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My crow origin story - DAE

2023.06.03 07:54 ColoHusker My crow origin story - DAE

Sorry for the long ADHD post. Some comments on a recent thread has me thinking about this a lot today and I had to release into the ether.
TL;DR - Crows can be a-holes, but they are my a-holes and love having them around. Also, they demand offerings and to be worshipped to stay on their good side. LOL
L;R
I've always been an avid gardener. Flowers, plants, veggies, fruits, etc. Try to plant local native plants to attract pollinators, butterflies, local species of bumblebees, other beneficials.
Several years ago I started having problems in the garden. It started with the leafs & stems being cut off young onions. Then as peppers & cherry tomatoes ripened, they would be cut off & left there mostly untouched.
In speaking with neighbors, a few said they would see a a couple "blackbirds" hanging around the garden. I spoke to the cooperative extension who said they are probably grackles and can be garden pests. But they do eat a lot of pest insects. They said for smaller garden areas, putting out some shiny things like the reflective kids pinwheels or pieces of mirror on a string will probably keep them out of that area. Also said maybe some bells might help to startle them.
Ofc I did all of this around & in the vegetable beds & in the plants. Was a pain but I told myself I can do this as part of my planting out in the future.
Within a few days, I noticed some small reflecting pieces in the driveway & front yard. Sometimes this happens with glass when the recycling trucks are too full so figured it was something like that. I walk over to look at it and it was a piece of mirror on a string. I then notice a couple more pieces in the yard.
Now I'm thinking it was the wind. But the wind we get blows in the opposite direction. And we hadn't had more than a light breeze since we put these out. It's something I track since I have a small wind turbine attached to our electric feed. Besides, if we had a small burst of wind, this stuff wouldn't have been blown up wind.
At this point I'm thinking squirrels, neighbor kids, something along those lines. I'm not frustrated or anything, just perplexed. Anyway, I walk over to the vegetable garden and it looks like a disco ball exploded in the beds. All pieces on string were scattered and the pinwheels looked like they got run through a fan. They were from the dollar store (it was 2 or 3 for $1) so I'm "ok sure, they're just cheap, easy to tear".
I bring this up lightheartedly when another neighbor & I are chit chatting. He's like "yeah, we see some blackbirds in there having a hoot sometimes". I'm starting to get frustrated. I really don't want to put out bird netting and I don't want to have a bird unfriendly yard. I just want to them to leave the veggie garden alone. Doing some more research makes me think maybe it's totally something else.
So I buy a $20 trail cam and put it out covering one of the favorite veggie beds. Work got busy so I didn't check it immediately. Finally when I did, I got some pics of the "blackbirds" the neighbors had reported seeing. There were three of them.
One was a bit bigger than our normal blackbirds, definitely didn't have the right coloring especially around the neck. Finally another bird appears in a pic. This one is big. It's a dang crow.
So now I move the trail cam so it covers more of the fence where the adult appeared. It's a big crow, a slightly smaller crow, and a much smaller crow. After research & sending my pics to the cooperative extension, "congrats! you got a family!!" Lol. A mated pair & their juvinile kid.
The juvenile was a complete and utter a-hole. The three would come by in the morning. The parents would perch on the fence while the juvenile would swoop into the beds wreaking havoc. The juvenile reminded me of myself as an unmedicated ADHD child. Sometimes I was this sweet little child. Then I transformed into a relentless bulldozer. Don't hire a demolition company, just bring me around for a few hours and a liter of soda. Lol
This juvenile was yanking the shiny bits off plants, would fly a few feet up or away drop it, come back and cut down the onions. Then tilt his head "ooh, shiny". Rip, rip, rip. This went on for 30 minutes and then they flew off.
Now I'm feeling guilty. It's gotta be hard to have a kid like me. Obvs therapy or medication aren't on table (I checked just to be sure).
Now I'm doing research on what crows eat and resigned to letting the juvenile ruin my garden. I was surprised to find some forums about crows/corvids and how to find harmony by letting them be the fickle masters they deserve.
I learned I could lure them away by putting out food in another part of the yard. I also learned how they collect objects, especially shiny one that are obviously out of place. LOL. Also sometimes bringing gifts to their worshipers.
I put up a squirrel-proof stand, gave my offerings and it worked. The juvenile was still totally destructive but the plants he messed with were resilient. It worked out for everybody. My biggest problem after that was I had to have my house-sitting friends make sure to feed the crows when I was gone. They woukd look at me like I was crazy. "You realize they're wild animals right? They can survive without you". I would something like "yeah, maybe, but my veggies won't".
If you got this far, thx! Would love to hear other similar stories!
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2023.06.03 07:18 soulfulbumblebee Amanda Riley Court Filings

Amanda Riley Court Filings submitted by soulfulbumblebee to ScamandaPodcast [link] [comments]

2023.06.03 06:19 therealjayz32 Which job offer should I take?

I was recently laid off and now have two job offers that need a decision by early next week. I keep going back and forth and can't decide what job offer makes more sense to take! Any advice would be much appreciated.
Company A:
Company B:
submitted by therealjayz32 to careerguidance [link] [comments]

2023.06.03 04:57 nimmoisa000 Open world crime game idea Cartel: Palm City.

​
Developed by Hangar 13, DICE, Ripple Effect Studios, EA Gothenburg, and Criterion Games and published by EA.
Additionally former EA Black Box and Ghost Games employees who would help access game assets and code from previous NFS titles to streamline the development)
Cartel (or alternatively as “Cartel: Palm City” or "Cartel: Miami" ) would be an open world title based on the Mafia Games, the GTA games and the Saints Row games, with elements of Battlefield: Hardline thrown in with an array of weapons and vehicles based on their real life counterparts.
Gameplay wise the driving would be like Need for Speed titles, and on foot and shooting mechanics like BF: Hardline and Saints Row. Plus you can customize your cars and weapons to the same extent in BF: 2042 and some cars would allow for mounted weapons,on foot you can execute people with your equipped weapon like in The Godfather games. On foot would be an FPS view (you can change to a third person view as well) same with having an FPS view in your car.
There would an single player experience point system (like in BF Hardline single player) you gain XP from killing gangsters, and cops blowing up or capturing enemy vehicles and completing main missions, side missions and activities also there will be 15 levels to achieve with each level up unlocking new weapons, vehicles and customization for your weapons and vehicles. As well as a New Game Plus (NG+) where everything you unlocked is carried over and you can also play on the higher difficulties through NG+.
Also there would be five wanted levels for police and five vendetta levels for the gangs should you reach level five gang vendetta you start a Gang War there are three ways to stop a Gang War either bribe the feds, blow up a gang stronghold, or hide out in a safe house. Police wanted levels one and two local units would come after the player, at police wanted level two or three the state police would come after the player. At wanted level four and five the feds would come after the player. The military will only come after the player if they trespass in Fort Rockport or the Palmount Naval Shipyard
The Storyline
In Cartel: Palm City; in a different universe and timeline where there's a total prohibition of all narcotics in the United States in 2010; tells the story of Jack Rourke (the player character) a hardworking rideshare driver at day and a street racer at night who's scraping by in Palm City circa 2019. One fateful night, Jack Rourke has an inadvertent brush with the Blackwell Syndicate (mainly Carl Stoddard and that showcases a life of reward too big to ignore. As he joins the Blackwell Syndicate who are fighting for control of Palm City against five other criminal groups and take the city for the Blackwell Syndicate including recovering evidence that could not only convict the Blackwell Syndicate, as well as a network of crime lords in many countries, (including the other gang’s backers) including the Blackwell Syndicate's backers the Mob and it would also directly implicate the CIA in Palm City’s drug trade with Jack Rourke earning the nickname “El Sicario” for his efforts in driving the other gangs out of Palm City. When he learns how much the drugs were hurting the people of Palm City and all over the country as well as learning that the Blackwell Syndicate had gotten into the drug trade themselves, he contacts FBI agent Chase Linh who relays the story to her and offers the evidence and his testimony in exchange for full immunity for him and his associates, and the evidence on the computer was enough to convict everyone form all the five gangs, but also their crime lord backers from at least half a dozen countries, as well implicating the CIA in this as well as lobbying efforts to keep all narcotics prohibited, leading to a new administration repealing the Narcotics Prohibition law and legalizing low level cannabis. However six months later after the repeal of the Narcotics Prohibition Jack Rourke would be gunned down by Russian Mafia hitmen, Dimitri "Dima '' Mayakovsky and Henry "Black" Blackburn.
The Cast
List of activities
Vehicles
Civilian
Military
Weapon attachments
40mm Grenades, 40mm HE, 40mm Incendiary, 40mm CS, 40mm Dart, 40mm Flashbang, 40mm LVG, 40mm Smoke, 40mm 3GL.
Weapon list
Key: Base weapon (special variant)
Other: Nail Gun
Mission Structure
Prolog (2019)
  1. The Birth of Art - After winning a big race, Jack Rourke collects the winnings at the Palm City Historical Museum
  2. An Offer you Can't Refuse - Jack Rourke must evade Volk sicarios with Tyson Lachford and Carl Stoddard members of the Blackwell Syndicate
  3. Race Day - After the events of the last mission, Jack Rourke partakes in a race day event and wins three events with his Porsche 911 Carrera S (991) '12
  4. Running Man - Volk sicarios Niko and Dimitri crashes the race day and Jack must get to the Blackwell Garage
Chapter 1 (2019-2021)
  1. M34 Party - Jack Rourke joins the Blackwell Syndicate and gets acquainted with everyone before going with Tyson in a Pontiac GTO '05 to burn the Volk's cars with M34 Incendiary Grenades as well as stealing GMAC's Lamborghini Gallardo LP 560-4
  2. Standard Routine - Jack Rourke rolls with Tyson, Stoddard and Jonathan Cross to collect protection money but things go south when they collect from a hotel out of town and Jack Rourke chases after the hotel owner in Cross' car.
  3. Fair Play - Jack Rourke is tasked with stealing Ryan Cooper's Nissan 240SX and sabotaging it on the eve of the biggest Speedhunter race of the year, the SpeedHunter Championship Finals and in a last minute swap Jack Rourke has to race in place of Tyler Morgan
  4. Mia Townsend - Jack Rourke is tasked with taking Mia Townsend out for a night at the city... until a gang of Wraith street racers led by Caleb Reece hassles her and Jack Rourke takes them on in a fight
  5. Get Used To It - After the events of the previous mission Jack Rourke and Tyson Latchford are sent to teach the Wraiths a lesson But Caleb Reece makes it serious and Caleb Reece is wound up being killed by Tyson after a chase around the city alongside Danny Shaw.
  6. The Saint and The Sinner - It's revealed thtat Caleb Reece was Chief Norris' best friend, and Danny Shaw survives the crash however Stoddard would handle Shaw as Jack Rourke is tasked with infiltrating the Elmore Plaza Hotel and has to kill the manager, Nikki Morris and bomb the hotel before escaping to a funeral and confronts, Danny Shaw and Frank Mercer who are also in attendance. Jack Rourke kills Shaw and nearly kills Frank as well. But Frank tasers Rourke and escapes. It would be revealed that some of the Volk sicarios recognized Sotddard and had to deal with them, then the two escaped in a hearse.
Chapter 2 (2021)
  1. A Trip to the Countryside - In order to get a large supply of cannabis from Mexico, Jack Rourke takes a team to retrieve the Mexican from Mexican smugglers only to be ambushed by Los Zetas L.S 16 and Volk sicarios, then it's revealed that Roman had paid off the FBI to go after Rourke and his teammates then they came off with the cannabis killing their pursuers in the process.
  2. Code of Silence - The evidence that Tyson and Stoddard had ripped from the Volk had fallen in the hands of Hector Maio who cut a deal with the FBI, total immunity for the evidence and Jack Rouke is tasked with killing him and retrieving the evidence
  3. Visiting Rich People - Jack Rourke is tasked with sabotaging a federal proscutor's case against The Mob, the Blackwell Syndicate's backers as well as killing the federal prosecutor in charge of the case.
  4. Visiting Powerful People - Jack Rourke is tasked with meeting and protecting a powerful member of Palm City's elite, the owner of Prefered Outcomes Julian Daws... though he more than meets the eyes of Jack Rourke
  5. Agent Dawes - Julian Daws is revealed to be a CIA agent who is tasked with keeping the flow of drugs to Jack's surprise and that he is backing the Blackwell Syndicate through Prefered Outcomes.
  6. The Drug Trade - Julian Daws walks Jack Rourke through Palm City's drug trade and how the illicit street racing scene is used as a cover to smuggle drugs.
  7. Great Deal - Tyson Lachford scores a major deal with a drug farm in Georgia who promises to supply them with large amounts of drugs in exchange for access to databases concerning highway patrol routes; however when the deal goes down at a parking garage, the Volk and L.S 16 ambush them.
  8. Bon Appetit - Jack Rourke drives Eva Torrez, Marcus Blackwell and Julian Daws to the rebuilt Elmore Plaza Hotel for brunch only for Niko and Dimirti with a Volk hit squad to blast the entire lobby with gunfire and C4 explosives, Jack Rourke vaults over with Eva Torrez, Marcus Blackwell and Julian Daws, there Jack Rourke and Eva Torrez rush out through the side entrance and confronts the hit squad with Jack Rourke killing both Niko and Dimirti. However Blackwell wants Jack to confront Jonathan Cross at a doughnut store and reveals that the Volk threatened to turn him over to IAD and is chased throughout the city with Marcus Blackwell putting Cross on permanent retirement by killing him with a Lupara.
Chapter 3 (Finishing the other gangs and downfall of Jack Rourke) (late 2021)
  1. Happy Anniversary - Jack Rourke is tasked with completing a contract hit against Frank Mercer at the fifth anniversary of the formation of the High-Speed Task Force by firing a sniper rifle stashed in a bathroom
  2. You Lucky Bastard - After a failed attempt to kill Razor; Roman's personal driver and #2 of the Volk, Jack Rourke is given the contract to kill Razor, first by car bomb but ends up killing Deputy Chief Jack Keller. instead of Razor. Jack Rourke, Tyson and Stoddard would later find Razer at a Burger King. In this Rourke can choose to kill or spare Razor. Rourke would spare him after he tells him that the CIA is deeper in Palm City's drug trade than Jack Rourke is led to believe
  3. Creme de la Creme - Marcus Blackwell plans to kill Roman, Niko, Demintri and Chan Wu in front of the city's Creme de la Creme, the mayor, the police chief, the FBI director and even the city's richest elite. However things go south and Jack Rourke chases Roman and Niko at the airport where they get to a private jet but is shot down and crash lands on the Cross Mermeroral Bridge Chan Wu is still alive and Jack Rourke executes him and leaves before the cops show up.
  4. Plugging the Chief - After the events of Creme de la Creme; Chief Norris places to take on the Blackwell Syndicate and to dismantle them, and a contract hit is placed on him where Jack Rourke accepts the contract and kills Chief Norris.
  5. Election Campaign - The State Governor had launched his reelection bid with the promise get tough on the cartels that had plagued Palm City and like Chief Norris has a contract hit out on him which Jack Rourke is tasked with taking, using a sniper rifle
  6. Just for Relaxation - Marcus Blackwell tells Jack Rourke about a shipment of Cuban cigars as well as a hidden shipment of diamonds (hot ice) straight from Africa however and Jack Rourke takes a crew to retrieve the shipment from federal customs however it's revealed that instead of diamonds it's Cold Shot... the same drug being pushed by the other gangs.
  7. The Truth - Jack Rourke and Kahi Minh Dao eavesdrop on Marcus Blackwell and Julain Daws and they learn the truth.
  8. Moonlighting - Jack Rourke after knowing about the truth takes Tyson to rob the Palm CIty First National in order to retire from the sicario lifestyle and gets into a massive shootout with the PCPD Heat-style.
  9. The Death of Art - After the heist of Palm City First National Jack Rourke finds Tyson dead and meets Stoddard at the museum only to find out that Stoddard knew about the heist, and used his share of the drug money and clout at Prefered Outcomes to buy out The7 as his personal hit squad, however Jack Rourke manages to kill every member of The7 but spares Stoddard (the player can also kill him but canonically Jack Rourke spares him)
Epilogue (2022)
After the trial and the repeal of the Jack Rurke is placed in the Witness Protection Program in Lakeshore City but six months later after the repeal of the Narcotics Prohibition Jack Rourke would be gunned down by members of the West Side Club, Dimitri "Dima" Mayakovsky and Henry "Black" Blackburn.
The Gangs of Palm City
L.S 16 (Los Salmos 16) - Also known as The Salmos. Backed by the most powerful Mexican drug lords and the most powerful arms traffickers in the world, L.S 16 once ruled all of Palm City In fear until The House stepped in. They’re also the strongest gang in the game with access to military grade weapons and vehicles and each gang kill from them awards 500-1,500 XP depending on the enemy type. They are led by Neil Roark.
The House - The House is a gambling gang with strong ties and backed by the Sicilian Mafia; they run the street scene and the casinos in Palm City. They’re pretty strong but weaker than L.S 16, and they have access to military grade weapons and vehicles each gang kills from them awards 250-800 XP depending on the enemy type. Headed by Lina Navarro.
The Volk - The Volk is a Chinese-Russian gang led by Roman Barkov with Niko Barkov as their enforcer backed by the Triads (Chan Wu), the Russian Mob (Dimitri Glebov), and GMAC's crew (Gregory "GMAC" MacDonald, Rose Largo) for cars who control the weapon smuggling and arms dealing in Palm City. With this backing and access to military grade weapons. They are a mid tier gang and each gang kill from them awards 200-600 XP depending on the enemy type. They are also the ones who go after the Blackwell Syndicate the most.
Palm Kings - The Palm Kings (PKs) is a Black gang made up of Black nationalists who controls Palm Harbor’s rackets and extorts store owners. Led by Benny King, they’re equipped with police-grade weaponry and has strong ties with the PCPD despite this, they are the second weakest gang in the game and each gang kill from them awards 150-500 XP depending if it's a regular to elite
Dixie Paladins - The Dixie Paladins are a white supremacy gang and a militarized version of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) who controls the Gold Coast Mountains in the mountainous regions of Palm City. they’re the weakest gang in the game and each gang kill from them awards 100-250 XP from regular to elite members. They are led by Tony Alpert
Blackwell Syndicate - The Blackwell Syndicate is a underground criminal organization based in Palm City and is led by Marcus Blackwell with Julian “Julius” Little as underboss, Hector Maio before "Code of Silence" and Zack Maio after "Code of Silence". Nick Mendoza. Khai Minh Dao and Carl Stoddard are caporegimes and Tyson Latchford, Tyler "Ty" Morgan, Sean "Mac" McAlister, Jessica "Jess" Miller as soldiers. Other members include Ravindra "Rav" Chaudhry as the gang's car expert Rachel Teller as the gang's customization expert, Marcus “Boomer” Boone as the gang's weapon experts. The Blackwell Syndicate would be the gang that the player would join. In Act 1, they're an outside and fast tracked to soldier, but in Act 2 the player would be a capo until the end of the game. They are secretly backed by both The Mob and the CIA through Agent Dawes. Jonathan Cross and Mia Townsend are also on the gang's payroll until "Bon Appetit" where Marcus Blackwell executes him with a 870P Magnum to the head. Also Mia would also go with Jack Rourke as well
The police/military force
PCPD - the police force of Palm City/Miami if the player does hostile acts (killing civilians, firing unsuppressed weapons in public, etc) will attract police attention and each kill from them awards 50 XP for regular members and 100 XP for armored members, However the player can bribe the PCPD to look the other way or will even help the player fight the other gangs but would be the target of higher level police forces. (Sort of like it was in The Godfather game) The player can also buy favors from them as well. Also they’ll deploy stronger units at higher heat level alongside the FBI. The cars PCPD drives are the Ford Crown Victoria, Dodge Challenger, Pontiac GTO, and the Chevy Grand Sport
Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) - The state police force and Only appears in wanted levels 3 and above, Each kill from them awards 75 XP for regular state troopers and 150 XP for tactical state troopers. Regular state troopers drives Ford Mustang GTs tactical state troopers drives Nissan GT-R
FBI - Only appears in wanted level 5 the FBI will be called in if the player continues to retaliate against the PCPD. Each kill from them awards 125 XP for regular agents, 250 XP for FBI SWAT and 375 XP for FBI HRT, Like the PCPD the player can bribe the FBI to look the other way, or even help the player fight gangs, or the PCPD but at the second highest price. The FBI also has the second widest array of favors the player can buy. regular agents drives the Nissan 350Z or Porsche 911 GT3 RS, FBI SWAT drives the - Lamborghini Aventador SVJ Roadster or Ford F-150 SVT Raptor L.E. and FBI HRT drives the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X or Land Rover Range Rover Sport SVR
Military - Only goes after the player if they trespass in Fort Rockport or the Palmount Naval Shipyard. Each kill from them awards 200 XP for regs, 400 XP for experienced troops and 600 XP for elite troops. Like the PCPD, State Police and the FBI, the player can bribe the military to look the other way, or even help the player fight gangs, the PCPD, State Police or even the FBI but at the highest price and The military also has the widest array of favors the player can buy in large part due to Agent Dawes’ connections in Washington.
Multiplayer portion of the game would take place during the five cartels war where the Blackwell Syndicate, The Volk, Palm Kings, Dixie Paldines, Los Salmos 16, and The House (basically where Jack Rourke glosses over saying "It was non-stop chaos for weeks")
Also there would be a free ride mode where the player can explore the city at their leisure or pick a fight with either other cartels or the cops.
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2023.06.03 03:29 MySucculentDied Combination skin foundation problems

My makeup starts to get splotchy around my t-zone from oil production. It’s less of an issue in the winter, but in the summer it’s way more pronounced.
Many years ago, I used the Clarins skin detoxify bb cream in the summer, and it worked pretty well for me. Issue is that I’m not as tan as teenager me, and the shade range sucks. I don’t even know if it is still in production.
Does anyone have any combination skin foundations and/or bb creams with decent coverage that they like? Particularly ones with good light shades. Many brands are just barely light enough.
Maybelline fit me and L’Oreal infallible fresh wear are foundations that generally work for me in the winter. Right now my t-zone is too oily for the L’Oreal foundation, but the rest of my face is perfect. I’ve tried different application methods, all are roughly the same, so it’s definitely an oily skin and foundation problem.
submitted by MySucculentDied to MakeupAddiction [link] [comments]

2023.06.03 02:40 TheGrandImperator [In-depth] Optimal Ship Designs in 3.8.3

WHAT IS THIS?

This is a writeup on the best ship designs in Stellaris v 3.8.3, and yes I know it's quite long. There is a Synopsis with the conclusions at the end of the post. It’s not going to include the best fleet designs, though I think we might be able to make some inferences. It is going to be focused on PvE, but a lot of these designs will also be a very strong starting point for PvP designs. These designs are based on personal testing in-game, calculations via spreadsheets with numbers taken largely from the wiki, and videos such as Montu’s ‘Early Corvette Design’; as such, there’s plenty of ship configurations I have not tried and tested. Please add any you think I missed!
After watching Montu’s 3.8 weapons tierlist, I was theorycrafting ship designs with some friends again. I fondly remember some of the pre-3.6 ship and fleet design discussions, and there has been enough time since the combat rebalance that I think the meta is beginning to settle. I’m going to break up the analysis into 3 parts: Early game (Corvettes and Destroyers/Frigates, one or two weapon type upgrades researched), Mid game (All the above + Cruisers and more weapon types researched), and Late game (Above + Battleships and Titans, most if not all weapons have been researched to the highest tier, minimal repeatables).

EARLY GAME

This borrows most heavily on Montu’s Early Corvette Design video. In it, he describes the absolute best Corvette design as 3 missiles in S slots. There is a 4-design Rock Paper Scissors hierarchy that goes 3 Missile < 2 Missile PD < 2 Kinetic/Laser + PD < 3 Kinetic/Laser < 3 Missile. The 3 Missile will beat any design that does not have PD in it, which the AI is likely to use, hence being the ‘best’, and where you probably want to start. The early game after that initial design requires you to be adaptable and has probably the greatest emphasis on needing Intel on the enemy’s designs if you want to gain an edge in ship design. You will generally want to research higher tier Missiles for a few reasons as well, so this is a great time to start.
Once you roll Disruptor tech, the early game shifts and you must immediately outfit all your ships with these bypass weapons. It is actually hard to overstate how powerful Disruptors are in Corvette vs Corvette battles; I did the math on this one, and the time to kill with Disruptors will be up to half the time with kinetic/laser weapons. In my experience and based on my math, Disruptors are the final word in the early game.
For defensive slots, it is also dependent on what tech you roll, but Armor is the most useful defensive slot in the game. Discounting Archaeotech, there are extremely few weapons that bypass armor or deal bonus damage to it, and most of those are found in the mid-to-late game. For Aux slots, I recommend afterburners.

MID GAME

Once Cruisers start to come online, the best weapon to outfit them with is the Whirlwind Missile battery. Even before then, Cruisers with Disruptors still are not to be scoffed at, or G slots are also great for taking down starbases. Once SwarmeWhirlwind Missile tech is researched, I strongly believe that the best ship design in the midgame is the “Macross” Cruiser design. As many M slots as possible, with 2 S slots at the tail end for 3 Aux slots. Every M slot is filled with SwarmeWhirlwind Missiles, and the 2 S slots have either regular missiles or the Archaeo Nano-Missile Cloud Launcher. The 3 Aux slots all have Afterburners, and the Combat Computer is set to Artillery. The purpose of this design is to kite away from the enemy with a fantastic 120 range weapons that ignore shields. The 3 Afterburners make Cruisers surprisingly fast, all the missile weapons have 100% accuracy and solid damage, and these missiles are especially effective against targets with low Hull points, meaning Frigates with Torpedos are a very unreliable counter despite doing lots of damage with their G slots. This design is not perfect against strong Starbases with their loads of Armor and solid Hulls; if you find yourself struggling with those, consider adding Cruisers with G slot weapons of your own. I recommend Torpedos and more missiles.
If your opponent is using a design like this, the best counter is to get on top of them. This design relies on dealing constant damage that cannot be avoided while kiting the enemy. Cruisers with equal speed that get the jump on them with Torpedos and Disruptors will tear them apart, but rely on starting the battle in close range already, such as attacking the Macross Cruisers while they are entering/leaving a system or are otherwise already near the edge. If you notice your opponent has pure Armor defenses, you can also get cheeky with Neutron Launcher Frigates, which have the same range as Swarmer Missiles, but no travel time and deal huge damage in an alpha strike.
My recommended Torpedo Cruiser loadout is very straightforward: use the same defenses and Aux slots as the Macross Cruiser, but use Torpedos in all 3 potential G slots, and Disruptors in the other slots, set to the Torpedo combat computer.

LATE GAME

Transitioning from the Mid Game to the Late Game is essentially about what ship designs can contend with the Macross Cruiser and which designs can complement or surpass it. The Macross Cruiser dominates the midgame, but there are things it struggles with; in particular, targets with high Armor and high Hull. Starbases were mentioned previously, and as more Starbases get upgraded and Defense Platforms are built, the Macross Cruiser will struggle more. Additionally, Battleships and Titans seem to fair reasonably well against them, as both will have high Armor and solid Hull. Therefore, Battleships and Titans still serve a role in Late Game fleets. Additionally, Battleships are capable of 2 or 3 designs that I think can be quite strong.
The first Battleship design is based around long-range Bypass weapons. In general, bypassing shields and armor is a strong mechanic, and abusing it at long range can mitigate the trouble Battleships can have against ships with large amounts of Armor. It utilizes the Arc Emitter X slot weapon and Cloud Lightning L slot weapons. Cloud Lightning is fairly weak, however, dealing only slightly more damage than a T3 M slot Disruptor while taking up an L slot. In exchange, you get 50% more range (40 vs 60). The trouble here is that Battleships simply cannot field many M slots, so I believe Cloud Lightning is still the best choice for this build. Overall, I think this is the weakest of the Battleship designs that I will be covering, but if your fleets are built for full bypass, then this Battleship may still provide a niche as the longest-ranging ship capable of full bypass.
The next two designs come as a pair: a Carrier and an Artillery design made to complement each other in a self-sufficient manner. The Carrier Battleship fields Ancient Driller Drones, which have a -50% penalty against shields, but ignore armor and have a 25% bonus against Hull. 3 can be fit at maximum onto each Carrier Battleship, along with 4 PD, 1 L slot, 1 M slot, and 2 S slots. I recommend utilizing primarily Guardian PD, both to attempt to stem the tide of missiles, and because, if necessary, their high armor damage will complement the Driller Drones in battle. For the L slot, I went with Kinetic Artillery for bonus damage against shields and overall high damage at very long range. For the M slot, I recommend Whirlwind Missiles for their high range. For S slots, Ancient Nano-Missile Cloud Launchers are the perfect synergy, ignoring shields and armor and dealing 25% extra damage against Hull, similar to the Driller Drones. A Carrier combat computer will do its best to keep this ship as far away as possible from danger, allowing the strike craft to fight for as long as possible, as that is the main source of damage for this design at 34.78 avg damage per tick each. For defensive slots, I recommend a 5:1 mix of armor and shield to prevent being hard countered by Neutron Launchers (I’ve done the math on that, and Battleships of just about any design will actually lose to Frigate/Cruisers with Neutron Launchers in equal numbers, if they have only armor). For Auxiliary slots, there are a number of potential options: Afterburners to allow for a small amount of kiting and speed your fleets up somewhat, Shield or Armor hardening against enemies running full Bypass weapons, and Regenerative Hull Tissue for a small boost in sustainability during battle, as the .5% daily Armor regen will restore about 44 armor per Armor slot each tick in combat for each RHT (for where this math comes from, see this thread).
Finally, we can discuss the 3rd Battleship design, the Artillery Battleship. This one is much more simple by comparison, with a Tachyon Lance X slot and 4 Kinetic Artillery L slots. The purpose of this ship design is to ensure that any targets with large amounts of Shields will not counter the Carrier type Battleship. The Tachyon Lance itself is extremely good against high-armor targets as well, particularly targets with only armor, as none of its damage is wasted against Shields, which it has a -50% penalty against. Once targets have had their Armor stripped away, the Kinetic Artillery does full damage against Hull, meaning that this design also relies on the other ships, such as Torpedo Cruisers, to help remove the Armor of its targets, as the low firing speed of the Tachyon Lance is not enough to be self-reliant. This ship design should have the Artillery ship combat computer, the same 5:1 Armor to Shields ratio as before, and two Auxiliary Fire Control Aux slots.
As alluded to before, Titans can also keep a niche in the modern meta. These behemoths are not excellent in direct combat, and are mostly used for 3 tasks: providing useful auras, beginning engagement at maximum ranges, and instantly destroying Starbases. As the Auras have not changed, the most beneficial are the same as in previous patches, with the exception of -20% Shields being less impactful than before, given the prevalence of Shield Bypassing weapons. However, if your target has a high amount of shields and you are using the Carrier+Artillery Battleship combo, this one can still be very useful. The 3 other Auras I run in order of importance (I feel) are Quantum Destabilizer (-10% enemy fire rate), Subspace Snare (-20% Combat Disengagement Chance), and Inspiring Presence (+5% friendly fire rate). For weapons, I have gone with Kinetic Artillery and the traditional Perdition Beam rather than the Ancient Ruination Glare, though I have not done a lot of experimentation with this design in combat. It retains the 5:1 Armor to Shields defenses, a Carrier combat computer, and 3 Auxiliary Fire Controls.

BRIEF FLEET DISCUSSION

I have very little grasp on the balance of economics and firepower for balancing fleet compositions, but I can suggest which ship designs should be used in a fairly basic fleet pattern in the late game.
A Titan, whose purpose is to instantly annihilate the Starbase you might be attacking into, or destroying enemy Titans while staying at long distance.
Artillery Battleships, who will then fire and strip the enemy of most, if not all, of their Shields.
Carrier Battleships to then start whittling away at the Hull of ships that no longer have Shields
Disruptor Corvettes, which serve as low-cost chaff for absorbing high-damage weapons, and which contribute to Hull damage done by Carrier Battleships. In combination, these two ship designs should quickly eliminate low-Hull targets, leaving larger targets like Cruisers, Battleships, Titans, and Starbases behind.
And Torpedo Cruisers, which will help by eliminating the Armor of the remaining ships, which will probably be taking huge bonus damage thanks to their size.
The optimal number of each ship type that should be contained within a fleet is unknown to me; there are too many variables for me to test via spreadsheet, it will require testing in-game, which I haven’t tried yet.

SYNOPSIS

The perfect ship changes through the course of the game. Early designs are built around what tech you have rolled and the designs of your enemy, and must remain flexible, though there are some generally good designs to try and roll the tech for. Disruptors dominate the game once they are unlocked, until the Midgame, where Cruisers stuffed full of missiles and the occasional torpedo kite most other designs to death flawlessly. By the lategame, all the tech and designs begin to converge, but the previous designs are not totally obsolete. Instead, new tools are unlocked that help reign in the previous designs. Battleships with a mix of Driller Drones and Kinetic Artillery can quickly destroy threats like the Macross Cruiser, and Titans will annihilate Starbases in the path of your conquest. I fully recommend building balanced fleets in the Late Game, with a mix of several of these designs. As always, keep in mind that the best ship design is the one that counters your enemy’s, and that these designs are not as cut-and-paste as in the previous meta. Even in the lategame, there are builds that might surprise you and counter your fleet, and being a generalist means taking at least some losses in every fight.
I want to end this by thanking the Stellaris devs for their hard work and the knife’s edge they have managed to balance combat in the game on. I am so much more interested and intrigued by ship design post-3.6 than any other time, and it’s a breath of fresh air! It’s not perfectly balanced still, but nothing is more “Stellaris” to me than spending 5 hours with both the Ship Designer and a spreadsheet open to find how to break that balance. To them and anyone who managed to read this whole post: sincerely, thank you.
submitted by TheGrandImperator to Stellaris [link] [comments]

2023.06.03 00:31 Crazy_Seesaw5691 Did you guys know that Youtube is taking the fundraiser money on the audio versions of the songs?

Did you guys know that Youtube is taking the fundraiser money on the audio versions of the songs? submitted by Crazy_Seesaw5691 to JuiceWRLD [link] [comments]

2023.06.03 00:02 jeniquejacobs Awesome health insurance claims experience

Awesome health insurance claims experience
As I’ve mentioned, I work with Unitedhealthcare private insurance plans. Qualifying is based on health to give you preferred rates with no deductible!
Check out this EOB a client of mine got after going to the ER
submitted by jeniquejacobs to HealthInsuranceUS [link] [comments]

2023.06.02 23:47 smolcrackheadenergy TWICE Between 1&2 Album Review

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Intro

To preface this review, I just need to say that this is going to be a very, very long read. Going through it myself just for the fun of it takes around 30 minutes — it's almost 7k words of text, including lyric references. So for the best experience, listen to the album beforehand to understand what the hell I was thinking when I wrote this review, play the album while reading, and set a good amount of time aside.
Another thing to get out of the way: yes, this is 9 months late 😭 I'm not sorry — when I find an album review online it's always around a paragraph per song or even shorter. It makes sense from a journalistic perspective, but I want to do this album justice, hence taking 7 months to write out all my thoughts.
This shit is comprehensive, and possibly a bit too overanalyzed and wordy, especially in Talk that Talk and Trouble. Each song review will compose of my commentary going over the song, writing the details I noticed through months of listening, followed by a conclusion. Also, mild swearing warning, I like implementing a touch of "French" when I'm very emotional about something. Anyway, onto the review!
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Between 1&2 💞

Album Review
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TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT
TELL ME WHAT YOU NEED
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Talk that Talk 🎙

Lead producer: collapsedone
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One of the most perfect TWICE songs.
I think this is one of TWICE’s best-sounding title tracks. Warm modulated synths, a thrumming bass line, distant bells, shimmering synths — the purpose of this song is to be fun and my god is it excellent at it, like… Sana and Chaeyoung are saying knock-knock-knock and beep-beep-beep as if they’re some kind of car. So much fun.
Further along in the verse, Dahyun’s voice sounds so full and smooth with that harmony layered on top. Tzuyu coming in with the Yes or Yes, Push & Pull, and 1 to 10 references — these are 5 years of song references in one line. And Jeongyeon closes the pre-chorus accompanied by a rising synth to drop into chorus one. Jeongyeon slays pre-choruses.
The drums accelerate, the synths start blasting, and Jihyo opens to that party of a chorus with her godly vocals,
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Tell me what you want
Tell me what you need
A to Z da malhaebwa
But shijageun ireoke have
Talk that talk ttak han madi
Talk that talk L-O-V-E
deullyeojweo ooh
Now now now now now yeah~
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During Sana's Talk that Talk~ lines there’s this ascending synth bell that gently rings with the descending melody and it sounds absolutely gorgeous. And the choreography during that part of the chorus is so so so so fun: the talking hands bit, spelling L-O-V-E, concluding with the deullyeojweo ooh! Oh my god Jihyo the deullyeojweo ooh…
Have I mentioned this song is fun?
Speeding through verse 2; Chaeyoung’s little part with the cat ears popping in the music video is adorable; Momo’s part with her stretching her arms out looks so damn cool; and Dahyun with her replay part sounds so lovely — although I think it sonically sounds a touch random, it makes sense thematically.
And now for this pre-chorus. Mina and Jihyo leading into it sound great BUT JEONGYEON… Now, she is my ult bias, and this pre-chorus sounds almost identical to the first one, but the way she holds that final note, enunciating and holding that now~ for one more beat before the chorus drops sounds so goddamn perfect — the song teeters on a cliff edge. Jeongyeon slays pre-choruses.
Dropping into the second chorus and man, Jihyo powered through that first chorus, but the way Nayeon delivers it just hits different. She has this indescribable “pop” voice (I promise this wasn't on purpose) that stands out and shouts this is THE chorus. I think this is especially apparent in how both lead into their choruses where Jihyo starts the chorus at 120% power while Nayeon waits until [Tell me] WHAT YOU WANT to full-send it. Later in the chorus, she also highlights “malhaebwa” in a similar way.
Another deullyeojweo ooh! Nayeon travels to Narnia, and Mina the engineer strikes again in this heavenly, underwater-esque bridge,
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The simple words “I love you”
That’s all I wanna hear
Without hesitation, I’ll go up to you
I’ll make it simple
And just tell you I love you
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The word “love” is said for the first time in the song. There’s a funky keyboard-like instrument behind Chaeyoung’s part. Jihyo, Chaeyoung, and Nayeon take the initiative in their lyrics, professing their love before closing the bridge.
And now for the pièce-de-résistance: this final double chorus is exceptional — 40 seconds of crack-laced euphoria; Jihyo switches up the chorus and the choreo, Dahyun comes in with her airy and fluttery “Talk that Talk”, Momo comes out of nowhere with “oh yeah it sounds so good!” — you’re damn right it does, and this is where the song SOARS.
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han beon deo~ haejweo
geurae banggeum geu mal~
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Nayeon outright shouts “Tell me what you need” and then Jeongyeon sings the above lines in such an ethereal, warm way that the first line ascends while the second line descends, causing a lull in the song before the finale with Nayeon finishing off the song with the final deullyeojweo ooh! What a party. What a song.
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THE GOOD
Needs Work
Core Memory
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Lyrics and theme-wise, if this were to have been TWICE’s last comeback, they’ve once again built upon the theme they've been doing since debut: a Bildungsroman, a coming-of-age story.
This song’s chorus is so honest yet so simple; it asks the listener, in this case, the other half of the relationship, to be more upfront and open with their love (never be scared of love) that before the relationship can continue and flourish there has to be a foundation and commitment of love between each other.
TWICE debuted with a song about making your crush go ooh ahh. Years later, they started maturing after asking “What is love?” by imagining their crush responding with “yes” when asking them out — and now concluding with the phrase “Talk that talk, [talk that] L-O-V-E”, being upfront with the relationship, wishing their partner to also be happy, to commit to them, to feel the love that they want to impart on them. From gawking like ooh-ahh to talking out your shared love like real adults — to having a true relationship between (one and) two.
And can I just say before finishing off Talk that Talk's review that this is such a fun and repeatable song with many little intricacies hidden in the nonet’s vocals and the production. This is the third draft I’m writing about Talk that Talk and its original word count pretty much quadrupled.
Harkening back to TWICE’s roots by combining mature thinking with youthful character, an incredible ending to look forward to, and just simply being a club-banger that’s easy to listen to, TTT is an easy 10/10.
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WATCH ME GO WATCH ME GO
RULE THE WORLD
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Queen of Hearts 👑

Lead producer: LDN Noise of SM
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If there was one B-side to promote in a live clip, this was a solid choice.
Helmed by LDN Noise going headlong into the Western boy-group rock-band aesthetic, Queen of Hearts is a boom-boom-clap song through and through. The drums are very prominent throughout the song, only giving room to riffs of electric guitar in the chorus to drive and continue the momentum of the music.
And speaking of the chorus, vocal line each got a chorus to flex and they did not fuck around,
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You ain’t ready for it
Watch me go~ watch me go~
Rule the world
Know you never doubted baby
I’mma go run the whole universe~
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Cymbals crashing, drums booming, and 3MIX belting all just so sound so equally good.
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Baby I was born to rule~~
Yeah I’m the queen, I’m the queen
And it’s all because of you~~
That I’m the Queen of Hearts
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These long, held-out notes performed by Jihyo and Nayeon are simply exquisite. Along with the shredding guitar, the drum set coming in full, and the interludes by Dahyun, Momo, and Chaeyoung, this is the part of the song that always, always, gives me goosebumps — it sounds so visceral, so energetic, so fun, so triumphant. Boom-boom-clap songs can be hit or miss with people, but there is no denying that the payoff from the first part of the chorus to this second part is worth the wait.
The theme of the song so far has been kind of spread around the song. The chorus alludes to it with the line "And it’s all because of you." But Mina shows more sides of it in the second verse, especially with the phrase
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And now that I’m surrounded by all my girls
We be shining bright like diamonds and pearls
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It sounds really lovely — in a very cheesy and affectionate kind of way, as it rightfully should — the song is about the girls and their fans. But the bridge is where the song indeed shows its colours
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Screaming out my name
See it in the stage lights
Feel so lucky just to have ya
Cause I know deep down I was meant for something bigger! Greater!
I know you’re seeing what I see
Yeah I’ll be everything you need
I know I’m gonna walk the walk
And talk the talk to be~ [the Queen of Hearts]
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This is a song CONCEIVED TO BE PERFORMED FOR THE FANS. It’s meant to be loud. It’s meant to be unapologetic. It’s meant to be sappy. And it’s all the more wonderful for it.
This is the TWICEiest shit ever.
Like Talk that Talk, Queen of Hearts also has a killer closer. The production already started to grow from the bridge, but now the guitarist finally went Super Saiyan and instead of supporting the drums, they both take the centrepiece in tandem, ending the chorus with a little shred.
Then finally, the closing moments of the song even manage to squeeze in some more sappiness.
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So thank you for the memories
You’re all the ones who made me~
So thank you for the memories
That I’m the Queen of Hearts
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I still can’t believe that this banger is a FAN SONG out of all things. Truly, the TWICEiest shit ever.
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THE GOOD
Needs Work
Life Highlight
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I love these types of rock songs with how grunge and head-bang-able they are, there is just a certain nostalgic and cheesy quality to them that feels so appropriate and cozy. I don’t love putting them on repeat, because in this case, I do believe there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Perhaps more shredding, maybe even a guitar solo to rock out to, or more gusto from the drums, cymbals, bass guitar, or an accompaniment(!) of ad-libs from 3MIX to support Jihyo’s final chorus? A ONCE can dream of a truly bombastic rock song from TWICE. But then again that distracts from the core of what this song is: a fan song undercover as a rock song.
Queen of Hearts has so much sweetness in its lyrics and message that it's overflowing. The drums, guitar, and vocals can be as loud and intricate as they can, but the theme of this song is what makes it special from TWICE’s other rock songs, especially for fans of this type of sound — it’s a 9/10 for me.
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I WANNA WANNA WANNA
TAKE YOU TO THE BASICS
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Basics 🌈

Sole lyricist credit: Chaeyoung
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Quite possibly the jammiest (pun intended) song of the album.
A song written by the Strawberry Princess herself — an event similar in frequency to other artists' releases with her last song being 2020’s silky Handle It — Basics first starts with an understated and dreamy delivery. After the first stanza, however, a bouncy Miami bass line emerges, revealing the true nature of the song: this is a classic summer bop!
This is especially apparent in the first rap.
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dareun aedeulgwaneun dalla
Ain’t beggin’ for love
nappeun geon anijana ige naraseo
eodiro twilji molla
Like rainbow bubble gum
geureoni nal kkwak butjabadweo
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Syllables are pronounced in a relaxed nature, bars often starting with an "ah" sound, flirty lines in English — this rap features a production full of pop with R&B flourishes and, in my opinion, this is Chaeyoung’s bag. Also, the line rainbow bubblegum is so adorable and so Chaeyoung.
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I wanna wanna wanna take it to the basics
da weonhae weonhae weonhae? seodureuji ma Baby
ppeonhae ppeonhae malhae mweohae da al tende
Ah yeah ah yeah ah yeah ah yeah
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That chorus is pure pop with a Miami bass backing; you better be bopping your head to the melody, if not booty poppin' to the bassline. Chaeyoung loves rhyming in the first half of the chorus to enhance its catchiness and it's damn incredible: the “wanna”, “weonhae”, and “ppeonhae” all combine to create these imperfect rhymes that continue momentum without feeling repetitive.
After the very Boy With Luv-sounding “ah yeah ah yeah, ah yeah ah yeah” comes an 8-bar split half and half between Chaeyoung and Momo. Coming from the chorus, the production completely cuts out for the first 2 bars. This adds tension; the song yearns to have that bass beat thumping again and all we have in the audio space in those 2 bars is Chaeyoung spitting and she delivered.
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taneun deut tteugeoun samak wie
yeppeuge pieonan jangmi gata
joshimseure naege dagaol ttae
nado moreuge jjilleobeoril tende
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Translating to:
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Above the hot, burning desert
It’s like a rose that bloomed beautifully
When you come to me slowly
I will prick you unconsciously
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The rap feels slick, effortless, and confident. Her diction remains sharp when enunciating each syllable but she doesn’t let the flow of her rap waver or build as her 4 bars go by, it’s just smooth consistency throughout. Even the lyrics possess an aura of laid-back collectedness that is just so her.
The things Chaeyoung can do when given her pen.
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THE GOOD
Needs Work
Core Memory
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This song is summer bliss distilled into 2:56 of MP3. It’s dreamy, the raps are satisfying, and the ending is charming. I will say that although the second half of the song adds the stunning “spaceship” post-choruses and a floaty bridge with an incredible drumbeat-drop transition to the final chorus, the raps of the song make it feel a bit front-loaded. And in an album stacked with incredible finishers, it feels more apparent.
With that said, it’s an 8/10 bop for me. This song is so radio-friendly and easy to put on and it feels exactly what Chaeyoung would make if given the reins to produce a pop song all on her own. The lyrics are nonchalant but full of conviction, the wordplay is intricate, the production is playful, and it’s not too bombastic — the song's just a nice vibe. Songs like Basics are the standard for good, simple, repeatable pop music and I’m happy that Chaeyoung got to test her pen in this genre.
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BABY WE’RE IN
TROUBLE TROUBLE
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Trouble 💃

Sole lyricist credit: Jihyo
Background vocals: Jihyo
Lead composer credit: Jihyo
Vocal director credit: Jihyo (an assumption given her contributions in First Time)
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One of the most enjoyable songs I’ve heard in a while.
There is an underlying tension within the first 4 bars of the song, Jihyo and Nayeon confidently open it to a nondescript array of synths and then the stanza ends, Momo announces “Let’s go”, the beat drops and it hits you:
This is a club song.
Dahyun's relaxed delivery contrasted with Jeongyeon's staccato flow, the wobbly synth beat with the sprinkle of that house piano, Sana dramatically slowing the song down only for Tzuyu to build it back up until the chorus drops,
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This chorus is perfect. Toronto’s residential market needs this song injected into its veins because god damn this song has SO much house in it.
And then. AND THEN. ANOTHER KILLING PART. This rap fucking slaps.
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gamchweo bwatja geugeon Fake
ppajin hamjeongeun Sweet cake
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During the first 2 bars, Chaeyoung is keeping it calm because that trip of a chorus just ended and the song needs a breather, but I don't think anyone expected her to SNAP this hard afterwards:
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You cannot resist this
Cannot miss this, such a bliss
Ima put it down down
Oh yeah, better kiss kiss
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Below is the structure of her this portion of the rap, I’m not that well versed in this technical aspect of music theory but I digress, this is all in the span of around 5 seconds where it’s:
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Triplet-triplet
Quadruplet-triplet
Quadruplet-doublet
Doublet-quadruplet
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Now, 25/5 = 5 syllables per second isn’t groundbreaking, but goddamn it these 2 bars sound so nice — if there is one part in this album that I always repeat, it’s these bars. The addition of that first quadruplet for “cannot miss this” in the midst of all the triplets sticks out and accelerates the flow of the rap while the following doublets and quadruplets help to destabilize and slow the rap down as the verse closes. And can I just point out:
THE MAIN VOCALIST WROTE, DIRECTED, AND COMPOSED THIS SONG ‼
Chaeyoung of course delivered the fuck out of her verse but THIS is what you get when you have a member not only write the words they’re saying but also the melody and flow with which they sing it. This is what you get when one member knows the others so well that when they write a song, they know how to make the group as a whole exceed. This is what you get when the artists you stan love doing artist shit.
And. AND. That's not all — with how much I mentioned I love a damn good outro to close a song, this outro slaps as well:
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Woo wee woo wee woo
I like this trouble be-be [Momo]
Woo wee woo wee woo
I like this trouble bay-be [Sana]
Woo wee woo wee woo
I like this trouble bay-beh [Chaeyoung]
Woo wee woo wee woo
I like this trou-ble [Jihyo]
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What an outro.
Like, come on, Nayeon’s imitating a police siren for crying out loud. And this is all after her ad-libs in the final post-chorus; after the pianist going full tilt and playing that piano as if it was their last chance to ever play; after that final T W I C E chant by all the members come these blissful 20 seconds at the very end.
What a song.
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THE GOOD
Needs Work
Core Memory
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Need I say more, easy 9/10. The only reason I place Talk that Talk above Trouble is because of what that song represents but besides that, this song is one of the best “international” sounds they’ve put out. Actually, I haven’t listened to Eyes wide open in a while but this song is up there with one of the most sonically pleasing pieces of work they’ve done.
Clubbing TWICE music has always been a thing since TT was birthed in 2016, and has been a staple of their discography since 2019’s Fancy You and Feel Special mini albums, but Trouble unapologetically dives into and fits the house genre so well you’d think that this is TWICE’s bread and butter sound.
Trouble is Jihyo’s magnum opus. What a song.
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BRAVE BRAVE BRAVE
FOR YOU
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Brave 💖

Main producer: Slow Rabbit of HYBE
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I first thought this was just a good song, then I read the lyrics.
Gentle guitar plucks, shimmering synths, a distant keyboard in the right ear, in the left an occasional glockenspiel, the melodic oohs from the members — this song is PRETTY.
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The night that was unusually dark
Above this terrifying world, felt so lonely
The world has grown in the time of wandering
So hard to breathe
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Mina and Chaeyoung open the song with how they feel lonely and that it's hard to breathe and now suddenly the song sounds bittersweet — I was not expecting the song to be more emotional. Brave describes a situation where the singer is in a darker place in life and it isn't until another person gives them hope by calling them 'brave' that they find the drive to keep on going.
Once the chorus hits, the melodies pick up, more guitars get added, and there’s even an electric guitar hidden in the mix somewhere, and the song drops the emotional front to reveal a mid-tempo pop song to dance to while crying in the club. The song as a whole still carries this melancholy feeling, but now with the added support of this chorus acting as a light amongst the gloom.
Continuing on in the second verse there's this gorgeous, well-placed break in the song that just lets it settle back into the gentle back and forth after that chorus. Only a seasoned producer would risk this much empty space in a song and Slow Rabbit went to fill those shoes.
Back onto the chorus, I'll take this moment to once again commend Slow Rabbit with the mixing of the song, because 4MIX will undoubtedly sound good in the chorus, and the interludes from Dahyun, Chaeyoung, and Mina also sound really good, but undoubtedly the highlight of the choruses are these lines:
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Oh na na na neon nal naige hae [Momo, then Tzuyu, then Momo]
On and on and on
Brave brave brave for ya [Dahyun, then Chaeyoung, then Mina]
Oh na na na neon nal sum shwige hae [Sana, then Momo, then Sana]
On and on and on oh trust me babe
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Momo, Sana, and Tzuyu form this beautiful, surprisingly catchy, second half of the chorus accompanied by a guitar drop. It should not turn out this well with how conflicting the "na"s are with the guitar melody but it creates this gentle bopping ebb and flow that just feels so lush and mellow.
Diving into the bridge reveals that the listener of the song is revealed to not only be capable of supporting the singer through direct words but also through their thoughts and dreams; no matter how they convey their wishes to this person, they will always try to push themselves to be their truer, better selves for it. And, as can be discerned, this can be a song interpreted to be about ONCEs. About how they push TWICE to be their best selves despite the breathless hardships they face.
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THE GOOD
Needs Work
Core Memory
​
I’m actually spoiled with the TWICE members’ easy-to-understand songwriting when a song like this pops up where it isn’t written by a member and the thematic bits are mostly in Korean I just tend to put it aside in favour of the other songs on the album. And, especially for a song focusing on a theme like this where the English phrases don’t do the Korean lyrics enough justice, it does place a barrier on the listening experience a bit, dropping it down to a 7/10 from an 8/10.
With that anecdote out of the way, this song is just such a vibe, man. I know that sounds super hippy to say but Brave is so mellow and smooth that I can’t help but sway a little when that chorus hits. And then I remember what the lyrics say and I stop and cry a bit on the inside. This song is so pure, raw, and full of heart — we need more songs like these where they just reminisce about life while putting up an upbeat front. Don't mind me just crying while dancing the night away.
This isn't the first time this theme has been sung by TWICE either, they've long trodden this path of supportive, confiding, up-lifting songs with Young & Wild, Rainbow, Queen, Go Hard, Depend on You, even this album's Queen of Hearts, and, of course, Feel Special. Brave just adds another on top of an already stacked lineup, unique with its mellow somberness.
Also now feels like a good time to get into my rating system:
​
​
​
I SEE THE LIES
ON THE TIP OF YOUR TONGUE
​
​
​

Gone 💨

Sole lyricist credit: Dahyun
​
Who the fuck pissed off Dubu this time??
It’s getting quite rare to see TWICE pull off brand new sounds because, with now 190 original songs under their belt, they’ve done so many genres and sub-genres varying from hyper pop, to bossa nova, to whatever 2020’s Go Hard is. So it’s surprising to know they’ve still got tricks up their sleeves and Gone is one of them.
The song starts with strings swinging back and forth and vocal chops dancing from ear to ear, teasing what’s yet to come. Jihyo enters the song with a whisper and the song sets its pace. A stagnant drum pad moves the song along and typical song progression would have Mina continuing the build but — it doesn’t. The song continues to simmer, adding a hint of high hat to the pot. And then, Sana and Tzuyu come on and surely the buildup must boil over right?
Silence, until…
​
I see the LIES on the top of your tongue
​
The strings emerge again on full blast, the simmer turns into a rolling boil, and the anger of the song is revealed.
​
All the fate I had towards you
Fades like a fog, gone, gone
Your flipping mind of doing this and that
I’m tired of it, it’s meaningless
In the beginning, it was hard to believe
With that, hatred increases
​
The singer is so scorned and burned from this relationship that they reminisce about all the effort they’ve put in since the beginning, but their “partner” is so unconcerned and unfaithful that they’ve just about had enough of the relationship altogether.
This has been Dahyun’s thing coming from 2020’s Bring It Back, 2021’s Cruel, 2022’s That’s all I’m saying, and even 2023's Don't Blame It On Me — emotionally charged breakup songs that make you feel as if she’s gone through a dozen bad relationships. Dispatch, do your job better, or don’t, I don’t really know.
Another highlight of the song is the post-chorus going into the bridge. This segment reiterates the structure from the first post-chorus — a barrage of drums supported by the rhythmic strumming of a bass guitar in the back along with a consistent synth filling out the soundscape. But this time, it’s Dahyun and Chaeyoung on the rap:
​
I can’t stand it anymore [Dahyun]
My patience, invisible
I can’t find it, it’s all gone
Even if I try to turn back, it’s too late [Chaeyoung]
There’s no use anymore
It has left, it’s long gone
You, with flipping mind, you are out [Momo]
I know that you know what I’m talking about [Dahyun]
Nothing you could say that could turn this around
I’m gone
​
Continuing the disrespected theme of the song, Dahyun notes that she’s finally had enough and Chaeyoung adding on that there’s no point salvaging what was once there for all of it is long gone. Momo and Dahyun round it off by telling the listener that there’s no point trying to reason with them or playing naive, they fucked up and there’s no coming back.
Can I just say, it is a bit of a shame that Chaeyoung’s rapping popped off in this album whilst Dahyun only has this one verse that she shares with Chaeyoung, but it just sounds so good how Dahyun eases in after the chorus with her light rapping tone and transitioning into her singing. She even holds the “gone” in a little crescendo for some added pizzazz.
And, there’s no way I’m not going to talk about Momo’s vocals in this bridge. Damned if she only got 1 line to use it in, her lower register is incredible. She sounds so smooth singing in this tone. All of TWICE do in particular and there is nary a weak vocal performance in this album.
To close the song off, a wash of synths gets to have their shine in the spotlight, showered with Nayeon’s belting, signifying the dramatic and drawn-out conclusion of this partnership.
​
THE GOOD
Needs Work
Core Memory
​
Going back to that point about the first post-chorus as a whole; songs that have the production continue unchanged into the post-chorus/2nd verse are very hit or miss for me — see TWICE's Don't Call Me Again for an overbearing example. The first post-chorus could use some work because the post-chorus going into the bridge contrasts Dahyun’s light tone nicely with the hard-hitting production, continuing the energy until it slowly fades into silence at the end of the bridge.
Back to the song as a whole, as much as TWICE has been experimenting with their sound for the past 4 years now, I’m happy they’re still finding new ways to explore what they’re capable of. And for that alone, even though I’m not a big fan of songs like these where they rely on sounding “big”, Dahyun’s lyricism and the thrill I receive every time I indulge myself in this song when I listen to it for the first time in a while elevates it to an 8/10. Keep on breaking hearts, Dubu.
​
​
​
INVINCIBLE
SUPERHEROES
​
​
​

When We Were Kids 🧸

Sole lyricist credit: Dahyun
​
Press play to reminisce, pull up lyrics to cry.
This song is so beautiful. I’m totally not writing this song review, crying on the bus, reminiscing about my childhood, while just having turned 21. I don’t know if these are happy or sad tears but this song is so beautiful either way.
Warm synths, muted piano, a gentle high hat, the younger members starting off the song — this has to be up there for one of the softest TWICE songs ever. And as it should, it’s one of the TWICEiest songs ever. And then Nayeon comes in,
​
Invincible superheroes, we wanted to be adults
To the higher, clearer world
​
The chords start swelling, the high hat keeps pace, and then the harmonies come in,
​
Remember when we were kids
When we were kids, we didn’t know
If we could go back
I will love it even more
Remember when we were kids
​
Jihyo takes up the second half of the chorus as it drops, trading the strings for an almost R&B synth production — if choir R&B takes off, this song started it. The song relishes in this cacophony of warm sounds until going back into its sparse and peaceful verses.
This time, the hints of piano are louder, little twinkling synths begin to shimmer, the drum buildup comes and Jeongyeon drives the song straight into the chorus. No time for the strings to build like in Nayeon’s — this song loves its chorus so much.
And can I just take this time to appreciate the amount of Jeongyeon vocals in this album. Her voice is so clean, stable, and projected — but also more tender and soft compared to the more pronounced tones of Nayeon and Jihyo.
The bridge comes in, repeating the phrase
​
I wish that I could meet
Could meet the younger me
​
Giving the song time to rest, before building back up to the last chorus — this time led by Jihyo, transitioning from the bridge with her own unique lead-in, completing the 3MIX trifecta. And interestingly enough, Chaeyoung follows up in the second half of the chorus, rather than another member of the vocal line. She really did pop off in this album.
As the last chorus begins to close, the percussion at its strongest, the harmonies as prolific as ever, the background choir vocals cranked up to their Sunday best, is the song going to end? Of course not! This is an album full of banger endings as if the songs don’t want to actually end, and When We Were Kids being the album closer very much indulges in that feeling.
After a brief refrain, supported by Nayeon’s high note with a touch of vibrato, the song almost dives back into a fourth chorus. Nayeon and Jeongyeon harmonize — an especially rare and heavenly moment. And the song repeats the bridge, reiterating that they want to meet their younger selves, this time with the more lush R&B production before closing with silence, a few piano notes, and Tzuyu singing the last line of the song
​
Oh, we were kids
​
Reflection, acceptance, hope. What a song.
​
THE GOOD
Needs Work
Core Memory
​
I wrote the first part of this review at the beginning of November 2022. Then university, life, and other things got in the way of my headspace for me to feel confident about wrapping all of this up. In a way, I felt like I just didn’t want this review to end because of the joy that writing gives me. I didn’t want the happiness to end. And then it hit me, after watching a YouTuber rank animated movies and them placing Spirited Away at the top and explaining 'why' reminded me of just how important growing up is, and by extension this song.
This theme is important for both the rookie TWICE members in 2015 and the teenagers who would follow their journey and grow up with them, facing life’s obstacles along the way. Hardships that used to only involve family, crushes, and social media, evolve into working and commitments and all the struggles that adult life brings. Being a kid and enjoying the simple things in life is one of the most sought-after moments we want to relive because we took growing up for granted. The only thing we can do now is look back on ourselves with fondness and rose-tinted lenses.
TWICE’s original marketing was to resonate with people through their senses and their hearts. That was during their debut, and I think it still holds up today. In my opinion, touching people through their emotions is what TWICE does best and makes them one of K-pop’s all-time greats. It was never about having the best numbers — it was always about being the best idols. And to think that this journey of maturation and growth would occur from 2015 all the way to this song, being a fitting nod to TWICE’s 7th anniversary, I don’t think anyone at the company nor the group would ever imagine that they could get this far. It’s these nine women or none — 9/10.
This song honestly deserves a 10/10 with how much I noticed other people reminiscing their childhoods after I heard this song, it is such a widely-relatable message, but I am determined to limit myself to one 10/10 song per album and if I were to decide between TTT and WWWK, I'd give it to the one's that's more repeatable — Talk that Talk just has this electric energy about it.
​
​
​

Epilogue

And finally here is the end. If you made it this far in one sitting then I commend you, because I could not write this whole word jumble in one sitting. As alluded to, I started writing this album review sometime in October, after a series of edits the first draft was finished in March, and now here's the final draft in June.
I truly love this album. It got me through some important parts of my life, both good and bad, and it is just a pleasant listen throughout. Getting to relive this album again this week before finally completing the review has been an exciting journey. Brave hit me harder this time, after being overshadowed by the other gems of this album, and When We Were Kids finally got me to tear up and not just be emotionally satisfied.
I feel like there's something for everyone on this album. From the exhilarating thrills of TTT to the anthemic euphoria of QoH, the clubbing dichotomy of Trouble and Brave to the blissful glee of Basics, and the sweet reminiscence of WWWK to the thundering anger that is Gone. Like Eyes wide open, I liken Between 1&2 as a pop music taste platter — there's such an eclectic mix of pop, house, and dance in this album that there's bound to be a song that someone will love, like, and dislike.
submitted by smolcrackheadenergy to u/smolcrackheadenergy [link] [comments]

2023.06.02 23:16 grammiecum Advice for patchy makeup?

Advice for patchy makeup?
I think it’s maybe because I mix silicon based makeup with water-based skincare?
Skincare routine: - Cosrx Snail Mucin Essence - Soon Jung moisturiser - Beauty of Joseon SPF
I exfoliate 2/3x a week with the Paula’s choice BHA toner for my texture.
Base Makeup: - L’oréal Infallible primer - Nars radiant longwear foundation - Too Faced BTW concealer - Maybelline fit me pressed powder - Morphe continuous setting mist
I don’t want to change any of the products because I’ve finally found a skincare routine and I’ve also spent a lottt of my money on all of the products. But I guess I have to if they’re not mixing well?
My makeup always looks like this and doesn’t stay on my face at all. I also creases a lot under my eye.
It looks super cakey but I only use one pump for foundation for my cheeks and forehead then concealer under my eyes and chin.
submitted by grammiecum to MakeupAddiction [link] [comments]

2023.06.02 22:42 beturass Today's Action

Today's Action
Maybe more at 930
submitted by beturass to Beturass [link] [comments]

2023.06.02 22:41 OnlineCalisthenics 6 Calisthenics Movements Everyone Should Master!

Hey guys, Nicolas here at Online Calisthenics!
Today, I want to discuss the essential movements you need to do to when training calisthenics.
Lately, I've been frequently asked about the best exercises for specific muscles or how to isolate and work on certain areas like the biceps or shoulders. These questions are more common in traditional bodybuilding and weightlifting, where muscle isolation is emphasized. However, in calisthenics, we focus on full-body workouts that engage multiple muscles and develop a chain of movements rather than isolating individual muscles.
The purpose of this post is to highlight the foundational movements that everyone should master with proper form before attempting more complex and advanced exercises. These foundational calisthenics movements serve as building blocks for more challenging skills and routines in the future. I'll be discussing the main movements that you should focus on before progressing to harder exercises.
It's important to note that these movements are not easy. Calisthenics exercises require good intensity, proper form, and high repetitions or volume to be effective. Mastering these aspects is crucial for progressing to more exciting and enjoyable skills. Basic strength should always be prioritized before anything else.
Let's start with the classic pull-up. I usually recommend starting with pull-ups because they help open up the back. This exercise is more challenging than the push-up since you're lifting your entire body weight using a bar. If you have a choice, I suggest beginning with pull-ups before moving on to push-ups to maintain the proper order of your workout routine.
Pull-ups have different variations, but for today, we'll focus on the basic movement itself. Firstly, it's important to grip the bar properly with a strong grip and a false grip, where your wrists are neutral and slightly higher than usual. This allows the forearm and other muscles to contribute to the movement. Additionally, performing a scapular squeeze or shrug is crucial. This engages the rhomboid and central muscle groups in your back, helping you pull yourself up. It's essential to avoid arching and maintain a solid core throughout the exercise.
Next, we'll move on to push-ups. Similar to pull-ups, grip is important in push-ups as well. It's recommended to have a wide hand placement, spreading your fingers and forming an 'L' shape with your index and thumbs. Your index should point forward, ensuring a wide support base for optimal power during the exercise. Leaning forward is also crucial in push-ups. Many people make the mistake of not leaning forward enough, which limits their range of motion and puts unnecessary strain on the shoulders. By leaning forward, you activate the shoulders and develop the necessary strength for more advanced movements.
After push-ups, we'll discuss parallel bar dips. This exercise is essential for strengthening the chest and other pushing movements. There are easier variations available for those who are still working towards the full parallel bar dip. Proper form is key, including keeping your elbows tucked in and maintaining a hollow position with your ribcage and pelvis. Tucking your legs together and keeping your core tight are important as well. If you can't perform the parallel bar dip yet, alternative methods like jumping from the floor can be used.
Lastly, we'll cover squats. Squatting without weights is a safer starting point, and you can use a bar, stick, or broom for support if needed. Keeping your elbows up is a good challenge during squats, ensuring proper form and alignment. The goal is to have your arms and hips parallel throughout the movement, following a parallel path as you go up and down. Adjusting your stance to a little more than shoulder-width apart and positioning your feet at a 45-degree angle is a general guideline for squatting.
Mastering these foundational movements with proper form, intensity, and volume will set you up for success in calisthenics. However, I also want to mention a couple of additional movements that are worth incorporating into your training routine.
The first additional movement is the handstand. While it may seem intimidating at first, the handstand is a fantastic exercise for developing upper body strength, balance, and body control. It engages your shoulders, core, and arms, and it's a gateway to more advanced skills like handstand push-ups and handstand walking. It's important to start with wall-assisted handstands to build strength and confidence before progressing to freestanding handstands. Proper hand placement, shoulder engagement, and body alignment are crucial for maintaining balance and avoiding strain on your wrists.
Another important movement is the L-sit. This exercise targets your core, hip flexors, and triceps. To perform an L-sit, you sit on the floor with your legs extended in front of you and your hands placed beside your hips. Then, you lift your body off the ground, keeping your legs straight and parallel to the floor. This movement requires significant core strength and flexibility, so it may take time to build up to a full L-sit. Start with bent knee variations or using parallettes to elevate your hands, gradually progressing towards a straight-legged L-sit on the floor.
In addition to these movements, it's important to incorporate proper stretching and mobility work into your routine. Calisthenics requires a good range of motion in various joints, so dedicating time to stretching your shoulders, hips, wrists, and other key areas can help prevent injuries and improve your performance.
Remember, mastering the foundational movements is crucial before attempting more advanced exercises. Focus on proper form, intensity, and volume in your training, and gradually progress as your strength and skill improve. Consistency is key, so aim for regular workouts and gradually increase the difficulty and complexity of your exercises over time.
I hope this overview of essential movements in calisthenics helps you on your fitness journey. Stay motivated, stay disciplined, and enjoy the process of challenging and improving your body through calisthenics.
Keep pushing yourself, and you'll achieve remarkable results.
Stay tuned for more tips, tutorials, and progressions with Online Calisthenics.
Until next time, keep training hard and stay dedicated to your goals!
Join Online Calisthenics here if you are new!
Nicolas
submitted by OnlineCalisthenics to onlinecalisthenics [link] [comments]

2023.06.02 22:32 Lather Student finance rectroactivly pulling funding from me - uni demanding I pay them £9000.

This is England, and with Student Finance England.
I'm still none the wiser as to why I was provided finding for the 2021/2022 year if I wasn't eligible for it. I've since dropped out of the course and have had emails from the student payments team telling me i owe them £9000. I've repeatdly tried phoning them and emailing them telling them I will not pay them this money because this cost was occured through no fault of my own, but they do not answer the phone and they do not reply. My uni email account has been shut down. My tutor and course leader are also not responding, and other departments have forwarded my emails to the 'relevant people' but I still have had no response.
I'm just totally confused. SFE or the uni can't explain why I was given funding when I wasn't eligible for it. I don't have the money to pay for the tuition, and I'm already paying off other debt. I don't think I should have to pay because it's not even my fault that they provided me with funding when they shouldn't have.
I'm a total loss of what to do. I would appreciate any advice.
submitted by Lather to LegalAdviceUK [link] [comments]

2023.06.02 22:16 Lather University is requesting £9000 because Student Finance is retroactively pulling funding from me.

I'm still none the wiser as to why I was provided finding for the 2021/2022 year if I wasn't eligible for it. I've since dropped out of the course and have had emails from the student payments team telling me i owe them £9000. I've repeatdly tried phoning them and emailing them telling them I will not pay them this money because this cost was occured through no fault of my own, but they do not answer the phone and they do not reply. My uni email account has been shut down. My tutor and course leader are also not responding, and other departments have forwarded my emails to the 'relevant people' but I still have had no response.
I'm just totally confused. SFE or the uni can't explain why I was given funding when I wasn't eligible for it. I don't have the money to pay for the tuition, and I'm already paying off other debt. I don't think I should have to pay because it's not even my fault that they provided me with funding when they shouldn't have.
I'm a total loss of what to do. I would appreciate any advice.
submitted by Lather to UKPersonalFinance [link] [comments]

2023.06.02 21:39 asterillex Where to get started with foundation?

I am wanting to step up my foundation game. I currently put on Mary Kays CC cream and then put on contour powder and blush. On Facebook, I see reels of women putting some kind of contour stick on their nose and cheeks to get the contour shape and then they smooth it out. Their final product looks sooo much better than mine! How do I achieve that look?
I was reading on here about using a moisturizer that is silicone based and making sure your foundation is compatible such as a silicone based foundation.
So where’s the best place to start? What are the contour sticks? What are the good brands? I want to be able to fully cover my face in foundation and then go a really nice contour with blush. I am doing daily facial cleaning and every other day facial exfoliation with a brush so my skin is nice and clear.
Also, what helps with under eye darkness? My under eyes are kinda purple. Is there something other than foundation to put under your eyes? And what is the best way to match your foundation to your skin tone? Buy a bunch of shades and see which one works best? Or go to a store that lets you try on different shades of foundation?
Thanks in advance! I’m a total newbie!
submitted by asterillex to MakeupAddiction [link] [comments]

2023.06.02 19:25 kevinpr9 Oricon Weekly Top 50 Manga Ranking on May 22, 2023 to May 28, 2023

​
No. Number of sales on May 22, 2023 till May 28, 2023 Total sales until May 28, 2023 Title Manga Release Date Publisher
1 110,364 110,364 What Did You Eat Yesterday? Vol.21 May 23, 2023 Kodansha
2 78,506 280,079 Blue Lock Vol.24 May 17, 2023 Kodansha
3 44,958 93,611 Yona of the Dawn Vol.41 May 19, 2023 Hakusensha
4 40,053 40,053 The Eminence in Shadow Vol.11 May 26, 2023 Kadokawa
5 39,667 39,667 Goblin Slayer Vol.14 May 25, 2023 Square Enix
6 38,608 38,608 Coffee & Vanilla Vol.22 May 25, 2023 Shogakukan
7 37,269 378,969 That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime Vol.23 May 9, 2023 Kodansha
8 34,600 591,437 Oshi no Ko Vol.1 Jul 17, 2020 Shueisha
9 33,014 33,341 Mieruko-chan Vol.9 May 23, 2023 Kadokawa
10 32,500 109,043 Diamond's Ace Act II Vol.34 May 17, 2023 Kodansha
11 30,640 484,769 Oshi no Ko Vol.4 May 19, 2021 Shueisha
12 29,925 537,542 Oshi no Ko Vol.2 Oct 16, 2020 Shueisha
13 29,129 445,772 Oshi no Ko Vol.5 Aug 18, 2021 Shueisha
14 29,055 494,038 Oshi no Ko Vol.3 Feb 19, 2021 Shueisha
15 28,605 91,961 Tokyo卍Revengers: Baji Keisuke Kara no Tegami Vol.3 May 17, 2023 Kodansha
16 27,013 400,615 Oshi no Ko Vol.6 Nov 19, 2021 Shueisha
17 25,985 25,985 Goblin Slayer Side Story: Year One Vol.10 May 25, 2023 Square Enix
18 25,149 45,484 Choujin X Vol.6 May 19, 2023 Shueisha
19 24,211 24,211 Lycoris Recoil Vol.2 May 23, 2023 Kadokawa
20 22,525 374,511 Oshi no Ko Vol.7 Feb 18, 2022 Shueisha
21 22,519 264,732 Oshi no Ko Vol.11 Mar 17, 2023 Shueisha
22 22,027 341,723 Oshi no Ko Vol.8 Jun 17, 2022 Shueisha
23 21,980 21,980 Akuyaku Reijou no Naka no Hito: Danzai sareta Tenseisha no Tame Usotsuki Heroine ni Fukushuu Itashimasu Vol.3 May 25, 2023 Ichijinsha
24 21,705 308,506 Oshi no Ko Vol.9 Oct 19, 2022 Shueisha
25 21,598 285,374 Oshi no Ko Vol.10 Jan 19, 2023 Shueisha
26 20,634 123,098 Uruwashi no Yoi no Tsuki Vol.6 May 12, 2023 Kodansha
27 19,971 1,197,225 Spy x Family Vol.11 Apr 4, 2023 Shueisha
28 19,535 19,535 Medalist Vol.8 May 23, 2023 Kodansha
29 19,027 19,027 Fragile Vol.25 May 23, 2023 Kodansha
30 18,128 18,902 Reiwa no Dara-san Vol.2 May 23, 2023 Kadokawa
31 16,157 16,157 Liaison: Kodomo no Kokoro Shinryoujo Vol.13 May 23, 2023 Kodansha
32 16,129 57,658 Shangri-La Frontier Vol.13 May 17, 2023 Kodansha
33 15,923 15,923 The Unwanted Undead Adventurer Vol.11 May 25, 2023 Overlap
34 15,810 15,810 S-Rank Boukensha de Aru Ore no Musume-tachi wa Juudo no Fathercon deshita Vol.6 May 25, 2023 Overlap
35 14,255 14,663 Shoukan sareta Kenja wa Isekai wo Iku: Saikyou nano wa Fuyou Zaiko no Item deshita Vol.9 May 23, 2023 Kadokawa
36 14,157 14,502 Yuusha ni Zenbu Ubawareta Ore wa Yuusha no Hahaoya to Party wo Kumimashita! Vol.1 May 23, 2023 Kadokawa
37 13,913 51,356 Kanojo, Okarishimasu Vol.31 May 17, 2023 Kodansha
38 13,431 52,199 A Couple of Cuckoos Vol.17 May 17, 2023 Kodansha
39 13,369 13,369 Banished from the Hero's Party, I Decided to Live a Quiet Life in the Countryside Vol.11 May 26, 2023 Kadokawa
40 13,285 13,285 Imokusa Reijou desu ga Akuyaku Reisoku wo Tasuketara Kiniiraremashita Vol.3 May 25, 2023 Overlap
41 13,254 13,254 Sensei Nisshi: Homura-sensei wa Tabun Motenai Vol.2 May 24, 2023 Kadokawa
42 12,804 50,811 Nichijou Lock Vol.5 May 15, 2023 Kadokawa
43 12,288 48,003 Bakemonogatari Vol.22 May 17, 2023 Kodansha
44 12,247 12,247 D-kyuu Boukensha no Ore, Nazeka Yuusha Party ni Kanyuu sareta Ageku, Oujo ni Tsukimatowareteru Vol.3 May 25, 2023 Overlap
45 12,218 25,162 Amai Seikatsu: 2nd season Vol.16 May 19, 2023 Shueisha
46 12,091 12,091 Kichiku Eiyuu Vol.5 May 25, 2023 Hifumi Shobo
47 11,909 11,909 Tsuihou sareta Moto Zatsuyougakari, Kikakugai no Gijutsu de "Saikou no Shuuzenshi" to Yobareru You ni narimashita: SSS Rank Party ya Ouzoku kara no Irai ga Tomarimasen Vol.2 May 26, 2023 Starts Publishing
48 11,575 130,342 The Fable: The second contact Vol.7 May 8, 2023 Kodansha
49 11,338 11,338 Goblin Slayer: Day in the Life Vol.1 May 25, 2023 Square Enix
50 11,184 11,184 Battle Studies Vol.36 May 23, 2023 Kodansha
Source: Oricon, Page 1, Page 2
submitted by kevinpr9 to manga [link] [comments]

2023.06.02 19:24 Ultim8_Lifeform Respect Godzilla! (Godzilla (Hanna-Barbera Cartoon))

Godzilla

GRAWWWWWWWWR
The Calico is a research vessel that sails all around the world investigating mysterious phenomenon. This often results in the ship's crew encountering all sorts of monstrous creatures and other dangers, but luckily they have friends in low places. With a push of the button (or a scream from their pet monster Godzooky), they are able to send a signal into the ocean's depths, summoning Godzilla to their aid. Using his fire breath, laser eyes, and incredible strength, Godzilla acts as a protector of humanity that constantly finds himself doing battle with other monsters and generally helping people that are in danger.

Strength

Striking
Lifting/Throwing
Other Monsters
Objects
Pushing/Pulling
Other

Speed/Agility

Durability

Blunt
Falling
Explosive
Heat
Cold
Other

Other Attacks

Firebreath
Laser Eyes

Misc.

submitted by Ultim8_Lifeform to respectthreads [link] [comments]

2023.06.02 18:11 camheying Progress…

Progress…
I test 6/17, hoping to get up to at least a 505. After reviewing each exam I realize I make so many silly mistakes and just read questions wrong (especially in C/P and B/B). Currently doing Upoop for those sections. If anyone has any extra advice for those areas of the exam please lmk I am struggling.
submitted by camheying to Mcat [link] [comments]

2023.06.02 17:43 CryptographerOk2258 Weekly Pastel Update 6/2/23

Pastel Community Update (June 2, 2023)
The next generation NFT focused blockchain. Certifiable authenticity. Permanent storage. Negligible fees. Build, secure, and scale your Web3 ecosystem with Pastel.
The Pastel Team has been extremely busy with a number of major development updates, partnership rollouts, and product releases. Check back here each week for new developments
Check Pastel channels for:
⭐ Weekly community snapshots shared across our various channels.
🐾 Quarterly updates released via our newsletter.
☎️ Weekly community town halls / AMAs directly with the Pastel team. Come prepared with your questions, comments, and feedback!
📣 Monthly Twitter Spaces with u/doodlestone and u/panthony
Key Updates:
🚨Contests🚨
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-Pastel Archive
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2023.06.02 17:28 trollthumper [Comics] I'm With Stupid: Marvel's Civil War

So, we already discussed what DC was doing to match the tenor of the early years of the War on Terror: A grim, smarter-than-it-thinks miniseries full of gratuitous rape that was meant to take the shine off the Silver Age by showing the darker side of its greatest heroes. Marvel, on the other hand, was trying to find a way to capture the zeitgeist of a post-9/11 era of existential threats, constant government surveillance, and the idea that if you weren’t with America, you were against it. A Captain America storyline saw Cap wrestle with the very concept of Guantanamo Bay; like any story arc that involves Cap doubting whether America lives up to its ideals, this made certain conservatives pissy, to the point that bad movie cataloguer Michael Medved wrote an entire article asking if Cap was a traitor. Avengers Disassembled briefly saw the Avengers face down their demons, as the Scarlet Witch goes crazy (again) and starts killing team members, her reality manipulations causing fault lines to form among Marvel’s greatest superteam. But there hadn’t yet been a storyline that would tie the entire Marvel Universe together with the burning question, “Which side are you on?”
Yeah, it’s got nothing to do with the Sokovia Accords. We’d be a lot better off if it did.
Part 1: Mark Millar’s March to the C-Word
Content Warning: Sexual assault. None of this is germane to the topic of the drama, so feel free to skip ahead to Part 1.5 if you don’t want to deal with this. Tl;dr: Mark Millar, the writer of the event, has a near pathological need to be a 3edgy5u contrarian.
Every comics crossover is ultimately a chance for one creative in the stable to shine or falter. The editors pick a writer who has turned out dependable work and give them a chance to try to alter the status quo but good. And for Civil War, Marvel’s EiC Joe Quesada decided the best person to lead the charge was Ultimates writer Mark Millar.
But who is Millar? Well, we could say “edgelord” and leave it at that, but we’re trying to dig deeper. Millar came up in comics alongside fellow Scot Grant Morrison, long before Morrison said the only time they want to bump into Millar on the streets of Glasgow is while going at 100 miles per hour. This antipathy is alleged to have stemmed from Millar copping several ideas from Morrison that went into Superman: Red Son. But after getting a start on Superman Adventures and as a cowriter on parts of Morrison’s JLA run, Millar soon branched out to WildStorm, where he took over The Authority from departing creatowritesex pest Warren Ellis.
The reason I bring up Red Son (for those non-geeks, an alternative universe comic premised on “What if Superman’s rocket had landed in Soviet Russia?”) is to frame a constant refrain about Mark Millar. He has good high-concept ideas… which often get trammeled up in an almost Pavlovian urge to shock, disturb, and/or titillate the reader. For instance, in The Authority, Ellis had introduced Apollo and Midnighter, two close companions who just happened to share the rough power sets and demeanors of Superman and Batman, with a few tweaks. Then he revealed they were boyfriends, which was a pretty bold move for a late Nineties comic book full of widescreen action and lovingly-rendered eviscerations.
In Millar’s first arc on the title, centered on a villainous Jack Kirby clone sending out a team of baddies who totally aren’t the Avengers, Apollo is subdued and is strongly implied to have been raped by someone who’s not Captain America. Apollo gets revenge by destroying EvilCap’s spinal column with his laser vision, then leaving him to the tender mercies of Midnighter, who is strongly implied to have sodomized him with a jackhammer.
In case you can’t tell, Millar loved him some rape. And it kept showing up in his creator-owned titles as well, all of which were basically written as Hollywood pitch docs. Wanted asks the question, “What if the supervillains won and secretly ruled the world from behind the scenes?” Well, an Eminem clone would take the opportunity to step into his dead villainous dad’s shoes and commit a lot of rape (yeah, there’s a reason the movie version replaced this with basically the Euthanatos from Mage: the Ascension getting orders from a magic loom). Chosen asks the question, “What if Jesus were born today?” Well, in a blatantly obvious twist, it turns out he’s actually the Antichrist, and part of his journey into realizing his evil nature involves being raped by all the demons of Hell.
It’s not that Millar can’t write innocent or restrained; he got started on the Superman: the Animated Series comic spin-off, and some of his titles such as Huck and Starlight have been praised for being relatively wholesome (keep in mind Huck is basically “What if Superman was Forrest Gump?” when I say “relatively”). And, as mentioned above, his works are made for high-concept log lines. You might recognize some of his various pitch docs: Kick-Ass, The Secret Service (source for the Kingsman movies), and, as mentioned above, Wanted. It’s just there’s this unctuous contrarian streak to a lot of his titles, a tendency to focus on venality, grotesquerie, and sodomy, with an air of pop culture edge. This also leaked into his image outside of his writing, with comments like “Games are for pedos” and ventures like the creator-owned comics periodical CLiNT (yes, the kerning is intentional). This streak continues to this day, as The Magic Order, a title that emerged from his deal with Netflix, features a magical escapologist who, she feels it very important to tell the reader in a direct monologue, escaped her own abortion. Bottom line, Millar has a sense of vision, but it’s betrayed at times by this reflexive desire to prove he’s smarter than the reader, to rub your face in the contradictions and make you a party to the artifice of it all. Usually with a dash of rape.
But at Marvel, Millar was riding the lightning of the Ultimate Universe. His Ultimates title was drawing on the wide-screen action image of JLA and The Authority, creating the cinematic language that would come to define the MCU. The choice to fantasy cast Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury is why we have Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury. He also painted the Hulk as a cannibalistic monster, cemented Hank Pym’s reputation as a wifebeater, and gave us Captain America yelling “Surrender? Do you think this A on my head stands for France?”, so let’s just keep that in perspective.
But the Ultimate Universe was its own pocket universe. Millar was being tapped to write a story for Earth-616, the main Marvel Universe. And he had a vision:
“I opted instead for making the superhero dilemma something a little different. People thought they were dangerous, but they did not want a ban. What they wanted was superheroes paid by the federal government like cops and open to the same kind of scrutiny. It was the perfect solution and nobody, as far as I'm aware, has done this before.”
Yeah. About that.
Part 1.5: What Has Come Before
Ultimately, the crux of Civil War is something that has been explored lightly in the past at Marvel: The idea that, instead of being unlicensed vigilantes who decide the best solution of societal issues is to beat up assholes in spandex, superheroes become licensed government officers that register their true identities with Uncle Sam and solve societal issues by beating up assholes in spandex. In Marvel’s history, it hasn’t gone well. The reality of government liaisons to superhero bodies has ranged from Valerie Cooper, who worked with government mutant team X-Factor but still found herself backing the genocidal Sentinel program as a big “Yeah, but what if…?”, to Henry Peter Gyrich, an inflamed obstructionist asshole who had to be held back from flipping a switch that would depower every superhuman individual on Earth. The idea of heroes themselves bristling against a government they disagreed with had a long history, as there was a period where Steve Rogers quit being Captain America, and the government had to find a replacement while he rode around on a motorcycle in a surprisingly slutty costume. But the idea of registering with the government has usually ended up on the “No” side due to one big cohort at Marvel: Mutants.
Ever since the days of Chris Claremont, a general conceit of the Marvel Universe is that mutants are a stand-in for your minority group of choice. Hated and feared, born different and feeling alienated, painted as an existential menace and threat to the status quo. Of course, it’s long been pointed out that the metaphor breaks down on the general grounds that, say, gays can’t shoot laser beams out of their eyes. I have my thoughts on that which I might share in the comments if someone pokes me hard enough, but it’s been general editorial consensus that people with powers, especially those of persecuted minorities, being compelled to share their true names, addresses, and natures with the federal government is a “That train’s never late!” move. Not only that, it’s a slippery slope. The classic X-Men story “Days of Future Past” is entirely premised on the idea that a government program of genocidal robots built to wipe out mutants will eventually run out of mutants… and then start turning on humans who could give birth to mutants, and then it’s Skynet all over again.
Another running meme in the Marvel Universe is that the X-Men usually exist in a Schrodinger’s cat situation with the rest of the superhero universe, both coexisting and in their own worlds. Yes, mutants have served on the Avengers, and yes, Thor intervened when the Morlocks were nearly wiped out in the sewers under New York. But Captain America, for all his proud statements of living up to America’s ideals, has a habit of missing the plot whenever the US government (or Canada, seat of all the Marvel Universe’s governmental evils - no, really) decides it’s Genocide O’Clock. And when the mutant nation of Genosha was completely wiped out by said murder robots, the Avengers seemed to be all “New phone who dis?” But when the two do intersect, there’s usually support for the mutants. One story in Fantastic Four had Reed Richards - Mr. Fantastic, stretchy man, greatest genius in the Marvel Universe, guy who’s probably being cucked by a fish-man - get tapped by the US government to make a device that detects mutants and other people with powers. He does… and then uses it to show why the government probably doesn’t want it, as it pings several members of Congress as having just enough genetic variation to qualify as “mutants,” even if they don’t have powers.
All in all, while the argument has some merit, for years, Marvel has come down on the position that asking people with powers to reveal their identities to the federal government is something that could go really bad if somebody with a hate-on for superheroes ends up in power. Something that would never happen oh yeah it totally did. But before it all went to Hell, Civil War at least gave an opportunity to reexamine the concept and see if it had merit.
It might have. But not with this argument.
Part 1.75: What Else Has Happened Before?
And now, some things that will ultimately give context for what happens next:
Part 2: Connecticut Can’t Catch a Break
The big kick-off for Civil War involves the New Warriors, a team of teen heroes who have, as of a recently canceled series, been trying to make it big as reality TV stars. They get in a fight with a bunch of villains in the small town of Stamford, CT, when exploding villain Nitro goes positively nuclear, resulting in a blast much bigger than any he’s generated. [1] Not only does this mostly wipe out the New Warriors (save for kinetic energy-absorbing goofball Speedball), but it also happens to hit a nearby school. In the end, 612 people are dead, many of them children, and the nation wants answers.
With public opinion turning against the New Warriors, former member Hindsight starts leaking secret identities to get the heat off his back. This only makes things worse. Secret identities have only recently stopped being a thing for some heroes: Captain America only came out a few years ago, it was only recently that Tony Stark stopped pretending Iron Man was his bodyguard, and Daredevil was almost outed in the pages of his book. But something needs to be done, so Tony helps work with Congress to pass the Super Human Registration Act, which requires that all people with powers or working as vigilantes register their identities with the government to receive training and oversight. If you don’t? Believe it or not, jail, right away.
Fault lines quickly develop in the superhero community. While Tony is leading the “pro” side, alongside Reed Richards (yeah, we’ll get to that), Captain America, usually painted as the embodiment of the dream of America despite its compromised history and many sins, is against it. He’s lived through Richard Nixon being a secret fascist and shooting himself in the head after being fingered as mastermind of a vast criminal conspiracy (yes, that happened ); he knows how badly this could go in the wrong hands. Needless to say, Maria Hill and SHIELD hear his concerns, understand his problems with it, and are willing to iron out the kinks through reasoned debate.
Just kidding. Before the law has even been signed, Maria sics SHIELD’s elite Cape-Killers squad on Cap with the intent of getting him behind bars. Cap swiftly goes underground and starts his own group of anti-registration superheroes.
The fight continues for the next few issues. Spider-Man, caught in the middle, reveals himself to be Peter Parker at a press conference, declaring his support for the SHRA. Doctor Strange is so powerful that he tells the government to fuck off, and somehow, Maria Hill doesn’t decide to go charging up his asshole. Ben Grimm, the ever-loving blue-eyed Thing, is so sick of all the conflict he goes to France. But things are still at a stalemate, and while SHIELD may be acting like a bunch of merry assholes, it seems like there’s a debate to be had that could still be resolved reasonably… except for one key factor.
Part 3: I Fought the Law, and the Law… Huh?
No one ever really defined what the Super Human Registration Act, the legislation that tore the Marvel Universe’s superhero community asunder, did. Every book that had an issue that touched on the event seemed to have a different understanding of its principles, as well as just how fascist it might be in the long run. In the pages of She-Hulk, attorney Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk argues the law is a net good, as it gives heroes the backing and resources they need to not have to go it alone, while also having some measure of government oversight. In the pages of Civil War Frontline (oh, and we’ll get back to Civil War Frontline, don’t you worry), Wonder Man is told by the government that he needs to do a job for them, and if he refuses, well, one thousand years dungeon.
Which then leads into the other issue behind the SHRA. Namely, that everyone in favor was either starting to swing towards fascism or embracing bootlicking as a lifestyle, not a kink. In the pages of Amazing Spider-Man, Peter asks Reed Richards, who has always bucked authority and once stopped the US government from doing something just like this with mutants, why he’s pro-registration. Reed then reveals that an uncle who has never been mentioned before was called before HUAC; he refused to name names, his career was ruined, and he killed himself. From this, Reed - the man who stole a rocketship because the government said “no” to his planned space voyage - has learned that the government is always right, especially when they could step on your neck (this was received so badly that a later comic revealed he’d actually borrowed the concept of psychohistory from Asimov’s Foundation, he’d made it work somehow, and his calculations showed that this was the only way to avoid a greater disaster). This comic also revealed that people who were in violation of the SHRA were sent to a literal extradimensional Gitmo, a prison in the Negative Zone that later comics would reveal was overseen by… Captain Marvel. No, not that one. No, not that one. The Kree superhero Captain Mar-Vell, who had famously died of cancer decades before. How did he come back from the dead? Fuck if we know.
This “the law says what you want it to say” approach spread across various books and miniseries meant to cross over into the event. In the pages of a crossover mini between the Runaways and the Young Avengers, this meant SHIELD Cape-Killer squads were using lethal force against teenagers. The second-to-last issue of the mini ends with several members of both teams in extradimensional Gitmo, about to be dissected by a guy who’s horny for torture. The fact that all the captive heroes were the queer members of both teams? Total coincidence. Honestly.
So, it quickly becomes clear that the editorial control on this event is less than cohesive. There are different ideas all over as to what the SHRA does, and some of those ideas are tacking pretty fashy. But if the law is being painted as that bad, then clearly, there must be some greater statement of freedom vs. security. Maybe Millar’s really painting a subversive picture of what happens when you trade liberty for control, right?
Part 4: Why Do You Hate the Good Thing?
After the publication of Civil War #3, Millar would say in an interview he was actually pro-registration. I can’t find that interview, but here’s a similar sentiment shared years later:
“Weirdly, some of the other writers would often make Tony the bad guy, which I thought was a strange choice because I was actually on Tony’s side... In the real world, if somebody had superpowers, I’d like them to be registered in the same way that somebody who has a gun has to carry a license. But a gun can kill several people while a superhero can kill several thousands of people, so on a pragmatic level I’m 100% on Tony’s side. Maybe on a romantic level, Cap’s position makes sense but I don’t think anybody in the real world would really want that."”
And again, here’s the thing: He’s not entirely wrong. As said above, the idea of civil liberties for all and “free to me you and me” falls down a little when one of your neighbors can blow up a city block by thinking real hard. But Millar is fighting against years of ideological inertia in the Marvel Universe, as well as painting Captain America, the guy who has always embodied the ideal of a righteous, just America, as in the wrong. He needs to make one hell of an argument.
So here’s what happens in the pages of Civil War #3 to sell the audience on the SHRA:
Again. Tony’s in the right. The SHRA is good.
Part 5: Yadda, Yadda, Yadda
The next few issues of Civil War might best be described as “They fight, and fight, and fight and fight and fight.” The anti-registration side picks up The Punisher, Marvel’s most avowed murderer of criminals - and Cap is somewhat shocked but not entirely surprised when two minor villains join the anti-registration side and Frank promptly kills them on sight. Spider-Man starts realizing things are weird on the pro-reg side and defects, after he has set his entire life on fire. The X-Men have continued to stay out of this whole mess. In the lead-up, Emma Frost called Tony out on the Avengers’ complete absence when Genosha got nuked. Later, Carol Danvers (then Ms. Marvel, now Captain Marvel) will show up at the Xavier School to pitch the SHRA just after a massive terrorist attack kills dozens of students. Emma responds by telepathically dogwalking her.
By the final issue of the miniseries, the SHRA has expanded out into the Fifty States Initiative, wherein each state gets its own superteam. There’s a big final battle, Hercules kills Robo-Thor, and Cap nearly takes out Tony, only to be stopped by… the heroes of 9/11. No shit, Captain America is subdued by cops, firefighters, and paramedics. And when that happens, Cap finally takes a look around, realizes their big ideological street brawl has resulted in collateral damage, and surrenders. The SHRA wins, though Tony feels a little bad about it. Cap is ready to stand trial and to argue that, while he may have done something wrong, he did it for the right reasons.
Once again: Yeah. About that.
Part 6: MySpace Tom Didn’t Die For This
Running alongside Civil War is Civil War Frontline, a street-level book written by Paul Jenkins that managed to capture this world-breaking conflict through the eyes of people on the street. Though it has side stories, its main leads are Ben Urich, Peter Parker’s journalist buddy at The Daily Bugle, and the aforementioned Sally Floyd. Throughout the series, they start to realize there’s a story underneath the SHRA, as if somebody is playing the angles.
Before we talk about that conclusion, let’s talk about a side story. Remember how we said part of the comics community saw Identity Crisis as a driven effort to make things less “wacky” and intentionally darken the DCU? Well, that same tonal approach led to one of the more laughable moments of a pretty laughable arc. See, despite the fact that, as established, it was Nitro who blew up Stamford, it’s Speedball, the only survivor of the New Warriors, that views himself as responsible and is held up as a scapegoat by the general public. In addition, the blast screwed up his powers. Now, he doesn’t absorb and reflect kinetic energy; rather, he generates energy based on pain. So, he builds himself a new, extreme outfit lined with 612 spikes, one for each person who died in Stamford. This will drive his crusade to make things right - not as Speedball… but as Penance.
It was so laughably DeviantArt “OC do not steal” that no one could take it seriously. Look what you did, you took a perfectly good goofball and gave him an emo streak. The turn is swiftly mocked in other Marvel books, and it’s eventually revealed that Speedball still had his original powerset and always intended to put Nitro in the Goofy Suit of Dark Inner Torment as punishment for his crimes. But this turn gives you a sense of the tone and heft Jenkins was bringing to the proceedings.
Anyway, back to the main plot. Ben and Sally follow the thread as Namor, as he is wont to do, declares war on the surface world after an Atlantean diplomat is shot. But it turns out the assassination was arranged by Norman Osborn, who decided it was better to beg forgiveness than ask permission and manipulated Atlantis into war so that Tony could have another piece of evidence for getting superhumans on a leash. And the two journalists deduce that, on some level, Tony had to know this would be an inevitable outcome of giving state backing to an unhinged mogul who dresses like a Power Rangers villain. Weighing what to do with this information, Ben and Sally, who are kind of sick of the collateral damage by this point, sit on it while they go in for an interview with Captain America, now in custody and willing to tell his side of the story.
And then. And then. The monologue. If you want a lesson in how to assassinate a character in 30 seconds or less, this monologue is a great example. Sally Floyd calls Captain America out as completely divorced from American values. Now, again, Captain America has long served as the beating liberal heart of the Marvel Universe. He has always represented an America that reckons with its legacy of things like internment camps, Manifest Destiny, and Jim Crow, in order to transcend these scars and embody the promise offered by Emma Lazarus’s New Colossus, carved on the side of the Statue of Liberty. Why is he out of touch with Americans at the dawn of the 21st century?
Well, he’s never heard of MySpace. [2] He doesn’t watch NASCAR. He doesn’t follow American Idol. There are pop culture moments that have aged like milk; this one had all the permanence of an ice cream cone in a blast furnace. But despite the inanity of Floyd’s argument - and trust me, there are fan edits dedicated to Cap pointing out how full of shit this argument is - it’s clear it represents something else. This is a post-9/11 world. Fuck civil liberties, we have a no-fly list and Gitmo, and if the American people really cared, they’d do something other than watch Simon Cowell read aspiring singers to filth. What does Captain America stand for in this moment of crisis?
Nothing. Because he just looks away from Sally Floyd. No doubt thinking, “Oh my God this bitch.” But to underline the argument in question, Sally storms out of the interview, Ben in tow. She still has that information on Norman Osborn’s false flag operation… and while she and Ben confront Tony on everything that went down, they decide the story should never see the light of day. Because they wouldn’t dare jeopardize the SHRA, because security is more important than the truth.
Oh. And then Cap gets shot. And dies. He totally dies (except he doesn’t but we’ll get to that). If ever there was an unintentional thesis statement for this event, running in the late stages of the Bush era, it would be this: “It’s better to trust that the powers that be who oversee the new America will keep you safe, even when they stage false flag operations, stick you in a gulag, and put their trust in monsters. All that civil liberty stuff was the old America. And the old America was hopeless. It wasn’t even on MySpace.”
Epilogue: Consequences Keep Consequencing
As you can tell from that last paragraph, a lot of the fan reception to Civil War likely had a lot to do with the period. This was the Bush era, a time where you were for America or against it. We were in the shadow of the Patriot Act, Gitmo, and widespread wiretaps, paranoid about what civil liberty we’d be asked to put on the pyre next in the name of Freedom. A story all about the warm, clenching fist of government control that tells you to ignore the collateral damage… well, it wasn’t great for the cultural moment.
The ideas of Civil War aren’t necessarily bad ones. I frame Cap as the liberal dream of what America could be, but there are good arguments to be made that America has never been that and Cap is just copium for liberals. His most recent title, Sentinel of Liberty, opens with Steve saying he is out of touch with the average American - not because he doesn’t watch NASCAR, but because he’s a WWII veteran who looks maybe 30 years old at most and whose best friends are all superheroes or spies. A narrative that has him on the wrong side of the issue and detonates his beliefs isn’t impossible, but it probably shouldn’t be one where people who got powers due to a fluke of birth or a radiation accident are told by the government, “Join with us or we’ll send supervillains after you.” Hell, as the Civil War movie proves, there is a way to tell a story about a superhero community torn in half by the idea of mandatory registration as government-controlled actors, and just why people would think that could be a bad idea (“Hey, remember when a good chunk of our intelligence apparatus turned out to be Nazi stay behinds?”).
But in the context of the era, and coupled with the execution, Civil War felt like a hard sell, and you could feel the thumb pressing on the scale every second while reading it. The moral center of the Marvel Universe is wrong, the winning side employs sadistic murderers and has an extradimensional Gitmo, and the writer is telling you that any sane individual would be on Team Green Goblin Employer.
So how did that all work out? Well…
As for Spider-Man? It might not shock you, but having a hero without the resources of Tony Stark out himself to the world carries liabilities. An assassin who tries to kill Peter instead hits Aunt May, and it appears she’ll die of her injuries. All this leads to One More Day… and if you thought the fans hated Civil War? Oh, BABY.
[1] This is eventually explored in the pages of Wolverine, of all books, as Wolverine decides maybe somebody should track down the person who actually killed hundreds of children. It’s revealed that Nitro was given power-boosting drugs by the CEO of Damage Control, Marvel’s designated “clean up after the super-battle” corporation, as a way of generating business. In a sign of how little this matters, Wolverine tells Maria Hill to her face that the person responsible for a mass casualty event is the pawn of a powerful conspiracy, and she basically says, “Not my problem.” Cobie Smulders must thank the gods that her Maria Hill is written as somebody with basic human decency.
[2] Hilariously, when Sally Floyd was brought back during Nick Spencer’s Captain America run because no one had piled enough dung on her corpse, this line was retconned to her asking him about Twitter. Given everything Elon’s been doing lately, we’ll see if that ages just as poorly.
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2023.06.02 15:42 Vloxalion [USA-PA] [H] 12400 based complete pc w/peripherals & accessories & spares [W] Local Cash

"Bump" of previous post last week. All have been unused/untouched since March 1st, just sitting there or in boxes, except the monitor.
$650 for everything (list 1 and list 2). Not parting out due to payment method precluding shipping.
TL;DR quick overview of all parts
one i5-12400 w/stock cooler, 1 downdraft cooler, 3 120mm tower coolers
two B660m ddr4 motherboards, one win10pro key, and one anti-bending lga 1700 bracket
two kits 3200c16 ddr4, one 2x8gb singlerank other 2x16gb dualrank
one RX460 4gb gpu
two nvme m.2 drives; 500gb sn770, 2tb 970 evo plus
two cases, one matx nr200 clone, other atx lancool 216 and 5pack of arctic p12 pwm fans
two psu, one sfx 600w platinum (w/ 1 cable extension), other atx (300)w F-tier
one 24'' 1920x1200 60hz monitor with a desk clamp arm
cheap mouse and keyboard(keyboard w/RGB!!!....sry)
one set entry level professional speakers and an old sound card
webcam, xbox360 controller, microphone
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Local cash only, no paypal(don't have one), quakertown-doylestown area in bucks county.
Timestamps
pet/[email protected]/[email protected]/scent free household, and do not eat near computer area. The second hand items from the 12400 guy exude much less fragrance compared to when they were obtained (assuming his household laundry detergent or similar had fragrance as the source), and I doubt you'd sense it if your own living arrangements have any sort of scented items. They come with all original cables, boxes, manuals, etc I still have. If you want more information about anything, feel free to ask and it will be added. Selling because old 2010 pc with phenom ii x3, gtx460, and 8gb is sufficient for my use case, try for modern hardware again some other time.
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Tabulated/Itemized/Descriptors:
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Part Name Detailed Comments/Condiiton Currently/Personally Valued at x 1 month ago
CPU
i5-12400 2nd hand. H0 stepping, not the more power hungry C0 (C0 is a partially disabled 8core die), and is AVX-512 capable going by the production date(did not verify; see motherboard notes). small blemish/ding(?) from previous owner's cooler on ihs, but can't tell if it was permanent indent or rubbed off hard bit of dried paste. includes box and cooler. 140/140
Coolers
unknown 6 heatpipe thermalright cooler - possibly the burst assassin non-argb model without fan 2nd hand from the 12400 guy. tower only. has blemish/nick on contact surface. his laundry detergent had fragrance, so i couldn't use it. he also didn't clean the paste off and shipped it in a ziplock bag. i cleaned it as well as i could and replaced the bag. 15?/10
noctua s12b redux 1200rpm 2nd hand from the 12400 guy. same scent problem. can't remember testing it. 10?/5
arctic alpine 17 co BNIB, but box looks beat up 13/8
id cooling se-224-xt-basic used to cool a 3800X for a few months before the faulty mobo went kaput and sold the other parts of it. no 1700 mounting hardware because it was produced before alder lake. the win10pro key from the msi pro mobo is written on a slip of paper tucked inside the instruction manual. 25?/15
Thermalright Assassin X 120 refined SE mounted 90 degrees clockwise for bottom-to-top airflow in sama case 20/15
Motherboards
msi b660m mortar wifi ddr4 mobo vrms have coil whine crackle-hum using turbo boost, most likely related to powerstate/frequency switching (disappears when fully loaded or not doing anything) or concurrent with putting load on the integrated graphics, tried a whole bunch of bios settings to stop it, C1E enabled reduces it. integrated graphics culprit unverified due to case and difficulty with it; haven't tested a discrete card to eliminate igpu cause. latest bios(v19) at the time is flashed, need earlier bios version for avx512 capability, tried to get that instruction set working but found out it involves tainting my kernel and i don't use windows but if you do, the only os-side step is to move the specific intel microcode file out of system32. replaced the ilm with the thermalright one. includes right angle usb3 header adapter. 100/100
msi b660m a pro ddr4 wifi 2nd hand from 12400 guy. has smudge on backside near cpu bracket from alcohol solubility test on the paint; backside is alcohol soluble. has same scent as others from him. he did a bad paste job on cpu area and shipped it that way, i cleaned it up (no socket pins got paste on them thankfully because he didn't remove cpu from the board) tested and it works. comes with windows 10 pro key. the m.2 wifi card was worked, but putting it back in this board... i didn't have enough finger dexterity. one of the contact n!pp!es is bent, needs to be bent back. can't get it back out to do that, stuck. includes piece of factory glue that goes between the contacts and holds the leads in place. treat as non wifi version with potential bonus for trying hard enough. anti static bag on one side MAY have trace of urushiol due to being blown away when airing out onto a patch of cracked concrete where two weeks previously had been a sprout which had been disposed of then the area alcohol-doused then two rainstorms. includes right angle usb3 header adapter. 80/70
thermalright 1700 anti-bending ilm silver comes with thermal paste(used once) and original ilm of the mortar mobo 9/8
RAM
teamgroup 2x8gb 3200 c16 2nd hand from 12400 guy, works, had somehow strongest scent of them all. 32//25
timetec 2x16gb 3200 c16 dual rank with hynix 8gigabit jjr ic's (lower binned cjr) remember to lock in the voltage to safe level for that ic instead of auto. partially manually overclocked, enabled xmp then increase to gear1 3466mt/s (what i can tell, max speed with the locked vcssa without loosening timings) and the few timings changed are: command rate to real 1N; did not test tighter than tRRD to 6, tRRD_L to 6, and tFAW to 24; tREFI should be able to be higher than 24960 but didn't test; tRFC has errors at 460, can't remember what 480's result was, and 500 is stable. stressapptest for an hour after each change made, no errors. may go tighter, less than 10 attempts worth of tweaking. 70/65
Storage
western digital sn770 500gb 2nd hand from the 12400 guy, but didn't notice scent(was under heatsink). has been secure erased. smart data said 2.4tbw. 30/25
samsung 970 evo plus 2tb 2nd hand from best buy geek squad refurbished. smart data indicated literal open box condition. has been secure erased. smart data says 3.28tbw. 98/80
GPU
xfx rx460 4gb 2nd hand from a miner in 2021. was dirty but cleaned it, had mining bios, and the standard bios or other custom bios don't seem stable, but it works with a rx560 bios i modded to rx550 clocks. thought i saw something spherically, iridescently marbled green-yellowgreen falling from it when putting it back together after cleaning but couldn't find the drop or where it may have dropped from, capacitors look ok. single fan version. has annoying blue led. requires 6-pin pcie power even though it draws less than 75w. 45/35
Cases
sama im01 hohboy, man oh man, this case.... removing the front panel carefully according to the manual causes the top clips to break(so that's why it includes two spares), and is difficult to work in even though all sides but the back come off. can't put a discrete gpu in because it can't go into the slot all the way; something about the mobo tray being depressed or pci slot design prevents it. front left usb3.0 defective (blips then doesn't work) but the right one is functional. pci slot magnetic swinging screw cover hinge is a bit bent because the top and bottom packaging foam were switched in factory(foam cutouts did not align). matx mobo prevents bottom from having second fan if not want to risk mobo header bending. 60/30
lian li lancool 216 black non-rgb model opened the box and took out the inner accessory box on top but put it right back because became busy and never got around to using it. did not take out the case. almost literally open box. do not know state of tempered glass but jiggling box does not make broken glass sound. 100/90
arctic p12 pwm pst 5 pack 2 used in the sama im01, 3 unused 30/25
PSU
corsair sf600 platinum 3 months use. powered the 12400 using integrated graphics, don't think total system power exceeded 150w from the wall. 110/110
thermaltake tr2 430np don't know if it was 2nd hand or not. used to power a windows xp office machine which was bought without one. Don't use more than 350 watts; here is a review of the unit showing why- https://www.hardwaresecrets.com/thermaltake-purepower-430w-np-power-supply-review/ its F-tier but would personally trust it in a system pulling less than 100 or so from the wall. one cable with 20+4-pin motherboard connectors one cable with 6-pin pcie connector one cable with 4-pin 12v connector one cable with 3 molex connectors two cables with 3 molex and 1 floppy connector one cable with 2 sata connectors one molex-to-sata converter 20/5
cablemod black modflex EPS 4+4 pin 45cm extension sf600 needs the extension to reach the mobo receptacle in the sama case 9/9
Peripherals/Accessories
hp zr24w + ergodepot J2 monitor arm 60hz, 1920x1200, 24inch. 12 years use. ccfl backlight has been on for ~3.3 years. came with a scratch not noticeable when on most of the time. has smudges from over a decade of use, not trusting myself to clean it without scratching. includes J2 monitor arm (desk clamp), but makes it skew a little. when powered on, it knocks channel 6 out of the airwaves until it is turned off. flickers below 100% brightness. 50+40?(90?)/50+20(70)
tecknet um013 mouse awful scroll wheel. defaults to the lower of the two dpi settings every time it loses power; does not save setting. 2 months use. 6/3
redragon karura k502 rgb keyboard 2nd hand. works, but did not verify all keys. 20/8
presonus eris E3.5 studio monitors were on my desk for 10 days and powered on at low volume for under an hour, may be low amount of specks of dust, and the speaker wire had been connected, but otherwise is as if you opened up a new one. didn't like the space they took up and preferred my headphones, but B&H would not take these back because i told them i used the included speaker wire. no joke. 90/80
samson go mic 2nd hand. works, good shape. usb condenser with omni/-10/cardioid switch and 3.5mm jack. has sticker covering the led to diminish the brightness. 25/15
xbox 360 wired controller didn't use it often, but owned it for a really long time. the left thumbstick has worn down, is low tension, and can drift slightly if off center to the northwest. 10/4
asus xonar dx 2nd hand. used for a few months in 2011 but was too close to gpu intake so put it away. 30/18
logitech c600 webcam model V-U0007 12/5
Summary first number taken from recent reasonable hardwareswap/ebay sales and amazon(when first two no/little results) and second number what i'd pay for the item in question if I was someone else, based on what is known of the condition. Paid 1300+ for just the parts bought in the last year, so imo this is a super deal if you are in the area. Total: 1299/1073
submitted by Vloxalion to hardwareswap [link] [comments]

2023.06.02 15:07 beturass Yesterday's Grade

Yesterday's Grade submitted by beturass to Beturass [link] [comments]