I have a FireTV Cube in my bedroom, and use it daily as an alarm clock. This morning, I woke up about 12 minutes late, with no alarm sounds. I was sure I had set it last night. I checked the Alexa app voice history and saw that it had heard me, and set the alarm. So I asked the Echo in my office what alarms were set, and it said that an alarm was ringing in the bedroom. I went back to the bedroom, saw that the blue light on my cube was on, but there was no sound. It wasn't muted and the volume was set fairly high. I canceled the alarm, but tested it later and it worked normally.
Any ideas what's going on? The cube is only a few months old, and has been working reliably. I'd like to avoid having a separate alarm clock.

Vent
Before I start I want to say that I have a reliable, stable roof over my head. We were able to afford a Costco run the other weekend so there's meat in the freezer. We're not going to go homeless or starve. My husband has a reliable job that works 50 hours a week so he gets 10 hours of overtime every Friday. He gets paid $23/hour. I'm not asking for help, just venting.
I'm a massage therapist. I've been doing this for about 10 years. I had a fantastic clientele at the spa that I worked at. I was so sick of working for somebody else, though. There's always drama and my boss started doing shady shit with our taxes and commisions. At the much encouragement of my clients, family, and friends, I opened up my own practice this past February. It has not gone as planned. Everything was so great until summer. Nobody has money anymore.
I have no money. I poured my small savings into my business. I didn't even go all out. I thrifted or curb shopped (free!) a lot of it. My husband pays the monthly bills while I pay the groceries, gas, the sitter, and anything else our 4 year old might need. I've been living off of my credit card. Husband has started covering groceries and my usual areas too. Grocery runs used to be less than $50 a week, now it's $100 a week for the same items. We do our best to be frugal. We don't eat steak and lobster. I buy meat from the almost expired discount section. I don't buy berries anymore because they're too expensive. Bananas are cheap. I lied on the self checkout at how many avocados I had because my son is going through a phase and it's all he wants. I eat one piece of toast with one egg, half an avocado, and homemade cream cheese (that got too expensive, so did butter). Now milk prices are going up again. At least I found some free seeds so we've started a vegetable garden. The rabbits ate the first couple shoots though. Fencing, even secondhand, is expensive for me right now.
I can't sleep because my bedroom is so hot. We have air conditioning but I put my son in the coldest room and I'm in the warmest, husband is in the middle warm room. My room is south facing and that side of the house is never shaded. I found $20 on the ground this morning in the parking lot. I cried because I could go get a box fan so I can maybe sleep. I had to buy one for my grandma last year and I remembered it being $10-15. I got to the aisle and cried again because it was $23.
My son needs cotton pajama shorts. He's getting terrible heat rash and ezcema in the summer. The awful quality store bought polyester pajamas do not help. Why do the girls sections have cotton clothing but not boys??? I'm a very good seamstress. I looked for a shorts pattern and cried again because the patterns used to be $2 and now they're $9. I can't do that. I've not been the best, historically, at making my own patterns. I know the theory so I'll just have to try again. Let's hope I don't mess up with the $5 cotton thrifted sheet too much. I literally don't have the money to buy another one. Most of the sheets nowadays are polyester anyway.
I market myself, I swear I'm doing what every person suggests to grow my practice. Summer is usually slower for massage. Everybody is taking vacations. It's just so incredibly frustrating to have boomer clients that are just so out of touch. My younger clients that can actually afford massage are the ones supporting me right now, as little as it is. My prices for my business are right with what the average massage costs ($90 for a 60 min). I can't raise them anymore.
I'm sorry, I'm not asking for help. I've got a roof over my head and food in the freezer. This is just so overwhelming. I'm going to look for a second job. Even though it'll take time from my son I just don't have an option right now. I have to make more money. Every time I go to the store it's more expensive. Heavin forbid student loan payments start again. Or my 200,000 mile Honda breaks down for good. I just had to spend $400 to fix it last weekend. Out of savings, again. My mechanic says it should be ok but I'll definitely need tires for winter. He's a friend and could tell I'm stressed about it all. He hugged me when I left and said he'll always do his best to take care of our vehicles. He's got his own busy household too, though.
I'm just...tired. Worried. Scared. I just can't believe how expensive everything has gotten. Even thrift stores and marketplace is more expensive.
Oh and my feet grew a whole size so none of my shoes fit anymore. I've got weird feet and birkenstocks are my go to. The sandals that I've had for 5+ years now give me blisters. All my shoes do now. Good luck finding decent shoes at size 11 at a thrift store.
I'm tough, we're tough. It's ok to have dry seasons because then you get creative. Someday this will all be a memory. We're gonna be ok but right now I'm so fucking sick of all this.

I've been trying to set up my NixOS system to use slock with PAM, specifically with pam-gnupg. Unfortunately, I've run into an issue where the PAM authentication isn't working as expected.
I am able to build slock, but when I first lock my computer using slock, and then try to authenticate, it shows a purple screen for a second, and then goes back to red (unauthentiacated).
I adjusted my NixOS configuration to build this modified version of slock, applying this diff
And here is the relevant part of my NixOS configuration:

 nixpkgs.overlays = [ (final: prev: { slock = prev.slock.overrideAttrs (old: { src = ../hosts/slock ; buildInputs = with pkgs; [ xorg.xorgproto xorg.libX11 xorg.libXext xorg.libXrandr libxcrypt linux-pam ];}); }) ]; programs = { slock.enable = true; }; security = { pam = { services = let defaults = { gnupg = { enable = true; noAutostart = true; storeOnly = true; }; }; in { login = defaults; slock = defaults; }; }; }; 

And I added this to my home manager configuration:

 programs.gpg.enable = true; home.file.".pam-gnupg".text = "62616463666568676A696C6B6E6D706F72717473"; services.gpg-agent = { enable = true; defaultCacheTtl = 54000; maxCacheTtl = 54000; extraConfig = '' allow-preset-passphrase ''; }; 

I suspect the issue might lie somewhere in the interaction between slock, PAM, and GnuPG, but I'm not entirely sure where the problem lies.
I'd be grateful if anyone could point me in the right direction. Has anyone encountered a similar issue or does anyone have suggestions for diagnosing and resolving this problem?
Thank you for your help!

This setting is still fairly new and undeveloped (the world is literally just called Wasteland at the moment), so I won’t go into too much detail outside of the magic system. Magic in this world is seperated into different “Limbs”, which are listed below. Most Limbs need energy to work (standard ATP from respiration), but others may have different costs too. I’d really appreciate any feedback on the Limbs I’ve made so far, and any suggestions! (Also, which Limb would you choose to have in this wasteland?)
Other nescessary information:
Jacks: Artificial devices that attach to the user’s body, which act as a “reaction chamber” for extra energy, but which can only be activated by Limb users. This is used by Limb users as a battery to increase how long they can use their abilities for, and how strongly. There are many different Jacks in production, varying in size and appearance, some better than others and some with different advantages. The “juice” inside is more often than not obtained from a specific kind of plant.
Distribution Levels: The rarity of a person having a specific Limb, increasing in rarity. Green, Amber, Red, White

——————————-LIMBS——————————

ACTIVATION
Average Cost: High Energy (per activation)
Distribution Level: Amber
Identifier: Hands more grey than usual, fingernails may be black.
Description: This limb works through conduction and users are taught from an eary age to do so through the palms. Upon touchinng the corpse of a recently deceased animal (within 24 hours of death, but may vary from environmental conditions), glowing orange waves will ripple across the body, “activating” it. For this reason, many “Battle Activators” have started using retractable metal wires with hook on the end in order to quickly access several corpses at once during battle. This will turn the whole body, apart from the bones, into “Minions”, which are the basis of all Activation. They appear to be roughly diamond-shaped slugs made from muscle. Each one has an organ in the middle of their body which looks like a protruding black eyeball, with a glowing orange ring-like “iris” in the middle. Through this organ the Minions feel all the senses, and this is also what you communicate with them through. Each minion is quite stubby, but stretchable, but at rest is around 10cm in length. The number of Minions made from a corpse of course varies from the actual amount of flesh available, as it is directly converted. Now you can “program” them to complete certain function loops or assemble into different shapes - this second part of activation doesn’t require any more energy. Minions can stick to each other to “assemble” into their different, more applicable functions. Most commonly, they are used to create powerful bodyguards or watchdogs in the form of golems and flying heaps. More advanced activators can also make their irises merge into more advanced “eyeballs” which can increase all of their senses. Although Minions can slightly change their structure to complete functions, such as turning into proto-bones and joints for golems, they can’t differ very much from their original form. Also, it takes skill and practice to increase how many Minions you can handle controlling at once - otherwise the rest wither away.
​
REPELLENT
Average Cost: Medium Energy
Distribution Level: Green
Identifier: Bumps that look like healed scars, distinctive circle shape with small “tendrils” off to the sides.
Description: Users have “Repulsion Nodes” in locations on their body (the bumps described above). These are most commonly on the feet, the knees, chest, palms or forehead - although most commonly the palms. The number of Repulsion Nodes a user is born with is decided at birth. At these nodes, users can use energy to release a superheated plasma “energy blast” created from particles in their blood. The repulsion can be many colours such as blue, pink, red, yellow, green etc - the colour mainly depends on how the user was trained with the power from birth, although genetic factors may have a small influence too, however this is unlikely to overrule the results of the training. Size, power, speed and shape can all be changed through concentration and improved through training. More trained Repellents can maximise the efficiency of their repulsions. Repulsions that you have created yourself don’t affect you, and bounce off/ glide along the surface of your body. This is why most users who have palm Repulsion Nodes assume a distinctive “finger gun” shape to make it easier to fire smaller, stronger and more accurate repulsions (think of the normal finger gun shape, but the thumb is not lifted up, and points in the direction of the “barrel” - this redirects the repulsion most efficiently). The actual effects of repulsions are similar to Star Wars blaster bolts, although more skilled users can decide to make some more explosive or more slicing.
​
AUGMENTATION
Average Cost: Low Energy
Distribution Level: Green
Identifier: Red saliva/drool (only after shrinking)
Description: The user has the ability to fully control their body, and to augment “A-Cells” which lie dormant next to every cell in their body. Augmentations may include a long list of things, but a few are: increasing muscle mass, hardening of skin, growing of bones out into spikes/spears, night vision, extending limb length, extending and sharpening hardened fingernails, etc. The only organ in the body that does not have any A-Cells present is the brain, which cannot be modified. Anything the user can think of, they can do - theoretically. However, augmenting into something you’ve never experienced makes it less effective, slower and less efficient (too much energy expended). This is why users often have to only have a few “pre-sets” that they learn to transform into, to minimise this effect. An important factor is also an understanding of the anatomy, so many users are taught anatomy thoroughly before they begin augmenting. Good knowledge of your normal anatomy means you can also heal your body at rapid speeds. Effectively this means that Augmenters usually have a large advantage when using a Jack.
​
THOUGHTMELDING
Cost: High Energy (per use, otherwise Low Energy constantly)
Distribution: Amber
Identifier: Pupil-less eyes that glow a blinding green, and are as hard as gemstones
Description: The user houses a “psychic dimension” called a Meld Server, or Server for short, inside their brains. The user has full omnipotence within this space, and only consciouses can enter into it, as it is not material (but if feels real inside). In order to drag someone’s consciousness inside, the target has to directly look at the user’s eyes from about 10cm away - the glow of the eyes has to be fully exposed too, and cannot be from behind any kind of see-through glass or tinted cover. After doing so, the user and the target will both slump and their eyes will roll back - the user’s eyes’ glow will stop. Inside the server, the target is powerless, but can still feel everything - and thus this is often used for interrogation. This form of torture is known as “mindflaying”. However, once a person inside the server submits their will to the user, another option is created: copying. The user can copy the other’s entire personality, memories and experiences inside the server. This “copy” will be fully obedient to the user, and will divulge any information to the user that it knows from the original. Once the user has had enough, they can exit the server - and so the target will too - waking up and returning to their bodies. Alternatively, the user can also “scroll” through the server, which basically means closing their eyes and flicking through the people that they have copied, whilst still being in their body and present to their surroundings. If the eyes are looked at from a distance, or from behind a see-through material, they will only give the target a headache. The issue with thoughtmelding users is that they are constantly using extra energy to supply the server, meaning they either need to eat a lot more, or need to be constantly using a Jack.
​
EXHAUSTION
Cost: Low Energy, fossil fuels (e.g charcoal, coal, or oil)
Distribution: Amber
Identifier: Grey tongue and black insides of mouth
Description: The user has the ability to shoot out a black smoke from their mouths. In order to do so, the user has to consume some form of fossil fuel, which is usually charcoal. This smoke is, when used correctly, so black (so little light enters) that it is virtually impossible to discern anything within it or past it. Of course, this decreases as the gas gets more spread out. The complection of this smoke can be modified by the user - it can be a more spread out fog, it can be thick walls of smoke, or even very dense near-solid clumps. The use can be changed by the user too - it can be as harmless as air, as toxic as smog, as blinding as ink, or even as acidic as mustard gas (however this one takes a lot of specific training for a long time to get right, as it is fundamentally different). Exhausters are usually looked down upon because of how useless this ability seems. When more concentrated fossil fuels such as oil and above are used, the smoke gains an iridescent oil-like shimmer to it. Although usually used as a method of hiding and escaping, some have found that by compressing toxic smog into a tar-like substance and shooting it as a projectile, they can incapacitate enemies more easily.
​
ACCUMULATION
Cost: None
Distribution: Red
Identifier: Glow under UV light
Description: The user respires at an abnormal rate without a higher intske nescessary - far higher than the average human or a Limb user. These are stored within the user’s cells, and the body does not burst as a result of the energy it’s own body creates - because the user can slow down the respiration to normal levels at will, with basic training. This however means that children who are not identified as Accumulators from birth usually explode from too much energy being produced at around the age of 3. This is one of many reasons for their rarity. However, other than using up the energy normally, users can also expel it into the environment through their skin. The real application of an accumulator however is also why they are sometimes known as “Jackmen” or “Living Batteries” - they can release their energy into other people, and more specifically other Limb users. Not only does this allow for a steady supply of energy, but accumulators can shoot the energy in in such a way that it can give the other person a short lasting increase in power and ability. For this reason, accumulators are hunted down and treated as sub-human - only tools for the empowerment of others. Many babies were stolen straight from hospitals and taken to “energy factories” where they were treated simply as batteries, which often led to them being discarded once they were “fully drained”. In the period where accumulators were newly discovered, and hunted, nefarious organisations looking for them would go around waving UV lights at people before dragging them away. As a result, most remaining accumulators stay in hiding.

I have two cats, we'll call them Calico and B&W. Both were adopted/rescued as young adults.
Calico is overweight and whenever there's food around, she's eating it. B&W is not overweight, but he's a grazer and likes to eat a little bit and then return to his food later. You can see how this is a problem already because Calico usually eats the rest of his food as soon as he walks away.
I use an automatic feeder and diet food to try and keep Calico at a healthy weight. Breakfast goes off around 8am and dinner goes off around 6pm. Since Calico usually eats all the food before B&W can get to it or eats his leftovers, B&W will ask for more food. He will scream, bite at me, smack at me, scratch furniture, knock things over, smack the automatic feeder over and over, anything to get my attention to give him more food. So, I will dispense him some, but the pattern is neverending.
It's especially worse at night when I'm trying to sleep. I live in a 3 bedroom townhouse with my partner and my roommate. We have to keep the cats in our room at night otherwise B&W will terrorize the house and wake up everyone and if I just keep B&W in my bedroom and lock out Calico, she will scratch and meow at the door endlessly to be let in.
Basically, if I don't keep both of them in my room at night, no one will get any sleep. However, my sleep is the one receiving the short straw. B&W always asks me for food in the middle of the night. He never asks my partner. We've even tried switching sides of the bed to see if that would work; nope.
We've tried putting B&W in the guest bedroom or even our bathroom with plenty of food, water, and a litter box overnight, and that worked briefly until he started crying and scratching at the door endlessly because he missed us.
I'm genuinely at such a loss because it is really affecting my sleep schedule. I haven't gotten a full night's sleep without interruption in months.
TLDR; I have two cats with polar opposite eating habits and it's negatively affecting my sleep schedule no matter what I seem to do.
Does anyone have any suggestions on what I might be able to do??

I applied for this job the day it was posted to Indeed, then called & asked if I could come in & fill out a paper application. This is my usual strategy when I really want a position.
I was informed there was no paper app, because the building is still being built, but that some staff are already meeting/training at another location. Cool.
During the phone call, we set an interview for 2 days later. I was absolutely thrilled.
Until about 10 minutes after the call, when she texted that she was actually way too busy, & would have to set our interview for.. 2 & a half weeks from now?? I already knew something was up.
Anyway, I continued my job search, & about 3 days before my interview, I texted to reconfirm my interview. Glad I did, because she responded “oh, yeah, the positions still open but” (according to her) she had me written down for that Thursday instead of Monday, which she said was her bad, reviewing our text messages. She was going to be out of town till then. Ooookay. Only a couple more days no biggie, but clearly she’s a mess.
A couple days later, 3 days before my interview, she texts AGAIN. “Sorry to keep putting you off” ya I don’t think you are. “I’m headed back to town tomorrow & my day is already sooo full of issues, (ok dramatic) can we meet a couple days more late?” I haven’t responded, I don’t plan to.
💀 this shit has been wild. I considered the fact I have some experience with costumer service, but not in this field & I’d have to learn a bit about sales. It’s a sauna using LED technology, so like any basic spa/sauna reception/sales position. But I’ve run a store before so, I can learn.
I’d understand if there were more qualified applicants, however I was passionate & had a bit of knowledge/interest about the job from personal experience. Essentially, I’m already a costumer & know a bit about the technology.
Why would someone post a job application & then not have a single time slot in over 2 weeks for an interview? Either someone is doing interviews, just not mine, or this woman has no clue what she’s doing.
Which also wouldn’t be shocking, considering she keeps being soo busy she has to reschedule my interview 3/4 times. I’ve never met someone so busy.
I’d consider it’s a new business but I think more likely this woman is just completely unorganized or playing a game with me. It’s clear I’m not a highly valued candidate which I understand but I’m definitely not giving this woman the idea my time is just up to how she feels that day.
I am a bit bummed as I was pretty excited for the job. Anyway, anyone have any ideas for what this lady is on? I’d love to know, lmao.

Hello everyone! Apologies for the long read.
I have been building pedals for friends and family for a while and just recently started selling builds through Instagram/Reverb. I sell them cheap enough just to try and cover my parts so that I can continue building and donate $10 from each pedal to a charity I care deeply about.
(For those interested, this organization is called Surfer's Healing and they organize events for pro surfers to take kids with autism surfing. I have two beautiful twin boys who are non-verbal and these events have been some of the best days of our families lives and immensely therapeutic for my sons. They estimate the cost for each child to surf is about ~$100. My goal is to raise enough for cover 10 kids this year hopefully (at about 3.5 currently!))
During April for Autism Awareness Month, I doubled donations to $20 from each pedal. Because I already price them so low, it's tough to implement this permanently. I was wondering if anyone else who primarily builds for fundraising reasons could offer some advice on improving how much I can raise while also staying relatively financially self-sustaining.
Just some general ideas I've had:

1. Doing a giveaway every month where anyone who donates a small amount to charity gets randomly picked to win a free pedal? I feel like this might be my ultimate best way to raise the most money.
2. I just build PCB's from Effects Layouts and PedalPCB. If I designed my own effect/circuit, I could charge more money in good faith. I started building just because I like the zen nature of it and am happy to know the basics of troubleshooting and reading a schematic. I did have a really weird idea for a pedal but it's so far-fetched and probably unmarketable if I even DID know how to do that.
3. I had a local music shop approach me about carrying my pedals in store. I told them I didn't think I'd be comfortable with this, because as mentioned above I'm just building off pre-manufactured boards and I don't feel like they're "mine" to sell in a retail setting like that. I was curious if he would carry some and donate 100% of the proceeds to charity, but understandably they charge a commission. The foot traffic/awareness would be awesome, especially locally. I guess I could do builds on vero/stripboard, but I'm not sure of how reliable this is vs. building on PCB's?
4. Custom builds. I could probably charge more for these and donate way more to charity from each pedal, but I don't think I'd want to build anything without the artistic freedom over how it looks. I know that's stupid.

The human pulled to a stop, huffing and puffing, hands on his knees as he took in great big breaths. Krill could see ribs through his skin as the great bellows expanded and then contracted. Sweat slicked the skin as the body desperately tried to cool itself.
"Heart rate 165."
The human straightened himself out, coughing once or twice to clear his throat, reaching out and wiping his face with a towel.
He threw the towel over one shoulder and stretched the large muscle groups in his chest, stomach and back, pulling tight.
Sunny leaned against the wall just to their right, both sets of arms crossed over her chest,
"So, what is this supposed to be for? Is this like a dominance thing or something?”
The human wiped his face again and raised an eyebrow,
"It's exercises, Sunny. You know? So I can be fit enough to pass the UNSC PT exam, or perhaps so that I can do my job better, or maybe because I look better when I'm more fit.”
Sunny turned her head to look at him, her eyes scrunching down a little, as Krill went to take notes on a clipboard.
"You mean... You didn't just grow to being that size?”
The human glanced down at Krill incredulous,
"IS she serious? Do the Drev like, not have to work out?"
Krill shook his head,
"Drev do not have subcutaneous fat deposits like humans do. Any acquired deposits are stored below the carapace between the connective tissue, padding them down and giving them more protection."
Sunny looked between them in confusion,
"Wait, hold on... I'm confused."
The human toweled off his hair,
"I have to work out to look like this Sunny. If I don't use it, I lose it."
She turned to look at Krill.
He tucked the holo-pad under one arm,
"You see, Sunny. Humans are meant to adapt. They can adapt mentally, and they can adapt physically. The body changes to match the requirements of its environment. Sometimes this takes years to do, for instance if you take a light skinned population of humans and put them somewhere with a lot of sun, and keep that population in complete isolation, after a few generations, the skin will darken to compensate for the increased UV light. However, these things happen on a smaller level. The body fluctuates to adapt to the amount of physical work which is required."
The human nodded,
"Exactly. Running strengthens the heart, and it increases the hemoglobin in my blood, so that I can run for a longer time with more oxygen. If I were to stop running, I would lose all of that and have to work back up."
Sunny stared at him incredulous,
"So, you have to force your body to be able to perform correctly. Like, it can't just DO what it needs to do, but you have to convince it over years of training to be able to do what you want?”
The man shrugged,
"Well anything sucks when you phrase it like that."
He turned and motioned them to follow,
"Historically, humanity was evolved in an environment with little food. We ate a diet heavy in proteins, fiber, and natural carbs from fruit. Fat is an essential part of a human's diet, but it is relatively difficult to find in nature. Because of this, the body adapted to make humans love and crave fatty and sugary foods for energy. Well since well into the twentieth eighteenth century, fatty foods were becoming commonplace, and easy to get our hands on, but the body wasn't aware of that, so it continued to treat these new fatty foods the way our bodies would have treated them back when we were huntegatherers storing every last bit up for use later."
Sunny followed after in fascination,
"I see, so now you have... Too much of a food that your body craves."
The human looked over his shoulder,
"You got it, and the body doesn't know when to stop storing fat. It'll just keep going. So, if I were to sit on my ass all day eating chips, I would lose the muscle and I would get bigger as fat deposits were stored up for energy."
Sunny shrugged,
"What is the problem with that?"
The human tapped his chin lightly,
"A few things, I guess. For me, at least, if I were to just stop working out, I wouldn't be able to do my job as well, I wouldn't be able to run as far, or to jump as high, or to lift as much. And lifting myself up in a pullup would be impossible, and considering the amount of times we have all almost fallen off a cliff, or had to haul ourselves up rope, you would think that would be a bad idea. Not to mention that the larger you are, the harder your heart has to work as the blood supply is forced to expand, and since you aren't working out your heart it gets weaker but has to do more work, which –in turn– increased the risk of heart issues. Compounding all that I wouldn't be able to sit in a cockpit or pilot a jet properly."
Sunny shook her head,
"That seems like a very... annoying model. You can never just relax. You always have to work to keep your body where it should be. And the amount of self-control you have to have..."
The human laughed,
"You have no idea how much self-control I need when a box of doughnuts gets in my way."
He sighed,
"Keeping my abs has been a real struggle, but luckily the UNSC drilled some self-discipline into me when I was still young."
"So, you weren't always this big?”
The human snorted,
"No not in the slightest. In fact, I was so skinny, you could see my heart beating through my rib cage.”
Sunny grimaced.
"Yeah I know, kinda gross. Those are your two directions. If you don't work out your either super scary skinny, or you get a bit big. If you're working out right, you get muscles."
He turned around, flexing proudly for them to outline the lines of his biceps, chest and stomach.
Sunny would have rolled her eyes back into her head, but she supposed, now that she knew he had to work for it, she was at least somewhat proud of him.
"Ok, I have a question then."
"Shoot."
"Can you get bigger?"
More laughter,
"Oh yeah, totally, but I'm not THAT dedicated."
They were just coming around a corner when the commander skidded to a halt, eye to chest with an absolutely massive human.
Even Sunny stepped back in surprise.
This human was large enough to look Sunny in the eye, with shoulders about as wide as her, and a chest that looked like it could have benched a small car.
It was almost comical, a moment ago Sunny had assumed that the commander was a large human.
"Wow there, big man. I'd rather not get steamrolled today, thanks."
The large human glanced down at the commander.
"Sorry sir."
He grunted, before stepping around and walking up the hall.
Sunny watched him go,
"What do you have to do to get that big!?”
"You practically have to live at the gym."
They turned the corner, walking into a large room, with strange machines of unknown use.
And in here there were humans of all sizes and shapes, but most of them absolutely massive. Those who lacked height, did not lack muscle.
Male humans, female humans, all of the above.
A tiny female human stood at one of these machines, carrying a bar on her shoulders with enough weight that sunny assumed it might crush her. Instead, she squatted down to the floor and stood back up.
The captain blinked and motioned towards her
"Holy shit."
"She squats more than me by the way. You see these guys are insane. I work out to maintain, these guys do it because it’s their hobby."
Krill floated upwards to whisper in Sunny's ear,
"For the muscle to enlarge, the fibers must tear open, and then the body comes back and repairs the tear to withstand the pressures that tore it in the first place.”
Sunny stared at Krill incredulously,
"So you're telling me, they just... Tear themselves apart to get like that?”
The commander left them standing in place, walking over to the wall and jumping upwards, catching his hands around a black bar welded to the wall, the muscles in his back, just below the shoulder blades flexed as he pulled himself upwards, the muscles in his shoulder blades rolling under the skin.
They continued to watch as the commander did his set, a little bit of everything for demonstration purposes. Getting off one of the leg machines, one of these large female humans walked past, sitting where he had just sat, reaching out, pulling out the peg and bringing the weight almost to the bottom of the plates.
The commander leaned in,
"See her, she could probably crush your skull using just her legs."
He sighed,
"Man, I only WISH I could be that badass."
”Yeah, I am sure THAT’S whats you are wishing when you see those thighs…”
He looked up at Sunny,
"Sometimes I come here just to knock myself down a peg."
Across the room, one of these massive humans was hauling a huge bar, lined with weight on either side up over his head like it was nothing.
"You see that, that would probably invert my spine if I tried to do it."
"Must you be so graphic?"
"Yeah, because that's how much of a wuss I am."
Looking around, Sunny wasn't convinced entirely of his status as a wuss.
He had all the requisite muscle groups of even the largest humans, and more than some. There were great swatches of the human population who, even here, were missing some things.
A few of the humans had large arms, but small legs, big legs, but small arms, no chest, or chest and no abdominal muscles.
Yes sure, he may have been smaller than their largest, but he WAS well rounded…Arms, chest, stomach, legs, back and shoulders.
She found herself surprised at the smug satisfaction in comparing her human to the other humans.
Sure, her human couldn't bench THAT much, but he also had better legs, so there.
"You ok, Sunny?"
She turned her head to look at him.
"Just thinking."
She said and he shrugged at her and returned to do his workout.
It's hard to be a human.
They have to work for everything they have, especially when it comes to their body.
Previous First [Next](link)
Want to find a specific one, see the whole list or check fanart?
Here is the link to the master-post.
Intro post by me
OC-whole collection
Patreon of the author

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Ever since I first encountered Traits back in the "good" old days of PHP 5.4, I've had an unexplainable love for this specific type of class. I tend to reach for them a little bit too often, and it's come to the point that a guy I was pair programming with at a previous job started nicknaming me "The Trait Guy"... So I'd like to ask you all about how you feel about Traits, as the PHP community overall seems very split on these things.
Let me give a couple of examples of how I use traits to explain how I use it. If you have suggestions for better ways of doing these things, feel free to give me suggestions!

The HasCountryTrait

The codebase I spend most of my time working in has a lot of models containing a country_id. So, instead of putting the country relationship in there for every single one Model that BelongsTo a Country, I built a HasCountry trait that defines the relationship and provides a couple of handy methods relating to the Country model, the most obvious example being:

public function getCountryNameAttribute(): string { return $this->country->name; } 

These methods allow me to, for example, $user->countryName instead of $user->country->name

The HasStatusLogging Trait

I have a number of long-running (5-10 minutes) jobs that I want to be able to see the status of, so I created the HasStatusLogging trait. Once I use HasStatusLogging in any of my scheduled jobs, I can do something like:

public function handle(): void { $this->start(); /* preparation for job here */ $this->setCounter($rowsToProcess->count()); $rowsToProcess->each(function (array $row) { $this->logCounter(1000); /* other stuff that's done for every row here */ }); $this->complete(); } 

What these commands do is fairly straight-forward. start() stores the value of microtime(true), setCounter($int) sets the total number of rows that will be processed (in case you want to show percentage done). logCounter($int) sends a Log::info() message for every $int rows that have been processed, and finally complete() sends another Log::info() indicating that the job in question is done alongside the total time spent processing. The trait uses Str::headline(class_basename(static::class)) to extract the name of the Job to use in the log messages to make it clear which job the log message is referring to.

The ProcessesStripeWebhook Trait

Since Stripe sends a whole lot of webhooks relating to various events, and since each different type of webhook is processed by a different Job (CustomerCreatesSubscription, CustomerUpdatedSubscription, InvoicePaymentReceived, etc...) I created this trait to make it easier for these different jobs to have mutual methods. (This is the only one where I considered a non-trait solution, with all the Stripe job classes extending a StripeJob parent class instead, but I went for this solution because it felt most familiar.
The ProcessesStripeWebhook trait is full of methods like getUserFromStripeId($string), getProductFromStripeId($string) and my favorite, which allows me to quickly access specific values in the webhook body using the dotted notation, such as $this->getFromPayload('data.object.plan.id'):

public function getFromPayload(string $key): mixed { return Arr::get($this->payload, $key); } 

I have a bunch of other Traits that are too specific to my usecases to mention here, mainly code that would otherwise have appeared in different Controllers, such as ProcessesLocationInput which has two methods: One which returns a list of all Continents and Countries, keyed up and ready to use in a select box in a HTML form, and one which processes the value returned by the HTML form and returns a collection containing either a single selected Country model, or multiple Country models in case a continent was selected. Very specific, but since I needed to do the exact same thing in two different controllers, I refactored it into a Trait instead of repeating the code.
... so, Reddit, lay it on me. Do I have a problem? Should I not rely so much on Traits? Is there a better way of doing this (Inheritance, global helper methods, instantiated classes that do specific things, etc), or am I fine continuing like this?

Howdy Y’all, Voxel here with a cerakote sale and queue length update, plus new in-stock cables and dyed sleeve colors!

Commission any Cerakoted Cable and receive a free CNC Machined USB-C upgrade, complete with matching cerakote!

I’ve got great cerakoter news, and to celebrate how quickly my new vendor has been completing my cerakote needs, I'm offering free CNC-C upgrades for all cables ordered on the website AND through discussion/invoices! This is the first time I've been able to offer hardware upgrades as an incentive and this will probably be a mainstay in my sale rotation!
What is a CNC-C? A CNC USB port is one that's been machined from metal, typically brass, which adds a luxurious and sturdy way to spice up a cable! CNC-Cs are durable and repairable.
VoxelMods Website Store
Details of the Upgrade, a $50 savings: This applies to any kind of made-to-order commission, including Curated Colorway Commissions and my usual advanced commissions! Any style of cable with a cerakote cable is eligible, from straight cables to coiled cables, and even my braided IEM style! If you order through the website, simply order the Standard USB port option, mention this post in the Notes box, and I’ll add the CNC-C to your order! If you order multiple cables in the same order, the upgrade can be applied to all of their USB-C! If you’d like to work with me one on one, contact me on email, Discord, or Instagram, and mention this upgrade promotion! (The host cable will use a standard USB port, but you can still upgrade your cable more to include the matching host side USB CNC (Type C or A) for $50 more, which is still a savings of $50 on the full set!) Below are updates as of 6/6:

-NEW Website page for In-Stock Cables!

Each In-stock cable now gets it’s own dedicated product listing, which means you can browse them all visually on the main gallery page! No more sorting through the wordy menus to select a cable to see what it looks like.

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I have a ton of hand dyed sleeve, including four new colors added today! I added a new Pastel Peach, Pink, Purple, and Blue MDPC-X and Techflex, plus matching USB-A inserts. Message me to use dyed sleeve on your cable!

-Keebfront Vanguard65 Group Buy with VoxelMods Themed Cable Collaboration! GB live as of May 24th!

Keebfront and I have partnered to offer 5 colorways of sleek matching cables themed after each of the aluminum case colors of the VG65! They will be priced at a special price of $125 through Keebfront's website alongside the keyboard extra parts in Keebfront's "Group Buy" page!

KneeDeep Patina’s Final Round

-3 KneeDeep Patina Copper themed connectors are in-stock, available as a Curated Colorway. DM or email me if you want to customize it further! Each one is unique, so you get to choose (while stock lasts) -There are 3 FINAL KneeDeep Patina Commissions remaining, and the batch will be started once they're all commissioned!. Round 6 will be my last collab with KneeDeep unfortunately, but we are going out in style! If you would like to customize a KneeDeep Commission, please DM me to set it up! The cables start at $250 and include a wide range of customization, including custom mixed cerakote, splattered cerakote, FX cerakote, and of course, patina. In addition, these cables now include the ability to use braided IEM cable or metal sleeve! Each of these commissions is thoroughly planned with your involvement, to ensure that we are making you your dream cable!
​
Production Queue length:
Right now, I'm nearly caught up on my queue, and I've gotten my fulfillment time down to 3 weeks or so, thanks to the speed at which my cerakoter can complete the hardware needed!
Special ordered hardware can extend the estimate, but CNC hardware is fully stocked in the US, so no more waiting for CNC in general unless its a specialty piece like an LED-CNC. Remember that you can commission any cable by contacting me directly, or you can use my website to customize! Love from Portland, Voxel

FYI, this is a story COLLECTION. Lots of standalones technically. So, you can basically start to read at any chapter, no pre-read of the other chapters needed technically (other than maybe getting better descriptions of characters than: Adam Vir=human, Krill=antlike alien, Sunny=tall alien, Conn=telepathic alien). The numbers are (mostly) only for organization of posts and continuity.
OC Written by Charlie Stastarrfallknightrise,
Typed up and then posted here by me.
Proofreading and language check for some chapters by u/Finbar9800
Future Lore and fact check done by me.
Keep in mind: never skip leg day!
Previous First [Next](link)
Want to find a specific one, see the whole list or check fanart?
Here is the link to the master-post.
The human pulled to a stop, huffing and puffing, hands on his knees as he took in great big breaths. Krill could see ribs through his skin as the great bellows expanded and then contracted. Sweat slicked the skin as the body desperately tried to cool itself.
"Heart rate 165."
The human straightened himself out, coughing once or twice to clear his throat, reaching out and wiping his face with a towel.
He threw the towel over one shoulder and stretched the large muscle groups in his chest, stomach and back, pulling tight.
Sunny leaned against the wall just to their right, both sets of arms crossed over her chest,
"So, what is this supposed to be for? Is this like a dominance thing or something?”
The human wiped his face again and raised an eyebrow,
"It's exercises, Sunny. You know? So I can be fit enough to pass the UNSC PT exam, or perhaps so that I can do my job better, or maybe because I look better when I'm more fit.”
Sunny turned her head to look at him, her eyes scrunching down a little, as Krill went to take notes on a clipboard.
"You mean... You didn't just grow to being that size?”
The human glanced down at Krill incredulous,
"IS she serious? Do the Drev like, not have to work out?"
Krill shook his head,
"Drev do not have subcutaneous fat deposits like humans do. Any acquired deposits are stored below the carapace between the connective tissue, padding them down and giving them more protection."
Sunny looked between them in confusion,
"Wait, hold on... I'm confused."
The human toweled off his hair,
"I have to work out to look like this Sunny. If I don't use it, I lose it."
She turned to look at Krill.
He tucked the holo-pad under one arm,
"You see, Sunny. Humans are meant to adapt. They can adapt mentally, and they can adapt physically. The body changes to match the requirements of its environment. Sometimes this takes years to do, for instance if you take a light skinned population of humans and put them somewhere with a lot of sun, and keep that population in complete isolation, after a few generations, the skin will darken to compensate for the increased UV light. However, these things happen on a smaller level. The body fluctuates to adapt to the amount of physical work which is required."
The human nodded,
"Exactly. Running strengthens the heart, and it increases the hemoglobin in my blood, so that I can run for a longer time with more oxygen. If I were to stop running, I would lose all of that and have to work back up."
Sunny stared at him incredulous,
"So, you have to force your body to be able to perform correctly. Like, it can't just DO what it needs to do, but you have to convince it over years of training to be able to do what you want?”
The man shrugged,
"Well anything sucks when you phrase it like that."
He turned and motioned them to follow,
"Historically, humanity was evolved in an environment with little food. We ate a diet heavy in proteins, fiber, and natural carbs from fruit. Fat is an essential part of a human's diet, but it is relatively difficult to find in nature. Because of this, the body adapted to make humans love and crave fatty and sugary foods for energy. Well since well into the twentieth eighteenth century, fatty foods were becoming commonplace, and easy to get our hands on, but the body wasn't aware of that, so it continued to treat these new fatty foods the way our bodies would have treated them back when we were huntegatherers storing every last bit up for use later."
Sunny followed after in fascination,
"I see, so now you have... Too much of a food that your body craves."
The human looked over his shoulder,
"You got it, and the body doesn't know when to stop storing fat. It'll just keep going. So, if I were to sit on my ass all day eating chips, I would lose the muscle and I would get bigger as fat deposits were stored up for energy."
Sunny shrugged,
"What is the problem with that?"
The human tapped his chin lightly,
"A few things, I guess. For me, at least, if I were to just stop working out, I wouldn't be able to do my job as well, I wouldn't be able to run as far, or to jump as high, or to lift as much. And lifting myself up in a pullup would be impossible, and considering the amount of times we have all almost fallen off a cliff, or had to haul ourselves up rope, you would think that would be a bad idea. Not to mention that the larger you are, the harder your heart has to work as the blood supply is forced to expand, and since you aren't working out your heart it gets weaker but has to do more work, which –in turn– increased the risk of heart issues. Compounding all that I wouldn't be able to sit in a cockpit or pilot a jet properly."
Sunny shook her head,
"That seems like a very... annoying model. You can never just relax. You always have to work to keep your body where it should be. And the amount of self-control you have to have..."
The human laughed,
"You have no idea how much self-control I need when a box of doughnuts gets in my way."
He sighed,
"Keeping my abs has been a real struggle, but luckily the UNSC drilled some self-discipline into me when I was still young."
"So, you weren't always this big?”
The human snorted,
"No not in the slightest. In fact, I was so skinny, you could see my heart beating through my rib cage.”
Sunny grimaced.
"Yeah I know, kinda gross. Those are your two directions. If you don't work out your either super scary skinny, or you get a bit big. If you're working out right, you get muscles."
He turned around, flexing proudly for them to outline the lines of his biceps, chest and stomach.
Sunny would have rolled her eyes back into her head, but she supposed, now that she knew he had to work for it, she was at least somewhat proud of him.
"Ok, I have a question then."
"Shoot."
"Can you get bigger?"
More laughter,
"Oh yeah, totally, but I'm not THAT dedicated."
They were just coming around a corner when the commander skidded to a halt, eye to chest with an absolutely massive human.
Even Sunny stepped back in surprise.
This human was large enough to look Sunny in the eye, with shoulders about as wide as her, and a chest that looked like it could have benched a small car.
It was almost comical, a moment ago Sunny had assumed that the commander was a large human.
"Wow there, big man. I'd rather not get steamrolled today, thanks."
The large human glanced down at the commander.
"Sorry sir."
He grunted, before stepping around and walking up the hall.
Sunny watched him go,
"What do you have to do to get that big!?”
"You practically have to live at the gym."
They turned the corner, walking into a large room, with strange machines of unknown use.
And in here there were humans of all sizes and shapes, but most of them absolutely massive. Those who lacked height, did not lack muscle.
Male humans, female humans, all of the above.
A tiny female human stood at one of these machines, carrying a bar on her shoulders with enough weight that sunny assumed it might crush her. Instead, she squatted down to the floor and stood back up.
The captain blinked and motioned towards her
"Holy shit."
"She squats more than me by the way. You see these guys are insane. I work out to maintain, these guys do it because it’s their hobby."
Krill floated upwards to whisper in Sunny's ear,
"For the muscle to enlarge, the fibers must tear open, and then the body comes back and repairs the tear to withstand the pressures that tore it in the first place.”
Sunny stared at Krill incredulously,
"So you're telling me, they just... Tear themselves apart to get like that?”
The commander left them standing in place, walking over to the wall and jumping upwards, catching his hands around a black bar welded to the wall, the muscles in his back, just below the shoulder blades flexed as he pulled himself upwards, the muscles in his shoulder blades rolling under the skin.
They continued to watch as the commander did his set, a little bit of everything for demonstration purposes. Getting off one of the leg machines, one of these large female humans walked past, sitting where he had just sat, reaching out, pulling out the peg and bringing the weight almost to the bottom of the plates.
The commander leaned in,
"See her, she could probably crush your skull using just her legs."
He sighed,
"Man, I only WISH I could be that badass."
”Yeah, I am sure THAT’S whats you are wishing when you see those thighs…”
He looked up at Sunny,
"Sometimes I come here just to knock myself down a peg."
Across the room, one of these massive humans was hauling a huge bar, lined with weight on either side up over his head like it was nothing.
"You see that, that would probably invert my spine if I tried to do it."
"Must you be so graphic?"
"Yeah, because that's how much of a wuss I am."
Looking around, Sunny wasn't convinced entirely of his status as a wuss.
He had all the requisite muscle groups of even the largest humans, and more than some. There were great swatches of the human population who, even here, were missing some things.
A few of the humans had large arms, but small legs, big legs, but small arms, no chest, or chest and no abdominal muscles.
Yes sure, he may have been smaller than their largest, but he WAS well rounded…Arms, chest, stomach, legs, back and shoulders.
She found herself surprised at the smug satisfaction in comparing her human to the other humans.
Sure, her human couldn't bench THAT much, but he also had better legs, so there.
"You ok, Sunny?"
She turned her head to look at him.
"Just thinking."
She said and he shrugged at her and returned to do his workout.
It's hard to be a human.
They have to work for everything they have, especially when it comes to their body.
Previous First [Next](link)
Want to find a specific one, see the whole list or check fanart?
Here is the link to the master-post.
Intro post by me
OC-whole collection
Patreon of the author
Thanks for reading! As you saw in the title, this is a cross posted story written by starrfallknightrise and I'll just upload some of it here for you guys, if you are interested and want to read ahead, the original story-collection can be found on tumblr or wattpad to read for free. (link above this text under "OC:..." ) It is the Empyrean Iris story collection by starfallknightrise. Also, if you want to know more about the story collection i made an intro post about it, so feel free to check that out to see what other great characters to look forward to! (Link also above this text). I have no affiliations to the author; just thought I’d share some of the great stories you might enjoy a lot!
Obviously, I have Charlie’s permission to post this and for the people already knowing the stories, or starting to read them: If you follow the link and check out the story you will see some differences. I made some small (non-artistic) changes, mainly correcting writing mistakes, pronoun correction and some small additional info here and there of things which were not thought of/forgotten or even were added/changed in later stories (like the “USS->UNSC” prefix of Stabby, Chalar=/->Sunny etc). As well as some "biggemajor" changes in descriptions and info’s for the same stringency/continuity reason. That can be explained by the story collection being, well a story collection at the start with many standalone-stories just starring the same people, but later on it gets more to a stringent storyline with backstories and throwbacks. (For example Adam Vir has some HEAVY scars over his body, following his bones, which were not really talked about up till half the collection, where it says it covers his whole body and you find out via backflash that he had them the whole time and how he got them, they just weren't mentioned before. However, I would think a doctor would at least see these scars before that, especially since he gets analyzed, treated and goes shirtless/in T-shirts in some stories). So TLDR: Writing and some descriptions are slightly changed, with full OK from the author, since he himself did not bother to correct these things before.

Hey all, bought this kit to add to my current setup but it’s apparently a different set than my current RAM. My bad lol but instead of returning it for store credit I’d rather take a small loss for cash.
Timestamps: https://imgur.com/a/e6OOBhc
Looking for $85 shipped.