Saks fifth avenue near me nj

So I finally won the battle at home. My wife is was a lifelong ND fan and I got her to decommit from them and join us on Rocky Top. After the 'Bama game last year she looks at me and says "we're going to a game next year."
After looking at the calendar the UGA game makes the most sense (big game and timing of it is perfect with our work schedules). Now, I need someone tell me what is the best avenue to get tickets and where to stay. I haven't been on campus on in 15 years, so I don't know what has changed.
I'm assuming that stubhub/seatgeek is the best avenue for tickets (I know they'll be expensive, that is fine) and the hotels near campus are super expensive that time of year. Is there something I'm missing? Looking for any and all relevant information.
TIA!

I originally intended d to upload this to Singapore, but I can't. And it might get deleted on askSingapore because it's not strictly asking about life work or leisure, so I hope we can get a discussion going here.
About a year ago (can't remember the exact date because I thought it was a strange one off incident), I was sitting down having a coffee at the coffeeshop near the CCK CC, along Teck Whye Avenue. It was after school, and I wanted to enjoy a Kopi. I get a tap on my shoulder and when I look around I'm perplexed to see this middle aged man dressed in a red shirt standing right in front of my table. He does not work at the coffeeshop. He's small, relatively short (I'm a 180cm dude) and he's somewhat slim, and had very short hair.
He had his hand raised and waved. Then he extended his pinkie and said "Hi. Best friends? Pinkie?". His manner of speaking was very... Unusual. Not typical Singaporean but also not eloquent. I couldn't make out what he was saying at first, not that it was very coherent, but the man kept insisting. Confused, I tapped his pinkie briefly, and the man said "Thanks. Best friend?"
Eventually he walked away, and I used hand sanitizer to rub my fingers. The man walked very funnily too so I hopped on WhatsApp to tell a friend about it. Midway through typing, when I referred to the guy as some "weird choa chu Kang guy", then I hear a loud yell from behind me. Could make out "PASIR PANJANG LAH!". I jumped, turned around and saw the same guy in red shirt running away.
Of course, I asked one of the cleaner aunties if she knew the guy, and she said she didn't know who I was talking about. So definitely not kopitiam staff.
I sort of forgot about it after that. I thought it was just one random event that happens in an otherwise normal and boring environment. Until yesterday, Tuesday June 5 this year, around 2.35 pm. I was at Lot One, second floor walking around with a friend from school, exploring the place cuz we got kinda bored and was waiting for more friends to show up. Out of nowhere, as we were walking THIS SAME GUY in a BLACK SHIRT this time waved and said "Bye!". Consider me very weirded out, and even a little scared. This weird mf harrasses me twice in the span of 2 years, and has remembered me, even when I'm out of uniform? In the same rough area (Choa Chu Kang)? And worst still, this weird MF was also looking at my friend. Idk if it's just because she was with me, or if there's another reason to it.
I found it sus, so I went online. Dug up a Reddit post talking about some weird fella in August 2022 asking for photos in mrts and whatnot. But then the posters of those posts, in the comments section, confirmed with commenters that his modus operandi was not just asking for photos. It included, among other things, pinkie promise and "best friend" confirmation. The guy they describe does not match up exactly but consider me very freaked out that this fella is doing this on a widescale, and not one off, and that he's likely going to stalk or at least harrass me and potentially my friends in future.
I want y'all thoughts on this. What the hell should I do, and do you think this matches the "mrt guy's" modus operandi?

I know this is not the typical asksingapore post, but it is sort of a question, and Reddit won't let me post on Singapore for some reason
About a year ago (can't remember the exact date because I thought it was a strange one off incident), I was sitting down having a coffee at the coffeeshop near the CCK CC, along Teck Whye Avenue. It was after school, and I wanted to enjoy a Kopi. I get a tap on my shoulder and when I look around I'm perplexed to see this middle aged man dressed in a red shirt standing right in front of my table. He does not work at the coffeeshop. He's small, relatively short (I'm a 180cm dude) and he's somewhat slim, and had very short hair.
He had his hand raised and waved. Then he extended his pinkie and said "Hi. Best friends? Pinkie?". His manner of speaking was very... Unusual. Not typical Singaporean but also not eloquent. I couldn't make out what he was saying at first, not that it was very coherent, but the man kept insisting. Confused, I tapped his pinkie briefly, and the man said "Thanks. Best friend?"
Eventually he walked away, and I used hand sanitizer to rub my fingers. The man walked very funnily too so I hopped on WhatsApp to tell a friend about it. Midway through typing, when I referred to the guy as some "weird choa chu Kang guy", then I hear a loud yell from behind me. Could make out "PASIR PANJANG LAH!". I jumped, turned around and saw the same guy in red shirt running away.
Of course, I asked one of the cleaner aunties if she knew the guy, and she said she didn't know who I was talking about. So definitely not kopitiam staff.
I sort of forgot about it after that. I thought it was just one random event that happens in an otherwise normal and boring environment. Until yesterday, Tuesday June 5 this year, around 2.35 pm. I was at Lot One, second floor walking around with a friend from school, exploring the place cuz we got kinda bored and was waiting for more friends to show up. Out of nowhere, as we were walking THIS SAME GUY in a BLACK SHIRT this time waved and said "Bye!". Consider me very weirded out, and even a little scared. This weird mf harrasses me twice in the span of 2 years, and has remembered me, even when I'm out of uniform? In the same rough area (Choa Chu Kang)? And worst still, this weird MF was also looking at my friend. Idk if it's just because she was with me, or if there's another reason to it.
I found it sus, so I went online. Dug up a Reddit post talking about some weird fella in August 2022 asking for photos in mrts and whatnot. But then the posters of those posts, in the comments section, confirmed with commenters that his modus operandi was not just asking for photos. It included, among other things, pinkie promise and "best friend" confirmation. The guy they describe does not match up exactly but consider me very freaked out that this fella is doing this on a widescale, and not one off, and that he's likely going to stalk or at least harrass me and potentially my friends in future.
I want y'all thoughts on this. What the hell should I do, and do you think this matches the "mrt guy's" modus operandi?

(Part 30 of a series) The Retail Punishment in Clovis
Part 29 covered a lot of ground. This installment picks up with a few new points.
Also, I will try and outline the trouble that Clovis officers could find themselves in; ‘Nightmare on Flatiron Parkway’ coming to theaters near you!
(A) Equity Committee in place, any objections?!
It is now well established that the Equity Committee is an essential party to these proceedings. Only the OEC is capable of representing equity interests which are demonstrably being opposed by both the debtors and creditors.
Since the OEC opposition, Clovis has made numerous concessions and modifications. This clearly shows the need for adversarial proceedings against the debtor which have yielded results.
(B) Negative Ruca sale price
The debtors have made a crippling mistake by allowing Rubraca to be sold for negative dollars! This is something they cannot recover from, and puts the specter of fraud over the entire BK filing. Since they claim to have closed the sale they no longer have an avenue of somehow ‘adjusting’ the sale to take it into a Positive Ruca sale price.
There is an interesting angle here that ESTABLISHES fraud. Let me explain how.
The key question is about the timing of the decision to include Ruca inventory as part of the sale.

1. After the auction: In this case, the bidder had put in a bid with no intent of getting inventory for free. So the company should charge for inventory considering that creditors are waiting for recovery. The company did not do so. It, of its own accord, chose to GIVE AWAY inventory for free. No, you cannot do so, when there are classes awaiting recovery. CLEAR FRAUD.
2. Before the auction: If the company was planning to include inventory of $100 mn in the sale, then there should have been a corresponding bid minimum. Since that was not done, we are in a laughable scenario that the company is holding out a hundred dollar bill and singing like a carnival barker ‘Sixty, sixty, do I hear a sixty five, seventy, sold for seventy’. Really?? CLEAR FRAUD.

Sorry Clovis, your fraud has unraveled, and company officers will be paying a penalty and some going to jail.
(C) ODAC debacle
FDA had clearly given Clovis two options, EITHER wait for OS data OR go in front of the ODAC. The OS data option was completely infeasible since data would take two years to mature and Clovis did not have that kind of financial runway. So really, ODAC was the ONLY option.
An ODAC presentation would have been something to look forward to considering the stellar PFS data. The whole reason that Athena results were delayed two times was because PFS was so strong it was preventing the requisite event related data. Considering that other front-line drugs were approved on the basis of PFS, it is a given that there would have been strong physician enthusiasm for Ruca.
In the above context, not going for ODAC is completely indefensible, and Pat and other officers can be NAILED on this point alone. Note that Gillian was one of the founders and she appears to have had a difference leading her to exit prior to BK. She needs to be deposed and held squarely responsible for this, unless she turns approver and throws Pat under the bus.
(D) Forensic analysis of expenses since Apr 2022
In my opinion the BK plan started getting crystalized after the fourth and final rejection of the share count increase proposal. Pat then had two goals: run down cash as much as feasible, and prevent regulatory successes that would value the assets higher.
First, we now know that Alix partners was engaged in the July timeframe to explore multiple options. How is it then that in September they entered a sourcing agreement with Isotopia? If cash conservation was the goal, how can one explain the money, time and effort spent on agreements like Isotopia? Was it that Novartis talks were in progress and Clovis was trying to preferentially spend money on FAP?
Second, why were strong headcount reductions not put in effect? This is such a simple and obvious measure to reduce the cash burn and I want to see the written documents where the cost benefit of this was explored and this option discarded. Instead, we had new requisitions being posted!
The interesting point is that Clovis is now publishing monthly results. We see that despite a headcount reduction of a fifth, revenue has not had a corresponding fall! This is the inelastic demand that I have previously written about. We now have DOCUMENTED PROOF that early headcount reductions would have prevented a spiral towards insolvency.
I believe that a forensic analysis of the accelerated spend since July, and comparing it to the prior quarter spending will yield interesting results!
(E) Excuse me, but your goose is cooked
The company officers need to realize that the game is up. They can flutter and flap all they want but their goose is cooked. The biggest mistake they made was to underestimate the equity opposition, and now they are in a predicament that they cannot extricate themselves from. I have a poor opinion of the lack of strategic vision of the debtors counsel, what was that name again, Twinkly, Far, and Galloping?!
Pat thought of us as sheep, that he would come to us saying ‘Your money is all mine’! Well, that’s when we sheep turn feral, grow fangs, and get in the mood to leave bite marks that are life altering!
I had previously written that four company officers deserve punishment, but now have changed my view to ALL officers. Why should board members get a pass, being responsible for oversight? We need to go after the whole bunch, with the possible exception of one or two approvers who are willing to sing like a canary.
(F) Equity is in a position of strength
We shareholders need to understand that our motivations are above board and can be presented in court. The entities opposing us are stronger than us but they have a corrupt agenda that they cannot state publicly on the record.
Can company officers admit in court that their hatred for retail investors made them act opposite to their fiduciary duties? No they cannot.
Can BP like AstraZeneca or Pfizer dare to stand up in court and state they wanted to neuter the competition in the PARP space? No they cannot, because the DOJ antitrust division is listening and they will be dragged over the coals.
Can the creditors open up that they actually have large short positions so their actual interest is share cancellation more than the full recovery that they claim to want? No they cannot.
These parties entered into this corrupt undertaking thinking that they will pull levers behind the scenes and get away with the heist of the century. Well, sunlight is the best disinfectant. Now that the SEC and DOJ are fully involved, these behind the scene players will see the writing on the wall and gently melt into the hedges. The only party that will be left to take the full heat of our rage are the Clovis officers.
Considering the widespread fraud by Clovis officers, it is the Official Equity Committee that will be in the driver's seat going forward with the parallel and supporting effort from the DOJ and SEC. The OEC needs to closely guard the whistleblowers until the right opportunity. I’m looking forward to the DOJ Antitrust division becoming a party to the proceedings. We cannot have Biden’s moonshot cancer initiative on one hand, and on the other, a key oncology asset that promises to displace the SOC for Prostate (a cancer known for poor prognosis) to be rendered impotent (pun intended) in the hands of an insignificant overseas company.
(G) Two options for Clovis officers
Clovis officers need to realize that they cannot avoid the consequences of entering into bankruptcy fraud and the intent to eliminate equity. There is no getting around it. They need to figure out a way to minimize the punishment that is coming their way.

1. Agree to a liquidation in Ch. 7

If Clovis requests the judge to turn it into a Ch. 7, and let the full company be put up for sale under court supervision, they may still be able to avoid the worst. There is a pent up investor anger that needs to be satisfied. If investors get a healthy share price, say $12, it would immediately reduce the severity of the remaining punishment. Heck, if the share price is good enough, they may even get the third party release that they so desperately want.
In this case, there is no financial impact to the officers. All that they are doing is allowing some BP to come in and give the proper valuation for the company assets.

1. Dig in for a cage fight

If better sense does not prevail, the full investor anger will work its course out.
The first course of the OEC should be to prove BK fraud in front of Hon. Judge Stickles. Some people here automatically think the judge is on Clovis’ side. That may be incorrect. It is not lost on the judge that Equity Committee approvals are exceedingly rare. On top of that, the DOJ and SEC are fully engaged. Makes her wonder about the fire when there is so much smoke.
In the unlikely scenario that we do not prevail with fraud charges at this first level, there is the three member BAP bench to appeal to. The benefit of those proceedings will be that OEC will be represented from the get-go, and will be able to inform the bench about the seriousness of this case containing antitrust issues.
In parallel, a class-action can be started. There is a rich $50 mn. corpus that is available. I can imagine law firms falling over each other to get to a $20 mn payout to fully prosecute these crooks, including criminal charges. When there is a jury trial with everyday people like us who have lost our investments, that is when the full punishment will be given out.
If the fraud is proven within two years of the BK (more than enough time), the Ruca assets can also be clawed back and correctly sold in the market, making for even more recovery.
Make no mistake, if the company officers make it harder for us to corner them, our punishment will also be that much harder when we DO CORNER THEM. By the time we are done with them, they will feel like a chew-toy in a cage of Rottweilers.
I’m hoping that better sense will prevail, and the company officers will ‘choose wisely’. But I have a feeling they won’t. Bring it!!
SPPAAAAAARTTAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!
###
Poster: Jacaranda Bloom
Reddit user ID (bookmark or follow): Timely_Huckleberry97

PREVIOUS - THE NIGHTBUS
We were able to spend the night in the closest hotel, a dinky little inn that had a very disinterested hostess. She just gave us a key and waved us upstairs. Doesn’t money mean anything to them? All of us were too tired to argue, though, so we crawled into bed and fell asleep.
I woke up with the sun shining in my face. I sighed with relief. Okay, maybe it was all a bad dream? Did I have a weird trip from something some asshole put in my drink? When I pulled out my phone, I noticed with a lurch it was 11:59, but I calmed myself down. Noon, then. I hadn’t put my phone on 24-hour time but 12-hour. It was right before noon. I fished my charger out of my handbag (never leave without it!) and looked out the window.
Our room overlooked the town square. It had a memorial, a statue of some explorer - complete with coonskin cap - that stared out into the distance. The clock tower was across from us, still stuck at 11:59, but at least it seems the chiming had been given a rest. I couldn't see the bus terminal, as it was behind the clock tower, but I could see the edge of town from here - we were in a small valley with steep hills all around us, coated in pine trees.
I sighed and scrolled on my phone. I still couldn't see why I had wifi while the others didn't. The network was called TERMINUS - the same name as on the sign on the bus terminal - and it was free to connect to. I could scroll through news sites and wikipedia, but when I tried to message other friends, the messages didn't go through. I could only assume they couldn't send me anything either.
Caroline and the others slowly stirred awake. "Ugh, meggs, what's goin on..."
I turned around. "We're in... Terminus, I guess." I tried looking it up on google maps, but didn't get any results.
"So far from home... What do they have for breakfast?"
I shrugged, smiling. "We'll have to see. You up for getting up?/"
"No... my head..."
I nodded and waited for the boys to wake up as well. All three had a hangover, but Collin's and Caroline's were truly massive. Charlie was fit enough to get out of bed and get ready to explore the inn, at least. I kept the key of the door with me and told both of them to stay inside - not that they were going anywhere.
The hallways of the inn were bland. It wasn't big - one hallway on each floor with about five or six doors and a staircase on one end. The wallpaper was probably supposed to be a calming vanilla with a daisy motif, but it just ended up looking old and yellowed. The doors were exactly the same cream color save for the silver number on the door. Ours was 25 - second floor, fifth room. I noticed it also had a chip near the lock.
Charlie and I made our way to the staircase. The uncomfortable silence was only broken by our creaking footsteps over the carpeted floor.
"So..."
"So."
I chuckled awkwardly. "Last night was... something, huh?"
"Hah, yeah..."
Creaky steps. "How are you holding up? I know you didn't sign up for this... I mean, none of us did."
"What are you talking about? We just took the wrong bus and ended up in the wrong town. I'm sure we can catch a different bus at the bus terminal and go home."
I nodded. "Y-yeah..." My smile felt a little forced, even for me. "Yeah! You're right."
It was quiet the rest of the way down. I didn't mean to sound so insincere.
"There sure are a lot of stairs." Charlie joked. "We were only on the second floor, right?"
"Yeah, we should be-"
We landed on the ground floor. Before us were two doors - both the same bland vanilla as the room's doors.
"Which way to the reception?"
"Er..." I hadn't actually paid attention when we got up, as I was herding three tired drunk people up to a room. Not that I'm naturally good at directions, either. "Let's try the right door."
Behind the door on the right was another hallway with three more doors. Charlie blinked. "This makes no sense. This door-" he pointed to the door on his immediate left "-would just lead us to the hallway to the left door." He opened the door, but when he stepped through, he was in an empty room, lit by a single lightbulb. The same inoffensive vanilla wallpaper lined this room.
He quietly closed the door. "Where the fuck are we."
I didn't answer. I know I must have looked ridiculous, my mouth just open and closing like a fish. I mean, come on, this is physically impossible! "Maybe it's an optical illusion or something? The room looks bigger than it really is because... it's empty, or the light, or..."
"Right." Charlie didn't seem convinced. "Let's keep going straight, then. This building can't go on forever." He walked down the hallway to the last door. I meekly followed him through the door. This time the room had another two doors, and to the left, a staircase leading up.
I blinked. "Are we... back to where we started?"
Charlie yelled in frustration and barreled down the rightmost door. After a little bit, I heard running footsteps coming up behind me, and with a slam, he opened that door. "What the FUCK! I WENT in a STRAIGHT LINE!" He started kicking the walls while swearing, damaging the daisies on the wallpaper.
I chuckled quietly in disbelief. "Ha. This makes me think of Portal. Or Stanley's Parable."
Charlie stopped kicking. "What?"
"Y-yeah! In Stanley's Parable, you're a character in a story narrated by The Narrator. You can - you can choose to go along with him or go against him, but he can also go against you. It's - it's about the illusion of choice."
Charlie still didn't understand. "I don't - I'm not a game nerd. You make no sense."
"We don't... have a choice. Not really. This place will not give us one. So we have to let this place pick for us."
I fished through my pockets. I came across a coin - it wasn't there in my pocket before, but I didn't question it. "Heads for left, tails for right."
It landed on tails. I reached out for the rightmost door, and we both went through.
We stood in the restaurant-part of the inn. Breakfast was still laid out, but no-one else was there. No-one else was eating. I went towards the lady behind the counter. "Hey, uh, we'd... we'd like to pay for our rooms. And breakfast."
The lady stared at us as if we were crazy. "What are ya talkin' about? You already paid."

Dear N,
We first came to know each other when we were selected as editors for that autism awareness project's organizing committee. I applied not only because I wanted to be part of a project, but also because I suspected I might have ASD and this project might be interesting. We got along fairly well from the start. You had heavy assignment work, and I tried to manage as much as possible, I messed up a few times and H had to ask you to help me out. It was embarrassing everytime. I felt guilty, even though you were apologetic for the project workload. I had trouble delivering what was asked, and got reprimanded for not understanding the tasks.
We each were also members of organizing committees for other projects, separately, and that got us into the board of directors when it was selected (although B later told us it was because we were the only ones available for those positions). We were joint directors. In the beginning I was enthusiastic. But even from then, the way we planned, talked and made stuff was draining for me. I didn't enjoy it the way I enjoyed working on the autism project. I felt inept, like I was the only incompetent one among you, B and occasionally P. Even P, who joined us in some of the earlier meetings later abstained (though that was more her deciding to let B handle our avenue). So I slowly let go off the decision making responsibilities and let you and B take up the slack. I pretended I was doing my share of work. But that was just menial, mindless tasks, as opposed to the psychologically taxing decision making, planning and communicating work you did.
When you were not sure about recruiting D because of his reputation among girls, I tried to be supportive. I disliked him from the moment you told me about him. But we were too late with the POC selecting work and when we finally formed it, we had to involve D. I am sorry. I should have tried harder. You admitted we had no other choice, but if I were more competent as a joint-director, we could have had choices. Perhaps I could have taken up the work D got and not selected him.
As the project went on, I felt even less confident and let you and B handle the hard stuff, like getting stuff done from D. We missed a post and I broke at that point. I wanted to quit. That's when I learned we were only selected as co-directors because there was no other choice.
With the 2nd project, I was even less involved, sometimes turning off my phone for several days so I could not be contacted. The fact that most of our year happened online and not in person made it worse. I am sorry. After the 2nd time I went AWOL for a week, you stopped trusting me for any work. I felt guilty, but partially relieved. When the time came to write the project report for the book project, I made sure to accurately state my % of involvement in the project as near zero. The exams affected me too. I never talked about that stuff. But doing 2 semesters of exams back to back after staying at home the whole year meant I never studied or prepared. As expected I failed 9 courses. Of course I never said that to you. I just said "I got into a general degree" as if that was my choice. I congratulated on you getting into a specialisation.
This BSc had never been my 1st or even 5th choice. But I never had ambitions anyway, so when people said this Bsc would be worthwhile if I could do honours, I said to myself I could do something with it. Failing several subjects, some multiple times and not getting into any specialisations was the worst way I could have done the degree.
So after the exams I quit completely. The last 3 months of our year, including most of the report work was handled by you and B. In case it's any comfort, I quit from the semester too. I am redoing it now.
Thankfully you seem to be doing well now, on district levels of the club. Hopefully you are doing well on the degree too. This pandemic ruined me. I am sorry I let it affect our work and friendship. -C

Hey everyone ,
I recently had a distressing experience with the popular CV-building website, Resume.io, and I felt compelled to share my story with you all as a cautionary tale. It all began when I was urgently searching for templates to create my CV and stumbled upon Resume.io. Intrigued by their promise of a free option, I decided to give it a try.
I spent nearly 30 minutes meticulously crafting my CV on their website, carefully tailoring it to suit my needs. When it came time to download the finished product, I was unexpectedly met with a subscription offer for a 7-day trial, priced at $2.95. Naturally, I was furious to discover that the supposedly "free" option was nothing more than a bait-and-switch tactic.
Feeling frustrated and realizing that I had already invested a significant amount of time on their platform, I reluctantly decided to pay the subscription fee. However, I failed to fully comprehend the implications of my decision. Little did I know that once the trial period ended, I would be automatically charged a staggering $24.95.
To make matters worse, I had registered using my Google account, which I rarely check. Consequently, I completely forgot about the subscription and only remembered when I noticed the charge on my bank statement. The timing couldn't have been worse, as I am currently jobless and struggling to make ends meet. In my country, $25 is equivalent to four or five days' worth of meals, making this unexpected expense a significant burden.
Seeking a resolution, I reached out to Resume.io's support desk, explaining my situation and expressing my disappointment with their deceptive practices. However, their response was disheartening. They outright refused to provide a refund, leaving me feeling helpless and cheated.
Has anyone else faced a similar situation with Resume.io or any other CV-building websites? How did you handle it? Are there any avenues I can explore to potentially recover my hard-earned money?

I rarely post, but recently I've been reading some posts where people offer uplifting responses to strangers. It has been a source of comfort for me lately. At the moment, I feel overwhelmed and defeated, with a deep sense of loneliness. I want to express my emotions intelligently, as I am experiencing profound emotional wounds and a lack of direction in my life. This description reflects my current state.
The aspects that define me at this moment are a combination of permanent, temporary, cyclical, and circumstantial factors. I find myself in the deepest depression I have ever experienced in my 41 years of life. Considering my current circumstances and the metrics used to measure success, I feel like a complete failure. If one were to analyze my job history and performance, there were moments of incredible opportunities followed by brief success, only to be followed by utter failure. Similarly, if we were to evaluate my personal life in terms of social interactions, dating/marriage, friendships, and health, I would be considered among the lowest performers. It seems like my entire life has been marked by failure.
Furthermore, it seems as though the universe has singled me out for some special kind of punishment. For years, I have felt a sense of surrealism, where every decision or action I take inevitably leads to unfavorable outcomes. Every significant matter in my life has ended in prolonged consequences, worsened circumstances, or some form of material loss. I have missed out on numerous opportunities, chances for marriage and having children have slipped away, I am financially struggling, and I have very few friends apart from one in my former hometown of Chicago and another in Alaska. My spirituality and faith have also been deeply affected by the setbacks and obstacles I have faced, and I am dealing with all of this without the support of my estranged family.
My three best friends, my sisters, and I have not spoken in six years. I can't recall the last time I spoke with my brother, as he doesn't respond to my emails or texts. My mother is suffering from rapid-onset dementia, while my father has recently retired from a lifelong career as a doctor. Throughout my life, my family has systematically scapegoated me, starting with being labeled the black sheep. However, everything changed when I disclosed at the age of 27 that my brother had sexually and physically abused me as a child. Since then, life has been a constant battle against me. The universe seemed to shift its axis, and my life has never been the same. It is particularly disconcerting that my brother, a urologist by profession, is the perpetrator of such heinous acts.
My sisters, as research suggests, took sides between the "black sheep/fuckup/substance user" and the successful urologist. They accused me of lying, changing my story, waiting too long, claiming it was nothing, and even being jealous of my brother's life, which includes a mansion, a Porsche, wealth, and respect. Since I have accomplished nothing, they believe I fabricated drunken tales of childhood and only decided to reveal this ultra-specific story at the age of 27. I never imagined that I would lose my family in this way. It feels like I have lost my identity, purpose, support system, best friends, and confidants – my sisters. They have subjected me to the silent treatment, which my brother also employs, treating me as if I don't exist. My sister's last text message summed it up when she said that they don't get together to talk about me anymore because I don't come up in their conversations. It was the same sister who initially encouraged me to reveal the truth about the abuse but then betrayed me and twisted the narrative.
In my family, my case of sexual abuse was not an isolated incident. My father, a physician and at the time a pediatrician in Illinois, had a second case of sexual abuse and incest in his side of the family. His younger brother, the second oldest among seven siblings, also abused his own daughter, my cousin. He is also Dr. A few years before I disclosed my own abuse as an adult, my cousin trusted my father enough to disclose her abuse to him. Despite my father not knowing about my case at the time, he took no professional action to report the abuse committed by another doctor, his brother, who abused his now niece, and did nothing.During that same disclosure, my cousin admitted that her two brothers, who are also my cousins, had abused her as well. This meant that five members of her household, three of whom were abusing one child, were involved in these traumatic events. My father, along with his brother and siblings, did nothing legally to report these incidents. My uncle, the abuser, is now the president of a hospital in East Texas. So technically, my case was the fourth, following my uncle, cousin, and another cousin. One of those cousins is now a pastor of a small church community, while the other works for a former presidential candidate's company. As for me, I have been trapped in a cycle of failure to launch as an adult, mental health issues, and intermittent substance abuse problems for the past 20 years. And that's not even the end of it – the fifth case involves my cousin, who was arrested in a state capital where he worked as a therapist or counselor. He was arrested for filming his young neighbor through her window. I am aware of his arrest but do not have any information regarding the progress of his case or its resolution.
To put it all together, it is an intricate mess of narcissism, ego, power, control, and childhood trauma. I strongly believe I have developed complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD) as a result of these experiences. In fact, I am certain that I have.
Fast-forward to the present, and I am writing this from a motel room, where there are too many details to recount from the past six months since my return from Montana. In a way, I followed the path of my other abused cousin – I left. However, I ultimately failed and had to return to a city near my parents, a city I despise. To add to my troubles, I was falsely accused of felony domestic violence soon after my return, further fueling my sense of failure and shame. My parents, upon hearing about the incident, made it clear that they wanted little to do with me. Speaking of Montana, my experiences and the year I spent there were truly nightmarish, to say the least. But that's a story for another time.
During the car ride to a hospital in a small town in the same county, my father and I had an opportunity for a discussion about the abuse. I wanted to understand why he did nothing in all five cases, why the eldest child seems to be targeted (true for my brother and cousin), why successful doctors are involved – including a pastor, a consultant, and now a urologist after the fact. Did he not notice the intergenerational pattern and his own parental negligence as a physician and a parent of adult children? I questioned why he took no action, why his behavior changed so drastically in the past three years, why he lied about his knowledge of nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) when he had used them for possible infidelity and had lied about private settlements. He even harassed me using the police, assassinated my character in our small town, and now charged me with striking him, resulting in false statements and allegations. As a consequence, my reputation has been tarnished while my father's remains pristine. We currently reside in a town where he practiced medicine, and the consequences for me are severe. Deep in my heart, I know that his post-arrest behavior towards me has been consistently inconsistent. He evades questioning, avoids contact and visits, and shows no signs of wanting a relationship. Instead, he guilt-trips me, shifts blame, engages in word salad and gaslighting, and pathologically lies.
As I sit here now, I wonder: What can one do in such a dire situation? There seem to be no options, no answers, no safety nets of money or emotional support, no motivation, and no joy – only the looming threat of a potentially harsh sentence. Even worse, my father has attempted to record my phone calls and offered me money not to hire a proper defense attorney or pursue litigation, just a week before I was supposed to accept a four-year adjudication plea as an innocent party. Then, when I decided to plead my innocence at the last minute during the trial, he abandoned me once again, signaling to me that money is somehow tainted. Regardless, it's gone now.
I apologize for unloading all of this on Reddit, and I understand that it may be quite depressing for others to read. However, I feel that I have reached the end of my fight, not against just one issue, but against a conglomerate of issues that have stolen my life and time, offering me nothing in return. I desperately need legal advice, emotional support, prayers, or any form of assistance. I find myself lost in a maze of confusion, where every turn I make is a miscalculation, distorted by backward perspectives and reflections off other elements. Over the past six weeks since leaving my job due to a problematic relationship with the owner, I have been living a transient and isolated existence in the dark corners of this wretched city. It feels as though I have been exiled from my own life. I don't know what to do or who to turn to. I want to assure you that I'm not dramatizing this situation; I'm simply sharing my experience because I have no one else to talk to. I have been completely alone and isolated since losing my job.

I rarely post, but recently I've been reading some posts where people offer uplifting responses to strangers. It has been a source of comfort for me lately. At the moment, I feel overwhelmed and defeated, with a deep sense of loneliness. I want to express my emotions intelligently, as I am experiencing profound emotional wounds and a lack of direction in my life. This description reflects my current state.
The aspects that define me at this moment are a combination of permanent, temporary, cyclical, and circumstantial factors. I find myself in the deepest depression I have ever experienced in my 41 years of life. Considering my current circumstances and the metrics used to measure success, I feel like a complete failure. If one were to analyze my job history and performance, there were moments of incredible opportunities followed by brief success, only to be followed by utter failure. Similarly, if we were to evaluate my personal life in terms of social interactions, dating/marriage, friendships, and health, I would be considered among the lowest performers. It seems like my entire life has been marked by failure.
Furthermore, it seems as though the universe has singled me out for some special kind of punishment. For years, I have felt a sense of surrealism, where every decision or action I take inevitably leads to unfavorable outcomes. Every significant matter in my life has ended in prolonged consequences, worsened circumstances, or some form of material loss. I have missed out on numerous opportunities, chances for marriage and having children have slipped away, I am financially struggling, and I have very few friends apart from one in my former hometown of Chicago and another in Alaska. My spirituality and faith have also been deeply affected by the setbacks and obstacles I have faced, and I am dealing with all of this without the support of my estranged family.
My three best friends, my sisters, and I have not spoken in six years. I can't recall the last time I spoke with my brother, as he doesn't respond to my emails or texts. My mother is suffering from rapid-onset dementia, while my father has recently retired from a lifelong career as a doctor. Throughout my life, my family has systematically scapegoated me, starting with being labeled the black sheep. However, everything changed when I disclosed at the age of 27 that my brother had sexually and physically abused me as a child. Since then, life has been a constant battle against me. The universe seemed to shift its axis, and my life has never been the same. It is particularly disconcerting that my brother, a urologist by profession, is the perpetrator of such heinous acts.
My sisters, as research suggests, took sides between the "black sheep/fuckup/substance user" and the successful urologist. They accused me of lying, changing my story, waiting too long, claiming it was nothing, and even being jealous of my brother's life, which includes a mansion, a Porsche, wealth, and respect. Since I have accomplished nothing, they believe I fabricated drunken tales of childhood and only decided to reveal this ultra-specific story at the age of 27. I never imagined that I would lose my family in this way. It feels like I have lost my identity, purpose, support system, best friends, and confidants – my sisters. They have subjected me to the silent treatment, which my brother also employs, treating me as if I don't exist. My sister's last text message summed it up when she said that they don't get together to talk about me anymore because I don't come up in their conversations. It was the same sister who initially encouraged me to reveal the truth about the abuse but then betrayed me and twisted the narrative.
In my family, my case of sexual abuse was not an isolated incident. My father, a physician and at the time a pediatrician in Illinois, had a second case of sexual abuse and incest in his side of the family. His younger brother, the second oldest among seven siblings, also abused his own daughter, my cousin. He is also Dr. A few years before I disclosed my own abuse as an adult, my cousin trusted my father enough to disclose her abuse to him. Despite my father not knowing about my case at the time, he took no professional action to report the abuse committed by another doctor, his brother, who abused his now niece, and did nothing.During that same disclosure, my cousin admitted that her two brothers, who are also my cousins, had abused her as well. This meant that five members of her household, three of whom were abusing one child, were involved in these traumatic events. My father, along with his brother and siblings, did nothing legally to report these incidents. My uncle, the abuser, is now the president of a hospital in East Texas. So technically, my case was the fourth, following my uncle, cousin, and another cousin. One of those cousins is now a pastor of a small church community, while the other works for a former presidential candidate's company. As for me, I have been trapped in a cycle of failure to launch as an adult, mental health issues, and intermittent substance abuse problems for the past 20 years. And that's not even the end of it – the fifth case involves my cousin, who was arrested in a state capital where he worked as a therapist or counselor. He was arrested for filming his young neighbor through her window. I am aware of his arrest but do not have any information regarding the progress of his case or its resolution.
To put it all together, it is an intricate mess of narcissism, ego, power, control, and childhood trauma. I strongly believe I have developed complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD) as a result of these experiences. In fact, I am certain that I have.
Fast-forward to the present, and I am writing this from a motel room, where there are too many details to recount from the past six months since my return from Montana. In a way, I followed the path of my other abused cousin – I left. However, I ultimately failed and had to return to a city near my parents, a city I despise. To add to my troubles, I was falsely accused of felony domestic violence soon after my return, further fueling my sense of failure and shame. My parents, upon hearing about the incident, made it clear that they wanted little to do with me. Speaking of Montana, my experiences and the year I spent there were truly nightmarish, to say the least. But that's a story for another time.
During the car ride to a hospital in a small town in the same county, my father and I had an opportunity for a discussion about the abuse. I wanted to understand why he did nothing in all five cases, why the eldest child seems to be targeted (true for my brother and cousin), why successful doctors are involved – including a pastor, a consultant, and now a urologist after the fact. Did he not notice the intergenerational pattern and his own parental negligence as a physician and a parent of adult children? I questioned why he took no action, why his behavior changed so drastically in the past three years, why he lied about his knowledge of nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) when he had used them for possible infidelity and had lied about private settlements. He even harassed me using the police, assassinated my character in our small town, and now charged me with striking him, resulting in false statements and allegations. As a consequence, my reputation has been tarnished while my father's remains pristine. We currently reside in a town where he practiced medicine, and the consequences for me are severe. Deep in my heart, I know that his post-arrest behavior towards me has been consistently inconsistent. He evades questioning, avoids contact and visits, and shows no signs of wanting a relationship. Instead, he guilt-trips me, shifts blame, engages in word salad and gaslighting, and pathologically lies.
As I sit here now, I wonder: What can one do in such a dire situation? There seem to be no options, no answers, no safety nets of money or emotional support, no motivation, and no joy – only the looming threat of a potentially harsh sentence. Even worse, my father has attempted to record my phone calls and offered me money not to hire a proper defense attorney or pursue litigation, just a week before I was supposed to accept a four-year adjudication plea as an innocent party. Then, when I decided to plead my innocence at the last minute during the trial, he abandoned me once again, signaling to me that money is somehow tainted. Regardless, it's gone now.
I apologize for unloading all of this on Reddit, and I understand that it may be quite depressing for others to read. However, I feel that I have reached the end of my fight, not against just one issue, but against a conglomerate of issues that have stolen my life and time, offering me nothing in return. I desperately need legal advice, emotional support, prayers, or any form of assistance. I find myself lost in a maze of confusion, where every turn I make is a miscalculation, distorted by backward perspectives and reflections off other elements. Over the past six weeks since leaving my job due to a problematic relationship with the owner, I have been living a transient and isolated existence in the dark corners of this wretched city. It feels as though I have been exiled from my own life. I don't know what to do or who to turn to. I want to assure you that I'm not dramatizing this situation; I'm simply sharing my experience because I have no one else to talk to. I have been completely alone and isolated since losing my job.

I rarely post, but recently I've been reading some posts where people offer uplifting responses to strangers. It has been a source of comfort for me lately. At the moment, I feel overwhelmed and defeated, with a deep sense of loneliness. I want to express my emotions intelligently, as I am experiencing profound emotional wounds and a lack of direction in my life. This description reflects my current state.
The aspects that define me at this moment are a combination of permanent, temporary, cyclical, and circumstantial factors. I find myself in the deepest depression I have ever experienced in my 41 years of life. Considering my current circumstances and the metrics used to measure success, I feel like a complete failure. If one were to analyze my job history and performance, there were moments of incredible opportunities followed by brief success, only to be followed by utter failure. Similarly, if we were to evaluate my personal life in terms of social interactions, dating/marriage, friendships, and health, I would be considered among the lowest performers. It seems like my entire life has been marked by failure.
Furthermore, it seems as though the universe has singled me out for some special kind of punishment. For years, I have felt a sense of surrealism, where every decision or action I take inevitably leads to unfavorable outcomes. Every significant matter in my life has ended in prolonged consequences, worsened circumstances, or some form of material loss. I have missed out on numerous opportunities, chances for marriage and having children have slipped away, I am financially struggling, and I have very few friends apart from one in my former hometown of Chicago and another in Alaska. My spirituality and faith have also been deeply affected by the setbacks and obstacles I have faced, and I am dealing with all of this without the support of my estranged family.
My three best friends, my sisters, and I have not spoken in six years. I can't recall the last time I spoke with my brother, as he doesn't respond to my emails or texts. My mother is suffering from rapid-onset dementia, while my father has recently retired from a lifelong career as a doctor. Throughout my life, my family has systematically scapegoated me, starting with being labeled the black sheep. However, everything changed when I disclosed at the age of 27 that my brother had sexually and physically abused me as a child. Since then, life has been a constant battle against me. The universe seemed to shift its axis, and my life has never been the same. It is particularly disconcerting that my brother, a urologist by profession, is the perpetrator of such heinous acts.
My sisters, as research suggests, took sides between the "black sheep/fuckup/substance user" and the successful urologist. They accused me of lying, changing my story, waiting too long, claiming it was nothing, and even being jealous of my brother's life, which includes a mansion, a Porsche, wealth, and respect. Since I have accomplished nothing, they believe I fabricated drunken tales of childhood and only decided to reveal this ultra-specific story at the age of 27. I never imagined that I would lose my family in this way. It feels like I have lost my identity, purpose, support system, best friends, and confidants – my sisters. They have subjected me to the silent treatment, which my brother also employs, treating me as if I don't exist. My sister's last text message summed it up when she said that they don't get together to talk about me anymore because I don't come up in their conversations. It was the same sister who initially encouraged me to reveal the truth about the abuse but then betrayed me and twisted the narrative.
In my family, my case of sexual abuse was not an isolated incident. My father, a physician and at the time a pediatrician in Illinois, had a second case of sexual abuse and incest in his side of the family. His younger brother, the second oldest among seven siblings, also abused his own daughter, my cousin. He is also Dr. A few years before I disclosed my own abuse as an adult, my cousin trusted my father enough to disclose her abuse to him. Despite my father not knowing about my case at the time, he took no professional action to report the abuse committed by another doctor, his brother, who abused his now niece, and did nothing.During that same disclosure, my cousin admitted that her two brothers, who are also my cousins, had abused her as well. This meant that five members of her household, three of whom were abusing one child, were involved in these traumatic events. My father, along with his brother and siblings, did nothing legally to report these incidents. My uncle, the abuser, is now the president of a hospital in East Texas. So technically, my case was the fourth, following my uncle, cousin, and another cousin. One of those cousins is now a pastor of a small church community, while the other works for a former presidential candidate's company. As for me, I have been trapped in a cycle of failure to launch as an adult, mental health issues, and intermittent substance abuse problems for the past 20 years. And that's not even the end of it – the fifth case involves my cousin, who was arrested in a state capital where he worked as a therapist or counselor. He was arrested for filming his young neighbor through her window. I am aware of his arrest but do not have any information regarding the progress of his case or its resolution.
To put it all together, it is an intricate mess of narcissism, ego, power, control, and childhood trauma. I strongly believe I have developed complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD) as a result of these experiences. In fact, I am certain that I have.
Fast-forward to the present, and I am writing this from a motel room, where there are too many details to recount from the past six months since my return from Montana. In a way, I followed the path of my other abused cousin – I left. However, I ultimately failed and had to return to a city near my parents, a city I despise. To add to my troubles, I was falsely accused of felony domestic violence soon after my return, further fueling my sense of failure and shame. My parents, upon hearing about the incident, made it clear that they wanted little to do with me. Speaking of Montana, my experiences and the year I spent there were truly nightmarish, to say the least. But that's a story for another time.
During the car ride to a hospital in a small town in the same county, my father and I had an opportunity for a discussion about the abuse. I wanted to understand why he did nothing in all five cases, why the eldest child seems to be targeted (true for my brother and cousin), why successful doctors are involved – including a pastor, a consultant, and now a urologist after the fact. Did he not notice the intergenerational pattern and his own parental negligence as a physician and a parent of adult children? I questioned why he took no action, why his behavior changed so drastically in the past three years, why he lied about his knowledge of nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) when he had used them for possible infidelity and had lied about private settlements. He even harassed me using the police, assassinated my character in our small town, and now charged me with striking him, resulting in false statements and allegations. As a consequence, my reputation has been tarnished while my father's remains pristine. We currently reside in a town where he practiced medicine, and the consequences for me are severe. Deep in my heart, I know that his post-arrest behavior towards me has been consistently inconsistent. He evades questioning, avoids contact and visits, and shows no signs of wanting a relationship. Instead, he guilt-trips me, shifts blame, engages in word salad and gaslighting, and pathologically lies.
As I sit here now, I wonder: What can one do in such a dire situation? There seem to be no options, no answers, no safety nets of money or emotional support, no motivation, and no joy – only the looming threat of a potentially harsh sentence. Even worse, my father has attempted to record my phone calls and offered me money not to hire a proper defense attorney or pursue litigation, just a week before I was supposed to accept a four-year adjudication plea as an innocent party. Then, when I decided to plead my innocence at the last minute during the trial, he abandoned me once again, signaling to me that money is somehow tainted. Regardless, it's gone now.
I apologize for unloading all of this on Reddit, and I understand that it may be quite depressing for others to read. However, I feel that I have reached the end of my fight, not against just one issue, but against a conglomerate of issues that have stolen my life and time, offering me nothing in return. I desperately need legal advice, emotional support, prayers, or any form of assistance. I find myself lost in a maze of confusion, where every turn I make is a miscalculation, distorted by backward perspectives and reflections off other elements. Over the past six weeks since leaving my job due to a problematic relationship with the owner, I have been living a transient and isolated existence in the dark corners of this wretched city. It feels as though I have been exiled from my own life. I don't know what to do or who to turn to. I want to assure you that I'm not dramatizing this situation; I'm simply sharing my experience because I have no one else to talk to. I have been completely alone and isolated since losing my job.

I recently started a new position with a small development team. They are working on a clunky, legacy code base that REALLY could use some work in the performance, readability, and maintainability departments.
I took a couple of days noting issues I saw in source code, but really there's just too much code in need of improvement.
For 99% of issues, there's an analyzer out there for them. What I'd like to do is use these analyzers directly to generate snazzy static reports rather than have 4723 warnings vexing me.
Is there a straightforward way to do this? I was going through the Roslyn SDK and I think I see a couple of avenues of attack, but I don't have nearly enough experience with Roslyn to get something going in a reasonable amount of time.
p.s. My janky fallback solution is to copy everything in the Error window into a file and strongarm my way through source code.

I rarely post, but recently I've been reading some posts where people offer uplifting responses to strangers. It has been a source of comfort for me lately. At the moment, I feel overwhelmed and defeated, with a deep sense of loneliness. I want to express my emotions intelligently, as I am experiencing profound emotional wounds and a lack of direction in my life. This description reflects my current state.
The aspects that define me at this moment are a combination of permanent, temporary, cyclical, and circumstantial factors. I find myself in the deepest depression I have ever experienced in my 41 years of life. Considering my current circumstances and the metrics used to measure success, I feel like a complete failure. If one were to analyze my job history and performance, there were moments of incredible opportunities followed by brief success, only to be followed by utter failure. Similarly, if we were to evaluate my personal life in terms of social interactions, dating/marriage, friendships, and health, I would be considered among the lowest performers. It seems like my entire life has been marked by failure.
Furthermore, it seems as though the universe has singled me out for some special kind of punishment. For years, I have felt a sense of surrealism, where every decision or action I take inevitably leads to unfavorable outcomes. Every significant matter in my life has ended in prolonged consequences, worsened circumstances, or some form of material loss. I have missed out on numerous opportunities, chances for marriage and having children have slipped away, I am financially struggling, and I have very few friends apart from one in my former hometown of Chicago and another in Alaska. My spirituality and faith have also been deeply affected by the setbacks and obstacles I have faced, and I am dealing with all of this without the support of my estranged family.
My three best friends, my sisters, and I have not spoken in six years. I can't recall the last time I spoke with my brother, as he doesn't respond to my emails or texts. My mother is suffering from rapid-onset dementia, while my father has recently retired from a lifelong career as a doctor. Throughout my life, my family has systematically scapegoated me, starting with being labeled the black sheep. However, everything changed when I disclosed at the age of 27 that my brother had sexually and physically abused me as a child. Since then, life has been a constant battle against me. The universe seemed to shift its axis, and my life has never been the same. It is particularly disconcerting that my brother, a urologist by profession, is the perpetrator of such heinous acts.
My sisters, as research suggests, took sides between the "black sheep/fuckup/substance user" and the successful urologist. They accused me of lying, changing my story, waiting too long, claiming it was nothing, and even being jealous of my brother's life, which includes a mansion, a Porsche, wealth, and respect. Since I have accomplished nothing, they believe I fabricated drunken tales of childhood and only decided to reveal this ultra-specific story at the age of 27. I never imagined that I would lose my family in this way. It feels like I have lost my identity, purpose, support system, best friends, and confidants – my sisters. They have subjected me to the silent treatment, which my brother also employs, treating me as if I don't exist. My sister's last text message summed it up when she said that they don't get together to talk about me anymore because I don't come up in their conversations. It was the same sister who initially encouraged me to reveal the truth about the abuse but then betrayed me and twisted the narrative.
In my family, my case of sexual abuse was not an isolated incident. My father, a physician and at the time a pediatrician in Illinois, had a second case of sexual abuse and incest in his side of the family. His younger brother, the second oldest among seven siblings, also abused his own daughter, my cousin. He is also Dr. A few years before I disclosed my own abuse as an adult, my cousin trusted my father enough to disclose her abuse to him. Despite my father not knowing about my case at the time, he took no professional action to report the abuse committed by another doctor, his brother, who abused his now niece, and did nothing.During that same disclosure, my cousin admitted that her two brothers, who are also my cousins, had abused her as well. This meant that five members of her household, three of whom were abusing one child, were involved in these traumatic events. My father, along with his brother and siblings, did nothing legally to report these incidents. My uncle, the abuser, is now the president of a hospital in East Texas. So technically, my case was the fourth, following my uncle, cousin, and another cousin. One of those cousins is now a pastor of a small church community, while the other works for a former presidential candidate's company. As for me, I have been trapped in a cycle of failure to launch as an adult, mental health issues, and intermittent substance abuse problems for the past 20 years. And that's not even the end of it – the fifth case involves my cousin, who was arrested in a state capital where he worked as a therapist or counselor. He was arrested for filming his young neighbor through her window. I am aware of his arrest but do not have any information regarding the progress of his case or its resolution.
To put it all together, it is an intricate mess of narcissism, ego, power, control, and childhood trauma. I strongly believe I have developed complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD) as a result of these experiences. In fact, I am certain that I have.
Fast-forward to the present, and I am writing this from a motel room, where there are too many details to recount from the past six months since my return from Montana. In a way, I followed the path of my other abused cousin – I left. However, I ultimately failed and had to return to a city near my parents, a city I despise. To add to my troubles, I was falsely accused of felony domestic violence soon after my return, further fueling my sense of failure and shame. My parents, upon hearing about the incident, made it clear that they wanted little to do with me. Speaking of Montana, my experiences and the year I spent there were truly nightmarish, to say the least. But that's a story for another time.
During the car ride to a hospital in a small town in the same county, my father and I had an opportunity for a discussion about the abuse. I wanted to understand why he did nothing in all five cases, why the eldest child seems to be targeted (true for my brother and cousin), why successful doctors are involved – including a pastor, a consultant, and now a urologist after the fact. Did he not notice the intergenerational pattern and his own parental negligence as a physician and a parent of adult children? I questioned why he took no action, why his behavior changed so drastically in the past three years, why he lied about his knowledge of nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) when he had used them for possible infidelity and had lied about private settlements. He even harassed me using the police, assassinated my character in our small town, and now charged me with striking him, resulting in false statements and allegations. As a consequence, my reputation has been tarnished while my father's remains pristine. We currently reside in a town where he practiced medicine, and the consequences for me are severe. Deep in my heart, I know that his post-arrest behavior towards me has been consistently inconsistent. He evades questioning, avoids contact and visits, and shows no signs of wanting a relationship. Instead, he guilt-trips me, shifts blame, engages in word salad and gaslighting, and pathologically lies.
As I sit here now, I wonder: What can one do in such a dire situation? There seem to be no options, no answers, no safety nets of money or emotional support, no motivation, and no joy – only the looming threat of a potentially harsh sentence. Even worse, my father has attempted to record my phone calls and offered me money not to hire a proper defense attorney or pursue litigation, just a week before I was supposed to accept a four-year adjudication plea as an innocent party. Then, when I decided to plead my innocence at the last minute during the trial, he abandoned me once again, signaling to me that money is somehow tainted. Regardless, it's gone now.
I apologize for unloading all of this on Reddit, and I understand that it may be quite depressing for others to read. However, I feel that I have reached the end of my fight, not against just one issue, but against a conglomerate of issues that have stolen my life and time, offering me nothing in return. I desperately need legal advice, emotional support, prayers, or any form of assistance. I find myself lost in a maze of confusion, where every turn I make is a miscalculation, distorted by backward perspectives and reflections off other elements. Over the past six weeks since leaving my job due to a problematic relationship with the owner, I have been living a transient and isolated existence in the dark corners of this wretched city. It feels as though I have been exiled from my own life. I don't know what to do or who to turn to. I want to assure you that I'm not dramatizing this situation; I'm simply sharing my experience because I have no one else to talk to. I have been completely alone and isolated since losing my job.

Hi there,
I plan on having a liquidity event in the near term and am currently a resident in a high income/cap gains tax state (eg CA/NY/NJ).
I would like to avoid this if possible by moving to a tax optimal state. I don't mind actually living in FL or Nevada, my question is, assuming my liquidity event occurs in July, will moving to FL or Nevada next week and remaining there for more than half the year shield me from cap gains tax?
Thank you all for the help.

I don't really know if I want advice or just a place to vent but whatever. I'm feeling really shitty right now and need to get all of it off my chest and hope I am not being crazy or awful. For background, everyone involved including myself are 25F. Ariel and I became roommates in college and lived together for a year, and then later Belle moved in to take the place of one of out other roommates. We became friends when Belle moved in to our apartment but we really became a trio a few months later. We have a shared group chat we all talk in pretty much daily and do regular facetime calls since none of us live near each other. Ariel and Belle are closer than I am to Belle but I am pretty close with Ariel. I talk to both of them on a daily basis in our group chat, but talk to Ariel more outside of the group chat. Ariel and Belle have both separately visited me (I live in a different state), with Belle visiting me in Fall 2022 (this is kinda relevant). The three of us also went on a girls trip about a year ago. A little more than a year ago, Belle got engaged to her long term boyfriend and it was very exciting. From early on there were discussions about bachelorette and general wedding details. Bridal party stuff was never mentioned, Belle always seemed pretty lowkey about adhering to wedding traditions so I didn't think much of it. I also didn't want to ask since I wasn't sure what she was doing, but I assumed if she was doing that I would be one. In retrospect, I admit this wasn't a fair assumption. It was either December or January, a good 6+ months from the engagement, when groomsmen were brought up for the first time and I privately asked Ariel about it. She told me that Belle asked her a while ago to be a bridesmaid. I felt really caught off guard; I'm not a Karen, it is totally up to Belle who she chooses for her wedding party. I also found out it was pretty small too (4 bridesmaids and 4 groomsmen), and I was also in a wedding in November and recently asked to be in another one, while Ariel has never been in a wedding. Ariel is also quite frankly a better bridesmaid than I would be: she follows wedding stuff, is super organized, and is local and able to go to more pre-wedding events. I also know Ariel and Belle are closer so I am not surprised she asked Ariel. I just felt kinda shitty, like this was being kept from me on purpose, especially since Belle came to visit me for a weekend and we talked wedding stuff and there would've been time to mention this to me, but whatever I too hate confrontation and awkward situations which is why I am here. I def was a bit insecure about it and vented a bit to Ariel when she told me, but after that I let it be. Belle made a choice, I can't even fault her for it. I have my own insecurities and that's on me to deal with. She did have a bachelorette and I was invited. It was fun. There were a couple other girls there who weren't part of the bridal party which helped, except I knew one of them was a pity invite which def got to my insecurities of being like that too. I wasn't able to make it to the bridal shower because it was too far away. Meanwhile, friendships are fine, no drama there. Since I am not local, I stayed with Ariel and rode with her to the wedding. I felt awkward with her talking about bridesmaid stuff but whatever. She had to get there the day before for the rehearsal and everything. I felt a bit awkward about being with Ariel but not invited to the rehearsal especially since some people invite out-of-state guests to that, but another friend of ours (Snow) stayed with us at the hotel so we hung out. Snow and I hung out before and during the wedding when Ariel was doing bridesmaid stuff. Here is the thing tho, Snow is a college friend but not a close one. Ariel and Belle know Snow better than me, and aren't the biggest fans of her but she was invited anyway. Our other old roommate, who again none of us are particularly close to, was invited as well and the three of us (me, Snow, and 4th roommate) hung out during the wedding. I hate to say it, but that made me feel even shittier like I was cast aside to hang out with the rejects. During the wedding, one of the groomsmen was kinda cute. I thought he was flirting with me and was into that, but he was flirting with Ariel and they ended up making out a bunch. I let me insecurities get the best of me and took advantage of the open bar, got drunk, cried a bit in the bathroom because I was feeling so shitty, and then made out with a random person (I am not proud of any of this). I don't think my jealousy was detected and it all worked out. I did hate Ariel a bit when we were driving back as she was talking about how she, and I quote, "didn't realize she was one of Belle's top four friends and thought she was fifth or sixth" which made me feel like garbage. She talked a lot about wedding stuff and the grooms family and I was soaking in hungover jealousy. Now the wedding was weeks ago so aside from hearing about it when the professional photos come out (which honestly I am dreading a bit), I thought I was in the clear and my jealousy would be better. However, Ariel and the groomsmen hit it off, went out, and are currently on a date doing the deed. Now, I am not delusional, I don't know this guy at all, am not mad or jealous of her being with him or whatever. It's just...I haven't had sex and until tonight Ariel was my only friend in the same boat. I am happy for her but its hard being a virgin at my age and feeling like shit about it. Having someone close to me who understood was nice and made me feel less alone, and now that is gone. And now it just feels like her and belle are going to go off and be BFFs who have sex and I will be the virgin loser with no friends. Plus, she met the guy because of Belle and that's always gonna be a part of it, which makes me feel like I'm being shut out of this friendship. All this jealousy and insecurities are building up and I don't know what to do. I don't want to say anything because I feel like saying something will push them, especially Ariel (I am about to move to her city and was looking forward to hanging out with her more) away but I am worried about keeping all these feelings in. And I hate having these feelings in the first place, because so much isn't valid and it's stupid and illogical and I hate them so much. It just feels like I will never grow past the insecure 12 year old who didn't have friends and was left out and I know thats not true (at least I pray to god it's not) but I don't know how to handle it. I hate to say this about a friend's wedding, but it feels like it's gonna haunt me forever and I hate how stupid that sounds. I just wish I didn't have these feelings.

Like title says I want to not what happens and what the process looks like when disputing a charge with Bank of America. I recently ordered something from Saks Fifth Avenue ($487) the order never arrived and Ive been trying to contact them for weeks all they was tell me to wait its been almost 3 weeks now and after all that they just sent me a bot email saying they cant do anything about it. First time ever disputing a charge so Im just wondering what the proccess is like

Hello!
Idk if someone made this list na. A quick search in this sub did not yield the results I was looking for.
To preface this: Yes, we can study in our dorms / houses. Minsan talaga, we need that change of scenery when studying, especially during the height of exams season. Plus, hindi lahat may rooms na always conducive for studying. I am of the opinion na okay lang twice or thrice in a semester mag-study outside (arbitrary numbers).
Some of the cons that keep me from studying out are:

• SAFETY. I lived in Cebu since college (2015), so di na ako new sa environment. Pero with news about gun shootings sa cafe (to be fair, I'm only aware of one during college, pero schoolmate ko kasi ang victim so it hit closer to home), I have my reservations. PLEASE BE MINDFUL OF YOUR SAFETY DIN, can't stress this enough. It's a scary world.
• My chair sa room is so comfortable, my desk is wide and tama ang height. Well-lit din because lamp.
• Sadly, since the pandemic, parang shiny rare Pokemon na ang 24-hour places :(((
• Mas mahirap umuwi at night because less na ang jeeps that ply the road. Truly missing the pre-pandemic time vis-a-vis studying out and 24-hr places.

​

• For USC students, okay mag study sa library. They adjust their operating hours depende sa demand. Bring jacket!!! The library has a small retail corner (library and bar ops) where u can buy instant sachets ng kape, biscuits, candies, ordinary medicine like biogesic na you don't need prescription for, papers, pens, highlighters, drinks, may water dispenser for hot and cold water, may 7/11 across the street. If you prefer, be friends sa blockmates mo, order kayo sa Grab for food and coffee, share sa delivery fee. There's wifi but mahina sa library. You can mobile hotspot pero parang mahina ang Globe din there. Stay safe and vigilant pauwi at night.
• Library in your school / university if meron and conducive for studying. Take advantage sa binabayaran mong tuition. Plus, if you need to more references, chances are may books available kasi nga library: this dawned on me a little too late.
• IT Park has a lot of study places.
  • My favorite in undergrad was Krispy Kreme (coz hello donuts and relatively cheaper coffee) and Bo's Coffee yung near sa Jollibee/Chowking. Closed na ni nga branch sa Bo's, I think? No wifi na yata ang KK and di na 24 hours. I forgot when siya mag-close. Baka open pa ang Bo's Coffee branch in the same bloc where Krispy Kreme is.
  • Recently, may Dunkin Donuts na but they close mga 8 PM yata? For sure walang wifi. Idk okay lang mag-aral there. Takeout ka na lang ng kape.
  • Starbucks near the louvre triangle thingy na closed na today and near Sugbo Mercado. Closes like 2 AM as far a I know. Madaling mapuno. Don't finish 2 venti espresso-based coffee in a span of 4 hours before your big exam. I think no outlets? I haven't seen any. There's a Starbucks near Krispy Kreme/Jollibee/KFC din, pero I haven't tried.
  • Civet Coffee, pre-pandemic hanging 4 AM yata sila. Small tables, small chairs. Idk, my friends liked it there.
• MangoSix. Salinas Drive. Parang gusto ka na nilang paalisin sa lamig ng AC nila. I don't think you know what is cold before you experienced MangoSix cold. Bring jacket. Maybe may times na it won't be as cold. They have wifi. Contrary to (my) expectation, they don't just serve mango stuff, hehe. Limited outlets.
• Idk if Cafe Talk in Escario St. is still open for studying. Poor cell reception inside. Last time I was there was in undergrad, they have a box-like set up: you're inside a cubicle na sa sides ang opening so may ceiling ka, you squat inside like a Japanese would for meals. They had outlets per cubicle back then. Idk now.
• Bo's Coffee near Cebu Doc. I haven't tried, but I always see med students study here.
• Dunkin Donut, Fuente Circle. I think 24 hours sila, pero when I was there, they had to close at like 2 AM kasi they have to clean up, mag-open again in a few hours. For sure open na sila by 6 AM kasi I used to get my coffee there before I go to work. No outlet. No wifi. Love their coffee. Cheap, strong, good taste.
• Tom N Toms. Idk their operating hours sa new na location nila at 88th Avenue. Con is tuyoon kayo siya murag di for students and convenient lang if naay kay car? FOR ME. Back in undergrad, I studied sa branches nila in front of SM City Cebu (APM mall) and yung near sa Greenery. Okay study atmosphere. These 2 branches are already closed na today, sayang.
• Bo's Coffee sa Ramos, I haven't tried studying here. Saba daw here based sa naka-try. I think maraming med students here since near siya to medical schools. Maka-order ko sa foodpanda at dawn so I think 24 hours ni.
• Starbucks Colon, closes by 8 PM I think, small area. Madaling mapuno. May outlets daw but limited. The baristas are kind.
• *Dunkin Donuts, Colon - under construction pa I think, but may tarpaulin sila showing Dunkin, Idk when mag-open, high hopes for this place.
• Starbucks - BPI Ayala. I love it here sa morning kasi wala masyadong tao. Jazzy, quiet, chill vibe. Mapuno late in the afternoon, becomes noisy, closes at 12 AM I think. Their staff is accommodating and approachable. Poor cell reception sa Globe. Wifi is gosurfwifi.

If possible and you're lucky enough na you can have them in your space, get a comfortable chair with back support, a wide desk na appropriate say ang height, and a good lamp. This saves you the trouble of going out. SAFETY FIRST. Pa-deliver ka na lang ng kape.
​
Do you know of other studying out places in Cebu City na you'd like to share? (10%) char.

Disclaimer: Registered trademarks and copyrights are properties of their rightful owners. As this series jumps realities very often it is hard to track that info.
DM, the Digitalman, the Scion of Variable is a creation of my good friend who does not use Reddit and is used with permission.
The Pokémon Lucario is © The Pokemon Company.
“When you're in your darkest place, you give yourself hope and that's inner strength.”
― Uncle Iroh
The Daughter that Follows
Chapter 27
Reunited
Part 5
“So, are we all ready?” Darius asked as he rolled out a second grill in his backyard. He had decided to host the mini-reunion for Alan and his friend.
“We are so friggin’ ready.” Kenji grinned. “I can almost taste the meat...”
“Why is he acting like he hasn’t had meat in forever?” Alan asked Brooklynn while pointing to her husband.
“I wish I knew, he has his own grill.” Brooklyn shook her head. “Cooks good corn.”
“Speaking of, I got these for you.” Alan held up several cobs. “Won’t be a competition because Vegeta thinks vegetables are a sin.”
Brooklyn rolled her eyes, “I know the type.”
“So...” Sammie pointed into Darius’ house. “Is your other guest okay?”
“He’s fine, he just doesn’t like the sun that much.” Alan grinned.
“He’s a vampire.” Yaz said.
“Don’t say that.” Sammie chided her wife.
“Technically he’s a nosferatu.” Alan wavered his hand. “But also be quiet, I want Anna surprised, and Salem surprised.”
“Why is he getting surprised?” Kenji asked.
Yaz smiled, “You didn’t pay attention to his shirt, did you?”
“I think he might be a fan of Alan’s friend.” Sammie said.
Not a moment after that a hole opened above Darius’ driveway. They heard Ben shout in surprise as he fell out with Anna and Vegeta.
“You know, you’re brave...” Vegeta said, “But you need to have more spatial awareness if you’re not gonna fly.”
“We can’t fly here.” Ben said as he was flown over Darius’ roof and sat down.
“Where’s Anna?” Alan asked.
“She saw someone attacking Spider-Men.” Vegeta shrugged.”Dropped us off and ran off.”
“Oh.” Alan blinked.
“Yeah, it looked like some wasp thingy.” Vegeta flew back and returned with a huge slab of meat. “Wagusaurus.”
Alan stopped to think for a moment before another hole in reality opened and Anna walked through covered in orange and green gunk.
“Hose?” She asked grumpily.
Darius pointed to the side of his house.
“So I take it, it squished good?” Salem snickered from the sliding door.
Anna froze and looked up. Then she looked at her father.
“Surprise.” Alan smirked.
Anna ran up and hugged her father. “That’s for surprising me.”
Alan nodded. “I kinda figured.”
Salem was laughing like mad as Anna went to hose herself off. Then he froze as he saw Vegeta cutting up the meat.
“Surprise.” Alan smiled and tapped Vegeta on the shoulder. “You gotta fan here, man.”
“Huh?” Vegeta turned to see the fanged nosferatu staring and pointing. “Hey, you want to help? This stuff is heavy.”
Salem just nodded and helped the saiyan prince separate out the meat.
Anna came walking back around the corner, she had used her aura to squeeze the water from her clothes and skin, though her hair was still wet. She giggled as her father simply eradicated the gunk that was on his clothes.
“Thank you.” Anna smiled up at Alan.
“Yeah, well he’ll be going with you.” Alan smiled. “Plus this needed to happen outside of a battle zone.”
“Oh yeah.” Anna nodded emphatically. “Completely.”
Alan smiled as he clapped his hands. “All right! Everyone get ready for a taste test sensation! Except Brooklynn, I’ll have your corn done not long after.”
“What is she vegetarian?” Vegeta snapped.
“Vegan.” Brooklyn said as she crossed her arms.
“I make meat.” Vegeta crossed his arms as if to challenge her.
“Good for you, my husband is who you want to impress.” She nodded to Kenji.
“Huh, fair.” Vegeta nodded. “Why is he staring at the grills?”
“He grills too, but for fun.” Brooklynn smiled.
“Hey, amateur!” Vegeta stomped forward.
Kenji flinched. “Yes?”
“You’re my second.” Vegeta grinned.
Kenji smiled and saluted, “Yes sir!”
“Ben, you got my stuff?” Alan asked.
“Stuff?” Vegeta asked as Ben walked out with a wheeled tray filled with cooking paraphernalia.
“Oh, now we’re getting serious!” Vegeta grinned. “Anna, you got my stuff?”
Anna nodded and tossed out a pink and blue capsule that turned into another wheeled tray with similar cooking tools on it.
“Just so we’re clear, I’m recusing myself.” Anna smiled.
“Clever girl.” Vegeta stared at her with a vicious smile..
“Man if you knew the history of that phrase here.” Alan shook his head. “All right folks, quarter of a steak each for the taste testing. Be honest, put your fork on the plate you like most.”
“Do we get ketchup?” Anna asked with a devious grin.
Both men stopped and glared.
“I found the heckler.” Alan said through gritted teeth.
“Considering her parentage, I’m not surprised.” Vegeta nodded.
(T)(D)(T)(F)---(T)(F)(T)(W)
Darkseid paced on Apokalips.
He had been shunted back to his planet and reality with ease by the ghostly reaper. He had been embarrassed for the last time by the Scions. He would not tolerate it anymore.
“Kalibak!” He shouted for his son.
Kalibak came forward and kneeled. “Father.”
“Prepare all to attack Earth. If I cannot go to them I will draw them to me. We will slaughter Superman's adopted homeworld.” Darkseid grinned.
The sound of chains echoed through the halls.
“Alice?” Hare lifted his head.
“She’s coming...” March Hare’s vocalizer on the back of the warbeast he was attached to, sang to life.
Soon a woman in white with red on a half mask walked into view.
“And who are you?” Darkseid asked.
“I am called Kyton. I come from Alan Quain’s home reality.” She said as the chains holding Hare released him. “I am the Revenant of Heroes, element of metal.” March Hare’s brain case released itself and fell to the ground.
“FREEDOM!” The brains’ final thoughts shouted from the vocalizer.
“You will keep them no longer!” Kyton’s chains flew from openings and snagged the ragged body of Hare into a swirling portal.
“So it is war!” Darkseid grinned as lanced out a punch, but a wall of crystal rose up from the ground.
“I’m here to asshole.” Stephen Quain walked in as the air around all of Darkseid’s forces turned to solid crystalline bindings. “And we brought an old friend.”
A scream of rage tore through the air as a clown mask landed at Darkseid’s feet.
Darkseid looked down and was caught by a powerful uppercut, but it was nothing to him. He did recognize his opponent, they had taken him form Quain’s home reality and tormented him. They had tried to shatter the mask he wore only to find it resisted them at all attempts. He wore a new mask now, but Darkseid felt the same hidden power inside it. He grinned and grabbed the human’s fist and tossed him back.
“Dammnit!” SideEffect shouted. “If I could feel those bones I’d be even more pissed!”
“And now I am...” Darkseid looked outside his window to see a series of explosions ripple across Apokalips.
A man flew down to his window, a billowing red cape.
“I’m afraid not, Darkseid, this is the Scion’s war.” Superman smiled. “We’re just helping.” He flew in and slammed the leader of Apokalips through the walls.
Kyton looked at Stephen Quain, “Don’t kill the sapient ones.”
Stephne rolled his eyes. “Just because I have a history with the hairball doesn’t mean I’m trigger happy.”
Kalibak looked around in confusion. The crystal bindings were all too familiar and he looked at the human in fear. “Can you please not turn me into crystal again? It really hurts.”
Stephen rolled his eyes.
(T)(D)(T)(F)---(T)(F)(T)(W)
In the black space above Apokalips, a green form looked down upon the world. A scythe and sword were by his side, as was a young pale skinned woman. She shook her head but did not oppose the Scion.
“You started this early.” Death of the Endless sighed. “Why?”
“Because it’s the one thing no one would expect me to actually do.” Wraith drew his daggers from his side and looked them over. His black blade still had a knick in it from when a piece broke off in Atropos. “So I’ll make sure this entire war is off balance.”
Death of the Endless shook her head. “I think she got under your skin. So to speak.”
“She did.” Wraith acknowledged. “For this I am not Death. For this I am the endless rage of the murdered and unavenged. She wants this fight, I’ll give it to her, but on my terms.”
“What are your friends doing?” Death of the Endless looked down.
One half of Apokolips was now thoroughly exploded with mechanical animals running rampant over it. The other half was now a flower covered paradise that had strange trees restraining the parademons and other forces.
“What they do best.” Wraith smiled. “Chaos and Imbalance.”
“And what can we do?” The voice of Astral, Scion of Order asked as he appeared.
“Cage of this reality, separate it from itself.” Wraith leaned on his scythe.
“Shadow reality?” Astral asked.
Wraith nodded.
“I’m gonna need my buddy down there.” Astral nodded.
“I’m your buddy?!” Perfection cooed as he appeared. “Hiya D.o.E.! How’s Delirium?”
“Delerious.” Death of the Endless smiled with a nod.
“All right!” Perfection cheered. “One shadow realm coming up!” He snapped his fingers and a wig very similar to a popular card game anime character’s hair appeared on his head and his clothes shifted to a similar style.
“Does that mean I have to be Kaiba?” Astral sighed.
“Would you?” Perfection asked with a pleading look.
“Okay, fine. This once.” Astral sighed and his trench coat shifted to that of another coat similar to the other one’s rival.
“I’m not watching this.” Wraith sighed as he vanished.
“Man, what a party pooper.” Perfection sighed. “Well it’s time to get twisted!”
(T)(D)(T)(F)---(T)(F)(T)(W)
Anna sat watching her friends and her father. Everyone was relaxed and the party was winding to a close. Vegeta was busy going over a speech with her dad and Salem was busy trying to understand how Ben survived a Carnotaurus as a teenager with no powers.
“We will go to our final battle soon.” Rio sat beside her enjoying some of the last steak.
“Well not our last.” Anna smiled.
Rio shook her head. “I cannot go with you beyond this.”
Anna looked at Rio. “Did I say something, do something?”
Rio shook her head. “I have a responsibility I too will be stepping into, at Arceus’ last request.”
Anna hugged Rio. “You could have said something.”
“I was conflicted.” Rio admitted, “But it was Arlina that made me realize I had to do it.”
Anna nodded. “You’ll always be my sister.”
“You will always be welcome in my world.” Rio smiled and gave a happy yip.
Anna smiled. “Bonds beyond life and death.”
“Bonds beyond time and space.” Rio said as a compliment to it. “I will cherish the time we have had together.”
Anna smiled and held up the pokeball.
“Oh no,we still need that, I don’t want to travel the multiverse exposed to it!” Rio barked nervously.
Anna laughed. “Okay, One last big adventure.”
“Once more unto the breach, my friends.” Alan said as he sat next to them.
“What?” Anna asked.
“The Bard himself.” Alan smiled. “Henry the Fifth.”
Anna nodded. “I’m scared.”
Alan nodded. “So am I. I could lose the most important people to me. But it has to stop, she has to be stopped, he has to be stopped. No more.”
Anna nodded.
“Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more, Or close the wall up with our English dead.” Yaz said. “Act Three, Scene One.”
“Indeed.” Alan smiled and nodded. “I better pick up Teal’c and the other’s too.”
Anna looked at her father quizzically.
“He sounds a lot like Kratos. But he enjoys breaking False gods, so...” He paused. “Disturbingly coincidental hobbies.”
Anna giggled.
“How many of my friends have that hobby?” Alan pondered aloud.
Vegeta jumped up and waved his hand.
“No, Vegeta. Frieza was not a false god.” Alan sighed.
“Fair.” Vegeta harrumphed.
“Well I have to get this all cleaned up tomorrow.” Darius sighed.
Alan gave a baring laugh.
“What?” Darius asked.
“Darius.” Anna scoffed, “We aren’t trashy guests...” She focused and Hong Long came out from her aura and quickly began to pick up trash.
Alan simply focused on various small bits that flew to the trash cans. Within minutes the backyard and the grills were sparkling.
“Kami, do I miss the easy cleanups...” Vegeta sighed. “You know the stars here are bit different, but I like’em.”
Anna smiled and began to point out the constellations. Soon though Alan, Anna and their guests returned to the Camp for one more night of rest.
When they got back Anna and Alan crashed within minutes, Vegeta and Salem were still up staring out at the stars.
“You feel it?” Vegeta asked.
“Like a cat with its hackles up.” Salem nodded.
“What do you do, to keep her safe?” Vegeta asked.
“Got some magic, but mostly I use big guns.” Salem said. “I can hack, but it’s a tertiary skill nowadays. If I get pissed I can jack my bodies’ power up, but not anywhere near as powerful as you.”
Vegeta nodded. “Willing to die?”
“For them?” Salem just nodded.
“Good.” Vegeta nodded. “He wants me up front with Darkseid. How do you think I’ll fair?”
“Depends.” Salem shrugged, “What’s your newest technique?”
“Well I developed a bit of an Ego, if you will.” Vegeta grinned.
“No, not with Darkseid.” Salem shook his head. “Definitely poor on the aggression, but you do not want to take a hit. Especially the Omega Beams, you can’t dodge them, you can only put others in front of them.”
(T)(D)(T)(F)---(T)(F)(T)(W)
“He wasn’t there.” Consumption hissed. “Not even a trace of him.”
Atropos blinked in shock. She felt for certain Wraith would retreat to the Gates of Hell in their home reality. That he wasn’t there was a shock.
“That’s because he’s off picking a fight with Darkseid.” Odin shook his head. “Your plans aren’t coming together, Norn.”
“Don’t call me that.” Atropos said in an off-sweet tone. “I write fates, they make a show of them.”
Odin grunted. He was starting to regret working with this woman.
“As I said it doesn’t matter.” Atropos shoved her hand into her leg, golden ichor rolled out as she pulled an obsidian black shard from her leg. “A piece of his Sin left to remember him by.”
“I can use that.” Sindri shot up, “That will work” He walked over and held out his hands.
Atropos smiled and dropped it in his open palms. The sharp piece struck into the dwarf’s hand and his grief flashed before his eyes and he clutched his hand around the piece as he roared in pain. He forced himself over to his work table and pried it out of his own hand.
Atropos watched in shock.
“It wants you to suffer under your own guilt.” Sindri winced. “Vicious piece, but it has a piece of him, more than enough.”
“Then let Undeath Echo through the multiverse.” Atropos roared with laughter.
Odin watched the woman and slowly tilted his head towards her, then to Sindri. He nodded slowly as he realized what was happening. He had to get out of this mad house and fast.
(T)(D)(T)(F)---(T)(F)(T)(W)
Anna stretched as Hong Long coiled about in the sky, doing his own version of warming up. Alan yawned as he said his goodbyes to his co-workers and bosses.
Dr. Grant handed him a book, an old one signed by another Paleontologist. Quain grinned as he put the book signed by Tim Murphy into his bag. Dr. Ellie Sattler just gave him a hug. Dr. Wu who had the hardest time saying goodbye, despite the few words the two ever exchanged they had become good friends and trusted each other.
“Don’t go bad or I’ll be back.” Alan smiled.
“I don’t think I can anymore.” Wu smiled.
“He’s got the heart!” Anna shouted. “He took a while to grow into it though!”
Dr. Wu smiled and waved. “Take care of her, she still needs her father.”
Alan nodded and stood next to his daughter.
“What do you think, two holes?” Anna asked.
Alan blew a raspberry. “Why waste the energy?”
Anna nodded. “So who is going to make it?”
Alan stroked his chin. “Rock paper scissors?”
Anna rolled her eyes and Hong Long roared and tore into reality leaving an extra large whole gaping open.
“See you in a week!” Anna laughed as she ran and jumped through. Salem came screaming after her shouting about not being ready.
“That’s CHEATING!” Alan shouted as he raced after his daughter. Vegeta sighed and ran after his friend, grumbling about losing the steak-off once more.
As he breached into the multiverse he felt the power of his new nature course through him. He held it back, but just barely. He wanted to show Darkseid exactly how bad he had messed up.
Anna also felt the power crest in her and she looked back and smiled at her father while Salem tumbled in the rear of Hong Long’s frame. She waved as her father and Vegeta skewed off in a different direction.
“I think I’m gonna puke!” Salem groaned as he spun around.
\\\\
First
Previous
End of the Daughter that Follows
SPOTIFY LIST!
////
All the Scions: OH!
S: Yup.
Astral: Fuck.
Maven: With extra cheddar.
Perfection: What?
Maven: It’s a saying from my home reality.
Perfection: But why Cheddar?
DM: How does he even have Cheddar, that’s from England.
Perfection: My head hurts.
S: So that’s her plan folks.
Mosious: That’s not good.
Theten: But there’s no need for Undeath. It’s antithetical to the universe!
Karma: Maybe it’s about exactly that. Like we’re concepts. What if she’s going for Extra material power.
S: Smart woman wins the prize.
Wraith: SHE... ANger... RAGE...
Karma: Oh no, he’s sputtering.
Astral: (steps back)
S: And now folks I work on outlining the final battle. I’ll know more about it’s length in a week or two. In the meantime I will continue to work on GSD.

While I completely understand that only I can figure out the next step in my life, I thought I would share my story on here to see if anyone was willing to chime in with advice or angles that I might not have considered. I should probably explain my education and work history first, so that’s what I’ll start with.
I spent my first two years in university studying accounting and finance, which never felt like the right fit. I transferred into civil engineering and, within a year, hated it just as much, if not more. At that point, though, I had committed too much time and money to my studies to give up, so I ended up finishing the degree, and actually doing very well (I graduated in the top 5 of my class). I was never in any way the engineering type, though, and it has been an endless source of amusement for my family and friends that I, the least practical person they have ever met, have an engineering degree. For what it’s worth, I excelled at math, and contributed to group projects mainly with my writing skills.
After I graduated, I worked for the government in a remote town in the far north of Canada for about a year and a half, mainly to pay off my student loans and save money for travelling. I said goodbye to the profession at that point, having despised every moment of being an engineer-in-training, spent the next year travelling across Africa, and then the year after that travelling through Australia and Asia. In the years that followed, I alternated between teaching English in Korea and travelling through other parts of the world. Suffice it to say, my CV is spotty at best.
Like many English teachers have found, it’s very comfortable to live in Asia, and even though the pay isn’t very good, you can quite easily save money. The main problem with doing it is that there really is no clear path for transitioning back to working in your home country. For that reason, it’s easy to get stuck. And boy, do I feel stuck. I am 36 now and still doing this.
I work hard as a teacher and make a big effort to help my students, but I don’t enjoy it and would like to finally get out of this line of work, so the idea of doing a Bachelor’s of Education and teaching in Canada is not an option I would like to take. My partner’s career has taken her to Toronto and we plan to move there together this fall. Toronto is a dreadfully expensive city, and it will be a struggle for us financially even though I have been saving up money for us to make the move.
I was accepted at the University of Toronto for a second Bachelor’s degree, but I don’t know if I will pursue this option or not. In truth, I wanted to explore as many avenues as possible, including going back to school, but I don’t have anything particular in mind for studying. I have never been very motivated by money and my personal interests (literature, creative writing, languages, linguistics, philosophy) don’t exactly translate into a clear career path. I think this is the biggest contributor for me never having found an actual career.
The question, then, is what can people like me actually do? Nearly a decade of teaching English is meaningless experience in Canada, and an engineering degree from ten years ago is probably just as useless at this point (not that I want to get back into field!). If I were to try to find work, what sectors would be worth looking into? Are there better training options than taking on the time and expense of an additional undergraduate degree? I want my partner to feel that she can rely on me, particularly as we’ll be getting married soon, but I am just so completely lost when it comes to anything career-related. My partner thinks that I should become a high school math teacher, based on my engineering degree and prior teaching experience, but this is an idea that really does fill me with dread.
A bit long, but thank you for reading. I really do appreciate any advice!

I was thinking about all the things that the post-Miura era could tackle, and the stuff Miura himself may have planned to do something with. I decided to make this somewhat speculatory list just for fun.
**Void**
He's all but outright confirmed to be the sage locked by Gaiseric in the Tower of Conviction that prayed to God to send down angels, sacrificing his kingdom, his empire even, to become Void. But as with the other Godhand members, we barely know anything beyond that. Heck, Void is one of the less elusive members, oddly enough, but we'll fall down that broken bridge when we get to it. What I find interesting about him is that, when the Four Kings of the Astral World were first introduced by Schierke, I legit thought they were four of the Godhand (or maybe a "good" reflection of them), with the missing one being Void. Because you have the basic four elements, and the fifth one would be a more abstract one, like nothingness. There's also the question of why he's the only one left from the former Godhand. Did Gaiseric kill the others? Were they gradually replaced by the Godhand as we now know them? Or did Void... do something? The first one remains the likeliest purely due to Occam's razor logic, but still, it's hard to shake the feeling that Void's different from his... colleagues... If, like Guts reaffirmed, Griffith will keep on soaring ever higher, therefore maybe even trying to ascend beyond the Godhand, with Void being the senior, he may have a backup plan, or know more than we think. Well, the dude's head is a brain, we already think he knows everything.
**Slan**
She has an interest in Guts, a __particular__ interest, in the Old Farnese style. Plenty of people have speculated that she might turn on the Godhand and aid Guts; I think it might be a mix of staying loyal to her peers, and helping Guts because she's a masochist and might find the idea of their extinction enticing, though that won't be very fun for Guts&co. Back to the Four Kings, I found it very suspicious how the Astral King connected to water is called the **Lady** of the **Depths**, whose spirit Schierke summoned against the trolls. And immediately after we get to Qliphoth, where Slan is called by Gaiseric, the Whore **Princess** of the Uterine **Sea**. Lady and Princess, Depths and (Uterine) Sea, there's some semantic similarity there. Furthermore, I found Mozgus' story about the nun who went around helping people suspicious as well. Did I think Slan was the nun in the story, a very cleaned up account of her actual mortal life, where Mozgus' nun, if she did do those good deeds, did not do them in the best way, or with the best intentions in mind? I don't know, I just clung to whatever crumb I could get cause we know so little about the Godhand; also Slan showed up in the heretics' fire so my mind was already on her.
**Ubik**
The one we've seen the least. Slan's already showed up, Conrad was seen manifesting from plague rats in that town just after Sir Laban left. Also his domain is... weird. Someone once pointed out (or maybe it's on the wiki, I don't remember) that he was the one who showed Griffith and Theresia the respective visions so that must be his sphere of influence. If you ask me, he's this very kind of speculation that leads people to madness and long analyses and essays. Also his eyes are covered so maybe he's Peekaf. Granted, Femto and Slan are the only ones whose eyes we can actually see, but I have this feeling. It's bollocks anyway, since Peekaf is just meant to be fairytale symbolic of some of the themes of Berserk. But I like to think I'm right, no weird little man living in the world of the absurd (or of ideas) can tell me otherwise.
**Conrad**
Well we know he's got something to do with death, disease, that kind of thing. We know that from like two panels, in the whole of Berserk. No crazy theories on him, just silence, for dead men tell no tales. Maybe he was a gravedigger? idk
**Femto**
Lucifer. Oh, also, in the post-Miura chapters, was he really untouchable or did he just bend space like he did against Gaiseric at the top of Ganishka? Probably not, but I just thought of that and found it weird.
**Elfhelm**
Yeah, no, something's off with those Wicker Men. Made with souls of the damned? Armour taken from invaders? And, in the post-Miura chapters, the *original* denizens of the island were like the Tower of Conviction blob? Something is off about the origins of the island, and about Danann herself. Granted, she could be like Flora, her soul drifting around in the astral world except she can take physical form. And she's the King of the Elves. Gaiseric, just what was happening in your time, man? Speaking of Flora, I assume the blob is connected with the taboo she violated. I'm waiting for Morda's master to show up again so she can shed some light on all of this stuff.
**Theresia**
I assume she'll show up near the ending, if at all, with that foreshadowing at the end of Black Swordsman. Though Falconia complicated everything. She's either dead, living in Falconia, or surviving somehow by herself. The latter makes the most sense given the nature of her threat to Guts, but even Rickert almost died on the road to Falconia, so idk.
**Jill**
Very likely just a one-off character for Lost Children, though it would be fascinating to see her again. I feel like seeing her in Falconia would mess with the closure she got at the end of Lost Children, since it seemed so nicely wrapped up, so it's probably for the best she doesn't show up again. I admit, seeing her as a background character would make me giddy.
**Farnese**
Yeah, here's the thing. What do Farnese and Slan have in common? Bingo. Or, used to have, we actually don't know if Farnese has those kinds of urges anymore. It is possible, these things probably don't just go away, and it would make an interesting character moment for her to be faced with this stuff again, but after all she's been through, I don't see how it would really get to her that bad. The more interesting thing is her time with the Holy Iron Chain knights, the context in which she was introduced, in fact. Besides the drip, she knows about the prophecy. Heck, she was the one who found the bloody lake where the old Band of the Falcon were sacrificed. She knows stuff, even if she doesn't realise it. She knows about the Hawk of Darkness, Hawk of Light, would probably be able to reach the conclusion that Griffith is the Devilman himself masquerading as the Messiah, and recognise that, isn't it weird how their major religion has a bird as a symbol, and the most recent member of the Godhand is all about dem birbs? Maybe she'll crucify Griffith the same way she used that bird to reproduce the Holy See symbol and it will make him a martyr so he can ascend past the Godhand but at this point, I'm just spitballing at the sun off of a very unstable raft. Also, what is this Holy Iron Chain? What can it hold? The Beast of Darkness?
**Serpico**
I got nothing. Well, aside from another showdown between him and Guts. But really, he probably has to find his own path, and also tell Farnese he's her half-brother. That would be fun. These are the obvious things, but I have no idea what could be done with Serpico going forward.
**Azan**
He has an as of yet unexplored backstory, the one where he protected the old man (who as I read assumed it was Daiba, but that's farfetched) and the one where he was betrayed by those he swore to protect. Maybe they're both the same incident in a way. Also he's awesome, he's badass, and he'd be a good foil to whatever shenanigans happen between Farnese and Serpico going forwards, because let's face it, things are gonna go south. Him being betrayed by those he swore to protect makes me think of Guts and Casca, and Griffith, but I'm just grasping at straws hoping to find that needle.
**Schierke**
She could find out about Flora's taboo, ponder whether to do it herself, whatever it was, explore the nature of Griffith's current form further, and heck, go deep enough in the Abyss that she meets the Idea of Evil, or whatever alternative manages to worm its way back into the canon. Otherwise I'm not completely sure what more needs to be resolved about her from what we know so far.
**Guts**
There's the obvious, and then there's the question of whether his elf-pointed ears and circumstances of his birth have any further relevance. The ears could be just an aesthetic choice and the birth situation is a blatant way of communicating that this guy **SURVIVES**, he **STRUGGLES**. On the one hand, I wonder what significance, if any, there was to that tree full of hanged people, on the other hand, it doesn't need any further significance. It is Guts' origin, and that's all we need to know. It would probably negatively impact the story anyway if it was revealed to be important beyond just being part of what makes Guts himself. Also the Beast of Darkness is obviously important but there's too many variables for me to even warrant making a guess. Something something Astral world I think, and whatever it is, do the Godhand know about it? Did Gaiseric have an equivalent when he wore the armour? If Gaiseric used his equivalent to kill 4/5 of the Godhand, and the Berserker armour made Guts' BoD way, way more potent, then the Godhand or at the very least Void would be really weary of it, but Griffith doesn't seem to really know, especially in the post-Miura chapters.
**Griffith**
Who were his parents? Probably doesn't matter. Who was the gipsy that sold him the crimson behelit? Probably doesn't matter. Although at first I thought it was the same gipsy that scried her crystal ball while telling Puck to look outside as the Eclipse started. These things happen, they were set in motion by the Godhand, and they're just reaping the results.
**Puck**
Now that the party's so much larger and more varied, what can his role be? What can his purpose be? Sure, he doesn't really need a purpose to exist, as a person in his own world or w.e, but he needs a purpose to keep existing as a character for us. He could continue being the comic relief, or the one really caring about looking into the how's and why's of Guts' monster hunting, but the story has outgrown that for a long time. Maybe the Beast of Darkness swallows him and he becomes a spark of light in Guts' consciousness keeping him at least 0.1% sane, idk. Also since we're on elves, Ivalera. She eludes me completely. I just don't know.
**Isidro**
TheAlmightyLoli makes a good point about him pursuing being a sailor, I guess. Isma being gone in the post-Miura chapters could make it into a kind of PotC Davy Jones deal, where they can only see each other again once every [certain amount of time] when the physical and astral worlds are closer or something. The details of his backstory likely don't matter.
**Casca**
Besides the obvious of the whole Eclipse and Moonlight Boy thing being resolved, I can't think of anything else. At some point I wondered if she had Kushan ancestry but that's irrelevant. Since she has no memories after they went to rescue Griffith from the Tower of Rebirth, maybe she's due for a rebirth as well.
**Rickert**
Rickert invents the Glock and kills God. On a more serious note, yeah, he's gonna have a large part to play coming up, excited to see it.
**Luca**
She and Farnese are like two coins with reversed faces in Slan's pouch. Is Luca gonna be the Mary Magdalene of Falconia? Well, for who? I can't see her warming up to Griffith, maybe she'll be among the voices of doubt and protest once something happens that raises suspicions in Falconia.
**Sonia**
She's the scariest thing in Berserk.
**Irvine**
He seems more of a loner than even other Apostles, has somewhat of a bond with Sonia, and it's suggested, especially in chapter 372, that he may not quite respect Griffith to the point the other Apostles do. Plus, his demonic form is still off-putting but not as horrible as that of other apostles, so he could end up a turncloak to Griffith, somehow, or a tragic figure.
**Mule**
He and Sonia could help each other, in different ways, figure out something is wrong about Falconia or the context behind it, or he could be used (as murder) to show Sonia an uglier side of Griffith. Or maybe he'll be fine, he's a cool guy. I forgot how many characters there were.
**Silat and Daiba**
Silat has been one of the most interesting or at least enjoyable characters on Griffith's side of Berserk. The Bakiraka clan's hideout sounds cool, and there is a lot of potential in terms of coolness factor there with Rickert and Daiba tagging along. Think of the contraptions Rickert could build to synergise with the others. We may get more lore from Daiba sort of like we got from Schierke and Flora, and who knows what Silat might get up to. Will he sneak Daiba's snake in the Garden?
**Manifico and Roderick**
Manifico, no clue. He was reduced to a joke character before we could get an inkling of some other role that he might fulfill. His ruthless businessman demeanour may help the party, or he'll just remain a liability. I don't think there's something all that special in Iith that Roderick could make up privy to, so for now he'll probably continue being the cab driver engaged to Farnese.
**Bonebeard**
Bonebeard's next appearance, because he will undoubtedly return again, will be the sixth one. This will herald the apocalypse and will either mean Griffith's downfall, or his success. When Bonebeard comes back, the chips will be down. And he'll make us die laughing before we get to read the ending.

Ty Alcaraz for letting us watch a bit of extra tennis <3
​

ATP Singles :

Rune vs Ruud :

Yes we’ve had fifth Rune vs Ruud on clay but what about sixth Rune vs Ruud on clay? This is quickly becoming a rivalry despite Casper leading the set count 10-3 and having only lost once. That’s how the conversation goes though when your opponent is younger. Every win they notch feels like a changing of the guard, and even if it isn’t you can be sure Yahoo Sports and the Daily Mail will pump out an article announcing it as such. Complaints about clickbait aside, Rune’s last (and only) win in Rome did feel like he was starting to solve the puzzle. Holger having a better backhand and his service game getting to even made it feel like Ruud would really have to do a lot to win in this matchup. Add in that this season has seen a peculiar lack of form from Ruud at times, and panic mode was somewhat engaged. This is a good chance for Casper to reset the discussion, but it also feels like a must-win.
Ruud beat Jarry in straight sets, which is a tall task for anyone right now. Jarry played great, but Ruud was patient and stubborn from the baseline, and his deep return position made it tough for Jarry to score quick points. The thing that really makes me point to Ruud winning his next match is how reliable he was on the big points. When he needed to, or wasn’t expected to, come up with a big shot, he did. His forehand is getting excellent height when he goes cross-court, and despite his backhand lacking some depth it’s been getting up high on his opponents. If Jarry at 6‘6” had a bit of trouble, it’s probably going to both Rune at 6‘2” (both these listed heights seem fudged in opposite directions). While Ruud was enjoying a return to form and a solid win, Rune was struggling physically in a marathon match against Cerundolo. Their match lasted just a minute under four hours, and despite looking physically fine during points, Rune’s play looked like someone who did not want to run anymore. Late in the fifth the dialogue with his box had started, and I was impressed that he managed to keep his head in the game and make some adjustments, but I was worried at how quick he was to try for return winners and quick infusions of offense. Rune should like himself against Cerundolo in a rally unless he’s struggling, and the recovery here will be an issue if they go deep. To Rune’s credit, he came to net a bunch in the 5th set tiebreak and that was the key to him winning. He applied pressure, and Cerundolo wasn’t able to come up with passes.
With Rune having a long match and physical fatigue, and Ruud having a straight set win, oddsmakers have set this at even odds. I’m inclined to agree. Rune has shown (in his Paris run) the ability to play at a breakneck pace and appear to put out a ton of energy, but still show up to compete the next round, so I don’t think this will be one-sided. I think he’ll be fine in the early-goings, but his willingness to play patient from the baseline will be essential here, and the quick unforced errors he displayed against Cerundolo can’t appear. Ruud plays less aggressive tennis than Cerundolo, and if you force the issue against him he’ll win. He also serves a bit more aggressively than Cerundolo, and is a bit more resilient about not letting changes in the scoreline affect his approach. Since they’ve been scheduled for the night match, and the colder conditions mean the ball really plays a bit slower, so I’m expecting this to be settled with frequent and extended rallies. Rune will win most of the backhand to backhand exchanges, but I think in these slower conditions it’ll be hard to hit through Ruud and physicality will become a factor. Ruud in 4-5.

Zverev vs Etcheverry :

The plot of Oceans 14 will be me getting fooled by Dimitrov one more time. Employing what is clearly the macro plan, Dimitrov has gone ahead and thrown in a few seasons of lackluster results and injury issues. Here, healthy, and playing his best tennis, he finally got me. I believed. Ouch did it hurt to watch this match. I don’t really like to drop negative things in here, but it really was a bad match. Dimitrov started off the match with two double faults, which I don’t even understand. The first few games your range might be off, but you should be firing on all cylinders after a day and a half of prep, and a thorough (these guys are preparing for hours) warm-up. He looked tentative throughout the affair, and it was pretty clear early on that he has a significant mental block against Zverev.
To Zverev’s credit, he did nothing. He hung behind the baseline, and just made it clear that it would take several shots to beat him. Dimitrov had two choices : play hyper aggressive and try to hit clean winners, or temper his offense and constantly hit to the open court because even though Zverev is quick, no one giving up that much space (behind the baseline) should be able to beat a professional tennis player in good form. Dimitrov chose neither. He constantly tried to come up with the next offensive shot, but swung tentatively as if he was assuming Zverev would get them. He had openings, but went safe and retreated back to the middle over and over. It was like watching someone play the role of a hitting partner for Zverev, but unfortunately they were nervous about the occasion and couldn’t keep the ball in the court. It was hard to watch, but I’m ready to get hurt again.
I expect Etcheverry will give Zverev the game that I thought Dimitrov would. Etcheverry and Nishioka was extremely close in the first set, and it felt like Nishioka would have equal chances if he could win the tiebreaker. What ensued was a really high level affair with most rallies being won with winners rather than errors. Etcheverry proved a bit more effective on serve though, and Nishioka appeared to aggravate an injury. He played out the match, which is a really nice gesture to the fans, but Etcheverry is through to his first major quarterfinals and it is well deserved. He has a great service delivery, doesn’t struggle with double faults, doesn’t back off his offense when he has control, and his backhand is very solid. This, I expect, will be Zverev’s to lose, but I think it will take some time to get there. Despite Zverev’s pre-injury passivity, he has shown some signs of life since his return. He’s hitting his forehand significantly better and seems to have (jinx) gotten rid of his deceleration issues. His backhand is still the most reliable shot for him, and he’s taking it down the line more often in this event which is causing extreme problems for his opponent. The double fault issues are there, but it’s a lot easier for me to expect his opponents to create break chances and scoreboard pressure while watching from home than it is to actually put balls in play off his powerful delivery. In short, Zverev is probably the pick to come out of the bottom draw, but this is his hardest test yet.
Etcheverry will not fold, unlike a certain someone whose texts are currently blocked (sorry Grigs but IT’S TOO SOON). His serving won’t falter as Dimitrov’s did, and he’ll be willing to ply his craft and test his offense against Zverev because unlike Dimitrov, he doesn’t have history against this opponent. Where I think he may struggle is returning serve. It can take a while to really read an opponent’s delivery, and since they’re playing in the daytime the ball should be moving a bit. Looking at some of the big servers he’s played, he beat Struff and Hanfmann, but he lost to Tiafoe twice. I am pulling for him, and I think his game will transfer well to grass and hardcourt, but this is probably the end of the road for him. Zverev really does have the next tier of ability in every department here, so only impatience and doubt are likely to send him home. Zverev in 4-5.

WTA Singles :

Haddad Maia vs Jabeur :

At the beginning of this tournament, I really only expected one of these players to be here. Ons Jabeur has had some slight injury issues, and just hasn’t seemed terribly motivated at every event. Her play every round here has improved though, and against Pera she broke out all the tricks. I really love her backhand dropshots down the line because she looks away from them. It mirrors the cross-court slice that some players employ overhand and even in my head I can feel myself starting to step to the left when she does it. Here Ons has her toughest opponent, but it’s one she’s played recently. These two met in Stuttgart, and Jabeur won 3,0. That’s a rough thing to overcome, but it was indoor tennis so Bella may fare better in these slower conditions.
Haddad Maia had a marathon against Sorribes Tormo, and the win meant a lot to her as SST has had her number for years. I think her serving will have to be at the next level here, as Jabeur was able to hold fairly easily in Stuttgart and is pretty fresh for this one. Haddad played for 3 hours and 51 minutes in her last round, and that makes three 3-set marathons in a row after her wins against Shnaider and Alexandrova. Those players had powerful offenses, but they aren’t as consistent or as solid defensively as Jabeur. It’s going to be hard to overcome Jabeur in these conditions, and fatigue is not on her side. Tremendous result for Haddad Maia, but Jabeur in 2.

Swiatek vs Gauff :

-1250 is what they’re suggesting is a fair price for Swiatek, but you will understand if I disagree. Lesia Tsurenko was unfortunately forced to retire in the first against Swiatek, but she was likely not going to put up much of a fight anyway. She’s a tricky player, but Swiatek was seeing the ball big and was applying a lot of pressure to Tsurenko’s serve. Lesia seemed to feel a bit faint, and told the physicians that she was having some trouble breathing. She’s had a fair bit of withdrawals this year (5), but with an illness removing Rybakina, and Tsurenko issuing some harsh sounding coughs during the treatment, she may have been dealing with a cold/flu of some sort which is unfortunate for the fans.
Gauff had a close first set with Schmiedlova, but she never really seemed in big trouble in her match. Gauff has struggled on her forehand wing in the past, but this week she’s been solid in every match and her game has gotten better as the match went on. That’s why I’m not sure how dominant of a performance Swiatek can turn in here. Similar to the Djokovic/Khachanov match, I know which player is better, but I don’t see an easy path for the victor because the deviation in level just isn’t there with Gauff. She’s going to defend well because she’s (I think) the fastest player on tour, and she’s going to hit the ball solid off both wings. Swiatek has shown that she struggles a little bit with errors when you take her time away, and Gauff’s ability to hang on the baseline and keep the ball low might represent a challenge similar to Rybakina’s. I don’t think her serve is anywhere near as reliable as Rybakina’s at creating setups though. Gauff has the potential to serve aces, but it’s more of a momentum thing it seems, or at times she mirrors Sakkari where on a huge point she can summon one, but most of the time she lands around 55% and doesn’t really get many aces.
After hyping up Gauff’s chances, my eyes drifted back over to the bad news. These two have met 6 times, and Gauff has yet to win a set. Swiatek won 3,1 at this event last year, and she’s gotten an entire day off so her arm will be fresher than Gauff’s. I’m expecting some thrilling rallies, but Swiatek’s return of serve in the last few rounds has looked really good. Swiatek in 2, one close and one bakery-esque.