I recently finished Atomic Habits by James Clear (which I thought was a great read and I highly recommend) and I'm trying to get in to the habit of reading at least one chapter from a non-fiction book every day (I've already got fiction covered).
So what are your must reads, or what's on your still to read list?
Bonus points from me for self improvement, management/leadership, finances, business, games, development, design, programming, UI/UX but open to most suggestions.

Hello! Please give me your raw advice for what I can do to improve my chances of being admitted to UNC. I don't mind a real/raw answer as that is what I truly need (no need to sugar coat). :)
I want to start off by mentioning that UNC is a reach school for me. I just finished my junior year last week and felt that it would be nice for me to get some tips as I am planning on applying to schools this autumn.
UNC is my dream school because I would like to pursue a study in medicine and UNC has a great program for it! To be frank, UNC hasn't always been my dream school. This is because during my freshman and sophomore year, I did not have good grades for someone who would be admitted to such school.
Most of my grades were a B- and I even got two D's on some final exams. This left me completely hopeless and I told myself that my only option was community college. Due to my hopelessness, I did not even think to try any further.
I had a 3.51 GPA through mostly honors courses, but no AP courses. However, my junior year courses consisted of one AP and the rest being all honors courses. I started to receive much better grades in all of my classes as I decided to give it "one last try." Through this, I managed to raise my GPA to a 4.02, which I am very proud of.
This allowed me to gain some confidence and I began to consider more school options for me and therefore, UNC really captured my attention. I have around 150 volunteer hours, several club experiences, some leadership, along with 7 years of band. I also took courses from a medical-future-based program since my freshman year. I am also an in-state resident (which is a huge plus)! Yet, my concerns arise, because compared to many admitted undergrad students at UNC, I feel that I do not have enough rigor in my classes.
I do have 3 more AP courses scheduled for my senior year, which will begin in August, but I am not sure if those would count. Upon addressing my concerns with my school counselor and some senior friends who were admitted to UNC, I was told that a strong letter of recommendation and eye-catching essay may help improve my chances of acceptance.
I have already asked some teachers who know me very well and helped me for letters of recommendations and received the OK!
I have a few ideas for what I want to write my essay about, but I am afraid that they may be cliche. My ideas are:
1.) I grew up as "fat" and "ugly" child, but was able to change into what society would consider to be more attractive through my efforts (working out, eating healthier, taking care of myself more in general). I am thinking about writing about how the treatment I received from society (depending on my physical appearance) allowed me to grow/mature, learn, and realize how society truly is like.
2.) When I received the worst grades that I ever had during my first two years of high school (receiving D's on some final exams, always getting 60's on my tests, etc), I truly believed that this was the "end of the world" for me. I am thinking about writing about how my unexpected growth this past school year allowed me to learn about the value of effort and self-strength, how one shouldn't give up, & how I discovered my growing strive and love to be educated.
Thank you so much for reading to this point! I really appreciate you for that. Please let me know about any tips or advice. :)

I apologize for the sheer wall of text but maybe this will be good cathartic Sunday reading? It helps a lot to write it out. I am a 49M widower, three years out of losing my wife (48F), father of three adult kids. Last year I felt I was ready to find love again, and joined a dating app. Very quickly I matched with Lexi (47F, not her real name) and was smitten right away.
I am in the tech and startup space in my city and she had just moved from the opposite coast with a tech background and two exits. In fact, she swiped on me because we had just connected by email two weeks earlier because she was looking to join the startup scene in her new home.
She was so accomplished and warm and smart. She was into Buddhism and spoke much of the language of my childhood in terms of peace and joy. We had so much in common. We quickly talked about cofounding a startup, I loved her own dreams for the future, she was supportive of mine. We were honest and vulnerable and despite feeling utterly naive and awkward it felt great.
It was also complicated. She had been married twice before, the most recent physically abusive and prompting her cross-country escape with her two sons. She was self-aware enough to know she was dealing with the trauma and I was wholeheartedly supportive. Practical things like helping her finish all the paperwork for her divorce or keeping a distance so as not to upset her kids made sense.
But over time and sometimes with great pain we would run into triggers and need to break and reset. Our attempts to do something together were too hard because she would fear losing control—which made sense. She was terrified of not having support in a new city and I made sure to be available to her as much as possible—down to reserving certain hours every day to be with her. She asked me to move into her building, then panicked because her sons might see me, so I moved into the building next door.
I loved her so much and wanted to do everything to keep her happy or at least feeling safe. Maybe my years as a caretaker to my late wife conditioned me in this way. But Lexi and I knew we both were in complex places in our lives and tried hard to navigate things. She read about dating a widower, I read about PTSD and ASD—something she felt explained a lot going back to childhood, from sensory sensitivity to difficulty reading nuance in social situations. As an awkward guy myself, I was empathetic.
We co-developed a shared document that basically helped us avoid landmines. When our daily time together would be. Where to park so she wouldn’t notice if I wasn’t home. Boundaries to protect her kids—which did feel like we were sneaking around and would fill her with guilt. She loved to cook and had specific dietary preferences and I adopted the same diet (and still stick to it, mostly, because it did improve my health). She said she felt safer the more of my face she could see, so I changed my glasses and shaved my facial hair. She was afraid of getting pregnant so I got my long-planned vasectomy.
And this all sound crazy, but I was happy to do it, and she seemed to be trying hard, too. She adopted ASD coping strategies, we put reminders around our respective homes, she even put my photo on her wall as part of a ranked list of priorities… though I think I came after her boys and her dogs. (I’m a cat person but loved her dogs, dogsat her dogs, and the regular walks were a main way we spent time together, even when things were rocky.) More articles and books, personality tests, studying results to find paths forward. She had a science background so did find some comfort in analyzing us.
The biggest trigger was that I would sometimes travel out of town. I work remotely so it wasn’t hard to just stay put. But before we met I’d planned to go to a big concert in LA with my daughter, and couldn’t not go. That one weekend trip was the biggest hurdle we faced. I even paid for therapy for her and kept my promise to keep in constant touch—but it caused a two-week break, and a lot of anguish thereafter. She felt abandoned even as I showed in every way that I was committed. A couple of times she had panic attacks and curled into a ball while we were out and about. Once she ran from me, genuinely afraid of me, when I had gotten frustrated and made a sarcastic remark.
Because of her past abuse, the physical side of our relationship was also tricky. There were rules here, too, but as a middle-age effective virgin, I was still into it. I’d only had one serious partner in my life, so everything was new and amazing… but for it to also be a hot-cold-voracious-guilt rollercoaster was… confusing. A few times I would be strong enough to say, “If this is too hard, we could just be friends.” But THAT was, as you might imagine, another huge threat to her sense of safety.
Until she concluded the same. We pledged—via email, because by then even text messages were too intense for her—to be good, single friends. Walks, hikes, movies. Love you always. Then no contact for four months. She mailed my keys back to me.
Of course, I still lived next door, and ran into her maybe four times during that span. She seemed stricken a couple of times, and would not speak, not really look up, and twice crossed the street to avoid me. Her dogs were happy to see me, which made it especially awkward. I tell you, I felt like the worst person on earth, a man who failed to be a good partner and caretaker when I thought that was a strength. I was worried that I made her PTSD worse, that she was a wreck…
Until three weeks ago, our anniversary. She said she was sorry for causing me pain and wanted to be friends. I could have fainted dead. We met up for lunch.
She was glowing. She was so happy. Her sons were now both adults and she decided they were going to be just fine, and feeling liberated. She wasn’t ASD, it was just PTSD. She had started a graduate program to become a therapist (something we discussed), happy to both be able to tap her experiences to help others and to have the chance to practice with herself and classmates. She turned her love of cooking into selling her stuff at a local market (something we discussed). gave up her diet because it made it hard to date. And she’d been dating. And had a boyfriend who was taking her out of town for a week. I immediately saw the brilliant woman I first met, and was frankly gutted. I was happy she was happy, I was crushed that she got where she is AFTER me, not WITH me.
My friends tell me she was genuinely troubled and that PTSD doesn’t just vanish in a few months. That she was wearing a mask with me, and that this new boyfriend—with whom she also has amazing commonalities—is getting the same “mimic” behavior. That, if anything, her wanting to reconnect means she’s looking to assuage guilt or regain a part of her still critical support system. That I turned myself inside out for her, and the most important question to ask myself is whether I should be as open to being friends as I am. They're afraid she might want to get back together eventually because I was so accommodating—and they might be right.
I made a lot of changes in my life for her, many positive, many that still persist. I feel like it would be a waste to go through what we did and NOT be friends. But I definitely went through the wringer and I feel like I’m now the one recovering from trauma. I believe in therapy and am going to work on this. But I’d value an objective take.
TDLR; First relationship as a widower was to an amazing but complex woman was very fraught and fell apart. After no contact for four months she asked to meet up, and she was glowing and normal and I’m shook. Was it bad timing and I missed my chance, or is she maybe not really okay? And can we still be friends?

When I go to groups on Facebook for writers and readers/listeners I am finding a lot of traffic, yet no one is talking about this platform on Reddit. No one is discussing the experience of being a writer for the platform but I see the stories. I am reading them and the site is growing fast. I was trying to do research on Kindle Vella vs PocketFM but I have yet to find any useful information from writers. PocketFM acts as a 'publisher' and will take on exclusive rights to your work once you enter into the Writer's Benefit Program. You will have the opportunity to earn up to $750 a month. I have only seen the basic $200 plus a month earnings from other writers thus far. I have a few Ebooks on Amazon but haven't attempted to upload a series to Kindle Vella. Maybe I will try to do both platforms to see which will be the most rewarding.

hello! i’m probably going to transfer universities after my freshman year. i had a lackluster application season (i kind of put all my eggs into one basket) and now im in between two colleges. my major is film for reference!! but i’m also going to double major or minor in english.
school 1 is a kind of competitive art school (43% acceptance) but is SUPER expensive. school 2 is a local public state school (73% acceptance, 46% grad rate) but is really cheap and close to home.
school 1 will put me in a lot of debt, but has good transfer rates to other schools if i decide to leave it and a fantastic program for my major! school 2 is cheap but i’m worried that i will be stuck there. the program for film is not that good, and the school itself is not really that popular. i only know of it because a few of my friends are going tbh and i will definitely transfer after my first year.
i’m looking to transfer to vanderbilt, columbia/barnard, nyu, usc, ucla, utaustin, vassar, etc! i know a few of these aren’t t25 but a lot are so i’m posting here anyways. i’m really eyeing vandy, columbia, and nyu mainly. i got rejected from barnard and nyu lol
i had average stats this app season (4.1 gpa, 30 act score, a few theater and speech awards, communications internship, animal shelter volunteer work) but i would spend my first year grinding out school work and gaining more film experience! i just don’t want to be stuck in my state forever, and i want to be closer to the film industry in urban areas!
thank you for reading!! if you have any advice or answers for me i would greatly appreciate them!!!!!

Warning this is a very long read without a TLDR
I left this sub and joined the ryerson sub in 2021. Leaving behind my big drive of notes which is what I assume keeps driving these posts talking about grade inflation to my feed. My last few comments were very similar to everyone’s posts as of now - grade inflation, unfair admissions, feeling close to your goals and it being taken away. 3 years later here’s where I came from and what I’m doing now, why it’s not your fault and to offer a bit of hope if it helps. :)
In grade 12 (end of 2021) I had an 89 average, I was rejected from the majority of life sci and health sci programs (if a school had both I applied to both of them) - mac, u of t, queens, western. I got into York psych, health, TMU bio, undeclared arts and psych (waitlist), Laurier health sci and ottawa health sci. (some of my programs might be off if it’s wrong, the overarching field is what I mean). My goal was U of T life sci and to go to medical school. Laurier and Ottawa were off the table after my family and I came to the conclusion that we don’t have the money for me to move away, removing my last two life/sci options. I honestly wasn’t a big fan of York leaving TMU as my last option. I really wanted a life science or health science program because the curriculum after first year was not simply bio, chem, physics so I veered from biology at TMU.
So I ultimately ended up accepting undeclared arts as I was waitlisted for psychology. At the end of June, I got off the waitlist for psychology and accepted that. At the time, I was seriously unhappy with myself I was angry at the fact that people were getting opportunities that I wanted that didn’t deserve them due to inflation and lack of standardization of monitoring of tests during online schooling and just overall how poorly my high school experience ended. I’m talking full breakdowns about how I worked so hard and got nothing in return. I had teachers who genuinely believed that I was one of the best students that they had in years and told me that I would go far. I had a teacher go as far as writing a letter for no reason other than to just say how proud they were of me and how they knew that I would do great - which at the time I truly didn’t believe after not achieving any of the goals that I had set for myself at the beginning of grade 12.
My first year of psychology was online for my first semester where I did decently well I got a 3.0 my second semester, ended up being entirely in person because the online sections of classes were full. At the time I wanted to do medicine this dream quickly got away from me when second semester in person classes left me with a 2.67 gpa for the semester. I had a realization looking upon my peers who were still completely online at TMU or at other universities had much much better GPA than me and I wouldn’t be able to get into medicine with my GPA. So again I felt let down by systems that ultimately led to further inequality in education. I let go of the idea of medicine and had no idea what I wanted to do after my undergrad.
After my first year, I decided to join the course union at my school, which was one of the best decisions I ever made. I met amazing people who encouraged me to do better, peers who were higher years than me and gave me advice when needed and from there, my grades got better. after joining the course union I joined the liberal arts union and from there I worked on about five more different positions over the next two years. TMU is generally not seen as the best school and it’s not necessarily “competitive” but that can work in your favour because there’s so many positions available whereas at other schools where people may be more inclined to take these these positions making them more competitive. Joining these course unions gave me so many opportunities and so many things that are now on my CV that continue to provide more opportunities, for example I was offered a job at the school based on all my experience. My CV is now what I would consider amazing with all the work that I’ve gained that is applicable to the field that I want to work in and because of my experience on my CV I got a research assistant position where I have a great academic relationship with a prof. And I got my gpa up enough it’s not near a 4.00 or anything crazy but it’s good enough for me to get into grad school.
I always knew that I didn’t want to stay in psychology after I graduated so I completed my degree in three years rather than four. I also want to mention you do not need to complete your degree in three years. There’s no need for it. Had I stayed for an extra year I would’ve had so many more opportunities with extracurriculars. It’s just I did not love the psychology curriculum enough to want to stay in it for another year. I had taken summer school courses before coming to this conclusion, and I had so many credits that I didn’t want to switch programs so I fast tracked. All that being said, do not rush your degree unless for example, you don’t like it and have plans to do something unrelated afterwards - for me it was a masters in a different field that the only requirement was a bachelor’s degree so I didn’t see the point in switching. Having gained all of the research experience and extracurricular experience in the field that I want to pursue is what made my degree nonetheless beneficial even though I wasn’t doing what I had originally planned.
As of now, I will be beginning my masters at U of T in the fall (not in psychology). I feel very accomplished and fulfilled with everything I’ve done and I feel like the person that all those teachers said that I was back in high school. While I didn’t go to U of T for life sciences, and become a doctor like I had thought I would I am going to U of T nonetheless for a field I didn’t even know existed. I found and great community and something I genuinely love by continually working hard after feeling like I was ripped off by grade inflation and online school. All of which is so minuscule to everything I’ve gone on to do.
Moral of my story is you might feel ripped off right now, that your hard work went unnoticed and you might feel like you’re never going to accomplish your goals. But the truth is, it's very minuscule to the potential that you have. And as long as you continue to use your work ethic and potential wherever you go, you will be successful. You don't need big fancy school. You can do just as well if not better at schools that are seen as less prestigious or competitive as long as you continue to put in the hard work that you did in high school. So please don't feel like you have lost something but feel that you have gained the potential to do more. If you’re truly uncertain about accepting a program, take the time off think about alternate fields and try applying again, it might be better than toughing it out in a program you don’t really care about. If you’re dead set on going to university this fall, don’t wanna take time off and want to apply again and didn’t get into the one you planned, join extracurriculars meet new people and keep putting in work and it will pay off.
And I’m not saying you’re wrong in anyway for complaining and feeling the way that you feel because I felt the same way. You’re all valid asf. All I’m saying is don’t beat yourself up and don’t feel like you’re the problem because there’s so many opportunities for you so long as you seek them out and take them and you will end up in a much better position in the end.

I'm junior year physics student and looking for particle physics research. I have no research background and job experience, also not familiar with programming, but I have pretty good gpa (4.0). I took all lower level physics classes and modern physics.
I looked up the most recent publishes of the professor who leads the group I want to join but could not understand at all except the introduction, but still want to experience cutting-edge physics and what exactly physicist do in research.
I know I should contact professor first so wondering what should I say in the contact mail. Can I mail like "hey professor I read your recent publishes and I was really interested. Do you need any undergrad student in your group?" (of course i'm not gonna mail exactly like this). Also should I send my CV too? Even I have nothing to show?
Can anyone in similar situation share your experience? Thank you in advance.

Hello everyone, so I was looking to withdraw money from my 401k. The guy online said I can do a hardship program and listed about 7 reasons to qualify. The options were like funeral, purchasing home, going to school etc. My reason for it is I really need it to pay off CC debt. Cards are maxed out and with these minimum payments, I’m left with nothing from my checks every two weeks. Does anyone know if Debt could be an option to qualify to take out the funds? It wasn’t listed but I did read that it said “your plan may also have other qualifying provisions.”
Also, can’t do 401k loans since I’ve taken those out already and aren’t getting paid off until next year.

Where do I begin. For the purpose of this post, I will use fictious names and locations as it is ongoing, and out of respect (even though she doesn't deserve any)
My name is Daniel. I am 35 years old, and i am dying. I have a disease called systemic sclerosis. I am currently on a supplemental disability plan, until I get approved for SSI (social Security). Until then, my income is about 4K a month. I own a home but after child support and bills, NOT INCLUDING gas, food, haircuts, medical appointments, and or emergencies like my fridge just broke. (which i never go out) I am left with $260 that has to last me a month. I also have three children who I have to take care of half the time per the 50/50 agreement.
Recently, I found out my oldest, (who is 13) is not biologically mine. I decided to look into it as I had concerns for a while since my divorce as her cheating was very rampant. I also had caught her in 2017 with a man in my house, which is what prompted the divorce. But FL being a no fault state, doesn't matter. I also had to pay child support since the beginning and WHILE LEGALLY Married since 2010 because she had applied for financial support like food stamps and government assistance then. I know what your thinking. Why didnt you stop it then? I tried. You cant take yourself off child support. I also never grew up with a father and wanted that two-parent household. I don't run from responsibilities, like he did. Its how I was raised. Anyways, I married her, tried to do the right thing, she lied numerous times. she never worked, and I worked 90 plus hours a week. To look into her cheating, was impossible at the time as I was never home. and to busy providing for my family.
fast forward to now. My disease started to become worse and over three years; it didn't reveal itself until last year fully to actually pinpoint what this was. for instance, I had in 2019 pain behind my eyes and horrible headaches to the point that I thought I had MS. following year, I had trouble swallowing for 3 months. next year itching in the skin for three months. But prior, I had visited various doctors to see what was going on, each time a flare up then would last 3 to four months, which again, when you don't understand what's going on, you need to take time off to go see doctors, run tests, but this illness was and still is very elusive. with that being said I had 5 jobs since its first flare up till last year to continue to support my family and to pay child support. as of last year. I'm having trouble moving on certain days, breathing and acid reflux and muscle atrophy. (disease progression) especially when this is going on, it worsens everything as this is flared up. I was working under the table to try and make ends meet as I was paying child support still. I should add that the child support with 50/50 custody was $1029 for three kids cause I was making six figures at the time of divorce in 2018. Last year however, I couldn't work anymore, and filed for disability.
In june of last year, I had asked Susan, to get the children school supplies, (which she never does) as I was still paying at the time $1029 in child support. She said she didnt have the money despite now making 70k and her new BF living with her and is working whom she cheated on me with. With me working under the table, I bought them clothes, haircuts, school supplies (ive done every year) but then, I noticed she went on vacation to puerto rico and got a giant leg tattoo. At the time, I had already known what I had, and I asked myself why the heck am I doing this? So i turned to an attorney to get it modified. Again, this is June 20th to be exact of last year. My lawyer, stated that this was only going to be a 90 day turn around for the temporary modification then we will go for the final.
Since then, I have gone for a DNA test. I had to know. I am dying. I wanted to know. And you may judge me for this. but i have filed for disablement for paternity, meaning I am removing myself from the birth certificate. However, in the state of Florida, a mother can deny this and so can the courts. before you judge me, I have many reasons none of which have to do with him other then his mental disability (Aspergers) This illness, as days go by takes more and more from me. As previously aforementioned, I am left with 250 a month. I cannot go get a drs appointment pay for groceries or start planning my funeral which I will start making payments on soon. He also eats three times the amount that we all collectively do (Not his fault) but I have paid enough both mentally and financially. He also has trouble communicating as my suspicions is, that he was born of incest (gross) which is why I was 'chosen' to be his father at the time. Before you ask how do you know? Lets just say she had an uncle 'leave' during that time.
anyways, in February, I had the temporary modification hearing for child support and needless to say it was a circus. My doctor was subpoenaed to be there by my attorneys request to better my argument, even though I felt we didn't need her, she advised me to have my doctor there. Well, he attorney attacked my doctor and me for an hour and 40 mins when the court case was only supposed to go for an hour. He said "you saw another dr Max so and so and they said it was all in your head" (again I had flare ups on a illness that hadnt revealed itself correctly since last year). So there argument was that I was doctor seeking to avoid child support. After I have paid for 13 years never missing a payment. Her lawyer also targeted people who are living with me. Now I'll admit that I said they were friends which is true but how else can I pay for my attorney? Cant work, cant sell drugs, cant rob a bank? So they want to take there income into consideration. BS. She also hired a private investigator to watch me exercise outside and stated that because I can exercise, I can work..... Ok. Where's the 23 hours of the rest of the day watching me in pain. or when do you have me on video of a flare up from this terminal illness? (that's what I wanted to say)
Although I was granted the temporary modification, of $209, I left the court thinking wow, this woman can cheat, commit paternity fraud, not give two craps about our children, live with her mom in a section 8 home, and here I am doing whatever I can and I've done nothing wrong but be lied to and this is how my government, my country treats me? No wonder men my age dont have children this is insane. The paternity issue wasn't even brought up they said that this isnt the place for this and that the disestablishment will be another trial for those wondering. My lawyer only spoke for 5 mins. Asking her about her income cause thats the only thing that has changed since 2018 since she didnt work at the time. Other than that, it was an attack on me and my disease arguing my ability to work.
after leaving that, I didnt eat for 96 hours. I have since been crying nonstop. Compilating suicide. I am already heart broken about my son not being mine. Sure does a terminal illness make me said, no question everyday. But a life wasted on another? Cause I decided to be a man and take up responsibility? thats soul crushing. And to say "well, there is a big chance the courts will deny your request' thats BS. If i go to prison because I was accused of a robbery for 13 years, and DNA evidence proves I wasnt there, I get out of jail and can sue. This is no different. If anything, DNA evidence needs to be more of a factor in family law than in almost every court of law if not as equally important. My bad for not investigating her infidelity not only in the beginning but also in the end. How about not being a POS. sorry rant over
gets better. Her mom and dad smoke in the section 8 house, kids reek of cigarette smoke and marijuana, all day. they dont take showers there, they were hand me down clothes, they live in the garage shared with there mother, that isn't air conditioned. and he makes only a few thousand less than I do a month. She stated in court that she pays her mom $500 in rent which is BS, she is only doing that now so that she makes herself look bad. I know she is doing pills, like oxy and what not. Id love to prove it.
after the temp hearing, in april, I had to go to court to contest my drivers license suspension as I hadn't paid child support since, august of last year. again, there is no way, I can pay my bills, feed my children, go to the doctor, pay my lawyer to end all of this BS and pay the current child support amount. and again, this final hearing is still not set yet. So they intercepted my tax return, even though the temporary modification was approved, the final is what gets it retro backed to the date of filing, so they took, a much needed 5500 tax return from me. I needed that cause one of the issues I failed to mention as well, hurricane Ian has destroyed my home and I'm still going through that process too. not to mention I am on payment plans with Mayo clinic and other various medical facilities. (no one cares) but the interest that accrues, makes it impossible to catch up. also, Florida department of rev is overstepping I feel, and asking for medical info to be sent to them as well as updated doctors letters to be sent saying that I am still on disability.
a few weeks ago, I got an email from my lawyer having a withdrawal notice from her lawyer. in the withdrawal, he stated that he cannot represent her, due to something she may have withheld or lied about (more or less wasn't worded like that but you can tell). In feb court appearance they never produced the PI report, or videos, they had medical info they shouldn't have had, and they had very outlandish comments about my lifestyle. So my lawyer filed immediately a motion to compel. meaning, we want to see everything you have on my client. this was filed almost immediately after court appearance on feb 20th. Susan has failed to provide any updated info requested by my attorney so on june 18th, we have that upcoming hearing.
in the mean time, I have sent my lawyer, a very heavily requested topics, such as "where did they get my medical records, if those were lies, what are the consequences if any"? What did exercising have to do with any of this despite various drs saying he has to or he will get worse.
I know wat you must be thinking, what about your oldest, how can you do that to him. Please listen. This woman has taken everything from me. And i mean everything but the roof over my head. I am seeing a therapist to help with the suicidal thoughts. it isnt enough. the reality of it is, I chose to be loyal and it bit me in the butt. This disease will rob me of everything, my teeth will fall out ( I had 5 cavities last time I went to the dentist) I haven't had a cavity since I was 30 and even then I was suspicious. And I am brushing 5 time s a day to save them. My skin is tightening, and my arms and muscles are wasting. I will literally be left with nothing. My organs will also start to harden, and I will have to start getting around the clock care.
I forgot to mention they (child support) recently, sent a letter to SSI (social security) saying that they would garnish my SSI before I even got it, totaling $1029. the incorrect amount. I sent this to my lawyer and she is looking into it. But it shows that child support will overstep and breaks every law or freedom you may think you have. I DO take care of my children. if they need a haircut i do it, school supplies clothes, anything I do it. And I do it, cause she wont. What I want to leave you with, is that woman can be dead beats too. Child support was designed to have woman off of government subsidized programs like section 8 food stamps and what not. Also to make the man pay for their children man or woman I should say, I know this. I am not running from my obligation. I just want Susan, to have to pay for what's she's done to me and the kids.
I would like to hear your thoughts on this, please comment and share, all names are fake, but everything else is unfortunately real. I know it was wordy, but I wanted to provide as much backstory as possible. And please. Respect my descions. When you are end of life, I hope someone would be kind enough to respect yours. You may not agree and that's ok, but I am asking you to respect them. Thank you for reading.

TL;DR I liked the album, I feel the songwriting is great but the musical ideas just aren't there
Keep in mind while reading this that, as a general listener, I absolutely did like the album. Had it been somebody's debut, I'd be calling them the best new artist I heard this year, and I'd be looking forward to anything to come. But as a Billie release, I was hoping for something more.
First of all, I think the record is great pop music, and if every mainstream release had this level, we would be experiencing the best time for music ever.
The songwriting is fantastic, probably the best it's ever been in her career, which is something that I had anticipated given that it's been a continuous improvement from DSAM on, whit a huge growth between HTE and GuitarSongs-WWIMF.
Also, I'm a fan of the album format and I really enjoyed the choice of not releasing singles, it was great to go into the record without knowing anything.
However, I feel like they had these really strong songs and just... casted them in the same blueprint, the whole record sounds a bit one note to me. Phoebe Bridgers makes for a great comparison, as I think her first record has the same problem, which is fixed in the second one by massively expanding the sound palette. Here it feels like they did the opposite and went from records with a great diversity of sounds, to one that only relies on songwriting and everything else is kinda there as a background
I feel the musical ideas just aren't there. Most of the musical changes feel more like random changes in the song, and the one that works best, The Greatest, really falls in the shadow of Happier Than Ever, where it's done in a more creative and disruptive way. Come on, the rock scene ditched power chords at the start of the century, and we are now using it as the only possible way to make a song feel big? This is Billie Eilish y'all, not Taylor Swift, interesting sound design, choiches and unconventional musical ideas have always been at the core of her discography.
I do appreciate that they decided to go towards a more "band" oriented sound, with most instruments being actually played and not fully programmed in midi, but it feels like they hired a band and just told them to go and fill the void under the vocals. There's a lot of quiet singin over the same five drum samples + bass and it gets boring pretty fast imo.
I'm saying this because I love Billie. I've seen what she can do and it kinda saddens me when I listen to her record and I have to put it on par with artists that I like way less than her. I didn't love HTE as much as WWAFAWDWG, but it still felt like a great release, to be one of the best of the year. Guitar Songs and the Barbie songs were also great as spinoffs, but now it's like the whole record feels like a spinoff (?)
Which is still good just... Kinda there. I'll forget about it in a couple of weeks I'm afraid. Can't help but give it a 6½/10

Reasonable is a subjective term...
Warning: Long and insane rant incoming.

Preface

I’ve been spending way too much time responding to individual comments recently, so I decided to put all my thoughts into one post.
I’ll start by getting it out of the way that I’m not a racist or sexist. I’m a Japanese American man who happens to think Adewale and Aveline are among the coolest protagonists in AC and has no issues with an African, Indian, Korean, etc. protagonist, man or woman, in any setting where they make sense. (More on the making sense part later.)
Kassandra is also one of my favorites, but while she and Eivor were better than nothing, they were both essentially just female skins. Their stories should’ve acknowledged their gender in some way imo, and I’ve argued way more than I should’ve with people who pulled the historical accuracy card on them.
I agree that some of the people who complain about Yasuke sound like racists, but I think you can legitimately object to his being a co-star without racism being involved. (I’m also slowly coming around to accepting Yasuke.)
I also realize that I shouldn’t judge the game too harshly yet, as it hasn’t been released yet... But we do have the trailer.
With that out of the way, as an Asian male and longtime fan of the series, I’m disappointed that they squandered the perfect opportunity to have a positive/cool depiction of a Japanese male in the Japanese and first East Asian entry in one of the most popular series in the world given the decades-long history of western media’s marginalizing and demeaning Asian men. I mention AC’s popularity to point out the potential it has to positively influence a wide audience.
I'll respond to most of justifications I've seen for Yasuke as a protagonist in an AC game set in Japan one by one for easier reading.

“Yasuke is a better audience surrogate...”

This is a weak excuse. No one has ever complained about this, because the series has always had the perfect surrogate in the form of the modern-day protagonist.
And let’s face it, an info dump is an info dump. No one wants to hear extended explanations on the finer points of Japanese society, no matter who it’s conveyed to. The database can handle the deeper stuff, and any info necessary for the player could’ve just as easily been explained to a slightly unaccustomed Japanese rookie samurai.
“Better audience surrogate” is a solution to a problem that didn’t exist.

"But Naoe is Japanese...”

This justification falls flat on me, because the problems have always been different between Asian men and woman in western media. Portrayals of Asian women used to focus on exotic sexualization, but because of that, they got comparatively more screen-time than their male counterparts.
The Naoe defense also ignores that fact that we could've had both a Japanese female AND male protagonist if Ubisoft followed their most recent 4-game (if you count Origins) track record of male and female protagonists that are both of their setting. It just doesn’t sit right with me that they decided to change this formula among others with the first East Asian setting.

“But people didn’t complain about Nioh’s white protag...”

This accusation falls flat on me too, because Nioh is not a good comparison. It’s a straight-up fantasy game that focuses exclusively on fighting supernatural enemies. It doesn’t pretend to have an ounce of historical accuracy or realism.
It was also made by a Japanese company that has a track record of including Japanese protagonists. That track record gives them some leeway to change things up without being accused of whitewashing Asian characters.

"But Yasuke is a real part of Japan's history..."

He's a footnote in Japan's history. If we're being honest, the only reason we even know about him is because he was black in a time when there were almost no black people and was a retainer for Nobunaga. Nothing in his historical record mentions him doing anything else of much significance, most likely because there was very little he could do in his position. It's not racist to acknowledge this.
Again, as a longtime Japanese American fan of the series, I'm happy that AC Japan is finally here but disappointed that Ubi decided to inflate a small part of "Japan's" history and slap him on the cover as one of its representatives. I would feel the same (worse actually) if it was William Adams there.
I'd also feel the same if a hypothetical white protagonist who was a footnote in an African nation's history took the place of a fictional African protagonist. I think most people would feel the same too, and the uproar would surely be greater.

"But Yasuke WAS an actual samurai..."

I think the debate about whether he was or wasn't a "samurai" is largely irrelevant and completely misses the point. I agree that he was a "samurai," but historical records also make it sound like he was Nobunaga's favored trophy pet (if we're being completely honest). (The preceding sentence got me permanently banned for "racism" on the main AC subreddit, but I don't think it's racist to acknowledge racism, even the overt form it took in the past.) It's entirely possible (and likely) that he was made an honorary "samurai" for that reason alone. Because "samurai" is technically just a title and privileged position.
The real question is, "Did Yasuke fit the classic image of a badass armored warrior or robed ronin most people imagine (and that appeared in the trailer) when they think 'samurai'?"
The Japanese (especially in the past) actually use a different word when they're being specific about warriors fitting that image, and it's "bushi" (as in "bushido" or "way of the warrior"). That word is conspicuously missing from Yasuke's historical record. There's probably a reason for that.

"But Yasuke's story deserves to be told..."

Similar to the badass warrior aspect, nothing in the historical record specifically mentions that he learned the language or integrated into the culture particularly well, so any portrayal of that sort is wishful appropriation at best imo.
At that point, are you really telling his story? Is there value in promoting fanciful conjecture that is based on essentially nothing? Obviously, there’s a monetary incentive for Ubi to capitalize on the popular trend of farfetched depictions of Yasuke, but is that it?
It’s a given that the real Yasuke probably lived a fascinating life, but Ubi will likely gloss over the actual struggles he faced as a complete outsider in a frankly very racist time and place. It almost seems disrespectful to attribute all sorts of things that probably weren’t true just to spice things up for a video game. (And yes, I think Ubi should've included at least some examples of the struggles Kassandra and Eivor would've surely faced, but at least they were made up people.)

“Go play Ghost of Tsushima...”

These people are probably the worst. Honestly, I think Ubi is also guilty of agreeing with the underlying sentiment in this line of thinking. Contrary to others, I think Yasuke was less of a “woke” diversity decision and more of a “GoT already did a Japanese guy” decision.
I think that borders on racism when you consider that that’s never a concern when it’s the umpteenth white protagonist in a medieval European setting (or any setting). It implies that Asian characters are just too similar to each other to be marketable too close to each other.
But they’re only similar to each other in western-made media because western writers cling to tired tropes like honor and stoicism. The perpetuation of such stereotypes has an impact. I’ve seen people here claim that it’s a fact that Japanese people are uniquely less capable of resisting societal constrictions, hence the choice of Yasuke.
Another implied that historical codes of honor are things that most Japanese people still live by. They’re not, and that person obviously doesn’t know too many Japanese people and probably got their misconception from one-sided media portrayals.
Just like the codes of chivalry for European knights, the codes of Japanese honor were simply the ideals of the people that wrote them, who were themselves just a small subset of their population. It’s impossible to think that all or even most of the people back then actually abided by them, samurai or not.
And I'm a fan of the AC series. I'm not interested in playing GoT.

Historical accuracy vs believability

While there are definitely significant historical accuracy issues with that portrayal of Yasuke, they’re comparatively minor next to the replacement issue in my mind. Historical accuracy is really only an issue for me in the context of a more general believability issue.
Why would anyone, Assassin or Templar, choose the only black person in Japan as their secret agent in the field? Firsthand accounts describe crowds of onlookers offering money to catch a glimpse of him wherever he went.
An extremely-conspicuous total-outsider is simply the least ideal protagonist in a series about remaining inconspicuous while murdering dozens of people. Previous protagonists could fully navigate their environments because they were a part of them. Knowing their lands, languages, peoples, and cultures and fitting in with them, I can believe that they successfully moved through them while keeping their actions (and names) hidden from the pages of history.
I can even buy that Kassandra and Eivor existed despite “historical accuracy.” Because half the population of any group of people is women, the two could conceivably blend in and be forgotten imo, especially when you consider that they also lived MUCH further back in time. There's much more we don't know about that far back in history.
This might be another thing that's falsely construed as racist, but it's a fact that local populations don't take kindly to singularly-unique foreign outsiders cutting down their friends and loved ones, regardless of who their boss is. Yasuke would’ve been (in)famous and lived on in legends told for generations, even if the Templars tried to erase his historical record. He would've surely been seen and positively identified as Nobunaga’s famous black samurai by hundreds of witnesses as he did all the things the non-stealthy one of the two protagonists does.

“But Leonardo da Vinci didn’t actually help assassins build a hidden blade either...”

The central conceit of the AC series has always been playing with the idea of secret organizations, conspiracies, ancient beings, and sci-fi artifacts being involved with figures and events within the blank spaces of history. Yes, Yasuke’s blanks are big, but again, they wouldn’t be big if he was doing the things we saw in the trailer.
Any believability issues that previous AC games had are multiplied tenfold by Yasuke being a combination of real, black, and not an NPC in Sengoku Japan. It’s a substantial layer of unbelievability added on top of a base that already existed in previous games that did in fact claim some semblance of believability. Yasuke is just on another level, and while I think it’s fine to enjoy him in Shadows as pure fantasy, let’s not pretend he makes any sense. Which brings me to my main issue...

Representation and the replacement issue

Considering the nonsensical nature of Yasuke as a protagonist, it makes his taking the spot as the series’ first Asian male lead in a mainline game all the more off-putting to me. In the best-case scenario, Ubi is simply trying to capitalize on the popular cool black samurai trend as I mentioned. But they’re still doing it at the expense of an Asian male lead.
I admit that western media has gotten a lot better at representation, but it’s still a fairly recent thing and there’s still a long way to go. A recent hot-take of an IGN article made at least one correct claim that Asian representation shouldn’t be confined to ninjas and samurai.
But the solution to the problem isn’t to take away some of the only positive but one-sided representations we have. The solution is to broaden Asian representation to portray them as ordinary people with diverse appearances and personalities in all walks of life. Until that becomes a norm, Asians should be allowed to star as ninjas, samurai, kung fu masters, etc. as long as the depictions aren’t negative caricatures. In fact, they can be gateways to diversifying their portrayals.
If Ubi really wanted to differentiate itself from GoT’s Jin, they could’ve just given Shadows’ samurai a completely different personality instead of lazily changing his race. It’s about time a western dev broke away from the tired stoic warrior trope. "But this is Ubisoft... They're incapable of nuanced portrayals of minorities..." That's cop-out excuse imo.
No one game can reverse decades of marginalization and negative stereotypes, but individual movies, shows, public discourses, and yes, video games make up the collective whole of media, which has a massive impact on perceptions within a society. I believe individual representations make a difference, so I support increased diversity in every piece of media as long as it’s not at the expense of good writing and not at the expense of opportunities for other marginalized groups.

Conclusion

If you read everything this far, thank you. Again, I realize that the game isn’t even out yet and that I may be proven spectacularly wrong somehow. Either way, I can now focus my ire on the excessive monetization and live service BS that Shadows and the Infinity hub will surely have, and you all should too :) Or maybe I'll just touch grass.
NOTE: This post was initially removed from assassinscreed because "it covered a topic covered within the last 7 days." I've since been permanently banned from that subreddit for a separate reason mentioned in the post, so I've reposted here. I revised the original post by adding some points and making it more readable, but it's essentially the same from before.
Mods, please don't remove this or ban me. I spent a lot of time and thought on this, and I think it's respectful to everyone.

Hey.
I just downloaded all of the polar data from my account.
Its all just a bunch of files in json format.
I want to extract as much of the sleep data from what I downloaded to present to a sleep physician, but i have no idea where to start in parsing that data. Im proficient with programming, so i can read all the data, and probably output it into various formats and various levels of abstractions.
Does the data polar provides when I download "all my data" include they use to make the sleep graphs?
If so is there any documentation that could help me actually parse the data and transform it into something useful?
Im asking, cause i want to be able to extract as much of my sleep patterns into as minimal and moldable interface as possible for the phyicisian (their time is valuable, and I respect that), as my polar watch data is more representatitve of my long term sleep patterns (at least in the past) than a current study.

Context, working on a small program with the Raylib library, in order to do some digital prototyping on a project for a jointed robotic arm.
Basically Raylib is a C library, but someone made a julia binding to it, which is what I've been using, however I came across a particular situation.
I need to call a C function that takes a pointer to a structure, and it alters its values, but I am unsure of the correct way to do this in the Julia wrapper function.
For starters we had: ( no modifications )

# Struct definitions struct Vector3 x::Cfloat y::Cfloat z::Cfloat end struct Camera3D position::Vector3 target::Vector3 up::Vector3 fovy::Cfloat projection::Cint end # Function definition function UpdateCamera(camera::Ptr{Camera3D}) ccall( (:UpdateCamera, raylib_lib_path), Cvoid, (Ptr{Camera3D},), camera) end 

Note there are other wrappers omitted, but they are not relevant here.
The function wrapper isn't even correct here, as the actual function takes 2 arguments, so I had to fix that. Also I read online to pass the struct as a Ref{Camera3D} rather than a Ptr{Camera3d}as this is safer and more proper. Is this true? It seems to work with Ref, and not Ptr so I used that.
So the modified, and functional code is as follows.

struct Vector3 x::Cfloat y::Cfloat z::Cfloat end mutable struct Camera3D position::Vector3 const target::Vector3 const up::Vector3 const fovy::Cfloat const projection::Cint end function UpdateCamera(camera::Camera3D, mode::Int64) ccall((:UpdateCamera, raylib_lib_path), Cvoid, (Ref{Camera3D},Int64), camera, mode) end 

As mentioned, this works, but I have a few questions regarding correctness and best practices.

1. The Camera3D struct is now mutable because the C library function modifies one of its values. Is there a way to do this with an immutable struct, and if so is it correct? Given the situation and the fact that the struct has to be modified over time, it seems correct to use a mutable struct with select fields set as immutable to any extra optimizations.
   
2. Is the new UpdateCamera function wrapper idomatic and correct in terms of Julia standards?, for reference the actual C function signature is
   

void UpdateCamera(Camera *camera, int mode); // Update camera position for selected mode
Finally, I can think of a way to use an Immutable struct, you would simply have to have the C function pass by value and return a new modified structure, then return this new struct in the Julia wrapper function. Or, you could make a temporary mutable struct, by defining a new one, and pass that to the C function for modification, copy the values to the immutable struct in the Julia wrapper, then return the new modified, immutable struct to the caller. That seems very roundabout and kinda dumb though.
All this really begs the bigger question, when to use a mutable vs immutable struct. Given that this struct is small, and made up of 4 primitive types, passing by value probably has low overhead and keeping it immutable likely allows for optimizations that the immutable one wouldn't have. On the other hand it seems redundant to pass a struct to a function, modify the given values, then return the modified values as a new struct to the caller, but I imagine the compiler can optimize this well given the immutable nature. If we give it a mutable struct, the fields can just be modified directly, and no value returned. The latter makes sense for large data structures and large structs, but not much for small structs like the one used in my program.
Anyhow, that was quite a few words, probably should work on my brevity, but nonetheless, let me know what you think.
Please correct me if I've made mistakes.
Thank You!

Hi all,
Not sure if this is the right place, but I'm an intermediate lifter but have been inconsistent during COVID. I'm looking to do a hypertrophy focused, cut/body recomposition program. Here's the 6-day PPL program I have now that's based on the equipment available at my gym:
Monday (push) --Barbell Bench (3x4-6) --High, Medium, Low cable fly (1x10-12 each) --Seated Barbell Overhead Press (3x10-12) --Standing Cable Tricep Pushdown w/ rope (3x15) --Ab machine, targeting core abs (3x15)
Tuesday (pull) --Overhand Grip Plate Loaded Lat Pulldown (3x10-12) --TBar Row (3x10) --Cable Face Pull (3x12) --Incline Dumbbell Curl (3x12) --Decline Russian Twist w/ Weights, for obliques (3x10)
Wednesday (Legs, quad/glute focus) --Abduction/Adduction superset warm-up (3x15) --Barbell Back Squat, light warm-up (2x10) --Hack Squat (3x10) --Pendulum Squat (3x10) --Seated Calf Raise Machine (3x12-15) --Back Extension with weights (3x10-12) --Standing Glute Kickback Machine (3x-10-12) --Leg Extension (3x10-12)
Thursday (Push) --Incline Barbell Bench Press (3x5-7) --Machine Supported Dips (3x10) --Plate Loaded Machine Overhead Press (3x10) --Standing Cable Overhead Tricep Extension (3x10) --Hanging Leg Raise (3x10 + hold until failure on last set)
Friday (Pull) --Machine Supported Pull Ups, mixed grip (3x8-10) --Chest Supported High Row (3x8-10) --Single Arm Cable Lateral Raise (3x10-12) --Seated Cable Curl (3x10-12) --Standing Cable Torso Rotations, obliques (3x10-12)
Saturday (Legs, Hamstring/glutes focus) --Abduction/Adduction superset warm-up (3x15) (I have a bad hip flexor, so I try to do more) --Leg Press Machine warm-up (2x12) ----Calf Raise superset w/ leg press (2x20) --Barbell Good Morning (3x10) --Dumbbell Walking Jump Lunges (3x10-12) --Hip Thrust Machine (3x8-10) --Back Extension with weights (3x12) --Seated Leg Curl Machine (3x10-12)
Sunday --Light cardio, elliptical or incline walk. Stretching
Questions: 1) If I'm cutting, should I add more cardio? I work from home, so getting steps is more of a challenge daily.
2) Should I add more to shoulder and trap exercises? I tried splitting up shoulders and deltoids, but I'm not sure if I have sufficient reps for them.
3) Do I need to do more core exercises? I read conflicting info on the amount of ab workouts needed ranging from a few specific core routines a week to none at all. I tried to do only one core exercise a day as a middle ground.
4) Should I add wrist exercises like farmer carries on Sunday? Or do the other workouts suffice in that area?
Notes: A) I was lifting regularly since 2018ish. Since the pandemic in 2020, I haven't stayed consistent due to a new job and travel. I'm starting a WFH position now so hopefully I can stay on track much easier rather than trying to accommodate with limited hotel gyms
B) I've been testing some of this workout here and there (see travel above), and I've generally felt good, tough leg days took a while to recover. I definitely feel it in my legs and chest, but less so in shoulders and back, but I'm not sure if that's normal
C) Push/Pull workouts take me about an hour, including any wait times. Leg days take about 1.25-1.5 hours simply because they're exhausting. Sometimes I skip the last leg extension/curl depending on energy. I don't want to spend more than that daily unless I'm incorporating cardio.
D) Diet will get on track too. I'm currently about 5'5 177. Looking to get to about 140ish to get back to about 7-8% body fat. I'll be eating about 1400 cals/day (metabolic rate is roughly 1900 or so) and getting 150g protein a day
Thank you! All feedback is welcome.

Howdy,
I was recently voted into a group service position as I'm coming up on 1 year sober. Participating in the business/bureaucratic dynamics of AA is a bit like pulling teeth to me, but I've been doing it because I have committed to actually doing the program and I know that involves doing things I don't "want" to do.
That said, I'm really struggling with this stuff as I find it completely unnecessary and unrelated to "recovery" or "the program" entirely.
My existence for the past decade can be distilled down to "contempt prior to investigation" so I'm trying to take this appointed position seriously and be open to the experience.
Was wondering if anyone could share their experience with this area of AA or if they dealt with similar feelings going into structured service work. I'm currently reading through the Service Manual to hopefully paint a clearer picture.
Thanks!

I been stuck trying to get a 0.00 for 4 hours and I'm starting to loose the plot, I have read every guide, watch every video and I just can't do it ( even though I did it years ago and have the trophy) I think I'm just too old and my gaming skills have declined, I've been having an absolute blast replaying ffx and now I've lost all momentum I'm just angry and frustrated. Send help...

Not to diagnose anyone else, but I was just diagnosed with OCD.
For my obsessive thinking.
After reading up on all that it is, I definitely have it. I had no idea though. I only knew about stereotypical compulsions. And didn’t even realize that those are compulsions for what the person is obsessing over. My therapist wants me to try out a 12 step anonymous program for it.
Just realizing what I’m doing and why has helped a lot.
Compulsions are more of less coping strategies, and I’m able to better weed out the unhealthy ones for better ones. And able to better recognize what’s going on when I try to do them, so that I can hopefully manage better and not always have to do them.
It’s really interesting. I know my obsessive thinking is a part of BPD too. If anyone else struggles with it, it definitely might be worth looking into.
I’ll post the site that helped explain it to me. https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/obsessive-compulsive-disorder-ocd/symptoms-of-ocd/

I have really devolved as a person and I admit that I need help controlling myself.
I don’t want to do Telehealth for mental health, I have roommates. I have Covered CA under IEHP which I think really limits my options, idk how a lot of it works. My mental health, general, and dental appts have all been dead ends or nonstarters. So unfortunately it’s gotten worse and I need a more specialized program. Can someone please direct me towards an in-person resource to get help? I don’t mind driving far but I would prefer an intensive regular program so I can’t go to Oakland every week.
I have read (audiobook) most of Lundy Bancroft’s “Why Does He Do That?”, even with my partner in the car to show them that they are not crazy and my behavior is not their fault no matter what bs I’m spouting at the moment.
Lundy Bancroft (sadly retired but makes podcast appearances that I have queued, however my behavior is beyond podcasts and audiobooks now, but figured some would be interested in his further work) usually worked with court ordered abusers, but sometimes a random abusive person wanting help would stroll in and attend sessions. I googled his name and programs near me but nothing came up. Closest was someone asking the same question as me but in a Canadian subreddit and got a Canadian institute. I’ll call them and see if they can recommend me a closer place when they open up tomorrow.

While we should win on any ground, there wasn’t any “home advantage” with the games in Guwahati. 50% of the matches at one’s home ground (read familiar) is there for a reason and all teams should take advantage of that. It doesn’t necessarily mean a doctored pitch but a pitch and ground conditions one’s aware of (read Jaipur).
But no, the CEO wanted to promote IPL amongst the locals and take risks at the business end of the league. Roughly 30% of our home games were in Guwahati where we had little info on the pitch. If we had, we wouldn’t have chosen to Bat first.
Lastly, I’m all for promoting cricket and scouting local talent in the North East, but why would they need to risk it when we’re already struggling with established all rounders and finishers, unlike others. If you look closely, most of our wins came through clinical performances and not brute force, the latter being the highlight this year. We had a very low margin of error.
Win the cup or not, I hope the management and the team assess where things went wrong so that we don’t make the same mistakes again. And ourselves as well. As fans, we need to do better. I personally believe RR Fans are much better than a few other teams, but we’ve shown our cocky side post wins a few times here and there. Or felt entitled with our theories and gone aggressive against our own players when things didn’t end well for us. Players whom we’ve showered with praise, admiration and love in the past. One will always get frustrated, but let’s learn to channel it well, and atleast not get nasty with words and hate them because things didn’t work in our favour.
Just stick around through thick and thin and enjoy the game. FWIW, we did get a few amazing games, like the RR vs KKR where Jos smashed a century. I’ll hope for a few such games every year and enjoy. You certainly can’t expect to win trophies each year.

Hello everyone. I have recieve an offer for ICT Software engineering for sit and was wondering about the process for exemption for possible modules.
I have read that alot of people recommend that I should try to get exempted from the 2 math modules as the knowledge are not used for the following years after Year 1. Wondering if this is still true as I would try to get exempted as in poly I took 2 engineering math modules which both I had A for.
Furthermore, I could even try to be exempted from the Object Oriented Programming as I too have a module on that and scored well but I read that it is done on Java but I did mine on C# if that matters.
Lastly, I just wanna know what languages should I try to get head start on as I have time to touch up on my Programming. I have experience (but out of practice) in C, C#, Arduino, Python as well as Flutter Dart for Mobile Development. I am currently trying out Javascript as I heard it will be used but also for my own interest.
Appreciate it if any current/graduated people from SE could share their thoughts. Thank youu.

Hello everyone! I am here to make friends not for short amount of time. But kinda long term, maybe not soon but I am sure if we became goods friends we will meet someday.
Tbh I tried to talk with few here by posting here or reaching out to people who post here. Sometime I get no response which is fine, sometimes it's just 1-2 day good chat and then slowly slowly the conversation dies and then either I end up as ghost or I am ghosted. But still I am not going to give up. I also think that people here want to send DM after reading a post but they don't maybe they don't have anything to start the conversation or the interest don't match, maybe age difference, timezone, etc
So if you really are looking to make a friend you guys can give a try here. You don't need to be age specific. You don't need to be in same time zone, country, etc
All you have to do is try to be a friend that you want and be yourself. Just don't be a creep 😬
I am getting into reading these days, have read few titles, I am also trying to learn art, also learning programming language so if you are into IT, it would be big help as well, I also enjoy running, into Anime, gaming, trekking. Even if all these interest don't match don'twworry, just give a try and i am sure we will make it
Also if someone wants to just get something off his/her chest, you guys can DM too.

Reaching out to PhD, post-doc, post-grad students/alumni
Hello everyone I am currently working as a Data Scientist in the field of Medical Imaging, and now I am again in a dilemma about whether I should apply for a PhD or go for 2nd Master's.
Allow me to set some context :
I finished my Master's on a high, and wanted to get into the field of research (specifically innovative research). There was clarity in my mind about the fact that before going proper research positions, I needed to improve my profile further and also needed to get some industrial experience to see what problems are trying to be solved and to see what goes into meeting current global standards. My original plan was to do this and later seek out PhD positions. But, after speaking with multiple people (family and colleagues) who had either finished their PhD or dropped or thought about it decided not to go, I decided that it'd be wise for me to actually get to know the place, the people and the professors whom I would be working with. There is a particular aspect within AI that I want to do research in and was able to identify a professor in Ratsch lab(at ETHZ) whose interests very much align with mine. However, I feel like there still a few things in Deep Learning that I have not studied academically, such as Real Analysis, which is foundational to DL, so I was still leaning towards doing a Master's and gaining that confidence.
I am hesitant again, because I am unsure if I will be accepted into a Master's program at all given my background. My Bachelor's wasn't great AT ALL. It was essentially a general degree that I picked, which had a mix of management, commerce and programming. This is where I discovered that I have no aptitude for the management and commerce world. My thing was computers. I re-evaluated my options in the following year, and that is when I discovered Data Science and AI. It was love at first sight and I didn't care about the job prospects or anything, I just went for it. My Master's was again a general Master's but it was great, I finished with a CGPA of 9.38/10 and topped my batch along with getting to work on some NLP (DL) projects under a professor there. Since then, I have been listed as an inventor for a patent, had a poster published in ECR and will have another published in RSNA soon. Also working on solving a novel problem at my company.
I intended on applying for a Masters in Data Science in 2024 end, but based on what I have read in many places, ETHZ and most European universities don't seem to give a lot of weightage to most of the good stuff on my CV, making me feel a little dejected. I am preparing for GRE at the moment in an attempt to bolster my profile and I think I have a genuine and concrete Motivation letter.
Should I just write to the professor and try for PhD instead? Or does a Master's still make sense? Are there any other options? Should I look forward options outside Europe? I have looked at University of Amsterdam which seems relatively promising. I am looking for a multi-disciplinary approach to AI, so a philosophical understanding along with strong technical details when it comes to mathematics.
my_qualifications: BCA (62.67 %) from Pune University - But excellent scores in lab courses and mathematics. MCA (9.38 cgpa) from Pune University - Top of my batch 2 years Work Exp as a Data Scientist
Any insights would be appreciated <3