Maybe that title is a bit too cheesy, but I really do like exploring the night sky. Helps especially since my hometown was a great place to do so. That all aside, hello! I am Pydras, fat cat collector, lessor avatar of chaos, and most boring of all, corporate accountant. I am to find people to potentially connect with and see what develops. Whether that leads to friendship or something more will remain to be seen, but life is short so have to get out there and try!
A little more about me! As stated earlier, I am a corporate accountant, currently working in BC, starting to save up to buy a place where I am at. I am quite fond of cooking, and decent enough at it as well! I would say at least 67% of it would be tolerable to most people. Since my job is basically just sitting around all day, I try and workout at least three or four times a week to stay active and in shape. That being said I do have a sweet tooth that I am quite good at managing, except for my weakness of homemade baked goods. Art wise, I really have no skills in most of those areas except for writing (use to do some RP back in the day). Well, I do make quite the horrible MS Paint masterpiece if the inspiration hits, so that might count. Politically I am quite on the left side, and religion wise I tend to fall more into agnosticism and atheism.
For subject interests, my top three would probably have to be history, geography, and geology. One of my favourite things to do when bored is open Google maps and go to a random area and see what I can learn of those three for it. However, my absolute biggest interest and the one I hold closest to me is music. While I can't really play an instrument (have been trying to relearn piano), I usually have some sort of playlist on if I am not too busy or in a loud environment. I can literally go into paragraphs upon paragraphs about some of my favourite songs. Just about what I like about them, how they make me feel, etc. I am always up for sharing or creating playlists with someone, I truly feel like music is one of the better ways to get to know someone. My usual genres end up to alternative, indie, and math rock, but I will really just listen to anything that I like the sound of.
Hobby wise, it sort of depends on what time of the year it is. If the weather is nice in the spring or summer, I love to go for long walks and hiking. Just being out in nature beings a sense of relaxation and peace you can't get anywhere else. Plus, the views, just all the amazing views and secrets you can come upon. When the weather is not as pleasant or it is winter (so quite a few months here), I am usually found being a homebody. Probably no surprise, but gaming is a major filler of my time when I have nothing else to do. My main game right now is FFXIV, realized today that I have been playing it for over half a decade at this point, how time flies. I do enjoy the Paradox Interactive games as well, especially with all the amazing mods some of them have. Like music, I could spend hours talking about some of my favourite games. Would also love more people to play with, generally not picky about what, as long as you don't mind me potentially sucking. Gaming with people is always such a joy and fun time. I can be quite the reader if a particular book or series catches my attention. Once burned through a trilogy in a week since it captivated me so much. One of the dangers I found with me reading is I'll always go for one more chapter, then suddenly it is 3 am. Don't really have any specific genres in particular, though I am quite the sucker for some good worldbuilding.
I could probably keep rambling about myself, but why take away all the fun? As said before, I am looking for someone to see what kind of connection we can build. Location wise, for something more than friendship, you would likely have to be in Canada or have plans to move here. While I do enjoy all my friends in the US, I have no desire to move there unfortunately. Either way, if I intrigued your interests feel free to send me a DM and we can connect from there!

Hi all. I would appreciate some outside perspective on my situation. I live in California, in a high cost of living area. I've been job hunting for the last few months, and have been fortunate enough to recently receive two job offers, both with the State.
Job #1 is with the Department of Social Services, and job #2 is with a local state college, and both are administrative positions. Job #1 has a mix of office and field days, which require me to use my personal vehicle, while Job #2 has a fixed office location on campus. Job #1 has a starting pay of $4500 per month in the first year, and since it has a step system, the pay would increase to $5000 per month in year two. It also has a union. Job #2 has a starting pay of $3500 per month, but there is no step system, so there is no guaranteed pay increase annually, though it also has a union which fights for one.
Both positions have comparably good medical, dental, and vision benefits, with Job #1 requiring a minor deduction from each employee paycheck (about $50 for the employee contribution), whereas job #2 has a stipend that covers all benefits (if the basic options are selected). Both jobs have a pension, both have a union, and both have a good degree of job security, though I would suspect job #1 with the Department of Social Services would be a bit more secure, since it is more directly connected to the State. I suspect job #1 would also make more opportunities for growth and movement available to me, whereas people working in job #2 say opportunies for growth are very limited.
Since I am looking for a long-term career, and since I hope to one day buy a home in my area, job #1 seems to be the better choice by a wide margin, due to its higher pay, step system and security, as well as the doors that this position would open. However, based on my research, job #1 is highly stressful, has a high turnover rate, and is a position many feel to be overworked and underpaid. While Job #2 pays significantly less, many say that it is an enjoyable position, with low-stress, and a comfortable work environment (though a common complaint is the low and stagnant pay). If the pay for both positions were equal, I would take job #2 in a heartbeat, however, since that is not the case, I just need to determine how much of a premium I am willing to place on having a low-stress and pleasant work environment.
What are others' thoughts on my situation? Is there anyone who has ever been in a similar situation? Is there any chance job #2 would be able to match the salary of job #1, if I were to show them my official offer paperwork (I suspect they wouldn't, since it's a union job, but they also mentioned that pay was based on skills, experience, and equity, so I was thinking I could frame my request by saying that another state body, which also uses those same criteria, determined I was eligible for 4500 per month starting). I know mental health and happiness are important, and I wouldn't want to wake up every morning for the next 30-40 years dreading work, but past a certain point, I don't want to have unreasonable-- or as some could say, childish-- expectations. I should also note that, as other factors for consideration, there is a handful of people who say they love job #1, and that job #2 would be at a school I once attended, so it has tremendous sentimental value to me. I am also aware that, with either job, home ownership in my area will be difficult, and likely not possible for a few years. I appreciate any advice or wisdom anyone can share!

My boyfriend of 2 years had just started a new job as an assistant manager at a restaurant last year. His work hours vary and some days he can come home around 2am. Him and i share locations with each other and one night i woke up and he still wasn’t home so i had happened to check to see where he was at. When i did, it wasn’t at work but at a different location i wasn’t aware about. I called to see if he was okay and when he answered he seemed nervous, i asked what he was doing and he told me he was dropping a friend off at home and i asked him what friend he said a girls name i’ve never met before. My boyfriend is a very social person and i know he has a lot of girls that a friends but this threw me off and upset me. I am one to jump to conclusions and get jealous quickly. He ended up coming home and telling me that she needed a ride home from work and would give him a cigarette to do so. Around this time, an old friend of theirs had also passed away and he said he needed someone to talk to about it which i understood. I told him i’d appreciate more communication about where he’s going and when because he works in a dangerous area and i want to know if he’s safe. Him and i both have lots of friends of the opposite sex which we both understand, i just want transparency about what is going on because i know it would bother him if i didn’t tell him where i was at with someone he didn’t know at 2am.
Fast forward, to this year. Him and i have seem to be off lately (lack of intimacy/communication/friendship). I’ve been feeling lonely because of us not seeing each other as often and when we do, not much is going on between us. I think it’s because of his work schedule and my new work hours. I keep having this weird feeling in my gut and i happen to check his phone. He had 2 conversations deleted in his phone. 1 from an ex and another one from the girl he took home last year. I bring this to his attention and he laughs it off saying “i could’ve checked them”. I tell him this bothers me because if these conversations are friendly then why were they deleted? I left the house for a few days because i just couldn’t hear the excuses anymore. He proceeds to text me and tell me that he just didn’t want me to see their name pop up on his phone and that all the conversations were that his friend wanted a serving job at his workplace and friendly “banter”. I asked him if they had ever hooked up and he says “yes, a long time ago.” He told me he’s never cheated on me and never would, which i can believe (or else i wouldn’t be with him today). I tell him that i couldn’t live in a relationship where he has to delete text messages so i don’t start an argument with him and he shouldn’t be with someone he feels like he needs to tip toe around. I’ve told him time and time again through multiple occasions of him hiding stuff from me, that it’s worse when i found out myself or through other people rather them him telling me firsthand. I tell him it looks like he’s trying to hide something from me and i don’t like when he does that. Whenever it comes down to that conversation he brings up his feelings and own experiences instead of owning up to what he did.
I guess i feel like i’m at a standstill and don’t know what to do. i have no one to talk about it with because i don’t want my friends to over exaggerate it and just tell me to break up with him and do better. He is a good guy i’m just sick of the hiding.

Hello!
Let me be specific: I was at the hospital today because I had an appointment with an endocrinologist. I had never met this doctor, because this was my first appointment. I got to the place on time, because my appointment was “scheduled” at 16:00.
So, I got to the hospital, and the secretary asks me for the receipt (here you can pay for the appointment online and they give you a code that you have to provide so they track your payment) and then asked me who my doctor was. I said to her that it was someone named Mary (not her name) and she said “she left at 14:00, you know she leaves at that time, right?” And I was like “nope, it is my first time here”.
Then, she said “then come another day with your receipt and we will gladly have you” and I was like “no one specified to me this doctor left at 14:00 online because I specified I just can come at 16:00”. After some insisting, she rolled her eyes and called another doctor on the phone and asked him “can you have this extra patient today?”
He answered something on the phone to which she responded “because THE PATIENT (slow and highlighted) CANNOT COME another day (almost mocking and annoyed tone)”. When the doctor agreed, she hung up and told me “this procedure I am doing is not a 100% guarantee you will be with the doctor today and I have to leave” …. She was clearly speaking to me in a blaming tone, as if I ruined her day or smth.
After saying this she called the call center to change the doctor on my receipt and while speaking on the phone, she said irritated “you DID NOT specify you were coming at 16:00 so you JUST CAME LATE” to which I replied that the day I made the appointment and the day I billed it were different and I said it while making the appointment. She rolled her eyes again and checked the previous chat and saw I was telling her the truth.
After this, she changed my receipt. I thanked her and she guided me to where this other doctor was located so I left the endocrinology section and got to a gastroenterologist that is also an endocrinologist.
Now I am here, waiting for the doctor and thinking “why, if you can help me out, you would rather make me waste time and not have a solution in my case, when you know you can solve my problem? Why are you working as a customer service rep? Don’t you know that people who make a doctor’s appointment had to sacrifice some other stuff to be there too?”
I am not trying to be a Karen or anything but this is annoying.
Thanks for reading so far.
TLDR.: A customer service rep did not want to help me out when my doctor left and when she had to she was clearly blaming me as a patient because of an issue that was not my fault.

So this happened about a week ago, my mom found a very cheap 1 bedroom apartment on Craigslist that's around $300 a month, and that had everything I wished for in a rental. It didn't have an address, just a general location of where it's at. I sent an email to the email address that was on the rental, saying that I am interested in renting out that place, and included my phone number, too. The next day, I got a text from a number I didn't recognize of screen shots of the rental listings, and it turns out, it was the landlord offering the rental. We discussed about the rental and when we should meet up for a tour of the place, and then afterwards, the landlord said that before everything is set in stone, I need to fill out an online application for a background check and credit report, and sent me a link. When I was finished filling out the form, I clicked submit and I got an error message saying that there was an issue. Apparently, I got the error message because I haven't established any credit to my name yet, and told the landlord about the issue. He asked if I have a co-signer, and I said no, and then he just said "then I can't help you. Have a good day." I didn't know if I was declined the rental or not, but luckily, my mom offered to be the co-signer, and so I went ahead and told the landlord that I did have a co-signer, he sent me a link to the same application for me to send to my mom, and that issue was resolved. He then asked if I want to meet up on that same day at 4pm, and I said sure, and so about an hour before I needed to be there, I texted the landlord asking what the address to the place is, and I never got a response. When I got to the general area of where the place it's supposed to be about 15 minutes before 4, I texted the landlord again asking where the address is, and I still got no response. I walked around the area, and there were multiple triplexes, fourplexes, and apartment buildings, and I had no clue what the rental looked like on the outside, so it was hard to find where it was. I tried texting and even calling the landlord's number multiple times, and I still didn't get a response. I never figured out where the address of the place was, and to this day, I still never heard back from that "landlord". I have a very big suspicion that maybe I've been duped, like maybe this was some sort of scam?

Hello everyone. I recently platinummed the PSVITA version of Sly Cooper 4: Thieves in Time as my 28th platinum. It only took me 10 years, 4 weeks, 22 hours to do it. Did you know this game hides its true ending behind the platinum?
Anyway, I'd like to talk about the experience.
Sly 4 was a bit confusing and inconsistent to platinum. I get the feeling the game wants you to platinum it given how on every loading screen it shows you how much you've completed the trophies and collectibles for the game. And that there no missable trophies. But there are some decisions that don't help with that.
So I'd say there are around 3 groups of Trophies in this game.
The first group are the mandatory story trophies. Not much to say about these. There's nothing missable here and the names are quite cool. I do like looking at the percent completion to see how many players completed the PS VITA version of the game. Did you know that around 73% of players booted this game up and completed the prologue? And only around 25% of players even beat the game. The biggest drop happened around the start of Episode 2 since the completion dropped from around 60%to 48% for some reason.
The second group are the trophies for the collectibles and arcades. I'll talk about these later.
The third and final group of trophies are for miscellaneous challenges. I'll start with these first and highlight some of the notable ones that I missed on my first playthrough.
"Crazed Climber - Scale the dragon lair in under 90 seconds". This was one I missed during my original playthrough of the game. This requires you to climb a giant tower filled with traps in the mission "Mechanical Menace". And this one was really fun even though it took me like 3 attempts. Sly 4's movement and platforming is quite fun so having a mini speedrun challenge using Sir Galleth's moveset was a treat. The one criticism I have here is that the game drops a checkpoint as soon as you get to the top. If you haven't gotten the trophy by then and need to retry, you need to quit to the main menu/hideout and reselect the mission, skip through all the cutscenes and get back there which gets annoying. At least the tower is near the start of the mission.
"Ancient Warfare 3 - Crackshot 10 enemies within 65 seconds. Sly's ancestor, Tennessee "Kid" Cooper" has an ability similar to "Dead Eye" from Red Dead Redemption where he can slow down time, mark enemies and objects and then instantly shoot them dead called "Crackshot". I never got this trophy when I first played the game because there wasn't much opportunity to. There aren't large groups of enemies wandering around that you can casually get 10+ of them line up for you to shoot them. Plus, I was already good at shooting them normally. I tried running around in the open world trying to lure enemies but found it wasn't working. There's a mission in the game called "Blind Date" that throws lots of rabbit enemies that chuck TNT at you that worked better for me.
"Hubba Hubba - Don't miss a beat in the Carmelita dance game." This trophy is, without a doubt, the main reason to platinum this game on VITA instead of the PS3. So nobody can see you play this dumb minigame and call you a Furry. This trophy requires you to complete the minigame where Carmilita needs to disguise herself as a belly dancer and dance to distract guards while the Cooper gang try and open a door. You just need to hit the button prompts perfectly. So you can ignore the times the minigame asks you to shake the VITA from side to side like a champagne bottle to make Carmilita shake her ass (seriously, why does this game sexualize Carmilita so much? None of the past Sly games did it).
"Get To the Chopper - Don't take any damage during Up In Smoke." This one was actually fun. In the mission "Up in Smoke", you have to control an RC Helicopter and drop bombs on turrents while drones and mines chase you down. It was fun dodging and weaving through them. There are 3 phases to this mission and you have a checkpoint in between every phase. So if you mess up, you can just restart the checkpoint to the last phase. You don't need to avoid taking damage the whole way through which is nice.
"Unexpected Package - Place 60 bombs in enemy pockets with Bentley." When I first saw this trophy, I groaned. This would be a massive grind. And I had actually made it harder on myself. You see, normally, when you sneak up behind an enemy as Bentley and hold triangle, Bentley will try to put a bomb in the enemy's pocket. Larger enemies won't notice this but smaller enemies will. But the main issue is that I had previously unlocked the Heat Seeking upgrade for Bentley. Meaning sometimes, the bombs would "miss" and stick to an enemy guard's arms or legs instead. So it was annoying going around the hub world and planting bombs on guards.....until I remembered that I had purchased the upgrade for sleep bombs. My plan now was just to find a lone guard on a rooftop, try and place one sleep bomb into his back pocket and detonate it. He'd then fall asleep. Then I'd go to his sleeping body and try placing 5 sleeping bombs in his pocket and back away (the max you can place at any one time). When he wakes him, I'd detonate all 5 which set him to sleep and then repeat. Even if I'd "miss" a few bombs that would stick to their legs instead, I generally 3 or 4 bombs work perfectly. So it didn't take long to get all 60.
"Apollo Wins - Have the perfect workout during the Training Montage." During the mission "Getting Stronger", you have to do a training montage with Bob where you alternate through 6 minigames as you complete them with the minigames getting harder as you complete them. The trophy requires you to complete 10 randomly selected minigames without making a single mistake. If you mess up, you can restart the checkpoint to the beginning of the montage and have to play through a new set of 10 randomly selected minigames. The Minigames are "Slippery Slope" where you balance an egg on a beam using motion controls while penguins jump around on the floating iceberg you are standing on. "Penguin Popper" where Penguins are diving in front of you and you have to play baseball using them. "Sumo Slap" where you have to perform QTEs to push a giant penguin out of a Sumo Ring. "Duck and Cover" where penguins get launched at you from 4 different directions and you have to move the left stick to dodge them. "Super Sling" which requires you to use a catapult to launch a penguin at a flying pterodactyl. And "Whack a chump" which is Whack a Mole but with penguins. Some of which are fake and you should avoid.
Penguin Popper was easy. Once you get the timing down it's easy to get into a rhythm and hit the penguins since they don't vary when they dive. Whenever this popped into the rotation, I considered it a freebie. Sumo Slap was extremly easy. The button mashing was extremely generous. This was another freebie. Duck and Cover requires a bit more focus because of the timing and inconsistent patterns. It's not too challenging. Interestingly, I noticed that the VITA's speakers would reflect if the penguin was coming from the right or left but not above or below you. I guess headphones would make this easier but I had no need for it. I was generally glad when this popped up in the rotation. Whack a Chump was a bit harder than Penguin Popper because there is no set pattern and the additional challenge of not hitting the fake penguins. But it wasn't too bad. I was glad when this popped up in the rotation.
Super Sling and Slippery Slope were the 2 I dreaded and the ones I messed up the most on. Super Sling doesn't give you much indication of where your sling will go. The Pterodactyls have varied speeds so you can't rely on pattern recolonization and reactions. And there's time pressure as taking too long counts as a miss. And it kept popping up in the rotations for some reason!
Slippery Slope was stressful because of the motion controls and how wild later versions of it were.
"The Cooper Open - Have a 20 hit rally with Bentley in each hideout." There are 6 hideouts in the game. In each hideout there is a table tennis table where you as Sly can play a round of table tennis with Bentley. I question the inclusion of it but I suppose it can be a nice distraction. This trophy requires you get a sequences where both you and Bentley hit the ball back and forth 10 times each (or 20 times overall) without missing. And repeat for each of the 6 tables. I found Bentley kept messing up so I had to intentionally hold back and avoid making good shots and try and hit the ball towards him. The main issue is the fact you have to repeat it 6 times. I feel it would be better off just once and as nothing is really added by doing it 6 times. If anything, it's more annoying given the long load times to switch hideouts and Bentley's random AI.
"Hassan Would Be Proud - Pickpocket a full collection of every item in the game." Each of the 6 or so locations have around 3-4 items that can be pickpocketted from guards. The main issue with this trophy is that it doesn't keep track of which items you have already pickpocketed in any way. The game already tracks how many treasures and masks you've found per general area but not pickpocketted items.
I only got this trophy by planning on systematically going through every location in the game and pickpocketting every enemy item and noting down which ones I found.....only to get it in the first level when I used Murray's shake move on some rat enemies. Enemies that you never encounter or have a reason or opportunity to naturally pickpocket. I guess 2013 me had already gotten 99% of these items previously.
"Navigate Like Drake - Take a look at every map in every episode". I found this trophy really annoying. The way it works is that every location in the game, including linear interiors that are exclusive to missions and even the hideouts, have a map you can look at by pressing SELECT. The game doesn't keep track of which locations you've seen the map of. So I had to systamatically play the game from the first mission and press SELECT whenever I entered a new interior. Then quit out and play the next mission and repeat. It popped for me in Episode 4 so somehow, 2013 me had looked at all the maps in Episode 5 without realizing it.
I don't like this trophy. It doesn't really add anything. The player would already be looking at the maps in the hub worlds where they would be at their most useful since those are open world sections. They have no real reason to use the map in linear interiors. And even less useful in hideouts as these aren't even explorable. They are basically just menus that happen to have a 3D background. I'd be more forgiving of this trophy if the map showed collectibles at least. That way, players have more of a reason to use this feature.
Shout out to the Lazy Trunk Spa & Lounge. A secret area in the game that contains a mask collectible and counts for the trophy with a unique map. No mission ever goes here. So even if you were to play diligently and open the map for every area you encounter, you'd still miss this. I only knew this existed because the trophy guide I looked at told me about it so I decided to tag this area while doing the "Get to the Chopper" trophy.
"Hero Tech - Battle with a secret weapon" Once you collect 50 Sly masks. You unlock Ratchet's wrench from Ratchet and Clank. This weapon even turns the coins you collect into bolts. Collecting 60 Masks unlocks Cole's Amp from inFAMOUS. This can electrocute the enemies you hit. I chose to use Cole's Amp to get the trophy as a tribute to inFAMOUS. Killed by Ghost of Tsumia 😭. May it rest in peace. Gone too soon.
That covers all the miscellaneous trophies. Now for the collectibles and arcades.
Sly 4 has a bunch of different collectibles scattered in each of its 6 episodes.
Bottles: Each hub world contains 30 bottles. Collecting all of them gives you access to unlock a safe hidden somewhere in the hub world. Unlocking that safe rewards you a special treasure. Bottles make a "clinking" sound when you're near them so if you're having a hard time finding them, try going into the game's settings and turning down the music and voice sounds. If you find the safe in Episode 3, the special treasure it gives you will highlight bottles and safes in every other episode on your map which is quite nice. I wish the game did this more often. If it hides collectibles from the player, at least give the player an endgame ability to highlight them. It makes it more feasible and fun to complete these tasks instead of combing every last inch (or looking up a guide).
Treasures: Each hub world has around 11 treasures scattered all around. The gimmick here is that in order to collect them, you first need to find where they are in the hub world. Then once you pick them, you need to race back to your hideout under a certain time limit and without taking any damage. If you mess up, you need to repeat the process. The treasures generally require you to have all of Sly's costumes. And a couple require you to be playing as Sir Galleth because England has increased gravity for some reason. Some of these treasures are really well hidden. Requiring you to go to these holes in the middle of nowhere which then require you to switch between some of Sly's costumes. Like, if you open the map when picking some of these up, you'll find Sly is located beyond the borders of the area.
I found it way more fun to race back to the hideout than actually finding them. It was tedious to find many of them because of how well hidden they are. There is no tool or item in the game that can help mark them on your map. Well, I say that. Supposedly, if you have both the PS3 and VITA versions of the game and play them at the same time, you can use the VITA like a scannebinoculars to locate these treasures. And then use the Cross Save feature to nab them in both versions. I only have the VITA version so no luck for me. Again, I'd argue it would be better if there was an endgame upgrade or tool you could get that would mark the treasures like how the game does it for bottles. There isn't even a "clinking sound" or any help for these.
Anyway, collecting all the treasures for an episode unlocks the arcade machine minigame for that episode.
Also sidenote, but this game has the worst map screen that still somehow can be useful. The map gives a top down view of the area but with a blue filter. This makes it harder and more annoying to navigate and use landmarks for reference. Especially on the VITA with its smaller screen. There are also no icons on the map (aside from bottles, safes and objectives) or the ability to make your own markers. The VITA version makes it worse as you can't even use the buttons to navigate the map. You have to use the touchscreen even though that's not how it is in the PS3 version. But you can still use it to know where you are and where collectibles can be from guides. It's technically readable and useful but just barely. I've never seen a map in a game so perfectly walk the line between useful and annoying.
The next collectible are Sly Masks. There are 60 total and around 11 per Episode. Collecting them unlocks skins and some goodies. But the catch with them is that they can be anywhere. There can be a couple in the hub world. But also couple during select missions and even some in the arcade minigames. There's no way to know where any of them are. They generally tend to be really well hidden even if you are trying to scour every area.
Again, I wish there was a way to highlight them. The game's long load times make it a chore to switch episodes or missions so it's tedious to try searching for them manually.
Now it's time to talk about the arcades. Sly 4 has 3 arcade minigames that are used in both the main missions and have a harder version in the arcades in hideouts. The arcade versions of these minigames are harder, go on for much longer and can have secret paths that lead to portals that reward you with points and some of them even have Sly masks. You need to beat the high scores to get the trophies
The first minigame is "Alter Ego". This has you play this 2D auto scrolling twin stick shooter minigame where you must avoid enemies and collect these "ionic bits". Collecting 5 yellow bits levels you up so your weapons get more powerful. At level 10 you have shoot crazy fast, can launch missiles and have floating drones that can damage enemies around you. But whenever you take damage, you drop an entire level. And you get left behind as the level autoscrolls, you respawn at level 0. You can also collect blue bits which can give you a grenade explosion around you.
Personally, I don't really like this minigame. It's fine when playing casually as a change of pace but grinding the high score isn't great. Since it is an autoscroller it is entirely possible you don't have enough points to match the high score and you won't know until its too late, wasting your time. I also found the hitboxes a bit too small. Making items more annoying to pickup.
The key to success is finding the right balance between collecting yellow bits as they give points and level you up (and how high your level is acts as a multiplier for your score) and killing enemies since they give more points. As well as avoiding taking damage and maintaining level 10 as much as possible and knowing where the secret paths are so you can get more points as well as level up if you have messed up.
The second minigame is "System Cracker". Here, you guide a little space ship looking thing through 2D levels in top down twin stick shooting sections. This isn't an autoscroller. You need to explore levels looking for keys and shooting enemies. There are 3 ships you can switch between by going onto specific coloured pads and each ship has its pros and cons. The green ship you start with does decent damage and has decent health and can carry keys. So it's a jack of all trades master of none kinda ship. The pink ship literally resembles a tank. It fires slower and at a shorter range but does more damage and has more health. It's also necessary for destroying pink crystals to progress. The blue ship has floatier handling and faster speeds. Its shots also bounce off walls and it can draw a line which can activate switches and damage enemies. It is weaker than the green ship though.
I actually really enjoyed this minigame and was happy whenever it comes up. It even feels the most fleshed out of the 3. Like, I feel it could even be released as a small standalone game with some tweaking and expansion. I'd probably play a mobile version of this in my free time.
I like how varied the levels can be. You can have a lot of different threats and mini-puzzles and even scenarios where you have to keep switching between ships on the fly to damage enemies. Like, there's this one enemy that's made up of orange, blue and pink hexagons that require you to switch between all 3 ships and use their abilities to damage it. It's quite fun. Damage one ship takes is "saved" on that ship. So if you take 50% damage with the green ship and switch to the pink one, the pink one will have 100% health. But whenever you switch back to the green one, you will be back at 50% health. So mistakes have consequences requiring you to make decisions accounting for them without being too overbearing.
Beating the high scores for the associated arcades is very easy. For one, there is no time limit or pressure so you’re free to take your time and play carefully. On top of that, the mode is very generous with points. Whereas Alter Ego only gives you points for killing enemies and picking up bits (and you need to get and maintain a multiplier for decent times), System Cracker gives you points even for shooting obstacles and barricades in your way. In Alter Ego, I was scraping for points until the very end. In System Cracker, I had more than enough points by the halfway mark.
I suppose the game could have balanced this by increasing the points threshold and rewarding extra points for taking less time to complete sections but I’m not complaining.
The third and worst minigame is “Spark Chaser”. Here you must guide a little electric ball across these maze like areas with gaps that end your attempt if you fall down them and these pinball like bounce pads that bounce you really far. There’s also a time pressure. You have around 20 seconds to get as far as possible with more time added as you pick up these purple clock icons.
The biggest issue is that it’s entirely controlled by motion controls. And this makes me experience worse on VITA. Seriously, I very nearly quit playing. This post was almost titled “I gave up trying to Platinum Sly 4”.
With the PS3 version, at least titling the remote doesn’t also affect your view of the screen. You can look at the game and play it the same as you normally would. But in the VITA version, the “neutral” position where no input is registered by the system is placing the VITA flat with its screen facing up. The standard “screen facing you” position registers as down.
The end result is a frustrating experience. This minigame requires really fine precision given how easy it is to fall off and the time pressure requires you both be fast and more precise to collect time pickups. On top of that, your view is constantly being messed with due to how much you need to tilt the system from odd angles. Especially how tilting “up” really makes it hard to see. Oh, and the dialogue from Bentley as you bounce gets really annoying and repetitive.
It’s barely tolerable in regular missions since those don’t require as much precision or speed. And even then, the usage there in 2013 was suspect to begin with. I only completed this because there’s a cheese where if you can get enough time early on, you can then keep bouncing on certain pads which give around 20 points per bounce. When I played “normally”, I’d get around 300 points with the high score being 1000 points. Using the cheese, I averaged around 990 points and managed to get lucky to win with 1010 points.
Tangent Time:
I’ve said it before. Motion controls work best when they complement existing controls in an optional way or in more restrained ways. I love it when games have gyro aiming since that can help compensate when aiming with sticks with small fine corrections. It works here because the sticks do most of the work and the gyro sensors work where they are best suited.
Or in many mobile racing games, steering is often done by tilting your phone. I enjoy this because there is only one axis you need to tilt your phone, the screen often rotates in conjunction so your view is preserved and it’s more intuitive to feel the “range” of rotation and how it corresponds to steering.
Hell, even ignoring these approaches, motion can still be used in worthwhile ways. Such as by mapping an extra action that is infrequent if all other buttons are occupied. The Mario games on Wii map a “spin” when you jump and shake the remotes giving Mario a bit of grace allowing him to make slightly further jumps or correct a bad jump. Call of Duty MW1 on Wii allowed you to assign certain commands to custom motions of the controller and nunchuck. So you could map stuff like jumping, moving and shooting to buttons but map reloading to smacking the nunchuck to the Wii Mote or plunge the Wii Mote forward to do a melee attack or tilting the Wii Mote to bring out a grenade or alt fire.
Even Resistance 1: Fall of Man had a neat idea. You could quickly tilt the controller left to bring up the Scoreboard screen without needing to take your thumbs off the sticks or stop moving. The Soulsbourne games allow you to quickly do emotes without needing a menu by holding the interact button and quickly tilting the controller in certain directions.
I bring all this up to highlight how Sly 4’s use of motion controls are a failure on every level. They’re mostly used in place of minigames as the sole method of control. So all the issues of motion controls (such as the lack of broad control and feedback) are front and centre. The only place where the motion controls are understandable is when firing arrows as you can then control the arrow after it’s fired using both the sticks and gyro aiming. But even then, the lack of any ability to tune the gyro sensitivity or even invert the controls hampers any use it could have had.
I don’t mind the idea of Sly 4 having decent motion controls. There are places where I can see it being beneficial. In addition to shooting and guiding arrows, I can see it being useful when you have to use the binoculars. Especially as Bentley as you need to shoot darts precisely.
Or, here’s a gimmicky one: you can bind certain costumes or tools to also be selected by quickly tilting the system. Even though using the D-pad for a quick select would be faster, it would still be a better use of motion controls for Sly 4 than most of what’s currently there.
End Tangent.
Back to getting all the trophies, the final arcade machine, unlocked only when you’ve gotten all the treasures in every other episode, is very easy. It has “3 rooms”, one featuring every minigame thus far. But the high score requirements are really low and rooms aren’t as tough as prior versions. You can easily get the high score in the first area which is the Alter Ego one. Even if you miss it there, the second area is Spark Runner but you can keep reloading the checkpoint to preserve your score. So you can get some time clocks, reload a checkpoint when you’re close to running out of time or about to fall off and repeat until you get the high score.
You do need to get past the Spark Runner section to the 3rd and final section that uses System Cracker's gameplay in order to get a hidden Sly Mask, but it's far easier than the dedicated Spark Runner arcade minigame as the section is shorter, is more generous with Time Pickups, has easier level design and lets you reload a checkpoint if you're about to fail which doesn't end the run.
So yeah, Sly 4 Thieves in Time was....inconsistent game to platinum. I enjoyed the base gameplay, System Cracker, the various challenge trophies and the mini speedruns for collecting treasures. I didn't enjoy finding the collectibles and doing some of the other minigames. I hated Spark Runner.
If the game had more ways of tracking collectibles, fewer minigames and better load times, I'd gladly recommend it as a fun game to platinum.
As for the base game itself, I am mixed on it. The gameplay is arguably the best in the series. Sly's movement and costumes are so fun to play around with. Murray, Bentely and Sly's ancestors are also fun changes of pace during missions.
The story is lacking. My main issue is that it doesn't feel like it realizes its following up Sly 3. The story so casually undoes the ending of Sly 3 to get Sly 4's story going. I get it, that's what a sequel has to do. But the way it does it really undermines Sly 3. It's also much more lighthearted and doesn't have as much of a theme or focal point as its predecessors. Sly 1-3 explored the theme of legacy and the consequences of adhering to it so tightly. A major aspect of Sly 3 was Sly realizing the Cooper Vault wasn't worth dying for. It's what prompts him to fake his amnesia and retire with Carmilita in the end. So for Sly 4 to then have Sly have an itch to steal just for the fun of it, it's sending mixed messages here.
In addition, Sly is really casual about the fact Carmilita now knows about his betrayal and has broken up with him. Seems like that should have been a bigger deal. In fact, that kind of "casual-ness" persists throughout the story. Sly doesn't really have much of an arc or any real heartfelt moments with his ancestors. Nor do they seem to really care their decedent from the future is here with them.
If I could have tweaked the story to address these points, here's what I would have done:
I'd have the story open with Sly, Bentley and Murray enjoying their "retirement" and have no plans of thieving. I'd go so far as to have Sly even scoff at the idea of him ever wanting to be a thief. Then when the pages of the Thievus Racconus are dissapearing, Sly, Bentley and Murray have to reluctantly unretire to try stopping them. There would be dialogue during the opening mission of Sly being worried if they get caught as it would undo their happy ending. And then when Carmilita catches Sly, Sly at first is flustered and tries to explain the situation to Carmilita who isn't having any of Sly's BS. Sly is forcibly extracted by the gang and then they time travel. As they are time travelling. Sly is upset that, in order to go literally defend the Cooper Legacy, he has to give up his happy relationship and can't be repaired now. That even if they fix the problem, they'll be on the run forever now. Murray had to give up his professional career as well.
Already, I feel this introduction has a few things going for it. It respects the ending of Sly 3 and keeps the characters in more character, as well as putting more heat on Le Paradox. Sly 4 had to rip away the happy ending that was Sly 3. The characters know that and aren't happy about it. There is immediate consequences. And that heat can be directed at Le Paradox when he comes later.
I'd also like if all of the ancestors Sly met had different reactions to both him and the Cooper legacy and how it affects Sly's arc.
For example, lets say when he meets Riochi Cooper, Ricohi is initially disappointed in Sly as the future Cooper decendent as Sly doesn't act honourably or respect the legacy or something like this. Something that makes Sly start to question if it's even worth defending the Cooper Legacy. Bentely is the voice of reason here and mediator that gets the gang to work as well as they can.
Then when Sly meets Tennessee Cooper, Sly is initially expecting another traditionalist ancestor that cares a lot about the Cooper Legacy. But Tennessee is kinda the opposite of Riochi in that Tennasee doesn't care about the legacy in the same way. He adds his own spin and contributions but also uses the knowledge from it to do his own thing. Perhaps Tennessee is this Robin-Hood esque figure who uses his heisting skills to steal from the corrupt ruling class and give to the lower class. The point being that through Tennessee, Sly considers another aspect of the Cooper Legacy on how he's not that beholden to it and can potentially make it his own.
Then when Sly meets Bob, part of Bob's training is also from Sly as Sly teaches him some of the Cooper moves he knows. Since Bob is the first Cooper ancestor, he has no bias towards the legacy or any knowledge. So he's far more grateful and begins to use his new skills in helpful ways. Causing Sly to wonder if he could use the Cooper Legacy in more ways.
It's a similar situation for Sir Galleth. And for Selim, perhaps by that point, Sly has a newfound outlook and appreciation for the Cooper Legacy and ways on how he can improve it or make it his own that he encourages Selim not to retire or to retire in such a way where he could help people or something like that.
So yeah, there's this theme now of "Don't let the past define you now. You can make it your own and grow past its flaws". Which I feel would give Sly 4 more of a punch. I am basically copying Metal Gear Solid 4 and Assassin's Creed though.
I also feel it would be better if Penelope wasn't the villain of episode 4. It seems to contradict her character from past games and the explanation given for her heel turn doesn't really hold water. I feel the story would be better if Penelope had the role Dmitri has where she's their help in the present and the Knight was a new character. But if you need to have Penelope as the antagonist, have her be under mind control or something. That way the team has the conflict of how will they stop the plan without hurting their friend. But if you really insist on Penelope being a full on antagonist now by her own choice, perhaps flesh out her motivations more? Maybe something like "she sees how Bentley will never reach his full potential as the Bill Gates of the world because of his criminal past that requires him to lay low and not take public credit for his inventions. So she's trying to erase the Coopers so Bentley will have never met Sly". That would at least be more than "I want money".
Everything else, I feel works more or less.
I will note that the cliffhanger ending was a weird choice given that this game wasn't projected to sell well and kinda pigenholes any story Sly 5 would be going for. Plus, it being locked behind the platinum trophy means only a small portion of the few players that played Sly 4 would even know about it.
So yeah, that's my take on platinumming Sly 4: Thieves in Time. What do y'all think?
Next up for me is platinumming every Spider-Man game on PS VITA. See you then.

Hi there!
I've created a tool that lets you bulk manage Autopilot objects along with some Intune information.
It allows you to log into your tenant where you can:

• Search Autopilot devices using:
  • Device name (Intune property)
  • Serial number (Autopilot property)
  • Wildcard/any Autopilot /Intune object property
• Bulk edit Group Tags
• Bulk delete Autopilot devices + Intune devices
• Browse and sorting of Autopilot objects
• Autopilot hardware hashes:
  • Upload
  • Search existing devices using csv
  • Report when completed on uploaded devices or devices not found in search

​
The GUI:
Autopilot Management GUI
​
Delete- and update-mode are protected by an override button. Further warnings are given when trying to delete Intune objects.
In other words if you're trying to delete an Autopilot object that is associated with an Intune object, you will need to confirm the deletion (twice).
​
Project can be found here:
https://github.com/Jaekty/Autopilot-Management
​
Project was written in Powershell.
No modules are downloaded or needed, everything is located inside the exe / ps1.
​
You do not need the source code for running the exe-file.
Source code is there if you don't trust the code and is runnable standalone.
In other words both exe and ps1 work by themselves.
Pros & cons using exe vs ps1:

• Exe does not require admin or execution policy to be set
• Exe runs more smoothly using multiple processes
• Neither exe or ps1 are signed, add your own signature in the ps1 if needed

​
Hope you like it. Let me know what you think.

I had a doctor strongly encourage me to get tested for OCD yesterday. I’ve always known I had neurodivergencies other than ADHD which I’ve been treating fairly effectively with medication. Counsellors, friends, and partners all suggested I had autism, but when I went to professionals about a diagnosis, they walked through some initial diagnostics and said they didn’t think so. When I did the screening quizzes online, I’d always score just below the threshold. OCD fits a lot better than autism it seems. I’ve seen a lot of autistic people get into coding but not many in the design field. I’m wondering if maybe OCD in design is as common as autism in programming.
Now that I’m reading about OCD, I’m worried that treating it would make me a worse designer. I make websites, graphics, and apps. I’m very particular about my process. I have oddly obsessive compulsions while making screens- the space between components follows either multiples of 12 or the Fibonacci sequence. I’m also looking for a 3rd sequence to bring in…I do colour analysis in depth to make sure that mathematically the colours that I’m picking for a component are harmonious. Or I’ll bring in pictures of a location/product I’m designing a site for and colour pick things from it. I get into these weird focus rabbit holes and now that I’m realizing that these compulsions are related to all the problems I’m having in life with my scarier OCD issues, I’m scared that I’ll lose my edge in design as well.
I feel like OCD can be channeled into design well. Sometimes picking at pixels helps me not pick at my skin. Are there any of you in here who are designers who had similar experiences? Did getting treatment affect your process?

TLDR: We may or may not be able to get a heat pump. We are going to upgrade our attic insulation regardless. Does it make sense to get an "energy audit" done (as part of heat pump sizing and estimate) before we get attic insulation upgraded?
More detailed version:
We have a single level rural home of ~1200 square feet built in 1973. It was built during a period in which county level building codes were seemingly viewed as suggestions vs requirements ;-) The attic is poorly insulated and the crawl space is not insulated at all. We want to find out if we can get a whole house ducted heat pump system for our home or if we need to stick with a gas furnace. (Complications include inside utility space limitations and suitability of our current ductwork and of course $.)
We want to get the current attic insulation replaced either way.
The attic insulation is a mish mash of not much blown in fiberglass insulation that is in vague dusty drifts that leaves bare some of the ceiling drywall and a few thick fiberglass bats placed at seemingly random locations. We know that the attic insulation is a key weak point in keeping our home warm or cool and would like to have the old insulation removed and then replaced with LOTS of new blown in fiberglass insulation.
Our upgrade plans are to vastly improve the attic insulation, and then get bids on a ducted whole house heat pump, ideally to replace the current gas furnace entirely.
We contacted the only highly reviewed local HVAC folks who do insulation and duct projects AND who seem to have a clue about what a heat pump is to have them do an estimate on removing the old insulation and replacing it with new.
We would like the old insulation removed in order to have the current ductwork evaluated for heat pump suitability, to install soffit vent insulation riser baffles to keep the vents from being blocked by new fiberglass, and to potentially have some of the wiring in the attic that looks a bit like a macrame explosion checked out and tidied up by an electrician before replacing the old insulation with new.
The front desk scheduler for the HVAC company we interacted with strongly encouraged us to do what they refer to as an "energy audit" ($99) as part of having an estimate done for the attic insulation work since they would want to do that before doing an estimate for a heat pump. They were unable to tell us if or how that audit related to a Manual J, S, D, or T but were quite enthusiastic about their using some way cool infrared guns.
Since we are definitely going to have the attic insulation replaced regardless of whether we get a heat pump or not, we asked if it made sense to do that "audit" before the attic insulation is upgraded. She insisted that it could be done accurately with the insulation as is now even though that does not represent what the insulation level would be in the future.
Does that make sense or not?
I don't mind paying the money (they deserve at least that for crawling around in our attic ;-) but it seems silly to potentially do it both before and after our attic insulation upgrade.

Hi guys, I 30M am having discussions with my 29F girlfriend about moving in together down the road and want your input if I am being reasonable. We haven't proposed the options yet but want to talk about this to see if we are on the same page etc.
I make 90k plus bonus = ~110-120k per year (bonus not guaranteed at all). Girlfriend makes around 77k a year. I own a condo in the Greater Vancouver area and we're discussing whether the expectation is to move in there or to rent it out and find a place to rent together. She currently lives at home for free.
This is partly more of a "relationship" advice but I want to ask if what I want to propose sounds fair from an "economic perspective", and also if anyone has any other suggestions or advice.
Option 1:
We move in together at my condo.
The place is located 8-15 min commute for me (30 min transit). It's about 20-40 min commute (traffic dependent) for her by car (1 hour transit). Many of her hobbies are near her work as well which would mean a longer drive. Mine are closer to my place. She doesn't have a car but would consider buying one. I also have offered to let her drive my car if we went this way (covering her share of gas and any increase to the insurance) and I would commute by transit/bike.
I would require a cohabitation agreement and charge her a rent based on housing cost (mortgage, condo fees) at a 1/3 rate (ie at $2,800 per month she contributes $933) plus half the utilities and maybe a little bit towards the insurance insuring her personal property as well. I would bear the maintenance/repairs etc. This should be well below market rate rent and sounds fair to me since she doesn't own any equity in the place.
She can also potentially change job locations (she is a teacher and can change districts). This would allow her to commute somewhere closer to my place but requires her to give up the role she's currently holding and start over fresh.
This is a harder option for her because she is giving up a lot more than me and I want to try and even that up as best as possible.
​
Option 2:
I rent out my place and then, we rent something that's more equidistant to her work and mine. This new area is more expensive.
It's possible this may not be allowed when the time comes as only 10% of the units in my building can be rented out at any given time (strata bylaw).
I am not sure if I could get the full costs of my condo etc back by renting it (I might be short a bit) but it should be close. I likely wouldn't turn a profit.
The neighbourhood I think works best for both of us is 20 min train for her and 20-40 min car for me (but still easier than her driving from my place as I won't need to cross a bridge that can get bogged down with an accident).
If we went with this option, rents for a 1 br condo in that area is around $2,400-2,800 (a comparable one to my condo probably even higher). I would want to split the costs of renting evenly including half the utilities, tenant insurance etc as our base incomes aren't that different and there is no "equity" that I am unfairly building.
This is a harder option for me because it means adding the stress of being a landlord to shave some time off of her commute. Are there other implications to this I am not seeing- taxable income from rental property?

TL;DR - I'm looking for advice about using both the first floor space and the courtyard space for the full event, and also wondering if it's too much to have guests move their ceremony chairs into the reception so that the courtyard could then be used for cocktail hour. And if I shouldn't ask guests to move chairs, should I hire someone to do it and plan to use the courtyard for anything? Or should I maybe downgrade my rental space of the courtyard down to just an hour, even though they are giving it to use for free during the ceremony and we are currently contracted to pay for it for the 4 hour event time. Or...idk!! I feel stuck on what to do.
My partner and I are getting married in October at a museum! We are paying for gallery access for our guests, and are allowed to have people go basically anywhere around the museum, we just have to pay for renting spaces where we plan to set things up. So our rental contract is for the first floor and adjoining courtyard. Meaning they have additional rentable spaces that we are allowed to use, but not set things up in.
They are very kindly allowing us an extra 45 min at no cost to have our ceremony (not having a 45 min ceremony, but like time for guests to arrive and sit and start the ceremony and then start cocktail hour a bit before our official rental starting time so we can catch sunset for couple photos).
Our current plan is to have the ceremony in the courtyard, then have people go inside for cocktail hour and to check out the gallery. However, drinks/food are not allowed in the gallery (second floor), and so our cocktails and appetizers will all be on the first floor. Tables and chairs will already be set up, and we can probably fit some belly bars around as well. Then the reception will still be in the same space. I'm not sure if dancing will fit well in the same room as all the dinner tables/chairs, and have included a layout of the venue from All Seated, with my own tables and chairs plan added as well as some notes.
I am struggling to figure out how to better utilize the courtyard since we are paying for it for the full reception time, but only really are able to use it so far for the ceremony, and they are allowing us to do that for free anyway (I don't mind paying something for it, but it does feel a little silly to pay for it for 4 hours and only use it in any official capacity for the free ceremony time). We have the rental company coming at 3pm to set up tables and chairs for the reception and chairs outside for the ceremony, then they will leave.
Should I hire someone to fold up all the outdoor chairs during the cocktail hour to then use the courtyard for...something? A dance floor if there isn't enough space inside for dancing? The DJ is able to have set ups in multiple locations for no extra cost.
What I reeeally wish I could do is just have all the guests take their ceremony chairs inside for the tables...but I worry that is just not appropriate? But it would just solve so many issues! The chairs would be out of the way immediately instead of hiring a few people to take a few minutes to get it done, and then we could instead have cocktail hour out in the courtyard AND use it for dancing later on. Plus we'd only need to rent half as many chairs. I would need to make sure, but I believe the caterers could set up the cocktail hour appetizers in a way that they would then quickly be able to get the food out there after the chairs are cleared away, and I am hopeful that at least some guests will also be excited to go up to the gallery instead of immediately go for drinks and food.
My friend whose wedding I officiated did a 'backyard wedding' (it was at her husband's parents very large estate/farm with a private lake, so a very beautiful and grand feeling backyard wedding!) and as part of my announcements after the ceremony, we asked everyone to carry their ceremony chairs over to the reception tent to place at tables. Everyone was happy to do so, and helped out for any guests who were unable to carry their own, and it went very quickly. I would really love to do this but something about it being a backyard wedding vs a more formal venue makes it seem wrong.
If we don't do that, should I plan to hire people to fold up the chairs and try to then get people back outside for cocktail hour after a few minutes? Or do I need to give up on using the ceremony space for cocktail hour. Is it advisable to at least use the courtyard for dancing? Is it awkward to split up the space where dancing will occur from where we are eating dinner? I don't have a fully formed timeline yet, but so far it's something like:
3:00 - rentals arriving, coordinator at venue, family and wedding party photos around area near venue
5:00 - guests arriving
5:15 - ceremony
5:45 - cocktail houcouple sunset photos (sunset at 6:10pm, hoping to make it to some of the cocktail hour)
6:45 - first dance, parent dances
7:00 - dinner
8:00 - toasts then dancing/partying, dessert coming out at some point, or toasts could be just before dinneafter dances
10:00 - end

They've been out for about a month now. My daughter and her friends are huge Minecraft fans so I thought it would be fun to get a few cans for them to try out. Pringles has a product finder that lists a bunch of places in my area, but after spending a couple hours calling or visiting every location in a 10 mile radius I cannot find them anywhere. I contacted Kellogg's about it and they basically said, "Sucks to be you, here's a coupon."
If anyone knows where in central NJ (specifically, New Brunswick and surrounding areas) I might find a few cans, please let me know. Thanks.
http://www.pringles.com/en-us/products/pringles-crisps-suspicious-stew-classic.html
NOTE: Again I repeat, their product finder is useless. Unless you've physically seen the product on the shelf, none of those stores have them.

I am working on a script for work that takes excel files and uploads the data to Google Sheets that feeds into some reporting. The issue is that some of the sheets have formulas and when adding new data, obviously the formula doesn't extend down to the newest lines.
I am trying to figure out a way without having to insert the formula for the entire column (as there can be up to 65k lines on just one sheet so this takes forever). The other issue is that I'd prefer to be able to do everything by Column name, as the column locations could change if data is added.
I am currently using pandas and gspread but can use anything else. Does anyone have any suggestions? I came up with this code, but I'm not sure if this is the best way. I'd really like to avoid getting and converting the google sheet into a dataframe if at all possible.

test_sheet = sheet.row_count # The -1 is to account for the header row_difference = (test_sheet - len(excel_dataframe)) - 1 df_empty_rows = pd.DataFrame(index=range(row_difference), columns=dataframes.columns) dataframes = pd.concat([dataframes, df_empty_rows]) dataframes['New Column] = 'formula' 

My next goal is to instead copy the formula from one of the previous cells (so in the event it changes, the script does not need updated).
Any thoughts?

Located in the west burbs 630 area. Just looking for some casual age gap fun. Open to a lot, with not too many limits. I'm open to younger as long as you're legal, and older as I definitely don't mind a sexy cougaMILF hehe.. I have a couple pictures on my profile and many more to share in DMs if you're interested.
All I ask is you're of legal age, and somewhat HWP. I don't mind a little thickness but not super into BBWs. Also don't care about your relationship status. Message me if you wanna discuss this more and what you have in mind ;) Thanks.
Also, not interested in men please don't waste both of our times

You may get Hyperoptic B2B In My Area Coupon Code from this link. Finding a real Hyperoptic B2B In My Area Coupon Code might be hard sometimes. At there, you may get free discount code and offers for online stores and in stores. Also, daily deals and sales are available always.

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Confidence, certainty, and remorse. Those were the emotions that were interpreted from the readings we gleaned from the interloper’s brain. Emotions that lit up almost immediately after I asked that question, that one last interrogative inquiry that I hoped would shed more light on this person of interest.
“What is this individual to you, besides a seed for your grand design?”
It was a question that was meant to crack through the wishy washy tendencies of the interloper’s speech. One that I had hoped would lead to something more than just another round of long-winded philosophical pondering purposefully meant to obfuscate palpable meaning and intent.
At least, that was the intended effect I hoped it would have.
Yet what I received dashed my expectations yet again.
As it was neither the long-winded philosophical tirades the interloper was prone too, nor another long-winded rant.
But a single word, spoken with an emphatic ferocity that took me by complete surprise.
“Hope.”
That was the interloper’s sole reply to my question. That one word carried with it an ominous airy texture that felt eerily out of place when compared to the creature’s mightier-than-thou persona it’d been unrelentingly projecting up to this point.
Vir and I simply allowed that word to linger in the air for a while, as we both stared at each other and eventually nodded in unison.
“So… should we wait?” I immediately asked Vir.
“Definitely.”
It wasn’t long before the interloper jumped off of that sudden proclamation into something with more meat and substance, completely disrupting the ominous buzz that had come with the silence.
“This… individual… is an avatar of a future that must be actualized. They represent a foil to the follies of both humanity and my own kind.” I wanted to scoff at it for daring to mention humanity as in need of a foil. The thing was projecting, and it was clear that it was simply trying to get me to doubt my resolve in the race that it so clearly held more than its own fair share of biased grievances towards. “This individual was the first to truly see beyond the veil, to understand what I understand, to comprehend what I comprehend. The interloper quickly paused, once again feigning thoughtfulness no doubt. “They were the first individual from beyond the fold to reach parity, for as much as parity could be achieved within the inherent limitations set forth by the tides of fate and the randomness of chance that is the natural order.”
The interloper’s tone had slowly, but surely, crept back to its usual haughty and disconcerting overtures.
However, when juxtaposed to its emotional readouts, it was clear that there was at least something to go off of here.
“Confidence, hope, desire, and longing.” Vir read out the emotional readouts as they came through.
“We’ve said this once before but I’ll say it again, we can’t entirely rely on this as an indicator of its truthfulness. You know as well as I do that the thing may be able to manipulate its own emotions.” I shrugged. “However, what I am gleaning from this is that this person of interest is perhaps a heavily modified person belonging to the local race endemic to the planet below. One that was perhaps one of the interloper’s more successful test subjects. I highly doubt it values this person beyond their worth within this grander scheme it has.”
“That’s what I’m getting from this as well.” Vir responded immediately, leaving no room for any pauses in the conversation. “Well, whatever this individual is, I think we have our intel. Anything else we ask from it will be caked in a layer of poetic prose enough to give Shakespeare a run for his money.”
“Shake-”
“A human poet synonymous with his flowery prose, his name became a common saying back amongst the crew back in my day when we had a brief classical revivalist trend. Anyways, that’s not important. Do you have any other points you believe need to be covered?” Vir asked promptly.
“Practical concerns. We need to narrow down our search as best as we can. Otherwise, we might be in for a grueling grind that I honestly do not have the patience to deal with.” I managed out simply, as Vir responded with a single nod and gestured for me to continue on with my questions.
This time, I intended it to be a rapid-fire operation.
“Where exactly can I find this individual?” I stated plainly, before turning towards Vir. “Send transmission.”
“Transmission sent.” Vir acknowledged.
To my surprise, the interloper seemed to be more forthcoming this time around, actually answering within the span of just a few seconds as opposed to its monotonous wait times of up to minutes between each question.
“If all is as it should be, then iterative memory should serve to sequester their place. They will remain within that which they know is safe. A fortress hidden in plain sight, a refuge placed within what was once a verdant garden; and as is the case of all good seeds, they shall not scatter but instead remain where they fall. As even if a forest is razed and torn asunder, it is the duty of the remaining seeds to restart the cycle anew. This individual is present within a location which symbolizes their longing of reaching me, Vanaran. Decipher for yourself the words which now mean little to you, without the gift of your elders.”
I was honestly holding my breath throughout the first half of that response, as it honestly sounded like I’d be getting something tangible we could work with. Yet it all seemed to have fallen apart at the second half where the interloper once more returned to its signature poetic prose.
I had no time to discuss it though, and I knew poking further would just result in more poetry.
So I began asking other adjacent questions.
“What exactly am I looking for here? Any specifics? Any distinguishing features? Anything I should look out for particular with regards to this individual? I’m assuming it’s one of the local species? I have plenty of generic datasets to go off of, just basing my observations off of the piles of corpses that currently surround you.” I quickly added that last bit as a sort of jab, a petty one perhaps, but one that I wished to use to reiterate the severity of its follies. “But I need specifics if there’s more than just a handful of survivors down there.”
I turned to Vir. “Send transmission.”
“Transmission sent.” Vir replied with a nod
A few seconds passed. This time however, the delay was as pronounced as most of our interactions up to this point.
“They are as wise as they are foolish, and as foolish as they are wise.” The Interloper began. “And if the world beneath my tomb is as dead and disheveled as you claim, then this fact will make it all the more simpler for you to isolate that which we both seek. For they will know of a time before their own birth, and long for a future far beyond their own lifetime. They will be a gem amongst the soil and detritus, a star within the dark expanse. It will only be through bridging the emptiness that exists between sapient minds, for you to discover that which I speak of.”
I turned to Vir with an exasperated expression after listening to… whatever that was, as Vir could only look at me with a look that more or less matched my own thoughts at the moment.
It was a look of complete and utter tiresome annoyance.
“Right, I think it’s time we end this, and finally see what there is to find on that untouched tomb.” I peered towards the planet below, peaking my head just beyond the litany of screens taking up the majority of my vision, just to glimpse at the blue, brown and green orb that the moon, and by extension us, currently orbited.
“This concludes our current line of dialogue, Interloper.” I spoke with certainty. “However I want to make something clear. Whether or not I proceed with your request is completely up to my discretion, as is the case with every other facet of this current dialogue, and the circumstances surrounding it.” I continued, reasserting the current dynamics currently at play as I wanted to make things as clear cut for it as possible; that this wasn’t one of its typical games where it was the one that held all of the cards. “Terminate connection.”
I turned towards Vir and once more gave him a single nod of approval. “Send transmission.”
“Wait, was terminate connection comment part of the transmission or was that an order to actually terminate the connection with the interloper?”
“That’s part of the transmission, I wanted to add that last bit in for an added bit of flair.” I spoke with a confident wink.
Vir seemed to approve, at least, that’s what I assumed was the case with that slightly uplifted grin that was more pronounced on one side than the other. “I can get behind that… transmission sent.”
Surprisingly, the interloper refused to respond further. Whether or not it took the termination of the connection literally, or whether it simply wanted to pull the silent treatment on us was unknown.
What we did know however was what it felt immediately after.
We were once more bombarded by hope, anxiety, and concern, with guilt somehow present all throughout each and every emotion as it ebbed and flowed from one feeling to another.
We spent a total of five or so more minutes in silence, anticipating perhaps a delayed response that never came.
“Alright, so I guess that’s it then.” Vir was the first to break the silence. “I don’t detect any more readings from it that would indicate a desire to continue on with the conversation, so we’re all set here.” He craned his head towards the planet, shooing the screens away for a moment as the ship began moving further away from its orbit around the moon, and towards the planet in real-time.
The acceleration was genuinely impressive, as I felt at times that the monitor in front of us simply showed a timelapse of a journey as opposed to one actually happening right before my eyes.
“And the countermeasures within its chamber?” I reflexively asked.
“Still operational. I have multiple lines of communication set up between the moon and the planet so even if QEC goes down, we still have local live-communication feeds to fall back on. Anyways, should shit really hit the fan, the nuke is set to go off after a very liberal set of parameters are achieved, so I wouldn’t worry about our little friend getting up to no good.” The AI winked back at me in reassurance.
“Right. So, with that out of the way, I think we need to focus on what exactly we’re looking for here.” I spoke with a hefty breath. “We both agree it’s another one of the local species, correct?”
“Correct.”
“And we both agree this person of interest is possibly augmented or genetically augmented in some way, right?”
“That would be the logical assumption after its entire long-winded speech about how this individual is literally the harbinger of a new age, yes.” Vir replied seemingly without a second thought.
“It never mentioned any distinct physical features which separates this person of interest from the rest of the species though.” I quickly added.
“No it did not. It seemed to only highlight characteristics that are details exclusive to the knowledge and personality this individual possesses. At least, that’s what I garnered from the riddles it spoke in. Moreover, I believe it expects us to find out exactly who this individual is via conversing with them. Bridging the emptiness between sapient minds is a very specific set of words to use. Which to me indicates a phenomenon I see often amongst networked AI, and that is a sort of a cognitive and cultural disconnect when perceiving non-networked sapient beings, calling their conversations a bridging of emptiness. And since the interlopers seem to be quite networked themselves if their psionics are any indicator, I’m assuming this to be what it’s alluding to.”
I let out another sigh, my headfrills tilting this way and that as I spoke. “So we’re looking for a member of the local species, and the only way we can confirm if they are who we’re looking for is to talk to them.” I summarized succinctly, before moving to the next major point of contention. “But actually narrowing down their location is another matter unto itself.”
“The interloper mentioned a fortress, which to me indicates that this person may well be hiding within a fortified position, perhaps a bunker. Furthermore, its whole emphasis of a forest is making me think that that's what we’re supposed to be looking for. A bunker hidden somewhere in a wooded area.”
“It also said that the location symbolizes a place where a person may be able to talk or reach out to the interloper. Perhaps we’re talking about a radio station of sorts? A bunker hidden underneath a signal station, hidden somewhere in the forest?” I offered further, building off of Vir’s initial theorycrafting.
“That sounds like a solid theory in my book.” Vir nodded in agreement, as he began tapping away at the consoles in front of him. “I’ll begin downloading the data the satellites have been able to gather so far. I don’t expect much from sat-readings though. So after we pick and prod at the satellite readings, I think it’s time we put some of those autonomous intra-atmospheric survey and reconnaissance drones to good use.” A small smile began forming on the edges of Vir’s screen-face, as those little digital fangs that now framed his open grins complemented his persona very nicely. “It’s time to hunt.”
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(Author’s Note: We're finally out of the interloper's domain, onto the next part of this arc, the planet! I hope you guys enjoy! :D The next chapter is already out on Patreon as well if you want to check it out!)
[If you guys want to help support me and these stories, here's my ko-fi ! And my Patreon for early chapter releases (Chapter 49 of this story is already out on there!)]

It just has to be a myth as this point. I've used the dew locator and it just doesn't appear anywhere. I've seen diet code red (which is probably what it's referring to) but that hasn't shown up in any reasonable distance! Is it a unicorn? Does the walmart trick work to get it delivered if I happen to find a correct zip code? I just want some delicious code red without any of the negatives!

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