Social DGames Social | V/LA |

[Shun Goku Satsu Rake]

Wish you the best man. Job interviews have become horrendous bureaucratic ways to basically gate you out unless you have an inside connection via friends or family. You're still young and if you remain ambitious you will find a solution sooner or later. If you think that you're reaching the end of your rope let me know. I always have a shoulder for you to lean on if you're starting to feel like you've exhausted everything.

A tl;dr of that week:

- 2 12hour shifts selling Furnaces door to door. Was not informed it was door to door, was not informed it was sales, was not informed it was 12 hours .I sold 750$ worth, threw up the next day from the stress of selling and the guy who hired me literally wouldn't hear of me quitting because he cockily thought he could pay me off when I need a contant paycheck and not the "opportunity" to clear a bunch of money.

- 2 split 18 hour shifts which were called "training session " so the guy didn't have to pay me. Mail courier position described as 2-7. Turns out, and the owner who interviewed me didn't tell me this: It was 2-7 am, then you stay in a hotel in the country, sleep till 1 in the afternoon, then work 2-7 in the evening, go home sleep till 1230 then go to the post office for 130 Am and work 2-7 again. Not only this, he didn't tell me my "training " would be two days of driving, literally tanking my schedule. When i quit, he literally called me everyday during the week after to fill someone else's shifts, or because he forgot when remembrance day was

- A "tech support " job working interview that was literally me coming in, fixing their website as a "test" then getting told they had decided to terminate the position.

Thankfully I'm doing better now, I got hired as a Manager in Training at American Income Life Insurance and I had another great interview to do tech support here on some quality management software.

Ultimately I decided to take the Manager in Training position friday, not only is it probably better money, but I'm alot more confidnet in my ability to succeed there and achieve a career over grinding out a position in tech support, which wasn't even the side of computers I am passionate about. On op of earning is the potential to, if I prove myself, to open my own office for AIL wherever I like. I get to build my own team of employees and I've always dreamed of running my own thing and having the rewards of that.

I'll be making 1100 a week which means I can maintain living alone comfortably and I'm willing to make all the sacrifices and do alll the learning they want me to in order to secure my future, so I'm feeling pretty good after all my bad luck.

I appreciate that though Acrostic, it truly means a lot. Luckily it seems Karma had my back this time, the only downside, I have to wear a suite everyday, and I only own 3 dress shirts for it XD. I've got more use out of it these past weeks than in the last two years of owning it

 

[The Man From Delamar]

I reckon I might be willing to step up to the plate if y'all have an opening at the table for me.

 

[#HBC | Gorf]

I reckon I might be willing to step up to the plate if y'all have an opening at the table for me.

hello!

you should head over to the mini signup thread (it's a stickied thread, shouldn't be too difficult to find) and see whether or not there's anything that interests you! have you played any mafia before?

 

[The Man From Delamar]

Much obliged, kind sir.

I'm no stranger to meddlin' in the affairs of varmints and those of a noble heart. The West is a dire world and it can be difficult to figure out where to place my trust, if anywhere. I'd say I'm quite experienced. And I've heard a great deal about the outlaws of this here town.

 

[#HBC | Gorf]

lmao nice schtick bud

well hopefully you can find a game and get yourself better affiliated with mafia. i personally don't have much time to play atm, but i'm sure that somebody who does can help you find a game more efficiently.

 

[Maven89]

Gorf being friendly...

is it Gorf talking to....gorf?

 

[#HBC | Gorf]

nah idk about you but id rather try n make newbs feel welcomed

 

[#HBC | ZoZo]

yeah maven you ****ing r word.

 

[#HBC | Kary]

headcanon: rapscallion

GL with the job Rake <3

 

[#HBC | Acrostic]

Shun Goku Satsu Rake

I am familiar with the model that insurance companies use here in the United States and from my experience they exploit their own workers to basically recruit others in a type of ponzi scheme model where hiring additional employees who have to pay for their own training supplies in order to just be able to find customers is a step in how they make income. I'm not bashing your decision, however I am concerned and hope that you aren't being taken advantage of because models like that are deceptive.

If you are throwing away the pursuit of IT and computer science, then there are niche markets that you might want to consider developing an interest in such as intentionally unfashionable sweaters or pet products which can be funded initially through attempts like Kickstarter after solidying an idea of what you want to do and then selling products through e-commerce in order to grow your busines as organically as possible. If you are taking on a job that engages you heavily on an entrepreneurial level then I feel like you should also consider always having a Plan B in your back pocket and gradually developing a set of goals to "fall back" on that plan when this one doesn't pan out.

If you need to talk about anything feel free to send me a message here or @Cheerilee. I can't do a lot, but I'm more than open to trying to pitch in what I can and trying to tap my network to see if anyone can help you out. Biggest advice that I can give from my own failure is that I stopped reaching out to people and shut down for a long time instead of reaching out to people and trying harder to look at other ways to approach the problem.

 

[Evil Eye]

oh hey is my fellow winnipegger dgamer ******** about the job market?

Because I haven't been able to find a job in my field ever (only even got invited to the testing phase for one job once), and haven't been able to find any jobs paying a living wage -- except one, which was forced to downsize and cancel my hiring class less than one week after I was hired and before orientation even began -- and haven't even been able to hold onto a ****ty low-paying job because they all seem to be seasonal, unreliable, or whatever.

p much on the verge of destitution got 10 bucks in my bank account and a $30 parking ticket due in a couple days and a nearly empty gas tank and only one shift coming my way atm nbd lolol

the world is gay

pay me to run agames

 

[Shun Goku Satsu Rake]

Shun Goku Satsu Rake

I am familiar with the model that insurance companies use here in the United States and from my experience they exploit their own workers to basically recruit others in a type of ponzi scheme model where hiring additional employees who have to pay for their own training supplies in order to just be able to find customers is a step in how they make income. I'm not bashing your decision, however I am concerned and hope that you aren't being taken advantage of because models like that are deceptive.

If you are throwing away the pursuit of IT and computer science, then there are niche markets that you might want to consider developing an interest in such as intentionally unfashionable sweaters or pet products which can be funded initially through attempts like Kickstarter after solidying an idea of what you want to do and then selling products through e-commerce in order to grow your busines as organically as possible. If you are taking on a job that engages you heavily on an entrepreneurial level then I feel like you should also consider always having a Plan B in your back pocket and gradually developing a set of goals to "fall back" on that plan when this one doesn't pan out.

If you need to talk about anything feel free to send me a message here or @Cheerilee. I can't do a lot, but I'm more than open to trying to pitch in what I can and trying to tap my network to see if anyone can help you out. Biggest advice that I can give from my own failure is that I stopped reaching out to people and shut down for a long time instead of reaching out to people and trying harder to look at other ways to approach the problem.

Luckily all my expenses are paid for. They eat the cost of the Licensing test and only ask I pay for the provincial test i need to take in order to acquire a license to sell (obviously being I manager I need to sell a little, and be able to train people on how to sell). Which I researched through a friend of mine and found was legitimately needed in order to practice. All supplies and all are literally handed to me otherwise and my only commitment is time and effort to pass the test (i'm not financially obligated if i fail to do so either).

I'm not totally throwing it away, I'm still pursuing IT as a passion, especially the Web Developement and App Dev side of it, I been programming out of personal interest ever since the small business I was running out of college ran into the ground and I ran out of leads / contracts. I even have some apps I'm waiting to submit to Google, mostly Android and IPhone stuff, including a click use MLA / Chicago /Whatever citing app across all platforms (apple was a ***** for this, and it's still way to buggy for me to release it, but Android and PC are showing well in the pre-beta phase ).

It's not super entrepreneurial to be perfectly fair, there is the ladder of promotions and results I'd need to climb before the company would help me invest in my own thing, which is exactly what I like since I've always been quite results oriented, and theirs no time limit on it either, so if I end up in a management position here for a while, while I work on my results / recruitment then I'm perfectly happy with that. The ultimate goal though would be to have my own office and people as i like the idea of that goal and it's been a goal of mine anyway.

My backup plan as it stands is to go get my class 1 license / air brake endorsement, I really am "the perennial loner " and have no real issue with the hour / time commitment because there's not a lot to tie me down in Winnipeg, and even if I owned a home, I wouldn't care to be away from it because a wife and family really aren't on my table of priorities at all. There's some hoops I still have to go through such as getting th class 1 learners and writing the knowledge test, but after I do that I'm going to retain them in order to have a fallback career if this tanks on me. My secondary back up plan is as a Police Officer, I already meet the physical requirements and it's the type of work I would enjoy doing as I enjoyed my time in Security already, and it's obviously got it's own rewards. (Not military though, possibly RCMP but I'm not sure I'm quite cut out for that). And again, very easy to apply for it here, and basically just physicals and some interviews to go through to determine candidacy.

Either of these seems both reasonable and obtainable should I bottom out as far as back up goals, and luckily I'm still young enough to have the benefit of time. Reasonably though, I am hoping that this new job is the last one I'll ever need to secure, but I'm not gonna worry about it.

My biggest failure was knowing people, I just existed in this world where to me it was like: My results and work will spee for themselves, I can socialize and get to know people / make connections on my own time / later on. But then as contracts dried out or other people got a quick in on them cause they knew the guy, or full time jobs got snatched up by people who the employers remembered I realized I had focused to strongly on just the "recognition' and not on building relationships.

 

[Shun Goku Satsu Rake]

oh hey is my fellow winnipegger dgamer ******** about the job market?

Because I haven't been able to find a job in my field ever (only even got invited to the testing phase for one job once), and haven't been able to find any jobs paying a living wage -- except one, which was forced to downsize and cancel my hiring class less than one week after I was hired and before orientation even began -- and haven't even been able to hold onto a ****ty low-paying job because they all seem to be seasonal, unreliable, or whatever.

p much on the verge of destitution got 10 bucks in my bank account and a $30 parking ticket due in a couple days and a nearly empty gas tank and only one shift coming my way atm nbd lolol

the world is gay

pay me to run agames

Firstly, the hell did you study, secondly, I've literally had 3 serious IT interviews since I graduated.

1.) I got told I was gonna be sued when I refused to leave the programs I wrote in the technical interview on their computers to offload some of the workload they wanted the position to cover. Literally the "manager" / "boss" told me he'd sue me for them because I wrote the programs on his computer without his permission unless I left them there (he obviously wanted them because I had essentially made the job he was advertising maybe 4 hours of work and clicking a couple programs for the rest. I told him good luck and that they were my intellectual property and the only way he was getting them was to either hire me or purchase the programs off me for a flat rate to compensate him nuking the job after ( I basically told him I had eliminated a 20k a year job so he'd need to pay me at least that for all of them. I even offered him lifetime maintenance an program support for a flat fee (basically I'd come fix them / remake them as needed until the end of time ) and he outright told me If i didn't leave them I'd never work in Winnipeg again. I walked out and told him good luck. Haven't heard from him since.

2.) Slightly different, I made a bid to design a companies web presence as well as their online storefront. Their idea was to have all bidders create a "teaser" basically make a basic layout of what you'd do / make for them, as well as how you'd manage the online purchasing aspects. So of course, I submit my creation (links to the site, some .pdf's of the backend and it's capabilities as well as a little note of me offering lifetime training for their employees who worked on it in the future as well as lifetime support / troubleshooting for it (cause why not). 3 weeks later I finally received notice from the company, it was down to me and one other applicant, they wanted us to come in and make a secondary bid, the company wanted a full database of customers and stuff for their backend. They also offered a premium to us, basically a advance on the contract, to create the back end for them, which we both did (somewhat, we created like two tables to show how we'd make it) (I still held all proprietary rights to the website I had created by the way, keep this in mind), when the company decided to call me and inform me that their year long 60k contract was being reduced, not only was it now due in 4 months (the full enchilada), but the pay out to me would be about 5k. I told the company I was willing to do the work, but for no less than 15k (time investment meant it would cost me at least that much to build an entire database, create the entire working back end store front and finish up the bulk of the main web stuff). The company then contacted me and told me that, if I submitted the entirety of the web stuff to them, that I'd be given a 7k half payment of good faith to finish the back end that I could keep even if the project took me longer than the 4 months, which I agreed to in principle, I brought the contract to a lawyer (cause you know, protect yourself) it turns out the company had imposed a 2 month "binding non negotiable return of advance. " Included in some back end of the contract: Basically, if they suddenly decided they didn't like the product, or they wanted to just hire someone cheaper, I'd not only be responsible for the advance, but I'd still be responsible to complete my design, for free, in order to "help the company recover the financial and time induced losses". So you can imagine how fast I ditched that.

3.) The tech job I just interviewed for, and have nothing but good things to say about

 

[Shun Goku Satsu Rake]

Also EE, I could totally give you gas / food money if you need. I'm drawing E.I while I train for the Manager stuff and work on getting licensed and I'm expecting now that I completed the stuff I didn't know got mailed to me (GG, moving and being swamped) to show I'm actively looking and all, I should be getting E.I retroactively of like, the first of November, so I'm hoping they send me like a lump sum since November's already close to done and I haven't gotten jack due to not being informed of the activity thing the go't makes you do, but even if they start as of a week from now, my money from e.i thanks to what I was making previously will make me comfy on bills and all.

I'd invite you to come stay with me to if you really needed but I can't due to the fact you'd have to sleep on my roomates aptly named "Sex Futon".

 

[Evil Eye]

oh god sex futons are the worst

nah it's okay. I ****ing despise myself for it and feel like a manchild, but I moved back in with pops after my ex and I split so rent / starving to death are covered at least

....you're pretty much the nicest guy in the world for that offer though and, urk, might have to take you up on it slightly, though I'll probably run my credit card into the ground first (if I can get the weird holds off it that shouldn't be there) we'll see

 

[Evil Eye]

and my field is criminal justice

literally 35% of every application I've filled out so far is dedicated to figuring out if I'm native/female/disabled/some kind of special interest group, and also it's the first page, before any questions about merit or even legal eligibility to work. It's pretty disheartening. That one testing phase I got invited to I was one of like five total white people in a class of 35 lol

 

[BarDulL]

It's all good, gents. One day, you'll all be welcome to live in my mansion. DGAMES MANOR!

I mean, that would be pretty cool. WHAT IF I GOT A MANSION?! Damn, that would be sick.

It'd probably be in a rural location since most mansions in nice areas are pretty expensive.

Soon, though. Soon.

 

[BarDulL]

Sorry, I wasn't sure how else to contribute positively to this discussion since it is depressing as **** to read.

I will say this, though. There's always options available out there, you just have to look around a bit. Stay positive and start submitting those job apps! I believe in you duders.

That one testing phase I got invited to I was one of like five total white people in a class of 35 lol

Is this actual confirmation that you're white?

 

[Spak]

It's all good, gents. One day, you'll all be welcome to live in my mansion. DGAMES MANOR!

I mean, that would be pretty cool. WHAT IF I GOT A MANSION?! Damn, that would be sick.

It'd probably be in a rural location since most mansions in nice areas are pretty expensive.

Soon, though. Soon.

Real life DGames (and AGames if EE visits). Sounds like a blast.

You should build something in the NC Blue Ridge Mountains if the dream comes true. Then, you can get scenery like this and this (or you could just figure out a way to buy the Biltmore House).

 

[Evil Eye]

real life AGames...?

LIGHTNING BOLT!!! LIGHTNING BOLT!

 

[Shun Goku Satsu Rake]

and my field is criminal justice

literally 35% of every application I've filled out so far is dedicated to figuring out if I'm native/female/disabled/some kind of special interest group, and also it's the first page, before any questions about merit or even legal eligibility to work. It's pretty disheartening. That one testing phase I got invited to I was one of like five total white people in a class of 35 lol

oh god sex futons are the worst

nah it's okay. I ****ing despise myself for it and feel like a manchild, but I moved back in with pops after my ex and I split so rent / starving to death are covered at least

....you're pretty much the nicest guy in the world for that offer though and, urk, might have to take you up on it slightly, though I'll probably run my credit card into the ground first (if I can get the weird holds off it that shouldn't be there) we'll see

I see alot of that too, especially like the Social workers or respite, some of them are specifically only for Indigenous Peoples and it feels super exclusive and it's weird ya know. Even the case work jobs here apparently are impossible to actually grind into.

Also, this sex futon is worse because not only is it already broken from the roomate naked wrestling on it in his house with what his mom described as "a girl who really knew how to eat" , but we broke it more moving it too cause it was swinging around all over the place and is horribly balanced xd.

Also, i moved back with my dad and I might be temporarily again until i actually start earning my money so I have an actual income to show the next place I rent(thinking I might go in on renting a house this time since apartment has been pretty shiesty, so I mean if that goes down I might want roomies since reduced costs and all, but we'll see what types of nice apartments I can find.)

Like I said totally not a big deal for me as I constantly buy my mates Wings / Food / Give them rides all over the palace. So like, PM me or something if you want or text me (204)-806-3180. (nobody calls me and if you do, there's a 90% chance it will get ignored lol or I'll miss it cause I lose service in my apartment. )

Also would not recommend credit cards because 17% interest, I have like 400$ sitting on mine from many months ago and I just sit it their to pay off small chunks and maintain good credit but there are months were I'll literally blank on ending the minimum because I don't use it and the fee the **** out of me for it. And it like accumulated to like 500 cause late fees I didn't know that i Hadn't paid it off (previous bill had said I did )

 

[#HBC | Gorf]

dude canada sounds like its the ****ing worst

****in stupid americans thinking "**** it imma move to canada" is the simple solution when something in their life goes a little awry

 

[Fandangox]

So Gorf was nice for all of two posts, that's a lot more than I expected tbh.

 

[Kantrip]

Yeah **** Canada

 

[Evil Eye]

well easy now i"m not saying there's some racist affirmative action conspiracy or anything. like most issues there's a million factors at play and you can't just up and generalize

manitoba has way more stringent aa policies than anywhere else in the country. generally speaking I'm a supporter and find the "stop blaming white people for your problems" rhetoric to be some of the most pigheaded ignorance I've ever heard.

then manitoba only has one metropolitan city (barely), so government jobs aren't in the high demand they'd be elsewhere

and we have a huge problem with underfunded reserves, aboriginal kids not going to school and so on. so the gov't just really wants to help give the population a stepladder upwards and I dig that, there's also value in a lot of these jobs i apply for in just being form the culture instead of a student of it

then manitoba in general has a bloated, borderline corrupt government full of wasteful spending and terrible decisions that has led to an absolutely awful job economy even by the standard set by our recession-ridden global economy, winnipeg's municipal gov't track record is no better


what it comes down to is a perfect storm. basically all that stuff above, in addition to the fact that I have no connections, was an average student (didn't do honors, didn't do most of that kinda ****, just got my uni slip of paper and pce'd out). But because I don't have connections it's been hard to find a job, which makes it hard to get experience. flash forward, suddenly I'm graduated from college by 2 years and every passing month without professional experience makes me an increasingly undesirable hire

but I retain my right to be mad and miffed about it a little, because I come from a low socioeconomic situation, I just have nothing conveniently classifiable for it that also tics the little boxes of affirmative action. but like **** my household income was so low in my freshman year I got a freaking grant from the government for it.

so basically I've had a way below average number of opportunities, frankly/honestly didn't realize how much this was gonna influence my adult life in the worst job economy ever, and as such, didn't make use of what few opportunities I might've once had (like practicums in my field or volunteer opportunities, the latter which I just don't have time for anymore because I'm too busy trying to find a job that will pay me money), and yeah. It's crapballs but w/e

 

[Evil Eye]

looking at jobs

see a child & family services worker position

realize that the horrible glaring oversights that happen in CFS is one of those issues that really triggers my feels

realize the surprising similarity between scumhunting and investigation family units and parents to see if their family environment is a good aka protown one

enthusiastically open ad when I see the salary minimum is double what I've ever made

Preference will be given to Aboriginal people, visible minorities and persons with a disability.

GRAAHAHAHSHAHGAHSGHAHGSAHGHAGHAGHH

 

[Evil Eye]

randomly decide to look up government jobs in ontario because surely that population density alone will give me better chances

set advanced search filter to entry level jobs

5 total entry level gov't jobs in all of Ontario across all fields, none of which are mine

k

 

[Maven89]

It's interesting you say that, my sister's husband has a master's degree in criminal justice, but ended up running the elections in a Texas county.

 

[BarDulL]

Truthfully, there are only 6~ majors that will get you anywhere near the necessary vocational training for an immediate job out of college.

Computer Science, Accounting, Engineering, Nursing, Pre-med (if you plan to somehow pay for medschool), or you could do literally any bachelor's degree and then go straight to law school (Bachelor's is the only generic requisite for law school). Everything else is either highly specialized and requires additional education, or the field is simply too competitive to garner immediate results (Psychology, for instance, is a bit of both).

 

[#HBC | ZoZo]

i think i know the answer, but why are they prioritizing non-whites?????

 

[Spak]

Because not giving preference to non-whites is "racist".

I'm so done with the PC era. Growing up in the early 2000s and the south where we called everything under the sun gay and/or ******** and now being banned from those words now is a VERY hard transition for me. I can censor written thoughts, but I've been given lectures in real life about not saying those words.

I was born in '97 in Cary (the a town that touches borders with Apex), and moved to Apex in '99 when I was 1 and a half. We were a fairly small town of 10,000 people and slowly growing until two things happened. RTP became even more gigantic than it already was and we got put on the list of " nicest places to live. The population has more that quadrupled since I was born, mostly because a bunch of Yankees came down and inhabited the area. They have tried to "fit in" with the culture, but in reality, they just crafted what their images of our culture should be and forced it upon us. It still has some charm and a little of its original culture, but the feel of the town has completely changed from a small town where people smile and say hi as you walk past to a suburb where everyone is in too much of a hurry to say hello and only about half of the population will hold the door.

One of the things that changed as the population grew was acceptable terminology. About 2012, there was a big movement to discourage the words ********, gay, or ***. I've gotten in trouble for saying the first two of those words in class (haven't called anyone a *** in recent memory), while the kid next to me was cussing like crazy and never got called out for it. The oppression of my everyday speech is upsetting, and followers of the PC movement are claiming to be open-minded about all topics, but then if you bring up aa valid counterpoint to their personal opinions, they call you closed-minded and dismiss you as inferior. I also find it disgusting that people have to do verbal gymnastics instead of just speaking their minds like they have in the past.

Wow, that was a long outflowing of thoughts. Took me 45 minutes to express my opinions loosly off of JoJo's post.

 

[#HBC | ZoZo]

Yeah the fact that an echo chamber filled with misfits *cough tumblr* is a bad idea is nothing new. There is /some/ truth to what they want, but I am more a fan of actual open mindedness and no safe-spaces in universities LMAO who the **** thought that was a good idea.

Anyway I don't say r-monkey anymore because I don't like the word, and I rarely call something gay or ********, but language has always been this way. Words are just words, people give them power with their own mind. If someone calls you out on using "******", that says more about them than you. It's about the intent behind the word rather than all personal baggage people attach to it, and this is a prime example of the difference between mental worlds and real worlds - which is typical because words are the main bridge between the two. My mind attaches something entirely different when I say "omg Mayweather's tactic is so gay" than most tumblr feminists minds would. While in the real world (the word technically has no meaning, but) society will see both as a valid definition, and it really depends on the social circle that you're in to decide whether or not your definition is fine or naw.

 

[Fandangox]

In Venezuela slang the words for "***" and "Dude are pretty much interchangeable. Which is kind of funny cause Venezuela is not exactly a progressive place when it comes to gay people or the like. I can understand why people dislike these things, but words have just as much power as you want to give them. It really depends on the context too either way, who are the words used against, who is saying them and why have a lot more impact than the words themselves.

 

[Evil Eye]

So.... I'm defending affirmative action despite being personally ruined by it, acknowledging a bevy of other factors at play and that overly easy generalizations are not the be all of my situation as convenient as they'd be for me

And this somehow leads to wild generalizations about a million social variables that can't be conveniently discussed in the context of a single movement. K.

So are we gonna move on to how the BLM movement is annoying and #AllLivesMatter or what

 

[Evil Eye]

And so we're clear I drop the Rbomb among the most liberally of anyone and will continue to do it. My best friends and i routinely call each other f**gots. I just sent a text of situational condolence that consisted of "that's gay".

But man talk about bigger fish to fry. Political correctness is not even close to the most damaging social movement with a lot of support lmao like what, there's a guy in serious danger of taking power over one of the big two parties on a platform of hate speech, fascist policies and outright lies

 

[Maven89]

Yeah but he'll make me rich and remove all my worries with bombs

 

[Spak]

But man talk about bigger fish to fry. Political correctness is not even close to the most damaging social movement with a lot of support lmao like what, there's a guy in serious danger of taking power over one of the big two parties on a platform of hate speech, fascist policies and outright lies

We'll build a wall between us and the middle east, and make China pay for it.

 

[Evil Eye]

for that wall to work it better be big onto the sun

 

[#HBC | Gorf]

lets just kill all the black people

 

[#HBC | Kary]

What did I... It's- no. Help?