Hi dears my name is Aurora and i am 15 i need a good and amazing friend for talking and exchanging ideas and giving a lot of advices!actually i prefer england or american friends also Korean Japan friends as well😅so if someone want to talk with me let’s talk and be friends😊

I have been following the game since late 2022. I bought FF for the game. Ghosts of Tabor has been the most played game since it came out, March of 2023. No game on any platform have I played more than Ghosts of Tabor. But lately I've not played. I haven't played once since the last wipe and I will play once so I can have the golden looty since it appears they are doing wipe rewards again. But the only thing I'll do this to l wipe is give all my gear and money to my friends. (Please keep in mind when I talk about bugs, features, or anything else in the game. I haven't played since last wipe and somethings probably have changed since I've last played; not much I'm sure, but there may be a few changes.)
So I was banned on their discord for talking about a food that's not commonly food that I wanted to eat. It was horrible in the beginning because it was the only place I was ever active. The community is great. But since I've been banned I haven't played the game much. Because the community made the game. Talking on discord with all these great people was so fun and amazing it is better than the game. Once I was banned on discord I wasn't all absorbed in Ghosts of Tabor and I stopped playing frequently. It truly seems the game isn't what's good it's the community around the game that is good.
Features vs. Bugs which do you handle first? Well CWS is doing it wrong imo. They are trying to do a mix of both, which I understand, give people something new to keep them coming back and fix broken things also. But the rate at which bugs are being fixed and the rate that they are adding in new content is really slow. And with how many bugs are in this game it's honestly embarrassing that they think the quality is good enough for everyone. GoT is CWS's first game and I don't expect perfection but I do expect better from them. In the beginning March of 2023 (the names for open/closed beta, full release, early access are all over the place and there are times where even devs refer to things wrong or don't know what to call something, so I feel a time period is better) they were doing great with bug fixes and some new content. Bug fixes were clearly the focus but they added new content also. The rate they pushed updates was insane. But they've really slowed down. Now a patch is a few bug fixes and MAYBE a very minor new piece of content. But they aren't nowhere near the pace of that they used to be. With more people and more money they should at least be able to move like they used to.
I feel like CWS isn't an efficient company. Taking so long for a few minor bug fixes isn't what they used to do. They have more people yet they seem less efficient than when they had less people. It might be that too many people are working on content that isn't close to coming out, instead of content that is releasing soon and bug fixes taking priority. It's things we won't see for several months if we are lucky that they focus on. I know awhile ago in an ama Scott said that InFish would be working on a different game. And fish is the man. Fish is probably the smartest person at CWS fish deals with so many things in a well organized manor. And if Fish isn't working on GoT anymore that could be part of the problem. I know fish really only dealt with big game systems and all the back end but Fish is probably the best person at CWS. And now that he might be working on a different game it explains why GoT isn't like it used to be. Scott also might be holding back the game. The different colored tips for different types of rounds was something the devs tried to convince Scott to add for a very long time but he said no until about a year later. It's such an easy thing to implement and it improves the QoL for everyone but he held the feature up for a long time. It seems like CWS is really good at procrastinating. Their reason for why nothing is done is because this is a multi year project and things will be eventually worked on. They say that about everything sure I understand not everything can be worked on now but always using the excuse it will happen in the future isn't acceptable.
CWS was a trustworthy company who was honest and hard working but there are so many lies. First two wipes there was a wipe event. Which I hated since it made the game not about it's core elements of looting and grinding. Instead it turns into PVP. Scott said he didn't like it so it went away and I agree it definitely should not be a thing. The last wipe had a wipe event. Giving more money then previously with the other two wipe events. Turning it into a PVP mess. I played it still had some fun but not nearly as much fun as I would without it. Then they had other things which I liked. The wipe event had an unofficial story which I also liked. But Scott said wipe events would never return like it was originally but the very first thing that happened was even worse than previously. Wipe was unplanned and at the time no reason was given as to why. The first wipe of the game happened sooner than planned also (even though it was delayed iirc) but there was a wipe reward for the first wipe but not this wipe. The devs working on GoT is like double of who was working on it March/April 2023. And yet they can't spend maybe an hour or two at most and change the material of a gun already in the game to gold? Stupid and lazy. Wipe rewards are the one thing you carry forward. And it's not like this was the first time they messed up a simple wipe reward. With the official meta launch anyone who played the first week got the wipe reward. It's a WIPE REWARD you get it for going through wipe. Not for playing the first week of wipe. And instead of it being a one of a kind, once you lose it it's gone you could go buy more which is another stupid thing. December 2023 in the ama Scott talked about leaning coming soon. Early January 2024 there was an announcement post showing leaning saying it was coming very soon. What a massive lie that is. It didn't come with the wipe in February 2024 it didn't come with the content two weeks later. It hasn't even came since this last wipe. And on the roadmap it isn't being worked on it's planned to be worked on soon. So who knows if we will see it before the end of the year. Scott has stated multiple times that he wants this game to be as hard as possible no hand holding. Yet on the road map there are noob lobbies. Why? Playing against fellow noobs might help you understand the mechanics of game but it won't help you playing against 'good' players. And that's CWS helping the noobs something that Scott said will never happen. Team chat being in game is something Scott talked about like in January/February of this year and yet it's not even being worked on. It's a small feature and one I probably won't use much. Most people I play with play with me on the same platform so I can easily do a call and have no problems and a call/party is a lot more flexible than team chat can talk to more people and do so much more. They made armor more protective in hopes to reduce the bug reports. The armor system isn't even close to how they want it so they pull it farther away from what they plan on doing with armor in the end. There are so many other cases of lies and stupidness but I won't sit here and write a book about it.
The game is boring. They add new things but nothing that really changes things. I play island mainly, Scott said it was possible with optimization to have the full island by official store release instead we got underground which is a nice map but not really my thing. I like the old bunker in it but it's not a map I play frequently. No island expansion like Scott said which would really make the game more fun. More things to loot, different areas to loot, and different loot crates/items would also make the game more interesting but it hasn't been messed with in awhile. Matka Miest has a whole other side that we haven't gotten we don't even have access to most buildings on the side we do have. Yet they are working on making another map instead of expanding the maps they said they would expand.
I really want to like and support the game but for reasons listed above I can't. Once they make several changes I'll give it another shot. With next wipe I'll actually try to play the game but if I don't like it I'm done probably for awhile. I'll still get on atleast once a wipe in hopes they keep doing wipe rewards. If anything I said in this is wrong please let me know I have no problem correcting myself if something I say is wrong.

In his first scene, everything Robert does is foreshadowing. Everyone he touches dies.
He also asks to see Bran's muscles, tells him he'll be a good soldier>>Bran becomes paralyzed.
Asks Arya's name>> she'll have to renounce her name.
Tells Sansa she's pretty>> she'll be traded, married off and abused for her beauty
Threatens Ned that he will make Jaime 'Hand of the King' when he says he will: "Pin the damned thing on Jaime Lannister!"
Later on Vargo Hoat cuts off Jaimes 'hand'.
Ned, you've got fat>>loses weight by removing head😅
https://youtu.be/uT_GYKWVRt8?si=PIIXRBI72QzPqUlJ

About 3 months ago, my former roommate and his girlfriend decided they were going to move in together. On the surface I couldn’t have been happier for the two of them, though I’ll admit I felt a pang of jealousy deep down because I was nowhere near doing that with a partner. Especially since I didn’t even have a partner.
After the hangover from the goodbye party had been tamed, I decided to do some budgeting. I calculated that I didn’t really need a roommate, but I knew I wouldn’t be happy living alone, and thought it could be fun to meet some new people.
I don’t remember how many dud interviews I went through. They all felt like the human equivalents of the colour beige; boring, and dull beyond belief. It had to have been dozens because it was the 15th of the month by the time I met Jack, and we got on like a house on fire.
As he was touring the apartment, he saw some posters I had in my room of bands that I like, he said he also loved their music, and named a few deep cuts from the bands that I absolutely gushed over, he also saw a collection of Star Wars merch I had and showed me pictures of some of his own that he had set up in his current place. All of his merch was still in its original packaging and I praised his restraint because I always had to open and pose all my figures as soon as I got home.
This prompted me to ask why he was leaving his current place.
“The landlord is selling the place. ‘Hot market’ or whatever. Only gave me a month’s notice, can you believe that?”
“Fuckin’ landlords.” I said in affirmation.
He then mentioned he liked watching stand-up comedy which was yet another interest we shared. He said he likes to watch it before bed because it helps with his mood when he wakes up in the morning. In hindsight this probably should’ve raised some red flags for me, but I was so caught up in the elation of finding what felt like a kindred spirit that I didn’t think much of it.
I didn’t want to seem too eager so I said that I’d message him tomorrow, to let him know what I decided either way.
“See ya tomorrow.” He said with a wink as he left.
After he left I took a look at the “roommate resume” I asked him to put together, just a list of previous addresses with contact info for the landlords, and a credit report. Jack had lived in 3 different apartments in as many years, and had a perfect credit rating, with the only recurring charges being his cell phone, and the rent for a storage unit across town. Always paid in full, and on time.
I had already made my mind up at this point, but in the spirit of doing my due diligence I called Jack’s most recent landlord.
“Hi, Sandy? My name’s Mason, I’m calling in reference to your current tenant Jack Kerninski.”
I wasn’t really finished my sentence but for some reason I paused.
“Is this the police?” She said to fill the void.
“What? Uh, no. I’m just calling to ask about what sort of tenant Jack is, or if you have any insights into him as a person that I should know about before making him my roommate.”
“Oh! Okay, sure!” She perked up and almost sounded giddy.
“Jack’s great! Very friendly and pleasant. Quiet as a mouse except for when he would get into his shows, but a quick text or knock and he’d quiet right down. And he’s a great cook! Such amazing smells coming from his suite. He’d often even share with me, as he frequently bought large cuts of meat and couldn’t eat it all himself. Exotic stuff, too. Pork, lamb, even sometimes the organs! Things like liver that before him I’d always gagged at the thought of! I had started to feel like I was living at a five-star hotel! He’s such a gourmand, you’re lucky.”
There was something in the back of my head that said it seemed like she was trying too hard to sell Jack to me, but because him and I got on so well, and because I was a crap cook, I ignored that thought.
“He’s also quite the ladies man! Revolving door of women, I don’t think I ever saw the same girl twice!”
“Thanks for all the info, Sandy. This has been very helpful.”
“No, thank you!” She said, and I almost ended the call when I remembered what she said at the start of the call.
“Uh, one more thing, before I let you go. Why’d you think I was the police?”
“Oh…” she paused for an awkwardly long moment “…you sounded so official when you introduced yourself! Jack doesn’t have any family here, so I’m his emergency contact. I was worried he might have been robbed or something!”
“I didn’t realize I came off that way over the phone!” I said, but it felt like I didn’t believe either her words or mine.
“Thanks, Sandy. Have a good night.” I said and hung up without listening to her farewell. My mind was preoccupied with questions I was doing my best to ignore, and replace with my daydreams of having a new best friend that would cook elegant meals for us as we listened to our favourite bands and talked about what the lyrics in the songs meant to us.
I decided I’d message Jack in the morning with the good news. My still booze binge recovering thirty-year-old body and brain needed more sleep.
The next morning I sent Jack the confirmation text.
“Jack! It’s Mason. If you haven’t found any other place yet, I’d love for you to move in here!”
“Awesome! Super happy to hear that! Thanks!”
“When are you available for the move in? I could help you move out of your old place.”
“Moving van’s already packed. I could be at your place later today! Say around noon?”
“Sounds good. See you then.”
Jack arrived precisely at Noon. The second the clock shifted from 11:59am to 12:00pm I heard the honk from the moving van, and I got up to greet him outside.
“Told you I’d see you today!” Jack said as he walked to the rear of the van to open it and reveal his belongings.
Moving his stuff only took about an hour. He only had a bed and about 8 boxes of belongings consisting of clothes, books, collectibles, and CD’s, but we still acted like it was a great physical effort and that we needed pizza and beers afterwards.
The rest of that day was normal. Jack spent it unpacking, and I spent it writing, the anxiety of looming deadlines hanging over my head.
Around the time I usually ate dinner, Jack popped his head out of his room.
“Hey, you hungry?” He asked
I paused to think and as if in reply, my stomach grumbled.
“Starved. I didn’t realize what time it was.”
“Great! I’ll be back in a bit, gotta go get some ingredients.”
Jack returned about an hour later with a plethora of fresh herbs, vegetables, and meat wrapped in brown deli paper that I didn’t recognize when he unwrapped it.
“It’s fois gras. Fattened duck liver.” He said as if reading my mind.
“It’s incredibly hard to find,” he continued as he prepared the ingredients “a lot of places consider the process animal cruelty because the ducks are force-fed until their livers become diseased and swell up to ten times their normal size. But I know a guy.” He looked up from what he was doing and winked at me with a smirk, without even stopping his swift knife work. With the way Jack glided around the kitchen, you could’ve told me I was watching a Michelin Star chef at work and I would’ve believed you.
As he cooked he uncorked a bottle of vintage red wine, poured a small amount into a glass for a smell and taste test, then poured two glasses.
“A perfect pairing, don’t you think?” He asked as he watched me take a sip.
“It’s…superb, but I gotta say, Jack, I think this might be a little…rich, for my blood. A fancy bottle of wine for me is the $50 bottles that I grab when they go on sale at the local liquor store. I don’t know if I can really appreciate this fully.”
“Nonsense!” Jack exclaimed as he turned back to the sizzling pans.
“You know enough to appreciate it, just not enough to identify every aspect and enjoy its deeper layers. You’ll get there.”
I was completely enamoured by this man. His every movement in the kitchen was measured, and as silky smooth as the surface of a still lake. He spoke with a reassuring tone that could melt all your fears and worries away, as he bathed you in affirmation and encouragement. He was charisma personified.
That is what made what happened later that night all the more strange.
“Alright man, I’m exhausted.” He said as he finished cleaning the dishes from dinner (I said I would but he insisted that he do it).
I looked at the clock and noticed it was past midnight by then.
“Oh shit it’s late. Yeah, time for bed!”
“Goodnight, Mason.” He said, patting my shoulder once.
“G‘Night, Jack.”
About half an hour later, I heard a laugh coming from Jack’s room.
“Heh heh hehehehehe.”
I tried to ignore it, but it got louder.
“Heh heh…HA HA HA HA HA HA HA”
If I didn’t know it was Jack in there, I would’ve thought that Mark Hamill had come over to record some audio as Joker in my apartment, Jack’s laugh sounded identical. It was uncanny. Every “ha” was pronounced but also sounded like it was all the same word, with a slight wheeze between each. I wouldn’t be able to sleep with it though so I got up to go knock on Jack’s door.
“Come in.” Jack said after a short pause.
I opened the door to see Jack sat on his bed, on top of the covers. I hadn’t actually seen his room until this moment. It looked somehow both lived-in and sterile. The collectibles on his shelves were arranged spaced exactly the same distance apart, lined up perfectly with each other, the wires of his electronic devices were neatly tucked away, and everything was arranged in perfect right angles. Jack was sitting perpendicular on his bed, facing his tv across the room. The screen was paused on a frame of Kevin Hart, on top of which the title “stand-up compilation #21” hung.
“Hey man, you mind keeping it down a little?”
“Sorry, was I being loud? No problem, Mason, I’ll keep it down. Sleep well.”
“Thanks Jack. ‘Night.”
After I had gone back to bed I heard him leave. Clearly making every effort to be quiet.
This pattern went on for 2 months.
Because of the massive amount of benefits there were to having Jack around, I didn’t really mind having to ask him to quiet down every night. It seemed superfluous. Every night he would cook these decadent five-star meals, exotic meats always paired with bottles of wine, champagne, or scotch that couldn’t have cost less than $500. He didn’t even flinch one night when I had a few friends over, and insisted that he cook for all 5 of us, he was almost excited by it, and the idea that I was going to order us pizza was simply unfathomable to him. He even talked and joked around with my friends, and whenever he’d laugh it was the same Joker-like laugh I heard every night. On hearing his laugh one of my friends shot me a look and I shrugged in reply, they raised an eyebrow at me then went back to the conversation.
Eventually the laughing just became white noise to me. I had purchased noise-cancelling headphones but didn’t even take them out of the packaging because by the time they arrived, I could fall asleep to;
“Heh heh hehehe HA HA HA HA HA HAHAHAHA AHA AHA AHA AHAHAHAHAHA”
I stopped thinking much of it. “It’s just how he laughs” I rationalized.
Two weeks after Jack moved in, I started to feel like I was always being watched. Even when I was alone, when Jack had gone to work for the day. I couldn’t really explain why, or come up with any ideas how. My apartment window overlooked a park, with no other residential windows in line-of-sight of my window. I didn’t have interior security cameras, and Jack hadn’t set any up that I could see.
The feeling was much more intense when Jack was around, and I still couldn’t figure out why. Sure, his gaze was intense, but he was sort of an intense person. In a fit of paranoia one night, when Jack was in his room, door closed, I wrote on a mini white board “I know you’re watching me, I found the cameras” held it up and faced my bedroom door. I waited two minutes for some kind of response before moving to the living room still holding the sign to my chest. Still nothing.
“Heh heh hehehe HA HA HA HA HA HAHAHAHA AHA AHA AHA AHAHAHAHAHA”
I pushed the feeling to the back of my mind. Surely, if I was being surveilled, the move with the sign would have brought my spy out, I thought.
“Or maybe they just called your bluff” a voice in the back of my mind said. Another thought I pushed away.
“Heh heh hehehe HA HA HA HA HA HAHAHAHA AHA AHA AHA AHAHAHAHAHA”

Currently learning electronics from a great channel named mjlorton and so far I was able to turn on multiple led lights on a breadboard without frying them. Not too far, but pretty exciting for me.

Programming Question

Programming is something I know pretty well, would a Raspberry Pi be a good choice for this project? I really don't enjoy python and would prefer to stick to c++ or rust.

Buying Parts Question

Where do you buy parts for projects like these? I'd like to avoid kits that bring the exact parts I'd need for an rc car, and prefer learning how to select parts myself.

Multimeter Recommendations

Even though I didn't fry any led lights, I did ruined my uncle's multimeter. Apparently it was a bit old and I had to watch out with something, I don't remember what it was, but I forgot, and fried it.
Are there any modern multimeters you would recommend?
Any advise, suggestons, links, ANYTHING a newbie like myself could use is greatly appreciated.

Hey y’all I’m just gonna cut to the chase, I need advice man. I’m supposed to be going into a 3D animation and Visual Effects program but I’m scared. For years I’ve been slightly scared to study animation but I’ve always pushed it down and kept going. Against all odds I’m going into my dream program at my dream school but the state of the industry is simply terrifying. I’m scared that I won’t get work once I leave school and will just generally live a life of hardships going down this path. My plan has always been to work in the industry, build my name and produce one of my ideas with a big animation company. Once I had my name known I would go back to school to study finance and business management to start my own animation company. Right now tho it feels like a pipe dream. Is it true that if you’re just great enough with good connection you’ll be alright? I’m in one of the best schools of animation internationally but that’s feels useless now. Should I just give up and start my own art pages and enroll for something medical (my back up plan if I failed) this coming school year? The thought of leaving when I just started, especially with the school I’m in, frankly makes me want to end it all. Being poor and a disappointment also makes me want to do that tho. If I’m honest I feel that I can play my cards right and I’ll be great but idk I just need an outside perspective. Be brutally honest. I’m really scared. Thank you.

SO, as the end this challenge approaches it's final hours, Sir Name sits upon 10 wins...bashing his head into the nearest wall trying to get through the droves of Poison, MK, Firecrackers, and Princesses...this challenge seems to offer a lot of stalemating and the poison has been a big win factor for many.
I'm a practical person, I play upon my own innovation as I'm playing for the fun of it and can see flaws and will correct them as I can. I try not to just take amazing decks built by Tag or Juice or whomever as they were the engineers and testers. Hats off to these guys and their patience all these years...Tag is new to me but Juice?...that's the Goat. Anyway, I tweak what they did and make it work for my deck and what I have available.
That said, I want to break the meta this afternoon. Lots of variation in support units I've seen in countless matches at this point, but it all comes down to how the Mage Trio is placed/used. Most the time I've seen it as a defensive move on their side...I have found success in the split myself to make them split defenses and make a mistake...it works even late at night against the Asian Syndicate (affectionately naming, I play late at night at that wedge of players are GOOD). Shocker goes right, Fire and Ice goes left---add a fastish support with the Shocker Mage (I like NW for this, but Phoenix goes well too if they don't have a building esp. May void one side or the other that I can see taking one piece away will make their Jenga defense fall...
But over time I succumb to their more steady play and poisoning me while I hold them off with Tesla, Musketeer, and the aforementioned...I have remained steadfast in the deck I played up to 10 with:
3Wiz, Musketeer, Arrows, Void, Tesla, Phoenix, Giant, Night Witch
Unfortunately, in this challenge, Night Witch standing up to the mages is laughable...even when paired with your own, she walks through fire...and she's not in the Hunger Games...she dead. Lots of distance attackers have shown success but I've yet to see much on buildings beyond Tesla, Bomb, and Inferno to be honest...
I posit a strategy. I need better minds than mine here to fine tune as my play experienced a near 7 year hiatus...I've been playing again and ready to continue breaking metas. That was my favorite and still is, because there are (I say this as softly as I can) too many players just following the meta and making it like it's a populist strategy game...and I'm finding that as balanced as this is all supposed to be and WAS, it just isn't fully. And it's up to us to find those broken flaps on the cards to break the meta when combined with other broken flaps.
Thinking along the lines of Mortar and or X-Bow Elixir Golem deck....save the golem until AFTER they cycle Mage...I've gotten good at defending with Void and if needed arrows...I use DD so it takes them down after a void just fine. And Tesla if more is needed...but in this case I may use these other buildings. My thoughts are, most of the hardest fighting is on the offense in this one and very heavily mage group fighting...similar to the MK wall stopper to a push, the Mage Trio effects a similar result. Ruin. I feel like I need more range...safe range.
Sidenote, effective split decks could be utilized but I'm just intermediate enough to not have a good answer there but for Goblin barrel and a fast unit...esp against those silly enough to leave Princess Towers in place of DD.
This is where I'm at so far:
Tri Wizards, MORTAR &/or Xbow...cross river offensives,
VOID, Arrows, Generator?...2-3 stopper aid troops resistant to poison (mid HP), however a Princess would be appropriate here I think as well...but OUT of the classic poison zones for deployment...basically in towards the middle where the buildings will be and maybe help 2 lanes...and one win condition?
Thoughts? Sorry for how winded this is, but you guys are who I can discuss all this...no one cares here LOL!

Heh. Nice.
Creativity is returning, and I promise that the series doesn't devolve into a slice of life between Valteria and Xander (not that that's necessarily a bad thing, just not where I want to go - you'll have to instead content thyself with slices of slice of life here and there). Going to try and keep to updating roughly every 7-10 days, but again, I don't hold myself very strictly to any schedule so that may not always happen. Enjoy!
First Previous Next
Elements are, well… elemental. Not in the sense that they are beings comprised of a single physical element - though they generally are. I mean they are created by a conflux of a single type of elemental mana. This is often seen at ley lines, areas where mana flows and rushes like a river, but it can happen anywhere two errant streams of mana of the same type collide. Not every collision results in the formation of an elemental core, around which an elemental will concrete rapidly from a physical material local to the area that aligns with the core’s mana type. Some happen with no discernable effect. Others produces auroric lights, or short lived ‘will-o-the-wisps,’ which are not to be confused with actual spirits or other ethereal monsters.
-Brant Colis during a lecture on elementals, College of Magical Studies, part of the esteemed University of Sempta
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Xander smiled at her and planted a quick kiss on her lips, causing Valteria’s eyes to widen at the suddenness of it. “Thanks,” he told her. “I couldn’t have had a better teacher.”
Valteria blushed at his glowing commendation, and perhaps from the kiss as well. “You’re sweet,” she said. “But there are better teachers than me,” Valteria told him in a more serious tone. Her serious face cracked a little bit into a smile as she said, “Too bad you don’t know any of them! You’re stuck with me, instead.”
“Mmm, I don’t mind one bit,” Xander said. Thinking to check his watch, he briefly glanced at the time. “Say, what time do you usually close up shop? It’s getting to be late afternoon, and I imagine we’ll want some light if we’re going to test out that crossbow.”
“Hm? Oh, right, damnit, I’d forgotten already.” Valteria glanced at one of the clocks in the room to confirm the time. “Ah, hell, I’m ready to call it quits for the day anyways. I doubt anyone else is going to come in today anyways. Let’s walk to guild training area.”
“Certainly, I would be most happy to escort the lady,” Xander said, as formally as he could manage.
“What did I say about bowing and scraping?”
“Sorry.”
Valteria locked up the shop as they exited, and the two of them made their way to the training yard that the guild had set up. Xander was glad that Valteria seemed to know where it was, because he had never actually been there. His practice for the tournament had been conducted out in random fields, as he’d worried he’d be taking up too much space swinging around all that chain. During the walk there, they chatted about how Valteria hoped the crossbow would perform, and she reminded him that she still wanted to see the guns that he had mentioned. He agreed to show her, as long as the training yard was safely positioned in such a way that he didn’t need to worry about anything down range.
After about half an hour of walking through the city, and then through the outskirts of the town, Valteria led them to the training yard. There were a few mercenaries training throughout the area, some sparring together in a sandy pit, while others were practicing their aim with bows, crossbows, and spells by firing at targets placed at the ends of a set of lanes. Xander was pleased to see that there was a berm build up behind the targets to prevent anything that went through the targets escaping the bounds of the training yard. He supposed that certain skills attached to a bolt or arrow might necessitate it. It would certainly work well enough for his firearms. He was glad he’d silenced them, as it would be rather disturbing to the rest of the mercenaries present if he hadn’t.
“So, which do you want to try out first? The guns or the crossbow?” Xander asked.
Valteria thought for a moment. “Hmm,” she said aloud as she pondered. “I think the crossbow first. I’m eager to see how it performs so that I can work on properly pricing it, as well as seeing if we need to tweak the design before we make more.”
“Sure, that makes sense. Guns can be a treat for after we do our official business,” Xander replied.
“Shame there’s only a wooden target, I’d like to see how it does against something like a chest plate,” Valteria sighed.
“You forget who you’re with!” Xander reminded her. “I can make us a steel target in no time at all. But we probably ought to test it out on the wood first, just to make sure it even works.”
“Oh right, I forgot you could just make one. That seems like a good idea. Would you mind making me some bolts, too? I didn’t even think to stop to get any,” Valteria said, slapping her forehead lightly.
“Coming right up.” Xander went to work creating a few crossbow bolts for Valteria to fire, handing them over one by one as he made them. He stopped after creating ten bolts. “That should be enough to test the thing out, right?”
“Mmhm, I would think so.” The two of them walked together to a lane at one end of the yard, making sure that there were a few empty lanes between them and the next closest merc. No one paid them any mind, save for an occasional glance in their direction as people briefly wondered who the odd couple they didn’t recognize were. Still, the yard was free to use, and no one bothered them.
Valteria cranked the crossbow arms back and took a knee as she placed a bolt into the channel of the crossbow. She took some time to aim at the target at the end of the lane before firing. The increased force of the arms snapping back into place jerked her forward a little, but the shot still found its mark, at least for the most part. It went a little wide, hitting the left edge of the target. The bolt punched through the wood with what seemed to be ease, burying itself fully into the berm behind the target.
“Wow, I wasn’t expecting it to jerk like that,” Valteria said, looking down at the crossbow. “It’s certainly got some power to it.”
“Shall we see how it does with steel?” Xander asked.
“Sure, though I have my suspicions that it’s going to either blow right through the metal or the bolt is going to shatter. So, it is going to require higher grade bolts from a good [Fletcher] to really operate at full efficiency,” she explained.
“Makes sense,” Xander said with an absent nod as he created a sheet of steel of about the correct thickness for a chestpiece. Once he was done, he jogged down to the target and leaned the sheet of steel up against it before jogging back to Valteria. “All you,” he said to her.
“I have to do all the work?” She said sarcastically.
“I mean, if you don’t want to shoot it, I’ll be happy to,” Xander replied. “But what’s more fun than putting holes in things with a weapon?”
“Uhm, a lot of things?” Valteria asked.
“Okay, yeah, you’re right. But it’s still fun!”
“It is.”
Valteria was able to land most of her shots on the metal target, which proved equally flimsy as the wood had to the runically enhanced crossbow. Two went wide, embedding in the berm instead, but overall she seemed pleased with the test. “I’m not exactly the best shot,” she told Xander. “I’m surprised I only missed two, in all honesty.”
“Considering that you don’t have a combat class, I think you did pretty well for someone who doesn’t regularly go out and fire a crossbow,” Xander said approvingly. “Ready to try out a gun?”
“Yes!” Valteria said excitedly.
Xander chuckled at Valteria’s enthusiasm, manifesting the tube fed .22 rifle from his inventory, along with some ammunition. “We can start off with something small.” Carefully placing the rifle down, he held up some of the small rounds for her to see. “This is a bullet. A twenty-two caliber long rifle bullet, to be specific. It’s designed for small game, so it has essentially no kick behind it, but it’s very reliable. It’s a good one to get acquainted with before I swap you over to trying out my pistol and shotgun, since they have a little more kick to them. Here’s how you load it.” Xander went through the process of pulling the spring loaded rod out of the tube that held the ammunition, Valteria watching carefully as he loaded it up to capacity. “So you’ve got eighteen shots right now. This right here is the safety,” he indicated the push button near the trigger that operated the safety mechanism. “You can’t pull the trigger unless this side is pushed in. Helps keep accidents from happening. Now, before I hand this over to you, you’re going to indulge me and listen to the four rules of firearm safety, okay?”
“Okay,” Valteria said with a firm nod.
“Alright, so the first rule is this: always assume that a gun is loaded. Messing around with one just because you think it’s unloaded is a great way to accidentally get someone killed. Two, never point the end of a gun at something you don’t intend to shoot. Keep it pointed down at the ground at all other times. That way, if you do accidentally discharge it, no one can get hurt. Number three pertains to your target. Be sure of your target – make sure you know what you’re shooting at – and just as importantly, know what’s beyond your target. You don’t want to shoot through something and end up also shooting something or someone you didn’t intend to. And the last rule is to keep your finger off the trigger until you’re ready to shoot. Simple enough, right? They could all easily followed with a crossbow, too. Got it?”
Valteria nodded again. “Got it,” she replied.
“Alrighty, well then let’s get you shooting! I’ll show you the three postures for shooting, as well as how to use the sights and then I’ll let you run through a full tube or two before we swap to something a little more fun to shoot.” Xander held rifle downward and indicated the scope on the rifle. “This is a magnified scope. Think of it like a little telescope with an X in the center. You look through it like this,” Xander held the rifle up to his cheek, pointing it downrange, “and line up the center of the X with where you want to shoot. The position I’m in right now is how you should fire while standing. See how I’m a little leaned forward and my right foot is to the rear? That’s to help absorb recoil, not that this gun has much. It’ll help with the larger one, though.” Xander then kneeled down, placing his elbow on his knee to brace his arm. “This is how you’d fire while kneeling. Very similar to how I saw you do it with the crossbow.” Finally, he laid down and said, “And this is how you fire when prone. If you step behind me, you’ll see that the gun, my shoulder, my body, and my right leg are all one straight line.”
“I see,” Valteria agreed, looking at him from behind.
Standing up, careful to keep the rifle pointed downwards, he said, “I’ll let you choose how you want to shoot. Here you are.” He held the rifle out for Valteria to take, who did so gingerly. Xander was pleased to see that she was keeping her fingers away from the trigger.
Valteria moved into position at the opening to the lane and knelt. Xander went to stand behind her. She took up the proper position, mimicking how Xander had shown her.
“I’m going to adjust your posture slightly, so don’t be startled, okay?” Xander softly said.
“Okay,” Valteria replied.
Xander leaned over slightly and put his hands on her shoulders, squaring them a little bit more. “Okay, now aim, and when you’re ready, pull the trigger.”
Valteria took her time aiming, getting used to the scope and the position her head needed to be in to properly use it. “This scope thingy is quite handy. I can see things so much closer!”
Xander laughed, saying, “Yeah, I use it all the time just for looking at things that are far away.”
Valteria took a deep breath and squeezed the trigger, eliciting a small crack from the rifle, most of the relatively minimal noise of the rifle being silenced by the runes Xander had engraved on the end of the barrel. A ping could be heard as the bullet hit the metal sheet, putting a tiny hole in it.
Valteria looked around. “That’s it?” She asked. “I was expecting something... more.”
“Well, this one is a small caliber round, so there’s not a lot of oomph behind it compared to something larger. But if we take a walk down there, I’d wager we could find the hole it made in the steel.”
“Strange how something so small could penetrate a piece of steel armor...” Valteria said, trailing off thoughtfully.
“I don’t think it would penetrate really well-made armor from a higher leveled [Smith], and I’m certain it wouldn’t penetrate armor that I’ve done runework on. This is completely unimproved steel, after all.”
“That’s fair,” Valteria agreed.
“So, do you want to finish off the other seventeen rounds, or is this one too boring?”
“I want to try the bigger one!” Valteria said excitedly.
“Fine, fine,” Xander relented. “Same rules for this one, okay?” He took the rifle back from Valteria, unloading it and stashing the gun and ammo back in his inventory. He pulled out the shotgun and a handful of shells, opting for slugs to reduce the chance of any kind of ricochet from the steel target. “This is a pump-action shotgun.” He held up the shotgun in one hand. “And this is the ammunition it fires.” He held up his handful of shotgun shells in the other hand. “Quite a bit bigger than the other one.”
Valteria nodded along. “That one looks more exciting.”
“You load the round into the tube on the bottom like so,” Xander said as he pushed five rounds into the tube. “And to load a round, you pump the slide towards you and then away from you.” The shotgun made the classic cha-chuck­ noise as he pumped the slide, loading a round. “This is loaded now. Safety works the same way. Here you go.” He carefully handed the gun over to Valteria, who took it with a little more confidence than she had with the small caliber rifle.
Watching her get into a kneeling position and shoulder the rifle, Xander commented, “Adjust the buttstock a little, you want it more on the meaty part of your shoulder, not on the outside. It’ll absorb the recoil better.”
Valteria complied, shifting the rifle slightly to adjust. “This one doesn’t have a scope,” she said.
“Oh right, yeah this one is a bit shorter ranged. You just line up the bead on the end in the center of the sight posts closer to you to aim.”
“Oh, oh I see,” Valteria said, returning her cheek to the stock of the shotgun.
“Fire whenever you’re rea-“ Xander was interrupted by the muffled crack of the shotgun firing. Valteria let out a noise halfway between a squeak and a grunt as she rocked backwards, falling backwards slightly from her position of kneeling to sitting on the ground.
“Oww,” She muttered. “This one hurts! You didn’t tell me it would hurt!”
“I did tell you it would have more kick, though,” Xander laughed. “That one packs a lot more punch than that little twenty-two. Do you want to shoot it again?” He asked.
“No,” Valteria said sullenly, holding the shotgun out for Xander to take. “I’m already going to have a bruise from just that one. How do you use that thing?”
Xander shrugged. “Eh, you get used to it. And with proper form, you learn to take the recoil better. Here, watch.” Xander stepped up to the lane and demonstrated, firing the remaining four rounds in quick succession, the slide clattering as he quickly pumped rounds into the chamber.
“Hmph,” Valteria huffed, seeing that Xander had had no issue with the recoil.
“Oh don’t be like that,” Xander chided her, giving her a quick, one armed hug as he stowed the shotgun in his inventory.
Valteria let out the kind of whine one does when they’re mildly inconvenienced and want to be dramatic about it.
“I have one more that I think you’ll like. It’s got more to it than the little rifle, and less than the shotgun. And it’s a lot smaller. It’s called a pistol. I guess you could think of it like the hand crossbow of guns?”
“I think smaller might be good after that last one,” Valteria said, still cautious.
Xander pulled his final firearm from Earth from his inventory into his hand. “This is the pistol.” He manifested a magazine, and said, “and this is the magazine, which the rounds go in.”
“Why’s it called a magazine?” Valteria asked, interrupting him.
“Uh, I actually don’t know,” Xander admitted. “Just what it’s called,” he said with a shrug.
“Anyway, the magazine goes in the pistol like this,” he firmly seated the magazine. “And you load the first round like this,” he said as he racked the slide. “The safety is a little bit different on this one – it’s this lever here. You toggle it down and then it can fire. You’ll want to hold it like this,” he told Valteria as he demonstrated a classic pistol shooter’s pose, both hands in use and slightly leaned forward.
“Ready to try it? I promise it’s not as bad as the shotgun,” he said. “I do feel a little bad about not telling you.”
“You should!” Valteria said as she took the proffered pistol.
“Make sure you keep it pointed down, still,” Xander reminded her.
“I will, I will,” she grumbled. Valteria took up her spot at the lane and mimicked Xander’s posture as best she could from a single demonstration. She looked back at him briefly, expecting some kind of comment or correction, but Xander was silent, just giving her a smile.
“Not bad,” he said. “Give it a try, just make sure you keep a firm, even grip.”
Valteria pulled the trigger, flinching slightly after her experience with the shotgun. Her flinch made the round miss the target. She looked at the gun with a little more favor in her eyes as she realized that it wasn’t going to hurt like the shotgun had. “I think I like this one better,” she told Xander.
“Try not to flinch like you did. I guess that’s my own fault after the shotgun,” he admitted, “but it’s bad for your aim. Other than that, you’re doing just fine,” he encouraged.
Valteria let off another round, this one hitting the large, steel target, letting out another ping across the training yard. “This is rather fun,” she admitted.
“You’ve got sixteen left before you need to reload. I’d recommend a steady pace to start out with, though. Take your time to aim. You can pop off rounds quickly on the next magazine.”
The two of them spent their time, and more than a few magazines – Xander would load one up while Valteria used the other – together at the range amicably. From an outside perspective, the two of them would have seemed more like good friends than a new couple. For his part, Xander appreciated that Valteria wasn’t seemingly needy, or overly touchy or intimate. He wasn’t sure if that would change, at least regarding touch, but right now, considering how fresh their relationship was and the fact that he was still feeling more than some guilt over even being in a relationship, he was perfectly content to move slowly for the most part. It would probably be best for Valteria too, he considered, as she was new to dating in general. He didn’t want to inadvertently take advantage of her in some way or push her boundaries.
As dusk began to fall, Xander and Valteria stopped their target practice. Xander had convinced her to wrap up with the shotgun and a few more shots from it as a finale, and she’d agreed now that she knew what to expect, the annoyance of the sudden recoil having faded. Before they left, Xander brought the steel target up for Valteria to see. It was riddled with holes, Xander pointing out the impacts left by each different caliber. He set it aside and out of the way to disintegrate, and the two began to walk back into town.
“Where do you want to eat?” Xander asked Valteria.
“Mm... I’m not sure. I hadn’t put much thought into it, honestly,” Valteria responded.
“Well, the only two places I know are Charles’s place and the inn my team and I are staying at. Though, if we eat there, prepare to be mobbed by the team and teased about dating me.”
“You’ve already told them?” Valteria said, sounding a little nervous.
“Only one, and I assume that she has kept it private, but the other three would immediately assume if they saw us together at a table. You know they thought that us comparing notes after the match was a date in disguise? They kept giving me dating tips like I wasn’t the only one of them that had ever held down a long-term relationship before,” Xander said with a laugh.
Valteria laughed. “I suppose it makes sense that they’ll tease us about it having come true, then. I suppose you’re worth a little teasing,” she said sarcastically.
“Damn right I am!” Xander replied. “But you still haven’t answered the question. Where are we – well, you, really – eating?”
Valteria slowed her pace, considering for a moment. “Hmm... I have to admit that I’m interested in who your team is. The people you keep company with are an important aspect of one’s self, after all,” she said discerningly.
“Ahh, so you want to know if I hang out with the wrong sort of crowd?” Xander teased. “They’re good people. Took me back without blinking an eye when I returned as... what I am now. I’d be happy to introduce you to them.”
“Then it’s settled, we’ll be eating there. What’s the name of the inn?”
“Uhh... shit. I can’t ever remember the name of the place. But I know how to get there!” Xander admitted.
“You’ve been staying in the city for how long?” Valteria asked, in disbelief.
“Uhm... more than a month.”
“And you still don’t know the name of the place?”
“I just never think to look at the sign when I’m leaving or coming back!” Xander said, vainly trying to defend himself.
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Hi everyone. Sorry to make one of these posts. I’m always going back and forth about whether this is autism. I’d be willing to accept my son (3yo) is just a particularly fussy and sensitive child but he struggles with the sorts of things an autistic child might do. Sorry for the long list:
What makes me think autism: - SO DEMANDING. Constant constant incessant requests and demands for things and attention. Extremely dictatorial. Very quick to end up on the floor shouting and crying if he doesn’t get what he wants immediately. I’ve been told anxious kids are very controlling. - General upset fussy disposition, his body is primed and ready to cry and whine at the absolute drop of a hat. Has been this way since infanthood. He is breaking down crying over 20 times a day now. - Extreme fear of strangers. I cannot have people in my house. Cannot do play dates. If a strange adult/child (sometimes toddler) makes eye contact he turns his head away like he’s just seen a ghost. Covers his face and eyes. If someone comes into the house he has a meltdown and it takes him a good while to settle if at all. Doesn’t cope well in busy playgroups but is surprisingly okay in busy public areas (so long as no one makes contact with him). - Communication issues: diagnosed expressive delayed at 18months but has now fully caught up. However he has just been diagnosed with selective mutism. Was late to point, at over 1 year old. His receptive skills and understanding are fine. - Demand avoidance. Now we are in a particularly bad streak and 80% of my requests are met with defiance and opposition. Yes I’m losing my mind. Yes I’m depressed. He cannot use the potty at daycare because the demand to pee is very stressful for him (we have tried everything you could think of). Does not eat at daycare because he opposes the expectation to sit and eat with everyone. - Difficulty with change. Very challenging to potty train. Avoids new clothes I buy him and wants to wear clothes that are now too small for him because of the familiarity. Major upset if he’s forced to wear something new. - Picky eating that’s been steadily getting worse. Noticing and getting more upset about dirt. - Special interests, he is very interested in a character from a fairy tale. It’s been 6 months and he’s still obsessed with it. 90% of his play revolves around it. He has had other interests in the past but this one has stuck around for long. Has an affinity for numeracy moreso than literacy.
What makes me think otherwise: - Lots of empathy. He can easily read and understand his and other’s emotions and feelings. He likes taking care of people and babies. - Great imaginative play skills and role playing. - Great playing with kids his age (can be rigid and possessive though). - Can play with toys the way they were made to be used. - Always had good eye contact, responding to name. - No obvious stimming except spinning or running in circles, throwing himself backwards as a baby.
Any thoughts ? I’m struggling a lot, struggling to enjoy my time with him. Just hope things get easier soon.

There's this girl that I work with and we have a pretty good relationship I think. We talk a lot and get distracted from working when we both work together. I have been hesitant to ask her out or anything like that since I like to be conscious about how it would impact the work environment, and don't want to make work uncomfortable for her.
I searched up her name on Instagram and found her account as the first result. I want to message her or follow her or whatever but I feel like that would be super creepy. What should I do?

Hey! I am posting on behalf of my friend who doesn’t have a Reddit account. She’s looking for a man 28-36 also in the city. She loves hiking, watching football, and going to see live music. If you think you’ll be a good fit send me a message with a pic and some info about you!

I'm trying, so please, if you have any good reasons why I should give Tailwind a try, please, let me know why.
I can't for the love of the most sacred things understand how anyone could choose something that is clearly inline styling just to write an infinite number of classes into some HTML tags (there's even a VS Code extension that hides the infinite classes to make your code more readable) in stead of writing just the CSS, or using some powerful libraries like styled-components (which actually add some powerful features).
You want to style a div with flex-direction: column;? Why would you specifically write className="flex-col" for it in every div you want that? Why not create a class with some meaning and just write that rule there? Cleaner, simpler, a global standard, more readable.
What if I have 4 div and I want to have them with font-color: blue;? I see people around adding in every div a class for that specific colour, in stead of a global class to apply to every div, or just put a class in the parent div and style with classic CSS the div children of it.
As I see it, it forces you to "learn a new way to name things" to do exactly the same, using a class for each individual property, populating your code with garbage. It doesn't bring anything new, anything better. It's just Bootstrap with another name.
Just following NextJS tutorial, you can see that this:

Can be perfectly replaced by this much more readable and clean CSS:

.shape { height: 0; width: 0; border-bottom: 30px solid black; border-left: 20px solid transparent; border-right: 20px solid transparent; } 

Why would you do that? I'm asking seriously: please, convince me, because everyone is in love with this, but I just can't see it.
And I know I'm going to get lots of downvotes and people saying "just don't use it", but when everyone loves it and every job offer is asking for Tailwind, I do not have that option that easy, so I'm trying to love it (just can't).
Thank you so much.

Hi everyone. A few months ago I made this post as an update to my residential cleaning business journey. Well, I've made the decision to put an end to that journey and shut the business down. This was not an easy decision to make. I noticed a lot of people got value out of the last post, so I felt compelled to make this final update.
To preface everything, one of the main reasons for me making my original post had to do with the fact that, generally speaking, when I saw content on the internet related to cleaning services it was very reductive of the difficulties that one actually faces when starting up a business. I won't deny that I was sold on this idea of "Create website + Put a business on Google LSA + Hire contractors = Big Moneys 🤑" I thought this would be a pretty simple come up, but I learned quickly that that's not the case. Below I'll talk about why I’m leaving, go over some common myths I see, and what my future plans are, and some other stuff.
I hope that this post reaches anyone interested in doing this business — not to deter you from doing it, but rather as a forewarning for what you may be getting into. (Hint: It's not sitting on your ass all day while contractors and VAs do the work for you.) I think there’s a lot of value in learning from other people’s experiences and mistakes, and please remember that this is just my personal experience — results may vary.

Why did I start a cleaning business in the first place? Why am I leaving now?

Truthfully, I had dreams of achieving “financial freedom” and living the good life. I wanted to build "passive income" while enjoying a relaxed life, living where I wanted to, driving what I wanted to, and ultimately doing what I wanted to. In the guru space, the cleaning business is sold with these dreams in mind, and I genuinely believed that it was the path that I was headed down. It was only a matter of time and hard work. Looking back now, I realize these reasons were a bit superficial. Not necessarily in and of themselves, but as a premise for getting into this business. This led to me realizing something really important, that is probably the underlying lesson learned: If you don’t have passion or genuine interest, you will probably burn out. If you don’t burn out, then honestly more power to you. For me, I reached a point where I had to ask myself if this was what I really wanted to do. If, for potentially the next 5-10 years, I would be happy and fulfilled with this pursuit. As you now know, the answer was no.
Now, I definitely consider myself entrepreneurial and I love business — it energizes me, it’s one of the few things I find truly engaging and get excited about. But one of the main reasons I’m shutting down is that I have zero passion for this business at all. I actually did some cleanings myself in order to learn what was going down, and I absolutely hated it. I went out and put flyers on mailboxes and hated it. I hated talking about my business to people. I hated being the little guy on the block while the franchises and the 300+ five star review businesses were booming with business. I don’t think many people talk about this, but getting over this curve at the very beginning is really tough. Not just in a business sense but also psychologically — you’re really grinding from the ground up. I also have zero connections in the area, so I couldn’t really ask around for referrals to build upon. So yeah. I knew all of this at first, and I thought I’d be able to toughen through it. But again, I think it comes back down to the lack of passion that I had. I didn’t have it in me to push through, probably because deep down I didn’t really want to. And I think that’s okay. You’re allowed to not like stuff. I'm still happy that I went and did it instead of always having wondered “What if?” There were a lot of good lessons learned from this experience.

Grievances

Now, I want to dive into some of the specifics. Particularly, I want to debunk some of the things I hear and don’t hear from content creators, gurus, and people on the internet.

1. The Contractor Model & Getting Employees

This: I genuinely don't understand how people get away with doing this. When I started off I used contractors and found it VERY difficult to control the quality of work, as well as ensure what would actually be done during the cleaning, whilst maintaining a legal relationship with contractors. As I'm sure most of you know, you can't provide training or anything like that to contractors, and it's a bit harder to hold them accountable. If you see my last post you'll see some of my horror stories from the beginning (stealing cash, messing up cleanings), and in the end there wasn't much I could do about it. I decided to work with some part-time employees, but this honestly opened up a whole new world of problems to be solved. Getting supplies, where to store supplies, learning about the chemicals, training the cleaners, what exactly to include in cleanings, getting payroll stuff set up, managing the cleaners, etc. to name a few. Keep in mind that prior to this I had no experience with actual cleaning outside of cleaning my own home. So I knew there was a mountain of learning ahead of me. Which is fine, that’s how starting a business is. Except for one thing: this technically wasn’t “part of the original deal.” I was just supposed to do business stuff, and let the cleaners clean. The majority of online guru advice you see just simplifies this into “hiring contractors,” or even to take it further it’s just a matter of “getting good employees.” There’s actually so much more that comes with it though. This was one of the biggest factors in me deciding to stop the business, again tying it back to the lack of passion. When it came down to me actually learning the cleaning stuff, I hated it. So keep this in mind. If you do want to go the employee route, you might have to get into the trenches yourself, and you might find out that you do not actually like it. Again, a lot of these internet personalities claim to use contractors and have really successful businesses. I mean I guess it technically is possible, but I felt really anxious about not having quality control over what’s going on, and having that lack of security. There’s really nothing stopping a contractor from fucking you over. I know it’s the same with employee, but it still feels a little different by principle. Dunno. If it’s really working for them and anyone else, more power to them. The employees that I did have were great, but they were family friends so it came with a bit of strings attached and there were just some nuances that I won’t get in to.

1. The Intimate Nature of the Business

This is something I rarely hear talked about online. This is relevant to both the business aspect and the cleaning aspect of things. From a business side, it’s actually kind of hard to convince people to let complete strangers come in to their houses. I know it seems intuitive but again, I never hear it mentioned. Pair it with the fact that you’re a newer business with <20 reviews and you’re going up against long time businesses: Who do you think people are going to choose? Who would you choose to clean your house? I’m definitely not saying you can’t build your reputation up, but it takes a lot of work and grit. It’s not just “Slap your business on Google LSA and your phone will ring off the hook!” From a cleaning side, it is soooo much different cleanin in someone else’s home than cleaning your own home. I hear people say all the time how “they love to clean” and what not. I like to clean too, my space is pretty well kept. But when you go into someone else’s space and you have to get up close and personal with their mess, with their problems, with their own life, it’s really a different experience. Maybe some people don’t feel this way but this was a huge problem I had. It’s pretty difficult psychologically. Granted, I had one really, really bad experience with this but I’ll save it since this post is going to be pretty long as it is. (If you want to hear just lmk in the comments.)

1. Dealing with People

This isn’t really addressed by the guru’s. Dealing with people is not always that easy. Everyone has their own preferences, they want extra this, extra that, discount this, add on that, etc. It’s not always going to be that you have a good client that’s straightforward, wants to book, and goes through with that booking. Again, it seems pretty obvious, but it’s rarely mentioned. If you’re not that comfortable with sales and talking to the variety of personalities that the world has to offer, this might be something that’s difficult to deal with.

1. Being a Solopreneur

Not directly related to the residential cleaning business, but it is tough doing this on your own. For context, I’ve had a couple of ventures in the past that I did with friends that didn’t end up working out, but I always carried this sentiment with me that I could run a business on my own, and that I would do it more efficiently, it would be easier, etc. I can’t stress how difficult it is when you’re liable for everything that’s going on, and you have no one to help. It sucks. I’m glad that I learned this lesson, but damn my respects to solopreneurs out there, you have to be really mentally tough for this.

Final Numbers

I’m not going to go into much depth with this. I did a little spreadsheet last post but tbh I don’t really feel like it this time (sorry). We ultimately did $4.3k in revenue, and around $5k in expenses, including maybe like $1-2k of my own money that I sank into this. Honestly not a huge loss considering how much some people invest into their businesses from the jump. I’d say it was money well spent considering the lessons I learned. I will say this: If you do start something like this, don’t listen to the guru’s that say “You need this booking software! This accounting software! Etc! Etc!” I honestly sunk a lot of money into that stuff, and in hindsight I probably could have gone this whole time without it. Yes, it’s nice when you do have it, but it’s not really worth the cost when you don’t have much volume to start with. I think I had the idea in my head that I was going to be booming with business so I needed to “be prepared.” Honestly, take care of the absolute necessary’s first (LLC if you want, insurance, bonding) and get the extra stuff once it actually makes sense.

Consider your background

I think this is important to touch upon. There’s a narrative that I see that goes something like this: "Degrees are worthless, plumbers, electricians, lawn care owners make six-figures. You should do the same!” And then I guess presumably you are supposed to hear this and follow a similar path. As you know, I kind of fell into this narrative. I figured cleaning can make good money, the numbers made sense, so why couldn't I do it? Let me say something really quickly though. You might not be cut out for this kind of thing. I definitely wasn’t. I’m going to be honest, I don’t come from riches but I do come from middle class: solid upbringing, good university, parents got me a car in high school, you know the vibes. I usually had to work jobs to support myself, but I had a cushion to land on if it really came down to it.
Now, let’s think about the demographic that ends up doing these harder, boots-on-the-ground, laborious jobs: e.g. Plumber, electrician, lawn care, house cleaning, (I’ll just refer to them as “blue collar” jobs for the sake of brevity). Oftentimes, it’s not people that end up with business or accounting degrees, or even get the opportunity to pursue higher education or whatever. Not that that's a bad thing, but it's just what it is (or what I've noticed at least).
Like we established, I do come from the latter category, and as we know, I (and I’m now seeing many others online) tried to do a little segway into the former category.
I say all this to say, that you need to think long and hard about if you’re actually cut out for this. Because blue collar work is no joke, and if you think you’re just going to waltz in and play Mr. Capitalist and rake in a bunch of money while others do the tough work, you should reconsider what happens when it comes time for you to step in and get your hands dirty. For anyone that doesn’t actually know, cleaning a house is hard asf. If you’re considering going into this business, I encourage you to try deep cleaning a house that isn’t yours. You’ll see. This whole section might be personally anecdotal, and I hope that this doesn’t come off as patronizing, but I see a lot of people similar to me thinking that they can just follow the magic formula presented online, not realizing that they're entering a whole different world. After all this, I have even more respect for people that do blue collar work, boots on the ground, every day. It’s a grind that a lot of people will never know or understand.

So what’s next?

It’s definitely bittersweet leaving the business. Despite not going on for long, I put a lot into it; it’s pretty much everything I thought about for the last few months. I had a lot of hopes and expectations for this to not only work out, but I also thought I was going to become rich af lol 😂 I’m not saying it’s not possible, but please be wary that you will not get rich quick. At least not without being unethical in some shape or form. Up until now I’ve only really done small businesses for work. It’s provided a ton of unique experiences and lessons that were priceless and that I’m extremely grateful for, but it’s been extremely exhausting and stressful doing this for the past few years. I’m still pretty young, and I think that after learning everything I have, I’m ready to try to segway into some career of sorts. I’m looking heavily into a sales career (maybe tech). I think it would be really nice to hone in on one particular skill (rather than try to manage ten things at once), and I like how transferable sales is, in case one day I do decide I want to come back and try my hand at another business. I’m sure this isn’t the end of my entrepreneurial journey.
Anyway, if you made it this far, thank you so much! I know this was kind of a long post but I wanted to get everything off my chest and get some closure with the business. I genuinely do hope that this provides some value and insight to someone. I get a lot of my own information from people’s stories on Reddit and conversations with them, so I hope I can return the favor. I look forward to your questions and discussions in the comments, and let me know if I can help you out in any way! Best of luck to everyone and their own pursuits :)

As the title says, what are you all hoping to see and what are you expecting to see in the new supplement? Since the relaunch of the game a few years back, there's been some pretty good expansions that flesh out the game. I'm a huge fan of the original sourcebook and journeybooks from way back in the day, and the newer ones have been pretty different in what they provide as expansions, for better and for worse from a nostalgia perspective at least.
The newer ones come absolutely full of narrative scenarios and a linked campaign, sometimes even an appendix for those loosely related scenarios from older expansions and White Dwarf articles. Since these newer books all have a dozen or more scenarios, what do you think they'll do for narrative scenes to play through and to link as a campaign? I figure we'll see some of the ones from the Ruin of Arnor book revamped this time around, but do you think the supplement will focus on just Arnor vs Angmar, or will it also have material for Aragorn and the Rangers of the North vs Angmathe bad guys? In the books (well, in the lore), Arnor fights Angmar for many hundreds of years, but GW focused on the very end that kingdom's period and then its descendants' remnants a millennia later, so I can see them time-crunching things a bit if they wanted to pick parts from that earlier long history for narrative stuff if it'll be just Arnor vs Angmar. It'd be great to see the fall of Amon Sul (featuring a palantir search/escape/chase bit) and a proper siege of Fornost as scenarios, as well as some spooky spirit stuff. With the new(ish, it came out two years ago) Glorfindel model, I'm dying to see a Witch-king vs Glorfindel and Earnur battle provided. The end of Angmar is this really great combination of Arnor, Gondor, High Elves, and Hobbits which GW has represented before in past books, so I'm expecting that to show up, too. The appendices also note these one-off events like Rivendell being besieged, Glorfindel leading Lorien Elves over the mountains, and Rhudaur driving off or killing who's left of the Dunedain. Also, maybe its more expansion-appendix material, but I'd love to see a Halbarad and the Rangers vs the Ringwraiths at Sarn Ford before they can break into the Shire; I think that's only been done once and in an ancient White Dwarf issue.
What are you hoping or expecting for models? We've already got new Arnor cav, a new captain hero to go with them and another thing being teased for this month. Some of the expansions have dropped a whole bunch of new models and profiles, while some have only given a handful (and some haven't had actual models provided for those new profiles yet). I don't expect Arnor to become a fully stocked faction with lots and lots of choice, but what might they get? Speculation so far is some sort of bodyguard unit, and maybe Arvedui's son Aranarth as a Ranger of Arnor-styled captain hero (to represent his eventual start as the first Dunedain chieftain, which is a brilliant idea by those who've suggested it). It would also be interesting if they gave an Arnor hero a palantir in their profile to spice things up. Also, maybe Earnur will show up, too? He could be a cool historic profile like Helm Hammerhand or Eorl the Young and confined to a Legendary Legion. Do you expect anything big for Angmar? GW did some rules in older White Dwarf articles and in the War of the Ring expansion for Barbarians of Carn Dum, and there are sorcerer hill-men of Rhudaur among other things GW could freely invent. GW also doesn't flinch at dropping new Orc heroes with these expansions, so maybe Angmar will get some named guys. That War of the Ring expansion even had Werewolves with a full unit profile, and the even older Legions of Middle-earth book listed Werewolves in the original Dol Guldur army list: maybe they'll finally make an appearance?
What Legendary Legions might there be? I'm presuming a "main" one for both Arnor and Angmar, but it'd be great if there were also something unique and specific like a hypothetical Earnur, Knights of Minas Tirith, Glorfindel, and Rivendell Knights LL. Maybe a "united nations" one for good to represent the armies that came together to take out Angmar?
Also, for this month's teaser, I think it'd be really cool if the reveal was something like "The Last Prince of Cardolan," where he can be modeled/played in an Arnor force as a captain-esque hero, or as a Barrow-wight-esque spirit Hero for Angmar. Some people have already pointed out that it would be cool if there was another Thrain the Broken kind of profile that could be fielded in either a Good or Evil army, and the Last Prince of Cardolan could be really themey for either. If they were to go down that route, a scenario with him and some Arnor guys being rescued by Tom Bombadil in the Barrow-downs would be phenomenal. I'm a big fan of narrative scenarios, so it's always great to see the more obscure or less-lore-active profiles and models get to pop up (I'm almost completely certain that my main man Gildor has only been in one "official" scenario since he first showed up over twenty years ago), so here's hoping Tom Bombadil, Goldberry, and Cirdan get some added scenario screen time if the supplement is headed to that part of Middle-earth.
What do you think? The Tell Me a Tale blog has a great speculation post here and the Against All Odds blog has cool posts about Arnor LLs here and Angmar LLs here that are worth checking out. Can't wait for what's to come later this year!

Okay and I know J3VU isn’t new, even though this guy is called J3VU he definitely wasn’t, it was late january to early february, I was new at the time for my parents bought me a VR on christmas. I didn’t know anything about ghosts but my friend roped me into it, I was looking through these real ghost codes lists and found one called “H3LPM3” (help me) it was one far down the list and had no rating at all meaning nobody had ever been in it before. We both joined the code and all was good for around 4 minutes until a red monkey joined named J3VU, I knew it wasn’t J3VU because he is normally green and doesn’t speak, the monkey was doing that head spasm thing and had abnormally long arms, it came up to us and touched each one of us, people got kicked (my friend) I ran into city to try hide but he caught up to me and I was banned for 1 week for cheating. Anytime I join it now (very rarely for I am still a bit worried) nobody is in it.

Hello, I am a 25 y/o female now. Growing up, my Mother was very emotionally disturbed and abusive. She would ice me out, be really nice to me some days when I wasn’t her person to pick on, etc. She would go into screaming rages at time and I remember being a child sobbing in the car in the driveway with my Dad when she’d be fighting with my older sister. She was actually diagnosed with Bipolar II years ago, but decided the diagnosis was wrong. She’s prone to manic episodes, depressive episodes, addictive personality, etc.
Since I’ve been an adult, I’ve been in a lot of therapy with an a great therapist and was diagnosed with OCD and Bipolar II. During my time in therapy, I spoke a lot about my mother and her relationship. We talked a lot about my Mom’s PTSD. She had a terrible childhood and was abused in every way you can think of. She grew up very poor. When I was a teenager, my Mom’s Mom died and her brother committed suicide. This lead to more PTSD and she never made the effort to get into therapy or deal with it outside of throwing herself into religion. I am a non-denominational christian, but I believe in both therapy, medicine, and my religious observations. I believe it has served me well. But onto the reason why I am posting.
For the past few years, we walked through a long season of my Dad’s cancer diagnosis and treatments. My Mom, while being his sole caretaker, complained the whole way through. She had always had a tumultuous relationship with my Dad. They divorced when I was a kid and got back together. I remember them once having an argument so bad that he called the police. Anyway, she would complain that she couldn’t go live her life, she was trapped, she’d rather be homeless than live in an environment like ours, etc. Mind you, we were very financially well off at this time. My Dad was self-employed and had a very successful business. He had been making a name for himself for years (at the time of his passing, he was in his late 70s) and had reached the point where we were good. While the cancer bills and him having to stop working made it less comfortable, we were still okay. I don’t want to air out all of her dirty laundry, but she did go through a period where to escape she’d go to the casino. This did put stress on my Dad and since his passing, we have become very not financially well off or even close, and this has become a reoccurring regret of hers but only in small moments of reality for her.
He passed away, and it seemed like our relationship was improving, probably for the sake of necessity. However, she has recently got a boyfriend, and has been traveling to see him. I think this boyfriend has truly made her regress on all fronts. Any progress I thought was being made has been undone. They fight all the time. They’ve broken up more times than I can count on one hand. At the beginning, she made me feel guilty for not wanting to meet him. My Dad just passing, my Dad who was my best friend, was not a good enough reason for her. She told me she was just going to go on and live her life whether we accept him or not. I folded and met him.
Now, my older sister is about to start treatment for cancer and just had part of her colon removed. She needs a full time caretaker. My Mom is living about an hour away at my brother and sister in law’s house and I’m living with my sister because we couldn’t afford to stay in our rental house. My Mom originally said she could be my sister’s care taker. I am about to start my last semester of college, I’ll be student teaching. I am applying for every scholarship to try and get money, selling things, etc. Meanwhile, I have some jobs lined up in July, and this month, my partner is leaving for a trip across the pond and I won’t see him for a couple weeks, so I’m trying to get as much quality time as I can. So, I watched my sister this past week, and my Mom swore she’d be there Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to cover me (she’s been with her boyfriend — during this time, she told us she’d “go to back to my brother and sister in law’s house and not come back” because we called her out for being insensitive because she was complaining about how long it was taking my sister to get discharged from the hospital because my Mom had to get to a date with her boyfriend, so I just ended up picking her up. This was the day after my Mom said she was breaking up with her boyfriend because he “lied” and their relationship made her feel worthless.) Since I’ve had my break this weekend, my Mom has texted me complaining about taking care of my sister several times and has all but threatened to leave again.
I am so tired. She doesn’t respect my boundaries. I feel like I can’t live my life as a young person, or that I’ve never fully been allowed to because of her. She knows I won’t abandon my sister. But I’m literally going to be out of town friday-sunday of next week and watching my partner’s animals and house for the following two weeks after that. My Mom says my sister might just have to hire home health after that. What do I even do. How do I handle my relationship with my Mom, my only “parent” now.

Hey everyone! My name is Jeff (cue 22 Jump Street jokes), I've been streaming on and off for a couple years and have started making a concrete effort. I stream a variety of games, currently Stardew Valley, Marvel's Midnight Suns, and Batman: Arkham Asylum, I'm always looking for new games to play and would love any suggestions.
A bit about me, I'm a proud father of 6 amazing kids, I have ADHD, and I'm a bit quirky (that means weird but charming). On my streams you can expect some good conversation, a bit of rambling, and random outburst of singing.
I stream at least 3 scheduled days a week but may randomly do surprise streams if I have some free time. I would love to make some friends and build an amazing community, hope to see you all soon!
twitch.tv/jzvenom