Boost mobile near me

So I currently work for [Globe] ISP as a field technician and I am looking to transition into more MSP to SysAdmin work.
I have been in my current position for 1 year and currently am at $25/hr with a raise to $27 incoming next week. I commute about an hour both ways and being on installs, time can run over with unforeseen circumstances.
Now I have been looking for other work as I originally stated after one year I would start to leverage the small experience that I have, along with some certifications. I asked on this sub when I started the position and I am trying to go deeper into networking. My dream job is to do something mixed with both VLAN/Cloud software and banking, but that is many years off. So I have done A+ and am almost finished with CCNA and have learned much from what I’ve studied so far.
So a recruiter reached out to me and offered me a job for Field Tech IV, starting at $32/hr (well $28-$32, but I want the biggest number) and it’s local, about 20 minutes. The description is about hybrid/on-site install and configuration at PSAPs? The recruiter told me I’d start everyday at home but would have to go to different sites, with IRS comp for mileage. Do I need a truck or something? He did include that I would be working with Cisco routers and switches which is a good XP boost as my current position doesn’t provide as often as I’d like. Also Linux OS work also.
Has anyone done anything like this? What kind of workload am I looking at?

Hey! Can someone help me with what kind of courses/experiences/work/qualifications will help me be a better candidate for the Master's in Physiotherapy degree? What can help my application look good to help me get an admission?
[Info about me: I'm 21F from India, currently in my last year of Bachelor's in PT. I'm pursuing a physiotherapy equivalent PG diploma so I can gain Mandatory 2years work experience in Canada to be able to apply for a Master's degree]

...We will record this album ourselves, in different locations, and started with the piano in the South of France. We used the piano of my grandmother, which has a symbolic significance, being the first music instrument I ever played. Then we went to Goudargues, near my hometown Bagnols-sur-Cèze, to record some vocals in the church of the village. The reverberation there is just incredible and perfectly fits Alcest’s music. This whole area always has been a big inspiration for me so I was really happy to be able to record parts of our new songs there.

Hey! Can someone help me with what kind of courses/experiences/work/qualifications will help me be a better candidate for the Master's in Physiotherapy degree? What can help my application look good to help me get an admission?
[Info about me: I'm 21F from India, currently in my last year of Bachelor's in PT. I'm pursuing a physiotherapy equivalent PG diploma so I can gain Mandatory 2years work experience in Canada to be able to apply for a Master's degree]

(background: im 22yo, 35w pregnant, unemployed, living with my husband in a 1bd apartment, husband works full time). So,ive always been on my mothers plan, and ive always had to pay 200$/month-ish. when i became unemployed we really struggled to be able to pay her on time. well, she deicded enough was enough for her and she cut us off of her car insurance plan because she "didnt want to help anymore". well i kind of begged for her to let us stay on but that did nothing so.
i stayed with the same company, and they had me paying $118/month for car insurance for both me and my husband.
well my husband just got his license suspended. because we cant afford his court fees and his ticket fees every month anymore. (he had a DUI for a very very small amount of weed in his car when he was 18, and has been paying court fees and shit for years. not only that but he got 2 speeding tickets since then and hasnt paid them off yet, and once i became unemployed all the money he gets from work goes to electric, food, and rent. thats it).
SO NOW just for ME to have coverage, its gone up to $350+ a month. ive gotten quotes from so many companies and theyre all the same. so its like, if you cant afford one thing then they just charge you more (make that make sense!).
​
so. um. now i have no car insurance on my car. and my husband cant drive. so i have to take him to work and home.... did i mention he works graveyard shift?
I work. SO. FUCKING. HARD. all day. every day. i started a side hustle and its gone NOWHERE. ive had 5 sales which is amazing but Etsy takes so much out for shipping + fees. i doordash. all fucking day everyday. and i get nowhere with it because theres no orders near me. ever. or the ones i do get are 2$ to drive 7 miles.
my husband got a .50 cent raise and now we only get 75$ in EBT. and we do have W.I.C but again its incredibly low amount.
god damn it man. im so tired of being stressed with money.

growing up both parents arguing, i remember my mom breaking my dads phone/landline when he tried to call her elder sister to intervene. My dad showing me where my mother would cut him and hurt him , the scabs. Then they decided with their shitty parenting to give birth to their son in 2009, bc me their daughter wasnt enough for their dum immature brains to handle. On top of this i dealt with a horrible skin disease (which after moving out abroad and cutting them off went away i realized it was probably caused by stress). This skin disease made my skin develop ugly dark scabs and dar circles and wrinkles on a little ass 8 year old girl. Dermalotigits said just use a non fragnance cream but nno these dumbos thought their olive oil and stupid homepathy wud help. Bc of them i became permantly scarred, permant skin color change from fair child to dark af and patchy skin with oddly fair patches on cheeks ears legs. i look like a vitigilo patient. I barely cud sleep sometimes i couldnt even walk bc the skin wud be so bloody dry and in pain. they forced me to study computer science even tho i had so many physical and depression problems. many of my female cousins didnt have to study computer science and the one who did didnt have parents shouting at eachother all the damn time. Now at near 25 finally i got out and abroad on my own, after starting my own business and being able to pay for education abroad all on my own money. But everyone will still say oh u got so far bc of ur parents not bc of ur own damn hard owrk. I dont ever want to return to India, such a dum country, so many parent worshipers no matter how shitty they are

Like I sometimes follow soccerball and just heard about some Pessi guy moving to a place near me, so who is he? Is he good? Is he friends with that Christian Ronald guy? Did he play for the Madrid Whites? btw is he married to the GOAT Christian Pulisic??????

I found a lot of ways to get it fixed but none of them worked, the only way I got it to work was with connecting my ps4 to my mobile data and restoring license after I test the internet connection, after that just go back to ur main wifi. Hopefully it’ll work for u. Before doing that I changed my DNS twice, nothing would work, I changed my password and all of the other solutions I could find, this one was the one that worked for me.

I deeply am disgusted by myself and this feeling dosent seem to end. On medicine its been over a month but still crazy. Nearly EVERYTHING gives me urges to destroy myself. I lose my mind, punching, cutting, nail digging, and breaking way too many blinds.
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I want to change, but my mind feels too messed up to ever repair. I feel like I am losing control. Need ways to really stop and think, I feel like I almost black out. What tf is wrong with me!!

I want to start by mentioning that the purpose of this post is not to diminish the progress many have made, because I know how hard it can be to rebuild credit, but I do believe it’s important for everyone to understand where they actually stand.
I’ve seen a trend of people posting their credit score progress, primarily using Credit Karma for their impressive before and after. Although progress, no matter how small, is something to celebrate, it’s important to understand what you’re actually seeing.
It’s been about six years since I began my own journey to improve my credit. My (at the time) girlfriend and I were looking into purchasing our first home, but I had poor credit (585). Knowing that I needed a score of at least 620 to receive approval on a loan, steps towards fixing my credit needed to happen. I spoke with a financial advisor, who created a plan to help improve my credit score over a span of a couple years.
It only took about three months before I began seeing a change in my score, at least while tracking it on Credit Karma’s app. Another three months had passed, and I was over the moon to see a score of 655. I couldn’t believe how easy it was to accomplish these positive changes!
Fast forward another 10 months or so and we were again looking at houses. I no longer had the fear of being rejected by lenders, as my score just kept going up. At this point, about a year and a half into my journey to fix my credit, my Credit Karma score was sitting at around 710. I was doing everything right, and it made sense to me (at the time) that the progress I had made was legitimate.
We found an amazing home, decided we wanted to make our first offer, and sought approval from a local lender. Within a few hours, we were informed that we were denied the loan, specifically due to a low credit score. It didn’t make any sense at the time, as I knew I had a 710, and my girlfriend had a score of 792. I wanted to look further into the issue, but another offer was accepted that evening. We were back to shopping the market for a house, and simply assumed the previous denial had been for a number of reasons, so I didn’t look into it as much as I should have.
Within the coming weeks, unrelated to the house search, I decided to request a balance increase to a credit card I have had with Bank of America for some time. It was only a $1,000 increase, so I hadn’t even considered any chance of a denial. Well, sure as shit, I got a letter in the mail a few days later apologizing for the denial of my request. There was only one reason for the denial, and it was “poor credit”.
At this point, I knew something had to be wrong with the information they had on me, because I could clearly see that I had a 700+ score. Curious if there was possibly an issue with Credit Karma’s app, I also downloaded Experian to compare the scores. As expected, the scores on the two apps were within 10 points of each other. I scheduled an appointment with my bank for the following day, and flat out asked why their systems weren’t updating my increasing score. This is, unfortunately, when I learned that the scores given on these apps are essentially irrelevant.
The account manager at my bank was nice enough to explain what was happening, and it was both eye-opening and upsetting. Someone’s credit score is determined by a number of factors, and this varies from lender to lender. When it came to a house, car, or personal loan, nearly every lender in this country calculates your score in a way different than what’s being seen on these credit score apps. They want you to continue using the app, because they’re a business and want users to purchase their services, see their adds, and use the lenders they recommend. So it’s obviously in their best interest for users to see impressive changes, which keeps them checking on a regular basis. Me account manager then asked me to open my Bank of America app, as well as my Discovery CC app, and check what they were showing my FICO score as. My stomach sank when I saw 611 on one, and 617 on the other.
As it turns out, Credit Karma and Experian had been giving me a false sense of success for over a year and a half, which was devastating. Although I could show fiends and family a high credit score, it meant nothing to the institutions I needed lines of credit from.
Although having the wind knocked out of my sails was rough, I stuck at it and continued strengthening my credit. It took longer than expected, but it’s now been years since I began this journey and the score recognized by lenders has finally surpassed 700. With that’s said, my Credit Karma account, which I never deleted, shows scores of 798 and 793. Although I’m now aware how little those scores actually mean to my overall financial success, it’s still fun to watch them rise.
At the end of the day, I don’t think these apps are evil or anything, I just don't want people getting ahead of themselves based solely on the information they’re receiving from them. Your best way to get a proper idea of what your credit looks like is to check your banking or credit card apps. As far as I know, all of them offer free FICO checks.
I’m sorry if this post leads to any of the same disappointment I once felt, but having a true grasp of your credit score, at least the one that lenders see, is extremely important.
TLDR; Credit Karma and Experian are fun apps, but the scores shown on there are often irrelevant to what’s needed when applying for a loan. For a realistic idea of your important credit score, log into your online banking or credit card app snd see what they show as your FICO score. This score is what’s being used when applying for a loan from essentially every financial institution in this nation.

Anybody else ready for Friday?? I feel like it’s been a long week.
I’m down to talk about whatever tbh I’m a pretty open book. Also down to play iMessage games if anyone wants? Prepared to get whooped tho ;)
I like to play video games (Xbox), workout, go hiking, hangout with friends and watch tv/movies. Harry Potter and Star Wars are my favorites. I’m kinda introverted so a lot of times I prefer to just chill at home lol.
I’m going on an international trip next year so give me recommendations!
Also, if anyone is from or near Ohio DM me it would be cool to make some friends nearby!

Heyyy everyone! This is my first post here on this subreddit and i’d really like to get some advice from more experienced artists.
I’m a teen digital artist who does art commissions as my sole income (parents wont let me get a job yet), and I’ve been struggling with my art’s exposure and getting commissions for a few months. My main platform was instagram, however i’ve struggled immensely with their crappy algorithm and the fact that the only “commissions” i’d get were scammers. after over a year of posting religiously on there, i’ve gotten to nearly 2.5k followers, which is good but my posts still get max 100 likes and recently have been at around 60 likes, even when i do reels. Another thing worth mentioning is the fact that my only reels that end up being caught by the algorithm and getting over 10k views and 1000 likes are the stupid ones having practically nothing to do with my artwork. Its incredibly frustrating.
I’ve started becoming active on twitter and posting consistently and i have found it to be pretty good, given the fact i’ve gone from 40 followers to 130+ in around 2 weeks. However, i still haven’t managed to get a single commission, which is one of my main goals with my social media platforms. I’ve tried artfol but the platform heavily lacks engagement and feels like an offbrand twitter with a fraction of users.
I’m mostly sticking to twitter since most artists i see recommend it esp because of commissions, however, i still haven’t managed to get a commission. Idk if i’m being impatient or what but i post fanart for exposure, ocs to be interesting, and my commission sheet with a carrd and all info needed, yet i have nothing.
I’d really appreciate some advice <3

The local Taco Bell near me removed the ability to purchase the breakfast Crunchwrap Tuesday so they didn’t have to make them for the free deal. Not sure if this was allowed but it was a bit odd and I was still able to order it in store without the coupon

Guide available! Go here.
Series beginning is here.
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I took a deep breath and let it out. Looking up at Elizabet, I said, “Kilik-ma was curious as to the entertainment on my world. Liss-ran was apparently telling him about the breakfast we shared before we left on the hunt. The music we played through my phone. He wanted to hear some, but I’d left it here with you.
“Well, I was feeling better than I had any right to, and well, I decided to…sing a song,”
“You’ve never sang for me before. What gives?” Elizabet asked, sounding hurt.
“You never asked, and I’ve always been rather self-conscious about my voice. I don’t think it’s very good, and I don’t like to advertise that I actually can sing. Maybe four people back on Earth knew that I could sing and actually carry a tune. Now? Now, all of Haruma will know.
“Getting back to the matter at hand, I decided to sing a song about the winter and its beauty. I slipped into something of a trance, lost in the music apparently. Just singing and well, watching the song come alive in a field. I didn’t even realize that I was singing in the Ancient Tongue until the song was over, and I nearly passed out and fell off of Lola.” I took her hands in mine, and looked her in the eye, worry plastered across my face. “Elizabet, I made it snow. And not just a little bit, either. If you travel two or three hours back in the direction we came, the snow is up to my knees,” I said.
“You made it snow?” Blainaut asked, bewildered.
“Yeah. And… and that’s not all,” I said.
“What else did you do, Ivor?” Elizabet asked in exasperation.
“I might have let loose a new species of bird. A line in the song speaks of a bluebird, a specific, small bird from my planet, and a whole flock of them burst from a tree where there were no birds before. They flew off to the south,” I said, my head hung low.
Elizabet and Blainaut just stared at me. As Blainaut opened his mouth to say something, a voice piped up from the entrance to the city.
“Hey! We have visitors! Four of them. They’re small,” he said.
A crow swooped in from….somewhere and landed on my shoulder. This was going to be interesting.
I whipped around to face the possible threat. What I saw instead, were four canine pups. Realization washed over me as I realized what these were.
“The Dire Wolf,” I said softly.
“What? Dire Wolf? What do you mean, Dire Wolf?” Blainaut asked.
“I killed a female at the beginning of the hunt. She’d been in my Pack the entire time. Until this morning, anyway. I laid her in the cart to make more room for other prey we had taken. She was nursing pups at the time. I was worried they’d die, but it seems they didn’t and have followed her scent,” I explained quietly. “Back away from the cart! Don’t run. Move deliberately, and you should be okay,” I called out.
The Haarthuu slowly backed away from the cart, and the four pups approached in his stead. They pawed at the corpse of their mother, whining. Though large, they couldn’t have been more than two or three months of age. An idea struck me.
I shrugged off my Pack, and reached in for a parcel of meat from the sentry. I quickly cut some chunks from it, and slowly approached the pups, sliding the Pack back onto my shoulders. They began to growl at me, but I tossed some meat their way, and they snatched it up, obviously starving. One was especially quick about it, snapping up two to the others’ one. I continued, Duplicating and tossing meat at them until they seemed full. They began to walk off, so I halted their movement with a Wall of Stone, causing a large semicircle to appear around them. I walked in behind them and closed it off, trapping us all together.
“Ivor, no!” Elizabet yelled after me.
They immediately turned on me, growling and snarling. I tossed more meat at them, causing them to back away and spread out. One took a piece of meat and trotted off, away from the rest. The other three stood away, their hackles raised.
I took a chance and sat on the ground. As a precaution, I raised a Dome of Force over me, to ward off any attack that may come. The crow fluttered off before I finished, perching on the stone wall. One of the pups took hesitant steps towards me, sniffing the air.
“That’s right,” I said in a soft, low tone. “Come on. I’m safe. I may have killed your mother, and I’m sorry for that, but it was either her or my friends. I’ll help take care of your four, if you’ll let me,” I continued.
I could see the fear in their movements, in the way they paced and whined looking up at the wall. I racked my brain, trying desperately to recall some spell I could use to help these four pups calm down.
The one that had taken the meat and left raised its head and howled a low, keening wail. It was joined in by the others, and tears flowed down my cheeks. I knew they were mourning their mother.
As I sat there, the necessary spell flowed into my mind like water. “Call of the Wild, words of the woods, let them Hear me, let me Hear them.” I murmured, willing the five of us to understand the other.
“I’m sorry, kids. I didn’t know she was your mother,” I said softly.
The four of them snapped to attention and regarded me with suspicion.
“The two-legged pink ones lie. Always,” came a voice from my left.
“The green ones are little better,” this time, from my right.
“Strides-in-shadows is gone, and we are Nameless. Your fault!” directly in front of me, this time. The pup there was growling fiercely, slowly advancing.
“I will keep you fed. I will help you form a new pack. I will keep you safe. I will atone for the death of Strides-in-shadows,” I said solemnly.
“Fed? A new pack? Safe?” the pup that began the howl snorted and rose. It slowly padded over to me, its head cocked to the side. “How can a pink two-leg care for Wolf-kind? We hunt. We kill. We are strong,” it said.
“You will likely die without a new pack. I can offer definite survival,” I said softly.
The pup was standing at the very edge of the Dome. “Can you truly? We have our doubts,” it said softly.
I took a deep breath, my heart hammering in my ears. Slowly, I began to stand. Reaching the limit of my Dome, I dispelled it, and stood there in front of four pups. I held my hands out to my sides, open wide.
“I stand here before you. Believe me, or don’t. The Haarthuu will treat you as their own people, and I can promise you will have the attention of my three sons, should you wish it. You” - I knelt in front of the one I took to be the leader- “will never want for companionship and family for as long as you live, if you take my offer,” I said, slowly extending my hand out to him.
“Brothers? Sister? Do we take the pink one at his word? Do we kill him and feast? Do we leave?” he asked.
Three growls were heard as they advanced on me. I lowered my head, expecting the worst. I knew I would likely survive an attack, but I wanted to show trust. I head a snuffling to my right, feeling a cold nose press against my hand. I opened my eyes and slowly raised my head, only to find a yellow eye glaring into my face.
“We will trust for now. The moment we are harmed, we will tear through your people, rending life from flesh,” the leader said.
“Very well. I shall name you four,” I said. The pups sat before me in a line. “You, I shall call Speaks-with-honor. You can expect to be called ‘Speaker’ more often than not,” I said to the apparent leader, the one who had taken the meat and wandered away from his siblings, and he perked up. Turning to the fast one, I said, “You are Stings-with-wind. ‘Stinger’ will be your short name.” She, too, perked up, sitting a bit taller. I faced the calmer, quieter of the three and said, “You are Autumn Breeze. Autumn will be your short name.” He perked up, leaving the angriest of the bunch, who was pacing back and forth, a low growl coming from him. I faced him and intoned, “You are Heart-of-fire. Fireheart will be your short name.” I took in the entirety of the pups, and spread my arms wide. “It is time to meet your new pack! Come,” I said.
I turned to where I was pretty sure the crowd was, and slowly lowered the walls. The crow flapped back to my shoulder and rubbed her beak against my beard. Elizabet, Thaddeus and Blainaut were the first faces I saw. I smiled.
“People of Haruma! There are four Dire Wolf pups behind me. Please don’t be afraid, as I think I’ve made a deal with them,” I said loudly. “Speaks-with-honor is the eldest of the four. After him is his sister, Stings-with-wind. Their brother Autumn Breeze is next, followed by the fierce Heart-of-fire.” Each pup stepped forward with the announcement of their name. “They will hopefully stay with us for the rest of their lives, and we will cherish and love them as family. As long as they are not harmed, we will all prosper,” I said, the walls finally receding into the ground.
The pups sat behind me, watching impassively as the Haarthuu looked worriedly between each other. My boys slowly walked up to me.
“Mr. Ivor? What are we going to do with them?” asked Ahte-tan.
The crow, that I was now certain had to be The Great Mother, hopped off my shoulder and revealed Herself to the crowd of Haarthuu, who all knelt in reverence. Even the Dire Wolf pups showed their belly and neck to her. It seemed all life on Chaia knew her as their Mother.
She knelt in front of the boy. “You are going to love them, cherish them, and treat them like family, My Child. That’s what you’re going to do with them. I hope you will bond with them. They aren’t pets. They are family members. Remember that,” She said, seeing his serious face nod.
“Heart-of-fire? This is Ivor’s oldest, Ahte-tan. I hope the two of you will get along. He will take care of you, Fireheart. Treat each other well,” She said to the wolf pup.
Fireheart walked over to Ahte-tan, and sat before him, staring him in the eye. “Now, remember, Child. Fireheart is proud, strong, and lives up to his name. Help him focus that flame, and I am certain he will be a stalwart companion,” She said.
“Ahte-naah? This is Stings-with-wind. She is fast; faster than you, even. Help each other direct yourselves in your journeys, and I’m certain you will find no better friend than Stinger,” The Great Mother said gently.
Stinger padded over and sniffed and snuffled Ahte-naah’s face, then pounced on him, licking him all over. Ahte-naah giggled and laughed, burying his face in the wolf’s soft fur.
Speaks-with-honor padded over to my youngest, and cocked his head. “Speaker, this is Ivor’s youngest, Ahte-ukum. He is kind, soft-spoken, and rather timid. Help him find his inner warrior; his inner dragon, and you will have a partner to rely on for the rest of your life,” The Great Mother told the eldest pup.
Speaker walked over and lay down at my youngest’s feet, and Ahte-ukum sat, gently petting the gray fur.
Autumn Breeze trotted up to the goddess, butting her gently with his head. “Liss-ran?” The young woman gasped and covered her mouth with her hands. “This is Autumn. He is quiet, calm and attentive. Of all the Haarthuu, only you are able to properly understand him, I think. As you spend time with him, I think you may come to know yourself even better. Care for him as you would your own flesh and blood, and he will never leave you,” The Mother of All commanded. Once she had finished she turned to me.
“I certainly didn’t expect this, Ivor. You may have just begun to turn the tide for this city of My Children. As long as they survive, those pups will be a fierce deterrent to any seeking to gain entry. I am glad to see that you continue to exceed my expectations, dearest. However, I must take my leave. Stay safe, Ivor,” She said, then planted a soft kiss on my cheek before fading.
The pups, now sitting beside their respective Person, began a new howl. This was not one of sorrow, but of the joy of finding a pack.
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Hey! I’m also uploading my work on RoyalRoad! Here is my profile IvorFreyrsson
Join me over at Words_From_Ivor for more!
Master List

I took a deep breath and let it out. Looking up at Elizabet, I said, “Kilik-ma was curious as to the entertainment on my world. Liss-ran was apparently telling him about the breakfast we shared before we left on the hunt. The music we played through my phone. He wanted to hear some, but I’d left it here with you.
“Well, I was feeling better than I had any right to, and well, I decided to…sing a song,”
“You’ve never sang for me before. What gives?” Elizabet asked, sounding hurt.
“You never asked, and I’ve always been rather self-conscious about my voice. I don’t think it’s very good, and I don’t like to advertise that I actually can sing. Maybe four people back on Earth knew that I could sing and actually carry a tune. Now? Now, all of Haruma will know.
“Getting back to the matter at hand, I decided to sing a song about the winter and its beauty. I slipped into something of a trance, lost in the music apparently. Just singing and well, watching the song come alive in a field. I didn’t even realize that I was singing in the Ancient Tongue until the song was over, and I nearly passed out and fell off of Lola.” I took her hands in mine, and looked her in the eye, worry plastered across my face. “Elizabet, I made it snow. And not just a little bit, either. If you travel two or three hours back in the direction we came, the snow is up to my knees,” I said.
“You made it snow?” Blainaut asked, bewildered.
“Yeah. And… and that’s not all,” I said.
“What else did you do, Ivor?” Elizabet asked in exasperation.
“I might have let loose a new species of bird. A line in the song speaks of a bluebird, a specific, small bird from my planet, and a whole flock of them burst from a tree where there were no birds before. They flew off to the south,” I said, my head hung low.
Elizabet and Blainaut just stared at me. As Blainaut opened his mouth to say something, a voice piped up from the entrance to the city.
“Hey! We have visitors! Four of them. They’re small,” he said.
A crow swooped in from….somewhere and landed on my shoulder. This was going to be interesting.
I whipped around to face the possible threat. What I saw instead, were four canine pups. Realization washed over me as I realized what these were.
“The Dire Wolf,” I said softly.
“What? Dire Wolf? What do you mean, Dire Wolf?” Blainaut asked.
“I killed a female at the beginning of the hunt. She’d been in my Pack the entire time. Until this morning, anyway. I laid her in the cart to make more room for other prey we had taken. She was nursing pups at the time. I was worried they’d die, but it seems they didn’t and have followed her scent,” I explained quietly. “Back away from the cart! Don’t run. Move deliberately, and you should be okay,” I called out.
The Haarthuu slowly backed away from the cart, and the four pups approached in his stead. They pawed at the corpse of their mother, whining. Though large, they couldn’t have been more than two or three months of age. An idea struck me.
I shrugged off my Pack, and reached in for a parcel of meat from the sentry. I quickly cut some chunks from it, and slowly approached the pups, sliding the Pack back onto my shoulders. They began to growl at me, but I tossed some meat their way, and they snatched it up, obviously starving. One was especially quick about it, snapping up two to the others’ one. I continued, Duplicating and tossing meat at them until they seemed full. They began to walk off, so I halted their movement with a Wall of Stone, causing a large semicircle to appear around them. I walked in behind them and closed it off, trapping us all together.
“Ivor, no!” Elizabet yelled after me.
They immediately turned on me, growling and snarling. I tossed more meat at them, causing them to back away and spread out. One took a piece of meat and trotted off, away from the rest. The other three stood away, their hackles raised.
I took a chance and sat on the ground. As a precaution, I raised a Dome of Force over me, to ward off any attack that may come. The crow fluttered off before I finished, perching on the stone wall. One of the pups took hesitant steps towards me, sniffing the air.
“That’s right,” I said in a soft, low tone. “Come on. I’m safe. I may have killed your mother, and I’m sorry for that, but it was either her or my friends. I’ll help take care of your four, if you’ll let me,” I continued.
I could see the fear in their movements, in the way they paced and whined looking up at the wall. I racked my brain, trying desperately to recall some spell I could use to help these four pups calm down.
The one that had taken the meat and left raised its head and howled a low, keening wail. It was joined in by the others, and tears flowed down my cheeks. I knew they were mourning their mother.
As I sat there, the necessary spell flowed into my mind like water. “Call of the Wild, words of the woods, let them Hear me, let me Hear them.” I murmured, willing the five of us to understand the other.
“I’m sorry, kids. I didn’t know she was your mother,” I said softly.
The four of them snapped to attention and regarded me with suspicion.
“The two-legged pink ones lie. Always,” came a voice from my left.
“The green ones are little better,” this time, from my right.
“Strides-in-shadows is gone, and we are Nameless. Your fault!” directly in front of me, this time. The pup there was growling fiercely, slowly advancing.
“I will keep you fed. I will help you form a new pack. I will keep you safe. I will atone for the death of Strides-in-shadows,” I said solemnly.
“Fed? A new pack? Safe?” the pup that began the howl snorted and rose. It slowly padded over to me, its head cocked to the side. “How can a pink two-leg care for Wolf-kind? We hunt. We kill. We are strong,” it said.
“You will likely die without a new pack. I can offer definite survival,” I said softly.
The pup was standing at the very edge of the Dome. “Can you truly? We have our doubts,” it said softly.
I took a deep breath, my heart hammering in my ears. Slowly, I began to stand. Reaching the limit of my Dome, I dispelled it, and stood there in front of four pups. I held my hands out to my sides, open wide.
“I stand here before you. Believe me, or don’t. The Haarthuu will treat you as their own people, and I can promise you will have the attention of my three sons, should you wish it. You” - I knelt in front of the one I took to be the leader- “will never want for companionship and family for as long as you live, if you take my offer,” I said, slowly extending my hand out to him.
“Brothers? Sister? Do we take the pink one at his word? Do we kill him and feast? Do we leave?” he asked.
Three growls were heard as they advanced on me. I lowered my head, expecting the worst. I knew I would likely survive an attack, but I wanted to show trust. I head a snuffling to my right, feeling a cold nose press against my hand. I opened my eyes and slowly raised my head, only to find a yellow eye glaring into my face.
“We will trust for now. The moment we are harmed, we will tear through your people, rending life from flesh,” the leader said.
“Very well. I shall name you four,” I said. The pups sat before me in a line. “You, I shall call Speaks-with-honor. You can expect to be called ‘Speaker’ more often than not,” I said to the apparent leader, the one who had taken the meat and wandered away from his siblings, and he perked up. Turning to the fast one, I said, “You are Stings-with-wind. ‘Stinger’ will be your short name.” She, too, perked up, sitting a bit taller. I faced the calmer, quieter of the three and said, “You are Autumn Breeze. Autumn will be your short name.” He perked up, leaving the angriest of the bunch, who was pacing back and forth, a low growl coming from him. I faced him and intoned, “You are Heart-of-fire. Fireheart will be your short name.” I took in the entirety of the pups, and spread my arms wide. “It is time to meet your new pack! Come,” I said.
I turned to where I was pretty sure the crowd was, and slowly lowered the walls. The crow flapped back to my shoulder and rubbed her beak against my beard. Elizabet, Thaddeus and Blainaut were the first faces I saw. I smiled.
“People of Haruma! There are four Dire Wolf pups behind me. Please don’t be afraid, as I think I’ve made a deal with them,” I said loudly. “Speaks-with-honor is the eldest of the four. After him is his sister, Stings-with-wind. Their brother Autumn Breeze is next, followed by the fierce Heart-of-fire.” Each pup stepped forward with the announcement of their name. “They will hopefully stay with us for the rest of their lives, and we will cherish and love them as family. As long as they are not harmed, we will all prosper,” I said, the walls finally receding into the ground.
The pups sat behind me, watching impassively as the Haarthuu looked worriedly between each other. My boys slowly walked up to me.
“Mr. Ivor? What are we going to do with them?” asked Ahte-tan.
The crow, that I was now certain had to be The Great Mother, hopped off my shoulder and revealed Herself to the crowd of Haarthuu, who all knelt in reverence. Even the Dire Wolf pups showed their belly and neck to her. It seemed all life on Chaia knew her as their Mother.
She knelt in front of the boy. “You are going to love them, cherish them, and treat them like family, My Child. That’s what you’re going to do with them. I hope you will bond with them. They aren’t pets. They are family members. Remember that,” She said, seeing his serious face nod.
“Heart-of-fire? This is Ivor’s oldest, Ahte-tan. I hope the two of you will get along. He will take care of you, Fireheart. Treat each other well,” She said to the wolf pup.
Fireheart walked over to Ahte-tan, and sat before him, staring him in the eye. “Now, remember, Child. Fireheart is proud, strong, and lives up to his name. Help him focus that flame, and I am certain he will be a stalwart companion,” She said.
“Ahte-naah? This is Stings-with-wind. She is fast; faster than you, even. Help each other direct yourselves in your journeys, and I’m certain you will find no better friend than Stinger,” The Great Mother said gently.
Stinger padded over and sniffed and snuffled Ahte-naah’s face, then pounced on him, licking him all over. Ahte-naah giggled and laughed, burying his face in the wolf’s soft fur.
Speaks-with-honor padded over to my youngest, and cocked his head. “Speaker, this is Ivor’s youngest, Ahte-ukum. He is kind, soft-spoken, and rather timid. Help him find his inner warrior; his inner dragon, and you will have a partner to rely on for the rest of your life,” The Great Mother told the eldest pup.
Speaker walked over and lay down at my youngest’s feet, and Ahte-ukum sat, gently petting the gray fur.
Autumn Breeze trotted up to the goddess, butting her gently with his head. “Liss-ran?” The young woman gasped and covered her mouth with her hands. “This is Autumn. He is quiet, calm and attentive. Of all the Haarthuu, only you are able to properly understand him, I think. As you spend time with him, I think you may come to know yourself even better. Care for him as you would your own flesh and blood, and he will never leave you,” The Mother of All commanded. Once she had finished she turned to me.
“I certainly didn’t expect this, Ivor. You may have just begun to turn the tide for this city of My Children. As long as they survive, those pups will be a fierce deterrent to any seeking to gain entry. I am glad to see that you continue to exceed my expectations, dearest. However, I must take my leave. Stay safe, Ivor,” She said, then planted a soft kiss on my cheek before fading.
The pups, now sitting beside their respective Person, began a new howl. This was not one of sorrow, but of the joy of finding a pack.

Diablo 2 was the last game where your weapon was actually utilized in combat. I was hoping 4 would be different, and a sidestep away from 3 and towards their older games combat approach, instead of the color bombardment spaz fest that seems to be the genre to date; playing more akin to DOTA than Diablo. I’m sure many of players will state “Its worthless and not meta” or “the other basic attacks are better”. Don’t advertise playing the class you want, how you want, when your limited in your build more than a 1st Edition D&D character. I dont want to play for the meta, and I honestly miss the tempo of the first two games, and I’m not alone in that sentiment either. World of Warcraft killed this franchise sadly and its identity, removing the elements of being a human swept up in a world falling into hell (figuratively and literally), and replacing them with you being godlings and everyone having magic powers to the point that weapons are just flashy backpack items only used for “stat boosts”.
In Diablo 1 and 2 you could play a Sorcerer with a Two-handed sword and still could beat the game, without using a single spell or ability; 3 to some extent allowed some classes to equip some weapons, but the limiting was already beginning, and 4 has been even worse than that. I tried to fight the first boss in 4 with only a basic attack, and it took me 30 minutes to beat him as a Rogue. I tried to do it again with the Necromancer, and it was impossible to do.
Now its all about loot, and safe loot at that. Hell a quest can have a cursed item, that the player can handle just fine with no ill effect, but NPCS cannot (Woodsman’s Axe ring a bell?) but there are no longer cursed magic items in the game for players to sort through or make the mistake of equiping and having to remove the curse. Wasn’t that an integral part of the first game, and some of the books that followed? You had to weigh options and gamble using something you didn’t understand. Now your barbarian can identify all things better than Deckard Cain could.
5/10 for me. It’s a game, it sometimes works (thanks online services!), but feel likes Diablo 3 skinned to look like the game players wanted From the franchise.
​

And the porkies deserved the lack of lubrication.
The rest of the series can be found here.
***
The shuttle bug let out a long gurgling fart into the passenger compartment (ironically where farts usually go).
“Making food was a weapon?” GuruG asked incredulously, unintentionally translating the shuttle bug’s question as well.
“Worse,” Alan replied. “You gentle and enlightened beings probably aren’t as intrinsically tied to supply and demand as the rest of us. You do know that scarcity is a large factor when the value of something is determined. When that something is a commodity that is essential for life, this principle is even more keenly felt. With the development of Jovian rice, a completely synthetic foodstuff, Zeus Industries was once again the richest organization in the solar system… and the most powerful.”
“Powerful?”
“They now had an essentially infinite amount of food. Of course, being the goody-two-shoes bitch that he was,” Alan smirked, “Tak Nakamura started just handing that garbage out to anyone and everyone and had the ships to do so. Overnight, fully laden gas miners with escorts started making regular runs to Terra, Luna, Mars, and the rest of the inner solar system. That food could have been used to establish order and stabilize civilization. Instead, he just started dumping it on all of the thousands of factions warring with each other. This did have the immediate result of establishing some sort of ‘peace,’ but it was inherently flawed.”
“It also had the entire inner solar system kissing his ass,” Grace added.
“Well put,” Alan agreed, “The flow of food from Zeus had the whole of the inner solar system utterly dependent upon him, and the promise of food security even had some of our allies negotiating their defections to his banner.”
“So why didn’t this Jessica Morgan do the same?” GuruG asked, “For that matter, why didn’t your Same?”
“We couldn’t,” Grace laughed, “Think about it. We were the ‘bad guys.’ We had been kicking the shit out of everyone for years. There was no way they would let us into their buffet.”
“And with the food finally flowing again,” Alan said, “The dynamics of the situation shifted. Our siege of the inner solar system had been broken. Of course, we still had the men and the weapons. Or raids continued, but now they only had the effect of inflicting casualties, not starvation.”
“Your Sames kind of sucked,” GuruG said. “You are aware of this, correct?”
“Dude,” Grace laughed, “You have no idea.”
“The food was power,” Alan said, “And whoever controlled that food source controlled the solar system. We had to act. Our first move was a diplomatic one. Jessica Morgan offered an alliance with Zeus Industries, including a quite reasonable plan for governance and reconstruction.”
“And Tak told us to get fucked,” Grace snerked.
“And in about as many words,” Alan chuckled. “He told us, and perhaps accurately so, that nobody would accept us and that the best we could hope for was exile among the Kuipers… Considering what happened next, perhaps we should have taken that deal.”
“What happened?” GuruG (and the entire solar system) asked excitedly.
“War,” Alan said grimly. “Unconditional war, the greatest one in human history. Until now, Jessica had held back. She wanted to preserve as much of her forces and her supplies as possible. Now, that was no longer an option. We collected the full might of our houses and launched a full-bore attack on the inner solar system with the purpose of wiping out all vulnerable settlements and blockading Zeus. Their gas miners could run the blockade, but that’s where they took most of their losses. We never destroyed one, but we took a decent number of them out of action, enough to cause Zeus to drastically reduce food shipments. In addition, she finally unleashed her actual military forces and the remainder of her combat fleet. The actual Sol Wars had finally begun. And it was ugly. No quarter was given or received. Both sides descended into true savagery.”
“As opposed to everything you have already described?” GuruG asked incredulously.
“Yep,” Grace replied, “That was just the opening act for the real show.”
“There were two sides to the fight,” Alan said, “You had thousands of small groups of people rallying behind the banner of Zeus Industries, and you had the Confederacy of Sol, the remaining raider gangs, now quite large, and Jessica Morgan herself… I guess you could add Mars as a third side, but they did what they always did, hunker down behind their blockade of armed merchantmen and watched us kill each other while they feasted on bugs and fresh produce, the assholes.”
“They aren’t our favorite people,” Grace sneered, “And they are terrible in bed, like really bad.”
“I dislike an unpleasant bedmate as well,” GuruG said, “We often live together, and an inconsiderate roommate or even worse, bedmate, can be…”
“It’s a euphemism for being bad at sex,” Alan said. “Grace is also intentionally ‘needling’ me since she cannot elaborate further concerning this at this time.”
“Is this because of jealousy?” GuruG asked. “We have seen on the othernet that this can be an issue.”
“Not at all,” Alan said, “We were not betrothed at birth, nor were we exclusive for a great deal of our relationship. I’m just extremely curious concerning the details of this particular ‘dis-Grace.’ I’d be more than a little put out if she, as we put it, ‘fucked around’ at this point in our relationship, though.”
“So, she could have other partners then, but not now?”
“Goddamn right!” Grace exclaimed. “I’ll give Alan and whatever slag he screws a Dragon high colonic if I catch them. You don’t want one of those.”
“I can assure you that you will never catch me, darling,” Alan smirked.
“Don’t make me unstick myself,” Grace laughed as she pulled an arm free from the adhesive embrace of the shuttle bug’s colon and swatted him on the leg.
A rumbling roar shook the chamber for several seconds.
“That was our final retrograde burn,” GrurG said. “We will be entering the atmosphere soon.”
“Lovely,” Grace said dubiously.
“We still do have some time, though,” GuruG said hopefully.
“We’re approaching the end of the story,” Alan said. “War raged for several years laying waste to millions of people and hundreds of space stations and ships that had somehow managed to survive everything else. However, station by blasted station, inch by bloody inch, we were winning. While outnumbered, we still outgunned our enemies and the skill and experience of our warriors outshone theirs by many orders of magnitude.”
“And then everything went to shit,” Grace said.
“How?” GuruG asked. “You still had the advantage.”
“Had, dear GuruG,” Alan replied, “The operative word there is had. Zeus was desperate for weapons but as we have said, they lost the supply chains needed to make our weapons. Then someone decided to look back in history to the last global conflict in our people’s history, World War Three.”
“Wait. Do you mean your people have done something like this before?!?”
“Oh yeah,” Grace grinned, “Plenty of times. We hadn’t had a big one for almost a thousand years, but we did have some ugly ones. The ugliest before the Sol Wars was World War Three. Over a billion people bit the big one during that.”
“And that war was fought with much more primitive weapons,” Alan said, “The weapons of that era were little more than metal tubes in which a fast burning propellent, first gunpowder and then nitrocellulose was ignited, and the pressure accelerated a dense metal projectile, usually lead, to high velocities.”
“I know these!” GuruG said happily. “Flash roots! We still use them!”
“Of course, you would,” Alan chuckled.
“We use them for hunting… and for messing about. We make these geometric patterns on thin membranes and try to hit the center! It’s great fun.”
“They are also great for hunting people!” Grace enthused.
“They… would be…” GuruG said reluctantly, as if it was something that had never occurred to him before.
“But you use something else for that, right?” Grace asked.
“…Yes?”
“Same here,” Grace said, “And we were using ‘something else’. But I bet that it’s a lot easier to make(?) flash roots isn’t it?”
“Significantly so,” GuruG said. “We just grow them. And what we fire them out of…”
GuruG trailed off.
“Are simple devices easily made from iron alloys?” Alan asked.
“Yes. We usually use cupric alloys but yes, you could easily make them from iron.”
“Which is very abundant in any solar system, and as far as the propellent goes, they had an entire gas giant to mine for chemicals,” Alan continued, “Nobody except for primitive hunters, enthusiasts, and historical reenactors used them then, and they mostly preferred even more primitive examples than what was used for warfare at the end of our first gunpowder era. Not knowing exactly what one to use the Terrans just picked a popular one that would be easy to make, a weapon known as the AK-47. They were very simple to make. Any ship had the ability to make them. Hell, you can even make them by hand if you want. And Zeus had… has truly titanic industrial capacity. Once they made the first working prototypes, they were able to make them by the millions and the bullets by the billions. Soon, they were handing them out the same way they were handing out food… and that was the beginning of the end for us. We had better weapons and better warriors, but we didn’t have the means to replenish either. For every one of our soldiers that fell, we lost years of training, maybe even a lifetime of it, and weapons that were truly irreplaceable. When one of their fighters fell, another hundred took their place. Every ‘soft target’ we used to raid suddenly had people all armed with primitive, but very effective weapons. Our numbers fell and theirs increased by the thousands every single day.”
“And that wasn’t the worst part,” Grace said. “The ancient rifles were a big hit. So why not look at the rest of the goodies from that era? They started making guns big ones as well as guided missiles more than capable of taking down any ship we had and started putting those motherfuckers on everything.”
“A tactic they use to this very day,” Alan said. “Every one of their ‘civilian’ merchant fleet can turn into a missile boat within an hour. They’ve used this to very good effect. Attacking anywhere in the Republic, especially Sol, is a death sentence.”
“We had some brilliant military leaders,” Grace said, “But they had General Attrition leading them and he is a bitch.”
“The dynamic shifted,” Alan said grimly. “Even though they would lose a hundred fighters to each one of ours, they still would win. If they lost ten fighters to each one of ours, they would call it a tactical triumph. We literally could not win. So, once again, inch by bloody inch, they took the system back. And they weren’t taking prisoners. At first, they would board a ship or a station and take it. After a while, they just used missiles and wiped us out by the thousands, by the hundreds of thousands.”
“And not all of them were combatants,” Grace said sourly. “They didn’t care. Then again we didn’t care either, so I guess we had it comin’.”
“Even we have to admit this,” Alan said ruefully, “We definitely reaped what we sowed. We would have been completely wiped out as a people if it wasn’t for the intervention of the Juon Empire.”
“How did they get involved?”
“There is a very old red dwarf near Sol that we call Bernard’s Star,” Alan said. “It’s old enough to be of scientific interest, and the Juon sent a scientific expedition to it. It was close enough to where the instruments and scanners they brought to study the star were sufficient to detect radio transmissions from Sol. Their first reaction was to not get involved. We were a bit farther out than they wanted to expand and the situation was far too chaotic. There were tentative plans to establish contact once things settled down, but they never did. Ultimately, they decided that if they wanted to establish contact with our species, they had better do so while there was a species left to contact.”
“So they rolled in,” Grace said, “With real warships. They also brought ship after ship filled with good food, supplies, consumer goods… you know, the whole beads and blankets thing.”
“Beads and blankets?”
“Yeah, you didn’t have colonialism either,” Grace replied, “Cheap presents for savages. For a few loads of cheap crap, they were able to basically buy the Terrans. They are kind of whores like that.”
“Now whores we have!”
“You have to get me a video!” Grace exclaimed. “Anyway, the Empire showed up and annexed the system without so much as a single shot being fired. They tried to broker a peace, but when they realized that they couldn’t even get us in the same room without us trying to kill each other they split us up. They sent us into the cold dark of the outer solar system and gave the Terrans all the good spots.”
“Which they had already won,” Alan added.
“Whatever,” Grace huffed. “So that’s how it was for a few decades…”
“Thirty-four years.”
“Whatever! Jesus!” Grace snapped, “That’s how it was. We were stuck on these big stations that were basically prisons where we got fed scraps and were just left to rot.”
“We were actually treated very…”
“Goddamit, Alan…” Grace grumbled, “Anyway, we were stuck out there for thirty-four years until the Terrans decided they didn’t want to be in the Empire anymore and rebelled. We knew the second they stopped shooting at the Juon, they would come for us, so we got the fuck out of there and went to the Federation.”
“And we formed one of the three major populations of humanity,” Alan said. “Where everything was pretty good until…”
A rumbling started to shake the entire shuttle bug.
“We are starting the re-entry process,” GuruG said. “Sonic communication will soon be impossible. The rest of your story will have to wait.”
“Meh,” Grace shrugged, “We’re pretty much done, anyway.”

OpenAI recently spoke in two different locations and revealed some important information that I think all of you should watch if you have the time: https://youtu.be/mC-0XqTAeMQ (Talks on Superintelligence here).
https://www.youtube.com/live/AiE7FsdRzz8?feature=share (another one thats also interesting).
From both talks the main theme is, GPT-4 is just a primitive model. Sam even compared it to a Nokia Cellphone (1990?) to the iPhone 14. Although all of us understand that these models will only improve. It has given me some relief that they are most definitely still seeing improvement. Most in here aren't skeptics but for the few who are, the fact that both Illya and Sam ensure these are merely baby AIs compared to what they will be in the future should tell you they are almost certain they will be. They likely know what the next models will look like.
One of my greatest fears would be a GPT 5 or Gemini will end up being the same as GPT 4 with some minor improvements. Maybe instead of a 4 on AP chemistry it scored a 5. But the confidence both the leaders had should tell us, that new models will likely be near or AGI. Simply because of how much they are discussing ASI. They don't really question if AGI will happen anymore, they have moved onto ASI. Which to me sounds like they know these models won't just be fancy autocompletes anymore and soon can do almost all tasks if not exceed some tasks by humans
They also are making the new models now as said in one of the videos so there focus is still on AGI. Which it should be. So in terms of being skeptical, we have the inventors of the largest and most intelligent AI claiming that future models will be significantly more capable (to the extent it can cure all diseases), to me that sounds like an improvement of GPT in the next models is almost a guarantee and all skeptics are probably overestimating the capabilities of these models simply because they have conflicting interests. Lann Yecun for instance works on different AI architectures which is why he doesn't think LLMs are great.
Overall, we should pretty much hope for a better model in a couple of months when the next generation of these models come out. And for predicting AGI. I think 2024 (if next models are like the GPT 3.5 -> 4 jump), 2025 (if its a smaller but still significant jump), with 2026 and later being a lot less likely simply because of how confident openAI is with these models.

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