Introduction

Pertaining to Taylor Swift, "Female Rage" has deviated from its intended meaning after Swift debuted a new performance of The Tortured Poets Department during the Eras Tour. Now, according to Swift's use of the phrase, female rage is interpreted as public backlash against Swift's dating choices rather than as a response to the broader injustices against women and women's rights. This post examines Taylor Swift's flawed feminism, philanthropy, branding, and the controversial trademark petition for the phrase "Female Rage: The Musical". Swift's background as an entertainer, indeterminate politics, and alignment with capitalism over feminism pervades her legacy, again threatening her public tolerance as not just an individual but as a brand.

Once Upon a Female Rage...

If you were cognizant in the early 2010's, you've heard countless jabs at Taylor Swift in the media. Magazines, radio, or online. Music critics did not take her seriously as a songwriter; parents put a woman on an unrealistic pedestal as the ideal role model for their children; she dated too much and used men as lyrical fodder. No matter the story, it inevitably spread, conjoined with everyone's respective opinions, and you'd be left to wonder, "Why does everyone hate this girl so much?"
Taylor's target demographic has always been young or adolescent girls, more so when Swift herself was one. She made music that spoke to the awkward misfit, cultivating a para-social relationship with fans on MySpace, then later twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, where Taylor posted relatable vlogs showcasing the life of a homegrown American girl. Taylor had a delayed public "growing up" and, compared to her female pop contemporaries, Swift never "gratuitously sexualized her image and seems pathologically averse to controversy" (and, apparently, never even had a sip of alcohol until she turned 21). She was more than happy to spin this narrative to allude to an inherent moral superiority above other women in the industry (Better Than Revenge, heard of it?), engaging in the very slut-shaming that she herself endured (the Madonna and Whore archetypes). The victim complex arose with the need to prove Taylor as a different type of pop girl. Based upon her holy and clean image, Swift had been dubbed "a feminist's nightmare", and that "[To Swift] other girls are obstacles; undeserving enemies who steal Taylor’s soulmates with their bewitching good looks and sexual availability." Feminism and Tennessee-Christian country values don't exactly mix, it seems.
Years later, Swift befriended Lena Dunham and thus experienced white feminism osmosis, where Dunham taught Swift that real feminists defend rapists, makes insensitive jokes about rape and abortion, and prioritize all-white casts. Swift then declared herself a feminist in 2014, saying,

"Becoming friends with Lena – without her preaching to me, but just seeing why she believes what she believes, why she says what she says, why she stands for what she stands for – has made me realize that I’ve been taking a feminist stance without actually saying so."

I suppose the male-centric songwriting subject that permeates Swift's discography contained covert feminism and that we just didn't see that. Perhaps, the "Bad Blood" song and music video were written only in jest and not about poor Katy Perry, for Swift, as a feminist, would "never make it a girl fight" or tear other women down (though all Katy did was date your terrible ex-boyfriend and allegedly steal three backup dancers from your tour). In 2013, Swift said, in response to Tina Fey and Amy Poehler's joke towards her serial dating, "There is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women."
There was that time in 2015 Taylor said that Nicki Minaj was "invited to any stage [she is] on" (as if Taylor expects to have access to every stage, award, and platform that Nicki might not otherwise have as a black female artist...yikes!) in response to Nicki's criticism of the white + thin VMA nominations. Later, Nicki responded with confusion, as Swift continued, "It’s unlike you to pit women against each other. Maybe one of the men took your slot..". Of course, this 'beef' was 'squashed' when Nicki performed with Taylor at the VMAs, with Nicki quite literally only having 38 seconds of stage time without Taylor. Maybe all that parading around with a legion of famous white women - similar to the way Taylor might've done with her numerous 1989-era handbags - was in fact a stance against gender inequality, and that this display of "girl power" should be enough to constitute Swift as a feminist icon.
Even while Swift says that Dunham informed her feminist outlook, she dances around the exact contents of those beliefs: "what she believes, what she says, what she stands for" is not exactly insightful towards what beliefs Swift might have inherited. Taylor never broaches women's rights topics such femicide, FGM, forced pregnancy & marriage, sex trafficking, women in slavery, women's financial and political oppression, women's educational rights, women's health, or women's autonomy, so we can assume she only gives a fuck about "girls supporting girls" (whatever that fucking means).
Despite some questionable (and sometimes vindictive) behavior, Taylor as a young woman did not deserve every media lashing that she received. We cannot deny that most headlines and criticisms perpetuated a misogynistic rhetoric which has plagued Swift for a majority of her career. Acknowledging events such as the development of her ED, her sexual assault trial, "Famous" lyric and MV depiction of Taylor, and the explicit Twitter deepfakes, for example, as both disgusting and unfortunate things that happened to a young woman in Hollywood does not negate the fact that Taylor is mostly a performative feminist.

Get Your Fucking Ass Up and Be a Philanthropist, It Seems Like Nobody Wants to Be a Philanthropist These Days

In 2013, Taylor Swift cut the ribbon at the grand opening of the Taylor Swift Education Center at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee. The donation amount - $4 million - was the largest individual artist gift ever donated to the Country Music Hall of Fame, which is, of course, mentioned on Swift's website. The two-story facility features three classrooms, an instrument room, and an interactive children's exhibit gallery. Swift also performed at "All for the Hall" charity shows and has donated numerous artifacts from her career (such as notable guitars, tour costumes, etc) to the museum.
This was over 11 years ago, and it is still the only notable philanthropic contribution Taylor Swift has made.
For a woman of her net worth and stature, and a woman who recognizes the difficulties for women in film and music, you would think that Taylor Swift might establish a scholarship program for women to study the arts or something. Perhaps Swift might even consider becoming a member of organizations that support female artists, or one that supports LGBTQ+ causes (since she is now proudly an ally), yet she remains superficial with her graces. Broader philanthropy, such as donating relief aid to Palestinian women or women impacted by violence and discrimination will probably never receive any financial support from Miss Swift because then she'd be using her money towards philanthropies involving anyone but white entertainers.
She even says herself in Miss Americana, "My entire moral code as a kid and now is a need to be thought of as 'good'." Well, she's certainly thought of as good, though her actions say otherwise. She's more than happy to do a vaguely altruistic song and dance for a clip-worthy interview quote and mass appeasement, then fuck off to one of her mansions on a 20 minute private jet flight, rather than actually contribute to anything pertaining to the causes she has endorsed. Yet, far too many people continue to give a woman such as her their money, time, and energy, and she hoards these resources to herself.

I Like Some of the Taylor's Songs, But What the Fuck Does She Know About Feminism?

Swift continued with her self-proclaimed feminist campaign, positioning herself as a political activist and LGBTQ+ ally in the Miss Americana documentary. The primary focus of the documentary consists of the sexual assault trial, Andrea Swift's cancer diagnosis, Taylor's ED and body dysmorphia, media scrutiny, and, largely, finally speaking up about her politics publicly, mostly her opposition to the 2018 Tennessee Republican senate candidate, Marsha Blackburn, and Blackburn's beliefs. Swift says, following a scene discussing her experience during the trial,

"I just couldn't really stop thinking about it. And I just thought to myself, next time there is any opportunity to change anything, you had better know what you stand for and what you want to say."

We must ask ourselves, though: when has Swift ever spoken up to change anything? Okay, pulling her entire catalogue from Spotify because they didn't pay their artists enough and similarly pulling her catalogue from Apple Music are changes that she leveraged due to her revenue potential and power, but they are not pertinent to the average woman's rights. Moreover, these are issues that directly impacted Taylor's income, which was enough reason for her to protest in the first place. Swift has sold the most units for a female artist in first week sales, is the first female artist with 100k monthly Spotify listeners, is the first female artist to win the Album of the Year Grammy 4 times, and is the first female artist to do X, Y, and Z, all while being inoffensive and family-friendly to boot. The actual Taylor Swift seems unwilling to compromise the brand of Taylor Swift by contributing in meaningful ways to feminist causes, especially if it is for women outside of America and Hollywood.
The reason political anthems such as "The Man" and "Only the Young" of the Lover era feel disingenuous and corporate is because, well, it is. Taylor has taken every opportunity to advance her career or public image at the expense of other women. What is truly genuine to Taylor's outlook on other women is vying for male attention, taking down female competition, and vocalizing feminist injustices only if they directly impact her and her money. Some will argue that it's satisfactory for a woman with such a huge platform to even TALK about feminism, but that just isn't enough. It's even less impressive when you candidly look at the scope of her feminist lens: "If I was the man, then I'd be THE MAN", or "I really resent the ‘Be careful, buddy, she’s going to write a song about you’ angle, because it trivialises what I do", and, of course, "We all got crowns". Feminism, but only when it happens to me. It gets worse when you look at Taylor's track record of copying other famous women and removing other female artists as potential threats to her pop prowess.
It's good for PR to align yourself with certain blanket feminist and political beliefs, therefore good for branding, therefore good for ticketing and merchandise sales, therefore good for business. And Taylor Swift is a business.
She's not a feminist. Taylor Swift is a capitalist.

I Can't Pay Those Sweatshop Workers a Livable Wage or Benefits! How Else Would I Make My Billions?

Recently, Taylor's team filed to trademark the phrase "Female Rage: The Musical" after Taylor said during Paris N1 of the Eras Tour,

"So you were the first ones to see The Tortured Poets at the Eras Tour...or as I like to call it, 'Female Rage: The Musical'."

This trademark petition was filed last week on Saturday, and news comes about just as numerous unofficial fan-made merch designs have cropped up with this phrase plastered on Fruit of the Loom basics. I'm of the opinion Swift's team motioned for a trademark so that they can send out cease & desists to all those that make knockoff merch, which disrupts potential sales for Bravado, UMG's choice merchandising company; however, since it was filed earlier, perhaps Swift has bigger plans with the bizarre use of the gendered phrase. One Swiftie referred to the phrase "female rage" as "a funny Eras Tour joke". Could it be a possible fourth version of the Eras Tour Movie? Whatever the reason, the motion to capitalize off of such a concept is disgusting, but not unsurprising, for a woman that profits on her vain feminism.
Swift, through her company, TAS Rights Managements, has also trademarked over 200 phrases, including "1989", where she owns the property rights to this calendar year on keychains, phone cases, sunglasses, stationary, bags, beverage ware, clothing, entertainment services, your subconscious, and, of course, Christmas ornaments.
The vapid consumerism in Swiftie culture is, frankly, disgusting. Bravado's sustainability statement is non-existent, the quality control is abysmal, and the materials they use are horrible. The materials, such as acrylic and polyester, are made from petrochemicals. This means they are non-renewable, shed microplastics, and are quite toxic in production. The manufacturing process to make all of those lazy-rushed Eras Tour logo graphic tees is a huge blow to environmental well-being. Apparently, though, Swifties don't give a fuck. They sell out products in seconds and either have to face the manufactured scarcity or buy from a scalper that resells for 200% of the already ridiculous retail price. This doesn't include the environmental impact of vinyl records, CD, and cassette production, of which Taylor produces many variants that sell unsustainable amounts.
If we're talking about women's rights violations, why is no one acknowledging the women that work in the inhumane sweatshop conditions that have to pump out fugly t-shirts and hats? The millions of plastic microfiber dander they are inhaling, or the toxic dyes that touch their bare skin? Are they being compensated fairly for their skilled labour and are they in safe working environments? Do these women have minimal bargaining power, and do they have authority over their worker's rights? Is Taylor Swift female raging at their injustices? Does Taylor Swift ever feels bad that her wealth was built on the backs of women of color, disadvantaged by the demands of the global economy and garment industry? Do you think she ever says a little white feminist prayer for them before she goes to sleep at night?
What's even crazier is not that Taylor herself doesn't care, it's that Swifties don't care. There CANNOT BE ethical billionaires. You only make a billion dollars if you are exploiting other human beings for capital gain. Based on public perception of the possible "Female Rage: The Musical" trademark, it seems like Swifties are already asking for merch with this phrase. "If Taylor made it, I'd buy it." Oh, cool. So not only do you champion Miss Swift's avarice and billionaire status, but you also are unashamed to admit to your blind consumption of her music and merchandise, no matter where they might originate in production or sincerity. Just as Swift takes and takes and takes, Swifties' consumerism of Taylor Swift cannot be quelled.
The tortured artist's most vulnerable and sincere poetry...available now in 21 different versions!

I Am Tortured Poet, Hear Me Whinge

Look - even if Taylor's intention is to characterize TTPD as more "tortured" and "angry", the main thread of the album is "I was ghosted by my decade-long situationship with a controversial indie boy and my fucking stupid fans wrote a 'Speak Up Now' open letter prompting me to drop him" anger, which is adequately expressed in the lyrics and performances. The extent of Taylor's "female rage" on TTPD is on tracks such as "Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?", which contends with relentless media scrutiny; "But Daddy I Love Him", where Swift firmly states she'll date whoever she likes no matter how "Sarahs and Hannahs" may react; and "The Albatross", a track mythologizing her reputation and the consequences of dating her. Of course, these coincide with deep psychological wounds that formed during Swift's early years in the media, and so, from her feminist perspective, these subjects tackle the misogyny and double standards that she faced.
Yet Taylor Swift still has no grounds to be claiming that TTPD best exemplifies female rage and therefore she, in the context of this album, is female rage incarnate. As the daughter of a stock broker and mutual fund marketing executive, Taylor was born into wealth and allowed privileges like trips and subsequent relocation to Nashville all so that she might get a record deal. Her father even invested at least $120,000 into the then-fledgling label, Big Machine Records, which ensured Taylor's place with Borchetta after leaving her dead-end development deal with Sony. The fact that her parents were able to buy her a fucking brand new guitar for Christmas and pay for music lessons says so much about the financial security and safety of her childhood.
Money is privilege and protection, and despite Swift's experiences with misogyny and loser boyfriends, she does not know what female rage is.
Her rage is derived from her frustrations with her obsessive fans pulling the moral superiority card on Taylor in response to her rebound with Matty Healy. That's literally it. She's just pissed that the monster she created is no longer obediant, it's become a feral, sovereign entity that depletes the world of its natural resources and thinks it is more intelligent than it actually is because it's mommy has started to talk to it with big words. Apparently, 'illicit', 'elegy', 'nonchalant', and 'precocious' are considerably big words for the oafish monster, and I find it strange that this level of literacy is present in a group of fans that allegedly have GPAs of 3.5 or higher, but I digress.
Taylor Swift has never been one paycheck away from destitution. Taylor Swift has never experienced racial discrimination. She may have instances of gender discrimination, but she possesses the ideal white, blonde American beauty standard and therefore reaps the benefits of being a conventionally attractive woman. Taylor Swift has sufficient social capital. Taylor Swift is a billionaire woman prolonging her victimhood though she, as a woman, has mostly had control over her image and music (unlike her contemporaries). Taylor Swift is NOT entitled to be championed for her "female rage", nor should she be. Taylor Swift has never even been the struggling artist, for fuck's sake. I don't give a fuck if she's trying to fill the empty lunch tables of her past. Taylor Swift purporting herself, her unpolished album, and her lukewarm feminism as a musical bleeding with female rage is asinine.

Sigh Try and Come For My Job, Poors

Out there in the world right now is a 23-year-old woman, a recent college grad, who works as a barista. She has to wake up and get ready to go into a minimum wage job because she cannot get a job in her field. She doesn't have healthcare benefits or sick time, so she has to go into work no matter how she's feeling. All day long she is berated by vicious customers and creepy men, and, exhausted from being on her feet, she knows she has to go home to her shitty roommate that never does the dishes and her roommate's shitty dog. To comfort herself, she considers getting a treat, but thinks against it when she remembers that matcha lattes cost $15 and they taste like milky dirt. She knows that she needs to buy groceries this week, and so the woman resolves to go home, but notices that her gas tank is low. She goes to put gas in the car, but the pump stops at $27.86 because that's all that she has in her checking account. The woman, bereft and reeling, sinks into the driver's seat. "Well," she thinks, her head in her hands, "at least I don't have Taylor Swift's job. I just couldn't imagine."
Fame is somewhat of a choice. If at any moment Taylor feels that she is misunderstood, misconstrued, or overwhelmed by public opinion, she can LEAVE the public eye - Lord knows she has the retirement fund and residuals to do so. In "I Can Do It With a Broken Heart", the TTPD song about meeting the demands of your career-zenith mega-tour while in the relationship trenches, Taylor ends the song by rambling,

"You know you're good when you can even do it with a broken heart...you know you're good...and I'm good, cause I'm miserable, and no one even knows!...try and come for my job."

Yeah, obviously we wouldn't know, you recently passed the billionaire threshold and are the most famous and in-demand performer in the world right now. Taylor Swift makes an estimated $10 to $13 million dollars A NIGHT on the Eras Tour. Furthermore, the Eras Tour movie grossed $261.6 million globally, (which, as the producer, Taylor takes home 57% of the ticket sales) not counting the streaming revenue from Amazon Prime Video and the estimated $75 million deal that Disney paid to have it on Disney+. We're not even considering the income from cheap plastic popcorn buckets and drink cups plastered with colored squares in her Era-specific likeness.
It's funny. Taylor Swift often said that being famous wasn't hard, that she "isn't complaining". I'm sure it is difficult to always have to present in a good mood, else you'll end up misrepresented in the media, and I'm sure it's invasive to virtually have no privacy or semblance of anonymity. Still, Taylor Swift shows up each night of tour and performs. For a majority of her career, she has penned her sad songs while on the road. Most of "Red", her breakup album, was written in the thick of the Speak Now World tour. Now, some Swifties say they almost "feel bad" for attending the Eras Tour with Swift's revelations in this song, that they have had a 'dimmed experience' upon hearing Taylor's misery whilst performing. Despite the fact that Taylor said that "this was the happiest she's ever been" at Gilette Stadium in May, the lyrics "boohoo, woe is me, smile for the cameras and make the fans happy!!!" are jarring for Eras attendees.
While Taylor Swift was making double-digit millions a night in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and feeling miserable, Ana Clara Benevides Machado passed away due to heat exposure. The concert promoters, Time For Fun, are now the subject of a criminal investigation due to their lack of adequate hydration and safety. Taylor Swift cancelled the Sunday show that was to follow and offered VIP tent tickets to Benevides Marchado's family, which was a kind gesture, but perhaps incongruous to the incident of which they were offered as consolation. Everyone grieves differently, of course, but I'm not sure attending the very show at the very same venue that my daughter or sister passed away in two days prior, where the singer CONTINUED the show despite her death, would be healthy for closure.
There was no female rage at the show as Swift never saw Benevides Machado pass out. There was no female rage towards the disregard for fans as humans while Swift elected to proceed with her Brazil tour dates despite the country being in historic heatwaves (at risk of overheatting herself). If Taylor Swift was so shaken by touring with a broken heart or a fan's passing, she wouldn't have added an additional North American leg of Eras just two months after the Matty breakup. She's brokenhearted but willing to mend the cracks with your money and move onward with her worldwide female rage induced pillaging.
No matter what happens, even if you die at a Taylor Swift concert, Taylor collects a big fat check and flies away. She doesn't know you as anything other than a conversion rate or earning potential despite what her nearly 20-year long parasocial relationship with fans might otherwise indicate. She knows that, while some Swifties are without disposable income, they feel obligated to spend on a "48 Hours Only!" exclusive vinyl variant instead of necessities because they are so entrenched in Taylor Swift's intoxicating celebrity, they'll prioritize materialistic fandom before their needs. This is good enough for her because this means she can expand her real estate portfolio and finance her cat's lavish lifestyles. They're worth an estimated $100 million dollars. Her three cats could pool their net worth and solve world hunger.
While you and I might be denied bereavement leave and barely surviving the current political and economic climate, Taylor Swift has to, instead of gets to, perform for stadiums at full attendance for three nights in a row across the globe. You and I might be replaced by AI at our longtime jobs, but Taylor Swift is threatened with losing more and more money each time you listen to a "Stolen Version" of her songs. If we don't buy every variant of all of her albums, then who is going to pay for the fucking cats?
It is tone deaf to spend as she spends and lives as she lives in this economy, but this is her reality. She was able to donate $100,000 to all of her tour truck drivers, and that's wonderful, but it leads me to wonder about the ethos of the 2020s where one woman can hoard such life-changing amounts of money. Remember in 2014 when she gave a fan $90 ($120 in today's money) to get Chipotle because she had no fucking clue how much it cost? This is a 34-year-old woman who is increasingly out of touch with the reality for working class people and women in general. Normal everyday adults must wake up and go to their thankless jobs, and yet Taylor Swift, despite all her riches, incessantly references the lows of her life and career as a public figure and entertainer to farm sympathy and drive sales. And still, the corporate women have latched onto "I cry a lot, but I am so productive! It's an art!" as their cubicle battle cry.
Do you think that, from up in her private jet, Taylor Swift gazes at the world through her poetic, tortured eyes, and thinks, "All the little people, in their cars, walking, going about their lives...all those girls that don't support girls...do they know that I've made an album about female rage?"

Conclusion/TLDR

Thank you for reading. I would love to hear your critical insights towards this entire ordeal: TTPD, the trademark, the implications of it all.
TLDR: Taylor Swift is a bad feminist and is delusional to think that the TTPD eras set exemplifies female rage at women's injustice.

today has just been such a bad day. 1st: I get a phone call from the principal at my kids school… he’s been “distributing pictures of other students”, got into a fight and got back into contact with someone I blocked from his phone. we got him a phone for his birthday - against my better judgement - and here’s the proof I was right. every rule I’ve given, he’s broken. I feel like such a failure as a mother, how did I fail this kid so bad? what am I doing that so similar to my parents or his dads parents that is causing him to act out the same way we did? I try to enforce rules, boundaries, respect… I tried to be harsh, be loving, understanding, soft, hard and everything in between and it doesn’t seem like anything I do is enough. I resent him sometimes and that scares the hell outta me. that’s my baby boy - he was my first real love, my best friend. he is part of me, it’s so painful to have this happen. I’m at such a loss.
2nd: I got another rejection letter for my poetry. I know that it’s only been 2x that I’ve submitted these and quite frankly, they might not suck but they’re not spectacular either. I don’t know, I wasn’t expecting a final placing - but it still hurts to get that rejection. I feel like this is just a bad omen for my interview tomorrow - that it’s all gonna fall apart on me and I’ll be stuck again. the last week or so, I had some semblance of hope - some form of optimism. I need to stop letting my bad thoughts overpower things but I’m so terrified this rug is gonna get yanked out from under me, like it always does.
I really am trying to do better things, be more positive, worry less and blah blah blah. but idk. nothing feels like it’s going anywhere. I can’t even seem to assess my fucking feelings anymore. idk if these meds are helping in anyway at all.
total side note - I watched the Hotel Cecil doc on Netflix. it was a little overdone imo, but pretty good. would do a 7/10.

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My husband and I (F43, M43) have been together since we were 16. I have noticed over the years that he will tell stories and say he did or said things I can clearly remember being something I did or said. We are definitely codependent. I have brought this up over the years and he says I misremember, but we just recently had an experience where I said something but he takes the credit when relaying the story. We argued about it last night, both of us adamant that we were the originator of the thing that was said. It’s driving me crazy, and I feel like I’m gaslighted into this dull person who nevehardly ever gets credit for cool/funny things in stories of our life together. Is this normal for people who have been together a long time?

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i think theres alot of good that can come from the worlds Bens, i want to see what can be done with the power of Ben.
i have come up with an idea on facebook called onlyBens to show the world how powerful Bens can be as one. ill be starting small with Ben of the month showcasing Bens. or even Ben in need, where we find struggling Bens and all together work out how to help there position in life.
i am just one Ben and these are just ideas, it will be all vote based. all Bens are equal no Ben will go unheard. as a Ben i promise not to post anything off the topic of ben and only post vital information regarding missions of Ben.
first mission is to Ben up
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seconed mission is to get Ben fogal off the tv in the group, by the power of Ben we will come together and hound ben fogal to provide an inspirational speach for his fellow Bens on there path.
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Theories are fine but one I’ll never understand is so many team blacks desperately wanting Alys Rivers in any relation to team black, especially the theory that Alys will seduce Daemon.
From a team black perspective I guess that’s cool, but when you peel it back it’s just nonsense. For one, it’s abundantly clear given what Galye Rankin has said that this is a green character. In her most recent interview Alys was described as a powerful force for the greens and Gayle has been a pretty avid supporter of them on social media (she even followed an Aemond fan account at one point).
Additionally Sara Hess has said in an interview released today that in relation to Daemon, there’s definitely no smoke babies and it’s more about Daemon hallucinating in Harrenhal than anything else. Given the way smoke babies are conceived, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that Sara is all but outright telling audiences that no one is having sex here. On top of that Alys’s audition script leak is her taunting and mocking him…like come on…
Its just so strange watching team black stans first call Aemond stans delusional for liking Alys and say their son will die young, then pivot to ridiculous theories of Daemon sleeping with Alys because she used her witch powers to look like Rhaenyra and is impregnated by him. I mean really? By that logic Alys’s pregnancy lasted 2+ years and at no point did Aemond question why she would be already heavily pregnant by the time he got there?
Just let it go…the kid is Aemond and Alys has no allegiance to the blacks.

I'm (23F) primarily coming here because I feel like I don't know who I can talk to about this and just need to get some things out. My sister (21F) is graduating from college this spring and has been looking for a job for the past few months. This morning, she found out she got a job in a different state (will become relevant) and my mom (54F) and I were so happy and relieved that she finally got her first job. My dad (51M) on the other hand was pretty furious because it meant that she was moving to a different state and the car he was going to give her no longer would be needed.
For some context, my parents got divorced when my sister and I were pretty young and things haven't really ever been smooth between them. My dad lives in the South, my sister is graduating from a school in the Northeast and going to work elsewhere in the Northeast, and my mom and I live on the West Coast (as we have for all of my life). My mom raised my sister and I and put us through the best private school she could and made sure we were always her first priority (she's the best).
My dad has always been a pretty controlling person, but I've come to a point where I've learned to manage his involvement in my life and have learned how to placate him to a certain degree. Mine and his relationship has gotten a little easier over the past few years for a few reasons but his relationship with my sister has gotten worse. He sees her as not very communicative and not very willing to "meet him halfway" but from her point of view, he's never understood her or taken the time to try to see who she is and what's important to her.
Cut to recently, I graduated from college last year and my graduation gift from him was money (within a certain limit) for a car. He helped me buy the car I chose and had said that the same would be given to my sister the following year (this year) when she graduated. As great as getting money for a car and having help with buying it is, it came with a lot of strings and was not something my sister or I directly asked for. That's not to say we're not grateful for the cars, but he was the one who offered; it wasn't as though we twisted his arm to get him to buy us a car or something.
Now, instead of buying my sister a separate car, he decided he was going to give her his current car so he could buy a different one that better suited his needs. My sister liked the car that he was going to give her, but last year I had been able to research what kind of car would best suit my needs and pick out the car I would end up getting. She was fine with not being able to have the same free reign I did, but perhaps wasn't very communicative with him because she's been trying to complete all of her finals and final assignments as well as try as much as possible to enjoy her last semester of undergrad.
My sister got a few final interviews for a job opportunity in a place where she wouldn't need a car, and she got an offer letter this morning for the job. Instead of congratulating her, my dad said she was "not an adult" and that she needed to "learn to think for herself" instead of deferring to my mom. He said he was "sad and let down" and was upset at how poor the communication between him and my sister was about the car.
More things he said: "I don't deserve this poor communication" "You don't respond to me. Respond to all kinds of social media meanwhile all day" "You only respond at times that work for you. It comes across as selfish/childish". He then sent my mom this nightmare: "It's a fitting end to our coparenting. You've been controlling and a nightmare the entire time. You were never grateful I permitted you to move to SoCal. I didn't want the girls to grow up with a functionally depressed mom in the Bay Area. As always, it's always about you and the girls and you don't ever give a f*ck about their dad. So selfish. Such a bad mom. [my name] gets it. [my sister's name] will in time. I'm honestly ashamed I let you into my life and regret it still to this day. White-trasy, lying, selfish, vain. I told [my name] how your behavior was to break every rule as a co-parent. She understood. I didn't attack you. I did attack the sh*t behavior. Hopefully someday I'll have that chat with [my sister's name] when she gets her head out of her a*s."
Just typing the text makes my blood boil. I don't know what to do. I'm planning to bring this to my therapist in a few days but am not sure what to do until then. I think this could sever my sister's relationship with my dad, and I'm not sure I want to continue mine with him anyway. I'm also pretty uncomfortable with him thinking I'm on his side, but I don't want to meddle further if it's going to make it worse for my mom and sister. There's a lot more context and information I could probably give but for the sake of not writing a novel about the situation, I'll end here.
TLDR: My sister got a job in a big city where cars aren't needed and my dad is upset that he has to sell the car and decided he was going to cuss her and my mom out instead of congratulate her.

I’m hoping this is the right place to post.
I have bipolar and receive PIP. I left my corporate career 3 years ago to set up my own business (working outside a lot which supports my mental health). My letter didn’t state then that I was leaving for my mental health but I’d had a lot of time off with depression and my bosses knew that was why. There’s no way I could continue in office work due to SI, dissociation, panic attacks and extreme distress.
I’m currently self employed for 25- 30 hours pw and I am employed as a carer for 20 hours.
I have a fit note for 28 days saying I am not fit for work and I’ve been back under the crisis team recently although I’m stable now I’m not working so many hours . I know that to avoid a crisis, I need to cut my hours and I want to continue with the self employed work as that’s manageable and I have control over my hours but cut the employed work.
I don’t know the best way to manage this as I’m worried that UC will just see that I’m working up to 30 hours and say I should be looking for full time work. When I’ve specifically built my business to support my mental health.
Will it still trigger a WCA if my fit note says ‘fit for work but with adjusted hours’?!
Any other issues or advice you have for my situation would be so appreciated because it feels quite complicated.
I know that being SE and claiming UC can be complicated but my income and outgoings are pretty straightforward and easy to prove and submit. I understand that because of PIP, I’m allowed to earn more if I’m in the LCW or LCWRA group too.
I just don’t want to trip myself up as I go through the process. I also love my boss and feel so guilty because I don’t see how I can return to work but I’ve been advised not to hand my notice in and wait until they let me go on health grounds.

About a year ago, I [29 M] was in a toxic relationship with J [29 M]. While there were no serious stakes in it (no kids or messy finances), the relationship and breakup ended up emotionally affecting me in a way I had never really thought possible. I feel guilty because after the relationship I tried to be friends with my ex still, which I now see as a mistake in the context of this relationship, and then after a few months, he blocked me because I didn't respect a boundary he had set about not sending him long messages. He said he didn't feel safe since I "completely ignored" the boundary.
I was devastated, but over the course of the next few months, came to understand a great deal of ways that I feel that I had been abused during the relationship. I felt angrier and angrier, and even though I was seeing a therapist, it eventually boiled over. My ex had blocked me on discord and probably on text, but I went onto an astrology app called Co-Star that he had had me download, and sent a message using it that said something like, "You were an abusive partner, but you can make it right with an apology."
Now, I have no idea if he actually saw the message. It was sent with a weird feature of the app called Chaos Mode that apparently chooses to send the message at some future time, so who knows if it actually ever sent. I don't know if he still has the app, if he unfriended me, or whatnot. But I feel guilty because I enacted exactly the caricature of me that he had created--I hadn't respected his boundaries, and I sent the message anyways.
At the same time, I am still feeling very victimized by the relationship. To give you a sense of the kinds of things that were going on in the relationship, here's a few examples that I currently find a little horrific [Note: this kind of turned into a summary of the relationship after I wrote it]. I'm aware that to heal I should probably not be ruminating about these things, especially if they lead me to boil over and message him, but here you go.
The first time I had sex with him, he slammed the door on me for not being able to finish and said "finish yourself." When I came to bed, I told him I felt shame. He said "good." The next time we had sex, he set a timer for me and said I had to finish within 5 minutes. These were the first times I ever had sex. He was manipulative in bed, telling me he didn't want to perform certain acts because I didn't give him enough praise for them, so that I started exaggerating my pleasure; he blamed me for why certain positions weren't working and was frustrated with how my body worked. On top of this, he admitted at the end of the relationship to having had sex with me around five times after he decided to break up with me (before he did), which just makes me feel a bit icky.
He would put me down in pretty transparently cruel ways. One example was when I exerted myself, he said I sounded like a muppet and that he "didn't want to be dating a muppet." When I offered him a blanket but apologized that it might not have been washed in a while, he called me a baby. He would insult my ability to give complements, asking me to tell him what color his eyes are but then rejecting everything that I gave him, telling me I was bad at complements repeatedly (and saying that it wasn't fair of him because his other exes were artists, so no wonder I was bad). Now, there were times that he was complementary to me--he told me I was hot, good at singing, good at writing, smart--but also times where he would put me down for things I was less good at, like cooking.
He constantly made me feel insecure about my gender. (For context, we are both men, but he was raised as a woman). So he would make pretty sweeping feminist critiques over fairly mundane things, like if I complained when I was sick he would go off about how men are always babies when they are sick and women don't get attention. When I confronted him about some of the things he was saying, telling him that while I wanted him to express these kinds of social problems so that I could be aware and adapt, I was feeling insecure in the relationship--he flipped it around and told me that if I didn't feel loved, he could say "I love you" less, and that I hadn't been grateful enough for when he came to visit me. (I had written him poetry, deep cleaned my apartment, taken time off work, sent my roommate off for the week, bought him a bus pass, planned his visit, met him in the airport despite not having a car, and just an insane amount of work to be turned into, "you weren't grateful enough").
Other than namecalling, he was just plain controlling. The reason that the boundary around me not sending long messages exists is that when I felt insecure--which I think makes sense given the ways he would talk to me--I would often send him a few paragraphs apologizing and explaining how I was growing. Even though long messages were the first thing he said he loved about me, and that he said our communication was like magic, he eventually set up what he called an "Essay embargo" and told me not to write them. The first time he set the "embargo", he had said it was only until we met in person because he didn't want me to write anything that would make him nervous. After we met in person, I assumed the embargo had lifted. Yet shortly after, he set it again, giving a few explanations--the main one just being that he wanted to appreciate our relationship without overthinking it. It seemed playful. He definitely did also say that long messages made him uncomfortable because he felt obligated to send a response. So, when I did send messages, I would add that he didn't have to respond (which I realize is not fully respecting the boundary). I did ask after sending messages whether they were ok and he never responded to those questions.
Despite this, there were times during the relationship that I continued to send long, often apologetic messages. I had felt like this boundary was set playfully and I also was feeling overwhelming guilt that I, for whatever reason, needed his affirmation for. I am conflicted because on the one hand, I was definitely ignoring his boundary--but on the other, I feel like the boundary was not very thoughtful of my own needs, either.
Prior to the breakup, it was hell. He was getting angry at me for everything--for pretty mundane things like using the bathroom before him and stinking it up. He told me he had to show me how to do everything, but I realize now that a lot of this was just him being particular (e.g, he told me I don't know how to drink tea because I left the bag in, when I just like it strong). Unfortunately, I had flown 5,000 miles to visit him and was sort of trapped in his proximity, and was drunk on love still since I was trying very hard, it was my first relationship, and he had sold me on notions of fairytale romance and told me we were cosmically meant to be together and other lovebomby sort of things. At one point, he missed a turn while driving with GPS and got angry at me for not helping--he disconnected his phone and threw it sideways at me (I guess so I could navigate for him, but it was a pretty retaliatory motion). We flew to a convention and I met some of his friends, and at one point he introduced me to a girl he had almost dated before, saying I was a friend and not a partner. I pointed this out to him later and he just said "does that make you angry?". He flirted with a woman at a party, telling her she was pretty while demanding that i bring him snacks (I feel so, so weak for not confronting him about this). He got drunk and I stayed with him as he passed out, but he was angry at me in the morning. When one of his friends told me they thought I was nice, because i was opening doors for everyone, my ex said "Is he really?" Questioning them.
The breakup itself was cold and calculated. He started it by telling me that he thought about not giving me any reasons for the breakup because I always overanalyze things. He told me he wouldn't have broken up with me if I was a woman. He told me I didn't take care of him and he needs a partner that takes care of him, and that his partners always feel taken care of. He threw some things I had said at the beginning of the relationship back at me--misquoting and misunderstanding them.
After the relationship, I had no idea what to think. It was my first relationship. It had started with fairytale romance. I had been passing his tests, I had been an exception to his long string of abusive relationships. He presented himself as this incredibly moral person (vegan, environmentally conscious, telling me of all of the ways others had abused him that he would never do, even his closest friends). I had completely internalized criticisms that he had had of me throughout the relationship, many of which had led to serious self reflection and my writing messages about my growth. Within a week I told him I still loved him and that I always would. He reminded me of his boundary around long messages and said they made him anxious. I was desperate. We took a few weeks of no-contact. We messaged short-messages back and forth, with a few life-updates to eachother each. He told me he was rescuing a kitten that he found, and I remembered how he could be kind.
But as I processed, more and more, I felt angry. I wrote unsent angry letters in the notes app on my phone for a month. I wrote myself a 20,000 word summary of the relationship. This was not a healthy way to process. It elevated me. (Some of you will probably comment that maybe I shouldn't have written this post for the same reason, but oh well--I wanted to process and I want to hear if others have similar stories). Meanwhile, my ex kept pushing back the date for when we would verbally connect again. Eventually, I boiled over. I did not insult him. But I wrote a long message explaining that I wanted to take 3 months of no-contact. I had entered another relationship and told him that even though I was feeling angry at him, he shouldn't be worried because even though I had baggage from the relationship, I was communicating well with my new partner. I also told him that I felt like if I did talk with him, that I would end up tearing him a new one, and that I needed time to cool down. I'm not proud of the message in general, but I didn't call names, tell him he was awful, or anything like that. I was just insensitive and told him I was angry.
And like that, I was blocked. It was over. A period of about 9 months, five of which we were together, with two before escalating towards love bombing and two after escalating towards my boiling over.
And yet, I had never expressed to him that I thought he had been abusive. I felt frustrated that I had told him that I would always love him, when in many ways now I hated him.
Five months passed, during which I came to realize more and more how messed up the relationship was.
And then I sent the message on Co-star.
Fast forward another four months to now.
I just sent him a text, knowing he probably has blocked me there too. It said something like, "I want my last message to you just be: I'm sorry, and I forgive you." I wanted to free myself. I needed to not feel angry at him or ashamed of myself. I needed to not feel like I had a million things to say to him--I needed to just say, this is it: I'm not sending more messages. I'm sorry, and I forgive you. It was for myself. I was forgiving him selfishly, even though he didn't deserve it, so that I could move on.
I feel like I shouldn't have sent this, but I don't feel bad about it yet, either. I needed closure. It always felt like there was some "message I could send" to detail his abuse, and I needed to not have that standing over me--I needed to forgive. I am now oscillating between wondering about myself--whether I have a problem with boundaries, since I had boiled over at this point three times to message him. Feeling frustrated I didn't assert myself about his abuse, that I doubled down on loving him. Part of me is glad that I sent the message on Co-Star saying that he was abusive, because it was the only indication I ever gave him, really, that what he did wasn't ok to me--he had blocked me before I could articulate anything. But I also know that this message even if received would not mean anything to him.
Anyways, now I'm venting about it here on Reddit. Does anyone have similar experiences surrounding self control messaging exes and feeling a bit out of control?

i 19f have been working at a business for over a year now. (fake names ofc)
a little back story: it was just my manager 22m (Luke) and i for a while before a girl 18f (Jane) started working with us. during that time i announced that i can only do morning shifts as i take care of children during the afternoons and i can possibly take nights during the weekend. Jane starts demanding morning shifts and im left to fend for myself. i spoke to Luke about my concerns and he said i really didn’t have a place since i started working there just recently (keep in mind this was 4/5 months in at the job) and that she’s been at the location longer than i have.
i end up fixing the child care situation and can do night shifts. Jane no longer works with us and we had a guy 21f (Dave) working for a few months before he left also due to robberies and was scared for his safety. no judgment there but Dave left short notice and didn’t put in a two week notice so that left Luke and i to work overtime. i have been messed up my sleeping and eating schedules. during that time it was spring break so i didn’t need to care for young children because the older kids were home. that week i worked 45 hrs plus my other side jobs, i haven’t had a good break since then until recently we got a new worker (Bob).
Bob’s much older than both Luke and i but he is very immature. he doesn’t answer his phone when we call him for work or when we do schedules and we have to wait until he gets time to call us back. i had to work one day and was waiting for Bob for over an hour, Luke calls him multiple times and he finds out his phone was on dnd and he was sleeping. this would have been okay but Luke tells me that he’s been requested more work time because he has a new child to care for. he demands more work time and hours but doesn’t even text in the work gc or lets us know if something came up and he cant work his shift.
He’s in his late 20s early 30s im assuming and he doesn’t have an ounce of respect for our work environment. supposedly he works at another job which i give him credit for because he’s fucking up this job right now.
currently the situation we have at hand is that we had a planned 2 week schedule with all of us. Luke, Bob and i were present so there was no miscommunication. which helped us a lot to know who’s coming in for shifts. keep in mind im 19f, have 3 side jobs, babysit siblings, and a college student so my schedule is already tight as is.
for the schedule Luke asks me yesterday if Bob messaged me about switching shifts. i look at him confused because i haven’t received any messages for him regarding a swap so i asked Luke what’s he talking about. he shows me that Bob asked Luke instead of messaging in the gc and asked Luke to ask me if its cool to switch shift with him because a family member is in town and leaves the day he’s scheduled.
mind you, if you need to have a day off you need to ask 2 weeks or a week in advanced for everyone to find someone to fill in. the only time you can get the day off at such short notice is if you or a family member gets the flu or covid or any contagious illness. then i would have understood where he’s coming from but right now i dont understand how someone can be so irresponsible. Bob’s family member has been in town for a few days im assuming and not once mentioned needing time to bring them home.
on the other hand Luke is getting pissed off that he’s the middle guy and texts in the gc letting us know that we need to communicate here but Bob still didn’t get the hint and hasn’t texted or called me. Luke goes on to say that if i would take Bob’s shift but i told him i couldn’t do night shift because of my other job.
Luke then texts this morning asking if i can take his morning shift while he does the night shift to accommodate Bob. which i responded i can see because im currently babysitting during the mornings until 2pm and will continue this conversation when i see him as im busy. but i honestly want to tell Luke how i feel and how its not just affecting me but Luke’s sleeping schedule as well.
am i the asshole for not wanting to switch shifts with Bob?

So I have an idea (and it’s just that, I thought it might be kinda cool). What if one of the mods of the multiverse creates a WebToon account, and adds a comic for the multiverse, the posts a pinned comment with the login info for the account, so that anybody in the multiverse could log in and add a short the the posted comic? It would be less of a continuous story, and more of a collection of short comics by any multiverse members who want to post in it. I have worked on webtoons before, it’s not a very complicated process, and they could put instructions of how to log in and post a story to the comic in the pinned comment. It would be like one massive collab.
Just a thought…

Indiana Jones would be proud, the sword is coming home to be displayed for all posterity.
Per the Fairfield County Heritage Association’s Facebook page.

I just finished playing a good run of the game and was surprised with how many options you had at the end of the game to suddenly do an evil thing story wise to get certain allies. With Dune 2 coming out it really got me thinking about doing an Evil run where my character becomes corrupted by his quest for power.
I thought it’d be interesting to build him like a Paul Atreides character with control spells and able to control dice rolls and I ended it up with a strongheart halfling with poison resistance and Luck. The build would be 5 Lore Bard/ 5 Battle Maste2 divination wizard. That would get me cutting words, control spells, riposte, extra attack, divination dice and counterspell. With all the reaction options I figured I’d go for the duelist’s prerogative for more reactions and the bhaalist armor to deal more piercing damage.
I’ve been looking for synergies with companions too I thought it’d be cool to maybe try some builds that could maybe benefit from my characters abilities. So far I was thinking maybe a shadow monk to help land stunning strikes and frost sorlock that could freeze enemies with mourning frost and then deal extra damage with eldritch blast. I figure I’ll have some rotation of Astarion, Lae’zel, Shadowheart, Gale and Minthara on my team.
I’m pretty excited to try and find some synergy with what may be suboptimal builds and to really get into the role playing aspect of it and just had to post about it. Hoping to have a spoiler full discussion on how to improve some of the builds and who I can dramatically betray in exchange for more power as the game goes on. Thanks!

Fiona Sinnott was a 19 year old Irish woman who vanished after a night out in County Wexford on February 8th 1998. At the time of her disappearance, Fiona was a single mother to an 11 month old daughter, Emma.
The night of Sunday 8th started off normally and Fiona spent it socialising with her friends at Butler's Pub in Broadway, County Wexford which also happened to be close to her home. Her friends Nora, Joan and Martina all described Fiona as being in good spirts that night but did state that she kept complaining of a bad pain in her arm. Her friends and Garda later considered that this could have been related to a past relationship she had broken off. Fiona had suffered immense physical abuse at the hands of a former boyfriend and had hospitalised herself after being violently attacked on numerous occasions. Her injuries had included bruises to her face, bites to her legs, being beaten about the head and back and even a fractured jaw. She had confided in close friends details about these attacks but never filed any complaints against the perpetrator. Despite this pain in her arm, however, Fiona seemed to be in good form and enjoyed a good night out with her friends. At one point, she called her brother Séamus and asked him to come down to the pub but he declined as he was tired after a long day at work. He later stated that he wondered if something had happened to Fiona while at the pub and had she contacted him as a way of seeking help. Either way, this was the last contact Fiona had with her family. At around midnight, Fiona decided to return home as the pain in her arm was causing her great discomfort. She supposedly asked her ex-boyfriend, a man by the name of Seán Carroll, if he could walk her home. Carroll was the father of Fiona's child and although their relationship had ended, they allegedly remained on good terms. He had been drinking alone at the premises and willingly agreed to walk her back to her home, which wasn't far from the pub. They left together shortly after midnight.
Fiona wasn't reported missing until February 18th, 9 days after she was last seen leaving the pub. Her family hadn't reported her missing sooner as she reportedly had a habit of traversing the country to visit people and would sometimes be without contact for several days at a time. However, after 9 days of silence, her family knew something was terribly wrong, especially as she hadn't contacted Sean's family, with whom she had a childcare arrangement, to collect her daughter. Her father, Pat, then filed a missing persons report. Seán was the first to be interviewed as he was the last person to see Fiona. He told Gardaí that he and Fiona had walked back to her home slowly as her pain was causing her immense discomfort. Upon entering her property, he offered her coffee but she declined and went immediately to bed. He slept on the sofa that night while she went to sleep in the upstairs bedroom. He awoke at 9am and went into Fiona's room where he woke her up and she had told him that she would be visiting the doctors in Bridgetown to see about her arm. Seán gave her some money and then left the house as his mother had arrived to collect him. She drove him home to Coddstown, two miles west of Broadway. He stated that when he left, Fiona was awake and sitting up in bed.
When Garda began to investigate Fiona's house in the hopes of finding clues, they were met with an unusual sight. According to a Gardaí officer, "Her house was immaculately cleaned, almost spotless. This was unusual for Fiona, especially as she had been suffering from arm pain before she disappeared. Her family told us that she was not house proud and she would have always had some mess lying around. Because of this, we don't believe Fiona tidied the house. We searched everywhere for clues but found nothing- everything had been painstakingly cleaned". Fiona's landlord also stated that because of her young daughter, anytime he went to visit the house it "always had bits and bobs scattered around". Fiona's neighbour's reported that in the days after her disappearance, numerous black bin bags appeared outside of her house. However, these had vanished by the time she was reported missing. Several weeks after her disappearance, a local farmer came forward to Garda and stated that while he had been tending to his cattle, he stumbled upon numerous bin bags dumped on his property and that when he opened them, he found numerous letters and documents addressed to Fiona Sinnott. Regretfully, he was unaware of her disappearance at the time and had burnt the bags as he believed it to be the result of fly tipping, something that was a big problem then.
As of today, 26 years later, no trace of Fiona has ever been found. However, in 2005 her case was upgraded to a murder enquiry. Shockingly, when her family attempted to erect a memorial plaque in 2008 close to the pub where she was last seen, it was destroyed the night before being unveiled and a second plaque was also destroyed a few months later. However, a third plaque remains to this day down by the harbour. Despite these setbacks, her family have not given up hope of finding her and bringing her home. They have stated that they know exactly who killed her but that the perpetrator now resides in mainland Europe. Garda have also stated they have a person of interest but, as the family stated, they no longer live in Ireland. According to Fiona's family in their most recent Facebook update, she was "terrified" of Seán after their turbulent relationship and would never have asked him to walk her home. They believe he followed her out of the pub without being asked, contrary to the original version of events. He also reportedly told her landlord multiple times that she was in London just after her disappearance, which was quickly disproven. In addition, a woman's scream was heard at around 12:30am in the Kisha Cross area, roughly halfway back to Fiona's home. Finally, Seán had told Fiona's family that he had slept on the sofa, which is odd as she had a spare bedroom that he could have used. He also claimed that he slept on the chaise lounge which makes no sense as it was only 3 feet long. Although this information is telling, no convictions have been made and Fiona's remains have never been found. Until this happens, her family will not receive the peace and closure they deserve and their nightmare only continues.
Sources: https://m.sundayworld.com/news/irish-news/gardai-say-people-know-what-happened-to-fiona-sinnott-last-seen-25-years-ago-today/1754438002.html
https://www.irelandsvanishingtriangle.com/fiona-sinnott
'Missing' by Barry Cummins

My boyfriend got mad at me for blocking her classmate, as he is bothered about what this girl will think if she sees that she is blocked on my boyfriend’s account. I just want to feel secure in our relationship and not feel anxious about him cheating on me again. Please let me know if I am wrong for taking this action. I just want the best for us.
I blocked my boyfriend's classmate on his account for several reasons: 1.) I checked his phone, and I saw that he was searching his classmate's social media account. 2.) He told me that he just accidentally clicked her account; later on, I brought up what he did, and he confessed to me, saying that he literally took a look at her account, and he just lied because he didn't want me to get angry. He told me that he took a look at her account because he was curious as he saw that his classmate was viewing his stories even though they are not mutual on any social media. This made me wonder if she is interested in my boyfriend because, as a girl, this is my way of showing interest in a guy (like, let me show you that I am viewing your stories even though we're not mutuals, just so you know that I am checking on you and I am interested in you).
As a woman who has experienced cheating before, this issue was very serious to me. I have trust issues and insecurities as I caught him talking and inviting other girls to come over and hang out (drinking). 3.) My boyfriend and THIS classmate are in the same circle of friends (which was made up just recently), so they have been adding my boyfriend to a group chat where there are a lot of girls (his classmates). It gets me annoyed every time somebody in the group chat says something to my boyfriend about things that are not related to school. My boyfriend will respond to those chats, but I told him to stop entertaining them if they are not school-related because it makes me feel uncomfortable, especially since this classmate that we argued about is included in the group chat.
4.) I saw a picture of THIS classmate being very close and touchy to another man, even though she has a boyfriend. She was also sending pictures of cigarettes, like, girl, for what reason? (My boyfriend loves smoking cigarettes), some nonsense stuff, a picture of her face with her revealing clothes (I don't know if it's because she wants to look cool or what), in the group chat, knowing that there are boys in there and anyone can see what she sends. The thought that she is doing this even though she has a boyfriend made me realize how trashy his classmate is, and I don't want my boyfriend around her.
TL;DR Am I wrong for blocking this classmate on my boyfriend’s account, as I don’t want this kind of girl around him? I am thinking that this classmate is interested in my boyfriend, and my boyfriend is also interested in her, as I caught him checking her profile.

Last year I rented a property through a leasing agency in my area that I had heard could be a little sketchy. I typically would not have even entertained working with them but I was in a crunch and this location would keep my children from disrupting their lives during a difficult period. This all does not matter much, except that because I knew they were a little sketchy I tried to be absolutely the best tenant possible. Paying rent early, dealing with any issues on my own as per the lease agreement, etc.
I was shocked when I received by disposition letter and was flagged for $2340 worth of repairs and issues.
The sketchy part of this is, my lease was up March 31, 2024. The asked for notice of whether I would renew on December 12, 2023, I already knew I would not be renewing. January 10th they sent an electronic move out inspection to be completed by me within 5 days of receiving it. I completed it to the best of my ability with anything that needed to be fixed, the majority were items I listed on my move in inspection that were not repaired. Over the next three months they scheduled multiple people to come over and fix these areas, it was incredibly annoying that I had to work so many people around my schedule when they could have just repaired once I was out.
I was never notified, or given a copy of the move out inspection which should have occurred within 72 hours of my key handoff. I had a list of cleaning tasks they required, with the vendos they approved for use, which cost about $800 to complete in order to have a better chance of getting a deposit back. I completed all of these items, and provided receipts.
I reached out over the next 30 days to inquire about my deposit or disposition as I heard from them DAILY during my last 2 weeks with constant reminders on my tasks to complete and when to handover keys, but heard NOTHING the second they had keys. I was told they had 45 days as per the lease to provide any documentation regarding my deposit.
On the 43rd day of their timeline they release the Disposition Letter with no receipts, no details on when this work was done.
https://preview.redd.it/runk1kq6mf0d1.png?width=866&format=png&auto=webp&s=8c26e42b65d11c6f14c2e6c2e0652575b87de035
How is this possible they can charge all of this? They state they found wipes and assessed a plumbing lease violation. I've never used wipes, don't even buy them because they wreck plumbing. The drains and toilet were functional when I moved out, but how the heck do you prove that with pictures? They bill for a new storm door when the door I was given was old and not fully functional and I noted it in my move in assessment. The reinspection and scheduling fees being lumped and not listed as to when they were assessed seems unfair, per their lease agreement these fees would be $75 per occurrence. I'm just absolutely shocked, appalled, irritated.
I moved to a home near this property, literally a block away. They had a new tenant in within 10 days of me being moved out.

I watched the anime a bit as kid around the johto era, but really only got deep into Pokémon in the mid 2000’s in elementary school. My first games were leaf green and diamond/pearl and because of the anime and tcg, my favourites were always the hoenn and kanto pokemon with the sinnoh starters and evolutions of earlier pokemon like dusknoir. I never got a lot of exposure to the johto pokemon and found them to be weak and the designs to be really bland (minus the ‘cool’ ones). Interesting considering heartgold was and still is my favourite game along with platinum.
I’ve wanted to replay heartgold for years to relive that game but couldn’t re start it because it was a save file my closest friend and I played a ton with his soul silver copy and he unfortunately passed away several years ago now so it’s incredibly treasured. I always wanted to buy it, but couldn’t bring up $200 to do it going through uni/grad school and strugling to find work after. After overcoming all of that and getting a good job, I decided to treat myself and finally bought a legit copy of soul silver for $220.
Because it had been so long, it felt like I was playing it again for the first time and it still hits as well as it did when I was 12 when it first dropped. But the one thing I noticed differently was I really liked the johto pokemon. Understanding how to actually battle can make strength somewhat irrelevant in game, and I love the simplicity of the designs, looking like fun re-imaginings of real animals. I feel totally disconnected with a lot of modern designs and they feel so overwhelming and cartoonish to me, whereas here that simplicity is relaxing/comforting.
I’m usually a water guy, but Typhlosion’s look in this game makes him one of my favourites, along with feraligatr, kingdra, donphan, sudowoodo, and quagsire. My favourites from this region were always sneasel, scizor, crobat, ampharos, and tyranitar and that liking only grew stronger.
Johto pokemon went from being probably my least favourite as a kid to possibly my favourite as an adult and I just think it’s all kinda cool and wanted to share lol

I am fairly new and inexperienced to the make-up world and need recommendations, please!
I desperately need a new concealer for my under eyes and I am overwhelmed by all the options! I’m in my late-20s with dark circles that are slightly sunken. I am very fair with cool undertones with DRY skin (I’m on Tretinoin!!)
I’ve been very happy with my Merit complexion stick for spot concealing, but hate it for my under eyes. It’s way too dry and creases so easily!
I’m currently using a Kosas concealer that I’m not loving and I feel like it doesn’t have as much coverage as I would like.
Any help or recommendations would be greatly appreciated! ◡̈