Wendy's application

A lot of media outlets, critics, and commentators, along with many business owners and C.E.O.s often point the blame of their failures to millennials and younger generations of people. If a business isn’t doing well, it’s because of millennials in their “so-called” unusual and fickle taste, along with their unwillingness to accept certain positions for whatever reason. People will often say millennials are “lazy and entitled,” and want too much money for any given position. Here’s the problem with many of these sentiments — they’ve either always existed or have been influenced by social changes and interests. A flawless business structure can be a great in practice and application for consecutive years, if not decades. Though, each youth generation has always presented a change in the taste in some form or fashion. This process happens through technological changes; cultural influences; status of economy; class changes; and changes in personal beliefs. Most fads from any previous decades, simply faded away, due to the consumers from that same era no longer needing or finding use with that particular brand, item, product, or business. If a business doesn’t evolve its model, as its profit dwindles or simply doesn’t outgrow its peak production-to-profit model. Businesses complain about not being able to keep up with new consumers or failing to attract alternative audiences. The consumers are not at in any part of this juncture. I don’t believe the customer is always right, especially in a situation where they are compensated or given much more than what is equitable. Like, if I expect $600 from a $6 purchased product that simply defective. I preface this as a defective product that’s not dangerous, but only inoperable or distorted to be effective. Consumers has no obligations to any company unless they have a contract or payment plan/agreement, but even then they don’t necessarily need to fulfill. Granted, it could result in substantial penalties for the consumer through penalties, fines, repossession, credit inquiries, and possible lawsuits. Still, the consumer is not forced to cover the terms of agreements or payment expectations. It’s a free market practice of the consumer. Consumers don’t have to buy anything, even necessities, especially if they can find alternatives at cheaper with perhaps or greater efficacy. By default, millennials are not any more or less responsible for supporting any particular business or industry in any form or capacity. Millennials are consumers and users, like any other consumer. Even at the opposite level, they need not to provide services or labor to any particular business or industry. For example, I’ll use fast-food restaurants. Millennials or any other demographic of people could suddenly stop shopping at “Wendy’s.” We could pick any reason or circumstances that initiated the decline of the company. It could be the food doesn’t taste as well as it once did, or is failing in areas with other options via other mass-production hamburger companies or local hamburger businesses. Furthermore, Wendy’s also finds difficulty in finding and keeping employees long term. Which I could wager is the stress from fast food jobs; lower-levels pay; no to minimal benefits; required to work unusual hours, even on weekends and holidays; and the general derision of fast food workers overall. Derision equates “anyone can flip a burger,” or “fast food workers making a livable wage is laughable.” All of these factors effectively place these jobs at the very bottom of the list in being a viable option. The fast-food industries have not spoken out against this notion or really challenged it. Because, they benefit from it in the short term, specifically in a profit sense. The industries themselves are very much the source of its own problems. It simply never realized that inflation and culture can change dynamics overnight, while older populations of workers are consistently leaving the workforce as younger people have found many different ways to access income to the point that they can gain just as much as they could online in a few hours or days. People may criticize their work-ethic, ability to work with others, or general anti-social tendencies. These are always important factors to consider in the workplace, as well as life, however landlords, property managers, creditors, politicians (taxes), stakeholders, and other businesses value money and acquisition. It’s not to say they don’t appreciate or consider these things on their own, because they very well could in practice. But, the value of money outweighs all of those factors. A landlord can kick a person out despite their hard-work, good nature, and great labor, just the same with creditors who can issue penalties and negative reports to the same person. Yet, the other person may have questionable morals, be very lazy, or have any ambitions, but has no problems paying bills, credit, or taxes. Working in fast food and other similar industries can land someone in a type of financial dog house almost faster than most other professions by the way of low income, less opportunities, and less benefits. A worker has to triple their productivity to live a comfortable life or just get the bare minimum from the pot. Just as selective as a company can be with its hiring practices and sometimes customer base, the consumer or workers can do the same thing at the opposite end. Again, this works heavily in a business or industry favor, as long as … demand remains high; production remains steady; and unemployment stays closer to higher levels. When those factors decrease, a business has to make itself useful and economically viable in alternative ways. If it can adapt in these areas, then the question becomes should this business exist any longer or engage in unconventional and sometimes unethical practices to stay in operation.

Just wanted to tell someone my petty revenge story since I can’t tell anyone I know. So I stumbled upon a website where you can find anyone’s up to date personal information; address, cell phone number, email addresses, etc all for free. I remembered a TikTok I had seen a while back where a woman used her ex-boyfriend’s info to sign him up for a bunch of spam online and thought I can do better. There are a few people who have wronged me in my life, causing me undue stress, aggravation, and turmoil….but one particular person came to mind who has recently resurfaced. Here I was minding my own business when this person and their significant other (who I never knew existed) popped back into my life. I’ll keep things vague just in case anyone I know sees this, but they began to divulge details about our relationship to our friends, family, etc (our relationship happened years ago and again I never knew they were in a relationship when we began ours). They began to tell our families (our families know each other) about our relationship, like actual details….ugh I can’t even say it because it pisses me off so much. Anyway, they told the story as though I knew about their relationship and was trying to be some sort of side piece, essentially breaking up their “happy home.” (Side note: They came out as a couple just recently, they had been secretly dating for years…and no, I don’t know why they kept it secret ).
My first reaction was WTF is wrong with them, like what sick twisted person talks to their family members about their sexual activities? Who wants to share with their mom what they did with someone in bed? And if you’re asking yourself why (like I was) the reason is even more infuriating. This person was openly cheating on their boy/girlfriend (by openly I mean they told their partner they were not being faithful and with who). So their partner knew about me and I didn’t know about them. And their partner now dislikes me even though we have never even met. All because their partner was cheating on them for years (with multiple people while we were in a relationship- found this out later too) and it was somehow all my fault. Oh btw this person also claims to now have a sex addiction so I guess that absolves them of any guilt and somehow places all the blame on me. Idk how the fuck that works, but whatever helps you sleep better at night.
Anyway onto the revenge….So I decided spamming their email wasn’t enough. So I found every website that sells your information to third parties, ya know like car insurance and medical insurance quote websites, and signed them up to receive calls, emails, and texts. Then I went to the Jehovah’s witness, Mormons, and any other denomination (I did not discriminate) and signed them up for home visits. I figured they should be prepared for these visits and what better way than with a plethora of free religious books and pamphlets (you’d be surprised how many free religious things you can get). Hopefully they read them all because they both need Jesus, Jehovah, Allah, and any other deity to save their twisted souls. Then I got to thinking maybe they are such twats because they need a change. So I thought maybe a new job would do the trick. So I filled out a few job applications at places that matched their maturity level, which one can only assume is that of a high schooler. And where do high school kids work? Well, fast food places of course, like Arby’s, Wendy’s, etc. Lastly, I signed them up on a couple of those shady “we buy houses quick for cash” sites and opted in to receive text messages, calls, and emails. Maybe they decide to sell and the change of scenery does them good. I wish them nothing but the best of luck. Just kidding I wish them nothing but unhappiness and misery.
Note: If anyone thinks I’m being childish I don’t care. I never once said anything to anyone about the situation and never said a mean word about them. I did ask to speak to them to resolve the matter and they refused. So rather than me acting out of character, which is what I think they were trying to get me to do, (so I can seem like the villain) I kept my cool and ignored them….until today that is. Thanks for listening, I feel so much better now.

Hello all,
​
In an effort to mitigate the amount of repetitive questions that have been asked recently, we have set up this thread as a reminder on how certain things in the game works. As of now, this reminder is planned to be posted weekly for visibility.
​
0. FAQ Wiki Page
​

• There is both a FAQ and general guide page on this subreddit, please read through those resources before asking a question as it may already be addressed there.
  • FAQ
  • General Guide

​
1. Monthly Challenges
​

• This is a system separate from the regular song challenges that require you to score 10k higher than your max score (6.2m being the cap)
• They are MONTHLY score targets you need to reach to obtain various tiers of rewards. The more you complete the more rewards you get.
  • Progress and reward tiers can be found via: Song Select > Bottom Left where WMR is > Check Challenge Success Reward
• MONTHLY challenge scores and progress will be reset MONTHLY. If you obtain 201 challenge success in the last day of February, it will be reset to 0 in the following first day of March. Your original high scores for each song will not reset.
• Rewards will be in your inbox following the completion of the first game maintenance of the month
• If you see that your monthly challenge success progress has been "reset" when it is not supposed to, restart your game as it's a visual glitch.

​
2. Artist/Group Tickets
​

• Artist Ticket - Select a group = random card from that group
  • Select EXO-M = one random card for either Xiumin, Lay or Chen
  • Select Red Velvet = one random card for either Irene, Seulgi, Wendy, Joy or Yeri
• Group ticket - Select a group = random card for each member in that group
  • Select EXO-M = random card for Xiumin, Lay and Chen
  • Select Red Velvet = random card for Irene, Seulgi, Wendy, Joy or Yeri
• All Group Tickets are currently not obtainable by any means
• Only A/S/R Artist Tickets can be obtained, C and B are not obtainable by any means
  • A/S/R Artist Tickets can be obtained from monthly challenge rewards
  • R Artist Tickets can be obtained from world record rewards
• The exchange rate of ticket:cards is not 1:1. 20/10/5/3/1 tickets are required for each S/A/B/C card, respectively.

​
3. Account Related Concerns
​

• ALWAYS have your account linked/bound to any of the services that are available to you -- Dalcom ID, Google, Facebook, etc.
  • Linking current account to a service does not erase current game data; it does the exact opposite. It ensures that your game progress will be saved at all times. If you get a new device, simply use that same login info and your account will be loaded.
• If you wish to attempt restoring your account, please do not post any account details here as no one here can assist you with it.
• If you have issues with Dalcom ID, please try reading through this thread
• Please email [email protected] instead. In order to expedite the process, be as concise as possible in your initial email to them such as providing: account email (if not a guest account), in-game purchase receipts (if applicable), IGN, in-game profile picture, current league ranking/bracket, etc. You are not guaranteed to have your account recovered so in the case where they are unable to do so, your account has unfortunately been lost.

​
4. Coupon Codes
​

• There is a wiki page for all existing coupon codes and it is updated ASAP when the codes show up. Please do not ask for coupon codes.
• https://www.reddit.com/superstarsmtown/wiki/couponcodes

​
5. Shortest Song(s)/What song(s) to Grind/What songs are easy to FSP
​

• There is a 4 year old song stats spreadsheet resource that is still updated to date which has all information on songs from their length to recommended for FSP or not. Please utilize this resource instead of making a separate post that otherwise has no basis to it.
• https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HW3AzrqYZs7orEnPNhfbd1N1k1dQ0iEGoqd1tRcrui0/edit#gid=803692104

​
6. Powering Up/Rating Up tips
​

• There are recommendations provided in the general guide for what material cards to use at which grade. Further, there is a separate spreadsheet that lists out the % of success of your material card if used on your card of choice. Please utilize this resource instead of making a separate post.
• https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1EMSQt56wlLKGkWnEyJaZoi2LleFj5T1RSy2JuXMD_xE/edit#gid=481517504

i was recently informally hired as a crew member at my wendy’s. i say informally because i am 15, but i turn 16 in a week, and the gm said to send in my application on my birthday so that i could start working the week after.
i was planning to get my license on my birthday and be totally prepared to drive myself to work the following week, however, we just ran into issues with scheduling driving tests. i planned on doing the test on june 1st, but it’s now scheduled for june 7th, two days after i’m supposed to start working. i would need the day off to go do it.
additionally, i failed to tell the gm during my interview that i have a coding program over the summer. it lasts 2 weeks and cuts straight into my shift time, which was supposed to be from 8am to 4pm. the program starts at 11am and runs until 3-4pm. i’d need to lessen my hours for these two weeks to just 3 a day, or change when my shift is, but she made it clear during the interview that i could only go from 8 to 4.
i’m really stuck on what to do. should i cancel my program or tell the manager every mishap in my schedule? i’m just really afraid of getting fired a day after i start. would love to get advice

Hello guys,
Sorry, but this is going to be long...
It's Mark here, glad to meet you. Really hope this will not come across as too needy and awkward – I don't post on Reddit a lot, certainly not about this topic. If you don't feel like reading so much, I included a TLDR at the bottom of this post.
I am 44, male, and have struggled to find a real job for the past 5+ years. I started working at 17 and worked virtually every menial/blue-collar job you can think of (except for crime). My first job was at a local Wendy's in Florida as a janitor. It was awesome as I had my own money (I come from a middle-class family, so I worked only to get more experience and have my own money). After graduating high school, I joined the military, where I worked in logistics and maintenance. No, I wasn't sent overseas and never did anything cool there.
I got back to civilian life at 26, after a period of depression during the military. I couldn't find myself in that environment, and it slowly affected my mental health. I left the army hopeful and went to college. This was probably my first mistake – going to college and choosing a bad major. I was always interested in fitness and even competed locally in bodybuilding competitions. A major in physical fitness seemed a no-brainer for me. It was something I could excel at and might get me a "real job" that might get me out of depression.
I moved out of state for college simply because I needed a fresh start. Life during college was tough; I was the oldest student there, and making friends was difficult. I soon noticed that being a good fitness coach was more about social skills and less about physical prowess. This was the first bad sign I actually chose to ignore. When I graduated, I was thrilled – I could finally get the job I always wanted.
I applied to jobs, hundreds upon hundreds of jobs in the physical fitness industry. In multiple cities across the Midwest. I still remember my first application – it seemed like the perfect match (I soon realized it was instead a sample of what I'd experience in the years to come). It was a job with few applicants, great pay, and benefits, and my application matched the job application exactly without me having to make any changes, minus a few tweaks. After applying for the job, I checked the next day to see that the job I applied for was deleted and re-uploaded, now with two extra skills I didn't have. Maybe it was an error, but it was a targeted application.
Every employer wanted something I didn't have – social skills. Being a personal trainer is about being friendly and knowing how to interact with clients, and I was not good enough. I worked at a few gyms but rarely had more than two clients. Some gyms fired me after a few months. Soon, I had to find a new job just to make ends meet. Retail was good enough, and it was the only industry that had openings in 2009-2012. I stacked shelves, worked as a cashier, and managed deliveries and warehouses.
I also sold insurance on commission via check, commission only with poor reviews from every worker, sold health insurance for low-income communities, sold products in MLM and pyramid schemes, and so on. It felt wrong to apply for jobs after a while. I never had health insurance, and the jobs were seriously affecting my mental health. I was depressed every day.
I decided enough was enough, and in 2018 I made a change. I got into a data analyst program at my local university (it consists of a boot camp and an internship at a local company). The course had an introductory period of 3 months and an internship of 4 months. I went through it and got excellent grades and a certificate. The course was immensely helpful. I learned a lot of Python, MySQL, Excel, and other software.
Then I started looking for my first real job, yet again. I applied to every data analyst, insights analyst, and data analytics consultant I could find in the area. Everything I could find online – I sent my resume. After 500+ applications, I got a total of 8 callbacks. 4 were rejections, and 4 turned into interviews. And yeah, you guessed it, I flunked each and every interview because I am too socially awkward. While technically, I am ok; something is always off during the interview. Maybe it's my resume? Maybe my cover letter? Maybe I am too old, and it's a simple case of ageism? Why, out of 500 applications, do I only get 8 callbacks? That's a 1.6 percent callback rate. Is it normal?
Learning new skills, and changing up my job search strategy, means nothing. I still work in retail, still stacking shelves, still managing deliveries. And each night I try to improve my coding skills, learn more Python, more Excel, and still apply to data analyst jobs. I have $660 to my name, so I am getting desperate...
What am I doing wrong?
Should I contact a career coach?
Should I just give up and work retail all my life?
Should I look for another course?
Should I go back to college and get into new debt? What are my opportunities?
TLDR – underemployed all my life, struggled with mental health issues, a useless college degree in physical fitness; went through a data analytics course, and still applying for real jobs in the industry, with no success; feeling really desperate now; please help!
I try to stay positive - I have to... Thank you for listening!

Hello guys,
Sorry, but this is going to be long...
It's Mark here, glad to meet you. Really hope this will not come across as too needy and awkward – I don't post on Reddit a lot, certainly not about this topic. If you don't feel like reading so much, I included a TLDR at the bottom of this post.
I am 44, male, and have struggled to find a real job for the past 5+ years. I started working at 17 and worked virtually every menial/blue-collar job you can think of (except for crime). My first job was at a local Wendy's in Florida as a janitor. It was awesome as I had my own money (I come from a middle-class family, so I worked only to get more experience and have my own money). After graduating high school, I joined the military, where I worked in logistics and maintenance. No, I wasn't sent overseas and never did anything cool there.
I got back to civilian life at 26, after a period of depression during the military. I couldn't find myself in that environment, and it slowly affected my mental health. I left the army hopeful and went to college. This was probably my first mistake – going to college and choosing a bad major. I was always interested in fitness and even competed locally in bodybuilding competitions. A major in physical fitness seemed a no-brainer for me. It was something I could excel at and might get me a "real job" that might get me out of depression.
​
I moved out of state for college simply because I needed a fresh start. Life during college was tough; I was the oldest student there, and making friends was difficult. I soon noticed that being a good fitness coach was more about social skills and less about physical prowess. This was the first bad sign I actually chose to ignore. When I graduated, I was thrilled – I could finally get the job I always wanted.
I applied to jobs, hundreds upon hundreds of jobs in the physical fitness industry. In multiple cities across the Midwest. I still remember my first application – it seemed like the perfect match (I soon realized it was instead a sample of what I'd experience in the years to come). It was a job with few applicants, great pay, and benefits, and my application matched the job application exactly without me having to make any changes, minus a few tweaks. After applying for the job, I checked the next day to see that the job I applied for was deleted and re-uploaded, now with two extra skills I didn't have. Maybe it was an error, but it was a targeted application.
Every employer wanted something I didn't have – social skills. Being a personal trainer is about being friendly and knowing how to interact with clients, and I was not good enough. I worked at a few gyms but rarely had more than two clients. Some gyms fired me after a few months. Soon, I had to find a new job just to make ends meet. Retail was good enough, and it was the only industry that had openings in 2009-2012. I stacked shelves, worked as a cashier, and managed deliveries and warehouses.
I also sold insurance on commission via check, commission only with poor reviews from every worker, sold health insurance for low-income communities, sold products in MLM and pyramid schemes, and so on. It felt wrong to apply for jobs after a while. I never had health insurance, and the jobs were seriously affecting my mental health. I was depressed every day.
I decided enough was enough, and in 2018 I made a change. I got into a data analyst program at my local university (it consists of a boot camp and an internship at a local company). The course had an introductory period of 3 months and an internship of 4 months. I went through it and got excellent grades and a certificate. The course was immensely helpful. I learned a lot of Python, MySQL, Excel, and other software.
Then I started looking for my first real job, yet again. I applied to every data analyst, insights analyst, and data analytics consultant I could find in the area. Everything I could find online – I sent my resume. After 500+ applications, I got a total of 8 callbacks. 4 were rejections, and 4 turned into interviews. And yeah, you guessed it, I flunked each and every interview because I am too socially awkward. While technically, I am ok; something is always off during the interview. Maybe it's my resume? Maybe my cover letter? Maybe I am too old, and it's a simple case of ageism? Why, out of 500 applications, do I only get 8 callbacks? That's a 1.6 percent callback rate. Is it normal?
Learning new skills, and changing up my job search strategy, means nothing. I still work in retail, still stacking shelves, still managing deliveries. And each night I try to improve my coding skills, learn more Python, more Excel, and still apply to data analyst jobs. I have $660 to my name, so I am getting desperate...
What am I doing wrong?
Should I contact a career coach?
Should I just give up and work retail all my life?
Should I look for another course?
Should I go back to college and get into new debt? What are my opportunities?
​
TLDR – underemployed all my life, struggled with mental health issues, a useless college degree in physical fitness; went through a data analytics course, and still applying for real jobs in the industry, with no success; feeling really desperate now; please help!
I try to stay positive - I have to... Thank you for listening!

Hello all,
​
In an effort to mitigate the amount of repetitive questions that have been asked recently, we have set up this thread as a reminder on how certain things in the game works. As of now, this reminder is planned to be posted weekly for visibility.
​
0. FAQ Wiki Page
​

• There is both a FAQ and general guide page on this subreddit, please read through those resources before asking a question as it may already be addressed there.
  • FAQ
  • General Guide

​
1. Monthly Challenges
​

• This is a system separate from the regular song challenges that require you to score 10k higher than your max score (6.2m being the cap)
• They are MONTHLY score targets you need to reach to obtain various tiers of rewards. The more you complete the more rewards you get.
  • Progress and reward tiers can be found via: Song Select > Bottom Left where WMR is > Check Challenge Success Reward
• MONTHLY challenge scores and progress will be reset MONTHLY. If you obtain 201 challenge success in the last day of February, it will be reset to 0 in the following first day of March. Your original high scores for each song will not reset.
• Rewards will be in your inbox following the completion of the first game maintenance of the month
• If you see that your monthly challenge success progress has been "reset" when it is not supposed to, restart your game as it's a visual glitch.

​
2. Artist/Group Tickets
​

• Artist Ticket - Select a group = random card from that group
  • Select EXO-M = one random card for either Xiumin, Lay or Chen
  • Select Red Velvet = one random card for either Irene, Seulgi, Wendy, Joy or Yeri
• Group ticket - Select a group = random card for each member in that group
  • Select EXO-M = random card for Xiumin, Lay and Chen
  • Select Red Velvet = random card for Irene, Seulgi, Wendy, Joy or Yeri
• All Group Tickets are currently not obtainable by any means
• Only A/S/R Artist Tickets can be obtained, C and B are not obtainable by any means
  • A/S/R Artist Tickets can be obtained from monthly challenge rewards
  • R Artist Tickets can be obtained from world record rewards
• The exchange rate of ticket:cards is not 1:1. 20/10/5/3/1 tickets are required for each S/A/B/C card, respectively.

​
3. Account Related Concerns
​

• ALWAYS have your account linked/bound to any of the services that are available to you -- Dalcom ID, Google, Facebook, etc.
  • Linking current account to a service does not erase current game data; it does the exact opposite. It ensures that your game progress will be saved at all times. If you get a new device, simply use that same login info and your account will be loaded.
• If you wish to attempt restoring your account, please do not post any account details here as no one here can assist you with it.
• If you have issues with Dalcom ID, please try reading through this thread
• Please email [email protected] instead. In order to expedite the process, be as concise as possible in your initial email to them such as providing: account email (if not a guest account), in-game purchase receipts (if applicable), IGN, in-game profile picture, current league ranking/bracket, etc. You are not guaranteed to have your account recovered so in the case where they are unable to do so, your account has unfortunately been lost.

​
4. Coupon Codes
​

• There is a wiki page for all existing coupon codes and it is updated ASAP when the codes show up. Please do not ask for coupon codes.
• https://www.reddit.com/superstarsmtown/wiki/couponcodes

​
5. Shortest Song(s)/What song(s) to Grind/What songs are easy to FSP
​

• There is a 4 year old song stats spreadsheet resource that is still updated to date which has all information on songs from their length to recommended for FSP or not. Please utilize this resource instead of making a separate post that otherwise has no basis to it.
• https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HW3AzrqYZs7orEnPNhfbd1N1k1dQ0iEGoqd1tRcrui0/edit#gid=803692104

​
6. Powering Up/Rating Up tips
​

• There are recommendations provided in the general guide for what material cards to use at which grade. Further, there is a separate spreadsheet that lists out the % of success of your material card if used on your card of choice. Please utilize this resource instead of making a separate post.
• https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1EMSQt56wlLKGkWnEyJaZoi2LleFj5T1RSy2JuXMD_xE/edit#gid=481517504

Hello all,
I hope this post has found the right community. Im assuming a little background on myself will help paint the picture of where my dissatisfaction in life and consuming thoughts of wanting more come from. Im turning 36 years old in a couple months. I am a single father to a 12 year old son whom I have full time besides a few hours every other Saturday and Sunday. I got my first job when I was 11. A paper route before school. When I was 14 I took a second job. Cleaning horse stables 😆
On my 16 birthday I got my first 40/hr a week job at Wendy’s. On my 18th birthday, the store manager approached me with a significant promotion. As he was explaining the job offer, all I could envision, was asking every person if they wanted to biggie size their meal for the foreseeable future and that scared the shit out of me. The manager gave me a week to think about it. On my lunch break that same day, I went to Lowes across the street, filled out an application, and got hired a few days later. I worked hard and luckily, the managers noticed and I was promoted 3 times within a year. I thought I had a pretty sweet gig at the time. But I still had the same repetitive thoughts daily, “is this what you want out of life? $16 an hour? Forever?” Meh….
…..A new job or college?
So I started applying at different jobs and schools and somehow, pure luck, I landed a job working on the railroad. Doing thermite welding and track maintenance with tons of OT. I went from $18 an hour to $110k a year. At 19 years old. No experience. On the job training. Traveling. It was perfect. And not solely financially. At the end of my workday, I felt I was benefitting the world. I was keeping the rails safe for transport and travel. I was contributing to society and for the first time felt at ease in where my career could take me. I just realized this is very long and I’m going to get it over with.
At 24, I met lady, lady got pregnant, I married lady, travel from railroad job strained relationship. I realized I was missing a lot of once in a lifetime moments with them. I was 3 weeks into a 4 month contract 1000 miles away when my wife gave me the ultimatum, my job or my family. The thing that I thought was providing us a good life was Ultimately tearing my family apart. in the end, I chose my family.
Huge mistake. 10 years later, divorced, (I know, I’m a jackass) I’ve spent the last 10 years working as a head custodian at a school. Making $75k a year. Living paycheck to paycheck. I’m tired of living like this. I’ve literally worked every day since I was 11 and coupled with some bad life choices I’ve landed on Reddit asking for advice. I need more money. I need more challenge. I googled the most satisfying jobs with highest pay and I found it.
Anesthesiologist. 8 years of school before residency. Local salary from different sources say $375k-$571k. Challenging. Basically unreachable for me.
So I want to do it.
Is it possible to work and pay my bills and go to school and med school at the same time? I have my son full time. Is this a possibility for me? I spoke to a student at the local medical school and she said they don’t allow you to work while in school. How the hell do you pay your bills?

24M.
I graduated 2023 with an applied mathematics degree. I met with 3 advisors and 4 other people to look at my resume. I also applied to about 600+ jobs since graduating. All ranging from entry software developer jobs, office assistant, to sales rep at T-Mobile.
Out of all of those applications I only got 4 interviews. 1 follow up interview. 0 job offers.
What jobs I’ve been able to get? - FedEx package handler (lasted 2 weeks) - Amazon warehouse handler (lasted 3 months)
What jobs have I been recruited? - Wendy’s burger flipper - warehouse forklift operator - dish washer at restaurant
I am disappointed, surprised, and confused. I spent 5 years getting my degree that I worked so hard for, to just be still at the bottom of the barrel. Comparable to a recent high school graduate. The degree at this point is just a piece of paper to me now.
I do have work experience. Throughout college I worked in fast food, supermarkets and tutoring.
As of now I work 2-3 hours a week as a math tutor. The only job that I could get with my degree. I don’t hate it. But I only make about $50 week. Not optimal.
I’m not sure what kind of advice you guys can give me. Maybe motivational words. Or share your experience after graduation.

Another action-packed week in AI. Big launches and announcements from tech giants like Google, Meta, OpenAI, and IBM. While the tech giants battle it out for AI supremacy, the open-source AI continues making huge strides. OpenAI released Shap·E for text-to-3D generation OpenAI has released a new project called Shap·E, a conditional generative model designed to generate 3D assets using implicit functions that can be rendered as textured meshes or neural radiance fields. Shap·E was trained using a large dataset of paired 3D assets and their corresponding textual descriptions. An encoder was used to map 3D assets into the parameters of an implicit function, and a conditional diffusion model was used to learn the conditional distribution of the implicit function parameters given the input data. It has demonstrated remarkable performance in producing high-quality outputs in just seconds. NVIDIA introduced Real-Time Neural Appearance Models NVIDIA Research shared a research paper that discusses a system for real-time rendering of scenes with complex appearances previously reserved for offline use. It is achieved with a combination of algorithmic and system-level innovations. The appearance model uses learned hierarchical textures interpreted through neural decoders that generate reflectance values and importance-sampled directions. The decoders incorporate two graphics priors to support accurate mesoscale reconstruction and efficient importance sampling, facilitating anisotropic sampling and level-of-detail rendering. RasaGPT: The first headless LLM chatbot platform released RasaGPT is the first headless chatbot platform built on top of Rasa and Langchain, which provides a boilerplate and reference implementation of Rasa and Telegram using an LLM library for indexing, retrieval, and context injection. It is designed to work on: ➡ Creating your own proprietary bot end-point using FastAPI, document upload, and “training” pipeline included ➡ How to integrate Langchain/LlamaIndex and Rasa ➡ Library conflicts with LLM libraries and passing metadata ➡ Dockerized support on MacOS for running Rasa ➡ Reverse proxy with chatbots via ngrok ➡ Implementing PGVector with your own custom schema instead of using Langchain’s highly opinionated PGVector class ➡ Adding multi-tenancy (Rasa doesn't natively support this), sessions, and metadata between Rasa and your own backend/application Multimodal GPT: AI conversational model trained on vision and language announced MultiModal-GPT is a vision and language model designed to conduct multi-round dialogue with humans. It can follow instructions, generate captions, count objects, and answer questions. It is a parameter-efficient model fine-tuned from OpenFlamingo. It uses a Low-rank Adapter (LoRA) and is Trained using a unified instruction template for both language and visual instruction data. Anthropic proposed AI constitution to train AI models on moral values The Alphabet-backed startup disclosed the full set of principles, which it calls Claude's constitution, used to train and make Claude safe. Unlike ChatGPT’s human feedback-based model, which may be biased, Anthropic gives Claude a set of written moral values to read and learn from as it makes decisions on how to respond to questions. The value guidelines draw from various sources, including the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Apple’s Terms of Service, and more. Meta announced AI Fusion ‘ImageBind’: 6 data types in 1 AI model Meta has announced the new open-source AI model called ‘ImageBind’ that links together multiple data streams- text, audio, visual data, temperature, and movement readings. ImageBind is the first to combine 6 data types into a single embedding space. The company also notes that other streams of sensory input could be added to future models, including touch, speech, smell, and brain fMRI signals. OpenAI shared model to examine LLM behavior OpenAI is developing a tool that uses GPT-4 to examine an LLM's behaviors and anticipate problems with AI systems. The tool generates explanations for neurons (in neural networks) and scores their accuracy by having GPT-4 predict how they would behave. The code is available on GitHub but is still in the early stages of development. The researchers generated explanations for all 307,200 neurons in GPT-2. Google’s AI takeover: Multiple AI products and features announced - Palm 2, a new LLM with 540B parameters, multimodality, and 100+ languages. - Gemini, its new multimodal foundation model that will rival GPT. - Opened global beta access for Bard in 180+ countries. - Introduces AI coding bot for Android developers. - Launches generative AI features in search with conversation and image contextualization features. - Announced a flurry of AI features for Google Workspace in Sheets, Docs, Gmail, and more. - Introduced DuetAI: A collaborative AI partner for Google cloud. Help with code, search, and workflows. - Announced ML Hub. It'll help devs train and launch AI models. - Announced collab with Adobe to provide advanced AI art generation features. Hugging Face announced Transformers Agent: Makes it easy to compose LLM models that solve multimodal tasks Hugging Face has launched a new feature called Transformers Agents, which enables users to control more than 100,000 HF models through text, images, video, audio, and documents. This feature breaks down the barrier to entry for machine learning and makes it more accessible to all. Anthropic introduces 100k context windows, giving Claude bigger “memory” than ChatGPT Anthropic expands Claude’s context window from 9K to 100K tokens, corresponding to around 75,000 words! It means you can now submit hundreds of pages of materials for Claude to digest and analyze, and conversations with Claude can go on for hours or even days. The context window size is an important parameter in language models like GPT. Models with small context windows tend to “forget” the content of very recent conversations, even their initial instructions– after a few thousand words or so. Claude’s larger “memory” can be game-changing for LLMs. Stability AI releases a powerful text-to-animation tool Stability AI released Stable Animation SDK, a tool designed for developers and artists to implement the most advanced Stable Diffusion models to generate stunning animations. It allows using all the models, including Stable Diffusion 2.0 and Stable Diffusion XL. And it offers three ways to create animations: - Text to animation - Initial image input + text input - Input video + text input More news

• Google's 'Magi' to humanize the search experience with AI.
• Pandas gets an AI-powered upgrade.
• Seems like Microsoft is assisting AMD to topple NVIDIA.
• Google’s ‘Magic Compose’ can craft personalized messages on your behalf.
• Autodesk unveils AI-powered insights with Forma.
• An AI can predict Pancreatic Cancer - AI model spots those at highest risk for up to three years before diagnosis
• Create Vector Representation With Ai-Powered Algolia Neuralsearch.
• Cut Cloud Costs with Antimetal's AI-Powered Solution.
• KPMG and Google Cloud Partner to Boost Enterprise Adoption of Generative AI.
• Yolo-Nas - A New Open-Source Object Detection Architecture
• IBM launches 'watsonx' for enterprise AI services.
• Wendy's & Google Cloud test AI chatbot for drive-thru orders.
• Microsoft to test Copilot with 600 new customers, introduces new AI features.
• FrugalGPT: Reduces costs by 98% and improves accuracy
• Open AI plans a pro-copyright model for GPT
• Salesforce unveils generative AI-powered Tableau tools
• Eventbrite integrates GPT capabilities to aid event creators
• Cognizant will train 25K of its employees on Google Cloud AI.
• HumanRF, a dynamic video encoding platform.
• Airtable AI to make AI accessible for enterprises.

That's all for now. P.S. If you like this kind of analysis, I co-author a free newsletter that discusses the biggest issues and implications of generative AI. - It aims to empower AI enthusiasts and Engineering Leaders with the knowledge of machine learning, ChatGPT, Generative AI and LLMs. - The AI Edge is designed to share not only the latest news in AI but also educational nuggets in the field of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

Question from a Wendy's Crew member application in Fort Worth, TX: "Are you able to perform essential duties of the position you are applying for without a reasonable accommodation?" The question is listed as requiring an answer.
From the EEOC's guidelines, "Discussing Accommodation to Perform the Job: 15. May an employer ask applicants on an application form or during an interview whether they will need reasonable accommodation to perform the job?
Generally, no. An employer cannot ask all applicants whether they would need reasonable accommodation to perform a job because the answer to this question is likely to reveal whether an applicant has a disability." https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/job-applicants-and-ada
Is there somewhere I can report this so it gets corrected? I assume Wendy's franchises handle their own hiring processed individually, but I don't know.

Another action-packed week in AI.
Big launches and announcements from tech giants like Google, Meta, OpenAI, and IBM. While the tech giants battle it out for AI supremacy, the open-source AI continues making huge strides.

OpenAI released Shap·E for text-to-3D generation

OpenAI has released a new project called Shap·E, a conditional generative model designed to generate 3D assets using implicit functions that can be rendered as textured meshes or neural radiance fields.
Shap·E was trained using a large dataset of paired 3D assets and their corresponding textual descriptions. An encoder was used to map 3D assets into the parameters of an implicit function, and a conditional diffusion model was used to learn the conditional distribution of the implicit function parameters given the input data. It has demonstrated remarkable performance in producing high-quality outputs in just seconds.
(Source)

NVIDIA introduced Real-Time Neural Appearance Models

NVIDIA Research shared a research paper that discusses a system for real-time rendering of scenes with complex appearances previously reserved for offline use. It is achieved with a combination of algorithmic and system-level innovations.
The appearance model uses learned hierarchical textures interpreted through neural decoders that generate reflectance values and importance-sampled directions. The decoders incorporate two graphics priors to support accurate mesoscale reconstruction and efficient importance sampling, facilitating anisotropic sampling and level-of-detail rendering.
(Source)

RasaGPT: The first headless LLM chatbot platform released

RasaGPT is the first headless chatbot platform built on top of Rasa and Langchain, which provides a boilerplate and reference implementation of Rasa and Telegram using an LLM library for indexing, retrieval, and context injection.
It is designed to work on:
➡ Creating your own proprietary bot end-point using FastAPI, document upload, and “training” pipeline included ➡ How to integrate Langchain/LlamaIndex and Rasa ➡ Library conflicts with LLM libraries and passing metadata ➡ Dockerized support on MacOS for running Rasa ➡ Reverse proxy with chatbots via ngrok ➡ Implementing PGVector with your own custom schema instead of using Langchain’s highly opinionated PGVector class ➡ Adding multi-tenancy (Rasa doesn't natively support this), sessions, and metadata between Rasa and your own backend/application
(Source)

Multimodal GPT: AI conversational model trained on vision and language announced

MultiModal-GPT is a vision and language model designed to conduct multi-round dialogue with humans. It can follow instructions, generate captions, count objects, and answer questions.
It is a parameter-efficient model fine-tuned from OpenFlamingo. It uses a Low-rank Adapter (LoRA) and is Trained using a unified instruction template for both language and visual instruction data.
(Source)

Anthropic proposed AI constitution to train AI models on moral values

The Alphabet-backed startup disclosed the full set of principles, which it calls Claude's constitution, used to train and make Claude safe. Unlike ChatGPT’s human feedback-based model, which may be biased, Anthropic gives Claude a set of written moral values to read and learn from as it makes decisions on how to respond to questions.
The value guidelines draw from various sources, including the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Apple’s Terms of Service, and more.
(Source)

Meta announced AI Fusion ‘ImageBind’: 6 data types in 1 AI model

Meta has announced the new open-source AI model called ‘ImageBind’ that links together multiple data streams- text, audio, visual data, temperature, and movement readings. ImageBind is the first to combine 6 data types into a single embedding space.
The company also notes that other streams of sensory input could be added to future models, including touch, speech, smell, and brain fMRI signals.
(Source)

OpenAI shared model to examine LLM behavior

OpenAI is developing a tool that uses GPT-4 to examine an LLM's behaviors and anticipate problems with AI systems. The tool generates explanations for neurons (in neural networks) and scores their accuracy by having GPT-4 predict how they would behave.
The code is available on GitHub but is still in the early stages of development. The researchers generated explanations for all 307,200 neurons in GPT-2.
(Source)

Google’s AI takeover: Multiple AI products and features announced

• Palm 2, a new LLM with 540B parameters, multimodality, and 100+ languages.
• Gemini, its new multimodal foundation model that will rival GPT.
• Opened global beta access for Bard in 180+ countries.
• Introduces AI coding bot for Android developers.
• Launches generative AI features in search with conversation and image contextualization features.
• Announced a flurry of AI features for Google Workspace in Sheets, Docs, Gmail, and more.
• Introduced DuetAI: A collaborative AI partner for Google cloud. Help with code, search, and workflows.
• Announced ML Hub. It'll help devs train and launch AI models.
• Announced collab with Adobe to provide advanced AI art generation features.

(Source)

Hugging Face announced Transformers Agent: Makes it easy to compose LLM models that solve multimodal tasks

Hugging Face has launched a new feature called Transformers Agents, which enables users to control more than 100,000 HF models through text, images, video, audio, and documents. This feature breaks down the barrier to entry for machine learning and makes it more accessible to all.
(Source)

Anthropic introduces 100k context windows, giving Claude bigger “memory” than ChatGPT

Anthropic expands Claude’s context window from 9K to 100K tokens, corresponding to around 75,000 words! It means you can now submit hundreds of pages of materials for Claude to digest and analyze, and conversations with Claude can go on for hours or even days.
The context window size is an important parameter in language models like GPT. Models with small context windows tend to “forget” the content of very recent conversations, even their initial instructions– after a few thousand words or so. Claude’s larger “memory” can be game-changing for LLMs.
(Source)

Stability AI releases a powerful text-to-animation tool

Stability AI released Stable Animation SDK, a tool designed for developers and artists to implement the most advanced Stable Diffusion models to generate stunning animations. It allows using all the models, including Stable Diffusion 2.0 and Stable Diffusion XL. And it offers three ways to create animations:

• Text to animation
• Initial image input + text input
• Input video + text input

(Source)

More news

• Google's 'Magi' to humanize the search experience with AI. (Link)
• Pandas gets an AI-powered upgrade. (Link)
• Seems like Microsoft is assisting AMD to topple NVIDIA. (Link)
• Google’s ‘Magic Compose’ can craft personalized messages on your behalf. (Link)
• Autodesk unveils AI-powered insights with Forma. (Link)
• An AI can predict Pancreatic Cancer. (Link)
• Create Vector Representation With Ai-Powered Algolia Neuralsearch. (Link)
• Cut Cloud Costs with Antimetal's AI-Powered Solution. (Link)
• KPMG and Google Cloud Partner to Boost Enterprise Adoption of Generative AI. (Link)
• Yolo-Nas - A New Open-Source Object Detection Architecture (Link)
• IBM launches 'watsonx' for enterprise AI services. (Link)
• Wendy's & Google Cloud test AI chatbot for drive-thru orders. (Link)
• Microsoft to test Copilot with 600 new customers, introduces new AI features. (Link)
• FrugalGPT: Reduces costs by 98% and improves accuracy (Link)
• Open AI plans a pro-copyright model for GPT (Link)
• Salesforce unveils generative AI-powered Tableau tools (Link)
• Eventbrite integrates GPT capabilities to aid event creators (Link)
• Cognizant will train 25K of its employees on Google Cloud AI. (Link)
• HumanRF, a dynamic video encoding platform. (Link)
• Airtable AI to make AI accessible for enterprises. (Link)

That's all for now.
P.S. If you like this kind of analysis, I co-author a free newsletter that discusses the biggest issues and implications of generative AI. - It aims to empower AI enthusiasts and Engineering Leaders with the knowledge of machine learning, ChatGPT, Generative AI and LLMs. - The AI Edge is designed to share not only the latest news in AI but also educational nuggets in the field of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

Hello all,
​
In an effort to mitigate the amount of repetitive questions that have been asked recently, we have set up this thread as a reminder on how certain things in the game works. As of now, this reminder is planned to be posted weekly for visibility.
​
0. FAQ Wiki Page
​

• There is both a FAQ and general guide page on this subreddit, please read through those resources before asking a question as it may already be addressed there.
  • FAQ
  • General Guide

​
1. Monthly Challenges
​

• This is a system separate from the regular song challenges that require you to score 10k higher than your max score (6.2m being the cap)
• They are MONTHLY score targets you need to reach to obtain various tiers of rewards. The more you complete the more rewards you get.
  • Progress and reward tiers can be found via: Song Select > Bottom Left where WMR is > Check Challenge Success Reward
• MONTHLY challenge scores and progress will be reset MONTHLY. If you obtain 201 challenge success in the last day of February, it will be reset to 0 in the following first day of March. Your original high scores for each song will not reset.
• Rewards will be in your inbox following the completion of the first game maintenance of the month
• If you see that your monthly challenge success progress has been "reset" when it is not supposed to, restart your game as it's a visual glitch.

​
2. Artist/Group Tickets
​

• Artist Ticket - Select a group = random card from that group
  • Select EXO-M = one random card for either Xiumin, Lay or Chen
  • Select Red Velvet = one random card for either Irene, Seulgi, Wendy, Joy or Yeri
• Group ticket - Select a group = random card for each member in that group
  • Select EXO-M = random card for Xiumin, Lay and Chen
  • Select Red Velvet = random card for Irene, Seulgi, Wendy, Joy or Yeri
• All Group Tickets are currently not obtainable by any means
• Only A/S/R Artist Tickets can be obtained, C and B are not obtainable by any means
  • A/S/R Artist Tickets can be obtained from monthly challenge rewards
  • R Artist Tickets can be obtained from world record rewards
• The exchange rate of ticket:cards is not 1:1. 20/10/5/3/1 tickets are required for each S/A/B/C card, respectively.

​
3. Account Related Concerns
​

• ALWAYS have your account linked/bound to any of the services that are available to you -- Dalcom ID, Google, Facebook, etc.
  • Linking current account to a service does not erase current game data; it does the exact opposite. It ensures that your game progress will be saved at all times. If you get a new device, simply use that same login info and your account will be loaded.
• If you wish to attempt restoring your account, please do not post any account details here as no one here can assist you with it.
• If you have issues with Dalcom ID, please try reading through this thread
• Please email [email protected] instead. In order to expedite the process, be as concise as possible in your initial email to them such as providing: account email (if not a guest account), in-game purchase receipts (if applicable), IGN, in-game profile picture, current league ranking/bracket, etc. You are not guaranteed to have your account recovered so in the case where they are unable to do so, your account has unfortunately been lost.

​
4. Coupon Codes
​

• There is a wiki page for all existing coupon codes and it is updated ASAP when the codes show up. Please do not ask for coupon codes.
• https://www.reddit.com/superstarsmtown/wiki/couponcodes

​
5. Shortest Song(s)/What song(s) to Grind/What songs are easy to FSP
​

• There is a 4 year old song stats spreadsheet resource that is still updated to date which has all information on songs from their length to recommended for FSP or not. Please utilize this resource instead of making a separate post that otherwise has no basis to it.
• https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HW3AzrqYZs7orEnPNhfbd1N1k1dQ0iEGoqd1tRcrui0/edit#gid=803692104

​
6. Powering Up/Rating Up tips
​

• There are recommendations provided in the general guide for what material cards to use at which grade. Further, there is a separate spreadsheet that lists out the % of success of your material card if used on your card of choice. Please utilize this resource instead of making a separate post.
• https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1EMSQt56wlLKGkWnEyJaZoi2LleFj5T1RSy2JuXMD_xE/edit#gid=481517504

Catch the full coverage at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONHIS2eQ284
In Today’s episode, we cover how expired certificates cripple Cisco’s vEdge SD-Wan kit, the impact of ChatGPT on Stack Overflow’s traffic, and a ransomware scenario at cybersecurity firm Dragos.
Time Codes:
0:00 Teaser
0:47 Intro Banter
4:41 Don’t Turn It Off and On Again: Expired Cisco Cert Cripples vEdge SD-WAN Kit
10:28 Stack Overflow Is ChatGPT Casualty: Traffic Down 14% in March
17:11 Dragos Employee Hacked, Revealing Ransomware, Extortion Scheme
22:40 Notable Mentions
25:39 AI Roundup
27:19 Community Events
28:45 Sign-off
30:48 Bloopers
Story Links:

• Don’t Turn It Off and On Again: Expired Cisco Cert Cripples vEdge SD-WAN Kit
  • https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/10/cisco_sd_wan_certificate_expired/
• Stack Overflow Is ChatGPT Casualty: Traffic Down 14% in March
  • https://www.similarweb.com/amp/blog/insights/ai-news/stack-overflow-chatgpt/
• Dragos Employee Hacked, Revealing Ransomware, Extortion Scheme
  • https://www.darkreading.com/application-security/dragos-employee-hacked-revealing-ransomware-extortion-scheme

Notable Mentions:

• Kingston's SSD firmware has Coldplay lyrics hidden within it
  • https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/technology/kingstons-ssd-firmware-has-coldplay-lyrics-hidden-within-it/
• ConnectWise Announces the Companies Selected for the PitchIT class of 2023
  • https://www.connectwise.com/company/press/releases/connectwise-announces-the-companies-selected-for-the-pitchit-class-of-2023
• 2023 Women of the Channel Awards
  • https://www.crn.com/rankings-and-lists/wotc2023.htm
• YouTube has Started Blocking Ad Blockers
  • https://www.androidpolice.com/youtube-ad-blockers-not-allowed-experiment/

Banter Story:

• Wendy's Collaborates with Google to Introduce AI Chatbot for Order Taking
  • https://www.wsj.com/articles/wendys-google-train-next-generation-order-taker-an-ai-chatbot-968ff865

Community Events:

• 5/14 - 5/18 In Person Event ServiceNow Annual Conference - Las Vegas, NV
• 5/16 - 5/18 In Person Event 7 Figure MSP™ Live - Nashville, TN
• 5/16 12pm EST Nerdy Birdy: Two Birds of a Feather Come Together to Streamline Your Workflows presented by GradientMSP

MSP Media Network Events:

• ICYMI AI Roundup Ep. 9 - The Great AI Arms Race: Can We Survive the Onslaught?
• 5/5 @ 5:00 pm ET 38 at 38 Ep. 12 Mother’s Day Special featuring Karina Ramos
• Tuesdays and Fridays @ 10:00 am ET MSP Dispatch Presented by The MSP Media Network

Catch the full coverage at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONHIS2eQ284
In Today’s episode, we cover how expired certificates cripple Cisco’s vEdge SD-Wan kit, the impact of ChatGPT on Stack Overflow’s traffic, and a ransomware scenario at cybersecurity firm Dragos.
Time Codes:
0:00 Teaser
0:47 Intro Banter
4:41 Don’t Turn It Off and On Again: Expired Cisco Cert Cripples vEdge SD-WAN Kit
10:28 Stack Overflow Is ChatGPT Casualty: Traffic Down 14% in March
17:11 Dragos Employee Hacked, Revealing Ransomware, Extortion Scheme
22:40 Notable Mentions
25:39 AI Roundup
27:19 Community Events
28:45 Sign-off
30:48 Bloopers
Story Links:
Don’t Turn It Off and On Again: Expired Cisco Cert Cripples vEdge SD-WAN Kit
https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/10/cisco\_sd\_wan\_certificate\_expired/
Stack Overflow Is ChatGPT Casualty: Traffic Down 14% in March
https://www.similarweb.com/amp/blog/insights/ai-news/stack-overflow-chatgpt/
Dragos Employee Hacked, Revealing Ransomware, Extortion Scheme
https://www.darkreading.com/application-security/dragos-employee-hacked-revealing-ransomware-extortion-scheme
Notable Mentions:
Kingston's SSD firmware has Coldplay lyrics hidden within it
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/technology/kingstons-ssd-firmware-has-coldplay-lyrics-hidden-within-it/
ConnectWise Announces the Companies Selected for the PitchIT class of 2023
https://www.connectwise.com/company/press/releases/connectwise-announces-the-companies-selected-for-the-pitchit-class-of-2023
2023 Women of the Channel Awards
https://www.crn.com/rankings-and-lists/wotc2023.htm
YouTube has Started Blocking Ad Blockers
https://www.androidpolice.com/youtube-ad-blockers-not-allowed-experiment/
Banter Story:
Wendy's Collaborates with Google to Introduce AI Chatbot for Order Taking
https://www.wsj.com/articles/wendys-google-train-next-generation-order-taker-an-ai-chatbot-968ff865
Community Events:
5/14 - 5/18 In Person Event ServiceNow Annual Conference - Las Vegas, NV
5/16 - 5/18 In Person Event 7 Figure MSP™ Live - Nashville, TN
5/16 12pm EST Nerdy Birdy: Two Birds of a Feather Come Together to Streamline Your Workflows presented by GradientMSP
MSP Media Network Events:
ICYMI AI Roundup Ep. 9 - The Great AI Arms Race: Can We Survive the Onslaught?
5/5 @ 5:00 pm ET 38 at 38 Ep. 12 Mother’s Day Special featuring Karina Ramos
Tuesdays and Fridays @ 10:00 am ET MSP Dispatch Presented by The MSP Media Network

I’ve been on bus journey’s. But not ones with seemingly no destination that I didn’t even remember boarding.
I woke up with my head against an ice-cold window overlooking a crystal blue sky.
The shade of the sky was a color I couldn’t quite name. Like it was its own thing and only existed inside my mind. While the sun was more of a blur, a glorious ball of ultraviolet light sat over a horizon. It was the perfect day.
As if an image had been photoshopped and stuck to the window.
I can’t remember what roused me from slumber. I think it was the sun in my eyes, intense rays of golden light flickering behind my lashes. There were other passengers with me—but I couldn’t see their faces. Instead, they were shadows, silhouettes dotted around me. Three of them.
And when I squinted to try and find a familiar face to find my own memories, I saw nothing but faceless, almost inhuman-like beings which should have freaked me out. I should have been alarmed that they didn’t have faces, all three of them basking in warm sunlight. But I didn’t feel panicked. I didn’t feel scared. I felt numb.
The good kind of numb. It’s strange to awake with no memory, but enough of an emotional one to know that I knew this feeling. I knew what it felt like when my veins were filled with stars, and I would lie back with flickering eyes and count ceiling tiles until I fell. Being a blank slate was relieving, in a way. Because the idea of being completely at peace with numbing my body with drugs pricked my slow-moving brain with fright.
It didn’t last long. Just for a moment, there was the sensation. Before my thoughts were foggy once more. I had no ceiling tiles to count. There was the odd pattern on the seats in front of me, though the numbers were caught in mis-matched sludge. I blinked, counting the squares. One. Two. Three. Four. Five… What came after five?
Oh, yeah!
Six.
For a moment I was in some kind of bliss, like I was high. It felt… good, just sitting and staring out of the window, hypnotised by the scene in front of me. I laughed. Emotional memories beginning to bleed into me told me I wasn’t used to laughing without my body being filled with neutron star collisions. I wasn’t used to knowing what came after five… and ceiling tiles were my best friend. Also, the color white.
I laughed again. I shaded my eyes, but my arms didn’t move. Strange. I knew I had lifted them, though my arms were exactly where they were when I had woken up; my hands sandwiched in my lap. For some reason that made me laugh again. That was before I pressed my face against the window and realized there was no real path in front of us, just a long winding road bleeding into the sky. That was when the first pricks of panic started to creep up my spine and the numbness which had seeped into my body and mind slowly began to fade. I didn’t freak out at first. When I tried to move, I found I couldn’t.
There was nothing binding my hands or holding me down, but I felt like there was. It’s weird. It felt like a phantom part of me, splinters of me which had been severed from my being were just slightly out of reach. I could feel them. But… I also couldn’t. Turning my attention to the bus itself I searched for a door. I searched for some kind of way out. Though as I was searching, my gaze flicking back and forth feverishly as a panic started to hit in bouts instead of tiny pricks—I realized there was no door. Again, I freaked out. With fight or flight igniting my mind into some kind of cohesive, I tried to get up—only for more dizzying thoughts to hit like a tidal wave, lulling me back to blankly staring out of the window.
“We apologize, Kiera!” an overly-positive mechanical voice crackled from an intercom above. “To avoid complications with the beginning procedure we ask that you try and stay as still as possible or we will be forced to administer additional sedatives.”
“What?”
Just like with my body, my lips felt wrong, the words more mental than physical. In front of me I noticed the other passengers moving in sharp flashes; one of them lunged from their seat in what looked like panic before I blinked, and they were back where they were originally sitting. Like I wasn’t supposed to see it. “Attempt three.” The mechanical voice said.
“Now proceeding with Protocol 45ZE. Welcome, Kiera! Allow me to introduce myself! My name is Allison. I am your personal nurse. I am part of the Fix Me program, a (beta) procedure introduced to heal sick minds who have been through a great deal of trauma by being inserted into the hippocampus. I am simply here to help you, Kiera. With my help you will be able to revisit the polluted parts of yourself where I will place a protective filter.”
Her words weren’t making sense, and with them, I started to panic again. And this time something happened. In a world where nothing happened, a bus on a winding path into nowhere—it was enough to send shivers creeping down my spine. I noticed it automatically. Outside, the sky darkened slightly. Just enough for me to notice.
“I don’t understand what’s happening.”
“It will get worse the stronger your emotions become,” Allision said. “Relax. You went on vacation with your mother in the Fall of 2003, correct? You were a child and you loved the sight of the sky clashing with the sea,” her voice sounded surprisingly human. “Would you like to see that sky? Look out of the window, and you will be able to see it. You just have to calm down.”
Tears pricked my eyes, and somehow they felt wrong.
I hadn’t cried in a long time.
“That is why we are here to help you,” Allison said. “Due to the severity of your case I cannot reveal details—only that your current mental state is severed. Without completing the Fix Me program, you will be unable to leave and unfortunately you will remain here.
“Where is here?"
Allison ignored me. “Five years ago, you experienced severe trauma, Kiera.”
“Stop.” I whispered.
“Kiera, we can’t help you without revisiting these memories so we can remove them. We can only complete this action with your consent.”
A bird slammed into the window, suddenly, with a sickening splat, exploding on impact. I watched sharp beads of red drip down the pane, my stomach starting to twist. It was just one anomaly. The sky was still bright, and the sun was shining.
But that one single crack splintering the perfect world around me had already crept its way into my mind, twisting and contorting my thoughts. “You can make it go away, Kiera,” Allison hummed. “As you can see, due to your mind starting to process your past trauma, this world will of course grow unstable with these thoughts. That is a side-effect of entering the subconscious mind and memories we have temporarily filtered for your wellbeing. But they cannot hurt you. Just like with the bird, you can wish it away.” She paused. “I will now begin attempt three of the 45ZE Protocol. You were seventeen years old in your junior year and were in the school play, correct? Kiera, if you start to feel discomfort you are free to stop the procedure. If you are able to proceed, we will begin. Do not worry, it will be like dreaming. If you would like, I can play soothing music or certain songs you have enjoyed. Rain sounds are also optional…”
Allison’s voice was practically white-noise in my head because--- yes. I was. As if a switch had been pulled inside my mind, I was remembering this specific part of my life. The backdrop of a picturesque landscape outside of the bus window bled away, and I was seventeen years old again standing on a mostly empty corridor.
I wasn’t sure how technologically advanced Allison’s program was, but it wasn’t just a memory, like reliving it in a dream. I felt everything my past self did. Annoyance with maybe some anger boiling, a headache brewing behind my eyes—and kind of hungry. I had a cereal bar for breakfast and didn’t bother with lunch. Now I was deeply regretting rejecting mom’s pancakes. It was my junior year and usually I couldn’t wait to get home from school and nap, but I had drama club. Initially, I joined because of my raging crush on a senior. When she left for college, however, I found myself kind of stuck.
Still, it was a club.
Mom was driving me crazy about my college applications and making sure they were perfect, so that meant taking extra curriculars. The drama club was the only one I could tolerate. Even if the club was full of pretentious smartasses.
An over-exaggerated sigh sliced into my thoughts.
“For the thousandth time, no.”
Speaking of pretentious smartasses…
In front of me was the embodiment of the kid who asked for more homework, but an enigma in himself. Wylan Cameron was the teacher’s pet, but he was also somehow captain of the baseball team, class valedictorian and maintained being a fairly popular guy. I couldn’t see why.
Not exactly conventionally attractive, he reminded me more of a sewer rat who just happened to find a sherpa jacket. The kid thought having greasy hair and an obsession with musicals was somehow a personality. However, if he happened to be the last person on earth after a nuclear explosion or zombie apocalypse, maybe he would be tolerable not to kill. It’s not like I was going to admit to him that I had raging hormones and was obsessed with every guy or girl that happened to glance at me. He just happened to be one of those who made my stomach kind of flutter. Wylan was sewer-rat cute until he opened his mouth—and annoyingly, was assistant director of our third school play. All enquiries went through him before they were passed onto our teacher. Unfair, because the guy was clearly biased.
As usual, he was taking his role of assistant director way too seriously, clutching his copy of the school play’s new script a little too tight. We had all been in the dark about what the play was, but not Wylan. He had received his copies several days before, and—yep. I could glimpse a blur of yellow highlighter. He had already started to edit, even when we had been told multiple times not to touch the scripts.
I had spent almost all of lunchtime trying to track down the asshole, and from the look on his face, he had been intentionally avoiding me.
“But…”
His voice was deadpan as usual. “We don’t need new members.”
I couldn’t think of a comeback, my gaze glued to one single strand of his dark hair slipping from his hood.
“You were looking for members yesterday,” I managed to choke out. The hallway was clearing for class. “You were trying to recruit that weird freshman kid who put a stink-bomb in the boy’s bathroom."
He frowned. “Didn’t you read my texts? Also, you’ve spilled coffee on your shirt.”
Pulling my sweater over the brown stain spattering my collar, I ignored him. “I was asleep.”
“How is that my fault? You should have been awake.”
“Can’t you tell me face to face like a normal human being?"
He rolled his eyes. “Okay, fine,” Wylan folded his arms across his jacket.
“Your friend is weird, Key. And I don’t mean generic teen weird, I mean really fucking weird.” His expression twisted. “Like, drawing satanic symbols all over our desks—weird. I mean telling us the world is going to end at every meeting weird.” He took a step towards me, and I caught a slight whiff of peanut butter cream. It had been three days since my best friend dumped her peanut butter milkshake over his head in the middle of the cafeteria before insisting it was for “protection” and I was sure Wylan had been the one to suggest Lily’s removal from the club. It’s not like I blamed him. Lily did act kind of strange, but I knew she was doing it because she cared about us.
“First of all,” I said, trying my hardest to justify my best friend, who was slightly on the crazy side. “They’re not satanic symbols, they’re runes.” I shoved him playfully, only to get a scowl in return. “You’re our leader, remember? So. Think of it like she was protecting you.”
He raised a brow. “They were nonsensical squiggles. Your friend is fucking crazy. Anyway. The final straw—”
I cut him off. “Was it when she poured a milkshake over your head?”
Wylan shot me a glare. “Very funny. No, it was when she made a huge fucking deal and jumped onto her desk interrupting our read-through to announce we’re all doomed.” His expression was twisting with every word which came out of his mouth, and I knew there was no way of swaying him. “What did she say again?” Wylan laughed, tapping his chin with his pen. “Oh, yeah! That we’re doomed? Doomed. Literally. Word for word, Key. She said I’m doomed to an eternity of hell, or whatever the fuck she was talking about,” he laughed, but from the shadow in his eyes I could tell her words had freaked him out. “I tried to give her the benefit of the doubt, you know? But she kept going, Key."
I nodded. Yeah, I definitely couldn’t defend that. When I asked Lily about it, she got a funny look on her face, squeezed her eyes shut, and then told me she couldn’t see my future.
“Right. Yeah.” I said, struggling to keep my own calm. Lily and I did everything together, and the last thing I needed was having to tell her that she had been removed from the drama club. “But she said ALL of us are doomed—and it was our minds, by the way. So, that could mean anything, right?” I shrugged. “Like, maybe she’s telling us we’re not going to get into college?”
Wylan’s lip curled, and he ran a hand through his hair. I noticed he did that a lot when he was stressed or pissed.
“You’re unbelievable.”
“What?!”
“She was looking directly at me when she said it! You all saw her giving me those fucking freaky eyes!”
“She doomed all of us!” I groaned. “It’s not even real. It’s some stupid superstition.”
“Uh-huh.” He pretended to think. “Sooo, Lily somehow knowing our teacher had cancer was completely normal?”
“That was a coincidence.” I said. “Why, are you scared she’s right?”
“What?” He entered defensive mode. “No. Obviously not.”
“Sounds like you’re scared.” I couldn’t resist a smile.
He scoffed. “Sure. Whatever. She’s out, Key. I am so sorry,” his tone dripped fake sarcasm, “For rightfully throwing out your clearly mentally unstable friend before she scares everyone away. Mrs Beck told me she’s not a fan of Lily either, so there’s no room to argue.” He inclined his head. “Unless you want to. You can send me an email which I won’t read, or a ten paragraph text trying to justify your friend sinking into the abyss of lunacy. So. If we’re done here, I need to give everyone their scripts.”
With a final smile which was more of a grimace, he turned and walked away. “Sorry!”
He spun around. “Actually. I’m not sorry. It took three washes to get the stink of shit out of my hair. Your friend needs a shrink, dude. And I say this as a friend.”
“You’re an asshole, Wylan.” I said back.
He snorted. “Nice talking to you as always!”
The bastard always had to have the last word. “I love being unable to differentiate whether you’re being sarcastic or serious.”
When I didn’t move, he motioned for me to follow him. “Are you coming?” Wylan waved the scripts. “Miss Beck is revealing what play we’re doing, and I know you don’t want to be tardy..” he paused for effect like he was the main character. “Again.”
He was never going to let my one tardy go. It was at the beginning the of the semester and I had the stomach flu. People like him, however, expected me to drag myself to the club as if I wasn’t projectile vomiting. I had half a mind to walk away.
But one missed attendance meant being kicked out. The drama club took themselves (way) too seriously. “Sure.” I said and caught up to him, keeping my distance. As usual, Wylan was as douchey as always, corking in his earphones. When I tried to make idle conversation, he made half assed hand gestures, mouthing, “I can’t hear you.”
Drama club was in full swing when we entered the auditorium. Thankfully, our school was an arts school so we had a state of the art drama department and a professional looking stage. Mrs Beck, or drama teacher, a woman in her early thirties who was textbook millennial, sat on the edge of the stage with her legs swinging. When Wylan and I hurried in, the group of them twisted around to frown at us like we had just returned with an extra limb. Noah, the class clown made an “eyyyy” noise, like it was comedy genius that we were late. While Alyssa and Nina in the front row rolled their eyes and tutted.
Alyssa was every theatre kid cliché but she was actually nice. Nina was the quiet kid. It took Wylan a moment for him to realize we were in trouble, and after shooting an accusing look at me, he quickened his pace into a stumbling run, practically thrust the scripts in our teacher’s face, and took his seat.
“We’re five minutes early.” He said, when I had jumped into a seat at the front. Mrs Beck was doing that thing she always did when she was making a huge-deal of a latecomer. She didn’t speak for a moment, making a point to glare at us.
First, she took a chunk out of Wylan.
“Mr Cameron, I expect everyone to be at least ten minutes early when I make announcements.”
Wylan looked like he was going to cry—which was a plus for me. He pretended to go through his bag, but I could definitely see his shaky hands.
“Yes, Mrs Beck. Sorry.”
When I was smiling like an idiot behind the playbook I’d been handed, she turned her attention to me.
“Kiera.” She made a deal of clearing her throat. “What is your excuse? I’ve said this before. The theatre does not wait for latecomers. If you were in a professional production right now, you would have a stand in to take your place, and you would be fired and jobless. That is the way the real world works. If you fail to meet basic requirements such as being on time, you will not make it in the industry. In fact, you won’t even make it to an interview since you can’t even follow basic instructions.”
“It’s not like I want to go into the industry,” I muttered under my breath.
“What was that?”
I was about to reply when Noah dropped a copy of the playbook on this face, tipping his head back and groaning. “Dude, we’re in high school, it’s not that deep.”
“That’s enough, Noah. I will treat you like adults. The theatre does not employ children.” She took an exaggerated breath.
“Anyway! If you would all like to turn to page one, I would be happy to reveal the play we will be performing.”
There was a low murmur of voices, and I opened up the playbook.
Mrs Beck cleared her throat. “Introducing! Raw. An original production written and scripted by yours truly.”
I was half aware of my physical body still on the bus, and the low hum of the engines.
There was a sudden loud noise, what sounded like a splat—and I jumped, partly recoiling from the memory. “Kiera?”
Allison’s voice was a soft hum. “Keep going. You’re okay. As I said, as memories start to show themselves to you, you will have a negative reaction. The birds are simply your mind’s way of dealing with coming to terms with selected trauma.”
What?
“The play.” Allison said. “As we go deeper, your mind will grow progressively more erratic. Please remember these memories cannot hurt you. It will seem like it of course, but they are just that. Memories. We have also applied a protective layer to ensure you are not directly influenced by them. Your mental state is currently at 46%. We need you to at least be at a 98.”
A question dawned on me.
In the real world…. am I… crazy?
“You are a severe case, Kiera. Would you like to know what you have been convicted of while under this influence?”
No, I just need to know… how does it get worse? I don’t understand how a school play can fuck with my head!
“Right at this stage in your memory, you are at 100%. What we are going to attempt to fix is where you are 2%... then 1%... and then—”
Her voice seeped away once again, just as sunlight once again began to illuminate the backs of my eyes.
The memory returned. This time, though, I was far more cautious, easing my way into it. Opening my eyes once again, I was greeted to the stage lights, and Nina’s blonde ponytail at the corner of my eye. I turned to hiss at Noah to stop chewing on his pen— and catching Wylan’s eye, who lifted his playbook to hide his face. “Raw.” Mrs Beck said. “Follows the story of a group of high school students who, during their summer vacation, get trapped in a small, extremely suffocating, bathroom.”
“Wait.” Noah held up his pen.
“No questions until the end, Noah.”
“Isn’t this, like, a fucked up manga?”
“That’s Drifting Classroom, genius.” Alyssa didn’t turn around, though I could see her smirk. “Also, it’s a floating school, not a bathroom.”
Noah scowled. “Yeah, I know that one. I’m talking about the one with the… you know… I saw a YouTube video about it.”
“Kids!” Mrs Beck clapped her hands like we were preschoolers. “I am trying to read!”
Wylan cleared his throat, peeking behind his playbook. “I thought we weren’t kids? You did make a huge deal of saying we were adults.” He paused. “Just saying.”
I thought Mrs Beck was going to throw the playbook in his face. “Stop being a smart-ass, Wylan.” And when he opened his mouth to say exactly what we all knew what he was going to say, she sighed. “And no, ass is not a curse word or a form of child abuse. I’m sure a group of seventeen year olds like yourselves can mentally manage the A word.”
Rolling her eyes, Mrs Beck shuffled back on the stage, crossing her legs. “As for your questions you are all so desperately to know when I am trying to read my own work which I have been excited to show you for a long time—no. The play is an original production written by me. I can assure you I do not take my inspiration from Japanese literature. Anyway!” She was starting to go red in the cheeks, and her smile was definitely stretched too thin. “Onto actual work! The story of Raw introduces us to our main lead, Violet, and her boyfriend, Ben. I usually hold auditions for main parts. However. This year we are on a deadline. The parts of Violet and Ben will of course be played by our talented…” she made a dramatic pause, and we all collectively leaned forward.
Her smile widened. “… Well, they will be revealed at the end.”
I let out an annoyed breath with everyone else.
Shooting a look at Alyssa, the two of us mutually deciding we were the lead girl, I smiled at her. Violet was mine.
As she continued into the story, however, I started to regret throwing my hand up when Mrs Beck teased us with Violet’s part. Even Wylan looked kinda sick when I risked a glance at him as Mrs Beck graphically described these classmates brutally killing each other and then killing themselves in progressively more fucked up ways. I would actually be pretty happy being a background character—- maybe the girl right at the start who slammed her head into the mirror and died of a head injury.
“Uh, Mrs Beck?”
Wylan interrupted her when she started talking about certain needs being met, and the philosophical question of, “We need to survive.”
“Yes, Wylan?” Her eyes glittered. No doubt she was waiting for praise.
He stood up. “You did clear this with the principal, right?” I’d noticed he’d turned half of his playbook into an origami swan. “I love the idea, but isn’t this a little…” He shrugged. “I mean I’m not trying to be offensive, but it’s kinda graphic for a high school play.”
She smiled, and her smile made me feel kind of sick. “It’s the Lord of the Flies of our age, of course! Yes! Principal Carter gave me his blessing, I can assure you.”
He sat down with a grin. “Cool! In that case, I’ll take the role of Ben.”
“So, they really did that in the school bathroom?” Alyssa sounded horrified, but kind of impressed.
“To survive, yes.”
“Gross!” She laughed. “So, it’s just like in Lord of the Flies—but like, worse?” Admittedly, the play did grow on me, due to the sheer absurdity of the plot—- which caused us to start laughing in parts, and others hiding behind our playbooks. By the ending, we gave a standing ovation. Not because it was good, but because we had mutually agreed the play was going to be a blast to be in. Parts were announced. Wylan got Ben. Obviously. His smug smile pissed me off. Alyssa got the part of Violet because she was a drama queen, and being Alyssa, made a huge deal, making sure to make a Vine, dragging all of us into it.
The rest of us found out our parts a week later, when they were posted on the notice board in comic sans.
HARTLEY HIGH SCHOOL PRESENTS: “RAW”
Performers as follows:
Violet Smith — Alyssa McIntyre.
Ben Cross — Wylan Cameron.
Ethan Holding —- Noah Emory.
Malia Carson —- Kiera Jarret.
Sunny Shields —- Wendy Tatum.
I took a photo for mom, smiling to myself. Before someone tapped me on the shoulder. Her presence sent a shockwave through me and my physical body was thrown forwards suddenly. I sensed splintering glass and a darkness starting to spread in front of my eyes, a darkness I couldn’t fully see. I let out a sharp breath of air which I could hear and feel in front of me.
“Keep going, Kiera.”
Allison’s mechanical drawl soothed the whirlwind in my mind, and my brains attempt to recoil from the memory. “Her name is Lily, and you have to accept she is real. She existed,” her voice wobbled slightly, “She is the at the centre of your trauma and we must revisit the memory if we are going to successfully mend 1/89 separate trauma instances.”
No.
I tried to pull away, but the mental grip on me was almost impressive—and when I became aware of it, I was suddenly aware of icy cold air blowing in my face.
My hands bound behind me.
The air.
The real air, which wasn’t on a simulated bus inside my mind ran by a program which was leeched onto my brain.
For a moment, just a single precious moment, I was aware of myself. My twenty two year old self. I was aware of how cold my fingers were, and a deep, cavernous feeling in the pit of my gut. The real world, for some reason, was being blocked out.
What Allison was trying to numb.
As soon as that realization slammed into me, the program was quick. I barely felt it reach into the root of my head and violently yank me back into the memory.
Lily.
Her explosion of golden curls made her one of the most beautiful girl’s in school—and she was my best friend.
“If you know what is good for you,” Lily’s hands were trembling, so she wrapped her arms around herself to try and hide it, “You will quit the play.”
I tried to smile. I really did. But she was scaring me too, just like everyone else. “I’m okay, Lily. We’re all okay.” I turned to point at the poster. “And it’s actually a good story! You should, you know..” I grabbed and squeezed her hands. “Maybe come?”
Lily’s eyes were swollen from crying, clumps of blonde curls hanging in her face.
“I’ve been looking for you,” she whispered, her hands coming down on my shoulders. “Everywhere! I looked for you, but I can’t… I can’t see you… anywhere! I look for you, but it’s like you’re being…” she trailed off, her lip wobbling. “Drowned.” Lily’s voice choked up. “You’re being drowned by the thing…” her eyes flicked to my stomach, and something slimy crept up my throat. Before I could speak, her warm hands were stroking my gut. “The thing inside you.” Lily shook her head, sobbing. “I can’t see you anymore. I just see it.” She stumbled back, her expression growing feral. “I can… feel it.” She planted her hands over her ears. “I can hear it! I can see it!”
Thankfully, we were alone.
The question only grazed the back of my mind, but I was quick to shake it away.
Could she mean…?
No. I was on birth control, and it was one guy at a stupid party. I would know, right? I would definitely know.
“Can see… what?”
No!
No, no, no, no. I didn’t want to see this. I didn’t want to see this!
I tried to pull away again, using my physical self this time to try and lunge from the chair I was strapped to.
“Kiera, this is a vital memory,” Allison’s voice was like ocean waves in my head. “We have made it safe to revisit so we can heal it and make you better. As we do not have the technology to heal these memories ourselves, you must do it manually.”
I couldn’t stop my hands from shaking when I wrapped my arms around Lily, burying my head in her shoulder and inhaling the smell of flowers. “What… what do you mean?” I found myself gingerly stroking my stomach. “What are you talking about?”
I didn’t mean to shake her, but maybe Wylan was right to want to push her away.
She swallowed, stepping back. Lily tried to smile, tried to lie and say she was okay. “Never… never mind…” she hiccupped. “I should go.”
Before she could move, I grasped her hand. “Hey.” I spoke softly. “What did you… you know… see?”
Instead of answering me, she reached into her pocket and pressed a colored rock into my hand, curling my fingers into fist around it. “On opening night,” Lily whispered. “You are going to fall.” She hiccupped again. “Deep, deep down, Key. So far down I can’t see you anymore.” She swiped at her face with her sleeves. “You need to quit. Fake sickness. Go far, far away.”
“Like, fall off the stage?”
Those were my original words echoing in the back of my head.
This time, I stabled myself in the memory and tightened my grip on Lily. But as I did, the memory continued as it always had with Lily walking away. “Kiera, you cannot change your memories,” Allison said. “It is possible, yes. This is how the process of healing is applied. However, there is a safety protocol put in place to ensure you do not do this in the case of the procedure being hijacked.”
Hijacked?!
As if the word itself had caused my thoughts to spiral once more, the simulation around me once again started to come apart; shadows bleeding from the dark began their creep towards me. “Focus on your memory, Kiera.” Allison’s voice said calmly.
I did.
It’s not like I could try and reach out for the real world, which had once again crumbled around me.
Lily stumbled away before I could question her— and I was left on an eerily empty school corridor with a bad feeling suddenly curling in my gut.
“Lily!”
I called after her, but she didn’t turn around, bleeding into a silhouette.
Lily stopped coming to school.
According to her texts, it was the flu. But Lily didn’t use periods in her texts, and the lack of the emojis was making me wary.
I spent the next few weeks rehearsing for the play. The kids in the art department built a crazy set, and I felt like a real performer. The night before opening night, I caught the set designer students dragging in a large white bag. They were wearing masks. As I got closer, I could tell why. The thing smelled like an actual decaying corpse. When it was dragged on stage for final rehearsals, Alyssa paled. She looked like she was going to throw up. “Is that what we’re supposed to eat?”
Mrs Beck nodded with a wide smile. “Indeed it is! I have worked in several theatre productions, so a friend of a friend provided us with this prop!”
Wylan crouched in front of it. “Well, it smells authentic. What is it?”
The teacher pulled the zipper, and the group of us leapt back.
A scream clawed its way up my throat, my gut twisting into knots. The prop was… realistic. Way too realistic.
It was a mannequin stuffed with what looked like raw sausage meat and ground beef soaked in food coloring.
I poked the body, my stomach dancing.
Yep. Definitely plastic.
“We need to eat that?” Noah shrieked. “Dude. That’s fucking raw meat!”
Mrs Beck sighed. “It’s jackfruit, Noah. Commonly used to resemble human body parts. It’s perfectly fine for human consumption. There’s chicken, too.”
Wylan let out a choked laugh, poking at the prop corpse’s face. “Mmmm!” He mocked, shooting me a smirk. “Don’t you just love dry chicken strips covered in food coloring?” He swiped his fingers on the front of his sweater. “Better than a McDonald’s.”
Thankfully, the prop was taken away, and we did one last dress rehearsal. It went as well as you would think. Mrs Beck’s idea to let us have soda and pizza backfired. I fucked up my lines, almost giving Mrs Beck a coronary, Wylan fell off the stage twice and miraculously didn’t break anything, and Lyssa and Noah were found backstage having sex when they were supposed to be, you know… playing their parts. Two critical members screwing, while the rest of us were slowly going crazy from the amount of times we had to run through the play. I don’t think that was a side effect of soda and pizza of Alyssa and Noah hooking up. The two of them had been drowning in sexual tension for a while, it was painful, so it wasn’t really surprising.
Opening night came, and I was almost throwing up from nerves.
“Gather around! Gather around!”
Mrs Beck gathered us in a circle five minutes before show time and produced a leather bound bottle. Noah whooped, and Wylan of course started the, “But Mrs Beck, we are technically minors” conversation. He was overruled, as all of us agreed (even him) that it was a treat.
I downed my glass straight away, wincing at the odd taste. I didn’t like wine usually, but this tasted kind of sweet. I noticed it perked up all of us, sending us into a sort of frenzy. I wasn’t sure what percentage of alcohol in one glass was, but it was either these kids were pretending to be drunk, or at least behaving erratically, or Mrs Beck had accidentally gotten her performers drunk on opening night. It started with Noah, who was suddenly starving. I caught him backstage stuffing salted peanuts in his mouth, demanding the art students to go grab him more. Alyssa disappeared for a while and was found lying face down on the school corridor, taking questionable selfies. She’d spilled grape juice everywhere.
It was dripping from her, staining her clothes and hands and pooling across the corridor.
“Do you know what’s going on?”
Wylan, usually the one who was allergic to fun, grabbed me suddenly, forcing me into an awkward dance. He too was taking advantage of the refreshments, his mouth filled with a combination of chocolate and chips.
He too had somehow gotten hold of grape juice. I could see it staining his lips and teeth. It was thick and deep red, tainting him.
Grinning through a mushy combination of both, the boy's grasp was tightening. “We definitely shouldn’t have had wine, he giggled, burping. When he pulled me to his chest, hot breath in my face, he started to move forwards, jaw clenching, eyes suddenly far too blank for me to fully understand. But I was too busy being very wary that my stomach was sickeningly empty, and my mouth was watering.
“Hey! What the fuck are you two—woah!”
The set designer kid dropped whatever he’d been holding, his hands slamming over his mouth.
Twisting around, I snapped out of it, and my head felt weird. The kid’s was definitely talking, but I couldn’t hear him. His voice was being drowned out by ocean waves roaring. The air was too thick. I shook my head, but I was already being dragged onto stage— where I somehow managed to kick into performer mode. Mom was in the audience, though when I risked a peek, I couldn’t see anything.
Shadows and silhouettes. I noticed there was some commotion right at the back. The doors were open, and whispers were starting. But I ignored them. The play went better than I thought. Luckily, the wine didn’t go to our heads, each of us delivering a stellar performance. It was towards the end, when Wylan was shouting a monologue to the audience, and the group of us were in position, where the girl paying Sunny would sneak under stage and be replaced with the prop of her body—- was when I started to smell it.
Roast chicken.
No. Better. My mom’s chicken hot pot, steamed potatoes and gravy, and steamed broccoli. “What were we supposed to do?” Wylan asked the audience. His voice collapsed into white noise in my ears.
If I strained my ears, I swore I could hear… screaming.
I could barely sense their footsteps, as Sunny’s performer was pulled from the stage, and… there it was. The smell.
So good. An aroma which filled me eliciting something electric.
The prop was in front of us, and it was the final scene. There was supposed to be a cue, but I couldn’t stand it. I was ripping through the bag and struggling with the zip, and when I had fistfuls of jackfruit and chicken strips, stuffing them into my mouth, I couldn’t stop. Sunny’s body was so well-done. I was amazed and a little horrified how lifelike her flesh was and how easy it was to tear from her bones.
The others dropped down beside me, and I was aware of the whimper which suddenly escaped Wylan's lips, before I dragged him down with me, forcing fake flesh into his mouth. Noah and Alyssa followed suit. I was aware I was moaning. Loudly. I ripped and pulled and tore at the prop until I could see pearly white.
I started giggling. There was no laughing in the script, but I laughed, warm red sliding down my mouth and chin. And when the audience were clapping, and I was getting to my feet, dizzy, grasping the others’ hand, and bowing—I couldn’t stop smiling. I bowed again, while red seeped across the stage. It was running down my shirt and dripping down my face. Someone in the audience screamed suddenly.
Alyssa’s mother standing in the front fainted.
The mechanical voice was back, but it sounded different.
“No, Kiera. This is not what happened. Go back. Remove the filter they put over your memory and see things clearly.”
I sensed another bird slamming into the window inside the simulation, and my body being thrown forwards, the bus quaking with me.
“Do it.”
This time her voice was firm.
The memory blurred, and I was back in front of Noah, right before the play. He was stuffing something into his mouth.
Not salted peanuts.
Fingers.
Fingers which were still moving, poking from his clenched teeth.
Alyssa.
I caught her lying face down on the school corridor. She was covered in it, slick scarlet. Blood. Not grape juice. The girl was mindlessly mauling on an eyeball.
Biting through it, she shot me a grin, and snapped a pic of herself. Wylan grabbed hold of me, pulling me into a dance, spinning me around a maniacal giggle escaping his mouth leaking thick, deep red scarlet which dripped down his chin. His mouth was full of stringy flesh stuck between his teeth as he spun me around and around, and I was aware of the state of myself. My fingers entangled with his were wet and slimy. Wylan stumbled, his eyes not quite penetrating me. “We definitely shouldn’t have had wine,” he laughed, and I nodded along, doing another clumsy spin.
“Hey!”
Turning around, one of the art director students was staring at us, horrified. “What the… what the fuck are you doing?!” He started towards us, “We need to get you help,” he whispered, his eyes were wide. “Kiera. Wylan. Who did this to you?”
Everything went fast forward after that, like my memories were being purposely rewound.
On stage, Wylan’s gasp of delight, when a body was brought in front of us.
I dove in, carving my fingernails into already shredded flesh, stuffing myself with… I caught exactly what my fists were full of.
Her.
Lily.
Recoiling in horror, Wylan did the same. But the smell of her was driving me…
Crazy.
So, I grabbed him, forcing a fistful of Lily into his mouth and made him chew on it until he was helping himself.
With my best friend dripping down my shirt and in my mouth, we bowed in front of an audience.
They were… clapping.
No. I squinted.
No, there wasn’t an audience.
Instead, our parents and friends were at the back of the auditorium, a blur of screaming masses being held back by cops.
That was when four numbers appeared in front of my eyes suddenly.
4879
And a voice pricked into my head.
“Kiera, sweetie, can you hear me? Could you read out those four numbers for me, please? There’s a good girl.”
.
I'll be back soon with an update. I'm supposed to be writing this for therapy, but I found myself here. Hopefully I can continue to share my experience.

• The big inflation report (8:30 a.m. ET): Investors are coming to terms with the reality that the Fed may not actually be done hiking, which makes the CPI numbers the most-anticipated economic data this week. April's inflation is expected to tick up 0.4% month-over-month, after March's 0.1% reading.
• Action in Washington:The Financial Services Committee hosts a hearing entitled "Federal Response to Recent Bank Failures," at 2 p.m. ET. Meanwhile, the debt ceiling impasse continues without resolution despite the President and Speaker having met on Tuesday.
• Disney earnings: Disney headlines Wednesday's earnings, and investors will look for news on the company's restructuring as well as the beef with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

Follow all the action throughout the day on the Yahoo Finance Markets Blog.
What we're reading

• Tech earnings featured more stock buybacks – here's what that means for investors: Stock buybacks, which are "misunderstood," according to one professor Yahoo Finance spoke with, have spiked — especially at Alphabet.
• Google I/O 2023: What to expect during Google’s huge developer event: Google, which has been behind its competition in the public eye, is likely to announce big developments in its AI projects.
• Markets brace for potential debt default as deadline looms: Debt ceiling standoffs have negatively impacted markets in the past. But often only at the last minute.

Markets right now
📷📷 📷📷
Note: Data is as of the time of opening this email. To view real-time markets data click here.
Paramount didn't follow Warren Buffett's advice
Today's Takeaway is by Brian Sozzi, Yahoo Finance's Executive Editor. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.
‌
A few days removed from Warren Buffett's annual party in Omaha, I am left thinking of this quote from one of the CEOs atop the billionaire investor's long-time holdings.
"His advice to me was to be transparent. He may not like what you are going to tell him, but as long as you are not surprising him you will be OK," American Express Stephen Squeri told Yahoo! Finance.
Execs at media giant Paramount — where Buffett is a 15.3% holder after building an initial stake in Nov. 2022 — must not have gotten that sage advice from the OG investor.
And that calls into question what the Oracle will do next with his ownership stake.
Last week, Paramount — which has made major progress on the streaming subscriber front with Paramount+ — surprised the heck out of investors like Buffett.
Paramount posted a first quarter direct to consumer business loss of $511 million. A year ago, Paramount's direct to consumer business lost $456 million.
That's a lot of losses for a business like Paramount+, which had 60 million subscribers exiting the first quarter. But it underscores how costly it is to produce content such as the hit Paramount show Yellowstone while also staying sharp on pricing to compete with fellow streamers Netflix, Disney, Amazon, etc.
It's just a brutal business to be in.
The fact ad revenue in Paramount's traditional TV business is under pressure in part to macroeconomic conditions only amplifies the losses at the streaming business.
"Paramount is still moving through a difficult combination of heavy investments to try to offset structural decline in a weak cyclical top-line environment," said Macquarie Research analyst Tim Nollen in a client note.
Nollen maintained an under-perform rating on Paramount's stock.
The company then surprised investors again — such as Buffett — by slashing its quarterly dividend to $0.05 from $0.24. Buffett loves dividends. He loves collecting the big fat checks from a Coca-Cola and aforementioned AmEx.
Now he stands to collect smaller quarterly checks from Paramount, provided he still owns the stock.
Buffett is likely to release a 13f filing early next week disclosing movements in his vast stock portfolio. If Paramount isn't in there — or the stake has been reduced — Paramount investors could feel more pain.
Buffett didn't exactly voice support for the company at the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting.
“It’s not good news when any company cuts its dividend dramatically," Buffett told a packed CHI Health Center.
No it's not, Warren.
Watch on Yahoo Finance

• Drew Wilkerson, RXO CEO, 9 a.m. ET
• Max Levchin, Affirm CEO, 10 a.m. ET
• Austin Russell, Luminar CEO Austin Russell, 10 a.m. ET
• Joth Ricci, Dutch Bros’ CEO & President, 11 a.m. ET
• Dave Regnery, Trane CEO, 11 a.m. ET
• Michael Battles, Clean Harbors CEO, 3 p.m. ET
• Matt Skaruppa, Duolingo CFO, 4 p.m. ET

Chart of the day
📷
For more graphics like this, follow Yahoo Finance on Instagram.
Earnings and economic calendar
Wednesday

• Economic data: Consumer Price Index, month-over-month, April (+0.4% expected, +0.1% previously); CPI, year-over-year, April (+5% expected; +5% previously); Core CPI, month-over-month, April (+0.4% expected; +0.4% previously); Core CPI, year-over-year, April (+5.5% expected; +5.6% previously); MBA weekly mortgage applications (-1.2% previously)
• Earnings: Beyond Meat (BYND), Blackstone (BX), First Citizens (FCNA), Robinhood (HOOD), Trade Desk (TTD), Disney (DIS), Wendy’s (WEN)

Thursday

• Economic news: Initial jobless claims, week ended May 6 (245,000 expected, 242,000 previously); PPI, month-over-month, April (+0.3% expected, -0.5% previously); PPI, year-over-year, April (+2.5% expected; +2.7% previously); Core PPI, month-over-month, April (+0.3% expected, -0.1% previously); Core PPI, year-over-year, April (+3.3% expected; +3.4% previously)
• Earnings: Getty Images (GETY), JD.Com (JD), Krispy Kreme Donuts (DNUT), Yeti (YETI)