I’ve been texting my crush through solely Instagram dms for almost 5 months now (I’ve known him longer but we’ve always texted on-and-off, this is the first time we’ve been texting consistently). I’ve liked him for a while now so I always put in a lot of effort into our conversations, even when he was extremely dry. Like, I’ve had to pull topics out of my ass to his “hahhahaha” and “yes” replies. This and the fact that he’s made being a member of the WMSCOG church the center of his life didn’t discourage me even though it’s been really frustrating. (The WMSCOG thing could honestly be a whole post itself, but basically he’s been a member for about a year now and he spends essentially most of the week there. He goes to church before school everyday, he goes after school, and on weekends. And when we have school breaks, he spends the whole week there. I bet he’d sleep there if he can. He said he just studies the bible diligently when he’s there. Oh, and let’s not forget this church believes that a living Korean woman is “God the Mother” and a deceased Korean man was the second coming of Christ. I’ve tried being as respectful as possible, and I always listen to him when he talks about the church because I can tell it makes him really happy. But it’s taken up his whole life now. ) Anyway, a few days ago I thought that finally something had happened - he had finally showed interest in my dating life. However, looking back I can tell he just wanted to bring up the topic of his crush up to me. He told me he’s liked her for 6 months now. Bro went as far as saying he loves her and she’s very pretty, but he can’t date her because of the church (I suppose the church doesn’t let members date amongst each other). He likes her a lot, a lot. The day he told me this was the day of my best friend’s birthday and I was out with friends celebrating, and it really did break me inside but I had to keep a cheerful face. I guess I can’t be mad because I never told him I like him and he liked her since a month before we started texting more. I thought I was being obvious though, and now I just feel so pathetic for all the silly things I did just for him (posting myself or stuff directed at him on my story). I do appreciate my friendship with him, though. We have a good and trusting dynamic, but obviously I want more. I just don’t know what to do now. I respect him and his crush, but we still are only in high school. Is there anything I can do for him to potentially like me? I know at the end of the day feelings don’t always change, but I don’t want to give up just yet. 

P. S. Apologies for this being all over the place. I just wanted to talk about this so badly, but I can offer any clarifications if asked.

Tl;dr: I have 3200 miles on my 2023 RS3. Tried to start her Sunday – full failure, every warning light, and electrical blow out basically. Dealer advised I'll need a full new engine block
––
Okay so after seeing a few posts on here with relatively new RS3's needing some crazy services I wanted to get your guys advice.
My 2023 RS3 is very low mileage (3200) and I take immaculate care of her, yet somehow I go to start it Sunday morning to go take my mother out for mothers day brunch and was met with an ignition jolt, every warning light going crazy, cycling through every warning message ("transmission malfunction, brake failure, etc), wheel lock, electrical flickering on MMI, and so forth. Basically the car was fully bricked.
I assumed it was maybe just the battery being dead or something normal given the cars excellent condition.
Called Audi – tow guy came and after a while managed to (after some struggle) bring her back to life enough to get her on the truck. Took it over to my Audi dealership that is one of the better ones in the states as far as mechanics go, and after 3 days of diagnostics they have still yet to find the source of the issue.
What they did find however was that the battery was full fried and contaminated the entire engine, fuel line, and oil – i.e. there's glitter throughout the entire car. Waiting for the full report tomorrow but he said the likely next step is to replace the entire engine and fuel lines following Audi's assessment and so forth...
Granted it will all be covered by warranty and so forth, what would yall do here? Given that they will have to replace the entire block, my car value is clapped and the likelihood of downstream effects is higher – what would yall do in my position?
Really value all of your guys insight here! Thanks <3

I lost my dog about a month ago and am still struggling through some grief.
I got my dog with my dad when I was in college. She lived with my parents while I lived with them, and then eventually when I moved out, she continued to live at home with them but I would come home every weekend and spend days with her. The last two years, I was struggling significantly with mental health challenges which made it difficult for me to go back home. The time we had together dwindled to holidays while I had to put my mental health first.
I had not seen my dog for about a year and I had finally made plans for my parents to bring her and her sister over to my house to enjoy my backyard and for us to reconnect. When they arrived, it was very obvious to me that something was wrong with her and she was acting strange, like she was in pain. Within 48 hours, we discovered she had a sudden spine fracture caused by an aggressive bone cancer that never showed up on her bloodwork and I had to make the difficult decision to euthanize her at home.
Our last few days together, she was not excited to see me. I had her stay at my house while I nursed her 24/7. Usually she was a dog that wouldn't stop giving me kisses and smiling. I understand that she was in pain, so although I was deeply upset and internalizing the change, I put it out of my mind. Then, our last day together, hours before the vets were meant to arrive at my house, my brother walked in and my dog got SO excited, her tail going crazy despite being in pain (though at this point she was heavily medicated to keep her comfortable) and giving him so many kisses.
In my last video with her, I asked her for a kiss and she didn't give me one. That was something we used to always do. I would ask for one, and she would kiss my nose and I would say "thank you". Usually, she would steal another. This time - nothing, even when I asked again. She never showed the same amount of excitement to see me, and in comparison, seemed very detached from me at all. I can't seem to get over that.
I've heard from my mom that my dog has visited her in the afterlife, but I have had no signs from my dog since then, even though I've asked and begged. I feel like she was mad at me in our final days together, and I'm having trouble both accepting it and processing it. I do have time with a therapist soon, but was curious if anyone could offer perspective or thoughts in the meantime.
It's the one thing during this mourning process that I'm completely stuck on and, frankly, makes me nauseous. I very rarely put myself first in life and the first time I have to because of my mental health, I feel like I ended up hurting a piece of my family that was so important to me. Even though I wasn't physically there, I had been the reason she had so many fun toys and treats and everything. I know she can't understand that.
My mom tells me that I'm being silly because she was in pain, but to me, not in pain enough not to get excited to see my brother. Any words will be helpful.

So I recently got back into playing Elden ring. Since the game dropped I’ve ran nothing but winged scythe (stfth build) but they got so boring. I finally gave in and maxed out the blasphemous blade, and it was a blast. It carried through the last 3 bosses, placidusax and malenia over a weekend. Well coming into a new journey I stuck with it, but it’s simply too easy. I tried changing to katanas and using the meteoric orc blade and serpentbone, but the attacks just felt wrong. I tried going with the godskin peeler and gargoyles twin blades and they were decent but they weren’t me. I’ve been going through swords, axes, hammers, even a staff trying to see if I liked magic, but I haven’t found anything. The dual magma blades are fun but then again it almost makes the game too easy. I need a decent damage, good AOW great sword/axe that’s fun to use

I’ve been browsing through the last few hours of posts that everyone put out on the current game state, kind of concerned to load up my save. From what I’m seeing, we’re dealing with:

1. Dude Mack Save Bug
2. Custom Ship Interior Edit Crashes
3. All your companions on your ship randomly becoming hostile.
4. General save loading fails
5. Crashes

Is the game even worth booting up or does it seem like the bugs have taken over? I don’t want to loose 250+ hours and maxed out powers since I can’t console command them back on xbox.

/* MyoWare Example_01_analogRead_SINGLE SparkFun Electronics Pete Lewis 3/24/2022 License: This code is public domain but you buy me a beverage if you use this and we meet someday. This code was adapted from the MyoWare analogReadValue.ino example found here: https://github.com/AdvancerTechnologies/MyoWare_MuscleSensor This example streams the data from a single MyoWare sensor attached to ADC A0. Graphical representation is available using Serial Plotter (Tools > Serial Plotter menu). *Only run on a laptop using its battery. Do not plug in laptop chargedock/monitor. *Do not touch your laptop trackpad or keyboard while the MyoWare sensor is powered. Hardware: SparkFun RedBoard Artemis (or Arduino of choice) USB from Artemis to Computer. Output from sensor connected to your Arduino pin A0 This example code is in the public domain. */ void setup() { Serial.begin(115200); while (!Serial); // optionally wait for serial terminal to open Serial.println("MyoWare Example_01_analogRead_SINGLE"); } void loop() { int sensorValue = analogRead(A0); // read the input on analog pin A0 Serial.println(sensorValue); // print out the value you read delay(50); // to avoid overloading the serial terminal } /* Read MyoWare Voltage Example Code Advancer Technologies, LLC Brian Kaminski 1/12/2024 This example reads a MyoWare 2.0 Muscle Sensor output on A0-A3 where A0 is ENV, A1 is RAW, A2 is RECT, and A3 is REF. It then converts the reading to the amplitude of the muscle activity as it appears at the electrodes in millivolts. MyoWare Muscle Sensor Analog Output: 1. Raw EMG Output (RAW) - This is the raw amplified and filtered output: * We will first remove the DC voltage offset using the REF value, converts its value to volts based on the ADC parameters, and remove the gain applied by the sensor using the RAW gain equation which is fixed at 200. 2. Rectified EMG Output (RECT) - This is the full-ware rectified RAW output: * We will first convert its value to volts based on the ADC parameters and remove the gain applied by the sensor using the RAW gain equation which is fixed at 200. 3. EMG Envelope (ENV) - This is the amplified envelope of the RECT output: * We will first convert its value to volts based on the ADC parameters and remove the gain applied the sensor using the ENV gain equation, see below. ENV has an second amplification stage which is adjustable using the gain potentiometer. We will need the gain potentiometer's resistance in kOhms to calcuate the gain. Read more about the MyoWare 2.0 Muscle Sensor & electromyography (EMG) output here: https://myoware.com/learn/tutorials-guides/ In order for this example to work, you will need a MyoWare 2.0 Muscle Sensor with the Vin and GND pins connected to 5V and GND pins on an Arduino compatible board. The ENV, RAW, and REF pins will need to connect to the A0, A1, and A2 pins on the Arduino compatible board, respectively. Hardware: MyoWare 2.0 Muscle Sensor Arduino compatible board (e.g Uno, Mega, etc.) USB Cable Graphical representation is available using Serial Plotter (Tools > Serial Plotter menu). This example code is in the public domain. */ #include  // MyoWare class object MyoWare myoware; // the setup routine runs once when you press reset: void setup() { // initialize serial communication at 9600 bits per second: Serial.begin(9600); // output conversion parameters - modify these values to match your setup myoware.setConvertOutput(true); // Set to true to convert ADC output to the amplitude of // of the muscle activity as it appears at the electrodes // in millivolts myoware.setADCResolution(12.); // ADC bits (shield default = 12-bit) myoware.setADCVoltage(5); // ADC reference voltage (shield default = 3.3V) myoware.setGainPotentiometer(50.); // Gain potentiometer resistance in kOhms. // adjust the potentiometer setting such that the // max muscle reading is below 3.3V then update this // parameter to the measured value of the potentiometer myoware.setENVPin(A0); // Arduino pin connected to ENV myoware.setRAWPin(A1); // Arduino pin connected to RAW myoware.setREFPin(A2); // Arduino pin connected to REF myoware.setRECTPin(A3); // Arduino pin connected to RECT } // the loop routine runs over and over again forever: void loop() { // read the sensor's analog output pins const double envMillivolts = myoware.readSensorOutput(MyoWare::ENVELOPE); const double rawMillivolts = myoware.readSensorOutput(MyoWare::RAW); const double rectMillivolts = myoware.readSensorOutput(MyoWare::RECTIFIED); // print output in millivolts: Serial.print(envMillivolts); Serial.print(","); Serial.print(rawMillivolts); Serial.print(","); Serial.println(rectMillivolts); } 

I reached out to a new neurosurgeon and meeting them tomorrow. I’m bringing my husband as an advocate, I’m not sure what to ask or expect… has anyone had success with SI joint surgeries after a fusion? Background below:
After an SI joint fusion in 2021, I feel like I’m back to 65% the type of pain I was dealing with pre surgery. My left lower back and glute are so painful and tender. I’m confident it’s still SI pain, and conservative care only got me so far. I was getting relief temporarily from RFAs but all of the sudden my insurance decided to stop covering it.
Anyway, a previous pain management doc suggested a PNS system. It looks scary but I’m open to anything.
So curious what my next steps will be, I just hope there’s something out there for me…

Some months ago I found a very cute meme. In it, a couple of very distressed and tired partners came to each other, with a "low energy" bar above them. They hugged and the bar started to fill up, until it was at 100% and they were smiling as they embraced each other.
That's so beautiful. That's what I want. But my version with my avoidant ex is more like this:
First of all, she apparently never depletes beyond 80%, while I go as low as 20%.
So I approach her, distressed and tired, while she begins to smile. When I reach her, she is already at 100%, totally self-regulated. And she gives me a great smile and says everything is fine and she throws herself to work. And I stay there as depleted as before, not able to self-regulate, not able to give her anything of value, since she already has everything.
Self-regulation at that level seems like a superpower to me. Shouldn't we all aspire to be like that? To be able to calm ourselves and pursue our interests without anything bringing us down, without needing another person.
Back in real life, in a more existencial scene where I was the receiving end, the day of our breakup she said things like: "I am perfectly fine by myself. Truly - and she smiled at this - if I knew today I'm gonna day old and alone, I'm totally happy with that. Do you want me to throw myself in the floor, and cry? I have never done that, not for anyone."
To be able to face death and loneliness like that. So many philosophies have tried. I want that superpower.
Ironies aside, I'm really curious of what you think. How real this is. What is she feeling inside. How can she do that. Aren't there any downsides?
Or maybe self-regulation means just telling my stupid brain to stop nagging me with this. And my trauma to stop making me feel so so so full of shame for not being enough for her. Even when she said I was the best partner in her life. Even if she sang to me "Spotless" by Zach Bryan, and said it was our song. Even when we connected at so many levels. Even when she still writes and calls and I can feel how she, at some level I can't ever hope to understand, still needs me. Even with all that, I wasn't enough (or so you say, oh my trauma).
cheers!

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I want to establish that we both care about each other a great deal. We dated for a while about two years back, broke up, and then got together again about 6 months ago despite being a two hour flight apart. We visit each other pretty frequently (at least once a month) and both thoroughly enjoy spending that time together. She is very caring and sweet, and she reminds me that she loves me (and has done so more frequently over time).
However, the lingering issue in our relationship is that I sometimes feel disappointed by the perceived lack of care or effort on her part, while she feels like she’ll never be good enough to ever make me fully happy.
While I admit to losing patience and sometimes criticizing her, both of which I have made efforts to be better about, I would say that neither is unwarranted (albeit the wrong response). Here are some issues that stick to me where I’ve felt undervalued or underappreciated. She didn’t get me anything for Valentine’s Day even though I flew out specifically to be together on that day, and we had already talked about how I’d love to receive gifts or be shown she cares, especially on special occasions (for the record, I got her a gift and flew with a bouquet of flowers). Even though she knows I am very allergic to cats (of which she has two), she didn’t exhaust all allergy reducing options (for example, she cleaned her rooms and changed the bedsheets, but didn’t replace the AC filter with an allergy scale one or brush her cats to reduce their shedding) until I was reacting severely to the allergens and got upset over feeling like she wasn’t making her space as welcome to me as possible (meanwhile, I’d make my house spotless and bought her favorites drinks and snacks before her visits, and even bought a dog bed for her dog without her ever having to ask about it). Recently, I flew out after not seeing her for over a month, and while I expected a warm welcome, she had me pay for our dinner and then when we went to a bar for trivia, told me if I wanted to drink that I should get them myself (she was on antibiotics and couldn’t drink). For her, one part is that she was on the tail end of being sick, and also was planning to take me to a sushi restaurant that weekend which is why she felt fine having me cover dinner. But to me, it felt like I showed up just to fend for myself and she had made no effort to give me the warm welcome that I’ve made the effort to give her whenever she visits.
I could go on, but in short, I feel like I am very proactive about meeting her needs and taking care of her and doing things that bring her joy, whereas I feel like she (to her credit) makes efforts but they sometimes fall short. It’s not that she doesn’t care, I feel like… she thinks she’s doing enough and doesn’t feel the need do more? Or maybe the disappointment is because my standards are too high and I’m not being understanding? I almost feel like if I want something, anything, I have to explicitly ask her, or it won’t occur to her. And I understand one perspective of this is “well if you don’t say it, how can they know?”, but on the other hand she (for example) doesn’t have to ask me to buy her Ginger Ale, I know she loves it so I have it stocked before she arrives because I know she’ll appreciate it and she doesn’t need to ask me.
Am I being unreasonable to feel this way? Am I putting too much importance on individual events when I should look more big picture at all the ways she is consistently there for me? I also feel like anytime I complain about feeling this way, it further drives a wedge between us because she feels like she’ll never be enough and I’ll leave her at any moment. Should we just let things go?

The players have been made aware of this, and have agreed. This is not meant to be a discussion of railroading.
Each player, some in groups, have had, or will have a private session leading up to the official start. They all start in the same place, against their will. Each character has something unique about them, or valuable, that would be appealing to slave traders. A very popular line of work in this part of the world. With undead being pretty much eradicated, cheap labor had to come from elsewhere. The party are more special than cheap labor.
A orc who wanted to escape the violence of his people and live peacefully. The reputation of his kin follows him everywhere.
An elvish princess, a rare thing in a world where there's around 500 elves left.
A bounty hunter, apart of a very well known clan, who possesses many trade secrets and tools. Many want their revenge.
A pair of twins who stumbled upon artifacts they shouldn't have. Otherworldly powers, and an unfair debt owed.
This corner of the world attracts many tourists for the same reason LA or Vegas does. There is endless opportunity for those willing to work for it, or a life of luxury for those who can afford it. Streets are filled with gambling, and exotics imports from all over the world. Gladiator style areas however is what brings in the most. Warriors from all over to come to show off their strength, willingly or not. For slave traders, this is where the money is. A fighter who can put on a show is a very valuable thing, and why 3/5 of the characters start off as prisoners.
The orc, elf, and bounty hunter are from across the region. Kidnapped for purposes that will be revealed later to them, backstory elements coming into play that made them desirable and worth the risk. The twins are apart of the gang who takes them, but they are not involved with this part. They simple are muscle, and smuggle drugs around for the gang. Session 1 is the first time the twins meet the other side of the business, and it's not for a promotion.
The session starts with the twins arriving to the hideout. Located at an old mining operation in the middle of the desert, it has been fortified and turned into something more. The old gates reinforced to create an area, and the entrance into the mines a jail. Deeper inside has been turned into a temple of Anubis, the prominate god of the area, but not all is what it seems. The twins are brought here to witness a fight. An elf druid, one traveling with the elf princess at the time of her capture is in the area trying to talk an owlbear out of eating with with little success. He wild shapes into a small bird in an attempt to escape, only to be shot out of the sky immediately by a guard with a long rifle. His death is quick, and gruesome as the owlbear does its thing to the prone man.
Afterwards, the twins are escorted inside. Past the jail, into the deeper chambers where they meet their boss. A Dwarvish women who immediately comes across as disliking them. She wants to test the twins loyalty, and this is when the characters are all brought together. The other 3 characters are brought into the room. One by one they are shot by the boss, and brought back by a cleric of Anubis, leaving only the twins left standing. This is just a showing of how she's willing to get her hands dirty, cause the twins want something that belongs to her.
The twins last big job was a heist. They needed to retrieve a silver jewelry box, and they had one rule. Under no circumstances is that box opened. Well, it was, but not willingly. The jewelry box contained a scale of a mercury dragon - dragons are rare, god-like beings here, and a scale like this is akin to an artifact rarity magic item. This Mercury dragon just happens to be the patron of the brother now, as the scale absorbed into him, through no choice or fault of his own. The boss wanted this power to herself, and upon retrieving the box, it didn't appear to be opened. Imagine her disappointment when she found it was empty. The brother was the only one alone with the box.
The sister is presented a deal. Kill her brother, right here, right now. Prove her loyalty without question or they both die. This is the first major decision the players are able to make now. If she pulls the trigger, or not. The boss isn't stupid. The gun handed to the sister isn't loaded. It's simply a test. If both siblings are to be shot, or just the one. The ending is largely the same.
Bleeding out on the ground, the sister, and newly revived party members witness the corpse of the brother forcibly raised from the dead to answer questions. The location of the item in the box. If his sister knew he stole it. Is he still loyal. - my ruling of Speak with Dead is they don't have to answer, but if they do, the answer must not be a lie. He will be brought back, but his answers will determine later interactions. Now, the sister. Every player in the game will have moments in the spotlight. I decided to start with her, as it made most sense, and given the twins background, they will be key members to the party next chapter. She still has the empty gun. If she knows its empty or not will change a few small details. She too is a warlock, and this is the signing of her pact with the Hexblade.
Her interpretation of this place is her own to make. She awakes in a void, and although she is still herself here, she is consumed by nothingness. No pain, no sound, no feeling at all. Not even a heartbeat. Here she meets an entity. A "shadow" that mimics her every movement. It even shifts slightly, becoming a silhouette of herself. When she touches it, it is an overwhelming sense of feeling. Fireworks going off at the tip of her fingertips. The warmth of her blood becoming as hot as the sun, but somehow feels comforting compared to the nothingness shes felt for all this time. Outside seconds have past. Here, it could have been years, or seconds. Impossible to tell. But with this touch she hears a voice reach out to her. "Squeeze". She's back in the room, vision blurry as her life fades. Gun raised, aimed at her boss, who doesn't fear an empty gun. Only, it's no longer empty. This is her new pact weapon. It functions as a gun, but she can choose to shoot normal bullets or eldritch blast from it.
Their escape comes soon after. The hideout is attacked by a Sand Stalker - a purple-worm like creature. Other captives save them, and the campaigns first chapter begins here. They are in the middle of the desert, very limited supplies, uncertain where exactly they are. Few npc trying to get to the capital city to find help. The twins, bounty hunter, and other npc know that everyone who bares the mark of the clan will have bounties out on them, to be returned to their owners. The world in now open to them, as they learn how to free themselves of this debt one way or another.
The slave contract is as good as a deal with a devil. Legally binding, and magical in nature. Each master / house has its own distinct mark to show ownership. Once the debt is paid off, the mark will fade on its own. Their starting debt is 10k gp each. It is meant to be ridiculous. The bounty on a slave is always 10% of their total debt. So, 1k gp to return them if they job is put out, and it will be. If captured the reward money is added to the debt they owe, making it 11k gp now. The system is designed to be nearly impossible to be free.
In the main city there are several patrons willing to help them for one reason or another. Old contacts of the twins and bounty hunter in the party are expected to be called upon. There's multiple escapes from the city I have ready, and I am looking forward to what they come up with. I don't expect them to ever pay off their debt. The main story will later being them back here, when they're ready to take on the challenges of the city in full, and save the world. Standard stuff.
This is a new attempt at an intro. Throwing them into the fire with a clear goal. A long "cinematic" before giving them full control. They all know the stakes, and are in a position of "our chances are better together" apposed from the classic meeting in the tavern and dealing with rats.
Every character has elements from their backstory that matter here, and will drastically effect the campaign going forward. They had all known the basics of the intro, and details where they started prior to making characters. Changes were made to my plans based on their characters, incorporating them into it one way or another. There were always slavers, and they were always going to die. The twins backstories are the only ones from this region and they provided me a lot to work with, and ability to tie them into the scenario.
The boss killing and betraying the twins is a detail I think is very important. The other characters may see them as enemies, so by doing it this way they have common enemies and no secrets about it. Only the sister is not in debt, giving her a few special privilege's while in the city. All the players know each other, have played in other games together, and know what's expected. I am trying to make the party's coming together seem natural by immediately giving them a common problem and no one else to turn to. [BG3 SPOILERS] as the mindflayer parasites provided the main cast common problems, and Out of the Abyss first chapter being major influences. There are many other politics involved also, some sub plots that will come up later that tie to this, and a lot of world lore involved giving insight to why this region functions like this.

I feel incredibly lazy when it comes to doing simple chores like laundry at home. The task feels huge, time seems to stop, and folding clothes feels unbearable.
Oddly, I’m fine with driving to the laundrette, carrying clothes, putting them in machines, waiting around, folding, and bringing them back. It’s the same amount of work, less efficient, yet I find it exciting.
Anyone else feel this way? Why is it easier in a different environment? Any tips to make home chores less daunting?

I'm seeing a doctor tomorrow because I think I may have PCOS. I did a blood test at my university health center and it came back with elevated testosterone results which I will be bringing to the appointment, but my doctor wants to do another blood test to confirm. However, I took a Plan B a little less than a week ago and I was wondering if that'll screw up everything?

This is long af and I’m so sorry.. just I hope someone takes the time to read it and give me either a dose of reality or advice. I (F 30) honestly need an outside perception on this and outside advice because I don't know if I've been gaslit to think it wasn't anything or if I'm right for being upset.
So last night my boyfriend (M 46) who I’ve been together with for two years, and I went to a semi small music show that was two hours away in a huge city. He already told me he knew some people that were going to be there, and listed off a bunch of dudes names and two females that I know he's never had a history with sexually etc., so anyways we get there and we're hanging out, things are going good for a few hours. Later my bf and I go out to the performers bus and hang out on it for a bit with the band etc and then we go back inside.
Ten minutes after coming back inside, my bf stands in front of me with one of the dudes he knows, instead of being side by side like we had been all night, no big deal whatever but basically isolating me because I know no one there, but then within like two minutes, this chick comes up to him and is like super excited to see my bf and they hug. Now it's super loud in there because of the opener band so I couldn't hear what was being said but remember, he's in front of me so his back is to me. Him and this chick are basically cheek to cheek talking to each other in the ear because it was so loud in there and then he introduces her to the dude next to him first. THEN he turns around and introduces me, then he turns his back away from me again and proceeds to have an almost ten minute private conversation, ( I say private because I wasn't included except for him telling her who I was and then him turning back around, isolating me again and I had no idea what was being said), with this chick, mouth to ear.
Finally they hug again and she walks off. She comes back five minutes later and they talk some more and she walks off again, and the ENTIRE rest of the time we are there, my bf never involved me, he just stood in front of me barely turned to me to say anything else to me the rest of the time we were there, almost like he was trying to act single. I even went out to the patio to smoke and he never even wondered where I was or acted like he even noticed I wasn't behind him anymore.
So after the show ends I tell him immediately I'm ready to leave and walk outside to the front of the building. He stays in there twenty minutes while I'm waiting outside alone and finally comes out and we get an Uber and leave. I ask him a couple of times if he said bye to that chick and he kept saying no he didn't.
When we get to the hotel, I bring up the fact that he just ignored me the rest of the night after she popped up and he started going off saying it was all in my head and he did nothing wrong. Well I pick up his phone and go to his messages and see that THEY HAD BEEN TEXTING SINCE WE GOT TO THE SHOW. He had just sent her a reply to her telling him to come next door to the other bar and he said back "we are back at hotel. It was great to see you."
THIS IS WHEN I REALIZE WHO SHE WAS. It was a chick he had fucked for years- cheated on his ex with and the ex to this day doesn't even know that he ever cheated on her- but I had found out from their previous texts.
So he never once forewarned me that this chick he used to fuck was there that was desperately trying to see him there, that he had been standing right near me the entire night while the texts were being exchanged. He even told her we were "on bus" when she was asking where he was but he never once informed me that a chick he fucked would be paraded in my face while I'm left out when we go back inside. I still don't know what they talked about mouth to ear because he claims he "doesn't remember".
I took the phone and replied back to her and said, “I have a girlfriend, remember? No I don’t want to see you.” And he immediately grabbed the phone and texted her back and apologized and said it was me that texted and how sorry he was for me doing that etc. So then I got even more upset because he apologized to her and defended her but wouldn’t apologize to me for how he acted towards to in the venue when she came around. And still won’t apologize!
Now we’re basically at war within our relationship because he won’t apologize to me or act like he did anything wrong at all and I don’t know if I’m being gas lit or if I overreacted.

I (20F) have been dating my bf (24M) for about 7 months now. I’ve been home from college for the summer for 4 days. Since I’ve been back both of my parents keep making comments that are extremely annoying. I was on a walk with my dad and he was saying that I’m wasting the younger years I have dating him and he’s distracting me. That I’m young and shouldn’t worry about dating right now. My mom makes rude comments that imply i’m mean to my bf when i’m not at all. She’ll say “i bet you start most of the fights between you two” for example.
They also have it in their heads that my bf is the only person I ever spend time with. My mom will say that I turned into one of the girls who only spend time with their boyfriends. My college roommate recently got a studio apartment and my parents said “I bet the reason she got her own place was because you’re never around”. The things they’re saying are ridiculous and I’ve stopped bringing up my bf to them to avoid things like this.
I have never been a very social person and I socialize with my friends a very normal amount. I do spend a lot of time with my bf but it doesn’t take anyway from any other aspect of my life. I still get good grades, I managed to get a good job that’ll look great on my resume. I’m not sure why or where my parents got the idea that I’m with my boyfriend all the time.
My boyfriend and I get along really well and I do enjoy spending time with him often. I don’t think that’s a bad thing, I get all my responsibilities done and make time for my friends. My parents have met him before and they both think he’s really nice. I am the youngest of 4 daughters so maybe being the baby of my family makes it harder?
I’m not sure how to deal with this. Any advice on how to deal with this or why they’re being like this?

I just got into an argument with my mom over my cousins and told her I didn't consider her a mom anymore.. We got into an argument because a couple years ago we all had a falling out about certain incidents that had happened between all of us, and we were way younger. For context, in 2016 my grandma died, and we moved in with my cousins and my aunt and my uncle. My uncles first daughter is from another marriage he had a couple years back and she lived most of the time with her mom. Her step dads son had inappropiatly touched her multiple times.And told her that “this is how you show someone that you love them”. She loved her siblings so using that she committed the same acts against them with the same reasoning, and when we moved in, they continued that with us. The oldest daughter (K) was 12. Me (A) and her younger brother(I), were around the age of 10. My cousin's younger sister(M) was 9 and my younger brother (IL) was 7. Therefore, we had no idea what exactly we were doing when this all was going on. A bunch of fighting happened and we moved out and no one knew of the incidents except for us kids. Eventually we all got back and started talking again in 2019 and they moved in with us because they had been homeless for a while. After they moved in, a bunch of arguments were happening and it got to my parents that something had happened years ago. I didn’t exactly explain in depth what happened. All my parents know was that some kind of activity went on that was very inappropriate. We all lost contact with each other because of multiple reasons. Recently I (now 17) got back in contact with my older cousin(K), and she had told me how a lot of things have changed, and I should try and hear them out. And what she had said was true. My uncle and my cousin were both in therapy, getting the help they needed. And nothing else inappropriate was going on and I had known that we had all grown from the situation because we were just kids and we were all now over the age of 12. And we understood what we did was wrong and we wouldn't do it ever again. I've been in contact with them for about a year now and my mom does not agree with me. She tries to put her opinion in and we get into arguments a lot about it all the time. My mom recently brought up that I apparently support them when I know that there's still stuff going on down there, but she refuses to talk to my aunt or my uncle or try and get the details of what actually happened. I told her that she needs to let it go and that she's holding on to it because she doesn't like my uncle and my aunt for multiple reasons as they've had arguments. I always take my cousin's side because my mom doesn't understand the full story and does not want to hear the full story. All she knows is that my cousins had done stuff with us. But it wasn't just my cousins, it was all of us. When she tries to bring up what had happened in the past, I bring up what happened in her past, which is that she used to do drugs She refused to let this go so AITA?

Prior LEO ptsd troubles
A short background because it’s honestly too many things to go into. I started as a deputy when I was 23. I started as a cadet for the sheriffs office at 18, my first call I witnessed a guy put a 30-06 in his mouth and paint the tree behind him. Within my first year full time was involved In a shooting. First year chased a burglary suspect that carjacked two people and stabbed both. Had to watch a teenage girl burn to death screaming in a car and there was nothing we could do, we couldn’t get her out, couldn’t get the fire out, and her screams are burned in my brain, a 16 year old kid, on the way to school, never made it, and all you can do is watch, hear her scream until there was silence and then the fire department was finally able to get there, minutes too late. Numerous suicide calls. Two of them are seared into my mind. First was on Easter one year I got a call from Sgt asking me and the senior shift deputy to respond to a suicide that was a friend of his. The wife wore ear plugs and outer ear muffs because her husband snored so loud, anyways, the husband shot himself in the bed at night with a 38 to the head and the brain matter was all in her hair, she didn’t know until the kids ran in to wake up the parents for Easter baskets, dad of course didn’t wake up. The second was a 14yr old foster kid whose foster parents went to a movie on a super cold night and came out to not be able to find him. I found him in the back yard, he had hung himself with a dog leash on the swingset to the point to where to do so he had to consciously hold his legs off the ground until he had asphyxiated. Who knows how many other shit calls. But one other that still haunts me was my first child sexual torture. Was a 6 year old little girl whose grandmother called. Her POS dad would put a butter knife to a propane torch and insert it into her, put cigarettes out on her, and slice her private areas. As I went outside to the car to call Sgt and do the report, she ran up to me and demanded that I take her teddy bear in thanks for helping her. This was a decade before I had my own children, and I remember going out to the car and bawling like a baby.
These are the gist. I spent 12 years in law enforcement, worked everything from patrol, investigations, warrants, and ended in the schools as a resource officer. I never had a problem with the violent calls, the shots fired. In fact, those calls I felt most calm, I felt like it was my place because I knew what to expect, I could flick off the emotions and handle whatever came. What ended up getting me was death. The breaking point I was attempting to serve a civil paper and the house looked abandoned. I said, hell I’ll do my due diligence and make sure. As I walked around the back I saw in the window out of the corner of my eye a rope hanging from a ceiling fan, clothes, and a chair kicked over. I’d seen so many hangings before, in my mind I knew that’s what it was. But I couldn’t bring myself to confirm, I couldn’t see it anymore. I had to call my best friend on shift to look. All I could do was go back to my unit and just feel this broken helplessness. It turned out some kids had “hanged” a mannequin and it wasn’t a real person.
I spent the next 3 years after that in the schools and loved it, but I still hated my profession, because it had warped my life, affected every aspect of it irregardless of what I did. I ended up on meds, and ended up taking a job within emergency management and currently love that job.
On to the struggle or rather the question. As many of you know, even with meds the ptsd is still there. I ended up developing issues with loud noises and other things that I never had a problem with when I wore a badge.
I found myself drinking more now than ever. Not so much as an escape, but because I need to feel what I remember, or what’s burned in my brain. Have you had issues where you “know” what you’ve been through, you know how that should affect you and what emotions it should produce, yet you’re not able to get those emotions out that you feel you need to? For example, you are having a bad day of all those memories coming back and their taking over. You want so bad to break down, bawl, and yet it’s like you’re reading a book that someone else experienced it. You question is it real? Why do I have these memories and this pit inside of me that wants to get these things out and break down but it just won’t come out. When I say this I don’t mean it in a positive way that you’ve healed and the trauma no longer bothers you, I mean it grips you but you can’t release or invoke the physical response of what is the turmoil inside of you. I try to tell my wife the video morgan wallen made to “cover me up” is the closest to how life feels a lot of the time. And I can understand how people want to go back, because as fucked up as the experience, watour, job was, it made sense when you were in the grind. When you’re out, you’re alien to yourself, things are different, you’re different, it’s impossible to be normal or what society expects out of you. You’re stuck in between hating it for what it stole from you and did to you and longing for it to be back because in its own fucked up realm, it’s the only thing that makes sense. I’m still in emergency services, so I have a radio that has the frequencies to my prior agency and surrounding. I hear calls come across (the high risk ones) and I find myself when driving going into that mode and wanting to head towards the call. I still if in the area will back up units if they’re solo. It’s like the dangerous calls part I can’t get away from. Not that I receive a “high” off of them, but I feel the most calm and most normal during those type of situations. For those that have gotten out do you feel the same?
I’m sorry for the long read, it’s just not something that’s easy to paraphrase.

Many creationists believe that Homo neanderthalensis was simply humans with rickets disease, or were extremely old aged humans, or that they didn't exist at all, or literally anything other than what we know to be the case - a separate species of genus Homo (humans) that died out about 40,000 years ago.
Unfortunately for them, we have the full Neanderthal genome (2010), which showed 99.7% coding DNA similarity with Homo sapiens - for context, human-chimpanzee coding DNA similarity is 98.8% and variation within extant humans gives human-human similarity of ~99.9%. Of course, facts like these have proven to be no match against the creationists' trump card of 'nuh uh', so what else could we try?
SCNT-based cloning has been around for a while now, first widely publicised with the Dolly the Sheep experiment in 1996. It's improved to the point where creating healthy clones is not that difficult, and recently I learned that there are now consumer-facing businesses where they will clone people's pets so the owner's can have their beloved pets live again (by appearances only of course) in another body. In another story, cloning of primates is now just about feasible, with a rhesus macaque (an old world monkey) being most recent, still alive after 2 years. For these cloning experiments, the embryo is produced by fusing the nucleus of a cell from the desired organism with a vacant egg cell which can then be birthed from a surrogate mother.
In theory, since we have the Neanderthal genome, we could make the necessary 10 million point mutations to a stem cell from a human today (that would take a while), and use it to create a Neanderthal clone. The linked article points out that we would never be able to replicate the culture of the Neanderthals, and so many aspects of their lives would not be captured by this method, but their anatomy and skeletal morphology certainly would be, and we could show without a doubt that Neanderthals were their own separate species and not just defective people. Perhaps some brave soul would even be willing to test the theory that interbreeding between our species was relatively common..?
Of course, we are FAR beyond the realms of ethical science here and may well never happen. But what if? What would be the response to a live healthy adult Neanderthal standing right in front of you?