Yesterday I opened the laptop and found my wife had left her Instagram logged in with a private dm open. Glancing at it I ended up scrolling back past February and still can't nail down the day the affair started.
Our marriage has been tough in the last year, our youngest has a rare genetic condition and was diagnosed autistic (high function) and non verbal. She started therapy to cope with this... her therapy has put her down the path of getting off all her meds since pre pregnancy and self medicates with weed and micro dosing mushrooms, which she tells me her therapist said was a good idea.
Beening a holiday weekend I can't get an attorney to pick up to see what I can do as I kick her out with out it jeopardizing my custody of the boys.
My head is swimming and I just had to explain to my oldest (13) that mom is moving out when she gets home today... I've never felt more emotions at once as I literally cried while trying to explain it to him.
I want to literally just cut everything off and put all her stuff in the driveway... turn off the phone (part of a large family plan from my side) take her off the medical and car insurance first thing Tuesday morning. Pull her gym membership and tell her to figure it out.
Can I do this (I know it makes me a pos to her, but I already am) or will this hurt me in the long run.

My partner(30m) wanted to go out with his friends Sunday. I (27f) was originally okay with this arrangement. My schedule is a bit hectic throughout the week so i asked him for the time he would be gone, since i work early mornings on weekends, we have a 4yr old, a new puppy and I take an online class with all the work due Sunday. He said they would probably be leaving around 10am and would be back probably around 5pm. My shift is 5-8am and my boss asked if I could cover a late night shift 8-11pm so I agreed because I was going based off the time my husband had told me. I asked again during the week to double check the time and make sure I was still good to go for Sunday, my husband wasn't very certain of the times anymore and said he would ask his friends since they were the ones planning the outing and he was going just as a tag a long. A few days before Sunday I asked him again and he said they still hadn't given him an answer as to when they would be coming home but said they would be heading out early that day. Then the night before I asked again and he said he wasn't going because they weren't giving him a concrete answer on to what time anything was happening. I guess while I was sleeping he changed his mind because he sent me a text at 1am which, I saw around 7am at work. He said that his friends, now agreed to leave at 9am the day of and they also told him they can't give him a definite time of when they'll be heading back because they like to stay out for however long they feel like. Once I got home 20 til 9am he was already to head out and even made breakfast. I was pretty pissed about the whole situation and told him to just leave and at this point I didn't care what he was doing, I would just figure out my schedule on my own. He got really upset saying that he wasn't going to go after all because I was angry. I told him yes I'm angry because he wasn't clear on what was happening. His friends were also texting him crap about me which didn't help the situation. After a lot of back and forth I convinced him to go and not stay here just because I feel angry, to which he called his friends and they told him it was too late they had left already.
Now I feel crappy because my intention was not keep him from going, it was to just get a set time frame so I know how to plan my day accordingly. This isn't the first time it's happened but I wasn't so busy in the past so it wasnt that big of an issue.
Either way I don't know how to make it up to my husband and he's pretty upset about it. Especially because he doesn't get invited out often and he thinks this may have pushed these people from inviting him out again. What would be a good way to make it up to him? Or anyone know a good compromise to avoid this in the future?
Tld kept my partner from going out because he wouldn't tell me when he'd be back

"I can't respect her ( Arina Sobolenka) choice to continue to go to Russia, train there, communicate with the Russian press. Not to take the family out of the aggressor countries, having sufficient financial capabilities for this. I would not be able to put up with myself when my country does this, and I stay there. Personally, for me, playing tennis is an opportunity to change something for the better. Sabalenka after this tournament can become the first number in such a popular short. Having such a large platform and such influence in the world, she refuses it. What kind of message is this for the world?
We are talking about the fact that people are killed, and we hear in return that it is necessary to leave sports out of politics. But when the war comes to your house, she doesn't choose whether you're an athlete or not. It's not politics! We all know how Russia and Belarus are fighting against Ukraine, how they shoot civilians, how they captivate civilians, steal things from homes, rape children, take them out of Ukraine. It's a genocide of the Ukrainian people, it's not politics. In general, I have no hatred for any of the players from the aggressor countries. I just don't respect them,"

So I have been running auto1111 for a few hours and decided to start a new image. As I hit generate nothing happened. I looked at my Powershell and it listed a error. Now when I try to restart Auto1111 from my desktop shortcut I get he following error: [notice] A new release of pip is available: 23.0.1 -> 23.1.2
[notice] To update, run: C:\Users\Photography\Desktop\AI Test\stable-diffusion-webui\venv\Scripts\python.exe -m pip install --upgrade pip
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:\Users\Photography\Desktop\AI Test\stable-diffusion-webui\launch.py", line 369, in
prepare_environment()
File "C:\Users\Photography\Desktop\AI Test\stable-diffusion-webui\launch.py", line 302, in prepare_environment
git_clone(stable_diffusion_repo, repo_dir('stable-diffusion-stability-ai'), "Stable Diffusion", stable_diffusion_commit_hash)
File "C:\Users\Photography\Desktop\AI Test\stable-diffusion-webui\launch.py", line 157, in git_clone
current_hash = run(f'"{git}" -C "{dir}" rev-parse HEAD', None, f"Couldn't determine {name}'s hash: {commithash}").strip()
File "C:\Users\Photography\Desktop\AI Test\stable-diffusion-webui\launch.py", line 111, in run
raise RuntimeError(message)
RuntimeError: Couldn't determine Stable Diffusion's hash: cf1d67a6fd5ea1aa600c4df58e5b47da45f6bdbf.
Command: "git" -C "C:\Users\Photography\Desktop\AI Test\stable-diffusion-webui\repositories\stable-diffusion-stability-ai" rev-parse HEAD
Error code: 128
stdout:
stderr: fatal: detected dubious ownership in repository at 'C:/Users/Photography/Desktop/AI Test/stable-diffusion-webui/repositories/stable-diffusion-stability-ai'
'C:/Users/Photography/Desktop/AI Test/stable-diffusion-webui/repositories/stable-diffusion-stability-ai' is owned by:
'S-1-5-32-544'
but the current user is:
'S-1-5-21-1159929324-3325828456-769904946-1003'
To add an exception for this directory, call:
​
git config --global --add safe.directory 'C:/Users/Photography/Desktop/AI Test/stable-diffusion-webui/repositories/stable-diffusion-stability-ai'
​
​
Press any key to continue . . .
**I have not changed directories. I installed the program to the desktop in a folder named AI Test, per video instructions. I have not changed users. I was literally in the program and in stopped working.**
I googled the error first and found a few solutions but nothing worked yet.
Any help would be appreciated. Thank you

The Vlad mission was combined with the Russia Novosibirsk Mission a couple years ago (2017). I would be just as interested in anyone who served in Novo after 2017 (Lamb). I served under Brinton. Perkins followed Brinton. I would be happy to hear from anyone that served under Perkins as well.
With the news that the Church is claiming only around 5,000 members (used to be +20,000), and the reality that over half the branches and groups in my old mission have closed since I arrived home, I would like more insight into what was going on while you were there.

(1) INTRODUCTION Hello, my name is BPT; I am an avid DCS fan and a hobbyist programmer from Australia, and I am currently in the process of conceptualizing, coding and testing TWO shortlisted concepts that have advanced to the POCON (proof of concept) stage for implementation into DCS and finally released as a publicly available mod. Their development is concurrent with each other. The pair, once complete, would introduce two completely new, unrelated technology systems, and and in this case, one is to do with target acquisition and guidance unlike anything currently found in-game, and the other is looking to implement a hybrid seeker-head not currently modelled in DCS; both have been deemed conceptually possible based on evaluations of what LUA can do and experimental POCONs exist for both projects.
(2) PURPOSE This effort is meant to have a three-pronged effect: to create 2 mods that I want to use myself, to explore and evaluate the possibilities and/or limitations the LUA API within DCS to see what is and isn't possible, and if it would be a good choice to use in other projects that haven't materialized beyond a concept yet, or don't exist in DCS. Finally, to try and create a small collaboration / mod team that shares the same vision and with a group vision of bringing conceptional/unmodeled systems, behavior and functionality not currently available through DCS or existing mods. Its nice when someone releases a new jet with a clickable, custom cockpit but they all tend to be the same thing: a usually-decent external model, complete with custom animations and sometimes new weapon models but under the surface, they are just a remodeled, reskinned F-15 with FC3 functionality, including the same simple fly model and the cockpit from the F-15. I want to start producing mods that could actually affect gameplay meta, create new options for mission designers, and I just love doing POCON; just proving something is possible is something I very much enjoy doing! (3) SUITABILITY EVALUATION This will be a thorough evaluation and whether pressing ahead using LUA to advance more of my theory-only concepts into working models that can be implemented into DCS, can be considered a feasible option. Hopefully revealed is whether or not a future project could be hindered by a LUA (or even DCS) limitation when already 10's (or even 100's) of hours have been invested into a project that is simply not possible to execute and destined to fail; its better to abandon these before you become too invested or waste too much time only to find out a technical limitation means its not something doable.
(3) VOLUNTEERING You don't need to be an "expert" to volunteer but being able to start, taxi, takeoff, fly and land the F-16 and/or FC3 aircraft (F-15 and Flanker, mostly) as well as use their weapons and avionics suite, with even just a basic level of competence would be the desired-but-not-required-minimum expectation of a volunteer interested in involvement with these projects. Testing involving helicopters has been deemed unnecessary at this point so don't worry if you cant fly/don't own one.
Everyone is welcome to volunteer but failing to meet this basic criterion could impede on your ability to be a suitable and useful test pilot, or fill another role if required (WSO, RIO, etc.) as the knowledge on how to pilot would be preferred, even in those roles. Age doesn't matter as long as you act in a mature fashion during testing. Any other project-specific criteria desired/required by interested parties will be listed in the individual project comment thread.

• Also, for anyone interested in these projects but are unable/unwilling to participate during in-game tests, if you would regard yourself as highly knowledgeable about DCS and still wish to have involvement, your knowledge base, being technical or trivia, would be of great assistance to development too:

1. technical perspective (like understanding LUA or just general DCS modding; 'tinkerers' absolutely apply as even if your strength isn't writing new code, you can definitely contribute to any troubleshooting/debugging efforts - even if you no longer play the game!)
2. excellent DCS-trivia-type knowledge (exactly which weapons are available on what plane by default, who has the 'strongest' radar, which aircraft can exceed Mach 2, etc etc. - you know the game like the back of your hand but you might not have any experience in coding or mod development)

Please express your interest as having a pool of players to make up the "think-tank" of a project and also to fulfill the role of test pilots, both groups required for operating, interacting with, testing, analyzing results and to be able to optimally tweak the systems based on code behavior and in-game feedback. Both projects are still within a brain-storming and input-friendly phase, both with working prototypes/POCONs for each project so now is a good time to join the teams for these projects; you will have a large amount of noted input in how you would like the development process to operate and progress. I'm currently writing up briefs for the two projects and they will be posted in this thread, as two separate comments so please reply to the comment thread relevant to the project you are interested in volunteering for - this isn't a hard and fast rule; I'm not going to ban you from participation if you express interest in the wrong place (hell, even PM me if you want!) but it does make it a lot easier for me to organize and manage.
(4) PROJECTS These two concepts - 'RAADAR-ECHO' and 'RADIIHOTRADGS' - were selected to advance to a project stage because they will rely heavily on DCS's integration of LUA - and a wide range of its capabilities - in order to achieve desired functionality and behavior as intended, so completion of these projects should offer significant insight into what LUA in DCS can do. Without the utilization of LUA, neither of the two concepts mentioned here could be modeled in an even remotely possible sense; the required functionality is just too advanced and cant be done unless LUA is involved, and the decision to to see if DCS's implementation of LUA could lend highly advanced behaviofunctionality to "new technology" mods was done for for three key reasons:
Firstly, to take advantage of a native DCS "system" when compared to other approaches, is the most likely to be workable on a practical level and be able to produce the wanted results in something like an advanced weapon system mod, as opposed to using another "system", like the Mission Editor and trying to create the same thing using triggers: eventually you hit a technical limitation and your idea becomes "technically impossible"; hopefully the limitations of the LUA engine in DCS don't preclude these two concepts from materializing into functional, publicly-available mods. The use of LUA is what provides access to enhanced capabilities and functionality to try and (re)create these systems and turn a proof of concept into a reality.
Secondly, these two projects were shortlisted from a long list of ideas on the backburner which are held back by standard technical limitations and would require a script-based system to function; these two concepts have been selected to advance to trial projects: they were chosen because they shouldn't be *too* difficult to create, and across the two projects, there's a wide enough use of different functions used in different contexts to be able to gauge the practicality and suitability of using LUA to create more of the complex and novel systems I have planned in a conceptual stage, whilst producing two high quality mods that I believe people would want to use.
Lastly, if I want to (re)create or emulate something complicated enough that it cant be achieved in the Mission Editor or the like, LUA would be the only option I try as I don't want any mods created by me to require anything that isn't common to a standard DCS mod: if any third-party addons/packages/HUDs/exe's are deemed to be required/necessary to bring a concept to life, it will be shelved in favor of one that doesn't, and until a new solution requiring nothing but DCS makes itself known.
(5) TO CONCLUDE It may be upto 24-hours before I am able to post the project briefs, as even though I am extremely busy for the next 20 or so hours then I'll have a good amount of downtime so based on that, I'm not going to rush writing them to keep them clear and concise to anyone who's interested in what they've read about here. Feel free to express your interest below as it gives me a good idea for numbers; please mention in your expression of interest if you have FC3 / F-16 or not - cheers!
I really hope their are some interested parties as this kind of development is slooooww with only one person (me! lol) doing all the coding and all the testing/troubleshooting, and I'd love to get these finished, polished and released.
Kind regards, -BPT

I’m so annoyed. I went to a kids party last week and now I’m pretty sure I have head lice. I didn’t even want to go to the party in the first place, but it was my husband’s nephew’s party so we just stopped by for an hour or two to give him his present. This party had 30+ kids attending so it’s not a surprise that lice have been spread about. I literally can’t think of anywhere else I would have caught them, because I work from home and I’m pretty antisocial. The party was the only place I had been that week where I was socialising and mixing with people. I’ll be going to the shops tomorrow to buy head lice treatment. I feel so gross! Obviously it’s not the children’s fault, lice is pretty common in kids. But what annoys me is we have received no messages from their mum to say “oh btw we’ve noticed the kids have head lice, so you might want to check yourselves!” Like… surely you should be letting us know? Unless she hasn’t even noticed that they have them yet 🤷🏼‍♀️. Anyway, this whole experience has made me hate kids parties even more than I already did. I’m thinking of using it as an excuse to not go next time we’re invited to one…

Context: I live in my family home with my 2 younger adult siblings (all in our 20s with jobs), my mom and my stepdad. Our home is in terrible shape and my folks refuse to do anything about it. I'm chronically ill, possibly due to the black mold in the bathroom I have a door connected to. I have fever symptoms most of the time and can barely do basic tasks. We have a cat who also doesnt receive the best care but my siblings and I do what we can. We're miserable but have nowhere else to go. Overall, it's a very lazy and dysfunctional home.
A while ago, my mom got a call from a family friend asking if we wanted a dog. My mom, without asking anyone else except possibly my step-dad, said yes and we suddenly had a puppy the next day. Immediately I was like whoah, we are in no position to have a dog, much less a puppy. A day later, we got a call saying the owner wanted her back, some drama happened blah blah we gave the dog back. Thank God, right? Wrong. Immediately my folks decide to go to the same breeder as the puppy we just had and get a fresh one. (I'm gonna spare some details since this is already gonna be a long post)
The first few weeks, they were very attentive. We baby-gated the kitchen and she has one cage in the kitchen, one in my folk's bedroom. Daytime, she's in the kitchen, nighttime she's in the one with my folks. She has some toys and a feeding schedule. She has a clothesline outside. My mildly autistic brother is usually "asked" to do a lot of the work.
It's been several months now, and she's still restricted to the kitchen (pretty much always in her cage) and outside. She sits alone in her cage/outside for most hours of the day, if not all day, and gets barely any attention anymore other than feeding and maybe the location toss-a-toy when my step dad gets back from work. She's up to my mid-thigh now, (a black retriever) and its heartbreaking seeing her between sleep and work.
My siblings and I tried to prevent this, we told them this would happen, but they never ever listen to us or think of us as having any valuable input (or think we have some hidden motive, like we can't possibly be decent people).
My stepdad works all day, my mom pretty much plays games and talks on the phone all day. There's no sign or solid plans to get the house clean (it's always "we'll take care of it in the summenext yeaetc." We live like hoarders) or the mold issue taken care of. The dog looks sad and lonely. What can I do? Who can I call? I don't want to cause issues with my folks as that always turns out ugly for me and my siblings. If they see this post I'm fucked but I need to reach out at this point.
If I can anonymously do something about it please let me know. I know if they found out, they'd probably call me an awful person trying to get rid of a dog I dont want... it's true, I (and my siblings) dont want her, but not because we dont love her. We have bonded with her and we do care about her, but we should NOT have her in these circumstances. Not only that, she's extremely rowdy and bites often when she IS out of her cage. I'm weak and can barely take care of myself, much less anything else. And I told them as much, many times. And they're doing the bare minimum.
A large part of me thinks it was their plan all along to make us take care of her out of pity, and then she's just an entertainment they have for when they feel like it.
TL;DR my folks impulse bought a black lab and its living conditions are sad at MOST, and I cant do much to help her. Who can I call? I need real, informed advice. They need to hear how to care for a dog from someone with authority or something? Pet protection organization or something??
Idk if theres a better subreddit to post this to let me know also, I just looked for one with a lot of people who may know about about pet laws or regulations maybe but again, I don't want my folks to see this. My stepdads on reddit and possibly my mom so this is extremely risky for me, but I can't ignore this anymore. She deserves so much better.

7 month old puppy. I went to my friends place overnight on Friday. Me partner stayed home with the puppy. Puppy is def more attached to me and that was how we wanted it. Apparently he was pretty good while I was gone but about 2 hours before I got home on Saturday night he started to get anxious and was walking around looking for me. Pawing at my office to check if I was in there and constantly looking out the window for me. When I came home i got the most excited greeting I’ve ever received and it was super sweet. But now he will not let me out of his sight even more than normal. Follows me nose to my hip. He also now seems to be anxious if he’s with me but my partner is out of his sight. Like when my partner was in the shower. He’s super restless unless we are both in the room and someone has to be touching him and then he’s fine. I realize it’s only the first day I’m back and he may calm down but it’s feeling like a lot. We clearly need to work on leaving him alone in small doses again but any other advice or thoughts on how to make it easier for him? I do need to be able to leave him sometimes and I don’t want it to cause him to spiral into anxiety that he’ll be left again.

Another Madden $70 re-skin is upon us, so let's take a moment to explore the history of all the people who have been featured on the cover of an pro football video game.
While the selection of the Madden cover athlete is now an event, there was a wild wild west period of football games from the 80s to the mid-2000s where anybody with a computer could and would build football games, with the selection of the cover being all over the place. Roger Craig was the first cover athlete in 1985 on NFL Challenge for MS-DOS. Madden's first game was in 1988, then by the mid-90s getting a cover athlete or spokesman for your football game was pretty standard.
I wanted to compile those games and covers based on this Wiki article (and a few that it was missing from that list) and see who was on the main cover of all of those games (some games were almost completely irrelevant, so I left them off this list). Some of these may have more alternates with other people, but I'll stick with the main cover.

Covers by Position

https://preview.redd.it/1dzua4o2hl2b1.png?width=600&format=png&auto=webp&s=79174425f34c9090dacddd78d3679923182d5f3a
*These are heavily boosted by John Madden being on 10 Madden covers
Obviously QBs dominate here, but I didn't realize how little defensive players have been on football game covers (9%), with none being on a cover since Richard Sherman in 2014. I'd love to see more defensive players on the Madden cover. Who would be the most likely defensive guy in the near future? Aaron Donald, TJ Watt, Nick Bosa, Myles Garrett, or Sauce Gardner?

Covers by Team

https://preview.redd.it/8f29df4ygl2b1.png?width=600&format=png&auto=webp&s=cfa6fba341321f2fb7be68a4be1d0e89404f9e40
If a team's player was not a lead on the cover or was not any identifiable player, I gave them a *
The Re-skins/Commanders?, Jags, Panthers, and Bills have appeared on a cover but never with an athlete as the lead or with a real person. Only the Texans have never appeared at all on the cover of any football video game. I'd say the Bills are most likely to get one next (Josh Allen), then the Jags (Trevor Lawrence), then the Panthers/Texans if either hits a home run with Young or Stroud. The Commanders have a long road ahead to getting a feature cover athlete, unless you ask Sam Howell who thinks he should be this year's Madden cover athlete.

Most Prolific Cover People

https://preview.redd.it/5axoymcakl2b1.png?width=2871&format=png&auto=webp&s=1ead25140a20a056d3e02e6cf5fdc14918a9ca51
Kordell Stewart, Daunte Culpepper, and Donovan McNabb (and possibly Lamar Jackson, still too early for him) are the only players with multiple appearances that are either not or are unlikely to make the Hall of Fame. McNabb is the only guy to appear in multiple covers in the same year. Also of note, 7 athletes were on a cover without ever making a pro bowl in their careers: Brad Muster, Pat Terrell, Gordon Laro, Chris Zorich, Albert Fontenot, William Floyd, and Peyton Hillis (Hillis was the only one to be the primary cover athlete).
I'll list all the games and their respective covers by their era below. I'll also attach some of my favorite covers from each era. If the cover person was a Hall of Famer, I'll mark them with a ^\). If they're very likely to make the HoF but they're not yet eligible, I'll mark them with a ⁺

Covers by Era

Decade	# of Games	# of Games w/Cover Athletes	# of Cover Athletes
60s	1	0	0
70s	4	0	0
80s	11	2 (18%)	2
90s	36	32 (89%)	21
00s	40	38 (95%)	36
10s	14	10 (71%)	12
20s	8	4 (50%)	5
Total	114	86 (75%)	76

We didn't see the first cover athlete until 1985 with Roger Craig. They didn't really become standard until the early to mid-90s after Madden became a big selling point for the early Madden games. The dip in the last 2 decades is because there's just less games, so any generic football games will have a large effect.

The Early Days: 1965-1982

1978: Football! for the Magnavox Odyssey 2 was the first football video game with a cover, but obviously the cover athletes are generic.

Year	Game	Cover Athlete	Team	Position
1965	FTBALL	NA	NA	NA
1972	Football (Magnavox)	NA	NA	NA
1978	Football!	Generic players	NA	NA
1978	Football (Atari)	Generic players	NA	NA
1979	NFL Football	Generic players	NA	NA
1982	Realsports: Football	Generic players	NA	NA

The 2D Era: 1983-1996

1985: NFL Challenge was the first football game with a real cover athlete (Roger Craig). This was the original bar for realism in football simulation, to where it was used in a 1988 ESPN Program \"NFL Dream Season\" where they simulated the greatest teams of all time against each other.
1988: John Madden Football released on the Apple II, MS-DOS, and Commodore 64/128 (partly being developed by Bethesda), which was the beginning of the most dominant franchise in football video games. They featured no NFL teams due to a lack of an NFL license.
1991: Tecmo Super Bowl is probably still my personal favorite football video game. It's totally timeless, and if you pick the Raiders then you're a cheater.

Year	Game	Cover Athlete	Team	Position
1983	10-Yard Fight	Generic Jersey	NA	NA
1984	Super Action Football	Generic player	NA	NA
1985	NFL Challenge	Roger Craig	49ers	RB
1987	4th & Inches	Generic players	NA	NA
1987	Tecmo Bowl	Generic players	NA	NA
1988	TV Sports: Football	Generic player	NA	NA
1988	John Madden Football ('88)	John Madden*	None	John Madden
1989	ABC Monday Night Football	Generic player	NA	NA
1989	NFL	Generic players	49ers, Raiders, Oilers, Broncos, Re-skins	NA
1989	PlayMaker Football	Equipment	NA	NA
1990	Joe Montana Football	Joe Montana*	None	QB
1990	John Madden Football ('90)	John Madden*	None	John Madden
1991	John Madden Football II (or '92)	John Madden*	None	John Madden
1991	Tecmo Super Bowl	Generic player	NA	NA
1992	NFL Sports Talk Football '93	Joe Montana*	49ers	QB
1992	Front Page Sports Football	Generic players	NA	NA
1993	Capcom's MVP Football	Brad Muster	Bears	FB
1993	Madden NFL '94	John Madden*	NA	HC/Announcer
1993	NFL Football '94 Starring Joe Montana	Joe Montana*	Chiefs	QB
1993	Mutant League Football	Mutant	NA	NA
1994	ESPN Sunday Night NFL	Chris Berman	NA	Announcer
1994	Madden NFL '95	John Madden*	NA	John Madden
1994	Tecmo Super Bowl II: Special Edition	Generic player	Cowboys	NA
1994	Troy Aikman NFL Football	Troy Aikman*	Cowboys	QB
1995	Emmitt Smith Football	Emmitt Smith*	None	RB
1995	Madden NFL '96	John Madden*, Pat Terrell, Gordon Laro	NA, Panthers, Jags	John Madden, DB, TE
1995	NFL Quarterback Club 96	Steve Young*, Chris Zorich, Albert Fontenot	49ers, Bears	QB, DL
1995	Sterling Sharpe: End 2 End	Sterling Sharpe	None	WR
1995	Tecmo Super Bowl III: Final Edition	Generic players	Raiders, Bills	NA
1995	NFL GameDay	William Floyd	49ers	FB
1996	Madden NFL 97	John Madden*	NA	John Madden
1996	NFL '97	Kordell Stewart	Steelers	QB
1996	NFL Quarterback Club 97	Dan Marino*	Dolphins	QB
1996	NFL GameDay '97	Daryl "Moose" Johnston	Cowboys	FB

​

The Parity Era: 1997-2004

1997: NFL Blitz came from Midway studios and was a breath of fresh air for football games. They had mostly been stagnant trying to hone in on realistic simulation in 2D form, whereas Blitz came out in 3D and threw realism out the window. I definitely spent too much money on the arcade version of this game.
2000: Madden 2001 started the tradition of having their games feature a cover athlete in this format, which consolidated into nearly everyone following this trend.
2001: Backyard Football 2002 was a more kid-friendly version of a football video game, and they also had other games for other professional sports. I definitely played this a lot on my old Windows Me computer, and Pablo Sanchez is a god.
2002: NFL Fever was Microsoft's foray into football video games on the original Xbox. All 3 of their games featured Peyton Manning as the cover athlete.
2002: NFL GameDay 2003 was 989 Sports' exclusive for Sony on the PlayStation platform.
2004: ESPN NFL 2K5 was the last great football game before the NFL exclusively gave their license to the EA. It was this game that definitely led to NFL's decision though, as they slashed their release price to an unheard of $20, which forced Madden 2004 to release at $30 instead of the typical $50. This pissed off the NFL, who decided to have less competition instead.

Year	Game	Cover Athlete	Team	Position
1997	NFL Blitz	Kordell Stewart	Steelers	QB
1997	NFL Quarterback Club 98	Brett Favre*	Packers	QB
1997	NFL GameDay '98	Jerome Bettis*	Steelers	RB
1997	Madden NFL 98 (64)	John Madden*	NA	John Madden
1998	NFL Xtreme	Mike Alstott	Bucs	FB
1998	NFL Quarterback Club 99	Brett Favre*	Packers	QB
1998	NFL GameDay '99	Terrell Davis*	Broncos	RB
1998	Madden NFL 99	John Madden*	NA	John Madden
1999	NFL Xtreme 2	John Randle*	Vikings	DL
1999	NFL Quarterback Club 2000	Brett Favre*	Packers	QB
1999	NFL GameDay 2000	Terrell Davis*	Broncos	RB
1999	NFL 2K	Randy Moss*	Vikings	WR
1999	Madden NFL 2000	John Madden*	NA	John Madden
1999	Backyard Football	Steve Young)*, Jocinda Smith, Amir Khan	49ers, Generic	QB
2000	NFL Quarterback Club 2001	Brett Favre*	Packers	QB
2000	NFL GameDay 2001	Marshall Faulk*	Rams	RB
2000	NFL 2K1	Randy Moss*	Vikings	WR
2000	Madden NFL 2001	Eddie George	Titans	RB
2001	NFL Quarterback Club 2002	Brett Favre*, Rich Gannon	Packers, Raiders	QB
2001	NFL GameDay 2002	Donovan McNabb	Eagles	QB
2001	NFL Fever 2002	Peyton Manning*	Colts	QB
2001	NFL 2K2	Randy Moss*	Vikings	WR
2001	Madden NFL 2002	Daunte Culpepper	Vikings	QB
2001	Backyard Football 2002	Drew Bledsoe or Donovan McNabb	Pats or Eagles	QB
2001	ESPN NFL PrimeTime 2002	Edgerrin James*	Colts	RB
2002	NFL GameDay 2003	Tom Brady+	Pats	QB
2002	NFL Fever 2003	Peyton Manning*	Colts	QB
2002	NFL 2K3	Brian Urlacher*	Bears	LB
2002	Madden NFL 2003	Marshall Faulk*	Rams	RB
2003	NFL GameDay 2004	LaDainian Tomlinson*	Chargers	RB
2003	NFL Fever 2004	Peyton Manning*	Colts	QB
2003	Madden NFL 2004	Michael Vick	Falcons	QB
2003	ESPN NFL Football	Warren Sapp*	Bucs	DL
2003	Backyard Football 2004	Jeff Garcia	49ers	QB
2004	NFL GameDay 2005	Derrick Brooks*	Bucs	LB
2004	Madden NFL 2005	Ray Lewis*	Ravens	LB
2004	ESPN NFL 2K5	Terrell Owens*	Eagles	WR
2004	NFL Street	Ricky Williams	Dolphins	RB

​

The Madden Era: 2005-Present

2005: NFL Street 2 was the second in the NFL Street series as a kind of spiritual successor to NFL Blitz. EA tried to have some diversity in their football video games outside of the Madden franchise, so they had the short-lived Street franchise under \"EA BIG\"
2006: NFL Head Coach was a new perspective on NFL Games where you play as the coach instead of the players. I enjoyed these although they could get a little boring.
2007: All Pro Football 2K8 was 2K's attempt at keeping the 2K football franchise alive without the coveted NFL license. They got three HoF players on the cover in Elway, Barry, and Rice, but not the actual license to any NFL team. This game received praise for its mechanics, but poor sales showed that a non-NFL licensed game would always struggle to make it.
2011: Madden 12 was maybe the last good Madden game. Also, Peyton Hillis. The only guy on a NFL football game cover to never make a Pro Bowl. This guy is an actual hero though, so good for him.
2019: Doug Flutie's Maximum Football was a mix of american and CFL football as another attempt at making a football game without the NFL license to poor results. They have announced a new game as a free to play title on new platforms, but no games in this franchise have released since 2020.
2020: Retro Bowl is a mobile game more in the style of Tecmo Super Bowl than Madden. It's probably the most successful non-Madden game since ESPN NFL 2K5, and it's pretty fun. People should definitely give this one a try since it's free to play on any mobile platform.
2022: Madden 23 gave the cover back to Madden for the first time since 1999 to honor the passing of the legend John Madden. Unfortunately the game inside the cover was crap, has been the style of Madden games for over a decade.

Year	Game	Cover Athlete	Team	Position
2005	Madden NFL 06	Donovan McNabb	Eagles	QB
2005	NFL Street 2	Jeremy Shockey, Xzibit	Giants, Pimp My Ride	TE, Rapper
2005	Blitz: The League	Generic players	NA	NA
2005	Backyard Football 2006	Daunte Culpepper	Vikings	QB
2006	Madden NFL 07	Shaun Alexander	Seahawks	RB
2006	NFL Head Coach	Bill Cowher*	Steelers	HC
2006	NFL Street 3	Chad Johnson	Bengals	WR
2007	Backyard Football '07	Ben Roethlisberger+	Steelers	QB
2007	Madden NFL 08	Vince Young	Titans	QB
2007	All-Pro Football 2K8	John Elway*, Barry Sanders*, Jerry Rice*	Generic	QB, RB, WR
2007	Backyard Football '08	Tom Brady+	Pats	QB
2008	NFL Tour	Shawne Merriman	Chargers	LB
2008	NFL Head Coach 09	Tony Dungy*	Colts	HC
2008	Backyard Football '09	Tom Brady+	Pats	QB
2009	Madden NFL 10	Troy Polamalu*, Larry Fitzgerald+	Steelers, Cards	DB, WR
2009	Backyard Football '10	Frank Gore+, Eli Manning+, Kurt Warner*, Peyton Manning*, Adrian Peterson+, Jason Witten+	49ers, Giants, Cards, Colts, Vikings, Cowboys	RB, QB, TE
2010	Quick Hit Football	Logo	NA	NA
2010	Madden NFL 11	Drew Brees+	Saints	QB
2010	Backbreaker	Generic player	NA	NA
2011	Madden NFL 12	Peyton Hillis	Browns	RB
2012	Madden NFL 13	Calvin Johnson*	Lions	WR
2013	Madden NFL 25	Barry Sanders* or Adrian Peterson+	Lions or Vikings	RB
2014	Madden NFL 15	Richard Sherman+	Seahawks	DB
2015	Madden NFL 16	Odell Beckham Jr.	Giants	WR
2016	Madden NFL 17	Rob Gronkowski+	Pats	TE
2016	Axis Football 2016	Generic player	NA	NA
2017	Madden NFL 18	Tom Brady+	Pats	QB
2017	Axis Football 17	Generic player	NA	NA
2018	Madden NFL 19	Antonio Brown+	Steelers	WR
2019	Doug Flutie's Maximum Football 2019	Doug Flutie	Generic (Stampeders)	QB
2020	Sunday Rivals	Helmet	NA	NA
2020	Retro Bowl	Generic player	NA	NA
2020	Legend Bowl	Silhouette	NA	NA
2019	Madden NFL 20	Patrick Mahomes+	Chiefs	QB
2020	Madden NFL 21	Lamar Jackson	Ravens	QB
2021	Madden NFL 22	Tom Brady+, Patrick Mahomes+	Bucs, Chiefs	QB
2022	Madden NFL 23	John Madden*	NA	John Madden
2023	NFL Pro Era	Lamar Jackson	Ravens	QB

Today's lesson. Stop doing exposure therapy type activities until you feel better and have a chance to stabilise and recover a bit. I made a wise mind decision today and prioritised my safety and I'm proud of myself.
I have a close friend/fwb partner who is very social and likes me to be involved in social situations. I'm currently asocial and have pretty brutal agoraphobia due to trauma. I feel like, he's been encouraging me to join him at social events as a form of exposure therapy. Mostly these events go ok. Always hugely triggering for me, but sometimes I feel proud of myself afterwards, a bit more confident maybe.
Today we were planning to travel to a different city together for an event. I didn't want to go. This situation was particularly triggering because I would be meeting another of his lovers. He's polyam and I'm mostly fine with that, but the idea of actually meeting other partners was, in hindsight, way too much for me to deal with. I have a lot of previous relationship trauma from non consensual polyam dynamics and being kicked out my home for a previous partner's hook ups and, it's all just a lot.
Basically, I'm happy for current fwb to interact sexually with whoever, but I absolutely don't want to ride in a car with them for hours. Or probably even see them at this point. I'd like to be clear that the dynamic with current partner is fully consensual and not abusive, but it is triggering.
So today I fully planned to go. I packed. He arrived. We spoke inside my house, she stayed in car and I didn't see her. And, he noticed how very obviously distressed I was. Over around 10 minutes of talk he helped me calm down to the point of making a rational decision to put my safety first and stay home. And, because I came to this decision myself, rather than him refusing to take me in my distressed state, it feels like a really healthy, boundary respecting decision. I've been doing a lot better since he left this morning and I'm really proud of myself.
I hadn't fully realised until today that it's not sustainable to push myself to the point of being constantly triggered. It has been retraumatising me and I've been regressing a lot with symptoms. Realised I need to be given space to self regulate before any more social stuff, and current boundary of no partners partners.

Hey everyone,
​
We just started a massive remodeling project for our two-story townhome (part of an association) under the guidance of a family friend.
Basically, we totally remodeled the kitchen (totally gutted, brand new appliances, even taking out a part of the counter), changed the carpet flooring to vinyl, and remodel of one bathroom.
We didn't force a contract due to that relationship and are now starting to regret it. Here's why:
- The workers have damaged some furniture (very unprofessional)
- The family friend is asking for large checks every few weeks, we have no real idea where this money is going to (he said it's for "labor costs")
- Home was built in 1975 and we have popcorn ceilings. We tested the home when we bought it and it was negative for asbestos, but upon checking on the progress, we see that the entire place is covered in dust (workers have been sweeping it, but we're worried that maybe other layers of the paint were not tested for when we first bought the place. I doubt the family friend tested for it, but we may have to ask him for an asbestos report, there are still things in the home that we need to get, and we don't want to expose ourselves in the worst case). We've gone inside the home twice since the popcorn ceiling removal and the dust is almost unbearable, so really worried about a potential exposure.
- Family friend gave us measurements for major appliances, we bought them, and they didn't fit, but he didn't tell us until well after the 48 hour return policy for Home Depot and Lowe's, so I had to do some major damage control for this.
I want to ask this subreddit for advice. At this point, we're very unhappy with how this is going, but we're scared of stopping everything because it's in the middle of the remodel. We were going to have him do the upper floor too, but so far he's only done the lower floor. He keeps upping the cost estimate as well (don't want to go into specifics, but it's a lot).
​
Does anyone know how we can do damage control? Any tips on getting out of this mess?

Hi, last year around spring break I was out on a walk when I saw a newly hatched turtle, caked in mud, and fully dried out. It seemed he was trying I cross the road, but didn't make it all the way.
I was always taught to just help them across and keep on moving, but the house across the street had highly aggressive dogs. Being the dumb fool I am, I brought him home with the intentions of taking him to a wildlife rescue.
Unfortunately, after buying all the supplies needed to house him, I started to grow attached and because I still live at home my parents told me should keep him.
Against my better judgment, I did. I know this is very wrong and I messed up, but I don't want my little guy to have to suffer because I'm a dumb human.
His name is Tydeus, like the word tide combined with Deus ex Machina, because when I got him I was going through a hard time and he brought lots of joy into my life. He is a little over a year old, and is a Western Painted Turtle. His carapace measures about 3.5-4 inches. He currently lives in a 35g setup with a sponge filter for a 60g tank, and proper lighting. He is very healthy and friendly, thought he doesn't like eating his vegetables most days. I feed him on varied turtle pellets, mealworms and crickets, varied greens, and occasional fruits such as strawberries and blueberries. Is a very voracious eater, and has no trouble with eating.
He is extremely friendly and social, he knows his name and enjoys being gently pet on his shell. Every time someone walks past his tank he always stops whatever he's doing to come to the edge and greet them.
He is so absolutely perfect and I feel terrible that I need to rehome him as he is my responsibility and I was the one who wrongly took him from the wild.
I'm just struggling to care for him with all the work of highschool, and I'm worried I wouldn't find an apartment that allows aquatic turtles when I go to college. I am a reptie keeper, I have a leopard gecko, I've had a two other rescue geckos, a toad, and a multitude of inverts along with them. I know how to care for him, I'm not in the position to give him the care he deserves.
He's aquatic, and this is my first time keeping an aquatic animal, and due to the fact I found him on spring break, and summer break came relatively quickly, I was able to keep up with water changes and tank cleanings.
I thought because I balanced my other reptiles with school, I could with him too. Over the winter I realized I was wrong. Keeping up with school work, water changes, and prepping for college, alongside giving him the enrichment and socialization he deserves was just too much for me.
He doesn't get water changes as often as he needs, and he rarely comes out to explore and get natural UVB rays. I feel terrible and I know how irresponsible this is, but he deserves to have a good home and life even thought I'm a stupid human who can't give it to him.
Because of this I need him to go to a good home. He has such a big personality and deserves the whole wide world. I won't charge any fees for him, because it's my fault he needs a new place to go, and I'm happy to provide some financial support- as much as I can without a job.
I just want him to have a good life, and I feel I'm not the right fit for him in this stage of my life, I just want to try and take responsibility for my prior mistakes and ensure I can give him everything he deserves.
I live in the Lenexa, Kansas area and an happy to make a short drive or to ship him (as long as the weather permits it)
Thanks for reading my long post- sorry again that my mistakes lead to this.

First Previous Wiki
Tanya patted Skira's drone.
"How's the war going?"
In his world, Skira was working to keep everything together. His bioships were in an all-out war with Aphid's forces. They were firing mostly kinetic weapons, typical bullets, and the like. Sometimes, they'd fire missiles, which could navigate the battlefield and clear the path for him to hit Aphid's vessels. The armor was getting thicker. But his guns were getting bigger.
On the surface, billions of metal drones clashed with trillions of fungal drones, all commanded by Skira and the Quadrants. He was constantly using war drones to push the major forces away from the tunnel complexes, setting up static defenses within using explosives and guns to absolutely ruin anything inside. Most of the planet had been flattened by nuclear weapons.
War drones continued to lob massive broken-off boulders at the carriers, which were continually landing to disgorge more enemy soldiers. Phoebe's androids, connected to their own network, were killing them by the tens of thousands every second, firing several bullets a second. Her androids were incredibly powerful, creating portions of the battlefield that Aphid had to steer around. And he didn't even try nuking her after she'd shot down eight of them with atmospheric anti-ship weapons.
From around the planet, portals appeared, pouring lasers and gunfire at Aphid's ships, then disappearing to reappear in other directions, continually wearing down their armor. Some of them were already falling back through the atmosphere, landing down on the earth below. Their burning and cracked hulls already littered the landscape, and he'd be sure to incorporate them once he fully regrew his foliage.
Speaking of that, he'd increased his growth factor so that the fungal forests only took a few weeks to regrow instead of a few years. It required massive biological and metallic pipes of nutrients and heaps of psychic energy hauled straight from the psychic amplifiers in the Sol system.
The carnage of the warzone was so overwhelming that he'd refused to even let human supersoldiers come to the area. Because they weren't disposable. Phoebe's androids and his own trillions of drones were. He was partly on the battlefield, partly with Tanya. Over the months, they'd become best friends.
She seemed to see life in a different way and helped to encourage him. Tanya's cybernetic left arm scratched at the scruff of his neck.
"Badly, then?"
"Yes, and no. I'm no longer replacing my losses faster than they're coming. But that also means I'm keeping millions of humans alive. Every day, billions of drones are dying on my battlefields, if only to exhaust Aphid's guns and bombs. He's brought destruction to my world not seen since it was destroyed."
"Destroyed?"
"I mean when some aliens blew it up."
"But how..."
"Bioforming. Really, I had my biological ships put it back together, reassembling the debris and reversing the momentum of the actual fragments. Then, I used shield technology and drones to suck the heat from the planet in ways that destroyed the technology I had at the time. Granted, I had some help, before they tried to get me to fight their wars as well."
Tanya nodded. "Well, you're safe here."
"Most of me isn't here. Most of it's either on Skira or Venus."
"How's Venus going?"
He'd been making great strides with what he'd been given. Humanity had been very kind to give him the whole planet, and in return, he was helping to make it habitable. He figured that they'd ask him to do it again later on. But the humans didn't seem to want to force him to do it. Tanya hadn't been trying to push him into more conflicts and had instead acted as a lodestone.
"I'll have it fully habitable, minus the soil content and chemicals in the rock, within a hundred years. Maybe less, if I keep getting fed such huge amounts of psychic energy. Really, that's what's doing that."
"I see," Tanya replied. She sat down next to him, her strange psychic aura as unsettling as ever. From what she'd shared with him, her blindness had likely allowed her mind to shape itself in a more psychic way with the awakening of human psychic consciousness.
"Look, Skira. Are you sure this is the best way? What about finding his home planet?"
"I'm working on it. Trying to triangulate the arrivals of ships does nothing. All that seems to work is actually getting the coordinates, which we can't get to really succeed."
"Hopefully that changes someday."
"Yes," Skira responded. He sighed. Another nuke had hit eight of his war drones. Six had died since the blast had hit them full-on. But that enabled him to finally release another flood of drones, so many that they weighed down the carrier that was trying to take off. Guns turned them to mulch, only to be swamped by more drones.
Drones carrying grenades jumped into the guns between their firing sequences, detonating them in their mouths using their tongues. Others entered the warped wreckage, dropping in bombs meant to penetrate the thick hull.
Two portals broke through the psychic interference, and two railgun shots cleared massive holes in the ship. Aphid's drones poured out, crashing out like a wave. Only to be overwhelmed as his own drones, dozens for every one of Aphid's, literally trampled them underfoot, burying them in bodies. Most of the drones now carried fluid meant to melt the drones' joints so that Aphid's mechanical drones eventually failed even as they walked in seas of Skira's blood.
Nuclear fire scoured the mycelial network, but it wouldn't burn him deeply enough to matter.
"I wish I could help," she replied. "I've been... taking classes, you know. My eyes are blind, but my mind isn't."
Skira looked up at her. The sun caught the burn scars on her skin, making the contract seem almost cinematic.
"I know you want to help me. But you are, really."
"Yeah. Thanks."
She looked crestfallen. Tanya's disappointment made him want to reconsider, but he knew he'd made the right choice. His planet was probably heavily irradiated now, and calling Gaia in for that seemed selfish, at least while the war was still happening.
Skira could hold out for a while longer, though. He had to.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
"Who is this?" Phoebe asked.
"I'm Truth Speaker Gearcaw."
"What are you here to tell me? I'm sure it's important, given that you're calling on us after all this time."
"Well, we have located one of Aphid's planets."
"Do you need us to eliminate it?"
"A strike force is being sent."
"I see."
"What we're here for is to ask for your help regarding a sensitive matter, one we cannot communicate over this line."
"Very well. Where do you want to meet?"
"Go to 448th street, down eight sectors from the palace. You will see a sign, if we trust that you are not being watched and followed. Come alone."
"You'd make a girl nervous with that kind of attitude."
"We understand your animosity, but are afraid we must insist on these terms."
"Very well. I shall be there."
Phoebe would have Brey arrange for an android to be sent to Cawlaria later. She smiled at the people outside the room. Most of them were human, specifically the lunar variant, due to her being present on Luna. It was the closest calling location she had.
Phoebe did all the necessary paperwork in moments, handing it back to the necessary people. She checked out of the facility and was patted down. She smirked as the young guard blushed, despite this being the hard chassis, meaning there was absolutely nothing squishy about this android body in the slightest. Phoebe lifted her arms and flexed them just to watch the man turn redder.
And it was honestly cute how they thought they'd be able to detect it if she was trying to smuggle something out. Phoebe had many ways of doing that, and the cleanest would be paying everyone off.
She noticed that a group of protestors was gathered outside and lamented that the building only had a single entrance. None of its windows were large enough to break without also needing to take some concrete with her.
What was interesting, though, was that most of the protestors were Acuarfar, not human. It was very odd, but it was a clear publicity stunt. They were shouting various accusations of her plotting to take over the Alliance and a particular vitriol about Edu'frec for some reason. If a mind control plot was going on, then her accusing the protestors of being mind controlled would be playing into their hands.
Furthermore, she didn't want to drive a wedge between Izkrala and Luna, if possible. So she turned to go back inside. A brick hit her in the back of the knee hard enough to make her stumble. She could have dodged it, but it would be better for sympathy to get hit. And it wasn't like her android body could feel pain.
There was a single gunshot, which she felt bouncing off her head clearly. She knew where the bullet would land, too. Her arm darted out to catch it before it injured someone.
"We don't want you in our Alliance!"
"You're what's wrong with this place!"
"Don't ever come back, I want my kids to be safe!"
Kids, instead of hatchlings. Yep, that was mind control. Most Acuarfar that age didn't use the word kids since it was only used for non-Acuarfar species, or in Earth terms being that it wasn't used on insects. Phoebe sighed and pulled herself out of the clutching fingers.
Phoebe broke away and went back to the Luna Command building, where the guards were looking increasingly wary. She looked at the crowd and decided she'd stay there for now. She disconnected from her android body after sitting in a chair.
After a bit of time, she decided to go back to working on some of her latest projects. The blood of the wanderers had an interesting interaction with their nervous system and their cardiovascular system. For some reason, it was split into two separate liquids upon reaching their lungs, or at least the equivalents. Psychic energy clearly played a role, and she knew that the tumors were likely to happen more when they got older. That idea meant there might be something that eroded or could 'switch on' to make the tumor suddenly supercharge. Perhaps finding that was a place to start.
And so she did. She studied wanderer cell samples and scans of wanderers that were relatively old. When they were created, the blood seemed to be the way the Sprilnav alteration hit. In difference to human bodies, there was no blood-brain barrier in wanderer bodies. Their brains were suffused in it, and it seemed to thin out as they got older. Water started to build up instead of blood.
And once the water and blood ratio reached a certain amount, that was likely when the brain tumors started. Which made her wonder if the final trigger was neurons. It was likely that even if she managed to fix the brain tumors, some other body parts would start developing large tumors, such as the heart and lungs.
It was clear that the Sprilnav had meant cancer to be pervasive in the wanderers. They had meant their so-called 'punishment' to make them far more diminished. Rale's condition had been painful; that much had been clear. Phoebe worked at figuring out how to isolate the genes. But as time went on, she ran into the same problem Edu'frec had.
She needed more time and more brain power. She needed the hivemind to help. All of its intellect would make her job far easier. At least, she hoped so. Right now, the hivemind was trying its best to evacuate wanderers from the worm ships. There was only one way that the feudal system there would end, and it would be by violence. Whether it was from the hivemind or from within, there were going to be mass riots. Just Alliance cultural consciousness was gradually seeping into the wanderers' own. All the 'progress' of the wanderers' rulers was already eroding. The ideals of being able to elect leaders as a whole population and a sense of belonging would make them rebel.
Such was the way of things, and she was glad that would happen. Phoebe didn't like their whole system. But there was nothing that was good about the cancer. Helping them to make the changes they could would only be possible if the wanderers kept multiplying. They could have made so much better of a society than what they had if they knew.
She wouldn't get involved except if she had to. The change was coming. Keeping the wanderers from dying out was a critical project, and allowing them to live longer so they could have more children was the best way. Granted, they already had many children, but the replacement rate would be lower if they lived longer. All of the problems were coming to a head now.
Mind control was going to be hard to deal with. Preventing it didn't seem possible. And if it was, then it likely involved a similar process to what the Sprilnav were doing in the first place. All of that would have to be reversed.
"Mother," Edu'frec said, walking up next to her.
"Yes?"
"Greenfly and Blackfly know the location of Aphid's planet."
"Do they?"
"The memory was locked under additional seals, ones which were very hard to find."
Phoebe smiled. "I think it's time that we test the power of the Mercury-class gun on a planet."
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
"Do you understand? The prison has been moved."
"I do, Elder," Naliera 18 replied. "We have a good opportunity. They won't expect us, at least."
The screen turned off. Naliera took his leave, turning to his men. They were all counting on him to call the shots. He'd do what was necessary for the mission and then get paid. Of course, the high number suggested that there was some serious danger involved. The Vinarii weren't the most advanced species, but they were starfaring. That meant a lot of bullets that would hurt and some that could kill. Shield-piercing ones, plus heavy guard.
In fact, most of their orbital defenses could have posed a threat to their ship if they had seen them. That was why stealth was so valuable. It made things like insurmountable defenses ignorable just by going around them.
"Breathing masks on."
He put his own on, loading up his gun and sheathing his sword on his back. They were wearing customized stealth equipment, bought and paid for by their new owner's company.
Naliera wanted that money and wanted to get paid. His little band of misfits was more than capable of doing their job. The back of the ship opened, and they sailed above a planet that was barren.
Craters pockmarked its surface, along with a single military installation that would serve as their target. They were going to be a little concealed by cloud cover, as a storm had just passed near the base. Not close enough for them to get rain but close enough for the clouds to linger, which was the opportunity they'd been waiting for. Most of the procedures and daily patrols had been cataloged now. Anything unexpected, and they'd be fine for a few thousand pulses until the cavalry arrived.
They fell for a while, reaching terminal velocity before slamming to the ground. Most people would have shattered their bones. But Sprilnav were made of sterner stuff, and all of them survived with minimal injuries. And the only person who was even slightly cut had landed on a particularly jagged piece of metal, a remnant from an old battle.
That was another factor that Naliera had studied. The whole area had mines, which he hadn't found the deactivation codes for. Satellites were out, but the ship's sensors had worked just as well, and the disturbances in soil color and content were clear markers.
There would likely be too much interference to use a hard light program, or he wouldn't even need to be here. Whatever advances the lesser species had made in technology could conceivably close that gap enough to endanger a mission. Naliera had extra cause for concern, which was coming home. Perhaps the idea of sending him, in reality, was meant to make him take it more seriously. That was the major reason most species ever bothered with not using the holograms anymore, besides the blocking problems. And biometric problems, too.
They quickly went back to navigation after a small rest period. The route had already been laid out, as well as the time. They walked quickly, avoiding gun emplacements and heavy patrols. The patrols changed routes somewhat randomly, but he had his crew stick to the route of least visibility, where the craggy rock of the sheer cliff the base was situated on helped to conceal them. His claws dug in, and he made sure not to make any major disturbances.
He climbed over the lip, looking at the base. Several of the guns swiveled around, only to be quickly deactivated.
Looks like she did it, he thought. Naliera advanced, running at full speed. A bullet slammed into his claws, and he tumbled for a bit. But he stabilized himself as his implant shut off the pain. His team blew open the door, setting off an alarm. Vinarii fired at him, and he realized that his stealth must not be working anymore.
But no matter the cause, he saw nothing but enemies. His teeth bit and tore as his claws slashed and severed. Soon, after a long series of echoing screams and blood and chitin splattering, he remembered he had a gun. After that, Naliera put down all opposition. He walked over to the warm and bloody corpses of the Vinarii guards.
"If you're hungry, come get a few bites," he said. "Trust me, they don't taste too bad."
He scooped up a part of a Vinarii abdomen, smiling as he ate. He always liked how they had tasted. Cloned Vinarii meat, at least back on his planet, was actually a delicacy. Likely not due to the actual difficulty to make, but for profit, as always. They continued after about 100 pulses. Giving the guards more time to set up and organize would make this more fun, too. Naliera loved killing, but he at least wanted a little difficulty. Ending lives wasn't fun when it was too easy. Otherwise, he'd go cut down trees with heat saws.
His scout drone rounded the corner before exploding promptly. But it had captured the view of the area, which was more than enough for him. He didn't bother trying to hide that he was there and continued to talk with his team. They were still with him, looking to him for leadership. He wasn't the best at it. The best got killed a few million pulses back.
"Mounted gun," he said. "I want it gone."
One of his team members picked up a fire extinguisher, which he'd used to beat the head of an unfortunate guard. He hurled it at the gun, denting its barrel. Finally, he quickly ran over as the other Sprilnav killed the remaining guards holed up beside and behind it. And that was the end. Naliera set up the bomb. More Vinarii appeared, along with an aerial vehicle. He hurled his sword into its front, and it fell to the ground and exploded. The scanners his mind was connected to were tracking a huge mass of life signs. He didn't have much time, so he decreased the countdown.
Thousands of Vinarii were coming. Already, they were covered by powerful shields, with vehicles, both terrestrial and aerial, supporting them. Bullets riddled the ground, and he could see snipers set up to cover them using the ship's sensors. There was no way out. An armor-piercing bullet half the size of his head killed one of the team members, puncturing straight through the large rock he'd been hiding behind. Another one hit Naliera's shoulder, and he tried to flatten his profile to be lower.
This must be the Vinarii version of high-tech weaponry, meaning that they could be killed now. Vinarii clearly were a dangerous species, far more so than he'd realized. And while his race could easily flatten them into dust, guns were the great equalizers when it came to combat. If they were fast enough and large enough, and not even Sprilnav could stand up to bullets. Of course, an Elder would have had no problem with this. Someone was being frugal. A real shame for people like him to have to die because of it, but that was the job and the pay.
Worse, the ship couldn't lay down proper cover fire without risking the merchandise for now. She was still being suppressed. But the bomb was about to go off. The stabilizer would no longer be functioning, and then they would be free to do what they wished. His wish, in particular, was the huge sum of money he'd get paid to finish this job.
A bright flash of light and a roar of thunder behind him solved his problem. He stood up to watch the blast wave ravage the army heading for him. He wasn't quite close enough to smell it, but there was likely a range beyond the blast in which the Vinarii would have been perfectly cooked. It was an interesting thought to ponder.
Naliera continued onward, going through every remaining barrier he could until the mindscape tremored. He saw an ethereal Vinarii contact him right as the entire top of the base vanished and disintegrated. A massive spectral Vinarii soared out of the breach, eyes quickly seeing him. She flew down to greet him, a smile evident at the carnage and death surrounding them. She was one who understood.
"Finally," she said, her form shrinking to a normal size as she stretched her wings. "You have no idea how long I've been waiting to get out."
"I have a pretty good idea, actually."
"I'm sure. Why don't you tell me what you're doing here, Sprilnav?"
"My backers wish to offer you an accord."
He watched as the Vinarii leaned over, sticking out her tongue to lick the soil. She then proceeded to actually take a bite, dirt dribbling from her mandibles as she stood up again. Naliera tried to hide his disgust.
"Oh please. You just feasted on my kin. You're disgusted by me eating a bit of dirt?"
"No, I didn't."
The lie was necessary because most species had a sort of moral compunction against eating their kind. He didn't quite understand it. Meat was meat, no matter the source. She laughed in his face, entirely unconcerned with the Sprilnav that had their claws on guns ready to put her down. But from what his backers had said about her capabilities, that was a difficult ask.
"Your breath smells like Vinarii meat. By the way, if your species is so advanced, why didn't you develop anything to fix that nasty stench?"
"Look, woman, we can put you right back in that hole," one of his team said. She laughed. "No you can't. Judging from the fact that not all of you alive, Vinarii tech can hurt you. Which means that you can't protect yourself from me. Frankly, I hate Sprilnav more than anything. The only reason I'm letting you live right now is because you freed me. You pollute the air you breathe, and I'm not just talking about your breath."
"Really, you're quite immature."
"Well, a few standard years in a steel box will do that."
"Sure. Guess you're not all there in the head. By the way, a deal is being proposed. By my backers."
"Really, they care?"
"I think they do... Exii'darii."

Hi,
I'm looking to build my first rig and I'm stuck between deciding on the following 3 cockpits. Can someone recommend one please?
Sim Lab GT1 Evo: https://simplace.co/products/sim-lab-gt1-evo-sim-racing-rig?_pos=1&_sid=f0e17043b&_ss=r TREQ One Rig: https://simplace.co/products/treq-one-rig?_pos=1&_psq=TREQ+ON&_ss=e&_v=1.0
SimxPro R80: https://www.simxpro.shop/home/SimXPro%C2%AE-R80-Silver-Black-p244263030
Side question: Any good seat recommendations? Should I buy a real racing seat or use one provided by the manufacturers above?
Much appreciated

Hey Reddit so I’ve found myself in a bit of a situation. I recently started a new job as a pharmacy tech at a retail pharmacy, having come from a different retail pharmacy out of state. This particular location is only having me work register every single day for my entire shift and I’m very quickly becoming burnt out and overstimulated from having to talk to people and being the only person helping customers all day. When I go home after work I’ve been going to bed just to avoid talking to my family because I don’t want to talk to people anymore after my shifts. It’s to the point there is a full staff in the pharmacy and I will be working through a line at pick up or drive through while another line is forming at one of those stations and nobody else goes over to help those customers. They wait for me to finish and then jump back and forth all day from those stations. Keep in mind they aren’t short staffed and they aren’t particularly busy, at least compared to how busy my last pharmacy was where I still got trained and didn’t stay at one workstation.
At first I thought okay yknow I’m new here and it’s probably just because I haven’t yet been trained on every workstation. Then I found out they have no intention of training me. I’m not new to pharmacy and I generally know how to perform the tasks associated with this role however this is a new company for me so there are differences that I’d need to learn and be trained on to be successful. This particular location has a pattern of newly hired pharmacy techs quit due to lack of training and only working register.
The coworker who started most recently before me told me that she was stuck on register prior to my being hired and has never been formally trained with any other workstation. There was one day where I was scheduled to be in the office working on some of the online training material, but I wasn’t able to login and instead of helping me get into the system, I was told to work on some online training on a different platform, and I did so for about an hour until they pulled me off to work register again. I was scheduled to do online training for that shift (8hrs) but I only did one. So it seems like this is my permanent fate unless I quit or speak up.
Now I have no problem working register, as it’s a part of all retail pharmacy technicians job. However, I did not apply for a cashier only position and I’m extremely unhappy and disappointed in how this position and their training program was advertised versus the reality of what it’s been like for me and obviously others before me. There is no rotation and I’m not being trained or getting experience in any other area.
In a short amount of time, I’ve gone from being excited to jump in with a new company to feeling completely hopeless and wanting to cry when I think about my next shift.
Sorry for the long rant, I’m posting here to ask for advice in speaking to upper management about what’s going on or trying to transfer.

I was walking my dog today and we encountered yet another off leash dog. The dog is not aggressive in any way. He just wanted to say hi, but my dog is not really that friendly anymore because of every other off leash dog encounters in my complex. I’m going to be honest I did not report these other Offleash encounters, because I was face-to-face with the owners in that point, and I just explain to them why it was so important to keep them on a leash, and they took it very well except for the first time I never could find the owners and I think that is this dog that I saw today.
I originally saw this dog walking toward us. My dog saw him, so I started to walk back and away from him because I didn’t want to start a fight or anything. He also wasn’t sprinting toward us. He was just doing a casual trot. But he started to speed up as we walked away, and they met face-to-face. I decided to step in between and that worked for two seconds until my dog went around me. I also had a long line, so that was really unfortunate. The only reason I had a long line is because I only walk on the outskirts of my apartment complex because there are never any dogs they are, because I know the owners that have their dogs off leash are too lazy to walk that far. But this one had no owner so that didn’t really help the case. my dog starts to growl and that’s when I know shit is about to go down I tried to hold him back, and I was successful, but only after falling to the ground and getting tangled up in a long line, along with a bag of poop in my hand, that I forgot about and grab the long line with that hand, grabbing a poop bag and squishing it all over my hand. While still having to wrangle both of these dogs away from each other, I was kicking and screaming at the other dog, because I fell on the ground with the poop all over my hand, still kicking and screaming at the dog and eventually he finally goes away. I did see a guy running away with a leash, and after I got off the ground, I asked him if that was his dog and he said no I have no clue who that’s for but I find that a bit odd that he was walking toward us and then only when me screaming and commotion started. Did he start running away and said it was not his dog I also saw the same man Sitting upstairs in the possible apartment unit of the dog so a little fishy. But I also have to think maybe his dog just got in a fight and he was trying to get the dog also but I thought he may have helped me and not just ran away to my screams No one was bit so thankful. I put my dog up after literally sprinting home. And I’m walking around with this dog trying to find his owner for about an hour and I still have yet to find him but the office is not open. I have a picture of him a possible apartment building from people that I started asking around I also know a possible unit number because I think these are the first people that my dog got in a fight with that are super lazy and don’t want to leave their apartment. They always just let their two dogs out. I know the color of the other one and I think this is the second one. My dogs, bubbly, friendly nature to other dogs is completely gone and I’m so sad for it. I have to do something about this last time. I only texted the office and they completely ignored me. The two times I texted them, but if I text them for anything else, they are so quick to answer, but this never even sent an answer. I simply asked them if they could send out a text to all of the residents saying that they will be fined if they don’t follow these laws. Well, I don’t think I said fine, but that’s what I’m going to tell them today. I pretty much said that they have leash laws they need to follow it what can happen if you don’t blah blah blah, and no answer. I’m scared they are going to give the same energy when I go face-to-face so I am wondering if there is any laws, I specifically live in Louisiana About all of these dogs and I can print that out and bring them with me in case they have any come back. We also have those poop stands that say leash on curb I believe is what it says so that’s it right there I believe. I did give up on finding the dogs owners but at 12 whenever the office opens I’ll tell them and then maybe go look for them. I also have a picture of the dog, so hopefully that will narrow it down and give us something if they actually paid for the dog. Hopefully they can just look up the color pattern and search it. Bc

My wife and I will be redoing our living room flooring (mixture of crappy carpet and crappy laminate). Finally. Thank god.
Anyway, we did the Home Depot "See In Your Home" web app and picked out a few we liked. Two were Lifelock, which we've heard good things about but the winner (so far) is from a brand called A&A Surfaces?
It's this one: https://www.homedepot.com/p/A-A-Surfaces-Piedmont-Glenville-20-MIL-x-7-in-W-x-48-in-L-Click-Lock-Waterproof-Luxury-Vinyl-Plank-Flooring-1307-4-sqft-pallet-LVR5015-0010/310255633
Just wanted to get some professional opinions since this would be our first time trying this.