📷

Introduction

Feeling stuck in your career? Lost that spark of passion that used to drive you? It's time to reignite the fire and renew your career passion. In this article, we'll explore four strategies to help you rediscover your enthusiasm, find fulfillment, and thrive in your professional life.
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Strategy 1: Reflect on Your Why

What is your Why?

To renew your career passion, it's essential to reconnect with your purpose. Ask yourself: Why did you choose this career path in the first place? What aspects of your work bring you joy and fulfillment? Identifying your "Why" can help reignite your passion and provide a clear direction moving forward.

Explore Your Values

Consider your core values and how they align with your current career. Are you still living in accordance with your values? If not, identify the gaps and explore ways to bridge them. When your work aligns with your values, it becomes more meaningful and rewarding.

Set Meaningful Goals

Goals give you something to strive for and can reignite your career passion. Set both short-term and long-term goals that align with your aspirations. Break them down into actionable steps, and celebrate each milestone along the way. Goal-setting provides a sense of purpose and progress.
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Strategy 2: Learn and Grow

Embrace Lifelong Learning

To renew your career passion, embrace the mindset of a lifelong learner. Seek out new opportunities to expand your knowledge and skills. Attend workshops, conferences, or enroll in online courses related to your field. Stay up-to-date with industry trends and advancements. The more you learn, the more inspired and engaged you'll become.

Seek Mentorship

Finding a mentor can be a game-changer for reigniting your career passion. A mentor can provide guidance, support, and valuable insights from their own experiences. Look for someone who inspires you and has achieved success in your desired area. Their guidance and wisdom can help you navigate challenges and reignite your passion.

Step Out of Your Comfort Zone

Growth often happens outside of your comfort zone. Challenge yourself by taking on new projects or responsibilities that stretch your skills. Volunteer for leadership opportunities or join professional organizations. Embracing new challenges can reignite your passion and open doors to exciting possibilities.
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Strategy 3: Foster Work-Life Balance

Prioritize Self-Care

To renew your career passion, it's crucial to prioritize self-care. Take care of your physical, mental, and emotional well-being. Make time for activities that bring you joy and recharge your energy. Whether it's exercising, pursuing hobbies, or spending quality time with loved ones, self-care nourishes your soul and rekindles your passion.

Set Boundaries

Maintaining a healthy work-life balance is essential for career satisfaction. Set clear boundaries between your professional and personal life. Define your working hours and stick to them. Avoid checking emails or engaging in work-related tasks during your downtime. By creating space for yourself outside of work, you'll feel more fulfilled and passionate about your career.

Practice Mindfulness

Mindfulness can help you find presence and joy in your work. Pay attention to the present moment, savoring the small wins and finding gratitude in your accomplishments. Engage fully in each task, appreciating the impact you're making. By cultivating mindfulness, you'll deepen your connection with your work and renew your career passion.
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Strategy 4: Explore New Opportunities

Network and Collaborate

Networking is a powerful tool for career growth and passion renewal. Attend industry events, connect with professionals on LinkedIn, and join online communities related to your field. Engage in conversations, share knowledge, and build relationships. Collaborating with like-minded individuals can spark new ideas and reignite your passion.

Consider a Career Change

If you've explored all avenues and still find your career passion dwindling, it may be time to consider a change. Reflect on your skills, interests, and values. Research alternative career paths that align with your passions. Seek guidance from career coaches or professionals in your desired field. Taking a leap of faith into something new can revitalize your career and reignite your passion.

Embrace Side Projects

Side projects offer an avenue for exploring your passions outside of your main career. Identify areas of interest or hobbies that excite you. Consider how you can turn them into small projects or entrepreneurial ventures. These side projects can inject new energy and enthusiasm into your professional life.
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FAQs

Q: How long does it take to renew career passion using these strategies?

A: The time it takes to renew your career passion varies for each individual. It depends on factors such as the depth of disengagement, personal circumstances, and the willingness to implement these strategies. However, by consistently applying these strategies, you can expect to see positive changes in a matter of weeks or months.

Q: Can these strategies be applied to any career field?

A: Yes, these strategies are applicable to individuals in various career fields. Whether you're in healthcare, technology, education, or any other profession, the principles of renewing career passion remain the same. The key is to adapt these strategies to your specific circumstances and goals.

Q: What if I've already tried these strategies and still can't renew my career passion?

A: If you've exhausted these strategies without finding renewed career passion, it might be helpful to seek professional guidance. Consider working with a career coach or counselor who can provide personalized support and help you navigate through the challenges you're facing. They can assist you in exploring alternative paths and finding the right solutions for your unique situation.

Conclusion

Renewing your career passion is a journey that requires self-reflection, growth, and a willingness to embrace change. By reflecting on your purpose, seeking opportunities to learn and grow, fostering work-life balance, and exploring new possibilities, you can reignite the fire within and find fulfillment in your professional life. Remember, your career is not set in stone, and it's never too late to pursue your passions. Embrace these strategies, take action, and watch as your career passion flourishes once again. Join me on LinkedIn
self-reflection, goal setting, skill development, networking, mentoring, work-life balance, personal growth, job shadowing, continuing education, career exploration, volunteer work, professional associations, side projects, job crafting, time management, mindfulness, creativity, leadership development, career coaching, industry trends, entrepreneurship, job satisfaction, personal branding, risk-taking, resilience.
#self-reflection, #goal #setting, #skill #development, #networking, #mentoring, #work-life #balance, #personal #growth, #job #shadowing, #continuing #education, #career #exploration, #volunteer #work, #professional #associations, #side #projects, #job #crafting, #time #management, #mindfulness, #creativity, #leadership #development, #career #coaching, #industry #trends, #entrepreneurship, #job #satisfaction, #personal #branding, #risk-taking, #resilience #Quora

Hello, I am trying to set up my lab environment and keep getting an error followed by a prompt that a log was created in a temp folder. I have previously ran the same 'installation' on the same hardware without this problem..
'Task failed on server: Module 'MonitorLoop' power on failed.'
attached log: 2023-05-28T13:07:33.530Z - info: installerLogFile: C:\Users\ADMINI~1\AppData\Local\Temp\vcsaUiInstaller\installer-20230528-150733525.log
2023-05-28T13:07:33.542Z - info: networkLogFile: C:\Users\ADMINI~1\AppData\Local\Temp\vcsaUiInstaller\network-20230528-150733525.log
2023-05-28T13:07:33.564Z - info: [AppComponent] Locale initialised: English
2023-05-28T13:07:33.565Z - info: [AppComponent] Product: vcsa
2023-05-28T13:07:33.680Z - info: [AppService] ovfOptions not in cache
2023-05-28T13:07:33.701Z - info: [AppComponent] version.js buildnumber: 21447532
2023-05-28T13:07:33.701Z - info: [AppComponent] App runtime buildnumber: 21447532
2023-05-28T13:07:33.702Z - info: [AppComponent] Build numbers matched
2023-05-28T13:07:33.702Z - info: [AppComponent] Found ovftool with correct version from the discovered path
2023-05-28T13:07:33.702Z - info: [AppComponent] Saved OVA folder path: D:\vcsa
2023-05-28T13:07:33.702Z - info: [AppComponent] Saved ovftool path: D:\vcsa\ovftool\win32\ovftool.exe
2023-05-28T13:07:35.567Z - debug: wizardTitle: Install - Stage 1: Deploy vCenter Server
2023-05-28T13:07:35.568Z - debug: wizardTitle: Install - Stage 1: Deploy vCenter Server
2023-05-28T13:08:05.519Z - info: THUMBPRINT(Target): 91:E9:63:DB:E8:B9:3D:30:02:7B:3A:21:FC:48:7E:3E:6C:91:63:18
2023-05-28T13:08:06.789Z - info: login() to 192.168.0.104
2023-05-28T13:08:06.789Z - info: initializing vsphere API connection to 192.168.0.104:443
2023-05-28T13:08:08.003Z - info: vimService apiType: HostAgent, version: 8.0.1
2023-05-28T13:08:08.048Z - debug: session does not exist: 192.168.0.104, root
2023-05-28T13:08:08.049Z - debug: Logging in to 192.168.0.104:443 as root
2023-05-28T13:08:08.094Z - info: Logged in to 192.168.0.104:443 as root, session: 523d2da2-9920-3acc-2bea-062567d48fa4
2023-05-28T13:08:08.095Z - debug: After successful login, initiate pingTimer with delay: 300000
2023-05-28T13:08:08.111Z - debug: admin roles:[
{
entity: { value: 'ha-folder-root', type: 'Folder' },
principal: 'root',
group: false,
roleId: -1,
propagate: true
},
{
entity: { value: 'ha-folder-root', type: 'Folder' },
principal: 'vpxuser',
group: false,
roleId: -1,
propagate: true
},
{
entity: { value: 'ha-folder-root', type: 'Folder' },
principal: 'dcui',
group: false,
roleId: -1,
propagate: true
}
]
2023-05-28T13:08:08.111Z - debug: user: root, userPrincipal: root
2023-05-28T13:08:08.111Z - debug: userHasAdminRole: root: root: has admin role
2023-05-28T13:08:08.112Z - debug: adminRole: true
2023-05-28T13:08:08.112Z - info: host target precheck
2023-05-28T13:08:08.509Z - info: hostPrecheck: ESXI-4.warfanatic.se, ha-host
2023-05-28T13:08:08.510Z - info: ESXi hostVersion=8, minVersion=6.7
2023-05-28T13:08:08.510Z - info: lockdownMode: 'lockdownDisabled'
2023-05-28T13:08:08.510Z - info: inMaintenanceMode: false
2023-05-28T13:08:08.510Z - info: hostPrecheck succeeded: ESXI-4.warfanatic.se
2023-05-28T13:08:08.511Z - info: ESXi hostCheck was successful
2023-05-28T13:08:08.524Z - debug: [object Object]
2023-05-28T13:08:14.888Z - debug: vsphere returned vsanService
2023-05-28T13:08:52.730Z - info: vmName: VCSA
2023-05-28T13:08:52.769Z - info: number of vms with name, VCSA: 0
2023-05-28T13:08:52.843Z - debug: Deployment size page description: Select the deployment size for this vCenter Server.
2023-05-28T13:08:52.848Z - info: ovftoolCmd: D:\vcsa\ovftool\win32\ovftool.exe
2023-05-28T13:08:52.849Z - debug: ovaFileNameRe: /.*_OVF10.ova$/
2023-05-28T13:08:52.886Z - debug: files in D:\vcsa: VMware-vCenter-Server-Appliance-8.0.1.00000-21560480_OVF10.ova,ovftool,version.txt
2023-05-28T13:08:52.887Z - info: ovaFile: D:\vcsa\VMware-vCenter-Server-Appliance-8.0.1.00000-21560480_OVF10.ova
2023-05-28T13:08:55.904Z - info: probeOvf exited with status 0
2023-05-28T13:08:55.905Z - info: probeOvf productName: VMware vCenter Server Appliance
2023-05-28T13:08:55.905Z - info: probeOvf fullVersion: 8.0.1.0 build 21560480
2023-05-28T13:08:55.907Z - info: probeOvf result: + SUCCESS
2023-05-28T13:08:55.937Z - info: layout file: D:\vcsa-ui-installer\win32\resources\app\dist\resources\layout.json
2023-05-28T13:08:55.937Z - info: nDeploymentOptions: 18
2023-05-28T13:08:55.939Z - warn: checkDiskspace:[tiny-xlstorage]: dfsys was not obtained
2023-05-28T13:08:55.940Z - debug: checkDiskspace:[tiny-xlstorage]: diskSpace, required: undefined, provided: 4279
2023-05-28T13:08:55.940Z - info: checkDiskspace:[tiny-xlstorage]: true
2023-05-28T13:08:55.940Z - warn: checkDiskspace:[tiny-lstorage]: dfsys was not obtained
2023-05-28T13:08:55.941Z - debug: checkDiskspace:[tiny-lstorage]: diskSpace, required: undefined, provided: 2019
2023-05-28T13:08:55.941Z - info: checkDiskspace:[tiny-lstorage]: true
2023-05-28T13:08:55.941Z - warn: checkDiskspace:[tiny]: dfsys was not obtained
2023-05-28T13:08:55.942Z - debug: checkDiskspace:[tiny]: diskSpace, required: undefined, provided: 579
2023-05-28T13:08:55.942Z - info: checkDiskspace:[tiny]: true
2023-05-28T13:08:55.942Z - debug: default storage: tiny, 579
2023-05-28T13:08:55.942Z - debug: large storage: tiny-lstorage, 2019
2023-05-28T13:08:55.944Z - debug: x-large storage: tiny-xlstorage, 4279
2023-05-28T13:08:55.945Z - debug: pre-defined defIdx found: 0
2023-05-28T13:08:55.945Z - info: defIdx: 0, id: tiny
2023-05-28T13:08:55.951Z - info: {
id: 'tiny',
isDefault: 'true',
cpu: 2,
memory: 14336,
'host-count': 10,
'vm-count': 100,
label: 'Tiny',
description: undefined,
diskSpace: 579,
'disk-swap': 25600,
'disk-core': 25600,
'disk-log': 10240,
'disk-db': 10240,
'disk-dblog': 15360,
'disk-seat': 10240,
'disk-netdump': 1024,
'disk-autodeploy': 10240,
'disk-imagebuilder': 10240,
'disk-updatemgr': 102400,
undefined: 0
}
2023-05-28T13:08:55.952Z - info: { id: 'default', label: 'Default' }
2023-05-28T13:13:02.987Z - info: selectedProfile: id=tiny
2023-05-28T13:13:02.988Z - debug: selectedProfile: {
id: 'tiny',
isDefault: 'true',
cpu: 2,
memory: 14336,
'host-count': 10,
'vm-count': 100,
label: 'Tiny',
description: undefined,
diskSpace: 579,
'disk-swap': 25600,
'disk-core': 25600,
'disk-log': 10240,
'disk-db': 10240,
'disk-dblog': 15360,
'disk-seat': 10240,
'disk-netdump': 1024,
'disk-autodeploy': 10240,
'disk-imagebuilder': 10240,
'disk-updatemgr': 102400,
undefined: 0
}
2023-05-28T13:13:02.988Z - info: tgtHostName: 192.168.0.104, hostName: ESXI-4.warfanatic.se
2023-05-28T13:13:02.989Z - debug: hardware: {
vendor: 'VMware, Inc.',
model: 'VMware7,1',
uuid: '3dd64d56-8d64-2409-dae1-638d2f71eb81',
otherIdentifyingInfo: [
{ identifierValue: 'No Asset Tag', identifierType: [Object] },
{
identifierValue: 'VMware-56 4d d6 3d 64 8d 09 24-da e1 63 8d 2f 71 eb 81',
identifierType: [Object]
},
{ identifierValue: 'None', identifierType: [Object] },
{
identifierValue: 'VMware-56 4d d6 3d 64 8d 09 24-da e1 63 8d 2f 71 eb 81',
identifierType: [Object]
},
{
identifierValue: '[MS_VM_CERT/SHA1/27d66596a61c48dd3dc7216fd715126e33f59ae7]',
identifierType: [Object]
},
{
identifierValue: 'Welcome to the Virtual Machine',
identifierType: [Object]
}
],
memorySize: 17178730496,
cpuModel: '11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-11900K @ 3.50GHz',
cpuMhz: 3504,
numCpuPkgs: 4,
numCpuCores: 4,
numCpuThreads: 4,
numNics: 1,
numHBAs: 3
}
2023-05-28T13:13:03.079Z - debug: Storage page description: Select the storage location for this vCenter Server.
2023-05-28T13:13:03.158Z - info: No datastore found: undefined
2023-05-28T13:13:03.158Z - debug: selectedDatastoreIdx: 0,
2023-05-28T13:13:05.899Z - debug: wizardTitle: Install - Stage 1: Deploy vCenter Server
2023-05-28T13:13:08.143Z - debug: Not connected to vim
2023-05-28T13:13:08.143Z - info: Cancelling the ping timer for session mgmt
2023-05-28T13:13:11.112Z - debug: wizardTitle: Install - Stage 1: Deploy vCenter Server
2023-05-28T13:13:20.741Z - info: No datastore found: undefined
2023-05-28T13:13:20.741Z - debug: selectedDatastoreIdx: 0,
2023-05-28T13:13:21.631Z - info: No datastore found: undefined
2023-05-28T13:13:21.631Z - debug: selectedDatastoreIdx: 0,
2023-05-28T13:13:21.813Z - info: No datastore found: undefined
2023-05-28T13:13:21.813Z - debug: selectedDatastoreIdx: 0,
2023-05-28T13:13:21.982Z - info: No datastore found: undefined
2023-05-28T13:13:21.982Z - debug: selectedDatastoreIdx: 0,
2023-05-28T13:13:22.140Z - info: No datastore found: undefined
2023-05-28T13:13:22.141Z - debug: selectedDatastoreIdx: 0,
2023-05-28T13:13:22.820Z - debug: Deployment size page description: Select the deployment size for this vCenter Server.
2023-05-28T13:13:22.820Z - warn: checkDiskspace:[tiny-xlstorage]: dfsys was not obtained
2023-05-28T13:13:22.820Z - debug: checkDiskspace:[tiny-xlstorage]: diskSpace, required: undefined, provided: 4279
2023-05-28T13:13:22.820Z - info: checkDiskspace:[tiny-xlstorage]: true
2023-05-28T13:13:22.820Z - warn: checkDiskspace:[tiny-lstorage]: dfsys was not obtained
2023-05-28T13:13:22.820Z - debug: checkDiskspace:[tiny-lstorage]: diskSpace, required: undefined, provided: 2019
2023-05-28T13:13:22.821Z - info: checkDiskspace:[tiny-lstorage]: true
2023-05-28T13:13:22.821Z - warn: checkDiskspace:[tiny]: dfsys was not obtained
2023-05-28T13:13:22.821Z - debug: checkDiskspace:[tiny]: diskSpace, required: undefined, provided: 579
2023-05-28T13:13:22.821Z - info: checkDiskspace:[tiny]: true
2023-05-28T13:13:22.821Z - debug: default storage: tiny, 579
2023-05-28T13:13:22.821Z - debug: large storage: tiny-lstorage, 2019
2023-05-28T13:13:22.821Z - debug: x-large storage: tiny-xlstorage, 4279
2023-05-28T13:13:22.821Z - debug: pre-defined defIdx found: 0
2023-05-28T13:13:22.821Z - info: defIdx: 0, id: tiny
2023-05-28T13:13:22.822Z - info: {
id: 'tiny',
isDefault: 'true',
cpu: 2,
memory: 14336,
'host-count': 10,
'vm-count': 100,
label: 'Tiny',
description: undefined,
diskSpace: 579,
'disk-swap': 25600,
'disk-core': 25600,
'disk-log': 10240,
'disk-db': 10240,
'disk-dblog': 15360,
'disk-seat': 10240,
'disk-netdump': 1024,
'disk-autodeploy': 10240,
'disk-imagebuilder': 10240,
'disk-updatemgr': 102400,
undefined: 0
}
2023-05-28T13:13:22.822Z - info: { id: 'default', label: 'Default' }

-----At-A-Glance Updates-----

• Job search IS BACK, and! we ESD is now asking us to report Activity Details, starting this week (8/8) Added 7/9 ESD: Last Minute Change to Job Search Reporting: >>>Click "Yes", Not Requiring Details to be Reported<<<

Added 6/13 Return of the Job Search on July 11, FAQ
Added 6/15 ESD Clarification: 1 Job Search Activity on PUA, 3 for PEUC
Historical Clarification: Job search suspension is tied to the Washington State covid-19 emergency declaration, it has nothing to do with State Reopening Phases or Federal Benefit Extension guidelines. Recent post and reply on the subject.

• Possible Batch Processing Issue delaying some payments ~24-48hrs.

See this poll

-----

This is the Weekly Thread! Please post here.

• New Rule - Low Effort/Duplicate/Searching
• New Rule - Automoderator - Age/Karma Minimums
• State of the Sub 3/26
• State of the Sub 2/4
• State of the Sub 1/19
• The Archive
• The Roadmap to The Archive

------Foreword-----

It is important that users have a Post in which to comment and share their questions and experiences. It is also important to me as a moderator so that I can track the development, propagation or disappearance of issues related to Paid/Processing/Posting; which currently is very very was* difficult because of the volume and number of duplicates, and the lack of information provided by users who do not include their claim type and bank.
I urge you, when posting, to include your bank and your claim type.
I urge you, as much as you can, anticipate delays for weeks with holidays.
Request for separate threads will be entertained, if you can send me a direct message with a good reason that is backed by some sort of evidence.

---------

The most consistently accurate and applicable is in The Archive and The Roadmap

-----Weekly Claim Questions------

NEW 4/12: ESD's site for Weekly Claim Questions - Reporting Earnings
NEW 4/12: ESD's site for Weekly PUA claim Questions
NEW 4/12: ESD's site for Restarting your Claim
ESD's site for Waiting Week/ When Will Payments Start
NEW 4/12: What if I didn't Work this Week?

• Added 2/1/2023 ESD: Reporting Vacation PTO pay Reporting Vacation PTO while employed, see italic section, for Reporting Lump Sum PTO payouts (like during severance), see block text section

2 jobs? Paid Late? Reporting Complex Earnings
Added 7/5 What if I wasn't AA for 2 days or less last week? WBA gets prorated, no Add'l fact-finding
Use a Password Manager, otherwise you might Lock Your Account and have to contact Technical Support
Added 4/22 Traveling and Claiming: "Able and Available"? Cannot Mark Yes to AA
Added 7/7 Website won't work? Call in the Claim, or do it later - it will stay there for 5 weeks
Added 8/22 How to File a PUA Claim By Phone - From ESD Handbook & Our Community
Added 8/22 MFA Code Is Timing Out or Late? Switch to Google Authenticator App
Added 8/29 Severance pay: 3 Laws
Added 10/4/2022 Advice: 2 job offers, How to Accept One and Reject Another, Report on weekly claim

-----Processing/Paid/Posted-----

• After a Weekly claim is submitted, it first says “Processing-Web ^￦ ", then^¥ “Processing”, then “Paid”, and it takes 48 hours on average to post in an account, if the amount is significant, refer to this post. Related Post
• The average time between when the payment shows "Paid" and when it appears in a bank account is dependent on the bank.

Weekly claims that are filed by web are generally all processed sometime between Tuesday evening and Wednesday evening. So if you filed a a claim last Wednesday it will probably not be processed until the following Tuesday.
(￦) If you did your weekly claim via the web. Weekly Claim status is "Processing - IVR"? Normal: You filed by phone IVR means Interactive Voice Response
(¥) This happens when the submission moves from "Submitted" to "Processed", within Online Activity

• Weekly Claim says " Paid - 0"? It's normal temp status
• NEW 4/9: PUA Claims pending after being processed? Upload a Document says "Railroad/Existing Claim"? This is normal
• Are your weekly claims PENDING? Go here to find out Why

------Known Issues------

3. Appearance of "Waiting Week" on some pre-existing claims
_______(1/9) WA House Minority Leader (R) J.T. Wilcox did not approve the Extension of 20.21; the WA Governor's 10th successive proclamation which waived the waiting week, by sending the Governor a letter the day the extension lapsed Contact him directly at [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]). So on Jan 7, ESD Policy Director Dan Zeitlin filed an Emergency Rule, which appears to have no end date. It is believed that due to no rule prohibiting a waiting week between Dec 28-Jan 7, that some pre-existing claims erroneously began to show this. See this post and comments.
Update (1/23) New FAQ from ESD ON Waiting Week

11. (New 1/19) Changing your address/phone numbebank account will likely stop payments, and require an Identity confirmation that may take 6-8 weeks. (Because of a continuation of an Audit) See above in Best Practices for changing eServices notices/letters from Mailed to Electronic. See this post

5. (NEW AS of 1-11) Disappearance of Weekly Claim Prompt Link. As suggested in this post and reply, it is solvable manually by calling the call center. . (New 1/25: Additional Info: Details of Resolution call) Another example (2/11) Another example 3/2

1. After Potential New Claim Filing on 6/12: Issue recurring

-----Roadmap Sections Expanded Above-----

Weekly Claim Subsection

• Job Search Requirements 10+ entries
• Processing/Paid/Posted Issues 5+ entries
• Weekly Claim Questions 5+ entries
• Earnings Deductions / Working Part Time 5+ entries
• Refusal to Work/ Suitable Work 5+ entries
• Able and Available 2 entries
• Known Issues 19+ entries

------Perspective--------

We are all on government benefits; this is not an employee employer relationship where we always get paid at the exact same time every week; they do not have the same responsibility to pay at a predetermined time and it's unreasonable to hold them to that standard. They will get around to paying us when they get around to paying us, unfortunately. Holding that expectation is a false hope, and being constantly disappointed is not a productive thing. .

Part 1
I stood up, awaken from my sleep from the knocking sound on the elevator door. My friends stood up with me as we all heard it. The sound of banging became so much louder. Giggling can be heard with it. What's behind the door is unknown and I'd rather not face it than die to this thing. In the edges of the door, thin fingers began to seep through it. Such horrible looking fingers. I watched the door getting turned into a broken mess. Something grabbed my hand and I saw it was Rishika's. I looked at her and saw fear and sadness on her face.
Questioning death can be answered by judgement, revenge, luck, curse, or just nothing. The concept fate over people sounds so simple that people think that it's ok that fate exists. Is it ok if I was in this situation? What if one of your loved ones died right in front of you by a murderer? You won't like it and you'd definitely blame god for that.
The door is beginning to make an opening. Sweat rapidly runs down on my forehead. My eyes widened with terror as I see the creature's face. It's as accurately described from the documentary. Its teeth shines like bright white marbles and its eyes are like melted butter. The creature's face slowly gets closer, while we stepped far back until there's no space for us to move anymore.
I can feel the cold shivering breath from its mouth. The breath that smells empty. From what I've heard, it's much stronger than the one we just ran away from. Ronald immediately punches the creature's face with his metallic fist. Steam pulses out from the gaps of it. He kept punching at it again and again but to no avail. It still not injured nor shown any pain. He only manages to recoil it farther back.
With a one quick slice, Ronald's hands fell to the ground. His scream was painful and terrifying to hear. I can see his face was in pain. Eyes widened with tears flowing down to his cheek. "Ronald!!" I heard Billy screamed out loud. Of course, this doesn't make any difference as the creature slowly crept closer and closer to us. I witness Ronald dying with his sockets bleeding so much blood. His eyes faded of life. If only he hadn't try to kill it out of bravery, he would've lived longer with us before our lives are taken away.
Its jaw started to open. The sounds of bone cracking can be heard within its teeth. The smile on its face grew more and more eerie. It laughs like a maniac ready to pounce on their victims. Such insanity can break people's minds with a laugh. I froze in place by the laugh. There's nowhere else me and my friends can escape from. What else can we do. Our weapons are futile here and this creature is far beyond comprehension.
Its many arms spread around the elevator room, trying to grab us with its menacing hands. We're going to die here and that's that. This would've been a goodbye to the world. I don't know the dead world in this universe. Many different universes should have a different afterlife. Here, I don't think there's a safe place after death.
Then, something happened right in front of our eyes. The creature was being pulled back by something. Something inside the darkness. I can hear it's the same women who saved me from the pale face. We couldn't see anything in the darkness but Billy's flames can surely help us along the way. I took his flamethrower and a torch. Lighting up the torch with it carefully. Not wanting to burn us. Turning off the flamethrower, I lighted the area with my torch in hand and saw them clashing each other with blade like arms.
We stepped out of the elevator with Ronald's dead body on Cody's arms. Why would Cody keep holding on to him for? He's already dead and there's no way for us to say a better goodbye. I guess maybe he wanted to bury him somewhere which I honored that idea.
She cuts the jaw of the creature that it screams the way a person should. I can see the whole body of the creature. It was humanoid and tall. About 9 feet tall and its body is dark skeletal human. It grabbed her with its large hand and threw her off into the wall. She crushes onto the wall with such heavy force. A groan can be heard from her before a blade penetrates through her abdomen. Her screams are both man and woman at the same time.
It's horrifying to hear someone scream like that if they're just human. In fact, it'll be much terrifying if she'd sounded like millions of voices.
She grabbed its face with her free arm and tears its face off. Its eyes bounces to the ground with a flesh grinding mush sound. The screams that came from within its voice box made a deafening pain in our ears that we both covered them with our hands.
The woman digs her sharp fingers into the creature eye sockets with the sound of digging flesh. She then splits its head with the pull of her hands. Black and bloody flesh spread onto the walls and ground. One of its discarded flesh landed on my shoe. My stomach twists and turns. Watching her brutally kill it while flesh and blood spills. I gagged, watching her 3 fingered hands dig into its throat and pulled out its large heart.
Geralt vomited to the ground, spilling the acid from his stomach. That didn't bother me. Instead I watched her feast on the heart. The sound of chewing on flesh and blood made me sick to my stomach from an imaginary smell of rotten flesh. The creature's body slowly melts away to the ground. Rendering it to be dead into a puddle of flesh and bone. There's now nothing left of it. Just a puddle.
"Holy shit." With just one word came out from Billy's mouth, the woman turns her head to look at us. Her eyes seemingly looked bright and harmless. Not sure whether or not if this is a tactic to hunt or it's really her instinct. The familiar color of her right eye caught my attention.
She fell to the ground with a big gap in her abdomen. Heavy breaths came out from her voice as she slowly gets back up on her feet. The light from my torch reveals her hoodie to be grey and the gap in her abdomen slowly began to heal itself. Small tendrils from the sides of the gap stitching back together.
I stepped back, giving ourselves space in order for us to escape if she'd attack us. I held my hammer high and so does my friends with their weapons. "Darwin wait!" Did I just heard her say my name? I didn't know what to do or how to react. Either it's just a hallucination or trickery. "How did you know my name?" I asked with the fear in my voice.
"I uh. I just guessed I suppose." Her eyes were on the dead Ronald in Cody's arms. She looked saddened by it. Even grieved. She shook her head and went back to to us with a clear voice. "But that doesn't matter. You all need to get out of here before he gets here."
"Who's he?" Geralt asked with both curious and nerving tone in his voice. Her eyes are widened in fear. An expression I never thought she could do and feel about. "Cain. He's coming here and you all need to get out of here."
I've heard about Cain before. You might know this story from a book. It's about 2 brothers, sons of Adam and Eve. Abel being the most favored man of god, while Cain being the least favorite and jealous. Cain killed his brother out of jealousy. God is not happy about this and he casted him away with a curse. He's just a man. Maybe who she was saying was someone who is also named Cain.
"How are we supposed to get out?" Said Cody.
"I can help you get out. We just need to go outside and find the pool of clean water. But, it'll be far away, so we need to hurry up." She walked passed us quickly in a hurry. Billy was going to ask but I lay his shoulders, giving him a metaphor of saying no. Of course, he grunted from that. Rishika gave a face wash to Geralt. He gladly takes it and wipes his mouth and stained jacket.
We followed her through the hallways of the darkness. Our torches lighted brightly around the darkness. I was behind the woman whose guiding us to the exit. I haven't thought of asking her name. For someone like her, she should have. The voids blood doesn't seem to affect her mind but I don't think that's really the case.
The image of her blue eyes makes me recollect the memories of my long distant past. I still don't understand. How could she be so familiar to me, even know my name. We never met each other and we're from different worlds. Either it could be she had mind reading powers or just a simple guess. "Thanks for saving us back there. What's your name."
"My name's..." She looked unsure as to what to say or even know her name. I think she was hiding her true identity which I can understand that. Hiding your own identity from other people is a good way to keep yourself safe. But you needed to plan and design your own disguise. You need to come up with a story that doesn't give confusion or any cracks for people to get suspicious. Famous people like movie stars or scientist or anybody related to that stuff mostly do this to avoid getting attention.
With a warm and calm voice, she answered. "My name is Enid."
"Sounds good. Why did you save us? How are you still in control of yourself?"
"I saved you because I wanted to save you all. I was never the kind of hero or something but I still have the heart to save you all. And I'm losing a bit of my strength holding myself together. Everyday, I have to eat the creatures here. You've encountered them before. If I don't eat them, I'm going to turn into them. Turn into the void. But the more I eat, the closer I'm going to turn myself in. I'm glad you guys are safe, but I feel bad to see your friend die. Sorry that I'm too late to save all of you in one piece."
"Yeah. Wished he had enough time for you to arrive. He was a brave and cool friend to have a part of the team. He's always telling stories about greek gods and mythologies. He's a boxer too. I think he would consider you to be one of us."
"Really?"
"Yeah, of course. He kinda sometimes look scary to me in the night but he's a really good man." Geralt joins with us with a nervous look on his face. His eyes are tired as ours but they're wide enough for us to see his shining eyes. Enid returned smile on her face, but it faded away quickly in a short amount of time.
We finally left the building safely with her guidance. The bright shining sky brightens around us. Giving us the comfort of our safety. But still, we grieved the death of Ronald. Billy grieved the most out of everyone else. He kept muttering all over and over while we were following Enid. His mutterings, from what I can hear are apologize. "Billy. It's not your fault. I think he knew as well."
"No it is. I kept saying mean and horrible things to many of you but mostly it's on him. I just wanted him to think I'm strong and all. I'm lost Darwin. And I shouldn't have said those awful things. All I want was to show you all that I'm strong. But look at me. I'm bloody weak and I can't do anything to protect you all. All I can do is to just stand still and spout bullshit."
He began sobbing so terribly that it shocks me to my core. His face turning red and he fell to his knees, unable to stand back up. We all stopped to try to at least give him the comfort we wanted give him. We've never seen him in such a state like this. Throughout our times together, he always acts like a jerk but now he's crying right in front of us. I didn't know what else to do except to sit down next to him. Ronald's body is now pale in Cody's arms. His eyes were shut.
"I know how it feels, Billy." Rishika, already knelt down in front of Billy, said with a warm tone in her voice. This has got to be the 3rd or 4th time I've heard her say a full sentence. Either way, it was encouraging. Billy doesn't seem to be able to reply. None of us does. "I used to be harsh and cruel to others because I wanted them to accept me. But I was wrong because that's not how it works. We can both change together. It's ok to be on your good side. It won't be too bad. I think Ronald would like that too."
"Look at me. Do I look like I can?"
"We all can. It's just how we grow in life."
"I don't know. Ronald's dead and I'm left to be the one who carries his death on my back. I don't think he'll ever forgive me."
"No. We don't know that. But what matters is that you move on instead of staying behind. I know it's hard but you have to if you want to change. It's ok to be scared. We're all scared."
"Yeah. Even me too. I get scared a few times but that doesn't mean that others will look down on me." Geralt stutters a bit in his voice but kept the strength to say those words.
"Same here. Even that I'm this, I'm still scared too." Enid joins in with a sad look on her face. For someone like her, I thought she never felt fear. I guess there are others like her can feel that way.
I wanted to tell him something too. Something that feels connecting to each other that I don't want him to be left alone. "You don't have to do this alone. I'm scared too and that's alright because that's human. We can help you Billy. You're our friend. And I think Ronald would consider you as a friend too."
Billy wipes his tears away with his sleeve. We all sat there for a few seconds before Cody lays his hand on his shoulder, which makes Billy hug him back. "It's ok. We're here." Ronald's body lay on the boulder 5 feet away from us. Cody reaches his arms as a gesture for us to join in. We all did. So is Enid. I didn't think anything else but to be on Billy's side.
Suddenly, our moment was interrupted by a thunderous noise came out of nowhere. Enid's eyes are widened in terror. The world around us shook from the thunder. In the sky, the small clouds started to turn from grey to the color of blood. Enid jumps right up, catching a look above as we all stare into the sky. What I saw gave me enough imagination to fear whatever the unknown has.
Large gigantic shining eyes watch over the world below us from the sky. Its pupils are too big that they nearly reached the edge of their sockets. The grin of that thing gave me enough horror to freeze in my tracks. How nightmarish it is to see a gigantic abomination such as this in the morning and night. People would definitely scream and run all over the place while the cloud's face watches over them like a eldritch god.
By the time I stepped back, it turned its menacing eyes towards me. I felt like it was staring into my soul. My very soul in my body. Its own saliva dripping from its mouth. Hungry for our souls. It didn't move nor spoke a word. Thunderous noises kept coming from the abomination. They were red lightning and menacing. If people get hit by them, I'm pretty sure they'll turn into whatever nightmarish flesh creature they'll turn into.
"Guys! We have to go! There's not much time!" Edin ran and so we followed. Cody picked up Ronald's body with us. Billy gained back his strength to run. And I slowly started to run as I kept staring at its menacing eyes. It doesn't leave me alone. I don't see it following me or do anything than to smile with evil intentions. This is different than the ones we encountered. Not because of their looks. It's because I knew its intentions and the void creatures, I don't.
A great thunderous red beam shot out from the abomination's mouth and a loud boom can be heard far away from us. The sound snapped me out and I began to run as fast as I can, trying to keep up the pace of my friends and Enid.
Nothing else happened as we run to our exit. The thunderous noises kept booming around us as the clouds above slowly turned into blood red. A drop of rain hit my forehead. I touched it with my finger tip and saw blood. The rain is full of blood. I nearly slipped to the ground but my jacket was caught by Geralt. "Don't worry Darwin! I got you!" He pulled me up and ran.
The feeling of getting closer to something crept inside my chest that I began to feel the sensation of hope. Hope is said to be for the weak but I say otherwise. Hope may be a blind way to believe in something but sometimes it can be true to which we reach to something we can achieve.
Enid stopped in her tracks. There, right in front of us, was a pool of clean water. It doesn't make sense. It's raining blood and there, at the pool, it's clean. Droplets of blood dripped into the pool, then faded away into the clean water. We were shocked to see the pool to be clean in the middle of a shower of blood. The atmosphere suddenly turned red. Dark red flames started emerging around the world. It's everywhere and I can hear the distant screams behind me. The screams are hard for me to explain. They're like mixed with many variety of species all together into a rhyme of symphony.
I turned around to see something dark falling from the sky above into the ground like a falling star. The world shakes beneath us. I knelt down to get balance as I kept watching the falling darkness land onto the world. Far away, a dark silhouette rises from the ground. It looked to be tall. I could guess it's 4 feet taller than us. My eyes can't see clearly due to the silhouette being too far away. More of them began to rise as more fell from the abomination.
I turned myself around, nearly losing my balance. Cody held Rishika by the arm and Billy knelt beside Geralt. Enid reached her hands out into the pool. Sparks of bright light emitted from her arms, spreading light around her. The pool began to slowly swirl into a vortex as the sparks of light began to increase. The harsh blow of the wind hits us, making me fall to the ground.
Then, a bolt of light sparked into life in Enid's grip. The bolt was so bright that I shielded my eyes from it. It's so that I won't get blinded by the light. I looked back to see that something is walking towards us from far away of our tracks. I don't know if it's just me hallucinating or if it's really real. I think I can hear laughter. A humane laughter. It's like it came from a demon king. The dark silhouettes at the sky fly around with their wings.
Their wings are of a bat and their body was humanoid and blood red. Their mouths are menacingly enough to make me push myself away from it as far as I can. It shrieks so loudly that I can hear it from that distance. It began to fly towards us and its claws like a hawks are ready to grab one of us to feast on. I stood back up as the world turned still. I pulled out my hammer, ready to defend myself from it.
The demon nearly scratched my face before a bullet teared through the side of its brain. I turned my head to see Rishika, already wielding her sniper rifle. "I got you." She turned around and shot another bullet at another demon.
I heard a crushing noise coming from Cody. He slams his club right at a demons head, exploding it on impact. The demon wore an armor set of dark stones that could come from hell itself. It was carrying a blade that shines pure diamond. Geralt penetrating his spear at the demons chest, electrocuting it from a high voltage. "Holy shit! This is crazy!" A shout came from his voice. A voice of panic.
I turned around when I felt something was approaching me. There was a demon with 4 arms and held a large hammer, bigger than the one I wielded. Its face full of hatred that Its eyes glared into my soul. I quickly swung my hammer by the time it swings its own at me. Our hammers clashes together, making a loud slam around us. It swung again but I jumped away from its heavy blow. It's the good thing we had those boots. They're able to give us enough push to jump twice higher than the original person can.
I then swung my hammer directly at its face. I made impact as its face tears apart from the slam of my hammer. A crunching sound can be heard from its skull. Its head exploded into a pool of blood with scattered flesh and bones.
I landed on my feet and watched the world turned into the new hell as dark flames emitted everywhere around the buildings and the ground. More demons are rushing towards us in a pack. So many of them with many horrifying different forms. My body is shaking from the fear I had in me. I nearly dropped my hammer as sweat begins to appear on my hands. I bumped my back as I stepped behind. Geralt, Rishika, Cody, and myself are close together with our weapons in hand. They're all sweating with fear on their faces. There's too many of them for us to take them down. "Come on! Let's show those freaks what we're made of!" Shouted Geralt. By the times we raised our weapons and the demons now 10 feet away from us, a bright blue flame blazes the demons. They scream in pain and hatred as they slowly melted into a sludge of fried flesh.
"I'm not going to let those bloody fuckers take you all away from me!" Billy's face is mixed with fear and anger. Feeling very glad that he joined us. If not for him, we would be brutally killed by the horrifying demons. Then, a loud burst of water and electricity emerged from behind us. Enid faces us with wide eyes. "Get in now!"
"Will it take us home!?" Geralt asks with a panic in his voice. I can see the sweat pouring down on Enid's face as she stares back at us in a hurry. "No but it'll take you somewhere safe! Somewhere you can start a new life!"
Cody, with Ronald's body in his arms, is the first to get in the portal. By the time he jumps into the portal in the pool, a flash of blue energy can be seen emerging out of it. Then goes for Geralt. He was scared at first as he cowers back. "Will I be hurt if I fall?"
"Don't worry. You'll be fine." And so, he jumps in and flashes of light emerges out.
Then goes for Billy. He looked back at Enid for a moment before he jumps into the portal.
Lastly, Rishika stops near the edges of the pool. She turned around to see Enid with a hurried look on her face but also with relief. "Thank you Eddie." Then she jumps into the portal.
Did I just heard her right? Did she just said my lost friend's name. "What did she just say?"
She looked at me with a sad look in her blue eye. I felt a connection between us, as if we've known each other. I don't understand. Why would Rishika say his name. Enid is a woman to say the least or she's really something else. A sudden memory flashed before my eyes.
I remembered the time Eddie shape shifted into the Ice cream man. It was a time when we were young. We both got the ice cream we wanted just for free without anyone noticing. It was funny but also worrying because we could get caught. But that never happened and still felt funny every time I remember that day.
"Eddie? You're Eddie." She nodded in reply. A gesture of yes. Then, right in front of my eyes, she formed into a grown up version of Eddie. The Eddie I remembered. My heart felt shocked as to what I've just learned. I ran to her and hugged her deeply than I could've ever done. We both hugged for a moment until she gently pushes me off. Tears started to appear beneath my eyes. I don't know what I was feeling but what I can say was joy. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because I knew you would drag me with you If I tell you. You have to understand that I have to stay here. This is where I belong and I'm too dangerous to be with you."
"But we can figure things out together! We can go back to hanging out with each other! Play video games! Explore the world! Everything!"
"No Darwin. We can't. I'm a part of the void and I'm slowly losing myself. My left part of my face is nearly turning into the void."
"But we can fix that! We just need to find the answers to how we can get you better! I can't! I don't want to lose you again! I-"
"Darwin!" A shout came from his voice. I stopped with chills freezing behind my back. He looked at me in the eye with sadness. "I can't go back. I'm sorry I was never there for you when you graduated. I'm sorry for never waiting for you outside of school. I'm sorry for everything we could've done but we haven't! I have to save you. Even if it costs me my life. I don't want to lose you either. You have to go Darwin. There's nothing that can change my mind."
I thought I could finally bring him back. To do the things we've never have yet done. Here and now, this is our last time together. This is our last time to see each other again. He protected me wherever I go here. He saved me in order for me to live. I can't let him die here. I don't want him to be gone from me.
I hugged him tightly, not wanting to let go. Tears dripped down from his eyes and onto my head. I can feel the pain in my chest starting to rise but I didn't let go. "I'm sorry Darwin. You have to let me go. You can choose. I won't stop you."
He's right. I can't keep him with me. Throughout my life I wanted to see him again. Every night, I look out the window to see if he's there but there's no one but cars and houses. I can't keep doing this. I really have to let go. Tears pours rapidly beneath my eyes. I let go and wiped the tears from my face. "I guess this is a goodbye then."
A sad smile plastered on his face. The world around us slowly turned into darkness. The kind of darkness in hell. "It is Darwin. I'm so happy to see you again."
"Well oh well!! Look at what we have here!" A very modern European accent voice of a man emerged from the world before us. We turned to see a man with a worn off brown coat. His hat looked to be as old as the ancient times. And his face. His face made my stomach turn. Bandages wrapped around his face, except for his terrifying grin. His teeth rotten to the very core of his rotten body. I stepped behind Eddie with the hammer in my hands. The man grins much wider than I anticipated.
"You must be wondering. Who am I? Well. I'm the one and only, Cain. You might've heard me from a very recognizable book. Also, I'm afraid you two are coming with me. We have a lot to discuss and a ton of things to do together." With that, he started laughing like a total maniac. His herds of demons followed with a laugh.
"Goodbye Darwin." Eddie suddenly pushes me off into the bright blue vortex that'll be my exit. I took one last glimpse of Eddie standing before Cain. As I fell into the portal, I can hear the echoing laughter of Cain and his demons. I screamed out for Eddie but my voice was out of reach.
Then, I landed on my back on the ground. The portal disappeared before me. I quickly stood back up and reached to where the portal had opened. It was gone. I looked around to see that I'm on a hill. The dark blue night sky displayed above me with the stars shining above. My mind racing with thoughts and fear. Witnessing Eddie being alone to fight against the evil we are meant to escape from. I screamed into the sky as tears rapidly starts to appear. I fell to my knees onto the grass floor and slam my hands at the ground as I wept. I kept screaming and sobbing until I was too exhausted that I fell to the ground. I heard footsteps before me. There were many.
My body being picked up by Billy in the arm as he carries me with him. "Darwin. What happened?"
The only words I can say now were."He's gone."
​
It's been 2 years since we left that world. The world we now stand upon was nearly the same as ours. What I mean by nearly was that there are strange phenomenons happening nearly every month. A girl who can turn into a form of a robot and killed a cancerous beast in Queensland. A military war criminal who considers killing the supernatural as a job. Even the real life wendigo sightings are on the news papers. Still though, the place is still good in the morning. Except in the night, there are sometimes threats we don't know in the dark.
We built a team together, even gather some new friends along the way. Rishika grew to be more expressive and a lot more kinder to us. The time we killed a literal Bigfoot, she gave me a fist bump. Gave me a chuckle and a smile on my face.
Billy was getting better everyday. He responds to us with kind words than insults like before. After Cody had buried Ronald's body in a proper, he said his words of goodbye to him and gave him the picture he secretly held with him. It was a picture of us hanging out in a movie place. It's heart warming and depressing to witness what he did there.
Cody went off to work as a psychologist. He's still with us. It's just that he wanted to help people's mental health issues. He did really well on that one and he even gave us some advice for a change. I wouldn't consider mostly on his advice but some I can really try. That's also where he met the girl who can turn into a robot. We've met after the news broke out about an incident of a wild destruction at Queensland. Forgot to mention, we're at Australia. Just to let you all know where we are.
Finally, Geralt took pictures everywhere we go and writes down in his diary. The reason he does this is that we're in another world and thought he could take pictures of them and reflect on them. Sometimes we even got to have a photograph of us in the middle of the good times. He said it was to keep memories of our times together. A frame with a picture of literally us huddled together in a bright sunny day in Canberra.
Me? I was building a portal device, for me to teleport to different worlds. It's going to take a long time for me yes. Been building other things lately with Rishika too. Weaponry, gadgets, devices, and fixing stuff. I stuck around with my friends and we've made a great team. Made new friends along the way and learnt many things too.
2 years ago, after my moment of grief, I woke up from my exhausted moment to see my friends standing before me with a relief on their faces. I nearly cried by the picture of that moment. After that, we both watched tv together in my new bedroom inside of a hotel room. After Rishika finds a new home for us, we moved out to Melbourne Victoria as a new place of our home. We moved in to a farm house where there is a larger basement for us to do our stuff. We knew we had to get a job at this point, so we did what we can to find one. It's a good thing there's a city nearby.
Rishika, Geralt, Billy, and I took the job as being a part of an investigation of the paranormal. That's how we managed to meet up with a bunch of new friends.
I missed Eddie. I wished he could come with me and didn't have to die. But, I learnt that I can't drag him with me. He wanted to stay there. I can understand that. I know he's gone already. It's hard to let go. But sometimes we have to. To live out our lives well. I have to look forward. To better myself through experience.
This is my message to you. My readers.
You better to stay where you are now. Don't go to other universes. Because maybe, you'll end up in the most horrifying places you never want to go.

Hello,I have an APOLLO-TWIN-X-DUO. I wanted to plug some devices into my Marantz SR-7011 audio receiver, and somehow get it to output to my apollo. Example signal flow will be Record Player > Marantz > Apollo > JBL Speakers. The marantz would be a great addition to my workflow as I can utilize the phono input & quick swapping other inputs. So far I have tried banana clips from the marantz's speaker out into the apollo via 1/4" into both input 1 & 2 (Front left > channel 1, Front right > channel 2) and also RCA to 1/4" with the same connections. Both of these are providing a lot of noise. Am I able to get this working? Any advice would be great!
a link to the manual of the marantz:
https://manuals.marantz.com/SR7011/EU/EN/download.php?filename=/SR7011/EU/EN/pdf/SR7011_EU_EN.pdf

I've assembled a first device that met my standards today. I'll be making small refinements to the enclosure and will begin shipping first prototypes to the beta crew. I expect the packages to ship in about a month, after I come back from FlutterCon.If all goes well I'd be reaching out to all the people who supported this project in the last 18 months; they made it happen and want them to have priority.Once again, If all goes well the "retail" units will be available to order this summer. I have not ordered the Compute Modules yet and I am stalling until the hardware is tested. I am not doing any kickstarters, the public store will open when most of the cases would be manufactured and the electronics would have a estimated delivery date.
Some specs:

• Compute Module 4 with 4GB of RAM + external Wi-Fi antenna (no more connectivity problems in cars prior to 2021)
• PWM temperature based cooling
• CarPlay module integrated internally, with proper cooper radiators and ventilation to ensure the best stability
• Global LTE Modem integrated internally, configuration and management will be integrated with Tesla Android
• 1 full size HDMI port for 2nd row entertainment
• Two additional USB ports for expansion (2.0, good for controllers, capture cards, cameras and other stuff)
• One gigabit ethernet port
• 1 PCIE slot for NVME, retrofitting Wi-Fi 6 network interfaces. Not used currently

Take a look on the prototype, I love how it turned out:
https://twitter.com/teslaandroid/status/1662789434868211713?s=61&t=SUJAP13rFUONtk7BMbikfw
There is only one thing that might delay the first deliveries, CM4s. There is a backup plan with another SBC but I have not pulled the trigger on it yet. The B2B availability of all those boards is improving, especially for bulk orders.PS: The housing is so nice that it exceeded my expectations to the point that I am considering making it available for the regular PI 4 users. It will be like 1cm deeper but most of the features would be the same(modem and carplay internally, very good pwm cooler and no visible wires). This would be a nice upgrade for people who want the best experience possible and do not have any other use cases for their existing board s(PiHole, Homeassistant, VPN gateway, Octoprint etc)
Let's use this post to start a Q&A. I am happy to answer all of your questions. There is also a thread in the Slack group for those interested in a more detailed discussion

I have installed Brave on two Fedora PCs. Could someone please explain to me why the browser on Fedora_1 has fewer or different options compared to the Brave browser installed on Fedora_2, even though both versions are the same? It's completely incomprehensible to me.
Version: Version 1.51.118 Chromium: 113.0.5672.126
Installation method:

sudo dnf install dnf-plugins-core sudo dnf config-manager --add-repo https://brave-browser-rpm-release.s3.brave.com/brave-browser.repo sudo rpm --import https://brave-browser-rpm-release.s3.brave.com/brave-core.asc sudo dnf install brave-browser 

​
PC Fedora_1, Settings > Shields:

Trackers & ads blocking: choose Block scripts: ON/OFF Block fingerprinting: choose Block cookies: choose 

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PC Fedora_2, Settings > Shields:

Trackers & ads blocking: choose Upgrade connections to HTTPS: choose (new option, strict/standard/disabled) Block scripts: ON/OFF Block fingerprinting: choose Block cookies: choose 

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Again with some next options in settings. What's going on? Why in Fedora_2 I can choose HTTPS upgrade method from strict/standard/disabled? On Fedora_1 I have just ON/OFF option in another place. I don\t understand.

So you want to learn how to play Nature's Prophet hard support?

With 1,6% pickrate in the Immortal bracket and 40.9% winrate. You must be crazy to think this is even a thing…or are you??
When patch 7.33 came in, I thought Prophet would be insane. I mean, really, now? 40% bigger map and global presence ain’t going to be strong? But as it turned out..it was not.
If you are a support player, you probably learned the hard way that in 7.33, experience was a luxury.

Now, Valve invented something insane in the last patch.

They added more objectives other than Roshan, like Wisdom runes and Tormentors. But for such a huge map, the lack of sentries and observers turned all of us into a non stop 5manning.
If you’ve seen this video on how to play support in 7.33 you probably know what I am talking about.

So, in reality, more objectives=less objectives.

Everyone is grouping up and 5manning. And then 7.33c came….And I saw this…
Wisdom runes in 7.33c give double the experience to your team
So I started playing Prophet support with only 1 game plan. Steal the enemy wisdom rune not only at 7 minutes in but every single one of them, and play around with this 5-man idea by buying all the needed auras depending on the game.
Sound pretty stupid. In fact, it is pretty stupid.

Currently, I am 10-6 with a 62,50% winrate with prophet hard support/support.

The games were played in the 8k bracket in the Europe region. Honestly speaking, it could be higher, but I am not the greatest NP player... at least for now.

In this video, we will go through.

1. Starting items
2. Laning Stage
3. Skill build
4. Gameplan
5. Mid-game Itemization
6. Friends & Foes

Oh wait! This only works only for you because you are "higher" rank player and players play better up overall.

Well…NO!

In fact, I could be better at the hero overall. The last time I played prophet was when I was ancient, back in 2019, and I was trying to snipe couriers.

Yes, I was THAT guy.

As a result, if I can pull it off versus the "higher-rank" players, you can also do that.
Before we start the video, I need to say that you need two requirements to play the hero:
1) Low level of micro
2) No skill
If you fulfill the above requirements, get prepared to learn how to play prophet support.

1) Starting items

Prophet is a right-click-dependent hero in the lane. I suggest picking up a blight stone, a sentry, a grenade, x3 tangos and filling up the rest with stats or faerie fire. Even if you play versus some kind of spammy hero like a Skywrath mage, I suggest you start with blight stone and bring the stick right after.
Exceptions for a stick are heroes like Bristleback (super spammy lane)

2) Laning Stage

Laning stage as Nature’s prophet is super simple. Here’s what you need to do, and this is the most important thing. You might need a bit of micro for that, but the more you play, the better you’ll become
Step 1: Summon treants
Step 2: Hit enemy heroes while treants are in front of you. Be really careful not to overfeed treants or position your hero wrongly. We are not as tanky as we would love early on
Step 3: Repeat. The idea is to push them back and slowly win the regen war by out-trading them.
Nature’s prophet is a great hero in the laning stage to push enemies back effortlessly and pick up the lotus that will give our lane extra consumables to apply the pressure. I really want to emphasize that for us to pull a Nature’s prophet, we need to deliver a solid laning stage.
While in the laning stage, you will get teleportation level 2.
Now teleportation, on level 1, has 36 damage on the first hit, 30 on the second, and 24 on the third. While the numbers are not great, having that much damage for 2-3, right-click means you can connect anywhere on the map, even early on secure the kill(midlane pre runes, is usually a good place to search early on)Get back to your lane by using scroll

3) Skill build

• Level 1, you will always get Treants not only to harass enemies but also to scout wards and enemy map movements.
• Level 2, we go Teleportation, it is too good of a spell. Early damage and being able to connect wherever we want are key early on.
• Level 3, you can go both treants or sprout. I usually go treants, but if I see an enemy mid-laner with no quelling blade or he is an overall low HP, I will definitely consider taking Sprout to make a potential move.
• Level 4, Sprout/treants
• Level 5 Treants
• Level 6 Ultimate
• And on Levels, and 7,8,9, we go for teleportation. An extra treant will not make the difference, but less CD on our ability to connect with our team is essential.

Talents:

• Level 10 (or 11): +30 Wrath of Nature’s Base damage
• Level 15: +5 Treants Summoned
• Level 20: Sprout leashes (if you play versus Spirits or mobile heroes). If you play vs a Dusa or a really static hero, a 100% miss chance is really reasonable
• Level 25: 2,5x Treant HP/DMG

4) Mid-game plan

Mid-game as Prophet starts really early on, even from 5 minutes. So the first idea is to see the situation in the mid-lane or the offlane. If it is going well, you should connect with him, your treants, and the catapult and try to take down the tower. The blight stone will also contribute a lot to this attempt.
Regardless if you succeed or not, it is super important to steal the enemy wisdom rune at 7 minutes in. Usually, players are not there at exactly 07:00.
The plan is to TP at 06:57, pick up the wisdom rune, then teleport to your offlane T2 to pick up the other rune. This will lead to a huge XP difference between the 2 teams and might even give you level 6. If not, connect with your team and try to siege a tower while trying to get your level 6.If nothing happens, retreat to the jungle, try to pick up some jungle items for your team, and always be ready to connect in case of an emergency.
In the mid-game, you always play around 5manning. You can TP to the enemy jungle and place some vision so you will see where enemies are and try to snipe them.
The way I think of Nature's prophet is more or less like my beloved Chen. A find Prophet slighlty better due to his global pressence, his global abilities (a fast level 6, can provide many kills early on) and the ability to pressure more early on as well as slighlty more gold than a Chen

5)Itemization

• I have had great success getting Solar Crest straight up into mek. Solar Crest is a great item, but I would only buy it to boost a hero. For example, if I have heroes like TB, Alchemist, Bloodseeker, etc., heroes that either gather all the gold and if they get to die, we lose or simply manfight a lot (Bloodseeker), and they need a boost.
• So, if I play versus a lot of AoE damage, magical like Dark Seer, void spirit, storm, Puck, or Qop, I will get Mek into Pipe.
• I really need to add that the hero, though, is SUPER versatile, and you should approach the hero in reality like…Chen. Exactly
• So, if you play versus an annoying hero like Windranger (which is meta), it’s really reasonable to buy items like Atos (second item) or items like Halberd.

Overall, you could use Mek, Drums, Solar Crest, Crimson Guard, Pipe, Atos, Halberd and a good alternative to help you with team fights in Aghs! Nature’s prophet shard is really nice if you can get to pick it up for free, as the slow on the opponents is pretty annoying.
Lastly, never buy boots UNLESS you aim for Guardian Greeve’s or Boots of Bearing, and even then, pick it up lastly.

6) Friends & Foes

Overall, unlike Nature's Prophet core, you don’t have many mid-game “bad” matchups, but you really have a lot in the laning stage matchups.
For example, NP core has many "bad" matchups like Storm, Bounty, Spirit Breaker, and overall anything that can mess up with him globally when he tries to splitpushNature’s prophet has a hard time versus high armor heroes like Bounty Hunter or Legion commander where his Overwhelming odds get to deal more damage due to the extra treants.
In the mid-game, Spirit Breaker and Bounty Hunter are annoying, but I would not call them counters as support mainly because the amount of sustain we provide easily overlaps their damage. We focus primarily on grouping up rather than splitpushing
And this is where the guide comes to an end. I understand that people might be negative about that, and this is the reason why I played that many games. I felt 16 games, on my bracket with a hero I have no experty would be a good sample to see if it's even a thing,
Feel free to comment on the video.
I would be more than happy to answer any questions and explain everything in-depth in cases needed.
You can watch the full video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cs42K-Zw2kQ&ab_channel=DotaRollerCoaster.
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Looking forward to questions and discussion!

“The shield that defends needs a sword by its side”
- Mech Core Pilot's Motto.
----
Churk was going to die.
He was going to die, and his brood left behind were going to be enslaved.
He was going to die, and with him his race’s history, achievements and technology would also die out.
They would all be turned into the organic robots his enemy used to power its military might.
Churk’s people were known as the Algeen’s. The Algeen’s were frog-like people, they had four arms and two legs, with large hands and feet. Fiercely intelligent, obscenely democratic, unbelievably green.
Their whole population got an equal vote on any measure of policy or governmental decision, a slow and ponderous system, but one which worked. Once they had gracefully colonized over a thousand planets. Then the Tide came and generations later, on their battered and bruised Homeworld, they were making their final stand. One world left of the most civilized civilization.
The Tide were slavers, but they had been at it for millennia now. Absorbing, enslaving, and breeding thousands of species and races. Making them all part of a homogeneous whole. No one outside of the Tide themselves knew who the original species was, and maybe no one in the Tide knew either. It was possible that they still existed, at the very top of the slavery food chain, being served by those they considered lesser and treated horribly. But it was equally possible that a slave lead rebellion had seen fit to absorb them as they had been absorbed. An ouroboros of cultural erasure and brutal labour camps.
Five hundred metres from Churk’s position, stood the product of those labour camps. Two Tide mech’s which were currently powering towards him and his squad, Churk had little delusions about how effective his semi-fortified engineer’s depo was going to be in protecting their lives. Suddenly his neural link lit up with new high priority information, he was not to engage the enemy, reinforcements were on their way.
While he was glad he didn’t have to engage the enemy (as the ordinance he had at his disposal would have been ineffective against the heavy armour of the Tide machines) the order didn’t make any sense, and so he queried it.
“Reinforcements? What reinforcements? Who’s left?” He responded. As there was no one currently available to respond to his query the over-stretched AI superintendent replied in as basic and succinct method as possible.
“An orbital drop-pod enroute. Contents: One mech. Mech rating: Classified. Mech model: Classified. Mech origin: Classified. Pilot: Anna ‘Sustain’ Finand. Species: Human.” Rattled off the AI in his head.
A mind-numbing list containing more questions than answers. Human? The Algeen’s had included as many species as possible in their attempts to create a force equal to that of the Tide’s, but as far as he knew all of them apart from the Roc’s had been wiped out. He hadn’t heard of humanity before, and how the hell had they managed to get orbital assets in position? The battle for their home world’s skies had been lost months ago. Most importantly, how the hell was one mech going to win against two Tide models?
The Tide had a clear technological advantage over the Algeen’s, most prominently displayed in any of the many mech battles which had taken place throughout the war, whether that be on the ground or in the void. The Tide’s powerplants were three times as efficient as Algeen models, and their anti-gravity/ inertia damping technology was twice as efficient. This allowed the Tide’s mechs to pack on armour and energy shields, creating hulking tanks which moved as easily as the Algeen’s mechs but had a one to four advantage in a fair fight.
A massive crash signalled to Churk that he was about to get his answers, and he eagerly peered into the dust cloud that had formed around the human mech, waiting to see the sort of beast which had come to his (and indeed his entire species) aid. Hope flared ever so briefly, only to be crushed when a familiar silhouette appeared: That of an Algeen mech.
The rounded, purple armour. The gleaming blue sensor nodes. The dome like head. The large feet. Algeen through and through, maybe even an older design from mid-way through the war. One that prioritised speed over armour, a costly mistake. There were however a few differences:
For one, the mech had been heavily modified. Additional armour had been removed from the torso and right arm. A weird cage-like attachment had been crudely added to the front of the mech's thighs and shins. The mech still had its energy shield, but it was now held in the left hand instead of being permanently attached to the mech's chest.
The shoulder armour had been replaced with a series of tubes which looked rather spikey when grouped together, some sort of smoke or grenade launchers perhaps?
Its only armament was a single sword in its right hand. This was particular. For one, it was the only item on the mech that was clearly neither Algeen nor was it of the Tide. It was a dull grey blade, looking more like an oversized cleaver then a sword. Its handle was unadorned and had not even been painted to separate its likeness from that of the rest of the blade. The entire thing was made of one single piece of metal, and while Churk did not know it at that very moment, it had been simply pressed into shape.
Its edge was barely sharp enough to cut, leaving the entire weapon closer to a bat them a knife. By Algeen and Tide standards it was brutally crude. Utterly remorseless in its hatred for elegant craftsmanship. It was a pipe bomb in comparison to a hand grenade. But like a pipe bomb: it was lethal.
Churk watched with equal parts dread and (what he felt to be) misplaced hope as the Algeen mech charged its superior counterparts.
He didn’t know it at the time, but he would speak of the following battle for many years to come.
The human mech launched towards the Tide machines; dust flaring underneath it’s artificially lightened footsteps. It’s strategic removal of armour had made the machine’s already impressive performance even more pronounced, and while its speed surprised the two Tide operators, it did little to unnerve them.
These two operators had seen enough fighting to know one Algeen machine was of little concern, and its missing armour only further reinforced their confidence.
They must have pulled that thing straight out of a repair bay. Thought the pilot of the foremost Tide mech.
These Tide mechs represented a standard advanced scouting group, consisting of one heavy, ranged mech and one light, melee machine. As scouts these mechs would only engage when they had the advantage. But on Algeen Prime, there wasn’t a single Tide scout group that didn’t have the advantage. How the two would operate was simple, the light mech would push out to the front and engage any oncoming mechs, closing quickly to force the enemy into a melee fight. Meanwhile the ranged mech would perform counter-battery and point defence operations: shooting down oncoming missiles and retaliating in kind with its own.
Tide mechs wanted a melee. They always wanted a melee.
Churk didn’t know why exactly. For while it was true that the Tide saw a distinct advantage over Algeens in melee combat, many of their mech units would choose to engage in a melee fight even when they could have as easily dispatched their enemies from afar. Maybe they just found it fun? For the Algeen race it was obvious that the Tide mech operators had been trained extensively on sword combat, even before this war had taken place, and no Algeen could win against a Tide in a fair fight.
As the war progressed the Algeen’s had tried to level the playing field in this aspect, bringing in veterans to teach new operators how to properly utilise a blade. But the icy fact was that swordsmanship had died out long ago in Algeen society (for what modern, enlightened society could possibly keep such a thing alive?) and could not be resurrected in a timely matter. At least, not on the sort of scale they needed if they were to compete against the Tide.
Of course, neither an Algeen nor a Tide Thrall had seen a human wield a blade before. Human swordplay techniques had been forged in the flames of thousands of battles; and like a candle lit from that flame, had been preserved generation after generation. No one had expected that the fires which forged such skill would ever be relit, but it was on Algeen Prime that one small candle found the sort of kindling its ancient creators could not have even imagined.
The Algeen and the Tide machine finally met on the field of battle, with the Tide’s long-range support not having fired a single shot. The Tide machine used its superior power output to slash its sword down, the piloting hoping to knock the sword from the human mech’s clearly loose grip.
It was a surprise to all when the human mech flicked its blade up to deflect the blow, keeping its grip loose as it did so, letting the momentum of the blade do the necessary dirty work. Had a human been deflecting a blow like this, doing so would have reduced the amount of force (and hence, energy) necessary to block the blow. Allowing the fighter to keep their strength up, to persist in the melee for far longer than a less skilled counterpart.
On a mech muscle fatigue was less of a concern. However not resisting the full force of the blow vastly reduced strain on the framework, motors, and anti-gravity pods of the machine. In a long battle the kind of strain that comes from blocking each and every blow can destroy a mech far more thoroughly than even the most devastating sword or missile strike.
Furthermore, deflecting the strike had another key advantage: It positioned the Human's blade for a slashing follow up. Like a snake striking the human's blade leap for the Tide mech, a potent mixture of surprise and heavy armour preventing the operator from recovering in time: The Human's blade connected with a stunning yet well aimed ferocity. The blow exploited the gap in the Tide mech's armour at the armpit. A well-known weakness which the Algeen were rarely able to exploit.
The blade cut deep, severing several of the thick black cables which sent power down the opposing mech's arm. Like cutting into a ligament, the Tide Mechs right arm (sword included) slumped down, as the antigravity modules cut out due to lack of power and its motors struggled to lift the now considerably heavier arm. Completely blindsided by the ferocious attack and now lacking an effective sword arm, the Tide pilot responded in sudden desperation: twisting his mech at its hips, the pilot slammed his own weak and heavily armoured arm into the Algeen mech which had wounded it so.
This may have seen the Tide mech retake the initiative in battle, and with it the advantage. But the Tide pilot wasn't facing an Algeen pilot, and the human who had been training for this mission for the past three years saw the wild attack coming from a galaxy away.
Ducking before the Tide mech even began its twist, the human pilot successfully dodged the incoming attack. Only instead of leaving it there she followed up the movement by striking the upper thigh of the Tide mech with the pommel of her sword.
The ball joint located there had been studied by human engineers who, it must be stated, had a better grasp on how to break things then their Algeen counterparts: the joint shattered under the force of the well-placed blow and the stresses the wild swing with an overloaded arm had placed on the machine.
Churk couldn't believe his eyes as the machine crumpled into an awkward heap: with just two well placed blows the mech pilot had managed to take down a significantly better equipped target. His men behind him cheered, but he didn't. The friendly mech wasn't out of the woods yet, and there was still a lot of ground to clear between the fallen melee mech, and its ranged counterpart.
Churk could scarcely breathe as the Tide ranged mech readied itself for a missile salvo. A single Tide missile was capable of wiping out the Algeen mech, but they never fired a single missile. Churk clenched his teeth tight as his men stopped cheering and looked on with horror as smoke began streaking over the battlefield, signalling the death that was currently barrelling for their only hope.
Inside the outmatched Algeen mech however, the human pilot only smiled.
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To give a little bit of context: I dated this girl for about 1 year, then I broke up with her because things were no longer working between us after she found out that I had been seeing others in the first time we were seeing each other. I was a jerk, I betrayed her trust, and that made the relationship unmanageable because she simply couldn't trust me anymore. Some time passed, I no longer thought about her, meanwhile I was seeing someone else. With the other person it ends and I meet her again by pure chance and talking with her I find out that she fucked a friend of mine (he kept it from me of course) because she wanted to get back at me/annoy me, she did it once and then didn't give in anymore because she regretted it and felt it was sleazy. I don't know if this involved some "stolen ball syndrome" or what, the fact is that after that we got back together and continued dating for about 2 to 3 years. In November 2022 I broke up with her again, struggling immensely and suffering like a dog, because ours had become a relationship with toxic loops that we couldn't get out of. In the following months we saw each other a few more times to make "peace," since she said she hated me etc etc. I continued to feel bad for months, I missed her, but I didn't want to be weak and fall back into her arms. In the meantime I started seeing another person, who was great and treated me very well, but our relationship did not take off precisely because I was still thinking about her.
Around march my best friend (who has been having trouble approaching girls for years, but I won't dwell on that) asked me if he could hit on my ex, since she had sometimes expressed appreciations about him. On first I didn't want to, then I gave him the go-ahead thinking that this would help me get over her.... I was very wrong. A short time later I found out from him that they actually started dating and that he had already dumped her back for a second time because he preferred another girl he was involved with. I never felt so bad in my life, I couldn't sleep from anger, I think because underneath, even though I had given him the green light, I hoped she would never do that to me for the second time. A short time later I found out that he had started seeing her again for a third time, keeping it from me, this caused big fights between him and me. I also went as well to talk to her, and when I asked her why she was doing this to me, her response was that "she wanted to put herself first, now she's happy with him and she didn't care what that meant for me". She had never been so blunt and detached with me, it killed me. Obviously with my friend I ended the friendship for this situation.
A short time later, as soon as I was finally able to get over this thing, my ex best friend writes me that he left her behind for the 3rd time (after a maximum of 1 and a half months of seeing each other, taking into account that in this period he had left her behind twice already), for various reasons. At first I felt immense joy, as they say "the best revenge is the one not perpetrated". In the meantime, she unblocked me on instagram and started watching my stories again etc etc. One evening we met by chance and we ended up talking for hours and all the affection I remembered was still there. We still had a strong connection, we touched hands, we say sorry to each other for all the suffering we caused one to another, I was so happy, so in peace. In the following days I was in a big pink sphere for what had happened, but at the same time I closed the relationship with the other person who I was seeing, since it didn't seem right to continue seeing each other if I was still thinking about my ex.
To conclude the other day I wrote to her to congratulate about her graduation, telling her that I would have liked to be there, she replied very coldly, when I asked her why she replied that she does not understand what I want to achieve by saying something like this . The reality is that I would just like a signal from her, something that confirms that he still thinks about me, I don't know. I texted her this and today she answered me saying that she is sorry for how I feel, but she cant do anything to help me. I dont understand how we passed from 2 weeks ago with a lot of affection and care, and now she is back to the cold manners, but probably I deserve this treatment.
In light of all this, I really can't understand if what I feel is true and sincere or if it's just the result of all the suffering of these last few months, if I just want to reassert my control over her, if I'm just being a selfish shit or if I really miss her. Emotionally Im convinced that what im proving is real and I feel ready to give all of me for this relationship, but of course I cant be sure and Im worried to wound her again, to wound again both of us.
I don't know what to do, I just want to go back and fight for our relationship, don't let her go, but I know that the correct rational choice is to just let her go and dont insist anymore.
I feel like shit.

The theme of this build is to bring out the feel of a Vulcan Command Fleet ship. From what I could tell, they used sci ships as the workhorses of their fleet, the traditional place of cruisers. So I wanted to basically use one of the vulcan themed sci ships in as cruiser-like a role as I could get it... while still acting like a sci ship.
I decided that that was going to involve drawing aggro, and handling having that aggro. I hesitate to label this a tank, because I have no intention of actually running any content with it that actually needs a tank. I don't usually inflict my theme builds on groups attempting elite content. So this is more of a "keep the PUG alive" style of tank, than anything you'd ever find in a DPS race HSE run.
Essentially this is a plasma-based DEWsci ship, with a threat and survival theme. The build makes quite a few off-meta choices, like the decision to use embassy sci consoles for their threat generating abilities, rather than the more traditional research station consoles that could boost my exotic and ctrlx stats much better.
Highly Specialized and the Research Lab Scientist Doffs help mitigate the lack of stat-boosting consoles. And Precision Multitargetting does a lot better than I thought it would at making up for the small number of Tac boff slots, by letting me use the subsystem targeting abilities native to all sci ships in order to have access to FAW while using my tac slots for other things.
Overall it's not perfect by any means, and has plenty of room for improvement, even keeping to my theme. Especially in the personal traits, where eventually I would like to add Boilmer to improve the cooldown situation. Inspiring Leadership and psychological warfare to further improve the ship's epg and ctrlx stats. Menacing and Enlightened would be pretty perfect for the ship. And maybe Fulcrum Shift, Fragment of AI Tech, and/or Cyclic Power Capacitors could all benefit this ship quite a lot more than what I have now.
I'm also planning on replacing the 3 fleet dranuur dual beam banks with something else. Right now I've got an internal debate on just normal [ctrd] focused ones or crafted [over] ones for fun. The dranur proc, like all procs, just doesn't do much, so despite being fine for the theme, I can replace it with something more interesting without feeling bad at all.

Captain Details

Captain Name	Arora
Captain Career	Engineering
Captain Faction	Starfleet
Captain Race	Vulcan
Primary Specialization	Intelligence
Secondary Specialization	Strategist

Space Skill Tree

Rank	Engineering		Science		Tactical
Lieutenant			Improved Shield Restoration	Advanced Shield Capacity	Advanced Energy Weapon Training
Lt. Commander	Improved Electro-Plasma System Flow	Advanced Impulse Expertise	Improved Control Expertise	Improved Drain Expertise	Advanced Targeting Expertise
	Full Impulse Energy Shunt		Control Amplification	Drain Infection
Commander				Shield Hardness	Advanced Weapon Amplification	Advanced Weapon Specialization
Captain			Advanced Exotic Particle Generator	Advanced Long Range Targeting Sensors	Advanced Hull Penetration	Shield Weakening
Admiral		Engineering Readiness		Scientific Readiness	Coordination Protocols	Tactical Readiness
					Defensive Coordination
					Offensive Coordination
0 Points Left	7		19		20

Space Skill Unlocks

Purchases	Engineering	Science	Tactical
2	Emergency Power to Shields III	Engineering Team III	Directed Energy Modulation III
5	Battery Expertise	Sector Space Travel Speed	Threat Control
7	Emergency Power to Engines III	Auxiliary Power to the Emergency Battery III	Eject Warp Plasma III
10		Maximum Shield Capacity	Projectile Critical Chance
12		Auxiliary Power to Structural Integrity Field III	Boarding Parties III
15		Starship Perception	Energy Critical Chance
17		Auxiliary Power to Inertial Dampers III	Aceton Beam III
20			Accuracy

Ship Loadout: Sh'vhal Temporal Science Spearhead

Slot	Item
Fore Weapon 1	Advanced Piezo-Plasma Beam Array
Fore Weapon 2	Advanced Fleet Dual Plasma Beam Bank
Fore Weapon 3	Advanced Fleet Dual Plasma Beam Bank
Fore Weapon 4	Advanced Fleet Dual Plasma Beam Bank
Aft Weapon 1	Omni-Directional Plasma Beam Array
Aft Weapon 2	Plasmatic Biomatter Auto-Turret
Aft Weapon 3	Altamid Modified Plasma Omni
Deflector	[Elite Fleet Intervention Protomatter Deflector Array ]() Mk XV [ColCrit][CtrlX]x2[EPG][Sh/HullCap] Epic
Secondary Deflector	Deteriorating Secondary Deflector Mk XV [+Chance][CtrlX][EPG/ShdHeal][EPG][ProjDmg] Epic
Impulse Engines	[Prevailing Fortified Impulse Engines ]() Mk XV [Spd] Ultra Rare
Warp Core	Revolutionary Warp Core Mk XV [A->W][ACap][EPS] Epic
Shields	[Revolutionary Covariant Shield Array ]() Mk XV [Cap]x3[Cp/Rg][Reg] Epic
Devices	Red Matter Capacitor
	Kobyashi Maru Transponder
	Deuterium Surplus
	Reactive Armor Catalyst
3 Engineering Consoles	Altamid Modified Swarm Processor Mk XV Epic
	Console - Zero-Point Energy Conduit Mk XV Epic
	Console - Universal - Hull Image Refractors Epic
4 Science Consoles	Console - Universal - Piezo-Electric Focuser Mk XV Ultra Rare
	Console - Science - Plasma-Generating Weapon Signature Amplifier Mk XV Ultra Rare
	Console - Science - Plasma-Generating Weapon Signature Amplifier Mk XV Ultra Rare
	Console - Science - Plasma-Generating Weapon Signature Amplifier Mk XV Epic
4 Tactical Consoles	Console - Tactical - Energetic Protomatter Matrix Infuser Mk XV Epic
	Console - Tactical - Energetic Protomatter Matrix Infuser Mk XV Epic
	Console - Tactical - Energetic Protomatter Matrix Infuser Mk XV Epic
	Console - Tactical - Energetic Protomatter Matrix Infuser Mk XV Epic
T6-X Universal Console	Console - Tactical - Fek'ihri Torment Engine Mk XV Epic

Officer Details

Bridge Officers	Power
Commander Science-Temporal Operative	Entropic Redistribution I
Engineered Soldier (Space)	Chronometric Inversion Field I
	Very Cold in Space III
	Gravity Well III
Lt. Commander Universal-Command	Emergency Power to Shields I
Engineered Soldier (Space)	Auxiliary to Structural I
	Call Emergency Artillery I
Lt. Commander Tactical	Best Served Cold I
Leadership + Superior Space Warfare Specialist	Attack Pattern Beta I
	Kemocite-Laced Weaponry III
Lieutenant Science	Tractor Beam I
Astrophysicist	Photonic Officer I
Ensign Engineering	Emergency Power to Weapons I
Leadership+Tactician

Traits & Duty Officers

Trait	Name	Description
Personal Traits	Accurate	Space Trait. Improves the accuracy of space weapons.
	Automated Rerouting	Chance to receive a Shield Heal when activating any Bridge Officer ability.
	Beam Barrage	Gain Beam Damage when activating Beam skills
	Beam Training	Increases Damage from your [[Beam Weapon
	EPS Manifold Efficiency	Space Trait. When you use Emergency Power to Auxiliary, Emergency Power to Engines, Emergency Power to Shields, or Emergency Power to Weapons, this trait causes all of your other power levels to gain a moderate subsystem boost. When you use any Battery, this trait causes all of your other power levels to gain a large subsystem boost.
	Grace Under Fire	Space Trait. If you take more than 20% of your hitpoints in damage within a 5 second period, the cooldown on [[Ability: Miraculous Repairs
	Operative	Increases Critical Chance and Critical Severity.
	Particle Manipulator	Improved Criticals for Exotic Damage, based on Particle Generators
	Warp Theorist	Space Trait. Improves your Warp Core Potential skill, which increases all power levels of your ship. Also improves Electro-Plasma Systems, which improve power transfer and regeneration rates aboard your ship.
Starship Traits	Digital Compilation	- While this trait is slotted, whenever an enemy of Frigate rank or higher is defeated after receiving [Exotic Damage] from you, they will be transformed into a Digitizer Probe which will chase nearby enemies, dealing Plasma Damage to any that they are near. You may have up to 5 Digitizer Probes active at a time from this Trait. Enermies digitized by this Trait will not Warp Core Breach.
	Emergency Weapon Cycle	- While this starship trait is active, using Emergency Power to Weapons will also reduce weapon power cost and increase your weapon fire rate moderately.
	Highly Specialized	- Game Description: Make the most of your bridge officer specialists! Each time one of their abilities is activated, it will cause all other specialist bridge officer abilities to recharge more quickly, allowing them all to be used more frequently. In addition, you will gain a boost to Starship Hull Repair, Starship Weapon Specialization and Starship Particle Generators skills. This skill buff stacks up to 5 times.
	Improved Gravity Well	- Your Gravity Well anomalies last twice as long, and recharge much faster. Additionally, the primary foe targeted by your Gravity Well activation will have their damage resistance rating reduced for the duration of the anomaly.
	Precision Multi-Targeting	Activating any Subsystem Targeting ability will additionally grant you Fire at Will I and +100 Accuracy Rating for 10 seconds.
	Totally Lost All Control	While your ship is above 80% Shield Capacity, activating a Shield Healing Bridge Officer Ability will redirect a portion of the expended restorative energy and temporarily overclock your starship weapons, granting them a significant boost to both Critical Chance and Critical Severity for a few seconds. This effect can only be triggered once every several seconds.
Space Reputation Traits	Energy Refrequencer	Heals Hull when Dealing Damage
	Precision	Increases your Critical Hit Chance in space combat.
	Chrono-Capacitor Array	Reduces Bridge Officer Recharge Times
	Advanced Targeting Systems	Slightly increases critical severity in space combat.
	Auxiliary Power Configuration - Defense	In space combat you gain a bonus to Maximum Hull HP, Maximum Shield HP, Kinetic Damage Resistance Rating and Energy Damage Resistance Rating that scales based on your Auxiliary Power Level.
Duty Officers	Shield Distribution Officer	[SP] Attack Pattern Beta restores hull when firing
	Armory Officer	[SP] Chance to set a random second subsystem offline when using Subsystem Targeting attacks
	Gravimetric Scientist	[SP] Chance to create an aftershock Gravity Well
	Research Lab Scientist	[SP] Increased Skills from using Ensign Bridge Officer Abilities
	Research Lab Scientist	[SP] Increased Skills from using Lieutenant Bridge Officer Abilities
	Research Lab Scientist	[SP] Increased Skills from using Lt Commander Bridge Officer Abilities
	Research Lab Scientist	[SP] Increased Skills from using Lt Commander Bridge Officer Abilities

tl;dr: junior full stack dev with 1 year of experience; passed SAA-C03 using mainly Cantrill and Tutorials Dojo.
My Background
I've been working for about a year as Junior Full Stack Developer in a small start-up. I've transitioned from another career after completing a four-month bootcamp and this is my first job in the Tech world.I use the MERN stack but our infrastructure is in AWS and I constantly interact with it via the SDK for JavaScript. Being a tiny company, you get to wear a lot of different hats: recently I had to devise a few small solutions using services like Lambda, DynamoDB, S3, SQS and EventBridge. It definitely helped me in answering some questions about decoupling and integrations.I also obtained the Cloud Practitioner cert little over a year ago, shortly before landing the job.
Study Materials

1. Adrian Cantrill
   1. I first started by completing his Tech Fundamentals course (which is free). I strongly suggest you do the same, regardless of whether you have experience in IT or not. It filled some important gaps and opened a new world for me. It got me into looking into CompTIA certs and I actually managed to study and obtain my first CompTIA cert while preparing for the SAA-C03.
   2. I then dived into the SAA-C03 course and worked through it until I reached 100% completion. The course is long and in-depth, as it should be. I took notes and made flashcards as I went along - I mainly used Notion and Quizlet (although I have now switched back to Anki)
2. Stéphane Maarek
3. I could have progressed immediately to the Tutorials Dojo exams, but decided to complete Stéphane's course to consolidate certain concepts. Bought it on Udemy. The course is not massively long and I watched it at 1.5x or 2x speed most of the time. I also think it touches upon a few services that weren't mentioned previously, which was helpful.
4. Jon Bonso's exams on Tutorials Dojo
   1. I wish I started doing these much earlier, but I only began about one or two weeks ago. I only had time to complete the six exams in the Timed Mode set. They were a massive help and allowed me find and fill so many gaps in my knowledge. They also mentioned some services that I had never heard before. I wouldn't have been able to pass the exam without them.

Process
As already mentioned, I went through the material taking notes and making flashcards. As I work full time, I studied early mornings and late evenings and also dedicated most weekends to it. I took a few breaks in between, so as not to burnout. I started at some point in late February-early March, so the whole process took around three months.
Exam
I took the exam at a test centre. The questions set I got revolved mostly around stuff VPC, SQS, S3, DynamoDB, Aurora, RDS, EBS, Storage Gateway, DataSync, NAT Gateway, Egress-Only Gateway etc. I didn't get anything too "obscure".My standard approach to exams is:

1. "Quickly" go through the questions and answer the most obvious ones. Flag all the other ones for review.
2. Go through the flagged ones, reading them more than once if necessary, scan carefully for keywords which should help you boil it down to the one right answer. Occasionally, you will be left with two likely answers. If you don't feel confident, pick one anyway and do not unflag the question.
3. Do a final round of all the questions you left unflagged. At this point, if you still can't pick one with confidence, choose randomly as you still have a 50/50 chance of getting it right.
4. Should you still have time and mental stamina left, do a quick final review of all the answers before submitting the exam.

I was able to obtain an additional 30 minutes accommodation due to English not being my first language, but by the time I had completed point 3 I was completely fried and just wanted to get it over with. I submitted the exam with about 29 minutes left.
The result came through after about 24 hours, to my great relief.
General considerations in no particular order

• I think the Cantrill - Tutorials Dojo combo is all you need, but feel free to choose whatever courses you feel suits you best. We're all different and all these creators have poured hours into their work.
• Make sure you do hands-on labs and build projects, particularly if your day-to-day job doesn't involve AWS. Ultimately, you're studying for real life skills, the certification is just the cherry on top. Don't just cram and then forget after the exam (although some stuff does indeed just require rote memorisation).
• Develop a solid study method. As obvious as it sounds, many people still go into these things kind of haphazardly. The more you practice intentionally, the better you'll get at it. For example, during this run, I realised that "digital" notes don't really work for me, I have to write things down to remember them. Typing just doesn't seem to have the same effect (apparently, there's some research on this as well).
• Don't wait too long to start doing practice exams. Tutorials Dojo allows you to practice on specific topics, so you could complete the VPC section in Adrian's course and then immediately start testing yourself on it (besides your flashcards practice) on TD. It's just an idea, but this way, by the time you finish the course, your knowledge will be rock solid.

I can't think of anything else right now, but if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.
Ultimate, thanks to everyone on this thread for the motivation and knowledge shared. Let's go get this.