It was the last day of school in 8th grade I was 14 years old, & my best friend was inviting girls & boys from our school to drink, play games,smoke & eat pizza, etc. My parents had an aggrement that I come home by at least 1 am in the morning or to at least call them if I was gonna be late.
I decided to go to spend the night at her house because I did not wanna follow the rules. we walked home to her house after school & her 2 older brothers Chris & Matt were already home getting the party ready chris & Matt were freshmens so 14-15 year old boys. Some of theyre friends already came and were already starting to drink. my best friend told her older brothers that the party should be over by 12 so don't get crazy their parents work in the acting buisness so they had to fly out to california to meet some clients for Friday & the weekend. I always had a crush on Matt but I always knew chris had a crush on me but I didnt like him. He always seemed so stuck up unlike his brother but he was a little bit of cute. But I couldnt say that around my best friend since those were her brother's, since we have been friends since the womb.
the party had started at 6 a bunch of ppl starting coming and getting crazy they were drinking have sex on the couch despite us only being 13-14 year old 8th grade children. I drank a little bit to get a since of feeling good. I didnt know where my friend was, she was probably fucking her bf or somth. The music was totally a vibe & I was a little tipsy so I started dancing, then Matt comes behind me drunk and says " you look so fine, like you have been since I first met you" I roll my eyes then I said something like " you used to always make fun of my big forehead though" then he says " that was chris, you know that" he puts his finger on my lips & says " cherry chapstick huh" I nervously laugh and then lean in to kiss him. He wraps his hands around my waist and he picks me up & carries me to his bedroom.
He kiss a lot and then it went on from there, he wore a condom also. I walked out the room and from what I remmber looking in the hallway mirror my hair was messy my makeup was smeared. And after this Matt was knocked out sleeping on the bed NAKED. I walked back down stairs to enjoy the rest of the party, I remmber seeing chris down stairs sitting alone. I asked him what was wrong and put my arm around him. He asked me what happend I told him that I went upstairs to rest for a moment.we had a long convoversation about love & stuff, I do not remmber much but he asked if I would make love with him and at this point I was super drunk and I said yes. Matt & chris shared a room and he took me to their room which was the room Matt & I had sex in. He did not even notice Matt laying naked on the other bed. While walking to the room he goes on and on about how much he liked me ans stuff. We do the deed then what u remmber I wake up in the morning in the guest bedroom.
My best friend knows about this but we no longer speak about it. I am a senior in high school now. I take pride in this story.

TL;DR — Should I Pull?

New Players

Hoooooooo buddy.
Lots to unpack, here.
Firstly, if you do not have UDX Silver, GLEX Silver, Shuzer, or Liam, pull the Romancing Festival reprint for Liam. 33k jewels for Liam with Thyme, Shuzer, Rag Robin, Christmas Empress, and other good styles in the mix is hands down the best deal on offer.
For most new players I'm going to recommend Matriarch's banner. Matriarch and Roc are a very solid support core, and Matriarch gets way better with a couple of inherits that are avaialble in the offbanner pool, which you can select one style from with the ticket you got from logging in today.
If, however, you have Thyme and Overdrive Emelia and you don't have the Matriarch style with Paean of Peace, then I recommend pulling on the Lynn Woods banner for Liz. Liz's Aqua Bash+ can be a functional replacement for Paean of Peace which doesn't require chasing a character who isn't on Rate Up, and the rest of her kit is enabled by Emelia and Thyme is a big way. Polka has similar synergy with them and also brings a damn useful heal to the table, and whilst Jo isn't the same kind of "stupid powerful alongside her enablers" good, she's still a very good style that can deal a lot of damage and avoid nearly as much. Jo is also pretty danged good for a new player to pick up, with a medium Morale Down she can sustain on enemies to help reduce incoming damage by a good chunk. Overall, very solid banner, just not as "ready to go out of box" as the other one.
Depending on what else we see this month, it's possible that going back to the other banner once we see what else is going to be offered may be the best move for newbies. Matriarch + Roc + Thyme + Liz + [ShuzeLiam/Silver] would be a ridiculously good core team for someone with less than 6 months play time. 🤩 But I won't go so far as to say that until we get a better sense of what's on deck. For now, focus on Matriarch if you don't have the big Overdrive enablers; focus on Liz if you do.

Veterans

OK. So on the one hand, we have a banner with a Liz style that solos Remembrance battles. And on the other hand we have a banner with a Matriarch style. Now you may thi- you're already pulling Matriarch. OK, then.
Kidding aside, I know a bunch of people reading this really are about to pull the first banner here simply because it has Matriarch and for no other reason, regardless of whether she's any good or not. And... actually, that's not a bad plan, here. Matriarch is definitely a solid support style, whether you have the Paean of Peace inherit for her or not. Roc is way better if you have certain inherits, but even if you only have her Tower S style, her offbanner A style, and her Platinum pool SS style, she's still a pretty good style with a few good options.
Liz and Polka are also pretty danged good, though. Liz in particular has amazing synergy with Thyme and Overdrive Emelia in content with direct hits to counter. She dispenses WIL buffs to the team and counters with a defense boost for the team on any turn where she can Overdrive... which can actually be most turns if you have Emelia backing her up. Polka can counter with an attack that grants the party an attack boost, so if you bring the both of them, you can actually get a lot of buffs going on overdrive turns against enemies that throw direct AoE attacks.
All of which is a lot of words to say that I can definitely recommend a pull on Matriarch's banner, and if you are eyeing Liz and Polka's banner and have the jewels to spare, I can also recommend some pulls there, but if you need to choose between them, I would definitely recommend Mama's first.

Planes Balloons, Trains, and Automobeels — Romancing Festival Limited Banner

Matriarch

Unit Summary

Indefatigable support unit.

Unit Analysis

Paean of Tranquility is 3 BP for a tiny heal to the party plus a medium defense boost. It's a defense boost, not a Guard Up, so it stacks with any other kind of defense increases you have. It's a single-turn defense boost, but it's 25% on top of a party-wide heal, so it's totally worth spamming if you don't have other, better things for Matriarch to do.
Saga Balloon Sanctuary is a [Fast] B-rank sun AoE for 8 BP. Its damage is not amazing, but it grants a large Attack Boost to the whole party for 3 turns. Since it's an Attack Boost, not a Morale Up, it stacks, so she can actually wind up increasing party damage output by quite a bit with her +2 BP/turn fueling an 8 BP cost skill.
Her third attack is an SSSS attack for 10 BP, which is kind of ridiculous for a character who can spam that every-other-turn. The problem is that Matriarch is such a strong support character that you're arguably not "winning" that exchange by spending her BP on damage instead of support stuff, especially if you also have a high-octane damage dealer like Silver or Liam dwarfing Matriarch's damage.
For a support character she's also tanky... as long as she's able to resist every hit she takes. Every resisted attack she takes 40% less damage from and has a 37% chance to avoid it in the first place. Every non-resisted attack... she takes full damage. So against enemies that only deal one or two types of damage, she's quite resilient. Against enemies that will fling 5+ damage types at you, you might find yourself taking more damage than you expected.

Inherits

Paean of Peace. Just... just Paean of Peace. DEX/WIL/LOV/CHA buff for the whole party. 5 BP a pop. This Mama can spam it forever with no BP support. The WIL keeps your day from being ruined by status effects, the DEX helps Liam's damage, and the LOV/CHA buffs help party healers do their job better. Sure, it occupies all of her time, but it's doing a loooot of work, so it's worth it.
Available from the [Leading the People] style, now in the offbanner pool and available to be collected from the 3rd Anniversary Romancing Festival Exclusive SS Style Exchange with the ticket you received upon login. If you're pulling for this Matriarch style, I strongly recommend you use that ticket to pick up [Leading the People] as well for this inherit.

Rocbouquet

Unit Summary

Reasonable support character who becomes a great support character with inherits.

Unit Analysis

Tons of BP recovery potential. When she hits with an attack that hits a weakness, she gets +1 BP. When she hits with a Shadow attack, she gains +2 BP. So if she hits with a Shadow attack that lands a weakness, get gets 3 BP back.
The attack you're probably be going to do that with is -checks notes- Lightning of Darkness.
That can't be... really, Akatsuki? Really?
Sorry. So, yeah, Lightning of Darkness is 8 BP for S-rank Shadow/Lightning damage. That's expensive for an S-rank attack (although it's at the high end of S-rank, so you can think of it as a weak SS attack), but it hits two weaknesses, it debuffs all of the enemy's stats, and it inflicts an Attack Down on the enemy. So it's expensive because it's trying to cram a lot of stuff into one attack. The debuff is not going to be terribly useful because so many bosses will Defy Weakness at the first hint of stat debuffs, but on the rare occasion where that's not the case it can definitely be useful to debuff a bunch of stats at once. The attack down is small and only for 1 turn, so it's not amazing, but it's also noteworthy that it's not a Morale Down, so it will stack with Morale Down users.
Goby Spark is another overcosted attack, this time an AoE. Spark will clear all INT buffs on the targets in addition to debuffing their INT. That's actually a pretty big deal because it means she is really good at shutting down enemies that like to buff their INT, and enemies that love to buff their INT are some of the most problematic bosses. There's an inherit that's going to be better for this purpose in a lot of boss battles, but we're not quite to inherits, yet.
Like Matriarch, she's tanky against attacks that she resists. (She actually has the same ability - reduce resisted attacks and high chance to evade them.) Unlike Matriarch, she can stack more tankiness on top of that if you're flinging Lightning damage at the enemy, topping out at 40% mitigation if you hit with a lightning attack every single turn, healing herself with each of those as well. Oh, and if she's hitting a weakness, she'll tack a second tiny self-heal on as well. So if you're spamming Lightning of Darkness (-sigh-) and hitting a weakness with every attack, not only do you get the Attack Down effect and maybe some stat debuffs, but you're also ramping up to 64% mitigation (and 50% damage boosts) and double self-healing herself every turn.
And if you can spare the bonus BP, the bonus damage, and the bonus mitigation, she also has one of the most unique heals in the game. It's a 0 BP spell so it's BP positive on the turns she uses it despite forfeiting both of her BP ability procs that turn, but what's notable about it is that it grants the target a small Defense Up. Small Defense Up is only 5%, but it sticks for the rest of the battle, meaning Roc can dump her LP into Liam while he's dumping his LP to give him an extra 20% damage mitigation. And then she'll proceed to spam an Attack Down/stat debuff attack. Not bad, Roc. Not bad.

Inherits

-deep breath- OK, cannons. You can do this.
This is Rocbouquet's 9th style. Most of those styles have at least one relevant inherit. Many of them have multiple spells worth looking at.
So let's start with GLEX Roc, currently in the offbanner pool. Psycho Boom is a shadow attack that debuffs the enemy's INT and WIL which chases with Euthanize, which is another shadow attack that debuffs INT. It's a lot of INT debuffing in a single turn, and if it happens to hit a weakness, it refunds 6 of its 12 BP cost. The majority of bosses in modern content will definitely Defy Weakness the next turn, but if you happen to find a boss that doesn't Defy, it ruins INT-based attacks.
After that we have Blooming Fireworks, which amplifies into an A-rank shadow/heat AoE for 10 BP which refunds BP to the party. It's random whether it refunds 1 BP or 2, so it's technically an unreliable BP battery, but since it always grants at least 1, it's still functionally a pretty good BP support spell. Roc gaining +2 BP guaranteed when she casts it (shadow damage) and maybe getting another +1 if it hits a weakness makes her one of the best BP battery units in the game.
Finally from GLEX Roc (yes, all three of the spells on that style are worth considering for inherits) you have Lightning Crash. Lightning Crash isn't really anything special — it's just a 0 BP Shadow/Lightning spell that can stun its target. But it's worth inheriting because it lets Roc sustain her Lightning attack buffs while she's spamming her main S2 attack down/debuff attack.
Jumping around to other styles we have Marine Ball from her previous limited style, which is a 5 BP AoE Morale Down attack. It's pure cold damage so it doesn't trigger either of her damage type bonuses, but it's a 3-turn Morale Down that she can potentially stack with her S2's Attack Down if you need more damage debuffing from her.
Dark Pulse from her previous Prefecture style is a 3 BP shadow/lightning AoE attack. Its damage is not considered good for that BP cost anymore, but she can spam it forever and be BP positive like with Lightning Crash but hitting an AoE instead of just a single target, in the event that you need that.
Enraged Squid from that style also happens to be the highest potential damage spell she has. It's 12 BP and it hits randomly between 3 and 5 times, so it's not a reliable nuke, but if you want to use her for damage, that's the spell to go with.
Soul Freeze from her A style (in the offbanner pool; you almost certainly have it if you've pulled on more than 3 limited banners in the last 6 months) amplifies into an A-rank shadow AoE for 9 BP, which is a pretty good cost for the damage it deals. On farms, she can use this on both turns 1 and 2 as long as she hits a weakness with it on turn 1, which winds up being a really good amount of AoE over two turns. It also has a chance to paralyze, although if you want paralyze and you don't need the AoE, Shadow Chains from that style would be better, with both a much cheaper cost (2 BP) and a higher innate chance to paralyze.
Also from A Roc (yeah, another style where all three spells matter) you have Drain Life. Drain Life amplifies into a 4 BP B-rank shadow attack that comes attached with a Small self-heal. The self-heal sizing in this game is not helpfully categorized, and Small self-heal tends to equate to about 900-1200 heals, depending on formation and buffs, making it a spammable attack that is very good at keeping her HP topped up.
Moving on to her SaGa the Stage style, we have Tri-Flower, a C-rank shadow AoE for 6 BP. Tri Flower's damage is utterly unimpressive, but it also buffs the party's WIL, and this style can cast it a whooooole lot with its +2 BP on shadow hit, which is a very compelling option to have for a unit that can dispense Defense Ups.
Her Platinum SS style has Water of Life, which is not going to compare favorably to Graceful Cup in most situations, but it can remove stat debuffs, and in some situations that may be more important than the Defense Up.
Also from the Platinum style is Energy Storm. Energy Storm amps into an 8 BP B-rank shadow AoE. Soul Freeze+ is better damage for only slightly more BP, so on 2-round AoE farms, you would want to use Soul Freeze. On 3-round farms, however, Roc can use Energy Storm on all three rounds as long as she hits a weakness on turn 1 and turn 2. B-rank damage is not always going to clear a round on its own, but being able to cast it back-to-back-to-back is still damn handy.
OK! Final style! We're almost there, cannons!
Last but not least is her S style from the very first Tower event the game released. Lightning from that style amplifies into a 0 BP lightning attack, similar to Lightning Crash from GLEX Roc. Triggering just the lightning portion of her Goby Hook Switch ability is obviously worse than trigger both portions, but it's better than triggering none of them which is what her staff bonk would do. If you don't have Lightning Crash, consider Lightning+ as a filler spell for those turns where she needs to recharge BP - it sustains the DEF boost and it gives her a little more bonus heals.
But Lightning+ isn't the spell we really care about, here. The spell we really care about here is Dark Wash. Dark Wash amplifies into a 10 BP SSS-rank shadow attack, which is already a compelling option over the abysmally-named Lightning of Darkness. But above-and-beyond that, Dark Wash+ removes all stat buffs on its target — not just their INT buffs like Goby Spark does. Getting that buff break function out of a cheaper spell and for all stats is a pretty big deal, and since this is from a tower style, every player has access to it. She has a highly awkward BP rotation using it, so it's not accurate to say she can use it every-other-turn or every-three-turns, but she can use it frequently enough that she can keep even bosses that have pretty aggressive stat buffing in check fairly well.

Macha

Unit Summary

Overdrive damage enabler made far better with an inherit from her last style.

Unit Analysis

Macha with no inherits is kinda meh, honestly. She can theoretically get a lot of BP going between her innate +1 BP/turn and her S1's 25% chance to grant her +4 BP on cast. And she has a ~40% chance to chase every attack with Crimson Flare+, which is a pretty hefty chase attack backed up by her 65% damage boosts. But where she falls down is what she can spend that BP on.
Flame Bash and Saga Magical Train are both AoE attacks. Neither one is especially impressive damage-wise, but they both have decent rider effects. Flame Bash will buff Macha's INT (before attacking, so she gets the buff before damage is dealt) and Magical Train inflicts Sundered on the the targets for 2 turns. Sundered makes the enemy take more damage with each attack they take that turn, meaning if you have Liam and Silver on-deck, they wind up taking a ton of damage just from the chase attacks.
Macha benefits strongly from getting more Overdrive turns, both because inflicting Sundered first thing in the turn helps maximize the damage you get out of it and also because she chases Overdrive attacks with Crimson Sunflare, getting a free trigger on the Sundered effect.
Unfortunately, Macha's only innate defenses and a good chunk of her damage modifiers come from an automatic Morale Up and Guard Up she gets every turn, which do not stack with other Morale Up or Guard Ups. That gives her poor synergy with styles like Music Fest Goddess who grant the party Guard Ups, or Riki who grants the party Morale Ups, or Summer Fatima who does both. And since Macha is only helping to deal more damage, that failure to stack with other Morale Ups/Guard Ups does actually hinder her compared to other characters like Urpina who have innate defenses that do stack with Guard Ups and can dish out a decent amount of damage on their own whilst also helping to squeeze more damage out of their teammates.

Inherits

Divine Tree from her Lunar New Year style helps solve the issue above where the only thing Macha does is damage. Divine Tree is two hits of C-rank blunt/pierce damage which recovers the party's HP on each hit. Divine Tree is actually a decent attack in its own right, and with Macha's +BP tools you can use it frequently enough that it becomes the most heals-per-turn any character can muster without specific kinds of cooperation from the enemy. Of course, you don't wind up using it every turn, which can sometimes be a drawback (you may need the heal on a turn when her BP isn't ready), but on average it winds up being a very, very good healing tool.

Beef... it's what's defeating the enemies — Romancing Festival Limited Banner

Polka Lynn Wood

Unit Summary

Polka is a tank who can get in some counter hits, heal up his teammates, and dispense big hits that come attached to big attack boosts for the party.

Unit Analysis

First is Hearty Steak. Polka sizzles up a decent heal for a teammate and the charbroiled flavor continues to grant them an end-of-turn tiny heal for the next 5 turns. Whenever Polka uses it, he also grants himself that same 5 turns of end-of-turn heal. So it winds up being a good amount of healing for the LP, actually.
Second is Rising Kuroge Wagyu. Polka throws a whole-ass cow at the enemy for SSS-rank heat damage and the... smell...? grants the party a very large attack boost for the rest of the turn. Thankfully, it has [Fast] priority, so it's going to be rare for the attack boost to go to waste. Polka's damage is decent enough on his own, I suppose, but the attack boost for the party is still going to be the meat of the skill, here.
Third is his ability Skills of a Chef. Skills of a Chef is a solid damage mitigation ability plus Flame Ward (polka takes no heat damage and counters all direct attacks with a little heat attack) plus Overdrive chaser. What's the Overdrive chaser? It's Rising Kuroge Wagyu!
-presses hand to ear- I'm sorry, I've been informed that it's not an Overdrive chaser, it's an Overdrive counter. So on Overdrive turns, every time Polka gets hit, he drops a big heat attack on the enemy and he boosts the party's damage some more. If you have characters using big Delay attacks or you just expect Polka to get hit a lot that turn, that attack boost adds up for serious damage.
The longer the fight goes on the tougher Polka gets, so after 5 turns he's pretty tanky (nearly 60% mitigation) and has both reliable self-heal-on-hit and on-demand heal/turn. So he can take those direct attacks like a champ.

Inherits

Still Blade Phoenix is the big one, giving Polka a 9 BP SSS slash/heat delay attack that drops a decent-sized heal on the party. This Polka is slightly tankier than Robin Polka (the style that has that skill), has better BP rotation, and has slightly better self-heal potential, but winds up dealing less damage if the enemy is dishing out lots of direct attacks. (No stacking buff-on-hit and a weaker counterattack.) Your call, there.
If party-wide heals aren't your concern, there's also Back Detonation, an 8 BP SS heat attack that has a medium(!) self-heal. Medium self-heal is substantial enough that it can actually overheal with enough CHA buffs in play. And at the lower BP cost than Still Blade, Polka can use it more often, just straight face-tanking for the team.

Liz Lynn Wood

Unit Summary

Combination WIL buffer and counter defense booster. It's... yeah, it's weird, just read further.

Unit Analysis

OK, so Liz parallels Polka significantly. Where Polka has decent damage and slowly stacks up defense, Liz starts with solid defenses and slowly stacks up damage. Where Polka counters with an attack boost on overdrive turns, Liz counters with a defense boost. Where Polka has heals for the party and self-heals, Liz has WIL buffs for the party and self-heals. Where Polka ignores heat damage, Liz ignores cold damage.
The main difference between the two is that Polka is going to want to save his BP for the big attack + attack boost, where Liz is more likely to want to spam Aqua Bash+, the WIL buff. Aqua Bash is actually a decent attack (B-rank column cold damage for 4 BP) and has the highest Overdrive gain of any skill in the game (restores 25% of the gauge on hit), making her very good at cycling her Overdrive meter back to full. When she overdrive counters with Karatsu Water Wall, she grants a huge defense boost to the party, meaning in situations where you can focus a lot of direct attacks onto Liz, she can wind up absolutely flooring the damage the party takes on her Overdrive turns. And with support from Emelia and Thyme, you can make sure those overdrive turns happen pretty dang frequently.
Honestly, the spammable WIL buff on its own is a pretty sweet deal, but in battles where direct attacks are flying every which way? Yeah, Liz will put in work.

Inherits

Droplet from her last all-mage style is a spot heal that grants the target Guard Up. Great for helping someone survive a turn when Liz doesn't have Overdrive built up yet.
Twin Arrows from her A style (story reward from Polka's story) amplifies into an attack that grants her two tiny self-heals on hit for 3 BP. Great for helping top Liz's health back up between Overdrive turns.

Jo

Unit Summary

Supportish unit who gets to be super tanky for 10 total turns per battle.

Unit Analysis

When Jo's Overdrive gauge isn't full, she has 55% damage mitigation and 20% damage modifiers. When it is full, she has 30% damage mitigation and 45% damage modifiers.
On her overdrive turns, you will want to use Glacial Ray, a 10 BP SSS cold/sun attack with delay. Glacial Ray can only be used 5 times per battle (it's an arbitrary limit; think of it as costing 1 LP but you get to keep the LP for KO purposes), but it causes Jo to ignore all damage for 2 turns. With 55% damage mitigation on turns outside of that window, I don't think I need to explain how good that makes Jo at not getting KO'd.
OK, so she's tough to KO. That's great. What else she do? Well..... not a ton, actually. Glacial Ray is by far her best attack, the other two being E-rank damage and a B-Rank AoE. Fresh Squid (the E-rank attack) includes a self-heal, which is great, but again, it's not bringing much damage to the table. And Ice & Fire Giant Squid, the AoE, is fine damage-wise, and it even includes a Medium Morale Down for 2 turns to help keep damage input low for the rest of the team, but it's 8 BP, so you won't be spamming it.
Now, in fairness, Jo does get +2 BP/turn, so it's not at all difficult to rotate Hot/Cold Squid or to be ready with 10 BP for Glacial Ray on overdrive turns. But if you don't need the AoE component of the Morale Down, she also offers less damage than Aisha does with Earth Thrust, which also maintains a Morale Down.
Now "extremely sturdy + maintains Morale Down" is still a very good deal, don't get me wrong. There's definitely going to be battles where Jo is going to be better to bring than Aisha. But it's also not breaking new ground.

Inherits

Lots, but I'm going to focus on two.
Sunshower from her S style (a GLEX style that was awarded during an event I no longer recall; probably going to be avaialble as a drop at some point this month) is a 4 BP cold/sun AoE attack that grants the party a tiny heal. This is actually BP-positive on this style, since she gets +2 BP/turn automatically, allowing Jo to spam that heal until it's time to drop Glacial Ray. Or if you need the Morale Down more, you can have Sunshower in your back pocket to spend a little excess BP on to help keep the party topped up while you're rotating Hot/Cold Squid.
The other is Sparkling Ice from Robingal. Sparkling Ice deals SSS cold/sun damage, chases with SSS heat/sun damage, and then paralyzes Jo for 3 turns. This is not the highest-damage Jo to utilize this spell, but she is the only Jo style that can use it every-other-turn should you have someone who can cleanse the paralyze.

I was having this discussion with my boyfriend the other day. He works 12 hour days at his job, 5 days a week. Around Christmas, it’s 6. He works for a large package handling corporation (guess which one). These people are so heavily exploited. And the higher up in management you go, the more of your life you have to give up for the company until you reach corporate. The fourth highest up to CEO guy has an apartment in the warehouse.
This is what selling your soul is to me. My boyfriend and I rarely spend time together. I work just part time as a package handler, as I’m a college student. And I’m doing just fine. I have no desire to move up in the company seeing what they go through. I don’t care about the money. If I want more money, I can pick up more hours or just get a side hustle. I have freedom. I’m in the Union, I work little hours, I have weekends, holidays, vacations. Am I rich? In money, no. In life? I would say so. And I don’t have to sell my soul to have that like others claim I need to. Meanwhile, my boyfriend, a lower level manager, works 12 hour days - SALARIED - 5 days a week, only gets 3 vacations, can’t call off, has to get PTO approved, cannot come in late.
And he’s a shell of a person. He hates life right now. All he does is work and sleep just to work again. It’s a stressful job. He makes $70k a year, before taxes. That’s just not worth it. He is so depressed, feels like he is nothing but a wage slave. He’s very much angry at himself for choosing to get promoted twice. I asked, “why did you do it?” He said, “it was more money”. That’s when I told him he sold his soul. A lot of the supervisors and managers are the same way as him. Absolutely miserable. Alcoholics. It’s just sad. I’m sure this is common in large corporations.
Selling your soul is seeking out more money from evil sources (I.e., large corps) and having your entire life and health stripped away because of it.

Last Friday, I picked up my dog up from daycare in my 2020 Toyota Tacoma, and then traveled 6-7 hours to visit my family for the weekend and Memorial Day holiday.
Before I started my trip, though, I got in my first ever accident (I’m 30 years old, nothing on my record). As we were leaving the daycare (my dog was in the passenger seat), I looked both ways to ensure no cars were coming toward me, and I turned left out of the entrance/exit. I began driving forward and a few seconds later I noticed a car that I believe came from behind in my lane and began driving next to me on the right side against the curb. I was shocked and slowed down, but he kept going and his rear driver side ended up hitting my passenger front side/bumper, creating a dent, broken plastic, and scratches on my paint. By the end of it, he was in front of me.
We both pulled over, I looked at my damage, we talked, and I suggested we call the police. He had minor paint damage, but nothing in comparison to me. He even stated his car was old and he cared nothing about it really, and it just gets him where he needs to go (basically, he didn’t seem to be bothered by the accident).
The policeman arrived, and eventually he questioned us each separately as to our testimony of the incident. I felt nervous as I was upset about the damage and it being my first accident, so I’m not exactly sure I remember all I said in the moment, but I know I started from the beginning and mentioned the turn, then I immediately felt like he was laser focused on that and he asked “Which way? Left or right?”, to which I responded, but he really didn’t give me much time to explain the whole story and basically from what the other diver claimed, they’re trying to say that I didn’t “yield to oncoming traffic,” or that I just pulled out and hit the back of his car while he was driving past. This is also insinuated in the police report from his paraphrasing of what he believes my testimony was.
This is not how it happened at all, and I’ve stated that multiple times to my insurance, but the only evidence they have to go off of is the report, and I’ve been in touch with the same officer since, and he just keeps on saying for me to go to court and he’s not willing or he “can’t” change what was written, as it’s too late.
I’ve paid for a lawyer through an app called “Off The Record,” and I explained all the details to him, but my case is still under review and I’ve not heard back yet (it’s only been a day at this point, so maybe I’ll still receive something soon).
Does anyone have any advice, though? Do you think I have a chance to get it dismissed or keep my record clean? Based on the report and location of damages, they truly think I’m at fault when I’m honestly not. I’ve tried seeing if I can get camera footage of the nearby area, too, but it doesn’t seem like there is any.

*Wave 45 is absolutely brutal, and I can't get past it. If there's anyone who has gotten past and can explain, please do so.
This game mode is crazy glitchy, in both good and bad ways. Stuff will go wrong, dont be surprised.
Strategy for upgrades: Push Mages to lvl 11, then warriors, then archers, then mages to 17(max), warriors to 17. Archers are literally optional at this point.
Archers are horrible compared to mages, so never use them. The only reason we're upgrading them is to get SFX, which is really good.
Most annoying feature: Warriors will target the enemy closest to the goal. This makes sense of you're an idiot, but this leads to new warriors going to fight troops where there are already 3 warriors and ignoring the slightly further away enemies that are about to genocide the mages. To get past this, make sure to wait until the low hp warrior die, give the enemies a second to walk forward, and then deploy your next warrior.
Progression in this game mode is cumulative. If you die at stage 44, you can restart at stage 41(last stage above a multiple of 5). Each 5th stage is a boss fight, so if you can just survive the boss for a minute(length of each round), you can pass it, and come back at the next stage. This is hideously broken. You get all the money you would have gotten, but without having to spend any of it on fighting the earlier waves. Eg. I start wave 40 with around 50k gold. You can also upgrade your troops and not worry about replacing them.
There are 3 sections of the map: bottom lane, top lane, and castle.
Bot lane: 3 mage slots, 6 warrior. Has a long thin corridor that allows for bottlenecks. Excluding bosses, proper warrior management should allow for basically infinite stalling, but the actual DPS is low. Mage slots will be SFX, FQV, and a single mage. Instead of groups, wait for 2 warriors to die, then send out 2 with a few seconds in between. Eventually you can build up a regular system so that there will be at least 4 warriors alive at all times. Castle troops will occasionally come down and help, although this is based on how close the units get to the bottommost unit in the castle lane, aka basically rng. Early game you want 3 mage/3 warrior here.
Top lane: 8 mage slots, 8 warrior. Horrible placement, the exact opposite of bot lane. Bc of the dumb warrior targeting system, your mages will die almost every few rounds. Keep a very close eye on this, as this is usually the path that fails and leads to a loss. Early stages I prefer multiple mages and 3 warriors so that dmg is maximized.
Castle: You want a minimum number of troops here, bc they take away from garrisons in the other 2 lanes. However, I always keep a warrior(or asmodel) stationed here in case something sneaks through. Also put a FQV here for the dmg boost once you get it.
Heros:
FQV: Has a heal that saves on gold, as well as improving damage. Very useful, prioritize over mage. You should have 3, 1 in each lane.
SFX: Best dmg here, it's aoe ability is great. Prioritize over mage.
Asmodel: Never use unless about to be overwhelmed. It's always a waste of gold.
Bosses: I know they have names, their names don't matter.
Sword guy: Hasan ability that 1 shots everything in the game. Mages, warriors, FQV, Asmo, your castle, everything. It only triggers against warriors though. You want 1-2 warriors and like 8 mages against this while spawning a warrior every few seconds. Pretty annoying.
Bow guy: Easiest boss, annoying to deal with but if you have the gold just spam asmos.
Healey Boy: Heals everything around him, has a clear staff and healing visual effect. Pretty weak, but can easily overwhelm if allowed to build up an army.
When you get the option between castle health, 300 gold and troop hp, always pick up as it will save you a lot more than 300 gold. The only exception is when you are starting at a later wave, so you don't have any troops and can just get the free gold.
Upgrades: Ignore the castle upgrades, your castle will get 1-shotted regardless.
Glitches:
Stuff getting stuck. Your troops will try to help out other lanes occasionally, and your troops will usually end up stuck. The only way to unstuckify them is to clear every last enemy troop, at which point they will return.
Sometimes heros will end up in other lanes after going to help. This allows you to spawn in more heros, which can lead to 4+ copies of each hero.
Lag: Just horribly coded and unoptimized, get a $5k professional gaming phone.
When you upgrade mages, stop spawning troops and let everything die. They don't upgrade if they've been deployed. Then deployed upgraded troops

Hey guys,
This is my first pc ever. I've been looking into many different pc parts and finally picked on these. Feel free to let me know if I could have done better, but keep in mind I already bought them, so I can't really do anything about it if they're not the best.
CPU: Intel Core i5-12400F 2.5 GHz 6-Core Processor
CPU COOLER: Vetroo V5 52 CFM CPU Cooler
MB: Asus PRIME B660-PLUS D4 ATX LGA1700 Motherboard
RAM: Silicon Power GAMING 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory
MEMORY: Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive
AND Samsung 980 500 GB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive
GPU: PNY GeForce RTX 3060 12GB XLR8 Gaming REVEL EPIC-X RGB Dual Fan Edition
CASE: Antec DF700 FLUX ATX Mid Tower Case
POWER: EVGA SuperNOVA 650 G5 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply
MONITOR: Lenovo G24-10 24" (23.6" Viewable) 1920 x 1080 Full HD 1ms 144Hz G-Sync Compatible HDMI DisplayPort Tilt Gaming Monitor
WIFI: ASUS AC750 Dual Band PCIe WiFi Adapter (PCE-AC51) - Compatible with PCIe
About the wifi pcie adapter: I actually have really fast Wifi 6 at home, and didn't know this when I bought the wifi. Is there a drastic difference between this wifi card and the one I might buy? Here is the link: https://www.amazon.com/Ubit-Ubit-AX200/dp/B07Y2MYK4N/?th=1
I am planning to build this in a couple weeks. I am really confused by all the different cables and fan hubs and stuff, so it would be greatly appreciated if someone can help with that. It would be the greatest help if anyone could give me a list of all the necessary cables, asus motherboard drivers, and bios settings. Thanks!

I just downloaded VRC and I'm having issues with my microphone
​
I'm not using VR for the game but a stand-alone mic w/ interface however, when it comes to Windows microphone detection and apps such as Discord the microphone picks up works just fine however when I load VRC there is no detection
(even with USB / DIRECT I hear direct play-back from my mic)
I have my microphone set to "Always" with the threshold at 10% but there is not audio detection in the settings, any advice for how I can fix this?
​
interface: M-Audio 1926
Microphone: Audio-Technical AT20-30

Hey everyone! Long post coming, TLDR at the bottom. For context, we're first time cat owners (did tons of research beforehand, especially on adopted cats!!)
We adopted a cat about a month ago from the shelter (Romeo). He's estimated to be between 3-6 years old. He was soooo friendly at the shelter. He let us rub his belly, pet him, etc. We brought him home and he went through an expected adjustment period. We used his kibble food as "treats" to positively associate him with us. Kept him to one room the first few days, gave him space, followed all the guidelines.
Romeo doesn't run away anymore when we enter the room and he actually will come greet us sometimes. He still is wary about us approaching him from above if he is on the floor, but if he's on the desk, cat tree, etc and we approach him, he's happy. He immediately rolls over for belly rubs and is one of the most affectionate cats I've met. Lol. Still doesn't like being picked up though. He only cuddles my sister (mainly her cat), but has started cuddling me too if I lay on the floor near him or on her bed.
That brings us to tonight. I was in her room just petting Romeo/giving him some kibble food as "treats" and doing some positive reinforcement. Our dad came to the door and jokingly whisper yelled to spook us and tell us to go to bed. Welp, I accidentally hit (grazed?) Romeo, our cat. Not hard, but enough to send him scurrying off. And he was so skittish again near me. It's like we reverted back to day one. He was hiding under her dresser. I gave him some kibble "treats" and lured him out near me, but he was visibly afraid of my hands. I finally decided to go to bed and give him space. He did eat out of my hand though.
TLDR-- have been working hard the past month to get a new cat to trust me, we had a somewhat good foundation, I got spooked and accidentally hit him. Now we're back to square one it feels like. Advice welcomed.

Hey guys,
This is my first pc ever. I've been looking into many different pc parts and finally picked on these. Feel free to let me know if I could have done better, but keep in mind I already bought them, so I can't really do anything about it if they're not the best.
CPU: Intel Core i5-12400F 2.5 GHz 6-Core Processor
CPU COOLER: Vetroo V5 52 CFM CPU Cooler
MB: Asus PRIME B660-PLUS D4 ATX LGA1700 Motherboard
RAM: Silicon Power GAMING 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory
MEMORY: Seagate Barracuda Compute 2 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive
AND Samsung 980 500 GB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive
GPU: PNY GeForce RTX 3060 12GB XLR8 Gaming REVEL EPIC-X RGB Dual Fan Edition
CASE: Antec DF700 FLUX ATX Mid Tower Case
POWER: EVGA SuperNOVA 650 G5 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply
MONITOR: Lenovo G24-10 24" (23.6" Viewable) 1920 x 1080 Full HD 1ms 144Hz G-Sync Compatible HDMI DisplayPort Tilt Gaming Monitor
WIFI: ASUS AC750 Dual Band PCIe WiFi Adapter (PCE-AC51) - Compatible with PCIe
​
About the wifi pcie adapter: I actually have really fast Wifi 6 at home, and didn't know this when I bought the wifi. Is there a drastic difference between this wifi card and the one I might buy? Here is the link: https://www.amazon.com/Ubit-Ubit-AX200/dp/B07Y2MYK4N/?th=1
​
I am planning to build this in a couple weeks. I am really confused by all the different cables and fan hubs and stuff, so it would be greatly appreciated if someone can help with that. It would be the greatest help if anyone could give me a list of all the necessary cables, asus motherboard drivers, and bios settings. Thanks!

So I am experienced in the maintenance department, but not practical experience, (only been doing this for about 4 years). I currently have a moderately planted 75 gallon tank that has been established for 2-3 months. Currently I have 2 pleco, 2 angels, 8 albino cories, 8 pepper cories, 40 neon, 1 female betta, 2 male guppies, 2 snails, 8 platies, 1 Molly. (All the single fish, snails, pleco, angels are friends picking tank appropriate fish as they wanted to have something to relate to when they come over) I am wanting to stock more, but am wondering how much more I can stock without an extreme amount of extra maintenance. I already do a 10 gallon water change every other day, vacuum gravel every other day, and scrub the tank once a week, which is to say tank parameters are always perfect for the fish I have. No deaths since starting this tank, no fun nipping, not even aggression from the angels laying eggs. I also have 6 more Amazon swords and 10 valisnaria coming next Tuesday to remove more toxins and purify the water more, and to turn the tank from moderately to densely planted. I am aware of the 1 inch per fish ‘rule’ but I think we can all agree that this isn’t a rule but a beginner friendly guideline. Just looking to see how many more tetras I could add for example and get away with it. Or what some other potential problems I might face besides the obvious like ammonia or chemical imbalance. Thank you!

So I am experienced in the maintenance department, but not practical experience, (only been doing this for about 4 years). I currently have a moderately planted 75 gallon tank that has been established for 2-3 months. Currently I have 2 pleco, 2 angels, 8 albino cories, 8 pepper cories, 40 neon, 1 female betta, 2 male guppies, 2 snails, 8 platies, 1 Molly. (All the single fish, snails, pleco, angels are friends picking tank appropriate fish as they wanted to have something to relate to when they come over) I am wanting to stock more, but am wondering how much more I can stock without an extreme amount of extra maintenance. I already do a 10 gallon water change every other day, vacuum gravel every other day, and scrub the tank once a week, which is to say tank parameters are always perfect for the fish I have. No deaths since starting this tank, no fun nipping, not even aggression from the angels laying eggs. I also have 6 more Amazon swords and 10 valisnaria coming next Tuesday to remove more toxins and purify the water more, and to turn the tank from moderately to densely planted. I am aware of the 1 inch per fish ‘rule’ but I think we can all agree that this isn’t a rule but a beginner friendly guideline. Just looking to see how many more tetras I could add for example and get away with it. Or what some other potential problems I might face besides the obvious like ammonia or chemical imbalance. Thank you!

So I am experienced in the maintenance department, but not practical experience, (only been doing this for about 4 years). I currently have a moderately planted 75 gallon tank that has been established for 2-3 months. Currently I have 2 pleco, 2 angels, 8 albino cories, 8 pepper cories, 40 neon, 1 female betta, 2 male guppies, 2 snails, 8 platies, 1 Molly. (All the single fish, snails, pleco, angels are friends picking tank appropriate fish as they wanted to have something to relate to when they come over) I am wanting to stock more, but am wondering how much more I can stock without an extreme amount of extra maintenance. I already do a 10 gallon water change every other day, vacuum gravel every other day, and scrub the tank once a week, which is to say tank parameters are always perfect for the fish I have. No deaths since starting this tank, no fun nipping, not even aggression from the angels laying eggs. I also have 6 more Amazon swords and 10 valisnaria coming next Tuesday to remove more toxins and purify the water more, and to turn the tank from moderately to densely planted. I am aware of the 1 inch per fish ‘rule’ but I think we can all agree that this isn’t a rule but a beginner friendly guideline. Just looking to see how many more tetras I could add for example and get away with it. Or what some other potential problems I might face besides the obvious like ammonia or chemical imbalance. Thank you!

I had a small issue with a gig. There was a 10 delivery Best Buy gig and when I arrived to Best Buy the employees there told me that the packages had already been picked up by another driver.
I waited there for over a hour with efforts to contact Roadie to cancel but they would not cancel as they said for Best Buy orders to get canceled some special person had to sign off and he wouldn’t be in until 48 hours later on Tuesday 5/29/2023 (this was the Saturday 5/27/2023). I get around to Monday and someone from Roadie support finally cancelled the order for me but soon after they did it, Roadie blocked my account with no reasoning.
I then endlessly reach out to Roadie via email and phone just for them to tell me that I have to wait for Trust & Safety team to contact me via email but it’s been a week almost now (today is Friday 6/2/2023) and I still have not gotten an email from them.
This should not take so long. How long does it take for Roadie Trust & Safety team to generally get back with people? I know the generic answer “they have other issues to address and they go in order but seriously; you guys can block my account instantly in mid-conversation with support but can’t at least send an email in a timely fashion? This affects us serious drivers’ money in a negative fashion.
Any answers on time frame anyone?

Hello so i’m trying to solo Q to atleast masters 3 so i can be proud of myself. i know i’m capable of atleast hitting gm5 or maybe that’s my ego talking.
my last bracket i went 5-2 and every game i won i had well over 16k dmg going 38-2 or 25-4 or 42-5 and i had well over 24K damage that game with a pocket mercy but all my other games were without one and my other dps will have 6-8k damage playing characters like sojourn ashe and other heavy hitters. and i just get replaced into diamond 5 after having 5 outstanding games with my performance. i really tried my hardest and the games that i did lose i still did really well. didn’t even go over 6 deaths. every game i’m focused on positioning, who’s alive. can i flank and get a pick. constantly. grouping up and it just makes no sense, 71% accuracy with soldier on controller and i just had a game where i went 27-5 with 11,515 dmg and my other dps went 15-10 with 5,402 dmg as tracer, was sniping with reaper before, i seriously feel like i’m being held back by my teamates to really get to my goal that i have already achieved before..how do i get out of this loophole rank system? am i just destined to stay diamond? am i just awful or is it the game?