I’m confused on my salmon smoking method. I’ve watched a ton of videos and read recipes. I have my smoker set to 180. But it gets the internal temp of the fish to 140 in only an hour and change. The smoker can’t go any lower than 180. I see some recipes say smoke at 225 for 3-4 hours but I can’t keep my salmon on there for nearly as long. How are you smoking yours? (Grill is Pitboss 850)

California state prison Life is truly unpredictable. We all once dreamed of becoming doctors or lawyers, shaping our futures with optimism. But here I am, confined within these prison walls—a reality I never fathomed. Yet, in this desolate place, it seems that no one truly cares. Two months have passed since I arrived, and each day is an arduous struggle for survival, a constant battle against the law of the jungle in its most modern form. Every passing day feels like a never-ending nightmare, gradually consuming my sanity. I can feel myself descending into madness, constantly on edge, my fight-or-flight instinct perpetually activated. There is no respite, not even in the darkness of night. The air is thick with the echoes of tormented screams that haunt our sleep, ensuring that even our dreams are tainted with despair. It’s bewildering how this place not only confines the body but also imprisons the mind. Amidst this bleak existence, I find solace in the intimidating visage I possess and the imposing physique I bear. It sets me apart from those who have succumbed to the depths of this grim abyss, their bodies now six feet under the ground. However, my physique alone could only provide limited protection. It is my own foolish mistakes that may ultimately lead to my demise, or rather, will lead to my death. I have already committed my first error by offending a notorious gang leader. I wish it were a grave offense like taking the life of one of his subordinates, but instead, it was something as trivial as sitting at the wrong table in the canteen. And now, he seeks to end my life. My cellmate warned me of the bounty placed on my head, a sick game concocted by that bastard to torment me. As the cell door buzzed open, its mechanical groan reverberated through the air, signaling the dreaded lunchtime. A chill slithered down my spine, mingling with the sickening anticipation of what awaited me beyond those iron bars. I knew all too well that this time, caution was not merely a choice but a matter of life and death. Every step I took outside, I was acutely aware of the lurking shadows, the hidden dangers ready to strike. The guard’s barked command sliced through the air like a serrated blade, slicing away any semblance of safety or comfort. His voice dripped with sadistic pleasure as he herded us, defenseless prisoners, towards the canteen, a place where pain and violence lurked like ravenous beasts. My heart hammered in my chest, a rapid percussion of fear, as I analyzed my surroundings with feral instinct. I scoured every corner for hidden threats, my eyes darting from one shadow to another, assessing blind spots like a hunted animal on the verge of its last stand. In that moment, an opportunity, as precarious as a spider’s silk, presented itself. The guard, his malevolence etched deep into his sneering face, loomed close to me. I weighed my options, knowing that the wrong move would condemn me to a merciless demise. The specter of death whispered in my ear, urging me to fight back, to strike first and defy the shackles of my oppressors. Without a flicker of hesitation, my hand shot out, the palm of my trembling hand connecting with the guard’s face in a resounding slap that echoed through the corridor. His expression twisted into a grotesque mask of rage, a harbinger of the storm that was about to be unleashed upon me. “You fucker! Come here!” his voice boomed, a thunderous growl that reverberated in the depths of my soul. He charged towards me, wielding his formidable bat with a sadistic gleam in his eyes, as if relishing the opportunity to unleash his cruelty upon my defenseless body. Driven by desperation, I fought back, fueled by the primal instinct to survive at any cost. Blow after blow, I struck with a ferocity borne from a place deep within me, each slap a desperate plea for freedom. But my resistance was futile, a fleeting flicker of defiance in the face of an unyielding storm. The guard’s retaliatory onslaught descended upon me like a torrential downpour of unrelenting agony. His weapon became an extension of his twisted will, delivering bone-shattering blows that fractured my body and shattered my spirit. The searing pain tore through every fiber of my being, eclipsing any physical torment I had endured before. It surpassed the brutality inflicted by my own father, a testament to the depths of human cruelty. Mocking laughter mingled with the sound of my screams, the guard’s sadistic delight intensifying with every strike. I writhed in excruciating pain, my body a mere vessel of suffering, on the precipice of vomiting up the wretched food that had been forced upon me. Each kick landed with merciless precision, a merciless reminder of my insignificance, reducing me to a broken, battered shell of a human being. Finally, my ravaged form was dragged away, cast into the suffocating darkness of solitary confinement. The door closed behind me, sealing my fate within these desolate walls. As the agonizing throbs of pain merged with the suffocating isolation, a twisted symphony of despair played on, etching its haunting melody into the deepest recesses of my mind. Finally, I had survived, but at what cost? A bitter reflection consumed me as I surveyed my new home. “Hey, kid,” a weathered voice suddenly pierced the suffocating silence. The timbre of his voice revealed a man well into his sixties or beyond. Straining to locate the source, I realized it originated from the cell adjacent to mine. Surprised and puzzled, I questioned how I could hear him. Shouldn’t I be in complete isolation? “Kid, I know you can hear me,” he confidently declared, as if he held a secret knowledge. Uncertainty gripped me, leaving me unsure of how to respond or what actions to take in this confined world. To hell with it, I thought. I was already in isolation, so why not engage in conversation? I needed someone to talk to, to maintain a sliver of sanity amidst the suffocating solitude. Even though I believed I wouldn’t lose my grip on reality, I knew that prolonged isolation could weaken even the strongest of minds. So, with a mixture of curiosity and apprehension, I mustered the courage to respond, “Yeah, I can hear you, old man. What do you want?” Yet, a nagging question lingered in the back of my mind. How was it even possible for the old man to communicate with me in this isolated prison? “Nothing. I don’t need anything. I just want to talk. Is that a problem?” the old man’s voice carried a hint of loneliness, longing for connection. “No, not at all,” I replied, my curiosity piqued by his request. “Well then, what’s your name, kid?” he inquired, his tone friendly. “I’m Anvis. And you?” I responded, eager to continue the conversation. “What a peculiar name. Well, I’ve heard stranger names in my lifetime. I’m Sam,” he revealed, his voice warm and inviting. “So, what landed you in this place?”he asked “I was involved in the creation and sale of ghost weapons,” I confessed, a tinge of regret in my voice. “Ghost weapons… ah, yes, I’ve heard about them. You mean those 3D-printed guns? You must have had quite the knack for designing them,” Sam remarked, genuinely interested. “I suppose you could say that, though I never intended for things to turn out this way,” I explained, a mix of frustration and remorse seeping into my words. Sam’s voice filled with curiosity as he asked, “What do you mean?” “Let’s just say I was caught up in a difficult situation. Growing up as an orphan, I found myself entangled with the wrong crowd, doing whatever it took to survive. Unfortunately, that path led me to get involved in the production of ghost weapons. I had no choice, really. It was a matter of self-preservation,” I confessed, a hint of vulnerability in my voice I don’t know why but I was confessing to Sam I felt warmth I felt like talking with a friend. Listening intently, Sam responded empathetically, “Sometimes life pushes us into corners we never anticipated. It’s not always easy to make the right choices when survival is at stake.” Encouraged by his understanding, I continued, “Exactly. I didn’t want any part in it, but circumstances forced my hand. I was coerced into designing those guns under the threat of exposure. However, fate had its own plans. When I went to deliver the weapons, the authorities swooped in, intercepting the guns before they could be used for harm. In a strange way, I felt a sense of relief that they didn’t end up causing any damage.” Sam nodded thoughtfully before sharing his own story, “Well, in my case, I had quite an extraordinary entrance into this prison. I fell through a portal and ended up here.” Oh great I am talking to a lunatic.

I’m 27. When I was 13/14, I started having weird throat issues all the time. It felt like my throat had a lot of pressure in it, like a weird tension feeling, and the only thing that helped was when I ate/drank something or swallowed. This would help then it would come back a few minutes or so later. I had weird issues swallowing saliva too. I saw an ear nose & throat doctor about this and was told my issue was acid reflux. Doctor prescribed reflux medication and told me to sleep on an incline. I did those things for a while, but it didn’t help. Supposedly I was treating the issue and the doctor didn’t know why I wasn’t improving but told me to continue doing what I was doing to supposedly treat it. I saw some other doctors that weren’t sure either. I pretty much learned to just live like that but it was annoying and started to take over my life to the point that every day revolved around coping with my throat and dealing with the bad anxiety it was causing. I used to avoid things, had no life, had to make sure I always had something to drink to help my throat, and felt really stressed about the whole thing and how it was affecting me. On a side note, I also used to breathe mostly through my mouth as well. No one really knew, but I was really miserable all the time because of this stuff.
At 15, I started to feel like a brain fog on top of the throat issues. Something I’d never felt before. It was like my brain felt like mush all the time, no matter how much sleep I got. Like that feeling when you sleep really bad for a couple nights and feel like crap, except I was sleeping enough. Felt kind of spaced out constantly, couldn’t concentrate as well, I never wanted to do anything, felt apathetic, and just kind of crappy all the time. Wasn’t severe but was definitely impacting my day to day life. I went back to seeing doctors. Lots of doctors said there was nothing medically wrong with me and some even said that the brain fog (and maybe even the throat issues) were all psychological. I didn’t feel like that was it because my symptoms felt so real and physical but what did I know. I was prescribed antidepressants and doctors recommended I see a therapist for bad anxiety issues. I spent the next couple of years trying multiple medications, seeing therapists, and making other changes but nothing helped. I thought I was going crazy. In those few years that passed, I had slowly started to feel worse. By the time I graduated high school, the constant mental fog and tiredness were affecting me pretty bad. I felt stressed and anxious nonstop. I had almost no life during high school because of it and did just the bare minimum to get by. With lots of doctors telling me there was nothing physically wrong with me, I started to believe them about it being all mental. I thought it was something I was doing wrong personally. At this point I wasn’t even talking to my family about it as much since supposedly there was nothing wrong and it was all in my head. Especially when doctor after doctor were saying nothing was wrong and because my symptoms were mostly feeling tired all the time, what was I supposed to say? It felt like it was my personal fault for feeling the way I did. Everyone gave me the impression that my issues were because of me and I just needed to change my mindset and lifestyle and I’d feel better. Do anxiety workbooks, deep breathing, get more sleep, take antidepressants, therapy. I did every single thing doctors and therapists told me to do, but nothing helped. Doctors and therapists made me question my sanity every day. It was hell.
I was in no shape to go to college out of state, but I did. I ended up going because supposedly there was nothing wrong with me and I was trying desperately to believe it was all in my head like doctors and therapists and my family were saying. I just needed to change my way of thinking and lifestyle and that would cure the constant brain fog and tiredness and throat issues. So I pushed myself to go, hoping I’d sort it out. I spent the next 4 years slowly feeling worse, still seeing doctors but getting no legit answers. I'd go months and months at a time without seeing a doctor as I didn't know where to turn and had given up at times. I saw a doctor about sleep apnea but didn't seem to fit almost any of the symptoms. Stuff like waking up trying to get air, choking, stopping breathing, snoring, wasn't overweight, wasn't unhealthy, didn’t have a family history of it or other health issues. Still, I tried one of those moldable mouthpieces that’s supposed to help with sleep apnea but didn't see any benefit from it. So with all of this, I figured it’s probably not sleep apnea. I was so desperate, I was constantly trying all sorts of medications, supplements, and other weird things to try and help myself. I felt like I was losing my damn mind. My mental health was horrendous. Felt like crap 24/7. I literally felt stupid because my brain wasn’t working. Dealing with symptoms and figuring out what was wrong with me consumed my entire life. I would occasionally go to class after taking a big dose of stimulant drugs, but even those only did so much. No amount of caffeine pills, energy drinks did anything either. I was beyond that stuff helping. I experienced almost nothing enjoyable in those 4 years of college and had basically no life, really no friends, hobbies, nothing. Really the only experience I had during college was when I went on a study abroad trip but it was hell because I felt so awful the whole time. I had also joined a fraternity in the beginning of college but did almost nothing with them for the same reason. The mental tiredness had gotten so bad it felt like I was disconnected and living in a dream. Like I felt kind of drunk. I was so mentally and emotionally numb and exhausted I didn’t even feel human. Like I physically could not feel emotions and felt super spaced out. I was also still dealing with the throat issues. I’d get random dizziness, my vision got worse (more sensitive to bright light, bad floaters in my eyes). I somehow managed to graduate college and finished feeling significantly worse than when I began. I was so miserable and had no one to talk to about what was going on. But I was at least glad that college was over, because it sucked horribly.
I spent the next year doing just the bare minimum to get by. About a year after college (2019), I had a sleep study done and results came back with moderate sleep apnea. For the first time I actually had an answer. Sleep doctor immediately prescribed a CPAP machine. Didn’t even bother to wonder why a young healthy person has sleep apnea to begin with, because it’s not normal. I spent the next 2ish years trying multiple machines, masks, changing all the settings, but only saw some improvement. Keeping the CPAP consistently on throughout the night was also a struggle in itself as it was super awkward and uncomfortable, even though I was desperately trying to make it work. When I was able to keep it on for 5+ hours a night I felt a bit better but it was really difficult to do so consistently. During this time I couldn’t really hold down a job, other than some really basic, short term jobs. And even those felt brutal. My relationships with everyone were affected pretty bad. I was a complete zombie because the tiredness was so overwhelming. It was as an amount of brain fog and exhaustion I didn’t know was humanly possible. I was making myself basically sick with stimulants that really weren't helping and even had a doctor at one point tell me that I should get genetic testing for depression or have my brain zapped with electric shocks. I luckily didn't go that route.
After two years of messing with machines, my sleep doctor then recommended I see a maxillofacial doctor to see what the underlying breathing issue was being caused by. The doctor recommended I get a custom mouthpiece made that shifts the lower jaw forward to help open the airway to prevent breathing issues while sleeping. The process of having it fitted and made took a couple months. I even took a “real” job during this same time because I had two different doctors telling me that this mouthpiece was likely to help me a lot. I felt like I couldn’t have gotten the mouthpiece fast enough. I ended up messing with the mouthpiece for months and had no benefit at all. Literally zero. The dentist who made the mouthpiece said that the mouthpiece wasn’t helping because I might just have “weak muscle tone” in my throat and that I should see someone called a myofunctional doctor to supposedly improve muscle tone in the throat and tongue. I looked into that and it seemed like total quack stuff so I didn’t do it and completely dropped that dentist that made my mouthpiece and suggested this. I then saw an ear nose and throat doctor and later did a sleep endoscopy with him where I was put to sleep and had my breathing monitored with a camera down my throat. The doctor said that my breathing issues were being caused by my throat and jaw and suggested that since the mouthpiece wasn’t helping, I could get surgery or have a device called Inspire surgically inserted into my chest and neck to artificially help breathing. I held off on that cause it sounded pretty extreme and thought there had to be something else. During this time I had to leave the job I should’ve never taken in the first place because I was so non-functional.
I pretty much gave up for months. I eventually scheduled an appointment with another ear nose & throat doctor (the same kind of doctor I saw when I was 13). I'd already seen many ear nose & throat doctors by this point but didn't know what else to do. Don’t remember how exactly it happened, but the connection was made that my issues were due to really abnormal nasal breathing. Something called nasal valve stenosis, where both sides of my nose were completely caving in and blocking most air, leading to crappy breathing, even when just breathing in lightly. This issue is worse during sleep and was causing my brain to “wake up” every time my nose had the obstruction. So I was struggling to breathe all night and I was slowly feeling worse as I was never getting good deep sleep. So the bad sleep every night just kept accumulating over the course of 10+ years. He also explained that my throat issues were a sign that my nose wasn’t functioning normally, which was causing airflow issues and a throat pressure feeling as a result. But weirdly the nasal issues weren’t being caused by my nose itself. There’s nothing actually wrong with my nose. It’s the middle part of the face that provides the base and support for the nose that is lacking the support needed to keep the nose open for normal breathing. Doctor said it’s really abnormal for nasal collapse to happen like this as a result of the face just not developing properly. It was just the way the middle of my face grew and changed over time, especially during puberty, that led to this. Doctor said it is called midface deficiency. It’s the area of the face just to the sides of the nose, below the eyes. Doctor said facial surgery is really what I needed but said nasal surgery could potentially help a bit and is less intense of a surgery, so I decided to go with that. Everything finally made sense for the first time ever. I even recorded my sleep and sure enough I could hear myself struggling to breathe all night.
Last year (2022), I had nasal valve surgery. It took a long time to recover from surgery and I still have to wear something in my nose when I sleep to prevent it from pinching shut because the surgery only helped a bit. I will still have to look into facial surgery to address the underlying issue as my breathing is still horrible during the day when I’m not wearing a dilator in my nose but at night I wear it and am good. Over time most of my issues have gone away. The slowly worsening exhaustion and brain fog and cognitive issues that started when I was a teenager. The constant severe anxiety and stress feelings I had since I was a kid. Throat issues gone. I no longer feel like killing myself out of misery. It was that obvious all along but untreated made my life constant fucking torture. Feeling horrible nonstop, slowly getting worse, not knowing why, being told there was nothing wrong with me and that it was all psychological, trying all sorts of things with no benefit, and having my entire life be ruined was a mental hell I wouldn’t wish on anyone. I don’t feel like my teens and most my 20s actually happened because I was in such poor health physically and mentally 24/7. I wish I had been able to see decent doctors earlier, but obviously that didn’t happen. I’m not even sure how I wasn’t able to make the connection myself. I think I was just so used to really bad breathing since I was young I didn’t know it was abnormal and had no reason to think I had some weird issue cause why would I? I still struggle with the mental effects of I think living like this for so long. These issues consumed everything for over 10 years so I guess it’s not surprising that it still affects me mentally even after the fact. Thanks for reading and hopefully this can help someone out there.
TLDR: Slowly worsening chronic fatigue/brain fog and other issues for 10+ years was due to really bad nasal breathing, mostly nasal valve collapse due to midface deficiency that developed when I was a teenager and was leading to sleep apnea
Here's photos of my nose just breathing in slightly deeper than normal:
https://imgur.com/aQWsJeX
https://imgur.com/a/7NsNIWo

Background knowledge:
Me height:6’1 Weight: 85kg/187llbs fight exprience: Did boxing from 4-8 Age:18
Friend height:60 Weight: 80kg/176llbs fight exprience: 2nd dan black belt taekwando Age:18
panda average
area: pandas normal roaming domain
side notes: currently both stoned our strategy hit it till it gets angry then run around till its tired. Then one of us gets behind and does a hammer slam punch.

Good afternoon all,
So over the course of my life I’ve mainly had 2 paranormal encounters and this one is probably the best one I’ve had. When I was in college I was a minoring in photography (major in mechanical engineering). Well for one of my photo classes, the assignment was to photograph a friend and really get to know them through the photos but also try to photograph them in a way that you can see the difference in color (it was a color photo class).
So I asked one of my friends and she knew the perfect spot we could shoot. There is a church in Tullahoma Tennessee that my friend would sing and act at (they did a lot of plays and stage productions there). So we met up there one day and she told me when you enter the church you have to say hello to the ghost (I forget the name of the ghost) or they would do things to upset you. Well I didn’t say hello because I didn’t really believe in ghosts. Well we started shooting around the church and the images were turning out great. Well I set my camera bag down on a church pew and walked 3 of 4 feet away and I heard a thunk. I turned around and my bag is on the floor like it had been thrown from the pew to the ground. Luckily nothing was broken but I asked my friend about it and she said that she told me to say hello. I looked at this closely too and there was no way my bag could’ve landed on the ground, I had laying down on the pew, with it far enough away from the edge that someone would have to push it.
I have always wanted to go back to that church and maybe try and document the ghost, but maybe one day.

I’m 27. When I was 13/14, I started having weird throat issues all the time. It felt like my throat had a lot of pressure in it, like a weird tension feeling, and the only thing that helped was when I ate/drank something or swallowed. This would help then it would come back a few minutes or so later. I had weird issues swallowing saliva too. I saw an ear nose & throat doctor about this and was told my issue was acid reflux. Doctor prescribed reflux medication and told me to sleep on an incline. I did those things for a while, but it didn’t help. Supposedly I was treating the issue and the doctor didn’t know why I wasn’t improving but told me to continue doing what I was doing to supposedly treat it. I saw some other doctors that weren’t sure either. I pretty much learned to just live like that but it was annoying and started to take over my life to the point that every day revolved around coping with my throat and dealing with the bad anxiety it was causing. I used to avoid things, had no life, had to make sure I always had something to drink to help my throat, and felt really stressed about the whole thing and how it was affecting me. On a side note, I also used to breathe mostly through my mouth as well. No one really knew, but I was really miserable all the time because of this stuff.
At 15, I started to feel like a brain fog on top of the throat issues. Something I’d never felt before. It was like my brain felt like mush all the time, no matter how much sleep I got. Like that feeling when you sleep really bad for a couple nights and feel like crap, except I was sleeping enough. Felt kind of spaced out constantly, couldn’t concentrate as well, I never wanted to do anything, felt apathetic, and just kind of crappy all the time. Wasn’t severe but was definitely impacting my day to day life. I went back to seeing doctors. Lots of doctors said there was nothing medically wrong with me and some even said that the brain fog (and maybe even the throat issues) were all psychological. I didn’t feel like that was it because my symptoms felt so real and physical but what did I know. I was prescribed antidepressants and doctors recommended I see a therapist for bad anxiety issues. I spent the next couple of years trying multiple medications, seeing therapists, and making other changes but nothing helped. I thought I was going crazy. In those few years that passed, I had slowly started to feel worse. By the time I graduated high school, the constant mental fog and tiredness were affecting me pretty bad. I felt stressed and anxious nonstop. I had almost no life during high school because of it and did just the bare minimum to get by. With lots of doctors telling me there was nothing physically wrong with me, I started to believe them about it being all mental. I thought it was something I was doing wrong personally. At this point I wasn’t even talking to my family about it as much since supposedly there was nothing wrong and it was all in my head. Especially when doctor after doctor were saying nothing was wrong and because my symptoms were mostly feeling tired all the time, what was I supposed to say? It felt like it was my personal fault for feeling the way I did. Everyone gave me the impression that my issues were because of me and I just needed to change my mindset and lifestyle and I’d feel better. Do anxiety workbooks, deep breathing, get more sleep, take antidepressants, therapy. I did every single thing doctors and therapists told me to do, but nothing helped. Doctors and therapists made me question my sanity every day. It was hell.
I was in no shape to go to college out of state, but I did. I ended up going because supposedly there was nothing wrong with me and I was trying desperately to believe it was all in my head like doctors and therapists and my family were saying. I just needed to change my way of thinking and lifestyle and that would cure the constant brain fog and tiredness and throat issues. So I pushed myself to go, hoping I’d sort it out. I spent the next 4 years slowly feeling worse, still seeing doctors but getting no legit answers. I'd go months and months at a time without seeing a doctor as I didn't know where to turn and had given up at times. I saw a doctor about sleep apnea but didn't seem to fit almost any of the symptoms. Stuff like waking up trying to get air, choking, stopping breathing, snoring, wasn't overweight, wasn't unhealthy, didn’t have a family history of it or other health issues. Still, I tried one of those moldable mouthpieces that’s supposed to help with sleep apnea but didn't see any benefit from it. So with all of this, I figured it’s probably not sleep apnea. I was so desperate, I was constantly trying all sorts of medications, supplements, and other weird things to try and help myself. I felt like I was losing my damn mind. My mental health was horrendous. Felt like crap 24/7. I literally felt stupid because my brain wasn’t working. Dealing with symptoms and figuring out what was wrong with me consumed my entire life. I would occasionally go to class after taking a big dose of stimulant drugs, but even those only did so much. No amount of caffeine pills, energy drinks did anything either. I was beyond that stuff helping. I experienced almost nothing enjoyable in those 4 years of college and had basically no life, really no friends, hobbies, nothing. Really the only experience I had during college was when I went on a study abroad trip but it was hell because I felt so awful the whole time. I had also joined a fraternity in the beginning of college but did almost nothing with them for the same reason. The mental tiredness had gotten so bad it felt like I was disconnected and living in a dream. Like I felt kind of drunk. I was so mentally and emotionally numb and exhausted I didn’t even feel human. Like I physically could not feel emotions and felt super spaced out. I was also still dealing with the throat issues. I’d get random dizziness, my vision got worse (more sensitive to bright light, bad floaters in my eyes). I somehow managed to graduate college and finished feeling significantly worse than when I began. I was so miserable and had no one to talk to about what was going on. But I was at least glad that college was over, because it sucked horribly.
I spent the next year doing just the bare minimum to get by. About a year after college (2019), I had a sleep study done and results came back with moderate sleep apnea. For the first time I actually had an answer. Sleep doctor immediately prescribed a CPAP machine. Didn’t even bother to wonder why a young healthy person has sleep apnea to begin with, because it’s not normal. I spent the next 2ish years trying multiple machines, masks, changing all the settings, but only saw some improvement. Keeping the CPAP consistently on throughout the night was also a struggle in itself as it was super awkward and uncomfortable, even though I was desperately trying to make it work. When I was able to keep it on for 5+ hours a night I felt a bit better but it was really difficult to do so consistently. During this time I couldn’t really hold down a job, other than some really basic, short term jobs. And even those felt brutal. My relationships with everyone were affected pretty bad. I was a complete zombie because the tiredness was so overwhelming. It was as an amount of brain fog and exhaustion I didn’t know was humanly possible. I was making myself basically sick with stimulants that really weren't helping and even had a doctor at one point tell me that I should get genetic testing for depression or have my brain zapped with electric shocks. I luckily didn't go that route.
After two years of messing with machines, my sleep doctor then recommended I see a maxillofacial doctor to see what the underlying breathing issue was being caused by. The doctor recommended I get a custom mouthpiece made that shifts the lower jaw forward to help open the airway to prevent breathing issues while sleeping. The process of having it fitted and made took a couple months. I even took a “real” job during this same time because I had two different doctors telling me that this mouthpiece was likely to help me a lot. I felt like I couldn’t have gotten the mouthpiece fast enough. I ended up messing with the mouthpiece for months and had no benefit at all. Literally zero. The dentist who made the mouthpiece said that the mouthpiece wasn’t helping because I might just have “weak muscle tone” in my throat and that I should see someone called a myofunctional doctor to supposedly improve muscle tone in the throat and tongue. I looked into that and it seemed like total quack stuff so I didn’t do it and completely dropped that dentist that made my mouthpiece and suggested this. I then saw an ear nose and throat doctor and later did a sleep endoscopy with him where I was put to sleep and had my breathing monitored with a camera down my throat. The doctor said that my breathing issues were being caused by my throat and jaw and suggested that since the mouthpiece wasn’t helping, I could get surgery or have a device called Inspire surgically inserted into my chest and neck to artificially help breathing. I held off on that cause it sounded pretty extreme and thought there had to be something else. During this time I had to leave the job I should’ve never taken in the first place because I was so non-functional.
I pretty much gave up for months. I eventually scheduled an appointment with another ear nose & throat doctor (the same kind of doctor I saw when I was 13). I'd already seen many ear nose & throat doctors by this point but didn't know what else to do. Don’t remember how exactly it happened, but the connection was made that my issues were due to really abnormal nasal breathing. Something called nasal valve stenosis, where both sides of my nose were completely caving in and blocking most air, leading to crappy breathing, even when just breathing in lightly. This issue is worse during sleep and was causing my brain to “wake up” every time my nose had the obstruction. So I was struggling to breathe all night and I was slowly feeling worse as I was never getting good deep sleep. So the bad sleep every night just kept accumulating over the course of 10+ years. He also explained that my throat issues were a sign that my nose wasn’t functioning normally, which was causing airflow issues and a throat pressure feeling as a result. But weirdly the nasal issues weren’t being caused by my nose itself. There’s nothing actually wrong with my nose. It’s the middle part of the face that provides the base and support for the nose that is lacking the support needed to keep the nose open for normal breathing. Doctor said it’s really abnormal for nasal collapse to happen like this as a result of the face just not developing properly. It was just the way the middle of my face grew and changed over time, especially during puberty, that led to this. Doctor said it is called midface deficiency. It’s the area of the face just to the sides of the nose, below the eyes. Doctor said facial surgery is really what I needed but said nasal surgery could potentially help a bit and is less intense of a surgery, so I decided to go with that. Everything finally made sense for the first time ever. I even recorded my sleep and sure enough I could hear myself struggling to breathe all night.
Last year (2022), I had nasal valve surgery. It took a long time to recover from surgery and I still have to wear something in my nose when I sleep to prevent it from pinching shut because the surgery only helped a bit. I will still have to look into facial surgery to address the underlying issue as my breathing is still horrible during the day when I’m not wearing a dilator in my nose but at night I wear it and am good. Over time most of my issues have gone away. The slowly worsening exhaustion and brain fog and cognitive issues that started when I was a teenager. The constant severe anxiety and stress feelings I had since I was a kid. Throat issues gone. I no longer feel like killing myself out of misery. It was that obvious all along but untreated made my life constant fucking torture. Feeling horrible nonstop, slowly getting worse, not knowing why, being told there was nothing wrong with me and that it was all psychological, trying all sorts of things with no benefit, and having my entire life be ruined was a mental hell I wouldn’t wish on anyone. I don’t feel like my teens and most my 20s actually happened because I was in such poor health physically and mentally 24/7. I wish I had been able to see decent doctors earlier, but obviously that didn’t happen. I’m not even sure how I wasn’t able to make the connection myself. I think I was just so used to really bad breathing since I was young I didn’t know it was abnormal and had no reason to think I had some weird issue cause why would I? I still struggle with the mental effects of I think living like this for so long. These issues consumed everything for over 10 years so I guess it’s not surprising that it still affects me mentally even after the fact. Thanks for reading and hopefully this can help someone out there.
TLDR: Slowly worsening chronic fatigue/brain fog and other issues for 10+ years was due to really bad nasal breathing, mostly nasal valve collapse due to midface deficiency that developed when I was a teenager and was leading to sleep apnea
​
Here's photos of my nose just breathing in slightly deeper than normal:
https://imgur.com/aQWsJeX
https://imgur.com/a/7NsNIWo

Hey all,
I am working on an self managed kubernetes cluster and we are trying to update the vSphere cloud configuration manager from the in-tree to out-of-tree providers. I am having a very hard time understanding this documentation and I am hoping that someone here has done this before and can help out.
It sounds like the steps I'd need to take are:

1. Grant access to the Migration Lease
2. Create the LeaderMigrationConfiguration config with set * as the controller leader for each component and update the kube-controller-manager manifest so that leader migration is enabled and --leader-migration-config points to the config file
3. Restart kube-controller-manager on each node
4. For each control-plane node one at a time
   1. Deploy the vSphere cloud controller manager with --enable-leader-migration and --leader-migration-config
   2. Update the kube-controller-manager with --cloud-provider=external and turn off leader migration
5. Remove the Leader Migration launch param and config

Has anyone done this before and does this seem correct?

Alright guys so I'm currently using Bahjeera's settings in Threatplates and think that I either need to tweak some settings or try a new nameplate addon (KUI, Uber UI, etc.).
The issue is with games with locks and shamans (totems), I can no longer see shit on the screen, especially if everything is stacked. How the f*** am I supposed to see anything? How does anyone else do it? Sometimes even my resource bar (health underneath char) becomes obstructed and it becomes hard to see/select lock unless I click on arena frames.
Lastly, slightly related issue, my SmartTabTarget seemed to stop working in the shuffle game I just played. I would tab and it would select one of the pets instead of the target which also was frustrating. Any thoughts or ideas would greatly be appreciated it, it would be nice If I can see what the f*** is going on the screen so that I can actually play (or attempt to play) properly.

There is no chance we could have prepared for this, the Winged Empire has found something AGAIN we hadn't planned for, and now as we are slowly picked off all I want to do is punch my commander in the face.
This entire debacle started about two months ago now. I was leading the spearhead into the enemy lines, and for months before we had been pushing them back easily.We thought within another year we would have humanity off that planet. It might take a century to crush the Winged Empire and another to destroy the remnants, but we would win.
That was till I retrieved the report that ended it all. Our flack and anti-air teams had been strong for months, even with how mobile the enemy's aircraft was, but our adaptation of their anti-air systems made them easier to kill. Then our anti-air teams suddenly came across a target they found impossible to kill.
The aircraft moved without reason, no pilot could ever control it, it moved more like a bird than a plane, its wings moved independently, each metallic surface bending like flesh. Yet it clearly wasn't, it flew over our gun emplacement at Mach speeds dropping bombs and firing missiles, yet from the reports something was wrong. I refused to believe it till I saw it but I couldn't go to our anti-air lines as I was needed in the front.
Although my lead of the campaign quickly came to an end, our anti-airlines had been thoroughly dismantled and our resupply was stopped by this one aircraft that had quickly been joined by many of its kind.
It was on our final push attempting to gain new fronts in the enemy lines when I first saw the beast.
The first thing to happen was the enemy lines fell quiet as we charged into their trenches only to find they were empty. Along the trench walls, falls guns were set up and every gun had a crude system set up where a weight filled with water would slowly pull on the trigger till it fired.
As we walked through the trenches trying to find any intel we could send back to base.
It's then we heard the beast for the first time. I came running out of the trench to the sound of something crashing in the center of no-man's land, only to see a ghostly white creature standing there. I wasn't instantly proven my men were not wrong, it was colossal about twice the size of a normal human aircraft but supported itself on several small spindly feet. Four were on the end of what I assume were its wings while another two were at the end of its tail on long thin legs.
The creature looked at us with curiosity. I couldn't see its eyes as it was clearly an aircraft originally I assumed they were behind the windshield while two colossal engines came out of its body ahead of its tail legs.
Slowly I clambered up onto the top of the trench and walked towards it holding out my hand trying to calm the creature. My men instantly started to call it the blood ghost, I had no idea why they called it that the only part that made sense was the ghost part as the entire creature was white except the tip of the engines and the frame of the windshield.
As I drew closer the creature opened its mouth, I suddenly understood why my men had called it the blood ghost. As it shifted its wings opened showing blood-red threads of skin and the inside of its mouth was entirely red.
“Do not treat me like a mindless beast foe of my masters. Why do you fight, warriors of the false empire.” I recoiled in fear and surprise as the beast spoke in perfect Terran standard.
“Y-you can talk?” For a moment the beast seemed to think about whether it should speak or not. “Answer my question alien, your answer will determine if you live or die.”
I stood for a moment thinking of an answer and only came up with one. “I fight because those are my orders, if I do not my family and I will be punished.”
The beast reared up on its hind legs. “Such a pathetic reason, you hold no ideals of your own, you only fight for your own desire, I always question my master's orders but I see the dragon empress was right. So as the monarch of the Aerodargon, I will put the mindless animals down.”
I froze up as the beast lunged at me biting down on my arm, it lifted me up into the air as with many smaller arms I hadn't seen before reached into the equivalent of a bomb bay in its stomach and removed several missiles.
It finally bit down on my arm fully and tossed me away like a ragdoll into the trenches as it began to toss the missiles at my men like javelins, as along its nose on the left side a section of its skin peeled back with a metallic clink before the sound of a rotary cannon spinning up was heard and bullets began to fly from it.
Several of my men instantly started to fire back, our plasma rounds bouncing off its skin or simply sizzling away.
As my soldiers quickly fell they started to run from the fighting, a few of them grabbed me as I bled out and dragged me into the tree line to escape.
As we vanished into the trees, the beast relaxed and watched us as we left, as if it was stalking its prey. “I've hunted prey much deadlier than you on Earth, and an Aerodargon never forgets its prey.”
We hoped the beast was bluffing, no animal could hunt its prey as far as we ran, as I and my men healed our wounds we found a disturbing truth, many of my men who were struck by bullets found that the bullets we pulled out were actually teeth, about 20 cm long and 5 wide they were colossal but nowhere near as large as the ones in its jaw.
As we stayed hidden in the woods we knew our assault had collapsed as we watched our starships fall from the sky. So we devised a plan, there was a logistics point within a nearby city that we should be able to call a rescue ship. But we had to split into small groups to avoid that beast and military patrols.
Slowly we made our way to the city, over the weeks-long march we lost many men, by the time we had started with 80 men, and by the time we got to the supply point, there were only 30 of us remaining.
We did our best to get in contact with our forces, as one by one we were picked off by snippers, but every time we tried to get through our communication either were blocked or just couldn't find their target as our fleet slowly was pushed further back, our failure on this world had created a domino of failures.
We had no options further except to surrender or fight our way out, and neither was possible with our orders, but the beast's question to my surprise sat in the back of my mind.
With no way out we decided to take the honorable exit, one by one my men took their own lives disintegrating their bodies with their plasma pistols till I was the last one left.
I stood for a moment between the piles of ashes, looking up into the buildings I could see maybe a hundred glints of snipper scopes.
But as I was ready to take my own life I heard it again, the engines of that beast getting louder before it shot over me, a white and red streak shot through the air circling the courtyard I was standing in before it came to land on a skyscraper its many claws digging into the steel frame causing tonnes of rubble to fall to the streets below.
Again I found myself enthralled as I watched the beast change from the rigid perfectly shaped form of an ancient Terran aircraft to the beast, hundreds of blood-red tendrils stretched between the wings that formed its arms and the main body.
In a display of power, the beast clambered up the tower till it was at its peak and just looked at me. It didn't smile, laugh, grin or anything, it didn't attack or move, it just sat clinging to the tower breathing as it looked at me.
In anger I brought my pistol up to the beast ready to fire on it but before I could several sniper shots all at once pierced my head.
—------------------------------------------------------
As the body fell to the ground the Aerodargon jumped from the building landing on the street below tossing up dust. Its white body emerged from the dust cloud as one of the snipers came out from the buildings.
For the moment the Areodargon stood in front of the body before leaning down and biting on his feet, tossing his body into the air and opening its jaw letting the body fall into its maw swallowing it whole.
Slowly the snipper walked up to the Aerodargon and ran their hand along its cold skin. “You ident take too long to think of eating that one Arolan. Something different?”
Arolan snapped his head around defensively bearing his teeth, caught off Garud by the snipper as he had been so indulged in eating the body. As soon as he realized who was there, he relaxed as he stood up on his legs to their full height.
“This man had no soul, he was nothing more than a robot taking orders so I treat him as such.”
“Hummm, we're lucky to have your kind on our side.”
“I am not loyal to your kind, Tailon. I am loyal to my makers, I am loyal to you only as long as you are loyal to humanity. Do not take my peace with you as loyalty, I would consume you just as readily.”
Tailon walked around in front of Arolan tossing her rifle over her back. “Yes, but I am loyal to humanity, I was born under the winged empire's wing, I would die before going back to the curse my parents saw under the first empire.”
Arolan looked down at her for a moment before chuckling. “You are the only one to speak to me so brashly Tailon, your strong soul is why I indulge you so willingly, now, let us return to the enterprise before we are left on this barren rock for the rest of the war.”
Hopping into the air the twin engines that were a part of Arolan’s body burst into life sending a warm gust of air across the land as he shot into the air leaving Tailon behind for her to walk over to a transport truck the other snippers were clambering into.

I'm mainly asking this out of bleakened curiosity lol, since I DO NOT have this problem with my own dogs, only the one I am house-sitting/pet-sitting (and we only have a day left of this). This is not the first time I've looked after this dog either, it's behavior might've actually worsened since I last saw it a couple months ago.
The dog I'm looking after right now is about 1-2 years old (rescued, not sure), it's a pug crossed with something much talleleggier. This dog... wow, I'm admittedly about at my wits end. Constant hyperactivity, which I know is common with young dogs (I've had 4 dogs of my own), but it's far worse than anything I've ever seen? It does not play with its toys; maybe for 60 seconds if I throw it for them and then it gets bored and won't chase/play anymore, instead it chews on every piece of furniture in the house and eats the chewed bits. Chairs, plants, curtains, carpets, pillows, plastic items, metal items, you name it! There is a senior age pug and a cat living here also. The young dog harasses the cat constantly, chasing it, holding it down and biting/yanking on it's ears and face (which have visible scabs I notice). It occasionally nips the older dog too, but not to the terrifying degree it harasses the cat. Now, if this was my dog, I would say "Hey! Psst!" and they know that means "Hey don't do xyz thing, leave it alone". We learned this fairly quickly without duress lol, even with my younger one about the same age. But this dog seems to have no sense of caution/respect/fear for anything, it doesn't react to correction/prompting of any kind. I can even shout and clap my hands loudly and it's like I don't even exist - I have to physically remove the dog from whatever destruction it's doing.
Now, I know more exercise is a number one recommended solution for things like this, but the owner has specified NO WALKS, in fear of the hot weather making it too hard for them to breathe... (honestly, that could be the entire problem here: no exercise). So I'm at a bit of a loss as for how to work with what we've got here. It's very likely I'll end up looking after this house/pet group again, and as much as I adore the other dog/cat, the youngster is insufferable. What can I do to work with this dog while I'm with it, if anything? Any advice I can pass along to the owners in managing this behavior?

Here is a listing of all the media articles, for the past 2 weeks on anything gun related that related to New Jersey:
Note: Articles on the recent PI ruling have been omitted as covered in separate post (Link at bottom)

1. Man Shot By Police After Firing Gun Near NJ Train Station: Mayor Wayne, NJ Patch
2. Prosecutor: 6 NY men posed as police in armed NJ home invasion (nj1015.com)
3. New Jersey police officer who authorities say shot and killed a 911 caller is charged with manslaughter CNN
4. Newark Sees 4th Multiple Shooting In A Month: 4 Shot, 1 Dead Newark, NJ Patch
5. Person With Gun Reported At Great Falls, Juvenile Charged: Paterson PD Wayne, NJ Patch
6. 13-year-old's shooting inspires anti-crime initiative in Newark, New Jersey for summer safety - ABC7 New York (abc7ny.com)
7. Analysis: Three experts explain America's gun politics CNN
8. NJ State Police seize guns from Paterson man and woman (northjersey.com)
9. NJ’s attorney general confronts gun violence, corruption, police reform — and a paradox - Gothamist
10. NJ Teen Charged With Attempted Murder In Shooting Near Carnival East Brunswick, NJ Patch
11. Pa. man charged after accidentally shooting himself at Wildwood Crest motel, police say PhillyVoice
12. Church member arrested in shooting death of Sayreville councilwom (nj1015.com)
13. Student Photo With Firearm Probed, 'No Imminent Danger': Brick PD Brick, NJ Patch
14. NJ road rage gunfire: 7 things to try when you’re this angry (nj1015.com)
15. Pleasantville, NJ, Man Facing Gun Charges After Foot Pursuit (wpgtalkradio.com)
16. DWI Driver Found With Loaded Gun After Crash: Montgomery Police Hillsborough, NJ Patch
17. Three Youths Arrested in Trenton After Bucks Gun Store Heist – NBC10 Philadelphia (nbcphiladelphia.com)
18. Mom says Newark police handcuffed 8-year-old daughter in search for big brother’s gun - nj.com
19. Hero N.J. police officer wrestled ‘ghost gun’ from suspect, saved bystanders - nj.com
20. Ex-Con Wanted In Edgewater Domestic Assault Caught Outside Cliffside Bar With Gun: Police Cliffside Park-Edgewater Daily Voice Serving Cliffside Park, Edgewater, Bogota, Fairview, and Ridgefield
21. Atlantic County Man Sentenced for Possession of Illegal Handgun (rlsmedia.com)
22. Shots fired outside a Paterson school over parking, cops say (nj1015.com)
23. Authorities identify 8-year-old, man killed by gunman in N.J. apartment - nj.com
24. Frackville man charged after gun discharges in Wildwood Crest, New Jersey, wounding him (yahoo.com)
25. Sen. Bob Menendez, Mayor Ras Baraka call for more enforcement of federal gun laws - CBS New York (cbsnews.com)
26. Murphy Announces Intention to Nominate Michael Noriega to Serve on the New Jersey Supreme Court - Insider NJ
27. Eunice Dwumfour murder: Arrest made in shooting death of New Jersey councilwoman - ABC7 New York (abc7ny.com)
28. N.J. attorney convicted of murder in shooting death of his longtime girlfriend - nj.com
29. Joaquin DeJesus, 53, of Atlantic City Sentenced to 8-Year Prison Term For Firearms Offenses - South Jersey Observer
30. AI may be the future of preventing school shootings PIX11
31. Chicago man arrested in NJ DWI with stolen gun from Alabama (wobm.com)
32. NJ Fugitive Joel Martinez Accused of Pistol-Whipping Transgender Woman, Shooting Others – NBC10 Philadelphia (nbcphiladelphia.com)
33. InsiderNJ's Fight of the Week: Platkin v. Bumb (and Guns) - Insider NJ
34. Worker Wrestles Gun From Gas Station Convenience Store Robber On Route 46 Saddle Brook-Elmwood Park Daily Voice Your Local News for Saddle Brook and Elmwood Park, New Jersey
35. Armed robber steals thousands in cash from NJ pharmacy (nj1015.com)
36. SEEKING PUBLIC’S ASSISTANCE: BERGENFIELD, NJ MAN SOUGHT IN ATTEMPTED MURDER INVESTIGATION - Bergen County Prosecutor's Office (bcpo.net)
37. Man charged in N.J. cold case killing was arrested with murder weapon a decade ago, cops say - nj.com
38. Two Atlantic City men arrested with drugs, handgun (pressofatlanticcity.com)
39. Atlantic County Man Sentenced For Handgun Possession Gloucester Daily Voice Your Local News for Gloucester County, New Jersey
40. Brattleboro man gets prison time as felon with a gun again Local News reformer.com
41. Southern District of New York New Jersey Man Charged With Gunpoint Robbery Of Manhattan Electronics Store United States Department of Justice
42. NJ man accused of leading PSP on chase along I-80 (yahoo.com)
43. Camden County Armed-Robbery Suspect Remains At Large: Police Collingswood, NJ Patch
44. District of New Jersey Essex County Man Admits Shooting of Former Federal Informant United States Department of Justice

Note: Articles on the recent PI ruling have been omitted as covered in separate post here:

https://www.reddit.com/NJGuns/comments/13k6wym/media_meltdown_media_coverage_on_judge_bumbs/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

I’m looking to get a MBP to get me through school these next 4 years. I do a lot of medical image processing, machine learning, and data processing in R and Python. Additionally, I work with 3D motion capture data which can be hefty. One project can be several terabytes of data.
Current set up is an intel based MacBook Air and an iPad Pro. Ideal new set up would have a dual monitors and my iPad.
What MBP specs would be the best for under $2,800??

What to respond to this :
The essential concept of Marxian materialism is "the material productive forces of society." These forces are the driving power producing all historical facts and changes. In the social production of their subsistence, men enter into certain relations—production relations —which are necessary and independent of their will and correspond to the prevailing stage of development of the material productive forces. The totality of these production relations forms "the economic structure of society, the real basis upon which there arises a juridical and political superstructure and to which definite forms of social consciousness correspond." The mode of pro- duction of material life conditions the social, political, and spiritual (intellectual) life process in general (in each of its manifestations). It is not the consciousness (the ideas and thoughts) of men that determines their being (existence) but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness. At a certain stage of their development the material productive forces of society come into contradiction with the existing production relations, or, what is merely a juridical expression for them, with the property relations (the social system of property laws) within the frame of which they have hitherto operated. From having been forms of development of the productive forces these re- lations turn into fetters of them. Then comes an epoch of social revolution. With the change in the economic foundation the whole immense superstructure slowly or rapidly transforms * itself. In reviewing such a trans- formation,1 one must always distinguish between the material transformation* of the economic conditions of production, which can be precisely ascertained with the methods of the natural sciences, and the juridical, po- litical, religious, artistic,2 or philosophical, in short ide- ological, forms in which men become conscious (aware) of this conflict and fight it out. Such an epoch of trans- formation can no more be judged according to its own consciousness than an individual can be judged accord- ing to what he imagines himself to be; one must rather explain this consciousness out of the contradictions of the material life, out of the existing conflict between so- cial productive forces and production relations. No so- cial formation ever disappears before all the productive forces have been developed for which its frame is broad enough, and new, higher production relations never ap- pear before the material conditions of their existence have been hatched out in the womb of the old society.Hence mankind never sets itself tasks other than those it can solve, for closer observation will always discover that the task itself only emerges where the material con- ditions of its solution are already present or at least in the process of becoming.3 The most remarkable fact about this doctrine is that it does not provide a definition of its basic concept, ma- terial productive forces. Marx never told us what he had in mind in referring to the material productive forces. We have to deduce it from occasional historical exem- plifications of his doctrine. The most outspoken of these incidental examples is to be found in his book, The Pov- erty of Philosophy, published in 1847 in French. It reads: The hand mill gives you feudal society, the steam mill industrial capitalism.4 This means that the state of practical technological knowledge or the technological quality of the tools and machines used in production is to be considered the essential feature of the material productive forces, which uniquely determine the pro- duction relations and thereby the whole "superstruc- ture." The production technique is the real thing, the material being that ultimately determines the social, political, and intellectual manifestations of human life. This interpretation is fully confirmed by all other ex- amples provided by Marx and Engels and by the re- sponse every new technological advance roused in their minds. They welcomed it enthusiastically because theywere convinced that each such new invention brought them a step nearer the realization of their hopes, the coming of socialism.5 There have been, before Marx and after Marx, many historians and philosophers who emphasized the promi- nent role the improvement of technological methods of production has played in the history of civilization. A glance into the popular textbooks of history published in the last one hundred and fifty years shows that their authors duly stressed the importance of new inventions and of the changes they brought about. They never con- tested the truism that material well-being is the indis- pensable condition of a nation's moral, intellectual, and artistic achievement. But what Marx says is entirely different. In his doc- trine the tools and machines are the ultimate thing, a material thing, viz., the material productive forces. Everything else is the necessary superstructure of this material basis. This fundamental thesis is open to three irrefutable objections. First, a technological invention is not something ma- terial. It is the product of a mental process, of reason- ing and conceiving new ideas. The tools and machines may be called material, but the operation of the mind which created them is certainly spiritual. Marxian ma- terialism does not trace back "superstructural" and"ideological" phenomena to "material" roots. It explains these phenomena as caused by an essentially mental process, viz., invention. It assigns to this mental process, which it falsely labels an original, nature-given, mate- rial fact, the exclusive power to beget all other social and intellectual phenomena. But it does not attempt to explain how inventions come to pass. Second, mere invention and designing of technologi- cally new implements are not sufficient to produce them. What is required, in addition to technological knowledge and planning, is capital previously accumu- lated out of saving. Every step forward on the road to- ward technological improvement presupposes the re- quisite capital. The nations today called underdeveloped know what is needed to improve their backward ap- paratus of production. Plans for the construction of all the machines they want to acquire are ready or could be completed in a very short time. Only lack of capital holds them up. But saving and capital accumulation presuppose a social structure in which it is possible to save and to invest. The production relations are thus not the product of the material productive forces but, on the contrary, the indispensable condition of their coming into existence. Marx, of course, cannot help admitting that capital accumulation is "one of the most indispensable condi- tions for the evolution of industrial production." 6 Part of his most voluminous treatise, Das Kapital, providesa history—wholly distorted—of capital accumulation. But as soon as he comes to his doctrine of materialism, he forgets all he said about this subject. Then the tools and machines are created by spontaneous generation, as it were. Furthermore it must be remembered that the utiliza- tion of machines presupposes social cooperation under the division of labor. No machine can be constructed and put into use under conditions in which there is no division of labor at all or only a rudimentary stage of it. Division of labor means social cooperation, i.e., social bonds between men, society. How then is it possible to explain the existence of society by tracing it back to the material productive forces which themselves can only appear in the frame of a previously existing social nexus? Marx could not comprehend this problem. He accused Proudhon, who had described the use of ma- chines as a consequence of the division of labor, of ig- norance of history. It is a distortion of fact, he shouted, to start with the division of labor and to deal with ma- chines only later. For the machines are "a productive force," not a "social production relation," not an "eco- nomic category."7 Here we are faced with a stubborn dogmatism that does not shrink from any absurdity. We may summarize the Marxian doctrine in this way: In the beginning there are the "material productive forces," i.e., the technological equipment of human pro- ductive efforts, the tools and machines. No question concerning their origin is permitted; they are, that isall; we must assume that they are dropped from heaven. These material productive forces compel men to enter into definite production relations which are independ- ent of their wills. These production relations farther on determine society's juridical and political superstruc- ture as well as all religious, artistic, and philosophical ideas.
From mises book theory and history

Conditions: Hendricks and Walker are off the board and at least Wallace or Black are available. The only thing that can entice a team trading up, other than big wings, which are what we are thirsty for as well, is PG. Wallace and Black, at this juncture, are the only names that I could see teams getting nervous about losing and ready to trade up aggressively. Hendricks and Walker are the only top-10ish names that I want in Dallas (discounting the obvious top 3). In our situation, where we need to squeeze every possible route of long-term improvement and we cannot do anything just for the kicks, I don't think it is advisable at all to draft a guy like Wallace, Black, Dick or even Whitmore. We have an extremely tight window to maneuver around and we need to be clean, precise and assertive in our moves. We need to get what we need, not what is cute.
Condition #2: we are not packaging this pick for a veteran. I will have a stroke if we use this to get Ayton, Grant or whatever guy on a bloated contract to make us lose in the 2nd round and get stuck in a roster with Luka, Kyrie, said guy and a bunch of G-Leaguers because the CBA will rekt hard teams with a lot of big contracts. I do want us to get a veteran, but with the 2027 FRP and trying to balance the contracts going out and coming in, specially length-wise.
Partners (going in a crescent order):
a) Toronto: #10, Timmy for #13, Boucher
I still get a bit iffy about that one because we all know Masai loves trades where either he wins or the other partner loses. He doesn't play fair if he is selling, so this would rely hard on him not wanting to pay FVV and wanting to get younger with Wallace or Black. Wallace is smaller than his usual but I'm shocked people are not talking more about Black. A 6'7 PG that cannot shoot? This is Masai's personal dream /s
Jokes aside, I have a little hard time seeing this happening, but more than one Raptor fan told me this would be realistic and within the Raps' MO. A small trade down, although not getting us another FRP, would net us Boucher, an amazingly solid PF/C hybrid, that can either start or come off the bench and contribute now alongside Maxi. At #13 we can still make other moves trading down further or we can even have some flexibility in our choice, specially if we are eyeing a C with the 27 FRP package (we would need to involve Bullock, though, and this starts to snowball in a way that I'm too tired to think right now). Boucher can eat up 25-28mpg from the 4 and the 5 right off the bat. As I said, I think this is a price too steep for what Masai usually likes to spend, but I trust Toronto fans more than myself on their own FO.
b) Utah: #10, Timmy for #16, #28, Olynyk
I always thought that one for Bertans but then I thought "This is Ainge, why in the world would he accept Bertans?". The fact that I like Bertans doesn't mean the league does and the league does not. To get Olynyk, I believe we would need to offer Timmy, which is at least a neutral asset. Olynyk doesn't require explanations, I believe. He would be our starting C right off the bat, he can play the 4, he can get boards, he can set screens, he can pop. He isn't great, he should not be starting, but as an expiring making just 12M? Hell yes. I love Timmy, but he is probably the most expendable guy in the roster with some trade value.
Utah has #9, so we would need to believe here that they would take Hendricks or Walker at #9 and then want to get back at #10 to get their PG of the future. If they get Black at #9 or something like that, there's no incentive at all for the trade-up. Sitting down at #16 will get them in the Hood-Schifino territory, but Wallace and Black will be far gone, specially with Toronto at #13 and teams wanting to trade up. If they do not get their PG at #9, they will want to get one and, if they do not get a PG, they're getting a big wing, which makes Olynyk expendable.
At #16, with #28 available, we are in solid footing. All the 2nd tier bigs (Lively, Clowney, Murray, TJD, Nnaji) and good wings (Miller, Coulibaly, Howard, Cissoko) should be on the board even at #28. We could very well walk out of the draft with a starting-caliber veteran frontcourt guy on a good deal and two young guys ready to contribute now and to be part of our core later. Pretty much one of our best possible scenarios IMO.
c) Brooklyn: #10, Bertans for #21, #22, Doe, Sharpe (maybe)
Best case scenario for emotional reasons. I want Doe back. Yes, he was starting to show some physical decline, yes, he was not the same, yes, he had a hard stint with the Nets...don't care. Doe is the Mavs. I would be extremely thrilled about having a Finney-Smith wearing 10 again, he would make our wing rotation back to a good level with Green and Bullock splitting minutes with him. The Nets actually want to get rid of him (losers), so I would be more, more than up to get Doe back home. I read that, since it is a new season, we can trade for Doe right back at the draft night, but if we cannot, this idea goes down the sink. O'Neale is too rich of a price, Sharpe alone is too poor of a price. Doe is the perfect price for both parties. Going from the 20s into the lottery isn't cheap, after all, and the Nets needs an actual, real PG. A Wallace-Dinwiddie-Bridges-Cam-Claxton starting 5 will rob more wins than people will give them credit for.
At #21 and #22, most of the guys from above would still be available. Lively and Murray should be off the board (people are severely underrating the desire that contenders will have over Kris Murray, a plug and play 3/4, 3-and-D guy), but all the others should be on. If Nico can make some magic and get Sharpe back as well (a tall, tall order), we could walk out of this with Doe, Clowney, Sharpe and Miller (I'm trying hard not to let my love for TJD do the writing, but make of that what you will). The Kyrie trade would pretty much be: Dinwiddie, 2023 and 2029 FRP for Kyrie, Sharpe, 2023 and 2023 FRP. We would see it under way better lights.
I usually had Indy as other option, but I cannot convince myself. Sure, they want less rookies and getting another lotto piece would be neat, but...what are they trading for? They already have a starting PG and a bench PG. Sure, they could trade Nembhard in a splashy move for OG, but I would believe they would be using 26 and 29. If they want 10 to package with 7 for a star, they would be giving up pretty much their whole depth.
I don't believe this would happen, I think they will stay put and actually rebuild the proper way, but if they get too anxious and, for some reason, want to move up, I could see something like this:
#10, Timmy, Bertans for #26, #29, Isaiah Jackson and Duarte
A hefty price, but a sufficient one for trading pretty much two SRPs to get into the lottery. If they need #10 to make a move for OG or whatever, they could pull the trigger here. For us, it would be very, very good. First, considering it would clean up 30M from our cap space if I'm not mistaken, considering Jackson and Duarte are on their rookie deals. This would allow us to actually have something other than the TPMLE to offer in the FA market, which could allow us to bring in some wing or even overpay a C. Second, Jackson and Duarte are two young and good players. Duarte is not that good of a defender, yes, but a solid shooter with the tools to not be a revolving door, that has the potential to be a really special shooter. This is just a cherry, though, I think it is forcing the issue. My real prize here would be Isaiah Jackson. A rugged defender, big body, good rebounder, that can play down low on both ends of the court. He doesn't work as well as a PF without a stretching 5, but he is thick enough to be a C in the NBA. Intelligent, good BBIQ, solid instincts, he would find minutes right away and he is riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight there in order to breakout. This is the move that we need to make: get guys that are about to breakout, not after they broke out and are demanding big-time money. Could we ask for a future FRP here? I think it is forcing the issue too much, but who knows.

Prologue:
In the vast reaches of space, where time and matter merge into the unknown, a cosmic battle unfolds. A black hole, known as Cygnus X-1, reigns supreme, devouring everything in its path. But beyond the event horizon lies a secret, a key to unraveling the mysteries of the universe. It is here that our journey begins, the third chapter in the tale of Cygnus X-1.
Chapter 1: The Call of the Black Hole
In a distant corner of the galaxy, a lone spaceship hurtles through the abyss. Its crew, composed of intrepid explorers, is driven by a burning curiosity to uncover the truth. They have heard the call of Cygnus X-1, the siren song of the black hole's enigmatic power. Determined to decipher its secrets, they plunge deeper into the unknown.
Chapter 2: The Singularity's Riddle
As the ship nears the event horizon, time becomes distorted. Reality bends and twists, challenging the crew's sanity. They find themselves caught in a web of paradoxes, where past, present, and future merge into a tangled tapestry. The singularity's riddle tests their resolve, but they press on, driven by a relentless pursuit of knowledge.
Chapter 3: Celestial Requiem
Inside the black hole's heart, the crew discovers a celestial symphony, an orchestra of cosmic proportions. Melodies of stardust and rhythms of pulsars echo through the void. They witness the birth and death of stars, the dance of galaxies, and the ebb and flow of the universe itself. In this symphony, they find meaning and purpose, a glimpse of the interconnectedness of all things.
Chapter 4: The Pilgrimage of Light
Emerging from the depths of Cygnus X-1, the crew carries with them newfound wisdom. They embark on a pilgrimage, spreading the knowledge they have acquired across the galaxy. They encounter alien civilizations, sharing the secrets of the black hole, illuminating the minds of those who seek understanding.
Chapter 5: The Eternal Quest
But the journey is far from over. The crew realizes that Cygnus X-1 is just one piece of a grand cosmic puzzle. They set their sights on other enigmatic phenomena, from supernovae to quasars, embarking on an eternal quest for knowledge. Their search becomes a testament to the indomitable spirit of human curiosity, a journey that transcends time and space.
Epilogue:
As the final page of the third chapter turns, the tale of Cygnus X-1 remains unfinished. It is a story that will continue to evolve, as long as there are those who dare to explore the mysteries of the universe. The black hole's call echoes through the cosmos, beckoning the intrepid and the curious. And so, the adventure goes on, driven by the spirit of Rush, forever inspired by the boundless wonders of the unknown.