There is trouble in the town of Byroden! Goblin attacks, people missing, and bandits harrowing the roads from Kymal. Something seems to be stirring as nightly fights between two mysterious factions are breaking out in many of the larger cities across the northern part of the continent in a struggle for control of the underbelly of society. Meanwhile, war is brewing between the Hobgoblin Iron Authority and the forces of Emon.
Can you help stop the goblin attacks on this small village?
What is behind some of the nightly struggles between gangs of thieves?
Who is behind the sudden increase in bandit attacks along the roadways?
Why are strange cultists making their way north towards Kymal and beyond?
In this campaign you will:
Confront sorcerers and necromancers to discover their plans.
Chase bandits to save people and end their raiding the trade routes.
Uncover the factions who fight for control of the thieves, cutthroats, and assassins.
Engage with town, village, and city leaders to help put an end to the strife which terrorizes the citizens.
Unmask the cultists who aim to bring about a new calamity upon the lands.
Travel beyond the prime material to end a ritual which could bring about a new cataclysm.
This is a level 2 to 20 campaign set in Critical Role's Setting of Exandria. The base adventure will take you around most of Tal'Dorei and into Issylra. Character backstories will be used to expand the plots currently threatening the lands. Travel to Wildemount or Marquet is also a clear possibility, depending upon player backgrounds, goals, and objectives.
Knowledge of Critical Role or the setting is not needed to participate and enjoy this campaign.
Beginners welcome!
The game play is on Roll20 VTT. Voice, text, and discussion over dedicated Discord server
Session 0 Scheduled for Friday May 17th at 8 PM EST.
The price is $25 for a 3-hour session payable through startplaying.games.com.
Game Listing and Sign-up link on Startplaying: https://startplaying.games/adventure/clvzalcxq0003uu40lz8pefkb
My bio and reviews can be seen at https://startplaying.games/gm/oginme.
LFP listing on Roll20 is: https://app.roll20.net/lfg/listing/399753/tales-of-taldorei

There is trouble in the town of Byroden! Goblin attacks, people missing, and bandits harrowing the roads from Kymal. Something seems to be stirring as nightly fights between two mysterious factions are breaking out in many of the larger cities across the northern part of the continent in a struggle for control of the underbelly of society. Meanwhile, war is brewing between the Hobgoblin Iron Authority and the forces of Emon. Can you help stop the goblin attacks on this small village? What is behind some of the nightly struggles between gangs of thieves? Who is behind the sudden increase in bandit attacks along the roadways? Why are strange cultists making their way north towards Kymal and beyond? In this campaign you will: Confront sorcerers and necromancers to discover their plans. Chase bandits to save people and end their raiding the trade routes. Uncover the factions who fight for control of the thieves, cutthroats, and assassins. Engage with town, village, and city leaders to help put an end to the strife which terrorizes the citizens. Unmask the cultists who aim to bring about a new calamity upon the lands. Travel beyond the prime material to end a ritual which could bring about a new cataclysm. This is a level 2 to 20 campaign set in Critical Role's Setting of Exandria. The base adventure will take you around most of Tal'Dorei and into Issylra. Character backstories will be used to expand the plots currently threatening the lands. Travel to Wildemount or Marquet is also a clear possibility, depending upon player backgrounds, goals, and objectives. Knowledge of Critical Role or the setting is not needed to participate and enjoy this campaign. Beginners welcome! The game play is on Roll20 VTT. Voice, text, and discussion over dedicated Discord server Session 0 Scheduled for Friday May 17th at 8 PM EST. The price is $25 for a 3-hour session payable through startplaying.games.com. Game Listing and Sign-up link on Startplaying: https://startplaying.games/adventure/clvzalcxq0003uu40lz8pefkb My bio and reviews can be seen at https://startplaying.games/gm/oginme. LFP listing on Roll20 is: https://app.roll20.net/lfg/listing/399753/tales-of-taldorei

So from what I understand, to get the lock pick in hitman 2016 you have to complete the ICA training missions. However, I just completed both without being detected and even picked up the lock pick in the free roam mission on the yacht. However, when I went to the destinations page and went to Sapienza I didn't see the lock pick under tools in the mission planning.
Is there something I'm missing and if so what do I need to do to unlock it?
Thanks

There is trouble in the town of Byroden! Goblin attacks, people missing, and bandits harrowing the roads from Kymal. Something seems to be stirring as nightly fights between two mysterious factions are breaking out in many of the larger cities across the northern part of the continent in a struggle for control of the underbelly of society. Meanwhile, war is brewing between the Hobgoblin Iron Authority and the forces of Emon. Can you help stop the goblin attacks on this small village? What is behind some of the nightly struggles between gangs of thieves? Who is behind the sudden increase in bandit attacks along the roadways? Why are strange cultists making their way north towards Kymal and beyond? In this campaign you will: Confront sorcerers and necromancers to discover their plans. Chase bandits to save people and end their raiding the trade routes. Uncover the factions who fight for control of the thieves, cutthroats, and assassins. Engage with town, village, and city leaders to help put an end to the strife which terrorizes the citizens. Unmask the cultists who aim to bring about a new calamity upon the lands. Travel beyond the prime material to end a ritual which could bring about a new cataclysm. This is a level 2 to 20 campaign set in Critical Role's Setting of Exandria. The base adventure will take you around most of Tal'Dorei and into Issylra. Character backstories will be used to expand the plots currently threatening the lands. Travel to Wildemount or Marquet is also a clear possibility, depending upon player backgrounds, goals, and objectives. Knowledge of Critical Role or the setting is not needed to participate and enjoy this campaign. Beginners welcome! The game play is on Roll20 VTT. Voice, text, and discussion over dedicated Discord server Session 0 Scheduled for Friday May 17th at 8 PM EST. The price is $25 for a 3-hour session payable through startplaying.games.com. Game Listing and Sign-up link on Startplaying: https://startplaying.games/adventure/clvzalcxq0003uu40lz8pefkb My bio and reviews can be seen at https://startplaying.games/gm/oginme. LFP listing on Roll20 is: https://app.roll20.net/lfg/listing/399753/tales-of-taldorei

I blocked all of them a few days after this post was made lol. I just decided enough is enough and it’s not unreasonable to want my privacy on social media, his family is his. Especially all his first and second aunties, grandmas, cousins etc. it was a lot of them to be honest. SUCH A BIG WEIGHT off my shoulders. I also don’t post too much about my baby anymore either. When we go out as a family I asked my fiance to no longer tag me or post to his stories what we are doing or where we’re going. Too many people get fomo for some odd reason.
Well anyway I think they all noticed because not a single one of them liked my fiancé’s Mother’s Day post about me (I checked through his account and yes he lets me)
I don’t really care, I hope this means they just leave me alone. If they ever confronted me I would just tell them I needed my privacy. Also my anxiety has been getting better. Baby and I have been going out alone a couple times a week, and I feel more confident in telling people NO whether it be strangers or family!
If you missed it here’s the original post:
Today I decided to go up against my ppa that usually prevents me from leaving the house with my 8 month old to do simple errands. I took a picture of him in the cart because I was so proud of myself for going out alone and setting it up not knowing how and then going in to get our stuff with baby in the cart. That little picture was a .05 second of my happy baby with me doing funny faces behind the camera. He actually started screaming bloody murder in the clothing isle but despite my anxiety I stayed in the store and checked out. I say this because my fiance has a very large family and they ALL want to see the baby and it is just simply too hard. My son is not an easy baby. Our family visits always get cut short because he starts screaming. I can barely go to the store with him. My IG pictures don’t mean my life is easy peasy and I can just take him anywhere and let anyone do whatever with him like a toy.
I posted that picture to IG of my baby in the cart. Then someone who’s a very extended in law of mine responds “hi little guy hopefully I get to meet you one day just saying” and let me tell you why my blood is boiling if you’re still reading.
4 months ago I took my baby to go meet all the extended in laws at a park in one swift gathering. The same in law who just messaged me on IG is the same person who walked up to my car window when I was trying to breast feed my baby, I felt extremely violated and I left right after. I didn’t even get out to say bye. They had all fought over taking turns holding the baby and freaked him out beyond soothing and then the one in law follows to get a peek through the tinted window when my fiance was asking her to walk away and she wouldn’t. So yeah I haven’t spoken to her or really any of them RIGHTFULLY so.
So what gives her the audacity??? If she wants to meet the baby then maybe apologize for over stepping? And stop trying to contact me or wait for me to invite you over or out. TALK TO MY FIANCE. THATS YOUR FAMILY. I keep telling him I’m taking a step back from his dad’s side of the family, he’s in charge of making the visits happen not me. I don’t even plan to tell him she messaged me, I want a completely hands off approach and to be left alone honestly. I think I might take all of my in laws off Instagram, I miss my privacy and being able to post what I want.

Hi PFC, I've been following this sub for a while now and I've learnt a lot! I'm 23 and started my first full time job recently and wanted to get a better sense of how to plan my savings, investments, and finances as a whole. I've tried to follow most of what I've read, but would love to know if there's anything I've missed or could improve on. I’ve also put some questions throughout the bullet points. Here's some relevant information:
Income:

• $120,000 per year, $10,000 per month
  • ~$85,000/y, ~$7,100/m after tax
    • How do I account for EI premiums and CPP deductions?

Expenses (~$2660/m):

• Monthly Fixed(~$1900):
  • Rent: $1600
  • Recurring bills (Phone, Credit Card fees, OSAP repayment etc): $144
  • Groceries: ~$150
• Extra (~$760):
  • Subscriptions (Uber One, Spotify, iCloud etc): $60
  • Avg. Extra Spend (Dining out, ride share, shopping etc): ~$700
    • Trying to cook more and reduce random unnecessary expenditure. That should bring up groceries, but drop this a good amount (to be seen)

Savings / Investments:

• TFSA (~$42,000):
  • Very tech heavy, should probably be diversified
  • ~$2500 left to max out contribution for this year
• RRSP: 0
  • Employer offers matching up to 3%
    • Should I stop at 3% (total 6% with matching) or try to max this out after TFSA?
• FHSA: 0
  • Opened it last year, so I think I have $16,000 of contribution room
    • Should I put money in here before/aftein parallel with RRSP?
• Savings: 0
  
  • Moved pretty much everything into my TFSA
  • Plan mentioned below
• Plan:
  
  • Savings:
    • ~$1500/m into WealthSimple Cash account (4% interest)
  • Investing:
    • ~$3000/m into TFSA, then RRSP, then FHSA

Debt/Loans:

• OSAP: $9900
  • All federal, 0% interest
  • Min. payment included in expenses section above

I’m roughly following a 50/30/20 split which I recall seeing somewhere as a reasonable split for one’s financial goals. I’m not too sure which portion is meant to go to which expense, but here’s how I’ve interpreted it: Take your remaining income after tax (~71% of original) and after fixed expenses (~27% of after tax income), ~$5,200, and from that, invest 50%, save 30%, and spend 20%. Based on the above information and plan, I’m roughly at a 55:30:15 split. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

I know it was your first relationship. At 28, you had already been through so much, having been on your own for 13 years. You were forced to grow up too fast, and had to prioritize yourself, building a life from nothing. I get it. It was your fierce independence that made me fall for you in the first place.
I always knew that trying to build a life with you was going to be a struggle. I thought it would be worth it, for both of us. You deserve to have someone in your corner, that always has your back. You shouldn’t have to be alone. I don’t know if you believed the same.
I think I gave up too much of myself for you. Was that my mistake or yours? Did you really ask for too much, or did I give too freely without expectation for anything in return? Maybe both. Probably more on me. I’m not perfect by a long shot.
Compromise. It really does all come down to that. I tried to show you its importance, but in the process I ended up being the only one willing to do it. Me getting to pick what movie we watched or getting to plan a date became something I only got to do on special occasions. You said you felt like you didn’t know me, but so many times in so many ways I offered up little pieces of me to you. I share myself by sharing the things I love with the people I love. But more and more towards the end, all you’d say was “no”. Ignoring any context. Ignoring those pieces of me.
I know you don’t like movies about kids. I know asking to watch Home Alone during Christmas was a big ask. But it was a tradition that I shared with my dad, who I lost just over a year before. I know you think that traditions are pointless, but it was important to me. My earliest memories are of that. I needed to continue on, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it alone. I needed you there, your support. It was such a small gesture I was asking of you, but all I got was “no”. Instead we watched a movie you picked: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. A movie made by the exact same people that made Home Alone, and with even more kids.
We wanted to go to Ireland. Personally I’ve been wanting to go for years, but couldn’t because of my dad’s illness along with everything else going on. You knew that in the last 3 years I lost all of my grandparents, two uncles, my dad. I couldn’t risk going so far away for so long while everyone was sick. My mom saw me giving up the latter half of my 20s for my family, when she was hoping I would be enjoying life and seeing the world. That’s why she was happy to give us the money to have the trip of our dreams. I explained all of this to you while you were struggling to find a way to save for the trip. All my mom wanted in return was a single nice photo of us. That wasn’t even a requirement for the money. She just wanted to see me with the person that I love making our dreams come true. I know you hate having your picture taken. The only attention your dad ever gave you was when he wanted to test a new camera. It’s a trauma trigger. But I was only asking for one picture. You’d compromise for your friends, you’d compromise for your sister. You’d take pictures with them. Why wouldn’t you compromise for your partner, and the other most important person in your partners life? After a year, we have 3 pictures together, none of which are very good. I know that I was asking for a lot, but I felt so less important than everyone else in your life. Maybe you felt that as your partner, I was to be held to a higher standard? I honestly don’t know. All you said was “no”.
You admitted yourself I was so supportive. I always prioritized you. From always making your tea before mine, to giving you the better looking plate at dinner, to planting all of your favorite flowers in my garden. I always complemented you, how smart you are, how beautiful you are, how driven and independent you are. Your friend needed a ride to a 5k and someone to cheer them on? I was there. You needed someone to drive you around while your car was in the shop for 2 months? No problem. Accidentally overdrew your account again, and you couldn’t afford the late fees? Here’s $50. Need to move on short notice? I’m the guy tearing apart and moving your furniture. You have a migraine so bad you can’t eat? I’m bringing you pedialyte and sleeping on your couch, even though I didn’t actually get any sleep. I learned all your rituals so not to trigger your OCD. There are countless other examples. I never said no. I never complained. You rarely said so much as “thank you”.
The big one. The thing that ended us. You’re right, we did sit down like adults time and time again and talked things out. You said you needed me to anticipate your needs. You’d get overwhelmed, and couldn’t articulate what you needed from me. You couldn’t stand being asked what you needed. You just needed me to start helping. “Mental loads” and all that. I took that to heart. But I’m not perfect. Sometimes I’d miss the mark. Tried to support you, but in the wrong way. Even in my failures I showed effort, but you never seemed to see that. You only focused on how I failed.
We recognized that this was a problem caused by both of us. The communication wasn’t getting through. But I had already adapted to your communication style as much as I could. My exited, rambling, almost impulsive way of generating ideas became slow, methodical, thoughtful. I put intention behind everything so not to overwhelm you. I learned not to jump at the obvious solution.
Yes, we sat down like adults and talked things over time and time again. You told me what you needed from me, but I also told you what I needed from you. If I was missing the mark, please just guide me to what you needed. I’m not a mind reader. I did it for you all the time. You were honestly awful at anticipating my needs too. If I was venting, had a bad day, all you’d say was “I’m sorry”, and pat me on the back like a puppy. No effort to dig deeper. No words of support or encouragement. So I had to show you how I needed support. I just needed you to do the same for me. “No”. Again.
One final time, I sent you words of support when you were having a bad day. It wasn’t enough, you wanted more. A phone call? For me to come over so you could vent in person? Did you actually want me to directly help for once? I don’t know. You never told me. Instead of guiding me to what you needed, you immediately shut down. Full silent treatment. I’ve been in abusive relationships where the silent treatment was welded as a weapon. I know you didn’t mean it in an abusive way, you were just overwhelmed again. But I never expected it from you. I didn’t see it for what it was. I only ever asked one thing from you to save us. I put in the work, got us 80% of the way there. I knew I couldn’t bridge the gap on my own. I wasn’t even asking you to put in effort on my behalf, it was for your benefit. I begged you time and time again for help. To communicate. Not to put it all on me, because I couldn’t do it on my own. But instead, you did the opposite.
You said that you felt like you were putting more effort into the relationship than I was. I’m sorry, but I can’t see that effort. I’m trying to give you the benefit of the doubt, but I can’t. Maybe you mean you put effort into forgiving me every time I messed up? Maybe you mean that you were always planning dates, always picking what we watched, where we went, what we ate, what we drank? Again, mental loads and such. But I had things that I wanted to do and share with you that you always turned down. You only had to plan everything after my plans were rejected. It would have been more efficient for you to show love, patience, and compromise. Maybe we would have worked out then.
But you left instead.

I'm 21, currently studying computer tech & information systems in a small city, in Turkey.
I started antidepressants almost a month ago, I'm a 2nd grader, I've been paying the bare minimum attention to my lessons, I don't feel like doing anything, I feel like I'm gonna fail few classes. I feel like I'm stuck in an autobot mode, I hardly feel anything and when I feel it's mostly depressing, melancholic, loneliness. I have few friends but I kinda don't want to see them anymore. I can't tell my parents a thing, feeling like it will disappoint them, my current days are passing without killing myself but does it count as living ?
I just want to leave the city, it's a small place, I feel like I can't be myself in this environment. It's such a small place that doesn't let you get a fresh breath. I want to leave but there's no such chance about that since it takes a very mental and financial effort that I can not afford at the moment.
I just feel so low feels like it's the deepest I reached, for sure worst can happen in life and sure will, Im just out of function, don't think anyone around me would understand. I just feel lost, everything moves so fast, I feel alienated, isolated in my mind.
I plan on going for a career in game development industry and trying to take action about that but I'm in a phase a slump that is really going hard. I have no one to talk about it so I'm here on a subreddit to get some kind of relief about things that I can't even talk to myself.

Around 2017 a timber company cleared a few hundred acres on the property touching ours. I was only 17 at the time and my grandma had passed leaving us the land it was touching. It was tied up in court until a couple months ago and I’ve since gotten a survey and they cut around 100ft onto our property and 200ft along it. Completely cleared it. It was mostly pine I believe but either way I planned to build a hour back there and those trees would’ve provided a barrier around the land but now I’m missing a 100ft x 200ft area of trees. My sister and uncle have the same issue. They have property next to mine our grandmother left us that has also been cleared the same amount. Is there anything that can be done or has it been to long? We couldn’t do anything back then because it was tied up in court and couldn’t be deeded to us yet. But, now we can. So can anything be done or are we just out of luck?

Introduction

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

Once Upon a Female Rage...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I Am Tortured Poet, Hear Me Whinge

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

Sigh Try and Come For My Job, Poors

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

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

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

Conclusion/TLDR

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

Highlight the following benefits: This is my personal opinion, but you may disagree with me!
Budget Planning: AI analyzes your spending habits much more deeply than you might on your own. This leads to tailored recommendations and insights you wouldn't uncover manually. In addition, it can process massive amounts of financial data, like budget plans, spending analysis, and savings suggestions, in seconds.

On a separate note, I want to mention the fight against impulse buys. AI eliminates emotional spending triggers often associated with human budgeting. It sticks to the data, promoting financial discipline.

Here's a prompt you can use:

"Create a budget template that will work with my income and spending habits. I want something I can easily track and modify." 

Accounting and Tax Compliance: Modern platforms track changes in tax rules and legislation in real-time, alerting you to updates that could affect your life and work. This reduces the risk of non-compliance and potential penalties. If you set up your assistant intelligently, you may even be able to prevent problems in some cases.

And, unlike a real financial advisor, AI platforms are noticeably cheaper and available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Here's a prompt you can use:

"Explain the key financial ratios and how to calculate them. Provide examples of how to use them to assess my business health." 

Investment Management: AI is increasingly important in trading, as financiers make trades using algorithms. And if the best experts are using it, why shouldn't we? AI platforms are trained on vast amounts of data, allowing us to identify patterns humans might miss. This helps ensure the integrity of financial data and reduces costly errors.

In addition, some platforms can assess risk tolerance, financial goals, and market conditions to generate customized portfolio management recommendations.

Here's a prompt you can use:

"Summarize the current economic climate. Highlight key indicators (e.g., inflation, interest rates, GDP) and their potential impact on my investment portfolio." 

These points add to a common conclusion regarding one fundamental advantage: data-driven automation. AI can quickly handle routine and time-consuming tasks, allowing us to make more educated decisions or free up time for more enjoyable activities.

Around 2017 a timber company cleared a few hundred acres on the property touching ours. I was only 17 at the time and my grandma had passed leaving us the land it was touching. It was tied up in court until a couple months ago and I’ve since gotten a survey and they cut around 100ft onto our property and 200ft along it. Completely cleared it. It was mostly pine I believe but either way I planned to build a hour back there and those trees would’ve provided a barrier around the land but now I’m missing a 100ft x 200ft area of trees. My sister and uncle have the same issue. They have property next to mine our grandmother left us that has also been cleared the same amount. Is there anything that can be done or has it been to long? We couldn’t do anything back then because it was tied up in court and couldn’t be deeded to us yet. But, now we can. So can anything be done or are we just out of luck?

I’m in college and student teaching and always have trouble coming up with learning objectives for some of these standards. Right now I need to come up with two MEASURABLE learning objectives for these standards that are for the same lesson plan-ELA: With prompting and support, actively engage group reading activities with purpose and understanding. ELP- Construct meaning from oral presentations and literary and informational text through grade appropriate listening, reading, and viewing. Any tips, tricks, resources, or anything helpful is appreciated. I seem to get stuck on these often and am trying to find a way to make it simple. TIA

I have a request to modify the current sensitivity labels we have deployed. One of the label is auto applied to everything and contains a footer. The footer needs to be altered due to changes. I have the steps on this planned out. But what I can't seem to demonstrate is how the footer changes will be or can be auto applied.
In testing I created a test label setup the same way as prod and advertised to myself. I can see the label and apply it, but when I change the footer in the label configuration that change is not reflected in the document unless I remove the label assignment and reapply it.
Hoping reddit might be able to help me understand what I'm missing. Data is in onedrive and spo, or email. I do know email footers are not changed retro actively so not worried about that. Just looking to capture what might be needed to get files to check into the label changes and update.

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

I’m especially concerned that she keeps having weird conversations with somebody named Dai Li, at 3AM, when she thinks I’m fast asleep. Also, a lot of my archaeological research documents from studying the Air Temples have been going missing, over the last six weeks since we got married. I hope this Dai Li person isn’t using my mail order bride to steal my research. Cause I think there might be some kind of forbidden knowledge of Airbending buried in the catacombs, and I’ve heard a rumor that all the newly discovered Airbenders in Ba Sing Se are disappearing off the streets, all of a sudden. Is Ba Sing Se planning to start a war with somebody?

I (25F) finish my SCITT (School Centered Initial Teacher Training) course in July this year in the UK, training to teach science (chemistry) in secondary school. Before this I taught for 2 years in the middle school sector american curriculum in an international school in Saudi Arabia. I am fully aware of how demanding the teaching profession can be - my degree is in Education studies - but during this year I have been more sick with stress than I ever have in my life and have had more sick days off due to being physically sick or even I mentally couldn't hack it to the point the thought of going into school would make me cry at times.
The workload is ridiculous pushing past the point arguably of what teachers actually do, I'm expected to observe lessons in time that I don't have - I'm expected to teach 15 hours a week (the lessons being planned from scratch by myself which none of the teachers that work of the school do as they just use lessons from a shared area that I can only really use for 1 or 2 lessons a week.), the amount of paperwork to complete for my evidence bundle is insane including 3 page lesson plans for each lesson I teach, a sequence of learning to explain why I had done and planned the way I had, weekly reflections that need to be submitted, plenty of outer reading with proof you're doing it, behaviour management and professional behaviours logs, additional subject knowledge tasks and time taken away from PPAs for subject training. The lack of support for all this work is minimal because none of the teachers have enough time to sit with me and talk about the lessons or help plan and I often think I'm just in their way. On top of all this paperwork I am also expected to write my PGCE assessments, which due to a failure on the university's part half of my cohort have failed the second assessment, partake in the revision sessions for year 11 after school 3 days a week, be part of the science club for year 7s and mark all the books for all 10 classes I teach - I won't officially get home until around 6pm where I have dinner and take a shower and continue to lesson plan and do work until around 1am because all lesson plans need to be submitted to my host teacher for that class 48 hours before the actual lesson.
I honestly just feel burnt out and don't think I can cope with it all along with the attitude and behaviour of the students that are so disrespectful. Should I quit?

I'm at a loss here. I have several tanks of inverts and I do remember that it was a struggle in the beginning.
I've been raising neos (now its a bunch of carbons because I was new at the time, but love em anyways) for a few years. I even had a few ghosts in that tank at some point, on accident, and they just ended up dying of old age (it was three females.. so no chance of babies.)
I also raise snails for the LFS that I'm friends with, different colors of mystery snails (different tanks for each color).
I also raise mexican dwarf crays (they are just fun dudes, imo)
I have been trying, recently, to raise ghost shrimp in my Norman Lampeye fish tank (going for a clear fish and invert theme in there). I verified that all parameters of the Ghost/Glass shrimp tank are exactly the same as all my other invert tanks, they use the same plants, same water, same calcium... everything. The tank itself has been holding life for a year, successfully, now. The norman lampeyes breed just fine and so do the snails (there's snails in all of my tanks). I've gone through about 4 batches of ghost shrimps now. They do not last longer than a week! I know that they are not the exact same as neos, snails, and crays, but what am I missing?! Is there some kind of hidden diseas that effects the Ghosts that I might not be aware of? Is there a specific parameter that they might need to be different than the others? I have been hearing rumors that ghost shrimp of the PNW are all sickly right now and are just used as feeders (which is not my plan... I want a healthy army of clear shrimp). And if that's the case, is there a location anyone can recommend that I can get ghosts shipped to me from that would be healthy from the start?
I'm not at my tanks right now, I'm at the gym. I'm just frustrated and sad... mostly sad... I can grab exact parameters when I get back home. I know it's not ideal to make a recommendation without the base data.

Hello, 31M. Graduated about 5 years ago with a Mathematics Degree. Looking for some advice/guidance or to hear from someone with a similar experience.
Worked logistics on a Navy base for 1 summer, was offered a 5 year contract that I turned down due to location (West coast, I'm from MN).
Haven't had any success breaking into any type of industry. I have been somewhat restrictive in my search due to location, I do not want to move away from my family.
I believe I have much to offer. I have strong communication skills, excellent problem solving, I'm efficient and competent, very quick to learn, and highly proficient with technology. Ideally, I'd be looking for something remote, that challenges me to grow and develop new skills, that is also fulfilling and productive, with decent pay and includes benefits.
However, I have no professional experience in a specific field to build on and am having troubles breaching into anything. I've applied to many analyst, logistics, project management, even administrative assistant roles with no success.
I have been looking into data analysis or data science. Unfortunately, my BS did not have any meaningful coding taught or required and I was mislead by the department head that companies like Microsoft will hire Math majors on the spot and "teach you what you need to know." It was not until 2 weeks before graduating tha my advisor told me "If you weren't planning on continuing in Academia, you definitely needed to get a minor in Comp Sci."
Because of this I am not eager to invest more money in a Masters or second Bachelor's degree or any type of bootcamp or coursework. I'm very resourceful and am willing to self-learn a couple of programming languages or other potential technical skills that will give my resume more weight. I just want to be sure that I'm being aimed in the right direction before investing more time and energy.
I'm happy to answer more questions on specifics I may have missed. I guess I'm just looking for some input from people in different fields that may be adjacent to my skillset, or from people who have been in similar positions. Thank you in advance!

Hello, long time lurker here. I’m 25F and my boyfriend is 30M. We’ve been together for 3 years now. Our relationship was all good in the beginning but slowly he started getting distant because of which we broke up and decided to stay as friends. Fast forward couple of months, we started dating again but that didn’t work as well. This kept repeating until I realised that I cannot continue with this and decided to stay away. He realised that he would lose me and decided to give this one last try and here we are. I’ve done everything possible in this relationship, I’ve helped him with his work, taken care of him when he needed me, financially supported him as well but as the months crept by, he kept going back to being distant.
Recently he started a new job, a job where he’s been under constant stress. I’ve tried my best to help him out but at the end of the day, it is a creative job and would only require some patience. Throughout this stressful period I gave him his space. I did not meet him, I only spoke to him when he needed me. I did call him few times because those days I was having a bad day and I just wanted to talk to my partner and cry it out. This continued for 3 weeks and I was finally starting to get a bit agitated.
I asked him if he would be able to spare sometime to meet me because I missed him but he always replied back saying he’s too stressed now and wasn’t in the right space of mind. The next day of us having this conversation he tells me that his friends are inviting him to meet up at night but he isn’t going to join them as work has been hectic. Instead he surprised me by asking if I was free the next day for lunch, I was very happy as this was the very first initiative from his side in a while. As night comes, he texts me saying that his friends have been calling him constantly and that he couldn’t say no to them anymore so he was going to join them.
I couldn’t help but feel really hurt by this. He couldn’t tell no to the people who he barely knew but could easily say no to someone who he loves. As I sat there I couldn’t help but think that maybe he made the next days plan only because he could go tonight. He made the plan only because he was obligated to and not because he truly missed me.
I was so hurt and I told him that I needed a break to which he replied an okay. I immediately stepped away and stopped talking to him. He hasn’t tried getting in contact with me as well. I cannot help but feel that I may have overreacted and I should talk to him. Not sure how to move forward right now. Any advice is appreciated.
TLDR - My partner decided to meet me out of obligation and not because he wanted to. I felt hurt and decided to take a break away from It all and all he replied was an okay.