This is an update to a story I posted several month's ago. I had left the military in search of a better life in kansas city. When I first got here I was homeless, I had to sleep in my car for a few week's until my first paycheck came in and I could afford a place to live. In those few week's I encountered a creature stalking the wood's I was forced to park by due to my situation. I even attempted to change my camping site miles away from where I originally encountered the creature. It didn't help.
Night after night, that thing would find me. It would lightly tap on my window to try to get my attention, it knew I was aware of it at this point. I never dared look back at it, seeing that hideous grin once in my life was more than enough. It felt like every night got worse. It stopped lightly tapping my glass and started scratching at it, maniacally, desperately, so much so sleep was impossible. I hadn't been able to sleep in days in fact, my mental health was beginning to be affected to a point I thought about finally confronting that bastard one night. I had thought of it all day, I'd stay awake and wait for it, maybe run over it with my car, doing something was better than the nightly torture it put me through.
So I waited...and waited, hour's went by until I passed out due to sheer exhaustion. Just when I thought I could finally get some semblance of rest that night, my car began to violently shake. I thought it was an earth quake until I ripped the sheet from my face and saw that the thing had grabbed the back of my car and was shaking it side to side. I never imagined this thing could be so strong. Then I came to a terrible realization, upon seeing the crazed look on it's face, I realized it was salivating, it wasn't trying to scare me anymore, it was trying to get in.
In a dazed panic, I jumped over my driver's seat and attempted to start my car engine. It felt like an eternity but I was able force my key in the ignition,only to have my car stall. I look back and see that the trunk door is ready to come off it's hinges, I was moments away from certain death as a pair of headlights come into view. As the vehicle The creature drops my car and seemingly vanishes. I keep trying to start my engine and begin worrying the thing mightve sabotaged it so it's meal wouldn't squirm away.
the vehicle that was approaching us had parked a few feet in front of my car and a man came out pointing a flashlight at my direction.
"Sir, get back in your vehicle!" I cracked my window down slightly to try and warn the stranger. "There’s something out here, get back in the car and--" before the man could get the confused look off his face, a burst of red mist came out of some part of his body. The bright light emitted from his flashlight turned to a bright red hue for a few seconds, he could only scream as that thing was on him, ripping chunks of flesh with those razor Sharp claws.
I panicked and tried to desperately turn my car engine on, trying to ignore the horrendous carnage in front of me. Miraculously, my car roared on and my headlights immediately activated. There was nothing left of the poor bastard that pulled over only minutes ago, there was only a pile of minced meat and snapped bones where I last saw that thing ripping into him. Before I could register the thought of where that thing ran off to, it slammed against the side of my driver seat window. It only stared at me for maybe five seconds before it licked the window that was between us. I stepped as hard as I could on the gas and got out of there like a bat out of hell. I drove for hour's trying to put as much distance between that thing and me until my car was running low on gas.
I stopped next to a gas station to try and catch my breath after such a traumatic night when I got a notification on my phone. It was a message from my bank alerting me my paycheck had just become available.
It has been several month's since that terrible night, I was able to rent a nice house and rescue a dog that I named Sam. I moved far away from the area that creature appears to had claimed as it's domain and thing's have been very peaceful until recently...Sam has been nervous at night and I can sometimes hear something scratching at the walls and a slight tapping at my windows...

TL;DR: I like a guy, bought him a birthday gift, now he’s talking to me more and not sure if he likes me and what I should do.
ALRIGHT!
There’s a guy I work with and his birthday was a couple weeks ago. Before this, we talked a little. Like, we have a mutual friend and we would talk around them and maybe said hi every once in a while. But I noticed the guys birthday was coming up (because they post them in the break room), and I decided to get him something because I’ve always had a little crush on him. I got him candy and a gift card. Nothing huge because I didn’t want to seem crazy. He seemed happy and thanked me and that was about it.
Directly after that, he started paying more attention to me. Every time he sees me, he strikes up some sort of conversation. He asks me some things about myself or we just talk about work. Several of these conversations have lasted like, an hour. Every time he sees me he says hi, or like if he sees me he’ll walk up to me and joke around about something. He’s definitely been trying more to talk to me. Keep in mind, he’s inexperienced in this realm so I don’t think any intense flirting or compliments will really happen unless he’s positive that I like him or something. He doesn’t really seem to talk to other girls very much, so he’s definitely a shy type and I think him even talking to me a lot everyday is a big step. I don’t want to scare him away but I enjoy talking to him so I was wondering if it sounds like I should ask for his number or try to initiate something or what. Thank you in advance.

Hey everyone! I am currently in my junior year of college for my bachelors in ECE. I just started panicking about being a terrible teacher. I’m thinking about everything that I can do wrong and wondering how to begin getting my “crap” together! I’ve worked in a preschool room for 5 and a half years now as an assistant. But leading a class seems so intimidating!

My wife and I are considering making our first real estate investment. It’s a quadplex. We wouldn’t live in it as we already own our own home. Here are the numbers. Currently renting for $8500 a month total. Asking price is $1,250,000.
What numbers are you mostly considering? Is a quadplex too much work? Also, is it better in the short term/long term than a single family unit? Just looking for some overall advice. Thanks!

I'm planning to visit Seattle and looking for recommendations of a tour service to Olympic National Park, preferably 420 friendly and for a solo traveler?
I'm looking to visit Seattle but not renting a car since I will be smoking like a chimney.

The fire emergency code was called out over the PA while I was at the theatre during excursions disembarkation. Basically had several guests waiting inside to be called out to their tour buses. I proceed as if nothing since the fire is not in my area, welcome them in, one or two guests mention the smell of smoke and I tell them nothing's changed, not to worry.
Suddenly a couple approaches me. They state their room number, I ask if they have a tour, and they tell me the fire started in their room. They saw black smoke coming out from the fridge. They weren't panicked. They weren't worried, nor concerned, nor anything. Instead they were upset - they wouldn't be attending their excursion because they had "some very important people to talk to". They merely wanted compensation for the fire (which hadn't even been put out yet).
My colleague comes back and says she pressed the manual call point for the fire emergency. The code to prepare for evacuation is called and the two of us have done drills but never quite had training regarding what to do if you just so happen to have a theatre full of guests during an emergency. We went to our emergency positions until instructed to disembark all guests on excursions. Soon the fire was extinguised and all went seemingly back to normal. I shared my odd anecdote of running into the couple from the room where the fire started. The story gets relayed and suddenly I'm being called to report to the Safety/Security Office. I sit down amongst all big shots of the ship, everybody with stripes on their shoulders. They want a signed statement.
Turns out the guests didn't warn anybody of the fire in their room. This afternoon they demand compensation, but they might just leave the ship with a hefty fine if not worse. I missed the excursion I was meant to go on because I was handing in my statement. Such luck that I have! 450 crew members on board and the fire evoking maniacs speak to me out of all people.

Previous Posts

• 1st Set of 10
  
• 2nd Set of 10
  
• 3rd Set of 10
  
• 4th Set of 10
  
• 5th Set of 10
  
• 6th Set of 10
  

If you're interested in lists that cover indie local multiplayer games as well, check out my profile.

Introduction

We're all familiar with the Hotline Miami’s, Hollow Knight’s, and Celeste’s of the world. These are some of the indie games that hit the big time. Of course, for every one of these games, there's 100 other indie games that have been glossed over, relegated to a spot in a digital store few people will ever find themselves in. I wanted to bring attention to some of these lesser-known indie games once again, this time focusing on movie-length games – games that are between 1.5-3 hours long on average. A lot of games from previous lists are also around this length. I love that there are so many indie games I can start and play to completion in the same afternoon, so I figured it’d make a good theme for a list. Of course, playtimes vary, but the three most difficult games on this list (Gunborg: Dark Matters, then Nuclear Blaze, then Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider) all have difficulty settings (I played on the standard/Normal Difficulty for every game with a difficulty setting), so if you’re a less skilled player, it will still likely fit.
Note that this is just the completion time for the main campaign – all of these games offer some kind of incentive to return, whether that be new levels or just trying to achieve an S rank on all the levels – in most cases, achieving 100% will more than double your playtime. Note that I listed my own completion time for each game, but my completion times align almost perfectly with the average completion time on HowLongToBeat.com, save for Disc Room – it took me 1.5 hours to clear, but the average completion time on that website is 3 hours. The game has many rooms/levels you can play that are not required to roll the credits, so that may explain the discrepancy – if you just want to beat the game, 1.5 hours is reasonably easy to achieve.
Also note that every game on this list allows you to select and replay any level at your leisure – always an appreciated feature.

Details About the List

I'm going to order them according to Opencritic Critic Ratings, as it's only fair that you hear from more than just me. This is the platform breakdown: Steam has 10/10 games on the list, Switch has 9/10 (soon to be 10/10), PlayStation 4/5 has 4/10 (soon to be 5/10), and Xbox One/Series X has 3/10.
For the purpose of this post, I’m just going to stick with saying “achievements” and “getting all achievements” instead of “trophies” and “platinum trophy” since Steam has all of the games on the list. You can basically substitute these with “trophies” and “platinum trophy” if you’re a PlayStation gamer.
30 Seconds of Gameplay are gifs of gameplay I uploaded to Imgur – you may need to toggle the sound button on to hear the music. Platforms will include a link to the U.S. store page of the game for each platform. Price is in U.S. dollars.

The List

1. Nuclear Blaze

• Picture Collage: Link
  
• 30 Seconds of Gameplay: Link
  
• Trailer: Link
  
• Platforms: Steam, Switch and PlayStation versions due April 27, 2023
  
• Developer: Deepnight Games
  
• Release Date: October 18, 2021
  
• Regular Price: $9.99
  
• Sample Music Track: Through Fire and Flames
  
• Genre: 2D Puzzle Platformer
  
• Opencritic: 73% from 11 Reviews
  
• Description: Nuclear Blaze comes from the creator of Dead Cells, Sébastien Benard. Nuclear Blaze takes the concept of extinguishing flames and adapts it into a side-scrolling platformer – where flames are the enemy and water your best weapon for defeating them. There are a few enemies that come later in the game, and even a boss fight at the end to top off the experience, but the main antagonist are the deadly flames. Most levels are maze-like in structure, with you having to navigate the room, extinguish the flames, and turn on sprinklers and shut off gas valves. Flames can reignite if an area isn’t properly cleared, so you’ll need to keep the pressure on the flames while managing your water supply. There are a number of abilities you’ll pick up throughout the game, from a dodge roll to dousing yourself in water – using these at the right time is critical, because one mistake can cause your death on the default difficulty. The game is clever in that it employs some slow-mo moments that are meant to heighten a cinematic moment and also give you enough time to properly respond – you’ll walk by a collapsing ceiling and need to quickly dodge roll, or you’ll kick down a door just to be surrounded in an aura of flames, requiring you to douse yourself with water.
  
• Description Continued: There is a story here that's mostly told through logs that can be found throughout the game, and a radio transmission between you and the captain – none of it ever really interrupts gameplay, so it’s there if you want to engage with it, but also easy to ignore if you don’t care to. The visuals for the flames really pop – they're bright and dance around the floors and ceilings and appear overwhelming when you first enter an area. For a pretty simple looking 2D game, it really helps to heighten the danger. There's a certain level of satisfaction that comes from cleaning up an area that was previously infested with flames. The game features a toggable difficulty options – anything from having more water to reducing the time before death after being engulfed in flames. I think the real achievement of Nuclear Blaze is that it’s hard to properly label it – action platformer is probably the most accurate descriptor, but it feels different from all others in the genre – it’s a memorable experience whatever you want to call it.
  
• Completion Time: ~2.5 Hours
  
• Extra Content: In addition to the main campaign, there’s a Kid Mode, which is an ultra-easy mode that automates everything but the movement and features plenty of firefighter vehicles – the mode is designed for young kids to enjoy playing as a firefighter without any kind of fail state. After beating the game, you unlock Hold My Beer Mode, which is an expanded hard mode that unlocks new areas in existing levels, implements new mechanics, and reveals more to the story. In order to get all the achievements, you need to rescue all the cats and complete Hold My Beer Mode.
  

2. A Good Snowman is Hard to Build

• Picture Collage: Link
  
• 30 Seconds of Gameplay: Link
  
• Trailer: Link
  
• Platforms: Switch, Steam, iOS
  
• Developer: Alan Hazelden, Benjamin Davis
  
• Release Date: February 25, 2015
  
• Regular Price: $9.99, $4.99 on iOS
  
• Sample Music Track: Main Theme
  
• Genre: Top-Down Puzzle Adventure Game
  
• Opencritic: 76% from 3 Reviews
  
• Description: A Good Snowman is Hard to Build comes from the same mind as A Monster's Expedition and features the same minimalistically-designed monster character from that game. The game takes place in a large hedge maze with 30 puzzle rooms that all revolve around building snowmen. The hedge maze has a leisurely and relaxing quality to it – there are park benches, fountains, birdhouses, and flower pots that serve as both decorations and obstacles in the puzzles. The soundtrack complements the experience well – it’s meditative, quiet but effective background music. The objective of each puzzle is to build a snowman by rolling three snowballs to the right proportions – so you’ll want a small piece, a medium piece, and a large piece. Rolling up too much or too little snow on any one piece will leave you unable to finish the snowman. After completing each snowman, your little monster character will name them. Rewind and undo buttons are in place to make retrying puzzles quick and easy. Additional complexity is added by needing to complete two snowmen and then three later on in the game, but the premise always remains the same. The game can be challenging at times, but I was able to roll the credits without having to look up any solutions.
  
• Description Continued: An in-game telescope allows you to visually navigate your journey to the end – it's cool to see the end in sight like that and just go about finding the best path to get there. The completion of a puzzle oftentimes allows entry to multiple other puzzles, and you can even cheat the system and enter a puzzle from a different entryway in the middle of a puzzle to push a snowball that otherwise wouldn't have been accessible from that angle. However, if you do this, you won’t get a butterfly for that level, which is tied to an achievement. One quality of the game I really like is that there’s a sense of permanence to your actions – once you build a snowman, it stays built in the exact spot you built. I don’t think there’s any deep meaning to this game beyond some monster that just likes building snowman (maybe he doesn’t have any friends because he’s a monster so he has to make his own?), but regardless, it’s cool to run around the hedge maze at the end and feel accomplished at all the fully built snowmen.
  
• Completion Time: ~2.5 Hours
  
• Extra Content: You can replay any level at your leisure – you just need to click a button that resets the snowman/snowmen (on a PlayStation controller, it defaults to Triangle). After completing the game, there is a post-game that opens up that mirrors the main game’s levels and changes up the rules a little. In order to get all achievements, you need to complete the post-game content, find all butterflies, and hug all the snowmen.
  

3. Path of Giants

• Picture Collage: Link
  
• 30 Seconds of Gameplay: Link
  
• Trailer: Link
  
• Platforms: Xbox One/Series X, Switch, Steam, iOS
  
• Developer: Journey Bound Games
  
• Release Date: August 27, 2019
  
• Regular Price: $8.99, $3.99 on iOS
  
• Sample Music Track: Echoes of the Lost
  
• Genre: Top-Down Puzzle Adventure Game
  
• Opencritic: 71% from 2 Reviews
  
• Description: Path of Giants sees three identical color-coded hooded explorers searching for a lost treasure at the top of a mountain. The goal of most puzzles is to move all three explorers to a designated color-coded switch. The puzzles require the three explorers to piggyback off of the other’s actions – so you’ll place one explorer in front of a wall so another explorer can climb his back. Similarly, you’ll have one explorer trigger a switch so another explorer can access an elevator. Each chapter ends with a tile-based puzzle reminiscent of the hacking mini-game from BioShock, where you must align three tiles by forming a connection with the tiles - it's a nice change of pace to capstone a level. Ambient sounds accompany the game, and while there's not much story outside of an initial and closing cut-scene and some dialogue here and there, the environments give the game a sense of adventure. The game leans a bit on the easy side, but completing puzzles still feels earned, particularly with the back half of levels where the difficulty is quite a bit harder than the comparatively very easy early game.
  
• Description Continued: Each level has a few pots to break simply by clicking on them, some of which contain coins that serve as a collectible. Some are hidden, but most are easy to find if you’re looking for them. The explorers are controlled via an on-screen cursor on consoles and PC – while this might make it seem like PC or mobile works best (and they probably do), I had no trouble playing it on a docked Steam Deck with an external controller (using it like a console basically) - you can toggle the speed of the on-screen cursor with the controller's shoulder buttons, and also switch between explorers instantly with the other pair of shoulder buttons. You simply point and click where you want your explorer to go, and he either goes there or shakes his head, indicating that the path at that time is unreachable. The tiles are all big and prominent, so I had few issues with misclicks. A mouse might technically work better, but using a controller doesn't feel like a barrier. Path of Giants’ general premise is easy to understand, and its intuitive controls paired regardless of platform makes it an easy recommendation.
  
• Completion Time: ~2.5 Hours
  
• Extra Content: If you collect a certain number of coins, you unlock an additional level. In addition, there are another four levels on top of that listed as a separate campaign in the main menu after completing the game. For context, the main game has 12 levels, so an additional five levels is a good chunk of extra content, especially when you consider they are harder and will therefore take more time to complete. To get all achievements, you would need to clear all 17 levels and perform various miscellaneous tasks, like breaking seven pots in three seconds.
  

4. Disc Room

• Picture Collage: Link
  
• 30 Seconds of Gameplay: Link
  
• Trailer: Link
  
• Platforms: Xbox One/Series X, Switch, Steam
  
• Developer: Terri, Dose, Kitty, JW
  
• Release Date: October 22, 2020
  
• Regular Price: $14.99
  
• Sample Music Track: Killing Time
  
• Genre: Avoid 'em Up
  
• Openritic: 83% from 38 Reviews
  
• Description: Disc Room’s story opens up with a scientist investigating a mysterious giant disc ship that has appeared in orbit over Jupiter – as it turns out, it contains dozens upon dozens of rooms with spinning discs that’ll tear you apart given one step in the wrong direction. The story is presented in comic-book stills, but you won't find too much of it here. The game’s levels are broken up into fixed-screen rooms all containing spinning discs – your job (generally) is to simply avoid them for 10 seconds and survive. Avoid ‘em Ups are not as popular as their cousin genre Shoot ‘em Ups, but there’s definitely merit to them: avoiding but not attacking allows you to focus all your attention on just the defensive end, minimizing the number of button presses and analog sticks involved and changing up the general goal-structure. A grid-based map shows you multiple paths to the exit of the game – you don't have to go through all rooms, but doing so will result in discovering new abilities.
  
• Description Continued: There are six abilities found throughout the game, and there are some interesting ones – the clone ability is particularly creative – you can spawn as many clones as you want at the expense of 0.5 seconds to your time per clone, and as long as you can keep one alive, you can keep going. The abilities can be swapped on the fly and all are viable in most situations, it's just a matter of finding what works best for you on a room by room basis. Despite all the mayhem on screen, you never lose sight of your character thanks to a bold outlining of the character. Disc Room may sound simple on the surface, but there are plenty of variables at play that makes the action interesting – some rooms will only have the timer activate when standing directly in the middle of the room, other rooms have lights that flicker on and off – there's a lot of variety to be found throughout. It definitely squeezes a ton of juice out of its relatively simple concept, and it’s juice well worth drinking.
  
• Completion Time: ~1.5 Hours
  
• Extra Content: There is a post-game that opens up with new rooms after completion of the main campaign. In order to get all achievements, you would need to clear all rooms, die from all disc types, unlock all abilities, beat the game on hard mode, and perform various miscellaneous tasks, like surviving 20 seconds in all rooms.
  

5. Mighty Goose

• Picture Collage: Link
  
• 30 Seconds of Gameplay: Link
  
• Trailer: Link
  
• Platforms: PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One/Series X, Switch, Steam
  
• Developer: Blastmode, MP2 Games
  
• Release Date: June 5, 2021
  
• Regular Price: $19.99 (PlayStation 4/5 Sale Price: $9.99 until February 16th)
  
• Sample Music Track: Void Prison
  
• Genre: Run & Gun
  
• Opencritic: 73% from 33 Reviews
  
• Description: Mighty Goose takes inspiration from Metal Slug in both its visual design and gameplay, though the arm cannon belongs to a certain blue bomber. Mighty Goose sees the player working through a series of levels with action, platforming, and a few secrets hidden throughout - these are either temporary vehicles that make plowing through enemies a little easier and more exciting, health or weapon pickups, or even a companion character that you can bring with you into levels - they provide limited support and can be controlled by another local player, but it's not a full co-op mode like other run & guns (but might be fun for a younger or inexperienced player). One particularly interesting mechanic is Mighty Goose's ability to keep himself airborne by continuously firing a weapon - this can be useful both to evade enemy fire in combat encounters and keep yourself airborne in perilous platforming sections. Roll dodging is also useful for avoiding enemy attacks and can be used even when airborne, and together they give the player plenty of opportunities to avoid damage.
  
• Description Continued: Health and weapon pickups are very frequent, so your mistakes never feel too costly, but I still experienced a fair number of deaths in my playthrough. Between each level, you can customize quite a number of things for a game this short: your companion, your secondary attack, and your passive abilities. While there are some platforming sequences, the game is more focused on the combat than anything else, and the frequent and various weapon pickups and vehicle sections, as well as the many boss encounters, keeps things consistently fresh and exciting. Each weapon pickup is accompanied by an announcer shouting “MACHINE GUN” or “ROCKET LAUNCHER” to really drive home the ‘90s arcade nostalgia. It's an action-packed romp that never lets up and is smart enough to end things just before it gets old.
  
• Completion Time: ~2.5 Hours
  
• Extra Content: There is one additional level outside of the main campaign that was added in an update that’s about 30-45 minutes in length. In order to get all the achievements, you would need to get an S rank on every level, beat all the levels In New Game+ (save for the one added in an update), find every companion, and perform various miscellaneous tasks, like completing a level under 5 minutes.
  

6. Ellipsis

• Picture Collage: Link
  
• 30 Seconds of Gameplay: Link
  
• Trailer: Link
  
• Platforms: Switch, Steam
  
• Developer: Salmi Games
  
• Release Date: January 25, 2017
  
• Regular Price: $4.99
  
• Sample Music Track: []()
  
• Genre: Avoid 'em Up
  
• Opencritic: 78% from 4 Reviews
  
• Description: Ellipsis' concept is simple: dodge obstacles, collect star bubbles, and don't die. This is a game that can be very easily played with one hand, but it'll require more of your attention than many games that require a whole gamepad to play. The game employs a minimalist style that appropriately fits the game, with prominent neon shapes against a black background that keeps your eyes focused on the action. There are well over 100 levels, ranging from 3-60 seconds in length, with most of the action taking place on a fixed screen. The game starts out almost too easy, but soon enough you'll find yourself deeply considerate about the slightest movement of your mouse or control stick. On that note, I'd recommend a mouse over a control stick for this one - you can adjust the sensitivity of the shape's movement but I found I was able to make a quicker movements with the mouse.
  
• Description Continued: The game's overworld map has a level select screen with multiple paths to the endgame, so if any one level is giving you too much trouble there's usually another one you can play instead, but I never found anything that took me more than 15 minutes to beat personally. The overworld map is a very fun thing to bring to life - it starts out nearly blank, but before long it is filled with neon-soaked shapes that fill the screen. Outside of the standard levels, there are a few bosses that require you to bait projectiles into the boss, which are a fun addition that keeps the simplicity of the gameplay intact while adding something fresh. While it may revolve around a simple concept, Ellipsis proved to be more engaging than a lot of other more complicated games I've played, and while I expected this to be something I enjoyed in short doses, I enjoyed it enough to complete every level in two sessions.
  
• Completion Time: ~2.5 Hours
  
• Extra Content: In order to get all the achievements, you would need to beat every level in the game and get five stars on every level. In addition, there’s a creation mode on PC that allows you to create your own levels.
  

7. Lunistice

• Picture Collage: Link
  
• 30 Seconds of Gameplay: Link
  
• Trailer: Link
  
• Platforms: Switch, Steam
  
• Developer: A Grumpy Fox
  
• Release Date: November 10, 2022
  
• Regular Price: $4.99
  
• Sample Music Track: Forest (Melancholy)
  
• Genre: 3D Platformer
  
• Opencritic: 78% from 14 Reviews
  
• Description: Lunistice takes the look of an early 3D platformer, with gameplay that’s most reminiscent of Sonic’s early 3D outings. The game takes place across seven worlds with two levels each in just ~1.5 hours. The level themes are all well realized: in the sweets world, you’ll platform on macarons, avoid dough rollers, and bounce on jello, while the beach world will have you jump on beach umbrellas, avoid sentient popsicles, and bounce on beach balls. The playable tanuki Hana has a bold shadow beneath her to help guide your jumps, and between the double jump and spin jump, you have plenty of control over where you want her to land. Despite it looking like a game that could’ve come out 25 years ago, the controls, camera, and frame-rate are all functional. One appreciated feature of the controls is that the game maps jump and attack to both the face buttons and shoulder buttons – so players can easily choose their preferred method without having to remap the controls manually.
  
• Description Continued: Gameplay-wise, Lunistice plays like a linear platformer, with a few detours in each level that usually leads to a bubble letter (four in each level that spells Hana). 100+ cranes (the game’s equivalent of rings) can also be found in each level. Outside of the traditional run and jump platforming, there's a lot of rail-grinding – the transitions between these and the traditional platforming sections are seamless, and they lend a good flow to the platforming. These faster paced sections demand quicker reflexes but still give you plenty of time to account for obstacles in the way. At the end of each level, you’ll be ranked based on your completion time, number of cranes collected, and deaths. The game is fairly easy to complete, with most of the challenge coming from getting all the collectibles and achieving an S rank on each level. Lunistice takes you through an a 7-world, 14-level adventure in the time it takes for some games just to really get started, and it’s an adventure well worth taking.
  
• Completion Time: ~1.5 Hours
  
• Extra Content: After beating the game, you unlock two additional characters to play as. In order to get all achievements, you would need to collect all box bubble (4 per level) and cranes (100+ per level) with each character, get an S rank on every level as all three characters, and perform a few miscellaneous actions that would add a small amount of time as well, like removing all the crystals in Stage 3 – Act 1, for example.
  

8. Gunborg: Dark Matters

• Picture Collage: Link
  
• 30 Seconds of Gameplay: Link
  
• Trailer: Link
  
• Platforms: PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One/Series X, Switch Steam
  
• Developer: Rickard Paulsson
  
• Release Date: March 4, 2022
  
• Regular Price: $14.99, $9.99 on Steam
  
• Sample Music Track: First Contact
  
• Genre: 2D Twin-Stick Action Platformer
  
• Opencritic: 78% from 16 Reviews
  
• Description: Gunborg is a great fusion of action and platforming in a side-scroller, requiring players to direct their attacks to dispatch enemies from all angles by use of twin-stick controls. Twin-stick controls aren't something you see in a lot of platform-heavy side-scrollers, however Gunborg remedies the issues it might've faced by mapping the controls to the shoulder buttons, allowing you to keep your thumbs on both analog sticks while directing your attacks and blocks. PC users can also use a mouse and keyboard setup if they prefer. The game takes place aboard a futuristic spaceship, with neon environments and a synthwave soundtrack. The game features a lot traditional platforming sections with enemies mixed in, as well as enclosed rooms where you'll fight waves of enemies. You'll need to juggle your ability to direct your attacks and blocks while jumping and quadruple jumping all over the stage to survive, leading to some really tense encounters.
  
• Description Continued: There are only three bosses in the game, but they all capitalize on the mechanics of the game. In terms of abilities, you can block or parry with your shield, attack with your sword or a variety of different guns, quadruple jump, and shield jump. There are a variety of different sci-fi weapons to play around with: from guns with tracking bullets, to dark matter lasers, to destructive grenade launchers. Expect to die a lot on the Normal difficulty, especially if you go for the collectibles in each stage, but Easy grants an additional health point (from three to four), which makes a pretty significant difference. Gunborg may look like a typical action platformer on the surface, and in many ways it is, but the fusion of twin stick controls with side-scrolling platforming and action gives it a unique flavor in an otherwise crowded genre.
  
• Completion Time: ~2.5 Hours
  
• Extra Content: In order to get all the achievements, you would need to collect all info-bots (3 per level), beat the bonus levels, and get an S rank on every level, including the bonus levels. In addition, there’s an unlockable hardcore mode and survival mode.
  

9. Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider

• Picture Collage: Link
  
• 30 Seconds of Gameplay: Link
  
• Trailer: Link
  
• Platforms: PlayStation 4/5, Switch, Steam
  
• Developer: JoyMasher
  
• Release Date: January 12, 2023
  
• Regular Price: $16.99
  
• Sample Music Track: Hydromancer
  
• Genre: 2D Action Platformer
  
• Opencritic: 79% from 49 Reviews
  
• Description: Moonrider comes from developer JoyMasher, whose previous work includes other side-scrolling action games: Oniken, Odallus: The Dark Call, and Blazing Chrome. Moonrider stars a cybernetic ninja designed to serve the aims of a totalitarian government but instead chooses to rebel against his programming and fight against the regime. The story never goes beyond the surface, but it provides reasonable motivation for all the carnage you'll unleash. The game features a total of nine levels (10 if you count the tutorial that does include its own unique small boss at the end), with the middle six being selectable in any order. Each boss grants a new mana-based attack, and each level has one or two items to find that grant passive abilities. This is JoyMasher's easiest game (though it's quite a bit harder if you choose to forego a certain item in exchange for the ability to achieve a higher level rank), and though it has lives, it's a pretty forgiving game all around.
  
• Description Continued: The sprite work is excellent, with the bosses in particular having visually striking designs, the kind that makes you feel bad if you kill them in the first go due to all the work that must've gone into their design for a few minutes of gameplay. One mechanic I really liked was the forward lunge that quickly closes distance with an enemy and deals more damage, but if you're too close you'll take damage from making contact with the enemy's body. Similarly, there's a jump attack that allows for some slick aerial combat, but it's never necessary to beat the game. These moves paired with some of the abilities you get later in the game allows more skilled players to try their hand at S-ranking each stage, while novice players can just enjoy reaching the end credits. Moonrider starts and ends strong - paired with its short runtime and scoring system, it makes for an easy game to replay. To take a phrase from the era the game owes its inspiration to, Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider is all killer, no filler.
  
• Completion Time: ~2.5 Hours
  
• Extra Content: In order to get all the achievements, you would have to find every chip (1-2 per level), get an S rank on every level, and beat an entire level without taking damage. All this would likely more than double your playtime.
  

10. Astebreed

• Picture Collage: Link
  
• 30 Seconds of Gameplay: Link
  
• Trailer: Link
  
• Platforms: PlayStation 4/5, Switch, Steam
  
• Developer: Edelweiss
  
• Release Date: May 30, 2014
  
• Regular Price: $19.99 (Available on PlayStation Plus Extra)
  
• Sample Music Track: Headwinds
  
• Genre: 3D/2D Hybrid Shoot ‘em Up
  
• Opencritic: 82% from 19 Critic Reviews
  
• Description: Astebreed is constantly shifting perspective – from forward-facing, to horizontal, to vertical. It makes for some cinematic moments, particularly in boss fights where the perspective gives you several different angles of your opponent. The background effects are also a highlight, the carnage happening around you gives the battles a sense of importance, like they’re part of something bigger. You control a hulking mecha that just looks like it’s ready to take on the world (or galaxy rather), which is equipped with several guns, a sword, and a dash. The sword allows the player to absorb yellow projectiles and use the energy acquired to unleash a special attack – it’s an interesting mechanic since it encourages the player to engage with certain projectiles while avoiding others. The sword is the strongest standard weapon, so it forces the player to get up close and personal with certain enemies. There is a lot going on on-screen at any given time, but you’re given the tools to take out dozens of enemies at once. Health regenerates over time, so several mistakes in a row don’t necessarily doom a run.
  
• Description Continued: The story is a mix of an alien invasion paired with some family drama – there’s a near constant stream of dialogue during gameplay, but it’s easy to miss with the constant action on-screen. There is voice acting, but it’s only available in Japanese. Accompanying the dialogue are a lot of shrieks and shrill voices, so if you’d rather just listen to the action instead, you have the option of turning off the dialogue altogether. In terms of difficulty options, you have your choice of Easy or Normal Mode to start with – I found the game easy on Normal Mode up until the last two bosses, both of which took me quite a few attempts to take down. It was a lot of fun taking them down though, and it made me wish the early game was more difficult so I could bask in the gameplay a little more.
  
• Completion Time: ~2 Hours
  
• Extra Content: After beating the game, you unlock Hard Mode, new mechas, and additional lore to read. In order to get all the achievements, you would need to beat the game on Hard Difficulty with all mecha, achieve several high score/low damage/no deaths criteria, and perform various miscellaneous tasks, like locking onto 50 targets at the same time.
  

11. Trash Quest

• Picture Collage: [Link]()
  
• 30 Seconds of Gameplay: [Link]()
  
• Trailer: [Link]()
  
• Platforms: [PlayStation 4/5,]() [Xbox One/Series X,]() [Switch,]() [Steam]()
  
• Developer:
  
• Release Date: April 26, 2021
  
• Regular Price: $4.99, $2.99 on Steam
  
• Sample Music Track: []()
  
• Genre: Metroidvania
  
• Opencritic 75% from 1 Review
  
• Description: Trash Quest follows a raccoon who has found his way onto a space station by way of a garbage can. The trash can in the center of the map acts as the central spawn point for all deaths outside of boss rooms, so opening up shortcuts and knowing your way around the ship is beneficial – the map also marks where you died to help with navigation. In addition, a Game Boy Color-esque color-filter and a new sound track helps differentiate different areas of the ship. The game has the typical markings of a Metroidvania: exploration, platforming, action, and upgrades, but wrapped into a bite-sized package.
  
• Description Continued: Trash Quest leans more heavily on the platforming side, but there’s plenty of run & gun action to be had here as well. Each of the four bosses are made a good deal easier by collecting the health and firepower upgrades, which are usually hidden in rooms with more difficult platforming. A new ability follows the defeat of each of the first three bosses, which opens up new avenues to explore. The game is about average difficulty. While it may be a particularly short game for the genre, by the end it feels like you’ve gotten a proper Metroidvania experience, between the various abilities and power-ups you acquire.
  
• Completion Time: ~1.5 Hours
  
• Extra Content: The game features online leaderboards for game completion times. There is an entire post-game.
  

*12. *

• Picture Collage: [Link]()
  
• 30 Seconds of Gameplay: [Link]()
  
• Trailer: [Link]()
  
• Platforms: [PlayStation 4/5,]() [Xbox One/Series X,]() [Switch,]() [Steam]()
  
• Developer:
  
• Release Date:
  
• Regular Price:
  
• Sample Music Track: []()
  
• Genre:
  
• Metacritic: [% from Critic Reviews, % from User Ratings]()
  
• Description:
  
• Description Continued:
  
• Completion Time:
  
• Extra Content:
  

Closing

Special shoutout to Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider, which is my favorite game on the list and one of my favorite movie-length games ever.
Have you played any of these games? What are some other overlooked movie-length indie games?

I did think about doing some NFG stuff, but I dunno. Would you guys really want me to explain more of that insane world?

Volume 3

Ozpin: Okay so we're picking a maiden.
Glynda: Hmm. Ruby.
Qrow: Wot?
Ozpin: Are..you.. sure?
Glynda: Sir... to be brutally fucking honest, I am sure that's why you got her in this school. Her silver eyes are one thing, but she would still be a child. Surely you picked her because she has a noble heart? And would make a great maiden.
Ozpin:... I mean Silver Eyes go a long wa-
Glynda:...
Qrow: Oz... Summer had silver eyes too.. and she died... what the hell man?
Ironwood: If I may. Ruby also proved herself during the breach, it was her investigation that led to it being foiled. Roman is being stubborn in being forthcoming about anything else that could be going on. But Ruby is reliable.
Ozpin: But if something goes wrong... not only would we lose a maiden, we would also lose one of the last silver-eyed warriors.
Glynda: Did you not make her a Huntress, because you believe in her?
Ozpin:...
Qrow: Who were you going to choose if not her? And was it because you thought they were qualified.. or because Ruby was too valuable?

---

In the lead-up to the Fall, Ruby was approached with the truth of the maidens, the world as it was. Her beliefs were shaken to their core, as her mentors and Uncle were different from the people she had come to know.
Desperate Ruby tried to think about who she could reasonably turn to. And while she couldn't tell the full truth to Penny, on some level she knew, and vowed to always be by Ruby's side.
So it was that Ironwood arranged things to take Penny out of the tournament, arranging for her to guard over Ruby Rose during the transfer ritual.
And thus Cinder instead of fighting the woefully undertrained Jaune fought the pinnacle of Atlesian Science, and one of the most human noble spirits.
Penny fought as hard as she could, and Ozpin assisted her. Cinder would've been overwhelmed but then she hacked Penny, using the schematics knowledge and her own magic, and though Ozpin was highly skilled, the sudden turn of the battle was enough to blindside even him, leaving him open to a coup de gras from Cinder, taking him out of the fight. But Ruby saw all this, and so... a Maiden fury is unleashed...

---

Ruby screamed the glass shattering around her, one eye burned with an orange flame of aura around it, the opposite eye to Cinder's own.
Cinder snarled, and snapped her fingers, commanding Penny, her once warm eyes now turned a crimson dead red, as she rushed toward Ruby, her blades spinning.
Ruby looked down at the floor of the bleeding Ozpin, stabbed through the spine. She barely reacted, adrenaline pumping through her veins, she could feel the rush of her semblance. But it was different somehow, Penny seemed to slow down, her blades moving as though they were sluggish through water.
She moved out of the way, noticing a faint orange glow behind Penny, an arrow that would pierce through Penny and her if she had been there a second ago, Ruby acted, pulling Penny out of the way, grunting due to Penny's immense weight.
Cinder was on her in a heartbeat, firing arrow after arrow. As Penny glowed with an orange hue, and slowly began to get faster.
"Heh, a shame you don't have much experience little rose. Your speed is no match against Magic. And I wonder are you willing to kill your friend, and will you still be able to stop me? Or are you worried about getting Ozpin out of here alive?" Cinder mocked, a vicious smile marring her otherwise beautiful face.
Ruby didn't respond, she knew the situation she was in. It was damn near impossible... but then she felt a warm hand on her shoulder.
It was her...
Amber?
Ruby thought. The ghostly visage of the girl smiled.
Focus, you too possess magic, I will help as much as I am able to... But I won't be here for long... The dead don't belong in the world of the living.
Ruby exhaled, then she pulled out Crescent Rose in it's rifle form, rapidly putting in gravity dust ammunition, and she fired at Penny point blank, sending the girl soaring past Cinder, and she fired again before Cinder could react, Cinder was closing the gap in speed, but Ruby still possessed a slight edge, she was used to her speed. She fired off one more shot, using plant dust, to ensnare Penny and keep her out of the fight just a bit longer.
Cinder looked back as the Red Glow in Penny's eyes flickered back and forth between Green... and...
"Impossible how could you possibly...? Unless... Amber?" She sneered. "So you did have some fight left in you after all." She chuckled, as fire began to pool around her, the room heating up. "It won't matter though, you're already dead and Ruby will be too soon. And all her little friends too!" Cinder knocked back her arrow, as Ruby shifted Crescent Rose into its scythe mode, her aura flaring around her, rose petals swirling in the room.
Shifting into her stance, she exhaled slowly, remembering what Uncle Qrow taught her. Momentum, precision, and the right time to strike.
Then... Cinder loosed a potent arrow that soared with a high pitch, Ruby however leaped forward, closing the gap between her and Cinder, only for Cinder to leap in the air, smirking as she fired three more explosion arrows in rapid succession. Thinking she had Ruby where she wanted her, but Ruby smiled.
She pulled the trigger, and the head of Crescent Rose, fired out it's high caliber round, moving her to the side, and as fast as she could, she stuck the head into the ground, and then pulled the trigger again, holding the bottom pike end at the end of her scythe, as she launched herself and Crescent Rose at Cinder, stunning the maiden, as the hit connected, landing at Cinder's stomach, her aura flaring, but even then she coughed up blood as the impact broke several bones.
Eyes burning with hatred she snapped her bow, and the ends quickly reformed into blades, as she slashed at Ruby, but with roses still swirling around Ruby, she expertly spun around the pole of her scythe. Nimbly avoiding the blades, like a graceful dancer, her boots then slammed into Cinder's face, sending her flying up toward the ceiling. And notably away from the limping Ozpin, who made his way over to Penny, grabbing ahold of her, keeping her tied up in the vines.
Ruby... give her hell. He grunted, fighting to stay conscious as he hauled Penny over his shoulder, and slowly approached the elevator.
While Cinder crashed against the ceiling, Ruby fired another shot, catching up with Cinder, who snared, and then melted the ceiling around her, forming a giant pool of lava, which didn't harm her, but from which sprouted tendrils that lashed out at Ruby.
A quick shot of ice ammo solidified the tendrils, as Ruby stuck the pike into the ceiling wall to gain traction and Cresent Rose partially shifted midway between scythe mode and rifle mode, giving her a turret of sorts as she began unloading more bullets in Cinder's direction, preventing her from chasing Ozpin.
Cinder then got a wicked idea, her magic might have been struggling to overcome Amber's influence, but the coding in Penny. Yes... she could sense it.
"Penny... Head to the top of this tower, and self-destruct. Access Code, Sword of Damocles." Ruby's eyes widened in horror, Ozpin tried to thrust his cane through Penny's head to disable her for the moment, but Penny reacted too fast for the injured headmaster, her eyes shooting forth emerald lasers, making the elderly man scream as the skin of his chest burned. And she tossed him out of the elevator.
Ruby moved to go chase after her, but then Cinder teleported in front of her, grabbing her by the throat. "Ah ah ah, don't interrupt the girl~ That would be rather rude." She sneered, and Ruby grimaced thinking of her friend and then she headbutted Cinder hard, making the woman grunt in pain, her grip only loosening a bit, Ruby was desperate, and then.. looking down at Crescent Rose, and its mixed form, she knew then what she had to do... With a heavy heart, she overloaded Crescent Rose, starting a small-scale explosion that sent her and Cinder back, their clothes singed and their ears ringing.
PENNY!
Ruby soared to the elevator, grabbing Ozpin on the ground, green petals mixing with red petals, as she carried him up to the surface, calling for help from anyone and everyone, and leaving him outside, wrapping her cape around him in quick succession to stop the bleeding.
She was moving faster than she ever had before, panting, her lungs burning her aura being drained to it's limit as she climbed the tower's walls, desperately trying to keep up with Penny, wondering just how she was going to stop her.
She had sacrificed Cresent Rose, she had very little dust crystals, and she could feel Amber fading away as time kept pressing on... yet she couldn't stop moving, she had to save her. She couldn't let her die!
She tackled Penny, right before she entered the tower, causing them to soar past it.
"PENNY STOP!" Ruby shouted trying to get through to her.
"Error. Mission Objective must be completed." Penny said in a cold robotic voice. Devoid of friendliness and compassion.
"Penny I know you're in there! You can fight it! PLEASE!" Ruby struggled with Penny in the air, the wires of Penny's blades wrapped around her constricting tightly. Blood dripped through her clothes, as she punched Penny roughly, tearing off some artificial skin, as she struggled to keep the girl from flying back to the tower, but she was running out of time. "Penny I..." Ruby thought of how much everything meant to Penny, of all her own time at Beacon, her friends, her family... and Summer...
Ruby's breath intensified and then a flash of light blanketed the sky as her silver eyes ignited. And then she lost consciousness.
---
Ruby woke a few days later, in bed, noticing scars around her arms, from Penny's wires. "...Nn" She rasped, feeling like her throat was dried, and as though she was partially dead.
"Hello Ruby." She was shocked to see Ozpin, in a wheelchair, he looked relieved, but paler than usual. "You did good." He said.
"But Cinder... Amity..." Ruby groaned.
"Cinder got away yes. But you drove the Grimm back, and Miss Polendina is fine... but she had to go back to Atlas. Along with Weiss." Ozpin said somberly.
"...What about everyone else?" Ruby rasped.
"Your sister... was injured grievously and then... she vanished... taken by her mother. Raven Branwen. And Blake left." Ruby was stunned, she had fought so hard, tried to save everyone... had she failed... "Ruby... you saved so many people. The CCT still stands tall, you've prevented Cinder from gaining power. You've done well, but I have to ask what will you do next?" He asked, and Ruby was uncertain for once in her life.
Frightening isn't it?
Ruby felt a cold shiver down her spine, and in the corner of the eye she saw Cinder, smirking at her. She panicked backing away in her bed, terrified, Ozpin's words being drowned out, and she wondered why he couldn't see her at all but Cinder just kept smirking.
You and I are linked little Rose. And this story is only just beginning, and you will suffer greatly before the end. And I will have what's mine.

And that's all folks! Have a good day!

Howdy friends! I’m sure this sub gets a million of these a day, but thought it was worth a try! I’m looking for a room (or a 1 bedroom apt) for my and my dog! Budget is semi flexible (900-1100) and I’d love to be near ish to town. I grew up in Bellingham so I’m aware the rental market is bonkers, just looking for somewhere cool! I like to climb, bike, ski, work a lot, etc. and would be down for a fun house with roommates! Especially who don’t mind dog kisses. Holler if you know anything! Thanks!!

Making a sleeping bag liner to boost the usefulness of my 20 degree bag for snow.
Last time I was out, I got caught in a storm that took me down to 8 degrees in it. Had an emergency blanket, fleece liner, insulated pad and winter thermals but was pretty close to my limit and had a terrible night sleep.
This time I'd like to be more comfortable and expect to be in weather that cold.
Thinking layering fleece/flannel with primaloft apex sandwiched inside.
5oz weight claims a 30 degree f rating.
Coupled with two other layers that seems like it'd be really warm. With the availability of 2.5oz, 7.5oz and 10oz as well though, I've got some room for design.
Any way to determine rating for my needs?

Bubbles, the space ship, the cyber city, the mountains, they all feel, for lack of a better phrase, soulless dry and empty
I look around and I see signs of life, moving, but no actual life, and don't forget the backrooms esque room you get thrown into the second you want to try PC VR
It's just lonely and is probably one of the reasons I don't play as much now
Does anyone else feel this way?

We are having a small wedding (30 at the very most) at 6:00pm. We are not Rockefellers and are very non traditional. I am a ten year old boy trapped in a grown ass woman. My husband to be would just assume go the courthouse but I did buy a beautiful inexpensive dress and I want to be surrounded by our friends and family. I’m planning on having a Beavis & Butthead cake if that gives you any idea of my juvenile humor (I’m sure some of you are appalled at this point. Feel free to stop reading and skidaddle)
We are renting a space at a small brewery and people will need to pay for their own beer and wine (no liquor) We will have appetizers (maybe heavy depending on cost) How does one word this smoothly on an invitation? It can be funny because the invitation itself will be funny. Our friends and family are decidedly unpretentious as we are. And yes, we are unabashedly Irish-American. I appreciate any advice. Thanks!

ALRIGHT!
There’s a guy I work with and his birthday was a couple weeks ago. Before this, we talked a little. Like, we have a mutual friend and we would talk around them and maybe said hi every once in a while. But I noticed the guys birthday was coming up (because my posts them in the break room), and I decided to get him something because I’ve always had a little crush on him. I got him candy and a gift card. Nothing huge because I didn’t want to seem crazy. He seemed happy and thanked me and that was about it.
Directly after that, he started paying more attention to me. Every time he sees me, he strikes up some sort of conversation. He asks me some things about myself or we just talk about work. Several of these conversations have lasted like, an hour. Every time he sees me he says hi, or like if he sees me he’ll walk up to me and joke around about something. He’s definitely been trying more to talk to me. Keep in mind, he’s inexperienced in this realm so I don’t think any intense flirting or compliments will really happen unless he’s positive that I like him or something. He doesn’t really seem to talk to other girls very much, so he’s definitely a shy type and I think him even talking to me a lot everyday is a big step. I don’t want to scare him away but I enjoy talking to him so I was wondering if it sounds like I should ask for his number or try to initiate something or what. Thank you in advance.

1. My 1st laptop studio stopped charging from both the thunderbolt port and the magnetic surface connect port (when I plugged in a powered dock and the factory charger at the same time). Lesson learned, the SLS cannot handle 2 sources of power, it dies. It went back to BestBuy within the return period, and I ordered a new one from Microsoft.
2. My 2nd laptop studio died completely as I was plugging in the charger cable to the thunderbolt port, possibly because I was using an after-market magnetic adapter. Lesson learned, magnetic USB-C adapters are dangerous.
3. My 3rd laptop studio was a refurbished replacement, and had BSODs from day one, and kept doing it several times a day. Windows reliability diagnostics indicated hardware errors. It was past the 1 year warranty, but was replaced, based on my Microsoft Complete extended 4 year warranty.
4. My 4th (refurbished) Laptop studio stopped charging from the thunderbolt port, and also stopped connecting to a thunderbolt dock. I think the Brydge Stone TB4 dock killed it, because...
5. My 5th (refurbished) laptop studio also stopped charging from the thunderbolt port, and also stopped connecting to a thunderbolt dock. It happened suddenly while it was connected to the same Brydge Stone TB4 dock. So the dock went back to Αmazon, and I got another SLS replacement.
6. My 6th (refurbished) laptop studio was connected to a $400 Caldigit dock. I hoped that the more expensive dock will not kill it. Well, it did not. But last night, I plugged the authentic Microsoft magnetic charger to the surface connect port on the right. It did not charge, and I realized the room light switch had been turned off. I turned it back on, while it was plugged to the laptop. Apparrently the charger and laptop could not handle the sudden switch-on of electricity. I heard a ding ding Windows sound, and noticed that the SLS was not charging, although the white LED is still on. I got a new surface charger from BestBuy, still not charging. Strangely, the Microsoft Dock 2 still charges the laptop from the Surface connect port. But regular Microsoft chargers do not charge it. I do not know if I will get a 7th replacement, as at this point my Microsoft complete warranty program has ran out of replacements.

From the above, it seems clear to me that the power charging ports do not have the necessary capacitors to protect the circuits from small voltage fluctuations. I have been using a few MacBooks on the same docks, and USB-C chargers, without any issues. Apple issued updated firmware at some point, to protect the macbooks from getting fried when people connect after-market dongles. It seems that Microsoft has not done that, and their hardware is much more prone to failure. It's quite ironic that the Brydge Stone TB4 dock is sold on the Microsoft website, has the Micosoft logo on it, and has "designed for Surface" and "surface laptop studio" written on the box. Yet, it killed 2 Surface Laptop Studios, and is no longer being sold anywhere. I am tired of setting up a new SLS every week, so if I get a replacement, it will probably be my last. I will likely sell it without opening it. I am writing this from my 16" Intel MacBook. I do not love the Mac, but it is much more reliable. I will miss the SLS stylus that I used for teaching, and the Nvidia GPU for machine learning. It is such a pitty that Microsoft cannot make these nice machines even remotely reliable.

What will you learn in Promoters Bootcamp and Speaking Driven Business?

This home study course's Promoter section will teach you:

• How to start from scratch and have a profitable seminar business in any field you choose up and running in 90 days.
• How to find the best speakers who can consistently deliver sales and virtually guarantee your success. Poor speakers result in low revenue. You will become wealthy if you are a good speaker.
• How to design a seminar format that will double room sales. It takes skill to plan an agenda and decide when to sell and when not to sell. If you fail here, you're doomed.
• How to properly light the room, where to place the sales table, and how to manage traffic flow. What you should never do under any circumstances. If you break this rule, you will not like this business and will have no idea why you failed. Follow it, and you'll be able to mock all the stupid seminar companies that don't get it.
• What your on-site helpers should know in order to double or triple sales, and what they should not do in order to avoid killing sales.
• How to handle show confirmations in order to increase your show rate and lower your cost per attendee. This is a multi-step process that is simple and straightforward, but it is critical to your success. I'll show you how to automate it.
• How to reduce or completely eliminate refunds. It is painful to have a sale fall through. It's 80% your fault if it does.
• How to choose the right media to fill seats while keeping marketing costs to a minimum. This is one of the industry's best-kept secrets, and it's what keeps most people away. If you don't master this, your career as a promoter will be cut short. Once you obtain the key to the vault from my faculty, your business will quickly grow to the size you desire. In fact, I'd argue that this is the most important thing to learn in the seminar business, but my friend Wright Thurston disagrees.
• Who to target, how, when, and how frequently. Solicit the wrong prospects, and the results will be disastrous. Every detail for every type of media will be covered, and checklists will be provided to ensure that nothing is overlooked.
• How to run free events to acquire customers versus paid events to teach and sell, and why you should know the difference. For the record, if you want to stay in business, all events are sales events.
• How to design a boot camp to maximize learning and create raving fans among your customers. In the last 11 years, I've taught over 300 boot camps, and thousands of success stories and hundreds of millionaires have resulted from them.
• How to turn your seminar business into a passive cash flow machine that generates a substantial income long after your seminars and boot camps have concluded.
• How to quickly assess your success and know the bottom line the day after the event. I'll give you the template we used for this report as well as others that will be very useful for your tracking.
• How to choose the best hotels for a seminar or boot camp, as well as how they differ. If you don't know this, you could easily lose half of your attendees to a free seminar while attracting the wrong audience for the other half.

Source By: Promoters Bootcamp and Speaking Driven Business – Dan Kennedy and Ron LeGrand

Hi people’s, (27M) engaged to a (25F)… so a bit of background we met a long time ago through highschool; her one of those everyone wanted to be her friend type of people, part of the music class, on the sports teams, in school plays etc. Myself quiet, in the art classes, yearbook, sports teams. Funny story how we actually first met (story for another time) anyways we ended up finding one another last year on a dating app, she needed a ride to her home town, ironically headed that way so I offered… ended up staying a week in a hotel with her as we were snowed in hwy’s being closed and all.
Fast forward a few months she moves in the same city as me and we start dating, couple more months go by and she has to work out of town… she says she misses me and can’t wait to come home after 2 weeks, last day there all loving then later in the day she says she wants to be alone (odd right?) now I had this plan I was going to a hopelessly romantic thing as it was going to be a super blood moon I wanted to propose at this hidden beach I had found with a beautiful view of the lake. Nothing from her what so ever after what she had said… a couple days later her ex passes away, she’s devastated. Later in the day I get a call at work and she’s crying and there’s shouting in the background so I leave work early, (siblings fighting, a hospital visit later with stitches)… take care of her for a week and back to being confused and angry with myself not knowing what I had done to be suddenly dropped like I was. Sleeping on the couch just because it didn’t feel right to be sleeping in bed without her. 12 am Canada Day, get a call from her she wants to talk… drive over she tells me she slept with her co worker (guy I met that said I had nothing to worry about - fucking prick coke head, in the literal sense), she had fallen for him emotionally the boyish charm and fun apparently… (me I’m introverted, I don’t drink, or smoke, I don’t like bars or parties, grew out of it and medical reasons aside) while talking she said it wasn’t fair and I’m sorry calling me by this ass hats name… (she’s drunk)
I go home and we don’t talk for a while, I said to her I hope you find happiness and he treats you better than I ever could, (hurting and broken) I bought a 40 of tequila, a 40 of whiskey to drown the voices and impulsive thoughts.. 3 am rolls by can’t sleep, phone flashes - I miss you, 7 minutes later front door opens up it’s her drunk and sit on my lap apologizing… next day we finally have a talk on what happened…
Her drunk, him sober (coked up) took her to see the blood moon and he kissed her and took advantage of her sadness (again from her ex passing) now internally pissed off, gritting my teeth try to work things out.. fast forward another couple months things are going well - I saved enough to finally get a beautiful 1.5 carat diamond infinity loop rose gold ring, bring her out to another beautiful spot to see the mountains and ask her the question and shot down she says she doesn’t believe in that stuff… another month or so having dinner and doing the dishes she says you know if that offer still stands then I do… (make it official) so fast forward to the last couple months.. what a shit show
2 months ago now her mom unfortunately passed very suddenly, 8pm in a coma, 10pm flown out, panicking packing whatever we need to make the 8 hour drive through a winter storm, 12am roll out, white out conditions, stop 3-4 hours later tired pull into her aunts, leave in the morning pick up her siblings 2 hours later - drive the final 2 hours hospital bound to say their good byes. Funeral and services family gatherings away from home for a month. Now in last month no job, due to the circumstances job searching every day, picked up some contracting work with my old land lord but that fell through due to differences. Now worried as all she wants to do is drink, and space, harping on me to get a job, and that she hates it here and has for the last 6 months… (side note she had gotten blackout drunk fought our roommate then wanted to have sex, then slapped the shit out of me because I left earlier due to an argument and as she was drunk I didn’t want to have sex with her in the state that she was… I leave the room and I hear her calling another one of her former coworkers to come over an have sex so I storm back and ask really you’re gonna do that to me and she Denys it and says here look at the conversation throwing her phone at me, telling her it’s not in text you said it on the phone, leaving the room again, let her fall asleep) in the morning I tell her she hit me and fought our roommate as she doesn’t remember. I didn’t tell her about the coworker thing as she won’t more than likely believe me.. now she wants to move back home to take care of her siblings which are mostly adults but have also been drinking due to the circumstances, I hate and despise this town as I’ve lived there and burned a lot of bridges and due to exes starting rumor mills slandered my name (small town problems) have told her I do not want to move to this town where there is no housing or really any jobs, but have been searching anyways because I love her and yet again sacrificing job Opportunities here, have a job lined up there now. She says she feels smothered because I don’t have a job, yet I did, paid for food, bills etc. that I can’t or don’t want to do a job without her (I want to get her out of the house and doing something because all she wants to do is drink) I worry and feel like I am supposed to tend to her while she’s grieving. She feels like we’re drifting apart and I do too, Ian starting to hate the person she becomes while drinking, she feels smothered and that I can’t hold the fort down if she’s ever this weak again… doesn’t feel like things are working out… I’ve started selling my stuff to get by and get her home to her family, now she wants me to stay behind for awhile while she goes back home after I secured this job that’s on a time limit to hold for me. I honestly don’t know what to do or say, drinking now and has been in affectionate all day, like I’m just annoying her…

Foreword: This is a really long text, and I dont expect anyone to take their time and read this. But I would really appreciate some Feedback/Ideas. I have written a short summary at the end, if you dont want to read this whole mess:⬇️
If you arent interested, thats okay. But I would really appreciate any input!
Hey,
so I played some Hours Firewatch (Day 37) and as a unsuccessful GameDev I thought: I WANT THIS
So I thought to myself. What do I like about this game, which I want to implement into mine?
-You are given multiple choices (what you say and how you interact) which makes the game really immersive and makes you care for the protagonist! (Thats why I wanted to make the protagonist to deal with mental-health-problems) -I really liked the art-style. Im also a huge fan of the Synty-Assets and would love to make the game in this art-style -I liked the subtile horror (things that gives you the creep, but no jumpscares or stuff like this)
I want to make this clear. I dont want or would even be able to do a Firewatch-Clone! I just liked some mechanics (which are also used in other games)
So what is my question?
I have an Idea (maybe bad, maybe really bad) but definitley out of my league (but this is a problem for future me).
My Idea: Its about a student, with some problems. Panick-Atacks etc. These are implemented as an Quick-Time-Event. Everytime something bad happens a reaper-like-something appears.
For example: You wake up. Its too late. You could run down and catch the bus, or brush teeth and get the next. This opens 2 paths with kids making fun of you in school (too late/smell bad). Then the paths connect again, when you are heading to maths class. You are sitting there in the room, trying to solve some things. Then the Teacher asks you: "[Name] Do you want to present your solutions?" You are in a dark room, you are in the spotlights and you can see the teacher coming to you. You have like 3 seconds to answer. 1. Admit you dont have anything 2. Improvise To be honest it doesnt change a thing, because both just trigger the same quick-time-event where you have to smash some buttons but just stutter and stutter. The teacher comes to you, picks up your sheet, looks at it, laughs and tear it appart. Then cut. Just another daydream, she repeats her question from the beginning in a super nice way. "[Name] Do you want to present your solutions?" and you realise it didnt happen, just an panick-attack.
The reaper appears in the back of the class, stares and you and goes right through the wall. And this would go on. After some time its not just imaginations. It starts to get real. Talking with friends, reaper appears. You are being chased by it through a forrest. (It just flies like a dementor from harry potter).
In the evening everything is always fine. The player will get to know, that your room is sort of your safe-space. You dont have this pressure, these panick-attacks. Just like in Firewatch the Tower. Everyday you come home in your house and you can go to your desk and then sleep. On like day 20, you are sitting at your desk doing homework, you look out of the window. And there he is, the reaper, starring at you. Starring right into your eyes.
​
Summary (for the lazy folks): Its about a student, with some problems. Panick-Atacks etc. These are implemented as an Quick-Time-Event. Everytime something bad happens a reaper-like-something appears. This reaper stands metaphorically for the students problems. It has some action-sequences (unlike firewatch) and also delivers a subitle horror (with just a few jumpscares)
So, what do you think. Any recommendations, how this could go on? How I can deliver this feeling of a panick-attack? (Heart pounding sound and fov effect, red vignette). I would love to get any input! Is this a stupid Idea? How can you make the player feel and genuinley care for the protagonist? How can I make this world look and feel alive? I know this game is way out of my league, but I would love to make it. What do you think?
ANY INPUT, THOUGHTS, ARE WELCOME! I APPRECIATE YOUR TIME!

I have made this account to simply uncharge my anger
Basically a little of context my son is 22 years old and weights more than 430kg, he spents all of the day in his room playing video games and eating all the food he can eat and he has been in that situation for a long time and all of that it's because of his mother, she literally brings him all of the food he eats from snacks to triple burgers with extra bacon and cheese he eats nearly everyday.
When he was a child she bought him everything and fed him anything with the excuse "I don't want him to starve" so whenever he wanted food, he had food and what he wanted so it wasn't rare to see chocolate and candy wraps all over his room. This made him gain a lot of weight and when he was 7 he weighted 75kg and couldn't walk for more than 5 minutes without going out of breath but she continued to fed him everything and when I tried to tell her something she would always respond with "We shouldn't criticize our son's weight because he would be sad" even though in school he was bullied all the time because of his weight, so much that we changed him from school twice in one year because of the bullying he received, and while all of this happened he was constantly eating fast food and chocolate. And by his 11th birthday he weighed 121kg and had to go to school with a special uniform because the school didn't have of his size.
I was tired of seeing my spouse killing slowly OUR SON, so I divorced her and tried to get his custody, sadly the custody went to my ex-spouse and I couldn't do anything about it, I was angry and sad, angry because she got the custody and sad because my son was slowly dying and I couldn't do anything to prevent it.
I didn't heard about him for a long time, until some years ago (he was 15) when she asked me to take care of him at first I didn't wanted to help but since it was probably my only chance to save him from dying, I accepted. When I first saw him, he was in his room with a pizza box in front of him and his room was full of wraps from fast food restaurants, snacks and chocolates, and weighed nearly 230kg. He had breathing issues even when he was doing anything and things like taking a bath required a lot of time to do, he also had bad grades (which are probably the least important issue). Over that year I tried to make him lose weight (something as small as a kilo) but he wouldn't eat anything unless he wanted it and even worst when I gave him something like a salad he would throw it and start eating snacks while he told me how bad of a person I am because I was starving him because of his weight, and he did that every time I did something like give him healthy foods (which he didn't order) or refuse to gave him snacks.
Even though my son was abusive with me and hated it, I wanted to try to make him eat (even one) healthy food, but not even him or his mother allowed me saying the same things they always used to tell me.
Over the course of some years his weight would increase and at one point he couldn't go to school because his weight didn't allowed him, so he had to quit school and attend classes virtually (the only thing he did was attend the classes, his mother did all the homework something that I hated but she would always tell me that it was for "explaining him better"). Since then he would start to eat more food, more often. Everyday his room had more and more pizza boxes, soda bottles, etc. He would ask for 2 pizzas and 40 minutes later ask for chocolate and 25 minutes later ask for a burger, his stomach was a bottomless pit. During this time his weight went from 230kg to nearly 310kg in more than two years, and only left his room to go to the bathroom or to grab snacks if we was alone (since we both worked although less to spent more time taking care of him).
At this point he would consume 15000 calories per day and although I continued trying to make him lose weight my mind would always tell me that he will never change, something that made me constantly feel sad to think that your son is dying soon, but the moment that nearly killed me was when he started having difficulty breathing and had to be rushed to the hospital where he was weighed on a special scale where the result was 366kg. Once he was better doctors recommended to stay there so they can control his weight better, but he refused and since he had 18 years old, he was allowed to go. This event is the reason why I tried to convince him and his mother to change but they told me that it was normal and that it was an isolated case and that I shouldn't care, I obviously explained that obesity caused breathing issues and that if he didn't changed he will die painfully and without living his life, after I told this he burst into tears but not because he realized how his body was, he cried because I "criticized his weight without reason" and the worst part is that his mother told me that I was a horrible caretaker, spouse and person for making our son cry and that my words can cause him irreversible trauma and depression, I nearly laughed and was going to tell her that the only irreversible problem was his obesity unless both he and she changed something.
Since that day he would treat me horribly (well, more horribly than before) and even threaten me with "unaliving himself" if I didn't gave him the food he wanted. During this time he rarely left his room because in his own words "he was depressed and didn't have the power to even move". And although I knew that what he said was fake, I signed him for therapy, but even though he suffered from "depression" on the first day his therapist came, he told her to get the f--- out and that he was fine, and although the therapist explained to him that I was concerned for his mental health since his recent allegations of feeling constantly sad, and "unalive" allegations, he simply said that I was a liar and that since he was 18/19 (it was near his birthday but I don't remember if that happened before or after) he had the age to not take therapy. So she simply left but told me to text her about how he is and that if I needed her she would be ready to go, this really surprised me since I thought that she would be angry at my son and refused to treat him ever again. When his mother found out that I signed him for therapy, she got mad at me for "calling my son mentally ill without reason" even though she sometimes heard his allegations.
This was the situation for a long time, then the pandemic came, and we had to work from home, all of this while he constantly would ask for food, so his mother decided to give him boxes of snacks for him to eat while he had hunger, but instead he would eat them all in less than 2 hours and even ask for more food. Also during that year he had to be rushed to the hospital 2 times in a special ambulance because of his size, both of the times he was weighed (389kg the first time 397kg the second time) and both times he was let go because he felt better, I told the nurses to not allow him but since he was 20 he is free to go, but they told me to control his eating habits and to stop allowing him to eat whatever he wants, but I knew that would be impossible specially since his mother is allowing him to do it.
Even after having to rush him 3 times to the hospital, he wouldn't stop eating, in fact he was even eating more and by his 21st birthday he easily weighed 410kg and couldn't do anything other than eat by himself, he was bedridden and washing him is very hard to the point that he had to be washed once every two weeks, and I'm not even talking on how we cleaned him when he did number 2, he was a kid, a very large person who behaves like a little kid and can't do anything by himself.
And that's how is he living his life, he was recently rushed to hospital and weighed 437kg, and his mother nor him want to change, I now live in another place and his mother got a job that she can do at home, while he eats all the day and the worst part is that I can barely do anything, my son will die at any moment and the only thing I can do is visit him and see him, completely bedridden, and eating all the food he can possibly eat, and that's the reason why I moved because seeing him or just thinking of him makes me feel depressed. I always think how his life could have ended up if it wasn't for his abusive mother. I'm currently doing therapy and taking antidepressants because of it.
My son is dying, and I couldn't do and can't do anything. I simply feel, lost.

I’ve been on snap assistance for years now but I still haven’t been able to figure out what the algorithm is to get the maximum amount of benefits. I’ve looked on different forums and found some answers but trying to hear from someone that might know a bit more. When applying does it benefit you more to have low rent or high rent? What about to pay for individual things like heat , electricity , tv , internet , Etc. Trying to get the maximum amount as I could really use the help. Let me know what you guys know about this

Hello! TGIF to everyone! This is it, ang araw ng paglaya sa room at sa bahay, na-achieve ko na ung bunot resting days. So, tomorrow, may bike ride ako sa metro manila from my home sa cainta, tutal malapit lang naman samin un.
So, may mga mahilig bang magbike around metro or within their vicinity areas like indoor places sa mga subdivisions or short roads.
about me: Bike commuter and rider since 2019, have reached 100km already, nakakaahon din and nakakatiyaga sa init ng araw at strong rains, self-employed ako (means hawak ko ung time ng business servicing ko), soloist sa bike rides (kaya this time around, searching for collabs), baby face person and introvert as well.
about you: Biker rin (either occasional or frequent), working or studying, either from NCR or sa nearby provinces, introvert or in between, fan of disney tv series and movies, easy going, mataas endurance kapag nasa outdoor (ung bang nakakatiyaga sa extreme heat and wet during rainy times).