Just a brief introduction before we get into the dream. I am 17(m) and I regularly have extremely vivid dreams where I'm fully engrossed and believe 100% that what I'm experiencing is reality and not a dream. I wake up daily either sad or relieved that what I had experienced in the night wasn't reality. As you can imagine this makes dreams either blissful or horrifying, depending on the contents. Another thing to note is that this is probably the third dream I've had where someone has been trying to eat me.
So basically the first thing I can remember in the dream was that I was with 2 of my buddies and we were riding Hogs (Yes, large pigs) down the highway at 120 mph+. Extremely fun and exhilarating as we passed by car after car at extremely high speeds. After a while, we take a turn to the left and start taking a trail through the most beautiful valley. The sun is shining down with a yellowy and orangish tint. The grass around me is swaying in the wind all across these countless hills. Truly one of the most beautiful scenes of nature I've ever seen, I couldn't have predicted what would happen next. We eventually come across a small town with a tavern and a bunch of people sitting, drinking, and watching something happen in a pit. I forget what was going on inside the pit but I don't recall it being anything bad, a soccer match perhaps? (That's what my mind is leaning towards anyway). Overtime me and 1 buddy of mine get to know the people of the town a bit better and the town leader (I wouldn't call him the mayor, he was more of just a leading figure in their community than a mayor, but I'll call him that anyway for convenience). (Something to note is that the mayor is a tall and strong man, probably about 7 feet tall and heavy, I couldn't tell you how heavy tho) The mayor was extremely hospitable to us and even showed us a place to stay with another person who also seemed to be traveling along and staying for a while. (I don't know exactly where my third friend went, however, I'm quite certain he stayed on the road and continued towards our original direction). The traveler (As I'll call him) was around 6ft 70kg and black in skin color. He was a kind, quiet fellow. However, he didn't really wanna make too much eye contact with me (which will make sense later on). I didn't think too much of it at the time. The day passes by without much else happening and I fall asleep in the same room as the traveler with my friend there alongside me, and we wake up in the morning. The next morning we are sitting at the bar when all of a sudden the mayor walks out of the back and right past me with two rather fancy antique cheese knives in each hand. I could feel the dread build up inside me for a split second. (I thought he was coming to kill me) I quickly become slightly relieved after he walks straight past me, however, that was short-lived as he shouts something to someone else and sticks him with both knives right in the chest. It was horrifying to witness the breath and life get sucked out of that man right before my very eyes, it was so real. There was also a sound effect of a deep "bumm" sound the second he stabbed him, only adding to the severity of the moment. I was about to start fighting the mayor but before I did, I realized everyone in the town was on his side. They started chanting and all looked at me and my friend as though they were going to kill us next. It was at this moment I realized all these people were cannibals luring victims into their town to kill and eat. I instantly became disgusted as I had eaten some of their meat the prior day. I was scared and began to run, however I didn't get far before eventually being taken down and captured. (This was the last thing I remember before being ported back at the start of when I first came across the town). I had died but it was as though I was given a second chance to try and survive this encounter (This had never happened to me in a dream before, I had never died in any of the dreams leading up to this point). I walked through the town and into the tavern keeping a cool face despite knowing full well what was going to happen the following day. I got back to the part where the mayor introduced me to the traveler, I looked at him with disdain as I realized he had sided with the cannibals. This is why he couldn't look me in the eyes, he was too ashamed of the fact he knew what would happen to us. I'm dreading going to sleep in this tavern as I know that these people are trying to eat me ("What if they get me in my sleep" is what I was thinking at the time). To my surprise the event didn't wait for the next day this time, it was happening now, just as I had sat down at the bar. I watched the mayor rush past me again and try to stab the same man. I caught on faster this time and stopped him. This time I was ready to fight back properly. To my surprise, the traveler stood up and helped me and my friend, however, the sheer number of the people was too much and they took him down. I was with my friend and while they were jumping the traveler we ran. I'm sorry, I knew we couldn't win, so we ran. I'm sorry. Eventually, the mayor catches up to us and we have a little scuffle, I throw a pizza box clumsily at his face as I scramble to put anything between me and the two knives. Eventually, I make it outside the tavern however the scenery is different. Now I'm in the driveway of a house inside a large neighborhood. The neighborhood was upper-class with beautiful trees and trimmed hedges. I stopped worrying about the cannibals as I heard voices in the distance shouting at me. I was instantly relieved as I soon saw who was coming, it was simply a gang of teens looking to fight, this put me at ease knowing I wasn't facing a 7-foot man armed with knives and his entire town but instead a gang of teens riding bicycles. For some reason I knew where these kids were from, I recognized their voices, and I knew what school they went to despite them wearing disguises. I walked up to the first guy and drop-kicked his hip which sent him to the ground, I shouted for the others to come fight but they ran away. I shouted back at them saying how I knew who their teacher was and shouted a name back at them (I forget the name). All of a sudden I'm no longer in the driveway but instead lying down staring at a large TV out in the open air. The TV had Wallpaper engine on it with all of my wallpapers, I remember a specific one which was Ornstein from DS1, if you know who that is. Alongside me was no longer my friend, but my youngest sister. She was whispering something in my ear as a song played loudly in the other. I wish I could remember what she was trying to tell me as maybe it was the answer as to why I was having this dream. I woke up shortly after with a depressed and horrified, yet relieved feeling as I realized that dream wasn't reality.
The wallpaper I remember seeing
https://preview.redd.it/9g51ro29di1d1.png?width=259&format=png&auto=webp&s=33840eedbf13dbb2e00274c0c66a3a89d2e53e36
This was the song I was hearing loudly in my other ear 11:15-11:47 https://youtu.be/rbw_n0LWpfo
The weird thing is I haven't listened to this song in about a year. I dont know why I was hearing it so vividly.
I guess I made this post because I just want to know why I'm having these dreams. I have a few guesses but I'm curious what you guys might have to say.

I'm graduating high school this year and I can't help but feel like I messed up these past couple years preparing for university. I've got an A in every single class since middle school, including 2 years of college classes through running start. I feel smart. But I'm just ending up going to a decent university in my state. A school that accepts 2.5 GPAs on the regular.
I didn't study a lot for SATs, I took mine fall of my senior year and got 1220, which isn't bad, but I feel like I could have got much better if things had worked out differently during high school.
I feel like it all went wrong around my senior year. I homeschooled 8th and 9th grade (while covid and online school was happening), and then I went to a charter school that was terrible for 10th grade. I made good friends but it didn't teach me much, especially in math which is where my SAT score later turned out to be low. My Junior and Senior year I went full time to the local community college through running start.
It wasn't until my Junior year that I started having an idea of what I wanted to do in life, and even then it was loosely. It was the summer before my Senior year that I realized I have to start getting serious about this. I decided I wanted to get into West Point, and I thought I had a good chance. Maybe I did, because I also was well on my way to getting my Eagle Scout. However, I was already late to the game. Most people start applying early in their junior year and many are preparing all throughout high school. Having been a team captain and having varsity rings were very important to the application, and I didn't do any high school sports because I was working part time in high school and partly because I just didn't feel like it.
After realizing West Point probably wasn't gonna happen, I decided to try to go to college off an ROTC scholarship and join the military that way. I considered going out of state and applying to a nicer university, but again, I was very late to do my SAT, my scores were not released until after most Ivy League and even just nice schools' applications had closed. Then, stupidly, I was convinced by my friend to enlist in the Marine Corps. Stupid on many levels, including the fact that there is no major war the US is involved in, so I wouldn't be doing shit, this took a good 4 or 5 months before I realized it was a bad idea. By then, applications to universities were mostly closed and good scholarship were long gone.
So now I'm going to the second best school in my state, without any prestige or high ranking or anything, and I have a total of $8,000 in scholarships. Didn't make the deadline for the ROTC scholarship because I was thinking I was going to enlist in the Marine Corps. My family was going through hard times last year and my dad had to cash out his retirement, which meant he had over $150,000 in taxable income. Meaning I got no grant money.
I've come to the realization that I've fucked up. While I should be able to get a lot of scholarships next year, including the ROTC scholarship, I'll have to take out $20,000 plus in student loans this year. My parents can't afford to contribute.
I also feel a little resentful toward my parents because they haven't helped me out one time throughout this whole process. I have 13 siblings and my sister who is about my age had a baby at 16, so they are plenty busy. But I wish I had someone to help me make a plan to get a good SAT score, get into a good school, and get good scholarships. I feel like most people who had a kid who had a 4.0 their whole life (none of my siblings did) would try really hard to help them get into a good school. Its hard not to be mad at myself and my parents and hate myself for throwing away everything I had going for me.
I have to remember that I am still in a better position than a lot of people, I am graduating with my AA degree my senior year in high school and I did get into a decent college, but man, it sucks.

So I have a weird issue, that only started recently, where I cannot load into the first round of a game. I understand that frustrates people, sometimes they think I’m dodging or such and they remake or something. This then furthers my connection issues and it takes me 15 minutes to load back to the home page of valorant. When I do load in in games when people don’t remake, it’s usually second round/start of third. I have no other connection issues for the remainder. The absence in the first few rounds however does count as afk even though I’m sitting there in the load in screen (where you first see the opponents team line up) and can hear everything happening. So I’ve got a lot of afk penalties and now have been suspended I reached out to valorant and they sent a list of things to do and then suggested I make an alt account to test that the instruction work so as to not incur a longer suspension (I got a 2 day one) then I already had. I did it and everything worked perfectly, sometimes I would load in midway through round one but that is still a win to me but usually it was at the start when everyone else loads in. Given the success I swapped over to my actual account and tried it and boom I could not load in. I joined a game then waited 4 mins and then Valorant error code 5 popped up and I was suspended again. I’ve reached out to valorant again and they haven’t responded yet. I’m just wondering if anyone thinks valorant would transfer all my skins (spent around $600) to my new account or not. Or if any tech geniuses could help me out as I’m stressed because I do not want all the money I’ve spent over the past year and a half to be for nothing and then I’ll have no access to the pretty skins I’ve bought. Thanks and sorry for the long post 🙏

I drank tonight. I had 215 days sober. I thought about this alot but decided to anyways because there's no future.
My son is great but so fucked up and so hard to parent. ADHD, possible autism. Lost his alcoholic, drug addicted father to suicide 1.5 years ago. I have him in every type of therapy and behavior program, no idea what else to do.
My dad is 82. A narcissist hoarder that I promised my Mom I would take care of. She died 10 years ago and I would give anything to have her back.
We live in a huge house but it's full of junk. My Dad won't get rid of anything and brings new garbage home everyday. Today's surprise? Bedbugs! They'll go well the the mice and moths.
My son and I finally got the the top of the list for specialized therapy. We met with her once and she called CPS with allegations against my father. Living with him on a regular day? Terrible. Living with him after he finds out I spoke badly about him to someone? I can't even imagine.
My job? I hate it and I actually think I'm really bad at it, but I'm stuck there.
My friends? I have none.
Ending it all is all I've been able to think about for the past couple weeks. I'm sure my son will be better of without me, but I'm not actually sure where he could go, and the thought of him losing both parents to suicide destroys me.

OVERVIEW
The Wall of Sheep would like to announce a call for presentations at DEF CON 32 in Las Vegas, NV from Thursday, August 8th to Sunday, August 11th. Packet Hacking Village Talks goal is to deliver talks that increase security awareness and provide skills that can be immediately applied after the conference. Our audience ranges from those who are new to security to the most seasoned practitioners in the security industry. We are accepting submissions from individuals and organizations on any of the topic areas, including, but not limited to, the following technologies and applications:

• AI and Machine Learning in Security: Impacts on network and operating system security; use in deploying and defending networks.
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Long rant skip ahead if it's too long for you. Renting for 1.5 years so far .Not too bad of a location for work , however the price of rent is high for the lack of maintenance on the property .My landlord was aware from the beginning that my fiance and I are both carpenters /painters electricians and capable of doing plumbing among other things that were beneficial to remodeling or repairing.Her eyes lit up, hinting she had some repairs she might want us to do cheaply for her ,and once we moved in she began asking me for finish carpentry jobs and to repair other contractors shoddy work prior to us having moved in.Both of us are full time and we have 4 jobs between us both so we were not willing or even able to take on personal side jobs for her WE MADE THAT CLEAR . Soon after we told her were not able to do side jobs for her ,we started to see what a nightmare of a landlord she has the potential to be since moving here .
●countless pictures of trashcans out for 5 min while loading garbage from the house on trash day
●told me my door step is common place for neighbors to store their trash /belongings on because they have no room in front of their own door
● told by her verbatim can have a ring camera as long as I don't make holes or wire anything .But when I soft mounted one on the Door with a tension knob ,she took photos and said the other tenants don't have one so why should we.(packages stolen and homeless try to get into our property regularly) it doesn't state in the lease we can't have a ring camera .
●She won't allow us to pay rent past 5:30 even though we pay 1 day early and then she collects rent close to 11 pm at night if she has something to do and it interferes with her schedule.
●She was aware of a leak in our bedroom when it rained and went upstairs in the attic and tracked fiberglass insulation through the house and then stated the person who set up the gas must've spilled water up there.
●Was aware of broken cabinets before we moved in , water leaking under the sink ,did a walk through and never sent anyone to repair
●told us during the house showing ants are a problem in the Summer, when we asked her to give us traps when summer came she stated "there was never a problem before " we are to blame ...
●since moving in had to replace baseboards from previous tenant mopping and water absorbed into the wall ,plumbing fixtures ,cannot use broken washer and dryer so we go to the laundromat with weeks worth of clothing due to our hectic schedules.
LEASE STATES WORKING APPLIANCES dishwasher hose improperly installed leaking under the sink .
●She tells other tenants not to talk to each other and told us the people in number 1 are assholes and number 5 don't speak to them, but the ones who take up our doorstep are saints to her !!!We spoke to number 1 and he has taken her to court before for not allowing his son to live with him and also found out we are paying 400 more dollars than them for less space.She is creating animosity between tenants so we don't find out who she really Is.
CURRENT ISSUE IN QUESTION>>>>>>>> My fiance pays an additional 100 dollars for parking yet she has a garage door in his parking space shes been storing there since we moved here. past 2 weeks a large bush of vines have fallen into his space and he kindly asked her if she needed help removing it ,she fired back with :its already too late you bent and damaged the garage door ",it was already damaged when we moved here but what is it doing in a paid parking spot? She completely ignored the vines and bushes falling into the space, scratching up the truck and decided to make It about a garage door she has no right to store there.No answer as to what it's doing there .Do I have a right to remove this and call LAHD based on previous list of complaints or should I handle this another way? MOVING IS NOT REALLY AN OPTION AT THIS POINT .WOULD ANYONE HERE CONSIDER THIS DISTURBANCE OF PEACE ?WHAT GROUNDS DO I HAVE TO TAKE HER TO COURT ?any help and reading this is appreciated

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."

I know this gets talked about with some regularity on here, but I feel like whenever it gets discussed people's response is that the RBT role should be cut and only BCBA's should work direct. Which, in my opinion, is ignoring the fact that BCBA's are burning out too.
I haven't been in the field a super long time (about 2 years), but after observing the folks at my clinic, hearing about other clinics, and spending a good deal of time reading people's thoughts online, I started to notice two things.

1. An overwhelming majority of people working towards being a BCBA were doing so because they wanted to stay in the field or were looking for more pay but did not want to work directly with clients anymore. At my old clinic, 3 people had started the process of becoming a BCBA. Two were doing it because of the reasons already listed. One still enjoyed working direct to a degree but admitted it was becoming too stressful and she was looking forward to cutting down on working directly with clients. Every once in a while I've seen BCBA's who like working direct, or at least say they do, but there are many, many, many more posts and discussions from BCBA's and BCBA hopefuls who are wanting to move away from that aspect of ABA, at least from what I've witnessed.
   
2. Related to the point above, BCBA's taking a hands-off approach to training and supervision is a common complaint. At my center, there were 5 BCBA's. 3 were only at the center part time. Of those 3, two only offered support and assistance during assessments and otherwise stayed in the office. They only trained employees completely new to the field, otherwise training was pushed onto the RBTs. The third did offer assistance, frequently stepped in to help during sessions, and often subbed for absent RBTs. He quit due to burnout less than a year after being certified and last we heard he was unsure if he wanted to return to the field. Of the two who were at the center full time, one was known to almost exclusively stay in her office. The other was always helping work through behaviors or observing clients to fine tune programs and behavior plans, but admitted to me one day that she dreaded coming in to work some days and had attempted to leave the field but because her degree was in ABA she wasn't qualified for other jobs she was interested in.
   

Again, from what I've heard talking to coworkers who worked at other centers and from what I've read on this sub, this is the norm more often than not. I am sure exceptions exist to both points above but right now they're just that- exceptions.
The more I read about other's experiences online and the more I talk to coworkers and supervisors, the more I feel the current issue with the ABA therapy model is not the RBT role but work we have RBT's do. It's burning out employees so quickly and so universally most either leave the field or become a BCBA to escape it. We can cut RBT's and have BCBA's be the ones running programs, but I strongly believe that will only lead to a large portion of BCBA's cutting their losses and leaving the field as well. I don't think the turnover rate will be as bad given BCBA's are compensated better, but it'll still be bad. That said, I'm not sure what a good solution is. I only know what we're doing right now isn't working, at least not for the employees.

Greetings, Reddit pre-med community. I have the privilege of choosing between two exceptional programs emphasizing health equity and underserved medicine, but I need help deciding. I recently got accepted to CUSM from the waitlist. A bit about me: I am passionate about pediatrics but very open to exploring other specialties. I'd love to pursue my residency in northern CA so that I can stay close to my support system. I intend to head into medical school with as much of an open mindset as possible. The COA for each school is very similar, but I received a $10k discount from Creighton (Magis Scholarship). I tried my best to gather as much info as possible from current students from each school to create this pros, neutrals, and cons list roughly ranked by personal importance. If some of you are students at either of these schools, please share your thoughts, too! My main question is how much does name recognition matter? Thank you for your assistance, and have a wonderful day!
CUSM:
Pros:

1. More research emphasis with the opportunity for graduating with distinction (MD Scholars program)
2. NBME exams after each block and in-house tests for labs
3. Integrated holistic curriculum with case-based learning facilitated closely by faculty (student-driven)
4. Medical Spanish weekly seminars that follow the same case learned the week prior (I want to become fluent)
5. Student bodies and faculty are very supportive, mainly due to the open office policy and regular 1-1 meetings
6. Option for early clerkships in Year 2. It can be used as a flexible professional development period after year three if I want.
7. Grading system pre-clerkship: P/F

Neutrals:

• Reverse classroom
• M-Th schedule
• Over 80 student organizations to choose from
• Diverse student body in a diverse area
• Nice pediatrics match list into CA this past March (Stanford & UCSF) with nice representation in several competitive specialties

Cons:

1. Less known with a lower reputation nationally
2. Clinical grading is H/HP/P/F

Creighton Phoenix:
Pros:

1. More well-known
2. Integrated holistic curriculum with green and gold tracks and case-based learning
3. Proximity to Phoenix Children’s Hospital
4. Finding community outreach opportunities are no issue (100% of students participate)
5. Magis Scholarship Recipient (one-time $10k award)

Neutrals:

• Faculty teaches
• Quizzes are held in a specific time slot every week (Friday by 2 pm), which helps with work-life balance
• Established name with many student organizations
• Diverse student body in a diverse area
• Nice pediatrics match list into CA this past March (Stanford & UCSF) with nice representation in several competitive specialties

Cons:

1. Primarily in-house quizzes (NBME quizzes for a few units + exams)
2. Research is not much of an emphasis here
3. Scorching summers (I do very poorly with heat)
4. Far from my support system
5. Grading system pre-clerkship: H/P/F

Throwaway because of the subject. I'm being followed and observed everywhere I go for most of the past year. They seem to be using my cellphone as a tracking device. I notice strange things happenings to my phone, like old emails suddenly changing permissions to my photos and recorded phone activity. When I leave home my security camaras start gliching out and they stop sending notifications. Old facebook accounts which I lost access to start sending email notification of activity but I have no idea what's going on so I close the email accounts.
This same thing happend to my sister a few years ago as well, she ended up hospitalized. They really fucked her up. It all started shortly after a close realtive contracted a local equivalent of a lawyer from the CIA. At first I thought it was a political persecution as I engage online in a local forum and dating sites and sometimes have disagreements with dense people of other wings.
Things get personal quick when people start coming in too close for comfort as if I'm some kind of jihad terrorist. I start recording them as evidence and the motherfuckers start coming with kids to make it look I'm recording them. They are always step ahead of me, I trip on all their sticks.
I start having an STD and get checked out by doctors and treatment. This particular std is known to be related as intel ops to give people cancer. I'm having a wild ride while dealing with a challenging std and these people after me. I start confiding to doctors there's strange people following me. After telling a doc. says she's going to use the phone flashlight to check something out but instead she takes a pic of me. Shit goes south from there, they start doing ops where I eat and buy my food and then feel sick to my stomach, falling ill for a few days at a time.
It gets worse the more people I tell. It's a nightmare. Some days it's an all feminist group, some mixed like there are different groups, no doubt there is a medical group involved fucking up my health. I go to a lawyer to see if there is something the state is involved because it's ridiculous the amount of resources that are being employed on me, it comes out blank.
My family thinks I'm going crazy, they only do it while I'm alone. I see a psychiatrist and change meds, nothings changes things just get wilder. They start doing ops at the fucking pharmacy where I get my drugs like they are tampering with my meds.
Its been at least 3 months I have low-grade fever, fatigue, short of breath and chest pain. Then things get serious when ever I go out to pay bills and while in line people with bags start getting uncomfortable close to me, when I get home I feel absolutely wrecked. I start googling my symptoms and they match with radiation sickness. These people are doing some kind of radiotherapy to me, rendering useless my groin area, I can't even pee properly, can't eat for long periods because of the nausea.
There's also news a iodine 131 sample goes missing from a local med department the same week my house show signs of being broken into. I start having a mirradid of other health problems all linked to radiation poisoning, my house looks like is compromised. I go to my physician and he basically laughs off all of it as if he knew what the fuck is going on. Doesn't give me anything for the pain or symptoms. I get a blood analysis done and my sample get fucking stolen, wtf.
There is some kind of intel group that's summoning other groups to attack my health. Somebody fabricated something on me but they have absolutely no evidence, its seems to be all speculation. They are getting really dense now and I feel they are now trying to kill me with radiation or give me lifelong health complications. On different occasions I reached out to the police and they did nothing since no evidence, then to the municipality and then to a private investigator that basically postponed the meeting several times and ghosted me. My phone is tapped so any action I do there is a countermeasure being done by some other group.
Shit it too much and don't know for how long I can take it. Advice is welcomed if you have anything of value to add, save it if you have shitty whitty comments, enough damage is being done. Heads up, this is a third world country with equally shitty laws.

Is it just me, or do Subarus have significant reliability issues? I’m owning my first one, a 2015 Forester XT with 96k miles. I’ve had it for 3 years now. Here’s the list of what I’ve replaced, which doesn’t include what the previous owner might have done.
I didnt included popular and regular maintenance like brakes, filters, tires, bushings, backing plate, calipers.

• AC fan under the glove compartment
• 2 control arms
• 2 control arm bushings
• Seat lumbar support
• Power window electric motor
• Turbo was leaking, so I had to fix it myself (Subaru wasnt helping, found a hack)
• Rear trunk hydraulic bars (2)
• Multiple light bulbs inside the car
• Serpentine belt
• Some expensive part under the steering wheel that caused my horn to stop working

Additionally, I’ve experienced:

• Noises from dash plastic parts
• Driver seat passenger is badly teared, but shouldnt. I'm 5'10 and very gentle.
• Annoying noises from a suspension part occasionally
• Strange noise from the speed shifter arm
• Problems with Bluetooth connection and my Google Pixel
• Annoying metal noise from the exhaust system that my mechanics have fixed twice (it always comes back)
• The AC fan and serpentine belts still make noise

Obviously, I’m forgetting something—probably 2-3 things!
This can’t be normal, can it? I’ve never had problems with cars like this in the past. I’ve owned 3 Mazdas, 1 KIA, 1 BMW, 1 Volvo, and 1 Infiniti. Let’s just say that so far, it’s been a total nightmare!
I knock on wood and hope for the best.

To my recollection, one of Destiny’s greatest strengths in his debates is his ability to understand a set of talking/data points and use them to formulate a sound argument. He has many other strengths and strategies as well, but this skill has been a cornerstone in his arsenal since the beginning. Despite having such a strong skill set for debates, he has consistently been nerfed from working through the facts of any debate by his opponent's lack of an ability to analyze the points he presents and/or engage in good faith with the critiques he proposes during any debate. While there are many different strategies that could be taken to try and remedy this, there is one that Destiny has been apprehensive to engage in for optics reasons until this point. This would be appealing strictly to a set of rules of engagement for the debate and having them enforced by a third party(moderator).
I think that one of the best showings that Destiny had in the past few years was his debate with Rollo and Michael Sartain (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOcbaUaxHSA). I think that a large part of the reason that this debate went so well is because it is one of the only times I am aware of that Destiny has employed the strategy I believe should be his core strategy going forward. Establish a set of rules for the conversation, and then work within those rules to have the debate move smoothly. Unfortunately, it looks like August cut out the first part of the debate where they do this in the video I found, and the original video is gone, so I have a version from friend of the stream Alex to reference!
https://youtu.be/4eiJSl2gHEE?t=1794 In this clip, you’ll see Destiny lay out all of the pre-defined rules as I mentioned above. Doing this not only makes sure that the entire party is on the same page and is agreeing to the type of conversation that they are having from the on set but also acts as a strong tool to keep them from using certain tactics to break them later on. Instead of pointing out that they are not answering a question or point in the debate, which they at no point agreed that they would do (most of the time), he can point out that they are breaking an agreement that they came to before, forcing them to take the optical loss of going back on their word if they want to engage in a weaselly tactic. This would also act as a hard trigger for Destiny to tone shift in the Debate immediately.
As Destiny has seemingly struggled in recent debates on when to tone shift and go hard on an opponent at the risk of sounding “mean.” This will help him address that problem by having a solid point in the debate where the opponent essentially consents to the debate going off the rails through no fault of Destiny’s as he had communicated the rules, and they chose to break them, forcing the debate into a different course.
The Destiny V.S. Finkelstein debate would have looked drastically different if Destiny had started out by stating that as they are all well-read on the topic that they are discussing, and as such, they should be citing something when they are bringing up specific points or be able to give a concrete reference to where they got the idea from in the debate. That failure to do this should result in that party backing down from the point, and each side must directly address any criticism when brought up by the opposition. where they can’t, concessions should be made as they move from point to point so things move smoothly. The tone and games played would have been completely different, and Destiny would have had a bulletproof set of rules to hold Finkelstein to and hit him with each time he tried to downplay any point he would make. My guess is that Destiny would argue that this is not the case, that Finkelstein is a clown, and he would not have backed down as he went there to clown on him in the first place, but at the bare minimum, it would have been a trigger to go hard with justification rather than getting steamrolled for most of the first half of the debate through interruptions.
Imagine living in the timeline where Destiny held Rollo Tomassi, the drama frog of the red pill, to a higher standard than Norman Finkelstein, a supposed academic expert. Oh, wait, that’s this timeline, fuck me, DANK MEMES.
These things should be agreed on both prior to the event with the moderator and opponent and during the debate for the audience, as if they made the agreement at some point but the audience does not know, then it does fuck all as an incentive for the opponent as they can just lie.
Finally, Destiny can also go as far as to prepare clips in the event he is going on high-production shows. These shows have producers that can go through the trouble of having a set of clips ready to play if Destiny provides this list to the team before the show starts so they are ready to bring them up easily. It is not a hard ask on most shows, and Destiny should be willing to at least make the request; the worst-case scenario is that they say they can’t, but he can reference it in the debate later or point out bias if they play clips against him during a debate but refused to use his supporting clips.
Organizing these debates with the moderators a bit more is a small change for a large advantage in these debates; Destiny just needs to work through the wall he currently (seemingly) has of not wanting to make any asks from his end to do it.

1936, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
It is the year 1936. Joseph Stalin acts as Chairman of the Communist Party and Premier of the Soviet Union carefully bides his time. Ever since his failed bid to remove the Central and Left Oppositions in 1927-28 seized him the Premiership, he had carefully spent nearly a decade rebuilding his influence and network to the point that he can try a second attempt to dispel his political rivals and not a moment too soon. Within a years time, the Man of Steel predicts the Congress of the Soviets would gather to reexamine and most likely replace the old 1924 consitution with something that would give the lethargic titan purpose. If the premier gets his way, this new document will be a Stalin Constitution.
Meanwhile, Leon Trotsky stews in exile from his current residence in London, the famous Bolshevik a guest of the likeminded Oswald Mosely. In fact, he has spent a great deal of time writing theory for a new socialist system to, in his words, 'Provide a Total answer to the schism between the Bolshevik east and the Syndicalist West.' However, the Revolutionary is not content to rot away in western Europe. He too has been patient, he too has rebuilt his influence and recruited supporters within the Soviet Union knowing that the window is closing for him to return triumphantly within the halls of power and direct the Permanent Revolution towards crushing the forces of reaction.
Perhaps he is confident in his return as his supporters back home have informed him about the shaky foundations of the Central Opposition. Officially, this political bloc was led by the 'Troika' or the alliance between Joseph Stalin, Lev Kamanev, and Grigory Zinoviev. In reality, this triumvirate was primarily under Stalin's control, who only retained the other two when it became clear the Right Opposition would not be easily uprooted. Neither men, however, forgot Stalin's betrayal and how close they came to being removed from power. Gigory Zinoviev, General-Secretary of the Comintern, has drifted (in secret) closer to elements of the underground Left Opposition. On the other hand, Lev Kamanev has quietly reached out to elements of the Right Opposition, more out of necessity and a shared hatred for Stalin.
Speaking of which, the Right Opposition. Partially born out of Nikolai Bukharin's admiration for the New Economic Policy and admiration of the successful French and British Revolutions. With the rise of Syndicalism in the west, the concept of a partially decentralized economy has seemingly been vindicated. With Bukharin's popularity and Alexei Rykov's experience both in politics and economics, the Right Opposition was transformed into the 'Bolshevik Syndicalist' wing of the Party. Crucial in defeating Stalin's first seizure in the late 1920's, Bukharin and Rykov have represented the opposition to Stalin's Center Tendency. Perhaps by the end of the year, they will finally overcome Stalin's decade long reign as Premier and mend the rift between Paris, London, and Moscow.
Lastly, there is the odd man out: Ivan Smirnov. A strong supporter of Trotsky, rabid enemy of Stalin, and General-Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. After his expulsion from the party in 1927, Smirnov was eventually reinstated not just as a member of the party, but put in one of its most powerful positions for one simple reason; he could be trusted not to play favorites. He disliked the Right Oppositions sway towards Syndicalism, despised Stalin and most of the Center, and the man he actually did support was a continent away, his supporters scattered. What's more, Stalin believed he controlled Ivan, the man being one mistep away from being exposed as a Trotskyite and expelled from the party again or worse. However, Ivan is not broken. Though he has sworn off Trotsky he still speaks quietly with likeminded men of the Left Opposition, his friendship with Grigory Zinoviev still holds strong, and Bukharin and Rykov are far less infuriating then Stalin ever could be. Smirnov will play a vital role in the politics of the coming months. Whether Trotsky returns, the Center bucks Stalin, the Right ascends, or the Man of Steel reigns triumphant, Smirnov will play a pivotal role in that outcome.
The Issues They Face
The NEP vs Five Year Plans - One of the most divisive issues plaguing the party is whether or not to commit to either a fully reorganized NEP, or to double down on the system of Five Year Plans to increase the Soviet Unions heavy industries. Ever since Joseph Stalin rose to Premiership, the Soviet economy has been pulled in two separate directions. One is championed by both the Left Opposition and Stalin himself, that being the collectivization of farmland and an economic focus on heavy industries. The opposite is Bukharin's 'Reorganized New Economic Plan', a full rework of the NEP along more Syndicalist lines. In years past the Soviet Union has partially adopted both economies with surprisingly positive effects, but now the economy and bureaucracy is stumbling under the weight of the two systems and a choice has to be made; Full-send on collectivization, or stay the course with the NEP?
Socialism in One Country vs Permanent Revolution - Perhaps one of the prime failures of Stalin was his commitment to the concept of Socialism in one Country, in which the Soviet Union must look inwards to build its strength before reaching out to the wider world. This was made under the assumption that no other nation would collapse to revolution, with or without the Soviet Unions help, so Stalin and others like him looked quite foolish when the Italian Federation and British Empire collapsed and Syndicalism rose in its place. Under Stalin, the capital of the world revolution was not in Moscow, but in Paris. Under Stalin, rather than uniting against the common threat of reaction, the socialist world divided between the anarchist Internationale and the Bolshevik Comintern... and the Comintern is losing. Either Stalin must overcome the red portion of western Europe or swallow his pride before his failings become someone else success...
The Ost Wall - The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was a great shame Lenin had to accept to ensure peace between Russia and Germany. With the Civil War still raging and Germany only getting stronger, the writing was on the wall. While in the end very little ethnically Russian land was lost, the Soviet Union was not built on an ethnic model. The shame of Brest-Litovsk still burns, and while peace was achieved, more and more voices find the call of revolution and war burn brighter in their hearts. The Soviet Union's industry is growing at an exponential rate, and the Red Army expands and modernizes with every year. What's more, the cracks in Germany's eastern armor have finally begun to show as it's eastern 'allies' struggle to appease their disgruntled peoples. For the men who lead the Union, their experience all tells them the same thing: War is coming, whether they want it or not.
Soviet Union Paths
The Man of Steel (Totalism) - Despite all efforts to stop him, Stalin is finally ascendant within the Soviet Union. Trotsky, Bukharin, Smirnov... all of these men are now gone, politically (and soon, literally). The Foundation of the Cult of Stalin has already been laid, and lists are being written. Lists of names, hundreds of names, thousands, hundreds of thousands of names. Soon, Stalin will clean house. Soon, no one shall be safe from Stalin and his megalomanic paranoia. Soon, Russia will have a new religion, the creed of Stalinism.
"The more things change, the more they stay the same."
Return of the Triumvirate (Radical Socialist) - Though Trotsky and Bukharin's lot were finally subdued, Stalin cannot deny that he could've done it alone. Lev Kamenev and Grigory Zinoviev (Or one of them and Smirnov) have entrenched their position as Stalin's right and left hands. Stalin has won, but he must contend with his old rivals and allies as equals once more. Perhaps in another ten years, Stalin could revisit their necessity as allies but for now, the Troika reigns supreme.
"Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey once more rule the Third Rome."
Heir of Lenin (Totalism) - After a decade in exile, Trotsky has returned has crossed the Rubicon and ousted his enemies. The triumphant revolutionary can now reshape the Soviet Union along the path it was truly meant to take, and serve as a shining example of Marxism-Leninism-Totalism. Already the Red Army begins to mobilize and the factories churn out guns as Trotsky plans in tandem with his socialist allies in France and Britain and the German Empire shudders as the Russian Bear awakens.
"The Ghost of Lenin stirs in his grave."
The Siberian Dark Horse (Totalism) - Much like the man who occupied the office before him, Smirnov has managed to play everyone off one another until he alone remains standing. The Right Opposition is in chaos, Stalin and his lackey's are gone or turning their coats to the winning side, and without Trotsky the Left Opposition has rallied around his natural successor. Ivan Smirnov was never in the cards to come out the true winner, and yet now he sits at the top of the pile under the mantle of Marxism-Trotskyism. Smirnov will honor his predecessor by continuing the Permanent Revolution, and bring revolution to the west as he did to the east.
"First, Kolchak. Next, the Kaiser."
Defender of the Peasantry (Syndicalism) - With Stalin finally removed from power, Bukharin can begin the process of De-Stalinization and directing the Revolution onto the right track. Under Bukharin, the well-being of the working class and peasantry shall come first, as will their liberation and empowerment and the only way to achieve that, as shown in the west, is through the Syndicate. Lenin once called Bukharin the 'Golden Boy of the Party', and though Lenin did have his criticisms of the man none could ever deny his well-earned popularity. He will ensure the people of the Soviet Union do not run the risk of other autocratic Stalin's or ambitious Trotsky's taking the reigns. He will mend the gap with the Internationale not because he is a sycophant of some would-be dictator with a funny moustache, but because all of socialism must come together to challenge the warriors of reaction. He will build a new Soviet Union, not one born out of his blood, sweat and tears alone, but by the blood of soldiers on the field of battle, the sweat of factory workers on the production line, and the tears of mother and fathers. Not because Bukharin ordered them to do so for the 'Greater Good'... but because they united as one to stare the dragon of reaction in the face and tell it that its time was past.
"Democracy of the People, by the People, for the People, Shall Not Perish from the Earth."
The Fading Star (Radical Socialism) - Once, Rykov was not too dissimilar to the likes of Stalin or Trotsky, who championed 'the end justified the means'. They were not one of the architects of War Communism, and the blood that policy, however necessary and effective, stained Rykov's hands to this day. He is not Bukharin, he does not have his drive nor his charisma. But what he does have is experience and focus. Perhaps the Soviet Union will not become as revolutionary or radical under Rykov. Perhaps Rykov cannot be Bukharin. But what Rykov can do is ensure the Soviet Union he leaves behind is strong, united, and ready for a younger man to take into a new age. This will be the second time Rykov has acted as Premier of the Soviet Union, and he will not let it slip out of his fingers like the last time.
"The Reaper now Sows the Seeds of Tomorrow."
Other Snippets

• If Trotsky fails to return to the Soviet Union or survives assassination attempts, members of the Third Internationale will have events involving Trotsky. In particular, he will visit the Combined Syndicates of America and, depending on choices made by the CSA and how close the CSA is to being defeated, stay to support the revolution. This can range from either acting as a National Spirit and possible Advisor to actually acting as a Field Marshal/General for the CSA. His presence also increases the popularity of Totalism. He can provide similar buffs to either the SRI, The Commune, or the Union of Britain.
• If Stalin is exiled from the Soviet Union, he will eventually end up in Mexico. Trotsky or Smirnov can choose to send assassins after Stalin where upon he will be found murdered in his study, killed by an ice pick and becomes a Martyr for anti-trotskyite/Smirnovite socialists. If he is not assassinated, Stalin eventually suffers a stroke in the late 50's, but is saved by the quick actions of local doctors but was rendered mentally impaired, and fades into relative obscurity.
• If Stalin is not exiled, he will merely be removed from the party and retires to his villa on the black sea. Again, Trotsky or Smirnov can have him killed much to the same effect, but if not Stalin spends his days living a relaxing and peaceful life, writing books and essay's in both Russian and Georgian and on all manners of subjects including Stalin's views on Christianity, and acting as the Patriarch of a growing family. His daughter, Svetlana, eventually joins the Communist Party.
• While Stalin, Trotsky, and Smirnov can all turn the Soviet Union Totalist, their flavors vary somewhat wildly. Stalin turns the Soviet Union down its OTL path of Stalinism of course. Marxism-Leninism-Totalism is rather similar to Stalinism but much more zealous and aggressive in doctrine. Marxism-Trotskyism is essentially bog-standard Marxism-Leninism but more heavily militarized, and Smirnov takes on Stalinist and Trotskyist attributes eventually culminating in a Cult of Personality forming around the Siberian Lenin.
• Bukharin's paths will either end with Bukharin ceding power to the Supreme Soviet/Congress of Soviets of which he will remain a prominent voice, or one where Bukharin accidently forms a Cult of Personality around himself, though one that's more benign in nature. Both endings are seen as positive but radical. Rykov is still a positive ending, though more pragmatic and moderate compared to Bukharin's radicalism.

I was born in a large city. My parents 21f and 24m were both university students when I was conceived, my mother was in 3rd year. I'm not sure what year my dad was in. I always get vague answers when I ask. My parents originally planned to become teachers after completing teachers college.
Instead they married largely due to family pressure early in the pregnancy. Immediately after that they backpacked around southern Europe and Morroco. They drank considerably and smoked Marijuana as often as they could. Their original intention was to teach English in Spain, but apparently changed their mind because of the hospital, cost seemed to be the main factor. They returned to our city with my father going back to school and eventually getting his teaching degree and his first teaching job when I was 3 or 4.
My mother seemed to resent having to care for an infant. During my childhood she would complain about the awful diapers and mixing formula, etc.
When I was approximately 2 -3 years-old I was diagnosed with cerebal palsy. Immediately after I was diagnosed my parents started trying to conceive another child. By the time my sister was 1 year old, my parents decided she wasn't as perfect as they thought she should be so they conceived my youngest sister.
My kindergarten teacher wanted me to repeat kindergarten because of my very poor motor skills mostly cutting and pasting but also my printing was very messy, which was mostly due to the tremors. I was intellectually able to do all of the work and I could already read. If had gone to senior kindergarten I would have been able to enter French immersion, which started the year after I entered school. Also I was the youngest child in my class because I was born late in the year. The French immersion schools were much better funded and had much better teachers and resources. I stayed in the original school which was one of the 2 worst schools in our region. My first grade teacher made me stand in front of the class to evaluate my reading, I was very shy and soft spoken, so I stammered slightly. From this alone she put me in the bottom reading group even though repeatedly showed her that I could read any book in the room. Standardized testing in 2nd grade showed that my reading and math skills were at 6th grade level. I know this because the guidance teacher showed my scores and explained what they meant when I was frustrated with the pace of the classroom and lack of mentally challenging work. My teachers would make me write things over and over because of the 'messiness'. This never worked and my printing would get worse because of fatigue and pain. I was bullied by most of the kids in my class because I was small, clumsy, physically weak, and somewhat odd looking, the fact that I was very smart also didn't help. My teacher wouldn't allow me to use the washroom when I needed it, since I had a bladder disorder related to my cerebal palsy, that meant I would sometimes wet myself. This only happened when I wasn't allowed to use the washroom when I needed to. This led to the other kids calling me diaper queen. Eventually I was exempted from most of my in class subjects and allowed to work independently in the library on whatever I desired. When I was in 2nd or 3rd grade my arm was badly sprained by a bully and I was prescribed a tensor bandage to support my hand and wrist. I noticed that my printing was better with it and I tried to keep using it. My mother found out and angrily took it away from even though I explained that it helped me. She would not listen and there was no explanation at all. She would send me to school no matter how sick I was, and would only let be at home when the school said I was too sick to be there. Our house never had a thermometer or bandaids or any other health related items, not even a hot water bottle or heating pad. When I was in 5th grade I developed a ganglion on the inside of my middle finger, it was very painful and made it even more difficult and painful to write. I saw a hand surgeon who said he could remove it easily and quickly. My parents, mostly my mother refused to allow me to have this surgery even though it would be completely paid for through our canadian health program.
Every few months we would visit family friends in the city each time before we went home my dad would go to a bank machine, except we always parked at the far edge of the parking lot and my dad would walk away and then be gone for 30 to 40 minutes. I realized later that he was buying amounts of Marijuana about a pound or two each. He and my mother would smoke it regularly, they I wasn't aware but I especially the air currents would waft the smell to my window.
Even though I asked repeatedly to be moved to a different school my parents made no efforts to do so. I could have been moved based on my disability and also my intellectual giftedness. I was not taken to a dentist until I was 8 years old. By this time I already decay in several of my teeth, partly because our water wasn't fluoridated. My dad could have added flouride to our well water for a very low cost, but was too cheap to do so. Another factor was I did not have a child size toothbrush so it made much more difficult to clean my teeth effectively.
My parents were home most of the time but spent very little time with their children. There was very little affection shown. I had very few clothes, with one or two items bought for back to school. And sometimes none since I was failure to thrive and grew very slowly. At Christmas my mother would buy the same toys for all 3 of us even though I was 4 1/2 and 7 older than my sisters. One year she bought all of us cabbage patch dolls, this was even though I had never had any interest in dolls or girly stuff. She did this again when the cabbage patch dolls came out.
My grandfather died when I was 9 years old, my grandmother remarried suddenly when I was 13. She lived with him in England for several months but then they moved back to town close to us. There were frequent family gatherings that included him. From almost the beginning he would find ways to trap me and sexually assault me by pushing me against a wall or into a corner he would then force his tongue into my mouth and rub his penis against me. He would also shove his hands into my pants... During my adolescence I was misdiagnosed with depression, when I actually post traumatic stress reaction because of the many things I'd dealt already, I was sent to a psychiatrist who didn't listen to me and wasn't competent, she kept prescribing different drugs when I didn't respond to them the way I 'should ' have. She put on lithium with no sign of bipolar disorder. I very developed severe lithium toxicity. She took me off it eventually. At some point she decided that since antidepressants weren't working it must because I was psychotic. She put on antipsychotics even though I repeatedly told I was not psychotic and I never was. She wound up convincing my parents to send to this inpatient program for adolescents with psychosis. I talked to the psychiatrist there once and he knew I had never been psychotic, he stopped my medication immediately and I was the only one there not on any medications and was not mentally ill at all. But I wound up spending 8 months there.
There were other things that went on with my family but this about as much as I can write right now. Am I wrong to distance myself from my family ? I feel little connection to them and they usually want to draw me into some drama that I don't want to deal with. tl;dr; childhood experiences, neglect

Hi everyone, current 2T7 ECE here. I thought I would make a quick post on a guide to first year engineering, listing out all the stuff I wish I knew before coming to university. The first semester portion is applicable to all engineering disciplines, the second semester portion would be more useful to ECEs, T1, Indie and Mechs.
First Semester Courses:
MAT186: This was by far the hardest course for me and the entire cohort (C average). Even though I knew all the concepts of the course beforehand (through AP Calc BC and A-levels) this was my worst course. The reason for this was because the course focuses on testing theory (your understanding of the nitty gritty) rather than on computation. My advice for this course would be to make sure you work on written hw with friends (impossible to do alone), and do every single tutorial worksheet (exam questions are exactly like tutorial worksheets). Sean Upall was the course coordinator, and even thought I didnt like his lectures, I think it prepares you the most for the final exam.
MAT188: This was my favourite course even though it probably took up most of my time. This course was completely new to me, which is why I took a lot more time understanding the Pre class essentials. There is a lot of "theory" in this course, which will take a while to learn, so spend a good amount of time understanding and learning the PCEs. One reccomendation to make this process of learning faster is to watch 3blue1browns essence of linear algebra series. Watch the video corresponding to the upcoming weeks concepts before reading the PCEs. Written HW was hard (not as hard as calculus) so do it with friends, the gateway exams are a bit of a joke since you can retake them, and if you practice them enough you realize theres a pattern in the answers. Midterms and Final exams actually test at an appropriate level, so as long you have a strong grasp of the concepts you will be fine. If professor Cameillia is teaching the course go for her lectures, she is by far the best (she is also the course coordinator).
CIV100: This was a very interesting course, it needs a lot of practice of past papers. Literally you'll need to grill through past papers in order to succeed in this course. The final exam is such that there are 5 questions and you have 30 mins per question. Each quesition is quite hard which makes the exam very time pressured, so again PRACTICE. The quizzes in this course are dependant on your lecturer, some profs give easy quizzes whilst others give hard ones, this is out of your control. In my opinion the best lecturer was Professor Merjan, she was probably the best lecturer I've had in my time here at UOFT. The only problem is that she teaches the course in a different timeline than other profs, so you probably cant change lecturers cuz quiz material is different between different profs.
APS110: As an ECE I still dont know why I had to take this course. Overall, it was taught quite well. Scott Ramsay is the best lecturer for this course, although basically everything he says is already in the textbook (which is why I did not attend lectures). The Textbook is more than enough for this course. The Final exam for our batch was quite difficult compared to past year exams, but I think I did well because I practiced quite a few past papers.
APS111: Contraty to public opinion, I thought this was one of the most fun and useful courses in first semester. I had quite a sh*t team, but managed. Make sure you look at the rubrics for each assignment before you start writing. Also the way this course works is that you have to submit individual and group assignments which are essentially these long documents. Because they are doucments, they are marked in a qualitative way as there is no right answer per se. Make sure you bombard the person who is correcting the assignment with questions so that you nail exactly what they are looking for.
Second semester courses
MAT187: This is calculus two and it was much better than Calc one. Professor Camelia was the course coordinator, so just like MAT188 the exams were all at an appropriate level. Written HWs again requires help from friends. I mainly studies for this course using the PCEs, and practiced the tutorial worksheets. Some of my friends used the textbook, but I dont think its really required. The best prof for this course is any lecture seciton containing Camelia.
MIE100: For some reason, our year was probably the first year in a long time where the exams for this course were not insanely difficult. They were all at an appropriate level, apparently because they wanted to increase the number of people going into mech eng 💀💀. I found professor Sinclair to be quite good, a lot of people liked Howard Ho as well (trust in Howard Ho). The Wiley plus questions are useful to do to keep up with concepts, but the difficulty of the questions in wiley was way harder than the exam questions, so I wouldnt say its a must to do them ethically.
APS105: Great course. If you have a background in coding, this course will be a breeze at least up until reading week, you'll have to spend more time on it after that. The course is such that 30% of your grade is from labs, so make sure you do them well. the other 70 percent is from exams, which are at an appropriate level once again. Just make sure that you do a lot of past papers as practice. Professor Emara is by far the best, and is amazing if you are new to programming. If you have experience, reading the textbook (Snefru) is more than enough to understand the content.
ECE110: In our batch, while I didnt find the exams difficult, the batch's average after the second midterm was about 51%. After the final exam, they curved the course up quite a bit, I think the average is now a B, also an easy final exam helped out. The first half of this course is more theoretical (electrostatics and electromagnetism) and the second half is circuit analysis. Make sure you do all the Wiley Plus questions for this course, as sometimes they ask the same questions in exams. All the lecturers for this course are pretty bad, but Professor Mojahedis notes are legendary (in my opinion), other people didnt like them because it explained the concepts using proofs. Other profs notes would just state the formula.
APS112: Continuation of APS111. My team was much better this time. Same advice for this course, as APS111. Also make sure you're on top of things because it goes by much quicker in this course as there are way more assignments. Nothing really much to say to be honest, the midterm was a bit screwed up because there are multiple right answers and you have to choose the best one.
Overall for grades, dont worry too much. As long as you get around an 80 for exams and get all the free marks for assignments you'll be on track for at least an 80+ in the course. Remember that university isnt just about studies though, try and indulge into extracurriculars and be social.
Extracurriculars:
Design teams: UOFT has a plehora of design teams for you to choose from. Some design teams are better than others, but the only way that you will actually get deep into the design teams is if you put in the work. Beg leads for tasks, and do them to demonstrate interest. You can also demonstrate interest by doing really menial tasks as well. The point is you need to make sure the leads know you are willing to do tasks, and have showcased that you are worth giving the tasks to. Overtime, depending on the design team you may have to make a choice between grades and the team, thats up to you. Grades dont matter much unless you want to do a masters degree.
Clubs: For these try getting a lead position, a lot of them offer positions in the summer so make sure you follow them on instagram (e.g. engineers without borders, IEEE, etc). Again, you get what you put in to the club.
Intramurals: I loved playing intramurals at UOFT. However, the team that you play for depends on the people you know. For e.g. the SKULE team isnt great for soccer, and if you want to join a better team then you need to know someone on that team. So try networking lol.
Social life:
This was something that I personally struggled with at least initially at UOFT. I gave way too much time to studies, which really isnt worth it. UOFT is way easier than people make it out to be (I'm not being arrogant, and I'm not someone who's gifted in intellegence). As long as you manage your time, you will be fine. Anyway in first year most people would go to frats, and I would reccomend trying it out at least once. Go in the first weeks of school as thats the easiest time, and will also allow you to make new friends. Make sure to know a lot of people, at least at the surface level at the start, as that will make things easier for you in the long run and will also help you find the people you like to hang out with.
Summer after first year:
In my opinion do research if you want work experience, then step up to an internship next summer. If you want to relax thats a good option as well, just try doing some courses and build up some skills for sure.

Hey! This post is mainly about roleplaying online, but there are things involving D&D too. I hope it is okay to make a post like this! If anyone wants to use this story for their video, feel free to.
Disclaimer: I talk about self worth a lot, and how I harmed myself mentaly by thinking how worthless I was. Also there is a subtle mention of my self harm past. Just in case someone has problems being confronted with this!
Disclaimer 2: There is a transphobic comment coming from a person, that I don't see as to bad, but some might see as worse than I do. Also there is transphobia towards genderfluid people, so look out for yourself.
Disclaimer 3: This person is NOT transphobic, but they were pretty uninformed and unsensitive. This doesn't make it better, but I clearly want to seperate transphobic statements from being actively hateful towards trans people.
So I was roleplaying ever since 2016, when I was 14 years old. A few years later, I met a guy, which I'll call Chris in the context of this post. Our first time meeting online was tied to some drama. For roleplaying, we made wikis for our characters, and often would use existing characters from games and medias as a design reference. When I used a reference, Chris was really pissed, because he announced that he would use this character a few dqys ago, and I was already writing a character with that as their reference. I knew he planned that, and didn't say anything, thinking it would be better to just speed it up. Dumb decision of me, rough start, but soon we'd get along. It was pretty fun, we were both sorta the memeish people, and he seemed to be a nice guy.
We soon became friends, after I went into an RP break. During that break I needed to sort things out, due to covid and my outing as a trans fem, and a difficult relationship with my parents. I had a bad case of... thoughts and it hurt my self awareness, and self view on my "worth in life", but once that was sorted out, I decided to play again, and went into a older Roleplay, hosted by Chris. There were still some leftovers of lacking self love, though it got eventualy better during roleplay. Soon I realized that Cris and I would argue often about the simplest things. I decided it was not a big deal, and we would get passed these issues, sometimes without resolving it, sometimes with me being able to lay my stubborness away, which I am not proud of. In the cases in which he started the fight, I sometimes felt gaslit into thinking that I was the problem. It hurt my vision of my own worth, and I started to skill evasion, to not talk about certain things, just not to get reminded of how "worthless" I am. Sometimes I told Chris about this issue, and he'd be empathetic, but calmly said I need to work on it. He had a lot of self love, it felt like he couldn't understand my issue, but I don't know anything specific, after all I can't look into someones head. I think he meant well, but it felt unsensitive, and unempathetic at the end.
The roleplay he hosted took place in a big world, with a really awesome lore, not only in terms of world building, but also in terms of characters and species. The big issue I had was, that Chris introduced enemies to me, that he planned to be introduced in the roleplay way later, while he planned more and more main enemies to exist. As far as I know, the first main enemy still is the main enemy, despite being introduced for almost 4 years now. And paired with his situational motivation to roleplay (which is completely fine generaly, but then we'd need a solution for the main enemies), and his and my tendencies to create character after character (I had 63 characters for that roleplay), we never got to progress, and instead thickened our own characters plots.
One situation was pretty odd. When coping with trans discrimination, I often write stories or characters, that faced these problems too. That way I often felt like I could make it out of my strange situations too. I made a character that I was really proud of, gave her a trans fem backstory, that was one of the better one's I have written at that time and made her a badass, etherial bookworm with magic powers. Chris said that her issues with her trans discriminatory parents would be unrealistic, due to the utopic monarchy they'd live in, and because his queen character could change trans peoples bodies if they'd like to, by using magic. It was honestly weird, because I didn't know if he was supportive there, or unsupportive in that moment, but I know that it made me sad, and I stopped making her trans identity imoortant to progress the plot between her and her parents. This was also a character he often talked down, and Chris often stated his dislike towards her. (That was not of transphobic background, he just didn't like her character and I guess her skill set)
I also made a character that could shift from male to female, and the other way around, based on the skills used. It also was a solution for me wanting to use two design references without having to chose one, and dable into non-binary umbrella story writing, and play a genderfluid person, because I never did that before. After researching on those gender identities, I was hyped to try it out. He also stated, that he thought her being female-only would be cooler. My mind told me, that we potentialy would have this conversation more often, so to not get annoyed by him later on, I changed that person into a cis-female, which I think was really sad.
We had a solidified group of 5ish players that often did stuff together on discord. Sometimes some other people would join our discord server and talk. Daily roleplay players were peaking at... idk 10-15 players probably. Chris, me, and Arin (a friend of us, not his real name) often would hangout in the discord, talk about the roleplay and some funny, silly stuff. Memes were made, we made fun of each others characters (consentualy) and talk about nerdy shit often. At one point, we'd make silly tier lists, which I sometimes took to serious, because most of them were just silly stuff and I got offended by those... which I am also not proud of and have apologized for.
The only exception in which things were rather weird, were the power scale tierlists. My characters usualy got ranked into the higher middle spots, but sometimes I felt like Chris would talk some of them down a little. Having some characters be weaker was sometjing I was always open too, sometimes I would make younger and unexperienced characters after all. Even if he didn't talk down on my characters (which is possible too, those tierlists were subjective after all) then he definitely did with others. Other players characters we wouldn't regularly play with, were seen as weaker, which I thought was weird. Knowing all of those characters was impossible, because there were 120ish at the time, but they were still ranked, and the tierlists were publicaly posted in the roleplay chat. Some people got offended by that, which I can understand.
There was some out of rp stuff too, that annoyed me about Chris. Often it was about being the #1 simp of media character X, Y, Z... you name them. It got pretty out of hand, but once I told him directly, that I think that this attitude was annoying, and that he can't look at other people and be like "Yeah, this person doesn't love my waifu as much as I do", and that it was a weird thing to rank ik the first olace, it got quiter in that region.
Sometimes we argued about music, and he tried to come off as more informed as me, a metal/death screamer, and djent guitarist, with music theory as a hobby. And I'm not trying to say he couldn't, but he said some very uninformed stuff, and tried to gatekeep... I guess the subject "Favorite music"? by saying stuff like "People who don't know their favorite songs lyrics obviously don't have that as their favorite". That statement is weird, because as a guitarist, in some songs I pay more attention to the guitars more, than the lyrics. Especially because I have ADHD and often get distracted when trying to listen to song lyrics. We both regularly listened to japanese music too, which we both can't speak nor understand. It'd bring me down into thinking, that I might not be a great musician, or that I was to radical when someone hurts my feelings, or simply says something weird and uninformed. But I showed this to other friends, and they said that I was not. Even Arin often would find the reason for the arguements rediculous, and 9/10 times it was coming from Chris.
Arin would soon start to feel like me and Chris fighting would be nothing unusual, and that was a reality check for me if I ever had one. At some point, I realized when I got into a different discord server, and was being more involved with my real life friends again, that something fell off in the friendship between me and Chris. But at that time, me, Arin and Chris prepared a pirate setting D&D campaigne, which I was extremely excited about. I used to play D&D when I was 15-16 years old, and remembered having fun, so getting back to it was a great thing for me. I made a female babarian, weilding a sword and a axe, with a high roll of 15 strength, and was really happy with her. Her backstory was sorta basic, but it was still tragic and it was good enough for me to enjoy. I roughly remember, it was about her losing her family, and her becoming a mercinary, that would be part of a two people pirate crew now, because she got payed to.
All of this was for nothing though. Me and Chris fought again. The fight was about a word, that I used in a romantic context, him not knowing the word, and after googling the definition, thinking it couldn't be used in that situation. Both of us would get stupidly mad. He said some really hurtful shit, saying that I would weigh my friendships now, and that my new friends would be more important to me now. Me, Chris and some other frienfs had a Gartic Phone session coming up, hosted by me, and we didn't talk before or after that, because I told him that I need distance to sort things out. But sorting things out would mean to finally distance myself from him this time, and thus I ended the friendship.
The D&D campagne dropped, I spent more time with my other friends, and... never got to play D&D ever since. (It's been 2 years now) The same campaigne was DMed by Arin later on, when his girlfriend took my place instead. I can understand Arins decision, and we are not in bad blood, he is still my friend. Yet it felt like a kick in the face, because all my friends would have a campaigne now, and I was left in the dark, noticing people get to play D&D left and right. And his girlfriend told me that she thought Chris was really exhausting to play with too. To be gair though, I never adressed this issue with Arin, because he is constantly DMing for 2 years now, in a group with Chris. I feel like telling him this would make things either worse, and it feels like I'd pushy.
What was worse though, I talked to Chris nearly every day, leaving me with a feeling that something really important was torn away, because I ended the friendship. It felt like I did something stupid again, and I felt worthless again, until I got told otherwise. I tried coming back to that specific roleplay multiple times again, and roleplay with a friend of me and Chris, even trying to be in contact with Chris again. He has definitely changed, but after a few weeks of contact, I decided we couldn't stay in contact, and slowly let the contact slip away from us, without starting any fight. Any attempt for roleplay is ruined for me now, but I think I'd give D&D another try.
I definitely did some stupid shit too, because I got really emotional. But after building a wall between me and Chris, I noticed that a lot of the crap in our friendship was not just coming from me. That I was allowed to love myself too, and that he gaslit me often. I'm not sure if I ever get back to pure roleplay, but after 2 years, I am willing to give D&D another chance, after feeling left out for such a long time now.