Watched the first episode of The Acolyte on Disney+, and there so many ads that I swear the ad-to-star-wars radio was 1 to 1.

...so I set sail. I'm so sick this. But now I've got three video files on the comp (Windows 10), but I'm struggling to get them into the TV... We have a Roku, but apparently my comp doesn't support 'Miracast', and that seems to be a huge road block going by guides online.

Hoping to not spend an arm and a leg, but probably need some cable or something other than Roku. I'm probably the least techy person on Lemmy, so please idiot-proof any instructions.

Thanks all!

Previously I've been pretty gentle with modding that game - things like SkyUI to make it a bit more PC friendly, utility mods like the one limits soul gems to ONLY being filled with their highest tier (no more wasting a grand by filling it with a mudcrab). Also LockPick Pro to effectively skip lockpicking, cuz I hate Skyrim's (bring back Oblivion's model!)... that's kinda it.

Looking for mods that bring something new to the actual gameplay. I know there are a ton of them - what are your favorites?

Initial scrolling of the Steam Summer Sale seems pretty lackluster, but digging through the comments sections in other threads, a few gems have stood out, and it doesn't appear we have a thread dedicated to this yet, so post what you think are the best deals here!

Not mandatory ofc, but it'd be helpful if...

• One game per top level post, so comments stemming from it are focused on on just it.

• Hyperlink the game title to its Store Page

• Include both the normal and sale price / %off

• Include a short blurb about the game - if it's one you've played before, what did you like about it? If you're diving in blind, what grabbed your attention?

Good hunt'n!

Just switched to a new phone carrier, and they had a promotion that included a free phone: the Google Pixel 8. I'm not a fan of Google, but I am a fan of free, so I took the bait.

It's already bombarded me with pitches for their new AI bullshit. I've opted out of as much as the settings allow, but I'm under no illusion that doing so actually provides any real privacy.

So, damage control time.

On my previous device I used YouTube Vanced for music and videos, but I guess Vanced isn't around anymore, and I'm pretty out of date on what the current options are... any insight on streaming specifically?

 

*I'm a medic who's only surface-level competent with tech, so please idiot-proof any instructions.

Thanks all!

I've heard of things like Nair that make it fall out... if that was a one-and-done solution I'd be all for it, but I'm hoping for something that slows or stops it from growing.

I go clean shaven, but I get the '5 o-clock' shadow the second I put the razor down, and look homeless if I skip a day or two.

Tried growing a beard - looked alright, but the amount of product and effort I shoved into that thing was ridiculous. And it was maddeningly itchy the entire time (lasted about a year putting up with it).

I've spent the last couple years with the conclusion that hair is just annoying, and I want it gone with as little effort and expense as possible.

Kinda partial to keeping the eyebrows and lashes cuz they keep shit out of my eyes, but honestly if losing them is the cost of getting rid of the rest of it, I'd call that a fair trade.

Some initial searching shows there is a market for hair growth suppressants, but chewbaccoids like myself might not be among the target audience lol.

Anyone got a recommendation or cautionary tale?

Remember like Rooster Teeth's Red vs Blue?

Looking for something like that. Episodic use of a videogame for some light-hearted story driven cinema.

The only good modern example I can think of is Neebs Gaming's Subnautica series, but that's kind of an outlier in their channel since everything else they've done (that I've seen at least) is more of a "let's play" type of video than the kind of cinematic roleplay they do for Subnautica.

Hard to screen for quality on channels I'm not familiar with, since 99% of YouTube's gaming content is hot garbage.

Anywho, the combination of school and work is melting my brain... I don't trust my time management skills to dive back into actual gaming, but the occaisional episode to get that little half-hour-mind-vacation would be a godsend.

Thanks, all!

I just recently learned that this is a thing that exists. I've had a couple audiology tests that use these weird headphones with firm rubber balls where normally expect to see the speakers; the rubber balls sit on your temporal bone, and there's a metal bar the wraps around your head connecting them and giving them pressure to kinda squeeze your head.

The sound experience was pretty wild - my ears were completely open, so I could still hear ambient noises, but the sounds from the headphones were just kinda there... like it didn't sound like they were coming from anywhere, but like beamed directly into my brain.

I was curious if these were exclusive for audiology testing or if there were commercial variants for listening to music and such... hit the ol' search engine, and lo and behold: there are actually quite a few commercial variants!

\- TLDR -

Anywho, I'm intrigued as hell, and am curious if anyone here has experience with bone conduction headphones. Lots of questions:

Which brand/model are you using?

How's the sound quality?

How's the sound leak?

What kind of music do you use it to listen to? (my poison of choice is symphonic metal, with emphasis on the symphonic bits -- looking for that full range hit everything from the flutes to the howler monkeys :P)

Are they comfortable to wear? For how long?

Do you get any skin irritation or even breakdown where it contacts your temple?

Does the hook part wrap around your ears without any pressure points?

Does the behind-the-head band bounce around when you're walking or running?

How much space is between the band and the back of your head/neck? (I think my noggin is a bit on the smaller side, and I have basically no hair... one of the manufacturers makes one with a smaller sized band, which might be a good selling point for me)

How's the battery life?

How long have you had it?

When do you use it? (working out, at work, etc)

Do they stay put, or do you need to reposition them frequently?

Anything else to comment on?

Print-to-PDF is locked down. There's a print option as part of the software, but it slaps my student email diagonally across every single page, which makes reading it kind of obnoxious.

I don't intend to distribute (which I'm assuming is why it's locked up so tight), but needing to log in and navigate to the text is getting cumbersome, so I'm hoping to just save a chapter at a time to my phone and whip that out to tackle my reading assignments.

Also hoping to preserve images, since a lot of the info is charts and such, so PDF seems like the best target, but open to any ideas.

...I suppose I could just suck it up and deal with their annoying software, but at this point I hate to admit defeat lol.

Like in the Home tab, the "Styles" seems like exactly what I need, but it applies the changes to the entire paragraph vs just the selected text.

Pic below of what I'm trying to do:

!

Just started nursing school (woo!!) and I'm trying to make review guides for my class. There are like 50 of those questions for every chapter, ~10 chapters for every unit exam, and a unit exam every couple of weeks. ...for the next two years. >_>

There are a metric FUCK TON of these questions, so I'm trying to make them as easy on the eyes as possible so that we can review them as quickly and effortlessly as possible.

Anywho, in the pic, question 3 is the format I'm shooting for - letter answers bolded, red, and caps; answer key tucked away with right side alignment, small, light grey, and italicized so we don't prematurely see the answer as we're scrolling.

Question 4 is how the text appears in the textbook, which makes it hard to scroll though them without seeing the answer prior to considering all the options, and seeing the answer early kinda sabotages actually learning the content.

The ideal study scenario being read the question, discuss which answer we think is right and why, check our answer against the grey text, and move on.

I know you can change formating with find and replace, but then the entire document is filled with sentences that end with things like "fractured bonE." so afaik the best approach is to just ctrl+click/drag to select the letters, then then click the bold/red/Aa and move on to the next one and repeat.

Any tips to automate this would be outstanding, since there will literally be thousands of these throughout the entire program.

Thank you!!

When I separated, a few things on my initial claim fell through the cracks - they weren't denied or anything, they just didn't appear at all despite definitely being brought up in those first VA apts.

When I noticed they were missing, I put in the intent to refile, went through the hoops to get my DBQ's and all the appointments and such, and resubmitted. Took about 8 months.

Fast forward to just recently: percentage was increased!! Got a pretty decent chunk of change retroactively deposited to the bank account, and I'm now eligible for VA healthcare, so FUCK YEAH!! This is an unbelievable weight off my shoulders!

Last Friday, I got an email from the VA saying to be on the lookout for a call or letter scheduling the C&P exam. I've been working through the VA up to this point, so I'm not sure what the C&P would cover that their own docs haven't already, but w/e, I'm not opposed to going in for another look.

...but it's super weird to me that the C&P exam would be scheduled after being awarded a new rating. I've heard that not everyone has to do the C&P if your DBQs are good enough, so I figured I fell into that category... but now I'm getting nervous: was I given the new rating in error?

My plan as of now is to just not touch the money that was deposited, since I'm not sure if I'll be allowed to keep it... but I'm also tempted to just dump it all into my student loan debt, since it's enough to bring that almost to $0.00 and even if I do end up having to repay, it'd effectively just make my loans reset to 0% interest (or would it be 0% if I have to repay the VA?).

Does that email go out to everyone regardless of whether or not you actually need the C&P? If they are going to call me in for the exam, how long does it typically take to get that phone call? Like if I go a full week without hearing anything, safe to assume all is well? Month? Longer?

My anxiety is through the roof right now. I've pretty much been poverty or paycheck-to-paycheck my entire life - the prospect of actual financial security has always been a pipe-dream fantasy, but fuck... here it is. But I don't trust that I'll get to keep it.

Any insight would by much appreciated!!

Thank you, all!

Piss-broke nursing student, here.

The amount of reading I'm having to crank through on a weekly basis is pretty insane - I've been leaning heavily on text-to-speech software to knock the chapters out as fast as possible.

The best I've found so far - which isn't FOSS - is https://speechify.com/text-to-speech-online/ ...enough of it's free and accessible to get the job done, but it's got some pretty instrusive "buy me!" features built in, like if I'm listening to a large document and hit the pause button, I'm basically screwed because when I click play I get a prompt for "To continue listening, sign up for premium!"

Hoping to find better options if there are any, especially for ones that offer decent voice options. Some of them are impressively near-human sounding, while others sound like Microsoft Sam from like 1998; the quality and variety of voices make a big difference in retention for me (replaying a lecture with different voices is proving to be a pretty effective study habit).

More focused on the 'free' part vs the open source bit, but the latter would ofc be a good perk.

Know of any good options?

Thank you!!

Marking as solved! The solution is a tad cumbersome (can't directly control in-browser), but it comes with a bonus I didn't even think to ask for (mp3 files that I can save to my phone and listen to in the car!).

Using the extension Video Download Helper, I can yoink the sound files right off the website. I've got mp3's set to open with Firefox, so when I open one it launches in its own tab, where I can use the extension Video Speed Controller to manipulate the playback speed; click back to the original ATI tab and read along.

Thanks for the help, all!!!

[/edit]

***************************************************

Just started nursing school (fuck yeah!!) and it's looking like a lot of our material is via the website https://www.atitesting.com/ (couldn't find any examples of the audio feature that don't require you to be logged in).

It's basically a textbook, broken down into modules, and click through them as instructed. There's a "play audio" feature that provides audio of the wall of text, which is great! ...except that whoever made the recordings sounds like the fucking sloth from Zootopia.

Occasionally there're videos too, which also don't have built-in playback speed options, but I found an HTML5 video speed controller extension for Firefox that works a charm on those; I've tried about 10 similar extensions trying to hit the text audio, but it remains stuck on sloth.

I also tried a program called Cheat Engine - used that about 50,000 years ago to skip ads on YouTube when YouTube was first infected with its ad disease: set the runspeed of Firefox to like 100x and the ad would be finished in about half a second. Doesn't work anymore for ads, and didn't work on ATI's audio either.

Not sure what else to try, but there aren't enough hours in a day to listen to the assigned material at 1x, so if you've got a fix, you're my hero!

Thanks all!!

!

Fuck yeah!

I'm a surgical tech now, so going in with a decent foundation; but if anyone's got tips or tricks for a new student, I'm all for it.

Otherwise... just fuck yeah!

Idk if this is the work of AI, or just a 3D artist who didn't get very good instructions for their commission.

At first glance: nothing special, just a collection of random instruments; but when you start to dissect it under the lens of a surgical tech (the target audience for this image) it just gets worse and worse.

So let's dissect it!

First off, that isn't even a surgical backtable - it appears to be on some kind of supply cart, with a raised lip around the edges, and random rectangular holes for handles that have folded sheet metal along the edge. Technically you could throw an impervious drape of that and it'd be fine, but you generally don't see surfaces made to support a sterile field with raised edges that go above the field. The folded sheet metal is also a no-no, as the grooves around it collect and breed the hell out of bacteria.

None of it's draped. There's that greenish material under the tray and instruments, but stops short of the edges of the cart, so there's some REALLY high contamination potential going on there. You could get away with a field like that in dental (which is just 'clean' vs sterile), but again, this wasn't sent for a dental tech position.

Instruments from left to right, we're looking at:

1. a scalpel that's for some reason separate from all the other sharps in the kidney basin.

2. looks like a tissue forcep - that actually checks out.

3. ...the only times I've seen a forcep like have been in ortho sets that have a lot of plates and screws - those forceps are to grab the tiny screws from their caddy, cuz they're hard to get your fingers around, and normal forceps tend to 'slip' around the head of the screw and send it flying across the OR.

4. that's a sponge forcep, but the end is bent in a really odd way; and it doesn't have a ratchet lock, which isn't unheard of, but definitely not common for a sponge forcep.

5. Dental explorer, which checks out with the whole not-really-sterile thing; except if it was a dental setup there'd be a lot more dental instruments.

6. Fuck if I know. Doesn't help that the resolution isn't great, but the operative ends kind of look flat. Bowel clamps are shaped like that, but that is DEFINITELY not an open-belly setup lol. Also - the ringed end where your fingers would go is closed all the way, but the operational end is still open. If a real instrument looks like that, then it's damaged as fuck and needs to be thrown away.

7. Either a kocher clamp or straight hemostat - hard to tell w/ shitty res. But they have have the same weirdness with the ratchet being closed w/ operation end still open.

8. That looks like a potts scissor, which is usually for vascular surgery. Handle is janky as fuck though, and it's doing the opposite weirdness as mentioned before: it's operative end is closed all the way, but the handles are still a tad open.

9. Mayo scissors, which are a go-to for cutting suture. Only weirdness here is the janky handle style.

...and that kidney basin in the upper right of the tray is just chock-full of WTF. So they're using it as a sharps container - that's normal, but they've got the scalpels facing one direction and needles facing the other... that's a good way to get stabbed. ALL of the sharps are resting on the edge, meaning if you bump them just right, they'll do a flip and launch off... that's a good way to get stabbed. They've got all their sharps in one spot, except for that one random scalpel on the left of the tray. Establishing a sharps zone and then not putting sharps in it... that's a good way to get stabbed. The scalpels and needles in the kidney basin all have the sharp end stuck into some gauze or something... that'll dull or bend the super fine end, reducing its effectiveness and generating snag points that'll cause a bit of unnecessary trauma. Between the three scalpels in the basin and the bonus one floating off to the left, a solid third of the instruments displayed are scalpels lol... are they doing a Wolverine cosplay in the OR?? The blades detach... you only need one scalpel handle - maybe two if you want one ready and on stand by. Also all of them are loaded with what looks like a #24 scalpel blade, which isn't very common; and is a fucking massive blade... I could see wanting ONE of those for something like an emergency C-section when you need to rip that skin open fucking NOW, but 4 of those monsters set up with an otherwise tiny collection of instruments? lol no. Those two syringes aren't capped, which is a good way to get stabbed; or labeled, which is a good way mix up your local anesthetic with something that could cause excruciating pain.

...there's just so much wrong with this image it's comical. I can't believe a fucking hospital would choose this over the millions of OR photos already floating around the web lol.

That was a fun rant to type up. If you actually read that wall of text, hope you got a kick out of it lol!

I used to have one of those gaming keyboards that lets you reprogram any key - I'm back to just a standard keyboard, but this seems like the kind of thing a modern computer should be able to do without a "gaming" peripheral.

What I'd really like to do is rebind my caps lock key, because the only time I ever use caps lock is on accident lol. Hoping to rebind it to be my push-to-talk key, so if I could make it do something like a zero-width-space that'll basically turn it into an input key that does nothing except when I tell something like Discord to use that as ptt.

I'm only surface-level competent with computers, so explain-like-I'm-your-grandma or I'll probably fuck something up.

Thanks all!!

A user on that other site put together a list of articles detailing a TON of examples of Trump harming the US military, ranging from actual policy implementations, to brown-nosing our enemies' leaders, to being disrespectful to current and prior servicemen and women.

That list has been deleted, which spurred me to preserve a few similar ones as a list here on Lemmy.

Why this is important: many people who lean right/conservative/republican do so because of that side of the aisle's ostensible support for our troops. As a veteran myself, this drives me absolutely insane, because their 'support' for us is only ever just using us as a prop for a photo shoot, after which we're immediately cast aside. Despite that, the military and veteran populations maintain a red stain through blind loyalty to a party that doesn't give a squat about our troops. This list is a resource to help slap some sense into those troops/vets, so please use/share/expand the content below.

As of now, this is just a blatant copy-paste of what I found on the other site, so if you notice something incorrect, let me know and I'll get it fixed. The posts these are from are about 3 years old, so if you know of a more current version or just more recent articles about Trump vs troops, please post those as well!

Anywho...

• Trump knew since March 2020 that Russia paid bounties to kill American troops, yet he has done nothing
• May 2020, the White House attempted to end National Guard deployments one day before they could claim benefits
• The Trump admin seized 5 million masks intended for VA hospitals. Kushner distributes these masks to private entities for a fee, who then sells the masks to the government
• Trump fired the captain of the USS Theodore Roosevelt after he warned superiors that COVID19 was spreading among his crew. The virus subsequently spread amongst the crew
• After Iran's retaliatory strike, 109 US troops suffered brain injuries. Trump dismissed these as "headaches" Second Source: Source Two
• 20/7/2017, in room 2E924 of the Pentagon, Trump told a room full of Generals, "You’re a bunch of dopes and babies" Second Source: Here
• Pardoned multiple war criminals, which stomped on long standing military values, discipline, and command. Trump has no military experience (May&Nov, 2019). This seems to be referring to multiple instances, but here are a couple articles I could find in relation:One,Two.
• Trump mocked Lt. Col. Vindman for his rank and uniform. He threatened said purple heart officer, resulting in the Army providing him protection Second Source: Here
• Trump’s Chief of Staff worked—in secret—to deny comprehensive health coverage to Vietnam Vets who suffered from Agent Orange
• There is a facility in Tijuana for US veterans that Trump deported. Wounded war vet, Sen Duckworth (D) marked Veterans Day 2019 by visiting this facility Second Source w/ Duckworth: Here
• Russia took control of the main U.S. military facility in Syria abandoned on Trump’s orders. Russia now owns the airstrip we built
• 10/7/2019, Trump abruptly withdrew support from America's allies in Syria after a phone call with Turkey's president (Erdogan). Turkey subsequently bombed US Special Forces Second Source: Here
• Trump sent thousands of American troops to defend the oil assets of the country that perpetrated 9/11
• Sept 2019, he made an Air Force cargo crew, flying from the U.S. to Kuwait stop in Scotland (where there's no U.S. base) to refuel at a commercial airport (where it costs more), so they could stay overnight at a Trump property (which isn't close to the airport). Trump’s golf courses are losing money, so he's forcing the military to pay for 5-star nights there
• Sept 2019, Pentagon pulled funds for military schools, military housing funds, and daycare to pay for Trump's border wall
• Aug 2019, emails revealed that three of Trump's Mar-a-Lago pals, who are now running Veterans Affairs, are rampant with meddling. "They had no experience in veterans affairs (none of them even served in the military) nor underwent any kind of approval process to serve as de facto managers. Yet, with Trump’s approval, they directed actions and criticized operations without any oversight. They wasted valuable staff time in hundreds of pages of communications and meetings, emails show. Emails reveal disdainful attitudes within the department to the trio’s meddling."
• Veterans graves will be "dug up" for the border wall, after Trump instructed aides to seize private property. Trump told officials he would pardon them if they break the law by illegally seizing property. Not sure here.Maybe this?
• Children of deployed US troops are no longer guaranteed citizenship. This includes US troops posted abroad for years at a time (August 28, 2019)
• 2/8/2019, Trump requisitioned military retirement funds towards border wall
• 31/7/2019, Trump ordered the Navy rescind medals to prosecutors who were prosecuted war criminals
• Trump denied a U.S. Marine of 6 years entry into the United States for his citizenship interview (Reported 17/7/2019)
• Trump made the U.S. Navy Blue Angels violate ethics rules by having them fly at his July 4th political campaign event (4/7/2019)
• Trump demanded US military chiefs stand next to him at 4th of July parade (reported 2/7/2019)
• June 2019, Trump sent troops to the border to paint the fence for a better "aesthetic appearance"
• Trump used his D-Day interview at a cemetery commemorating fallen US soldiers to attack a Vietnam veteran (6/6/2019)
• Trump started his D-Day commemoration speech by attacking a private citizen (Bette Midler, of all people) (reported 4/6/2019)
• Trump made his 2nd wife, Marla Maples, sign a prenup that would have cut off all child support if Tiffany joined the military (reported 4/6/2019)
• 27/5/2019, Trump turned away US military from his Memorial Day speech because they were from the destroyer USS John S. McCain
• Trump ordered the USS John McCain out of sight during his visit to Japan (15/5/2019). The ship's name was subsequently covered. (27/5/2019)
• Trump purged 200,000 vets' healthcare applications (due to known administrative errors within VA’s enrollment system) (reported on 13/5/2019)
• Trump deported a spouse of fallen Army soldier killed in Afghanistan, leaving their daughter parentless (16/4/2019)
• 20/3/2019, Trump complained that a deceased war hero didn't thank him for his funeral
• Between 12/22/2018, and 1/25/2019, Trump refused to sign his party's funding bill, which shut down the government, forcing the Coast Guard to go without pay, which made service members rely on food pantries. However, his appointees got a $10,000 pay raise
• He banned service members from serving based on gender identity (1/22/2019)
• He denied female troops access to birth control to limit sexual activity (on-going. Published 18/1/2019) Update Source: Court Blocks
• He tried to deport a marine vet who is a U.S.-born citizen (16/1/2019). Maybe?
• When a man was caught swindling veterans pensions for high-interest “cash advances," Trump's Consumer Financial Protection Bureau fined him $1 (Jan 26, 2019) Second Source: Here
• He called a retired general a 'dog' with a 'big, dumb mouth' (Jan 1, 2019)
• He increased privatization of the VA, leading to longer waits and higher taxpayer cost (2018)
• He finally visited troops 2 years after taking office, but only after 154 vacation days at his properties (Dec 26, 2018) Second Source:Full List of President Trips
• He revealed a covert Seal Team 5 deployment, including names and faces, on Twitter during his visit to Iraq (Dec 26, 2018)
• Trump lied to deployed troops that he gave them a 10% raise (12/26/2018). He tried giving the military a raise that was lower than the standard living adjustment. Congress told him that idea wasn't going to work. Then after giving them the raise that Congress made him, he lied about it pretending that it was larger than Obama's. It wasn't
• He fired service members living with HIV just before the 2018 holidays
• He tried to slash disability and unemployment benefits for Veterans to $0, and eliminate the unemployability extrascheduler rating (Dec 17, 2018)
• He called troops on Thanksgiving and told them he's most thankful for himself (Thanksgiving, 2018)
• He urged Florida to not count deployed military votes (Nov 12, 2018)
• He canceled an Arlington Cemetery visit on Veterans Day due to light rain (Nov 12, 2018)
• While in Europe commemorating the end of WWI, he didn't attend the ceremony at a US cemetery due to the rain -- other world leaders went anyway (Nov 10, 2018)
• He used troops as a political prop by sending them on a phantom mission to the border and made them miss Thanksgiving with their families (Oct-Dec, 2018)
• He stopped using troops as a political prop immediately after the election. However, the troops remained in muddy camps on the border (Nov 7, 2018)
• Trump changed the GI Bill through his Forever GI Act, causing the VA to miss veteran benefits, including housing allowances. This caused many vets to run out of food and rent. (reported October 7, 2018)
• Trump doubled the rejection rate for veterans requesting family deportation protections (July 5, 2018)
• Trump deported active-duty spouses (11,800 military families face this problem as of April 2018)
• He forgot a fallen soldier's name (below) during a call to his pregnant widow, then attacked her the next day (Oct 23-24, 2017)
• He sent commandos into an ambush due to a lack of intel, and sends contractors to pick them up, resulting in a commando being left behind, tortured, and executed. (Trump approved the mission because Bannon told him Obama didn't have the guts to do it) (Oct 4, 2017)
• He blocked a veteran group on Twitter (June 2017)
• He ordered the discharge of active-duty immigrant troops with good records (2017-present)
• He deported veterans (2017-present). Some of the links above should suffice.
• He said he knows more about ISIS than American generals (Oct 2016)
• Oct 3, 2016, Trump said vets get PTSD because they aren't strong (note: yes, he said it's 'because they aren't strong.' He didn't say it's 'because they're weak.' This distinction is important because of Snopes)
• Trump accepted a Purple Heart from a fan at one of his rallies and said: “I always wanted to get the Purple Heart. This was much easier.” (Aug 2, 2016)
• Trump attacks Gold Star families: Myeshia Johnson (gold star widow), Khan family (gold star parents) etc. (2016-present)
• Trump sent funds raised from a Jan 2016 veterans benefit to the Donald J Trump Foundation instead of veterans charities (the foundation has since been ordered shut because of fraud) (Jan, 2016)
• Trump said he has "more training militarily than a lot of the guys that go into the military" because he went to a military-style academy (2015 biography)
• Trump said he doesn't consider POWs heroes because they were caught. He said he prefers people who were not caught (July 18, 2015)
• Trump said having unprotected sex was his own personal Vietnam (1998)
• For a decade, Trump sought to kick veterans off of Fifth Avenue because he found them unsightly nuisances outside of Trump Tower. 1991
• Trump dodged the draft 5 times by having a doctor diagnose him with bone spurs
• No Trump in America has ever served in the military; this spans 5 generations, and every branch of the family tree. In fact, the reason his grandfather immigrated to America was to avoid military service. Couldn't find a source for this one, but also couldn't find a source saying any of his family every served.

I played WoW a bit after its initial release through the first couple xpacs. Getting the MMO itch again, but I know the WoW I grew up with doesn't really exist anymore, so now I'm pretty out of touch.

For those of you playing / recently played an MMO, which one? How's the community? How's the lore? Gameplay in pve/pvp/rvr?

The most elaborate example of Symphonic Metal that I'm aware of, all without going over-the-top with howler-monkey-screamo vocals or jackhammer mode on the guitar strings or percussion.

This is THE song to sell the genre! I desperately wish there was more like this!

I'm developing some pretty odd taste in music...

I REALLY like metal, but REALLY dislike the screamy-yelly bits, which I acknowledge is kind of contradictory.

I think I just don't like vocals, period, metal or otherwise. Anyway...

The symphonic stuff especially, like Blind Guardian (Wheel of Time, Orchestral is probably my all time favorite song!), Nightwish, and Therion, are fuckin amazing; but even within that subset the vocals are kinda overbearing for my taste - a lot of them have operatics, which I also file under the "eh, I'd rather not" category. Fortunately they have some instrumental versions of their songs, AND I LOVE THEM!

...but I keep plugging them into services like Pandora, Spotify, and Youtube Music, and I get either 1) "Oh you like any type of metal? Here's a playlist of 16 hours of dudes ejecting the entire contents of their lungs into a microphone! BWAAAAAAAAAA---" or, 2) "Oh, you like symphonic metal? Here's the same 10 songs over, and over, and over again!

No amount of thumbs up/down-ing on the results appears to have any impact on the algorithm. Youtube music even gives this snarky little popup when I thumbs a song down "Okay, we'll adjust your playlists" and then later plays THAT SAME FUCKING SONG again - not even a different version, but the same URL, which is still actively marked with a thumbs down.

Side question: is there a streaming service that isn't shit for finding new metal? That actually takes into account the different types of metal?

Anywho, looking for recommendations for songs/albums. Bonus points if it has symphonic elements, but any sub-genre is golden, so long as the specimen in question has no vocals, or just -soft- vocals that don't yank the spotlight away from the instrumentals.

----------------------------------

Alright, class is wrapping up, I can start knocking these out. Gonna log my progress here, with a rating out of 10 and any comments (all 100% subjective to my personal taste - not looking to bash anyone here!):

Cloudkicker* - 7 - only complaint is some parts get overly repetitive

Animals as leaders* - 8 - \^same

Mestis - 8

Conquering Dystopia - 9 - Ooh, really like this one!

Polyphia - 7 - Great for ambience

Dysrhythmia - 6 - \^same, but liked Polyphia just a touch more

Scale The Summit - 9

Chon - 5 - Heavy on the higher pitches, and kinda repetitive - I'd have to be in a specific mood for this one.

Tigran Hamasyan* - 5 - Didn't really care for this specific song, but thumbing through his others and am digging it.

Protest The Hero - 9 - Great energy, great variation!

The Ocean* - 9

Periphery - 8

Tesseract - 9

Porcupine Tree* - 7

Calligulas Horse* - 8

Leprous - 6 - Really liked the instrumentals; REALLY disliked the singer's voice, lol

Tesseract - 7 - Vocals not terrible, but still really prefer the instrumental version.

Sleep Token* - 7

Opeth, 2 - 7

Cynic* - 7

Haken* - 8 - bro wtf did I just listen to rofl. Bonus point for weird shit!

Katatonia piano covers vol 1, 2 - 5 - Not the metally music I was looking for, but this is going on my studying playlist.

In Flames piano covers - 5 - Same^

Dark Tranquility Piano Covers - 5 - Same^

Between The Buried And Me - Colors - 6 - This one's hit and miss for me. The hits hit hard though!

Clayman - 8 - Not a fan of the vocals, but there are instrumental versions of this that kick ass!

Whoracle - 8

Colony - 7

The Reign Of Kindo - 4

Mr Bungle's California - 6 - Simultaneously not really my cup of tea, and also catchy as fuck.

The Mars Volta, pre 2010

HORSE the band. Cutsman

Genghis Tron (pre 2010)

Baroness Red, Blue, and Yellow; Green

Mastodon

Red Fang

Gojira

Kiuas

https://youtu.be/CCIi1ujnNNg?si=ZXt2qw_6a5QNssPA

Falkenbach

I find that I'm seeing the same conversations dominating the front pages of all, hot, etc if I log in more than a few times per day.

Would really like a way to hide threads, so that once I've read them, I can remove it from my feed. Bonus points of there's a way to keybind it.

One of the only features I find myself missing from that other site.