Lake pleasant live cam

Looking to relocate from out of state and are liking some of the areas we visited a little further out/not too far out, such as Stillwater, Shoreview, Hopkins, Golden Valley, St Louis Park. We have some family and friends living in Diamond Lake and Uptown. I keep hearing warnings that we won’t be visiting people in the winter if we live that far out due to winter driving, etc. Realistically, how often would we be wanting to drive into the city during winter?

Market St. is improving but it still just feels "off" vibe-wise. What are some things that, in your opinion, could make it a more pleasant place to live, work, and play? My short list of things:

• More retail. Independent bookstores, pharmacies, grocers, and hardware stores. For God's sake, a grocery store, ANY grocery store that isn't that horrible Walgreen's.
• Less space allocated to street parking
• More green space/pocket parks? And/or a push to make Rodney Square into a popular and attractive place to walk your dog, sit on a bench and read a book, have a picnic etc.
• More residential density and mixed-use development. I'm aware that this is something which is already underway! Hopefully more residents will equal more foot traffic and more demand for "stuff."
• Better hours for literally everything – hopefully this will come with increased foot traffic/residential density
• Critically, a way to accomplish these things without detriment to the current residents or the historical/architectural legacy of downtown

What's on your list?

As the title suggests, I will be moving to Bangalore for my first job after completing my MBA. My work location is at BCIT, Bangalore & I had a few questions which I felt I should know before reaching Bangalore. Any help on these would be utmost helpful.

1. What kind of clothes should I pack? I have lived in Delhi, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat & UP. All the places have very different weather but I have heard a lot of Bangalore and its pleasant weather. So should I not pack heavy winter wear as the temperature will remain pretty manageable?
   
2. What are some things I should know before I rent an apartment? Like minimum deposits, whether I should check if there is adequate water available, electricity included in rent or not? I feel that each city has its own set of unwritten rules that most local businesses, especially those who rent living space, follow. Anything I should know before I start looking for a place to live?
   
3. Given my location is in BCIT, Kannuru, how far (in kms or locality) should I look for living space in, assuming that I will be using public transports or autos for commute? I have heard about the Bnagalore traffic too 🥲
   
4. Any good online site to learn basic everyday Kannada? Preferably free as I still haven't got my first salary 😅
   

TIA 😁

Hi all! If anyone is in Utah and needs paperwork notarized to remove their membership records I’m a registered Utah notary I’d be happy to do it for free. I live in Orem and work in Draper so if you’re close to Utah or Salt Lake counties I’d love to help!

CHAPTER ONE
I saw a light in the sky and he came down from it
That was a courtesy
What was ?
The light
What do you mean ? Who are you ?
Look I hate to be rude but we kinda need you, are you in ?
Are you God ?
If I say yes would you be more or less likely to help me ?
I don’t know.
Then, yes, I’m God, and I need your help
If you’re God, why do you need my help ?
I’m not God, I just said that to get you to help me. I’m sorry but I’m in a rush, are you in or are you out ?
I don’t even know what you’re asking
I’ll tell you on the way
We were in a big house. There was one of those double stairs that led up to one landing, then split again and met at the next landing. They went on and on, I couldn’t see where they ended.
You do not wanna know where that stairway goes
Where does it go ?
He gave me a look that made me feel stupid.
Every landing seemed to go on forever, just rows of heavy wooden doors as far as the eye could see. I turned 90 degrees and felt a bit funny, but couldn’t quite place why. Just rows of doors forever, same as before. I turned again. Now I was facing the opposite way to when I came in. There was what looked like a front door, twice my height, with a gold doorknob on it. But above that door I could still the landings. And the doors. They still went on forever. I turned again, expecting to see it but still unable to comprehend it when I actually saw it. The doors, going on forever. Again.
Oh yeah, I forget sometimes that you people are three dimensional, I swear it makes sense when I look at it. Come on, we don’t have much time.
We turned, and where I was sure there was a blank wall was now a golden arch. There was some fog coming through it, and lights flashing red and blue in an otherwise darkened room.
It’s a rave from your world, frozen in time. It’s along the shortest path to where we’re going.
We walked through the rave. I was trying to nudge past people. He floated up and delicately walked across their heads.
Spend some time here and you’ll figure out how to do this, the rules don’t apply here like they do in your world.
I believed him.
I looked around. The very silent disco went on forever in every direction.
When we reached the back, there was another golden arch. This one led to a room with a counter in the middle of the floor. There were pens on the counter, and pieces of paper, and a large sheet of glass. There was a woman on one side of the counter, and two men on the other. They were wearing masks. One of them had a gun drawn. There was a bullet between the end of the gun and the woman’s head
Uh oh, I wonder how she’ll get out of this one
She gets out of this ?
I mean, I can’t see what happens beyond the moment we're in any more than you can, but I highly doubt it. Come on we’re not there yet.
Somehow, the counter stretched on forever
The final room certainly did not stretch on forever. It was barely two metres in any direction. There was a table and a chair, the only problem was the table went from one wall to the other, and I would have to gracelessly clamber across the table in order to sit in the chair. But then I was in the chair. Another guy walked in.
Apologies for the suspense, do you have any questions ?
I don’t know
Nothing ? Not even a why am I here ? Not even a why me ?
Why am I here ? Why me ?
You were right, they really do ask the worst questions. Glad you asked ! First things first, do you know what a universe is ?
Everything ?
That’ll do, but what if I told you that there were even more everythings ? And they were everywhere, all at once ?
I don’t follow.
Imagine you decided not to come with us today, your life would have taken a different turn, you wouldn’t be sitting at that table right now. Following so far ?
Sure
Great ! So you making a different choice results in something being different, something is a part of everything, so everything is different. Your choices change everything, which is real neato, as the kids are saying. So let’s say there was a way to explore all these different possibilities, let’s say you could look at what you life would be like if you had made those different choices, all those everythings would be different, and you would have a different…?
Universe ?
That’s right ! You are very clever ! So if we have multiple universes, we can map out what we call a -
Multiverse ?
How did you know ? Wow I actually was impressed that time
I saw 2 movies that mentioned it in 2 weeks.
Ha-ha, maybe this version of you did. Anyway, I'm having too much fun, imagine you said “I am going to interact with every multiversal version of me except the one that smells like fish all the time”, and somehow, against all the odds, you succeeded. That'd be cool, wouldn't it ?
Ok
But, you may be thinking to yourself, what about the timeline where you say to yourself “I am going to visit every version of myself except the one where I have a big forehead ? Or have acne ? Or live in a pineapple under the sea ? Or any other number of things ? Assuming you could succeed at any of these things, it’d be impossible to succeed at all of them. That's where we get the omniverse from. Think of it as being above the multiverses. And it lets us keep track of all of them simultaneously
Is there more ?
More ?
More layers ? Are there infinite omniverses and infinite somethings above them ?
Would you be capable of caring about it if I told you there were ?
I don’t know
Basically what we want is a bit of a laundry list done. Its gonna look like random jobs, just checking up on people from time to time. But it is integral to the structure of the omniverse itself that you do this. The reasons why are beyond your comprehension.
Am I going to get to go home ?
Eventually, maybe
CHAPTER TWO
Do you have a name
Yeah
Cool
Yeah
I'm going to show you your chores now
Ok
He concentrated for a few moments. He raised his hand and made a motion like he was typing on a keyboard. The floor fell away, revealing an infinite void, like space, all around us. There was a commotion behind me, and I turned tot see a corridor being made. The sounds of commotion were still somehow coming from behind me, so I turned again to see the same corridor, this time it stretched even further into the distance
Sorry this will take a while, were constructing it one dimension at a time, just about to start adding the sixth. Give it a second and well have it finished.
We were still floating, but now the corridor was all around us. The sound of commotion was all around now, it sounded like lots of materials being smashed together; stones, metal, wood, clay, water, flesh.
And done
We drooped to the floor. This part of the corridor looked like an ancient Roman street, complete with a market, although there were no people to man them.
Like I said, this is just the shortest distance between the points we need.
Ok
We’ll get going and I’ll explain everything on the way. He handed me what looked like a small stone, but it lit up and created a screen, it looked remarkably like a tablet computer when it was turned on. A lot of things I didn’t understand or frankly care about lit up. I looked away and it powered down.
That will help you keep track of everything
I figured.
This is our first subject. Her name is Maria
Can she see us ?
No. she's just sitting here playing with her fruit.
She's not moving
She's frozen in time until you start
Will she be able to see us then
Yes. She's going to be doing something with her fruit. Recently she had a wedding for her oranges.
Ha-ha
Yeah. When the time comes, you just write it down on you tablet, can you do that ?
I opened the tablet. It anticipated what I was thinking and made the correct page for me.
Great. Moving on.
We closed the door, leaving Maria for now. We continued down the street. Quite suddenly, although not immediately, it became the interior of what looked like a space ship.
This is a universe where the entire...left side of the universe declared war on the right side. I really don’t want to get into it, all you need to know is the teams are the Yingits and the Yangits. You have no idea how much it pains me to say, but earth actually is the centre of the universe here, so earth’s politics are, needless to say, divided. The pilot of this ship was born coincidentally on the same day as the version of you from this universe, but he fell into a cryogenic chamber for almost a thousand years, got out, began what would have been one of the greatest empires the world had ever known, had he not fallen into another cryogenic chamber for another thousand years. When he got out, the war had started, and none cared enough to follow him anymore. His names Fornot, you just need to find out what side he’s fighting on.
This is weird
Yeah.
We closed the door and went on. The spaceship corridor gave way to some cold, stone steps. There was water dripping from the walls, and mould growing, the whole place stank and it was far too cramped. There was a rough wooden door with an ornate golden handle. He opened it. Three people were inside the cave, with about 500 people crowded around the entrance, trying to get a glance in.
This guy here, his name is Su-lan. He comes from an island off the coast of...it’s a different planet you wouldn't know it anyway. Member of the La tribe, cool guys and gals. Ah I may as well say it, this is a universe where humans have attempted to colonise every planet they’ve come to, and they’ve had a 100% success rate. Believe it or not, we are currently in the orbit of a gas giant called...you wouldn't remember, call it 2piter.
Ok
So Su-lan’s wife, do you see her there ? Her name is Su-fo, she took part of his name when she married, according to a custom that goes back 420 years
Ok
So they painted all these symbols along the walls and on the floor and they drew that big circle, not easy to do when you've got arthritis like they do, let me tell you. Anyway, you may be wondering how humanity has been able to conquer every known planet in the universe, it was quite easy you see. Firstly, they changed the definition of planet to “that which can be conquered by humanity” and the second was that in the 20th century, they discovered a ritual which, when performed on the right people, would grant them godlike powers. After that it was actually quite easy. One in every roughly million people gains powers this way, and if they do, they become custodians of a planet or two, or even a whole solar system ! Isn't that neat ? Anyway, the girl in the middle, her name is Su-ner, and she’ll be doing the ritual today to see if she can get these powers. You see how she takes the first part of her father's name ? Well when she gets married
I get it
They said you were smart. You're just confirming whether or not she gets these powers, sound easy enough for you ?
Yes
Then lets keep going.
He overturned a stone, revealing a portal on the underside. The portal kind of dripped off the bottom of the stone until it landed on the wall opposite us. We walked through. Now we were in what looked to be the foyer of a hotel.
This is your parents’ house in the universe where they never had you.
What ? They got rich without me ?
'fraid so. They bought a really lucky lottery ticket.
Oh
then they used to money to buy a few sweatshops in China.
Oh.
anyway, we are looking for the game room, it’s...this way I think.
He led me down a series of corridors, containing great works of art, statues, suits of armour, I thought I saw Eric Clapton by a swimming pool. We found the game room. It was bigger than my house. It had arcade machines, a screen bigger than any cinema I’d ever been in, there were people in uniforms milling around, a huge crowd in the centre of the floor, a room of computers and people with headsets, it looked like mission control at NASA. At the centre of it all was a guy who looked a lot like me, he had a trolley in front of him with a row of suits. They looked like those green suits that covered people from head to toe, except they were black. He had a furrowed brow, he was deciding something. The suits had little white balls on them.
Remember when I said your parents didn’t have you ? Well this is the kid they had instead. Thanks to the money, he’s hosting and competing in the world video game championships. These are his haptic suits, they do motion capture and let him interact with the game world and give him feedback and stuff, kind of like a controller that you wear
Ok.
Tell us which one he picks.
There was another door on the far side of the room. We went through it. It opened onto a waterfall. He grabbed me and we stepped off together. The waterfall was frozen in time. We rotated 90 degrees, and gravity moved with us, so we ended up just walking down it a little bit. There was a metal hatch at the bottom. He opened it up and let me inside. Gravity shifted again, so we were not standing on the roof, staring down at a lab. There were two scientists inside, one a rotund man with a bushy beard, the other thin and small, with an equally thin and small moustache. There was a birdcage in the middle, and a bird was suspended in the air within the cage. There were what looked like two circular windows in the end of the room. Or at least, a different version of me would have thought they were windows. Having seen what I had seen, I knew they were portals of some kind. One opened to a golden meadow, accentuated by the setting sun. The other was a nigh time setting of a colourful forest, with glow in the dark foliage accentuating the fruits and flowers which were present. They looked equally inviting.
This lab has been experimenting with multiversal travel, we love to see it. See that clipboard ? They've taken the same bird from hundreds of different universes and are setting it free in the lab and seeing which of the two portals it goes through. Their theory currently is; same bird, same portal. I rememberer when we were at that stage, fun times. You just need to tell us which portal this bird flies through. see that fat guy ? He once won a hot dog eating contest by lining them up and having his friend push them into his mouth while he swallowed with his mouth open on the other end of the table. The friend was the small guy, who got a splinter from the table and had to be rushed to the emergency department and spent 20 hours on a trolley and by the time he got seen to he had taken the splinter out himself but he got charged for the time on the trolley and now he’s here to pay off the medical bill.
Ok
Let's keep going.
He opened another hatch in the roof and stepped through. It opened not to the waterfall, but to a city. It was grey and the buildings were big.
Ok this is about two years after you went away
I'm not going home, am I ?
Not with that attitude. It doesn’t matter where we are...humans have colonised a planet that is more or less identical to earth and are making the exact same mistakes all over again. We are in New York 2, although I would prefer if you called it 2 York.
Ok
There's a guy called Killer Lenny. We need you to tail him for the next few months and find out what job he gets.
Months ?
It’ll fly, well make sure your needs are met during that time.
Ok.
One final thing.
He opened a manhole cover, and jumped in. I didn’t hear him hit the bottom, but I jumped in too. I landed on...the street I had just jumped off.
Different universe, same setup, multiverse fun ! There are some gangs, the Rabble, the Rapple, the Raggle, the Rattle, the Raddle, the Raxxle, the Razzle, the Rassle, and the Raffle. They all wear different colours and I think they carry weapons corresponding to the gang they're in. They've been having problems for the last few years and its all coming to a head tonight and we need you to tell us who comes out on top. I’d say take a secure position and wait it out, we’re not expecting it to take any more than about an hour once it starts.
Ok. when do I start ?
Well take some time and you can start more or less immediately. We need to do some stuff back at base but that wont take long.
CHAPTER 2.5
OK step on through. The fact that I wont be with you means the shortest path between these places might be different to the ones we took originally, just check your device regularly and you should be fine. Any questions ?
Yeah, why am I doing this ?
It's recently been discovered that there is an omniverse where you do this, you report certain things to us, and then totally unrelated circumstances in a trillion years means we gain a bonus of sorts. Consider yourself the litmus test
Oh
Oh and we’re giving you like a billion dollars or something
Cool
Ok let's go
He pushed me through the portal. It closed behind me. I was on the street in Rome.
CHAPTER 3
I walked around a bit before I went to her. This had been my first chance to get any my bearings since this whole thing started. I noticed a bird in the air. It wasn't moving. I realised I would need to open the door to Maria's house before time would start in this universe again. I grew bored, and opened the door. Maria was sitting on the floor, on her own.
Hello
Hi
Are you alright ? I was sent to check up on you.
I'm fine, thank you.
What are you doing ?
I am playing with my fruit. I like to play with my fruit. My legs don’t work good so I can’t go outside with my friends. Well. I wouldn't be able to go out with my friends if I had any. My mother gives me fruit to play with and when I finish playing with it I eat it.
Oh. That's nice. What are you doing now ?
Last week my oranges got married. They love eachother very much.
That's nice. Where are they now ?
They are over here, well some of them are. I ate some and I fed a few more to the pigs, but I have some apples and a pear and some grapes now. They are making music together.
Music ?
Yes ! Their names are Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti, and then we have another Do, I think she is the mother of all the others.
Very nice, what else do they do ?
They can do all sorts of things !
She showed me to a lute that was hanging on the wall. She played an open string on it.
See, if we call that note Do, then the one here
she played it at the second fret
would be called Re.
Lovely
And something I learned recently, if you push the note up one more, you can change its name ! So I can turn Re into Ri !
Amazing. Can you turn Fa into Fi and La into Li ?
Yep !
She showed me what they sounded like.
You can also push notes down to turn and that changes their name too, so Re becomes Ra, and Mi becomes Ma, and So becomes Sa, and Ti becomes Ta. I think some of my fruits want to change their names, I think Ti definitely would prefer to be Ta, and I think Re would love to become Ri.
I bet they would, what are you going to do now ?
I think I will eat them !
She spent a few minutes looking for her fathers knife, but when she couldn’t find it, she went out to the shed and got out a saw. As she took it to he apple, the scene stopped. I knew it was time to go.
I recorded it all and went on my way. Kids sure are stupid, I said to myself.
There were a few people on the street now. They were clearly minding their own business, but time had stopped again so I couldn’t have spoken to them if I had wanted to. Beyond the market, I could see the stones giving way to the steel beams and electrical cables of the spaceship. I continued my journey.
The spaceship was as cold as it had been, although this time there was at least the whirring of the engines to provide some life. There were flashing buttons on the wall, and a magnificent vista of the earth. Actually, it probably wasn't the earth. The earth only has one moon.
I knocked on the door
Woah
I fell backwards. The inertia had caught me off guard.
What are you doing here ?
What are you doing here ?
I'm fighting these dirty Yangit scum, why, what side are you on ?
I was already gone
The beams and cables gave way to the cave where the ritual was taking place. Su-ner was exactly as I had left her, as were Su-lan and Su-fo. The whole ceremony consisted of Su-ner drinking a purple liquid from an ornate jug, then lying down in the firepit in the centre of the room. She seemed to be asleep. Su-fo lit a fire in the pit, and Su-ner didn’t move. From my vantage point at the back of the cave, I knew noone could see me, I doubted it would end well if they did. After a few minutes, Su-lan started convulsing on the floor, after another few minutes, Su-fo followed suit. I assumed they had inhaled too much smoke; they were between the firepit and the cave mouth. When they had stopped moving, noone dared breath. Noone looked at them, they were so fixated on Su-ner, who still hadn't moved. Some of them started clutching beads, closing their eyes, and offering prayers. It was obvious that Su-ner's parents were dead, the ritual had clearly gone disastrously wrong.
Until.
There was a creaking sound, like large amounts of earth and clay moving. The symbols on the wall started glowing, and somehow detached themselves from the wall, floating through the air and settling on Su-ner. A hole opened in the roof. Su-ner's eyes opened, they now glowed purple. She floated out of the hole. She touched parents’ hands, they awoke, and they climbed to their feet without a hint of their arthritis. Now the crowd was silent again. Su-ner said
I must fulfil my duty
And flew away. There was the sound of thunder crashing and trees falling and mountains colliding and winds howling and volcanoes erupting and rivers flowing, all for the greater good of humanity. The crowd erupted into cheers, the scene stopped. I overturned the stone and let the portal drip onto the wall.
I was back in my “parents” house. I got lost, it took me a while to get back to to where I had been before, there was some activity, the staff were friendly and pointed me in the right direction. It turned out to be Eric Clapton at the pool, he was humming his worst song, Wonderful Tonight, to himself.
I found my...brother in the game room, exactly where I had left him. He was still deciding what to wear. All the hap suits looked exactly the same to me so I dot k ow why he was taking such a long time figuring it out. I looked up at the screen and couldn’t believe my eyes. The world video game championship was a 1v1 in Fortnite. The UI and characters looked a bit different, but only marginally compared to that of my own universe. The game was even called Fortnite, except it was written in comic sans. He looked at me, gave me an up and down glance, there was a flicker of confusion on his face, then went back to picking his suit. He picked the 5th one in the lineup. I recorded it and left.
The two scientists were idiots. They tried like 100 times and every bird flew into the portal on the left. What kind of bird would ever fly into the night sky ?
Killer Lenny was a homeless bum. He walked up and down the same street every day, begging for change, not getting any, then going back to sleep on his little corner. I kept tabs on him, somehow never getting hungry, tired, or overly bored, for about 6 months. I never saw any reason to talk to him, nor did I have any interest in getting close enough to smell him. I suppose in a way I was the same as him, just walking up and down the street with no idea why, and no idea what I would do next. I got accosted a few times, but this universe seemed to have my back, it always sent a kind stranger or some blue lights to my aid, and I never got rained on in the time I was there. One day, Killer took a different path, he walked way out of town. He walked onto the bridge, edged over to the edge of the bridge. His toes were dangling off the edge. He heard a scream. There was a girl in the lake below. She was drowning. He sighed, took himself down from the edge, and took off running down to her. I didn’t bother following him, I watched him go out of view, I watched him come back into view, I watched him rush into the water and pull the girl out. I watched a man come racing down to the bank of the lake in a Bentley. He was wearing an exquisite suit. He exchanged words with Killer, they shook hands, and he drove off. Killer never said a word about it, he never looked back, he just walked back to his corner and resumed business as usual. Another 6 months after this, the Bentley drove up to him, the rich man got out, shook hands with Killer again, and they exchanged words. Killer pointed towards me, and the rich man beckoned me over. I walked over.
Boys, I've got a job for both of you. Killer here says you’ve been his constant companion, always by his side for the last year, and he told me about you and him having certain...abilities that I would find very useful. Now as I've said to Killer here, I am the CEO of the Deep Atlantic Research group, we've been drilling for oil and minerals for the last few years and we've run into some problems. Apparently, millions of years ago, alien spacecrafts landed in the ocean. They are hundreds of kilometres across, they are covering up some of the most valuable mineral deposits in he history of the world. Only problem in, we lack the technology to move them, we lack the technology to operate them, and we lack the technology to get into them. You probably understand already, but the real treasure is the alien tech we found along the way, the oil and gold and silicone and platinum and palladium are just the cherries on the cake. Now, we have taken a very strange request from Mr. Lenny on board, and we have built a big boat with a big diving board, which he says he can use to breach the hull of the alien ships at the bottom of the ocean. Would you like to become agents of our company ? We can assure you the salaries are...agreeable, and the benefits are even better.
I looked at Killer. He looked at me. He spoke first
We’ll take it
Time stopped. I didn’t know what his job title was. The door of the car opened all on its own. I stepped out. I was back on the same corner, but this time I knew there would be gang warfare instead of a sad homeless man. What would happen to him now ? Will he still get his job, now that I had disappeared ? would time ever unfreeze without me there ? I will admit, I was worried for him. The spell that had kept me content and only half-human was already beginning to wear off.
There was a loud scream. About 1000 men, all wearing their gang’s colours and brandishing their gang’s weapons, charged at eachother. Grenades were thrown, guns were fired, spears were used to impale, swords were slashed, shivs were shanked, rockets were launched, farts were smelled, portals to hell were opened, men died, were reanimated, then were killed again. It was over in about 45 seconds. One group, wearing nothing but green speedos, ran into the night, the only group to not have lost a single member. They were singing a song by the highly underrated Creedence Clearwater Revival. I had no idea who they were, and they were moving faster than I could follow. I had an idea. I climbed down from my hidey hole. I checked the name tags of the fallen members of the other gangs. The guys in red leather trench coats were the Rassle, the guys in surgical scrubs were the Rabble, the guys who wore a pirate hat on top of their cowboy hats were the Razzle, the guys who were tattooed head to toe with Spongebob were the Raxxle, the guys who had fluffy coats like sheep were the Raddle, guys who had cybernetic implants were the Rapple, and the guys who carried small pieces of brightly coloured paper were the Raffle. I figured out who the winners were, then I activated my tablet to bring me home.
CHAPTER 4
I found myself back in the room with seat and the table. The two guys were staring down at me
You've probably figured it out at this stage, haven't you ?
I nodded
We tried to keep it kinda cryptic for you for a while, but a smart guy like you ? There was no way you weren't gonna figure it out for yourself. Some of those references were just a bit on the nose, we know that. After 5000 words you kinda stop caring as much, may as well get it over with.
I handed over the tablet.
The guys took turns reading the sequence of events as I had written them
Saw Ri. Fornot’s a Yingit. Las cheer. Hap E. Bird; day. DAR. Raggle

I'm looking for some guidance on where me and my fiancé should look at moving to. I really want to find a place where we can thrive in this stage of life, and he isn't completely sold on leaving the state because we don't have any ideas of the "perfect" place. Important info:
> 800k mortgage is the most we would be willing to sign for, but could flex if it was perfect. 500k would be ideal.
> Not CA or any other VHCOL. HCOL is a bit of a stretch too, but not out of the question. Politics aren't an issue but don't want to pay that high of tax or cost of living.
> Beautiful climate. We were born and live in TX, and we're happy here, but we love the beach and the mountains. Also, seasons lol. He's a bit afraid of winters, so somewhere like MN would be out of the question. I think WI is pushing it, but we loved it when we visited and we're die hard Packers fans.
> If we could live on the water [river, lake, beach, whatever], +100 points
> Not a huge city. We love downtown, breweries, wineries and don't want to be more than 30-40 minutes away from a cool city, but are looking for .5 acres or more
> If anyone has any opinions on Green Bay/Appleton WI, Kansas City/Springfield MO, or SLC UT, let me know.

The starting quest for my campaign is to escort a wagon of food through Ten Towns Trial to Bryn Shadar. It's a large party (currently 8 players 💀💀) and they have a powerful NPC spellcaster tagging along with them so I'm willing to throw a challenge at them.
I'd like to have them encounter a frost druid so I can establish their conflict with Ten Towns. I have a general idea but it needs fleshing out to make it a more exciting encounter. Any feedback is appreciated!
Overview A single frost druid ambushes the wagon. They're trying to destroy the contents (food and wine being delivered to a wealthy Ten Towns resident) and to scare off any other unwanted travellers entering Icewind Dale.
Frost druids motivation Sticking to the basics. The druid is protecting their territory from intruders and they're serving Aurils will by attacking Ten Towns. However, could they have some use for the food - to feed starving animals struggling to survive through the winter? Or is it out of character for a druid to rob travellers and scavenge?
Setting the ambush I like the suggestion in the book of the druids using hallucinatory terrain to lure travellers into dangerous situations. Perhaps the encounter takes place over a frozen lake and the druid obscured any cracks in the ice? What other kind of traps could a druid use?
Starting combat There's several options for how the combat could go down. The druid could attack in wild shape, meaning they might not even realise it's a person until midway through combat which is a fun twist. Alternatively, once the wagons have been led into dangerous territory the druid could use that chance to threaten and monologue a bit. "You are trespassers in Aurils territory. The fruits of summer have no place here. Leave now if you value your lives."
Druid combat tactics Assuming the encounter takes place over a frozen lake, the druid may attempt to break the ice and sink the party. Is there any spells in a druids repertoire that would do so? Otherwise, I'd primarily have them attack in wild shape (shifting between polar bear, wolf and owl). Anything else worth exploring?
Loot Obviously the way the encounter ends depends on the players actions, but I can expect it to go one of a few ways. If they kill the druid, what kind of loot might they find on the corpse?

I’m going to be seeing my new fella this week for what is date #6. Been seeing him for a bit over a month and hit my point where I definitely want more or to know where he stands with us. I do think he likes me and every week he asks me to go on a date, but I get casual vibes from him. This will be my first time ever initiating DTR talk and I’m a nervous. In the past the relationship has just taken off and I don’t recall ever having the talk. OR, like my last relationship, avoided the talk and sat in my situationship for two miserable years.
Any advice here? Have you done this and then left and felt crummy? Or…have you done this and been pleasantly surprised that the person wants the same thing? I am prepared for what to say, but kinda anxious to know it’s likely this will be the end of a short lived fling with someone I’ve developed some feelings for.

I've completed all the language assessment except the last part which is the video interview. Open cam interview so parang recorded ka lang while answering a set of questions or talagang live na may kausap from recruitment team? This is my first time na may video interview pala sa language assessment haha

Part 24 Working Towards Peace (Part 1) (Part 23)
​
“I still don’t understand how the hell you, of all people, were able to score the first live interview with a Nishnabe and I didn’t get anything!” Shelby West’s perfectly choreographed hair, make up, and outfit looked absolutely pristine despite the scowl on her face as she watched the much more simply dressed woman set up a consumer-grade camera system. “I even demanded that my First Amendment Rights to the free press be respected, and they just looked at me like I was stupid!”
​
“I mean, did you try asking them nicely?” Cherry turned from the equipment she was setting with a sarcastic smirk on her face, her floof of rainbow hair bouncing as she did so. “That’s what I did, and they were really cool with me.”
​
“Oh, hardy har har. You’re so funny, Cherry.” Shelby rolled her eyes so hard it almost looked like they would get stuck like that. “But seriously though, I’m pissed! That should have been my interview! I got there first!”
​
As much as Cherry didn’t want to be a sounding board for her ex-girlfriend's childish complaints, she also didn’t want to give Shelby any excuse to cause a scene right before a press conference, especially with other people around. Even though the tight-fitting pin-stripe pants suit, precisely paired by a sharply detailed blazer with a popped up collar, and the completely over the top curled pompadour certainly looked good, the person wearing it could become quite loud quite quickly. When Cherry had initially shown up at the entrance to the Pinkerton facility where a battle had just taken place, she was one of the first to do so, had been recognized by a guard near the gate, and ushered into a tent-like structure for safety. As a few more journalists began to arrive just as she had, they were all informed there would be a press conference soon where they would be given an update on the current situation and have the opportunity to ask questions. As nerve racking and exciting as the past half hour or so had been for the rainbow haired woman, suddenly seeing her ex be ushered into the tent, immediately making eye contact with her, and then just starting to talk to her, had completely ruined this experience.
​
“I’m surprised they even let you in here." Cherry shot back while returning to her camera to properly align the focus. “I heard STAR Net was implicated in the First Contact Kidnapping Plot.”
​
“Oh, and where’d you hear that?” The brunette pomp atop the finely dressed woman’s head bobbed as pulled her head back and chin down, crossed her arms, and took up a much more defensive stance.
​
“I saw the names of the STAR Net board of directors on the list of people the Nishnabe have detained." Cherry nonchalantly replied. "And the charges against them."
​
“The what?!?” The shout drew the eyes of a few of the other reporters and guards nearby, though none gave the pair of bickering women a second glance.
​
“You know what a board of directors is.” Cherry had finally gotten her camera just right and started giggling at her own joke.
​
“The list, god damn it!” Shelby lightly stomped her wedge-heel in indignation.
​
“Look, Shelbs.” Cherry turned so that she could lock eyes with the other woman. “I told you 5 years ago, I’m not doing your homework anymore. If you want to call yourself a journalist, you need to do your own research.”
​
“Ahmahgah, no! I have a team for that!” The immaculately dressed woman scoffed with a valley girl accent so thick it made Cherry’s eyes roll in response. "You'd know what that's like if you worked for people who actually had a budget."
​
"And look how well informed you are." The sarcasm in that statement was palpable as the rainbow haired woman turned her attention to her laptop to finish her broadcasting and recording set up. "You get what you pay for and if you want something done right, you should be able to do it yourself."
​
"They get paid well!" Shelby shot back, more annoyed that her former lover wasn't giving her more attention than at the fact she wasn't aware of information she should have been reporting on. “But seriously though, what list?”
​
Rather than continuing with the back and forth, Cherry simply focused on her task and clicked through a few options on her computer to get all of the settings just right. Unlike Shelby and the few other reporters brave or stupid enough to approach the site of a recent battle which included high altitude atomic detonations, the rainbow haired woman from Mars preferred this more hands-on approach to reporting. Where all the others simply trusted their drone-based, AI-operated broadcasting systems to work without any real interaction, Cherry knew better than that. Despite how far simple AI, particularly image-recognition AI, had come over the years, nothing could compare to that human touch which transcended any attempt at emulation. Though she might never consider herself among the legends like Hunter S. Thompson or Bob Woodward, Cherry would rather spend time perfecting her craft than arguing with her ex.
​
"Ah, come on CareBear, don't be like that." Seeing as her sass was getting her nowhere in a hurry, Shelby tried to change tactics and was now using her sweetest tone of voice. "Pwitty pwease!"
​
"Oh my god!” Cherry burst out with the most annoyed tone she could muster before pressing in a few commands into her laptop and bringing up a blank internet browser tab. “I swear to God, if it weren’t for me you would never have gotten your degree!”
​
“So, you’ll tell me?”
​
“I’m not telling you shit, I’m showing you how to look it up yourself.” The bombastic side eye Cherry shot Shelby’s way did little to hinder the giddy expression on the other woman's prim and proper face. “You just open a new tab on your browser, go to the Nishnabe Web portal, and then it’ll bring a search page that looks like every over search page I’ve ever seen. From there, you can search anything you want, and you can probably find it.” As she was describing the incredibly simple process, she was also giving a live demonstration.
​
“And if I wanted to search that list you mentioned?” With the prodding this obvious, the demonstration and explanation halted.
​
“I swear, if you write a report on this and I’m not cre-” Cherry was about to demand she be properly recognized for her work before something particularly hurtful crossed her mind. “Ah, who am I kidding, it’s not like you ever actually write any of your reports yourself. Probably just paying some minimum wage intern to do that for you. And it shows.”
​
“Harsh…” Shelby faked an offended tone even though she knew it was true. “But… as you were saying…”
​
“Fine… I looked up military engagements…” The term was quickly typed into the keyboard and the homepage was suddenly replaced by a simplistic though highly informative search results page. “And, you can see the first link is to the Nishnabe Militia War Chief’s Council page. When yah click that, it brings you to the most boring yet transparent government website I’ve ever seen. Here’s a list of active and resolved military actions that goes from the most recent strike on ConSec and the Pinkertons, all the way back to their very first official military engagement just under 1100 years ago.”
​
“There is no way they just…” Without meaning to, Shelby had suddenly found herself actually reading the information on the screen instead of waiting for it to be told to her.
​
“Yeup.” Cherry clicked to the link to the most recent, and still unresolved, engagement at the top of the list. “You can see the number killed, wounded, or captured, the total resource expenditure, and even their tactical plans.”
​
“That has to be bullshit.” The utter disbelief was written all across the overdressed woman’s face. “There is absolutely no way a military, or any government body, would be this transparent. Look! They have a list of everyone who’s supposedly deployed right now. This has to be misinformation or something.”
​
“I mean…” Cherry clicked the link as she had done earlier and began scrolling down the list of names, some with pictures, until she came to a face that was standing in the room at that moment. “Zab-sh-pak-i-wen?” She attempted to pronounce the name while turning to a nearby guard who was clad in advanced armor, but with his helmet down and face exposed.
​
“Ehe? Ni je na, ngwabjegen-nankwe?” The Zabshpakiwen turned and looked at the women with a stoic expression and tone.
​
“Oh my god, he can’t be the same person, no way!” Though Shelby’s make up and hair weren’t disturbed in the least, she now had a look of utter shock on her face. “What did he say?”
​
“If you put the translator they gave you into your ear, you could understand him just fine.” Cherry began rubbing the bridge of her nose in frustration, the Nishnabe man had started lightly chuckling, and Shelby fumbled with the small translation device she had been given early before wedging it into her ear.
​
“I said, ‘Yes? What’s up, rainbow-hair?’” Zab repeated himself after he saw the elaborately dressed woman had placed in her translator.
​
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to bug you.” Cherry answered for herself and Shelby while nodding politely towards the man and putting on a friendly smile. “She just doesn’t believe that your military or government would be this open with information like who is currently deployed and where."
​
“There is no way-!” Cherry half shouted before quickly calming after realizing how easy it was going to be to have a conversation with this Nishnabe man. “Do you guys really just have personal information like this available to anyone?”
​
“What? Has Earth not developed social media yet?” Sarcasm oozed from the man as he let a light smirk form on his face.
​
“Of course!” There was just a bit too much sass in Shelby's response. “I have 30 million followers on-”
​
“And do y’all ever put links between your social media profiles and your places of employment?”
​
"I mean…When you put it like that.." Shelby couldn't help but feel embarrassed after realizing she had multiple links between her profile on the company website and her personal social media accounts. "So, like, if I made a profile on your…"
​
"We just call it the Web. Like a spiderweb." Zab was trying his best not to look at the woman like she was dumb, especially considering he had overheard she had a degree, but he was failing. "And a few randoms have already sent me connection requests. But I haven't responded to any of them yet because I've never actually met any of those people."
​
"One of those was probably from me." Cherry interjected quietly and drew looks from both of the others. "Sorry, I couldn't help myself when I was doing my research."
​
"Eee, it's all good." The man chuckled with an almost flirtatious tone. "I think I overheard your name is Cherry, right?"
​
"Yeup! Cherry Sanchez." There was a hesitant excitement in the rainbow haired woman's voice while the man pulled what looked like a hand-sized panel from his chest armor which was revealed to be a small data-tablet. As the man began typing into his device, Cherry added a bit of clarification. "There's a cherry emoji between the first and last name."
​
"Huh… I was wondering what that was." Zab commented before pressing in a few commands then placing the panel-like tablet back on his armor. "But, if I'm being completely honest, my profile is pretty boring. You're mostly just gonna see pictures of my family and places I've been."
​
Before anything else could be said, Cherry’s laptop made a ding sound and a small pop-up notification indicated the request had been accepted. Instinctually, the woman clicked on the notification and was brought to a list of her current and pending connections which revealed that Zab was not the first Nishnabe Cherry had connected with. Seeing how her ex was already far more popular among the Nishnabe than she was, Shelby couldn't help but feel the sting of jealousy hit her soul.
​
"Shit, how many followers do you already have?" Shelby nearly scoffed at seeing her normally shy and reserved former lover being so outgoing with these Native Americans from space.
​
"It's just some of the people I met when I interviewed Wish. And a few people like Zabship…" Cherry's relatively shy nature was starting to come out as she struggled to pronounce Zab's full name.
​
"Just Zab." The flirtiness, though now quite obvious, was still fairly professional. "It can also be hard for the Hi-Koth in my Clan to pronounce Nishnabemwin fully, so I'm use to it."
​
"What's a Hi-Koth?" Shelby's question, which could have been answered in under a minute if she had just looked it up herself, prompted Zab to nod towards Cherry's laptop.
​
"Click on my profile, the second picture is me with my clanmate Arichacon." The nonchalant way the man casually mentioned he had a picture with an alien, who was a member of his extended family no less, caused the finely dressed woman’s eyes to grow wide. "He's a Hi-Koth and one of the best forestry specialists I've ever met. The man really gets what it means to be one with nature, if you know what I'm talkin' about."
​
By the time Shelby had turned from the Nishnabe warrior and back to the laptop, Cherry had already brought up Zab's profile, clicked to the second picture, and enlarged the image so it's contents would be clear. On the screen was the man the women were talking to, wearing a far more ornate, feathered outfit as opposed to his combat armor, standing next to what Shelby could have sworn was a slightly orange-tinted brown bear. At first, she almost thought that this was an AI generated image of a bear dressed like a viking. However, upon realizing the mountain of fur had 4 arms, slightly elongated limb proportions, and entirely unique details on their clothing, she realized this was an actual alien. Where Shelby's mouth was slightly agape, her jaw was now almost on the floor.
​
"That's an alien?!?" This outburst was both loud enough and interesting enough to catch and keep the attention of a few of the other reporters who were nearby and now trying to catch a glimpse of the laptop's screen without making their efforts obvious.
​
"Well… we just think of them as people, not… aliens. Especially people like Ari.” Zab tried to explain in the most compassionate way he could despite being mildly annoyed at the over-the-top reporter. “He was born on Shkegpewen, same as me, and only about a week before me. And he’s a member of my Clan so, in my opinion, he’s family.”
​
“I am so sorry.” Shelby quickly apologized in an accent that was surprisingly neutral and tone that was incredibly honest compared to how she had been speaking up until that point. “I didn’t mean to offend and I promise I won’t make that mistake again. But, if you don't mind me asking what do you mean by Clan? I heard you say 'Dodem', then the translator thingy said 'Clan' and kinda whispered 'extended, community-based family unit' in my ear."
​
“Um… that sounds about right...” Zab searched the finely dressed woman’s eyes to see if she was messing with him. However, he didn't have long to look before his attention was suddenly taken and he looked off to the side as if listening to someone speaking into his ear. "Sorry but questions are gonna have to wait a bit. I just got word that the conference is going to start in five minutes, so make sure you're ready.”
​
"Oh shit!" Cherry blurted before returning to her laptop and resuming her set up.
​
"I guess I should make sure my equipment is working too." Shelby muttered while pulling out her smartphone and scrolling to the app that controlled her camera drone.
​
Despite not having done any research herself, or even really knowing what to ask in this news conference beyond the script her bosses had already sent her, the overly dressed woman was quite proficient with her own broadcasting and recording equipment. With just a few clicks of her long acrylic nails on her phone screen, the four-legged camera and microphone platform had made all of the necessary adjustments to do its job perfectly. While Cherry had just finished inputting commands into her computer after spending nearly half an hour setting up the camera and mic, Shelby's system was ready to go in just a few moments. Even though her research team may have failed to give her the amount of information necessary to do her job independently, they had uploaded the necessary translation software updates to her drone systems. However, as she stood there for a moment in silence, Shelby couldn’t shake the strange feeling she got whenever she was nervous but not directly interacting with someone.
​
Before she could try to restart the conversation between herself, her ex-girlfriend, and the Nishnabe warrior who had actually, willingly exchanged more than a few short words with her, a few more Nishnabe entered the tent carrying a fold out table, a couple similarly compacted chairs, a pair of panel-like objects, and something that almost looked like a large perch. As the armored warriors quickly set up the accommodations, the chairs and table were like any other Shelby had seen at dozens of other press conferences. However, the pair of strange technological devices were set up in such a way as to create a sort of a structure with one panel about two meters above the other, and the perch placed in the space between them. Though she heard a slight hum coming from the panels, and she could see that Cherry was now staring at them as well, Shelby had absolutely no idea what they were for. With less than a minute before the conference started, both women knew they would have to ask soon if they wanted any reasonable explanation.
​
“What’re those?” The pair of women spoke and looked towards Zab in almost perfect synchronization.
​
“Grav-panels. Have you not developed those yet?” The completely casual tone in Zab’s voice which matched his expression caused both women to stare at him like he was cracking a joke at their expense. “What? Those are super common everywhere on Shkegpewen. Non-humans usually can’t handle deathworld gravity for extended periods without some kind of accommodations.”
​
Though Zab knew he had just unintentionally let slip was supposed to be a surprise for these reporters who have taken the time, and risked their own safety, to come here in hopes of a story, the reveal was just a moment or two away. In the second it took the women to realize the implications of what the man had just said, it was already too late. The respectful murmur that had filled the tent for well over an hour fell completely silent and broadcasting systems immediately activated. For a few seconds the only sounds that could be heard in the tent were the tapping of high-dollar military dress shoes, the soft thuds of advanced combat boots, and the clicking of talons across the ground. As Cherry and Shelby joined the rest of the reports in the stunned stares towards the front of the long tent, they saw a US Army General they were all familiar with, a Nishnabe warrior in particularly ornate and advanced armor they didn’t recognize, and a non-terrestrial golden avian wearing a beautifully styled red and black vest-like top. With this being the first time any of the reporters in the room had seen an alien in person, all of them were unable to do anything besides stare as the group took their seats and the press conference began.
​
"Good afternoon, everyone. Please, take a seat and let's get this started." General Andrews addressed the reporters with the tone of a hardened military commander. "As you all likely already know, my name is General Robert Andrews of the United States Army. I arrived at this location a few hours ago at the request of President Carnegie and I just finished briefing him on the Nishnabe presence in American sovereign territory. I have positively assured him, and now I would like to assure the American people, that we have nothing to fear from the Nishnabe Confederacy. Though their actions over the past week may seem aggressive, within their own context they have been quite reserved with their capabilities. Most importantly, they have no intent of undermining or threatening the United States, any of the United Nations of the Earth Sphere of Influence, or any governmental body in the solar system."
​
The General paused for a moment to allow what he had just said to fully sink in for all those who were now watching all across the Earth and beyond.
​
"Now, I would like to introduce War Chief Msko-Pkwenech of the Nishnabe Militia, the acting commander of all Nishnabe forces in this system, and Royal Ambassador Viscountess Tarki Gebron Shlin of House Dreyuk, who is currently acting as a neutral diplomat and expert in galactic laws." Despite having only been able to practice the pronunciation of the unfamiliar names a few times, Andrews was able to get them out perfectly as he respectfully indicated towards them. "I will allow them to give more details in a moment but first, I would like to make a request to the American people. As we move past this difficult beginning between ourselves and the Nishnabe, and into a more cooperative phase of this relationship, please take into consideration the fact that the Nishnabe are human beings who have been separated from Earth for nearly 1200 years. We should be welcoming back these stolen members of humanity, not treating them as hostile invaders. Ambassador Shlin, if you would please, explain the legal context surrounding the military actions that have taken place on American soil."
​
There was a genuinely friendly smile that had formed on the War Chief's face as he nodded his head slightly in agreement with what the General had said while the General motioned for Tarki to speak.
​
"Thank you, General.” Tarki was speaking in the best English she could muster, much to the shock of reporters who were sitting silently. “To get straight to the important parts, the initial strike against the United Heavy Industries Headquarters was carried out by elements of the First Fleet of the Third Qui’ztar Matriarchy because that was the location where the family members of a member of the human first contact team were held against their will. We have been able to collect irrefutable evidence showing that the board of directors of both UHI and STAR Net conspired together to kidnap a pair of disabled individuals as a means of asserting leverage over the first contact team. However, upon investigating further, it was discovered that both UHI and STAR Net have been engaging in the production of autonomous, non-sentient combat-AI and technologies with which to enslave Awakened AI, both of which are very serious crimes in the eyes of the Galactic Community Council. The investigation into the site will conclude soon and control of the site will be returned to the United States government within the next few days.”
​
A collective sigh of relief could be felt not just from the reporters in the tent but from every single person watching the live broadcast. Though more and more Nishnabe had been responding to various calls for peaceful forms of aid from people across the Solar System, the major of Earth’s population were still concerned over the potential for a full on invasion despite how limited the military actions so far had been. With a direct announcement from an alien that there was no intent on expanding, or even continuing, military operations alleviated quite a few worried souls.
​
“As for the military action here at Red Lake…” The golden avian was slightly less confident with herself as she continued and looked towards the Nishnabe warrior who was seated next to her. “I feel it may be better for the War Chief to give proper context.”
​
"First of all, I would like to apologize for not yet knowing the common language of this land." In contrast to the other two who had spoken before him, Msko made no attempt to speak in English. "And second, I would like to extend my condolences to the families of those slain here today. Up until the moment of those atomic weapons detonated, I truly hoped this would end without bloodshed. Even though the Constellis-Securitas Corporation ordered an assault on a group of Nishnabe aid workers and attempted to murder not only my people, but also the innocent people they were assisting, I hoped we could simply scare them into submission. However, they simply left us no other choice than to end the threat."
​
Despite the remorseful expression on Msko's face, it was clear he didn't regret his actions. Rather, he simply wished there had been a better alternative than to shed the blood of his own species. As the War Chief continued, his dower expression began to grow brighter as he tried to focus on the future he wanted to see for his whole species.
​
"When the nuclear fire was absorbed by the shielding of my mechanized walker as I dropped on this facility my worst fear was that those would be the opening volleys of an extended and painful conflict." The War Chief glanced over towards the General with a slight but genuinely friendly smile on his face. "However, after a quite pleasant conversation with General Andrews here, I have real hope that this battle will be the final time weapons will be used in anger between members of our. Moving forward, the Nishnabe Militia is pledging to act strictly in concert with local governments, and to not initiate any military actions without express permission from the local government. We are not here as invaders, nor do we have any intention of forcing your governments to do anything they would not willingly do on their own. All we ask is that if you see a Nishnabe in your local community on an aid or environmental restoration mission, please do not accost or harass them. We are your cousins and we just want to see the home we were stolen from again."
​
Msko let his plea hang in the air for a long few seconds to ensure that the translation was completed and the people of Earth and the Sol System would be able to absorb what he had just said. Regardless of the technological gap between the Nishnabe and the rest of humanity, the explicit pledge of peace was so sincere that many people watching the press conference at home were beginning to cheer. However, Msko knew that wouldn't be enough for some, especially those most paranoid and scared of change.
​
"Over the past few days, and especially over the past few hours, Nishnabe diplomatic teams have been reaching out to the various governmental bodies across the Sol System in an attempt to arrange a grand meeting between all of the various political and economic groups in this system to discuss a peaceful and voluntary transition towards Galactic Standards." This revelation by the War Chief, though already known to those who had done sufficient research, was not something that the majority of humanity was aware of. "Aside from particular military technologies and clandestine corporate actions, which are already mostly illegal under your own laws, your diverse governments are largely in compliance with galactic laws and thus will be granted access to all of the technologies my people have access to. In order to better facilitate that transition, and to promote a mutual sense of compassion and understanding, Fleet Admiral Atxika of the First Fleet of the Third Matriarchy has agreed to host a convention on The Hammer. We are now publicly extending an invitation to all government, corporate, and media representatives to join us in the Council of Peace in order to lay the groundwork for a long and prosperous future for humanity. We will now be fielding questions."

ASHLEE FIGUEROA of lake worth fl is a child abuser and endangering the welfare of a child. She decided she just wanted a baby so she purposly gets knocked up by a loser who lives with his parents, probably makes minimum wage, and beats up his dad, gf, and GRANDMOM just so she can have a pet kid. She doesnt care if its traumatized she just is using it like she uses EVERYONE else to try to find happiness. Its truely SICK.

“Rule #1: Guns don’t do jack.”
All the others vary, but this is always the #1 rule at every park in the country.
Personally, I would have added precisely four extra letters to it, but upper brass insists we need to uphold at least some modicum of professional decorum. Still, there are no words to describe just how frustrated it makes me every single time I see some jagoff standing there gormlessly unloading his magazine into some unfathomable nightmare creature who obviously isn’t going to feel a thing. Once I even saw someone run empty and then try to reload, instead of just, I don’t know, running away. I was almost glad to see him get exsanguinated.
Many folks have attempted to get creative with it. You name it, they’ve tried it. Silver bullets, 50 caliber high explosive incendiary ammunition, shotgun slugs cased in gold carved out from the Ark of the Covenant and pumped full of aglaophotis and blessed by the pope himself… and nothing. Nada. Zilch. As far as I know, throughout the entire history of the NPS, not a single bullet we’ve fired has even lightly tickled any of God’s half-finished rejects that stalk the wilderness.
I guess we just have trouble coping with the fact that our generation’s favorite hammer doesn’t work on this particular nail. In all fairness, though, there’s a psychological benefit to holding a gun, even knowing this foremost rule. It’s a lot more bearable to weave through trees in the pitch black wood miles from civilization when you have ol’ Remington’s gift to humanity gripped in your shaking hands. Venturing out with just your bare fists feels like you may as well give up, drop trou, bend over, and hope the thing with forty thousand eyes is feeling romantic.
I have to admit, even I keep my trusty old 1911 on my hip, even knowing it’d be absolutely useless for anything but putting a round through my own brain stem in case I get cornered by any of the things you really don’t want capturing you alive.
“Rule 2: Handheld UV lights are required when bushwhacking after midnight so fluorescent spider silk may be seen and avoided. If caught by a strand, or if you feel the earth beginning to part beneath you, throw down a circle of salt, recite the Gayatri Mantra, and clap exactly thrice.”
I’m sure you’ve wondered how we even come up with the really elaborate and specific rules like this one. The answer’s simple: a little bit of occult research, and a hell of a lot of deadly trial and error.
Sure, sometimes we get lucky and somebody else does our homework for us. For example, up at Isle Royale, an Ojibwe elder was kind enough to provide us with a few rules that help greatly when dealing with… well, you-know-what. Sorry, but never referring to them by name was one of the rules. In general, though, if you see a rule emphasizing that you have to clap exactly thrice, you can bet it’s because some poor bastard tried clapping two times or four times and ended up paying the ultimate price for it.
In this case, it was Annemary, or ‘Crazy Anne’. I worked by her side for twenty years, at least. She was a hell of a woman, the kind who made everyone hush into a terrified silence whenever she walked into a room. Still, even she wasn’t as scary as that spider-thing that kept her alive for a week in his web while he extra-orally digested her. He was a right bastard, and for a while I worried we’d have to write off Shenandoah as a lost cause… but since this rule was put into place, the evil cunt has been more or less left to starve. I consider it my magnum opus.
We only pulled it off because of you, Anne, you crazy diamond. Once you’ve conquered Hell, save a spot for me beside your throne, okay?
“Rule 3: If approached by a man with the head of a deer, offer to make him tea. He likes it strong with milk and two sugars. Sit with him as he drinks, and respond to him with absolute politeness and good manners at all times. Never ask him his name.”
You’ll be pleased to know that not every strange thing that lurks in these parks is the sort that yearns to tear your intestines out through your arsehole while you cry for mommy. Just like real wild animals, a vast majority of them just want us humans to leave ‘em alone… and a few even like us.
We’ve got a swell arrangement worked out with this peculiar deer-man who manifests in front of rangers on graveyard shift every once in a while. That 10 foot tall sonuvabitch has got the body of a man but the head of a stag with a rack any hunter would drool over, the digitigrade legs of a wolf, and he wears these flowing robes which look to be made of the night sky, glimmering stars and all. He talks all cryptic and posh, but all he asks us for is some tea time. In return, he opens that third eye on his forehead and glimpses into the future, giving us a few hints as to what sort of trouble might be brewing in the next few weeks. From our encounters, he seems like a nice enough fellow.
We only tell you not to ask his name because it’s beyond pronunciation and will just leave your ears bleeding. You know how it is.
“Rule #4: If you hear the wailing of an infant in the woods steadily drawing closer to the park office, open the red lockbox with code 0681. There is a living fetus inside on a bed of satin; pierce its heart with one of the provided golden pin needles until the noises cease.”
Another complicated mess of a rule we had to bring in a Goetic daemonologist to help cook up. I know what you’re thinking. Yeah, sure, if we knew more about these things, we could probably pare these rules down some more, come up with something simpler, easier. But the point is that the rules we have now have weathered the test of time and have been proven to keep us safe consistently. Once we’ve achieved that consistency, a rule pretty much never changes, since any propositions to study alternatives are always shut down by the question of “what happens if your hypothesis doesn’t work?”
Oh yeah, by the way. You recall how I mentioned there are certain entities out here you really don’t want to get taken alive by? This is definitely one of those. Cutting up that fetus is never very pleasant, but trust me, it’s worth the trouble.
But if you want to trail blaze and stake your life testing out some theory you cooked up… be my guest.
“Rule #5: When staying at the old barracks, always cover every mirror in a room before turning out the lights, and never remove or break-“
“Wait. Slow down a second.”
I had not even made it through five rules before the rookie sitting across from me at the cabin rudely interrupted. He was a young man who’d look more at home in Hollywood or Los Angeles than out here in the woods, his immaculately groomed jet black hair slicked to the side like all the posh celebs are doing it. I didn’t have a very good first impression of him, but hell, I always hated when I had to babysit a newbie through a night. Patience was never my strong suit.
“Can I ask why these are all so… infuriatingly vague?” He continued. “Like, what do I do if forgot to cover a mirror? What happens if I don’t clap three times or whatever?”
“Because there’s fifteen rules even just here in Shenandoah. That might not sound like a lot, but when you’re fighting fer your life ‘gainst something with more mouths than you have teeth, it’s a hell of a lot to remember. Got to keep details sparse, y’see. Make sure to drill in the important bits. And it wouldn’t help you none to know what happens if you break a rule - it’d only scare ya,” I explained. “Now shut your yapper while I finish reminding you of ‘em all.”
He groaned. “I’ve already heard them far too many times. At least a thousand today.”
I stared daggers through him. “There’s no such thing as ‘too many’ in this case, boy. People died to write these rules, and they’ll save your life.”
“With all due respect: how, exactly, are these supposed to protect me? Like… how is clapping and throwing salt around supposed to ward off anything? It’s complete nonsense!”
We got a lot of these types of guys: the “rational skeptics” who don’t believe in your silly rules. It’s either that or the fools with more muscle than brains who think they can kill a creature who can make your heart pop with a single thought. Usually, they get filtered out and fired quick. Usually. I made a mental note to beat the ass of whoever decided that this smarmy, cocksure rookie was ready for the graveyard shift. But it was too late to send him home; he wouldn’t make it out of the park alive, if he tried to traipse off through the woods at this hour.
“It doesn’t have to make sense. These things don’t work by our logic.” But I knew I couldn’t convince these types with words alone, so I stood. “C’mere, boy. Let me show you something.”
I led him to the huge window pane on the cabin’s wall, overlooking the forest down below, and checked my watch - only 20 minutes til the show started. It was a pain convincing him to shut up and wait, but that big mouth of his snapped closed the instant he realized something was emerging from the bushes down there.
It was a raccoon - not an unusual sight out here, if not for the fact that it was walking upright. And not the clumsy waddling on hind legs you expect from animals, but it seemed to stroll bipedally with all the grace of a man, as if its body had been unnaturally twisted and deformed to befit a style of movement that was never meant for it. It moved with purpose, crab walking across a mossy field with its upper body rigid as a statue’s would be, one ‘arm’ pointing towards the sky and the other to the ground below. It plodded along its set route for a minute before disappearing back into the shrubbery without ceremony.
He was baffled, slack-jawed. “What the hell was that?”
“Exactly what it looked like,” I told him. “If you’re lookin’ for a logical explanation, there ain’t any. Some places on earth, they aren’t run by our logic. They’ve got a different basis for their rules entirely.”
“And what’s that?”
“Symbolism,” I replied, as if it were obvious. “In our world, everything’s got to follow the laws of cause-and-effect. For what you’ve seen to have happened, two raccoons must’ve fucked at some point to birth the one we saw. Then somebody, probably me, would’ve had to surgically or genetically mutilate it in ways beyond current medical science, tame and train the wretched thing, and set it up to perform this exact routine at this exact time… and all for what? To mildly confuse a rookie ranger? Explaining it would require so much contrivance, so much pulling assumptions out your ass, that it would laugh in the face of Occam’s razor. For our logic, it is unexplainable. Impossible.”
“But symbolically, it made perfect sense. That creature don’t need a backstory or a cause - it prolly just came into existence a few minutes ago, and will pop out of existence once it’s sent its message. Its gesture was the hermetic mantra ‘as above, so below’ - reminding us that everything that everything that happens on the surface world is mirrored in the underworld. It happens every morning at 1:33 AM because that’s the exact time the Witch of Woodbridge killed ‘erself to become the intermediary between the two here in Shenandoah. And it’s a raccoon because...” I paused. “Well, actually, I haven’t really figured that part out yet.”
My words failed to comfort him. In fact, the more I spoke, the more horrified he seemed, eyes widening in confusion and horror as if I’d just sat down and told him that the voices in my head command me to lick the dandruff off of camels. “Oh my God. You’re crazy. You’re actually insane.”
I sighed and rolled my eyes. “Tell ya what. Think of, for an example you’d be familiar with, a voodoo doll. You use a strand of their hair or a toenail or something so that the doll comes to symbolize their physical vessel. By hurting the doll, you’re symbolically hurting their actual body, so the damage happens to both. That’s how the supernatural works.”
He blinked. “Voodoo dolls work?”
“In places like this, they do.” I raised a brow. “Does that surprise you?”
Suddenly, he stood and threw up his hands, as if realizing he’d been made the victim of some sick prank. “You know what? Screw this. I don’t know if this is some kind of hazing thing or what, but I feel like continuing this line of conversation would just leave me as batty as you are.”
My heart lurched with terror as he stomped to the front door and began undoing the numerous slide locks and dead bolts. “Wait! Hell are you thinkin’, boy?”
He’d only barely opened the door a crack before I’d wrapped him in a chokehold, but it’d been enough. He let out a startled yelp as I started violently pulling him across the cabin, practically clobbering him just to keep him from wrestling out of my grip. I was no spring chicken, and the younger man probably could have bested me, but I had the element of surprise on my side, plus a blow to the head that had left him drowsy.
I tossed him headlong through a hatch, down into a crawlspace under the cabin where sage burners and dried tobacco and protective talismans were waiting. I slammed the hatch shut behind him, restraining the squirming rookie with my weight and clapping a hand over his mouth to silence his protests. His face was twisted by confusion and rage, and he was just about to throw me off of him, but then he froze… eyes widening, as we both heard the unmistakable sound of… something walking in through the ajar cabin door.
We’d made it into the crawlspace just in the nick of time.
There was the heavy click-clack of hooves against the wood floor above us, interspersed with quieter thuds. It took him a moment, but I could tell when he’d figured it out. With one pair of legs, the creature walked with normal hooves… with the other, it walked on the knuckles of human hands. And as it stalked the house, knocking over plates and bookshelves, it growled and hissed and groaned not out of one maw, but three: one sounding high and avian, one low and reptilian, and another letting out the soft bleating of a sheep, all in unison like some unholy choir.
Just when it seemed like it couldn’t get any worse, a fourth maw must’ve opened up, for a new sound filled the room “Daddy?” Came a little boy’s voice, desperate and whimpered, sniffling in a way that made me feel sorry for it even despite knowing better. “Why did you leave me out in the woods, daddy? It was so dark… and I was so scared. Please, daddy. I thought you loved me. Where are you?” The child’s voice devolved slowly but pitiful begging to outright sobbing and inconsolable weeping, downright screaming itself hoarse as the clock neared 2 and the creature’s searching grew frantic.
But the very instant the clock struck 2 o’clock, all the sounds ceased, all at once. We waited there for a moment, in that deafening silence… until I smacked the rookie across the back of the head. “Rule 11, you smug prick. You never open the door at this hour of the night. That… thing takes it as an invitation.” My voice made it obvious I was desperately holding back my simmering fury. I’ve beaten folks half to death before, and I’m not afraid to do it again. “If you want to get yourself killed tonight, have at it. But I am not letting you take me down with you.”
Once the nightmare had left, his brain had an opportunity to register what had just happened… which quickly escalated into a full-bore panic attack. “Fuck this, man. What in the hell was that!? Oh God, oh God, oh God, I can’t take this man, no, no, no, I’m not cut out for this, I need to go home, I need to, I can’t-“
I watched nervously as he jumped up and started frantically pacing the cabin. He was acting erratically, sloppily. This couldn’t end well. “Snap out of it, boy! No sense in braving the woods this late at night. Ya won’t be able to see more than a foot in front of your face. Just wait here until sun-“
He swung at me when I tried to restrain him again, almost breaking my nose. “No, man! I can’t take an entire night of this! I need to go! Jesus, let me go, you crazy bastard!”
I didn’t want to admit it, but this one was looking like a lost cause. There was no way I’d be able to overpower him again once he inevitably did something else stupid. Call me selfish, but at this point, my only concern was making sure he didn’t get me killed.
“Alright! God, fine! If it’s really so important to ya… you can go. Your shift’s officially over, rookie. But I ain’t goin’ out there with ya. You’ll have to brave it on yer own. As long as you follow the rules, you should be able to make it back to your car in one piece. You hear me? The rules!”
He pouted like a child being lectured by an overbearing father. “Yeah, yeah, Christ, old man, I get it! I’ll follow the damn rules!”
In my defense, I did furnish him with every single thing he’d need to survive out there. UV flashlights, salt boxes, obsidian talismans, volcanic ash, the dried and shrunken head of a lamb, and more… not that he appreciated any of it. He was just whining at me to hurry up, ignoring all my attempts to remind him of the rules, like he was in a rush to get out there and die horribly. Eventually, I just gave up, shrugged, and let him hike off into that pitch blackness.
To his credit, he made it farther than I’d expected. Twenty minutes of silence passed, and I started to wonder if he’d actually pulled it off after all.
That was about when the screaming started.
I’d heard it too many times before: the distinctive wailing of a man realizing everything he’d done and accomplished in his life had all just been leading up to this moment when a shambling abomination saw fit to deliver him to the afterlife kicking and screaming and missing a few body parts. It didn’t surprise me in the slightest, really, but it was still unpleasant to listen to.
Judging from what little of it was intelligible, he was crying about something pulling out his eyes. Must’ve broken rule 13. Poor, stupid bastard. That one’s so easy, you’d almost have to be breaking it on purpose.
I remember the first time somebody broke a rule and got themselves killed under my watch. It almost broke me. I blamed it all on myself, then. Sent me into a depression for months. But now, after all these decades… I’m just numb.
After all, my only job is to write the rules.
If they don’t want to follow them, well… it’s their funeral.

Hello there. I am a 20 years old guy from Romania, Europe. Lately I felt lonely and I decided to try my shot here trying to find someone truly special to share my days with. Currently I am working a full time job and I live alone in my own appartment. I am looking for someone to starts things slowly, not rushing it. I would like to talk about our daily routine, work/school, share our days about what happened or how we feel or any random topic we have in our mind. I am open to a long distance relationship. I enjoy videocalls and voicecalls aswell.
Some infos about my personality:
I am an introverted, shy and emotional. As a person I am caring, loving and protective and I give all my attention to the loved ones to make sure they feel good.
My appearance is the next:
Slim body type, 190 cm tall (6'2), 80 kg (176 lbs), blondish hair and blue eyes. I am open to exchange pictures too.
My hobbies and interests include the followings:
- Learning about new cultures and languages. Currently I speak two languages on native level which include Hungarian and Romanian and I would like to learn about other languages and cultures.
- History. My favorite topic of history would be the middle age (Eastern European) and the two World Wars.
- Geography. All the mountains, seas, rivers, lakes which are surrounding us are so beautiful. Since I live in a mountain city I used to hike too on smaller mountains.
- Sports. Mostly I enjoy playing and watching football which I used to practice too before, but now only as a hobby. Other sports which I like are handball and waterpolo.
- Music. I like to listen mostly to everything related to rock music and rap music. But I am open to other music genres too and I would like to hear about your music taste too.
- Gaming. In my free time when I am off from work I play games on my PC on Steam. Maybe we could play some games too together if you are up for it.
- Movies and series. I don't watch them that much, but if it's a good movie or serie I would not turn it down.
- Youtube. I like to watch travelling videos mostly. I like travel videos because one day I would like to travel too around the World if I have the opportunity.
If you are considering to send me a DM, make a small introduction. Mostly I use Discord to chat, if you are ok we can move there, but Reddit chat is fine too.

Link to original post
What a week. My stupid smartphone fell and kind of broke (white lines appeared) and became pretty much useless so I decided to use my time off for the greater good and do some investigations till it gets repaired.
I asked every single house if they're willing to share their cctv recordings, some refused and some said it didn't work. I decided to rewatch all my outdoor cam recordings, little did I know that my camera had a clear view of him and his house. I didn't expect he'd show up in that, but neither did he, he was hiding behind a tree near his home. I really thought my cam was mute and didnt record sounds, but the gun shot was so loud...
So not that big of a plot twist, it's not the religious man across us, it's his neighbor who's also his best friend who probably decided to do him a favor
I got a lawyer involved, we took the recording to the police station and they called the shooter in for interrogation, he admitted to everything and now he's in custody. Miracle in the middle east hallelujah.
His wife and daughter came yesterday to ask me to drop the case, I pretended that I wasn't at home and didn't even talk to them.
Today his relatives at work somehow found my dads contact number to try and convince me by saying b*llshit like HE HAS DIABETES AND NEEDS HIS MEDICINE DROP THE CASE.
Idk what I expected. of course the deadbeat dad who was barely in our lives would defend an animal abuser. It made my blood boil hearing him request this.
His relatives also said sh*t like: "just drop it we'll bring you 10 dogs of the same breed" like ... no wtf that's not how it works. Disgusting mindset.
The people who pretended they didn't have cctv also called me and started being friendly for absolutely no fuggin reason.
The case is ongoing, lawyer told me to expect that he'll get out on a bail and that to make the case bigger we can only use the gun thing against him.

Hey guys! I live in Clayton, NC just outside of Raleigh. I am a whitewater kayaker and am looking for a clean lake where I can paddle and practice flat water moves.
What are some clean safe lakes in the Raleigh area?? Bonus points if it’s close to Clayton, NC!

Hey all I'm toying with the idea of doing a 12-20 player slashesurvival live games, but I need help building the maps and whatnot. If I can get enough help then I'll create a server and pursue this more. The Idea: Crystal Lake Valley is an island has been evacuated due to a serial killer rampage going on throughout the region. The players are remaining citizens that have missed the last ferry off the island and must find a way to escape before the killer gets to them all. Message me and I'll send you a copy of the map. Each of the marked structures on the map are places we will have to create. I will handle most of the mechanical side (plugins/redstone etc...), but could also use help in that area to. If you are interested in volunteering and helping me build, manage, record, and/or test then message me.

I live near Lake Washington and see people out wingfoiling every time I’m out there to paddleboard. It looks like so much fun!
I’d love to learn. Unfortunately, all the lessons near me are completely booked out for the summer. Im wondering if I should just buy some used gear and try and teach myself.
But I know pretty much nothing about wind/water sports.
Im a 5’6” woman in my 30s and weigh around 130 pounds.
I used to snowboard in my early 20s and skateboarded as a kid. But haven’t had a board sport in a long time. I miss it though.
What kind of gear should I be looking at? Where do I look for learning materials? Can I even do this on my own?
Thank you ahead of time! This sport looks amazing.

Does anyone know a location/badi/anywhere at the lake (preferably rather close to city center, I live in the suburbs) where you can rent a space/shelf space/lockewhatever to store a blown up/full sized SUP board?
I have a SUP board since several years but only recently moved to Zurich. I'd love to have a place where I can keep it to easily drop by after work and go for a quick excursion on the lake, without all the logistic hassle around it. Anyone got any idea? 👀 Thanks in advance 🙌