. First, we have the Fallout 76 Official Trailer from 2018, and then The Pitt Story Trailer from 2022. In the first of these two trailers, at around the 35 second mark, we see the new BGS logo once again, and then near the end of the video we see a smaller version, neatly tucked away over on the left-hand side of the usual copyright notice. If we then look at the second trailer, at around… Hold on a second, let me rewind that a bit… wait, what?
This is where things start to get really interesting.
One Small Step
Okay, going back to the Fallout 76 trailers, although the smaller version of the BGS logo can be seen at or near the end of each of these, only the first incorporates the larger, ‘splash-screen’ version. “But why is this even important?” you may ask. “They may have simply forgotten to include this detail in the second trailer.” I can assure you that this is most certainly not the case. In fact, I am one-hundred-percent confident that this was quite intentional. I would even go as far as saying that this one, seemingly insignificant detail, actually brings us a step closer to unlocking the secrets of Starfield. Essentially, Bethesda have taken full advantage of how we all think we remember certain details, and as such, this is an example of truly expert-level hidden marketing on their part. I also believe it will form the basis of at least one of the big reveals during the showcase.
One Giant Leap
Let’s go back one more time to the Announcement Teaser and the Gameplay Reveal for Starfield. Look at how drastically different the BGS logo is in both of these videos compared to any of those used in promoting Fallout 76. What will really blow your mind here is the fact that all four of the trailers mentioned above were first shown to us during the same two Showcases we have just been discussing! In other words, the first of these videos for both Fallout 76 and Starfield were both unveiled at the 2018 Showcase, and the second of each at the 2022 Showcase. And yet each respective pair make use of drastically different versions of what we all thought was the exact same logo. This means that Starfield has been designed, from the ground up, to be viewed and experienced in a totally different way than, and completely separate from, any of Bethesda’s previous titles.
To clarify this point, after extensive research, I can confirm that this new, animated BGS logo, with the vault door rolling off to the left and then ‘opening up’ just before the text appears, has never been featured anywhere in an official capacity that is not directly related to Starfield. It is completely unique to this specific IP. This fact ties together everything we have looked at in the post so far. It also lets us see things from a completely different ‘orbital’ perspective. For example, I believe that this information gives us the real reason why Bethesda worked so hard to secure the full rights to the Fallout franchise in the way that they did. Not only did they wish to create awesome games set within the Fallout universe, but they also needed total freedom to make use of a specific part of this franchise that so that they could then incorporate it into their next, very very big, space related IP.
For Mankind
Okay. This is the part you’ve all been waiting so patiently for. This is the big reveal. For months now, perhaps even years, we have all been drip-fed the idea that Starfield is essentially “Skyrim in Space.” The reason I think that we have been told this is to misdirect us away from an intrinsic, interwoven connection between Starfield and Bethesda’s other major franchise, which is of course Fallout. But just to put your mind at rest, I do not for a nanosecond believe that the reveal will be, “We fooled you all, it’s actually Fallout in space!” no matter how cool that might at first sound.
What I do believe is that Starfield will be so different and so unique when viewed alongside anything else that Bethesda have published, that it will quite literally take your breath away. This game, the spark of which was first ignited 25 years ago, is Todd Howard’s true passion project. Everything else was simply the path he took to finally get here. This is the story he has always wanted to tell, the story of Mankind’s true legacy. And it all starts, just as it did when Interplay released the original Fallout) game back in 1997, with a familiar, but staggeringly different Vault Door.
The Vault
There is a very special and completely unique hidden Vault in Starfield. Not only is this particular Vault unlike anything you have previously seen anywhere within the Fallout universe, but it is also unlike anything you have seen in any game. Period.
This hidden Vault is actually the key to both interstellar and interplanetary travel. And it also happens to be the single biggest construction project in human history, extending across a span of almost one-hundred light years. And it is not even close to being completed, even after more than two-hundred years of construction.
This Vault is, by its very nature, completely invisible and shielded away from view. It is quite literally hidden in plain sight, and it can only be accessed through one of its specially crafted Vault Doors. But what does all of this mean for gameplay, and how does something like this even work? I’m glad you asked! Let’s strap in and prepare for launch, because we’re all in for an incredible ride.
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen... to The Starfield
Entering The Starfield
The following is my own interpretation, based on scientific reasoning and a huge amount of detailed analysis, of exactly how I think this system works. It is, as ever, backed up with several links throughout, as well as additional evidence for which I shall provide a separate link at end of the post. I am expecting perhaps some differences in terms of specific details once we get hold of the final release of Starfield, but I am confident that I am at the very least well within the ballpark with all of this. Okay, here goes.
The Science Behind the Magic
Starfield is the name given to a vast network of interconnecting tunnels, spanning the entirety of the Settled Systems, providing us with a very fast and highly practical means of travelling between different planets, and even different star systems. These tunnels exist within a localized, folded state, known as Tunnel-Space. The construction of the Starfield is made possible thanks to a technological breakthrough which allows gravitational waves (or Gravitons) to be woven together to form something known as a Gravity-Tunnel, which is then stretched out and connected between any two existing stellar objects, such as two planets in a given system, of even two stars from different systems.
In order to maintain the integrity of each tunnel, it is wrapped in a special type of Exotic Matter known as Superfluid Helium. This has a number of highly unusual properties, including negative energy density and negative energy pressure. This essentially makes it the physical-space equivalent of time going in reverse, meaning that it is capable of counteracting the effects of any conventional physical force, including the gravitational pull of a black hole. As such, it will hold the structure of the Gravity-Tunnel together for an indefinite period of time over a potentially infinite distance through space.
Within the Starfield are a large number of Nodes and Junction Points. Nodes are used to connect together all of the planets in any one Star System, and Junction Points then connect different Star Systems together, making use of much larger Gravity-Tunnels that are the equivalent of Interstate Highways. Note that all flight between any given planet and any or all of its moons is handled locally, outside of the Starfield.
Because all of the stars, planets, and moons in the Settled Systems are in a constant state of flux, by which I mean their relative distance and positions) are constantly changing in respect to each other, the tunnels within the Starfield have been designed to be able to expand and contract almost infinitely so that they can accommodate any changes in these two factors depending on when, where, and how you travel.
Although the main tunnels are designed to transport people, resources, waste, and other items directly relating to either Population Centers or Infrastructure, I believe there is also a sub-system) that will allow much smaller objects, such as probes, to carry data-packets that can be upload at one location and then downloaded at another, effectively solving the problem of inoperable delays in communication between remote locations.
Inside of each Gravity-Tunnel is a bi-directional singularity, which can be switched between two opposite polarities whenever required with the help of the surrounding Exotic Matter, allowing for two-way traffic inside what is essentially a one-way system. This means that, as long as you are able to ensure the correct polarity of all connecting Nodes and Junction Points along your route (as in “Sky-Bus is converged” and “Jemison route looks good”), you will be able to travel, in theory at least, from any point A to any point B, as long as all of the required interconnections exist within the system.
When travelling through the Starfield, you will set a specific route, known as a Sky-Bus, which is a specified pathway that runs from your staring location to your destination. You will then, with the help of Starfield Control, access the tunnels using a Gating System which I will explain below. Incidentally, I believe that the accepted in-universe name for the actual transit network that we are making use of within the Starfield is the Sky-Bus Tunnel System.
Each tunnel in this system actually has two separate ‘Lanes’, one on the left for outbound traffic, and one on the right for incoming traffic. As I have explained above, each of these tunnels can only accommodate a single direction of traffic flow at any given time. And so, a safety measure had to be incorporated to prevent any accidental attempts to travel the wrong way down a tunnel and destroying yourself and your ship.
At each end of any given Node or Junction Point is a Gate. These are the ‘Vault Doors’ I have been referring to. The Gate comprises of a gigantic metal outer-ring connecting to an inner Vault Door. This Vault Door will either be at the center (closed position), or the left (open position) of the outer ring. The open/left position will allow outbound traffic to leave the orbit of the current planet they are in proximity to. To allow inbound traffic, the entire outer ring, with the Vault Door locked in place, will rotate clockwise through 180 degrees to the open/right position to allow access to the inbound Lane. When the outbound Lane is then once again required, the structure then continues to rotate in a clockwise motion until it reaches the open/left position once again. When required, the Vault Door will return to the neutral position at the center of the ring, and the tunnel will be locked.
Regarding Grav Jumps: Whenever you wish to perform a Grav-Jump, you must first request permission from Starfield Control, who will guide you through the process. Once the route is set and your Exit Gate is locked in place, by activating your ship’s Grav-Drive, along with it’s incorporated spooling system, you will first lock on to the front of the tunnel entrance.
Next, using a system similar to an Aircraft Catapult, you will be pulled into the tunnel at great speed, where the Graviton Loop Array will hold your ship in-place inside the tunnel, and will also ensure you don’t accidentally go down the wrong path. At the other end, the spooling system described above then acts as an Arresting Cable, slowing you down over a very short distance.
If all of the above is actually correct, especially the last part, then I think I will be having this on repeat in the background before Grav-Jumps!
Finally, here is the link to my additional supporting evidence and other materials, including some stuff I haven’t had a chance to really go into yet. Feel free to throw any questions at me, and I’ll do my best to answer them. In the meantime, Showcase will commence in 24 Hours…

Does anyone know how to stop the afk animation from appearing when auto farming?

Ko-fi
"So, tell me about yourself." The female alien from the planet Azegon T-45 said to Terry. She was tall about 6'6 with silver teeth, purple eyes and caramel skin like butter. Her hair was actually part of her skin that had split off into several ends on top of her head and were all a crimson hue. She regarded him above her plate of 'Hungiu' A dish Terry knew nothing about but looked to resembled a foot dipped in frosting to his human eyes.
Terry peered over a plate of spaghetti and meatballs. What she'd said weighed heavily on his soul, what could he possibly tell her that would make her see him as a man of value? He'd recently lost his job after his boss walked in on him masturbating in his cubicle. He had no friends except the mailman who brings his mail and talks about shagging his neighbour's wife. He often wondered whether he should regard the mailman as a friend for confiding in him about his neighbour's promiscuous wife. His rent was due last month so for the past few weeks he'd been avoiding his landlord by jumping in through the back window of his apartment that he always left open, never using the front door. He also might be having hemorrhoids which he needed to check soon. All in all, his life was a disaster and he'd only agreed to this date after his mailman had assured him that Azegon T-45 women had the ability to relieve stress during sex.
"During sex they secrete a hormone that's like cocaine that eradicates your worries and lowers your stress levels for hours on end. They'll only bang you if you show them you're a man of value though" His mailman had said before hooking him up with the number of an Azegon T-45 woman. With the galactic federation linking planets with thousands of sentient life hence broadening an individual's possibilities, Terry still wondered why he felt stuck and in need of shagging an alien in order to have some semblance of what happiness is. But how would he come across as a man of value? He was by far the most apathetic man in the universe, he didn't care about anything and that's probably why he'd started masturbating at work, at first he'd done it for the thrill that later evolved into a habit of which he was curious to see whether he'd get caught. He did get caught, just as he was climaxing. It was a sticky affair.
The alien surveyed him, waiting for a response. He cleared his throat. "Sorry, you wanted to know something about me? Well, yesterday I woke up to the sound of birds chirping at my window. It sounded like music to anyone else's ears but to me it was a disturbing sound. I went to the window and sure enough, several birds were lined on a branch in a tree outside my apartment. Singing their God awful songs, I suddenly got angry and grabbed a shoe and hurled it at them. The birds dispersed then I realized I needed my shoe back. I climbed out of the window in my boxers and vest to retrieve the shoe only to bump into a man coming out of my neighbour's house, the man was my mailman, he'd just come from fucking my neighbour's wife, he approached me and told me about it." Terry took a sip of the cognac in hand. "So there I was, outside my apartment in my boxers with a shoe in hand, talking to a man who was zipping up his pants while telling me of the reason his zipper had been down in the first place. It was at that moment that I realized my life is shit. It came as an epiphany, everything pulled up together and the realization of great truth hit me. My life is shit and you know what the worst thing was?"
She leaned forward. "What?"
"The birds, they were still singing their God awful song."
"Are you those people who hook up with Planet Azegon T-45 aliens for the stress we relieve during sex?" She asked. Her purple eye rapidly scanning him up and down.
Terry leaned back in his chair. "I jerk off at work, got fired the other day for doing it. Thing is, I wanted to be fired. So there I was beating my meat and the manager walks in just as I'm climaxing, I do it standing up so I can look at people's faces across the cubicles, I mastered how to beat my meat without my entire body moving with the jerking motion. I normally catch someone's eye from across the cubicles as I climax but the manager stepped right in and I turned and busted a nut all over him. You know what I did immediately after?"
"What?"
"I laughed. It was the funniest thing in the world and it got me fired, irony."
"You're creepy."
"Tell me about yourself." Terry said, leaning back in his chair.
"I'm the fourth born of the litter." She stared. "We're born in litters on planet Azegon T-45 and—"
"What does the 45 stand for?"
"What?"
"The 45 in Azegon T-45, what does it stand for? I hate the number 45, takes me about 45 minutes to fall asleep, when I was caught jerking off the manager gave me a tongue lashing for 45 minutes and my mailman wears an undershirt with the number 45 printed on it. I hate that number."
"It's the number of our position on the conveyer galactic belt." She answered.
"Oh, that's nice."
"You're a weird man."
"And you were born in a litter, can't you see the connection between us? Me with my weird implications about existence. You and those purple eyes that were born in a litter." Terry said and smiled.
"You like my purple eyes?" She asked.
"No, I don't care about eyes."
"Oh"
"You know what I do like? The fact you can take away stress during sex. You can make a fortune as a prostitute." Terry said with a laugh.
"Excuse me?" She retorted, a hint of anger to her voice.
"There's so many men who are stressed out, yet you only give in to men of value. Why don't you just place value on the act itself and become rich? Then you'll seek men of no value whom you'll find plenty of."
"You jerk! I'm not a whore!" She flung her dish at him, the foot like meat with frosting hit him on the face and slid down his nose. She then stood up, "You're a sick man of no value." She walked away from the table.
"There's plenty of us around." Terry said to her retreating back. He checked his watch, the date had taken exactly forty five minutes. "Damn it." He cursed.

Hi, this is a long read, sorry about that. There is a TLDR at the end.
Before anything, let it be know that my family has always treated me well, I never suffered from child abuse/neglect and I got full support from my parents and siblings, but they're the only people in my life that have treated me well and I really trust.
With that out of the way; I have ALWAYS been bullied since elementary school for being the fat kid (overweight people are extremely rare and badly seen in my country). Everyone has mocked me for my looks, lack of social skills (I have asperger syndrome) and also being a nerd (I wore glasses and got good notes).
My parents have always taught me that violence is never the answer, so I did my best to not reduce myself to physical aggression and tried to dialogue with them, but since they were just dumb kids it never worked. I tried to talk to the teachers, but they just told me to put up with it, that it was just playful teasing. I told my parents, they talked with the teachers, but again; the teachers never took my situation seriously.
I grew up with a lot of insecurities about my looks and tried so hard to be a people pleaser to not be bullied, but it never worked. People kept teasing me during all of middle school and high school, some made hurtful comments while others straight up hurt me physically (their favorite tactic was to "stab" my belly with their fingers, it really hurt). The most hurtful commentary was in high school, when a kid called me a "small-dicked fatass".
I had a few "friends", but they were my friends for convenience so they could get free tutoring from me since I, as mentioned earlier, always got good notes, they were like all the others. They never defended me when I got bullied by other people, and they also bullied me themselves. If I tried to join their conversations, they would yell at me to shut up, and when they hanged out, I was never invited.
I never bothered to tell the teachers, I was conditioned into believing they would not take me seriously, and the bullying would escalate if they found out I told them.
High school was hell on earth for me. I left with a toxic mentality; that everybody only thought of me as a disgusting pig to be mocked and laughed at, and would only act friendly if they wanted something out of me. I never made a single friend, everybody in that school either bullied me or ignored me, no in-between.
I am currently in college, I have lost a lot of weight but these wounds heal slowly, i'm still suffering a lot from my mental health as consequence of over a decade of constant bullying.
I still have no friends, but I have realized that it is my fault now. People no longer make fun of me here, and some people have actually tried to approach me and start a conversation, it has been me that ignores them and pushes them aside in a rude way.
So many years of bullying have filled me with so much hatred and spite towards everyone. My perception of people has been severely altered to the point that I am no longer able to establish relationships with anyone because of it.
What can I do to change my point of view? To try and see that I am wrong and that there is good people left in this world that I can trust?
I don't want to die lonely and bitter.
TL;DR: I have been bullied since elementary school, which lead to me developing a huge feeling of hatred and spite towards people in general. I can no longer establish relationships with anyone because of this, how can I change?

I started drinking when I was 14. My mother was an alcoholic. She passed away in 2019 due to an alcohol and opioid overdose. I found her, it was horrendous. It haunts me still.
My drinking really hit its peak in my late teens early 20s. (I'm in my 30s now). I was blacking out at least once a week, drinking at least 3 times a week. My life was spiraling out of control. Strangely enough, I never faced any severe consequences from my drinking, despite having encounters with law enforcement. I once got pulled over when I was 20 . The cop knew I had been drinking. I told her I had been. I was about two blocks away from my house. She said to go home and never do it again She followed me home, waited until I got into my house and drove away.
When I hit 26 I knew I needed to make changes in my life. I didn't want to end up like my mom. ( She was still alive then, but deep in her addiction). I started doing therapy and went to college I graduated when I was 29 and started my career as a nurse.
I cut my drinking back drastically, but still had the problem of binge drinking to the point of black out when I did drink (about once a month). When I get to that black out point it is horrible. I start fights, I make suicidal comments, and I am promiscuous. I sleep with people who I wouldn't have if I was sober. I can barely remember any of it, only bits and pieces.
I've been through a lot of trauma in my life. I have been diagnosed with PTSD. It seemed like all the horror came out when I was drinking, so I thought maybe if I could addresss my trauma. I wouldnt get black out drink anymore. I went back to therapy after my mom died and did EMDR therapy. I also talked about harm reduction with my drinking with a therapist. I cut back drinking even more. I would have periods where I could have a couple of drinks and be fine, but then it seemed every 5 months or so I failed at my harm reduction plan and would get black out drunk.
This last time, about a month ago, it happened again. It really shook me. I was out with a friend at a concert and lost control. I almost got arrested for peeing in a public area. I was screaming at my friend. My boyfriend came to get me and I peed my pants in his car. I tried to get into the bath when I got home fell and hit my head. I was making suicidal comments again. It hit me that I could have had been put in jail, lost my friendship, and lost my partner, maybe my life. I felt so ashamed and humiliated.
I've come to the point where I think I just can't drink at all. I haven't for one month. It hasn't been super difficult for me, because I havent been a daily drinker, but I worry about fooling myself into thinking maybe I can be a "normal" drinker.
I've been to two AA meetings and I'm glad I went. I guess Im just not sure if I can commit to being fully involved. My job is quite demanding of my time. I can't do daily meeting and I was having a hard time relating in the meetings I went to. Maybe it's because I'm still having trouble admitting that I'm an alcoholic. Since I never have been a daily drinker and don't go on binges, it's just like a one night thing. The people in my life don't think of me as an alcoholic, because of that. Like my boyfriend will be like you just shouldnt drink hard liquor, it's not like you drink very often, but they understand the loss of control that happens, and it's hard to explain. I don't know, just hoping for advice. Thanks.

Okay.. so a couple of months ago I (21F) was on the hinge app and matched with a guy (23M) who was pretty cute and we shared a bunch of the same interests.
So after a week or two of texting and us hitting it off we set up a date and met up in Melbourne out front of the train station
Breifly greeting each other we shared a quick friendly hug. However I immediately noticed that his clothes had the overpowering smell of mildew, to the point of having to hold my breath at some moments during the date.
(For more context my older sister (26f) came into the city with me aswell (for safety reasons) and once she got the OK she left to do her own thing)
As soon as my sister had left he immediately grabbed my waist from behind and kissed my cheek, something I was VERY uncomfortable with but didn't feel that I could properly express so I tried to use body language and to walk faster than him to avoid it happening again.
He didn't really take the hint (my fault for not not using my words) and kept grabbing my waist, while we waited for the tram he had probably kissed my face 6 times. (Into the date about 7-10 minutes at this moment)
when we finally got on the tram I was not the only one who could smell the mildew it was packed and people still have us room trying to avoid us.... We were on there tram for about 5-6 minutes and the mildew smell was becoming nauseating (it's well known trams in Melbourne have almost no ventilation).
The entire time trying while to converse with him felt VERY akward and unnatural, he didn't want to talk about our shared interest and then when I had asked if he had chosen a place to have lunch yet (like we had planned) he kept changing the topic.
When we finally got off the tram since I don't live in Melbourne i asked if I could run into my favourite skin care store very quickly to pick something up before we head to lunch, he agreed so we went in
I picked out what I wanted in under 2 minutes while he loudly commented that he was the only "male" in the store and he asked for my opinion on if he wanted to get something what he should get, I picked up a face mask based on what he told me and immediately didn't like it as it was in a pink packet so I them picked a different one out for him.
And when I made the comment that the colours don't matter where he made the comment that he thinks it's dumb people are changing their identities and it was stupid that people can identify as other genders, while he can't identify as a "black man with a big cock"
I was done. I was uncomfortable and very much hated what was leaving his mouth. I text my sister without him seeing asking for the escape call.
When I ended the call and explained I needed to leave due to a family emergency he offered to come with me and I had to tell him I didn't think my sister would be comfortable with that. After finally getting him to except that I was leaving he grabbed both sides of my head and very forcefully tried to pull me into a kiss.... I pushed on his chest to stop for too long before he gave up... I had only met this dude a less than a half hour ago. I then said goodbye and left on a tram to my sister..
I did end up leaving a breif message letting him know how uncomforble he had made me from the physical touch and how I didn't agree with that stuff he was saying in the store and I wasn't keen on meeting again.
I understand I should have voiced I didn't feel comfortable being touched or kissed by this person I was also battling with previous trauma Making me feel I had to people please my way out of an anxiety induceing situation. And I just needed to get this off my chest (And maybe some advice)

Recently I’ve been realizing more and more how dependent I am on alcohol. I have these really good days or even weeks where I keep the drinking to a minimum and feel great. Even when I do a bit of drinking during these times, I feel that it is a negligible amount where it won’t affect me too much the next day so I can still go to the gym and focus on academic work. But then there are those few times every so often (maybe once or twice a month) where I find myself going too far. This is how it starts: I find an opportunity to drink (no schoolwork that weekend or I’m on a longer break period due to a federal holiday, just anything that opens my mind to the idea of cracking something open). It goes one of three ways from here, either I get tired and stop drinking and turn in for the night, drink until I am drunk and then go to bed, or I get past that wall and continue drinking and end up going over the top and doing unwise things that put myself or others at risk and also have a high potential to affect my relationships. I usually find that I don’t fall into the second or third unless I am around other people or talking to people long-distance. For a while, I thought ‘I’m drinking because the people around me are too’ but realized that that isn’t always the case. It doesn’t matter if they’re drinking or not, I’m a very social person and drinking for me has become something of a social activity even through phone conversations with people who may not be drinking at all. I used to rarely drink but over the last few years I’ve just been picking it up more and more. I believe one of the reasons for this is because of the environment I’m in. There are a lot of stigmas in my job field and, unfortunately, I’ve given into a few of them. One of which is the widely accepted consumption of alcohol. I asked myself at the beginning of this year ‘how much more am I drinking in comparison to myself four or five years ago’ (before I had this job) and it definitely opened my eyes to how I may have developed this dependence. Up until March of this year, I have been in a mostly lax work environment so the aftermath of my drinking habits didn’t feel super overwhelming in my day to day. However, fast forward to today and I’m in a very high stress environment now due to some major career changes that I’ve been passionate about chasing, yet extremely anxious about succeeding in. Now I’m feeling the affects of my drinking habits and I see the problems they cause and I want to just completely stop. But I find that I tell myself these excuses to continue, to pursue the opportunities to drink and that it won’t be “that bad”. Sure sometimes it isn’t, but the times that it is have greatly diminished my mental health. So recently I decided to seek therapy because some of the stresses of work were getting too high and juggling that with my drinking habits was simply not the way to succeed in my current goals. Through talking with medical professionals, they of course pinpointed alcohol consumption as a major stressor and advised me to not partake in it so often. They also referred me to a stress support group and that has been helping but it isn’t an AA support group or anything like that so I find myself just wanting to find a group or community of people who have struggled as I have (and still am) with alcohol. To conclude this rant, I’ve been trying to keep drinking down to a minimum, but even with this mindset, the minimum turns into “one more… one more… one more…” So here I am, seeing the folly of my ways, yet somehow in my head I do not feel compelled to change in earnest. I do drink less than I used to but I’m realizing that that isn’t the point of why I want to change, and that just drinking less isn’t going help me in the long run. I want to stop. I need to stop. Where do I start? Any advice is appreciated.

for two years now me and my best friend (we are both female and 16) have been in a friend group with another F16 girl. we class her as one of our closest friends. we’ve always sort of know she’s an unreliable and disloyal friend but in the last six months we both have just really considered is it fair to ourselves to keep giving her more chances.
throughout the years we’ve known her she’s always been the type to start progressing something with someone after we say we like them. which once or twice that’s ok it’s a bit unfair because we wouldn’t do that to her and never have but we can put up with it because it’s not like we own these boys it’s just more a thing of not a thing a good friend does, but it has now happened with EVERY single boy we’ve told her we like for the last two years. it annoys us because we would never do that to her.
but things got a lot worse when she started doing physical stuff not just snapping when we liked someone which happened twice. i think a red flag was when i sat and cried to her about my emotionally abusive ex boyfriend who often would threatened to hurt me which i had told her so i thought maybe out of respect for me she’d have more decency yk girl code and all but the next week i found out they were dating through a mutual friend. she couldn’t even tell me herself ? (relationship has now ended and this was more than a year ago , i am just including for context )
but then a few weeks ago it got EVEN worse and i found out from my ex boyfriend that him and her have had a sexual relationship for the last three months, which was only ended through him. and he was asked not to tell me , so as far as she knows me and my best friend do not know. this isn’t even the first time she has done something like this with HIM, when we broke up she sent him nudes the day after we broke up which she also thinks i don’t know about.
for about a month before we ( me and my best friend) found out this girl has been bringing me brownies at random about once a week and i made a tiktok where your friends say one pro and one con about you and it’s supposed to be sorry of a funny joke but she said my pro was ‘you’re the nicest girl i’ve ever met ‘ it all just felt a bit suspicious so we knew she had done something.
the universe has strange timing because after i found out this information i was driving and passed her while she was out with my best friends ex boyfriend of only like two weeks!? who she previously wasn’t even friends with , knowing her past record we both assume that it is probably more than a friendship. if i hadn’t had seen them or been told i never would have found out
the issue more so is that we feel so betrayed by her, we would have never ever done this to her. it’s the fact she can’t even tell us- she lies. she pretend to be our most trusted friend , meanwhile she snakes us out behind our backs. i hate that she lies and pretends to be a good friend .
should i confront her and tell her i know? or break the friendship off because i do not trust her at all with anything.
the issue is we don’t want to lose our mutual friends by confronting her because they don’t know what she’s done. i would feel reluctant to tell them because i don’t want her to lose all of her friends.

As far as I was aware, the FSOA nerf basically rendered the old EoF redundant and it was higher DPM to just use GConc instead and use Staff spec when you have adrenaline to dump, is there something I'm missing?

I have been with my partner for 3 years. Me and one of her best friends have our birthdays in the same month. Mine is near the middle of the month and her friends is near the end. My gf mentioned to me that she will have to get me less than usual for my birthday as money is tight that month. I completely understood and when it came to my birthday she got me a couple of small presents and we went out to a restaurant near our apartment.
I had a good day and she apologised a few times for not being able to get me much. The when it came to her friends birthday I saw how much my gf had gotten her. It was pretty much double what I had got and my gf took her bowling in a city near us then for food and a couple of drinks. This did annoy me slightly since my gfs reasoning for doing less for my birthday this year was due to money and then she spends a lot more money on her friend.
The day after her friends birthday, my gf asked if I was okay. I told her it hurt a bit seeing how much she got for her friend and what she did with her friend for her birthday when she repeatedly told me I wouldn't be getting much because she couldn't afford it. My gf accused me of being ungrateful and said I know money is tight for her but I just pointed out that it didn't seem tight when it came to getting her friend things and doing things with her friend.
She just repeated that I was ungrateful and that it's her money. I don't see it as being ungrateful as I was happy with what I got and understood my gfs reasoning for not doing more but it just hurt seeing how much more she did for her friend. How would you handle this situation?
tl;dr my gf said money was tight this month so she wouldn't be able to spend much on my birthday which I was fine with. Her friends birthday is at the end of the month and my gf seemed to put a lot more effort into that and got annoyed and called me ungrateful when I said how it made me feel. How would you handle this?

I always wondered why we were never able to use this staircase in school, but the teachers were able to use them. I never knew where the bottom of the staircase was, because I always saw the teachers walking up the stairs but never walking down the stairs. In every assembly, the headmaster ordered us not to use the staircase, though we already knew not to.
One time, the class clown said he was going to go down the staircase that we weren’t supposed to use, and our physics teacher grabbed him and she screamed at him to not go down there. He ended up sitting back down, snickering as some students were whispering to each other and some exchanged confused glances with one another.
This made me more fixated on knowing more about the staircase. I’d wander around the school, looking to find where the bottom of the staircase was, but I’d never find it. I’d spend my break time asking different people about what they know about the staircase, and if they knew any rumors about them. Every rumor they’d say, I’d write down in my notebook. One rumor someone said was that a student in the 7th grade went down the staircase and was never seen again. Another rumor was that our maths teacher kills anyone who goes down the staircase. Though most of the rumors sounded quite stupid, I still wrote them down.
At some point, my friend Josh started noticing how curious I was about the staircase. Josh was quite a fearless guy. He would do anything dangerous, as if he was on a suicide mission, like the time when we had a science experiment and he thought that touching the bunsen burner would be a good idea. He ended up getting severe 3rd degree burns on his hand, which took around a year to heal, and also became the prime example of what not to do in a science experiment. That’s even the least dangerous thing he did…
2 days ago, as we were sitting on one of the benches after school, Josh asked “Why don’t you just go down the stairs?”
“I don’t want to get suspended, I have a good record unlike you,” I said, rolling my eyes.
“I have a plan though.”
“It better not be stupid….”
That’s when he pulled a notebook out of his bag, and drew two stick figures.
“The one with the smiley face is me, and the one with the sad face is you. Do you understand?” He said.
“I do.”
“We’re going to do this pretty early. About 3 or 4am… we’re going to break into the school. Don’t worry though, I’ve done it before and succeeded.” He started to draw a gate, then drew the stick figure representing me climbing over, and the stick figure representing him over the gate, as it waited for me to climb down.
“This plan is kind of stupid,” I said, observing his rushed drawings.
“Do you want to see what’s under those stairs or not?”
“I do…”
“Then listen. So after we break in, we’ll need to be pretty quiet. No talking until we actually get into the building. We’ll need flashlights, so we’ll both bring our phones. When we get into the building you need to follow me. The stairs are near where our classroom is, remember?” He explained, with a moderately harsh tone. That’s how I knew he was serious.
“Okay, it kind of makes sense… I’m gonna go now though, tomorrow we’ll go through the plan again. Make sure to write it down, see you tomorrow Josh!” I said, picking up my backpack and leaving.
The next day, at break, Josh showed me his notebook which contained a detailed plan, explaining exactly what he had said the day before, but in more depth. Though I was hesitant to go through with the plan, I did really want to see those stairs….I had been so determined to know every single thing about those stairs, and this was like a once in a lifetime chance for me. So I agreed to the plan. That was yesterday.
I had my alarm set for 2:30 am. I got ready which took about 20 minutes. At around 2:55 am, I was out the house. From my house to my school was walking distance, so it was easy for me to get there. When I got there, I was quite surprised to see Josh already there, in front of the gate, looking at the floor.
“Oh you’re here already? Should we start now?” He asked.
“Yeah sure, why not?” I said.
That’s when he started climbing up the gate. I made sure to watch his technique so I could do the same when he was done. He climbed up the gate fairly quickly, then climbed down the gate, and he was in.
“Your turn.”
I slowly started climbing the gate, my arms shaking a bit every time I climbed higher. Eventually I was able to get down.
“Okay, now to get inside the building we need to use the back of the building. There’s a door there, and for some reason it’s never locked,” He whispered, and I nodded.
We started walking at a fast pace, making sure not to step on anything that would make noise.
When we finally entered the building, I followed Josh. Using the flashlight on my phone, we slowly made our way up the stairs, being careful of our surroundings. After what felt like forever, we finally found the staircase.
“Are you ready?” He whispered.
“Of course.”
We started going down, step by step. It looked normal, and I didn’t get why we couldn’t use it. As we were going down further and further, a foul odor hit my nose, and started getting stronger and stronger as we went down.
“What is that smell?” I asked, holding my nose with one hand and holding my phone with the other.
“You smell it too? It’s horrible,” He said. Though the smell was tormenting our nostrils, we kept on going. I started getting quite tired. I felt like I had been waking down those stairs for an eternity. At some point, as I continued to point my flashlight downwards, I saw something. Something abnormal… out of this world. I held Josh’s arm so he wouldn’t go down any more steps. He was about to open his mouth to speak until he also saw what i was seeing, and immediately closed his mouth.
We saw darkness. But in that darkness were faces. Some were crying, some were smiling. But as they looked directly into our eyes, their faces became angry. Full of hatred. They started screaming, and shouting unintelligible words. They reached their arms out to us. That’s when the darkness started rising, and I screamed at Josh to run, hyperventilating as tears streamed down my face.
I rapidly ran up the stairs, as the darkness slowly consumed our every step. As Josh was running though, he tripped up a step and fell. I screamed, and heard the sound of synchronized laughter and the sound of Josh screaming in agony and terror, as the creatures pulled him into the void. I kept running up and up the stairs and didn’t dare to look behind me. Somehow I was able to reach the top of the stairs, and when I did I collapsed to the floor, shaking uncontrollably, tears still streaming down my face as I covered my face, screaming.
Someone tapped my shoulder, and as I uncovered my face I realized it was my physics teacher. She stared at me, with a mix of emotions on her face. She held her hand out, gesturing me to get up. When I got up I realized she wasn’t the only one there… all the teachers that taught my class were there, in a line all staring at me. Some were crying, some just stared blankly at me with no expression.
“You’re going to have to go to the headmasters office, I’m sorry..” She said, her voice slightly quivering.
When we arrived, she opened the door and as she shut it, I heard the sound of the door locking. That’s when I realized, this wasn’t the headmasters office….
That was a few hours ago, now i’m still here. My phone’s on 46%, and I’m just sitting here, wondering if it was worth it. I should’ve just listened. Now I’ve lost my best friend and I’m going to rot here, and if anyone finds me they’ll only find my decaying body. I’m posting this for everyone to know my story, and to say goodbye.

I'm trying to install a game using the Game Porting Toolkit. I've used whiskey because I got stuck doing it the terminal way.
(For context I got to this line:
gameportingtoolkit ~/my-game-prefix 'C:\Program Files\MyGame\MyGame.exe' and changed the my-game-prefix to the name of my bottle and the file path to the path where I put the exe and it says gameportingtoolkit not found. I have no idea what I did wrong here)
So then I used Whiskey, and set up a bottle. Transferred the exe into that. When I run the file it says I need to install Visual C++ Runtime (Unreal Engine). It starts to install and then gets to the end and says that it failed to install.
​
That's where I'm stuck. I'm hoping someone could help me.

My (36m) and my gf (24f) have been talking since October 2022. We became exclusive in January and I am very ignorant when it comes to BPD. Any advice or constructive criticism is welcome.
This is my first relationship after a divorce, and I am v used to communicating my feelings. I believe I have undiagnosed adhd and my therapist has told me I may be on the spectrum either way. Talking things thru big and small is essential to my relationships I’ve found. My gf also has adhd, but is a steel trap when it comes to her feelings.
I will sense her closing herself off, and there are times after that she will open up and tell me her BPD was triggered and it made her push me away, but getting to that point is always a struggle. One day she can be the most loving and supportive gf and I’ve never felt more open and honest w anyone, and it can flip to where anything I say no matter how non-confrontational it is upsets her and I just feel like she doesn’t like me during those times.
She doesn’t do a great job of respecting boundaries when it comes to communicating either. I am comfortable giving her space if she communicates w me where her head is. But there are times when she disappears and is unavailable when I’m texting or calling. I’ve let her know what I need to feel comfortable w that, but she will still go in cycles where we’re not speaking as much or v little at all and because of my own relationship trauma I get in my head about it. I’m really tired of the intrusive thoughts and I explain where they come from and what helps me and she’ll go a period respecting those boundaries but then she just stops.
Am I being impatient? This has been consistent in our relationship and she’s done other things like talking to exes during those times that our communication is limited that feels really disrespectful to my feelings. Again, any advice on how to navigate this I’m open to. I love her and I think she’s a beautiful person inside and out, but this particular issue really hurts my feelings and can feel mean.

Throwaway account because, ofc
I [19M] and my fiancée [19M] have been together for the past 5 [almost 6] years now and it’s genuinely been such an amazing collection of years.
I genuinely don’t think I could ever have found anyone better for me. He supports me in every single way and will help me every time my mental or physical health takes a decline. He’s even offered many times to take up multiple jobs just so I didn’t have to work [I’m chronically ill and so can’t really do physical work for more than 2 days].
He really is the best and I absolutely adore him with all my heart.
It’s just that he gets high at the most inconvenient times.
I knew he smoked since the moment we got together and, although I don’t particularly like it, I came to understand that he’d been through a lot in his life, has his own mental struggles and when he smokes a little, it can help his anxiety and even help him stay focussed.
Only problem is, sometimes he smokes too much and so he gets absolutely stoned and, when he does, it always seems to be at the most inconvenient times.
I’ll mention to him in advance that I’d like his help with housework or I want his help and advice on something that I’m writing or whatever, making sure that he definitely knows that I’ll need his help, but then he’ll go off and get absolutely stoned out of his fucking mind and he just can’t stay on track anymore. He just won’t help me anymore and will just sit and eat snacks whilst watching films or whatever and even when I actively try to get him back on track, he just veers back off of it again and again and again.
Again I get it, if you’re stoned, you can’t always stay on track or whatever. And again, I’m okay with him getting a little bit high cause it can help him concentrate but I just get so annoyed when he goes and gets full blown stoned like all of the time.
I know I might be overreacting by getting annoyed at it, but am I? I’ve told him time and time again when I will need his help and to please not get stoned as hell because I am going to need him, but then he just goes ahead and does it regardless.
I think he just forgets I need his help but I don’t really know anymore…

I had the pleasure of playing MGS1-3 completely blind for the very first time in 2022 (you may have seen some of my art in this sub!) In anticipation of beginning my MGS4 playthrough (and because I’ve had a couple of people ask my thoughts on the series), I thought I’d write up something of a retrospective. (Warning: Contains spoilers for MGS1-3 and MGR:R!)
For some context: I went into this game franchise completely blind. I could count on one hand the things I knew about Metal Gear Solid; I knew there was a boss at some stage who required you to switch controllers; I knew of ‘Snake’ from smash bros; and I’d heard the ‘ashamed of your words and deeds’ discourse regarding Quiet. While I was sick and recovering from a major surgery, I decided to finally jump into a game recommended to me over and over by a dear friend:
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.
MGR:R
The first thing I noticed about MGR:R was that its protagonist Raiden was super cool! He also was very obviously not Snake. I found myself thoroughly enjoying the gameplay and the overarching themes of terrorism, extremism, nationalism and the military industrial complex. The music made its way onto my Spotify; I began to realise several memes with which I was familiar (including several memes about memes) had originated in this strange game. I could go into more depth about MGR:R, but the most important thing is that it convinced me to give the mainline MGS games a shot. Even though I knew the gameplay of those would differ considerably, the politically charged storyline intrigued me-and I was promised this would remain a theme throughout all Metal Gear entries.
...And I figured since that cool cyborg ninja I just played as for 9 hours must be a side character from one of the MGS games, I’d better learn his backstory.
Highlights:

• The first time Rules of Nature’s lyrics kicked in.
• Senator Armstrong’s monologues (nanomachines, etc!)
• Jetstream Sam.

MGS1
I am terrible at stealth games. When I played through Death Stranding, I did not know you could stealth through the BTs. I simply took a run-and-gun approach to every instance in that game. MGS1’s gameplay would have turned me off, but its constant exposition and evolving narrative compelled me forth despite my hesitance. I found myself quickly endeared to the cast: both good and evil. The mystery of what happened on Shadow Moses and the legacy left by Big Boss intrigued me. There were several instances in the game that caught me completely off guard, and I was thoroughly impressed by the narrative.
Highlights:

• Psycho mantis! The whole fight. What a cool dude. And quite tragic!
• After being captured and tortured by Ocelot, I retrieved my bag and found a strange new bomb inside. Oh well, I thought. I must not have noticed that I picked this up at some point. I wonder how to use it. When Major Campbell alerted me that Ocelot had planted the explosive in my bag to KILL me, I was reminded of a similar experience I had in Death Stranding… in which I similarly noticed the addition of a strange nuclear device in my inventory and promptly thought “oh this is just another normal delivery!”
• At some point during my playthrough I couldn’t help but pause and wonder where I had heard Liquid’s voice before. I did as many have done in my position and googled it, whereupon I found my answer: his voice actor was the male blood elf voice from WOW! It seemed his voice actor also voiced Master Miller in MGS1. “That makes sense,” I remember thinking. “They must have gotten the actor to do multiple voices while he was in the studio”. Pretty standard stuff. Suffice to say, Liquid’s reveal caught me embarrassingly off-guard.

Final thoughts: MGS. What a game!
MGS2
My first thought upon starting MGS2 was “Hey! Quinton Flynn is in the credits! Raiden must be in this one! How exciting.”
I played through the opening, excited by the prospect that Otacon would be functioning as my Save Girl this time. When the game switched characters, I was OVERJOYED to see the return of my favourite cyborg ninja! Although he seemed neither cyborg nor ninja. Oh well! I already know Raiden is cool. I did not realise he was the protagonist of an entire Metal Gear game! I later learned that this game was intentionally marketed to disguise this fact. I also foolishly assumed that everyone else was as overjoyed as me to see Raiden again after playing MGR:R…
Moving on.
This game changed my life. I don’t say that lightly. I’ve spent the past 5 years studying a discipline directly linked to the themes of this game. I have written papers on the relationship between terrorism and the media. For a game like this to have been released in 2001 blew my mind. There is little else I can say. Out of the 3 mainline MGS entries I have played, MGS2 is (just barely) the game I would rank in the number 1 spot.
Highlights:

• All the stealth segments! MGS1 had trained me well to actually play through MGS2 with some degree of care. I took much greater care to avoid killing people in MGS2. I'm not sure why. It just felt like something rookie Raiden would do.
• Vamp. I’m bisexual and playing this game made me realise that this is the first (and possibly only time) I have heard a character in a video game be explicitly described by other characters as Bisexual (and not just hinted to or ‘confirmed’ as such through social media). Also he was very cool and sexy. Go Vamp!
• The scary ai scene. I need scissors 61. Could not have said it better myself!
• Raiden getting a sword. Hooray! That’s the Raiden I know and love.

Final thoughts: After I finished this game I had to sit down for 24 hours and reflect on my life. I was sure this series had peaked for me and that MGS3 could not possibly be able to live up to the standards set.
MGS3
I mentioned before that I am bisexual. After playing MGS3 I believe I am even more bisexual. MGS3’s cast endeared me like no other. It has been 6 months since I have finished this game and my phone wallpaper is still an image of The Boss. Overall, this game by far had the most enjoyable mechanics and boss fights. I mistakenly left my game for about a week to do assessment shortly after beginning to fight The End and returned to find he had DIED in my absence. I was also very confused at first about who I was playing.
“Wait a minute, this isn’t Solid Snake”. This is the man I now know will come to be known as Big Boss. And of what little I knew of him from MGS1, I believed Big Boss to have been a detestable war criminal.
As such, I decided early on in my playthrough to play him quite violently! I seldom left survivors and did not bother to use non-lethal force. I also announced this loudly and offhandedly to my friend who was very familiar with the games. He would inform me later that he had to mute himself in discord to laugh at me.
Highlights:

• The boss. She’s a real historical figure to me. I will never forget her. It would not be controversial to suggest that video games (especially of this era) seldom provided complex female characters. She is a standout amongst all characters, female or otherwise. Throughout this game, I regularly referred to The Boss as my wife.
• Ocelot! Hey Ocelot is in this and he’s a baby! What a weird guy. I guess this means he is the only character to have appeared in all 3 of the mainline games I have played! Cool! I have come to affectionately refer to Ocelot as my weird gay son.
• More bisexuality! Always a delight! Even when it's coming from a freak.
• The Sorrow. I have mentioned that I decided to play this game violently. I do not know if the Sorrow boss fight has a cap on how many soldiers can spawn, but I am certain I hit it. I do not remember exactly how long that segment took, but it was at least 20 minutes of walking. I have decided that henceforth I will play all future entries as a pacifist. Lesson learned.
• Raikov? That’s not Raiden.
• “The Boss” fight. I had to attempt this fight more than five times, as I could barely see the screen through my tears. When the game held me hostage until I pulled the trigger to kill, I became permanently scarred.

Final Thoughts: After completing MGS3 I cried on and off for about 3 days. I occasionally still think of The Boss and tear up. As I write this, I come unbearably close to doing so again.
In Summary
I have not yet played MGS4 but I have installed the disc into my PS3 and just barely opened the game. The game’s menu depicts a man standing in a graveyard filled with white flowers; the very same flowers which symbolise The Boss. The menu screen then pans away as the man shoots himself.
That wasn’t even the game! That’s just the menu screen!! I don’t know what MGS4 is about. I don’t know what Peacewalker is about either, nor MGS5. I am looking forward to (and am also terrified of) continuing my journey through these games. I look forward to seeing Raiden’s return (as I’m sure everyone did) and eventually experiencing a MGS game with modern day controls.
Thank you for reading my Metal Gear Solid retrospective.

I recently tried to update the firmware on my Ender 3 V2 and followed this tutorial. https://youtu.be/9__7SCDdKs4 I made 2 mistakes near the end.

1. I left some of the files not needed for the update on the micro sd. (These files were prints for the printer.)
2. There were two files needed for the update but I only put one on the micro sd.

Now the printer is forever stuck on a black screen when I turn it on. The two questions I have are: A. Can this be fixed? B. If not, since I messed up would the warranty still be good? ( I couldn’t find much information on it.) Thank you for reading this far.