Percy and annabeth fall into tartarus

Hey Rockstar, GTA Online Has A Bad CPU Bottleneck That Slows Loading But There's A Fix

2023.03.22 17:06 Advanced_Falcon_2816 Hey Rockstar, GTA Online Has A Bad CPU Bottleneck That Slows Loading But There's A Fix

GTA Online is Rockstar's incredibly popular cash cow that has been keeping gamers busy since 2013. Although the game should be relatively mature at this stage in its life, it still has plenty of flaws, such as horrendous loading times. These loading time issues have annoyed countless players, and now one player has tracked down the root issue to improve performance.
GTA V fan T0ST recently picked up GTA Online again to finish some new heists that have come out since he last played, but he was "shocked (/s) to discover that it still loads just as slow as the day it was released 7 years ago." With some grit, determination, and perhaps even some spite, T0ST decided it was "time to get to the bottom of this."
gta online ridiculous load times fixed benchmark
In the process of digging into GTA Online, T0ST had to do due diligence and research to make sure no one else figured out the problem. Once it was established that no one had, he ran some benchmarks on his PC with an aging FX-8350 CPU, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 GPU, 16GB of DDR3, and a "cheap-o" Kingston SSD. Though these parts may be old, they should be plenty to get GTA Online off the ground in decent time, but that is not what happened. According to the data in the blog post, T0ST got into the story mode in approximately one minute and ten seconds, whereas it took nearly six minutes to get into online mode. After some polling, it appears that many other users are having the same issue . What could be happening here?
gta online ridiculous load times fixed taskmanager
Using the task manager, T0ST found that his CPU was being eaten for around four minutes during GTA Online's load process. Perhaps it was just a bottleneck happening on his CPU alone, but that would not make much sense. To track down the issue, T0ST went to dump the running processes' stack, showing where the offending process is happening in RAM. This information, acquired through Luke Stackwalker, gave T0ST a place to look for whatever was causing issues.
gta online ridiculous load times fixed lukestackwalker
After falling down the rabbit hole of trying to track down where the memory pointed, it all started to come together through assembly code reading and obfuscation. Evidently, when loading into GTA Online, a whopping 10MB worth of JSON is being parsed. It seems that it is data for something called "net shop catalog," which is likely just all the things purchasable in GTA Online using in-game currency.
gta online ridiculous load times fixed parseloop
Why this parsing takes so long is due to a function used called sscanf, which, in this instance, can be loosely equated to reading Romeo and Juliet by reading one word, then rereading the play, and then jumping back to the next word in the play. Furthermore, there is another bad programming issue just beside sscanf, which goes through the entire list of JSON entries in an array, one by one, and checks to see if there are duplicates by comparing a unique ID assigned to each item called a hash. Ultimately, it is a lot of extra and unnecessary work that slows down everything.
To solve this issue, T0ST decided to write a .dll (Dynamic Linked Library) and inject it into GTA so that sscanf is effectively streamlined. Also, rather than running duplication checks, they can just be skipped as items inserted into the storage array will always be unique, as was set up during the parsing effort. Once T0ST injected the DLL into GTA with both issues fixed, he saw his load times go from around six minutes down to a solid approximate two minutes.
As T0ST explains, this "won't solve everyone's load times - there might be other bottlenecks on different systems, but it's such a gaping hole that I have no idea how R* has missed it all these years." Ultimately, Rockstar needs to dig into this issue to save all GTA Online players headaches during loading. If you want to see what T0ST did exactly, you can check out his GitHub here and see what is going on. In any case, perhaps we will soon get an official statement from the development company, so keep an eye on HotHardware for updates.
submitted by Advanced_Falcon_2816 to gta5moddedlobbies2 [link] [comments]


2023.03.22 17:05 Famous_Primary_5988 23M Looking to get on track, I have my Financials broken down below

Hi I am a 23M living in mid America I live with my parents. Before my numbers here is a little info. I am blue collar my family does everything career wise (auto and homes. We fixed cars for living and flipped houses every so often). Me and my dad worked in the auto industry and did good. I peaked last year at 90K gross but we use to travel out of state for work. We decided that we can not travel for work anymore and bought a commercial janitorial company. That ate up any cash and all of my poorly saved money. I have always been good at paying off any debt until I ran it up last 3 months.
Currently salary is $52k yearly
credit card debt: - $4,000
Cash in bank: $2,500
no savings
Assets:
All vehicles I buy salvaged and i fix them myself ( if you buy off the auction it's all cash so no debt on that )
21 silverado
22 subaru forester ( just bought currently fixing will need another $3.5k to fix )
other assets that I can liquidate
$2,800 in random stuff that sits in a safe ( pew pew )
$4k in luxury items I do not have to own
current plan is to finish fixing the subaru and sell the silverado that will get rid of the debt. and I will have a little cash to reinvest. or sell the fun assets i have and and pay off the debt faster?
I can flip another car, ROI would be on average $4k over month or two. or I can buy a house and rent it out? or just stocks?
I would love to learn how to invest other than cars since the market is not great. and houses currently seem like a bad idea with current rates and even if i build one for cheaper ( we have built houses before ) I still think the interest rates are high.
what should my next steps be? Often I hear have some fun when you are young but I rather retire early and not fall into debt in the meanwhile. Thanks in advance and if you want more info let me know.
submitted by Famous_Primary_5988 to Fire [link] [comments]


2023.03.22 17:04 Nymlol Is my [28M] girlfriend [21F] depressed or manipulative or both

My girlfriend (21) of more than a year and I (28) are having issues in our relationship. From what she is saying, she is suffering from depression for a long time already, perhaps there are even more mental disorders (borderline?). Yet, for now these illnesses have not yet been diagnosed by a professional. She just recently started going to one. They had 4 appointments yet no diagnosis yet, or so she says (Is this normal?). She says he’s just mostly listens to her. He did give her pills, which she is taking.
We met online two years ago and it took a year for her to reveal her feelings for me. I told her that I can’t do long distance relationships and that if she’s serious about this, she will have to move to my country after a bit of time. It didn’t take her long before moving in with me. For a year everything seemed perfect. Even though she was telling me during this year, how rough her childhood was. How much abuse in the family there was. How many times she was bullied at school. How she was cutting herself and also had suicidal thoughts before our relationship. She did say those things, but I’ve never really seen the negative effects of this. She was still cheerful and affectionate around me. Our conversations were going very well. A lot of intimate evenings and even mornings. We had a joyful year. Sure, she didn’t always want to go out. Or didn’t always vibe with some people around us. But the thing is, I personally, never seen how bad the situation is because of her mental illness. She never showed it to me. Or maybe I’m just blind and ignorant. Though I don’t think so because recently she said how she wasn’t truly herself in that year. She thinks nobody will like her if she’s herself. To me this is unfair.
We did have some small arguments from time to time during this year, but to me, these didn’t seem all that serious. I always said how we’ll get through whatever we’re dealing with and that everything will be ok. That I love her. I always tried to stay positive. Never scream at her or hurt her (atleast not intentionally, through words. Never physical). Though I am more of a direct person, maybe I’m also not the best with being careful with my words. I try to describe them exactly as they are.
I work 8-9 hours a day, while I also go get groceries after work. She works 3-6 hours a day as a cleaning lady (sometimes she has days off cuz no work). I also pay for transport and for the food when we go out, always. She never even asked to pay for it once. She does split the rent half half. Because of me working more and paying more. I was kinda expecting her to make dinner for me. Like a giving and taking situation. More often than not. Sometimes she did say she didn’t feel like doing it so I would bring takeout, or make it myself after work.
So this is where the big problem started. It was around 2 weeks ago. I was at work and she called me saying how she doesn’t feel like making dinner. That she will herself go outside to buy food, IF she’s not ingame. (She plays a lot of video games). After I was done with work, I messaged her that I’m going to go get groceries. She instantly responded that she’s still ingame. I came home after 1 hour and asked if she got food. To which she just calmly responded with No. I was a little annoyed because her game rounds don’t last for one hour. And she said she will get food if she’s not ingame anymore. So I told her that she said she will go get food after her game. But she didn’t. She didn’t keep her word. That it feels dishonest. Part of my annoyance is that there were instances before where I come home after a long day at work, have to go get takeout and bring it to her while she just plays video games all day and laughs with her friends. It gives me a bad feeling. It gives me a feeling of being used. To be honest I think I am more sensitive to this because I feel like most of my life people were trying to take advantage of me.
So still during this call where I said this feels dishonest, I said I am not going to go get takeout. I am going to make myself dinner. Would you like something to eat? To which she replied that she doesn’t. After I ate, she came downstairs and gave me this “negative” look. Didn’t ask how my day went, nothing. She looked hurt. I asked her where she’s going. To the Psychiatrist. I asked her if she wants a ride. To which she said yes. On the way there we didn’t speak. I didn’t really like her attitude. I don’t think I did something wrong. After dropping her off and her counselling. She just messaged me “come get me”. I did. She started speaking a bit more normal to me. And she herself started the topic of our issue. How it was very hurtful to her to hear me call her a dishonest person. Even though I didn’t call her names. I just said it feels dishonest. We were back and forth arguing about it. She got a breakdown. Started crying. Went to bed. I started making myself another meal, thought I’d give her space. This might’ve been a mistake, because she did tell me once or twice that when she’s having a breakdown, the best thing I can do is cuddle her. I forgot about this, thought space would do her good.
Next day during my work, I messaged her saying that I’m going to go out with my friend. It was a Friday. I came from work, had to make dinner myself again. She was sleeping when I arrived, even though my sister said she heard her laughing a lot that day (my sister was in the house, another room). Could it be that when it was time to make dinner, she just thought she’ll go to bed so she won’t have to make it? When I went to our floor, she was still sleeping so I went on my PC to kill time. It was almost time for me to go with my friend and then suddenly she wakes up and comes to me. Looking all sad like, barely saying anything. Could barely answer my questions. Kept hugging me. She wanted to try to workout our issue I think. Talk about it. But I said I can’t right now. I told my friend I’d be there at a specific time and I keep my word. That we will talk later. So I went downstairs to make food. I didn’t tell her I was going to make food first. (it’s 3 floors). Before leaving the house, I hear her talking and laughing loudly. I got pissed off because she could barely talk to me, was all sad like. And suddenly she can talk and laugh. This is so weird to me when you say you’re depressed and feel very sad. This instant switch. Feels manipulative to me. Though again, I never had depression, barely know anything about depression. I did talk to her once about it. How she’s all sad to me but can laugh with her friends. She said she was putting on a mask.
I left and stayed until 6 AM at my friend’s place. I felt like shit for two days. Couldn’t concentrate at work and hearing her laugh when I was leaving also pissed me off. I didn’t really feel like coming back that quick. I was having fun with my friend. Charging up my batteries. I guess I needed some space to relax. When I came home she was being cute. Asking if I had fun etc. I didn’t feel good about our situation and I’m not just gonna ignore that I stayed with my friend until 6 AM. I told her why I stayed this late. That I didn’t really feel like coming back. While I was out, she was having a super heavy breakdown she says. That she can’t believe I left her. That I hurt her a lot. That something broke inside of her. We had a talk about this the next day. That this all happened because of my comment on her wrongdoing. She said she was going to do something and she didn’t. She could’ve told me that she changed her mind, say something, but she didn’t. I told her calmly, that it’s not ok. And how she reacted to this situation, escalated this whole thing. That she started to turn herself into a victim, even though I just commented on something I thought was not ok. After a while of discussion she agreed that she was being toxic to me. Acting a lot like her toxic mom. That she was playing the victim and that she’s sorry. After she said that, I relaxed because admitting to a mistake is a good thing. I hugged her and said that it’s going to be alright, that I love her and that we’ll get through this.
Next week she started this topic again. It felt like she was still holding resentment that I didn’t say sorry for making her feel like that. That I left her while she’s having the worst breakdown of her life. Even though, I didn’t. That day she just woke up, wanted to talk about our issue and I said that I can’t because I have plans with my friend and I keep my word. I didn’t know she’s having the worst breakdown of her life. She also didn’t try to call me or message me about it. We didn’t talk for long because I was busy with something. Next thing in bed, we start talking again and by that time I have already read like 20 articles about depression. It said how you should be more supportive. More like a caretaker. That she won’t have the energy to do some chores etc. That I should help out. That words can be very hurtful because her mind is already filled with negativity. So during our bed talk I said that I was sorry that I made her feel like that. That I could’ve just dropped the thing and got the food myself. That I’m reading about depression and will do better. That I won’t pester her about the dishes not being taken downstairs.
That’s when she dropped a bomb on me. She started talking about how much I hurt her. That she’s back into hurting herself (she had scratch marks on her upper left chest side). That she’s really not ok. That she’s tired of me not understanding her condition. That I left her while she was having the worst breakdown of her life. That I wasn’t there for her. That she hates this country and the people in it. That she hates her job. That she thinks she’s going to go back to her country to get space for an unknown amount of time.
I broke down in that moment. I just apologized for my ignorance about depression. How I’m reading about it and trying to improve. How often I said that I’m not going to give up and that we’ll get through this. Also after a year of her saying how important I am to her. How I am the only one that gives her a reason to live. How she wants to marry me and have kids with me. How affectionate she was to me. That before me she was going to either attempt suicide or give up on relationships. After all that, she’s just going to go back to her country to pretty much take a break from me? Probably that would also lead to a breakup, because it most often does.
I started talking about all that, how this doesn’t make sense. How do you go from 1 year of this talking, into thinking about taking a break after 2 weeks of having issues. Where I also showed the will to change and improve the situation. It just doesn’t make sense. I cried.
After a bit she said she won’t be leaving to her country. Which shocked me even more to be fair. This decision to leave my country to go back to hers is a big step that is supposed to be very thought through. To suddenly change decisions and make excuses that she won’t go made me feel even more like shit. It’s like playing with my emotions. I told her it was fu**ed up.
Since that night she’s being all cute with me, hugging, kissing, trying to have an intimate time (trying because I said no).
My gut says she is dishonest and trying to manipulate me. My logical reason doesn’t let me fall into jumping to these conclusions because I don’t understand depression. So I will give this more time. See what the psychiatrist diagnoses in her and see how it goes. I am very worried about our future.
tl;dr I'm not sure if I'm correct in my situation or more supportive because of my girlfriend's condition.
submitted by Nymlol to relationships_advice [link] [comments]


2023.03.22 17:03 Nymlol Is my [28M] girlfriend [21F] depressed or manipulative or both

My girlfriend (21) of more than a year and I (28) are having issues in our relationship. From what she is saying, she is suffering from depression for a long time already, perhaps there are even more mental disorders (borderline?). Yet, for now these illnesses have not yet been diagnosed by a professional. She just recently started going to one. They had 4 appointments yet no diagnosis yet, or so she says (Is this normal?). She says he’s just mostly listens to her. He did give her pills, which she is taking.
We met online two years ago and it took a year for her to reveal her feelings for me. I told her that I can’t do long distance relationships and that if she’s serious about this, she will have to move to my country after a bit of time. It didn’t take her long before moving in with me. For a year everything seemed perfect. Even though she was telling me during this year, how rough her childhood was. How much abuse in the family there was. How many times she was bullied at school. How she was cutting herself and also had suicidal thoughts before our relationship. She did say those things, but I’ve never really seen the negative effects of this. She was still cheerful and affectionate around me. Our conversations were going very well. A lot of intimate evenings and even mornings. We had a joyful year. Sure, she didn’t always want to go out. Or didn’t always vibe with some people around us. But the thing is, I personally, never seen how bad the situation is because of her mental illness. She never showed it to me. Or maybe I’m just blind and ignorant. Though I don’t think so because recently she said how she wasn’t truly herself in that year. She thinks nobody will like her if she’s herself. To me this is unfair.
We did have some small arguments from time to time during this year, but to me, these didn’t seem all that serious. I always said how we’ll get through whatever we’re dealing with and that everything will be ok. That I love her. I always tried to stay positive. Never scream at her or hurt her (atleast not intentionally, through words. Never physical). Though I am more of a direct person, maybe I’m also not the best with being careful with my words. I try to describe them exactly as they are.
I work 8-9 hours a day, while I also go get groceries after work. She works 3-6 hours a day as a cleaning lady (sometimes she has days off cuz no work). I also pay for transport and for the food when we go out, always. She never even asked to pay for it once. She does split the rent half half. Because of me working more and paying more. I was kinda expecting her to make dinner for me. Like a giving and taking situation. More often than not. Sometimes she did say she didn’t feel like doing it so I would bring takeout, or make it myself after work.
So this is where the big problem started. It was around 2 weeks ago. I was at work and she called me saying how she doesn’t feel like making dinner. That she will herself go outside to buy food, IF she’s not ingame. (She plays a lot of video games). After I was done with work, I messaged her that I’m going to go get groceries. She instantly responded that she’s still ingame. I came home after 1 hour and asked if she got food. To which she just calmly responded with No. I was a little annoyed because her game rounds don’t last for one hour. And she said she will get food if she’s not ingame anymore. So I told her that she said she will go get food after her game. But she didn’t. She didn’t keep her word. That it feels dishonest. Part of my annoyance is that there were instances before where I come home after a long day at work, have to go get takeout and bring it to her while she just plays video games all day and laughs with her friends. It gives me a bad feeling. It gives me a feeling of being used. To be honest I think I am more sensitive to this because I feel like most of my life people were trying to take advantage of me.
So still during this call where I said this feels dishonest, I said I am not going to go get takeout. I am going to make myself dinner. Would you like something to eat? To which she replied that she doesn’t. After I ate, she came downstairs and gave me this “negative” look. Didn’t ask how my day went, nothing. She looked hurt. I asked her where she’s going. To the Psychiatrist. I asked her if she wants a ride. To which she said yes. On the way there we didn’t speak. I didn’t really like her attitude. I don’t think I did something wrong. After dropping her off and her counselling. She just messaged me “come get me”. I did. She started speaking a bit more normal to me. And she herself started the topic of our issue. How it was very hurtful to her to hear me call her a dishonest person. Even though I didn’t call her names. I just said it feels dishonest. We were back and forth arguing about it. She got a breakdown. Started crying. Went to bed. I started making myself another meal, thought I’d give her space. This might’ve been a mistake, because she did tell me once or twice that when she’s having a breakdown, the best thing I can do is cuddle her. I forgot about this, thought space would do her good.
Next day during my work, I messaged her saying that I’m going to go out with my friend. It was a Friday. I came from work, had to make dinner myself again. She was sleeping when I arrived, even though my sister said she heard her laughing a lot that day (my sister was in the house, another room). Could it be that when it was time to make dinner, she just thought she’ll go to bed so she won’t have to make it? When I went to our floor, she was still sleeping so I went on my PC to kill time. It was almost time for me to go with my friend and then suddenly she wakes up and comes to me. Looking all sad like, barely saying anything. Could barely answer my questions. Kept hugging me. She wanted to try to workout our issue I think. Talk about it. But I said I can’t right now. I told my friend I’d be there at a specific time and I keep my word. That we will talk later. So I went downstairs to make food. I didn’t tell her I was going to make food first. (it’s 3 floors). Before leaving the house, I hear her talking and laughing loudly. I got pissed off because she could barely talk to me, was all sad like. And suddenly she can talk and laugh. This is so weird to me when you say you’re depressed and feel very sad. This instant switch. Feels manipulative to me. Though again, I never had depression, barely know anything about depression. I did talk to her once about it. How she’s all sad to me but can laugh with her friends. She said she was putting on a mask.
I left and stayed until 6 AM at my friend’s place. I felt like shit for two days. Couldn’t concentrate at work and hearing her laugh when I was leaving also pissed me off. I didn’t really feel like coming back that quick. I was having fun with my friend. Charging up my batteries. I guess I needed some space to relax. When I came home she was being cute. Asking if I had fun etc. I didn’t feel good about our situation and I’m not just gonna ignore that I stayed with my friend until 6 AM. I told her why I stayed this late. That I didn’t really feel like coming back. While I was out, she was having a super heavy breakdown she says. That she can’t believe I left her. That I hurt her a lot. That something broke inside of her. We had a talk about this the next day. That this all happened because of my comment on her wrongdoing. She said she was going to do something and she didn’t. She could’ve told me that she changed her mind, say something, but she didn’t. I told her calmly, that it’s not ok. And how she reacted to this situation, escalated this whole thing. That she started to turn herself into a victim, even though I just commented on something I thought was not ok. After a while of discussion she agreed that she was being toxic to me. Acting a lot like her toxic mom. That she was playing the victim and that she’s sorry. After she said that, I relaxed because admitting to a mistake is a good thing. I hugged her and said that it’s going to be alright, that I love her and that we’ll get through this.
Next week she started this topic again. It felt like she was still holding resentment that I didn’t say sorry for making her feel like that. That I left her while she’s having the worst breakdown of her life. Even though, I didn’t. That day she just woke up, wanted to talk about our issue and I said that I can’t because I have plans with my friend and I keep my word. I didn’t know she’s having the worst breakdown of her life. She also didn’t try to call me or message me about it. We didn’t talk for long because I was busy with something. Next thing in bed, we start talking again and by that time I have already read like 20 articles about depression. It said how you should be more supportive. More like a caretaker. That she won’t have the energy to do some chores etc. That I should help out. That words can be very hurtful because her mind is already filled with negativity. So during our bed talk I said that I was sorry that I made her feel like that. That I could’ve just dropped the thing and got the food myself. That I’m reading about depression and will do better. That I won’t pester her about the dishes not being taken downstairs.
That’s when she dropped a bomb on me. She started talking about how much I hurt her. That she’s back into hurting herself (she had scratch marks on her upper left chest side). That she’s really not ok. That she’s tired of me not understanding her condition. That I left her while she was having the worst breakdown of her life. That I wasn’t there for her. That she hates this country and the people in it. That she hates her job. That she thinks she’s going to go back to her country to get space for an unknown amount of time.
I broke down in that moment. I just apologized for my ignorance about depression. How I’m reading about it and trying to improve. How often I said that I’m not going to give up and that we’ll get through this. Also after a year of her saying how important I am to her. How I am the only one that gives her a reason to live. How she wants to marry me and have kids with me. How affectionate she was to me. That before me she was going to either attempt suicide or give up on relationships. After all that, she’s just going to go back to her country to pretty much take a break from me? Probably that would also lead to a breakup, because it most often does.
I started talking about all that, how this doesn’t make sense. How do you go from 1 year of this talking, into thinking about taking a break after 2 weeks of having issues. Where I also showed the will to change and improve the situation. It just doesn’t make sense. I cried.
After a bit she said she won’t be leaving to her country. Which shocked me even more to be fair. This decision to leave my country to go back to hers is a big step that is supposed to be very thought through. To suddenly change decisions and make excuses that she won’t go made me feel even more like shit. It’s like playing with my emotions. I told her it was fu**ed up.
Since that night she’s being all cute with me, hugging, kissing, trying to have an intimate time (trying because I said no).
My gut says she is dishonest and trying to manipulate me. My logical reason doesn’t let me fall into jumping to these conclusions because I don’t understand depression. So I will give this more time. See what the psychiatrist diagnoses in her and see how it goes. I am very worried about our future.
tl;dr I'm not sure if I'm correct in my situation or more supportive because of my girlfriend's condition.
submitted by Nymlol to relationships [link] [comments]


2023.03.22 17:01 Versucher42 The ending, again (I know, I know, but listen...)

So I know everybody and their mothers with a borderline personality have theories about the end of The Sopranos. I just finished a (fifth? sixth?) rewatch of the show, and have had clearer thoughts about the ending than I have on previous watches. I'm sure this topic gets raised every hour or so on this subreddit, but I do think I have a perspective on it that, so far as I can tell, doesn't get much play anywhere else. And I want, for my own purposes, to write down my thoughts and get them in order. This will go on for a while, so apologies in advance, but I wanted to lay everything out as best I could. If you're looking for a TL:DR, this is not your post. Spoilers below (obviously).

Roughly, there are two major camps concerning the meaning of the end of the show. One camp, by far the most vocal, is the "Tony dies" camp. Here, the idea is that the famous "cut to black" in the final scene at Holsten's is the cinematic representation of Tony's death, and (crucially) that Tony's death is the dramatic culmination of the series as a whole. The Master of Sopranos essay lays out the evidence for the view, which is overwhelmingly convincing for a lot of people. The essay is pretty exhaustive, almost a frame-by-frame analysis of that final scene and (through it) an interpretation of the whole series. I'll just highlight a few key things, since they are usually brought up as the clinching pieces of evidence.
Overall, aside from these details, I think the argument's strength comes from the tension of that final scene. It seems clear that the scene wants you to be afraid something bad is about to happen, before it pulls the rug out from under you. Often, deathers will argue that this tension makes no sense unless it's building toward Tony's death. So, while we don't see the death itself, it must have happened, and in any case there are good reasons internal to the goals of the show and foreshadowed in advance for why we don't (even can't) see it happen.
The other camp, if it is a coherent camp, is the "open to multiple interpretations" camp. This has been advanced in multiple ways by multiple people, but is perhaps best expressed in this AV Club essay. The idea is that the "Tony dies" view is too simple, given the general ways in which The Sopranos always reveled in ambiguity and anticlimax (the essay compares it to fundamentalist religion). We don't see Tony die, and so we don't really know what happens that night in Holsten's. One way to interpret it, obviously, is that Tony dies, but it's far from the only one. Perhaps, it is often claimed, we're being shown the tension with which Tony always has to live his life. He better than anyone knows that he could die at any time, and so that tension is just the underlying anxiety he lives with all of his life. In any case, there are multiple ways of viewing that final scene (if there weren't, why would we still be arguing about it?), and reducing them all to one robs it of its dramatic significance.
(Technically you could say that there is a third camp -- the "Tony lives" camp -- but this is usually just an expression of hope, not an interpretation of the series/ending. I won't talk about it here.)
You'll notice that I discussed one view at way more length than the other. This is because, in a superficial sense, all the "evidence" is on one side. People in the "multiple interpretations" camp may have their own personal interpretations of the final scene, or they may not. But if they do, the interpretations are ideas that are far from being as fully thought out as the "Tony dies" theory. Deathers like pointing this out. The debate often stalls here. The multiple interpreters claim that the show is more ambiguous than this. The deathers admit that there is ambiguity in parts of the show, but not in all of it, and that anyway if you just read the Master of Sopranos essay again you'll see that this is not ambiguous.

I think both camps are wrong, and in fact have generally been totally confused by the debate about the ending as it still exists. I wonder if this comes in part from not having watched the show when it came out. I imagine that for those who watched that last season as it aired, there was a lot of wringing of hands about whether Tony would live or die. My impression is that critics at that time generally accepted the ending as ambiguous on this point (many of them wishing that it wasn't), while it was normal fans who readily accepted the "Tony dies" theory once it was developed. I of course recognized that Tony could die at the end of the show, but didn't expect it, and perhaps more importantly didn't expect the end of the show to depend on whether this plot point happened or not. And it seemed to me that the show itself wasn't really directing my attention to this very much. To me, it obviously had other, deeper concerns.
For this reason, I was always especially hostile to the "Tony dies" camp, and I remain so. I think the basic argument against it, which others have made before me of course, is pretty devastating: Tony's dying is simply not a satisfying ending to the show. What is it supposed to mean that Tony dies at the end? That he's getting punished for his life of crime, just like every other cinematic gangster ever? Given that people grew up on Godfather, Goodfellas, etc. it makes sense that many of them might expect such a conclusion, but this show always made fun of its relationship to these movies. The fun it made was affectionate, of course, but it's made abundantly clear throughout the series that this is not a typical mob story. Lots of viewers were unhappy about this, wishing there was more mob drama/violence, but we can say now with confidence that they were just misreading the show. Chase and co. cared more about Tony's relationships and his own view of life (informed by those relationships, therapy, various experiences, etc.) than they did about who would kill whom, who would rule Jersey after Tony goes, etc. So I guess the direction the deathers have to go here is to say: yes, the show cares more about Tony and his view of his life, and his death. The death at the end is satisfying because it is what Tony has been contemplating all along, and finally it comes. But still this doesn't seem very satisfying; indeed, it seems more like an after the fact justification for what is at the end of the day a very conventional way of ending a story. What a waste it would be for such a bold, creative and uncompromising show to end on this frankly quite boring note.
At the same time, though, the multiple interpreters seem to me often to argue in bad faith. The tension creators in that final scene are there, and much of the argument against the deathers has seemed to me willfully obtuse ("maybe it means something else, we don't know!"). That last scene is very clearly setting us up to believe that something terrible is about to happen. Why, if Tony is not about to die?
Mostly I've bounced back and forth between these objections, unsure as to exactly why. I've even been tempted sometimes to avoid the issue by thinking that the show is basically over after my two favorite episodes ("Kennedy and Heidi" and "The Second Coming"), and that the stuff in the last two is mostly unnecessary. But I smile every time that Journey song starts up in Holsten's, and now find that last scene almost hilariously funny, and this impression strengthens every time I watch the show again. I think I've finally figured out why. So, here it is:

That last scene is an intentional toying with the audience. Chase is deliberately giving the scene a tension that the events in it do not really warrant. He sets us up to expect a dramatic conclusion that he is dead set on denying us.
All of the evidence that the Master of Sopranos essay adduces as proof that Tony dies is there, and the deathers are right that it mostly points in one direction. Indeed, I don't think it really needed a whole essay to spell this out. You can just feel it while watching. Obviously that's because of the filmic techniques the essay goes into, but we don't really need to have all this pointed out to us. Everyone knows while watching that scene, especially if they've noticed that the episode (and thus the series) is within minutes of ending forever, that something important is about to happen. And indeed, if you watch it a couple times, it's not hard to notice the filmic techniques either. One of the oddities of the experience of reading the Master of Sopranos essay is that one senses that the writer finds all this stuff much deeper and more exciting than it is. (That's my impression anyway.) The techniques pointed to (point of view shots, foreshadowing, Godfather references) are not anything special in themselves, and certainly not anything mind-blowing for a series that gave us episodes like "Funhouse," "Kennedy and Heidi," "The Test Dream," etc. etc. These techniques work in the scene to build tension, but it feels like any first year film student could have told you as much, and any competent director could have come up with these ideas for building tension in the episode.
That is intentional, I think. The deathers' three points of evidence above are decidedly not some genius construction. They're a really quite cheesy setup for a conventional plot point. Tony dies, and dies in the midst of a freaking Godfather reference? Are you kidding? (I say this by the way as a great fan of The Godfather, and of that scene with Michael Corleone in the restaurant in particular.) I think the answer is, yes, Chase is kidding. The whole show has been very intentional about its relationship to traditional mob stories in general, and The Godfather in particular. The show gets a large part of its energy from the friction between this traditionally more violent and more moralistic mode of storytelling on the one hand, and the more domestic, everyday, family-centric mode that was more natural to serialized TV shows. The show's interest doesn't really lie in the one or the other, but in something in between. The show works in part because the threat of mob drama and the moral implications of it always lie in the background and threaten to break through, in ways that undermine the usual stability of the more traditional family-focused TV drama. And this of course makes it possible for Chase and co. to say all kinds of important things about family that the traditional family stories usually gloss over, about subterranean rifts and long-held grudges and slow generational change and on and on and on.
Think of the moment after A.J. tries to kill Junior -- he says he's inspired by the famous Godfather scene (where Michael is avenging his father's shooting, too), and Tony tells him "it's a movie." In fact, what A.J. says is that he's inspired by his dad's reaction to the scene (that he sits eating ice cream and says it's his favorite scene). Tony's reaction to this is not straightforward. He means "it's a movie, not real life." But of course his real life (unlike ours) is the subject of that movie. He himself has killed people in order to exact revenge, and probably has even thought of The Godfather while doing it sometimes. His real response to A.J. is not that it's just a movie, but that A.J. is not like him, that it's not in his "nature" to act like this. And he knows, for his own part, largely because of his experience in therapy, that he is not some simplistic mob movie character, that in fact while it's in his nature to do these things it's not in his nature to do them wholeheartedly, as his panic attacks and depression reveal. The Godfather reference serves to point us back to the tension of the whole show -- that these are people who do horrible things and can't or wont' fully acknowledge it to themselves, and that this lack of acknowledgement dooms them, even if the doom comes slowly.
By the end of the show, we've experienced this tension in more or less all of its possible variations, and have seen the characters experience it too, and make their peace (or not) with it. A.J. and Meadow especially are challenged by their upbringing to decide to what degree they want to be characters in a mob movie, and I think it's no accident that the last episode spends so much time looking at what direction their lives will be going in after the series is over. (Asking themselves, in Tony's coma-ridden words: "who am I? Where am I going?") Neither makes a particularly encouraging choice, though it's clear at least that neither of them is going to turn into their parents all over again. Tony himself shows, in the late scene with A.J.'s therapist, that he's going to fall into old habits, and thus forever be the half-hearted and depressed mobster he's always been.
What then of that last scene? Why does it make me grin? You know when you're watching it that things are about to end. And you know, if you've been paying attention, that the things the show cares about, the things that it's helped you to care about more intelligently (i.e., the way these characters relate to each other and how they conceive of their lives) cannot possibly resolve themselves in the next 5 minutes. You feel tense because part of you still wants that resolution, hopes that Chase and co. have some last trick up their sleeve, hopes that that last trick will somehow draw all this mess together and make some sense of it. And then you find that the show itself seems to be setting you up for it. All those point of view shots, the Members Only guy, the repeated failed attempts by Meadow to parallel park and then her run across the busy street -- all of it seems to be confirming for you what you wanted, for something big to happen and blow you away. Tony, Carmela, and A.J. are just talking about the things they always talk about, including a reference back to a really important family event from way back in Season 1. But you don't pay it much attention, because of the building tension. You're getting more and more excited. Meadow crosses the street unscathed, the bell rings, and then -- black screen.
There is genius here, but not where the deathers think it is. The genius is not in the tension building elements, which are film technique 101, but in the juxtaposition of this tension with a normal family moment, and that black screen. Nothing happens in that scene, not really. Or what happens in it is exactly what's happened in the show all through. The Sopranos sit around talking, breakin' each others' balls, worrying about the future, trying to remind themselves that things are good sometimes and that that memory can help you through the tough times. That could have happened without the tension elements and the black screen, and it would have been a good last scene, I think. But what's there is better. The show tempts us, the viewers, with a big resolution, even though we ought to know that one isn't coming. We give in to the temptation, and we give in to it for the same reason that all of the characters in the show make all of their bad decisions -- we want to believe that life is simpler than it is, that one big moment might change everything and save us from having to do the dirty work of life, day by day by day. We want to "get it," as Tony does in the desert in "Kennedy and Heidi," but also to be able to say clearly what it is that we get, and then have all the problems of our lives resolved. We're interested in The Sopranos because we're interested in those problems, whether we realize it or not. And that last scene is telling us: the problems are always there, and your hope that they could all just somehow go away is always there, too. The Journey song comments on this so obviously as to almost need no elaboration. It was a perfect choice, I think, in that it means this really quite deep thing, but is also just as banal as the tension setup. These are really ordinary, banal people in a way, and yet their lives (like our own) have all the depth that a life can have. And the most deep, banal thing that life tells us is: don't stop. Keep going. Hold on to what was good. Build what you can from it.
Chase's ploy here, I want to stress, is not mean-spirited. When I grin at the last scene, I'm not grinning at the misguided deathers. Chase is not making fun of people who wanted to see Tony dead. In fact, he seems to have been disgusted by this desire, and surprised after it was over that so many people were feeling it, since presumably they had been at least partly identifying with Tony throughout these 6 seasons of television. Chase is poking fun at a very human desire in all of us, the desire for our problems to go away, for them to resolve cleanly like a movie does. The desire is so strong that we convinced ourselves that a guy in a Members Only jacket was going to come out of the bathroom with more than just his dick in his hands to kill Tony, even though we know that that wouldn't solve any of the problems that the show has encouraged us to see and care about.
What happens when it cuts to black? Well, in a certain sense the answer is "who cares?" Here, I think the multiple interpreters are on to something. Maybe Tony dies, maybe nothing happens and these characters go on living their lives, maybe Tony is about to turn state's witness, maybe Meadow is going to reveal that the reason she changed her birth control is that she just got pregnant, etc. It doesn't matter, because the show is over and has said all it wants to say. But what really happens when it cuts to black is that you, the viewer, are frustrated. Your desire that something big would happen at the end has been frustrated. And the reason for that frustration is absurd. You wanted something that you should have known you couldn't have. But you can't help wanting it, because for all of us, as for Christopher, "the fuckin' regularness of life is too fuckin' hard." We've got to live it anyway, and that's all there is to do after the screen goes black.
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2023.03.22 17:00 _Anonymous_one Your favourite Past Corrie Character or Pet (2000s and 2010s)- Round 1 heat 8 (part 1)

Thank you for your votes! :)
Heat 7 results
1st- Liz McDonald- 93 points
2nd- Maxine Heavey/Peacock- 61 points
3rd- Candice Stowe- 50 points
4th- Shelley Unwin- 20 points
5th- Emma Brooker- 19 points
6th- Kal Nazir- 11 points
7th- Paul Clayton- 4 points
8th- Kayleigh Morton- 3 points
9th- Sam Kingston- 2 points
10th- Penny King- 2 points
In an all female top 5, the qualifiers were really clear early on and never really moved that much. Liz scooped top spot, continuing the total dominance of the McDonalds so far, though faced some tough competition from runner up Maxine early on, as she went for Liz a few times, before falling behind. Third place Candice was a non mover all heat and easily shielded herself from the others. It took her long enough, but by midway through, Shelley had finally got herself moving, and she was lucky cos her nearest rivals were slowing down. Shelley’s rise caused her to swap places with Emma in the end, and Liz’s granddaughter hung on in the final place. Kal burned bright at first, but this was really short lived and his chances of instant qualification were numbered, due to peaking too early before stalling. But there is still a chance for Kal, as he’s the seventh wildcard. Sadly though this means yet another Morton has bitten the dust, as Kayleigh has been eliminated, and so have Paul, Sam, and Penny!
Congratulations to Liz, Maxine, Candice, Shelley, and Emma though! They’re our next 5 qualifiers, so go into the table below:
Round 2 qualifiers:
Imran Habeeb, Rob Donovan, Charlie Stubbs, Gloria Price, Claudia Colby, Lloyd Mullaney, Steph Britton, Molly Compton/Dobbs, Robert Preston, Bev Unwin, Ashley Peacock, Emily Bishop, Janice Battersby, Eddie Windass, Angie Appleton, Michelle Connor, Anna Windass, Moira Pollock, Owen Armstrong, Vicky Jefferies, Jim McDonald, Sunita Parekh/Alahan, Danny Baldwin, Tony Gordon, Maya Sharma, Les Battersby, Jason Grimshaw, Luke Britton, Craig Harris, Andy Carver, Liz McDonald, Maxine Heavey/Peacock, Candice Stowe, Shelley Unwin, Emma Brooker….
Wildcards:
Umed Alahan, Len Windass, Jade Rowan, Tyler Jefferies, Amber Kalirai, Carol Baldwin, Kal Nazir….
Here’s heat number 8 of 23 in this first round! Slowly but surely, we’re getting through them now! Who’s gonna be next through? Let’s find out!
Link to part 2:
https://www.reddit.com/coronationstreet/comments/11ynes4/your_favourite_past_corrie_character_or_pet_2000s/
Voting ends on Friday at 4pm. Happy voting! :)
View Poll
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2023.03.22 16:59 Standard_Potential63 When you think about argus from e3 demo

One could tell that if we miraculously got something older than e3 demo and it had deleted colossi content, these colossi would probably be: slowy being deleted, with arena mechanics not working; no working small weak points to make them fall or crouch, or simply no weak points at all; no textures; just a handfull of deleted colossi info(like roc, with probably devil and spider mading far into the game development), or just one like roc; and finaly, this playable beta version probably wont have anything at all, similar to e3 but a bit more of data, like leftover animations or attack codes, maybe even more death models and different working versions of current colossi, like a functioning beta skinny Dirge or blue Phalanx.
Even then, with more people having programs to code and modelling, people would be capable of reconstructing them with official data, so, much better than nothing
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2023.03.22 16:59 Aggressive-City4453 IT knows when I am sleeping IT knows when I am awake

Kinda sounds like a Santa Claus song eh? I could only wish it was good ole St.Nick. I don’t have a name for this unknown terrifying creature so I call IT, IT.
It all started about 2015 when I moved to the North to the Rocky Mountains in the Idaho Panhandle. I went adventuring riding my 4 wheeler deep into the woods, just exploring and loving the isolation of having nobody else around. I packed extra gas a pick ax and shovel to do a Little Rock hounding as Idaho is the gem state. I planned on making this just a day trip as I had plenty of sunlight until at least 9 o’clock as it was the middle of June.
I took off down a trail behind my house after mapping out the area, I planned on taking my quad as far as I could before, jumping off and hiking into some uncharted territory, as I thought some of the best finds would be where very little people if any had gone there. It was a beautiful day about 80 degrees with a little breeze, the trail was fun, hills, tight turns, even some big boulders embedded in the trail as some of it was part of an old logging road. The further I went, the more rugged and rough the terrain was, it slowed me down a little but I was out just enjoying the day.
I logged in about 20 miles of trails on my 4 wheeler and found a thick forest with steep mountains and big boulders in my way. So I figured this is as good place as any to start hiking and exploring. It was tough going and along the way I found several quartz veins in the side of the mountain I rummaged around, busted some of it up in hopes I might find some gold. As the afternoon went on I figured I better go on ahead if I’m going to get to the uncharted area I picked out.
As I continued on I noticed a big hole in the ground I almost fell into. Kinda like the cave from the movie the descent. It was an amazing sight, probably an old abandoned mine shaft over 100 years old. No warnings it was there I just stumbled upon it. I threw a rock down to see if I could hear it hit the bottom, and it did after several seconds, so I knew it was a deep hole, and very dark too even in the daylight.
After exploring around the opening searching for ore and unique rocks in which I found some pretty big chunks of red garnet and a few samples of opal beautiful stones. I noticed it was getting late, damn I thought it’s 730pm already. I made a note of my find and pinpointed the location so I could go back, Then I started my hike back to my 4 wheeler. As I was leaving I heard some weird indescribable shriek coming from down in the dark deep hole, It sounded like it was pretty far away but it still sent chills down my spine and made me speed walk away after gathering my tools and rocks. As I was hiking back to my 4 wheeler I couldn’t help like feeling I was being watched and constantly had to look over my shoulder. Not much I could see as the forest was crazy thick up in this part of the woods.
Darkness was falling in quick on me as I was almost back to my 4 wheeler, then I heard that demonic shriek from the path i just came from, and it sounded just like the one from the mine shaft but only closer out in the woods now. I felt the hair on my neck stand straight up and I now had goosebumps all over. I felt as if I was in fight or flight mode so I chose to start jogging in the direction of my quad. I could see it about 50 yds ahead at the edge of the tree line. I thought to myself almost there just gotta keep moving. Just as I reached my 4 wheeler I heard tree branches snapping and underbrush being mowed down like something big is rushing through the forest heading in my direction.
I fired up my quad and floored it onto the rough trail my shovel flew off the 4 wheeler rack and I just left it. About 80 yards from where I took off I turned to look behind me and there IT stood. Ungodly skinny, tall, and pale as a ghost with no hair, bright gleaming yellow eyes two horns on its head like a big horn sheep and long gangly arms with giant hands and claws like a wolverine about 7 ft tall at least. It had a head like an elk big nose and it was staring right at me. I heard it growl or roar over my quad engine then it took off towards me at a speed I didn’t think I could outrun even on my Kawasaki Brute 750 which easily did 60mph.
I navigated the rough trail the best I could almost losing control several times pushing 40 mph and it was crashing through trees gaining on me. As luck would have it I made it to the old logging road where I could open it up full throttle 60 mph the whole way and I would glance back at every straightaway to see where IT was. Fortunately I was losing It. Still IT was not giving up. I finally got out on the main road it must’ve been 1030 now as the moon was out and it was pretty dark. I floored it the final 3 miles to my driveway and finally let off the gas and parked my quad in the shed. Being aware of my surroundings I crept to my house got in and locked the doors and windows I didn’t know wether or not that thing was still following me or what? Just when I thought all was good I heard that demonic evil sound that it made before at the mine and in the woods. I thought oh my god no way it followed me all the way home and found me.
I peeked out my window out into an open meadow in my front yard and at the edge of the tree line about 75 yards out I was disturbed by what I seen. There IT was standing bipedal and puffing out it’s chest making that god awful noise. I could hear it through my house. It was walking back and forth just pacing waiting hoping I would come back out. Surely IT couldn’t see me but it suddenly cocked its head and looked right at me peeking through my shades on my window. I quickly closed them. Got on the phone with the fish n game explaining to them I was being stalked by some creature. They insured me it was just wildlife and I told them to come out to my address and see for themselves. It took about an hour for them to get there the creature was there then wasn’t. Of course when the two wardens got to my residence there was no sight of IT.
We talked for several minutes, I could tell they weren’t believing any of my story. They even had the gall to assume I was drinking or on drugs. Shortly after they left I decided I needed to go to bed I was exhausted. Maybe I did just hallucinate all that who knows. I was woken up by some strange scratching noises outside of my bedroom window. I checked the clock it was 3 am. I was terrified to peek out my window as I had an idea of what I’d see. Sure enough as soon as I peeked there was it’s big head yellow glowing eyes peering right at me as if it was looking through my soul. Then it smiled with rows of razor sharp teeth. I closed the blinds. Thinking no this is not happening. Waited a few moments looked again and it was gone.
The next morning I looked outside at the siding on my house, outside of my bedroom and sure as shit there was deep claw marks all over the side of my house. I knew now that this all was very real and not a nightmare. I have lived in the same house for 8 years now as it is 2023 and everyday and every night that thing is watching me, it makes sure I know of it’s presence. It hasn’t done any harm to me yet. But it’s probably just waiting to catch me slipping. I only go to work and stay inside my house year round now because It knows when I’m sleeping and knows when I’m awake. Just patiently waiting for my final mistake.
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2023.03.22 16:58 costocrates My grandfather's Omega. Can anyone advise on the year and model and best course of action for service?

My grandfather's Omega. Can anyone advise on the year and model and best course of action for service?
First post here.
Inherited this watch after it sat in a box for over 60 years. It still works and winds perfectly, but there is some cosmetic damage on the dial and crystal as you can see. What is my best course of action as far as servicing this and what is the max that would be worth spending to get it cleaned up? I am not interested at all in selling it, but would be helpful to know approximate value to compare to the service costs. I wear a Speedmaster as my all around watch, so would probably only ever wear this very occasionally. Mainly interested in doing what is necessary so it doesn't fall into total disrepair after more decades.
Thanks!
https://preview.redd.it/tq9o4swkcbpa1.png?width=1058&format=png&auto=webp&s=44268ff33649d0581c2418dd512e13e86770a126
submitted by costocrates to OmegaWatches [link] [comments]


2023.03.22 16:55 Super-Shenron Endless Cycle

Lilly hid behind a tree, her breath held as hard as she could. She cursed her burning legs as she peered around both corners for potential attackers. All she saw was a silent, unmoving walker on the ground next to a shed. Waiting about five minutes in the same spot, she checked her bullets. Two. Noting to make her shots count, she stepped closer to examine the body and gave it a light kick. Lilly took its lack of response as a blessing to dig through its pockets, glancing over her shoulder the whole time. But whoever killed them already took everything they had.
“Shit.” Lilly said. Yet, her hand landed on something firm but small…
A quarter. Virginia, 2005 was written on it. Her father never had that one in his collection, although Lilly could imagine his reaction if he did. Funny. After all he went through on the battlefield, these tiny pieces were one of the few things that brought him some solace. If nothing else, Lilly dared to hope he finally found closure. Amidst the endless pounding of their heart, the living could use such luxury.
“Ah!” She gasped, taken aback by a nearby rustling. In a steady and quiet pace, Lilly huddled back in her hiding spot with a trembling hold of her weapon. Was she really being followed? She couldn’t even trust her senses with how light-headed she constantly felt. She dared another peek… when a man burst through the leaves, carrying a pot of sunflower in his hands. It was normally Lilly’s cue to leave… but the glimpse she took of his face stopped her. Against her better judgment, she double checked…
“Oh god…” Lilly held her tightened chest and used the tree for support. He… was there. That fucking animal was right here. He had an unkempt beard and an eyepatch, but this wasn’t a face Lilly could forget. Not that she didn’t try to… but even her “sleep” wouldn’t allow her. Like she was still imprisoned in that meat locker. Like there was no way out… none except death.
It didn’t have to be her own.
Just as she was about to come out of hiding… the door of the cabin closed. He was definitely inside… but he’d see her coming. There would be better opportunities to make him pay.
To think she once tried to find common ground with that…
“... That guy.”
“Kenny.” Lee corrected.
“Right.” Lilly coughed. “You really think I should talk to him?”
“I guess that’s up to you.”
Despite his evasive reply, his flickering gaze from Kenny to her made Lee’s opinion on the matter clear. If they were to live together, it would be a lot easier to bury the hatchet.
Lilly met this man yesterday, but it already felt like she could understand him. Talk to him about a lot of things. Was it because they’ve been (quite literally) staring death in the eyes together? After spending so long planning or preparing for… the end, one would think she would be somewhat prepared for this.
Lilly turned to Kenny, who kept watch at the top of the RV. Next thing she knew, she let him take charge of the situation. And now she owed one to the last per How was she even supposed to go on about this? Something like “I’m sorry I was going to feed your son to these monsters”? This wasn’t gonna end well… but she was supposed to relieve him of his duty anyways.
She took a deep breath. “Here goes nothing. Hey, Kenny.”
As soon as Lilly announced her presence, the father’s very eyes wanted to bury her deep. “For the watch?”
“Listen…” Lilly rubbed the back of her left arm, “First, I wanted to… thank you, for helping me and my father back there… despite the circumstances.”
Kenny raised an eyebrow for a few seconds, before wearing a neutral expression. “It was just the right thing to do.”
“And… you should know I didn’t think he was in the right.”
“Could’ve fooled me.” Kenny replied through gritted teeth.
“We were all in a bad situation, Kenny. You saw what happened after that argument with my dad.”
“Oh!” Kenny laughed bitterly, “So now this is my fault?!”
“It’s not…!” Lilly inhaled and exhaled once more. “Look. Maybe that’s not an excuse but… he’s all I have left, and I’m doing whatever I can to keep him alive. Perhaps you can understand that?”
Kenny opened his mouth to say something else… but nothing came out of it. Instead, he had an almost vacant look on his face.
"Kenny?" Lilly called out to him.
"I… was just thinking of something else. It's not important.”
Lilly could tell it wasn’t true, but now wasn’t the time to ruin her progress with an inappropriate question.
“Well, what are you waiting for?” Kenny reached a hand towards Lilly, “Climb on."
Surprised by the offer, Lilly jumped up and let him help her up. There, she could see the walkers.
“Look at these guys.” He said. “All walkin’ around like they’re not about to fuck over the town. What do you think when you see them?”
“Lee asked me the same question.” Lilly said. “What’s even there to think?”
“I mean…” Kenny said. “When they talk about resurrection… I had a whole different picture in mind. Whatever happened to their souls-”
“Souls? What, you’re religious or something?”
“Born and raised a Christian man.”
“Well, I go back and forth. But religion and hope… Lee has seen the good it did that girl from the other night. It’s best to focus on being alive than relying on these things.
Kenny stayed silent for a few seconds.
“I’m aware this whole thing might be bullshit, Lilly. But where the hell would we be, if there weren’t people who believed in crazy things. Like that a piece of rock could somehow make a fire. Or… I’m sure Lee’s got historical facts for us. Point is, maybe we need to believe in some things to make it through this.”
“Well…” Lilly said. “I'm not in a hurry to find out which of us is right about the afterlife. Let me take over.”
“It’s alright. I think I’ve got another hour in me.”
“Okay… I’ll see you later.”
Lilly hopped down from the vehicle. While she refused to believe there was a golden house on a fluffy cloud with her mother waiting for her… at least they seemed to have worked something out.
Kenny watched the lady get further away from him before resuming his duty. An apology would’ve been nice, but realizing they were in the wrong would have to do for now. Besides… some of what she said wasn't total bullshit. His gaze drifted towards Katjaa and Duck’s room. If nothing else, these things gave him an opportunity to be with them. And he already had blood on his hands… it had to count for something.
Didn’t it?
“Why am I thinking about it all of a sudden?” Kenny muttered.
It probably wasn’t helped by… waking up early again. He had something to do anyway. Disregarding his canned food once more, Kenny picked up the pot and pushed the door open.
“Man…” his back made sure to remind him how old he was. About as soon as he came out, two walkers limped towards him. He briefly pondered over what it must have been like for them. Were they suffering on the inside? Or… was there nothing left? No longer weighed down by such things like age, or fearing for their lives… or being ashamed of anything they do.
Kenny kicked them both... barely staggering them. Another kick... and that was enough to knock down. Pondering on his unusual weakness, he continued on his path. His plans didn’t involve getting his hands dirty… besides, they could probably distract whatever was out there yesterday. He may have imagined it, though.
The former fisherman continued along the treeline to reach the makeshift tomb he had made. Too small of a grave for the pile of bodies he left in his wake, but it would have to be enough at that moment.
"Here, your favorite." Kenny said. “You know I was more of a fan of gifts that last… but what can I say? This world has a hell of a way to make you appreciate what doesn’t.”
He closed his eye.
“I didn’t look back, just like I promised not to. But Clem was right. I didn’t know these people. Or what will happen if this place falls one day. Should I have left her there? Am I even capable of looking after them?”
He tenderly touched the grave.
“Truth be told? I don’t even know what I’m doing here anymore. Do I even belong here? Sometimes… sometimes I catch myself thinking maybe it should have been me. You probably would have been smarter than me about things. You wouldn’t have tried to march people through a blizzard for nothing. You wouldn’t have… been alone.”
Kenny shook his head. "I guess it doesn't matter now. Same time tomorrow?"
Time had come to head back home. All this... somehow lightened the load on his heart somehow. Maybe today he would actually feel like feeding his body. Or better yet, actually grab some sleep. At least, it settled the argument: he truly was in no condition to take care of anybody else. In fact, he was more likely to drag them down with him and get them killed too.
When he pushed the door open, his blood ran cold a cold metal pressed against the back of his head.
“Guess your boat plan didn’t work out?” A woman said.
“The fuck?!” Kenny let out.
“Turn around. Slowly.”
Trying and failing to keep his heartbeat under control, Kenny did as he was told...
"Jesus..." Kenny muttered, as he faced the person he just about wanted to see the least.
Lilly approached with a smirk. “You remember me. Good. This will make things easier. Get inside.”
An impulse to just charge the she-devil and take her gun surged through him... Kenny shut down that impulse and obeyed Lilly.
"Sit down."
He did, sitting right next to the cans. Lilly closed the door and sat down as well. The sunrays piercing through the wood still betrayed many things about her. She always had a thin frame, but it got to sick levels since then. She wore her hair into a ponytail... and she had atrocious bags under her blood-shot eyes.
“The others aren’t with you. So, they’re dead?”
Kenny didn’t respond.
“Even… Clementine?”
Kenny kept quiet.
“Maybe they weren’t meant to live.”
“Just get it over with. We have nothing to talk about.”
Lilly pistol whips Kenny.
“There is the Kenny I know. Hasty as ever. You didn’t think we were gonna rush this, did you?”
“I know Clementine is still out there.”
This prompted Kenny to turn around, with Lilly smirking.
"My god, she IS alive."
“I’ll find her.”
“She will let you near her.”
“I will be the judge of that. You? You’ve got a different problem.”
Kenny grabbed Lilly’s wrist as he slammed her against the wall.
She could be anywhere.
Why? Why did she have to find him? Now, after all this time? It’s
Lilly stabbed Kenny.
He couldn't stop her now.
Again, he let her down. Like everyone else in his life.
He wanted this. He had it coming for so long. Now he was scared. So afraid. Why?
submitted by Super-Shenron to TWDGFanFic [link] [comments]


2023.03.22 16:55 digital4kcollector (Offer) list (request) list

I split all splitable titles If you want a full code please let me know.
​ *Disney/Marvel/Star Wars all hd unless marked as 4k *
​ *hd unless marked otherwise collections* ​
​ *HD unless noted as 4k* ​
TV shows
Standard definition and XML Titles
ISO
submitted by digital4kcollector to uvtrade [link] [comments]


2023.03.22 16:53 friendlyBrowniee Ramadan the month of Quran

One of the major reasons of the heartbreaking decline of Muslim Ummah, according to the poet of the east Iqbal Sahab, is a complete abandonment of the study of The Noble Quran by Muslims all around the world.
وہ زمانے میں معزز تھے مسلماں ہو کر،
اور تم خوار ہوئے تارک قرآں ہو کر
Translation:
"The honoured of their times, they lived, For their's was true iman, You live disgraced, as having left the paths of Al-Quran."
The copy of the Quran is sitting there in all our houses waiting to be picked up and understood by us who claim to be followers of the greatest man to ever set foot on this planet, Muhammad bin Abdullah (PBUH). The reading of Quran has been reduced to earning Sawab (Good Deeds) by clueless recitation instead of us understanding what the heavenly book is trying to convey, implementing it in our respective lives and preaching its message to other Muslims.
In his famous Iblees ki Majlis-e-Shura, through the character of Iblees, Iqbal speaks of a heart wrenching tale of Muslim fall:
چشم عالم سے رہے پوشیدہ یہ آئیں تو خوب،
یہ غنیمت ہے کہ خود مومن ہے محروم یقیں
ہے یہی بہتر الہیات میں الجھا رہے،
یہ کتاب الله کی تاویلات میں الجھا رہے
Translation:
"Better, if this Law (Islam) be kept hidden from the world's eye: So much the better, the Believer himself is deprived of inner conviction.
Better that he remains busy and entangled in the metaphysical theology: Better, that he remains busy and entangled in the interpretations of the Book of God."
Let us all take advantage of this month of Ramadan and set our boats into the vast and deep ocean of the Noble Quran. May this Ramadan help you witness a glimpse of the greatness of Allah and bring you closer to him.
Ramadan Kareem!
كتب أنزَلَتهُ إِلَيْكَ مُبْرَك لِّيَدَبْرُوا ءَايَتِهِ ، وَلِيَتَذَكَّرَ أُولُوا الْأَلْبَبِ
'This is a blessed Book which We have revealed to you 'O Prophet' so that they may contemplate its verses, and people of reason may be mindful.
(The Noble Quran 38:29)
submitted by friendlyBrowniee to MuslimCorner [link] [comments]


2023.03.22 16:53 okclm Today I learned Predator detection range is influenced by elevation

I was in the upper Bleak Inlet area crouching at the top of the Pensive Outlook tower. I was observing a pack of 3 timberwolves below that were patrolling the area. I was undetected. As 1 of the wolves approached the climbing rope to the lower area, I stood up for a better view and the was detected The timberwolf howling sequence initiated and the moral meter appeared! As the crow flies, I was not that close to the wolves.
The day before, I was returning from the Cannery Worker Residences on the lower far East side of the map. There was a pack of 3 timberwolves down on the frozen river just North of Raven Crossing. I was crouch walking as far away to the East as I could be in an attempt to avoid detection. I thought I was past them and stood up to run and was detected. Again, I felt I was pretty far away but obviously was not. I simply outran them to the Cabin just Southwest of the Lower Raven Falls and spent the night to lose them.
As a thought about these two experiences, I think that elevation may have figure into the predator detection algorithm. Just like when you use charcoal to map, the higher you are, the more distance is revealed. Perhaps the higher in elevation you are, the further your detection range is?
submitted by okclm to thelongdark [link] [comments]


2023.03.22 16:50 WreckageHothHead Flaws/insufficiencies in RLM's spacewar commentary: paaaaart 1(?)

So just for a bit of context here, I recently rewatched Mauler's "TFA critique", and while it contains a whole lot of precise analysis that I couldn't really find any problems with, his utter obliviousness to the huge amount of logical/continuity problems in ANH (incl. the almost identical ones in the "corresponding" plot points!), which he repeatedly brings up throughout his review while praising its plot as logically consistent where everything makes sense and every event/action are justified / in line with the characters' characterizations (with I think the sole exception of Motti starting out as ignorant of Vader's powers; and something about how bad the Stormtroopers were while showing exclusively Endor footage), made me go on an autistic multi-(for-now-7-)part rant on the Mauler sub going through most of the major logical issues found throughout ANH and ESB.
The ANH ones have some overlap with Plinkett's audio commentary, but also contain lots of points either not brought up there at all, or expanded versions of some of the points that Plinkett touches on.
There's no necessity in reading them for this particular thread here or anything, but here they are regardless lol:
https://old.reddit.com/MauLecomments/115yiq7/spacewars_hackfraudery_how_esb_is_a_lot_closer_to/ "SpaceWars HackFraudery: How ESB is a lot closer to TFA and TLJ in terms of "undoing the victory from the previous movie" and Mauler was WROOOOOOOOOONG"
https://old.reddit.com/MauLecomments/11fytsc/an_example_of_mauler_as_well_as_plinkett/ "An example of Mauler (as well as Plinkett) significantly overestimating the OT's "cause&effect motivation consistency sense-making" - and what possible implications this could have"
https://old.reddit.com/MauLecomments/11fytsc/an_example_of_mauler_as_well_as_plinkett/japzym (bit of a correction/expansion of the OP in an added comment - I should probably post a revised version of the OP somewhere at some point)
https://old.reddit.com/MauLecomments/11hki5e/ot_discontinuity_thread_number_3_schroedingers/ ""OT discontinuity" thread number 3: Schroedinger's gigantic space distances"
https://old.reddit.com/MauLecomments/11q2vwl/ot_discontinuities_thread_4_magic_invisibility/ ""OT discontinuities" thread 4: magic invisibility charms, except not; + First Empire competence issues"
https://old.reddit.com/MauLecomments/11uhedc/ot_discontinuity_thread_5_sending_x_number_of/ ""OT discontinuity" thread 5: sending x number of TIEtroopers + the homing beacon plan"
https://old.reddit.com/MauLecomments/11vbnud/6th_and_probably_almost_last_thread_anhtfa/ "6th (and probably almost last) thread: ANH/TFA opening plot holes and Tatooine/Jakku comparisons"
https://old.reddit.com/MauLecomments/11xl040/a_new_plot_hole_thread_7a_trip_to_mos_eisley/? "A New plot Hole thread 7A): trip to Mos Eisley, Luke/Rey skills + retroactive arcs!; + huge hyperspace retcon tangent"
https://old.reddit.com/MauLecomments/11xl55a/a_new_plot_hole_thread_7aa_lukerey_skills/? "A New plot Hole thread 7AA): "Luke/Rey skills + retroactive arcs!" post-hyperspace-retcon-tangent section"
https://old.reddit.com/MauLecomments/11xl7wy /a_new_plot_hole_thread_7b_leftover_points_not/? "A New plot Hole thread 7B): left-over points not covered in the previous ones (Lando System suddenly pops into existence?; Emperor retcon; and 2 unprecedented Obiwan/Leia problems?!!!)"
So naturally being on a bit of an inertia from this, I thought I'd go over here and also highlight various problems I've found with RLM's spacewars coverage in various places;
in this thread just 1 relatively small point, and if I end up posting others, probably also just few points at a time (to prevent long OPs or whatever):
Plinkett audio commentary: SW Ep4
But really, a space station the size of a small moon? And they just happened to get pulled into the exact hangar bay which is located right near all the things that they need to get to.
But they do get back to the Millennium Falcon on foot, right? Like right after when they rescue Princess Leia and get all showered up; so the prisoner room and the garbage dump that's like one floor below it - is like right near where the hangar bay is?
Same with all 7 power reactor control things that shut off power to the main tractor beam...
Why is this Death Star so big again?
Oh right, the giant space laser. Ah, whatever...
The Death Star is silly and nonsensical; each set is designed for the purpose of the movie's needs:
The prisoner cell block only has one way out; which is great by the way, in case a crazed prisoner escapes and corners a guard?
There are giant steel doors everywhere, that close to block off hallways - utterly pointless, except it's neat to have Han and Chewie jump through a door as it's closing while they're being chased by Stormtroopers.
"Open the blast doors! Open the blast doors!"
I guess they're blast doors...
What are they blasting against? [...]
I guess they're like watertight bulkhead doors? - like on the Titanic? You know, in case the Death Star hits an iceberg.
And then you got the extendable and retractable bridge over the cavernous pit; this serves no purpose? - unless we want a scene where Luke has to swing across the pit heroically with Leia.
And don't even get me started on the fact that there are no railings anywhere on any of the [?] walkways, that go above endless pits to nowhere...
It's all very stark, and abstract, and science-fictiony stuff.
I guess the Empire's so confident in its efficiency, that it doesn't need shit like safety railings - they've been accident free for over three years now!
Now you might be saying to yourself, well, I did complain about the Theed power room, right?
But I never really complained about the look of the Theed power room - or the fact that they didn't have no railings either!
And they have these silly rotating force field doors, that led to a little room with a pit in it for no reason...
It was like that little Keymaker guy from the Matrix sequels showed up - and he opened up the door to a completely different fucking world.
I guess George wanted them to have a fight scene on a Star Wars looking set, or something that looked like the Death Star kind of environment? - but he couldn't get them onto one storywise, so he just said that there would be one underneath this old quaint city.
You see we need some kind of connection to reality?, and as absurd as a planet-sized space station with a giant laser is - it's still much more believable than the fact that Naboo has a gigantic power generator under its city;
accessible through doors in some kind of hangar bay for some reason.
And it's like underneath the main palace? And not like a 100 miles away in the middle of nowhere.
It's like having a nuclear powerplant under the White House - not necessarily the greatest idea....
If I owned a nuclear powerplant, I'd probably go and touch the Uranium rods. I'd rub my face against them.. in hopes that I would get superpowers and be able to shoot laser out of my eyes... But I'd probably just get horrible cancer.
You know, I got something to admit - I got cancer once? But I was cured of it... Because you see, once the cancer cells saw what I did in my basement at night? - they all killed themselves. They said they didn't wanna bring their children into a world such as mine.
This of course being an expanded version of a point that touched briefs in the Ep1 review:
Plinkett: SW Ep1
Oh, and then they go from the palace to this room, what is this room? Is this in the palace??
I mean I know George wanted the Jedis to fight in a cool place that's really Star Warsy? - so.. so what this is like a power generator? What does it power, the Universe??
So you're expecting me to believe that the people that built this technological wonder were dying without space supplies for 2 days??
One additional plot hole I seem to have found here (at least haven't seen anyone else mention it) is that at the beginning of Ep1, the hangar with the ships quite certainly was not in the palace (the Queen's group looked like it had walked quite a distance away from the palace before the 2 Jedi freed them - and then Panaka's like "the hangar, this way" and next second they're at the hangar; no way they made the whole trip back to the palace during that cut?) - however at the end, they enter the palace via the hangar.
Either way this aside, while the comparison in that commentary section is accurate, the big problem here is that a much closer and more natural comparison to what happens here with the Theed hangar->"powerplant", is not the Death Star here, but rather the Bespin duel - and Plinkett doesn't make that obvious comparison anywhere.
As an environment, Bespin is a direct predecessor to mainly Coruscant (i.e. the exterior) as well as to a lesser extent the Naboo capital - its interior doesn't directly look like the Palace (if anything that one's much more comparable to the Yavin throne room), however it's an exotic, idyllic and embellished, arguably "aristocratic" looking environment built right next to the hellish looking carbon freezing chamber, a junkyard featuring a conveyor belt leading into an inferno, and probably other industrial areas;
this in itself is not yet "unjustified" in any way - Cloud City is a "gas mining colony" after all, and as James Cameron is well aware, smoke-filled metallic industrial environments already have an inherent tendency to look like Hell on Earth and serve as a perfect setting for climactic showdowns against creepy villains and monsters.
However Han's group never visits Lando's moody looking industrial facilities before being taken there by Vader - so from their perspective, and the way it's conveyed in the movie (starting even with the room Threepio initially enters), these industrial and engine rooms represent the "evil underbelly" of Cloud City, hidden beneath and inbetween the picturesque city and the soothing bright hallways that serve as a "front" for this hidden truth;
even the gnome-like aliens first found by Chewie in that junkyard, and later seen participating in in the carbon freezing procedure, while literally just being industrial workers there, come off as malicious, almost demon-like creatures who're seemingly exclusively found in these grim underbelly rooms.
Then, even though it's reasonable to expect a city with a police force to feature prisons and detention centers, the one that Chewbacca gets locked in has an emphatically grim and evil look to it - a complete contrast to the public areas.
That's not what the Enterprise's detention cells look like?
Moments later, Han is strapped into a torture contraption, in a similar room with a dark red ceiling - one might assume the Empire brought the torture equipment with them, but really this place increasingly starts looking like an evil Imperial fortress rather than a benign, idyllic city built around some factories.
And if the initial scenes inside the freezing chamber didn't outright confirm that this place exists right "next" to the bright hallways, then certainly that's exactly how it turns out to be when Luke arrives and is lured into this trap - one moment he's in the white hallway, the next he enters a door and is pulled into the hell room with Vader.
Plinkett's "Keymaker from the Matrix" comparison becomes more and more applicable here - even though the believability isn't stretched as much yet, since why shouldn't there be quick and easy access to the industrial/engine rooms from the public hallways?
And the Empire just happens to be using this room, since Vader wants to use this otherwise normal industrial facility to freeze Luke so he doesn't try to escape during the trip to the Emperor... or something.
However as Luke starts following after Vader after pushing him off the platform, and walks through a creepy tunnel into what seems like a level of control rooms connected by darkly lit hallways, the place becomes hard to distinguish from some of the interiors of the Death Star - especially the Emperor's throne room from the 2nd one;
and then Luke is blown out a window that looks like a spider web (not quite unlike the one seen behind the Emperor's throne in the next film), into a vast, round bottomless pit with walls that look like the surface of the Death Star.
Sure - if that long shaft emerging from underneath the city and reaching down into the clouds (possibly connected to the "gas mining" somehow) were to be hollow inside, then it would look like a gaping bottomless pit - but why does its wall have to look like the Death Star's surface? And also evoke the bottomless pit that was surrounding the tractor beam controls for some reason?
So at this point, Luke and Vader have gotten from a smoky industrial facility that you would expect from an industrial city like this, to what looks indistinguishable from the interior of an evil Imperial station or fortress - even though these interiors have been here for years, way before the Empire arrived here a few days ago, and effectively made it into its temporary evil space station fortress;
they hardly could've revamped the design of all these rooms and chasms during the short time they've been staying here, to make them look like an Imperial base instead?
Really by all looks, these levels beneath the carbon freezing facility, as well as those "prison rooms" from before, look like this for no other reason than that the Bespin city functions as a honey-trap Imperial fortress in this film;
and as the duel starts protruding into the increasingly Deathstarish looking environment, it seems like dream logic starts completely taking over any pretenses the environment initially had of "making sense in-universe":
each set is designed for the purpose of the movie's needs:
What's happening on a small and not even anywhere as immediately noticeable scale in Ep4's Deathstar, is taking place on a much larger scale here - the environments are designed according to the needs of the film, as well as to reflect the meaning of what's happening in the story as well as the protagonist's mental state:
the "control room level" looks like an Imperial fortress because it's functioning as one here, and exists as a representation of the dark place (morally and mentally) Vader is trying to lure him into; and the claustrophobic hallways, spider window and gaping chasm reflect and intensify Luke's bleak states of mind during those respective moments - the unfamiliarity of the environment reflects the hidden knowledge that he's about to discover, the hallways and thin bridge intensify his "trapped in a deadly situation" situation, and hovering above a gaping pit into nothingness is seemingly how he feels about having learned what he just learned: that his entire aspiration to go after his father, and what his trusted mentors had been telling him, were all lies, and he seemingly has way to escape the "dark abyss" that Vader is trying to pull him in (ironically the literal dark abyss is what he jumps into to escape it - having changed into representing the preferable nature of death/uncertainty to what Vader is offering him).
So how does this all compare to the Ep1 counterpart?
You see we need some kind of connection to reality?, and as absurd as a planet-sized space station with a giant laser is - it's still much more believable than the fact that Naboo has a gigantic power generator under its city;
accessible through doors in some kind of hangar bay for some reason.
And it's like underneath the main palace? And not like a 100 miles away in the middle of nowhere.
It's like having a nuclear powerplant under the White House - not necessarily the greatest idea....
To get this one thing right out of the way out of the bat, there is no indication of those power beams or anything else in this place somehow being hazardous like the fissile radiant material in nuclear powerplants - so at least there's that.
However the believability is certainly stretched a lot farther here than anything in Bespin - for one, Theed is not a relatively small city built around an industrial function, it's just a regular royal capital; so unless the Naboo culture has some kind of "the kings are also the producers of goods" thing going on, this "power plant" being right in the palace building seems like a non-sequitur;
being next to the fighter jet hangar might make a slight bit more sense, but still not really at all - plus the hangar's in the palace now, unlike the start of the film.
Another big difference here is that the "powerplant" area is not just extending downwards into bottomless chasms, but also upwards towards the unseen ceiling - and one might ask oneself whether the buildings seen from outside were really high enough to contain that massive area, although the Palace (despite not being a skyscraper) just might.
And also while there's nothing inherently absurd about underground levels, or a round bottomless pit leading underground, the latter hadn't been set up by an exterior shot of the station, with the "bottomless pit" axis growing out of the flying saucer's lower half and reaching into the clouds/gas below (in what had been established as a "gas mining facility") - this time all that stuff is literally coming out of nowhere.
However ultimately what really doesn't make sense, analogously to the Bespin "control rooms levels" beneath the freezing chamber, is it looking like an evil Imperial fortress - Naboo isn't an evil fortress, so why would it have an evil looking interior like this?
However, a major difference here is that while the Empire had only occupied Bespin for a short while, was intent on leaving again (unless Lando refused to cooperate, that is), the Trade Federation has been here for quite a while longer - certainly in "film time" terms it takes up the length of the entire movie, even if the in-universe time that passes between the invasion and the return to Naboo might be ranging between a significantly long period to a few days) - and by all looks they were planning to stay and had some kind of huge sprawling plans in mind that involved the entire planet:
"Is the planet secure?"
"We have taken over the last pockets of primitive life forms - we are in complete control of the planet now."
"Good."
And in this movie, the Trade Federation is a proto-Empire of sorts - not only collaborating with the Sith and led by the literal future Emperor, they also seem to be a dystopian megacorporation of sorts, who've already (unofficially?) taken over significant Republic territory:
"You can't take Her Royal Highness there, the Hutts are gangsters! If they discovered her-"
"...It'd be no different than if we landed on a system controlled by the Federation; except that the Hutts aren't looking for her - which gives us the advantage."
"Your Highness - with your permission, we're heading for a remote planet called Tatooine; it's in a system far beyond the reach of the Trade Federation."
Their ships literally look like mini Death Stars (with Saturn rings around them, to make it slightly less obvious?), and their interior generally looks very Empirey as well.
So, compared to the idea that one might easily think of to try and ground the Bespin look in the universe, namely that "the Empire has started changing this place they're occupying into their evil fortress", such a notion certainly makes a lot more sense in the context of Ep1's plot.
Additionally this is somewhat supported by the visuals of Gunray riding around on a crab-throne while in a darkly lit looking Palace interior at night - even if only in this scene here:
"Your Queen is lost, your people are starving... and you, Governor, are going to die much sooner than your people, I'm afraid."
"This invasion will gain you nothing! We're a democracy - the people have decided!"
"Take him away."
"My troops are in position to begin searching the swamps for these rumoured underwater villages. They will not stay hidden for long."
This also conveys some kind of notion of "them remaking the place into their own", even if technically it's just a creepy looking robot chair and this scene (along with the later Sidious scene where they tell him they've taken over those primitive lifeforms) happens to take place at night.
Ultimately though, even if making more sense than Bespin by comparison, it's still a heavy stretch on rational world believability - and, of course, there's no direct hints at this actually having physically taken place there.
Similarly to ESB, this duel starts with the villain getting in the heroes' way as they're there for a different mission (having waited for them from behind a closed door as well), and at least partially showing signs of following a plan to lure them into increasingly dangerous environments:
Maul arbitrarily opens the gate to the space room and leads the fight there - then he backflips onto a bridge even further away from the hangar, and is subsequently seen stepping back from Qui-Gon all up until ending up in that corridor with the red force fields, and eventually the sealed room with the gaping pit:
where he immediately reveals to have been pretending to be retreating from Qui-Gon and turns around at him the moment the force fields reactivate again.
So, just like with Bespin, there's a surreal, dream logic element here that extends and reflects the literal premise of the villain luring the heroes into a trap - the environments he's leading them into look like an evil fortress, evoke power, awe and danger, and feature both claustrophobic small rooms/corridors to make the protagonists feel trapped, as well as gaping pits and chasms showing just how deep they can fall into uncertainty and death, in what's getting brewed up by the villains here;
and analogously to Luke in Cloud City, while the 2 Jedi aren't literally "surprised" by this environment hiding behind the door of a benign looking palace (which can be attributed to it either making sense to them in terms of how real-world logic, or their reduced lucidity), it's a place they haven't been showing seeing at any earlier point, and reflects the much vaster scope of what's going on here (i.e. the Sith plan to take over the world) that's hidden from them, is shrouded by secret, and that they're only going to proceed to uncover gradually.
"There is something else behind all this, your Highness - there's no logic in the Federation's move here. My feelings tell me they will destroy you."
Unlike ESB this isn't something that they learn the full truth of in an instant, without any direct hints preceding it - with the possible exception of this:
"I cannot teach him; the boy has no patience."
"He will learn patience."
"Much anger in him - like his father."
"Was I any different when you taught me?"
Effectively, or if explicitly going with a "dream logic" reading of these movies, according to which places, characters, circumstances and hidden schemes pop into the universe's existence the moment they're imagined by the author / enter the narrative, both these environments materialize inside these buildings out of nowhere to reflect and enhance the mental states of the protagonists, the villainous intents and schemes, and the meaning of what's happening in the story;
just like, albeit on a much smaller scale, all those Death Star parts only materialized in front of the heroes in order to give them new dangers and obstacles to overcome - incl. the garbage chute beneath a latticed hole right in the prison corridor, the monster that made itself known right as someone said "could be worse", and the walls that started closing in on them right after the monster disappears.
Then she shoots a vent on the floor and somehow knows that it's a garbage chute... HOW'D SHE KNOW THAT?
And why would a garbage chute be grated like that? Usually that's just like a air vent or somethin'...
It could've led to a dead end, where they all got stuck somewhere...
Or it coulda let straight to a garbage incinerator - nobody knows what that is? So their idea is to jump in it?..
I guess it's better than nothing? I guess you're fucked one way or the other...
But shit I wouldn't follow her in there, I'd surrender...
However, exclusively comparing these ANH examples to the Theed spaceroom without mentioning the much more similar Bespin spaceroom, amounts to a very incomplete comparison - and the accompanying conclusion that:
You see we need some kind of connection to reality?, and as absurd as a planet-sized space station with a giant laser is - it's still much more believable than the fact that Naboo has a gigantic power generator under its city;
and that this warrants "complaining" about:
Now you might be saying to yourself, well, I did complain about the Theed power room, right?
But I never really complained about the look of the Theed power room - or the fact that they didn't have no railings either!
leads to the question whether Plinkett/Mike/Rich/etc. are aware of Empire engaging in a very similar (in fact directly analogous) and comparable display of environment surrealism, with "the Keymaker opening a portal into an evil dimension", and stretching this "connection to reality" a whole lot further and more noticeably than those Death Star scenes (with the garbage chute itself standing out among them all, in turn);
This trash compactor scene is really a lot of fun;
but it always felt like a "give them something to do" kind of scene, in a movie where nearly every scene is motivated.
It's one of those "lowest point" kinda moments, where our heroes struggle against opposition - but it doesn't really serve an overall purpose in the storyline.
It's fun, and tense, and memorable, don't get me wrong - but from a story perspective it doesn't advance the plot too much...
The plot here being that the bad guys wanna blow up the Rebel base - and Han; Luke; Chewbacca; and the useless complaining woman need to stop them.
Having them tied up in the garbage compactor only to escape and go right back to where they were? - eh, it was a little unnecessary roadblock in this series of events.
; and how exactly this fits in with their high appraisal of that movie:
Plinkett: The Star Wars Awakens
He accomplished his task of creating a sci-fi film about the Hero’s Journey; and then had to live under the shadow of “The Empire Strikes Back” – one of the greatest films ever made for which he had the least to do with creatively;
he desperately needed Star Wars to be about something bigger and greater than just popcorn entertainment - so he went back to his classic literature book and his CliffsNotes to search for ideas.
Plinkett audio commentary: SW Ep1
So at this point as we're wrapping up, you're saying to yourself: "Why does this guy get so worked up over Star Wars - these are films for babies! They're just made for 5 year olds that like to play with toys."
Well - I don't find that entirely true; and I don't think that's all this could've been.
This is more about achieving greatness; and those that make excuses for greatness when it falls horribly short.
In "Empire Strikes Back", the filmmakers took the material from the 1st Star Wars, and brought it up to the next level.
They took a movie with robots, and a floating cloud city, and a rubber green puppet, and made it completely realistic and believable;
This ANH-ESB comparison and how the latter "took it to the next level" including on the "realism" front, seems to ignore how much it turned up the gears on the surrealism and dream logic when compared to those Death Star scenes - particularly in that very same "floating cloud city" mentioned in this quote.
it's a very dark movie that's brilliantly done in every aspect - filled with heavy emotion, stark realism, and beautiful visuals.
For a brief moment, "The Empire Strikes Back" showed us what could really be done with these movies and characters.
I think people have a hard time differentiating between movies that are made for children, - and movies that children can also enjoy.
If you're any age, "Empire" can speak to you on some level; "The Phantom Menace" caps out at about age 10 - unless you're a drooling fanboy that just loves lightsabers.
And saying that "The Phantom Menace" is really "just a film for children" - is code speak for it sucking.
Even if a reasonable comparison between these analogous sections of ESB and TPM would lead to the conclusion that the former is surrealist art kino while the latter is nonsense that disconnects you from reality; that the former is "one of the greatest films ever made" while the latter "sucks" (incl. at the example of this particular comparison) - they haven't yet made such a comparison or analysis, it's missing from their thesis;
and judging by them praising ESB and its floating cloud city as "starkly realistic", as well as leaving all of this out of their Death Star / Theed comparison, strongly suggests that they haven't ever thought of any these points, and are severely overestimating the amount of rational sense-making that EpV is built on.
However unlike MauLer, who has a particularly severe case of this misconception not just about Ep5, but Ep4 as well (see his TFA review and my Mauler threads from this post's opening), and is trying to apply this rationalist approach (which he equates with "objective quality") to all movies he encounters - at least from what I've seen so far - RLM are clearly generally aware of non-rational approach to plotwriting and filmmaking:
See the Suspiria re:view, as well the somewhat mixed commentary on the evil look of the Event Horizon (also re:view) and how there doesn't seem to be an in-universe justification for its gothic design prior to it falling into the hell dimension - since Sam Neill's character isn't some kinda "hell worshipper cultist" who would construct it in that fashion.
submitted by WreckageHothHead to RedLetterMedia [link] [comments]


2023.03.22 16:49 Worldly-Damage-6691 My wife (39F) and I (38M) are drifitng apart -- reconfigure the relationship, save it, call it quits ?

This is a throwaway account, and names have been changed.
I (38M) have been married to my wife (39F) for 12 years and we have two kids (3yo boy and 6yo girl). We are both hard-working and fairly successful professionals in a large german city and have been supportive of each other's career over the years. We have both always been fairly into feminism and openness, and we always were very careful to divvy up the domestic chores and children care. In the past few years, my wife has been creating a new startup, with all the corresponding workload and stress -- I have been supportive of her, of course, I did encourage her to start it and at the beginning even took some extra jobs to make ends meet. I have always been supportive of the specific demands this kind of enterprise demands and have been taking the kids for some weekends, vacations, etc. by myself when she needed extra time to work.
In the past few years, starting with the pandemic, the balance has been less reasonable. While I do empathize with the issues of running a company through turbulent times, this has taken a toll on my professional life (where I am also in a somewhat high-profile position in academia) and family life -- for instance, she canceled repeatedly family vacations a few days before all along 2022 because of work, stopped taking the kids to their activities while I took care of it, etc. This has affected our relationship as a couple as there was very little time for just the two of us. She has anxiety issues and a complicated family life so I empathize but multiple conversations I started with her during the fall of 2022 fell short.
Two years ago, I was invited to spend a semester at a fancy US university as a visiting professor. This something fairly important to me professionnally. I told her about the invitation and she told me she would be happy to move to the US for a few months and would arrange for remote working -- I did make it clear it would be ok for me to refuse. As a consequence, I accepted and we made plans for the balance to be ok. We decided I would move by myself there for 4 weeks, with the two kids, and then she would join for three months. So we did that, which definitely was a challenge as I was by myself, in a country with no family or friends support, with two young kids. I did manage to set up all the logistics, new homes, new schools, etc. As she arrived, she became extremely anxious with work, remained on a European schedule, was generally very absent. After two weeks, she left to attend a conference somewhere else in the US for a week.
When she came back, I told her we were drifting apart, and I wanted to talk about what our priorities in life were. That I respected that her work was her main focus, but we should try and understand where that would lead us. We have always been fairly open regarding relationships and I also told her we could explore not being as exclusive, as a means of each focusing on different goals while not feeling frustrated of trying to maintain an exclusive relationship that was not the main focus anymore. She was very upset with the conversation, which I understand, but also did confirm she had many things in mind and needed to focus on work and mental health, while not wanting to change the relationship.
She was miserable with remote work for a few days, and so much so that she decided to leave back to Europe for a few weeks, again leaving me with our two young kids. While I understand she was in a bad place, I do feel bad about her leaving us, the kids being a little sad, and me trying to satisfy my professional obligations while being the sole caretaker of two kids. I do feel betrayed and neglected.
I feel I don't necessarily want a separation rather than work out a new way to be together which involves opening our marriage (tbh, the tension and isolation with housework and family work makes it so that at some point I probably would cheat), but sometimes I feel very helpless. Any feedback ?
TL; DR: I feel my wife has been drifting apart due to focusing on her work and feel resentment about it. How do I navigate this ?
submitted by Worldly-Damage-6691 to relationships [link] [comments]


2023.03.22 16:47 splittlip My Ex Gf [F20] and I [F22] reconnected and I don’t know what to do.

Hello, I’m posting from my phone so I apologize for any errors.
My ex gf of six months (20) and I (F22) reconnected after months of NC. For context we broke up around fall of last year and in my eyes we parted on good terms. It wasn’t a situation where someone was unfaithful or abusive. I just felt I was holding her back. So instead of selfishly keeping her. I let her go. She was confused and deeply hurt by this. But I felt and still feel that it was the right decision. I wanted her to grow without me there stunting it. No I was not a partner that told her what she could or couldn’t do, or anything of the sort. No she didn’t ever outright tell me I was or made me feel that way. I just truly felt I was. My mistake was my lack of communication with that to her. Instead I broke things off.
I would text her every other month or so because I still care about her. But I got no response. Which I completely respect and understand. She’s no longer obligated to text me back. But a couple nights ago I received a flood of calls from a number that looked similar to hers. So I did some snooping and discovered it was her friend.
Now my ex is not petty or immature like that. So I was hurt and confused as to why her friend was harassing me. I texted my ex again and told her that I know she isn’t gonna respond but to get her friend to stop.
The following day, she ft me. At first the call was awkward. After not talking for months, it was tense. She explained the situation with her friend. And I apologized about how I handled our break up. We discussed it further but somehow we fell into conversation about our current lives. Then things we wanted to tell each other but couldn’t. Everything. It was like those months of no contact never happened. We talked until she fell asleep and the line disconnected.
I was so content and happy. I missed her a lot. But I don’t know what to do. She doesn’t think I’m gonna stick around this time. I promised her I was and that I would show her with my actions. We’ve fell out of contact once before in the past before we got together. It was a mutual miscommunication. Even our breakup could have been avoided had I properly communicated.
I just don’t know how to go about it this time. We were great together. I don’t want to immediately get back together. I want to rebuild a friendship. And I still feel we both still have some individual growing to do as well. But if it’s possible I would like to eventually get back together. I know she missed me just as much because during our phone call, she said she hated the fact that all planned on doing was explain her friend spam calls but now her and I are having conversations about miscellaneous things. I could hear her smile.
So reddit, how do I go about rebuilding this friendship?
submitted by splittlip to relationship_advice [link] [comments]


2023.03.22 16:46 Dragonfire9000 Was Knuckles really as stupid as we believe or is it just a lack of ones own culture.

Was Knuckles really as stupid as we believe or is it just a lack of ones own culture.
A.N. I have minor dyslexia and use word. Really wish I didn’t have to type this but there are some people who pull up my grammar as a means to win arguments…
So I’d like to talk about something quickly that I only noticed as an adult that I did not notice as a child in the hidden palace zone.
We’ve all seen the mural you see when you fight Knuckles in S3&K

S3&K mural prophesy
Now as sonic fans we know what this mural is, we know what it means, we know who it depicts.
But this one image has much more story to tell than just “ow… that’s why knuckles is fighting us.”
You see in sonic 3 it’s stated that Knuckles is the last of his race, supposedly, and that he’s meant to guard the master emerald from intruders. A lot of the time he’s depicted as being dumb with how easily Eggman tricks him however in reality he is a product of his circumstances. In knuckles mind he has the knowledge of ever route, trap and shortcut on his island and the strategic knowhow to use them in a timely fashion.
He was raised to do one job and do it well, however reading up on ones culture or the ancient text of his people is not one of them. And that falls nicely into a little detail about images that as a child it’s easily missed.
Look at the mural with fresh eyes, someone who doesn’t know the sonic mythos like us, go as far if necessary to ask someone who can to try to decipher the image without using the internet.
If your western, chances are good that person said the ‘statue’ was a deity fighting a demon with a gem.
And that’s an ok translation. In the western world we associate forces on the left of an image as good and forces on the right of an image as bad or evil. Most cultures read opposing force images in this way as the mind simply auto scrolls an image.

common western reading of images
However, certain cultures in modern day and in the past read from right to left.

eastern and less common way of reading images.
If we take the mural and flip it

Flipped Mural
Now it looks like some empowered being is fighting a demon who stole the master emerald.
And that’s the interesting point. In SA1 we see a mural about Chaos where Echidna’s on both sides are fighting the beast. Since this tribe might be the same one as knuckles it’s easy to surmise that they do not see directional writing or drawing but instead use the text above and below a mural to flesh out an image.

multi directional image depictions.
So why is this important. Well for one. Knuckles can’t read the ancient language of his people, he’s never needed too… him guarding the master emerald was more important to those who gave him the task than preserving lost culture.
It would not surprise me if the text outlined that a golden saviour would face a metal deity in combat and return the master emerald.
But knuckles can only read from left to right. So when Robotnik landed on angel island he got to see this mural, knew this was a prophesy and twisted it to his own narrative. Because the robotic deity was on the left he got to show the remains of his Eggman robo and fool Knuckles.
“The best lies are the ones that can be backed by logical thinking.”
submitted by Dragonfire9000 to SonicTheHedgehog [link] [comments]


2023.03.22 16:45 IronicOwO- Civil engineering program

Hi! I was wondering, how rigorous is the civil engineering program? Is it hard to manage? Im going into it this fall so I’m v curious. And are there any tips for doing well here? :)
submitted by IronicOwO- to MSOE [link] [comments]


2023.03.22 16:45 TeeMg Update - V1.1

Main
- A New section has been added at the end of The Forest
This area includes another encounter with The Predator and an Orb that you need to grab to zipline out of the danger zone to the next chapter. 
- The Maze has been relit
- The Pendulum has been relit
- The Ravine has been relit
- The Overpass level sequence happens faster
- The Adjudicator has had some scenery changes
- Reflections of You in Binman's eyes (sounds like an album title)
- Some sound additions in The Reprimand

- Might have added Index finger curls, but I don't own an Index so I can't test it. I don't think this works with OpenXR. Anyone who plays soon with an Index pls ping me a msg.

General Fixes
- Leap distance has been reduced a tiny bit.
Main Menu
- The KingLumps intro screen has been changed to something more thematic.
- The Main menu layout has been redesigned so its more readable.
The Door
- Specular removed on intro text.
The Cave
- Black lighting artifacts on rock foliage fixed.
The View
- No Changes
The Ravine
- Lighting changes at the end sequence.
- Brightness decreased
- Lights added in the tunnel to make the route clearer.
- Fixed see-through geometry when looking backwards at the end of the chapter.
The Cathedral
- Fixed 'getting caught' on the slide at the end of the chapter. Made it more reliable when jumping onto it.
- Fixed navmesh teleporting you inside a wall.
The Computer
- Added a longer slide when you enter the chapter.
- Made the chapter darker overall.
- Added some geometry to prevent players entering out of bounds areas.
- Fixed the navmesh on the grid sequence at the end of the chapter.
The Maze
- Relit the entire level, making it visible all across the lattice. This should prevent players thinking they can go off piste.
- Added a fog layer to hide the bottoms of the environment's mesh.
- Fixed some static lights making the Slugs look too bright.
The Graveyard
- No Changes
The Run
- Added a secret.
The Field
- Relit the cave at the end of the chapter.
The Boulder
- Relit the entire level with Gpu Lightmass.
- Increased the intensity of Static lighting volumetric fog emission.
- Fixed the UV's on the boulders.
- Added landscape geometry near the Pendulum.
- Resized the Pendulum to be smaller like the following chapters.
- Replaced the rocks at the beginning of the chapter with lower poly versions. I'd used Nanite geometry meaning they were 1000000 triangles which was a massive performance hit. They are now ~1000 each. Whoops
The Causeway
- Prevented players going off piste at the beginning with a reset volume.
- Fixed some of the columns coming up out of the ground.
- Added a skylight to add some light in the shadows.
- Increased the boost if people fall short on the final jump.
The Overpass
- Increased the speed of the level sequence (Wanderer Fly-over)
- Added a light in the first chamber so people know where to go.
- Added a rock to put players off trying to enter the scenic cave where light bleeds through in the first chamber.
The Adjudicator
- Made adjustments to the landscape, making it more rugged in places.
- Removed some floating rocks.
- Added a shadow in the cave at the end of the chapter making it darker.
- Reduced the specular on the landscape material.
- Increased the tiling on the landscape material.
- Added some rocks to prevent players walking up the sides of the valley.
The Forest
- Added a new area at the end of the chapter.
- Added the 'Sphere of Travel' which players can grab and hold onto to escape The Predator.
- Added 2 jumps that the player must make over the Predator in order to get to the Sphere.
- Added a new instance of the Predator.
- Added a pit that you should try not to fall into.
- Fog changes to much darker in the last 1/4 of the chapter.
- Faster changes between music loops.
- Replaced music triggers with volumes so they're more reliable. Prevents teleporting through the trigger.
The Canyon
- Rebuilt the first cave chamber.
- Replaced some of the spindly rocks to add variety.
- Changed the location of the Predator collectable.
- Rebuilt the path to the climbing wall.
- Fixed lighting issue in the valley.
- Increased the tiling of the landscape material.
The Mouth
- No Changes
The Pendulum
- Changed the rotation of the directional light so the Watchers are more visible.
- Changed the fog density so the landscape is more visible
- Increased overall brightness.
- Falling off before the Watcher is destroyed by the Pendulum now resets you rather than taking you to the next chapter.
- Fixed the rock foliage not blending with the landscape
- Made the intial cave exit darker.
- Removed the yellow light when exiting the first cave.
The Bottom
- Fixed lighting glitch on one of the rocks.
The Meeting
- No Changes
The Reprimand
- Added a reflection in Bin Man's eyes.
- Made the Subway sequence quicker.
- Added a gong sound at the end of the reprimand.
- Changed the timing of Bin Man's animation
- Brightened up Bin Man's face.
The Sculpture Park
- Resets if you fall through the map
- Fixed Navmesh
- Reduced incline on the ramp.
Headlog
- Changed some text in the Headlog.
submitted by TeeMg to TheUtilityRoom [link] [comments]


2023.03.22 16:42 Robert_B_Marks Horne's The Price of Glory is driving me nuts...

This may be less a review and more of a rant...
Watching some Perun videos about the trench war in the Ukraine (and the "Verdun" of Bakhmut) got me to finally start reading my copy of Alistair Horne's The Price of Glory...and it's hard reading. I'm 25 pages in, and it's driving me up the wall.
So, for a bit of context: this book was first published in the early 1960s, and the revised edition that I'm reading was published in 1993. In his introduction, Horne states that in the intervening time, nothing really made him revise more than a couple of lines here and there...and it really should have done.
The amount of information that comes across as received wisdom (much of it from Basil Liddell Hart) is pretty staggering. More than once I've gone to the back of the book for his source notes to track down a direct quote to find no primary source for it.
For example, Grandmaison. Horne's depiction of Grandmaison is of a lunatic obsessed with the bayonet who had an "attack at all costs and regardless of the circumstances" approach. According to Horne, Grandmaison had no understanding of modern firepower. Now, Horne can read French - he has French language sources in his bibliography. However, he didn't actually bother reading any Grandmaison to chase down the source and see if the quotes were accurate.
If he had (speaking as the one who translated Training of the Infantry for Offensive Combat), he would have realized that Grandmaison understood the power of modern small arms quite well - he considered the ground in front of enemy field fortifications to be unsurvivable for any extended length of time. Infantry had to attack not because attacking was the only thing they were supposed to do, but because it was the only thing they could do that would stop the enemy from shooting them to pieces. The casualties would be costly in the attack, yes, but they would be total if the unit didn't attack.
Then there's the depiction of the pre-war French army. This is an army that Horne depicts as not having howitzers because they were considered unnecessary, and wearing the famous red pants to intimidate the enemy - AKA, completely disconnected from the reality of modern warfare. HOWEVER...both of these were issues the French army had been trying to solve for years before the war. The military notes in the RUSI Journal have announcements of French army uniform changes to get rid of the red trousers, followed by announcements that the trousers are actually being kept, every few month (it was, in fact, the French army fighting their personal Battle of Verdun against the French bureaucracy to put their soldiers in uniforms that didn't scream "Please shoot me!" to the enemy). And one of the excised chapters of the first volume of Joffre's memoirs covers his struggles to get heavy howitzers for the French army. The French army was not disconnected from reality here - they were trying to modernize in the face of a government bureaucracy that was dysfunctional to the point of lunacy.
And then there's Horne's treatment of Joffre, which is character assassination...and one that doesn't survive Horne's own text. He literally declares that Joffre was taciturn because, unlike Haig, there was nothing inside his head. He presents Joffre as being somebody who was not a military thinker at all...and then credits Joffre with calculating the timing just right for the counter-attack at the Marne that turned the battle. There is a massive contradiction here. Now, Joffre made his fair share of mistakes, but the bumbling idiot that Horne makes him out to be could not have saved France at the Marne the way that Joffre did. The degree to which Horne twists himself into a pretzel to try to reconcile these (and fails to do so) is pretty staggering.
But the thing that I find absolutely unforgivable is Horne's treatment of the German war planning. Now, in fairness, most of the German war planning documents were thought to be lost until Terence Zuber unearthed them in the late 90s and early aughts. Historians had to reconstruct it from what the German official history and German generals had said after the war. So, up to 1958, Anglophone historians faced a massive question mark as to what the German war plans had actually been, and generals like von Kuhl trying to excuse the failure of the Marne campaign were taken at face value.
...BUT...
Notice I said "until 1958"? The reason I said that is because in 1958 Gerhard Ritter's The Schlieffen Plan: Critique of a Myth was translated into English and published, and contained the actual Schlieffen Plan memo (you can find the book on archive.org - due to not being sure if it's in the public domain yet, I'm not going to link it). If Horne had read it, he would have realized very quickly that it wasn't a master plan for the quick defeat of France followed by a turn to the east to deal with Russia, but a hypothetical exploration of what it would take to beat France in a single-front war. There was still a massive question mark over much of German war planning that wouldn't be answered until Zuber started translating and summarizing documents (I will say that I think his translations and summarizations are invaluable, and his conclusions based on them are very faulty), but what the actual document contained was no longer a question mark.
The fact that Horne did not read this, but instead relied upon earlier reconstructions by Liddell Hart and Fuller is inexcusable. He equates the later war planning for a two front war with the Schlieffen memo, which was no such thing.
And, just to close, there's his statement in the reference notes that "After the passage of nearly half a century, there is probably little of value that has not yet appeared in print" - in fairness, this statement was clearly made in the early 1960s, when the book was first published. But, this isn't the original edition - this is the revised edition published in the 1990s, and it's a hell of a statement to make when the fall of the Berlin Wall made a bunch of German records that had been thought lost available to historians, and opened up the German side of the war in a way that had the potential to recontextualize EVERYTHING we understood about the war. There's quite a lot of value yet to be said in the 1990s alone, and this is still the case in the 2020s.
This is the problem with any book about the war written at a time when Liddell Hart was still actively poisoning the well of scholarship. But, that doesn't make it any less frustrating, particularly when one discovers that Horne is relying so much on received wisdom that he could have discovered was wrong just by bothering to track down the sources of the quotes he was using, most of which were in sources that were available to him at the time.
submitted by Robert_B_Marks to WarCollege [link] [comments]


2023.03.22 16:42 TheSmogmonsterZX Galactic Social Dynamic: Zoo-nanigans - Insect Kingdom out-takes (Zoo # 12)

Galactic Social Dynamic: Zoo-nanigans - Insect Kingdom out-takes (Zoo # 12)
During the visit to the Insect exhibit in Zoo-nanigans # 11...
"What is this?" Rillke stopped at the oversized statue of a butterfly.
"Butterfly." Shoal said. "They're pretty but that species is toxic."
"Yes." Emma smiled and looked at Shoal. "The Monarch butterfly has toxic dust on its wings to deter predators."
"But then, what are these things?" Rillke pointed to eight hanging forms.
Shoal rubbed his fingers together, trying to snap them like humans. It did not take and he simply stared at his hands in frustration.
"That's the caterpillar in its chrysalis." Emma explained. "They wrap themselves in silk and then kind of break down and rebuild themselves."
Rillke's jaw went slightly slack.
"And they're not the only ones." Van pointed to the far side of the opposite wall. "Moths do it too."
"No, moths use a cocoon." Emma corrected him. "See butterflies and moths have different end goals but similar life paths."
Gleve clapped, "Oh I know this one! Butterflies and moths both start as caterpillars and mostly eat plant life until they pupate into their chrysalis or cocoon. Butterflies come out and are pollinators. Moths come out and mostly seek mates to continue the cycle and some don't even have mouths!"
Emma nodded and gestured to Gleve.
"Both are terrifying." Rillke said as he stepped away from the statue and looked into a moth environment. "Why is the statue in the environment?"
"Atlas moth." Shoal yawned, "That's the actual animal."
Rillke cleared his throat and stepped away. "Something without wings, perhaps?"
"Good luck." Van grinned. "Though next is mantids."
"Mantids?" Rillke perked up, "I recall they live among flowering plants, yes?" He smiled.
Hadley grinned and pulled out their com. "I'm gonna record this."
Shoal gave a brief, annoyed snort.
"Some do." Emma nodded as she walked over to the large sets of terrariums. "This is an Orchid Mantis."
The group looked and Emma watched as Shoal's eyes went wide and he slowly backed away.
"Where?" Rillke asked.
"I hate these things, I always fall for the camouflage..." Van hissed.
"Pretty flowers anyway." Gleve smiled.
"Middle of the case it is staring at you all." Shoal said.
Gleve turned around to see his friend was not getting closer, so he turned back and focused. Then Gleve saw a set of compound eyes staring back at him. Gleve flinched and Rillke followed where his gaze had been and finally saw it.
"Devious!" Rillke nodded.
Emma laughed as pointed to another terrarium, "That is a green mantis environment."
Shoal went up first, looked in and turned around without a word.
Rillke was puzzled for a minute and walked up stared in horror and backed away.
Gleve was also curious but put his hands over his eyes as he peeked in. Then slowly backed away.
"They eat their mates?" Rillke gasped. "Please tell me that is not a common Earth staple."
Emma grinned. "We could always find out."
Rillke froze, the two parts of his brain trying to process the flirting with the horror. Finally he just smiled and blushed a deep purple.
Shoal just shrugged and looked into the nearest one, then shook his head. "Are any of these not horrific in some manner?"
"It was eating the other one's head." Gleve whimpered.
Emma sighed, "Not really. Insects are very brutal. And the arachnids in the adjoining exhibit only get more so."
"Where the hell is it?" Van snorted as he continued to look for the orchid mantis.
"Van..." Emma sighed.
Van held up a finger. "Don't make me scan for you..."
"Can he really not see it?" Shoal asked, "Or is this a bit?"
Rillke leaned in. "I suspect he could easily find it with scanning, but refuses to do so."
"Found you! All six of you!" Van laughed.
"Six?" Rillker balked. "Emma, something less terrifying, please."
"Termites." Van pointed to a large mound in a larger enclosed environment. He continued to look in the terrarium as the others passed.
Shoal passed last. "Still can't see it?"
"No..." Van sighed. "I hate mantises." He shook his head and followed the group as Shoal climbed onto his shoulder.
"These are the things the aardvark goes after, right?" Shoal asked as he watched a camera feed from a tiny drone.
"Yes." Van nodded. "Termites are kind of like ants in that they're a colony species. But termites don't just dream big, they build big too."
"As long as they don't evolve to eat metal." Hadley said.
"Some did for a short time." Van said. "But went extinct and it was determined it was best to keep them that way."
Hadley looked horrified for a few seconds.
"He's right." Emma said. "During the mass extinctions of the 21st and 22nd century they briefly made mounds of metal and fiberglass."
"Absolute bastards to kill too." Van grumbled.
"They also spread so fast and so far they were deemed a hazard and when they died to what was basically a rust virus we decided it was best to keep it that way." Emma nodded. "They're still cute in an ugly sort of way though."
"I like their style. Gleve, markdown the crew for some videos on these guys " Shoal said with a smile.
"Of course." Gleve noted it on his com and slipped it back into a shoulder sash he wore.
"What about crickets?" Rillke pointed to a sign.
"No." Shoal said with a flat and certain tone.
"You're thinking of cicadas." Van said. "Crickets don't get that loud, often."
Shoal grumbled.
"Relax, we can go around to the ants." Van offered.
"If it gets too loud I'm blaming you Rillke." Shoal said as he crossed his arms and scrambled down to Gleve's shell once more.
"Fully understandable." Rillke nodded.
The group began to walk down and viewed several smaller displays. One had weevils that absolutely entranced Gleve.
"They are so funny looking!" Gleve clapped.
"They're normally considered pests." Hadley explained, "They're a beetle that tends to eat crops. Why aren't they with the other beetles?"
"We are in pest paradise?" Van pointed to a sign.
"And the mantids?" Rillke asked.
"Big predators of pests." Shoal countered.
"I want to see more beetles." Gleve said with a smile.
"As long as we avoid the Monkees." Hadley grinned.
Most of the group stared at the Intelligence in confusion.
"Hadley, only you and I likely got that joke, and I'm half considering leaving you buried with the termites for it." Van glared at the mischievous Intelligence.
Hadley nervously stepped away from the cyborg.
"They are on the way..." Emma kept an eye on Van and Hadley.
As the group passed into the next exhibit, they just as quickly exited as the loud and raucous noise of the crickets did end up panicking Shoal.
"Apologies, Shoal. I shall see to it that a volume label is put on that section for your people and mine." Rillke bowed his head.
Emma winced, "That was abnormally loud."
"Twenty decibels over the average." Van said. "Something had them agitated..."
"Well hopefully it was just an unpleasant visitor before us." Gleve said. "Otherwise they might not get any more visits."
Emma nodded and went to her com. Then focused back on the group. "Next up is beetles."
The group came to a large area filled with small to medium terrariums and one gigantic one that was put under their feet and viewable from the top down.
Gleve immediately put his face to the ground and used his arms to help guide himself as he started to observe the insects.
Shoal watched from Gleve's shell before hopping down and observing himself.
"So many species..." Rillke observed in surprise.
"Almost half of all insects can be classified as beetles." Emma said.
"Closer to forty percent." Van corrected her with a shrug.
"What is this one?" Rillke pointed to one terrarium with a warning sticker on it
"Bombardier beetle. They secrete and heat an acid they launch at things that disturb them." Emma said as a light caustic smoke popped against the terrarium's barriers.
"Oh..." Rillke blinked. "Fascinating."
"Shiny..." Shoal said as he stood staring down at a beetle in the lowered exhibit.
"Rainbow beetle." Hadley said with a smile. "The most shiny."
"But this is the best." Van smiled as he stood at a terrarium. "The Ironclad Beetle."
"You would like those uncrushable bastards." Hadley sighed. "Though I suppose they are acceptably small and adorable."
"Keep it away." Emma said as she moved behind another terrarium.
"You're kidding me." Van snorted.
Shoal read its information plaque. "It's harmless."
"It's creepy!" Emma whined.
Van just stared.
"Don't judge me!" Emma shouted with a nervous laugh.
"I'm not." Rillke said. "I'm just confused."
"My dad took me to Mexico when I was a baby. I got covered in them and it freaked me out, okay?!"
Shoal nodded. "I get that."
Van nodded as well. "On to another beetle, like the Rhinoceros Beetle."
Emma nodded and looked around.
"Is it that one?" Gleve pointed to a large terrarium with a few large beetles jousting with each other.
"That's them." Van sighed.
"Territorial or mating?" Rillke asked.
"Both." Van said.
"Win the territory, win the ladies." Hadley said. "Or scare them off."
Shoal nodded as he heard a light but consistent sound. He turned to look and saw a sign.
"What's an apiary?" He asked.
"Bees are kept there." Van said. "Mostly for honey production. I think we have four species including the Japanese stingless bee here. They have a huge area in their environment plus a hive we started them in that produces honey that we sell."
"Won't they need it?" Gleve asked.
"Not in the amounts they make, because they have a perfect environment; they don't hibernate so they don't actually need to store up as much. But we always leave around twenty to forty kilograms when we harvest." Emma added.
Shoal nodded. "Can we see them after the ants?"
Emma nodded. "And we can see if any honey is for sale."
"What is honey?" Rillke asked.
"Me of course!" Emma laughed.
Rillke blinked.
Van shook his head.
"Besides a nickname for your partner, its regurgitated nectar produced and tended to by bees." Hadley smiled.
"Bee vomit?" Rillke almost turned greener than normal.
Van laughed and nodded. "Yeah we eat weird things."
"And you want to be called, essentially, bee vomit?" Rillke looked at Emma.
Emma laughed and shook her head. "You don't have to, I was joking."
Rillke nodded. "Very well. Drasui."
Emma blushed.
Van chuckled, "What's that mean?"
Shoal chuckled. "No real translation."
Gleve nodded. "The best way to understand it is..."
"Gleve!" Emma hissed, a slight tinge of her German accent filled her voice.
"Leave it be Gleve." Shoal smirked and looked down the hall. "I see ants!"
(GSD)END CHAPTER(GSD)
////
First
Previous in Main Story
Previous Zoo-nanigans
Next Main Story
Next Zoo-nanigans
Spotify!
////
DM: The flirt is strong with both of them.
Wraith: Do you know what he said?
DM: No clue and Smoggy hid the dictionary.
S: I put it somewhere safe.
DM: Time to check the safes. (Runs off)
Wraith: Propping up a table?
S: It was wobbly.
Wraith: How many decoy safes?
S: None. I have one safe Perfection made.
Wraith: So it opens when he gives up?
S: Yuup.
Wraith: Nice.
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2023.03.22 16:41 spunkypiggy Discrimination in professional school-dismissed from program

Hello,
I am not sure how much I am able to share, and I am afraid to share too much. My case is rather long/complicated, but I am going to try my best to just hit the main points. I would greatly appreciate any advice. So here goes.
Last year, my life turned upside down when I failed a course in my professional/doctoral program and I was dismissed without due process. In complete distress, I reached out to my friends and colleagues for advice and that's when I learned just how much discrimination actually goes on in the program. As a minority student in the program there for several years, I knew that there was discrimination that goes on, but I did not realize the gravity of the situation until then.
In short, they do not follow their own policies. They pick and choose who they want to keep. Students caught cheating are allowed to move on while students who a fail a course are either dismissed or asked to repeat a year. Students who fail multiple times are allowed to retake exams (which is a luxury), remediate courses, or just move on anyway. For years, there has been a pattern of the school giving white students preferential students while discriminating against minority students. There is also actual evidence in writing and even a recording.
In particular, there was a white student who took the exact same classes at the exact same time as me. She had a worse academic history than me but she was still allowed to return to the program. I have the private and public messages/posts from the student to confirm this, and yet, the school continues to deny everything.
It's almost a year now, and I believe the internal appeal process at my university has purposely been dragged out for this long. I feel very naive and defeated now. The school is just going to defend the school. I feel played. This kind of discrimination has been going on for many years according to current and former students. These higher ups have power and they can just get away with things. I even used money saved up to hire a lawyer at the lowest price I could find. He explained how my rights have been violated with evidence, and despite that, the program and the university continues to deny everything.
I'm a first-generation, minority student. Since I was little, my parents worked day and night provide my siblings and me a better life. Going to college was a big deal for me. Getting into this program was a big deal for me. It was always been a dream of mine to become a doctor. This past year has been difficult with my dismissal, my parents' health declining, financial struggles, and just this whole battle with the student administration.
I have decided to let go of the outcome and just let this play out in the background. I have to trust that what's for me is for me, and I need to let go. It pains me to watch my dad in pain while he's going through cancer treatment this past year. My mom's health is declining as well. I just want to finish my degree and be able to support my family. I can't help but feel how unfair it is when I see students with doctors as parents or just wealthy parents be given multiple chances/preferential treatment. That's good for them. It just sucks feeling that the rich will get richer and people like me have nothing to fall back on. All I'm saying is that I pay the same tuition as everyone else, and so, I deserve fair and equal opportunity as my peers.
I have left out a lot of information, but I hit a few of the main points. I am still going to push and fight to this very end, but I am detaching from the outcome. I at least want some kind of justice at the end so my parents' sacrifices won't be in vain. It feels unreal to me how much life has thrown at me this past year, but I'm a fighter. I have family and friends who love and support me. I work out everyday, and my health is good. I am a very optimistic and resilient person, but it is just one of those days where I just need to vent and cry a little. Well, thank you for reading this, and if you have any advice or even some words of encouragement, I would greatly appreciate it.
Lastly, I want to say that pain is temporary. "Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet". So if you're going through a difficult time, know that this is only temporary. Keep pushing and continue being patient. All the best.
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