I like a a guy in my friend group and I need help to determine if he likes me back. Here is some backstory: Three months ago I got out of a serious long term relationship and relocated to a new town. Right away, I was introduced to a friend group by mutual friend and they all welcomed me and I became quick friends with all of them. I started hanging out with a few people pretty frequently, like three to four times a week. One of those people is this drop dead gorgeous guy. He is a total stud and I was instantly attracted to him. I couldn't keep my mind off him, and when I knew I was going to see him I would be so excited and get ready as if I was going on a date. He is the apple of my eye. As I was healing from a break-up, I didn't pursue him at all. I didn't even try to talk to him very much or flirt with him but it seems like I can't hold myself back anymore and I'm starting to flirt with him and I think he might like me back.
Here are some things that have happened that make me think he may have feelings for me too:

• A few weeks ago I got bold and asked him to go to the movies with me. Oh Boy...HIS EYES, when I asked him! He looked like I had just told him he won the lottery- or that his dog had just died. His eyes were ginormous. It felt like we were in a different dimension for a minute. I asked him, and he said yes. And as we were walking to the theater I said I wanted to give him and out, and if he didn't really want to go, he could turn around and walk back to his car and it wouldn't hurt my feelings and he just kept walking. And the way I felt, it was like we were walking together into the future of the rest of our lives in love with each other. During the movie our shoulders and upper arms touched. We talked a lot during the movie. We locked eyes and didn't speak sometimes and it felt amazing like the first kiss that lasts forever, that feeling of attraction and love, that magic. But with no kiss. Afterward we both said we had a good time and he said he would want to do it again sometime and I said I would really love that.
• We were at another friend's house watching a movie and on opposite ends of a couch so l laid down and curled up. Then when I stretched my legs out off the couch, not touching him he said you can stretch your legs out and I put my feet on his lap then he rubbed my feet for like over an hour! I could not even believe it. At some point it started to feel like maybe he wanted to stop and he just didn't know how to say it, so I sat up and said "Aren't your hands getting tired?" And he said "No, but I'll stop if you want me to". And I just shook my head no and laid back down. Then I was feeling so dreamy and I reached down and took his hand in mine and ticked his palm with my nails and lovingly caressed his fingers with my fingers and held his hand for a while, then let go and when I let go he went right back to rubbing my feet with both of his hands. I almost lost my mind and felt love drunk.
• I catch him looking at me sometimes.
• I think he started flirting with me a little and we have something like an inside joke sort of thing.
• One of our friends has made comments about us possibly dating. For instance, he was asking her what shoes he should wear and I said why does it matter who's he trying to impress and she said, "you".... I was like, ME!?!
• I sort of joking not really joking asked him if we could go on vacation to his hometown and he said yes and searched up travel time on his phone and went into discussion about the best time of year to go and what we would do there.

Reasons why I think he might not like me:

• I have heard about it, but have not seen it with my own eyes, him flirting with other girls. So he may already have his eye on someone and I don't want to mess that up for him.
• I also heard about him talking pretty serious with another girl in our friend group, like flirty texts late at night, but she shut him down pretty harshly. I heard this from her. This was a while ago. But, he never texts me that kind of stuff?
• He barely ever texts me actually and has only initiated texting two times in a few months. And I know he is a big texter, like he is always texting someone.
• He doesn't really say hi to me when he sees me and avoids eye contact at first but then later on during the night he will do something like say are you ok, and that he thought I was crying because I was rubbing my eyes and they looked red.

So, I really like this guy and I feel like there could be mutual attraction and chemistry but I am just not sure. I would like advice on subtle moves I could make without jeopardizing our friendship or risking putting myself out there too much. I don't want to just outright ask him if he likes me because I don't want things to get weird between us. Also, I would like to know if you guys would rub a platonic friend's feet for over an hour just because you are friends. I could be making up all this love stuff in my head because I like him and I'm clueless.
The most important thing to me is really that we can continue our friendship because it's not his fault that's hot and I'm crazy. If he doesn't like me like that I would be ok. I really like spending time with him. I think he's funny, smart, loving, thoughtful, and just a good human.

I'm slowly dying every waking second and there's nothing I can do about it. I am in severe mental pain. My head hurts like a migraine. I used to be the kid that had 1000 friends from far, and close. Now I can barely keep a stable relationship with basic communication. I feel as all the joy I experience is slowly being washed away. The concept of time is slipping away from me. All the days feel as if their bleeding into each other. No matter how hard I try, I am never satisfied with myself. I want all of this suffering to end. She's right, people have gone through worse. Sorry my parents are borderline mentally abusive. Sorry I'm such a damn burden to everyone. Sorry you can't even drive me to waffle house at 2am. Sorry I'm the selfish one wanting to see the only person I care about. Sorry I wasn't up to your expectations. Sorry I feel the need to induce pain on myself to escape the inner pain. Sorry I've attempted it four times. Sorry I talk to much. If my neck broke from a noose, I'll be at least be silent.

With the reveal that Morgen has been brought back as a Paladin, that confirms the theory that one of the figures standing next to Lucius in Chapter 336 was Morgen. That just leaves one question: who is the fourth person? Looking at the panel, there are four Paladins surrounding Lucius' throne. To the left are Lily and Damnatio, and to the right are the silhouettes of two people that are shadowed out. One of them is now confirmed to be Morgen, so who could the other one be? I have a few ideas for who the fourth silhouette might be or might have belonged to, if it's someone that already got revealed and we just didn't know it.
Before we begin, there's two people we can say for sure that it's not. The first is Morris, as this scene took place a few chapters before Morris was brought to Lucius and made into a Paladin. The second is Acier for a similar reason, as according to Ryu in Chapter 353, Lucius will soon be able to bring back people on the level of Grand Magic Knights, meaning that at point in time Lucius had not yet brought back any captain class people, which of course would include Acier. With that in mind, here are some people who I think it could be.
Marx: Not only is the hairstyle of the fourth person somewhat similar to Marx's, he seems like an obvious choice for Lucius to make into a Paladin. He's always by Julius' side, so he was probably the very next person after Damnatio that Lucius turned into a Paladin, Marx probably having run into Julius' office to see what all the commotion was and stumbling upon the scene of the crime. Given that Morgen was a member of the Grey Deer, the squad which Julius was captain of and had the most attachment to, it makes sense that Lucius might want to turn another member of the Grey Deer into a Paladin as well, Marx having been a part of the squad too along with Yami, William, and Morgen.
Some reasons why it might not be Marx though. For one thing, they seem too tall to be Marx. Marx is kind of on the short side. More notably though is the fact that Marx was already possessed by an elf, so having him be an enemy again might feel little redundant and like too much of a repeat of what already happened with him in the Reincarnation arc. Then again, Tabata might make an exception for him due to how closely he is tied to Julius. Either way, it's really weird that Marx has been noticeably absent since the arc started and we have not gotten his thoughts on the whole Lucius situation, despite him being the closest person to Julius, which gives me the feeling that something might have happened to him.
Heath: This one is in the category of someone who might have already been revealed to us but we just didn't realize that's who it was supposed to be. The height matches up for it to be Heath, and the hair shape is kind of similar. Chapter 336 was a few chapters before Lily showed up in the Land of the Sun with Heath and Yrul, so much like with Morgen he might have been shadowed out to keep the surprise that Lucius now has dead people under his command. It's kind of symbolic in a way. The living people (Lily and Damnatio) are to the left of Lucius, and the dead people (Morgen and Heath) are to the right of him. The choice to resurrect Heath might not have been as random as we think. I've postulated that Heath could have been a former member of the Grey Deer, meaning that like Morgen he would have been someone Julius knew from back then. With Morgen, Heath, and Marx, it could be that Lucius is going out of his way to make those who were part of the Grey Deer into Paladins, as his weird sort of way of bringing the squad back together, in which case Yami and William might be next.
Leopold: People like to joke about Leopold being a missing person, but it really is weird that he has seemingly vanished without a trace, not even being shown with Fuegoleon, Mereoleona, and the rest of the Crimson Lions when Morris showed up. Something might have actually happened to him, and that something might have been him being turned into a Paladin by Lucius. That would be quite the comeback for him, Leopold having been given Naamah and showing up where Morris is to face his siblings, if not showing up to face the Black Bulls during their search for Asta and Noelle being his main opponent in a battle of water vs. fire. The hair style of the silhouette doesn't quite seem to match up with Leopold though, and I don't think Leopold is that tall either, unless he has grown during the 15 month time skip.
Those were my guesses for who that fourth person could be. I'd like to hear some of your guesses and ideas. Who do you think it might be, if we haven't found out already. Is it one of the people I mentioned, or someone else entirely?

Looking to upgrade wheel after T150 has served me well for 4 or so years. I'm comparing these three options, and potentially 4th, which is the T818 when/if it comes to console. I'm a console user so I'm limited to these three options:
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1.) TGT-2
I know it is belt drive, but it is powerful at 6.4nm and is smooth and big upgrade over current setup. Works well with Gran Turismo 7 which is mostly what I play. Is pretty well ironed out and reliable setup considering it's near identical to TS-PC and improvements over original T-GT. It is dependable and I can get this one from a local Microcenter. I personally don't mind belt driven wheels and this is the best option for belt driven wheels. I also like Thrustmaster add on wheels and feel they offer decent value compared to Fanatec pricier add-on wheels. The TLCM are solid pedals as well. I would be getting the base/wheel and the TLCM pedals putting it around $930 or so. I could also get the base along, with a wheel add-on of my choice, along with the TLCM pedals for same price.
2.) Fanatec DD Pro
This one is popular but I had a bad experience with Fanatec which was my first wheel actually. There was belt whine and the shifter had an issue where you couldn't shift into third gear. The pedals were all metal but I did not like the feel of them. Although I was a kid back then and didn't follow up for the 'V2' kits and other kits to fix shifter and so forth. It still left me uneasy about Fanatec. Metal construction is not everything to me and doesn't mean I will have a good experience. Fanatec has gone a long way since, and this setup offers 8nm with the boost kit. It's only available as a bundle with the load cells for $969. I don't know how the csl pedals are, they look decent. I don't like the plastic rim though. And it's unclear if you can order base by itself alone for PS5. It seems this option is available for Xbox but not PS5. So , I would be stuck with this setup. Fanatec wheels are nice but pricey. I prefer some of the TM wheel add-ons personally. People say Fanatec no longer has issues but I'm still uneasy about that. Seems like the console compatibility issues of csl elite has been resolved with the GT and Playstation license so that's a plus.
3.) Logitech G Pro
This looks like the highest quality DD wheel available for PS5. I actually like the steering wheel design. It is strongest wheel base out of the three. The pedals look very nice, probably the best out of all three, and bundling it gives you about $100 off the pedals. Price comes to $1,260. Logitech has good QC according to most people and I've seen nothing but praise for this wheel. The QR seems to be the best out of the three. Cons are the shifter and lack of ecosystem. It's unclear if they will add a new shifter and wheel add-ons.
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I do want h-shifter with all these setups. Personally not a fan of either of them. Prefer something like SHH, VNM, or Moza shifter but they don't work on console. If Logitech makes a new more higher trim shifter, it will probably end up being the best shifter for console. I personally am leaning against Fanatec for reasons stated but could be persuaded otherwise. Thrustmaster is probably the most plug and play option right now and is dependable. Their QR system isn't the best , though. Another option is to wait for T818 console version with new QR and wheel add-ons potentially, but don't know if this is even a plan for this year. Logitech seems like attractive option. Anyone have either of these and can chime in on their experiences?

Link: https://app.roll20.net/lfg/listing/365587/four-part-harmony-level-3-one-shot Game: D&D 5e Group type: Online (Roll20) Experience: Beginers Welcome! Location/Timezone: See the game listing in the link above for your distinct timezone and date. For those in North, South and Central America it will be late night/evening on Saturday, Apirl 8th. For those in East Asia and Australia it will be in the morning on Sunday, April 9th. Schedule: One shot Roles sought: 2-5 Players (only 2 players needed to play) Price: $20 for a 3-5 hours session via PayPal. Game Style: Choices Matter, Various Approach, Mutiple Endings, Combat, Exploration, RP and puzzles.
Four Part Harmony
The haunted Heinrosch Bardic College was built more than sixty years ago. It is as much a monument to the ambitions and ego of Mikolaj Heinrosch as it is an academy. With wealth earned through years of adventuring, he retired and turned his hand to composing music—and indeed achieved some minor repute in that realm, with a handful of his compositions occasionally (okay, once) mentioned among those of the great composers. Not content with the “minor” part of “minor repute,” or the fact that he was only once mentioned among the greats, Heinrosch hired gnomish architects and inventors to design an institute that would elevate his bardic legacy. Alas, Heinrosch died before the college ever became successful, and the institution folded abruptly after his demise.
A few days ago, A collector named Baron Alfon hired you to recover any Heinrosch memorabilia from the college grounds. He knows that much of it has likely been pilfered by bandits, but he hopes that something of interest remains. He offerd you 50 gp for each piece of Heinrosch memorabilia delivered, but it might be more than you bargained for!
Come and Join us on this musical high fantasy adventure!
About Me My name is Eddie, I'm a pretty experienced GM. I've been playing 5e for 8 years now. Recently I've been branching out into playing other systems, but I keep coming back to 5e. I'm currently running 6 campaigns and weekly one shots. This is the first time I've run this one shot so hold on to your seats. I'm a content creator on Roll20 and a Translator. My second language is Japanese. I've only only started DMing full time recently, but I hope I can give you the experience you are looking for.
DM Style It varies from game to game, but something that is consistant throughout all of my games is player choice and interactions matter. This game is going to focus heavily on the college and the arcane nature of it. There will be a pretty good balance of combat, puzzling, challenge, exploration and approach scenarios for players to dive into as a group and a few extra suprises along the way.
I like to reward variablity in play and creative approach within the rules of the world. I engage players based on their wants and needs and try my best to facilitate their ideas. I want to let you guys do cool things with you characters and help you create your stories however they may play out.
This Game This game will be $20 via PayPal. It is a one time payment for a 3-5 hour game. We will be playing at the time listed at the top of the page. We will use voice and video (video optional) through Roll20 and Discord for out of game communications. If there are connection problems with your internet, then we can use discord voice as a backup.
If you would like to join, follow the link at the top of the post and let me know a bit about you in the "Applications" topic and I'll message you with the discord and game invites after.

Label Border Community Styles Electronica Date 2023-03-31 Catalog # 56BCCDD Length 64:39 Tracks 12

1. You Are In A Clearing (02:50)
2. Contains Multitudes (09:14)
3. Common Land (05:21)
4. Trust Your Feet (06:43)
5. The Missing Key (03:35)
6. In The End You’ll Know (06:27)
7. Continuous Revolution (05:46)
8. Four Ways Down The Valley (03:55)
9. Worlds Collide Mountains Form (03:35)
10. The Answer Is Yes (06:31)
11. Infinite Fadeout (04:59)
12. You Can Never Go Back (05:43)

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https://specialfordjs.org/flac-lossless/68859-james-holden-imagine-this-is-a-high-dimensional-space-of-all-possibilities.html

Welcome to the /pokemontrades Scarlet and Violet Daily Casual Trade Thread!

This thread is for competitive/casual trades, and tradebacks, in Scarlet and Violet.
Do not trade, or tradeback, shiny or event Pokémon or event serial codes in this thread.
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• If you receive a trade offer or request through PM/DM or Reddit chat, message the moderators and ignore the other user or redirect them to post publicly on the subreddit.
  • See Tips to Avoid Scammers
• Yes, trades completed in a daily or weekly casual trade thread can be applied toward trade flair.
• To make trades go smoother, we recommend listing things you can offer in your initial request.

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• To chat or ask questions, please visit out Daily Discussion & Questions Thread, here.
• To visit the Weekly Trading Thread for Generation 8 games; Sword/Shield, Pokemon Legends: Arceus, Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl, HOME, Let's Go, Generation 7 games; Sun/Moon, Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon and Generation 6 games; X/Y, ORAS click here.

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Stay alert, and happy trading!

CHAPTER VIII
KITE
They marched through the darkness for a while, with Kite doing his best to lead the way in the dim light. Eventually, his nose detected a foul smell, and when he reported it, Leo told him to describe it. It took him a second to find the right words, but he eventually said, “Well… it smells like that bottle we found back at the dewfarm.” Leo perked up at that. “We’re going that way then.” Kite didn’t like the sound of that. “Wasn’t that water… not water?”
“Something like that. We need to go that way.”
“Whatever. The smell’s faint, but it’s getting stronger in… this direction.” He pointed, and began to walk in that direction. After a few twists and turns through the Underdune, Kite saw a glimmer of light beginning to poke through. “We’ve got light.” He called back. Leo and Alouette both nodded, and Kite led the way to a ramp leading up into the light. As soon as he exited back out into the light of day, he stopped before he fell into a sea of black water. He did a quick rotation to try and get his bearings, and saw that they had exited into a small island in a sea of blackness. At least, it seemed like it. There were many small islands poking out of the water, and as he looked around, he saw a couple of buildings erected out of it. Leo exited next, and took his own look around. “Hmph. It’s a different part than we’d been through.”
“So you have no idea where we are.”
“Nope. Not a clue, except that we’re obviously in the Blacklands.”
“Well…” Kite asked, looking at the water with grim trepidation. “What now?”
“Let’s go check out the buildings.” Ploob came out next, and grimly shook his head. “Nope. Nope. Nope. Metal and Water don’t mix. You all go on. I’ll wait right here.” Leo turned, and glared at Ploob. “It’s not water. I don’t know what it is, but it’s not water.”
“So? Is that supposed to make me want to go in it? I don’t know what’s in it.”
“That’s right. You don’t. But it’s either that, or go back into the Underdune alone.” Leo gave him a half smirk, before turning back. “Your choice.” He called, jogging ahead to catch up to Alouette and Kite. Kite heard Ploob groan in disgust before following. They walked to the edge of the island, and jumped down into the water. Kite sniffed the water experimentally, and curled his lip in disgust. “What the hells is this? This isn’t any kind of water I’ve ever seen.”
“It’s cursed water.” Leo bluntly stated. “Something big died a long, long time ago, and it cursed the land around here.” What? Cursed water, corrupted by the death of some figure centuries, or even millennia ago? Kite’s brain began turning those details with all his studies about the Great Blood War. Was it possible that this accursed land (or lack thereof) used to be free and clear? Was this the Great Blue? The ancient legends said that the Great Blue was a hydro-utopia, free of all imperfections and guarded by the Great Wyrms who dwelled in it. He knew that those Wyrms were still alive. Putting those inconsistencies together proved that this wasn’t his goal, but it was getting closer. Something to study when he got the chance. However, right now he had to focus on trudging through this waist-high water, and the horrible sensations that were singing his flesh. At least it felt that way. When they finally managed to clamber over to the wooden dock, he gratefully accepted Alouette’s hand to help him out of the water. Only then did he realize what was happening. There were thousands of little bite marks all over his skin, weaving through the robes he wore. In fact, the robes were covered in small dark splotches that disappeared as he shook around. “Fucking hells. What’s in that water?”
“Parasites.” Leo answered, sweeping down his legs. “They live in there, and eat anything that stays in it too long.”
“Ugh!” Kite called, patting himself down to try and get as many of them off him as possible. Their bites began to burn slightly, then growing steadily more irritable as time passed. “Gods above…”
“Hey, look on the bright side. At least they’re not poisonous.” Leo chimed. Kite glared at him. “I really hope at least a few snuck down below.”
“They’re everywhere, man. Come on, let’s check this place out.” Kite tried to follow, but these bug-bites were getting really annoying. Alouette seemed to notice, and smiled at Kite. “I’ve got you.” She called, and clutched at her necklace. A soft yellow glow emanated from Alouette which spread over to Kite, and he felt a warmth overtake him. Wherever it went, the itchiness and irritation faded to nothingness. “Ah. Thanks, Alouette.”
“Don’t mention it.” She grinned back. They moved as a group to a small collection of huts that jutted out of the water next to a half-sunken tower. Kite walked over to the closest hut’s door, and tried the handle. “Locked.” He reported. Alouette moved close, raising her mace, but stepped back when Leo shook his head at her. Instead, Leo raised his hand, and with a flick of his wrist, produced a small glowing white glove. It floated ahead of the group, and slid its way under the door. Within a few seconds, Kite heard a soft “click”, and the door swung open. “Right. We’re in.” Leo called. Kite nodded, and entered the small hut. The hut was pretty bare, with a small bedroll laid out in the corner. Kite moved closer and carefully pulled back the cover. “Oh gods…” he muttered as a humanoid skeleton rolled out. Alouette walked over at the sound, and slowly shook her head. “Poor bastard.”
“He’s been here a while. Two centuries at the least. There’s not a drop of moisture in these bones.” Kite said aloud, picking up the femur. He turned when Leo said, “He was a soldier. Likely perished when the beast that cursed this land died.”
“Where’d you guess that?” Kite asked. Leo pointed to a rusted sword-hilt peeking out from the edge of the bedroll. “This place is as abandoned as it gets. Even the Vultures don’t like this place.”
“So why are we here then?” Ploob asked, exasperatedly. “Because this isn’t the only place here.”
“I get the feeling you know something more about this place.” Kite said, turning back to Leo. Leo didn’t smile, but Kite could feel his smug demeanor through the air between them. “I might. I might not.”
“Would you be so kind as to inform us then, so we aren’t caught unawares like this guy?” Kite asked with a frown on his face. Leo rolled his eyes. “Sure thing. Bring me a parchment and quill, and I’ll write out the entire history of this place, dating back all the way to the Great Blood War.” Kite raised an eyebrow. “You know that much, huh?”
“Let me put it this way. I know some things. I know some things about this place. I know some things about the thing that died here. Do I want to know? No. Do I want to tell you? No. Do I know where we need to go? Yes.”
“Well then, if you’re being so tight-lipped, where do we need to go?”
“I can feel… I sort of know where we’re going.” Kite raised his hands in exasperation. “Great. We’re just stumbling around in this gods-forsaken wasteland, and you don’t even fucking know where we’re going.” A frown appeared on Leo’s face. “Hey, I didn’t ask for this shit. You think I actually like being stuck in a swamp full of parasites? If I had my way, I’d be off doing anything, and I mean, ANYTHING else. If you don’t like it, you can either shut up, or leave. I’m not forcing you to be here.” Kite growled, and let one of his claws emerge. “Maybe I will.” He shot back. “Fine! Go. You’ll be dead within a day.” Leo waved him away, and Kite unsheathed the rest of his claws. “Kite! Don’t. It’s not worth it. Leo’s right. We can’t afford to split up now!” Alouette pleaded to him. With her insistence, Kite was able to think past his frustrations. They were right. Both of them. Kite retracted his claws, and nodded. “I’m sorry. You’re right. You’re right. It’s just… I hate not having control. I hate not knowing where we’re going.” Leo seemed to relax a little, and nodded sympathetically. “Yeah, I know the feeling. We’re getting closer, though. Once we’re done, we just keep going in this direction.” Kite nodded, and they went to check out the other houses. The next one was a sort of fishery, with racks of strange fishes lining the walls. There were buckets, rods, and bait all spread out haphazardly across the floor, and Kite went to examine the fish a bit more. To be fair, fish were a rarity that he’d read more about then actually seen. These matched no description he’d ever read. These fish were about as large as him, and looked quite heavy. He touched it, and marveled at the strange, slimy sensation of the scales on the outside. Kite opened the lower lip, and studied the sharp fangs in the fish’s mouth. They looked like they could seriously tear something up. Kite decided that this fish shouldn’t go to waste. He unsheathed a single claw, and tore one of the teeth from the jaw. He pocketed the tooth, and followed Leo out, who had apparently decided there wasn’t much to keep him interested here. Together, the group continued on through the muck, and failing passageways. “Hells sakes. Couldn’t they have included some guardrails?” Kite called after nearly falling when a plank broke beneath him. Leo smirked back. “Where’s the excitement in that?” Kite shrugged. “Better that than fall in.”
“Yeah, you’re telling me.” Leo said. Skib suddenly pointed ahead. “Skib thinks he sees it.” Kite craned his neck and thought he could make out the top of some kind of structure way out in the distance. “What is that?” Kite asked. Leo answered, “You’ll see soon. You’re going to love it.” Kite was sure he wasn’t. They continued trekking forwards, and the structure began to be revealed. It was a massive pyramid, surrounded on the lowest base by a curled tail of a slightly smaller wyrm. However, as they approached, the stench of death began to wave through the air. Kite had to pause every now and then to prevent himself from vomiting up his last meal. The other humanoids didn’t seem much better, with Alouette and Leo pulling clips from somewhere to plug their nose. “Can I get one of those?” Kite asked Leo. After a brief eyeroll, Leo pulled another one from his pack and handed it over. Kite plugged his nose, and tried to continue onwards. Soon, they could see the entire corpse wrapped around the pyramid. “Gods above…” Kite said. The massive Wyrm’s inky black skin was riddled with holes from centuries, if not millennia of decay. Only the gods could truly know. Skib slowly approached the dead Wyrm, and began to scrape the side with his claws. “Uh… Skib? Whatcha doing?” Kite called, only to watch as Skib pulled a vial from his bag and collecting some kind of dark liquid from the Wyrm. He then turned to Leo and nodded. What was that about? Kite followed Leo and Skib as they walked around the side of the pyramid, and began to scale the outside. Skib was tall enough to simply pull himself up each side, before turning back to help Leo up. He in turn, helped Alouette up, who helped Kite up. Ploob, meanwhile, simply rode his Rust Beast directly up the side. For once, Ploob took the lead. He whooped in excitement, and turned in his seat to look at the others. “See ya at the top, slowpokes!” He called. Kite shook his head in disgust, trying his best not to slow down, while simultaneously trying not to show how exhausted he was getting. It had been a long day, and he was rapidly approaching the limit of his stamina reserves. Alouette turned, and helped him up another step. “Come on, Kite. We’re nearly there.” She was right. Just four more, and they’d be at the top. He nodded breathlessly, and continued climbing. After four more exertions, they reached the top of the Pyramid. There, they all looked confusedly at a half-broken wooden door. “Uh… what does your sense tell you?” Kite says, letting his concern appear on his face. “We go in.” Leo says, kicking in the half a door. They walked inside, and Kite’s eyes took a second to adjust to the darkness inside. The light shining through the door illuminated a rickety elevator made of wood, a lever, and a single rusting chain. Skib didn’t even hesitate. He strode past everyone, and stood on the elevator. “Skib will operate it.” He said. Alouette looked at the chain with hesitation, and growing concern. “Skib, I don’t think that chain will hold.”
“Nonsense.” Skib replied, jumping up to grab ahold. He hung there on the chain for a solid minute before jumping back down onto the elevator. “Look. Safe.” He said. That seemed to be enough for Ploob who brushed past Kite and Leo to join Skib on the elevator. The elevator groaned in protest, and Skib flicked the lever. With a shudder, the elevator slowly started to descend into the darkness below. Kite looked at Alouette. “See? Skib knows what he was talking about.” Right as he finished saying that, the chain snapped, and the elevator collapsed into the darkness below.

I (25F) have been with my boyfriend (26M) for 5 years now. Within this span, we along with my sister (32F) and my bf’s brother (21M) are now a group of four who like to hang out pretty frequently when my bf comes back home to visit from grad school. We all became pretty close friends during COVID when we started playing video games together, but now we go out to eat, play games, and go to the gym. It’s like we’re all best friends.
My sister has been with her bf (let’s call him Santi) for about 7 years. Theyve been in a long distance (2 hours) relationship this whole time though, and while she’s wanted to get married to him, multiple things have seemed to have hindered this. Honestly most things within Santi’s control. She still hasn’t met her bfs parents due to differences in religion, they don’t know where they would live if they were to be engaged, and I frankly don’t think Santi is ready to get married. They’ve broken up once before bc of being stagnant in the relationship, and now they’re currently on a 2-week break before moving forward.
My sister (let’s call her Addie) has become very close to my boyfriends brother (let’s call him Larry). She lays on him when we’re all watching TV, they text privately beyond our group chats, and you can just tell there’s something there. I told Addie privately back in January when she fought with Santi that she needed to think really deeply if she wants to remain with him based on how she feels about him and all of the time they spent together, and not from any extra attention that she’s been getting elsewhere to fill the void of her relationship. She stated it sounded like I was slut shaming her for something that hasn’t happened, and for just a crush between her and Larry. I left it be, but she was so hurt that I was judging her and stated that she can’t share things with me bc I get so mad so easily and don’t understand because my boyfriend and I have a perfect relationship.
I completely admit that I was in the wrong for doing so, but I looked through her phone today. She’s on a break with her bf but I see that she and Larry text like they’re clearly in a relationship. They send each other kissy faces, hearts, call each other baby, say I miss you, etc. The most jarring thing I saw was her mentioning that they had had sex. Larry was still a virgin from my knowledge.
My sister and her bf’s two-week break is up so she’s going to travel to visit him this weekend. Because they’re on a break I’m sure she won’t mention what she did with Larry, but I feel as though it is still so dishonest regardless of the state of her relationship with her bf. It was not my business to go into her phone, but I could tell how close they are and was so mad she was painting me out to be a bad person for suggesting she should be fair and level-headed when she clearly is doing whatever she wants. I don’t think it’s my place to say anything as they’re making their own choices, and my bf states that what goes around, comes around. I’m just so hurt because we grew up seeing infidelity through my dad, and I know it’s not the same thing but the deceit just makes me so upset. She’s my older sister and I’m so disappointed in her. I feel like I’ve been looking at the world with rose colored glasses and feel stupid for doing so.
I’m not even sure what advice I’m seeking here, tbh. I know I should’ve never looked and it was an invasion of privacy. Ignorance really is bliss.

I was a daily user of 30-60gpd for two years and finally quit Halloween 2021. After about a month and a half I did 30g over the course of two days. From that point on I kept it sporadic. Every two weeks or so at most. Then I moved to a state where it was legal a year ago and smoke shops are everywhere. I used 1-4 times a week reeling myself I was safe because I wasn’t becoming a daily user or getting acute withdraws from going several days to a week. I quit for good again two weeks ago. No acures whatsoever. Maybe slightly disturbed sleep for two nights. But now the PAWS is setting in, paradoxically. It’s worse than that, even. My guts have been in shambles since quitting. Same as last serious quit. It’s like intestinal inflammation or something. I have take several small poops a day. My whole body feels sick throughout the day. The first week my sleep was actually improving, then it got to sleeping maybe four hours a night. I’ve finally think I’ve realized it this time. I can’t even do it occasionally. Luckily, even feeling as bad as I do the thought of putting powder or shots inside me ever again makes me nauseous. I don’t think I had the belief of “I can NEVER do this ever again. I will die before I take anymore” fully instilled in me last time, but the programming has finally been accepted by my CPU. I had to have one last affair with the shit. I had to show myself beyond a doubt that kratom can never be trusted and it is NEVER worth even on time. I always have had thyroid issues and this green garbage has made it so much worse. I’m glad I finally got out of food service and got a mostly office job. I couldn’t function right now otherwise. Heed my cautionary tale, but I’ll understand if you have to figure it out the hard way like I did.

GTA Online is Rockstar's incredibly popular cash cow that has been keeping gamers busy since 2013. Although the game should be relatively mature at this stage in its life, it still has plenty of flaws, such as horrendous loading times. These loading time issues have annoyed countless players, and now one player has tracked down the root issue to improve performance.
GTA V fan T0ST recently picked up GTA Online again to finish some new heists that have come out since he last played, but he was "shocked (/s) to discover that it still loads just as slow as the day it was released 7 years ago." With some grit, determination, and perhaps even some spite, T0ST decided it was "time to get to the bottom of this."
gta online ridiculous load times fixed benchmark
In the process of digging into GTA Online, T0ST had to do due diligence and research to make sure no one else figured out the problem. Once it was established that no one had, he ran some benchmarks on his PC with an aging FX-8350 CPU, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 GPU, 16GB of DDR3, and a "cheap-o" Kingston SSD. Though these parts may be old, they should be plenty to get GTA Online off the ground in decent time, but that is not what happened. According to the data in the blog post, T0ST got into the story mode in approximately one minute and ten seconds, whereas it took nearly six minutes to get into online mode. After some polling, it appears that many other users are having the same issue . What could be happening here?
gta online ridiculous load times fixed taskmanager
Using the task manager, T0ST found that his CPU was being eaten for around four minutes during GTA Online's load process. Perhaps it was just a bottleneck happening on his CPU alone, but that would not make much sense. To track down the issue, T0ST went to dump the running processes' stack, showing where the offending process is happening in RAM. This information, acquired through Luke Stackwalker, gave T0ST a place to look for whatever was causing issues.
gta online ridiculous load times fixed lukestackwalker
After falling down the rabbit hole of trying to track down where the memory pointed, it all started to come together through assembly code reading and obfuscation. Evidently, when loading into GTA Online, a whopping 10MB worth of JSON is being parsed. It seems that it is data for something called "net shop catalog," which is likely just all the things purchasable in GTA Online using in-game currency.
gta online ridiculous load times fixed parseloop
Why this parsing takes so long is due to a function used called sscanf, which, in this instance, can be loosely equated to reading Romeo and Juliet by reading one word, then rereading the play, and then jumping back to the next word in the play. Furthermore, there is another bad programming issue just beside sscanf, which goes through the entire list of JSON entries in an array, one by one, and checks to see if there are duplicates by comparing a unique ID assigned to each item called a hash. Ultimately, it is a lot of extra and unnecessary work that slows down everything.
To solve this issue, T0ST decided to write a .dll (Dynamic Linked Library) and inject it into GTA so that sscanf is effectively streamlined. Also, rather than running duplication checks, they can just be skipped as items inserted into the storage array will always be unique, as was set up during the parsing effort. Once T0ST injected the DLL into GTA with both issues fixed, he saw his load times go from around six minutes down to a solid approximate two minutes.
As T0ST explains, this "won't solve everyone's load times - there might be other bottlenecks on different systems, but it's such a gaping hole that I have no idea how R* has missed it all these years." Ultimately, Rockstar needs to dig into this issue to save all GTA Online players headaches during loading. If you want to see what T0ST did exactly, you can check out his GitHub here and see what is going on. In any case, perhaps we will soon get an official statement from the development company, so keep an eye on HotHardware for updates.

I would like to know if the transition is clunky and if the scenes are confusing or lacking.
(Title: Sunset in the Year 24. Prologue. Words: 1030)

It is the second funeral to take place in the same house in a month. Two weeks ago, Sasaki Shintaro buried his wife after spending several days in hospital care. Yesterday morning, he was found dead in his kitchen wearing his old military uniform next to an open box of keepsakes, a half empty bottle of whiskey and the sound of Nobuo Nishimoto's "Japanese Rumba" skipping on the record player. There was no sign of forced entry, no missing items and no further evidence to suggest suicide. He looked more drunk than dead. 

The rest of his family decided there's no need to take the matter further with the local police. After all, he was eighty-five years old. For anyone, it is a ripe age for death. A normal one even. The family is just relieved that the body was found right away as it is normal these days for the dead to gradually decay with their possessions. It is easy to conclude that Mr. Sasaki had lived a full life. For nearly four decades he was a staple of daily life in Nagara as one of its oldest shopkeepers. The whole town was in grief but with a sense of relief. Mr. Sasaki finally joined his wife shortly and that was comforting news somehow. He is survived by his four children along with ten grandchildren and four great grandchildren.

Go Shunji, the funeral director, was not surprised. Oftentimes in the case of older couples it is normal that spouses follow each other in the course of death. For him, Mr. Sasaki's death is one of the peaceful ones he had ever seen. Any man approaching such an age could only wish to die like he did: peaceful with a certain sense of satisfaction in the life he lived and the acceptance that it is to be taken with no hesitation. It was in all sense of the word, natural. 

Right after the death of his wife, Mr. Sasaki turned to him as a new kind of confidante. His children was never aware of any of his last requests or instructions regarding his death. All of these details were entrusted to him. The first thing to do was to make sure that by the time his family comes to the house, all they would do is mourn. As he ran the funeral from the sidelines, he was approached by a man that was rumored to be the last person Mr. Sasaki had spoken to the day before he died. The last man who entered his shop and into his house by sundown. According to neighbors, Mr.Sasaki had greeted the man out around nine in the evening, giving him an embrace a father would give to a son. A man that he guessed was included in the set of instructions that was handed to him.
"Nomiya, isn't it?"
"Yes."
The two men moved their eyes to the scene of the ceremony.
"They say you're the last man who saw him alive."
"From the looks of it, yes."
Shunji figured they're about the same age. From a distance they look like siblings who parted ways later in life. One is a man of the city, the other a familiar face in the local town. Their graying hair suggests they're somewhere about forty. Their stone cold expressions suggest that they are in possession of a common secret. They are nothing but mere spectators but they are needed to answer far more important questions regarding certain matters.
"Have you received instructions from Mr. Sasaki as well?" He asked.
"No. I told him I would be back. Turns out he didn't have a thing for waiting."
A smile came to his face, "The impatience of old men could be really something."

Nomiya Sakutaro was surprised by the news of Mr. Sasaki's passing but was also relieved. After all, the only thing the old man kept talking about that night is how he was finally going to die. He never spoke of how it would come or if he was going to do it by himself. All he said was that the time has come. He was happy and that unlike other men, he was able to do everything that was expected of him and therefore the universe had no use for him anymore. It was rare to hear an old man use the construct of the universe but Mr. Sasaki had been a firm believer. He contended that among all the things in the world that mortals brought themselves to believe in, it was the universe that had been consistent. God listens but he never acts on his promises. If anything God delivers poorly. Meanwhile, the universe is indifferent. It never offers anything but a sense of clarity. It reminds mortals that they are beings who has to suffer circumstances that was out of their undoing. And perhaps the reason why it is easier to believe in God was because mortals can be arrogant enough to never answer for themselves, hence they say that anything unfortunate is just nothing but God's will. 

That night, the old man told him that he will be back. Rather, he should come back. For Sakutaro, Mr. Sasaki was an admirable man. A war veteran who lost everything over a cause he was indifferent with. At every course of tragedy he made an effort to keep on starting again and never complained. He never told anyone he was better than everybody, let alone that he is entitled in life because he had diligently paid his dues.
By the end of the funeral Mr. Sasaki's family thanked the services of Shunji and entrusted everything to him to complete the rest of the old man's instructions. When the house was finally empty, he and Sakutaro finished the rest of the old man's whiskey.
"How did you know, Mr. Sasaki?" Shunji asked.
"My friend knew him when they were young. He was born in Hiroshima. I'm an aging man myself and this remains to be the strangest story I have so far. I don't know if you will get to keep up with me."
To the sound of Nobuo Nishimoto's "Japanese Rumba", Shunji filled their glasses.
"Indulge me."

Tiktok

• Tiktok launched “Sound for Business” feature to make music more accessible to marketers & SMMs. (News)
• Tiktok launches new Limits for Children users on platform with 60-minute limit per day. (Room)
• Tiktok users soon might have the ability to download videos without watermark. (Matt)
• Tiktok expands “Tiktok search Ads” to more advertisers, target users based on keywords & searches. (SEL)
• Tiktok launched “Series” a new feature that allows creators to charge for premium content. (News)
• Tiktok wins US trademark trial over stitch video feature. (Reuters)
• Tiktok launched “Feed Refresh” feature for all users to start a new content feed . (Platform)
• Tiktok’s Ex-Head of Product said The platform didn’t launch $2B fund for creators, it was for their own business. (HR)
• Tiktok US hearing was talk of the week and it was a complete mess. (Verge)
• Tiktok reached 150 million US users & CEO Shou chew shared a video about it, asking community for support. (News)
• Tiktok updates their content guidelines amid the ban situation in US. (new)

Instagram:

• Instagram starts testing its age verification feature tools in more countries. (TC)
• Instagram’s new “About this account” UI with Paid subscription mentioned. (Tweet)
• Meta is cutting off reels bonuses program for Instagram & Facebook reels. (Here)
• Instagram and Facebook are giving up focus & support for NFTs to focus on other elements of business. (Engadget)
• Instagram will soon allow you to replace audio in reels if original audio is removed from the video. (Highlight)
• Instagram is testing full-length reel replays in IG stories, you will be able to watch & share full-length reels. (SMT)

Meta:

• Facebook launches 90 secs reels, memory prompts for reels & more. (Meta)
• Meta shares how Integration of AI in Ad targeting is resulting in more ROAS for Marketers. (Here)
• Meta funded a new tool to remove explicit images of minors from FB & IG faster. (Insider)
• Meta is working on a decentralised social media app like Twitter. (Platform)
• Facebook made new mentions in a blogpost about Messenger coming back to Facebook app. (Blog)
• Facebook is testing removal of Topics in its groups feature. (DIW)
• Important: WhatsApp users in EU can disagree to terms & services as Meta agrees to EU to comply with consumer protection rights. (Read)
• Meta launches Paid Subscriptions on Instagram and Facebook in the US. (TC)
• Meta is getting rid of Mentorships in Facebook Groups from March 27. (Here)
• Meta is working on a new verification feature to verify your account with missed call. (devs)
• Meta is all set to remove Audio channels from Facebook Groups. (Blog)
• Facebook is shutting down online paid events feature from 8 May. (Read)
• Meta launched updated version of WhatsApp web. (SMT)

Google Ads

• Google updated its Ad Policy with major changes. (News)
• Google Adds 3 new changes to Google Ads dashboard. (SEL)
• Google introduces AI-powered search Ads. (Post)
• Google launched 2 new asset creation & customer acquisition tools. (SEL)
• Google Ads simplifies audience creation with new GA4 Audience builder. (News)
• Google expands local service Ads to more than 70 new businesses. (SEL)
• Google announces new “Prohibited Use Policy” for AI Products & content. (News)
• New Google Analytics item-scoped custom dimensions. (Blog)
• 5 new updates to Google Adsense Auto Ads. (Post)
• Google announces use of AI in Google Drive, Docs & Gmail. (Blog)
• 3 new google Discovery Ads Features. (SEL)

Twitter:

• Twitter Blue Expands to 20 more countries. (mashable)
• Twitter updated its violent content policies. (Update)
• Twitter to charge $42k per month for API access for enterprises. (wired)
• Twitter now shows everyone “Bookmark count” for your tweets. (Pocket)
• Twitter working on “Why You’re seeing this tweet” feature to inform users about their interests. (Elon)
• Happened: Twitter got rid of 2FA verification within the app for regular users, it is a twitter blue only service now.
• Twitter to kill earned legacy blue check marks, only paid blue checks will be available from 1st April. (CNN)
• Twitter starts charging $1000 per month for verification badge to organisations & enterprises. (Help)
• Elon musk releases algorithm for Twitter recommendations.

Google Search:

• Google’s Bard AI ChatBot launches in US & UK.
• Google provides new update on FLEDGE that might be a relief for SEOs & PPCs. (SEJ)
• Google roles out new updated desktop search design with new site names & more. (SEL)
• Google March 2023 Broad core Update Tremors & Fluctuations continue.
• Googles February 2023 Product Reviews Update Finished rolling out. (SET)

Youtube:

• Youtube’s help forum announces big changes to the Forums. (TB)
• Youtube will stop showing overlay Ads on desktop starting this month. (Check)
• Youtube Updated their policies regarding Profanity after creator backlash, videos are eligible for monetisation. (blog)
• Youtube will allow you to add Youtube Shorts thumbnails on iOS. (blog)
• Youtube adds new metrics for multi-language audio & feature for Shorts Audio page sharing. (Creator news)
• Youtube podcasts are now available to create in Youtube Studio & ability to measure performance. (Tweet)

LinkedIn:

• LinkedIn launches collaborative articles for users to be more engaging & share insights. (Blog)
• LinkedIn provides new segmentation options for its company engagement report. (Blog)
• LinkedIn introduced 5 new features to Sales navigator to sell better. (News)
• LinkedIn adds more Ad targeting criteria & new tips for B2C campaigns. (SMT)
• LinkedIn launched new AI features like profile summary feature, Job description & more. (Read)
• LinkedIn launched “Podcast Academy” to help podcasters to do better at it.(blog)
• LinkedIn launched new feature to share posts with multiple members at once. (Post)
• LinkedIn rolls out four updates for business pages.(blog)

Pinterest:

• Pinterest is testing a premium Ad Format with an schedule. (SEL)

Microsoft:

• Microsoft Bing AI working on save chats & more features. (Seroundtable)
• Global head of Microsoft advertising steps down. (SEL)
• Microsoft layed off another set of 10,000 employees working in US. (DNA)
• Microsoft Bing AI is available for everyone, waitlist is gone. (central)
• Microsoft adds AI tools to Outlook, Word & other apps. (AP)
• Microsoft integrates new text-to-image creator to Bing AI. (Bing)
• Microsoft introduces category based targeting for Search Ads. (SEJ)

Trying to post all the updates with linking I had an error. You can find all of these updates with links here.

Part 60
Julie Allard, CEO, Divine Crisis Management Group
Julie straightened up, the lines across her hips from the edge of the desk beginning to itch now that they were free. Bill collapsed back in his chair, opening a desk drawer to produce a box of tissues. He pulled a handful out to clean himself with.
"That was good," Julie purred, her knees shaking as she waited for Bill to finish so she could sit on his lap. Bill crumbled up the tissues and she plopped down. "Mmm, this is good, too," she said, leaning back against him.
"We could stay just like this for a while," Bill suggested.
"I wish," Julie said. "I'm going to start leaking soon... And we need to clean your desk." Bill leaned around her, seeing the mess on his desk. He chuckled. "I have to admit, I like the fact that I never have to worry about you faking it."
Julie snorted, then leaned against him.
"You gave me a funny look earlier," she said. "When the guys from the Army were here."
"Well, in my defense, a naked, beautiful woman stood up from under my desk while I was trying to talk shop with an old buddy of mine."
"Mmmhmm," Julie said. "It didn't have anything to do with the... Details of said naked woman?"
Bill looked at her. He reached forward, wiped a finger through the cooling bodily fluids on the desk and stuck it in his mouth.
"That only proves you're a pervert," Julie said with feigned primness.
"I'll drink it straight from the tap, then," Bill said, seizing her hips and plopping her on the desk. Julie squealed. "Not so soon, you ass!" Bill grinned at her.
"You'll make me giggle like a little girl," Julie tried to pout as she said it, but she couldn't stop grinning back at him.
"That only makes it more appealing," Bill said. Julie crossed her legs. "No! We can do that later. I need to go call in the rest of the guys your friend needed, anyways."
Bill glanced over at the potted plant with a small pile of fabric behind it. "Your clothes are over there," he said.
Julie finally managed to pout. "You're not going to get them for me?"
Bill eyed her legs. "Not as long as you've got that ass, no. I will never pick anything up off the floor for you."
Julie chuckled and stood, walking over to the plant and retrieving her clothes. She quickly dressed and arranged herself so as to minimize the evidence of a desktop tryst.
"How do I look?" she asked, turning for Bill's inspection.
"Harried," he said. "Which tracks with what's been going on. Also amazing, but that's par for the course."
She walked over as he finished buckling his own pants to kiss him. "I'll be back if I can. If not, I'll see you after work."
She turned to leave, but stopped when she heard Bill's voice. "Julie," he said. He sounded concerned. She turned to find him frowning.
"What is it?" His look worried her.
"It's Jerry," he said. "I think you might be too harsh on him."
Julie sighed. She tamped down on the twisting in her guts at his words and reminded herself that she needed to be objective.
"Explain," she said, her voice much colder than she intended.
"Julie," he said. "Haven't you noticed that virtually everyone who knows him has stood up for him? I mean, I know that the stuff Dylan told you sounds bad, and I know that you confirmed it. Hell, I know that him going rogue again looks bad... But there's got to be a reason so many people support him."
"He's nice to everyone he meets," Julie said. She had intended to go on, but she caught herself. She was making excuses. She was about to claim that the most awkward, easily-embarrassed wallflower of a man she'd ever met had simply charmed everyone else. And she damn well knew that wasn't the case. Sure, he could turn on an aura that would make women -and presumably gay men- go wild for him, but she was fairly certain he hadn't done so in years. He was self-conscious about even discussing the last time he had, even though she knew he'd had his memories erased at the time and was acting out of character, thanks to some kind of magical illness.
"I'll think about it, Bill," she said, her voice much softer.
"That's all I'm asking," he said. "And I'll support you, whatever decisions you come to."
She smiled at him. That part, she had no trouble believing.
"I'll see you later," she said.
"L- I mean, later, beautiful," he replied. His face twisted a little, but quickly returned to normal. Julie left, wondering what that look was about.
----
Julie went to the bathroom first. When she was done, she went to her office and sent out the emails to recall the men for the Army. She had just gotten those sent when she sensed a presence and looked up to find a woman sitting in the chair in front of her desk.
"Hello," Julie said, surprised.
"Hi," the woman responded. She wore a nice dress suit, much like Julie's own, except the woman still had her jacket on and buttoned. She had fair features and black hair with a red stripe in it.
"Can I help you?" Julie asked.
"No," the woman said.
They sat there for a moment, Julie edging a finger closer to the alarm rune on the underside of her desk.
"I'm here to help you," the woman said at length. There was something about her voice that seemed familiar, but Julie couldn't place it.
"Okay," Julie responded. "Can you explain how?"
"Yes. Listen to Bill about Jerry," the woman said. She leaned forward and the sense of vague familiarity hit Julie again. She was certain she knew this woman from somewhere.
"What did Bill say about Jerry?" Julie asked, carefully choosing her words to avoid any accidental admissions.
"That you're being too harsh on him," the woman said. She leaned forward some more, putting her elbows on her knees.
"Bill's right. You see, Bill is a very confident man. He's aware that other men might be better in bed, or better fighters, or better at their jobs than him. He doesn't really care. You pushing away Jerry isn't going to make him feel more secure in your relationship. He's not worried about you leaving him to return to the arrangement you had with Jerry and his wife. He knows you well enough to know you wouldn't want that. Being a fifth wheel, I mean."
Julie gasped as the recognition suddenly crystalized. "Jane," she breathed. Jane flashed her a tight smile and a little nod. "more or less," she said cryptically. Julie took that to mean this was an avatar.
"What can you tell me about everything that's happened?" Julie asked.
"Well, General Stanley's fears are justified, so don't hold back aiding him. Some of the gods are dissenting. A few will sit out the upcoming conflict. A few will side with humanity. A few more will side specifically with Jerry. In fact, they already have. Unfortunately, those who've sided with Jerry are probably not going to help us in this fight."
"And why? Why are they turning on us?"
"Because They're afraid of you. You have power now, and Jerry worked out a way to kill a god. They know if he can do it, another human can, as well. Some of the work your wizards are doing is shockingly close to what Jerry did. Most of them have turned against him, though not all. But in doing so, many have turned against humanity as a whole. They don't plan to let you have back the army you've sent to assist them. Most of them think that will be a serious blow to your might. They don't know it's just a small part of one army among many. And when they learn that, well... They're not going to grow any less afraid of you, that's for sure."
"You make out like the gods are a bunch of cowards," Julie said. Jane chuckled and nodded, crossing her arms.
"They are. They're scared of Jerry, scared of Sarisa, scared of you, scared of me and Yarm. Mostly me, but still. They'd be afraid of their own shadow, if they didn't know better. The gods have spent thousands of years being immortal and invincible. Only one god has ever truly died, and that was a massive fluke. They've never been given the chance to develop any courage. They're experiencing a threat for the first time ever, so their reaction is to attack everything until there's nothing left to threaten them."
"Except Yarm," Julie said. Jane nodded. "Except Yarm. And you can guess where he stands."
Yarm would stand with Jerry, no doubt. Julie knew that the two of them were as close as they could be without becoming lovers. "And what about Jerry?" she asked.
"Jerry is doing exactly what he needs to be doing right now. For himself, and for everyone else."
Julie nodded, taking that in. "And you? Where do you sit in this fight?"
Jane shrugged. "I was human until a few years ago. Old loyalties die hard."
Julie leaned back in her chair, relieved.
Jane stood. "I have to go. I have a lot on my plate, lately. There's no certainty, but I want you to know that things are on the right track, so far. As long as Sarisa doesn't have any more tricks up her sleeve, everything's going to work out."
"And if she does?" Julie asked, rising as well.
Jane shrugged again, making a sort of sneer that Julie recognized as a suppressed wince. "Then we'll either adapt or lose."
"And what happens if we lose?"
"The destruction of all the gods and the extinction of humanity. At least in this world."
"So, no pressure," Julie drawled. Jane grinned. "No pressure," she said. She turned to the door and opened it, then paused.
"Oh, one more thing..." She met Julie's eyes.
"Tell Bill that you're in love with him. He's been itching for 'the right time' to tell you, but you know how men are about that kind of stuff."
Julie gaped at the goddess as she left with a wink. A moment later, she returned to her computer and began typing more emails. She had a feeling that pulling out all the stops might be appropriate.
----
Command Sergeant Major Eric Hale, 5th Special Forces Group
"The president will see you now, Sergeant," the marine guard said. Hale stood and walked in. Hale walked into the conference room to find the POTUS and a Navy Admiral shaking hands.
"Thank you, Fred," the President said. The Admiral nodded and walked out as Hale snapped to attention and saluted his Commander in Chief.
"Knock it off," the President told him, pulling out a chair, and then walking around the table to take one opposite. "Take a seat. I've been on my feet all day."
"Thank you, sir," Hale said as he sat down and scooted his chair in.
"I'm told you have a message for me from General Stanley."
Hale nodded. "Yes, sir. I was to give you his message verbatim. It goes as follows: 'Sir, if this shit goes down and we don't throw everything we have at it in one big mass, right off the bat, I do not think we will survive'. End of message."
The President nodded.
"I expected this, you know," he said. "The folks from the DCM -including that guy from the television show and the woman who produces it- were fairly apocalyptic in their description of events."
The President heaved a big sigh. "That was Admiral Strang. He happened to be in the building, so he personally reported to me that the second and third battalion of the Tenth Special Forces just arrived stateside on naval flights. They're preparing to be deployed as we speak."
"Sir, with all due respect, I think we're going to need more than just two more battalions of quiet professionals. We're going to need a complete mobilization. I just came from the DCM, and they promised me a hundred wizards and over four hundred shooters with magic gear. I think we're going to need more, sir. A lot more."
"A total war footing," the President said. "That's what you're talking about. A return to a World-War-Two era economy."
"Sir, I couldn't speak to economic concerns, but I have the upmost faith in the General's judgement."
"You and me both, Sergeant," the President said with a sigh. He sighed again a moment later.
"Okay, Sergeant. My break is over, I need to get moving. You can tell the General I'm doing everything I can. If you want to return to the waiting room, I'll send a Marine to escort you to the helipad and you can take the chopper over to Fort Carson. I'll send instructions for Colonels Macy and Gibbs to follow your lead."
"Thank you, sir," Hale said, standing up. He snapped another salute, but the President stuck out his hand.
"Thank you, Sergeant. You and every single one of the men out there right now, and all of those heading there today and in the future. Your service is an inspiration to all of us. I know you hear empty platitudes from politicians all the time, but I want to personally assure you that I mean it."
"You served yourself, sir," Hale said, shaking the President's hand.
"I did. In Afghanistan. It seems like forever ago."
"Then thank you, Mister President," Hale said. The President laughed.
"Yeah, thank me, too. Go on. I'm a busy man, Sergeant."
Hale hurried out, back to the waiting room. He had barely sat down before a Marine Gunnery Sergeant walked into the room. "Sergeant Hale?" he asked.
Hale stood. "This way, si- Sergeant," the Marine said.
"Do I have to say it, Gunny?" Hale asked.
"Nope," the Marine responded. "I'm kicking myself already."
----
President James Carter
James' staff met him as he left the conference room. "Okay," he asked Marcy, to his left. "Who's next?"
"Director Stillman, sir," she said. James sighed with relief. "Good. Hopefully he's got some good news for us."
He followed Marcy through the halls, to one of the secured meeting rooms. Inside, he found Frank Stillman, Director of Central Intelligence.
"Frank, please tell me you've got good news," James said as he shook his old friend's hand.
"Well, that depends on what you need the news for. Word is that we're going to war. Like World War Three. Is that true?"
"Jesus, you guys work fast," James breathed. "I literally just came from hearing about it."
"Ways and means, sir," Frank said. James chuckled ruefully.
"So yeah, I wanted to know about project Hoplite."
"Hoplite is ahead of schedule. We can field the first cadre, already. The second will be ready in a month."
"Good. What about project, uh..." James snapped his fingers. "Project Merlos, sir?"
"Yes, I could never remember that name. We should have just called it 'Merlin'. Or maybe 'Gandalf'."
"We almost called it Project Dresden, sir, but we've had one of those already."
"I don't even want to know. So how far along is Merlos?"
"We have four cadres ready right now. That's about three hundred and sixty men."
"That'll be a big help. How fast can they get organized?"
"They're prepping now, sir. They'll be ready to go within the hour. I had planned to have them travel ahead."
"Good, good. And you know I have to ask about the last one."
Frank's face split into a grin. "Project Tarragon, sir."
"That's the one."
Frank's grin grew wider. "Six," he said. James' jaw dropped. "Six?!"
"Yes, sir. Ready to go right this instant."
"Shit, the NRF riders must be fast learners."
"There's a sort of bonding that happens. By training the riders first, we can have another two ready two months from the next hatch."
"You look pretty pleased with yourself," James noted. Frank winked. "I am, sir. These projects have been my baby for the past few years. Having them come to fruition right as they're needed, well... I'm eager to see them in action."
"Don't be too eager. I'm told that if we don't win this one, we go extinct."
"Extinction has shades of gray, sir. If things get too bad, well, we've got a plan for that, too."
"Oh?" James quirked an eyebrow at him. "Do tell."
"Well, sir. You see, me and Jerry go way back. I was his boss when he worked for the Agency."
"I'm aware," James said. Frank smiled.
"Well, he and I got on quite well. So well, in fact, that neither of us wanted to end our professional relationship when he left for the private sector. As a result, we've been in touch about important matters. The last thing he contacted me about was a sort of extra dimensional bunker, set up by the gods to preserve humanity in the event of some extinction-level event. Except the gods don't really seem to know about it. Well, except one, and I've been given assurances that she's sympathetic to our cause."
"Well, that does sound useful."
Frank's smile turned into a grin that split his face from ear to ear. "We've also taken the liberty of adding some extra defenses, sir. If we can hold out for two more months, in addition to the two new Tarragon pairs, I can provide you with a bunker from which any continuing war effort can be directed in perfect safety."
"Well, shit, don't let me keep you, then. Have your project's soldiers travel to the other side as quickly as possible, and report their capabilities and needs to General Stanley."
"Right away, sir."
Frank walked out without another word. A very efficient man, that one, James thought. He stepped outside to find Marcy and the others waiting.
"Next?" he said with a sigh.
----
Bill Martin, All in All, Having a Pretty Good Day
Bill finished up the rest of his work and shut down his computer. Eric was as set as he could be. Gear for a thousand DCM security agents was being shipped to the Army camp, and hundreds of wizards and security agents (with their own gear, of course) were heading there as well, some already moving, others heading out in the days to come.
He stretched his back and then angled his desk lamp to be sure he'd cleaned up the mess from earlier. As he nodded to himself in satisfaction, he heard the door opening and looked up. Julie was there, her shirt half-unbuttoned and her hair a bit more of a mess than he remembered leaving it in.
"Everything okay?" he asked.
"Yes, just..." She sighed. "It's been a long day."
"I rather enjoyed lunch," Bill said. "Though I'm still hungry, for some reason..." Julie smiled at him.
"You know, there's probably no-one left in the office who might come knocking..." Bill said, suggestively.
"I know," Julie said, indicating her shirt. "But before we get to that, I need you to do something. In a professional capacity, I mean."
Bill's eager grin faded, replaced by his business expression, which some people tended to find intimidating for some reason. He scratched one heavily cauliflowered ear and idly wondered why as he waited for Julie to go on. For her part, she seemed reluctant to say it.
Finally, she worked up the nerve. "I want you to take a team. Six security, six wizards. The best, even if you have to recall them from the other side. I mean, the best we have. Take them and go find Jerry, and assist him with whatever he needs. Here," she reached into the pocket of the jacket slung over one arm and produced a compass.
"What's this?" Bill asked, accepting the compass.
"It will lead you directly to him. He gave it to me once, in case..."
"In case you needed to get laid?" Bill asked, his expression still all business. "I'm sorry, that sounded bitter. I mean, I don't understand why you'd need to find him."
"In case I needed to have him killed," Julie blurted out. "He made it and gave it to me. I think he made a few and gave them to the people he trusted."
"And he trusted you with one," Bill said. Julie winced.
"I'm not jealous," Bill said.
"What?" Julie asked.
"I'm not jealous, I said. I know you two used to have some kind of a thing going, and I know he's probably some kind of inhuman lover. But I can live with the fact that you were his sidepiece for a while."
Julie winced again.
"Sorry," Bill said. "My mouth is bad at translating what's in my head sometimes. I just mean to say that I've never had a problem with you and him working together, or even being friends. I know there wasn't any... Romance there."
"Are you... Is there romance here?" Julie asked him in a quiet voice.
"I sure as shit hope so, or I'm in for a really bad time," Bill said. He wanted to say something else, but it was hard to just jump to that.
Julie giggled.
"What?" Bill asked.
"Nothing, it was just something someone said to me earlier today."
She stepped forward, her body pressed to his and kissed him.
"I love you, Bill Martin," she whispered.
"I lo- Wow. Uh, I wasn't expecting that..." he muttered, his thick neck turning a bright shade of red.
"Sounds like maybe you were," Julie said.
"Motherfucker," Bill swore. "Julie, I've had a crush on you since the moment we met. At my interview. I saw you sitting there and afterwards, when I went home, I couldn't get that image out of my head. And I... I'm... I've been in love with you since that morning at the diner, when that asshat kept running his mouth."
Julie smiled at him. "So you love me?"
"Yeah," Bill said. Something snapped inside his chest and he seized her face in his hands and kissed her deeply. Her lips felt different, warmer, softer than he remembered. The skin of her cheeks under his calloused thumbs was smoother, fuller. The feeling of her body pressed up against his was...
It felt like coming home, he thought.
They kissed for a long moment before Bill drew back. "I uh..." he stammered.
"You need to get your team together," Julie said.
"Yeah," he responded, looking around as if they were here, waiting for him.
He clutched the compass to his chest. "I saw Michelle's report," he said. "From what she said, he's moving across planes."
"Stacey Compton is probably the most talented plane walker we have," Julie said. "And she's been working on the teleporter improvements. She should still be here."
Bill nodded. "I'll grab her. She got a rave review from one of the security teams when she was doing field work. Cool head under pressure. I still need to figure out the rest."
"You can leave in the morning, you know," Julie said. Bill met her gaze, and saw the twinkle there.
"The door's still open," he said.
"I thought you said there wasn't anyone left to disturb us..." Julie said teasingly. Bill grinned. "In that case, the couch in the lobby is bound to be more comfortable than my desk."
Julie took his hand and led him out of the office.
----
Bill woke up and froze, the unfamiliarity of his surroundings speeding up his heart. But only for a second. He recognized Julie's bedroom. His hand brushed her sleeping back as the memories of last night returned. His eyes went to the dresser, where his handgun, wallet, and a small compass were laid out.
They'd had dinner, then come back here and enjoyed their third tryst of the day before falling asleep in each others arms. He remembered the words they'd shared, and tried them out again on her sleeping back.
"I love you," he said. Julie murmured something and pulled the hand he'd placed on her hip down over her belly. He gave her a moment to cuddle, then gently extricated his hand and climbed out of bed. He jumped in the shower and washed quickly. A small pump bottle of brightly colored body wash-slash-shampoo and conditioner, obviously marketed to men, sat unopened to one side, so he cracked that one and used it.
He climbed out and dried himself off, and found Julie still asleep when he emerged. She'd rolled onto her back and lay stretched out on the bed, her hair a chestnut halo around her head, like some kind of angel. He considered snapping a picture, but the blankets were tangled around her knees, and he didn't want to do something that would piss her off, like taking nude photos of her sleeping. But he really wanted to remember this, so he stared for a long moment before getting dressed.
"Mmm, leaving?" Julie murmured as he pulled his boots on.
"Was gonna wake you up, see if you wanted to get breakfast before I go," he said.
"Mmmmmmm," she responded, her eyes still closed. She reached out and seized his forearm gently.
"Mmm, I love you," she said. Bill grinned down at her, barely able to stand how gorgeous and adorable she was.
"I love you, too," he said.
Her eyes snapped open. "I wanna get breakfast," she said.
"Okay, then come on," he replied.
She sat up, rubbing her eyes. "I need a shower," she said.
"Clock's ticking," Bill noted. She swung her legs out of bed, then slumped.
"Fuck the shower, you have to go, soon."
"Yeah," Bill agreed sadly.
"Okay, lemme brush my teeth, at least." She stood and padded into the bathroom, so Bill sat patiently on the bed and waited. She emerged a few minutes later. "Clothes," she said, then turned to the closet as if she'd just remembered that clothes were a thing. She dug out a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and quickly pulled them on.
"I'll wear sandals," she said, grabbing a pair of large-framed sunglasses from her dresser. "Come on."
They went to a diner two blocks away that they'd visited a few times before. Breakfast was ordered, delivered and eaten, coffee was poured, fawned over, and drank quickly. Finally, Julie settled the bill.
"Bill," she said. "When you get there, tell him I'm sorry, okay? I was... Part of it was personal reasons. I kinda wanted to push him away. So you could..."
"So I could get closer?" Bill asked. she nodded.
"I'll tell him."
They stood and walked outside. At Bill's car, he stopped and turned. "Are you sure you don't want a ride home?"
"Yeah, this is a safe neighborhood. And I've still got that handgun in my purse. And it's only two blocks. You need to get moving, as much as I want to draw this out."
Bill nodded. He stroked her hair, then pulled some of it to his face and breathed deeply.
"Yuck," Julie said. "I haven't washed it."
"It smells like you," Bill said. "Best thing I've ever smelled."
"Ahh, that's right. We haven't been out for tacos yet," Julie said. Bill chuckled.
"You don't have any jewelry on," he said, disappointed. Julie cocked her head at him. "Is that a problem?"
"I guess not, I just... I wanted something of you. To bring with me. I'm damn sure I'm riding into a fight."
"Give me your knife," Julie said. Bill's eyebrows rose, but he complied, handing over the razor-sharp Benchmade he kept clipped to his belt. She unfolded it, seized a lock of her hair and chopped it off in a quick motion. Bill gasped.
"Your hair!" he said. Julie handed him the knife back and carefully began to tie the hair into a complex knot.
"I was about to cut it short, anyways. I like to change it up from time to time. Here," she handed him the small ring of braided hair, and he took it. Bill looked at it, then up at Julie.
"I love you," he said again.
Julie beamed at him. "I love you, too. Now let me go get in the shower. I've got to get to the office." She kissed him once on the lips and spun on her heels, striding away quickly. Bill climbed in the driver's seat and looked up to see she'd stopped and was watching him.
He raised the hair and kissed it. She smiled, blushed and turned away.

If you love swimming, you're probably dreaming of the day when you can have your own pool in your backyard. Since designing and building a pool of your own is no easy task, you'll have plenty to think about once you decide on the size and shape of your pool. These considerations will affect your swimming experience, budget, and energy level!
To help you narrow down the possibilities, here are four swimming pool shapes to suit every taste.
https://perfectpoolsofva.blogspot.com/2022/12/4-swimming-pool-shapes-you-can-choose.html

I am currently 10 weeks pregnant and feel terrible about the drinking I've done. I found out around 3-4 weeks and had been more reliant on alcohol than I'd like to admit. If I stopped I wouldn't have withdrawals or anything but I certainly liked my drinks. I found out right after my vacation ended and did everything under the sun in those first 3-4 weeks that are no-nos. Plenty of drinking, sushi, loaded caffeine drinks. After finding out I told myself that a drink or two wouldn't hurt here and there after a quick Google search and I grabbed a couple 99 single shooters and had four? I think? In the span of 6 hours at around 5 weeks, and a beer on st Patty's day and a single beer after a couple stressful days. What I am truly scared about is that recently, about 9w4d in I went out with friends for the day and grabbed two more shots of the 99 single shooters, had the first (on a full stomach) then the second about 2 hours later. Then had a 9% abv (from what I could google) fat Tuesday drink consumed over 2-3 hrs (about another 1.5 hrs after the second shot) and then about 3 hours later I had a single 5% beer over the course of 3 hours. It wasn't until that night in bed that I realized just how much I drank and didn't know about the risks of shots versus slow low abv drinking until after I stressed googled. I thought I'd be able to enjoy a drink here and there while pregnant but am beginning to realize that while some women can and are comfortable, I am truly not. The guilt is truly wracking my brain and I am so so worried I've hurt them without knowing about the full risks :/ From what I find it seems the 1st trimester is the worst for exposure whereas I thought it was the least. Please do not judge me, I am doing my best and made mistakes early but am resigned to stop now for the rest of the pregnancy. I simply cannot handle the guilt, even over a simple beer or glass of wine. At 7w5d weeks my ob said she wasn't worried about these previous consumptions and really didnt show much concern over my vaping habit as well (which I still do but am tapering down with a goal to quit by 12 weeks) but that was before my recent, irresponsible escapade. Just looking for anything judgement free to ease my mind a bit more and some anecdotal stories to help. Any studies found or advice given by midwives/obs are absolutely welcome as well. Also, I have read expecting better by Emily Oster but am still worrying to death :/ Thank you in advance.

• a stressed, regretful, irresponsible mom :/

Edit: I am 27, have been taking prenatals and iron supplements since I found out at 3 weeks, try to keep a healthy diet consisting of high iron foods, protein, grains, and veggies/fruit, and participate in moderate exercise daily as I work in retail as well. I am classified as overweight being 5' tall at 165 lbs (which I was trying to improve before pregnancy as well and will continue to do after they are here).

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TL;DR at the bottom of this wall of text
I see way too many posts about people who are having trouble with boilers and steam engines, and the answer is actually really simple and it's down to not knowing how boilers work. So, I want to explain how boilers work in a sufficient amount of depth to answer pretty much any question one would have about boilers. This is all stuff that I found out via in-game experimentation, mostly in creative mode but these principles don't seem to change at all in survival mode. If you feel like I've missed an important detail, feel free to say so, and I'll address it.

1: What makes a boiler?

The most important part of the steam engine is the boiler. The boiler is the source of the power for the engine itself, and without a boiler, the engine will not run. The better the boiler, the more steam engine blocks you can attach to it, and the faster those blocks will spin.
A boiler is, simply put, a bunch of fluid tank blocks assembled into a 1x1 tower, a 2x2 tower, or a 3x3 tower. When you build this, all the fluid tanks will form together into one big tank, but at that point, it is still just a tank. What turns that fluid tank into a boiler is when you attach either a steam engine block or a steam whistle block, the big tank turns into a boiler. At this point, you're ready to get started.
Note that once the boiler is assembled, any "what block am I looking at" mods you have will still show it as a "fluid tank" and a certain amount of fluid that it can hold, but it won't actually hold any fluid at that point. Any water piped in will vanish instantly, and any other liquids piped in won't actually go into it. This is normal, and by design; if your boiler doesn't seem to be holding water, don't panic; it's not supposed to.

2: How do I make it go?

Once you've assembled your boiler, your steam engine is ready to start working. A functioning steam engine requires three things: Size (number of fluid tank blocks that make up the boiler), heat (number of heat sources placed below the tank blocks), and water (speed at which water is being pumped into the boiler).
If you wear engineer's goggles, you'll be able to see how well your boiler is doing on these three factors. If any one of those factors is too low for the steam engine to work at all, it will be highlighted in red. If the size is too small, add more tank blocks; you'll need at least four all melded together into one big tank. If the heat is too low, put a hot block underneath it; blaze burners work best, but campfires, magma, fire, and lava all work too. If the water is too low, speed up the mechanical pumps that are pumping water into the boiler; a steam engine requires a constant, FAST flow of water.
The important thing to note is that the power of a steam engine is defined by the LOWEST of the three stats. If you want your steam engine to go faster, figure out which stat is the lowest, and make it better as described in the above paragraph.

3: What do the stats mean?

A steam engine has four stats: Level, Size, heat, and water. These stats are all visible Here are what determines each of those stats and what they do, in detail:
LEVEL: A steam engine's overall level is equal to the LOWEST among its three other stats. If any of the other three stats (size, heat, or water) are too low to reach level one, the steam engine's overall level will be zero, and it won't work at all. (With one important exception that will be explained later.) A steam engine is only as strong as its weakest stat.
For each one level the steam engine has, it can spin one actual steam engine block at maximum speed. Adding more steam engine blocks will slow all the attached engine blocks down, so you want to have exactly one steam engine block per level of the boiler.
SIZE: A steam engine's size level is determined by the number of fluid tank blocks used to build the boiler. For every four fluid tank blocks, the size stat will increase by 1, up to a maximum of 18 size, which is achieved when the boiler is 72 tank blocks big. Note that by default, a fluid tank will only work up to 32 blocks tall, so unless you mess with the configs, you'll need to build a 2x2 base or 3x3 base boiler to reach size 18.
HEAT: A steam engine's heat level is determined by how many blaze burners are active beneath it. Certain blocks, such as inactive blaze burners, campfires, magma blocks, lava, and fire, all technically count as heat sources, but don't actually increase the heat of the boiler; more on that later.
For each single active blaze burner directly beneath the boiler itself, the boiler's heat level will increase by 1. A superheated blaze burner will increase the boiler's heat level by 2. This means that a 1x1 base boiler can only go up to heat level 1, or heat level 2 if using superheated blaze burners. A 2x2 base boiler can have a heat level up to 4, or 8 with superheated burners, and a 3x3 base boiler can have a heat level up to 9, or 18 with superheated burners.
WATER: A steam engine's water level is determined by how quickly water is being pumped in, NOT by how much water you pump in. The easiest way to determine this is by checking the speed at which the mechanical pump being used to move water into the boiler is spinning. From my testing, a single mechanical pipe spinning at a speed of 40 RPM can supply water fast enough to reach 1 water. Adding additional pipes feeding into the boiler that are spinning at the same speed, or speeding up the existing pipes, can both increase the boiler's water further. For example, a pipe spinning at 80 RPM is worth 2 water, while a pipe spinning at 120 RPM is worth 3 water, and so on.
You can also right click a boiler with a bucket of water (in some newer versions of Create) to dump the entire bucket of water in at once. This will raise the boiler's heat to 18, but the heat will only stay there a few seconds. This is usually long enough to start a boiler running, so that it may then feed itself with water.

4: What was that important exception you mentioned?

There is one stat which can SORT OF be level zero, and the steam engine will still run while it is. This stat is heat. As mentioned previously, some blocks count as heat sources, but don't actually increase the heat level at all. These include magma blocks, lava, fire, campfire blocks, and inactive blaze burners. If a boiler is heated ONLY by these blocks, NO MATTER HOW MANY OF THEM ARE USED, it will always have heat level passive, which is lower that heat level 1, but higher than heat level 0.
If a boiler has heat level passive, its overall level can never be higher than passive. At level passive, a steam engine can support one eighth of a steam engine block. That is to say, if you attach one single steam engine to a boiler running at level passive, said steam engine block will operate at 1/8^th speed. This has the advantage that you don't need to feed any actual fuel into the steam engine, aside from water, which is just straight-up infinite.

5: TL;DR

Here's the entire guide again, condensed into as few words as I can manage:
How to make it: make a big fluid tank, stick a steam engine on it, put something hot underneath it, and pump a LOT of water into it. You can right click on the tank with a bucket of water to get it started.
How to make it better: 4 fluid tanks = 1 point in size, 1 active blaze burner = 1 point in heat, 40 RPM pump speed of water = 1 point in water. Take the lowest number of points out of those three things, and put one steam engine block onto your fluid tank for each point that the lowest thing has. To make it better, give the lowest thing more points, then attach more steam engines until you have one steam engine for each point the new lowest thing has.
The exception: using a hot block other than an active blaze burner gives passive heat. Passive heat is the same as having 1/8^th of a point in heat, and you will never have more heat than that unless you specifically use active or superheated blaze burners. Superheated blaze burners are worth 2 points of heat, but usually aren't worth it.

GTA Online is Rockstar's incredibly popular cash cow that has been keeping gamers busy since 2013. Although the game should be relatively mature at this stage in its life, it still has plenty of flaws, such as horrendous loading times. These loading time issues have annoyed countless players, and now one player has tracked down the root issue to improve performance.
GTA V fan T0ST recently picked up GTA Online again to finish some new heists that have come out since he last played, but he was "shocked (/s) to discover that it still loads just as slow as the day it was released 7 years ago." With some grit, determination, and perhaps even some spite, T0ST decided it was "time to get to the bottom of this."
gta online ridiculous load times fixed benchmark
In the process of digging into GTA Online, T0ST had to do due diligence and research to make sure no one else figured out the problem. Once it was established that no one had, he ran some benchmarks on his PC with an aging FX-8350 CPU, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 GPU, 16GB of DDR3, and a "cheap-o" Kingston SSD. Though these parts may be old, they should be plenty to get GTA Online off the ground in decent time, but that is not what happened. According to the data in the blog post, T0ST got into the story mode in approximately one minute and ten seconds, whereas it took nearly six minutes to get into online mode. After some polling, it appears that many other users are having the same issue . What could be happening here?
gta online ridiculous load times fixed taskmanager
Using the task manager, T0ST found that his CPU was being eaten for around four minutes during GTA Online's load process. Perhaps it was just a bottleneck happening on his CPU alone, but that would not make much sense. To track down the issue, T0ST went to dump the running processes' stack, showing where the offending process is happening in RAM. This information, acquired through Luke Stackwalker, gave T0ST a place to look for whatever was causing issues.
gta online ridiculous load times fixed lukestackwalker
After falling down the rabbit hole of trying to track down where the memory pointed, it all started to come together through assembly code reading and obfuscation. Evidently, when loading into GTA Online, a whopping 10MB worth of JSON is being parsed. It seems that it is data for something called "net shop catalog," which is likely just all the things purchasable in GTA Online using in-game currency.
gta online ridiculous load times fixed parseloop
Why this parsing takes so long is due to a function used called sscanf, which, in this instance, can be loosely equated to reading Romeo and Juliet by reading one word, then rereading the play, and then jumping back to the next word in the play. Furthermore, there is another bad programming issue just beside sscanf, which goes through the entire list of JSON entries in an array, one by one, and checks to see if there are duplicates by comparing a unique ID assigned to each item called a hash. Ultimately, it is a lot of extra and unnecessary work that slows down everything.
To solve this issue, T0ST decided to write a .dll (Dynamic Linked Library) and inject it into GTA so that sscanf is effectively streamlined. Also, rather than running duplication checks, they can just be skipped as items inserted into the storage array will always be unique, as was set up during the parsing effort. Once T0ST injected the DLL into GTA with both issues fixed, he saw his load times go from around six minutes down to a solid approximate two minutes.
As T0ST explains, this "won't solve everyone's load times - there might be other bottlenecks on different systems, but it's such a gaping hole that I have no idea how R* has missed it all these years." Ultimately, Rockstar needs to dig into this issue to save all GTA Online players headaches during loading. If you want to see what T0ST did exactly, you can check out his GitHub here and see what is going on. In any case, perhaps we will soon get an official statement from the development company, so keep an eye on HotHardware for updates.