As Maya watched the village kids playing, she thought back to her younger years. Although she was now as good as a human she still carried demon blood. She wasn't as strong as she was in her hay day but she was stronger than the average human both in magic and physical capabilities and lived a much longer life. It had been 400 years since she last fought as a full blooded demon with her sister. It took her a while to forgive herself. After all, it was her fault the demonlord and her sister were dead. It was her love for humans that was the downfall of the great demonlord Kaios.
400 years earlier
She walked into the courtroom of the demonlord and kneeled in front of him. He was staring longily at the moon. When he took the throne, his first order was to install a sky light in the courtroom. Being in the demon's domain, the sun rarely shined there. The moon was almost always out throughout the day.
"My lord,"
she asked, bowing in respect.
"You may speak Maya,"
he said as he turned his gaze towards her, his cold, empty eyes returning to its normal state.
"My lord I-I'm"
She struggled to get the words out she felt her hands turn to ice and her throat dry up as bead of sweat started to form on her forehead she had decided to fore go her black and gold armor which was standard for a general of the demonlord's army. She decided to wear her favorite black dress, hoping it would bring her luck. The demonlord was a reasonable person, but treason is unforgivable.
"You may speak freely Maya after all, you are my most trusted general."
Although he complimented her, his voice was just as hollow and cold as his eyes.
"My lord I'm sorry I will take whatever punishment you have for me....I gave the humans access to the demon's domain they are bringing a force of 750,000 soldiers from every corner of the world lead by the hero"
right as she finished her sentence she assumed she was about to face a very painful death but a long silence followed
"Why Maya? I know out of my 4 generals you showed the least resentment towards humans but to side with them?"
He asked out of pure curiosity she could not sense anger from him, she looked up and into his gray eyes.
"I realized that humans are precious that they are good people. I can see why the gods favor them. No one human is the same they are so complex that I can't wrap my head around it. Some of them have become corrupt, but I truly believe that they can change. "
The demonlord rested his cheek on his hand
"What about demons?"
"We all can change are demons not far off from humans? Who we are as people are not set in stone we can all be blinded so easily whether it's by money, power, fame,......love, hate, that doesn't make us evil that is what makes us people is this not what they goddesses of creation intended?For us to live free? Free to make our own choices. Only we can redeem ourselves because the choices we make our solely our own. I saw firsthand good humans and evil humans turn good seeing how happy they are, how innocent, I can't let them die."
She bowed her head again, waiting for her punishment. The demonlord stood up and walked towards her
"Raise your head Maya"
He held out his hand to help her up, she was confused but took it. His hands were as cold as death but they had this certain warmth to them though maybe it was because she still could not sense any anger "Why?" She thought.
"You love the humans I can understand why"
He looked towards the moon again
"Someone once said something similar about humans to me...stay still Maya"
she did as he asked. He reached into her chest. The pain was unimaginable but she dared not to make a sound or move she just closed her eyes until she saw a light a bright shimmering light from her chest after a minute of this the light faded and he pulled his hand back. She fell to her knees.
"M-My lord, what did you do?"
She asked weakly, clutching her chest.
"I cleansed your soul Maya you are now as good as human. You can walk among them as one of them although you still carry demon blood, you'll be stronger than the average human. and live longer than them"
"Is that possible?"
The demonlord put his hand on her shoulders and helped her to her feet still holding her
"You said it yourself people can change but only if they want to"
He tightened his grip
"Now since you are now human and you betrayed me your punishment. I the Demonlord Kaios hereby banish you from my army and the demon's domain"
she grabbed his arms
"Wait my lord this- I can't accept this in hours this place will become a battlefield because of me and you're letting me go?"
A portal opend behind her
"My lord please don't this portal will only work once, you have no escape if you use it now"
He picked her up as she squirmed trying to get free but it was futile and they both knew it
"The demonlord does not listen to the squabble of humans"
He threw her through the portal she tried to run back but the portal was starting to close
"You served me well Maya enjoy the life you chose do not regret it because then it was for nothing"
the portal closed. Days later she heard that the hero defeated the demonlord. Even today she doesn't understand why he acted the way he did either way she couldn't be more grateful for him because now she has a husband and a baby on the way she decided to name her child Zack after all it was the name the demonlord used when he disguised himself as a human.

Fellas, let me share a tool that has helped me on my journey: Deliberate Cold Exposure. (DCE)
DCE is a potent stimulus to our brain and body and is relevant to nofap in several ways.

1. Massive increase in dopamine. A short ice bath can increase dopamine by 250% for many hours afterward. Unlike other sources of dopamine, there is no drop below baseline levels later. In fact, DCE has been used successfully to defeat addictions to cocaine. Fapping, like all addictions, is compulsive due primarily to dopamine. DCE is a reliable (and much longer lasting) source of dopamine and can help to break addictions.
2. Increase in top-down control ie. "grit". Getting in the ice bath, and staying in, requires a massive amount of grit. Adrenaline and noradrenaline levels spike by 350% which means we are under incredible stress. DCE trains our ability to remain calm under stress in other areas of life, and use our pre-frontal cortex (top-down control) rather than succumb to our limbic system, which is screaming at us to exit ASAP. This translates to a greater ability to say no when every fiber of our being wants to fap.
3. The general health benefits of DCE lead to a greater sense of well-being. There are a plethora of health benefits that come with this practice. Strong mental and physical health is a huge part of becoming a better man and defeating our vices. DCE helps with this.

So, how to get started? while you can just fill your bathtub with ice, this can get expensive if you are doing this every day. What I did is I modified a chest freezer into a cold plunge for under $200 total. This cold plunge is as good as most cold plunges which sell for $10,000 to $20,000, though it does not look as good. I will answer questions below, if anyone's interested in the details of how to build it. If $200 is a barrier to entry, just take cold showers. While not nearly as good as an actual cold plunge, cold showers still give the same benefits to a lesser degree.
I use my cold plunge every morning, first thing. Getting in 35-degreee water within minutes of waking up is the hardest thing I do each day. I dread it. But as soon it's done, I am 110% percent awake, and in a great mood for the rest of the day. Hard physical tasks, difficult or boring cognitive work, and resisting unhealthy temptations are much easier to conquer. And the good news is, the more you dread it, the bigger the benefits.
See the Huberman Lab episode on Deliberate Cold Exposure for a fascinating scientific breakdown.
Anyhow, I just had to share this incredible routine I recently discovered. It has been a massive help to me, and I hope it can be for you guys too. Stay strong fellas, much love.

I heard that a way certain people help their kids get a downpayment in the future is get a life insurance policy for their kids when young, then pay into it for 10+ years then buy a rental property with the accumulated funds, so their kids have income later?
i found this quote about this:
Taking out a loan against the cash value is the worst thing you can do … you’ll have to pay interest on the loan, and if you don’t pay all of it back, your death benefit will decrease. Think about how crazy this is – you’re paying interest on a loan made up of your own money.”
so why would someone do it this way vs just buying mutual/index funds into a tfsa/rrsp or other tax free account for the same amount of time, would probably have more growth without having to pay fees or interest on the policy.
personally i got my first property by doing the above strategy, buying funds automatically each month for years till i had enough for a downpayment.
just i have 2 kids an i hope to help them build a downpayment one day for a property, so any strategy is interesting.
what am i missing, that borrowing from a life insurance policy is more advantageous?

Hi. I've been playing off and on for a couple of years and am stalled out in the 1100s in daily games. I think part of it is just needing to explore all my options more thoroughly and not make flippant moves, but I'd also like to consume more educational material, especially around the openings I tend to use (caro kann and Vienna).
So I look up videos on these openings and try watching a few. Gotham and hikaru and a few others that pop up. My problem is that these guys go FAST. they're like "then you can do this, this, this, this, then this. Or you can do this this this this then that." Before I can even follow the first line, they're on to another. It's the opposite of methodical and is just too frantic for me to absorb. Even chess.com's lesson on caro kann is like that. It's just like "in this GM game, they did XYZ, abc, but then you could do zyc, wrp, blah blah blah."
Does anyone work more methodically and slowly, exploring a single line at a time and explain overall objective? Maybe I'm just too dumb, and I know openings aren't that important for crappy players like me, but I just want to at least understand the basic things I'm working towards in each opening and the main lines I can anticipate

Ordered an old LV purse that was $300 from Poshmark. The tracking says it delivered but I have not received the item. I asked my neighbors and none of them have it nor does my camera show any deliveries. I hate shopping online for this reason but it was such a good deal. The seller has never replied to any comments or messages I've sent so I was surprised it even shipped it
If I chargeback with PayPal will Poshmark close my account? I only made an account to get this purse anyways so that. I feel bad for the seller but PayPal covers the amount of the chargeback and waive the chargeback fee and they aren't responding. I would open a case with Poshmark but I waited too long
I've never charge backed anything on my debit card and am wary about doin this or it'll even work because the package says delivered but it was not and I don't know how to prove it. Some people say to dispute it as item not as described but I don't even have the purse to do so. This whole situation is upsetting

Has anybody been able to fully gold this on PS4 with the dualshock? Now after the update I see the times are heightened even more and is was already driving me insane. Somehow when I drive on the edge the car keeps spinning out, enabling TCS is too slow. You also don’t get any feedback that you are about to spin out which I believe you do get with the dualsense controller. Does this make a big difference?
For now I golded all sections and am 0.5 seconds short on the full lap. I have been working on this now for 2 weeks on and off and I just decided to give up for now before I wreck my controlletv. Perhaps I will try again if anybody her had some magic tips to finish it. I am sure this will haunt my dreams until I have made it.

FBA-RR is a really old fork of FinalBurn Alpha for arcade games. CPS-1, CPS-2, CPS-3, Neogeo etc.
I've been using it for frame advance, TAS videos and stuff since like 2015. It used to work splendidly, but obviously there's no updates and the more Windows versions come out over the years the worse it gets. Right now I am at a point where it just gives me Guru Meditation errors left and right and I've had enough.
What I really like about fba-rr is that I can hold a frame advance button to let it move on to the next frames faster (slow-motion essentially). When I tried the FBNeo (Fightcade2) which should be the exact same, but holding the frame advance button does nothing (meaning I have to advance frames one at a time)
Any alternatives here? So far I've had to resort to console ports of the arcade games I TAS. BizHawk frame advance works exactly like fba-rr did for example. But some games are not on TASable systems.

Well we broke up.
Before we knew what ROCD was, I was bending over backwards to “fix” what I could - appearance critiques, personality critiques, just endless critiques. I wanted to better myself and wanted it to work.
In his brain it was “is she the one? Am I actually attracted to her? Does she look old? Is her skin texture ugly?” Etc
I helped him identify what the intrusive thoughts about me were: ROCD of course. I read a few books. I encouraged him to get in therapy and he did through NOCD. I was supportive and understanding.
But nothing was enough. We went from talking about what we would name our daughter one day and going to see property to design a home together …. To him chipping away at my self esteem and me doing my damnedest to separate the obsessive critique from the man I love.
The more money he made and attention he got for his career, the worse it got too. Has anyone seen an overlap like that?
His final take was “I might want to get married in my mid 40s” We’re both in our 30s.
He said “I still love you but I want to be free”
And it sucks. It really sucks. Rooting for the rest of you going through it.

Does anyone know of an engraver who will engrave my personal (assumed) arms on a ring I already have. The ring itself has personal significance but the stone is a large oval cabochon (1.5 cm by 1.75 cm roughly) that I want to replace with a carved piece of stone (probably lapis but onyx is fine too). I have found people who do entirely new stone signets, but no one who will work on a ring that already exists. Since I have the gold for the ring already (and want the ring kept in it's original shape) my budget was $500 to carve and set the lapis (though I understand I am taking a lot of an artisan's time so would go higher for quality). Is this budget unrealistic? People who have made signets before please help! Thanks!

Discussion Schedule and Navigation

• 03/28 - SSR: Aglovale and Tor
• 03/29 - Class: Elysian
• 03/30 - Weapon: Zechariah
• 03/31 - Weapon: Eternal Signature
• 04/03 - SSR: Halluel and Malluel (Grand)

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  • Danua (Summer)
  • Halluel and Malluel (April 3, 2023)
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  • Kou
  • Lelouch Lamperouge
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  • Vajra (Summer)
  • Vikala
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Weapon Discussion: Zechariah

Journal Entry

Within the void, darkness reigns supreme. A torrent of cataclysmic power manifests as a harp, casting a shadow across the skies. Empty silence fills the air, swallowing the light from the sky until it becomes a starless void.

Resources

• gbf.wiki page
• gbf-wiki (JP)
• Gamewith
• Kamigame

Obtain

• Avatar (Impossible)

Attributes

• Element: Dark
• Type: Harp
• 3★ Stats:
  • HP: 298
  • ATK: 1,995
• 4★ Stats:
  • HP: 350
  • ATK: 2,330

Charge Attack

• Name: Sounding Prophecy

Obtain	Effect	Duration
0★	Massive Dark damage to a foe.	Instant
	All allies gain 10% DEF Up (Stackable) (Max: 30%).	Indefinite
	All allies gain Refresh (600).	2.5 turns

Weapon Skills

Skill	Effects
Mistfall's Stamina	Big boost to Dark allies' ATK based on how high their own HP is.
Mistfall's Aegis	Small boost to Dark allies' max HP.

Helpful topics to discuss

• What do you like or dislike about this weapon?
• What content or teams does it best work with?
• Is it worth farming for?
• Is it worth using as a main hand weapon?
• How does it compare to other similar main hand weapons?
• Which classes work well with it?
• Is it worth using as a grid weapon?
• How many copies of the weapon would you recommend putting in a grid?
• How does it compare to other similar grid weapons?
• Can the weapon be used even when not fully uncapped?
• How has it improved with its 4★ uncap?

please don’t attack me, i ask silly questions sometimes. if you don’t get side effects to a medication that DOES have side effects, does that mean it will have a higher chance to work for you ? or not ? or does it matter ? i don’t really get side effects to medications. if i do then it’s me being tired or lightheaded, and it’s really not that bad. but the medication still ends up not working anyways.

Hello everyone
I have made these posts before but haven't really done so since OW2 came out so I thought I'd let people know that I'm still doing this.
I have been coaching people for about 4 years now. I work as a teacher IRL and I have been incorporating the skills from my profession into my coaching. I have experience coaching players from every rank as well as different platforms.
I coach all roles and heroes however, I can't teach you the tech for certain "specialist" type heroes like Wrecking Ball and Doomfist for example. What I can do on the other hand is help you understand the the game sense, timing aspects, the setup and when to engage etc. For those specific techs you can find tons of content made by experts.
Personally I peaked high masters in OW1 and I'm currently in Master 4. I lost my passion to grind a long time ago but I'm trying to see if I can get it back. I used to play all roles back in the day but currently I'm focusing on the damage role, being a Tracer main myself. Having a full time job and having all the responsibilities and other things I want to do as someone who's 30+ does limit the time I have to fully commit to the grind.
My knowledge of the game comes from watching pro play as well as high level play which I have a passion for understanding and analyzing. I'm one of those people who actually prefer to watch the game compared to playing it, simply because of how amazing the game is at the highest level of play.
I haven't experienced anyone being dissatisfied with my coaching and I have had people come to me when they were Silver who are now in Master.
So how does it work?
I stream 4 days a week usually being Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday at 7 pm-10 pm CET (it's currently summer time in Europe)I have a discord server which I'll link in the bottom. This where people submit their replays with additional information which can be found as a pinned message in the #replay-codes channel.
I'll then review them on my streams whenever I have any requests. There are multiple ways this can be done.
If you can't be there live I'll simply just stream the session and send you a time stamped link of the VOD.
If you want to be there we can plan a day and time (preferably something that matches my schedule) and you can choose to either be in the chat or join me in a discord call. It's up to you.
What does it cost?
Nothing. I do this for free as a hobby, dropping a follow on my stream and subbing if you want to is greatly appreciated but not at all necessary. I'd actually prefer if some of you stick around and become a part of my discord/stream community as it would make this more enjoyable. The only reason for me to start charging for coaching would be if I for whatever reason get to a point where I consistently have too many requests to keep up with.
Is there a limit to how many times I can submit a replay?
No. I have no problems reviewing the same people multiple times. I'd actually prefer if people get back to me once a week so we can look at the progress and if certain problems are still present. One time coach sessions are fine but continues coaching is very helpful.
If this is something that peaks your interest, feel free to join my server, hope to see you guys there :)
Discord linkhttps://discord.gg/WnKm4A3

TL;DR: High school students make fake Facebook profile of a substitute teacher. Sent inappropriate messages to a student pretending to be teacher. Can teacher file charges against students? Does teacher need a lawyer during investigation?
Details:
My friend (30F) is a substitute at a high school. Some of the kids don't like her because she follows the rules and holds them accountable for their actions. She has had a few minor issues with some of the more stubborn students, and it was all handled by admin. She understands teens will be teens, and they tend to have attitudes and do dumb things. She doesn't fault any of them.
This morning, she was told by admin that she is under investigation because it was found that a Facebook account looking like hers was messaging a student inappropriately. She was told to leave until the investigation was complete.
She does have her own Facebook, and a student did send her a message saying hello. My friend never responded or accepted the message request. She's not friends with any students on social media and isn't active on social media.
The incriminating Facebook is a fake, presumed to be created by one or more students in an effort to retaliate against my friend, or maybe they thought it was a funny prank - who knows. They used her name and photo from her real account. It appears to be taken down now as I can't find it.
She is devastated and humiliated. She fully expects the investigation to show proof of her innocence, but she's worried her reputation is now destroyed.
She's now home riddled with anxiety and unsure of what her next step should be. Should she talk to a lawyer, or does that send the wrong message? Should she look into filing some kind of charges against the student(s) responsible for this? Is that even possible? I imagine they've broken some kind of laws here, but I'm not sure how that works with minors. Is it even a good idea to file any charges against the kids?
I appreciate any advice offered. This isn't a post I ever thought I'd write.

Okay, it’s been a few days and the shock has settled somewhat. I read everyone’s replies and tried to answer them all, but it has been a busy few days. Original post is here for those who didn’t see it.
The three consistent pieces of advice were to Get therapy, that my anger seems to be totally directed at my mum and non towards my dad/ grandad and to maybe consider that my grandad has groomed her from a young age. I want to assure everyone that all your comments were listened to. I will correct that it wasn’t that I wasn’t angry at him, but the shock of that bit hit harder. My mum and I always had a turbulent relationship, he however was my rock for my entire life, and this was so out of left field an unlike the man I knew, that it took me a little longer to realise that this could very well be a form of grooming.
I moved the situation forward by texting my mum my feelings. Too shorten a very long text, it boiled down to 2 main points
· I don’t believe your story; you need to tell me what happened. Was this an affair, was it something more sinister.
· You need to tell my grandad/ dad this.
My mum answer was very short. To cover the main points:
· She didn’t mention my feeling or ask how I was once, she will also not speak to me again, unless I decide to text her first.
· Nothing happened, her stepdad did not groom her, this was here idea totally
· She isn’t sorry for this. She’s only ‘My investigation has forced her to tell the story’
· She will tell my gran[dad]
The next day my Gran[dad] called me immediately. He sounded as I felt- Shocked, confused etc (my mum just said ‘I’m not as shocked as I thought I would be’). He told me his version, with 2 key differences. That it wasn’t a ‘deposit’ on the side, but mum had pre-bought a kit that allowed artificial insemination, which has just as likely a chance of working as sex itself. He was convinced by her it was a good idea (he can’t remember every argument, as it was 33 year ago, but the two that sticks out are ‘you’re the person I am closest to, and I trust you & ‘if I needed a kidney, you would give me that without hesitation’ this conversation along with a few beers meant he went along with it, however after he did it he realized what a utter mistake this was and told my mum this is a mistake, lets not do this. Bin it and let’s not talk of it again as nothing happened. Mum agreed, said she would bin his ‘sample’ and he left for home thinking he avoided the biggest mistake of his life. Mum of course did not destroy it as she said and used it. In the eyes of my countries law- This is sexual assault.
In my last post, I mentioned my mum was molested by her grandad and abandoned quite publicly by her birth father. Something I didn’t mention against my gran[dad] is he also had a rough childhood. His mother died when young and his step mum was abusive. This has led him to forgive ANY mistakes his family makes and means ‘Family comes first’ without exception & to a fault.
Because he views my mum as his daughter, he feels the villain of the piece as ‘the understanding of mental health wasn’t there, I didn’t realise how deep her depression was and I regret not telling her to see a therapist and that he failed her massively for not doing so. He is also thinking of telling his wife immediately but thinks I should have a say in that choice. He empathised with how I was feeling too, something my mum did not.
I want to believe him, however as I said earlier in this post, it’s this relationship that will impact me more in losing, so spoke to my partner for a outsiders opinion as she of course knows these people traits and flaws. She agrees that this sounds plausible in an insane situation. My gran[dad]s flaw in putting family first. My mum’s manipulative and lying nature, while her story not lining up completely. There could always be the chance they had an affair or drunken one night stand that neither will admit to. But nothing has ever made my partner or me feel there was any kind of ‘spark’ or awkwardness between them to suggest this. My mum also always spins stories to make her look like a saint. The easy option would be to say this was grooming or assault as an easy ‘out’ why make up this completely unbelievable lie as another option.
A few people may wonder if my mum is THAT good at manipulation. There are many small instances but let me just say the biggest. She once convinced my grandma and gran[dad] to buy a house with her, that none of them could afford on their own outside of their hometown. A couple of years later, she moved out. When I was younger my grandma said, ‘You know how convincing your mum can be’ and its only by piecing this together when I was older, when she has tried to ‘convince’ me with some very skewered point of view or outright lies that made me realise that how she communicates isn’t normal, but manipulation.
So, next steps- My Gran[dad] wants all three of us to meet up eater weekend and discuss if we tell the wider family. He is willing to tell his wife if that’s what everyone wants, even knowing it will destroy his marriage. My mum hasn’t contacted me since, so I don’t know if she will even come.
If she does come to this meeting, I will be using this as an opportunity to confirm if my mum did withdraw consent when we are all there. If she does admit this, then I am inclined to believe this crazy story is true and they were both monumentally stupid and my mum has stabbed him in the back. The shock from my gran[dad] is real, but also our relationship was real, and we were both in the dark. Meaning I can see a way of forging our relationship ahead. My mum however, I do not trust and if she admits to this, will also be admitting to sexual assault. I don’t imagine her admitting this usually, but she has admitted thus far (only with no other options due to an ancestry test) with that relationship… I don’t know. I don’t trust her. But then she is clearly a old lady with cancer with very deep seated mental problems. The old relationship will always be dead, but should I set new boundaries and try and form a new relationship with this woman, or just cut contact due to lack of trust. This I don’t know yet.
I’ll also be setting my boundaries her as far as the wider family goes. My gran[dad] has stated I should get a say in whether my grandma is told. This is something I don’t know the morally right thing to do. She is 83 years old, and this will destroy her... and will she even believe this crazy story? Probably not as she was also abused by her father (so much abuse in my family has been uncovered with this, its so sad) but then if my gran[dad] was sexually abused, is this fair to destroy his marriage? On the flip side, is it right to lie about something this big? This is a decision I can’t make, for my own mental health, and ultimately it is not my mistake to clean up after. So, I will be using this meeting to tell them they need to choose between them what the next steps are. My mum has effortlessly kept this life from EVERYONE in her life, so that will clearly be her choice. But my grand[dad] will he be able to lie to his wife with this? I don’t know. I will tell them that they need to choose, and I will go along with that decision. But if they change their mind, they need to tell me so I can prepare for any fallout.
Our meeting will be in a week or two, so I will leave a final update then. For now, I wanted to thank everyone who reached out and gave advice. I will be getting to a therapist soon, so I can make a better-informed decision and can make a clearer choice for what’s better for me SO and child. Someone said I should marry my missus as she has needed to put up with the brunt of my mum’s insanity for 4+ years. To those I will say- You are right. She is absolutely amazing, and we have been engaged for a while. But Covid, a pregnancy which led to buying a house and our first baby has put the delayed an actual wedding. But she truly is the best and been a rock throughout all of this.

Trying to help my husband get some advice & pros/cons & hear others experiences since he’s always on the fence about doing 20 or getting out at 10 years and transitioning to civilian.
So you’re at the halfway point of retirement (10 years), would you just do the extra 10?
Background:
He’s an MMA2 (boomer) with 7 years of service and the end of this current shore duty will have leave him at the 10 year mark.
He’s good at his job. Has gotten mapped twice already while serving his first command. Many awards and great evals. Waiting for advancement exam results to see if he ranks up again.
He is not sure yet what exactly he wants to do if he gets out. School of course, but he’s thinking QA since he enjoyed doing it on the boat. He would have to get into QA management right off the bat to make what he wants to make though. He wants to be making equal to or more than he makes now (around $80-90k with all entitlements) or more. I don’t want his expectations to be high, then get out and realize it’s not an easy transition.
He joined after high school grad in 2016 because he knew college wasn’t really for him (+ couldn’t afford it). He always gets so bored sitting in a classroom. It makes me think if he’d actually enjoy forcing himself through school for 2-4 years.
I am trying to help weigh the pros and cons of both and get his thoughts mapped out. This shore duty is done in a little less than 3 years, so if he does wanna get out, he knows he needs to go hop on things now and working towards the transition to prepare.
To him it’s either get out at 10, do school, find a job and restart on the outside. Pay your own mortgage, health insurance, stability isn’t really guaranteed. Or,
Say fuck it & do the extra 10, maybe go to a fast attack to experience something different & go to different places. Have a good pension, tsp match, health insurance for life, disability, overall stability. Retire after 20 years at 38 years old, take on whatever job he wants to at that point and have an extra income and pension for the future.
Things to note;
• Just us, no children yet. Been trying for 3 years now. he has a genetic/chromosomal issue affecting his fertility/hormones so we’ve been getting help from different specialists. that’s not cheap on the outside so we have to consider costs of things like that & how we’d make it work.
• his biggest goal is to own a home this year, something he never had as a child. BAH makes that an easy goal for him to achieve. Paying a mortgage right off the bat after transitioning wouldn’t be easy.
• I am currently not working, but am in online school taking advantage of the spouse grant, and plan to open my own daycare in the coming future when we own a home. Get Credentialed by the Navy to be a CDH/CDA which they pay for, So we’d have that income too eventually. I set my goals aside to support him through his 1st sea tour, but now on shore duty I have the opportunity to focus more on my goals. Which are very doable! I decided childcare since I’ve always been great at it, if we had children in the future I can work while taking care of my own kids & my home all at the same time without having to pay someone else.
• being a-gang his job was extremely draining at times, but he always took pride in his job, as he should. it’s hard work. So while he always said he can’t wait to get away from the boat, now that he’s gone he mentions missing the boat environment & the camaraderie they build over time. I always poke fun at him for this lol it’s a love hate relationship working on submarines I guess.
• this is something we discuss openly and frequently and he already knows I’ll support either decision. I always have. We’ve been together over 7 years now since HS. Underways weren’t that difficult for us, I always returned home and stayed with family. So being away from each other isn’t something we’re too worried about, we know we can do it. I mentioned if he did stay maybe he should go fast attack regardless of the longer underways, it’s something new and he’d see more parts of the world than he did on a boomer, which I would love for him to experience. He’s never even been to a different country so he’s always wanted to see more places. Longer underways don’t scare me since we are only 2 hours from all my family. (Currently in Groton CT, our family is in NJ)
If you read my whole post, thanks for sticking around. I am just trying to support him the best way I can. We are always looking out for our future & gaining insight on things to make the smartest decisions for us as a family in any aspect. We are still super young (23&25) & have lots of goals we’d like to achieve. As long as he’s happy, we can make it either way.
TLDR; if you’re at the 10 year mark would you do the extra 10 and retire? Just one more sea duty? Why or why not? What are the pros and cons in your opinion?

Hi there.
 
Disclaimer
I AM NOT AFFILIATED WITH ANY OF THESE FIRMS.
ONLY BUY AN ACCOUNT IF YOU'RE WILLING TO LOSE THE MONEY YOU USE TO BUY IT SHOULD YOU FAIL.
 
I'm a swing trader who has got funded with multipul firms now and figured I'd share my opinion (emphasis on OPINION) on each one I've gotten funded with. I am not going to tell you my stratagy to get funded. As a swing trader how I view these prop firms will differ from a scalper or day trader. For exampel spreads are less of an issue for me as I can be holding a trade for days, weeks, months.
 
I am not listing these in any order of preferance.
 
 
5%ers - Instant Funded Account and New High Stakes Account
 
Customer Support: 10/10
Spreads: 10/10
Offers: 0/10
Training material: 8/10
Challenge Pricing: 8/10
Profit Split: 10/10
Scaling Plan: 10/10
Dashboard: 9/10
 
I have had no issues with either of my 5%ers accounts. Customer service has always been great. There's a cheaper Bootcamp program if you don't have a lot of exspendable cash. The dashboard has recently bene updated and is much better thna the old one. It's easy to read and shows what you'd need to know. It also shows how close % wise you are to your profit target to pass/scale up which I like. The only issue I have is the accounts overview shows ALL your accounts by default. There's no option to hide any failed ones or such. It also orders this from oldest to newest by default which is also annoying if you don't want to see accounts that are inactive. However if you don't fail any challenges then this is not any issue. The scaling plan is just a "hit x profit target in any amount of time" which is much nicer than "make x amount every month for x months". It gives you more leeway should you have a bad month to still scale up if you're system works. You can scale up to a 90, or even 100% profit split depending on the account. How they make thier money on the 100% profit split I don't know. I guess not many people make it there anyway. If it wasn't a trusted prop firm I wuld be cautious. There is some training material, but I haven't looked too much into it as I already have a working system. I've never seen any discount fofers for challenges with 5%ers which is a shame, however not a deal breaker at all.
 
If you have a proven stratagy then 5%ers is a good firm to use.
 
The Funded Trader - Knights Challenge
 
Customer Support: 10/10
Spreads: 6/10
Offers: 10/10
Training material: 8/10
Challenge Pricing: 8/10
Profit Split: 10/10
Scaling Plan: 8/10
Dashboard: 10/10
 
TFT is a good prop firm, but not nesacarily one I would go to first. The spreads can be bigger than other firms which I know is an issue for some traders. As mentioend as a swing trader it's not much of an issue for me. Customer support is great. There's training materials, but once again I haven't really looked at it. With TFT I would honestly not buy ana ccount until they have an offer on that you like. They occsionally have offers on that give you a 90% lifetime profit split from day one of being funded. Thier scaling plan is a typical "make x amount profit over x months" so if you have a bad month it can stop you from scaling up. This can be an issue for people with terrible psychology who end up risking more than they should to make up that loss of profit to scale up. As a swign trader this kind of scaling plan can be a real issue for me as I don't nesacarily close trades often. That being said, you need to have 6% profit over 3 months with atleast two of those months being profitable, so it's not the worst scaling plan I've seen. It's still very doable, and if you don't have the psycology to not over risk to try and scale, you shouldn't be trading real money!
 
Personally I'd wait for one of those 90% lifetime profit split offers and then go for it. There's no point if buying an account with them before then as they are putting out offers every month.
 
FTMO - Normal Swing Account
 
Customer Support: N/A - Not had to use at all.
Spreads: 10/10
Offers: 0/10
Training material: 5/10
Challenge Pricing: 8/10
Profit Split: 10/10
Scaling Plan: 9/10
Dashboard: 10/10
 
FTMO is a well know prop firm. They have one of the harder passing evaluations from what I've seen people say, but it's not something I had any issue with as a swing trader. As a non-swing trader maybe this is something to keep in mind. They do however have a demo account which you can practice on beforehand which is AWESOME. Do that. The training material offered by FTMO seems rather basic and lackluster compared to other firms, but the fact it has a demo account is a big plus. The scaling plan is nice. 10% profit (20% if agressive account) over 4 months means 2.5% profit a month which is very doable as a swing trader. You can scale up to a 90% profit split. It once again however means if you have a bad month, you might have to wait for the next 4 month cycle to scale. The dashboard is nice and shows what you need to know. They also have a section that shows possible entry points but honestly, I'd ignore it. Follow your system and the information is delayed anyway. By the time you see it the entry will be gone wioth data being 30+minuites late in some cases. The 10 min trading days to pass sucks for me as a swing. I already hit the target with low risk over 2 days as a swing. Yes you can just open and close small 0.01 lots but still, it's just an annoyance for me as I don't need to open a trade every day, but compleatly justifiable for the company. I wont hate them for that.
 
I 100% advise you doing the FTMO demo account, even more than once. Make sure your stratagy passes across multipul months as the market changes. If you can pass the demo multipul times with FTMo you should be able to pass any prop firm. If you aren't a swing trader though, do keep in mind spreads if you try other prop firms based off of your FTMO demo.
 
My Forex Funds - Conventional Accelerated Account
 
Customer Support: 6/10
Spreads: 8/10
Offers: 0/10
Training material: 5/10
Challenge Pricing: 9/10
Profit Split: 6/10
Scaling Plan: 7/10
Dashboard: 9/10
 
So I tried the Acecelerated account with MFF just to test out something different. Realisicly it's TERRIBLE for a swing trader as you can't hold over the weekend. One thing to note is that this account doesn't have a daily drawdown rule, just an overall one (5% for convensional, 10% for emphatic). The profit split can't be increased by scaling which is a shame. The scaling plan however doesn't have a timelimit. You jsut have to hit your profit target and then you can scale up. You can scale up ever 5 days if your system allows you to make that much each week. MFF does not have a consistancy rule in place on this account type, but it does on others. Something to keep in mind should you wish to join this prop firm. There is an option to pay to reset your account which is cheaper than buyign a new account which is a nice option should you need it. Some aaccounts will be closed if inactive for 30days, so should something happen to you IRL keep this in mind. You can let them know if you are going to be away for a long period of time so they wont close it. Their customersupport took me the longest to get into contact with. When I did eventually get through to somebody everything was sorted fine.
 
I know some people love MFF. Honestly it would not be my go-to as a swing trader. I do NOT reccomend the Accelerated account unless you can 100% pass, afford the top account size and do not need to hold trades over weekends. It is advertised for professional traders so dont' elt the isntant funding lul you in. Once again I only took it myself as an experiment because I can and I'm confident in my risk mangement and system. MFF has some of the stricter rules I've seen in terms of being active. I feel like MFF suits day traders and scalpers more than swing traders, but that can depend on your system. I can go days/weeks without opening/closing trades if the market is in a longer trend. Make sure you udnerstand the consistancy rule etc. before you buy an account.
 
FTUK - Low Risk Instant Funding Account
 
Customer Support: 6/10
Spreads: 6/10
Offers: 4/10
Training material: 5/10
Challenge Pricing: 7/10
Profit Split: 7/10
Scaling Plan: 7/10
Dashboard: 7/10
 
Not a huge fan of FTUK. Not issue passing but you can't hit the maximum account size with all account levels. The low risk accounts have a maximum stoploss of 1.5% which is something to keep in mind. Wasn't an issue for me but might be for you. Trades need to be open for a certain amount of time so scalpers, be aware. You can't open and isntantly close a trade if that's your stratagy. To reach the maximum account size you need to buy an addon with your account that let's you unlock that level (level 8). Not something I'm a fan of at all. You can get an 80% profit split at level 7 of the scaling plan. I used an offer that got me level 8 for free that they had on thier front page for a limited time.
 
I would not reccomend FTUK unless you can afford the biggest account size AND either are willing to buy the level 8 addon or wait for an offer that gives it to you for free or at a discount. I also would not advise it unless you are proven in your stratagy for this reason. Sure they have the abilt to give you the one of the biggest account sizes I've seen but you can get 1mil less with 5%ers no matter your account size, and without the extra purcase.
 
OFP - 40% Instant Supercharged Account
 
Customer Support: 8/10
Spreads: 10/10
Offers: 0/10
Training material: 0/10
Challenge Pricing: 8/10
Profit Split: 7/10
Scaling Plan: 6/10
Dashboard: 7/10
 
OFP I only tried to see if it's legit. I wouldn't have if it wasn't a UK company (I'm a UK citizen myself), so i know I have a legal leg to stand on. It was another experiment for me. The customer service took time to get in touch but the person I spoke to was perfectly helpful. OFP offer accounts with no evaluations and instant funding. This account is a "slow and steady wins the race" situation. You are not going to "get rich quick" which is ok in my opinion. You can scale up to an account end balance of £5mil however it would take 5 years IF you hit the targets every 4 month cycle on a 100k account start. You need to make 15% profit over each 4 month cycle. For yy account that's 2.5% profit every month which is doable for me. Like similar scaling setups, if you have a bad month then it can screw up your scaling. There's no training material that I've seen. The pricng isn't bad but the profit split is only 40%, so at lower account sizes you wont be making much until you scale up more. There is another accoutn type which caps at 26% profit split. The profit pay out for the accounts are monthly, apart from the supercharged account I did. The supercharged account you can withdraw weekly however, week 1 you can withdraw 10%, week 2 20%, week 3 30% and week 4 40% max. If you withdraw, the profit split resets to 10%. So if you get to week 2 and withdraw 20%, you will go back to week 1 in terms of withdrawing your profits. Ideally you'd wait till week 4 but this account atleast gives you the option to withdraw early if you need to. There's a 3 trades per week rule which as a swing trader is not ideal, but workable. They also have a rule where if you drastically change your lot size between trades then they consider it gambling and will close your account. There's also a 2 minute rule for closing trades.
 
I actually like OFP as a swing trader however it will be a big turn off for some people given the slow and steady aspect of it. The prices of the challenges aren't bad so it's not a terrible option for somebody who trades along side thier main job and are willing to wait a long time to trade full time. If you just want some extra spending money or rent (after scaling up a bit) then it's also not a terrible option. As there's no evalutation it's an option to build up some cash to buy accounts from other firms with bigger profit splits. Not being able to close trades within 2 minutes of opening will be an issue for scalpers so keep it in mind.
 
Conclusion
 
Ok so there's my opinions of the prop firms I traded with as a swing trader. You may have other opinions with different trade styles and systems and that's ok. At the end of the day pick a prop firm you trust, can pass and like. I think my favourite is 5%ers, with FTMO second and TFT third. Main reasons being they suit my trading style, I've had no real issues with them, and when I have the customer support has been grand. I also trust all 3 companies the most. TFT having constant codes for things like 90% split from the get go also gives it a big+, so keep an eye out for them when you are confident you will pass.
 
OFP is the one I'm most curious about. I plan to stick with it and see where it goes. I only bought the smallest account as it was just a test. My main aim for it right now is to use my next withdrawal to buy Resident Evil 4 Remake! Achiveable goals are the best goals.
 
I am not planning on trialing any more firms right now as it did cost a nice little chunk of cash and I'm trying to buy a house. I will consider it in the future though if anyone has any suggestions.
 
Happy trading!

Hi does anyone else have this problem? Currently using icloud to manage digital assets, but if Google drive works I could transition? I need to be able to see the small “preview” image to know what I’m looking at, specifically for texture assets. Thanks!

Hi does anyone else have this problem? Currently using icloud to manage digital assets, but if Google drive works I could transition? I need to be able to see the small “preview” image to know what I’m looking at, specifically for texture assets. Thanks!

I don't live with my mom anymore, she divorced my father and left to the town my grandparents live in. She's not a medical professional in any shape or way, she's a teacher who's been working with neurodivergent students for a couple months (she started in January). And she has a history of overstepping boundaries, talk about me to other people, disregard a ton of things that bother me and be generally clueless and annoying sometimes. I see where she comes from, most of her family is like that, so I try not to let it bother me too much.
But still... some things ARE bothersome. I hate that she talks about my mental health issues like it's no big deal, and she mentioned before how I 'might be on the autism spectrum'. But last time was slightly worse because it was in a family party, in front of several people, a lot of them I don't even know that well. She says she's working with autistic kids and I share many traits with them, and that I should get checked or something. I was mortified, and had no reaction other than 'eh, maybe one day'.
I don't wanna hurt her feelings, I know she means well, and frankly, it crossed my mind more than once as well. But Christ on a bike, it doesn't concern other people????? She does it all the time, assuming I won't mind what she says, even though I do and I told her so multiple times. Visiting her is stressful for many reasons (another story, for another moment), and I don't need this kind of comment to add to that.
And I will get tested. I think it will help me understand many things, or at least give other options of investigation. But she won't ever hear about it because I can't trust her to keep it to herself.

Has anybody been able to fully gold this on PS4 with the dualshock? Now after the update I see the times are heightened even more and is was already driving me insane. Somehow when I drive on the edge the car keeps spinning out, enabling TCS is too slow. You also don’t get any feedback that you are about to spin out which I believe you do get with the dualsense controller. Does this make a big difference?
For now I golded all sections and am 0.5 seconds short on the full lap. I have been working on this now for 2 weeks on and off and I just decided to give up for now before I wreck my controlletv. Perhaps I will try again if anybody her had some magic tips to finish it. I am sure this will haunt my dreams until I have made it.