October 14th, Post-Y2K Era.
Not too much happens in the suburbs of Lamblet Harbor. In an area that used to be a hotspot for seagowers had been transformed into a very small, niche community of only a few hundred people. One new neighbor could move in at any time and be met with nearly the whole town recognizing your name in ~2 weeks if you stepped outside long enough.
Being the suburbs, it has nearly everything you need, just a few blocks from your living quarters. A corner store, a recognized restort for those with enough cash in their wallets, an ice cream parlor, a gas station just 15 cents too much per gallon to be worth it, a library with some graffiti art on the wall that's just too timeless to get rid of, etc.
Whenever it gets to be this time of year, the children and adults start to dress for chilly weather in jackets when they go outside, and in the house of the Makie family, that's no different.
Mr. Makie: "See you later, love ya!"
Ms. Makie: "Be careful at the game, honey! I know Serenity loves football, too, but she better not grow up to be screaming at every game on the TV!"
Mr. Makie: "Bah, you worry too much! And is Ollie in the car already?"
Ms. Makie: "Yep, he just scurried over with his granolah bars."
Mr. Makie: "Alright. Serenity! Let's get going to the game, don't wanna miss it!"
Serenity: "Lets go Rangers! And Cracker Jaaaaacks!!"
Down from the stairs appears Serenity Makie, a small 7 year old with a bit of dull blonde hair with a cap on holding the insignia of the "Cypress Rangers" on the top to show support for their team. Her father was also a fan that got his daughter involved in the hype of the game at an early age, so he's taking one of his paid vacation days to take her to a game nearby in his car.
Serenity and her father get in the car, the father taking the driver seat and Serenity sitting in the back, barely containing her excitment in that seat belt. In the front was "Ollie," the older brother to Serenity. The families magnet for teasing because it always seems like he's made of thin skin. Wanting no more than to get in and out of places as fast as possible, especially in school with how many people are there that he can barely remember anybodies name, much less good things to remember that doesn't cause anxiety.
Mr. Makie: "Alright, before we head to the game, let's quickly get Oliver dropped off at the school across the bridge, then we go watch the Rangers!"
Jackie (throwing her fists in the air): "YEAH!!"
Ollie: ^"'Kay."
The car starts up as Mr. Makie takes the two out of the neighborhood and onto the main road towards a bridge, scaling over a body of water that goes out towards the open Gulf. Their family didn't live too far from Ollie's school, but with how school zones worked, their family was just slightly too close for a bus without some complications in schedules and too far to walk there without a bike... but he's too afraid for either of those options. So, taking the car when it lines up with his parents was his best option.
Unlike his father and little sister, Ollie had to attend public school today. Which sadly meant that he couldn't just stay inside in the comfort of his own home or with family at the game despite his disinterest with sports, because it would at least give him an excuse to not be there.
His father and little sister are jamming out to the radio station's latest hits from popular artists to put on loop for the day. Ollie takes one of his chocolate chip granola bars to munch on as he looks out the window of the seat during the whole ride, trying to block out the noise.
Before he knows it, one blink, and the school is already in front of him at the car circle to get dropped off.
Ollie: "Huh? We're here already?"
Mr. Makie: "Yep, we'll come pick you up later okay?"
Ollie: "Okay..."
Mr. Makie: "Alright, learn something ya'hear?"
Serenity: "Bye bye bro, we're getting Cracker Jacks!!"
Mr. Makie: "In a bit when we get there!"
Ollie: "Yeah... bye Dad, bye sis."
Ollie gets out of the car and closes the door. The pair drives off with some embarrassingly loud music they clearly turned up when Ollie exited the vehicle... and he isn't sure how to feel about that.
Ollie, with his backpack on and confidence at a low, exits the car circle as he goes deeper towards the dark abyss of a slightly dim hallway. His looks are... plain and uninterested. His build was skinny, only around 5'8, short but unkempt brown hair, skin that could be mistaken snow, along jeans and a skinny jacket with the only notable part about it is the fur inside and a white line across the middle. The signature look of "one shoulder push and I'm running to cry at the stairs."
However, while Ollie's very shatterable self esteam was on full display, most of these worries are in his head as not much of anybody has a problem with him. All except...
???: "OH! Hey dude, "wet blanket" is here!"
Oh god. Why now?
???: "Hey, wet blanket! What you got for snacks today?!"
Ollie: "..."
At that moment, Ollie couldn't help but feel trapped in a corner despite not literally being in one. His biggest weakness on full display, all from the fact he was too spineless to resist the bullies demands. One bully names Max and the other being Andy, with his famous height and gap tooth.
Max: "Come on now, pay up! I'm hoping for fruit snacks like last week!"
Andy: "Yeah, you know the rules wet blanket!"
Ollie: "I-i.... okay..."
Ollie crumbles under the pressure and ends up bringing out the saved up granola bars in his pocket that were supposed to be a stand-in for his breakfast today. The bullies swipe them with no hesitation... but a deal is a deal as they guffaw at the amount of Granola bars they got, acting as if they had just gotten the lottery as they start wolfing them down in front of Ollie.
Max: "Ohohoho yeah!! Mmph, you better be brining the good shit like this more often!"
The duo leave Ollie standing there, hungry and defeated as he hasn't even gotten the chance to eat more than a single bar today before it got forced out his hand. All by the bullies everyone knows but lack the strength to confront or tell on, especially Ollie.
All Ollie does to try and save this god awful start to the day is speed walk over to his class early to sit down.
However, his teacher was not at the class room earlier than he was, meaning the room was closed with nobody in it or nearby to let him in. The school he went to was one for young adults that are barely cracking to be legal adults or barely over 18 like himself. All that was left to do was curl up in a ball on a seat nearby, which Ollie figures to be the right course of action as he does exactly that.
Minutes pass with silence and the occasional walking, idle talking, or door opening goes by. But none of them are for his classroom. His day is already going wrong. He's not strong, he's not brave, he's not smart, he's not....
All of these thoughts are interrupted by a tap on his shoulders.
???: "Dude... it's early, you okay?"
Ollie: "H-huh...?"
The defeated boy looks up, seeing a girl with short black hair, freckles, a big hand-me-down jacket looks down at him. One he recognized.
Ollie: "Hey Emma..."
Emma: "Woah, you look like your about to cry. Something happen?"
Ollie: "Its... no, it's nothing..."
Emma: "Hmm."
Emma sets her stuff aside and sits on a set a bit over to Ollie's right.
To Ollie, Emma was someone he saw as someone that was everything he tried to be but couldn't aside from gender. Socially outgoing, capable, looking like she barely ages with her growth spurts, reliable in just about everything, everything that Ollie could be like in a million years. But surprisingly, she knew him for quiet a few school years even before this to know that Ollie being this vulnerable... surely meant something happened while she wasn't around.
Emma being around made things just a bit better for Ollie as much as he doesn't feel he does a good job at expressing it. She's the only person that he can let his guard down and not feel like he needs to run away from.
Emma: "You're early, I'm usually here before ya, what's up with that?"
Ollie: "...Dad and sis wanted to watch the Rangers play today."
Emma: "Ohhh, right. I almost forgot that's happening today, heh... Hey, just so you know, you did remember something's gonna happen today, right?"
Ollie fell silent and eyes widened.
Emma: "And it's not like a project or anything!"
Ollie's expression lightened up a little, but the fear didn't entirely leave.
Emma: "I mean, that there's gonna be some people coming in today. A guest speaker! I heard some chatter in one of the side offices with one of the teachers, so i don't think we'll be doing much work today... if that makes you feel better."
Ollie: "It does a little..."
Emma: "Even if it was a project, you still have my email if you wanted to pair up....Actually, I think I see them coming now."
Ollie looks down the hall as their teacher and some other students come to the classroom to open it up for then to go in.
The class subject was math, a subject that Ollie wasn't exactly interested in but doesn't do too bad in to be too miserable. Emma and Ollie sit next to each other as they put their stuff down and wait for a guest speaker to arrive. Seemingly a little late, the regular teacher talked at the front of the room about what the guest speaker may potentially cover when they eventually arrive.
Minutes later, the guest speaker does show up. A bit short statured man with a large bald sport and a suit comes to the front of the room.
Mr. Eren: "Good morning, everybody! My name is Mr. Eren! I am a technological expert in all things robotics and biology to give you a lecture on your future and how... math will be a big thing in your careers!"
This doesn't align with Ollie's interest as much. His future career isn't going to be using anything like the quadratic formula. At least, he hopes in his head as he drowns out a good portion of the lecture to look at his surroundings. To his right, Emma seems to be half paying attention at times to the lecture but only at certain buzzwords like "profit" or "cells" or "technological breakthrough."" To his left and behind him, Ollie can see that Mr Eren wasn't the only person in a suit as other people outside his classroom are taking looks inside using the small window in the door. The suits in particular seem to be looking around where he's been sitting in his row.
He ultimately tries not to think about it too much as he spaces out and tries to avoid eye contact when he notices that one of the suits looked almost right at him.
The lecture too seemed so boring, it came in one ear and out the next as Mr Eren talked his ear off so much some people fell asleep until it was over. No math equations or nothing, just trying to convince everyone about being better at math for something nobody cared about... besides Emma somehow.
Eyeing the clock, everyone starts getting up to pack and leave to whatever their next classes would be. As they all leave, Emma was about to leave right behind Ollie...
Mr. Eren: "Excuse me, young lady!"
Emma: "Huh?"
Mr. Eren: "I'd actually like to discuss something with you personally if that's alright."
Emma: "Oh, uh, sure?"
Ollie: "Huh... but-..."
Emma: "Hey, I'll be right behind you. Do what you need to do, okay?"
Ollie: ".... ^okay..."
Ollie, hesitantly, leaves the room but can't help but shake the feeling something is off. Especially about these suits. Why were there so many that looked in at the class, he wondered. And what offices did Emma say she heard them talking in?
Getting a bad feeling, he'd normally just run away or take it as is like he always does. But this just... wasn't any normal bad feeling. One that overtook his cowardice... he needed answers.
Just by his luck, he goes down one of the hallways to the closest teacher office that doubles as a walkway to the break room that he spots a suit leaving, instinctively hiding behind the corner of a wall as they walk away none the wiser.
Fearing that he's risking way too much on a hunch, Ollie tries to force himself to just... doing it. Huffing and trying to walk back and forth as if he's trying to get himself to run in an unwilling dare he accepted for himself. Ultimately swallowing his fear...
Ollie: ^{"Here goes... everything.....!"}
... He finds the energy to haphazardly but quickly tiptoes over to the open door to the offices that the suit came out of, peaking in to see that nobody is there. On a table, he can see a message that was still open on a pretty advanced looking laptop for what he sees. It must've been important for some of the text to be highlighted in several areas. Taking this opportunity to see if his gut feeling was right, he scoops at this laptop.
Ollie: "...."
Huh.
No, what.
That can't be right.
What are they talking about-
How many years?
They're joking, right?
Why do they have files on Emma?
What is a "Life-Android?"
Is this what they were trying to trick us into?
All of these sudden thoughts flooded into Ollie's brain as he looked further into these agents' whereabouts and plans. Plans about Emma as a sort of patient zero, plans about long term program with the school hidden under the rug, plans with having this do with some "Super cells" from something he hasn't had the slightest clue of.
All of this coming back to one question in his mind...
Ollie: "Emma's a robot? Does she know she is?!"
Ollie decides that no, she needs to see this and decides to take the computer himself and sneak ou-
Suit: "HEY! What are you doing in here?!"
The world really couldn't let the "wet blanket" have one good thing happen today, could it?
To be continued

Hello,
I am considering applying to PhD programs in either OR or statistics . I have a few questions about my background and PhD programs.
I am a double major in math and business economics from a flagship R1 university (but not super selective), with an overall gpa of about 3.89. My math major gpa is about 3.97. I have an A- in one math class (intro analysis) and A’s in the rest (linear algebra, intro analysis 2, differential equations, two statistical inferences classes(senior level/graduate), measure theoretic probability(PhD level), two undergrad/masters and one PhD stochastic processes classes, optimization(senior level/graduate, very rigorous with mainly PhD students), math modeling (Senior level/Graduate), and real analysis(class mainly focused on topology, measure and integration, and functional analysis)). I have a few A-‘s and B+‘s in some of my gen eds and more discussion based econ classes, but have A’s in game theory and econometrics (3 classes). I have no grades below a B+. I have taken a class on OOP in Java. I am best at R, but know some python and Java.
I am currently an economics research assistant and a fairly prestigious institution. In my undergrad, I was a research assistant for a game theory professor and a teaching assistant for econometrics. I have had a couple analytics internships.
I am still unsure about my research interests. I really enjoy game theory and am curious about mechanism design. I also really enjoy stochastic processes and probability and wouldn’t mind doing probability research or probability modeling. I am also curious about decision theory and risk analysis, as I really enjoy the topics on expected utility theory from micro. These are the topics I would probably plan to study in an OR PhD.
But I also really enjoy the pure side of probability, and am considering phd in statistics with a focus on probability ( maybe a math PhD, but I am unsure if I would be a competitive candidate since I don’t have much pure math experience). I would also consider statistics as a research topic, but I am only really familiar with my statistical inference and econometrics.
Are there any classes I should take to fill any gaps? I am considered taking a class on algorithms or a topology class (my work will pay for it). Or maybe take some PhD level mathematical statistic classes.
Should I take the math subject GRE or will the general GRE suffice? I haven’t taken modern algebra or number theory, so I will have to do some serious studying.
What PhD programs should I aim for? Do I have a chance at a top program? Of course that will depend heavily on LORs, but do I have a sufficient background? For OR or Stats, do I have a chance at schools such as NC State and schools similar to that?
What are some good schools for probability that aren’t super competitive like MIT or NYU?

So I've seen a lot of folks say that Strike Hard! is mandatory for Commanders, or at the very least that it's probably the best Level 1 Tactic. I ran some math to check how good it actually is.
TLDR: I mean, it's better than Vicious Swing (Power Attack). If you have the right party members. Sometimes. It depends.
I may have made a mistake in the math somewhere. Let me know if anything weird happened, but I would have had to make a massive error to completely negate these findings.

Methodology

First, I went through every class in the game and sorted out their To-Hit by level. You may have seen this chart I posted a couple of months ago, but here it is again with the current Playtest Classes included. Note that these values are based on trying to maximize the attacking stat. For an Oracle, as an example, they're starting with 16 STR and increasing it every chance they get.
You can see the To-Hit table here.
I proceeded to normalize all of these to "Fighter = 0." The goal was to say, "If a Fighter needs to roll X to hit a target, how much damage would each build do with a single Strike?" So, at level 1, most Martials are converted to a "-2" here. If a Fighter needs a 10 to hit, then a Fighter with a -2 penalty to hit is just a Barbarian. (E.g. Barbarian needs a 12 to hit) Hopefully that's clear enough.
I then generated an "expected percent return" table that accounts for Crits = 2X damage, non-Crits = 1X damage, "Nat20 improves one stage", and "Nat1 reduces one stage." A value of 0.5 means that you're expecting to get "Half a Strike's value" per swing, whereas a value of 1.25 would means you're expecting "A full strike and an additional quarter" per swing, due to crit damage. This table is written as a series of penalties; as you lose 1 To-Hit, you move down the table. So a Fighter is the top row, most other martials are under the "-2" row, and a few classes bounce around.
You can see the Expected Percent Return table here.
Then I went through and generated a table of expected Strike damage per level for a variety of classes and subclass options. Again, these are "maximized" values. A Weapon Inventor here is starting with 16 STR and 18 INT and increasing both at every chance they get. (Note: I didn't include Breakthroughs for the Weapon Inventor, so technically it can be a bit higher than my eventual numbers. This doesn't change the findings.)
I did not include Exemplar here because, honestly, I forgot to. I also didn't include several Martials like Guardian that would otherwise be identical to the Champion, didn't generate a new row for every other caster like the Oracle, etc.
I also did not include Deadly weapons such as Picks. This is just "maximum weapon die that the build might use."
You can see the Expected Damage Per Strike Per Level table here.
Then I multiplied Expected Damage Per Strike by the Expected Percent Return to get the expected damage at any given Required To-Hit and Level. Because this ends up being three-dimensional data, I'm going to refrain from posting the massive table from Google Docs, but you can run the numbers and verify against the graphs below if you wish.

A Brief Aside about Vicious Swing (Power Attack)

Power Attack sucks. You get some marginal return on damage for two actions, but that ends up being less than just striking twice. This has been known since shortly after PF2E came out. Power Attack, remastered as Vicious Swing, is not good.
Strike Hard! at it's core is Vicious Swing. You spend 2 actions to make one strike with bonus damage (and maybe some accuracy). We need to compare spending those two actions on our own Strike to see how good Strike Hard! actually is.

Caveats

This is going to ignore certain benefits of Strike Hard! such as "You don't personally have to be in melee range to use it." I believe this is fair, as I'm also ignoring the benefits of using abilities such as Combat Assessment or Unsteadying Strike from our two Strikes. I would argue that these are bigger losses than any utility benefit Strike Hard! may offer, but we're going to focus on the pure damage.
This also ignores using Strike Hard! as part of a full attack. It is my experience that you rarely would want to (or are in a position to) spend all 3 actions on melee range damage output. Strike Hard! is definitely better than Swings 2+3. Swings 1+2 are the question.
This assessment assumes the Commander is building to maximize their Strength. If you aren't doing so, Strike Hard! gains value for obvious reasons. However, you probably should still be building Strength. You do you.

Classes That Don't Strike Hard Enough

Some classes just don't outpace two Strikes from a Commander with a single Strike of their own. This includes your Monk and Champion, who do not get any bonus damage beyond Weapon Specialization, your Propulsive Weapon Users such as Rangers, 1-hand wielding Magi, Thaumaturge, and Swashbucklers.
You can see a graph at Fighter To-Hit 10 here.
A few of these, namely the Swashbuckler, Thaumaturge, and 1H Magi, keep up with two Strikes from the Commander using a 1H weapon, but none of these keep up with a Commander who wants to deal damage. Note that, of the 5 best options, two of them (Rogue and Inexorable Iron Magus) are barely above that set.

Classes That Can Strike Hard Enough

The classes that may actually be useful with Strike Hard are Barbarians, Fighters, Inventors, Inexorable Iron Magus, and Rogues. Realistically, the last two are questionable. These are all classes that get bonus damage per swing at large enough levels that you may outpace a Vicious Swing.
Here is a graph for how much damage these builds average per Strike against a target that requires a Fighter to roll a 4 To-Hit.
Here is the same for a 7 To-Hit.
And a 10 To-Hit.
And finally a 13 To-Hit. A Barbarian misses 75% of their swings at this point.
Note that the Solid Black line indicates a Commander using, say, a Warhammer and Shield and swinging twice. The Dashed Black line is a Commander using a Greatsword and swinging twice. The Dotted Black line is a Commander using a Greatsword using Vicious Swing, if it were available. This is not a real build, but it's here for context.
The first thing you may notice is that Barbarians are king here. They're bad at iterative attacks due to lower To-Hit than Fighters, but they have some chonk behind them. It's worth noting that Giant Barbarian is higher than Dragon by a little bit, but pretty much any given Barbarian is a good pick.
The second thing you may notice is how good d12 Inventors damage can be. If you just wanna bash once per turn, they're better solidly A-tier.
However, what you should really notice is that Dashed Black line. If you're worried about damage as a Commander, Striking Twice is better than anything but a Barbarian on very easy (Fighter To-Hit 4) targets, the best option on kinda easy (Fighter To-Hit 7) targets, better than anything besides a Barbarian or Fighter on neutral (Fighter To-Hit 10) targets, and the worst on pretty hard (Fighter To-Hit 13) targets. Above Fighter To-Hit 13, everyone kinda sucks, but Commander does flatline first.
Using Strike Hard! on a 2H Magus or Rogue is pretty much the same as using Vicious Swing with a Greatsword. As previously discussed, just swing twice instead.
All of this is to say, except against things that are nearing "Boss" difficulty (Martials miss 75% of swings), Strike Hard! should only be used on a raging Barbarian or a Fighter (maybe an Inventor), and only sometimes.

Wrapping Up

Strike Hard! is fine, but it's entirely party dependent. I don't think "is there a Fighter in the party?" is a huge barrier to entry, of course. But Strike Hard! is worse than just grabbing a Greataxe if you're looking to maximize your damage output against easy targets and, against hard targets, Strike Hard! may not be the ideal Tactic anyways.
Even if you want to use a one-hander and shield, only Barbarian, Fighter, and Inventor consistently outpace swinging twice. No other class does.
If you have a Fighter or Barbarian (or Inventor?) in the party, it's not a bad idea to run Strike Hard! with either Pincer Attack or Form Up!. If you do not have one of these in the party, leave Strike Hard! at home.

I was 9 or 10 and at the time I was more into generic adventure and action games. I would just try to guess easy puzzles until I was able to access a computer and actually find solutions. I think sometimes I even asked my mom to help me.
Did anyone else do this? I should definitely play through the games and actually solve the puzzles after more than a decade, lol. I think as the games progressed they went with more logic-based puzzles than actual math ones.
A note on the 'looking things up' part - this was back when the Internet was still something reserved for personal computers only, we did not have unfiltered access growing up, so 2009 or 10.

Anyone know the mechanics of the raids? What are the maths.
The raid counter in the bottom right - is that the strength or just a counter of how many raids have happened?
If it's a strength counter - will it just increase every time? so if I am playing a slow game - eventually I will get smashed every single time?
Is there a to slow / lower the strength (I know you can turn raids off - although dont know where that is)

I'm thinking he's some kind of NT, but other than that I really have no idea. Please feel free to ask questions in the comments; I'll answer to the best of my ability. Here's a collection of info I've written down about him that may help y'all type him.

• He's good at planning and strategizing. Often scripts out important conversations before having them.
• Conversations with him are usually about his life and interests. They can go in meandering directions, but you can usually trace the path of the conversation.
• Is kind and treats people well, but doesn't usually go out of his way to do so. Prefers giving things to charity as opposed to giving money to charity.
• Relatively productive and organized despite having untreated ADHD. (I envy the fuck out of this.)
• Has both nerdy interests (Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons, card games in general, anime, video games) and normie interests (sports, Taylor Swift). Tends to be very knowledgeable about his interests and collect facts about them.
• Seems more concerned with things and facts than people and emotions, usually, though he does talk about his friends a lot.
• Hard worker despite thinking capitalism is bullshit.
• Likes weed but doesn't partake very often. Very rarely drinks.
• Not extremely political, but definitely a leftist.
• Not especially stubborn most of the time. Hard to imagine him using any kind of force. However, when he's adamant about wanting something, he stands by it.
• Not religious. Parents attempted to raise him Catholic and failed. He never cared for church.
• Likes having someone around to take charge and take care of him, though he honestly doesn't need to be taken care of. He manages his life fine on his own.
• Once joked that "I'm a sports fan, I love being angry." Gets loudly annoyed at people who drive poorly, but in a way that suggests he's having fun yelling at them. I've never seen him truly angry.
• Generally a happy person despite that. Honestly one of the most mentally healthy people I know.
• He once told me that if we were in some kind of accident/disaster, he'd save me and not go back for anyone else lmfao.

He's kind. To everyone, including strangers, but especially to people he's close to. Even when we've had issues or he's been upset at something I've done, he's never been anything but kind and understanding with me. He's a little self-interested, maybe, but never malicious.
He's very intelligent. Intelligent enough to make his life work despite having untreated ADHD. He's good at memorizing information about things he's interested in, and good at math--much better than me (which is a low bar tbf lol). He's the planner in our relationship. He helped me plan out my trip to see him, and he planned out our house in Minecraft.
He's a pretty hard worker. Despite thinking capitalism is bullshit, he nevertheless makes far more of an effort at his job than I would in his place. He somehow finds the energy to work full-time, manage things at home, and go out with friends. Hell, he has a cold and he's still going to work. He also works hard to make our relationship work.
He's relatively socially active. He's an introvert, but he has a group of ~5-6 friends he spends time with pretty regularly. I'm his main person, though.
His hobbies/interest include both nerd shit and normie shit, ha. He works at a card store and loves card games. His favorite is Magic: The Gathering, which he plays regularly and has taught me about. He loves Taylor Swift's music and listens to it constantly. He likes watching sports, especially baseball, and knows a lot about them. Ask him about his interests and he can ramble for hours. Other things he likes include anime, DND, video games, tattoos, and cats.
He has a degree in geography with a minor in history. I don't know if he's ever tried to find a job in either field, but if so, he hasn't succeeded. He seems content to work in the card game industry.
What he struggles with: The one time I upset him, he couldn't tell me when we were in voice chat together and had to message me afterward. (I could tell something was wrong, but even when I asked he said he was fine.) This leads me to believe he doesn't do great when it comes to conflict with people he cares about. It's also hard to imagine him fighting for anything, even if it was necessary.
What he likes in others that he's not great at: He's mentioned liking stubbornness in a partner, and though he can be stubborn too, he's probably not willing to die on as many hills as I am. He also likes someone who can take charge and be the dominant one in the relationship, and seems to enjoy me being outspoken about my needs and wants.

edit: by "target" I mean not for employers but for like applying to college, ones I actually have a shot at like "match schools" would be a synonym ig
Hello guys, I am trying to get ideas for the target schools on my college list. I am interested in CS. I won't receive any need based aid and my parents can comfortably pay but if the school is not extremely famous (as most target schools won't be like insane brand names) I want to keep the cost under abt 50k p/a, preferably under 40k p/a for my targets.
My stats are 1560 SAT (1590 superscore), 4.0 unweighted 4.5 weighted gpa (no ap classes at my school). I am in-state for texas, and should be in "auto admit" category (I have UT on my list as a reach still)
I am indian origin male (tough for cs) but I go to a catholic school with only white people preety much and I am hindu (idk if that affects much)
I think my counselor rec letter will be great but my teach rec letters will be mid at best
My extra-curriculars are not bad but not game changing. I have a job at a math tutoring place, I will have a paid internship at an IT company this summer, I play violin for 7 years (no awards and not really done outside of my house tbh), I do freelance real estate and event photography, I do freelance web design (wordpress sites), I have built 2 apps and some volunteering such as photography for a 100-150 member non profit and some other 1 time things.
I think I have good safeties and reach choices but its hard to tell what would be a good "target" both high and low for CS . If it is a "lower" target I would want to get some merit scholarship to offset the cost a bit. Thanks

Okay so I have been searching for this game for years and my sister remembers it too, so I know I didn’t dream it. Here are the details:
-educational math based pc game from the early 2000s -takes place in a theme park -kind of a “mysterious” vibe ?? -a bunch of different mini games or stations within the theme park. One of which is a popcorn machine where each piece of popcorn has a math problem to solve (Popcorn song is playing too) Another station is a rollercoaster where each car gets a bucket of paint dumped on it - can’t remember what thing you have to solve at that one though. -I distinctly remember in the background audio there are the screams of people on the rides. Not creepy or anything though.
I’ve posted about this a couple times on tipofmyjoystick but no luck.
TIA!

I signed in to see that half of the operators I had unlocked with renown had become locked again. I contacted Ubisoft about this problem and they had said that I had lost access to them because my Xbox Gamepass had expired. For context though, I had bought the game originally through Steam in 2020 and unlocked all my operators with renown originally. About a year ago, I had downloaded the game (The Deluxe version apparently) again through Gamepass so I could play with a new account with a friend that was just getting into the game. I must have been signed into my old Ubisoft account so I couldn't make a new account anyway, but my Gamepass was tied to it anyway. Ubisoft support said that once my Gamepass expired, all the Year 2 operators on my account were locked out again. Even though I had bought them all with renown before I connected Gamepass at all.
Now Ubisoft support says they "have no logs that I ever purchased operators with renown" and that "I will have to connect Gamepass again" if I wanted to unlock all those operators again. Absolutely insane and frustrating. I have a level 115 account already. If they just did the math, it should be easy to tell that I had put in enough time to earn renown to unlock that many operators. Anyway, talking to Ubisoft support is like talking to a wall. I see why everyone is starting to hate this company.

I signed in to see that half of the operators I had unlocked with renown had become locked again. I contacted Ubisoft about this problem and they had said that I had lost access to them because my Xbox Gamepass had expired. For context though, I had bought the game originally through Steam in 2020 and unlocked all my operators with renown originally. About a year ago, I had downloaded the game (The Deluxe version apparently) again through Gamepass so I could play with a new account with a friend that was just getting into the game. I must have been signed into my old Ubisoft account so I couldn't make a new account anyway, but my Gamepass was tied to it anyway. Ubisoft support said that once my Gamepass expired, all the Year 2 operators on my account were locked out again. Even though I had bought them all with renown before I connected Gamepass at all.
Now Ubisoft support says they "have no logs that I ever purchased operators with renown" and that "I will have to connect Gamepass again" if I wanted to unlock all those operators again. Absolutely insane and frustrating. I have a level 115 account already. If they just did the math, it should be easy to tell that I had put in enough time to earn renown to unlock that many operators. Anyway, talking to Ubisoft support is like talking to a wall. I see why everyone is starting to hate this company.

Old way: Both Heroes and Enemies have a special wheel power to face after an opponent ends a run [not a shift]. No cost or restriction. (Older iterations charged a Resolve and/or had a once-per-round cap on Wheel)
New way: Enemies are unchanged; Heroes now have facing abilities on their Armor cards (not just the facing action, but facing abilities that are played like stunts, during an attack).
Pros: Less game mechanics to teach Heroes, less card clutter, more interesting wrinkles for Armor cards. GM doesn't have to ask "are you going to wheel" and wait for an answer after every enemy movement. GM round moves much faster and more painlessly. More flexible facing on Armor allows a lot more interesting things to be done with Stunts.
Push/Neutral: Heroes can wait and see how the enemy attack roll goes before making a decision (can be seen as a negative tactically, personally I think it's a push, but its a big time save and tends to make tactical errors more like inefficiencies than 'oops im dead').
Cons: Not consistent. Requires Heroes to expend more resources so they may perceive it as negative or unfair even though they were given more movement resources on their Armor (especially on back side). While Stunts are more interesting/tactical, it also requires a bit more attention to order of operations and such, probably a bit trickier for beginners.
Overall: Keeping it as is. I wasn't sure how this would pain out the first couple weeks of testing but this has been great for the GM and speed of play, easier for Heroes to learn the game. The only real downside is the lack of symmetry and perceived unfairness that might arise the first time it bites players in the ass.
Consider the cases. The auto-wheel ability gives you an edge when outnumbered. When a Hero is outnumbered, usually the start of battle, they have infinity options with use of resources and stunts on how to deal with the situation. When an enemy is outnumbered, either its a big monstrous baddie who you're going to want to have ways to deal with being surrounded (eyes in the back of my head, "I whip my tail back and forth", etc)' or, its late in the fight and the Heroes are mainly cleaning up, and the remaining mook(s) need all the help they can get.
So yeah, that logic really seals it for me. It's not just "because it's a lot easier for me". It's more interesting tactically, and any unfairness is only perceived because this formulation is usually more generous to the Heroes because they can now wait to 'wheel' as an armor power.

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Demographics: Female, Asian (moved here in elementary), CA, competitive public high school,
hooks: legacy at nyu, athlete, non-profit
Intended Major(s): CS/Applied Math
ACT/SAT/SAT II: 1550 (760 Reading 790 Math)
UW/W GPA and Rank: 3.83UW/4.43W, school does not do ranking
Coursework: AP/IB/Dual Enrollment classes, AP/IB scores, etc
10 APs: AP Chinese, AP Calc BC (sophomore year), AP Physics 1, AP Stats, AP CSA, AP Bio, APUSH, AP CSP, AP Seminar, AP Physics C
Dual Enrollment: Multivar Calc
Senior year courseload: AP Physics Electricity, AP Lit, AP Gov, AP Macro, Linear Alg
5 on AP's except AP Physics 1
Awards:
Model UN: Best Delegate (x2) (one international one regional), Honorable (x1) (international)
National Merit Scholarship Qualifier
Presidential Volunteering Service Bronze (2023, 2024)
National Spanish Exam Top Percentile
National Chinese Honor Society
Regional Swim Competition Silver (x2)
Regional Debate Tournament Win (x3)
Extracurriculars:
Model UN: won competitions, club officer, chaired for conference
nonprofit org: regional/city director, volunteer for 200+ hours
intern: interned at cs startup, cs backend
women in stem club: founder, president of club, organized county science fair and partnered with nationally recognized non profits and churches to tutor low income children
research: competitive summer program, researched bioengineering at UCSD
game dev: made website and app games (x2)
Chinese club: school club vp
art commissions: totaling 2k+, 6 years, website portfolio
dance: nationals, 11 years
debate: varsity
Marine Biology Volunteering Program 100 Volunteering Hours
FIRST robotics
neurology newsletter, 3 years
Essays/LORs/Other:
Essays: I would focus on my experience of transferring high schools sophomore year & how that affected me and also what I learned from it. I can also talk about the differences that I have experienced being here vs being in the country I lived at before. Additionally, I can talk abt my passion for public speaking.
LORs: Generally good relationship w/ APUSH teacher, tutoring for AP Bio teacher next year
Schools:
UIUC (CS + Linguistics) , UMich, GT, WashU, Purdue, UT Austin, UCI, UCSB, NYU
chat am i cooked or what.

I've made a pretty strange discovery in the code. So, I was looking through the game code trying to figure out what the exact effect of your Farming Skill level and Luck is on the number of extra crops you get, for crops that can produce more than 1 per harvest (like say Blueberry). Turns out Luck doesn't have any effect at all, and Farming Skill level only affects a single crop in the entire game for some reason: Rice.
The way it works in the code, is if the crop can have more than 1 per harvest, is it randomly selects a number it calls num1 (the base number of harvested items produced) that has a 50/50 chance of being either the minimum amount of items that can be produced, or the maximum of either of these values (values are listed for each crop in Crops.xnb):

• minHarvest + 1
• maxHarvest + 1 + (Farming Skill Level / maxHarvestIncreasePerFarmingLevel, only added if the latter is greater than 0)

No crops have a minHarvest value higher than maxHarvest, so the first option actually can't happen in a vanilla game (I'm not even sure why it's there...). But what's important here is the way Farming Skill level is added to the equation. Farming Skill level only has an effect if maxHarvestIncreasePerFarmingLevel is greater than 0. And guess what?
Pretty much all crops with extra harvests have maxHarvestIncreasePerFarmingLevel set to 0. Potato, Strawberry, Tomato, Blueberry, Pepper, Coffeebean, Eggplant, Cranberry, and Fiber, all of are set to 0 and all of them are completely unaffected by your farming level when it comes to the amount you harvest. There is only a single crop in the entire game with maxHarvestIncreasePerFarmingLevel set to something other than 0. That crop is Rice, which has it set to 10.
This means that Rice is actually the only crop in the entire game for which Farming Skill level has an effect besides crop quality. If you were to buff your Farming level, by eating for example Farmer's Lunch, you will on average harvest more rice per plant. And this buff doesn't work for any other crop at all! So if you're planning a massive rice harvest on the Riverland map, make sure you eat a proper lunch first.
The code for the whole thing, if anyone was curious, looks like this:

if ((int) (NetFieldBase) this.minHarvest > 1 (int) (NetFieldBase) this.maxHarvest > 1) { int num5 = 0; if (this.maxHarvestIncreasePerFarmingLevel.Value > 0) num5 = Game1.player.FarmingLevel / (int) (NetFieldBase) this.maxHarvestIncreasePerFarmingLevel; num1 = random.Next((int) (NetFieldBase) this.minHarvest, Math.Max((int) (NetFieldBase) this.minHarvest + 1, (int) (NetFieldBase) this.maxHarvest + 1 + num5)); } if ((double) (NetFieldBase) this.chanceForExtraCrops > 0.0) { while (random.NextDouble() < Math.Min(0.9, (double) (NetFieldBase) this.chanceForExtraCrops)) ++num1; } 

As to what it does with chanceForExtraCrops at the bottom there, it just checks if chanceForExtraCrops > 0.0, and if it is, compares chanceForExtraCrops from Crops.xnb to a random number between 0.0 and 1.0 and sees if chanceForExtraCrops is greater than that random number. If the check succeeds, it adds 1 to the num1 we calculated before, and repeats the check again, continuing until the check fails. Ultimately, num1 after this is the amount of harvested items that will be produced.

i have never known what i wanna do but today it just hit me how i want my life. you know what i wanna do, i wanna become a writer. i get a million thoughts when I'm in a situation or a conversation that I would want to pen down, that I would love people to know. i want to make my own blog and I want people to read it and I wanna be anonymous. i don't wanna disclose my identity. i wanna earn money through it and other source of money I want to earn through investing in stocks, trading and I wanna learn how to code, I wanna make my own game and sell it, I don't wanna work for anyone, and I want my own business but I don't have any idea in what yet. and I wanna design my own house, low-key I also wanna become an architect. but that's fine, if I design my own house ill consider myself as an architect haha. i want to be in the corporate world without being in it. also my business idea could be making extremely soft baggy tees with cool designs cause man its so hard to find one out there. and half of them would be black in colour for all the black loving gals out there. so lowkey I'm into designing asw. currently I'm doing a math and econ degree, well i don't hate it but idk if i love it, its damn hard ugh. also i want my own restaurant with the best food in the world.

Looking for something diffrent? Are you excited for 1.21? Well you are in the right place. Welcome to Digital Den, a cozy adult community. Starting building up a fresh SMP that will last!
We plan on hosting an array of servers. Starting with our SMP and later expanding with mini games!
Below is the planned additions to the SMP:
MODS

• Armorposer : Alternative to the armor statues data pack.
• Audio Player : Lets hermits add custom audio files into the world.> Carpet Fixes : Used to fix inhabited chunk time.
• Cloth Config : Required for other mods.
• Coordfinder : Bookmark utility for storing locations in the world and querying them in game.
• Fabric-api : Required for other mods.
• Fabric-carpet : Required for other mods.
• Fabricexporter : Used to monitor & diagnose performance.
• Iinhabitor : Allows players to protect areas from pruning.
• Instantgroup : Extension for voice chat mod.
• Lithium : Performance optimizer.
• Shulkerplus : Iskall's shulker box labeling mod.
• Spark : Used to monitor & diagnose performance.
• Status : Allows players to set a streaming or recording status.
• Viewdistancefix : Uncouples server and client view distance.
• Voicechat : Enables proximity voice communication in game.

DATAPACKS

• AFK Display : Name goes grey if the Hermit doesn't move for five minutes.
• Anti Endermen Grief : Stops endermen picking up blocks.
• Armor Statues : Customize armorstand positions.
• Customizable Armor Stands : Used to manipulate armor stands for building details.
• Cave Cleaner : Tools for riding the world of mobs that pickup items and don't despawn.
• Custom Recipes : Universal dyeing & concrete dyeing.
• Coordinates Hub : Displays Co-ords and direction in action bar.
• Custom Roleplay Data : Enables the use of custom textures on items.
• Double Shulker Shells : Shulkers always drop two shells.
• Durability Ping : A notification system to warn players of breaking tools and armor.
• Hard On Start : Maintains difficulty on server startup (possibly not needed anymore).
• Multiplayer Sleep : Improves the sleep system.
• More Mob Heads : All mobs can drop their head on death - Includes custom sounds for note block.
• Name Formatting Stations : Give items custom name formatting and lore.
• Nether Portal Co-ordinates : Helps you calculate where to build in alternate dimensions.
• No Trial Chambers : Enables 1.21 blocks without structures generating.
• Player Head Drops : If a player kills another, their head will drop on death!
• Restart Redstone : A system to create a redstone signal before a server restart.
• Silence Mobs : A feature to stop entities making sounds.
• Spectator Conduit Power / Night Vision : Visual tools for camera accounts.
• Toggle Weather : Control rain and thunder.
• TP Tools : Teleporting tools for camera accounts.
• Track Statistics : Creates additional stats using math.
• Universal Dying & Bundles : Custom recipes for better dying and bundles.
• Unlock Recipes : Unlock all crafting recipes.
• Wandering Trades : Adds lots of mini block trades to Wandering Traders.

ROADMAP

1. SMP - Hermit Craft style single multi player with a few upgrades and some flair! Updating to 1.21 as soon as possible!
2. Network Hub - In preparation for multiple servers. Planning on being the one stop shop for all your multiplayer needs. Think Hypixel but smaller and curated specifically for a tight knit adult community!
3. CMP - Custom creative plot world, where all your dreams become reality
4. ADV - Our take on an enhanced vanilla adventure. Would love to bring some Zelda/Pokemon/RPG vibes into a multiplayer world. I guess you could call it world of Minecraft.
5. MINI - Everyone loves to unwind with some mini games. Will gladly take suggestions to add small games and events to the server.

If you are interested in joining please reach out via discord! Thank you! Discord- abusement_gaming

I’m trying to help my kid learn typing and mouse skills on my old laptop. So far we have been doing typing club junior and the magic tree house website. Those have been great, but a little more variety would be nice. Most other websites I’ve found for math games and the like are either covered in pop up adds that cover a significant portion of the screen, or they constantly redirect to questionable websites. Anyone have any recommendations?

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3. Physics (Physics, Thermodynamics, Aerodynamics) & Engineering:( Civil, Aerospace, Electrical, Mechanical, Network, Software)
   
4. Finance & Economics: ( Economics, International Economics, Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, Finance, Accounting and Banking) 5. Computer science & IT: (Data science, Computer Science, IT Security, Artificial Intelligence, Web Development)
   
   1. Environmental Science: (Biology and life Sciences, Ecology, Geography, Microbiology, Neuroscience, Physiology)
   2. Programming Languages: (Javascript, Python, Java, C, C++, Matlab, SQL, HTML, CSS, NoSQL, R, Ruby)

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We are ready to help you with that Online class, assignment, exam and project.
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Hey You! I hope you're having a good week so far and you're looking forward to the weekend!
I'm looking to get to know someone intelligent, passionate, kind, affectionate and talkative. I love making people feel comfortable, loved and cared for in any kind of relationship. I'm very open and happy to listen to you vent and share the burden.
Personality wise, I would describe myself as someone who is open-minded, genuine, affectionate, loving and empathetic. Some of my interests are running, going to the gym, gaming, playing board games, listening to music and watching Netflix. I'm a bit of a nerd about Maths too and Maths and logical thinking in general interest me.
Physically, I'm 31, 6'2 with short brown/ blackish hair, deep blue/greyish eyes and I'm pretty muscular. I'd say I'm quite good looking but I'm more than happy to swap pictures if you're interested in my post to verify each other. I'm also happy to voice/video call when we both feel comfortable too.
Some of my favourite shows are Modern Family, The Office, Breaking Bad, Chicago Fire and Lucifer. Lucifer and Modern Family are probably my top 2.
I would definitely say my love languages are physical touch and words of affirmation. I love being affectionate and all I want is to make sure my partner feels loved and wanted. I'm very physically and verbally affectionate. I always let my partner and the people I love know how much they mean to me. I also have a healthy sexual appetite.
Green flags: Empathetic, Emotionally intelligent, will make you laugh, very affectionate and loving, I'll care for you and take care of you physically, emotionally and financially. I have a good, stable career and Maths degree.
Red flags: Can sometimes be a little impatient, I get anxious but I'm generally a delight!
If anything I've said piques your interest, please message me. I can't wait to hear from you!