55 gallon drum for sale near me

If you live in Taft, California, this is the subreddit for YOU!

2011.08.06 22:49 Jofuzz If you live in Taft, California, this is the subreddit for YOU!

A subreddit for the reddit savvy citizens of Taft.
[link]


2018.01.25 23:53 mikelnmartin Eventum: Decentralized real-time data feeds

Decentralized real-time data feeds with blockchain as a court system. Powered by a decentralized network of Eventum nodes, Ethereum and Swarm.
[link]


2009.11.24 18:41 jceez /r/OrangeCounty - Orange County, CA Subreddit

/OrangeCounty - subreddit for Orange County, California
[link]


2023.03.29 17:55 yourlocalemoRAT Question about the upcoming spring sale

Hey everyone! I am (im)patiently waiting for the Sephora spring sale but I'm only a beauty insider which only gets me 10% off. I only have x amount of money left to spend before I hit VIB status. I was wondering if it would be possible for me to buy the amount of money required to get VIB status with the 10% off and then get the rest of my order with the VIB sale (15% off). Has anyone done this before?
submitted by yourlocalemoRAT to Sephora [link] [comments]


2023.03.29 17:55 annieselkie Entitled Lady tries to get a free cookie

This is not a big story but I thought I might share it. Obligatory non-native and on mobile.
I was at Subway's (food court-like, so it was not a single shop with doors but only a counter in a hall) and we waited at the register to just get cookies, all workers were busy with people ordering subs so we just waited. Then suddenly a women came to the counter (I would guess mid-30s to late-40s, she looked a little bit hippie/eco/esoteric with a colorful headscarf and wide brown clothes and seemed to be a bit weirdly calm/confused or maybe even on tranquilizers, but did not seem homeless or in need). She said, to nobody really, just into the room at the counter: "Will somebody buy me a cookie", in a weird way. Idk, could have been an dialect or that it was not her mother tongue or because she was a bit absent-minded, but still was clear and she obviously knew the language well. Remeber, she asked into the room around the counter, not anyone specifically. Also no "excuse me" or "please" or anything, just this sentence. Most ignored her, one person said "No", I said "No, sorry", my friend also said "No I wont" and we thought that's it.
She kept standing near us and still seemed a bit absent-minded, staring into the void, so we ignored her and could finally order as a worker came to the register. When we were finished with our orders and the worker was getting the cookies out of the little shelves on the counter, she suddenly said (as if she was ordering and he packing wrong) "No, I want (other kind of cookie)" and confused the worker by that. He looked at us and started to get her cookie. (As she was standing near enough that one could assume she was with us) We told the worker "no, please we only want what we said, (kind of cookies)" and he proceeded packing our order. She said "Oh that kind also is okay and tasty".
Thats when a friend of me interfered and got a bit rude and told her "Hey, I will NOT buy you a cookie, we already said that we will not, these are OURS, we ordered what WE liked and that you are trying to get into our order and get us to pay for you or give you one after we said no is very impudent/cocky (translation is a bit hard for this word) of you!!!" She then had a slight look of getting caught on her face (but not too bothered, still seemed a little bit absent-minded as if part of her mind was on a different planet and earthly things are beneath her, very esoteric-y) and wandered off.
As an introvert and people-pleaser I was overwhelmed with this situation after the initial no and very happy I had someone with me who was more firm. I wonder if she oftentimes tries to pressure people into buying her things by acting as if they said yes or acting in the last second so they are startled. Maybe it would have worked had I been alone, saying No two times or thinking someone thought you said Yes and then telling them No is not easy for me, especially when its unforeseen and in public like that was. But maybe she just was in her own thoughts (by whichever cause) and did not percieve reality as it was. Still, very uncomfortable and entitled situation.
submitted by annieselkie to EntitledPeople [link] [comments]


2023.03.29 17:54 Jamie-Stewart-Design [FOR HIRE] Freelance Graphic & Web Designer Jamie Stewart Design

I’m jamie - a freelance graphic & web designer that works with brands, agencies & entrepreneurs to create meaningful simple design solutions. Check out my portfolio www.jamiestewartdesign.com and on Instagram @jamiestewartdesign for case studies of my previous work.
Experience
I have 10 years commercial experience working within the design and retail sector. I started my first business (importing and exporting second hand clothing) at the age of 21 taking it from a start up to employing 8 members of staff within 6 years. I have opened 2 retail shops and have worked with a global travel PLC on a year long project designing, sourcing and manufacturing their uniform range for over 1200 employees.
Services
Brand Identity, Brand Positioning, Brand Naming, Art Direction, Book Design, Packaging Design, Poster Design, Catalogue Design, Sales Brochures, Online Brochures, Apparel Design, Web Design, Web Development, Social Media, Graphic Design, Email Marketing, Signage
Prices
Brand Identity Package £600
Web Design starts from £200 per page
Drop me a message for a detailed quote.
submitted by Jamie-Stewart-Design to jobbit [link] [comments]


2023.03.29 17:53 Classic_Holiday4839 I need something to make me feel better

I lost my best friend and a girl. My best friend told me to ask out his ex. He told me this 3 times so I did and we went to the movies together and after the movie we parked up at a lake that’s near by and talked and smoked cigs for hours and I rlly thought she liked me like we were talking then she asked what I wanted to do and I said there wasn’t much to do in our town and she said “ik something we could do but it’d be kinda awkward yk” and I was too barred out on klonopin to know what she meant for a minute anyway we started texting and 2 days after that she asked if I liked her so I said yes but she said she still had feelings for her ex (my best friend) so now I lost her and my best friend anyways so I’ll probably drown out my emotions w Fent or more klonopin and cutting If anyone actually read this thanks
submitted by Classic_Holiday4839 to MadeOfStyrofoam [link] [comments]


2023.03.29 17:53 ClaimDisastrous7495 I think we are getting at least 8 New Songs From the Estate Sale

I think we are getting at least 8 New Songs From the Estate Sale
On Tyler’s Insta, Both DOGTOOTH and SORRY NOT SORRY are labeled as 21. and 24. (respectively). So if SNS is considered the end of the CMIYGL Era then it could be the last song of the deluxe. And with CMIYGL ending at 16 songs, it seems 24 could be the ending number. It sounds like WHARF TALK is going to be in the Deluxe so, there is still possible 5 unannounced songs? It may be a stretch but i also don’t think Tyler would do a deluxe and have only 3 Songs to go with it.
submitted by ClaimDisastrous7495 to tylerthecreator [link] [comments]


2023.03.29 17:53 nicki2055 is skateboarding actually easier than rollerblading.

I mean a skateboard you can jump off, you don't have to worry about foot size, and to me falling off a skateboard isn't nearly as scary or painful as rollerblades, I fell on rollerblades and I felt like I could have skinned my knee if it weren't for pads, I fell off the skateboard and it wasn't nearly as scary. Now I can see why rollerblading died out for a while, where skateboarding thrived.
submitted by nicki2055 to NewSkaters [link] [comments]


2023.03.29 17:52 LilPiscesGirl 22 [TF4TF] french canadian e-girl looking for her irl/online bestie(s)

Hiii, um... my name's Océanne ☺️ i'm a french canadian transgirl (i'm near Montreal) looking for a girl friend or friends around my age to become besties. yknow, talk about our day, cute things, makeup, clothes, play games together, go out maybe ? I've always wanted a super close friendship like that, so... yeah haha 😅
a bit about myself... i'm a huge nerd, i like video games a lot (i play on pc), most genres really, but fps looter shooters are my favs. rn i'm getting back into Destiny 2, so having someone to play that with all the time would be super sweet! i LOVE anime and i'm trying to get into mangas as well. Music wise, i'm super into hip-hop and rock, but i'm open to other stuff as well.
um... i dont really like to pretend like im perfect or anything... i'm not great with friends, like at all, i'm super shy at first and it seems hard for me to form a real connection with someone. i also just got out of my first real relationship, so i will have moments where i'll be sad... i'm also moving out soon and will have to find a new job really soon, so lots of stress and pressure rn and well... i do have mental health issues... i'm hoping i can have someone where venting is a possibility, but what comes around, goes around ofc ☺️ i don't expect anything i wouldnt give back in return.
feel free to msg me if you have questions or anything! i dont bite haha ☺️ oh and... i'm looking for transgirls specifically so... yeah 😅 sorry boys, you're all handsome tho <3
submitted by LilPiscesGirl to t4t [link] [comments]


2023.03.29 17:51 Snoo-76883 Girlfriends Living Situation

My girlfriend (F18) has been living in my (M17) house at no expense for six months now- and we have been dating for seven. You would be right to think that that seems soon to move in- and I would agree- but soon after we started dating she was kicked out by her parents who are notably neglectful and abusive and have lended little to no support since she left. My mother (F38) whom we live with has been extremely welcoming as she was a teenage runaway and, besides polite inquiries as to her plans, has not even commented on the situation. For five months while she lived with me, she was not in school and was also unemployed; she was supposedly hunting for jobs, but it seemed to be incredibly blasé. The entire time she has been with us I have tried to keep it clear that I am housing her until she gets a full time job and saves the necessary amount to comfortably move out. She just got a part time job finally this month- though for the moment it is less than 20 hours a week. I have had relationships before but never near this absolutely integrated- we live together, we share the same friends, we never have more than 8 hours apart (and even that is EXTREMELY rare). I like to be fairly independent and this is known to her but she is the opposite- thus I find it hard to guiltlessly take part in things on my own as she is very sensitive and takes any distance from her extremely personally. She has daily breakdowns about if everyone (me, my mother, our friends, etc) secretly hate her or that someone is conspiring against her- I spend hours of my day comforting and reassuring her and she still is terrified if I spend a moment not speaking to her. She also often shuts down and begins to snap mean things at me and to shut up and go away and if I do as she says she gets upset again because she thinks my giving her her requested space entails a secret hatred. She admits whenever this happens that if I treated her how she treats me that she’d be destroyed- she apologizes, which I appreciate, but it never changes; which she also apologize for. She never tells me how she feels- I have to always be watching no matter where we are and be ready at the drop of a hat 24/7 to go in a corner with her and help try to sort out her emotions. These episodes of crippling upsetness (once made upset she can basically not function except to stare at a wall and cry) are brought on very easily- teasing is impossible. She specifically has a fixation at all times that one of our friends (the friend changes every few months) is actually in love with me and that I would be happier with the friend than with her. Most of my friends are girls, which gives her a lot of material. She recently got a very comfortable part time job (2-3 shifts a week) that will hopefully soon become full time- but she cries before every shift because she can’t handle having “wasted that time”, which is a sentiment I understand but I think given how little she is working it is a little bit childish. I keep it clear that I expect her to work full time and move out in the next few months and lately as she is getting closer to that reality she has begun to express no shortage of resentment at me for urging her to do this when she could work part-time and pay my mother a much lighter rent and thus save her from taking extra hours. I have always made it clear that I do not want my house to be her permanent solution as I find it stressful to not have time to do my own things- as well, she makes it very difficult to keep my space clean, as her stuff is everywhere since she has little storage. She holds out hope and still makes sharp remarks, and as said it is very difficult emotionally for her to leave me alone while we are both home. I just don’t like the idea of her being so dependant on me.
I realize that my language may be a bit harsh, but it is just a lot for me to have to deal with while balancing my own academic, social, and personal life- all of which are busy and priorities of mine. I understand that she is in a tight spot- she was in a bad relationship when I met her and she had a rough upbringing and a very difficult family. I also understand she is being faced with many new and titanic responsibilities. I try to be very compassionate with her in all areas of life and have had maybe two moments where I snapped back at her- both of which were very brief and in neither of which did I actually criticize her, and for both I profusely apologized. I might have a little resentment bubbling up with the stress of the situation, and I blame the tone of this post on that. I have many wonderful times with her and, given how integrated in my life she is, I find it hard to imagine myself without her. It is just a very heavy situation. Would you guys have any insights?
submitted by Snoo-76883 to relationships_advice [link] [comments]


2023.03.29 17:51 Dull-Ad357 cake displays

hello! i am relatively new to the baking world, but have quickly learnt i need a new way to display my cakes. i currently have a.. (cake holder)(?)- basically the travel case with a lid and handle on top, that i use for my cakes. however this is not nearly big enough for my endeavors. i typically make 3 layer cakes with decorations on top and the sides, or large muffins, but really want to branch out to tiered cakes.
can anyone point me in a direction where i can find a cake display / cake holder that could hold a two tiered cake? i would like the dome to be glass, im not too picky on what the base looks like. i also am willing to spend a decent amount of money on it as it will last me forever.
submitted by Dull-Ad357 to Baking [link] [comments]


2023.03.29 17:51 stickonorionid JNMom and Sister Won’t Be Supportive since WE are too poor

Quick context: I (25F) moved away from my family home in TX several years ago. My mother (54) and sister (14) still live in TX. I now live near my father (54) and stepmother (65) who are great, but my mother is pretty venomous towards them.
My fiancé and I got engaged last December right before Christmas and knew we wanted to jump immediately into planning—we’ve been together for three years, so we’re ready to go for it. Our wedding is mid-August this year, so coming up pretty fast. I reached out to my mom to ask her what she would want to be a part of in the planning process. She nebulously replied “whatever you’ll help me to be a part of. I want to help with all of it.”
So I think really hard about what would matter the most to me to have her at, and I decided I would like to have her come to my wedding dress fitting. This is the ONLY THING outside the rehearsal/ceremony I asked her to be here for. And because I know money is tight for them, I literally offered to buy a plane ticket and get a hotel room for her so that she could come.
Now here’s where things start to go downhill. She says “well we would be driving.” Wait, WE? Yes, she decided that my sister just IS coming, despite the fact that I didn’t even want to invite my sister along and hadn’t planned for the cost. But if this would enable my mom to come, I would be willing to cover it this time. So I start to make plans for the two of them to come.
I schedule a dress fitting for the end of April so that we have time to make travel arrangements. If they’re driving then I can put some of what would cover flights into hotel rooms, so they’ll stay nicely accommodated. I’m getting excited, inviting my bridesmaids and future MIL to come, I’m planning what to do to make that weekend feel valuable and important to my mom.
Then, three days ago, the text I received VERBATIM from my little sister:
“hey [OP], I’m really sorry this is the first thing you’re seeing this morning. I really hope this doesn’t hurt your feelings or anything, I’m just being real and fully genuine right now. I don’t really feel like it makes much sense for me and mom to come up for the dress fitting. I know you’re offering to pay for so much of it, but still, it’s money, time, and we still do have obligations here down in Texas. It’s also spring time, and even if we leave the yard alone for a week it’ll go crazy. you will have so many other people to help you and support you, and I promise I’m not trying to hurt you or anything. I feel like it would just be too stressful for us to be there, for both you, and for us. We will be there for the wedding, though, no question about it. and I just genuinely feel like it would be better for us to only come for the wedding, less stressful. Mom didn’t tell me to say any of this, I just felt like it would be better said sooner than later. I love you so much [OP] and I hope you’re having a lovely morning. <3”
Immediately I am heartbroken. This is the first time my sister has ever hurt me, but it really feels like she tried to make it count. This ensues a long text argument where I recognize I said some extreme things, but I don’t regret showing her how badly she cut me. I thought she may have been talking for Mom, but she claims they really are her own thoughts and that “it’s not just Mom who would be coming.” I didn’t hesitate to tell her that it was MOM I invited and not her. She said “I’m fourteen I’m not going to stay alone in Texas,” and she said there was nobody she could stay with where she could “fulfill all her obligations.” Well tough sis, it will only feel bitter if you come—so I told her not to. She tells me that I’m TOO UPSET and “need to calm down fr” and “try to think rationally about it.”
At this point, I pull in Mom. I send her a screenshot of the initial text and tell her to call me. She’s got her calm “you’re the problem” kind of voice going on, telling me my sister is stressed about finding somewhere to stay, etc. I told her I don’t care. My mom says that “she’s just a kid,” sure she is but if she’s going to talk to me like an adult she better be ready to have me talk like an adult back. Mom told me to “tap into my empathetic background” to stop being so mad and I told her, no, I don’t need to do that because I always have to be the bigger person with them, the one who gets over things when they hurt me, and I think my sister should know she can’t say things like that.
“Well, I don’t want to censor anyone’s speech” was my mom’s immediate reply.
I eventually get to the meat of the matter and ask if she really agrees with what my sister said. Basically she said they had been talk about it and they both feel like it’s too expensive and that we should put the money towards our honeymoon because I “don’t work a lot” and “her man works at Walgreens.” Wow Mom, thanks so much for calling us poor! Especially when YOU ALWAYS COMPLAIN ABOUT MONEY. And when Mom was about to launch into why she agrees with what my sister said, I just noped tf out and handed the phone to my fiancé.
I just don’t know what to do at this point. I am DEFINITELY not helping them come to the dress fitting at this point, they burned that bridge. And they historically always burn bridges in situations where EVERYTHING IS OFFERED TO THEM. They literally would not have paid ANYTHING to come up here if they had agreed to fly (Mom declined because of her “tinnitus and hyperacusis”), they could have had a faster turnaround, I would have literally been their chauffer for however long they were here… but it’s “too much everything” to take a free vacation and be here for a once-in-a-lifetime event, you first child’s wedding dress try on’s.
I have ALWAYS felt my emotions very deeply, so I feel really stunned that my sister didn’t take five minute to either think about how I would feel or at least route it through Mom. I would have rather known her concerns through her PARENT instead of her talking to me like her own little adult then being shocked that I respond unfavorably.
TL;DR: my mom and sister turned down an expenses-paid vacation to help me with my wedding, my teenage sister was the one to let me know, and my mom defended her and my sister’s thought process rather than care about my feelings.
submitted by stickonorionid to JUSTNOMIL [link] [comments]


2023.03.29 17:50 camms94 Disrespectful Mother - My Story/Rant

New to this page and in the mood to rant!
So, I'd like to think I grew up with a narcissistic and alcoholic mother with loves to be a victim. I'm an only child, and she left my dad and moved me across the country when I was 6 and proceeded to leave me with nannies while she traveled approx 2-3 weeks a month for her new job. We only have family where my dad is, so I spent ages 6-10 pretty much alone with nannies or with elementary school friends until she had to get a new job which meant another move.
After we moved the second time, she met and married my step dad when I was 11/12 and no longer traveled for work. My step dad is a great guy who I'm truly glad to have in my life. But during my middle and high school years, it became more and more apparent that I took after my dad, whom she gladly divorced. While I was taken care of and put through college, my mom never wanted to spend any time with me and put her friends and my step dad first. She always treated me as if I was an inconvenience even over simple things like if I needed a ride to school.
Fast forward to now being in my 20s, married, and pregnant, she is disrespectful of most of my life decisions. She strongly disapproves of my tattoos even though theyre tasteful and not crazy, says my job isn't that important even though I'm an internal ops regional manager for a company with over 300 employees, and the newest thing is that I haven't changed my name since getting married. The only decision my mom doesn't disapprove of is who I married - she thinks I have it made because I married an engineer (she's a little golddigger-ish).
And when we did get married last spring, my husband and I just wanted to sign our married license and call it good because we were moving out of state two weeks later. We stayed with my mom and step-dad the last two weeks or so before moving, and three hours before people like his immediate family were coming over to see us sign it, she was putting together a bouquet for me to hold. I reminded her that we were just signing the license, and she's ordained, by the way. When his family and some family friends were there, she flipped the script again and said everyone was outside in the backyard for us to do our vows and all that. I protested because I don't like wedding traditions and wanted to legally get married. This made me look like an asshole to the people there because my mom had to control the narrative to make it seem like I was being difficult when our wants for our 'wedding day' were well known, but she didn't agree with them. She's also super Catholic which I rebelled against in middle school and am glad I did to this day.
Now, she has soiled my name to her side of the family by telling our relatives that I'm evil and the worst when her and I just disagree on most things, and I'm very similar to my dad. My grandma (her mother) thinks I ruined my wedding day for everyone else when I just held true to what my husband and I wanted and thoroughly explained to my mother. She has even told her side that I changed my name to his when she knows I didn't and kept my maiden name which she knows bothers me.
I haven't spoken to her in nearly a year since moving out of state with my hubby, and I'm so glad. She has a negative opinion on pregnancy and childbirth because she had a hard pregnancy and traumatic birth with me, and not having that negativity in my life has been worth its weight in gold during my normal pregnancy. I don't miss her, there's nothing I want to talk to her about, and I don't need her. I've been solo my whole life, so it's nothing new. She keeps sending me baby stuff to buy back my affections, and while I'm glad to have these things, I know what she's doing and wish she'd stop. I also wish my grandma would hear my side of the story, so she'd stop blaming me for not speaking to my mom. I'm sick of being told I need to get over my anger towards my mom and make amends when I'm not that angry - more hurt and fed up.
Anyway, that's my narcissistic mother. It feels good to write about it. I'm curious if anyone thinks I have a narcissistic mother because I think I do. If anyone can relate to cutting a toxic parent out, let me know how you feel about it now if it's brought you solice or regret.
submitted by camms94 to raisedbynarcissists [link] [comments]


2023.03.29 17:50 ViceVersaMedia I’ve become completely obsessed with height

For reference: I’m 23 y/o and stand at 6’0” tall. By all respects, my height is a blessing and I’ve literally never given it a second thought until a couple weeks ago when I came across the subreddit tall. It’s a common belief there that 6’3-6’5 is probably the perfect height for a male. And as I thought about celebrities, athletes, and people in my own life, it dawned on me that they’re honestly right.
I’m not sure if it’s the thought of being less than perfect/ideal or the fact that it’s something I’ll never be able change, but this shit has completely permeated my thoughts like a mind virus.
I now spend hours looking up stretches/exercises to increase my height, how to tell if my growth plates are closed, shoes with tall soles, and even limb lengthening surgeons in my area. Everything but learning to accept my height, which now seems impossible.
I’ll fully admit that I’m ridiculous and undeserving of my objectively good circumstances. I truly hope this is just another ADHD hyper-obsession phase and not another life-long insecurity that I’ll have to spend the next 5 years unraveling in therapy.
submitted by ViceVersaMedia to self [link] [comments]


2023.03.29 17:50 Madgoat999 [S/T] [USA-NY] Silver X100V + Accessories

Excellent condition Silver X100V. Lightly used. Purchased about 1 year ago but I switched to a GRIIIX as that camera is a better fit for me. Open to trading for a 35mm film camera around the same value or direct sale. Local in NYC only please.
Includes box + all original accessories + items listed below
Shutter count: 1,100.
Price: $1650
Accessories:
https://imgur.com/a/9Ao2LK2 can provide additional photos if requested
First transaction on here but I have confirmed trades on /hardwareswap
submitted by Madgoat999 to photomarket [link] [comments]


2023.03.29 17:50 Snoo-76883 Girlfriend’s Living Situation

My girlfriend (F18) has been living in my (M17) house at no expense for six months now- and we have been dating for seven. You would be right to think that that seems soon to move in- and I would agree- but soon after we started dating she was kicked out by her parents who are notably neglectful and abusive and have lended little to no support since she left. My mother (F38) whom we live with has been extremely welcoming as she was a teenage runaway and, besides polite inquiries as to her plans, has not even commented on the situation. For five months while she lived with me, she was not in school and was also unemployed; she was supposedly hunting for jobs, but it seemed to be incredibly blasé. The entire time she has been with us I have tried to keep it clear that I am housing her until she gets a full time job and saves the necessary amount to comfortably move out. She just got a part time job finally this month- though for the moment it is less than 20 hours a week. I have had relationships before but never near this absolutely integrated- we live together, we share the same friends, we never have more than 8 hours apart (and even that is EXTREMELY rare). I like to be fairly independent and this is known to her but she is the opposite- thus I find it hard to guiltlessly take part in things on my own as she is very sensitive and takes any distance from her extremely personally. She has daily breakdowns about if everyone (me, my mother, our friends, etc) secretly hate her or that someone is conspiring against her- I spend hours of my day comforting and reassuring her and she still is terrified if I spend a moment not speaking to her. She also often shuts down and begins to snap mean things at me and to shut up and go away and if I do as she says she gets upset again because she thinks my giving her her requested space entails a secret hatred. She admits whenever this happens that if I treated her how she treats me that she’d be destroyed- she apologizes, which I appreciate, but it never changes; which she also apologize for. She never tells me how she feels- I have to always be watching no matter where we are and be ready at the drop of a hat 24/7 to go in a corner with her and help try to sort out her emotions. These episodes of crippling upsetness (once made upset she can basically not function except to stare at a wall and cry) are brought on very easily- teasing is impossible. She specifically has a fixation at all times that one of our friends (the friend changes every few months) is actually in love with me and that I would be happier with the friend than with her. Most of my friends are girls, which gives her a lot of material. She recently got a very comfortable part time job (2-3 shifts a week) that will hopefully soon become full time- but she cries before every shift because she can’t handle having “wasted that time”, which is a sentiment I understand but I think given how little she is working it is a little bit childish. I keep it clear that I expect her to work full time and move out in the next few months and lately as she is getting closer to that reality she has begun to express no shortage of resentment at me for urging her to do this when she could work part-time and pay my mother a much lighter rent and thus save her from taking extra hours. I have always made it clear that I do not want my house to be her permanent solution as I find it stressful to not have time to do my own things- as well, she makes it very difficult to keep my space clean, as her stuff is everywhere since she has little storage. She holds out hope and still makes sharp remarks, and as said it is very difficult emotionally for her to leave me alone while we are both home. I just don’t like the idea of her being so dependant on me.
I realize that my language may be a bit harsh, but it is just a lot for me to have to deal with while balancing my own academic, social, and personal life- all of which are busy and priorities of mine. I understand that she is in a tight spot- she was in a bad relationship when I met her and she had a rough upbringing and a very difficult family. I also understand she is being faced with many new and titanic responsibilities. I try to be very compassionate with her in all areas of life and have had maybe two moments where I snapped back at her- both of which were very brief and in neither of which did I actually criticize her, and for both I profusely apologized. I might have a little resentment bubbling up with the stress of the situation, and I blame the tone of this post on that. I have many wonderful times with her and, given how integrated in my life she is, I find it hard to imagine myself without her. It is just a very heavy situation. Would you guys have any insights?
submitted by Snoo-76883 to Advice [link] [comments]


2023.03.29 17:50 Remarkable-Youth-504 The last alliance of elves and men

Today is the day we all die.
I am Aegnor, son of the Elven King Alberad the Wise. My brothers are all dead, my mother is dead, and this is my last stand.
For aeons, the high elves have held the line against darkness. For as long as anyone can remember, we have sacrificed men, women and children in this eternal war against evil.
We knew the war was not winnable. We knew we were only delaying the inevitable.
Yet we held the line, at tremendous cost.
Well, today is the day we fall.
Last night, there were grim faces all around. My uncle, the mage, suggested we ask the humans for help. Apparently, an ancient blood-treaty existed between Elves and Men.
Frankly, I didn’t quite see the point. The human world would fall soon enough, let them enjoy their last few days in oblivion.
If we couldn’t hold the line, what hope the humans, whose magic dried up millennia ago, really had?
But my father, the King, agreed that the humans should be contacted. After all, this affected them as well.
And so, my uncle left last night, to contact the king of the humans, whose name apparently is Potus.
Maybe my uncle will get to live a few more days than us.
I force myself to focus on the present. I can smell the sulphur, nearly taste the rot from the approaching horde.
I grip my blade tight, whisper a soft prayer. There are too few, far too few of us left.
From the corner of my eye, a sudden movement. A trick of the Great Other?
I hear my uncle’s voice: “Captain, on your left.” A portal opens.
So the humans have come to die with us. Great!
From the portal, many dragons pour forth. Humans control dragons??
The ground before me explodes into fire, in a sequence, as if a musical crescendo. The army of darkness is reduced to cinders.
My uncle turns up with a fair-haired maiden. The first thing that strikes me is that she wears a single earring, a cheap looking white thing.
Then I hear her earring speak: “First pass completed. All targets destroyed. Commencing second pass.”
“Copy” says the maiden. The speaking earring (whose name, I surmised, was Copy) falls silent.
The maiden grabs my hand: “Colonel Samantha Rogers. I understand you are in charge. Can you point out where your wounded are so that my medics can attend to them?”
We keep on chatting. Princess Samantha is surprisingly efficient, alternating between coordinating aid, taking briefs from me, and coordinating further strikes.
“It’s no use”, I shake my head ruefully, “Even with your dragons, you will never defeat the great other. His legions are endless, as you can see over the horizon.”
I see Princess Samantha’s brow furrow and her expression turn stern as she starts speaking to Copy again.
A massive chariot, with what I can only describe as a massive tree tied to its top, appears from the portal. I watch with grim fascination as the tree tied to the top of the chariot, starts righting itself.
I have no explanation for what happens next. The tree starts breathing fire and flying towards the heart of the enemy at great speed. The dragons the humans brought seems to fearfully retreat from the battlefield.
“You might want to cover your eyes for what’s about to come next.” says Princess Samantha, softly.
And the very earth shakes, as if it will tear asunder, while a great ball of fire forms in the distance. The fireball grows in size and brightness until it rivals the sun.
When the fire disappears, absolutely no traces remain of the horde. A massive mushroom grows where the armies of the great other once stood.
For the first time in forever, we elves could feel no traces of the great other corrupting the Source. It was as if a great hand has reached out and wiped off the great other from existence itself.
Princess Samantha speaks to me, a puzzled look on her face: “You couldn’t call us earlier?”
From the original journal of His Majesty Aegnor the Fortunate, King of the high elves and former First Gentleman of the United States.
Now includes foreword from Earendil Rogers the Mariner, Admiral of Starfleet and heir apparent to the elvish throne.
submitted by Remarkable-Youth-504 to HFY [link] [comments]


2023.03.29 17:50 AutoModerator Iman Gadzhi Courses - Agency Navigator (Here)

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submitted by AutoModerator to LatestImanGadzhi [link] [comments]


2023.03.29 17:50 leftdue Iman Gadzhi Courses - Agency Navigator (Complete Program)

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2023.03.29 17:49 caLAfrownia [Tenant - CA] Found our apartment listed for sale last night . Landlord/owner did not let us know . What are my options

Text says it all . It’s unfortunate. We found our apartment up for sale last night and wasn’t aware of the situation.
From looking at past Reddit posts, tenant laws, I’m under the impression we are suppose to be given a 120 day notice. To which we never received .
Secondly, do we even let our landlord know that we are aware the property is listed for sale? Are we in more power because our rights were violated? Or Should we let him know that we are aware and willing to negotiate another year lease?
I’m not sure what to do moving forward. I know the owner is using this apartment as an investment property but the listing seems like it’s geared towards living, someone not looking for investment gain.
Please let me know any advice. I love this property and am not wanting to move anytime soon.
submitted by caLAfrownia to Landlord [link] [comments]


2023.03.29 17:49 aprickwithaplomb [MOM] Degrees of Freedom: An Urabrask Side Story

[MOM] Degrees of Freedom: An Urabrask Side Story
I got mad at how Urabrask (and the praetors in general, later on) were unceremoniously offed in the course of the main story, so I wrote a quick side story that kind of shores up the issues I had with how they went out.
-----
It had become necessary, in the course of the Great Work's completion, for a system of measurements to be established. The rebels had their own system, but an imperfect one - one that reflected the bygone benchmarks of a culture now reduced to hiding in what holes Urabrask allowed them. So it was that a new one was needed.
Gleeful Demolition by Tian Duong Chu
And what better candidate than the scamps? The former goblins who fed the flames with their worship, with their toil, with their bodies, if they were so fortunate. The exarchs, in their industrious solipsisms, looked away from the gabbling creatures as they carried out instructions. They were living tools. But the claw of the praetor feels the scamps' lifeblood in every hooked flange and serrated ridge, and knew that to scorn them was to dishonor their sacrifice. So it was that temperature at which they burned was decreed to be the suitable unit for all others to be built around.
--
Halo, the drink of choice on New Capenna, vaporizes at 3 scamps.
Pain coursed through his whole being. Gitaxias's machinist had left him here, under a bridge of this forsaken jetty, to recover what damage the Planar Bridge had done to him. Under the pretense of helping foment "alternative paths towards perfection", he had blindly trusted the man, as the Forge lacked alternatives to what Urabrask foresaw as its inevitable end. Necessity had drawn him here, and here he would die, metal skin flayed from his exposed innards.
A croaking sigh superheated a nearby colony of fly eggs into ash, and he felt something that his tongue lacked the word to explain.
The clatter of boots on cement interrupted his reverie. He turned to see that hateful half-flesh buzzard with a person in tow, dressed in a green-engraved uniform. A valet's cap traced brown curls and a soldier's poise.
"Vivien", said Tezzeret, "meet Urabrask, my rather unencumbered master."
She narrowed her eyes.
"Well met, praetor."
It took a supreme amount of will to summon the strength to voice anything besides a howl of pain. Nonetheless, Urabrask spoke.
"A pleasure. I trust he has - *explained*, the situation."
"You're organizing a rebellion against the autocracy of your home plane, and you're looking for support."
He approximated a nod, awkward and ungainly. "This place...bested my kind, once. Not an easy task. I would see how it was done."
She leaned back. "How do I know that you're not just trying to find out how they won, so you can prevent that from happening again?"
This question confused him. He was not Gitaxias, who sewed falsehoods as easily as he sewed sinew to steel. And yet, he realized, he had no proof of this, no scripture attesting his integrity. It was Tezzeret who finally spoke, voice curling like a snake.
"Urabrask here couldn't lie if his newtlike brain could even conceive of such a thing. My master simply isn't...built for it."
A bitter laugh from the green one. "And I suppose I'm to trust your judgment on that, given your previous masters?"
A shrug from the metal man.
Despite the early suspicions, Vivien eventually agreed, mostly in the absence of viable alternatives. In exchange for his knowledge of the Phyrexian host, she pored into the Park Heights archives, the seedy recesses of the Caldaia. She brought to him half-remembered histories, read to him orally from a reasonable distance. When their pertinent conversations ended, she would occasionally even recount the stories of her plane, lost to some nameless trespasser. "Only reason I'm telling you about it is that there's no saving it." The machinist stopped by to occasionally throw a dismissive scrap of metal to repair his mangled body. Bereft of his usual tools, and bent double in agony most of the time, Urabrask could do nothing but reluctantly thank him.
Gradual was the recovery. He was no Vorinclex, practiced with the transferral of life, who could repair in minutes simply by draining off the local fauna. Instead, with the tip of a claw, he carved a new exoskeleton from the scrap and detritus.
Still, that final piece remained elusive. The Capennans were a begrudgingly tenacious people, but in no way should they have been able to repel Yawgmoth's horde a millennium prior.
One particularly hot day, Vivien had showed up with nothing new to report. The city had been in the middle of a heat wave, and while Urabrask himself welcomed it, the usual crowd had retreated to their magic-cooled atriums and been remiss to share information. She'd come in a light dress, with a bottle of some nameless liquid in tow.
"You've got something there."
She looked sideways. "Ah, yes. Halo, it's called, a bit of contraband, actually. I don't usually drink, but today's my mother's birthday. Thought I'd celebrate, even if she's not here."
There was something he couldn't quite place in her wavering tone. The idea of parental attachment had always seemed, well, ridiculous - a remnant of Norn's mewling attachment to the familial structures of a process unknown to every being in their sphere. One did not have an individual attachment to one's birthing pod or compleator, no matter what you pretended. And yet, her manner was genuine, without parody.
It occurred to Urabrask that humans did have mothers.
"There is a thing, they do, in the dim light of their squalid apartment flats. A toast... I think Tezzeret called it. They clink their glasses together, and then drink, simultaneously."
When she did not reply, he added "It seems to yield a newfound strength to their bearing."
He saw her face momentarily contort, before her usual discipline returned.
"Hah. Are you asking me for a toast? A Phyrexian praetor? I wouldn't miss that for the world."
It was not long before she returned with two glasses. Pouring the bottle into one, she handed it to him with a gloved hand.
"To Mom."
"To your mother."
Luxurious Libation by Joe Slucher
They drank. For a while, Vivien's senses eroded - the edges of her vision blurring into a pleasant haze. It felt like being pulled into the Blind Eternities, consciousness rising, rising. The vision of her mother, and her people, so clearly in view - and then -
She heard the horrid, high-pitched scream of metal on metal, and the praetor hacked up the concoction. Its multicolored, shimmering contents sat in bright contrast to the fungal slick of his surroundings.
"Are you alright?"
When he stopped retching rainbows, he retched magma, then an assemblage of biomechanical organs. Then he spoke. The praetor's voice was thin.
"Now we know how they lost."
--
Slobad, once a savior of his world, returns to slag at five hundred scamps.
The centurion who brought him in pieces shifts ungainly upon leaden feet. It is an exultation to be allowed in Urabrask's sanctum, to witness his private bellows, and yet she has never seen the praetor so calm. With a flick of the tail, he stokes the remnants of the mangled body clear into the subsuming mass of molten metal.

Urabrask's Forge by Lie Setawan
"Great smith, praetor-maker, we-"
"No formality needed."
"He was weak, sire. Unfit - still unable to shake the dressage of his identity before rebirth -"
"How did he die?"
"A coward's death. The Great Work proceeds one link stronger. We found out later that he -"
"How'd he die, fool?"
The centurion feels a jettisoned wave of exhaust nearly melt her tined helm. She meets his gaze as she stumbles backward, before recovering.
"He had gone to see Vorinclex's second, the traitor-elf, and carried with him a body, found by some forsaken pool in the darkslick. We believe he had intended to subvert our cause - to trade the body as collateral, to surrender himself to the Hunter Maze and Norn's forces."
Urabrask tilts a jaw, and retreats to a hunch.
"They had a shared history."
"He was butchered on the spot, by the elf herself, no less. Vorinclex nearly had his body, before we sent in a scamp to recover it. Though I am not sure they would have consumed it - they would have seen his plaintive plea, and his oil, as weakness." She resists adding *As it was.*
"He was once part of her family. If not by the blood of the womb, then by the blood of the sword. Certainly more of a family than Norn professes to be." His claws clip the floor in their restless pacing, and he looks askance, through the layer of molten alloy that divided his quarters from the rest of the layer, toward the Hunter Maze.
"And yet, if their bonds could not unite them after compleation, what hope have any of us?"
The centurion does not answer. She looks instead at his tail, as it reaches for one of the myriad valves that release the slag into the main circulatory channels.
"You don't intend on releasing that mix into the furnaces, surely. He will contaminate the oil of better warriors. The war that will follow has no tolerance for-"
"For waste of perfectly usable bodies."
He flushes the valve, and the centurion looks on in stony silence.
"Yes, of course, praetor."
--
A planeswalker's spark is estimated to leave its owner at a mere eighth of a scamp.
The flame-haired girl controls the fire, yes, as does the tree-bottomed woman beside. But they do not master it, do not embody it as he does. One gesture of the claw, one movement by his assembled exarchs, and they would both know rebirth. They would likely serve the war against Norn better in that form, and their own precious Multiverse besides.
But he does not.
Instead, exhausted, they ask for his help. After consideration, he provides.
"Infighting will be the death of your kind."
He knows the irony that hangs over that statement. Scamps weld together shipments of Tezzeret's contraband to goliath husks in direct preparation for one final stand. Gitaxias's surveillance drones whisk around the upper layers in ever increasing numbers, despite the continuous - waning now - flak over the smoggy skies. Ever the opportunist. The porcelain legion, in their multitudes, were swarming over a thousand different planes, all the while creating unthinking facsimiles of their cause.
Vivien had explained it to him. It was funny, that feeling. Perhaps he would introduce it to the language after this was all over.
In some ways, they had already lost. The Phyrexian conflict had never really been a war, merely a delaying tactic. Gitaxias's surgical bays, in conjunction with Norn's hatcheries, created enough raw material to fight two fronts at once - one without, one within.
The second irony of all this was her new army had discarded the once-vaunted ideal forms of the Fair Basilica in exchange for more mass-producible humanoid templates. In doing so, she had eschewed perfection for the many. They were so much chaff, many not even undergoing full phyresis before being plucked and thrown onto the battlefield. Never to experience that rapturous certainty of purpose that marked the converts of the forge. And yet they were winning for it.
What numbers Sheoldred had gathered from her gibbering coliseum may have been individually better fighters than the thousand-faced singers that Norn unleashed upon the Dross Pits, but they were overtaken in a wave of white once the first lines had been broken.
And now she, too, was lost. He had little sympathy for her platitudes of some revival of the long-dead Father of Machines, but he had to admit that her silent smile was preferable to Gitaxias's seemingly-infinite tolerance for intrigue or Vorinclex's animalistic deference to the hierarchy of power. Let her intone uselessly for the supplication of her dead god, if it meant that she left well alone.
How long would the others bow, he wondered?
He dismissed the planeswalkers. They had a scheme, and if he could not bring himself to use them as Norn would, he might at least find some use from their failure.
--
Blightsteel separates from its constituent parts at eleven thousand scamps.
Worse than the agony of having to flay oneself alive was that he had to unmake the Great Work to do it. The Work of untold millions, whose only story was written in the architecture of the thing he was now scavenging for scrap metal.
He told himself that the Work would not continue unless the Forge survived to continue it.
The molds were ready. Scamps skittered to and fro, handing off dices in expectant, chittering lines of assembly. The engravers had managed to teach them a little of the language, in what spare moments they had. They wanted a savior, their own champion in shining armor. They believed that this would surely turn the tide, and snuck glances over their shoulder at the crucible that would do it.
Darksteel, the Mirrans' last prize, becomes liquid at thirteen thousand scamps.
Urabrask clambers into the mold, and the presses close around him. Veins of superheated darksteel close and open in scriptured sequence. Claws, muscle, bone reforge, and are reborn in a new alloy. Imprints of arteries and chambers for ichor, and -other- substances, find their purchase in a new circulatory system. Every scamp, every lost champion, every fallen soldier finds itself infinitesimally unified within his armor.
An injustice that he was able to be born thrice, when so many were denied even their second.
A scamp outside minding the temperature found itself suddenly looking at its own impaled carapace. A verdigris spike emerged, before it tossed the body aside, into the wall of the bellows. There was suddenly a furor - another seedpod slammed into the exhaust wall outside, as another group of brutalizers scaled the outer wall of the Autonomous Furnace. Centurions and scamps alike found themselves off their feet as quake after quake shuddered the mechanism. A few attempted to grasp weapons, forming a circle around the molten sarcophagus that housed their leader, but even as they did so, they could feel a pall in the atmosphere, draining life and warmth alike toward a singular, approaching center. An axe clattered to the ground seconds before its user, spent of vitality.
"Urabrask," Vorinclex hissed, "you always were one to run and hide. To defy her Will is heresy. "
One enormous sweep of a bony forearm sends the remaining scamps sprawling out, never to know the ecstasy of immolation again. The next nearly upends the enormous metal mold, spilling molten darksteel onto the floor of the dais.
"Come out. To know your last master."
One more blow, and the mold splits at the seam - spilling the contents into the lattice of wires and pipes supporting the belows. Urabrask looks up at his opponent, his skin still yet to cool. The half-born pain permeates every aspect of his being, but his voice does not waver.
"Urabrask serves no one."

Urabrask, Heretic Praetor by Simon Dominic
His exhaust flares, and with the nascent blood of the bellows beneath him, he lunges. Claw meets claw meets horn meets tail. The force of his body slams the larger praetor into the retaining wall behind, and together they tumble into a network of supporting channels. Ichor and slag spill in a caterwauling whine.
Glistening oil incandesces at 15 thousand scamps.
But if Vorinclex notices the temperature of the white-hot lines as they trickle into his eye holes, it doesn't show. If anything, he seems to revel in it, the runic inscriptions upon his forearms glowing as they reach out, going limb over limb as Vorinclex stalks over the remaining pipes like some kind of Capennan leonin. Only a gout of raw flame from Urabrask repels their advance, but Vorinclex responds by shielding his arms with his skull-like visage.
"No place for you in the chain. What shall I do with your prized forge after Norn grants me your layer? Perhaps I'll start by making mulch of your nauseatingly sentient -"
Urabrask's reply is the sideswipe of a darksteel tail, severing one of Vorinclex's cooling forearms. The green praetor starts what might be a howl but emerges as the clanking chime of laughter.
"I'll do you one better."
With a serrated jaw, he rips the other clean off. Ichor falls away and screams to nothing on the exposed channels they fall on.
"Attachment to constructed forms - when nature provides in abundance."
"Your lot will never know the glory of creation. Trapped in base instincts, slave to another-"
It is Vorinclex's turn to answer without words; the leap of his hind legs carry him into Urabrask's carapace as, from stunted arm holes, some parody of branches emerges, twisting and binding Urabrask's arms as they careen out of the furnace floor and into the magma layer below. Even darksteel can not hold back the apex predator's all-hungering maw as it snaps and tears away metal and flesh alike. Generations of alloy, of family, friend and foe, fly from the exoskeleton.
When Urabrask summons the strength to knock Vorinclex away, the limp that he carries is that of a wounded animal. Vorinclex knows it well. He knows that escape is now not an option, understands that the end is a matter of when rather than if. Vitality already flows in abundance from the prey, shoring up his own wounds even as it leaves theirs open.

Vorinclex by Daarken
His favorite part of the hunt.
So he does not even attempt to block the claw that comes swinging in wide, knowing its paltry strength ricocheting off his carapace will serve only to demoralize his opponent further, until the injector is already embedded in his side. A iridescent flush of vaporized -something- makes its way through his veins. It starts at a point, then balloons outward, like a -
Halo.
All in an instant, every part of Vorinclex rejects every other part, is aware of some deep, fundamental wrongness in his being, wants out from the body that holds it in. Redemption attempts to find something it can redeem, and in the absence of that, tears what remains asunder. Joints fracture, ichor hardens to glass, bones shred their metal casings.
"That was meant for Norn, not her lapdog. Even in your failure, you serve her." Urabrask's voice is thin as he stands, against what once was a monument to the sphere's blessings. Only fragments remain - stripped down to its base for parts. He looks upward. Small fires start at the base of the slagworks - the unnatural fires of raid and ruin.
And yet, even this is not enough to down the apex predator. Even inside his gutted frame, Vorinclex evolves, discards used organs for backups, routes the Halo through new inert capillaries. Gouts of Halo and oil spill from his maw as his arms again find their footing on solid ground, drawing strength from the soil deep within. It was good, he decided, that even this final trick would not save the Furnace.
"No," he spits, "Not my failure."
Urabrask is ready for the lunge this time, but even in Vorinclex's weakened state he only barely holds on.
What remains of the Forge to be saved?
Through the din of shearing metal, he hears it. The sordid caterwauling of the scamps in the words they've only just now learned, the cries of the fuselings wielding their tongs and pokers in one last defiance.
A soul - a spark - burns at 30 million scamps.
He screams, and his jets scream with him, pushing Vorinclex back, back until his hind claws can no longer find purchase on consecrated ground. Copper rotpriests, late to the altercation, come just in time to witness their leader slam through them, crushing carapaces and dogma alike, clear into the air in a white-hot arc.
Hotter.
Urabrask tastes the air in five open wounds, and in the agony there is singular truth. Vorinclex hangs on, as he always does, desirous only of victory, so certain of his own survival that any other possibility is inconceivable. Tendrils reach out from fledgling buds and become so much smoke against the friction of the superheated air.
They pierce through the Mirrex, the dessicated hexgold panels turning to dust as their bodies collide with the remains of old, rusted-over rebel bases. There is a wistfulness as they soar high over the remains. As flame becomes cinder, so too, do ways of life, do civilizations. What were they doing now, he thought - still trying to bring back a life long since lost?
He couldn't blame them. Perhaps he ought to have acknowledged their strength earlier.
Red Sun's Twilight by Julian Kok Joon Wen
They crash through the Monumental Facade, the heights of hubris. For a second, the edifices constructed in their image are larger than life - and then singularly small, and rapidly receding.
Mirrodin's cosm greets them in the keening twilight of five suns.
He cannot feel anything now save the all-encompassing heat. Good thing, too, as he looks down and sees Vorinclex discard his left arm, then his right, torn off at the joint by his jaw. He does not need it now. They are bonded by the molten darksteel flowing from his chest wound. He will see this through.
"You would throw yourself away, in service of some lofty nothings."
So even Vorinclex can realize a hint of the truth at the end. How terribly funny.
"Yes."
All becomes one in the light of Phyrexia's red sun.
Vorinclex, praetor of the Vicious Swarm, burns at fifty million scamps.
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2023.03.29 17:48 DPVaughan Book Review: 36 Streets by T.R. Napper

Book Review: 36 Streets by T.R. Napper

https://preview.redd.it/79oveuet8pqa1.jpg?width=1000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bfc4f3055875d28bdc9733c8ed276d5a4f1dddea
Today I’ll be reviewing the 2022 cyberpunk book 36 Streets by T.R. Napper.
DISCLAIMER: In the interest of full disclosure, the author of this book and I are both part of the same writer's guild, and I attended his book launch for 36 Streets last year.
The author, T.R. Napper is an Australian man who's had an interesting career prior to becoming an author: he was a diplomat and aid worker who delivered humanitarian programs in Southeast Asia, East Asia and Mongolia. But specifically relevant to this book, which is set in Vietnam, he lived in Hanoi for three years. He's won several awards, has had his works published in science fiction and speculative fiction magazines and received a creative writing doctorate with the thesis: Noir, Cyberpunk and Asian Modernity, all themes explored in this book. If you'd like to know more, his website is http://nappertime.com/ .
36 Streets is the debut novel of T.R. Napper. The book is an adult cyberpunk novel set in a dystopian future where Vietnam, or the north of it at least, has fallen under Chinese military rule. The eponymous 36 Streets is another name for the Old Quarter of Hanoi, where the Chinese authorities generally stay out and allow a Vietnamese crime gang to maintain order. The story deals heavily with the concept of memory, and the reliability or otherwise of it, in a world with ubiquitous neutral interfaces and hyperrealistic virtual reality.
The protagonist is Lin Thi Vun, a young woman who was born in Vietnam but grew up in Australia. Even though she speaks the language of her country of birth, her English is more natural and she doesn't trust her own Vietnamese language expertise and hasn't mastered a local accent. She feels self-conscious and like an outsider: she never felt truly Australian, but she doesn't really feel Vietnamese either. She's caught between worlds. Lin has worked her way up through the ranks of the criminal organisation that runs the 36 Streets, and spends her downtime getting drunk, high and picking up bar girls. She struggles with the murky morality of some of the jobs she has to do, not so much the breaking of kneecaps types of things, but like the job we see her doing in the opening chapter, of catching a member of the resistance against the Chinese occupation and handing him over to the Chinese authorities for the bounty which doesn't sit right with her.
The main thrust of the story kicks off when Lin is tasked by her boss to act as a private investigator and meet with a wealthy foreign businessman, the Englishman Herbert Molayson, who doesn't trust the official story of what happened to his two friends and business partners: one whose death was explained away too conveniently by the authorities for him to trust, and one who's gone missing and who no one can find any trace of. Lin chasing down leads and pulling on this thread, like an old-school hard-drinking noir detective, is what gets her involved in a conspiracy involving the regime and mega-corporations, a conspiracy that even learning about can lead to deadly consequences.
This book was great. Especially once the main private eye mystery arc began, I was hooked. I really can't understate how much I enjoyed the private investigation aspects of this story. I really enjoyed the pompous but shrewd Englishman Herbert Molayson who commissioned Lin to find his friend. However, I enjoyed the much rougher Hermann Hebb even more by comparison. Lin herself is an enjoyable protagonist to spend time with, although I'd be terrified to meet her in person. She's a flawed character who pushes people away and engages in self-destructive behaviour (like smoking, getting routinely blackout drunk and her addiction to the drug ice-seven), but when threatened doesn't back down or go down without a hell of a fight, even if she's outgunned. One thing I particularly enjoyed was that the first act we see her take, stunning and capturing a resistance member for a bounty, she almost completely screws up. She catches him, alright, but her nerves are on-edge because of her ice-seven addiction and instead of taking him down cleanly she misfires her stun gun and has to engage in hand-to-hand combat to get the job done, getting seriously injured in the process.
Having been to Vietnam on holiday, I could almost feel and smell the air of the streets as depicted by Napper in the book. It's probably a setting that is underexplored in English-language literature, especially in the cyberpunk genre. Other things I appreciated was that Lin, quite realistically, doesn't even start the book carrying a firearm: she's dangerous enough with a knife and stun gun. The technology of the world feels very feasible, like it's just out of reach of today's technological capabilities. The depiction of cybernetics are awesome (with a lot of information given via on-retinal display, for example). Little touches in the details show that this is a future where climate change has bitten in, with frequent mentions of vat-grown beef (as opposed to from cows on farmland), faux-wood tables and flexiscreens.
While the story overwhelmingly takes place within Vietnam, occasionally there are peeks and hints of just how dystopian the outside world has become: a mention of the "former" United States of America, Australia's gone full xenophobia like it's full of One Nation voters, Britain's described as "a despotic island off the coast of Europe", Pakistan appears to be a theocracy now, and so on. I haven't mentioned the virtual reality game that the investigation centres around, a re-creation of the Vietnam War from the perspective of an American soldier, and where the player always loses by being brutally killed) because that's best left to be explored in the book itself.
Pulling back from the details to a more meta perspective, the chapters were refreshingly short, which gave the book a quick pace. I never realised how much I love short chapters until I read this book. There was a flashback that the author held back until its reveal was perfectly timed in the plot. The violence is gritty and visceral, and the author is not shy about killing off named characters in the most brutal ways possible. For example, there's an antagonist with a BROADSWORD who is so violent and effective that it's terrifying any time he makes an appearance. The ending of the book felt very satisfying, and Lin makes a decision I didn't expect her to at the end.
Would I recommend this book? Of course! In fact, on Reddit alone I've recommended the book around 20 times. Well, once I’ve posted this review everywhere, it’ll be closer to 30 or 40 times.
I recommend this book to anyone looking for any combination of the following elements:
  • A cyberpunk book
  • A sci-fi book
  • A private eye / noir-like / mystery book
  • A standalone book (not part of a series)
  • Book with a culturally complex and bilingual protagonist (grew up with two different cultures)
  • Book written by an Australian
  • Book with a female protagonist
  • Book with a gay protagonist
  • Book set in Vietnam
  • Book set in an urban environment
  • Book set in a gritty future
  • Book for an adult audience
In summary, this book was a brutally visceral read and is such a shining example of the cyberpunk genre. It makes me think I need to read more cyberpunk, a genre I'd never actively sought out before, and if only because of that, I strongly recommend it.
And one final thought to leave on: As I neared the end of the book, I became painfully aware that I was going to miss Lin checking the time or reading messages via her on-retinal display when I moved onto other books. Especially given I normally read fantasy books, I knew I was really going to miss those little touches. I think that when I’m pre-emptively realising I’m going to miss an aspect of a book once I’ve finished reading it … well, that tells me I enjoyed it quite a bit. Easily one of the best books I’ve read in years.
Oh, and it has a glowing endorsement from Richard Morgan (author of Altered Carbon) on the front cover, in case that’s something you might find interesting.
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2023.03.29 17:47 probablyaghost21 I think I have grown to accept it

It is strange to be where I am. I have always wanted friends, I am extroverted and my job is actually talking to people all day everyday (sales assistant). Yet, I feel very lonely. It is not romantic loneliness but the need for friends that understand me in the way I want to be understood.
I used to think that I had that, but of course, I was wrong. And it feels like it's my fault, which is a bitter pill to swallow. I thought they would try as much I cared and I thought wrong. And now I lack even more trust towards people. I think I gave too much away, so now even if I like someone's presence I try not to get too attached. I trust people so little that I barely talk about anything that's on my mind. I even prefer talking to ChatGPT regarding my problems haha a new low. I can't even speak to a person anonymously anymore, I just talk to something that has no consciousness to feel 'safe' enough to talk.
At least, I am growing to accept the reality of things and move on in life beyond that. If I can't make anything like that last, there isn't a point in being too attached to people. Even when I meet someone I do like, I care about them, I simply don't trust that they care about me in the same way. It is better to not create that expectation just to be let down (for the millionth time it seems like). I think it's better to just focus on other things, my job, seeking a career, self improvement etc and forget about making it work with people.
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2023.03.29 17:47 Traditional-Living-8 [USA-DC] [H] 4K Monitors (M28U, M32U, GP950) [W] PayPal / local cash

Got a few monitors up for sale. All are brand new in box.
Prices are local cash. Prefer local DC or DMV area for sale. If you want to do shipping will be PayPal G&S. Send me a zip code and I'll try to get the price as low as possible.
timestamps: https://imgur.com/a/XGjO19F
additional timestamps: https://imgur.com/a/SxWdWmm
repost of: https://old.reddit.com/hardwareswap/comments/121ofj9/usadc_h_4k_monitors_m28u_m32u_gn950_w_paypal/
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