Hey all!
I'm planning a small party for ~10 people or so and I wanted to just get some trays of good Italian food to put out on a table so everyone can serve themselves. There's a place called comellas in the Boston suburbs that does this very well-- if anyone's familiar and can recommend a similar place in Brooklyn (Queens would work too) I'd be very interested!

I genuinely am not sure if this is the right sub but I'm at my wits end with this and I am seeking help.
I have a job where I do the ecommerce for a small chain of clothing boutiques in Florida. This is not a field I know a ton about and the job kind of happened to me on accident. The owner hires sales associates, then if they are "tech savvy" she will train them to do onlines.
The owner has 5 locations including a warehouse. At one of the locations, which is typically slower and doesn't see as much foot traffic, she has the "online girls." These are the employees that process all her online orders. There are 3 of us.
I am the only full-time "online girl." The other two work 1-2 days a week typically. Sometimes 3 if I am lucky.
Her online process is... really crazy and I've not been doing this job long enough to be able to figure out where I can even begin to fix it.
Basically, this is her process:

1. Order comes in
   
2. I have to log on remotely to a PC in the warehouse to manually search for each item in our inventory and I have to write down in the Shopify order notes which locations have the items, and where we are going to ship the order from. I then have to adjust these items out of inventory. Roughly 50% of the time someone is using that PC and I have to wait. Sometimes its easier for me to do this at 1am when everyone is asleep.
   
3. If there are items on the order that cannot ship from the same place, we split the shipment and buy multiple labels.
   
4. I email the stores where I am pulling items from with a list of the items I need for this order.
   
5. The stores search their flooback room for the items, and then they respond back with the SKU, price, and weight.
   
6. If they do not have all the items because inventory was incorrect (it nearly always is), I have to pull the item from a different store, repeat the process.
   
7. If all items are accounted for then I send them the label.
   
8. If there are items that are showing up as out of stock companywide, we have to make a list of these items and send them to our company group chat and tell all the stores to search their flooback room for these items. We have to send this same list to the owner and email all the stores with it.
   
9. If the stores cant find these items still, we have to see if our boss can order it directly from the vendor, and then email the customers to let them know there will be delays.
   
10. If it will take too long to order the item, we can email the customer with a list of "replacement options." We have to email the customer every day for 3 days until they answer. If they don't answer, we have to call them and ask them what they want as a replacement for their out of stock item. We aren't allowed to refund them unless they tell us they don't want a replacement or they don't answer their phone.
    

I could go further but I won't. This is a multi million dollar business and she's had it for 18 years.
Where do I even begin with this? Orders are almost always delayed. Customers are constantly getting the wrong things in their shipments. People are always complaining. I have to work crazy amounts of overtime to make any of this work. The "online girls" are all on the verge of quitting.
I have tried documents. My boss says she "doesn't do documents." She does most things through text message.
I have been here 6 months. It's not sustainable. I need to convince her there's a much easier way to do this but I don't know how.
Anybody have any immediate thoughts?

It's literally the best game I've ever played in my life by a pretty wide margin.
Every SINGLE system seems fleshed out and well balanced (except assault rifles.) Just driving around NC is amazing and immersive. The vehicle design makes me want to build a Terrier in real life. The story is well thought out, absolutely riveting at times and completely pulls you in. The acting and VO work is perfectly preformed in most scenes. Even side gigs sometimes have amazing stories (like the mind control on the politician couple.) The map is well populated and doesn't feel hollow or sparse or tacked on anywhere. The graphics are damn near photo realistic at times and the lighting/effects are tastefully done and make sense in context for V. The characteart design is so cool and really feels realistic for a world where corpos and tech have basically run out of control. I don't even know what else to say. I'm amazed. I want to live in NC and get my own drink at the Afterlife.
It must be disheartening for other studios to play this game because it makes them seem like they're not even trying. I cannot wait until Orion.

Bonjour!
I'm in Paris for the next 2.5 months for an internship which is pretty much the duration of a full time job but I have commitments outside of it because of my university back home and would like to work/study together with people who can hopefully speak English (l'm not French) in cafés or libraries after 5pm on weekdays and probably any time on weekends because I'm super new to the city and don't know the right places or social etiquette and also because it gets kinda lonely not knowing a lot of people around. (I'm 20F if that's relevant) Feel free to DM!

I just want to know why they save these “blueprints” when you move your camp that you almost 98% of the time can’t actually place, or modify, say your house is perfect accept for a staircase that’s not needed in your new location and it’s in the way. It’s like 🖕 you buddy build it again! What’s the point in spending days on your house with the idea you can save it and move it just to get royally burned. Might I add I’m trying to place it exactly where I built it originally last week. It’s been 5 years of the same exact glitches and I’m tired of not complaining about it if I’m honest. I love everything about the game until it comes time to build a house because I put so much work into my camps. I originally bought another camp slot and forgot to activate it and moved my main camp 😡 I can’t begin to tell you how stupid I feel.

Hi Everyone Wanted to share my experience dealing with joystick drift on my xbox controller.
So my original controller which came with the Series S started showing signs of joystick drift around 1 year after the purchase. Initially I bared it, but it became a pain when playing games such as overcooked 2.
Spending 5k more on buying a controller didn't seem to make a lot of sense since I had one more controller, the only issue was with couch co-op games.
So I first tried to call up local repair shops and they quoted me insanely high numbers to replace the joystick - roughly 2k. I live in Hyd, these prices might be lower in places such as Delhi.
Then the engineer in me got an itch, and I thought why not replace it myself. Searching on amazon I found this - TCOS TECH Xbox Series X/S Analog 3D Analog Joystick Replacement for Xbox Series S Xbox Series X Wireless Controller : Amazon.in: Video Games (not sponsored or affiliated in any way)
I thought it should just be a simple soldering job and I ordered a soldering kit with this.
Then I started, and oh my, it was a really scary experience.
So the difference between soldering normally, and removing solders made by hand is generally very easy. But in things such as the controller, the soldering is done using automated machines on the PCB.
Removing these solders is not possible using normal soldering guns you might have for hobbies etc. They require significantly more heat to remove.
So yeah, I spent a long time trying to heat and remove the solder to no avail, the PCB almost changed a bit of it's colour, and I was like I have anyways messed this up.
Then I started exploring more on youtube to see more simpler techniques, there were techniques around just breaking the potentiometers/joystick instead of the solder, and then just move it back and forth to break the solder.
I thought I'll do this on the whole joystick, but just doing it on one of the potentiometers was too much effort and scary. Scary in terms of breaking the whole thing up.
Then I ended up only breaking 1 potentiometer (the front-back one which had the drift) and then replacing it with a potentiometer from the one I had purchased. After much more effort and abusing the PVC very badly with heat, solder and the hole from where I removed the older potentiometer, it looked like a complete mess. I was worried if it would even turn on.
Luckily after few minor adjustments, the joystick was working perfectly. I can honestly say, I felt super happy!
Fast forward to 2months since this, now the joystick has a different kind of problem, where it randomly gets stuck in top direction, hopefully might be fixable with minor tweaks.
All in all it was a very scary experience (of destroying my whole controller), and I won't recommend it to anyone if you don't have advanced soldering skills and equipment.
Better approach would be to buy a stick like this online and then maybe go to a mobile repair shop and pay them some money to help with soldering.

I switched DSP last November, only to find myself in the worse working conditions at the new place. While I am trying very hard to stick around, I am also thinking of switching again. Is it normal thing to do or I will be looked at as a driver who is never satisfied. My main complain is being put on standby, which reduces my income. Things like broken backup cameras, bad phones, bold tires and 340 packages daily don’t count. Another main reason is to constantly switching routes, which doesn’t allow me to get familiar with any particular area. Thanks in advance

WAMC + School List
Got my MCAT Back today but luckily I’ve been pre-writing primaries and secondaries so I should be able to apply early.
Applying MD/PhD, research interest in Comp Neuro modeling diseased neural populations and resultant behaviors.
3.9X, 518 (131,127,129,131) , ORM, T200 Honors College Cellular Neuro major, data science minor
2k+ hours as student employee in context-dependent feeding behavior lab, 5 presentations, 4 in state and 1 national, and 1-2 pubs in prep but nothing sent in for review
200+ hours as researcher who attended month long international program about computational neuroscience, 1 presentation/project which won first place in the program
100+ hours as pediatric neurologist medical assistant, learned how to do EEGs on patients and T.O.V.A. Tests (1 summer, wanted to do longer but lived too far away)
100+ hours as hospital volunteer (2 years)
80+ hours as hospice volunteer (1.5 semesters)
80+ hours as non-clinical video game designer volunteer (made games to teach kids about neuroscience) (1.5 years, low hours per month cuz how it works idk)
7 awards, some state stipends based off of stats, a travel award for national conference, and fellowship to conduct research
President of research connections clubs, secretary of gaming club, vice president of chess club, all at least 50 hours and some across a couple years.
200+ hours as a gym desk assistant, tbh just did it cuz needed money
80+ hours as organic chem TA
School List: Medical College Wisconsin, Oregon H&S, UAB, UUtah, UMinn, UBuffalo, Penn State, UWisconsin Madison, Wake Forest, MUSC, Tulane, UConn, SUNY Downstate, Georgetown, Tufts, UNC Chapel Hill, Ohio State, UColorado, Einstein, UFlorida, Dartmouth Geisel, UMass Worcester, FAU, UCinn, Stony Brook, Boston, Icahn, Case Western, Duke, Harvard-MIT, Columbia, Yale
Some connections/reasons/cope for those higher tier picks: My PI is an Icahn Alum, one of my recommenders is a Columbia Alum, one distinguished guy who taught at the international program was at Yale and is now at Geisel, and one of my recommenders is transferring lab to Tulane, but will likely not be in same department as me, tho still Neuro.
Thanks a bunch if you read this long and I appreciate the feedback

To be honest, I wasn't sure that the Advice sub would let me post this there so I'm posting it here because it's so fucked up. And it didn't seem right for Let's Not Meet, either. But I do need advice, because I feel I'm losing my fucking mind.
So I (30F) have always been very close to my cousin (30F), let's call her Angela. Because we're the same age, our parents (my mom and her father are siblings) went through all the same stages with us and as such, we were more or less raised like siblings due to how much time our families spent together.
We even had homes in the country in the same township, which is where I think this happened. And I can't really tell my family this because it will make me sound legitimately crazy. And some part of me even doubts this memory, but at the same time I know in my heart that it's true. It's a complicated feeling, and this memory was brought to light last week when my suspicion I've had for years was more or less confirmed.
One winter, sixteen years ago, when Angela and I were both fourteen, both of our families were at our cottages, a twenty minute drive from each other. Angela and her little brother (my cousin, let's call him James) parents (my aunt and uncle) were going skiing one morning, and I wanted to go too. So I spent the night at their cottage, like I often did when we all went up north.
Angela's bedroom had two single beds in it, and James' room was down the hall. The whole house was open concept, so the hall from Angela's room to James' room did not have walls, but rather was bordered by two railings over which you could see down into the main floor, the open concept living and dining rooms.
James is four years younger than us, and when he was 10, he was such a typical little boy/little brother, it's almost cartoonish to look back on. Like, I'm talking *constantly* bothering us, putting a stink bomb on a remote control car that he would sneak into our rooms, trying to read Angela's diary when we weren't in her bedroom, just all the stuff. But never anything cruel or out of the ordinary or sinister, just a massive handful.
The basement of James and Angela's cottage was filled with storage and old toys, and sometimes (on the rare occasion) that we'd willingly play with James, we'd all go down to the basement and try to freak each other out. Anyway, one of the toys in the basement was your typical Raggedy-Ann doll from the 60s or something. I think it belonged to my uncle when he was a kid and then Angela when she was a baby. Her name was Trilly. I forget who named it. Anyway, I have vague memories of playing with it when we were much younger and pretending it was our third cousin or our little daughter. But since then she'd sat in storage in the basement.
But, what great nightmare material! Right?! A creepy, limp, smiling doll. So the night I stayed over, before we went skiing in the morning, James, Angela and I were up to our playing in the basement, and I remember we tried to freak James out by pretending Trilly was alive or something like that. Whatever. Game over, we all had dinner with the parents, then watched a movie as a family and went to bed. James to his room and Angela and me to Angela's room.
Now this is the thing. Angela and I still joke about this night, and she remembers it just like I do, which is why I sort of wrote off my hypothesis until last week. That night, in the middle of the night, I started tossing and turning. I woke up and could tell that Angela was stirring as well. One of us said to the other, "are you awake?" and the other said "yes," and we realized that we both couldn't sleep or were woken up by the same thing or were both just feeling restless. But then, at the other end of her room, Trilly was sitting in the fucking desk chair.
I think it was Angela who pointed it out. We saw a shadow, thinking it was a person, freaked out, and then relaxed briefly when we saw it was just the doll. But then we got freaked out all over again and were like, "why the FUCK is this FUCKING doll in your room!?!?", murderously standing up and going over to it to pick it up and throw it in James' room and pound the living Christ out of him.
We turn on all the lights, turn on the hall light, stomp down the hall into his room and turn on his lights, and see he's not in his bed. We then go downstairs (my aunt and uncle's room was on the main floor), Trilly still in Angela's hands, and hear my aunt and James in the washroom. Turns out James had been sick for the last few hours and my aunt had been up all night with him as he was throwing up in the washroom. And when we saw the scene we immediately could tell that James had nothing to do with Trilly. Like, it was just one of those really believable situations where we could tell James truly had no idea what was going on. We even felt bad for him. And, to top it off, when we told him the story in the morning it scared him so much that he didn't go into the basement for like a year. Anyway, it just seemed really sincere.
So Angela and I went back up to her room and we were like, "are we *sure* we didn't bring this up here last night? Are we sure? We must have." Anyway, while we were really freaked, we figured that it was explainable. We knew the doll obviously didn't walk itself upstairs like it was some horror movie. But, because we were fourteen and all for the drama (and I remember us having the "better safe than sorry" mindset) we called her dog upstairs (Bella, a poorly behaved black poodle). We started playing tug-of-war with Bella, using Trilly as the toy, and eventually Bella ripped her to shreds.
Anyway, funny memory, making the dog rip up the doll, we laughed and thought we were tough and cool, then we went back to bed.
The next morning, instead of all of us going skiing, it was just Me, Angela, and my Uncle, because James stayed home with my aunt on account of his stomach flu. But when we woke up, Angela was acting weird. Nothing too noteable, just really bizarrely quiet as she moved around her room to get her clothes out of her drawers and get changed. She didn't, like, acknowledge me in her room. I said something like "morning" when she didn't acknowledge me, and she looked at me and then turned back to her drawers and kept getting changed.
And she was looking around weirdly, I remember that too. Almost like she'd misplaced something, but a little more dazed than that. Just moving strangely. Then she went downstairs without saying anything to me at all. I thought maybe she was just super groggy... but it still felt really weird.
When I went downstairs, she was standing at the island in the kitchen buttering toast that my uncle had put in for us. I distinctly remember walking up beside her and the toaster, pulling a piece of toast out of it, putting it on the plate that had been set out for me, and when I dipped the knife into the container of butter, Angela smacked my hand away, hard, and looked at me and snapped, "what are you doing? Don't take things that aren't yours". I was shocked. It honestly felt like being struck in the face. She'd never spoken to me like that before, and even though we were like siblings, I still felt that kind of mortifying embarrassment you feel when someone calls you out on misbehaving, even though I wasn't doing anything wrong; but it *was* her family's butter and bread? I don't know. That's what I remember thinking. But it was awkward and weird and I just said, "um, what?" and then she didn't say anything, just kept buttering her toast, and I mumbled some apology.
The three of us then drove to the ski hill and, I kid you not, Angela and I didn't speak the whole way there. I had no idea what was up, but I didn't want to ask with her dad in the car.
Then when we got to the ski hill, we went skiing just the two of us and on the chairlift during the first run I mustered up the courage to say "Hey, did I do something wrong? I feel like you're really mad at me or something". And she turned to look at me and was confused. Not friendly, not warm, not reassuring, but confused. It was almost as if I was a stranger and she looked at me as if to say, "sorry, who are you? why are you talking to me?"
And she responded in a formal way: "Sorry, I have no idea what you're talking about". The distance in her voice was really eerie, and I started to think maybe this had to do with the doll incident the night before and either she was trying to extend the prank, and she was the one who had put the doll on the chair, OR she felt guilty that we ruined this family doll and she resented me for being a part of it. Anyway, when we got to the top of the hill, she skied down quickly and didn't wait for me to go back up again, and we ended up skiing separately.
I felt awkward and embarrassed like I'd done something wrong. I ended up skiing with my uncle who asked me what was up with us, and I just said I didn't know. Then after our day of skiing, he dropped me off at my family's cottage and continued on home with Angela.
For the rest of that whole school year (we were in ninth grade), Angela and I didn't really speak. It was really sad. We were like sisters before, but better because we weren't actually sisters, but cousins, and so we were like best friends that were related. Seriously, we were really close. And it really messed me up, I felt like she just ghosted me. I would text her and call her house but she was always "fine" or "with Jessica" (her best friend). I chalked it up to her just outgrowing me, and it really fucking sucked. But, to be honest, it was so jarring and such a stark shift that I was more confused than hurt. I talked to my mom about it and she explained to me how rough it can be to be a teenage girl.
But that following summer, we were up at our cottages again, and our family had a barbecue and invited over my aunt and uncle and Angela and James. I had seen Angela at family things a couple of times since and she would just kind of ignore me and spend the whole time texting, which is what I expected this time.
Sure enough, that's what happened for the first bit of the barbecue. But then when the food was ready, she came up beside me as we were dressing our hamburgers at the condiment table and said, "oh my god, remember that night we got Bella to ruin Trilly?" and I was so shocked by her friendly tone, by her acting as though she were picking up a conversation we just were having, that I just stared at her and said, "yeah, that was crazy". And she said, "yeah, so funny. Anyway, how've you been?" again, really different and formal. I almost couldn't get past how altered her tone was, like we'd never even met. In fact she seemed so sprightly and kind that I thought she was mocking me.
And our relationship since that barbecue carried on just like that. She started talking to me more, but I'd reference inside jokes or ways we used to be or things we used to do and she never really latched on to any of them. I was caught between thinking she'd outgrown me and thinking she was like embarrassed of our closeness before or something and was trying to move on. I talked to my mom about this, and again got the speech about how teenage girls can be really cruel/strange sometimes.
So until we were about 22, we were like that. Nice to each other, talking sometimes, not that close, and I learned to not try and act like we were all close or that we had been close. I talked to my friends about it too and they said it was normal for friendships to change like that. But something felt off about this. I started to honestly feel crazy for hanging on to this "before" memory of Angela so much.
Then when we were 22, we grew apart. This time, it was mutual and natural. I moved cities, and she got engaged and became a real estate agent and we just had nothing to talk about. It was gradual and I didn't notice it much. Which brings us to eight years later, just last week.
I was travelling in Iceland. I had to be there (very randomly) for a conference/workshop I was leading for work, and turned it into a vacation. Rented a car, decided I was going to drive across the island after the conference was over and stay on the east part and explore a bit.
Day four of my seven-day long road trip. It's mid-afternoon, I'm hungry. I've been driving for three hours and have come across no sign of civilization at all, and it was fifty miles to the next town. But then, voila! A little gas station/general store/cafe! Perfect!
Ah, fuck. I literally can't believe I'm writing this. It makes me sound fucking crazy. But here I go.
I park in the little three-car parking lot. I get out of my car, step onto the gravel, the sky is white, expansive, there are mountains everywhere around me, fields, sheep. The air is fresh. Seriously middle of nowhere. I walk up the wooden rickety steps and push open the door and hear the door chimes go. A man walks out from the back room and greets me, and the place is cute. There's a little handwritten menu above the cash register and I asked him in my pathetic Icelandic/English mix if I could have the gravlax toast. He's very friendly and kind and says yes, asks if I want a coffee, I say yes please, blah blah, he rings me up at the cash register, and I go and sit at the one table they have and wait for my food.
I look around - it's mostly a fishing supplies store with some general groceries. The man opens the door to the room from which he came, the kitchen I suppose, and says the order to the lady in the back who looks like she's doing some prep cooking. Immediately I stop. It's freaking Angela!!!! Or I thought it was.
Now, remember, I hadn't seen Angela in about eight years. Since her dad passed away when we were twenty-three, and because I'd moved cities, we just had no reason to really see each other especially after growing so far apart.
So, like, OH MY GOD, it's Angela! She's working at a random little general store in middle-of-nowhere Iceland! But wait, I thought. No. This is obviously not-fucking-Angela. Angela is a real estate agent in my hometown. I'd obviously know if she lived in Iceland lol. Right? I don't really use social media but the odd time I do, she'll pop up here and there. But I guess not enough for me to *confirm* she still lived in my hometown.
But anyway, she looked enough like Angela that I went right up to the cash register and rang the little bell and the guy came back out and when he opened the door I was able to get another look at her, and my heart skidded. A chill spread across my crown. It was one hundred percent Angela. Like, my full-on cousin. So, looking over the guys' shoulder, RIGHT AT ANGELA, I smile and say, "Angela!! Oh my god!!" and before she could respond, the door shut again.
And the guy at the cash smiled really big, a nice, friendly, smile and he looked surprised as well, and pointed back over his shoulder and then at me, as if to say, "you two know each other?!" which confirmed for me that her name was Angela, because he seemed really delighted at the coincidence. Expecting her to emerge from the kitchen, I walked around to behind the cash register (the invitation was implied by the guy) and he put his arm back to open the door for me, or for Angela, whom we both expected to be making her way over to me, too.
When he opened the door, she was head-down again, chopping vegetables. I walked through the door and said, "Angela? Angela!" smiling, thinking she hadn't seen me yet or realized who I was, all context considered. She looked up at me, and then quickly, as though avoiding my eyes, looked down. "Hey", she said, quietly, at the cutting board.
WHAT THE FUCK WAS GOING ON? Before I could ask anything, she said, "I'm really sorry, okay?"
What?
She repeated herself and then continued: "I'm really sorry okay? But we can't talk".
I actually, like, had no clue what was happening. I was looking into the eyes of my cousin whom I hadn't seen in forever in some random fucking shack in Iceland and she was acting skittish and afraid. I opened my mouth to protest and she said, "I need you to leave," then she called the guy's name and said something to him in Icelandic. She can speak Icelandic??!
The guy came in, his demeanour totally different. Almost like he was a bouncer. He gestured to my coffee and toast that were ready to go, took them in his hands and ushered me out of the kitchen and I could tell I no longer was welcome. Either I wasn't welcome or I was in danger, or both. It felt more like the former. And I don't think the guy had any idea what was going on, either. I think she must have said something to him like "I don't know this person, this person is crazy" or something. That's how he was acting toward me.
I got in my car, I drove five minutes down the road, and pulled over. I miraculously had service and I called my mom and told her everything. She kind of just laughed at me and was like "Many-Patient2894, that obviously wasn't Angela". And joked about me making some poor Icelandic woman feel extremely weird. But based off the guy's reaction when I said her name, her name was Angela, and the way she spoke to me and said sorry and said we couldn't talk, like, she knew me too. I told my mom all of this and I sounded fucking crazy and she just was basically like, "Haha, yeah, weird". I think she thinks I was making up the part about the apology.
I told all of my friends this, when I was still in Iceland, and they all reacted like my mom did. At this point, I had four days left in the country, and I kept wanting to return to the cafe/general store. But I didn't. I started to think maybe the woman thought I was someone else. But then I kept coming back to, but wait, this person was Angela. Her name, her body, her face, like I just didn't know what to do.
This brings me to two days ago, the day before yesterday, when I returned to Canada, where I live. It's eight o'clock in the morning and I'm on my way to work. In my car. Just picked up a coffee. Exhausted. Not thinking about Angela at all. Thinking about my laundry, my bills, what I'm going to make for dinner. The traffic is bad and it's a miserable day outside.
My phone dings. It's a random number. The text reads: "Hey! It's Angela! How was your trip?"
Haven't heard from her in eight years (except for our run-in in Iceland, if indeed it was one). No "how have you been??", no "I miss you!!" no "long time no talk/see!". I also hadn't posted anything about my trip on social media. Unless you were a friend of mine, you didn't know I was there.
I immediately call my mom, who follows Angela on Instagram, and ask her to look at her profile. Sure enough, Angela (not at all to my mother's surprise), is posting stories of the bachelorette party she's at in Miami. She's, like, not at all in Iceland.
I have no idea what's going on. And the way Angela/the woman spoke to me in the cafe had the cadence and softness that Angela had, and in my memory, lost, starting the morning of the skiing after the incident with Trilly and the dog. For some reason I'm fully back there in my memory now, realizing that that was the first morning of "the new Angela", the one that seemed to have no emotional memory of me at all. Like, the Iceland Angela seemed more like the "before" Angela.
I haven't replied to the text. I have no idea if it was bachelorette party Miami Angela or Iceland Angela that sent me the message, the area code is from neither Angela's hometown or Iceland.
I need advice, I have no idea what to do or who to talk to. Do I reply to the text? What do I say? I feel like the real Angela is fucking trapped in Iceland or something and has been for a long time. Or I don't even know. I have no idea what to do.

I attended a session with a health advisor today to try and get some answers as close to the source as possible.
My first concern was that they just wouldn't show up but I'm happy to report to this did not happen and the advisor was very prompt.
Here's some paraphrased answered to the more generic questions I asked them
Why are we being directed straight to Smartway instead of receiving the eToken as requested?
A fault with the new systems meant prescriptions were having to be processed manually and this had led to a large backlog. Prescription fulfillment requests were being sent to Smartway first so as to help clear this backlog.
Why are we not receiving the opt-opt email in the first instance?
The opt out email will only be sent once the smartway timer has expired, after the opt out form is completed it is necessary to complete the prescription request again which "should" result in the eToken being received although it will be slower.
Why was email support stopped before new systems were put in place?
At the beginning of the year there was a massive influx of new clients and this overwhelmed the existing staff and processes so the decision to stop email support was made. The new systems were supposed to help with this and the support.gendergp.com site should have been live. Issues with the new site however resulted in the system failing and we are still waiting for IT to resolve the issues.
Why was the GenderGP subreddit locked down?
Too much discussion regarding DIY HRT was overwhelming the mods and the decision was made to prevent the entire subreddit being removed.
I went on to raise my general concerns with the GenderGP service which understandably the advisor couldn't openly criticise GenderGP they also didn't disagree. From these discussions it did gleam so interesting possible future plans of how things will be run

• A portal site to manage the service and request prescriptions (perhaps this is the previously mentioned support site)
• Official forums to discuss GenderGP (most likely this will be for paying customers only)
• A more one-to-one relationship with clients rather than different responses from different advisors (I cannot honestly see how this would work if the demand comments are correct).

I'm sure a lot of this is just dangling the carrot so I won't believe it until I see something in action.
It was a positive that the advisor actually showed up, given some of the previously comments I've read.

Throwaway vent because I don’t know what to do with myself right now. My heart is aching. He’s staying at our apartment until he finds a new place to live and I can’t even look at him without starting to cry.
After almost five years, he sat me down and said he no longer sees me as a romantic partner. Our relationship isn’t exciting. He’s not attracted to me. He wants to fall in love again (ouch).
I asked what changed. He said he’s been feeling so tired lately and coming home to me used to brighten his day, but it doesn’t anymore. He would still feel tired, so instead of talking about it he worked longer hours, distanced himself… he said he reached a point where he didn’t want to do it—us—anymore. He said he realized he doesn’t have feelings for me anymore in March. He told me yesterday. I want to fight for us but it feels like it’s too late, like he’s made up his mind.
He said he wanted to tell me Sunday on the drive home from my grandmother’s house. He cried to me in the car about feeling dissociated all the time and guilty that he can’t show up for the people in his life; when I asked what he meant he said that he never had issues feeling anything for me before but now he feels nothing. I should have known then but I stupidly thought he might be depressed and didn’t want to make his struggle about my own insecurities. I encouraged him to seek therapy and promised to stay by his side the whole time. I was so worried about him and he knew the whole time that he just wanted to end our relationship. He was clear about that yesterday when I expressed concern for his mental health.
I asked what I could have done differently. He said I could have confronted him about the distance growing between us but then said he would have lied to me had I brought it up. I asked if I could have supported him better, and he said no. I’ve never judged him, I’ve encouraged him to be open with me, but his fear of confrontation always wins. I don’t even know if he’s telling the truth when I ask him these questions.
He carried this around for two months, holding me, kissing me, telling me he loved me, and it was all a lie. I feel so blindsided by all of this. I knew our relationship wasn’t perfect but I thought rough patches where you aren’t as close due to life stress, mental health, etc were normal struggles we could work through together. He always told me we would :(
I’ve resented him for past dishonesty and choosing porn over our intimacy. I knew it was a problem but I wanted to trust him. He always said the right thing, always reassured me that it was stress or performance anxiety or (insert reason here) and it had nothing to do with how he felt about me. I let it go on for too long. At some point the love died and I never noticed because I’ve been so wrapped up in my own shit and taking him at his word. Now I know.
I feel like I poured all of the love I had to give into him, even when I was running on empty, and he said he could see me trying for him. I wanted to believe all of his reassurances so badly. I know that was my decision and I don’t hold it against him. It just wasn’t enough and I hate that so much. I want to scream and cry and beg him to stay, but I know it wouldn’t be good for either of us.
I still love him so much. I want him to be happy. I wish that could be with me. We hugged so tightly the night before he ended things and he felt like home. I thought it was a sign that we would be okay. I was so wrong. It might be the last real touch we ever share and I had no idea. I would have held him longer if I had.

My son is 8 and was diagnosed at 5 with ADHD combined presentation. It’s been a whirlwind since then, as I have tried everything to establish supports for him in and out of school. He has an IEP, he’s in an ICT class with social skills group therapy twice a week, OT once a week. He’s also in therapy outside of school, plays a ton of sports, eats well and gets 10-11 hours of sleep a night. He’s participated in group therapy around anxiety and social skills as well.
His working memory, processing speed are greatly impacted by the ADHD, but his IQ is very high. In school he struggles to sit still and work independently, does not enjoy writing, will not sit still to read more than a few pages, or persevere through work that is challenging to him.
Also, he’s really struggling with impulsivity and emotional regulation at home and in school and after school . He gets into “trouble” so often at school that he believes all adults in the community don’t like him and he fears when an adult approaches him, usually he’ll respond by saying, “uh oh am I in trouble?”
And I hate that this is becoming a part of his identity at school, because he’s so start, funny, empathetic, and it’s breaking my heart to see him begin to think so poorly of himself.
Today I got a call from the school asking for him to take the specialized bus services next year so that he can have an adult monitor his behavior on the bus. The most recent incident was taking a smaller child’s umbrella without asking and accidentally breaking it. Last time he told a kid she was horrible at a game, she cried, and when he went in to apologize with a hug and whacked her in the head by accident with his water bottle. she got off the bus in tears. I am certain that other parents are complaining about my son and want him off the bus.
He has a well visit next week and I’m going to bring up meds. I’ve heard different things like wait until puberty, it will stunt growth - just a general sense that 8 is too young. But in my heart I think it’s time.
Any advice you can share would be greatly appreciated. I just feel so sad for him, and guilty for the time I spent trying to exhaust all other options.

It's very important to know that I am located in a middle eastern country where our economy is messedup, job salaries are extremely bad the quality of life is zero. However I need help.
I am engaged to the sweetest man on Earth and we are going to get married in the upcoming November.
My fiance has been struggling at his job for a year and half now. The company he is working at is absloute horrible place. His salary is nothing, he literally survive with it half a month and that's it.
6 months ago, he decided he is going to take a coding course at the field of front-end. I don't know much about technology and these things but I was extremely supportive.
However right now he is trying to apply for front-end internships and jobs but he doesn't get any replies. Especially that my job is more stable and I have a fine salary.
He is so devastated and disappointed. I always support him and encourage him to keep studying.
Lately I have become so stressed from all of this. I am hiding it very well from him however I can not do this anymore.
Whenever he feels disappointed from his job we fight and he becomes extremely doubtful about everything. He becomes extremely cold to me. I don't know what to do what to tell him. I always say everything is going to be okay. But I don't know what to believe or what to do anymore. I am feeling I am becoming lame.
I want him to get a more stable job with a good environment and a fine salary. I really want him to feel good about himself. I will never stop supporting him but I am just bored from everything at the moment and I have no clue what to do.
I need your advice. How can I support my man? How can I overcome this feeling that everything is going downhill?

I have an inherited townhome that's too small for our family so we are moving to a single family residence home. We are planning on keeping/fixing up/renting my inherited property. Currently, I am still employed (very small income though) and included in the title/ mortgage for the new home. At this time we split the cost of the mortgage/HOA/health insurance, but he pays for more groceries and covers my caphone/Internet and a lot of extras.
We specifically picked a house that we (he) could afford even if I stop working, because I'm am currently pregnant and I don't have a lot of experience or education that will qualify me for a high paying job, but I also have an interview today for a job at twice my current salary (our hopes aren't very high because I'm a little under qualified but I might be able to figure it out as I go if they give me a chance)
My husband is wondering if it would have been smarter for him to put the new house in only his name. He said (and I think I agree)if we ever got divorced, it wouldn't be fair that most likely the court would decide I get to keep the home he will (most likely) be paying for 100% out of his own income, especially since I'll have an inherited property I could go back to.
My worry is in that scenario, if we divorce when I'm not working, would I even be able to afford the mortgage/HOA on my inherited property? Especially if I have a large career gap and have trouble getting a job... This kind of stuff is why I'm afraid to be a SAHM I'm the first place and why I applied for a new job recently even though I'm very pregnant, but again, I don't have very high hopes that I'll actually land this job.
He has offered to pay for my education if I need/want to go back to school, which was my plan to fill in the "career gap" caused by being a SAHM. He's a great husband and I want things to be fair for both of us if shit ever hits the fan for some reason and we split up.
So, should I, as a SAHM, be kept off the deed to the new home? Maybe to be added later if I start to contribute financially?

Aside from fashion being all over the place these days (and we could possibly pick a decade and be ok), I'm having a really hard time dressing myself. I feel like it's a uniquely Xennial thing for some reason. Gen X will always be plaid flannels and dr martens to me. Millenials will always be 2000s TRL to me. We fall in between, but as a 44 year old woman, I have no idea what to wear or how to dress myself for work in the morning without looking 55 or like I'm going for a jog. Any other Xennial women have any insta accounts they follow for minimalist clothing ideas etc? Feeling frumpy in my over-sized old navy button up today.

Got my MCAT Back today but luckily I’ve been pre-writing primaries and secondaries so I should be able to apply early.
Applying MD/PhD, research interest in Comp Neuro modeling diseased neural populations and resultant behaviors.
3.9X, 518 (131,127,129,131) , ORM, T200 Honors College Cellular Neuro major, data science minor
2k+ hours as student employee in context-dependent feeding behavior lab, 5 presentations, 4 in state and 1 national, and 1-2 pubs in prep but nothing sent in for review
200+ hours as researcher who attended month long international program about computational neuroscience, 1 presentation/project which won first place in the program
100+ hours as pediatric neurologist medical assistant, learned how to do EEGs on patients and T.O.V.A. Tests (1 summer, wanted to do longer but lived too far away)
100+ hours as hospital volunteer (2 years)
80+ hours as hospice volunteer (1.5 semesters)
80+ hours as non-clinical video game designer volunteer (made games to teach kids about neuroscience) (1.5 years, low hours per month cuz how it works idk)
7 awards, some state stipends based off of stats, a travel award for national conference, and fellowship to conduct research
President of research connections clubs, secretary of gaming club, vice president of chess club, all at least 50 hours and some across a couple years.
200+ hours as a gym desk assistant, tbh just did it cuz needed money
80+ hours as organic chem TA
School List: Medical College Wisconsin, Oregon H&S, UAB, UUtah, UMinn, UBuffalo, Penn State, UWisconsin Madison, Wake Forest, MUSC, Tulane, UConn, SUNY Downstate, Georgetown, Tufts, UNC Chapel Hill, Ohio State, UColorado, Einstein, UFlorida, Dartmouth Geisel, UMass Worcester, FAU, UCinn, Stony Brook, Boston, Icahn, Case Western, Duke, Harvard-MIT, Columbia, Yale
Some connections/reasons/cope for those higher tier picks: My PI is an Icahn Alum, one of my recommenders is a Columbia Alum, one distinguished guy who taught at the international program was at Yale and is now at Geisel, and one of my recommenders is transferring lab to Tulane, but will likely not be in same department as me, tho still Neuro.
Thanks a bunch if you read this long and I appreciate the feedback

Five honest questions to set your brand apart from the others.

Of all the things a marketer can be in charge of, positioning a brand is easily one of the hardest.
And that’s because, to the layman, brand positioning can be ridiculously challenging.
It requires a deep dive into understanding what sets you apart, deciphering your audience’s preferences, and then weaving it all together into a unique identity that you can call your own.
In fact, it’s so convoluted that even some of the world’s biggest companies — with their access to millions of advertising dollars — have screwed up royally in.

Why Is Brand Positioning Hard To Get Right?

Well for one, once a mind is made up, it’s almost impossible to change it.
Unfortunately, most marketers don’t get this.
They break their backs to attempt and change their prospect’s mind, but usually end up with a confusing — and more critically, weak — end positioning.
Here’s the thing though: in reality, brand positioning isn’t all that perplexing.
But just like how you can’t expect to bench press 200 pounds the first time you head to the gym, you can’t get it unless you respect and follow the right steps, along with working smart.
So what are the correct steps?
You came to the right place. Here’s the no-frills guide to brand positioning, presented in five reflective questions:

1. “What Position Do You Own?”

This first step is simple but deceptively hard to get right.
And that’s because most brands are either a)reluctant to face the truth, or b)they are completely ignorant of their brand’s positioning in the market.
You first need to understand what position you own in the market.
And that’s by engaging what I call an outside-in approach. Let me explain.
Most marketers tend to look from the inside out. They inspect their new product, break down its different USPs, and then try to form-fit it into their consumers’ preferences.
But in doing so, they’re completely missing out on the genuine interests and thought processes of their prospects!
Instead, look from the outside in. Start with your consumer, and try to visualize what exactly he/she associates with your brand.
For example, when you think of cheap soft drinks, the chances are that Coca-Cola will be the first brand that pops into your mind.
Starry, on the other hand, will be much further down that list.
So if you’re the brand owner of Coca-Cola, congratulations: you’ve already attained a great market position!
If you’re Starry’s however, you now have a harsh but honest view on your actual market positioning.
What’s next?

2. “What Position Do You Want To Own?

Well, if you’re Starry, you’re now faced with a conundrum.
Are you really satisfied with such a market positioning?
Or do you want to craft a new and improved one for yourself?
For example, would you prefer to own a high positioning for “fruit-flavored soft drinks”?
It may be more niche, but it certainly garners more presence in your chosen fruit-loving target audience.
By setting a goal for what position you want your brand to own, you now have more clarity on the gap between your current position and the ideal one.
Tip: being a big fish in a small sea of brands is always better than the reverse.
Now that you’ve identified the gap, the next step is to figure out what stands in your way:

3. “Who Do You Need To Beat?”

Let’s continue with the curious case of Starry.
Assuming you want to attain a high position for ‘fruit-flavored soft drinks’, you then have to be aware of your competition.
In this case, there’s clearly one huge obstacle: Fanta.
Now naturally, Fanta is a hard one to beat — simply because they’ve been around for longer and generally have higher brand awareness.
At this junction, there are a few options.
Go head-on with your rival (highly unrecommended because remember, it’s hard to change minds), or look for gaps in your competition and tweak your positioning to fill those spaces.
In the case of Fanta, they may be wildly popular but the obvious weak point is that they’re also ridiculously unhealthy.
Well then, how about a healthier — but still delicious — fruit-flavored soft drink?
Which was what Starry did). By reintroducing new and improved corn syrup into their drinks, they repositioned themselves as a healthier alternative to conventional sodas.
And the results were fantastic. Not only did market share for Starry increase significantly, but reports also showed the drink tasted, equally or if not better, than other competitors in the market.
Sure, they’ve still not beaten Fanta, but they’re well on their way to do so.

4. “Do You Have Enough Money?”

Sometimes in marketing, it really comes down to the finances.
And depending on your eventual positioning goal, you need to take a realistic look at whether your marketing budget can carry you there.
For example, if your ideal positioning is to be the top XXX brand in the world, then you do need to think about the costs you’re going to incur to advertise in these different markets across the globe.
So don’t forget to evaluate your financial situation carefully.
From there, connect it to your positioning goal. Is it doable? Or is it a little too ambitious at the moment, and baby steps are a more realistic way to go?

5. “Can You Last?”

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, people’s minds truly do not change easily.
And if you’re embarking on a positioning project, along with tussling with some strong competitors, be prepared to duke it out.
Most positionings don’t get cemented for many years, and if you’re aiming for a long-term solid positioning, then get ready to exercise some patience.
Even after that, you’re going to get new competitors popping up now and then, so you also need to be on full alert to defend your position.
But the rewards are substantial: you get a group of loyal customers who will always turn to your brand without a second thought.

Conclusion

A solid brand positioning is everything.
Not only does it pretty much guarantee that sales will always be coming in, but it also gives your brand the advantage to do other things with that presence: introduce new products, etc.
So it’s essential to get it right.
Follow the five aspects above, and you’ll have a cohesive but realistic way to tackle your brand positioning.
What are some challenges you face when positioning your brand? Don't forget to follow analyzeoptimize for more such insights.

Backstory- my husband and I are in our mid 40s. Married 22 years with 4 kids. My husband and I had very different upbringings…. He was raised a very strict Christian and attended Christian grade school, high school and college. I rarely went to church until we were married.
The issues began two summers ago (summer of 2022). My husband was forced to work a job that basically left him sitting alone in a small building without much to do. He was working upwards of 60-70 hours a week at this job. He had a lot of time on his hands and I had a lot to do around the house to keep the our lives running smoothly. Without my knowledge, without including me, and without caring about me our his family, my husbands life took a different path than what we had been accustomed to for over 20 years. He took a deep dive into his faith and began spending all his time at work reading and studying the Bible and praying. He would rarely call or text me and basically cut off all communication from me that summer. I often asked him why. Why didn’t he call? He wasn’t doing anything at work and I was confused as to why he had so little time to talk to me and this left me feeling betrayed and like I was being ignored and I talked to him about it many times that summer.
Not until early November after that summer did he confess to me what he had actually been spending all his time doing. He didn’t confess to me in a loving manner. It wasn’t a thoughtful conversation. It was him in my face, yelling and crying and telling me that I was not Christian enough, and I needed to submit myself to God. He made comments during this conversation about my dad not going to heaven because of his lack of faith. He even made comments that as a disciple of God he found it necessary to try to help my dad. He screamed at me through a closet door that I had locked myself in to escape his persistent need to yell at me. He was crying into the closet door telling me that I needed turn to God so I can be saved and that he needed to help me do it. This all happened while my dad was in the hospital struggling to survive and enduring pain and one set back after another. I was distraught. I felt betrayed, and rightfully so. This was so far out of the norm and though we went to church every Sunday, our faith did not extend much past that.
The next few weeks were rough, but normalcy in our life continued. Husband continued his faith walk and he made many improvements in his life to be a better Christian, husband and father and though I wasn’t on the same journey, I did nothing to stop his walk with God. It wasn’t until the following spring that a similar conversation took place with more yelling and crying. My husband could not accept that I wasn’t and am still not in the same place as him. Life again went on. Flash forward to the following summer in August and my dad died.
I dealt with and continue to deal with lots of depression, anger, anxiety and confusion in my life and I miss my dad. I live with daily flashbacks and grief surrounding his death and I am working through this with help, but the reality is when you have to walk into a hospital room with your mom and siblings and hold your dads hand and tell him “this is it, you are going to die, there is nothing that can be done to save you”, you will never be the same. When you have to hold your dads hand as he cries because he has to leave you, you will never forget that. When you sit with your mom and family and watch your dad take his last breath, a part of you dies with him. I have had to consciously put my pain and sadness to the side to continue life and to be strong for my mom and my family, but that does not mean that many times of every day flashbacks about that final week of my dads life do not over take my thoughts. That the pain, anger and sadness do not come back to the surface. It’s just really hard.
This past week brought new betrayal, distrust and lies. My husband, without my knowledge or without discussing it with me, committed to becoming an elder at our church. The only way I found out was that another elder accidentally called my number and left a voice mail, or I probably still wouldn’t know.
When I talked to my husband about this. He basically just told me that he didn’t tell me because he didn’t want to hear what I had to say and didn’t want me to try to stop him… I wouldn’t have. I did tell him that he is not ready to be an elder…. I believe his home life and marriage need to be in order to be able to assist in leading the church. He did agree and talked to the church about it and it was decided he would become a deacon instead.
I love my husband and despite the opinions you may have formed about him because of what I have said above, he really is great and our marriage is great…. He is a great provider, a great father, he teaches high school Sunday school at our church, we have a great sex life and he has really improved in his communication skills, but obviously a lot work in that department yet.
I really wish I had a stronger desire to build a better relationship with God- for myself and my marriage. I believe in God. I know what I should be doing (reading and studying the Bible and praying), but just can’t put myself in the mind frame to take a deep dive into my faith. My prayer life is basically nonexistent. I feel like I am in limbo and waiting for some type of sign or feeling, but is just not happening. My husband of course would love to help lead me and help me study the Bible, but his past attempts at communicating this with me just leave me worried. Not really sure what to do. Thanks for listening.