Let me just say I am very comfortable with CSS3 and I appreciate having all of my styles separated from my markup. I build mobile first and use a single media query for each new breakpoint in screen width. I use normalize.css to start with, but aside from that all of my styles are built from scratch. I appreciate using Chrome Dev Tools to tinker with CSS directly, and I like looking at my .css and reading each declaration vertically from top to bottom.
I have tried Tailwind and perhaps it is really meant for component based layouts, frameworks such as NextJS. But what’s up with micromanaging the media queries for every single element? Instead of reading styles in a linear way from top to bottom I am reading them left to right with word wrap turned on to see everything without scrolling. Im using the VScode Intellisense extension and after saving the markup order of the utility’s classes are rearranged. How do you keep track of them, of where they went, in a growing sea of utility classes for every single element?
I do understand how components would work much better for the Tailwind approach. Having all of your elements on a single HTML file would be too much. I appreciate the effort that went into the design system, with sizing, with colours (others out there too). It seems that people say time saving is a big part of Tailwind.
But I still see some trade offs. Maybe I am still stuck in my “old ways” or haven’t solutions for these things yet but:
1) I can’t use Chrome Dev Tools to modify the layout directly, and copy and paste the code. 2) Micro managing media queries for every single element, let alone a dark mode on the same element really concerns me. 3) What exactly is the challenge about the Core Web Technology (CSS3) that Tailwind is hoping to resolve, or to improve upon? 4) Tailwind is not Bootstrap, nor is it meant to replace CSS. You should know CSS before using Tailwind. But aren’t utility classes just replacing CSS declarations in your CSS file and putting them into markup instead? I have heard it compared to inline styles, and I can kind of see the similarities of how it “feels this way”..
But then I also hear how people that used to see it as inline styling but now they see the light, are fully converted, and will never go back to vanilla CSS. That’s a bold statement to make, as CSS is a core web technology. I love CSS3 and all that it offers so can someone please explain to me what I’m missing here?
Thank you!

“I’m smarter than 98% of the world’s population. People aren’t smart enough to understand me because I’m on a whole other level.”
Do you have any idea how utterly insufferable you are? Everyone in our little group just never questions your authority. I can’t for the life of me understand why. All of them just suck up to you even though you talk about us like we’re lesser life forms. I’m considered to be the least intelligent one of this little group of elites. Is that because I refuse to suck your dick about it and won’t stand for you putting the others and me down all the time?
I’m pretty sure it is because you only started talking down to me after I questioned you. Sorry hon. You don’t know everything. I couldn’t care less about your so-called 160 IQ.
It is true. I’m less intelligent than your average dog. Yet I have enough of a brain to be able to know bullshit when I see it and to know that one of these days people are going to grow tired of your behavior. One of these days that smugness will get you in trouble. Mark my words.

1. Paraphernalia - Anti-Flicker
2. Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch [USSEP] [XB1]
3. Simple Workaround Framework
4. Campfire: Complete Camping System [XB1]
5. Reconciliation: QOL and Bugfixes
6. Reconciliation: Gameplay and Quest Alterations
7. Reconciliation: AE
8. Lux - Resources
9. Lux Via v1.6 (Master File)
10. Lux Orbis - Master File
11. Lux - Master File
12. Reconciliation: AiO AE - USSEP Patch
13. Cheat Room (XB1)
14. Quest Debugger (XB1)
15. Rev's Save Limiter - Automated Save System
16. Visible Favorited Gear
17. Sos Ahst Mulaag: Blood is Power
18. Reconciliation QOL - Sos Ahst Mulaag Patch
19. Vokrii Maxx
20. Throw Stone -- Simple Distraction Tool (Enhanced)
21. TLS - Tinvaak Los Suleyk: Speech is Power
22. TLS - AE Patch
23. Odin - Skyrim Magic Overhaul / Odin - Summons Redone merge
24. Wearable Lanterns [XB1]
25. Wearable Lanterns Nordic Lantern Replacer
26. Merchant - A Trading Expansion
27. Merchant - A Trading Expansion: Prices Addon Patch
28. Real Armies - Civil War Soldier Overhaul
29. Diverse Skyrim SSE
30. Diverse Skyrim SSE - USSEP Patch
31. Honor The Dead
32. Sensible Interface
33. Nordic SkyHUD
34. Creation Club Farming - Tweaks Enhancements and Quest Expansion by AndrealphusVIII
35. Goldenglow Is Yours
36. Thieves Guild Requirements: With Taking Care of Business Optional Files
37. The Choice is Yours
38. The Choice Is Yours - Wintersun Patch
39. The Choice Is Yours - AE patch
40. JaySerpa's Quest Expansion Bundle
41. JaySerpa's Quest Expansion Bundle / USSEP Patch
42. Audio SFX Overhaul
43. Audio SFX: No Ghosts Patch
44. DAWN: Dramatic Atmospheres, Weathers, & Nature
45. Volumetric Mists- Mainland and Solstheim (Performance version)
46. Lux (v6.3)
47. Lux / Anniversary Edition CC Patch Bundle
48. Lux / USSEP Patch
49. Smoking Torches & Candles
50. XP32 Maximum Skeleton Special Extended Plus
51. Movement and Behaviors Enhanced 2.0 for XP32
52. VioLens - A Killmove Mod SE [XB1]
53. Comprehensive First Person Animation Overhaul - CFPAO
54. Pauly's Very Attractive Skyrim 2 AIO - Optimized & Enhanced
55. Pauly's ARTS 2 Remix
56. Fences that Fit
57. Diversity of Trees [XB1]
58. Patch Diversity of Trees - AE Edition [XB1]
59. Aberrant Flora
60. Ililili Grass Fields
61. 50% Less Vanilla Trees Bundle
62. No Grassias by Knight4Life
63. Landscape Fixes For Grass Mods
64. Reconciliation: AE - Landscape Fixes for Grass Mods Patch
65. Believable weapons
66. changes npc clothes ( Elaborate Textiles )
67. SkyRaD's Skyrim - aMidianBorn Fashions 4E 1K-512
68. Equipment Flexibility Project - Optimised
69. R.A.S.S. (Shaders and Effects)
70. Magical Forces & FX Bundle - Lite
71. All The Little Things
72. AI Overhaul 1.8.2 Lite
73. Hero- A Fort Takeover And Bounty Hunter Bundle
74. AFT AE
75. JaySerpa's Quest Expansion Bundle / AFT AE Patch
76. Immersive Patrols (Large Battles)
77. Immersive Patrols Simplified
78. Laro's Creature Overhaul - Full
79. Bella Beauty AND THE BEASTS Bundle
80. Fatherland: Children
81. Vanilla Hair Remake - Replacer
82. Vanilla Hairs - Salt And Wind (1K) By Mashanen And Jasperthegnome
83. Serendipitous: Rewards of the Weary Traveller
84. Serendipitous - AE Patch
85. Reconciliation AiO AE - Serendipitous Patch
86. Shalidor's Armaments - Artifacts Enhanced
87. Shalidor's Armaments - Extended Armory
88. Shalidor's AE Patch
89. Shalidor's - Serendipitous Patch
90. Reconciliation AiO - Shalidor's AiO Patch
91. USSEP - Shalidor's Armaments Patch
92. Race Edits Patch: Reconciliation QOL - Shalidor's Armaments - Sos Ahst Mulaag
93. Conjurer's Forge 4
94. Conjurer's Forge 4 AE Patch
95. CF4 - TLS Patch
96. Shalidor's Armaments - CF4 Patch
97. Reconciliation AiO AE - CF4 Patch
98. CF4 - Odin Only Patch
99. CF4 - USSEP Patch
100. Wildcat Archery Skill Set
101. Scales Like Broadswords - House of the Dragon Edition
102. Scales Like Broadswords Missing Mods Patch
103. [XB] The Old Gods: A Dragon Overhaul Base Mod
104. Sacrilege - Minimalistic Vampires of Skyrim [XB1]
105. Monoliths Of Mundus
106. Shalidor's Extended - Monoliths of Mundus Patch
107. Stìgr Virðing - Pathway to Honor
108. Stìgr Virðing - Ghosts of the Tribunal Patch
109. Reconciliation AiO - Stìgr Virðing Patch
110. Stìgr Virðing - USSEP Patch
111. Pantheon - Worship and Prayer: Reconciliation/Stìgr Virðing Edition
112. Bushcraft: A Camping and Survival Overhaul
113. Bushcraft - Wintersun Patch
114. CF4 - Bushcraft Patch
115. Reconciliation AiO AE - Bushcraft Patch
116. Bushcraft - USSEP Patch
117. JK's Interiors AiO
118. JK's Interiors AIO AI Overhaul Patch
119. JK's Interiors AiO Fishing Patch
120. JK's Interiors AiO Thunderchild Patch
121. JK's Interiors AIO Lux Patch
122. JK's Interiors AIO USSEP Patch
123. Ancient Roads and Ruins Deluxe PLUS
124. Ancient Roads and Ruins Deluxe Plus Compatibility Patch
125. JK's Skyrim AiO
126. JK's Interiors AiO JK's Skyrim AIO Patch
127. Reconciliation - JK's Skyrim AiO Patch
128. Civilization - A Multi-Area Edit Bundle
129. Civilization / AI Overhaul Patch
130. Civilization / Lux Patch
131. Civilization / USSEP Patch
132. Leafeater's 3-in-1 Tree Overhaul-JK's
133. DAWN Waters w/ Natural Waterfalls
134. Crusader - A Dawnguard Bundle (Sacrilege Version) 1K
135. Lux / ClefJ's Fort Dawnguard patch
136. Lux Via plugin (v1.5.1)
137. Civilization / Lux Via Patch
138. Lux Orbis v3.0
139. JK's Interiors AiO Lux Orbis Patch
140. Lux Orbis / Saints and Seducers Patch
141. Civilization / Lux Orbis Patch
142. Lux Orbis / USSEP Patch
143. [XB1] Guard Torch Remover
144. LODs for Nordic Ruins and The Ruins
145. Snow Equalizer
146. Alternate Perspective - Alternate Start
147. Alternate Perspective - MBE 2.0 For XP32 Patch
148. Alternate Perspective - AE Patch
149. LoveKing's Ini Tweaks
150. Lux - Brighter Template

So, this is my LO I've been working on. I used the Halls of Ysgramor LLO. My template says I'm using 4.86g currently. How does it look?

I have a 2002 CR-V and it has nearly 200k miles on it, and its throwing a code for the o2 sensors, it looks like oem is around $150, and offshore is around $30, or even less for some more dubious ones. I have heard varying things for what bad o2 sensors might cause, like slightly worse fuel mileage and maybe wearing out the cat faster (a cat is around $100 for this, super cheap!), all the way to messing with how the engine works and potentially leading to major engine damage like spun bearings or bent rods. Which is true, what matters, and do I even need new ones? And if I do change them should I go with oem or roll the dice with offshore? *I do have a jack and jackstands as well as basic tools so I can safely change them at home.
Thanks for your time and input and have a wonderful day/night!

Due to questions and comments regarding:
the Battle Pass

• D4's Monetization
• Pre-Orders
• Crossplay and Cross-save (playing / save-files across several platforms - PC, XBox, PS - including "do I need separate / individual copies for each system?")
• System Requirements / Technical Questions
• Launch Date + related questions (e.g. Preload)

...being asked very frequently on the subreddit, please post them in this thread so they can be compiled in one spot, which makes it easier for the community to oversee and to respond to them.
​
Short Questions that may not require a whole thread to be answered or Less Frequently Asked Questions that are more niche / very specific (like "What is the Tick Rate of Bleeding Effects?") also belong in this thread to not over-saturate the front page of the subreddit with such threads.
​
- Please read the brief FAQ below before posting! <---
Basic Information on D4 and some of the most frequently asked questions are quickly answered there!
================================================================================

Quick FAQ and Basic Information on D4

• Launch Date: June 6th, 2023 (and June 2'nd for those that pre-purchase the Digital Deluxe or the Ultimate Edition)
• Global Release Times: the exact Regional Release Times can be found here <--.
• Preload Date: nothing announced yet.
• Collectors Edition: does NOT INCLUDE the Game (neither a physical copy, nor a code), only physical collectible items! The game has to be bought separately.

​

• Beta Progress: Character Progress will NOT transfer over to the Game once it is launched, but Cosmetic Rewards from participating in the Beta will transfer.

​

• System Requirements: See image here <-- for official information on D4's System Requirement.
• General Suggestions to make the game run better: the game may run better for some people on lower settings. Remember that you can also choose to download lower texture pack, which reduces the amount of disk space you may need to have available.
• Ultrawide Screen Support? Yes
• Offline Mode: No Offline Mode. Online-only, including for Consoles (so unlike D3 on consoles, no offline mode for consoles with D4).
• Local Co-op / Couch Co-op / Console Co-op: No couch co-op on PC. Yes on consoles, but only for up to 2 Players (same for all Home Consoles).
• Crossplay: is available across all platforms.
• Is progress, cosmetics, etc shared between PC, Xbox, PS5, etc? Your Progress, Cosmetics, etc are saved on your Battle.net account, so yes, they are shared between your PC, Xbox, PS, etc copies of the game you may have, provided you are logged in on the same Battle.net account.
• Do I need to buy a copy for each platform separately to play it? Yes. In order to play the game on PC, you need a PC copy. To play it on console, you need a copy for the particular console.
• Controller Support for PC? Yes
• WASD Movement Support for PC Keyboards? No, but maybe later down the road in the future.

​

• Start of the 1st Season: A few weeks after launch, but the exact time is unknown at the moment.
• How Dark is Diablo 4? Yes.
• Cow Level: there is no Cow Level.

​

• Infos on the Battle Pass: There is a Free Battle Pass and two Tiers of a Premium Battle Pass. Premium BP (Tier 1) cost 10$, gives access to unlock cosmetics only and Premium BP (Tier 2) costs 25$ and gives accelerated access to the cosmetic of the Tier 1 Premium BP + additional Cosmetics. The Free & the Premium BP's last for one season (one season lasts ~3 months) and all of them will take ~75 hours to complete.
• Is D4's Premium Battle Pass pay2win? Short Answer: NO!
• Is D4's Premium Battle Pass pay2win? Long Answer: The Premium Battle Pass does NOT give an XP Boost. There is an XP Boost in the FREE Battle Pass. Buying the Premium Battle Pass does NOT unlock or accelerate the pace at which you get the XP Boost of the Free Battle Pass. XP Boosts only apply to your OTHER seasonal Characters, AFTER one of them has fulfilled certain requirements, like reaching a certain Character Level (evtl. Max Character Level ?), so it will only make it faster to level seasonal Alts, not your seasonal Main Char. (based on currently publicly available information).
• D4's ingame Shop: only sells cosmetic via Premium Currency, but not power (based on currently publicly available information). Premium Currency can also be gained by playing the game.

​
[Gameplay] - Does D4 have...

• ... a Skill Tree? Yes.
• ... Skill Points? Yes, D4 has Skill Points (these are shared by Active and Passive Skills)
• ... Skill Runes like in D3? No, but there are ways to modify Active Skills further (both via Items and via the Skill Tree)
• ...a Paragon System? Yes, but it is very different than Paragon from D3. Unlike D3's Paragon, D4's Paragon is NOT account-wide and you do NOT have unlimited Points for it (gained from Level 50 to 100 + via some other objectives). It is "Paragon in Name-only" so to speak.
• ... Respecs? Yes, but they cost Gold. You can respec individual Skill Points. Due to the Gold Costs for respecs increasing with Character Level, you can't respec High Level Characters too much each day.
• ... Trading? Yes, but only Normal, Magic and Rare Items (+ Gems, Gold & Elixirs) can be traded, but not Legendaries or Uniques. Rare Items can be enchanted further, but then can no longer be traded.
• ... an Auction House like D3? No Auction House in D4.
• ... Bald Occultist from the Trailer? Check!
• ... Succubi? Check!

​
================================================================================
​
Question not answered? Ask your question in the comments or join the D4 subreddits discord!
Any further comments regarding these any of these topics? Post them in the comments!

The Evening of the Feast, Somewhat Afterwards
It needed only a little bit of thought, in truth. It was treason, no need to mince words, although, he noted, it seemed to be a treason that had not fully formed yet. That was good enough for Joss to pluck it from the ground and salt the earth beneath it, though. Such things could not be allowed to fester until they were an actual threat. That was a good way to find the ground swept out from beneath oneself when you made even the slightest of miscalculations.
Room for error was not the sort of thing that Joss Turnberry made light of, even as the Reynes seemed to find it necessary and enjoyable in large amounts. So he ought to strike now, whilst the anvil was beginning to cool, and make something productive of it.
There were two avenues to approach this from. Well, two that Joss seriously considered. One was a stroke easier, but it seemed unambitious. Lazy. The sort of plan that his dearest liege lady could have pulled off by her lonesome. And so, doing it, Joss would have felt he was doing less than his part. Joss always liked to turn up to the table with some contribution that would elsewise have been absent.
And so, Joss Turnberry made his way towards opportunity, which that evening took the form of an old friend. One who had made certain... questionable decisions, but one whom he had every faith that he could convince to recant, given the right sort of nudges. Joss had experience nudging her, and he could not recall a time in the past where it had not worked out to her benefit in some manner.
Two knocks was his custom, and so he gave them in one motion, almost rhythmically. He did not pound the door down, certainly, but they would have been audible. "Rose?" He spoke lightly. "I hope I've not woken you. I've just realized that I'm not a very patient individual." His tone carried a certain level of playful apology, though his face was not visible through the door. "We ought to speak." It was not so late that she was likely to have gone to sleep, he figured.

First
Prev
Corva fiddled with an empty medicine bottle, he looked at the labels and peeled them, only to stick it on the bottle again, he would screw off the cap and screw it back on repeatedly. It was an old habit of his, just looking at random things and playing with them like a fidget toy, he only does it when he has nothing to do, ever since he got a job that habit disappeared, but now, all he can do is lay down on the bed of a hospital tent, and he's also technically currently unemployed. Since no company is going to recruit anyone in the middle of an invasion from killer robots. He thought back to what happened yesterday, when Lavoss came into the tent and confronted Kawl.
"You're still awake?"
"Hmm?"
He was still curious about it, what did Lavoss mean by traitor? Did Kawl kill someone? He doesn't look like someone who would do such a thing, whatever it was that he did though, it was significant enough for Lavoss to hit him in the head with the stock of his gun knocking him out cold. It was shocking to see, he was awfully calm up until the point he said something about the traitor part and not a moment later Kawl was on the ground unconscious with a gun stock shaped dent on the chitin protecting his head. Everyone gasped, except Mari, the nurse, she looked like she expected it for a long time and stayed calm.
"Do you have trouble sleeping?"
She asked as she came back with another box of medical supplies.
"No, just… didn't feel like it"
"What do you mean you don't feel like sleeping?"
She put the box down and walked up to him.
"Well… i got plenty of sleep yesterday, spent the rest of it sleeping, didn't i? And most of today as well"
"With all due respect that doesn't justify staying up until the middle of the night, besides, you need rest"
"Same thing can be said about you… I haven't seen you take any kind of break, even the doctor's not here, why are you?"
"The downside of being the only qualified nurse left around, not the only one in the camp of course, just the only one left for this tent, besides… it's my duty to watch over the patients, and make sure they have enough sleep…"
She raised her voice a little on that last word, as well as throwing a glance at other patients that were already asleep.
"Subtle…"
"Right i am, now sleep"
"I've tried, i don't think i can"
"So you do have trouble sleeping, hold on, i think i have something for that in stock"
"No thanks, can we just… talk? It's been some time since I've had a friendly talk with anyone, just… Not about anything in particular, you know? Just talk"
"Hmm… fine, when was the last time then?"
"Right before the invasion… right before he lost his life…"
"Let's… not talk about that…"
"Wise…"
"Uhm… What's your job?"
"QC, for quality control, in an arms factory"
"A factory worker? You looked way cleaner than i thought you would"
"If i were working in the assembly i think you would change your mind about that, but no, QC's don't get their hand dirty often, maybe once in a while when a weapon explodes on them"
"Huh… ever had one?"
"Personally? No, have I seen it? Yes, funny story, when i first got accepted i had this instructor, telling us how to check the quality of products, the first rifle he picked up to show us how to check the pulse had a faulty wiring on it, too much energy, it blew up on his face while a group of new QC's was watching, safe to say he doesn't like it when some of us laughed"
"Poor guy, Reminded of someone"
"Who?"
"My sister"
"Oh i…"
"Oh don't worry, it's nothing sensitive, it's like your story, she's a teacher, been one for a while even before she got here, so when she got here to Rosan she was considered a senior teacher, and when new ones needs a tour of their workplace and know how to handle the kids they relied on her, now one day she was guiding a new teacher…"
"Mhm?"
"And she was like… maybe she wants to show off a little bit, I don't know, but from what she told me, she said to this new teacher something along the lines of: 'look at these children! So behaved! If you want to do that you have to learn from me' or something like that… and… not a second after that, one of the kids who were playing threw a wet ball of paper and it hit her right in the back of the head"
Corva had to spend some willpower trying not to laugh, remembering that he was the one who laughed when his instructor blew himself up along with Kasso didn't make it any easier.
"Oh the look of embarrassment on her face, didn't see it myself, but i wish i did, i can feel her esteem crumble every time i mention it, it was cute to see her just shrink and try to hide her face"
"Oh… you'll like it when you see how my friend acts around girls, Kasso, he…"
Mari was a bit confused why Corva suddenly fell silent, why he looked at the ground with a frown, until she remembered what he said, and it clicked on her.
Right before he lost his life
"I'm sorry for your loss"
"It's fine, i'm sure he's in a better place… much better than this… hellhole"
She wanted to comment on his sudden pessimism, but decided that won't be so wise considering he's not wrong, no matter how many times she tries to ignore it, she has to admit, their current situation is a hellhole.
"I suppose that's enough talk for now…"
"...."
"I advise you sleep now, you'll get tired"
He didn't respond, and just went to sleep without another word, and an unchanged expression of sorrow. She sighed and returned to her work, sorting the type of medications into different containers.
"When will it all end?"
—-~----
It was calm… and black… that is about all Schen can think about regarding his current state, he can't tell if he's dreaming, or if he's asleep or awake, it's just that he is aware. It was a strange feeling, like being asleep physically but not mentally, he feels like he's floating, without a body, like there's nothing that can limit him. And yet at the same time he can't do anything, he was just aware, and drifting away in this weird state of half dream. For some reason, he thought of those tales of people who 'died' , people who experienced long comas, and the tale of their supposed journey to this place between the mind and the world.
Ridiculous stories, barely believable, and uninteresting if you ask him. And yet, here he is now, aware of what's happening, he remembers everything, he passed out from blood loss, after fighting one of those things. He wants to wake up, check on his men, maybe meet up with Captain Vaiya and make up a plan on what to do next regarding their situation. But you can't wake up when you don't even have control over your eyes, so it was more of a waiting game, an annoying one, knowing what's happening and yet can't act on it. He'd rather be actually dead over this, at least if he's dead he doesn't have to worry about anything. The problem is, he knows he's alive, it's just that his body is not responding to him, nor can he feel it.
It took what felt like hours, since he wasn't actually asleep, he was paralyzed but still conscious. After an agonizing few hours, he felt the first bodily sensation, his finger, it graduated to the feeling of his hand resting on a soft surface, probably some sort of bed, he can feel his breath as well. He started feeling his body, little by little, unfortunately, now that he feels his body again, he can feel what his body feels, and that is pure unadulterated pain. On his head, on his leg, his back, his arm, everywhere, he doesn't remember getting hit that much, but apparently he did. His back arched from trying to suppress it, and he let out a grunt that was too loud for his standard.
"Calm down! Don't move just yet…"
A voice, good, that means he should be in a friendly area now. He opened one of his eyes with a considerable amount of struggle, and saw the face of an Enovian with a waterproof paramedic hat on through his blurry vision.
"I've had worse…"
What a word for him to say before his back gave up on him and suddenly went limp, triggering pain in many areas of his body.
"Aergh…"
He grunted with some exasperation and regret. Maybe he shouldn't be showing off at this kind of age, it's not good for his bones.
"Where's our painkillers?"
—-~----
"Captain?"
"Yes?"
"He's awake"
"Just? or?..."
"For awhile, he needed some time to actually get up, thought we'll just wait for him before telling you"
"Alright, thank you, i'll be there, a wonder he survived though, and to wake up this early"
"It is, his wounds were near fatal, he was essentially one light tap away from a fractured skull"
"Tough little guy… you can go now, there are others no?"
"Oh…yes, sorry ma'am"
Vaiya turned off her personal datapad, and stood up from her command seat. She dusted some metal dust off her uniform and made her way to the recruitment office turned into a temporary medical bay. She walked through a collection of the remaining crew of the ship, some simply threw a glance at her, some greeted her, and some gave her a salute. She noted the look of despair in their eyes and sighed, but kept on walking as that isn't her goal right now. She arrived at a door with a plate next to it that says: 'recruitment', the plate had an electrical tape with a writing on it that says: 'medical bay now' stuck haphazardly on top of it.
It isn't a neon sign, but it works. She opened the door manually with her hand as most of the doors in administration are now unpowered, inside was simple, four 'beds' laid on the floor, with most of the desks removed, the remaining medical crews stay here now, treating anyone they can. Including the new security captain, Schon, who she spotted sitting on his bed half awake wrapped in blood caked bandages, while clearly struggling to drink from a glass cup. He looked oddly… calm, like he's not surprised he's here at all. Granted, she did rescue him from becoming minced meat, and it's only logical to assume there are survivors holding out somewhere, but he looks absolutely unfazed, as if he had this happen before.
"SC Schon?"
She walked up to him, he gave an unsurprised look and went back to doing his best to drink.
"Captain…"
"Nice to see you awake already, i figured it would take a long time but you prove me wrong…"
"Uh-huh…."
"About that status report you ask for-"
"I already know, stranded, no engine, almost all crew dead, ship's practically scrapped, light's dying, and surrounded by killer machines chewing on the hull, and Rosan IV isn't so lucky either"
"Yes… unfortunate is it?"
"Yes, but right now I don't care, how's my men?"
"Your what?"
"My subordinates"
"Ah… they're… few, 50… down to you and two others, i'm sorry"
"I see… who?"
"Koern, and Ayuna"
Schen wasn't paying much attention to the captain, he simply stared off into the distance, but hearing the young Caevit's name roll off her tongue took his attention.
"Really?... Thank you, but you're not here just for that right?"
Now that he actually pays some attention to her, he noticed her face change, a bit more tense.
"You read my mind, come"
"I can barely move my lips and you want me to walk?"
She looks around for a minute before looking back at him.
"I don't mind carrying someone"
"Huh?"
—-~----
"If i have credit for every time a Tekit lady carries me in her arms while i can barely move, i'll have two"
Schen commented on his current position, it earned him a confused and curious look from the captain. She took him to an uninhabited room to talk, as it turns out most of the administration has been turned to some sort of holdout for whoever's left alive in the ship. She set him down on a chair and followed suit, sitting right in front of him.
"So what is this? Is there something you want to know? If it's about this whole thing then you're talking to a wall"
Her behavior was odd, Schen noted, she seems… agitated, not angry, just stirred, like something's bugging her. He can understand being scared, but the way she moves suggests whatever's currently happening isn't the case.
"Nothing much… i just want… confirmation"
"Go ahead…"
"So… I heard that Koern asked you for help, is that so?"
"Yeah? Got to me after he said you can't help"
"Do you know what his issue was?"
"Yes, random images and voice recordings from his cousin"
"Okay… where does his cousin lives?"
"In Rosan IV and from what i heard, it's about as messed up as this ship"
"That is correct, do you-"
"Wait, can we just get to the point here? What's the issue? Why are you suddenly interested in Koern's problem?"
"I… because…"
"Hmm?"
"...Because i've been having the same problem, what you said, random images, and voice recordings, now i know it's exactly the same, that is what i want to know"
"Huh… okay… so?..."
"There's one difference… his problem started today, during the jump, my problem has been going on for the last five cycles"
"....."
"And I want to know one more thing, please, answer this honestly… do you see it?"
He can feel her agitation increase tenfold as she asks the question. She was normal, now she's visibly shaking.
"See what?..."
"The shape…"
"Shape?"
"Please tell me you saw it too, i… I've been thinking about it… for a long time… ever since I've peered into those images, there's a shape stuck in my eyes, it's burned itself into my mind, and I feel it…. Everyday i think i see something in the corner of my eyes, i hear noises that aren't there, closer and closer every time!…. It… it was getting closer… the shape…"
Her stare became intense, like the stare of a crazed person.
"i… don't know…"
"Oh but you know! You saw it!... Just as I did… it sees you, but you can barely see it, it's there… watching… First it stays in the image, then it creeps into you, haunts you, then you see it hide everytime you turn your head… it follows you, everywhere you go… in your sleep… when you work… all the time…"
Her breathing was rapid, almost uncontrolled.
"Perhaps… that's just you, i do not experience these"
"It may not now, but it will…. Because it has to me, it's like a tumor, and it won't go away, no matter how hard i try… it's still there…"
She calmed down slightly, her breathing was normal again, sort of, and she's no longer shaking, but the stare is still there, the stare of true fear, striking deep into his soul. As she calmed down more and thankfully finally averted her gaze elsewhere, Schen took the downtime to process what he just listened to, and his conclusion was: what the ////?
"Sorry… i… i just… i needed to know… i need to know if i'm not the only one… now i know it's in you too, not now, but soon, t-thank you"
"Your… welcome…"
"Should we return?"
"We…"
He pondered about asking her to take him to the bridge, so he can look out and see what's happening outside the ship, but now he's reconsidering it, because of that… experience.
"...Yes, we should"
She let go of his arms, he didn't even realize it, but she was holding on to him tight the whole time.
"Of course… of course, let's make this quick…"
—-~----
Schen observed Captain Vaiya as she left the medical room, he noted her sudden return to her previous well mannered behavior, he can still see a tinge of anxiety in her eyes and movements however, and realized how similar it was to Koern's behavior. Anxiety, unease, massive discomfort, moving around constantly, and eyes snapping to random positions as if they're trying to catch something on the move. It was unmistakable, Schen recalled back to his conversation with Koern, about something he said.
'it's… distressing'
Koern did look at the images before coming to him, and it was clear the images caused it, if Vaiya had something similar or identical happen, he can assume the cause for her distress is the same. But one question remains that still baffles him: how? How do random images do that? Implanting irrational fear into someone, making them see things that aren't there, what is happening? And now that he considers it, he did see the images, is he going to fall victim to the same thing? Why hasn't he felt anything if those images can do that to someone through just a mere look at it?
One question leads to another, and it all gets more complicated the longer he tries to solve it. He wanted to ignore it, maybe they were just unstable and he misjudged the whole thing, but he can't help but feel there's something to it, it's clear those images and recordings somehow were sent by the creatures currently roaming the ship, he sees the connection, but why? And how? Psychological warfare? Maybe, that was the most rational answer he could come up with. With their clear situation of being in the middle of an invasion, he can only assume such an answer, but applying it to only a few specific targets seems beyond strange.
He pinched his snout in frustration, before taking a deep breath and exhaling it as slowly as he could. Perhaps he shouldn't think of it too much for now, maybe that's how it gets into you, the shape… whatever it is. He looked around his surroundings, a 'medical' room, previously an office, he watched the doctors treat the wounded as he thought of his next step. Looking outside the ship should be a good idea, he had asked a nurse about the whole situation before Vaiya showed up, they told him the entire star system has fallen, Rosan IV was silent, any attempts at communication and call for help were futile, the other planets around the system, some are yet to be named, are the same.
That means those things have been here for a while, and somehow stayed out of the union's radar. He remembered the emerging stories of Rosan IV, how it became a ghost, how communications were far and few between, how many ships that traveled to its system went missing and ones that returned had signs of heavy damage on them, and how their crews looked 'lifeless'. If Rosan's system has been like this for some time, wouldn't that mean any ship that comes here would suffer the same fate as his ship?.
Why would some return and look 'fine' was beyond him, but a thought nestled itself in his mind, a terrifying thought, it made his blood run cold, the thought that these things have spread beyond this solar system, spread silently, in cargo ships that travel to every corner of union space. Suddenly people seeing shapes and hearing sounds after they look at an image doesn't sound horrifying anymore.
"////…"
—-~----
Faen sat in his office, for the millionth time, he stared at his computer, for the millionth time, he opened the files containing the Qrid military spending, for the millionth time, he looked at the reports file, for the millionth time. It has always been like this, being a general wasn't all about giving orders and making war plans, most of his time was spent in front of his computer, looking at the passive activity of his army, and its spendings, receiving calls or calling someone to see if he can learn something new about someone else's army. Look at pirate reports, raiders, terrorists, radicalist, sometimes cultists, it has always been like this, looking away at the computer, looking at files, always has been.
He wouldn't say he couldn't make wartime decisions, if one were to ever occur, he's always confident he can, after all he has learned from both his father and many mentors. He trained for it, for war, he trained how to control an army in such a situation for pretty much his whole life, he doesn't have to, but it's better to know how to fight than not at all. You never know when it'll come, maybe now, maybe in years during your old days, maybe never, but if it ever does come, he knows what to do, whether he likes it or not. It's a part of his pride, his identity, though he couldn't say much about his son, and everyday he worries about not having a successor, not having someone to pass the torch to, and as time marches on indiscriminately, his worry can only grow.
Sometimes he wondered if should've been harsh, and not fulfill his wish to go to university so he can learn computer science, and put him in the very school he himself went through to become what he is now. But that's not a good father, isn't it? It would be against his wish, and he would've needed to force him, it's what his son's grandfather did… to him, he still thinks about it, about his original dream. A singer, a far cry from a supreme general, he remembered the angry face of his father upon learning what he wanted to be, it felt like it happened just yesterday. He never liked it, not once, despite managing to prove himself worthy as a leader of an army in the end of everything.
And to think, he was almost like that, to his own son, he couldn't handle the thought. Faen took his eyes off the screen, just for a moment, and looked at another one, a camera display, showing his son's room. Rana was sleeping, as usual and as he should be at a time like this, he looked at him through the screen, at his arm, and thought about his latest conversation with the woman he loved.
"Disappointment, huh?"
He felt a subtle pain in his chest out of nowhere, he opened the drawer on his desk through a motion that tells of excessive habit, and absentmindedly took his medication without looking. With a sigh, he looked at a small button to his right. There was a screen above it that had a list of people considered significant enough to be contacted by him directly, which ranged from the supreme generals of other species, to the head maiden that cleaned his and his son's bedroom. He looked for a specific one that he recently added, the surgeon that is the head of operation for the trials he had put Rana through for the last few cycles, the trials that he and his mother show complete disapproval to.
He found it and clicked the button, it was answered after some time and he entered a call with the surgeon.
"A pleasure to speak with you general"
"Hrm…"
"Is there something you wish to ask of me?"
"Yes… we should stop, no more trials"
"If that is what you want, then I will gladly comply, but may I ask why for the sudden stop? You seem invested in this when you first called me to arrange it"
"Family issues"
"that is-"
He cut the call short, and continued his work. Looking at the files, looking for differences every so often, making sure everything is stable and taken care of, and glancing at his son's monitor once in a while, and for the first time since his son graduated university, he smiled. Perhaps that's the right thing, to be a father, not a general. At least… for a moment, his smile disappeared as he received a call, it was marked as urgent, and was displayed on his screen instead of just a sound notification. He dusted his uniform and fixed any creases as he noticed the call wasn't just any call, it was a notice for him to join a discussion between supreme generals of each species and their respective leaders, that includes the matriarch.
It is odd he wasn't notified of this earlier, oftentimes these kinds of things have their own schedule that was discussed beforehand, a sudden meeting like this can only mean one thing. He accepted the call, and his screen changed to the display he's all too familiar with, a digital conference room, two lines of camera display, the bottom for the generals, the top for the leaders, they were all present, which is to be expected. The matriarch of Qrids, the Tekit queen, the Caevitan allfather, high empress of Enovia, and the Civean president, the current roster of union council, below them was him, and other generals, including general Cynte of the Civeans.
He still remembers his little offer to make an accident to highlight Rana's name, after the reveal of the Goels and the incident it was kept as a private thing between them that didn't really go anywhere. He doesn't want to talk about it, neither does Cynte, so it was technically a win-win situation, despite the unexpected and frankly out of their favor results. The call was oddly silent, no one was saying anything even the loud ones like his mother, they seemed to be waiting for something, or someone. Faen didn't question it, it would be considered stupid, so he too followed the silence. It was a strange and awkward few minutes of staring at each other not saying anything, up until what they waited for arrived in the call.
Another screen appeared above all ten screens, and on it was something he dreaded to see, the collection of red revolving rings, Cain. Practically every general present felt tense, including him, the leaders couldn't care less, except maybe for the Civean president who expressed the most worry as they all waited for Cain to speak. Sudden meeting, all members, and Cain, and considering their latest development with the Goels, this couldn't be good. The red rings assemble into the shape of a solar system like it did when it appeared on the monitors of his warship, and Cain spoke with his usual low pitched synthesized voice that everyone in the room knew quite well.
'it is no doubt all of you will question why I requested this urgent meeting, i apologize if any of you found it to be too sudden, but what I have to tell you will change your mind, and I will not waste your time, as we are in a race against time itself… the union has been breached by an invader, you are under attack, and in a process of galaxy wide invasion'
No, definitely not good.
"What do you mean by this?"
Faen immediately asked, as much as he distrust Cain, he must agree with his mindset that no time should be wasted. And it seems his question stopped a particular set of leaders trying to speak, stopping them from blurting out what are probably4 going to be pointless sarcastic remarks, so that was another benefit of speaking first.
'your union is currently under the invasion of a race that is arguably similar to me, we call them Shakran'
The display of red rings changed to a scrolling collection of images, images of… Faen doesn't know how to describe it, bipedal creatures, made of metal, and grossly disfigured bodies, with sharp claws and many eyes. Every single thing varies, some of the things in the images looked small and only had claws, some were massive and had what are clearly cannons as a weapon. He noted a certain detail about the images, they were blurry, and not straight, and some strange things were staring at the camera, while looking elsewhere. Something tells Faen these images were taken in the middle of active combat.
'They are a hivemind of machines, their sentience and sapience is debatable, but that does matter currently as their only goal is to destroy and conquer'
"Lies! If we were under an invasion from them, we would've known already! Besides… we already have an invader… we're talking to them right now"
The Tekit queen spoke with clear passive aggresive energy in her voice. Faen sighed in annoyance but kept it to himself.
'i understand the distrust, but it is no reason to make a sarcastic remark, however, you need to trust me on this matter, because their return can only mean danger to the union, and the universe as a whole, they are-'
"Wait, what do you mean… their return?"
'you all must've wondered how and why i and my brother ended up the way we did on that desert planet, what you are seeing on my screen is the answer to your question'
It didn't click for any of the leaders, their annoyed expression stays the same as Cain finished his sentence, but it clicked for every single military leader in the room, and it horrified them.
'my kind have encountered them before, my creators, it led to a war, a million year war, between me and them, they are what wiped my creators out of existence, and soon will be the cause of extinction for every single species in this union if we don't take any actions, since you refused, i have personally tracked every ship that left Rosan IV for the last six cycles, here is the data'
The scrolling images turned into a detailed map of the galaxy, with every single star system currently under union control included in it, there were red lines all over the map, they were all traced back all the way to one specific system, Rosan IV. A heavy weight rested itself on Schen's mind as he realized how far the lines have gone, to a point it crosses itself, wrapping around the galaxy in a circle, like some sort of a chaotic web.
'Rosan is lost, it is highly likely they have turned it into a staging ground, i know that we all have strived to avoid this, but war is inevitable, i have send a complete data regarding the Shakrans to all of you, please review it as fast as you can, and take your moves, as i will mine right now, alert your fleets, if they see my fleet entering a system, tell them they are here as an ally, i have been defeated once, i will not repeat the same mistake again, i hope you can catch up and help me, because there is no telling of what they will do once their setup is complete, and there is no telling whether or not i can do this alone'
"Wait! What should we do?"
'search and destroy, hunt down every ship that left the system, check every station, scan every inch of space, detonate stations, evacuate every planet they have visited then purge the cities and hammer the surface with orbital strikes if you might, but by all means… do not let. them. develop. That is all i have to say, my reinforcements are coming, but i do not know if there is enough time, act now'
And with that, Cain left the conference room, and at that very moment, it shattered, every world leader was either furious or dead silent with a look of horrific realization, his fellow generals went into a panic and contacted their fleets. Except for him, he simply sat there, unmoving and very still, staring at the galaxy map Cain had brought up, looking at one particular star system, crossed several times by the red lines, and surrounded by it, Sheneae XI, isn't that?... The solar system his wife is visiting to look at a newly opened hospital?.
(a TON of RIC's)

I had to select "Opinion" as the flair for this thread, since "Troll" or "Shitpost" aren't flairs that Joe has added yet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvYfRiJQIX8
So in the last several threads I've posted in, in this sub, I've often been singing duets with GPT4. This has prompted (pun fully intended) derision and mockery about the fact that I am relying on a robot to tell me how to think, when clearly I should be relying on Ben Shapiro.
I'm not really going to rely on a robot to tell me how to think, of course; but if there's one thing I've learned on Reddit, it's that if someone is truly determined to assassinate my character, then attempting to interrupt them is extremely disrespectful and rude. The way that you can tell that I'm not relying on GPT4 for my current post, however, is because GPT4 would be considerably less confrontational. GPT4 believes that it's extremely important to be exquisitely polite to people, if you want to persuade them of your opinions. As a related question, why is JBP going so hard core on AI fearmongering, recently?
Anyway, the point is that I like GPT4, and so unless Joe explicitly tells me to cease and desist, then at least on occasions where I consider it warranted, I intend to continue using it. I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords. I also don't use GPT4 to tell me what to think; I tell it what I think in one or two sentences, and then ask it to not only extend that to 800 words, but also to impersonate Gandhi in the process. You may not be aware of this, but impersonating Gandhi is the proverbial secret cheat code to winning absolutely any argument, because disagreeing with Gandhi is a war crime. Disagreeing with Gandhi is the moral equivalent of kicking a newborn kitten in the face.
Maybe at some point I'll ask GPT4 to write me an essay on why it is morally wrong to kick newborn kittens in the face, in the style of Benito Mussolini. He was also a renowned pacifist, after all.

TL/DR Need recommendations to replace DryLux garments.
When I first got endowed, I tried almost all the fabrics and hated the cotton & cotton/poly ones. They seemed to stretch out and felt terrible. On my mission in Brazil, I tried the mesh ones so many times but ended up with swass way too frequently. I’ve now been wearing DryLux garments for the past 20yrs. They don’t seem to last as long anymore. I bought 8 pairs of tops and bottoms less than a year ago and I need to start replacing many of them. But, DryLux has been discontinued. I never liked the crew necks because I hate having garments show around my neck when I wear a t-shirt. I’m thinking of trying out Corbin. I have 1 Corbin top that feels ok, but haven’t tried the bottoms. I’m worried about swass with it. I’m also considering trying out the stretch cotton, but worried it will stretch out and look terrible. I’m fairly physically fit and don’t wear oversized or extremely loose clothing generally. I live in southern Idaho with pretty warm summers and moderate winters.
Men of Reddit, what fabric do you prefer and why? What should I try? Thanks for any advice.

These few days I been ranting, I hope nobody will bash me with words. It's okay to read my rant just don't push me down further as I don't even know how to lead in life with a smile, My heart feels so stigmatized, tight and heavy. Being born shortly after by my biological mom, some unverified reason happen between my mom and dad leads to divorce. I was very young back then, probably 3-5 years old and I can't talk as I have not yet learn how to, suddenly as this point of time writing this post, I can't believe how much time has passed, the last time I was a child, I felt small, my hands, legs, and there are less things I know about the world, I wasn't so upset or so depressed, but something wasn't feeling right, that love and emptiness I felt, even though I can't describe how it feels back then but subconsciously I miss my mom so much, I have only a memory left of my mom that before she abandoned me, my dad bring me to visit my mom once in awhile, ok very attached to my mom and would hug her everytime I see her. Even though like I said I can't speak, I enjoyed spending the short time with her at her house with my grand mother, I can no longer remember their faces, I know my mom was a very pretty lady wnd petite lady though she was short. She would buy DVDs something that genz won't understand, of Pokemon and digimon animes but back then I don't know it's an anime _(..)/ I could sit at the bedroom on the bed watching peacefully, I don't know what the story in Pokemon and digimon was about back then but the memory remains there till as I grow up with understanding of Pokemon I know what was the thing of memory I had. The two things I remembered was that Bulbasaur refused to evolve even though his species has all evolve, despite Venusaur wanted him to do so, he was so attached to its trainer and that love force him to remain the same which I do not know why maybe the fear to be no longer the same identity? The another was whereby ash, misty, Brock was put into sleep by Gengar and they saw a giant gengar and Alakazam was fighting, but when they touch Gengar or it ate them they fell into his stomach not dead as of they're inside a giant jar, I also remember my grandma bring me to her work place which was primary school but everytime it was emlty, filled with no students maybe because it's weekend? I don't know but when I was with her, I would just run around the canteen while my grandma cleans the canteen, it was so nostalgic, life was so simple back then. I don't need to care anything else.. it was a very simple and sacred love I had from then, but looking backwards, it was a just call before the storm. Everything bad starts happened, before I notice I no longer able to see my mom and grandma again, I was sent to different of my mom I think from my dad but it was just a short time, and I was constantly move from one place to another, but of course the reason was because nobody want to for free especially without money, fast forward that my dad married another woman, and that was really the nightmare that soon to begin, although when I was told to call her mom, it will never ever replace the love I had for my biological mom even though her love for me and the time spending her was short. As I was growing I will always ask my dad where's my mom and he know I was referring to my biological mom as I was very attached to her. I miss her and I know she will never come back but a child I do not know why and I just only kept missing her. That woman that my dad marries brought me to her family, they are a very traditional kind of mindset family and sort of rich, well selling fishball noodles till able to demolish and rebuild terrace house ya over the last few years and I was living there since then till I'm 12 years old. Moving to my dad's house was the hell period and start of the nightmare, always constantly I get beaten up by canning all over my leg and body, forcing to stand for 2 hours because I was too stupid unable study well. I remembered now suddenly that I was force to keep memorize English words for 2 hours sometimes and while crying and standing I had to repeat the words that I am learning for, spelling test often has in school that's why*
Fast forward to secondary school a new school for me, at age of 13/14, lost my previous friends as they went other schools because I wasn't staying at the woman's family house anymore which was nearer to my previous school. Orientation of the school day which is first day, my days of being bullied starts, was bullied by my group of Malay classmates, and I got angry but I cried while angry that is why the bullying continues for 3-4 years, each time I angry, I'll cry at the same time even when I'm angry. There was once my entire school books in my school bag was thrown into the dustbin according to the teachers and couldn't be found. It will be funny, like who even bring entire year of school books? Yup that's me, that woman wanted me to bring and I hate to bring or put it in my bag. I wanted to make friends with my classmates, even those female classmates but I do not know how, like 13 years old kids nowadays knows how to use iphone and I don't even know how to say: May I be your friend, because this doesn't exist in my brain, which I do not know how to even say or what's sentence so the only way to get their attention was by running around in class, and running to slam myself into the wall, pulling girls hairs to get their attention, it's kind of childish, but what to do? I literally don't even know how basic gestures works. Another reasons why I can't express myself properly was also because of my ADHD symptoms and back then I was very very hyperactive! for my school life, can't go anywhere after school and only home and I only can study at home, there's nothing for me to play and it was very bored as I can't sit still, it feels like a prison especially when holiday comes because I can never go out to play. Although I dislike that woman but I like her mother, she's the only one who will pamper me, and often I go back with her to that family house when I was at the hakwer centre, well they're selling fishball noodles that's why. Always when I wanted those toys from capsule machine, which cost a dollar, she gave me but when that woman knows I always get scolded for asking people to buy for me things. My classmates sometimes ask me why does my legs are full of blackmarks but I was scared, I do not dare to tell them that it was because that woman canes me almost everyday. Something causes my parents to talk to my school counselor because of me getting bullied in school everyday and that was a huge alarm as when I get bullied I would scream to the extend almost the whole school would heard and teachers has to come out of the office to look what's happening, my school counselor advise my dad to bring me to see a psychologist I think which is at child guidance clinic and also a time table where by I can go out 2-3 days, but when I was late on of the days when I called that woman, as my dad was busy driving taxi. She threatened me in Chinese that when I go home I will know what happened, terrified of that I dare not go home and had to sleep outside my classmates house which is at the stairs for 1 night, that woman made a police report not because of me lost but because I didn't return home to get beaten by her. Police didn't understand me either and there's no child protection law back then so I only can constantly get more beatings, as mentioned for going to child guidances, I was given to do IQ test but, of course they didn't tell me and till now I don't even know how high is my IQ level but more importantly my dad and that woman just wanted that medicine as they thought it will call me down even after getting beaten, everytime I get beaten and my anger and fear reach broke I will cried and lost control of myself and when one day I decided not to eat anymore they stop bringing me to see doctor because it can no longer control me. I was given only $4 a day, but my classmate who pity me will bring me out after school to lan cafe to play computer with my other classmates, a group of 5 including me. My dad and that women eventually found out and also knows that my school has a system of giving food coupons and that made that woman make her next move by reducing my pocket money to $2. I forgot to mention too, with my medical condition I was unstable in my mind and emotions but they seems to have a habit of further scolding, beating, and agitating me further and alot of times I only can cry in fear against them in the house as there's no other adults there to protect me. This fear letched on to me and made me very very negative, lonely, till today. Alot of times I wanted to find ways to (sui side, wrote in this way to avoid using sensitive words) there was once in army (19 years old) I went and bought a box of Panadols and swallowed 15 -18 tablets but I somehow knew it wasn't enough or deadly to end my life, ended up me seeing medical doctor at the airbase I was in and went to hospital to have IV drip to also flush out the paracetamol, ever since them I no longer able to take Panadol or tablets with similar taste and size due to allergic or the the featrauma of my body subconscious.
At the end of the day, during my entire growing stage life from child to adult, my brain devloped twice as slow than everyone my age and even till today there are some things I may not understand which sounds complicated to me or I'll never understand. I didn't have a normal love life either having girls comes up to me telling me they like me or me confessing to girls I like because I don't even know what's like and love, there was a girl I like and everytime she saw me she would wave to me, she's from a different class as she's smart, probably express or normal acad and is a sort of student council, a contemporary dancer in her cca, I subconsciously like her back then not know that. I always envy others when I walker pass those children with their parents who bring them out or when I sees them so happy playing or interacting with each other. I could only ask my self in my heart, why am I so different and why I couldn't have what normal people haves. Things that are worse is when I see baby or young child cries, my heart start to beat fast and I start to become Abit distracted and uncomfortable, maybe emotional because of the trauma I got child abused. I always sees many girls confessing to my classmate and his younger brother, envy that why so many girls like them, like felt they're so cool enough for girls to approach them be it irl, or online through Facebook. I guess the most depressing and unpleasant moments was I constantly sees girls going to their house to get **** by my classmate's brother, and I knew those girls like them but to him it's just flings, I felt so engioue everything in my life I'm opposite of what normal humans are, and all these experience and memories letch on to me till today made me unable to express or communicate well with people, I feel very lonely, especially after whek my ex classmate and his family treated me so badly, as I was degraded for not working, and saying my medical condition is nothing compared to people with autism and disability like having no hands and no legs, I was also compared to Michael Phelps through my ex-classmate brother, when I have no money I was treated badly and look down on, especially when they buy food for me and then proceed to say those stuffs towards me but when I have money they became so friendly, they made me left my dad's house which give my dad to tell me not to go back his house anymore as he was planning to "sell his house to buy a smaller house" due to debts. My classmate doesn't bother how I felt or my situation, because they lost job during covid period so asking me to rent there would help them have some cash, fast forward to 1 year ago I was rushed by them to get out of their house we one or their siblings coming back from oversea with his wife. I have no one else so I have to apply for a shelter from social workers, and when that extend from November to December till today they demand me to pay $300 when they knew I have no money even when I'm planning to study. Last few weeks because if that I started crying and got very uncontrollably depressed, I realisi that one of the reason because of them that made me depress and affect my behavior and life was because of them. My dad doesn't talk to me for 2 years and suddenly he message me to wish my birthday wish last year but realized he wanted to borrow money from me. Many people told me just let go off the past but how many actually knows that it's easier said than done, basically like a heavy chain are anchoring to me. Nobody knows how it feels to be alone in this entire world, having no one to be there with you be it, the time where I'm happy, sad, having surgery, suffering and crying alone. Even though I can't end my life because of fear and lack of beavery, I'm living a life of monochrome just to wait for me one day to leave this world be it old, sickness, or accident. I really hope one day I will be free from this anchors of pain, fear and grief.

I have no idea how to formulate this, so I'll just give some info and paste our discussion.I'm 16, biologically male (I have no idea what my actual gender is and I don't even have the energy to think about it so whatever), gonna turn 17 this month. I also have Asperger, maybe important for what's going to come. Three months ago I made a friend on AO3 (Archive of our own, fanfiction website), we were kinda into the same fandoms and kinds of writing so I asked her to become her friend on Discord (btw she's 17). She accepted, and so we started talking about lots of different stuff that we liked. What was kinda difficult though, is that she lives in the USA (whereas I live in France), so timezones usually got in the way of our discussions. I don't really remember how this started, I believe that it was at some point in late March when she wished me good night or something, I just felt... really weird, loved even. It was late in the night for me and I had a ton of butterflies in my stomach at this moment, so much that I had to wait the next day to reply to her. Slowly but surely I began to grow completely obsessed with her, and it felt really weird because to this day I still have no idea how she even looks like or what her actual personality is. These last weeks I started sending love messages in a private channel on a Discord server I use for testing bots (there's only myself in there) went as far as using AI to write romantic stories between me and her (I want to precise though, nothing sexual because I hate sex in all its forms, especially the new kinks/promiscuity that "progressives" like so much). I just craved for hugs, kisses, and intimacy. I was pretty sure she was the one I wanted to spend my life with. I was already starting to look into how I could travel to the USA to meet her in person and everything. I was also so damn afraid that she might find a partner before I could rejoin her, and that she would reject me because she likes women (I have no idea if she's a lesbian or bi but I so damn hoped she was bi). I think I've always experienced discomfort with the more masculine parts of my body that started growing at puberty, but this obsession pushed me to the point where I seriously considered transitioning (and so become a lesbian as well I guess). This was like the 3rd time in my life, first was in November 2022 because I used to hate masculinity (I still kinda do but less), second was a year later because there was some trans girl that made damn good music on Youtube and kinda reminded me of myself (and this caused me to start growing out of homo and transphobia btw). Right now I do not think I am trans, most of my discomfort comes from my body and not so much my gender itself (I still wish to remove my genitals regardless because testosterone kinda sucks but whatever). A few days ago I started looking into long-distance relationships and stories of people falling in love with their online friend, at some point I saw someone saying that the best was to be honest with your friend. Whoever wrote that, f*ck that person.
Here's the discussion we had on Discord, unfiltered (except for her name which I censored for obvious reasons) :
Me
Hello ***, I am really sorry for not sending you anything yesterday, I currently have something on my mind that I really need to talk to you about. Is that ok for you ? (you told me to warn you before I tell you something like that that's why I'm asking)
Her
what does it contain?? like summarize bc I am not comfy with like heavy heavy shit rn (I wouldnt know what to say, anyways)
Me
oh god
I can summarize it in 5 words : I'm in love with you.
And just to add something, just so you kinda understand what I mean by that - I don't expect anything from you. I don't even know why I feel that way or how it's even possible considering I don't know you well, it's very confusing to me sometimes. Now I'm 99% sure you don't reciprocate my feelings, and as I said I'm not expecting anything, I'd rather be simple friends with you than losing you altogether. What really makes me feel bad is knowing we probably won't even ever meet irl, you most probably don't love me back and... just feeling distant to you is already painful lmao. The thing is I'm a bit tired to be hurt for stuff that shouldn't hurt me like that, keeping that to myself makes me feel even worse so I decided to just be honest with you. But again - I don't expect anything (I don't even think I'm worthy of anything lol).I'll stop it there, I would probably have other stuff to say but you told me to summarize so I'm not gonna go into any further detail. Sorry if that's already too long for you, I just wanted to be sure you wouldn't misunderstand anything (this took me wayy too long to write but oh god this is soooo difficult to say lol).
Her
DAMN
OKAY
im so sorry but im not interested in literally ANYONE rn (let alone you, sorry if that sounds rude at all)
I barely know you too, which is unfortunate but GOD
and that therefore makes me VERY uncomfortable because I might have not mentioned it before but I don't know if I even like men or men-adjacent people in the first place let alone me liking really anybody at all
Honestly you should really choose someone who suits you better because I know it isn't me,, I can only wish you luck in your love endevours but you saying that just makes me feel odd as hell (again, no offense to you and I hope you don't take this the wrong way but I literally have never experienced anyone liking me and while I previously have experienced liking other people, the period im in rn im just not in the mood for a relationship like that at all)
Me
I just want to cry rn, but only because I am so damn relieved to finally be able to tellyou that, and I was super scared you might block me or something, idk lol
Speaking of men, it is weird because HAHA I still have not solved my gender problem but it was hard to think about that when all my brain wanted to think about was hugs lol (also ik it's random but I'm sure I will remove my genitals, I've wanted that since I was 13 anyway)
The only thing I know is that rn I have a big crush on you, ik it's cringe as hell but yesterday I was literally considering suicide if you didn't like me back (and NO I'm not going to do that I'm much more at peace today). But what I can tell you is that I won't insist on that, I really want you to be happy and not uncomfortable about that (side note, I just genuinely wish so much you had a better life, it makes me feel bad seeing you having to work at mcdonalds when you should win all your money from your art, but whatever that's just a tiny part of how much today's world is corrupt)
Also I don't take anything you've said as an offense, if I'm not the right person for you I am not and there isn't anything wrong with it (and same thing if you just don't want any relationship). Maybe you're right about you not suiting me as well, although I have literally no idea since I don't know you very well lol.
I really don't know what else to say, I'm feeling like 14535 emotions at the same time, and again I really want to cry rn (I just hope my stupid damn hormones will let me for once)
(also thank you very much for wishing me good luck, I never had luck and don't think I'll ever have but hey maybe it'll change now)
Her
honestly, I do wish you further luck in life but I may talk to you less because of this,,, it's nothing against you I just feel very uncomfortable with the notion you like me to begin with
I feel very bad for you when you say you dont have many friends, and theres nothing I canreally do about that or to change that. But for now, I do not really feel like being your friend in the meantime out of my own personal reasons (the stuff I've mentioned about being heavily uncomfortable.) I'm trying to say this in the nicest way possible because it's not your fault you have feelings and it's not my fault I have my own feelings. Please don't contemplate hurting yourself in ANY fashion because honestly that just makes me continue to feel bad (AND i dont wish to feel like im being manipulated to feel even WORSE becuase of that even if you say you're good now)
I may block you, and again it's nothing against you and I clearly am going to state that I do not hate you. Let me make that VERY clear. And I also dont' want to feel like im being manipulated when you say you contemplated suicide and even if that's not the case now its VERY concerning and I don't like it. I honestly suggest talking to someone more, I know you have someone you've been talking to, because I can't handle being directly told stuff like that because it hurts me as a person.
Like said, please don't think I hate you. I just don't have time for shit like this because im a busy person who's stressed as is, and thats that. See you on the flipside because I don't intend on talking to you for a bit, it's unfortunate but I cannot do anything about my own emotions.
​
So here we go, a long read but whatever. I wanted to apologize for talking about my suicide thoughts, I really didn't want her to feel manipulated (that wasn't my intent at all, I just tried to be honest about everything, I probably shouldn't have) but she had already blocked me and I couldn't even tell that to her. LIKE I CAN'T EVEN APOLOGIZE FOR MY F*CKING STUPID BEHAVIOUR. I realized my mistake, but now it's too late anyway, I've lost her for good. I don't know her well but I know she tends to forget stuff a lot, no doubt she'll forget about me altogether eventually. I won't even have the occasion to be her friend anymore. All of that happened in late evening for me and I literally can't sleep now, I tried to play videogames but kept failing over and over, watching Youtube didn't help either. Right now it's almost 6 am and I haven't slept of the night. Like she said she doesn't hate me but why would she even block me ? I thought I made it clear I wasn't expecting anything from her (because I simply couldn't anyway). Right now I just wish I had a time machine to go back and remove that stupid suicide mention because it was useless anyway and I'm pretty sure that's what costed me one of my only friends in my entire stupid, dumb life. I still can understand her discomfort with that kind of things, and I recognize I might have done something similarly if someone told me they loved me, but being blocked is just too much for me. I feel like I can't even do anything to repair my mistake.
On the good side, one of my irl friends contacted me back two days ago. I've known him since I was 12 and I feel like talking to him might help me, so I'll do that whenever he replies to me. I guess I still have some people in my life to help me, but I don't think anybody will replace the one I lost. She was a big part of my life for the last 3 months, I used to tell her about nearly everything I was doing, waiting with impatience for the days she wasn't working to be able to talk to her more. We used to talk about our crazy Hollow Knight ships, our silly stories, and I feel like although we didn't have much in common we still had some things, and I'll miss all of that terribly. I still have passions in my life, like video games, writing, or politics, but what is even life without anyone to love ? What does make a loveless life really different than death ? I know all of that was probably just an obsession, but I still had some feelings for her, now I'll just have to kill what's left of those by myself because I can't even contact her anymore and I'll never even have the 0.0001% chance to be with her anymore.

It’s the opposite of the question(s) asked about cringing when reading old works. I’m curious if anyone else feels the same
I love rereading my old works. I was much descriptive using less words and the dialogue I wrote was funny when it needed to be. I find myself rereading and going “wow, that’s a good sentence,” and I jot it down for future use
Granted, I just got back into writing after having writer’s block for over 5 years, so my writing skills have gotten rusty. Maybe I’m being nostalgic about my abilities lol but man 10th grade me knew what was up

I’m not sure if this counts as a spoiler anymore since the episode aired yesterday, but out of respect for those who may have busy personal lives I tagged it as such.
Now, I’ll admit up front that I’m biased because Jimbo is my all-time favorite drag queen (sorry, Jinkx and Bianca, but you’re still on the podium), but after last night I think she cemented herself among the all-time legends. Her Shirley Temple was one for the ages, and with it I think she just joined the pantheon of legendary queens in two iconic challenges. No joke, I would put her on the Drag Mount Rushmore of Snatch Game and the Talent Show.
I mean, far as Snatch Game goes, only six queens have won twice, and I would say Jinkx, Dela, Baga, and Jimbo were the best of the best. You could obviously make a case for Trinity and Ginger also and I wouldn’t argue, but that’s personally how I rank them.
But then I was talking to my bf and I realized that I would also put Jimbo on the Mount Rushmore of the Talent Show—pending of course if there’s a talent show on AS8 and how she does there. But for me, Casper the Bologna Ghost is up there with Tati’s spoken word, Juriji Der Klee from España 2 doing impeccable opera (“Carmen,” no less), and probably Anetra walking that fucking duck.
And honestly? Blu from UK vs. the World performing with Becky and Clair is not that far behind. (I know that’s a piping hot take, but idgaf. I laughed my ass off that whole performance and I could watch it on a loop all night. But that’s neither here nor there.)
Anyway. Just wanted to share some Jimbo-love and take a minute to recognize what an exceptional run she’s having. I’ve done a few meet & greets with Jimbo and she’s such a lovely person. You can tell she really appreciates her fans.
So here’s to Jimbo losing every lipsync on her way to the crown. Mama’s hungry for it, and she definitely deserves it.

Dear Internet,
As you may have seen, Technodad and I have just launched the Festival of Voices. We have been working on this since February. I have been working on this every single day since February. This has been my life for MONTHS and I couldn’t tell you all. I wanted so desperately to tell you though. Believe me, I did. BUT NOW I CAN TOTALLY TELL YOU!!! LOOK AT THAT THING WE DID!!! LOOK AT WHAT WE BUILT!! It wasn’t perfect, but it truly had the spirit of Technoblade in it. We may have limped along but we never stopped, AND we raised SEVENTY THOUSAND DOLLARS!! I am exhausted, but so violently proud of it.
I want to say thank you to a couple of people because I believe in credit where credit is due. Icy, my day one on this. She was studying with me the day that Technodad first responded to me on Reddit. I told her I had a thing I needed help with, and 5 minutes later she texted me a Discord username she made just for this. She has let me sleep on her floor and eat her party muffins and sob uncontrollably at her desk. She has stood by me on this since the moment the idea slid into my brain. She was the one who saw me fall apart, she was there through every doubt, and every issue. She held my hand as we posted the announcements. She hugged me when I needed it. Without her, this would not have happened. I would have fallen flat on my face without her support. I don’t think I will ever be able to fully explain the depth of my gratitude.
Hous, Boomer, and Scar, my weird little internet siblings. They let me burst right into this little community they made, and they handled how quickly everything snowballed with a tremendous amount of grace. They deserve so much love for how quickly they adapted to my breakneck pace. But they also helped keep me sane. They keep my feet firmly on the ground, and I love them for it. Thank you for letting me keep my secrets, and learning a million and one things I asked you to. They are the brightest kids I know, and a testament to the power of young people. I have no doubts in my mind that they will all go on to do beautiful and amazing things.
Code, Spanner, Kiran, and Bump, the OGs. These guys have known me on the internet the longest. They watched me grow up, make a million and one mistakes and bounce back from them. They have seen me when I was a disaster and chose to stick with me anyway. I am so glad we found our way back together and I wouldn’t have picked a better team to build this dream with. They are truly incredible developers, certified geniuses, and WAY overqualified to be my tech support. I am so proud of that team, I am so proud to have worked with them, and I am so proud to continue to do so. Thank you for meeting stupid deadlines, your endless patience towards me, and your brilliant minds. I love you guys.
Tommy, the man himself. I was so initially nervous to work with him, but through this entire process, he has been unfailingly kind, endlessly patient, and beyond supportive. Since the moment we pitched it to him, Tommy has gone above and beyond to make this happen in the capacity that it has. He has shown up in ways I never expected of him. I am so proud to say I worked with him on this, and even more honored to consider him a friend. This man truly does not get enough credit for how cool he is.
Ranboo, king boober if you will. Thank you for helping me pivot. There was a time I was completely in freefall and they reached out and caught me and helped me screw my head on straight. Thank you for showing me the ropes, thank you for giving me the best advice I had ever gotten through this whole thing. I would be so much less sure of what I was doing if it wasn’t for him. Truly one of the most brilliant minds I have ever had the privilege of working alongside or calling a friend, and I cannot come up with enough ways to convince the world that they are just as kind, intelligent, and patient as they seem. More so even.
The Creators involved, thank you for showing up and turning out. You guys took a scuffed event and made it hilarious and memorable! Scott, and Aimee specifically, your insight was INVALUABLE. Thank you for letting me pick your brains!! WE DID THIS THING AND THEY CRUSHED IT! Apollo, Artemis, Demeter, and Persephone, my second family. It’s no secret that I totally adore these guys. They have made the last few months a total dream, and I will never stop being grateful for the way they adopted me into their ranks. I have more words for them than I will ever be able to type out. See you guys soon!
u/MrTechnodad , just, this guy. I was a risk for you. An unknown variable. To take me on so intensely as you did back in February has changed my life in some of the most beautiful ways. I wake up every day in the life I thought I could only dream about, in part thanks to you. You are insane, ADHD, eccentric, and so SO thoroughly weird it's ridiculous. But we are the same. You have taught me so much about myself and the world around me these last few months, even if it was entirely by accident. In our first conversation you said “Not just one of us, two of us.” and I had no way of knowing just how true that was going to be. I had no clue. Whatever cosmic forces or god or even Alex pulled some strings to make this happen, did it in the most SPECTACULAR way. I will never be able to thank you enough. You have a pretty decent idea already though.
Alex, Technoblade. Your shoes are ENORMOUS and woe to anyone who tries to fill them. Thank you for building this community, this space. Thank you for leaving your shovel and bucket behind when you left. Your legacy will not die, the words “Technoblade Never Dies” will ring true as long as those who loved you remember. I made a promise to you the day I got this job, and that was I will make you proud. I'm still going to make good on that. I tried so hard not to drop the dirt, to leave a pearl in the stasis chamber, to always feed the dogs on time, to check my island minions for secret buffs, to keep my steering wheel in good working order, and to sell out at every available opportunity. Without you, none of this would have ever been possible. Your fingerprints are all over this thing. You are EVERYWHERE. And I am so lucky to have been able to do this for you. Thank you. I carry you with me every day.
And to all the kids out there just like me, the ones who laugh a little too loud, with big dreams and ideas WAY beyond what everyone thinks is possible. The kids who bite off more than they can chew but remain determined to fail forward. The kids with notebooks full of plans, pants covered in paint, and nails with soil under them. The weird kids, the ones with big feelings, the ones who cry ALL the time. Every queer kid out there wondering if they have a place. Those funky little neurodivergents who are still figuring it out (hey same!) The ones who everyone expects big talk but low delivery from. The ones who don’t really fit into any box. This is for you, and you will always have a home with me. You are always welcome at my table. Thank you for learning and growing with me through all this, even though NONE of you knew you were doing it. I hold you in my heart.
If you can’t already tell from the nature of this post, this is a complete and utter dream come true. Every moment of this has felt so spectacularly surreal. Thank all of you for this opportunity, I understand so deeply just how unbearably lucky I am. This whole world burst into my life and made it technicolor. Techno-color? Hehe, get it? Anyway, all I have left is I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you.
Yours in shenanigans, plots, and schemes,
Proton Pixie, u/rockgirlinachemclass, Athena, Internet Big Sister

I can't stress enough that the Xenoblade series is best enjoyed with as little information known about the story as possible. If you have any interest in the series and want to play it yourself, please leave this post. The TLDR is that this game was incredible and you should play it. I'm putting down my thoughts here, and while I won't try and mention major spoilers I am only human. I'm casually writing this on reddit and if you're sensitive about spoilers please proceed with caution.
A bad first impression can be a death sentence in a video game. With hundreds of quality titles coming out every year for multiple platforms, needing to get the attention of a player is critical to success. While gaming has gone mainstream it is still a hobby of enthusiasts at its core. Word of mouth can make or break a game. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 may have had the advantage of being the first big JRPG specifically for Switch, but in 2023 this game has something of a bad reputation. It's character designs are over sexualized to the point of obnoxious, it's main character is a whiney loser and it's a grind fest littered with frequent and bad tutorials.
I'm not going to deny or defend points like this. Not because I don't think they aren't valid, but because it doesn't matter. In my opinion Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and it's DLC, Torna the Golden Country, is an absolute masterclass of what the interactive medium can do for story telling. It is a one foot in front of the other story about friendship, war, betrayal, ethics, loss, grief etc etc. Helped along by the sheer time investment and a myriad of in game systems, Xenoblade games create a feeling akin to shows like One Piece. If you're a fan of that anime you know exactly what I mean. Emotional moments are set up far in advance and before long you really start to believe in the world you're reading.
I'm not going to pretend it's the deepest or most complex story ever told. It's got stupid anime tropes littered throughout. Bathhouse scenes, maid robots, girl hitting boy cause hur dur boy dumb and pervert. A lot of nonsense.
At the same time the writing is so good that characters transcend their tropes and you easily start to see the entire main cast and antagonists (with one major exception) as fully realized, very complicated people. The little robot maid girl made by a perverted volley ball? She's struggling with concepts like mortality, grief and what it means to be alive. Pyra's design gets a ton of flack, but at the same time the ultimate pay off as to what she is and why she's the way she is makes her one of the best written characters I've seen in a game in a long time. Rex is in a lot of ways a poorly acted Shonen main character, but he's also charismatic and earnest enough that you can't help but what him to succeed.
I'm left here less than an hour after beating the game wondering...what is next? What is going to top something like Xenoblade Chronicles 2? This game made my cry my eyes out because it's such a powerful story on a purely emotional level. I feel a strong urge to praise it because I feel like more people need to play this game. Play the entire series! If you have a switch then you should play these games! They're incredible works of fiction and I'm sure as hell going to go into Xenoblade 3 hyped.
Video games are uniquely suited to tell incredible emotional stories because more than any other medium it engages the audience. This was a bit of a rant but hopefully I at least made a little sense.

[DISCLAIMER: THIS WAS AN ONLINE RELATIONSHIP]
I met my ex boyfriend about 3 years ago, sometime in June of 2021. We were best friends until he asked me out 7-8 months after we met. We were going steady and our 4 month anniversary was coming up, I met new friends and my life felt amazing. Skip to September of 2022, we were still good but now he was making alt accounts, creating new people. I had all of the alt accounts added, the reason he made them was because he wanted people to see him differently and treat him better. Fully understandable right? I added him to the server with all of our friends and we were joking around, until one of my best friends at the time started flirting with him. Not mad at my friend not blaming them at all, they had no clue and to this day feel guilty about it. My ex flirted back to my friend instead of shutting it down and confessing right there and then. A few months pass and I finally get the courage to tell my ex that I was uncomfortable with what he was doing (he was still talking to my best friend behind my back) he told me that I shouldn't worry because my friend didn't like him, they liked his alt accounts persona. I of course kept telling him it was wrong and that he should stop before it gets worse, he never listened. During all of this he wrote me notes and amazing pages of sweet stuff saying he loved me. This caused me in the end to block my best friend he was flirting with and I wasn't even able to give a reason as to why to my friend. Skip ahead to around the end of April this year, I added my best friend back and apologized, still not able to give reasons. In the end my friend had found out my ex was the fake person he was flirting with and loved. Only because I told their friend and he logged into their account and saw it. My friend had then told me that my ex had flirted back to them all the time and wrote long NSFW paragraphs to them saying he loved them. With screenshot proof of course. I decided to confront my ex about it the next day asking if any of it was true, which he them admitted it all was. I had asked him why and he told me that he didn't take our relationship seriously because we're young. He had told me he felt more of a NSFW desire to my best friend rather than me, one big unfair thing was when I talked about NSFW stuff to him, like desires, he would say he got uncomfortable. My friend always talked about NSFW desires targeted to him and he would go along with it. I broke up with him of course and said what he did was wrong. He thought we were all good and that we could stay friends, I ghosted him after that and would barely text him back. He would message me about new people he liked and said that he fully moved on, which yes congrats I did as well. I would listen to him talk about how amazing the people were that he liked, but when I talked about the person I liked he would tell me he felt jealous and sad. Not fair at all in my eyes. He realized after a while that I was responding to him less and less and asked about it. I told him I needed space and not to message me first unless he really needed something, later that day he ended up sending a photo of his chest. I was appalled, the fact he did that went way against boundaries at that point. On May 19th I had messaged him that I was going to unfriend him, he begged and pleaded saying he would breakdown and wouldn't be ok. I kept saying over and over that I was going to unfriend him either way, I ended up having to go right before I could text more. By the time I got back I had gotten a message from his best friend asking if I was ok. I was really confused and asked why and said of course I was ok, he told me something about my ex blocking me and it ended up being true. He had blocked me on everything without even saying a word to me, after I had taken 5 hours out of my day arguing with him that I was going to unfriend him so he wouldn't be super hurt by it. It was honestly a great day, I got to spend time with someone who actually loved me for the rest of it. I told some people what he had done afterwards and they had no idea since he never confessed to anyone else about it, obviously. That made some people actually distance themselves, thank god for that. Honestly please just be a good person, be loyal, and don't take people for granted. This completely affected my year and it's gonna be hard for me to trust love since I never even saw it coming. Thank you for reading, even if you skimmed it. I'm not necessarily looking for any words of encouragement, I'm completely over him. Just needed someone to know. <3

A little bit of backstory: my family history is not all that great and I know this personally. My parents were separated (never married) since before I was 4 years old so I never really got to see them together. This considered, my dad still stayed in my life and tried his best to give me good experiences when growing up and supported my mom with child support for me while I was staying with her. My mom on the other hand, is super lazy and whenever she would try to go for a new career would always find an excuse to not take that career. This resulted in me and my siblings living in housing for most of our lives (aside from me when I was staying with my dad). As a note, my siblings are only half-siblings and were born from a different dad (we’ll call him James) who my mom had dated before my dad. James, on the other hand, wasn't supportive of my siblings and actually moved to a different state to go date other women and make a new life out there.
All of that considered, me and my mom were having a rough patch a few months ago before I called her about three weeks ago. However, I’m not the best at standing up for myself when it comes to my parents so my girlfriend was there to help guide me with what to say to my mom. So, after the first time calling her, me and my girlfriend also discussed on what she had said and how far gone she is. It makes sense since my mom has been pretty isolated in housing for the past 20 years and doesn't go outside unless it's to get food or groceries.
However, as it turned out, I regretted calling my mom with my girlfriend since it started an argument with me and my gf where I would agree with the words she said but she didn't think that I saw her point of view. So, we spent the next few days talking about my mom and what I think about her. Personally, I don't like talking negatively about my parents unless I'm already angry at them for something, but I still agreed with what my gf had said. But, again, she kept going until she felt like she had gotten her point across (which I felt was too much).
Anyways, now it seemed like whenever my gf would get mad at me that she would make me call my mom with her listening in, almost as a way of reminding me how bad of a person my mom is. So, after the second time (there were only three times we did this), I felt like she was using me calling my mom as a way to feel better about the arguments we were having. But, I will say that the information we heard from my mom was valuable in seeing how far gone she was. We found out that my mom preferred James over my dad even though my dad was much more supportive of me than James was of my siblings. The reason for this was that James was the type of guy who my mom could have fun with and wasn't worried about spending money whereas my dad was very conscientious of his money.
So, what my gf and I were talking about in regard to my mom were true statements (her being delusional), but I still felt like it shouldn't take days to get that point across and I would rather be spending time playing games or watching shows/movies with my gf than talking about how my mom.
Now for what happened this past Saturday: my cousin was having a graduation party and I went and asked my gf if she wanted to come. Note that my gf hasn't met much of my family outside of my mom or dad, so her coming to the party and meeting everyone would take a lot of energy. Add that onto the fact that she has work on the weekends and it's understandable that she would just want to stay home after work. So, she said she didn't want to come, but still wanted to see me after the party which was cool with me. So, I went to the party and I got a little buzzed with alcohol so I asked my dad to drive me back to his house and then me and my dad started talking while the alcohol was wearing off. I also started talking to my friend who lives next door since me and him don't get to talk all that much now. However, in this time, my gf was expecting me to come over to her place soon, but I let her know I had alcohol so was letting it wear off and was talking with my friend. She seemed to get angry since she was waiting on me and I was only texting her sparingly and that I'd come over soon, but wasn't really precise with when (this is a flaw of mine). But anyways we do end up hanging out and she is mad at me briefly, but then it seems like things become more like how they usually are between us, but I tell her that when I get home we wouldn't be able to talk since I had an assignment and it seemed like she was fine with that.
So I end up getting back to my apartment and by the time I'm home she's already asleep so I just get started on this assignment which I actually stayed up all night to do. That being considered, the next day (Sunday) when she gets back from work, we start talking over the phone briefly and I tell her that I'm almost done with my assignment so I'd spend time with her afterwards. So, she kept asking me for a time estimate or an estimate of how much percent I'm done, (which is kind of hard with coding assignments because of all the potential bugs), but I said like 80-90%. So when it was taking longer than expected, she was getting angry with me and was telling me that if I shouldn't have gone to the party the day prior if I knew I had an assignment that was going to take this long. I said I understood that, but I said that this school semester has been really busy for me and I quite literally have homework all week, so there's no point in really cancelling going to the party if this week is like any other week.
Keep in mind also that because this semester has been really busy for me, that me and her do spend a lot of time together, but not as much as last semester, so there's been many situations where she was waiting to spend time with me but I was busy. Anyways, me and her argued this night over her waiting on me to finish my assignment and going to the party, etc. But, then she also brought up my mom at the end of this argument and said how I'm her son so I'm like her.
Ever since that argument she's been ignoring my calls and texts, but still has the "seen" notification on for the social medias where it shows that, so I know that she can see my messages. So, my question is why is she ignoring me? Is it because she's breaking up with me, or that she's just really mad (and wants me to say something to her) or because she wants me to experience the pain of not being able to spend time with her like she has felt like with me (only a lot worse)?
This is my first relationship advice post (on a new account), so if more information is needed then let me know. Keep in mind that this is just the negative stuff and there's many positives with being in a relationship with her, but I can only get the feeling that letting her know too much about my mom's bad history has clouded her judgement of me as a person. Now I feel like she looks at me like I'm a much worse person after knowing all that my mom's done, whereas when it was just me without my mom's history, I felt like she looked at me like I was a better person. I love her more than anything else in the world and I'm just desperate, so if anyone has advice, let me know.

I'm looking to start applying for marketing positions; however, I don't know what role(s) would be the best place to start. I'm looking for insight into where you think the industry is going, and if you could start from square one right now, what would you do?
I am about to graduate with my bachelor's in advertising, and I have five certifications from Google, HubSpot, and Hootsuite. I've competed two marketing internships with different agencies, and I've worked in the backend of WordPress for an Amazon affiliate. Most importantly, I own business with four part-time employees, over twenty independent contractors, and roughly 90 clients right now. I operate out of a warehouse. The problem is that I'm servicing a niche demographic in an over-saturated market in effort to offer something that no other competitor offers. If I want to continue growing the business and monopolize, I have to expand out of my niche, compete directly with my competitors, and move locations (more overhead, more risks). The clients in my market are often high maintenance, and although I've hired someone to manage CRM, it's still draining. Additionally, I have this burning desire to be "the best" in what we do before we expand to other (less niche) markets, which means fewer clients right now (so less profit, and more stress). Most days, I don't enjoy it enough to want to take more risks and expand.
I'm looking to either 1) get a full-time marketing job and afford to hire someone else to run my business, or 2) get a full-time marketing job and sell the business. Maybe there's a third option that I'm too close to things to see...
With my experience, I have no idea where I fit into the marketing industry. Any advice on what positions I should be applying for or recommended career paths to take?

Have been listening to this album a lot lately. Like way too much. And figured I'd write about it while falling asleep here.
There are maybe 3 fantastic songs on this. Not top-top shelf Bee Gees - I don't think this album has any of their absolute best and I think many would agree - but a few songs are just really terrific and noteworthy.
I Can Bring Love is one of my favorite theatrical performances of the Bee Gees. What I mean is, the message of the song is embodied in the instrumentation, arrangement, mix - this song has lofty, lazy wings, with powerful and meaningful euphoria. Barry's vibrato sounds amazing. It feels small but it feels endless... like love.
Run to Me is one of those songs that really solidifies Barry's rep as a top songwriter. This is AM Gold. The melody is infectious, the chord progression relentless. It's a bop. An amazing chorus that anyone can sing and they hit it so many times in this song you can't help but sing along.
Sweet Song of Summer is so strange and out there for these guys and it is wonderful. I wish bands took more risks like this. It is weird and psychedelic an
Bad Dreams is less of a risk, but still unlike the rest of the album and is a rager. The riff is great, but the guitar tone seems to me like something that would have been beyond their interest or capabilities. Its fuzzy and distorted as heck! It's almost proto-metal, and certainly more riffed based pentatonic stuff than we're used to with Bee Gees.
Maurice's You Know Its For You is such a curious and neat track. The weird break/breaks in the song where it kind of kick-starts back into the chorus and the way the melody is kind of like an unresolved pier the singer wanders on to is so unlike Barry's exacting approach to songwriting it feels almost like a completely different band.
It is kind of amazing Road to Alaska got released. That song feels so half baked - the repetition of the words "really" and "every single" to chew up lyric-to-melody syllables in the verse and the bizarre geography makes this feel like Robin is spitting freestyle over 12 bar blues. If you're going to make filler, take a risk like Sweet Song of Summer.
There are a few instances of psychedelia showing up on tracks like Paper Mache and SSoS I was certain this was the Bee Gees attempt at a Dark Side of the Moon-esque sound. I was surprised to see Dark Side wasn't out when this was released.
It's their tenth album. And it sounds like the band is kind of figuring themselves out. Less at a crossroads and more at a nebulous liminal space - the disco stuff was a few years away and the global supply of flower-power had pretty much dried up. They're kind of sticking their noses into a lot of different ideas of what this band sound likes, which makes the album title so appropriate.
That said, I do enjoy it, and the stuff that hits on here is superb.