Turning point cherry hill menu

...you're not alone. Loved this from an article in QuantaMagazine:
Wave-particle duality turned out to be a symptom of a deep strangeness. Quantum mechanics revealed to its discoverers in the 1920s that photons and other quantum objects are best described not as particles or waves but by abstract “wave functions” — evolving mathematical functions that indicate a particle’s probability of having various properties. The wave function representing an electron, say, is spatially spread out, so that the electron has possible locations rather than a definite one. But somehow, strangely, when you stick a detector in the scene and measure the electron’s location, its wave function suddenly “collapses” to a point, and the particle clicks at that position in the detector.
A particle is thus a collapsed wave function. But what in the world does that mean? Why does observation cause a distended mathematical function to collapse and a concrete particle to appear? And what decides the measurement’s outcome? Nearly a century later, physicists have no idea.

Hello Tourists!
As the latest version of Retribution finally releases, we are proud to bring with it the latest host of additions, improvements, and bug fixes, including improvements from the new versions of the game brought into the Quest 2 versions.
You can see all the major new changes from this latest update below… Quality of Life Improvements
-A new weapon recipe for the Orphan Bow has been added to the crafting table.
-Added Cloud Based Cross Platform Support for save transfers and save sharing. Chapter 1 save files from all platforms (PS4, PS5, PCVR, Rift, Quest 1 and 2) can now be imported into Chapter 2.
-The Frying Pan is back!
-Health and Stamina meters no longer on watch by default! They can be turned back on from the options menu.
-Stirred herds are now more dangerous!
-Pointing motion with the left hand has been fixed.
-Community Mod Names have been included in the game!
Bugs Fixed
-Balances to showdown with Gerik.
-Some character model bugs for NPCs have been fixed.
-Humans will better react to the deaths of their allies.
-Missing Journal glitch fixed.
-Missing muzzle flashes properly added to guns.
-Final mission will no longer reload after completing game.
-Fixed incorrect information in the Journal.
-Fixed various bugs found with Devil Statue collectables.
-Armored enemies have been slightly rebalanced.
Visual Improvements
-Assets popping in and out of visibility have been improved.
-Improved health poultice texture while wrapping around arm.
-Added bullet collision inside the Tower.
-Environmental lighting has been improved.
-Improved visual effects during “Mama and the Chosen”.
-Tuned fog effects in Bourbon Street.
-Some glowing assets adjusted.
-Incorrect daytime/nighttime assets fixed.
-Improved some general NPC animations.
Source - skydance discord. https://discord.com/channels/512344755976405032/621496782853242980/1087787789468315729

My father has a Subaru Outback 2021 that he wanted me to update the software on. I looked into how to do it and it seems there are multiple things I need to update. The "Starlink" software itself (is this the actual car's software or is it something entirely different? I am not really sure WHAT Starlink actually is, I assumed it was the remote start/etc software but no, that's an entirely different app) and the navigation software.
It would refuse to connect to our WiFi so I followed the steps to download the software to USB using my computer, according to the instructions listed on Subaru's own website listed here: https://techinfo.subaru.com/stis/doc/ownerManual/Gen3_1_FOTA_NAVI_HOWTO_v7software.pdf
It says that downloading them using the PC App to USB would download updates to both the map and software. (It also originally said I would need a 16GB flashdrive, but then insisted on one that was at least 64GB... and then downloaded only 14GB of files to it...). When I did this though, it seemed to ONLY download map updates.
I assumed that there was no software updates for the car, but then as I was trying to use the USB it finally connected by WiFi... and found a software update.
I told it to go ahead.... and it was taking forever. I tried driving it as close to the access point as I could but it was still downloading at a snail's pace.
I decided to just try the USB instead for now, also at a snail's pace.
The issue I have though is not so much the time it takes, but what I am exactly supposed to do while it is downloading/installing. Am I just supposed to wait in the car with the engine off? It said it could take up to an hour, and from the rate it was going likely longer. That would kill the battery having it on for that long without the engine running. Am I supposed to have the engine running? That would waste a ton of gas just idling for an hour, not to mention is probably not good for the engine. I tried leaving to see if it would still update while I was not in the car, but after about 10-15 minutes it shut off.
So how am I supposed to update the software exactly? Am I supposed to actually wait in the car with it turned on and the engine either on or off for over an hour just waiting for the update to finish? Or is there some sort of way to make it just update without being fully on and needing to be in the cahave my fob in the car?

We lay together that night. It seemed that this act was the ultimate stress reliever and comfort between bonded pairs, we’d done the same in our time together in Chi’cagoa Rea. Though we had little enough time together thanks to her ship obligations in the immediate time after that, as she’d engaged in a few extremely profitable trade runs from Earth to a Dlamias outlying colony that conveniently enough had no patrol ships around to ask any nosy questions about arrests or charges…
We made up for the lost time when we could.
Lisa always took full advantage of that absence, though as for what she thought of the Captain’s absences, [Redacted]. The homeworld did not get around to properly securing the colony where the liquor flowed from, until after the Earth government asked that she be pardoned as a show of good faith given her ‘exemplary services rendered in the pursuit of harmony between worlds’.
Which was a fancy way of saying she had a fanbase and it would look good if she were in favor again. I wag my tail sometimes, thinking of the apocalyptic fury that must have run through some bureaucrat’s veins when they had to process that request for an outlier turned infamous pirate. Even if she didn’t target the Dlamias fleet, her ability to wreak merry havoc must have presented all kinds of headaches back home. Not to mention stealing the ‘official envoy’s’ place.
That one did eventually arrive and now made occasional trade runs in a triangle shape between Earth, Dlamias, and the Maxiki home moon.
But I digress.
Our laying together proved relaxing to us both, and when she was nestled against me in the bed we shared, I would be lying if I said I could easily return to my former existence in general isolation.
The more I thought about it, the more the concept of human ‘pack like’ families appealed to me.
And I had a lot of time to think about it.
Unsurprisingly, a few days later a small team of six grief therapists arrived, three of them with experience dealing with what humans referred to as PTSD or, ‘Post Traumatic Stress Disorder’ or what Dlamias referred to as WIOS or ‘War Induced Outlier Syndrome’. In the past I would not have recognized it, but I cannot unsee what I have seen. And that is that the term ‘outlier’ in there is not just a medical identification for a traumatized soldier, but a deeply embedded mistrust of nonlinear thought and a noncompliance with the common cultural framework our government has approved.
In short, it helped make outliers appear inherently untrustworthy, though to their credit they recognized that soldiers were victims of this rather than internally flawed in some way.
I wasn’t present when the exerts arrived, but was present when the engineers on loan from Earth were assisting the Red Spark’s engineers with the installation of several virtual reality systems akin to what Bonny Red described as experiencing on board Captain Archer’s ship fifty years earlier.
Of course the new models were far more versatile and realistic, or so their chatter said.
“Yeah these things are great.” The skinny engineer in plain white overalls said as he tapped it, “There aren’t many like this one out there, the sense data is a lot more immersive, and the time dilation software is such that these Arachnae 9000 models can give you almost anything you want, thanks to their embedded creation kits. Now you can modify your games and customize them to your liking, and with Genesis mode, you can create your own world and games within it, and jump to other peoples designs on the network in the same way as long as they’ve either made it ‘public’ or given you a passkey access code.”
“That’ll make a good training system.” The engineer, Scotty, remarked. “Do we get to keep these after the mission?”
“Hell if I know. But…disconnecting them would be damn tough. And I don’t have a disconnect schedule date. So…probably?” The human remarked, “I’ve got to say, I envy you these things. Even the capital ships don’t all have these yet.”
I pretty quickly figured out that some of the humans on board the ship had pulled a few strings to get some entertainment on board the Red Spark. And probably done it quickly too, using the therapist costs as a late rider on a bill or something.
It was a guess, but I suspect, a good one.
As for the therapists themselves, as these systems were hooked up, the humans tested them and began installing the programs they would need. You might find this strange given that time dilating virtual simulators were used in the human confinement system of justice, as well as it simple games and the older models were used as toys to play games.
But as it turned out, virtual reality was also used in therapy.
I was able to briefly try one out while the therapists explained.
A therapist named ‘Carl’ went over it while the program ‘World of Healing’ loaded.
What began as a silent black world in which I stood, neither falling nor flying, nor seemingly standing on anything at all, stars came into view first, billions of tiny lights twinkling in the darkness. The sorts of things that inspired the dreams of generations.
Then there was grassland, rolling hills, and I was standing on soft earthen and green.
Then the hills loaded terraces with yet more greenery, and around them appeared little babbling brooks, creeks of water with the occasional small fish leaping through the water from one place to the next.
Then, young men and women clad in the outfits of human nurses, the traditional red and white shades.
The therapist appeared beside me a moment later, stepping out of the darkness as his avatar loaded. “Let there be light.” He said with a wave of his hand, and the sun began to rise in the distance. There was a strange warming sensation, like I’d stepped out into an early summer day, as well as the feel of a breeze, I looked down at my body, my hairs were moving.
“That’s good.” He said and cracked a little smile, he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “Environments like this one are popular.” He said, “I actually worked on the development of some of these. The nurses,” he gestured to the unmoving simulations, “are designed to appear as nonthreatening as possible. Mostly female, but there is some demand for males as well. Do you know why?” He asked.
“No?” I didn’t, and as he began to walk down a trail of smooth stones that appeared beneath our feet, he explained.
“Do you know what the most common word among the wounded on the battlefield is?” He asked, and as we walked, I watched the scene continue to generate, the path leading to small islands of trees that swayed in the simulated breeze. I shook my head.
“Mother.” He replied. “Followed closely by ‘I’ and ‘want’ and ‘my’. In every language, the wounded scream for their mothers, even the fiercest, hardest, and most savage of men in their most painful hours, call for the one who provided care and comfort in their childhood. Usually, that is still the mother. Not always, mind you, but commonly.”
He smiled at the simulated nurse, and even without being activated, it made a radiant smile in return. “So we program the nurses of both sexes with simulated parental care and attention personalities. Ideally the personalities of the wounded based on known interview data are loaded beforehand to provide the best possible experience, thus allowing the AI to tailor itself to the needs of the wounded.”
I couldn’t deny I was impressed.
“And the environment?” I asked.
“A garden.” Carl replied, “Someone once said, ‘If any man has ever heard the voice of god, it was in a garden on a cool day.’ Our myths and legends often begin our existence in idyllic gardens. Of course we know those are just myths, stories. But it says something about our nature that when we need to create a paradise, ‘this’ is what we make.” He held his arms out as if to embrace the simulation.
“Running water has a calming effect, the feel of the ground and the breeze, the sun and the caring attendants, all serve to create the ideal environments for a group of wounded soldiers. The nurses,” he added, “can be taken over by real qualified people like myself to properly diagnose and help guide the healing of others. The truth is, we don’t heal anybody.”
“No?” I was surprised at his admission, and Carl stroked his russet beard and chuckled as he replied.
“No. A doctor of the body can claim he healed a disease or an injury. But people who deal with the mind, we are guides. That is all. PTSD isn’t something you ‘get over’. It doesn’t go away, it just goes from an open wound to a scar. It may hurt sometimes, like a scar, but it doesn’t have to dominate someone’s life. All we do, is try to make it easier for that scar to form. Environments like this?” He said rhetorically, “These are just ultra modern hospital beds.”
“Couldn’t you just, I don’t know, leave somebody in here for what feels like a hundred years until they’re a whole lot better?” I asked, and his head hung just a little.
“If we could do that, we would. But studies of simulation use show that long term continuous use makes it difficult to adapt to the real world again. In the distant past, astronauts who spent only a few weeks in space, took several days on Earth to remember that things they let go of wouldn’t just ‘float’ if they let go of them. I can only imagine how much coffee was wasted.”
He let out a mock gasp as we got to the little tree cluster where willow leaves hung in long strands to create a kind of gentle shadow casting barrier to the trunk within.
“If we leave somebody in a superhero game for what feels like a hundred years, they’ll try to use those powers in the real world. If we leave somebody here in paradise for a hundred years, they’ll no longer be able to function in reality. And time dilation in a simulation isn’t exactly the same as actually lived reality either. Even the best AI is predictable to a degree. The real world, not so much.”
That was unfortunate, but even so, I could see the use.
“So, an hour per day drawn out to a few days at a time for the grieving, the wounded, and whoever we need. We have simulations for almost everything. From the wounded veterans, to those who grieve the dead in a thousand times a thousand ways.” Carl seemed to me to be equal parts proud of, and saddened by, the existence of this simulated world.
“It gets really bad, doesn’t it?” I asked and out of curiosity, when we crossed a hill to find ourselves amidst an apple orchard, I reached up to pluck a bright red fruit from a branch. It felt so real in my hands. And there was even a real scent to it. ‘I wonder, can I taste it?’
“It does.” Carl replied. “A few decades ago there were some xenophobes who were protesting… something. I don’t remember what it was, I was a child at the time, but some of them managed to get a bunch of guns somewhere and took over a bridge and blocked a road. They brought out their wives and children to use as human shields, trying to force the government to kill them to create sympathy for their cause.”
The apple tasted fantastic, but at his words I coughed and spat and he slapped me several times on the back. This ran entirely counter to everything I’d studied in human society. My work showed that humans valued their offspring and mates to such an extreme degree that harming them was akin to suicide if the survivor got a chance to exact revenge.
“I see that sounds strange to you.” He affirmed and asked, “Are you alright?”
“Yes, yes but…” He slapped my back a few more times and then finished.
“There’s a subset of humans for whom mates and children are property, this is a dying cultural remnant of the past, but it dies hard. Xenophobes wouldn’t hesitate to use those they’re supposed to protect, as pawns for their vicious causes. My father actually worked with both the people who confronted them, and the unarmed people that were rescued.”
“How did it come out?” I asked.
“I was just a kid, I don’t know all the details. But the media stories that spun about it accused the xenophobes of every kind of abuse on their spouses and children, thousands of people were ‘doxxed’ when they posted support for the xenophobes actions. It’s like somebody was out to get them. It got messy, they were a laughing stock, referred to as maniacal cowards, and there were a lot of cartoons and comics where people whose faces and names were out there, became villains to be laughed at and despised. I guess pretty much any evil thing is easy to believe if you’ll put your own kid or your own spouse between you and a bullet just so other people will feel sad for you.” “I mean, were there deaths or…?” I wished I hadn’t asked, but he shook his head.
“No, not exactly. Some clever bastard came up with the idea of walling them in. They pushed these big metal walls into place to surround them, then tightened it up. Slid a roof overhead, and then gassed the lot of them with something to knock them out. There was a lot of gunfire, it made the news, but seeing them shooting at giant metal walls while hiding behind their families did nothing to help their cause. But there were a lot of people who needed mental healthcare to recover from that incident. That’s why I do what I do. My father did it, and I saw how badly it was needed. It’s kind of my purpose, I guess you could say.” Carl said and reached up to take a bite of an apple for himself.
“Tastes like reality.” He said, and then asked, “Have you seen enough?”
“Yes. But… thank you for coming, I think you can do a lot of good up here.” I said and he quickly recited the exit code.
“Admin Red Spark Arachnae nine thousand. Exit simulation.” He said, and the world faded away to nothing.
I was sure of one thing at least.
The wounded hearts were in good hands.

AITA for telling my parents they can’t visit my family?
First and foremost, I am autistic so forgive me if I seem emotionally immature. I am trying so hard to understand what I am feeling right now, but it does not come naturally.
There’s a lot of moving pieces in this story so I’m going to lay out the basics first. My (28yo/F) dad (60yo/M) is an addict. My bio mom is not in my life. My Dad is married to my step mom (50yo/F) and she is my best friend and the only mom I have ever really had.
My Dad has had substance abuse problems literally his entire life. He boasts about drinking at 8 years old and partying became his entire life as a teen/young adult. My bio mom and him had a really toxic relationship, both were addicts and had no business having kids, but regardless I am here on this earth because of their combined stupidity. They divorced when I was 7 and I was used as a pawn for my bio mom to hurt my Dad. I was forced to choose between a relationship with him or with her and lived a very abusive childhood with my bio mom and had no contact with my Dad until I turned 19.
I know it’s stupid, but I just want a real parent so bad. I’ve spent the last 9 years trying to get to know my Dad and things were going okay the first few years. My Dad had gone through a treatment program and was sober for a little bit, but relapsed after a while.
I am married and have four children of my own and because it’s not easy for us to travel 10+hours to my home town, Dad and step mom have always visited us a few times a year. That is, up until the last couple years.
I found out while my step mom was ranting one day about his addiction that when they would visit me, he was snorting his doctor prescribed morphine in my oldest kids’ (7 and 5 yo) room. I knew he had a history of abusing the meds, but thought he was just swallowing them. Step mom told me he was doing good staying sober before the trip so I agreed to allow them to visit. I didn’t know he was crushing them on my kids dresser and snorting them. He’d tell me he had a headache and that he was going to lay down, would snort them, fall asleep in my kids bed and I wouldn’t see him until hours later after I guess he had sobered up enough that I wouldn’t catch on.
I freaked out and told them they had to cancel their upcoming visit because my Dad wasn’t allowed in my home anymore until he went to treatment and I didn’t have to worry about my kids being exposed in their own home to all of it. I would never forgive myself if something happened to my kids because I let him stay in our house. Not to mention, my husband and I don’t drink or anything. Our kids don’t need their grandpa introducing them to the world of addictions.
He refuses to go to treatment, which I understand is his choice. I know I can’t force him, but I can control the presence he has in my life and my home. I was still talking to him though up until about 6 months ago. My step mom and him were on a trip and she called me to bring me into the middle of their argument where my Dad pushed her and she fell, she was trying to stop him from getting into their vehicle drunk and he was pissed.
I have some very serious mental health issues… I am diagnosed adhd, autistic, manic depressive, ptsd, anxiety, and agoraphobia. I am medicated and in therapy and thrive as best as I can,but I quite literally can’t handle or deal with the stress of any of this. So I told him I was done, I had reached my breaking point, and that if he decided to get sober again one day I would be there to support him, but until then he wasn’t going to be a part of my life.
It’s been a year and a half now since I’ve seen them and 6 months since I’ve spoken to him. Fast forward to the last week. I’ve continued speaking to my step mom and over the last week she started telling me how great my dad was doing. Going on and on about how different and sound minded he has been. Mind you, he’s still drinking and 18 pack every 2 days as far as my step mom says and that’s IF she is telling me the truth about the quantity. I think she misses me bad enough and can’t visit without my dad so I wouldn’t put it past her to embellish a little. I just kept pacifying her while mentioning that I wasn’t hopeful things had changed permanently.
Then out of the blue 4 days ago he called me. My body had an absolute visceral reaction and I was immediately thrown into a downward spiral or panic attacks and gut wrenching anxiety I hadn’t felt since I had last spoke to him. I took a couple days to calm down and gather my thoughts before I texted him telling him to call me at 8 pm after I got my kids to bed.
I thought that maybe I could give him a chance… nope! He called and within the first minute I could tell he was extremely inebriated. I know better than to confront an addict while they are under the influence though and just tried to keep my calm while I listened to his apologies for his addiction ruining our relationship while he tried to act as sober as he could. Then cried as soon as I hung up the phone.
I talked to my step mom the next morning and she was honest. She told me he had been binge drinking all day and that she told him not to call me but he did anyways. She then told me that this is just who he is and in much fluffier words that I just needed to deal with it because she wants to visit us and he has to come with her because she can’t trust him home alone.
She started looking up hotels last night and bombarding me with messages asking me about dates that I never responded to yet. I don’t want him here. I am so hurt. I am so angry. Not only am I expected to drop my boundaries, but I feel like I would be enabling his behavior if I did so. I also know it’s going to affect my mental health in a very negative way. And then I also realize it’s going to really upset my step mom if I say no. People pleasing is a real problem for me. I don’t understand people well and it affects me deeper than I can explain to upset or disappoint people.
AITAH if I tell them not to visit? I know in my gut I have to, I just need to know that my brain is acting rationally and there isn’t part of this im not seeing or understanding.
Thank you for listening if you read all of this.

Here it is. It's probably not that well-balanced or whatever but I made it for my campaign and I don't really care. Feel free to copy it, change it however you like, or give me feedback/questions. Thanks.
Soul Swap
6th-level necromancy
Casting Time: 2 actions
Range: Touch
Components: V, S
Duration: 1 minute
You can use the first action of Soul Swap to “mark” a number of creatures less than or equal to your Wisdom modifier. In order to do this you must get within 5ft. of them and tap them with your finger, at which point, they must succeed on a Charisma saving throw or be marked. A creature that is incapacitated immediately fails. When a creature is marked, a large white magical glyph appears over their forehead.
You can use the second action of Soul Swap to snap your fingers, swapping the souls of all marked creatures. When this happens, the glyphs over the foreheads of the creatures swap with each other randomly. If no players or only one player was marked, nothing happens.
If a player character has their soul swapped with another player character, the two must exchange character sheets with each other. If a player character has their soul swapped with a non-player character, they must exchange their character sheet with the corresponding stat block. Soul-swapped characters retain their known languages, and their Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores.
The confusing and distressing nature of being in a body other than one’s own leads soul-swapped characters to lose their composure, giving them the Disoriented status effect for one turn. The Disoriented status effect means that the player has disadvantage on skill checks, saving throws, and attack rolls.

For official updates on the $ARB drop token, check out their Twitter: arbitrum.foundation

While there is a lot of good information out there in the community, which is fantastic, I think there could still be better tips on how to improve, and also have fun in this game.

1. Every time you die, try to learn something. Try to ask yourself why you actually died. Most of the time it's because you were out of position, got swarmed, gangbanged, and killed before you could blink. At least for me lol. Either that or you were too aggressive and attacked when you didn't have the initiative (more on that later).
   
2. Move towards your allies, not your enemies. People like to say "just play the fucking objective!!1!!", But this is really the best advice. 1vX is hard. Don't take on difficulty you don't need to, which also feeds into my next point.
   
3. Don't fight fair. Your enemies will have no inclination to stick to manly one on one duels in the middle of the battlefield, or to not shoot you in the back of the head. Return the favor. Look for easy targets. Throw from afar when they're already fighting someone else. Flee early, and flee often. Pretend to flee, then turn around and kill them. You get the point, sun tzu said the battle is won before it is fought, same idea. Don't leave it up to skill when you can stack the deck in your favor.
   
4. Contrary to popular opinion, duel servers are NOT the fastest way to learn. On duel servers you often have to wait a long period between each short fight, and face players that might be way above your skill level. Duel servers also don't teach certain important skills, like situational awareness or target switching. Normal servers will be more informational, and just be more fun imo. The more fun you're having, the faster you'll learn.
   
5. Learn initiative. Initiative determines who will hit who first. If you are both attacking, the one who clicks first has the initiative, and will hit. If you attack, they counter, and you attack again without countering, their counter went in first, and they have initiative. If you sprint attack at them, and their swing went in before your attack, they have initiative. To take initiative, you have to predict you opponent. This gets a little more complicated when talking about slow vs fast weapons and stuff, but this is the gist.
   

6.Misc. points about weapons. Start off with the best weapons, then work on the more niche ones. Learn the advantages and disadvantages of each. Learn which attack are best on each weapon, and how they come out. You can pick up other people's weapons on the ground, which is an insanely useful feature I have seen most people forget about. You can literally play any weapon on any class if you just find it laying around. Play with one weapon for a while, then shuffle for a bit, then go to a different weapon, to learn both adaptability and specific knowledge.
That's about all I can come up with for now, but I might add to this later. Let me know what you think, or if you have any other tips to share! :D

For official updates on the $ARB drop token, check out their Twitter: arbitrum.foundation

Across the DQ series, this will frequently be an option of some sort. A good example is DQ8, in which you can wait a turn to Psych Up and then hit for more damage on your second turn, but there are other times this type of situation seems to come up in other games.
The question is: if I just attack in round 1 and attack in round 2, isn't that the same/more damage than if I buff in round 1 and attack in round 2? What's the point?
I can see the point in oomphing because every subsequent round I will hit harder, so it's a waste of one round for the benefit of all future rounds. But in the case of Psyching Up once, I'm not sure if this works. And the same for subsequent rounds of Psyching Up (does it scale as you continue psyching? Is [Final Hit] > round1attack + r2 attack + r3attack + r4attack, e.g., across all rounds you're Psyching?)

Background: I'm recently DXd and in therapy for CPTSD as I'm getting older and the old cope stopped cutting it. Today I'm basically useless so wasting time on Reddit. I realized of course there is a sub for this.
I'm wondering how many, if any, of you have felt so alienated that you decided you probably were an actual Alien, hybrid, construct or something at some point in your life because that made the most sense.
I remember my mom killing baby birds that I had touched because she though the momma bird would kill them and make a mess. "They can smell your touch on them, and they will either be isolated or pecked to death." she explained while crushing their heads in a paper towel. I watched on and wondered if that explained how everyone treated me.
Maybe I WAS touched by something "outside the nest" and that's why I was being neglected and pecked to death all my life?
In my teen years this turned into a fairly literal delusion. Sometimes I retreat to this belief, though it's always updated to seem totally reasonable.
Is that fairly common?

My parents never really loved each other, my father was very abusive to my mother, so I never really had an example of love growing up. There was even a point in my life where I wouldn't say "I love you" to my long term partners because I stopped believing love was a thing.
I've only known my current partner for a short period of time, but ever since we first spent time together, it's been so amazing. There's the emotional bond, the physical bond. Everything clicked the moment we met. It literally made me believe in soulmates. I just can't think of any other explanation why everything is turning out so perfectly, it's like I was made for him and he was made for me. He's the missing puzzle piece I've been looking for. He's the person I fall asleep talking to and wake up to. I just never want this feeling to go away.
Thank you for listening to my little fairy tale XD

If you're looking for official information about the $ARB drop token, check out their Twitter feed: arbitrum.foundation

For official information about the $ARB drop token, check out their Twitter profile: arbitrum.foundation

Long story ahead.
It started when I was just a kid. I'm in my mid 30s now, but that's when it started. I'd like to preface most of this with an obligatory, to the best of my knowledge, I'm not making any of it up. Whatever definitive knowledge I think I've got is based on speculation and heresay. Nothing has identified itself at all, let alone directly. For my own sake, and the sake of related parties I'm going to edit all names from the story(ies). Especially since I'm not using a throwaway or anything. This is going right up on my personal account. I fabricate or hold back nothing this time. Ill be doing my best to cultivate as much accurate information as I can remember, but I'm getting old and don't remember as well as I used to. I can't even tell you how genuinely I consider religion, supernatural whatever, all of it to just be some stuff made up by white men to continue on with the patriarchy. I don't buy into ghosts or any of it.
It started as shadows. The feeling of being watched. My childhood wasn't that great, it was full of physical and emotional abuse from my mother. We lived in my step father's own childhood home, so it wasn't haunted by any ancient ghosts. It was a dark place though, with their history already blotting the air with it's thickness.
I guess before I really go on, I should explain that, too.
My step father was twenty something years older than my mom. So he was in his fifties during my teen years. He wasn't bad, he wasn't great. I guess technically speaking he was a bad step father. We didn't have much of a relationship, let alone a even bad "fatheson" one.
The home itself was an old New England starter home. It was small, as far as modern houses go. Three bedrooms total. One bath, a large basement spanned the entire length and width. By the time we had met him and moved in, he had already mostly paid the house off, buying it from his own parents. Outside of four years in the coast guard, He, his brother, and older sister had all lived there(while they moved away, he stayed)
Their family dynamic was dated, and weird. His mom and dad were the type to call each other "mom and dad" respectively. His sister, even after joining the navy and marrying an officer was required to maintain a joint bank account with her dad so he could have uptime decision making. She had her own creepy qualities when we'd visit. She collected Barbies, never opening them. That in itself isn't weird. Hell, I collect action figures myself. But she had a voice for some of her favorites, and they'd talk amongst themselves if she was in the room. My Step father's brother, was actually an inventor and invented something I can't remember anymore. He wasn't Bezos rich, but had a nice house in Florida when we'd visit. Mom and Step dad both always warned me though to be careful. He was on a lot of drugs.
My Step father himself was a weird man. He was never taught hygiene. And he was never really nurtured or loved, and unfortunately it showed. He didn't know how to do those things, either. He was a nice guy, but had no idea what to do from there. He grew up in the fifties, and as a kid, I just imagined that's why he was the way he was. From a different time.
The legacy of their combined tragic legacy lived on in a ghost that I do believe was in the realitively new house. We lived there total for twelve years with him, however the time is broken up into two different six year stints. Half way through, my mom for whatever reason, moved us out. We lived in a one room efficiency apartment together for exactly one year, before they reconciled and moved back in together. While we were moved out - we adopted a stray cat. Well, he adopted us. We actually found him the very first day we left him on our own. He was a white cat, nearly completely blind. He was just outside our motel door. We took him in with us. He was actually great. We named him Doofus, because he was kinda fun and goofy. He stayed with us the entire year departure, and was reluctantly allowed back with us.
My Step father was a dog person. Awkwardly so. He loved his dog(s). To the point where I'd still say he more made out with them, as a form of affection. It wasn't okay. I'm sure of that. Let me clear something up, while I say all of these negative things about him. It's not like that. While we don't have any sort of relationship now, I believe that's more us both healing from my mother more so than each other. But anyway, let's keep going!
Within a year after introducing the new cat into the house, he had himself quite the affinity for the basement. It was cool in the summer, and kept itself warm enough to be down there without freezing in the winter. It was my home base as a teenage boy in the late 90s, early 00s with AOL internet access. Doofus would often lounge around, and we'd leave him to his own devices while down there. He never disappeared and always came running when we'd shake his bowl of food. That first summer back though, we were, even my step father was, convinced he had worked his magic on a neighborhood feline friend, and had a litter of kittens down there. It wasn't the mousy cries of fresh babies. Certainly a meow that wasn't his though. We thought maybe he had found his way into the walls, or was simply stuck. Inevitably one day it happened with him fast asleep on his window perch in the kitchen. Finally my step dad fessed up what comes to be an important story.
When he was a kid, himself and his younger sister, found a cat. They, with some kind of sitcom understanding of how the world works, brought it home and tried to hide it in the basement to keep. Their father found it and brutalized the animal to punish them and simply disposed of it like it was nothing.
I can't stress it enough how… from that point on, things changed. The meowing from the basement stopped. Forever. It never happened again. However I never felt alone down there again, honestly.
I want to take another brief intermission to point out that at the current point in my life, I've been in therapy and anger management both. I haven't spoken to my mother in over seven years, and I'm barely any contact with my family at all. I had a very good therapist that helped me through my trauma with my mom as a child that continued into adulthood. Most of the information I'm going to share here, and continue to share here are things that modern medicine and science have since explained away. Sort of. I didn't just feel not alone while in the basement of my childhood home anymore, I felt actively pursued. Someone wasn't just always watching, they wanted to be known. I also started to experience night terrors that felt lucid.
I eventually moved out as soon as I could, and moved to Florida. Unfortunately my abusive mother followed. However, years passed from there. Through circumstance, I maintained a relationship with her. I was young and dumb, and didn't know how to set or enforce boundaries. Anyway.
Fast forward to my mid 20s. I had just ended a long term relationship with what was essentially my first "real-life" girlfriend. Things went sour the way things do when you're young, and I ended up moving back in with my mom and her now new husband. It was a very short stay, but while there I fell on hard times with my health. That's where the story here really takes an interesting turn.
Their house wasn't just bad, it was absolutely the worst. It was literally just a shack. The way some of those poor places in Florida are really like. I was home alone. I did have my own private bedroom. It was small, couldn't even hold my bed and the dresser. There was no door. It was an old curtain pinned to the outside wall. The illusion of privacy. It all went from easy enough to explain, to outright bonkers that day.
I was in bed. Doorway clearly visible. The sheet had been pinned to the space above it so it stood open for me to come and go easily. In the doorway was a teenage girl. Shoulder length brown hair. Conservatively dressed, yet modern. She didn't speak. It was over. She was gone.
The same girl came to me two or three days later, same setting. Just standing in the doorway. She seemed far less relaxed. Even agitated. She was holding something but I couldn't make out what. Whatever it was just wouldn't manifest, but it was important to her. Whatever that item was I can't help but feel like it'd all make sense now, but who knows. She stayed for nearly a full five minutes, fidgeting eithcthecitem before leaving. It was only a couple of more days before she came back again, but wasn't alone. An older man. Older then I was at the time, at least. He seemed like her father. They were bickering and fighting about something and she, in her tantrum disappeared. But he stayed and said nothing to me. He made no motion or charades. He did however glare at me this empty, menacing eyes and then vanished.
I didn't see the girl again until the night before I moved out. By this point, I had been drained of the small savings I did have. I was literally starving. Stealing food from Walmart just to keep myself going. I had aloowedcmy mother to drain me of everything. The apparition came to me that night, and the sensation was different. She glowed a warm orange tint. it felt like we were together forever. She still never spoke to me, but shared knowledge. She told me things about myself I didn't know yet. Actual, real life things that wouldn't come to fruition for over a decade, but they have indeed come true. Not even as a warning. It was a parlor trick to prove her abilities to me. I didn't see her again, for nearly 12 years.
It was last year she came back. I wasn't startled, she communicated like we were old friends. By just, giving me the information. I had probably six or eight months prior to that, reconnected with an old friend. The girl told me matter of fact my, "reach out. They aren't okay." Which was weird because we were talking mostly daily at that point again. I knew things weren't perfect but not being okay raised alarm bells. I reached out to find out their dog had passed just that morning. Again not a huge flex of their ability, just enough to keep me hooked.
I was bewildered at this point. I knew nothing of psychics or spirits or demons. Outside of what I seen on TV of course. I didn't even believe in that shit, but I love reading and learning.
Because of the history with my newly rekindled friendship, it was actually my childhood crush - the love of my life. That was actually the context of us becoming friends again. I wanted to work on fixing the things between us so we could be there again. The situation felt ripe by description for either Dr. Phil, or Lilith. Though I didn't know what that was even supposed to mean.
My own research and learning has brought me here, to you. This sub. This long story of ghost cats, and dark places, the meddling of what I thought was Lilith, but I believe to be something else entirely.
You see I've reached out to the girl who manifests. She hasn't been back, but I can still feel her around. So I've worked up the courage to confront her. I ask for identification, and my ears fill with this droning white noise and it'll eventually tell me that shes Lilith, but I'm not convinced. But from the difficulty in expression, neither are they. I believe it's something that latched onto my belief at first of it being Lilith and won't let up on that. I do believe it's "male" in nature. Has a knack for tricks, and knows that pretending to be something it isn't is bad for him, so he's trying to keep it under cover. I also don't think it's here to help me in any capacity. It clearly wants something either from me, personally, or is trying to use me as a vessel.
I think something masquerading now as Lilith has been involved in my life from the house I grew up. It didn't leave me alone, it learned to be less obvious and scary outright. But it's here. It's always here.

Hello, I have an omen PC and I have a strange issue that no one can help me with online.
When I boot it up it says: “Boot Device not found please install an operating system on your hard disk.”
I then downloaded windows on a USB and set it up. After the installation restarted my PC, it brings me back to the installation screen. I then tried to reinstall it again, and removed the flash drive before the pc turned itself on again.
When I did that, I was brought back to the “Boot Device not found” screen. I then restarted the PC but couldn’t access the boot menu.
Any help is appreciated, and I apologise for the long post.

As always would love to know what you guys think!

1. Carolyn (MOR2) - We didn’t see a lot from Carolyn this episode which I think is a good thing after the amount of content she got this last episode. I really liked the confessional she gave about how she was playing Survivor and “doing it well”. The editors have consistently made it a point to show her to us as a player despite her over the top personality and now they are emphasizing that she is also doing a good job.
   
2. Matthew (CP3) - I liked this episode for Matthew and the flashback to him finding the idol was fun. The only thing that I can knock about his edit so far is that he is such an obvious front runner at this stage. It doesn’t rule him out completely but him winning would not be consistent with the New Era style of editing.
   
3. Carson (MOR3) - I still think that Carson’s edit is a little too obvious but honestly I don’t know who else I would rank him below. We are clearly intended to see him as the biggest strategic threat on his tribe and the editors are really leaning into him “embracing his chaotic side” which gives him a long term story arch.
   
4. Frannie (CP4) - Frannie is starting to slip as a contender for me after this episode. Outside of her showmance with Matt, Claire was the one player that she was shown having a connection to and we didn’t get to hear any confessionals about her being torn about ultimately turning on her ally. I’m not going to move her too far down yet because she could get more content relating to this next episode but she will need more personal/strategic development outside of her showmance with Matt.
   
5. Yam Yam (OTT3) - I’m a little bit lower on Yam Yam than most people are. He’s a fun character but we’re only being given strategic content of him when it is necessary. When you compare this to the edits that recent “big characters” who won (Ex: Maryanne, Gabler) they were still consistently shown explaining their strategy to us. I could definitely move him up in the future if he starts to get more of this content but for now he is just outside of my top contenders.
   
6. Heidi (CP3) - This episode was pretty good for Heidi and helped establish her as a player. Part of this was circumstantial with her being the swing vote but the editors also made sure to highlight her relationship with Danny which leads me to believe that could be important moving forwards.
   
7. Danny (CP5) - Danny had another big episode this week and he is quickly climbing up in the rankings. However a lot of his content has still been surrounding his antics with the idol so I would really want to see more personal/strategic development outside of this in order to move him up more.
   
8. Sarah (MOR3) - We did get some underdog content from Sarah but it overall felt kind of lackluster. A lot of the content that she got was focused on Carson which leads me to believe that she is more of a secondary character.
   
9. Lauren (UTR2) - The editors have made sure to consistently remind us of Lauren’s presence but it’s never really anything substantiative. At this point I think that she does not have enough of a storyline to be a serious contender and my guess is that she will be a boot around the early/mid merge.
   
10. Brandon (OTTP3) - I do think that it’s a good thing that Brandon got some personal content this episode but it felt kind of disjointed and out of place. I think that he would have a more cohesive storyline if his personal content was given to us last episode after he successfully played his idol.
    
11. Matt (OTTN3) - This was another episode that was not great for Matt. He caught some negative SPV early in the episode regarding his relationship with Frannie and had the “dodo music” in the background after finding the fake idol. No doubt he’s a big character, but I think his chances of winning the game without any development outside of his showmance with Frannie are pretty low.
    
12. Kane (MOR2) - Kane’s content hasn’t been horrible but I just don’t know who else he would go above. His scenes in this week’s episode didn’t really advance any particular storyline for him other than to reinforce that he is a nerdy Canadian which we already knew. If I had to guess, he will end up being a premerge boot and the editors just wanted to give him his flowers by giving him some screen time here.
    
13. Josh (MORN2) - We finally got some content from Josh but it was kind on unavoidable with him being the decoy boot at tribal council. I didn’t really come away from this episode knowing much more about him other than the fact that he’s not trustworthy.
    
14. Jaime (OTTM3) - Jaime got a decent amount of content this episode but it was mostly circumstantial or used to solidify our understanding that Matthew is the dominant player within the Ratu tribe.
    

as all non controversial non trolly posts in the official forums get buried within minutes i decided to come to reddit, which i seldomly use usually, to post my experience, gripes and findings as i really wanted someone to see them, as some of them weigh heavy on my poor barb shoulders ^^ so good luck to me i guess
​
---------------------------------------------
​
Ladies and Gents
as the the first round of semi open betas is complete i figured i might aswell share some thoughts
for starters and to make sure everyone is on the same page as me: -i really enjoied playing can't stress this enough as what comes from here sounds negative, but what's the point of listing things i loved / liked? right? -i soley play barb (melee is what i enjoy the most and i don't have enough time to really dive into several classes at once) -i’m generally not a very social creature -english is not my first language, errors will occur, sorry for that =(
so off we go with my two cents
1. Field of View (neg) Please, for the love of Lilith, let us zoom out more! i feel i have so little overview of whats going on yes, for PVP, and for ranged classes, this would be an insane advantage, but you can always set FoV to whatever you like, see worldboss, so i guess you could always fix it when in pvp to the max allowed?
2. Map (neg) i know that i’m a bit of an edgecase here as of my display choice for playing on pc. as i’m using a 48" screen, i do not see the map. was the same on my G9 i had before for similar games due to the suw format. the map is not within my vision. please let us reposition and resize the map! the best thing imo would be if we had a semi transparent overlay like we had in D2 that solution was just perfect to me
3. Dungeons (neg) the dungeons, meaning their layout, aswell as the tasks to be fullfilled are, while looking awesome for the most part, quite repetetive. i know, i know, diablo is by its definition a very very grindy, repetetive game, but a little more variance, more than just looks, would be highly appreciated as of now, it’s 1) search for the thing to open the thing 2) search like an loonatic for the one piece you missed 5 screens ago 3) advance 4) sometimes kill all enemys in a given area 5) slay boss. rinse and repeat
4. Movement speed (neg, somewhat) yes, there will be mounts, but i guess not within dungeons. as a barb literally every other class i encountered left me in the dust. combine that with the vast repetetive dungeons and suddenly the game feels less fun
5. Inventory / menues (neg) it took me till the last day of this beta to realize what i disliked about them, and i only did because a friend mentioned it is it the “all items same size” approach? not great, but tolerable is it that clustered layout with some stuff hiding in other stuffs menues where i wouldnt expect them? yeah, a bit, but i’ll get used to that. it is the font of all things. the whole thing looks off. i just started up D3 to compare, and see why it didnt bother me there, and i guess its because there are still enough other fonts in flavour text and iten descriptions etc and it looks way less cramped then D4, also i think this has to do with me playing a lot of D2R lately, so the hit was way harsher as if i had come from D3.
6. shared world (mixed bag) i usually play solo, or with IRL friends, but i found myself really having fun in events teaming up, unfortunately at the same time, sometimes you see that orange glow on the map (if i happened to look there) rush to it, only to find someone just trashed all the mobs seconds before you came there. also 10 players standing in front of MY chest feels odd. i still don’t really know what to make of it
7. dmg output barb / level scaling (neg) at no point did i feel some sort of progression as most zones just became my lvl, yes, the occasional legendary sure did something, but never in a way that would compare to getting your first set bonus in D3 or your first good runeword in D2. after some more drops, reaching 25, and some reskilling i ended up with what felt decent and swift, just for a lvl 12 rouge to litterally blizz through my screen oneshotting everything. i know that to that player, the mobs where lvl 12 aswell because of scaling, but i still felt bad. i guess you get what i mean.
8. the sound and look of the D4 world, not the UI ^^ (as positive as can be) every now and then i found myself staring at the screen in awe and taking in every detail. the sewers especially looked amazing imo. also the sounddesign was spot on! great job!
9. Skills / Items barb (potentially positive) i found myself having a lot of fun theorycrafting after getting 25 and finding more and more items. i am well aware that i most likely havent seen a tenth of the barb items and that there will potentially many more combinations, but as fun as it was, nothing i came up with seemed to up my killing speed. now i blame this on me for now and the lack of crucial items aswell as look forward to mess around it a lot more at release.
overall i stil had a lot of fun! the cinematics where jawdropping, the in engine sequences less stellar, but still good. i’m really looking forward to 2nd beta and release. hopefully some people that will be heared more likely like various streamers or closed beta power players have some similar thoughts as i have. the most annoying points to me are field of view and map
that’s all folks ^^
​
---------------------------------------------
​
so... now i wait and prepare for reddit to come and rip me a new one i guess ^^
if you disagree and feel the need to konfront me about certain points, pls be civil and do so in a constructive manner <3
as i said before, not a very social creature usually
see you all in Sanctuary

Hi. Today I was installing windows 11 on a computer that already had a Fedora linux installation. I created the installation usb stick using windows creation tool on another computer. I booted from the usb stick and started to install. After a while, windows complained that the installation could not be continued, and threw me to the windows installation start screen. So I decided to restart the computer by pressing the "close" button in windows installation, and the computer restarted normally.
However, after this restart, pop-up came to my screen from UEFI which says that "invalid signature detected. check secure boot policy". I wondered a lot about this and after this, I got thrown to the bios front page. I Shut down the computer inside bios and the same warning showed up again. Now the usb stick doesn't work anymore. This also broke my linux bootloader since there isn't any boot options. When I turned off the computer in the bios menu by pressing the computer button for couple of seconds (force shutdown), I noticed that the my mouse and my usb dvd drive remained spinning even though the computer was shut down. I turned off the power from the back of the machine, and when I turned it on, the same thing happened again. I haven't changed any bios settings, and this has never happened to me before.
What is causing this? Has my bios been infected, or did I actually manage to break my whole BIOS? I use an ASUS B-550 motherboard.
I would really appreciate your help.