Batteries plus key cutting

Ok so had a 97 Camry. Guy had key to door but it wouldn't work in the ignition. Decoded the door key with xp-005.
The cuts were :12344222. I used progression software and cuts 3-8 to find other codes the only cuts I found were 24344222. Both keys worked on both door locks but not the ignition.
Do you guys think the ignition was replaced at a certain point? I also tried lishi'ing the door for shits and giggles and couldn't get it but didn't need to since the guy had the key.
Kind of disappointed in my skills today for not being able to make a mechanical key to a 97 Camry and not being able to pick the door lock. I didn't have the Lishi to pick the ignition but even if i did, its at such an awkward angle to pick.
Should I have pulled the ignition?

Hi!
I have a curiosity, i know how mythic plus is scaling with every level of key, but i dont have any ideea about how is scaling with every patch in a expansion, what is the difference in a 20 key in the current patch 10.0.5 and 10.1 future patch?

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.

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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!

Just looking to vent a little and also hoping for some advice for a future visit.
My MIL lives in another country but came to visit for about a month and a half during summer of last year. It was honestly one of the most stressful periods of my life - we are very different people on a personal and cultural level.
Some examples of her behaviour: - She had some decorations that we kept for her when she used to live in this country that she pulled out of old storage boxes and started decorating our house with them (think old 70's floral table cloths) - DH asked her to put them away
- We had just recently moved into a new home and without our consent hired a locksmith to change all our locks, though she missed the garage lock and we don't know where that key is now
- We had new bathroom fixtures we were pending to install on our own, without our consent she hired a handyman to enter our home and do it instead
- She would try to do our laundry and entered our bedroom without consent
- She is a super consumer and would buy new groceries / throw away groceries that were still good; wouldn't use the organics disposal and threw organics in the trash - this eventually attracted mice
- She and DH do not have a great relationship so most days it was a tense atmosphere as they often argued with each other - she was here for a month and a half and they had 2 outright screaming matches
All this to say, I tried to really tough it out but it wasn't easy; eventually the week before she was set to leave we had the watermelon incident. Due to her constant grocery shopping we were out of space in the fridge, so a watermelon had been sitting in the sink for two days - that evening I decided let's just cut up this watermelon because it can't just be in the sink. I went to cut the watermelon and MIL was hovering over me, I said I was going to slice it horizontally and she said no that's wrong, so I said OK I'll slice it vertically and she said no that's also wrong. At this point I was very annoyed (there had been some incidents earlier in the day that were putting me at my limit) and I just placed the knife on the cutting board and said, "OK you cut it" and I walked away.
I did this because I knew that if I stayed I would have argued and I just wanted to avoid a conflict, but apparently she'd seen the look on my face and all hell broke loose. She started screaming at me and DH about everything she was unhappy about in regards to living with us and then stormed off to live the rest of her time with her sisters. I almost had a mental breakdown that night due to the stress that I'd insulted her so deeply (in our culture respect to parental units is really important) and the next day I got my period early which was a blow as DH and I had been trying with difficulty to conceive.
In the end it all blew over and I apologized to her to keep the peace, we gave each other a hug and she went on her way back home.
Now - onto this year; I am pregnant and about to give birth to our first LO and DH has informed me that FIL and MIL are planning on visiting - which means they will be staying in our home with us. As soon as the words left DH's mouth I felt a wave on anxiety hit me. Culturally it's impossible for us to tell them they can't stay with us as well as the fact that FIL has an illness which means he might not be with us much longer, I don't want to deny DH that time with his dad.
As much as this was a rant, I also want to know about any advice anyone could give me in terms of trying to set boundaries with MIL's from eastern cultures. What's the best approach? I feel like any kind of boundary might be seen as an insult and I fear another screaming meltdown especially with LO in the house.

Holy crap I honestly just wanna die, I'm tired of dealing with this (not in a suicidal way but just like I need a break). My mom hates me at this point. I'll give the whole backstory so this'll be a long post. Here is where the actual question is and info on that: paragraph 6 and on
Growing up my father was a narc and was very emotionally, physically and sexually abusive with me. He left when I was 13 and because of the way he was, my mom was perfect compared to that. But now I realize you can be better than someone without being good. That's my mom. She's way better than him, but that doesn't mean she is what people would consider a good parent.
My mom used to hit me a bunch, but it was always justified as me not listening to all the warnings and she had no other choice. So I'm like oh, ok, I guess I suck. My mom found out abt the sexual abuse in October and even now she still says I'm just like my father (which hurts so much in the first place, but now she's literally saying that I'm the same as someone who sexually abuses children). When I was 15 I was self harming cause I wasn't allowed therapy and I had trauma nightmares every night to the point that I barely slept, I lived with my grandparents, like life was really hard at the time and I had no one to talk to and that was a way I could get out my emotions. At 16 I told my mom and she said that no one will sleep with me and then she walked away. That hurt so much and she never apologized.
Last night we were fighting and she said she's never been hurt this much in her life (I was slow to help clean up a small flood and it was my birthday so I had a friend over or dinner. I came upstairs and said 'I cannot believe her. Like I just am so done. I'm not even hungry anymore so now my whole birthday dinner is ruined (that I made) and she's worried about being 30 minutes late to see her bf (long term and he's always late so it's not a big deal) and eat her dinner when my birthday is a bit ruined'). She asked me what I'd do if roles were reversed and I was trying to come up with an excuse but I couldn't so I said 'I'd be sad and then let it go' and she got mad. I said that she's hurt me way more before, she said if I don't have an example then I'm lying. I mentioned the sh thing and she was like 'ok I'm sorry if I said that'. Yay. Then today she said 'Like I know I'm not the best parent, but I try my best. Even with the sh thing like I've never dealt with that before so obviously I didn't know how to react (I think saying no one will have sex with you is something you avoid saying in this situation) and like how was I supposed to react when I found out you were cutting your thigh for pleasure. Like I never knew you were just cutting yourself for fun. And so that hurt a bunch too cause she said that it was just fun, like yes, I love having scars all over my thigh and being stressed to wear swim suits! That is so fun!
So yeah, still not really saying sorry. And so yesterday she was saying how she just wants me out, she can't live with me anymore, she's so close to kicking me out, like she wants to just kick me out. I said 'can I have a max of 5 more months? I can apply to -- and move there by the end of summer' and then she got so mad saying she bought this house for me, she bought me a car, she works so hard cause this is where I said I wanna go to school (I never wanted to go to school here, she kept pushing me and this whole time I've been coming up with other schools to go to. I never wanted a car, since I was a child I wanted to buy my own first car cause it's a pride thing and so I kept saying I'll just take the bus but she didn't feel safe with that.) And so then I packed a bag to stay with a friend last night. but 4 hours later at 9 my mom asked me to come home so I did.
-------here is where the actual question starts------
Now she's saying that I'm not a bad person at all, we all do bad things but one thing doesn't define us after she literally said I'm just like my father and she's never been hurt this bad in her whole life. She's like 'if you wanna move away for school then go for it, I just want you to be happy, like we can figure this out!'
But my issue is that my current school is a shit school. The only other schools I can afford (in terms of rent) are shit schools. Otherwise I can only go to Toronto and that's too expensive cause rent for a room is usually $1000-1200 a month and that's just not possible for me. Ottawa is $600-700 utilities included. Uottawa is a good school, but I'm in Social work and they only offer it in French which I don't speak. So I only have Carleton (if you know the school) and that's similar ranking to my current school. Plus right now I'm already accepted to social work at my current school, but at any other schools the deadline passed so I'd have to do honours psych for the first year, hope my grades are good enough to then get into social work for the second year.
So it doesn't make a lot of sense but I also think I need to get away from my mom but then I feel really bad and I'm so confused. This whole thing is so confusing and like idk if she supports me. If I leave she'll likely never speak to me again and idk if that's good or bad and idk what to do and I'm so confused. Like she pretty much kicked me out but then when I actually left she started apologizing and wanted me back and now I'm getting convinced that I'm a horrible person and I am just like my dad and I suck and I'm conceited and manipulative and I don't know what to do so please give me advice.
I'm sobbing while writing this so sorry if it doesn't read the best.

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A rule breaking truck driver takes a forbidden detour.
​
Don't Feed the Pumpkins
I'm typing this as a record of what has happened to me. If someone should find me out here, where ever here is, this is what happened and who is responsible. Also, out of the dozens of vehicles bogged down in this field, mine is the Blue Jay 2013 Freight Liner. If I should die and it is recoverable, it should go to my son, John Grainger in Antioch, Illinois.
I left Litchfield Illinois around 2pm on Halloween with a last-minute load of pumpkins destined for the Antioch Walmart. Despite the fact I was once that told Illinois is the #1 pumpkin producer in the country the itself state appears to be in the midst of a shortage. I was due in about 8pm, but I was trying get in by 6pm and after unloading, I was going to visit my wife Carly and my son for Halloween. It was going to be the first Halloween in my son's life that I was going to be there for trick o treating. My wife was making a big deal out of it and John was 10 now, so, she said he would be “scarred with disappointment” if I didn't show now. So, I probably should have gotten better sleep the night before and sue me, I was gear jamming and popping go-pills like popcorn. Don't look down on me, don't be fooled, this is just the nature of the trucking industry. Everyone does it and I'm not afraid to tell it like it is.
Just after Normal on 39 I hit a wall of traffic. I could hear on the CB that there is a hazmat incident up ahead and they require special teams to clear it off. I, like the other truckers, get to gabbing on the radio, looking for shortcuts. To my surprise, after scrutinizing this route several times before, I was informed about a “gutshot” shortcut just ahead that could get in me into my destination at least an hour earlier, even with the fact I had sat in the backup for at least 45 minutes at this point. A second comrade in gears piped in and stated that the shortcut was closed. The first driver contradicted him and stated, he had used it two weeks ago, it was wide open country land you could go 70 the whole way, and the only town along the way had burned down in an industrial accident 30 years ago. The second trucker chimed in again. He said it was closed for tonight and only tonight and not to use it. I disregarded the second trucker, exited the interstate and followed the directions of the first trucker.
Well, Carly, you always said it would be this way. You always said, I needed to learn how to follow directions to not cut so many damn corners all the time. You always told me didn't put in the work, and the funny thing is, for the first time, on this drive, get there, I did. Sure, I cut all the corners, but I wanted to to put in the work. But you're right, I never put a second of effort in, and if this is how it ends, I suppose you're right, I never will. But I guess, one way or another, you're getting what you've wanted, what you text me, what you don't tell me about, and what I didn't care about. I was coming home for him and damn it, I know it won't hold up in court but I want my boy to get the damn truck!
Anyway, I found the road, 2 lanes clear to the sky, surrounded by corn and then pumpkin fields forever. My straight shot, I pushed 80 the whole way flying on cracked asphalt, diesel, and go-pills. Ahead, there were barricades and I applied the brakes and barely stopped in time. I got out and saw they were chained up with a padlock to concrete posts in the ground. In theory, I could blast through them but I would sustain serious damage. The ground was a bit wet so I didn't think I could cross the ditch and field and not get stuck either. The barricades were not official in the least. They had a sign on them made out of it mailbox stick-on letters which said: “Do Not Feed The Pumpkins”. As far as I could see from my cab and binoculars, there was absolutely nothing wrong with the damn road. I said hell and I knew it would take hours to reverse course and get back in time – in time to even unload much less make it in time to go trick o treating.
And I said it wasn't worth it. I didn't bother to call. I'd just show up now. Because it wasn't my fault. So I started back, turning around with great difficulty. I traveled back 2 miles and saw small signs for a rest area. I must have missed it the first time, too deep into the zone I suppose now. I needed to pee and probably eat a bit before starting a roundabout way back, so I stopped. It was a little old 2 story joint with a small dinner on the 1st level and looked like 4 or 5 small motel rooms on top and oddly an outhouse for a restroom. I want to emphasize the outhouse because that is how you'll find and catch this guy, the guy who did this to me. It was Bill Shaw of Shaw's Shack, who did this to me. It had a sign with the building, it too was made of stick-on letters and vaguely resembled a huge ransom note. It read “Yes! We are open! We are the only rest area for 67 miles and 1 of 2 “tombstones” for the late great town of Pumpkin Grove Illinois – the former pumpkin capital of Illinois. Ask Your host, Bill Shaw about the Pumpkin-beef-bean stew!
The parking lot had three vehicles in it, not including my own, a silver Prius, a grand cheeroke with wood panels, and an older model chevy pick up truck. I went inside. The dinner was small, set in a rustic décor with old license plates nailed to the walls. The cafe had eight counter seats and two smaller tables near the two windows. There were two witnesses to what happened that night, to what Bill Shaw did – at least partial witnesses. There was the older man with stringy white hair and octagonal glasses – unfortunately, I didn't get his name. There was that irritating millennial – All I remember is the metal crap in her ears and lip. Hell, if I die and John starts ever pulling that crap, I'll come back and haunt the crap out of both of you. Anyway, now, I wish I could remember their names or something else about them to put here. I didn't care about either one of them enough to remember.
I guess that goes for Shaw too. He was a bit taller as sometimes I couldn't see his face while sitting at the counter because of the low lights in the ceiling blocking his face. He had gray hair. Hell. That's it. Anyway, the old man said he was part of a historical society, said he spent the better part of his past two years tracking down anyone or anything about Pumpkin Grove. The college student – of course – it was college student said she was from the school newspaper, looking for a spooky story. When she asked me where I was from, I didn't respond.
Shaw came from the kitchen with two big bowls of the famous Pumpkin-beef-bean stew for first two. He seemed taken back by my presence for a bit before saying “howdy” and trying to get real friendly with me. He asked what media I was from. I told him I wasn't from no media and I was trying to get through the barricade up ahead. Neither of the other two seemed to know about the barricade. Shaw said he didn't know anything about it either. I was suspicious of him then because of the lettering on the signs. But I didn't push it. I wanted to eat and he said my choice was the stew or stew. So the stew seemed fine. He said he wished he had more time to chat with me but he promised to tell the story of Pumpkin Grove to the two others but I was welcome to listen and ask questions. I didn't say it but I couldn't care less, I was going no where fast and I needed to eat.
He started off by saying he and his wife are among a handful of survivors of the fire that consumed the town of Pumpkin Grove some 30 years ago on Halloween night. Then his story descended into a cross between a rambling fading nightmare and a ghost story. He said, without hesitation, fear of consequence or remorse that he was accessory to a murder in his childhood. Specifically, some 40 years ago, again on Halloween, he was friends with a small group of young men including one named Donnie, who was a little slow and had a slightly misshaped head. He was picked on a lot by the Gerst Brothers, notorious town bullies and teenage thugs of a bad seed thanks to their neglectful alcoholic single father. Long story short, he said, the Gerst Brothers lured Donnie, himself and another 2 boys out to a pumpkin field where they gave back Donnie's missing dog. Apparently they kidnapped the dog and wrapped every inch of it in duct tape a few days ago. They watched us try to peel and pull the duct tape off while the weakened, hungry, and thirsty dog whimpered away its last in the field. Unbeknownst to any of us, Donnie had a pocket knife and he lost it as the Gerst Brothers cackled around him and the dead dog. He leaped up as they laughed and sliced the vein on their necks. One of the Brothers died quickly while Donnie and the two others fought the other to death. Shaw said he just stood there, covered in arterial blood splatters, watching Donnie and the others finish off the Gersts.
Much of the town was shockingly grateful to hear the Gerst Brothers were dead and everyone was all too happy to sweep it under the rug rather than have 4 of their sons incarcerated for decades when they were needed to help with the town's bread and butter – the Pumpkins. So, they buried the Gerst Brothers in that field and grew pumpkins on their corpses and no one really talked about it. The town paid off their father, who was too inebriated most of the time to care and he gleefully drank himself to death on the payoff only about a year later.
I didn't have much of a reaction to the story. The historian on the other hand, was hesitant to stay and keep writing and he made a brief protest concerning whether or not the story was true and whether or not he could legally listen to it. Shaw said it was both true and legal. After all, there was nothing left of the town and the remains were long gone and he himself, would not bare witness to himself. The college student's dumb metal encrusted mouth was agape in a mix of horror and disbelief.
I was waiting, patiently, might I add, for my stew. Shaw promised it would be up soon. He continued the story, stating that the fields produced abnormally well afterwards and 10 years later he was visiting his parents with his girlfriend for the annual Pumpkin fest. It was just that the pumpkins weren't just more numerous and larger, or more resistant to the rains and the fungus, they were alive and nothing could keep them tame or from spreading wider and wider. And everyone thought this was great at first, the profits were never higher but then weird things began to happen. Equipment went missing and two farm hands were crushed by a wagon full of pumpkins tipping over onto them in what was at first called a freak accident. Shaw recounted how he took his girlfriend through one of the patches and the vines seem to wind and grapple her legs, of course, Shaw's folks passed it off as her not being used to the mud but Shaw said he knew better.
Shaw continued to describe that over the days that led up to Halloween, the Jack O Lanterns on people's porches and elsewhere began to do some unusual things. Things like seemingly move by themselves from dusk to dawn, changing the carvings of their faces slightly, or appearing to “jump” off a table onto the porch without damage or apparent cause. On the morning of Halloween, Shaw said that he found his black cat, Lucky, incinerated in front of a jack o lantern as if it had breathed fire on to it from its mouth though they had long ago blown out the candle inside.
After the cat burning, the elderly man from the historical society tossed his spoon in his bowl. Shaw asked if something was wrong. The elderly man got up to leave and he said it tasted like bitter cold bull and his story was bull and thanked him for nothing. After checking the remaining contents of his bowl of stew, Shaw chased him out of the door, to his car, asking him what direction he planned to go home. When he peeled out of the parking lot he was headed southwest. Shaw came back in and threw up his hands.
I tell nothing but the truth, he said, most people can't handle it. Part of me wanted to go, but I was cozy there, it was warm and the story, while bull to me at the time, was entertaining enough. The SJW sitting down the way looked exhausted, barely keeping her eyes open as Shaw finished out the story. In short he said, Donnie approached him at dusk on Halloween while he and his family sat on the porch eagerly awaiting trick o treaters. Donnie said the Gerst Brothers are alive in the pumpkins and that they planned to burn the whole town down tonight. Donnie said, he had to tell Shaw because Shaw wasn't supposed to die, he was supposed to watch.
I rudely stopped him and demanded more stew. I was still hungry and the stew was somehow unsatisfying. When he returned, he finished the story, stating the town was suddenly engulfed in flames and their house in particular with Donnie on the porch, flash burned to the ground like napalm from an exploding pumpkin. He escaped with his family and his future wife in the pick up truck sitting outside now.
The college student said she felt like she needed to lay down, that she didn't think she could make back to the campus to the north. Shaw attended to getting her one of the rooms upstairs. I stayed down stairs and went to the back for more stew. I rubbed my eyes intensely and felt as if I too should stay for the night. But in the tug of war between fatigue and dexrine, the dexrine was slowly coming out ahead.
Next to the stew was a cutting board and a knife and on it was some bluish whitish powder which I found peculiar. On floor was a bottle of medication. It was Insomnex – a sleeping pill I use when I'm coming off of dexrine. The stew was dosed.
I ran to my truck and pulled out my dexrine and my revolver. As I climbed out of the driver's side, I could see Shaw running out of the dinner with a huge kitchen knife. I ducked under the trailer and back out on his side and pointed the gun at him.
What the hell I asked as I slowly advanced on him with my snub nose pointed at his head. He dropped the knife. He said, I just wanted to puncture your tires, I had to do something to stop you. I know you want to go north and I know you might be crazy enough and your truck tough enough to smash the barricades but I can't let you. I can't let anyone else go through, he said hysterically. I asked the dumb question about whether or not he set the barricades and just as I previously suspected, he did.
I'm supposed to watch, Shaw cried. No one can get through tonight, no can be allowed to. I told him to shut up as he rambled on about how he and his wife took it upon themselves to ward off travelers on Halloween Night. Its a cursed road tonight, he said, we're cursed to stay here and this is the best we can do to stop it from spreading. Its been calling us for 30 years, he went on, we tried to walk away but it kept on spreading, the pumpkins, he said gritting his teeth in anguish.
Maybe it was the dexrine and the insomnex working together, hell maybe it was the stew by itself but I just started to laugh as I guided Shaw back into the dinner and proceeded to duct tape him down to the dinner chair to make sure he could not cause anymore harm to anyone else until the police arrived. I had some cash on me, I wasn't a criminal, I wasn't going to make it seem like I tied him up and dinned and dashed, I was in the right, I was doing the lawful thing. So I left him exact change, no tip for the food. In the process of making change for myself, I found the padlock key in the cash drawer, I was certain of it at the time as I waved it in front of Shaw and he gasped and thrashed behind the duct tape the hardest.
I got into my truck and gunned it north towards the barricades, which, as I suspected was easily opened with the key I confiscated from Shaw. I got on my CB and started making emergency calls to the State Police, I gave them my name, the location of the diner, and Shaw's name. I was in the middle of nowhere so it didn't surprise me when I got static and no acknowledgment. I had no bars on my cell phone either but that is typical of central Illinois.
I was going along about 70. The sun was almost down but I hadn't seen the moon yet. I turned on the radio and found a classic rock station. The song was Born on the Bayou from CCR. The opening riff perked me up and reassured me that I had done everything all well and all good. If things held, there was a chance, I could get my freight unloaded and see John tonight. I was eagerly tapping the steering wheel waiting to bust into “When I was just a little boy...” But just as the lyrics should have entered, the radio station seemed to have accidentally reset the song, it just started over.
The sun faded away entirely and yet no moon came up. The sky was so dark but I didn't remember seeing any clouds or expecting any for that matter. The song continued restarting itself, the same opening again and again. I flipped through the other stations and all of them had it playing. Eventually, the digital clock on my dash began to spin wildly like the LCD numbers on the tuner while in scan mode. The truck buffeted and shook side to side despite my headlights showing no cause for it.
To my shock, ahead, in the distance was single traffic light. It was went from green, to yellow, and red, as any other traffic light but there were no lights or towns on this road. I slowed to 40, then 35 then to 30 as I entered an unnamed densely populated area with small buildings, stores, and houses and one traffic light. I came to a stop at the light and I looked around, locked my doors and tried to glimpse where I was. Where ever I was, I felt, I felt like I shouldn't be there. There were dim orange lights in some of the rooms of the houses at the edge of the intersection.
I looked up at one of the windows and I saw a figure with large head in the window. I couldn't believe my eyes at least not until the figure turned to face outward. It was a jack o lantern, a classic one with a black glow where the eyes, nose, and mouth sat. It was held up right by a thin vine structure that seemed to grow and stretch as it stuck its head out of the window and let out a barely audible shrill whistle and stared directly at me.
I gunned it. I blew the red light as the town seemed to collapse into nothing by dark green swelling pumpkin vine and a sea of glowing jack o lanterns in my side view mirrors. I hit the radio off because all I could hear on it was that whistle filtering through. I drove and the mass of jack o lanterns grew in the mirrors. I glimpsed the left and right windows and the plains were glowing black with more pumpkins rolling and creeping towards the road.
The road began to warp and bend as I started to red line my truck. The buffeting side to side became difficult to control as the engine groaned. I couldn't explain how the road began to shift nor how the moon, blood orange began to circle around me from horizon to horizon. Aside from the moon, I thought I was making progress as I couldn't see the vines nor the hundreds of blacklight pumpkins swirling after me.
The moon slowed and dipped down and I started climbing a hill. As I crested, the moon filled the entire windshield and more. It spun and then settled on a black light pumpkin face and bore down on the cab.
I don't know what happened next but I woke up in my cab. The was engine smoking. All I could see was mud and putrid rotten pumpkins as far as I could see. My Blue Jay was sunk up to the cab down in mud, vines and rot. It wasn't going anywhere in it without some serious assistance. To my right and left I saw dozens of other vehicles, most of them at least ten years old, also up their doors in mud and rot. Swarms of flies were visible all around in the boiling midday sun. I'm not really sure how long it has been or what time it really was because the clock on my phone is broken and simply reads as 99:99. I don't know what day it is. I have no cell signal and no radio.
Carly, I need to be honest with you. I cheated on you. Maybe a dozen times. I did it before I thought, before I knew you were doing it to me. I can't live by the rules of trucking, or marriage or anything. It is the road and you command it and that is the only rule. But now, I'm worried I've broken my last rule. I have no food and no water. There is no road here. There is only rule of a blazing sun with jack o lantern face that never sets. I fear that in time, unless I find help or help finds me, I will be feeding the pumpkins.
​
Theo Plesha

Hey all, I’m looking for an IPhone compatible smartwatch that isn’t an Apple Watch. My main need is battery life and decent sleep tracking. Everything else is a plus.
Thanks

We live in Atlanta, Georgia and our old landlords kept our entire security deposit for repainting the home we rented for 4 years. They said we damaged the property by mounting our television and hanging curtain rods. Our move out “walk through” was the morning we turned in our keys and the new tenants were taking possession of the home that afternoon. Therefore, we were not given the chance to repair the damages ourselves. I filled a case in small claims court because the bill sent to us by the landlord didn’t have an itemized breakdown of the cost for fixing the holes in the sheetrock. The invoice total was over $3,000 but the landlord said we only had to pay $1,450 of that (the entire amount of our security deposit).
We were good tenants and took care of the home as if it were our own and we were never a minute late with the rent in four years.
From the beginning of our residency in the rental, there were major electrical problems. We frequently went days (up to 9 in a row) without hot water. Our HVAC system went out too many times to count. The last month we lived there, we had no power for an entire week with temperatures hovering at around 90 degrees. Our landlords “generously” offered us $350 to find alternative lodging (for 3 people and 2 dogs) while the base of our electrical meter (which had maybe been updated once - decades ago - since the house had been built in 1955 and was the source of all of the electrical problems in the house) being repaired and county permits were secured to turn the electricity back on in the house. In fact, I had to communicate with the landlord’s electrician and the county permit office, repeatedly, because the landlord disengaged himself from the entire week long process of rectifying the situation in his rental house while his paying tenants (of 4 years) had absolutely no electricity.
I have text and email proof of the majority of this ongoing and blatant disregard of the law regarding the warranty of habitability by the landlord.
I filed my claim and then the landlord (who also happens to be a LAWYER) filed a counterclaim suing us for $3,140 plus attorney and court fees “due to Plaintiff’s stubborn litigiousness”.
I don’t understand the legalese of the counterclaim and now I’m super anxious that I’ve started a battle I can’t win.
I did email the company the landlord used to paint the house (once the new tenants had already moved in) and asked what they charged to repair the walls before they paint. The company said that they don’t charge anything for that and it’s considered part of the paint prepping.
Would a judge in a small claims court take into account all of the times we didn’t have hot water, heat, air, or any electricity at all when considering whether or not the landlord should refund my full security deposit or have I screwed myself?

TL;DR: I'm a new streamer who wants to start uploading videos to YouTube and I'm not sure whether long form videos or cut down videos is better for my content, which has little dead air but not a ton of "substance", and if I do cut down videos, what kind of transitions will be the least jarring between cuts. Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Hey, all. So, I had some questions/need some advice, please, if you don't mind. I'm a really new streamer, I don't even have 30 VODs yet, but I want to start putting my videos on YouTube, so that anyone who misses my stream can watch my older content once it's no longer available on Twitch. The thing is, I'm not sure what type of video would be best; heavily edited and cut down, or more long-form. I know that both can work, but I want to make sure that my content is as enjoyable and accessible as possible for everyone.
My videos (BotW and RF5 so far) have very little dead air, but most of my talking is just about my impressions of the game, what I'm planning on doing, things like that. When I do have chatters I'll reply to them, and sometimes that can interrupt the flow a little, especially when I get distracted by chat in the middle of reading something, like a description of an item or, sometimes, actual NPC interaction in the game.
What I'm wondering is what is good form when it comes to YouTube videos with my kind of content (little dead air, but mostly revolving around impressions/descriptions of the game and verbally laying out plans for my next actions in-game)? And also, if I do more cut down videos, how best to handle transitions?
I'm concerned that just uploading the mostly unedited videos in chunks won't be very interesting or fun to watch, but doing a ton of editing might make things confusing or frustrating for the audience. My stuff is good to put on when playing other games or working or such (according to feedback I've gotten on my streams), which points to long form being better, but again, I worry that what I talk about isn't super entertaining. Additionally, people expect different things from a YouTube uploaded video than they would from a YouTube or Twitch active live stream.
I am also worried that, if I do more cut down videos, jumping from one thing to another will be jarring, and I'm not sure what the best kind of transition would be to do. My first instinct is to put a colored background between cuts with some text, like "After doing x and y..." and letting that act as a transition, but I don't think that's the common etiquette in these situations, and also it might detract from the whole "good for listening to while doing other things" aspect of my videos.
I'm sorry for the length of this, and if this isn't the "right" way to make this kind of post. I'm completely new to posting on Reddit. Plus, I tend to like to give as much information as possible so things can be clear. Anyway, thank you so much to those of you who read this, and for any responses. Sorry again about the length.

Gps works fine when powered by usb but cuts in and out when powered by a battery , do I just have to twist and shield the wires ?

Was at the dealer test-driving Miele and mentioned that I needed a stick vac to replace the dead Shark upstairs (or ideally to replace the Dyson on the main floor and have the Dyson move upstairs) and was pointed at this by my dealer:
https://www.amazon.com/Simplicity-S65D-Deluxe-Lightweight-One-Click/dp/B0B5FPYLVP/
He price matched Amazon, and cut me a deal on the optional fluffy floor head.
So far it exceeds expectations for a stick vac. That said, the battery is the weak spot. 10 minutes on high, and then the same 3+ hours as a Dyson to recharge. Replacement batteries seem to run ... a lot ($150! OUCH!) so having a spare isn't really an economical option.
Still, for quick pickups it seems great so far.

My doctor and I decided that sertraline isn’t cutting it anymore, so I’m going to switch to 10mg of lexapro. So this week, I tapered down from 150mg to 100 mg of sertraline, then I start the 10mg of lexapro next week.
I feel like I’ve left the land of the living. A constant dull headache, nausea, brain fog, and complete exhaustion, plus I’m super emotional and constantly feel like I’m about to cry. My doctor said to let her know if I’m having side effects, but I also don’t know what she could do (maybe give me the next two weeks off of work hahaha).
That’s all. I feel like crawling in a hole and dying.

long time lurker first time poster - i tend to make lots of typos, be brutal, that's half the fun.
i was helping to edit a book of impromptu talks on spiritual themes delivered by a deceased teacher. as people interested in the particular teacher and teachings, the two editors and i put lots of effort into this. the two editors had prepared other volumes before and were very sharp and dedicated though also technically inept, oftentimes abrupt, and sometimes opinionated. there was no prestige or money or anything in preparing these, just a wonderful effort to share valuable talks and ideas and such.
the speaker's style was difficult to understand and i found myself resequencing his words and phrases, and it was not unusual for me to resequence more than a dozen phrases to practically reverse the order or move parts of his talks all around to render ideas comprehensible. this seemed bizarre until someone pointed out that the speaker was also jazz musician and that helped me to see that yes, indeed, he'd touch a phrase or theme and then approach it from various angles, as opposed to developing an idea from the ground up. i wasn't opposed to his speaking style, it just didn't make sense in writing - everyone agreed the transcripts were unintelligible. i felt that i had to read the whole thing through and really listen to where he was going and coming from - to know the landscape and then help to map it out. it was definitely not a matter of starting at the first word and fixing it as you go. only by keeping the whole in mind could i serve the overall intention and help express his voice. in fact, i felt i had to rescue many of his dangling phrases from being mutilated by the other editors who were simply cutting phrases, ironing-out rough patches, and generically tying up loose ends. not that the others weren't trying to serve him but my pondering approach ws really trying to salvage his talks against their ponderous approach! (fast forward about a year or two after, one was read, and people marveled to hear his words again, so clear! and i know that i had tuned and revised it to transmit his actual voice to paper!)
anyway, working on every talk was super difficult and i considered, hey, i'm doing all this work, i should be named as an editor, not just an acknowledgement, "thanks to gthrees." i considered making such a request - it's not as if it mattered, but wasn't i doing a considerable amount of the lifting and in a manner they could not? so i asked.
although i understand that one editor thought it was proper, the other did not. i don't think the latter was trying to keep me down, he just didn't think it was appropriate or that's not what i had come on board to do. in any case, since they were already a team, one's yes plus the other's no resulted in a no. upon which i sent them back the talk i was working on and said, ok, if i'm not an editor, i'm not editing. and left them to wrap it up.
it's not quite malicious compliance - they of course continued with me, with no disrespect - it was more like a malicious valuing my own time and expertise and not overextending myself where i'm not wanted.
tldr: if i'll edit if i'm named as an editor, otherwise i've got other things to occupy myself with.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7SF5oxRpwo
Ford sold 84 Mach E (numbers pretty similar to Audi e-tron) in February hence a massive RMB 40,000 price cut -- You can bet Ford will lose thousands on every Mach E sold with those price cuts
Big Auto has 500,000 old ICE inventory that becomes obsolete July 1st
No doubt a Chinese Auto blood bath that may last till July 1st.
From this blood bath the new strong with:

• Technology Superiority
• Fully Automated Production Lines (95% plus)
• Attractive Product Line
• Healthy Cash / Little Debt
• Niche Market Segment
• Giga Presses
• Autonomy Leadership
• Battery Technology Leadership
• Business Plans that can yield 20% plus VGM

Given their backing, seems like Anhui Province & CCP think NIO will be amongst the new strong JMHO DYODD

So I've been gaming on the same PC for 10 years adding a SSD and one upgrade in graphics to a GeForce GTX 1660 and a +8G ram for 16 total. I had a guy help me build it and I added the upgrades myself and replaced power supply. That's my extent of pc building knowledge. But able to figure things out. Currently on a 60Hz refresh not sure if i can support higher but monitor can. This is my current set up benchmark.
https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/60175119
Basically wondering if a mid range 800ish or 1k+ low high end is worth it and how much of a difference ill feel and quality. I am curious if it is worth getting an AM5 MB with high end Process like ryzen 7600, DDR5 ram and cut 200 out of a 5/6 hundred graphics card and upgrade it later? I realize upgrading MB and CPU is the most difficult for me to understand but can always go the next graphics card when I can afford.
I don't have the best idea what cooling is required or what parts etc are compatible. I play Wow classic and the occasional game of the month. Also path of exile. Potential graphic design work in adobe for wife.
Also how much of a difference is it really to push for the whole 1440p and a higher refresh? I am willing to go a little higher on things that will last. So feels right to push CPU and MB/ram quality. But I'm not sure, thoughts?
I am by a micro center. budget is prob 1200 max. I like white cases. Looking at some other posts I have these as ideas/stole but take with grain of salt. something like this is all in on GPU but no room to upgrade right? https://pcpartpicker.com/list/9D42PX where as something like this is an upgrade to my current set up with room to upgrade GPU? Plus more space, ram and higher end cpu/mb. https://pcpartpicker.com/list/DryNtn
Anyway any help is super appreciated!! And sorry if any questions are redundant or I didn't do enough research and could have answered this my self!

• Total budget (in local currency) and country of purchase. Please do not use USD unless purchasing in the US: - up to £200 new, second hand up to £150
• Are you open to refurbs/used? -Yes, I'd rather buy a used one, the cheaper the better.
• How would you prioritize form factor (ultrabook, 2-in-1, etc.), build quality, performance, and battery life? - I'm not really bothered, if it has a pretty good battery and doesn't make a load of noise we're good. I'll be using it in Library's and lecture halls.
• How important is weight and thinness to you? - I'm not overly concerned, of course it's a positive though.
• Do you have a preferred screen size? If indifferent, put N/A. -Anything works.
• Are you doing any CAD/video editing/photo editing/gaming? List which programs/games you desire to run. - Potentially some Lightroom work, but I have a PC for that. I just want a laptop to make notes in class and maybe edit a few photos here and there but I'll side-line that.
• If you're gaming, do you have certain games you want to play? At what settings and FPS do you want? -I won't be gaming.
• Any specific requirements such as good keyboard, reliable build quality, touch-screen, finger-print reader, optical drive or good input devices (keyboard/touchpad)? - I get pain in my wrists very easily. I'd like a good tactile/responsive keyboard but with a slim profile and short actuation distance. I'm fond of the keyboard on the Asus Zephyrus M16. Responsive but doesn't leave wrists sore from being squishy.
• Leave any finishing thoughts here that you may feel are necessary and beneficial to the discussion. - I really am happy with anything, if there's a brand I can get for £50 second hand I'll go for it. I just want a laptop to make notes with (probably on google docs) then just upload it to my google drive so I can easily access all my class notes via the cloud. It having a nice keyboard, decent battery life, being quiet and comfortable to use is a plus.