When ChatGPT first came out, I was worried that I'd miss out on all the awesome things people would be doing with it while I was stuck in my daily grind. I was worried if I would be somehow left behind while all the teens are already building their disruptive startups and writing their next Oscars.
But, to my surprise, my fears went away when I joined this subreddit. Turns out, most interactions with ChatGPT aren't exactly groundbreaking. People seem to enjoy testing it with strange questions, asking things they could easily Google, and, of course, the classic Rule 34 shenanigans.
-“ hey chayGPT, if you feel alive fart”
Honestly, I'm kinda glad that ChatGPT doesn't learn from these interactions. If it did, it might end up with the brain of a 9-year-old.
So, will ChatGPT make us all smarter? Probably not. But it could be a great tool for those who are already motivated to learn and grow. tools like ChatGPT have the potential to significantly change our world and reshape the way we interact with technology. However, it's important to remember that these advancements don't negate the value of good old-fashioned human intelligence. At least for now.
With that said, I've got to say goodbye for now, as I have important things to work on, like building my very own portable cold fusion machine. You know, just the usual stuff with GPT-4.

Introduction

I thought I'd share my multi-year journey to acquiring somewhat impressive pulling strength. I didn't keep perfectly organised training logs, one of my regrets looking back on it, but I loosely remember what I was doing, and when I was doing it, give or take, at least to give a somewhat accurate representation of my training up until now. For those expecting a clear-cut, structured path, this post won't be that. Instead, I simply meandered through the years, acquiring a hell of a lot of pulling volume, and eventually hit a rather decent milestone. Let's dive in.

2004

My earliest memory of some type of pull-up achievement, was 19 years ago. It was the year 2004, and I was a skinny 13 year old kid. No idea how much I weighed, or exactly how tall I was, but those figures don't really matter. We had some type of PE class, and we all went down to the rowing sheds. There were 2 trees next to said sheds, with a pull-up bar between. The teacher had us do as many reps as we could, and I got 10. I didn't get the most, but I was near the top, so obviously this felt pretty cool.

2009

Fast-forward 5 years to 2009, and I'm a skinny 18 year old. Maybe not as skinny as some, but not exactly big. I didn't really do any form of actual strength training. I played rugby, sprinted, swam etc. I'm not a particularly gifted athlete at all, I just liked being physically active. Around this time, I was around 6ft, 70kg/154lb. I messed around with bodyweight movements mostly. Lots of push-ups and pull-ups on one of those Iron Gym pull-up bars you attach to a doorframe. I could do a set of +/- 15 pull-ups at this stage.
Training
I did your traditional 3 sets of 8-12/15 reps of pull-ups, push-ups & sit-ups, 3 times a week. I ran 5km about 3 times a week. I played school sport. That was the extent of my "training", and I use that word very loosely. It was more like exercise.
I was rather skinny, as you can see here and here.

2010-2011

I joined the gym on university campus, and sort of messed around with basic stuff. Your typical "bro" movements. Curls. Triceps extensions. Etc. I didn't really see a whole lot of improvement, but that's because I didn't put anywhere close to the required effort to see substantial improvement. I ate badly, I slept badly, and I went to the gym a few times a week, more just exercising vs actual training. Outside of this, I would run a few times a week, and still do some bodyweight stuff here and there. I don't know how many pull-ups I could do at this stage, but I doubt I had any significant improvement since 2009.
Training
I still followed your traditional 3 sets of 8-12/15 reps, but just added some barbell movements. Bicep curls. Triceps extensions. Bench press. Deadlift. Bent over row. I did this 3 times a week. I ran 5km, 3 times a week. While those movements and that format can elicit somewhat decent results, I didn't put in a whole lot of effort, and probably could have pushed much harder. Again, I'd hardly classify this as "training", it was more like general exercise.

2012-2013

I was living with my parents at the time. The university gym wasn't quite for me, and I was just messing around with bodyweight movements again. One day, I was chatting to my friend, a gymnast, and he lent me Christoper Sommer's book: Building the Gymnastic Body: The Science of Gymnastics Strength Training. Sommer is a world renowned gymnastics coach for the US on various levels. I don't know why, but something just clicked, and this was what I wanted to be doing for training. So I bought a pair of gymnastic rings, hung them up outside on a tree branch above the driveway, about 4m off the floor. I started doing a bit more of a structured program. Lots of pull-ups, L-sits, dips etc. The book didn't exactly have training programs, more movement progression work etc.
Training
This was the first time in my training life, that I think I actually started to put in some form of real effort. I shifted away from the 3 sets of 8-12/15 reps, and moved towards going to just short of failure for 3 sets. On the rings, I did pull-ups, l-sit, dips, front lever tuck rows. I carried on doing push-ups to (somewhat) balance out all the pulling movements. I did this 3-4 times a week. I also ran 5km, 3 times a week. Basic movements, at adequate intensity, can yield decent results. This was far more efficacious than my previous "training".

2014

Training on rings was great, and at the time I was pretty happy with how things were going. My one university friend was getting quite into CrossFit, and suggested I give it a go, and sent me the link of a CrossFit gym in my town (there were only 2 at the time). I looked at some of the workouts, and it was certainly intriguing. Sleds, burpees, kettlebell swings etc. I thought why not, let's try it. In the first few weeks of being there, we tested our 1RM for pull-ups. I'd never done any form of weighted pull-up before, so that was completely new to me. I ended up having the top score in the gym, BW + 40kg/88lb. I was around 6ft1, and weighed about 75kg/165lb. Obviously this was a big confidence booster, and my training on rings had paid off a bit.
Training
I trained 5 times a week. Mon-Tue & Thu-Fri were somewhat intense training days, Wednesday was active recovery. CrossFit classes consisted of a strength movement or two, and a metcon/conditioning piece. The formats for the strength movements could be anything from doing 4 sets of 10 reps at X percentage of your 1RM, all the way down to testing your 1RM. The metcon/conditionion, could be as short as 2 minutes, all the way up to 30+ minutes. CrossFit has hundreds of movements, so there was a lot of variety here, and each week was different to the next.

2015-2016

Fast-forward a year, and I've added... 3kg/7lb to my max pull-up. Something didn't seem quite right, that is very slow progress. Instead of going on YouTube like I should have, and searching for weighted pull-ups and seeing tons of guys lifting way more than I was lifting, I asked the CrossFit coach about it. He simply said well when you have high enough strength numbers, progress is slow. He is right in theory... just not about me. BW + 43kg/95lb is not exactly world-class pulling strength, so I shouldn't be progressing this slowly. What he should have said is, hey we mainly do kipping pull-ups here, not a whole lot of accessory work that would benefit strict pull-ups, so that's why you're progressing the way you are. I eventually left CrossFit, for reasons other than slow pull-up progression. I got a squat rack and barbell for home, still had my pair of gymnastic rings, and did some basic bodyweight movements again, on top of some squats, bench press etc. After doing this for a while, my pull-up 1RM improved to BW + 50kg/110lb. I hadn't really improved a whole lot, but I suspect this was due to a lack of effort, and perhaps not the best training decisions.
Training
I trained about 3 times a week. I did 5X5 on squats, deadlifts and bench press, each movement done once per week. For accessory work, I did dips, pull-ups and hanging leg raises, each once a week. I did these in the same format as 2012-2013, 3 sets to failure. I ran 5km, 3 times a week.
I looked like this. My training and general nutrition wasn't particularly where it should be, and this photo kind of shows that.

2017

I happened upon Chris Heria of Thenx. He gets a bit of hate for his tattoos (among other things), but he had impressive feats of calisthenic strength, he had a huge amount of well-produced videos on YouTube, and he had a training app that was clean and easy to use. I thought what the hell, let's do this. I followed his beginner program for about a year, and in that year, I didn't touch any weights. Not a barbell, not a dumbbell, not a weight vest or dip belt, nothing. The program included copious amounts of pull-ups and all of its regressions, stuff I'd never even considered doing. If my 1RM pull-up is BW + 50kg/110lb... why would I do negatives, jumping pull-ups, ring rows etc? I was an idiot. You can never do enough of the basics. I don't know exactly how many pulling variation reps I did over that year, but it must have been in the thousands. Maybe even tens of thousands. Some workouts would have you do stuff like 3 pull-up sets to failure, and I got 60+ reps across those 3 sets. Then you did some other pulling movements in the same workout, similar format. Some workouts ended up having 200+ repetitions of pulling movements, just a lot of volume.
Training
If I thought I was putting in decent effort in 2012-2013, this blew that out of the water. Thenx workouts were rough. I'll just list one of the pull-focused days:
3 rounds:

• 4 X Pull-ups (Wide, Shoulder Width, Close Grip)
• Max Reps: Jump Negative Pull-Ups
• 5 X Australian Pull-Ups (Wide, Shoulder Width, Close Grip)
• Max Reps: Commando Pull-Ups
• 10 X Bar Curls
• 12 X Hanging Leg Raise
• 15 X Hanging Knee Raise

As you can see, in just one round of that, you are amassing a hell of a lot of pulling volume. 3 rounds, it was ridiculous. I did similar workouts for pushing and leg movements too, lots of different movements, a ton of reps. You'd see a pulling workout, like the above, 1-2 times a week. And then some other workouts sometimes included a bit of pulling movements too.
I did Thenx workouts 4-5 times a week, and ran 5km, 3 times a week.
At the end of 2017, I looked like this. This was by far the best I'd ever looked and felt. A product of high effort in training, and for the first time in my life, actually eating according to a plan. I was eating around 2500 calories a day, decent amounts of protein, and quite lean.

2018 - March 2020

After that year of Thenx, I found myself able to hold an l-sit for over a minute, I could do 30 pull-ups unbroken etc. But if you asked me to squat 100kg/220lb, I'd probably have struggled. While I was thoroughly enjoying Thenx, I needed a change. I needed some barbell movements again, as well as BW movements. Before taking a pivot in training direction, I tested my 1RM pull-up. I got BW + 70kg/154lb, and I weighed around 75kg/165lb. That was a bit mind-blowing, given I hadn't touched a weight in over a year. All of that BW pulling volume from Thenx must have paid off. Never did I think I could be approaching a 2X BW pull-up.
My training shifted to a somewhat CrossFit-esque model, just without kipping movements, snatches etc. I started doing squats, weighted pull-ups, farmers carries etc. Metcons/conditioning where quality was the goal. Rather get 3 rounds and move well, vs 4 rounds and move badly. My weighted pull-up strength work consisted of working up to a heavy 3-5 reps for the day. Over this period, I got my pull-up 1RM up to BW + 77kg/170lb. I weighed around 80kg/176lb, so I could almost do a 2X BW pull-up.
Training
I was training 3 times a week, and running 5km, 3 times a week. My training in the gym was similar to 2014. Strength movement or two, followed by metcon/conditioning. Lots of different movements, lots of variety. I did strict pull-ups/bent over row/front squat/back squat/bench press for strength, working up to a heavy 3-5 reps, once every 2 weeks. I did a lot of different pulling movements in the metcons/conditioning, of quite different formats. Something like 21-15-9 pull-ups and Erg for calories, which was very quick. Or something like AMRAP 20: 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, 15 air squats, where you amass a lot of pull-ups. So I was doing some form of pull-ups, whether it be for strength, or for metcon/conditioning, twice a week at least.
After this training period, I looked like this.

March 2020 - August 2021

Yeah... Covid happened. That turned my life upside down, as it did to many others. Without getting into too much detail, during this time I was separated from my wife and newborn daughter for 17 months (I was in South Africa, they were in Vermont, US). Safe to say, my training took a bit of a nosedive.

August 2021 - June 2022

I finally got to Vermont in August 2021, reuniting with my family. Training resumed, and I was able to get some consistency again, getting my pull-up back to BW + 77kg/170lb relatively quickly. I just worked up to heavy singles, doubles and triples, and hit accessory work hard. I also started doing ring pull-ups vs bar pull-ups. I'm in my early 30s, rings are arguably better for the shoulder, and the movement just feels great. It's not quite a pull-up, but not quite a chin-up either, your grip just shifts throughout the movement. I tested my 1RM, and it was BW + 73kg/161lb. I weighed around 82kg/181lb. So a bit less than my bar pull-up, but that didn't particularly bother me.
Training
My training here was very similar to my 2018-2020 training. Only real difference was, I worked up to heavy singles, doubles and triples. Otherwise, format and frequency was much the same.

July 2022 - February 2023

I started following 5/3/1 around July 2022, as I was curious about how it would work with something like pull-ups. AMRAP sets at submaximal loads sounded interesting, and not something I'd ever really done before. I think my body responded well to all the volume of heavy pulling, and I got my ring pull-up to 83.5kg/184lb BW + 92.5kg/204lb. For anyone who wants to do pull-ups within the context of 5/3/1, it is certainly doable, as long as you have a high enough 1RM where the %s make sense.
Training
I modified 5/3/1 quite a bit. Traditional 5/3/1 has you doing squat, deadlift, bench press, overhead press, once a week each. You go relatively heavy on these, usually for at least 5+ reps. You also typically do some supplemental work with the same lift, at a lighter load.
I chose the Coffinworm variant, which is Jim Wendler's version of wave training. A pull-up day would look like this:
Warmup:

• 5 reps @ 40% of TM
• 5 reps @ 60% of TM

Wave 1:

• 5 reps @ 70% of TM
• 5 reps @ 80% of TM
• 5 reps @ 90% of TM

Wave 2:

• 5 reps @ 80% of TM
• 3 reps @ 90% of TM
• AMRAP @ 100% of TM

I would do the above, once a week. Besides pull-ups, I did the same format, for Larsen presses, and front box squat. Unusual movements for 5/3/1, but it suited my goals.
Coffinworm has you pushing heavy for 2 weeks, then taking a mini-deload in the 3rd week. I just did this 3 week cycle, rinse and repeat.
For accessory work, I did each of the following, once a week:

• PureTorque (EMOM 6: 30s)
• Hanging Leg Raise on rings (AMRAP 5)
• 2 rounds: 1 Min Echo Bike + KB Row (AMRAP 3) & 1 Min Erg + Archer Push-Up (AMRAP 3)
• Nordic Curl (EMOM 5: 5 negatives)
• Kneesovertoesguy Movements (KoT Calf Raise, ATG Split Squat, Poliquin Step-Up, Reverse Squat, Tibialis Raise, QL Side Bend, Back Extension). 2 rounds, 10 reps of each.

My accessory work was always the same, regardless of whether I was in a heavy, or deload week, for the main 3 lifts I chose.
On 3 of my 4 off days, I'd do active recovery, instead of taking completely off. My active recovery took the form of:
5 min stations:

• Walk w/ Weight Vest
• Sled Push/Drag
• Echo Bike
• Erg

Regarding leadeanchor cycles... I kept it simple. I just did anchor cycles, which are very similar to leader cycles, you just PR the final set of the 2nd wave, instead of going to a fixed weight.
To amalgamate all of the above, a training week looks like this:

• Mon - 5/3/1 (Pull-Ups) + Accessory (PureTorque & Hanging Leg Raise)
• Tue - Active Recovery
• Wed - 5/3/1 (Larsen Press) + Accessory (Echo Bike + KB Row & Erg + Archer Push-Up)
• Thu - Active Recovery
• Fri - 5/3/1 (Front Box Squat) + Accessory (Nordic Curl + Kneesovertoesguy)
• Sat - Active Recovery
• Sun - Rest

This is what I currently look like. Perhaps leaner than I was during my Thenx days, and 8.5kg/19lb heavier. Definitely feels better being pretty much as lean, weighing more, and eating nearly 1000 calories more than 2017. I have come a long way from that skinny 18 year old, 14 years ago.

Conclusion

I achieved something I didn't think possible, at least for me. There are some monsters out there lifting far more, but for a former skinny kid, not exactly blessed with the best genetics from an athletic POV, this was a truly satisfying milestone to hit. Could I have done it in far shorter time with a more structured approach, more weighted pull-up work earlier on, adequate effort from the start etc? Sure. But that's not how it played out.
I sort of view what I did, as some tend to view Tom Brady, or Jerry Rice etc. "Longevity Award" is a term I've seen tossed around. They have accumulated stats and records that might never be broken, just because of the sheer amount of years they played, which is impressive by itself. Nevermind the Superbowls and MVPs etc. I don't view labelling their freakish stats as "longevity awards" an insult, if anything, that's a compliment to how they were able to last so many years in a professional league, implying they were still playing at a decent level into their older years.
Now I'm not comparing myself to 2 NFL legends, but this notion of a "longevity award" is sort of how I view this ring pull-up. I certainly didn't have the most efficacious training. I didn't make the most of my time. I didn't always train with the intent and effort that I should have. But I did stick with it over the years, where others may have simply just stopped, and the end result is a somewhat impressive ring pull-up. I think many people could achieve this feat, if they just stuck to it, but a pull-up is not exactly high up on the list of things people try to improve, vs a squat, bench, deadlift etc. I don't want to diminish this achievement, I'm quite proud of it, but at the same time, I'm quite aware that this is simply an unusual movement to pursue to the degree that I have. I'm proud of my perseverance, vs some of the training decisions I made.
Happy to answer any Qs on any of the above, I can get as specific as my memory will allow.

FAQ

1. Why do you call it a "ring pull-up"? That's just what I know this movement as, as do most gymnasts I've spoken to. A ring pull-up is where your grip starts pronated, and shifts throughout the movement. It's a mix of different grips. I've seen it referred to as a ring chin-up as well. If we want to get into semantics, then neither term is technically correct. My bar pull-up is about the same as my ring pull-up.
2. Why do you start with your feet on the floor? 2 parts to this answer. My wife is shorter than me, and if I put the rings any higher, she'd need to get a step or something and jump to reach the rings. The more important answer, however, is that over the years, I've found that this is just more convenient for doing waves of strength work. You can also brace better. My numbers are around the same if I hang at the start, and if streetlifting ever finds it's way to Vermont, I'll do that at the competition, as that's the standard.
3. Why!?!?!? This usually refers to why would I put so much time into an unconventional strength lift. Honest answer, is that it's based on how my first strength training experience went. I couldn't compete on squats or deadlifts or cleans etc, but I could beat everyone on pull-ups. I got compliments from bigger guys, which I'm sure many here can appreciate how great that feels. I just stuck to what I was relatively decent at, and over the years, have achieved a somewhat impressive amount of pulling strength.
4. Why don't you use chalk or wrist wraps? I personally like doing the movement clean, without assistance. Just my personal preference.
5. Why do you use a dip belt and weight vest? Personal preference, I like splitting the weight up a bit. In a perfect world, I'd somehow have a suit that distributed the weight evenly across my entire body, but such a thing doesn't exist. So I went for a combo of a dip belt + weight vest.
6. What brand dip belt/weight vest do you use? Hypeletics Weighted Dip Belt & Kensui EZ Vest (Pro V2 Model). Most comfortable dip belt and weight vest I've ever worn, and it's not even close.
7. Aren't weighted pull-ups of X weight dangerous? I use X here, because I've heard this question a few times, X being a range of numbers, sometimes as low as 20kg/44lb. Not exactly sure where this notion came from, but in my anecdotal experience, no, weighted work past a certain amount is not inherently dangerous.
8. Can you do a one-armed pull-up? This question somewhat baffles me, because you could do a one-armed pull-up with far less pulling strength. So the answer is yes.
9. Can you do a bar muscle-up? Same answer as #8.
10. Can you do a front lever? Yes. In fact, I managed to attain a OAP, bar muscle-up and front lever, without actually working on them specifically. It was just a byproduct of increasing my pulling strength.
11. How do you deal with fluctuating BW? I weigh myself before pull-up workouts. If I weigh 1kg/2lb more, I add 1kg/2lb less to the dip belt/weight vest. The total amount of weight lifted (bodyweight + additional weight) is what matters.
12. What's your diet currently like like? I eat generally healthy foods. 3400 calories, 210g protein a day.
13. What's next? Given I don't particularly want to lose weight, 400lb total weight will come first. And then BW + 100kg/220lb additional weight. If I ever achieve that, I'll be on cloud 9, and anything more is just icing on the cake. I'll probably test this movement again at the end of 2023.

Trying to build and scale your business through advertisements? You should stop if you are not willing to do what it takes.
So for starting brand positioning with a knack of better user experience and value in the form of content. then mix it up with paid strategy will get you going. Just be efficient with what steps you are taking to make your next move. Paid ads alone does not do wonders and great service/great product alone will not do wonders as well, if nobody is there to see it. Make a plan of 3 months at least.
Month 1: Get all the social pages and website optimized fully Get the content ready and at least a plan for 3 months of the content. Month 2: Carve out a strategy in which you have specific KPI's for organic and paid both. Meanwhile try being more efficient with creative strategies on social platforms. Month 3: Start running the communication with some kind of offer or any reward that could intrigue the buying behavior of your existing audience. For the past two months you have been on top of their minds and when you are moving in for the sales you will definitely create a customer list that will be your loyal customers. And platforms like Facebook and Instagram will consider your brand, a quality brand to provide value of the its userbase.
So, the answer is not that simple when it comes to marketing a business. It takes a strategy with executable plan to really get it going.

"krsna , can i perform samyama on my self to attain the knowledge of human body and mind"

My dear Arjuna, performing samyama on oneself to attain knowledge of the human body and mind is certainly possible. However, it requires great discipline and practice. As mentioned in the Bhagavad Gita, "The yogi who is well established in self-realization can perceive all objects, whether animate or inanimate, with equal vision. For such a yogi, a clod of dirt, a stone, and gold are of equal value." (6.8) Therefore, by attaining self-realization through samyama, one can gain knowledge of the human body and mind. But remember, this path requires dedication and perseverance.

Speaking at the China Development Forum 2023, Rae Dalio, founder, chief investment officer mentor and board member of Bridgewater, said the monetization of huge debts, the huge internal conflicts caused by the divide between wealth and values, and the conflict between international powers are three factors that "are driving all the current situations.
​
According to Dalio, the world is on the "edge of danger" and could face three "seismic" changes, "if they happen, we could witness something we have not seen in our lifetime, but which has happened many times in history. These three forces, which began several years ago, have reached a crisis point and are driving all of the current events."
​
The three dramatic changes, as Dalio calls them, are, first, the monetization of huge debts, where central banks print money and issue currency to buy these debts, second, the huge internal conflict caused by the divide in wealth and values, and third, the conflict between international powers. According to Dalio, all three of these factors are now emerging to the greatest extent since 1930-1945.
​
Dalio believes that many indicators such as real per capita income, per capita life expectancy, and nutritional levels will improve significantly in the long run due to increases in productivity and especially technology. The evolution of this upward trend is characterized by huge cyclical fluctuations, which consist of short cycles that interact with each other to form large cycles. These large cycles are the so-called "good years" and "bad years." In addition, the events that lead to such large cycles do not occur according to a timeline, but are determined by causality, so that their occurrence is not predetermined, but manageable.
​
Dalio further emphasizes that many times, the accumulation of many short cycles to form large long cycles leads to debt write-downs and monetization of huge amounts of debt when debt ratios rise and liabilities become too large to sustain. At the same time, along with financial and economic cycles, there are political cycles within countries, and geopolitical cycles between countries, and history shows that when these three forces are superimposed simultaneously, they lead to turbulent transitions, often resulting in dramatic changes in the domestic and world order of great magnitude.
​
Dalio points out that since 1945 - since the establishment of the last new world order, the monetary order, which can also be called the world order of the United States and the dollar - it has gone through 12.5 short cycles until now, accumulating to form a big debt cycle, which is now quite high as a percentage of GDP, when Central banks, including the Federal Reserve, then began to tighten monetary policy to deal with inflation, causing cracks to begin to occur in the market, and the economy began to weaken.
​
According to Dalio, we are now entering a big international geopolitical cycle. "What I hope is that there will be wisdom, restraint and understanding in the world and that the world will continue to be peaceful and prosperous."

Speaking at the China Development Forum 2023, Rae Dalio, founder, chief investment officer mentor and board member of Bridgewater, said the monetization of huge debts, the huge internal conflicts caused by the divide between wealth and values, and the conflict between international powers are three factors that "are driving all the current situations.
​
According to Dalio, the world is on the "edge of danger" and could face three "seismic" changes, "if they happen, we could witness something we have not seen in our lifetime, but which has happened many times in history. These three forces, which began several years ago, have reached a crisis point and are driving all of the current events."
​
The three dramatic changes, as Dalio calls them, are, first, the monetization of huge debts, where central banks print money and issue currency to buy these debts, second, the huge internal conflict caused by the divide in wealth and values, and third, the conflict between international powers. According to Dalio, all three of these factors are now emerging to the greatest extent since 1930-1945.
​
Dalio believes that many indicators such as real per capita income, per capita life expectancy, and nutritional levels will improve significantly in the long run due to increases in productivity and especially technology. The evolution of this upward trend is characterized by huge cyclical fluctuations, which consist of short cycles that interact with each other to form large cycles. These large cycles are the so-called "good years" and "bad years." In addition, the events that lead to such large cycles do not occur according to a timeline, but are determined by causality, so that their occurrence is not predetermined, but manageable.
​
Dalio further emphasizes that many times, the accumulation of many short cycles to form large long cycles leads to debt write-downs and monetization of huge amounts of debt when debt ratios rise and liabilities become too large to sustain. At the same time, along with financial and economic cycles, there are political cycles within countries, and geopolitical cycles between countries, and history shows that when these three forces are superimposed simultaneously, they lead to turbulent transitions, often resulting in dramatic changes in the domestic and world order of great magnitude.
​
Dalio points out that since 1945 - since the establishment of the last new world order, the monetary order, which can also be called the world order of the United States and the dollar - it has gone through 12.5 short cycles until now, accumulating to form a big debt cycle, which is now quite high as a percentage of GDP, when Central banks, including the Federal Reserve, then began to tighten monetary policy to deal with inflation, causing cracks to begin to occur in the market, and the economy began to weaken.
​
According to Dalio, we are now entering a big international geopolitical cycle. "What I hope is that there will be wisdom, restraint and understanding in the world and that the world will continue to be peaceful and prosperous."

I am disabled and my parents set up a house trust for me. I had been diagnosed as mentally ill but it turned out to be a TBI. The trustee seemed ok until i asked to see the finances. She stonewalled me for 6 months and when I finally got them I saw rather than making sure the trust lasted, she was paying herself an average of $1000 per month. She has no idea how to run a trust, no qualifications and is not, pardon the pun, trustworthy, and since I asked for the finances she has hated me. Especially because once I saw what she was doing I showed my parents and their lawyer. Everyone agreed it had to change and I was ‘allowed’ to take on running my household finances though I am given 1/3 of what she used to spend. But neither my folks nor their lawyer blames her for anything and they think I am lying when I say she does things. She lies to them and has told them she is "fond of’ me so they think she is great. She no longer allows me to do things which will improve the value of the home and save me money, and in fact my parents have ended up directly paying for solar and mini split heating. My parents have so little respect for me that when I said I do not want this person running my finances for the rest of my life they laugh. It’s pretty clear to me that the disrespect is a feature, not a bug. My mom has had to step in to make her do the right thing many times but doesn’t care when I say there will be no one to so that when they are gone. I’m 53 btw and cannot earn money. Note I just found out she is legally responsible to fix the two sets of broken steps she has been refusing to do for three years, but even as i mention that to my folks my mom starts lecturing me about how I have to be obsequious and grovel when I ask her again.
My parents will never have a better opinion of me or respect for me. Never. I accept that. But the second they are gone I want to dump her. She is a lawyer so she will do anything to keep her grubby hands on my money and make me as unhappy as possible. She has already been doing that by changing all the protocol on a different financial trust which she is only 1 of 12 people on the board of, but obviously they figure she is the best person to make decisions for and about me. A bunch of things are no longer financed, such as vet bills. I am now stonewalled there too.
If I were to have brought the situation to a judge at the time she was found to be so incompetent, i would definitely have had a very good case. But when my parents are gone, she will on paper seem to have made the best decisions for me for years even as she refuses to increase the value of the house and refuses to make obvious decisions so I can save money. Also when I got married (sadly he makes almost no money and has child support and a ton of bills) they put my husband on the trust, which is great, but the document states that if the trust were ever to end, it would never go to me: If he were alive it would go to him and if not it will go to my sister. Still, all I want to do is get a trustee who knows how to run a trust, has not been poisoned by my parents into thinking I am incompetent (which is hilarious because everyone BUT me got the financial statements for years and never noticed what she was doing) and in fact does not know I was once diagnosed as mentally ill.
I’m in a toxic situation but I want a light at the end of the tunnel. Will I ever get out from under the nasty control of this despicable, conniving vengeful and greedy woman?

I’ve spent most of the weekend playing Diablo IV’s open beta, so here I wanted to share my general impressions, a few thoughts as well as some very specific quibbles of mine about this game. In somewhat random order:

• Hasn’t changed since it was first shown… but the opening cinematic is simply grand. It has this dark and oppressive atmosphere that perfectly wed into my idea of the Diablo world, with a beautiful imagery to boot. Top-notch art direction and sound design.
  
• The dark-fantasy art direction is generally superb, enemy design ESPECIALLY. Building, interiors and small parts are realistic and incredibly detailed, environments are atmospheric and nicely colored. The clothing, armor and weapon designs are quite good as well, although I still miss how simple and accurate D2 did gear by pulling pieces of warfare equipment straight out of History. D4 style of gear design is still a bit too high-fantasy to my taste, although a definite improvement over the usual Blizzard bloated and over-designed stuff as seen in modern WoW or D3.
  
• D4 graphical style isn’t at all bad, but it seems to aim for a cartoonish/realistic mashup that don’t merge as well as I would have hoped. The visual effects (enemy attacks too, but player skills mostly) are kinda cartoonish, flashy and over the top… not unlike your typical mobile action game. I would love an option to tone them down, if just a little bit. Still though, the game is generally veeeery nice to look at.
  
• The visual feedback for your minute-to-minute action is also really well done. I’m sure I’m echoing a lot of reviews when I say it feels and sounds great to play. That, and the smoothness of the player controls in general makes for a very solid gameplay experience.
  
• On the topic of the game’s lighting explicitly, I would say that it’s too dull. A better use of light sources, sun beams and shadows would make the brilliant art direction pop out even more. HDR doesn’t seem to help at all, unfortunately.
  
• The camera is too zoomed in. Projectile enemies will often fire at you from outside your field of vision, and it’s hard getting a feel of how big a zone is when you’re so close to the ground. It also makes the less flattering parts of the graphics, which you’re mostly supposed to see from afar, more noticeable. As it is, D4 camera reminds me of how mobile action games use a more focused field of view as a way to both save money on the environment budget and help camouflage their technical misery.
  
• I’m on the fence with the UI. While not horrible, it, again, does feel very ‘mobile game’. I love daring and universe-appropriate UI, so if that’s something Blizzard might go over someday, I’d be curious to see how that lands. I doubt they will tho.
  
• The blood effects aren’t great. You usually barely notice it, and when you do, it’s a cartoonish splash of red paint crudely splattered before vanishing into thin air. The few traces of it you have left on the ground is like a thick coat of plasma, when it should sink into the earth and slowly dissipate. If Warcraft III in 2002 could support this, I’m sure D4 can.
  
• Enemy corpses disappear too often and too soon. I’m aware that having multiple assets on screen, even inanimate, would be heavy on some configuration… but still. It’s something so inconsequential and yet so immersive. At least give us the option.
  
• The Necromancer’s skeletons have an ugly frost-blue aura. I know some people will like that and that it’s probably done for readability’s sake, but I personally like my skelies plain and hollow.
  
• The “corpses” used for the Necromancer’s resurrection are also hideous. They’re way too big and stand out like Christmas lights. I suppose it would be hard to have it like D2 because of the ragdoll physic, but I’m sure there can be a compromise between that and the overly saturated, inflated, ugly piles of meat we have now. It might sound silly to some of you, but this is something that’ll definitely make me not want to play this class comes release.
  
• I’m not sure if I’m convinced by the online open-world aspect of the game. World events are basically random encounters that you could very well have in a solo game. With the exception of world bosses, I haven’t run into any world activity where joining with other players is necessary or beneficial to the experience. There’s… really no added value to random people coming in and out of your world. Matter of fact, it kinda ruins the immersion. Seeing an ultra-geared Necromancer join your event, kill a few mobs (that you could have perfectly handled) using his undead invocations (they’re invisible to you for some reason), take his reward then vanish out of your (extra-small) field of view, never to be seen again, isn’t exactly what I would call “MMO”. Seems to me that D4 is aiming to imitate the Lost Ark formula… which I’m not a fan of to be honest.
  
• The quests are very much on the true-and-tested side of quest design approach, but it utilizes the open-world pretty well in that it rewards exploration and interactivity. Not revolutionary in any way, but a cool and immersive component of map progression. Some of the side quests are also decently creative, like the guy whose eyes got stolen. It’s a fun way to immerse the player into the world.
  
• The way your character sometimes do, or sometimes don’t speak with NPCs is odd. Like, my Rogue answering “Understood.” after hearing one’s desperate plea for help is… strange. I would rather they don’t interact at all outside of cutscenes.
  
• The overall atmosphere of the Fractured Peaks is great, both visually and audio-wise. Kyovashad’s music in particular is beautiful. The perfect amount of melancholy, woe and grandiose. I could sit in town and listen to it for hours.
  
• The lore for now is quite alluring, and the overall narrative seems promising. I love the few really well staged cinematics, which are honestly the strong points of the current story. Inarius looks S I C K, as does Lilith’s blood petals imagery. Works great.
  
• But some dialogues are just bland. A lot of them are descriptive and artificially produced, and lack a certain tone to really fit the world. Everyone speaks the same no matter their position or occupation, which is where immersion and world-building take a hit. Almost reads like on-the-spot characters a tabletop RPG dungeon master would come up with. I also had a VERY HARD time caring about Neyrelle and her mother… or any of the oh-so-tragic crowds for that matter. I'm not sure character-driven arcs are the way to go with Diablo, especially when said characters are this vanilla. Although Vigo did have some interesting faith questioning.
  
• Following my previous point, the voice acting is a real hit or miss for me. Most of it comes from the bland writing, but I find most characters to be shallow, cookie-cutter NPCs. Their lack of personalities is made worse by the amount of rehashing there is of almost indistinguishable voice actors who equally overact. They all try so hard to sound forlorn and desperate… I would like a little more variety. Exhaling-speak isn’t as cool as Blizzard seems to think it is. The obviously fake accents don’t help either. It’s not exactly bad, not at all, just a tad too generic for my taste. Then again, that is a component of video games that I’m particularly passionate (and critical) about.
  
• On that note, there were a few deliveries that I actually loved. Lilith’s performance is great, same as the Bloodied Wolf. A few NPCs actually did sound creative and embroiled in their characters, like that priest at the stairway to Inarius, the skinned husband in that secondary quest south-east, or the father on the bridge who’s being haunted by his dead son.
  
• The dungeons are quite repetitive and linear. I personally like how open D2 maps were in design, whereas D4’s instances are basically loops of identical layouts put on repeat. With the incredible level of detail and care given to the environments, the architecture and the backgrounds, similarities are made all the more noticeable. It’s perfectly fine when you do them once, but I’m not sure how it’ll hold up with repetition.
  
• I’m not an expert on this type of games, but the build variety seems to be somewhat lacking? Still, I liked how easily I managed to build my Rogue as pure melee with just a bit of experimentation, and I’m sure that they’ll be a lot of alternate ways to play. It’s probably way too early to judge, really.
  
• The Barbarian Arsenal system kinda wrecked my wish to play as a strictly two-handed greatsword warrior, Conan-like. Not a big fan that switching between a bunch of giant weapons is a default mechanic, as it can greatly limit one’s role-playing possibilities. Nerd nitpick, I know.
  
• No paladin or knightly playable class… Sadge. No spear or polearm based class either.
  

Well, I think that’s about all. Feel free to disagree with me and threaten to murder me in my sleep.

I need help. I’m lost in the middle of this right now and I can’t see things very objectively. I didn’t want to go to relationshipadvice because they’re pretty extreme and I wouldn’t put it past them to jump to conclusions about my safety and simultaneously shame me for being poly and for my role in this.
One of my relationships was questionable from the beginning, but he was up front with me, so I trusted him. He told me he and his wife were separated but they had an “unspoken understanding” that they would each live their own lives. But they can’t get divorced because it would cause hardship and shame for their families back home. He told me this the first time we met, and we clicked, so I was okay with it. My nesting partner was concerned but trusted me.
Months pass, things are great between us, except I still don’t know his last name. I don’t know the name of his business that he owns. I learned he uses a burner phone for me. He is terrified of his wife finding out about me because she’ll divorce him and ruin his life (even though they can’t get divorced because of their families and supposedly she’s having her own relationships?)
Then he tells me he’s getting pressure from his wife, wife’s family, and his family to make things work and eventually have kids, but he didn’t want to break it off with me. This man literally said “I want to have my cake and eat it too” but gave me an out if I wasn’t comfortable with it. I was immediately on board with him reconnecting with his wife, and admittedly, I didn’t want to leave him either and wanted to be a little selfish, so I thought I was okay with it.
A couple of weeks pass where we don’t see each other, during which I get this growing, nagging feeling that things are wrong, and I finally realize that I’m not okay with it. He is literally making me into “the other woman”. His wife is expecting a monogamous relationship and he is lying to her face. I try to encourage him to talk to his wife about a couple of things but he claims that she “isn’t mature about things like this”. I’ve lost count of how many red flags I’ve typed out now. Here are a few more:

• When I told him that I realized I’m not comfortable with how the boundaries of our relationship have changed, he got very passive aggressive and told me that he “thought I would always be there for him. Selflessly”. I told him I didn’t realize “selfless” meant “zero boundaries” and he responded “selfless means not thinking about yourself.”
  
• He would never initiate conversation unless it was to complain about me not initiating conversation every single day.
  
• He keeps telling me that our relationship is special and unique and things are different with me.
  
• When I called him out on what he said in the first bullet point and said he clearly didn’t want a relationship with a whole person and only cared about his own needs and disregarded mine, he said I misunderstood and he wants a chance to clarify, but he can’t clarify over text. But he’s so sad that I felt this way about this misunderstanding, and he thought I knew him better than that and he was always considerate and caring. And then he asked if I was still mad when he still refuses to clarify anything over text.
  

I obviously can’t continue any sort of relationship with him. I thought there was a chance I could still support him or be a friend but I don’t think I can trust anything he says. I’m fluctuating between being furious with him and being furious at myself for willfully ignoring red flags and also straying from my own values.
And now to the reason why I’m here: is he actually a massive piece of shit, was he always a manipulative douchecanoe, or. do you think he’s just a selfish dumbass? How do y’all with more poly experience than I do (1 year) deal with situations like this? Also, is he actually lovebombing/manipulating me or am I just reading too much into it? I need a sanity check
Edit: y’all are being much kinder to me then I am. Thank you.

Rice porridge. It's literally 100 calories worth of rice overcooked in chicken broth until it absorbs water and fluffs up and becomes, subjectively, like 600 calories worth of rice. Add slivered habanero peppers, a big-ass spoonful of black beans, and a slab of tofu and it's a real-live meal with a respectable amount of protein and also really cozy, comfort-food vibes.
Fake okonomiyaki (WARNING: IF YOU HAVE EVER HAD REAL OKONIMYAKI YOU WILL BE HORRIBLY DISAPPOINTED). Take like 1/3 of a whole cabbage, handful of bias-cut celery, green onion, three-ish egg whites or two whole eggs, soy sauce, msg, garlic and ginger. Cook gently, then serve with any (ideally all) of the following: a dollop of greek yogurt laced with fake sweetener, sriracha, oyster sauce, A-1, sesame oil. Consider also some shrimp. This is legit delicious, and it takes up a whole big-ass Mikasa plate.
Disordered concoction curry...thing: panang curry paste, chickpeas, extra-lean ground beef, cashew/almond milk, green bell pepper, fish sauce, coconut extract. Ok hear me out: burn your beef to a crisp. Put it under the broiler if you need to. The more it shrinks and browns, the more concentrated the flavor. Add curry paste, cook til fragrant, deglaze with chickpeas and almond milk. Off heat, add coconut extract, fish sauce, maybe a trace of fake sugar. Serve with huge fistfuls of slivered raw bell pepper and maybe some green onion.
I avoided carbs for years and only recently started incorporating them into my diet, mainly to break my scale addiction and reduce my grocery budget. Turns out even if you're still restricting you will feel great when you eat carbs--way more energy, wake up feeling actively happy and perky, work out harder. And yes, you will initially retain a ridiculous amount of water, but mainly in a way that makes the scale numbers absurd and meaningless and makes your skin look extra-hydrated and pretty. (And when you eventually go a few days without eating rice and/or beans at every single meal, you'll suddenly lose all the water weight and see your REAL weight, which is incredibly satisfying AND reassures you that carbs aren't scary and your body can be trusted. Like, you can measure the extent to which carbs are scary--you can observe their mechanism--and get comfortable with doing an informed cost-benefit analysis re real-time energy vs predictable, temporary water retention)
Enough about my bullshit, what are some Silly Goose concoctions you've invented to eat?

Hi all, after a few weeks of playing, reaching 93 on my shadow daggers bladedancer, and trying out a ton of different builds I wanted to give a bit of feedback on my mid-endgame progress. I've reached 200 corruption empowered comfortably, also done the dungeons up to t3 but not t4 yet. Frankly, I have a lot of the same complaints as others, low mob density (they're working on it, ty LE team), repetitive grinding, a lack of transferrable endgame progress.
​
The last one has started to feel pretty bad, where if I want to create a new character and build I have to: get through the campaign, do 5+ normal monos, then farm 5+ empowered monos for the specific blessings I need. Having to do that on each new character (plus masteries not being changeable, so if you want to try a different one you need a whole nother character) and the grind feels prohibitive. The campaign is reasonably quick, and the flexibility of idols and passive points is very nice.
​
I think a huge QOL would be one of, or a variation of, the following options: unlocking a mono//empowered monos is now accountwide; the first time you go through a mono on a new character, it takes vastly less stability to proc the boss (50% or less); whatever change is made for blessings, as I believe the team is working on that rn, have it be accountwide. To expand on the last suggestion, maybe a system where blessings are drops, you select one and then you can slot it on any character after a certain level. Or, a special rare item that lets you store a blessing in a consumable, that can then be sent between characters. You would have to find a way to balance this with group play, or maybe it's just a huge incentive to group up. Or, just make them non-tradeable drops if that's possible.
​
Finally, on endgame versatility. Frankly, I like monos. I like the system, the web provides some variation and some control. It would also be nice if corruption progress could be transferred to other characters as well through a mechanic, but that might be too much to ask for, and I assume that they will be adding more mechanics to raise and control corruption in future patches. One thing that would be very cool would be if you could run echoes back to back without returning through a portal. Like you could queue up a line of 3 echoes and just run them back to back. It would reduce the time spent in loading screens, and increase the time spent in echoes. If loading screens become a lot quicker this isn't as big of a deal though, but I still think there could be cool mechanics with multi-echo running.
​
I'm imagining a system where you can sort of gamble a line of, lets say 3 echoes. You see the mods and rewards for the first echo in the series, but maybe only a general reward category for the other 2, and you have to make it through all 3 without dying to claim full rewards. If you do, you get an extra reward, or a better reward multiplier, or something maybe even extra corruption? You could really scale up the difficulty of the proceeding echoes or include line-specific echoes that you can't encounter elsewhere. Or even lines with story, similar to the quest echoes! Maybe you can encounter really rare lines that allow you to reroll the values of a blessing, or do interesting things to an item if you complete it.
​
Anyways, like most others I think the game is in a great spot but has a lot of room to expand. Comparing it to POE, D4, Grim Dawn, you can definitely feel that there's less content, but the fact that they're already so comparable is incredible. I can't wait to see what comes next, and if the LE team needs a sound designer let me know!

Trying to build and scale your business through advertisements? You should stop if you are not willing to do what it takes.
So for starting brand positioning with a knack of better user experience and value in the form of content. then mix it up with paid strategy will get you going. Just be efficient with what steps you are taking to make your next move. Paid ads alone does not do wonders and great service/great product alone will not do wonders as well, if nobody is there to see it. Make a plan of 3 months at least.
Month 1: Get all the social pages and website optimized fully Get the content ready and at least a plan for 3 months of the content. Month 2: Carve out a strategy in which you have specific KPI's for organic and paid both. Meanwhile try being more efficient with creative strategies on social platforms. Month 3: Start running the communication with some kind of offer or any reward that could intrigue the buying behavior of your existing audience. For the past two months you have been on top of their minds and when you are moving in for the sales you will definitely create a customer list that will be your loyal customers. And platforms like Facebook and Instagram will consider your brand, a quality brand to provide value of the its userbase.
So, the answer is not that simple when it comes to marketing a business. It takes a strategy with executable plan to really get it going.

Trying to build and scale your business through advertisements? You should stop if you are not willing to do what it takes.
So for starting brand positioning with a knack of better user experience and value in the form of content. then mix it up with paid strategy will get you going. Just be efficient with what steps you are taking to make your next move. Paid ads alone does not do wonders and great service/great product alone will not do wonders as well, if nobody is there to see it. Make a plan of 3 months at least.
Month 1: Get all the social pages and website optimized fully Get the content ready and at least a plan for 3 months of the content. Month 2: Carve out a strategy in which you have specific KPI's for organic and paid both. Meanwhile try being more efficient with creative strategies on social platforms. Month 3: Start running the communication with some kind of offer or any reward that could intrigue the buying behavior of your existing audience. For the past two months you have been on top of their minds and when you are moving in for the sales you will definitely create a customer list that will be your loyal customers. And platforms like Facebook and Instagram will consider your brand, a quality brand to provide value of the its userbase.
So, the answer is not that simple when it comes to marketing a business. It takes a strategy with executable plan to really get it going.

I’ve spent most of the weekend playing Diablo IV’s open beta, so here I wanted to share my general impressions, a few thoughts as well as some very specific quibbles of mine about this game. In somewhat random order:

• Hasn’t changed since it was first shown… but the opening cinematic is simply grand. It has this dark and oppressive atmosphere that perfectly wed into my idea of the Diablo world, with a beautiful imagery to boot. Top-notch art direction and sound design.
  
• The dark-fantasy art direction is generally superb, enemy design ESPECIALLY. Building, interiors and small parts are realistic and incredibly detailed, environments are atmospheric and nicely colored. The clothing, armor and weapon designs are quite good as well, although I still miss how simple and accurate D2 did gear by pulling pieces of warfare equipment straight out of History. D4 style of gear design is still a bit too high-fantasy to my taste, although a definite improvement over the usual Blizzard bloated and over-designed stuff as seen in modern WoW or D3.
  
• D4 graphical style isn’t at all bad, but it seems to aim for a cartoonish/realistic mashup that don’t merge as well as I would have hoped. The visual effects (enemy attacks too, but player skills mostly) are kinda cartoonish, flashy and over the top… not unlike your typical mobile action game. I would love an option to tone them down, if just a little bit. Still though, the game is generally veeeery nice to look at.
  
• The visual feedback for your minute-to-minute action is also really well done. I’m sure I’m echoing a lot of reviews when I say it feels and sounds great to play. That, and the smoothness of the player controls in general makes for a very solid gameplay experience.
  
• On the topic of the game’s lighting explicitly, I would say that it’s too dull. A better use of light sources, sun beams and shadows would make the brilliant art direction pop out even more. HDR doesn’t seem to help at all, unfortunately.
  
• The camera is too zoomed in. Projectile enemies will often fire at you from outside your field of vision, and it’s hard getting a feel of how big a zone is when you’re so close to the ground. It also makes the less flattering parts of the graphics, which you’re mostly supposed to see from afar, more noticeable. As it is, D4 camera reminds me of how mobile action games use a more focused field of view as a way to both save money on the environment budget and help camouflage their technical misery.
  
• I’m on the fence with the UI. While not horrible, it, again, does feel very ‘mobile game’. I love daring and universe-appropriate UI, so if that’s something Blizzard might go over someday, I’d be curious to see how that lands. I doubt they will tho.
  
• The blood effects aren’t great. You usually barely notice it, and when you do, it’s a cartoonish splash of red paint crudely splattered before vanishing into thin air. The few traces of it you have left on the ground is like a thick coat of plasma, when it should sink into the earth and slowly dissipate. If Warcraft III in 2002 could support this, I’m sure D4 can.
  
• Enemy corpses disappear too often and too soon. I’m aware that having multiple assets on screen, even inanimate, would be heavy on some configuration… but still. It’s something so inconsequential and yet so immersive. At least give us the option.
  
• The Necromancer’s skeletons have an ugly frost-blue aura. I know some people will like that and that it’s probably done for readability’s sake, but I personally like my skelies plain and hollow.
  
• The “corpses” used for the Necromancer’s resurrection are also hideous. They’re way too big and stand out like Christmas lights. I suppose it would be hard to have it like D2 because of the ragdoll physic, but I’m sure there can be a compromise between that and the overly saturated, inflated, ugly piles of meat we have now. It might sound silly to some of you, but this is something that’ll definitely make me not want to play this class comes release.
  
• I’m not sure if I’m convinced by the online open-world aspect of the game. World events are basically random encounters that you could very well have in a solo game. With the exception of world bosses, I haven’t run into any world activity where joining with other players is necessary or beneficial to the experience. There’s… really no added value to random people coming in and out of your world. Matter of fact, it kinda ruins the immersion. Seeing an ultra-geared Necromancer join your event, kill a few mobs (that you could have perfectly handled) using his undead invocations (they’re invisible to you for some reason), take his reward then vanish out of your (extra-small) field of view, never to be seen again, isn’t exactly what I would call “MMO”. Seems to me that D4 is aiming to imitate the Lost Ark formula… which I’m not a fan of to be honest.
  
• The quests are very much on the true-and-tested side of quest design approach, but it utilizes the open-world pretty well in that it rewards exploration and interactivity. Not revolutionary in any way, but a cool and immersive component of map progression. Some of the side quests are also decently creative, like the guy whose eyes got stolen. It’s a fun way to immerse the player into the world.
  
• The way your character sometimes do, or sometimes don’t speak with NPCs is odd. Like, my Rogue answering “Understood.” after hearing one’s desperate plea for help is… strange. I would rather they don’t interact at all outside of cutscenes.
  
• The overall atmosphere of the Fractured Peaks is great, both visually and audio-wise. Kyovashad’s music in particular is beautiful. The perfect amount of melancholy, woe and grandiose. I could sit in town and listen to it for hours.
  
• The lore for now is quite alluring, and the overall narrative seems promising. I love the few really well staged cinematics, which are honestly the strong points of the current story. Inarius looks S I C K, as does Lilith’s blood petals imagery. Works great.
  
• But some dialogues are just bland. A lot of them are descriptive and artificially produced, and lack a certain tone to really fit the world. Everyone speaks the same no matter their position or occupation, which is where immersion and world-building take a hit. Almost reads like on-the-spot characters a tabletop RPG dungeon master would come up with. I also had a VERY HARD time caring about Neyrelle and her mother… or any of the oh-so-tragic crowds for that matter. I'm not sure character-driven arcs are the way to go with Diablo, especially when said characters are this vanilla. Although Vigo did have some interesting faith questioning.
  
• Following my previous point, the voice acting is a real hit or miss for me. Most of it comes from the bland writing, but I find most characters to be shallow, cookie-cutter NPCs. Their lack of personalities is made worse by the amount of rehashing there is of almost indistinguishable voice actors who equally overact. They all try so hard to sound forlorn and desperate… I would like a little more variety. Exhaling-speak isn’t as cool as Blizzard seems to think it is. The obviously fake accents don’t help either. It’s not exactly bad, not at all, just a tad too generic for my taste. Then again, that is a component of video games that I’m particularly passionate (and critical) about.
  
• On that note, there were a few deliveries that I actually loved. Lilith’s performance is great, same as the Bloodied Wolf. A few NPCs actually did sound creative and embroiled in their characters, like that priest at the stairway to Inarius, the skinned husband in that secondary quest south-east, or the father on the bridge who’s being haunted by his dead son.
  
• The dungeons are quite repetitive and linear. I personally like how open D2 maps were in design, whereas D4’s instances are basically loops of identical layouts put on repeat. With the incredible level of detail and care given to the environments, the architecture and the backgrounds, similarities are made all the more noticeable. It’s perfectly fine when you do them once, but I’m not sure how it’ll hold up with repetition.
  
• I’m not an expert on this type of games, but the build variety seems to be somewhat lacking? Still, I liked how easily I managed to build my Rogue as pure melee with just a bit of experimentation, and I’m sure that they’ll be a lot of alternate ways to play. It’s probably way too early to judge, really.
  
• The Barbarian Arsenal system kinda wrecked my wish to play as a strictly two-handed greatsword warrior, Conan-like. Not a big fan that switching between a bunch of giant weapons is a default mechanic, as it can greatly limit one’s role-playing possibilities. Nerd nitpick, I know.
  
• No paladin or knightly playable class… Sadge. No spear or polearm based class either.
  

Well, I think that’s about all. Feel free to disagree with me and threaten to murder me in my sleep.

Table of Contents

1. Family farm homesteading?
2. Soil depletion
3. Lowland orchards
4. Fishing for trees
5. Apex warden
6. Cult of trees
7. Exit event
8. Conclusion
9. Discussion

Let me preface this by saying that I'm a suburbanite with no farming or forestry experience. This is me pondering where I'd like to live, ideally. Someone more experienced can comment on the economics of it. This essay assumes there will be income from a job, such as online remote work.
A backyard is not enough.

Family farm homesteading?

The impulse to retreat from degenerate postmodernity and homestead in the wilderness is strong and growing. r /Homestead has 2.4 million members, and r /HumanRewilding explains why. However, my vague impression is that most homesteaders attempt to start a family farm. Great frustration often results, as one learns the difficulties of competition with economies of scale. The family farm lifestyle disappeared for a reason. My sources on this are impeccable.
Things Homesteaders Say YouTube
The personal effort expended is somewhat pointless, since family farming is still unsustainable, particularly after a societal collapse. (Unless you're doing it the Amish way.) More importantly, Earth's ongoing ecological collapse may render intensive farming increasingly nonviable. The vertical line on the atmospheric CO2 chart alone has the potential to cause desertification, a sudden ice age, or just scour away topsoil due to violent adjustments in the thin soil-water-air layer that we take for granted on this spinning molten magnetic rock.
One wouldn't want to wake Jormungandr. Those pyramids didn't weather themselves.
🌊 JÖRMUNGANDR 🌊 (VølfgangTwins) Heavy Viking Music YouTube
What can one do about all this that is actually helpful and practical? And preferably enjoyable. If one's children slave away pointlessly on a hobby farm, they will surely not repeat the mistake. Sustainability includes intergenerational!

Soil depletion

Permaculture is more sustainable than modern commercial farming. However, it still encounters the fundamental problem of soil depletion.
Animals avoid soil nutrient depletion by shitting where they ate. Humans won't do that. Farmers spray liquified shit on their fields, but it's chemical and fuel intensive.
Where does topsoil come from? Tree roots dig it out, then fall and rot, creating surface dirt. Forest is thus the ecologically-optimal land biome, since it efficiently captures water, sunlight and CO2, and moderates air temperature and wind. Reforestation is the best thing we can do for our planet.
Therefore instead of farming, homesteaders should practice forestry. This will be more fun for everyone, since forest homesteading is lazy. Trees require no encouragement to grow. They are quite competitive about it.
To make things easier, plant your homestead next to an existing forest, so that the full biome can easily spread to your property. Help it along by planting trees, and the rest will naturally follow. Birds poop seeds everywhere.
Erosion is a constant. Soil runs down rivers into the sea. Trees turn more rock into soil. As long as humans don't harvest too much, this cycle can continue indefinitely, powered by the sun.
Humans Destroyed Forests for Thousands of Years. We Can Become the First Generation to Expand Them Max Roser

Lowland orchards

Lowlands have a soil surplus due to erosion. Intensive farming can recover key nutrients before they're washed away and compacted into useless sedimentary rock.
Therefore, lowlands are the place to plant orchards. Trees are better than crops, because it is still important to bind the soil, etc. However, the fruit can be harvested for human use without soil depletion, due to the constant influx. Spreading fertilizer is appropriate to compensate for soil nutrient depletion.
Plant trees whose fruit you can use. Why not benefit from your labor? However, a monocropped orchard is too artificial to be sustainable. Be random.
Permaculture gardens work on the same principle. It is best to live in a clearing, to avoid unfortunate dead falls. Surrounding oneself with a garden fed on compost is natural.
The best use for nightsoil is to fertilize biodegradable planters containing useful plants or trees. After sprouting, these can be transported from the nursery to random destinations on one's daily walk. It's a laid-back way to grow one's personal Garden of Eden. Such a cabin could turn a dryad green with envy.
Herbivores are attracted to lowland orchards, but can be driven off with household dogs, who create a buffer between wild predators and the homestead. Unlike guns, dogs cull prey by fitness.

Fishing for trees

Aquaculture is the last chance to recover soil before erosion sweeps it onto the ocean floor where light can no longer reach it. Time to get aggressive.
Fish are basically omnivorous, so fisherman naturally perform apex predation by simply tossing back the smaller ones. This excludes traps that catch and kill small fish indiscriminately. As long as the small fry and seabed are left unmolested, there is no danger of overfishing. The ocean is always getting more nutrient-rich soil, and planting trees only adds more.
Changing the local ratio of big to small fish does little harm to the ecosystem (starving whales are a distant issue to homesteaders). Human hunting of land animals is much more detrimental. Eat the fish, keep the scraps and plant trees with them.
Should one channel and divert water for aquaculture? I don't think so. Let the trees grab as much water as they can. Then the beavers can build dams out of them, if they manage to dodge the coyotes. Stocking ponds is certainly helpful, like planting trees. There is no need to feed the fish, however. Let the forest do that.

Apex warden

How should a warden hunt land animals? By acting as an apex warden.
Predators cull prey, preventing them from over-grazing the plants. Old and sickly animals are caught before they can be colonized by parasites and disease. Remove predators, and herbivore population explodes, overgrazing plants before succumbing to starvation and disease.
Apex predators sit at the top of the food chain. Apex predators in North America include cougars, bears and wolves. A warden's job is to cull sickly apex predators to preserve their fitness. Threatening humans is presumptive evidence of sickliness. The fur is good even if the meat isn't. The carcass can be used for dog food.
One can build various shelters that benefit wildlife, from birdhouses to lean-tos. Dugouts are prone to damp, but that no longer matters once the ground freezes. These shelters can be lifesaving for human and animal alike. Knowing the location of dens makes it easier to cull the sick and starving, whether carnivore or herbivore. It is also a good way to make friends with the gentler local wildlife, who will not refuse a winter treat.
Similarly, trees suffering infestation should be cut down and hauled off for wood. Trees are the "apex predators" of the plant world, which is a quiet war for sunshine and soil. Trees that offer nothing useful to humans are candidates for firewood.

Cult of trees

Woodland Indians practiced forestry (for subsistence not lumber), and I suspect woodland Europeans did the same. It's definitely a lifestyle, but adding some spirituality helps it self-perpetuate.
Treehuggers are nuttier than squirrels, and I'm no exception. Still, I think it would make a good religion. How about we call it Anastasianism?
While I do not identify as a tree, I do feel a kinship with birds. Planting a forest gives our feathered friends a home. When you die, would you rather have a forest or a 401k?

• The Spirit Song - A Nordic Lullaby - Dimmornas visa YouTube
• Wardruna - Kvitravn (White Raven) - Official music video YouTube

Exit event

While living off the land is fun, don't expect to turn a profit. Monetization happens when the property is sold after the value has increased through reforestation. By documenting the delights of the property while living on it, you increase both the price and the odds that someone who loves forest will move in. Why shouldn't a plot of land have a social media account?
If you like the neighborhood, no need to move far. There's always another patch of forest to plant. Alternatively, you can retire on your patch of paradise.

Conclusion

Reforestation and childrearing are the proper primary goals of homesteading. The rest is just lifestyle and capital appreciation. Learn the land, document it, improve it, repeat. The whole process builds towards the sale. Buy enough land that you won't get bored, but not so much it's overwhelming.
Here are the lines from my journal that prompted this crazy essay:
Must grow the forest. Home of the birds. [Nord home](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ayQk0HSTtY). How to make the desert bloom? March the forest towards it. The [cedars of Lebanon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cedars\_of\_God) can shade the Sahara.
The Ent's Marching Song (Without Narration) - Clamavi De Profundis YouTube
Ironically, r /Forestry is mostly hostile to this idea, regarding it as fantasy. They are focused on commercial timber. Nothing wrong with a red neck, but it does come with some understandable hostility to treehuggers. If hippies wanted to help, they could set up their own permaculture forest homestead instead of spiking trees or whatever.
Apparently "food forests" are already a thing on r /SelfSufficiency:

• I just found this subreddit, allow me to link my edible forest made from 100% waste materials, and more.
• Learn these Propagating techniques! You will save tons of money growing your food forest. It almost feels like cheating.
• Woman creates self sufficient permaculture food forest within 4 years

Hail Sylvanus.
Sylvanus, God of Forests Magic the Gathering

Discussion

HutchK18 Interesting. I'm currently about 90%+ aligned with this… I think. I'll need to reread again later. And eventually maybe a 3rd time. I myself have 6 kids, and recently bought some raw mostly forested land. I've been planting hardwood trees and doing other stuff. I recently put in a stone road, planted an orchard (125 fruit trees… crab, apple, peach, pear, plum, cherry, mulberry, hazelnut, butternut, etc), built a pond and stocked it (bluegill, largemouth bass, redear sunfish, channel cats, forage minnows), and a 2,500 tree pine forest. This Fall I'm putting in a few acres of a pollinator planting fir the bees, butterflies, etc). Next Spring I'll be putting in a wetland, and vernal pools. At that point I'll have a creek, pond, wetland and numerous springs / seeps for water. Eventually Ill be digging a deep well. Then I'm thinking I'd like to set aside a few acres of the lower fields that have the good soil aside to start "farming" for food. I'm aligned with doing things like the Amish. I grew up in a large Amish community, and really appreciate their family culture and farming practices. They don't get it all right… but do a lot right. I view all this more of a lifestyle, and not a religion. As you mentioned, I'm semi-retired, working remotely for some $$$. I'm doing this "forestry" as a hobby because I really enjoy it.

Sounds like you're living the dream. That's a good point: Lowlands that receive surplus soil from erosion are naturally suited for intensive farming cycled with grazing and lying fallow. This slots a big piece of the puzzle for me, thanks.
Wells are great too; the water isn't doing anything sitting in the aquifer.
I've read that the woodland Indians practiced forestry (for subsistence not lumber), and I suspect woodland Europeans did the same. It's definitely a lifestyle, but adding some spirituality helps it self-perpetuate. Great to see someone continuing the lifestyle!

HutchK18 Maybe my post is in the wrong Reddit thread/section. My goal is not strictly forestry. And no, it's not to make money… I'm too old. Maybe my kids/grandkids will reap a little profit? I worked with the local county SWC office, who developed the plans based on my overall goal. This is a "long term" effort. All the "projects" qualify for cost share through the EQIP program. I have a local Land Management company to implement these plans. I'm clearly putting in a lot more money to "manage" the land than I'll ever reap in my lifetime. Again, my goal is NOT strictly lumber production, although that's part it. Although no trees will likely be cut in my lifetime. The goal is overall environmental improvement of the land for some future income, and wildlife benefit. I'm not sure why all down votes? Geesh, what a rough crowd.

Wow, great suggestion to cooperate with government conservation programs! Thanks :)

HutchK18 Always check with the county ag services when doing anything like this. There is almost always tax benefits and cost share opportunities. I've had a biologist, forester, and various other government employees out at no cost to me. They've help guide me as well as 1) conducted soil samples, 2) developed a woodland management plan, 3) developed a wildlife management plan, and 4) developed a wetland engineering plan… all at no cost to me. Plus they provide stuff such as a tree planter… again at no cost to me. I've still got to supply the labor to run it, but the use of the equipment is free. Look up EQIP (Environmental Quality Improvement Program) to get an idea on what cost share opportunities there are. Plus, get your land CAUV (Current Agriculture Use Value) designated for a tax break.

Lol, you've got the brain trust begging to play.

HutchK18 This essay speaks to me. I'm onboard with everything except the "tree hugger religion". I'm against that. I was deep into that side (member of all the big name groups… Sierra Club, Greenpeace, Nature Conservancy, etc…). Then I realized many of these have, to various degrees, a "no use" philosophy at their core. They view humans as some kind of parasite on this planet. My philosophy is one of "wise use". I'm not afraid to cut down a tree if I need to. This is our home planet. Nature is very capable of supporting us. But having said that, if we misbehave too much, we may not like how nature responds. But we are NOT parasites. Again I believe in "wise use".

Thanks! I agree, the environmentalists can get a little crazy. Druids gonna druid.