#ap management services

[strawberryteabunny]

I got the Dress-Up Berry socks and headdress! 🍓 so so happy to have something with crochet strawberries on it ໒꒰ྀི∗ɞ̴̶̷ ·̮ ɞ̴̶̷∗꒱ྀིა ⑅˚˖ ♥︎ anyone else planning to get something from this release?

[hireanydomain]

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[suchi05]

SAP Role Review | SAP Authorization Review | SAP Role Redesign | ToggleNow

An authorization redesign in SAP is critical to strengthen security, streamline access governance, and enhance overall efficiency within the SAP system. Over time, businesses evolve, and with these changes come shifts in roles & responsibilities. Often, initial authorization setups in SAP may not align accurately with these changes, leading to potential security gaps or unnecessary Segregation of Duties. Therefore, a redesign becomes necessary to ensure that the right individuals have access to the appropriate resources, mitigating risks associated with unauthorized data access or system misuse.

By undertaking an authorization redesign, enterprises can expect improved compliance adherence and reduced vulnerability to internal and external risks. This redesign allows for a thorough reassessment of user privileges, enabling organizations to align permissions more closely with current job functions. Moreover, a redesigned authorization framework fosters greater transparency and accountability across the system. Overall, the necessity for an authorization redesign in SAP is pivotal in adapting to evolving business landscapes, and ensuring seamless functionality within the system.

Read more: https://togglenow.com/services/sap-authorization-review-redesign/

[ingenx]

SAP Hana Implementation Services: Driving Efficiency and Innovation  

The energy and natural resources industry operates within a dynamic landscape. Sustainability targets, fluctuating market conditions, and the relentless demand for greater operational efficiency pose unique challenges. To overcome these hurdles and excel, companies are increasingly relying on transformative technology solutions like SAP Utilities.  

This powerful suite of SAP reporting tools is specifically engineered to help energy companies revolutionize their processes, improve decision-making, and enhance customer experiences.  

What Are SAP Utilities? A Powerful Tool for Energy Companies 

SAP Utilities is a cornerstone of the wider SAP ecosystem, designed to address the nuanced requirements of the energy sector. It delivers a comprehensive array of integrated features, from streamlined SAP audit managed services and billing to robust energy data management and advanced asset optimization. By adopting SAP Utilities, companies can unlock a new level of efficiency, data-backed insights, and a greater focus on customer needs. 

The Value of SAP Development and Consulting Professionals 

Implementing a technology solution as complex as SAP Utilities often benefits immensely from a partnership with seasoned SAP development and consulting experts. These professionals have a deep understanding of both the energy sector's intricacies and the technical aspects of SAP solutions. Their role is essential in configuring SAP Utilities to perfectly match a company's unique operations, ensuring smooth integration with existing systems, and delivering vital training to empower end-users. 

SAP Solutions for Oil and Gas: Navigating Complexity 

Within the oil and gas industry, fluctuating prices, regulatory complexity, and the relentless push for sustainability create a particularly demanding context. Specialized SAP expertise is incredibly valuable in this arena. Consultants who understand both the industry and SAP technologies can help oil and gas companies optimize processes, navigate compliance challenges efficiently, and use data to support informed decision-making. This translates into greater operational efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and a stronger environmental focus. 

Embarking on the SAP Implementation Journey 

A successful SAP Utilities implementation demands careful planning and meticulous execution. SAP implementation consultants become invaluable partners in this process. They excel at mapping business processes to SAP functionality, ensuring customization aligns perfectly with your organization's specific needs. They also provide comprehensive training to equip your workforce with the knowledge to maximize the benefits of the new SAP system. 

SAP for Mining: Efficiency, Sustainability, and Improved Performance 

The mining industry, driven by fierce competition and the urgency of sustainability, can gain substantial advantages through customized SAP solutions. Implementing SAP across mining processes can deliver enhanced visibility throughout operations, enabling optimized production scheduling, streamlined supply chains, and thorough compliance with safety and environmental regulations. Leveraging SAP in this context can elevate a mining company's efficiency, reduce waste, and strengthen its competitive position. 

The Power of Reporting in the Energy Sector 

Effective data collection and analysis are critical for energy companies. SAP offers a suite of advanced reporting tools to help you tap the full potential of the data you collect. 

SAP reporting tools: Gain insights on demand through tailored reporting 

SAP Business Objects tools: Deliver sophisticated reporting and analysis capabilities for power users 

SAP audit-managed services: Outsource audit management for additional efficiency and expertise 

Wrapping Up! 

In this era where sustainability goals and technological innovation converge, SAP Utilities plays a pivotal role in powering transformation within the energy sector. By partnering with SAP development and consulting experts, implementing SAP best practices for S4 hana implementation services, and embracing the right reporting tools, oil, gas, mining, and other energy-focused companies can achieve unprecedented levels of efficiency, sustainability, and innovation.  

The strategic deployment of SAP Utilities will undoubtedly be central to the success of these organizations as they navigate a future driven by technology and an increasing focus on environmental responsibility. 

[myndsolution1]

Overcoming Growth Barriers in AP Automation: A Roadmap for Success

In the ever-evolving landscape of financial processes, overcoming growth barriers in Accounts Payable (AP) automation is paramount for sustained success. At Mynd Integrated Solution, we understand the intricacies of AP automation and have crafted a comprehensive roadmap to guide you through the challenges and propel your organization towards unparalleled efficiency and growth.

[fatehbaz]

Good question:

In the United States, many jails and prisons can and will charge you money for every single night that you spend imprisoned, for the entire duration of your incarceration, as if you were being billed for staying at a hotel. Even if you are incarcerated for years. Adding up to tens of thousands of dollars. What happens when you’re released?

In response to this:

---

So.

You’re getting charged, like, ten dollars every time you even submit a request form to possibly be seen by a doctor or dentist.

You’re getting charged maybe five dollars for ten minutes on the phone.

Any time a friend or family tries to send you like five dollars so that you can buy some toothpaste or lotion, or maybe a snack from the commissary since you’re diabetic and the “meals” have left you malnourished, maybe half of that money gets taken as a “service fee” by the corporate contractor that the prison uses to manage your pre-paid debit card. So you’re already losing money every day just by being there.

What happens if you can’t pay?

In some places, after serving just a couple of years for drugs charges, almost 20 years after being released, the state can still hunt you down for over $80,000 that you “owe” as if it were a per-night room-and-board accommodations charge, like this recent highly-publicized case in Connecticut:

Excerpt:

Two decades after her release from prison, [TB] feels she is still being punished. When her mother died two years ago, the state of Connecticut put a lien on the Stamford home she and her siblings inherited. It said she owed $83,762 to cover the cost of her 2 1/2 year imprisonment for drug crimes. [...] “I’m about to be homeless,” said [TB], 58, who in March [2022] became the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging the state law that charges prisoners $249 a day for the cost of their incarceration. [...] All but two states have so-called “pay-to-stay” laws that make prisoners pay for their time behind bars [...]. Critics say it’s an unfair second penalty that hinders rehabilitation by putting former inmates in debt for life. Efforts have been underway in some places to scale back or eliminate such policies. Two states — Illinois and New Hampshire — have repealed their laws since 2019. [...] Pay-to-stay laws were put into place in many areas during the tough-on-crime era of the 1980s and ’90s, said Brittany Friedman, an assistant professor of sociology at University of Southern California who is leading a study of the practice. [...] Connecticut used to collect prison debt by attaching an automatic lien to every inmate, claiming half of any financial windfall they might receive for up to 20 years after they are released from prison [...].

Text by: Pat Eaton-Robb. “At $249 per day, prison stays leave ex-inmates deep in debt.” AP News / The Associated Press. 27 August 2022.

---

---

Look at this:

To help her son, Cindy started depositing between $50 to $100 a week into Matthew’s account, money he could use to buy food from the prison commissary, such as packaged ramen noodles, cookies, or peanut butter and jelly to make sandwiches. Cindy said sending that money wasn’t necessarily an expense she could afford. “No one can,” she said. So far in the past month, she estimates she sent Matthew close to $300. But in reality, he only received half of that amount. The balance goes straight to the prison to pay off the $1,000 in “rent” that the prison charged Matthew for his prior incarceration. [...] A PA Post examination of six county budgets (Crawford, Dauphin, Lebanon, Lehigh, Venango and Indiana) showed that those counties’ prisons have collected more than $15 million from inmates — almost half is for daily room and board fees that are meant to cover at least a portion of the costs with housing and food. Prisoners who don’t work are still expected to pay. If they don’t, their bills are sent to collections agencies, which can report the debts to credit bureaus. [...] Between 2014 and 2017, the Indiana County Prison — which has an average inmate population of 87 people — collected nearly $3 million from its prisoners. In the past five years, Lebanon’s jail collected just over $2 million in housing and processing fees.

Text by: Joseph Darius Jaafari. “Paying rent to your jailers: Inmates are billed millions of dollars for their stays in Pa. prisons.” WHYY (PBS). 10 December 2019. Originally published at PA Post.

---

Pay-to-stay, the practice of charging people to pay for their own jail or prison confinement, is being enforced unfairly by using criminal, civil and administrative law, according to a new Rutgers University-New Brunswick led study. The study [...] finds that charging pay-to-stay fees is triggered by criminal justice contact but possible due to the co-opting of civil and administrative institutions, like social service agencies and state treasuries that oversee benefits, which are outside the realm of criminal justice. “A person can be charged $20 to $80 a day for their incarceration,” said author Brittany Friedman, an assistant professor of sociology and a faculty affiliate of Rutgers' criminal justice program. “That per diem rate can lead to hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees when a person gets out of prison. To recoup fees, states use civil means such as lawsuits and wage garnishment against currently and formerly incarcerated people, and regularly use administrative means such as seizing employment pensions, tax refunds and public benefits to satisfy the debt.” [...] Civil penalties are enacted on family members if the defendant cannot pay and in states such as Florida, Nevada and Idaho can occur even after the original defendant is deceased. [...]

Text by: Megan Schumann. “States Unfairly Burdening Incarcerated People With “Pay-to-Stay” Fees.” Rutgers press release. 20 November 2020.

---

So, to pay for your own imprisonment, states can:

-- hunt you down for decades (track you down 20 years later, charge you tens of thousands of dollars, and take your house away)

-- put a lien on your vehicle, house

-- garnish your paycheck/wages

-- seize your tax refund

-- send collections agencies after you

-- take your public assistance benefits

-- sue you in civil court

-- take money from your family even after you’re dead

[somecunttookmyurl]

the "all customer service people are trained by management to be illiterate apes you can never get any resolutions by design dont be mean about it" crowd would faint to know there is a guy at my bank RIGHT NOW attempting to resolve an issue that would normally take a week

see. i tried to order food (having nothing of note in the house, and too much pain currently to get down 3 flights of stairs about it) and the payment failed on just eat's end.

but it went through fine on my bank's end, so the funds are tied up in "pending"... for a week. my available balance is now 95p so i can't just do it again

the bank cannot typically do anything about this until the normal time frame for collection passes and they funds just release automatically. just eat have zero contactable customer service

but it is for FOOD and there's no more MONEY and i am a DISABLED CUSTOMER so BY FUCKING GOD not on zeeshan's watch

[just-a-drawing-bean]

Please Share

Hey guys, unfortunately I am asking for any help on covering the cost of my sister's medical bill.

Recently my sister found out she has cervical cancer and is about to start treatments asap. Her workplace was kind enough to start her a gofundme for the insane medical bill that is chemotherapy and cancer treatments. I wanted to share the link around to anyone willing to pitch in.

Linked below is her gofundme

Anything helps, and if you cant donate that is totally ok! Even a reblog can help.

Any and all donations are greatly appreciated <3

Thanks you guys

[preservationofnormalcy]

[As I climb the multiple levels of stairs to the ranger tower, I take a moment to stop and reflect. I’m exhausted - after the hike to get here, the relief that I felt upon seeing the tower was tempered by the realization I had several flights of stairs ahead of me. I was in Washington State, flown here by my handlers to talk to seemingly the only Esoteric Ranger that would be available for the next month. Not for the first time, I wondered what it meant that they heavily suggested my interview subjects. The best person for the job, or the best PR face in the department?

I reach the top and stop again, and take a drink of water. A figure sitting inside the room at the top turns and sees me, and gets up to open the door. He is young, in his mid to late twenties, long brown hair done up in a bun, a large scraggly beard over the top of his ranger uniform. He has a look of amusement on his face, a sort of polite smile doing its best to cover up a smirk. His accent is thick, Appalachian, and his demeanor still manages to convey a sort of genial calm.]

S] Meghan, right?

M] Yeah. Hold on, let me…catch my breath.

S] Aint no worry. Take the time you need. I’ll just leave the door propped open. And if it helps, there’s iced tea in here waiting for you.

M] That does help. I’ll just….be a second.

[After a moment, I joined the man in the observation room. A cot, a shelf of supplies, a desk with a radio setup, a laptop on a table. A simple room for an apparently complex job. The tree-eye logo of the Rangers is plastered on many surfaces, well worn.]

M] Sheamus Doyle, right?

S] Yes ma’am.

M] I’m Meghan.

S] Pleasure to meet you. Lemme just….

[He takes a jug of iced tea from a minifridge and pours some into two mismatched cups, sitting at the small table and glancing at his laptop for a moment as I sit across from him.]

S] Pardon me, just watchin’ the ‘squatches.

M] Watching?

[He turns the screen around - a topographic map of the area is displayed, black with white lines, with about a dozen white dots congregating in two places.]

S] We’ve been watching the cryptid migrations. They been odd since….well, since. Ain’t been following their normal routes.

M] Is that what the Rangers do? I’m sure you know I’m here to ask questions, so….I guess that’ll be my first one.

S] A large part of it, yes ma’am. Cryptid watch.

M] I guess that’s the “catch and release” part of the poster I saw.

S] Mhmm. It’s hard work, y’know. Better here’n in the Everglades taggin’ skunk apes though.

M] Let me look at my notes…kind of scrambled after the hike here.

S] Yeah, sorry ‘bout that. Everyone’s gotta do a stint in the firewatch, and we pull double duty takin’ notes on the ‘squatches while we’re here.

M] Tell me a little about the Esoteric Rangers.

S] We’re older than the Office is. Bet they ain’t told you that.

M] How so?

S] Office was founded in ‘27, right? E-Rangers were a secret division of the National Park Service, founded –

M] 1916, eleven years earlier.

S] That’s right. Even then they knew weird stuff happens in the forests, so they had a little bit earmarked for people to investigate or protect people from the weird stuff, and the weird stuff from people. When the Office came around later, we got folded into them instead. But by that time, y’know. Eleven years. That’s enough time for a place to develop a sort of….culture.

M] How do you mean?

S] We’re under the jurisdiction of the Office for the Preservation of Normalcy, ma’am, but between you an’ me, the Rangers have our own ways of doing things, our own rules. Was a requirement of the merger.

M] I see. So forested areas are your jurisdiction?

S] Anything that takes place on ‘r around a national park or a nature preserve usually has at least one of us onsite. We have our checklists, our methods for findin’ out what’s going on. Weird shit happens far from civilization.

M] Like what?

S] Reality sorta…gets weak, out here. I heard y’talked to Wren.

M] I did.

S] They’re always on about that noosphere stuff. Out here, with no people, noosphere kinda gets a little…wobbly. It’s like…if enough human minds are the bungee cords holdin’ down a tarp. It’s fine most of the time, but sometimes there’s a wind, you know? The noosphere don’t have the guidance to tell it what to do, so you get…

[He trailed off.]

M] What?

S] I seen weird shit, ma’am. Woodpeckers that move backwards, sealing up holes in trees. Hikers from twenty years ago, missing their faces. Places where the sun never shines, like that old song. Areas that looked like Lucifer’s vacation home, all burned and sulphur-smoke. Deer speakin’ in the voices of dead relatives, antlers shining blue. Gunshots where there shouldn’t be people. Realspace is weak out here. Veil gets thin when there ain’t no one to see it.

M] Is all that true?

S] As true as Mama’s promises.

M] Mmh. Tell me about the….cryptids. What is a cryptid? I know it’s like…unknown creatures, but for you they’re clearly….known, right?

[He sat back after a drink of his tea, giving a wince and a so-so gesture of his hand.]

S] That’s the mundane definition, yeah. The Office’s definition of a cryptid is….a creature whose existence ain’t really evolutionarily plausible, that would raise a lot a’ questions were it known. Jackalopes, you know, no other bunny has antlers, sort of thing. They probably didn’t evolve, per se, so…

M] What about the sasquatch? Wouldn’t it just be seen as a missing link?

[He nods, thinks for a second, looks at his computer, and then jerks his head to the door.]

S] Lemme show you something.

[On the platform outside, bolted onto the railing, is a telescope - or I assume it is. Attached to the long barrel of the device are a lot of wires, a plastic casing that looked like it housed a small electronic assembly, and a revolving series of lenses that look like they can be rotated into the eye ports like an optometrist’s testing machine. He looks into the scope, adjusting the lenses and a few knobs on the side of the device, and locks it into place.]

S] Here, take a look.

[I look into the scope - for a moment, I think there’s something wrong with it. I can see a clearing in the forest, and three….shapes. Smudges on the lenses? No, he’d have seen that. The shapes are blurry blobs from this distance, out of sync from their sharper surroundings. I’m about to take my eyes away from the scope and ask what I’m looking at when I feel him reach over and adjust the lenses again, rotating a new set into place. It’s accompanied by an electric click and a soft whine from the device, and now I can see them clearly. The three blobs were large, humanoid figures, covered head to toe in rusty brown fur. One stands guard in the clearing, while another sits on a stone, grooming the fur of a third, possibly a juvenile. They are...impossible. Majestic creatures, even from this distance.]

S] We call it an Obfuscation Field. They’re sort of always….blurry. In the 30’s we developed techniques to see through it, y’know, but it’s one of those things people can’t find out about.

M] Unbelievable.

S] Somethin’ wrong?

M] It’s just…this whole time, you know?

[He leaned on the railing, taking a vape pen out of his shirt pocket.]

S] Yeah, I heard they kind of threw you into all this. Sink ‘r swim. I wager most people get a slower introduction.

M] Did you?

[He took a hit of his vape pen.]

M] Should you be doing that on the job?

[He gave me an amused look, gesturing around to the forest. I could almost imagine a hypothetical camera comically zooming out to show the remoteness of the tower.]

S] Nah, I grew up in all this. My family’s been practicing “The Work”, so to speak, since they came here four or five generations ago. I never got the hang of witchcraft, myself. You get a dud every other generation, so they say. My sister’s a natural though, she’s interning with the Office in Archival.

M] Some people are sort of…born into knowing this stuff.

S] We call it being “in the community”. At a certain point it all blends together. Your family does folk magic at a certain level, you grow up with your best friend bein’ a lycan, that kinda thing.

M] I feel like I’ve missed out.

S] Ma’am, sometimes it’s more trouble’n it’s worth.

M] Yeah?

S] I love my friends, my family, but….you think I wouldn’t flick a switch, give all this up? Be Sheamus the hipster and not Sheamus the cryptid hunter? Be a hell of a lot more simple. Weird shit attracts more weird shit.

[He took another hit, exhaling a thick cloud. For a moment, shapes in the cloud coalesce - the prominent brow of an ape, a rabbit with antlers. I wonder if he was being modest about his lack of magic.]

M] I’m not really sure.

S] You’re letting it get to you, all of this. So quick, so extreme. I think you need an industrial grade chill pill, ma’am.

M] Maybe I do.

S] I got a guy coming in to bring me supplies tonight. Stay here, watch the sunset, you drive back with him.

M] Are you sure?

S] Hundred percent. Take the evenin’, ma’am. You need it.

(Buy the poster here!)

[masllp]

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[stylecouncil]

the thing about that that I’m always always saying is that the undercurrents of nationalism in “britpop” were always coming directly from middle class bands like blur misunderstanding the complex working class commentary of ray davies etc in the sixties and badly aping it without injecting it with the same commentary/really understanding it/having the same experiences behind it so it all became some disgusting distorted bleary eyed laddish little england caricature that somehow managed to be both nationalist and insulting to the uks working class at the same time. and then was bandwagoned and used further by middle class politicians to tie it all into their politics etc etc (cool britannia, play cocaine socialism by pulp). but like the thing here is that it was not oasis selling this image. oasis was always about escape from your circumstances, escape from the council estate, etc. the bands ethos was never particularly glorifying of england and its lyrical content wasn’t at all (flowers, escape, universal brotherhood as that one post on here goes it you know you know). their “bad behavior” was just them being your classically damaged men from an extremely rough working class and abusive background in a rock band really having it all as it came at them (also part of the oasis charm) it wasn’t in service of any sort of political ideology overtly besides the very idea that working class people should be able to have more, why can’t it be you etc etc. thats what was so appealing about it was intrinsic and hopeful yet pragmatic and no nonsense at the same time and rooted in working class experience instead of often puffed up hollow academic jargon. they acted like young lads from a council estate because there were young lads from a council estate. it’s not deeper than that. what britpop was twisted into and the cynical nationalist element and even the nastier side of the “laddiism” really had little to do with them in my honest opinion and had everything to do with bands like blur and the middle class music press and how they portrayed them.

[prismaticpichu]

i know free day for zackseph week is over and you got your own things going on but if i may unleash a few plot bunnies for you to play with : what are zack and seph doing on the first day of school? what if transfer student situation :3c any grade or level of university, are they already friends or are they meeting for the first time? and like yeah sure super smart all honors classes sephiroth and jock bro zack, what if we reverse it? how silly can we get?

*leaves the box of plot bunnies open and runs*

YESSS ANON I LUV YOU!!! 🤣❤️ Plot bunnies wooooo!

(Intentionally OOC crisis core characters!! Kunsel & Zack besties forever lmaoo.)

~

(Zack, sitting alone at the lunch table, with stacks of books surrounding him on both sides as he scribbles furiously in a green spiraled notebook. He is completely oblivious to the distant snickers of the Jocks, who have just adopted ShinRa High’s recent transfer student—Sephiroth Crescent, a scorer of over 170 on the pacer test—into their sporty clique.)

Lux: Annnnd that’s him, over there. Zack Fair. The biggest bookworm you’ll ever find on the planet. Kisses every teacher’s ass, spends every waking hour in a book… bessst to just keep your distance.

Kuns: No kidding. Can you imagine your entire life revolving around school? Like… pick your damn head up, dude. Smell some fresh air.

(Another round of chuckles sound around Sephiroth’s table, yet the silver-haired senior remains silent.)

Lux: Oh—get this, Sephiroth. Y’know Mr. Hewley? The English teacher? He goes there during his free periods. Can literally just come here and get a snack; instead, goes to write speeches or shit with a teacher nobody likes.

Kuns: Heh, well, what do you expect when you got no friends? Gotta have someone of equal level. Right, Sephirot—?

(But Sephiroth was already gone, having sailed across the cafeteria, mercury hair swishing behind him as he takes his new seat across from the black-haired junior.)

Sephiroth: May I sit here, please?

(Zack glances up, blue eyes blinking in what could only be described as complete and utter surprise.)

Zack: …Y-yeah! Of course :)

(He moves his lunch bag and texts, then immediately shuts the green notebook to make some room.)

Zack: Are you new around these parts? Don’t think I’ve seen you around.

Sephiroth: Heh, yes. I just moved to Midgar this year. I’m Sephiroth.

(He reaches out his hand, and Zack happily shakes it)

Zack: Zack Fair! At your service :)

(He then notices the empty area where Sephiroth is sitting, blinking again in puzzlement.)

Zack: …Do you have any lunch with you?

(There’s a beat of silence, slightly thick.)

Sephiroth: …I, heh. Don’t eat lunch.

Zack: …Oh? Well, there’s lots of good food here! First thing anyone should know about any school, if you ask me.

(He pushes his box of french fries across the table.)

Zack: Help yourself!

Sephiroth: …Heh, that’s okay. Thank you.

Zack: You sure? It’s good for the soul :)

(In spite of himself, Sephiroth can’t help but smile a little. Nor can he help the sense of ease that settles over him; a warm, budding comfort that lets the next words slide out not as jaggedly as they may seem.)

Sephiroth: Thank you, truly. It’s, just… heh. I don’t think my father would like me eating those.

(In an instant, empathy flickers across Zack’s face, and he nods in understanding.)

Zack: …Ah. I got ya. No worries then. My dad can be a little strict too.

Sephiroth: Oh?

Zack: Heh, yeah. Pushes me really hard to get into all our AP classes, y’know? Can just be… super stressful.

(Now it’s Sephiroth’s eyes that suddenly flicker, softening in understanding.)

Sephiroth: Mmn, I see. I’m… sorry to hear that.

(Zack smiles a sheepish smile as he rubs his neck.)

Zack: Aww, thanks. Don’t worry about it though. Managed to make some really cool teachers in the advanced classes! Speaking of~

(He starts to pack up his stuff, popping the last of the french fries in his mouth before tossing it in the trash.)

Zack: Gonna head over to Mr Hewley’s for a bit! You wanna come?

(Inconspicuously, Sephiroth spares a quick glance to new batch of “friends”, the likes of whom had been gaping at it for the past three or so minutes. And it was then that he realized his decision could not be any clearer.)

Sephiroth: Absolutely.

~

Be a friend, folks!! ❤️💕 The world needs more of ‘em!

[thecreaturecodex]

One specific question, one general one.

The specific - What's a good monster, related to plants, undead, or both, to use when representing something that, let's say, fell from the sky, crashed in a lumber yard, and when a usually cold-hearted, fearless boss comes to investigate, it scares him so much for the rest of his life that he tells nobody and immediately abandons the camp? Something that's terrifying, but something that wouldn't just kill him outright. I wanna introduce a bit of terror to my party since in-game, it's coming close to the equivalent of the Halloween season.

The more general (and maybe more important one) - How do you manage your own disparate ideas into a more cohesive homebrew storyline? I've got a lot of ideas and themes but I'm realizing my choice paralysis and desire to do something cool for my players is hindering me in tying together themes to make something that will actually be in service to the players fun.

Big fan for actual years, btw. You're one of the best homebrew writers and a vital part of our group's games in Red Hand, Shackled City, and eventually Age of Worms. Thank you for your work.

Thank you so much for your kind words!

Now, for your first question, I do have a fair amount of plants from space in the Codex, since it's a popular SF trope. The hyphal brain, vegalpree or beula could all serve the role you have in mind.

For the second, well, I'd say don't be afraid to be self-indulgent. Not every idea needs to tie into a Big Theme, and the players, if they're bought in, might end up supplying some of the linkages for you. Probably the best homebrew game I've ever run was Sharn Freelance Police, which was a D&D 3.5 game set in Eberron, where the PCs were detectives. It was intended to be a case of the week investigative game, and by the end of it had all sorts of recurring plots, villains and an overarching theme. By the end, it was about the arms dealing House Cannith working with the Order of the Emerald Claw in order to cause a civil war in Kaarnath, ending with Vol coming out of the shadows to claim the throne and start openly engaging in eugenics. But that plot wasn't in every session, and a lot of the cases they took were random one-offs that tied into stuff I had on hand or things I was into. There was a session that was a parody of Sweeney Todd, but it turned out it was dire rats being baked into pies when they thought it was people. There was a scientist interested in monsters who consulted on cases about aberrations and symbionts, who ended up using what he got from the Freelance Police to mutate himself and try his hand at supervillainy. There was even an arc where one of the characters died, came back as the undead, and didn't tell anyone for a couple of weeks. And despite the big mishmash of tones and themes, everyone had a great time, and that game and its characters are still remembered fondly almost 20 years later.

And looking at those APs you mentioned, they also kind of go all over the place. Age of Worms, for example. Telling the story of discovering and fighting against the cult of a undead-themed demigod doesn't need to have a tournament arc, or a fancy dinner party in a palace full of sideshow performers, or a canyon where giants breed carrion crawlers to make siege weapon ammo... but all of that makes the game a lot of fun.

[justforbooks]

Mike Lynch

British tech entrepreneur who sold his Autonomy software group to Hewlett-Packard and was later cleared after a long-running US fraud case

Mike Lynch, who has died aged 59 in the wreck of his yacht, was sometimes described as “Britain’s Bill Gates”. It was a huge exaggeration, but Lynch could claim two parallels with Gates: he developed world-leading technology (in his case in machine learning or AI) and, unlike so many UK scientists, he learned how to turn it into commercial success.

Such was this success that his company, Autonomy, was valued at $11bn when he sold it to Hewlett-Packard in 2011, but the fall-out from the sale would come to overshadow his technological achievements, and lead to a national debate about the circumstances in which UK citizens may be extradited to the US.

Lynch founded Autonomy with two partners in 1996. Its software enabled a computer to search huge quantities of diverse information, including phone calls, emails and videos, and recognise words. He told the Independent in 1999: “The way our technology works is to look at words and understand the relationships because it has seen a lot of content before. When it sees the word ‘star’ in the context of film, it knows it has nothing to do with the word moon. Because it works from text, it can deal with slang and with different languages.”

Autonomy became a leading company in Cambridge’s Silicon Fen cluster and established a base in San Francisco. “We knew we had to be successful in America. It was a question of ‘Go West young man, go to San Francisco and be ignored.’ They found it hard to believe that anyone from England could have anything powerful.” Lynch found what he called the “cold-hearted schmooze” to secure funding tough.

But Autonomy’s software, enabling computers to identify and match themes and ideas, and sort mammoth amounts of data, was licensed to more than 500 customers, including the US State Department and the BBC. It was listed on Nasdaq in 1998 and on the FTSE 100 in November 2000, although its value of £5.1bn would be halved within a few months in the collapse of the technology boom and accusations of over-promotion. In 2005 it bought a major US rival, Verity, for $500m.

Lynch’s profile rose with it. In 2006 he was appointed OBE for services to enterprise and the following year joined the board of the BBC. In 2011 he became a member of the government’s Council for Science and Technology, and was named the most influential person in UK IT by Computer Weekly. In 2014 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society.

Though quietly spoken, he had a reputation for toughness, coloured by a liking for James Bond, which led to Autonomy conference rooms being named after Bond villains, and a tank of piranha fish in reception. (Lynch claimed it belonged to one of his business partners.) Challenged about a company culture where people were “a little fanatical”, he replied: “This is not the place for you if you want to work 9 to 5 and don’t love your work.”

Born in Ilford, east London, to Michael, a firefighter, and Dolores, a nurse, and brought up in Chelmsford, Lynch won a scholarship to the independent Bancroft’s school in Woodford Green, before taking a natural sciences degree at Cambridge, where his PhD in artificial neural networks, a form of machine learning, has been widely studied since.

A saxophone player and jazz lover, he set up his first business, Lynett Systems, while still a student, to produce electronic equipment for the music industry. Later he would attribute some loss of hearing to adjusting synthesisers for bands. He quoted his own experience to highlight the difficulties of finding funding for startup businesses in Britain. He finally negotiated a £2,000 loan from one of the managers of Genesis in a Soho bar.

Lynch’s next venture came out of his research. In 1991 he founded Cambridge Neurodynamics, specialising in computer-based fingerprint recognition. Then he established Autonomy.

The pinnacle of his success appeared to come in October 2011 when Autonomy was purchased by Hewlett-Packard for $11bn and Lynch made an estimated $800m. Shortly afterwards he established a new company, Invoke Capital, for investment in tech companies, and he and his wife, Angela Bacares, whom he had married in 2001, invested about £200m in Darktrace, a cybersecurity company.

But just 13 months after the Autonomy sale, HP announced an $8.8bn writedown of the assets “due to serious accounting improprieties, disclosure failures and outright misrepresentations” which it claimed had artificially inflated the company’s value. The authorities investigated, and while the UK Serious Fraud Office found insufficient evidence, in 2018 the US authorities indicted Lynch for fraud. Soon after, Autonomy’s chief financial officer, Sushovan Hussain, was found guilty of fraud and sentenced to five years in prison.

In March 2019 HP followed up with a civil action for fraud in London. Lynch spent days in the witness box as the civil action stretched over nine months. It ended in January 2022 with the judge ruling that HP had substantially succeeded, but that damages would be much less than the $5bn they had claimed.

Meanwhile the US authorities sought Lynch’s extradition on criminal charges of conspiracy and fraud. In spite of representations by senior politicians and accusations that the US authorities were attempting to exercise “extraterritorial jurisdiction”, a district judge ruled in favour of extradition.

An application for judicial review and a further appeal failed, and in May 2023 Lynch was flown to the US to be held under house arrest in San Francisco, with the prospect of a 25-year sentence.

Charged with wire fraud, securities fraud and conspiracy, on 18 March this year Lynch pleaded not guilty, alongside his former vice-president of finance, Stephen Chamberlain. On 6 June, they were found not guilty of all charges. Chamberlain died after being hit by a car on 17 August.

Lynch declared that he wanted to get back to what he loved doing – innovating. But he had little opportunity to do so. He soon embarked on a voyage to celebrate his acquittal, with family, colleagues and business associates. It ended with the sinking of his yacht, Bayesian – named after the 18th-century mathematician, Thomas Bayes, whose work on probability had informed much of his thinking – in a violent storm off the coast of Sicily.

Lynch is survived by his wife and elder daughter, Esme. Their other daughter, Hannah, was also on board the Bayesian.

🔔 Michael Richard Lynch, technology entrepreneur, born 16 June 1965; died 19 August 2024

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[quitealotofsodapop]

Ash ayúdame creo que me fume algo muy fuerte...

Se me ocurrió un au! porque hace tiempo quería leer un fanfic crossover de Dragon ball y LMK pero no encontré absolutamente nada. Y luego la fumada termino creciendo...

Asi que DAMAS, CABALLEROS Y SIN GENERO ALGUNO!! LES PRESENTO LO SIGUIENTE:

¿Que pasaría Si los Saiyajines son en realidad monos celestiales?

en este au los monos celestiales eran el principal ejercito del reino celestial, se podría decir que eran el cuerpo o ''la infantería''(Una infantería muy aguerrida) pero eran mas tratados como mascotas al servicio de los generales (como todo ser pensante con rasgos animales) pero sin embargo esta población termino sobrepoblado y volviéndose cada vez mas violenta que ''no tuvieron de otra'' que exterminarla; algunos lograron escapar muy lejos hacia las estrellas pero otros aparentemente no huyeron muy lejos...

Las diferencias entre sus ancestros y los saiyajines debido al nuevo habitad terminaron cambiando sus rasgos hasta parecerse a ''super humanos con cola'' mientras que los que huyeron no muy lejos no cambiaron sus rasgos conservaban sus mas simios'' como la nariz chata, hocicos mas cortos y marcas faciales... pero al igual que sus ''primos'' carecían de pelo...

Aquí me baso en el headcanon de que los saiyajines ancianos no envejecen como los humanos, desarrollar arugas y canas, sino que ellos desarrollan pelaje como el de los monos, así que Monkey King y Macaque se podría decir que son ancianos.

Hay tanto que quiero vomitar aquí mismo pero podría terminar ser muy agobiante así que por ahora es una parte 1.

y quería hablar de esto con alguien, y ademas me gusta mas crear conceptos y si alguien quiere usarlos pues con gusto! uwu

Ademas me di la tarea de buscar como hacer los ojos de los saiyajines para hacer versiones de los changos.

puse a todos los monos tanto canons como los de fanfics y queria pobar una nueva forma de hacer el ojo de Wukong basandome esta captura dhsvajdhas

translated via google:

"Ash, help me, I think I smoked something very strong… I came up with an ouch! because for a long time I wanted to read a Dragon Ball and LMK crossover fanfic but I couldn't find anything at all. And then the smoke ended up growing… So LADIES, GENTLEMEN AND WITHOUT ANY GENDER!! I PRESENT TO YOU THE FOLLOWING: What if the Saiyans are actually celestial apes? In this au the celestial monkeys were the main army of the celestial kingdom, you could say that they were the body or ''the infantry'' (a very brave infantry) but they were more treated as pets at the service of the generals (like all thinking beings). with animal features) but nevertheless this population ended up overpopulated and becoming increasingly more violent that "they had no choice" but to exterminate it; some managed to escape very far towards the stars but others apparently did not flee very far… The differences between their ancestors and the Saiyans due to the new habitat ended up changing their features until they resembled ''super humans with tails'' while those who fled not far away did not change their features, they kept their most simian features'' such as the snub nose, shorter snouts and facial markings… but like their ''cousins'' they lacked hair… Here I rely on the headcanon that elderly Saiyans do not age like humans, developing wrinkles and gray hair, but rather they develop fur like that of monkeys, so Monkey King and Macaque could be said to be elderly. There's so much I want to vomit right here but it could end up being too overwhelming so for now it's a part 1. and I wanted to talk about this with someone, and I also like creating concepts more and if someone wants to use them, then with pleasure! uwu I also gave myself the task of looking for how to make the eyes of the Saiyans to make versions of the monkeys. I put all the monkeys both canon and fanfic and I wanted to try a new way to make Wukong's eye based on this screenshot dhsvajdhas"

These drawings are all so very cool!

My only issue being that I have not watched any episode of Dragon Ball, and barely understand how Saiyan's work. Though it would be an interesting twist if they all turned out just to be hairless space monkeys. XD

I love the way you draw Sun Wukong, and all the different eye shapes you drew! The artstyle of Dragon Ball does work very well for these characters!

[thommi-tomate]

Interview with Jupp Heynckes about Thomas Müller

By: Kicker

Mr. Heynckes, Thomas Müller scored for FC Bayern for the 499th time in an official match in the recent Bundesliga match against SC Freiburg. He has 235 goals and 264 assists. You knew this player as a coach in Munich from April 28 to June 30, 2009 and in the two seasons 2011/12 and 2012/13. Why does Müller stand out?

To judge this player and appreciate his record, you have to see the full picture of Thomas Müller. Thomas is a traveler between worlds on the football field, which means that he is neither a striker nor a defensive midfielder, but an attacking midfielder endowed with a special goal-scoring instinct and a gift that is granted to very few players: he has a fundamental endurance and exceptional speed. This combination has always distinguished him physically. Moreover, he is an absolute team player who always and without exception puts himself at the service of the team.

Does this also characterize Müller as a person?

Yes, he is authentic, sympathetic, empathetic, funny, original with his sayings, optimistic, positive and able to lead. Thomas doesn't duck away in awkward moments, he always faces up and has a clear, decided opinion on football and the circumstances in a team. That's why I've always spoken highly of Thomas Müller, because he's an exceptional player, not only because of his footballing qualities, but also because of his personality. I like to compare him with my former teammate Hacki Wimmer, who was just as strong a midfielder as Thomas at Borussia Mönchengladbach and also gave everything for the team. He was self-sacrificing on the defensive end, moving forward, but not as goal-threatening as Thomas. Today, Thomas is a mature professional who knows for himself when he has played well and not so well, when he needs to be critical or hold back publicly. He is now in the late autumn of his career, which is quite normal when you have 300,000 kilometers in your legs and are 34 years old.

Thomas Müller describes himself as an Raumdeuter. Does he have this particular feel for a promising goal situation?

Yes, he intuitively recognizes situations in the game that could be dangerous for a goal. A strong runner and hard worker, he also goes where he thinks he needs to be present and finishes. With his now very good eye, he has great peripheral vision, plus calmness on the ball, so he plays precise passes and hits very good crosses. Thomas doesn't stand out as a footballing giant, but his overall image could be of a great painter like the Italian Rafael.

What was Thomas Müller like in personal interactions?

He was always accessible in communication, ready to talk and receptive. He understands football as a game, recognizes currents in a team and sees through the mechanisms outside. With Bastian Schweinsteiger and Philipp Lahm, he mediated within the team and forced self-cleaning processes before the coach had to take action. It's a gift when you have players like that as a coach.

In the Bundesliga, Müller, who made his debut in a 2-2 draw with Hamburger SV on August 15, 2008, has recorded 200 assists and 144 goals in 448 matches and 33,089 minutes, he needs 96 minutes for a scoring point, so he manages to score or set up a goal in almost every league match. How is this consistency possible?

First, he was very rarely injured, so he had continuity in his career. Then he has the ability to anticipate, he foresees developments on the pitch. When Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben used to go off on the wings or Kingsley Coman, Serge Gnabry or Leroy Sané do it today, Thomas sprints off from deep or instinctively adapts his position to requirements when he's already in the penalty area, he goes into the five-meter area or pulls back from there toward the penalty spot. He also likes to orient himself towards the second post. He has this behavior down pat and has also perfected it. Thomas has it all in his blood.

Under you as coach, Müller scored 47 goals in 135 appearances over 9754 minutes, plus 53 assists, making exactly 100 scorer points. Where did you see his ideal position?

Thomas is a highly intelligent player whom I used mainly as a forward midfielder or second striker. He could also play on the right side and accepted this role without grumbling. He got to grips with this task and then came through there as well. The optimal place for him was behind the striker.

Müller set up by far the most goals for Robert Lewandowski: 64, including 48 in the Bundesliga. Why did Müller and Lewandowski harmonize so well?

It worked so well with Thomas and Robert Lewandowski because Lewy recognized and sensed exactly when he needed to break away from his opponent - at the precise moment when the ball had left Thomas' foot, and never before. This interplay was based on the intuition of the two, it was blind understanding. Thomas hit the crosses exactly the way Lewy needed them: the striker had to go forward, run or sprint into the crosses or put-ins, often with prior backward body deception.

Were Müller and Lewandowski the most effective striker duo in Bundesliga history?

Every time is different. Of course, they were a great pair, but Thomas played just as efficiently with Mario Gomez or Mario Mandzukic. However, Lewy has already benefited a lot from Thomas.

Under Pep Guardiola, Müller collected at least 40 scorer points in every game, and in 2015/16 his best mark was 45. Does Müller need more space for his game or does it help him more when things are tight up front?

When Thomas has space, that's an advantage for him because he's also very fast. But since he is a very skilled player, he knows how to adjust to all conditions. In general, he moves very well thanks to his immense running strength and is always playable. When he comes under pressure there, he doesn't take the ball but just lets it clatter. His passes have the right sharpness and precision, they also get onto the right foot of the teammate - many professionals lack this gift. Thomas plays simple football, not fancy.

87 scorer points are the best score for a German player in the Champions League. FC Barcelona is the foreign club against which Müller scored the most points. In nine duels, he scored eight goals and served to two goals. In the semifinal before winning the title in 2013, Müller scored the 1-0 and 4-0 at home, and he set up the 3-0 by Mario Gomez. In the second leg, he scored the 3:0. What does this data say about Müller's international class?

For Thomas, the games in the Champions League were always highlights, and he saw the duels with Real Madrid or FC Barcelona as a major challenge. His special motivation was there to be felt. He knew how to adapt to his opponents, and he knew exactly when he needed to be even more focused. That's why this international top score comes as no surprise to me.

Was he nervous at any point?

No. Rather highly concentrated and well prepared, tense. Anyone who has been German champion twelve times like Thomas is no longer nervous.

Did you see Müller more as the final provider or the enforcer?

I have always seen the whole football player Thomas Müller, both elements for the offense distinguish. In addition, he was always driven by an immense will to perform, the utmost professionalism. Even if he exudes a certain lightness on the outside, in truth he is totally focused. That's why I always had such a high opinion of him.

Müller scored 149 of his 235 goals with his right foot, and he also scored with his chest - against Bochum in 2009/10 - or with his left upper arm against Hannover in the 2013/14 Cup. Is Müller underestimated because of his sometimes seemingly clumsy movements?

What I said before about him as a footballer makes any answer to this question superfluous.

Müller didn't have it easy with every coach. Did you also have doubts about him at times?

I never had any doubts about Thomas Müller. I got to know him in 2009. Back then, we still managed to reach the Champions League in the six weeks we worked together at the end of the season. After the season, we played six friendly matches, six days in a row. Thomas played every one of those games. It was amazing. After that, I transferred to Bayer Leverkusen and called Hermann Gerland in Munich and said, "Hermann, I want Thomas." Hermann replied, "You're crazy. I've already talked to Louis van Gaal and told him that Thomas is a good kid we have to promote." I then dropped the courting of Thomas.

Müller was never Footballer of the Year. Is his value not appreciated accordingly?

Has he really never been Germany's football player of the year?

Never.

That is an oversight on the part of the jury. I would like to join this group (laughs), my vote would go to Thomas. He would have deserved this award 100 percent. For me, he is exceptional and one of the best players in the history of FC Bayern, which is rich in great players and to which he has been loyal throughout his career. It is a gift for any club to have such a player. I have always held him in immense esteem, Thomas Müller is unique. What he has achieved in football so far is a magnificent, admirable lifetime achievement. And once he steps off the big football stage, I will miss him. When he plays, Thomas is always an eye-catcher. There will never be another player like him: Just as there will be no more Franz Beckenbauer or Gerd Müller, there will be no more Thomas Müller.