No alexa button on lg remote

TLDR at bottom So I started off considering getting a Kaby lake to drop into my B150M but I noticed they were a little pricy: https://www.reddit.com/buildapc/comments/11xoune/cpu_and_possibly_gpu_upgrade_from_6600_skylake/
I didn't really get much of a bite but my little bit of research I ended up doing made me think about just spending a bit extra on a new platform. So I asked for a bit of help from buildapcforme : https://www.reddit.com/buildapcforme/comments/120tc56/need_help_with_a_cpu_and_possibly_gpu_upgrade/
The people there really helped but also convinced me to consider getting new ram and PCIe storage, so I ended up purchasing them a DDR 4 b760m and an intel 13500. That night I woke up in a cold sweat; had I made a mistake? If I'm doing a system build I might as well go for DDR 5 and do it right. Unfortunately the B760m DDR 4 mobo was already on the way so I couldn't cancel it. I did a bit more research and bought the following: https://www.reddit.com/buildapc/comments/124lj26/i56600_to_i513500_2023_refresh_600_rate_my/
Now we're around three days into this build consuming me and my girlfriend is getting sick of my obsessive research. I think to myself though, if I'm spending this money (€600) on a new build I might as well get a GPU while I'm at it. SO I post the latest build: https://www.reddit.com/buildapc/comments/124t0ji5_13500_rx6650xt_build_940_all_purchased_now/
I think I'm done but there's so much feedback on the build I go down loads of rabbit holes (mostly ram related). I research their advice on not going 4 dimms in my motherboard but I end up getting distracted by AMD. Why did I purchase that 13500 when the Ryzen 7600X is on sale and cheaper than the 7600 and is also better for gaming than the 13500? It's also got a longer lasting profile so I cancel half of my order and I order a Ryzen and end up with the following "final build":
[PCPartPicker Part List](https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/ppxxpH)
​
TypeItemPrice
:----:----:----
**CPU** [AMD Ryzen 5 7600X 4.7 GHz 6-Core Processor](https://de.pcpartpicker.com/product/66C48d/amd-ryzen-5-7600x-47-ghz-6-core-processor-100-100000593wof) Purchased For €252.00
**CPU Cooler** [Thermalright Peerless Assassin 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler](https://de.pcpartpicker.com/product/CwqPxthermalright-peerless-assassin-6617-cfm-cpu-cooler-peerless-assassin-120) Purchased For €41.75
**Motherboard** [Gigabyte B650M DS3H Micro ATX AM5 Motherboard](https://de.pcpartpicker.com/product/7pytt6/gigabyte-b650m-ds3h-micro-atx-am5-motherboard-b650m-ds3h) Purchased For €169.99
**Memory** [Kingston FURY Beast 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-5600 CL36 Memory](https://de.pcpartpicker.com/product/qs92FT/kingston-fury-beast-32-gb-2-x-16-gb-ddr5-5600-cl36-memory-kf556c36bbek2-32) Purchased For €150.96
**Storage** [Crucial MX300 275 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive](https://de.pcpartpicker.com/product/rrvZxcrucial-mx300-275gb-25-solid-state-drive-ct275mx300ssd1) Purchased For €0.00
**Storage** [Crucial P5 Plus 500 GB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive](https://de.pcpartpicker.com/product/9XM48d/crucial-p5-plus-500-gb-m2-2280-pcie-40-x4-nvme-solid-state-drive-ct500p5pssd8) Purchased For €58.74
**Storage** [Western Digital Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive](https://de.pcpartpicker.com/product/MwW9TW/western-digital-internal-hard-drive-wd10ezex) Purchased For €0.00
**Video Card** [Asus DUAL Radeon RX 6650 XT 8 GB Video Card](https://de.pcpartpicker.com/product/HQQcCJ/asus-radeon-rx-6650-xt-8-gb-dual-video-card-dual-rx6650xt-o8g) Purchased For €342.99
**Case** [Corsair Obsidian Series 350D MicroATX Mid Tower Case](https://de.pcpartpicker.com/product/3HXfrH/corsair-case-cc9011028ww) Purchased For €0.00
**Power Supply** [SeaSonic FOCUS GX 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply](https://de.pcpartpicker.com/product/RzfFf7/seasonic-focus-gx-650-w-80-gold-certified-fully-modular-atx-power-supply-focus-gx-650) Purchased For €0.00
**Operating System** [Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM - DVD 64-bit](https://de.pcpartpicker.com/product/MfH48d/microsoft-windows-10-pro-oem-dvd-64-bit-fqc-08930) Purchased For €0.00
**Monitor** [LG 23MP68VQ-P 23.0" 1920 x 1080 60 Hz Monitor](https://de.pcpartpicker.com/product/rvjWGX/lg-23mp68vq-p-230-60hz-monitor-23mp68vq-p) Purchased For €0.00
**Keyboard** [Logitech Wireless Combo MK270 Wireless Standard Keyboard With Optical Mouse](https://de.pcpartpicker.com/product/jKfp99/logitech-keyboard-920008813) Purchased For €0.00
*Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts*
**Total** **€1016.43**
Generated by [PCPartPicker](https://pcpartpicker.com) 2023-03-30 20:36 CEST+0200
So the parts I didn't cancel in time and am going to have to send off to Germany are:

1. Intel Core i5-13500 2.5 GHz 14-Core Processor
   
2. Kingston FURY Beast 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR5-5600 CL40 Memory (XMP profile)
   
3. https://www.amazon.de/-/en/dp/B0BPMGLGD7?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
   

Even though it'll cost me to send back these parts only 3 parts getting dispatched isn't too bad considering how many orders I cancelled. There's no real point to this story other than to chronical my nonsense/obsessive journey this week. The result of which means I'll play Rimworld on Win 11 rather than Win 10.
PS. Feel free to critique the "final build".
TLDR: Planned on spending €100 on a Kaby Lake. Ended up spending over €1000 on a new AM5 build.

New 2023 XSE AWD. The charging pad light does not come on at all. I have tried ACC/Ignition on/Fully started. I have tried turning it on and then placing my phone on. I have also tried putting my phone on first and then pressing the button. No green indicator has ever come on. I do not anticipate actually using the wireless charging function, but I am inquiring on if I should take it back to the dealer because it’s only 1 day old.

How can I stop this from happening, it's so annoying.

I have worked for this company for the better part of 20 years. To be fair, it's not a bad job (it went 100% remote when COVID hit and productivity increased, so they actually rolled with it) but when the stupid hits, the stupid hits HARD. Right now, I answer to a Vice-President of the company (important later).
I was turned down for a promotion because I was told, and I quote, "when you're explaining things you can sometimes come across as condescending." I have not, in the last several years, had ANY complaints about interactions at all. In fact, my reviews always had high marks in that category. So I smelled some bulls**t but I let it go. I did, however, put in the "Where do you see yourself in 5 years" section of my most recent review (that's not the real name, but I can't recall the question) that I felt I was trapped in my current position with no upward mobility, and I was unsure if my current environment was sustainable given my amount of experience with the company (I've worked in just about every department) and my willingness to take on new duties and tasks (most of which no one else even wants). My VP Boss's suggestion was to move to a more "Specialized" department (I am in an Application Support role that also includes the pile of other tasks I perform and committees to which I am a member) that would increase my value to the company. I was incredulous at this, given my additional responsibilities and the sudden realization those weren't sufficient because they were "too esoteric" (another word for "specialized"?). But I thought it worth the change, was told it was a lateral move, no pay increase, and minimal change to my existing duties (you see where this is going). But THEN, it occurs to me the new field I'd be working in has a director. So I asked my Vice-President boss if I'd now be answering to that director instead of him. The answer? Yes, I would.
So, not only...NOT ONLY do I take a multitude of extra responsibilities and not get credit for them (I'd list the added responsibilities I perform but it'd hint too much at my job), now the "lateral" move I was told I'd be taking actually ISN'T. It's effectively a demotion because now there's an additional layer of management I have to deal with? I feel like I've been screwed a hundred ways to Sunday.
Anyway, thank you for the opportunity to vent. Yes, I'm job-hunting, but no, I don't hold out much hope for that process either.

Greetings, Programs! If I’m here, and I am (or am i) then it must mean it’s time for another trip session of Reddit History. I may need a good theme song at this rate.
Anyway, it seems a good time of year to look back on all the fun Reddit has had in April (and sometimes beyond) for many years. While last year had a fancy video about our April Fools’ past, this year let’s wax a bit more textual. So come with me, again, won’t you? Join me in the Reddit Wayback Machine, and we shall trip through time.
2006-2008: The Early Days of Reddit’s April Foolery
The first few April Fools’ Days on Reddit were… well, they were “traditional.” You know how a company will send out a ridiculous press release about a wild product update and we all get excited/bewildered/insert your favorite emotion until we remember what day it is? That was very de rigueur for our early years. Longtime redditors may remember the surprise merger of Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft in 2006 in order to purchase Reddit for $1 trillion, that time when Reddit went doubleplusgood in 2007, or even when you could buy karma in 2008.
2009: Reddit Redesigned as Digg
After these small pranks, we evolved to much larger ones, like when we added a “skin” that made Reddit look like Digg in 2009. While potentially… somewhat prophetic, in the end, folks were fairly amused before everything went back to normal the next day.
2010: Admin For A Day
Then came April Fools’ Day 2010, where everyone on Reddit got admin status for 24 hours. People could seemingly ban one another, modify upvotes, and delete comments (but it only appeared so – hence the whole April Fools’ thing). Much like the year before, however, chaos only reigned for about 24 hours before things went back to what passes for normal on Reddit.
2011: Reddit Mold
The first big shot at something more was Reddit Mold, which launched in 2011. While Reddit Gold – which launched the year before – gave users access to fancy things, Reddit Mold took away access to not-at-all fancy things… like individual letters of the alphabet. Over 270,000 redditors got hit with a mold spore, and our poor u/reddit got hit 69 times. As with many April Fools pranks, some loved it, and some didn’t. This proved, though, that by and large Redditors like to have a good bit of fun with their internet friends, and thus we all eagerly awaited April Fools’ to come.
2012: Timereddits
We got a bit audacious with 2012’s Timereddits. We broke through the “present-centric bias” of today, and ensured that all time periods were reflected on Reddit: past, present, future, super duper past, way distant future, and everything in between. You could check out what Reddit was like in the 1960s, the Big Bang, or the Heat Death of the Universe. The front page was also altered to ensure that everyone got a fair and balanced view of all through history. We especially invited those who were indeed experienced time-travelers to enhance our presence ensure that the timereddits were accurate.
2013: Grand Battle of Orangered vs. Periwinkle
The year that really blew the door off was when the entire Reddit community was split in two and pitted against each other in the grand battle of Orangered vs. Periwinkle. What started out looking like a more “traditional” prank with a pair of fake news releases stating that Reddit had bought the game Team Fortress 2 (or TF2) quickly took on a new flavor when redditors discovered the Field of Karmic Glory, and took up weapons… and hats. The battle waged for a mighty eight hours before Reddit servers threw up the white flag and battles ceased. Team Orangered was declared the victor, and members of the winning team were gifted Snoo hats in TF2.
2014: Headdit
We got bolder in 2014 with Headdit (who among us was awarded gold for balancing something on our heads?). For those unfamiliar with this one, accepting a prompt would activate webcam-based motion tracking, and head movements like nodding or shaking your head would upvote or downvote posts. And as an added bonus, it detected cats, but not dogs.
2015: The Button
For the next year, we decided to go back to our roots a bit, and instead of letting users mess with each other… we would mess a little more with our users, albeit in a more backhanded way. We presented everyone with a simple game: a button with a 60 second timer that was counting down. You had one choice: either to press the button or to not press it. That’s it. You could only press it once, and once you’d pressed it, there was nothing else left to do. Pushing the button reset the timer, but what happened when the timer hit zero? No one knew. Thus, the next great Reddit War began.
For weeks, Redditors found themselves dividing into factions, and subfactions, depending on how much time was on the timer when they pressed the button. There was even a whole group of proud Non-Pressers who fought against temptation. By the end (which didn’t come until June, yes Redditors kept pushing the button that long), there were over 1 million presses of the button, and when the timer hit zero for the last time… nothing happened. But Reddit was forever changed, and some groups are still active to this day, ferreting out the secrets of Reddit (we see you, AprilKnights).
2016: Robin
After this, there was no stopping us. 2016 brought us Robin, where random Redditors were paired up in chat rooms and given three choices: Stay in the room they were in, Combine with another room, or Abandon this room entirely and thus get paired with someone new. While it was not the first room to hit the highest tier, at the end of the game it was the room called ccKufi that ended up winning the prize for the largest room with over 5500 users. Unfortunately, the room got so large it started to cause problems with our servers, and so Robin was closed.
2018: Circle of Trust
We brought trust and betrayal to Reddit with 2018’s Circle of Trust, as users were given a circle where they could set a password, and then decide who they would let into that inner circle to join, but that person could also betray and break the circle as well. You only got one circle and once it was broken, you were out of the game. Redditors quickly learned who they could trust and who they couldn’t… and that included our own servers which struggled mightily with the crush of traffic, and also potentially Reddit itself as the project didn’t go live until April 2nd. Lessons were learned that day, and the sanctity of April Fools has been preserved ever since.
2019: Sequence
Sequence was the game of 2019, where we challenged everyone to get their gif game on and create a movie made of nothing but gifs. While the finished product would not be winning any awards come Oscar time, the ending movie certainly embodied the spirit of Reddit. Just as a peek behind the curtain, while we have general ideas of how long we’ll run these various projects, Sequence was the first one that had a truly defined stopping point. We knew when the last act was going to open, and approximately how long it would run before closing it off and compiling the final movie, unlike other projects where we have a vague idea and may close it off earlier or later depending on how everyone is engaging with it… or how badly our servers are crying out for help. This year, though, the servers kept up with your mighty gif-ing.
2020: Imposter
Moving into the 2020s, we’ve been tasking your brains a little more. 2020 definitely presented us with a bit of a quandary. The COVID-19 pandemic was only a few months old, and we were all still adjusting to our new reality. Would it be appropriate to introduce some frivolity at a time when so many people were struggling? In the end, we decided that yes, we all needed a little fun, so in perhaps another bit of future predicting, we asked you to determine who was human and who was an AI in the game of Imposter. Not only did you get to put your mind to the test in trying to figure out which of five statements was made by an AI, but we also invited you to create your own phrases that sounded like an AI to try and fool your fellow Redditors.
2021: Second
For the next year, we stayed on the theme of mind puzzles, and we presented everyone with a question. From three images, can you choose what might be the second most popular image, without turning it into the most popular thing, but still be right in picking the second most popular thing? Whew. And of course, the winner was the person who came in second proving that second is the new first.
And that about wraps it up, right? I didn’t miss anything, I’m pretty sure. I’ve listed all the things, and looked in every place I could think of…
Oh. Right. Place.
2017 & 2022: Place
We can’t end off without talking about the project everyone loved the most, and we loved so much that we’ve pulled it out twice now. We challenged you, telling you that working alone you can only do so much, but by working together you can do so much more. And you did, in both 2017 (here’s a cool timelapse) and in 2022, you came together to place millions of pixels and create hundreds upon hundreds of graphics on a white canvas. You amazed all of us, and probably yourselves as well, with your creativity and collaboration. Not only did you do all this on the canvas, but you also did so off the canvas as well, creating atlases of the final image, and even recreating last year’s canvas in cross stitch (I cannot WAIT to see the final product!). You’ve definitely proven that Place Was (indeed) Better than a lot of what has come since that time.
So that does it for our trip down Aprils’ past… please bring your chairs to their full, upright, and locked positions, and make sure those tray tables are stowed. We hope you’ve enjoyed this recap of all the fun we’ve had together in April, and we can’t wait to make more memories with you. Did you participate in any of these projects? Please share your memories in the comments below.
Until next time… Reddit History Class is dismissed.

For Season 4, I urge the developers to consider a few more improvements to vendors as follows:

• Replenish arrows/bolts w/ Repair Button
• Improve quality of items the vendor sells to match act/difficulty accordingly
• Add “Refresh Hirelings” Button to Mercenary Screen for re-populating available merc names
• Add “Refresh Wares” Button to Vendor Screen for regular merchants (similar to gambling). This is only available if you're the only one in town or in a private game
• Add buyback option for mistakenly selling items to vendor if vendor has adequate space (obvious exception SoJ)
• Unique charms (Annihilus, Hellfire Torch, and Gheed's Fortune) can no longer be sold to vendors to prevent accidents

In the end, these changes are geared towards improving the overall experience. And before someone mentions shop bots, these changes are reasonable and shouldn’t be immediately dismissed based on potential bot exploitation.

Being an aRPG fan for more then 20 years, i think i've played all major releases in these times (have you played the second Titan Quest add-on? Well, i did :) ), starting from Diablo 2. I've played D1 only couple of years ago. Enjoyed it from the "touch the history" perspective. And i have some thoughts about the upcoming release. Will (at least) try to hold this theme in a way that common sense dictates. So, let you all be open-minded to another people's opinions, calm down and let's talk.
Due to some IRL stuff i couldnt play all characters, but tried 3.5/5 of them - being the Necromancer, the Sorceress, the Rogue and 0.5 stands for the Big Boi Barbarian, because i've leveled him to some extend, but not to 25 - thus can't say much about build diversity of this particular individual.
And oh boy, i have things to say.
I guess i will start not from pros and cons, but from theme to a theme, and both pros and cons will be inside of each one.
Let's start.
​
**Graphics.**
​
The highly subjective stuff. Keep that in mind.
When D2 came out it revolutionazed the genre, both mechanically and visually. It developed D1 aspects to an extreme extent. People tend to say that D2 graphics are almost ideal. But why? Because this aspect of the game consists of very, very big amount of those big and small things that all make the big picture. Some of them are: color scheme, design and clarity. And all of these 3 are important in the same value.
Diablo 2 had dark color scheme, a medieval visual design with quite some amount of gothic elements and a decent amount of visual clarity on the screen. While playing it you could not only your character, but everything that was happening on the screen. And only in very, very dense situations you started to have problems with it. But that is the problem of every and every aRPG i've played, so i guess this can be considered "a norma".
Path of Exile, for example, also has a dark color scheme, european medieval themed design with aztec elements in it, and visual clarity that bad that developers actually sell a way to diable your auras and skill effects (one per purchase, ofcourse :D) in the game so in the actual fight you can see stuff that is going on.
Diablo 3's color palette was definately more vibrant, colorfull and bright then D2. More... Cartoonish. And that was both good and bad at the same time. Yes, it was new to the player base and a large portion of people did not appreciate that descendance from the roots. *To be honest with you all, i think that a lot of those people cry that D3 is a piece of stinky s**t at every glance of that game being mentioned anywhere in their infofield solely because of this. Two of my friends are guilty of this, and this is fracking embaracing.* BUT it provided the substantial amount of visual clarity to the game. Exactly becuase of the very high visual contrast and adequate mob density, spacing and modeling you always know what is happening on the screen, apart from the same situations you starting to loose visual control in D2 - the extreme density ones with enemies of different size and variety. Visual design of D3 is, to my liking (reminder here - a HIGHLY SUBJECTIVE STUFF), is better then in D2 because of a lot more gothic-styled elements. I just like that.
So, after all that i've said before, visuals of Diablo 4 Act I did not strike my heart. No, visuals are not bad, not at all. I think this is the best i've seen in an industry from the technical point of view. Clutter is scattered not brainlessly, but each item has it's own purpose to not brake the immersion. More on that later. But the color palette is too washed out. The visual design is *just* an european medieval, without any gothic elements whatsoever. It becomes very blunt, tedious pretty fast and apart from one(sic!) dungeon out of what, 20 or something like this, the picture you're looking at blends into one grey mass. Try to name one place that stands out other then that gore-themed dungeon (and last mission of Act I campaign wich is basicly the same place). The visuals of D4 aI are immersive at times, very technically advanced, but dull. Let's see what surprises Kehjistan and Hawezar prepare to us ;)
Yes, that was long enough. Time to continue!
​
**World building**
​
When you walk through the city, you suddenly start to believe that actual people are living in the actual damn city. Apart from the New Tristram, for example. Dialogues are placed very immersively. Things you can touch and / or talk to all add another layer. Did you click on that table in the war room when talking to the bald lady with tattoed head (dont remmeber her name)? :) If you do you know that there are a lot of red marks and arrows on that wartable and all of them are pointed towards the "glorious city of Caldeum"! Did you see that Iron Maiden that was present in last mission was actually located before that very same war room and even more - you could talk to a priest standing nearby and ask why the hell this thing is here? He would tell you some interesting things. And those mini-events are spreaded out everywhere. This is how you should make people immersed into your game.
The one thing i'd like this game to get from D3 is different vendor's stories to be tied to the game's lore. I enjoyed having the same Shen and Haedrig from aI to aIV with Myriam joining in aV to the Team Nephalem. Throught the campaign Shen and Headrig had pretty interesting lines to say about the situation. Especially Shen. Well, technincally Shen was from aII but you get the point.
I missed the same in D4. Vendors are just random people without any lore behind them.
​
**Technical state.**
​
It was a beta-test, aimed to stress-test the servers and check overall stability of the game. And, at the moment of beta-test, that looked pretty bad to be honestly. Continuous rubber-banding problems and pocket losses. But Blizzard have 2.5 months to fix those problems, and i know that their technical engineers can do really magical stuff sometime. Look at the BfA or Legion starts. They were buttery smooth. Hope dies last, i guess.
But what i do have big concerns, it is about the loading stutters. I guess that is happening because of some problems with asset loading mechanics and that can not be fixed in the time remains before launch. Did not bother me a lot by the way, but a lot of people may (and will) find it frustrating.
​
**Itemization**
​
I'm not gonna compare it to PoE or even Last Epoch itemisation. If LE's system is not the same league as D4's, then PoE's is not even the same universe. PoE itemisation system is the first one that made me realise that i am too stupid for something.
So, i've found D4's one... Mediocre. At best.
White and blue items were not picked up by anyone even in beta. Even rings and amulets. They will have the same fate as D3 item's do - either left on the floor or straight into the grinder, without looking at the item. Better let it be like in D3's last season lol - let mobs drop salvaging reagents and save us all some time and not braking the combat flow.
The amount of stats on items is very small in both value of sheer numbers and variety. Stats are very, VERY situational, but in my opinion, that is even better then having general CHD / CHC / CDR / Area Damage on every item equipped, like we have in D3. You can either laser-focus your items to your build or make mediocre gear that will work in any situations. In my opinion, this variety is great.
Ookey, and now that part where i asked you to be open-minded? This is the time :) Or you will throw rotten tomatoes at me all at once, i dont know.
*Runewords in Diablo 2's variant are bad*. Hoy hoy, stop right there! Let me explain.
Tell me, dear reader, in Diablo 2, when was the last time you equipped a yellow weapon on your sorc? A yellow shield on your paladin? A yellow chestpiece on any of the characters? Oh, and here's your answer - "when i was leveling before i could do Baal runs". And even before them you have NPC literally giving to you RalOrtTal runeword that you will put in the shield and will never drop till you run the level that does not exist, get 4s monarch and make a Spirit.
*Runewords make 99% of all items in the game in this particular slot obsolete*. Exclusions are quite rare and almost all of them are uniques. How these items are different from the set pieces?
***Yes, i am for the runes, but not in Diablo 2 way.*** For example - make them add value to the item. Or add value to stats. Or add new stats to the existing item, whether it be yellow or legendary or rare. Change the base needed from only grey item to any item in the game.
Crafting is basicly non-existent at this moment. I'm not asking system where you can craft an item through 6 different systems (im looking at you, PoE), but come on, at least something.
Trading is basicly non-existent at this moment. I'm not asking about the auction house, but at least for some kind of a trading board where you can write "have X, want Y or else". Even D2R has it in it's own form.
​
**the GOLD situation**
​
Personally i found that on the beta gold wasnt the problem whatsoever. I've managed to upgrade my characters up to pre-last upgrades very fast (e.g. within an hour on all three characters combined), and i really don't think that anyone will need to do more then that.
Respec cost was also (and will also be) not a problem whatsoever. That depends on the scaling, but i guess to respec all ~60 points in the tree (with all potential locations skill bonus points unlocked) will cost us probably 20-50k gold. And that is even if you will want to change your whole build on lvl 50. One full inventory in beta was worth ~18-30k gold, and will cost even more on high lvls. That's some quick maths for ya.
The gold will not be a problem at one moment. And that moment will not be far in the endgame, many people are just exagerrating.
​
***UI***
​
Oh. My. God.
Slap the UI designer teamlead on the wrists and just redo it.
Character panel. Map. Statistics. Descriptions. Everything is made poorly, non-intuitive and unresponsive.
Why ditching the old, comfy, character screen where items were "equipped" on your character schematic picture, for this Diablo Immortal abomination?
Map overlay where?
Statistics screen is one big pile of everything.
Item descriptions are so big and unoptimized that sometimes you have to scroll to see your legendary affix on that item.
Just... No.
​
**Class designs.**
​
Oof. On some classes i thought that devs actually forgot to activate "Skill Page #2" button. But let's do class by class, from the ones that i've tried. Let's call it the "page #2" situation, okey?
Also a disclamer - i will talk about the mechanics and skill interactions. ***Not about the numbers.*** You can just draw an additional 0 in the end of all Druid numbers and *suddenly* whole community will praise this class. Class that does small numbers is not the bad class, it has the bad damage. And vice versa. E.g. i get it, numbers go brrrr, but come on - we're gonna play this game for a very long time and we want to play it without a finger in the bottoms.
​
As a Necromancer i found that they took Diablo 3's Necromancer, cut his tree in half, made some homages to D2's one, slapped 4 passives and 3 new active skills and called it a day. I mean, i understand that D3's Necro was both step up and step down from D2's. It had really, really good moments, but also had some abilities just not implemented. Like teeth, poison nova or cage. In the end, D3's necro came out a bit rushed out, some mechanics were not working either properly or as intended, but as a WHOLE it was extremely fun to play. Mechanics were not too complicated, but deep enough. Diablo 3 Necromancer was as intended - a guardian of balance. Both in lore and in mechanics. Class designers brought new ways to work with corpses, necro's second resource. Devour, Corpse Lance, Land of the Dead, all this was intended to work in tandem in corpse-oriented builds.
Diablo 4's Necromancer has, well, corpse explosion and tendrils. THAT'S IT. And this is the whole ability spectrum for his resource? Pitiful.
On the other hand, class as a whole has a very interesting potential. Blood Lance build has nice single target damage, but requires the lance to stay for at least 5 seconds in targets, 3 is too low. Bone spear is also a great one. A consistent way to proc vulnerability. Some other builds that i've found working quite fine. But the sheer amount of abilities and their synergies are very small in numbers.
​
Wich is a good point of talking about Rogues. Remember "page #2" situation? Well, divide skills that you have by 2 once more! Because the difference between range rogue and melee rogue is very, very distinct and limits the amount of spenders (e.g. almost the only damage source) to two for the melee and 3 for the ranged specs. Two skills for the melee rogue to choose from? Wo-hoo, bring me the theorycraters!
Also, the tree is very limited for the free skillpoints that you will be able to spend. Count with me. You will take Shadow Imbuement because otherwise clearing a dungeon will be a pain. You will take Consuming Shadows (30 energy regen when kill a target with shadow damage) because this way you will have effecively infinite energy (before boss). You will take Dash because duh. You will take Dark Shroud because it's a 50% damage reduction, for pete's sake, also 10% more crit chance. And these nodes alone take 11 points out of your build. Nodes that are mandatory, because if you will not take them class will be unplayable - becuase starts to lack other resource regeneration, survivability or clear speed. Effectively you will not shoot your foot, you will shove your foot into the grinder and press "on" button with a maniacal laugh. Throw here usual 2 points to start the character (or 3 if you want vulnerability or minor energy regen), 7 points in spender and you get whole 11+3+7=21 points hardlocked, living you with total of 5 points to give your character some utility. On level 50 that will be easier, but also remember that Shadow Imbuement will loose it's weight right at the moment when you will stop oneshoting trashmobs, therefore forcing you to take Poison Imbuement.
Gameplay-wise rogue is so crispy though. This is the only class i actually ***ENJOYED*** playing. It was generally fun. But each time i've opened my skill tree to change something and seeing that i can do only so much, the feeling of sadness was filling my soul... This class is two absolutely different classes blended together, requires a lot of work, and sadly enough "page #2" situation is as acute as ever.
​
I can't say that about the Sorceress though. The starting point was great, the leveling was great, the "endgame" was great, the balance was f**king abhorrent. Sorc takes all of it's defensive skills with one common affix on a gear. The only class that can kill the Butcher solo without taking any damage AND legendary affixes on it's gear. Has very good amount of CC, absolbrs, immunes. This requires a substantial nerf and it ***will*** be nerfed. Blizzard hates when you can slap infinite invulnerability on your character and call it a day, so dont expect frost blades build be alive on release.
The "page #2" situation is still here, though not as acute as in the Rogue class. The problem is that, compaired to D2 she gained mechanics, ofcourse, became quite deeper, but compaired to both D2 and especially D3, sadly, our beloved chineese girl lost a lot of knowledge. Melee focused abilities - gone. Copies - gone. Different meteors - gone. Diamond skin - redesigned, and i personally dont like the animation. Etc. etc. etc. BUT the lack of sheer skill numbers she outweights by mechanics and skill interractions... I could even say they're good! This class feels like it was done as a first one and polished enough for the people to test.
​
About our Big Boi Barbarian (Druid is the Chunky Boi) i can tell that he was also taken from Diablo 3. From Dust Devils and Vortex on WW to HoTA, Ancients and Shouts mechanics (some of them are a homage to D2, wich is respectable).
Leveling him to 20 was a painful process and i started to take a glance on what BBB can become, but beta ended. I guess he will be the most straightforward class with 1 button usage, but only when you get enough legendary powers. Especially two of them - Fortify for rage spent and Rage regeneration while a shout is on. Why are these powers on a gear and NOT in a talent tree i can't say. Without them the existence is truly miserable.
And come on, add a fifth basic ability. Where is my weapon throw?
​
As i've stated before, i didnt even touch the druid, but i've heard that it has a good chunk (pun intended) of abilities and synergies and, as a result, quite an interesting playstyle. The only thing he lacks is the actual damage. But again, that's just a matter of slapping additional zero to his numbers.
​
So, in the end, in class designs my biggest concerns are rogues and necromancers.
​
***Ending words***
At the moment of open beta, this game had tremendous flaws and tremendous upsides. Some of them flaws can be easily fixed. Some of them cries for redesigning choices being made. But in the end, as for me personally, i will play Diablo 4, of course. BUT only when the season starts and not before. First two weeks will actually be some kind of a beta-test to check how their servers work en mass, some balance patches, gold cost reductions, crucial bugfixes etc etc.
See you all when the season starts!
P.S. This post will be on both US/EU D4 forums and the d4 subreddit.

Galactic Social Dynamic: A funny thing happened on the way home from Cith... (GSD #86)
--: Two days into the return trip to Alliance Headquarters.
Dullin Sector. :--
Shoal, Gleve and Van were sitting in Shoal's private cabin on their way back from the Ancin Clan's holdings. The three were currently enjoying a brief game of the Phodian classic sa. It was a card game played around helping others find their matching cards while keeping your own.
"I need a mountain." Shoal eyed Van.
"Go fish." Van smirked.
Shoal grumbled and drew a card. Once he saw it he smirked devilishly.
"I still love the fact that both our species came up with this game!" Gleve smiled, not noticing Shoal's grin. "I need a mill."
Vanput the card on the table in front of Gleve. "I still can't believe that changing the images makes it fun again."
"It's a perspective trick. Your brain knows its basically the same, but new shiny packaging makes it fun." Shoal chuckled. "Dad used to tell me he could get me the same calculator every year..."
"Gonna visit him more, I take it?" Van asked. "I need a predator."
Shoal nodded, "I thought I'd have more time." And put down a predator card.
Gleve nodded, "It will be worth it."
"Just be glad the tests showed you as negative for the trait " Van said.
"And Giio and Sekaz are positive." Shoal sighed. "Can't be an engineer forever I guess."
Van blinked and stared in shock.
"You mean you would take over?" Gleve clarified.
Shoal nodded. "If they both got it early, yeah. I need clan mates."
Gleve's cheeks puffed as he put three clan mates on the table.
"Knew it." Shoal chuckled as he picked up the cards.
Van sighed. "Brace yourselves."
Shoal sighed as he flew across the room and skidded into a wall. He sat for a moment as nothing else happened.
"Did we hit someone?" Gleve asked.
"Alert went out over devices. Debris came out of a hyper jump." Van stood and checked his weapons. "Mix of Scareek and human."
Shoal stood up. "We'll join you."
Gleve nodded. "You shouldn't go alone."
Van nodded. "I'll inform the Captain of the ship."
-(GSD)---(GSD)-
Two hours later the three were on a shuttle docking with a large chunk of a human military vessel.
"Band code says this is EIN Nimitz." Shoal read it off. "Damn, she was a beauty too."
Van remained silent as he activated his mag boots and walked in. As soon as his boots made contact his systems alerted him to a remaining life pod with life signs. The cyborg moved without hesitation. Shoal and Gleve followed.
"It's jammed." Shoal said as he came up on the pod. "Life support has been off for a day or two, oxygen has to be low."
"We can spring it free like billiards ball." Gleve said.
Van looked over at Gleve. "Though you were the animal guy?"
"Billiards are fun. So is pool. Physics applied to a game." Gleve smiled through his visor.
"That's Gleve for you. As Phodian as he is, give him math and angles and he is happier than me with a new wrench." Shoal snorted. "He's right though."
The two then noticed that Van was locked on looking into the viewing window. Shoal motioned for Gleve to help him look in and Shoal gasped.
"Gleve, get the lead out. That's a human kit!" Shoal scrambled down as fast as zero gravity would let him.
Gleve grabbed his friend and put him on the ground safely. "Calm down first. This is pure vacuum."
Shoal stopped and nodded. He pulled up his suit cons, "Feoto, this is volunteer away team 5. We have a survivor in a jammed life pod. Human youngling."
"Team 5, get the youngling if you can without risking yourselves." The flat tone of a bridge officer responded.
Shoal responded with, "I dunno, I was thinking about swimming in vacuum. Get med teams ready." He then cut the com.
"You okay Van?" Gleve asked
"She has maybe two hours left." Van said, "How fast to unjam and return it?"
"Three hours at best." Gleve said with a defeated sigh.
Van nodded. "I hate vacuum exposure."
He then plunged his hand through the glass where a gray metallic film sealed the damage. Then his suit slowly began to break down and turn into a similar film.
"Van?" Shoal shouted as the connection to the suit dropped.
Shoal and Gleve watched in horror as Van's body reacted to the exposure of space. Then there was a message on their coms.
"Get her out. Nanites are making a bubble around her and connecting her to my air supply. Bring us both back, nanites will do the work for me."
Shoal stared in horror. He had known the codename of "Immortal" was very literal when applied to Van, but this was something his brain was simply refusing to process.
Gleve however was right at work. He understood the brief and painful sacrifice Van had made. Van was protecting the extended herd and Gleve would do as he was asked.
"Shoal, I need your help." Gleve said with a grunt.
Shoal shook his head and focused on the task. "The door isn't jammed. We need power."
"I have an idea then" Gleve smiled and pulled a section off the wall, then he took a flashlight off of Van's belt.
"Good idea." Shoal handed off his flashlight. "The place still has some power, there must be a generator nearby." Shoal pointed to running lights on the floor.
Gleve shook his head. "Humans make those self powered."
Shoal nodded then stopped. "Oh I'm gonna regret this." He pulled out a multi-purpose tool and used it to cut out part of the floor.
"Shoal!" Gleve hissed.
"Gleve, you were partly right. They got their own batteries." Shoal smirked as he reached in and began to pull up wires. "Repurpose these for yours, I'll get these ones."
Gleve blinked and nodded, once again reminded why his friend was a Chief Engineer.
"Gleve. Do me a favor." Shoal said.
"What?" Gleve asked.
"Get all of us back." Shoal said as he handed a wire to Gleve. "I have to tie these off live."
Gleve nodded and understood. Shoal would likely be unconscious in the hours after this risk. Gleve steeled himself for the work ahead as he secured the wires properly into the life pod controls
Shoal then practically dove into the hole he had made, half his body sticking out. Then there was a flicker and everything came to life in the pod.
Gleve moved and opened the door in one swift movement the door unsealed and Van's arm was released as his hand held a thin metallic hose. Gleve scrambled past it and grabbed the soft orb structure that held the human youngling, then shifted his spine and strapped the strange container to his shell.
From there he moved to Shoal and gently moved his body out of the hole. His life signs were still strong on the readouts of the external parts of the suit, but the com connection was destroyed. Still, Gleve picked up his friend and secured him to his torso.
Finally he grabbed Van's currently incapacitated form and pulled it along back to their shuttle. There he put Shoal on a medical table and sat Van down. With the orb his nanites had made off to the side. Then he re-engaged the artificial gravity and began to pilot the shuttle back.
It was silent for twenty minutes.
"Ahhh!" Van's shout nearly caused Gleve to veer into debris on their return.
"You look terrible." Gleve said as Van spent a few minutes recovering.
"Feel like a spring daisy." Van said as he pulled out a small blade and gently cut into the orb.
"Is she okay?" Gleve asked with concern.
Van nodded as he lifted her and went to put her on the medical table where he saw Shoal. "Right, that's what knocked me out."
"You were conscious until then?" Gleve asked in horror.
Van nodded as he walked over while carrying the girl. He sat down and sighed as he brushed the strings of black hair out of the girl's face.
"Not a pleasant thing to experience." Van said simply. "Did not expect to be electrocuted though."
"He will be fine. He has..." Gleve grunted in annoyance, "Experience with this tactic."
Van laughed. "Sounds about right. Let's get back, yeah?"
Gleve nodded.
-(GSD)---(GSD)-
Shoal woke up later, he wasn't sure how much later, but he was sure others were around him.
"Go fish!" Another human voice said, it was younger and female.
Shoal groaned as he lifted himself up.
"You're up." Van smiled from a table at the base of Shoal's infirmary bed.
Gleve was smiling with him as well. There was also a young human girl with jet black hair.
"Were there others?" Shoal asked.
"Not in the field, but shuttles went into hyper to search. We found four more filled with survivors from a civilian attack." Van sighed. "Nimitz' crew refused to take life pods so they could." There was a clear haunted look in Van's eyes, but Shoal watched him shake it off for now.
"Mama and papa didn't make it either." The girl sniffled.
"I'm Shoal." Shoal scooted forward and held out his hand.
"Jessica Alden" The girl smiled. "You're a Civeet!"
Shoal smiled. "I am. I assume my friend introduced themselves."
Jessica nodded.
"We're taking them back. Getting a favor from Emma for Jessica here." Van said as he tossed down a pair of wheat cards.
"I got no one else." Jessica sniffled.
"Well, until you find a new one, we shall be your herd." Gleve nodded.
"Clan is important." Shoal smiled. "Now deal me in."
Gleve smiled and collected all the cards once more. He wasn't happy with all the tragedy, but he was more than happy to help a human find a herd.
////
First
Previous in Main Story
Previous Zoo-nanigans
Next Main Story
Next Zoo-nanigans
Spotify!
////
S: I'm not crying... Yes I am.
Wraith: Stop making adorable characters suffer.
S: Its war! This happens!
DM: Especially when you ignore travel warnings.
Wraith: Yeah.
S: Also invited onion ninjas...
DM: Why?
S: (shrugs). Anyway, a bit of a malaise has taken me. I might be taking a break from writing soon for a week or something. Just need to defog the brain a bit.

Hi, in the past few weeks, the idea of my girlfriend moving in with me has come up in my 5-month long distance relationship. It came up very suddenly when she was switching colleges due to financial reasons, and noticed the new college provides online classes which she can do remotely if she moves in with me. I currently need to live near my own college that I go to, so we would share an apartment. She said that if I said no, she would likely break up with me as she cannot do long distance much longer, which is understandable. At first I happily said yes to the idea, before anxiety crept in and told me things: what if we broke up later on because we end up not being compatible and I have to deal with the financial fallout, what if my girlfriend misses out on the real college experience, what if i dont get alone time anymore, she is still 18 which is young (im 21), etc. I tried my best to communicate these ideas with her, but she began to get upset, saying that because im even considering not living with her when the stake of the relationship lies on it, that it means I dont love her as much as she loves me and wouldnt sacrifice as much to be with her as she would with me.
And I will admit, I led her on for a while by saying yes then becoming unsure, and I felt terrible and apologized a lot for it. After talking through the issue, I decided that I would commit 100% to living with her, since it is best to try rather than give up, and I promised her it was my decision.
Today, we woke up happy, knowing that we were now both committed to living together. However, she told me again that the fact that I was unsure about it while knowing that the relationship was on the line was getting to her. She told me she felt as though she would give anything to be with me, like leaving her family behind or going across the country, but I would not do the same for her. I told her that family is one of my priorities and I wouldnt want to move too far from them, and she said "what do you expect me to do, follow you around the country like a puppy?" and I think this is fair and not something I considered until that moment. I told her later on that my choice about living with family changes a lot (my decision was different just a few months ago). However, she began to spiral, saying that I never sacrifice for her or put her first, that im a horrible person, that shes extremely hurt, and she hates me. She broke up with me within a few hours, saying that she wants to find someone who prioritizes her first like she would for them. She says the only way she will consider being with me again is if I give her real reassurance that I prioritize her, but it cant be words.
I have personally felt like I do prioritize her. I always leave class or my gaming with my friends to call her if she has an urgent situtaion, Ive driven 11 hours to see her in a day, Ive paid for her gas to drive to me, I give her gifts on valentines day, etc etc. I may be clueless but I feel like I'm checking all the boxes.
I wrote her a long apology last night for being so indecisive about the future and letting it affect us so much that it led to breakup, and that I now know I cant jump into relationships being unsure about my own cirumstances/future. I also said that I hope we can get back together soon.
My current thoughts about this are that I dont think im fully in the wrong, and many rash decisions were made today. However, I also think it is fair to be angry with me after my indecisiveness becomes such a large problem. Should I pursue getting her back or is this a lost cause?
TL;DR - girlfriend wants to move in with me due to financial reasons. After initially agreeing, I become unsure from anxiety, leading to a fight and ultimately a breakup. Girlfriend wants someone who prioritizes her first and wants me to reassure her that she is my priority to get back together, but I cant use words. Not sure if this is a lost cause.

Hi, in the past few weeks, the idea of my girlfriend moving in with me has come up in my 5-month long distance relationship. It came up very suddenly when she was switching colleges due to financial reasons, and noticed the new college provides online classes which she can do remotely if she moves in with me. I currently need to live near my own college that I go to, so we would share an apartment. She said that if I said no, she would likely break up with me as she cannot do long distance much longer, which is understandable. At first I happily said yes to the idea, before anxiety crept in and told me things: what if we broke up later on because we end up not being compatible and I have to deal with the financial fallout, what if my girlfriend misses out on the real college experience, what if i dont get alone time anymore, she is still 18 which is young (im 21), etc. I tried my best to communicate these ideas with her, but she began to get upset, saying that because im even considering not living with her when the stake of the relationship lies on it, that it means I dont love her as much as she loves me and wouldnt sacrifice as much to be with her as she would with me.
And I will admit, I led her on for a while by saying yes then becoming unsure, and I felt terrible and apologized a lot for it. After talking through the issue, I decided that I would commit 100% to living with her, since it is best to try rather than give up, and I promised her it was my decision.
Today, we woke up happy, knowing that we were now both committed to living together. However, she told me again that the fact that I was unsure about it while knowing that the relationship was on the line was getting to her. She told me she felt as though she would give anything to be with me, like leaving her family behind or going across the country, but I would not do the same for her. I told her that family is one of my priorities and I wouldnt want to move too far from them, and she said "what do you expect me to do, follow you around the country like a puppy?" and I think this is fair and not something I considered until that moment. I told her later on that my choice about living with family changes a lot (my decision was different just a few months ago). However, she began to spiral, saying that I never sacrifice for her or put her first, that im a horrible person, that shes extremely hurt, and she hates me. She broke up with me within a few hours, saying that she wants to find someone who prioritizes her first like she would for them. She says the only way she will consider being with me again is if I give her real reassurance that I prioritize her, but it cant be words.
I have personally felt like I do prioritize her. I always leave class or my gaming with my friends to call her if she has an urgent situtaion, Ive driven 11 hours to see her in a day, Ive paid for her gas to drive to me, I give her gifts on valentines day, etc etc. I may be clueless but I feel like I'm checking all the boxes.
I wrote her a long apology last night for being so indecisive about the future and letting it affect us so much that it led to breakup, and that I now know I cant jump into relationships being unsure about my own cirumstances/future. I also said that I hope we can get back together soon.
My current thoughts about this are that I dont think im fully in the wrong, and many rash decisions were made today. However, I also think it is fair to be angry with me after my indecisiveness becomes such a large problem. Should I pursue getting her back or is this a lost cause?
TL;DR - girlfriend wants to move in with me due to financial reasons. After initially agreeing, I become unsure from anxiety, leading to a fight and ultimately a breakup. Girlfriend wants someone who prioritizes her first and wants me to reassure her that she is my priority, but I cant use words. Not sure if this is a lost cause.

I cannot open the crackle app and I tried u installing and reinstalling the app and even cleared out my cache stuff and not working. Could use support Ty

Part 59
Lieutenant General Marcus Stanley, United States Army
Marcus stomped into the TOC. One of the gods was already there, the naked black woman. He racked his brain for a second to remember her name.
"Vintress, right?" he asked as he approached her, leaning over a folding table with a map spread out on it. Little glowing figures moved slowly about it; fist-sized knots of tentacles, and little pinpricks with arms and legs. The red-glowing ones, including the primordials themselves, were moving forward, while the green-glowing figures moved back.
"Yes, General," Vintress said.
"What's going on?" he asked.
"The primordials have rallied. They are pushing us hard, regaining ground we had taken back. I am observing now, to see their strategy, and seek a weakness."
"Anything jumping out yet?"
"No," Vintress said, and Marcus could hear her grinding her teeth. "They have become inexplicably smarter. And tougher. We have yet to kill one today."
"Let's hope that it disorganizes them as much as usual, then," Marcus said, though he doubted that would be the case. Not for any specific reason, it was just that that was the sort of thing that often changed when plans went sideways.
"We will soon find out," Vintress said. "Look."
Marcus followed her pointing finger to a gold-glowing figure. Marcus squinted, then put on his reading glasses and leaned over the map. It was the honor god, the one who'd tried to stop the vigilante and gotten his hand chopped off for his troubles.
"Tyndale, is it?" Marcus asked.
"Tysrane," Vintress corrected. "Yes," Marcus said. "Sorry, I've always been bad with names."
"Names are both trivial and deeply personal," Vintress said. Marcus glanced at her, meeting her eyes without sweeping her nude form with practiced ease.
"My name, Vintress, it literally means 'huntress' in a long lost language of a tribe I once favored. I adopted it to reflect my position when I acquired my domain. Prior to that, my name was Clisenryr. Do you know what that means?"
"I do not," Marcus said, playing along.
"It meant 'the angry one'."
Marcus eyed her with a blank expression, wondering where she was going.
"I do so enjoy watching this," she said, turning her eyes back to the map. Marcus followed her gaze just in time to see Tysrane turn into a streak that passed through one of the primordials. The creature exploded, and a hush fell over everyone in the TOC who wasn't glued to another screen or desk. Two seconds passed, and then the sound hit them.
A muted, basso crack echoed through the air. The loose fabric of the tent fluttered and Marcus felt the table and ground shaking for just an instant.
Marcus watched as the tiny, glowing primordial rained down around the battlefield as chunks, the largest chunk still in place, deflating and tumbling away.
"Heh," he said. "Rolling away like a booger on a greased pan."
Vintress squinted at him. "Is that a common idiom among your people?" she asked. Marcus laughed out loud. "No, it's just what came to mind when I saw it."
"Good," Vintress said. "It would raise disturbing questions if it was." Marcus couldn't help but agree with that one.
"They're not faltering," he said after a moment. The red enemies were still assaulting the green positions.
"Your men are holding their own," Vintress said. Marcus nodded. "Damn straight. Those are most experienced warfighters, and each position has at least one Spec Ops boy in it. Most have half an A-team. They're going to be punching well above their weight, and that, my friend, is indeed a common idiom."
"Yes, since we left you to your own devices, you have been consistently performing well above our own expectations of you."
Her tone was off. It sounded almost worried. Marcus eyed the goddess for a moment, letting his eyes slip down from her face to take in the set of her shoulders, her pose, the tension in her chest and stomach. There was a lot going on in her head. She was afraid, and not just of this new push by the primordials.
Marcus reached into his pocket and grabbed the heavily-encrypted phone there. It was a Blackberry, based on a model more than two decades old, but full of modern guts, including a tiny transmitter with about fifteen miles of range. His thumb brushed the built in keypad, finding and pressing buttons by feel.
----
Command Sergeant Major Eric Hale, 5th Special Forces Group
Hale stomped his way from one fighting position to the next, the incoming hail of spines apparently balking at the terrifying expression on his grizzled face, and refusing to come anywhere near him.
At least, that was the impression he hoped to give the men watching him. The truth was, his butthole was puckered so goddamn tight you couldn't pound a needle in it with a jackhammer.
He got to the forward-most position, two M2HBs, one of which was crewed only by two dead bodies, their helmets shattered by the spines.
"They're shooting back, sarge!" the assistant gunner said as he crouched down and pulled the bodies away from the gun.
"Yeah, the enemy tends to do that," Hale said with practiced nonchalance. He checked the gun, made sure it was in working order, then cleared the barrel with a two-round squeeze before settling down into a shooting position. He looked at the assistant gunner's nametape.
"Martinez, you're gonna have to assist both of us, right?"
Martinez checked the ammo in Hale's gun, then in the other.
"Pace your shots to Jeff," he said, hooking a thumb at his buddy on the other gun. "You've got about twice as much ammo left in the can as him. I'll keep you reloaded."
Hale nodded and aimed down the sites. He began to return some hate back to the senders, tearing apart spider crabs and shambling zombies with every round. He didn't notice the encrypted phone in his pocket buzzing.
Both gunners concentrated on the spider crabs, who were the ones who'd learned to shoot back. They spat the spines out of their mouths in short bursts. Their aim was shit, but there was enough of them that it didn't matter.
Hale emptied his can and let Martinez fit a new one. "Only one more can, Sarge," Martinez said. "And Jeff's up next." Hale nodded and focused on killing the spider crabs.
The ammo didn't last nearly as long as he'd have liked. He ran dry and unhooked the can. "That's it," he said as he folded up the bipod and grabbed the heavy gun by the carry handle.
"As soon as you're out, I want you to fall back to the rally point and rearm. Sergeant Lewis will show you where to set up, next. Huah?"
"Huah!" Martinez shouted as Jeff ran dry. Martinez quickly got his cans swapped and Jeff resumed shooting. Hale turned and began to make his way back. The rain of spines seemed to have actually gotten worse.
He threw the notion of striking an intimidating figure to the wind and hustled back to the rally point, dropping the weapon off at the stack. First Sergeant Lewis walked up.
"Lewis," Hale said. "Send two guys up to FP Echo to pick up a couple bodies, then try to find someone to man this gun."
"I'll do what I can, Top," Lewis said. "Lot of losses today."
"Relatively," Hale pointed out. From what he'd seen, they were standing at about one and a half percent casualties, and that included the wounded, who were being treated magically and sent back within hours of coming off the line.
"Yeah, but you know that still affects morale," Lewis pointed out.
Hale nodded and reached in his pocket to check his phone. "Shit," he swore as he saw the message.
"Can I help?" Lewis asked. Hale thought about it, then turned the screen to let him read it.
Gods r scared of us, might turn. b prpred
"Shit," Lewis said.
"Spread the word," Hale told him with a sigh. "I can't imagine a worse time to get this news, so naturally, this is when it happens. Get someone down to the clinic to get our boys rushed through and get the docs out and into the MASH tents. Have word sent back to camp to get everybody out of those standing-doorway rooms and into barracks tents. I was everyone in their battle rattle and carrying their weapon, and I mean everyone. Cooks, techs, logi boys... Every fucking one."
"Right," Lewis said with a nod. "Anything else?"
"Yeah, pray this is just the General being paranoid."
"Pray to who?" Lewis asked.
"Good fucking point," Hale said, clapping him on the shoulder. "Go on, I gotta go find the Colonel."
Hale stomped off towards the HQ tent as Lewis jogged away. He found Colonel Stanislaw leaning over a radio console with headphones on.
"...that's right, Major. We're splitting out from the magic fuckers. One second, my Top's here now." The Colonel covered his mouthpiece with one hand and slipped one of the speakers off his ears.
"Did you see the General's message?" Stanislaw asked. Hale nodded. "I sent Lewis to get our people out of their facilities and get everyone armed."
"Good. I'll issue orders to the officers to let you and Lewis lead the way. But right now, I need to discuss strategy. Let me wrap this up."
"Major," he said, unhanding the mic. "Major, I've put Top and Sergeant Lewis in charge of the prep. Spread word to the officers to defer to them on this. Yes, that's right. Damn straight, they are. Good. Report back to me in, let's say, ninety minutes. Good. Stanislaw out."
He pulled the headphones off. "Walk with me, Top."
Hale fell into step beside the Colonel and they walked out of the camp. When they'd gotten far enough away, they stopped.
"What are your initial thoughts?" the Colonel asked.
Hale frowned. "Not good, sir. They can do all kinds of tricky shit with their magic that we can't counter. From what I hear, we can strike back, but it won't be easy. With over twenty of them still here, I don't think there's enough of us to stand."
"We don't really have a choice," Stanislaw said. "We can't let these primordials get past us, or the whole world is done for."
"Then I say we concentrate everything right around the FHQ, sir. We'll have the docs set up at the aid station, have the men break down a couple of the tents. Motor pool and cavalry staging is going to be a bitch to move on short notice, but we'll get it done."
"I know you will. I need to go find Major Danvers, work out placement for the cavalry if we have to fall back. Go ahead and get started prepping."
"Yes, sir," Hale said, snapping the Colonel a salute. Stanislaw saluted back, and Hale jogged off. As he approached the HQ, a humvee pulled up and two men climbed out. Hale recognized the General's bodyguards right away. Both were large, bearded men in DADPAT, with backwards-turned baseball hats and gucci-ed out M4s. They emerged and began prowling around the area before one of them clicked his radio, said something and then walked over to Hale.
"Eric," he said as he approached.
"Hey, Jim," Hale replied. "Colonel just ran off to talk to Danvers about cavalry placement in case this emergency happens."
Jim nodded. "Fucked up shit," he said. Hale nodded back. General Stanley stepped out of the vehicle, spotted Hale and walked over. Hale came to attention and saluted. Stanley saluted back casually, "As you were, Sergeant. Did you see my message?"
"I did, sir, as did the Colonel. Preparations are already under way. If you need to talk to the Colonel, he's on his way to Major Danvers as we speak."
"I'm actually here to talk to you, Top," Stanley said. "I've got a job for you."
"Whatever you need, sir. I should inform you that the Colonel has asked me to oversee the transfer of equipment and personnel from the allied facilities to our own and the consolidation of our forces here."
"I'll step in to handle that personally, Eric. You remember a fellow named Bill Martin?"
Hale nodded. Bill and he had served together. He know Bill was a solid soldier and a holy terror in close quarters.
"Well, Bill's one of the executives at the DCM Group. I want you to take Jim and Mac with you, head back earthside and get with him. Tell him about our concern here and find out what kinds of resources they can spare. I've got six million budgeted for expenses, and I'll drop every dime of it on them if they can provide enough support to help us survive a two-front war out here.
"After you're done with that, I want you to go see the man himself and explain the situation to him. You tell him I said the following, verbatim. 'Sir, if this shit goes down and we don't throw everything we have at it in one big mass, right off the bat, I do not think we will survive'. You tell him those exact words, and that I mean it. I've already called in an appointment for you at three PM local time. Don't worry about getting there on time, just make sure you get it all done."
"Sir, yes, sir," Hale said, snapping another salute. Though he could barely believe it, the pucker factor was even higher than it had been walking out to that gun position.
Stanley saluted back, far more crisply than usual. He turned to his bodyguard. "You heard me, Jim," Jim nodded and stepped over next to Hale. "Ready when you are, Top."
Nate, the General's other bodyguard, wandered over. "We set?" he asked. Hale and Jim both nodded.
"Take my transport," Stanley said. "And get back here as soon as you're done."
They climbed into the Humvee and took off.
----
Bill Martin, President of Physical Security, Divine Crisis Management Group
Bill looked up as the door opened to reveal Julie. She looked haggard and run down.
"You look amazing," he said as soon as the door closed. He made sure his voice sounded sincere. Julie smiled and walked right over to sit on his lap and lay her head on his shoulder.
"Thank you," she said. "I feel like I'm being torn in a million directions. And I just got more bad news."
"What's that?"
"Jerry's gone radio silent. I got in touch with Michelle Vasquez, and she told me he's run off to kill the goddess who took his family."
"Shit," Bill muttered. He waited a beat before adding. "I can't really blame him, though."
"Except he was supposed to be tracking down the escapees," Julie said.
"The man's lost his family. He's wild with grief, right now. And truth be told, if he manages to kill her, that's not exactly a bad thing."
Julie lifted her head to meet Bill's eyes. "Are you defending a revenge quest?" she deadpanned.
"No, just pointing out that this one is advantageous. It's liable to produce a more positive outcome than him returning the escapees."
Julie sighed. Everybody was turning on her over the issue of Jerry. And then she sighed again, because Bill was still Bill.
"I'm gonna lock that door," she said. "Because I need to unwind."
Bill frowned in confusion. "What are you going to-" he stopped as the light came on in his eyes, making Julie smirk. "Ahh, I get it. What the hell, I mean, you're the boss, right?"
Julie stood and locked the door, then turned towards Bill and began unbuttoning her shirt. "I used to never understand people who got a thrill out of risking getting caught," she said as she peeled her shirt off and reached back to unhook her bra.
"But I think I'm starting to get it. It's the relief of getting away with it," she said, dropping her bra on the floor. Bill stared in fascination, the sight of her stripping easily the most alluring thing he'd ever seen. She unzipped the side of her skirt and then peeled it off to reveal a set of garters and a hard-on.
"You uh," Bill said, the words difficult to find as his mind focused on the imagery. "You planned for this.. Uh, this morning?"
Julie smiled and walked back to him, loosening his tie. "I stopped wearing underwear when we started dating," she said as she pulled it out of his collar. Bill put his hands on her hips and leaned forward to kiss her ribs, just below the solar plexus, where it always made her gasp.
Her gasp came at the same instant that Bill recognized the sound of someone pounding on the door.
"Shit!' he cursed. He looked around for a second, shooting to his feet. "Get under the desk, quick!"
Julie crawled under the desk and Bill moved to the door, kicking her discarded clothes behind a potted plant. Right as he opened the door, he cursed himself for not kicking them to her.
Three men immediately walked in, pressing past him. Two were in DADPAT and armed, the third in a set of ACUs with a CSM's stripes. Bill blinked as he recognized the Sergeant.
"Eric? Eric Hale?" he asked.
Eric stuck out his hand. "Hey Bill, been a long time." Bill shook his hands. "Yeah, it has. Who are your friends?"
"General Stanley's bodyguards. Jim and Nate. They're solid."
Bill held out a hand to each, who shook it with a respectful nod.
"So what brings you here?" Bill asked. He stepped over to his desk and sat down behind it, careful not to trod on Julie. She immediately slid a hand up his inner thigh and he struggled to maintain his composure. Eric took a seat while the two bodyguards stood.
"I need to hire as much magical muscle as I can for six million dollars, as fast as possible."
Bill frowned. Julie let go of him. "What for?"
Eric glanced around meaningfully. Bill nodded at the door, which one of the bodyguards closed, then he pressed his fingers to the rune inscribed on the right corner of his desk.
"Total privacy," he said.
"We have reason to believe the gods may turn on us," Eric stated.
"Holy shit," Bill said.
"Hell of an understatement," one of the bodyguards rumbled. Bill thought it was Jim. "You must have been a ranger."
"I was," Bill confirmed. "Shit, we're spread pretty thin right now. Wizards are mostly out levitating ruined buildings and healing injured people. This is some serious shit, though."
"Don't ask me why, I don't know. But Stanley's behind this, and I trust the old man's judgement."
Bill nodded. He remembered Stanley back when he was a full-bird Colonel. He'd been a solid, brilliant and trustworthy officer back then.
"I'll start making calls. I've got to hold some back, but I think I can round up about a hundred or so for you. You want extra shooters?"
"With magic guns?"
"Magic guns, armor, uniforms, gear... The works."
"Yes, very much."
"I can get you eighty before you leave the office. Another hundred and sixty in a couple of hours, and two hundred more by tomorrow."
Eric nodded. "How much?" he asked.
"Not a dime!" Julie said from under the desk. The three visitors all jumped. Bill rolled his chair back as Julie stood. Despite her state of undress (and Bill was relieved to see that she wasn't aiming any anatomy around any more) and the bags under her eyes, she managed to project a regal, businesslike air.
"We'll work up a bill after the fact for expenses," Julie clarified. "And we'll present it to the feds. I know the General's budget was to be used for supplies. If the gods are turning on us, they'll need to spend that money. And before you three go, you can all head down to the armory and get geared up. There's a quartermaster who can tell you how it all works."
"Thank you, Ma'am," Eric said, standing up and carefully keeping his eyes on Julie's face.
"Thanks," Jim added.
"Awesome, sir," Nate said. The room went quiet as Bill narrowed his eyes at the bodyguard. Eric turned to glare at him as well, and Jim shook his head slowly. Nate frowned in confusion, then his eyes widened.
"My apologies, Ma'am," he said quickly. "I just... I don't... I mean, I didn't mean anything by it. I'm cool with, I mean, it's none of my business, I don't-"
"Enough," Bill snapped. "Slip of the tongue. You're good. Just go get geared up. There will be a team waiting for you in the lobby in thirty minutes."
He turned to his computer and began to type quickly, issuing the orders to assemble as many as they could. He pointedly did not meet Nate's eyes, because he didn't want to lose his temper.
Julie ushered them out.
"I'm really sorry, Ma'am, I swear I didn't mean anything..." Nate stammered as they left. Julie patted his shoulder and closed the door, turning back to Bill.
"Orders are sent," Bill said. Julie gave him a funny look, which Bill couldn't interpret. He decided to assume the worst.
"He started apologizing and making excuses before I could even figure out how best to threaten him-" Bill started to say defensively, but Julie threw her head back and laughed.
After a moment, Bill's face cracked into a smile and he joined her.
"Well, that was ironic," Julie managed to wheeze as she walked back and began to unbutton Bill's shirt. "But since we got caught anyways... Hehe, we might as well enjoy it."

I wanted to make a little post to start gathering some information on armors and bugs etc into one place.
Armor isn't crafted by the player, rather you have to take materials to specific NPCs to make armor for you.
When talking to NPCs that offer to make armor for you, hit C to go directly to the crafting menu instead of navigating their gossip menus.
First, Herne
Herne offers to make Padded armor and Light armor. Padded armor has the same protection and movement bonuses as Light armor, but with resistance to cold temperatures.

Name	Bonuses	Materials
Light Singlet	+1 Protection, +2% movement	18 Fiber
Light Leggings	+1 Protection, +2% movement	15 Fiber
Light Gauntlets	+2% movement	9 Fiber
Padded Wrap	+1 Protection, 9 Cold Protection	18 Fiber
Padded Breeches	+1 Protection, 9 Cold Protection	15 Fiber
Padded Bracers	+1 Protection, 9 Cold Protection	9 Fiber

Full set of fiber armor from Herne costs 42 fiber. Currently there's no penalty to having cold protection when it's not cold out, so it seems like padded armor is your best bet.
Next up, Kalev

Name	Bonuses	Materials
Stone Breast	+2 protection, 3 cold protection, +3% piercing resistance, -2% movement speed	16 stone, 9 fiber, 2 resin
Stone Greaves	+2 protection, 3 cold protection, +3% piercing resistance, -2% movement speed	8 stone, 6 fiber, 2 resin
Stone Mask	+1 protection, 3 cold protection, +3% piercing resistance, -2% movement speed	8 stone, 3 fiber, 2 resin
Stone Vambraces	+2 protection, 3 cold protection, +3% piercing resistance, -2% movement speed	8 stone, 3 fiber, 2 resin

Whole set will take 40 stone, 21 fiber, and 8 resin. Stone armor slows you down but is a complete upgrade in terms of protection especially against the number of insects that do piercing damage.
This is as far as I've gotten for armorers, I'll update as I find more armor people.
Insects
Ladybugs are friend shaped. Love them. Cherish them.
Ants are bastards, use swords. even better, use a grasshopper scythe.
Sawyer beetles are scourges of the forests IRL. They need piercing damage to take them down. Do so without mercy. They also drop chitin which you'll need for making a better axe.
Bees are fuzzy and swarm you. They also need piercing damage. They can drop insect wings that sound like they're used to make flying armor at some point, which I'm rather looking forward to.
Butterflies exist. I haven't found anything special from them yet.
Ditto Dragonflies. Dragonflies look like they probably drop wings for flying armor, but I haven't killed any yet. I hope we can tame them for flying mounts at some point though.
Other tips

• When it says that your Food and Hydration are low, you only need to eat. It's all represented in one bar. You don't need to look for a water source, just cook and eat something.
  
• When looting, press and hold F (Interact button) to loot everything in a small area around you. If you're gathering from a node (ie. resin droplets), continue holding F to quickly loot the stuff from the node instead of searching around for it.
  
• Not everything requires tons of clicking. You can click and hold to swing your weapon multiple times for harvesting or attacking. Clicking and holding also allows you to combo your attacks, but makes it hard to actually block.
  
• Equipment above 50% durability doesn't cost anything to repair. Equipment under 50% durability costs materials to repair. Something to keep in mind for stuff that has hard to find materials requirements. (broad rule of thumb, I've found some things start costing at 60%)
  

First, Previous
Memory transcription subject: Michael Smith, Human extermination officer
Date [standardized human time]: November 4, 2136
Once we realized that the Nixas were pack predators and probably social enough to hold a grudge, we made sure to get the hell out of there and raced multiple miles downstream, before slowing down again. Our mission forced us to actually explore the ecosystem, instead of just driving past it, after all.
We were all rational enough to agree on that, but none of us liked it. For the entire rest of the day we were constantly checking our backs, waiting for an angry pack of Nixas to attack us. Not that any animal would be able to hurt us inside of the Truck, but something about Vartek almost bleeding out stripped us bare of any sense of safety or security. Vartek was still almost completely incapacitated by his wound - unsurprisingly, if you considered how lucky he even was to even be alive after that bite almost severed one of his biggest blood vessels. We could have called in a medical aircraft to fly him home, but he refused to go and leave us alone, so we decided to nurse him back to health on the inside of Bob.
We still didn’t know why the Nixa attacked us so recklessly, but we had some theories. Steven supposed it was a territorial creature and saw us as competitors over the already limited food supply, so it had no choice but to attack us, if it wanted to live. Lim believed that the lack of food forced it to attack any possible prey, no matter how difficult to kill, because it could not afford to be picky.
It’s almost entirely empty stomach - as the surgery showed - appeared to support the second theory, whilst multiple traces of this exact Nixa we found nearby supported the idea of it being territorial. Either way, any other Nixas we encountered could be equally, if not more, deadly and we did not intend to find out the hard way.
We did find multiple traces of other Nixas nearby - including multiple tiny bones, chewed apart and sucked dry of bone marrow, with not a single ounce of flesh left on them, as well as footsteps of Nixas traveling in small groups. We also found some creatures gall bladder, carefully ripped out of the body by a Nixa before the rest was eaten. We rarely left the safety Bob provided, and when we did to take a sample, we staid in a small radius and made sure everyone was equipped with guns and flamethrowers and plasmaweapons - we were taking no chances anymore.
Since we had found no traces of Nixas before and suddenly there were hundreds of signs of Nixa activity now, we assumed we had stumbled right into their hunting grounds. This meant that, once we left this area, they would likely leave us alone. But until then, we had to be very careful.
The good news was, that the Nixas filled the gaping hole in the food chain we had noticed. The bad news was, that we probably placed lower than them on that chain, and that they knew that very well.
The team was in shambles. Almost loosing Vartek hurt, but maybe being hunted by an entire pack of predators? And not even knowing how many they were, where they could be lurking or whether they actually were hunting us? Now that fucked with our nerves. Mirva was sobbing again, and I really didn’t know how to help her or calm her down. Farlent had not let go of her weapons since Vartek fell asleep again, David and Lim had stayed up all night, Steven had not spoken a single word since and Ortsa began making many mistakes, which was very unusual for her. Not only did she open the wrong door last hour, the hour before that she pressed the buttons to start in the wrong order and almost broke Bobs engine.
None of us blamed her for those tiny mistakes, since the nerves made all of us less competent, but she clearly blamed herself plenty.
Usually, I knew how to calm them down, how to keep the team happy, but right now? I couldn’t even calm myself.
I was so deep in thought, so focused on our shitty situation, that I didn’t even notice Mirva was talking, until she repeated herself:
“Mike? Hey, Mike? Please, Mike, listen to me… Mike?“
“Huh? Sorry Mirva, I was… stuck in some mental loop… how are you?“
“Scared… terrified really. Are you really sure those monsters can’t get to us here? I mean, they were smart enough to wait for the moment we were all distracted before attacking Vartek!“
I was not sure, but I didn’t have the heart to tell here that. Not that I wanted to lie to her, either, but the truth would just be cruel at this point.
“Don’t worry. They can’t harm us. Because they aren’t monsters, just animals. Smart, dangerous animals sure, but animals nonetheless. They want to live and they want to avoid being hurt and thus they would never be insane enough to attack us. Not while we are all armed, together and sitting inside a moving fortress with rocket launchers, energy weapons and grenade proof armor. And even if they tried, Bob would protect us. He is a good truck and he got a lot of tricks up his sleeve. And even if all else fails, you don’t have to worry. Because I am here and I will protect you!“
Mirva took a deep breath, my words seemed to work, but she wasn’t quite convinced yet.
“Because that is your job?“
I chuckled and hugged her.
“No. Because you are my friend!“
Mirva smiled nervously - she actually smiled like a human, oh my god that is so cute - and her horizontal pupils got a little smaller, as she slightly calmed down. But then she shot the sleeping Vartek a sad glance.
“I am sorry I couldn’t save Vartek. I was out there and I should have stopped that Nixa, but I was too weak, too scared.“
I grabbed her by the shoulders.
“No, you are not weak. I saw you out there, standing in front of Jane, making sure that the Nixa didn’t kill her as well. Without you, we could have lost her, you hear me? That wasn’t weak, that was brave!“
I thought that were the right words to make her feel good, but something went wrong. As I said brave she suddenly recoiled and for a split second she was looking of into the distance as if she wasn’t even aware I existed anymore. I had no clue what just happened, but it probably wasn’t good. Therefore I quickly rephrased:
“Err… I meant to say you did a really good job there. Thank you for saving Jane!“
Mirva shook her head as if she had just woken up, than she gave me a proud wave with her tail.
“You’re welcome! It always feels good to do what’s right. Even though I still wish I could have helped Vartek… anyways, thanks for this talk, Mike. It really helped!“
She hugged me again and walked of.
Well, that was weird.
I looked around and saw that, since the last time I checked about an hour ago, most of the team had fallen asleep now. Including Farlent, which meant no one had had their eyes on the road for the last few minutes. Fuck.
I wipped my head around just in time to see three Nixas, with their eyes locked right on me, jumping away immediately after seeing me snap around.
And whoosh, they were gone. Hiding behind some rocks, presumably.
Or was I getting so tired I had started hallucinating?

Hi all,
Folks familiar with the history of the cannabis in the U.S. already know about Harry J. Anslinger (HA), head of the Bureau of Narcotics from the 1930s-60s. More than any single individual, he lead the charge to criminalize cannabis and deployed all manner of moral panic rhetoric — including playing on racist fears — to achieve his goals. This is all mostly in the public record: articles he wrote, testimonies he gave, policy papers he authored, etc.
In particular, when people write about HA — and he's gotten a lot of attention over the past 30 years of the legalization movement — there are two quotes attributed to him that come up all the time:

"Reefer makes darkies think they’re as good as white men.”
“There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the U.S., and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz and swing result from marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers and any others.”

Now...if you've read Anslinger's writing/testimonies, thematically, these seem plausible. He definitely engaged in sensationalist rhetoric at times (read his 1938 article for American Magazine, "Marijuana: Assassin of Youth").
However, plausibility aside, neither of these two quotes seem to have a confirmable, original source.
This is despite the fact that they've been quoted dozens of times in both scholarly and journalistic articles (one of the most frequently cited is this 2008 CBS News editorial, but it doesn't have a citation for the quotes).
Almost every single citation I've been able to find points to a secondary source and those secondary sources usually point to a different secondary source, if they have a citation at all.[1]
All of this suggests that one or both of these quotes are either misattributions (someone else said/wrote them but they got attached to HA somehow) or even fabrications.
(To be clear: I have no interested in rehabilitating the image of HA. His confirmable, public writing/testimonies and the legacy of his policies are damning enough. But as a scholar and journalist, I'm fascinated by how quote misattributions and how they achieve of life unto themselves.)
I'm seeing if the Reddit Trees community might be able to shed some light on where these quotes first appeared or how they became treated as fact?
From what I can tell, it may have been in Jack Herer's 1990 book Hemp and the Marijuana Conspiracy: The Emperor Wears No Clothes (and an early version of the manuscript was submitted to 1987 Mail Order Drug Paraphernalia Control Act hearings. The "100,000 total marijuana users" quote appears here, intact, as Herer claims it was part of Anslinger's 1937 testimony to Congress to decide the Marijuana Tax Act (the actual testimonies from those hearings do not contain this quote or anything remotely like it).
Likewise, Herer also includes this statement in the book:

To the D.A> and Public Safety Commissioners and New Orleans newspapers from 12910 through the 1930s, marijuana's insidious evil influence apparently manifested itself in making the "darkies" think they were as good as "white men".

But that is not attributed to HA at all and moreover, that's Herer's words; he's not quoting the "darkies think they were as good as white men" line from any one person.
So I'm pretty sure the "darkies" quote was a misattribution where someone read Herer's book, took that line and turned it into a quote, and then assigned the quote to HA.
I don't know where the "100,000 total marijuana users" came from though; Herer includes no citation for it and as I said: it's not in any Congressional testimony I can find that HA gave in 1937 (or any other year). If anyone can find an earlier version of this quote (pre-Herer), I'd love to find it.
[1] The only primary source I've ever seen for the "100,000 total marijuana users" quote is from a 2004 book about the legalization of marijuana but it says the quote was found in the "Musicians" folder (aka gore file) held at Penn State's Anslinger papers collection. I've seen the entire file and the quote isn't in there. I've also spoken to two scholars who've written about the Anslinger papers and neither of them can confirm that the quote exists in those files either.

12/16/19 12/23/19 (+7 days) 12/30/19 (+7 days) 01/06/20 (+7 days) 01/13/20 (+7 days) 01/20/20 (+7 days) 01/27/20 (+7 days) 02/03/20 (+7 days) 

12/14/20 12/21/20 (+7 days) 01/11/21 (+21 days) 02/01/21 (+21 days) 02/15/21 (+14 days) 02/22/21 (+7 days) 

Hey all, Robert, our vacuum robot, recently started to cause problems. He is a Deebot 900 (DE5G.10). We were gone for a few days recently and since the he started to act weird. He does not do the automatic cleaning anymore, he is not reachable via the mobile app and the "Auto"-button as well as the Wifi symbol keep flashing (The Auto quite fast, the Wifi rather slow). Turning him off and back on with the red switch doesn't work, waiting for the battery to run dry and recharging doesn't work either. He also does not react to the reset button, no matter if it is pressed only shortly (~1sec) or longer (>6sec or even 20sec). He just keeps blinking all day long. Pressing the "Auto"-button also does nothing. I even changed the small 3V battery on the circuit board, but it did not fix the issue.
Is this a known problem? I did not find any useful help at the Ecovacs website and the people at the hotline could not help either. Is there something like a hard reset button somewhere or do I have to send him to service to get repaired?
Thanks in advance!

1) Are you OK with direct message offers from vendors?
YES (the default status is OPT OUT. Unless the user changes this to YES assume NO)
2) What are your main reasons for wanting a seedbox?
use for personal server & plex
3) Are you okay with sharing hardware resources with other users [shared] or do you need the seedbox hardware dedicated to just you [dedicated]?
dedicated
4) Do you want someone else to be responsible for maintaining the seedbox software (operating system, applications) [managed] or do you want to do it all yourself [unmanaged]?
unmanaged
5) Please describe your seedbox experience. (You may wish to list any seedbox providers you've been with before.)
​
6) Please describe your experience with Linux. (Most seedboxes run Linux and some knowledge of it may be helpful.)
have some decent experience
7) What is the high end of your budget? (Please give a specific amount and a currency. "Cheap" might mean something different to one person than it does to another.)
~45CAD
8) Do you have preferences or requirements concerning payment? (Paypal, Bitcoin, etc.)
paypal
9) Do you plan to use public trackers?
no, usenet
10) What kind of connection speed do you need? (Common answers would be 100Mbps, 1Gbps, 2Gbps, 10Gbps.)
1gbps
11) How much combined upload and download traffic do you expect each month? Include download of files from the seedbox to your local computer. If you don't know, tell us what upload amount per month would realistically make you very happy with your seedbox.
unmetered preferably
12) What is the minimum disk space you need?
240GB SSD & 1TB HDD
13) Do you require a specific type of mass storage? (HDD, SSD, NVMe SSD) If other than HDD, please explain why you think you need this.
i prefer an SSD for uncompleted downloads with usenet
14) Do you require a specific torrent client?
​
15) Do you require any other applications on the seedbox? (e.g. Plex, Subsonic, Radarr)
docker
16) Do you require SSH access to the command line?
yes
17) Do you require access to a remote desktop?
no
18) Do you require admin level (i.e. 'root') access? If yes, please explain why.
yes, as I will also be using this as my personal server
19) Do you have any other specific requirements?
no
20) Is there any other information you think might help in getting a useful recommendation?
currently eyeing these two dedis, if I can get something cheaper hopefully:
$35USD ($47CAD)
E3-1270v3
1TB SSD
------------------------------------
$33USD ($45CAD)
E3-1270v3
64GB SSD
1TB HDD

I understand they want it to be challenging, but by how much? They simply don't pause for even a millisecond. I keep dodging and dodging and dodging and hardly even get time to press the attack buttons.
At this point, most other enemies don't even bother me, I chew through them like they're nothing. But the valkyries just refuse to die. Most of their attacks can't be dodged and they give close to zero openings to attack.
I would understand if I was playing in hard mode, but I'm on easy. There's a reason I chose to play on easy, and that's because I didn't want these insane fights which take 100 attempts to get through. Every valkyrie I've defeated so far has been with a resurrection stone, no exceptions. What's the point of easy mode if you put 8 fights which are ultra-hard anyway!
The valkyries are basically ruining what otherwise would have been my second favorite game after HZD.