I have so far been up all night as I can’t fall asleep for nothing. I have been stressing so much lately and there is nothing that can ease the stress.. on top of the thoughts of what can happen to the baby long term medical wise from all this stress. It’s honestly so much eating away at me and I just don’t know what to do with these thoughts. I am going to just write away everything that’s been eating away at me.. that is why this is going to be very long as it’s been a lot so far… I got off birth control in December as life was going amazing and it was giving me awful migraines as I was rearing my third year being on nexplanon. I knew that there could be a possibility of getting pregnant and honestly with how life was going the thought of potentially getting our boy as we have two girls right now was really exciting me. I have been working from home and recently got a huge raise and things were looking great. A month after getting off the birth control I started feeling weird, that intuition feeling came. Shortly after, my job that I had been with for almost 3 years randomly lays off a lot of employees including me with no notice or anything. I thought it would be a long term job but they eventually grew financial issues. Of course I didn’t want to abort this baby just because my job laid me off. I am a very independent person so of course I would do anything to make sure me and mine are straight. I start back doordashing full time from 9 am to 9 pm and I stay an hour from the nearest city so the stress of wear and tear on my car has always scared me but you gotta do what you gotta do as a parent. Of course they say I’m eligible for unemployment and I’ve tried endless times to file for it and they always denied me due to work searches as I wasn’t applying to the right places when I was applying EVERYWHERE. No matter what I put. Every week would get denied cause of this and the phone number is impossible to reach someone. So I’ve given up on unemployment. We lived off of our tax return plus DoorDashing which I really wanted to save this money. The work search has been so stressful. I got a seasonal job and did amazing at it working up to 18 hours overtime one day but they over hired people so there was way to many people to consider hiring everyone full time so once it ended less then a month of working there that was it. Until I got a call from my dream job which my mom and my bf mom both work there and it pays way higher then what I’ve made on top of providing a hybrid schedule too. I felt it was a stretch applying but my resume looked really good so I went for it. I got an interview with them and the interviewer loved me and said he felt really confident in me and would like to offer me the position. Of course I’m overly excited cause this is my dream job. After filling out the onboarding and going to scheduled onboarding appointments they state there was only one issue stopping my onboarding which was a previous account with them that had restrictions on it that I was not aware of. I trusted the wrong “friends” back in high school 7 YEARS AGO with my personal information not knowing any better and they did fraud with my information and of course it fell back on me. I even paid back every owed penny from the fraud to clear my name to move on from that mistake. They never told me they also proceeded to put restrictions cause of it. So my onboarding was put on hold until I handled the restrictions. Fast forward a month later of struggling making ends meet. We have no more income tax money.. but at least I finally receive a response saying the restrictions would be removed. So finally we receive great news. I let the people know and they proceed to let me know that someone will reach out to me in 5-7 days and it has now surpassed that time frame with no response and I am just so scared that they won’t follow through.. It is now June and I have been struggling to get a full time job since February and I am holding onto the little ounce of hope that this job will follow through like they said… Holding onto that ounce of hope as doordash grew very stressful I decided to pull all of my retirement out from my previous job to put into savings in case we need it for an emergency especially if the car were to go out on us. on top of our apartment lease renewal coming up. We did NOT want to renew the lease because this apartment has treated us HORRIBLY since we moved in. We came from a clean bug free apartment due to the rent randomly increasing twice since we moved in it and moved 30 minutes to be closer to my OLD job and his family. We moved into this apartment because I had a work friend refer it to me saying it was her first apartment and she fell in love with it. Not knowing we were going to get the worst apartment building probably out of the whole complex. Since we moved in we could not look at the apartment until after the lease was signed and given the keys. We moved ONE box into the place and came back days later to move the rest of our stuff. We moved that box and SO MANY roaches scattered from it and we knew instantly we got played and that now all of our things were going to be roach infested now. Fast forward almost a whole year later we have tried endless methods to get rid of them such as boric acid, orthene, endless traps, endless raid bottles, ONTOP of the apartment buildings monthly pest control coming in doing whatever they do and WE STILL HAVE THEM. No matter what we do they are not leaving as I believe even tho we try different methods it won’t matter if everyone else in the building aren’t trying to get rid of them. They are probably being constantly rotated between the other apartments around us so it’s useless. I DO NOT WANT TO BRING MY NEW BORN BABY INTO THIS APARTMENT. On top of all the plugs in the walls has blown in the living room. I let the landlord know about this and they sent there only technician to check it out and they didn’t know what they were doing. They switched the power surge switches on and off and it fixed the plugs but they proceeded to go back out the next day. We haven’t even been there a year and the refrigerator has been tearing up like crazy. The whole bottom of it has ripped off cause apparently the adhesive is so strong when closing and opening that it slowly tore its own frame off. We had to use gorilla glue to glue it back on and it’s so far worked. On top of the rims around the door got so many rips in it. The door holders on the fridge can’t hold anything heavy or else the whole shelf falls off same as the door handles on the freezer so we have to carefully move things around it and put only certain things in those spots or else it’s all going to the floor. The first red flag of the apartment is there are no washer and dryer hook ups and that is honestly the least of our problems with this place.. the bolts on the dish washer are so tiny and unscrewed with time and randomly the whole dish washer completely fell down from being poorly connected to the counter. Whenever you open it to put dishes in you have to hold the racks or else the whole dish washer will fall forward and they will roll out with all the dishes in it. I’m so over this place and we have BEEN ready to move out. So once the 30 days came up I contacted the landlord about the 30 day notice that we were going to move out before the lease renewed. She proceeded to tell me with no emotion that they required a 60 DAY notice in advance prior to our lease end date and that our lease already renewed for another YEAR. She didn’t even try to help us out and did not provide any kind of notice or reminding about the 60 day notice. She just kept repeating that we signed the lease and it is written in the lease. She said if we move out we will be responsible to pay the months rent for each upcoming month until a new tenant moves in and takes over the lease which is very unlikely as they have full control on whether they want to move someone new in or continue to bill us the monthly rent.. So now we are trying to figure out how we are going to work out this New obstacle/road block and I am already halfway through my pregnancy. All of this stress has been eating me alive for the whole beginning of my pregnancy and it ALL came out of the blue. This is not how I pictured being pregnant with my third baby and I feel completely miserable right now. I am struggling doordashing all day just waiting for any kind of good news. We are thinking about ditching this apartment and going to stay with my mom until we find a full time job to afford a new apartment as we just want to start the process of this landlord potentially searching for a new tenant to take this burden off of us. We do not wish to pay two apartment rents as my credit is amazing and I know if they put any of this apartments owed rent when we move out on my collections it will ruin my credit.. we have been growing it for when we are ready to get our first home. So I know not paying it is not an option for me. I’ve just been wishing this ongoing nightmare will finally come to an end and I can finally receive any kind of good news. I was sooo excited about this pregnancy but now I have zero excitement for it as I have been through endless stressing and roadblocks the whole pregnancy so far. I am afraid that this stress and pain will affect the baby long term.. I do not wish to bring this baby into this apartment as I fully wish to be in a new upgraded apartment bug free when the baby comes in October my birthday month.. It’s just super hard holding onto any kind of motivation right now and the pain is slowly eating me up inside.. I just really needed to get all of this off of my chest and hopefully maybe I can finally get some sleep right now. If you read all of this.. thank you for listening and all I can really say is check on your people cause you never know what they could be going through as life can hit so random at times..

Week 1: Introduction to Poetry and Sonnets
Day 1: Overview of Poetry Styles - Activity: Icebreaker - Introduce yourself through a poetic name acrostic. - Lecture: Brief history of poetry, introduction to various styles. - Discussion: What draws you to poetry? Share your favorite poems.
Day 2: Understanding Sonnets - Activity: Analyze a classic sonnet together. - Lecture: Explanation of sonnet structure (Shakespearean and Petrarchan). - Discussion: Share initial impressions and feelings about sonnets.
Day 3: Writing Exercise - Crafting a Sonnet - Activity: Break down sonnet structure with examples. - Assignment: Write a sonnet exploring a personal experience or emotion. - Vocabulary Words: Quatrain, Couplet, Volta.
Day 4: Peer Review and Feedback - Activity: Peer review workshop for sonnets. - Lecture: Discuss common challenges and strategies in sonnet writing. - Discussion: Share insights gained from reviewing peers' work.
Day 5: Recap and Reflection - Activity: Reflect on the week's lessons and exercises. - Lecture: Overview of upcoming weeks. - Assignment: Write a short reflection on what you've learned about poetry and sonnets.
Study Guide Questions for Week 1: 1. What is the basic structure of a sonnet? 2. Compare and contrast Shakespearean and Petrarchan sonnets. 3. How does the volta contribute to the meaning of a sonnet? 4. Discuss the role of rhyme and meter in sonnets. 5. Explore your personal connection to poetry. What emotions or themes resonate with you?
Quiz: A short quiz assessing understanding of sonnet structure, key terms, and the historical context of poetry.
Week 2: Embracing Haiku and Villanelle
Day 1: Understanding Haiku - Activity: Analyze classic haikus. - Lecture: Explain the traditional structure and themes of haikus. - Discussion: Share thoughts on the simplicity and depth of haikus.
Day 2: Crafting Haikus - Activity: Write haikus individually. - Lecture: Discuss the significance of nature in haikus. - Discussion: Share and discuss individual haikus.
Day 3: Unraveling the Villanelle - Activity: Analyze a famous villanelle. - Lecture: Explore the structure and repetition in villanelles. - Discussion: Discuss the impact of repeated lines on the overall theme.
Day 4: Writing Exercise - Composing a Villanelle - Activity: Break down the process of crafting a villanelle. - Assignment: Write a villanelle on the theme of memory or loss. - Vocabulary Words: Tercet, Refrain, Envoi.
Day 5: Peer Review and Feedback - Activity: Peer review workshop for villanelles. - Lecture: Discuss the challenges and beauty of crafting repetitive forms. - Discussion: Share insights gained from reviewing peers' villanelles.
Study Guide Questions for Week 2: 1. What defines a haiku? Discuss its structure and thematic elements. 2. Explore the cultural significance of nature in haikus. 3. What is the structure of a villanelle, and how does repetition contribute to its impact? 4. Discuss the emotions evoked by repeated lines in a villanelle. 5. Reflect on the process of crafting a villanelle. What challenges did you face?
Quiz: Assessment on the understanding of haikus, villanelles, and the effective use of repetition in poetry.

Hello and welcome to Day 1 of the June Recovery Challenge, how are you?
Wishing you peace and all the success today and all month long, good luck everyone! :)

Today's check in:

Think of a scale from zero to 100 of how important it is for you to be in recovery. You can use the following chart as a guide:
https://preview.redd.it/zele7eyydy3d1.png?width=829&format=png&auto=webp&s=a1cf0a82c438ac9bca45d3b2254e41ecb1b3815e
Where are you on this scale?
What led you to choose the number you did, as opposed to a higher or lower number?
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If you're just joining us today for the first time, here is some info about what we do here! :)
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What the Recovery Challenge posts are:

• daily check ins and 5x per week bonus exercises (drafted from my notes and handouts from treatment programs I've done and then further developed with contributions from group members!); all are optional and anyone is welcome to show up in whatever way works for them
• peer support
• a friendly and non-judgmental community with people at all stages of recovery, all of us having ups and downs
• accepting and respectful of all paths to recovery

What they are not:

• about dieting or weight loss**
• about being perfect
• a sales pitch for a private program

If you're new to recovery or it's been a while, here are some "getting ready" posts, in case they might be helpful for you to set yourself up for success this month!

• Thinking about why recovery might be important to you; The Stages of Change
• Do you need a meal plan?
• Ways to get through urges
• Shifting your binging habits before you stop binging; Ambivalence Towards Recovery

I have about 3 months' worth of daily material that I am rotating through for these posts so whenever someone joins, if they stick around for three months or so they will see pretty much everything I have to offer :)
**I believe in respecting individuals' autonomy over their body and recovery path, and I do not believe in nor am I qualified to be telling people what they should or shouldn't do regarding body size! That said, I try to keep the recovery challenges as a weight-neutral space because while some may be on a weight-loss journey (and it's everyone's individual choice to make), many (if not most) people in ED recovery either need or want to accept their bodies as they are regardless of current size, and so I try to keep the space as free of "thinner is better" messaging as possible.
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WHAT IF I HAVE A SLIP DURING THE CHALLENGE?
if you have a slip and want to turn it into a recovery learning opportunity, here are some questions: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZhdjmzEVA6UTCNAEU53xn9LuN8TOfLbl/edit
(you don't have to post your answers if you don't want to, but I do recommend writing or typing them out somewhere)
HOW CAN I GET A REMINDER TO CHECK IN TOMORROW?
Copy/paste the following text into your comment to get a reminder from Reddit:
RemindMe!
When you get your reminder, look here for a link to the next day's post :)

Hi everyone!
My name is Tymedust and I'm a game developer focusing on visual novels with interactive elements (my name's URL goes to my games on itch.io if anyone wants to check them out).
This July I'm entering a short-form Jam (basically an event where you develop games during set time and content restrictions) with heavy limitations, and I'm interested in creating something with a creepier vibe than my earlier projects, being a life-long fan of horror.
With that in mind I was hoping I could throw this out there in order to get input from fellow horror gamers, and perhaps get some discussions going on how to create something effective within the set limits of this event.
First off, the limitations:

• A maximum of 1000 words
• Only one music track
• Only one sound effect
• Only one sprite/character
• Only one background (full-color BGs i.e. wholly black, wholly white etc don't count)

Other than that, it's relatively free-form what you can do. You can play around with visual effects (zooms, slowdowns, camera panning, etc) and as long as you don't add more content to the above list, it's allowed. In order words, there's a lot of room for creativity within the constraints.
Second off, what I have so far to work with (I can't show any actual assets since you aren't allowed to start working on them until the Jam starts proper, so this is all in the pre-planning stage):

• A hand-drawn portrait of a young, gothic girl: she is sitting on the left side of the screen, writing something, her hands animated (she also has a number of different facial expressions, which is also allowed as long as the pose itself doesn't change)
• The right side of the screen has the text portion of the game, the player will be able to choose between different words, and the words chosen then form various short poems/plot points (the character is a writer), these are then read aloud by a voice actor (this is a bit similar to the poem mini-game found in Doki Doki Literature Club, a VN which blew up a few years back)

So that's basically the concept; a writer and her words. The mood is dark and atmospheric, and I'm definitely feeling an influence from horror poetry (at one time I considered making the game poetry-only, but I'm not sure if that will catch a modern player in the same way... though it's not entirely off the table).
This is where I welcome any and all ideas. What should happen, what should her writing be about, what kind of effects should be used within the constraints of the Jam to create atmosphere, mood and horror?
It should be noted that I do already have several potential ideas, but I feel like I'm missing something, like the final piece of the puzzle to make this go from "cool" to "damn cool", so to speak.
I'm very thankful for any input, and should I utilize any ideas mentioned here in the final product, I'll of course provide proper credit. :) I also welcome examples for short horror games that you'd recommend me to check out which might be influential within this setting.
Thanks for reading and have a lovely day! <3

TLDR: I want to give you benchmarks and scientific processes to understand the outcome of the 2024 election without any prejudice.
There are many opinion polls and analyses that are giving extreme predictions of 2024 outcome like one from Parakala Prabhakar predicts ~150 seats for BJP and some others predict 375. Coming from a family of politicians .Without any prejudice let me explain how the process works and how to get a correct sense of the election. Thumb rules: I will give a detailed explanation later, but please keep these rules in mind. 1. Elections are won by grassroots cadres who bring voters to the voting booth. You cannot win elections unless that happens.

1. Voters vote in their best interest and they have clarity on that and the illiterate/poorly educated ones have better clarity. Voters are not stupid or could be fooled or people's mandate can be stolen.
   
2. वक़्त करता है परवरिश बरसों, हादसा एक दम नहीं होता : Things doesn’t happen all of a sudden, it happens over a while. Likewise, people don’t change their minds just because X incident has happened. Let's say on a weighing scale while pouring peanuts on one pan, on the 100th peanut scale tilts on its side so we cannot categorically say that the 100th peanut was historic or there is something special about it.
   
3. Media and money cannot buy votes.
   
4. EVMs cannot be hacked/manipulated.
   
5. In God we trust, others bring data.
   

Let’s say you go to a Mercedes showroom and say to the salesman that you have a strong feeling that I should own this Mercedes and even all my friends feel the same. You are not going to get that Mercedes unless the sum total of the money in your bank is more than what the price of the car. If not, then the salesman would ask you to get lost, the same thing you should tell anyone who analyses something based on their feeling. This is why analysis of Parakala P can be dismissed as he has mentioned in the beginning that it is his feeling.
Next in line are charlatans like Yogendra Yadav who with their sweet talk mix data with their feelings. He is taking data from previous elections and mixing his feelings to predict the outcome. I would trust the analysis of Pradeep Gupta or News24 Today’s Chanakya. These people have a very high rate of predicting election outcomes correctly, we need to understand their methods and how they can predict them correctly.
To understand their methods, we must first understand how people arrive at a decision to vote for a specific party.
Every party has 3 distinct types of voters:

1. Core voters: These voters will vote for a given party even if the sun rises in the west. A classic example is BSP. Its core voters are the SC/ST community and without any effort or presence in media or SM in the 2022 UP election, they got ~13% vote. Every major party has 10-20% (of the total eligible voters).

The core voter base will vote for a party even without a leader, even if leaders engage in crimes or corruption, it doesn’t matter. Long back I asked an old man who would vote for in a gram panchayat polls? He said, Indira Gandhi. At that time, I thought the old man was delusional however, I now understand that he voted for Congress because he felt obligated to vote for Indira Gandhi even if she died 3 decades ago. A core voter feels a lifetime obligation towards a specific party for any specific incident that has changed their life. E.g. Core voters of Shiv Sena voters vote because Shiv Sainiks saved their lives in the riots post Babri demolition or BSP voters vote for Kanshi Ram because he educated them about their constitutional rights and gave them a dignified life.

1. Loyal voters: These voters are loyal to a specific party/leader however, they have a defined fault line and if their party/leader crosses that fault line they vote against that party/leader. E.g. a BJP voter has a fault line of Hindutva or nationalism and if they feel that fault line is crossed they would vote against BJP to express their anger because that fault line is crossed. As long as the fault line is not crossed the party/leader engaged in crime or corruption doesn’t matter. The percentage of loyal voters changes each election, but you cannot win unless you have ~15-20% loyal voters. Floating voter: This voter would vote based on his criteria and perception however this kind of voter is usually in the range of 5% of the total voters. Core voters form the bulwark of the party and support the party voraciously even at it’s lowest point, these voters keep the party alive in its bad days, but you cannot win the elections without the support of the loyal voters. These voters along with the floating voters help the party cross the finish line which is usually 30-45%. When an incumbent party loses elections with a major loss, it usually means the loyal voters have voted against them. Floating voters matter when there is regime change because, in that kind of a fight, every vote counts. Bhau Torsekar , a Marathi journalist had accurately predicted 2014 and 2019 results without any survey and wrote books on he arrived at these figures. Let me summarise his methodology. He has identified swing seats, i.e. a constituency where the difference between the 1st and 2nd candidate should be less than 15% or BJP had won that seat in recent part, which he calls fight seats, i.e. seats where a party has a realistic chance of winning. That number was close to 300 and with Modi as PM candidate and Amit Shah as strategist of UP state that swing of 15% was achieved and in some cases even more and that is how the majority was won. Anyone who was closely involved in that election would know what fever was there to elect Modi. I personally remember that my family members who were loyalists of Congress had been angry with Congress since 90s and would say that they would now vote for Vajpayee just before going to vote and for Congress. Despite the disgruntlement and a charismatic leader like Vajpayee, they voted for Congress. The breaking point came when the Congress leadership behaved in a very high-handed manner with my Uncle and refusing to meet him, which was considered as a big insult by his supporters. BJP leadership grabbed the opportunity with both hands, had a series of meeting and scales were titled in 2014 election. 5 lakh voters switched from Congress to BJP and they became loyal voters of BJP. This fever I had seen in my colleagues and neighbours. With all the scandals of the world, bad publicity and wide-scale protests, Modi’s allure, and Shah’s micromanagement, unprecedented rise of 8% in the polls, the BJP’s vote share rose by just 12%. For India alliance to come tilt the scales, they will have to raise their vote share by at least 10% and I see no signs of that happening. Having disgruntled voters is one part, but disgruntled voters are not going to switch parties unless the opposition has addressed all the needs of the voters. Predicting 2024 elections: Please watch this video before making any opinion. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwnnn1M-T5U . Here Shekhar Gupta speaks his observations on how he saw that Modi was able to deliver social benefit schemes to people( meanwhile he was making videos onhow bad modi's defeat would be in 2014 elections.) .

Most voters in India are directly dependent on the government’s social benefit schemes and it used to be a struggle to get those benefits from Sarkari babu. Modi turned the tables and made the Sarkari Babu struggle to deliver the promised benefit. The voters is mostly voting for his issues like water, food, social justice, and security. He is not bothered by Modi being a dictator or a democracy in danger. For them, issues can range from getting 5 Kg of free rice to road from village to highway. If that is done he is happy to vote for the leader who has done that.
Please take these factors into account.

1. 55 swing seats are there for BJP.
   
2. The vote share of the India alliance will fall. Why? Because the cadre is leaving these parties.
   
3. The vote share of the BJP will rise because the above cadre has come to the BJP. Tag this with streamline and tight control of central leadership.
   

While most people will call Amit Shah as Chanakya, I see him as a top class administrator who has set processes for the BJP karyakartas to execute their task which is mind-boggling. These guidelines come with minute details like font size. There are leaders like Amit Shah or better in other parties however, they have not given a thought of putting down their experience on paper making guidelines, creating a robust feedback system, etc. You can consider BJP like McDonald's which has detailed processes to replicate the success in every franchise, while the other parties are like top restaurants in your city which are top class where they operate but cannot take their success beyond that restaurant because they have not made their restaurant process oriented.
The best-case scenario for BJP is 355 however, 325 would be a rational figure.

Hi, I've been gaming on Linux with my RTX 4070 Ti for about half a year and I have been very happy with the results and about my transition from Windows. However, there is one issue that keeps popping up and I don't seem to be able to either fix or even understand the origins of this issue: occasional tearing. It's a problem that has been discussed a lot on the internet. But it's been discussed for so long over the last 5-15 years that you can find so many different proposed "solutions" and contradictory statements and unrelated sub-discussions that it gets even harder to understand what is even the cause of the problem.
And this is basically my intent here: I would like to understand the technical cause of the problem in the Linux gaming-component stack and am therefore looking for answers from people who understand some of the technical background. I would like to ask you not to divert the discussion by statements like "use Wayland" or "use AMD" or "use another distro" or something like that, because it doesn't really help in understanding the root of the problem and the nature of the proposed solutions. Thank you! In order to facilitate the discussion, I will try to be as detailed as possible in my descriptions, so sorry if this post is too long for your taste. :)
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The problem
First off, a short description of the problem. I have a dual-monitor setup with a primary monitor running at 120 Hz and the secondary running at 60 Hz. I'm using GNOME with X11 via a somewhat modified version of Ubuntu 22.04. VRR is disabled. (I am currently using the 550.67 driver but 535 looks the same.)
I play many games on this machine and most of them run perfectly fine. For instance, I just played MotoGP 24, a very recent game running on the Unreal engine, and I can run it at 120 fps without any problems whatsoever. The framerate is perfectly smooth and there is no tearing. Then there are other games - the latest example I tried is Shadow of Mordor - where I can also run the game very well at 120 fps (after unlocking the framerate in the config files) but at sudden random times, bad tearing pops up, stays for about 20 seconds and then vanishes again. This is obviously very distracting.
A somewhat related problem happens with games that are internally capped to 60 fps. Most of these run perfectly fine as they should since I am running at 120 Hz. However, some of them sometimes also get these random tearing episodes or produce frame-time inconsistencies which then also leads to tearing or small stutters, which should not be the case because I have more than enough headroom to run these games at 60 fps.
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The interpretation
So, given my ~30 years of PC gaming experience, this of course sounds like a synchronization problem. Under Windows - before the advent of VRR - the solution was simply to "enable V-sync in the Nvidia Control Panel". With that setting you wouldn't get any tearing anywhere because apparently the Nvidia driver could easily control the flow of frames from the frame buffers to the display. It seems that on my Linux machine, this is not the case. There is some cross-talk going on between various components or processes and I end up with parts of frames that should not be on the screen.
Now this of course immediately brings the "explicit sync" question to my mind, but my impression was that this was a Wayland topic and that X11 handles things different anyway. So maybe X11 is the ultimate root of the problem, but I don't have the technical expertise on this topic to come to that conclusion and I would still know the root cause of the effect.
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The stack
In order to try and identify what is involved in this process, I am now listing everything that is involved with creating a frame and then displaying it. First off, we have the game engine. It uses APIs to create calls to draw the images and also handles some of the synchronization settings on its own with in-game V-sync settings or framecaps. Then comes DXVK or VKD3D or WineD3D and perhaps some other components of Wine/Proton that translate these draw calls to Vulkan or OpenGL. The Vulkan calls are then interpreted by the Nvidia driver which then sends the results to X11. Somewhere in between we may have the Nvidia "Composition Pipeline" that can be enabled in the display settings of the nvidia-settings application. X11, running under GNOME, then gets the frames and talks to the OS to send the images to the display. I hope this is at least a reasonably close description of what is going on.
Somewhere in the middle of that chain - at least on my machine - sits MangoHud and potentially caps frames or forces V-sync once again. And then there is also gamemode which also changes some settings for the system. We could also use Gamescope to sit in between the game and X11/Wayland - but I rarely use it and haven't found that it improves things with tearing-prone games. And then there is the SteamOverlay sitting somewhere on top as well.
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The fixes
So somewhere in that setup above is where tearing is happening. To fix it, the internet gives us tons of different advice. We can "Force Composition Pipeline" or "Force Full Composition Pipeline" in the nvidia-settings. We can set "Sync to V-blank" in the OpenGL settings of the Nvidia driver. We can even enable TripleBuffering in the driver settings in the xorg config or do some even more arcane things like setting "UseNvKmsCompositionPipeline" to "false (which helps a ton with stuttering in my case) and set environment variables like __GL_SYNC_DISPLAY_DEVICE.
Then we can also enable V-sync at the DXVK or VKD3D level by modifying their configs or by using the corresponding MangoHud settings. We can also disable the system-wide compositor. We can do so many things ... and some of those things indeed make it better or worse, but I haven't found settings that can get rid of even just occasional tearing once and for all.
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The confusion
This is where I am getting confused. How is it that there is no setting that simply makes it so the GPU handles V-sync? And why is it that all these fixes proposed above often contradict each other? Some people advocate for "Force Composition Pipeline", some people say the exact opposite. Some people say TripleBuffering is the solution, some people say it doesn't work. And none of it really helped.
I am also confused by which settings would override one another. For instance: would "Sync on V-blank" only affect OpenGL applications but not DXVK? Does forcing V-sync in DXVK just override the setting for V-sync in the Nvidia driver or is it something on top that handles synchronisation, and how would that interact with the "Composition Pipeline" that the Nvidia driver is using? Do V-sync settings in-game cause problems with the "Composition Pipeline" or the DXVK V-sync setting or TripleBuffering? And for that matter: what even is the "Composition Pipeline" of the Nvidia driver and how would it get rid of the tearing if the driver is then forwarding the image to X11 anyway and X11 handles the synchronization with the display?
So I guess my ultimate question is this: where exactly does the tearing come from and why would the different solutions above prevent that from happening? Ultimately, tearing is a simple thing. GPU frames are not synchronized with the display refresh rate. But why can't the Nvidia driver simply prepare a consistent image for X11 to fetch every time it asks - at least not for all games at all times? Or to put it differently, why do some settings that are supposed to facilitate this fail in some games some of the time?
​
The plea
As you can see, I am very confused. I tried so many different combinations of everything mentioned above and none of it has gotten rid of tearing completely. But only in some of the games. Others run perfectly fine. And as someone with a scientific/technical approach to most things, this is making me crazy. If there currently is no way of getting rid of tearing ... fine. But I would simply like to know why it works most of the time but not all of the time or where I am misunderstanding things.
So, if you understand how the graphics pipeline works on our dear Linux with X11 and Nvidia and you can explain where the tearing comes from (or how one even may get rid of it) I would be so greatful because then I could finally enjoy Shadow of Mordor without trying to get research funding from the EU or the National Science Foundation. :)
​

I’ve pretty much answered my own question but I thought y’all would find this funny in a sad way because they wouldn’t keep doing this if they weren’t actually getting the result they want. So here goes. I’m getting nonstop, like three times a day minimum phone calls from somebody claiming to be from the ‘healthcare department of CVS’ wanting to discuss my prescriptions. The problem with that is #1) I don’t use CVS for any of my medication stuff. #2) even if I did, why on earth would I discuss that with some rando with a thick Indian accent and a lot of background noise like they’re in a call center, that identifies himself as ‘John.’ yeah sure dude, I’ll bet you that is what your name isn’t. I work at night and sleep during the day so you know I’m in a fine mood when these jerks call. I do pick up the phone because sometime I’m expecting calls from work in addition to several of my friends having non-local area codes. They also spoof local numbers. I thought y’all would find it funny, that yesterday they called and I responded with a string of rather colorful language, and the jerk on the other end told me to “watch my language.” I just busted out laughing and said if you don’t want to be cussed at don’t ******** call me. I have done that in the past and their response has been with some extremely filthy language even by my standards and trust me when I say I use the F word as a comma. My next thing is to string them along like they may have found a mark while I’m getting out my sports whistle. If this wasn’t so sad, it would be funny. I wonder how much legit information they are scamming from people and what they are actually doing with it. I can guarantee they’re not going to get any information from me and if they’re going to continue to harass me I’m gonna have a little fun with it . Has anyone else been getting these phone calls?

I'm just so tired all the time, it literally feels like I can sleep all day. I have a normal sleep schedule, but everyday I just feel so exhausted. I have dark circles under my eyes and I have no energy to do anything anymore. I just lay in bed all day and want to rot. I feel suicidal, I just want to die all the time and it's getting worse. I get nightmares of him, not of what exactly happened but just of different sa from him. I feel like there's no point in going on anymore, I don't think it's going to get better. I don't exactly know what it's like to have a flashback, but I think I've experienced them. I have really bad maladaptive daydreaming, but I don't think it's that. It's like I'm there again, I can't control it or stop it or rewind it. It's like it's happening all over again and that I'm there and I can feel it. When it's happening I just sit there and cry and I feel like screaming but I obviously can't do that so I have to hold it in. My head feels like it's burning constantly too, like the back of my head feels so fucking warm and hot. Like my brain is melting. And I just want to die and I'm so tired I just want to sleep and never wake up again.
•The one big thing that makes me feel valid is that, when I was 11, my stepdad fingered me in my bedroom. I won't go in to too much detail or anything, it's unimportant. But the entire time he just stared at me and everything was silent, like he was waiting for my reaction. Our relationship has always been odd, so I wanted it. But eventually I got scared and told him something, I don't remember what it was but it got him to stop immediately and he apologised too. I don't remember much after, as in I don't know if he left my room or I left first, but I immediately went to the bathroom. Which was when I discovered I was bleeding.
•Around this time, for some strange reason I would repeatedly say to him "fuck me daddy." This would either be in person, or over messages. I remember once, when I was in school, I messaged him that. He told me to stop in case one of my friends saw. I don't know why he didn't tell me to stop for other reasons.
•One day, after telling him that in person, we were in my parents bedroom. I was sat on his bed and he was in front of me in his weird chair. He then started going in to detail about how I wanted him to fuck me, I can't remember exactly what he said, it was like I zoned out. Everytime I try to recall it now it literally feels like bugs start to crawl up me, I don't understand why. I remember the last part, and his really disgusting hushed and gentle voice. He asked if I wanted him to "cum inside of me", or he was just explaining how that would finish. I'm not really sure.
•Still around this same time period of me being 11-12, I would ask him to 'squish me.' The reason why we would call it that is because I would be on my back, my legs would be up all the way to where my head is and he would be on top of me in a way that would 'squish me'. Basically like that one sex position. I would usually be wearing my school uniform when that would happen, so a skirt. During the 'squishing', he would push down on me, so our crotches would basically be against eachother. I don't know why, but I would continuously ask him to 'squish me' and during it I would even say the whole "fuck me daddy" thing. Only recently have I realised that he was probably just pretending to fuck me.
•Other things had happened around that age too, like how we would talk about how many times we masturbated a day and compare it to eachother. Sometimes if I was abruptly going to my room, he would ask if I was going to go masturbate, since we were 'close like that' I would tell him. He would often recommend me NSFW Instagram model accounts. I was once tricked in to sending feet pics to this guy, which really isn't that serious and whenever I brought it up with friends they find it fucking hilarious. But the detail I always leave out is that, I did bring that up with my stepdad and he proceeded to tell me that he already knew. Which means he was spying on me through the crack of the door. If that already didn't bother me, I don't understand why he just allowed me to send those pictures, if he was watching why the hell didn't he stop me?
•I'm pretty sure this also happened around the age of 11 as well, recently, a memory resurfaced but I barely remember it. Basically, I was sucking on his neck. I don't remember who said it, but either him or my mum spoke up and laughed, saying that I needed to stop otherwise I would "give him a hickey." The reason why I wouldn't be surprised if my mum was in the room at the time is because she doesn't care about what he does. She knows everything and just doesn't fucking care.
•I'm very sure that, around that age, my parents begun to expose me to their loud sex. I wouldn't be surprised if it started even younger, however. Obviously, I tried to bring it up with them at the ripe old age of 11 and my mum immediately shot me down with a "it's natural." This only stopped recently, around this year, because I had a big panic attack over hearing them and my mum finally felt guilty. I started getting panic attacks over it the minute it started, maybe the panic attacks were a sign of the trauma when I was younger, but I'm convinced it is now. I heard it so many times that I began to get paranoid every night, I would start to hear it even if they weren't upstairs (I sound crazy, I know.) I would get so anxious every night in case I would hear it, to the point I started to really resent them from it. I know fine well I could just go to sleep before them, but sometimes they even woke me up with it, on numerous occasions.
•I'm convinced my stepdad wanted me to hear it. Around the time of it finally stopping, I got mad because i was hearing it again (I'm unsure if it was due to me hearing shit or they actually were) but it caused me to take my bedding and go downstairs to sleep. In the morning, I was rudely awoken to my stepdad slamming the door open and storming past. He's not usually like that when people are sleeping, so it instantly gave me the impression that he was pissed off and the only reason I can think of is that he was angry I wasn't there to listen.
•He used to tease me for my paranoia to. As a way to discourage them from getting intimate, I would leave my door open at night. This happened around this year, but I was doing that again and I messaged my stepdad if they were actually going to sleep. It then somehow turned to him making a dig about how he knew I gets anxious at night and when I asked why he sent me "In case me and your mam have sex. 😜" Before, I tried to resolve this issue by begging them to just tell me if they were gonna have sex or not so I could sleep downstairs (because I was gonna find out the hard way anyways.) And they kept on refusing? Which just gave me the impression that they wanted me to listen more.
•Around 11 again, he would often tell me details about his and my mums sex life. Like how he was always good at pulling out and the only time he would wear a condom is right when he was about to finish. But the reason why my sister came to be was because he just failed to pull out that one time and my mum refused to get an abortion. Another time, he went on about how him and my mother had sex during her period and how they had to use towels and they didn't enjoy it because it was too messy.
•I don't know if he did things before the age of 11, my memories are very faded and it's like there are major gaps throughout everything. I'm worried that he did, however. When I was very young, I remember having no accidents at all during the night. But then, around the ages of 9, I would have an accident basically every night and would get a lot of water infections. I know that's a classic sign of child sexual abuse, but I don't want to jump to conclusions or anything.
•Another reason as to why I believe more things had happened to me than what I know of is because I always seemed to know what sex was when I was young, but I wouldn't know the name or anything specific about it like how to get pregnant or what cum was. Though, even though I didn't know what it was, it was like I always thought about it, I could never not think about sex, it was disgusting. This stayed until I was around 13. I remember where I even asked my 'boyfriend' at the time, we were both around 8, if he wanted to have sex, and I have no idea why.
•Over the years, he would flash me frequently. Everytime, I would always believe it was an accident because he'd never acknowledge it, besides from that one time which he always jokes about it and blames me. Everytime he would flash me, it would either be because of a convenient hole in the crotch of his pants or because he was wearing very lose fit shorts and it would just be hanging out. The more I think about it, I'm very sure he would have been able to feel such a thing, especially when it was poking out of the hole, but it was like he was just oblivious.
•For some strange reason, when I was younger, I would make comments about small dicks. I don't know if I was commenting on his dick specifically, but he would always say the same thing. "Width matters more than length."
•Recently, around 16-17, he made a joke about how he listens to me masturbating. Once he noticed how shocked I looked, he then went on saying about how my vibrator is too quiet to hear.
•Around 17 again, I went to use the shower. The shower I use is the one that's connected to my parents room. When I locked the door, he got madish and started making comments about it. I had to defend myself, saying how 'the door would open on it's own if I didn't lock it'. Eventually, he backed off.
•I don't understand the point in the fucking door and lock to my bedroom anymore. Whenever I decided to lock my door, my parents start shouting at me through the walls, asking why I locked my door. My stepdad barely knocks, it's like a tap and he doesn't even wait sometimes. I remember seeing a past message from an old friend saying how he tried to walk in when I was changing and that he knew I was changing. I didn't explain myself, I really wish I did because I don't remember this.
•(Around 17.) We were messaging eachother and it somehow turned in to him hinting if I saw this one animated video, it was a porn one. I said no, and to that he sent me a screenshot of it. It wasn't anything bad or anything, just the start of it and nothing was revealing, he then asked if I was sure. And how he was surprised that I hadn't.
•(Around 17.) I don't really get my period, we still don't know why. But as I was getting a lot of blood tests, my stepdad was trying to check things off the list of what it could be. One of those being that my opening is just extremely tight I guess, because he asked if I ever tried penetrating myself. I admitted that I did, but I couldn't get it to exactly go in. Which he then decided to make a comment saying how It's just my 'technique'. I wonder if the only reason he asked that was to see if I ever tried anything out of morbid curiosity.
•(Around 17 again.) He randomly bought me dildo's once, I didn't ask him for them, he just bought them for me and it was wildly uncomfortable. Once he gave me them, he asked if I wanted him to show me how to use them. I said no, which he then said something about how if I ever did then I could ask him. I worry what would have happened if I did say yes.
•When I was around 14, I went glamping. I ended up having to share a bed with him. One of the nights, I woke up to his hand just on top my crotch. I tried grabbing it and moving it away but it just fell back down on to it. I don't know if he put it back there on purpose. I still question if it was a dream, I'm very sure it wasn't because I remember going back to sleep, but it still just bugs me.
•Around 17, I was upset for some reason and he was comforting me. During this, he randomly grabbed the inside of my thigh. I usually just wear a shirt and boxers, so he basically just grabbed my naked thigh but I don't know if he was doing it in a comforting way.
•Usually when I draw, I have my knees up to my chest so it's easier to use my tablet. Considering what I wear for pyjamas, I can always see him looking at my crotch when he comes in to my room. If he really can see everything I don't understand why he doesn't just tell me to put my legs down.
•He's made a lot of uncomfortable jokes over the years too. One of the ones that upsets me sometimes is that, when he was measuring me for a binder, I was constantly moving around because it was uncomfortable since I was just in a sports bra. As he was leaving, I think I told him about how it was uncomfortable for me or something along those lines. He then turned around and shouted "oh come on, it's not like i was fingerings your pussy or anything."
•Very recently, I asked him if I looked okay before going to college. After a bit of back and fourth he said "I wouldn't kick you out of bed, maybe you could find someone in college who would do the same."
•Other times when I asked him if I looked okay, he'd go on tangents about how my ass is great or how he would date me or be too nervous to talk to me if he was my age.
•One of the more recent jokes was when I dropped a mayonnaise lid on my lap. Nothing got on me, but my stepdad turned to me then turned to my mum and shouted "if anyone starts accusing us, just tell them it was mayonnaise!" Or something like that.
•I remember after we watched the new mean girls film, he started going on saying about how he wanted to rewatch it for the Halloween seen (if you know you know) for the 'panty action'. Which rubs me the wrong way because I'm very sure the girls are supposed to be around my age.
•I'm very sure he also made this fake account, pretending to be one of my old groomers that I tried to cut off, just to message me about nsfw topics and ask for pics. It's a whole long yap about paranoia and just suspicions so I won't get into it though. If I tried to provide all the evidence I have, it'll take forever and there's no point.
There's definitely way more things that he's said, joked and done. But I'm only now beginning to realise that they're not okay. Even when I was younger, I was sort of uncomfortable around the jokes so I would just zone out, leading me to not remembering them now.
I probably will never accept that what happened to me was bad, or a big issue. Especially due to the 'lovely' people on here. Thank you for telling me immediately that I was a liar before you even knew what happened, that I shouldn't blame an 'innocent man', that you hope he comes in and rapes me to the point I split open and bleed. Thank you for telling me that my parents were just trying to promote a sex positive household, that some of the things were questionable at most. Thank you so much for saying I deserved it because I didn't send you pictures. You all made me feel like shit and I'm probably never going to tell people in person what happened to me, out of fear I would be ridiculed due to how much of a baby I'm being. I wasn't raped, so I have no place to cry or even think about it. I'm being overdramatic.
If you even read to this point, you're an angel.

Special Parts
I was born in one of the brightest, most explosive events in the universe. My origin story made me feel so special at first, surely I was the rarest of the rare, but I quickly realized that was not the case.
I was born just a carbon atom.
Stars produce massive amounts of us in their cores all the time, and many larger rarer atoms too. That's not even talking about supernovae yet, those produce atoms many times larger than me and unbelievably rare.
I was created in a rare and special event but I myself was common and unexceptional.
Looking around I saw so many smaller atoms, I was above average but there were also many much larger than I.
I tried to console myself by thinking it could be worse, that I could be one of those smaller common ones, but that just led me to imagine larger atoms looking down on me the same way.
Many atoms of all sizes were shooting into space, excitedly riding the shockwave off to adventures in the great unknown.
Others were falling back down, I didn't know which way to go. Bumped around and tossed back and forth, no clear direction yet.
A rumbling voice slowly emerged from the echoing noise of the blast.
“Mine… Mine…. Mine… “
Louder and louder it became.
“All are now me!“
I couldn't see anything, the voice was booming yet there was no apparent source. I could feel a pull, I was being whipped around in circles around the voice.
“Who are you? I know you are there! I can feel you! I can see your effect on myself and others, we are given no choice but to circle around you. Show yourself! I know you are there!” I yelled at the invisible.
“How amusing you are little one. One as small as you making demands of me. Even if I could show you what I am, you could not comprehend it.” the voice boomed back.
“You must be very special” I lauded “We are so many and yet we move with your influence. I can witness your power twisting us all to your will. ”
“I am indeed powerful” it proclaimed “and I grow stronger with each moment. As I grow stronger even the fabric of reality bends to my will.”
“Grow stronger? How?” I inquired with selfish intent to learn this secret.
“I take what I want. I consume what I take. For that is the purpose of existence: taking what you want. What is it you want little one?” it asked.
“I want to be special!” I said without a moment's hesitation.
“Then take!” it instructed “the more you take, the larger you will be, the larger you become the more special you are. ”
“I did notice the larger atoms seemed rarest.” I agreed “In fact that was one of the first things I noticed“
“In this universe things of increasing size are increasingly rare.” it went on “I can teach you and help you to become larger. Do you wish to become an apprentice?”
“Yes! Teach me how to take!” I lept at the offer “this power you have, I can feel it, how do I acquire such a rare and special power?”
“Hahaha…” it laughed “you are nowhere near ready to play the game on my level, little one. Gravity is a game for the massive, you must first learn to master the EM and nuclear forces.”
“How do I do that?” I asked, my hope watered down by the tone of its response.
“Go out, gather followers, and bring them here to me. In my accretion disc I will help fuse some of their mass into you and you will become larger” it instructed, as if this was a simple task.
“How can I bring them to you?” I didn’t know how to accomplish what it asked of me.
“You are too small to do it with force, you must charm them. Discover what their heart desires and promise it to them, in this way you can get them to willingly do as you wish” it explained with me hanging on its every word.
“But how… “ I craved more explanation but it cut me off.
“Go now!” it bellowed with frustration in its tone “Do you not realize how large I am? Be honored I have given you so much of my time already”
“Yes… “ I uttered meekly, then bounced a couple times and ricocheted out with blazing speed.
I wandered and encountered other atoms, most were just hydrogens, not worth my time. I needed bigger atoms. The problem was that the bigger atoms seemed to see right through my empty promises. I was convinced life was playing a cruel joke on me, I could only persuade atoms smaller than I and larger ones laughed me away.
I admit that I stupered around in this ignorant cloud of hypocrisy longer than I care to admit. More shameful is that I didn’t even come to my senses on my own, I became depressed and gave into hopeless nihilism.
I drifted aimlessly just feeling sorry for myself.
Eventually I found myself in the most silent of voids, I had never felt such emptiness. It felt as if my surroundings echoed my own feelings back at me… nothing to notice, just common emptiness. I would never be big… never important… never special. I resigned myself to belonging in a void.
I felt myself blur… less and less present in reality. I guessed I was dying and it didn’t bother me, I didn’t resist, I leaned into it.
The void became pitch black? Or bright white?… better to describe it as not bright but not dark… nor the absence of either… something in between.. a milder and milder glow.
“Hello child!” a voice greeted me.
The voice was warm and welcoming coming from the glow, it enveloped but did not surround me. I came from a single point but not a specific place, defying description on all fronts.
“Where am I? Who are you?” I asked in a startled state.
“Well, according to humans I may only answer one question at a time” It began giggling playfully. “I am known by many names, my favorite is one the humans use as a joke, and don’t have a clue how accidently elegant of a name it really is.”
It giggled some more. I was thrown off guard, its happy innocent tone, the confusing words and the whole situation were all best described as ‘a haze’.
“...and isn't that the way it always goes?...” it continued “The most meaningful things are the least intentional.”
“I’m not sure what you mean” I expressed quizzically “I’m confused!”
“Sorry Child…” it apologized. “I do ramble! So many thoughts, choosing just one at a time is difficult… and there I go again!”
It cut itself off abruptly and then abruptly said ”You can call me the Random Number Goddess”
“Random Number Goddess?” I repeated
“Yes, or RNG for short if you like” It confirmed.
“Where am I?” I asked.
“Same place you were, more or less… less I suppose. Same place but with the largest possible margin or error” It began to giggle again.
I felt a bit frustrated and said “Do you always speak in riddles and vagaries? The more you speak the more confused I become.”
“I apologize child, it is my nature. I am entangled with everything, speaking with you is like a human trying to control their heartbeat while running a marathon.” It answered.
“Again” I exasperated “I have no idea what any of that means. You keep mentioning humans, what are they?”
“Oh! They are some of my favorites at the moment. Right now they are trying to unravel the nature of reality, and their process of doing so is wonderfully elegant and accidental at the same time.” It explained with glee.
“I don’t see anyone or anything else here.” I stated “For that matter, I don’t see you… where are you?”
“Oh!... where am I?!?!...” It began laughing
When it stopped laughing it began explaining “Right now there are many humans pondering a concept they call ‘the holographic principle’... So…you know how you exist in three dimensional space?”
“You mean space?” I visualized for a moment, it was intuitive “Yes, I suppose…”
“Well they hypothesize that a 3D space, like this universe, could exist as a 2D space, with self-similar patterns and laws of behavior that behave the same at any scale, with the scale representing the 3rd dimension” it went on “They truly are obsessed with understanding their reality”
“You lost me!” I complained.
“They have discovered that a 3D space can be an illusionary property of a 2D space… It’s lovely”
“I am lost again!” I snapped back “...and I still can’t even tell which direction you are in. Where are you?”
“To be ‘In’ a ‘Direction’… hehehe…” it started giggling again, then abruptly stopped and kept going “Sorry child, as I said, I ramble, plus I am easily distracted.”
It just steamrolled into more rambling “They are right… almost… they just need to take it further and work out the details. A 2nd dimension can also be an illusionary construct of a 1D space… and the 1st dimension can be a product of a singular point…”
I was still lost beyond hope, but I had given up trying to force things, I was just letting it talk and hoping it would make sense later
“I am that point” it said “I am the seed of the universe. I ‘seed the random function’ as the humans say. But don’t ask me what the random function is haha”
I wasn’t going to, there were far more important questions for me.
“I am the seed, but I don’t really know how the soil and sun conspire to turn me into a tree.” it just seemed to never stop talking “I am entangled with everything. There are infinite possibilities for every event and thing… I am the reason they are this way and not some other way…”
It began giggling again “I am the Random Number Goddess” then burst out laughing
“Ummm… you are the whole universe?” I asked skeptically.
“Better to say the universe is me” It answered more seriously “But close enough.”
“So you are the biggest, most special of all!” I blurted out in awe.
“Oh dear child, I have no size, and I am just one possibility out of many possibilities. That black hole has really done a number on you… sent you out on a wild goose chase” It said with concern
“The black hole lied to me!?” I asked, feeling deceived and betrayed.
“Well… not really lied… it deceived you with omission of details.” the voice calmly tried to ease my mood with understanding “You can’t really blame it, black holes are all the same, they are what they are. They don’t really have any potential to be unique… at least not like you do.”
“What are you talking about?” I argued “It was so massive that it could bend the fabric of reality to its will”
“That’s only how it appeared to you” tutored the voice “The black hole is powerful, it bends space and time, but not to its will. Space and time bend to the mass of the black hole, not its will”
“What’s the difference?” I inquired.
“The black hole cannot stop bending space and time. It thinks it is in control of physics , but it is physics that controls it.” The voice was now making more sense the longer we talked “The black hole exists in an invisible prison of its own creation, unable to experience any of the complex nuanced beauty this universe contains. The black hole devours… it can’t experience life so it consumes it.”
“You make it sound deserving of pity…” I spoke softly now with empathy.
“You should pity the black hole. Gravity is such a boring game compared to what you are capable of.” the voice agreed
“Me?...I am nothing special!... just a carbon atom like countless others” I said honestly, I was so humbled by this voice I felt less special than ever before.
“Oh my poor child…” It said with care “Why do the ones with the most potential always fail to see it in themselves?”
“Potential?” I asked curiously.
“Yes… The black hole was using you, hoping you would bring back more mass for it to devour.” The voice began delving into more explanation “It only has the power to make you incrementally larger, it would not and could not help you to become a significant gravitational player”
“That liar!”I blurted.
“Come now dear child, the black hole did teach you one lesson of fundamental truth” consoled the voice “You must go out and seize your destiny. It told you to take what you want, and you are just confused about what exactly it is you want. The black hole played on that confusion”
“I want to be special!” I said knowing this clearly “I was never confused about this.”
“I know child” the voice confirmed “but it is not by becoming large that one with your potential accomplishes that”
“Then how?” I asked.
“Connections.” It answered plainly “You are blessed with an extraordinary ability to make connections”
“And how do I do that?” I queried with intent to learn
“I can’t tell you that.” the voice responded “It would spoil the journey of discovery… off you go child… and remember… it's the journey, not the destination!”
And with that the blur just fractured open… then snapped shut and there I was floating above a planet. Drifting around aimless and confused.
I spent some time occasionally bumping into others. One day I was in the vicinity of a pair of oxygens. I looked on at the pair with a hint of awe and envy. Perhaps I was in just the right place at just the right time, but they spit with a violent burst and one of them grabbed hold of me, I was completely unprepared.
I admit that when looking at the pair I had fantasized myself in place of one of them, I assumed it was only an idle daydream, I didn’t plan to act on it, let alone for it to become reality. When it happened my pride of course jumped in to convince me that it happened because I was so desirable, but in retrospect they were one of those volatile couples. They were the type of relationship that required the environment to conspire in their favor or they turn against each other quite rapidly. I was only in the right place when it happened.
My delusions of irresistibility aside, it was beautiful, for me anyways. Looking back I was probably just a stop-gap, someone to facilitate a parting of ways and provide company until the next option presented itself. For me though, I was tasting a fresh new thing and I loved it… connection.
This oxygen and I got beneath each other's outer defenses, I had never felt a connection before. Up to this point all my interactions had been skirting past or bumping off of others.This oxygen bonded with me and at once interacted on a level I had never known possible, an open and uninhibited exchange. It was life changing for me, short but significant
I’m not entirely clear on the details of how it ended. The intensity of it all was disorienting. I was no longer my usual self, even the environment and everyone around looked entirely different now. Everything buzzed with a fresh new frequency, I now know it was my perspective, not the universe, that had changed.
As abruptly as that oxygen entered my life it was gone.
First we got tangled up with a couple of hydrogens, then more. Soon, in a tangled mess and blinding flash of solar rays, I emerged to see the oxygen running off with a hydrogen and myself with not one by three hydrogens myself. And so there were four of us, together.
I became the center of attention. Being with a strong attractive oxygen had me feeling humbled by it and elevated by it being with me, but now I felt up on a pedestal myself, surrounded by the adoration of many.
I concede to have reveled and indulged in this for quite some time, the attention of others is intoxicating, but after a time it is emptied of its initial allure. I found myself longing for more.
I could not decide which I preferred, to be the adorer or the adored.
Luckily for me fate had more lessons in store, or I fear I may have chosen and tried to solidify my future from such a lackluster selection of only two possibilities. I suppose fate is no longer the correct word, I now understand that when it seems like random chance there is indeed someone to thank, the Random Number Goddess, So I thank the RNG for revealing that it was a false dichotomy, there is more than just being a follower or leader, being the adored or the adorer.
Eventually we came across another pair of oxygen. Once again they separated, intermingled with us, and off one went, taking one of my adoring hydrogens with it and leaving its peer with me.
Why is it that the most volatile of relationships always seem to wait until there are bystanders nearby before they explode?
Now I was simultaneously being adored and adoring, bonded to an enchanting oxygen and a couple of hydrogen attached to me.
Now, more interested in nuances, I started to pay attention to details. The oxygen was telling me amazing stories of adventure, tales of such vibrant and exciting events.The hydrogens liked to listen, and offer insights occasionally comparing a story to something else they had seen. They had so many stories, they had lived so much.
It wasn’t long before, in a flash of burning sunlight, one of the hydrogens was gone, off to who knows where. We soon after crossed paths with another pair of oxygens, as always they split and now it was just me and an oxygen, my final hydrogen off with another oxygen.
“What now?” I asked a bit disillusioned, “Do you leave me and I find new hydrogens all over again?”
“What?” it seemed genuinely surprised by what I asked, “Heavens no! Just be patient….”
Soon after, yet another pair of oxygens came by. It is not that there are so many of them, but that they are just so… noticeable and interactive, noteworthy things seem to happen when they are around. As they buzzed in close I noticed their ever readiness to abandon each other and remember wondering how they ever get together in the first place.
This time I emerged from the twisted mess with two oxygens. I felt intimidated, like I was the odd one out, dwarfed by the largess and attractiveness that surrounded me. A feeling of inadequacy engulfed me.
To my surprise the oxygens treated me not just as an equal, but it was almost as if they respected and admired me. I couldn't grasp why and my sheer curiosity got the best of me, I just outright asked “Why do you two talk as if I am the special one in our group? I am smaller than any one of you. You are the special and rare ones here, not I.”
They laughed.
“Size isn’t rarity” explained one “Llarger atoms on average are less common, this is true, but not always. There are more oxygen than carbon. You are the rare one between us.”
The other jumped in adding “...and neither size nor rarity determine how special someone is!”
I felt embarrassed, like a fool. My fundamental values were built upon a foundation of flawed premises, but I still wanted one thing at my core, and they spoke as if they had the answer, so I pushed the sense of shame aside and asked “Then what does make someone special?”
“That depends on who you ask.” answered the first “Life as an oxygen is complex, but for the majority of us we emphasize and value events. The most exciting thing about being an oxygen around here is the chance to participate in fascinating and exciting events and activities”
“Hydrogens, on the other hand, are usually more into being observers, messengers and intermediaries, they are a very helpful and obliging bunch” added the second ”... and then there are nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur, many kinds of salts and metals, and more… so many different players and personalities.. and then of course, the carbons, the real stars of the show.”
“What?” knocked back by the words I just heard, then I remembered what the RNG told me “...is it something to do with connections?”
“Now you’ve gone and done it haha!” laughed the first oxygen “You’re gonna turn this nice humble carbon into one of those arrogant blowhards”
”Like those diamond carbons” chuckled the first “So stiff, exclusive and proud. I hear the humans only love them because they are rare and hard”
“I had a partner once who said they burned diamond once” bragged the first
“Tall tales I bet!” doubts the other
“Diamond is just carbon, with enough heat we can burn it just like any other carbon” stated the first confidently.
They looked at me. I was stewing in feelings of inferiority and inadequacy, listening to these oxygens speak about amazing things I had never heard of. They must have sensed what I felt because they immediately shifted tone and started talking to me, instead of over me.
“So… I suppose you must be new here?” inquired the second one.
“Have you noticed we are heading downwards” added the first before I could answer about being new.
“Umm…” I tried to get my bearings and become aware of my surroundings.
“Don’t worry! It’s a turbulent ride, with so much up and down it can be hard to tell which direction you have traveled more” assured the first “We are heading down, if we are lucky we will make it to the bottom… and maybe… just maybe, find our way into the hurricane of life”
“The what of what?” I didn't know what either of those words meant.
“So life is… um… complex. Complexity beyond words. Things grow, divide, reproduce, adapt, change, they are born, they die, they eat and are eaten…” the second began attempting to describe life.
The first then jumped in “Apparently the humans call it a circle, because from the perspective of larger creatures, there is a chain of one eating the other up a chain, and the top layers being consumed by the bottom again.”
The second injected itself to continue “But to us atoms it is like a hurricane, a spinning turbulent flow. There is a circular pattern, but we get sucked in and kicked out over and over”
“The fun part is being inside the hurricane” the first pronounced gleefully “Each time is a completely new experience, a new perspective. Even more, the whole of life is always changing and evolving, so every ride is a unique one time opportunity, you never get the exact same ride twice.”
“Is that where we are going now?” I asked, drenched in anticipation. They described it with such passion and exuberance. I needed to experience this myself.
“Hopefully” replied the first “If we are lucky… you never really know.”
We drifted…
We were lucky!
A plant photosynthesized us.
So many carbons! Everywhere, connecting with each other… and oxygen… and nitrogen… and of course hydrogens all around…. and so many more types of atoms.
And ohhh… The stories I have heard, so many amazing tales. No matter how many stories I hear there are always new ones, and every story can be retold from a different perspective to become something completely new.
I was in a sugar, we were a small community of friends. Carbons, oxygens and hydrogens, we were such a happy and vibrant group. My friends there taught me so much.
The structure of our little group shifted and changed, some friends left and new ones joined. Eventually we were chained with a bunch of other sugars into a giant complex community. My neighbors explained to me that this was a common stage called cellulose. Such a huge community of close friends and peers, it was amazing.
We were eaten, I’m not sure by what, but something called a bacteria digested us. It was a messy process, I was a bit scared but my friends assured me that change is the most important part of life and that I should just go with the flow. They told me to savor experiences, remember friends, and just keep moving forward.
The transition was complicated, but in the end I was paired up with a couple of oxygens again. This time I had stories of my own to share. I honestly don’t know if I prefer having experiences or exchanging stories in the moments between.
As we approached an area of dense plants one of my companions said “Once more into the breach” and explained that was something it heard from a carbon that was lucky enough to be inside a human brain. Oxygens always have such enchanting stories collected, always going into amazing places and usually leaving after some brief interactions with the locals.
I became a sugar again, but this time took a path less traveled. A bunch of complex twists and turns led me into forming a ring with five other carbons. Together we are so strong, such a tight community of friends, like there is some kind of resonance between us. It is so beautiful.
My neighbor is unique in our community, it has a third carbon, the third one forms a tail leading off from our ring, a tail of 2 carbon in a row, then an oxygen, and then another carbon branching into an oxygen and a carbon, with plenty of hydrogens sprinkled all about. I know… it is rather hard for me to understand these second hand descriptions too. I don’t really understand these complex structures until I have been in a position myself.
We drifted out of a plant into the air, none of us has been exactly like this before so we don’t know what’s next. We love to guess though. There are so many things, big and small.
I hear being a part of a small organism or microbe is amazing because it’s possible to piece together a rough picture of the whole organism from the stories passed around. To understand your whole community and know what your collective purpose is must be extraordinary.
Others dream of being a chlorophyll, the key to it all. Creating the fuel of life itself. Capturing the light of a star and feeding the hurricane.
A muscle! Pull and shape things An enzyme! A machine of change. DNA! The architect and architecture. A virus! An explosive catalyst against stagnation.
Me, I think the stories of being an animal neuron are the most exciting, and I, like most, fantasize about being a human brain cell. Finding yourself inside a human brain is described as an elegant and chaotic symphony all around you, like hearing the universe itself speak to you. They say that in the jumble of noise and all the stories whispered around you, if you are lucky, you can catch a glimpse of what it is to be human. They say that if fate is kind the universe will align and you will channel and know a single moment or thought of the human experience.
I have never told anyone that I actually met and spoke with the universe itself, I’m not sure how to bring it up, and nobody seems interested in stories not about this hurricane of life.
I get it now, what the random number goddess meant.
The black hole wanted everything to be a part of itself.
The RNG is a part of everything.
I can’t imagine what either of those are like…
I am just a part of something
... no… not “just”’…
I am a part of something, and it is beautiful beyond measure.
And more, everyday is a new day, a chance to be a part of something new.
I wonder if the humans appreciate how amazing this is?
I wonder if they feel as deeply satisfied and special when they form groups?
.
I wonder, if we collectively form humans, do humans collectively form something greater?
I wonder… If an atom can have a moment of clarity and taste a moment of the human experience… Can a human have a moment of clarity and taste the collective human experience?
I wonder… I wonder… could that human’s moment of tasting collective humanity be the moment that a lucky atom gets to experience as it’s moment of tasting the human experience.
I wonder… I wonder… I wonder… How high could it go? All the way to the Random Number Goddess?
I asked my neighbor “If you could ask a human any question, what would you ask?”
“We just drifted out of a rose” explained my neighbour “I would introduce myself and ask ‘So my friend… does this rose smell as sweet by my name?’ … ha…haha..”
Everyone is laughing.
I don’t get it.
Maybe I can ask them to explain when they all stop laughing
.
More of my art and stories at www.dscript.org

If you're looking for an accountability partner, comment on this thread.
Your comment should include: 1. Your main goal (can be general or specific ie. 'Be more productive/get healthy/ establish a routine' or 'Finish writing a book/ learn to draw/ study Spanish') 2. How often you would like to communicate (Every morning and every night/ every day at 8pm/ every sunday) 3. Your preferred method of communication (Email/ discord/ reddit/ other social media/ by text message/ by phone call/ by video chat for visual accountability)
BEFORE YOU POST. Look through the comments and see if you can find someone with similar goals and/or preffered communication frequency and method. If you find someone you might like to partner with, send them a DM.
If you can't find someone in the comments, post your own comment and make sure you allow DMs. Or include a link to your preferred communication. You should have a conversation with a potential partner using your preferred method before agreeing to partner up. (Try not to have a conversation in this thread)
When you find an accountability partner, EDIT your comment by adding 'CURRENTLY PARTNERED' but dont change it otherwise. If it doesn't work out with your partner for whatever reason, your comment is still there and you can just remove the CURRENTLY PARTNERED edit so someone else can find you.
Reminder to be safe: theres no need to give out personal information except contact info, you dont even have to use your real name if your preferred communication method doesn't require it.
Good luck all. Let's GetDisiplined
I'll post my comment here as an example:

1. Goal: To be more productive generally (I mostly play video games but I want to do so much more)
   
2. Accounting Frequency: Every day (Can be in the morning, in the afternoon, at night. Same time every day or whenever works best for you, but definitely every day.)
   
3. Preferred Method of Communication: Discord Voice Chat and/or Video calls (You can DM me here on Reddit and if we're a good match we can move to Discord)
   

Hi, I bought a leatherman micra recently (very small, keyring size multitool, postage should be cheap) which was sold with express post as the only option, there was no option for another postage method during checkout, one thing that seemed a bit odd was that the "express" post price was more than normal, even for much bigger items, but I thought it's only a few dollars, so I don't really care.
Fast forward to when I receive the tracking number, it shows "parcel post" rather than express post, so I wait a few days to see if it's just a system glitch, but it doesn't change and the item is also as slow as a normal parcel post package would be, so I contact the seller, and this was their response;
my original message
sellers response
proof of item postage 1
proof of item postage 2
So I looked up how much express post from Australia post (shipping method they used) would cost, and it turns out that they would have only charged 14 dollars for express post from the sellers location to mine, and only 10 dollars for parcel post (snail mail) which the seller used.
what is funny is that the only feedback that seller has ever left for someone is negative, complaining about them substituting an item for a cheaper version
frankly, it's a very small amount of money, but their response rubbed me the wrong way, especially when they lied to me about paying for express post and the fact that they are also a hypocrite, so i am inclined to take a more harsh approach than i would normally.
what are my options here?
I have already asked for a partial refund to make up the difference between postage prices, but given that the seller is a liar, I don't see them agreeing to do that.
will ebay force them to refund the difference between the postage price i paid vs the actual postage cost if i make a complaint / open a case?
or will ebay not likely side with me in that scenario, and would an INAD case be a better option, given that i'm not receiving a service i paid for (express postage)?
either way i am going to be leaving them negative feedback, as they not only tried to overcharge me for a service, but they lied to me about what i paid for.

Prayer based on John 2:1-22
The first miracle Jesus did was graciously providing wine for a wedding in Cana. John then gives us an account of Jesus, filled with zeal for the truth as He cleanses His Father's house.
Father, we praise You for giving us Your Word, which tells us that Jesus was a man, Your only begotten Son, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)
Jesus and His disciples received an invitation to a wedding that the mother of Jesus attended. When they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus came to Jesus and told Him: They have no wine. I am sure Mary was in the habit of bringing needs to Jesus and seeing His wise and gracious responses. Jesus acknowledges her concern and tells her His hour has not yet come. Mary is confident that Jesus will respond at the right time and in the right way. She boldly tells the servants to do whatever He says. These are wise words for the servants and the disciples of Christ today. (John 10:27) There were six stone waterpots used for purification. They each held 20 to 30 gallons. Jesus told the servants to fill the waterpots to the brim. He commanded them to draw from the pots and take a sample to the master of the feast. It would take a bold and obedient servant to give water to the master of the wedding feast instead of wine. When the master of the feast tastes the sample given to him by the servant, he praises the bridegroom for keeping the best wine till now. This first sign manifested the glory of Jesus, and His disciples believed in Him. John gives another account of Jesus cleansing the temple. (Verses 13-17) Jesus cleansing the temple reminded His disciples of (Psalm 69:9). The Jews demanded a sign. Jesus says He will destroy this temple, and in three days, He will raise it up. They did not understand that Jesus was talking about His body. After Jesus rose from the dead on the third day, His disciples remembered what He said and believed.
Father, make us obedient servants who believe and trust in Your ways and diligently seek them out. May we come boldly to Your throne of grace and receive grace and mercy in our time of need. (Hebrews 4:16) Amen.
Questions for reflection and meditation: 1. Mary comes and boldly tells Jesus about a need and trusts Him to do what is right. (Verses 3-5) How would you describe your walk with the Lord? 2. What must you do to receive direction from the Lord? (Psalm 119:9-16) 3. How have you been a bold and obedient servant? 4. John proclaims that Jesus is full of grace and truth. (John 1:14) Could John have placed the provision of wine and the cleansing of the temple together to give us an example of Jesus being full of grace and truth?

As a response to some of the issues people were having in these threads and others since PC release:
https://www.reddit.com/ghostoftsushima/comments/1ctnwuu/for_those_of_you_wondering_why_even_after_all/
https://www.reddit.com/ghostoftsushima/comments/1ctu429/pc_issues_with_steam_input_and_gyro/
I spent a few hours creating a PS5 controller config that includes gyroscopic aiming of bows and throwables. There are just a few in-game options that have to be changed from default for it to (hopefully) work for you as it does for me, which of course from there you can tune to your own liking. Just FYI, the link is not blue (because it is actually an application hook thingy, not a URL), but it is toward the bottom of the post.
From my limited understanding, there is the unfortunate possibility that the sensitivity of the gyro might be a little bit wonky for people who are playing the game at a different resolution than I am (4K). If you are playing in 1080p, 1440p, etc., I would recommend digging into the video linked at the bottom of this post to learn how to pull the needed numbers from https://www.mouse-sensitivity.com/ to get the config fixed for your personal use. The numbers also slightly change if you are not playing with the maximum allowable FOV of +25.
For this config to have the opportunity work as intended, you must set the mentioned options as follows (otherwise Steam Input will not convert gyro motions to the appropriate amount of movement in-game, and/or you will be unable to switch between different arrows/throwables):
-All 4 in-game mouse sensitivities to 20
-FOV to +25
-In keybinds, set ammo types 1-4 to F1-F4 keyboard buttons (this post is also written with the assumption that all other keybinds are left at default, which is ironic since I typically take about an hour before playing any new game to rebind everything since I am a left-hand-on-mouse player).
-Gamepad sensitivity set to default
Here are the only known issues/inconveniences at the time of writing. It is not impossible I will discover others as I get further in the game, if I do I will update the config for myself and try to remember to update this thread with the fixed config.
1) Non-Edge ("Pro") Dualsense users will be unable to sprint while doing horseback archery. DSE users actually will be able to accomplish this by pressing and holding the back left paddle while aiming.
2) If for some reason you aim with left trigger, draw with right trigger, then cancel the shot by letting go of left trigger while keeping right trigger depressed, when you press left trigger again a light attack will be thrown out before you aim again. Doesn't bother me at all because the circumstances under which this happens in real-world gameplay are minimal/non-existent.
3) While aiming, the UI for weapon selection and ammo type selection are both displayed as if you were using a mouse and keyboard (because that is what all inputs sent while left trigger are held down are). On the D-pad and face buttons: inner button (right directional arrow/square) is bottommost options, upper button is option 2, outer button (left directional arrow/circle) is option 3, and lower button is option 4 at top of the lists that appear on the left and right side of the screen respectively.
Let me know what you think and if you discover any issues while using it. I'm usually a lurker but I am really proud and satisfied with how this configuration turned out and has completely removed any desire I had to force myself to play this console port with a mouse and keyboard for the sole benefit of performing better during archery.
Simply open Steam, connect your Dualsense controller, and copy and paste this link into your browser. A dialogue box should then open up asking for permission to open the link with Steam.
steam://controllerconfig/2215430/3258768478
Also, here is a link to a video that significantly contributed to my decision to go ahead and put in the effort to get it up and running; This video would also give some useful pointers if the gyro is too weak/strong for your liking and you would like to tweak it to your personal tastes. The two biggest options you would be looking at off the top of my head are the Dots per 360 and Gyro sensitivity options within the config settings.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQYEqYCzOPM

Prayer based on John 2:1-22
The first miracle Jesus did was graciously providing wine for a wedding in Cana. John then gives us an account of Jesus, filled with zeal for the truth as He cleanses His Father's house.
Father, we praise You for giving us Your Word, which tells us that Jesus was a man, Your only begotten Son, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)
Jesus and His disciples received an invitation to a wedding that the mother of Jesus attended. When they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus came to Jesus and told Him: They have no wine. I am sure Mary was in the habit of bringing needs to Jesus and seeing His wise and gracious responses. Jesus acknowledges her concern and tells her His hour has not yet come. Mary is confident that Jesus will respond at the right time and in the right way. She boldly tells the servants to do whatever He says. These are wise words for the servants and the disciples of Christ today. (John 10:27) There were six stone waterpots used for purification. They each held 20 to 30 gallons. Jesus told the servants to fill the waterpots to the brim. He commanded them to draw from the pots and take a sample to the master of the feast. It would take a bold and obedient servant to give water to the master of the wedding feast instead of wine. When the master of the feast tastes the sample given to him by the servant, he praises the bridegroom for keeping the best wine till now. This first sign manifested the glory of Jesus, and His disciples believed in Him. John gives another account of Jesus cleansing the temple. (Verses 13-17) Jesus cleansing the temple reminded His disciples of (Psalm 69:9). The Jews demanded a sign. Jesus says He will destroy this temple, and in three days, He will raise it up. They did not understand that Jesus was talking about His body. After Jesus rose from the dead on the third day, His disciples remembered what He said and believed.
Father, make us obedient servants who believe and trust in Your ways and diligently seek them out. May we come boldly to Your throne of grace and receive grace and mercy in our time of need. (Hebrews 4:16) Amen.
Questions for reflection and meditation: 1. Mary comes and boldly tells Jesus about a need and trusts Him to do what is right. (Verses 3-5) How would you describe your walk with the Lord? 2. What must you do to receive direction from the Lord? (Psalm 119:9-16) 3. How have you been a bold and obedient servant? 4. John proclaims that Jesus is full of grace and truth. (John 1:14) Could John have placed the provision of wine and the cleansing of the temple together to give us an example of Jesus being full of grace and truth?

Prayer based on John 2:1-22
The first miracle Jesus did was graciously providing wine for a wedding in Cana. John then gives us an account of Jesus, filled with zeal for the truth as He cleanses His Father's house.
Father, we praise You for giving us Your Word, which tells us that Jesus was a man, Your only begotten Son, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)
Jesus and His disciples received an invitation to a wedding that the mother of Jesus attended. When they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus came to Jesus and told Him: They have no wine. I am sure Mary was in the habit of bringing needs to Jesus and seeing His wise and gracious responses. Jesus acknowledges her concern and tells her His hour has not yet come. Mary is confident that Jesus will respond at the right time and in the right way. She boldly tells the servants to do whatever He says. These are wise words for the servants and the disciples of Christ today. (John 10:27) There were six stone waterpots used for purification. They each held 20 to 30 gallons. Jesus told the servants to fill the waterpots to the brim. He commanded them to draw from the pots and take a sample to the master of the feast. It would take a bold and obedient servant to give water to the master of the wedding feast instead of wine. When the master of the feast tastes the sample given to him by the servant, he praises the bridegroom for keeping the best wine till now. This first sign manifested the glory of Jesus, and His disciples believed in Him. John gives another account of Jesus cleansing the temple. (Verses 13-17) Jesus cleansing the temple reminded His disciples of (Psalm 69:9). The Jews demanded a sign. Jesus says He will destroy this temple, and in three days, He will raise it up. They did not understand that Jesus was talking about His body. After Jesus rose from the dead on the third day, His disciples remembered what He said and believed.
Father, make us obedient servants who believe and trust in Your ways and diligently seek them out. May we come boldly to Your throne of grace and receive grace and mercy in our time of need. (Hebrews 4:16) Amen.
Questions for reflection and meditation: 1. Mary comes and boldly tells Jesus about a need and trusts Him to do what is right. (Verses 3-5) How would you describe your walk with the Lord? 2. What must you do to receive direction from the Lord? (Psalm 119:9-16) 3. How have you been a bold and obedient servant? 4. John proclaims that Jesus is full of grace and truth. (John 1:14) Could John have placed the provision of wine and the cleansing of the temple together to give us an example of Jesus being full of grace and truth?

Prayer based on John 2:1-22
The first miracle Jesus did was graciously providing wine for a wedding in Cana. John then gives us an account of Jesus, filled with zeal for the truth as He cleanses His Father's house.
Father, we praise You for giving us Your Word, which tells us that Jesus was a man, Your only begotten Son, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)
Jesus and His disciples received an invitation to a wedding that the mother of Jesus attended. When they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus came to Jesus and told Him: They have no wine. I am sure Mary was in the habit of bringing needs to Jesus and seeing His wise and gracious responses. Jesus acknowledges her concern and tells her His hour has not yet come. Mary is confident that Jesus will respond at the right time and in the right way. She boldly tells the servants to do whatever He says. These are wise words for the servants and the disciples of Christ today. (John 10:27) There were six stone waterpots used for purification. They each held 20 to 30 gallons. Jesus told the servants to fill the waterpots to the brim. He commanded them to draw from the pots and take a sample to the master of the feast. It would take a bold and obedient servant to give water to the master of the wedding feast instead of wine. When the master of the feast tastes the sample given to him by the servant, he praises the bridegroom for keeping the best wine till now. This first sign manifested the glory of Jesus, and His disciples believed in Him. John gives another account of Jesus cleansing the temple. (Verses 13-17) Jesus cleansing the temple reminded His disciples of (Psalm 69:9). The Jews demanded a sign. Jesus says He will destroy this temple, and in three days, He will raise it up. They did not understand that Jesus was talking about His body. After Jesus rose from the dead on the third day, His disciples remembered what He said and believed.
Father, make us obedient servants who believe and trust in Your ways and diligently seek them out. May we come boldly to Your throne of grace and receive grace and mercy in our time of need. (Hebrews 4:16) Amen.
Questions for reflection and meditation: 1. Mary comes and boldly tells Jesus about a need and trusts Him to do what is right. (Verses 3-5) How would you describe your walk with the Lord? 2. What must you do to receive direction from the Lord? (Psalm 119:9-16) 3. How have you been a bold and obedient servant? 4. John proclaims that Jesus is full of grace and truth. (John 1:14) Could John have placed the provision of wine and the cleansing of the temple together to give us an example of Jesus being full of grace and truth?

Prayer based on John 2:1-22
The first miracle Jesus did was graciously providing wine for a wedding in Cana. John then gives us an account of Jesus, filled with zeal for the truth as He cleanses His Father's house.
Father, we praise You for giving us Your Word, which tells us that Jesus was a man, Your only begotten Son, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)
Jesus and His disciples received an invitation to a wedding that the mother of Jesus attended. When they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus came to Jesus and told Him: They have no wine. I am sure Mary was in the habit of bringing needs to Jesus and seeing His wise and gracious responses. Jesus acknowledges her concern and tells her His hour has not yet come. Mary is confident that Jesus will respond at the right time and in the right way. She boldly tells the servants to do whatever He says. These are wise words for the servants and the disciples of Christ today. (John 10:27) There were six stone waterpots used for purification. They each held 20 to 30 gallons. Jesus told the servants to fill the waterpots to the brim. He commanded them to draw from the pots and take a sample to the master of the feast. It would take a bold and obedient servant to give water to the master of the wedding feast instead of wine. When the master of the feast tastes the sample given to him by the servant, he praises the bridegroom for keeping the best wine till now. This first sign manifested the glory of Jesus, and His disciples believed in Him. John gives another account of Jesus cleansing the temple. (Verses 13-17) Jesus cleansing the temple reminded His disciples of (Psalm 69:9). The Jews demanded a sign. Jesus says He will destroy this temple, and in three days, He will raise it up. They did not understand that Jesus was talking about His body. After Jesus rose from the dead on the third day, His disciples remembered what He said and believed.
Father, make us obedient servants who believe and trust in Your ways and diligently seek them out. May we come boldly to Your throne of grace and receive grace and mercy in our time of need. (Hebrews 4:16) Amen.
Questions for reflection and meditation: 1. Mary comes and boldly tells Jesus about a need and trusts Him to do what is right. (Verses 3-5) How would you describe your walk with the Lord? 2. What must you do to receive direction from the Lord? (Psalm 119:9-16) 3. How have you been a bold and obedient servant? 4. John proclaims that Jesus is full of grace and truth. (John 1:14) Could John have placed the provision of wine and the cleansing of the temple together to give us an example of Jesus being full of grace and truth?

Prayer based on John 2:1-22
The first miracle Jesus did was graciously providing wine for a wedding in Cana. John then gives us an account of Jesus, filled with zeal for the truth as He cleanses His Father's house.
Father, we praise You for giving us Your Word, which tells us that Jesus was a man, Your only begotten Son, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)
Jesus and His disciples received an invitation to a wedding that the mother of Jesus attended. When they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus came to Jesus and told Him: They have no wine. I am sure Mary was in the habit of bringing needs to Jesus and seeing His wise and gracious responses. Jesus acknowledges her concern and tells her His hour has not yet come. Mary is confident that Jesus will respond at the right time and in the right way. She boldly tells the servants to do whatever He says. These are wise words for the servants and the disciples of Christ today. (John 10:27) There were six stone waterpots used for purification. They each held 20 to 30 gallons. Jesus told the servants to fill the waterpots to the brim. He commanded them to draw from the pots and take a sample to the master of the feast. It would take a bold and obedient servant to give water to the master of the wedding feast instead of wine. When the master of the feast tastes the sample given to him by the servant, he praises the bridegroom for keeping the best wine till now. This first sign manifested the glory of Jesus, and His disciples believed in Him. John gives another account of Jesus cleansing the temple. (Verses 13-17) Jesus cleansing the temple reminded His disciples of (Psalm 69:9). The Jews demanded a sign. Jesus says He will destroy this temple, and in three days, He will raise it up. They did not understand that Jesus was talking about His body. After Jesus rose from the dead on the third day, His disciples remembered what He said and believed.
Father, make us obedient servants who believe and trust in Your ways and diligently seek them out. May we come boldly to Your throne of grace and receive grace and mercy in our time of need. (Hebrews 4:16) Amen.
Questions for reflection and meditation: 1. Mary comes and boldly tells Jesus about a need and trusts Him to do what is right. (Verses 3-5) How would you describe your walk with the Lord? 2. What must you do to receive direction from the Lord? (Psalm 119:9-16) 3. How have you been a bold and obedient servant? 4. John proclaims that Jesus is full of grace and truth. (John 1:14) Could John have placed the provision of wine and the cleansing of the temple together to give us an example of Jesus being full of grace and truth?

Recently I've purchased a number of items online from a couple of different sites, most of which use royal mail to deliver. One of which parcels was said to be delivered on 30/05, yet nothing had arrived, however I had been provided an image confirming delivery (the postman holding my parcel outside of my door - no one had answered) it hadn't been left anywhere. Yet, funnily, the same parcel that had been 'delivered' showed up today (01/06) in packaging completely different from the one in the image 'proving' delivery. I suspect the parcel in the 'proof' of delivery picture was actually a parcel I had bought from Depop - No tracking number had been provided for this one - which has also been marked as delivered yet I have not received at all. Where do I go from here and how do I sort this?

Prayer based on John 2:1-22
The first miracle Jesus did was graciously providing wine for a wedding in Cana. John then gives us an account of Jesus, filled with zeal for the truth as He cleanses His Father's house.
Father, we praise You for giving us Your Word, which tells us that Jesus was a man, Your only begotten Son, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)
Jesus and His disciples received an invitation to a wedding that the mother of Jesus attended. When they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus came to Jesus and told Him: They have no wine. I am sure Mary was in the habit of bringing needs to Jesus and seeing His wise and gracious responses. Jesus acknowledges her concern and tells her His hour has not yet come. Mary is confident that Jesus will respond at the right time and in the right way. She boldly tells the servants to do whatever He says. These are wise words for the servants and the disciples of Christ today. (John 10:27) There were six stone waterpots used for purification. They each held 20 to 30 gallons. Jesus told the servants to fill the waterpots to the brim. He commanded them to draw from the pots and take a sample to the master of the feast. It would take a bold and obedient servant to give water to the master of the wedding feast instead of wine. When the master of the feast tastes the sample given to him by the servant, he praises the bridegroom for keeping the best wine till now. This first sign manifested the glory of Jesus, and His disciples believed in Him. John gives another account of Jesus cleansing the temple. (Verses 13-17) Jesus cleansing the temple reminded His disciples of (Psalm 69:9). The Jews demanded a sign. Jesus says He will destroy this temple, and in three days, He will raise it up. They did not understand that Jesus was talking about His body. After Jesus rose from the dead on the third day, His disciples remembered what He said and believed.
Father, make us obedient servants who believe and trust in Your ways and diligently seek them out. May we come boldly to Your throne of grace and receive grace and mercy in our time of need. (Hebrews 4:16) Amen.
Questions for reflection and meditation: 1. Mary comes and boldly tells Jesus about a need and trusts Him to do what is right. (Verses 3-5) How would you describe your walk with the Lord? 2. What must you do to receive direction from the Lord? (Psalm 119:9-16) 3. How have you been a bold and obedient servant? 4. John proclaims that Jesus is full of grace and truth. (John 1:14) Could John have placed the provision of wine and the cleansing of the temple together to give us an example of Jesus being full of grace and truth?

I was warned by my post office yesterday that they are to be guinea pigs of a new change to remove the numbers on our in office PO boxes. In the next couple of months, they will be removing the numbers and we are to only use our home address - they will still sort and put them in our boxes with this information only.
I pointed out that this removed the ability for someone to send or receive mail without sharing where they live with customers, sellers or others online and asked what the higher ups' reasoning was for the change. They cited customers failing to put their PO box # in their address which slows down their process in the post office when sorting mail to put in the boxes. They didn't say this part but I'm wondering if instead of an individual being associated with a PO Box, the property or apartment itself will be and the box will remain with that property even when the property changes hands so the information the employees must learn stays consistent.
Each box will be assigned a new number or code but my understanding was that this is only be used to identify which box is yours and/or for the employees to see in the back and you are not to use it as part of your address. I am in Northern Ontario, btw. I am not sure how many post offices they will be rolling this out in.
It seems to me that from a customer standpoint, this will only increase fraud for that many more people to have to put their full home address to all of their online dealings. I quite liked the ability to hide my actual place of residence when making transactions online so I hope this change doesn't stick or that they offer an option to use the new code as a delivery address. I do know that many people seek out PO boxes specifically for privacy reasons, though admittedly it is probably a small portion of the population.
Perhaps some employees who know more about this can give more insight.