Todays final jeopardy

Context, I've played OW since 2016 and got like 90% of the legendary skins from the first game because I played so much and so often. Came back to OW2 a couple months ago and started playing again with friends occasionally but mostly by myself. Come a month or so in, I get a suspension for gameplay/behavioral offense which then turned into a 3 day suspension 2 weeks ago, and then finally an account closure last week. Talked to support multiple times over the course of all these suspensions and they never gave me information as to why I got my account suspended and then eventually banned. Come today, I get my account unbanned and was given a final warning. Obviously worried over getting my account banned again with this time having no way to appeal, I ask why exactly this happened once again. Was finally met with a statement saying the first 2 times were for playing an account that was cheating- and the last one that caused me to get banned was with the same reason but that the account was compromised and that I had played at least 90 games with them. This initially made me suspect two of my friends that i've played with but...it's not like they're the best players in the world either. Our highest ranks are around plat for me and one other and then just gold and below for the other. Furthermore, neither of them have gotten suspended or banned multiple times unlike I have which just leads me to have no idea on what truly is going on.
If I got to a point where my account was straight up banned and then later brought back down to unbanned but given a final warning...what about my friends? why haven't they gotten suspended? why hasn't anything happened to them? Why am I the one getting in trouble for this situation? I was told "To stop queueing in large amounts of games with people who are clearly cheating" When...my win rate is around 50 (only a 75 game win/lose difference in my favor) and it doesn't feel like any of my friends or teammates are clearly overperforming or have some sort of advantage?? If the overwatch 2 team is so sure that I played over 90 games with this account, why haven't I seen any action taken on this so called account? I can't recall anyone outside of my close friends that I've played over 90 games with and their accounts are fine. The kicker? I was finally hit with "any further tickets can be considered offense" so I can't even further discuss the situation or know which account is causing the issue. My friends have only ever played on those accounts to my knowledge and I've played with them during OW1 and have had no issue so why is this suddenly an issue now?? And why am I the one getting penalized and no one else is??? No matter the case IF by some chance I'm being lied to by my close friends (Devil's Advocate) Why are their accounts still fine if overwatch knows they're cheating but I almost had my account perma-banned????
Any advice or even questions would be insanely appreciated, I don't wanna walk on eggshells and risk getting permabanned for just playing with my friends for the rest of overwatch's lifetime.
Image here for what the support team sent me- https://i.imgur.com/s9tzoPA.png

Pt 1 If you haven't read it.
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Pt 2 If you haven't read it.
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Pt 3 If you haven't read it.
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Hope you enjoy Pt 4 and happy reading!
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*Flick* "Aligning descent profile for re-entry." I had made all the final preparations
*Flick* "Prepare for comms black out in 10" William began the countdown.
"9"
"8"
"7"
"6"
"5- when you get back I absolutely *have* to show you this really old movie, interstellar, its a classic" Will interjected.
"4-Oh my stars we're about to enter the atmosphere of Ix-5 at 7km/s and all you can think about is showing me some old movie when we get back?!"
"3- Fine."
"2"
The plasma had begun to lick around the edges of the heat shield and up onto the windows.
"1"
The comms began to make a static hissing sound.
"Just breathe." Will muttered to himself.
The whole shuttle began to shake violently.
"PASSING MAX-Q" Will had to shout to be heard over all the rattling.
Just like that, it began to quiet down, the fiery inferno of re-entry plasma died down and we began our coast down to find a suitable landing spot. Comms had also returned.
*Click* "I'd just like to let everyone know that we made it through re-entry just fine." Will had radioed back to the ship.
The sound of faint cheers from bridge could be heard.
"Engaging cloaking device" *Flick*
A loud hum could be heard as the cloaking device not only prevented us from being seen by eyes, but also seen by any radar, sonar, or other means of detection spun to life.
"So where should we land?"
"Oh just a few more kilometers to shore, then I'll just find a nice, secluded spot and we'll spend the next couple of days getting to know the locals!" I responded gleefully, as this was my first time with a civilization that didn't just learn how to farm.
After carefully gliding down we landed in a patch of grass-like vegetation. Will pointed out all the leaves were all black, to which I responded by telling him that the vegetation had to adapt to capture more of the light spectrum than the vegetation on Earth, because of the dimmer, red dwarf this planet orbited.
We had set up the basics, communications equipment, synthesizers, and a variety of other scientific tools.
"Hey, remember when you said you wanted to see an example of human food! Because I do!" Will exclaimed giddily.
After plugging in a drive and pressing a few buttons, the machine whirred to action, printing out a most unusual dish.
"So keep in mind this is just one dish out of... out of well I don't really know how many different kinds of dishes we have, all you need to know is that it's a very large number... But here's too hoping you enjoy it!"
What came out were this white, almost sphere like but more so a squat raindrop shaped... things. Will called them "Dumplings", and they smelled delicious, though he had dipped them in this brown liquid he called "Soy Sauce" that I really did not care for as far as smell goes.
I carefully picked one of these dumplings and bit into it.
"Oh my" I said, albeit muffled by the food.
"It's good isn't it! I told you!" Will grinned.
"That's quite the... texture. I don't really know how to process this. It's so soft and yet firm. Nutrient packs are so much easier, they don't make a mess and they're just so efficient, I mean, you could probably play around with the recipe, make them tastier. Right?"
"You just don't get it do you." Will said, shaking his head.
"Oh well, more for me." He grabbed at my half eaten dumpling.
"Hey! That's mine!"
"So you DO like it then!"
"No, just, ugh, leave me and my dumpling alone, I've already had my Nutrient Pack for the day I'm going to hibernate now."
Will rolled his eyes at my response.
"Fine." He said in that same begrudging manner as before.
I walked on over to the hibernation chamber, a circular area just big enough for me with a warm, gentle breeze flowing over. As I was going inside I heard Will behind me closing up the door after bringing everything inside.
"Wait... you were going to tell me about.... sleep..." I muttered out.
"Oh yes so hold one, could you just fully wake up for a little bit so I can explain, so your species, and for that matter every other alien species I've met, sleeps one hemisphere or one part of their brain at a time, but humans sleep the whole brain all at once."
"What's that like?" I replied, still in the grip of hibernation.
"So for starters we are like, FULLY unconscious the whole time, we can be woken up but we have a very, VERY limited understanding of what's going on around us. We also go limp so we don't move around accidentally, we still do. It's not perfect but it works enough to where I can say, "yeah we go limp"."
"But aren't you... what happens... if... someone ambushes you at night?"
"In all likelihood unless we happen to be right next to a weapon or something good enough, we die."
"Oh my. How... how did this not drive your species extinct?"
"I'm left wondering that same question too Tomō."
This might be the first time I've heard about a human ever being truly defenseless. Will had disappeared off into another room to change, returning in only a pair of shorts. Which left me examining his exposed torso. Human skin is wrapped quite tightly around the internal structure, and there seems to be very little, if any, loose skin, it also seemed to only be composed of one layer, most others I've meet without loose skin have special layers that can break off. Perhaps humans might be less sturdy than I had come to expect. No no that can't possibly be true I thought to myself, or as much as I could with half a brain working.
The morning was punctured by this infernal clattering from Will's bed, his arm swung up and smashed down on a small table next to him, causing the sound to stop.
"What was that?! Did someone find us?!"
"No... it was just my [Yawns] Alarm, we need to be startled to wake up and that [Will yawned again] was the startling noise."
Will climbed out of bed, shuffled over to another table (Those humans have a lot of tables) grabbed a fresh change of clothes and made his way over to the bathroom to change.
That's when I heard it, a loud SHHHHH sound from the bathroom, I made my way over to the locked door and shouted:
"EVERYTHING OKAY IN THERE WILL?"
"YEAH, JUST TAKING A SHOWER."
"A WHAT?"
"SHOWER"
"WHAT'S THAT?"
"I DON'T CARE FOR THIS CONVERSATION RIGHT NOW."
"OH OKAY."
I shuffled back over to my hibernation chamber, pulling the divider closed I took in a bath of UV sterilizing light and changed out of yesterday's uniform, and into todays, which on scout missions is always a set of cloths made to imitate the look of whatever cloths are common on whatever world we're scouting. In this case it was a brown turtleneck sweater, some black pants, 6 pairs of gloves as the basic orbital scan of their unencrypted communications revealed they obsess over cleanliness, often sporting multiple pairs of gloves for specific tasks, kept in separate pockets, land lastly, a sort of shawl like piece of fabric, apparently used to protect yourself from the midday dust and wind storms.
The disguise of our more... alien features was provided by some makeup, changing our skin to a sort of pale grey. We also made use of some printed prosthetic noses, wigs, and ears, which made our faces impossible to distinguish from the local inhabitants.
Once I had finished applying all my disguises, I exited my chamber and walked over to where Will was, standing by the synthesizer watching it print up a breakfast.
Will, who hadn't even donned the appropriate clothing at this point (he was wearing a simple outfit of black shorts and a grey t-shirt), was oddly enough, sopping wet. His hair had turned a jet black color due to its saturation of water, releasing its store down his face and his neck, resulting in the back of his shirt, and the front collar turning a visibly darker shade and sticking to his body, at this point I also noticed that his skin was covered in beads of moisture glinting in the sun.
"Why are you so wet?" I asked him.
"It has to do with a shower, I get myself under this sort of, simulated rainfall, only the temperature is nice and hot, and use soap, not the same kind you use to clean your hands, but the function is still the same, I then put some stuff in my hair which gets rid of oily build up, the water rinses everything off, but by the end I'm soaking wet, I will need to dry off properly though before I put on all the disguises."
As he grabbed his tray with his hands, still damp from the shower, and the skin around his fingers was all shriveled up.
"Your fingers look like mine now! See!" I asked, moving right up next to him to better show him my fingers.
"It just increases the surface area so I can grip things better underwater, only happens if they get wet."
"Why wouldn't they be like that all the time?"
"Once again I'm left wondering that question myself."
"So what's on the menu for "break-fast"?" I asked
"Well for starters, it's just one word, breakfast, and secondly, I'm having two slices of buttered toast, an egg, and a black tea. Standard human breakfast, though Coffee is more popular."
"Black tea...?" I had heard of Coffee before and its danger to other species, and was hoping that this tea drink lacked any of this substance known as Caffeine.
"Yeah just a little caffeine to wake me up."
"CAFFEINE?! That's... that's a.... that's a Class IV chemical weapon! They banned that centuries ago! How?! What?! Oh my... Oh my..." I began to hyperventilate.
"Relax! There's only what... 50 milligrams in a cup."
"FIFTY?! FIFTY!?! ONLY FIFTY?!? THAT'S TEN TIMES THE DEADLY DOSE! WHAT ARE YOUR THINKING!" I shrieked, though deep down I did take note of how that was less than that of Coffee.
"Shhh, you'll risk us getting caught, calm down, don't worry I'll have the cup disposed of properly, I've done this every day and so far, no one's gotten hurt." Will said in his standard, nonchalant attitude that has become so typical of him, a tone which did not seem anywhere near appropriate for the situation.
"SO FAR?!" I was not heeding his instructions to calm down, it's typically very hard to do so when faced with something that could lead to a violent death.
"Look, look, it's totally harmless for us humans, besides, the Federation strictly manages our recreational use of substances highly dangerous to other species, such as but not limited too: Caffeine, Capsaicin, and Cocoa. I make one wrong move and my ass is sent to jail."
I was shocked, frozen with shock, at least I wasn't screaming but I felt like I couldn't move a muscle. Capsaicin was last used by the Rx'lac to murder billions, Cocoa I hadn't heard of before so it must have been something unique to Earth, but it terrified me still. In my frozen state I waited for the cup he drank from to be destroyed, and at this moment I began to regain my motor functions.
After rigorously drying himself off with a towel and this awfully loud machine he pointed at his hair, Will began to
"Now, could you help me apply the makeup?"
Human hands, while much sturdier than what most of us use, in the case of Captain Reloxyn, she has 6 tentacles which can vary their diameter, and in the case of Zorxians like myself, we have the two hands attached to their respective arm much like a human, but the geometry of the fingers themselves are different, each finger is made up of 3 fluid filled sacs, attached one after another in segments, each sack is attached to the previous with a variety of muscles, which gives each joint the ability to make movements with a full 120 degree range of motion, in any direction. While this makes them far more fragile, due to the lack of skeletal structure, this makes us quite dextrous.
But yet, I noticed that Will's right hand, arm, and ankle were already painted, which puzzled me, if he could paint his right side, then why couldn't he paint his left?
"Do you really need my help? You did just fine painting the right side of your body."
"Tomō, do you really know so little about humans?"
"You know you're the first human I've met!"
"Humans tend to have what's called a dominant hand, what it means is that there's one hand I am really good at using, and another that I'm not so great at using, I *could* train myself to use both hands equally well, but I never really had a need, and even when it would've come in handy, there's always been someone else who can help me. Like you!"
"Aww, thanks!" I responded.
"In my case, my dominant hand is my left one, fairly uncommon. Only about 10% of people are like that, the rest are right handed, and a very small number are born with both hands being of equal capability."
"But you really should get on it with the whole training your right hand. There won't always be someone to help you."
"And yet there always has." Will responded jokingly.
"We ready?" I asked.
"Just have to get some things ready, hold on, if this society is so obsessed with cleanliness, how come they don't wear face masks? I doubt they've gotten to a point where they've already eradicated all diseases. That should take them at least another century."
"Oh, this is the really cool thing about this planet! So basically, airborne diseases never evolved! They just... don't exist here!"
"Absolutely fascinating." Will responded.
"Everything we need is now in the bag." He pointed to the black bag slung over his shoulder made from the local flora.
"And we should be ready to go!" Will enthusiastically marched over to the shuttle door, opening it at saying;
"After you!" With a look of pride on his face, odd, if anyone should be proud, it should be me, after all, this mission is already off to a good start considering he's a rookie.
The red light of Ix bathed the planet in this warm glow, Ix was rare for a red-dwarf system, as most habitable planets are tidally locked, but we marched through the woods, noting observations of the local ecosystem that we stopped periodically to jot down in our notepad.
About halfway through the forest Will stopped suddenly, turning back to face me.
"You forgot to tell me what bridge came up with for our secret identities? Oh stars, saying it like that makes me feel like some kind of super-spy!"
"Oh yes, I must have gotten distracted..." I reached for my communicator.
"Okay, so we're two hikers, you named Po'ol and I named Gra'aul, and we just finished up a nice long hike and so we're off back to Hl'Ix, population 12.8 million, and about a 2 hour train ride. Oh by the way, I have to share the language file hold on... yup that should do it! Congratulations you are now fluent in Ix!"
A requirement of working for any Federation job was the implantation of a language chip which allowed the user to become fluent in all 608 languages and, what they called "Significant Dialects" spoken in the Federation, though for people working on exploration vessels like me and Will, we had access to a file sharing system so we could download new languages for the planets we visited after the central computer processed them.
"Thanks!" Will responded from a meter or so ahead of me.
We continued our march down to the road, where we walked parallel to it as cars zipped by. Eventually the forest we had landed in cleared way for farmland, which after about 5 kilometers or so more walking, started to turn to houses with expansive yards, which gradually became smaller and smaller as we neared the center of town.
"You getting tired yet?" Will asked me, we had decided it was best for him to walk behind me, so we could make sure we stayed together.
"Yeah, but just a bit longer until we make it into... whatever the name of this town is."
"Alright."
We continued to make our way into the town, named Urup and with a population of about 3 thousand. When we got there it was almost devoid of any activity, and the wind had started to pick up, which carried in dust. Thankfully we anticipated this, having donned contact lenses to keep debris out of our eyes, and using the shawl to cover up our mouth and nose. At this point will stopped to pull out a small, and very thin, weather sheet, which he released into the wind. This device would record the weather conditions as it gets carried by the wind. Just after doing this, he turned to me and said,
"Weather at time of release: Temperature: 10 degrees Celsius. Wind speed: 56 Kph, rising. Feels like: 5.2 Degrees Celsius, falling. It wasn't able to get a good reading on dust concentration because it's rising too fast so that should tell you everything you need to know."
The wind nearly blew Will's shawl off, but he grabbed it just in time, and me, being too focused on Will, had let my own shawl blow away in the wind, and while Will had tried to reach for it, the wind carried it away far too quickly for him to get it in time, only missing his fingers by a handful of centimeters. I quickly covered my mouth with my sweater, though this did leave part of my midsection exposed to the elements, a suboptimal position to be in during a dust storm of this magnitude.
"Dammit! Almost had the blasted thing!" Will shouted, the rush of the wind was beginning to drown out our voices.
He put his hand in one of the many pockets on his pants, that's something everyone can appreciate about Ix fashion, anything below 10 pockets is simply unacceptable. Anyways, Will pulled out a small pair of scissors, and quickly removed his shawl.
"What are you doing you can't remove your shawl in these conditions!" I shouted back at him.
"I'll be quick, don't worry!" Will responded as he cut his cloth in two.
"Here!" He said handing me the now removed half of his shawl, and quickly covering his face with the remaining half.
We continued on, though this time much slower than before, as we didn't want to loose our balance and be toppled by the wind. Never before had I ever had to deal with wind this intense, no wonder they assigned the human.
"Squat down! Boundary layer winds should be slower!" He shouted to me while bending down to waddle his way across the street to the hotel.
Squatting down only provided minimal relief, as I suppose one would have to crawl to truly take advantage of this effect. Slowly but surely we made our way across the road, over to the hotel. Opening the first set of doors we were met with a powerful blast of air, which prevented any dust from getting in. Only until after the doors had closed, and our clothes were sufficiently purged of any particulates that had somehow lodged their way into the remarkably dense fabrics. Eventually though, the blast died down, and the second doors opened automatically.
The doors opened to reveal an interior with a largely brown, beige, and black color pattern. The whole lobby was lit with a quite warm color tone, with the lightbulbs occasionally flickering and all the windows had been sealed off behind steel plates. Eventually Will turned his head to face a desk spanning quite a large distance, located just in front of a large board with all the room numbers located next to a light.
We could vaguely hear someone talking to another person, emanating from behind a door marked "Employees Only", Will glanced at me, pulling my attention to his gloves, which he began to swap out for a new pair. I quickly followed suit. Eventually, just moments after I finished putting on a new pair of gloves, one of the people from behind the door exited.
"Why on Ix would there ever be customers walking in during the middle of the storm! We issued the alert 2 hours ago!" The woman said to the man who stayed in the room as the door closed behind her.
Turning around to face the two of us, and walking over to the main part of the check in desk, she began to speak to us.
"Hi my name us Za'ul!" She said, showing us her name tag.
"Now what can I do for the two of you! Must've been miserable trapped out there in the storm!"
Will began to approach the desk, seeing this I decided to sit down and catch my breath, the 10 kilometer walk had exhausted me, it was remarkable to see Will barley fazed by it.
"Hi my name is Po'ol and this is my hiking buddy Gra'aul, we just finished up the most beautiful of hikes through that nearby forest, so we're on our way back to Hl'ix! I was wondering if you could get us a room please and thank you ma'am." He said in a sort of folksy manner, not too dissimilar from the way Za'ul spoke.
"Alright you want one bed or two?" She responded.
"-Two please." He said, almost cutting Za'ul off.
"All right! You want first floor or second floor?"
"Oh second floor would be lovely."
"Well here's your key and have a lovely stay!"
Will walked over to me.
"Got us a key for room 203, here's your key" Will had switched from his folksy mannerisms to a soft whisper, but I just let the key hit me, I was far to tired to catch it.
"Well I see our hike took quite a bit out of you, so just come up when your ready, I got the bags don't worry."
I nodded my head in silent agreement, I was exhausted, but I knew I should probably go upstairs to the room with him.
"Hold on.." I said, slowly lifting myself up onto my feet and carefully making my way over to the elevator.
Standing in the cramped elevator I noticed Will suddenly had this terrible and persistent oder.
"You okay?" I asked him
"Yeah... why do you ask?"
"It's just... you smell kind of... bad."
"Oh!" He chuckled with that same old chuckle I had heard a million times before.
"Yeah, uh, I'm sure after I explained to you what a shower was you were probably perplexed as to why we don't do the standard UV bath, but basically humans smell bad after a long day, or after a long enough, or intense enough period of physical exertion. Showering gets rid of the smell. I did notice the Ix had only a single layer of skin, and hopefully this means they too have the scent issues that humans have, and thus also make use of showering."
"I see. Can you take another shower when we get to the hotel?"
"Tomō! That's... don't say that to other humans okay, you can be direct with me like that but... a lot of other humans will not take that kindly. Just letting you know that."
ding
The elevator had made its way up to the second floor.
"Let's see, 203... 203... here it is!"
Will unlocked the door and opened it.
"Oh thank the stars they have actual beds and it wasn't just a translational error!" He cried out in relief.
Will ran over to the bathroom.
"And they have showers too! Just Wonderful! Don't worry a shower should adequately clean you too."
"Oh I brought my own portable UV sterilizer, I'll be fine."
"You just relax down I'll take care of the report back to bridge."
I made my way over to the beds and just collapsed into it. Hibernating while laying down was not ideal, but at this point I'd do anything not to be on my feet anymore. Eventually I decided that I didn't care for lying face down, and instead rolled over to face Will, just to make sure he didn't botch the report.
Eventually once he finished his report, he walked over to the rooms corners and placed the sound barriers, which would cancel out our voices making sure nobody heard us. Which he, well, I was supposed to do first thing upon entering, though I was far to tired, and Will must've only just noticed. You know, when he first got here he really just annoyed me to no end, but now, he's really settled in and has gotten really into the hang of things, and sure, he's weird, but you know what, he's a human, he's not weird, just... different.
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I think I'm going to leave it off here, I know I promised some action but this is just where the story lead me, and it was already getting long. Part 5 will be out tomorrow. Hope you enjoyed reading!

I got deactivated today! Not sure whether to see it as a good or bad thing, but there’s no denying it’s time for a real job again. Hopefully something with benefits. The last 3 years have been a lot of fun. But I’m tired of feeling like I’m working for scraps. Tired of taking no tip orders. Tired of settling. It’s time I branch out and try something new. I wish everyone the best of luck. A final piece of advice I’ll leave you all with, when chatting with support, always screen shot every single conversation. If I had I might have had a chance to appeal.Trust and safety won’t believe you they need to see the proof.

Hi gang. I’m a married man and have struggled with PMO on and of for more than a decade. After masturbating to porn at least once a day for several years, I stopped completely, by God’s grace and with His help. But since the pandemic, I’ve relapsed several times and for the past few months it’s like I’ve stopped exercising any restraint, indulging several times a week. I always have the best excuses… stress, depression, a wife whose sex drive is so low that she borders on asexuality, boredom… But I recognize I’m the only one to blame.
I’m finally to the point where I’m praying for the strength to lay this down and leave it behind once and for all. I miss the close relationship with Christ I once had and I’ve recognize I’ve given that up in exchange for temporary, and temporal pleasure. I know His love has never waned for me, but it’s impossible for me to accept it fully while constantly, half-heartedly praying for forgiveness for sins I willingly walk into.
So today is Day 1 of making the effort to get back on the right path. I’ve been browsing the sub today and I’m really encouraged by not only the success stories, but the openness and vulnerability of everyone here. I appreciate your prayers.

For context: I have like 2 friends that I feel like I can go to and trust.
Today I got into an argument with one of those friends. We both work at the same place, in 2 different departments. He is 40, I am 33. He is having a hard time advancing in his career, whereas I have been advancing yearly for the past few years.
He vents to me about work all of the time, and his frustrations. I listen, I offer my advice, and it’s helped him feel better. Today, i finally told him I got a promotion (I found out weeks ago, but held off from telling him). His immediate response was that he didn’t want to talk about work with me anymore, then he proceeded to complain about his job. Which I ignored.
He then said he was annoyed that I got a promotion, and that we should take a break from each other. Although im hurt that I couldn’t even celebrate with one of my only friends, I feel a sense of relief that I don’t have to bear the negativity any more. And im realizing that I really don’t need friends. I’m perfectly fine with my wife and 3 kids. Today, I am deciding to be better by not just blindly chasing friendships. I am realizing that I can enjoy solitude and don’t need friends to feel loved!

Okay guys, I'm sorry but this is a seriouspost. And a long one at that.
Mods, I'm sorry if this violates any rules, but I think that what I have to say here is important so please read it all before rendering judgement.
...
So, where to begin?
I've been feeling worthless lately. I keep on top of the news coming out of Ukraine. I have for the last 467 days, religiously. 0700, 1100, 1330, 1615, 2200. Check Ground News. Check NCD. Check in with OSINT. Check headlines. And what always strikes me is what the hell am I doing?
Not to say "what am I doing wasting my time keeping up", but rather "why aren't I doing something to help?"
To understand where I'm coming from, I'll give you a little background about myself.
I live in England. I don't come from a military family, but for the last three generations across all branches of my family exactly one member has served per generation. My great grandfather served in the navy aboard the HMS Enterprise. My great uncle served in the Manchester Regiment. My uncle served in the Royal Marines. Adding in stepfamily, my stepdad served in the SBS during the Falklands conflict.
My point is: I wasn't raised to believe "military service makes you a man" or anything. But growing up, I fell in love with flying, with military equipment and the sense of duty and camaraderie.
I joined the Air Training Corps at fourteen and, over the next four years worked my way up to Cadet Flight Sergeant. I won awards for Fieldcraft and Marksmanship. I got my Junior Pilot's Licence. I attended the first Air Cadets Future Leaders course at DCC Shrivenham, led a two-day field exercise and was selected Best In Camp by the Group Captain who came to oversee our "passing out parade" (no actual qualifications given out, but it was meant to be a real taste of life as a junior officer) . I made up my mind that I was going to enlist in the RAF as a pilot.
And then I let my family convince me to go to university instead. "You're a bright lad." they said, "You've a great mind for science and numbers, it would be a shame to waste it."
I failed my degree in my third year. I studied Forensic Science and failed my Law module twice. Three years of my life wasted, £45,000 of debt accrued for nothing, and on top of it all I'd realised I was failing and burned every bridge I'd built over those three years, and I'd got out of shape.
At 21 I found myself stuck in a dead-end weekend job working shitty hours for minimum pay, all my hopes and dreams up in flames. I fell hard into depression. Compound that with a pandemic and repeated lockdowns, and I don't mind admitting that I considered taking the easy way out on many an occasion.
I'm still clawing my way out of that today, another four years down the line. November 2021 I finally managed to get myself a decent job, get back into rough shape and thought that the future was looking up.
Then, as we all know, February 2022 happened.
Russia invaded Ukraine and I, along with most of the West, was shocked and appalled. As soon as the first volunteers went over, I made up my mind to go myself. Sure, I was just getting my life back on track, but I couldn't stand idly by and watch, I felt that lingering sense of duty calling to me again. Sure, I'd probably end up dead in a ditch within a couple of weeks, but I made my peace with that. I'd be doing something.
So I made myself a vow.
I was going to Ukraine, and I would come home either in peacetime, or in a body bag.
There was just one problem. My passport had expired and I'd shredded the old one. Being dirt poor and depressed doesn't lend itself to going abroad, so I'd not foreseen a need for it.
By the time my new passport came, the Russians had begun shelling the staging post near Lviv. The Ukrainian Embassy put out a statement not to travel to volunteer. They'd be tightening restrictions. Former servicemen only from there on.
I'd missed my chance. Again.
Needless to say, the depression hit again. But, shortly after, I found this sub. It has been my hub, my rock through this past year.
Recently (very recently) I decided to become a more active member, rather than lurking. I've begun shitposting in the comments, and a couple of days ago made my first original post (about Putin using porn to win the war, of all things).
I've come to realise that, what we do here, what NAFO is doing, it's important.
It's important for people like me. People losing hope, or their sense of purpose, or so wrapped up in "what-ifs" that they begin down a very dangerous rabbit hole.
But it's also important for the wider war. We are part of the information war going on around Ukraine. We are there, reminding people that there is a war going on whether they see it or not. We keep it in the public conscious so they will not forget. We keep up the pressure on politicians to keep the aid flowing. We relentlessly mock the shit out of the incompetence, idiocy and objective evil of the RuAF and the Kremlin.
We may not be boots on the ground, but we are, in our own way, fighting as hard as we can to support Ukraine however we can.
I'm going to quote myself from a comment on my previous post:

Bottom line is, memes are playing a surprisingly large role in the information warfare going on around this war. If not by actively informing people of the facts, at least by keeping the fact that there is a war going on in the public conscious. Its the whole foundation of NAFO.
I missed my chance to enlist in the RAF. When I was young enough, I wasn't fit enough. Now I'm fit enough, I'm too old.
I missed my chance to volunteer to fight in Ukraine. By the time I had my affairs in order and was ready to go, they were turning away volunteers due to Russia shelling the staging post near Lviv.
This is what I can do. I can keep reminding people that the war is happening. I can ensure that people are aware of the atrocities being perpetrated by the RuAF. I can relentlessly mock the barbarity, incompetence and wilful idiocy of the Kremlin and the RuAF.
I may be the little kid in Starship Troopers joining in on the "I'm doing my part!" and getting laughed at, but damn it all if this is the most I can contribute then I'll die before I stop.

What we do, here in this sub, on Twitter, on Facebook, on YouTube and a myriad other sites, and out in the real world, it matters.
Keep fighting the good fight, my fellow Servicemen and Servicewomen of NCD and NAFO.
And thank you for giving this depressed keyboard warrior a sense of purpose once again.
Slava Ukraini!

Hey, fellow baking enthusiasts of Baking!
I'm reaching out to this amazing community today in search of your valuable input for my Senior Design Engineering course. As part of my group project, I am designing an automatic dough sheeter specifically tailored for home use. To ensure that the final product meets the needs and preferences of home bakers, our team would greatly appreciate your participation in a short survey.
Whether you're a seasoned pastry chef or just starting your baking journey, your insights will make a significant impact on the design process. The survey aims to gather information on your current dough sheeter usage, the challenges you face, and the features you would love to see in a home-friendly automatic dough sheeter.
Your feedback will not only help us refine our design but also contribute to enhancing the overall baking experience for enthusiasts worldwide. So, if you have a few minutes to spare, I kindly ask you to fill out the survey using the link below:
https://forms.gle/tUkeKerLFBHDPNnw5
Rest assured that all responses will be kept strictly confidential and used solely for academic purposes. The survey is completely anonymous, and your personal information will not be collected.
If you have any questions or additional thoughts, please feel free to leave a comment below, and I'll be more than happy to discuss them with you.
Thank you in advance for your participation and support in shaping the future of home baking technology. Your input is incredibly valuable, and I look forward to sharing the results with you all!
Happy baking

I am facing bot after bot it’s not even fun. They are legit doing the worst plays imaginable always a movement deck. I’ve had 10+ bots today snap turn 6 then play 4 power as their final turn. Iron first turn one then playing multiple man in the left lane. It’s not even fun when I’m only facing bots.

Just posting this here in case someone else is painstakingly googling trying to fix the issue I finally managed to fix today.
If you have your NFSU2 game installed via Lutris and your game crashes when you finish a certain magazine cover event and you're unable to continue the game, try doing this:

1. Right-click your game in Lutris, and go to "Configure" -> "System options".
2. Under "CPU", make sure the game is only using one core.
3. Under "Game execution", make sure the "Command prefix" field is empty, or at least remove any taskset command call that you didn't put there yourself.

Turns out this isn't a Linux-specific issue, it's just that this game doesn't really play well with more than one core, and this is how you mitigate this issue in Lutris.

Well it finally happened. Earlier today, myself and about 10 other front end associates got pulled into the customer service office in groups, and "not coached" about the 5 stars by our coach and team lead.
Our group was told directly that "If your ratings aren't up to par, you will not be scheduled. It will reflect on your hours if you aren't receiving 5star ratings. If that's not cool with you, it may be time to find another job. This isn't a threat but it seems like just telling yall isn't going to work."
Myself and the entire front end team is aware that this is heavily against policy.
Also, front end managers, and some GM/AP managers are walking around in plain clothes and taking pictures and video of our front end associates. They've shown photos to two different people so far of them standing there doing their job at SCO. They even wrote one of us up over it.
I went to my people lead today, for the 4th time, and they won't let me talk to the store manager whatsoever. Open door is a joke. I've been waiting weeks for a call back, or even someone to acknowledge that there is an issue, but no one wants to.
We've got about 8 of us calling Ethics today, but they take a week or so to actually even touch the report. I've also called the Associate Relations line about two weeks ago, and nothing so far.
Other than promoting myself to customer, which is coming soon at this rate, what do we even do? This is so beyond against policy and we have associates that feel threatened and paranoid every time they walk in that door.
We need to eat. We need to pay rent. What do we even do at this point?

Usually in Italy we are used to hearing complaints from tourists about theft or scams, today the opposite happened to me and it really made me nervous to the point that instead of getting angry with them I promised myself to make this post to listen to your opinion about it, please comment something similar if it happened because otherwise from tomorrow I'll send them a fanculo directly. More or less two hours ago I was walking back home tired from the gym while talking happily on the phone, after days of celebrating the Scudetto and hyper-tourism now I don't even look around and simply pass the people who stop in the middle of the road realizing that not everyone knows how to get around in a pedestrian center like Napoli, it's understandable. What made me very nervous and which I write also to let off steam is that in Piazza Bellini I tried to surpass among hundreds of people and as soon as a group of Italians saw me with a quick step they took her own handbag (very cheap too) to protect it from me as if I were a robber, the whole group looked at me scared and while I was simply trying to figure out which way to pass and while I was talking about restaurants with my father on the phone, I felt the anxiety and paranoia of these idiots who in an happy square like Bellini they saw in me, a simple student returning from the gym, all the prejudices created in their shitty cities against every Neapolitan corner. I was really annoyed by the gaze of these people who, after overcoming them, believed they had been clever, they believed that I had tried but failed, and the gaze of these problematic people who looked at me satisfied about a paranoid episode they had created was very bad, i really felt offended. I write this post to read other similar experiences but also to warn those who spread prejudices and false information against Napoli that you are the problematic people who are listened to by idiots more stupid than you who will always be the outcasts of any city in the world; finally I would like to tell tourists that Naples is a real and raw city, among the last remaining ones that has not become a playground for tourists, if you are not used to it stay at home, also because no one will steal your cheap bags bought at decathlon, even thieves have dignity, you don't need to put them on your stomach like kangaroos or walk near walls like rats, you damage the image of a city that only those who have studied history or art can recognize, if you come because it is lately at the center of the attention avoid, better Venice with entrance tickets or disney world. And I know that it doesn't matter now but almost once a month I go to Paris, the second city I love in Europe, and it's always the Italians there too who are always so paranoid about the pennies they have, are we really so poor that we having to protect the few possessions we have in a cheap bag. Sorry for the rant, I wrote in English (helped by google translate) to make myself understood by everyone but i think all these paranoia affect tourists who come from northern Italy, Europeans know how to travel in big cities while Italians are mainly very narrow-minded and been victims of stupid people regionalisms for too long that I avoid commenting otherwise I'll write a book.

Hey fellow MicroVision-aries. Its been a long few years since the last sneeze when we saw the stock shoot up well over $20. Since then its been a long slow bleed, all the way down to the most recent bottom a little over a month ago. Because of that, many of us were deeply in the red on our investments (I was down 70% at one point). But as the stock price has exploded over the past few weeks many of us have been made whole and our daily thread has been filled with members mentioning that they are now no longer underwater on their investments. I am one of those folks who finally got made whole... I got on the bus at $2.93 (I'm up to $2.99 after a purchase today). Now I'm driving the bus...and I've been enjoying picking people up along the way.
After a few days of people celebrating, I started keeping a list whenever someone mentioned their cost basis in the daily thread and commenting when I pick people up, but its hard to keep track of everyone. So with the blessing of the mods, I'm creating this post to track anyone who wants to let me know their basis (or publicly proclaimed it already). I don't need to know your share count, but I think its fun to celebrate with everyone when we blow past their basis and they get on the bus. If I've pulled your info from the daily threads and you don't want it here, let me know and I'll remove it. So without further ado, here's the list I have so far.
The bus is coming to get you... we leave no man (or woman) behind!

user	cost basis
u/acemiller6	$2.99
u/Affectionate-Tea-706	$4.80
u/Gunnarrrrrrr	$5.95
u/Coachjoshv	$6.06
u/Pofwiwice	$6.63
u/Dead_Precedent	$6.95
u/LodoVeld	$6.98
u/dude_ic_00	$7.29
u/pnthr11	$7.41
u/33rus	$7.47
u/etccord	$7.50
u/RobertsonvsPhillips	$8.35
u/Chan1991	$10.00
u/Individual_Tree_1882	$14.00

No one ever gonna see this 😂 but in the hopes that they do then here’s a little about me. Honestly I’m just looking to chat to ppl in a similar boat and see where things go.
I saw someone else today who had such similar thoughts/experience as me but it sucks she kinda got grossed out by Reddit and isn’t gonna be on here anymore 😔. I guess it was too coincidental to find someone like that within my first couple days on here but also now I kinda have hope there’s others out there too.
Essentially I’m 22, not only still a virgin but I’ve never even dated someone let alone kissed a girl🤣. Was never allowed to date but now I’m moving away for med school and I’m finally gonna be allowed to explore. But I’m so nervous cus I’ve never had any experience at all with nsfw stuff with others lol. It’s so easy for me to talk to girls irl but I’m way too anxious and shy to ever go past just talking about normal stuff.
Anyways if anyone can relate and somehow sees this hmu. I don’t think I can post on subreddits yet so I’m hoping that if I comment on ppls posts maybe they’ll check my page and see this.
Lol or I’ll just delete this in a few hours who knows xD

Welcome back, it’s me again, rambling on about an idea I’ve had to modify a game, as always. Today, it’s Meltdown. Time to get to it.
———————————————
“Body Temperature”
With this remix, we will again be looking at temperature. In various modpacks, something you will see is a temperature bar, showing how hot or cold you are. I was thinking, what if we bring that to Meltdown.
So, above your hotbar, you now have this small circle. It starts out as grey, when you’re normal temperature. As your temperature rises, it turns yellow, to orange, to red. If you’re red, that ain’t good. As you get colder, it turns light blue, to darker blue, to purple. If you’re purple, that similarly ain’t good. To help, there’s a number in your circle. 50 is middle, 0 is bottom and 100 is top. If you’re in 0-9, or 91-100 for 3 seconds straight, you die.
But how does your temperature fluctuate? Well:

• Being frozen in a block of ice decreases your temperature quickly.
• Being frozen with a heater makes your temperature drop slow drastically. You’ll still be decreasing in temperature, but very slowly, and as normal, you will begin to be unfrozen.
• Heaters stack, so 2 heaters will slow the decrease even more, 3 just stops temperature decreasing from the ice altogether, and 4 actually causes the temperature to rise slightly.
• When you’re not frozen in the range of a heater, your temperature will increase quickly. Similarly, being near a frozen person will cause temperature to decrease.
• Being in a melting room will cause your temperature to rise. So, in a melting room, frozen players will see a slight decrease in the rate of freezing.
• Your natural body temperature is 50, so when no other factors are in play, your temperature will very slowly return to 50.
• However, being in a non-melting room will actually cause your temperature to decrease. You may need to use your heaters even when you’re not frozen, in order to regulate body temperature.
• Obviously, lava instantly puts your temperature to 100.

That’s all there is too it. One thing to note. From 50, a frozen player on a melting room will die faster than a player just standing there from 50. Otherwise it’s advantageous to be hit in the final showdown, as long as you don’t fall into lava.
Also, in case people get distracted, you’ll get a red vignette, like a border warning, when you get above 80 to warn you. Similarly, you’ll get a blue one below 20. That way, you wont just get randomly killed without noticing.
———————————————
I really enjoyed making that one for some reason, hope you enjoyed reading it. Only 2 more days until 200. But otherwise, have a good day, and I’ll catch you later.

Got diagnosed a couple weeks ago, but finally saw the report today.
“In conclusion, [name] meets diagnostic criteria for an Autism Spectrum Disorder (299.00; F84.0).”

So this happened twice to me in the last couple of days. I got sick over the weekend, bedridden sick. I was finally feeling better yesterday evening and checked my messages on tinder and see I got some new matches so I did message them, the first girl ignored my question about her and asked about me and I said that I had just gotten over a sickness (I know that I should bring up downer topics, but she asked) and she replied back kind of cold and mean like "go take care of yourself then". I'm like damn homie, I was expecting a response like "Oh sorry to hear, hope you are feeling better" or some bs like that. Unmatched her.
Today I got a message from what I thought was a nice girl who I was talking to for about a month and has been bugging me to chat. I tried to keep the conversation mostly about her and positive, but she kept pressing about what I had been up to and I replied "I'm just getting over my sickness and have a lot work to catch up to" Ghosted and blocked.
Is this normal? or are these girls mean b*tches