#and I'll do a restart instead of shutting it down

[secondbeatsongs]

so I'm convinced - like, I can't prove it, but I'm convinced this is the case - that whenever I go too long without updating my computer, windows forces a crash on me so it can go "whoopsie daisy! :) since you're already fucked, might as well make you sit here for ten minutes while we install all those updates you said you didn't want! :) won't that be nice?"

like. I had an SSD bricked once by a windows update, so now I push them off for a while, because I know that microsoft pushes glitchy updates. I'm onto them, and I don't want to be their guinea pig.

but! it doesn't matter what my settings are, or for how long I tell windows update to shut up! because eventually, I'll get a bluescreen or a crash or something, and be forced to restart, and when I do windows very cheerfully shoves updates at me without my consent

I think this is intentional. and I fucking hate it.

anyway, this is my conspiracy theory, and my theory is that microsoft sucks

[gojosprettyprincess]

Tw- Tw dubcon, degradation, spitting in the mouth, blackmailing. Gojo calls reader a bitch and slut, Really dark content.

Mean bully Gojo that literally hates you, he hates how fucking smart and weird you are, how you act like you know every fucking thing, how you always have some shit in your mouth to say, how you speak so fucking loud, it's like you just don't know how to shut the fuck up, it just makes him so mad but thankfully he came up with a few things in mind that he can do to help you change that.

And that's how you end up being bent over on the school desk in an empty classroom while he's splitting your little cunt apart with his thick cock. "Fuck yeah that's right bitch keep that stupid little mouth shut" he lands a hard slap on your already red and bruised ass. "Always fucking talking" he grunts, pushing your head further into the table, earlier he placed his hoodie on the part of the desk where your face would be so it would muffle your moans. His cock was stretching your cunt so much, your pussy was fucking aching, tears leaking from your eyes as you cried out into the hoodie.

You felt his cock twitching inside of you as he slams his hips harder against you, his balls slamming against your clit driving you crazy. "Gonna stuff that annoying little mouth of yours watch" he hisses, feeling your cunt tighten around him like it's trying to milk his cock empty. He grips onto a fistful of your hair and forcefully pulls you onto the ground, you're now on your knees with his hand still gripping onto your hair as he forced his cock into your mouth, fucking it in so mercilessly, more tears start prickingly from your eyes as you felt his tip hitting the back of your throat, his balls slapping against your chin with each thrust. Even with your gagging and choking he still kept rutting into your mouth while looking down at you laughing, "Yeah this is what I like to fucking hear, keep choking on my dick bitch".

Each rut of his hips had his cock buried deep inside your mouth; your jaw was aching so much fucking much because of how fat his cock was. You felt so lightheaded as you tried desperately to fight for air against his thick girth, breathing through your nose while he kept slamming into you. You felt his cock twitching on your tongue, he started moving faster, loud groans escaping his lips. "F-fuck gonna cum, n you better fucking swallow all of it". Before you knew it, you felt ropes of hot cum spurting into your mouth, it was absolutely disgusting but it's not like you could do anything about it because of his tight grip on your hair to keep your head still, you looked up at him, seeing how his head falls back while he’s cumming, loud moans escaping his lips.

He thrusts his cock into your mouth a few more times before finally pulling it out, it was so so messy, strings of mixture of spit and cum connecting your lips and his cock before it finally snaps apart. "Open your mouth f'me" he demanded, you obeyed him and opened your mouth wide revealing a puddle of his cum on your tongue waiting to be swallowed. Next thing you knew, you heard a loud "puh" followed by a chunk of spit landing into your mouth, he looks down laughing at you. "Swallow it right now or we'll restart and do all this shit again", he sounded so scary and serious, and you didn't wanna risk doing anything like this again, so you did what you were told, closing your eyes, slowly swallowing whatever is in your mouth.

He chuckles, leaning down to get closer to you on your knees. He grips your jaws forcing you to look at him. "See that wasn't so difficult, was it? All ya needa do is shut your mouth and everything will be fine princess, or I'll just shut up for it instead understood?" you nodded your head in approval. "Good girl, from now on your gonna do and listen to every fucking thing i say or else" he angled your jaw to a random bookshelf in the room, seeing the red light from a camera blinking at you. You wanted to die right there what the fuck.

"Why-why are you-u doing this to me?" you stammered, fat tears start leaking from your eyes again as you start thinking about all the bad possibles that could happen if it gets leaked, What will your parents say? What will your friends think of you. What if it affects your job? You straight up start bawling your eyes out while he's just looking at your face smiling.

"Cause it's fun princess". he chuckles, attempting to wipe away your tears.

[she-karev]

Pregnancy (One Shot Request, Andrew DeLuca x Alex Karev’s Sister Imagine)

Age Rating: 12+

Chapters: One of Two

Fandom: Grey’s Anatomy

Ship: Andrew DeLuca x Amber Karev (Alex Karev’s Sister)

AN: Hey guys I see you liked my last post and I got a one-shot request to do another time skip for Amber and DeLuca. I hope you guys like it and I’m up for one shot requests if you have any. I'll try to post part two by Wednesday.

Summary: Amber gets bored during maternity leave and texts Andrew who comes over.

Words: 1741

October 20, 2022

I sit crisscross on the king bed making a lazy raspberry sound as I flip through the pages of Watchmen. Graphic novels aren’t what I usually read but I got desperate after finishing the whole shelf of books in the study. I’ve read everything from classics like Jane Eyre to new releases like Iron Widow. After that I asked Levi for a recommendation, and he immediately dropped off this huge comic book. The art is good, the storyline is surprisingly relevant to society’s political landscape and the characters are interesting. But it has barely kept me from chronic boredom that comes from maternity leave or as I like to call it, maternity prison.

My little sidekick is in her eighth month of gestation and it’s pretty evident to anyone with eyes given how I look like Pluto. If Pluto had boobs and was wearing her husband’s Harvard shirt with gray sweatpants. After the New Year I told Andrew that I was ready for us to start trying to have a baby. The pandemic was over, I was caught up in my residency thanks to Webber and Andrew was finally back in the O.R. as a general surgery attending. The timing couldn’t be better and around March we found out we were pregnant and then a few months later we found out we were having a girl. There was a bump when the residency program shut down for a bit but it restarted with a new batch of interns and me being promoted to Chief Resident.

Unfortunately, that joy was short lived, I had to go on maternity leave about a few weeks later when the exhaustion kicked in at 35 weeks and I’ve been glued to the bed ever since. And to make matters worse Levi was assigned temporary Chief Resident so that was another cloud looming over my head. The only thing that keeps me somewhat sane in this bed is my husband and baby daddy coming home and detailing every step of his surgeries so I don’t become dumb. Which is why I sent an impulsive text that I’m sure will make Andrew angry at me.

I hear running out in the hall and the door bursts open revealing Andrew in his navy scrubs and blue fleece telling me he came straight here the second he got my text. He looks around worried until he finds me criss cross in the middle of the bed looking healthy as a clam despite my text saying 911. I grin at him trying to look innocent so he doesn’t get too mad at me for worrying him because I was bored and needed contact with the outside world.

“Hi honey.” I greet him normally and he looks at me in shock before confusion sets in his face and I explain, “I might have possibly fibbed in my text don’t be mad.”

“You-” Andrew groans frustrated before laying it out, “You texted me 911.”

“I know.” I take a sip of my water bottle as Andrew walks to the edge of the bed staring down at me clearly peeved.

“I came straight here from work because my very pregnant wife texted me 911 and I was afraid she was in labor or bleeding out. But instead, I find her in bed chilling and acting like she didn’t almost give me a heart attack!” I wince at the exclamation, “God Amber what is wrong that you have to scare me like that?”

“I can’t be held accountable.” Andrew scoffs at my excuse and I continue, “I can’t be held accountable for my misguided actions because your baby and me have gone insane from bed rest and boredom. Will it make you feel better if I said sorry for almost scaring you to death?”

Andrew’s face softens slightly, “Well I think the knots in your hair are punishment enough so yes.”

I look in the vanity mirror to my left and see that my normally composed blonde hair is all over the place due to laying on my pillow for 10 hours. I look back and see my husband grinning amused already past his anger and I frown at that, “Yeah that’s right laugh at your pregnant wife who has permanent bed head let’s see how that ends for you.”

I stand on my knees and crawl over to the edge to face Andrew who chuckles while I pout, “Okay in all seriousness is there a logical reason why you texted me 911 when there is nothing emergent?”

“I’m bored out of my freaking mind.” I explain bordering on yelling while Andrew is looking at me affectionately with his bright green eyes, “I’ve been at home for five weeks, five weeks, do you have any idea what that is like?!”

“I have a feeling your gonna tell me.” Andrew puts his hands on my hips to keep me steady.

I hold up Watchmen to prove my point of how bored I am, “I’ve read all the books in our shelves I always say I’m gonna finish, I tried watching Netflix but you know it just makes me miss human contact more and to top it off while I’m shackled to this bed like that lady in Gerald’s Game my husband is at work saving lives and actually making a difference because unlike me he doesn’t have a big bowling ball under his shirt. And I think the baby is bored too and she sent that text because she’s hungry for more of your surgery stories and a reminder that there’s a world outside this bed. She’s very stubborn about what she wants.”

“She takes after her mother.” Andrew quips in amused and I narrow my eyes at him causing him to chuckle, “Look I know it’s hard being cooped up in here but you heard what the OB said bedrest is important and you were reaching your limit. I had to practically carry you out of the hospital when I found you passed out after your 18 hour shift in the pit.” I groan at that memory because it’s when I admitted I was exhausted and ordered to go on leave until after the baby was born, “You were doing the work of eight people it’s not good for your stamina and it would’ve affected the baby too.”

“You don’t know that.” He raises an eyebrow at me and I continue, “I’m like an M1-A1, it’s a tank and it can survive anything and get the job done.” I look down at my huge belly pouting at my changing body, “I mean I’m already as big as a tank right now and my bikini days are getting narrower by the minute.”

“I never really liked bikini’s anyway.” He’s trying to console me again which he always does when I complain about how big I’m getting, “You look way better in that sweater than some tacky string.”

“Stop being nice, you know my hormones make me unpredictable.” I remind him again, “The nicer you are the more it makes me want to choke hold you.”

“In that case you look like a bloated whale.” Andrew jokes and it doesn’t amuse me at all, “Better?”

“Not in the least.” I sigh and wrap my arms around the back of Andrew’s neck and say sweetly, “Just stay here and tell me stories about life on the outside.” I run my fingers through his wavy hair to add effect but it doesn’t work. He looks enticed but he’s gotten stronger against my seductions over the years.

“I can’t, I have a surgery this afternoon.” He steps back to my disappointment, “Plus I gotta help Marsh with the skills lab for the interns while Hunt is in the ER. And as much as I want to, I can’t stay here because your bored or Grey will reprimand me. Find something to do while I’m working so the time will pass by and you won’t be so bored.”

Suddenly a light bulb goes off in my head on how I can keep myself busy, “Your right.”

He exhales in relief and turns to leave, “Thank god I’ll see you tonight, I love you.”

“Oh no I’m coming with you; you’re taking me to work.” I get off the bed, go to our closet and put a black coat over my clothes and slip into my black crocs. I can see Andrew turning to face me again with an annoyed look.

“That is not happening babe.” He tells me bluntly but I don’t listen as I grab my purse, “Okay you and the baby need to listen to me. I am not taking you two to a hospital with the germs and blood and diseases it’s not happening I’m putting my foot down.”

I widen my eyes at that and he emphasizes by crossing his arms against his chest, “I’m just gonna watch from the gallery and catch up with my friends and see if Schmitt is still alive. It’s not like I’m getting a scalpel come on man.”

Andrew stands his ground, “Nope still not happening, if you want new books order on Amazon and get express, I don’t care about the price as long as it keeps you in bed and following doctor’s orders.”

“I’m a doctor, you’re a doctor, our siblings are doctors and all of our friends are doctors. I’m pretty sure we both know what’s safe and not safe for me and the baby too.” I remind him, “A hospital is the best place for me to kill time because if I go into labor, I just have to walk five steps to a bed in OB. Please take me with you, think of it like take your daughter to work day.”

He looks at my belly and back up at me, “I think we’re a little early for that.”

“Take me with you.” I sternly command.

“No.” Andrew says with finality causing me to narrow my eyes at him as he keeps a composed face. I mimic his stance crossing my arms across my chest and glaring at him to assert dominance. Even in my condition I stand as his equal and he knows it, he knows I won’t go down without a fight so he has to do the same. We stand there silently for a few moments, me in my pajamas and him in his scrubs, waiting for one of us to budge.

Next Part Here

[kowaindar0u]

//

yeeeehawwww

got a few replies done...

...but in the drafts cause i accidentally shut my computer down instead of restarting jdjdjd so I'll trim them tomorrow and post and then hopefully do some more 🤠👍

gonna try and sleep soon and probably be super tense tomorrow until after my phone interview aaaahhh wish me luck !!!

good night ilu guys !!!!

[pocketwei]

might be bit of a stretch but since i saw you use clip studio, would you know any workaround around brush lag in clip studio paint in large files?

my brushes start lagging at around 150px

hey! I happen to run into the same issue sometimes on large files, and it's likely due to RAM being overworked. Long story short you need to optimise your RAM, I'll detail a few things I do under the cut so it doesn't clog anyone's TL:

I work in super large files, all of which are 600dpi. Generally I'll look to lower the size of my files, so no timelapse recording on large files (this makes large files lag BADLY), merge layers as you go, lower your resolution (600 dpi is luxury and largely overkill lol I just do it out of habit, 300 is more than enough, 150 is good for drawing, personally I think 72 is too little esp if you have textured brushes). To keep the same effects and textures size on your brushes at smaller resolutions you can play around with the "enlarging ratio" (or something similar, it's "rapport d'agrandissement" in french) under the "textures" menu in your brush settings.

Something SUPER important if you haven't done it already: under "performances" in the software's settings menu, you can also allow CSP to take up more RAM. Mine's at 90%, I can't remember what the default is but you can bring it up anyway. Shut down and restart the program to make the change effective.

Otherwise, anything that can help you optimise your RAM: open your task manager (ctrl+shift+esc) and see what else is clogging it, and kill those softwares temporarily. Web browsers especially tend to take up a lot of RAM, Adobe softwares as well (it's why I switched to CSP in the first place) so if you're running Photoshop and CSP at the same time for instance, you might want to kill Ps. Same with OBS if you're streaming. Similarly, you might want to disable softwares opening when you start your computer (e.g OneDrive if you don't use it, Teams, Creative Cloud or whatever the fuck is launching on start and then passively taking up resources). Same with apps that just get minimised instead of completely shut down when you close the window (discord and Teams do this by default for instance, you can change it individually in the softwares' settings).

Last resort would be to simply increase your hardware RAM. I have 32GB which is super comfortable (and would be more comfortable if my canvases weren't 600 dpi hahaha), but I think 16GB would be enough to run CSP smoothly.

These aren't magic tricks unfortunately, I wish there was such thing, but a little optimisation here and there can go a long way. I'm absolutely not there myself so don't take my word for it, but anything you can do to free a little space on your RAM can make a little difference.

[kobold-page]

Behind the scenes: staging vs prod

If you're following me, you've seen that I keep posting status updates where I Am A Real Grownup and provide things like "is kobold offline?" and "when will it go offline for updates?".

Here's a hint for anyone who wants to run a server of their own: staging.

On the server that runs kobold, there's a directory called /etc/goblin where all of the server code is stored. It would be really easy on Update Day to just go into that directory, get the latest code, and restart. But that's a great way to break everything and then have to spend two hours on a Friday night trying to put half of it back together.

So instead I use a staging directory. Right next to the "real" goblin is a second directory /etc/goblin.staging where the magic happens. When it's Update Day, I do this:

Copy everything in goblin into goblin.staging, so that the two directories contain exactly the same code.

Update goblin.staging to the newest, freshest code. Do not touch goblin yet.

Shut down the server.

Rename goblin to goblin.previous.

Rename goblin.staging to goblin.

Restart the server. It will now be running the new code.

How many things are now on fire?

None? Our work here is done.

Oh shit. Rename goblin back to goblin.staging, rename goblin.previous back to goblin, and restart the server. No harm, no foul.

Result: new server update, less than two minutes of downtime!

If you want to see more tricks like this, react to this post and I'll remember to keep this series up.

[orfeolookback]

All my money was refunded by mistake.

‏🙏🏻🥺Hi friend, please listen to me

‏Help me by donating or sharing my campaign and reposting it

‏😥💔what happened to me is terrible

‏We had to start over with our campaign. The site was difficult to use.

‏Initially, we had a campaign that was set up incorrectly and had to be shut down and restarted. We thought this was successful, but it wasn't.

‏When we asked them to permanently close the old link, they instead refunded everything we worked so hard to raise to the new link.

‏We are sad that we have to start from scratch, but we refuse to lose hope.

‏If your donation was refunded, please consider sending it to our new link or if you are a new supporter, please help us rebuild what we lost. We apologize for any inconvenience, we are disappointed that we had to ask for this and hope you will continue to stand with us, you can read the details on my profile page.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-oday-and-family-evacuate-gaza-rebuild-lives

‏This campaign was published and verified by @el-shab-hussen

Hello, and may you get those donations back! I hope you're able to make it to a safe place and that this ends soon so that you can rebuild.

I can't publish each ask I get, but I do reblog every campaign. That said, i feel like it's important to publish this one because it's becoming more and more obvious that GoFundMe has hostile practices with Palestinian fundraisers. Be on the lookout if your donations get refunded and send them again to the proper campaign. [LINK TO THE POST]

I personally cannot donate, but I'll keep spreading the campaings.

[foxsoulart]

Tmntember! All prompts and aus are selected at random by not me!

Prompt list

@truths33k3r4

Prompt 2 with Ghost Abduction au

9/21/24

Raph discovered he wasn't such a big fan of heights anymore. The lurch in his stomach and the flutter of his heart when he looked down from the window clued him in. He regretted getting on the world's largest ferris wheel. It had seemed like such a great idea at the time, Raph loved carnival rides especially the ferris wheel. But not today apparently, not the day they went out to leave their problems for tomorrow, today the view and height reminded him far too much of the Krang ship. The normally comforting sway of the car only increased his nausea. And looking out the window was bad, bad, bad.

Raph was def panicking.

It's fine, the ride will and soon and I can get off. Nothing to worry about just hold on a little longer.

Raph clutched his knees and sat up straight, breathing in and out measured and slow. Counting each exhale and inhale. He got to somewhere in the two hundreds before he realized the ride was not moving like it should have started to several moments ago. It sat completely still, almost like it had been shut off yet it was still lit up.

He risked peeking down through the window to see what was happening. Some guy, probably the ride attendant based on what Rpah could see of his clothes, was holding a megaphone and yelling something to all the passengers. Raph would have been able to hear him more if not for his thoughts drowning everything else out.

Not good. I'm stuck up here? No, I can just pry open the door and ninja my way down. Wait, what if that causes problems for the other passengers? Raph doesn't understand how these work like Donnie does.

Donnie's knowledge of the workings of carnival rides gave him absolute trust and absolute distrust in them, which was the only reason he would ride any of the creaking ones.

.

.

Speaking of creaking, Raph could hear some now. Unfortunately it was not the ferris wheel restarting.

Oh please don't be something falling apart.

The sound did come from the ride and it was outside his car but other than that Raph couldn't identify it.

Raph had his hands on his ears and his head between his knees when he heard the door on the left creak in protest to being forced open.

"Hey, you good?" The softly voiced question had Raph sagging in relief.

Leon crouched in front of him. Brow creased in concern. He gently rubbed Raph's knee in a soothing motion. Raph sucked in a shaky breath.

"I'd like off this ride." Voice wet.

Leon nodded in agreement. "Donnie's  working on it. Seems the ride had a technical malfunction, should be fixed in a jiffy. For now, we just hang out here and chat, that good?"

"Yeah."

"Cool.

Well I know Mikey wanted it to be a surprise but I think I'm allowed to spoil it due to the current circumstances."

"Mmm, he might not forgive you." Raph warned, curiousity eating him up inside instead of anxiety.

"Eh, he'll understand." Leon made a dismissive motion. "He won you a giant teddy bear, that chocolate brown one with the red ribbon."

Raph had his eye on that bear since he saw it, but he sucked at the game it was prize for so he had resigned himself to not getting it after so many failed attempts.

"What?!" Raph whispered in barely contained excitement.

"Yup, now do me a favor to save my shell by pretending to be surprised when you see it."

"I can't make any promises but I'll try."

"Good kid. Looks like this is our stop."

Raph blinked in surprise, he hadn't even noticed they had started moving again. In awe of Leon's ability to distract and calm, he wished he was that good at it, Leon seemed to always know exactly how to distract them from their problems to calm them down. Must be a Leo thing, comes hand in hand with not dealing with their own problems. Raph mentally rolled his eyes at that thought, by golly was it true.

Raph shook that thought, that was a problem for tomorrow. Today was for fun and stepped out of the ride to his waiting family. The breeze refreshingly crisp and uplifting.

"How about we go find that candy apple stand?"

A chorus of yeses and cheers went up and away they went. Afterall today was for fun.

//

And Raph with his prize because extra fluff

[dingoskidneys]

I was trying to take a screenshot of something on my phone and it wasn't responding, probably because I was also listening to music on my half-functioning headphones and editing a picture within another app, so I just kept holding down the volume and power buttons until suddenly the music stopped and the screen went black and a teeny tiny message in white and red popped up towards the top of the screen that I've never seen before in the four-plus years of owning this thing. It listed options to restart or completely erase all my data or shut my phone down. There was a fourth option but I forget what it was. I was so baffled at first that I just sat there for a moment staring at it. The prospect of accidentally erasing literally everything from my phone made me a bit anxious but still I just sat there, staring, amused. There's a unique kind of amusement I get when things go wrong, when a machine stops working or a pencil breaks. Suddenly everything is out of my control and there is a very brief moment of absolute peace, a pocket in time that I sit in and savor and it feels like the world has paused around me, it has to pause, it has to pause because I just shoved a wrench into its gears and made it stop, I broke it. The phone screen is black, the music is off, my photo is gone, just two clicks and everything inside it could be gone-- it's all in my hands now, not even my hands but my fingers, so simple and easy and quick to break something bigger. I won't, but I could, and I sat with the idea. I didn't. But I could have. You don't notice the little things that annoy you until a wrench is shoved into them. The way my phone glitches when I swap between apps and slows down to a crawl when multiple functions are running. The routines I get used to, waiting for it to load and clicking buttons to close ads and trying to dismiss an undismissable notification about connecting my number to wifi or something that I swipe at every time I turn the thing on. Little grains of sand in my shoe that I tense up at but don't notice because they're always there. Little thorny branches I reflexively brush away so often that I don't notice the scratches on my attention span. Suddenly when the world pauses you notice the buildup of annoyance you've carried in your jaw and your shoulders and the disturbing hunched posture you have and you think wait, why do I live like this? And the little tiny text at the top of the screen says, you don't have to. It says, I'm broken. It says, you're free. You're a human sitting in this pocket of time in which everything you were filling your attention with a moment ago has suddenly stopped, you could wipe the phone clean and put it down forever and ever and step out into the sunlight and never swipe an undismissable notification again. But do you? Would you? Of course not! There's pictures of your dog in here, and your parents like to text you, and gee what else do I even do on my phone besides scroll? I click to restart my phone, because why would I do anything else? The only appeal of deleting everything is that it's a surprise, it's big, it's dramatic, it looks like it would be freeing but in the next moment I'd be missing those pictures of my dog and my hoarde of tv show screenshots for drawing from and the texts from my parents, yes. But instead of sitting staring impatiently at the screen while the phone boots up again, scratching my brain with more thorns, I'll put the phone across the room and do something else, I guess.

[maximuswolf]

I wanna apologize to the entire gaming community for doubting that EA sucks.

I wanna apologize to the entire gaming community for doubting that EA sucks. All these years I've seen a plethora of posts, videos etc. online, either serious or humorous ones, about EA being greedy as hell while putting the lowest effort possible. I always thought that people were just being overdramatic or said all that so they can make their joke. But yesterday I realized that behind all the memes, articles there was truth to be found. And they weren't just true, they were VERY true.I had bought Mass Effect Legendary Edition during the Steam Summer Sale for 6€, installed it, but didn't try it until yesterday (the same thing I do with most of my Steam games to be honest). The second I clicked "play" and realized I was being directed to the EA app, I didn't particularly like it but I didn't think much of it. I started to think much of it when my game turned out be unplayable though.It just said "preparing game" on the EA app for a while and then shut down. No big deal, I'll just close Steam and the EA app and try again. Didn't work. Tried it many times, it just didn't work. I went ahead and restarted my PC, but it also didn't work. I verified integrity of the game files and there was no problem with them. I then tried to launch the game via the EA app, the same "preparing game" and shut down combo. Same thing happened when I tried to launch it directly via the Launcher in the game files.Now it really started to piss me off. I just wanted to play the game I had already paid for, nothing more but also nothing less. I searched online for possible solutions. I deleted the registries of the game in Registry Editor, it didn't work, I used Task Manager to close any EA related app before launching the game, it didn't work. I went as far as installing the discontinued Origin with a patch called Fuck Off EA App (which I totally relate to) because it makes it actually usable and it doesn't force you to install the EA app as it would normally do. Then, I started the game using the Launcher found in the game files and I finally managed to launch it! But after closing the game I couldn't get it to work anymore, it was a one time thing. I was getting mad, it had been an hour and a half up until that point.I decided to take a look at EA's forums but they didn't help me at all. Since I was already on EA's website though, I thought "why not use their support page?". So after some digging I managed to create a case about my problem (they even made it difficult for me to create a case compared to other game companies' support pages I had used in the past), with little faith in them helping me. After a few minutes, a "specialist" replied to me in the most generic way possible, even though I had explained what my problem was. I tried to write back to him but my case had been paused for some reason and it didn't allow me to resume it. When I pressed "resume" it redirected me to another page, where I received a notification about my current case, and when I clicked on it, it prompted me to resume the case, and it was just an infinite loop. I still haven't figured out what's wrong with the game.All in all, 6€ isn't going to put a dent in my wallet. But I paid for Mass Effect and I can't even play it. It isn't even my fault, EA doesn't let me play a game on the platform I used to buy it, and instead they make me use their platform that isn't even half good, it's straight up terrible. That is 100% on them. Likewise, their support page is also really not user friendly. I never had problems with EA before, and other games like NFS Heat, which I own Steam, run properly on the EA app. That's why I always doubted the fact that EA sucks. I spent money and several hours of my life trying to figure out the problem they themselves have caused. I apologize for doubting you all. Submitted November 10, 2024 at 08:10AM by DeathNum https://ift.tt/AGDd7ab via /r/gaming

[noirhimbo]

‏🙏🏻🥺Hi friend, please listen to me

‏Help me by donating or sharing my campaign and reposting it

‏😥💔what happened to me is terrible

‏We had to start over with our campaign. The site was difficult to use.

‏Initially, we had a campaign that was set up incorrectly and had to be shut down and restarted. We thought this was successful, but it wasn't.

‏When we asked them to permanently close the old link, they instead refunded everything we worked so hard to raise to the new link.

‏We are sad that we have to start from scratch, but we refuse to lose hope.

‏If your donation was refunded, please consider sending it to our new link or if you are a new supporter, please help us rebuild what we lost. We apologize for any inconvenience, we are disappointed that we had to ask for this and hope you will continue to stand with us, you can read the details on my profile page.

‏https://gofund.me/7fc8a826

‏This campaign was published and verified by @el-shab-hussen

I'm so sorry this happened, I'll do what I can!

[miloscat]

[Review] Runbow (3DS)

A slick bite-size multiplayer platformer... except on 3DS, where it's not as slick and the multiplayer doesn't work.

Knocking another one off my Wii U backlog... but I actually decided to try the 3DS version instead, just to try out the portable version and for the flexibility of being in a warmer room on one of my poor health days. Fun fact, this is also one of the very few retail-release New 3DS exclusives! Anyway, don't play the 3DS version. I'll explain why.

Runbow started as a game jam prototype by Canadian indie studio 13AM Games, before being expanded into a full game. The main idea is that the background colour periodically changes in a swiping effect, which can turn colour-coded stage hazards and platforms on and off. It's a very clever concept that gets iterated to heck and back over the run of short levels, many of which take under a minute to successfully complete.

On top of this is a party-game atmosphere with support for up to nine players, local or online... is what I would say if I weren't playing the 3DS version, which could only handle up to four. And it doesn't have local Wifi support. And the online has now been shut down (barring fan efforts to preserve a surrogate network system). I was only interested in playing by myself anyway, but there are unlockable characters and skins that require multiplayer play, which are straight up inaccessible currently in this version. Besides this, the multiplayer-exclusive arena modes do seem to be quite fun, and the core game probably shines with a bunch of friends competing in the regular levels. The Wii U version in particular also has its own mode which makes great use of the Gamepad, where the player in command of it can throw hazards at the other players!

There's a racing element to the game where everyone runs through the same little platforming challenges simultaneously, with the first to the goal being celebrated. You do lose this aspect playing solo, but you still have time goals which reward you with little shiny things and concept art unlocks for performing well. This in-built speedrunning mechanic has promise, but retrying levels felt too sluggish due to load times; even restarting after a death was just too long, a far cry from Super Meat Boy or Celeste's nigh-instant respawns. This problem is admittedly worse on 3DS, and was apparently a deliberate choice to ensure proper syncing between online players on the dinky technology. So much for that.

Although the levels are short, there's plenty of them in the Adventure mode, which has you unlocking new ones over a grid, so you can tackle them in nearly any order. DLC packs add a new adventure map along with some extra costumes, plus there's another fun mode where you undertake a longer gauntlet broken up into rooms, as you escape the belly of a beast that apparently swallowed a lot of spikes and such: there's an unlock for clearing it in 20 minutes but it took me more than 40. It's a nice change of pace.

I have to restate at this point how much mileage the game gets out of the colour-shifting mechanic. Each new level seems to have a new twist on the concept, and it constantly keeps you on your toes by upending the world around you at a snappy pace. I also liked the wide variety of character skins (in both Man and Lady varieties) that let you change up your look, on top of the beloved indie tradition of guest characters such as Shantae, Steamworld Dig's Rusty, Guacamelee's Juan and Tostada, the ubiquitous Shovel Knight, etc. etc.

But the 3DS is simply the wrong way to play Runbow. The physics feel a bit clunkier, the load times drag down the pace, you barely get to see those lovely character skins when they’re scrunched to a miniscule resolution, not to mention the disservice the 3DS screen does to the general art style with its bold poppy colours and smooth lines. Without even mentioning the now-broken multiplayer and inaccessible content, it feels like an ill-advised and highly compromised conversion to a quite unsuited system. Still, it's a strong enough game that I still got some fun out of it, but if you have the choice I'd recommend any other version first.

[mirroredgame]

"G'night Val!"

The redhead looked up from the sud and dish-filled sink. She couldn't see her employee around the corner, but she can imagine the brunette was on her way to the employee entrance. "G'night Hana! Have a good weekend!"

After the door slammed shut, the shop was quiet. Not a single other foot fall, clinking of dishes, save for the ones that settled to the bottom of the large sink. The redhead turned on the tap to rinse the soap off of her hands. The rest of the dishes can wait.

Quickly, the woman went to work, grabbing a scoop and a chasen from the drying rack. The tea that wasn't put away yet was scooped from and placed into a shallow cup. Processes that the woman had perfected in her teens to move slowly and elegantly were sped up. Hot water from the kettle was poured out. The whisk flashed back and forth in the cup. There was no hour-long ceremony with a monk or kimono girl to be had. This was as dirty and quick as the dripping whisk that was tossed to the counter.

The cup was left as the woman walked to the office. She unlocked the safe and counted out the money inside. The creases on her face were of anguish. Again, she counted.

"Not enough," she hissed. "Damn prices, I bet the new shops aren't being hit with taxes-"

A cold dread shot through the woman's heart. There was a whistle. They were waiting.

The safe slammed shut and locked. The cash was put into her pants pocket, bulging and heavy. On her way through the kitchen, she nabbed the hot cup, the foam beginning to settle. It will have to do.

With one hand, the woman parted the cloth barrier. The whistle sounded again. She bit her tongue. Her body tensed up. She had to be careful not to crack the cup in her tightening grip. The redhead pushed her long ponytail behind her head.

After winding herself through the empty dining room, the woman met the unfocused gaze of her sole guest. The black-clad man was slumped against his seat, looking bored at the table in the front. As per his usual, he sat at one of the tables near one of the displays of heirlooms the woman's grandmother set up.

"Heyyyy pretty lady!" The man sat up once he realized he wasn't alone. The way he said it made the redhead wish he just went ahead and said 'toots' instead. He propped up his head with one arm, the hand of the other patted the table. "You only brought one cup this time!"

"You didn't bring your friend this time," the woman said curtly. She placed the cup down in front of the man.

"And I might've! You should always bring two cups!" He tipped back the cup and his head, causing his hat to fall off his head. Once he was done, he slammed his cup on the table. So much for not cracking it. "That's not as good as a shot. You should offer those. Shots shots shots shots! You know?"

Valerie's fists curled, her knuckles white.

"Bet ye'd have more dough if ya did it. Yeah, I'll tell the boss ye'r offering shots. We cin make getting the booze sho easy."

Valerie stood up. "I believe you're not here to discuss my business. Let's get to the point."

"Right, right," the brown haired man waved for the white woman to sit down. "Show me the goods, konke- konje- hafu."

Every muscle in Valerie's body tightened as the man stumbled over the words. She wanted to puke every syllable he uttered until he settled with 'hafu'. But she sat back down. With far less grace, she slapped the cash from her pocket onto the table. "This is the exact cut I owe from this week's earnings."

Taking the cash, the man started counting. A quarter of the way through, his face crunched up, then he restarted. "I need a shot, gimme one." Valerie didn't need to be told twice, getting up and bolting for the kitchen. "And no cops, you know better, toots!"

Whisking any faster would have broken one of the tines. Dropping the whisk back onto the counter, Valerie swore she heard one of the thin, bamboo tines crack. Cup in hand, she looked at the office. Behind the locked door, on the desk were the photos of her grandmother and father. Would they be disappointed? She bowed to Team Rocket's protection to keep the family's cafe open. The same Team Rocket who berated her grandmother and threatened the safety of Valerie's cousins. The same group who brutalized her father as a warning to Silph Co.

As she sighed, Valerie felt her paper kramorant earrings tickle her neck. She's surviving. What could she do against the most powerful group in the Indigo regions? Just live. She was no fighter. As long as she continued to kowtow, Team Rocket would allow her to live.

Valerie grabbed a second cup. He had asked for it. She looked at her chasen. None of the tines really broke. Good. Just in case, she'll make a second cup. Any excuse to stay away. Any excuse to keep going.

As she was whisking the cup, the hair on Valerie's neck stood up. Her chest was slammed into the edge of the metal sink. She couldn't breathe. The whisk and cup fell to the ground at her feet, forgotten as Valerie grabbed the edge of the sink. The force of the man's hands on her neck inched Valerie's face to the water in the wash sink.

"This isn't all of the money!"

"No!" Under his weight, Valerie struggled. Her eyes darted around. There was no way anyone could come and save her. "Sales have been down, I'm struggling to keep up with the bills-"

"Taurosshit!" Another shove slammed Valerie into the metal sink. "I know you're hiding the money!" The woman felt hands grab her rear. "Gimme the keys!"

Jerking away, Valerie found herself pinned against the wall next to the sink. Her assailant spun her around. His face was next to hers, so close she swore the alcohol in his breath was smacking her nose. The man pinned one of her elbows to the wall behind her. "I'll take them myself. And I'll be taking my finder's fee shince ye're always such," his face moved even closer, almost touching hers. "Such a difficult thing."

CLANG!

There was no reason for the man who had her pinned to be crumpled on the ground. There was no reason for the decorative cast iron kettle to be in her hand. Valerie looked down at herself. The dirt from the man's unwashed hands marked where he tried to grab her maekake.

Did... Did she do this?

Did she just kill him?

The blood on the floor said so. Valerie set the kettle on the side of the sink. It too, was covered in blood. Valerie crouched down to check on the man. Where would she check for pulse again? Neck? She put two fingers there. She felt the pulsations, he was alive.

Valerie crawled backwards, putting her back against the wall she was pinned to not too long ago. She slid down until she was sitting on her rear.

Finally, she let out a sob. Even if she got rid of the man, even if she cleaned up all of the blood, even if she paid all of her debts, there was no way this would be forgiven.

"Gr-Grandma... D-Dad," Valerie sniffled. "I'm sorry. I'm going to die."

[qwanderer]

Yesterday my phone was misbehaving, and it shut down by itself twice in a row, and was showing wildly inconsistent battery readings. It has a removable battery, and I have another of the same model with a crushed up screen that I keep in a drawer because it still works, but it was cheaper by far to replace the whole phone than the screen. It's been in the drawer for like two years.

So I was like "I wonder which battery is in better shape, given that the battery in my current phone has been in near constant use for like two years and the battery in my previous phone has been in the drawer for like two years without being used or charged at all."

So I plugged in the old phone and turned it on and it told me it was at 100% battery and I was like "hmm that seems unlikely and probably a bad sign" but I swapped the batteries between the two phones anyway. And the slightly newer phone told me it had like 50% battery and I was like "that seems more likely" so I kept an eye on it and made sure it got a full charge overnight.

Today it seems to be doing just fine! Perfectly normal. I am cautiously optimistic that I switched out the batteries in time to keep the older one from deteriorating too much from disuse. But if it starts to not work so well, I can always switch back.

I think the shutdowns might have had something to do with the fact that yesterday I gave my phone a partial recharge from a grocery store power pack while I was out of the house, but I'm not sure if that is a short term problem that makes my phone confused about its battery level or whether it is actually wearing out the battery. It might have been the restart that came with the battery swap that fixed the problem.

Well, I will see how this battery does and I will pay attention to what happens the next time I use that power pack!

In other tech news the browser based discord interface is not working on my laptop despite firefox and everything being up to date, so I installed the linux app instead, but somehow I managed to corrupt it during install, and the instructions for fixing it are so complicated it makes me want to just buy a new laptop and start over (I have already been wanting to get a new laptop tbf) but it works for chat! I just can't watch streams on it.

That's okay for the moment, though, because I tried watching the stream I wanted to watch on the mobile app, which worked much better this time than when I tried it before, and then I could chat along in text on my laptop, which actually has keys! Better this way, tbh. I'll probably just use the corrupted install as long as it will let me (or until the browser version stops futzing out).

[oediex]

Listen, friend, I've been going through the deepest depressive bout in the last four months that I've been through in a long time. My life has been anything but vibrant. I remember telling my therapist about these daily stories I started writing sometime in January or February, and telling her how difficult it was doing so when I was barely living. I felt like I had nothing to write about. But I made a commitment, so I struggled on.

If you go back to my stories in January, when I came fresh out of a crisis in December, you will see what I mean. I spent most of that month crying my eyes out, staying in bed, not leaving the house, keeping the curtains shut.

I've been writing about depression, suicidal ideation, anxiety, and my chronic back pain a lot. These were all, often, rants. And often, I wrote about them on that day because nothing else noteworthy happened. I probably didn't even leave the house.

One day, my story was that maybe there are days when there is no story. Because I literally didn't have a story that day. It was a day in depression like any other.

My idea of starting these came to me in December - after I had had my crisis, might I add, when I was already spending days with cheeks streaked dry from the hot tears I couldn't keep inside because I felt like my heart was being ripped out of my chest - when I read about someone saying "there is a story every day if you look for it". I unfortunately don't remember where I read that, it was somewhere on the internet, and I think it was from a writer, but I couldn't find it again even if I tried. But that's the spirit. There is a story every day if you look for it.

Anyway. What I mean is. Sometimes it's just rants. That's fine. My stories are sometimes about encounters I have, or pondering on the beauty of nature when I can convince my mind to go outside, or family and friends when I find the energy to meet up with them. But often they are rants about things that I'm thinking about. Depression. Anxiety. Chronic pain. Veganism. Gaming. Loneliness. Friendship.

I think it's quite telling that my life seems vibrant to you. It doesn't to me. I feel stagnant. I feel stuck and lost and don't see a future. I can barely get anything done. I feel like my mind is just dragging me down and the world is passing by before my eyes but I'm not part of it.

I think maybe the lesson here is that there is vibrancy in all of us, even if it is just the internals of our mind. And this is an exercise in finding it.

It's also an exercise in writing, and there are days when I think of it in that way. Sometimes I know what I'll write about. I write a few paragraphs and I'm unhappy about it. So I restart and go at it from another angle. And that can spice it right up.

Some days, what I write is shit. I'll often reflect on that in the tags. ("I don't like how I've written about that, but at least it's a story" or "look it's not in me today" or "not sure I like this but there it is".) But then I think - that's fine. It's an exercise. It's a first draft. If I ever want to make this into something else, I have this to fall back on!

Other days, I love what I've written. It's powerful and playful in wording and maybe a bit poetic. There's symmetry or alliteration or some kind of moral at the end or whatever. And rants? Rants are really really good for that.

Speaking of, that last paragraph? Absolutely amazing. I love it. It's so beautifully put. "i sought safety in my stolen shreds of power"? "guarded by bitter pride on one side and by constricting apathy on the other"? Fucking gold.

Keep at it. Find the stories. And if nothing seems to be happening, write about nothing. I've written stories about opening my curtains. About the meditativeness of wiping the floor instead of vacuuming. About to do lists????

Just keep showing up.

already missed a daily story yesterday- ill continue my thoughts from last night here

i was a little worried going into this challenge because oediex's life seemed so much more vibrant than mine- she is like. a human, who does things. but even on the days when not much happened to them, she still wrote a little story about something. which is something i will need to learn to do quickly, unless i rapidly start doing things.

(the other possibility is that the commitment to write about something will pressure me to do more interesting or productive things. i was banking on this outcome and so far it has not been uh. remotely tangible. um)

i feel so stagnant here. i've trapped myself in a cage of my own nebulous, contradictory ideals. i have the resources to do whatever i want, but they are guarded by bitter pride on one side and by constricting apathy on the other. i started the clock that would doom me and now i sit and watch it tick downward without the will to do anything else. i sought safety in my stolen shreds of power, but i still rely entirely on the wretched sympathy of my betrayers.

[eevyerndracaneon]

My PC takes forever to start up since it had a major fit last night

I think the ssd broke or smth