10 Books That Will Change Your Life Forever - Lifehack

Source: https://www.bungie.net/en/News/Article/50040
This week at Bungie, we introduce Seasonal Challenges.
Welcome to the second-to-last TWAB of Season of the Hunt. Many of you have been navigating the secrets of the Harbinger mission, uncovering randomly rolled Hawkmoons and earning the Radiant Accipiter Exotic ship. Content-wise, we’re coming to a close for the Season, and we’re incredibly excited for what’s to come in just a few short weeks. We’ve been covering some upcoming quality of life changes to Destiny 2, like the return of Umbral Engrams, but it’s almost time to take a peek at fresh content.
Season of the [REDACTED] trailer goes live on February 2, 2021.
Before we get there, we have a new feature to cover, Seasonal Challenges, and a round of weapon-focused sandbox changes to walk through. As a warning, this is a pretty large amount of information in a small space. We've joked about "meaty" TWAB's before, but this one may feel a bit overwhelming if you rush through it. Let's take it slow, step by step, and get through it together in one piece.

Introducing: Seasonal Challenges

Over the last year, we’ve been looking at ways in which we can reduce the amount of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) in Destiny 2. We’ve recently made some changes to Seasons and how Seasonal content is available throughout a given year of Destiny 2. This week, we’re looking to bounties and Bright Dust, introducing a new system not only to remove FOMO, but give fresh ways to earn XP and alternate rewards. To walk us through the ins and outs of Seasonal Challenges, we pass the mic to the Development team.

Dev team: During production of Beyond Light, we started looking at the problems of bounty fatigue and FOMO, as well as Seasonal legibility (i.e., “What is in a Season?” and “How to I engage with it when I log in?”). We created a few goals which we believe will improve the experience:

Provide a guide to new, returning, and veteran players for what to do today/this week.

Guide the player through the Seasonal content, week-over-week.

Encourage players to engage with complexities and nuances of the Seasonal activity and rituals.

Reduce the penalties on XP and Bright Dust for missing a given week.

To solve these goals, we are introducing a new pursuit type for players – Seasonal Challenges. The Seasonal Challenges live on their own page, are accessed through the Quest Log or Season Pass, and are separated by week.
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Here’s a quick breakdown of how this feature works:

Every week, for the first 10 weeks of a Season, between 3 and 10 new Challenges appear automatically for players.

Some of the Challenges deal with the Seasonal content.

Others push players to complete strikes, Gambit, and the Crucible, or to focus on non-activity focused Destiny rituals, like gaining Power, unlocking Seasonal Artifact mods, or improving guns and armor.

These Challenges can only be completed once per account, but once they become available, these Challenges can be completed at any time before the end of the Season, and do not need to be started or picked up from a vendor.

As an example, if a player doesn’t play for weeks 2 through 4, they can return on week 5 and have all of those Challenges waiting for them!

Completing each Challenge awards XP, contributing to your Season Pass ranks.

Other rewards could be Bright Dust, Seasonal currency, or other interesting items!

In moving away from weekly bounties, which were restricted to broad objectives tied to ritual activities, we have taken more leeway with creating some interesting or more difficult Challenges. These may be things you are already doing, or things that test your ability. Some examples include:

Defeating Primeval Envoys in Gambit

Defeating enemies in Nightfall: The Ordeal with Seasonal weapons

Gaining Infamy or Valor ranks

Acquiring the ritual weapon and its cosmetic ornaments

Winning rounds in Trials of Osiris

Completing a Grandmaster Nightfall

Not all the Challenges will require that level of accomplishment, but the harder or longer the Challenge is, the more experience it rewards. Challenges that focus on the Seasonal activity and ritual mostly need the Season Pass to complete, but most of the ritual focused Challenges can be completed without the Season Pass. Overall, roughly 60% of the Seasonal Challenges do not require the Season Pass.
With the changes above, we are removing weekly bounties from the three ritual vendors (Zavala, Shaxx, and Drifter), Banshee-44, and the Seasonal vendor. These vendors will still have daily bounties which reward XP, and the three ritual vendors will still have repeatable bounties for those of you who want to pursue additional XP and Bright Dust.
Lastly – most of the Challenges disappear after the Season they were introduced, and anything that isn’t claimed will be lost. We don’t add any new Challenges after Week 10 – which should give everyone a few weeks to clean up any Challenges they didn’t finish. Any Challenge that rewards unique or Seasonal items (currencies, lore books, Seasonal weapons, etc.) – can be completed as long as the Seasonal activity is in the game, but XP awarded for completing the challenge will only be available during the season it was introduced.
Let’s Talk Bright Dust
Back before Beyond Light launched, we discussed some of the goals around the changes to Bright Dust. As a refresher, we wanted to change the way you earn Bright Dust and move more towards account-specific paths to give players with only one character significantly more Bright Dust than they've been earning over the last year. In Season 13, we’ll be continuing to move toward these goals by adding Bright Dust onto Seasonal Challenges.
Since you no longer have to purchase weekly ritual bounties, each of the strike, Crucible, and Gambit Seasonal Challenges will award between 75 and 300 Bright Dust. We are also introducing an end-of-Season Bright Dust bonus – if you complete (nearly) all of the Seasonal Challenges, we are awarding a single 4,000 Bright Dust pile.
Additionally, each ritual vendor challenge (“Complete 8 bounties”) awards 120 Bright Dust for each character who completes it each week. And because this is prompted by the removal of weekly bounties, the only Seasonal Challenges that will be awarding Bright Dust are the ones that both Season Pass owners and free players can complete. Here’s a quick breakdown of how much Bright Dust you should expect to earn over the course of Season 13.

Seasonal Challenges Bright Dust (All Players)

Free Seasonal Activities – 6,000

Seasonal Extra – 4,000

Total – 10,000 Bright Dust

Season Pass Bright Dust

Free Path – 7,500 (All Players)

Paid Path – 3,000 (Players who own Season Pass)

Total – 10,500 Bright Dust

Weekly Ritual Vendor Challenge Bright Dust (All Players)

120 Bright Dust per ritual vendor, per character, per week

14,040 total if completing all required weekly Challenges over the course of Season 13

Additionally, we still plan to offer weekly and repeatable Bright Dust bounties for Seasonal events, giving you a bit more Bright Dust towards desired rewards.
As a final note, please be sure to claim all Seasonal Challenges that award Bright Dust prior to the end of a Season. Once a Season ends, associated Challenges and their Bright Dust rewards will expire and can no longer be claimed.

It’s always exciting when we bring a new feature online for Destiny 2. We hope that the changes detailed above make it easier to create goals to complete each week. As always, we’re eager to hear your feedback once you start finishing your first Seasonal Challenges, so please sound off with your thoughts!

Back to the Sandbox

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Every Season, we have a collection of changes to the Destiny 2 sandbox to spice things up a bit. This Season, we’re making some targeted changes to weapon archetypes that need some love as well as beginning some preparations for crossplay.

Dev team: In preparation for crossplay, coming later this year, we’re making some changes to the Recoil stat.
Currently, several weapon archetypes have their Recoil reduced by around 40% (dependent on archetype) when using mouse and keyboard. This results in an issue where players on mouse and keyboard are able to largely ignore the stability weapon stat, creating unintended discrepancies in weapon performance between controllers and mouse and keyboard.
The following weapon archetypes will have their mouse and keyboard Recoil adjusted closer to controller (reduced the difference from ~40% to ~20%).

Auto Rifle

Scout Rifle

Pulse Rifle

Submachine Gun

Hand Cannon

Machine Gun

In the case of Pulse Rifle, Submachine Gun, and Machine Gun, we will also be introducing some buffs. In some cases, these weapons will have less Recoil across both Controller and mouse and keyboard input methods compared to what’s in the game today.

Submachine Guns are largely outclassed by Auto Rifles at medium range, and by Sidearms at short range, with player feedback often mentioning how hard they are to control. To address this feedback, we’re introducing the following change:

Reduced camera movement from firing a Submachine Gun by 24%.

Pulse Rifles with the mouse and keyboard changes were kicking a little too much.

Reduced camera movement from firing a Pulse Rifle by 7%.

Machine Guns with the mouse and keyboard changes were kicking a little too much.

Reduced camera movement from firing a Machine Gun by 9.5%.

We will pay close attention to how these changes play out when they go live, and plan to revisit individual archetypes in a future update as needed.
Outside of Recoil adjustments, we will also be tuning a few weapon archetypes in Season 13. Looking through backend data and community feedback, we landed on the following:
Buffs

Rocket Launchers have fallen behind other Heavy weapons in most measures of effectiveness, we’re pushing them more into a burst damage role.

Increased Rocket Launcher damage by 30%.

Exotic Rocket Launchers have been adjusted individually and are affected by this change to different degrees.

Paired with the buffs to reserves from last Season, we’re hoping you’ll explode many more things in Season 13!

Fusion Rifle usage is very low, and they feel like an unreliable choice in Crucible compared to Shotguns.

Increased Fusion Rifle damage falloff start distance based on Range stat. (6% with 0 Range, 16% with 100 Range)

Reduced camera movement from firing a Fusion Rifle by 9.5%.

Breech Grenade Launcher usage is very low (outside of Mountaintop). We believe part of the reason is that the loop of "hold the trigger to arm, then release to detonate” is challenging to execute, particularly since projectiles can bounce off targets if the trigger is held

Breech Grenade Launcher projectiles will now detonate on impact with a character, even if holding the trigger.

Nerfs

While Sniper Rifle usage has dropped in Crucible, we’ve observed that it’s hard to challenge someone with a Sniper Rifle – even if you get the first shot on an enemy, they can often respond and win the fight.

Increased ADS flinch to Snipers when taking damage from other players

Swords are extremely dominant in PvE. At this time, 65% of players are using Swords for the majority of gameplay encounters in Destiny 2. While we are introducing a buff to Rocket Launchers to make them a bit more enticing, we feel that Swords do too much damage compared to other options.

Reduced Sword damage by 15%.

Exotic Changes and Bug Fixes

Some Exotic weapons lose their buffs when you switch weapons, which is intended. They would also lose their buffs when pulling out your Ghost Shell, which is not intended. Fixed that issue on these weapons:

Ace of Spades

Tarrabah

Hawkmoon

Borealis and Hard Light now have a custom (quite short) animation for switching damage type.

Duality

Increased damage falloff distance by 1.25m (while both firing from the hip and aiming down sights).

Reduced maximum buff stacks from 7 to 5, each stack now grants more of a damage bonus, extended buff duration slightly.

Sturm will once again reload any equipped Special slot weapon on kill provided the Special weapon's clip isn't full already and there's available reserve ammo.

Fixed an issue that was preventing Merciless from increasing its charge rate on non-lethal hits.

Ah, and before we go – we are planning to take a quick tuning pass on Arbalest. This won’t be ready in time for February 9, but we are expecting to have this touched later in Season 13!

Now, we know it can be difficult to understand the scale of buffs and nerfs without having these changes in your hands. Not to mention, there will be some new perks for you to hunt as you start navigating content in Season of the [REDACTED]. As always, we’re excited to see these changes out in the wild on February 9, and will be eager to hear your feedback.

Crimson Days

Each year, we look to February as a time to celebrate bonds of friendship throughout the community. Guardians have come to know this celebration as Crimson Days. It was one of our first “Seasonal” events in Destiny 1, a tradition that we carried to Destiny 2. While there was great enjoyment of Crimson Days, we feel that it’s been missing the mark in terms of quality over the last few years.
As such, we have made the decision to discontinue Crimson Days moving forward. While we’ll miss the event, this move will allow us to maintain focus for alternate Seasonal offerings, ranging from quests to activities and more. We have quite a bit planned for Season of the [REDACTED] and our hope is that we’ve maintained, or even improved, the quality you’ve come to expect from this upcoming release.
Some of you may be asking about the fate of Crimson Doubles, our once-a-year Crimson Days playlist. This mode is currently being shifted to the Destiny Content Vault but may return in the future.
Many thanks to every Guardian who has joined us over the years for this event. Crimson decorations may not be hung in the Tower, but we have no doubts that you’ll continue to form Crimson Bonds over the years to come.

BugTrax

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For those who may be new to the TWAB, welcome to the Player Support Report. This section is dedicated to known issues, active investigations, and pending updates for Destiny 2. Our Player Support team navigates the Help forum daily, collecting info on new issues and dishing out help articles.
This is their report on the most frequently reported issues of the last week.

CRUCIBLE TOKENS AND FRAGMENT QUESTS
Due to the updates to the vendor progression system, Crucible Tokens and Crucible Token Gifts are no longer needed and will be deprecated into Junk that will delete as a full stack starting in Season 13. Additionally, current Stasis Fragment Quests will be deprecated at the end of Season of the Hunt. Players are advised to turn in all Crucible Tokens and Crucible Token Gifts and finish all available Stasis Fragment Quests before Season 13 starts.
KNOWN ISSUES
While we continue investigating various known issues, here is a list of the latest issues that were reported to us in our #Help forum:

Stasis abilities can be difficult to distinguish between enemy and friendly for colorblind players.

The Double Trouble Triumph is unobtainable.

In the Deep Stone Crypt raid, the augment lockout timer occasionally resets during the final encounter against Taniks.

During the final fight against the Sanctified Mind in the Garden of Salvation raid, sometimes a shielded tether box can become tethered instead of the correct glowing tether box.

Hunter legs clip through the Ten-Grasp Sword Sparrow.

In the Last Wish raid, the Shuro Chi puzzle room plates don't work if a Titan bubble or Warlock well are placed on them.

The Titan Phenotype Plasticity Helm eye clusters no longer glow red.

Weekly and daily elemental kill bounties have stopped rotating off of Void.

When overcharging grenades while using the Voidwalker top tree subclass as a Warlock, Super energy stops charging.

For a full list of emergent issues in Destiny 2, players can review our Known Issues article. Players who observe other issues should report them to our #Help forum.

[Bird Noises Intensify]

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It’s been fun watching Hawkmoon clips and montages throughout the Season. With recently introduced random rolls, players have been pushing the limits of this Exotic, taking on 1v1 encounters in the Crucible that they may have otherwise avoided. This week, our top pick not only got a sweet roll on perks, but a killer roll on audio, too!
Movie of the Week: Ting Ting Ting Ting
Video Link
Movie of the Week: Deep Stone Lullaby Violin/Piano Cover
Video Link
Movie of the Week: …That’s a lot of Hawkmoon
Video Link
As always, if you'd like to submit your creation to be featured in a future TWAB, make sure to create a post on the Community Creations portal of Bungie.net.

Credit Where It’s Due

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Every day, we take a moment to scroll through various social media apps to take a look at community artwork. We’re always awestruck by the talents that many of you possess, and eager to share your works with a wider audience.
Here’s a quick roundup of some sweet art, and direct links to their authors. Give them a follow if you want to see more of their stuff!
Art of the Week: Art Sharing

destiny art share!!! spread the positivity, doesn't matter how frequently you do art or how many pieces you've made - post your favorites!! #Destiny2Art #DestinyArtShare pic.twitter.com/bq6hHJrCLD
— 🥀alex🥀🏳️‍🌈 (@miyagiie) January 25, 2021

Art of the Week: Eris

나는야 내일부터 월급쟁이 #냙서 pic.twitter.com/MI6Y6Gi1LY
— 🧅김냘본™🍺 (@NyarNyarbon) January 17, 2021

Cheers, and make sure to tag your content with some form of #Destiny2Art so we can find you easily!
That’s it for this week, folks. Season of the [REDACTED] is almost here. We’ll have some patch previews to cover in the TWAB next week, so stop by if you’re interested!

If this gets 7 likes we'll add a new LZ on Europa next Season.
— Destiny 2 (@DestinyTheGame) January 27, 2021

We’ll see you again next week, bright and early on Tuesday morning.
Cheers,
dmg04

Something people seem to misunderstand about ability scores

I've seen a lot of conversation regarding Tasha's racial ASI swapping rules, and now more recently the declaration in the new UA that future books won't be including racial ASI in new races, effectively making Tasha's optional rule the default. The general argument that I see repeated to support the removal of racial ASIs is that "PCs are meant to be special and break the mold, therefore they shouldn't be forced to match the traditional expectations of a race." This is absolutely true. But racial ASIs aren't what determine whether a PC is breaking the mold or not. There's something else far more significant that comes into play when creating a character.
Ability score generation.
Whether you use an array, point buy, or dice rolls, the potential to distribute ability scores of up to 15 (or heck, even 18 with rolls) wherever you choose is what is marking your character as special. Every argument I see against racial ASIs is actually an argument that supports stat generation. "What if my Goliath character has never worked out a day in his life, but studies ancient texts as a scholar? Why should he have +2 Strength and not +2 Intelligence? Why should all Goliaths be strong and none of them be smart?" This situation is represented by putting a 15 into Intelligence and an 8 into Strength. When you remember that an average Commoner has 10s across the board, 15 is incredible. A Goliath with 15 Intelligence, an Elf with 15 Strength, or a Dwarf with 15 Dexterity is not only as smart a Goliath, as strong an Elf, or as nimble a Dwarf as you could imagine starting out on a quest, but that Goliath is smarter than the vast majority of Gnomes in the world, and the Elf is stronger than most Half-Orcs, and the Dwarf is more agile than most Halflings. If you apply a racial +2 to a Commoner of any race, the PC with 15 blows them out of the water! 15 is incredible, even without an additional modifier!
(As an aside, the developers explained their rationale about how racial ASIs were there to reinforce heroic tropes about those races - the hardy Gimli, the nimble Legolas - and weren't ever intended to be indicative of broad-strike representations of a race. Um, bullshit? In 3.5e there were statblocks for NPCs of various races and an asterisk that listed their stats before racial modifiers. By all means say that your design philosophy is changing, but don't try to gaslight players by saying that racial ASIs have never been intended to be used universally and were always for player characters only.)
I see people saying that D&D races shouldn't be defined by their biology. I don't think they have ever been defined by their biology, but I disagree that they shouldn't be influenced. Think about all the people in the world. Real-life people, athletes and doctors and politicians. Those people would have wildly fluctuating stat arrays, and they're all Human. Is it really so outlandish to imagine that a fantastic race of Elves or Dwarves would have similar variety in their population, but offset due to their biology? There is no reason that a Dwarf cannot be nimble and sickly, or an Elf cannot be hardy and clumsy. It's just that the sickliest Dwarf hero in the world, called Barfbeard by his friends and who can't hold a drink to save his life, is about as hardy as an average Human Commoner. The different cultures have different standards, and just because the standard for Dwarves is that they're "tougher than Humans" doesn't mean that every Dwarf actually IS. And then the reverse is true, an Elf who works out every day and becomes incredibly muscular with that score of 15 is an exceptional Elf, and is strong even to a Goliath, and the only thing that could outpace them is another gifted (read: PC) Goliath who put in the same amount of effort for that 15 in a stat, and has the advantage of their biology improving those capabilities. Those two characters are on equal footing within their respective cultures, and are in relation to each other as an Elf Commoner and a Goliath Commoner would be.
To finish this off with just a bit of personal opinion, the absolutely least interesting thing you can do with a fantasy race is turn them all into Humans. Not fantasy Humans, real-life Humans. By insisting that every single race can be just as good at every single thing as every other race, there's really no distinction left between them. I don't see why people are content to leave racial traits like Powerful Build or Naturally Stealthy, but not ASIs that imply the same qualities. Nothing about the presence or absence of an ASI changes how special your character is, it's the generation of ability scores as a whole that does.

How I turned $1k into 300k in 2017's bull market (very long).

I watched Jill and Dwreck's latest "Progressive Date" youtube video so you don't have to: a guide.

Please excuse any grammar or spelling typos. My brain watching this can only process so much.
Jill gives her first promo pitch for “Intimately Us” and gives a disclaimer to fundie parents that this video talks about sex. Israel and Sam are coming along on this progressive date so I wonder how this will pan out. 1st stop: McDonald’s for Happy Meals to distract the kids. On the road. Jill flicks through the sexy app, realizes the boys are in the car and awkwardly holds back reading out some of the app's sexiest topics.
1st sexy app question: Who would you invite for dinner? Dwreck says…. you guessed it, Jesus. Since Dwreck already took Jesus, Jill is at a loss for her choice and passes.
2nd sexy app question: life milestones. Jill says her milestones are marriage, kids, and moving out of the country. I’m not sure how adventurous her Jesus trip was but it’s certainly lightyears more than any life experiences Jana’s had.
2nd food stop: drinks. Don’t get too excited. It’s only coffee. Jill and Dwreck ask the drive thru employee if he wants to wave hi to the camera for their YouTube channel. I wonder what he’ll think when he realizes this is a conservative Christian YouTube channel.
3rd stop: appetizer pick up from a local restaurant. Dwreck gets out of the car to pick up the order. Unlike his in-laws, he’s wearing a mask. Bold move on this charcuterie board. I would be worried about meats and cheeses and olives falling on the floor but then I remember that half of Israel and Sam’s Happy Meals have probably already dropped.
More conversation starters: What’s your favorite bible verse? This is definitely not a secular sex app. Dreck’s sexy verse is Ephesians 5: 15-16. Psalms 21 is what revs Jill’s engine.
4th stop: Greek salads. Jill casually goes down the list of mildly global salad decisions (American, Greek, soup salad, miso) and I’m reminded of the 19K&C episode where tilapia made Anna feel uncomfortably worldly. Highway drive, Jill reminds people that the sex app gives cost-efficient dates.
Drive thru Greek salads. Dwreck wears a mask this time making the drive through order, I’m glad he remembered now. Eating in the car and we learn “date” in the Dillard household is also a euphemism for sex. Dwreck tells the time he and Jill had 4 dates in one day. I shudder. Jill abandons discretion and whispers to the camera “we have a good sex life”. I think this might be overcompensation but then I flashback to the recent snarker post of Big Daddy D’s endowed Pistol Pete. Derick teases Jill that she used “the S word”. Googly eyes abound. Boys are so engrossed in their iPads that J & D could say “We fuckin’!” and honestly they wouldn’t notice. (**Edit: this entire segment is at the 16:00m mark, by the way, for all you morbidly curious snarkers like me)
5th stop: sushi. Next sex app couple’s question on the drive: would you consider reading a book or blog about improving your intimacy, what would they be? Big Daddy D mentions Song of Solomon. How dull.
Parking lot sexy app advertising. They go through the app’s learning center. Seems thorough enough. The app has an anatomy tab next to the sex positions tab which seems superfluous until I remember that this is Christian sex app and their audience is fundie men and women whose furthest extent of knowledge on female anatomy is that there’s a hole down there somewhere. J&D pop on some earphones and listen to a built in sexy podcast while they wait for their sushi.
They pick up the food and we find out they’re regulars. Dwreck explains this was their go-to place after counseling sessions. If those sushi walls could talk. They eat sushi in the car, assure us they normally don’t spend like this.
6th stop: ice cream. Speaking of finances, next question on the sexy app is on financial values. Jill says her parents were good with money. Yes, Boob using his home as a church to avoid taxes and hawking out his family to reality tv is certainly one way to build a nest egg.
Parking lot, waiting for ice cream. All these sexy app questions about bible verses and finances are giving Jill and Big Daddy D the urges. They not so subtly tell the camera they can’t wait to get home and bone. Dwreck is taking his time deciding what ice cream to order. Jill tells us she also has to use the restroom and is ready for this to be over. You and me both. Jill says she’s “not a big nut person”. This directly contradicts everything we’ve heard this entire progressive date (hey-oh!).
Israel and Sam are getting fussy. I’m ignoring them just as much and Jill & Derick have this entire time.
Home now. Boys are asleep, J&D are filming from their bed. Thankfully not in that way. Dwreck now dons a sweatshirt that says “Big Cedar” and I wonder if it’s a double entendre. They inform us they watched a video on the sexy app about vitality. One final pitch for sexy app. Make that app coin.
End.

MIK DD - Under the radar long equity play. Fun easy to follow pictures inside!

Why you should learn poker and game theory (LONG READ)

Hello everyone! I have only been on Reddit for a few months but I learned so much from it that I figured I should try and give back to the community. English is my second language and this is the first time I ever write a full-length article, I hope you will enjoy reading it and I would be very thankful if you could provide some feedback about my writing, about the topic, or about anything else really… So here goes!
Why you should learn poker and game theory:
My story is similar to that of many: I learned about the game 10 years ago (during the golden age of online poker) when some friends of mine invited me to play a home game. Although I initially thought of poker as just another game of chance akin to playing slots or roulette in a casino, I quickly came to realize that there is a lot more to it as my more experienced friends would repeatedly get the best of me during these home games, which led me to start watching videos and reading strategy books to improve my skill… Little did I know it’d be the start of a journey that would impact many different aspects of my life way beyond the game itself, as most of the fundamental principles learned through poker can be applied to your decision-making outside of the game, especially when it comes to money management and investing. Now, let’s dive into a few of these principles:

- Risk management (i.e. Bankroll management)
When learning about how to be successful playing poker, the first big piece of advice most people come across is bankroll management or BRM. To understand BRM, you must first realize that poker has a lot of variance: you might be vastly ahead in a given hand but there is almost always a slim chance that you will lose in the end if one specific card hits. This implies that you will sometimes lose even though you were a 99% favorite, and that you will sometimes get unlucky and lose 2, 5 or maybe even 20 such encounters in a row. THIS is variance. It doesn’t mean that you played bad or that you made bad decisions, but rather that you got unlucky. Over time you will have lucky streaks and unlucky streaks, and these will average out in the long term… It’s just the way the game goes.
Now that we understand variance, let’s get back to BRM. What is it exactly? Let’s say you are the best poker player in the world but you only have 1000$ that you can EVER use to play with. Taking your whole 1000$ on one table and multiplying your stack at an exponential rate might seem like a good idea. Surely nothing can go wrong since you’re the best player in the world right? But variance can be a bitch ;) Even if you’re the best you will lose regularly and you will sometimes get unlucky, it’s just part of the game. The correct move here is to apply BRM, which means only using a small % of your available capital for each game you play in order to reduce the risk of going broke. Using only 100$ per game would already be a lot safer, but you still run the risk of going under on a streak of bad luck. If you only allocate 10$ per game you play, then it becomes virtually impossible for you to ever go broke, even on a huge streak of bad luck. Sure it’s not as exciting and you won’t be making money quite as fast as you could, but this is the way to go to make sure you don’t go broke…
This approach to risk management translates very well to investing:
- Only invest what you can afford to lose. Once the money is on the table it’s as good as gone, which is why you should only use your “spare” cash and never invest with your living expenses or worse, borrow money to invest.
- Diversify your investments. There is always a chance, however slim it might be, that you will lose most of your investment. This is why going all-in on a specific investment is generally a bad idea (this applies particularly well in the crypto space).
Proper BRM allows you to make sure that you will come out ahead in the long run if you play well, which basically comes down to making more good decisions than bad ones. But that’s assuming you don’t let emotions come in the way of your decision-making, which brings us to our next point…

- Emotional management (i.e. Handling tilt/Positive mindset)
Nobody likes losing… In the same way we enjoy winning because of the dopamine rush, we feel bad when we lose which is totally natural. Overcoming this and avoiding tilt (irrational decisions made out of angefrustration) is an essential skill for any successful poker player. You might play a sound game of poker and apply good BRM, but you will still lose if you let your emotions get the best of you.
After a loss, rather than being angry and frustrated, you should evaluate your decision-making. If your decision-making was good, you just got unlucky and you shouldn’t worry about it since you are playing for the long run (remember that variance teaches us that anything can happen in the short-term). If your decision-making was bad, you need to learn from your mistakes and move on. The key here is to always have a positive mindset: making mistakes is part of the learning process and should be seen as an occasion to improve. Being angry and ranting, on the other hand, rarely result in anything positive.
Again, this translates very well to investing:
- Don’t be impulsive, don’t let your emotions cloud your judgment. You should not FOMO because the price is pumping, nor should you sell because of FUD or price corrections. If you believe in a project, short-term price changes (did I hear someone say “variance”?) shouldn’t bother you.
- Don’t get stuck up on losses. You bought the top and it crashed immediately after? You sold the bottom right before a huge rally? Don’t let this bother you: what’s done is done and you just need to move on and make the best of your current situation.
- Have a positive mindset. Anger and frustration lead to nothing. Yes you could have bought in 2009 when you first heard about it, hindsight is always 20/20. Stay positive and keep learning/improving yourself.
The good thing about all this is that it goes way beyond poker or investing. Being aware of your emotions and how they affect you, learning how to handle losing even when you were “supposed” to win, etc… All this can tremendously help you in all aspects of life by making you less impulsive and more rational in your decision-making. Now, this leaves us with our last fundamental principle of a sound poker strategy:

- Basic stats and probabilities (i.e. Expected value/Odds)
To become an accomplished player, you will inevitably have to learn about these simple mathematical tools that poker players use all the time in their decision-making process, such as odds and expected value. To make it very simple, the expected value (EV) of any bet is (REWARD \ WinRate - RISK), meaning that if you can bet 1000$ with a chance to win 10k$ half of the time, your EV is *(10000\0.5)-1000 = +4000$**. Obviously these are great odds to take as long as you have enough capital to overcome variance. But things would be very different if the odds of winning were only 5% as your EV would then be negative *(10000\0.05)-1000 = -500$.*** Now this is clearly a bet you should not take…
Now that you know probabilities, statistics and game theory are useful decision-making tools in poker, guess what? They are also extremely useful in investing! Even better, the study of game theory with problems such as the “Byzantine generals” or the “Three prisoners” has been, along with cryptography, the foundation on which blockchain technology was built, enabling the trustless and decentralized services that are about to revolutionize our world…
Assuming this was enough to pique your interest and make you want to dig deeper, I’ll just add that just like the other topics we discussed and as you might have guessed, this translates very well to investing and also to pretty much anything in your life:
- Learn how to break down complex situations. Logical thinking paired with a statistical approach will help you break down any complex problem into several easier problems, making the whole thing a lot easier to approach/comprehend.
- Base your decisions on a methodical and rational approach. List every possible outcome along with its associated upside/downside, estimate the probability of each outcome to occur and make the best decision based on the information available.
My point here is that risk management, emotional management and statistics/game theory are all awesome tools that you should definitely add to your arsenal. Not only will it improve your money-management and investing, it will also be beneficial to your decision-making and to your life in general. Of course poker is not the only way to learn about these, but I personally found it to be the best practice ground to refine and improve them, which is why I strongly encourage you all to try it out and study the game.
I hope you enjoyed the article, and I wish you all a happy 2021 bull run! May we all come closer to retirement and financial independence!

TL;DR: more than a game, poker is a school of thought. It teaches you to be reasonable, to assess the risk of every single choice you make, to overcome you emotions, to play the long game rather than the short game, to make informed decisions, etc… This has made me a lot wiser in every aspect of my life, which is why I strongly encourage to try it out and read about poker strategy.

I'm so sick and tired of slogans like "Read 52 books per year and become a multi-millionaire."

[Bothying] The Bothy Bible

In Scotland there’s a thing called a bothy. A bothy is a an old stone farm building or hut that is used to house workers in remote areas or used as refuges for lost hikers and other outdoor enthusiasts. They are usually very remote and only accessible by foot, water or heavy duty off road vehicles (there are a few exceptions that I might mention later).
Apart from historically being very functional for forestry workers, shepherds or ill fated outdoors folk, nowadays they are more so frequented by people just wanting to escape, to get some solace in some scenic and remote places in Scotland. Many of them are owned and kept by landowners, but many of them (over a hundred) are run and maintained by an organisation called The Mountain Bothy Association or the MBA. They are Spartan in facilities. No toilets, plumbing or electricity. They’re shells of buildings really, but they keep the rain out and most of the wind. The comfiest thing to expect is maybe a raised platform to sleep on and if you’re lucky a couple of seats (although I did visit one that had a full leather sofa). There’s usually a fireplace or stove (but not always), but be prepared to carry in your own fuel as fuel can be very scarce in many parts of the highlands.
Bothying has a long history, but really became a thing in the 30’s as people from towns and cities started hiking and walking in the hills and glens. And for multi day trips they found these old buildings and in their groups, or with strangers, gathered in them at night to trade stories of their day, to sing songs or stare silently into the fire and think about tomorrow’s adventure. As time went on many of these buildings started to decay and get into states of disrepair or even become dangerous. This, in the 1960s, is when the MBA was formed, with the idea to save these buildings and the culture that came from them. They formed a charity to protect the buildings and created a bothy code to protect the culture. Bothies were to be looked after while being used and not used for commercial reasons, you were to respect the environment, respect the landowners property and, where possible, people were asked to donate to the MBA via membership or by helping out in work parties (this was encouraged, but not expected. Their bothies were free to use by all and always will be).
Bothying is a small, but vibrant and treasured part of Scottish culture and the MBA have been integral in preserving this. There are other bothies in the rest of mainland UK (and similar concepts elsewhere in the world), however what is described as ‘bothy culture’ is fairly unique to Scotland and is treasured by the relative few people who partake in it. It has been the hobby of very few people in relative terms. With so many of these bothies actually being very difficult to get to, map reading, proper outdoor equipment and proper preparation are essential to reach a large proportion of these shelters. The majority of people don’t have the time or inclination, like a lot of hobbies I suppose.
The difficulty in reaching these bothies is, in my mind, completely worth it. You find yourself in some of the most beautiful places in the world, with the closest roads or people hours away. Occasionally other people show up as well and you share whisky round the fire and trade stories and make friends (it’s an unwritten rule that politics is left outside). It’s not unheard of for a lot of people to show up to popular ones. I’ve only ever had 8 in a bothy before, but I’ve heard stories of 22 people and a set of bagpipes showing up to one on Hogmanay (it’s an unwritten rule that there’s always room for one more in a bothy).
There’s a lot of respect for these buildings. They save lives. Yes, bothy culture is a thing and people generally use them recreationally, but these places are never locked and they’re never locked for a reason. They are left open in case people need them. And people do need them. There are many stories where hikers, kayakers, climbers or anyone finding themselves in trouble in a storm or the snow have happened upon one of these buildings. They’ve found dry wood, kindling and a lighter by the fire (another unwritten rule: if possible, leave a means of starting a fire for the next visitors) and maybe a tin of beans or spaghetti hoops. People’s lives have literally been saved by these buildings.
Since 2006 the MBA website has had a list of all the bothies that they maintain in the U.K., a simple map to show roughly where they are, grid references and a list of guidelines for use of the bothies. They also have sections where you can volunteer for work parties for upkeep of the buildings, give reports on bothies you visited and a membership page.
The grid references and simple map were all you could expect to find as far as locations go. There are probably hundreds of other private bothies elsewhere (again mostly left open), but these are fairly closely guarded secrets only to be disclosed to friends and maybe a trusted person you meet around the bothy fire. A bothy, MBA or private, is seen by many as a treasure to be found. This has been the way of it since before the MBA was a thing, and this is where we get to the drama.
In early February 2017 a man called Geoff Allan released a book called the Bothy Bible. Geoff Allan had been an avid bothier for decades and was even secretary of the MBA at one point. His book was a detailed account of bothy locations, facilities (access to water, fuel availability etc) and directions on how to get there and even with bits of history on some of the buildings. It was mostly MBA bothies, but included private ones as well. It was beautifully designed, approachable and would look good on any coffee table. It quickly became a massive best seller.
Around this time hiking and being in the outdoors was becoming increasingly popular as more people were becoming aware of the health benefits, both mental and physical, of being in nature. With the release of the book, intrigue about bothies exploded. There were articles in national newspapers and lifestyle magazines, Geoff Allan was on the telly, and you could hear people talking about it in public. My own work colleagues bought me the book for my birthday.
Seems all good... It wasn’t. It became something of a war.
There’s several bothy groups on Facebook (These are the main forums for general bothy discussion).What was once a place to share pictures and stories of your bothy adventures, quickly became cyber battlegrounds between two camps. On one side, you had people who welcomed the book and thought it would do good for bothies (or at the very least weren’t that bothered about its release). On the other side there were the people who though Geoff Allan and the bothy bible were worse than Hitler and Mein Kampf.
I’ll briefly outline the two camps as fairly as possible.
People who like the bothy Bible: There are more people using the outdoors and this book can introduce them to some beautiful places in Scotland. The Scotland is a fairly sparsely populated place, there’s plenty room. Geoff Allan promised that a portion of the profits from the book would go to the MBA, which would enable them to rescue more buildings and improve and keep existing ones. There’s more points, but they’re mostly in response to the other side’s points... which are many.
The Geoff Allan is Hitler side: This goes against the spirit of bothying. You’re supposed to find these places by yourself. The bothies will only get busier. People will leave rubbish (it’s an explicit rule to take out what you take in). Geoff Allan is profiting off of a voluntary organisation’s work. It’s dangerous! People who are ill prepared for the highland terrain will try and find this “free” accommodation and get into difficulty. The bothies will becomes full of parties and cease to be the lonely places as per the MBA’s mission statement. Geoff Allan is a prick XD He’s making profit off a charity It will encourage tour groups to use them Bothies will close because of this book
As I mentioned Facebook groups became battlegrounds (There was a particularly volatile FB user who’s profile picture was a picture of the Bothy Bible burning in a fire). But the rupture in the erstwhile peaceful bothy world wasn’t reserved to Facebook groups. It spread to other social media sites as well and heated discussions took place in MBA meetings. The quarterly area meetings and national annual meetings, usually reserved for budgets and allocation of tasks, were dominated by this existential crisis. It started impacting the bothies themselves. For a time, it was destined to come up at some point round the fire. And everyone had an opinion. Geoff Allan and some directors of the MBA were harrassed and even threatened.
The anti bothy biblers had a point (in their grievances, not threatening people). The volunteers who looked after the bothies almost universally reported higher usage of the bothies. They also almost universally reported an upsurge of mistreatment of the bothies as well. More rubbish being left, live trees being cut for firewood, and an increase in vandalism and breakages. There were more instances of the mountain rescue services being called out to ill equipped bothy goers. And there were several instances of groups in bothies turning away people so they could keep it for themselves and their party. Further, I haven’t seen how much money Geoff Allan has actually donated to the MBA.
It’s also the case that a couple of the more popular bothies have been locked by the landowners due to misuse. Bothy closures have been a thing in the past. Some have been relatively easy to get to and because of this they have become party dens and the landowners got sick of it, so closed them. But recently, harder to get to bothies have been closed. The reason from the landowners have been misuse or overuse. Also, decades long volunteers have given up their roles, because they’ve had to take out so much rubbish, repair so much damage and even had to bury people’s shit.
It can hardly be argued that the Bothy Bible hasn’t had an effect on these negative results. How much of an effect is up for debate though. The outdoors in general have been becoming more and more popular and with this popularity has come some users who don’t treat where they are with respect. You can read about the camping permit zones around Loch Lomond due to vandalism and general anti social use of the area to illustrate this point. It may have only been a matter of time until this happened to bothies.
I’m also of the opinion that the outdoors is for anyone to use, as long as they do so responsibly. The benefits I have felt by going bothying are immeasurable, I wouldn’t be exaggerating too much if I said they have gone a way to saving my life, and I would never deny that to anyone.
This controversy raged on and on for 2 years, with mud being slung about Geoff Allan, the MBA directors or anyone who sided with the opposite side. It was awful.
It’s still going on really. It’s died down a lot of course, but if you’re speaking to other Bothy users, be it at home or around the Bothy fire, there’s a fair chance it’ll come up at some point. There isn’t much resolution either. It is a person who wrote a well researched and successful book. Nothing could really be done except moan about it. Some threatened legal action on no real basis. Some old members left the MBA because of the controversy, others joined because of the increased profile.
I have my opinion on it, but I’ll not bore you with thrashing it out. I can go into it in the comments if anyone wants. I can also try to answer questions people might have on the drama or bothies themselves. It will be all my own opinions and I speak for no one. The drama is drama, but bothies are one of my favourite things in the world. They’re my favourite thing to talk about.
Thanks for reading.
Edit: if anyone is considering going bothying, please visit the MBA website and get to know the Bothy Code. I’d also consider joining the MBA. They do great work and you get a cool magazine every quarter.

AITA for excluding my children’s siblings?

Happy new year Reddit! I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday weekend!
I am a 44M who you can call Dave, and I have two kids. Oldest child is 16f Sara and youngest is 14M Alex. I am no longer with their mother. No bad blood there. She’s a good mom and we split custody 50/50. We parent well together too.
My kids stay with their mom one week and stay with me one week except for the summer where I have them more because I have a beach house that the three of us migrate to. It’s something my kids look forward to and my daughter would like to move into when she’s 18, but that’s a separate conversation lol.
The problem is my ex remarried and had more children with her current husband and they are upset the new children aren’t experiencing the same life. Their family as a whole isn’t very well off and I’m guessing that they struggle. They’ve never been on a vacation and can’t afford to eat out, so I can see where the kids might feel excluded in life.
I send my kids a weekly allowance via Venmo. It’s not a lot in my opinion. I give Alex 30 and Sarah 50 (extra for female products/needs) and that alone has caused arguments. They’ll go to McDonald’s and the three other kids throw a fit.
This past Christmas, I had my two on Christmas Eve and we did gifts then as well. I got my son a switch with some games, clothes, sports gear, and a IOU for a PS5 when it’s available (he thought it was funny and not mean btw.)For my daughter I let her pick out her clothes, and got her a new camera and MacBook. I understand this is a lot, but I don’t have any other responsibilities.
We had a good evening and my kids were very happy. My son kicked my butt in Mario Kart and my daughter took some holiday photos, but on Christmas evening their mom called and had frank conversation about making their siblings feel like less as they got board games and action figures. This turned into me not furthering their relationship with trips and stuff to the beach house, and how they always beg to go and experience it.. which I won’t lie one of them did ask me to do in the past. I just don’t feel comfortable or wanting to do that, and Alex doesn’t care while Sara flat out doesn’t want it.
I do feel bad, but I don’t think I have a responsibility to their kids, and my kids shouldn’t have to hide their joy or possessions. My son refuses to share his switch at their house and I told his mother it is his to as he wishes and if she took away without real cause or forced him to share I would take issue with this because he’s a just young person who’s not aiming to hurt anyone.
I told my ex that I was planning a trip to Disney after Covid and it really hit the fan. Her ex wants it all canceled as their oldest girl is a Disney fanatic. My ex wants it canceled because the other two once thought Santa loved them less and everything was damaging their kids mentally.
AITA with not including their kids??
edit I left this out by mistake but my Daughter got a car for her 16th birthday that has caused more issues as well. My ex and her current husband felt she shouldn’t have a new car. The fact that is was nicer the theirs was not brought up to me Personally but my son said his mom complained about it to her husband— I did not hear this first hand.
second edit A redditor suggested a peace offering and doing something for the kids. A lot of people, myself included, thought a switch was a good idea. I reached out to my ex to get the ok from her regarding getting her kids a switch for the three of them. We talked for a bit and she gave the ok. I then reached talked to my children about the switch idea and they both thought that would be good. I said I would send them the money if they got the system and age appropriate games as a gift from them to their siblings. Sara texted me while she was at target and said ex’s bf was upset about it and it was on pause.
Final edit I think I got some good advice on top of letting me know I wasn’t running a foul on anyone. I want to thank everyone for their time and words even if you thought I was the AH. Life is always offering ways to improve so I’ll take all of your advice to heart.
I’m not sure this warrants an update but if people want one I’ll do one in a few days
P.S.— a lot of people here offered advice of just taking the siblings to the beach house for a weekend or summer.. guys these kids aren’t old enough and the house is several hours away from our home area. They need supervision and I’m not taking on that role and my children have said they aren’t up for that long term either.. my son isn’t likely mature enough for that in all honesty. It’s just not practical.

Some Basic Information About Raising Bilingual Children

EDIT: This really blew up. Thanks for the gold and all the other awards, and thanks for all the feedback. I am happy to answer questions here or through DM.
I am not a speech pathologist and expert in child linguistics, but I do have 20 years of experience in the international school system, a masters in early childhood education and have personally seen the journey of many families of all types who are struggling to raise their child bilingually.
Because I see a lot of questions here, I thought I’d just assemble some basic info here in this topic, for those who are curious. I still get private messages about the international schools topic I made last year a few times a month (actually I need to do a COVID-19 update on that one).
I only vaguely touch on research in this topic (though I’d be happy to delve more into that aspect), and aim more a common sense/basic things you should know topic for people raising bilingual children. For people who have been at it for a few years, you may already know much of this (and please feel free to contribute in the comments!). So perhaps this is aimed more towards people who are newly parents, or thinking about becoming parents soon.
Anyway…
The first thing I always tell parents, and it is sometimes hard to grasp, is that one of the main decisive factors is simply a child’s innate ability/inclination towards a second language/bilingualism. Schooling, friends and environment play an important rule. But it is just the reality that some children learn a second language faster or more thoroughly than others. Some children are more interested and retain it better. It is not a factor of a child being intelligent, it is just their personality, learning style and personal strengths. Just as some kids learn to talk or ride a bike a younger age or some people have been fine motor skills, it’s just a part of who you are.
The second decisive factor is the language spoken at home. If you and your partner speak the second language that you want the child to learn, then do your absolute best to speak that and only that at home. Because most likely at school, in society and in general, they will be getting PLENTY of input/output time in Japanese. And remember that children are smart enough to figure out that you can speak Japanese (and will often demand that parents speak a certain language). So once you agree to start using it with them, it is a slippery slope. Better to firmly establish your family language as the second language the first few years, and worry about loosening up later.
While quality and methods are important, these things are trumped by the simple importance of time spent using the second language. The more time a child spends with 2L input/output, the better they will slowly become. And despite what a lot of people think, there is no short cut to learn and it takes a lot of time, effort and practice. A bare minimum would be that the child spends 30% of their waking time using the second language, which is a lot more than you might think.
There are a number of key windows in language development with regards to pronunciation, ability to truly think in another language and the potential to become “native” (admittedly a loosely defined term). And the important thing to know here is that they ALL happen earlier than you think. I have met families who have said things like “we are waiting until they turn 3 to start using English” or “We want them to totally understand Japanese before learning another language.” The most crucial steps of language acquisition happen within the first few months of a child’s life, and if you truly intend them to become bilingual, you should start from birth. Also, the research and thinking that a child should firmly have their native tongue understood before embarking on a second language has long been disproven.
What has been well-established in the research is that language development is a “rising tide raises all boats” situation. Gaining further understanding, cognitive ability and articulation in one language raises the ability to do so in other languages, proportionally. However, the degree to which they develop that second language is once again a factor of innate ability and usage time.
There is a lag between input and output of a language. In general, you have to listen for a long time before you begin to be able to verbalize words (and later phrases and sentences), and you can understand a lot more than you can say. For shy children and those hesitant to speak, this process may take longer as the slowly develop the confidence to speak in front of others (especially publicly or a group).
I hope this goes without saying, but pressure and shame are NEVER positive methods for language development, or for child development as a whole. Gentle encouragement or creating motivation (e.g. studying in English about topics that a child enjoys, engaging in activities that a child enjoys, etc.) are far superior methods. Remember that you can use ANY activity to practice communication in a second language. Go for a walk, play a game or sport, read about bugs or trains or princesses, ask “what are you drawing/building/singing,” etc.
One trouble sign for bilingual development is stuttering. Stuttering can happen for a wide variety of reasons and in most cases, it is temporary. However, there are cases where children begin to have difficulty differentiating which language to speak on a neurological level, as the “word retrieval” process becomes hindered. If your bilingual child is stuttering for more than a few weeks and the situation seems to be getting worse rather than gently improving, you might try decreasing 2L exposure temporarily and seeing if the situation improves. A speech pathologist in a great option in these instances, but the number of bilingual or English-speaking speech pathologists in Japan can be counted on one hand, and they all have a waiting line.
I wrote about international schools separately, so I won’t go into too much detail here. But the primary benefit is increasing the amount of 2L exposure time. However, going to school is about a lot more than language. And I can tell you from personal experience (due to my involvement in a certain professional development organization, I have seen many schools) that the vast majority of international schools are fair to poor. There are a few really truly good ones, but they are also the most expensive ones and not easy to get into or afford. And even then, the international school system has its demerits. All I’m saying is don’t make this decision based solely on language development.
If you are looking at external English education, but it a school or private lessons or whatever, the deciding factor is the teacher and his/her relationship to your child. You can have the best curriculum in the world or a director who graduated from Harvard, and it won’t mean anything without a good teacher. Conversely, a great teacher can do a pretty good job with just about any curriculum or approach within reason. The relationship between the child and the caregiver in that environment is what will dictate how much they learn.
Media such as DVDs, youtube videos, etc. can be a wonderful supplement to language development. Many people here will tell you of their kids learning vocab and phrases from media that they never expected. But be aware these things function best as an aid. You set down the foundations in human, face-to-face interaction regularly and over an extended period of time. The child then takes that and builds their knowledge base through the media.
The best way to teach a child to learn to read/write is to teach them at home. Obviously more is better, but especially at younger age, even a couple hours on the weekend makes a big difference. It isn’t really necessary to start earlier than four years old and there isn’t any evidence that learning to read at a younger age is of any benefit later on. Also, the current research suggests starting with basic site words, then moving on to short readers. There are a TON of good reader systems that slowly build up in complexity. I can recommend some if needed. Phonics can come later, maybe a year or so after beginning with site words and basic readers. But starting to learn to read through phonics is no longer favored by the research, especially as so much of English is irregular.
After that, book reports are your secret. Find books on subjects they like. Read them together. Read them and then have the kids read them back to you, back to grandparents and siblings. Point to letters and words as you go along, ask questions about the contents. Have them write reports on the books afterward. You can start VERY simple and then increase with complexity as they get older. This works really, really well.
Separately from that, READ TO YOUR CHILDREN, and do so from the youngest age possible. If you think they are too young, you are wrong. I say this because, totally separately from language development, reading to your children is THE determining factor in academic success, reading ability and a host of other factors as the child gets older. Also it is really fun, especially when they get older and you can read them chapter books at night. If you do one thing with your child, read to them consistently and often.
Finally, trilingualism is hard but not impossible. Take everything I said about innate ability, exposure time, etc. above and multiply it many times over. Parents will often say things like “there are street children in India who speak five language” and yes, that is great and by all means go live on the streets of Delhi and see what happens. But this is a different environment and the reality is that while learning three language fluently isn’t impossible, it’s only possible for some kids and takes incredible hard work on the part of the family over the course of many year.
Anyway, hope this has been helpful and please don’t hesitate to contribute or contradict me or anything you like. I am sorry if it is long but believe me, I could have said a lot more!

LPT: Social skills can be seen as a sport: There are techniques to be learn, it takes time to get good, and the more you do it the better you get. I used to have severe low social skills and/or anxiety (1st GF at 26). Now I am a socialite.

tl;dr at bottom, also total misused of the word socialite...explanation at end. english as 2nd lang sry!
Just be yourself. I hated that quote so much because I was being myself, who else would I be?
Confident people tend to think social skills are something you can just turn on and off, learn when you were young, or something everybody knows how to do, etc. It is not. You can learn it, sure...but it takes effort and time..... It is only once you learn how to be good at social situations, that you can be "yourself" when those skills become another habit. Some people learn it at a young age, due maybe to having a large family, but others have to learn it later on in life like myself.
This is how I did it:
I spent most of my youth playing Halo and avoiding social contact (I did skateboard and got pretty nasty at it so kuddos to me I guess). Eventually after reaching puberty, I went through high school hell and got made fun of for being weird, girlfriend less, virgin, awkard, etc. Thank god (or gods, or the nothingness out there) for there being internet because I was good at research. Out of desperation and due to being sick of being bullied, I researched everything there was at the time regarding social dynamics and how I can escape my situation.
✔️✔️✔️ So how do you get good Mr. Bipolar1990 (btw I am not, long story)?!!!!! ✔️✔️✔️
Observe how you currently interact with others & learn different techniques: Learn new techniques from researching: google, YouTube, books, observing social people, etc. Observe what you currently do by asking feedback from friends and recording yourself when possible. Examples to give you an idea of how vast socializing can be improved on. Does not mean you have to master all of the below (when i started, I focused on 1 thing to improve per months, then when it became a habit, I would chose another thing....and I did this throughout the years...still am):

How is your enthusiasm behind every word?
Do you interrupt constantly?
Are you letting people express themselves freely without telling them they are wrong, even if they're wrong? Or are you shutting them down as quickly as they speak>
Do you have conversations, or do you turn every conversation into a debate?
Do you know how to break the ice? Have you ever researched strategies on how to break the ice?
Have you notice how most conversations with strangers tend to follow an unofficial script of certain topics (where you from, what you do, etc)? What makes one person succeed, and another not if they're sort of following the same path?
Did you know body language accounts to what's more important in a conversation, followed by the emotion you put behind what you're saying, followed by what the words you chose to say?
Have you read books on body language? Have you practice body language? Ever seen yourself talking to somebody in a video somebody record of you? Highly encourage for you to record yourself telling a story to the camera, and you'll be shock how you look...whether bad or good.
Do you know how to transition to different topics? Especially when a topic seems to be fading out?
Do you know how to exit conversations before it gets to that weird point?
Do you know how to ask questions in a way that's interesting and not interrogatory?
Are you fidgeting?
Are you smiling? Are you smiling too much?
Is your face expressive when you talk or does it not move? This means moving eyebrows, opening eyes, micro-expressions, etc
Are you looking at them in the eyes? Are you looking at their eyes for half a second, follow by looking away, follow by looking at their eyes for another half a second? are you looking too much into their eyes to the point you look threatening?
Do you just ask questions or make statements as well....by which I mean do you provide content to the conversation or just keep asking the listener to provide content to the conversation?
Do you talk about negative topics most of the time?
When you talk about a subject you like, do you talk about it as if you truly like it or as if you hope they like it?
Do you voice goes high pitch after every sentence? aka seeking validation?
When you provide any value (cool story, interesting fact, etc) do you expect for them to give you a congratulations and get mad if they don't? or do you not get mad and keeping on talking as if nothing happened?
Can you tell when somebody is not interested in what you're saying? And if not, do you force to keep talking about the topic or do you move on to another one?
Do you give unsolicited advice at every opportunity?
doyoutalkreallyfasthopingyoucansayeverywordinonesecond.....or.....do you.....create suspense by doing.............................pauses....?

Try the techniques: This is important....you can't learn how to play soccer by reading books. This applies to social techniques as well. You need to attempt them, keep track of what happens, and do them long enough for it to become a habit.

Example, let's say you are the person that only talks about negative topics. For 1 entire day, force yourself to not say anything negative.
Example: You want to learn how to learn delivery of a story better, you can do those meetups where people train to give speeches or simply go to a bar with a memorized joke/story and tell it to strangers. You can even ask feedback after telling them to speed up the learning curve. Keep in mind that feedback from strangers will prob be sugar coated.
FOCUS ON ONE THING TO TRY PER MONTH! Master it then move on, don't over do it b/c then you'll be too paranoid to do anything.

Analyze daily interactions & record audio: You need to keep track and analyze social interactions you encounter. If you don't, you won't make much progress. Think of it as a sport, you cannot just throw a few shots per month and expect to become a good basketball player. Just focus on the current monthly goal you're doing. Let's say you're practicing keep eye contact, aim to remember if you looked away in the interactions you ahd throught the day. if you did look away or not, can yo u remember why did you do this? how can you improve it next time?

Recording yourself is great because you can listen to the audio to see if you sound good or maybe you were speaking too fast. Also having a friend with you can help as heshe may tell you of stuff they noticed, such as you fidgeting or looking away when speaking.

Accelerate learning: Don't wait for people to talk to you. You talk to them. This is particularly great at social gatherings such as carnivals, bars, etc. Try making casual conversation with somebody. Ask for the time to people walking in the streets. Sort of like imagine you're only getting good at basketball when somebody passes you the ball, it will be faster if you take the ball one day and practice dribbling on your own. So instead, for example, of practicing walking confidently only when you are in a party...do it all the time, when you walk to the kitchen, store, etc.

Do this for the long-term: You can't learn every skill overnight, try one for a month until you master it. I did this extensively from 16 to 27 years extensively. I still do it from time to time now but just to kill certain bad habits I have. I am comfortable at my level now. Do not half-do it. You need to maintain progress on a long-term basis. This is almost the same as if you did 30 push-ups once a month vs 4 days of the week.

Research Nutrition. Without getting too much into details, look up nutrition. This is a heavily debated topic that I won't go into depth about but it did help me as far as increasing energy and destroying abnormal social anxiety....which is key in conversations. By which I mean, if you're tired all the time, people probably will not like to listen to your voice as it will probably be monotone. However, if you are energetic, you will have no problem enunciating every sentence in a way that's pleasing.

✔️Don't let this area of life be forgotten because making it to the other side is sooo worth it.
EDIT - Totally misused the word socialite. I thought it was like a likeable person who makes the effort to talk to strangers at social gatherings. Did not think it was anything related to status, high society, or entertainment biz (after googling term). I may be able to talk to people now but i'm a broke mofo
TL;DR you can learn to socialize better by observing others and yourself. Eventually your new skills will become habits and then you can be "yourself"

A Crash Course in Living Away From Home

This is my guide on how to succeed at living away from home, coming from someone who has attended boarding school and lived in a dorm since 14. As we get closer to the fall and the actual "holy hell, I'm actually gonna be in college soon," here's my advice on dorm essentials, roommates, bathrooms, life skills, and homesickness.
Dorm essentials:

A mattress pad. I have never slept on a bed in an institution that was actually comfortable. Invest in a good one. It will save your back and also make coming home to sleep a lot nicer.
Shower shoes and a shower caddy. Do I even need to explain this one?
Room decor. It’s a lot less depressing to be in a shoebox of a room if you have decor. There isn’t a ton of space for things like throw pillows or beanbags, but having printed pictures and fairy lights can make your room a lot more cozy. A little rug is nice too.
Wireless headphones/earbuds. Your roommate does not want to listen to your TV show or music as you putter about your room. Wireless headphones allow you to listen to whatever you want without disturbing your roommate. As a general rule of thumb, unless you are watching/listening to something socially or are alone, you should be using headphones.
Extension cords with power strips are a must. I shit you not, I had a single outlet in my dorm room that I had to figure out how to run a fridge off of while also charging all my devices and running a diffuser, a fan, and a tea kettle.
Living essentials. I’m talking about cleaning supplies, bedding, dishes, towels, first aid supplies, a water bottle, laundry stuff, etc. Your dorm room largely functions as a miniature house and as such, you will need the supplies to cook, clean, and generally take care of yourself.
Appliances are tricky. I would look at dorm rules and what you can afford before investing. Also, coordinate with your roommate about who will buy what. As it stands, the essential dorm appliances are a fridge, microwave, and hot water pot. You can make all the essentials (tea and ramen) with those supplies. A Brita filter is nice if you can fit it in your fridge. If your dorm doesn’t have AC, get a standing fan. It will keep you alive during the hot and humid months.
Hangers! Do not forget the hangers.
Lock. You’ll want a locked drawer for ~reasons~, whether that be money, medication, important documents, whatever. There is some stuff you just can’t risk getting stolen.
Storage bins will save you. Store food, school books, etc in them. Make sure they fit in the places you want them to before buying!
Other stuff: clothes, shoes, jackets, toiletries, school supplies, bags, sports equipment. Basically anything you use on a day to day basis.

Side note: less is more. I made the mistake of bringing way too much stuff. It’s a pain in the ass to haul around during move-in and move-out and is generally just not worth it. People often overestimate the number of clothes and number of nostalgic items they need. I promise you, it’s so much nicer to just have the essentials of living with a few comfort/nostalgic/fancy things. You don’t need to bring your entire shoe or book collection.
Practical Skills & Important Things

Laundry. Please know how to do laundry. Do not leave your items in a washedryer overnight or longer than the wash cycle. Someone might throw it on the ground, or worse, throw it out.
Dishes. Moldy food is not only gross, but it will make your room smell like shit and your roommate want to defenestrate you. Nobody cleans up for you in a dorm.
General tidiness. Most dorms are shoeboxes. What flies as “clean” in a larger room does not fly as “clean” in a dorm room because the space is so small. Have a place for everything and keep spaces like your desk surface clear. Hang up and fold your clothes. Take out the damn trash and make your bed! I promise you, making your bed each day makes a world of difference not only in your physical environment but also your mental headspace.
Basic cooking. You don’t need to be able to whip up a Michelin star meal, but learn how to make simple meals in case you can’t get food from the college dining halls or order online. As a rule of thumb, it’s always good to have a couple packets of instant ramen and instant oatmeal lying around.
Know who to call. If something goes wrong, you’re going to want to have the contact information of relevant people like your RA or security services. I recommend inputting those contacts once you have them into your phone.
Medical issues. If you have a chronic illness, disability, or any type of condition mental or physical that needs to be managed by a doctor, you're going to need to get a practitioner set up near your college. Have your current doctor help find you one or use the college's resources (many keep a list of providers). Figure out your health insurance, the hospital you'll primarily seek care from, and pharmacies. Keep all the paperwork and documentation you'll need accessible. Get your school accommodations set up preemptively!
Money management. The basic principles of financial health such as having a bank account, keeping a relative budget, and not living outside your means are crucial. Personally, I would recommend getting a credit/debit card set up before you leave home. Cash is not king, and it sometimes can be hard to find ATMs on campus. Having an emergency credit card attached to my parent's bank account is something that I have had all four years and is a contingency for me for medical or transportation emergencies. Have your own bank account and understand how to access it and not go into debt.
Critical items. Having important documentation is really important. If you don't have a drivers license, you'll need a state ID or a passport. Memorize your SSN! It's likely you'll need it at some point. You should have your health insurance cards to use in case you need to seek emergency medical treatment. If you have chronic illnesses or disabilities, know where and how to access your diagnostic paperwork, along with things like vaccine records and medication lists. If you have a car, you'll need your car's registration and insurance. Once you have your student ID and key to your dorm, don't lose it. Keep all of this type of stuff either with you, digitally, or in a locked drawer in your dorm.
Time management. Nobody will police you when you’re away from home. You need to figure out how to make a schedule and stick to it. Routine can be very beneficial during times of stress.
Coping skills. Living away from home can be stressful in itself. There are lots of supports built in to an undergrad college, but knowing how to take care of yourself and your emotions is key. I have a list here.
Self-care. A lot of people have the misconception that self-care is a fancy bubble bath or an expensive meal. Self-care is really about practicality and helping yourself succeed. Think of it as investing in your future self, whether that be legitimate self-improvement or just lessening the burdens your future self will have to carry. Whether that be going to the gym on a regular basis, setting boundaries with toxic friends, keeping a strict morning routine, or doing work when you don’t want to because you know it will bite you in the ass, self-care is key to keeping yourself not only functional, but happy. Of course there’s always room to treat yourself, but that should not be the focus. It’s hard to build up self-discipline which is key to self-care, but it’s really worth it.
Seeking help. Living away from home is hard. Feeling like an adult for the first time is hard. Use the resources you are provided with to your best advantage. Student health services, counseling, disability accommodations, writing centers, career centers, etc. All these resources at your disposal can help you succeed. There’s no shame in asking for help. College is a time of transition between the teen years and the "real" adult years. The rug won't be pulled out from under you completely. There are still a lot of safeguards and people who can help.
Responsibility. For some people, the first time they are away from home is the first time they face accountability. There is no parent to step in or soften the blow. Your actions, either positive or negative, have consequences. It’s okay to have fun, but don’t compromise your integrity or future.

Bathrooms:
I can’t believe I am dedicating a whole section to this, but I know communal bathrooms are a large source of fear for y’all. Side note, I only have the experience of living in a single-gender dorm, so I don’t know how coed bathrooms would work.

I promise you, you are thinking a LOT more about yourself than others are thinking about you. Everyone minds their business in the bathroom.
If you are uncomfortable changing in a bathroom (even behind a curtain), change in your room instead. Wear a robe to the bathroom along with shower shoes. Bring a shower caddy with all your toiletries and a towel. Then walk to the bathroom, pop in the shower, put on your robe again, and go back into your room to change into real clothes.
Please clean up after yourself. Don’t spit on the mirror, leave puddles on the floors, or otherwise make the bathroom gross. It's disgusting and disrespectful.

Roommates:

For many people, this will be the first time living with someone and sharing the same space. Dorm rooms are small, and you will become intimately acquainted with your roommate in many ways. Having a roommate can be an absolutely wonderful experience and how you make a best friend or it can be very challenging.
Setting boundaries. The biggest source of bad roommate experiences is bad boundaries or total lack of them. When you first get a roommate and establish a rapport, make it clear what is acceptable to you and what isn’t. Then come up with a list that you both agree with or can make compromises on. Most colleges pair roommates up by living style questionnaires, but it can’t help to make clarifications. Some examples of questions to ask:
- How can you be best contacted in an emergency?
- What time do you go to bed on weeknights? Weekends?
- Are people okay to sleep over in your room?
- Are you okay with sharing food? If so, what?
- Are guests allowed at any time or only with advance notice?
- Can you share things like cleaning supplies, clothes, etc? If so, what items?
- What alarm times/how many alarms in the morning is okay?
- What time do you get up in the morning on weekdays? Weekends?
- What time do you want to turn the lights off and on during the day?
- Are you clean or messy?
- What level of noise (phone calls, TV, etc) is acceptable?
If you are in an unbearable or even highly uncomfortable living situation, it is okay to try and change roommates. For a lot of people, their dorm is their “safe space” and so it’s worth it to make an effort to get your experience to be as good as possible. Talk to your RA to resolve imminent conflicts and don’t be afraid to go to student life if something big needs to be changed.

Homesickness:

This is not something I personally experienced to a large degree, mainly because of how I was raised. However, I know a lot of people who struggled with homesickness.
As much as it is uncomfortable, the college experience is unique and valuable. When you go home, it may feel like you’ve outgrown your childhood home or life. Although wanting to go home may feel safer, you’ll grow a lot if you stick it out.
Maintaining relationships with your family and close friends from home is essential. Maintaining long-distance relationships with friendships can be difficult, so I recommend regularly making time to FaceTime or text, or even meet up if your paths somehow intersect. Your parents will probably want to hear from you, so make sure you call them every so often, provided you want to and have a good relationship. They’ve likely been one of the biggest sources of comfort and support for you for your whole life, and now that you’ve moved out, that won’t go away. You're not going to lose your home life entirely.
Build connections at school. Although it’s scary, the first few months of college are when people really start to build friendships and friendship groups. Joining clubs, participating in orientation stuff, getting involved with sport teams, talking to people in classes, and generally making an effort to be social will help you build your own community.
If your homesickness is becoming overwhelming, or severely detrimental to your mental health, seek support through the student mental health office or the equivalent. It will eventually pass, or at least become more bearable, and seeking support can help make the burden easier.

I think that is about everything! If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. Moving away from home was simultaneously the scariest thing I’ve ever done but also the best. I learned so much about independence, responsibility, self-reliance, and self-advocacy. Really, I just learned how to make my way through life.
Per popular request, a full list of pretty much anything you could ever need to bring to college in no particular order and the Google Docs (ergo printable) version of this post.

How to Survive Camping - what does this campground have against my four-wheelers

I run a private campground. I wish I could say that the worst thing I have to deal with in this job is spreading manure around as fertilizer but no, I’ve got bodies to dispose of, spiders inside of brussels sprouts to contend with, and bargains with sentient mounds of jellied flesh to fulfill.
If you’re new here, you should really start at the beginning and if you’re totally lost, this might help.
I haven’t seen much of Beau lately. He’s not been showing up in the mornings anymore. Not since the whole thing with the thorns. I guess he was off being sulky that I didn’t heed his warning. I was looking forward to seeing the look on his face when I figured out all on my own how to get rid of the thorns in my lungs AND the thorns all over the campground.
...who am I kidding, he only has two expressions - disinterest and annoyance - and I don’t think he’ll be adding surprise to the list anytime soon.
Well, I was still holding out hope for a single eyebrow raised in mild disbelief. I think that’d be as close as I’ll get to a compliment.
If you’re questioning my confidence right now, well, I feel it’s merited. I was right about the gummy bears being spawned from the beliefs of a long-dead civilization. Considering my theories are wrong more often than not, that’s quite an accomplishment in my book.
I do try to do my research and while a lot of this is guesswork based on unreliable sources, sometimes I get lucky, I suppose. With Mattias’s journal though, I’m hoping we’ll stop being lucky and start being right.
My brother has the journal indexed. He’s gone through and marked which parts seem to relate to which creature. He spends a lot of time reading while holding his daughter. He tells me that she’ll quiet down as soon as he sits down to read with her and it’s funny, it’s almost like her eyes are tracking on the pages. I’ve been telling myself that this is fine, the fairies are technically on my side right now, but also this is a changeling and changelings are evil little shits so I can’t help but be a little alarmed.
He gave me all the page numbers that referenced the hall. I did my research and I made a plan. While Mattias didn’t have reason to request anything from the gummy bear king, he did have reason to make a hasty exit at one point. Attempted murder is liable to piss off anyone, inhuman or not. So Mattias tried to kill the gummy bears in their own lair, it failed spectacularly, and then he had to flee. And you think I’m reckless. Despite the failed assassination attempt, he at least successfully escaped, and bless him, he wrote down how he did it.
I’ve learned the importance of having a reliable escape route, after the thing in the dark swatted my four-wheeler like it was a cat toy.
All that was left was to secure an offering to the gummy bears. They wouldn’t give me what I wanted if they didn’t believe I was going to leave them a live human being in exchange. Now, a lot of you had suggestions for the sorts of individuals that this world would perhaps be better off without or perhaps wouldn’t mind a swift departure from existence. I’m sure I could make any of those options work. However, much like myself, this town has selective morality. Losing some people due to predation by the creatures that inhabit my campground? Yes, fine, this is merely the natural consequences of existing alongside the inhuman realm. Offering someone as a sacrifice for a bargain with these evil things? Oh hell no.
I could argue that this was necessary to keep the town safe and I might sway them to my side but it’d take a town hall meeting and likely most of what little political capital I retain around here. I’d have to deal with malicious rumors for years to come. Kate made a bargain with one of those things. Kate can’t be trusted. Who knows what else she’s made agreements with?
For the record, they don’t know about Beau and they aren’t going to find out.
And finally... last time I dealt with a human sized gummy bear I wound up with some of its splattered remains in my mouth. I’d prefer to keep them largely confined to creatures that are easily punted into the nearest tree.
So in order to trick the gummy bears I needed a willing accomplice. Yes, yes, I know cheating has its own risks, but it sometimes works out in the stories. It’s a valid strategy. Humans can get away with it.
I thought about asking my brother, but that hardly seemed fair. He’s got a new daughter and technically she’s a changeling, but at some point she’s going to be the real deal and I shouldn’t endanger him unnecessarily. Not when I had other options. I needed someone with enough sense to know when to run but perhaps not enough self-preservation to know when to say ‘no’. Most of my full time staff don’t fulfill the latter requirement and my part-time staff don’t fulfill the former. There was one person I could think of, though they weren’t local and might require some additional enticement. It was worth a try.
I dialed up a number that had been included with a Christmas card that I was frankly a little surprised to get. The woman on the other end didn’t seem too surprised when she picked up and I said who it was.
“Want to pull a Prometheus with me?” I asked.
“That turned out pretty badly in the myth,” Turtle replied.
“I’ve managed to pull it off.”
“Yeah, I know, I keep up with the posts. So what are you planning, boss?”
Aw. She still calls me boss.
“Yeah, I’ll do it,” she said when I explained the plan. “But I want full access to your library, family notes, and the photocopier.”
The photocopier is very old and I’m amazed it still works. I don’t like other people using it because I’m afraid they’ll press the keys the wrong way (I’m not being paranoid, there really is a right way with this thing) and then I’ll have to spend money on a new photocopier. But I agreed, after making Turtle promise she’d be very careful when making copies.
A few days later Turtle arrived. I let her have access to my study and the photocopier while I checked the traps for a gummy bear. It took a few days but I’ve got a guest bedroom and Turtle went through an entire package of paper making copies. When I found one, I radioed her and told her where to meet me. She brought my four-wheeler. We were going to do this the easy way. I strapped the cage down on the back and hopped on and instead of spending hours following a crippled jellified raccoon, we spent like fifteen minutes driving in a circle through the deep woods. Then I set the cage down, released the gummy bear, and took a crowbar to its squishy little body as soon as it crawled out.
Everything proceeded just as before. The smoke escaped from its remains and rolled uphill and the trees bent sideways, twining their branches together to form a doorway.
“You sure you’re ready for this?” I asked Turtle just before we stepped through.
“Got my running shoes on, boss.”
We’d agreed the night before that if something went wrong we would escape using zombie apocalypse rules. You didn’t have to outrun the gummy bears, you just had to outrun the other person. Considering I work outdoors and Turtle works in a bakery/bookshop, I was pretty certain I was the one with better cardio.
We entered the hall together. In my right hand I carried the item that would be the key to our escape. Turtle carried a flashlight and she shone it into the shadows near the wall. Black smoke quickly dispersed out of sight wherever the beam of light fell. After a bit of this Turtle turned it off. No sense antagonizing them. We were presumably here to parley, after all.
We found the dais with the gummy bear king already enthroned, its stone teeth and eyes jiggling unnervingly in its gelatinous mass.
“I brought you a body,” I said. “See? I’ve kept my end of our bargain.”
“Uh,” Turtle stammered. “Um.”
She’d tried to think of a script to really sell the idea that she’d been brought here deceitfully but she’s not that great of an actress so I suggested she not say anything at all. However, the nervous stammering she improv’d was actually working quite well. She legitimately sounded suddenly alarmed and I glanced around quickly to make sure nothing was crawling out of the shadows at us. There was nothing. Turtle was just nervous.
“It will suffice,” the gummy bear king bubbled. “I shall give it to one of my people. Perhaps the feel of living flesh will remind them.”
“Remind them of what?”
Beside me, Turtle shifted nervously. She took a step away, towards the exit, and I absently reached out and grabbed her arm to stop her from fleeing. It was meant to be reassuring, acknowledging that we were in this together, but Turtle jumped a little and looked even more nervous. Her face was pale and her eyes were wide. I’d tried to prepare her for what we’d see, but I guess I hadn’t done a good enough job of it. Had she ever dealt with the gummy bears during the summer she worked here? I couldn’t recall.
“None remember what we were,” it sighed. “Those that created us are nothing but a vague memory and so we have been forgotten. And because no one knows us anymore, my people no longer know themselves.”
“You remember,” I said.
“I was their king. I had a name. I don’t recall what it was, but the weight of it echoes. Someday that, too, will die away and then this hall and everything within it will be gone.”
There was such sorrow in its voice. Like the master of the vanishing house, desperately clinging to life, begging to be worshipped or feared or loved so that it might live another day, another year, or more. These creatures, too, were fading away. It was only a matter of time and here was their king, asking only for some small comfort for its people before they faced oblivion.
The guilt stabbed through me for what I intended to do.
“So how do I get rid of the thorns?” I asked.
“The Partholan came from the land of the dead, they say,” it sighed. “We, too, are affiliated with death. And when the disease started to take them and when they realized that their end was upon them, they dug their own graves. We carry that death inside us. Come closer, campground manager.”
I walked close and put one foot up on the dais. Behind me, I heard Turtle squeak my name nervously. I glanced back to see what the matter was and found the smoke starting to billow inwards from the shadows, creeping closer to her feet in anticipation of taking her flesh for its own.
“Hey, don’t block off my exit,” I snapped, “lest I think you’re making this bargain in bad faith.”
In the stories, humans can lie as much as they wish. Inhuman things typically aren’t so unrestrained.
The smoke recoiled and Turtle let out an audible sigh of relief.
“Hold out your hand,” the gummy bear king commanded.
I did. And it spat a tooth out. The small stone landed on my palm, sticky with slime. I remembered, vividly, the remains of the human gummy bear splattering across my face and it took an act of will to not drop the stone and rub my hand raw against my jeans in a compulsive attempt to get the feel of it off my skin.
“Thanks,” I said, my composure strained. “What do I do with this?”
“I cannot say in what manner you will have to apply it. All I can promise is that it carries a death inside of it; a death intended for the thorns.”
I carefully slipped the pebble into my jeans pocket and as I did, I palmed the other object in there and covertly drew it out. I kept it concealed in my closed fist as I backed away from the dais to stand near Turtle.
“You told me that you knew something about my death,” I said.
“A body for the stone,” the creature replied. “That was our bargain.”
“I want to know what you’ve seen!”
Its eyes shifted inside its pallid mass and the remaining stone teeth stretched into a leering grin.
“I wish for a body,” it said. “This one you’ve brought me is a fine vessel for any of my people, but it is not fit for a king. Bring me another, a body worthy of my stature, and I will tell you more.”
I understand this game. It would ask for more and more, dangling its promise of answers in front of me like a lure each time. It was a noose it wanted me to willingly place my neck through. The bargain would ruin me.
Good thing I never intended to honor it in the first place.
“Fine,” I snapped. “Turtle, let’s go.”
She certainly didn’t have to be told twice. Her face softened with intense relief and she quickly turned and took a few steps towards the exit. The black smoke was quick to roll out of the shadows, cutting off the path. I wasn’t concerned. Not yet. I continued to face the gummy bear king on the dais.
“We had a bargain,” it hissed, the flesh rippling rapidly, stretching thin as it drew itself up in height.
“And I am a descendent of Mattias,” I replied, “and as treacherous as he was.”
“You have no fire,” it burbled. “I would not have let you enter if you had brought some.”
That is how Mattias escaped, after he failed to kill the gummy bear king. He threw his lantern to the floor and the hall - entirely made of wood - burned, and the black smoke fled from the flames.
“Yeah, well, technology has progressed a bit since Mattias’s time.”
I opened my palm to reveal what I’d retrieved from my pocket.
“This,” I said, flicking the cap off, “is a lighter. And this-”
I raised the bottle I carried in my right.
“-is a molotov cocktail.”
I lit it and threw as the smoke billowed towards us. The smoke stopped short, cascading into a wall of vapor at the edge of the light cast by the exploding flames behind us. I pulled the bandana around my neck up and over my nose and mouth and Turtle did the same. The fire was spreading quickly, climbing up the columns and across the walls. We kept in the boundary between it and the darkness, staying just ahead of the advancing flames, but not so far that the gummy bears could reach us. The hot air scorched my cheeks and it was hard to breathe, but I could see daylight up ahead. The archway was almost within reach.
Their hall would survive. It would restore itself, just as it had when Mattias set it alight in his time. Perhaps it would be weakened in doing so. If we were lucky, this would be its final collapse and I would succeed where Mattias had failed.
Better that these remnants perish. A slow death is a cruel death and their death throes bring such suffering to those unfortunate enough to be caught up in them.
This was the comfort I offered to myself as the hall burned.
“Damn your family!” the gummy bear king howled from behind us. “A curse upon you! May your death catch you, may you greet it with regret!”
I do not fear its curse. My family already carries one. And what death hasn’t been met with regret? We always yearn for a minute more, even as we resign ourselves to our passing.
We passed through the archway and were in the forest once more. I pulled the bandana down and gratefully gulped at clean air, blinking tears out of my stinging eyes. For a moment, I couldn’t see, blinded by the soot from the fire and the brilliant sunlight reflecting off the snow. Then, my eyesight cleared, and I saw something rather unexpected.
Beau stood nearby, leaning on a tree with his arms crossed over his chest.
“Uh,” I said. “Hi?”
He didn’t reply. He just glowered at me. And then I felt Turtle tugging the sleeve of my jacket, nervously calling my name, and I turned to see what she wanted.
She was pointing at the archway. It hadn’t unraveled yet. I could see the flames of the burning hall still.
And they were dwindling. Rapidly.
“That’s odd,” I said absently.
The fire was splitting in two. A tunnel appeared in the flames. Something was smothering them, something immense enough to cut them in two, pushing them away and towards the walls of the hall. Something immense, something that bubbled, something that had two stones for eyes that were fixed on the entrance where I stood watching in dawning realization that our escape had not gone precisely as planned.
The gummy bear king was coming. A wall of roiling flesh, growing ever larger to encompass the entire hall was bearing down on us, intent on forcing its way through the gateway that I had opened and entering the campground.
I grabbed at the tree and pulled, trying to see if I could separate the branches that comprised the archway. Nothing. The flames were flickering away, plunging the hall into darkness once more. In desperation, I whirled on Beau.
“Do something!” I yelled at him.
“This was your idea,” he replied calmly.
Running wasn’t enough. The gummy bears aren’t that dangerous when they’re merely stealing whatever bodies they could find. But if that thing escaped, exactly as it was? I couldn’t have that. I couldn’t let it into my campground. Frantically, I looked around for something that could be used to break apart the trees and destroy the gateway.
Turtle was quicker on the uptake than I was. I heard an engine rev and then Turtle yelled at me to get out of the way. I stumbled to the side just as Turtle hurtled past on my four-wheeler and rammed one of the trees.
The tree jolted and the branches creaked, tearing away from each other under the strain as the four-wheeler fishtailed in the doorway. Past Turtle’s head I could see the incoming wall of flesh, rolling and bubbling as it cascaded down the long hall. We didn’t have enough time. The four-wheeler wasn’t powerful enough to bring down the tree.
I grabbed Turtle’s arm and pulled her off the seat. She stumbled and I continued to drag her through the snow, away from the archway and towards where Beau stood watching. If we were going to get consumed, then by god, he was coming with me.
The gummy bear king surged out through the gateway like toothpaste from a tube. It enveloped the four wheeler, which tumbled sideways into the creature’s mass, wheels still spinning. It sprayed jellied flesh, shredding the face of the gummy bear king. The creature retreated from the onslaught and the trees, strained by the passage of the avalanche of flesh, finally loosened their grip on each other. They sprang upright, their branches releasing.
The gateway snapped shut. And the gummy bear king went with it, its bulk dragged backwards with a sickening slorp.
It dragged the four-wheeler along with it.
I admit that is what finally broke me, watching my vehicle carried away on a tide of translucent flesh. I kicked at the snow. I yelled. I didn’t have the presence of mind to even form coherent sentences so I just wound up screaming “fuck” a lot at the top of my lungs. And when I had exhausted my rage, I stood there with my chest heaving, exhausted.
So that’s another four-wheeler gone. It won’t be replaced. That was my personal one and it was a donation, since I’ve already emptied my vehicle budget. I guess I’ll just be walking everywhere because I’m not about to risk the staff four-wheelers or golf carts.
Though I swear, if I have to deal with a gummified four-wheeler this summer I’m gonna be really angry.
“Sorry about that,” Turtle said nervously. “I, uh, can’t afford to replace that for you.”
“It’s fine,” I sighed. “You did the right thing. And that was some good acting in there. Convinced me that you were terrified for your life.”
“I’ll be honest: that wasn’t acting,” she admitted. “It occurred to me that this was precisely how you would lure someone in as an actual sacrifice. I mean, I wouldn’t be the first employee you killed.”
Ooof.
I didn’t really know how to reply to that so I turned my attention to Beau instead. He didn’t say anything. Just held out his cup and after a moment, I realized what he was expecting. Not blood freely given, the cup was nearly full.
He wanted the pebble.
I took it from my pocket and held it up. Just an ordinary gray rock. I dropped it into the skull. The liquid inside began to boil and thick steam rose from the surface.
“Breathe it in,” he instructed.
I’ll be honest - I didn’t expect it to be pleasant. His whole deal is either involuntary fasting or prolonged vomiting, after all. But it was worse than I expected. My whole body cramped up and I collapsed into the snow, curled into a fetal ball and every time I exhaled I brought up thick clumps that looked like bloody seaweed. Turtle had to use my radio to call for Bryan to bring one of the staff vehicles around and help transport me back to my house. And Beau just wandered off, taking the cup and the pebble with him.
I spent the next couple hours on the floor of my bathroom coughing up sludge. Turtle came in to check on me a couple times I think and eventually I wore myself out and fell asleep. I woke up still on the bathroom floor, but she’d cleaned up the blood and put a pillow under my head and covered me with a blanket.
I couldn’t convince her to come back to the campground this summer. The bakery/bookstore gig is conveniently close to home. She left this morning. Tomorrow I’ll go searching for Beau and find out what he’s done with that pebble. I can only hope that he’s already taken it upon himself to deal with the thorns… and that I’ll get the pebble back before the campground opens again.
I’m not sure I want to find out what’ll happen if he starts offering people drinks with it still in his cup.
I’m a campground manager. I do what I must to keep myself alive. Humans are weak, slow, and woefully unequipped to survive the things that lurk in the dark parts of the forest. All we have are our wits and our lies. As a society, we abhor deceit, because we know it to be a weapon. Yet against these inhuman things we must seize every weapon we can, if we are to survive them.
I tell my campers to follow the rules because that will keep them safe. Yet this thing I am caught up in is more than a fight for survival. It is a fight for my land, a fight to determine who will control the future of this campground and have sway over all the land that surrounds it and perhaps even further. There is no rule I will not break. There is no weapon I will not use.
I broke a promise and burned the hall of the gummy bears. I would do it again and again, every time, if that is what it took to save my land. [x]
Whatever it takes.
Read the full list of rules.
Visit the campground's website.

books about improving your life video

There are books that entertain, books that inform, books that enthrall - books that speak to the brain, the mind, the intellect and the emotions.And then there are books that seem to speak directly to the soul - life-changing books that make you question your core beliefs, staying with you long after you’ve finished reading. These 10 masterpieces fall into the second category. Are you looking for books that will change your life? Are you wanting to get leverage on yourself, and make real changes, but you’d love a guide to assist you? These 10 books absolutely fit that criteria. Read them, but more importantly, do what they tell you. And it’s full of research and anecdotes that will change the way you look at life, relationships, business, and people’s intentions. 12. Quiet by Susan Cain. Most introverts don’t even know they are introverts. Quiet is a book about knowing yourself. And that simple skill can change the outcome of your life. 5 Powerful Books to Improve Your Life 5 Powerful Books to Improve Your Life. Getty Images. By Brandon Turner / Entrepreneur June 26, 2015 8:00 PM Transcript – 5 Books YOU WILL READ if you are serious about improving your life. It has been said that ALL GREAT LEADERS are READERS…. It has also been said that the person you will be in the future depends on the people you hang out with and BOOKS YOU READ today. 7 books that will change your life in 2019 “Reading is essential for those who seek to rise above the ordinary.” — Jim Rohn. I am a self-professed self-improvement junkie who has read Here are 10 books to help start your new year on the right foot: 1. The Life Changing Magic Of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo The Purpose Of Meditation — It’s Not What You Think. 21 Powerful Short Books To Change Your Mindset And Improve Your Life. You’ll Be Amazed How Artists Created An Immersive Experience For All Ages. Understand More About Depression In These 3 Diagrams. Things to Keep in Mind When Sending Business Christmas Cards

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Top 5 Books To Improve Your Life in 2021 - YouTube

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Genuinely useful books about improving your life?

As an adult, I find myself reading a lot more. I find that a good book can really make your day. Also, it can even help you with stuff like improving your vocabulary or learning about important life skills. I'll always think books are awesome but I wanna know what your favorite books are.