Being hire into a restaurant means being hired into season 3 of some drama. People who work in the service industry know how clique-y it can get. So when this new hire was getting "mean-girl-ed" by the staff and management, they decided to quit asap.
Even if you don't quit in a socially acceptable "professional" way, that's okay. Because sometimes these managers and staff need to face the consequences of their actions. If that means you have to burn a bridge on the way out, so be it! This was the path a new hire at a restaurant took and they weren't even through with training before they turned in their resignation, effective immediately!
Trini in this movie is so fascinating to me. She definitely needed this kind of place.
Title: away from it all Fandom: Power Rangers (2017) Character: Trini Rating: G Length: 100 words Summary: Trini finds a secluded place for herself Link:here on ao3 or you can read it under the cut below
This is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Thursday, February 12, to midnight on Friday, February 13 (8pm Eastern Time).
AO3 Link | The Morning After (300 words) by Merfilly Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Birds of Prey Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Barbara Gordon/Dinah Lance Characters: Dinah Lance, Barbara Gordon Additional Tags: Triple Drabble, +Modern Age (1986-Present), Post-Crisis, [Birds of Prey Vol. 1 - 1999-2009] Summary:
It's the morning after, and doubt hits.
The Morning After
Dinah reached across the bed to find it empty. The transfer assist was already stowed, and the bed was cold. She sighed softly to herself, knowing she could not actually complain. Just because they had chosen to go to bed together, to take another step in their partnership didn't mean the demands on Oracle were any less.
She got up, carefully stowing her costume into the duffel bag, then slipped into her gym clothes, with a shirt that said "Certified Wildcat" on it. She wondered if that particular honorary uncle would be up in New York or working on the new gym he was opening down here today.
It would be easier to spend the morning after punching things, after all. Dinah just wasn't ready to decide if this was serious, if she was strong enough to share a hero's life again.
"You really are a piece of work, Junior. Should've thought of that before you seduced her last night," she muttered to herself.
Once she had her tennis shoes tied, she grabbed the bag and headed out of the bedroom, listening to the tap of keys as she got closer to Oracle's workspace. Really, what the hell had she been thinking? Barbara was closer to Roy in age, she was always handling some fire or other, and … Dinah didn't live a peaceful life.
"Give me five to get some vital connections made for Mr. Terrific, and we can grab breakfast," Barbara called over her shoulder, not really looking at the woman that had almost convinced herself this was a mistake.
Almost.
The offer of such a domestic moment after what they had shared hit Dinah in the pit of her stomach, before she grabbed her courage.
"I'll go see what's appetizing," Dinah said, putting the bag down to stay.
Got into a discussion about emergency response at a professional retreat recently and everyone was going on and on about agility, and I was like, “Okay but what about contingency?”
And they were like “What?”
And I was like, “Agility isn’t the ultimate form of preparedness. Contingency is. Agility still requires you to flounder and figure out a solution in the moment, but if you have a contingency plan, all you have to do is implement it.”
And they were like “But you can’t make contingency plans for every situation!”
And I was like, “Yeah, you basically can if you just identify all of your basic dependencies and contingency plan around the loss of any dependency,” and then I gave a few examples.
And they all stared at me like I’m an alien.
Anyway, that’s how I figured out I’m Batman-coded and also learned how Batman must feel talking to supposedly professional superheroes who never bothered to run disaster scenarios until I pointed out that it’s insane that they don’t already have a plan for if Superman turns evil.
There’s a phrase that really stuck in my head around this. It was from one of the British divers who enacted the Thai caving rescue, though I couldn’t tell you which one or which interview.
As he described to the interviewer a moment of panic and how he he overcame, the interviewer said, in one of those, summarise-last-answer-given-with-appropriate-levels-of-respect-in-order-to-proceed-to-next-question phrasing’s, “Wow, so you rose to the occasion -“
And the diver said, “No, actually people always get that exactly wrong. In an unexpected and urgent situation you don’t rise to the occasion. You sink to the level of your training.”
Some people act like this woman's existence is an office feature that only turns on when her dad is offline. Now, I wouldn't normally side with the boss's daughter this easily, as I'm not the biggest nepotism fan in the world, but this is so clearly her coworker's problem, it is really that easy
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Presidents' Day is not until Monday, but as is often the case, the sales are already here. Amazon's sale features some notable deals on tech products like smartwatches, headphones, home appliances, speakers, and more. There are plenty of other Presidents Day sales on the way, so don't fret if nothing here catches your eye. Regardless, I've gathered the best of Amazon's sale below, which features a few all-time low prices, according to price-checking tools.
These employees have found a way to work twice as hard (in theory) but they're not exactly loving the results.
Amongst a slew of anecdotal and study-based evidence, we now have this personal testimony as to why your work-life isn't improving with AI.
Much like an intern that you really don't want to manage but must, Claude Cowork is supposed to make your workday go smoother. And yet… it requires a lot of extra attention.
It's not that these things aren't smart, because they are. But it's almost like if you had a 300 IQ toddler on your hands — it's just going to break things in a smart way. Just ask one venture capitalist who requested that Claude organize his wife's desktop, only to realize that it had literally deleted 15 years of family photos! Wow, how helpful. Thanks, pal.
This advisor has an issue relating to this, because her team is working double-time trying to do their own work while also managing the latest tech. Go ahead and read her story below, then we'll discuss.
Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 06 secrets from Secret Submission Post #996. Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ]. Current Secret Submissions Post:here. Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.
YouTube has finally come to Apple Vision Pro. YouTube for Vision OS is a free, standalone app that lets users log into their existing YouTube accounts through their Vision headsets and stream videos like they would expect to, including standard videos, 180° videos, 360° videos, and YouTube Shorts. Vision Pro M5 users can stream 8K videos, and premium YouTube members can download videos directly to their headsets, a must for long flights.
Google, YouTube's parent company, has apparently been working on the app for a while. In 2024, a spokesperson confirmed that a standalone Vision Pro app was "on our roadmap," but until today, the only way Vision users could watch YouTube on their headsets was through the Safari web browser.
The new YouTube app is designed to fit into Vision's spatial computing environments. "Rather than just responding to different screen sizes, we needed something that responds to different spaces, volumes and use cases," YouTube's senior UX designer Brendan Polley told Apple. "We built an entirely new design system that isolated core elements—comments, the play button, 'like' and 'dislike'—to fit any layout."
Having downloaded the app, it works exactly as intended. If you're looking for something that demonstrates Vision Pro's immersive video capabilities, you should check out the just-released 360° videos from the Milano Cortina winter Olympics on NBC's channel. Immersive luge is terrifying!
Noise ordinances tell us when we should be quiet, not our neighbors.
We've all dealt with a noise complaint or two in our lives. We might've been the ones our neighbors complained about, or we put in a request for the upstairs neighbor to stop vacuuming at 10 pm on a Monday. Regardless, living in close proximity to others means compromising your very specific needs if those around you are operating within reason. For example, there are typically noise ordinances in place to set basic guidelines for how much noise is acceptable at certain times on specific days. Our neighbors might get mad about a calm get-together on a Friday evening in the summer, but that's all they get to be: mad and unable to do anything about it. The story below touches on this exact scenario. What would you do in this resident's situation? Scroll below and sound off in the comments.
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There’s a lot to enjoy inside After Dark. In addition to additional sales post and monthly tarot readings, we offer quarterly personalized recommendations from Amanda, tailored to your likes, dislikes, and current reading needs! If you miss vintage internet, that’s what we’re recreating inside Smart Bitches After Dark.
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Samsung has officially revealed when its next Galaxy Unpacked event, which is where everyone's expecting the Galaxy S26 series to be announced, will take place. But before it airs on Feb. 25 at 1 p.m. EST, the company's offering the chance to get ahead of the game by trading in your current phone for a little extra moolah. Right now, you can sign up on Samsung's website to trade in your phone for up to $900 while pre-ordering a Galaxy S26 phone (or, on the very unlikely chance the S26 isn't announced at the event, whatever is announced in its place).
How to get $900 on Samsung Galaxy S26 trade-in
That's $200 more than Samsung currently offers on trade-ins for its other phones, which top out at $700 when trading in a Galaxy S24 Ultra for a Galaxy S25 phone. And while you're signing up, you'll also get $30 to spend on accessories during (but not before or after) your pre-order. You can also choose to be entered in a $5,000 sweepstakes for general Samsung online store credit, if you'd like.
The catch? The pre-order window doesn't seem to be open quiet yet. Usually, that happens within a week of Galaxy Unpacked airing, but you can still get the process started now. Just head to Samsung's Galaxy Unpacked reservation website, enter your name and at least an email address (you can also toss in your phone number, if you'd like), and you'll be taken to the form you need. If you want to enter the sweepstakes, also check the box saying you want to enter.
From there, you can pick your current phone manufacturer and your phone model from a drop-down menu. Note that the manufacturer options include Samsung, Apple, Google, and "Other," so it seems like Samsung is willing to let you trade in phones it doesn't make, too. As for the model picker, you can pick models going back around five years for each of the manufacturer options, although if you don't see your model on the list, you can also pick "Other" here, too.
How much will Samsung give me for my phone?
I can't promise how much Samsung will give you for each specific phone model, although it stands to reason that newer and higher spec phones will earn you more. I'm also willing to wager that Samsung might give you more credit if you trade in one of its own phones, but that's just speculation. To get the full $900, I'm guessing you'll need to trade in a Galaxy S25 Ultra.
Once you've made your selection, hit Submit, then scroll down a bit and click what you're interested in getting offers from Samsung on. Make sure you at least select "Trade In," and then click Submit here, too.
And that's it for now. Samsung will now know what type of phone you have and that you're interested in a trade-in, and should email you with an appropriate trade-in offer once it's available. Again, this should happen closer to Unpacked, likely within a week of Feb 25.
What will the Galaxy S26 look like?
All in all, it's a good opportunity for a deal, but it does continue an unfortunate trend of Samsung's—asking you to pre-order a device before it's officially been revealed, and before you know its full specs list. Luckily, a number of rumors for the Galaxy S26 has made it easy to guess at what we're likely to see, including a similar look to the S25, no ultra thin S26 Edge model, a Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, and a new 10MP telephoto lens on the Ultra model. For confirmation, though, we have no choice but to wait.
“Activation” exercises are often recommended at the beginnings of workouts. You might get the idea—whether from random TikToks or from a trainer you pay for their expertise—that activations are necessary to get your muscles firing correctly and able to take advantage of the workout to come. That’s not exactly true, though, so let’s dive in to what activations really do.
What does it mean to “activate” your muscles?
The explanation you’ll hear most often is that our muscles—often specifically our glutes, or butt muscles—“forget” how to fire correctly. But that isn’t really a thing that happens, as physical therapist Tyler Detmer told Lifehacker when discussing so-called gluteal amnesia. Our muscles don’t need specific exercises to be able to contract correctly.
But that doesn’t mean activation exercises are useless; it's better to think of these moves as warmups with a specific purpose. As I’ve written before, warmup exercises occupy a spectrum from general (like jogging on a treadmill before squats) to specific (doing lighter squats before doing heavier squats).
The warmups that are sometimes called “activation” exercises fall in the middle of that continuum. They can help you to get ready for your heavier exercises of the day, since they’re fairly specific to the muscles involved. If the person who designed your workout is good at their job, they're a great way to prepare for your working exercises. Unfortunately, not all activations are a good use of your time. So here are some of the cases where activation exercises are useful—and some where they aren’t.
Activation exercises help you “feel” a muscle
If you’re going to do isolation exercises, it helps to know what it feels like to work the muscle properly. Using glutes as our example again, a side-lying leg raise can be done in ways that really use the glutes (when your leg is slightly behind you) or in ways that distribute some of the load to other muscles (like when your leg is slightly in front of you). When you’re doing those leg raises, you can pay attention to whether you’re feeling your glutes—but to do that, you have to know what it feels like to work your glutes.
That’s where activation exercises come in. You do a movement that’s hard to do without using your glutes, and you get to feel the sensations that go along with using that muscle. You might feel a burning sensation as the muscle begins to fatigue, or a tight, full feeling as the muscle fills with fluid (this is what bodybuilders call a “pump”). All of this helps to direct your attention to that muscle and what it feels like. When you do your next exercise, you’ll remember that feeling.
Activation exercises are extra workouts in disguise
The more work you give a muscle, the bigger and stronger it tends to get. We often call that amount of work “volume” and measure that as the number of sets: You’ll build more muscle if you do six sets of squats at each workout than if you only do three.
Activation exercises, if they’re challenging enough, can count toward those sets. Imagine we have two people in the gym: One does three sets each of banded walks and single-leg glute bridges (both often classed as activation exercises) before doing three sets of barbell hip thrusts. The other just does the hip thrusts. That first person is giving their glutes more work than the second, regardless of how the exercises are labeled.
To use activation exercises this way, though, they have to be challenging. If you do your activations heavy enough that you’re at or near the point of failure by the end of each set, they’re adding to your total volume. But if they’re light and easy and you’re just going through the motions, they aren’t really adding anything.
Activation exercises aren’t ever necessary, but they can be helpful
I’ve described a few ways that activation exercises can help in your workouts, but that doesn’t mean that they’re unskippable. You don’t need to feel a muscle working to know that you’re giving it a good workout. And if you’d like to get more volume for a body part, you can do those extra sets before, after, or during your main workout; they don’t have to happen during the “activation” stage at the beginning.
So if you haven’t been doing activations, that’s fine. Just make sure you’re warming up in some kind of appropriate way. (If you’re not sure, read through this guide I wrote to putting together an effective warmup. A warmup is about what gets you ready to work, and it should really be personalized to your body and your workout.)
But if your trainer has given you activation exercises, or if you’ve seen a few you’d like to try online, go ahead and do them. They’ll give you extra work for the target muscle, and you might find that they help you to feel ready by the time you begin the main sets of your workout.
This 17-year-old has uninvited her 15-year-old sister from her birthday party after the younger sister got a prom dress covered in a purple milkshake!
Prom season is a special time in many teens' lives. Just think back to your own senior year! It's a really fun time spent making memories with friends and preparing to head off to college. Prom in itself takes a lot of planning. You have to figure out who you're going with, who will drive, and possibly the most fun part, what you'll wear on the big day!
Guys don't seem to really care what they wear to prom, but for the girls, picking the coolest, prettiest dress is a big deal. Some schools even have a list so that you can register your dress, ensuring that no 2 people will wear the same attire.
And we haven't even mentioned the cost of your average prom dress: the range goes from several hundred to several thousand, depending on your style and your taste for designer goods. While many parents will foot the bill for a prom dress, a lot of teens save up for ages to purchase their dream dress. That's exactly why this 17-year-old is steaming mad at her sister. Let's check out her story and dig deeper into the whole situation.
I’m not an engineer, but it strikes me that the first word of this patent’s title (“Controllable Launcher”) might be wishful thinking. It’s also missing a very important word.
The abstract describes the invention this way:
A controllable launcher for propelling a payload through a predictable and repeatable trajectory to a desired height. The launcher has an energy source for propelling a carriage … and a controller for controlling the trajectory of the propelled payload to enable the payload to land gently at a safe impact distance from the edge of a destination structure.
That may sound like a good idea, but let me ask you this: Is the payload you?
The description says the payload could be “any object,” but it’s pretty clear that what the inventor has in mind is an object with arms, legs, and an awful lot of confidence in the inventor. The payload highlighted in the illustration above is human-shaped, and what the patent actually claims is “a controllable launcher for launching human payloads to a desired height,” emphasis added. So this is a patent for a controllable human launcher.
How does this improve upon the prior human-launching art, you may ask? That’s a great question:
There are many existing devices for launching [human] payloads…. Some devices for launching humans … into the air are mainly for amusement purposes. Circuses have amused crowds by shooting performers out of cannons. [This is true.] For recreational enjoyment, certain traditional devices [i.e. giant slingshots] … catapult subjects [skyward, who then] experience a free-fall sensation similar to the sensation of bungee jumping or skydiving. Aircraft ejection seat technology and aircraft carrier launching systems … are also capable of launching payloads….
I pause to mention here that I once saw the late great Graham Chapman of Monty Python give a talk about the Dangerous Sports Club, of which he was a member. According to Wikipedia, they invented the bungee jump, but what I remember was the reverse bungee jump. They would tie themselves down with a rope, attach one end of the bungee to themselves and the other to the end of a crane, elevate the crane until the bungee was fully stretched, and then cut the rope holding them down. The film he showed of that device in operation (I remember someone flying out of a huge jack-in-the-box) is among the funniest things I’ve ever seen.
That link also mentions an unfortunate incident involving a similar group and a trebuchet, just to stress the danger involved.
Anyway, the question was, how does U.S. Pat. No. 8,667,956 improve upon, let’s say, a giant slingshot, reverse bungee arrangement, or trebuchet? Well, as those examples show, and the patent explains, most existing devices used to launch a human payload “have unpredictable and uncontrollable trajectories and/or cannot be immediately reset and reused.” Frankly, that “and/or” is a little concerning, because it seems like you need to fix the “unpredictable and uncontrollable trajectory” problem before trying to increase the firing rate. So I would just use “and.”
But never fear, because the device described by U.S. Pat. No. 8,667,956 solves both problems (according to the patent). It uses a carriage mounted to an adjustable rail and connected to an energy source such as compressed air that can be used to transfer kinetic energy to the payload. “The invention may further include other components such as an alignment device…; a horizontal measuring device to calculate the distance” to the target, and “a calculator to determine the required energy to launch a payload to a desired height….” Here it’s the word “may” that’s concerning, because I don’t think any of those could be optional if hoping to solve the first problem above. In practice, they presumably would be required, and this is just a patent, not a blueprint. Still.
This would, at least, be more predictable and controllable than (for example) the slingshot method. So it is an improvement upon the prior art. How much of an improvement it is should be at the top of your list of questions if the payload is you.
Which brings us to the question of just what this is for, if not dangerous fun or the amusement of others. The patent doesn’t really say. It does say the thing would be “capable of launching a subject substantially vertically from the ground onto the roof of a building,” or possibly to lower ledges, as Figure 5 rather terrifyingly shows. Yes, but why? Granted, this could get associates into their offices more quickly for billing purposes, but I’m not sure the extra profit would offset the cost of the launchers. It could get first responders into (or at least onto) a building more quickly, but if they can’t use the stairs you’d still have the problem of getting everybody down. Could there be another use for this?
DEKA was commissioned by the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), to devise such apparatuses as a “controllable launcher,” which could launch an urban fighter from the ground through an arc in the air and onto a building rooftop in 1.2 seconds….
Ah. Of course. The military.
I found that statement here, and while I haven’t been able to confirm it, it seems likely to be true. DEKA Research is the company founded by inventor Dean Kamen, most famous for the Segway. While that one hasn’t exactly caught on, Kamen and his company have invented lots of remarkable and useful inventions, often in partnership with DARPA, such as advanced prosthetic limbs.
So that would make me a little more comfortable with being launched from this thing, if it’s actually in use somewhere (which I also could not confirm), but I’d still want to see (for example) the calculator part be mandatory, and also evidence they’ve paid some more attention to the deceleration part of the problem. That’s the part that concerns me the most.
The other night on the Olympic broadcast[^1], US figure skater Amber Glenn said in an interview that she is a huge fan of Magic: the Gathering and also that she is queer. So of course I had to make a custom Magic card of her!
[^1] For those of you in the US who are streaming on Peacock, it was during the women's free skate section of the team competition.
Work has been pissing me off but I don't feel like going into great and glorious detail. Suffice it to say, no movement on ever getting me upgraded. Well, we'll see how that goes when I have my 25 years in come October 2027. Maybe they'll find me suddenly gone after that (gotta wait until then to get the good health plan for retirement). If I retired, I'd still find some job, just not at the University. We'll see. Anyhoo, I bring up work since tomorrow I'm involved in some Zoom bullshit as a speaker on my area to new faculty. It annoys me that they've called in the former Boss Bitch to kick things off since she's still managed to retain her Vice Provost for Research at RU. It's also tedious since we're supposed to only talk for 5-15 minutes and I crafted 3 slides with plenty I can vamp in between to hit maybe 10 minutes but Elaine is being a kiss ass again and put in TWENTY slides. Oh good god.
I don't want former Boss Bitch to think she can get to me so I'm going to change into a suit jacket and do my hair and put on jewelry. I'll plant an expression of calm professionalism on my face and give my slides in a soothing ASMR tone. After that, I'll sit with a slight bland smile and not react to ANYTHING said or done. You'll think that I've put up a photo of myself.
Speaking of ASMR, the video I put up of the roleplay has made us get close to double our followers (still ages to go) and it's past 500 views. Wow. I have these ideas for upcoming roleplays and will get props:
Asking your friend that doesn't wear makeup to do yours (I'll have plenty of funny and awkward expressions lol)
Activities Director at the Shady Pines Nursing Home. Going to get a wig and props for this which I'm hoping it'll be a series. One will have coloring books, for another, I ordered a cheap bingo set with the cage that spins.
Your irritating gossipy coworker from the cube next to you (I'll channel Elaine but I can't be TOO Elaine since her kids follow my channel lollll)
Title: From All The Spaces Between Times Chapter: Chapter 71 - Broken Jars Speak the Truth Author: elrhiarhodan / elrhiarhodan / elrhiarhodan Fandom: Star Wars, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars — Obi Wan Kenobi (TV), Star Wars — Jedi Apprentice Books Characters Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn, Shmi Skywalker, Anakin Skywalker, The Force as a Sentient Character, Watto, Quinlan Vos, Padmé Amidala, Sabé, Darth Maul, Yoda, Mace Windu, Adi Gallia, Quinlan Vos, Professor Huyang, The Force, Plo Koon, Vokara Che, Siri Tachi, Aayla Secura, Bant Eerin, Bruck Chun, Xanatos du Crion, Sheev Palpatine | Darth Sidious, Hego Damask II | Darth Plagueis, Komari Vosa, Bail Prestor Organa, Breha Organa, Bail Antilles Prestor, Rael Averross, Nim Piana, Ahsoka Tano, Sifo-Dyas, Reva Sevander, Lene Kostana (mentioned), Savage Opress, Pong Krell, The Traitor, Original Characters, Other Characters To Be Added Pairings: Obi-Wan Kenobi & Shmi Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Qui-Gon Jinn, Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan/Qui-Gon Jinn (yes, we’re arrived). Bail Prestor Organa/Breha Organa Word Count: ~ 4600 this chapter Spoilers: None Warnings/Enticements/Triggers: None
Summary: Obi-Wan Kenobi has never known it, but he has always been the Force’s Champion, destined to suffer infinite sadness in defense of the Light. On his last turn on the wheel, responsibility for The Chosen One, the false child of prophecy, had been thrust upon him with no warning, and Darkness held the upper hand.
But this time, the Force has marshaled its power and will protect its Champion until the time is right, no matter how long Obi-Wan has to wait and how much he has to suffer.
Or,
Obi-Wan is reborn as a twelve-year old.
He wakes up on a slavers’ ship, with all of his prior life’s memories intact, and he’s bound for Tatooine with a Force-inhibitor collar around his neck, a bomb implanted in his spine, and no way of knowing what state of the Galaxy is in.
Just another day in the life of the Force’s Champion.
Chapter Summary: Obi-Wan finally has his first solo mission, a visit to Naboo to do some research in the State Archives. He had thought this would be a simple trip, Master Yoda has even lent him his personal transport, the Tython-One.
But nothing is ever simple, not when the Force’s beloved Champion is involved.
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An ultra-wide curved gaming monitor with ridiculous specs is every gamer's dream, but they (usually) don't come cheap. The 57-inch Samsung Odyssey Neo G9, one of the best ultra-wide gaming monitors on the market, is currently on sale for $1,499.99 (originally $2,499.99 at launch)—that's its best discount this year, according to price-checking tools.
The Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 Series is not a regular ultra-wide gaming monitor. It has impressive specs, but you'll need a top-notch gaming computer with specific outputs to take full advantage of its 240Hz refresh rate potential.
This monitor came out in 2023 with an "excellent" review from PCMag, mainly due to its impressive 7,680 by 2,160 4K native resolution, the ridiculous 57-inch screen size, its great color range and accuracy, the 240Hz refresh rate, and its design. The VA panel also means you get a bright 1,000-nit screen.
To make full use of its powerful 240Hz refresh rate, you'll need to use a DisplayPort 2.1, or you'll be limited to 120Hz. You'll also need a powerful modern graphics card that is able to push the frames at a native resolution to max out the monitor's potential.
Although it is pricey, this monitor is a great value for the right gamer. You'll need plenty of space to fit a 57-inch screen, as well as a powerful computer to justify using the monitor—if you're not a competitive gamer with a powerful computer, it's probably not worth the price tag. Instead, consider this Asus gaming monitor going for $337.99 (originally $499) right now.
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For today I have a self-rec of a fic from Sukeban Deka II that I feel fits into the prompt of "Her Sanctuary".
Title: A Night In Fandom: Sukeban Deka II Pairing/Characters: Saki II/Okyo/Yukino Rating: G Word count: 1011 Content Notes: Literal Sleeping Together Summary: When their latest mission had been completed, Yukino had offered everyone to stay the night in a nearby hotel.
As season one of The Pitt wound down, Patrick Ball was convinced his character wouldn’t be returning to the show. “The ego of an actor means, generally speaking, you’re always sure that you’re the worst one and that you’re the most likely to get fired,” he laughs. “I, however, did have a unique claim to this anxiety because my character was literally fired from the hospital — and he did steal drugs.”
When it's time to buy a new car, you don't necessarily need to stick with the one you had before. You don't lose your cloud-based photos by switching from Toyota to Subaru, nor will your friends yell at you for ruining the group chat by buying a Kia. That's not the case with smartphones: When you buy an iPhone, it's tough to switch away from it. The same goes for Android: While it's easy enough to switch within the Android ecosystem, such as between Pixel or Galaxy, moving from Android to iPhone can also be a pain. Tech companies tend to make it tempting to stick with their platform, and introduce friction when you try to leave.
That, of course, is entirely business-based. Apple hasn't traditionally made it easy to move to Android, because, well, you might actually do it. It doesn't have to be this way, either. There's nothing inherent to smartphones that should make it so challenging to break out of any particular ecosystem. All it takes is some intentional design: If smartphones were made to be traded, you could migrate from one to another, without worrying about losing pictures, messages, or any other important data or processes.
It's now easier than ever to switch between iPhone and Android
As it happens, that intentional design is here. Apple and Google actually worked together to make it easier to transfer data between iPhone and Androids, which makes switching between the two platforms more seamless.
News first broke about this partnership back in December, and, at that time, Google released some of this progress as part of the latest Android Canary, the company's earliest pre-release software. Shortly after, Apple released the first beta for iOS 26.3, which featured the transfer tool. Now, iOS 26.3 is here, and with it, an easier way to switch from iPhone to a device made by Google, Samsung, or any other Android OEM.
How to use the new iPhone-to-Android option in iOS 26.3
The feature seems easy enough to use. Once you update your iPhone to iOS 26.3, you can head to Settings > General, then scroll down to "Transfer or Reset iPhone." Tap this option, then choose "Transfer to Android." Here, iOS will present a pop-up, telling you to place your iPhone next to your new Android device, where you can transfer photos, messages, and apps, among other data points. (That said, health data, devices paired with Bluetooth, and "protected items" cannot be transferred.)
You'll need to make sure both devices are running the latest updates, are connected to wifi, and have Bluetooth enabled. However, Apple also says your Android device should be in the "setup process," which means you likely won't be able to use this feature if your Android phone is already set up. From here, your iPhone will ask you to scan a QR code that should appear on your Android device. Alternatively, you'll be able to tap "Other Options" on your iPhone to enter the Session ID and Pairing Code that should appear on your Android.
Now, you can choose the data you want to transfer, including photos, contacts, calendars, call history, and messages. Tap "Continue" once complete, then choose to transfer your eSIM, if applicable. (You'll need to double-click the side of your iPhone when prompted to complete the eSIM transfer.) This works in the other direction too, though Apple says you do still need to use the Move to iOS app on Android—at least until Google sets up a similar protocol on its end.
More flexibility from Apple and Google is better for everyone
Apple and Google might not be motivated by charity, of course, as the EU has been cracking down on restrictive practices by tech companies in recent years. But while both companies may see this as a way to lose customers, it's also a way to gain them: Sure, some iPhone users may switch to Android if it's easier to do so, but some Android users may do the reverse for the same reasons.
More choice is good for everyone—even if it doesn't guarantee exponential growth to shareholders.
If you're a PC gamer who's been looking into getting a Steam Deck to help you play your games on the go, then I've got some bad news for you: On Valve's official Steam Deck store page—the only place to buy new Steam Decks in the United States—every single model is sold out right now. That includes the discontinued LCD model, both versions of the Steam Deck OLED, and even refurbished options.
The shortage was first spotted last night by deals hunter Wario64, who at the time noted that the Steam Deck was sold out in the U.S., but still available in other countries. Unfortunately, since then, both Tom's Hardware and Windows Central have reported that the handheld isn't available in some Asian countries either. There does still seems to be some hope for gamers in Europe, as Windows Central's Adam Hales said he could still see available stock in his native U.K., including the discontinued Steam Deck LCD.
Valve has yet to comment on the sudden disappearance of the Steam Deck from its site, although I've reached out and will update this post if I hear back.
Why is the Steam Deck out of stock?
While Valve hasn't provided an official reason for the Steam Deck shortage, an obvious culprit is the ongoing RAM crisis, which has seen the cost for consumer memory components double or even triple as AI data centers eat up the available supply. It's possible this shortage is finally affecting the Steam Deck, although that's just speculation until Valve officially confirms it.
That said, the explanation would align with a post Valve made to its blog last week, in which the company said its upcoming Steam Machine and Steam Frame hardware are being impacted by "memory and storage shortages." While the company didn't outright announce a delay for these devices, saying it still plans to ship them "in the first half of the year," it also noted "we must revisit our exact shipping schedule and pricing."
It's possible the situation with "limited availability and growing prices of these critical components," as Valve put it it that post, is now affecting the Steam Deck too, though there are other possible explanations. The simplest, and most hopeful, is that this is simply a minor hiccup in availability, and it will be corrected by the end of the week. Alternatively, it's possible the shortage could be related to tariffs, as while whole smartphones and computers are exempt from increased tariffs, it's unclear whether that applies to gaming devices, or to any individual components Valve might purchase to construct new Steam Decks.
At any rate, we can't know for sure until we hear back from the Half-Life company itself. Perhaps slim pickings or higher prices are in the Steam Deck's future, but there's no way to know right now.
What to buy instead during the Steam Deck shortage
While we don't yet know how long the Steam Deck will stay sold out, it might be worth looking into getting a different handheld gaming PC if the situation drags on. While you can buy Steam Decks from unofficial sellers, I wouldn't advise it, as these would all be from the secondhand market. Most come with heavily marked up prices, and it's impossible to know what kind of condition your device will be in when it arrives. A more trustworthy alternative could be GameStop, as the retailer does sell its own certified refurbished Steam Decks, which are cleaned up in a separate process from Valve's. Unfortunately, these are also out of stock at the moment.
Instead, I would suggest looking at alternatives like the Lenovo Legion Go S, which starts at $600, is slightly more powerful than the Steam Deck, has a higher resolution screen, and in an official partnership with Valve, comes equipped with the same operating system as the Steam Deck. (I actually prefer the Legion Go S to the Steam Deck myself.)
If you've got cash to burn, you could look at a premium upgrade. The obvious ones here are the Lenovo Legion Go 2, which ups the power and packs a gorgeous OLED screen; and the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X, which may be more welcoming to console gamers. (That said, the Xbox handheld's software wasn't quite there yet, at least when I reviewed it).
Whatever your choice, you have no shortage of options for PC gaming handhelds to keep you occupied while you wait for the Steam Deck to come back in stock. Gamers will always find a way to play.
If you are writing fic, or really anything, in one language and inserting a different language into that verbiage YOU NEED TO. PROVIDE DIRECT, LINE OF SIGHT TRANSLATION.
Just like subtitles that piss ppl of when they default to [speaking other language] if thos word are important enough for you the writer to type out, they are important enough for me the reader to (want to) understand. Please help me do so!!!
Fic is why I’m thinking of this, so that context will rule here. AO3 HAS MULTIPLE FORMATTING OPTIONS TO FACILITATE DIRECT/ LINE OF SIGHT TRANSLATION.
PLEASE USE THEM
Im even gonna leave some quick and lazy examples, cuz be the change etc. etc.
If you have tips, SHARE THEM!!!
RB the fuck outta this shit i dont fucking care, I hate seeing words that I can’t understand!
Folks, if your partner is ashamed of you when you're just being yourself, walk away now.
People frequently outline the important stages in a new relationship. There's the first time you spend the night at one another's apartment or home. There's the first time you cook for one another or the first time you immerse yourselves in each other's hobbies or interests. However, I'd argue that one of the most important moments, if not the most important, is the first time you introduce your partner to your best friends or vice versa.
London is being used as the backdrop for inaccurate viral videos that reach enormous audiences around the world by playing into the worst stereotypes about the capital.
This was an investigation into one man who was doing this thing:
Last summer, the man says, he found himself sitting in his car, analysing trends on TikTok. His day job was conducting viewings for an estate agency but he was trying to come up with an idea for a viral video account that could be run as a money-making side-hustle. “I was thinking of unique videos I can do for people,” he says on the tape. That’s when he had a brainwave: “Hate brings views.” At that time protests outside asylum hotels were spreading across the country. The man says he noticed “far-right people” were among the most engaged on TikTok. They were easy to rile up: “They hate such videos of illegal migrants. I was like, why not?” .... The TikToker appears to have no concept of the potential real-world impact of his uploads, instead considering everything in terms of view counts and pieces of content.
So he made fake videos about immigrants being housed in prime properties, to which he had access through his job.
He had originally found he could make money through posting videos on TikTok but 'TikTok immediately deleted his account because he was just stealing other people’s videos and reposting them'.
There seems to be just a total disconnect going on in the guy's mind (or he's just ethically vacuous) and generally he does not appear the sharpest blade in the drawer:
Despite fostering online hatred, the man recorded.... insists he doesn’t personally share the views expressed on his TikTok account. Instead, he suggests his fake anti-migrant house tour videos were just a way to game the algorithm, build an audience, and hopefully make money.
He's also
baffled. He can’t understand how London Centric traced his anonymous hate-filled London TikTok account back to his employer by geolocating the wheelie bins in his videos. “I thought no one’s gonna notice that,” he says. “Why would someone?”
As if people aren't doing this sort of thing all the time.
From the age of three until I went to college, I lived in the same town. We moved house once, but our telephone number stayed the same. When technology moved from rotary dial to push-button, I came to know the sound of that phone number by heart. I could "sing" it.
Even after I and my siblings left home, my parents stayed in that house and kept that number. My mother died, but my dad stayed in the house--with that number. He got a cell phone, but kept the landline too.
Now he lives elsewhere, closer to me and one of my siblings. That house has been sold, and the landline disconnected. But I still call it from my own landline from time to time just to hear the push-button tune. So far, the number hasn't been reassigned.
Reporting for Duty
Reporting for Duty is the English-language title of a Brazilian comedy cop show on Netflix, in which a gentle, laid-back guy from a sleepy district gets reassigned to be police chief in a mafia-plagued central Rio precinct. It's pretty hilarious so far. The second episode, "Good Cop, Better Cop," sees the new police chief, Suzano, and the precinct's second-in-command, Mantovani, interrogating a suspect. "Let's do good cop, bad cop," Mantovani suggests. Suzano agrees, and they go in. Mantovani offers the suspect water. Suzano follows with "Some lemonade? A soda? A cold beer?"
Mantovani is getting more and more flabbergasted. When Suzano offers a charcuterie board, Mantovani asks if she can have a word with him. Turns out he didn't recognize her good cop as good cop. "If you're more comfortable being the good cop," she begins, but he says no no no, he can do bad cop. He storms back in. "You think you're getting coffee? Well no! No coffee because the coffee machine is broken!" [established earlier in the episode]. "And no massages, either, except for maybe shiatsu for your health." --And he proceeds to massage out the guy's tensed muscles.
It's a very cute show, and the guy who plays Suzano's sidekick who's come with him from his old precinct has a style of Brazilian accent I really like and have only heard from a guy who teaches ancient Tupi on Instagram.
Diamond and Misty
One of Wakanomori's former students is married and keeps chickens now. He gave W a quartet of eggs, and the carton comes with this cute label that lets you write in what chickens laid the eggs. Ours were laid by Diamond and Misty.
I was offered a job last week, which was going to require a 2.5-hour move. I accepted as it’s a field I love and a company ownership I had worked for previously, just not at this location.
Yesterday the job fell through because the expected job salary budget didn’t come through. At all. I had been waiting on paperwork to 100% make my hiring official. I even had a start date, which had been reiterated last week when they were waiting for the national leadership to send over the papers.
I am lucky that I was able to reverse my resignation at my current job. I’m also lucky that I figure I’m only out about $100. I had applied for and been accepted for an apartment but hadn’t signed a lease or even set up a moving truck.
Since I am not out much, I am naturally going to move on and merely grouse about the experience (they only let me know with a single text that the position was canceled!). But could I have had any recourse had I been out more money?
Oh no.
As a general rule, it’s best never to give notice at your existing job until the new job is 100% official, meaning that any paperwork has been signed and all contingencies are removed. Even then, something like this can still happen, but waiting lowers the risk of it.
As for legal recourse if you had been out more money or if you had actually moved: in most states you wouldn’t have legal recourse unless you could show the employer had operated with deliberately fraudulent intent.
There is a legal concept called “detrimental reliance,” where you would argue that you had relied on their offer to your detriment. Generally, though, courts mostly haven’t sided with those claims (largely because since employment is at-will, you also could have been fired on your first day without legal resource). That said, if you ever were in a situation where you were out a significant sum of money — or if you had already moved — it could be useful to talk with an employment lawyer to get their take.
An additional option you’d have in that situation would be to tell the employer that you’d relied on their offer and start date in good faith and lost $X as a result, and ask them to make it right. Their offer might have used language that would protect them from any legal obligation to make you whole (especially if it was clear things were not yet finalized), but it would be reasonable to try.
Is that Domhnall Gleeson in the newest Taylor Swift music video? Good for him! Also, I'm not into Kylux, but I hope it is inspirational to fandom. I haven't watched the whole thing, just noticed that he was in bed with a cactus, and that certainly seemed potentially relevant. Appropriate for Kylo, yes?
Title: Safe at Home Fandom: Astrid Pairing/Characters: Raphaelle Coste/Astrid Nielson Rating: G Summary: A/N: I've written a little double drabble for every season of Astrid I've seen. This one is for S5; "Her Sanctuary" fits so well! Also fills my 100ships table prompt #13 (Blue).
Do you ever feel like your boss is breathing down your neck, looking at everything you do, and ensuring you remain on top of work, every minute of every day?
Well, with this productivity tracking software, you don't have to wonder; you will know for sure that this is exactly what your boss is doing at any given moment!
We've all seen and met our fair share of overbearing, probably toxic bosses and CEOs. They don't care about their workers' well-being or the happiness in the company. All they want is for work to be done in the least amount of time, for the least amount of money. This main goal is what leads companies to try to control their employees as much as possible. They must ensure that no employee does anything non-work-related on the company's expense, and they will use any desperate measure to do that.
As always, the first thing that hit me was the smell of thousands of herbs and flowers, a dry, green, enticing smell that got into my lungs and soothed the world away, mortal peril forgotten. A warm light bathed the place, shining from several living octopus-like creatures tangled in the ceiling beams. Rows and rows of hundreds of little tins and jars lined the walls, all of them labeled in Laemura's spidery handwriting: Apple Mint Innocence. Lavender Regret. Smoky Cinnamon Vengeance. Doomed Foreknowledge With Toasted Walnut And Sage.
from The Last Hour Between Worlds, by Melissa Caruso
Copy and paste to your own journal, then reply to this post with a link to your answers. If your journal is private or friends-only, you can post your full answers in the comments below.
If you'd like to suggest questions for a future Friday Five, then do so on DreamWidth or LiveJournal. Old sets that were used have been deleted, so we encourage you to suggest some more!
I use this icon a lot. Like, a lot a lot. It never goes out of style. I’m always tired! Nothing medically can be found to cause it; I just need more sleep and rest than average.
Things I’m Currently Watching/Have Watched that Keep Me Awake: The Pitt The ‘Burbs (just started last night) Ted Lasso (I’ve seen the first couple of seasons and I have three months free of Apple+) Murderbot (what I watched first with that free Apple+ time)
It's once again time to update your Apple devices. The company just released a whole host of security patches, including a fix for an actively exploited zero-day affecting iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and macOS Tahoe. These updates arrived alongside the official release of iOS 26.3, which includes features like more seamless data transfer between iPhone and Android. Other security patches address bugs in Photos, VoiceOver, and Screenshots, to name a few.
iOS 26.3 patches a zero-day affecting dyld
According to Apple's latest security bulletin, the zero-day—tracked as CVE-2026-20700—is a memory corruption issue in dyld, Apple's "Dynamic Link Editor." The flaw could allow attackers with memory write capability to execute arbitrary code—or, in other words, run their own code on your device.
Apple says that the vulnerability may have been exploited in an "extremely sophisticated attack against specific targeted individuals" in earlier versions of iOS alongside CVE-2025-14174 and CVE-2025-43529. Those at greatest risk with this bug are likely high-profile users with access to sensitive data—users who might be inclined to use Apple's Lockdown Mode—but everyone should install the update to patch the issue.
The patch for this flaw is available for the following iOS and iPadOS devices, in addition to all Macs that run macOS Tahoe:
iPhone 11 and later
iPad Pro 12.9-inch 3rd generation and later
iPad Pro 11-inch 1st generation and later
iPad Air 3rd generation and later
iPad 8th generation and later
iPad mini 5th generation and later
How to install the latest security update for iPhone
You should have automatic updates enabled to ensure you receive critical security patches ASAP, but you can confirm that you're on the latest OS version under Settings > General > Software Update. As a reminder, Apple won't message you urging you to click links, download attachments, or install apps related to security updates. Always go through your device settings to receive official fixes.
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