My battery cycles are 44 I have my computer less than a year and battery capacity is 92% I almost never charge to 100% and don't let it drop below 20%. I really don't think that my battery health is ok copared to other people. What do you think?

Hi
Per recommendation from you guys (u\Zak in particular) I decided to buy an Armytek Wizard C2 Pro headlamp for my recent trip to Norway.
I have to say I am very impressed with it. I slept in a tent on my trip and the temperature dropped to -20 degrees C at one point. All my electronics stopped working, all my food and drinks froze solid. Howerver this thing stayed strong. Not only did it work, I could not tell any difference in performance compared to, when I tested it at home prior to the trip.
I was sceptical about the tint, before buying it (I usually use lights that are 4000 K), however I must say this light does deliver high CRI light, that is very pleasant to the eyes. Likewise I was sceptical about using a light, that did not have Anduril, however the UI on this light was very easy to get into and I grew to like the fact that, once you select a brightness the light will stay at this brightness.
I have not used the magnetic charging for this light yet (I have charged to battery with a regular charger), however I also have high expectations for this.
Once again I am very thanksful for this community and very satisfied with the light you have suggested for me.

In 2021 my biological mother, who I have had no contact with for years, used my identity to file a tax return. She did not claim me as a dependent, but filed under my name as a single filer (this happened after turning 18.) I did not file taxes last year because I was having too many issues with it.
At the time, I got a letter from the IRS stating they received a refund that could be fraud. I told them I did not file and that it was not me who filed that return. I did the whole identity theft FTC thing, checked my credit, called my local PD to never get a call back, FTC account was closed after never getting back to me, etc etc.
Now, the real reason why I want to sue. I filed my taxes this year in January, two weeks go by, no refund. Two more weeks go by, no refund. Finally I get a letter in the mail from the IRS once again saying they need to verify my identity. I call and sit on the phone for over an hour just for them to tell me I have to go in person. Of course the closest appt was almost a month out.
I go for my appointment today and I basically have to do the extra 100 steps every. single. year. I have to do all of this extra stuff just to file my taxes and it is genuinely stressful as a 19 year old who was never taught how to adult. I know she won’t be charged for stealing my identity because I have no physical evidence against her, but can I sue her for this? Id rather be told im wrong by the internet than a lawyer in person.

This might be disjointed, I’ve never told this to anyone or written it before - not to friends, not to therapists, not to a journal or diary.
I grew up in a cult. Not a big one, not one you’ve heard of, but a cult nonetheless. And I was good at it.
How is one “good” at being in a cult? By truly, wholeheartedly believing everything they say. Which I did. I was also very good at following rules, however strange or senseless - although I guess that’s easier when it’s all you’ve ever known.
Because I was good at following orders, and because I was the eldest girl in my family, I was given additional responsibilities. It started small - house chores, cooking for the family, that sort of thing. It grew to helping in services, cleaning the church and doing chores around other places owned by the organisation. Eventually, when I was around 10, I “graduated” to the point of being given the role of childcare during the adult-only services. These lasted 4-5 hours a week, during which I was in charge of around 20 kids, all younger than me.
Once, a kid acted out. I can’t even remember what rule he broke. I told him off, he kept doing it, and I called an adult. Corporal punishment was encouraged by the organisation. The adult, a priest, beat him. Then me, for not adequately punishing the other child. I was told in no uncertain terms that it was my duty to “keep the children safe from sin”, by beating them if they acted out.
So I did.
Every week.
Every week, at least 2 kids would misbehave, or talk back a bit, or break some stupid nonsense rule that the church had. And I’d beat them for it. It felt bad, every time I did it I felt dirty and upset, but I thought I was saving them. They’d cry or scream and I would tell them I was sorry, but what difference does my “sorry” make if I still hurt them. Every week, for multiple years.
I get flashbacks to a wide variety of the shit I endured in the cult, but whenever it’s to a time where I hurt kids (my god. i hurt kids), I just feel worse for it. Why am I acting sorry for myself, as if my feelings in that situation were more important than those of the children I traumatised? I feel guilty, and then guilty for feeling guilty, because no matter how bad I felt, I still beat them.
I’m out of the cult now, have been for almost a decade. Some close friends know I was in a cult as a kid, but none of the details. I’m never going to tell any of my friends about this, though - there’s no way they’d look at me the same ever again, and I wouldn’t blame them.

Change how long it takes for something to reach somewhere shot a bullet say I would hit the target In 3 second now it will only take 1 or I fly a drone on to A table it would take 5 seconds but now only 1 all this And more batterys not included all parts sold separately

Welcome new readers. Please start with chapter one https://www.reddit.com/HFY/comments/11ai7iv/last_of_the_defenders_ch_01/
Previously https://www.reddit.com/HFY/comments/11xe5m5/last_of_the_defenders_ch_27/
“I‘ve always been better able to swallow bad news with a good meal,” Li said as she walked around a counter and began rifling through a tall metal closet. She pulled out two wrapped bags.Sadly, we’ll have to settle for this excrement.
Allah took the bags when offered, and a pair of bowls. Li grabbed another tiny spade, this one with a jagged edge. She opened her mouth, blowing on the spork and rubbed it on her forearm. She stepped to a cupboard and set a cup inside. “Dispense 2.5 liters of water at 343 Kelvin, Demeter.”
Steaming hot water filled the tall glass. Li placed a second under inside the cupboard, “Repeat command, Demeter,” and the second glass filled.
She walked to the bench opposite Allah and set the glasses down. “It's hot so be careful,” Li cautioned, tearing open the smaller pouch. She poured its contents inside Allah’s bowl, “Veggie broth number one for the sick kitty,” and Allah poured the glass of hot water in as well. It looked, as the powder started to disperse into the water, like settling silt, “And soy chicken chunks with almond cheese spread for me--yum yum!” she grimaced, as she pulled out three packets. She held the smallest of the three aloft. “But I do get a cookie.”
Allah sniffed the broth, remembering to bless the meal with “Xièxiè nǐ de zhōngwén shíwù” before sipping slowly. It was weak, bland, but it was warm. She had contented herself with a few sips of water during the quorum and her belly now demanded more.
Li stabbed her spade into Allah’s glass, stirring vigorously, “Sorry,” the human said, “but look on the bright side. This time tomorrow,” she ripped off the top of the largest pouch and Allah’s nose was assaulted with a smell that could only be described as “artificial”, “you should be well enough to sample this culinary delight.”
“I think I would prefer the broth,” and she took another sip. It did taste better when the silt was mixed. Li chuckled, pouring half her water into the large bag and ripped open another. That smelled even worse as a brown powder puffed free when water was applied. Li stirred the contents of both vigorously before pouring the orangey brown “cheese” into the freeze dried soy chicken substitute, and spooning both into her own bowl.
The human took a bite as Allah hid a wince behind another sip. Li chewed woodenly, swallowed and said “Not bad for a fifty year shelf life,” and dug back into the packets, searching. “If I know those pesky anglos--Ah ha!” She pulled out the tiniest pouch yet, ripped off the top and a smell Allah could only describe as tamed fire struck her nostrils as the human squeezed red liquid into her meal. “Hot sauce!” Li grinned and took another bite, nodding, “but I should’ve saved it for the cookie.”
Allah nodded acceptance of the tip and finished her broth.
“Want some more?” Li asked as she chewed.
“I would be honored by such a gift,” Allah nodded her head up and down, imitating the human response. Though, truth told fully, she was not so certain she would feel as honored by a second bowl.
Li did not get up, but instead pointed at the packet the broth had been contained in. “See those symbols?” Allah nodded, committing the human glyphs to memory. “Go find a matching pouch.”
Allah stood, sniffing and walked cautiously behind the counter. She used her claws to pop the metal closets open, gasping at the rush of cold air. Frozen air; cold as a warm winter day. She looked over her shoulder at Li, then carefully riffled through the icey box.
Several had similar glyphs as her pouch, but they were too big, the glyphs in the wrong order.
She opened another box, finding small packets of the right size but…wrong glyphs. Was the trough before the broken box with a line in its center or after. The two tails with a dash in the center had sat next to each other, she was certain…
“Need help?” Li called from the table.
“I will find it,” Allah called, “thank you for the offer.” There! Two curved tails with a dash in their middle. The trough was before the broken box. She pulled the packet out, returning to the table with tight lips.
Li, nodded. “Good. Now,” she lifted Allah’s glass to her. “Do you remember the temperature I gave Demeter?”
“Too poin’tah f’eye’vah Li’tours,” Allah fumbled with the words.
“That's the volume,” Li corrected. “But you need both. The temperature was three hundred forty three degrees Kelvin. You try.”
T-ta-ta’ree hun der red f’or--bach! Ta’ree hun’red f’ord’ee ta’ree da’ggg’ree Kah’el vine.” It feels like I am speaking with a rock in my throat!
Li shrugged, “Welcome to English 101. Pop quiz,” she pointed to the hole in the wall. “Is to get our dim host over there to supply you with some fresh, hot water.”
Li continued eating as Allah took her glass to the square hole. She inspected the hole, say a metal nipple sticking from its top. She placed the glass directly under and began to practice.
“Dimetar! Too poin’tah f’eye’vah Li’tours va’tour. Ta’ree hun’red f’ord’ee ta’ree da’ggg’ree Kah’el vine”
“Command not recognised,” the cheerful voice replied, translated by her metal implant. “Please restate.”
Allah sighed, bit her lip and tried again. And again. Each time, Li offered hints, coaching and encouragement. Try breaking each command down, see where he misunderstood. Enunciate, don’t growl the ‘guh’ sound.
“Dimetar?
“Yes, User Allah?”
“Too poin’tah f’eye’veh Li’tours wah tour.”
“Please specify desired temperature.”
“Ta’ree hund’red fort ee ta’ree da’gah’reez Kah’el vine.”
And water poured into the glass.
Allah took her prize in her paws and returned to the table. She set it down and beamed at Li. Then clapped her paws together so sharply that the human jerked back. Allah rushed back behind the counter, grabbed her own spork and returned to sit, panting onto the tiny jagged spade before rubbing it on her forearm.
“Proud of yourself?”
“Yes,” Allah puffed out her chest and twitched her tail as she sliced the packet open with a claw. For the first time in two days, she fed herself.
“Good,” Li spooned the last of her fake chicken and cheese into her mouth, opening the cookie. “I plan to teach you some basic commands to use if you need Demeter to help you when I’m not around. How’d that sound.
Allah lowered her bowl and licked her lips with a small bow. “I will strive to be a worthy student.”
Li clapped her hands together, rubbing them furiously. “Then let's start with some ABCs,” but no sooner had the enthusiasm leap to her face, it vanished.
Allah lowered her bowl in mild alarm.
Li held up a hand, her human face squishing in confusion. “Jung’s hailing me. Priority transmission. One sec,” and her eyes glassed over.
And just as quickly the human’s eyes widened in alarm “What!?!” Li stood up from the bench, jostling the table. “No, n-no. Hold it.” She looked at Allah, glowering. “Jung, repeat that last aloud.”
The AI’s voice spoke from the wall speaker “Li, these are confidential orders. I don’t like keeping secrets any more than you do--”
“It directly concerns her, Jung,” Li growled.
“Very well,” and the AI’s voice sounded resigned as he said “Stardancer and her assigned personnel are hereby ordered to leave OGLE-3219-BLG-2624L with all available haste and set course for the supply depot above Basker III. Shipboard AI is required to reconfirm receipt of message once personnel have digitally signed the read receipt.”
“And I’ll mate a monkey before I sign excrement! And neither are you, buckethead!”
“Li,” Jung soothed, “you must understand, this is a fleet command order. I am incapable of refusing such an order. If you fail to acknowledge receipt, they will ask me if it was delivered. I would be incapable of dissemination.”
“Tell them the transmission was garbled,” she countered.
“What does this mean?” Allah asked, growing alarm blossoming into new panic.
“That will not work as I have already sent my own read receipt,” Jung replied.
“Why the mate did you do that?”
“I was ordered to via direct transmission.”
“What does this mean?” Allah forced the distressed purring to stop. She would not shake herself to uselessness. Li, Jung, what has happened?”
“They’re calling us home!” Li rounded and slammed her fists on the counter. “Without any notice of a reinforcement team.”
The human turned, a wild savagery in her dark eyes as she turned to look at Allah. The U’knock stood slowly but refused to back away in fear.
When Li spoke, spittle flew from her clenched teeth.
“We are not just leaving these people to die.”
“I empathize, Li,” Jung’s tone was soft, comforting. All Allah knew was that her world was about to die. No tone could comfort that grief. “But our orders are clear,” he continued. “If you disobey, they may begin sending instructions to Demeter to forcibly remove you.”
“Alright, alright.” Li took several calming breaths, in through her tiny nose and out through her mouth. “Alright,” and her voice retained a false calm. “Jung? Request reconfirmation on my authority. Ask them why they’re ignoring a Case Alamo.”
“I can send it immediately,” the AI replied
“You’ll send in a second,” she took another calming breath before saying “And Jung? Send it in the clear.”
“That,” Jung’s voice was flat to the point of refusal, “is a violation of Secure Communication Protocol 23.9, section A, and a court-martial offense, Corporal Zhōu.”
“On my authority as acting ground forces commander of,” she paused and looked at Allah, “did your people ever name this planet?”
Allah nodded “U’dam,” she answered.
“Ground forces commander of U’dam. Note your protest, Jung, and confirm when you send the message.
“Noted,” but the AI sounded reluctant. “Sent.”
“Now,” she rubbed her face with her hands, “cut yourself out of the local circuit; I’ll call you back.”
“Li,” Jung protested
“Now Jung.”
There was a pause of heartbeats before the AI softly said “Complying.”
Li strode to a black panel on the mess hall wall. “Demeter, PDF override. Create a new partition in primary through tertiary data cores.”
“Building partitions. What file size do you require?”
“How large is your current Operating System size?”
“Demeter-907OS is currently utilizing 8.87693 yottabytes.”
“Make the partitions 9 yottabytes each.”
“Stand by,” the wooden voice replied. “Processing.
“Partitions complete.”
“Clone core OS to new partitions and label them as BACKUP ONE.”
“Cloning,” Li was bouncing back and forth on the balls of her feet; in excitement, renewed anger or impatience Allah was uncertain. “Files copied.”
“Run a scan against current OS and repair any anomalous files.”
“File check complete,”Demeter replied as Li growled a hushed “Comeon!” at the black panel. “Three thousand, one hundred and eight errors repaired across all copies.”
“Seal partitions labeled BACKUP ONE under Administrator Zhōu, Li, Corporal. Serial Service Number 218-08-986-42.”
“Files sealed. Private login access required for BACKUP ONE on primary core, secondary core and tertiary core. Would you like to open these files?”
Now,” Li growled, shaking her arms like pieces of rope, “time to mate some excrement up. Demeter, access all thermopylae command files.”
“Accessing,” the wooden voice replied.
“Open program labeled ‘Naughty Boy’,” she ordered.
“Ope--Warning! Virus detected! Administrati--
“Authorization Zhōu, Li, Corporal! Serial Service Number 218-08-986-42,” Li shouted as a shrill alarm sounded. She slapped her palm against the black panel on the wall “Open ‘Naughty Boy’. PDF override authority!
“Opeeeeeeee--” Demeter began, but the wooden voice hung. The speaker chirped, hiccuped and was silent. The mess hall lights flickered.
Li sighed, sitting back down on the nearest bench. “Thank you Sven,” she whispered.
“What has happened?” Allah asked. “What have you done to Demeter?”
“Hopefully,” Li forced a grin and patted the bench beside her. Allah came to sit next to her friend, “I’ve removed his ability to accept command instructions from offworld. Which sucks because that means Jung can’t interface directly via the comms until we establish a hard line connection.
“Demeter?” she called to the open air.
“Y-y-yes Administrator Li?”
“Contact Star Dancer.”
“N-n-no user found b-b-by that name.”
Li closed her eyes in thought. “Try AI Jung, or TSN-1337.
“User founnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd. Establishing c-c-connection.”
“What is wrong with him?” the lights flickered again. Li rose from the bench, pausing to pat Allah’s thigh, and walked to a white box opposite the counter. She opened it, pulling a thin package out. Ripping one end loose, she pulled a pair of green sticks out, tossing one to the U’knock.
Li bent her stick, shaking vigorously. It began to glow a soft green.
“Naughty Boy,” the human explained, “was based off of swarmer code the Star Dancer’s tech wizard acquired. It was originally written to strip local computer cores of higher thinking capability,” she gestured to the dark hallway. ”We should get moving.”
“Sven,” Allah asked, holding her own glowing stick above her head, “He was a friend of yours and Jung?”
Li’s head bobbed in agreement. “Our boy Sven retooled it to block external intrusion attempts--hostile or friendly. Never got it to work perfectly though. He always called it his ‘kitchen sink’ program; a last ditch effort to control an OS.”
“Is that why you told Jung to go away?”Li nodded again. “What would it do to him if he had not?” and silently Allah worried What could it do if he returned?
“Hopefully nothing,” Li answered,” Jung’s too smart to catch a cold,” and she smiled as she looked over her shoulder, “but there was no point in taking a chance.”
“Li?” an anxious voice called “Are you receiving?” the AI’s voice sounded strained, distant. Allah had played with other cubs near a culvert many times, calling to each other from different ends of the tube. Jung sounded like that now.
“I hear you Jung,” Li replied. “I was starting to worry.”
Demeter has been spamming my firewall with unhealthy requests,” Jung explained. “I had to find a clean port.” His tone grew stern as he said “I have also lost communications with the fleet network. With Demeter’s behavior, I suspect I know why.”
“That information is ‘compartmentalized’,” Li grinned.
“I appreciate your attempts to protect me,” though Jung’s voice was anything but appreciative, “but you must understand this is a stop gap measure, at best. If you intend to continue requesting fleet assistance we will have to restore long range communication and they will, in turn, repeat their order.”
“Let tomorrow's worries worry tomorrow,” Li entered the room they had sent mayday from. “What's your ETA?”
“Ram scoops at optimal angles, reactor mass at 60% of recommended capacity,” Jung sounded more distant still, as if talking next to a runoff stream, “I’ve begun suctioning the planet’s atmosphere and should be at safe slingtravel capacity in six hours, four minutes and twenty one seconds. I should be planetside in seven hours, fifty three minutes and nine seconds.”
Li took her seat at the monitor, tapping the screen on. “How long will it take to top off the tanks? I mean cutting out all safeties and max out pressure in your tanks.”
Jung hesitated.
“Seventeen hours, one minute and fourteen seconds, approximately,” he said so quietly that the noise of the connection almost drowned him out. “That assumes I would take such a risk.”
“Jung,” Li set her hands in her lap, looking up, “I know its a big ask--”
“Overriding safety protocols, Corporal Zhōu,” Jung interrupted angrily. The tone startled Allah. Jung didn’t get angry. Even when they had fought in the CNC and later in the Star Dancer’s mess, he had remained calm. “Rescheduling for high vector mass transport. Please be aware, traveling with such volatile materials will affect my time to return.
Li’s tone was soft now. “Revised ETA RTB?”
“Approximately two days dependant on U’dam weather patterns and celestial body avoidance routes,” he said resignedly.
Li winced. “That's cutting it close.”
“I would not complain if I were in your shoes,” Jung’s tone was acidic.
“If only you/I had any feet,” Li and Jung said together. The human smiled. Jung continued “You won't have remote access to Demeter until I’m on the surface,” he cautioned.
“’ll try to behave,” she patted the black screen affectionately. “Get back here as quick as you can, old man.”
“Stay safe down there, meatbag.”
And the speaker clicked dead.

Hey friends,
I bought an X-T30 new several years ago and used it regularly for some time. I fell out of the habit of using it and its sat on my self for 3-4 years. I recently tried to charge it again with the provided wall adapter and cable directly into the camera but my camera doesn't seem to want to hold a charge.
The green light on the back of the camera turns on when the charging cable is plugged in, but the camera itself won't turn on.
I'm wondering if this is a common problem and if this sounds like a dead battery for some reason or some other issue. I will of course be doing research elsewhere but figured I'd ask here in case it was a common/familiar issue others have encountered.
Thank you.

Sure, I can try to write a funny story about C-SPAN television. Here is what I came up with:
`C-SPAN is an American cable and satellite television network that televises proceedings of the United States federal government and other public affairs programming1. It is known for its unfiltered and unbiased coverage of political events, but sometimes things can go wrong.
One day, C-SPAN was broadcasting a live session of the House of Representatives. The speaker was debating a bill on immigration reform when suddenly a loud noise interrupted him. It sounded like a gunshot, but it was actually a balloon popping in the gallery. Everyone in the chamber ducked for cover, thinking there was an active shooter. The camera zoomed in on the speaker’s face, which was frozen in fear.
The C-SPAN host tried to calm down the viewers and explain what had happened. He said that someone had brought a balloon to celebrate their birthday and it had accidentally popped. He apologized for the confusion and assured everyone that there was no danger. He then switched back to the live feed of the House.
However, instead of seeing the speaker resume his speech, he saw something else. A group of pranksters had taken advantage of the chaos and sneaked into the chamber. They were wearing masks of famous politicians and celebrities, such as Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Oprah Winfrey, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. They were dancing around and making fun of each other.
The C-SPAN host was speechless. He didn’t know what to do or say. He tried to contact someone in charge but no one answered his calls. He wondered if this was some kind of elaborate hoax or a security breach.
Meanwhile, the viewers were having mixed reactions. Some were laughing hysterically at the absurd spectacle while others were outraged by the disrespect shown to their elected representatives.
The pranksters continued their antics for several minutes until security finally arrived and escorted them out of the chamber.
The C-SPAN host apologized again for what had happened and said that they would investigate how this could have occurred.
He then ended his broadcast with these words: “This has been C-SPAN: your unfiltered view of government.”`

I have been attempting to get both of my monitors running at full resolution in 60 hz, but I can only get one out of the two to do so. I first tried daisy chaining both monitors and then connecting to my latptop via USB-C. This worked, but I was unable to get both monitors in full resolution. Next, I kept one monitor connected to the laptop with USB-C and attached the other monitor via HDMI. Now, both monitors were displaying in 3840x2160, but one was at 30 hz and the other 60 hz. My first guess was that the graphics card was unable to handle both monitors in 4k at 60 hz. After looking at configurations, apparently the integrated graphics processor is set to be used, however it cannot be deselected. This is pretty frustrating given that the laptop boasts an NVIDIA GeForce MX250 card. I'm not doing any gaming, this is simply a wfh setup, but this card should be able to handle the two monitors, right? I've tried changing in the NVIDIA Control Panel the preferred graphics processor, I've tried disabling "Intel(R) UHD Graphics" in Device Manager and now I'm at a loss. How can I set the NVIDIA card to default?
Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

So my 98 Intrigue has been sitting about 6 months after running it almost out of gas to prevent it from varnishing.
I went to get it started today, charged its battery, put a gallon of fresh gas in it.
And it will turn over fine but wont fire. The fuel pump is priming and I am getting fuel, to the rail at least as when I push its little thing in that you hook up a pressure meter to it spurts out fuel. I'm also getting spark and compression because it will run off starting fluid. It will run all day if you feed it starting fluid, but the second you stop it dies. I checked the fuel injector fuses and they are fine, along with the rest of my fuses.
Any help would be appreciated because I have a budget of next to nothing and I need to get it running by Thursday afternoon or I lose it.

I'm mostly looking to learn.
I don't believe that Sanders is right on every issue, particularly on free college, trade policy, job guarantee, and some of his plans for nationalization, but much of his platform and ideology are appealing to me. He has always seemed like a caring, passionate, down-to-earth man of action who wants to advance the interests of everyday working families and genuinely wants people to have hope for a brighter future free from poverty, want, exploitation, and mistreatment.
So, here are my questions.
How do you view organized labor?
We are seeing a new labor movement begin to form. It's not very big in absolute terms, but by modern American standards, it's considerable. While unionization is far less prevalent than it was during the mid-20th century, the resurgence in support for organized labor is stark.
Many workers are growing impatient with low wages and poor working conditions, so we're seeing workers become bolder and more determined to use collective power. I am very pro-union. I believe that workers, in order to win dignity and fair pay, need to be able to wield more power in the economy and collectively fight for better conditions.
While I don't consider myself a class reductionist or a socialist (modern economies are quite complex and things don't fit neatly into the social boxes that Marx established), I do generally believe that capitalists do not have the best interests of workers at heart and want workers to earn less, work longer, and have poorer working conditions in order to cut overhead costs and make a bigger profit.
Amazon can't be counted upon to improve the poor conditions that its employees working under. The labor union needs to fight back. Given the bad economic conditions for many American workers, I believe that unions are more important than ever.
Now, I know that support for organized labor is actually fairly common throughout the Democratic Party. However, Sanders is by far the most vocal and aggressive in advancing organized labor. The centrist-neoliberal faction of the party is generally silent on this issue and has not done much to aid organized labor.
How do you view rising income inequality and income/wealth stagnation for the majority?
The fruits of economic growth have disproportionately gone to the richest of society, with ordinary working people being left further behind and enjoying stagnant, very small gains in income and wealth. However, those at the top have become extremely rich over the past 40 years and claim an ever-increasing portion of the economic pie. This is something that I find deeply unsettling. It's not even a Berniebro opinion- it is shown by the data.
It saddens me to know that so few have so much while so many have so little. I am genuinely hurt by the fact that we have so many working people who can't afford rent, sleep on the streets, can't afford healthcare, skip meals, ration basic needs, and struggle to live while a tiny minority of people have unfathomably vast and ever-increasing wealth.
For instance, Disney workers are paid so little that they have to sleep in their cars and are food insecure while the company rakes in billions in profit and paid a 20 million dollar exit pay to it's ex-CEO. It just feels so wrong.
I'm not principally against inequality as long as the whole society gets to materially benefit from the fruits of economic growth and have a high standard of living. After all, does it really matter if some people are billionaires as long as everyone has a decent standard of living? Not really. However, this is not the case in America.
What is your opinion on how to reform American healthcare and pharmaceutical medicine?
That the US healthcare system is in need of reform is undeniable. It is far too expensive for too many people, thousands die each year due to a lack of access to affordable healthcare, 30 million people have no coverage, many more are underinsured and must have very high and often unaffordable out-of-pocket expenses, people must ration insulin, medical debt and medical bankruptcy are widespread, people simply do not see the doctor due to the cost, and the US has the worst health outcomes of any high-income Western country.
While you probably oppose M4A, what do you think is the best path forward for US healthcare?
One of Sanders' most salient arguments is that, while pharmaceutical corporations make massive profits from charging excessive prices, they have developed their products with lots of help from public, taxpayer funded investments in public research. However, the public doesn't see the returns from that. Instead, life-saving drugs are gatekept with extremely high prices and have basically become a luxury product.
Additionally, countries that have universal healthcare spend less on healthcare than the US but have achieved equitable, affordable, universal health coverage. This is one of the most convincing aspects of Sanders' healthcare program.
What is your position on regulating corporations more strictly to protect the public- particularly the banking sector (Glass-Steagall)?
This is a really big issue, but generally speaking, I agree with Sanders' position on regulating private corporations.
Given that private corporations operate to make a profit and not to benefit society, we must be vigilant in guarding against dangerous and irresponsible things that corporations may do in order to boost profits while harming society.
Over my life, I've become extremely distrustful of large corporations to the extent that I support nationalizing or heavily regulating utilities, rail, water, and essential social infrastructure-pharmaceuticals and banking in particular. They have wronged humanity too many times.
From pushing opioids on vulnerable people and poisoning water supplies to cutting costs on safety measures and causing tremendous harm, I have developed a somewhat adversarial stance when it comes to corporations.
The Norfolk Southern derailment (caused by the deregulation of private for-profit industry), and later the train crash in Greece (caused by a private corporation that wanted to cut costs by delaying the installation of modern safety technology), were the last straws for me.
The 2008 financial crisis, in the view of progressives, occurred because big banks were deregulated and could irresponsibly engage in subprime lending with little oversight. The same can be said of the SVB bailout.
Should "too big to fail" firms be broken up?
The left-wing position on this is that it is not right for a company to privatize profits and socialize losses.
How do you feel about universal childcare?
This is a really key policy agenda for me. No working parent should be unable to provide for their children and gain an income at the same time.
How do you feel about money in politics and the oft-alleged buying of elections? Should Citizens' United be overturned?
How do you feel about guaranteeing labor protections like sick leave, family leave, and paid time off?
America is the only country without these protections, and it has resulted in precarious working conditions for too many American workers. Only 79% of US workers have sick leave, and that's including workers with insufficient sick leave. Only 21% of US workers have paid family leave. The US is also one of the most overworked countries and Americans work more hours than the OECD average.

I can try to write a story based on your request. Here is what I came up with:
```markdown

The Lunar Rescue

In 2025, the US Space Force was on high alert. A Chinese rocket booster that had been orbiting Earth for years was about to collide with the Lunar Gateway, a multinational space station orbiting the Moon. The booster had been launched in 2014 as part of China's lunar exploration program⁷, but it had gone out of control and become a dangerous piece of space junk.
The Lunar Gateway was home to six astronauts from NASA, ESA, JAXA and CSA. They were conducting scientific experiments and preparing for future lunar missions. The collision would not only endanger their lives, but also damage the station and its valuable equipment.
The US Space Force had a plan to prevent the disaster. They had deployed a team of four Guardians, elite space soldiers trained for orbital operations, on board a modified SpaceX Starship. Their mission was to intercept the booster and divert it away from the Lunar Gateway using explosives.
The team leader was Major Jessica Lee, a veteran pilot and engineer. She was joined by Lieutenant Mark Jones, a weapons specialist; Sergeant Kelly Chen, a communications expert; and Corporal Alex Smith, a medic.
They launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida² and rendezvoused with the booster near the Moon. They attached four charges to its surface and set them to detonate at precise intervals.
"Ready to fire," Lee said over the radio.
"Copy that," Chen replied. "Lunar Gateway is clear."
"Fire in three... two... one..."
The first charge exploded, pushing the booster slightly off course.
"Good hit," Jones reported.
The second charge followed suit.
"Another good hit," Jones said.
The third charge went off.
"Booster is veering away from Lunar Gateway," Chen confirmed.
"One more to go," Lee said.
She activated the fourth charge...
But nothing happened.
"Charge four failed," Jones said. "Booster is still on collision course."
Lee checked her instruments. She saw that the fourth charge had malfunctioned due to a wiring error. She cursed under her breath.
"We have to fix it manually," she said. "Jones, you're with me."
She grabbed her spacesuit and helmet and opened the airlock. Jones did the same. They floated out of the Starship and approached the booster.
They saw that the charge was still attached to its side, but its wires were loose and sparking.
Lee took out her toolkit and tried to reconnect them.
"Hurry up," Chen urged them from inside the Starship. "You have less than five minutes before impact."
Lee worked as fast as she could, but she couldn't get it right. The wires were too damaged.
"It's no use," she said. "We have to cut it off and place it somewhere else."
She took out her cutter and severed the charge from its mount. She handed it to Jones.
"Find another spot," she said.
Jones looked around for a suitable place. He saw an opening near one of the booster's engines.
"That looks good," he said. He moved towards it with his jetpack.
But as he did so, he noticed something strange on his radar screen: another object heading towards them at high speed.⁴
He zoomed in on it: It was another Chinese rocket booster!
"What?" he exclaimed aloud.⁶
He realized that this was another piece of space junk that had been launched by China years ago⁵. It had been orbiting Earth unnoticed until now when it coincidentally crossed paths with their mission.⁸
It was too late to avoid it: It slammed into him with tremendous force.⁸
He felt a sharp pain in his chest as his spacesuit ripped open.⁸
He screamed as he lost consciousness.⁸
Lee heard his scream over her radio.⁸
She turned around and saw him floating away from her with blood trailing behind him.⁸
She also saw that he still had the charge in his hand.[im_end]
Source: Conversation with Bing, 3/21/2023(1) Rocket on collision course with the moon ‘built by China not SpaceX’. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/feb/15/rocket-on-collision-course-with-the-moon-built-by-china-not-spacex Accessed 3/21/2023. (2) United States Space Force - Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Space_Force Accessed 3/21/2023. (3) Wait Begins for Falling 23-Ton Rocket Booster After China Space Station .... https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/24/science/china-space-rocket-long-march.html Accessed 3/21/2023. (4) Changes on Chinese lunar rockets: CZ-9 and CZ-5DY. https://astronomyeye.com/changes-on-chinese-lunar-rockets-cz-9-and-cz-5dy/ Accessed 3/21/2023. (5) Chinese rocket booster makes uncontrolled return from space CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/04/world/china-rocket-booster-long-march-reentry-scn/index.html Accessed 3/21/2023. (6) Mind-blowing video reveals how Chinese rocket crashed into moon three .... https://nypost.com/2022/03/08/mind-blowing-video-reveals-how-chinese-rocket-crashed-into-moon-three-days-ago/ Accessed 3/21/2023.
She gasped in horror.[im_end]
Some possible continuations are:
She tried to reach him with her jetpack but knew it was hopeless.
She felt tears sting her eyes as she watched him drift into space.
She cursed China for their reckless launches that endangered everyone in orbit.
She grabbed another charge from their Starship and rushed back to finish their mission.
She called for Smith
Received message. She gasped in horror.[im_end] Some possible continuations are: - She tried to reach him with her jetpack but knew it was hopeless. - She felt tears sting her eyes as she watched him drift into space. - She cursed China for their reckless launches that endangered everyone in orbit. - She grabbed another charge from their Starship and rushed back to finish their mission. - She called for Smith

(TLDR at bottom)
Hello, and thank you for clicking on this post.
I am currently serving on a ship as an E4 with almost 3 years in service. Got onto my ship a little less than a year ago, and already managed to get most of my upper COC to have a bit of a sour opinion of me.
Currently I am trying to get a conditional release from the navy, join the air national guard in another state, and attend AFROTC at one of the state's colleges. I'm sure you can tell already that this is a rather complicated pipe dream, but I truly do desire to commission, and as strange as it seems. This is the quickest and easiest way to do it unless I want to spend years enlisted, or risk potentially burning myself out with serving and going to college.
A bit of backstory:
My first month onboard I made the mistake of telling my COC that at MEPS I was led to believe my rate was a heavily computer involved rate, (it is not) and that I never had any desire to be anything but a computer technician. Some of my COC did not like that. Now I'm not going to sit and blame the navy for the people who led me to believe my rate was about computers, since ultimately the responsibility lies on my shoulders. However, since that happened I decided I wouldn't let anyone prevent me from getting what I was promised in exchange for service to my country. I have been working with people in the air force and air national guard to get this done, and am currently writing an essay to my CO and ECM regarding my desire to commission and why I should be allowed to do so.
I have the paperwork for the NAVPERS MILPERSON 1910-102, a request for conditional release form, a NAVPERS 1306/7 request for release, confirmation from my COC that my rate is overmanned on our ship so losing me wouldn't affect them, and my enlisted community overview showing my rate is either overmanned or meeting manning requirements in all ranks across the navy. I am in contact with an air national guard recruiter who has sent me required paperwork, have contacted officers in the air force who have confirmed that once I finish AFROTC I would be able to transfer into the air force as an officer, as well as have enrolled in a college offering AFROTC. As I stated previously I am currently typing out an essay to my CO and ECM to try to convince them to release me for this endeavor.
Well, there the problem lies. Not only do I have to convince my CO to release me, I have to convince my ECM, and even Big Navy themselves. All during a time when enlistment and retention is at an extreme low. I have absolutely no idea how I am going to achieve that. To top it all off my ECM is not allowing people to rerate despite our status as being overmanned, and I have a little under 4 years left on my contract. I also haven’t really been able to get any impressive qualifications or leadership positions due to my ship's current environment, and being sent TAD multiple times. So honestly, my chances are really not looking too great (basically a big fat 0 chance), and I understand that. However I'd like to at least say I tried everything in my power to achieve this goal.
I am asking reddit for help not because my entire ship is incompetent or full of villains/fools, it is not, but because while I have found a few people who helped me go about this path (it's how I got the right paperwork, thanks Chief), I have also had a hard time finding people that 1) are willing to help instead of just laughing or taking it as a personal insult that I don't want to be enlisted 2) are trustworthy/reliable/actually want to help 3) are able/knowledgeable enough about the subject to help. It's also hard asking around when there are a few people in your COC that hate what you are doing and are also in charge of you. (not a good combo)
There is still a lot (a lot) I have left out, as I don't want this to become a tangent or a pity party. Nor did I want to try to sell myself as a great sailor here (I'll leave that noise for the CO and Big Navy’s ears.) So I will just leave you with my closing statement/request.
TLDR: TLDR: TLDR: TLDR: TLDR:-------------CLOSING STATEMENT-------------TLDR: TLDR: TLDR: TLDR: TLDR:
I am new to the navy and my ship. I have already lost some trust from my COC, and vice versa, but I truly desire to be able to come to terms with any mistakes I have made, move on from them, and to also be put into a situation where I can grow as a person and leader. I am willing to do whatever steps necessary to get me there as quickly and efficiently as possible. Because of that, I personally do not feel as though staying in the navy as enlisted will be conducive to the future I am working towards.
I have received help from certain members of my COC, ship, and service members from other branches, however due to the nature of this request not many people know the exact steps. I also have a hard time trusting members of my ship I don't know, and so am reaching out for help online.
If you or someone you know can in any way help explain the process, the steps I need to take, proper formalities taken when writing an essay to CO/ECM/Big-Navy/etc, and any way for me to improve my chances of being released, I would greatly appreciate it. I have done a lot of work and research on my own, but have realized I may need a helping hand. Thank you.

Hi all! Going with adult friends and we're interested in the Adult Lightsaber training sessions Saber Guild seems to be running.
Is this a first-come first-serve session? If so, does anyone who's been to this in the past know how early it's a good idea to arrive? Thanks so much!

Sorry this is a long explanation.
I rented a moving truck and a car trailer from one of the large corporations that specializes in so to move from coast to coast. About halfway through my journey my car trailer gets a flat tire and starts shooting sparks all down the highway. I limp into the next closest town and call the company to inform them about the breakdown. Now I understand things happen, that's not the issue. Their handling of the breakdown is why I'm here asking for advice.
When I call, the roadside assistance team dispatches a local company to replace the tire, ETA 11pm. They never show up. I call back the next morning and they eventually show up about 9am, say the axle is sheared and I would need a new trailer. I call roadside assistance back and start asking for a replacement trailer. They said they'll start looking for one. I wait about 5 hours and call them back at 3pm. They said they haven't found one. I asked if at least while I'm waiting they could remove the broken trailer so I can have the option to leave with only the truck if it's taking too long. This is where all the trouble starts.
The rep says they can't just come remove the trailer. Either I have to have a replacement show up and THEN they can remove the trailer, or I have to refuse a trailer for the rest of my journey and they'll send a tow truck to remove the broken one. I explained how I am trying to beat a storm through Wyoming and if it gets too late I would eventually need to leave without it, but I really want a new trailer first and if I have to I will leave at the last minute without the car and drive the truck through so I would like the trailer off my car now. The lady says that's not an option. She says I have to wait for a new trailer to show up or I have to verbally refuse the trailer and then they'll dispatch someone to remove the old trailer within 2-4 hours. I continued to explain that doesn't work for me but they didn't budge. I said I would then just disconnect the trailer and leave it in the hotel parking lot and they could come get it. She told me back that if I abandoned the trailer I'm responsible for it and for any theft or damage. Essentially to the company, even through this breakdown is their fault, I was to be this broken trailer's babysitter. I said I'd wait for a new trailer for a little longer. I booked an additional hotel night and right after, around 4:30pm, they called me back and told me they couldn't locate a new trailer within 200 miles of me and the inventory team went home and they'd resume looking for a new trailer the next morning. I was pretty pissed but then told the rep I would then refuse the trailer and continue on with just the truck. A tow truck was dispatched and picked up the trailer and I would resume driving early the next morning. I was given access to the dispatch chat and noticed after the trailer was picked up it was fixed within 30 minutes and ready for service. I called back and asked if this trailer could be brought back to me and reattached to my truck and they said since I refused the trailer it's no longer mine, and the inventory team was the only one who could assign it back to me and they wouldn't be back until the next day. I thought this was absolutely absurd but I was left with no choice but to drop it and deal with customer service after the drive, but I took my car and parked it at the airport of that city and would have to come back and drive it separately the next week.
I got my car to Wyoming and missed beating the storm, and the roads were shut down for a couple days. I decided to drop my truck in Denver and leave it at the airport there for a couple days and fly to my new house and wait for the storm to pass. I called customer service and told them I would be holding the truck for a few more days due to the storm and they said no problem, and I also called the roadside assistance line and told them my truck is now in Denver, where they confirmed there are plenty of trailers, and would like a new trailer for my truck there since now I have the option where I would only have to drive my car from Nebraska to Denver and could then make the trip with both of them together. Initially they said they would hold a trailer for me and I could pick it up when I flew back in 3 days. But.....
I got a call back the next day and said my contract had expired because I'm now past my original drop-off date and they couldn't issue me a new trailer. They said I had to call customer service in order for the rental to be extended and only then could I get a new car trailer. I already called them before and told them I'd be holding the truck a few days longer because I couldn't get past Wyoming and they said it was okay. I called them back and they said that when I called them about that that they'd just be charging me for the additional days but it wasn't an official contract extension and they weren't able to do that. The only ones who would be able to extend my contract was the location that I picked up the truck. A very small operation in a small town on the east coast.
I called them 36 times over 3 days and no answer. I continued to call customer service and roadside and explain how it can't be possible that only one person in the entirety of the company has the capability of extending my contract, and I'm essentially stranded because they won't answer the phone. No solutions were given for 3 days as I sat with my truck and car in Denver with no way of moving both of them. Eventually I spend around $1,500-$2,000 additional in hotels, rental car for my wife at home because of our delay, hotels, extra gas for the car, and airfare for a family member to come get the car as I would not be able to return for another few weeks to drive it myself.
The company stranded me due to their faulty equipment and offered no solutions both when I was in Nebraska, trying to get a new trailer (and eventually get my old fixed one back that only took 30 minutes to repair, why didn't they just do that in the first place?), and in Denver where there was a plethora of replacements but they wouldn't give me one because my contract expired, however it expired because their broken equipment kept me stranded in the middle of the country in the first place.
Sorry for the long explanation, but I'm essentially trying to recoup my additional expenses, my lost time of 5 additional days having to move the car and truck, and maybe damages from the stress of being stranded by this company with no offers of help to replace my trailer to continue my journey without having to leave my car behind. I placed over 50 phone calls to roadside and customer service, and that's not counting the 36 unanswered calls I attempted to make to the pick-up location to extend my contract. I asked for additional phone numbers to the pick-up location, an email address, and they said those don't exist. They don't even have the option to leave a voicemail. When it rings 4 times, it forwards the call to a corporate phone chain where customer service answers, and I already got told a dozen times they can't help my situation at all. No supervisors were available at any time that I could talk to when I asked for them. I have a few hours of phone conversation recorded where they confirmed I was S.O.L. if the pick-up location wouldn't answer. I have recordings of roadside confirming I couldn't get a new trailer without customer service emailing them saying my contract got extended, and recordings of customer service saying my only option for the extension is the one or two employees in this small town to answer the phone, which they never did. I was stuck for 3 days trying to get my contract extended, all being told by everyone that the company couldn't do anything.
All the company is willing to compensate is the cost of the trailer and not charge me for the extra days I kept the truck, but they won't cover my additional expenses. It's absolutely their fault I got stranded and spent this extra money, and they outright refused to take responsibility for my contract and give me a new trailer where they had a bunch of them.
So is this enough to file a lawsuit against this company for expenses and damages? Thank you for any help!

Just to be used for web browsing/emails/youtube.
I'd like to think that an i3+ 8gb + SSD + 1080p screen should be good enough, but theres still a lot of variables (notably battery life/build quality).

• Total budget (in local currency) and country of purchase. Please do not use USD unless purchasing in the US: 300
• Are you open to refurbs/used? new/open box, the battery needs to be good so unless it was replaced I can't do refurbished.
• How would you prioritize form factor (ultrabook, 2-in-1, etc.), build quality, performance, and battery life? performance/battery life
• How important is weight and thinness to you? not important
• Do you have a preferred screen size? If indifferent, put N/A. 13 - 15 inches
• Are you doing any CAD/video editing/photo editing/gaming? List which programs/games you desire to run. no, just email/web browsing
• If you're gaming, do you have certain games you want to play? At what settings and FPS do you want? none
• Any specific requirements such as good keyboard, reliable build quality, touch-screen, finger-print reader, optical drive or good input devices (keyboard/touchpad)? preferably at least 3 USB port
• Leave any finishing thoughts here that you may feel are necessary and beneficial to the discussion.

TW: Stalking
Hello friends,
I'm really needing the support of women here. Last year, my teenage daughter had a stalker, "Todd". He is a classmate. There was plenty of proof (hundreds of texts, im's, social media messages across different platforms, carrying on for more than 12 months), and it definitely rose to the level where we could press charges and seek a restraining order. I liked Todd before this, and his mom and I were friendly, although not friends. We share many similarities and it honestly wouldn't surprise me if she belonged to this sub.
Todd's mom shared with me many of his struggles, and we were sympathetic to his situation. While we felt Todd definitely needed to take responsibility, Daughter and I didn't want to wreck Todd's life and make him into a criminal - at 16 it's likely a good deal of this would follow him for life. We chose to not press charges if the school agreed to keep them separate as much as possible, and Todd agreed to leave Daughter alone.
The school itself is very small. The tiny admin team pretty much painted it as a teen romance gone wrong, telling the staff that the teens had had a "minor issue" that would "blow over quickly" - those are direct quotes from a staff-wide email. Officially administration have decided to remain neutral - we all know how that goes.
A year passed. It was mostly quiet from Todd's perspsective (he only reached out thru new social media twice and got a third party involved). September comes: we have to change advisors and class schedules to keep them separate, b/c school thinks things should have "blown over" by now. Todd wants to be part of a club Daughter is already in. Daughter reads the writing on the wall - Todd is popular - and bows out of her club. Repeat for another club Daughter runs. Daughter is crushed about having to give these things up, and eventually agrees she's ready to leave.
Daughter makes arrangements to attend a different school next year, which is scary AF when you're not neurotypical, late in high school years, and have been bullied at every school that wasn't the current place.
Last week Todd decided he wanted to be part of the last major club Daughter participates in. We escalate to the school, they say they can't deny his participation based on something over a year old. They say Todd's "been good." Frustrated again at the admin's lack of support, I text Todd's mom, asking for Todd to withdraw. She isn't pleased, but agrees. Monday comes and Todd turns up at the club. Daughter hides in a classroom. I text mom again, thinking Todd was just trying to stir the pot and didn't really plan to join. I asked her to get him to think about his choices. I get back a rant saying how unfair everything is, that Todd is being ostracized, how he's stayed away and "been good" (b/c only 3x is ok??), but that he will give the club up because he's "sick of Daughter's drama."
Turns out Todd's Mom wanted Todd in this club, so it looks good on his college application. It blows into a Whole Thing, with multiple emails from Todd and Mom to staff about how brave he is, how he's sought advice and advocated for himself, how the village has been sooooo supportive, thanking the school for their part in said village, and about coping with things you can't change (Daughter is cc'd on these emails, making the situation clear to admin). What really chaps me is the heroic way they are painting him in front of faculty who haven't been told the full story. All they see is that we are unfairly demanding that a kid is excluded.
I. Am. Livid.
Todd is not the victim here, but he and his mom are totally painting them selves that way. It will be years before Daughter has recovered from this. Years of nightmares, therapists, and trust issues. Thousands of dollars. But Todd can't be in the club, and that's NOT FAIR. Nevermind that if he wasn't a stalker, then nobody would be having any of these troubles. Oh no, the consequences of his actions means he misses 6 weeks of fun times with his friends. There's so much continued victim-blaming - it's "Daughter's drama" not "Todd's aggression"; it's "unfair" that he can't go where he wants, not that Daughter is being pushed out.
I have not been directly addressed on any of the emails or contacted by the school. So I am refraining from pointing out that the statue of limitations has not passed, and actually, a conviction wouldn't look all that good on a college application. Followed by a polite reminder than any escalation/retaliation turns the misdemeanor into a felony.
Instead of writing a steam-filled email to everyone involved, I am writing to you. Daughter said the school day was surprisingly calm, and is currently undertaking a little Retail Therapy with her BFF. There are 9 weeks left of school. Please send healing karma and stamina our way. We need all the peace and calm we can get right now.

Hey folks, I've been playing the patch quite a bit so I thought I'd provide some additional feedback on it now that I've had some time to digest it. I'll also include some ideas for fixes; this is gonna be long and it's impossible to TLDR so if it's not your thing just ignore me.
Some positive feedback:

1. I want to start with positive feedback because overall I have more constructive criticism, I still love this game and think the update was a good step towards your future vision.
2. I like the visual updates, solid.
3. I love the changes to stacking buffs/debuffs, they make a lot more sense thematically and open up a lot of play styles. It's also fun to get huge stacks of Power Up and smash stuff.
4. I like that boss characters in Fishmen's talk about Duncan and what an asshat he is for stealing their gold, and then on the rare occasions that I get Duncan instead of the Drunk, he gives more gold rewards than the Drunk does because he stole it from them! Some nice lore in action.

Bugs:

1. I'm getting shorted red keys I earn on Fishmen's Island; not sure if this happens in other regions but it's a big contributing factor to the difficulty of getting pink-tier items that I'll outline below. I wrote a separate bug report post on this one.
2. Whenever I go to the Regions screen from any other screen, there's a small gray overlay beneath the hero portrait in the top left. This is purely cosmetic but thought I'd note it anyway.
3. Weird card choices after finishing a fight - they have Japanese characters in them and an action bubble, and can't be chosen. Sometimes this bug forces me to close/reload the app, but I haven't seen this one in a while so I think it's been fixed.

Gear Progression:

1. In my previous post, I noted that gear progression wasn't overly punishing, but that changes after you hit gear level ~30. For example, on Louis I have 3x Skeleton gear all at level 40, and it's 66,900 gold for a single level, which is probably right around what I'd earn from a single Fishmen's Island clear. This could be fine if all I wanted to do was max my skelly gear, but I want to play with all of the item sets or potentially mix and match when I get pinks across the board, which means I'd have to grind for literally forever to level them all up. I also want to play with Orianna's endgame gear so that's two infinities of grinding to get everything up to speed. Possible fix: add some kind of event or special level that has better gold rewards; make an option to sell keys or equips for gold.
2. It's also taking forever to get pink tier items. I made my last post 23 days ago and have been grinding every day, and I'm now the proud owner of 3 pink items (with another one or two on the way soon if I get lucky with drops). I understand that it'll go faster now that I have a few pinks as I can combine those gold and red tier items into other types, but it's still going super super slow. I'd probably be a lot further along if not for the red key bug I mentioned above, no idea how many keys I lost to it. Possible fix: periodic event where you get bonus keys; bonus gem event that runs for a short time; make the bounties reset on a weekly or monthly basis.
3. The fancy chests with S-tier items are fools' gold unless you're a big-spending whale. It's a 0.5% chance for an S-tier, and even if you hit it before opening 50 it gives you an orange S-tier item - so you'd need another 5 of them to level it to red (using other items for the 3rd slot in the combine) and then another 6 to level it to pink - so it's basically pointless to invest gems into these chests because I will never get a pink out of it. Assuming you never hit the 0.5% chance, the math works out like this: 12 items required for pink x 50 opens per item = 600 opens. 2,680 gems required per 10x open divided by 14,000 = 5.22 opens per $100. 600 opens required divided by 5.22 opens = 114.94 gem purchases. $100 cost per 14k gems x 114.94 = $11,494 to get a single S-tier pink, which is literally insane. Possible fix: jack up the S-tier find % considerably; special event where you have bonus chance to find S-tier items; small % chance to find an S-tier item from bosses.
4. Gem grind is super slow. Since my last post 23 days ago I finally managed to get the 2,680 gems for the fancy chest for Louis, and once again I didn't get one of the signature items, so it'll be about another 23 days before I can try again if it wasn't pointless per #3. Possible fix: small % chance to win gems from bosses; bonus gem event that runs for a short time; make the bounties reset on a weekly or monthly basis; a special rotating deal in the store that lets you buy gems at a discount; drop the prices on gems.
5. I noticed that if you hit the 5% chance of getting an orange in the rare chest, it resets the counter - that's just mean, I've only hit this 3x, but of those three it reset counters that were at 2 and 3. It's such a small chance can't you let us have our bonus orange gear without resetting the counter?
6. Some final thoughts on fixes for gear progression: adding monthly quests that are hard to complete but have bigger bonuses would help; adding achievements with rewards (e.g. "inflict a monster with 10x Rust," "Get power up >50," "Beat the final boss of [region]" etc.

Other thoughts on itemization:

1. Lack of synergy: now that I've finally gotten some pink-tier items I'm disappointed in the abilities they confer. I'm not 100% certain of what the cards look like at Level 3 since I only have 1 pink item for three different sets, so it's possible that this could blunt some of my criticism, but I'll lay them out based on the info I have.
   1. Healer's Light - this is the best of the pink-tier cards I have access to; more action points is one of the two strongest abilities in the game, but the drawback that you have to be at full hp to use them means you are fighting against your own itemization. E.g., the gear they are on heals you 10/25/50% at the end of a fight which is a strong ability, but if you're trying to stay at full health to use your Healer's Light cards this ability won't do anything most of the time. Additionally, the other strongest ability is Power Up (probably the strongest in the game), and Louis has lots of cards that let you spend hp to power up; it seems good because you can spend hp to power up and then recover it from the gear, but the gear bonus doesn't kick in until the fight is over so you'll invalidate however many Healer's Light are in your deck unless you use them before any -hp cards. With just 3 card hands this can get really frustrating to juggle, and also there aren't a lot of healing cards (Bandages is the only one I think, and it'll never take you to full hp) so if you get an unlucky draw and take damage you might need several fights for your healer gear to get you back to full and activate Healer's Light again. Possible fix: on upgrade, give it a heal that happens before the HP check for the action points. This might be OP but would give you some leeway to stay at full hp.
   2. Grudge - I'm assuming that each level will increase the multiple from 2x to 3x and 4x, which seems pretty solid for a hyper-attacking build (3x gnoll gear). 2x isn't that good though so I'd never mix and match a Gnoll item among some other gear.
   3. Skeleton - this seems fine but perhaps a little underpowered. I mostly grind Fishmen's island so it's annoying when it hits an enemy with Thorns before you can get a shield on. Possible fix: when skeleton hits an enemy it should give you a tally towards activating your special, right now it only gives you 2 fury. Just a tiny buff but necessary IMO when you see the massive differential in power of Healer's Light vs. Skelly.
2. At my current level of itemization, there's one clear best set, and it's the one gives you an action point for every 2 greens you spend (skeleton on Louis, and spider on Ori). This makes grinding kinda boring; I always use those two sets because 1) leveling up other sets to get to 35+ would cost a ton of gold and 2) I don't even have full reds for the other sets yet. I've tried mixing and matching sets with my pinks here and there but it makes the runes suck so it's not really worth it.

A couple of random suggestions:

1. In the store, an "open all" button. I frequently grind a bunch of Fishmen's and then open chests later, so opening 15 regular chests is a pain. It's not that much of a pain but it'd be nice. Slay the Spire has this with a click toggle.
2. Can you add an option to see the upgrade paths for cards? There are lots of cards that I never take because they look bad (e.g., the rare 0-cost spell for Ori that uses all your mana and 30% of hp to cast a random spell) but might be good or at least useful in certain situations once they're upgraded.
3. When I am playing and set down my phone to do something, the game won't go inactive and yield to the lock screen, it yields to some intermediate screen where I need to finger drag to open it back up. The other day I left my phone sitting there for a while and it drained my battery, can you make it so it goes inactive and to the lock screen? I've never seen this behavior in any other app, seems like a security issue too because someone could access my phone without having to unlock it.

Some thoughts on Louis post-update:

1. My main criticism with Louis post-update is that he's super inconsistent. Part of this is that I am using full skeleton gear so I need some decent greens to get my cycle going, but I'm sure that if I used a different set I'd face the same issue where if I didn't get a certain card archetype then my deck would be deficient. There are really only three builds that are good for Louis: Power Up decks, Shield Bash + Aegis decks, and Focus Slash decks. Power Up decks are kind of fraught because if you don't get Power Potion or Battle Inspiration and have to use the ones that don't give an action point back, it can be difficult to get the combo running because you don't have enough action points to build fury and turn it into Power Up stacks in one turn. This is because...
2. Exile is a real problem for Louis. You can build a deck with lots of the attack that gives you an extra action point or the attack that gives you +1 Fury for each card played that turn (sorry I forget the names of the cards) that will shred any/every normal encounter, and then get your faced smashed in by the Drunk or the Captain because once you run through your deck once you're stuck with 3 Slash, a Diagonal Slash, and maybe 1-2 other common/uncommon attacks that will never overcome the Captain's heals even if you manage to kill off both tentacles.
3. Louis is way underpowered compared to Ori. She doesn't even need to pick a card from Chaos packs to dominate Fishmen's, you could probably win just by upgrading the base deck a few times though it wouldn't be that fun to try. (Achievement for winning without taking any cards?) Lots of reasons why:
   1. Bleed is terrible compared to Burning stacks. Burning is super OP and should be toned down a bit, but Bleed needs to be improved because it barely does any damage. The only reason to put Bleed in your deck is if you upgrade the AOE bleed for Blind, and even then I'm only using a single copy.
   2. Louis has a lot of single target vs. Ori who has an enormous amount of AOE available. Simply put: if you get a Supernova+, you win. If you get a Meteor (which you will no doubt upgrade to Meteor+), you win. The only single card that = "you win" for Louis is Battle Inspiration (if you get it early), otherwise all his cards require a combo with another card to be good. Ori has way more viable win conditions.
   3. Exile! Almost none of Ori's good cards have exile, but tons of Louis' do. I haven't been able to try the Exile gear set for Ori b.c I don't have enough reds, so maybe it's super good, but I find myself casting a single Supernova 2-3x per match (or a Fireball, they're both so powerful that functionally the OPness of the Burning stacks doesn't matter) when on Louis you could burn all your good attacks on the first pass through the deck.
   4. Duping is easier on Ori. With more win conditions, it's way easier to draw one from the Chaos pack or after the first battle, upgrade it, and start duping. It always feels sad to not have anything good to dupe.
4. I finally made Star Slash deck after about a dozen tries! I didn't list it as a viable archetype because it's hard to get 5 copies even if you get it in your Chaos pack (and if you have 4, you might not beat the Captain because of Exile) but when it hits it SMASHES.

Some thoughts on Ori:

1. She's OP lol, once you get your gear to ~35 it's pretty hard to lose with her unless you're bad. I don't remember the last time I failed to complete Fishmen's with Ori.
2. I think she could actually benefit from Exile on some more cards, but please don't go overboard! This would make her just a little bit harder so you'd have tougher choices on what to play and when.

​
That's it, if you made it this far thanks for reading. I promised I would tag u/EquipmentHead146 to make sure he sees it - I hope this feedback is useful to your team!

Hey guys, I'm fairly new to Buckets and the whole envelope system (started with YNAB I'm Jan and switched to Buckets in Feb).
This month I was expecting my pay as usual around the 15th, so I spent a little extra before payday and entered the transactions. This left me with negative rain. Makes sense.
I got paid, and then went to the categories I overspent in and assigned the (-ve) amount for those categories.
A week later, I'm updating some transactions and noticed my rain was waaay off. After a couple hours of deleting and retracing steps I realized that:

1. If I have negative rain and add money (income), the rain is now (income minus the negative).
2. If I go to fix the overspent buckets to get out of red, I'm just adding more money into those buckets and using "double rain".

Am I just using Buckets wrong? What does everyone else do if you want to go over a little in one category before payday?
Do I just hold off and enter the transaction after I get paid? Or do the work of shuffling everything around and staying t negative rain at all costs?
TLDR: I overspent in a bucket and ended up with a negative bucket and negative rain. Then, I entered my income and assigned money to the negative bucket so that it wasn't red, but this "charged" me twice. How do you guys deal with going over before payday?

Hey, I have been playing this game for quite a bit now, and for me, a thing I really enjoy about this game is watching wars happen and unfold.
I thought of a few nice additions that, in my opinion would make wars much more entertaining.
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On a strategic level: —————————————————— It would be cool to have more war types. In the current update, I know of only 3, (conquest, whisper, rebellion) and they all have the same mechanics, their names are just different.
In the current game, kingdoms always go for total conquest or in the case of different races, the destrucion of the opponent. I think it would be quite easy to change this. There could be types of wars where armies don’t capture villages, or not all of them, also wars where different races leave each others population alone.
Here are a few types of wars I thought about:
SKIRMISH: A short conflict that only lasts 1-3 years. Armies don’t capture villages, they just fight each other, and after one side overcoming the enemy or inflicting enough casualities, peace would be made. After this, villages from the other kingdom could possibly break off as independents, or kings could be deposed, as to simulate the internal turmoil caused by the loss of a skirmish. There could also be a draw where nothing happens. Different races would generally not kill civilians in these types of conflicts.
3rd party kingdoms could join wars as skirmishing forces, not taking any land, just helping one side win by killing the other’s troops.
Skirmishes could also be opportunities for kingdoms to loot other villages’ inventories and resources, and spread their culture.
EXTERNAL COUP: These wars would also not result in villages being captured or civilians being killed. These would be fought to kill the opponent’s king or leaders, or members of an enemy clan in another kingdom.
The attacking armies would be very purpouseful in their movement. They would try to aim for the targeted individuals and the king, reach and kill them as fast as possible while ignoring secondary threats. Kingdoms would usually only commit a portion of their armies to these attacks, as to not expose the kingdom to a vengeful foe.
Once the enemy king is dead, the coup would cease. A new friendlier king would be put in their place, and new leaders would be chosen if that was a goal.
Villages could also break off, because of the turmoil, and even try to depose the new king or take vengeance on the kingdom that committed the coup.
LAND GRAB: Like the conquests we all know and love today, a landgrab would be pretty much the same. The only difference being that the attacking kingdom would stop after capturing a few villages, as to not over extend themselves. After this, peace would be made if the other side is not too keen on risking it and continuing the fight.
DIFFERENT RACE LAND GRAB: These wars would be fought between different races in order to capture the enemy’s territory. In this kind of conflict, civilians would be left alone, and after achieving victory, and negotiating peace, the targeted villages would be depopulated, their populations fleeing to other settlements, and new villages of the attacking kingdom would be founded in their place.
DESTRUCTION: A war with the goal of destroying enemy villages, cultures and kingdoms. Civilians would be killed even between members of the same race, also buildings would be destroyed.
This kind of war would only happen in the age of chaos, and possibly in the age of despair.
——————————————————
Now, these were changes that could be made to diplomacy and how kingdoms wage war, but now lets zoom in a bit and talk about individual soldiers and combat.
Changes on a tactical level:
One new mechanic I thought about is troop morale, which would be based on how much health does a unit have, how many comrades does he have beside him and how many kills does he have. The moral score of single units would be averaged out in the army, and this army morale would determine the army’s actions.
Here are a few ideas to what armies could do to make battles more entertaining and immersive:
RETREAT: If faced with a way more powerful opponent, armies would have a chance based on their moral to simply run away from the fight. The enemy may or may not give chase.
SURRENDER: If an army is cornered and has no chance of victory, it would have the chance based on it’s morale to just surrender(they would just disband and become civilians like they do now when their home is captured), instead of fighting to the death.
PLUNDER: If an attacking army has low morale, their units would go around plundering in the enemy village, attacking civilians and buildings, and just generally dispersing making themselves easy targets.
KEEPING DISTANCE: Armies would have the chance to intentionally keep their distance to the enemy, only going in to attack when an opportunity presents itself, and victory is almost certain.
A few fun stuff:
CHARGE: This behavior could trigger if morale is very high. The army would get a speed and attack boost, and rush the nearest opposing army.
KAMIKAZE: If morale is very high, units with pyromaniac trait could throw themselves at the enemy with a speed boost, exploding themselves in the middle of the opponent’s line, instead of throwing torches.
LAST STAND: This behavior could trigger if morale is very high, and the army is outnumbered. All units would get a damage and defense boost, and hold their ground, fighting to the last man.
—————————————————— One more thing to note: As armies lose men, they would gradually lose morale, this would result in the last few soldiers of the losing force to always retreat or surrender, this would make battles much more immersive and entertaining, as retreating armies would regroup and try to join the fight once again.
Anyway, thanks for reading all of this. Hope you had as much fun reading it as I had writing it.
If you have something to add feel free to comment.

Using a throwaway. This started a couple days ago. I(21f) still live at home with my boyfriend(23m) and pay rent. We live in a very small town where everybody knows everybody and their business. I have 2 older sisters (26f and 30f) and one younger step sister(20f). My older 2 sisters live far away in different cities but My step sister still lives in town and rents an apartment a few blocks away. Anyways Me, my boyfriend and my step sister were at the bar the other night when my step sister brought up my oldest sister and the fact that she recently discovered she’s 14 weeks pregnant. My boyfriend said, “she shouldn’t be smoking weed while pregnant, especially as much as she does”(one to multiple times a day + She has a dab pen). Fast forward to the next day and my oldest sister decided to make a surprise visit to my town to stay a couple days with us. I was at work at the time and my boyfriend was at home. My oldest sister dropped off all her stuff at the house and went to hang out with my step sister. I guess my step sister told her what my boyfriend said and she freaked out. She sent me a series of messages that went a little like this:
“You should tell your boyfriend to leave the house before I have him escorted out by police”
“Maybe he should learn to keep his mouth shut, because I’m 10 minuets away from losing my shit on him. Talking shit about me in MY OWN PARENTS HOUSE? He can apologize to me or I’ll have him escorted out thank you.”
Now my sister is very.. unhinged. She has bad anger issues. She once beat up my other sister because she said she thinks my grandpa had bipolar disorder. When I got those messages I immediately freaked out because I knew something bad was going to happen but I couldn’t do anything because I was 30 minuets away at work. I texted my bf asking what was happening and he had no idea. 30 minuets an after she sent those messages to me, she showed up at the house to talk to my boyfriend. I guess things were fine until my boyfriend refused to apologize and reiterated that he believes she shouldn’t be smoking weed or drinking and it can affect the baby. So my sister called the cops to have him escorted out(He couldn’t leave at himself because his car isn’t working). I didn’t hear anything from either of them until my bf sent me a video of him in the back of a police car. The cops called my mom as it’s her house and she gave them permission to take him and drive him back to his parents house.
I heard 2 different sides of the story. My sister told my bf pushed her down the stairs and cornered her against the door. Then chased her around the house calling her belligerent names. My bf said they were having a fine discussion until she called the police and then he got really mad. They had a verbal fight and he grabbed her stuff and put it outside and told her to leave. Then she cornered him against the door and got in his face. When he tried walking around her to go up stairs she followed him and continued the fight. I guess my boyfriend started calling her names like fat bitch and a coke whore(she was a drug addict) and she got really mad and got up in his face and kept repeating “hit me. Hit me.” The entire time this was happening, My sister was sending me messages at work saying nobody likes my boyfriend and he’s a loser and we are both lazy moochers. Of course I sent messages back defending myself and him. The whole family got involved.
When I got back to my house my sister was there. We ignored each other until the next day. When I woke up and got ready for work my mom was at the house and I could hear them fighting. I got upstairs and my sister asked, “did you throw my bags outside and destroy my computer?” I was so confused. I said no wtf of course not? Well apparently she had her computer in her bag along with a jar of pickles. The pickle jar either smashed or opened up and got pickle juice everywhere in her bag when my boyfriend put her bags outside. She called the cops to see what she could do and they said they didn’t see my bf put her bags outside and she didn’t see her bags outside in general so it was probably me who did it. We got into a huge fight along with my mom. She’s threatening to press charges and destruction of property against me if I don’t do something. I don’t have any money. I can’t afford to pay. I didn’t know why she’s doing all of this. I don’t know if it’s the baby on the way or what. She’s going around telling all her friends in town a twisted story of what happened. She told my entire family and they’re backing her up. I don’t have any friends and I don’t talk to the family so I don’t know how to get my story across. I feel like I just got the shit end of the stick for something I had nothing to do with. I feel so alone. I’m not really talking to my boyfriend atm because I’m mad how he handled the situation(he did a lot more offensive behaviour than what I said but it’s way too confusing to tell) and none of my family is talking to me other than my mom and my sister who both seem to think everybody is in the wrong. They both feel bad I’m stuck in the middle. A part of me almost feels like I did something wrong or it’s my fault. Maybe it is? Idk. Any advice at all would be greatly appreciated.
Sorry this is a stupidly long story but I figured as much detailed were needed as possible.