Edge 26 at sloan's lake apartments

I'm trying to install zoom on linux mint but I get this dependency issue:

sudo dpkg -i zoom_amd64.deb (Reading database ... 455699 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to unpack zoom_amd64.deb ... Unpacking zoom (5.14.0.1720) over (5.14.0.1720) ... run post uninstall script, action is upgrade ... dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of zoom: zoom depends on ibus; however: Package ibus is not installed. dpkg: error processing package zoom (--install): dependency problems - leaving unconfigured Processing triggers for gnome-menus (3.36.0-1ubuntu1) ... Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.24+linuxmint1) ... Processing triggers for mime-support (3.64ubuntu1) ... Processing triggers for shared-mime-info (1.15-1) ... Errors were encountered while processing: zoom 

When I try to install ibus I get this:

Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done You might want to run 'apt --fix-broken install' to correct these. The following packages have unmet dependencies: ibus : Depends: gir1.2-ibus-1.0 (= 1.5.17-3ubuntu5.3) but 1.5.22-2ubuntu2.1 is to be installed E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt --fix-broken install' with no packages (or specify a solution). 

But when I try doing --fix-broken, it tries to remove cinnamon, which kills my OS:

sudo apt-get install --fix-broken Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done Correcting dependencies... Done The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required: acpi cabextract catdoc cpu-checker crudini exif finalrd gimp-help-common gir1.2-nm-1.0 gparted-common gstreamer1.0-vaapi id3 ieee-data ipxe-qemu ipxe-qemu-256k-compat-efi-roms libavcodec-extra libbasicusageenvironment1 libc-ares2 libcacard0 libcamel-1.2-62 libcddb2 libdca0 libde265-0 libdvbpsi10 libebml4v5 libept1.6.0 libexempi8 libexiv2-27 libfaad2 libfdt1 libfluidsynth2 libfontconfig1-dev libfreetype-dev libfreetype6-dev libgegl-common libgexiv2-2 libgroupsock8 libgsf-1-114 libgsf-1-common libgsl23 libgslcblas0 libgstreamer-plugins-bad1.0-0 libgtksourceview-4-common libgutenprint-common libgutenprint9 libguvcview-2.0-2 libheif1 libice-dev libilmbase24 libinstpatch-1.0-2 libixml10 libkate1 liblinear4 liblivemedia77 liblua5.2-0 liblua5.3-0 libmad0 libmatroska6v5 libminiupnpc17 libmjpegutils-2.1-0 libmms0 libmodplug1 libmozjs-78-0 libmpcdec6 libmpeg2encpp-2.1-0 libmplex2-2.1-0 libmpv1 libmspack0 libmypaint-1.5-1 libmypaint-common libnfs13 libofa0 libopenexr24 libopengl0 libopenmpt-modplug1 libplacebo7 libpng-dev libpng-tools libprotobuf-lite17 libpthread-stubs0-dev libqrencode3 libqscintilla2-qt5-l10n libqt5xml5 libraw19 librda-common librda0 librdmacm1 libresid-builder0c2a libsdl-image1.2 libsidplay2 libsm-dev libsoundtouch1 libspandsp2 libspatialaudio0 libsrtp2-1 libssh2-1 libtcl8.6 libu2f-udev libunshield0 libupnp13 libusageenvironment3 libusrsctp1 libva-wayland2 libvlc-bin libvlc5 libvlccore9 libvo-aacenc0 libwildmidi-config libwildmidi2 libwoff1 libx11-dev libxau-dev libxcb-res0 libxcb1-dev libxdmcp-dev libxen-4.9 libxenstore3.0 libxext-dev libxrender-dev libxss-dev libxt-dev libzbar0 libzip5 linux-headers-5.0.0-32 linux-headers-5.4.0-91 linux-image-5.0.0-32-generic linux-modules-5.0.0-32-generic linux-modules-extra-5.0.0-32-generic lua-lpeg mpv msr-tools nmap-common nodejs-doc odt2txt pass python-tinycss2-common python3-blinker python3-entrypoints python3-ifaddr python3-imdbpy python3-iniparse python3-jwt python3-lazr.uri python3-magic python3-netaddr python3-parted python3-pyxattr python3-requests-file python3-simplejson python3-tinycss2 python3-tldextract python3-unidecode python3-wadllib qrencode qt5-style-plugin-cleanlooks qt5-style-plugin-motif qt5-style-plugin-plastique rtmpdump seabios tcl tcl-dev tcl8.6 tcl8.6-dev timgm6mb-soundfont ubuntu-dbgsym-keyring unrar unshield untex uuid-dev vlc-bin vlc-data vlc-l10n vlc-plugin-qt vlc-plugin-video-output x11proto-core-dev x11proto-dev x11proto-scrnsaver-dev x11proto-xext-dev xdg-dbus-proxy xorg-sgml-doctools xtrans-dev youtube-dl Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them. The following packages will be REMOVED: apport appstream atom avahi-utils baobab bind9-dnsutils blueberry bulky caribou casper celluloid cheese cheese-common cifs-utils cinnamon cinnamon-common cinnamon-control-center cinnamon-control-center-data cinnamon-control-center-dbg cinnamon-dbg cinnamon-desktop-data cinnamon-screensaver cinnamon-session cinnamon-settings-daemon cjs code colord cups-browsed cups-bsd cups-pk-helper dconf-cli dnsutils docker-desktop drawing ecryptfs-utils evolution-data-server evolution-data-server-common file-roller firefox flatpak gcr gdebi geoclue-2.0 gimp gimp-help-en gir1.2-appindicator3-0.1 gir1.2-appstream-1.0 gir1.2-atspi-2.0 gir1.2-caribou-1.0 gir1.2-cinnamondesktop-3.0 gir1.2-clutter-1.0 gir1.2-clutter-gst-3.0 gir1.2-flatpak-1.0 gir1.2-gkbd-3.0 gir1.2-gnomebluetooth-1.0 gir1.2-gnomedesktop-3.0 gir1.2-gspell-1 gir1.2-gtkclutter-1.0 gir1.2-gtksource-3.0 gir1.2-gtksource-4 gir1.2-ibus-1.0 gir1.2-keybinder-3.0 gir1.2-matedesktop-2.0 gir1.2-matepanelapplet-4.0 gir1.2-meta-muffin-0.0 gir1.2-nemo-3.0 gir1.2-nma-1.0 gir1.2-nmgtk-1.0 gir1.2-peas-1.0 gir1.2-rb-3.0 gir1.2-soup-2.4 gir1.2-timezonemap-1.0 gir1.2-webkit-3.0 gir1.2-webkit2-4.0 gir1.2-wnck-3.0 gist gkbd-capplet gnome-bluetooth gnome-calculator gnome-calendar gnome-disk-utility gnome-font-viewer gnome-keyring gnome-logs gnome-online-accounts gnome-orca gnome-power-manager gnome-screenshot gnome-session-bin gnome-session-canberra gnome-settings-daemon gnome-settings-daemon-common gnome-system-monitor gnome-terminal gnome-video-effects google-chrome-stable gparted gstreamer1.0-packagekit gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad gstreamer1.0-plugins-good gtk2-engines gtk2-engines-murrine gucharmap gufw guvcview gvfs gvfs-backends gvfs-daemons gvfs-fuse gvfs-libs hardinfo hexchat hfsprogs hplip hypnotix ideviceinstaller isc-dhcp-client keyutils libappindicator0.1-cil libappindicator1 libappindicator3-1 libappstream4 libatk-adaptor libcanberra-pulse libcaribou0 libchamplain-0.12-0 libchamplain-gtk-0.12-0 libcheese-gtk25 libcheese8 libcinnamon-control-center1 libcinnamon-desktop-dbg libcinnamon-desktop4 libcjs-dbg libcjs0f libclutter-gtk-1.0-0 libcolorhug2 libcscreensaver0 libcupsimage2 libdazzle-1.0-0 libdbusmenu-gtk4 libdmapsharing-3.0-2 libdns-export1109 libebackend-1.2-10 libebook-1.2-20 libebook-contacts-1.2-2 libebook-contacts-1.2-3 libecal-1.2-19 libecal-2.0-1 libecryptfs1 libedata-book-1.2-26 libedata-cal-2.0-1 libedataserver-1.2-23 libedataserver-1.2-24 libedataserverui-1.2-2 libflatpak0 libgcr-ui-3-1 libgdata22 libgdiplus libgegl-0.3-0 libgegl-0.4-0 libgeoclue-2-0 libgeocode-glib0 libgimp2.0 libglade2-0 libgnome-bluetooth13 libgnome-desktop-3-17 libgnome-desktop-3-19 libgoa-1.0-0b libgoa-1.0-common libgoa-backend-1.0-1 libgrilo-0.3-0 libgspell-1-1 libgspell-1-2 libgssdp-1.2-0 libgtk-3-bin libgtk-layer-shell0 libgtk2-perl libgtk2.0-cil libgtkmm-2.4-1v5 libgtkmm-3.0-1v5 libgtksourceview-3.0-1 libgtksourceview-4-0 libgucharmap-2-90-7 libgupnp-1.2-0 libgupnp-igd-1.0-4 libgweather-3-15 libgweather-3-16 libgweather-common libgxps2 libhandy-0.0-0 libhpmud0 libibus-1.0-5 libindicator3-7 libisc-export1105 libkeybinder-3.0-0 libmagickcore-6.q16-3-extra libmagickcore-6.q16-6-extra libmate-desktop-2-17 libmate-panel-applet-4-1 libmateweather-common libmateweather1 libmetacity1 libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil libmono-cairo4.0-cil libmono-system-drawing4.0-cil libmuffin0 libmusicbrainz5-2 libmusicbrainz5cc2v5 libnautilus-extension1a libneon27-gnutls libnet-dns-sec-perl libnice10 libnm-gtk0 libnode64 libostree-1-1 libpango-perl libpangomm-1.4-1v5 libpkcs11-helper1 libproxy1-plugin-gsettings libproxy1-plugin-networkmanager libpython3.6-minimal libqscintilla2-qt5-15 libqt5printsupport5 libreoffice-gtk3 librhythmbox-core10 libruby2.5 libsane-hpaio libsasl2-modules libsnapd-glib1 libspice-server1 libsrt1 libssl-dev libtimezonemap1 libtk8.6 libunity9 libwebkit2gtk-4.0-37 libwebkitgtk-3.0-0 libwnck-3-0 libxcb-cursor0 libxft-dev libxreaderdocument3 libxreaderview3 libyelp0 linux-headers-4.15.0-20-generic linux-headers-5.0.0-32-generic linux-headers-5.4.0-91-generic linux-kernel-generic lupin-casper mate-desktop mate-desktop-common mate-panel mate-polkit metacity metacity-common microsoft-edge-stable minecraft-launcher mint-meta-cinnamon mint-meta-codecs mint-meta-core mintbackup mintdrivers mintinstall mintlocale mintmenu mintreport mintstick mintsystem mintupdate mintupgrade mintwelcome mousetweaks mozo muffin muffin-common muffin-dbg nautilus-data nemo nemo-data nemo-dbg nemo-emblems nemo-fileroller nemo-preview nemo-share network-manager-gnome network-manager-openvpn network-manager-openvpn-gnome network-manager-pptp-gnome nmap nodejs onboard openssh-server openssh-sftp-server openvpn orca packagekit packagekit-tools pinentry-gnome3 pix pix-data pix-dbg plymouth-label policykit-1-gnome printer-driver-brlaser printer-driver-c2esp printer-driver-foo2zjs printer-driver-gutenprint printer-driver-hpcups printer-driver-postscript-hp printer-driver-ptouch printer-driver-splix pulseaudio pulseaudio-module-bluetooth python-cairo python-nemo python3-apport python3-cryptography python3-grpcio python3-keyring python3-launchpadlib python3-lazr.restfulclient python3-oauthlib python3-pyatspi python3-secretstorage python3.6-minimal qemu-system-x86 qt5-gtk2-platformtheme qt5-style-plugins rdesktop rhythmbox rhythmbox-data rhythmbox-plugin-tray-icon rhythmbox-plugins ruby-json ruby2.5 seahorse sessioninstaller simple-scan slick-greeter sqlitebrowser ssh-askpass-gnome steam-launcher sticky synaptic system-config-printer system-config-printer-common system-config-printer-gnome system-config-printer-udev tcpdump thunderbird-gnome-support timeshift tk tk-dev tk8.6 tk8.6-dev transmission-gtk ubuntu-minimal ubuntu-system-adjustments vlc vlc-plugin-base vlc-plugin-notify warpinator webapp-manager x11-apps xdg-desktop-portal-gtk xdg-user-dirs-gtk xed xed-common xed-dbg xorg xplayer-thumbnailer xreader xreader-dbg xscreensaver-data xscreensaver-data-extra xscreensaver-gl xscreensaver-gl-extra xserver-xephyr xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-video-intel xvfb xviewer xviewer-dbg xviewer-plugins xwayland yelp zenity zoom 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 387 to remove and 6 not upgraded. 1 not fully installed or removed. After this operation, 3,456 MB disk space will be freed. Do you want to continue? [Y/n] 

I actually did the fix broken step a couple days ago without looking at what would be removed, and it ended up nuking my OS to where I had to restore a backup using timeshift. Is there a way I can fix this?

I wrote this after an asthma attack earlier this week, dreading the flare-up that was coming. For the past few years it means weeks of getting back to normal. I'm currently in grad school, and bike mentioned is an ebike, fyi. Always gotta be accessible. It meant a lot to write this, and thought some here would appreciate it too. It's rough, but from the heart.
The parallel world of severe asthma
As my asthma has worsened, I more and more feel like I’m living parallel to the people around me. In Tokyo, with my unusual hours and outsider status as a foreigner, I already felt set apart from society, so the feeling wasn’t so intense. Yes, I might have missed the occasional book club meeting or invitation from a friend, but I didn’t have daily reminders of how my life had to be considered so differently from those surrounding me. Before Tokyo, while asthma was a consideration in my life, it only came up around hikes or when I pulled my inhaler out after running too fast for too long. It set me apart, but only sometimes.
Now, the time I feel most separate is when I open my school email. Today alone I got invitations to:
• The grad student sports day, which I immediately deleted. I haven’t been able to run across the street without thinking for 3 years. There’s no way in hell I could participate.
• A round table with a CEO. I RSVP’d, but with the knowledge that I’ll likely have to email a cancellation to the event coordinator when a flareup extends or starts or I get an asthma attack.
• A Q&A before an event I’m attending. I RSVP’d, but later realized it’s held at a separate venue from the event, about a three-minute walk away. If I’m feeling bad, I won’t be able to go, and if I’m mobile but not great, I’ll have to ride my bike to both locations in order to minimize walking and be able to attend.
• A meeting with a prof today. I had to ask to meet virtually due to an asthma attack around 11am. He said we could reschedule if I wasn’t feeling well, and I had to go into a brief health history so he would know there was a high chance I’d have to cancel a rescheduled appointment as well, so we just went virtual.
• A school event on Saturday where we paint a map of the United States at an elementary school. Yesterday I ran into a classmate promoting it, and had to tell him I can’t RSVP because I have no idea what my health status will be by Saturday, and lo and behold today I had an asthma attack that will likely take a week or more to resolve.
• Employer visits. I haven’t been to one in months because I’ve had to save all my energy for attending classes, or I wouldn’t even be able to do that.
• So many various interesting talks that I don’t even think about attending anymore because I always seem to be sick whenever there’s something I actually want to do.
After my attack, I immediately emailed both the prof I was scheduled to meet and my prof for tomorrow’s class. It’s a public speaking class (I didn’t realize that when I signed up, I thought it was for writing, my effin’ bad), and we’re exchanging speeches with another person before class, so I need to give my prof warning. In addition, the class is held in a building where it takes me three times as long to walk to the class area as anyone else because it’s in the far back. The bathrooms, of course, are by the exit, so I had to hold it for an entire class a couple weeks ago because I wouldn’t be able to make it there, back, present, and still be at all functioning.
I texted some friends about watching a basketball game at a bar on Friday, and then immediately regretted it, realizing that due to the attack today, I’ll probably be housebound until Monday, unless I’m lucky and things improve quickly. Checking the forecast, which is showing turbulent weather, rain, and general changes, there’s probably not a chance in hell. I still haven’t texted them that, actually, I probably can’t do it, because I just don’t want to yet, and it doesn’t matter too much, since we’re already planning on coming to my house to watch a movie anyway, thank God.
I also texted my friend in a student organization to let her know I wasn’t coming to the meeting tonight after all. We’d talked yesterday, with her asking after me, and I told her I’d finally be able to come today after more than a month of absences due to my health. Welp, never mind. I then had to text another friend I’m supposed to meet for dinner tomorrow, and see if she can come to my house for dinner instead. We’re not very close, so it’s a little awkward, but it’d be nice if she’d be down.
Other things I got to experience today:
• Sitting, teeth gritted, fingers dug into my palm for 30 seconds as I got a very painful shot (Tezspire) that will hopefully make this situation a little fucking better. Oh God, I really hope so. I’ll get to keep getting that once a month for who knows how long. (Talking from a week later, it seems like the second dose has made a big difference. My attack recovery took just two days instead of two weeks!)
• Not get napkins at a restaurant because it wasn’t a good idea to add some extra walking as I realized that I really was asthmatic.
• Regret going downstairs to work on homework because going up to the stairs to the bathroom meant that I needed to rest for a good fifteen minutes.
• Struggle through brain fog to be able to do my coursework.
• Feel tight chested just from getting up to pour myself tea.
• Ask my roommate to go pick up a package at the front door because I couldn’t handle it.
I’m sure there’s more I’m just not thinking of. I’ve been trying to be clearer about how severe my illness is. Instead of telling people I have asthma, I’ve been saying “I have severe asthma/I have severe uncontrolled asthma,” and I put some weight on it. It’s been helping. I’ve been extending conversations a little longer when people ask about it. I’m not trying to create pity, but help people understand that it seriously effects my life, and that when I have to be noncommittal, or haven’t been to school, it’s because of a chronic condition that won’t get better quickly.
All of this adds up to feeling like I’m existing parallel to the people around me. They RSVP to events, knowing they’ll attend unless they just don’t want to. They organize sports days without thinking about all the people that don’t have a chance in hell of being able to participate. They don’t think a thing of it when I don’t come to class or am walking slowly in the hall. They feel buoyant to me almost, walking around not thinking if they can make it down the hall without a rest. I understand they have complexities to their lives that I don’t understand, but hearing “feel better” when I know I’m not going to for a week or two, then maybe have a week of feeling ok-ish before another flare-up makes me feel like an alien.
I’ve been able-bodied before. I know how little conception I had of the mental burden disability brings. I know how blithely they take advantage of their bodies. I love my body. It feels like a partner in a war with me, constantly battling against the evils of dust mites and cat hair. We’re united in this journey, but holy fuck are we exhausted. I make it to class, work in hand (or not), and feel so tired knowing I’m going to have to balance caring for myself with my commitments for another week. My conception doesn’t really stretch much further than that, except to hope that in six months, when I’m finally done ramping up with allergy shots, maybe I won’t feel like this. The time between then and now draws out in front of me, joyful and terrifying. Perhaps I’ll start improving? I know I’ll have good times with friends, whether they’re in my house or elsewhere when I’m feeling ok. I know I’ll learn a lot. I also know I’ll face walks up a flight of stairs that will take three minutes. I know that I’ll face classes or meetings or lectures where I have to concentrate to be able to sit up straight, barely able to pay attention while it feels like my scalp is shrinking around my skull and my chest is like a cloud crushed in a vice grip.
That after that class I’ll have to make a thousand little journeys: from seat to door, from door to that tile, to the end of that bench, to that next door, to that little tree, to that fence, to my bike, all with a little rest in between, letting everybody outpace me as they move, unthinking about the miracle of their body’s wellness, forward past me. I’ll probably listen to music –nothing too exciting or my body will try to dance without permission, every extraneous movement a danger beyond the capacity of my lungs – and let myself flow along to the melody in my head, while my feet shuffle ever so slowly along, not lifting them too high so as not to exert any extra energy. Every moment of this is defined by a colossal effort not to panic. My body wants to; IT CAN’T GET AIR! But I have to force my breath to calm, even if it’s shallow, and focus all my concentration on the next small goal. Occasionally, a flash of the daunting journey to bike, to home, to up to my room, and to lying face down in my bed, sparks in my mind, and a strong current of fear and dread runs through me before I tamp it down and keep moving at my snail’s pace, or stand in place, eyes closed, fingers flexing and curling, shoulders tensed, calves tensed, toes curled, as I squeeze the big scary emotions back into a small ball in my core and continue the difficult journey to safety and rest.
Is this a world I knew existed before? No.
Am I happy I know it now? With the tiniest, most empathetic sliver of my heart. This parallel world is mine, and it’s an anguished one. I’ve gotten some good out of it. I’ve gained empathy. I truly understand my own grit and determination and sisu after this. I told my doctor about an asthma attack I remember having in Tokyo: I went too fast up some stairs, took my inhaler and sat, and felt better 30 minutes later. He said, “That must have been scary.” No! I remember that asthma attack so fondly that it has almost a nostalgic golden glow about it. The scary asthma attacks: the panicked gasps while stuck in a door I’m not capable of opening fully, being exhausted in a coffee shop from walking 3 steps to a bathroom, laying back on a hotel bed and my vision blurring to black around the edges, those scare me. Having to walk out of the ER, alone in a foreign country, to flag down a cab, shaky from IV steroids and unsure if I can make the 30 meters, that scares me. Barely being able to walk or talk as soon as the first drop of rain falls, at a zoo, at a temple, teaching class, those times scare me.
Sometimes I realize that the people around me would call an ambulance or have their family rush them to the hospital if they felt the way I do right now. It feels like we’re walking in two worlds. Mine is weighty with the distress I’m currently feeling, or haunted by the specters of disturbing possibilities: a flight of stairs, a sharp hill, a quick run to make the bus, a note held too long in choir, all things that have kept me housebound for days to weeks. Theirs is what I had before: full of joys and worries (just as mine is) but without that constant central dread and weight and worrying and calculation that comes along with my illness. I don’t know whether to envy or hate them.
What I do know is that we exist together and apart. They don’t understand, and I don’t really want them to. They shouldn’t have to. I wouldn’t wish these dark experiences on them, as much as I wish that I didn’t feel so alone in all of it. Perhaps one day I’ll once again be able to blithely join a game of badminton without worrying about whether I have my rescue inhaler in my bag. Maybe I’ll even just be able to RSVP to a lecture without worrying whether I’ll be able to make it there without severe distress. I yearn for that future, which the doctor tells me is possible, but I yearn in tiny, quick jolts. Just an eighth of a second, then back to accepting the reality I’m in at the moment, knowing that it’s too painful to dwell on in case I don’t get better.
In reality, I regretted reading this out loud after writing it because I was worried I’d pushed the limits of what I can handle right now. And cried after getting an email from my prof for tomorrow’s class because she was so kind with her accommodations. This parallel, murky, dark world that makes me so damn appreciate of the people around me, even if they can’t understand.
​
edits: just some formatting

This turned out longer than expected, sorry
Most of it is probably normal, so I apologize for the big post. I have some anxiety and my impostor syndrome wants to make sure I'm doing everything correctly.
​
Hello! I recently got a Corgi puppy.
His name is Fred, and he is 103 days old now. My goal with this post is to check some behaviors, get some tips, some dos and don'ts. I don't want to make mistakes that would create bad habits for him.
I'll leave some pics of Fred at the bottom as appreciation for any advice.
So, some context:
I am 26 years old, and I recently moved out from my parents house (back in December 2022). I work full time remotely, so I have a lot of time for taking care of him. I live alone in a big apartment with a big kitchen and a nice balcony. Also, it's 190 meters away from the park which I am anxious (in a good way) to bring him and have lots of walks (he hasn't completed all the vaccines).
I have grown with a Poodle that lived 19 years (which still is most of my life) and have always loved her too much. When she passed away my parents didn't want to get a new one because of all the work required. (I don't judge them, they did their part already.)
The dream of moving out, having a dog and my own life has been something I was looking forward for the longest time now, and I finally got there.
​
That's enough of context, Fred is the cutest goofball I could have wished for, and I want to make sure I am not setting him up for disaster. Let's check on some of his behavior so far:
​
Potty:
I am potty-training him to be able to eliminate inside the house. He's already very good at it but still learning. If he's in the kitchen he will most likely get it right, specially if I call him over to the pee pad after eating/playing. The problem is when he's not in the kitchen. I don't know if he just forgets it exists or if he just can't be bothered to walk over there and do it.
For some days I have put another pee pad in the living room, so he would see it and go for it. Which worked, he started doing it in the second pee pad whenever he was in the living room, but then I thought that maybe he would associate the two spots as "correct" and not the pee pad itself. I am not 100% sure how that would work, so I removed the second one. He keeps making accidents in the living room since then. When he does make an accident I wait for him to finish, tell him "No" and bring him over to the pee pad, not sure how else I should correct that or if I should just keep the second one and give him more time to understand.
​
Sleep:
He currently sleeps in the kitchen, he doesn't cry when I go to my bedroom. Sometimes he will chew on his bed, but I think that's mostly him demanding attention, as he only seems to do that when I am present.
I introduced him slowly to his bed because at first he thought it was a play area or something, he would go crazy in it, biting it, rolling over, etc. Maybe it was the bed's texture. I put a blanket on top of it, he seems to have understood what it's for after some days. He will still occasionally play on it and try to drag it along the kitchen and all, but he understands when I say "no". He stops and lays down, giving me a half-guilty cute look. He also seems to understand when it's "time to sleep" because when I wake up in the morning the bed is in the same spot as it was when I left him, he doesn't try to destroy it when I am not there. (That or he's secretly an evil genius who puts it back intact in the morning 🤔)
​
Play:
He can be kinda rough in play, he will nip me a lot which I understand he is still teething and all, so I don't make a big issue out of it. I try to distract him with toys (which I like to rotate along the week, so he doesn't get bored of them).
It worsens when he gets his belly up during play. Then he will nip and bite anything and everything (I suppose in a playful manner because I don't think a dog would roll over when being aggressive). He will try and get to my face/nose/ears and specially hair, he tries really hard going for anyone's hair. When he gets past the line I will tell him "no" and stop playing (I read that's what you should do) but he will just follow me and try going for my legs and pants, at which point I have to either pick him up until he calms down, or put him in his crate for a minute. If I just put him in the kitchen he will try to destroy his bed or pee-pad because he is still in "play mode" (or maybe angry that I have put him aside).I should add that when I got him he wouldn't stop going for my or anyone's feet and ankle, but that behavior seems to be gone now (and probably very normal for the first weeks + herding breed).
Oh, and he doesn't understand how to play fetch at all. He will sometimes chase it when he's in the heat of the moment but if I just try casually throwing it he will just give me a confused look. And of course, not give it back. Goofball.
​
Food:
I am feeding him exclusively kibble, a Super Premium one that the breeder recommended for puppies (Medium sized when adult). I am giving him 3x56grams per day (following the packaging instructions for 3-4 months puppies). He is very food motived, which I started using to my advantage for training.
​
Training:
Once per day I will use one of his feeding time for training purposes. I think I am successfully using the clicker because he's already learned how to "Sit", "Lay Down", "Go to your crate" and "Go to your bed" and "Give paw". Sure, he will sometimes swap "crate" for "bed", give his paw when I extend my hand without asking first or lay down whenever he forgets/don't understand something, but he will get there. Also, I mentioned before, but he seems to understand "No" as well.
​
Health:
He got a little issue in the first weeks I got him. He was having some bad diarrhea (with a bit of blood). I got very worried and called the vet immediately, and we did a Giardia exam which came negative. As it continued, the vet said we should do a symptomatic treatment, so I gave him medicine for 10 days. That indeed made the diarrhea stop.
He seems to be fine for some weeks now. Not sure what happened but happy that it stopped. This event caused him to miss his second vaccine (he had the first one from the breeder) and the vet said we should restart the vaccine cycles because of that lost "vaccine window".
He got the first one again now and the second + third ones are set for April. Which will make him able to go outside by middle of May.
​
I am probably forgetting some things, most of these points came up while I was bathing and anxiety was building up, but I think I'm doing a good job so far (I hope).
As promised, here's a clip and some pics of Fred as a thank you for reading to this point and any comments you might have left

my beautiful boy Meeko is turning 19 this year; I’ve had him since I was 6 or 7, and he’s been with me all my life. He came with me when I moved out and went to college in my first apartment; he’s moved with me 3 times since.
he loves car rides, walks, and rolling around on warm concrete before choking on grass he’s not allowed to eat. he walks by my side without a leash and comes on command. he talks and talks, and he has the raspiest little nasal asthma kitty purr. he makes noises from the arthritis when he jumps down, but he’s not scared of anything besides the sound bouncy balls make when they hit the ground. he sleeps at the foot of my bed every single night.
he’s slowing down, my crusty old man. he’s the best cat in the whole world, and while I know that nothing can ever fully prepare our little family for what his loss will be, I need to know what I /can/ do before it’s time. I’m hoping my man can be here as long as possible, but knowing the end could come suddenly at any time kills me. how do I deal with the anticipatory grief, and how can I set myself up so that the landing won’t push me over the edge?

Hello all,
I have some questions about filling out N400.
During 2020-2021, I had to leave the country quite frequently because of family issues related to COVID. I left the states
03/14/2020 - 08/16/2020
08/19/2020 - 02/14/2021
02/20/2021 - 04/26/2021
During my leave from 03/14/2020 - 08/16/2020, I was still in graduate school, which turned virtual. Though I left the country during this time, I still was paying my rent for my apartment because the rent did not end until May 31st.
During my leave from 08/19/2020 - 02/14/2021 and 02/20/2021 - 04/26/2021, I had been working from home for a job based in the US. I can prove this with my tax return transcript from 2020.
My question is this:

1. For example, for my leave during 03/14/2020 - 08/16/2020, I know I wasn't physically in the US. However, I still had a permanent address in the U.S until my lease expired in 05/31/2021 (I was still paying rent and this can be proven). Can I still claim to have lived at this address until 05/31/2021, even if I wasn't physically in the states? or do I need to say I lived AND travelled where I physically was? (outside of the U.S)
2. Another example: for my leave during 08/19/2020 - 02/14/2021, I wasn't physically in the U.S, but I had a permanent address at my friend's in PA. I had been working from home from out of the U.S. Can I claim to have lived at this permanent address during this duration even if I wasn't physically in the states? or do I need to say I lived AND travelled where I physically was? (outside of the U.S)
3. Should I work with a lawyer to file my N400, given my circumstances?

I feel like my questions are long and repetitive. I apologize. I'm just trying my best to clearly explain the situation. Any help is appreciated. Thanks again!

Hello all,
I have some questions about filling out N400.
During 2020-2021, I had to leave the country quite frequently because of family issues related to COVID. I left the states
03/14/2020 - 08/16/2020
08/19/2020 - 02/14/2021
02/20/2021 - 04/26/2021
During my leave from 03/14/2020 - 08/16/2020, I was still in graduate school, which turned virtual. Though I left the country during this time, I still was paying my rent for my apartment because the rent did not end until May 31st.
During my leave from 08/19/2020 - 02/14/2021 and 02/20/2021 - 04/26/2021, I had been working from home for a job based in the US. I can prove this with my tax return transcript from 2020.
My question is this:
1) For example, for my leave during 03/14/2020 - 08/16/2020, I know I wasn't physically in the US. However, I still had a permanent address in the U.S until my lease expired in 05/31/2021 (I was still paying rent and this can be proven). Can I still claim to have lived at this address until 05/31/2021, even if I wasn't physically in the states? or do I need to say I lived AND travelled where I physically was? (outside of the U.S)
2) Another example: for my leave during 08/19/2020 - 02/14/2021, I wasn't physically in the U.S, but I had a permanent address at my friend's in PA. I had been working from home from out of the U.S. Can I claim to have lived at this permanent address during this duration even if I wasn't physically in the states? or do I need to say I lived AND travelled where I physically was? (outside of the U.S)
3) Should I work with a lawyer to file my N400, given my circumstances?
I feel like my questions are long and repetitive. I apologize. I'm just trying my best to clearly explain the situation. Any help is appreciated. Thanks again!

I used to shower with my bathroom door open just a crack. For whatever dumb reason, the tiny, cramped apartment bathroom I’ve had to deal with for the last nine years or so loves to steam and fog up, even with the water on warm instead of hot. And, since my crappy as hell landlord refused to fix the ceiling mounted fan which would have ventilated the room, along with the fact it caused the ancient off white paint to sweat and start developing mold patches in any other case, something which he would’ve charged me to clean, I made the decision to leave the door open a bit to allow to steam to escape. For almost a decade, nothing out of the ordinary happened, and I went about my daily life, the habit becoming a routine in my mind.
That was, up until two months or so ago.
You see, I was alone that day. My roommate had gone out for the day to take part in some bowling tournament, and I had the run of the place for the next four to six hours. As it was my day off from work, I decided to start it off with a long, hot, relaxing shower. So, I grabbed a fresh set of towels from the small closet next to my bedroom door, stepped inside, and, after turning on the water to let it warm up, I hopped in. I’d just lathered the shampoo up in my hair when I heard a noise come from just outside the bathroom. It was almost masked by the sound of the water splashing down on me and the floor of the tub, but it was out of place enough that I caught it. Scrape. It was almost the sound you’d hear if you dragged long fingernails down the wall. I froze, the shampoo dripping down over my face making it difficult to see anything at all. The sound came again. Scrape. For a moment, the thought of someone breaking in flashed through my mind; after all, the neighborhood I live in has the nickname of “Methpire” for a reason. But, if someone had broken a window or forced the lock, I would’ve heard it. The place isn’t exactly big enough to miss those sounds.
Finally, I opened my mouth. “Tyler?” Instantly, the sound, which had begun to repeat itself for a third time, ceased, the entire place going silent, save for the water. I felt a small wave of annoyance zap through me. Tyler, this better not be another one of your games, I thought as I hurriedly washed the shampoo out of my hair. My roommate had a habit, being a horror junkie, in delighting in attempting to play pranks on me, knowing I had a tendency to be a little jumpy. Without shutting off the water, I reached out, grabbed a towel off the rack, and stepped out, wrapping it around my waist. “Tyler, I swear to God, if this is another attempt to scare me, I’m going to kick your ass!” I called, striding across the tiled floor and yanking the door all the way open. I looked around. There was nobody in the living room, or the kitchen which opened off of it. I glanced around, then, just to ease my own mind, I walked, first to my bedroom, then Tyler’s, looking in. Both were empty, and there wasn’t exactly any place for someone to quickly hide in either of them.
Huh. I must’ve just been hearing things. Shrugging my shoulders, I turned and jumped back into the shower to finish up. That evening, when Tyler came back home from celebrating with his team, apparently having blitzed the competition, I decide to question him as we sat at the kitchen table, eating Chinese takeout. “Hey, Ty?” I asked casually, glancing up from my chopsticks. “Yeah?” he mumbled out through a mouthful of his food, causing me to roll my eyes at his lack of manners. “You didn’t happen to come home earlier today for a moment, did you?” He looked up at me, a slightly perplexed expression on his face. “Nah, man. I was at the alley until three, and out drinking with the boys until five. Why?” I searched his face. The guy had a tendency to chew a little too much when he was bullshitting me; it was a tell I’d learned to spot of his, thanks to endless nights of playing poker against one another. “No reason. Just, thought I’d heard something while I was in the shower this morning” I looked at him, smirking slightly. “Thought you might’ve come back to grab something you needed, and decided to try and pull one over on me again”
He let out a huge burp in response, then reached forward and grabbed his bottle of Coke, tilting it back and taking a swig. “No, man” he said simply, using the back of his sleeve to wipe his lips, “Besides, if I’d come back and tried to scare you, you’d have known it” He let out a low laugh, one which, after a moment of studying him, I shared. He was clearly telling the truth. “Yeah, I guess you’re right, bro” I said, dropping my chopsticks into the empty container and hocking it over my shoulder into the trash can. He leaned back, and, using his own empty container, feigned being a basketball player and acted like he was making a free throw; the container bounced off the edge, making us both laugh. I pushed what had to be a trick of my mind out of my head, and the two of us spent the rest of the night playing video games and downing beer.
The next week went by without any other strange noises, and I almost completely forgot the strange incident. Ty had gone out for the evening on a date, and after binge watching all three Creature from the Black Lagoon movies, I flicked the television off and headed for the shower. Hopping in, I softly hummed some 50s tune stuck in my mind and lathered myself up with soap. I’d just put the shampoo in my hair, when I heard the scraping sound again. This time, it was a bit louder, and I knew it hadn’t been my imagination. I became still as a statue again, my head under the water and blurred between it and the shampoo slowly being rinsed out of it of its own accord. I almost held my breath, listening. The sound came again; this time, instead of on the wall, the scrape clearly came from the wooden doorway to the bathroom. I felt my heart thudding hard in my chest. Then, my eyes widened as I saw a shadow filter through the opaque shower curtain. It was the shadow of the bathroom door slowly opening.
I found my voice. “Who’s out there?!” I called, attempting to sound as tough and authoritative as I could. Just like last time, the moment I spoke up, all movement and sound ceased, the apartment going silent. This time, however, the air almost felt charged, as if the tension in it were palpable enough to be cut with by a knife. I reached out, wrapping my fingers around the edge of the curtain as I grabbed the closest thing I could find as a weapon: a full bottle of shampoo. It was a pathetic weapon which likely wouldn’t faze any intruder, but, it was still better than nothing. Taking a deep breath, I wrenched the curtain back, the sound of the hooks scraping on the metal pole almost sounding like a scream in the quiet. Just like last time, there was no sign of a soul. The only thing that gave away that anything had changed, was that the bathroom door was, indeed, standing wide open; the darkened outline of the living room beyond made me feel uneasy. I couldn’t place why, but it almost felt as if the gloom held a threatening atmosphere. Shutting off the water, I stepped out and wrapped the towel around my waist.
Stepping to the doorway, I reached out into the dark and felt around the edge of the door until my fingers found the light switch. Instantly, the dark was banished away by the bright white light overhead. I could see that nobody was in sight in the living room. This time, however, I wasn’t taking any chances. Water still dripping off me, I strode across the living room to where I’d dropped my belt I wore when out on the job as a plumber. I reached down and pulled a rather large pipe wrench from its place, gripping it with wet, and, admittedly, slightly shaky hands. The kitchen was clearly devoid of life, and I focused my vision on the two bedrooms, which lay dark. My door was wide open, but Ty’s was slightly closed. I glanced at the hook on the wall, noting that his car keys weren’t hanging from them next to mine. He’s not home, which means….shit. I felt my muscles tense up. I seriously didn’t want to deal with some homeless junkie who had someone gotten himself inside and was trying to find something to steal, or worse, attack me in some drug fueled rage.
I forced myself to speak loudly and tough as I could. “I’m warning you; if anyone is in here, I am armed!” I didn’t add the fact it was a wrench and not a gun. “If you come out and just leave, this’ll go a lot easier!” Silence. The only sound I could hear was a car passing by outside. I called again. “Look, I’m in no mood for this, so come out, and get the hell out of my place!” Still nothing. But, I felt an odd sensation, one which caused the hairs on my arms to stand up straight, even damp. It was the feeling of being watched. My eyes caught the flicker of movement. A shadow seemed to draw back away from my roommate’s half closed door. I knew right there and then I should’ve called the cops, but, some dumb sense of bravado had come over me, and I wanted to be like those tough guys in the older movies, taking care of things themselves. “This is your final warning!” I called to the bedroom. After about twenty seconds of more silence, I drew in a deep breath, raised the wrench as high over my head as I could, and, letting out a bellowing yell, dashed for the bedroom door as if I were simultaneously a football linebacker, and an Olympic torch carrier.
I burst through the door like a charging bull, the door smashing into the wall behind it with the sickening crunch of plaster breaking. I shot my free arm out and wrenched the light switch up. The room was empty. Ty’s scattered clothes, records and game cases lay strewn about the floor like always. I looked around. The closet. Each of us had a small, walk in style closet on the far wall of our respective rooms. Taking another deep breath, and still holding the wrench above my head like a caveman’s club, I strode to the sliding doors and grabbed the handle, yanking it open with a scream of protest from its track. I forced aside the clothes hanging on the rack. Nothing. As I stared at the back wall, the feeling of being stared at came again, this time from almost directly behind me. I swear I could actually feel someone – or something, breathing down my neck.
Moving on pure instinct, I pivoted around and swung the wrench with all the strength I had – at nothing. There was nothing and nobody behind me. What the actual hell is going on here? I wondered. As I stood there, feeling as though something had been behind me and had simply dematerialized out of existence when I turned and swung, I heard the sound of a key in the front door, then the laughs of Ty and what had to be his date as they stepped inside. “I’m telling you, you did great at darts, babe!” Ty exclaimed. Both of them stopped and stared at me when they reached his bedroom door. I know I must’ve looked weird, standing in his room wearing only a towel and holding a wrench. After a moment of silence, he spoke. “..Uh, Jimmy, boy, what the hell are you doing?” I blinked a few times, trying to find my voice. Finally, I spoke.
“I swear I heard someone in here, man” I said, my voice trailing off slightly. I saw the two of them exchange nervous looks. “What you mean, dude?” he asked, his eyes looking around. “I mean, I heard the exact same sound as last time, only the bathroom door swung open. I came out, thought I heard someone moving around in your room, and came in here” I replied, feeling only confusion and embarrassment sweep over me. I could tell he believed I had heard something, and to ease my worries, he had his date sit in the room, and together, we swept the place, looking in every closet and under both beds. But we found no trace of anyone. I shook my head as he prepared to go into his bedroom. “I don’t get it” I muttered softy. He patted me on the shoulder. “I think the bathroom door may just be a bit loose on its hinges, my dude” he said, trying to reassure me. “I’ll check it out in the morning. Go dry yourself off and get some sleep” He punched me lightly on the arm. “And hey, no scary movies late at night for you, okay? You’re starting to hear things go bump in the night for real!”
He let out a laugh, one which I mirrored, but didn’t feel. The feeling of eyes on me had vanished, but the apartment still held an uneasy feeling. It stayed as I dried off, dressed into a pair of pajama bottoms, and climbed into bed. I could hear Ty in the next room, doing exactly what I figured he’d be doing with his date, and rolled my eyes. Hearing that shit gets old after a while. Still, I reached out, grabbed the remote and flicked on the small TV on my bureau for background noise. It took a very long time to drift off to sleep that night, and when I did, my dreams – nightmares, actually, were of a dark, shadowy figure creeping slowly towards my ajar bathroom door, the sounds of the shower on spilling out from it. As it reached out to push open the door, I snapped awake, sitting straight up in bed with a sheen of sweat covering my face and body.
For the next two weeks, I tried as hard as possible not to stay alone in that place. I only showered when I could hear my friend moving around in his room, or out in the living room. Whenever I knew Ty was going out for any reason, I’d either find an excuse to join him, or just go out and do something in town. The sense of being watched hadn’t returned after that night, but I wasn’t taking any chances. Something about the place just, felt like it had changed. Something almost imperceptible, which I couldn’t place. But, it seemed to do the trick, as nothing weird or creepy happened.
Then, one day, as I was sitting in a café sipping on a coffee, my phone rang. I pulled it out of my pocket, and saw it was my boss calling me. Great, on my day off I thought exasperatedly, then hit the button to answer it. “Yeah?” Instantly, I heard the gruff voice of Rick, my boss on the other end, yelling to someone else. “No, no, no! Steven, how many times do I have to tell you, counter-clock ways!” His voice got louder as he must’ve put it back to his head. “James, you there?” he asked. “Yep” I replied simply. He let out a sigh. “Look, I know today’s your day off, but we’re over here at the Bannerman property, and two of the pipes burst” He let out a long groan of frustration. “One of them is real bad. I’m able to get one of them fixed, but, our new employee” his voice took on an undisguised tone of disgust, “decided to make it worse by fucking the pipe up worse” He finished, letting a moment of silence spread out before speaking again. “So, I apologize, but I need you to come in. You’ll get paid overtime, of course” I nodded, more to myself than anything, then let out a sigh of my own. “Yeah, I’ll be in. Just let me swing by my place and pick up my tools” I said.
“Don’t forget to quickly hit the shower before getting over here, James” he quickly added, “You know old man Bannerman gets pissy about anyone not being freshly clean coming in here, due to being a germophobe. So, I’ll expect you to be here in thirty minutes” And with that, he clicked off before I could say anything. Not that I could, anyways. At the mention of a shower, I felt a shiver run up my spine. I knew Ty was out; his bowling team was off in the next town on another tournament. Which would mean I’d have to shower in the empty apartment. And that’s something I really do not want to do. But, I had no choice. If I just grabbed my tools and slipped into my jumpsuit, I’d get chewed out, first by Old Man Bannerman, and then Rick for not following orders set down both by him, and the man we’d contracted to repair and replace the pipes of his huge sprawling mansion.
Sighing, I paid for my coffee and drove back to the apartment. When I opened the door, I had a flash of panic seize through me. I thought the feeling I’d had before would come back as soon as I stepped inside. But, the apartment felt normal, the cloudy light filtering in through the half open kitchen and living room window blinds. I looked around, then shook my head. Stop being such a baby, Jimmy. There’s nothing in here except you. You’ll be fine, just take the shower, and book it. Feeling more resolved, I strode across to my room, gathering my undershirt and jumpsuit. For peace of mind, I also grabbed the same pipe wrench I’d held that night from the belt hanging over the edge of the couch, and carried it into the bathroom with me, placing it on top of the pile of clothes sitting on the toilet lid. For a moment, I debated on just closing the bathroom door, but, like the previous feeling, shook it away and left it ajar. Ty should’ve fixed the hinges by now, anyways.
I reached into the shower and turned the water on, waiting for it to warm up. After I saw the steam begin to rise out from over the curtain, I stepped inside, grabbing the bar of soap and quickly beginning to scrub myself. I rinsed myself off with no problems, then grabbed the shampoo and lathered up my hair. As I scrubbed into my scalp, the soap began to drip down into my eyes, obscuring my vision. That’s when I heard the scraping sound come again. Only this time, it was much louder and more pronounced than any time I’d heard it before. I felt a chill run up my spine, despite the hot water flowing down over it. It came again, just outside the bathroom door. I took a deep breath. “Tyler?” I called out, thinking the sound would stop as it had both times before. But this time, it didn’t. Instead, I heard it scrape louder, almost on the bathroom door itself. I felt my breath catch in my throat as I saw the dark shape of the bathroom door swing open.
And then, the bathroom lights flicked off, plunging me into darkness. There was still a little light filtering in from the living room, but everything was now in gloom. What. The. Fuck. My heart was thundering in my chest as I slowly stepped back. I knew the distance from the edge of the tub to the toilet seat where my wrench lay was less than two feet. I could reach out and snatch it in a heartbeat. The scraping sound came again, loud as I’d ever heard it; it came from inside the bathroom somewhere, near the door. And then it stopped entirely. Aside from the sound of the water running, the apartment fell silent. Not a deadly silence, not a tension filled silence, just, silent. I stared for the longest time, what had to be only about fifteen seconds, but what felt like two hours, at the dim outline of the open door. I saw nothing. I turned to pull the curtain next to me back. And I screamed.
The dark outline of a figure, darker than any of the rest of the gloom, stood almost directly on the other side of the curtain, less than a foot from me. If it’d been any closer, it would’ve been pressing into the curtain itself. It stood completely motionless, though I could tell it was looking in my direction from the feeling washing over me in waves, sending a tsunami of chills through me. I couldn’t tell whether it was a man or woman, or hell, if it was even human. It was a human like figure; that was all I could tell. My breath came out in a ragged gasp, and I involuntarily let out a whisper. “Oh, fuck me…”
That was when it lunged at me. I let out a loud scream as the curtain pressed in against its weight, wrapping around it, and subsequently me as I saw arms reaching out to grab me. The momentum of it smashing into me caused me to slip on the wet shower floor, and I went flying backwards. My head smashed into the tub’s faucet, causing me to let out a cry of pain and stars to flash in my vision as I fell to the floor of the tub. It was still there, as I could feel it on top of me, but it never let out a single sound. Something sharp jabbed into my leg, and I let out another scream at the sudden explosion of pain come from my thigh. Another jammed into my shoulder, and I kicked out at the dark figure inches from my face through the curtain. I felt it impact something, but it seemed to have no effect. Another stab of pain came from my shoulder as whatever it was using, a weapon or…claws, jammed into the wound it had already made. I kept screaming as I thrashed around, trying to jam myself into a position where I could reach out.
I heard furious knocking coming from my front door, but it sounded like it was a mile away. “Help me!” I screamed as loudly as I could, still lashing out. Just as I began to feel woozy, I felt my hand brush the edge of the toilet seat, and with it, the cold metal handle of my wrench. Grabbing it as hard as I could, I swung out with all my remaining strength into what had to be the head of the thing. It seemed to stumble a bit at the blow, and I used that precious second to wrench myself out from underneath it, tumbling over the edge of the tub and onto the bathroom floor. I heard it thrashing about with the fallen shower curtain, furiously tearing at it in an attempt to get to me. But I was stumbling to my feet, noting as I did the amount of blood falling to the floor. I struggled to the front door as I heard it finally break free, crashing back onto the bathroom floor, but still remaining silent. I unlocked the door and wrenched it open, revealing the concerned face of my next door neighbor.
When he saw my condition, his face paled. Before I had a chance to say anything, I yelled. “I’m being attacked, it’s in there!” pointing back towards the bathroom. Grabbing me, he pulled me into his open apartment door, slamming it closed and locking it. He quickly brought me a bathrobe and called the police. As he did, I could hear the sounds of it tearing through the apartment, doing God only knows what. It stayed that way until I heard the wail of sirens coming down the road, at which point, I heard everything fall silent in my apartment. A few moments later, I heard the thundering of steps pound up the stairs to the second floor, followed by the yell of the officers. After a few minutes, my neighbor and I heard the hard knock at his door. “Police!”
I was helped to an ambulance, where I was taken to the hospital. In addition to splitting open my scalp on the faucet, I’d been cut up pretty badly, though by what, the doctors couldn’t tell me. They couldn’t even tell themselves. “It’s the damndest thing” one told me as they sewed the wounds closed, “If it hadn’t been for the fact you’d seen a person, I would’ve said you’d been attacked by an animal. These look like puncture wounds from claws!”
The police never found a trace of what had attacked me. I already knew they wouldn’t. It wasn’t a man who’d attacked me. It hadn’t even been human. The case is still open to this day, though I’ve long since stopped getting update calls from the detectives in charge of the case. Tyler and I moved out of the apartment as soon as I left the hospital; he chose to stay at his new girlfriend’s house while I recovered. He’s under the belief I was attacked by an intruder, as is everyone else I know. I just say that whenever anyone asks. It’s easier that way, then trying to explain what I know won’t be believed. That’s why I’m posting this here. I just, feel the need to have to tell someone what actually happened to me that day. This is a place I know I’ll be believed, or at least, won’t be called nuts for it. That figure simply appeared on the other side of the curtain. I never saw it cross the room, and I know, even in the dark, I would have. And even then. Nothing human could possibly be been that silent.
I also know someone else moved into that apartment since then, though I don’t know who they are. I pray they won’t ever end up receiving a visit from…whatever that thing was. The two of us are now renting a nice, relatively cheap two bedroom house miles away from that place. I’ve never felt the sensation of being watched again, and I’ve thankfully never heard the scraping sound. At least, in my waking hours. I still hear it in my dreams, though. I still see that shape standing just on the other side of the curtain in the dark. It will likely stay there until the day I’m on my deathbed. I always feel tense now when I step into the bathroom to wash myself, but, I’ve always felt safe in my new place.
I don’t shower with my door ajar anymore. I make sure it’s closed and firmly locked before I undress and hop in. I’ve always felt safe in my new place, but, I’m not taking any chances.
Because I don’t know if it’s trapped in that apartment. Or if it can leave whenever it wants.

Hi all. I'm 26 years old, female. I take vitamins (D3, B12, Iron, Vitamin C, Fish Oil and Hyaluronic Acid) and I'm anemic. I don't have the money to go see a doctor right now, so I'm trying to figure out what's happening and if this is ringworm. I'm prone to allergies and skin rashes that go away pretty fast on their own, so I didn't pay enough attention when I first noticed this rash on my inner thigh. I only started to worry when it had been on my skin for 3 weeks. It had slightly raised edges and a pink/red color to it, and it hasn't been itchy at all. I bought ringworm cream at CVS (the CVS health brand, as it was the only one available in the store) and started applying it. At first, it was shrinking and I felt like my skin was tight on day #3, but then it increased in size. I've been applying the cream for 7-8 days now, and while the edges look less raised and I have some dry skin patches now, the size isn't getting any smaller (as seen in the photo). Does this mean it's not working, or will it go away eventually? Also, when I first apply the cream, I feel a burning sensation for about 10 seconds, but it goes away. Should I switch to a different cream, or maybe this isn't ringworm? Could the fungi have adapted to the cream, so it's no longer effective?
https://imgur.com/G8VJ8oT https://imgur.com/TRDaJOj now (close up)
1*when I just started to apply cream (week #3) 2*Now

Feel free to discuss the episode here!
Also note that we have an AMA going with Sloan, right now! Check it out, ask her your burning questions!
I've tried to spruce up the sub a bit, make it look like a 'real' subreddit. I think I have it looking good on old reddit, new reddit, and mobile. But I am definitely not a digital artist nor am I very adept at CSS. Please let me know if anything looks weird or bad on whatever method you use to access reddit; if it does maybe send me a screenshot. Also let me know if you think anything could be tweaked to make it better!
Now that we kind of have our footing as a community, I might open up the sub to user submissions. But I'm still just one person moderating (though that could change soon). If that becomes a disaster we'll revisit it.
Here's the latest results from the poll thread (check that thread from time to time if you want, I update the results there periodically in a stickied post):

Allen	Hunter	Landon	Ryan
Khelsi: 38%	Sydney: 57%	Ashley R: 58%	Haley R: 30%
Cassidy Jo: 28%	Meghan: 20%	Kylie: 25%	Lily: 27%
Single: 26%	Stephanie: 9%	Single: 5%	Sarah I: 20%
Rebecca: 6%	Hayley: 8%	Ashley L: 3%	Single: 19%
Kiersten: 2%	Single: 3%	Jessica: 3%	Porschia: 2%
	DeVonne: 2%	Nicole: 3%	Sara V: 2%
	Talia: 2%	Erica: 2%	Shartaysia: 2%
		Zoe: 2%

Unknown
This story is strictly fictional.(Not a fan fiction, this is original.)
The Beginning
I had gone to sleep pretty late that night so when I actually woke up I thought I was thrown into another random dream where I woke up in a forest, but things were realistic. I could feel the droplets fall from the leaves of the trees to my hands and the squishy slimy mud below my feet. Alright I need to assess the situation. I just woke up in a random forest, none of the plants or trees are native to where I’m from, and I’m in a thin long sleeve shirt with a jacket over it and layered tactical pants which are obviously different clothes than what I went to sleep in, and then there’s that rumbling that shakes the ground periodically. Well I can only do two things in this situation: sit here and hope that someone will find me or try looking around.
It’s been about 2 hours since I started roaming this seemingly infinite forest and I finally saw something besides trees and more trees. It's a lone rocky hill and after reaching the top I looked ahead and I saw a beach. When I turned back to look at the forest I saw the cause of the rumbling sound. “This must be a dream, it has to be.” I thought “I have to get out of this cursed forest right now!” And as I ran towards the beach, I saw that vicious, vile creature. The predecessor of the modern serpent, the Titanoboa. It rushed towards me and even running with every ounce of strength and explosive power I had there was no chance. The snake coiled up around me crushing my bones. I felt everything from my wrist snapping to my legs breaking.
Eventually I had either passed out from the pain and died or I died in that moment but… why am I lying on a beach? The chill breeze, the hot sand on the back of my neck and the upwelling tides hitting the heel of my foot. I guess I’m still alive. My clothes are folded next to me. There’s a stone with a book next to it.
Words were being chiseled out as I looked at the stone, they said:
“Unknown’s status”
“Survival Time: 5 hours and 34 minutes”
“Encountered Enemies: 57”
“Enemy Type: insect 56”
“Predator: 1”
“Death Type: Death by a predator”
“Enemies defeated: 5”
“Calculating Achievements…”
“Rewards will be granted based on achievements.”
“Rewards granted!”
“Rewards obtained look in inventory to view.”
“View inventory by visualizing it”
I opened it and it says:
“passive skill Bug killer level 5”
“Earned by killing 5 bugs in your first life”
“Passive skill Poison/Venom resistance level 22”
“earned by getting poisoned 22 times in your first life”
“Journal of the next life”
“Earned by surviving 2 or more hours in your first life”
“10 Stat points granted!”
So I died and got and was brought back with game abilities. What the hell? There was also that book when I tried to open it, It opened directly to the middle. I was able to flip the page back once but that was it. It was already written in, and it read: “this is the second time”. “That’s… creepy.” I started to feel hungry and began to roam again.
Survival
I saw a river that secured freshwater, I take out my pocket knife and start to sneak around. I see a dilophosaurus. I rush towards it and stab it in the neck. I take out the knife as it shoots poison at me. I stab it again in the head and kill it. The stone structure appears from beneath me once again. It says “First predator kill”
“Predator kill results”
“Damage dealt 100%”
“Damage Taken .5%”
“Weapons used: Knife”
“Calculating Achievements…”
“Rewards Granted!”
“Rewards obtained look in inventory to view.”
“View inventory by visualizing it, your inventory will be viewed as whatever you visualize it as.”
“Melee Mastery Level 1”
”Experience gained 10”
It looks like I’m going to be here for a while, I should get familiar with everything. I open my inventory and I see a new option, it says “Stats”. The stats are Health which adds how much damage I can take, Strength which helps deal more damage with a physical attack, and a gray option which reads “Craftsmanship”. There’s also a catalog of everything I’ve encountered like the Carboniferous and Permians. I can’t even pronounce that, why do insect dinosaurs have such weird names? The snake that killed me out of nowhere was a Titanoboa. I don’t level up automatically so I have to do it manually. I get to level 2, I get 2 stat points and a new option opens which is “craftsmanship”, The ability to craft something instantly while consuming the needed material. Putting more stat points into it unlocks more craftable items. I can only make a small fire for now. I guess what they say about carnivores is true, this tastes so bad. I hope that poison resistance can hold up to this. That’s my first day here, or second if I count the time before I died.
It’s the second day. I need to gain experience if I want any level of security. I hunt dodo birds on the beach, by the end of the day I get to level 5, I gain 2 stat points for every time I level up. I put the 6 stat points into “craftsmanship”. I can make a stone axe and a stone spear now. I have all the materials needed except vines that I can get from the forest. I use coconut shells to collect water and take some with me. I managed to get some vines without a problem so now I’m back at the river and I have plenty of food to cook. Now that I'm back I make the axe and spear. I wonder if there is anyone around.
Survival
I’ve developed a routine to go hunting to gain experience for the beginning of the day, then check my stats and inventory, after that I would look for any materials that might be useful. On the way back I’d look for any signs of people. After doing this for 3 days I’ve found a grave. It said “Though life may seem like a game it never is. You don’t come back, at least not the same.” Well I guess I’m an exception. I pick up the bag and it’s heavy like it has tools in it or something. When I get to the river I finally get to go to sleep. I wake up and do my routine. When I got back to the riverside I saw something running across the river. I've never explored the other side of the river but I’m curious as to what I might find. Looking deeper into the plains I see a forest and an icy mountain in the distance, but suddenly a small stone looking creature pops out of the ground waving a small flag with a peace symbol on it and the ground starts to shake. What the hell is that? A large stone wall is launched from the ground and lands straight up behind the golem. 5 humanoid golems climb out of the hole that the stone wall came out of. The wall starts to tilt towards me and the smaller golem and I back up then the wall falls crushing the mini golem. What’s going on here? The 5 golems run over to put the wall back up, they’re panicking because of the small one. Once the wall was back up they gathered the pieces of the small stone golem then they held them all up, the pieces started to float together and the small golem was together again but still had cracks in its body. It waved. The golems looked at me and pointed towards the stone wall then they started writing carving out words. I can’t even say that, they just lightly press their fingers on the wall and the small area just crumbles. When they’re done it says “Sorry about that mess right there. The point of this is to tell you what you need to do to thrive in this world, if you follow my instructions you will. Give a thumbs up when you’re done reading.” I hesitantly give a thumbs up and the layer with writing falls off.
The other missions were blank. I should prepare food and tools for this new companion. I’m going to start the mission tomorrow. Morning has arrived. I walk across the river and after touching the stone a guy appeared behind the stone. This is gonna be interesting.
Day 1
Unknown- “Hey, new guy.”
New Person-“Huh what?”
Unknown- “You took long enough.”
Unknown - “Ask questions later, follow me.”
I take the new guy to the otherside of the river.
I don’t want to tell him about my first life so he won’t get any false hope of a second life.
New Person - “ Can you at least tell me your name?”
Unknown - “You can call me Unknown for now.”
New Person - “I don’t remember my name.”
Unknown - “Yeah, you don’t remember much about before you got here the same thing happened to me.”
Unknown - “I’ll explain while we eat.”
2 hours pass…
New Person - “So we’re eating a dinosaur right now?”
Unknown - “Yeah .”
New Person - “So how did you say you opened your inventory?”
Unknown - “I just visualized it like a game.”
New Person “Nothing’s happening”
Unknown - “We could try getting back to the beach where I first learned about the abilities”
New Person - “Yeah let’s go in the morning”
Unknown - “You could get some leaves to use as a bed.”
New Person - “Alright.”
Day 2
Unknown - “Wake up.”
New Person - “Ugh.”
Unknown - “Do you want to see your stats or not?”
New Person - “Fine, fine”
I lead the way to the beach and we get to the stone.
New Person - “What do I do now?”
Unknown - “Put your hand on it.”
The stone cleared back to how it was at first.
It says “choose name”
He put his name as “Anonymous”. He only got 2 skills but one of them is an active skill. That’s the first active skill that I've heard of. The 2 skills are “companion’s stat copy” which is a passive skill and “temporary skill copy” which is the active skill.
Unknown - “Try being more original.”
Anonymous - “Wow ok.”
Unknown - “Now that you have your skills you should try opening your inventory.”
Anonymous - “Alright.”
Anonymous - “I can see it.”
Unknown - “Try equipping your passive skill.”
Anonymous - “Ok I did”
Unknown - “I don’t know how you would activate or use it”
Anonymous - “it says I could use a voice cue or an action cue to activate it”
Unknown - “I see”
Unknown - “Now that you have your skills lets do a little hunting”
2 stone structures unexpectedly appeared, they say:
“All conditions have been cleared”
“Skillset acquired.”
“Skillset 1 Hunter, Skills: Target Lock On, Precision Strike, and Killstreak.”
“Skillset 2 Tamer, Skills: “Trainer, Taming experience, and Supreme Command”
Anonymous - “So what did you get?”
Unknown - “I got Hunter, what did you get?”
Anonymous - “I got Tamer.”
Two books fall from the sky landing 2 feet in front of him and I. We picked up the books and the titles read “skill set manual Hunter” and “skill set manual Tamer”. Both books give detailed explanations on how to use our class and what to do with them. With the Tamer, it says there are 2 ways to tame dinosaurs. The first way is through having a bond with it or building a bond like constantly coming back to feed it food and building trust but that can only be used with the trainer's skill. The second way is to put the dinosaur on the brink of death and nurse it back to health. It also includes how difficult it would be to tame the dinosaur and the recommended “method” to tame the dinosaur.
Anonymous - “This really does remind me of a video game”
Unknown - “Yeah it does…”
This guy seems more excited than anything but that made me remember that I didn’t open the bag from the grave, I’ll check that out when we get back.
The Hunter skill set is for hunting as it says in the name. The manual includes the weaknesses for encountered dinosaurs, it also said the recommended hunting spots for certain levels.
We are back and eating to get ready for the first hunt. Opening the bag, I see Rusted Iron tools. There is a “Rusted Iron axe”, a “Rusted Iron spear”, and a “Rusted Iron Blade”. We go to the edge of the forest without going in too deep simply so we can hunt a dilophosaurus.
Anonymous - “Did you hear that?”
Unknown - “Yeah copy my skills”
Anonymous - “Alright what do I do now?”
Unknown - “We’re going ahead just stay to my left side”
I pull out the Blade from my inventory.
Unknown - “This should be enough to damage it and give you time to kill it with your axe ok?”
Anonymous - “Alright”
The dinosaur leaps from the bushes. I activate the skills precision strike and target lock-on. I stab it but it doesn’t pierce far through its skin.
Unknown - “Now!”
He struck the dinosaur on the head with the flat side of the axe and knocked it out. A screen appears saying: “Conditions complete taming possible”.
Unknown - “You know how to tame this thing?”
Anonymous - “Yeah we just have to feed it. Its taming difficulty isn’t that high either.”
Unknown - “Help me carry it back to the river.”
We carry the dinosaur to the river. In about 10 minutes it woke up and we held food to its face. It ate the food and didn’t attack us. A screen pops up again and says “Velociraptor tamed”. I doubt it’s an adult Raptor. I didn’t even think it was a raptor to begin with; it’s too small.
Unknown - “Hey why don’t you try using your skill or something?”
Anonymous - “It worked! I could also give you control of the Raptor”
Unknown - “Cool, let’s head back.”
Day 3
Unknown - “We should go hunting with the raptor”
Anonymous - “You sure?”
Unknown - “What, you scared it’ll turn on us or something?”
Anonymous - “No.”
We head to the beach where all the dodo birds are. Anonymous sends the raptor to kill the bird.
It rushes toward the bird and it bites its head off. It doesn’t eat the body, it just drops the head.
Unknown - “Well that’s just brutal.”
We feed the Raptor and go hunting for the rest of the day. It got to level 10 and Anonymous is level 5 and I’m level 8. I put my stat points into strength and health. Now my strength is at +12 and my health is at +4. Tomorrow we’re going to the forest edge so we can level up more now that we are stronger.
Day 4-8
We’ve been hunting on the forest edge for the past few Fr days and I’m at level 23, Anonymous is at level 18, and Rapt is now level 25. He levels up faster than the both of us because he does most of the hunting for Anonymous. Anonymous does get 45% of the exp that he earns from targeted kills though.
Day 9
Today we head into the deep forest.
Anonymous - “What was the recommended level for this area?”
Unknown - “To go alone the recommended level was 12, but with the most dangerous creature it said recommended to be level 25”
Anonymous - “You really are a cautious guy”
Unknown - “This is our lives on the line here ya know?”
Anonymous - “Yeah I get it. Let's just go already.”
On the way there he starts to ask questions. Now that I think about it we haven’t talked about much besides trying to survive.
Anonymous - “Hey do you remember anything about before you came here?”
Unknown - “Not much but if you ask questions I might remember something.”
Anonymous - “Ok, how old are you?”
Unknown - “ 15”
Anonymous - “Yeah you are young”
Unknown - “How old are you then?”
Anonymous - “I’m 17”
Unknown - “Huh, well we’re here”
Anonymous - “Ok I’ll be on alert”
There’s just a group of Raptors around level 10.
The group only has 3 of them.
Unknown - “Copy my skills.”
Anonymous - “Ok”
Unknown - “I got the 2 on the right”
I take out the rusted blade swiftly as I rush behind the Raptor and stab it. Anonymous does the same and both of our weapons break as soon as we hit them while killing the dinosaurs but there is still one more. I bring out the spear and kill the last one before it could rush after me.
Anonymous - “Wow, that was close!”
Unknown - “Yeah I suppose they only had 2 hits each”
After collecting everything we store it in our inventory. Anonymous calls back Rapt and he comes running back. We switch back to the stone tools that we’ve been using on the forest edge.
Unknown - “Are you still up to hunt?”
Anonymous - “Yeah; you’re the one that almost got killed.”
As we continue into the forest I notice a grave.
Anonymous - “Is that a grave?”
Unknown - “Yeah I’ll check it out”
The grave said: “Time elapsed 255 days”
Beside it was a heavy bag.
Anonymous - “You sure it’s a good idea to take from a grave like that?”
Unknown - “It would be wasteful to let things go unused like this.”
Anonymous - “Yeah.”
We go back to the campsite and open the bag. In it is a book, the book’s title is “Caster Skill Set manual”. I’m too tired to read it so I toss it back in the bag to read in the morning. In the middle of the night, I hear Anonymous flipping through the pages of the book, but I continue to sleep.
Day 10
I get woken up in the morning by Anonymous.
Unknown - “Huh,what is it?”
Anonymous - “Last night I stayed up and read the book and I got some really valuable information.”
Unknown - “Like what? It said it was a caster Skill Set. Can we even use it?”
Anonymous explains how there are 2 ways to get mana availability or access to magic. The first way was to find a mana river or water source with mana and absorb it. The second way is to find a magic stone and you could do one of 2 things with it, you can absorb the mana out of the stone to increase your mana capacity or use the stone as a staff to increase your magic power.
Unknown - “Did it say where the mana river could be found?”
Anonymous - “It didn’t say where but it did show an image of the river and it looked like a snowy area.”
Anonymous - “The only place that has snow is where I saw I first got here; the icy mountain.”
Finally something new that I can look forward to.
Unknown - “We should head over there tomorrow after the first challenge is completed”
Unknown - “I've been putting stat points into “Craftsmanship” for a while and I’m finally able to make all the things needed for a house. Now we just need to gather the materials. Deforestation time!”
Anonymous - “Finally, I’m tired of sleeping on palm tree leaves.”
A few hours pass…
Building the support beams is the worst because we have to make sure they are aligned, and that alone takes about an hour.
Thanks to the auto crafting feature, all we have to do is gather the wood in one place and I can easily select the option in the crafting menu. The walls fit like wooden puzzle pieces because they have slots to lock it in with smaller blocks. The end result is about the size of a classroom.
Unknown - “I can finally get some shade without going into that insect-infested forest!
A shadow comes from behind the wall and raises its scythe to strike Anonymous.
Unknown - “Anonymous get outside now!!!”
Anonymous runs out not knowing what's going on.
I dash outside, the reaper follows Anonymous and he still can’t seem to see it.
Unknown - “Go across the river!!”
Anonymous - “Why what’s going on?”
Unknown - “Just trust me go!”
As soon as Anonymous gets in the river, the dark figure stops at the river bank. I equip my axe and swing causing it to phase through it. But water splashes on it and it seems to have taken some damage from it so I quickly take out my shovel and splash the water on it. It melts into green slimy goo and Anonymous appears to be able to see it now. A screen now appears, it says: ”Special Achievement! You've defeated the grim reaper! The minimum requirement was to survive from it. I'm impressed. As a reward you and your companion shall receive mana accessibility! The next mission will be revealed shortly.” 2 copies of the same book explaining about mana dropped. The basic casting skills are “heal” and “ally heal” . We can use them just as we would use active skills. Anonymous crosses the river to come back and we make our way into the base but it’s pitch dark, we make torches and hang them up. The first thing I want to learn is ice magic. Though it’s called caster skill, the term magic is more convenient. In my stats I have a high Ice magic proficiency and a high earth magic proficiency. Anonymous has an electricity magic proficiency and a wind proficiency. To cast spells we have to visualize it just like we would visualize our inventory. The more we master the specific skill the less mana it takes to perform the skill. I tried to make a sharp ice projectile but all that happened was I made a small ice sickle. I’ll just read more into the book, and if I increase my knowledge of this I might get better at it. I walk back and anonymous is sleeping on the wall with his book in his hand. I make a sleeping bag for myself because I had unlocked that with the house parts. I just go to sleep. I'll read it in the morning.
Day 11
I wake up and Anonymous is still sleeping. I can just continue to read until he wakes up. The book says that not having proficiency can make using other elements difficult to use but we are still able to use them. The effectiveness of the magic depends on your current physical state. For example, if you’re dehydrated and using water or ice magic it will be less effective. This doesn’t apply for all elements, this rule doesn’t apply to earth, lightning and wind ect. The rule only applies to anything rooting from fire or water. Using magic can work 2 ways. You can use purely mana to create your magic or you can use the surrounding area and use less mana. Training mana does not expand the mana capacity but it does make it easier to use magic and not use all your mana at once like I did the first time. Mana replenishes over time but it is faster to meditate. Anonymous wakes up when I finish reading it.
Anonymous - “You done reading it?”
Unknown - “Oh you’re awake.”
Anonymous - “Yeah let’s see the next mission.”
Unknown - “Alright”
We walk across the river to the stone, it says “It seems you have already completed the second task which was to tame a dinosaur of choice. As a reward, you can choose to stop the timer for another 5 days or continue on to the next mission right away.” I discuss it with Anonymous and he agrees. We choose to use the next 5 days to train our new skills. It’s still bright out so I feed Rapt, we haven’t gone hunting in a while. I decide that I should start to train my earth magic. Using earth magic is more convenient because it’s everywhere so I won’t have to use much of my mana. We head over to the beach where all the dodo birds are first. I'm just trying to at least make a small part of the ground collapse like a sinkhole. With magic, it is not limited to anything as long as we have the mana and creativity for it. When I have more control of it I want to try to combine elemental attacks. The ability to become stronger here is what makes this world even slightly enjoyable. Trying to make a sinkhole without any open space below it didn’t work but splitting the ground and closing it did work. It’s only the size of my foot right now. As I continue to practice it gets larger and starts to take less mana in comparison to the skill size. I eventually run out of mana and so does Anonymous.
…
My attack is now able to fit a fully grown dodo bird and I’m also able to execute the attack quickly. I’m able to split the ground and close it as soon as the victim gets inside, crushing it and having blood spill out of it. It feels like a rubber band when I split the ground then it snaps back when I release it. Too much detail maybe? The Sun is still up so while Anonymous meditates I stand guard just in case something happens. After 10 minutes he’s done and stands guard for me. We continue to practice magic until the end of the day guarding each other when meditating. It’s the end of the day and I can confidently say that I can practice in the deep forest right now. I’ve practiced moving around while casting and it feels like streams of mana coming out of my body and pulling the ground apart. It would be nice if I’m able to move and cast at the same time. We go back to the house and I just read through the other elements and fall asleep.
Day 12-14
We continue to train in the forest for the next 2 days. I am now able to use magic in different ways now, I’m able to use earth as spikes from the ground and pierce the target. I’m not sure what Anonymous is able to do because we train in different areas so we don’t interfere with each other. Tomorrow we should be ready for the next mission.
Day 15
Today I’m just going to relax and check out my stats and options. I forgot that I didn’t level up automatically and I’m able to level up 5 times now. There is a new option that is called “Mana Strength”. I was able to strengthen my mana the whole time. Although I’m able to strengthen it through stats, the practice for control is still useful. I’m going to see the difference so I go to the backyard of the house. I’m able to make spikes out of the ground larger and I’m able to make multiple at the same time. Splitting the ground is less efficient but after some experimentation I found that I can soften the ground to make areas in the ground like quicksand or slippery.
Anonymous - “Still practicing?”
Unknown - “Yeah, I didn’t know that I could put my stats into mana strength”
Anonymous - “Oh ok, I’m going back to sleep.”
I continue to practice until I run out of mana for the 5th time. I cross the river to check how much time is left until the next task and there are 5 hours left. After Anonymous goes outside to practice when I’m done and I go to sleep because I’m tired from practicing. A few hours later Anonymous wakes me up to say the next mission is about to appear. We go across the river to the stone and the stone crumbles and it says:
“I hope you enjoyed your training, but now it’s time for your next mission.”
“Go to the town near the peak of the mountain”
“The map and route is accessible through your inventory.”
“You will be able to see the missions through your inventory as of now.”
The stone crumbles and leaves nothing but rubble on the floor.
Unknown - “It hasn’t even been a week since we had the house.”
Anonymous - “Yeah but If we take down the house and store the parts in our inventory we might be able to rebuild it when we get to the town.”
Unknown - “Yeah, I guess that could work if it doesn’t take up too much space.”
We take the house down, our inventories can’t fit everything so we leave all the food that we didn’t need in Rapt’s inventory. We can’t afford to waste time so we quickly prepare. I check my inventory and see a message from “???” a blank space. It's the map. The mountain is about 15 miles away so it should take at most 2 days to make it to the base of it. 5 miles ahead is a forest with fairly large trees. Anonymous finishes his preparations and we are on the way. An hour later we are still walking 2.5 miles in and we both get a new stat option “stamina”. Stamina can be gained naturally, but stat points can also be added to it. By the next hour we make it to the forest and our stamina stats are at +10 by just walking. Rapt is keeping up like it’s no problem. We rest once we get to the forest. We take a break for about half an hour and continue for another 5 minutes and a triceratops appears. The triceratops seems aggressive and is trampling the area. This is exciting! Something that might be a challenge to test my strength.
Anonymous - “Wait! I might be able to to tame it”
Anonymous runs towards it but it’s too aggressive to approach. I loosen the ground below it and it slips around and falls. Anonymous continues to go towards it then puts his hand on it and I can see particles of electricity leaving the dinosaur and it falls down.
Anonymous - “You got any berries?”
Unknown - “Yeah, but not that many. I gotta get more”
Anonymous - “Ok I’ll watch it for now.”
I go to get more berries deeper in the forest and come back.
Anonymous - “Ok place the berries in front of it, I’m gonna wake it up.”
I pull all of the berries out of my inventory and drop them in front of it. He wakes it up forcefully with electricity and it wakes up aggressively again. Anonymous puts it back to sleep. We do this process 3 more times and Rapt is still on standby to attack but it finally works. The screen pops up just like last time and it says “Triceratops Tamed”. It’s night time now so we set up a fire and sleeping bags and we rest for tomorrow.
Day 16
I wake up before Anonymous so I check for new options and I see that I can make a saddle for our newly tamed dinosaur. I have all the materials to make it except animal hide (Skin or Leather) so I go hunting for a while and I find a lystrosaurus. It looks ugly but kind of like a dog so I can’t kill it. I continue to look for something while not going too far from the camp and I find a dilophosaurus. I kill it with earth spikes and I skin it for the animal hide. I walk back to make a saddle but I make two instead of one. I could still use the other one if we tame another one. I attach the saddle and wake up Anonymous.
Anonymous - “ Oh you made a saddle, nice.”
Unknown - “Yeah I made 2 so if we find another one I can use the second one”
Anonymous - “Alright, let’s continue”
We continue on two feet because it would be difficult to maneuver with all the trees on Trike. That’s the nickname I decided because it has three spikes (Triple Spike). We continue for the rest of the day. We don't need to take any breaks because of our built up stamina. About 6 hours later we are about to make it to the base of the mountain. From the corner of my eye I see another triceratops.
Unknown - “Look! There’s another one.”
Anonymous - “Hey do you have any leftover berries, I don’t need as much as I did the first time.
I give him the berries that I got just in case of a situation like this. He walks over to it and gives it berries “Triceratops Tamed” the screen appeared. Just like that! It would be that easy compared to the first time.
Unknown - “How is it this easy now?”
Anonymous - “It’s less aggressive and there was a skill from the trainer skill set, it was called “Taming experience ” it makes it easier to tame dinosaurs that I’ve already tamed before.”
Unknown - “Well that’s convenient”
I put on the saddle and we use the dinosaurs to get up the mountain. We reached the snowy part and to get to the village it is another 5 miles. They are slower than us running but it’s safer to ride them because of the risk of getting sick. Catching a cold is a possibility for us after all. Since I’m in a snowy area I start practicing Ice magic. By the time I run out of mana I check “Journal of the next life.” I’m able to see day 17.
“Day 17”
When I wake up I see the village and Zephyr is awake before me as always. When we reach the village there’s a gate with 2 people guarding it side by side with iron spears and wearing real world jackets. We walk over to greet them. I notice the chilling breeze stops when we get near the village.
Aster - “Hey there”
Guard 1 - “Hello you must have had a long journey here, what's your name?”
Guard 2 - “You know they probably don’t remember their names.”
Guard 1 - “Yeah I’m just messing with them.”
Aster - “My name is Aster”
Zephyr - “My name is Zephyr”
Guard 1 - “Oh you came up with names already, that’s surprising.”
They look fairly young then what I would have thought the stereotypical guard would be. They look around my age. They lead us in the village. They have an abundance of people and large wooden houses that looked like they could hold many people living there. When we left the gate another 2 guards took their place.
Zephyr - “What about our dinosaurs?”
Guard 1 - “So there's another tamer, huh”
They then open the second gate and it’s way larger. We lead all our dinosaurs to the pen.
The town has a warm glow that makes it feel comfortable. They lead us to a small building. There is a woman sleeping at a desk with papers all over the desk.
Guard 1 - “Hey Lauren, it’s time for you to do your job. Stop acting like you're so busy.”
She wakes up drooling. She has glasses and is wearing a business dress, like a secretary. She wipes the drool off of her face
Lauren - “That’s Ms. Lauren to you.”
Lauren - “So you survived?”
We explain the situation to Lauren and the guards.
Lauren - “Hahaha. That guy has a weird way of wording it making it sound like it’s that urgent, but it’s fine. The fate of the world isn’t all in your hands.”
Aster - “What do you mean by him?”
Lauren - “Well to summarize it there is a threat to this world and the creator of this world summoned us to defeat it. We will fight it in about 5 years. It’s a war between 2 worlds. The “Plunderers'' as they've called themselves have been invading our land and routes for about 10 years.”
Zephyr - “Sorry to interrupt, but why were we summoned?”
Lauren - “Well, 10 people from earth were chosen to create a world. I don't know the main details but they all had a level or skill system. One of the world’s creators lost control of the people so as a result they left and went back to earth leaving the people of their world stranded. This happened 10 years ago.”
Zephyr - “Sorry to interrupt again but-”
Lauren - “I’m getting to it ok!”
Zephyr - “Sorry, Sorry.”
Lauren - “So, to continue Free is what we call the one who summoned us. Because the other creator abandoned his world he opened what we call routes which connect the other worlds so the people from his world who aren’t Plunderers could escape and go to another world, but in that process Plunderes were able to invade. The plunderers have a mark given to them by the creator of their world. In its early days this used to be a calm paradise, hopefully we can go back to it.”
Lauren - “But to answer your question you were summoned to defend this world.”
Guard 1 - “You love telling this story don’t you?”
Lauren - “It’s not like I get to tell it much anymore.”
Guard 2 - “Ok we got the story now let’s give them names already.”
Lauren - “Whatever name comes to your mind.”
Aster - “Aster works.”
Lauren - “Ah I see, the violet flower nice choice,”
Lauren - “And for you mister interruption?”
Zephyr “Zephyr.” Lauren - “Interesting.”
Zephyr - “Yeah”
The guards lead us out of the building to head to the housing district. As we’re walking we see many people wearing modern clothing.
Aster - “So, how do they have modern clothes?”
Guard 2 - “The one that created the routes trades with us. We give valuable materials from our world that we can’t use and we get modern comforts.”
Aster - “Cool.”
We get to the housing district and there are furniture shops and dining halls.
Zephyr - “The town didn’t look this large from the outside.”
Guard 1 - “That’s because this is a cleared dungeon.”
Guard 2 - “Yeah dungeons are basically-”
Guard 1 - “There are plenty of books on it. You can check it out if you're that interested, but I’m tired.”
They lead us to different houses and I go back to sleep. I'm too tired.
It’s been so long since I’ve felt the comfort of a soft mattress. I wake up and I see a letter on the desk by the bed. It says: There are clothes in the closet and a shower in the door to the right, please prepare and go to the main hall for your documents to be written. I get ready and head out but I have no Idea where to go.
Mist - “Hey my name’s Mist, are you new here?”
Aster - “Why do you ask?”
Mist - “I’m supposed to lead the new people to the main hall to get all the documents done if you saw the letter.”
Aster - “Was there another guy here?”
Mist - “Yeah I saw him but he’s still inside, did you want to wait for him?”
Aster - “Eh he’ll be fine.”
Mist - “So what’s your name?”
Aster - “... Aster”
Mist - “Ok let’s go then.”
We walk down the main street and get to a small office building.
Office lady - “Weren’t there supposed to be 2?”
Mist - “Yeah but the other guy is still inside resting.”
Office lady - “Well I can get this one outta the way, but get the other guy in as soon as possible I want to go home.”
She asked questions about how I got here and my encounters with dinosaurs and when I responded they were both in shock.
Mist - “So umm, what type of lifestyle do you want to live.”
Aster - “What do you mean?”
Mist - “Would you like to get stronger.”
Aster - “yeah.?”
Office lady - “Would you like to be an explorer? You can bring your friend too?”
Aster - “What would I get out of it?”
Office lady - “Well, when you’re on break you get to live the luxury life. There’s a process to it though.” Aster - “And that is?”
Office lady - “Well first you have to take “classes” then combat training, then you will be able to prove yourself through an achievement if you want to be a high rank.”
Aster - “I’ll go wake him up.”
Mist - “Alright I’ll be waiting here.”
At the office…
Office lady - “So how’s Misty?”
Mist - “She’s becoming an explorer.
Office lady - “Are you joining too?”
Mist - “Nah she’ll be fine, I already have a job to do and I don’t want to have to go through all that fighting again.”
Office Lady - “That’s shocking, the overprotective brother letting his sister do what she wants?”
Mist - “Shut it.”
Back to Aster
I walk over to the house and I see him standing outside confused.
Aster - “Zephyr follow me.”
Zephyr - “Do you know where the Main Hall is?”
Aster - “Yeah follow me.”
We head to the Main Hall.
Mist - “Hey my name is Mist, we just need to sort your documents.
Office Lady - “So first what’s your name?”
Zephyr - “My name is Zephyr” Office Lady - “Ok how old are both of you?”
Aster - “15.”
Zephyr - “17”
Office Lady - “Now, I’m going to explain what an explorer is and if you’re not interested you can choose another job. An explorer is a part of the military. You have the potential to become an explorer if you can use magic and have combat experience. You get to live a luxury life if you have a high position. Although it is difficult to get to a high position you both seem to have the potential for it. You might be fighting in dungeons or defending routes from the plunderers. You might even get to meet Misty.” Zephyr - “Who’s Misty?”
Office Lady - “Oh, she’s Mist’s beautiful sister that he’s been hiding from the world, but the bird has escaped from the nest and is going to explore and She’s about your age Aster.”
Mist - “Hey hey hey. Calm down there Jade”
Jade - “What, are you afraid that she’ll get taken away from you?” Mist - “Don’t pay attention to her.”
Jade - “Sorry about that but what’s your decision?”
Aster - “I’ll become an explorer.”
Jade - “And what about you Zephyr.”
Zephyr - “I’ll do it.”
Jade - “Ok I’ll get everything sent through to the teachers.”
Mist - “The next entrance is in another 6 months so you guys should find temporary jobs.”
Aster - “What are the options?”
Mist - “I would recommend becoming guards if you guys do fit the requirements. You can apply after I show you around.”
Aster - “Alright”,
We walk out of the building and he shows us around and there are libraries, stores, Training grounds, and different housing districts. We go to the job application center. Mist talks to a guy and he comes over to the desk.
Mist - “You’ll start tomorrow there should be a clock in your inventory, be ready by 12pm you’ll be out by 6pm. Set an alarm now.”
Aster - “What about payment?”
Mist - “We use a system which can be seen through your inventory; it's called the points system. You will receive your pay automatically once you reach the end of your shift.”
Zephyr - “That’s interesting but I’m tired so are you ready to go back?”
Mist - “Yeah that should be it for now”
We head back to the housing district, but I stray off to head to the library. It really is a warming place. “There are a lot of magic related books here.” I finish reading by 10pm and I head back to the house. “Ugh this is such a pain, to think I would have to have a job at this young of an age.” I fall asleep as soon as I hit the bed.
Beep Beep Beep! I go to guard the gate with Zephyr. I grab a chair and read until the end of my shift.
Aster - “Nope I don’t have the patience for this I’d rather go back to living and hunting in the forest”
​
Thank you for tolerating my 8th Grade Writing. Part 2 is already completed, stick around for it!

I would appreciate advice on discussing the following sensitive topics with my boyfriend this weekend.
My boyfriend and I are spending the weekend together after two weeks apart. Over the past two weeks, I have had several moments of unfulfillment in my relationship regarding a few areas of the topic.
First and foremost, for some context, we met in June via hinge and made things official in late August; we both have met and spent time with each other families and friends.

1. The area of dissatisfaction would be sex; we began experimenting sexually in November, and we both came into the relationship as virgins; however, it has come to my understanding that my bf suffers from Performance anxiety, so we have yet to experience intercourse as he slips out every time and can never stay hard enough for us to have sex successfully. He has expressed his frustration with me and tells me that maybe tiredness has played a part in this, but I'm starting to get worried that we may never have sex and would like to approach my dissatisfaction.
2. The second area of dissatisfaction is that we are in an interracial relationship, and within my limited interaction with his family, they have been very cold towards me overall; even though my boyfriend has reassured me that they like me, I know he doesn't want to hurt my feelings, but I would appreciate some honesty, on how accepting his family is of our relationship.
3. The third topic would be overall communication when apart; my boyfriend and I try to see each other each weekend and have sleepovers, but at times my work requires weekend work, so in this particular case which occurred last Wednesday, he texted me. We chatted back and forth to check in. I told him I was working the weekend, and then I have yet to hear from him from Wednesday to Monday morning, and I would appreciate a quick check-in. Still, overall he solely texts me on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, so he is very scheduled with his communication, and I do not feel connected to him when apart, which makes me feel sad, and unfulfilled that I cannot honestly share things with my boyfriend.

This is my first relationship, and I want it to succeed, but if these significant issues cannot be overcome, I propose we go our separate ways. I would still appreciate some advice on approaching these topics when we see each other this weekend.
We are both 26

Hi there! New grad here.
Original post: https://www.reddit.com/Dentistry/comments/123vzls/risk_of_sinus_perforation_during_this_extraction/
PA: https://imgur.com/a/MSu96Ed
Thank you so much for everyone’s helpful advice!
Holy smokes was that ever challenging though.
I explained my plan to the other associate at our office (elevate, lob the crown off and section, elevate roots out one at a time) and she said that she thought lobbing the crown off would make things more challenging because I wouldn’t have as much tooth to work with (even though I said I would be leaving 1-2mm supracrestal). She suggested just elevating and sectioning and then going to town to get the sectioned fragments out. She’s quite a bit more experienced than I am, so I took her advice.
I elevated a bit but wasn’t getting the amount of movement I would’ve wanted for forceps, so I sectioned M-D and tried to snap the tooth apart at the furcation. Turns out the furcation really was deep (as one of you pointed out to me) so I didn’t actually get my bur all the way down when sectioning. I ended up snapping the crown off on the palatal, leaving that fragment about 2mm subcrestal.
I then sectioned B-L between the M and D roots and tried to separate them, but again I didn’t get the bur deep enough during sectioning and more bits and pieces of the crown came off. Eventually I was left with 2 slightly mobile roots (mesial and palatal) and one stubborn root (distal). I got to work on the mesial and it came out fine. Distal took some work with the drill but came out as well.
The palatal though. I had to keep chasing it because it kept fracturing while I was elevating. I had to drill around it (conservatively though, being mindful of the sinus) and use this tiny instrument with serated edges to work it. Eventually I asked my assistant to call in the other associate to give me some pointers. She left, but I finally asked her to take over when I wasn’t making much progress. The root had mobility 2 but I just couldn’t coax it out. I was watching her do it and she was using the instruments exactly how I was, but I think she maybe gave it a bit more muscle and eventually it came out.
In hindsight, lobbing the crown off probably would’ve given me a bit more control and visibility. I will go ahead and try that next time.
I learned a lot today and I’m glad I didn’t end up referring this one! The patient was also grateful that it could be done today even though the appointment was a bit more drawn out than everyone would’ve liked.
Thank you again for everyone’s insights on my last post!

First Entry
Second Entry
Third Entry
Fourth Entry ​
Fifth Entry
Sixth Entry
Seventh Entry
Eighth Entry
Ninth Entry
Tenth Entry
Eleventh Entry
Twelfth Entry
​
Journal of Camille Lambert - April 14th (Part 5)
​
“RUN!”
​
As the blinding light faded, what remained only barely resembled Governor Ben Calhoun. The body was mostly the same, although the runes he’d carved into his body now radiated a burning crimson energy that tinged his flesh a demonic red. The biggest change was in his face, which had grown emaciated to the point where there was only a bit of withered skin clinging to his skull and his skull itself… God…
​
The face of the creature before us no longer resembled the one I’d recognized as Calhoun. It may have been a stretch to even call it a face at all. His remaining eye had burned away, and the space between his eye sockets had caved in, creating a disturbing hole in the center of his head. In that hole, I could see a burning light and I watched as it swirled and solidified into one solid mass. A single blood red eye, that regarded us all with a boundless hatred.
​
Calhoun’s now lipless mouth grimaced in rage before his single eye settled on Nina. A guttural growl rose from the depths of his chest before his eye burned a brighter red.
​
I don’t think Nina knew what that meant at the time, but she was at least smart enough to guess and move out of the way. A sound like a gunshot erupted through the air, as the ground where Nina had been standing just a moment before was ripped apart by a crimson blast of energy. Nina was thrown to the ground and hastily scrambled for cover behind the broken water fountain as Calhoun's attention turned to Dom and I next.
​
We knew better than to just stand there.
​
Dom and I both moved, diving out of the way as Calhoun loosed another crimson blast, blowing a crater into the ground we’d just stood on. I could hear him laughing, a dry, raspy sound before he loped over toward me.
​
The .22 slipped out of my hand, but I didn’t go after it. I had a feeling it’d be useless here. Instead, I reached for Gretchen’s revolver. I still had her remaining bullet in my pocket and grabbed for it, but I had no time to load it. I tried desperately to crawl away but Calhoun grabbed me by the legs, pulling me toward him as his eye began to glow again.
​
Then came the sound of a shotgun blast, and heat on my face… but not from Calhoun.
“DON’T YOU FUCKING TOUCH HER!” Dom cried, unloading whatever shells he had left into Calhoun’s head. The force of the impacts sent him staggering back but did little else to him. I took the chance to run, diving for cover behind the displaced clock tower, and fumbling with Gretchen’s revolver to try and load it.
​
When his shotgun ran empty, Dom went for his handgun. Calhoun just glared back at him, wreathed in flames as Dom fired at him. His eye began to glow again, and Dom paused, knowing what was coming, before throwing himself to the ground. The force of Calhoun’s blast sent him flying and dashed him hard against the cobblestone and the mud. I didn’t know if he was still alive or not.
​
Calhoun watched him fall, before readying another blast, only to be wreathed in fire again, courtesy of Nina.
​
She fired her final three shells at Calhoun, before rushing him, tackling him to the ground, and trying to pin him to the ground.
“GO!” I heard her yell, and looked up to see Gretchen move from where she’d been hiding by the water fountain, racing for the front door of Calhoun’s house. The door she’d marked as a portal to hell.
​
She pulled it open, unleashing yet another creature from the depths of the Abyss, which sniffed the air before hissing as it noticed Nina and Calhoun fighting in the mud. The Demon cried out, before running for Calhoun although it didn’t get far.
​
He looked up at it, and I could see his eye glowing crimson again.
​
The first blast missed the demon entirely and went straight for the door instead. It hit close enough to do what Calhoun needed it to. The blast brought down a portion of the front of the house, sending Gretchen running for shelter. She only barely avoided being buried outright, but didn’t avoid the pieces of brick that rained down on her, sending her crashing back to the ground.
​
The Demon looked back at the destroyed door as if it had suddenly realized that there was no calvary coming. Calhoun effortlessly threw Nina off of him, before lunging for the demon, grabbing it by the head.
​
It barely had time to cry out before I watched its body begin to fry. The runes on Calhoun’s body burned brighter, as the energy pouring out of him grew more intense. I could see smoke rising out of the Demon’s flesh. Its vertical mouth opened, and I could see the pink interior bubbling as it was scalded. Calhoun finally let the body drop, before his attention returned to Nina who’d watched his vulgar display of power with quiet horror. His grin widened, as he advanced on her again.
​
The gun. I needed to load it.
​
I got the cylinder of the revolver open and reached into my pocket, taking out the bullet only to look up and see Calhoun looking right at me, his eye starting to glow again.
​
Oh no.
​
I moved, but only barely fast enough. The ground beneath me exploded, launching me into the mud. I kept my grip on the revolver, but the bullet slipped out of my grasp, landing just a few feet away. Calhoun growled, before turning toward me, ignoring Nina. I think he realized that I was the higher priority target.
​
As he passed her, I saw Nina turning to look at me, before watching her pull up one of the cobblestones out of the mud. My fingers found the bullet, buried in the mud, but when I looked at Calhoun again, I realized that there was nowhere to run… not this time. His eye burned as he focused on me, readying another blast and I froze, waiting for death to come.
​
But Nina came first.
​
Cobblestone in hand, she rushed Calhoun from behind. She brought the stone down hard on the back of his head, forcing it down just as the blast escaped him. A new crater appeared at his feet, launching both Calhoun and Nina back. She was dashed against the broken water fountain, screaming with pain as she hit it. I could hear the snap of bone and saw her clutching at her arm, before trying to stand again.
​
Calhoun himself landed a few feet away, letting out another enraged hiss as he looked up toward me. He glanced at Nina again, who glared hatefully back at him, silently daring him to kill her. It was an offer Calhoun declined.
​
Her arm was broken. Gretchen was still digging herself out from under the collapsed portion of the house that Calhoun had buried her under and Dom was either dead or unconscious. I didn’t know which.
​
There was only one threat to him on the board, now.
​
Me.
​
Calhoun’s eye burned again, as he pulled himself to his feet. I did the same, Gretchen’s revolver in one hand and the bullet in the other. Calhoun was already coming for me. All I could do was run.
​
I took off toward the clock tower, slipping through a crack in the broken brickwork to get inside. The stairs still seemed to hold up, and I started up them, trying to put as much distance between myself and Calhoun as I could.
​
As I ran up the stairs, I could hear Calhoun beneath me. His breathing was heavy, like a rabid animal’s, and I heard him starting up the stairs behind me.
​
I was almost at the top… just a few more steps and…
​
I felt the ground beneath my feet shift. The stairs erupted beneath me, launching me forward. I landed on my stomach, Gretchen’s revolver slipping from my fingers, along with the bullet which rolled a few feet away and stopped between two planks of the wooden floor. The entire tower shifted, the severe damage it had suffered finally catching up to it. The bullet didn’t move, although the gun skidded back toward the stairs. A section of the roof came down, striking the turret clock and dislodging part of the metal frame. The jagged steel bar landed on the ground beside me with a clatter.
​
I ran for the bullet first, grabbing hold of it before looking back to see Calhoun ascending the stairs behind me.
​
With a trivial hop, he stepped over the hole he’d blown in the final steps, before noticing Gretchen’s revolver. His eye shifted to me, and I saw his knowing grin grow wider as he gingerly reached down to pick it up. Eye still trained on me, Calhoun made his way over to the turret clock, before placing his hand upon the frame. I could feel heat radiating off of him as a fresh surge of energy jolted through the clock. The gears began to turn and when they did, I watched as Calhoun pressed the revolver between them.
​
The metal of the gun bent and broke, crushed and chewed up by the gears. All the while, Calhoun stared knowingly at me.
“No salvation,” He rasped. His voice a horrible whisper, “Only death.”
​
I saw his eye begin to glow again and as it did, my heart began to race. He took a step toward me, and from the corner of my eye I noticed the jagged piece of the metal frame that had fallen off the clock.
​
Without even thinking about what I was going to do next, I grabbed it. With a determined scream, I thrust the sharpened end toward Calhoun. It caught him right under the jaw, ripping through his skin and forcing his head up. The blast tore through the roof, and Calhoun tried to grab hold of the metal bar as I pressed it deeper into his skull, forcing myself to stand again and pushing him back toward the turret clock.
“Then die…” I spat, as I threw all of my weight against the makeshift metal spear.
​
Calhoun’s legs buckled beneath him as he fell toward the spinning gears of the clock. They caught his head, and I saw his single eye widen before his skull cracked from the pressure they exerted. Calhoun’s body jerked violently. The gears threatened to slow, but still compelled by whatever Godless power he wielded they did not stop. One hand tried to grip the gears and pull himself out, although it simply ended up being pulled into another set of spinning gears. I heard the bones in his arm snapping and watched it distort, before tearing away from the rest of his body.
​
Behind me, the hands on one of the remaining clock faces spun. Calhoun reached his remaining hand out toward me, but I stepped back, avoiding his grasp. Anyone else would have been dead by that point… although I suppose Calhoun wasn’t anyone else, was he?
His body still twitched and fought. The gears kept turning, slowly crushing him although I could see them straining and somehow I knew that once they broke, Calhoun would rip himself out of that machine, put himself together, and kill me as if this had all been nothing but a minor interruption. I let go of the piece of frame I’d used to pin him there, watching as it snapped and fell away as the rest of his skull was crushed.
​
The bullet still rested in my hand… and as I looked at the gears, I had one last stupid idea that just might work.
​
I wedged the bullet in between the teeth of the gear that was currently bearing down on Calhoun’s torso. He grabbed at me again, but I jumped back, out of his reach. The gears kept turning, bringing the bullet down closer and closer to Calhoun’s chest with each stammering motion… and finally, I watched as it pressed down into his chest. I could see the bullet being crushed against his body… and I could see the pink mist beginning to rise out of it.
​
Calhoun’s body went stiff. His legs spasmed. His good arm tried to reach for me. The burning crimson energy in him seemed to flare, then begin to fade. If he still could have screamed, I think that he would have.
​
His flesh was already starting to burn… just like the others. I could see the skin boiling off, exposing rotting muscle and pale white, cracked bone. I could see a frantically beating wooden heart, endowed with veins of red energy cracking and rotting away before splitting completely. Calhoun’s body gave one last twitch and then… nothing.
​
The crimson marks on his body faded completely and all that was left was silence. A moment later, the gears broke. The power that made them move died with Calhoun. The wooden floor sagged and creaked and I took a step back, watching as it began to collapse, taking Calhoun’s body with it.
​
Another section of the roof collapsed down onto the turret clock, and that proved to be the final straw. The floor finally gave out, sending the broken clock and what remained of Governor Calhoun plummeting down. I backed up to the edge of what remained of the tower's floor. Behind me, was nothing but a sheer drop and I knew I’d have to chance it.
The tower buckled. It was coming down.
​
“CAM!”
A voice called out behind me and I looked, just in time to see Dom running toward the tower, toward me. The tower shifted again. I jumped, letting myself fall toward Dom and knowing he’d catch me.
​
I crashed into him at top speed, sending us both back into the mud. I felt his hand moving to cover my head almost instinctively, as we both lay there for a moment. The crumbling tower fell toward Calhoun’s house, taking down another chunk of the building as it collapsed. Dom and I both watched as it came down, kicking up a cloud of dust into the sky.
​
Above us, we could see the night sky breaking. Thin cracks began to form in it and behind them was… nothing. Not light. Not darkness… nothing at all. The world was finally ending.
​
We watched in awe as the sky broke apart… for in its own strange way, it was beautiful.
“Dom, Cam!” I heard Nina call and we looked over to see her standing again. Gretchen was beside her. Both of them were covered in mud and blood, but both were still alive. “This place is coming apart, we need to go!”
​
Slowly, I pulled myself to my feet and offered a hand to help Dom up as well. With aching bodies and racing hearts, we dragged ourselves to the hole where Calhoun’s door had once been. Gretchen led the way, limping back into the front hall of Calhoun’s house.
“This way,” She said leading us down the same path we’d gone down before. I could see dying vines leading the way. The Eldest’s last gift to us.
​
Looking back, I could see the buildings of Parsons beginning to crumble, falling into the void as the world around them came undone. I didn’t stare for long. I knew that it would come for us soon as well. I followed Dom and the others down the hall, back toward the room where we’d found the Eldest. Back toward the way home.
​
The entire house shook. I saw the twisted, impossible columns breaking apart in ways that should not have been possible. I could see cracks forming in the walls, and crimson vines creeping through, a reminder of what still lived in the dying world behind us. The Eldest’s chamber was just up ahead. We limped in, with Gretchen picking up the pace as she ran to the spot where the door had been before. She paused only long enough to look up at the corpse of the Eldest, who sat still and silent, tangled among the roots.
Without another moment of hesitation, she pulled open the door to Smokey Falls and looked back at us.
​
“YOU SHALL NOT FORSAKE ME HERE!”
​
The scream of the Rosen Prince echoed through the house and looking back, I could see something coming down the hall behind us. Shambling limbs and creeping vines, with a single glaring yellow eye at the center of it all, fixated on us. Reality cracked around it, as Calhoun’s house fell away into nothingness. The Rosen Prince came for us one last time… but we were already gone.
​
Nina went through the door first, followed by Gretchen, Dom and lastly, me. As we stepped out into the real world, we looked back just in time to see the hallway collapsing. The cracks in reality split the Eldest’s chamber, causing pieces of it to fall into the void.
​
The Rosen Prince gave one final scream as he fell with them, and as the void took him I watched his newest body fracture and fade.
​
Nothing sat behind that door now. True nothing. A perfect void neither dark nor light… just emptiness and soon, even that was gone. The door we’d just come through buckled. The building in front of us sagged and began to collapse in on itself.
​
We stumbled away from it, moving as fast as we could across the street to safety as the last piece of Calhoun came apart.
​
And then… at long last, it was done.
​
We sat on the street for a few moments, sore, bloody, and covered in mud and dust. But alive.
​
Gretchen’s face was marked by a thousand little cuts. Her hair was even more of a mess than usual. Nina clutched her broken arm, trying very hard to hide just how much pain she was in. Dom was resting on my shoulder, only barely clinging to consciousness and I couldn’t stop staring at the ruins of the building we’d just come out of, waiting for something to emerge from the rubble.
​
But nothing did.
​
It was over.
​
​
Journal of Camille Lambert - May 2nd
​
This still doesn’t feel real. Every day now, I wake up and look at the sky. Usually, I’ll see the sun, but even on the days I don’t, the sky is still so much more beautiful than any I saw back in the world I knew.
​
Things out here are… confusing. The world has moved on from the one I heard about. There’s so much different out here. But Dom and I are adjusting, slowly and maybe one day everything we’ve lived through will feel like just another bad dream.
​
The FRB has done what they can to get us settled. Right now, they’ve put us and a lot of the other survivors up in an apartment building they’ve purchased, and they’re helping us integrate into the world we’ve missed out on. I think it might be years still before some of us are fully integrated, but we’re doing the best we can and if nothing else, I’m grateful that we don’t have to figure it all our on our own.
​
I think about the friends I made during our ordeal often, even if I haven’t seen them in person since we left Smokey Falls. With the journey ended, we’ve each returned to our own paths, seeking our own destinies. I know I’ll see them again and when I do, I’ll greet them as old friends. I’ve gotten a few emails from Nina, whose arm is healing well and every now and then I hear from Gretchen too, although she’s not as good about staying in contact. Still… I am glad they’ve chosen to keep in touch. It helps.
​
Dom and I even spoke with Milo the other day… he’s doing well, after his injury. He mentioned that they recovered some more survivors in the ruins of Parsons… or the ruins of Parsons in this world, more accurately. I’ve only heard a few rumors through Sonya but it seems that when the situation in Parsons started to grow worse, something led the people that Sheriff Brown had evacuated to Calhoun house to a hidden door in a room overgrown by plants… and when they came out, they found themselves in the ruins of the old Parsons.
​
I’m not sure if the Eldest saved those people simply to spite Calhoun, or because it didn’t want them to die but whatever its reasons, I’m happy to know that there were more survivors, at least. Because I still think about the thousands of people we didn’t save, and I think I’ll be thinking about them for the rest of my life.
​
Most nights, I dream about the things I saw in the pocket reality. I see the shadows of Nightwalkers and hear the screams of the Rosen Prince. In many of my dreams, I see Calhoun again. Sometimes he appears as a man, sometimes he appears as a monster. Both terrify me. I’ve been talking to a therapist about my nightmares, and she’s done what she can to help me… but I don’t know if they’ll ever really go away.
​
How do I unsee the things I’ve seen? How do I undo the things I’ve done? How do I unfeel the things I’ve felt?
​
I don’t know.
​
Nina says that you don’t. You just learn to live with them. And I suppose she’d know, wouldn’t she? But it still feels so hard to just accept that answer. Maybe it will get easier in time.
​
Despite the nightmares… I still have no regrets. Because as I sit on my apartment balcony with Dom and look up at the stars in the night sky, I know that it was all worth it.

I got into survivor in late 2021, around October or November I believe. I was told to start chronologically, so I did! After over a year of watching when I had free time, I’ve finally caught up to season 44. I’m so excited to start watching live, I’ve heard it’s a completely different experience!
While watching, I kept track of all the seasons I was watching and was adding them all to an official ranking list. Im so excited to finally share my official rankings with everyone! #1 is my favorite season of ALL, while #43 is my least favorite season by far. Here goes!
1) Samoa
2) Survivor 43
3) One World
4) Cambodia
5) Guatemala
6 Tocantins
7) Ghost island
8) All stars
9) Fiji
10) Kaoh Rong
11) Caramoan
12) Borneo
13) China
14) Cook Islands
15) Heroes vs Healers vs Hustlers
16) Panama
17) Nicaragua
18) Amazon
19) Thailand
20) Game changers
21) Island Of the Idols
22) Winners at War
23) Survivor 41
24) Edge of Extinction
25) Africa
26) Micronesia
27) Vanuatu
28) Millennials vs Gen. X
29) Redemption Island
30) Gabon
31) Survivor 42
32) Worlds Apart
33) Philippines
34) David vs Goliath
35) Australia
36) Pearl islands
37) Cagayan
38) South Pacific
39) San Juan Del Sur
40) Marquesas
41) Heroes vs Villains
42) Palau
43) Blood vs Water
And that’s it! I can’t wait to discuss survivor with you all. What do you all think of my list?

Hello. I am a teenager who has gone through SA,Grooming,And manipulation. Recently someone by the name of 0re0_Gaming came back to me and forced me to play on their Minecraft server after I had 2 surgeries that were needed since I were born. My muscles were cut up and I was in a lot of pain. I was like that for 3 MONTHS and they said I faked having surgery. Here is my story.
2020
I joined an LGBTQIA+ Minecraft server, and i met someone named Cloud(Sol),And Hippo(Green3038). They were my best friends for about 3 months.
2021
Sol and some others left me for spamming ender dragons and trying to kill them.Then there was this new server name "Pride House" it was owned by this guy named Boxboyhalo (Leif). Leif was a great server owner in the time. Then someone named Snas made a new server called Pride Valley. (Snas is 0re0_Gaming) They created the server because Leif caused a huge amount of drama and "manipulated" Oreo. Oreo turned out to really like the way i moderated and i became Admin+! I got someone named Gray(Rox) to be Helper rank with help from Honk(Toast).
fast forward to June
I was up north, the server was falling apart. I was just living a good life at the time and swimming in the lake. Rox and Oreo made a Group Chat on discord namely "we need to talk." and I was crying when they told me that I'm a manipulator and a pedophile. Take note I was a teen; teens cant be pedophiles. I read it over and over and over again. All I could think is "what did i do" and it was HELL. I got home on July 4th and I started talking to this nice dude named Frog. we talked for so long and were good friends. then the alt incident occurred. This was someone pretending to be me and spamming slurs to people. this made me cry every night knowing my old friends hated me like hell.
2022
Alts still going on, friends with a guy named Tankman. (We're still friends) Tankman and I fought off the alts.
fast forward to october
Oreo comments on my tiktok. They ask to be friends again, i politely accept. We talk, they only talk about Sol and how they "manipulate people" me and Sol are the same age; I'm younger by a month or two. Then "alts" of Sol appear. saying slurs and all of that again. this turned out to be Oreo. Oreo ended up saying sexual comments about my body, they are 19, almost 20. they also manipulated and groomed me. these things change a person. i then created a group chat with Toast,Sol,Kookie,Rui(Kookies S/O),and Lucy(Oreo's "partner").
12/16/22
Surgery 1. i had an incision through my abdominal area. lost a lot of mobility
Status: almost bled out midway through surgery, Failed.
12/27/23
Surgery 2. i had an incision through the left of my hip. lost more mobility
Status: Successful, The kidney stones have been removed.
2023
its the new year. me and Oreo are still talking. so am i with that group chat. me and Oreo get in an argument and they blame me for everything even though i could barely speak; i was still very sore.
Jan-Feb were pretty okay.
March
Oreo blamed me of faking surgery and lying about being sore. they also said im still a manipulator and never changed; i went through puberty so yes, i did. they didnt.
fast forward to now
Oreo has now left me and started dating someone who makes VRChat NSFW. Oreo has now made one of those account and its honestly disgusting. Oreo called Lucy a "fat fuck,ableist,furry hater,etc". i was told to kms by them. if you need proof of all of these things i have a discord server invite, please dm me for it.
Sol,Kookie,Rui,Toast,Lucy,and I still talk.
Recently Oreo made a post about me and the others on twitter. most of it was lies. please dont beleive Oreo in any of this. they have ratted themselves out with showing a screenshot of them calling everyone in my friend group names that would get them BANNED off of twitch,twitter,reddit,discord,youtube,etc. thanks for reading, peace.

Another noob here looking for some advice on choosing a starter wheel.
Price is not a factor as long as it's money well-spent. I see people talking about buying the wheel they want to end up with. While that is tempting, and I would do it if it made sense, I don't want to have a bad experience because I bought too much wheel out of the gate. I also don't want to feel like I wasted money on something that I outgrew too quickly and couldn't put to another use case.
Thanks in advance! You guys are awesome and I've already learned so much from reading this sub!
​
The Use Case:
Commuting mostly, with some mixed-PEV group rides. My commutes vary in distance and location, and I never really know what I'll encounter. Streets are rough, the weather is wet in my neck of the woods. Lots of good bike infrastructure and a friendly attitude toward PEVs, though. I have access to a lot of great trails in my area and would like to take advantage of that. I guess I'm looking for an all-rounder. Storage space is at a premium.
Any wheel I buy will be primarily a tool, not a toy.
I'm interested in an EUC to have fun learning something new, to have a backup electric vehicle to my ebike, and to fill in some gaps where the ebike is not so great due to access limitations, weight, portability, size, etc.
​
What I think I want (as a noob, I may have this all wrong):
​

• Something that meets or exceeds the range I speed I currently get with my bike, so a speed of at least 32mph and about 40 real-world miles of range.
• Something not too heavy to get up a flight of apartment stairs. I can lift/roll about 60 or 70 lbs and less if it's compact, but not fully carry that kind of weight upstairs without risking injury.
• A wheel that is well-appointed for commuting, so full lights, good safety features, and maybe some extra creature comforts.
• Suspension. My knees have seen some things and I'd rather not beat them up needlessly.
• Waterproofness. Whatever wheel I get will have to cope with a life of rain and puddles. I can flex on this point a bit as I can ride my ebike in the winter, but I'd like the wheel to be an option no matter the weather.

​
The Wheels I'm Considering

• InMotion V11. Seems to be the obvious choice and is a proven product. Suspension system seems outdated and on the high-maintenance side. The wheel is a bit long in the tooth at this point but seems to remain popular. Is it still a good beginner buy this year?
• Begode T4. Better suspension and performance than the V11. Concerns are build quality and water-resistance. Needs fairing to get it up to commuter status. The 16 inch wheel size is appealing.
• Veteran Sherman S. On paper, this or something like it is the wheel I would probably end up with eventually. Seems like it might be crazy to start on and it's mad heavy. Does anyone take this up stairs on the reg?
• Veteran Patton. Same deal as the Sherman. Also heavy af, but with a smaller footprint. Don't really want to buy a first-batch wheel right off the bat.

​

• Starter Wheels: I would consider a starter wheel as an alternative to jumping in to one of the wheels above, but it would have to be under $1000, very small and light, and something I would actually have a reason to keep down the road.
  • InMotion V5. Seems an obvious starter wheel and it's light and cheap. The top speed is a major bummer.
  • Begode Mten4. This in interesting wheel and could be a more durable/higher performance alternative to the V5, but seems expensive for what it is. No trolley handle is just daft.

​
Am I missing anything that should be in the running? Any models on the list I should stay away from?
​
A little about me:
I have no worries about learning to ride the wheel as I'm naturally athletic and have always picked up new physical skills easily and been able to progress quickly. I am, however, not as young as I used to be and therefore I'm less inclined to do dumb things and more likely to prioritize comfort and convenience over raw performance. I do need enough speed and acceleration to be safe on mixed-use surface streets and to handle vehicular-style riding.
I'm not entirely new to PEVs and I've been all-in on that car-free life since before it was cool. I've been riding an ebike (Super73) as my main mode of transportation for about a year and half. Prior to that, I've commuted and gotten around solely by motorcycle for over a decade, rain or shine. I've already got the gear, the traffic awareness and defensive riding chops, and am equipped physically and mentally for everything that comes with traveling on two wheels all the time.
I've been into inline and quad skating since I was a kid, I jamskate, and I played roller derby when I was younger. I know the skills aren't directly transferable, but I figure the balance and stability, and understanding of edge control, weight transfer, and carving should help. Ditto with all the motorcycling experience, since I'm very familiar with the physics of gyroscopic action, counter-steering, traction management, and how a single-track tire's contact patch changes with input.
I've got access to a very active community of PEV riders of all sorts, and with the riding season starting I'll have plenty of opportunities for learning from the EUC gang.
I'm short and stocky, around 5'4" and 170 lbs, and strong for my size.

Coming up on 20 years. Second marriage for both of us. Children Hers 1 (26)mine 2 (25)-(22) and ours (18). I am no saint. My first marriage I had an affair. It was a bad marriage almost from the start that I think lack of self esteem for both of us kept us in for 12 years. Yes the children came later in that marriage. We dated briefly and married 4 months into. I work long hours and occasionally out of town. The first time was shortly after the birth of our son. I can’t exactly remember how I found out but I believe it was the phone. 2008 happens with the housing market, She ruptures several discs in her back, my industry goes out on strike. We lose everything. Through marriage counseling (many weeks and many counselors) we worked through it. We’re both alcoholics (functional) at the time and both have tough childhoods. Several years later an old girlfriend reaches out to me and pretty much have an emotional affair. I get caught ( phone again) and I am confronted. I admit to it and never slept with her but of course that isn’t believed. I stop and continue counseling to try to fix what is broken. I quit alcohol and attend meetings (NA) to figure out what’s the behavior that I’m trying to medicate.
We both dive into work and she gets involved with a non profit organization. There’s always fundraising events and mixers that I’m never around to attend with her and of course alcohol. I end up going on location out of state for 8 weeks. Things are ok at the time and we have connection while I’m out of town. Calling almost daily. Life’s good 👏 so I thought. While I’m out of town she starts hanging around a friend who’s an alcoholic and was going around hooking up on hook up sights and constantly boasting on all the fucking she’s getting. One weekend before I come home the wife is unavailable. I always seem to get “gut” feelings with this stuff. I come home and after a week or two I see her phone on the table and decide to look. Talks of having to cool it with someone on the board of directors as to not raise suspicions. And a sleepover with my husband calling over and over. Life Blows up and I confront. Denies denies denies. I’m paranoid. Turns it around and never admits it. Again more work on myself Months later my wife tests positive for the breast cancer gene and with her strong family history decides to have a double mastectomy. At the time she was helping an elderly couple and had befriended this family. They lover her like a daughter. One of their children committed suicide and had another son in their family. This goes on for months and everything seemed ok as she even took our youngest over for visits. Surgery after surgery with reconstruction and still helping this family one day the youngest son commits suicide. My wife is devastated. She’s blaming herself for it because she was the last one to see him alive. She said that he wasn’t doing well and needed someone to talk to. Truth be told it was right after they had lunch together and she told him that she wanted to give me one last chance because I was turning my life around and I was a good man. He went home and shot himself.
The mother was calling hysterically, and that she couldn’t get a hold of her son. My wife and over to the apartment and the door was locked so she called the police. The police went in and everybody found him. For weeks and weeks hysterics sobbing and all the time I was there telling her it wasn’t her fault. She couldn’t have stopped him when somebody decides to do that you can’t change their mind. She wasn’t invited to the funeral. The family was blaming her, and I had no idea why.
Several months later, I was out of town and I heard on the ring camera her in the kitchen with a friend telling her how much she loved him and how crushed she was. So I decided to confront her asking her. Did you love him she replied, not the way you think he was there for me and made me believe in myself I said all that time I was consoling you telling you it wasn’t your fault staying up with you all night with your pain and your tears, you were having an affair with him boy did I feel stupid. She finally decided to get sober.
She started a program. She realize that driving the children around and being a drunk wife wasn’t good I just see my life changed for the better. She wanted the same. So here we are five years later we moved out of state I still work in California. I drive home on weekends unless there’s work. AGAIN…… there’s that gut feeling. Shortly after the new year I realize there was car had come by. I figured it was one of the clients from her work didn’t think much of it came over a few times as a matter fact OK maybe it’s work related. At one point this gentleman came over she invited them in and about two hours later he left with her saying bye love. This weekend or should I say this past weekend I look at the camera and lo and behold at 11 o’clock at night on Friday there is This guy is coming over and she goes out to the car with him and brings him in to my house. He leaves at 6 o’clock in the morning, The next day, the same person brings a package over to the house and goes to walk in like he owns the place. With the front door locked he goes to enter the apartment in the front ,both locked. She comes outside goes to the car or somebody else’s and five minutes later comes back in the house.
I noticed her wedding ring isn’t on all the time on the ring camera and of course, her texts and her passwords are none of my business. I’m starting to go distant. I know this is marriage is done. I keep getting asked what’s wrong what’s wrong but I’m not gonna do this long-distance. I’m not gonna do it over the phone. I’m going confront her at home. I guess this is a long story, but I’m looking for advice how do I confront her? Do I give her enough to her to hang her self or do I just straight out say I know what you’re doing and see what happens and then lay out the proof. Nobody I talk to you can tell me any reason why a man would come over at 11 o’clock at night and leave in the morning besides what it is!! With work slowing down and the possibility of a strike I may have to stay in the apartment until the dust settles but until then , until Saturday I have to play nice and try not to raise any ideas. How would you confront your spouse? Any and all ideas are welcome.

Use a d120 to see what you discover!
​

Roll	Result
1	A little iron horse figurine. If held by a creature that tells a lie it grows white hot, dealing 1d10 fire damage per turn
2	A bird's cage containing a wererat.
3	A bottle of troll's blood. If you drink it you regain 10 hit points at the start pf each of your turns for a minute but you are poisoned for an hour
4	Black Flame Candle of Hopus: The character that lights the candle draws the ire of all cats (and cat based races) and frightens all children that seem them for 24 hours
5	A petrified gazer.
6	A mirror that shows a clown (or some scary thing) standing behind you. It isn't really there, and it doesn't seem to interact with you, but is very creepy.
7	A talking skull.
8	A large firefly in a cage that will listen to commands. Glows red with the effect of Light.
9	A heavy old tome with yellowed pages and a blank cover. The book does not match the design of the surrounding books, and has a somewhat homemade feel to it. Nearly all the pages are filled with impressively lifelike sketches of an assortment of common folk, each with a smile on their face. All the drawings seem to be situated in the same village, with a single family and house appearing more frequently than any of the others. The members of that family each bear a slight resemblance to the hag.
10	A jar of candy wrapped in brightly colored wax paper.
11	A cursed gold chain necklace. Once put on it cannot be removed. When the wearer speaks a lie a link is magically removed from the chain, the link clatters loudly to the ground. Lie enough and it begins to choke the wearer.
12	A drum, covered in a mysterious skin.
13	An immortal monkey that looks normal but quickly reveals his undead nature in the moonlight.
14	A fist-sized gemstone to which the astral form of a trickster being is bound. Touching it allows you to see and communicate with the being. It begs that you reunite it with it's body.
15	A black cat sits curled up on a chair. When you approach, he remains unmoved, and trying to interact with him you find him immovable. If you attempt to sit on him/in the chair, you are cursed by the chair as the cat appears upon your lap and is the same as an immovable rod place on your knees.
16	Two voodoo esque dolls of other hags, with faint magic within, from when she tried to create a coven with the souls of dead hags.
17	An Ogre or Giants severed toe.
18	A crate filled with rotted children’s clothing and old toys.
19	A deep water well built into the room.
20	A spiders hoard disguised as a perfect black cube
21	A suit of armor that was once a man.
22	Six inches of orange tinted water on the floor.
23	A book full of delicately preserved wings from butterflies and other small insects.
24	A harp strung with the hair of 100 different humanoids. Plucking a string will make the harp tell the tale of that particular humanoid's fate
25	Star Chart: A map of the night sky in its current position, even when it's too cloudy to see the sky itself. This is an accurate, shifting map that may be used to help a lost party reorient themselves.
26	A set of giant steel manacles that look like they could hold a giant.
27	An unusually large slug in a cage that produces extremely sticky ooze.
28	An origami figure of a stork. Has a faint conjuration aura to it.
29	A cyclops’ eye that has a bite taken out of it.
30	Dried batwing.
31	The preserved, leathery head of a dwarf.
32	A caged rat with gleaming red eyes and a chitters that echoes inside your head; if released the rat will burrow into the nearest persons mind, eating bits of memories, thoughts and goals. The rat cannot do this while the host is under some sort of anti-magic but it doesn’t get rid of it
33	A glass bottle filled with a foul tasting dark blue liquid. If consumed the liquid convinces the person who consumed it that they are going to die as a result.
34	A skull of any local beast, a candle melting upon it. When the candle is snuffed out, the eye sockets glow red. It then materializes the rest of the body as a specter, until the eyes are gouged out. The candle will then re-ignite. While a specter, the creature is a neutral undead, and simply watches and wanders about, being all spooky. Works best as a small creature, like a cat or raven.
35	An Annis Hag has a huge rusty nail, the length of a forearm. The person holding it feels paranoid and cruel, but gains advantage on Perception checks.
36	A ball of snot-like sludge hanging from the ceiling.
37	A fancy paper hat which causes the wearer to attract bees, wasps, hornets, and bumblebees, which remain non-hostile until the wearer removed the hat.
38	A piece of chalk which when used to write a persons full name causes that person to shiver. It ceases to work once all the chalk is exhausted.
39	Chicken feathers sticking out of the ground in bizarre patterns.
40	An active mirror of life trapping.
41	A mannequin wearing a crusty set of fine clothes which appear to have been soaked entirely in blood which has now dried completely. There are no visible stains on the mannequin.
42	A neatly organized tackle box containing a collection of human fingers and toes.
43	A cage with the skeletal remains of two small humanoids, the hand of one clutching the hand of the other.
44	A small child, apparently unharmed.
45	A large white table cloth that can be used to set a table. When its command word is spoken it cleans itself of all stains and food, then folds itself into a neat triangle.
46	A pair of slippers that automatically adjusts to be as comfortable as possible for their wearer.
47	A scruffy, scarred pigeon that nests in the rafters. Its regular sounds are replaced by snippets of the hags voice yelling insults.
48	An old tarnished silver bell. Ringing it casts Toll The Dead once a day.
49	A child's patchwork doll, missing a button eye and stained in blood.
50	A cauldron that can be used as a ritual focus. When used in ritual magic, the DC goes up 1 per person (limited to 3).
51	A broken arrow atop a bottle of rain. Holding the bottle allows you to walk on water. Holding the arrow turns your hand to steel (you do twice the damage of an unarmed strike, but take disadvantage on tasks requiring two hands. You can pry the arrow from your hand—but careful if you take too long both your hands will turn to steel).
52	Dust of sneezing and choking.
53	The hag's kitchen is a marvel of inventive interior design, with hands that stick out of the walls, as though their owners were forced into the stone itself. The hands hold cups, cutlery, a set of keys, a hat, a dark cloak and hanging vegetables.
54	A strange jar of coloured jelly. Upon closer inspection, you find it is a tiny-sized ooze or oblex in a jar.
55	A picture book with seemingly no story, only vivid illustrations of children running in the woods. Flipping back and forth reveals that the children seem to move when not watched, and there’s something they’re running from
56	A cursed ring depicting a smiling Fox that gives advantage on deception and acrobatics checks but will sever the finger off after 1d12 uses. Cannot be removed without magical means
57	Bones from humanoid hands which have been fastened together into a headdress.
58	An ivory comb, inset with swampy green stones, that causes anyone who uses it to make their hair grow uncontrollably and try to strangle them
59	A display case of flattened beast ears arranged in such a way that a distant observer may mistake it for a butterfly display.
60	A journal by a young lass from a hundred years ago. The entries are positive, optimistic, romantic. Somewhere in the her late teens she falls in love for a fellow and at the same time she's visited by nightmares, headaches and visions. Strangely the visions darkly warn her that her lover is dangerous, something she refuses to believe even when other things she sees in them come to pass. She writes that she plans to run away with him before the journal abruptly ends. A knowledge check might reveal that the symptoms she describes are signs of a changeling coming into her power on the path to becoming a hag.
61	An almost person-sized hourglass dangling from a rope tied to the ceiling. In place of sand, tiny teeth of all shapes and kinds flow between the two bulbs, each one glowing with a faint red light. The flow of the device switches directions at random times for nobvisible reason, with no bulb ever holding all the teeth.
62	Glass orb containing the souls of screaming children.
63	Leather wading boots, made from an unidentifiable leather, that allows the wearer to walk on water, but slowly turns the water they walk on into a swamp
64	A shelf of shoes: fond mementos of the humanoids (at least the most delicious ones) the hag has eaten.
65	A freshly baked pie, its crust perfectly buttered.
66	A male human's foot. There's nothing magical about it though, she hasn't gotten to that project yet
67	A purple glazed donut with sprinkles. When you eat it, it switched your highest and lowest stat for one hour, or in heavy moments of exertion, such as combat, ten rounds.
68	A plant pot containing a Shrieker that screams when you touch it.
69	A collection of clear glass bottles with tiny models of houses, ships, wagons, and things inside them. On closer inspection the tiny things are real and even have tiny people trapped inside, living dejectedly.
70	The still beating heart of some unknown humanoid.
71	A copper ring in the dirt that has a rat's chewing marks in it.
72	Eyes of various creatures.
73	Seven jars filled with blood. One of them has recently been emptied.
74	A life size "voodoo" fetish that looks eerily like one of the PCs.
75	A shattered mirror. The mirror shows a decaying and zombie-like version of the players, but a beautified version of the hag.
76	A taxidermy beholder being used as a chandelier.
77	A stomach and intestines hung on the wall, with a mouth connected to one end, and the other end leading into a barrel (I don't recommend opening the barrel). It must be fed regularly or it will jump off the wall and begin eating everything.
78	Erikkson the Philosophical Scarecrow. This scarecrow sits motionless in a part of the room, but will animate when he deems it necessary. He loves to eat straw (and flesh), and loves to tell riddles. He especially loves it when his riddles win him the flesh of others. But he doesn't cheat. He is a genuine and fair scarecrow. He wont eat any more than has been agreed on. If he says he will play riddles for a PC's hand, then he will keep his word. He also LOVES to talk about the metaphysical nature of the world.
79	An eyeball in a tube of yellow viscous fluid, sealed with a cork. The eye moves and looks around.
80	Eye of newt jar. Half full.
81	An aged drawing of the current PCs that entered the lair.
82	A chest with an ungodly amount of sweets.
83	A jar with an overweight toad crammed into it, that sings when lifted.
84	A stack of love letters written in Abyssal penned by a demon who apparently was smitten by the sight of the hag during a planar jaunt. Appears that the interest was unrequited.
85	Paintings and sculptures of prominent townspeople.
86	A large alembic which is currently distilling a medium ochre jelly.
87	Half of a beehive covered in Infernal writing. When the honeycomb is broken, an Imp is summoned.
88	An undead toad in a glass jar with a miniature Sphere of Annihilation in its mouth.
89	A dresser whose drawers are overflowing with loose hairs. A player who searches through the hair will find a vial of antitoxin.
90	A pin board of insects found in the swamp or Underdark, like strange beetles.
91	A wooden chest with a beating heart in it.
92	A basin of murky water that is constantly scrying a young girl, possibly a changeling. Vials of three colors with a dropper sit on the rim of the basin. Dropping the blue liquid in the basin visits the girl with good luck, red delivers bad luck to a someone near her, but the black inky liquid has no apparent effect.
93	A massive tapestry hung from the wall. Strange symbols and stranger images fill every space, chaotically strewn about the threadwork with no apparent pattern. No centralized theme or focus can be made out, but the likeliness of several important figures and deities can be made out amongst alien creatures and other, unknown people. The tapestry is unfinished on one side, making it obvious that the project is still a work in progress.
94	A severed head taken from a rival long ago. The neck seeps blood from its wound, and constantly softly whispers nigh incoherently, saying all that the witch had learnt from her long-lived life, tales of old, hidden secrets and recipes long forgotten, to name a few.
95	A severed foot with many different types of moss and fungi growing on it.
96	A decorative wine glass that poisons any liquid inside of it with cyanide when a command word is spoken (cheers).
97	A massive bubbling cauldron. Inside it is a disgusting mixture of god knows what.
98	A skeleton on an elaborate wooden throne that will suddenly scream and crumple if a PC approaches it, laying a curse on that PC.
99	A giant cookpot carved from granite, weighing several tons. It's big enough to stew several people inside. [MaxSizeIs]
100	A small collection of caged rats.
101	Tentacle from a vampire squid.
102	People converted into anthropomorphic kelp.
103	A back scratcher made from a severed bony hand.
104	A small box lined with teeth, when opened it begins hopping around a chattering loudly. Can be heard by any creature within 50 ft. Strength or skill check to disarm it. On a failed skill check the target is bitten for 1D4 damage.
105	There is an alchemy desk with the accouterments you would expect. Eyes in jars, fingers in candlestick holders, with thin wicks coming out of the tips, animal parts, and grisly looking things you don't think about too much. Despite everything, you can't but find yourself feeling extremely hungry while examining it.
106	Collection of art pieces depicting each PC worst fears
107	A goblin in a cage that speaks common eloquently.
108	The shadow of a rat on the floor, which moves as a normal rat would. However, there is no rat, not even an invisible one.
109	A group of small children trapped in a cage.
110	A broom of flying that wants to avenge the hags and throws off any character once they are high up in air with it
111	Corrupted rings of resistance (which are cursed to grant vulnerability instead).
112	An apple that reveals itself to be rotten if eaten.
113	A overflowing jar of teeth.
114	A small garden growing a bunch of weird herbs.
115	A tattered ball gown, it’s faded green color and shredded edges indicating its impressive age. It drifts gently through the air as if carried by an invisible wind, moving haphazardly but never touching the room. Attempts to grab the dress automatically fail without the use of magic, the dress always fluttering just out of reach. Once grabbed, the dress stops permanently stops moving and shows no sign of its previously magical nature.
116	A cracked hand mirror, which always shows a shadowy figure to be standing behind the one looking in it. Sometimes, the figure moves.
117	A bouquet of flowers, suspended upside down to dry, smelling pleasantly of notes of lavender and rose buds.
118	A dead bird tied to the ceiling.
119	A starved and maimed goblin in an iron cage. He rattles the bars rather than react to the visitors. It is clear it went mad long ago.
120	A crude iron goblet filled to the brim with algae. Drinking the algae makes the imbiber immune to poison for 24 hours, but also makes them immune to healing potions for 48 hours

Initial list built by d100. See it here. Also contributions from here.
List contributors: u/dndspeak, u/robot_wrangler, u/jonnyCbiggs, u/ToMcAt67, u/DM_Brian, u/bbqturtle, u/TimTamKablam, u/ArchangelCaesar, u/it-started-to-rain, u/Locheil, u/Cerrack, u/LongjumpingLime, u/aquaticLandwhale, u/ThePoIarBaer, u/Hwga_lurker_tw, u/dwemthy, u/crimebiscuit, u/Patchwork18, u/ThePragmaticPimp, u/Psychogent30, u/pinkfloyd1986, u/Dragodar, u/Kardinalin, u/yiorgiom, u/WizzyAC, u/blue-car-guy, u/eekbarbadurkle00, u/ok_prairie, u/area51raidsurvivior, u/jaxolotle, u/MaxSizeIs, u/Selacha, u/DerekHostetler, u/1d2RedShoes, u/SquirelKnight, u/Mike_in_San_Pedro, u/ExJacksie, u/SlapDiscPibbles, u/rodythepterodactyl11, u/Malcorox, u/ExJacksie, u/FlyingHorseduck

This post also appears on my blog, but that version has links to my full reviews for everything, as well as the visual card.
My favorite reading challenge is winding down, and for the third consecutive year, I have completed a pair of Bingo cards. I’ll talk more about my themed card in a while (probably after April 1), but today, we’re looking at my first totally unplanned Bingo card. Sure, I went through the recommendation threads last April, because those were a blast, and I planned my themed card, but apart from that, I just read what I read and then checked this week to see if I could make a full card. And perhaps one or two squares are a bit of a stretch, but I did indeed make a full card.
Continuing the bit from the last two years, I have rankings, ratings, mini-reviews, and cliffhanger notes. Do keep in mind that the rankings are just for fun and shouldn’t be taken as gospel. After all, I intentionally excluded anything I rated below 14/20, so the worst of this card is very far from the bottom of my year of reading. And it can be hard to rank books with the exact same score. I have a 20-point scale and not a 50-point scale precisely because sometimes opinions can only get so fine-grained. Ask me again next week, and I may order 16 through 22—or 2 through 5—totally differently.
Anyways, I read some great stuff, let’s get to it:
1. “Falling Off the Edge of the World” by Suzanne Palmer, “Two Spacesuits” by Leonard Richardson, “In the Time of the Telperi Flower” by David-Christopher Galhea, “The Bone Stomach” by Ziawa Jande, “The Empty” by Ray Nayler.
Categories: Short Stories, Published in 2022, Book Club (hard)
Mini-Review: It’s common for Five Short Stories to end up on top of my list because I can just cherry-pick some of my favorites of the year. But all five of these are free—two will be discussed as part of the April 5 session of Fantasy’s Short Fiction Book Club—and I highly recommend checking them out.
Rating: 18/20
Cliff Severity: Short stories may have ambiguous endings, but they don’t tend to end on cliffhangers.
2. The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler.
Categories: Standalone (hard), Published in 2022
Mini-Review: The plot description may sound like Michael Crichton, with an undersea first contact intertwined with high-stakes hacking and an AI-run slave ship, but the storytelling is anything but. It’s extremely contemplative—on the nature of consciousness and of humanity’s treatment of the Other—and written in such a way that it only gets better upon reflection.
Rating: 18/20
Cliff Severity: There’s plenty of uncertainty at the end, but it feels like a story that’s meant to end on some uncertainty and not one that’s waiting for a sequel.
3. Lonely Castle in the Mirror by Mizuki Tsujimura, translated by Philip Gabriel.
Categories: Published in 2022, Mental Health (hard), Standalone (hard), Indie Published (hard), Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey (hard), BIPOC Author, Family Matters
Mini-Review: The pacing of a school novel, but without the school, Lonely Castle in the Mirror stars a group of tweens whose individual traumas have kept them out of their local middle school but who find each other in a portal world. A slow read but an easy one, this dives brilliantly into adolescent mental health, making it not just my favorite YA novel of the year, but one of my favorite 2022 novels full stop.
Rating: 18/20
Cliff Severity: Another standalone?
4. Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang
Categories: *Historical SFF, Standalone (hard), Revolutions and Rebellions (hard), BIPOC Author, Published in 2022, Family Matters
Mini-Review: This one is an actual school novel, set in a fantasy Oxford whose translation magic powers the British Empire, and provides an unflinching portrait of colonialism. And as fascinating as the linguistic magic was, the highlight for me was a lead character grappling with a place that has given him his heart’s desire but that will never fully accept him as one of their own—nor will they refrain from using his gifts against his native land.
Rating: 18/20
Cliff Severity: If I keep reading this many standalones, it’s gonna ruin the whole cliff severity bit.
5. Dust and Light by Carol Berg
Categories: Family Matters (hard), Book Club (hard), Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey (hard), Mental Health (hard)
Mini-Review: If you’ve read Carol Berg, you know to expect tight focus on a lead who will go through absolute hell before coming out on the other side. This one sets up a neat puzzle with a lead whose magic art gives him knowledge others would like hidden, and there’s no lack for danger along the way.
Rating: 18/20
Cliff Severity: This is a duology and should be read as such. The cliffhanger isn’t as bad as others I’ve read, but it still sets up a major step into the unknown.
6. Neom by Lavie Tidhar
Categories: Non-human Protagonist, Indie Published (hard), Published in 2022, Mental Health, No Ifs Ands Or Buts
Mini-Review: It’s a short novel that flits through a surprising number of perspective characters, feeling more like mythology in a futuristic context than like a traditional sci-fi (never mind the robot main character). But it’s a beautiful and touching read that deserves more attention.
Rating: 17/20
Cliff Severity: Reads like a standalone, even though there’s at least one other novel (Central Station) and other stories in this universe.
7. She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
Categories: Book Club (hard), Revolutions and Rebellions (hard), Historical SFF (hard), Anti-hero, BIPOC Author, Family Matters
Mini-Review: This is Chinese historical fiction with a thin veneer of magic, but both the magic and the politics are secondary to an exploration of several characters who don’t fit into their culture’s expectations of their gender. It's intensely character-driven and altogether fascinating.
Rating: 17/20
Cliff Severity: This is a duology and leaves plenty to do for the second book, but there’s enough payoff in the first to make it feel worthwhile by itself.
8. Into the Riverlands by Nghi Vo
Categories: BIPOC Author, Cool Weapon, Published in 2022, Revolution or Rebellion.
Mini-Review: Traveling companions swap larger-than-life stories during their time on the road. And then they experience some larger-than-life stories. Despite the mortal danger, this feels like a small-scale piece, and it’s a gorgeous one.
Rating: 17/20
Cliff Severity: This is the third book in a novella series that’s explicitly meant to be readable in any order. The main characters carry over, but there’s no cliffhanger.
9. The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers
Categories: LGBTQIA List, Book Club (hard), Family Matters, Non-human Protagonist (hard), Mental Health (hard)
Mini-Review: And here is an undoubtedly small-scale piece, as a group of people from various non-human races have to deal with unexpectedly prolonged proximity after an emergency leaves them bunkered down together at a rest stop in space. Recommended for fans of character-driven sci-fi, especially ones who don’t mind the society-scale problems left unresolved while the small-scale problems are addressed.
Rating: 17/20
Cliff Severity: Again, this is part of a series, but many characters come and go—this one feels readable as a standalone.
10. A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow
Categories: Award Finalist, Book Club (hard), Author Uses Initials, Cool Weapon
Mini-Review: How do you rate a very fun, fast-paced fractured fairy tale that you’ll blow through in no time but forget about in a month? It’s hard for me to call this an essential read, but it is so good at what it does, with a lot of humor and a few moments of real poignancy.
Rating: 17/20
Cliff Severity: Another novella series where each is meant to be readable as a standalone.
11. Iron Truth by S.A. Tholin
Categories: Weird Ecology (hard), Self-Published (hard), No Ifs Ands Or Buts, Family Matters.
Mini-Review: This is a giant hunk of epic sci-fi/horroromance, as a woman crash-landed on an inhospitable planet tries to find her brother, while a military leader and his squad seek to retrieve the secrets from a disappeared ship, and an even greater danger lurks underneath it all. This takes some patience, but the payoff is real—a well-deserving winner of the first SPSFC.
Rating: 16/20
Cliff Severity: The main plot resolves, but in a way that asks a whole lot of questions of the sequel.
12. The Last Gifts of the Universe by Rory August
Categories: Self-Published, Published in 2022 (hard), Standalone (hard), Family Matters, Mental Health (hard).
Mini-Review: A fun sci-fi story about excavating dead civilizations—to hopefully find the secrets behind their death—turns into an exploration of grief with a surprisingly touching romantic subplot. Strong (and short!) character-driven space opera.
Rating: 16/20
Cliff Severity: Standalone!
13. City of Last Chances by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Categories: Antihero, Standalone (hard), Mental Health (hard), Revolutions and Rebellions (hard), Published in 2022.
Mini-Review: A mosaic novel about a revolution in a weird fantasy city, with a whole host of wildly self-interested characters working at cross-purposes. The writing is engrossing and the politics are fascinating, although there aren’t many characters who are especially sympathetic.
Rating: 16/20
Cliff-Severity: Another standalone!
14. Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki
Categories: Wibby Wobbly Timey Wimey (hard), Book Club (hard), Standalone (hard), No Ifs Ands Or Buts (hard), Family Matters (hard), BIPOC Author.
Mini-Review: The tight character focus on a trans violinist running away from home makes this worth the read, as do the lush Californian setting and outstanding descriptions of both music and food. A sci-fi subplot and an ending that’s more than a bit too neat detract from the overall package, but the strengths are enough to make this well worth the read.
Rating: 16/20
Cliff Severity: Another standalone!
15. The Magazine of Science Fiction & Fantasy, March/April 2023, edited by Sheree Renée Thomas
Categories: Two or More Authors (hard), Five Short Stories (hard)
Mini-Review: 16 stories, along with some poetry and book reviews, and nearly all of them are good. The Black Mirror-like “Piggyback Girl” and the whimsical “The Weremouse of Millicent Bradley Middle School” stand out from the rest, but there are a couple entertaining fairy tales, an excellent piece of sword-and-sorcery, a novelette about a cat buying a dragon, and plenty more fun.
Rating: 15/20
Cliff Severity: More short stories—some of these actually connect to existing universes (including the Neom world), but they’re readable on their own.
16. The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik
Categories: Urban Fantasy, Features Mental Health, Family Matters, Published in 2022.
Mini-Review: Pays off on so many of the seeds planted in the first two books, with more than one absolutely outstanding sequence featuring edge-of-your-seat tension and buckets of thematic depth. But it’s a bit uneven, with a slow and frustrating start and an ending that felt a little too neat. Definitely worth the read for fans of the first two but probably isn’t for anyone who didn’t enjoy A Deadly Education.
Rating: 15/20
Cliff Severity: Last book in a trilogy, so it ends things. You can’t really start here though.
17. Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
Categories: Published in 2022, Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey, Family Matters
Mini-Review: I expected beautiful prose and excellent character work across all four timelines, and I got good prose and good character work. Some of the pandemic sections felt a hair too on-the-nose, but there was plenty to get me invested. The science fiction elements generally worked fine, though it’s not a book that really breaks new ground on plot. Overall, it’s a solid read, though not one where I totally understand the “best of the year” hype.
Rating: 15/20
Cliff Severity: This is readable as a standalone, but I have been told it is loosely connected to other books in the same world.
18. The Hand of the Sun King by J.T. Greathouse
Categories: Shapeshifters (hard), Author Uses Initials (hard), Family Matters (hard), Award Finalist (hard), Revolutions and Rebellions (hard), Book Club (hard).
Mini-Review: This is structured almost like four related novellas, with each section rising to its own climax before skipping ahead to the next step in the character’s journey. The main character progresses nicely, and there’s enough plot development to make for an intriguing setup, though there’s plenty left to do in the sequel.
Rating: 15/20
Cliff Severity: Another one that makes a lot of progress but leaves lots and lots of work for the second in the duology.
19. Dead Silence by S.A Barnes
Categories: Set in Space, Book Club (hard), Mental Health (hard), Standalone (hard), Published in 2022 (hard), Author Uses Initials, No Ifs Ands Or Buts.
Mini-Review: This promises a haunted house in space and delivers a haunted house in space. Even as a relative horror neophyte, I was able to predict most of the plot, but the atmosphere is good enough to make it a plenty engaging read regardless.
Rating: 15/20
Cliff Severity: Standalone!
20. Dead Star by Simon Kewin
Categories: No Ifs Ands Or Buts, Self-Published, Set in Space (hard), Revolutions or Rebellions (hard), Family Matters.
Mini-Review: This is a fast-paced, planet-hopping adventure about digging into the secret history beyond the sudden and mystifying rise of a small religious sect to galactic hegemony. The villains are a bit over-the-top, and I’d have liked to see more of the story in the first book, but it’s short and very hard to put down.
Rating: 15/20
Cliff Severity: This is the worst cliffhanger on the card. It reaches a waystation on the full trilogy arc, but so many of the driving questions are left for the sequels.
21. Across the Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire
Categories: Revolutions and Rebellions, Book Club (hard), LGBTQIA List, Mental Health (hard).
Mini-Review: It’s a really touching found family story in which a horse-loving intersex protagonist finds a home in the portal world of the Hooflands, but with a rushed and uninspiring revolution filling out the plot. The description of childhood bullying and cultural expectations of femininity calcifying as early as elementary school are all too real and expertly done. And if the ending doesn’t maintain the level of quality, the beginning is still enough to recommend it.
Rating: 15/20
Cliff Severity: Deep into a full series, but I believe it’s meant as an alternate entry point. I’m not sure I buy it as an alternate entry point, but the story is mostly self-contained, with the inevitable connection to the rest of the universe.
22. A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark
Categories: Set in Africa (hard), Urban Fantasy (hard), Shapeshifters (hard), Book Club (hard), Author Uses Initials (hard), BIPOC Author.
Mini-Review: Stunning worldbuilding, mediocre mystery plot. Like many of the 15/20 stories, there’s a five-star element and a three-star element mixed together. Here, the magic-infused, steampunk alt history Cairo is the true star, carrying a mystery that’s otherwise the dashing protagonist jumping from action sequence to action sequence.
Rating: 15/20
Cliff Severity: It’s a detective story in a world where the same detective has other stories. No problem reading it by itself.
23. The Past is Red by Catherynne M. Valente
Categories: Author Uses Initials, Book Club (hard).
Mini-Review: This is an expansion of an award-winning novelette with a fascinating and unique narrative voice. It takes place on a floating trash island after climate disaster, and like many climate stories, relies heavily on worldbuilding. For me, the worldbuilding wasn’t enough to sustain full power over novella length, but the main character’s narration kept things interesting.
Rating: 15/20
Cliff Severity: This is an expansion of a previous novelette and can easily be read alone.
24. The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez
Categories: Cool Weapon, Published in 2022, BIPOC Author, Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey (hard), Shapeshifters, Mental Health (hard), Family Matters (hard), Revolutions and Rebellions (hard).
Mini-Review: Gorgeous prose and a stunningly creative narrative structure buttress a fairly straightforward central story long on violence and…well, long. Unlike some stories higher on my own list, it’s very easy for me to see why some have this as their top story of the year—it takes risks and has a few elements that are absolutely knocked out of the park. But it’s just too long to live on prose and structural experiments alone, and the characters and plot are competently drawn but not quite riveting. Put simply, there’s some exceptional work here, but there are too many slow spots.
Rating: 15/20
Cliff Severity: Standalone!
25. Rose/House by Arkady Martine
Categories: Name in the Title, Standalone (hard), Mental Health (hard), No Ifs Ands Or Buts.
Mini-Review: Apparently I haven’t read many stories with names in them this year, so I have to use the name of an AI house to fill out the card. It hurts me to squeeze out an entry that would’ve easily been top ten in A Desolation Called Peace, but unplanned Bingo can be capricious. At any rate, this one looks like a locked room murder mystery but reads more like a fever dream. It’s a beautiful fever dream with lots of meditation in personhood, but it’s also hard to know just what to take away in the end.
Rating: 14/20
Cliff Severity: Standalone!
Lessons from unplanned Bingo:

• I thought this would be easy, and I suppose I successfully completed the challenge with literally zero advanced planning, so pats on the back for me. But I had to stretch for a couple squares that I noticed in late March hadn’t been obviously filled—particularly Weird Ecology and Name in the Title. I think my choices fit the squares, but I hadn’t noted them down as fits in the immediate aftermath of reading.
• As usual, there were a couple subjective squares that could be filled by seemingly everything. Does anything I read not address mental health and family? Perhaps not. Or perhaps I wasn’t strict enough defining those squares (though my ultimate choices were excellent fits, if I do say so myself).
• On the other hand, I don’t read much urban fantasy, antiheroes, or books with cool weapons. Or a whole lot with shapeshifters, though I was surprised to see them arise more than once. Award Finalist was also tricky, as I read so many books that were currently up for awards—after all, I led the Hugo Readalong and judged for SPSFC—and I had no way of knowing at the time whether they would win.
• Unplanned Bingo didn’t really take away my enjoyment of Bingo. The logic puzzle at the end is fun, but it’s the brainstorming thread at the beginning that makes this my absolute favorite reading challenge.
• In using the same template as my recap post from last year, I was able to notice a few interesting coincidences. For instance, I had an R.F. Kuang novel 4th and my Self-Published square 12th two years running. But in general, my scores were higher this year. Either I’m getting soft with my ratings, or I’m finding more and more good books.

Good Evening,
Any help is appreciated.
The server was more or less fine apart from some issues with FTBChunks / FTBTeams. These where rectified by promoting people to server admins. As this is a server between friends it should not have caused an issues (If you need more information on this please let me know) please correct me if I am wrong.
Server Description: The server is built around Tech & Trains - 1.3.2 and has mods added for ease of life purposes. Java version when working is 15 and after diagnostics (see below), this is running again on 15 after removing the ImmersiveRailroading-1.16.5-forge-1.9.1 mod.
Gameplay Description: For the best part this has been fine, as above we had some issues with chunks and teams.
Server Crash: I built scaffolding from IR (Immersive Railroading) and when hit with the wrench this crashed the server (crash report below).
Error: The server boots but crash's shortly after (5 seconds) loading the world.
Diagnostics in order so far:

• Installed Java 13
  • removed Java 15
• Removed Java 13 & 15
• Installed Java 18
  • Removed Java 18
• Installed Java 17
  • Removed Java 17
• Installed Java 16
  • Removed Java 16

Reason for so many Java Installs is the Java Version didn't recognise the install files for being outdated or post-dated and was suggested on other forums.

• Installed Java 15
  • Booted and crashed
  • Removed ImmersiveRailroading-1.16.5-forge-1.9.1 and the server booted with warnings about missing blocks.

Backups: I am not aware that I setup any backups (After the first issue I should have done and its an oversight) for the world folder, but if this is automatic by default then I can restore the world and remove the mod (will reintroduce but only when tested). When booting without the IR Mod it did say it had made a backup of the world to the save location
Crash Report:

---- Minecraft Crash Report ---- // Shall we play a game? Time: 29/03/2023, 21:52 Description: Exception ticking world java.lang.RuntimeException: cam72cam.mod.serialization.SerializationException: Unable to access field container in class class cam72cam.immersiverailroading.tile.TileMultiblock at cam72cam.mod.block.tile.TileEntity.func_189515_b(TileEntity.java:229) ~[universalmodcore:1.1.3] {re:classloading} at cam72cam.mod.block.tile.TileEntity.getUpdateTag(TileEntity.java:256) ~[universalmodcore:1.1.3] {re:classloading} at cam72cam.mod.block.tile.TileEntity.func_189518_D_(TileEntity.java:239) ~[universalmodcore:1.1.3] {re:classloading} at net.minecraft.world.server.ChunkHolder.func_219305_a(ChunkHolder.java:217) ~[?:?] {re:classloading,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A} at net.minecraft.world.server.ChunkHolder.func_244385_a(ChunkHolder.java:209) ~[?:?] {re:classloading,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A} at net.minecraft.world.server.ChunkHolder.func_244387_b(ChunkHolder.java:195) ~[?:?] {re:classloading,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A} at net.minecraft.network.play.server.SMultiBlockChangePacket.func_244310_a(SourceFile:79) ~[?:?] {re:mixin,pl:accesstransformer:B,re:classloading,pl:accesstransformer:B,pl:mixin:APP:ftbchunks-common.mixins.json:ClientboundSectionBlocksUpdatePacketMixin,pl:mixin:A} at net.minecraft.world.server.ChunkHolder.func_219274_a(ChunkHolder.java:194) ~[?:?] {re:classloading,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A} at net.minecraft.world.server.ServerChunkProvider.func_241099_a_(ServerChunkProvider.java:355) ~[?:?] {re:classloading,pl:accesstransformer:B,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A} at java.util.ArrayList.forEach(ArrayList.java:1511) ~[?:?] {} at net.minecraft.world.server.ServerChunkProvider.func_217220_m(ServerChunkProvider.java:351) ~[?:?] {re:classloading,pl:accesstransformer:B,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A} at net.minecraft.world.server.ServerChunkProvider.func_217207_a(ServerChunkProvider.java:326) ~[?:?] {re:classloading,pl:accesstransformer:B,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A} at net.minecraft.world.server.ServerWorld.func_72835_b(ServerWorld.java:333) ~[?:?] {re:mixin,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A,re:classloading,pl:mixin:APP:immersiveengineering.mixins.json:coremods.ServerWorldMixin,pl:mixin:A,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A} at net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer.func_71190_q(MinecraftServer.java:851) ~[?:?] {re:classloading,pl:accesstransformer:B,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A} at net.minecraft.server.dedicated.DedicatedServer.func_71190_q(DedicatedServer.java:291) ~[?:?] {re:classloading,pl:accesstransformer:B} at net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer.func_71217_p(MinecraftServer.java:787) ~[?:?] {re:classloading,pl:accesstransformer:B,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A} at net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer.func_240802_v_(MinecraftServer.java:642) ~[?:?] {re:classloading,pl:accesstransformer:B,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A} at net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer.func_240783_a_(MinecraftServer.java:232) ~[?:?] {re:classloading,pl:accesstransformer:B,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A} at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:832) [?:?] {} Caused by: cam72cam.mod.serialization.SerializationException: Unable to access field container in class class cam72cam.immersiverailroading.tile.TileMultiblock at cam72cam.mod.serialization.TagSerializer.init(TagSerializer.java:68) ~[universalmodcore:1.1.3] {re:classloading} at cam72cam.mod.serialization.TagSerializer.serialize(TagSerializer.java:155) ~[universalmodcore:1.1.3] {re:classloading} at cam72cam.mod.block.tile.TileEntity.func_189515_b(TileEntity.java:225) ~[universalmodcore:1.1.3] {re:classloading} ... 18 more Caused by: java.lang.NoSuchFieldException: modifiers at java.lang.Class.getDeclaredField(Class.java:2569) ~[?:?] {} at cam72cam.mod.serialization.TagSerializer.init(TagSerializer.java:64) ~[universalmodcore:1.1.3] {re:classloading} at cam72cam.mod.serialization.TagSerializer.serialize(TagSerializer.java:155) ~[universalmodcore:1.1.3] {re:classloading} at cam72cam.mod.block.tile.TileEntity.func_189515_b(TileEntity.java:225) ~[universalmodcore:1.1.3] {re:classloading} ... 18 more A detailed walkthrough of the error, its code path and all known details is as follows: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Head -- Thread: Server thread Stacktrace: at cam72cam.mod.block.tile.TileEntity.func_189515_b(TileEntity.java:229) ~[universalmodcore:1.1.3] {re:classloading} at cam72cam.mod.block.tile.TileEntity.getUpdateTag(TileEntity.java:256) ~[universalmodcore:1.1.3] {re:classloading} at cam72cam.mod.block.tile.TileEntity.func_189518_D_(TileEntity.java:239) ~[universalmodcore:1.1.3] {re:classloading} at net.minecraft.world.server.ChunkHolder.func_219305_a(ChunkHolder.java:217) ~[?:?] {re:classloading,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A} at net.minecraft.world.server.ChunkHolder.func_244385_a(ChunkHolder.java:209) ~[?:?] {re:classloading,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A} at net.minecraft.world.server.ChunkHolder.func_244387_b(ChunkHolder.java:195) ~[?:?] {re:classloading,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A} at net.minecraft.network.play.server.SMultiBlockChangePacket.func_244310_a(SourceFile:79) ~[?:?] {re:mixin,pl:accesstransformer:B,re:classloading,pl:accesstransformer:B,pl:mixin:APP:ftbchunks-common.mixins.json:ClientboundSectionBlocksUpdatePacketMixin,pl:mixin:A} at net.minecraft.world.server.ChunkHolder.func_219274_a(ChunkHolder.java:194) ~[?:?] {re:classloading,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A} at net.minecraft.world.server.ServerChunkProvider.func_241099_a_(ServerChunkProvider.java:355) ~[?:?] {re:classloading,pl:accesstransformer:B,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A} at java.util.ArrayList.forEach(ArrayList.java:1511) ~[?:?] {} at net.minecraft.world.server.ServerChunkProvider.func_217220_m(ServerChunkProvider.java:351) ~[?:?] {re:classloading,pl:accesstransformer:B,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A} at net.minecraft.world.server.ServerChunkProvider.func_217207_a(ServerChunkProvider.java:326) ~[?:?] {re:classloading,pl:accesstransformer:B,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A} at net.minecraft.world.server.ServerWorld.func_72835_b(ServerWorld.java:333) ~[?:?] {re:mixin,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A,re:classloading,pl:mixin:APP:immersiveengineering.mixins.json:coremods.ServerWorldMixin,pl:mixin:A,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A} -- Affected level -- Details: All players: 0 total; [] Chunk stats: ServerChunkCache: 3338 Level dimension: minecraft:overworld Level spawn location: World: (-1230,63,782), Chunk: (at 2,3,14 in -77,48; contains blocks -1232,0,768 to -1217,255,783), Region: (-3,1; contains chunks -96,32 to -65,63, blocks -1536,0,512 to -1025,255,1023) Level time: 20137025 game time, 21845635 day time Level name: Tech & Trains Level game mode: Game mode: survival (ID 0). Hardcore: false. Cheats: false Level weather: Rain time: 136136 (now: false), thunder time: 133239 (now: false) Known server brands: forge Level was modded: true Level storage version: 0x04ABD - Anvil Stacktrace: at net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer.func_71190_q(MinecraftServer.java:851) ~[?:?] {re:classloading,pl:accesstransformer:B,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A} at net.minecraft.server.dedicated.DedicatedServer.func_71190_q(DedicatedServer.java:291) ~[?:?] {re:classloading,pl:accesstransformer:B} at net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer.func_71217_p(MinecraftServer.java:787) ~[?:?] {re:classloading,pl:accesstransformer:B,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A} at net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer.func_240802_v_(MinecraftServer.java:642) ~[?:?] {re:classloading,pl:accesstransformer:B,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A} at net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer.func_240783_a_(MinecraftServer.java:232) ~[?:?] {re:classloading,pl:accesstransformer:B,pl:runtimedistcleaner:A} at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:832) [?:?] {} -- System Details -- Details: Minecraft Version: 1.16.5 Minecraft Version ID: 1.16.5 Operating System: Windows 10 (amd64) version 10.0 Java Version: 15.0.2, Oracle Corporation Java VM Version: Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (mixed mode, sharing), Oracle Corporation Memory: 2034536568 bytes (1940 MB) / 4299161600 bytes (4100 MB) up to 4299161600 bytes (4100 MB) CPUs: 8 JVM Flags: 2 total; -Xmx4098M -Xms4098M ModLauncher: 8.0.9+86+master.3cf110c ModLauncher launch target: fmlserver ModLauncher naming: srg ModLauncher services: /mixin-0.8.2.jar mixin PLUGINSERVICE /eventbus-4.0.0.jar eventbus PLUGINSERVICE /forgeserver.jar object_holder_definalize PLUGINSERVICE /forgeserver.jar runtime_enum_extender PLUGINSERVICE /forgeserver.jar capability_inject_definalize PLUGINSERVICE /accesstransformers-3.0.1.jar accesstransformer PLUGINSERVICE /forgeserver.jar runtimedistcleaner PLUGINSERVICE /mixin-0.8.2.jar mixin TRANSFORMATIONSERVICE /forgeserver.jar fml TRANSFORMATIONSERVICE FML: 36.2 Forge: net.minecraftforge:36.2.4 FML Language Providers: [email protected] [email protected] Mod List: supermartijn642configlib-1.1.6-forge-mc1.16.jar SuperMartijn642's Config Librasupermartijn642configlib 1.1.6 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE justenoughbeacons-3.1-1.16.3.jar Just Enough Beacons justenoughbeacons 3.1-1.16.3 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE NetherPortalFix_1.16.3-7.2.1.jar NetherPortalFix netherportalfix 7.2.1 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE ProjectE-1.16.5-PE1.0.1B.jar ProjectE projecte PE1.0.1B DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE mcw-windows-2.0.0-mc1.16.5.jar Macaw's Windows mcwwindows 2.0.0 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE Industrial Agriculture[Core]-1.16.5-1.8.11.jar Industrial Agriculture industrialagriculture 1.16.5-1.8.11 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE rsgauges-1.16.4-1.2.11.jar Gauges and Switches rsgauges 1.2.11 DONE Manifest: bf:30:76:97:e4:58:41:61:2a:f4:30:d3:8f:4c:e3:71:1d:14:c4:a1:4e:85:36:e3:1d:aa:2f:cb:22:b0:04:9b Neat 1.7-27.jar Neat neat 1.7-27 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE IronJetpacks-1.16.4-4.1.3.jar Iron Jetpacks ironjetpacks 4.1.3 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE AdvancementPlusMekanismAddon-1.2.1.jar Advancement Plus - Mekanism Admekanismextension 1.2.1 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE CTM-MC1.16.1-1.1.2.6.jar ConnectedTexturesMod ctm MC1.16.1-1.1.2.6 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE Controlling-7.0.0.24.jar Controlling controlling 7.0.0.24 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE Powah-1.16.5-2.3.16.jar Powah powah 2.3.16 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE rangedpumps-0.8.2.jar Ranged Pumps rangedpumps 0.8.2 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE Bookshelf-Forge-1.16.5-10.2.27.jar Bookshelf bookshelf 10.2.27 DONE Manifest: eb:c4:b1:67:8b:f9:0c:db:dc:4f:01:b1:8e:61:64:39:4c:10:85:0b:a6:c4:c7:48:f0:fa:95:f2:cb:08:3a:e5 featuredservers-1.16.5-1.0.9.jar Featured Servers featuredservers 1.16.5-1.0.9 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE endercrop-1.16.5-1.6.0-beta.jar Ender Crop endercrop 1.16.5-1.6.0-beta DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE sophisticatedbackpacks-1.16.5-3.2.12.337.jar Sophisticated Backpacks sophisticatedbackpacks 1.16.5-3.2.12.337 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE randompatches-2.4.4-forge.jar RandomPatches randompatches 2.4.4-forge DONE Manifest: 92:f6:29:d4:09:89:f5:f5:98:5e:20:34:31:d0:7b:58:22:06:bd:a5:d1:6a:92:6e:ac:3d:8d:18:c5:b2:5b:d7 ExCompressum_1.16.5-4.0.5.jar Ex Compressum excompressum 4.0.5 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE buildinggadgets-1.16.5-3.8.0.jar Building Gadgets buildinggadgets 3.8.0 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE DarkUtilities-1.16.5-8.0.10.jar Dark Utilities darkutils 8.0.10 DONE Manifest: eb:c4:b1:67:8b:f9:0c:db:dc:4f:01:b1:8e:61:64:39:4c:10:85:0b:a6:c4:c7:48:f0:fa:95:f2:cb:08:3a:e5 mcw-doors-1.0.3-mc1.16.5.jar Macaw's Doors mcwdoors 1.0.3 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE Morpheus-1.16.5-4.2.70.jar Morpheus morpheus 4.2.70 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE MekanismGenerators-1.16.5-10.0.21.448.jar Mekanism: Generators mekanismgenerators 10.0.21 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE Hwyla-forge-1.10.11-B78_1.16.2.jar Waila waila 1.10.11-B78_1.16.2 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE JustEnoughResources-1.16.5-0.12.1.128.jar Just Enough Resources jeresources 0.12.1.128 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE shetiphiancore-1.16-3.8.5.jar ShetiPhian-Core shetiphiancore 3.8.5 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE mob_grinding_utils-1.16.5-0.4.47.jar Mob Grinding Utils mob_grinding_utils 1.16.5-0.4.47 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE mcw-bridges-1.0.6-mc1.16.5.jar Macaw's Bridges mcwbridges 1.0.6 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE industrial-foregoing-1.16.5-3.2.14.6-14.jar Industrial Foregoing industrialforegoing 3.2.14.6 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE torchmaster-2.3.7.jar Torchmaster torchmaster 2.3.7 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE endertanks-1.16-1.9.5.jar EnderTanks endertanks 1.9.5 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE AmbientSounds_v3.1.9_mc1.16.5.jar Ambient Sounds ambientsounds 3.0.3 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE MekanismAdditions-1.16.5-10.0.21.448.jar Mekanism: Additions mekanismadditions 10.0.21 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE valkyrielib-1.16.5-3.0.9.5.jar ValkyrieLib valkyrielib 1.16.5-3.0.9.5 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE envirocore-1.16.5-3.0.9.3.jar Environmental Core envirocore 1.16.5-3.0.9.3 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE envirotech-1.16.5-3.0.9.4.jar Environmental Tech envirotech 1.16.5-3.0.9.4 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE Lollipop-1.16.5-3.2.9.jar Lollipop lollipop 3.2.9 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE ironfurnaces-1.16.5-2.7.4.jar Iron Furnaces ironfurnaces 2.7.4 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE mcw-trapdoors-1.0.2-mc1.16.5.jar Macaw's Trapdoors mcwtrpdoors 1.0.2 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE mcw-fences-1.0.0-mc1.16.5.jar Macaw's Fences and Walls mcwfences 1.0.0 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE supermartijn642corelib-1.1.5-forge-mc1.16.jar SuperMartijn642's Core Lib supermartijn642corelib 1.1.5 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE TrackAPI-1.16.4-forge-1.2.1.jar TrackAPI trackapi 1.2 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE SolarFluxReborn-1.16.3-16.2.5.jar Solar Flux Reborn solarflux 16.2.5 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE Patchouli-1.16.4-53.1.jar Patchouli patchouli 1.16.4-53.1 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE collective-1.16.5-2.64.jar Collective collective 2.64 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE OreExcavation-1.8.157.jar Ore Excavation oreexcavation 1.8.157 DONE Manifest: e7:68:1c:0d:b9:7e:cf:f8:f3:40:9c:84:c5:39:d7:a4:59:78:b0:6b:c3:fd:b7:4f:69:18:a3:88:e3:76:8c:3f BetterThirdPerson-Forge-1.16.4-1.5.1.jar Better Third Person betterthirdperson 1.5.1 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE elevatorid-1.16.5-1.7.13.jar Elevator Mod elevatorid 1.16.5-1.7.13 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE GunpowderLib-1.16.5-1.2.2.jar GunpowderLib gunpowderlib 1.16.5-1.2.2 DONE Manifest: 2e:cb:db:61:22:2a:6d:79:f4:22:31:8c:34:9b:cf:9f:91:ea:95:c4:bf:bb:8a:de:6e:10:c3:f0:b1:c6:ae:20 Runelic-1.16.5-7.0.2.jar Runelic runelic 7.0.2 DONE Manifest: eb:c4:b1:67:8b:f9:0c:db:dc:4f:01:b1:8e:61:64:39:4c:10:85:0b:a6:c4:c7:48:f0:fa:95:f2:cb:08:3a:e5 MekanismTools-1.16.5-10.0.21.448.jar Mekanism: Tools mekanismtools 10.0.21 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE constructionwand-1.16.5-2.4.jar Construction Wand constructionwand 1.16.5-2.4 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE mcw-roofs-2.0.1-mc1.16.5-4.jar Macaw's Roofs mcwroofs 2.0.1 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE cfm-7.0.0pre22-1.16.3.jar MrCrayfish's Furniture Mod cfm 7.0.0-pre22 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE architectury-1.22.32-forge.jar Architectury architectury 1.22.32 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE refinedcooking-1.0.2.jar Refined Cooking refinedcooking 1.0.2 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE CookingForBlockheads_1.16.5-9.3.4.jar Cooking for Blockheads cookingforblockheads 9.3.4 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE refinedstorage-1.9.15.jar Refined Storage refinedstorage 1.9.15 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE ExtraStorage-1.16.5-1.5.0.jar Extra Storage extrastorage 1.5.0 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE ImmersiveRailroading-1.16.5-forge-1.9.1.jar Immersive Railroading immersiverailroading 1.16.5-forge-1.9.1 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE Chargers-1.16.5-3.1.0.5.jar Chargers chargers 3.1.0.5 DONE Manifest: 15:a4:a3:0e:d2:f8:64:0c:a4:97:30:5f:48:ba:5f:69:f9:23:42:14:a8:5a:60:3a:b1:b1:29:1a:0a:37:3c:79 weirdinggadget-1.16.2-4-2.2.7.jar The Weirding Gadget weirdinggadget 2.2.7 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE light-overlay-5.8.1.jar Light Overlay lightoverlay 5.8.1 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE cloth-config-4.11.26-forge.jar Cloth Config v4 API cloth-config 4.11.26 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE trashcans-1.0.17-forge-mc1.16.jar Trash Cans trashcans 1.0.17 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE ftb-hide.jar TrayLauncher traylauncher 1.0 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE CobbleForDays-1.3.7.jar Cobble For Days cobblefordays 1.3.7 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE FastLeafDecay-v25.jar FastLeafDecay fastleafdecay v25 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE CodeChickenLib-1.16.5-4.0.7.445-universal.jar CodeChicken Lib codechickenlib 4.0.7.445 DONE Manifest: 31:e6:db:63:47:4a:6e:e0:0a:2c:11:d1:76:db:4e:82:ff:56:2d:29:93:d2:e5:02:bd:d3:bd:9d:27:47:a5:71 ServerTabInfo-1.16.4-1.3.3.jar Server Tab Info servertabinfo 1.3.3 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE mcw-lights-1.0.0-mc1.16.5.jar Macaw's Lights and Lamps mcwlights 1.0.0 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE Industrial Agriculture[Industrial Foregoing]-1.16.Industrial Agriculture Plugin-iapif 1.16.3-1.7.1 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE ImmersiveSignals-1.16.5-0.2.0.jar Immersive Signals immersivesignals 1.16.5-0.2.0 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE biggerreactors-1.16.5-0.5.1.jar Bigger Reactors biggerreactors 0.5.1 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE Cucumber-1.16.4-4.1.10.jar Cucumber Library cucumber 4.1.10 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE ftb-library-forge-1605.3.3-build.71.jar FTB Library ftblibrary 1605.3.3-build.71 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE ftb-teams-forge-1605.2.2-build.30.jar FTB Teams ftbteams 1605.2.2-build.30 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE rechiseled-1.0.12-forge-mc1.16.jar Rechiseled rechiseled 1.0.12 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE jei-1.16.5-7.7.1.121.jar Just Enough Items jei 7.7.1.121 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE Mekanism-1.16.5-10.0.21.448.jar Mekanism mekanism 10.0.21 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE MoreMekanismProcessing-1.16.5-1.1.jar More Mekanism Processing moremekanismprocessing 1.1 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE mcw-paintings-1.0.2-mc1.16.5.jar Macaw's Paintings mcwpaintings 1.0.2 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE Clumps-6.0.0.25.jar Clumps clumps 6.0.0.25 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE journeymap-1.16.5-5.7.1.jar Journeymap journeymap 5.7.1 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE comforts-forge-1.16.5-4.0.1.3.jar Comforts comforts 1.16.5-4.0.1.3 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE phosphophyllite-1.16.5-0.5.0.jar Phosphophyllite phosphophyllite 0.5.0 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE FarmingForBlockheads_1.16.5-7.3.1.jar Farming for Blockheads farmingforblockheads 7.3.1 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE beautifiedchatserver_1.16.5-1.0.jar Beautified Chat Server beautifiedchatserver 1.0 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE mcjtylib-1.16-5.1.7.jar McJtyLib mcjtylib 1.16-5.1.7 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE rftoolsbase-1.16-2.1.3.jar RFToolsBase rftoolsbase 1.16-2.1.3 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE EnderStorage-1.16.5-2.8.0.170-universal.jar EnderStorage enderstorage 2.8.0.170 DONE Manifest: 31:e6:db:63:47:4a:6e:e0:0a:2c:11:d1:76:db:4e:82:ff:56:2d:29:93:d2:e5:02:bd:d3:bd:9d:27:47:a5:71 rftoolspower-1.16-3.0.11.jar RFToolsPower rftoolspower 1.16-3.0.11 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE ImmersivePetroleum-1.16.5-3.3.0-6.jar Immersive Petroleum immersivepetroleum 3.3.0-6 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE ftb-chunks-forge-1605.3.1-build.50.jar FTB Chunks ftbchunks 1605.3.1-build.50 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE forge-1.16.5-36.2.4-universal.jar Forge forge 36.2.4 DONE Manifest: 22:af:21:d8:19:82:7f:93:94:fe:2b:ac:b7:e4:41:57:68:39:87:b1:a7:5c:c6:44:f9:25:74:21:14:f5:0d:90 WithoutALib-1.16.5-0.1.4.jar WithoutALib withoutalib 1.16.5-0.1.4 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE immersiveposts-1.16.5-4.2.2.jar Immersive Posts immersiveposts 4.2.0 DONE Manifest: d5:aa:49:67:b7:dd:64:8a:a4:7d:3e:57:12:6b:f9:3f:e8:5e:6b:24:d9:f9:c5:fb:c5:e7:a0:cf:98:64:dc:d0 MysticalAgriculture-1.16.5-4.2.2.jar Mystical Agriculture mysticalagriculture 4.2.2 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE MysticalAgradditions-1.16.5-4.2.1.jar Mystical Agradditions mysticalagradditions 4.2.1 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE matc-1.1.2.jar Mystical Agriculture Tiered Crmatc 1.1.2 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE ironchest-1.16.5-11.2.13.jar Iron Chests ironchest 1.16.5-11.2.13 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE UniversalModCore-1.16.5-forge-1.1.3.jar Universal Mod Core universalmodcore 1.1.3 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE forge-1.16.5-36.2.4-server.jar Minecraft minecraft 1.16.5 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE cofh_core-1.16.5-1.3.1.jar CoFH Core cofh_core 1.3.1 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE thermal_foundation-1.16.5-1.3.2.jar Thermal Series thermal 1.3.2 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE thermal_innovation-1.16.5-1.3.0.jar Thermal Innovation thermal_innovation 1.3.0 DONE Manifest: 75:0b:cc:9b:64:2e:9b:c4:41:d1:95:00:71:ee:87:1a:b3:5e:4b:da:8e:e8:39:00:fd:5d:e5:9c:40:42:33:09 thermal_expansion-1.16.5-1.3.0.jar Thermal Expansion thermal_expansion 1.3.0 DONE Manifest: 75:0b:cc:9b:64:2e:9b:c4:41:d1:95:00:71:ee:87:1a:b3:5e:4b:da:8e:e8:39:00:fd:5d:e5:9c:40:42:33:09 thermal_locomotion-1.16.5-1.3.0.jar Thermal Locomotion thermal_locomotion 1.3.0 DONE Manifest: 75:0b:cc:9b:64:2e:9b:c4:41:d1:95:00:71:ee:87:1a:b3:5e:4b:da:8e:e8:39:00:fd:5d:e5:9c:40:42:33:09 TConstruct-1.16.5-3.1.2.265.jar Tinkers' Construct tconstruct 3.1.2.265 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE WailaHarvestability-mc1.16.x-forge-1.1.15.jar Waila Harvestability wailaharvestability 1.1.15 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE EnchantmentDescriptions-1.16.5-7.0.12.jar EnchantmentDescriptions enchdesc 7.0.12 DONE Manifest: eb:c4:b1:67:8b:f9:0c:db:dc:4f:01:b1:8e:61:64:39:4c:10:85:0b:a6:c4:c7:48:f0:fa:95:f2:cb:08:3a:e5 swingthroughgrass-1.16.4-1.5.3.jar SwingThroughGrass swingthroughgrass 1.16.4-1.5.3 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE MouseTweaks-2.14-mc1.16.2.jar Mouse Tweaks mousetweaks 2.14 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE titanium-1.16.5-3.2.8.5-20.jar Titanium titanium 3.2.8.5 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE ImmersiveEngineering-1.16.5-5.0.3-138.jar Immersive Engineering immersiveengineering 1.16.5-5.0.3-138 DONE Manifest: 44:39:94:cf:1d:8c:be:3c:7f:a9:ee:f4:1e:63:a5:ac:61:f9:c2:87:d5:5b:d9:d6:8c:b5:3e:96:5d:8e:3f:b7 EntityCulling-1.16.5-2.1.6.jar Entity Culling entity_culling 2.1.6 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE Exchangers-1.16.5-3.0.2.jar Exchangers exchangers 1.16.5-3.0.2 DONE Manifest: 2e:cb:db:61:22:2a:6d:79:f4:22:31:8c:34:9b:cf:9f:91:ea:95:c4:bf:bb:8a:de:6e:10:c3:f0:b1:c6:ae:20 CreativeCore_v2.2.1_mc1.16.5.jar CreativeCore creativecore 2.0.0 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE simple-rpc-1.16.5-2.3.1.jar Simple RPC simple-rpc 1.16.5-version DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE rftoolsbuilder-1.16-3.1.8.jar RFToolsBuilder rftoolsbuilder 1.16-3.1.8 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE jeiintegration_1.16.5-7.0.1.15.jar JEI Integration jeiintegration 7.0.1.15 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE pipez-1.16.5-1.2.15.jar Pipez pipez 1.16.5-1.2.15 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE Mantle-1.16.5-1.6.123.jar Mantle mantle 1.6.123 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE gravestone-1.16.5-1.0.7.jar Gravestone Mod gravestone 1.16.5-1.0.7 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE JustEnoughProfessions-1.16.5-1.2.1.jar Just Enough Professions (JEP) justenoughprofessions 1.2.1 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE StorageDrawers-1.16.3-8.5.2.jar Storage Drawers storagedrawers 8.5.2 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE FluxNetworks-1.16.5-6.2.1.14.jar Flux Networks fluxnetworks 6.2.1.14 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE enderchests-1.16-1.7.7.jar EnderChests enderchests 1.7.7 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE SolarHelmet-1.16.5-1.2.1.jar SolarHelmet solarhelmet 1.2.1 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE appleskin-forge-mc1.16.x-2.1.0.jar AppleSkin appleskin mc1.16.4-2.1.0 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE Chisel-MC1.16.5-2.0.1-alpha.4.jar Chisel chisel MC1.16.5-2.0.1-alphaDONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE Industrial Agriculture[Mekanism]-1.16.3-1.7.1.jar Industrial Agriculture Plugin-iapmekanism 1.16.3-1.7.1 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE refinedstorageaddons-0.7.3.jar Refined Storage Addons refinedstorageaddons 0.7.3 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE exnihilosequentia-1.16-20210628182320.jar Ex Nihilo: Sequentia exnihilosequentia 1.16-20210628182320 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE chiselsandbits-1.0.43.jar Chisels & bits chiselsandbits 1.0.43 DONE Manifest: NOSIGNATURE Crash Report UUID: 5deab625-1ba5-4d7e-9506-5ee3558f152f Player Count: 0 / 20; [] Data Packs: vanilla, mod:supermartijn642configlib, mod:justenoughbeacons (incompatible), mod:netherportalfix (incompatible), mod:mcwwindows, mod:industrialagriculture, mod:rsgauges, mod:neat (incompatible), mod:ironjetpacks, mod:mekanismextension, mod:ctm (incompatible), mod:controlling, mod:powah, mod:rangedpumps, mod:bookshelf, mod:featuredservers (incompatible), mod:endercrop (incompatible), mod:sophisticatedbackpacks, mod:randompatches, mod:excompressum (incompatible), mod:buildinggadgets, mod:darkutils (incompatible), mod:mcwdoors, mod:morpheus (incompatible), mod:mekanismgenerators, mod:waila, mod:jeresources, mod:shetiphiancore, mod:mob_grinding_utils, mod:mcwbridges (incompatible), mod:industrialforegoing (incompatible), mod:torchmaster (incompatible), mod:endertanks, mod:ambientsounds, mod:mekanismadditions, mod:valkyrielib, mod:envirocore (incompatible), mod:envirotech, mod:lollipop, mod:mcwtrpdoors (incompatible), mod:mcwfences, mod:supermartijn642corelib, mod:trackapi (incompatible), mod:solarflux, mod:patchouli (incompatible), mod:collective, mod:oreexcavation, mod:betterthirdperson, mod:elevatorid, mod:gunpowderlib, mod:runelic, mod:mekanismtools, mod:constructionwand (incompatible), mod:mcwroofs, mod:cfm (incompatible), mod:architectury, mod:refinedcooking, mod:cookingforblockheads (incompatible), mod:refinedstorage, mod:extrastorage, mod:immersiverailroading (incompatible), mod:chargers, mod:weirdinggadget, mod:lightoverlay (incompatible), mod:cloth-config (incompatible), mod:trashcans, mod:traylauncher (incompatible), mod:cobblefordays (incompatible), mod:fastleafdecay (incompatible), mod:codechickenlib (incompatible), mod:servertabinfo, mod:mcwlights (incompatible), mod:iapif (incompatible), mod:immersivesignals, mod:biggerreactors, mod:cucumber, mod:ftblibrary, mod:ftbteams, mod:rechiseled, mod:jei, mod:mekanism, mod:moremekanismprocessing, mod:mcwpaintings (incompatible), mod:clumps, mod:journeymap (incompatible), mod:comforts, mod:phosphophyllite, mod:farmingforblockheads (incompatible), mod:beautifiedchatserver, mod:mcjtylib, mod:rftoolsbase, mod:enderstorage (incompatible), mod:rftoolspower, mod:immersivepetroleum, mod:ftbchunks, mod:forge, mod:withoutalib, mod:immersiveposts, mod:mysticalagriculture, mod:mysticalagradditions, mod:matc, mod:ironchest, mod:universalmodcore (incompatible), mod:cofh_core (incompatible), mod:thermal (incompatible), mod:thermal_innovation (incompatible), mod:thermal_expansion (incompatible), mod:thermal_locomotion (incompatible), mod:tconstruct, mod:wailaharvestability, mod:enchdesc, mod:swingthroughgrass (incompatible), mod:mousetweaks, mod:titanium (incompatible), mod:immersiveengineering, mod:entity_culling, mod:exchangers, mod:creativecore, mod:simple-rpc, mod:rftoolsbuilder, mod:jeiintegration, mod:pipez, mod:mantle (incompatible), mod:gravestone, mod:justenoughprofessions, mod:storagedrawers (incompatible), mod:fluxnetworks, mod:enderchests, mod:solarhelmet (incompatible), mod:appleskin, mod:chisel (incompatible), mod:iapmekanism (incompatible), mod:refinedstorageaddons, mod:exnihilosequentia (incompatible), mod:chiselsandbits (incompatible), mod:ironfurnaces, mod:projecte Is Modded: Definitely; Server brand changed to 'forge' Type: Dedicated Server (map_server.txt) 

Daily New Covid Cases by DHB reported 30 Mar 2023 (as at midnight Wednesday 29 Mar 2023)

• New Cases: 1,338 ( ↓ 573)
• Rolling 7-day avg: 1,600 ( ↓ 61)

Location	New Cases	Change	Seven Day Rolling
Total	1338	-573	1600 ( ↓ 61)
Auckland	93	-71	131 ( ↓ 8)
Bay of Plenty	43	-32	61 ( ↓ 4)
Canterbury	246	-93	292 ( ↓ 9)
Capital and Coast	89	-42	106 ( ↓ 3)
Counties Manukau	104	-54	129 ( ↓ 8)
Hawke's Bay	35	-6	44 ( ↓ 5)
Hutt Valley	40	-28	51 ( ↓ 2)
Lakes	22	-7	31 ( ↓ 2)
MidCentral	54	-3	56 ( ↑ 2)
Nelson Marlborough	45	-29	62 ( ↓ 3)
Northland	35	-14	38 ( ↓ 3)
South Canterbury	29	-8	24 ( ↑ 2)
Southern	139	-56	172 ( ↓ 8)
Tairawhiti	16	-4	12 ( ↑ 0)
Taranaki	42	-17	46 ( ↑ 0)
Unknown	3	+0	4 ( ↑ 0)
Waikato	101	-54	110 ( ↓ 3)
Wairarapa	11	-3	16 ( ↓ 2)
Waitemata	157	-42	176 ( ↓ 6)
West Coast	24	+3	22 ( ↑ 0)
Whanganui	10	-13	15 ( ↑ 0)

Last 10 days of the Rolling 7-day average Reported 30 Mar 2023

Date	7-day rolling avg
Wed 29 Mar	1600 ( ↓ 61)
Tue 28 Mar	1661 ( ↑ 19)
Mon 27 Mar	1642 ( ↑ 35)
Sun 26 Mar	1607 ( ↑ 23)
Sat 25 Mar	1584 ( ↑ 9)
Fri 24 Mar	1575 ( ↑ 11)
Thu 23 Mar	1564 ( ↓ 8)
Wed 22 Mar	1572 ( ↑ 0)
Tue 21 Mar	1572 ( ↓ 17)
Mon 20 Mar	1589 ( ↓ 4)

200 ( ↑ 8) Hospitalisations as at midnight Thursday 30 Mar 2023

DHB	Count	Change
Total	200	+8
Auckland	43	+3
Bay of Plenty	2	-3
Canterbury	21	+4
Capital and Coast	8	+0
Counties Manukau	13	+2
Hawke's Bay	4	+2
Hutt Valley	1	+0
Lakes	0	+0
MidCentral	7	+0
Nelson Marlborough	11	-1
Northland	6	+3
South Canterbury	4	-1
Southern	16	-7
Tairawhiti	2	+1
Taranaki	2	-1
Waikato	20	+4
Wairarapa	1	+0
Waitemata	38	+2
West Coast	1	+0
Whanganui	0	+0

source: MoH GitHub data