Hi Everyone,
25, Male, 170lbs, 5ft 11in, healthy
I have a boney point on the top of my shoulder (link in comments). I think this has occurred from bench pressing, as when I perform that motion it is painful (not intensely) and I can feel pressure on my collarbone.
I have full motion of my shoulder with just a little pain. I have an appointment with my physio but not until 16th June.
Does anyone know what this could be? I was thinking maybe an AC sprain?

Problem

My new second-hand thinkpad T480 has a serious internal battery malfunction. Simply put, the internal battery doesn't charge, and her presence prevents the external one from charging. When unplugged from the motherboard, the external battery does charge.
It's an amazing machine otherwise, and I really need to be a daily driver with more than 1 hour of battery.
All help is appreciated, and I will provide any relevant screenshots via igmur if someone is so kind as to help me with their experience or knowledge, as I'm not at all knowledgable in PC repairs. I just followed a bunch of posts and online guides. All relevant details are listed here:

Troubleshooting

These are some of the steps I have already taken: - I updated the bios to the last 2023 release (1.47). - Downloaded the battery, thunderbolt and power management drivers from lenovo´s website. - I generated battery reports via powershell at several points. The internal battery seems to be in a bad shape (maybe 30% of his original capacity) but still only displays 3% charge. Without the external battery or AC, the PC won't turn up at all. - Lenovo's Vantage (official program for windows) indicates an error when doing a hardware check, but no further details are given and I couldn't seem to find any relevant setting. - I have reset the battery several times by inserting a pin in the designated spot and pressing for 30s+ seconds. - Disconnected the internal battery several times, every time disconnecting it via bios before opening the PC. - All BIOS settings are set to default.

Replacement

Supposing it was a hardware problem, yesterday I went ahead and found a replacement internal battery in a local store for 45€. This one doesn't even get recognized on windows, which spontaneously displays a warning that no internal battery is detected. This time, the battery report doesn't seem to detect the new battery. At all.
Supposing it to be a software issue, I went ahead and dual booted Ubuntu, which I did on my previous PC and wanted to do anyway. Figured it may just be windows fault. However, although linux seemed to acknowledge the battery, it only displayed it as having 1 mAh, so it doesn't work either.

Ah, Eurovision season. The time of hype, music, unity – and a shit ton of drama. This year’s winner is maybe one of the most controversial we’ve ever had, and that’s saying something considering we've had broadcasters straight up end a broadcast because they didn't like the winner (don't ask).
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start from the basics:

What is Eurovision?

Eurovision (or ESC) is an annual song contest originating from Europe, organized by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). It’s been held without fail since 1951 aside from 2020, when it was cancelled for truly mysterious reasons. (COVID, guys, it was COVID). Originally incorporating only European countries, the contest has grown in its scope since its early days, nowadays having almost 40 countries participating (including some decisively non-European countries like Israel and Australia) and reaching a viewership of 150+ million, making it measure up to live events the likes of Super Bowl.
The concept of the competition is simple: each country sends one original song to compete. Aside from the biggest sponsors of the contest (UK, Spain, Italy, Germany and France) and the winner of the previous year (Ukraine in ESC 2023) each entry participates in a semi-final, from which 20 countries are selected to advance to the final via voting. The winner of the competition is the act that gets the most votes in the final, who then gets the right to host next year’s contest and enjoy the tourism money. This year, UK took over the hosting duties from Ukraine for reasons (the war, guys, it was the war).
The voting system is important to understand for context: each country gives two sets of points, both equal in value and weight. Points are given to the top 10 entries, 10th getting 1 point, 9th two points and so on. Third place gets 8 points, second place gets 10 points and first place gets 12 points to make the top two positions more valuable. The two sets of votes come from professional juries and the televote. Countries can’t vote for their own entry, naturally.
Juries are 4-5 member teams consisting of music professionals (artists, producers, managers, vocal coaches, music reporters, radio DJs, choreographers etc.) who appraise each entry based on the following criteria:

• Composition and originality of the song
• Performance on stage
• Vocal capacity of artist(s)
• Overall impression of the act

Televotes are collected by having viewers vote via the official Eurovision app, or by calling/texting. A person/device can give a maximum of 20 votes and each vote costs money, the amount depending on each individual country, but it usually hovers somewhere around 1€/vote. Yes, I blew 20€ on the grand final. Yes, I blew another 20€ on the semifinal I was allowed to vote in (there are two semifinals and you can only vote in the semi your country’s in).
This year's Grand Final was held on May 13, but things start happening way before that. Each Eurovision season typically starts with countries selecting their representatives. Some use internal selection (as in, broadcasters decide who goes all by themselves) but most host national finals, competitions where the winner is granted the golden ticket to Eurovision. These national finals are keenly followed by eurofans (passionate fans of Eurovision).

Ready Player One: UMK 2023 and the Launch of the Dark Horse

In January 2023, UMK, the Finnish national final for Eurovision, started revealing its finalists. Seven finalists were announced, and their songs were released one by one on a once-a-day schedule. Finland’s journey in Eurovision has historically been poor, having only managed to secure one win (granted, there are many who have never won) and often finishing on the back end of the results.
Since 2020, however, UMK went under new management and did what was pretty much a 180: in a few years, it became one of the highest quality national finals around, and because of that, many eyes were on Finland when UMK started. The overall quality of songs in 2023 was very good, but one emerged as a clear frontrunner.
Käärijä, a Finnish rapper who was virtually unknown even in his home country, entered the competition, as the kids say, guns ablaze and mad as hell. His song Cha Cha Cha, a rap/metal/techno fusion song that does a complete tonal and genre shift halfway through, immediately became the fan favourite to win. When the time came, Käärijä absolutely landslided the national final, getting more points than the three runners up put together.
Hopeful buzz started amongst the eurofans; would this finally be Finland’s time after seventeen years (Finland’s last and only win was in 2006)? Finland is by means not the most beloved country in Eurovision, but many see it as an underdog that’s finally catching up to speed. Many wanted it to do well. Some were cautiously optimistic.
That was, until Sweden entered the competition, as the kids say, guns ablaze and mad as hell.

Ready Player Two: Melodifestivalen 2023 and the Awakening of the Sleeping Giant

Sweden, by all possible metrics, is one of, if not THE most successful country in Eurovision history. Before 2023, they’ve raked in a massive six wins (second only to Ireland who has seven), two of which during the last 11 years alone and the last one as recently as 2015. Additionally, on years they don’t win, they place in the top 10 almost without fail. They have only failed to qualify from the semifinals once, and it was largely seen as a national disgrace.
Sweden takes Eurovision VERY seriously, and it shows in their results. Melodifestivalen, Sweden’s national selection, started gathering curious eyes even before it started, because rumours were murmuring of someone very remarkable returning on stage. These rumours turned out to be true.
It’s hard to overstate how iconic Loreen is to the Eurovision community. She won the competition back in 2012, with a song that’s widely regarded as the best winning song of all time. She’s beloved and for a good reason. Known as a passionate, skilful vocalist and a world-class performer, the moment her participation was confirmed, many considered Melodifestivalen 2023 a done deal.
It must be mentioned that Loreen did attempt to return to Eurovision once between her win in 2012 and entry in 2023, but failed to win Melodifestivalen. However, this year’s entry was not here to play. She entered with Tattoo, a pop epic crafted by some of the best songwriters Sweden has to offer, with a staging so impeccable it could pass for a music video.
Critics and audience alike were raving. She was back, more powerful than ever. Expectedly, she won Melodifestivalen and earned her place in the line-up of 2023. In the community, the buzz was immediate, but not all of it was positive.

Sweden and Eurovision: A Turbulent Relationship

I think it’s fair to say that Sweden is, for the lack of a better term, suffering from success. Lately, there has been a somewhat anti-Sweden mentality brewing in the community, stemming from a few key criticisms Sweden regularly gets

• Genre loyalty: Swedish entries generally all fall under the umbrella of “radio friendly pop”. They’re well composed, well produced but seemingly leave the fandom cold. “Generic”, “soulless” and “safe” are terms often thrown at Swedish entries
• Jury bias: For a while now, Sweden has done better with juries than the televote, the difference once notoriously being as massive as 220 points, or 2nd place (jury) vs 22nd (out of a possible 26) (by the public). That being said, it’s disingenuous to say the televote hates Sweden as they regularly rank in the top 10, but it’s hard to deny that their point tally routinely consists of more jury than televote points
• Same songwriters: Melodifestivalen has been quite frequently criticized for having a large chunk of its songs written by the same core group of ten-ish people. In Sweden’s defence, a country of 10 million does not have that many active songwriters, but it’s hard to deny it’s a striking detail. For instance, in this year’s final, Melodifestivalen didn’t have a single entry that didn’t have at least two of these songwriters credited

This has led to things souring between Sweden and eurofans. To sum it up concisely: many eurofans feel like Sweden never takes risks, sends ungenuine lab-crafted jury baits and is always rewarded for it no matter what the viewers do because the juries always have Sweden's back. There's a lot of intricacies that go into this and there's nuance to this criticism, but for the sake of keeping things concise, I won't go into them now, all you need to know is that this is something that's going on.

“I love Loreen, but…”

Because of this sentiment, while Loreen undoubtedly had her fans, a sizeable section of the fandom started being critical of her. People started negging. Her song was called generic and soulless, the fact it was written by a huge group of the “regulars” in Melodifestivalen was brought up. People said it was too similar to her 2012 winning song, a 2.0 or carbon copy if you will. Some people also thought that because she already won, coming back was unfair since she already has a degree of Eurovision fame that could affect the results.
As soon as Loreen was announced as the Swedish representative, the competition took on a narrative of its own. It was widely seen as a race between Finland and Sweden. While Loreen definitely had her fans, the overall mentality was leaning more towards Käärijä. He was seen as the underdog from the country that has a winning chance once every 20 years, if that, going up against the Eurovision powerhouse Sweden who wins so often the fandom is getting tired of it.
That’s not to say no other entries were ever in the talks: Spain’s artsy fusion flamenco song was seen as a potential jury darling. France’s sassy chanson was seen as a potential sleeper hit. Norway’s TikTok viral Viking techno banger was seen as a potential televote magnet. Ukraine was still a big unknown given that the previous year, they had received the largest televote tally in the history of the competition and many thought sympathy votes would keep pouring in this year as well. And then there’s whatever the fuck Croatia was doing (okay, they never had a chance of winning, I just wanted any excuse to subjugate people to this chaos).
But the overall sentiment was heavily leaning towards this being a neighbour war between Finland and Sweden. As the press and pre-parties (fan arranged concerts where artists are invited to perform to get their first interactions with the fandom) started, eyes were undeniably on Loreen and Käärijä.
During his Eurovision journey, Käärijä became somewhat of a crowd darling and went moderately viral on TikTok. A little guy with a bowl cut and a thick accent who had quickly gotten the reputation of being both funny and extremely friendly, coming to the competition with an out of the box and blatantly flamboyant genre fusion banger, walking around in a green bolero with no shirt. It's hard not to feel endeared. (Not that Loreen was unfriendly or anything, she’s perfectly nice by all accounts, but her off-stage personality wasn’t as much of a focal point as it was for Käärijä who became so beloved he was locked in as an icon even before the competition began).
Finns, they, well… Rallied behind Käärijä like crazy. Their government officials sent tweets wishing him good luck. The state owned railway company dressed its statues as Käärijä. The Helsinki tram got a Käärijä makeover. Cha Cha Cha topped the Finnish charts for ages (and still does AFAIK). The Finnish press was going gaga, broadcasting how only Loreen stood in the way of Käärijä’s victory.

“Just Ignore Everyone”: The Main Event That Undeniably Shaved a Few Years Off Of Graham Norton’s Life Span

The main event came about at the Liverpool Arena. As expected, both Sweden and Finland qualified for the final (later revealed to have come second and first, respectively). As the grand final came about, what was supposed to be a fun event (ironically carrying the slogan “United by Music”) turned into a rather tense occasion. Sweden performed 9th whereas Finland performed 13th. Both of their performances went largely well.
During Finland’s performance, the crowd went so crazy some commentators even said the whole building was shaking. People shouted Cha Cha Cha at the top of their lungs. The audience was on his side. Not that Loreen’s performance was poorly received either, she clearly had a lot of friends at the arena, but Finland got the audience by the balls.
After all of the 26 acts were done performing, the time for vote announcements came. The structure of vote announcements goes as follows: first, each country gives their jury points one by one, their spokesperson saying out loud the country that got 12 points, the highest one possible. After that, the total televote points given by all countries are given to each act one by one starting from the country currently at the last position.
Very soon, it became obvious that the juries had taken an immense liking to Tattoo.
Loreen got 12 points after 12 points, and the atmosphere at the arena shifted. The audience got more and more agitated with each 12 points Sweden received, and cheered very loudly whenever Käärijä (who was expected to do significantly worse with the juries thanks to non-mainstream genre and his lesser singing abilities due to being a rapper first and foremost) got any points. It got to a point where they responded to Sweden getting 12 points by chanting Cha Cha Cha.
The hosts (Graham Norton and Hannah Waddingham) were getting visibly uncomfortable and had to calm the crowd more than once. Hannah Waddingham eventually gave the exasperated yet iconic one-liner “just ignore everyone” when the chanting wouldn’t calm down. In the end, Sweden was comfortably in 1st place, having raked in a massive and historic 340 points, almost double that of the runner up Israel (who got 177 jury points). Finland ranked 4th with the juries with a total tally of 150, nearly 200 points behind Loreen.
Once the time for televotes came, everyone’s eyes were on Finland. Käärijä was expected to do well, but no one could quite gauge how well he’d do. Turns out, very well. He raked in a massive 376 televote points, getting the full marks from 18/37 countries and not placing lower than 5th with any country. To put it in perspective, this is the 2nd highest televote score ever (by percentage of available points), the highest being Ukraine from the year prior, and the circumstances were quite unprecedented.
By then, it was obvious the two-horse race had become true. Loreen would need 189 points (roughly the 3th-4th place in televotes) to secure her win, a tally that wasn’t a walk in the park, but was very doable with her popularity.
The following sequence is still very bizarre to me. Loreen’s points were announced. She got 243 points, making her the televote runner up. Which in turn meant Käärijä had lost to her by about 50 points despite outdoing her televote score by 133 points. As the winner was announced, Käärijä buried his head in his hands, clearly devastated. Loreen was immediately guided back on stage for her winner’s reprisal.
Footage from backstage shows many contestants beelining for Käärijä to comfort him. They’re seen hugging him, chanting Cha Cha Cha like he’s the actual winner and trying to cheer him up. All the while, Käärijä himself was obviously heartbroken. The crowd wasn’t happy, to a point where when Loreen accepted the trophy, she asked if anyone even wants her to perform again.
While Loreen’s fans were ecstatic to see her win and perform again, a portion of the audience reportedly walked out, disappointed. That was the end of the main competition. Sweden had won its 7th Eurovision trophy, catching up to Ireland for most wins ever. Loreen had become the second person (and first woman) in history to win twice.
The fandom, while disappointed, quickly got over themselves and accepted the outcome- yeah no one’s buying this lmfao. The dust was up in the air and wouldn’t settle for a good while.

Let the Shit Slinging Begin: Conspiracy Theories, Petitions and the Media Fight

The outcome received immediate backlash. Loreen’s winning performance and grand final performance were mass downvoted on YouTube. Loreen’s victory post on Eurovision currently has 0 upvotes and over 6500 comments. Social media posts by Eurovision about Loreen were spammed by people proclaiming Käärijä was the real winner. Some contestants (namely Slovenia, Estonia and Serbia) outright said Käärijä was their winner. Finland’s grand final performance views also surpassed that of Sweden’s.
There was a lot of shit slinging. Conspiracies started rearing their heads. Some were convinced Sweden had rigged the jury in order to host Eurovision on the 50th anniversary of ABBA’s victory (yes, ABBA is Swedish, yes, they won Eurovision with Waterloo, no there’s no proof of this conspiracy). A petition was started to remove the juries and it reached 60 000 signatures in two days. Loreen was accused of plagiarizing at least two different songs (not that I personally think the accusations have any merit, the melody line is just incredibly common). The Norwegian delegation outright said the juries should be overhauled (Norway got screwed over massively by the juries, being placed 17th, only to be pulled to the 5th overall position by the televote).
When detailed televote results came out, it turned out Sweden had not placed 1st in a single country. It also had less 2nd places than Finland, and its average position was 5th (which coincidentally was the lowest score Käärijä got in any country). People were pissed. Some proclaimed spending money on voting is a waste of time if the 2nd highest televote score in history isn’t enough to win because a group of 200 or so people said so.
People started going through the jury credentials, soon discovering that they were overwhelmingly pop professionals (55% to be exact) while rock pros were nowhere to be seen (they made up 3.8% of the jury to be exact). To be fair, people weren’t only pissed for Finland, they were pissed for other entries that seemingly ticked all the boxes for the juries just to get a minimal result because Sweden vacuumed all the points like it was time for spring cleaning. (I feel like I must mention that a lot of televote magnet entries also flopped hard because Finland suckled up most of the televote points leaving the rest to fight for scraps.)
With the televote results also came a peculiar detail that kicked the drama between Sweden and Finland to a whole new sphere. Turns out, every country gave Sweden televote points, except one. Yep, you guessed it. Finland blanked Sweden, while Sweden’s televote gave Finland the full 12 points. (Finnish and Swedish juries gave each other 12 points.)
This was seen as unsportsmanlike and the Swedish media latched onto it. Think pieces started coming out. One infamous Swedish Eurovision podcast episode hosted by a Swedish newspaper consisted mostly of ranting about how Finland is a "country of idiots", how it's impossible Finns could genuinely have thought 10 other songs were better than Tattoo and how it was a testament to their lack of taste that they voted for Germany and not Sweden (Germany came in last, Finland was one of the only countries to give them points. Germany sent a metal entry so I’m not sure why this was a surprise, Finns LOVE metal).
Swedish newspapers also widely reported that the Finnish Eurovision commentator had told Finns not to vote for Sweden, furthermore adding fuel to the fire. This seems to mostly be lost in translation/a cultural miscommunication, the commentator in question read a joke out loud from the stream chat that essentially said “you’re allowed to vote tactically but not for your own country”, joking about the general elections held in Finland just months prior, where a lot of people voted tactically for the largest left-wing party to prevent the largest right-wing party from taking over. It didn’t work but "vote tactically" became a nation wide meme. Said commentator also simultaneously came under fire by Finns for stanning Loreen too much during his commentary. Man just can't win lmao
One Swedish newspaper article evoked strong backlash in Finland by referring to Finland as “östra rikshalvan” (“Eastern part of the Kingdom”, roughly translated) which was the term used for Finland when it still belonged to Sweden. Many Finns saw it as colonialist and like Sweden was implying they were entitled to their former vassal using their money to give them points. However, it’s difficult to deny this lack of points likely was tactical from Finland, given how they’ve given Sweden points every other year except this one. The Finnish media also did broadcast heavily that Loreen's win depends on the amount of televotes she gets compared to Käärijä, so it's not far-fetched at all that Finns were aware of it and voted for something else.
Finnish press wasn’t silent either. A widely publicized clip from a gossip radio show hosted by the teen targeted state-owned radio station Yle X3M heavily criticized Loreen’s entry, calling it “shit” and making a tasteless joke implying Loreen was on drugs the whole night thanks to her somewhat ethereal demeanour. One of the hosts also seemed convinced the results were rigged. Newspapers also eagerly reported about the plagiarism allegations against Tattoo, even if they never went as far as suggesting there’s any merit to them.
Perhaps the saddest part of this is the contestants themselves. Loreen and Käärijä both have consistently praised each other. They reportedly get along great and there are numerous clips of them hugging, laughing and joking around. Despite taking the loss heavily, Käärijä congratulated Loreen and emphasized he loves her and wishes her all the best from the very first interview he gave after his loss. (He did however say he feels like the jury system might need a reform.) Likewise, Loreen said in an interview that she wasn’t bothered by the crowd chanting Cha Cha Cha because she thinks Käärijä is awesome and authentic.
They’re still in contact and are planning to meet up for coffee when Loreen’s next in Helsinki. The abuse Loreen herself received reached downright disgusting proportions, crossing from general trashing to misogynistic and even racist territory (because of her Moroccan heritage). It got to a point where Käärijä had to address it on Finnish morning TV, emphasizing that the results are not her fault and that he feels horrible for her when people insult her because he knows her and knows she’s a lovely person. By all accounts, there’s no bad blood between them (or any contestants for that matter, this year was remarkably cordial).
So, where are we now? People have mostly calmed down (mostly) and accepted the results. Many still push for a jury reform, demanding larger juries with more diversity and knowledge of non-mainstream genres, a shift to a 60/40 voting split in favour of the televote, and many other things too numerous to list here. EBU has not addressed the controversy in any shape or form (and they likely won't), and we’ll likely have to wait until next year to find out if the jury system will be overhauled. Loreen and Käärijä fans are still bickering amongst each other but the general public seems to have moved on. Loreen is currently enjoying very good streaming numbers and chart placements across the world, and a record number of Eurovision entries are charting. Käärijä isn't doing half-bad either, being greeted by an airport full of supportive Finns upon his return and having skyrocketed to undeniable legendary status in the Finnish music scene.
Here’s to hoping Käärijä’s invited to perform at Eurovision 2024 as an interval act and regardless of jury reform (or lack thereof) people can bury this hatchet and Nordic unity can blossom once again. (Nordics get along great... Until one loses a competition to another, then it means war.)

Human Dave and Captain walk through the ship's hallways towards the cargo hold, conversing emphatically and gesturing wildly.
Human Dave: "Captain. With all due respect, you're wrong."
Alien Captain: "Human Dave, all I am saying is that Jackie Chan is more skilled in certain martial arts than Bruce Lee is."
HD: "And I'm telling you that Jackie Chan is more a master at improvising fights, rather than the structured approach that Bruce Lee takes, Captain. There's no comparison between the two of them."
Alien Doctor, over comms: "I prefer Donnie Yen. He is adept at both improvising and the structured approach to fighting opponents."
HD: "You just liked seeing him shirtless in that TV series, Doctor."
AD: "... I will neither confirm nor deny that statement."
HD: "Yeah, that's what I thought."
A siren begins sounding out, and an automated voice announces a message.
Automated Voice: "ALL HANDS, BRACE FOR IMPACT! REPEAT; ALL HANDS, BRACE FOR IMPACT!"
HD: "... what?"
The ship shudders violently and lurches to one side, as the artificial gravity cuts out for a moment, before violently reasserting itself and slamming Human Dave onto the floor.
AC: "Human Dave, are you alright?!"
Human Dave groans as he slowly gets up from his face-first position on the floor of the ship.
HD, clutching his face: "Did somebody get the license plate of what just hit us?"
AC, into comms: "Pilot Reeda, what just hit us?"
Pilot Reeda: "Shockwave, Captain, originating from a stellar nursery along our flight path. Knocked us out of FTL."
AC: "Deliberate?"
PR: "Unknown. I doubt any pirate would go out of their way to waste a pulse charge big enough to knock a ship our size out of FTL. Usually, you would use something like that on an invading fleet, not some random cargo ship."
AC: "We are on our way to the bridge. Try to figure out what caused it, if you can."
PR: "Understood, Captain."
Captain slowly makes his way over to Human Dave.
AC: "Human Dave, are you alright?"
HD: "Am I bleeding, Captain?"
Captain carefully looks at Human Dave's face and does not see any blood coming out of any orifice on his face.
AC: "I do not see any blood, Human Dave. However, report to Medbay, and have Doctor check, just in case."
HD: "Understood, Captain."
...
AD: "Well, your scans do not show any major damage, other than some minor bruising, which will mend with time."
HD: "Thank you, Doctor. Am I good to go?"
AD: "Yes, but I would not recommend falling on your face again, Human Dave. There is only so much that I am capable of fixing, and if it becomes more damaged, I will not be able to restore your appearance. Not that it was aesthetically pleasing to begin with, but if you desire that to be remedied, I am capable of performing the operation."
HD: "... don't make me have to break out the chocolate, Doctor. I'm always recording, and I'd hate for you to become famous on the data-net due to some drunken antics that I happened to record."
AD: "... touchè, Human Dave."
...
Human Dave enters the bridge.
PR: "Oh, ancestors; it just had to be you!"
HD: "What? I sprayed myself with the thing you gave me!"
PR: "And I can still smell your body's natural odour!"
HD: "I'd like to think I've been more than accommodating, Reeda'Tila-Lasoran, but if you think I'm just going to take your insults, then you have another thing coming."
AC: "Enough, both of you! Pilot Reeda, did you manage to find out what hit us?"
PR, glowering: "Like I said before, Captain. It was a shockwave, coming out of the stellar nursery. The long-range scanners have been working non-stop since it hit us, but no conclusive readings so far."
The viewscreen shows an image of the stellar nursery, where stars are in their formative stages.
Parts of the cloud of stellar dust are suddenly swept away, as a large mass of tentacles attached to a gaping maw begins moving out of the stellar nursery.
HD: "... what the Hell is that?"
PR: "Ancestors! IT'S A VOIDBORN!"
Pilot Reeda immediately reattaches her data interface port to the ship's mainframe and, without caring for the G-forces related to the manoeuvre, turns the ship away and flees.
Captain is pressed into his seat from the sheer force of sub-light speeds the ship is travelling.
Human Dave, without having sat down, is pushed against the rear wall of the bridge, straining against the pressure.
The inertial dampers slowly compensate for the fluctuations in the speed of the ship, and everyone slowly acclimates to the sensation.
A look of terror passes over both Captain and Pilot Reeda, as the ship continues to flee.
HD: "Captain, what the fuck is a Voidborn?"
AC: "A creature born between stars, Human Dave. It feeds on energy of every kind, and loves chasing down its prey, which, this time, is us."
PR: "It must have been feeding off the thermal energy reactions of the stellar nursery until it saw us."
HD: "So, we should run?"
AC: "Human Dave, how does your species' biology function?"
HD: "Pardon?"
AC: "Humans do not just function without any form of charge, correct? What kind of energy powers your body, Human Dave?"
HD: "Bio-electrical energy, of course. But what does that have to do with the Voidborn?"
AC: "The operative word there is 'energy', Human Dave. Voidborn can feed off of all types of energy, but they love the energies of living beings the most."
HD: "... so, definitely run, then."
PR: "WHAT DO YOU THINK I'VE BEEN TRYING TO DO?!"
First
Previous
Next

I'm seeking some advice and insights regarding a series of strange electrical issues that have been plaguing my 2006 Honda Civic lately. I'm hoping someone here can help shed some light on what might be going on.
It started during a road trip from California to Louisiana. I’m a medical student and I had to be in Louisiana by Monday(I left Friday). Coming out of California, I stopped at a rest stop and when I started my car again after 5 mins the AC wouldn’t work. I thought it might need a a recharge or whatever but looking at it I didn’t see the compressor running. And the pressures were very high when I checked on the low pressure line. It had been working perfectly for the last 4 hours.
When I stopped in Phoenix and started the car the next morning, I noticed that the dreaded "Check Engine" light had decided to make an appearance. I drove it from Phoenix to Tucson with no issues but I knew going into Texas there’s a long stretch with not much on the way so I decided to get it checked. Got the code read at O’Reilly’s and it was “P0507 - Idle Air Control System RPM Higher Than Expected”. Didn’t think the car had been idling any different and there were no real issues but I couldn’t risk it so I showed it to a mechanic nearby. He looked at it and said it needed a new throttle valve/body. I tried to get some more information about what was wrong with it, whether it just needed to be cleaned etc. He kept being vague saying it’s just not working and said maybe an electrical issue when really pressed. Charged me $1300 for parts and labor - felt like I was being ripped off (and also felt there was nothing wrong with the throttle body and don’t think he really did anything) but I didn’t have the luxury of waiting around and other shops were closed. This issue hasn’t reoccurred(maybe they just cleaned it?)
To add to the confusion, the following day, while driving, I noticed that the "Daytime Running Lights" (DRL) light on my dashboard had come on and the daytime running lights were flickering intermittently when I checked. Not a huge issue I thought, I can replace those. However, the issue mysteriously resolved itself the very next day and hasn’t reoccurred.
Fast forward a couple of days, and the left speaker in my car suddenly stopped working. I hadn't made any changes to the audio system, so this was completely unexpected. It seemed like the electrical gremlins were at it again, targeting a different component this time.
Just to provide some additional information, my car's battery was replaced last year, and I haven't noticed any battery-related issues. There's no battery light on, and the car continues to run and start without any problems. The only “new thing” is a CarPlay system that plugs into the DC outlet that I put in a week before I left California.
At this point, I'm at a loss as to what could be causing these sporadic electrical issues. I haven’t had it parked for a prolonged time and didn’t notice any animals but I haven’t looked at it too closely. I have driven this car in California for a year without issues and all throughout the US before that over the past couple of years. I thought I'd reach out to this community for any insights or suggestions you might have. Has anyone experienced something similar? Any ideas on what might be going on?
I am going to take it mechanic and have them run a diagnostic but I thought I’d gather some ideas before I go.
Any expertise and guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for your help!
TL;DR: My car's electrical issues started with the AC going out at the start of a road trip. Check Engine light came on the next day and I got it fixed(throttle body issue), followed by DRL light flickering, which resolved itself. Days later, the left speaker stopped working. Battery was replaced last year, and the car runs and starts fine. Seeking advice and suggestions on how to diagnose and fix these issues.

I haven't seen any amps with two transformers but even with one giant toroidal transformer and the hugest highest quality caps etc, amps are ultimate ac and not DC. So electronically it's like 1 pond vs 2. The current doesn't flow so the power doesn't even matter as much as the ability for the amp to control the amp where being silent takes as much work as playing 2hz at the same volume as it'd play 20k. The dynamic range is muddled by the bottle neck of the box itself.
I'm hoping people will start selling vertical amps that are designed to play 2 channel mono, hf and lf vs 2 channel stereo. I suspect the reason why people think stereo is not 3D is because or cross talk muddle. Speakers set up properly should be able to render exactly what the cross mix array captured so you can test it with a tascam and record something behind you. You should be able to hear the sound behind you just like you recorded it from the same place you recorded it. Mixes are now mastered in 3D space where you can literally move sounds around the "listener". 2 speaker are all you need for stereo, the surround sound format only exists for games and movies since those are meant to be a kinda ride where you have surprise explosions and stuff. And in that case different speakers like jbl basically created the sound signature we associate to theatres and clubs. Klipsch took the same concept of arena horn theatres and calculated it to work inside on a room using the room itself as part of the speaker in many of their patents which still presume a ceiling and floor which many speakers designers do and design waveguides to handle similar to how audyssey speaker calibration does the BBC dip to reduce the hit spot of summing the crossover of the tweeter and woofers and their reflections in a range where out ears are most sensitive.
This created a box with ton of different connections which is useful for surround sound but surround sound is really mono plus surround front left surround front right and surround rears. The majority of what you listen to on a surround sound system comes from the center so to render a 3d space it has to use all the other speakers.
Stereo on the other hand is 2 channel and amps started off in mono with the same power source just splitting to 2 channels to sell stereo for cheaper at the cost of what stereo really is and why we don't call it binaural. Lofi stereo became popularised which often sounds flat and worse to make up for it fake surround sound was added which added echoey sounds but not actual 3D sound I. E. You wouldn't get the sound of real depth contained in the mix which has always been there and how the "Haffler method", the thing all kids discover when you plug in your headphones partially just right and you only hear the background, comes from. Originally surround sound was just taking this signal and placing it behind you to add a third source of spacial cues.
Speaker design however goes even wilder where things like the voigt pipe were shrunken to like a foot ball using solid metal rubber seals and basically simulating the Sydney opera house on the inside so the port can create the spaciousness and play high bandwidth sound that reinforces the spacial cues vs just adding a bass boost using geometry like phi and really high compression to create the equivalent of a laser tunnel to let the sound blast out only when it's on phase and with exotic elliptical ports and moving parts on the inside beyond the drivers themselves. And the baffle over time changed to cause what's called the "vanishing act" where the speakers cease sounding as if they're making any sound and the soundscape snaps into focus as if the audio is coming from the air itself, or more specifically for a cross ray mic recording you are standing in the same space and the process it the recording is happening in reverse delivering the same experience as if you had been there. Cardioid mics are typically used for stereo sound while a dummy head is used for what ended up being being called binaural sound which is 3D but only on headphones.
Nintendo dropped dolby back after the GameCube and created their own 3D sound platform which they employed on the Nintendo DS and the 3DS allowing you to hear even the theme song to songs like the theme to big brain academy have sound effects that panned around your head and for games like Zelda and metroid to play back 3D sound I.E. Stereo sound properly done well enough to restore the stereo sound scape so as you open a door and run through, you can hear the woosh of the vacuum seal of the door behind you shut or face a water fall which is playing a simulation of the natural white noise from water splashing, and turn around and hear the entire scene turn so the water now sounds like it's behind you.
The switch supports lossless surround but the original switch didn't support stereo 3d sound, the speakers and processing down scaled the audio as well as the video presumedly to save battery so sound wasn't rendered into 3D in handheld mode. The new OLED Switch supports handheld 3D which I was really happy to see the return of since it was weird that the 3DS in terms of audio was better than the handheld experience of the switch. The switch now automatically detects 2 channel stereo 3D or surround sound speaker surround sound 5.x with enough detail that atmos up scaling works fine and rain and thunder and explosions sound vertical which matters a lot for games like, the 1st 2 Zeldas for the switch where the game is as expansive vertically as horizontal and sound is so important to the game where it'd be really hard to play without audio spacial cues to the point there's a oscilloscope for deaf people or if you were playing with the volume off.
I notice I have to do a ton of speaker calibration when people just think that stereo means sound pans left and right and get the speakers aligned to get them to snap into 3D.
The more you study speakers the more you realise they that Speakers ARE music instruments but are a type of meta instrument like a player piano which a gramophone isn't really that too far away from if you think about it. Speakers should all be called audio monitors. It's weird that we still call them speakers--a relic from when speakers were just meant to transmit voices and overhead speakers were called Tannoys. There's this concept that musicians aren't audiophiles and that just comes from how musicians know nothing sounds "real" everything is a simulation especially now a days as far as the playback is concerned and when mixing you average your mix and compare it between various speakers, then headphones of various kinds, then now suddenly we have to check to see if it works on mono too and go for a ride to see how it sounds then hop on the living room to listen on loud speakers and each time it's fun and different. So it's not that musicians don't appreciate good gear it's that musicians understand that all speakers are monitors and just tools. And it's as fun to hear your song on anyone's system as it is to hear it over dodger stadium. Or randomly hear an old song you wrote on some phone game.
It's like Trent Reznor saying that Johnny cashes version IS the definitive version of Hurt since no musician really ever finishes a song. They just get it to the best it can be because something has to be recorded and made into a thing. But you still keep changing and messing with it when you play it live. And if it were to be re-recorded it'd be "more finished" but it never really ever gets done. Which is a trap that collaborating helps you with similar to auditioning a new drummer because you want a certain sound and will find the drummer who can get it as close to what you would do or could do if you could while playing guitar.
The ability for the amp to render a stream of complex wavelengths 1 to 1 and for a single box with one power source to be forced to do that with 2 channels is kinda like trying to play two instruments at once except it happens to be just good enough to get it done. But is also like trying to play a string on a piano without causing the rest of the strings to be affected. Pianos do the opposite and take a whole bunch of strings of varying mass with a sound board based on the loudness curve to to allow it to sound like one instrument vs a bunch varying harps. The piano has a sound board that opens to corner load the bass strings. And each string is chosen for its mass and length to get the tone just right so it sounds like one instrument even though it's a bunch of strings each with a key and a hammer like a musical typewriter. It's carefully engineered to have a giant range while you can press all the notes the same pressure and expect the same volume or sweep and it sounds as level as a guitar slide. Loudness curve can be seen on the Harp as well.
Speaker design has the same thing but with a different role / utility where 2 are meant to crossover to recreate the sound of stereo, the only 3D sense that exists where you can focus and tell where and when a sound happened and where it's going without moving a muscle. And your ears are so calibrated to hear things in 3D you still hear things in your sleep and integrate it into your dream. I remember watching friends with my wife and she started without me I just picked up on an episode I remembered and dreamt about it. It's why we have alarm clocks that are audible and that works perfectly fine even when it's just a watch beeping while people can die of smoke inhalation and not wake up. But they'd still likely hear the fire alarm so hopefully they wouldn't die is the point of smoke alarms. But that's how much we're actually guided by our ears more than any other senses and it's weird that we have the concept of stereo sound NOT being 3D when that was what it originally was I e. The sound of reality. Stereos Greek for solid. Like stereoscopic is also 3D vision and not all animals with 2 eyes can see with the same level of stereo depth. While some see waaaay more like how birds of prey can see for a rabbit a mile away.
We have stereoscopic and stereophonic senses.
Transmission is the opposite of noise and a system has to be just as good at being completely silent as it is at playing the purest white noise or the most spacious pink noise. The silence should be called black noise and is actually played differently by different media where tape for instance treats silence as too high for us to hear and is still used as a tool by musicians to record due to the way it compresses vs clips when recording. Vinyl treats silence as the least texture rendered which gives vinyl a weird kinda charm in the sense that it adds a meta layer of sound you selectively filter out in your head but it drowns out the ambient noise and replaces it with on phase silence which reinforces the music like turning off the lights in a projection room so the "blacks" look blacker. White noise is also relative to each system and it makes a lot more sense imo to test white noise than the old sweep method for mono speakers. A lot of speakers don't even work when playing a single sine wave note unless you plan on playing only 8 bit beeps and bloops.
A guitar is useful as an analogy for how the amp strums the speaker. When you press down on one string, it's grounded so you can pluck it to cause the string to play a note. The rest of the guitar is going to ring sympathetically by proximity AND through the body of the guitar. Current doesn't flow through ac it's already loaded like a taut string waiting to be struck or muted. Or in terms of electronics it's a transceiver that makes irs coils very audible.
The cables are an active and a ground. I'm not even sure why stereos exist from an engineering stand point. The role of an amp is to control what happens to the "string" and a single amp having to control two "strings" at once always causes more muddled sound from the bottom up. You can even get 2 decent but cheap amps like the topping MXs which are stereo but only use one for the left side and one for the right and it'll sound like a thousand dollar difference.
https://youtube.com/shorts/o5kRvEEpWIA?feature=share4
I wish they just sold amps that were modular and controllable as a single unit but and could connect together side by side or stack. If you're not getting 3D sound through your mains you really don't have to spend much it might just be bad placement. But most of it comes down to expectations. I've noticed so many gamers who are used to logi or something and just don't expect 2 speakers to render a 3D sound stage and when you position and calibrate it (why there's a left and right balance) they're shocked that it's possible.
So odds are you already have the gear to have 3D sound, I have an atmos setup but also a 2 speaker 2 channel stereo 3D setup and they both work just as well. The only reason why I have the atmos setup is for multiple seating positions.
It's similar to how a sub woofer has its own amp so anyone with a subwoofer already has a bi amped system and 2 subs means you already have 2 parallel amps running your subs and people who get 2 amps have a hard time going back. It's not just the redundancy to fill the room since I realised its always better to run them in stereo giving you the ability to hear a 3D foundation that's consistent all the way up. If you bi amp you can also use separate channels for the HF and the LF so you can still get as much separation on the other axis to improve the fidelity.
So TIDR
Speakers + amps are as much musical instruments as a guitarist and his amps/gear and a guitarist is 3D. If he doesn't sound like it there's something wrong.

DC Next presents:

CYBORG

Issue Thirty: End.exe
Written by Deadislandman1
Edited by ClaraEclair and AdamantAce
 
Arc: Catharsis
 
 
“Are you ready, Victor?”
“More ready than I’ve ever been in my life.”
This high up in the sky, there would normally be wind, its howling loud enough to drown out all other sounds. Had there been clouds, they would have impeded his sight, forcing him to weather the condensed water within. The vast blue of the sky would overwhelm his eyes at every turn. But Victor and V were in the Metal, and no such things existed within the Metal. There was no resistance as they glided towards Thinker’s strange, corrupting compound, no wind to fly against. They moved this way purely because this was how some of the highest beings in the Metal’s hierarchy moved, above the other programs and signals on the ground.
The denizens of the Metal had declared him their hero, their champion, and it was his job to remove Thinker’s influence from the realm.
Gradually, the two began to slow down as they descended to one of the shimmering black walls of Thinker’s compound, whose presence was a tumor within the Metal, threatening to upset the fragile balance of a newborn power. This was enough cause to stop Thinker, but Victor had more reasons to confront his co-creator. He was holding his inventor — no, his father — hostage, a petty act of torture for the gall of standing up to one of the smartest supervillains on the planet.
Victor could not let Silas Stone suffer any longer. He would not let this final remaining door within himself to remain ajar, forever taunting him like a tapestry that could not be finished. Today, this horror would end. Today, Victor would find real peace within himself.
Victor touched down, the true size of the spire dawning on him. V landed next to him, walking up to the fortress and placing a hand on the wall, “My protocols will work their ways through Thinker’s firewalls, but once we are inside, we will be on our own.”
“No use waiting around then,” said Victor, “Just know that whatever happens, we stick together. That’s the only way we’ll be able to get out of this.”
V paused for a moment, clearly appreciating Victor’s faith in their partnership. Turning back to the wall, V closed her eyes and, within moments, a hole formed nearby.
“Woah, that was fast,” said Victor.
“Yes I…” V blinked. “There were only a few firewalls. This seems incredibly illogical. One would think one of the smartest men alive would keep a high level of security.”
“Maybe it’s a trap?” Victor peered inside the fortress, “A way to catch us….”
Victor paused, his eye widening at the sight before him, “...off guard.”
Before the two was not some horrifying death maze, nor was it a vast lair of villainy, or a lab made for suffering. Before them… was a neighborhood, the kind with straight roads, white picket fences, freshly cut grass, and vibrantly painted houses. As Victor stepped across the threshold of the walls, he was immediately hit by a wave of nostalgia. This place was so familiar.
“This… I grew up here!” said Victor, “Or… the real Victor did.”
V stepped through behind Vic and, like clockwork, the wall sealed up behind her. “I do not understand. What is the purpose of manufacturing such a recreation?”
“I don’t… I just…” Victor clenched his fists. How dare he do this. He wasn’t the real Victor Stone, yet there was such anger in the fact that Thinker was defiling the memories of the Stone family. Victor Stone grew up happy here, and this place was nothing but some sham… some charade meant to taunt whoever was inside.
His father.
Like a runaway train, Victor erupted into a sprint down the street, V following after him. She tried to ask him where he was going, but Victor knew she would understand once they arrived. He remembered the place well; his namesake had lived there, after all.
Halfway down the road, they arrived at the Stone family home, which had been reconstructed perfectly. Racing across the front yard that he had played catch in since childhood, Victor kicked down the door, running inside through familiar halls. “Dad? Dad?!”
“Victor!” V barreled in after him. “Perhaps this is a rash action.”
“This place… He had to make it to screw with my dad. He had to!” Victor shouted. “Dad?! Dad, where are you?”
“Who the hell is screaming? What is--?”
Victor whirled around, a voice that felt both familiar and foreign entering his ears. Balling up his fists, he expected a fight, only for his heart to drop.
It was Victor Stone. No cybernetic enhancements, no powers, justVictor Stone, sitting in a chair across the hall, in the dining room, with a laptop in front of him. He stood up in shock, slamming the laptop shut as he stared at Victor in horror, “What the fuck?!”
“Wha– Why–” Cyborg stared in amazement at his eerily accurate counterpart. He didn’t understand what was going on.
“Victor? I heard screaming! Is everything alright?”
An older man stepped into the hall, clearly distressed by all the shouting, and as Cyborg turned to face him, he immediately felt every muscle in his body loosen.
Silas Stone stood before him, as old as Victor had expected him to be. What he didn’t expect was to find the man to be full of vigor, of life. He seemed almost… energized, like he’d lived the last few years in absolute happiness.
Then Silas spoke, and it was then that Cyborg felt his soul truly sink into the abyss, “Who in God’s name are you?! What are you doing in my house?!”
“You…” Cyborg looked to V, “Is he..?.”
V stepped in front of Cyborg, taking a rudimentary scan of both Silas and the other Victor, “He is indeed Silas Stone, he does not have the same signature as the other denizens of the Metal. This Victor however… does.”
“So he’s a fake?” said Cyborg.
“What the fuck are you talking about?!” said Victor, “Who are you?”
“Please, leave my house!” said Silas, “This is private property!”
“You… you don’t understand,” said Cyborg, who turned to AI Victor, “And… I’m sorry. You’re not a… I shouldn’t call you a fake.”
“What do you mean?! What’s going on?!” asked AI Victor.
“Get out!” shouted Silas, “Get out right now or I’m calling the police.”
Cyborg didn’t know why Silas couldn’t remember him, remember anything, but looking between him and the other Victor, a haunting theory moved to the forefront of his mind; this place was an elaborate illusion, a way to keep Silas placated, and if Victor wanted to save him, he would need to wake his father from the dream. The T-Beacons Elinore had repurposed would need to charge, and he didn’t know if he’d be able to keep Silas restrained for that. Besides… it would be easier if Silas knew what was really happening before he left… and he would get a chance to speak to his father in earnest.
Cyborg moved forward, placing his hands on Silas’s shoulders, “Silas, I know this seems crazy, but I need you to hear me out.”
“Stop! Let go of me!” said Silas.
“Please, Dad, just…hear me out!” said Cyborg.
Silas froze…one word completely taking him off balance, “Did… did you just call me Dad?”
Cyborg swallowed, “Yeah… and it’s a long story… but you need to hear it. I promise.”
Silas shook his head. “I don’t… I don’t understand. What are you?”
Cyborg grimaced, “I’m… your creation.”
“But… I don’t remember creating you…” said Silas, “Why would I need to make you.”
“Because…” Cyborg glanced back at AI Victor, who was clearly completely confused by the situation. “Because the real Victor Stone died. He died during a disaster in Coast City and… I was the replacement.”
Silas grew white as a sheet, “What? What do you…? No… no, my son isn’t dead. He’s right here!”
Silas looked to the AI Victor, and Cyborg shook his head, “He’s just code… and in a way, so am I. I’m sorry but… the real Victor Stone is gone, has been for years.”
“No, it’s not true.” Silas glared at Cyborg, “Why should I believe you?! How do I know you’re telling the truth?”
“Just… look at me,” said Cyborg. “Look at me, Dad.”
Slowly, Silas felt his breath steady, his eyes locked onto Cyborg. He scanned the metal man in front of him, from the soles of his steel feet to the fusion of flesh and armor on his head. He reached out in trepidation, running his fingers up and down the armor, then running them over Cyborg’s face. The AI Victor watched in confusion, still utterly lost at what was going on.
Cyborg flinched at the touch of his father’s hand, it felt so… alien knowing the context of his own creation, and yet where he was falling into unfamiliar territory, Silas was being brought back into his own past, to memories he had lost.
Then, in a blink, something changed in Silas. He stumbled back, eyes wide, and Cyborg knew that he had awakened what was buried. Silas shuddered, falling to his knees, “No! No I… I did lose him… I did lose my boy…”
“Dad?” AI Victor trudged towards Silas, “Dad, I’m right here, I–”
“No! My boy has been gone for years,” said Silas, looking at both Cyborg and AI Victor. “And try as I might, I know that, in the end, neither of you are really him… really a replacement.”
Cyborg looked between his father and the AI replication of himself, feeling immense pity for both. The AI looked so confused, like a newborn who’d just gotten lost at the supermarket. Cyborg nodded to V, who quickly ushered the AI into another room to explain what was going on. Then, he turned back to Silas and took a knee, “Are you… God, there’s no point in asking the question. Do you remember what happened, after Thinker…”
Silas sniffled, attempting to piece himself back together, “H-He locked me in this place, but it was so… different. There was an army being built, preparations for war. He… interfaced with me, forced himself into the deepest crevices of my own mind! My god, Victor… he knows everything about me, about you! He knows every detail about every single thing I’ve ever built.”
Cyborg grimaced. If he knew every detail, then that meant that he knew what every single one of Cyborg’s tricks were. There would be no surprises, “God, I… I should’ve woken earlier, come here earlier. I’m so sorry.” said Cyborg.
“No, no… don’t blame yourself for any of this, it wasn’t your fault,” said Silas. “What happened here is Thinker’s fault, and his alone.”
Silas began to calm down, his rate of breath slowing down as he stood up. “But… it does confuse me that he would place me in this… illusion.”
“More torture?” asked Cyborg.
“No, I felt… at peace here,” said Silas. “Thinker was always so mechanical, so hyper focused on producing the results he wanted. Building me a… dream land? It just… doesn’t make any sense.”
“Well… whatever his reasons, it doesn’t matter. I’m getting you out of here, then I’m stopping him once and for all,” said Cyborg.
“What?!” Silas whirled around to face Cyborg. “You can’t! In this place, he’s more powerful than he was in the real world.”
“And I’ve been a superhero for three years,” said Cyborg. “I know my way around threats, and whatever his plans are now, that doesn’t change that he has to face justice for what he did to both of us.”
Pulling out one of the T-Beacons, he placed it in Silas’s hands. “Press the ‘T,’ and after five minutes, you’ll be able to head back to reality. Since you came here from the real world, you’ll rematerialize in your own body.”
“But what about you?” asked Silas. “I can’t just leave you alone to–”
“Dad!” Cyborg placed a hand on his father’s shoulders, “Listen to me… over the last three years, I’ve done so much. I’ve made friends, I’ve made enemies, I’ve made a hell of a life out there. Hell, I even made it into the Justice Legion!”
“The Justice… Legion?” asked Silas.
“Yeah, its… it’s like the new Justice League, but nevermind that,” said Cyborg. “The point is, a lot has happened, a lot has changed, but Thinker… he’s the ghost that’s been haunting me. I came here because I needed to finish things, and to save you.”
Silas frowned. “I still don’t–”
“I know you feel guilty about… my creation,” said Cyborg. “And yeah, you threw me into one hell of a world, but trust me when I say that I’ve made my mark… and I wanna keep making my mark with you beside me.”
Silas turned away. “You… want me to be with you… in your life… after everything?”
“Yeah… I do,” said Cyborg. “Because despite everything, I’m a living thing because of you… and the real Victor Stone loved you a lot. I’ve got his memories, his feelings… and trust me when I say that what he would’ve wanted, is what I want.”
Silas stared at Cyborg, at a loss for words. Looking down at the T-Beacon and then back at his own creation, he sighed, “You… you’ll come back to me… right?”
“I’ll always come back to you, Dad,” said Cyborg. “Always.”
Sniffling, Silas tackled his son with an embrace, and Cyborg returned it with a bear hug of his own. For a singular moment, the two stood in silence, tears streaming from both of their eyes. After four long years, they were finally seeing each other, meeting for the first time, yet with memories that spanned decades of connection. Letting go of Cyborg, Silas wiped his eyes, “I… I need to sit down.”
“Take your time,” said Cyborg. “V can keep you safe until we go.”
“V?”
“My…” Cyborg paused, then tapped his head. “My friend in my head.”
“Ah,” Silas nodded, then turned away, but couldn’t help but chuckle. “Heh… he named her. Typical Victor.”
Silas walked down the hall, and as Cyborg followed, V emerged from the dining room, “I have explained the situation. He is… depressed.”
“Yeah… I guess I should’ve expected that. I know what he’s going through,” said Cyborg.
“Shall we go?” asked V. “Thinker must be somewhere within this place.”
Cyborg took a peek into the dining room, noting AI Victor’s downtrodden expression. He sat in front of his laptop, the mundanity of what was likely some kind of school assignment washed away by the revelation that he was not a human being. Cyborg turned back to V, “Can you watch my dad for a sec. I wanna talk to… the other me.”
“I understand,” said V, nodding. “Silas and I have things to speak about in any case.”
Managing a smile, Cyborg then walked into the dining room, pulling out a seat next to the AI, “So… now you know.”
“That I’m fake?”
“That you weren’t born the same way another person was born,” said Cyborg. “That doesn’t make you fake.”
“I was made to… placate someone,” said the AI, “I’m some fucking sham. I’m just part of a circus act.”
“Yeah… I get where you’re coming from. I’ve been there, trust me,” said Cyborg, “Only difference was, I was made to host someone else. I was never meant to have a personality, a real mind.”
The AI shook his head, a brokenness overtaking him, “How… How are you supposed to go on? You know what you were made for, you know what was meant to happen. How do you… deal with that? How are you supposed to even think about anything else?”
“Truth is,” Cyborg took a deep breath. “When I learned how I came to be, I moped, I sat around and did nothing, because I couldn’t think about anything else. What saved me was… the friends I had made in the years before I learned what my original purpose was. I had connections with them, a life with them. They saved me.”
“Huh,” the AI let out a bleak chuckle. “That’s good for you, but I don’t have any of those here. After what your friend told me I… I tried to remember specifics of a life outside this house, friends, hobbies, and I just… I couldn’t remember anything. I’m nothing outside of this house, outside of what I was made to do.”
“Maybe that’s how you were envisioned, but that’s not all you are,” said Cyborg. “Or all you have to be. You can choose to be more, choose to have a life outside your built purpose.”
The AI got out of his seat, “But I don’t have one! Don’t you understand?! I don’t have friends to fall back on, people who really love me.”
“But you can! You can choose to start that life, choose to walk the same path I did,” said Cyborg. “All you’ve gotta do… is come with me. I’ll be with you every step of the way.”
Cyborg held out his hand, earnestly waiting on the AI. The AI stared at the hand, and it was clear that despite the arguments, he was still unsure. This was all so new, so daunting, yet what the hand represented was nothing short of a miracle. He would have a guide in the real world.
Reaching out, the AI took Cyborg’s hand, “So… how do I come back to the real world with you?”
“We have these beacons, but since we’re not inherently organic consciousnesses, the beacons won’t reconstruct a body like it would for our father. I’ve got my own body that V and I share, so we’ll probably all end up in it together. From there, I can see if we can make you a body.”
“Sounds a little crowded,” joked the AI.
“Yeah… but it’ll be temporary,” said Cyborg. “And then there’s the matter of names. We can’t both be Victor.” Cyborg scratched his chin. “I don’t have a permanent solution, but for now… why don’t we use shorthand. You’re Vic and I’m Cy.”
“Cy?”
“Short for Cyborg,” he said, gleaming. “It’s… a moniker… and a hero name.”
“Jeez, are you famous or something out there?” asked Vic.
“A little,” said Cyborg. “But that’s a story for later. I need you to stick with Dad while V and I go after Thinker. I can’t close the door on this whole thing until I find him.”
“Then you will not have to look far.”
Cyborg whirled around when he heard the digitized voice, only for both him and Vic to be ensnared in a web of electrical vines that sprouted from the floor, locking them both down. Before them stood the Thinker, a man whose body was composed almost entirely of binary code, 1s and 0s blended together into a strange, green body. Despite the humanoid shape of his figure, he had no features on his face, only the numbers, “I can hazard a guess as to why you are here, creation of mine, but why must you disrupt Silas Stone’s paradise? Surely, you could’ve at least guessed that I would be a master of my own domain, appearing wherever I wish.”
“It’s not paradise,” growled Cyborg. “It’s a fucking prison.”
“To you, it may seem that way,” said Thinker. “But understand that I was simply attempting to ease the pain I had inflicted on him.”
“You’re lying!”
“You are free to think that, and why would I expect anything different from you. I created you out of a selfish desire for power,” Thinker stared down at Cyborg, and the hero could feel the villain’s sheer pity. “But that is no longer my goal. I have learned, and now I wish to help people…help the world.”
Thinker then knelt down, reaching out for Cyborg, “I will erase the pain, erase--”
A blast of energy hit Thinker from behind, sending him barreling across the dining room table. V rushed in, crossing the distance before hitting Thinker with a second, physical kick, keeping him down. The electrical vines withered, allowing the two Victor Stones to break free. Vic ran for the hallway, while Cyborg began to form his arm into a blaster, “Keep him down, V!”
“I am doing my--”
A green shockwave interrupted V, throwing Cyborg onto his back as Thinker surged to his feet. As V landed in front of the villain, Thinker waved his hand, and a green beam the width of a soda can fired from his head, burning a hole through V’s chest. V let out a singular gasp before she herself dissolved into Binary code, like sand spilling out of an hourglass. Cyborg let out a blood curdling scream, “V!”
“Worry not, she is not deceased,” said Thinker. “She is simply-”
Cyborg surged forward, his fist crashing against Thinker’s form. The villain went flying, immediately crashing through the house’s wall before tumbling through the air. He hit the ground a few times, colliding with a mailbox all the while before landing in the middle of the street. Stepping back, Cyborg heard footsteps and Silas and the other Vic reappeared.
“What’s going on?!” asked Silas.
“Thinker’s here,” said Cyborg. “Is the beacon powered?”
“Yes, but--”
“Press it, now! I’ll see you on the other side.”
“I don’t want to leave you!” said Silas.
“You’ve been here long enough,” said Cyborg, looking back to where V just was. “And I can’t lose another person I care about!”
For a moment, Silas was hesitant, prepared to refuse his son’s wishes, when the beacon in his hands beeped. He looked down, finding that Vic had pressed the button for him. He looked up at Vic, “You-”
“See you on the other side, pops.”
And then, Silas disappeared in a beam of light, and it was just the two Victor Stones left. Cyborg glanced back towards Thinker, “Vic, hide wherever you can until this is done.”
“No, if you’re fighting him, then so am I.”
“He’ll…” Cyborg paused, trying desperately to avoid feeling the grief of losing his friend. “He’ll do to you what he did to V.”
“Not if I play it smart. You can’t always bulldoze your way to the touchdown,” said Vic. “You’ve gotta play it smart.”
Cyborg sighed, “Then let’s do it.”
Vic nodded, running further into the house to prepare as Cyborg stepped through the hole in the wall, marching towards Thinker. The villain had finally managed to get back on his feet, “Why do you refuse to listen?! My plans are for the good of the--”
“Plans plans plans, I don’t give a fuck about any of your plans,” growled Cyborg. “I don’t care about your plans in the past, your plans in the future, or your plans in the present. None of it matters, except that you’ve hurt people, and you refuse to take accountability for any of it. You hurt so many people for so many years, and I’m going to make sure that never happens again.”
Thinker sighed, “Then words are of no more use to me, if you are this stubborn, then I will have to save you the only way you have left me.”
Thinker rose into the sky, but Cyborg immediately raised his arm, morphing it into a blaster and knocking him out of the sky with a radiant beam of white energy. The concrete cracked as Thinker hit the street, allowing Cyborg to advance with his fists. Leaping into the air, he attempted to dropkick the villain, only for Thinker to roll out of the way of the attack. Raising his hand, Thinker summoned more electrical vines, but Cyborg dove out of the way, avoiding a second ensnarement. Rolling across some grass, Cyborg raised his arm to fire another blast at Thinker, only for the villain to disappear right before his eyes. A hand grabbed the back of his neck, squeezing tight before lifting him off the ground. Thinker’s voice whispered in his ear, “You cannot defeat me. I have existed in this place for years, and I have understood its own rules.”
“Then how come every time I’ve hit you, you’ve felt it,” said Cyborg. “You react to me, because like it or not, your handprints are all over me.”
Thinker let out a growl before raising his other hand, ready to send Cyborg to V, only for a splash of water to hit him in the back. He whirled around, spotting Vic with a garden hose. He was grinning, just as determined to rebel as his counterpart. Thinker leveled his hand at Vic, only for Cyborg to twist himself out of the villain’s grip, grabbing his arm and forcing it downward before another, larger beam of energy erupted from Thinker’s hand. The ground exploded, fracturing as if it was being hit by an earthquake, and as Thinker and Cyborg stumbled away from each other, the fractures became larger, and the spaces underneath the idyllic town were revealed.
Thousands of deactivated GRID robots and assembly equipment laid in the dark recesses of the underground, trashed and broken like discarded toys. Cyborg glanced up at Thinker, who was shrugging off the damage he had taken from the explosion. His binary code was beginning to splinter, numbers dripping from his body like water spilling over the top of a glass, “Ah…I see. Our code is…similar. We are of parallel wavelengths, owing to my code being imbued into your avatar.”
“Surprised it took you that long to figure it out,” said Cyborg.
Thinker hung his head, “No matter, I will still prevail. I know every weakness you have, every opening.”
“Let’s see if you last long enough to use them then.”.
Cyborg’s body shifted, glowing with pure white light as he powered himself up, preparing for a blow that he knew had enough power to finish Thinker off. Thinker meanwhile, clenched his fists, causing the numbers across his body to scroll faster and faster until they were a blur of characters. Then, the two charged one another, letting out war cries before leaping into the air, their fists raised.
He had waited all his life for this, to attain justice for himself, and for everyone else, and he wouldn’t let Thinker escape, not after all he had done to get to this moment. He thought of his friends, Michael, Exxy, and Cindy. His mother, Elinore, and his father, Silas. Finally, his mind went to Vic, a new being that needed to be made free. He fought for them all, and he would not lose.
His fist met Thinker’s, and with a catastrophic BOOM, the entire Metal was engulfed in white light.
 
 
Silas gasped for air as he sat up abruptly, vertigo invading his head. It was so bright, he could barely see. As he rubbed his eyes, he could hear the sound of footsteps as someone ran to his side, placing a hand on his shoulder.
“Silas! Silas are you alright?!”
Silas groaned, his vision finally clearing. He was in some kind of bunker, adorned with all manner of technology. Scanning the room, he spotted a couple of younger people, one was a man in an afro and glasses, while the other was a younger teenage girl with a satchel. The two were at the side of Cyborg’s body, but their attention was clearly stuck on Silas.
Then he looked to the person at his side, and his world, which had already been turned upside down that day, flipped one more time. It was his wife! She was… alive?
“E-Elinore?” Silas adjusted his glasses. “Is… is that--?”
“I am… Though I’m not your Elinore,” She grabbed him by the arm, pulling him to his feet. “Are you alright?”
“Yes, I… No!” Silas’ eyes widened. “Our son, he-he went to fight Thinker! I left him! I--”
“Relax Dad, I… I made it out.”
The entire room turned to Cyborg, who had abruptly risen from his chair. He was sweating, the battle clearly taking a toll on him. Exxy and Cindy immediately tackled him with a hug.
“Aw man, you had us so worried!” said Cindy.
“Had you worried maybe, I knew he’d pull through fine!” said Exxy.
Silas felt a small giggle leave his body, “Goodness… how… how did you beat him?”
“Our coding was similar enough that I could harm him in ways the other AI couldn’t, I weakened him before trapping him in a firewall modeled after his own fortress. He won’t hurt anyone ever again,” said Cyborg. “I… I couldn’t save the other Victor AI… and V… she’s gone too.”
“Ah damn,” said Exxy. “I liked V. She was really mean to me most of the time, but dammit I liked her anyway.”
Cindy placed a hand on Cyborg’s shoulder, “We’ll be sure to remember her… always.”
Cyborg nodded, looking to the rest of the team, “So… what… what do we do now?”
“I…” Silas swallowed, “I want to start rebuilding my life… rebuilding who I was before…”
“You’ll have all the help we can spare, Dad,” said Cyborg, “I promise.”
“Yes,” said Elinore. “While I’m still here, I’ll do what I can to get you up to speed on past events.”
“I… thank you,” said Silas. “Though to tell you all the truth… my preferred start to my new life would be… to have some food.”
“Food?” said Cindy.
“Shit man, yeah you’re right. Guy hasn’t eaten in like three years,” said Exxy. “But don’t worry, I’ve got you. I know an amazing Thai place.”
Slowly but surely, the team began to make plans for the dinner, to welcome Silas back into the world again. However, as they began to pour out, Cyborg placed a hand on the machine that had taken him into the Metal, “You guys go ahead. I just… I need to be alone for a sec.”
“Hey, no prob!” said Exxy. “We’ll catch you later!”
The team poured out the door, with Silas taking one last cursory look back at his son before smiling and giving him a thumbs up. Cyborg waved goodbye to his friends and family, keeping his smile until they all left. Then, with a somber face, he turned back to the machine, sighing.
“You almost got me, I will admit… but the creation does not often best the creator,” Thinker grimaced. “For what it’s worth, I am proud to have called you my creation, you lived up to a higher potential than you could ever know, but your plan still had a flaw.”
Thinker looked at Cyborg’s hands, which now belonged to him, “I could take your beacon, inhabit the body built for me. All I had to do was prod your weaknesses and disable you before I did it. It was naive to think one powerful strike could destroy me. Brave… but naive.”
Thinker looked back to the machine, “But worry not, I have put you at peace, like your father was… and now I am free to extend that peace to the rest of the world.”
Thinker turned away from the machine, walking towards the exit to the bunker, “My plan is now in effect. It’s time to save the world.”
 
 
To be continued later in 2023!!!

"Pregnancy is the time during which one or more offspring develops (gestates) inside a woman's uterus (womb)."
That's it. That's all that pregnancy is. It's not "good" or "bad."
This past week, I made a few comments which described pregnancy. This is approximately the jist of what I've been saying:
Pregnancy is similar to a parasitic relationship: "The human foetus and placenta have a different genotype from the mother. The foetus has been described before as acting in a parasitic way: it avoids rejection by the mother and exerts considerable influence over her metabolism for its own benefit, in particular diverting blood and nutrients."
Pregnancy is a competition for resources: "the genetic interests of the fetus are not in total alignment with the genetic interests of the mother....The mother and her fetus are in competition for nutrients following every meal. The longer the mother has elevated levels of blood sugar the greater the amount of glucose that can be gained by the fetus."
Pregnancy is a biological war: "This fact sits uncomfortably with some enduring cultural ideas about motherhood. Even today, it is common to hear doctors talking about the uterine lining as the ‘optimal environment’ for nurturing the embryo. But physiology has long cast doubt on this romantic view."
Whenever I bring up these points, PL tend to be almost personally offended. I partly get it. Words like parasitic, competition, and war are scary and negative. Unlike how PL describe pregnancy: healthy, normal, natural! Putting side how unhealthy pregnancy is, why can't we use negative terms to describe it?
I understand the need to romanticize it and uphold the "motherliness" of pregnancy. Mothers are caring, nurturing, soft so pregnancy should be described along the same lines. I also understand the need to advertise pregnancy in order to push the PL agenda, so of course it needs to be painted in a bright happy light. So I get the need to make pregnancy all sunshine and rainbows. It's what they did to periods as I was growing up: girls in white dresses running through fields, jumping around and having a slumber party, so fun and natural and free!! But that's not reality. When I first got my period, I was expecting what I was shown. I was expecting "healthy, normal, and natural." That's not what happened. I was extremely fucked over, as was the majority of children I grew up with who started menstruating.
So why are we making the same mistake with pregnancy? What is wrong with being honest and accurate about what pregnancy is and what actually happens? What is the point, other than further stigmatizing female pain, to mask the harms of pregnancy? That is so incredibly dangerous and hinders research in minimizing maternal trauma. It takes one quick google search to learn about the countless horrors of childbirth and the trauma associated with it. Don't people who are pregnant or wanting to be pregnant deserve to know what pregnancy really entails? Isn't only using positive terms to talk about it misleading and manipulative?

Thursday 1st June - Fiver Feed : Five things to do today in Glasgow for around a Fiver or FREE!
Instagram here for extra stuff and things, come join the fun! (Disclaimer - may not actually be any fun)
Shoutout for Glasgow Science Festival 1st - 11th June, 100's of activities, most are free!
​

• Zines - Ahhhh May Zine Fair - £Free (Ticketed)
• A fair for the unvanquished and the tireless; artists who engage in the radical act of DIY publishing give platforms to the never-ready-for-prime-time voices. Browse and buy zines from SPAM Press, From Glasgow To Saturn, Set The Zine and more.
• 13:00 - 15:00 Dining Hall @ Glasgow University Union 32 University Avenue G12 8LX

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

• Night Market - Summer Bonanza - £6 for 2/£3.50/£3/£2 (Booking Required)
• A glittering late-night emporium bringing the very best local traders to make one homegrown extravaganza!
• 17:30 - 22:30 Cottiers 93-95 Hyndland St G11 5PU

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

• Talk - The Govan Heritage Dialogues - £Free
• Conserving the Built Heritage in the Public Interest. Led by David Robertson. The major refurbishment of Govan Old church requires reflection on the conservation strategies followed on similar historic buildings in Glasgow.
• 18:30 - 21:00 Govan Old Parish Church 866 Govan Rd Govan G51 3UU

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

• Gig - Electric Honey Presents The 30th Anniversary Showcase - £Five£6 On the Door
• Student run Electric Honey Records, once home of Belle & Sebastian, Snow Patrol and Biffy Clyro, present their annual showcase featuring live sets from Scunnurt, Land of Rubber Men, Wine Moms and Sophie Gibson.
• 18:30 - 22:30 Stereo 22 Renfield Ln G2 5AR

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

• Poetry/Pride - Versaye Pride Edition! - £Free
• Featuring a whole host of talent (queer only) including featured poets Michael Mullen & Anna Secret Poet, an LGBT History Quiz and a singalong!
• 20:25 - 22:15 Set Cafe Bar Tron Theatre 25 Chisholm St G1 5HB

Discussion Place for Shooting Stars (Kick A Goal) EP95 - GT (group B #2) v AC (group A #1)
Knock-out Playoffs: Game 01 - Giants vs. Actionista
Players, their teams, managers and their IG's PART 1
Players, their teams, managers and their IG's PART 2
Thanks to u/M3rc_Nate
please use >!text to hide/spoilers!< to hide any spoilers for at least the first couple of days. However, expect not everyone will follow; so SPOILERS will be discussed.
Press Conference: with Lee YoungJin, Baek JiHoon (Coach), Oh BeomSeok (Coach), and Lee HyunYi
ChallengeLeague 3.0 - GROUP C

TEAM	Played	WINS	LOSSES	Goal Diff.	Scored	Against
NFa	3	2	1	+0	4	4
SFb	3	2	1	+0	2	2
WW	3	1	2	+1	2	1
BDy	3	1	2	-1	2	3

BD = BallaDream
NF = NatFam
SF = StreamingFighter
WW = WonderWoman
^a = automatic promotion to SuperLeague
^b = possible promotion to SuperLeague, knock-out game vs. the winner of 5th/6th seed in SL (GV or TG)
^y = suspended from all League play
SuperLeague 4.0 - GROUP A

TEAM	Played	WINS	LOSSES	Goal Diff.	Scored	Against
AC	2	1	1	+1	6	5
FM	2	1	1	+0	3	3
TGx	2	1	1	-1	3	4

^x = eliminated from knock-out playoffs, will play one game vs. bottom rank of Group B to find out 5th and 6th seeding
AC = Actionista
FM = FireMoths
TG = TopGirl
SuperLeague 4.0 - GROUP B

TEAM	Played	WINS	LOSSES	Goal Diff.	Scored	Against
WC	2	1	1	+2	6	4
GT	2	1	1	+0	3	3
GVx	2	1	1	-2	5	7

^x = eliminated from knock-out playoffs, will play one game vs. bottom rank of Group A to find out 5th and 6th seeding
GT = Giants
GV = Gaevengers
WC = World Class
Total Goals Leader (from both Challenge and Super Leagues)

Rank	Player	Team	Goals (versus)	Games Played
1	Hwang HeeJung	NF	3(SF 1, BD 2)	3
T2	Lee YoungJin	AC	2(TG 2)	2
T2	Kim BoKyung	TG	2(AC 2)	2
T2	Lee HyeJeong	AC	2(FM 2)	2
T2	Lee HyunYi	GT	2(GV 2)	2
T2	SaoRi	WC	2(GT 1-pk, GV 1)	2
T3	SeoMoon Tak	BD	1(NF 1)	3
T3	YuBin	TG	1(AC 1)	2
T3	Jeong HeIn	AC	1(TG 1)	2
T3	Song HaeNa	GT	1(GV 1)	2
T3	SeoGi	BD	1(WW 1)	3
T3	EuDDeum	SF	1(NF 1)	3
T3	Kim MinJi	NF	1(SF 1)	3
T3	Naty	WC	1(GV 1)	2
T3	Lee EunHyung	GV	1(WC 1)	2
T3	Kim SeungHye	GV	1(WC 1)	2
T3	Kim MinKyung	GV	1(WC 1)	2
T3	Hong SooAh	FM	1(AC 1)	2
T3	Eva	WC	1(GT 1)	2
T3	Kim GaYoung	WW	1(NF 1)	3
T3	Kim SeolHee	WW	1(NF 1)	3
T3	Park SunYoung	FM	1(TG 1)	2
T3	Ahn YeWon	SF	1(BD 1)	3

GAME STARTING ROSTERS
GT with coach Oh BeomSeok

no.	Player	TEAM
100	Lee HyunYi (C)	F
7	Song HaeNa	D
21	Jin JeongSun	GK
18	Kim JinKyung	F
66	Cha SeoRin	(SUB)
1	Heo KyungHee	D

2-2 formation
AC with coach Baek JiHoon

no.	Player	TEAM
02	Lee YoungJin (C)	D
33	Lee HyeJeong	F
11	Moon JiIn	F
8	Jeong HeIn	M
250	Lee ChaeYoung	GK
1	Park HaNa	(SUB)

2-1-1 formation
DO NOT READ THE BELOW SPOILERS unless you really want to be spoiled of the game highlights.
Highlights:~1' AC Miss: (AC 11) and (AC 8) strip the ball from (GT 100), (AC 11) kicks a short pass to the middle for (AC 33) who one-time short back passes to (AC 02), she surveys the field and dribbles down the right wing beating (GT 27), (AC 02) kicks a forward pass down the right wing for (AC 33) who traps the ball and back passes to (AC 8) around the centre circle, (AC 8) takes a deep one-time bouncy rolling shot on target that (GT 21- GK) smothers, i nice set of passes and a shot on target by AC
Highlights:~2' AC Miss: (AC 8) takes a sideline kick-in deep in AC territory with a shot on target that is bouncy, (GT 21- GK) gets in front of the ball attempting to catch it, but hits her knee and goes out for a corner kick
Highlights:~2' AC Miss: (AC 8) takes a low lobbing shot on target deep in her defensive territory that (GT 21- GK) tracks down and follows and pushes the ball out of bounds for a corner kick
Highlights:~3' AC Miss: (AC 8) takes a sideline kick-in with a power low roller shot on target that goes in the net, however, there is no other incidental contact or touch from any field player that the goal is no good
Highlights:~3' AC Miss: (AC 8) takes a sideline kick-in with a power low roller shot on near the goal mouth that (AC 33) botches the first touch but manages to get a back heel kick shot on target, that (GT 1) manages to block, the ball goes out of bounds for a corner kick
Highlights:~4' GT Miss: (GT 27) takes a corner kick with a delicious perfect cross pass to the top of the 16 yard box that (GT 100) one-time shoots on target that is placed low and in the middle, (AC 250- GK) gets her left foot on the ball to re-direct it out of bounds for a corner kick, what a great pass, shot, and save
Highlights:~4' GT Miss: (GT 27) takes a corner kick with a low roller to the goal mouth area that (AC 33) manages to cut off and trap, she is being rushed by everyone collapsing on her position that she poke kicks the ball forward, (GT 1) gets to the ball first and takes a one-time shot on net that is way off target
Highlights:~4' GT Miss: (GT 27) takes a corner kick with a low roller to the goal mouth area that (AC 33) manages to cut off and trap, she is being rushed by everyone collapsing on her position that she poke kicks the ball forward, (GT 1) gets to the ball first and takes a one-time shot on net that is way off target
Highlights:~5' GT Miss: (AC 250- GK) tosses the ball deep to (AC 11) but she botches the first touch and (GT 1) takes the ball, with a great cut move she dekes out (AC 8) and dribbles down the right wing, she kicks a great cross pass that goes through (AC 33) but holy smokes NO ONE from GT was expecting the cross pass both (GT 27) and (GT 100) were a step behind and flat footed on a great cross
Highlights:~6' AC Foul: (AC 02) and (GT 27) go for a 50/50 air ball, (AC 02) pushes (GT 27) out of the way and is whistled for a foul, a direct free-kick is awarded on the left wing side at the centre line
Highlights:~6' GT Miss: (GT 27) takes direct free kick with a shot on target that is blocked by (AC 8) the ball goes to the wing and (GT 100) and (AC 8) battle for the ball, (GT 100) manages to control the ball and kick an outlet pass to the opposite wing to (GT 7) who traps the ball and takes a shot on target that is aimed for the near side bottom right corner, (AC 250- GK) is well positioned and manages to smother the ball
Highlights:~7' GT Skills: (GT 1) gets a side jumping header to keep the ball on the offensive zone, the ball dropped to (AC 02) who kicks it out and goes out of bounds to the sidelines
Highlights:~7' AC Miss: (AC 02) kicks the ball forward and it manages to reach a deep positioned (AC 11), (GT 21- GK) comes off her goal line to contest the ball and kicks it out of bounds towards the sidelines before (AC 11) can take a shot or control the ball
Highlights:~7' GT unexpected Skills: (GT 7) totally misses a bouncy ball and it rolls towards GT defensive end into the corner, (GT 21- GK) kicks the most unexpected and technically beautiful forward rolling pass down the wing for (GT 100) to receive, the play ends with no shot on net for GT
Highlights:~8' AC Miss: (AC 8) takes a sideline kick-in with a power shot that is blocked by the GT wall of (GT 27), the ball bounces back to (AC 8) who takes the ball and dribbles down the right wing side and manages to take a shot on net that misses the near side post by a few feet, (GT 21- GK) was well positioned to cut the angles
Highlights:~8' GT Foul: (AC 33) and (GT 27) battle for a loose ball, looks like (GT 27) grabs the hand of (AC 33) who falls down to draw the foul, whistle blows in her favour, a direct free-kick is awarded in AC territory on the left wing side
Highlights:~8' AC GOAL: (AC 8) takes the direct free kick with a cross pass to the opposite wing side for (AC 02), she beats (GT 100) with a self pass forward down the right wing and chases it down with a shot on target that is aimed for the far side bottom left corner that stuns everyone, (GT 21- GK) should have had this shot blocked, nothing special other than its spontaneous nature, the shot went through TWO GT defenders, so it was a very well placed shot on target that missed defenders, (AC 11) was well positioned to get any big rebounds, great AC goal
Highlights:~9' AC Miss: (GT 1) heads the ball forward with a light tap that (AC 02) kicks forward back into GT territory, (AC 11) is wide open but the ball is too deep, (GT 21- GK) comes off her line and gets to the ball and bodies it, wisely not using her hands as she is positioned outside of the 16yard box, the ball still loose but is eventually out of bounds on the sidelines by AC, (AC 11) subs off for **(AC 1)
Highlights:~9' GT Miss: (AC 1) tries to clear the ball forward but (GT 7) steps in front of the ball and re-directs it deep into AC right wing corner that (GT 100) tracks down, she slows the pace down and controls the ball a bit with (AC 8) on her back, she kicks a back pass to (GT 7) who one-time kicks the ball that goes to the left wing side where (GT 27) is all alone. (GT 27) gets a one-time volley shot on target but HOLY SHIT (AC 250- GK) had her left hand stuck out and it hits her hand and drops in the front of both (AC 250- GK) and (GT 27), (AC 250- GK) instantly drops down and smothers the ball. WHAT A SAVE!!! i thought this shot from last week's previews was 100% a goal lolol, it was a huge save, ULTRA INSTINCT save!!!!!
HALFTIME SCORE LINE: ------- GT 0 - 1 AC------------, both teams are playing hard, with both getting offensive chances, it's just a matter of finishing their chances with a goal
Highlights:~10' GT Miss: (GT 1) takes the centreline kick-in with a shot on net that misses the target to the right by a few feet, GT needs to build up plays in AC territory and not lose the ball with a deep shot...
Highlights:~10' GT Miss: (GT 1) steals the ball from (AC 33) and dribbles down the left wing side being pursued by (AC 02 she kicks a beautiful rolling cross to a wide open (GT 100) who traps the ball (WHY NOT ONE-TIME IT!!) and slows down the play with AC defenders frantically chasing the ball, she kicks a rolling pass to the opposite wing for (GT 1) to take a shot on target that is aimed for the near side bottom left corner that (AC 250- GK) manages to get her right hand on and the ball goes out of bounds for a corner kick, HYUNYI YAH! you just wasted a glorious one-time shot on target, and I know you can blast those with some accuracy and a whole lot of power, upon the many replays, it looks like HyunYi decided correctly as the ball was too close to her feet to manage a good shot on target
Highlights:~11' GT Miss: (GT 27) takes a corner kick with a low roller to the goal mouth area that (AC 11) re-directs on her own net, (AC 250- GK) has her eyes on the ball throughout and manages to smother the re-direction, AC was man-marking both (GT 7) and (GT 100) heavily that none of them could get free to be a pass option, GT need to start thinking of scoring the tying goal
Highlights:~11' GT GOAL: (GT 27) takes a corner kick with a low roller to top of the 16yard box area, (GT 100) and (GT 7) stayed put near the left wing side at the behest of Coach BeomSeok's yelling to stay still, Coach BeomSeok calls go as the pass is kicked and (GT 7) breaks free from the suffocating man-marking of (AC 02) and (AC 33) by using (GT 100) as a pick and cuts towards the middle, (GT 7) takes a power one-time shot on target aimed centre and high and beats (AC 250- GK) by going between her arms trying to block it, what a beauty set piece, great pass, great shot, and great movement
Highlights:~12' AC Miss: (AC 250- GK) drops the ball for (AC 02) who kicks the ball forward to the left wing for (AC 11) who loses the ball to (GT 7) who kicks the ball forward that (AC 8) traps and kicks back to the left wing side for (AC 11), this time she keeps ball control but is marked tight by (GT 7) so she back passes to (AC 02), who kicks a deep pass down the right wing for (AC 33) who traps it on the sideline and kicks a cross pass for (AC 8) who one-time power shoots the ball on target to the wide side mid right area that (GT 21- GK) punches out towards the opposite wing where (AC 11) is all alone, she manages to botch the first touch insofar that the ball went right back to (GT 21- GK) who smothered the ball, great ball movement and passing
Highlights:~13' AC Miss: (GT 7) takes a sideline kick in with a pass towards the middle that goes weakly to no one, (AC 33) cuts the ball off and dribbles to the center circle, leaving the ball for (AC 8) to continue the offensive push, (AC 8) slows down and gathers the ball, with no GT defender near her, she sets up for a deep power shot aimed for the bottom left corner that is on target but (GT 21- GK) lunges over and blocks the ball with her right thigh, a huge rebound goes up in the air and (AC 11) gets her head on the ball but the re-direction is way off the mark and goes out of bounds for a goal kick
Highlights:~14' GT Miss: (GT 21- GK) kicks the ball deep into AC territory that (GT 100) tracks down near the right wing corner, dribbling back to her end to evade (AC 02) she kicks a short pass to the middle for (GT 1) who traps the ball and then taps the ball forward to evade both (AC 02) and (AC 8) and she runs between them to chase the ball down, she gets to the ball and takes a shot on net that is aimed for the near side bottom right corner and misses by a few feet, (AC 250- GK) was in position to save the ball
Highlights:~15' AC GOAL: (AC 8) takes a sideline kick-in with a low cross near the goal mouth area that (AC 11) beats her defensive mark and manages to get a one-time right footed re-direction that goes to the bottom left corner for a goal, (AC 11)'s first league goal and a great re-direction with pace and accuracy at that
Highlights:~15' GT Miss: (GT 21- GK) throws a deep ball that bounces and (GT 100) chases down the right wing side, she takes a shot on net that misses the near side post by a few feet, looks like (AC 02) is getting a bit tired and limpy
Highlights:~16' AC GOAL: (GT 27) saves a ball from going out of bounds on the sidelines, she kicks a hard pass to the middle that (GT 100) botches the first touch and (AC 8) steals the ball and runs between (GT 7) and (GT 100) now dribbling towards the left wing and now changing direction moving forward she is a step ahead of (GT 100) who is trying to catch up, (AC 8) lays the perfectly placed soft shot to the wide side bottom right corner for a goal, GT down 2 goals with 4 minutes left, can they do it?, (AC 1) subs on for (AC 02) who needs to rest her strained calf muscles on the sidelines
Highlights:~17' GT Miss: (GT 27) takes a sideline kick-in near the centreline with a lobbing shot on target that bounces in front of (AC 250- GK) who misses it and the ball hits the right post!!!, the rebound bounces towards the goal mouth area where (GT 100) sticks out her leg to get a re-direction on net but (AC 11) is there to block the ball with her stomach and kicks the ball out of bounds towards the sidelines
Highlights:~17' GT Miss: (GT 1) takes a sideline kick-in with a power shot on target that is fully blocked by AC wall (AC 11) the ball goes back to (GT 1) who corrals the ball and kicks a fast and low cross to the top of the 16yard box, (GT 100) is there but doesn't manage a shot or a trap, the ball continues out of bounds to the opposite wing, a wasted chance, and time is ticking
Highlights:~18' GT Miss: (GT 27) takes a sideline kick-in with a power shot on target that is near the centerline moreso in GT territory, the ball is high and was a set up for a heading attempt for (GT 1) but the ball goes into the net with no other contact and is ruled no goal, a great shot, but not the timed to shoot like that on target
Highlights:~18' AC GOAL: (AC 33) stops (GT 27) from dribbling down the left wing with a strong ball stop that rebounds into GT territory (GT 7) is there to gather the ball but she mis-steps and falls straight down to the ground (AC 33) takes advantage of the mistake and charges to the ball and dribbles forward with (GT 7) and (GT 1) converging onto (AC 33), (GT 21- GK) also moves off her goal line to cover the angles, (AC 33) takes a shot on target that squirts by all the GT players and rolls to the goal mouth area where (AC 1) is all alone and she takes a shot on the wide open net, (AC 1) gets her first league goal in a good display of running to the open lane rather than chasing after a ball that her teammate is in control of. Looks like GT will have a very difficult time for a tie score. Cannot blame (GT 21- GK), she played it well, AC just played it better, (AC 33) subs off and (AC 02) enters the game
Highlights:~18' GT & AC Sub: (GT 7) subs off, (GT 66) enters the game, first sub for GT in the game, (AC 02) subs off for (AC 33) to enter the game
FINAL SCORE LINE: ------- GT 1 - 4 AC------------------------, ChaeYoung comes up big for AC in net, JeeIn gets her first goal, HaNa gets her first goal, great showing from AC, GT lost their focus, again HaeNa is the enigma, she gets goals but her first touch is terrible and she managed to messed up her footwork to cede that 4th goal. JeongSun was strong in net just the scoreline makes her look worse, her decision making from leaving her goal line is good, HyunYi was off her game.
PREVIEWS: FM v WC, WC looks strong, Naori combo having some chemistry, SoYeon outmuscling WC defense and that last shot in the previews looks like a goal, so most likely isn't hahaha

Hi Everyone,
25, Male, 170lbs, 5ft 11in, healthy
I have a boney point on the top of my shoulder (link in comments). I think this has occurred from bench pressing, as when I perform that motion it is painful (not intensely) and I can feel pressure on my collarbone.
I have full motion of my shoulder with just a little pain. I have an appointment with my physio but not until 16th June.
Does anyone know what this could be? I was thinking maybe an AC sprain?

Has anyone had any issues with the touchscreens?
Mine will randomly press buttons (usually on the lower screen for AC controls) and turn things on/off while driving. At first it was just an annoyance but then it turned off traction control while driving in a heavy downpour... along side spamming every other button I've tried cleaning the screen with everything I can think of (dry rag, damp rag, lens/screen cleaning wipes, etc.) with no success. There is no damage to the screen, and I've only had it ~2 months. The dealer has a tech guy or something but they won't return my calls so I figured I'd see if anyone else has experienced this.

What are some shows you'd want to see covered at some point?
Justice - early 2000s crime trial series. It felt a bit like a CSI crossed with criminal trial show. It was from a criminal defense law firm. Starts with the person being arrested. There is press briefings, defense strategy, presenting case, etc. After the verdict it shows how the crime really occurred. Been forever since i watched one, but iirc one trial a person was accused of murder. Victim was found with a head wound floating in a pool. Turns out they slipped, hit their head on a statue or something and fell in unconscious and drowned. Series starred Victor Garber. Lasted less than a season
Second Noah - kind of a Seventh Heaven type family drama. Dad is a writer and mom is a zoo vet. Live around Bush Gardens. They have 8 or so kids all adopted. James Marsden is the oldest. Then hispanic teen daughter. Early teen twin boys. Two tween girls (one black, one white), hispanic girl's 7-8 year old brother, then the three year old son of Marsden's character. Typical drama. One plot line involved a severe storm hitting while kids are home alone. Lasted 2-3 seasons.
The Good Guys - Colin Hanks and Bradley Whitford are Dallas cops (property crimes). A small case always becomes some huge one. Broken street light becomes car theft ring. Lots of humor and action. Tons of kick ass music like AC/DC, Barracuda, etc. High High recommend on this one. Only one season sadly.
APB - after his friend is murdered, tech billionaire funds police with high tech gadgets (drones, taser rifles, etc) to fight crime. One season.
Eli Stone - lawyer finds out he has a brain aneurism and it causes him to have visions. This leads him to take certain cases to help others. Like visions of a biplane attacking him leads him to helping a immigrant field hand sick from chemical crop dusting. Also sometimes he has visions of big musical numbers. He is the only one seeing it. Two seasons. Good series.
Three animated series: God, The Devil, & Bob - God is upset with the world and is ready to end it. But if one person can show him it is worth saving he will spare it. Devil gets to choose and he chooses Bob. By the end he succeeds and the two then hang around and get involved with his life. Think Christian groups complained and got it cancelled. One season
Father of the Pride - Sigfried and Roy's white lions sitcom with their other animals too. CGI. Think it was a little too expensive. One season.
Family Dog - 80s cartoon from Brad Bird of Pixar. One season

Samsung Home Appliance Service Centre near Manikonda samsung service centre At Kutkatpally : we have our suport center at kukatpally to serve moosapet to patancheru, you can carry the product to our multi brand service center to get it repaired of your Samsung led tv Service Centre near Tolichowki, lcd tv, home theatre and other carry in products to get it repaired on time with original spare parts. Our Engineers are a well-trained in our eServe Samsung Service Centre near Hyderabad now we are holding this services since 7 years, and we have been with samsung customer support, Customers are happy with our services where as they can suggest us for other customer samsung product problems, its a chain linking process where the trust we made to them. Why choose us? samsung Ac Service Centre near Manikonda repair outputs, we are currently employing effective methods on all your samsung home appliances Service Centre near Gachibowli and the concept-oriented industry strategies. For a samsung microwave oven, samsung air conditioners, samsung refrigerator Service Centre near Manikonda, samsung washing machines a lot more, we've got the individual group of professionals who're trained and highly experienced technicians to supply you such an excellent variety of their outputs. As Samsung brand products Service Centre near Madapur have already made their fundamental presence of our eServe Samsung service centre near Kukatpally has become the most acceptable resource to seek out their samsung appliances. We are the best Samsung repair center in Hyderabad having good technical team to diagnose and ensure 100% of the customer satisfaction. Search your eServe samsung authorized service centre near me or authorised samsung service center near me to get it repired on time.OUR SPECIALTIES: Our service team of engineers or technicians has made our repair serices proud.They are speacially trained in Samsung home appliances like LED TV, LCD TV, Refrigerator, Washing machine, Home theatre and AC, now our home appliance service center has become popular due to corona virus lockdown support, nowadays from on the list of mushrooms of the numerous service centers we are only one who served in hyderabad. Almost in phase -I lockdown of covid-19 corona virus we served 1000+ customers in that 30% share is samsung. we made customer happy and thankful to us where there is no return thanks in service industry . We have higher than a decade old participation in making the Samsung home appliances product customers happy. We got the customers' trust in hyderabad. .Eserve.in is the commitment to bring service at your door step, we build confidence in customers, and we shown our professionalism. Thousands technicians and hundreds of web sites , which no longer given service in lockdown having with small tem of experts we shown the art of work, that which made us now proud and NO 1 SAMSUNG SERVICE near Hyderabad. look for our samsung led tv service centre near me in your browser. Samsung AC repair and service Kondapur eServe Samsung AC Service Center in Hyderabad repair, maintenance and service your samsung AC Service Centre near Manikonda. Our well trained technician repairs your AC low cost econimically. If your AC in a commercial Area like Office business , factory or Industrial area we have specially trained team for that products like samsung VRF , HVAC or ductable air condition segment. SAMSUNG SPLIT AC Samsung Split AC Works Smart & Saves Energy: Samsung Split AC is an energy-efficient Digital Inverter 8-Pole maintains the desired temperature without frequently turning off and on. So, it uses less energy and helps you stay comfortable for long periods. If there is any repair in Split AC, take the support of the eServe Samsung Air Conditioner Service center near you Hyderabad. Samsung Split AC for Fast Cooling: Samsung Split AC’s Fast Cooling Mode cools much faster by running the compressor at the maximum level with the fastest fan speed for 30 minutes. It’s Digital Inverter 8-Pole also helps it to quickly reach the maximum Hz when it starts. Samsung Split AC-Keeps the airs clean: Samsung three Care Filter keeps your air fresh and the inside of the unit clean. As well as capturing dust, it eliminates up to 99% of certain viruses, bacteria, and allergy as they pass through its dense filter mesh. If there is any problem in Kukatpally with Samsung AC, contact eServe Samsung service center Kukatpally. Samsung Split AC comfortably cools: The second Step Cooling Mode begins with cooling the air fast using its FastCool mode. It then automatically changes to Comfort Cool mode to maintain the desired temperature, so don’t have to keep changing the settings in the Air Conditioner. If you’re Samsung Air Conditioner not cooling, call us to attend your AC problem in same day from eServe Samsung AC Service repair center near you. Samsung Split AC Stable Performance Service Manikonda: Samsung Split AC keeps going in the most challenging environments with Triple Protector Plus technology. It prevents overloads, with the Voltage Fluctuation Protector feature in Samsung Split AC, Samsung AC compressor can withstand a range of voltage fluctuationensuring stable performance and peace of mind. Samsung Split AC has anti-corrosion coating also protects the condenser and cabinet in harsh conditions. If you got any repair in Samsung Split AC, Take the support of eServe Samsung AC service center Mehdipatnam , Search for best samsung service center near mehdipatnam. Enjoy a Good Night's sleep with Samsung Split AC: Samsung Split AC gives Good Sleep mode creates a desirable climate for a good night's sleep. With its temperature control, it keeps you comfortable, so you fall asleep fast, sleep deeply, and wake up refreshed. If there is any problem of your Samsung AC take support of eServe Samsung AC Service repair contact number. Samsung Split AC’s Automatic Temperature Control: Auto Change Over automatically selects the operating model required to maintain the set temperature. So you can enjoy a consistently comfortable environment without continually changing settings. What should I do, if Air conditioner temperature is not cool enough? Samsung's air conditioner is designed to be very efficient. The fast-cool mode provides a rapid change in air temperature to quickly reduce room temperature to your designated setting. If the temperature of your air conditioner is wrong, even though you set the proper settings, check the following environmental conditions. If there is any repair of your AC, Take the support of eServe Samsung AC repair near you Hyderabad Telangana. Ifyou feel the temperature of the air conditioner is not cool enough, make sure the selected temperature is set to low and high temperature. Press the + or - of the Temp button in remote to change the temperature of the Samsung AC. The room should be protected with all doors and windows closed to avoid poor cooling performance in the Samsung Air Conditioner Service Centre near Mehdipatnam. If the room size is bigger than the capacity of the air conditioner, it will take more time to bring the temperature down. Therefore, it is recommended to use an air conditioner that fits your home area. If you use an air conditioner that has insufficient capacity compared to the area of the house, the house may not be cool and the electric bill will be high. Check the air filter of the Samsung Air ConditionerWhen the inside air filter has too much dust, your air conditioner is unable to draw in a sufficient amount of air. This may be the cause of the issue with the temperature. We recommend you to clean the filter every two weeks or when the CF display code appears on the indoor unit display. If you didnt solved this problem, take eServe support by Samsung AC service repair centre near me Kukatpally Hyderabad. Samsung LED TV service and repair Hyderabad Samsung LED TV service and repair center in Hyderabad samsung led tv service centre in hyderabad : It becomes annoying when the LED tv places begin bothering with some technical issues when you are currently on the lookout for a few leisure. Don't stress that our expert technicians are prepared to assist you and repair every issue of Samsung Led tv Service Centre near Madapur Samsung LED TV Service Center in Hyderabad. Problems are resolved by our technicians like Audio problems, No power, Poor picture quality, without any display sound ok, ghost images as well as lines LCD / LED TV display screen panel. Then you definitely can easily call us 7337443480 to obtaining the TV screen for fixing is like an encumbrance and also our eServe Engineers would be on your doorstep, ready to fix the issue of your led tv. The customer gets stressed because of the high re-pair costs of LED tvs and searches at Hyderabad for a technician for LED. Mostly People hunt for Samsung service center in Hyderabad however, the company authorised service facility fees are very costly. Get in touch for repair samsung tv service centre near me Uppal Hyderabad. The main questions regarding to fix of SAMSUNG LED TV in Hyderabad are:

AC charge,no leak.Dryer replaced.No service codes on obd testing,also no codes on mercedes self codes testing.AC work for while than go off.So i press EC button to turn off wait 10sec and start cooling again? Car have 190.000km on dash.Any idea?Thanks.

Laptop- Asus X556UR, little background- i myself replaced my laptops broken screen, keyboard, HDD and fan so i am not new to small DIY repairs.
Problem- now, If i turn off my laptop/ put it to sleep, then start it again, it doesnt charge almost at all. The Orange battery light keeps blinking weirdly, as if its getting a little power and then nothing.(untill my battery runs out after 30min) after a billion trys of plugging in and out, pressing power button and hard shut downs(6sec holds). it works as usual (solid orange battery light), but then if i turn it off -> another billlion trys would be needed to make it work.
Laptops been used as desktop replacement for the past 7 years so its always left plugged in. Pretty sure the Ac adapter and battery (which is also almost dead but still runs for a solid 30min) are still good.
also without touching the power button (battery attached & plugged in), the orange light keeps blinking but its like 3 sec light then off and repeat. by the sound from motherboard it seems the computer never turns off as long as it is plugged in- there is always coil whines but no sound. plug out and in again - fan turns on for a brief moment. when its Normal- no motherboard sound whether plugged in or not.
Stuff i tried-
Tried it without the battery (its a non removable type), solid battery orange light but the laptop turns off after asus screen shows up 5sec later. doesnt make it to windows screen.
Sfc scan now/dism online,tried removing ram, did 40 sec power button press for "EC reset" suggested somewhere and uninstalled the two drivers under battery(ac/acpi) nothing works. still did not try bios firmware reinstallation and windows clean install (i could simply try usb boot recovery or linux instead of that) running windows 10, everything is uptodate.
I would like to see if i could do something to fix it myself before turning it in to a mechanic, which would probably cost me enough to buy a new entry lvl laptop, hopefully someone has some idea to fix it. if i could also just run it without battery, that would also be perfect.Thank you.