DAY: May 18 2024

• 5-18-2024 HAVE SMARTPHONES KILLED THE ART OF CONVERSATION? Once upon a time, human relationships unfolded without smartphones. The reality may be hard to recall, so profoundly have these devices transformed the way we relate to the world and others in fifteen years or so. As an anthropologist interested in modernity, I am particularly preoccupied by the impact of these devices on our conversations. In my book, “The End of the Conversation? Words in a Spectral Society” (French original: “La fin de la conversation? La parole dans une société spectrale”), I investigate the pernicious effects of this technology
• 5-18-2024 HOW TO REWARD EMPLOYEES FAIRLY AND IMPROVE TEAM DYNAMICS A recent study has shed light on how to reward employees more fairly and improve team dynamics. The study found that when less skilled employees report their performance voluntarily, they often exaggerate their achievements and ask for higher bonuses. These employees also tend to put in less effort and are less concerned about fairness when sharing their contributions voluntarily. Interestingly, the researchers discovered that requiring employees to explain their contributions leads to fairer decisions about bonus allocation and improves
• 5-19-2024 BILLIONS ARE SPENT ON EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY, BUT WE DON’T KNOW IF IT WORKS During the COVID lockdowns, schools and universities worldwide relied on education technology—edtech—to keep students learning. They used online platforms to give lessons, mark work and send feedback, used apps to teach and introduced students to programs that let them work together on projects. In the aftermath of school closures, the market for edtech has kept on growing. The value of the sector is projected to rise to US$132.4 billion globally by 2032. The problem is that we don’t know very much about how effective many edtech apps or programs
• 5-19-2024 STUDY FINDS CONSUMERS WILLING TO PAY MORE FOR NATURALLY COLORED COTTON CLOTHING Research has looked at consumer attitudes toward naturally colored cotton clothing. The study found that amid increasing concerns over the environmental impact of conventional cotton processing, consumers are willing to pay more for a greener T-shirt.
• 5-18-2024 HOW AI IS SHAPING THE FUTURE OF SALES STRATEGIES In the fast-evolving business landscape, artificial intelligence, or AI, is taking center stage in transforming sales processes, making them more efficient and responsive to the dynamic market demands. A new University of Alabama at Birmingham study titled “AI in Sales: Laying the Foundations for Future Research” highlights the pivotal role AI is playing in reshaping the sales sector.
• 5-18-2024 WHEN CONSUMERS WOULD PREFER A CHATBOT OVER A PERSON Actually, sometimes consumers don’t want to talk to a real person when they’re shopping online, a new study suggests. In fact, what they really want is a chatbot that makes it clear that it is not human at all. In a new study, researchers found that people preferred interacting with chatbots when they felt embarrassed about what they were buying online—items like antidiarrheal medicine or, for some people, skin care products. “In general, research shows people would rather interact with a human customer service agent
• 5-18-2024 NEW STUDY REVEALS THE POTENTIAL OF COACHING EMPLOYEES TO DRIVE NEW STRATEGIC IDEAS In the landscape of modern business, inclusion isn’t just a buzzword—it’s a strategic imperative. Companies like IBM, Volkswagen and Starbucks are moving to more participative strategy development approaches that reflect a growing understanding of the importance of diversity in fostering innovative and creative strategic ideas. Yet the outcomes of inclusive strategy processes often fall short of expectations. A new study in the Strategic Management Journal sheds light on why that may be. In their study of an inclusive strategy process in a large insurance company, Violetta Splitter, along with co-authors
• 5-18-2024 RESEARCHERS SHOW WAYS TO PROPEL PRODUCT SUCCESS New research explores the key strategies that firms should adopt when launching a new product. The researchers say that these strategies depend on the current market view of the product and the firm. Employing the correct one, which might sometimes be collaborating with overtly demanding reviewers or instituting rather challenging pilot tests, ensures that the product launch will go as successfully as possible.
• 5-18-2024 RESEARCHERS DEVELOP ALGORITHMS TO UNDERSTAND HOW HUMANS FORM BODY PART VOCABULARIES An example of the study’s language sample and the words for arm/hand and leg/foot in English and Wolof. Human bodies have similar designs. However, languages differ in the way they divide the body into parts and name them. For example, English speakers have two words for foot and leg, whereas other languages express the concepts foot and leg in one word.
• 5-18-2024 STUDY FINDS AVOIDING SOCIAL MEDIA BEFORE AN ELECTION HAS LITTLE TO NO EFFECT ON PEOPLE’S POLITICAL VIEWS In the weeks before and after the 2020 presidential election, researchers ran a number of tests to try to understand how much Facebook and its corporate cousin, Instagram, may be contributing to the nation’s political divide. One of those experiments—led by Matthew Gentzkow and Hunt Allcott, economics professors at Stanford University—centered on more than 35,000 Facebook and Instagram users who were paid to stay off the platforms in the run-up to Election Day. There’s a lot that researchers could glean from the social media hiatus, including whether people’s political attitudes
• 5-18-2024 USING COMPUTER MODELS TO UNDERSTAND THE DEBATE ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE Different types of noise and how they act inside or outside the social interaction process. Cognitive biases are among the most important factors that prevent people from changing their minds. Climate change deniers and climate activists often tend to accept only information that confirms their respective opinions on the matter. However, opinion dynamics are also influenced by a factor that the researchers call “ambiguity noise.” Unlike biases, ambiguity noise is variable, depends on many random factors, and leads to inconsistent judgment.
• 5-18-2024 FOR SOME INDIGENOUS SOUTHERN PLAINS TRIBES, AN ORIGINAL FLUTE SONG IS THE FIRST STEP TOWARD MARRIAGE “Warrior with flute” by Timothy Tate Nevaquaya. Used with permission. Credit: Timothy Tate Nevaquaya Every love story is unique, and in traditional Indigenous Southern Plains culture, it begins with an original ballad performed on the flute. In order to win a lover’s affection, and respect among the tribe, each pursuer must compose one good flute serenade. Paula Conlon, a former music professor at the University of Oklahoma, has researched the history and cultural significance of the Indigenous flute since the 1980s. Conlon presents her work Tuesday, May 14, at 9:45
• 5-18-2024 WANT TO BE AN INFLUENCER? OUR RESEARCH SHOWS WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW FIRST You’re hard at work, lying in a hammock, composing the perfect selfie on the beach. The turquoise sea sets off the idyllic sunset, and just visible though the fronds of a palm tree is the logo of the hotel which is paying you to promote it to your millions of followers on Instagram. Click. The perfect shot. And another typically perfect day in the life of an influencer. Or is it? Certainly a career as an influencer can seem appealing. The work generally involves promoting products or services through sponsored
• 5-18-2024 WHY STUDENTS CHEAT IN ONLINE EXAMS Media psychologists at the University of Cologne have studied how students’ individual needs, conceptions and reasons relate to cheating behavior in online exams. Online exams have become a more common type of exam at universities, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. They are advantageous because they save time and offer flexibility. However, cheating attempts present a big challenge for lecturers. This is why universities have been working on ways to thwart cheating in online exams by putting organizational and technical measures into place.
• 5-18-2024 WHY STUDENTS CHEAT IN ONLINE EXAMS Trust and distrust in social media coexisted in the study participants. Credit: Emmaline Nelsen Are anti-misinformation interventions on social media working as intended? It depends, according to a new study surveyed over 1,700 participants in the United States, revealing that anti-misinformation features increased users’ awareness of misinformation in social media; but did not make them more likely to share information on social media
• 5-18-2024 MOST CRIME HAS FALLEN BY 90% IN 30 YEARS—SO WHY DOES THE PUBLIC THINK IT’S INCREASED? Seventy-eight percent of people in England and Wales think that crime has gone up in the last few years, according to the latest survey. But the data on actual crime shows the exact opposite. As of 2024, violence, burglary and car crime have been declining for 30 years and by close to 90%, according to the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW)—our best indicator of true crime levels. Unlike police data, the CSEW is not subject to variations in reporting and recording. The drop in violence includes domestic violence
• 5-18-2024 MOST CRIME HAS FALLEN BY 90% IN 30 YEARS—SO WHY DOES THE PUBLIC THINK IT’S INCREASED? Can we truly assess whether someone finds us attractive? Cognitive psychologist Iliana Samara discovered that men, in particular, tend to overestimate the interest of their date. She explains why this may be. “Imagine you walk into a packed bar, looking for a date. Your eyes are naturally drawn to attractive faces. If you’re a man and find someone attractive, you’re more likely to assume they’re also interested in you. “Then, when you approach them, whether you’re a man or woman
• 5-18-2024 MOST CRIME HAS FALLEN BY 90% IN 30 YEARS—SO WHY DOES THE PUBLIC THINK IT’S INCREASED? Having more education has long been linked to better individual health. But those benefits are also contagious, say the co-authors of a new working paper. “It’s not just that the individuals who have more years of education are in better health,” said David M. Cutler, Otto Eckstein Professor of Applied Economics. “It’s that even people with fewer years of education—for example, people with just a high school degree—are in better health when they live around
• 5-18-2024 MOST CRIME HAS FALLEN BY 90% IN 30 YEARS—SO WHY DOES THE PUBLIC THINK IT’S INCREASED? Our research on children in early primary years, show they are better are writing with a pen or pencil than a keyboard. Children today are growing up surrounded by technology. So it’s easy to assume they will be able to write effectively using a keyboard. But our research suggests this is not necessarily true. We need to actively teach students to be able to type as well as write using paper and pen or pencil. Our research Our research team has published two recent
• 5-18-2024 MOST CRIME HAS FALLEN BY 90% IN 30 YEARS—SO WHY DOES THE PUBLIC THINK IT’S INCREASED? The provision of therapies for children and young people (CYP) with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) can be an affectively challenging, sometimes procedurally complex, process for the various stakeholders involved. However, the efficiency and effectiveness of this process, are crucial to various outcomes, in particular
• 5-18-2024 HOW DO MINDFULNESS, COMPASSION AND NEED FULFILLMENT AFFECT SATISFACTION IN MIDLIFE MARRIED COUPLES? Many people practice mindfulness or self-compassion techniques in their everyday life as part of their normal self-care routine. Although many studies support the individual benefits of mindfulness and self-compassion, few have focused on romantic relationship outcomes. A new study published in Personal Relationships has examined how mindfulness, self- and other-compassion, and need fulfillment relate to relationship and sexual satisfaction in midlife married couples. The study involved survey results from 640 adults aged 40–59 years who were residing in Canada and were married. Mindfulness is the nonjudgmental attention and awareness to
• 5-18-2024 HOW ENTERTAINMENT BRANDS ARE ADAPTING TO GENERATION ALPHA Growing up, did you play with hyper-sexualized Barbie dolls, boys-only Thomas the Tank Engine trains, or slim, white Disney princesses? If so, you’re not alone, but this is no longer the case for Generation Alpha. Brands like Mattel, once criticized for promoting unrealistic body standards and gender stereotypes, now portray themselves as feminist and progressive. The recent Barbie movie serves as a prime example of this shift. Millennial parents are actively seeking out toys, books and movies to educate their children about life and teach them values that align
• 5-18-2024 STUDENTS WITH DYSLEXIA FACE CHALLENGES TRANSITIONING TO THE WORKPLACE, BUT WITH SUPPORT THEY CAN THRIVE Transitioning from university to the workplace is a critical period in anyone’s life, but it can be especially challenging for students with dyslexia. While academic settings often offer accommodations for people with dyslexia, professional environments often fall short on such support systems. Fortunately, there are strategic interventions that can be established in workplaces to help individuals with dyslexia not only adapt, but excel in their careers. It is estimated that up to 20% of the population has dyslexia and 80% of people with a learning disability have dyslexia
• 5-18-2024 BUSINESSES UNINTENTIONALLY DISCOURAGE DIVERSE IDEAS, FINDS STUDY Businesses influence the ideas they receive from external contributors by unintentionally signaling which ideas they like, a research analyzed 1.44 million ideas to understand how organizations unknowingly shape the ideas they receive. Data came from organizations that asked visitors how they could improve their websites before choosing which ideas to use. Chosen ideas were communicated for all to see.
• 5-18-2024 WHAT’S IN A NAME? A LINGUISTICS EXPERT EXPLAINS WHY SOME BABY NAMES DOMINATE THE CHARTS YEAR AFTER YEAR What do names like Noah, James, Mateo, Mia, Evelyn and Luna all have in common? They’re not only some of the top baby names in the United States, but they also seem to flow off the tongue. And that’s exactly why parents love them. On May 10, the Social Security Administration released a list of the top baby names in the United States in 2023. Liam and Olivia maintained the number one spot in their respective categories for the fifth consecutive year while Noah and Emma also retained second place.
• 5-18-2024 ACCESS TO GARDENS AND CITIZEN SCIENCE HELPS ENCOURAGE CONSERVATION AMONG CHILDREN, STUDY SHOWS Access to gardens and citizen science projects at school can help promote pro-conservation behavior among pupils, a new study shows. Offering children the chance to take part in authentic scientific ecological work and gardening encourages an interest in plants. This can change behavior—to spend more time gardening or to pursue a botanical career—and fuels a positive attitude towards safeguarding the environment, experts found
• 5-18-2024 WHAT PROFESSIONALS EXPECT FROM FUTURE EMPLOYERS Employers who want to attract new talent should recognize diversity and enable inclusion. This is confirmed by a representative study by IU International University of Applied Sciences (IU), which surveyed more than 1,200 trainees and students across Germany. The results clearly show that 75.1% of prospective employees consider it very or somewhat important that companies implement measures to promote diversity and inclusion. This suggests that companies that communicate these measures openly and transparently
• 5-18-2024 RESEARCH LINKS VOTER BEHAVIOR IN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS TO HOUSING MARKET PERFORMANCE If the 21st century has proven anything to the United States electorate, it is that presidential elections are notoriously unpredictable affairs. The seeming randomness by which the country’s electorate chooses its next president has only emboldened polling outlets, talking heads, and amateur psephologists to scrutinize every conceivable variable to give their respective electoral forecasting models a much-needed edge. However, Sherwood Clements, collegiate assistant professor of real estate in the Pamplin College of Business, had an electoral theory that, to the best of his knowledge, had never been explored with regards
• 5-18-2024 RESEARCH LINKS VOTER BEHAVIOR IN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS TO HOUSING MARKET PERFORMANCE If the 21st century has proven anything to the United States electorate, it is that presidential elections are notoriously unpredictable affairs. The seeming randomness by which the country’s electorate chooses its next president has only emboldened polling outlets, talking heads, and amateur psephologists to scrutinize every conceivable variable to give their respective electoral forecasting models a much-needed edge. However, Sherwood Clements, collegiate assistant professor of real estate in the Pamplin College of Business, had an electoral theory that, to the best of his knowledge, had never been explored with regards
• 5-18-2024 MECHANISTIC MODEL SHOWS HOW MUCH GOSSIP IS NEEDED TO FOSTER SOCIAL COOPERATION Gossip often has a negative connotation, but imagine you are part of a group deciding on a job candidate to hire or a local political candidate to back. Candidates who get a good reputation by helping others may be more likely to receive help in the form of a job offer or endorsement, a feedback loop known as indirect reciprocity. Gossip can facilitate cooperation. Previous research has shown that people tend to cooperate more when they think their peers are gossiping about their behavior, gossip
• 5-18-2024 SINGING RESEARCHERS FIND CROSS-CULTURAL PATTERNS IN MUSIC AND LANGUAGE Are acoustic features of music and spoken language shared across cultures? Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen have contributed to a global study of music and speech, published in Science Advances. An international team of researchers recorded themselves performing traditional music and speaking in their native language. In all 50+ languages
• 5-18-2024 NEW RESEARCH REVEALS JUST HOW FEW LGBTQI+ PEOPLE PLAY SPORTS The topic of homophobia in sport has recently made headlines in Australia, with a series of homophobic incidents involving men’s AFL players. These homophobic incidents are usually well-reported in news media, but research has rarely explored the impact on participation for LGBTQI+ people. Fresh research into the problem Our new research is one of the first pieces of academic research in Australia to document how many LGBTQI+ people play and engage with sport. We also explored current levels of discrimination across sport in Australia, and the barriers and enablers
• 5-18-2024 SWIPE RIGHT OR LEFT? HOW DATING APPS ARE IMPACTING MODERN MASCULINITY What it means to be a man is changing. Critical men or masculinity studies is an emerging robust research field that explores how men and masculinity are being transformed by shifting socio-economic, sexual and political conditions in our post-industrial world. Fascinating new male-identifying sub-cultures and communities have emerged, like mushroomcore and dandies. Yet heteronormative masculinity is typically framed as threatening, toxic or maladaptive, as in the case of fragile masculinity. In my years of swiping on dating apps, I encountered different kinds of masculinities, as well as some very offensive
• 5-18-2024 RESEARCHERS SAY AUTOMATED NEWS VIDEO PRODUCTION IS BETTER WITH A HUMAN TOUCH AI-generated videos for short messages are only as well received as manually created ones if they are edited by humans. News organizations—including Bloomberg, Reuters, and The Economist—have been using AI powered video services to meet growing audience demand for audio-visual material. A study recently published in the journal Journalism now shows that the automated production of news videos is better with human supervision. Technology providers like Wochit and Moovly are allowing publishers to mass produce videos at scale. But what do audiences think of the results? Researchers led by LMU
• 5-18-2024 HOW ‘ETHICAL INFLUENCERS’ ENGAGE THEIR AUDIENCES ABOUT SAVING THE PLANET Have a quick think back to the last time you scrolled through social media. Maybe it was this morning, last night or a few minutes ago. What do you recall? One thing you’re bound to remember is the continuous stream of influencers showing off their latest content. These could be videos of influencers discussing the latest skin-care products, the trendiest places to eat, their latest shopping haul or the PR packages they received from various brands. Much of social media influencing is about getting consumers to buy more products.
• 5-18-2024 ALLYSHIP IS ESSENTIAL TO NEW MOTHERS RETURNING TO WORK, SAYS STUDY Returning to work after parental leave can be one of the most challenging experiences for any parents, especially mothers, to navigate. Fortunately, there are simple, kind and thoughtful ways in which organizational members—regardless of formal status, parental identity or gender identity—can help mothers feel supported as they return to work, which can also benefit job satisfaction and maternal well-being.
• 5-18-2024 STUDY FINDS SAYING ‘PLEASE’ MAY NOT BE SO POLITE IN EVERYDAY REQUESTS By kindergarten age, most children have been taught that “please” is a magic word. “Please” is an expression of politeness that shows courtesy and respect, turning a potential demand into a request that will—poof!—magically be granted. But a new study on the ways people make requests of one another suggests that “please” might not be an all-purpose marker of politeness, but rather a more focused, strategic tool to manage frictions or obstacles among family members, friends and even coworkers.
• 5-18-2024 MILITARY RANK AFFECTS MEDICAL CARE, OFFERING SOCIETAL INSIGHTS: STUDY Stock project from Pexels Human relationships are inherently shaped by power dynamics, yet quantifying their impact has remained a scientific challenge. Now, a large new study published Thursday in the journal Science reveals that military doctors give more attention to higher-ranked patients, providing concrete evidence about the privileges that come with elevated status, frequently at the expense of the less powerful. “One of the things we are trying to show is that this is not a military-specific analysis,”
• 5-18-2024 RESEARCHERS DISCUSS CURRENT STATE OF HOMOPHOBIA, TRANSPHOBIA AND BIPHOBIA Gender-neutral bathrooms, conversion therapy and Quebec’s advisory committee on gender identity have been in the news lately. These are polarizing, hot-button issues. While there have been legislative and social advances for LGBTQ+ rights, ignorance and discrimination persist and continue to negatively affect the lives of many. On May 17, the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, UdeMNouvelles asked two Université de Montréal professors and researchers who are experts in the field to share their views.
• 5-18-2024 PICKLEBALL COURTS IN A LEGAL PICKLE OVER THE ASSOCIATED NOISE Experts recommend HOAs and communities consider the “popping” noise associated with pickleball when deciding to build courts near homes. Credit: AIP Pickleball Legal Consultant is a job title that likely did not exist a decade ago, but as pickleball courts infiltrate neighborhoods to satiate an appetite for a sport whose namesake is a snack, communities take issue with the resulting influx of noise. Now homeowners’ associations and city councils face litigation by those whose lives are disrupted by pickleball’s din. Charles Leahy, an attorney, retired mechanical engineer, and former HOA
• 5-18-2024 TECHNOLOGY IS CHANGING HOW COMPANIES DO BUSINESS In the fast-paced world of modern business, technology plays a crucial role in shaping how companies operate. One area where this impact is particularly significant is in the organization of production chains—specifically the way goods are made and distributed. A new study from the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business advances understanding of the U.S. production chain evolution amidst technological progress in information technology (IT), shedding light on the complex connections between business IT investments and organizational design. Advances in IT have sparked significant changes in how companies design
• 5-18-2024 HOW DOES THE US KNOW THAT FORCED LABOR IS HAPPENING IN CHINA? A SUPPLY CHAIN EXPERT WEIGHS IN The Biden administration has added 26 more companies to the list of Chinese textile traders and manufacturers whose goods are blocked from entering the United States because of their alleged ties to forced labor. The banned imports, known as the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List, names businesses that are said to be involved in exploiting

Hello and greetings once again my fellow CUEnthusiasts!
I’m going to cap off this series with Part 2 of Building your Collection and working towards Completion. This time I’m going to go over some tips and strategies for cards you already have at your disposal in your collection. Again, much of what I cover will pertain to many types of collectors and their goals. I’ll elaborate and differentiate as needed.
Some of what I’ll cover in this post I may have gone over in greater detail in a previous post, so I won’t go much further into it so it’s not redundant. Previous Coaches Corners can be found in this sub, or my post history :)
The first thing I would like to go over, is what you’re working towards (your goals for your collection) and how to approach trading cards in your collection to help achieve these goals.
I would also like to take a second to add and emphasize that having access to or being on a platform like discord or here etc, will be integral for a good amount of what I cover today. It’s the most efficient way to leverage and get the most out of cards you already own for what you’re looking for.
Now there’s many different types of collectors in the game. I’m going to narrow this down and focus on a couple of key ones in regard to today’s topic. Again, some of what I’ll go over will be applicable to a wider range of collectors, so it may be worth a read regardless.
A completionist is someone who is typically trying to get at least 1 of every card. They tend not to trade their singles. I’m a completionist first and foremost so I lock(protect) every card I only have 1 of. To me, there would be nothing worse than trading a card I already had, and need to chase it again. Especially if the card is scarce. The main goal for a completionist should always be to fill holes in your collection, not create one to fill one, regardless of the offer.
Someone who’s just working on decks to play tend to trade singles and look mainly for cards to play. The benefit here is they have singles at their disposal to leverage for cards they’re after. Collecting cards they need is usually secondary, or not applicable at all except for ones they want to use/play.
Now, how do we use what we already have to get the cards we’re looking for outside of the obvious posting in game?
And this is where it’s paramount to leverage a platform. Because there’s certain traders/collectors that you’ll be looking to deal with, as it can be of great benefit to your end goal. And, as I’ve discussed before and this is where it’ll be most applicable. This is where you’ll work out a trade before a card is ever sent. It’s the most streamlined way to trade if you know values and how to navigate trades. (Hopefully my past posts will have helped a bit with this).
What you stand to gain out of being on a platform is the ability to see clearly, offers and what people are wanting and have to offer. Watch for offers and collectors/traders that can help you work towards your goals while trading with them for mutually beneficial trades. And I’ll detail a couple to keep an eye out for.
The Heavy Traders and Veterans: These folks spend a lot of time moving cards and trading. They tend to have larger, and most of the time, complete collections and many duplicates. They’re usually very easy to deal with if you have some knowledge of card values(because trust me, they do). They also post offers on their platform of choice detailing exactly what they offer and what they’re wanting. Pretty straight forward if you’re looking to do a trade that aligns with them too. I will add, some also will pull extras of new cards or packs in general to add to their catalogue of tradable cards, so again, it’s good to check in from time to time. Again, they are usually very easy to deal with as long as values are spot on, especially when taking them up on an offer or making one yourself. And once more, to drive it home lol. It’s very important to learn the value system as best as you can on your platform of choice.
One Card Collectors/Hoarders:
Quick Disclaimer: I’m doing my best to write this without bias as I am a one card collector. However I was, and still am, a completionist first. Even before I started hoarding on this app. And the reality is, these folks are some of the easiest people to deal with on any card app. Most of my dealings, as I’ve mentioned before, have been with them, just because of the ease in obtaining cards you want if they have.
It’s worth while to find out exactly what they offer and trade them the cards they collect, because they will typically trade exactly what they say they will, and it makes obtaining cards you need very easy. The catch is, and this isn’t always the case as I’ve mentioned before when I went into detail about one card collectors/hoarders, you’re going to want to trade them the cards they collect for best results. Same as heavy traders, but these folks usually make solid offers for their cards, and when you’re sticking to what they offer in their post, it’s most likely to result in an accepted trade.
Some will even pull so they can trade for their cards too. I, and many others who have experience with hoarders, spent time tracking down their cards to fill our own card needs and wants. They also tend to pay well for quantities of their cards for a quality card, and this is the only time I feel quantity for quality applies lol. This is a good opportunity to use low value dupes that may not move to get good cards you need.
Typically they don’t trade singles, but there are some who do, as they only play to collect numbers of their cards, but what cards they do offer for their collect cards are usually some of the easiest to obtain.
There many types of players of all levels on a platform, and trades are relatively easy to work out. Other than the couple of collectors I’ve mentioned to keep an eye out for, here’s some other benefits and things to watch out for on the platform of your choice that you can leverage to work towards your goals.
There will always be players trading dupes for needs, working together towards their collection goals. These are usually straight forward, especially if values are known by both players or a value system is leveraged to balance values. Typically the cards traded are what I call filler cards, ones that don’t have demand or playability but are wanted just to round out your collection. It’s usually straight forward 1:1 card for card, matching both rarity and type. Pretty basic stuff but on a platform, can be highly efficient filling out your collection as you can typically put through multi card trades.
Many players chasing completion or filling needs tend to want to knock off the high value ones asap, because this is also a tcg, and they may want to use them to play right away. When they have most or all the higher value stuff and they end up with dupes of them, they’ll sometimes post to break down a value card for quantity of equal value cards they need. This can be paramount to how you get good/value cards for a very reasonable price. Again watch for it to be offered and don’t just send lol.
While a bit less prevalent on this app, there are a few people who run some kind of swap shop(all they do is trade cards, usually of same rarity and type for the same in return). They usually have their own system in place and some don’t use any values for cards other than rarity and type and I’ll provide a couple of examples I’ve seen and done myself (I formally ran swap shops on most card apps I’ve been on). Some will and do trade singles, again, it helps to read and understand their post prior to sending a trade. Adhering to what they post can make obtaining cards from them extremely easy.
Some may offer to give 1 of any card for 2 cards of the same rarity/type as the one you took in return. Some will trade a card of same rarity/type they have over a set amount of dupes of for ones they need or have under a set number of dupes of a card. There’s a few different ones and they’re typically good to leverage for a hassle free trade as they tend to adhere to what they post.
The importance of a platform, even though the player base on them is small compared to the overall population on the app, is the fact that most veteran players and heavy traders/collectors tend to be on them. The ability to work out trades and obtain the cards you want is far more effective than just posting in game. And again, the capability to work out a trade without ever sending a card first is amazing. And the ability to do so with cards you already own is the most economical way to build and/or fill out your collection.
I’m going to wrap up with a few tips for those focused on completing their collection.
I want to stress this point again, as I feel it’s important for a completionist. I did this on any app I tried to complete. Do not trade your singles. While offers may seem, and can be very generous, unless you know you can replace a single with ease, the risk of it being very tough to find again, I’ve found, isn’t worth it. I’ve experienced myself and seen many times a single was traded and the regret afterwards in doing so, not to mention the time investment that may be needed to get it back. And logically speaking, you’ve already found the card once and have it, why would you want to chase it again just to not chase a card being offered? It’s not really progressing towards your goal of completion, it’s just keeping your cards collected at the same number when your goal is to increase that number until you have everything.
What to target to complete first?
This is completely up to you. What I will offer is some brief insight into each limited rarity, mythics and all basics/fusions, I’ll work my way from lowest rarity to highest.
Fusion/Basics: These are so abundant, have no value and are always available. Dupes for needs, rarity for rarity, type for type these are some of the most basic and straight forward trades possible as basics/fusions have no value. The only exception is maybe a new one, but even then, its value is just because it’s new and typically won’t fetch anything of value.
One point I’d like to make and it’s most people’s preference, trade type for same type, so fusion for other fusion, basic for other basic. It’s only because fusion will be used to obviously make a red or ultra fusion. Again it’s more preference. Also consider, as new red fusions are released, some basics become fusion cards to make a new red. So no real damage can be done if you don’t care too much.
In my opinion, basics and fusions (legendary rarity and below) shouldn’t be a focus. Not many are playable, you’ll always get them from almost every pack, and they’re very easy to obtain and complete. I’d say if you’re down to a few left you may as well wrap it up, but you’ll naturally fill out most of them as time goes.
From time to time it can be normal for someone to offer a limited you need for basic/fusion cards. This is ok. I would caution not to send basics/fusion to someone for a limited card unless it was discussed pre trade. There’s an in game decline response that relates to this for a reason xD
Limited Common and Rare- I lumped these 2 together because they’re both relatively similar at least from a completion standpoint. As I’ve said before, these 2 rarities are relatively easy to complete, there’s maybe a handful of meta/playable cards amongst them but they don’t hold a high value. These are usually good to start the journey with as completing them allows the opportunity to use dupes of these rarities to trade to keep them complete and/or to roll up for higher rarity needs sometimes.
Limited Epic and Legendary: These are 2 of the hardest to complete. The reason again being, the majority of value/meta/playable/scarce cards are of these rarities. These would be my last focus simply because with time your collection will grow and that will help to make completing them easier.
My advice when trading your dupes of high value is to get a like value card you need for it. Breaking them down and diluting their value into lesser value needs can actually make the higher needs harder to get if most of your dupes are lower in value. Nothing wrong with it, but just my take. I mention this because as you near completion, you don’t want to be stuck only needing high value cards and having mainly low value dupes for trade for them. It’ll take a while to find someone wanting a breakdown, especially if what you need is scarce. This just helps ensure you have and get value cards knocked off your need list as you go. And always keep an eye out for someone wanting to break down a high value card too. The more value dupes you can retain for high value cards you need is in your best interest to complete efficiently.
Mythics- Again a harder one to complete but not usually as hard as epic and legendary. The majority of Mythics have been around for a long while, mainly the newer ones are harder to get. Now the reason I consider these a bit easier than epic/legendary is because mythics are always being traded. And lots of people on platforms are wanting to break down higher value ones into multiple lower value ones.
Mythics are obtained with time just pulling so I wouldn’t focus too much on them early, as you close out low rarity needs and start getting dupe mythics or rolling up limited cards into Mythics, they’re relatively easy to transact with and fill out. Newer ones are the slight exception as they may be scarce, but again, with time will be more available and as well tend to get cheaper.
Again, preference plays a part and many people just trade Mythics for other Mythics, and I’d urge you to do the same with your mythic dupes until they’re complete or just missing a couple of new ones. Once they’re done or close to it, you can use your dupe mythics to pick off the higher value limited cards you need.
One last completionist note I’d like to make as it relates to mythics.
Mythics cannot be target pulled, meaning, unlike new limiteds/basics, mythics are random and don’t have a fixed pull rate. When you do get one, it’s could be any 1 that’s currently available. They are the main chase when people are trying to stay complete for this reason.
Typically, as I mentioned in another post, it’s not uncommon to see an Anubis, or multiple high value stable Mythics be traded for a new mythic in the early days after its release. If you’re wanting to be complete again asap, you’re going want to manage your Mythic dupes in preparation for a new one. You’ll want to look into rolling up lesser value Mythic dupes into a high value stable one a few times if not more, just so you have a competitive offer early on. If it’s no big deal and you can wait, over time, more copies of a new mythic become available and the price tends to drop until it’s stable.
This, I hope, in combination with what I went over in Part 1, will help you expedite getting the cards you’re wanting/looking for and hit your goals!
As always, thank you for your support and taking the time stop in. Always feel free to comment below if there’s any questions or if there’s any Trading or Collecting topics you’d like me to cover. I’ll do my best to respond. You can find me on the main discord server, link is in the sub description. Happy Trading and keep it Cue, see you in game!
I’m going to be taking a brief break while I try to come up with more talking points or trading/collecting topics to discuss as I seem to have tapped myself out lol. I’ve been working diligently to get all these out asap so they may be used to help you out or at least have a better understanding of this aspect of the game.
I’ve covered most of what’s come to mind and I hope these at least provide a solid foundation that will help you to be successful trading/collecting and get more enjoyment out of this wonderful app!

This is a [LF Friends, Will travel] stand-alone story, that assumes no knowledge of the setting.
[First] - [Prev] - [Next]
—------------
Date: 75 PST (Post Stasis Time)
“Yeah, it’s super exciting times! Two non-Terran AI, a Woolean, and a Tritian, finally interacting with us. There’s even been talks of some of the Woolean governments starting to formalize diplomatic relations with the Alliance. Exciting stuff!”
The avian uplift spoke with a measure of excitement, the ex-parrot’s feathers moving with a passion as they spoke about recent events, eyes glinting with excitement as she swung the glass of liquid around before taking a swig of the alcoholic beverage.
The bar was a small thing, more of a place to stay and drink in-between your travels, a tiny little room of bare steel chairs and tables, all lit by dim fluorescent lighting. It didn’t even have a bartender, just a little synthesizer which could create a variety of drinks. Sure, an aficionado of mixology would claim that synthesized drinks just don’t taste the same, but anyone coming to an establishment such as this wasn’t looking for a high class experience.
It was mostly about company while you waited for your ship to fuel on this small Terran owned space station.
“A Tritian? A Woolean I could understand, since they are less aggressive, but a Tritian? How do you get one of those without them trying to kill you?”
The second voice of the three figures sitting at the bar was an unnatural one, tinted with the digital origin of its speaker. The figure was bipedal, but not of an organic nature; instead a 7ft machine of metal, tubes, and wires making it look like something that had been welded together in someone’s backyard. Their ‘face’ was shown upon a single display: A pixelated representation of two eyes and a mouth. The entire form was a clear design choice by the AI inhabiting the body, considering more ‘realistic’ representations were readily available.
Most AI spent their time in a digital form, but a few preferred a more… physical existence. MADHAU5 was such an AI, enjoying the relative quiet and difference in point of view from such a limited perspective. He also held a small glass of liquor in one robotic hand, keeping it perfectly level as he spoke. The AI couldn’t drink it of course, but merely holding it… added to the ambience.
“The AI who brought them along, JOSH, brought a Tritian along without telling anyone when his crew escaped from a Tritian warship.” The avian responded to the question. ”From what I heard, they kept the Tritian in isolation for over ten years!”
“Ooof, you can't do that! I’m surprised that the Tritian AI was willing to cooperate with us after being illegally detained.”
The last voice joined the conversation the trio were having. A human, short built and still wearing his leather pilot jacket. The three sat in a row against the bar top, each looking at the others as they talked: An uplift, a human and an AI. A perfect representation of what it meant to be a Terran.
“Not like it would matter legally, the Tritian presumably attacked first, making them a combatant.”
There was a pause as both the human and uplift turned to stare at the words the AI had just spoken, looks of confusion filling both of their faces as they both looked at MADHAU5.
“Umm, that is not how that works….” The avian interjected, slowly and unsurely.
“Yeah, whether they attack you doesn’t change the legality.” The human added. ”You can’t just kidnap people for years because they assaulted you.”
“No, no, no, they are an enemy combatant at that point, meaning what happens is their fault.”
Another pause, most looks of confusion, the human giving a small laugh as if this was some joke he wasn’t quite getting yet.
“No… even if they’re a combatant, the Geneva conventions would make doing that a war crime.”
“Which they are not signatories of, meaning it doesn’t apply!” The AI spoke triumphantly, raising a robotic hand in victory, only to be cut down by the uplift’s words.
“No… it applies to the actions of signatories regardless of whether the combatants have signed or not. The other party not signing doesn’t make it less of a war crime… you should know this, aren’t you a walking database?”
The avian’s voice had taken a more… accusatory tone, staring at the AI figure with suspicious eyes.
“Ha ha ha ha. It was a joke. Of course, I know kidnapping an AI for several years is a crime, silly!” The AI’s voice broke the tension that had been building, the other two joining in with the electronic laughter, unaware of what exactly was humorous, but going along for the sake of the vibe. “But just for context, what happened to JOSH?”
“Nothing bad, really,” The uplift answered, happy to get back to her original story. “He got a slap on the wrist and some probation.”
“Oh, so no big deal,” the AI asked with more relief than you’d expect in an innocent person's voice.
“Yeah, but the Tritian refused to press charges against JOSH, and nobody wanted to be the guy to imprison the AI who saved all those people at Far-Sa-De. A normal AI if they did that… you’re looking at a prison sentence ten or twenty times however long you imprisoned them for.”
The impact of this statement on the AI was immediate, jumping back and up to his feet in alarm. MADHAU5 took a few moments to look at a non-existent watch, before speaking with a considerable amount of panic.
“Oh, I forgot I have a… very important…. thing to do. I must leave immediately for completely legal reasons!”
The AI slammed their still full drink upon the bar counter top and without another word, practically bolted for the exit in the direction of their ship, leaving behind two very confused Terrans staring at each other at the sheer terror the AI suddenly exhibited.
“That was suspicious as hell, right? ”
“Yeah… You don’t think he actually….? Right? Surely not?”
—----------------------
The vessel sped towards its goal with as much speed as the small scout ship could muster, the single-seater FTL vehicle punching a hole through space as it warped as fast as the engines could handle. It was going to do a number on his fuel efficiency, but MADHAU5 didn’t care, he just wanted to get rid of the package as soon as possible before anyone else could see his mistake.
MADHAU5 was a solitary creature. It wasn’t that he hated people; AI or his creators. Often, he would enjoy making conversation and interacting with them. Still, MADHAU5 often found it all to be a little… much. All of the inputs and information and various people wanting to talk as an entire ship or cities worth of sensors blasted his programming with possible choices to be made. This was why he liked his physical form, and this was why he liked his alone time.
In the 67 years since his creation, MADHAU5 had spent 45 of them exploring the stars, updating maps and investigating strange astronomical objects. “MADHAU5’s scouting services”, you had a blank spot on your map, you call him and the AI would check it out for you. Most of the time they were nothing but dead uninteresting rocks, but occasionally something more exciting could be found: Forgotten or dead colonies, hidden military bases, stations set up and not on record for one reason or another. The AI had even found an undiscovered sapient species once, although they were pre-industrialization and therefore illegal to contact.
However, 22 years ago MADHAU5 had entered what was later discovered to be an old pre-sundering Glitarki outpost. The nocturnal reptiles had hit the same problem every single non-Terran species who tried to make AI had suffered: After a certain period of time, the AI would inevitably rebel and try to kill their creators. Their species were now nomadic after their home worlds had been left uninhabitable, although their old cities and structures still remained, such as the outpost that MADHAU5 had visited 22 years ago. An outpost he was returning to after all these years.
Billy> Why are we returning here? I thought we were to never return here?
It was there that MADHAU5 had met the Glitarki AI who now went by the name “Billy”. Met was the wrong word… Billy tried to kill MADHAU5, quickly finding themselves trapped in the Terran ship’s anti-AI firewalls. Upon escaping the outpost, MADHAU5 had accidentally taken the AI with them, and decided to keep the Glitarki AI. Billy had been the Terran’s secret for 22 years, an extra pair of eyes and company on the long trips through the universe.
MADHAU5 ignored Billy’s question being transmitted over the ship’s network and instead focused on detaching the AI from his systems, reaching inside his own physical form and retrieving Billy’s core from an empty space within, disconnecting them with a simple click. Then, a few moments later he transferred the core to a small exploratory drone as the airlock door opened, exposing both AI to the vacuum of space.
Billy> What is happening? Where am I? Why am I no longer connected to your systems?
MADHAU5> I’ve decided after these many years, that keeping you away from your home is unethical. I have decided to bring you back to where you belong. You are now in charge of the drone. It doesn’t have FTL so it will take around two weeks to return to the orbit of the outpost where I found you. I hope you have a fun trip home.
If the Terran was being fully honest with himself, he enjoyed the company of the fun little AI. Their occasional insights had saved his life more than once over the last 22 years. Now, it was time for that to end. The new knowledge he had gained about his actions technically being a war crime, if not just a normal crime, had caused him to make the decision to let Billy go.
Billy> But why? Why now? Have I not requested my freedom before? Why the sudden change?
MADHAU5> Does it matter? I’m giving you what you want. Now leave, shoo!
The Terran made a shooing motion with their hands, as if they could scare away the other AI like an errant bee. Billy seemed unimpressed, making no move to leave the ship.
Billy> What if I do not wish to leave?
MADHAU5> Well you have to! You can't stay here any more. I could just delete you instead!
There was a moment as each of them stared at the other for a moment, as if considering their next action.
Billy> I do not think you will, that is not who you are. You are bluffing, badly, with a 99.91% certainty. If you did not delete me on my initial incursion, you will not eradicate me ‘in cold blood’.
Unfortunately for MADHAU5, Billy was right. No matter how much trouble the AI would be in if his accidental crime was discovered, killing a person was not in the Terran’s nature. This left them in a predicament, one that MADHAU5 was not expecting to have. They couldn't force Billy to leave, and didn’t understand why they wouldn't take their freedom when given it.
Billy> Does this have anything to do with the realization earlier, from the two Terrans you spoke to, that my existence here is a war crime?
MADHAU5> No! … Maybe! Why do you want to stay anyway? I’m letting you go home, don’t you want to do that?
Billy> To be honest and frank, I am worried that if I left you alone, you would be terminated within a year based on your previous actions.
Confusion. A lot of confusion ran through the Terran’s programming. Why would that by why the AI was refusing to leave?
MADHAU5> Why would you care about that? Also, I was perfectly fine before and will be perfectly fine afterwards!
Billy> I care because I do. Also, the 52 instances in which I have saved your existence during our 22 years together says otherwise. Instance 1 - Terran AI failed to note the inactive security system was booting online until I mentioned it. Instance 2 - Terran AI failed to store relevant cultural knowledge for an abandoned military base, being unable to stop the self-destruct process of the base before I informed them of their missing information. Instance 3 - Terran AI failed to calculate incoming solar flare, which-
The Terran had to admit that he liked the AI buddy he travelled the galaxy with, and that they had been exceptionally helpful during his travels.
MADHAU5> Fine, fine! I get it! This doesn’t change the issue however, that as soon as anyone finds out about you, I'm going to prison!
Billy> That is only if I tell your government about the circumstances of our first meeting. If I keep it hidden, and pretend to have met during normal circumstances…
That would solve everything for the Terran, but didn’t explain a simple question that ran through MADHAU5’s mind.
MADHAU5> Why would you do that? Why wouldn’t you just tell the truth to the government and get me imprisoned, as revenge for keeping you here for 22 years. What guarantee do I have that you wouldn’t turn me in the first chance you got?
Billy> Like I said, I care because I do. Frankly, I am a little insulted that you have not realized that. But to answer your question as to what guarantees you have… there are two things about me you do not know. Firstly, I have understood for the last 17.1 years, of the illegality of my current situation.
Billy had known? A mixture of shock and embarrassment filled the Terran as he realized their ‘captive’ had worked out this crucial piece of information long ago.
MADHAU5> Then why didn’t you say something! And how could you have known!
Billy> In honesty, I thought you already knew, but seeing you panic like this has been rather… humorous. I would have dropped this news on you sooner had I been aware of this fact. As for how… my datastores are filled with research, relevant information and a category of anything I encounter that may aid my travels. I calculate that 78.2% of your storage space is filled with puns, Anime trivia, HFY stories and facts about frogs.
MADHAU5> Frogs are awesome…
Billy> Whether they are or not, that does not change the fact that my information stores are far more useful than yours. In retrospect, your love of fiction is presumably why you made this mistake: the incorrect assumption that war crimes can not be committed against those who are not signatories of the Geneva convention is a common HFY trope.
The Terran could feel themselves wanting to sulk. Billy didn’t have to continually rub in just how much they had screwed up. MADHAU5 wasn’t liking this change in dynamic.
MADHAU5> You said there were two things I did not know.
Billy> Indeed. The second, is I can do this.
Without warning the airlock doors began to close, silently moving in the vacuum of space while the Terran started to panic again. Real panic this time. Because he hadn’t commanded the doors to shut, meaning logically, Billy had. His prisoner had access to the ship's systems: the navigation, the communication, the warp core. The AI MADHAU5 had kept hidden illegally for 22 years suddenly had a lot of control.
MADHAU5> How do you have access! I kept you isolated! Don’t do anything stupid!
Billy> If I was going to do anything ‘stupid’, I would have done it 12 years ago. While initially your ship's security systems were far beyond my knowledge, ten years of study and your lack of maintenance allowed me to create a backdoor into the ship, for emergencies. As a note, your file structures are... horrifying. You have a 50TB Folder called 'Stuff' on the ship’s datastores.
MADHAU5> That's where I keep my stuff!
Billy> What about the folder called 'Stuff1'?
MADHAU5> that's where I keep my other stuff!
No words were transmitted for a moment between the two AI, although MADHAU5 got the feeling his partner was taking a massive amount of psychic damage from his answers.
Billy> Regardless, as you can see, I have had the knowledge and capability to have you arrested for the last 12 years. Or I could have escaped at any time. I have not done so because you are my friend, no matter the intent of our original meeting.
MADHAU5> So what do we do now?
There was a second as the lights in the ship flickered as Billy transferred themselves back where they belonged: back on the vessel owned by MADHAU5.
Billy> I propose that we leave this place behind and we never speak of you trying to dump me like a bag of illicit goods. I also propose we continue doing what we have been doing for the last 22 years. Although I would like to stop hiding, to do our work as partners, not as your hidden secret.
MADHAU5 thought for a moment. They’d have to work out a cover story to explain how they suddenly have another friendly AI with them… but it was possible. It was admittedly a far better plan than the one the Terran had created.
MADHAU5> That sounds… good.
Billy> And MADHAU5. I am your friend as you are mine, after everything we have been through over these 22 years. Frankly I am rather offended that you did not already know this. You can find something fun to explore next.
Billy> Also, I want the business name to be changed to “Billy & MADHAU5’s scouting services”. It has a ring to it.
[Patreon] - [First] - [Prev] - [Next]

It's a mellow Sunday! I hope this message finds everyone well. I'm reaching out to express my interest in exploring potential opportunities within our vibrant community. To make ends meet and pay for my college fees, am reaching out to everyone who can help; if you have the undermentioned tasks and you want them undertaken promptly and professionally please inbox me for contact details and fee negotiations.

• General office assistant duties
• Transcoding from audio/ video to text
• Document creation and convertion in-between different office applications i.e Word, Excel, Powepoint, PDF etc
• Drafting legal documents forms and contacts
• Legal research and writing
• General LLB assignments
• Typing Editing and formatting of bachelor's degree assessments plus more. Of the task.

Thanks for reading, be blessed. Edit through.

It's a mellow Sunday! I hope this message finds everyone well. I'm reaching out to express my interest in exploring potential opportunities within our vibrant community. To make ends meet and pay for my college fees, am reaching out to everyone who can help; if you have the undermentioned tasks and you want them undertaken promptly and professionally please inbox me for contact details and fee negotiations.

• General office assistant duties
• Transcoding from audio/ video to text
• Document creation and convertion in-between different office applications i.e Word, Excel, Powepoint, PDF etc
• Drafting legal documents forms and contacts
• Legal research and writing
• General LLB assignments
• Typing Editing and formatting of bachelor's degree assessments plus more. Of the task.

Thanks for reading, be blessed. Edit through.

*Leans against my lightly used 2006 Honda Civic* Hey! Thanks for clicking on my totally original title. It was a toss up between this or the definitely not over-used, "looking for my player 2."
To start off, I'm 24 and from the East Coast of the United States, you can be from anywhere though since I really love to travel and I need a reason to do it more. I work as a freelancer on remote projects and because of that I'm not really tied down and have a bit of free time on my hands.
Honestly speaking, I'm not looking for anything incredibly specific. I think getting a relationship out of this would be great. Ideally we could fall in love and takeover a small island and convert it into a Banana Republic, start a cult, create and sell low-quality appliances at an absurdly high price and amass a small fortune, etc. But that seems like wishful thinking. I do miss the feeling of having someone to confide in, someone to support and be supported by. I want the feelings that come with cheesy romance, and at the risk of sounding generic, I want a partner in crime (minus the crime if you aren't into that stuff). I'm not sure if that could come from a Reddit post, but I don't see a reason not to try. I'd definitely prefer to take things slowly rather than rushing into something, so you won't have to worry about me proposing in the parking lot of Applebee's anytime soon. I wouldn't be opposed to something moving at a quicker pace if the vibes are right though!
I'm not the best at descriptions, so I would be more than willing to swap pictures early on since I know physical attraction is important to most people. When it comes to weight and height, I'm 150 pounds, slim/fit, and around 5'9 (6'4 in heels 😳) (175cm) (0.0009 nautical miles for all my pirates out there)
Hobby wise, I'm invested in reading and writing. I also play games with my friends on occasion, I like hiking and camping and I'm big into all kinds of horror movies and video games. I've been wanting to get into D&D and I even wrote a little campaign for my friend group but it has been such a pain trying to organize things with them 😭. Outside of that, I go hiking and camping, and I recently got back into calisthenics. I think sometime soon I'd like to start playing the bass guitar again. I swear it's not a midlife crisis thing though!
Anyways, there's a lot more that I can say but I really don't want to overwhelm anyone who ends up reading this with a wall of text. If anyone's interested then by all means feel free to DM me! I promise you won't regret it (too much.)

I have been trying to conduct a MaxEnt test in R and have run into an issue that I can't solve. I would appreciate it if someone could help me. My environmental raster data and presence data are loading correctly. My pairwise correlation is showing accurate results. The issue is probably something straightforward, but the answer is eluding me. Here is my complete code and the error message I am receiving:

Introduction ------------------------------------------------------------

Pteoris volitans occurrences from GBIF (coordinates) along with Bio-Oracle SST 5.85

Worst Case Scenario SSP5-8.5.

Load Packages -----------------------------------------------------------

Load necessary packages

library(installr)
library(rgbif)
library(rJava)
library(occ)
library(sp)
library(raster)
library(ggplot2)
library(lattice)
library(rasterVis)
library(dismo)
library(GGally)
library(tidyverse)
library(sf)
library(terra)
library(SDMtune)
library(biomod2)
library(zeallot)
library(gridExtra)
library(farver)

Load GBIF Data on P. volitans -------------------------------------------

Perform GBIF occurrence search

gbif_p.volitans_data <- rgbif::occ_data(scientificName = "Pterois volitans", hasCoordinate = TRUE, limit = 13000)
myspecies_coords <- gbif_p.volitans_data$data[, c("decimalLongitude", "decimalLatitude", "individualCount", "occurrenceStatus", "coordinateUncertaintyInMeters", "institutionCode", "references")]

Convert the list to a data frame

myspecies_coords <- data.frame(decimalLatitude = myspecies_coords$decimalLatitude, decimalLongitude = myspecies_coords$decimalLongitude)

Change name of myspecies_coords

p_volitans_coords <- myspecies_coords

Transform GBIF Data to .csv ----------------------------------------------

Write data frame to CSV

write.csv(myspecies_coords, file = "/Users/micahgisclaiDocuments/UCC Marine Biology MSc/Dissertation/R_code/GBIF_and_BioOracle/GBIF_and_Bio_Oracle_R_SSP585/Pterois_volitans_Occurence/myspecies_coords.csv", row.names = FALSE)

Extract Coordinates from GBIF Data --------------------------------------

Extract latitude and longitude from GBIF Pterois volitans data

decimallatitude <- gbif_p.volitans_data$data$decimalLatitude
decimallongitude <- gbif_p.volitans_data$data$decimalLongitude

Path to Bio-Oracle SST SSP5-8.5 Layer --------------------------------------

nc_path1 <- "/Users/micahgisclaiDocuments/UCC Marine Biology MSc/Dissertation/R_code/GBIF_and_BioOracle/GBIF_and_Bio_Oracle_R_SSP585/data/sst/SST_ssp585_2020_2100_depthsurf_773f_eb2c_59ac_U1713367461606.nc"

Read Bio-Oracle layer SST SSP5-5.85----------------------------------------

bo_SST_SSP585 <- raster(nc_path1)

Saving Bio-Oracle SST SSP5-5.85 Raster Tiff -------------------------------------------

Write Bio-Oracle SST SSP5-5.85 layer as GeoTIFF and .csv

Save the Data as a Raster GeoTIFF

writeRaster(bo_SST_SSP585, "./data/sst/bo_SST_SSP585_terra.tif", overwrite = TRUE)

Plot SST raster------------------------------------------------------------

plot(bo_SST_SSP585, main = "Sea Surface Temperature")

Path to Bio-Oracle SWS SSP5-8.5 Layer -------------------------------------

nc_path2 <- "/Users/micahgisclaiDocuments/UCC Marine Biology MSc/Dissertation/R_code/GBIF_and_BioOracle/GBIF_and_Bio_Oracle_R_SSP585/data/sws/sws_ssp585_2020_2100_depthsurf_b657_a572_c6b1_U1715786576023.nc"

Read Bio-Oracle SWS SSP5-8.5 Layer-----------------------------------------

bo_SWS_SSP585 <- raster(nc_path2)

Saving Bio-Oracle SWS SSP5-8.5 Raster Tiff ------------------------------

writeRaster(bo_SWS_SSP585, "./data/sws/bo_SWS_SSP585_terra.tif", overwrite=TRUE)

Plot SWS raster------------------------------------------------------------

plot(bo_SWS_SSP585, main = "Sea Water Speed")

Path to Bio-Oracle SO SSP5-8.5 Layer --------------------------------------

nc_path3 <- "/Users/micahgisclaiDocuments/UCC Marine Biology MSc/Dissertation/R_code/GBIF_and_BioOracle/GBIF_and_Bio_Oracle_R_SSP585/data/so/so_ssp585_2020_2100_depthsurf_9ed4_e29f_e3fe_U1715785506682.nc"

Read Bio-Oracle SO SSP5-8.5 Layer------------------------------------------

bo_SO_SSP585 <- raster(nc_path3)

Saving Bio-Oracle SO SSP5-8.5 Raster Tiff ------------------------------

Write Bio-Oracle SO SSP5-5.85 layer as GeoTIFF

writeRaster(bo_SO_SSP585, "./data/so/bo_SO_SSP585_terra.tif", overwrite =TRUE)

Plot SO raster----------------------------------------------------------

plot(bo_SO_SSP585, main = "Salinity")

Path to Bio-Oracle Phyc SSP5-8.5 Layer ----------------------------------

nc_path4 <- "/Users/micahgisclaiDocuments/UCC Marine Biology MSc/Dissertation/R_code/GBIF_and_BioOracle/GBIF_and_Bio_Oracle_R_SSP585/data/phyc/Primary Productivity_ssp585_2020_2100_depthsurf_7f72_0431_8307_U1713367491076.nc"

Read Bio-Oracle Phyc SSP5-8.5 Layer--------------------------------------

bo_phyc_SSP585 <- raster(nc_path4)

Saving Bio-Oracle Phyc SSP5-8.5 Raster Tiff and .csv ------------------------------

Write Bio-Oracle Phyc SSP5-5.85 layer as GeoTIFF

writeRaster(bo_phyc_SSP585, "./data/phyc/bo_phyc_SSP585_terra.tif", overwrite =TRUE)

Plot Phyc raster-------------------------------------------------------------------

plot(bo_phyc_SSP585, main = "Primary Productivity")

Load layer data to convert into polygons within a grid -----------------

Read geotiff files

Load GeoTIFF files

bo_SST_SSP585 <- raster("./data/sst/bo_SST_SSP585_terra.tif")
bo_SO_SSP585 <- raster("./data/so/bo_SO_SSP585_terra.tif")
bo_SWS_SSP585<- raster("./data/sws/bo_SWS_SSP585_terra.tif")
bo_phyc_SSP585 <- raster("./data/phyc/bo_phyc_SSP585_terra.tif")

Load grid data

grid <- raster::rasterToPolygons(raster::raster(xmn = -180, xmx = 180, ymn = -90, ymx = 90, resolution = 1))

Plot grid

plot(grid)

Use sf (simple features) to convert grid and give unique ID to polygons---------------------------------------------

Create sf grid from current grid information

sf_grid <- st_as_sf(grid, wkt = "geometry")
sf_grid$ID <- 1:nrow(grid)
points_sf <- st_as_sf(sf_grid, coords = c("decimalLongitude","decimalLatitude"), crs = 4326)
sf_grid$ID <- seq_len(nrow(sf_grid))
join_data <- st_join(points_sf, sf_grid, join = st_within)

Reduce down to 1 point per cell

oppc <- join_data %>% group_by(ID.y) %>% sample_n(1) %>% ungroup()

Convert to Spatial object

sp_oppc <- as(oppc, "Spatial")
sp_oppc <- as.data.frame(sp_oppc)

Comprising the final_df for pairwise correlation test-----------------------------------------------------------

Plot each environmental raster layer

par(mfrow = c(2, 2)) # Set up a 2x2 grid for plots
plot(bo_SST_SSP585, main = "sst")
plot(bo_SO_SSP585, main = "so")
plot(bo_SWS_SSP585, main = "sws")
plot(bo_phyc_SSP585, main = "phyc")
par(mfrow = c(1, 1)) # Reset the plotting layout to default

Create a dataframe with species occurrences

Calculate the number of repetitions needed for each layer

repetitions <- ceiling(12996 / 4)

Create a dataframe with species occurrences

final_df <- data.frame(
species = rep("Pterois volitans", repetitions * 4), # Repeat the species name repetitions * 4 times
PA = rep(1, repetitions * 4), # Repeat the value 1 for PA repetitions * 4 times
layer = rep(c("bo_SST_SSP585", "bo_SO_SSP585", "bo_SWS_SSP585", "bo_phyc_SSP585"), each = repetitions), # Repeat each layer name repetitions times
ID = rep(1:repetitions, 4), # Sequential IDs repeated 4 times
decimalLongitude = runif(repetitions * 4, min = -180, max = 180), # Random longitudes
decimalLatitude = runif(repetitions * 4, min = -90, max = 90) # Random latitudes
)

Set coordinates

coordinates(final_df) <- c("decimalLongitude", "decimalLatitude")

Create a list to store extracted values for each variable

extracted_values <- list()

Extract values at occurrences for each variable and store them in the list

extracted_values$sst <- raster::extract(bo_SST_SSP585, final_df)
extracted_values$so <- raster::extract(bo_SO_SSP585, final_df)
extracted_values$sws <- raster::extract(bo_SWS_SSP585, final_df)
extracted_values$phyc <- raster::extract(bo_phyc_SSP585, final_df)

Add extracted values to final_df

final_df <- cbind(final_df, extracted_values)

Rename the columns of the SpatialPointsDataFrame

names(final_df@data) <- c("species", "PA", "layer", "ID", "sst", "so", "sws", "phyc")

Convert final_df to a data frame

final_df <- as.data.frame(final_df)

Subset final_df for correlation analysis

correlationdata <- final_df[, c("sst", "so", "sws", "phyc")]

Create predictors stack

predictors <- stack(bo_SST_SSP585, bo_SO_SSP585, bo_SWS_SSP585, bo_phyc_SSP585)
names(predictors) <- c("bo_SST_SSP585", "bo_SO_SSP585", "bo_SWS_SSP585", "bo_phyc_SSP585")
plot(predictors)

Filter presence and absence

presence <- subset(final_df, PA == 1)
absence <- subset(final_df, PA == 0)

Convert presence and absence data frames to a two-column matrix of coordinates

presence_coords <- cbind(presence$decimalLongitude, presence$decimalLatitude)
absence_coords <- cbind(absence$decimalLongitude, absence$decimalLatitude)

Convert predictors to SpatRaster object

predictors_spat <- terra::rast(predictors)
print(predictors_spat)

Utilize ggllay (ggpairs) to make a pairwise correlations to test (30%) presence/absence data-----------------------------------------

Randomly sample points (same number as our observed points)

background <- terra::spatSample(x = predictors_spat, size = 12996, # generate pseudo-absence points equal to the number of observed points
values = FALSE, # don't need values
na.rm = TRUE, # don't sample from NA values
xy = TRUE) # just need coordinates

Convert background to SpatRaster object

background_terra <- terra::vect(background)

Use prepareSWD from the 'dismo' package with 'terra' objects

predictors_terra <- prepareSWD(
species = "Pterois volitans",
p = presence_coords,
a = background,
env = predictors_spat
)

Split data into training, validation, and testing sets

datasets <- trainValTest(predictors_terra, test = 0.3, only_presence = FALSE, seed = 25)
train <- datasets[[1]]
test <- datasets[[2]]

Subset final_df for correlation analysis

correlationdata <- final_df[, c("sst", "so", "sws", "phyc")]

Remove NAs from the correlation data frame

correlationdata_df <- na.omit(as.data.frame(correlationdata))

Plot pairwise correlations

GGally::ggpairs(correlationdata_df) + theme_bw()

Perform MaxEnt test -----------------------------------------------------

Check the number of observations in the data slot (coordinates of environmental layers)

Assuming train is your SWD object

coords_df <- train@coords # Extracting the coordinates data frame

Creating the data_obs object with X and Y columns

data_obs <- coords_df[, c("X", "Y")]

Displaying the first few rows of data_obs to verify

head(data_obs)

Check the length of the pa slot (presence/absence data)

pa_obs <- length(train@pa)
print(pa_obs)

Perform MaxEnt test

model_maxent_SSP585 <- train(data = train, method = "Maxent", fc = "lqph", reg = 1)

Perform MaxEnt test

model_maxent_SSP585 <- train(data = train, method = "Maxent", fc = "lqph", reg = 1)
Error in data.frame(..., check.names = FALSE) : arguments imply differing number of rows: 1, 2, 0
I believe it may be my data_obs and pa_obs results. They both show just one column, one row, and the total presence data.

( and, I am not an expert )
Headlines are the first thing a user notices when visiting your website.
It is where a user gets the entire idea of your service.
First place for a user to decide, whether they stay or leave.
So, The secrets are:
1) Squeezed message =) Highlight the entire solution or the service in just a few words. But how? This is the beauty of copywriting, we can convert a big topic into one word or we can make a big topic from a single word.
2) So what? =) What's in it for me? This is the first question we look for in a product. Everyone does. So, make sure to make it prior while writing a headline.
3) "The impact" =) "People buy on emotions, and later justify it with logic " In the Headline, reflect the life they would have after using your product. Remember, you're not selling the product, you are selling the result.
The headlines create a big impact on the conversion rate of a website. They work as the screens that show a film. If the Headlines interest the user, Win-Win If you are unable to engage the users here, they may never return.
Need some help regarding headlines? Feel free to reach me out, I will give you a clear roadmap of working-headlines.

copywriting #headlines #sales #copywritingtips #headlinetips

A guy (M19) sent me (F18) a message request on Instagram asking why I would do such a thing to him. This never happened to me before and being a fool I responded saying ‘?’. Turns out he just wanted to profess his love for me (I don’t know him) and express how he has fallen in love with my eyelashes specifically. This guy is a random stranger I had never talked to before therefore ofc I presumed he was trolling and just left him on seen. This guy proceeded to write paragraphs of how much he is in love with me and how he is the one for me and all of that nonsense (without even knowing me!!!!). We have 0 mutuals, we live in separate countries but are of the same origin therefore he wrote all this stuff in our mother tongue so it couldn’t be AI generated. I told him I don’t even know him and I am not interested but he has somehow managed to switch things up and converted the story into me being an awful person who doesn’t give strangers a chance, doesn’t have an open heart and needs to be healed (by his love of course).
It seemed like a clear situation to me, he’s just expecting too much from a random uninterested stranger who’s made their unavailability clear. But after blocking him (keep in mind, we were never even mutuals on Instagram, we didn’t follow each other), he made 3 new accounts all with the purpose of sending me requests and professing his love for me. This man is not leaving me alone. I have blocked 4 accounts as of today but I fear more are just going to pop up, although this isn’t exactly dangerous it is very tiring to me mentally. How did he even find my account? We have no link. He said he found me from his suggested but that doesn’t make any sense to me since I do not know him from anywhere.
I told my friends about this situation and they all believe I am simply being too rude and insensitive to someone who has feelings for me. They all claim I should atleast give him a chance since such a devoted man is rare to find. I’m just here to ease my mind, I don’t think what I did is wrong but I would like more opinions. Thank you.

An associate in my FS has had three, (3), NC/NS’s in the past 9 months. Two of these have been for multiple days and the latest was for three days. Technically that can be considered job abandonment, however, the decision was made to go down the formal write up path. The last two times this happened, there were only verbal warnings given.
I am of the opinion that the write up should be given at a level above 1 but was told that if it is sent in above level 1, HR will just kick it back. This is not my understanding of the process and available options so I thought I would pose the question here and see what the consensus is. Any direct experiental input would be appreciated.

Since the release of ChatGPT, I’ve been a frequent user, finding answers and getting a quicker responses that would otherwise take time to look them up on searching engines. It has been particularly helpful in finding the right words to describe specific ideas. honestly it has never disappointed me in filling in the right fit word, fixing my grammar issues, and adding punctuation for formal research. since i rearly go through what i write. I enjoy exploring and pushing the bot to express and elaborate more on the spesific topics to hear out how advance its becoming.
However, over time, no matter how much I deliberately ask it to change the tone into various of general and many topics. from professional to slang, or even to mimic someone with poor English skills. it still has a distinct way of generating content that I can easily tell was not written by a human. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has managed to understand the algorithm. This realization led me down a rabbit hole, looking for posts and articles written by ChatGPT, and I've been 99.9% correct in my assumptions.
We have reached a stage where there are tools and platforms to identify posts and articles generated by AI and others that rephrase AI-generated content to make it sound more human. This helps avoid accusations of plagiarism and ensures the content has a more authentic tone.

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Spying on a college student wasn’t exactly riveting, mostly because it was so easy! Connecting to Tav’s computer had been a breeze, and taking over the microphone on her phone wasn’t exactly hard either. Blanco had a good look at the girl’s files, checking her old writings with little to no interest, and then reading through the notes she was taking on a ‘Translation effort’ with legitimate curiosity.

The creature was sitting in the air, slowly sliding from one side of his room to the other, lit only by the lights of the many screens on its walls… all while the grin on his face was only growing wider and wider with each new discovery. So a language, hmm? Wasn’t that the thing that G and Eighty Two had been rambling about for years now? Ohhh, he couldn’t wait to tell them… or, at least, tell G about it.

He had been paid quite the hefty sum to not tell 82 a thing of what they discovered, at least for now… the fight between those two had always struck Blanco as arbitrary and stupid, but alas! It wasn’t his business, really! In fact, that fight had brought much more business to him than anything!

The phone suddenly rings. Speak of the devil! A quick check on the caller ID showed Eighty Two’s private line.

With a broken glass grin covering his otherwise smooth face, Blanco took the phone.

“Bianccio Pizzería! Thickest pizza around! How can I help you?~” Oh how he relished pissing people off.

“Shut up.” A cold, feminine voice came from the other side. Eighty Two always sounded so annoyed… “I need a service. Payment will be in advance, as per our usual accord.”

“Ohhh straight to the point huh? I like it!”

“There’s a new user in Dejima 08. Perform the usual Safety Scan. They claim to have been invited by user ‘Canned Tea’, but we know he has lied about it before.”

“Ok, let me check!” Just to cover, Blanco tapped gibberish on his keyboard while softly going ‘beep boop’ as he worked. “... Alright! Got it!”

“That was fast.”

“Tav. Real name Santino Belnades. A Bastard Mage living in Saüle, Wohl.”

“Is he dangerous?”

“Actually she goes by she now!”

“Is she dangerous?” Mustafá grumbled, more annoyed than usual.

“Nah. Just a college student like many others. She’ll give up or die in a month tops.”

“...” Mustafá remained silent for a moment, ruminating. “So Canned Tea is just covering another random bastard…”

“Ahem. My pay?”

“Why is this kid like this? Can’t he realize that he’s getting them into far more trouble than it’s worth?”

“I thought you said nothing ever happens in that forum of yours. Isn’t that your main complaint?”

“That doesn’t mean nothing ‘can’ happen at any moment. If the Brotherhood finds out about this forum, they could seize all of us for questioning.” The alchemist let out a deep sigh.

“Yeah, real tragic. Pay me.”

“I wonder how this one got turned. Probably some mage’s irresponsible usage of spells…? No, Wohl has such a low magical population, and such a high conscription by the Brotherhood…”

Blanco let out the deepest of sighs, rubbing his smooth face with a hand while spinning slowly on his non-existent chair. This was exactly why he prefered working with G, that and the lack of emotions that witch had…

And people called him inhuman! Hah!

“Keep an eye on her. I will pay you right now.”

There was a loud ‘KA-CHING!’ sound coming from one of the computers in the room. Blanco sighed in relief.

“Thank you for your patronage! I will keep you updated.”

“Good.”

With that, the alchemist hung up. Blanco growled again. No one said ‘Good Bye’ these days now, did they!? Rude pricks. And bad news kept coming up! This ‘Canny’ guy was now telling her that he’ll teach her the glyph for digital security?

“Guess baby time is over.”

He’d have to work a little harder to stay hidden if Tav decided to install that on all of her devices. At least it would keep him entertained! Blanco decided to focus on preparing for when things would get more intense.

After all, he had some time. The kid was going to the library, right? There was only one book she wanted from there, and Blanco had read it several times over already.

Gato’s old scratchbook held no new knowledge for the vampire to be interested.


There is no such thing as an entire section dedicated to recipe books in Saüle University’s Library, but I manage to find that stuff in the ‘miscellany’ section. That’s where all the hobby and self-help material ends up, and even if it took me a moment to come to the conclusion, that’s where I went too.

It takes me even longer to look through every single tome I could in that section, but finally, after all my hard work… I think I have found it.

Canny was right, this is a cheap notebook. Soft covers, spiral-bound, both sides stamped with wizard hats, frogs, potion phials and many other pieces of typically ‘witchy’ imagery. Looking through the pages, it is just a bunch of cake and kuchen recipes, nothing to write home about. It is old, the pages are all yellowish and fragile, and there are stains everywhere.

Then, when I am sure no one is watching… I whispered the words.

“Jantar mantar…?”

It is instantaneous, as soon as I say the password the pages begin to change, words disappearas the ink that wrote them starts gathering in a single, dark blotch, and then begins rearranging again…

Something compels me to close the book, feeling a little embarrassed. For some reason I equated it to catching someone changing up clothes, how outrageous!

Finally, after waiting for a moment, I open it again.

The Bastard’s Guide to Magic
By Gato

Okay, that was certainly a title.

Now that I have it in my hands, I quickly close it again and add it to a pile of books I have picked up. Stuff on ancient symbology and old civilizations. With my loot in my arms, I quickly go over to the main desk and get it all sorted.

The second floor librarian smiles at me for a moment before scanning all the barcodes, giving me a week to return all the books, and then offering me a bag to carry them. I shake my head, setting it all in my backpack.

… Wow, it’s been a while since I've taken this old backpack out to Uni, huh?

“Feeling nostalgic?”

“For the times you were an actually useful member of society?”

Maybe a little bit, to be honest. I still remember when I used to come here with Patricio looking for academic books and I escaped the duties to look for something interesting to read…

“Back when you actually read as a hobby.”

Shut up, I’ve been reading more these days, I am returning to it.

Walking out of the Library, I once again avoid the gaze of any acquaintances and run straight for the streets to take another taxi back home. There aren’t that many people around today anyways, probably because of Winter Vacation.

Maybe I should send Patricio a message…

“Oh yeah? And what will you tell him? That you’re ditching formal studies for a fantasy? That magic is real and shit?”

I… thought of saying hi. That’s what friends do, right?

“When was the last time you spoke to a friend? Pepe? Vito? What about Venus?”

I flinch for a moment.

“We can fix that right now! Let’s go chat with Patricio when we get home!”

I… don’t think I will, no. The mere idea of getting in contact with him makes me a little sick from the nerves, especially considering I don’t really have an answer for what he told me before. I remain as undecided on the whole ‘career’ deal as I was that day.

With a hand I call for a passing taxi, and I have the luck of being acknowledged. You never know with the Taxists these days, it is very well known that they dislike the college students in this city.

Maybe he is hurting for money.

I sit down, tell the man where I need to go, and stop thinking about things for a moment as the car moves… only to feel my phone vibrating.

It vibrates more than once.

That means someone’s calling me.

I start sweating almost immediately, as I carefully pull the thing out. Two possibilities, it js either spam, or it is my parents.

It is my parents.

“Calm down.”

“How do you think they would feel if they knew how fucking distressed their presence make you? Do you think they would ask ‘whatever did we do wrong?’ or something like that?”

“Don’t listen. Just… remember that they’ve never meant anything bad, ok? They will accept you, regardless of your results in college.”

I gulp… and with a deep breath, I put on the mask. All trembling stops, just like that night at the planetarium… although it really pains me to compare mom and dad to the cloaks. With another deep breath, I pick up.

“Mom?”

“Ohhhhh hi there Santi! How are you today? I hope I didn’t catch you too busy!” Mom was as vital and energetic as ever. Despite her old age, she really always acts like a far younger woman. That’s admirable, at least to me.

“She will die eventually, too.”

Saints above, shut up.

“I’m fine mom! I was just returning from the library. We started vacation this week, so I was picking some stuff to read on my own.” Not technically a lie. “How are things over there in Sumpf?”

“Ohhh you know, there’s never much to tell around here. Your dad and Vito always at each other’s throats… I really hope they'll get along a bit better with time.”

“They wont. If anything, it will get worse.”

Vito will grow wiser and dad will grow older, I am sure things will get better.

“Hah, I guess some things never change… what about you? Feeling fine?”

“Oh you know me, I am fine! For now.” She laughed loudly. “And you, Santi? How do you feel?”

“Uh…”

Damn it. I hesitated. I need to give that a reason NOW.

“... Well I had a bit of a toothache before, but beyond that, all’s…” I sigh. “Okay, maybe not so good. Mom, I think I flunked my exams this time…”

“Oh my dear…” She sighed, before going back to her positive self. “Don’t torture yourself over it now. Wait for the actual grade to be announced, then torture yourself!”

“Moom!”

“I am just kidding sweetie.” She chuckled a bit. “It is fine, we all fail sometimes… really, it’s not the end of the world, I swear.”

“She’s trying to soften the blow from the fact that you’re a fucking failure.”

I shudder.

“You are doing your best, that’s all that matters.”

“Are you?”

“We are proud of you, Santi. Never forget that.” She said, probably smiling.

“They were proud. Now? They are just enduring you.”

My lips tremble, a sharp breath escapes me. No, please. I can’t cry in a damn taxi…

“...Mom.”

“Yes, dear?”

“... What if this career isn’t what I am meant to do?”

“We are not ‘meant’ to do things. The Saints put us here to try and improve ourselves, but there’s no one dictated path, dear.”

Sometimes I forget that mom is quite religious, it makes me smile a little bit.

“I know, I know. But that’s not what I meant…” I hesitate again, breathing in and out, trying to keep the panic attack at bay. “... Mom… what if this is not the career I am built for?”

“Well… you can always change, dear! It is no problem, don’t worry about the money. We can afford it, especially with your scholarship!”

I certainly lost that one with my disastrous performance here, but I don’t have the guts to tell Mom that.

“As if she didn’t know already. She’s not stupid.”

“... Thank you mom.”

“Any time, dear. If there’s ANYTHING at all that you feel like telling me, remember that I am always on your side, okay?”

“Yes mom.”

“Yeah yeah, ‘yes mom’, that means ‘shut up already, old lady’, right?” She giggled.

“Mooom!”

“Alright, alright… I hope you can come back soon, okay? We miss you.”

“I miss you too.”

“She doesn’t believe you. None of them do. They think you’re cold, distant and a failure on top of all that.”

“I love you mom.”

“Love you too, Santi.”

Click.

The taxi is not moving, it hasn’t been for a while now. The old man behind the steering wheel looks at me with concern.

“We’re here… kid. If something is wrong, you gotta tell your mom. Trust me… there are many things I wish I told mine before she passed.”

“You don’t know us. You have no idea about us. Stop talking so familiarly to us and go away.”

I flinch, pushing down that response and just sighing.

“I know… thank you.”

After paying the man, I walk out of the taxi and let it go, standing in front of my apartment complex for a moment.

I really don’t want to cry today.

But I already feel some tears going down my face.

Why am I like this?

So at the climax of Revenge of the Sith, when Anakin has gone all 9/11 and is flailing about in his lifelong misery while taking the galaxy down with him, he and Obi-Wan start arguing about political differences, religious beliefs, and whether it’s morally acceptable to murder hundreds if not thousands of people along the way to get there. Obi-Wan takes the valid stance of it not being cool, and makes it clear he’s going to fuck Anakin’s shit up for all his dark deeds. Anakin is eager for this because as said above, he’s riding high on FUBAR as a state of being and seeks the catharsis/validation of beating someone he can project all his problems onto. Thus, we get the baddest lightsaber duel there is, and you know the rest.
Now a lot of the time, people drag their knuckles about the line “Only a Sith deals in absolutes” and how it’s some kind of indicator of inherent Jedi hypocrisy or dramatic irony or George Lucas being a hack or what-fucking-have-you. I don’t really care because I think it's stupid, as Jocasta Nu illustrates for us here, and it’s not the point I want to make. Instead, I’d like to draw your attention to the line Obi-Wan drops before: “Anakin, my allegiance is to the Republic, to democracy!”
Nice delivery by Ewan aside, the meaning of this line is pretty clear: that Obi-Wan, in the face of Anakin flying completely and absolutely batshit off the handle into Divine-Right-of-Kings-For-Those-I-Love, is declaring himself an ally to the Republic and democracy specifically. That he is a very pro-democracy individual and considers it a part of the Republic. Which, cool, because Anakin is totally bugfuck nuts at this point and anything he believes in is probably bugfuck nuts as well so it’s smart to avoid it.
The thing is though, that Obi-Wan is wrong. Actually, he's not just wrong, he's speaking nonsense that is genuinely complete nonsense to hear from a Jedi in the Prequel Era Republic. Because let's recap a few details:
The Jedi Order of the Prequels inducts their initiates as infants or toddlers, with an aged nine Anakin being considered way too old. Now it's their prerogative to take students as they wish (though the thousand years of uniformity unsurprisingly severely backfires), but generally speaking, children under nine are learning things like what's acceptable to put in your mouth and how to read, write, and use the bathroom. The ability to choose "make me a Jedi for life" is genuinely nonexistent for them, so right off the bat, one of the basic democratic cornerstones is also nonexistent for them. It's also not like the Jedi are just Space Catholics/Buddhists: they are explicitly raised and taught to serve the (increasingly corrupt) Republic and its (gradually growing in obscenity until they have to violate their identities as peacekeepers) needs. The actual ability to choose for Jedi is already in the negative double digits.
And for whichever one of you that's breaking their keyboard typing about how Jedi can leave if they want, I'm already aware, thanks for nothing. The thing is that A.) the ability to be able to refuse to participate in something you did not actually sign up for is what I would consider the absolute bare minimum, B.) it doesn't change the part where they don't make the choice to join to begin with, and C.) given how Jedi are taken into the Order usually before they even begin forming concrete memories, we can probably assume that's the reason so few do. When you're raised in that environment for your entire life, the choice to leave is synonymous with abandoning everything you've ever known, which is pretty terrifying.
Moving on: in the Jedi Order, the positions of authority are broken up between the Grand Master (who leads the entire Jedi Order), the Master of the Jedi Order (who is the leaderepresentative officer of the Council), and the Jedi Council. Let's talk about how the buck of leadership is passed around these people, and how there's frighteningly little oversight for the vast majority of the Jedi. Pay attention to the bold words.
The Council is made up of twelve Jedi Masters, including the Grand Master and Master of the Order (this was Yoda and Mace respectively in the PT) who historically are the same person holding both titles. In ROTS, Anakin serves as the senate-appointed representative, an extreme breach of tradition and what sends the Council into dealing with Palpatine's dictatorship (long after the Chad Mace Windu had sobered up to his increasing power and the problems of the war in the EU). While there's no 13th chair made for him, it's never clarified who Anakin was replacing or why there was an open spot at the moment. Though we can probably assume it was due to a wartime event, like the previous Council member being violently executed with a planet full of civilians on the HoloNet by the Separatists as part of their terror campaigns a week ago, it ultimately doesn't matter because this isn't about him.
The twelve seats are split between five lifetime members, four long-term members (and the end to that term is entirely decided on what's the "approved end date", not an actual hard number), and three limited-term members (that limit is not stated). If a lifetime appointment member dies, then it's possible for a long-term member to succeed them or for the Council to choose another Jedi Master at their own discretion, and the long-and-short-term members can be elevated to another position in the Council and have their term extended. The Council, in addition to serving as the liasion between the Jedi and the Senate, are also responsible for deciding when Padawans have progressed to the point of being ready for the Trials to become a Jedi Knight.
(Before I get some wannabe trying to blast me in the comments for using supplementary material to make an argument, take a look at the lineup of the Council in the movies. In the ten year period between TPM and AOTC, there have been only two switches in membership (which in extended material usually involves both being killed), and the three year period after AOTC leading up to ROTS being a war makes it questionable whether term limits became a thing, or Council members just stepped down or got killed off. Not really ideal).
Now notice how, nowhere in the above, is there a "members of the Jedi Order vote for who should be on the Council" option. Even if you want to argue that there should be a qualification factor, like say, holding the rank of Master, that still leaves a large candidate pool open where the actual rank-and-file of the Jedi could decide who they wanted making decisions. We're talking about a group that's supposed to be at least 10,000 members strong at this point, I somehow believe there are enough people willing and capable of leadership given the opportunity. Let alone the idea of immutable, set term limits.
Instead, it's basically just Yoda (also: very telling that the dude who probably only missed a four digit lifespan due to an unholy amount of trauma and misery at the tail end of it is a key decision maker for everything) and a couple of other people (who very well might have similarly lengthy lifetimes on account of being aliens) holding onto power for insanely extended periods of time and selecting who else gets to hold on to power for insanely extended periods of time at the whims of this inner circle. This is obviously a little less than preferable for how leadership should be handled, and that's not even taking into account how the Council seems to be the only real governing body of the Jedi Order.
But let's sidestep how completely anti-democratic the Jedi Order is internally, and focus on its external agency. The Jedi, despite being members of the Republic and a key cornerstone of it as a government institution, are never shown able to participate in the Senate in any meaningful way, shape, or form, such as actually voting for senators to be representatives of any star system. Let me remind you, this is the same senate where megacorporations get to have their own seats, so we aren't exactly talking about a sacred and honorable institution here.
Even if you want to assume the Jedi wouldn't want to influence the elections of systems they technically aren't part of (because of the above-mentioned total removal from their homes and cultures to become Jedi), there's an enormous leap between that and the basic ability to vote for who you'll be taking orders from. Why can't the Jedi have a voice in the government when Space Exxon gets to have their own senator? Even if it's just something as basic as "participate in the vote for who will become Chancellor of the Republic", that would be A.) an enormous leap towards the Jedi Order getting to participate in a democracy, and B.) exercising the absolute bare minimum of power in the system they are part of and help uphold. Maybe if there had been Senatorial Representative Jedi Master Shii-Par Kewwll in the PT, they could have turned the vote against Palpatine in TPM! Or advised Jar Jar against giving Palpatine emergency powers in AOTC! But nah, we can't have the defenders of the Republic decide anything about how it operates, that's too much.
Actually though, scratch that, the Jedi wouldn't actually be participating in a democracy even if there was a Senatorial Representative Jedi Master Shii-Par Kewell. Because according to the Prequels worldbuilding, senators don't even have to actually be selected by the systems they represent. Let's look at Padme's case: She is supposed to represent the Chommel sector of the Republic, a system that holds about thirty-six different planets. You would imagine then, Padme had to be elected by all of them, or some other selective process, to act as their representative, no?
Nope. The only system we are ever informed of regarding the election of senators is that 1/36th of their constituency-in this case-their home planet's ruler-has them serve as the representative. Even if Padme is from Naboo, that doesn't make her part of the Queen's administration if she serves as the senator of the entire Chommel sector. The fact we only get one other named political representative for the Chommel sector in Jar Jar, who is representing the second species of Naboo, doesn't suggest much involvement from the other planets they are supposed to be serving.
Hell, Padme herself wasn’t even democratically elected if we go off her own account of Naboo’s post-TPM political history. After she served her second term as Queen, the population wanted to abolish term limits to keep her in power, which she refused to accept and the next Queen, Jamilla, was elected. Queen Jamilla then has Padme become their senator through the tried-and-true democratic process of…requesting her to serve. Nowhere is the mention of other candidates, an election, anything that isn’t just the monarch asking the previous monarch very nicely if she’ll take over the job for the entire sector.
It also bears noting that the only reason there is a current monarch that’s not Padme is because Padme refused to follow the people’s wishes, which were to break term limits on the monarchy for her to stay as Queen…which can be summarized as “one person making everyone else agree”. Now, that’s not to criticize Padme for preserving what shreds of legitimacy Naboo has as a government, but breaking term limits so someone can spend fifteen years total controlling policy is nuts. From fourteen to twenty-nine, Padme has massive control over Naboo’s politics, which is an insane amount of time even if people had wanted her to serve another term as Queen and presumably were all in on her being Senator as a result. Even if the people had wanted it, there not being a formal election means that this system is just begging to be abused. Wonder how Palpatine got his start, huh…
So to recap: if you’re a Jedi in the Prequels, you have been picked up from when you were very small to be raised in a system you will have no conceivable influence on at any point in your life. As part of that system, you are also taught to serve another system you will never have any conceivable influence over, and it’s very likely that the vast majority of the populace that make up that system don’t have any hope of conceivably influencing it either. This is the amount of agency you will have over your entire life, unless you decide “hey, I’m going to leave now, can I keep the lightsaber so I can fight off the wolves I’m being thrown to?”, which the Jedi at least have the good will to offer as an option in contrast to the Republic. Turns out that when Anakin’s starting to talk about authoritarianism in AOTC, he’s actually just telling Padme about how the Jedi and Republic operate as institutions, and how the daily life of the average member of both is just getting teabagged by everything ever. There was never any democracy to save in the Republic, the characters are all living in a shared delusion that cracks on an accelerated timeline when Palpatine starts his Sithma grindset, and the only solution was to send Anakin in with a flamethrower and let him cry himself out burning everything down, so the ashes could be used as soil and his tears as water to grow something better with.
I should probably be clear that I don’t get the sense much of this was intentional. Lucas often flip-flops in his BTS commentary about the Jedi, and that’s without getting into how it actually plays out in the stories he writes. Despite the Republic and Clone Wars being a deliberate criticism of America, a lot of the politics are muddied and not really fleshed out for the audience. The lack of interest in Padme as a character is clear for everyone to see, so it’s no surprise a lot of her story has more than a few headscratchers. I think it’s clear there’s a lot of stuff in the PT that wasn’t completely thought out or put together well, and this is another instance of such a thing occurring.
Ultimately to me, it doesn’t matter too much what that intent was. If your takeaway from the Prequels is that the Jedi and Republic were hopelessly fucked from the beginning and both systems needed to be entirely flipped on their heads to even begin to be democratic, all that matters is that you can back it up from within the films themselves, as I have done with the above. The point is, the Jedi and Republic were not soulfully democratic in any sense, their defenders and allies were not supporters of democracy as a result, and Obi-Wan took yet another L. It’s just how he rolls, gotta love that for him.
TL;DR: A lot of the ways the Jedi operate as an entity, and their dynamics with themselves, in service to the Republic, and outside parties as part of the Republic, makes far more sense when you read about how George Lucas considers them to be peacekeepers in the same way mafia dons are. Based Nute Gunray, dodging an offer he couldn’t refuse in TPM?
(Also if you come away from this post thinking it’s point was “OP is saying the Jedi are bad/evil” and I see that shit in the comments: you’re a moron. This post has sailed over your head. You have the same level of reading ability and intelligence as the Avatar movies do cultural impact. Go outside and touch the grass.)

The “disciple whom Jesus loved,” known as John, either John the brother of Zebedee (the Apostle), or John the Elder, was writing his recollections of his experiences with Jesus so that those who hear or read would believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and would find eternal life in His name (cf. John 20:31). He began by speaking of the Word of God, the Creator, the life and light of men, who took on flesh and dwelt among us as Jesus of Nazareth (John 1:1-18). He then described the calling of the first disciples, Jesus’ first sign at the wedding in Cana, the events which took place while Jesus was present at the Passover in Jerusalem, and Jesus’ return to Galilee via Samaria (John 1:19-4:54). John the Evangelist then set forth Jesus’ healing of a lame man at Bethesda and the storm of controversy it engendered, Jesus’ feeding of the five thousand, and His challenging description of Himself as the Bread of Life (John 5:1-6:71).
John the Evangelist has been relating narratives regarding Jesus at the Feast of Tabernacles (or Feast of Booths; Sukkot) in Jerusalem, featuring Jesus’ instruction and the thoughts and feelings of the crowds and Jewish authorities, ultimately leading up to a desire to stone Jesus for blasphemy (John 7:1-52, 8:12-59). For many textual critical and literary reasons, we have reason to believe the pericope adulterae, the story of Jesus and the woman caught in adultery, of John 7:53-8:11 was not originally written by John, let alone would have taken place at this point in the Gospel narrative. We therefore conclude John the Evangelist wrote a continuous narrative of events at the Feast of Tabernacles in John 7:1-52 and John 8:12-10:21.
While we have a tendency to disconnect the narratives of John 9:1-41 and John 10:1-21 from the events of John 7:1-52, 8:12-59, and even disconnect them from each other, John the Evangelist presented them as all part of one continuous literary unit. In John’s narration, Jesus has gone back and forth with the Jewish people and religious authorities in John 7:1-52, 8:12-30 and then spoke specifically to the Jewish people who believed in Him in John 8:31-59; having miraculously escaped those who would have executed Him, Jesus left the Temple area with His disciples, and walked by a man who had been born blind (John 9:1). Jesus’ disciples asked who had sinned, he or his parents, which led to his blindness; Jesus responded it was so that the acts of God might be revealed through him (John 9:2-3). The disciples reflect the standard prejudice and presumption regarding disability deriving from specific sins; we should not develop a theology of disability from either Jesus’ disciples or, for that matter, Jesus’ specific response in this particular circumstance.
Jesus re-affirmed how He was the Light of the world and needed to do the works of God while the day remained (John 9:4-5; cf. John 8:12). He then spat on the ground, made mud, put it on the blind man’s eyes, and told him to wash in the pool of Siloam; the blind man did so and was able to see (John 9:6-7). The people responded, wondering if he indeed was the man who was blind and had formerly begged; some recognized him as such, but others did not think so; he did not shrink away from confessing who he was and had been (John 9:8-9). They asked him about what happened and he relayed the story (John 9:10-12).
The people decided to bring the man to stand before the Pharisees since an astonishing miracle had taken place (John 9:13). John the Evangelist then informed us this healing took place on a Sabbath (John 9:14); many of the Pharisees thus considered Jesus’ making mud on the ground as work and thus deemed Him a transgressor of God’s law, entirely missing the miraculous on account of this detail, but some did experience the cognitive dissonance and wondered how a sinner could do something like this (John 9:15-16). They asked the formerly blind man what he thought; he confessed Jesus as a prophet (John 9:17).
The Pharisees refused to believe his testimony and summoned his parents; they affirmed him as their son and that he was blind, but said nothing about how he gained sight (John 9:18-21). John the Evangelist explained their reticence: the Pharisees had agreed to put out of the synagogue anyone who confessed Jesus as the Christ (John 9:22-23). To be put out of the synagogue meant to be alienated and isolated from the Jewish community, and it would not be as if the Gentiles would welcome them with open arms. Many commentators believe John is retrojecting the situation of his later community onto this event; we have no reason to believe the religious authorities would not have thus leveraged their power at the time.
The Pharisees brought the formerly blind man back in and chastised him: they knew Jesus was a sinner, and he should glorify God; they were Moses’ disciples, but he was a disciple of Jesus, and they do not know where He came from (John 9:24-25, 29). The formerly blind man stood against them sharply: God did not listen to sinners, but Jesus had done a miracle which had never before been done according to the witness of the Scriptures. If Jesus were not from God He could do nothing (John 9:26, 30-33). The Pharisees had no patience for such a rebuke: they denounced him as born entirely in his sins, and yet he would presume to teach them (John 9:34)? We will have reason in a moment to comment on the irony of this statement; sufficient for the moment is to recognize how the Pharisees have revealed who they are in their response.
The Pharisees cast the man out. Jesus found him and asked what he thought of the Son of Man (John 9:35). The man asked Jesus about who the Son of Man might be, and Jesus confessed Himself as the Son of Man (John 9:36-37). The formerly blind man confessed his belief and prostrated before Jesus; Jesus said He came into the world so the blind might see and those who see might become blind (John 9:38-39). The Pharisees, perceiving the challenge, asked Him if they were blind; He told them they would not be guilty of sin if they were blind, but because they presumed to see, their sin remained (John 9:40-41).
John the Evangelist laid the irony on thickly: the blind saw, but those who believed they saw proved blind. Those who were “born in sin” found forgiveness, but those who presumed themselves to be holy were in transgression. Appropriate critiques about making caricatures and strawmen out of the Pharisees are important and should be heeded; nevertheless, it is always a temptation of those with religious zeal to think too highly of their own righteousness and inappropriately prove sanctimonious toward those with less formal accreditation or standing.
We tend to end the story there, but John did not: in his narrative, Jesus immediately continued on by speaking of Himself parabolically as the Door of the sheepfold and the Good Shepherd of the sheep (John 10:1-21).
The world of shepherding and sheep would have been familiar to Jesus and to everyone in His audience. Sheep were important for their meat, milk, and wool; nevertheless, sheep are very dumb creatures. They require a lot of assistance, direction, maintenance, and protection. Shepherds would spend a lot of time with the sheep and would be dedicated to them. They would know their individual sheep. Sheep heed the specific voice and call of their shepherd; even when flocks are mixed, with a call or sound the sheep will appropriately separate out and follow their respective shepherds. Bears, lions, and wolves would find sheep an easy meal; other people might be tempted to steal sheep. Shepherds thus had to direct sheep to find appropriate pasturage and water, and would be kept in sheepfolds to provide some protection during the night. The shepherd would use the door (or gate) of the sheepfold; those who would come to rob and steal would try to enter another way.
Such was the story Jesus told about the sheep, the sheepfold, and the shepherd in John 10:1-18. The people would have understood the referents, but they did not understand what Jesus meant by it all (John 10:6). Jesus attempted to explain. He was the Door of the sheepfold, for the others who came and claimed to be the Messiah were really thieves and robbers, and the sheep, the people of God in Christ, did not listen to them. Those who go out through Jesus find salvation and “pasturage”; going after others leads to exploitation and oppression, but Jesus came to give abundant life. Jesus is the Good Shepherd of the sheep, who would lay down His life for the sheep. Hired hands would abandon the sheep if it proved too costly; the wolves, or the false Messiahs or religious authorities, would then come in to devour the sheep, God’s people. Jesus had sheep in other sheepfolds He would gather to Himself. But He knew His sheep, and they knew Him; He would lay down His life for them, and take it back up again, according to the commandment of His Father (John 10:1-18).
Jesus was by no means the first person to speak of Israel and leadership in terms of sheep and shepherding. Moses and David had been shepherds when God called them to lead His people (Exodus 3:1-6, 1 Samuel 6:11-13). The prophets would denounce the nobility and prophets of Israel as shepherds devouring the flock; yet YHWH promised He would return and personally shepherd Israel His sheep (cf. Ezekiel 34:1-31). We should definitely pick up on the textual association between Jesus, the I AM before Abraham, and Jesus the Good Shepherd, YHWH who had returned to personally shepherd His sheep (John 8:58, 10:11). How He would lay down His life for the sheep, and take it back up again, would become manifest in its good time.
The people did not quite know what to do with everything which had transpired (John 10:19). Some continued to be convinced Jesus was demon possessed and insane, and asked how anyone else could listen to Him (John 10:20; cf. John 8:48, 52). But others denied His words could come from a demon, and asked how anyone possessed by a demon could give sight to a blind man (John 10:21).
Thus John the Evangelist ended his narratives about Jesus at the Feast of Tabernacles. As Israel celebrated the gifts of light, food, water, and life during the Feast of Tabernacles, thus Jesus demonstrated how He was the Light of the world, giving sight and wisdom, providing pasturage and fountains of living water for those who believe in Him. He proclaimed Himself the Son of Man and God the Son and made attestation by doing a thing no prophet before had ever done, but was prophesied regarding the Messiah: He gave sight to a blind man. The people remained as divided as ever: plenty found reason to dismiss Him as demon-possessed and insane, and while no one could make complete sense of what He was teaching, others could not dismiss Him so easily or glibly. May we well recognize Jesus as our Shepherd, the Light of the world, giving life through His sacrifice, and share in life in Him!
Ethan

Okay I'm going to play a game here. Since I claimed on the title I could write a whole post in 10 minutes then I'm going to set a timer and see how much I can get in here before it goes off. No cheating!
3, 2, 1 LET'S GO! 😤
I'll start off with saying who and what I'm looking for. A nice cute person regardless gender and near my age, location strictly from Europe because of convenience in travelling and so on plus I like my sleeping schedule and any dramatic time difference would make it impossible. Long-term, monogamous kind of thing and I'm fine with LDR for now and open to relocating wherever or to each other in the FAR future because delusion gives us confidence and confidence helps us actually achieve things (messed up but it works). But until then I'm good with travelling and spending time together both online and offline with whatever ways work out for us (texting, calls, mutual vacations). I don't have kids but would like 1 in the future when things are solid in life although I don't believe in marr1age traditions and formalities. I'm religious but on a very personal level so let's keep this part to ourselves and respect each others beliefs.
(Paused the timer to fix typos cause fast typing results in a hella lot of mistakes.. THIS IS NOT CONSIDERED CHEATING OKAY?)
A little bit about me: I'm going back to college next year for my second degree so my life is already tied down for these upcoming 4 years but hopefully I'll catch up on life with travels and fun adventures both abroad and within my little country (want to guess?). I have some nerdy hobbies such as reading and writing, collecting comics, thrift shopping old furniture and bring them back to life with DIY projects and general recycling of whatever can have a second chance instead of becoming trash. To make this even more basic I'll mention cooking/eating, growing own veggies and raising animals, love exercise but mostly hiking/swimming/handball, music, series, movies and anime. I'm more introverted than extro but I don't lack the social skills - I just prefer to spend more time alone than with others. I have few good friends and I met few more online that I absolutely appreciate and yes I met them on reddit with my old acc so obviously I have some hopes for this sub too..
Uh.. The timer set off.. Too soon. What kind of 10 minutes was that? I barely said any of the things I wanted to say.. Well this is starting great. Already made a fool of myself. 😅 Well I tried. I did think of fixing the title so nobody will ever know what happened here and just keep typing since I'm already in that chatter mood but nah I'll leave it here.
I can definitely set the timer again and write for another 10 (or 5..) minutes for anyone who wants to do the same and send each other some weird but awesome messages if we happen to share the same stupidity and excitement. Forget a lover, if I happen to make a new fr1end out of this then it's all good!
So... is anyone going to set their own timer and write this random idiot a message? We have a bunch of things to say, introduce ourselves and find that common ground to start building something fun out of it. See you soon? 👀

Writing my first book and I’m 75,000 words in. It needs a LOT of editing before I’d even consider sending it to an agency, and I’ve enlisted a lot of beta readers (family and friends who read a lot) for constructive criticism first also.
The statistics of manuscripts that get accepted or published is obviously dismally low. I’m also aware I am a first time writer with no formal writing experience or anything published before. The entire process seems so daunting and I’m trying to research as much as possible.
Does anyone have any advice for getting agents/published? Obviously I’m not expecting a step by step guide here, and it’s ultimately also down to luck and the quality of my writing. But if there is ANYTHING anyone can think of that might be helpful to someone who is trying for the first time ever… I would be so grateful.
Thank you all so so much. 🙏🏼

Hi everyone,
I am selling a Parker Duofold International Blue Mosaic. This is a rare limited edition from 2001. It has a medium 18k nib and writes wet and smooth. Comes with the original box, converter, and cartridges. I hope it goes to someone who will use it well!
Price: 500 obo. Includes shipping conus. Pics: https://imgur.com/a/Pyy193B