#Troubleshooting tuesday

[the-writers-corner-inc]

Troubleshooting Tuesday!

I'm here with questions and answers for you. Questions that might lead to solving plotholes, or just help you make your character 3D.

Today's troubleshooting for you!

Do you get confused about whether your WIP should have multiple POVs, or just one first-person view maybe you should go on a completely different path and do the third person??

Here is a little something that might help you. (Spoiler for Silent Patient)

Decide whether you want the readers to feel your characters' emotions. One of the main reasons why authors choose the first person is that they want readers to feel the emotions that the character is feeling. Eg Cruel Prince

But then some say it might become monotonous and boring so you go with multiple pov's, this includes first person pov's of many different characters. But then again if there are pros there are cons too. Multiple POVs mean that it might get crowded and difficult to understand, as you might have heard, books have finite pages and unless you want a book that looks like your English dictionary you're gonna have to sacrifice the amount of time the reader gets to have with your characters. Eg Six of Crows

Or if you wanna risk it all and go with the well-walked path of third-person POV then that has its advantages too. First and foremost and it might just be my opinion, most of the time it rules out the possibility of an unreliable narrator. Books like Silent Patient are the best example to explain what I mean. You get a broader perspective on what exactly is happening in a scene, for example, your characters are in a shopping mall - in first person you usually have a specific thing your character is focusing on and unless they are Sherlock Holmes or Byomkesh Bakshi it would be quite uncanny writing about the clerk cleaning the shelves and the workers gossiping about their latest boss, and might unnecessarily lengthen your book without giving it any real content, whereas in TPP you can easily slide this in.

On the other hand, there are some problems you may face, which make it difficult for readers to understand what is actually going on in a character's head, or what their opinions are on certain topics. Of course, these aren't the only problems and not the only pros, but they give an insight into the facts.

Now I know I may not be the first person to cover this topic, in fact, I don't even think I come in the top 100 people but as someone who struggles quite a bit becuase of this, I tried to make it as comprehensive and compact as I could. It might not look so, but trust me I've seen so many of these and they are NOT short, I tried to condense it as much as I could and added in some points that I think others might relate to and find help from. Let me know if is missed something and if I should add more to it, writers know the best for writers and no one else. (I of course didn't add the elephant that is "second person" even I am scared and confused as to what the hell it even means so if someone knows kindly help a youngster out)

Lastly, @1indigoisles , apology accepted and arse laughed off. Although whatever is said is absolutely true, from "what Troubleshooting Tuesday means" to "this grp is my baby" you're paying child support and there is nothing you can do about it.

[blackpearlblast]

you can give seven days of internet connection to someone in gaza for just 6 USD

gazaesims.com is a website dedicated to helping people donate esims for people in gaza. (for the ultimate guide to donating an esim, see http://tinyurl.com/gaza-esims) there are multiple options for where to purchase an esim to donate, for the price i listed you want to use nomad esims. you can get a $3 discount by using someone's referral code from the notes of this post. it also will give the referrer credit to buy more esims! (you can only use a referral code on your first purchase) @/fairuzfan also a tag for esim referral codes here, some of which are nomad. BACKPACKNOMAD is another code to get $3 off your first purchase, it's been working for some people but not others so try out a referral code instead if you can't get it to work. also it took over an hour for the email with my information to come through so don't panic if it doesn't show up right away. (logging back into your nomad account seems to have helped some people get their emails to send!) NOMADCNG is a code for 5% off any middle east region nomad esims from connecting gaza. it can be used on any purchase, not just your first but is generally going to give less off than the first-purchase only codes, so use those first. it can be used in combination with nomad points. AWESOME NEW CODE: nomad esim discount code for 75% off any plan, NOMADCS25 do not know how long it lasts but this is an amazing deal esp. since they are really low on esims right now! (nomad promo codes do not work on plans that are already on sale, unlimited plans, and plans under $5)

weekly tuesdays only code on nomad web, PST timezone! it gives 10% off plans 10gb and above. NOMADTUE

for the month of may, first time referrals give 25% off for a person's first purchase and 25% off the referrer's next purchase! it's a great time to use someone's referral code from the notes if you are a first time buyer.

troubleshooting hint 1: if you are trying to pay through paypal, make sure you have pop-ups enabled! otherwise the payment window won't be able to appear.

troubleshooting hint 2: if you are trying to purchase an esim using the provider's app, it may block you from purchasing if your phone does not fit the requirements to install and use their esims. use their website in your browser instead and this problem should go away.

edit as of 5/21/24: holafly (israel and egypt), nomad (regional middle east), simly (palestine and middle east), mogo (israel), and airalo (discover) are currently in the highest in demand. here is a purchase guide i made that covers all of the esim platforms, including these three platforms. if it has been more than 3 weeks since you initially sent your esim and your esim has not been activated, you can reforward your original email with the expiration date in the subject line. you can see gothhabiba’s guide for how to tell if your esims have been activated. if your esim has expired without use, you can contact customer service to renew or replace it.

[changes]

Tuesday, May 23rd, 2023

🌟 New

Original posts are now indexed by our search engine (almost, just about) immediately. Previously, it could take minutes or hours for a new post to appear in search results. If your posts have been missing in search and tags for a while, try these troubleshooting steps.

On web, we're working to remove the option to use the legacy post editor. This week, we're removing the option to use the legacy editor for some users, for post types other than text/photo. More updates to come as the rollout continues.

In the latest version of the Android app, we’ve updated the top navigation bar to include an easy way to get to TumblrMart.

We've updated the Theme Garden on web with a list of featured themes, which are all NPF-compatible.

🛠 Fixed

We’ve fixed an issue that was preventing Blazed posts from being muteable, for those of you who are in the experiment that adds post notification muting on web, or are using the mobile apps.

All of our optional dashboard tabs, such as blog subscriptions and what you missed, now properly respect your Community Label settings.

🚧 Ongoing

Nothing to report here today.

🌱 Upcoming

Nothing to report here today, either.

Experiencing an issue? File a Support Request and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can!

Want to share your feedback about something? Check out our Work in Progress blog and start a discussion with the community.

[libraford]

The good news is that he found a different job and next week is his last week and I only have to work with him 2 more times and only one of those times will I be alone.

Tech talk and rant below.

But in my opinion, we should have fired him earlier on because two weeks into the season he was unclear of what any of the equipment apart from the camera actually did.

The camera takes the picture.

The lights light the subject.

The computer matches the subject to the picture.

The transmitter connects the camera to the lights wirelessly, so that when you take the picture the lights flash automatically.

The sync cord connects the camera to the computer so that the image is displayed on the screen.

The skyport connects the lights to the computer so that they automatically adjust.

Its just all the electronics going through a circular systems check to make sure they are firing properly and matching it up against our white balance test. I know it sounds complicated, but its literally just a circle.

I understand that this can be complicated for someone who is used to 'click button, get picture.' But having the same problems over and over again because he doesn't understand the proper procedure and doesn't look at the checklist that he swears he never received even though I gave him my laminated copy and having to fix all of the problems that are literally because he didn't respect me enough to listen when I explained it to him cuts into the time that could be spent getting ready.

Now we are a month and a half in and on Tuesday he asked me what the skyport does.

If your skyport fails, you have to adjust your lights manually.

Therefore... skyport makes the computer talk to your lights.

And every time something fails, he says 'this would be so much easier without computers' and I'm like. Fine. Okay? Try to match 900 student names to photos without a computerized indexing system. Try getting the light to be consistent without a startup exposure test.

No sense of troubleshooting, which isn't very difficult. If something isn't right, restart the computer and try again. If you get a repeat of the problem, call Freddie from IT. But usually, a reboot fixes most problems.

But then he started breaking the rules, and in a very intentional way. Like at first it was 'oh I didn't know I wasn't supposed to show them the photo' even though we went over this in training. Then it was 'well, I'm not supposed to show you the photo but if you come back here while I'm adjusting my lights I can't stop you.'

At first it was 'hey, Jay, remember what Freddie said about the no-touch policy during training? I know you want to make the kids like you, but its very unprofessional to ask them for a high five, especially since these schools are very strict about their own no-touch policies and also did we not just go through a wholeass pandemic?'

And now students are complaining about him physically adjusting their posture with his hands.

Like... I don't mind bending the rules a little. But before you can bend the rules, you have to understand why the rules are there, so that when they are bent there is a good reason. The rule about showing photos is there to make workflow consistent. The no touch rule is for the safety of ourselves and the students.

But breaking the rules constantly just out of disrespect means that I can't bend them myself. I have to be a hardass. I hate being a hardass. But if I'm not a hardass and someone tells me that he's violating our no-touch policy, the company gets in deep trouble.

Not that he'll ever... ever follow my advice on the subject because as previously mentioned- he respects no one here. He has 15 years experience as a photographer and is too good for this place. Why would he listen to someone under 40 with three years experience dealing with schools?

His pictures aren't even very good. They're average.

Just two more jobs with him and then he's off to do something else and gods I hope he's better at that than he is a school photographer.

[megumi-fm]

this week on megumi.fm ▸ coding and coffeeshops

📋 Tasks

💻 Internship ↳ lab meet!!! got to learn about the other projects in the lab ↳ got work from home approved!! ↳ optimize protein seq code // account for missing residues ✅ ↳ add on a binding site identifier function for code using 4.5A distance threshold ✅ ↳ optimize binding site code // reducing time complexity for large PDB file inputs ✅ ↳ download and extract alphafold human protein repository and analyze pdb file formats ↳ set up progress tracker and upload code on colab ✅ 🎓 Uni ↳ Final Project: update images quality according to changes mentioned ✅ ↳ renew uni email for extra credit classes ✅ ↳ extra credit classes started this week! 🩺Radiomics Projects ↳ call with teammates to discuss next steps ✅ 📧 Application-related ↳ finished masters application form for 1/1 Uni (waiting on my referee reports) ✅ ↳ finalize referee report from my profs ✅

📅 Daily-s

🛌 consistent sleep [7/7] 💧 good water intake [5/7] 👟 exercise [5/7]

Fun Stuff this week

🍻 met up with my bestie @muakrrr <3 it was a stressful tuesday so meeting him for lunch was super comforting! he bought this cute purple drink and I got myself some ginger ale and the waiter served us the wrong drinks (gender and expectations something something) and it was amusing to watch them get confused when we corrected them 🎂 mom's b'day this week!! went out for dinner with her!! 🛒 went shopping with relatives who I haven't seen in years. bought myself a book! (rip my bookshelf) ☕ went out for coffee and dinner with my girlies (the same besties who I exchanged mugs with). we're trying to spend as much time together as possible before we leave to different countries for our masters 🎮 continuing the beginner's guide 📺 ongoing: Marry my Husband, Cherry Magic Th, Last Twilight 📺 binged: KinnPorsche The Series

📻 This week's soundtrack

Love Wins All by IU (been crying over this music video for days now. it's beautiful) KinnPorsche theme by Slot Machine: Kinn's theme [aka Phiang Waichai; TH] | Porche's theme [aka Free Fall; Eng] (first of all this is one of the catchiest theme songs to exist second only to SPECIALZ aka the JJK s2 op i'm also particularly losing my mind over how the two themes are love letters to the main characters from each other... the narrative parallels of it all are driving me insane sldkhlaksjkshs) Dum Dum by Jeff Satur + the Live Unchained version where his vocals are heavenly (maybe im so drawn to this song because the chorus is similar to the melodic motifs of the KPTS themes/soundtrack, either way, the show introduced me to him and god. I've been voraciously consuming his discography.) Ghost by Jeff Satur (on repeat all week. thoroughly obsessed with this song- the lyricism, his voice, the storyline in the MV, his acting, everything. wow. truly.)

---

[Jan 22 to 28 ; week 4/52 || I. love. my. internship. like. I have been having the most fun time problem solving and troubleshooting. it's also super satisfying to see the outcome of my code. it's been a while since I used python (I've been coding on C) so I forget that python has a lot of inbuilt functions that would do the same tasks I inadvertently entrust my nested loops with, and finding out about them is always so joyous (although it means I have to scrap off several chunks of code). i am a bit annoyed though, because the other intern isn't really doing any work that we're entrusted with so I'm having to carry the team and it's taking me too much time. but oh well. I've suggested we split tasks from next week, hopefully that'll make things better.

I've also been procrastinating a lot when it comes to my masters applications and it really hit me this week when I had to run to uni several times to get things approved and completed. Now that I'll get to work from home I need to set up a proper schedule to get application work completed wayy in advance. also need to resume my GRE prep from next week.]

[on-noon]

prompt written by @derinthescarletpescatarian :

It's been raining for ages, but the stormwater drains are empty. The catchment areas are empty. Even your backyard pond is empty. Water tanks fill normally, the plants are all alive and the gardens are as damp as expected, but not a single place in town has standing groundwater, even though it's still raining.

One Friday in April I checked my weather app, it was projected to rain the whole week. I planned to check on the state of a new sand filter the Monday after the rain ended– it had just been installed the past fall, and this rain plus the snowmelt would put it through a pretty good test.

You'd think, as a stormwater guy, I would have noticed something odd earlier, but in my defense I clock out from my job on weekends. On Monday and Tuesday, I was in the basement working on getting some rain gauges to work– the cursed things, they kept working in the lab. We'd already deployed them three times this year, and they kept failing in a new way. I failed to replicate any of the failures in the lab.

On Wednesday, I go out into the field to install the rain gauges, still unsure how they had failed the first three times, but this time it was raining. I installed the rain gauge, hooked it up to a transmitter, and then went on to the next site. While I was driving to the next site, the rain intensified, sheets of rain pounding my dashboard. I pulled to the side of the road, and checked the level in the rain gauge. It told me there was nothing. Once the rain calmed a bit, I turned around to try to troubleshoot the rain gauge. On the way, I realized I was close to the new sand filter, so I took a detour to check it out.

I put on my raincoat, got out of my truck and walked down the park trail to the pond with the filter. At least with the rain I didn't need to look out for any stray frisbee golf disks.

To my surprise, as I approached the sand filter, it was just sitting there. It was designed so that the pond next to it would overflow onto the sand, and that would filter the water before it went into the broader stormwater system before emptying into the river. This rain should be enough to make the pond overflow. I get a sinking feeling in my gut, as I look over to the pond to investigate.

The pond is empty. Cattail grows straight out of the pond muck on one side, I can see clearly a fallen tree on the sand lining the pond's bottom. Try as I might, I can find no reason for the pond to be empty– it's in the low lying part of the park, as always, hasn't had any drains installed directly into the pond, still has relatively steep banks.

I must have stared at that pond for an hour. There's no explanation for it to be empty, in April, during the fifth straight day of rain. It's supposed to only empty in a drought. It's not a drought— and we had an excess of snowmelt lately anyway.

I drive back to the lab, eventually, the rain gauges forgotten. It took me a week before I even realized I had left all but the one I had installed in the truck, never mind how long before I took down the one I had put up.

I went down to the lab to write an email to the watershed director for that area. Jill does often try out new methods– that's why she installed the enhanced sand filter anyways. When I opened my inbox, I found emails from not only Jill, but the other watershed directors, as well as the other stormwater researchers.

The emails had subject lines such as: "No-one has any answers," "Meeting to Discuss the Situation," "Do you have any idea what's going on?" "All The Ponds Are Empty," "where is the water, anyway," "Uhhhh," and "Pond JC–21 is Empty."

I read through them all, it seems my experience today was not unique. The meeting was scheduled for that time, so I went upstairs.

"Calder. It's nice of you to finally join us," Alex says.

I grunt, and sit down. It's not that I dislike working with others, it's just easier not to.

I listen to the discussion.

"If the water's not in the drains, ponds, rain gardens– where is it?" Aditya says. "The river and lake levels aren't rising either."

"At least the lakes didn't drain as well," Hazel adds.

The conversation turns to next steps. I don't know. It sounds no one else does either. I walk out of the meeting and get into my car and drive home.

I get out and run to the pond in my backyard– I don't bother pushing the vegatation out of the way, just let the wet branches hit and splash me.

It's empty. It was full a week ago, I remember pulling buckthorn out around the bank and watching a duck family on it.

I stand in the middle of the pond, and stare up at the sky. The raindrops splash on my face, definitely liquid. I look down at the pond bed. The water hits the ground, and soaks in. But it shouldn't. I know there's clay less than a foot below that foul–smelling muck. This is too much water to infiltrate.

I went to bed early that night. When I woke up, I ran out to the pond barefoot, my feet getting muddy, just to prove to myself that it was a nightmare, that maybe I just need to get a good hobby so my job isn't the one thing that defines me.

The pond is still empty. After some more staring into the rain, my pajamas start to get soaked so I head inside to clean up and eat breakfast. I go to work.

It's been over a month now. The rain hasn't stopped, but we haven't found out where it's going.

It's just our area, that's what's weird. One small part of the world suddenly has inexplicable hydrology.

I've been interviewed in a national newspaper. I had nothing to add, I can't explain what's happening.

A few stormwater researchers have moved to the area. One of them, Panbela, I've started working with. She's got some neat ideas we're trying. And she's fine if I don't respond to an email for a few days.

[ltleflrt]

Why can home repairs never go smoothly?

So the heat control handle on my kitchen sink broke. We bought a new faucet and couldn't install it cuz the old one had so much calcification that we couldn't get it out. So we decide to call a plumber to do it, and to fix our water heater too because for the last year it hasn't been keeping a consistent temperature. Two birds, one stone, etc.

So they come out to look first, and discover that there's a valve in my basement, right behind our computers, that is old and also needs to be replaced. Ok, three birds, one stone.

In the process of troubleshooting the water heater, the guy turned up the heat to see if it gives an error while heating up, and he forgot to turn it down before he left, so it overheated and blew the valve that was faulty already, but now it just constantly leaked water and flooded the room it's in. It's the room with the basement drain, so it's draining, but extremely slowly. So we turn off all the water until the next day when they come to do the actual work.

They're 3 hours late because they were working on a house that was actively flooding. By all means, fix them first. But it's 7:30 by the time they show up.

They have to saw out the old faucet. It takes hours. It fucks up the porcelain coating in some places. I should have just gotten the whole ass new sink I was considering. Oh well.

They fix the water heater, and I ask if they can snake the drain. They don't have one with them. Ok plumbers.

Since it is now almost 10pm and we have to work the next day, we ask them to come back later in the week to replace the rusty valve, since it's not actively a problem.

That was Tuesday. In the meantime we discover they didn't shut the water heater valve all the way, so it's slow leaking, and the drain is too clogged to keep up with it. Mike closes that, and stops the leak. We decide to ask the plumbers to snake the drain when they come back Friday.

Mike has an appointment Friday afternoon when the plumbers are scheduled to come, and he says he's going to stop at Lowe's to get a snake so we can do it ourselves, so I don't ask the plumbers to do it.

Everything seems fine after they replace the valve in the wall, and they leave. The floor got wet around it, so we put a fan on it to dry the carpet over night.

Mike discovers that the snake he bought won't work. The end is too big to fit through the drain cover so we're going to have to call the plumbers back, but we'll do it in the morning.

This morning I go downstairs to check the carpet, and it's still just as wet as it was.

The new valve is leaking.

For fucks sake.

[daemonmatthias]

Tuesday: try to get on my computer, but it won’t connect to the WiFi (my phone does, though). Tell my husband, who helps me troubleshoot a little. The modem is fine, the mesh router in the bedroom is fine (hence WiFi on phones), but the mesh router in the office is so broken it’s not even showing up in the app. Nothing we try makes any difference, so he tells me where to find the Wi-Fi dongle for my computer and says he’ll leave work early to call. He does get home early, and sits on hold for over a hour before giving up because it was dnd night.

Wednesday: I deal just fine all day again using the WiFi dongle & one working router. Husband attempts to call again and is given an estimated wait time of just over 3 hours. He says fuck that shit and when he gets home he’ll sign us up for Xfinity instead, which he does.

Thursday: wake up to no WiFi at all and honestly, I’ve already forgotten what all my husband did to troubleshoot bc, at the time of typing, I am still eating breakfast and haven’t had caffeine yet. But he said quantum is reporting no issues. None of the 3 devices were showing up in the app, but I think he reset the modem and then that showed back up? But still not either of the routers.

Sure hope the new provider’s stuff shows up today so my husband can install it tonight. This is ridiculous.

[anonymouspuzzler]

Yay Yipee I Finally Remembered I Should Update Folks On Things That Are Happening

because hey whoops as some of you might remember Supposedly I Stream Sometimes! That Uhhhh Hasn't Happened In A While Has It! so I should probably let folks know what's goin' on!! the long and the short of it is

Around late November/early December I started having issues where Discord would crash and restart anytime I tried to screenshare my capture software with my friends who I stream with. This put console game streams (so 2/3 of the games we were streaming) on the backburner till I could troubleshoot and solve that issue

On top of that it was Fucking Finals Season for me at my Graduate School so at a certain point I had to be responsible and focus on getting my final projects & essays done, which meant sacrificing stream time till my break (where I would hopefully have time to troubleshoot and then do a ton of streaming to make up for lost time)

Except THEN literally the second I went home for the holidays my hard drive abruptly and completely died. It is very possible that this contributed to the aforementioned tech issues

I was able to replace the drive and get my computer working again but because I have a Fucking Curse a lot of tech-side things were lost or started experiencing issues due to the new drive, namely A) I haven't been able to get my capture software working yet and B) whoops my entire OBS layout is just gone now I guess

This whole saga, on top of juggling other life shit and work and the like, effectively ate up my entire winter break

so tl;dr! I have a computer curse and because of it streams are gonna have to wait till I can get both OBS and my capture software working again. I'm hoping to work on that this weekend so I can be back to streaming next week, but given my school & job workload I'm guessing it'll more likely be two or three weeks. On top of that, I won't be streaming most of March due to reason of "my partner is visiting then". all of this sucks cause I want to be streaming, both for reason of "i like spending time with my good friends doing this" and "haha whoops I'm not earning money now and oh boy there sure are a lot of expenses flying at my head like rocks huh".

I've already rambled a bit more than I'd like to now so here's da main points:

Streams will (HOPEFULLY) be back in February. When they are, they'll be Monday & Tuesday nights, 5:30pst/8:30est, for as long as my friends remain available at those times (we're all adults having to look for or maintain Day Jobs so availability could change. y'all know how it is). I may also do occasional one-off streams on weekends as my energy 'n schedule permits, most likely art streams

I'll continue to be around on Holly's streams Fri/Sat/Sun as her schedule permits, because I don't have to rebuild OBS from the ground up for that

There is a 99.99% chance I'll be totally absent stream-wise during March

Even though streams are facing The Troubles I am still taking art commissions! Those haven't been affected!! You can submit an interest form here and I'll reach out to confirm prices as soon as I'm ready to start work on yours

If, out of the kindness of your heart, you would like to toss some support my way during The Troubles (which would be much appreciated; as said I've got a lot of expenses coming my way and unfortunately my day job covers my rent and nothing more), here are some other ways you can do so: -- Tip me on Ko-Fi; if you pay $9 or more you can request a doodle that I'll do for you and post on here & twitter (and might stream the process of drawing once that's up and running again). Here's an example of some Ko-Fi doodles I did previously -- You can also tip through my stream page if you want but I probably won't see those till I start streaming again. Still appreciated!!! -- I have a Throne Wishlist that's mostly stuff like kitchenware, household goods, stuff for my kitty, etc. There's also a few Fun Things though, like vinyls and a billy big bass Jay insisted I add. Either way, if you wanna contribute to something on there it means a lot. You can also suggest items to make me laugh

an' above all: thank you for reading and for bein' around!!

[dafitness4shawn]

Hey y’all! Went on a run today. It was suppose to be a speed workout, but the NRC app was not cooperating this morning. Like, yes I could’ve designed my own speed workout but I rather just be told what to do when it comes to that. I got annoyed because I was troubleshooting for an hour before I decided to do a long run instead. Don’t need much guidance for that, just gotta run longer than you have before. It was a good run though! I’m not sure if it’s the altitude change or it’s that I’m just getting better at this but it felt really good. Broke some personal best too! Also I’m glad I know this area enough where I can take turns wherever and still know where I am.

Of course as soon as I got home and checked my phone, the app is working fine 😒 Not complaining though, next time.

I hope everyone is having a great Tuesday!!

[the-writers-corner-inc]

Okay, I'm gonna be honest here. I have never, ever posted on this group-blog before, and no I am not ashamed to admit it (I am slightly ashamed).

I am doing this now because my friend, @jeahreading, is mad at me for not posting on here, or something like that, I don't really remember (I remember it as though it were a few seconds ago). Also I shut down an idea for the blog that she had, and it was during one of my condescending controlling bitch moments so, it really was her fault for not catching on (don't come at me, Jeah, this whole thing is an apology post basically). And this is just a 2000s Disney movie with a grand "I'm Sorry" gesture at the end, except it's 2024, we're on Tumblr and there's no romance, sorry guys (we actually had a whole ass convo about it).

Anyway, I do have some substantial info to provide - I am not delusional enough to think that only the above will do - so I am going to introduce Jeah's idea.

Although I have no idea what it's about, but I'll be trying to guess, it's called Troubleshooting Tuesday, where I think you talk about the most problematic parts of your WIP, i.e., plot-holes, the next scene you're trying to write, the deep stuff that is just so hard to articulate (like grief and so on), etc. It could also be a complicated character with a difficult backstory and buckets of trauma. Maybe a tension between your soulmates and you're trying not to make it too high that it'll break their bond entirely, or not too little that it'll be uninteresting. Or maybe you're looking for synonyms for 'said', the root of all our problems.

Again, this is for the benefit of Jeah, who says that this blog is her 'baby', and she wants to 'see it flourish'. I don't know about all that, but she's trying to be a young mother over here and I'm in support.

[blackpearlblast]

a rundown on the listed e-sim platforms from this tweet from mirna el helbawi. visit esimsforgaza to learn about this effort. (they also have a tutorial on how to purchase an esim and send it to them)

update v12 (5/21/24) holafly (israel and egypt), nomad (regional middle east), simly (palestine and middle east), mogo (israel), and airalo (discover) are currently in the highest in demand. if it has been more than 3 weeks since you initially sent your esim and your esim has not been activated, you can reforward your original email with the expiration date in the subject line. you can see gothhabiba’s guide for how to tell if your esims have been activated. if your esim has expired without use, you can contact customer service to renew or replace it.

troubleshooting hint 1: if you are trying to pay through paypal, make sure you have pop-ups enabled! otherwise the payment window won't be able to appear. (this issue most frequently seems to occur with nomad)

troubleshooting hint 2: if you are trying to purchase an esim using the provider's app, it may block you from purchasing if your phone does not fit the requirements to install and use their esims. use their website in your browser instead and this problem should go away.

nomad

for the month of may, first time referrals give 25% off for a person's first purchase and 25% off the referrer's next purchase! it's a great time to use someone's referral code from the notes if you are a first time buyer.

you can use a referral code to get $3 off your first purchase and also make it so the person whose code you used can buy more esims for gaza. many people have been leaving their referral codes in the replies of this post and supposedly a referral code may eventually reach capacity so just keep trying until you find one that works! BACKPACKNOMAD is another code to get $3 off your first purchase, it's been working for some people but not others so try out a referral code instead if you can't get it to work. NOMADCNG is a code for 5% off any middle east region nomad esims posted by connecting gaza. it can be used on any purchase, not just your first but is generally going to give less off than the first-purchase only codes, so use those first. it can be used in combination with nomad points. AWESOME NEW CODE: nomad esim discount code for 75% off any plan, NOMADCS25 do not know how long it lasts but this is an amazing deal esp. since they are really low on esims right now! (nomad promo codes do not work on plans that are already on sale, unlimited plans, and plans under $5)

weekly tuesdays only code on nomad web, PST timezone! it gives 10% off plans 10gb and above. NOMADTUE

nomad also seems to be kind of sluggish sometimes when it comes to sending out emails with the codes. you can look for them manually by going to manage -> manage plans -> the plan you purchased -> installation instruction and scroll down to install esim via QR code or manual input then select QR code to find the QR code which you can screenshot and email to them. often just the act of logging back into your nomad account after purchase seems to cause the email with the code to come through though.

mogo

mogo's website is fucking annoying to navigate and i couldn't find any promo codes, but their prices are massively on sale anyway. you have to pick if you want your esim to be for iphone, ipad, or android for some reason. according to statcounter, android makes up approx. 75% of mobile markets in palestine while iphone represents approx. 25%. so i would probably recommend prioritizing donations of android esims but if you can afford multiple, try buying an iphone one too? if i can find any official direction from the connecting gaza crew on this i will update with it.

a good referral code to use for mogo is 8R29F9. the way things are worded are confusing but as far as i can tell, if you use it we both get a 10% discount on your first purchase. (the referrer gets a 10% voucher that allows them to top up in use esims, they are someone who i know has bought a lot of esims and will be able to make good use of the top-up discount vouchers!) also upon signing up it automatically generates a password for you which you can change by downloading the app. (check your email to find your account's current password)

holafly (also looking for holafly esims for egypt now)

holafly is pricier than the others and the only promo code i could find was ESIMNOW for 7% off. someone in the tags mentioned GETESIM7 as another 7% off code they had received, so if you have already used ESIMNOW or can't seem to get it to work, try GETESIM7. another 7% off code is HOLAXSUMMER7 which is valid until june 2nd. referral codes only seem to give 5% off and they don't stack. (i don't remember the source, it was on some sketchy coupon site i don't want to link to and only can recommend because i tried it myself) you can also use my referral link for 5% off if you can afford the 2% worse deal on your end, it will give me $5 credit which i can put towards buying more esims. connecting gaza has also posted the promo code HOLACNG for 5% off but since it is less than the 7% off codes and as far as i can tell does not give credit towards others to buy esims like the referral links, i would consider it lower priority for use.

simly (note: simly must be downloaded as an app to be used, the website link is to help people confirm they are downloading the right app)

i have not personally used simly so i am going to be going off of the sixth slide of mirna el helbawi's instagram guide, with some corrections from someone who has successfully purchased an esim from simly. after downloading the app and making an account, search for palestine or middle east and purchase your preferred package. the page the app takes you to after your purchase should have the QR code to send to the esimsforgaza email, it won't show up in your email receipt. someone kindly left her referral code in the tags of this post, it gives $3 off your first purchase and will give her $3 credit to put towards purchasing more esims for gaza. the code is CIWA2. (if this referral code doesn't work, try one from the notes of this post!) according to someone in the notes, ARB is a simly promo code for 25% off esims that is still working as of march 3rd.

airalo

some people have noted issues trying to sign up for airalo using the browser version of the website, it worked for me but if you are struggling you can give the mobile app a try and that should work. you can use a referral code to get $3 off your first purchase and give the code suppler a $3 credit for buying more esims. KARINA9661 is a code sourced from this post which is also a wonderful example of how using people's referral codes can really make a difference. if for some reason that referral code isn't working, you can find more in the notes of the original esim post i made here.

@/fairuzfan also has a tag of esim referral codes for various platforms!

(note: mogo and holafly both link to israel esims as there are no general regional packages for the middle east like on nomad and the esims for gaza website specifically linked to the israel package on mogo, so i linked to the equivalent on holafly.)

[zahri-melitor]

Okay I have opened March Solicits. Reactions as I go (and I'm feeling salty today):-

Chip I am trusting you to land this ZEA storyline. Also Zur!Tim is when? I am still hotly anticipating the possible fallout from that.

If Harley is back on Suicide Squad is she leaving Birds of Prey? Please?

(Also hot take but I think we're past the need for Harley to be on Suicide Squad. Part of me perked up at Black Alice and Clock King on SS, but eurgh. Harley)

Is there anything more eye-rollingly boring than "Bruce Wayne origin story" at this point?

Batman & Robin continues to look fine

I'm reminded I need to find time to sit down and start Ram V's 'Tec run.

"What's wrong with Nightwing" (I cover my mouth and laugh) anyway this looks very Tom Taylor levels of stakes.

I woke up to the Barbara discourse so I was already spoiled on this, but... sigh. Kelly Thompson not understanding the need for BoP to have someone in the troubleshooter/research role is hmmm a flaw. I am giving the team some leeway still though, as I DO think they're doing good Dinah content.

Outsiders: ...you know I actually have no clue what DC has done with Nocturna since the 2011 reboot apart from the fact she's apparently back. She's Kate's ex? (who isn't at this point??)

I'm again reminded that putting Poison Ivy on my longlist to read is probably a thing to do.

Red Hood: The Hill - "in their civilian lives, seeds of jealousy begin to drive a wedge between Jason and one of his oldest friends". Now don't get me wrong, actually developing Jason having his own cohort is something that is so necessary, but...it's intensely funny to me to see a book pretending Jason has a civilian life and longstanding friends. Go on.

World's Finest: look, I trust this team but you know what I don't need in my life? "the first meeting of Joker and Lex"

...oh damn, PG don't do this to me, that story concept looks halfway okay? Though it would still be funnier to hear about the team of Kara and Karen, ACTUALLY.

The Flash: you know what? I'm still enjoying Si Spurrier on this. Jai and Max sounds like an AMAZING team up actually.

Speed Force as a title is confusing me in that it's not only a mini, it's a mini that's actually keeping abreast of continuity around it for the characters involved. What is this? post-Crisis? (Keep this energy up)

I'm sorry, Wonder Woman is looking worse and worse. That cover makes me HUGELY uncomfortable. (the flag actually even more than the sword)

Sinister Sons remains looking SO BAD

I acknowledge that Amazons Attack is a bad rerun of a bad event, but also Mary Marvel is in it and I love Mary soooooooo (even though I know it makes other people mad)

The Green Arrow situation has been heavily canvassed, but my personal complaint is, in a slow meandering storyline to start with, we are at issue...10? and we finally get 4 women all at once? Why is Mia arriving with this group? Why are they all together? Why are any of them talking to Waller, particularly current Waller, let alone working for her? Why issue 10/12? (sings the 'devaluing women in Green Arrow again? Is it Tuesday?' song)

The old JSAers minis final issues - yeah that looks fine

CREEPER IN SHAZAM??? What??? The Creeper in a wacky hijinks book? This could be very fun but wow is that a tonal dissonance.

Blue Beetle *whispers* I'd actually be cool with Ted retiring from active hero work again. It's a good look on him.

Ape-ril - BANANA SCENTED COVER????? I feel this has gone underappreciated

I am, actually, excited for the Barda DCInk book. Though I wonder how much of the Furies backstory is going to get softened for it.

I still can't believe they're reprinting Dixon Nightwing AGAIN, in a 1024 page trade paperback. Why not collect Grayson? Why not finish out the Robin and BOP Dixon collections instead? WHY AS A PAPERBACK BRICK with all the downsides of both TPBs and Omnis and none of the benefits of either format?

[randomquadballpun]

DAY 12 (attempt no 3)

John was just shrugging into his jacket when someone knocked against the door frame of the open living room door. He turned around just to spot Greg, armed with his laptop and a bulging manila folder.

"Morning!"

"Good to see you, Greg. Come on in! You can go right through, Sherlock is in the kitchen, sulking."

"Not. Sulking."

The Detective Inspector raised his eyebrow at the rumbled disagreement. "That bad?"

"Just an experiment that has him stumped", John offered as an explanation, before turning towards the stairs with a frown.

"Rosie, come on, we need to get going!"

"I need one more minute!"

Greg chuckled as he placed his things on the coffee table before getting out of his coat. "Busy morning, eh?"

"Always." John looked around the chaotic living room with a rueful chuckle. "Don't mind the mess. Can I get you anything to drink while I wait for Rosie?"

"A tea would be lovely but only if you have the time."

John winced. "Well actually ... tea is a bit rare at the moment I am afraid."

"John!", Sherlock warned sharply but after almost ten years of cohabitation, John was not so easily intimidated anymore. Least of all when it came to his grumpy boyfriend.

"That is unless you would like your tea at a perfect 42°C", he proposed sardonically. "Then this is your lucky day indeed!"

Sherlock groaned but John just raised his voice to be heard over the other mans wordless protest. "I would just like to know if there is any chance that I will ever get our old kettle back or whether I should just buy a new one."

"I will order one today", Sherlock mumbled begrudgingly.

Thundering steps and a loud clattering sound announced the arrival of his daughter on the stairs. "Hiya, Uncle Greg", she greeted the inspector exuberantly. "We are going to meet Aunt Harry!"

Lestrade looked dubiously from Rosie to John and back. "Well, good luck with that!"

"It's going to be fine! I brought my swear jar!", she pronounced proudly.

Now it was Sherlocks turn to smirk as he offered her a high five before joining the Inspector at the table. John winced. Chances were high that Rosie would make some good money today, even if Harry and he usually put in their best efforts to keep things civil around her. Some things just never changed.

Sherlock just made a shooing gesture in their direction. "You better get going, or you're going to miss your bus! And we wouldn't want that!" He turned to Greg with a shit-eating grin. "So what have you got for me, Lestrade?"

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

Troubleshooting, part 8/?

-> On to another round! If you would prefer to read the first three chapters on ao3, just click here!

-> The next snippet will be uploaded on Tuesday!

-> Start reading right at DAY 0 or read the previous part here.

[b-blushes]

TUESDAY (again no problem) QUEST! - well basically a re-run of monday BUT it's forecast to feel 12 degrees cooler (still 27 but 'feels like 28' forecast. but much better than today) - sit outside in the shade for approximately 45 minutes am - timely sandwich - troubleshoot project pm in the cool - have a nice day - EDIT ALSO physical therapy it's tuesday baybeeeeeee! I have been dealing with some demons the past couple of days (i guess migraine probably hasn't helped) so i would mostly like to do nice activities and not feel like i am actively in the horrors. i will do my best!!!!!!!!!

[ghoulangerlee]

sorry i forgot to tell you guys about the wildest thing that happened at work this past week (besides the ea who is trying to??? idk??? hunt me for sport i guess??)

but someone dropped off their computer on tuesday for us to look at; they called in and told me that it just would not power on. asked what time we closed and how much we charged and what our turn around time was.

explained all of that and they were wary bc like, they didn't wanna leave it with us for long. which fine. said they'd try to "do stuff" and see if that would fix it.

brought in the computer, reiterated that it just would not turn on. so i took their info and the computer and payment. went over our turn around time again (this is v important) (its 3 to 5 business days btw)

so, after they leave, i open the computer to inspect it (for physical damage bc we have to make notes of that just in case) and uh 1) there's no screws in the bottom case of the laptop (call the cust and they say its bc they forgot to put them back in after opening it up. uh)

next thing i notice is that the computer is on. there are lights on the side lit up and the caps lock light comes on (a sign Windows has booted)

okay weird. so the scope is now, the screen doesn't display but the computer is on.

we plug it up the next day, to an external monitor and uh. it works fine. we remove the RAM to test that just in case (bc my coworker had called the customer to get the password, the customer mentioned that before the computer "died" they were getting memory errors.)

RAM is fine. cool. we do more testing on it. and the...display? doesn't exist??? there's no integrated monitor under the device manager.

at this point we've done about an hour and a half troubleshooting on it to try and figure out how we went from will not power on to doesn't display.

call the customer back and they are not. happy. with us? somehow? why haven't we fixed it? even tho i told this customer that if we find out its a hardware issue then we'll have to order new hardware.

they were adamant it wasn't a hardware issue. okay.

anyway. its now friday at this point and they call for another update and we're like. starting to lean towards it being the upper assembly (screen + casing) but like it doesn't make sense to us bc this computer is newish (under 2 years old) and there doesn't seem to be any physical damage to it. the screen shouldn't just go out and stop working. esp if there were no other signs besides the "memory errors".

the person ends up coming in to get the computer, we talk about a screen replacement and the customer is for it. cool. they're taking the computer with them until we can get the screen ordered which is fine. i get payment for the screen so we can order it, i let the customer know that we do have to tack on an additional charge to the hours because we've spent about an hour and a half cumulatively on this--customer is not happy about it but understands. gets a bit huffy about it. says that we should have figured it out sooner etc etc etc

and then. then like. the customer hits me with.

"oh hey, so my friend closed a pen in this computer right before it stopped working. right down here where the plastic case is. yeah. do you think that might have messed up the screen?"

i am absolutely flabbergasted by this and go "oh yeah it can definitely damage the cables there. the plastic isn't very thick. we didn't see any damage when we opened it up though" and this person just

"oh yeah my friend cleaned up the broken plastic bits before we brought it by"

OH OF COURSE. how silly of me.

i am. so tired lmao. like i dont know what this person expected of us but? tell us this info? the only info (even after asking all the questions) i got was "the computer stopped working today and it worked fine yesterday" and "i opened it up and performed an ec reset just in case"

anyway. the customer is vaguely annoyed they're having to pay more for us to find out what the issue is but in my defense YOU DIDNT TELL ME THAT A PEN WAS CLOSED IN IT.

you know how you're not supposed to omit info from medical professionals if you're being treated for an emergency? its sorta in that same vein. don't omit stuff from us when you bring us your computer to fix lmao