Love the game. First boss handed my ass to me but I got it, learned to parry her somewhat successfully. Then I got to the next area.
Remember blightown in DS1 before the patches? Beat the second "boss" then moved to the outside area filled with ladders.
Yeah that is dropping to nearly 10-fps in some parts. Im on console Xbox S. Anyone else getting this?

I hope it’s okay to post this here. Maybe someone can give me advice.
Content warning: death/grief, friendship struggles
I lost my mother in law last year. It was extremely unexpected. Saw her one night, she was gone by the morning. Out of everything I have ever experienced (like the childhood abuse & neglect that gave me CPTSD, losing her was the single worst thing to happen to me or my family.
The next few days, I was texting my cousin about it. She was one of my best friends at the time.. she said something a little strange. “Is it hard to be there for him (my husband)? Are you just numb? Or is it hard to feel empathy for him?” I truly don’t understand what she meant. I said no, it has been devastating for me. My MIL was such a big part of our lives, I saw her M-F and sometimes on the weekends…
She left me on read for 2 days. I took it very personally. She lost both her parents, at separate times but within a few years of each other. I figured she’d understand how badly I would need support. Just a person to text… she was out of state so I didn’t expect her to drop by or anything. Just text me… I blocked her. I needed space and I decided to isolate and just be there for my husband. I unblocked her 7 days later and never heard anything since. It’s almost been a year now.
Since then, I’ve grown some. I can rationalize that maybe she was going through something too. But I am still hurt.
I messaged her the other day on Facebook to congratulate her on getting married because I no longer have her number. She never replied. She posted about “a family member”, who I assume is me and how she felt abandoned by someone who said they never would abandon her. And she doesn’t know if she should reply and repair the relationship and “set boundaries” or move on.
I feel like I want to tell her how I feel, and tell her I don’t really want a relationship because it doesn’t seem like she feels she did anything wrong. And just move on. I would never be able to be super close again so what’s the point?
I genuinely am so happy that she seems so happy. But her (often oversharing, public) social media never gave any hint that my absence bothered her.
I want to write a letter or something and just be done with it.

Hey Miami subreddit
Me and partner are approaching year 1 of living in a bait-and-switch con job apartment, and we couldn’t be happier to move this June/July.
We both make great money (combined on the books $175k annually), and have stable, not gig-based jobs with happy bosses. Unfortunately, we both have bad credit (530-550). Not tremendous debt, just some bad history with payments and some debt (less than $5k).
TLDR- we’re wanting to move into a place that isn’t a shithole. We have the money, no evictions, no late rent, just bad credit. Does anyone have experience with this scenario? Is it hard to rent out here with bad credit?
Any advice welcomed.

Darumaka (Brave) @ Hustle: Fire Fang/Work Up/EndeavoFocus Punch Arctovish (Rash) @ Water Absorb: Icy Wind/Super Fang/Whirlpool/Rest Beedrill (Mild) @ Swarm: Twineedle/Harden/Focus Energy/Pursuit
Final stage boss: Zarude
Comments: A lot tougher than last day. Expect a longer summary!

• Beedrill has Mystic Water or something, use the transfer from stage 2 to Arc!
• I got into a bit of savescumming to catch Flora as I had 1x poke ball left.
• Leaned hard into Darm Hyper Offense (HO) as much as possible once Darm/Meow are available.

Abbreviations:

• Daru/Darm - Darumaka/Darmanitan
• Arc - Arctovish
• Dub - Dubwool
• Flora/Meow - Floragato/Meowscarada
• Garg - Garganacl
• RC - Rare Candy

Stage 1: (Sun) Flaaffy (Calm) @ Static: T-shock/T-wave/Cotton Spore/Charge (29/18/28/26/8/0) Strategy:

• Work Up x2, Fire Fang, Work Up, Poke Ball
• Note - Turn 4 didn't catch w/ Poke Ball which is why I stalled w/ Work Up #3.

Highlights:

• Reviver seed @ 2F after Skitty
  • Arctovish is generally a stall-y style: (Super Fang,) Whirlpool, Rest, (Icy Wind for speed control/weakness)
    • Helpful for preserving health, especially on enemies that can't 3HKO Arc
• Jigglypuff @ 4F: Menace. Sweet kiss tends to outspeed Daru on turn 1, swapped for ~6 turns until weak sound move (echoed voice?)
• Dubwool w/ Fluffy @ 9F: Caught on turn 1 pokeball (lol!), honestly might wipe otherwise
  • Probably the fastest member of your team once you catch it
• Flora boss @ 10F (passive: magician), catch it and you get your items back!
  
  • Flora is Modest-natured, and uses attack stat mainly (except magical leaf), uh oh.
• Lum Berry @ 14F: helpful for Arc using a "Rest-o Chesto" heal.
  
  • Note: Pokerogue handles sleep poorly vs main game and only applies it end of turn (and not immediately!)
• Double battle @ 15F. Icy wind can dispatch Axew, and Gogoat (spawned after defeating right mon, turn 1)
  
  • All 3 Rewards are good: Super potion, body press, or ___ (oops, forgot to jot)
  • I went with Body Press, great for Dubwool the...GOAT?
• Hyper potion @ 16F
  
• 20F: Cilan (Grass)
  
  • Darm @ L35 & Meow @ L36 for fire punch(/fire fang) and U-turn, respectively
    • Flora is very slow until evo
• 25F: Trainer - Quilladin lead, swaps to basculin if darm lead; can luckily be 2-shotted by fire punch Darm. Darm can boost w/ work up 3x for sweep w/ Fire Punch
  
  • Dubwool: Cotton Guard @ L44 / Beedrill: Fell Stinger @ L45
• Whimsicott & Arcanine @ 27F:
  
  • Arcanine uses Take down turn 1
  • Recommended: Catch Whimsicott!!
• Hyper potion @ 29F (Recommended if Farm is under 70% HP)
  
• 30F: Another grass (Erika?), Tangela has Ancient Power but can be tanked with a healthy Darm
  
• Ninjask @ 31F, work up (1-2x) for Farm without consequence
  
• Superpower TM / max lure / RC
  
  • Avoided Superpower: Only worked on Darm in my team, which learned it by next level (L56)
• Nidoking @ 33F: Fire punch one-shots w/ RC investment
  
  • Notable loot: Super Potion / Dire Hit
• 35F: Trainer: Bibarel/Linoone. One-shotted by Darm Superpower (Even with -1)
  
• 36F: Ability Charm (!!) Never caught anything except 2x Garg later...
  
• 39F: Memory Mushroom: Whimsicott w/ Moonblast, Hurricane. Already has Giga Drain, Charm, Leech Seed, Energy Ball // Hone Claws Meow
  
• 40F: Gardenia
  
  • Leads w/ night slash Meow
  • Has Fiery Dance Roserade (?!)
    • Triggered Beedrill's swarm to OHKO vs Roserade, Torterra, and Tangrowth
• 42F: Swoobat w/ Endeavor on first 2 turns, also has psychic.
  
  • Great for boosting turns, like Work Up Darm
  • Memory shroom (See 39F for ideas)
  • (Transfer items from Beedrill after 42~43F if you swap it for Garg like I did)
• 43F: Glimmora. Swapped for Beedrill. Where mega stone :(
  
  • Bulk up TM available (Darm!!)
  • Beware Toxic Debris! (Toxic Spikes; T-spikes)
• Garg @ 44F: EQ/RecoveHammer Arm/SR
  
  • Important: Lead battle w/ poison type to absorb T-spikes from last battle, if any
  • Recommended: Finish w/ Whimsicott. Charm 3x, Leech Seed
  • (Embarrassingly swapped Glimmora for Garg after)
• 45F: Trainer w/ lone A. Dugtrio: Iron Head / Earth Power / Double-Edge
  
  • Full HP Whimsicott uses 2x Charm, swaps to Darm to take Iron Head, doubles to Meow to finish with Flower Trick (and Double-Edge recoil)
• Flash TM @ 46F for Salt Cure shenanigans from Garg 2? (See next)
  
• Garg 2 @ 47F : Rock Throw/Salt Cure/Headbutt/Rock Slide
  
• Hyper pot @ 48~49F? Use on Darm.
  
• Swoobat @ 49F: Finish w/ fire punch to start Zarude.
  
  • Also 49F: Quick claw on first reroll
• Zarude is 1v1'd by 100% HP Darm w/ Fire punch
  
  • Use one bulk up, cuts a little close

All feedback appreciated. Happy hunting!

Hi All! I need some advice!
3 months ago, I started a new role within my company as a senior manager. It was a lateral move because it was a new area and I wanted to get the experience. After 4 years in my previous role, I was very comfortable and there was no path to director in the next 2 years, in the group I was in, so I thought I would go and get new experience to strengthen my resume for when the director role eventually opened up. It was always meant to be a stepping stone role, where I planned to spend 1.5 - 2 years and then move on again.
This week, a similar director role opened up but in a different group. I am very interested in this director role because it is a promotion and in a new group, so it will allow me to continue to learn and grow.
There are a couple of issues with me pursuing this director role:

• I have only been in my role 3 months. How bad will it look?
• I will be going on maternity leave in 2 weeks for 3 months.
• I would directly be competing with my ‘best friend at work’ and if I’m successful, I would become his boss.
• These roles don’t open up often and people tend to stick with them for 3 - 4 years, so it does feel like it is a go for it now or wait at minimum 2 years.
• I like my new manager but I know she will not be happy when I even bring this up.

I need advice. How bad would it look to pursue the director level role?

Locked my key fob in the car. Only have 1 key. Car is in my driveway. Locksmith gives me an estimate of $70 over the phone. ( I understand the job can be more expensive once they see the job). Locksmith shows up walks up to the car. Tells me due to door frame it will be $250. I say no since it’s not like my car needs to be moved and is more than 3x the original estimate . He gets in his truck and as he’s pulling away rolls down his window and says he can do it for $200. I say no thanks and go inside. Maybe 5 min later he knocks on my door. And tells me his boss wants to speak with me. The boss says the price will be $100 (I would have paid this) but I just got a bad vibe from him so I pass.
Still need to find a good locksmith any suggestions on what to look for?

First Previous Wiki
Ascendant Denali swept his tail across the floor. "Greetings. The New Ascendancy welcomes you and your kin, Diplomat Sommi."
The Misan creature did its equivalent of a bow, honoring him in his palace as was proper. He had been starved of respect from his surrounding powers lately and would feast upon this memory like a fine cut.
"The Misan Li Heptarchies receive your warm greetings, Ascendant Denali. We offer official congratulations on your ascent to the Trikkec throne, and the continued unification of your people. We are glad that you are regaining your prosperity, and offer additional aid to that end."
It was the perfect language of the High Dialect, with almost no imperfections on the translator's part. An expertly trained device, for sure, given the vast cavern between their respective languages. He had a translator as well working to ensure that the Diplomat heard his words correctly, and that he would know how their language distorted them to prevent any unfortunate misunderstandings.
Such things could be disastrous with certain civilizations, and Denali saw no need to make true enemies. He was strong enough to project power inside the New Ascendancy but nowhere near so outside of it. Pirates and raiders still festered upon the upper borders, and the lower borders were contested by a few minor lords who had survived the collapse of the Ascendancy. He was currently bombarding their planetary shields with asteroids and lasers.
"Aid of what sort, and with what stipulations?" Denali asked, waving an economic advisor over with a stray claw.
"Military and economic."
"Stipulations?"
"You close all business with the Alliance."
"Ah."
Denali stepped off his throne. "Diplomat, I can assume you know how valuable that relationship is to the Ascendancy? I assume you already have a plan to replace them with something better. If your plan is ready, I will have my advisors review it. If not, no further discussions are to take place."
"Do you accept their power over you, Ascendant?"
"In this galaxy, it does not matter what we accept. If a Sprilnav comes barging into your house and takes your mate in front of you, there is nothing you can do. If one of the Core Powers manages to reach us, they can do the same. There are the laws of nations, and there are those of power. The Alliance's aid, even as its darker purposes twist it, has saved millions of lives. Children eating. Families working. They have the might of two AIs behind them."
"They are far too young of a nation for you to realistically believe their abilities are this high."
"Many have made that mistake," Denali said. "They are an older nation than mine, certainly. Would you say that my nation's abilities are lower?"
"I would not."
"Then you tell lies. I am not some foolish monarch who cannot see the reality in front of him. The Alliance's aid is a tool to keep me leashed like some common lizard. But it comes with economic growth and power that fuels the New Ascendancy further. I do not believe I will overtake their growth even when the entire species is reunited. And since your borders are further away than theirs, you will have added economic costs to any aid you give, with little gain on your end."
"They influence your culture. Your people."
"They do," Denali agreed. "You are a powerful nation as well. You would do the same with your own aid, yes? And you would call for us to destroy our traditions, our religions, and our very culture. We have seen your attempts at negotation with other powers nearer to you. You are an aspiring hegemon. But the Alliance's hegemony is already established. The Grand Defense Organization is something that I might even join, when I have the military might to meet their threshold."
"Why?"
"Because when power rises, others can latch on," Denali said. "Your offer, please. I am quite interested to hear it."
The Diplomat gave him a tablet. Denali brought it up with a hologram isolated from the network. His eyes began to shine.
"You should have led with this, Diplomat."
"Ah, but I needed to see the esteemed Ascendant's viewpoint on us. It is a shame that you must bow and scrape to the Alliance. How would you like to meet them on the field of battle?"
Denali chuckled. "I would like it very much, were they a normal nation. But they are taking planet crackers from King Siran and hauling them back to their space. They have a few of their own, not just stolen from the Wisselen."
"And they are pacifist."
"But not weak, Diplomat. All that means is they will not start the fight. But as we stand now, they will finish it. And a transfer of this many ships likely comes with enormous drawbacks and conditions."
"Then let us discuss those conditions, Ascendant. I am sure something more sufficient to your tastes can be selected."
"I am glad to hear that." Denali made a table hologram that was complete with hard light compatibility. Seating for the Misan, his guards, and Denali and his guards also appeared. The table was transparent.
"I will present my documents on this, and we can discuss in greater detail how you can divest from the Alliance without significant economic damage. There are certain facets we have identified which are key to your growth: military might, industrial capacity, and social cohesion."
Denali rubbed his teeth with his claws. Several cooks came in, bringing him food. The Misan Diplomat and his entourage refused, which was expected given the vast differences in their palettes.
"Those are indeed key parts of the Alliance's aid. Do you have an answer for me which is cheaper than the exports of the Alliance?"
"Yes. We can deliver 250 billion androids capable of continuous work for 20 years, each with a 96% likelihood of continued operation at the end of this period. We are willing to deliver these for you at once, though we would only request an escort of your ships alongside our own for added diplomatic security."
"A veritable army," Denali said.
"None of which will carry or operate weapons."
"We would need to verify that before shipping," Denali said. "As we would need to do for the price. The Alliance demands 1% of our current discretionary yearly foreign trade budget. How does your offer compare?"
"We would ask for a 30 year non-aggression agreement, and diplomatic outposts in your territory, as well as a possible defense pact, where we can defend you legally and militarily against Alliance encroachment."
"A large offer," Denali said. "Tell me, what is in it for you?"
"The Heptarchies wish to curtail the Alliance's growing influence by any means necessary, even if it means spending large amounts of money in the process. Having a monetary outflow is something the Heptarchies are happy to entertain, and we would be grateful for you to join us in this endeavor."
"And what of the risk of me playing both sides?"
"We can offer you high enough boons to ensure that does not occur."
So a bribe, then. A massive one. It was already enticing, but Denali sensed he could get more with better negotiations.
"You mentioned social cohesion and military might as well," Denali said. "Can you explain what you mean by this, and what aid you will send to address this?"
Now, the Diplomat looked more uncertain. It was an act, though a fairly convincing one. The pause lengthened.
"Ascendant Denali, surely you understand..."
"I understand you said 'any means necessary' for curtailing the Alliance. With an AI in their nation, such a thing will be expensive, yes? I'm sure that I need not remind you I will choose what is best for my nation overall. And if you cannot come through... I can always notify them of this offer to explore their ability to match it. Or, gods forbid, even exceed it."
"The trade agreement cannot encompass-"
"Then we have nothing more to discuss, Diplomat."
"Wait! Fine, we can discuss it! Just let us work out the new conditions. They're favorable to you, Ascendant. The Heptarchies value you as a potential customer-"
"I'm sure you do. You have four days to present an offer I appreciate more," Denali said, shoving the tablet back at the Diplomat. "Would you like me to procure food capable of Misan consumption?"
"That would be kind of you, Ascendant. We will accept that. And we will begin drafting a more suitable deal for both of our nations."
"Good!" Denali grinned, settling upon his chair with a new sense of pride in his posture.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Elder Pundacrawla settled his robe about his shoulders as he waited outside the room. In his implant, a small countdown reached zero. The silver doors slid open, and his eyes feasted on the room. It was quite ornate, but what really set it apart was the scene in the center. Elder Kashaunta sat on a short chair across a small table from the object of the entire star system's latest obsessions.
The bipedal alien sat in her own chair, which had an odd raised section to support her back. Her clothing was somewhat simple, with black and grey fabric covering her upper torso. He could tell the fabric was high quality—in fact, it was infused with psychic energy.
Her odd face looked a little smushed, and there was a faint red color to her pale skin and two bars of psychic energy thicker than he'd ever seen adorning her cheeks. She appeared unassuming, but her eyes latched onto him with an entrancing glare.
Her scrutiny waved over him, making Pundacrawla smile. Her gray hair fluttered, with a ring of fabric collecting it behind her head to rest on her back. Her fingers were short, without claws of any appreciable size. Her feet were hidden entirely by shoes; he could sense a thick armor.
In the mindscape, she roiled with collected psychic energy, like a promise of action for any slight. Her mind almost looked to have three minds in one, and iron bands of psychic energy encircled it from all sides, even above and below, preventing any quick avenue of mental attack. All in all, she was like an alien Elder when the conceptual energy came into account. She reminded Pundacrawla of an old friend, a secret he kept with Kashaunta that initially had been her leverage over him.
"It is an honor to meet you," Penny said. "You look as impressive as Kashaunta said."
There was no accent. The words flowed from her mouth smoothly, and Kashaunta showed no reaction to the omission of her title. That alone spoke volumes, and Pundacrawla knew he would be showing Penny more respect than most had the privilege to receive.
"I am happy to meet you as well, Penny Balica. Your accomplishments follow your name, and you are also quite impressive."
He settled on a third chair that appeared in front of him. He took a deep breath, his eyes falling on the pair of them.
"Elder Kashaunta has hired me to serve as your lawyer in the Judgment trial," Pundacrawla said. "This requires a great deal of risk to be taken on my part, which has also required that I received advancements."
He drew the word out, causing Penny to raise an eyebrow.
"Advancements?"
"Yes. I would like you to push the Soul Blade toward my left front leg."
Penny drew the sword, her fingers wrapping around the hilt easily. A grip of psychic energy materialized on her hands, and she carefully pressed the tip of it into the place he'd marked.
His skin was pierced. Penny frowned as her weapon went no further. Black blood spilled from the wound, which closed within moments.
"What?"
"These are Type 3 nanites," Pundacrawla said. Black limbs materialized on his back, a second set of arms. And then a third set. They withdrew quickly.
"They also happen to cost a considerable amount of money," Kashaunta said. "Which I have paid, thanks to the added funds your singularities have brought."
"I will tell you not to worry if I am killed in the courtroom. I already have a deal in place with the Collective to ensure, at considerable costs, that I will still survive in some form."
"And killing Pundacrawla is also a declaration of war on the Peoples' Autonomous Stars," Kashaunta added. "You do not stand alone."
"Indeed, I do not," Pundacrawla smiled. He bowed his head toward Penny. "If I may, I would like to start the discussion around the argument for this case."
His implant connected to several devices on his body, manifesting many holographic articles and stories around the room. Penny's 'Liberator' title was printed on half of them in the headline. In others, images and even videos of her in various situations took precedence.
Pundacrawla pulled up an image of Penny kneeling in the rubble of Justicar, holding a dead child. "This is the argument I will make for you."
Penny nodded, her silence confirming that this was the right decision.
"You will be the alien who came to a world named after the concept of justice, and an Elder who bears the same name. I will show how you care for many Sprilnav in your life, and also that you have little motivation to do so purely for the Judgment. I will show you as a loving daughter to a doting father, as a willing partner of Elder Kashaunta, bearer of the Pact of Blades, and as a woman capable of acting with wisdom and grace beyond her years to work with an enemy to sign a truce contract.
I will paint you in as sympathetic a light as possible and will eventually call you as a witness several times. You will need to swear upon your life that you are not lying, and Indrafabar and Justicar will both be capable of detecting your lies, total or partial. If you want to win this case, you will follow my advice without hesitation and without question. Do you understand?"
"I do, Lawyer Pundacrawla."
"You may call me High Lawyer Pundacrawla, or Elder Pundacrawla. With an Eonic degree, I am deserving of this title, and it will remind them of who backs you and who I am."
"I understand."
Pundacrawla took a long moment to organize his thoughts. He removed unnecessary jargon that might be untranslatable. He had the VI program rephrase and dumb down the explanations he needed to say so they would be shorter and easier to understand. Understanding was critical for the early phases of any case, and the client always needed to be ready for what came.
That was Rule 53.
"Now for the second half of the Judgment. The Alliance. They have published a great deal of rhetoric condemning the Sprilnav and the Elders. Yasihaut will first attempt slander using the usual methods. Your species, your barbarity, your lack of being Elders. She will find images of people on social media platforms calling for the deaths of the Sprilnav en mass.
If she desires, she will flood them with this, as the Alliance's population allows for many instances to be located. She may call to past Elders' deaths or to the previous battles with herself and Kashaunta in the earlier history of your nation. But the most likely platform she will use to pose the Alliance as a threat will be the presence of Phoebe, Edu'frec, Brey, and the hivemind of Humanity. The reasons for this are many. I will list several now, with ideal ways to counter them also attached.
Given Yasihaut's personality, she feels that you and the Alliance's continual success is a direct and constant threat to her reputation as an Elder. When you first shamed her, this is what ignited her hatred. Kashaunta has regaled you more on what reputation means to us immortals, but it is a severe concern. Do not underestimate her willingness to regain her reputation and to do so by attempting to defeat you in a public matter.
Here, your physical advantages will be nullified. If you speak out of turn or show signs of resistance, they will be twisted against you and the Alliance. The next reason is that your specific rivalry is personal. It is unique, and the High Judges know this. You are a threat to her, and everyone in that court knows you mean to kill her when the Judgment ends. Do not express your wishes to do this because she may present your threat to her as one to Elders overall. Now, for the Alliance, the fear of AI, unregulated, intelligent, and improving, as Phoebe and Edu'frec both qualify as, is ancient and potent among the Elders.
Across all of history, rogue AI presents the largest threat to our rule, making weapons capable of disabling our ships with merely thousands of years of time to advance. The Alliance has been given leniency on this. But most importantly is the Path. For an AI, approaching technological singularity is a threat to all other beings in existence by the sheer possibilities that it provides. Yasihaut knows this, as do the High Judges. I will aim to prove that Phoebe and Edu'frec do not intend to kill the Elders or go to war with them when they reach singularity.
But this, Penny, will require that Phoebe comes to the stand herself and swears before the court. The Collective will be connected to her and will be capable of detecting the lies in all forms she attempts to tell. This is likely the only way to defeat the arguments Yasihaut presents in that manner. While Phoebe is not allowed to represent you as a lawyer, she is still allowed to be a witness, presumably for exactly this reason. The Collective will also use this as a means to determine Phoebe's progress in weaponry, so I suggest she finds a way to hide those memories well. The next reason Yasihaut will involve the Alliance is because it is visibly divided.
Your leaders bicker and argue, and she will attempt to use this to show you as an unstable power with dangerous ambition. She will use the clashes between your leaders as a way to convince the High Judges that you cannot be trusted, as your lifespans are too short and your minds too alien to remain trustworthy and united in their support of any sort of treaty. She will likely use this to bypass the reality of your truce with Valisada, which the Alliance is not a direct party to. She will discuss the specific threat of Brey in the Alliance. Her ability to use portals makes your nation over fifty times as productive as it would otherwise be.
This makes you an economic threat, coupled with Phoebe. Brey has a historical hatred of the Sprilnav, which also motivates possible military attacks against us. She is also being directly strengthened by the Alliance's psychic amplifiers. I will attempt to stave off this argument by downplaying the threat Brey poses and showing the reality that a Progenitor could kill her instantly.
I am not expecting any specific arguments in this scenario to be effective against the High Judges. This will be a difficult point if Yasihaut exploits it properly. As for the hivemind of Humanity, your threat comes in multiple forms. Firstly, we can confirm you share some power with the hivemind. So if you grow strong, it too will grow strong, and it bends to the will of Humanity as a whole. Polls show that you all, to put it lightly, hate us.
The hivemind also has a direct diplomatic link to the Source and easy access to it via the Servant in the hivemind's city and the city's location itself amidst the Source's bones. Remember that many of us still call the Source the Great Enemy and the Servants the Enemy. Yasihaut will likely attempt to use Rimiaha's presence here to link you as well to the image of the Source, if not the hivemind. If she does this successfully, you will lose the case.
The hatred we have for the Servants is almost bottomless and is only exceeded by that of the Source. Kashaunta has told me that there have been over 30 thousand attempts to kill Rimiaha since he got here, most psychic in nature. All of them have failed due to the intervention of either Justicar, Kashaunta herself, or Rimiaha using his psychic energy to blend in with Sprilnav. Behind the scenes, Kashaunta has destroyed entire mercenary companies in the Underground for this and made deals with Justicar to suppress any mention of this to avoid stirring the fires of war. I will do whatever I can to distance you from Rimiaha.
But if this fails, you must call him to the stand. Make him testify of his lack of willingness to attack the Sprilnav. Indrafabar may request that his mind be invaded to determine the truth about this. If the Source intervenes in that case or Rimiaha refuses, you will also lose the trial. This is the most dangerous idea that Yasihaut could bring against you, which links back to Humanity and you, Penny.
Another reason she has is that if she can push the Judges enough on the Alliance to either level more restrictions or kill the AIs, you will be crippled beyond recovery and will fade into nothingness for her to kill at her leisure. In short, most of this trial hinges on circumstances and testimonies given by witnesses. This is another reason Indrafabar is on the case. He can detect lies in almost any being if he uses his power. And if you resist, which you might be capable of, but..."
"I lose."
"Exactly. This is not a place of honor. This is not a court like before. Arguments will be heard, debated, and either accepted and recorded or discarded and ignored. I will do my best to use Justicar's law principles like recency to your favor, but history is littered with petty Judges making decisions on cases related to how much a threat people are. Not to this level, of course, but there is luckily precendent to lean on in both types of outcomes."
"Pundacrawla, I thank you for your high-level overview. Shall I assume the legal jargon was left out of your description?"
"Yes," he said. "I was uncertain if some words would translate."
"What are my realistic chances for winning this trial?"
Pundacrawla sighed. He didn't want to see her hope shatter, but he refused to lie. Kashaunta seemed fine with him sitting here and talking about things truthfully. If she wasn't, she would have requested a different lawyer.
"In the worst case scenario, which is Indrafabar and Justicar dislike you, and Yasihaut has a lawyer with an Eonic degree of their own, then I would say about 9%."
"That is quite high, actually, for a worst case scenario."
"That is only because this is a Trial by Majority, Kashaunta's backing and all that implies, your friendships with Nilnacrawla, Spentha and Equisa's continued survival within the Alliance, the various political motivations the Judges might have, the fact that you have built up your image, that you have refrained from killing your enemies recently, and the extreme nature of Yasihaut's hatred for you.
Your attack on Tassidonia's court normally would have been the death knell for you. But since your power didn't kill anyone and specifically was weakened to avoid that, it has been a boon more than a curse. And the Sprilnav with bleeding hearts also are pleased with your war on slavery. You will lose that war without Kashuanta's help, but your determination on that is seen as an endearing characteristic."
"Endearing?"
"The Elders think of you as a child, Penny," Kashaunta said. "Your fight against slavery is seen as a childish fantasy, but in a good way. If you wish, Pundacrawla can lean into either your maturity or immaturity on this case. Both may achieve the desired effect, if done right."
"I am not sure about that. Who will watch this trial, and how many?"
"Cast away your ego, Penny, it will not serve you here," Pundacrawla said.
"I'm 76 years old. I can handle this."
"I don't think-"
"200 quintillion," Kashaunta blurted out. Penny flinched.
"What?"
"That is the number of watchers on the channels that have reserved timeslots for the trial among Sprilnav territory."
"And... Elders?"
"35 million, likely including all the Elders with names of any note," Kashaunta said. Pundacrawla gave a worried look to Penny. But the human just took a deep breath and nodded.
"Thank you for telling me. That is manageable."
"You're quite composed about this," Pundacrawla noted.
"I can conceptualize the enormity of that, but also this is a pretty big deal. And if I prove that I am fighting for the common people, it will achieve-"
"Nothing," Kashaunta said. "They cannot rebel on a large enough scale to risk toppling the Elders. If there is one aspect of our system that has survived the rot of a billion years of decay, it is the ability to divide and conquer. This is not an opportunity to get a manifesto out. I warn you against treating it as such."
At first, Penny looked wary of accepting the Elder's advice. She seemed to contemplate that matter, though she was really talking with her adoptive father. But instead of arguing, she simply smiled.
"I understand, Kashaunta. Thank you. I was getting a little sidetracked. All that matters is winning."
"So is there anything I can do to increase my chances?" Penny asked Pundacrawla.
"Outreach. Keep fighting the slavers, and maybe do a few interviews. Make sure to express a lack of hostility toward the Sprilnav people. And be wary of the gangs. When you are in the trial, they may seek revenge upon the freed slaves, or upon you yourself. I would not be surprised if they did their best to conduct false flag attacks under your name. In high-profile trials like this with many enemies, that risk is high. The gangs have high numbers of personnel and a motivation to see you lose this trial before you destroy them."
"I see. Thank you, High Lawyer Pundacrawla," Penny said, lowering her head in an approximation of a bow. Kashaunta nodded but didn't say anything. Penny took another breath in, and Pundacrawla could feel the air currents entering her nostrils.
"Can you explain exactly how a Trial by Majority would work versus the previous sort of Judgment?"
"Previously, the Judges, led by a High Judge, had to agree on a verdict. In that case, they failed. This structure is more flexible, however. All the Judges on the court, or the High Judges in this case, may voice their opinions behind closed doors and attempt to come to a verdict. They will emerge when the agreed-upon time period has passed, and their decisions will be made public.
If one Judge disagrees, there will not be a mistrial. Instead, the verdict with the most Judges behind it, ideally the majority opinion, will be the one chosen. This Judgement will have 20 High Judges. The final verdict, if none can reach the required 11 Judges to pass, will simply be held once all remaining evidence is heard or discarded."
"Held?"
"The High Judges will be required to resolve the dispute. If there are three or more options, the one or multiple with the fewest High Judges backing it will be discarded, until a runoff occurs. The result will then determine the verdict given."
"Can I be acquitted of the charges if that is the majority opinion?"
"Yes, you can. So can the Alliance. The structure of this Judgment is such that Indrafabar and Justicar will counterbalance each other."
"Can't Indrafabar just offer them money to do what he wants?"
"If he wants to lose his licence, severely harm his reputation, and destroy the careers of the High Judges being bribed, sure. While obviously Justicar will not have the power to truly punish him, the consequences would be severe, to say nothing of the other Progenitors. Given the factions present within them, it would be quite unwise for him to influence the case in such a manner. That influence would not be accepted by all."
"What if Yasihaut makes them an offer they can't refuse, or tries to make it look like Kashaunta did to get me in trouble?"
"I have taken steps to prevent that second outcome," Kashaunta said. "As for the first, my spies within Yasihaut's groups will alert me of it, and Justicar will know."
"But if he is a High Judge, wouldn't that be a conflict of interest?"
"His institutions function properly even without his intervention," Kashaunta replied. "There is little risk of that on his part."
"Hmm. Kashaunta, should I hide the Pact of Blades until the trial?"
"Yes. Its shock value will be maximum at that point."
"Elder Pundacrawla, are the rules on decorum the same as before?"
"Yes, but this time there will be proper enforcement. With the galaxy's eyes on him, Justicar will have no choice but to be firm in this trial. He will not be lenient to either of you, and might punish you more for infractions given that you are not a Sprilnav. It is unfair, but it is in his best interest to please the Elders who will be viewing this trial."
"Kashaunta, is there a way I can help you with the politics around this trial?" Penny asked. "I know if the event is this big, there is a lot for you to do, either to gain or to lose."
"A thoughtful offer. I might require one more linear singularity, and to finally get a piece of that negative energy you promised me. If you could tune your rhetoric toward peace with the Elders, it would help my position massively. The Alliance has already started scrubbing anti-Sprilnav rhetoric from its networks after I discussed the damage they could do, so what remains is your opinions. After the Judgment, more eyes will be on you than before. Declare your continued anti-slavery position, and I will have an easier time helping you with less damage to my reputation due to the revealed Pact of Blades."
"Do you also have an entourage of Elders to back you through thick and thin?" Penny asked. Pundacrawla smiled, glad that she was concerned about helping Elder Kashaunta.
She didn't know it, but now Pundacrawla was fully resolved to help her case. He'd been properly convinced that she really did care for her friends. In this case, while she likely was conflicted about it, Kashaunta was her friend. Given the Pact of Blades was in place between them, they were lifelong friends, close enough to be effectively married.
The political meaning of the Pact was certainly closer to that side of it since its most common use was to unify powerful Elder families. Kashaunta didn't have a family name, but that was because her name already carried so much weight everyone knew who was related to her. Pundacrawla gave Kashaunta a list of additional actions Phoebe needed to take using his implant. Kashaunta's eyes sparkled with recognition, though Penny didn't seem to notice.
"I do," Kashaunta said. "They all work for me. Most of them I acquired through either mud diving or through owed favors, though."
"Mud diving?" Penny asked.
"It is a term for doing one's utmost to please a superior for personal benefit, even if the 'please' section is derived from an unfortunate root meaning."
"I see. Elder Pundacrawla, can you get me something I can use for personal communication to you and Kashaunta, like an implant but less invasive?"
"Yes, I can do that," he responded.
"And also, one more thing before we go. Displace."
Penny appeared right in front of him, crouching down so her eyes aligned perfectly with his. They crackled with psychic energy, but beneath them lay a guarded desperation that he recognized from many of his more unfortunate past clients.
"I will not threaten you right now. But I need you to understand what is at stake for me. My friends. My family. My species. My nation. Over 200 billion living, breathing souls with lives and dreams they struggle every day to inch closer to. My titles, Champion of Humanity and Liberator, do not describe what I am but who I am. My world, my people. My home. Everything I have ever known and everything I have ever loved is at stake. Maybe you know what that is like. Maybe you don't.
Either way, please, I beg you to do your best to save us. I'm relying on you to be my hero, Pundacrawla. You can do this, and you must, or I will die for nothing. You will live with the consequences of this Judgment for the rest of your life. I hope you are everything Kashaunta claims you to be and more.
Hundreds of billions of people are counting on you. Look me in the eyes, Pundacrawla. Take in my alien face and my alien features. Know the creature standing here, and tell her you will do everything you can to save her and her people. And if it comes down to choosing to save me or the Alliance, save the Alliance."
Pundacrawla let out a breath. The hot air flowed across Penny's face, moving alien hair strands to the side. He looked into her eyes, peering into the reflection of three beings inside of her.
"Penny Balica. Champion of Humanity. Liberator. Human. I, Pundacrawla, High Lawyer, Elder, and Sprilnav, promise you, with all of my heart, all of my mind, and all of my soul, that I will do my best to win this Judgment for you and your kin. My actions will speak even louder than my words to you."

Contest Rules For Best Song Of The Month • Updated May 19th, 2024

Click here to see summary of changes.

Best Song Of The Month Contest

Music Or Lose It hosts a monthly Best Song Of The Month contest at this musicorloseittv subreddit community. There is no cash or monetary value prize at this time. This contest is simply just for fun. Winners earn the enjoyment of being voted the best. Winners may cite the win in their biographies and social media posts.
The moderator (mod) is available to help music creators with the entry process, eligibility requirements, and deadlines. Music creators are allowed to contact the mod to ask questions about the contest anytime and mod will reply as soon as possible.
Definitions
Music creator: refers to a solo creator, band, group, choir, orchestra, or duo.
Brand identity: refers to how a creator presents themselves as an entertainer making music for the general public. For example, Simon & Garfunkel as a duo is one brand identity. Paul Simon solo is another brand identity.

Process & Deadlines

🟡 Round 1
1) Discovery ◦ Each month, moderator keeps track of songs shared at this musicorloseittv community.
2) Notifying Music Creators ◦ When a likely eligible song is seen, the u/musicorloseittv profile or u/themusicfanman profile will notify the music creator of likely eligibility within the qualifying song’s post. The reply will indicate, “⏳ This song appears eligible for the Best Song Of The Month contest. Please provide the following information…” If the song is confirmed to be eligible by a mod, the mod will make a reply “🟨 This is confirmation notifying you that this song is eligible and in consideration for the Best Song Of The Month contest…” within the qualifying song’s post.
3) Determining Contestants ◦ The Music Fan man will evaluate all eligible songs by the month’s eligibility deadline. He will then at his discretion choose up to 5 songs to compete.
3) Finalists Post ◦ At this musicorloseittv community, the musicorloseittv profile will announce the top finalists (up to 5) in a post tiled “Contest: Best Song Of The Month Finalists (Insert Month & Year).” This announcement will be done in a post made 4 days before the final day of the month. The post will be made sometime in the morning. The songs will be listed within the post in a manner most representative of music diversity as determined by the musicorloseittv profile mod. All songs available on YouTube will be included in a playlist titled “Best Song Of The Month Contestants • (Insert Month & Year)” hosted by the musicorloseittv channel on YouTube. Songs not available on YouTube will be excluded from the playlist. The playlist will be mentioned in this post. The available playlist will help voters get familiar with the songs.
The u/musicorloseittv profile or u/themusicfanman profile will notify the music creators of qualifying for the contest in their post of the song. The reply will indicate, “✅ Congratulations. Your song qualifies for the Best Song Of The Month contest…”
4) Voting ◦ The “Contest: Best Song Of The Month Finalists (Insert Month & Year)” post will specify a duration of 3 consecutive dates during which music fans can vote for only 1 of the top finalists. Voting occurs by the voters making a reply to the post in the following manner: “🗳️ I vote for….” Failing to vote in this manner will result in vote not being counted. To best ensure vote accuracy, voters must not use the “🗳️” emoji anywhere else in the post’s comments section. Music creators may vote for another music creator yet may not vote for themselves. For music creators, it’s “word of honor” voting. The top vote earning song within these three days will become the winner.
‣ Community moderator profiles musicorloseittv and onesongoftheday will abstain from voting. Also, themusicfanman and any special judge involved will also abstain from voting - unless they’re needed to serve as a tie breaker, in the event of a tie preventing a clear winner. If themusicfanman and any special judge involved are needed as a tie breaker, they must come to a consensus to achieve tie breaking. If no special judge is involved, then themusicfanman alone will serve as the tie breaker.
🟢 Winner Declaration!
Declaration Post ◦ At this musicorloseittv community, on the final day of the month, the musicorloseittv profile will announce the winner in a post tiled “Congratulations! 🎉 Best Song Of The Month Winner (Insert Month & Year)” in a post dedicated to celebrating the song. Using the sticky-post feature, the post will be prominently displayed the home page of the musicorloseittv subreddit community for ≈ 24 hours.
Achievement ◦ The contest winner may promote their song as:
My song “Song Title” won:
🏅Best Song Of The Month By Community Vote
(Insert Month & Year)
At The Music Or Lose It Community
The winner may promote themselves and the song as the winner at venues like X/Twitter, Facebook, Threads, or their YouTube channel’s Community feed. The winner may also cite the win in their biographies online including their personal website.
🏆 Song Of The Year
A similar Song Of The Year vote will occur in December. It will be similarly organized and scheduled to conclude on the final day of the year. To determine a Song Of The Year by the end of the year, December’s monthly contest will only be ≈ 2 weeks. Why? Because we need time to conclude The Song Of The Year vote by the end of the year. Additionally, this is a busy time of year for many people. What’s more, non-Christmas music released in December is typically overshadowed by Christmas music. It seems to be a bad idea to release new-original music in late December. See opinion commentary: The Best And Worst Months To Release Music.
Achievement ◦ The contest winner may promote their song as:
🏆 Best Song Of The Year By Community Vote
(Insert Year)
At The Music Or Lose It Community
The winner may promote themselves and the song as the winner at venues like X/Twitter, Facebook, Threads, or their YouTube channel’s Community feed. The winner may also cite the win in their biographies online including their personal website.

Eligibility

Here are the rules for the Best Song Of The Month contest organized by Music Or Lose It just for fun. The eligibility rules are intended to make this contest as fair as possible to the music creator participants.
**👤 Personal: **
Requirements:
✔️ Must be an actual human.
✔️ Must be 17 years of age or older.
✔️ Must be a music creator abiding by the rules of this musicorloseittv subreddit community.
✔️ Must be a music creator posting using either your personal profile or your brand profile as a music entertainer.
Ineligible:
🚫 Profiles run by publicists, music labels, or channels hosting performers.
🚫 People posing as other humans using imitation avatar type creations by artificial intelligence (AI).
**🗿 Music creator’s stature status: **
Eligible:
✔️ Unsigned amateur or unsigned professional yet lesser known.
✔️ Lesser known music creators who have not yet achieved two different songs with over 500,000 views/listens and are signed to deals with small to medium-sized record companies or seeming one-song-per-time type distributors.
✔️ Lesser known music creators who have not yet achieved two different songs with over 500,000 views/listens and are signed to deals with to a major label.
**📅 Release date: **
Eligible:
✔️ Your song must be published and accessible to the masses anytime between November 15^th of the prior year and 5 days before the final day of the current month.
**💽 Songwriting, singing, & recording: **
Requirements:
✔️ You must be the copyright owner of the song (lyrics and sound recording) or authorized/licensed to perform the song by the copyright owner as the first original performer.
✔️ An exception is made if your song is an authorized/licensed remix or includes authorized/licensed interpolation or sampling content by the copyright owner in collaboration with any other amateur music creator(s) or unsigned professional yet lesser known music creator(s). The aforementioned release date also applies to any remix, interpolation, or sampling content.
✔️ Collaborations within the aforementioned rules are allowed so long as the song is entered into the contest by the lead. Lead refers to the first person named in the collaboration.
Ineligible:
🚫 Copyright/trademark violations.
🚫 Songs written by artificial intelligence (AI).
🚫 Songs primarily generated artificial intelligence (AI).
🚫 Cover, parody, nor artificial intelligence (AI) imitation.
🚫 Songs likely to be very divisive for political or religious/anti-religious reasons.
🚫 Collaborations within deceased music creators akin to “Unforgettable” by Natalie Cole featuring Nat "King" Cole.
🚫 Interpolations, remixes, or samplings of a song by a creator signed to a record company of any size or signed to a one-song-per-time type distributor.
🚫 Song with hard cussing. No variations of F word, S word, C word, D word, N word (er or a), ahole word(s), or sexually vulgar words.
🚫 Extremely sexual, gang promoting, violent, or especially scary/gory/maleficent/evil aesthetic content.
🚫 Songs primarily about brands. For example: “I Love Driving Such-And-Such Brand Name Trucks.”
**👂 Recording quality: **
Allowed:
✔️ Professional quality recordings (live or studio).
✔️ Amateur quality (including songs record in a bedroom, car, outdoors, etc…) yet reasonably pleasant sounding.
✔️ Demos are welcome.
Ineligible:
🚫 Live records with too much interfering audience noise.
🚫 Recordings with excessively poor sound quality (abrasive on the ears, difficult to hear).
**📏 Song length: **
Requirement:
✔️ Minimum of 01:15 minutes up to 10:00 minutes.
**💻 Distribution venues: **
Requirements:
✔️ A song published and accessible to the general public masses at a well-known music website such as YouTube, SoundCloud, or Bandcamp.
✔️ A song uploaded to a channel hosting live performances is allowed so long as the song is entered into the contest directly by the creator and so long as the creator confirms permission by the channel. Confirmation can be done in either your original upload URL link source or at this community within your posts’ body-text section or a reply to the post.
✔️ The song’s upload date must be visible at the distribution venue website.
⚠️ If you enter this contest with a Spotify or TikTok URL link, ensure you’ve provided a link for the entire song (not a teasesampler) in a manner that does not require login; ensure the publish date is visible; and be weary of looping flashing visuals necessitating a “⚠️Possible Seizure Trigger Risk Warning.” Failing to do this will result in ineligibility.
Ineligible:
🚫 Login required to access the song.
🚫 Payment required to access the song.
🚫 Uploads of songs directly to Reddit.
🚫 Links not fully available to the public such as an “unlisted” YouTube video.
**🖼️ Song’s artwork: **
Definition: artwork refers to the image/drawing/photo/visuals accompanying your individual song at a music distribution venue such as YouTube, SoundCloud, or Bandcamp. It is sometimes referred to as “cover art.”
Requirements:
✔️ You must be the original creator of the song’s accompanying artwork.
✔️ Alternatively, you must be the copyright owner of the artwork if you paid to have it made. Otherwise you must be authorized/licensed to publish the artwork as part of the presentation of your song.
✔️ Artwork primarily generated by artificial intelligence (AI) is allowed so long as you are authorized/licensed by the AI source to publish the artwork as part of your song’s public presentation. However this is advised against because public sentiment may be hostile towards AI generated content.
✔️ If your song’s artwork uses aspects of copyrighted, creative commons, or “free” material content, you must confirm you’ve got authorization/licensing to use the content as part of your song’s public presentation. Confirmation can be done in either your original upload URL link source or at this community within your posts’ body-text section or a reply to the post.
✔️ Your own logo that you own the copyright to may be displayed in the song’s accompanying artwork (including on a person wearing a hat or T-shirt).
Ineligible:
🚫 Copyright/trademark violations.
🚫 Parody notably displayed in the artwork.
🚫 Visible logos of any brand other than your own logo as a music entertainer.
🚫 Extremely sexual, gang promoting, violent, or especially scary/gory/maleficent/evil aesthetic content.
**🎥 Song’s music video (optional): **
Including a link to a music video is optional.
Requirements:
✔️ You must be the original creator of the song’s music video visuals including: animation; moving graphics; prominently featured still artwork or photos.
✔️ Alternatively, you must be the copyright owner of all the video’s visuals if you paid to have them made. Otherwise you must be authorized/licensed to publish all the video’s visuals as part of the presentation of your song’s accompanying music video.
✔️ Visuals (including: animation; moving graphics; prominently featured still artwork or photos) primarily generated by artificial intelligence (AI) are allowed so long as you are authorized/licensed by the AI source to publish the artwork as part of your song’s public presentation. However this is advised against because public sentiment may be hostile towards AI generated content.
✔️ If your song’s accompanying music video uses aspects of copyrighted, creative commons or “free” material, you must confirm you’ve got authorization/licensing to use the copyrighted material as part of your song’s public presentation within the accompanying music video. Confirmation can be done in either your original upload URL link source or at this community within your posts’ body-text section or a reply to the post.
✔️ Your own logo that you own the copyright to may be displayed in the video (including on a person wearing a hat or T-shirt).
✔️ Allowed music videos include “Official Music Video,” “Live Performance,” “Dance Video Version,” “Animated Video,” or “Lyrics Video.”
✔️ If you opt for an “Animated Video” or a “Lyrics Video,” you must be authorized/licensed to publish all the video’s visuals as part of the presentation of your song’s accompanying music video. If you hire an animator or use AI or an app/software designed to create music video lyrics, you must be authorized/licensed by the animator or AI source or app/software creator to publish the animation and/or lyrics as part of the presentation of your song’s accompanying music video.
✔️ If you opt for a “Dance Video Version,” the dancing and/or choreography must be originally created for your song’s accompanying music video. If you hire a choreographer and/or dancers or collaborate for free or for barter, you must be authorized/licensed by the choreographer and/or dancers to publish the video’s dancing/choreography visuals as part of the presentation of your song’s accompanying music video.
✔️ “Official Audio” type music videos are allowed so long as an accompanying still image complies with the aforementioned “Song’s artwork” rules. Alternatively, if the “Official Audio” music videos has moving visuals, it must comply with these above-mentioned “Song’s music video” rules.
✔️ “Live Performance” music videos may be made from your home/cafield (pretty much anywhere decent and reasonable) or from one of your well-recorded performances from a show. Be sure to avoid copyright and trademark violations in the video.
⚠️ Brief uses of music distribution venue logos at the end or start of a music video may be allowed at mod’s discretion, when the intent is to inform the viewer of venue availability of the song. This is however discouraged unless the distribution venue, at their website, specifies this is allowed. Music videos that display any trademark logos (other than the music creator’s own copyrighted logo) entirely throughout are ineligible.
Ineligible:
🚫 Copyright/trademark violations.
🚫 Notable use of virtual reality program recordings.
🚫 Notable use of filters from apps/websites similar to Snapchat.
🚫 Parody of intellectual property characters prominently displayed in the video.
🚫 Notably visible logos of any brand other than your own logo as a music entertainer.
🚫 Notable display of brand products with visible logos including but not limited to toys, stuffed animals, autos, hats, T-Shirts.
🚫 Extremely sexual, gang promoting, violent, or especially scary/gory/maleficent/evil aesthetic content.
🚫 Limitations on involving minors (under 18 yo): no minors doing dangerous stunts; no depictions of minors participating in drugs/drinking/smoking or very sexual behavior (including sexual dancing); do not prominently feature children that are not your own in the video (exception may be made if a relative only allows you to involve their children).
⚖️ Quantities:
Requirements:
✔️ One song per music creator’s brand identity.
✔️ If a music creator uploads more than one of their brands’ potentially eligible songs, the music creator must inform mod which song they prefer to be included in the contest.
✔️ A music creator may win this Song Of The Month contest up to three consecutive times. If this happens, thereafter the creator must abstain from the contest for the next month and then may return to the contest after that 1-month eligibility hiatus.
Ineligible:
🚫 Every collaboration will not automatically be considered a new brand. For example, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss collaborating one time should not be considered a brand. Robert Plant & Alison Krauss making an entire album together should be considered a brand. Music creators attempting to enter multiple songs under multiple brand names will be scrutinized. If there is no social media presence for any additional brands, their songs will likely be rejected as “also eligible” by mods. If this happens, the music creator will have to enter only 1 song.
**🖱️ Accounts you may post from: **
Requirements:
✔️ Your post must be made directly from either your personal Reddit account profile or your brand’s Reddit account profile.
✔️ If you have a medical condition necessitating aid, on your behalf, you may appoint a publicist, manager, caretaker, helper, spouse, partner, friend, guardian, or family member to post from either your personal Reddit account profile or your brand’s Reddit account profile.
✔️ If your song is from a band, group, choir, orchestra, or duo brand, the post must be made directly from either from one of the members’ personal Reddit account profiles or from your brand’s Reddit account profile.
✔️ If your song is collaboration, the post must be made directly from either the lead’s personal Reddit account profile or from the lead’s brand Reddit account profile.
✔️ If you want another song to be a part of the contest from another brand identity you are involved with, the song must be posted by a Reddit account profile for that separate brand – or one of the brand collaborators’ personal Reddit account profile.
👩🏾‍🏫 Presentation at this musicorloseittv community:
Requirements:
✔️ You must post a link to the song at this musicorloseittv community by tapping “+” on smartphone or clicking “+Create a post” on desktop/laptop. You must select the “My Song” flair.
✔️ Your post must be done by the “Title & Link Share Only method.”
✔️ The song’s URL you provide must be of the standalone song upload - not part of a playlist URL link.
✔️ You may post an audio only upload URL link (such as an individual song published at SoundCloud or Bandcamp). Alternatively, you may post a music video link from a venue like YouTube.
✔️ You may include a smartlink for the individual song (not album or playlist) within your posts’ body-text section or a reply to the post.
✔️ You may title the post whatever you want within the community’s rules and the contest’s rules. Remember: no vague titles; limit post title emojis to no more than 2 (if you decide to use them); and don’t request feedback.
✔️ Your post title may be done in the style of “Entertainer - Song Tile” (or something similar). Alternatively, the post title may be more elaborate. For example: “This Is My Latest Song. It’s About A Wonderful Time I Fell In Love.”
✔️ In your posts’ body-text section or in a reply comment, optionally you may share details about the song that you feel the audience would enjoy knowing.
**📝 Needed information: **
Requirements:
✔️ Within either your posts’ body-text section or within a reply comment at your post, provide the following information – as is:
❇️ Contest entry for your consideration:
• Entertainer's Name - Song Title:
• Published on: [Insert date & year. Refers to date published at your URL link source]
• Genre:
• I am an independent creator unsigned I am signed to [insert label name]
• Interpolations/remixes/samplings disclosure: N/A this song contains authorized/licensed interpolations/remixes/samplings [specify] of another song released since 11/15 of the prior year in collaboration with other unsigned music creator(s)[specify]. The link to the original song is [insert URL link – publish date from URL link source must be visible].
• Al disclosure: N/A. A portion of this [song/artwork/music video] is created by Al. Explanation: [specify if this applies to song/artwork/music video].
• Copyright disclosure for song: I confirm I’m the copyright owner of all the contents of this song (lyrics and recording) as it is presented including the artwork [(if applicable) and music video]
Copyrighted content I am authorized/licensed to use commercially in the promotion of my song include: [insert details]
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• Lyrics: [insert URL link or embed URL link into “Lyrics” text] [note if the lyrics are available at the upload source] [only if you're the copyright owner of the lyrics, you may entirely include them] [type “vocalized” or “instrumental” if applicable]
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**👨🏼‍⚖️ Copyright/trademark compliance: **
‣ Important note: Aforementioned rules already state you either must be the copyright owner of the content you enter for this contest or you must be authorized/licensed to commercially use the content by the copyright owner. Aforementioned rules already state you must disclose use of copyrighted, creative commons, or “free” material. Mods reserve the right to ask for additional proof for confirmation. Suspected violations will be removed at mod’s discretion. You are strongly encouraged to upload your best, newest, utmost original content.
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U.S. Copyright Office, Copyright in General https://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-general.html
What Musicians Should Know about Copyright by U.S. Copyright Office https://www.copyright.gov/engage/musicians
U.S. Copyright Office Fair Use Index by U.S. Copyright Office https://www.copyright.gov/fair-use
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END

Tldr: thoughts on having an of counsel relationship with a rural firm I'm currently at while starting my own small firm in a bigger metropolitan area?
Bunch of background and probably way more words than needed: I have been a lawyer for 6 years. I've been at the same firm the entire time. It's in a rural part of the state. Our firm does a lot of practice areas. The owner does primarily corporate law, as general counsel for a lot of farm/ranch businesses, leases, real estate transactions, and a small amount of probate and estate planning. I do about 60% family law, then andlord tenant law, estate planning, probates, and some business law. A tiny bit of litigation. It's a small town. When I joined there were four attorneys. The two others left and last year we got a new associate, who is primarily doing corporate law. My boss hates doing family law and our other attorney has no experience or interest in it. There are about 5 attorneys in the town who do family law or you have to travel about 2 1/2 hours to a city to find counsel. I turn away potential clients because I'm too busy all the time.
Here's the thing - I need to move. I actually love the firm and the work life balance, but I have a child with some significant support needs that we didn't know about when we moved. Our families and significantly better resources exist where we were before. It's the other side of the state (6+ hours away) and significantly more lawyer saturated.
This is a sooner than later plan, but definitely by next spring. Another year or so before my kiddo starts school. I've put a lot of thought and worry into this decision.
My tentative plans is to open my own solo form/ possibly partner with a friend of mine in that area. The firm would be primarily the areas I already practice in (normal combination in both areas). But he wouldn't be free until about 6 months after the move so it would be solo first anyway. And I am worried about establishing a new firm and the cost of everything during the move (I have savings but).
My boss knows this might be coming, but only generally and not the new firm part.
What do you all think about a proposa to my boss where I would also stay as of counsel or as a contract attorney for family law for my current firm for as long as we both agreed? I would be able to meet via video with clients and travel in for court or other needs, but I appear virtually in court and for mediations etc all the time already. It's not unusual.
We would not in the same market. I'm not easily replaceable simply because it's hard to recruit attorneys to my current town because it's so rural. It's not a matter where they could just hire another attorney to do family law in the office. It would be probably at least a year and that's not a guarantee.
I do not want to just stay working for the firm remotely and I don't think my boss would be okay with that scenario anyway. I don't think it would work full time. But I do truly think this would benefit us both - I would still have money coming in during the transition, they would still have someone doing family law. I am not certain my boss would agree to it, but I also don't think she would automatically reject the idea.
Ethic rules appear okay with this so long as it is disclosed and conflict checks happen. It should not cause a lot of conflict issues because of the distance and the type of clients.
But it's not something I have personal experience with. Is it a crazy stupid suggestion? I'm sure there are logistics I haven't thought of. Does anyone have suggestions or thoughts on terms I should propose?

**WARNING** long post. Feel free to skip the background information if need be
BACKGROUND:
I am a software engineer at a major bank. Relative to my counterparts on my team, I am the "most junior", but I have three years of experience. This is important to know as it may offer some insight to our team culture. I landed this job in November 2023 and was placed with my team in January 2024. The team consisted of two women, including myself and five men. I work at our NYC office with three of the other men, one of which is our team lead, let's call him Anderson. The other woman coworker lives in FL and the other two men are in India. I am the only black person on the team, and the rest of my coworkers are of Indian descent. This, too, is important to note.
From day 1, I was intentionally assigned low level administrative tasks while my coworkers were purposefully trained and briefed on other, technical tasks. The first week with my team, I mentioned to my team lead that I felt it important to learn the technical tasks that my teammates were learning, even if these technical tasks were not going to be my responsibility, because there would not be anyone to take on the technical tasks if someone was on vacation. My team lead told me to focus on the work he assigned to me.
Still determined to learn the technical tasks, I scheduled trainings with my offshore counterpart so that he would train me instead. This meant that I had to sign in to work after hours to be trained. I was now trained on what my "work buddy" knew, but still not fully trained on what the rest of the team knew how to do. Suddenly (not suddenly), my other woman coworker, let's call her Sandra, went on maternity leave and I was assigned her work. My team lead expressed his frustration with me not knowing how to do her job, and told me to figure out how to learn the things she was doing.
What is interesting to point out here is that during the first few weeks on the team, my team lead would assign our other senior engineer to train Sandra and answer all questions that she had. I was not granted this opportunity. Instead, my Slack messages went unanswered (I have all of this documented) when I had questions and after another two weeks, my team lead quietly reassigned Sandra's work from me to another senior engineer instead. He never explained why he did this, or gave me feedback on the work I was doing.
As the weeks went by, my team lead called me into a meeting to gauge my knowledge on querying our databases. He asked me to find a few items, which I could not find because for one, I had NEVER interacted with the databases before, and for two, I had no understanding of the database architecture or the data flow for our app. Nevertheless, I decided to ask clarifying questions to help me better understand the data so that I could write appropriate queries. My team lead responded to this with yelling "you are an engineer and you don't even know SQL", to which I responded that my knowledge of SQL was sufficient (part of my technical interview was based on writing complex queries), but I needed to understand exactly what he wanted me to find. He ended the meeting and never followed up on the information he was looking for. I still do not know what task, if any, that he was trying to assign to me.
I decided to follow up with him and explain to him that I could sense his frustration, and I asked him to define clear expectations for me and the team, and provide official training that focused on our application architecture and other technical areas that we needed to focus on. He told me that no amount of training would fix the "fact" that I did not know SQL and that it is the team members' job to train themselves.
Nevertheless, after that meeting, he assigned me with handling all onboarding for new projects moving forward. I have taken the liberty of advocating for my team members to ensure that we are all properly trained and provided with ALL resources needed to do our job well. Since then, the team, and myself has expressed more confidence in our ability to do our work. We are even at a point where senior team members reach out to me when they cannot find resources and either ask me to provide documentation, or ask me to reach out to other engineers to schedule meetings to provide trainings. Here is where I am concerned that I might be experiencing hostility at work. Please provide objective feedback and even constructive criticism if need be:
MAIN POINTS:
-my team lead uses language in his interactions with me that creates a false narrative. For example, he accuses me of "not caring" about my job, not "being collaborative", and not paying attention. One example is where I was tasked with migrating a google guice project to springboot. We had four weeks to get the work done and each week during standup, I brought up to my team lead my plans to make changes to the service. Each time, he would redirect my attention to administrative tasks. The third week of the sprint, literally in the middle of a Slack conversation of me telling my team lead that I planned on making some code changes and him instead telling me to do something else, our senior manager called a meeting with the team and yelled at my team lead for not getting any work done related to the code refactoring. After the meeting, my team lead followed up with me and berated me for not having work done. This is all documented in Slack and I remember being very confused as he had literally told me to do other tasks. As a result, my team lead removed me from the code refactoring project and used this to further justify his belief that I do "not care" about the work. Keep in mind that these interactions are documented.
-my team lead constantly verbally berates me in my interactions with him. One example is when I was typing up a document on a zoom call and I was sharing my screen with him. He kept rushing me and was saying things like "come on man I have other things to do", "ughhh hurry up", "you need to move fast!". Two things here: he yelled at me for moving fast because he said he could not see what I was clicking on when I moved fast. Then he yelled at me when I slowed down. There was one time he yelled at me for clicking a back button instead of the home button on the screen...he told me that I was not listening to him or paying attention...I am confused by this because the point of his instruction was for me to return to the home screen. There was another time where I misspelled a word in the middle of him berating me, and then he berated me even more for misspelling the word...
-my team lead has unclear expectations and gets angry at me when I do not do things he wants me to do. One example is when he wanted me to watch a 40 minute training video, summarize the points in the video, and schedule a follow up training with the person who lead the training so that the team (me) could ask questions. He asked me to get this done within an hour. He also wanted me to upload some recordings to Sharepoint. But this task was just another task to complete and not time-sensitive. After the call, I watched the video and made a summary and got back to him with an update in 45 minutes instead of the hour. He responded to my message 20 minutes after I wrote him by hopping on a call with me and yelled at me for not having the videos uploaded. Again, he accused me of "not caring" about my job. When I explained to him that the videos were not uploaded because I was focusing on the other, time sensitive task, he said that that task was not as important as having the videos uploaded and "people" were asking him about the videos in the Sharepoint space....this was a lie because it has been a week and the only person who accessed the uploaded videos was...you guessed it...me :)
-my team lead just berates me in general. He berated me for collaborating with a team member to explore a new internal application. He said that there was no need to get on zoom with the coworker because we should have already known everything...the app was new and I was the only one who understood how to navigate it after exploring it with the team member...oh...need I mention that he then asked me to train the other team members on the new app's UI next week?
-my team lead expressed his frustration at not having access to certain resources when I was on bereavement.The documentation was incomplete and I had to take a sudden leave due to a death in the family. Upon my return, he asked for the documentation and said that he find an "excuse" to tell his manager as to why the documentation was incomplete and that I was "on vacation"
-my team lead "warns" me not to "disappoint" him when he assigns me with tasks. When I ask him to define what a "disappointment" is and for us to agree on what is acceptable, he ignores me.
-my team lead tells me that "people" ask questions about my work and one day he is going to make our department head "deal" with me. The department head is known for being a hot head who yells at people. But he (department head)has NEVER yelled at me in any interaction I had with him, no matter how frustrated he may have been.
I want to make an important note here that my team lead does NOT speak to other people like this and he ONLY does this over zoom. I work 3x days in office and on the days where he speaks to me in person, he does not even make eye contact with me and he speaks so soft I can barely hear him sometimes. My team lead has never provided any feedback on my work. As a matter of fact, he uses my documentation and my explanation of technical tasks as if they were his own.
I am considering taking my concerns to our senior manager, who apparently is a well respected, "big boss" at work, but also MY direct manager and I happen to have a great relationship with him. I want to be as objective as possible in my complaint but in the meantime, I would like to explore areas where maybe I can improve to minimize my team lead's verbal assaults on me

Recently ran through Cassette Beasts on Xbox after it sitting on the to-do list for a long while, and happy to say that I highly recommend it, especially for lapsed Pokemon fans looking for a hit but unsatisfied with the current series direction.
Cassette Beasts has a lot of the trappings of a typical Pokemon game but puts unique spins on all of them. Most of these changes aren't necessarily better or worse, just different and a welcome change. It's nice to be able to explore through a monster collecting game without knowing every play in the book off by heart.
The premise for your adventure is that you've fallen into a parallel world of sorts, along with everyone else there, where local beasts can be copied onto cassette tapes. The game leans into this cassette retro aesthetic in a few different ways, like evolutions being called 'remasters' and shinies being 'bootlegs', as well as characters, plot points and visual effects.
There are "gym leaders" in the form of Ranger Captains, but these aren't really the focus of the main quest. Rather, the main quest sees you taking on boss monsters which tie into your quest to escape the alternate reality island you're trapped on.
Battles are always in double or swarm format, against other trainers, wild monsters, or bosses. This is where the most notable twists on the Poke-formula come in. Type matchups are based around "chemical reaction" status effects rather than doubling or halving damage. Fire on water causes steam, which heals the water beast. Glass can be shattered. Grass can be burned. Some give damage, defence or speed modifications. Others cause type changes entirely. Combined with the ability to give your monsters 8 (or more) moves, it's a quite in-depth system that can, if the player wishes, feed into some advanced buildcrafting. After battling, the main level-up system is tied to the player rather than the monster so you can change party composition with a fairly minimal grind to having a viable fighter. Each monster tape also has its own level which mostly determines moves learned and evolution.
I don't think the chemical type system is necessarily better than the series that inspired it, but I can't stress enough how much I enjoyed playing something different. Most of the game's difficulty is pretty manageable, but there are definite spikes where you are pushed to improve your monsters. This is achieved more through movelist choices than grinding, which is nice. Also, the battles in Cassette Beasts are super snappy and don't get bogged down in explanation text and slow animations, which is a major selling point for me.
Monster character design is important for this kind of game. I don't think Cassette Beasts brings the memorable charm that Pokemon nails time and time again, even up to 1000+ monsters. There are definitely some cool ones, but overall they don't stick this aspect quite as well. On the other hand, the fusion system is a blast, resulting in some staggering 14000 different possible combinations. These aren't all designed by hand, the game has some sort of generation tool to make this work surprisingly seamlessly.
The 2.5D graphical style is pleasingly reminiscent of GBA or DS era RPGs and suits the gameplay well. Worth a note is the music, which has some great vocal tracks that pop into action during major battle moments as well as during the island's central hub town. The main battle and world tracks are nice and sticky without quite rising to iconic-tier.
After completing the main quest at around 25 hours I was comfortably ready to put the game down. Turn based battling was starting to wear thin for me and I'm trying to let go of completionism for my own sake, but for many players it would be worth sticking around for some post-game quests lines and catching em all. The high battle system skill ceiling has more depths to mine for dedicated players who want to challenge themselves against tougher content. 10 years ago I probably could have spent double the amount of time on this game and asked for more.
Cassette Beasts is a very good Pokemon alternative. The differences and improvements from its obvious inspirations are all worthwhile, and nails most things from a pure gameplay perspective. Being such an obvious homage, the less-than-iconic monster and character design work against it a little bit. Comparing to the OG 151 designs, music and story will always be an impossible bar to clear.
Cassette Beasts probably sits just below "essential" tier gaming but nevertheless highly recommended for fans of the genre.
3.5 stars (out of 5)

(this was completely written on mobile, so please bear with me)
scroll for tl;dr
I 18F recently graduated high school almost a week ago. My mother 37F and a few others showed up to the occasion to congratulate me for making it out of high school, but the one person I especially wanted to go to the occasion was my dad 34M. I had been telling him and his girlfriend, 26F, to please come to this event. I really wanted them to come cheer me on because I really cared what my dad had to think about his daughter crossing the stage, but he didn’t show up.
I had told him, numerous amount of times, about when it was, the date and time and when the day did come, he didn’t call, text, nothing, nada. So, I was rightfully hurt. Now, even almost a week later, I haven’t heard a word from him.
Now we get into some backstory, about 9mon ago, I had gotten kicked out of his house for a couple of problems that me and him had and I started staying with another family because mom didn’t live close by, but an event happened where I started having dinner at his house once a week. Even though he’s the adult, I’m the one driving out to eat dinner with his family, helping him and his girl when they need a free babysitter. All because I love my dad and his family.
Stepmom also got pregnant around the same time I got kicked out and sometimes I’ll forget to come over to dad’s house because I am a forgetful person. I missed a baby shower that no one had reminded me of and when I saw him next, he was upset that I missed their baby shower to be at my boyfriend’s (18M) house. I told him that I had forgotten and I was sorry and he started talking about how he thinks I’m making my boyfriend more important than my family (even though dad has showed that he has done the same thing before) We also had a problem a couple weeks ago where he was upset that I was taking my boyfriend around his family because, and I quote, “He’s some random n-word that I don’t know,” but Dad hasn’t made any move to meet my boyfriend in any situation. So how is he upset at this situation?
Anyways, recently I found out from my mom, not him, that she gave birth. This is where the AITA comes up. I figured, well since I’m not important enough to make it my graduation, his excuse as to why he might not show up was that he was at work and he had forgotten to call off so he didn’t know what time he was going to make it home even though we had life360 and it showed him home 30min before the ceremony ended, I’m not going to his dinner. Anyways, I guess that really annoyed him because he removed me from the life360 and STILL hasn’t spoken to me.
I told my mom about the situation and she told me to reach out to him and I told her that I am TIRED of reaching out when he is full well and capable of doing so and apologizing, but he hasn’t and until then I will not speak to him. She also said that she believes that the reason why he was so upset was because he wanted me to take my younger siblings home (their other children) as I am the designated driver every time they are over at the house and the drive is more than a hour to and from.
So Reddit, am I the a*shole?
tl;dr - AITA for not showing up to my dad’s weekly dinner because he missed my high school graduation?

1. Carlin had a big week of giggles and guffaws for the camera. She took an influencer trip to Skyland Ranch, used a Billie Eilish song on an IG reel of her children and then gaslit her audience into believing she and Evan have well known catchphrases “CrAAzy”, “Love, Bye” and “bruh”. They slapped these random words on hats and TShirts and people STOOD IN THE RAIN to buy them. I saw a grown azz man in a “BRUH” hat. Other wild things that happened at their Cash and Carry sale included someone taking pics of their kids in front of the Tesla, referring to the dresses as “she” and calling their vlog “vloggy”.I have cringed too much over all of it. Layla put on a full show for the camera at a nail salon AND the dance studio while Zade earned his keep wearing pretend high heel shoes. They wrapped it all up in a big terrible bow by featuring Hobby Lobby.
   
2. Whitney played second fiddle all week to Carlin… folding shirts, holding babies and modeling Temu dresses that they marked up 347%. Zach was back in the Bates Kitchen this week and decided the best way to get views was to bring in the kids so we got to watch Kacie mix and mess and poke around in cake mix and canned frosting to concoct cake pops. Then the grossest thing happened… ZACH BATES FARTED. During a COOKING SHOW. IN THE KITCHEN. I mean he ripped a big ole juicy poot and they all laughed and decided to air it and then they SOLD those dang FART POPS at the Cash and Carry sale. He also made some terrible Psychology jokes. I bet soon enough they will have “fart pops” on a hat for sale.
   
3. The Balka crowd were living it up this week in a 600$ a night beachfront condo that included a beach chair service. This family trip was really just a content mill and man did Josie churn it out. She is full on exploiting her children while drowning in a sea of beige. What has happened that she is suddenly, desperately pouring out content on every platform… did Kelton tell her she needed to make some money to pay for her Sephora habit OR is a product launch in the works? Our Fundie Kim K.is pushing links while living life through a gauzy filter featuring tinkly music.
   
4. Katie had to let Travis go on this fake tour, but not before she let all the groupies know that was her mans. Trav said he was only singing 3 or 4 songs at each show so tell me again why they moved from Jersey for THIS? Speaking of Jersey, the vlog featured just a blip of the Clark family and it looks like GiGi has been drowning her sorrows by remodeling at her house. Katie got them back to the hive as quickly as possible and spent her week with Carlin and co at the playground and pool.
   
5. Lydia is bored bc she is married to Trace. All of her photography skills are now used to take pics of sneakers, weights, water bottles and pickleball. This crew has been featuring Lydia’s family pretty heavily lately, including spending Mothers Day with them where they made small talk with Trace and pretended to like him. Trace spilled the beans that his parents gave away all the pets at the big house while simultaneously telling us that Lawson doesn’t take care of Duke bc he gets dropped off there at least once a month. Later they debuted 40 minutes of Trace painting Lydia’s face like it was a fence while mouth breathing. Lydia’s mom called to show her the pet emu eating cherries and that was the best darn thing they have shown us in months. More emu please-less Trace!
   
6. Michael and Brandon brought in the professionals this week and exploited Layla and Zade Stewart. Layla is as good as any second year stage student at this point… BUT Aunt Michael has rules so she had to slow her role. Brandon was excited to draw Layla a princess after 3 weeks of sharks and whales… honestly everything he draws sort of looks the same. They also went to Honea Path to see Poppa Bill and Momma Jane who was smiling that it wasn’t one of the grands with 18 kids.
   
7. Down in passive-aggressive land Alyssa Webster told the tale of how all FOUR of her girls were asked to be flower girls and how that had NEVER happened and how SPECIAL that was. After several posts exclaiming her undying devotion and love to “buddy” she showed off the bad 80’s prom dress she was given by that dress shop she promotes. If a flame came anywhere near her it would have been all she wrote for Mrs. Webster. That dress was awful… but not as bad as the one she was gifted from BSB(which she called “my sister’s boutique”). The vlog shows John being an absolute jerk while Alyssa sneers and snarls and tries very hard not to say that her Mother’s Day sucked. It did suck and in order to make it up to her, daddy Webster put on a button down shirt and took her to the Cheesecake Factory. After all of the slap happy crappy birthday parties and Christmases she has given her girls… she expected WHAT for Mother’s Day??
   
8. Lawson made an absolute fool of himself while revealing the worst kept secret ever… it’s a boy, yall. Michael and Brandon punished themselves by throwing the party and doing all of the work while Tiffy and Lawson preened for the camera and asked people over and over what their guess was. This was filmed on I Love You Day weekend at the IBLP leaders church so this is old, old footage aaand these people are all perfectly fine with what their dad does. Tiffy and Law made it a point to say there was a bigger crowd than was at their wedding. Tiffy cried after finding out she is carrying a little Lawson and Duke was nowhere to be found. I do think he congratulated them on IG though, so all is good.
   
9. Oh Erin… what a week you had. You got Momma and Daddy Bates all to yourself for Mothers Day and for Carson/Charles’ birthday. Gil and KJ also picked up a nice paycheck for speaking and preaching at the Paine’s new church. Even though Erin happily joined a church that prides itself on promoting the corporal punishment of children, she still put together a glowing reel for Carson/Charles’ special day that featured him down at it at his second job of brothermomming. Not one picture of herself with the child was included. Later Erin threw a free notebook in with her construction paper cards as an incentive to buy. Free paper for buying paper is super exciting, right?
   
10. Bits and Bytes… Jadon and Layla are the same height. The Utah photographer that Alyssa used is followed by ALL of the Bates. Everyone of these Trad Wives are now promoting Easy plants. Why can’t Zach have any closeups in his cooking videos? Jeb/Jud broke his arm.
    

Have a great week friends and… how many Baptists does it takes to change a lightbulb…. CHANGE?!? Who mentioned CHANGE!?🫠😜

1. Carlin had a big week of giggles and guffaws for the camera. She took an influencer trip to Skyland Ranch, used a Billie Eilish song on an IG reel of her children and then gaslit her audience into believing she and Evan have well known catchphrases “CrAAzy”, “Love, Bye” and “bruh”. They slapped these random words on hats and TShirts and people STOOD IN THE RAIN to buy them. I saw a grown azz man in a “BRUH” hat. Other wild things that happened at their Cash and Carry sale included someone taking pics of their kids in front of the Tesla, referring to the dresses as “she” and calling their vlog “vloggy”.I have cringed too much over all of it. Layla put on a full show for the camera at a nail salon AND the dance studio while Zade earned his keep wearing pretend high heel shoes. They wrapped it all up in a big terrible bow by featuring Hobby Lobby.
   
2. Whitney played second fiddle all week to Carlin… folding shirts, holding babies and modeling Temu dresses that they marked up 347%. Zach was back in the Bates Kitchen this week and decided the best way to get views was to bring in the kids so we got to watch Kacie mix and mess and poke around in cake mix and canned frosting to concoct cake pops. Then the grossest thing happened… ZACH BATES FARTED. During a COOKING SHOW. IN THE KITCHEN. I mean he ripped a big ole juicy poot and they all laughed and decided to air it and then they SOLD those dang FART POPS at the Cash and Carry sale. He also made some terrible Psychology jokes. I bet soon enough they will have “fart pops” on a hat for sale.
   
3. The Balka crowd were living it up this week in a 600$ a night beachfront condo that included a beach chair service. This family trip was really just a content mill and man did Josie churn it out. She is full on exploiting her children while drowning in a sea of beige. What has happened that she is suddenly, desperately pouring out content on every platform… did Kelton tell her she needed to make some money to pay for her Sephora habit OR is a product launch in the works? Our Fundie Kim K.is pushing links while living life through a gauzy filter featuring tinkly music.
   
4. Katie had to let Travis go on this fake tour, but not before she let all the groupies know that was her mans. Trav said he was only singing 3 or 4 songs at each show so tell me again why they moved from Jersey for THIS? Speaking of Jersey, the vlog featured just a blip of the Clark family and it looks like GiGi has been drowning her sorrows by remodeling at her house. Katie got them back to the hive as quickly as possible and spent her week with Carlin and co at the playground and pool.
   
5. Lydia is bored bc she is married to Trace. All of her photography skills are now used to take pics of sneakers, weights, water bottles and pickleball. This crew has been featuring Lydia’s family pretty heavily lately, including spending Mothers Day with them where they made small talk with Trace and pretended to like him. Trace spilled the beans that his parents gave away all the pets at the big house while simultaneously telling us that Lawson doesn’t take care of Duke bc he gets dropped off there at least once a month. Later they debuted 40 minutes of Trace painting Lydia’s face like it was a fence while mouth breathing. Lydia’s mom called to show her the pet emu eating cherries and that was the best darn thing they have shown us in months. More emu please-less Trace!
   
6. Michael and Brandon brought in the professionals this week and exploited Layla and Zade Stewart. Layla is as good as any second year stage student at this point… BUT Aunt Michael has rules so she had to slow her role. Brandon was excited to draw Layla a princess after 3 weeks of sharks and whales… honestly everything he draws sort of looks the same. They also went to Honea Path to see Poppa Bill and Momma Jane who was smiling that it wasn’t one of the grands with 18 kids.
   
7. Down in passive-aggressive land Alyssa Webster told the tale of how all FOUR of her girls were asked to be flower girls and how that had NEVER happened and how SPECIAL that was. After several posts exclaiming her undying devotion and love to “buddy” she showed off the bad 80’s prom dress she was given by that dress shop she promotes. If a flame came anywhere near her it would have been all she wrote for Mrs. Webster. That dress was awful… but not as bad as the one she was gifted from BSB(which she called “my sister’s boutique”). The vlog shows John being an absolute jerk while Alyssa sneers and snarls and tries very hard not to say that her Mother’s Day sucked. It did suck and in order to make it up to her, daddy Webster put on a button down shirt and took her to the Cheesecake Factory. After all of the slap happy crappy birthday parties and Christmases she has given her girls… she expected WHAT for Mother’s Day??
   
8. Lawson made an absolute fool of himself while revealing the worst kept secret ever… it’s a boy, yall. Michael and Brandon punished themselves by throwing the party and doing all of the work while Tiffy and Lawson preened for the camera and asked people over and over what their guess was. This was filmed on I Love You Day weekend at the IBLP leaders church so this is old, old footage aaand these people are all perfectly fine with what their dad does. Tiffy and Law made it a point to say there was a bigger crowd than was at their wedding. Tiffy cried after finding out she is carrying a little Lawson and Duke was nowhere to be found. I do think he congratulated them on IG though, so all is good.
   
9. Oh Erin… what a week you had. You got Momma and Daddy Bates all to yourself for Mothers Day and for Carson/Charles’ birthday. Gil and KJ also picked up a nice paycheck for speaking and preaching at the Paine’s new church. Even though Erin happily joined a church that prides itself on promoting the corporal punishment of children, she still put together a glowing reel for Carson/Charles’ special day that featured him down at it at his second job of brothermomming. Not one picture of herself with the child was included. Later Erin threw a free notebook in with her construction paper cards as an incentive to buy. Free paper for buying paper is super exciting, right?
   
10. Bits and Bytes… Jadon and Layla are the same height. The Utah photographer that Alyssa used is followed by ALL of the Bates. Everyone of these Trad Wives are now promoting Easy plants. Why can’t Zach have any closeups in his cooking videos? Jeb/Jud broke his arm.
    

Have a great week friends and… how many Baptists does it takes to change a lightbulb…. CHANGE?!? Who mentioned CHANGE!?🫠😜

Life has become too much. I've struggled with depression of the better part of my 25 years, and only within the last year got on antidepressants. But now, after having been on them for months, I'm starting to get thoughts of self harm again. If I don't take my meds, I spiral out of control.
In large, I believe it has to do with financial hardships. We were doing so, so good. We had over $6k saved up. Then the car broke down (it still needs repairs toalling over $3k). Then we needed more and more. The ex-roommates fucked us over. The baby needed this or that. Birthdays and holidays happened...
We are living paycheck to paycheck while I work 30-40hrs a week. I have to BEG my boss for more hours. Getting a minimum of 30 was a fight. I'm listed as full time and getting more than 32 hours is a shock.
I'm stuck in a town I hate, in a house I hate, with no one around to support me. All my friends are 12 hours away and family at least twice as far, all in different time zones. I feel so isolated. We were supposed to move, 3 years in a row, and every year we got fucked again last minute.
My fiance doesn't work, he's a SAHP to our 8mo son. He watches me sob about money and has not once offered to start working again without attaching some kind of guilt to it. Saying he'll go back to the company that treated him like garbage with a "I'll hate my life and I'll just be miserable again" tone of voice. He's dead set on joining the navy SEALs, he thinks it'll solve all of our problems, but it won't. He fails to realize that my only options once he's gone will be living in this trap of a house, with his parents (worse), or with mine (also worse).
I'm at the end of my rope. Every day I find myself fantasizing about ending it. About hurting myself. I'm over a year clean of SH, but I just... I want to do some very, very scary things.
We've been engaged for 5 years, and probably won't ever get married, because he wants a giant wedding with all his extended family invited... And we have maybe $100 in savings, as I found out today. I'm always overdrawn in my bank account, and I can't find better work.
I'm supposed to be starting college in July, and I have nothing ready. I got the Pell grant, but my classes are $23k a semester and I don't know where to start on student loans. I don't even have a laptop to go to school with. It's online bc I can't go to physical college bc I work so much.
Today I had to worst breakdown I've ever had. I couldn't calm down. I set the screeching baby in his crib so he would be safe in his room and closed the door, and then I just lost control. I was throwing things, banging my hands on the walls and cabinets, holding back screams, sobbing... I locked myself in the bathroom and took on the fetal position in the tub. I curled up there for what felt like 45mins just... hyperventilating and sobbing. I was shaking, I felt dizzy and nauseous, I couldn't get a grip.
Eventually, I picked myself up, took my meds, and went to hold my son. I apologized to him for leaving him alone, but as I always say after one of my episodes "I don't want you to see me like that." He doesn't remember now, but one day, he will.
I go to the gym for my health, because when I was pregnant I weighed over 300lbs. I'm down to 265, but that's still too much. I can't get insurance no matter what I do. I lost Medicaid when I started working because I make too much to qualify. (I make less than $20k annual) I can't get any other insurance because it's too expensive.
I'm always exhausted, always annoyed, angry, depressed, hopeless... i fainted at work 2 days ago due to exhaustion, but I refused to go home because if I don't get the hours, we can't pay the bills.
I'm stuck. I'm literally stuck. I'm just ready to take out a life insurance policy and just... go. So that my boys will be taken care of and they don't have to worry about me anymore. So that I can be at peace. Once and for all...

So i was on my way to work today and as i was heading down a back alley that is commonly used my some as a speed track, i was picking up speed, somewhere around 30 and a employee from a restaurant sprints out onto the street, i slam on my brakes and think my horn in just enough time to not be in front of the vehicle, she ran into the side and rolled down the back of it, she popped up and said she was fine i was instantly sick to my stomach , i offered my number my insurance anything they wanted and she said it was ok, her boss then came to me at my place of work and tried calming me down because i was clearly in shock, i was throwing up over the fact i almost killed somebody, my question here is is how do i come to terms with that and not continue to hate myself, everyone around me says to not let it consume me because she did not look where she was going, but that doesn’t change the fact that i was moving faster than necessary and that i was the one that caused her pain, idk how to let this go and i feel like there’s nobody else that could understand this feeling, i feel like a different person, a piece of shit.

WTT Pedals

• EAE Acid Etched Dagger
• Kingsley Page (these do not come with a box just fwiw)
• Garagetone Chopper
• Old Blood Bl-44 Reverse
• GFI Cabzeus
• Bondi Del Mar v1
• Pogo Compressor+ Boost
• Vox mv50 Rock w/ original power supply, no box
• I have this Metro 24 built with a joyo jp2 board , make an offer on the whole set or anything there
• UAD Satellite system, thunderbolt 2, would like gone asap, last unit I have in UAD ecosystem have 1k+ worth of plugins that would need to be bundled plugin list $700
• Crate 2 ch footswitch

I doubt this with get much traction but throwing my lefty collection on here PICS; Gibson SGJ, Charvel Tele w/ Floyd rose, One of a kind Musicman, Kent 820 with new input jack/pots needed, ESP not setup but with all hardware
This will probably be my last post for a while, it's been so fun trading the last year or so but my board is pretty close to being done , that being said I might be switching to 2 smaller travel boards so anything not in the second pic might be available, but I will be extremely picky, and much more focused on moving the stuff in my list
WTTF

• Sushi Box More and other similar tube boosts in the standard top jack form factor
• Drolo Twin Peaks, Avalanche Run in a limited edition colorway
• Boss Rc-5 and similar loopers
• J Rockett IQ , Bondi Squish As, Source Audio EQ and other compressors and EQ
• Loke, Vongon Paragraphs, Gen Loss, Demedash t-120 dlx, other interesting things , would love to try a Drolo or Pladask in general, will update if I think of anything else specifically
• Horrothia Teeth, EAE Halberd v2, Spruce Giganteum Drive or Arborist v2; pretty set on dirt but I wouldn't mind having a more vintgey fuzz , also interested in mini dirt pedals like Function fx and Deciblelics (and other mini pedals)
• Cioks DC-7
• analog delays with sub divisions, tap tempo preferred, the Asheville would be dope
• Neumann kh 80, other studio gear like microphones, synth, lefty instruments, maybe a nice display monitor that is M1 Macbook compatible w/ a good usb hub
• Ps5 controller and Last of Us and Hogwarts
• Nashville located, might be open to amps locally, shoot your shot, +/- cash, happy trading everyone

So i was on my way to work today and as i was heading down a back alley that is commonly used my some as a speed track, i was picking up speed, somewhere around 30 and a employee from a restaurant sprints out onto the street, i slam on my brakes and think my horn in just enough time to not be in front of the vehicle, she ran into the side and rolled down the back of it, she popped up and said she was fine i was instantly sick to my stomach , i offered my number my insurance anything they wanted and she said it was ok, her boss then came to me at my place of work and tried calming me down because i was clearly in shock, i was throwing up over the fact i almost killed somebody, my question here is is how do i come to terms with that and not continue to hate myself, everyone around me says to not let it consume me because she did not look where she was going, but that doesn’t change the fact that i was moving faster than necessary and that i was the one that caused her pain, idk how to let this go and i feel like there’s nobody else that could understand this feeling, i feel like a different person, a piece of shit.

Brutal Dracula Solo Mini-Guide

So, you got comfortable with the longbow for the first 100 bosses and now you're here, like me.
While I know I'm nowhere near first to the party on defeating Brutal Dracula solo, I figured I would write up what worked for me in hopes it helps someone else trying for this particularly difficult achievement. There are many ways to win this battle, and this is one of them. I am only using gear available to you prior to defeating Dracula although some of it is rare. Using purple weapons with similar stats can work but may be slightly more difficult.

Setup

You'll want to make sure you bring both Potion of Rage and Witch potions along with a Vampiric Brew for the extra spell leech and 5% blood type boost. As far as blood goes, I was able to do this with both 100% Brute and 100% Rogue blood. Use whichever you have available, but I preferred the rogue blood (which surprised me). The weapons I suggest bringing along are Gravecaller, Mortitia's Lament, and Oaksong. Other swords and ranged weapons can work, but I think the only way to get condemn on a howling reaper is through Mortitia's, which is a nice 15% damage debuff. For armor I recommend the Shadow set, which will have 3/4 pieces along with the Shadowmoon Chestguard. The movement speed and critical strike chance will help you avoid getting hit while dishing out massive damage. The 4-piece set bonus will not be available, but if you are using rogue's blood you will have 100% crit chance after a Veil dash regardless. Last I recommend using Adam's Soul Shard of the Monster assuming you are on a private solo server or have it available. If not, the other 2 soul shards can work in a pinch, or use your favorite amulet (8% movement speed is nice) and Raging Tempest. Take a look further down at the abilities and their jewels for each phase.
Weapons
Armor
Adam's Relic Shard

Phase 1 & 2

The loadout for the first two phases will look like this: Veil of Chaos, Blood Rite, and Frost Barrier. Included in the pictures are the jewel rolls I was able to equip on each of those.
Phase 1 & 2 abilities + jewels
In phase 1 do your best to avoid taking too much damage beyond your "black bar" because you'll want it for phase 2. You can run to the door and escape the fight at this point as well, no need to take durability damage from dying if you had a bad start. I was most comfortable with using the longbow at mid-range to quickly chip away at Drac's health. Multishot at full focus for big damage, Guided Arrow at full focus when he's going to stay put for a few seconds. Between Blood Rite, Frost Barrier and Veil you will always have a defensive option for any of his moves, although many can be avoided by simply running. Note that you will still take damage from his shattering smash that releases a star-pattern of projectiles if you're standing in the center - the projectiles themselves can be countered safely. His double-slash projectile is great for Frost Barrier and then recast in his face for some good damage as well. When the arena turns dark and many bats start coming out, shuffle walk back and forth to bait their trajectory lines while preparing to Veil away when the boss reappears. Don't use Veil while it is dark, you need it to dodge the grab / blood suck. You can run straight through the wolf move safely. His lunge and other sword attacks can be sidestepped or blocked/countered by our abilities too.
When phase 2 starts you can safely fire off your ultimate as he's landing. When he creates a large line of projectiles, the space directly in front of him is safe. Veil to dodge his large overhead chop, sidestep his lunge, and get some nice damage in on his quadruple blade projectiles by running the frost shield into his fast and recasting. When he vanishes and the bats begin coming out again, it's a great time to destroy crystals. Don't Veil into the crystals area though, you need it to dodge his attack. Instead, let a bat hit your Blood Rite, then walk in while you're ethereal. You should be able to do enough damage to destroy the crystal before he starts attacking again, freeing up much needed space. When he teleports to the center and create the cross and all the homing projectiles, just run to the edge of the arena back and forth. With enough movement % you can out-strafe them. You can get some damage in here by frost shielding 3-4 at a time too. When the second fire cross finishes, you can close the distance with frost shield to him early by blocking more projectiles too. Throughout most of this I used the bow, though I took out the sword for the crystals sometimes.
After his health gets to zero, he'll start to play his transition animation. It's pretty cool, but you shouldn't watch it. You should open up your abilities menu and grab Void and Ball lightning instead. There's a fair amount of time during this transition to do this, unlike Phase 4 where you should be prepared to be slightly faster.

Phase 3

Phase 3 abilities + jewels
You've swapped out your moves and are frantically looking around for the first enemy spawns on the outskirts of the room. If they get to the center, they heal Dracula and turn into an annoying enemy, so the goal here is to not let them get there. Void and Ball Lightning with certain jeweles will let you push and pull enemies. Place Void behind enemies to drag them backwards / towards each other, place Ball Lightning in front of enemies to push them backwards. If you can get 3 enemies with the bow's Multishot, this will push them back quite a bit too, followed by the Seeking Arrow that stuns with 3 focus. Don't forget you can feed on them below 30% health for an instant kill bite. When too many of them are getting near Dracula, fire off Adam's ultimate to knock them back into some heavy hitting lightning. If Dracula heals past 75% it is going to be difficult, but with this method I've been able to have zero healing applied to him consistently. When all the monsters are cleaned up, swap to the heart and throw everything you have it. Feed on the heart and immediatley open your ability menu for you phase 4 abilities. You’ll have to be faster swapping abilities here so you don’t miss out on some free damage time. Note that we use a different frost defensive now instead of the frontal shield (pictured below with gems)

Phase 4

Phase 4 abilities + jewels
For phase 4, you'll have special Dracula blood with very powerful abilities - but don't count on whatever blood type you brought because it's gone. Periodically swap to the Reaper weapon and toss the rotating damage on dracula since he is stationary. Otherwise, go to town on him with the sword and whirlwind. The 15% damage debuff from condemn will have a lot of uptime here. Veil has half the cooldown, so don't be afraid to use it frequently. As the line of projectiles comes at you, use blood rite or cold snap to intentionally get hit while dodging the swords. Watch carefully for the word RECAST when you use these abilities - it means you can use them again without waiting for the cooldown. Choosing to only use one of them until I didn’t see RECAST, then using the other helped me keep track of which one was available. Don't break ethereal by attacking if you're in the middle of swords, you have plenty of time with this loadout to beat the "enrage timer." The stacking debuff will mean later in the fight you take significantly more damage and things like bloodrage don't clear this debuff. You can Veil through his knockback waves twice if timed correctly since we're using Veil of Chaos. Continue hammering on him with the reaper throw ability and the sword whirlwind - the bow is really not a great choice at this point because you are too immobile while firing. If you can manage to get his health to zero, you win! I say this because... even if you die simultaneously or shortly after he does, he'll be downed in his throne room when you return. Don't ask me how I know this.
Good luck!
I hope this mini-guide helps someone out there on their quest to defeat Dracula on Brutal. Don't give up, you too can brood in a big winged chair! Please let me know if there's anything I missed or anything you'd like to add in the comments!

Victory!

Victory!

**WARNING** long post. Feel free to skip the background information if need be
BACKGROUND:
I am a software engineer at a major bank. Relative to my counterparts on my team, I am the "most junior", but I have three years of experience. This is important to know as it may offer some insight to our team culture. I landed this job in November 2023 and was placed with my team in January 2024. The team consisted of two women, including myself and five men. I work at our NYC office with three of the other men, one of which is our team lead, let's call him Anderson. The other woman coworker lives in FL and the other two men are in India. I am the only black person on the team, and the rest of my coworkers are of Indian descent. This, too, is important to note.
From day 1, I was intentionally assigned low level administrative tasks while my coworkers were purposefully trained and briefed on other, technical tasks. The first week with my team, I mentioned to my team lead that I felt it important to learn the technical tasks that my teammates were learning, even if these technical tasks were not going to be my responsibility, because there would not be anyone to take on the technical tasks if someone was on vacation. My team lead told me to focus on the work he assigned to me.
Still determined to learn the technical tasks, I scheduled trainings with my offshore counterpart so that he would train me instead. This meant that I had to sign in to work after hours to be trained. I was now trained on what my "work buddy" knew, but still not fully trained on what the rest of the team knew how to do. Suddenly (not suddenly), my other woman coworker, let's call her Sandra, went on maternity leave and I was assigned her work. My team lead expressed his frustration with me not knowing how to do her job, and told me to figure out how to learn the things she was doing.
What is interesting to point out here is that during the first few weeks on the team, my team lead would assign our other senior engineer to train Sandra and answer all questions that she had. I was not granted this opportunity. Instead, my Slack messages went unanswered (I have all of this documented) when I had questions and after another two weeks, my team lead quietly reassigned Sandra's work from me to another senior engineer instead. He never explained why he did this, or gave me feedback on the work I was doing.
As the weeks went by, my team lead called me into a meeting to gauge my knowledge on querying our databases. He asked me to find a few items, which I could not find because for one, I had NEVER interacted with the databases before, and for two, I had no understanding of the database architecture or the data flow for our app. Nevertheless, I decided to ask clarifying questions to help me better understand the data so that I could write appropriate queries. My team lead responded to this with yelling "you are an engineer and you don't even know SQL", to which I responded that my knowledge of SQL was sufficient (part of my technical interview was based on writing complex queries), but I needed to understand exactly what he wanted me to find. He ended the meeting and never followed up on the information he was looking for. I still do not know what task, if any, that he was trying to assign to me.
I decided to follow up with him and explain to him that I could sense his frustration, and I asked him to define clear expectations for me and the team, and provide official training that focused on our application architecture and other technical areas that we needed to focus on. He told me that no amount of training would fix the "fact" that I did not know SQL and that it is the team members' job to train themselves.
Nevertheless, after that meeting, he assigned me with handling all onboarding for new projects moving forward. I have taken the liberty of advocating for my team members to ensure that we are all properly trained and provided with ALL resources needed to do our job well. Since then, the team, and myself has expressed more confidence in our ability to do our work. We are even at a point where senior team members reach out to me when they cannot find resources and either ask me to provide documentation, or ask me to reach out to other engineers to schedule meetings to provide trainings. Here is where I am concerned that I might be experiencing hostility at work. Please provide objective feedback and even constructive criticism if need be:
MAIN POINTS:
-my team lead uses language in his interactions with me that creates a false narrative. For example, he accuses me of "not caring" about my job, not "being collaborative", and not paying attention. One example is where I was tasked with migrating a google guice project to springboot. We had four weeks to get the work done and each week during standup, I brought up to my team lead my plans to make changes to the service. Each time, he would redirect my attention to administrative tasks. The third week of the sprint, literally in the middle of a Slack conversation of me telling my team lead that I planned on making some code changes and him instead telling me to do something else, our senior manager called a meeting with the team and yelled at my team lead for not getting any work done related to the code refactoring. After the meeting, my team lead followed up with me and berated me for not having work done. This is all documented in Slack and I remember being very confused as he had literally told me to do other tasks. As a result, my team lead removed me from the code refactoring project and used this to further justify his belief that I do "not care" about the work. Keep in mind that these interactions are documented.
-my team lead constantly verbally berates me in my interactions with him. One example is when I was typing up a document on a zoom call and I was sharing my screen with him. He kept rushing me and was saying things like "come on man I have other things to do", "ughhh hurry up", "you need to move fast!". Two things here: he yelled at me for moving fast because he said he could not see what I was clicking on when I moved fast. Then he yelled at me when I slowed down. There was one time he yelled at me for clicking a back button instead of the home button on the screen...he told me that I was not listening to him or paying attention...I am confused by this because the point of his instruction was for me to return to the home screen. There was another time where I misspelled a word in the middle of him berating me, and then he berated me even more for misspelling the word...
-my team lead has unclear expectations and gets angry at me when I do not do things he wants me to do. One example is when he wanted me to watch a 40 minute training video, summarize the points in the video, and schedule a follow up training with the person who lead the training so that the team (me) could ask questions. He asked me to get this done within an hour. He also wanted me to upload some recordings to Sharepoint. But this task was just another task to complete and not time-sensitive. After the call, I watched the video and made a summary and got back to him with an update in 45 minutes instead of the hour. He responded to my message 20 minutes after I wrote him by hopping on a call with me and yelled at me for not having the videos uploaded. Again, he accused me of "not caring" about my job. When I explained to him that the videos were not uploaded because I was focusing on the other, time sensitive task, he said that that task was not as important as having the videos uploaded and "people" were asking him about the videos in the Sharepoint space....this was a lie because it has been a week and the only person who accessed the uploaded videos was...you guessed it...me :)
-my team lead just berates me in general. He berated me for collaborating with a team member to explore a new internal application. He said that there was no need to get on zoom with the coworker because we should have already known everything...the app was new and I was the only one who understood how to navigate it after exploring it with the team member...oh...need I mention that he then asked me to train the other team members on the new app's UI next week?
-my team lead expressed his frustration at not having access to certain resources when I was on bereavement.The documentation was incomplete and I had to take a sudden leave due to a death in the family. Upon my return, he asked for the documentation and said that he find an "excuse" to tell his manager as to why the documentation was incomplete and that I was "on vacation"
-my team lead "warns" me not to "disappoint" him when he assigns me with tasks. When I ask him to define what a "disappointment" is and for us to agree on what is acceptable, he ignores me.
-my team lead tells me that "people" ask questions about my work and one day he is going to make our department head "deal" with me. The department head is known for being a hot head who yells at people. But he has NEVER yelled at me in any interaction I had with him, no matter how frustrated he may have been.
I want to make an important note here that he does NOT speak to other people like this and he ONLY does this over zoom. I work 3x days in office and on the days where he speaks to me in person, he does not even make eye contact with me and he speaks so soft I can barely hear him sometimes. My team lead has never provided any feedback on my work. As a matter of fact, he uses my documentation and my explanation of technical tasks as if they were his own.
I am considering taking my concerns to our senior manager, who apparently is a well respected, "big boss" at work, but also MY direct manager and I happen to have a great relationship with him. I want to be as objective as possible in my complaint but in the meantime, I would like to explore areas where maybe I can improve to minimize my team lead's verbal assaults on me

Forgive me if this question should be asked elsewhere but I could really use some advice.
I’ve been a journalist full time at the same company in Huntsville, Alabama for the last 3 years. I started out at my university newspaper in 2013 before graduating and moving to New Orleans where I wasn’t able to book work consistently enough to truly say, “I’ve been a journalist for the past decade.” There was a 1-2 year period where I thought I didn’t have what it took.
My current situation has been very satisfying from the beginning. My boss owns a magazine and a business journal focused on Huntsville and the surrounding area. Most of the assignments have been limited in the amount of exposure you could ever expect as with most other community based journalism but Huntsville is also home to NASA and Redstone Arsenal. It requires more effort a long with putting yourself out there much more consistently, but any determined journalist can find stories locally that will generate readers far beyond the city and state lines.
In August of 2023, I had an instance where my luck and determination peaked at the same time when I was able to track down the son of a former Chinese immigrant turned Huntsville scientist, Dr. Ning Li. She wasn’t famous, not even among most Huntsville residents, but in the early 2000’s she had a run of published papers that made her extremely well known in the science community and even resulted in publications like Wired running multi page spreads about her work on anti gravity technology. I’m going to be REALLY short here but she seemingly disappeared after leaving UAH to start her own company for her research in 2002. Records show initial funding from DoD but the paper trail ends there and she never had a public appearance again.
Eventually this “disappearance” was noticed and some reporters were asking about her publicly at the time, but no sure fire answers ever came. This, along with some public rumors of her defecting back to China with US secrets, eventually resulted in a large community of people who were still asking for answers 20 years later in the form of YouTube videos (Barely Sociable had a big one with 2+ million views) or various science / conspiracy based websites. It only grew as more people started making claims that a lot of the UAP reports being publicized described technology that seemed to resemble her initial theory that gained promise.
I was able to track down her adult son’s phone number. After a series of phone calls over the next month, I gained his trust and was invited to his home where he was able to give me all of the answers except ones about the success of her research on her top secret work funded by the DoD. He didn’t know if she was ever proven right or wrong because she worked at the Arsenal every day until the day she was struck by a car driven by a student on UAH campus. She suffered a TBI that immediately rendered her as if she had late stage Alzheimer’s. Never spoke again and he cared for her around the clock until she died 6 years later.
He was unable to learn anything further about her work, but he gave me a lot of information that wasn’t known at the time and I was able to fully disprove any rumor of her turning traitor to the US for a return to China.
I published the story and it did really well in mid-late 2023 amongst the crowd who already knew of her obviously and the regular Huntsville readers of ours found her life story very interesting. It was immediately the most successful story of my career as other reporters were making stories about the fact that I was able to solve her mystery. It died down like I figured until 4-6 weeks ago.
The UAP disclosure hype has resulted in more people talking about her than ever before. I’m hearing my name and seeing my picture on videos with over 1 million views for the first time ever.
I was very happy but didn’t think it changed much for me because it’s not like it could grow more realistically. Until Joe fucking Rogan reads pretty much the whole story and talks about it for 5-10 minutes on the podcast with largest following in the world.
My excitement turned to disbelief that day and it’s still crazy to think about sometimes. I never realistically thought I would write something that would generate traffic numbers around 5-6 million readers on a single story. That number is over course of 8 months which is very far removed getting those same numbers in the span of a week but the increase in exposure has been noticeable in my inbox ever since the Rogan podcast.
Noticeable enough that it feels like I’m very possibly having a moment before it’s just a moment before THE moment if that makes sense.
I haven’t had any career advancing job offers but there’s been some who have reached out in support to suggest various story topics that run parallel to that story as follow up ideas. Maybe I’m overestimating here but I feel like if I capitalize on my recent success correctly, I could see my career advance a step farther than I thought was possible for the year of 2024 when it started.
But…. I’m not at all sure how of the specific road map that could achieve such a thing. Yeah, I proved I can put together a story that results in traffic from both readers and “cultural trendsetters” but only once.
If anyone has ever been in a similar position, I would love some advice on the best way to turn this exposure into interest from publishers 1 step up the totem pole from where I am now. That also applies to people who haven’t been in this position, the more feedback I can get, the more prepared I feel I can be.
Sorry this post has been so long, it’s just been heavy on my mind for the last 1-2 weeks and I needed to hear from people who are both A: familiar with the industry and B: Not my boss.