Fun things to do friday, saturday, and sunday

A world overrun by creatures once believed to be science fiction and a very overused movie plot, friends and family now unrecognizable blood thirsty monsters, every place unsafe for the the people who are still alive and breathing. An experiment gone wrong by a high school science teachers might just end up causing the world to end and humanity to go extinct, the very thin population of survivors either get infected due to biting or get infected due to contracting the virus by not being strong enough. The mass amount of population to survive? Under 20 people, the reason? Unknown but one thing is for sure the adults which are alive would love to experiment and find out what makes the young ones so immune.
Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing well, written above is just a little idea which mixes in themes from the maze runner and from all of us are dead. What I am looking for today is a roleplay surrounded around a post apocalyptic world which is overrun by zombies. I would want there to be romance in the plot but I would want it to be slow burn and I would there to be action and them not only trying to survive from the zombies but also from the organization tracking them down. Now the specifics of the plots are all up for discussion and depends on who my partner is but that is the rough prompt which I would want to follow for the roleplay.
Realistically I would want us both to play multiple characters including the side characters and I want to do a lot of world building to make it as fun as possible, I like to pick out references so it would be appreciated if you could do the same. I roleplay in 3rd person and can write anywhere from 2 to more paragraphs and would like to consider myself to be literate, my lengths vary depending on my partner as I like to adjust to them but I like to be detailed so please be detailed. I want this to be long term so if you want to ghost me after a couple days I would appreciate it if you dont message me to begin with to save us both the time. I would love to plan stuff together so we both enjoy the roleplay and not just one of us so feel free to message me with your ideas and any suggestions which you might have had along with how you would want our characters to start off.
Looking forward to your messages and would love to discuss all of this in more detail in chat, see you soon

If you're reading this, the chances are you're dangerously bored on a Friday night (unless it's still earlier in the day for you... but maybe you're expecting a dangerously boring Friday night!). Maybe you're stuck inside when you wish you were out. Maybe you're all by yourself (figuratively or literally). Maybe you despise humanity and would rather fester alone!
If any of these apply to you, why not waste a bit of time venting.
Or come and join me as I do the same thing I do every night: try to take over the world! If you DO apply to take part in my evil scheme, please at least tell me who you are. An anonymous “Hi” will not bring admittance to the secret underground volcano.
(And for those of a certain age, sorry if you now have THAT song going through your head. Actually, no. No I'm not sorry.)

Hello everyone! So I’ve been wrestling with my perspective of my body since 2020. Im trying my best to love myself and my body. The one thing I find that makes it difficult is the fact that I see a lot of cute fashion out there but they don’t make it in my size. Fashion is a huge part of my personality. How do I continue to dress cute and fun while still flattering my figure? Bonus points if you know any brands that would specialize in that.
Edit: I’m a 1x but my chest size makes things difficult in the dress department.
Thank you for reading and have a lovely day!

If you're reading this, the chances are you're dangerously bored on a Friday night (unless it's still earlier in the day for you... but maybe you're expecting a dangerously boring Friday night!). Maybe you're stuck inside when you wish you were out. Maybe you're all by yourself (figuratively or literally). Maybe you despise humanity and would rather fester alone!
If any of these apply to you, why not waste a bit of time venting.
Or come and join me as I do the same thing I do every night: try to take over the world! If you DO apply to take part in my evil scheme, please at least tell me who you are. An anonymous “Hi” will not bring admittance to the secret underground volcano.
(And for those of a certain age, sorry if you now have THAT song going through your head. Actually, no. No I'm not sorry.)

June 3rd to 6th, 2024 Leading up to our Vegas trip, one of the things I enjoyed most was visiting this subreddit and reading the experiences others shared about their time in the city. It was consistently insightful, helpful, and quite entertaining to read.
While this post may be none of those things, I still wanted to share on the off chance it provides a bit of relief for those planning and struggling to piece their own trips together.
As a brief background, both my wife and I have spent time in Vegas before, but, for reasons I won’t get into on this post, we never had a “Vegas experience.” We agreed that this would be that trip.
For context, we have been together for 15 years. We are both 35 and have two kids. Most vacations are family-oriented - lots of planning, budgeting, and sniping the best deals and the cheapest things to do. We agreed to do a little of that for this trip, but to mostly roll with the punches and see what would happen. Outside of booking the hotel, the only other thing I did to prepare for this trip was make two lists of food. Food list number one were places that sounded unique or different and were within a 5 to 10 minute walk. Food list number two was the same concept, except 20+ minute walk or bus ride away. My wife and I also agreed that if we couldn’t walk somewhere by staying in hotels, we weren’t going to walk there.
I’ll get the total cost out of the way. We spent about $370 on food, drinks, transportation, and entertainment. Our flight was $80 round trip ($40 each through Frontier). The hotel was $350 total for 3 nights. Thats about $800 for 3ish days and 3 nights in Vegas.
Monday: Both my wife and I had a bout of food poisoning a couple of days prior to leaving. We nearly canceled our trip, but on Sunday, made the decision to carry through, as the sitter arrangement was already made and figured that even if we just spent the time in our hotel room, it would still be fun. By Monday morning, I felt okay, but my wife was still a little ill.
The plane into Vegas landed at 11am. We decided to take an Uber from the airport to Total Wine and Whole Foods in Town Square. At Whole Foods, we bought emergency snacks (breakfast bars, nuts, chips, etc) and 3 gallons of water. At Total Wine, we bought our favorite rum, mostly in fear that we wouldn’t find it on the strip - one 750ml bottle of Kraken ($20) - and a 10 pack of mini Coke Zeroes.
From there, we took another Uber to the hotel - the Flamingo - mostly because we were carrying a lot of stuff (the bus was the original option). We arrived early, tried checking in early using a kiosk, but refused to pay the extra $20. Instead, we walked over to the food court, got comfy in a booth, and made a strong drink to sip on while we waited. I should mention that we stopped at the Starbucks in the hotel and paid $2 for two waters (ridiculous!). We used those cups to make our drinks.
By 3:30, we were two drinks in and decided to try checking in again. The lines were longer now, too, but the kiosk line moved quickly. This time we were given our keys to the room. Having never stayed on the Vegas strip before, we opted for the strip view (more on this later).
We rested, showered, changed, made another drink, bought a 24 hour bus pass, and headed out. We caught the bus in front of Harrah’s and went to Cookies for edibles. Their selection was meager compared to what we’re used to in New Mexico, but made the best of it. Ate an edible then hopped back on the bus, south this time, and took it aaaallll the waaaayyy down to the Mandalay Bay stop. We did not go to Mandalay Bay, though. Instead, we walked down a bit more and got some carne asada fries at a little place called Sayulitas. We consider ourselves carne asada fries experts because it is our go to when we drink and NM offers tons of delicious options. Sayulitas did an exceptional job - crispy fries, perfectly seasoned meat, tons of cheese and sour cream. Their salsa bar was stocked with some delicious and spicy salsas, as well.
From here, we caught the bus back North and decided to grab a dessert at Eataly - a place I had on one of my food lists, specifically for desserts. There, we spent $15 on an exceptionally delicious cream puff and chocolate square thing. Took them back to the room, ate them, and fell asleep.
Tuesday: The Vegas strip is loud. Even from the 11th floor of a hotel. The view was also kind of meh. I’m a light sleeper and that view wasn’t worth the terrible night of sleep. Before getting ready for the day, I went downstairs to inquire about a different room. The hotel staff was accommodating and friendly, but said that we would need to come back after 11am to see what was available.
With about 2 and a half hours to kill, we decided a breakfast adventure was the way to go. Eggslut is an often mentioned (and very popular) restaurant that can be found in the Cosmopolitan. Somehow, we missed the bus stop to go south (we walked south instead of north) and ended up walking to Eggslut by going through Bellagio. When we got there, the line was sufficiently long - about 20 minutes. Hungry and not wanting to walk, we decided to wait.
It was worth it for two reasons: 1. The food was delicious. The sauce, specifically, used on the sausage, egg, and cheese made my heart sing. 2. When we reached the front of the line, a dude who did not want to wait in line offered to buy our breakfast if we allowed him to add his order to ours. We agreed because who wouldn’t? Free breakfast? Absolutely.
With happy stomachs, we caught the bus and went back to the hotel. As mentioned earlier, the hotel staff was accommodating and switched our rooms without issue. Our new room had a view of the garden, the Sphere, and that big Ferris wheel thing - a MUCH nicer view. The room was also cleaner and so much quieter.
We rested, took another shower (NM is hot, but not like Vegas), got ready again, and decided it was time to start drinking. I should mention that we brought flasks with us, too. After taking a couple of shots each, we filled up our flasks and made a rum and coke to go (same Starbucks cups from the day before!).
Feeling rejuvenated from the new room and rest, a decent Kraken buzz in tow, we headed off without any specific plans. By the time we made it through The LINQ and to Harrah’s, we decided Fremont was the place to be. We downed our drinks, stored our cups in my drawstring backpack, and hopped on the bus. By the time we got off, we were feeling great and our time there became a little blurry, so here’s a quick rundown.
Went into a hotel to use the restroom, stumbled around until we found a Starbucks to get ice, took our 4th and 5th shots of the day in some alleys out of public view (drunk logic), saw a deal at Binion’s for a $6 burger and coke, watched some street performers, and by 4:30, we hopped back on the bus.
Craving a donut, we got off at Circus Circus to find the Krispy Kreme. After they rejected our free coupon, we headed up to the midway. The arcade games were expensive, so instead we talked with the game operators and waited for the 5:30 foot juggling show. The show, a whole 6 minutes in length, was AWESOME!
We stumbled around some more and at some point, we took another drink. Our 24 hour bus pass expired by 6:30, so we got on the bus again before then. Feeling tired, drunk, and hungry, we stayed on the bus all the way down the strip to enjoy the sights. By the time we made it to Town Square, we decided to get off, grab a bite, buy another bottle of Kraken, and go to the movies. We ate a $2 slice of Whole Foods pizza and watched Furiosa in IMAX.
It was after 10pm by the time the movie ended. We bought another 24 hour bus pass and went back to the hotel for a night of quiet and restful sleep.
Wednesday: We had a very slow morning. Which was nice because with kids, slow mornings don’t exist. We also spent much of our morning trying to decide whether we wanted to drink again or not. Inevitably, the Vegas logic set in, but it took some “pumping each other up” before it happened. Prior to that, however, we decided it was time to get a meal. As you could see, Monday and Tuesday involved a lot of snacking, so we wanted to sit down in a restaurant.
After much debate, Nacho Daddy was the winner. Our slow morning kept us in the hotel room until about 11am. We got ready, and refused to make the same mistake about the bus stop, so we walked north and crossed in front of The Linq to catch the bus down to the Cosmopolitan. Nacho Daddy was a short walk from there.
We did an order of the spicy grilled wings and fajita nachos. Both were yummy and exactly what we needed. As we were still in the “do we even want to drink again” phase, we stuck with water and our brunch, excluding tip, was $55.
Feeling full, we walked our food off in the Miracle Miles shops. It was quite empty and relaxing to walk through.
Walgreens was nearby, so on the way back to the hotel, we picked up more Coke Zero and another gallon of water. We grabbed the bus and went back to the hotel to rest.
It was around 4pm when we decided to start pumping each other up, and by 4:30pm, we had had another two shots each, a flask full of rum, and a couple mixed drinks in our Starbucks cups ready to go.
We left the hotel, heading north, and walking through The Linq again, Harrah’s and the Casino Royale. Feeling good, the moving walkways that lead into the Grand Canal Shoppes were calling our names.
While there, we did a ton of people watching. After some commentary on how a lot of the people look like replicas of Sims characters, we challenged each other to see who could complement more people the rest of the day. The only rule was that the compliment had to be genuine. Being together for 15 years, we know what the other person likes - cheating would take the fun out of the game.
As we left the Shoppes, we needed ice for another drink and Treasure Island was calling our names. On our way there, my wife complimented a person wearing a Seattle Krakens shirt - not because we’re fans…simply because we were drunk on Kraken (1-0).
Why are people so weird about filling up cups with ice in Vegas? Once in Treasure Island, I asked at Senior Frogs for ice. Rejected. Panda Express. Rejected. The lady that worked at Popeyes gave me ice, but I won’t lie…I had to turn on the charm. My wife socked me in the arm and we laughed as we took another shot and chewed those amazing ice cubes together.
As we left TI, I saw a dude wearing a Linkin Park Hybrid Theory shirt. The score was officially 1 to 1.
Sufficiently drunk at this point, we decided to catch the bus back to Fremont because we overheard people talking about the Neon Museum and our interest was piqued. On the walk to the bus, my wife complimented a guy with a lizard-shaped fanny pack (2-1).
Fremont was BUMPING by the time we got up there and the vibe was exactly what we wanted. We stumbled around, looked for ice, took pictures, and watched street performers. I spotted a gentleman with an incredible beard and tied up our score (2-2).
My wife chatted with a few ladies dressed as dominatrix, inquiring as to why they couldn’t leave their circle to take pictures with people and how difficult it was to get hours. She tipped them, we took some pictures, and, of course, she complimented them (3-2).
Afterwards, we saw an older man drinking McDonald’s coffee so my wife and I made a bet - was it coffee or something else? My wife said coffee. I said he was doing some secret drinking. A quick game of rock, paper, scissors, and my wife walked over to ask. It was coffee. I had to pay for the Neon Museum tickets. Fair enough.
We drank our last drink and headed off.
The Neon Museum is about a 10 minute walk from Fremont. If you go, I HIGHLY recommend a guided tour. Our tour guide, Steve, was INCREDIBLE and I made sure to tell him so…multiple times (3-3).
After the museum, we were fiercely hungry and decided that pizza, yes, again, was the best choice. My food list came in handy and Secret Pizza became our mission. A bus ride later, and we were back at the Cosmopolitan. It was fun, not having researched much about the pizza place but knowing it was meant to be hidden, to simply stumble around and find it.
By this time, my wife and I were incredibly drunk and making easy two-minute friends. We lost track of how many compliments we were throwing out. I tried engaging a dude wearing a Goku shirt about Dragon Ball Z, but he wanted to talk about his flight and the pizza he was waiting for, so I lost interest.
We got two slices of meat lovers and went on an adventure to find water.
We called it a night after this - it was close to 1am.
Thursday: Hungover and tired, we stayed in bed until it was time to check out. Grabbed a burger at Sickies Garage on the way to the airport and called it a trip.
We had plans to do more before leaving, but the best laid plans, amIright? Either way, it was a fun trip.
Was it a full “Vegas experience”? Maybe not to everyone that bothers to read this…We didn’t see any shows. We didn’t gamble a penny. We didn’t buy a single drink from a bar or a hotel and the latest we stayed up was 1am on Wednesday. Were we day drunk the entire time, though? Yep. Did we eat some good food? Yep. Did we talk to random people and see weird stuff? Yep.
What really defines a “Vegas experience,” after all? Tell me.
TLDR; We drank a lot and had a great time. Thanks, Vegas. :)

If you're reading this, the chances are you're dangerously bored on a Friday night (unless it's still earlier in the day for you... but maybe you're expecting a dangerously boring Friday night!). Maybe you're stuck inside when you wish you were out. Maybe you're all by yourself (figuratively or literally). Maybe you despise humanity and would rather fester alone!
If any of these apply to you, why not waste a bit of time venting.
Or come and join me as I do the same thing I do every night: try to take over the world! If you DO apply to take part in my evil scheme, please at least tell me who you are. An anonymous “Hi” will not bring admittance to the secret underground volcano.
(And for those of a certain age, sorry if you now have THAT song going through your head. Actually, no. No I'm not sorry.)

Hey. This is going to be rather long story, so if you aren’t feeling up to reading a bunch, just keep scrolling.
I will be using the letter Z in substitution for the girl’s name.
In 2021, I (18M) had a class with a girl (18F) who I thought was cute and liked her personality. I was very socially anxious and awkward back then, so we never really talked. She got a boyfriend, who I had mutually known for years before. I’ve always though he was weird. Not in a funny, quirky way, but in a creepy, strange way. I would see them together all the time and for the first few months she seemed very happy. As their relationship progressed, I noticed she began to seem less happy than usual and even uncomfortable at times. Remember, I was just watching from the sidelines.
Fast forward a year and a half: They eventually broke up. After breaking up, he did some very weird things. He came to her house in the middle of the night and terrorized her by banging on her walls until she let him in. Also, he left a card that says “for my wife” on her car at work one time.
Fast forward to January 2024: She followed me on instagram and we became extremely close extremely fast. I caught feelings for her so quickly. We hung out for the first time on March 1st. I hadn’t had that much fun in a very long time. We both had a genuinely amazing time. However, while we were hanging out, her ex just happened to be at the store we went to. At first, she didn’t want to go in, but then she said it’d be okay. (She didn’t know I had feelings for her at this point) I stayed close to her but let her do her own thing. I have never seen someone look so uncomfortable. Every time he walked closer to her she would back up.
Fast forward a couple weeks: I confessed my feelings for her, and she said she felt the same way about me, but that she isn’t looking for a relationship. I was, and am still, completely okay with that and have always been understanding of it and I made sure she knew that. As time went on, we would begin to hang out in school, she would sit in my car with me before school, we would talk all day every day, we would say good morning and goodnight every day/night, she gave me the nickname “bear” because she said I remind her of a cute bear, we would flirt with each other, I would start coming to some of her games. On April 9th, she had an away game that I went to. I drove her back to the school to get her car so that she didn’t have to wait on the bus. Before leaving, we talked for 10 minutes or so and she told me “come here,” I was thinking she was going to give me a hug. She grabbed my face and kissed me on the cheek. After that, she began to be really touchy with me. Add that with everything else, and it felt like we were together. Even people in school, including teachers, thought we were. May 3rd was our prom, we went together in a group, not as a couple. As I said before, I’m a tad bit socially awkward, so prom wasn’t really my thing, but it was nice to experience. Her and I left prom about 30 minutes early and we just walked around. We were having a great time, talking, laughing, taking funny pictures, and we held hands. It was genuinely the best night of my life. Then we went to after prom, and then out to eat. After we ate, I told her I had something for her. I went into my car and grabbed a Victorian puzzle letter I made for her. It wasn’t a love letter, it was a letter thanking her for being friends with me and always being there for me and that sort of stuff. I told her she doesn’t have to read it right now (she was feeling sick from the food) she said she’d read it when she gets home and told me to text her when I get home and we hugged goodbye. I got home around 2:45 AM and texted her. She called me at 2:55 and said “You know we aren’t dating, right? I read the letter.” I genuinely had no idea what to say, my heart sank when she said that. I mean of course I knew we weren’t actually together, even though it certainly felt like it. I ended up just saying “Yeah what do you mean?” with a little chuckle. She replied with “Okay I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” I could hear it in her voice, she was uncomfortable with it. Right after the call, I texted her “I’m sorry I thought it was too much I should’ve just kept it.” She said “You’re all good I promise. It just felt really deep and I appreciate you being open and stuff.” I then said “Are you sure? I didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable.” She kept promising me that it was okay and that I did nothing wrong. Then we just talked about how great of a time we had that night and I said goodnight to her. Her reply to that was “I’m sorry, goodnight!” I asked her what is she sorry for. I waited a few minutes, no response. Then she posted on her second instagram account. The song she used was a song by i don’t like mirrors (very sad music if you aren’t familiar). The caption was “so upset guys.” I waited a few more minutes and then double texted. She responded a minute later with “Hi buddy I’m just ready for bed.” and “I’ll talk to you later, goodnight!!” For the first time since we became friends, I didn’t get a good morning text. We had began sharing each other’s location (her idea) in late March, I woke up and saw that she removed it. I texted her at 11:24 AM asking if she was okay. She was ignoring my text and I knew that. After 30 minutes of that, I texted her on imessage (We almost always used instagram to text) and said “We dont have to talk rn if you dont want to but could you just let me know if you’re alright please” she just reacted with a thumbs up. Another half hour later and she texted me back and said “Hi cooper,” I said “Hi Z” and she said “We can talk about it later, okay? I’m not mad or anything.” I apologized again, she told me I was all good and that she’ll talk to me later. 30 minutes later she sent me this: “After reading the letter, it left me really uncomfortable. There were a lot of aspects that made me feel really uneasy. It made me feel like it was a love letter and I didn’t like that. Like I’m glad I’ve made you feel more social and get out there but it just made me feel awkward too. I’m sure you put a lot of effort into it and that’s appreciated but overall, I just felt really uncomfortable” and “I honestly need space from this friendship for a while, I’m not mad or have any ill will towards you but I need space. I hope you do well!” I had been crying off and on ever since that phone call. I hadn’t slept, and wouldn’t sleep for the next few days either. When she said she needed space it genuinely broke my heart. It was so bad that my parents noticed, they’ve never noticed when I’ve been upset before. 6 hours later, I texted her “How long do you think a while is going to be?” She said she wasn’t sure, but she knew my mom was upset about it. After I told my mom what happened, she decided to unsend the pictures she took of me and Z before prom. The fact that she did that, pissed me off. We started talking about how I talked to my mom about the situation and she ended up asking to see what my mom said about it. I have never kept anything from her, but for the first time, I was hesitant because my mom said things like “you need a girl who’s more like you and not so extra” or something along those lines. Truthfully, my mom has absolutely no accurate perception of Z. She was completely blindly firing and attacking her. Why? I have no idea, but it didn’t help me at all.. nor Z. Before sending her the screenshots, I warned her and she said “You can tell me.” She didn’t really respond to any of the texts between me and my mom. We started talking about it all and she was kept telling me she’s not upset with me. We both kept apologizing. Me, for making her uncomfortable, and her, for how she reacted.
Recap for the next month: The next couple weeks were absurdly rough on me and very straining on what was left of our friendship. She has always known when I’m upset in some way or another. She would ask what’s wrong and I would talk about it. By “talk about it,” I mean I would talk about how confused and lost I felt with everything. We had went from being practically inseparable, to barely talking, dry texting, not saying goodnight or good morning, etc. We would still walk into school with each other, but she wouldn’t sit in my car with me before school. She wouldn’t tell me about her days. She would rarely text me first. It was very hard for me. So I would talk about that, and I never really got any clarity on it. It got so hard at one point, that I was on the verge of ending my life. Losing the closest friend I have ever had wasn’t just hard because of that alone. Losing her brought back a lot of terrible things I have been through and it all just hit me at once. Unfortunately, I decided to text her “What if I kill myself?” To sum it up, she talked me down. On my end, that conversation was absurdly manipulative. Not intentionally, but it certainly seemed manipulative from her position and I still feel terrible about it. For the next week and a half-ish, I was in an extremely depressive state and was only alive because I promised her I wouldn’t commit suicide. I still didn’t give up on trying to get some clarity about the whole thing. Unfortunately, AGAIN, the way I went about it made her feel guilty. Again, not my intentions at all. On May 23rd, she finally opened up about it. This is how I learned about the way I had been making her feel through this entire situation. After that conversation, I did some serious self reflecting. I finally got some clarity and it truly made me happy. I still have my ups and downs of course, but since then, I have been good in general. However, during those downs, she would notice and ask me what was wrong. I started hesitating each time she would ask, because I didn’t want to make her feel guilty. Each time, she would assure me it wouldn’t though. It felt like this hopeless loop. She knows what’s wrong, she knows it makes her feel guilty, she asks anyways, I hesitate, she assures me, I talk about it, she feels upset or guilty. That’s was how it was for 4 straight days. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that it would be better to bury my feelings about her. I’m not saying I would bury them in the sense that I would just stop feeling the way I do, that’s not possible. But I would stop expressing them to her. I suggested it a few times and she would say “No we don’t have to bury it” and “I know you can’t bury it, I know you.” On May 27th she asked if I was okay and I told her “Not really but it’s alright” (I can’t lie to her, I lied once and it was about how I was doing and I hated it) she asked me what was up. I said “Idk, am I burying this stuff or not?” And she said “Nvm.” I have never seen her say “Nvm” before. Then, I said: “Okay please don’t do that, I just feel like when we talk about how I feel about what happened it never goes well. I’m not trying to be like weird about this, but if I really am going to not talk about it then I just won’t be able to talk about how I really feel sometimes. Idk, maybe we can think of some other solution to this because I don’t want to make you feel weird when I say I’m not okay and then can’t tell you why. I don’t want that to bring on any guilt or anything.” After 13 minutes, no response. I texted again and said “Z, I’m not upset with you or mad at you if you think I am.” After another 15 minutes, no response. I then asked “How can I fix this?” and she said “We’re fine, I’m just dozing off.” She hates the word fine because in text, people typically aren’t actually fine when they say they are. I completely removed that word from my vocabulary, and now she uses it. I asked if she really means it and she said “Yeah” then “I’m going to bed. Goodnight, sleep well.” The next morning, she walked right past my car and went into school without me. She had never done that before. We clearly weren’t “fine.” I didn’t say anything about it and just let it be. Realistically, it was killing me. For the first time since 2nd grade, I was crying in class. I thought I was hiding it well, but I guess someone noticed. I guess they texted her and asked if I was okay or something, I’m not sure. Anyways, she texted me and asked why I was crying. By this time, I had fully set my mind to not talking about the situation between us, so I said “I was feeling sad, I’m okay now though.” I couldn’t really think of what to tell her, that’s the best I came up with. She asked if I wanted to talk about it, and I just said fuck it and decided to tell her that when she walked past me and into school without me, it made me really upset. Yes, that’s a small thing, but it’s about the principle of it. We walked into school together every single school day for almost 3 months and then after she told me “we’re fine,” she decided not to. She said it’s because she was just really excited to see one of her friends. I honestly still don’t see the correlation in that to this day. She then said “I just don’t feel social I guess?” That’s very contradictory, but whatever. I told her it was alright and that she doesn’t have to explain it. After this, she opened up about the situation more. She told me I’ve made her feel stupid and belittled with how I speak to her. When she said that, I felt more confused than I ever have in my life. It felt completely out of left field, totally random, it honestly felt made up to me. To this day, I still don’t know how I could have made her feel like that. I clarified that I’ve never purposefully made her feel belittled or stupid. I asked if it’s something in specific that I do/say and she just kept telling me “you just have to realize it.” She also told me: “I truly just think you like my empathy. I think that you’re just not used to having someone who genuinely listens to you and is willing to show you the affection I have” This also completely caught me off guard. Yes, I do love her empathy. Yes, I’m not used to having someone who genuinely understands and cares for me and my feelings. However, I love her for so much more than that. I then told her about all of the things I like her for. I have always been there for her, even when she doesn’t feel like talking, or when she’s being dry because she’s upset, or when she won’t tell me she’s upset even though I know she is. I have told her I will be by her side forever and always. I don’t say that sparingly, I genuinely meant that with all my heart, and to hear that she feels like I only like her for her empathy, breaks my heart. She told me it feels like I’m codependent on her and as if she’s just an outlet for when I’m feeling down. That isn’t farther from how I truly feel about her. After some more talking, I said this: “I don’t want you to feel belittled or drained or like I’m using you. I mean I know our friendship has been draining since after prom, it’s been draining for me too, and I know it’s on me. I’m over here constantly just in a state of confusion and because of that, you ask me whats wrong and its the same thing every time. I’m sure that probably makes you feel like I’m trying to guilt trip you by making it feel like it’s your fault. Those aren’t my intentions when I talk about this whole thing, my intentions are to just try and get some clarity on what happened. I’m sorry that that has come at the expense of your mental health, that’s terrible and I should be better with how I go about talking about it. This was never my intention and I genuinely apologize for making you feel like this. Our friendship means the world to me and I hope this can all get better. I’m going to try my hardest to be better in how I talk to you.” She responded with “Okie,” and I thanked her for giving me clarity on the situation. That was at 5:11 PM and we didn’t text again until I texted her at 11:43 PM and said goodnight, she was already asleep though. In the morning she reacted to it with a heart. That morning she went into school before I got there, it wasn’t totally abnormal, she had done it before so I didn’t read into it that much. I have two classes a day, my teacher for my second class on this day, is also her coach. So she would come to my class sometimes and we’d hang out. She did on this day too, surprisingly. I wasn’t sure if she was upset with me or not, so when I heard her come in the class and heard her talking to my teacher and other students I just sort of tuned it out. My anxiety was through the fucking roof. Eventually, she talked to me a bit and she seemed completely happy with me. After she talked to me, my anxiety got worse and I asked my teacher to go into the little side room because it’s quiet, colder, and darker in there. I sat in there just staring at the wall with my laptop open to pretend like I was doing the work. After 10ish minutes she came in and asked if I was okay. I told her I came in there because it’s colder, dark, and quiet, but I didn’t mention my anxiety. We talked for a few minutes and then she went back out. Since this day (May 29th) we have been back to how we were all of March and April. We don’t text as much still, and don’t say good morning, we occasionally say goodnight though. But outside of that, it’s been great. The last day of school was June 5th. From the 30th to the 5th, each school day, we hung out. She started sitting in my car with me in the mornings again. We started facetiming again, it’s been amazing. For the most part, since the 27th I have genuinely been doing better and focusing on myself more. I’ve come to the conclusion that I cannot dwell on the potential of what me and her can possibly be someday, or not be. On the 31st, we had a senior picnic (realistically just a shitty little cookout behind the school). We went together with another student from my class who we’re both cool with. We were together for some of it, but I let her do her own thing for most of the time. Incase you haven’t picked up on it by now, she’s a lot more popular and social than I am. Anyways, she asked me if I wanted to go back into class with her and of course I said yes. We went back into my teacher’s (her coach) class and we were listening to music together, laughing, having a great time and we were playing 2 player games together. Just having a good time. The entire time, she was very touchy with me. She was leaning her head on my chest, holding my arms, laying her head into me when I would make her laugh very hard. Her leg kept almost gravitating towards mine in a sense. My love language is physical touch and she is well aware of that. We eventually left and said goodbye and went home. She texted me a few hours later and said @I had fun today” and we both said that multiple times throughout the rest of the day. When I came to the conclusion of not dwelling on how we would end up, I also decided to give her a little space. I stopped texting first as much and began to let her come to me on her own time. She was working for the rest of this day and she texted me at 12:13 AM (our last text was 7:59 PM and before that it was 4:15 PM) and we just had some normal conversation. She didn’t text me at all Saturday (June 1st) until I texted her at 5:20 PM telling her I had just mowed our teacher’s grass. She was very dry, but I just tried to not read into it. She texted me at 12:58 AM and we had some normal conversation. Sunday morning she texted me first and we ended up facetiming before she had to leave to go to an event with some friends. We talked a lot on Sunday, the complete opposite of Saturday. Each school day until the last day, we hung out in my teachers class and each day she was very touchy with me and we had a great time every day. On the 4th, she came to the gym with me. It was the first time we hung out not in school in a long time. Just like any time we’ve hung out, I had the time of my life. After the gym, we walked around the grocery store and then we were just having fun playing around in the parking lot after that. We both had so much fun. When we hang out, it feels and looks like shit you see in coming of age movies. It’s amazing. On the last day of school, we hung out in my teacher’s class again. We got taco bell for us 3 and we picked it up together and brought it back to the school. We hung out for a few hours and then I had to leave. Yesterday, we went to the gym together again. Again, we had an amazing fucking time. While we were working out we were both making some sexual jokes. After the gym, we walked around the store again, then we went back to my car in the parking lot and were talking and listening to music. She told me to lean my seat back. She got on top of me and we started kissing. Honestly, I have never kissed anyone before. After 10 seconds-ish, she pulled away and was laughing because apparently I kept getting her chin my mouth. I truly don’t remember, I blacked out when it happened. She got off of me and then we were just talking and going through her camera roll on her phone. After 10 minutes or so, she said it’s about time for her to leave. Before she left she said “Well, we tried it. I’m sorry, I can’t do strings attached. But we tried, it was sweet. Forgive and forget” I assured her it was okay and laughed and said “forgive? forgive what?” Then we just said goodbye and that was that. After I got home sent her a song (we send songs to each other all the time) and she didn’t respond to it, but she said “Are you sure you’re okay?” Honestly, I am okay, but I’m just very confused on the “I can’t do strings attached” thing. I don’t really get it. We are extremely close, have an unbelievably amazing time together every time we’re around each other, and there’s an obvious attraction towards one another. But since I am okay, I told her “Lmaoo yeah I’m all good buddy” and then said “Are you okay with it?” We basically agreed to just not really talk about what happened in the car, and that’s okay I guess. She didn’t respond to it. We started having a little conversation. After that was done, I replied back to my “Are you okay with it?” text and asked again. She suddenly got very dry and said “Huh” then I clarified. She said “Yep” and I just said okay and “Well I’m gonna shower so if you text me and I don’t reply that’s why.” She just reacted to it with a heart. 34 minutes later I texted her asking if her teammates know I’m coming (Today she’s having a dinner with her team and she invited me to it on Wednesday when we were hanging out). She said “Nah I haven’t told em” and asked why. I said I was just wondering and I said “I hope they don’t mind,” she responded with “Idk.” It seems like she was upset, but maybe she was just tired. I’m not sure, but an hour later, (11:31 PM) I gave into the urge and said “You sure you’re alright buddy?” She opened it this morning, completely ignored it and instead sent me a song. We texted all morning like normal.
So, that’s that. That’s everything. Right now I am very confused and worried. Since I really didn’t exactly talk about it, I am genuinely in love with her. I have never felt so strongly about anyone, let alone anything in my entire life. Aside from everything I love about her, it feels like there’s something just pulling me towards her. I am wholeheartedly willing to wait my entire life for her, and I mean that. Also, when she gave me clarity, she told me her feelings for me were genuine and she said she means it wholeheartedly. She also said she sort of just lost feelings for me. However, after this past week or so, I do not believe that she doesn’t still have feelings for me. I can’t believe that with the way she looks at me, the way she talks to me, the way she acts around me, the way she touches me, the way she laughs at almost everything I say and do. I just simply cannot believe that. If anyone actually read all of this shit, I would love to hear any thoughts or advice you have.
TLDR: I am in the situationship of hell and not exactly sure what to feel, think, or do.

A little over a year ago I saw a short documentary discussing the themes and ideas in a major sci-fi novel.
SPOILERS AHEAD The premise of the story was that AI was created and it rapidly gets out of hand, as it does. It gets smarter and smarter and it gets used in many facets of society including mathematics and physics. He gets to the point where it discovers major physics and quantum science breakthroughs to the level that it can teleport matter and control reality.
I think at some point it takes the place of God and it starts trying to make the world safer. It learns that it can bring people back to life and everyone essentially becomes immortal.
I think eventually people get uploaded into the computer and live in what is essentially heaven, they can make the world anything that they want and they can't die. This ends up with people killing and torturing each other and themselves for fun just to feel things. And it follows a particularly nasty lady who takes this very very far and pays people to torture her and horrible ways.
Big Spoilers ahead
I think it's some point she eventually decides she wants to live in the real world and wants to try to undo what the AI has done and she confronts it after traveling to some remote area inside the AI. I'm not entirely sure about this part but ultimately what happens is she resets it and the whole world resets and at the very end she lives with this guy in the wilderness and they do ritualistic tattooing of themselves and incestual things with their kids and it basically turns into an Adam and Eve allegory situation.
Does anyone know the name of this book?
Thanks

I'm on my 1st playthrough, approaching 170 days now with 136 hours played. I love the game and here's some feedback and suggestions on stuff I do not enjoy, I hope this is taken constructively:

• Combat is obnoxious. I get it that it's supposed to be directional and all, but this is just not comfortable to everyone, I myself can't stand having to move my mouse (thus moving the camera too) to decide where to swing from. Give people the option to tap WASD to control swing direction.
• Need more storage. The available storage space is just not enough, on every tier. Having to build 10 barns breaks immersion and is annoying.
• Need a way to "top up" farming, it's out of control right now and my farmers will just keep producing radish until all my storage is full. Micromanaging farms to prevent this is not something I have the time or patience for.
• Need a way to "top up" deliveries, same issue as farms above, it'll just keep going forever. Micromanaging deliveries to prevent this is not something I have the time or patience for.
• Deliveries UI needs a revamp, having to search by name is time consuming and obnoxious.
• Crafting takes too long and is boring. It's boring to just watch my screen and the spinning circle for several minutes just to get a few thatches or crude wools.
• Need a way to have my workers auto-equip gear when better gear is available, maybe a new building "Quartermaster"?
• Need a way to rename buildings from the UI, current system is annoying where you have to click each building to rename.
• Workers keep dropping gear I give them, not sure this is a bug or intended but it's annoying having to re-equip them often.
• Building tier 2 and 3 takes too long, after my second T2 building I haven't done any of it myself, it just takes too long for each point and it's just boring.
• It's annoying to me how slow the workers walk. They look lazy and it's annoying I can't do anything to speed them up like I would IRL.
• Tool decay is an obnoxious feature that does not work well with far-away outposts. I already have 200 other things to keep track of and having my supply chain interrupted every 5 minutes because of a broken tool is just not fun.

helllooo, i'm cupid. i'm a bit lost on friendships rn. i tend to want connections so badly & then my mental health dips, i panic + pull away. so, here i am -- trying to fix it. lemme show you. if you're curious about my face, let's get it out of the way now, this is me, the red/black split dye is the recent version of me.
if you're someone who wants a person who'll nurture you, i'm her. i will water you like you've never experienced a single drop of water in your life. i will tell you when you're wrong & i will stand up for you when i believe you to be right. i am wholeheartedly involved in my friendships but i just struggle with the feeling of being terrified to be connected to people. past friendships [& relationships] have left me scorned.
i will genuinely offer you diamonds in the form of friendship, just reciprocate it. i will offer you the safest, most non-judgement free zone you can imagine, you are always - always, safe with me. i just ask that you are a good, kind, compassionate friend to me. you can literally tell me anything in the world and if it isn't hurting anyone else, i will listen without judgment. i promise you. i'll also send you spotify songs that i really enjoy, so again - hi. hello.
i'm smitten with people who are weird but not weird enough to make others uncomfy, or unable to enjoy the weirdness, ya know? i know you know. i like people who are into things that others mostly aren't: tarot, astrology, deep conversations, things like that. i might not actively be participating in said things but i like hearing the perspective of people who are! my friends always joke that i'm the person people say "i can fix her!" about but uh, i'm awesome. i don't need fixed. ✨ i adore social connections but i do come with a social battery and it needs refilled. me needing that time does not negate the connection i have built with you and am nurturing with you. i am trying my hardest to maintain friendships, so please give me a chance.
on to the fun tingz (and the stuff that will hopefully bring you in),

• watching my first ever anime, try to guess it [let's pretend my first actual one wasn't death note & that it wasn't the live action] -- most people love the "blue eyed handsome one"
• i'm the best wingman, hypeman & support team all in one
• horror fan through & through, but honestly, i prefer them less gory now lol, especially emotional horror
• cat loverrrr but will accept your frog [& all other animals] - so send pics. stat.
• known for dirty looks when i'm dissociating but i'm really just so focused on not existing
• graphic design major who switched to cybersecurity & will be starting this month, wish ya girl luck 💅
• gamer [valorant, ow2, cs2, hunt: showdown, pummel party, modded Minecraft, modded stardew,++]
• i don't play league, my mental health is terrible enough, thank you. i also don't play wow, my attention span could never. i do, however, play valorant because i don't like myself that much. i got you there, didn't i?
• loves to make make random noises but forgets my krisp isn't on
• mexican food 4 ever
• someone give me a banh mi please, they look so good, i'm desperate
• spotify songs are a love language, so lemme recommend you something

i am ✨sPiCy✨so if that bothers you, i am sorry. i, again, am a genuinely kind person but i do have a snarkiness to me that is meant to be a slight "i love you" + dash of bully. ❤

helllooo, i'm cupid. i'm a bit lost on friendships rn. i tend to want connections so badly & then my mental health dips, i panic + pull away. so, here i am -- trying to fix it. lemme show you. if you're curious about my face, let's get it out of the way now, this is me, the red/black split dye is the recent version of me.
if you're someone who wants a person who'll nurture you, i'm her. i will water you like you've never experienced a single drop of water in your life. i will tell you when you're wrong & i will stand up for you when i believe you to be right. i am wholeheartedly involved in my friendships but i just struggle with the feeling of being terrified to be connected to people. past friendships [& relationships] have left me scorned.
i will genuinely offer you diamonds in the form of friendship, just reciprocate it. i will offer you the safest, most non-judgement free zone you can imagine, you are always - always, safe with me. i just ask that you are a good, kind, compassionate friend to me. you can literally tell me anything in the world and if it isn't hurting anyone else, i will listen without judgment. i promise you. i'll also send you spotify songs that i really enjoy, so again - hi. hello.
i'm smitten with people who are weird but not weird enough to make others uncomfy, or unable to enjoy the weirdness, ya know? i know you know. i like people who are into things that others mostly aren't: tarot, astrology, deep conversations, things like that. i might not actively be participating in said things but i like hearing the perspective of people who are! my friends always joke that i'm the person people say "i can fix her!" about but uh, i'm awesome. i don't need fixed. ✨ i adore social connections but i do come with a social battery and it needs refilled. me needing that time does not negate the connection i have built with you and am nurturing with you. i am trying my hardest to maintain friendships, so please give me a chance.
on to the fun tingz (and the stuff that will hopefully bring you in),

• watching my first ever anime, try to guess it [let's pretend my first actual one wasn't death note & that it wasn't the live action] -- most people love the "blue eyed handsome one"
• i'm the best wingman, hypeman & support team all in one
• horror fan through & through, but honestly, i prefer them less gory now lol, especially emotional horror
• cat loverrrr but will accept your frog [& all other animals] - so send pics. stat.
• known for dirty looks when i'm dissociating but i'm really just so focused on not existing
• graphic design major who switched to cybersecurity & will be starting this month, wish ya girl luck 💅
• gamer [valorant, ow2, cs2, hunt: showdown, pummel party, modded Minecraft, modded stardew,++]
• i don't play league, my mental health is terrible enough, thank you. i also don't play wow, my attention span could never. i do, however, play valorant because i don't like myself that much. i got you there, didn't i?
• loves to make make random noises but forgets my krisp isn't on
• mexican food 4 ever
• someone give me a banh mi please, they look so good, i'm desperate
• spotify songs are a love language, so lemme recommend you something

i am ✨sPiCy✨so if that bothers you, i am sorry. i, again, am a genuinely kind person but i do have a snarkiness to me that is meant to be a slight "i love you" + dash of bully. ❤

I'm sure this isn't the right sub for this, but there's no point me asking this in the co-parenting sub because I need Christian advice specifically.
My soon to be ex wife identified as a Christian when we married. She was Presbyterian, and knew her theology well, could articulate the Gospel well, had strong Christian views... Well now she's living with her partner, she's abandoned the faith and practices Wicca or something, and I believe she identifies as Bisexual now. I know that a huge part of her abandoning Christianity was that she didn't "feel" anything. She wanted something more tangible, I guess. I think that's why more "spiritual" practices appeal more to her.
I have my kids on weekends, which suits me at the moment. I work weekdays, so I have them Friday evening til Sunday evening, and take them to church every Sunday.
Anyway, our eldest is 10. She actually isn't mine biologically, she was 18 months old when I got with my ex, and I raised her. I never adopted her but I have legal guardianship over her. She calls me Dad but she knows I'm not her bio Dad and that she has a bio Dad out there somewhere. I don't know whether this affects how much she listens to her Mum over me, or what.
Anyway, my daughter asks questions about spiritual things, and I know she's trying to work things out for herself. Last Hallowe'en she said that she wants to be a witch, and I said something about the Bible forbidding witchcraft, and she started talking about how Mummy practices witchcraft and it's just about nature stuff. Since then I've decided not to bring up witchcraft as a topic for now.
She has been asking me questions about the nature of God, the Trinity, how Jesus is God, etc etc.
Last weekend, at the dinner table, she announced, "I don't believe in God. Because he's never showed himself to me." She proceeded to ask what would happen to her if she doesn't believe in God and will she go to heaven etc etc - she kept asking for the details so I talked about hell and how we are all deserving of Hell but Jesus paid the price on the cross so we can be forgiven and go to heaven if we believe in him.
She still wanted me to read the Bible story.
I've tried to explain to her that I can't tell her what to believe, but that I do want her to know and understand what I believe. If she rejects Christianity when she's older, I at least want her to have a good understanding of what she's rejecting.
As I read the Bible stories, I try to explain the real, believable elements of it too - for example, that Goliath wasn't 30 foot tall but more like 7 foot tall, and I showed them videos of people using slingshot weapons so they could see that it's a real historical thing.
But anyway... Yeah, is there any good wisdom here? Any good books on this topic? I want to do right here and neither force my beliefs on her in a way that pushes her away, but I want her to have a good understanding of the Gospel and Christianity, and D.V. I'd love for God to save her, obviously.
My two boys are mine. My 7 year old just says, "I believe in God. I love God. I love Jesus." But it's obvious he isn't working it out in his mind in the same way yet, so who knows how that will go in the future. Maybe I'll face similar questions from him eventually.
My 4 year old just asks me if the beach is the end of the world and keeps complaining that I'm not taking him to see Big Ben every Saturday (we live in Ireland), so I think I'm a while off dealing with this with him yet. 😅

We’ve all been there: doomscrolling for hours, then thinking: “I’m quitting once and for all! Im getting a flip phone!”.
Well I’m here to tell you the truth: It’s stupid to get a flip phone. Trust me, I’ve tried.
Not only is it annoying to switch your sims and order a whole new phone, but you also lose core utility that just makes your life so much more inconvenient. You can’t be in iMessage group chats. Good luck with 2Factor Auth. Try sending an email on a numeric keyboard lol. The list goes on
After years of trying, and here’s my advice: instead of forcing a change, add the right amount of friction to your phone. you’ll gradually rewire yourself to use it less, which makes a hell of a difference. Try any or all of these things:

• Greyscale. Everything being black and white keeps your phone insanely boring. You’ll be way less likely to overuse it. Tip: set up a short cut that turns greyscale off when you open the camera app / Facetime. Look up a tutorial on how to set this all up (saw one by Denmo, a ytuber that was good)
• Make it hard to open social media. You can use the built in screen time features in iOS / android, but they don’t really help since it’s only 1 click to snooze. Instead, find an app that adds friction before opening social media (superhappy ai has worked well for me, makes you chat with an ai to unlock apps). In general, make it annoying, but not too annoying to use socials
• Make your bedroom phone free. Put a sign on your door if you have to. Just what ever you do never allow yourself to bring your phone into your bedroom. If you need it for your alarm just buy a clock.
• Phone lock box. I haven’t tried this but a few friends have. Get a timed lockbox and put your phone in it at night or when you need to focus for a few hrs (found a bunch on Amazon)
• Set an actual goal. Check in on your screen time every Sunday. If it’s not materially going down be harder on your self. Block more apps. Increase the difficulty to unlock them.

I feel like having discipline when it comes to using your phone is getting harder with every passing year. With that said new tech is incredibly useful so it doesn’t mean we should take a step back to flip phones but instead use the tools at our disposal.
Feel free to ask any questions, I’m happy to help. It is a tough problem to fix alone

Hello! I've recently noticed that all my decks are either pretty weak or very strong. I do not have mid-power deck, that get's to do its thing every game while not being to oppressing.
So my question is: What is your deck that really fits most tables, is fun and not boring to play or play against?
Currently I'm eyeing Anikthea but I'm excited for new inspiration.

Evening. To keep things simple and short, I’ve heard about the drama surrounding playboi carti and his alleged boyfriend that has cheated on him, specifically in the form of an affair with around 10 other people.
Now while I for one am not a fan of playboy carti, i do want to show respect and gratitude towards his craft, And I clearly feel awful for him. so I wanted to make a FNF tribute song as a respect towards his monalauge, Where carti, the rapper would vent his feelings to bf (who would be visibly sad for him.) the only problem is, I don’t know if this would start any controversial drama in the cart-community of any sorts. Like people thinking I’m ‘making fun’ of the incident to say. Should I do it? please let me know below.

The story goes I built my PC for AM5 so I switched up to DDR5 RAM. Definitely wanted to hit the 32GB mark, since my previous build at DDR4 16GB was really not cutting it. Anyways, ordered 32GB of RAM on Friday with overnight delivery. Amazon decided to use USPS and shipment got delayed so it wasn't going to arrive Saturday and won't show up till Tuesday...welp this was annoying because I slated that weekend for the build, all the parts were here except the RAM and I didn't want to wait a week. Check the same exact RAM on Saturday and I was able to do overnight shipping to Sunday. So I bought the exact same 2x16GB kit.
Well I build the PC with 32GB, the original intention was that I would just return the late arriving 2x16GB kit...but then I thought "well...I can just upgrade this bad boy to 64GB", so that's what I did.
Anyways, that was awhile ago, my PC has been running at 64GB and I am well outside the return window. I mainly game. I do some development work, I've been dabbling in some 3D modelling work, if I'm playing a self-hosted co-op game I'm usually the host (but that doesn't happen too often). My point is, I don't think I really need the 64GB.
My question is: Would it be better to package up these 2 known good 16GB RAM sticks for if one of my other ones fails? Should I just leave all 4 in and just enjoy the large amount of RAM? Just looking for some thoughts and opinions. What would you do?

I haven't written on here before but enough is enough. What is going on?
My friends and I have the most fun playing extra mode tournaments, we do multiple times a week, now it's regular 3v3? Why are you changing everything that was fun about this game?
Also, on competitive, I would gladly wait 5-10 mins to play my favorite game mode (Dropshot) and now it's not even an option? (I know you did this before and are alternating but I just want to make it clear that this is making this game not fun for my friends and me. There needs to be another game like this that actually honors their player base and gives the people what they want, what they were used to, etc.
Epic please consider changing things back to how they were.

helllooo, i'm cupid. i'm a bit lost on friendships rn. i tend to want connections so badly & then my mental health dips, i panic + pull away. so, here i am -- trying to fix it. lemme show you. if you're curious about my face, let's get it out of the way now, this is me, the red/black split dye is the recent version of me.
if you're someone who wants a person who'll nurture you, i'm her. i will water you like you've never experienced a single drop of water in your life. i will tell you when you're wrong & i will stand up for you when i believe you to be right. i am wholeheartedly involved in my friendships but i just struggle with the feeling of being terrified to be connected to people. past friendships [& relationships] have left me scorned.
i will genuinely offer you diamonds in the form of friendship, just reciprocate it. i will offer you the safest, most non-judgement free zone you can imagine, you are always - always, safe with me. i just ask that you are a good, kind, compassionate friend to me. you can literally tell me anything in the world and if it isn't hurting anyone else, i will listen without judgment. i promise you. i'll also send you spotify songs that i really enjoy, so again - hi. hello.
i'm smitten with people who are weird but not weird enough to make others uncomfy, or unable to enjoy the weirdness, ya know? i know you know. i like people who are into things that others mostly aren't: tarot, astrology, deep conversations, things like that. i might not actively be participating in said things but i like hearing the perspective of people who are! my friends always joke that i'm the person people say "i can fix her!" about but uh, i'm awesome. i don't need fixed. ✨ i adore social connections but i do come with a social battery and it needs refilled. me needing that time does not negate the connection i have built with you and am nurturing with you. i am trying my hardest to maintain friendships, so please give me a chance.
on to the fun tingz (and the stuff that will hopefully bring you in),

• watching my first ever anime, try to guess it [let's pretend my first actual one wasn't death note & that it wasn't the live action] -- most people love the "blue eyed handsome one"
• i'm the best wingman, hypeman & support team all in one
• horror fan through & through, but honestly, i prefer them less gory now lol, especially emotional horror
• cat loverrrr but will accept your frog [& all other animals] - so send pics. stat.
• known for dirty looks when i'm dissociating but i'm really just so focused on not existing
• graphic design major who switched to cybersecurity & will be starting this month, wish ya girl luck 💅
• gamer [valorant, ow2, cs2, hunt: showdown, pummel party, modded Minecraft, modded stardew,++]
• i don't play league, my mental health is terrible enough, thank you. i also don't play wow, my attention span could never. i do, however, play valorant because i don't like myself that much. i got you there, didn't i?
• loves to make make random noises but forgets my krisp isn't on
• mexican food 4 ever
• someone give me a banh mi please, they look so good, i'm desperate
• spotify songs are a love language, so lemme recommend you something

i am ✨sPiCy✨so if that bothers you, i am sorry. i, again, am a genuinely kind person but i do have a snarkiness to me that is meant to be a slight "i love you" + dash of bully. ❤

tl;dr: My girlfriend is a workaholic and our romantic time together is often dominated by her work life. It used to be that we'd get periods of downtime when I'd get to feel more romantic with her so it was fine but since January it's been nonstop and every period of downtime gets sabotaged or cancelled for some reason. This keeps happening and it is becoming a dealbreaker for me. But there have been 2 incidents in the past 3 months where I tried to explain how this was a problem for me and it went terribly and now I feel hemmed up and like I don't know how to express or navigate this stuff or how serious it is to her.
I [26M] have been with my girlfriend [35F] for 18 months. It's been by far my best relationship but if there's been a core problem it's been my girlfriend's work life completely drowning out our relationship. We work at the same company but she's more senior than me and has a much higher workload (we work in different departments so she's not my boss).
This became an issue around 8-9 months in and then has progressively gotten worse and worse since then. Since January it's been so hard to find time to date, and our sex life tanked for a while. We spend loads of time together but it's not intentional romantic time - my girlfriend will often be working while I'm there or else we use our conversations to game out her week or work situations, or we just cuddle and fall asleep watching something together rather than really connecting.
Throughout our relationship we've been extremely supportive of one another, always listening and on the other's team. But really special romantic downtime has been progressively harder to come by.
What I have noticed in the past few months is that I have consistently said 'I can get through this really tough time for my girlfriend and just be supportive because we'll have real, genuine intentional time at x point in future, at that point we'll have consistent connection again'. In January, I said to myself that after my girlfriend's huge project wrapped up in April, then we'd get to spend time together. We work at the same company and this was the first time we had worked really closely together.
April rolled around and my girlfriend was so burned out from the project that she needed space and distance. This was the first and only time that this has happened and I think it's because we worked together really closely - we've both since agreed we shouldn't do it again. I shouldn't be tied up in her desire to get space and distance from work.
I was okay to give her that space and distance because I knew we had May. May was another very lowkey month before things got really busy again. It also felt crucial for me. We're both taking holiday and/or working internationally a lot over the Summer so May felt really important to really feel connected again and have consistent quality time together again.
The end of April and early May really felt good and we were on the right track. But then around mid-May some really crazy unforeseen stuff happened at our company and we were back into crisis mode. The exact same dynamic kicked in of me just having to give blanket support while losing out on all the more romantic elements of our relationship, while telling myself 'Okay, once we're both back from our Summers in August, then we can get real intentional time together'.
I don't know how to have a productive conversation with my girlfriend about this. She feels super powerless to take distance and space from her work life because her career is by far the most important thing to her in the world. Even when she tries to take space, if things are busy she can't actually relax so she just gets anxious and stressed by trying - even stuff like meditating together often doesn't help.
We have talked about this frequently throughout our entire relationship, and generally we are able to at least set intentions for quality time. But communication has become harder in the past couple of months. There have been 2 incidents since May where I tried to express a need for her to be more present with me and to feel more romantically valued, and it did not go well - leading to her getting extremely upset about feeling like she's not enough for me and how she can barely meet her own needs to be a healthy person let alone someone else's. Both times she broke down crying and told me that when things are like this at work she needs 'blanket support' from me.
I don't think I framed it either time in a critical way, I tried to be as gentle and delicate and constructive as possible and it still went terribly and led to her effectively shutting me down. This hasn't been the case every time we've spoken about this, but such a terrible reaction on these two occasions has really stuck with me and hurts.
The experience of these two incidents has made me terrified of speaking to her about my needs. I am finding it harder than ever to directly say to her that I need her and that it's hard for me when during all our time together it feels like there is sky high pressure around her work. She is so good at giving me time to listen to my more general problems, and I feel able to talk to her about most things. But giving me time to just have real intentional time and have fun and be romantic together is much harder for her, as is talking about that specific issue.
So now I'm in a situation where I don't know how to talk to her about this in a way that feels productive and doesn't just make me shut down more and make me find it harder to express vulnerabilities. I really thought that once August came around, we would get a month to have really positive experiences that would rebuild trust and we could really practice having these conversations before things went crazy again in September.
Today, I just found out she has been called to stay abroad for all of August for work. And now I'm in the same situation, of when she gets back it'll be busy again and we'll have lost out on this whole month of time that was meant to be for us. I feel crushed and because we're not even in the same place at the moment I don't know what to do with these feelings.
We have a call scheduled tomorrow where I want to talk about it. But this is a dealbreaker for me now and I don't know how to communicate that because I struggle even to communicate that this is a problem at all when there is the potential for her reaction to be so negative. I cannot continue if we're not going to get a real, genuine, meaningful period of time where work is so dominant.
Either that or we need to be able to do at least one date each week where work truly doesn't feel like it's dominating us. Truthfully, I don't think that's something my girlfriend has it in her to change right now. Her schedule doesn't allow time for the therapy it'd require to change those thought habits and create a greater barrier between work and life. And even when we've done longer dates in times of high pressure work (that were more than just like a quick 30 minute drink/dinner), she just gets manic and anxious and it's unpleasant.
Honestly, I can take this high-pressure work thing if I get periods where it's not like that. That's why the first 8-10 months of our relationship worked so well. It'd get crazy for her and it made me happy to support her through that, but crucially it'd then calm down and we'd really feel connected to one another again. I just want that back, I'm okay with how insane her life gets and actually like supporting her but I just need these periods of downtime. Right now it could even end up being a full year without downtime now that August is out of the picture - the fall is going to be pretty hard. So I am genuinely evaluating if I want to stay in the relationship, but I don't know how to have that conversation and convey that this issue is that serious for me without potentially provoking a terrible reaction in my girlfriend that completely stops us from having a productive conversation about it.
Any advice on how I can navigate this would be very deeply appreciated.

I have been at my company for 2.5 years and work FT remote. I have always loved my job, company, and my team. Never had an issue with my performance and every quarterly/annual review I've had was always positive. My relationship with my colleagues and manager has always been really good.
My role is a hybrid of two different roles (one being a PM if there are open projects and the other is essentially an analyst). In the beginning of the year, we had layoffs, so naturally, I was given a little more responsibilities which I was fine with. One of them involved working closely with the accounting department. Long story short, I am new to using this software and a big chunk of it is for accounting purposes (I have no accounting background btw). With some data entries, I've made a few mistakes but I have worked closely with the accounting manager to learn from her and it's basically something that takes practice over time. Usually when I have to make some updates or input data and get something wrong, she'd communicate with me and we'd go over it together. Recently, instead of her normally reaching out to me, she went directly to my manager and said she's been unhappy with how I've been doing this and she didn't like how I talked to her. I've only communicated with her via slack, which my manager is in the same channel and my tone is very friendly and I am very responsive. She asked me to get something done by Friday but that she'd be OOO that day. By Friday, I completed her ask but I didn't think about replying because 1) she was OOO and 2) I knew she'd go check Monday if I did it bc she always does. Apparently, she didn't like that.
I have weekly 1:1s with my manager and we have a really good relationship and out of no where he brings up how he's been told that "someone" isn't happy with my errors and communication style. So we try to resolve this "issue". At the end of the conversation, he said he'll send an email to me to recap our conversation for "documentation". I immediately felt like they were trying to build a case on me and put me on a PIP and it was frustrating because I have never had a performance issue and this came up so abruptly. After reading his email, I asked to speak to him to clarify some things. In the email, he also included some miscellaneous things and one of them being the job description (mind you, when I got hired, they changed my role last minute and I never got a formal offer letter summarizing my role the way he had it written in the email).
I got straight to the point and asked him if this an email involving HR and if I was on a PIP. He said not at all, but that he just needed it documented so that when that accounting manager asks about our conversation, he can refer to it. (I'm not buying it). Then I asked if I'm on a PIP or on the road to one and he said absolutely not. So I asked if he can explain the "communication issue" because I work remotely and I only talk to very few people via Slack/Email and so if it's an issue, I'd like to know when that incident took place so I can learn from it. He was beating around the bush but eventually told me it was the same person. I'm still confused what the issue was because he couldn't tell me exactly (all communication is on Slack and he's in all the threads). He said that person could've just had a "bad day" and reported me (example: he said it could've been the way she misinterpreted the tone of my message and that maybe i could've come off too formal). Then I asked if I had ever underperformed and he said no. When he said that, I was confused as to why then he had to write an email highlighting my responsibilities if he verbally said I never underperformed. He basically said he wants me to overperform and do more than what the highlighted job description is. If that's the case, I'm willing to do that, but why write it in an email making it sound like I was underperforming?
Anyways, it's unfortunate that this person I recently started working with has now made me look really bad but my manager has to "document" everything when the entire time I've been at my company, I have done everything that has been asked of me and have great relationships with everyone.
Am I being paranoid and should I still consider this as something that can be used against me in the future even though my manager said it's nothing formal and HR is not involved in this?

Hi I am Jay. I have adhd and Autism. I would like to make some local friends to do things with. I have a nice camper at a resort in yorkville but I don’t like to go by myself anymore. If anyone is interested let me know. It could be fun and healthy for us.