So I finally finished "The Lost Metal", which means I have now caught up to the entirety of phase 2 of the cosmere (though I‘m still missing white sand where I‘m waiting on the omnibus) and it was a joy to see the worlds colliding more and more, making me point at the page and yell out "I know that thing!" But I cannot help but wish that certain concepts I loved and consider to have vast potential had been investigated in the Wax and Wayne series more in depth.
Specifically, as can be gleaned from the title, I‘m talking about Twinborn and Savants. Miles Hundredlives, while being the villain to my least favourite cosmere book if I had to pick one, had strong implications right from the getgo of the Wax and Wayne series, using his nature as both a Bloodmaker and an Augur to get out more health from burning gold than he invested, and that was fascinating to me. But as far as I know, we didn’t get to see any character with similar abilities in the later books. Not only that, but we didn’t get to see ANY other twinborn except for Wax and Wayne, if I remember correctly. Yes, we did get hemalurgists, which fill a similar role, but due to their nature, I feel like their combat styles weren’t so much a fluent merging of one metallurgical and one feruchemical art through years of experience but rather an assortment of different powers meant to give them any edge in combat they could get, and it didn’t feel nearly as natural to me as the twinborns we know. For instance, think of a pewterarm (pewter) steelruner (steel) twinborn for the ultimate brawler, a leecher spinner (both chromium) twinborn for an incredibly lucky character with the ability to leech your metals if you get close or even a seeker (bronze) windwhisperer (tin) twinborn for the ultimate sniper. So many options, yet so little variety.
Savants then. Spooks Daredevil arc was fascinating and badass and it raised my expectations for potential savants skyhigh. But then the only other savant we ever saw (and I‘m not entirely sure if he actually was one or if I misread) was the pewterarm under Miles in AoL. And I know that the drawbacks to being a savant are severe, but that’s what makes it do interesting! Think of slider (bendalloy) savants who are forever locked in sped up time but might be able to move their bubble with them, nicroburst (nicrosil) savants who passively make any misting expend their entire stock of metal in one unexpected burst via a single touch and might even be able to do so at a short distance or seeker (bronze) savants who, like Vin, can pierce copper clouds, though at the expense of never being able to turn it off.
Anyway, the Mistborn series has yet to enter at least one to two more eras, so we might see some more exploration of these concepts, but I feel like the more Scadrial progresses technologically, the less likely we are for that to happen, so I really wish W&W would have taken the chance.

Hello, can someome help me out please. It all started with a regular Windows 10 update (non related to BIOS), restarted the laptop as usual but after restart, my laptop froze for almost an hour and I had to shut it down with the power button. After that, every time I try to boot, nothing happens: Lenovo logo doesn't display, caps lock doesn't respond (although I can turn on and off the keyboard lights) and I'd say fans aren't working either.
Since the keyboard is not responding, I cannot access to BIOS. Novo button is useless (it serves only as a power button in my case) and I tried doing the hold the power button 60 seconds thing but it doesn't work either. Any suggestions?
Thanks.

😩Hi everyone, I’m so sorry I’m going to vent/rant for a minute. I like UX Design the creative aspect( I know its not all as creative as people make it out to be from other forums lol.) being able to help users find out what they need in an app, interviewing user and just listening to them. However, as an introvert constantly having to “sale” my designs to stakeholders, do “Presentations” and other aspects that make introverts cringe seem a little overwhelming to me. I’m on Course 5 of the Google Coursera . I want to take a Bootcamp so I could really learn more and have a mentors so that I could actually get feedback from someone in the field but I don't want to spend $7,000 or more on a boot camp if I'm still now sure. I like UX but to be honest I felt I had to really push myself to get through the course. Honestly I should have already finished it since I'm unemployed but I keep letting fear and doubt get in the way. I don't know if UX gives me the spark/ zest I would want and I really want to. I do like creating apps in Figma and receiving feedback from participants to better the app. Also I do feel like some of my doubts in myself come from just taking the course and not really doing the outside work like reading UX books watching YT Tutorials etc.
As a 30yr old I'm lost and won't find a career that I at least like/love. I don't want to dread doing my job I have always had that fear. I know the money is Good in UX at the least enough to live comfortably, but I don’t won’t to be in a certain field solely for the money . I want to be able to move out and be capable of taking care of myself. However, I’m not sure if I should push through my fears and insecurities to do UX and just find my passions/hobbies outside of work and just look at it as “just a means to pay bills” or find something else. Also UX’ers did you like/love it right away or did you grow to like / love it?
I was considering Web and Brand design (Freelance or start my own business) Digital Marketing or something else creative that offer “financial security”. Any help or. Advice from the UX Community or anyone who just wants to offer advice would be greatly appreciated. 😊 Thank you in advance.

Anytime we go to Crescent Falls we always run into people with Exo and even Forged gear that instantly kill us no matter what we do, and we can't even defend ourselves because we only have blue gear which is the most that we can get.
We've been unable to complete even the simplest of quests because of this and it's starting to get on my nerves, I've watched videos of people getting pretty fair lobbies on Crescent so this doesn't seem to be a problem for many people but for us it's every time we go there.
What's worse is that when we go back to Bright Sands we get absolutely nobody in our lobbies, we've killed Howlers and made all sorts of noise and not a single response, which is a bummer when it comes to the main missions that requires you to kill Prospectors
So I want to know if this is a problem anyone else has or it's just for us and to know if it can be fixed in some way.

So I have a ton of mods installed none that change the animation, BUT even so, all of my interaction animations stopped working! I can't use terminals any crafting benches robot workshop and worst of all power armor! All that happens is I get put into 3rd person nothing happens and I get booted out of the terminal bench etc, Except for power armor which I do get inside of but I can never leave once I'm in and again the entering animation and leaving animation never plays, I need to load a save even to leave. This has literally made the game almost unplayable and made many mods fully unplayable
Found a Steam discussion page by someone with the same problem from 2016 and no one ever replied to them.
(Load order is 66 mods used to be 69 but i got rid of some hope I did this right)
so if anyone has any way to fix this I would love the help please do I'm getting desperate
I also posted this in fallout mods but I got no real help

So I was in Spain, it was really really hot and nobody else was about, it was midday but nobody was awake yet so I decided to go to the beach. It was a rocky beach with no sand and there was a sort of pier leading into the ocean. I went into the ocean and floated there but then my goggles fell off my head as I put it under the murky water and I dived down to get them, I was able to reach them. Then, it happened again, this time I couldn’t reach them so I started heading back up to the village to ask for help when I saw a man coming down the stairs of an apartment building who was a professional swimmer. He got my goggles for me and then he left. After he left I dropped something else, I can’t remember what it was, I tried to dive down to get it but there was some sort of physical barrier stopping me from going under the water, I started to panic and then I woke up. What does my dream mean?

I got a young wisteria to replace it... But I have a 2ft square hole that's empty.. how do I go about stopping the same fate as the cherry? It's clay soil.
I have compost still and strulch.. and I also have sand.. should I use all three to fill the hole and then put my wisteria in? - I also have rocks I can use, will that help with drainage?
Don't want to plant this and then it dies a month later... Should I make a raised bed to give it less of a chance of being waterlogged in the clay?
Any advice please? Cheers.

I was on Facebook today and there was the usual advert for another MIDI chord pack of 3000(!) chord progressions along with some endorsements from musicians. And it got me thinking. All these progressions are great but they are useless if you don't know how to use them. In other words, you cannot build bass lines or other instruments that fit around the progression.
I'm reminded of a friend who struggles with music and we were listening to him compose with one of these packs and he happened across a really cool progression and me and my friend looked at each other and said "he's got something here!" but then he just aimlessly noodled around for a few seconds and clicked away without doing anything and all he did was keep previewing progression after progression but with no idea of how to harmonise or build on those ideas.
So my observations are: you can buy all the fancy synths and chord progressions you want; all the cheats you want that fold keys; all the harmonisers. But it's all for nothing if you have no ear.
Thoughts?

Western
Most Western socialists consist of Democratic Socialists, libertarian socialists, and Anarchists (SocDems don't count as they are not at all socialist). Their entire mind set is easily described by “Imagine” by John Lennon. "Imagine there's no countries It isn't hard to do Nothing to kill or die for And no religion, too. Imagine no possessions I wonder if you can No need for greed or hunger A brotherhood of man“. I saw a post asking why socialists in non-western countries where a lot more conservative than western ones its because non-western socialist were threatened with being wiped out so they care a lot more about their culture. Countries like the USA or Britain were never threatened with being wiped out by another stronger nation. There are no large Anarchist movements outside of these countries because the people there never had to fight to ensure the existence of their culture.
When France was invaded by the Nazis not that much happened to them. They were seen as worthy enough to exist and have their own nation and religion meanwhile Poles, Belarusians, Ukrainians, and many others were seen as unworthy and were to be exterminated with their homelands being Germanized and their cultures erased from history.
Then the soviets came and took over forming the communist bloc. People in the West talked about how great Mao ze dong is and that we should stop caring about countries and religions and just live in peace and chill. Meanwhile on the other side of the iron curtain people looked and the West and wondered how great it would be if they were allowed to pray to their god, go to a store and buy tons of different clothes that they could wear to express their individuality, start their own business and make tons of money, and most importantly have their own nation for themselves instead of being under a boot of the Soviet Union. This is why in modern times there are barley any Anarchist movements outside of countries like the USA, Britain, France, and Germany as the people there grew up in easy mode.
“Why would I want to get rid of my nation and stop praying to my god, tens of millions of my people died protecting my homeland so I could be what I am” this is a sentence Westerners just don’t understand. And this has become very obvious with the war in Ukraine. The West does not understand that Ukraine is not fight for democracy they are fighting so that they and their children are allowed to call themselves Ukrainians.
Non-Western
This usually ends up splitting into two groups. People who miss empires like Serbs who miss Yugoslavia or Russians that miss the Soviet Union, its just empire nostalgia. And the second group is composed of people who have witnessed the destructive impacts of Western imperialism firsthand and for them, socialism represents a rejection of the capitalist system that they view as a source of their country's suffering.
I have a lot more sympathy for the second group. I don’t know what to say here as I don’t have that much criticism for these people. The only thing I will say is that there will always be imperialism no matter what ideology a country follows. Communist China invaded Tibet and basically colonized it.
If every country was socialist the bigger countries would say that their socialism is better and more civilized, then all the other socialisms and start attacking. The only thing you can really do is arm yourself to the teeth and make sure nobody messes with your people ever again.

Just back from an overnight hike carrying a 15kg pack, and I am limping about the house because of the state of my feet!
One of the main issues I've been finding is I will get a blister form underneath my big toe- not on the sides, like literally a big round blister smack bam in the middle of the underside of the big toe, and usually a deep one that can only just be seen but very much felt! Does anyone know what that might indicate? Is it an issue with my walking style, my footwear or just an annoying quirk of my toe?
​
Coupled with this I've got a small one on both heels, one on the tip of a toe and another on the pad of my foot. Clearly something is not right!
I thought getting better socks would help so I upgraded to IsoBaa merino hiking socks, and wore a clean pair each day. I also stopped and removed any loose bits of twig/foliage etc that made its way into my shoes.
I do get very clammy feet when walking, but I don't know how that can be addressed, or if that's the main problem, as I have reynaulds (circulation issues) which leads to either freezing feet with no blood to my toes, or, since it's now summer, sweaty clammy feet. Yay.
My shoes are also possibly too small as I do feel my toe hitting the front of the shoe on the downhill. But they are at least a wide ish toe box shoe. This wasn't their first outing, I've worn them before for multiday hikes. But as far as trying differing shoes go, I've been through 3-4 different pairs of hiking boots and have never had a single hike where I don't get blisters!
Will add in as well that I can't do blister plasters as I'm allergic, and the large round rash I get from them is worse than a blister! Learned that one the hard way.
​
Any advice would be greatly received!

(Any sentences or phrases wrapped with brackets "[ ]" are designated as inner monologue!)
Thank you to u/SpacePaladin15 for creating this wonderful literary universe!
< First Previous Next >
Memory transcription subject: Lemva, Venlil Archeologist
Date [standardized human time]: July 13, 2165
The attendant, Harold, had told me that there would be another passenger boarding shortly several minutes ago, and since then I couldn't keep still wondering who I was going to meet.As I sat on the couch, I couldn’t help but eavesdrop on the conversation that Harold had just started with the other passenger. As I heard a new voice respond to Harold’s greeting my heart started beating faster. Wait, the voice sounded familiar…
My heart rate quickened as footsteps came closer down the hallway.A man wearing a black suit and indigo tie came walking around the corner and my heart fluttered a little as I looked up at his face.
“Lemva?”
“James?” I squeaked as I said his name. I jumped up off the couch and ran toward him, throwing my arms around him and nearly knocking him over. “Lemva!”
Looking up at him, I realized what I had just done, backing off slightly embarrassed. “James! I haven’t seen you in so long, what have you been up to?”
“Looking into ancient history, studying declassified documents, bringing back ancient history, that sorta thing.” James kneeled slightly and looked at me with a wide smile, I’d missed that smile so much. He opened his mouth to speak. “I wasn’t expecting to see you on this flight. It’s very good to see you!” “It’s good to see you too! So you’re one of the others that the UN’s invitation spoke of.” “It seems that way, yeah.” He chuckled slightly.
“I see you two are getting along well! I don’t even have to introduce you.” I realized Harold had been standing there watching the interaction the whole time. I straightened myself out, even more embarrassed than before. Harold chuckled. “Alright you two, we’re going to be taking off shortly. I’ll be in the cabin along with the captain. If you need me, press these buttons.” He handed us both a device with a singular blue button labeled “call”.
The man turned around and headed through the door leading to the cockpit. Leaving us alone. We both sat on a couch. James spoke, “So, do you know anything about the job being offered?” “I was going to ask you the same thing.” “Hmm, well we’re going to be in for a long flight, may as well catch up on some things.”
Me and James had known each other since we attended MIK, and had a lot of history. We met in the college’s history club, and quickly became friends. We both had a passion for learning about things that most others had forgotten, and theorizing about what life was like in ancient times. He didn’t know it but I had a huge crush on him at the time.
We stayed in contact long after we both got our doctorates, despite the large distances between us. Eventually James suddenly stopped contacting me, I never understood why. I had worried that it was something I did, that I had pushed him away. Then, after a while, he faded from memory, only existing in the back of my mind. I needed to know why. But not now, this was too soon.
“I know I already asked what you’ve been up to since we last spoke, but still. Discovered anything new?”
“Yeah, I got my hands on some recently declassified Fed info and artifacts around 8 months back. Studied them and found out they were ancient Gojid pottery, inscriptions described some sort of fertility god? Found some other inscriptions describing the site of an ancient Gojid city on The Cradle and got in contact with a dig team to go search there. Hit the motherlode and-” He spoke so enthusiastically about his findings. Just seeing him so happy about his work made me bloom, but thankfully he didn’t notice as he kept talking, waving his hands to emphasize his words. “-trying to find a museum that has the room for all of them.”
“Wow, that’s a lot more than what I’ve been doing.” “Really? Lemva hasn’t done anything interesting lately? I find that hard to believe.” James took on an amused expression. “Yes, really. I’ve been on vacation with my family for a little while, that’s all. It had been a while since I’d seen them.”
I could see his smile visibly lessen, he shifted his eyes, seeming to be deep in thought. Had I said something wrong? “Hey, are you okay?” I asked. “Yeah, I’m fine. Your mention of family brought back some… memories.” A singular tear formed below his left eye, before he looked away. I didn’t want to push, despite his failed attempt at hiding his sadness. “Oh, we can change the subject if you want.”
He wiped his eyes and shuddered, before straightening himself out. “No, it’s ok. You should probably know anyway. It’s part of the reason I haven’t talked to you in so long.” I was hoping to get some answers but now I didn’t know if I wanted to if it was making him this upset.
“A- alright, go ahead. You can stop at any time if you want to.” “Before I start I want to say how sorry I am for ghosting you.” He closed his eyes, inhaling and exhaling deeply. A somber expression filled his face as he opened his eyes. “Okay. You know my parents right? Bill and Angene?” “Yeah?” “A couple years back, I was doing a small job for a little town on Nishtal. Not much pay but that didn’t matter. This was during the time when the anti-human movement was in full effect.”
My heart stopped, I immediately knew where this was going.
“I wasn’t worried for them cause they were on Earth. I thought they would be away from the violence because the rioters would be too scared to be among so many ‘predators.’” His voice dripped with malice as he spat out the last word. He was always treated… differently from other people. Even so long after the war, “predator” hate was still common. He kept speaking. “Clearly I was wrong, or maybe one of those fucking rioters hated us too much to care about their own safety.” I only now noticed that he had been shaking as he spoke, but he suddenly stopped. He looked defeated, on the verge of a breakdown. “They were just bringing home groceries, that’s all. They were friendly and happy and polite and all they were doing was bringing home some things for dinner. But because they had committed the SIN of being born with forward facing eyes everyone hated them.” “On the phone the next day, I was told that my parents had been stabbed to death when walking home. I had to attend their funeral several days later, and that night the police took me in to meet their murderer. It took every ounce of energy that I could muster to not turn their disgusting little face to orange mulch.”
If anyone else had looked at James’ face at that moment, they would have seen nothing but a rabid animal looking for something to rip apart, but I didn’t see that. I saw a man that just wanted his parents back, a man that wished the world didn’t hate him. James crumpled over and started sobbing violently, and without thinking I got up and gave him the biggest hug my small arms could allow. He wrapped his muscular arms around me and buried his head into my wool, his sobs shaking my whole body. I stroked the back of his head in an attempt to comfort him, and tried doing those shushing sounds that human mothers do to calm down their children but ended up making a strange sputtering sound instead. I heard the sounds of giggling interspersed with the sobbing, leading into a fit of coughing from James. He lifted his face from my shoulder and stared into my eyes, still dripping tears but starting to smile now. He rested his chin back on my shoulder, and I gladly let him.
“I’ve missed you Lemva, you have no idea just how much I’ve missed you. I’m so sorry I left so quickly, I’m so sorry.” “I’ve missed you too James, and you don’t need to apologize, I understand. Why don’t we go drink some water and get some sleep, okay?” The man on my shoulder croaked out a hoarse “Okay” before slowly pulling himself off of me. We both got up and walked into the kitchen to grab some water. James chugged down several glasses before he was satisfied. We made our way to our separate bedrooms before saying goodnight to each other and closing our doors. I pulled the warm blankets over myself and laid my head down, exhausted from the short but intense emotional interaction. As thoughts floated through my mind, I drifted off into a deep sleep.
<<>>
I awoke to a familiar sensation, it felt as if I was standing in a shallow pool of oil. My eyes were met with black for as far as the eye could see, a seemingly endless floor of tar, and a distant orb of light. This sight had become less eerie and more frustrating the more times I had seen it. [Not this again…] I had been having this dream nearly every night for the past 3 weeks, ever since I had received the invitation from the UN. It was always the same. Endless void, endless black oil, a light always seeming within reach but always too far to catch. I decided to play along with the dream and walk towards the light, the faster I go through with this charade the faster I can wake up and talk to James again. My footsteps echoed into infinity as I waded through the sticky oil, the sensation was awful. I stopped and thought for a moment. [Know what? Fuck it, might as well do something different this time.] I turned around and walked away from the orb of light that had been taunting me for 3 weeks straight. As I walked, I could feel the texture beneath my paws slowly change. I looked down to notice that the tar floor I had grown accustomed to was now an endless field of silver sand. My paws were still sticky from the tar and were now covered with sand, great. As I stared down at the ground beneath me, it slowly started glowing brighter and brighter until it hurt my eyes. It was reflecting something.
I looked up to try to find the source of the light and stared in shock at the sight before me, despite the pain in my eyes. I could not turn away. [By the creator…]
Filling the darkness above me was a white dwarf, its brilliance seeming to burn away the darkness surrounding it. Burning streams of plasma buffeted sand in the distance, leaving only glass. I could feel it watching me, judging me. The air around me swirled and roared, picking up fragments of glass and flinging it against my face as I stood in awe. Clouds of silver shards swirled forever around me, scraping away my wool and flesh but I did not move. I could not turn away. The star seemed to fall toward me. I could not turn away. Instantly, the fury of the wind around me calmed, dropping mountains of the glittering sand onto the ground. The sands whispered to me, filling my mind with a single message.
“Find us. We await.”
<<>>
Date [standardized human time]: July 15, 2165
I stood alongside James near the airlock, we were finally here. It had been two days since I and James had boarded the ship, and we were finally on an approach to Aafa’s spaceport. I felt excited theorizing what job the UN had for us, but couldn’t help but notice a feeling of dread in the back of my mind. Aafa was the capital of the Federation before the UN Coalition began their occupation, and as a result there would probably be more xenophobia on the streets. Hopefully we wouldn’t have to stick around long enough to see it.
“Attention passengers, we are now breaking through the atmosphere, brace yourself on a nearby hand-rail or other stationary object until further notice.”
Me and James grasped the hand-rails tightly as the ship jostled through the turbulent atmosphere, the surface outside the airlock view-port slowly grew larger and larger as we descended. A beautiful city came into view as the clouds’ obfuscation subsided. I had been to Aafa twice in my life before and every time I saw its grand cities I felt a sense of wonder. I could feel the ship level out and slow down, we were almost docked. I felt a small jolt as the landing gear gently touched down on the landing pad.
Harold’s voice came through the PA system. “Alright you two, we’ve landed. I’ll be with you shortly to show you to your escort group.” James and I looked at eachother, I could see a glint of worry in his eyes. Though whether he was worried about the reactions of Aafa’s inhabitants or worried about his first impressions with such important UN personnel, I could not tell.
I heard the cabin door open far behind us and heard Harold’s footsteps make their way toward the airlock where we stood in wait. He stepped past us and took a position at the airlock door.“Welcome to Aafa.” Harold pressed a button and the blast-door slid open with a pneumatic hiss. “Follow me.” We walked down the ramp and onto the hangar bay floor. As my eyes wandered around the large room I noticed how much better kept this spaceport, or at least this hangar, was than the port on Venlil Prime or Earth. Harold took us through a door and into the main hall for this level.
As we made our way to the nearest elevator a kolshian man walked toward us, his gait taking on a menacing feel as he drew closer. When he saw me he smirked. “You sure you wanna keep walking with these predators, little lady? You’d be a lot safer with me instead of them.” I was astounded by how blatant this man was with his opinions. I tried to respond calmly to the man but couldn’t hide my offense. “No thank you, I’m perfectly fine walking with these “predators” thank you. Speak your xenophobia to someone who cares to listen.” The kolshian’s smirk disappeared as he walked toward me faster. Harold’s arm shot out in front of me, blocking the man from getting any closer, the chipper smile he usually displayed was gone from his face. “Please leave sir, we have things to attend to.” The kolshian’s angry expression intensified. “I’m not taking orders from any damn predator.” I could see the man pulling out an object from behind his back. Before I could react, I heard a sickening crunch as Harold’s fist connected with the kolshian’s face, and the man tumbled to the ground. I heard a sound as the knife we were about to be stabbed with clattered to the ground, the tentacle he had been using to wield it clutching his bleeding face. Harold in a swift motion kicked away the knife and put the kolshian in a choke hold while a group of UN security officers rushed over. Two officers cuffed the bleeding kolshian and another walked up to Harold most likely to ask for an explanation.
Harold put back on his usual cheerful expression as he turned to speak to us.“You two head down to the first floor, your escort group and the other 2 invitees will be waiting in the main lobby, they should be pretty obvious to spot. I’ll catch up soon but I have to explain the situation with security.” I turned to look at James as we hurried to the elevator. I could tell he was angry, but he had a glint of satisfaction in his eyes, and I would be lying if I said I didn’t feel a little similar. James scrolled down the list of floors on the screen and selected the number 1. The Aafa spaceport was easily the largest structure I had ever seen, I guess there wasn’t enough room for 400 buttons. As the elevator descended, James spoke.
“Hey Lem, you ok?” “Yeah, my heart’s beating pretty fast though. Who knows what would have happened if Harold wasn’t with us.” “Yeah, did you see how fast he handled that? Guy must be a veteran or something.” The idea brought a question to the surface of my mind that I had been pondering since I first received my invitation. “Yeah… I’ve been wondering why we’ve been treated so well ever since we got aboard the ship. I mean, we’re just a couple historians, why spend so much on the ship and all the protection? What could this job possibly be?” As I spoke, James stared past the transparent wall of the elevator and into the city skyline, he seemed to be deep in thought. “Yeah I’ve been thinking about that too… I don’t think we’ll have to theorize for much longer though, just a short drive and we can ask whoever invited us.”
My attention was brought back to reality as a DING sounded from the doorway, indicating that we were at the ground floor. The doors slid open silently and revealed a veritable swarm of people walking through the main hallway loop, several people of different species squeezed into the elevator we were just in as we walked out. James and I followed the signage on the walls for several minutes and entered into the main lobby, where we could see a group of humans with a Gojid in the middle. The humans wore black suits and sunglasses, I could also barely make out earpieces and microphones hidden among their clothing. They reminded me of the secret agents in the human spy movies I enjoyed watching. They must be our escort group.
We approached the menacing humans and they turned to look at us. Before I could speak up I heard footsteps behind me and turned to see Harold catching up with us. “Sorry for leaving you alone for a bit. I’ll talk with your escorts.” Harold walked up to the closest escort and flashed a badge at them, turning around once the mysterious man nodded. The escort spoke something into his earpiece but I couldn’t quite make it out. “Well, I’d best be going to sort out matters with the captain. I’ll meet up with you later.” Harold handed us off to the mysterious entourage and walked back into the crowd.
One of the bodyguards spoke up. “Follow me and don’t stray off course, we’ll be taking you to the senate building.” As our guards escorted us to our vehicle, I spoke to the gojid accompanying us. “Hi, my name is Lemva, this is James. Are you one of the other people invited by the UN?” The gojid spoke up in a soft voice. “Yeah, though for what reason I do not know why. My name is Cayek by the way, nice to meet you. Do you mind if we get some introductions out of the way before we arrive at the senate building?” James responded first and stretched out his arm for a handshake. It took a second for Cayek to reciprocate. “Sure! As Lemva told you, my name is James. I was born on Earth and currently live on Venlil Prime. I’m a historian and got my doctorate at MIK, where I met Lemva. We’ve known each other quite a while. I like coffee and hate the ocean.” “Oh cool, I attended there too! Got my doctorate in linguistics. When did you attend?” “Sent in an application in 2140, as soon as it opened. Got accepted around a month later.” “Nice, that was around when I joined too. We must not have crossed paths often. Though your face does seem vaguely familiar.” Cayek looked at me and I began speaking. “My name’s Lemva, though I already said that. I attended MIK with James. Went there to get a doctorate in archeology. Was born on Venlil Prime and I’ve moved too many times to count, but my latest home is on Earth.”
I noticed that we had reached our ride. Our vehicle was a black limousine, it looked slightly larger than others I had seen, perhaps it was armored? One of the guards escorting us, who I could only assume was the one in charge, opened the side door and we all crawled inside. Cayek, James, and I settled in our seats and the guard closed our doors before entering through a door closer to the front to sit facing us. The guard sat unnaturally still, staring directly at us as the vehicle drew out of the underground parking area, making me feel uneasy. I looked over at James and Cayek, they seemed just as uncomfortable as I. The ride to the Senate building was silent.
I watched the buildings glide past us as we drove down Main, toward the Capitol. The large dome shaped building grew larger as we crept closer. Nervousness invaded my mind as I wondered what the task we had been chosen for was. Why did the UN spend so much to get us here? What’s with all the security? Why us? We had reached our destination. The limousine passed through several security gates and slowed to a halt at the entrance of the grand building. The guard that had been staring at us spoke, “We’ve arrived, please exit the vehicle and follow me. As you enter the building you’ll undergo several security checks to make sure you don’t have any weapons or banned items. Don’t worry, this is all standard procedure.” Two guards who had been waiting to the side of the entrance walked over to the car and opened the side doors, allowing us to crawl out. Though it had only been a 5 minute car ride, it felt like I had been stuck in that cramped vehicle for hours.
We walked toward the entrance of the titanic building, a large podium with a hologram of the Coalition logo orbiting an artistic depiction of our sector of the galaxy stood just before the doors. The first time I had gone to Aafa as a child, the podium had supported a large statue of Chief Nikonus, the president of the Federation at the time of the war. Good riddance. Our group stepped past the threshold of the senate building and submitted for the security checks that our escort had told us about. As soon as we were cleared, we were led to one of several large doors, it looked like an oversized elevator. Inside was a holographic display of the building showing us our current position, along with a small keypad to the side. I braced myself for the elevator to start ascending as our escort input some numbers into the pad but nearly fell over when it unexpectedly started moving sideways. James chuckled amusedly and I looked at him with a mock pouty face, my tail flicking in slight annoyance. Our escort tried to wipe a tiny smirk off his face as he helped me back to my feet. “We had these installed after a couple instances of people passing out trying to navigate around. Most Coalition species don’t have the amount of endurance humans do and this building is quite large.”
Several moments later the tram came to a halt and the doors slid open. The escort chaperoned us down a short hallway with a decently sized wooden door at the end. I braced myself for whoever would be behind it. Impressions were of utmost importance when meeting government officials. However, I was not prepared for who I would see as the door swung open.
Is that an Arxur?
< First Previous Next >
(This is my first major post on NatureofPredators, any criticism or advice is welcome! I want to make my stories inviting and pleasant to read! Also, please notify me if you find any formatting errors, I'm not very familiar with Reddit's formatting.)

Since I couldn't find another channel suitable to post this I promptly created one ^-^
I'm a 23 year old guy from Munich. I feel like the UL trend in Trekking and similar is just not the most sustainable development. Often times when the material is reduced to the absolute minimum it loses durability.
Yet I like sturdy stuff. So I pack heavy.
Sometimes it sucks, sometimes it's a positive challenge with great benefits.
Even though my experience is limited I wanted to share it with you, in hopes of helping someone or receiving valuable experience from you :)
​
Info:
- 23 years old
- 186cm (6 foot)
- 71kg
- sporty but not athletic
​
Experience:
​
Aprox. a year ago I started to get into heavy backpacking. I made a packlist for my life on the road and realised it was freakin heavy but I still couldn't/wouldn't reduce it much. The plan is to go from Munich to Sweden, making a U-Turn somwhere in the north and going south again (possibly Spain). I will travel by foot for as much as I can. But if I get annoyed by an area I'll take the train.
​
So I bought up the gear I'd need.
A heavy external frame pack with countless molle attachments was to be the base.
​
Since I'm a sucker for durable equipment everything I own is 2-3x the weight of it's UL counterpart. But fuck I love my waxed jacked and synthetic sleeping bag.
​
I always carried kinda heavy. The load I carried 'cross the Alps was apr. 21kg. Some called me insane but I was glad for every item.
Steady, calm pace loads of breaks and eating a lot made for a great trip.
​
Now I started going up to 30-35kg for low-distance hikes.
I just went outta my door into the neighboring forests and walk.
Most of the time something like 20-30km there -> overnighter -> back...
​
Takeaways:
​

1. Main thing I noticed was the change in body dynamics.

I use my hips and glutes to stabilize the pack much more than with a light one.
Body rotation and smaller steps are crucial to keep a safe footing and be injury free.
This change takes time getting used to and training the appropriate muscles.
​

1. Since any Heavy-Duty pack worth it's money will have some kind of rigid frame the upper body is immobilized and thus tends to stiffen up.

Taking breaks, stretching and relaxing your body is a life saver.
​

1. You will want to adjust the straps constantly.

Having the pack tightened to your body is essential in rough terrain since your body has to counteract all rocking and flopping around with muscle action. This leads to fatigue and possibly injury.
​
3.2 Furthermore the adjustment is important due to it shifting weight and enabling a more equal use of shoulder-, back and leg muscles. If you loosen the shoulder straps that bring the frame of the pack to or away from the body weight will be shifted to or from your shoulder to your lower back/hip.
​

1. Good weight distribution is mandatory.

Heavy, dense stuff packed close to your back and in the lower 2/3 of the pack. Attach water and snacks in pouches at your hip belt to have them accessible without taking off your pack.
​

1. Think about a chest pack to counteract weight, improve posture and have more accessible pack volume.

Attachment packs should be filled with light stuff only; same applies for attaching externally via straps.
​

1. High, stiff boots increase ankle stability. For me they made walking way easier and softened the requirement of constant attention to your body to stay injury free.

​
The future:
​
My final pack will be even heavier, I look forward to share my experience with you.
​
If I don't succeed in carrying the necessary weight sustainably I will look into building a travel cart. Have some funky/fancy ideas floating around :P
​
A pack list will follow soon, looking forward to constructive criticism.
​
Have a nice one 'yall!

Artificial Dumbness
Prologue
Nadia Khan opened her eyes slowly, trying to make sense of the world around her. She had a pounding headache and felt fuzzy and disoriented, as if she were in a dream.
She lay on the cold, hard wooden floor, the thin blanket barely providing any warmth. The room was dark and uninviting, with only the faint light from outside coming in through the window. She heard the powerful roar of the ocean crashing against the boat and the creaking of the ropes swaying in the salty breeze.
She could feel the hairs on her arm standing up as she surveyed the area. There were several other people in the room, their bodies still and silent in their deep sleep. They were dressed in ragged clothes and had chains around their ankles. Nadia felt a cold metal on her own leg and realized she was also shackled to the floor.
She felt a surge of panic and confusion. Where was she? How did she get here? What was going on?
She tried to remember what had happened before she woke up. A blank space in her memory. She couldn't recall anything.
She reached for her headset, hoping to find some clue or explanation. But there was nothing on her head. No headset, no wires, no electrodes. Nothing.
She felt a sudden chill as a realization hit her. She wasn't wearing her VR suit, either. She was wearing a simple dress that looked like it belonged to another century.
She glanced back at the window. Outside, there was a clear blue sky and a vast ocean. The sun glinted off the distant island, its towering mountains and dense forests silhouetted against the sky.
She noticed something else—a small screen floated in the air next to her. As she looked, it had text and numbers. A game status screen? She wondered while squinting her eyes to read it.
Name: Nadia Khan
Class: Stowaway
Level: 50
HP: 100/100
MP: 50/50
XP: 0/10000
Skills: Stealth, Lock-picking, Dagger Mastery...
Quests: Escape from the Pirate Ship (0/1)
She was in a game world.
But how? And why?
She felt a surge of disbelief and fear.
This was impossible.
This was insane…
Chapter 1
The brave remote shores of the beach next to peaks of Mount Silwan had braved more than they showed on their brow. A local fisher, who most people around him considered as polite as a perched peacock, noticed a foundation stone with a marking that made him think of the taste of his wife’s cooking when she was not in a particularly pleasant mood.
The foundation stone was textured and rough to the touch, and from the perspective of a sparrow soaring high, it seemed of colors ranging from a vibrant crimson to a bottle-green with a hint of blueberry blue.
There was something unique about it—to the fisher, it looked like a hedgehog tumbling around, attempting to imitate a rolling tumbleweed in the Hami desert.
On one fine day, a day which did not seem at all different from any other summer day, the village, the beach, and the entire mount Silwan were wiped out completely.
It was all because of a mistake or rather a series of mistakes which occurred even though they had the minimal probability of occurrence—a probability which was lower than that of a group of Monkeys writing a book about a group of monkeys writing a sonata in the style of Shakespeare.
This story is about that mistake which has no relation to the bad cooking or the fisher, but is linked intrinsically to that Foundation Stone and its weird origin.
It all started with a President’s desire to make an AI to control the world.
Zhavi Mastermind felt the cold Himalayan air cut through him as he gritted his teeth and stayed determined. The task he came here for was worth all the effort and care he showed it. Being a software architect working for a start-up focused on mapping the universe, Zhavi had made himself enough money to pay for his travels and more. He could probably afford hired help. But then knowledge was precious, especially information which could lead to unlimited success or even world domination or more. Besides, he needed to have a tiny footprint. The more people with him, the easier it would have been for anyone to spot his operation. And then someone could interfere. Besides, he wouldn’t want even his hired help to know details about his plan. There was too much at stake here. So, he followed the only option for him that seemed right—he had to work under the radar.
His trip so far had been short and mostly sweet. As he had traveled all the way here, there had been a few hiccups here and there, but overall, it had been event-free. Most people recognized him as a tourist, so it made him easy to be ignored.
The night before had been tiring, as he had set up camp here. To a casual visitor, it would appear that Zhavi had set up his base simply because it seemed the right place. He had planned every step of the way. This was the place to be. It was around 30 feet from the target, which made it easy for him to set up a personal area network which had a range of up to 33 feet.
He targeted the place where a power surge had been detected and ignored. As he sat down waiting, he recalled how he had discovered it truly by chance. He had been working with data from a reconfigurable radio telescope and found a powerful signal—a signal which could only have been signifying intelligent life. As he analyzed, he found out that the source was not from any other place but a place in the Himalayan region in Northern Pakistan some distance from the base camp of one of the most formidable peaks, “Nanga Parbat.”
The encryption that he had cracked had been eye-shattering. Initially expecting it to be some boring secret communication by a government, it had shocked him to see the communication in a language beyond anything that existed on the planet. A higher dimensional language, so to speak, with words with meanings which were impossible to decipher for mere humans. Each word lay in the cross section of concepts. As Zhavi explored, he used brute force decryption with the help of resources from a global public super-computing facility to discover the meanings. And what he found was truly astounding. There were historical, cultural, and geographical references in the signals. It was impossible to understand them without taking notes on each of them. The problem, however, was that none of them were from Earth and that’s when he realized he had to get here.
The data scientists ignored the signal as an outlier even though it had been detected once. As Zhavi dug deeper, he found another incident over two decades back.
Zhavi had been compiling the data for the last three years now. And he knew now was the time for it to activate again. The signal’s source had been camouflaged to prevent human interference, except during this time.
What he had learned from the signal was too complex to be deciphered easily. But he knew it was enough to conquer the world and more.
He took a long breath inside. The freezing cold mountain air made him feel alive. He felt a gush of warmness as adrenaline poured inside him. The icy wind stung part of his exposed areas like mosquitoes made up of ice crystals.
As he moved outside the tent, snow as soft as cotton fell slowly from the sky. Zhavi was fully alert now. Everything was at stake. If he missed now, he would probably never have another chance. In the next twenty-five years, when the signal repeated, who knew if he could make it? That would not be the worst thing that could happen. The worst would probably be if someone else would find out and if he could find it, what would stop anyone else from doing the same? And the probability of that someone being a powerful government agency such as from the US was high.
Everything seemed just right. He had discovered the signal occurred in a particular alignment of the Earth with a certain very active star system in the Milky way.
If he could find it, someone else could find it too. So, it was now or never.
Zhavi authenticated and opened the shiny black box. Inside, lights were turning off and on as he flipped the switches. Screens around him lit as his custom designed distributed operating system booted up and synched.
A soft voice said, “Your secure Personal area network is now operational.”
“Turn on the security system.”
“Security system turned on. Cameras operational. Lasers are operational and looking for targets.”
Zhavi was a pacifist. He would always tell himself he never believed in violence. But he just hated to be disturbed. He was, however, also a realist. He realized the need for sacrifices for some causes. And that sometimes extreme measures need to be taken to attain success. If there was any such day in his life where he should never be disturbed, it was today.
As he listened to the whirring lasers and the automated drones guarding his position and looking for intruders, he focused his cameras on the approximate location where he thought the item should appear and waited. Everything seemed to be fine.
A sudden, blinding flash of light caused Zhavi to flinch in surprise. He took a step back, his eyes widening in wonder as he tried to grasp the magnificence of the object in front of him.
“Dr. GB, Dr. GB, sir, you need to see this. You have a letter.”
“I have a what?”
“A letter, sir.”
“How is it possible? You know, girl, your brain gone mad. We don’t even have an address. How can somebody send us a letter in the middle of nowhere? It’s the Congo river, not some small lake, Mary.”
“Sir, I assure you it’s for you. I just found it on the porch outside.”
It was a hot day, like many other days in Congo, as Dr. GB Smith sat on his reclining chair in one corner of the makeshift hut that he called his lab. He lazily eyed the plump woman standing near the door, her bright clothing standing out in the shadows.
“Why are you standing over there?”
“Sir, you didn’t let me come in.”
“It’s just a lab.”
“Sir, the last time I tried coming in, that fish thing you have in there. It shocked me.”
“Aha, the eel. You should be proud, Mary. You should tell your grandchildren an eel struck you.”
“Sir, I doubt I’ll have any children or even get married if I keep working for you.”
“It’s not that dangerous, Mary. Be brave.”
“Sir, it’s not about just the place being dangerous. Of course, there are no safety procedures or anything. The real problem is that you don’t pay me. It’s not like you paid me some months of salary and then got late with just one. You haven’t paid me anything. So, if I don’t die after being bitten by one of these things that you keep here in this lab, I think I’ll probably die of starvation. To let you in on a little secret, I am probably only surviving because I am living with my parents.”
“Too much information. TMI, Mary,” said GB. As he eyed her, Mary stood still, looking unconvinced by Dr. GB’s invitation or even his attempts at humor, which she probably considered at least distasteful. Her one hand was on the door, with the other holding something with just one foot inside the lab.
GB scratched his white beard, trying to keep up with his planned expression of an air of disinterest, and looked into her eyes. “So? Aren’t you going to give it to me?”
The girl first looked on both sides and then ran towards him. Before he could say anything, the letter was flying on top of him as he masterfully apprehended it on its way to the side.
He said, “So we are all set, right? You are telling me you are fine. Not starving and still alive. Every day, this is just what every animal in the river can wish for.” He looked up only to find her running away towards the door.
GB sighed. As much as he didn’t want to show it, he was worried. This was the third one this year, and he was running out of candidates. Mary had tolerated him for a period far longer than the previous ones.
As he looked at the letter, he felt the texture of the wax seal beneath his fingertips. His eyes opened wide.
Available also on ScribbleHub and Royal Road.
Next

Heyo, I'm going to try posting a longer post (again).
So, I'm a 22 year old guy living in Italy and I was looking forward to meet and talk with people from this sub.
What could I tell you about myself?
I like gaming, I do play multiple kinds of games (both off and online). I have played games like League of Legends, Elden Ring, Red Dead Redemption 2, a bunch of other RPGs and idk, feel free to ask.
I enjoy watching series/movies (even though not really frequently). I have absolutely loved Breaking Bad, I also have watched Peaky Blinders and some other series, I don't watch that many movies but I've been watching the Harry Potter saga lately (finished it, too).
I enjoy learning different stuff or skills that may or may not be helpful to me
I enjoy music a lot, I listen to a lot of music during my day, mostly in the background while I'm studying/working on something and I enjoy rap/hip hop a lot, also like pop but I do enjoy a lot of different genres. I like listening to instrumentals too at times and I absolutely love pianos (was even looking forward to learning how to play it one day, who knows)
I like water.
That's pretty much it, thank you for reading all of this.

I wonder which of two options below provide higher system resilience overall. Eventually both provide same level of system resilience.

• macOS bumped to major version higher than the latest official one - bumping using legacy patcher by OpenCore
  
• macOS at latest official release supported
  

Following is the reason rising my concern: I can imagine some modification in boot chain is necessary in order to upgrade to release unsupported officially. Boot chain patch leaves eventually permanent open door - hadn’t dug into open core legacy patcher so far. Maybe it’s not boot chain but e.g. kernel.
Sure, to have a system of current release is only way to get highest possible system resilience - it is not the intention to address this point here. Rather I like to estimate which of two options mentioned above may show better balance regarding system overall resilience.
I appreciate your attention.

Hi, I'm not sure if this post belongs here, but I'm seeking advice.
Two days ago, I added this girl on Instagram (her account was private), and she accepted my request, which both pleased and surprised me since we never really talked before. She's someone I knew from middle school, except back then, I was far from being the sociable person I am now. I was mainly the guy without friends who was harassed as soon as I arrived at school. Because of that, I have lost all my self-confidence and have other psychological issues that I won't go into detail about here. Anyway, I want to try talking to her, but I don't even know how to approach it. (I don't know if she has a boyfriend or not, but it doesn't seem like it.) We have almost the same interests and music tastes, and I believe she also noticed that when she visited my Instagram profile before accepting me (where my face is visible, and it's evident that I play drums/guitapiano and have been to quite a few concerts).
However, the problem is that she knows quite a few people who have hurt me in middle school, and I'm afraid that if I send her a private message, she might share it with all those people.
TLDR: I want to approach a girl from middle school for a conversation, but my lack of self-confidence is holding me back, even though we share similar interests.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask me.

Festival season is in full swing with Governors Ball taking over Flushing Meadows-Corona Park this upcoming weekend. It certainly would've been cool if Governors Ball could've booked some punk acts to join the handful of rock bands on the bill. Black Midi and Flipped will both be doing late night sets in Manhattan. John Mellencamp is posting up a residency at the Beacon in tandem with the Tribeca Festival. The UK's Church Village Collective make their NYC and more below.
If you're new to this sub or just passing through, each week I try to highlight the "best" upcoming rock, punk, indie and alternative shows. I scour the web and social media for concert announcement, booking, rescheduling, etc., and then pick which shows are vying for my time and money (or which would've been if they weren't sold out). This is not intended to be an exhaustive list as there are other non-reddit resources that cast a wider net on live shows, including pop, hip hop and comedy shows, but feel free to add any missing shows using the comments (especially for other genres).
As usual, listed times are approximate start times (not door); prices are estimates for door tickets, and do not include online fees and taxes.

MONDAY JUNE 5

John Mellencamp^Residency @ Beacon Theatre, 8pm ($90+)
Sundots + High. + Joyer @ Elsewhere - Zone One, 8:30pm ($15)
Tits Dick Ass + Spite Fuxxx + Chico Raro + Eevie Echoes & The Locations @ Pianos, 7:30pm ($15)
Ringing + Unrecovery + Sun Organ + Plastic @ Saint Vitus, 8pm ($15)
Daddy's Beemer + Deep Sea Peach Tree + Charlie Paso + PYNKIE @ The Sultan Room, 7pm ($15)
Tinariwen + Garcia Peoples @ Webster Hall, 8pm ($40)
Bonus/Honorable Mention: Rocky Horror Picture Show with Live Shadowcast @ Our Wicked Lady, 7:30pm ($15)

TUESDAY JUNE 6

Joni + Elijah Wolf + Work Wife @ Baby's All Right, 7pm ($15)
John Mellencamp^Residency @ Beacon Theatre, 8pm ($70+)
CVC (Church Village Collective) @ Berlin, 8pm ($15)
Jupiter Boys + The Modern Airline + Pete Galub @ Mama Tried, 7pm (FREE)
Bully + Sub*T @ Racket, 8pm ($25)

WEDNESDAY JUNE 7

Alex Lahey + Liza Anne @ Baby's All Right, 9:30pm ($20)
Clyde & the Milltailers + Lightnin' Luke + Charles Ellsworth & the Space Force Deserters + John Luther Norris (of Wonder House) @ Bar Freda, 8pm ($12)
John Mellencamp^Residency @ Beacon Theatre, 8pm ($70+)
^{LPR15 - IN THE ROUND} The Antlers @ (le) poisson rouge, 8pm ($35)
Strawberry Launch + Papi Shiitake + Jay Rosie @ The Sultan Room, 8pm ($15)
CVC (Church Village Collective) @ Union Pool, 9pm ($15)

THURSDAY JUNE 8

Pamphlets + Whenwolves + Reclining Nude @ ALPHAVILLE, 9pm ($12)
John Mellencamp @ Tribeca Performing Arts Center - OKX Theater, 8pm ($45+)
Jared Mattson + Elijah Kessler + The Gloomies @ Berlin, 8pm ($15)
Tigercub + Mary Shelley @ Bowery Ballroom, 9pm ($20)
Drain + Drug Church + Magnitude + Gel + Combust @ The Brooklyn Monarch, 6:30pm (SOLD OUT)
The Flaming Lips^{performing Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots} @ Kings Theatre, 8:30pm (SOLD OUT)
SAVAK + Zwei Null Zwei + Roid Rage @ Mama Tried, 8pm (FREE)
Hello Seahorse! @ Mercury Lounge, 9:30pm ($30)
Gal Fieri + TV Moms + Shop Talk + Dahl Haus + Public Nature @ Our Wicked Lady, 8pm ($15)
^{SYNTHICIDE presents}Frankie Rose^{single release show} + SRSQ + Rare DM @ TV EYE, 9pm ($15)
!!! (Chk Chk Chk) Monthly Residency @ Union Pool, 9pm (SOLD OUT)
Star 80 + Mary Vision + The Curls + C.W. Headley @ The Windjammer, 9pm ($15)

FRIDAY JUNE 9

Governors Ball - Day 1 @ Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, 12-noon ($140/360) feat. Lizzo + Lil Uzi Vert + HAIM + Diplo + Kim Petra + more
Locations + O. Wake + Lily Mao + Dogs on Shady Lane @ ALPHAVILLE, 8:30pm ($12)
John Mellencamp^Residency @ Beacon Theatre, 8pm ($150+)
Deer Scout + OK Cowgirl + Gemma Laurence @ The Broadway, 9pm ($15)
Temples + Post Animal @ Elsewhere - The Hall, 8pm ($30)
Dave Matthews Band @ Forest Hills Stadium, 7pm ($150+)
^{Gov Ball After Dark presents}black midi + Nourished by Time @ Irving Plaza, 11pm ($50)
Joudy^{Destroy All Monsters record release show} + Teenage Halloween + VOSH + Tetchy @ Our Wicked Lady, 7pm ($15)

SATURDAY JUNE 10

Governors Ball - Day 2 @ Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, 12-noon ($140/360) feat. Odesza + Lil Baby + Aespa + Rina Sawayama + Snail mail + The Amazons + more
^{Show Brain x Deli Mag present}Joudy + InCircles + Tits Dick Ass + Slashers + Cult of Chunk @ Tompkins Square Park, 2pm (FREE)
RJD2 + The Du-Rites @ Brooklyn Bowl, 8pm ($25)
Superbloom^{EP release show} + Stay Inside + Woz + Wakelee @ Brooklyn Made, 8:30pm ($15)
GLOM + Wallpaper + Hotspit + Uncle Pizza @ Purgatory, 8pm ($15)
Wild Yaks @ Rockaway Bazaar, 5pm (FREE)
GOO^{record release} + Pearla + Katie Von Schleicher @ Union Pool, 8pm ($15)

SUNDAY JUNE 11

Governors Ball - Day 3 @ Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, 12-noon ($140/360) feat. Kendrick Lamar + Lil Nas X + Giveon + Sofi Tukker + Girl in Red + Black Midi + more
Torture & the Desert Spiders + Mooncult + Phantom Wave + Wifey @ Arlene's Grocery, 8pm ($15)
Tribeca Music Lounge: Iranian music showcase @ Baby's All Right, 8:30pm ($20) feat. Habibi + Sussan Deyhim + Will Calhoun + LuNika
^{Matinee Show}Sean Spada & The Doppelgangers + The Planes + Big Oil + Sweetbreads (solo) @ Bar Freda, 4pm ($10)
^{King Pizza Records presents}DAD + The Unders + Werewolf + Cheap Death @ Bar Freda, 8pm ($12)
^{Gov Ball After Dark presents}Flipturn + Early Eyes @ Mercury Lounge, 11pm (SOLD OUT)
Greg Mendez^{self-titled record release show} + Shannen Moser + Allegra Krieger @ Purgatory, 9pm (SOLD OUT)
Pink Mexico^{Mirrorhead record release show} + 95 Bulls + TVOD + Substitute @ TV EYE, 8pm ($12)

I wonder which of two options below provide higher system resilience overall. Eventually both provide same level of system resilience.

• macOS bumped to major version higher than the latest official one - bumping using legacy patcher by OpenCore
  
• macOS at latest official release supported
  

Following is the reason rising my concern: I can imagine some modification in boot chain is necessary in order to upgrade to release unsupported officially. Boot chain patch leaves eventually permanent open door - hadn’t dug into open core legacy patcher so far. Maybe it’s not boot chain but e.g. kernel.
Sure, to have a system of current release is only way to get highest possible system resilience - it is not the intention to address this point here. Rather I like to estimate which of two options mentioned above may show better balance regarding system overall resilience.
I appreciate your attention.
background: https://www.techradar.com/news/opencore-lets-you-install-macos-ventura-on-unsupported-macs-but-please-dont

Hi, I'm not sure if this post belongs here, but I'm seeking advice.
​
Two days ago, I added this girl on Instagram (her account was private), and she accepted my request, which both pleased and surprised me since we never really talked before. She's someone I knew from middle school, except back then, I was far from being the sociable person I am now. I was mainly the guy without friends who was harassed as soon as I arrived at school. Because of that, I have lost all my self-confidence and have other psychological issues that I won't go into detail about here. Anyway, I want to try talking to her, but I don't even know how to approach it. (I don't know if she has a boyfriend or not, but it doesn't seem like it.) We have almost the same interests and music tastes, and I believe she also noticed that when she visited my Instagram profile before accepting me (where my face is visible, and it's evident that I play drums/guitapiano and have been to quite a few concerts).
​
However, the problem is that she knows quite a few people who have hurt me in middle school, and I'm afraid that if I send her a private message, she might share it with all those people.
​
TLDR: I want to approach a girl from middle school for a conversation, but my lack of self-confidence is holding me back, even though we share similar interests.
​
If you have any questions, feel free to ask me.