#cloud computing in banking

[bibleofficial]

i just think it’s funny that raspberry pi seems to plan their releases around that of apple’s

[onpassivereseller]

Automaattinen Tienaaminen - ONPASSIVE Digital Blueprint

ONPASSIVE Digital Blueprint. The research paper discusses the recent developments and future prospects of ONPASSIVE, a marketing business. It emphasizes the importance of understanding the business model and marketing platform within ONPASSIVE. The paper highlights the introduction of OConnect, traffic allocation, new products, and upcoming announcements by CEO Mr. Ash Mufareh. It underscores the…

[renditecloud]

In Rechenzentren investieren – Anleitung und FAQ

[gleecus-techlabs-blogs]

6 benefits of cloud computing in banking

Greater scalabilityFraud detection

Reduced costs

Tightened security

Compliance with regulations

Customer relationship management (CRM)

Greater scalability

[gemjewlerybox]

♡ Go Go Magical Girl! ♡

chapter 1

There’s a new app on your phone

There were already a lot of apps on your phone, gaming, social media, tutoring apps, and you were prone to still having apps on there you forgot you had. You wouldn’t have noticed it really, if it wasn’t smack right in the middle of the screen

You may be messy but at least it was organized, kinda. 

You were in the middle of homework, struggling with math as usual. What's different? Just mind numbing stress. 

What took you out was hearing a bell sound. 

You paused for a moment, then continued back to your work. So maybe hours of stress isn’t the greatest. Maybe you should take a break a small break, you were hungry after all- 

Ding

There it was again. You look around the room for the sound, did you have a wind chime somewhere? Just swaying in a enclosed space- 

Your eyes did a quick sweep of your desk, and just for a split second you saw the screen of your phone shut off. 

Weird, you weren’t on it for a good while, why would it be on?

You grabbed it and it flashed back the lockscreen, the familiar faces of an older woman and smaller child popped up as the background. What wasn’t familiar was two notifications from an app you didn’t know of.

Child born from the pinkest of clouds, welcome to your life! 

….huh?

What app did you download recently? You can’t even remember- 

Hey, are you there? There’s people to save!

The second notification displayed, leaving you even more confused. Okay what cheaply made microtransaction ridden app did you download?

You opened your phone intended to dig through all of your apps to see who the imposter was, but instead you were greeted by it smack on your homescreen. 

It was a pale pink app, with a small heart in a darker shade in the middle of the icon. It was a simple looking app, one that you still don’t recognize. 

Eh, it didn’t really matter too much right now. Someone from school must have mentioned it when you were around and you downloaded it and forgot. You're too busy right now for an app to be sending notifications, so you decided to go and turn them off. 

Its just, when you tapped on the app, it didn’t open. 

Okay, maybe it was a mistap- nope it didn’t open again. After a good while of rapid tapping and rapidly growing annoyance, the app still didn’t open. 

You huffed a little, and then remembered you could totally turn off notifications via the settings app. You swiped around a bit and opened the settings app and scrolled more to locate and access the app itself- 

You can’t find it

You scrolled top to bottom, back and forth, the apps category. Hell you even went through other settings to see anything related to the mysterious app. Nothing 

…oh my god did you download spyware???

Panic started to spread through you. Your phone literally had access to everything about you, your name, your emails and passwords and banking information- oh god are you on the manor’s wifi?? CAN A VIRUS SPREAD VIA WIFI????

You turned your phone off and threw it on your bed. After a brief moment of spiraling about how you just gave some hacker the Wayne’s manor personal information on a silver dish, you grabbed your computer to quickly look up how to stop a virus attack before hearing a knock at the door.

You heard the formal title of your name after it, Alfred. You look at the clock on your wall, it is dinner time. You felt a grimace form on your face. 

You did not want to go down to that dining table. 

“Sorry Alfred” you called out from inside your room,”I think i’m just going to skip tonight’s dinner-”

“Tonight is the monthly dinner, miss. Everyone is required to attend.”

Fuck- you really don’t want to go down there now. Just to be ignored again?

“I’m…just not feeling so good right now.” you lied, well kinda “It’s probably from school stress.

Plus like, it's not like my presence is…needed y'know?”

You winced a little from that last part. But honestly you can’t deal with the uncomfortable, unwanting, atmosphere you’ll be prone to at that table. 

You couldn’t hear anything from the other side of the bedroom door, but you looked down and still saw a shadow showing from the gap of the door to the floor. He’s always been persistent with rules- 

“But really I don’t think my stomach can handle anything, so I’ll just be there pushing food around. I don't want to waste any food!” good this was such an awful lie

“Well then when you feel a bit better, be sure to come down. I’ll wrap a plate for you, please be sure to eat before retiring for the night.” A lie he brought

“Ahh thank you!” for not dragging you down, “And I’ll be sure to eat something before bed!”

“Well then, have a good night, and please don’t stay up too long” Alfred said before you could hear the footsteps of his polished shoes grow dimmer and dimmer. You felt the coils in your body release as you let out a sigh before collapsing on your bed. 

It’s so hard talking to these people in this manor, even Alfred. It seems like it hasn’t gotten any better since when you first came here

….you didn’t want to think about that time. 

Instead, you thought about your phone and potential malware that’s on it. 

You slowly went and grabbed your phone and said a little prayer before turning it back on. No flashing lights, pops ups, or random numbers messaging you your location, and nobody banging on your door. That should be a good sign…right?

…you quickly checked to see if you were on the manor’s wifi. Thankfully you weren’t, you sighed out in relief. The amount of stress you put yourself through is going to kill you one day, you can swear it sometimes. 

Clicking on the pink app again, and again it didn’t open. You laid on your back with your phone up in the air by your raised, just staring hard at it. As hard as you thought, you can’t even think of an app that even looks like it, nor any that won’t even let you access the thing. 

A new notification popped up on your screen, which scared you just enough to where you dropped the phone square on your face. Mid forehead rub, you read the notification, from your messaging app?

V- Hey, me and a few friends are going to the arcade now that its reopen. If you wannnnttt you can totally come with us! 

You looked at the message before switching your phone off again. Maybe you should bathe before continuing to your work. That sounds nice right now. 

The car ride was, as always, unbearable. Nothing has even been said since you entered the limo yet you can feel the sheer animosity from Damien across the car. 

You just sighed silently to yourself, you ran out of the energy to deal with him a long time ago. 

You spent the rest of the previous night in an endless battle of math homework, social anxiety, and doom thinking inside your room. The night ended with you crashing on your bed in defeat, completely forgetting to go down to the kitchen to eat dinner…your stomach sure didn’t forget. 

As Alfred continued to drive you both to school, you retrieved your phone from your uniform pocket. Fingers faster than your stomach rumbling, you open the chat messages between you and a classmate, Viviane, to see if she had anything on her person for you to munch on. 

You stopped when you saw the leftover message from last night. 

Thank god you turned off read notifications from your chats, you can just feel your phone going repeatedly from Viv seeing the unanswered read notifications. 

….Maybe it was better to wait to ask her when you get there. 

Clicking off the messaging app, your eyes were greeted with the cursed app. It was the first thing that you locked in on as you opened your phone in the morning, and after spending the entire morning getting ready and scouring the internet for any pink, heart, pink heart or whatever apps that ever existed. Nothing 

And, of course, when you clicked on the icon, it didn’t open. 

“What the fuck” you sighed out, what you thought was quietly

It wasn’t, you can eye on you from the opposite side of the car. 

“Where were you last night?”

“Hmm?” was all that was left from you as you turned towards your younger brother. It wasn’t often now that the two of you talked, thanks to you deflecting any attempts of his verbal abuse. You still gave polite, short answers and made quick getaways from conversations.

Lucky he seems too busy in recent months to follow and continue with the stream of taunts and venom, but there are times, like car rides to school, where you two have to be in the same space. 

 “Last night was a mandatory dinner and activities, yet you were nowhere to be seen.” 

“I…” Damien eyes bore into yours, one of intimidation, as if to convey his importance to you. His ego is fit for the blood son of a major billionaire such as Bruce, your collective father.

It kinda does make sense for him to think of himself highly, still you can’t help but feel exhausted with whatever power struggle he has had with you since you arrived at the manor. 

“ I just had work to do.” is all you said, simple. What's the point of getting into the specifics when he’s just looking for a reason why you're in the wrong and how you're a failure. 

Though, with the way he rolled his eyes and snorted came out, your sure that wasn’t a good enough answer for him

“Can’t do your duties as a family member because you can’t do simple schoolwork? It amaze me on how you can be worse” 

You can just feel yourself tuning him out, it was too early in the morning for him to start this with you and expect you to pay attention. You turned your attention instead back to your phone, scrolling through your social media for a distraction. Seems like there's a new arcade? 

You wanted to learn more, but Damien had other plans since in a blink your phone was no longer in your hands. 

“Wha- Hey??” you reached over on his side of the car to reach for your phone that was in his hands, but due to the seat belt you were in you couldn’t reach as far. 

Guess Damien didn’t have his own one on, because in the next second his hand was wrapped in your collar shirt, where he then pulled you towards him hard. 

You gagged as the seatbelt pushed against your neck and chest, your own hands grabbing at his. 

“I’m talking to you and instead you scroll through your phone?” he asked as if this was a slight against his name. 

“God, you're so insufferable,” His hands tighten its grip on your collar as he pulls you closer towards him, causing the seat belt to choke you further, 

“What? Can’t speak?” he taunted, now your hands left from his and you were scrambling to undo your seatbelt “Why do you even need to since obviously you think your too important than to interact with-” 

He didn’t get the chance to finish whatever rant he was going with, you unbuckled yourself and with the force he was pulling, you tumbled into him. You both smacked against each other and the car door.

You couldn’t even reach to nurse your injuries before the limo came to a screening halt, causing you both to jump from your seats. 

The car door on Damien’s (and now yours) side opens up, and thankfully you didn’t cartoonishly spill out the car. Damien had to brace himself on his seat so he didn’t fall out.

You looked out to see Alfred, the one who was driving you both to school, is the one who opened the door. He didn’t look the least bit pleased. 

Looks like you both made it to school though. 

You looked around and found your phone on the car floor, you grabbed it and your bookbag and quite literally climbed over Damien to get out, revenge for the shit show he just pulled. You didn’t bother to listen to whatever lecture Alfred was about to use nor the enraged look Damien must have. You simply climbed and hopped out the car and made a beeline to the gates of the school and merging with the other students. 

As you gathered your bearings and assessed yourself to make sure you were decent after that car ride, you switched on your phone to make sure no damage happened to it. Nothing physically, and switching it back on shows it was still working. The sigh of relief that left you, god.

What was all that about??

You rubbed your neck, it still burned from the strap. You can feel your eyes burning too.

No, no tears. The mascara your aunt gave to you was expensive and you will NOT let it run down your face in front of all these people. 

Its so stupid, all of this was stupid. 

“....I wanna go back home…”

“Why.Didn’t.You.Answer.Me.” ahhh, it was inevitable you’d fall for your faith. Being poked and propped, literally, by an angry Viviane in English. It's what you get for ignoring her messages. 

After cooling off in the last three class periods, you were waiting for your 4th one to begin. The teacher has always been known to run late to classes, so the class was loud with chatter.

Your assigned seat was near the back of the class, and your deskmate was poking at you to annoy you. 

Funny, in the start of the year when you realize this class has seating partners, you tried your best not to bother her, giving her space and scurrying away when classes were over.

That didn’t stop the girl from messaging you a week after classes started. 

To this day you still don’t know how she got your number. 

“I must have not seen it-”

 “Liar,” Viviane cut you off. “I looked and you turned in the winter museum column at 11:45 last night. You were awake when I sent that text.”

Okay stalker. 

“Yeah well,” you began your lie as you pushed her poking nail away away from your face, “I was really focus on Mr. Lopez work-” 

“Ugh, I can just hear the excuses coming out before you even say them.” she sighed dramatically, “I thought I turned notifications on on your phone?”

“...yeah you did.” you gulped, turning away from her so your face doesn’t betray you, suddenly you were very interested with your notebooks on your desk. 

“......did you turn them off-”

“I put them on silent” You can hear her groan out your name, “Why did you do that, huh? What would have happened if there was news worth coverage near your area that I needed you to get to at that moment?” “On a Tuesday night?”

“This is Gotham. God if I had a nickel for each time I said that to you-”

Viviane, president of the school’s newspaper and the co-owner of the schools unofficial news account on social media. You joined the club this year back in the fall as a photographer initially, but some days you find yourself writing a column or two some weeks.

She has been trying to reach out and cover news outside of the school grounds, hence the want for all club members to have notifications on and ready. She likes to be ready, and she has a knack of calling bullshit. 

Or maybe you weren’t a good liar. 

“Hmmm” she eyed you up and down, her lashes low, the look made you fidget around a bit. “Well, there really wasn’t anything that happened last night anyways.” she admitted, “I was inviting you out.”

“Viv-”

“God you're such a hermit.” she said as she resumed the poking, this time at the back of your head. If she wasn’t fond of long decorated deco nails, you may be able to ignore it, “A once in a lifetime chance the club goes out as a group and you want to miss out on it?”

“You mean the new arcade that just reopened after it was basically demolished from some Joker attack?”

“......” it was Vivaine turn to look away embarrassed, all for like two seconds 

“I’ve never seen you do anything fun, well that wasn’t photography-” “I like photography,” you pointed out, you finally stopped shuffling in your bag and gathered your materials for the class,

“Yeah, but when was the last time you did it that wasn’t for the school newspaper.”

Okay so she got you again. But that doesn’t mean you still didn’t find running around Gotham fun…..dangerous but fun still. 

“Well, even still the arcade is back and running! The club needs some much needed fun with all the shit we go through.” “The ish you put us through?”

“WE go through” she corrected, “We all are going, I’m making it mandatory”

“Oh COME ON-” you quickly quieted yourself, feeling eyes on you from your loudness. You shank back into your seat

Embarrassing 

“Just listen,” her voice was lowered to the point where you had to scoot closer to listen 

“Isn’t it weird how the place was practically demolished in a police vs drug lord setup, and now it’s back running in a matter of weeks??” Ah so this isn’t the R&R trip she’s trying to make it. 

“Oh my god viv-” “Mandatory~” she sang, grabbing your closest hand to her and swinging it. “You’ll have so much fun, I'll make sure all my friends have fun!” she giggled

“....” 

“Oooo wait I got the chance to read the segment of the museum you wrote, why didn’t you tell anyone you went…” You weren’t really paying attention to her or her hand holding at that point, partly because the English teacher finally came in to start the class but also….

She said you were her friend. 

God you should have dropped out of the club…..okay maybe that was extreme. 

But your feelings of wanting to go back home were also extreme. 

Here you were, Viviane successfully had gotten you to come to the arcade, by which of refusing to let you go back home (good cause you didn’t want to deal with the mess that was waiting for you), and instead dragged you to her own her own place before it was time to meet everyone here. 

Even for a weekday night, it was loud with games blaring and kids screaming and running around. You almost tripped over one of them when you first entered. 

Though, you can’t complain of the lack of games and activities around the place. The owners had probably gotten a huge settlement from insurance or whatever, because they were not short of excitement. 

Maybe you were being a sour wuss, this place is probably really fun. Too bad you're really awkward. 

Not all the members came, so much for it being “mandatory”

Viviane as soon as you all got there, immediately went off, probably sweet talking whatever kid at the counter space for information about the owners. Which left you and the three other members that came.

You don’t know how it even happened, but the two guy members suddenly started having a showdown on whoever could win the most tickets. And somehow that led to you being dragged as referee and scorekeeper.  

Right now you three were at the basketball hooping machine, a game you made them play twice already cause mid way through the first go arounds the balls ended up being thrown at each other rather than the hoop.

You were hanging in the back leaning against a wall, your phone out with tally notes and Alfred’s messages. 

“You seem to be having the time of your life.” huh? 

You looked around to hear where that voice came from, only to turn to your side and see it was the 5th member that joined, Aurelia. You were leaning against a wall that was behind the two members playing fighting. “You seem way more relaxed than how you were when we came in”

“Oh…you could tell?”

“Girl” they slid next to you on the wall, that's when you noticed the ginormous cone of cotton candy they had gotten, “You literally went rigid as soon as Viv dipped. Thankfully these knuckleheads didn’t seem to notice as they dragged you away.” Aurelia chuckled watching the other two starting to go at it.

Thank god for the cloud of sugar that was big enough to not show your embarrassed face. 

To be honest, you completely lost track of them. They just ghosted the group as soon as you all got there, and to be honest that was pretty on brand for Aurelia. 

Aurelia wasn’t technically a member of the newspaper. They were, way before you joined. What did they do? They were the gossip column’s writer, basically. Vivaine herself will always say what Aurelia wrote was simply speculation, but others would beg to differ. Vivaine also probably considered she made them use a pen name. 

A school like Gotham Prep academy was one that didn’t want any to damper its reputation, they were a well, highly acclaimed and decorated school. Its students went on to be great scientists, politicians, business owners, and more. The school, though, is still in Gotham, and it sure did have its skeletons. 

You don’t know what for sure put the nail in the coffin, if it was the story of the underlining steroids problem in the school being started by a gym teacher, or how certain high elite parents were paying teacher’s off to pass their kids. 

No one knows how Aurelia got those bank statements to this day. 

Whatever it was, the school put an immediate stop to it, either Vivaine kicked out whoever was writing the columns, or all members got kicked and a whole revamp of the newspaper crew. 

Aurelia voluntarily left, but the next day an account under the same penname popped up. 

“I’m not finished with this thing, literally please take some.” 

“Okay okay” you reached over and grabbed a piece from the cloud and ignored how you just saw a ball get thrown somewhere that wasn’t the hoop. Cotton candy was more important, and also your phone which began to vibrate, signaling a new notification.

As a teenager in your day and age you went for it immediately to check your message, a grave mistake since the notification showed your extremely low grade in your math class. 

“Oh you take Mr. Lopez class too?” Aurelia asked, you hadn’t noticed that your phone and bad grade was on full view for them. 

“Oh- ah..” you quickly put your phone back in your pocket, feeling embarrassed “Yeah, this class has been terrible and the semester isn’t isn't even over.” 

“Have you ever thought about getting a tutor?”

“Hm?” a tutor?

“Yeah, I also was taking that class and it was legit busting my ass. I knew that first month I needed a tutor.” they whipped out their phone and scrolled a bit before finding what they were looking for 

“Here,” they brought their phone up to you, it showed a list of their grades in the same class.

The first few grades were…..less than ideal….but during the later fall months, their grades had gotten better, like way better. 

“Oh my god-....a tutor helped you with this?” 

“Yep” you must have had a questioning look on your face because Aurelia seemed to get a bit flustered by it, “oh- no I definitely didn’t pay this school money to fix this. Please god- I'd rather just fail.” they snorted out the last part before laughing. After a moment, you began laughing a bit too. 

“Yeah no, wait, so what tutor did you even get?”

“Oh, she's amazing. And not like one of those that comes from like a tutor company or anything. No, I literally found a flyer on the school bulletin board.” Aurelia continued to ramble as they brought back their phone to scroll around more. 

“She’s like a college student- okay this is getting too much.” 

What was getting too much? Well you completely forgot that you were in an arcade opened to the public, some kid around the corner spotted the cotton candy you both were eating and began screaming about wanting one. 

“Ugh, come on.” Aurelia grabbed your arm and pulled you away from the wall. You were led around the arcade until the two of you found an exit that led to outside. The cold wind pierced against your exposed skin, the chill already reaching your bones, but it was quiet. 

Good. 

“Ahh that's better” Aurelia said as they stretched their arms out, “I love the cold, it's so refreshing-” they turned towards you

“oh-oops. Guess you don’t like it as much huh” 

“Nooo, what are you talking about?” you asked through your teeth. You can even tell that you were shivering ass off. 

“Well, let’s just make this quick then.” they said as they tossed the cotton candy away before pulling out their phone again. The pang in your heart hurted at the sight. 

“I wanted it to be quieter so I can hear your number.”

“...Number?”

“Yeah, I’m totally going to try and hook you up with my girl! Well tutor, but she is a life saver.”

Oooohh

“Plus I never even got your number, and you joined a bit ago, no?”

….honestly it makes sense to you. You recited your number to them and they tapped in it, a few seconds later your phone buzzed, you opened it up again to see a new message from an unknown number

Unknown- It's me, Arii 

“Oh, do you need me to spell out my name for you” you asked as you save the new contact, 

“Nah, your under ‘Camgirl’”

“....what the-”

“Come on let's go back inside before Viv sniffs us out”

Im introducing a taglist for those who wants to read my story without the shitposting that is 90% of this blog. You can either comment, dm or send an ask if you want to be part of it

[kiasims]

60+ overrides you NEED in your game 🫧

watch here ♡

kia in her tumblr era? lol

but I just wanted to share some of my favorite override mods with you guys 💗 hope you guys enjoy

start-up overrides ♡

1. pink aura opening screen override by Irene Noir

2. ghost loading screen by Wotunciba

3. loading screen tips replacement by Kiasims

4. refreshed dynamic main menu by Simmatically

5. 'rainy hearts' font override by Kiasims

cas overrides ♡

6. vyxated mirror cas background (soft-pink) by Dumbabie

7. controlled cas position by Northernsiberiawinds

8. more cas columns by Weerbesu

9. yearbook gallery pose overrides by Yun-Sims

build mode overrides ♡

10. build-buy pencil override by Vyxated 

11. build-buy gizmo override (soft-pink) by Vyxated

ui overrides ♡

12. pastel ui override by Vyxated

13. ice cream plumbob override by Xiaoboluo **

14. ui poses override by Blaccdot

15. childrens ui mood replacements by NV-Games

in-game overrides ♡

16. better basketball override by Coco Games

17. shoe removal animation override by ThePancake1

18. black tv replacements by AlexisAriel

19. reality dating show override by Coco Games

20. movie overrides by Midnitehearts

21. watching tv override by Simkatu **

22. nap replacement poses by Beverlyallitsims

23. ps2 game and controller override by Bknysimz

24. nintendo switch game controller replacement by AroundTheSims4

25. iphone 12 override by nuribatsal

26. phone app replacements by Coco Games (search for ‘overrides’ on her patreon to find the rest)

27. realistic bank override by [Taylor] (requires SNB Bank mod)

28. phone wallpaper overrides by Coco Games

29. single selfie overrides by Dearkim

30. paired selfie overrides by Dearkim

31. bouquet override by Complexsims **

32. samsung jet vaccum override by Kikovanity

33. food texture replacements by Utopiasims

34. modern glass replacement by Coco Games

35. green sponge override by Ellcrze

36. method all purpose surface spray override by Kikovanity

37. functional hair care overrides by [Taylor] (requres bathroom clutter kit becomes functional mod)

38. computer desktop override by Simkatu

39. computer game overrides by Ebonix

40. reading animation override Simkatu

41. black art painting overrides by Slimmazsims

42. lush facial masks override by PlayWithSyd

43. singing animation override by Simkatu

44. dance override 2.0 by Steven Studios **

45. energy failure animation override by NV_Games

46. faint animation replacement by NV-Games

47. squishmallow overrides by Bellassims

baby overrides ♡ 

48. invisible bassinet override��by Sixam

49. baby bottle override by Coco Games

50. byebyebaby rug hider override by BuildBuyMode

51. sippy cup override by Cecesimsxo **

52. realistic birth overrides by [Taylor] (requires realistic birth mod)

environment overrides ♡

53. terrain overrides by K-Hippie

54. cloud overrides by Moriel

55. red bridge override by Simmatically

56. newcrest building replacements by BoyBatterfly

57. san myshuno city buildings override by Bloomverse

58. san myshuno billboards override by Ebonix

59. del sol valley billboards replacement by JrenaeGaming

university overrides ♡

60. hbcu text edits by AlexisAriel

61. university food cart replacements by AlexisAriel

(18+) 62. real drink names override by Basemental (requires basemental drugs)

63. red cup juice keg override by Ebonix

64. uno card override by Skillfulsimmer

(18+) 65. elfbar override by [Taylor] (requires basemental drugs)

[wanderingskemetic]

🐄Subtle Hetheru Worship💃

Greatly inspired by @khaire-traveler's wonderful subtle worship series, which can be found here.

Dance like no one's watching

Play a musical instrument or learn to play one

Drink milk or wine or make something using them as ingredients

Spend time with friends and family (blood or chosen)

Learn about and uphold Ma'at

Make a playlist or listen to songs that remind you of her or you think she'd like

Make a collage/moodboard/pinterest board/similar collection of photos and images you associate with her, especially if some of the images are your own

Wear a piece of jewelry or other clothing item that reminds you of her

Light a candle or incense that reminds you of her (safely)

Carry a picture of her in your wallet, pocket, phone case, etc. or as a phone or computer wallpaper

Have cow, horns, sistrum, sun, lion, snake, or sycamore imagery

Send a nice message to your loved ones/check in on them regularly

Be kind to children, play with them if offered

Show support for any parents in your life, especially new ones; help out when/if you can

Donate children and baby supplies to homeless shelters

Singing/listening to your favorite songs

Sunbathe

Watch sunrises and sunsets

Say good morning or goodnight to her

Freely express your emotions in healthy ways

Pick and/or press flowers (only from areas you're allowed to)

Have perfume/cologne that you dedicate to her

Give compliments to strangers

Watch love or travel focused shows or movies

Embrace yourself; give yourself love

Wear make-up (if you enjoy it and are able to)

Practice compassion, especially towards yourself

Learning about/implementing different types of safe sexual or sensual activities

Hosting or attending parties, if you're attending see if you can help out the host

Donate to food banks, medical debt forgiving organizations, wildlife organizations and other causes you think help life

Honor your ancestors/souls that have passed

Visit cemeteries; leave flowers at graves (with permission); or help clean up gravesites (if allowed)

Get involved with your government (vote, go to local meetings, protest, write/call a leader, etc.)

Take charge/leadership roles in parts of your life

Look up and appreciate the beauty of the sky

Keep a self-care/self-love journal

If you have a partner, set aside time to do something special with them

Stand up for family members blood or otherwise (keep in mind they might be in the wrong)

Engage in activities you're passionate about

Give yourself compliments; wear things that make you feel attractive or powerful

Make a list of things you enjoyed throughout your day; little things matter just as much

Remember that rest is productive; take breaks when you need them

Start a skin/body care routine

Go cloud-watching or star-gazing

Collecting different souvenirs or other objects from different places

Take care of your body physically to the best of your ability (shower, eat well, get a good amount of sleep, etc.)

Collect rocks and minerals you like (from areas you're allowed to)

Take your medications, if any; take medications as needed

I may add more to this list in the future. Suggestions are always appreciated.

Link to the Kemetic Subtle Worship Masterpost

[uncleeater]

Keeping Warm - LN4 🍋 (1/12)

Warnings: Smut under the cut, some cursing, lando being a perv, fem!pronouns, fem!anatomy

A/N: My first ever fic! i hope yall like it, gimme some feedback on what to improov upon in the comments pls :3

Word Count: 882

It was -5°C outside, cold covering everything it could, inconsiderate of broken heaters and electricity-dependent 20 year olds. So, you and Lando, pretty much. "Dammit, my phones almost dead." Lando softly whines, phone in hand as he walked out of the bedroom, "You wouldn't happen to have a spare power bank, would you?" The snow storm had blown out all the power for the city, leaving everything electronic screwed until the storm blew over. This included phones, chargers, microwaves, ovens, fridges, and the such.

You glance up from your book, watching your boyfriend flop down onto the bed in front of you. "No dice. My turn for a question: Have you found any extra blankets?"

He moves his head to the side, jokingly glaring at you. "Oh, because I'm your little slave that's only here to provide warmth. I forgot, sorry."

It's your turn to glare. You loved your boyfriend, but he was a bit dramatic at times. Times = always. "Slut is the preferred term, but That works too."

"....Wellllllll..." Lando looks at you with an evil grin, "What if your slut had a new way to keep you warm?"

"But my book!" You groan as it's snatched from your hands

"C'mon, baby," Lando coaxed, sliding off of the couch and sitting down in front of you, "not even for your poor, sad, lonely, desperate, hopeless boyfriend?"

"Wow, not dramatic at all" You retort, putting your computer to the side and looking down at him

"Cmon. the heaters broken, we don't have a fire place, and we've already used all the blankets. Name a better way to keep warm."

Lando grab your knees, spreading them apart and kissing up your thighs. His eyes flick up to yours, clouded with lust as he gets closer to your core.

"Lan." You hum softly

"Yeah?" He muses in return, peppering kisses up and down your thighs, teasingly switching to the other each time he gets close to your core. He knew what he was doing, and was planning on milking it for as long as possible.

"...If, and that's a strong if, I let you get what you want, then do you promise to let me do my work later?" You say quietly, looking down at the beautiful boy between your thighs

"Mhm...promise baby, I promise..." Lando's words are slurred slightly, his lips prioritizing kisses more than words at the moment

You shift on the couch slightly, hooking your thumbs under your waistband. Lando looks up at you, moving a hand from your thigh to grab onto your shorts. he slides his fingers around next to yours, tugging your shorts and panties down to your knees. His eyes roam over the newly exposed skin, hands unhooking your bottom layers from around your leg.

"You okay with this?" Lando checks with you, looking up at you

"Yes, I am. You?" You smile down at him

"More ready than I've ever been." He breathes, his hands moving your thighs apart. His lips ghost against your thighs, rushing to your core. He briefly hesitates before his tongue slowly licks up and down your cunt a few times. His lips wrap around your clit, rolling it in his mouth gently.

"Ah..." You gasp, one of your thighs lifting up in attempt to move your cunt closer to Lando. His hand reaches up and grabs it, using it to pull you against him. Your back was against the couch, legs thrown over Lando's shoulders. Your wet cunt was perfectly level with his face as he sat on the floor, right in front of the couch.

He detaches his lips from you, letting go of one of your thighs. He brings his hand up to his mouth, licking two fingers wet. He slides his fingers up and down your folds, spreading the spit-and-slick mixture around. Once he deems you wet enough, he slips two fingers into your heat.

"Oh, fuck!" You cry out, back arching at the new sensation. Lando grins, tongue going back to thrashing around your clit. As he makes out with your cunt, his free hand grips your thigh and pulls it against him to stop you from slipping away.

He loved you like this. He loved you always, but this was a special side of you that was just for him. Only he could make you feel this way and that was practically enough for him to cum on the spot. Or make you cum on the spot.

His index finger pulls out, giving just enough room for his tongue to replace it. His tongue undulates inside you as his middle finger pumps in and out. His eyes dreamily close as feels his tongue begin to be constricted. Realizing that you were about to cum, he gives a few last good sucks to your cunt.

With a final wave of pleasure, you sink into your orgasm. Heat from your core presses down and then explodes all over your body. You become numb to everything except how Lando drinks up your soul.

As the waves die down, you become aware of everything around you. Lando moves over to the side of you, crossing his arms underneath his head as it lays on the sofa cushion on your right. He grins, looking you up and down.

"Warm enough now?"

[lazeecomet]

The Story of KLogs: What happens when an Mechanical Engineer codes

Since i no longer work at Wearhouse Automation Startup (WAS for short) and havnt for many years i feel as though i should recount the tale of the most bonkers program i ever wrote, but we need to establish some background

WAS has its HQ very far away from the big customer site and i worked as a Field Service Engineer (FSE) on site. so i learned early on that if a problem needed to be solved fast, WE had to do it. we never got many updates on what was coming down the pipeline for us or what issues were being worked on. this made us very independent

As such, we got good at reading the robot logs ourselves. it took too much time to send the logs off to HQ for analysis and get back what the problem was. we can read. now GETTING the logs is another thing.

the early robots we cut our teeth on used 2.4 gHz wifi to communicate with FSE's so dumping the logs was as simple as pushing a button in a little application and it would spit out a txt file

later on our robots were upgraded to use a 2.4 mHz xbee radio to communicate with us. which was FUCKING SLOW. and log dumping became a much more tedious process. you had to connect, go to logging mode, and then the robot would vomit all the logs in the past 2 min OR the entirety of its memory bank (only 2 options) into a terminal window. you would then save the terminal window and open it in a text editor to read them. it could take up to 5 min to dump the entire log file and if you didnt dump fast enough, the ACK messages from the control server would fill up the logs and erase the error as the memory overwrote itself.

this missing logs problem was a Big Deal for software who now weren't getting every log from every error so a NEW method of saving logs was devised: the robot would just vomit the log data in real time over a DIFFERENT radio and we would save it to a KQL server. Thanks Daddy Microsoft.

now whats KQL you may be asking. why, its Microsofts very own SQL clone! its Kusto Query Language. never mind that the system uses a SQL database for daily operations. lets use this proprietary Microsoft thing because they are paying us

so yay, problem solved. we now never miss the logs. so how do we read them if they are split up line by line in a database? why with a query of course!

select * from tbLogs where RobotUID = [64CharLongString] and timestamp > [UnixTimeCode]

if this makes no sense to you, CONGRATULATIONS! you found the problem with this setup. Most FSE's were BAD at SQL which meant they didnt read logs anymore. If you do understand what the query is, CONGRATULATIONS! you see why this is Very Stupid.

You could not search by robot name. each robot had some arbitrarily assigned 64 character long string as an identifier and the timestamps were not set to local time. so you had run a lookup query to find the right name and do some time zone math to figure out what part of the logs to read. oh yeah and you had to download KQL to view them. so now we had both SQL and KQL on our computers

NOBODY in the field like this.

But Daddy Microsoft comes to the rescue

see we didnt JUST get KQL with part of that deal. we got the entire Microsoft cloud suite. and some people (like me) had been automating emails and stuff with Power Automate

This is Microsoft Power Automate. its Microsoft's version of Scratch but it has hooks into everything Microsoft. SharePoint, Teams, Outlook, Excel, it can integrate with all of it. i had been using it to send an email once a day with a list of all the robots in maintenance.

this gave me an idea

and i checked

and Power Automate had hooks for KQL

KLogs is actually short for Kusto Logs

I did not know how to program in Power Automate but damn it anything is better then writing KQL queries. so i got to work. and about 2 months later i had a BEHEMOTH of a Power Automate program. it lagged the webpage and many times when i tried to edit something my changes wouldn't take and i would have to click in very specific ways to ensure none of my variables were getting nuked. i dont think this was the intended purpose of Power Automate but this is what it did

the KLogger would watch a list of Teams chats and when someone typed "klogs" or pasted a copy of an ERROR mesage, it would spring into action.

it extracted the robot name from the message and timestamp from teams

it would lookup the name in the database to find the 64 long string UID and the location that robot was assigned too

it would reply to the message in teams saying it found a robot name and was getting logs

it would run a KQL query for the database and get the control system logs then export then into a CSV

it would save the CSV with the a .xls extension into a folder in ShairPoint (it would make a new folder for each day and location if it didnt have one already)

it would send ANOTHER message in teams with a LINK to the file in SharePoint

it would then enter a loop and scour the robot logs looking for the keyword ESTOP to find the error. (it did this because Kusto was SLOWER then the xbee radio and had up to a 10 min delay on syncing)

if it found the error, it would adjust its start and end timestamps to capture it and export the robot logs book-ended from the event by ~ 1 min. if it didnt, it would use the timestamp from when it was triggered +/- 5 min

it saved THOSE logs to SharePoint the same way as before

it would send ANOTHER message in teams with a link to the files

it would then check if the error was 1 of 3 very specific type of error with the camera. if it was it extracted the base64 jpg image saved in KQL as a byte array, do the math to convert it, and save that as a jpg in SharePoint (and link it of course)

and then it would terminate. and if it encountered an error anywhere in all of this, i had logic where it would spit back an error message in Teams as plaintext explaining what step failed and the program would close gracefully

I deployed it without asking anyone at one of the sites that was struggling. i just pointed it at their chat and turned it on. it had a bit of a rocky start (spammed chat) but man did the FSE's LOVE IT.

about 6 months later software deployed their answer to reading the logs: a webpage that acted as a nice GUI to the KQL database. much better then an CSV file

it still needed you to scroll though a big drop-down of robot names and enter a timestamp, but i noticed something. all that did was just change part of the URL and refresh the webpage

SO I MADE KLOGS 2 AND HAD IT GENERATE THE URL FOR YOU AND REPLY TO YOUR MESSAGE WITH IT. (it also still did the control server and jpg stuff). Theres a non-zero chance that klogs was still in use long after i left that job

now i dont recommend anyone use power automate like this. its clunky and weird. i had to make a variable called "Carrage Return" which was a blank text box that i pressed enter one time in because it was incapable of understanding /n or generating a new line in any capacity OTHER then this (thanks support forum).

im also sure this probably is giving the actual programmer people anxiety. imagine working at a company and then some rando you've never seen but only heard about as "the FSE whos really good at root causing stuff", in a department that does not do any coding, managed to, in their spare time, build and release and entire workflow piggybacking on your work without any oversight, code review, or permission.....and everyone liked it

[kitsune-pop]

Hazy Daze

CW: casual vore, weed, digestion

Hazel sat down on her living room floor, leaning against the couch. It was her day off, and she was gonna make it a good one, starting with some smoke, snacks and games. She carefully packed a bowl for her trusty Kirby bong, lit it up and popped open a box of cheese snacks to nibble on while she booted up her Wii for Mario Kart. Today was gonna be a good day.

0o0

Hazel was having a great time. Her living room was sufficiently cloudy, she was beating the computer drivers within an inch of their lives and she was relaxed enough that even the occasional Blue Shell didn't bother her (or the following Red Shell, or Green Shell, or Star…). Even so, she was still hungry. Two hours into the day and she'd already eaten all the snacks.

She shook her bangs out of her eyes as she crossed the finish again, dirty blonde hair falling right back into her face as she reached for her phone. She had told herself she wasn't going to order anything, but her tummy had started grumbling at her–which she absentmindedly rubbed through her tank top as she looked at her delivery options. Pizza was always a good choice, plus it wasn't too expensive. She cracked a grin when a popup of "Still hungry? Order the delivery person for dinner too! Take advantage of our Delivery Delivery deal today!" showed up on the app.

"Not this time, capitalism. I'm watching my bank account today." Hazel giggled a bit, ordering her pizza and packing a tad more in her Kirbong. It shouldn't take more than half an hour for her pizza to get here, and she wanted to have the perfect amount of munchies by the time it got delivered.

0o0

After the third time of falling off the track on Maple Treeway, Hazel paused her game to laugh at herself. The pot was definitely affecting her now. She guessed after a few hours of smoking even someone with her tolerance would start to feel it. Polite knocking grabbed her attention and she got to her feet, throwing a pair of pajama pants on before she answered the door.

A cute girl stood on her dingy welcome mat, complete with a hat starring a pizza logo and a single pizza box balanced in her hands. She barely came up to Hazel's chin, but at 193 cm most girls were shorter than her anyways.

The delivery girl looked up at Hazel with a brilliant smile, beaming up at her. "Thank you for choosing Happy Helper's Pizzeria! I hope you enjoy your order!"

Hazel blinked slowly, brain struggling to break through the fog before she reached for her pizza. "Thanks, I'm starving." Her belly gave an audible grumble, which she tried to stifle by placing a hand on her midsection.

The smaller girl glanced down shyly before looking back up at Hazel's face. "It sure sounds like it! Good thing you ordered the special!" She reached up and took off her hat–straight dark hair dropping to just above her shoulders–before moving to unbutton her work uniform, still smiling all the way.

Hazel quickly raised a hand to stop the delivery girl (although not before giving her a quick once-over), lifting the pizza box in one hand over her head before speaking up. "Uh, I only ordered the pizza. No offense." The shorter girl looked up at Hazel before pointing at the pizza in her hand.

"On your order it says you upgraded for Delivery Delivery though."

Confused now, Hazel looked at her receipt to see, yup, one pizza and one Delivery Delivery special. She quickly grabbed her phone, opened the app and looked at her orders. As she did, the clouds in her head parted just enough for her to remember opening the app shortly after placing the order and adding the deal to her delivery. Looks like the munchies took another victory on her bank account.

She shrugged, pocketing her phone and opening her door up for the delivery girl to walk in. "Hey, I won't turn down a meal like you! Especially after I already spent the money…"

The girl laughed, her smile not as brilliant as before but much more genuine. "Pretty sure we've all made bad decisions when we're high." She finished unbuttoning her top, tossing it on the floor before she reached down to untie her shoes, giving Hazel a fantastic view of her next meal's assets.

A plump ass, juicy thighs, smooth skin, this was someone who took good care of themselves and probably knew they weren't gonna last long around predators. As she kicked off her shoes and socks she turned around, showing off a small muffin top and perky boobs. Catching Hazel staring she laughed and winked at the tall pred before dropping her pants and panties in one movement, stepping out of the pool of clothes and smiling salaciously.

"So, how do you want me?" The girl posed a little bit, showing off for Hazel as the tall girl put her long forgotten pizza on the counter. The pred walked forward, grabbed the girl's shoulders and quickly stuffed her head into her mouth, moaning at the taste of natural shampoo (coconut?) flooding her mouth.

She quickly worked her way down, gulping down her neck and shoulders, giving some extra attention to her prey's tasty tits. She felt the girl jerk in surprise before feeling soft hands kneading her stomach, giving gentle rubs and pinches. Wasting no time Hazel lurched forward, relaxing her muscles and stuffing the girl into her throat down to her belly button. Now for the annoying part.

Hazel leaned back, picking her prey up off the ground and holding the young girl above her head. The experienced pred stepped back, leaning against her counter before beginning to gulp her meal down in earnest, gravity helping deliver the girl into her stomach. With a few powerful swallows Hazel quickly had the girl tucked away in her belly, tank top riding up and pajama pants pushing down under the dome of overstuffed gut.

Hazel stood there, panting to herself as her meal shifted into a more comfortable position inside her. Already she felt her stomach groaning and squeezing around her meal, and she grabbed her pizza before waddling over to her couch and plopping down on it. The pred moaned at how full she felt, rubbing her stretched skin as she felt her passenger start to play with herself even as her belly did its best to digest her.

Hazel started to get hard listening to the muffled pants and moans coming from her tummy. Unable to think of an excuse not to, the buck toothed pred reached under her stomach and into her pants, grabbing her cock and beginning to rub one out. With one hand in her pants and another rubbing the taut skin of her belly Hazel was quickly bringing herself to orgasm. The feeling of a stuffed, bloated belly was made even sweeter with the gasps and moans coming from within, the noises starting to get drowned out by the grumbling of the organ itself. She could feel every twitch and movement from her prey inside her, and could tell when the smaller girl came, her stomach deforming slightly as the girl arched her back, screaming in pleasure before relaxing.

Of course, relaxing just meant Hazel's body won the little war of attrition they had between them. The muscles quickly clenched and squeezed the girl within her into a tight ball, and a final powerful belch signaled the last of the air being forced out. Hazel came hard as she burped, panting and moaning as she made a mess of her pants. She leaned back against her couch, breathing hard for a minute before glancing at her Kirbong, a smile on her lips. She still had the whole rest of the day to herself, didn't she?

0o0

Hazel jerked awake at a loud bang, followed by some choice cursing. "Seriously, Hazel?! What the fuck! We were supposed to go to the movies tonight!"

The tall pred looked up at her friend Trixie. The short girl was fuming, red faced and glaring. Hazel looked around her living room, noting the empty pizza box and her character idling in front of a wall in her game, the race long over. She rubbed her head before belching, putting a hand on the much smaller bulge in her middle.

"Sorry, I didn't think I was gonna fall asleep." She noted Trixie's flushed face and the way she completely refused to look at her bloated belly. Grinning, she leaned forward, her stomach gurgling as another burp popped out of her mouth. "But that doesn't mean we can't find something to do here."

[galaxygolfergirl]

Watcher's Expenses

I didn't major in accounting: I took three classes and it grinded my brain to a fine powder. However, after graduating with a business admin degree, being a former eager fan of their videos, and from a cursory glance over their socials, there's a lot to consider in their spending behavior that really could start racking up costs. Some of these things we've already noticed, but there are other things I'd like to highlight, and I'll try to break it down into the different categories of accounting expenses (if I get something wrong, let me know. I was more concentrated in marketing 🤷‍♀️). I'm not going to hypothesize numbers either, as that would take out more time than I'm willing to afford-- you can assume how much everything costs. Anyways, here's my attempt at being a layman forensic accountant:

Note: All of this is assuming they're operating above board and not engaging in any illegal practices such as money laundering, tax evasion, not paying rent, etc.

Operating Expenses

Payroll: 25+ staff salaries and insurance

Overhead Expenses

CEO/founder salaries

Office space leasing or rent (In L.A, one of the most expensive cities in the US)

Utilities (water, electricity, heating, sanitation, etc.)

Insurance

Advertising Costs

Telephone & Internet service

Cloud Storage or mainframe

Office equipment (furniture, computers, printers, etc.)

Office supplies (paper, pens, printer ink, etc.)

Marketing costs (Social media marketing on Instagram, Youtube, SEO for search engines, Twitter, etc. Designing merchandise and posters, art, etc. )

Human Resources (not sure how equipped they are)

Accounting fees

Property taxes

Legal fees

Licensing fees

Website maintenance (For Watchertv.com, Watcherstuff.com, & Watcherentertainment.com)

Expenses regarding merchandising (whoever they contract or outsource for that)

Inventory costs

Potentially maintenance of company vehicles

Subsequent gas mileage for road trips

Depreciation (pertains to tangible assets like buildings and equipment)

Amortization (intangible assets such as patents and trademarks)

Overhead Travel and Entertainment Costs (I think one of the biggest culprits, evident in their videos and posts)

The travel expenses (flights, train trips, rental cars, etc. For main team and scouts)

Hotel expenses for 7-8 people at least, or potentially more

Breakfasts, lunches and dinners with the crew (whether that's fully on their dime or not, I don't know; Ryan stated they like to cover that for the most part)

Recreational activities (vacation destinations, amusement parks, sporting activities etc.)

The location fees

Extraneous Overhead costs (not sure exactly where these fall under, but another culprit, evident in videos and posts)

Paying for guest appearances

Expensive filming & recording equipment (Cameras, sound equipment, editing software subscriptions, etc.)

The overelaborate sets for Ghost files, Mystery Files, Puppet History, Podcasts etc. (Set dressing: Vintage memorabilia, antiquated tech, vintage furniture, props, etc.)

Kitchen & Cooking supplies/equipment

Office food supply; expensive food and drink purchases for videos

Novelty items or miscellaneous purchases (ex. Ghost hunting equipment, outfits, toys, etc.)

Non-Operating Expenses

These are those expenses that cannot be linked back to operating revenue. One of the most common examples of non-operating expenses is interest expense. This is because while interest is the cost of borrowing money from a creditor or a bank, they are not generating any operating income. This makes interest payments a part of non-operating expenses.

Financial Expenses

Potential loan payments, borrowing from creditors or lenders, bank loans, etc.

Variable Expenses

Hiring a large amount of freelancers, overtime expenditure, commissions, etc.

PR consultations (Not sure if they had this before the scandal)

Extraordinary Expenses

Expenses incurred outside your company’s regular business activities and during a large one-time event or transactions. For example, selling land, disposal of a significant asset, laying off of your employees, unexpected machine repairing or replacement, etc.

Accrued Expenses

When your business has incurred an expense but not yet paid for it.

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

(If there's anything else I'm missing, please feel free to add or correct things)

To a novice or a young entrepreneur, this can be very intimidating if you don't have the education or the support to manage it properly. I know it intimidates the hell out of me and I'm still having to fill in the gaps (again, if I've mislabeled or gotten anything wrong here, please let me know). For the artistic or creative entrepreneur, it can be even harder to reconcile the extent of your creative passions with your ability to operate and scale your business at a sustainable rate. That can lead to irresponsible, selfish, and impulsive decisions that could irreparably harm your brand, which is a whole other beast of its own.

My guess at this point is that their overhead and operation expenses are woefully mismanaged; they've made way too many extraneous purchases, and that they had too much confidence in their audience of formerly 2.93 million to make up for the expenses they failed to cover.

It almost seems as if their internal logic was, "If we make more money, we can keep living the expensive lifestyle that we want and make whatever we want without anyone telling us we can't, and we want to do it NOW, sooner rather than later because we don't want wait and compromise our vision." But as you can see, the reality of fulfilling those ambitions is already compromised by the responsibility of running a business.

And I wrote this in another post here, but I'll state it again: Running a business means you need to be educated on how a business can successfully and efficiently operate. Accounting, marketing, social media marketing, public relations, production, etc; these resources and internet of things is available and at your disposal. If they had invested more time in educating themselves on those aspects and not made this decision based on artistic passion (and/or greed), they would have not gotten the response they got.

Being a graphic designer, I know the creative/passionate side of things but I also got a degree/got educated in business because I wanted to understand how to start a company and run it successfully. If they’re having trouble handling the responsibility of doing that, managing production costs, managing overhead expenses, and especially with compensating their 25+ employees, then they should hire professionals that are sympathetic to their creative interests, but have the education and experience to reign in bad decisions like these.

Anyways, thanks for coming to my TedTalk. What a shitshow this has been.

[thegildedbee]

Calm/Hobby: May 7 & 8 Prompts from @calaisreno

As his Air Baltic flight from Oslo begins its descent into Tallinn, Sherlock stares distractedly out the window at the thinning layer of clouds, and pushes back at the whisper of bleakness that it it is the Estonian coastline coming into view, not the South East shores of England. He girds himself with stoicism as he feels a tendril of melancholy begin to unfurl at the fact that Sherlock Holmes no longer exists, now that Herr Lukas Sigerson has taken his place.

He knows that this new identity will only be the first of many.

Sigerson has brown eyes, and wears dark brown tortoiseshell glasses; his dark hair is beginning to have a salt and pepper cast to it, his lower face is covered by stubble. His loose-limbed gait is relaxed, and there's a remnant of a tendency to stutter when he speaks. Hidden from view are the still-healing cracked ribs on the right side of his torso, the damaged ligaments of his right knee, and the fact that the ossicular chain within his right ear bears traces of having been successfully reconstructed, the surgical repair restoring the hearing he had lost after the trauma to his skull. 

When Sherlock had been ready to leave the UK to begin to grapple with Moriarty’s extant remains -- the people and infrastructure and schemes dispersed across the globe -- it had been hard to determine what to do first and where and why. Of the three assassins in London on the day of his fall, the one assigned to Mrs. Hudson – a thuggish fellow more noteworthy for his brawn than any brains – had been rolled up by Mycroft’s people even before Sherlock had been delivered to the morgue. The one assigned to Lestrade had been somewhat harder to ferret out, but as Sherlock began piecing together what details he could collect during his recuperation, he had determined that he was a functionary who had infiltrated the Met – and the resolution of that criminal had also been left to Mycroftian minions. 

But John’s sniper was of a different cast altogether, an experienced professional who had made no mistakes and vanished like vapor. Sherlock believed that individual had been more than a freelance hire -– Mrs. Hudson and Lestrade had been brought into the mix of those in danger of losing their lives because every action of Moriarty’s was as theatrical and excessive as it was insane: ransoming John’s life had always been the true motive. John’s sniper would have been especially close to Moriarty, and likely a member of the upper echelon of his criminal syndicate. Sherlock suspected that acquiring the information that would allow him to destroy this person was going to be an exceedingly difficult proposition.

He needed information, and Sherlock had finally decided that the place to begin was with Estonia, the tiny nation that had regained its independence from Soviet occupation in 1991, and that had chosen to bypass the encumbering drag of the impoverished infrastructure bequeathed from the Soviets, by abandoning it. Estonia had instead risked its future by constructing an economy based on the latest digital technologies, leapfrogging more advanced nations as it became a cyber-powered incubator of innovation, and one of the most wired countries in the world. Sherlock had no doubt that Moriarty would have been intent on turning this transformation to his own advantage; he would have found the opportunity irresistible.

Moriarty’s claim to have a code that could take over any computer was false, but even so Sherlock suspected that this fabulation pointed at something all too real: investments by Moriarity in the dark web, and in the recruitment of cadres of hackers to be manipulated into hijacking computer networks. In April and May of 2007, Estonia had been besieged for three weeks by waves of cyberattacks that had crippled its digital public and private sectors, from government entities such as the foreign and defense ministries, to banks, corporate enterprises, and media outlets. Estonia had traced the attacks to actors within Moldova’s breakaway state of Transnistria, a long narrow geographic entity bordering Ukraine that displayed the Soviet Communist hammer-and-sickle on its flag and coat of arms. Sherlock suspected that these cyberterrorist actors were performing roles under Moriarty’s direction, and that he would find information from within Estonia that would point to the far-flung nodes of his enemy’s wretched empire. 

With their impending arrival in Tallinn, the melancholy that had emerged begins to become more deeply rooted, and Sherlock’s mind's eye paints pictures of what lies in the deep of the sea passage below, and across the sea miles beyond Britain’s and Europe’s contours – fragments of exploded ordnance littering the ocean floor, where bodies entombed in submarines and battleships are testament to the destructive capabilities of bands of people bent on glory and riches and domination.

His meandering thoughts catch hold of a memory in the viewing room of his mind palace, the one that records the evenings when John had chosen a film to share as they sat propped up together on the sofa in the darkness. It focused on the US Army Air Force unit that flew missions from East Anglia in World War II, and the appointment of a new commanding officer tasked with reversing the underperformance of the bombing teams. 

He had been riveted by the harsh speech the uncompromising commander delivers to the group of pilots, who simmer with resentment at his theory that part of their problems lie with their playing it safe. He tells them that while fear is to be expected, the only choice they have is to stop worrying about the fear, and about themselves. He can still feel the chill of premonition when he heard the figure on the screen bite out his message: “We’re in a war – a shooting war. We’ve got to fight. And some of us have got to die." But it was the follow-on command that is engraved in his mind beyond the memory palace, visible in the shadow of all else he is thinking about: "Stop making plans. Forget about going home. Consider yourselves already dead. After that, it won’t be so tough.” And so, too, was his bombing run a flight into the unknown, against unseen enemies, the actions of a self-created ghost who must reckon that he truly inhabits the underworld from this point on.

Sherlock closes his eyes and continues work on the new spaces that he has been constructing in his mind palace, an effort that never fails to bring him calm, even when other emotions are in play. These new rooms are cloisters and refectories based on the architecture of a thirteenth-century monastery, in deference to Tallinn’s remarkable preservation of the medieval city within its precincts, and he has reserved this adjacent building for whatever part Eastern Europe will play in his sojourns. It is complicated artistry, and he is the last one to rise and exit the airplane.

As Herr Sigerson makes his way toward the front of the compact airport, he adjusts the rucksack on his shoulder, and tugs the bottom of his jumper to straighten it. As a standard issue Norwegian, he is, of course, kitted out in knitted wool, although the garment he wears is only a single hue; the vividly colored patterns favored by so many of the inhabitants of his improvised homeland hurt both his eyesight and his sense of fashion. Sherlock smiles at the thought that John would be amused, were he to see his couture, and consider it revenge for Sherlock’s hobby of “inadvertently” wreaking havoc on the least attractive of John’s jumpers.

Sherlock's half-zip pullover is a dark navy blue with a beautiful sheen, and it is not completely devoid of decoration – it is just that the design is woven into the single color, slightly raised, subdued in its visibility. On the back is the Norse symbol of the vegvisir, which was said to allow its possessor to always find the right path, no matter how turbulent the environment might be. Next to the wayfinding icon is a letter from the ancient runic alphabet said to summon good luck. No doubt John would also be amused at the fact that his relentlessly rational friend is carrying these mystical totems on his body. Although, perhaps not, were he to know of the future toward which Sherlock has now committed himself. ........................................................ @calaisreno @totallysilvergirl @friday411 @peanitbear @original-welovethebeekeeper rest of the @s in the tags, which will work for communication purposes, I hope? just say the word if you want to be untagged or tagged xoxoxo

[amessageonthewind]

PC Storage System

The Pokémon Storage System was invented by Bill in 1995 with Lanette as a co-developer of the software, designed for people to be able to store more than six Pokémon in a global database where their Pokémon could be converted into raw data and safely kept somewhere they could be easily accessed through interacting with a PC or an otherwise capable link in order to access the database. It is capable of storing both Pokémon kept in Poké Balls and Pokémon eggs in their natural states.

The Pokémon Storage System is managed my multiple different people globally in order to troubleshoot, improve, and maintain it. Bill maintains it in Kanto and Johto.

Celio maintains it in the Sevii Islands and also runs the Pokémon Network Centre on One Island which is responsible for providing a method of facilitating global trading. He also helped develop the Global Terminal in Johto and Sinnoh for this same purpose.

Lanette maintains it in Hoenn and is primarily in charge of the user interface and enabling personal Trainer customization of the Box System with wallpapers and giving Trainers the ability to change the names of boxes and the like as well as streamlining the process and making the interface more user-friendly.

Bebe maintains it in Sinnoh and actually built it from scratch as a computer technician based on the previous designs of the system by Bill and Lanette, earning their respect, and developing a way to make it so that the system can be accessed by Trainers from anywhere without the need to access a PC.

Amanita maintains it in mainland Unova and developed it based on the previous designs of Bill, Lanette, and Bebe, introducing a new feature of a Battle Box where Trainers can store a team they use specifically for battling and making it so that Trainers start out with eight boxes available to them and that each time each box is storing at least one Pokémon, the capacity will increase by another eight boxes and then by another eight boxes once the same conditions are met again, making the total capacity of Unova’s PC Storage System seven-hundred-and-twenty Pokémon per Trainer.

Cassius maintains it in Kalos and despite being a capable computer technician, he has made no significant contributions to the operations or design of the PC Storage System. In fact, his sole role is keeping it maintained and was personally tasked by Bill himself to take on that role.

Molayne maintains it in Alola and runs the Hokulani Observatory and, like Cassius, makes no significant contributions to the operations or design of the PC Storage System and simply maintains it.

Brigette (Lanette’s older sister) and Grand Oak (relation to Professor Samuel Oak unclear) manage the PC Storage System everywhere else and in every other capacity, typically on a more global scale. They maintain a more centralized PC Storage System that acts as the bridge between all the others and the network that facilitates global trading. Brigette is credited with upgrading the Pokémon Storage System with the ability to hold fifteen-hundred Pokémon per Trainer, as well as the ability to select and move multiple Pokémon at once. She is also the developer of the Bank System, which acts as an online cloud where Pokémon can be transferred if their Trainers have to move regions and need to access them from the local PC Storage System in their target region and other similar purposes. Grand Oak, however, is more interested in completing a comprehensive National Pokédex by collecting the data from Pokédex holders all over the globe into one central database.

Taglist:

@earth-shaker / @little-miss-selfships / @xelyn-craft / @sarahs-malewives / @brahms-and-lances-wife

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@ashes-of-a-yume / @cherry-bomb-ships / @kiawren / @kingofdorkville / @bugsband

Let me know if you'd like to be added or removed from my taglist :3

[mariacallous]

Dozens of Consumer Finance Protection Bureau employees were terminated on Tuesday evening, sources tell WIRED.

The cuts largely targeted contractors and so-called probationary employees, workers who have served less than two years at the agency. Sources tell WIRED that the CFPB’s enforcement division was hit hard, but it’s unclear how many employees were let go.

Workers were informed that they had been fired with a frenetic email delivered around 9pm ET on Tuesday night. An evidently failed mail merge meant that some affected employees were addressed as [EmployeeFirstName][EmployeeLastName], [Job Title], [Division].

“This is to provide notification that I am removing you from your position of [Job Title] and federal service consistent with the above references,” the email from acting chief human capital officer Adam Martinez says. “Unfortunately, the Agency finds that that [sic] you are not fit for continued employment because your ability, knowledge and skills do not fit the Agency’s current needs.”

The firings follow a tumultuous few days at CFPB. On Friday, staff for Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency shut down a portion of the agency’s homepage after a day of struggling to obtain access to the CMS and other systems. WIRED reported last week that three DOGE staffers, including Gavin Kliger and Nikhil Rajpal were given access to CFPB’s HR, procurement, and financial infrastructure. The DOGE workers were later granted access to all of the agency’s systems on Friday, Bloomberg reported this week, including bank examination and enforcement records.

Later on Friday evening, Russell Vought—Trump’s newly confirmed director of the Office of Management and Budget—took over as the acting administrator for CFPB late Friday evening, as first reported by The Wall Street Journal. Soon after, DOGE staff began sending out email requests asking CFPB managers to give Kliger additional access to agency systems, including physical access control system, payroll processing systems, and the ability to edit the CFPB’s website, sources tell WIRED.

Just before 10:30pm ET on Friday, sources say someone who appeared to have administrative privileges, accessed the agency server using Secure Shell (SSH), a protocol that allows remote control of a computer over a network. Bypassing the content management system, they [unpublished] the homepage file, causing a portion of the CFPB homepage to display a “404: Page not found”, notice typical of a website that has been deleted or is otherwise missing. The remainder of the site was functional, including submission forms for industry whistleblowers and consumer complaints.

Around 11pm on Friday, the CFPB’s X account disappeared and shortly after, according to a CFPB staffer, DOGE left the building.

CFPB sources who spoke to WIRED described being blindsided by the DOGE staffers. "They said they would follow protocol but repeatedly did not," one says, noting that the level of access these staffers have could allow them to lock others out of the building, take down the website, and “obstruct the bureau’s ability to carry out its mandate.”

One source at CFPB on Friday says they saw two young DOGE staffers wandering through the halls of the building trying to open doors.

“DOGE pulled a Darth Vader in cloud city where they came in promising to respect our rules and ask for read access and then tonight [Friday] at 6 they took a heel turn and demanded website access,” another CFPB source told WIRED at the time.

In a pair of emails sent Saturday and Monday, Vought effectively ordered all work at the agency to stop, freezing various enforcement efforts and work on regulations that would affect payment programs run by Big Tech companies.

The CFPB has long been a target of both Elon Musk and conservatives more broadly; the Project 2025 chapter on financial regulatory agencies describes it as “a highly politicized, damaging, and utterly unaccountable federal agency” and calls to have it abolished. Musk wrote “RIP CFPB” with a gravestone emoji in an X post Friday afternoon. Last November, he posted “Delete CFPB.” There are around 1,700 employees in total at the agency.

The CFPB was established by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, a sweeping piece of legislation that imposed significant regulatory reform in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Its remit is to protect consumers from unfair or deceptive financial practices, and the agency claims to be responsible for $19.7 billion in consumer relief since its inception, as well as $5 billion in civil penalties.

Some of those wins have come against payment processors including Block, which was ordered to pay a total of $175 million in penalties last month for allegedly failing to sufficiently protect users of its Cash App from fraud. CFPB also has an active lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo for similar alleged failures on their shared payment app Zelle. Elon Musk will soon be in the peer-to-peer payments business as well, after X entered a partnership with Visa in late January.