I've been with my partner [28F] for a little over 10 years and this is both of our first relationship. We have always been sort of long distant (different high school, colleges, grad school) but worked it out by visiting once every few months or daily phone calls. I initially had paranoia of why this person would ever like me but after awhile (~2 years), I was convinced that she truly loves me and she is very loyal (so I have no doubts that she will leave me). Now the problem for me is that, I do not know if I should continue this relationship.
I am generally a pretty optimistic person, enjoy hobbies, and have a good friend group. But I am also currently unemployed (for ~2 years now) and most likely depressed (I do see a therapist) because of that (financial instability, wasting away at home, etc.). Maybe my depression is making my feelings about the relationship worse but I don't really know at this point.
I love my partner but I don't know if I'm convincing myself that I do. She is a lovely and reasonable person but I feel like we are too different. She is depressed (for years) and very pessimistic and is almost the complete opposite from me when it comes to interests (food, hobbies, music, etc.). We don't see each other often (maybe once a week or 2) but when we do, nothing really happens (we just kind of just keep each other company and do our own thing). In the beginning of our relationship, there was so much to talk about but now there's nothing really to talk about. Our phone calls are usually just "how was your day" or "what did you eat". She would get frustrated about how I should give her more "attention" or talk about something, but there really isn't much to say. The arguments we have are usually stuff we like that or things disagree on and she cuts me off by saying she doesn't want to talk about it anymore when things go south whereas I kind of want to resolve it right then and there (I know this is a communication thing and probably a case of I should 'listen' rather than 'solving' but this is something I've been working on). I have been telling myself for years that she will change but I have come to realize more recently that I have no control over that. Obviously, its bad of me to think that way to begin with but I was still young and naïve. I have reached a point where I am frustrated about small things that she do but I don't say anything because I don't want to hurt her.
Reading everything above makes it seem like I should break this off and move on but keeps me conflicted are multiple things.

• My partner is moderately depressed and I think that breaking this off will make this extremely worse (suicidal). (She has spoken about this really early in our relationship so this is not a baseless statement).
• My partner does not have many friends, hobbies, or things she enjoys (she doesn't like her job, lifestyle, environment). I have tried to help her by giving her suggestions and advice to improve her life but she doesn't budge, even blames her depression (I understand it is harder for people with depression to break out of that shell). But this just adds on to the first point of why I can leave her, she'll have nobody and will be miserable.
• My fear of what if I can't find someone whose as loyal and loves me for me.
• My thoughts of "it's been 10 years already, I should be committed".
• I have also spent pretty much half my life with her, I don't know how I'll adjust. I'm honestly pretty scared.
• Hopes that once I get a job and become financially stable, everything will work out. But maybe all these thoughts are because I'm of the current situation I'm in and my depression.

TBH I'm not sure if I can even go through with this and maybe I'm just venting but I know that she most likely won't either, so I don't know. There's also a lot of details or things I probably missed but that's it for now.
TL;DR - 10 year relationship, both our first relationship. Opposite interests, hobbies, personalities. Making decision to end is extremely difficult (fears, hopes, negative outcomes?).

Hi everybody,
disclaimer: Nothing I say in this post is necessarily true, and in NO WAY, do I condone anyone following in my footsteps or referencing anything I say in this post to the FAA/AME... but with that being said:
New to this reddit, but Just wanted to make this post to any future pilots who are going through a similar situation to what I have, about Depression, Anxiety, antidepressants, Therapy Etc.
To start this off... If you are an aspiring pilot, wanting to eventually work in the airlines, corporate, military, or basically anything that makes money, you need an "FAA First Class Medical" This is a non-negotiable aspect of aviation, that any pilot you see had to earn, but also maintain every year.
If you are not aware yet, the FAA takes mental health issues very seriously and almost always tends to disqualify or defer pilots who have had, or continue to have these issues (Bipolar disorder, Depression, ADHD, Anxiety, etc)
My personal story is that I have always wanted to be a pilot, but never really thought to start my training until more recent years, which also happened to coincide with the beginning of my depression/anxiety diagnoses, for which I was medicated on a few different antidepressants (prozac, zoloft, wellbutrin) over the timespan of 1.5 years. During this time I was regularly visiting a psychiatrist for psychotherapy and a regular therapist, along with my pediatrician at the time (I was 16-18).
In regards to my diagnosis: In my own opinion, my depression was a result of my environmental and lifestyle issues, which resulted in my diagnosis later being classified as "adjustment disorder with anxiety." This is a factor that I believe helped me later on in this story.
WIth 100% honesty, I never had any suicidal intentions or any dangerous thoughts that would ever truly make me a liability in the cockpit, as I understand why the FAA is careful around people with this type of history, so I will say that if you are reading this, and you do fall under this category, I would highly recommend doing some introspection about your mental health, and if you deem yourself capable to hold the lives of potentially hundreds of people in your hands, as this can be serious issues down the road.
I would say I am definitely on the safer side of the world of mental health issues, as some of you may have much more serious conditions or history, like suicidal ideas, bipolar disorder, ADHD (depending on if you take medicine/are diagnosed). Unfortunately, The cases mentioned above are much harder to get past to earn your medical, and I would not be able to advise you in those situations, although I believe a "HIMS AME" is the person you would go to for help in that department.
Going back to my story, however...
After learning that being on antidepressants would not allow me to be a pilot, I realized that I had essentially made a grave mistake in getting medicated for a diagnosis that I was not even confident I had, and was extremely upset by this. That was the moment I started going online to find people who had been through similar situations, and the reason why I am now writing this post.
To clarify, I never personally felt as though the medication was doing anything for me, and always wanted to get off, but I was always at the mercy of my pyschiatrist's treatment plan, which basically required me to stay on medication for a certain period of time before getting off.
In NO way did I intend to intentially stop my use of medication, which is VERY dangerous, but I was out of the state for about a month while doing some volunteer work, and unintentionally forgot to take my medication in the morning, which I did not realize for about a week (IT WAS ONLY SAFE BECAUSE MY DOSAGE WAS VERY LOW, OTHERWISE IF YOU STOP USAGE OF MEDICATION SUDDENLY YOU CAN HAVE SERIOUS PERMANENT BODILY DAMAGE).
Because I was doing very good with my life and my mental health, I opted to stay off medication with accordance to my psychiatrist, and from there on out was smooth sailing as far as my mental state. I would see my psychiatrist once a month as a check up, and always reported my positive state of mind. About 7-8 months after that, this month, I decided to start my flight training, but more specifically my AME appointment.
I was already familiar with the process, which begins with you filling an AME form out on medexpress website, where you fill out all medical history. I will specify this one time and one time only:
DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT LYING TO THE FAA!!!!!!!
No matter how desperate you are, lying to the government will always hurt you in the end, and a potential career in aviation is not worth it if it is based on a single or possibly multiple lies.
After filling out the form truthfully, with all my medical history as mentioned in the above texts, I went to my appointment, and talking with the AME, who was quick to start asking me about my mental health history, for which I was ready to explain. I was also able to get a letter from my psychiatrist, mentioning that I was "adherent to my treatment plan"
After telling the AME EVERYTHING about my mental health struggles, history, etc. He decided that I was fit to earn my medical, pending a signature from my psychiatrist ensuring everything I said was truthful, which it was. Finally, after so much struggle, I was able to earn my first-class medical.
The point I want to get across with any of you who still stuck around to read all this, is that if you do disqualify for the medical, there is a reason for that, which you simply must accept in the name of safety of others.
for those of you who are in a similar position to me at any point in my journey, just know that If you stay honest with yourself, your doctor, and eventually the AME, you will definently have a path to earning your certificate, pending some potentiall obstacles.
There is a resource from the faa about medications allowed for pilots, though I never used it as a reference for myself, but definitely check it out if it applies to you in any way. If I missed anything please reply below and I will try my best to answer.

In numerous business methods, heat exchangers play a critical role in moving heat from one fluid to another. One important aspect of a warmness exchanger is the tube sheet, which offers structural assistance and enables the transfer of heat between the tubes and the encompassing fluid. In this blog post, we'll delve into the importance and programs of double tube sheet design, specializing in its importance in warmness exchanger generation.
Understanding Tube Sheets:
Before we explore the idea of a double tube sheet layout, let's first understand what tube sheets are and their function in warmness exchangers. Tube sheets are thick, round plates that are drilled with holes to deal with heat change tubes. These tubes are then routinely attached to the tube sheet using numerous techniques such as welding, rolling, or expansion. The tube sheet acts as a barrier among the fluid within the tubes and the encircling fluid, stopping any mixing or infection.
Importance of Double Tube Sheet Design:
Double tube sheet design entails the incorporation of two separate tube sheets in preference to one, with a small hole among them. This layout gives several essential benefits, along with:

1. Enhanced Safety: One of the number one reasons for the usage of a double tube sheet layout is to minimize the threat of go-infection between the 2 fluids being exchanged. By having separate tube sheets with a gap among them, any capacity leaks or screw ups in the inner tube sheet are contained within the gap, preventing the mixing of fluids.
   
2. Increased Reliability: Double tube sheet design improves the general reliability and integrity of the warmth exchanger. In the occasion of a tube failure or leak, the outer tube sheet affords an extra layer of protection, lowering the likelihood of catastrophic failure and extending the lifespan of the gadget.
   
3. Prevention of Fluid Contamination: Double tube sheet design enables you to save liquid contamination via supplying a physical barrier among the two fluid streams. This is particularly important in packages wherein the fluids are corrosive, toxic, or incompatible with every other.
   
4. Compliance with Industry Standards: Many industries, which includes petrochemical, pharmaceutical, and meals processing, have stringent protection and first-class standards that require using double tube sheet design in warmness exchangers to ensure the integrity of the system and compliance with regulatory necessities.
   

Applications of Double Tube Sheet Design:
Double tube sheet layout reveals programs in a wide variety of industries and procedures, along with:

1. Chemical Processing: Double tube sheet warmness exchangers are normally used in chemical processing plants for heating, cooling, and condensing applications in which the chance of fluid contamination is excessive.
   
2. Oil and Gas: In the oil and gasoline industry, double tube sheet heat exchangers are applied for warmth switches in refining, petrochemical, and offshore applications, where safety and reliability are paramount.
   
3. Pharmaceuticals: Pharmaceutical manufacturing approaches frequently require using double tube sheet warmth exchangers to ensure the purity and integrity of the products being produced.
   
4. Food and Beverage: Double tube sheet warmth exchangers are hired within the meals and beverage industry for pasteurization, sterilization, and cooling programs, wherein preserving product excellence and protection is important.
   

Conclusion:
Double tube sheet layout gives numerous critical advantages in terms of protection, reliability, and fluid contamination prevention in warmth exchanger applications. By incorporating two separate tube sheets with an opening among them, this layout gives a delivered layer of protection and peace of mind in vital business techniques. Whether in chemical processing, oil and gasoline, prescription drugs, or food and beverage, double tube sheet heat exchangers play an important role in making sure efficient and safe warmness switch operations. For optimal performance and reliability, it's vital to work with authentic tube sheet producers who adhere to enterprise requirements and high-quality practices.

Welcome to the romancelandia daily reader chat, where we build community, talk books, or just chat.
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Here's our guide on community norms and posting.
What goes in the daily reading chat, you ask? We like chatting about romance books, and we also like to build community, so the daily reading chat isn't incredibly strict about content, exactly. Don't be shy!
Where to start? Some ideas:

• Random musings about romance
• Books you're looking forward to
• What you're reading now
• Book sales and deals
• Television and movies
• Good books that aren't romance
• Questions for the group at large
• Smashing the kyriarchy in daily life
• Encourage other commenters who have good ideas to start a new post!

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• Discussing a book? Please include content warnings or anything else you think a potential reader needs to consider before reading and don't forget to mark your spoilers.
• Not sure how to use spoiler tags? Just do this: >!spoiler text!<
• Would your fairly-in-depth book discussion comment or romance-reading observation make a good post? Probably! But in case you're not sure, check out our guide with post examples: Posting on Romancelandia: It doesn't have to be a dissertation.

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Are you new here?? Introduce yourself! This month's prompt for newbies is; What is a book high you've yet to get over?

TL:DR Im having trust issues and paranoia and anxiety with my partner and wonder what my next steps should be.
Before I get into this I want to acknowledge the comments that I will most likely get. "You're just a young punk" or "you have a long life to live" Yada Yada. Although I don't mean to be rude I'm very well aware of such things. Now I 17M and my partner 19F (she just turned 19 a month ago and I'm about to turn 18 in 2 months for anyone worried about legality) have been together for 5 months. Now there are many many issues with this story but hopefully reddit can help me with this entire process. I met her through Instagram on December 4th, 2023. For some background before her I was in two previous very unhealthy relationships. The first when I was 15 in which I was with officially for about a month until we broke up. After that occurred 6 months of what was me getting led on, which I openly admit was my own fault for being in as I should of just moved on but instead I stayed trying to mend things between us which was unsuccessful as for half the time she was high on drugs and without getting into detail led to me being treated pretty badly. I say this to say that I ended up developing deep trust issues and self-esteem and confidence issues. Now this is where things get tricky, for about 3 months I spent "bettering myself" (I had spent previous time this time I'm mentioning is just without the first girl). I put quotes because in reality I really made myself unhealthy. Due to the previous relationship and other contributing factors I decided to include myself in the trend of trying to have multiple girls. Within a couple of months of getting out of the first stint, I ended up getting in another stint with a childhood friend with who and I had communication off and on, the root of it was that I truly cared about her and had feelings for her that waned throughout the years, plus with us confiding in eo about personal issues and building a bond we ended getting together which admittedly was a horrible decision as I and her were not in great spots. As mentioned before I shamefully used this relationship as a way to test the aforementioned trend of cheating essentially or having a "roster". I met this other girl who was a very good girl with a good head on her shoulders and just an overall good person, for a month I would go between the two keeping the second girl as nothing but cordial discussions but did plan a meet up just to hang out and enjoy eo company and the first being the one I put my time and energy into. If I could explain the experience it was almost as if I was on autopilot almost like I was asleep. It wasn't until something snapped me back to reality that I felt what would end up being the consequences of my actions and felt genuinely hurt that I was doing this. Even if it was just emotional cheating it felt disgusting and I ended up letting the two know what I was doing and as expected I got not so nice things said to me by the second girl. However I asked my then gf to please leave me as I had hurt her and didn't want to continue to have her anywhere near me so I couldn't hurt her in any other way. The call basically ended up with me in tears and her in disappointment (I'm ready for all the woah is me comments lol). The reason I felt the way I did has a little to do with guilt but moreso disappointment in myself. One my ex had previously been cheated on by multiple partners so me doing it to her even on just an emotional level made me disappointed in myself as well as the fact that I had done this to the girl I really cared about, two my mother herself was cheated on by my father and since I was young I promised I would be better than him and treat any future women better than he did my mom and try to make her proud, three a huge reason I did what I did was because I was still hurt from my first ship and for whatever reason I wanted to make other girls hurt which was very unlike me as I hated to see others in pain. Overall it was obvious I wasn't in a good mind space and I fully acknowledge what I did was wrong and even though I've shored most of it, there is still a level of guilt that presides in me. However her and I ended up getting back together after some time apart, she wasn't in a very good place (she was a drug user as well) and she saw me as someone who took care of her and I saw her as someone I needed to take care of so we stayed together and I promised her a cleanslate of being the best I could be. This lasted shortly as you can tell it was never the same, plus you could say karma came for me as she ended leaving for another guy which I had suspected a little after our reconciliation which triggered my trust issues and paranoia. Without getting into what happened which deserves a post on its own, we broke up. After that I took a long look at myself and made the decision that I needed to focus on truly bettering myself, healing, being a better person getting back to my morals and finding out my future. The other decision I made was to stay away from any type of relationships with girls for a long while at least until I was stable. The goal was to get in the gym, get closer to God as my household was heavy on religion and I always believed in God but never put effort into it and overall becoming a healthy person. Admittedly I lagged on this and resorted to being a fanatic of the NFL (I'm a Chargers fan) and used that as well as YouTube as a mental crutch. Tbh I never got in the gym and my grades suffered and found myself in a depressed state trying multiple times to get myself out of it but to no avail. Now fast forward to December 2nd, 2023. I was in Saturday school making up attendance issues that had come with the aforementioned behavior, I posted a story of a Batman painting on one of the classroom walls on IG and found a account I hadn't seen before had liked my story. I didn't pay any attention to it as I had figured it was a bot or just a random until I decided what the he'll I checked it out and followed it. A day later it accepted my request. I found out it was this red head girl (more auburn than red red) she was really pretty but I stayed true to what I had promised before that being not making contact with any girls. On Dec 4th she reached out to me saying that she couldn't follow me due to a account issue but would as soon as she could. It was from here that our conversation continued. She bombshelled me that she lived in Morocco and I was unserious about the interaction due to obvious reasons. Fast forward to me typing this and it was the most unexpected interaction I have ever had. Now I can predict that comments that will come with this next part. I fell in love with this woman and I mean woman. I don't wanna sound weird or whatever but I truly feel as if she was sent to me by God almost as an angel to give me redemption. To give detail, I've become a way better person while being with her. I got closer to God as she herself is very religious, I got back in the gym (although I still have been inconsistent on that), I found my future in career, I found myself essentially, I found a purpose. To be clear being as young as I am, my dream is to have a family, not to be rich or to be well known, but to build a family and give them the world, and this woman I found was the one I wanted to do all of this for. Now obviously the issue arises, she lives in Morocco, I in the US. We've only been together for 5 months, and I'm barely about to graduate high school thinking of marriage. Let's pause all of this here, yes I want to marry her and I want to have my family with her but I also am logical enough to know that one, I need to get my foundation started, two I have a lot of growing and healing to do, 3 I actually have to meet her and her family. One of the biggest reasons why I love her is the purity of it. Admittedly lust has been something I've always had an issue with, however with her it's almost nonexistent, I don't see her through a lustful lense but more purely. The other is the relationship between her and my mom. My mother is the most important person in my life (slowly shifting lol) so obviously having a good relationship with her for my wife is important to me. She's the only of the three girls that have shown care for my mother and even recently mentioned that she loved my mother and respects her deeply and cares for her. My mother has also shown her opinion on her saying that she really likes (let's call her Espi). This is huge as my mother is very hard to please when it comes to girl as obviously she's protective of me and wants to make sure that the girl is right for me and so this exchange made my heart melt and made me extremely happy, a happiness I hadn't felt in awhile tbh. However there is a reason for this reddit. One my unhealed self has made it a bit rocky for this relationship despite my love for her and just how much of an angel she is to me (or so I believe). My trust issues have been off the chain and my paranoia has as well. She knows well that I've dealt with anxiety and bad overthinking throughout my life as well as my mood swings and depression and she makes it known to me that I have to talk to her about what I'm feeling or thinking to be straight with her so that way she knows how to help me, that communication is important especially being long distance. I've communicated almost all of my worries except for one. One issue I have is she follows a lot of guys, she's also made it known in the past that many many many guys have made moves for her and that there are. This is something that worries me especially with our communication patterns. One thing she had made known is that she's very much a worker she has two jobs plus in college to become a nurse this is a huge reason why I want to exhaust myself to be able to retire her so she can rest and not have all that stress, but I also want to be able to support her dreams should she desire to go through with them. Now I mention this cuz there are some days where she won't talk to me at all sometimes going up to 4 days not talking, and my worry is those guys she follows plus the ones she has said have come to her. I've asked her loosely in the past and she hasn't been in a relationship but rather a situationship with a guy for 3 years, she's never hooked up and she always "denys" the guys that come up to her. She also made it known that she doesn't believe in male friends as it just ends up into relationships. This all has caused my trust issues and anxiety and paranoia to rise again especially after finding out that she has a male friend. I ended up laying out all my cards on the table about 4 hours ago explaining to her after high school I wanted to dedicate myself to being a husband to her and taking care of her and her family and making a family with her but I wanted to essentially make sure that we were "locked in". I was left on seen. Now I'm looking to reddit to see what I should do. And yes I'm up for all comments ready to call everything in the book so long as I get constructive criticism that will actually help me. I'm also willing to fill any gaps and holes to help the process out. I'm truly lost and wondering what should I do and what should my next steps be?

Hi! Hope you're all having a nice day. I'm a trans man, pre-everything and I haven't changed my name officially (yet) since I'm still a minor.
When I came out to my parents, they were mostly supportive, I did receive some kinda transphobic comments from one parent but I highly doubt they even realised that it was hurtful. They've improved now and started accepting me as trans I think.
They helped pick a name out for me, a name that is very gender neutral. I wanted a more masc name but I thought it was okay so it stuck.
I've been out for a bit past a year now, going by that name at home and at school. However, I've been not quite happy with the name I'm going by for a long time now, and it's beginning to really bug me. I've been using this name with almost everyone for so long now, that I feel like some would probably find it annoying if I changed my name again. In other words, I feel like it might cause a hassle to those around me.
But I really want to use a different name that I picked out for myself and I don't know how. Anyone got any advice on this?

 I apologize if I do not meet the requirements of posting on here, as I am not in imminent distress 

(I do not self harm and do not plan on ending my life right now. I am scared of pain)
At 19 I feel like the world is collapsing around me, and I don’t feel the need to be alive. I wish I did not feel this way. I would like to dive into each aspect of my life so people know why I feel the way I do. I just need support or someone to talk to. Please do not judge.
My relationship: My relationship is rocky, and very complicated. I’ve tried breaking up in the past, but it only leads to anger on her part and an unwillingness to understand my point of view. She struggles with many mental health issues but I love her even so. I just don’t know what to do. I feel trapped. If I tell her how I feel, it always seems to backfire and be my fault.
Family relationships: My single mom is depressed as she tells me daily. My father has been abusive and is still harassing my mother. I luckily have not seen him since I was 18. He had left me and my mom homeless, but we had gotten back on our feet after years of harassment and physical abuse.
School: I don’t know what I want to do with my life. I’m currently enrolled to get a BS in Econ with a minor in psych from a small public university. I’m struggling with grades and it has been difficult for me to even pass my basic macro/micro courses. I thought I had a passion for consumer studies, but I’m second guessing my interests.
Friendships: Everyone has left me since high school has ended. I’m so lonely. I have one friend right now but it’s not like how it was in the past. Everyone has moved on. I used to be track+soccer captain and lead musical cast and business leader president, but nobody even says hi anymore. I’m burnt out trying to talk to anybody. I deleted my social media accounts that had hundreds of thousands of followers because I had thought they were cringy, and there was no point to any of it.
Routines: It’s summer now. I get up. Help around the house. And play video games. Ever since college has started I’ve been struggling with anxiety and depression. I take pills often now to cope. I’ve obtained a horrible p*rn addiction, and it’s been ongoing for a year or two now. I feel empty inside and full of lust. I don’t go out of the house anymore and have been experiencing a lot of body pains. I’m a small built guy, but I’m gaining weight since I have nobody to do anything with. My girlfriend calls me constantly and we hangout occasionally, but I hardly enjoy it. I don’t feel productive and I feel like I’m wasting my life.

I am currently a sophomore in high school and have been doing amazing and getting straight A’s every semester while doing advanced courses until now, my mental health is declining and it is also affecting my physical well-being and my grades; I have been missing a lot of days at school because of it and I don’t know what to do now.
I have always dreamed of going to an Ivy or top school after I graduate but I think I just ruined my chances completely now. My transcript currently states that my gpa is a 4.4 and I am ranked 10 out of 352, it really hurts that I am throwing away my hard work to waste. I know that I could probably raise my grades up to an extent but I won’t be satisfied if it’s not an A, I don’t think I would even be able to a handle a high B. What should I do?
I also have to do summer school for AP world as I’m failing it but will have to take CP instead of AP, will universities notice and will it affect my chances of getting accepted?

The idea is that these would be the effects of either a 10 (High) or a 1 (Low) in any given SPECIAL stat. This would probably only work if the base stat can’t be changed (like in FO4), but effects of items/perks are considered additions to the base value.
These are mostly just ideas for fun, as I’m sure they would be hard to integrate in a game or even game-breaking.
S:

• High: break through light doors, floors, and walls (including abandoned houses) with melee/unarmed, can lift large corpses/objects with ease
  
• Low: cannot lift medium objects, cannot block, all incoming melee attacks cripple, stagger, or knock prone
  

P:

• High: detect all lies in dialogue, lockpicking automatically succeeds, additional caps and rare materials in containers, VATS always 100% if target can be detected
  
• Low: Increased frequency of ambushes, traps completely invisible, unable to react or respond to lies, no proximity alert in sneak nor damage direction alerts in combat, VATS chance never above 20%
  

E:

• High: Infinite sprint; extremely low AP drain from activity; immune to disease, radiation, and addiction
  
• Low: Cannot sprint, extremely fast AP drain from activities, addiction immediately kills, disease kills in 24 hours, background radiation constantly ticks
  

C:

• High: pass all speech checks, merchants give free gifts, faction enemies parlay before battle (and possibly surrender), never offend companions
  
• Low: fail all speech checks, merchants will only trade once then refuse to trade further, all companions leave if anything offends them, all factions hate player
  

I:

• High: Pacify and command robots at will, hacking automatically succeeds, can disable/sabotage power armor, half material usage and no limits on crafting/constructing, stimpaks instantly and completely heal all wounds/conditions
  
• Low: hacking automatically fails, can’t use power armor nor energy weapons, can’t craft nor construct, all letters/words/numbers jumbled and distorted, can’t heal crippled limbs unless a doctor does so
  

A:

• High: undetectable while sneaking in dark/dim light, insta-kill melee while sneaking, no AP cost in VATS, automatically succeed pickpockets
  
• Low: sneaking fails immediately, pickpocketing fails immediately, can’t use VATS, chance to stumble randomly while sprinting, 1% hip-firing accuracy
  

L:

• High: random events and encounters are always positive, enemies will sometimes die of natural causes in combat, gambling always succeeds, fetch quest items sometimes appear in player’s inventory
  
• Low: Factions often confuse you with their enemies, random encounters and events are always negative, radiant quests often fail randomly, gambling always fails, legendary enemies more common in early game and less common in late game
  

I’ve had derealization since 2021. I was a 12 in 6th grade and I wanted to hangout with older kids which was a bad idea. We smoked weed and it sent me down hill up until now. I’m 14 now and I still get it sometimes but it’s not as bad as it was.
It really does get better and you learn to manage it and find the triggers and causes. I was scared to touch weed for around a year due to this but I did end up doing it again and it wasn’t bad. The reason your body does this is because it’s trying to protect you from high levels of paranoia/anxiety and I’d say it’s kinda cool the brain does that. I’ve lived with it for about three years and i’m not scared of it anymore and neither should anyone else. I get how hard it can be, how you can feel unreal and like your dreaming but like i said before you learn to manage it and find triggers and causes. Last time I was on this subreddit I read this persons post about how they’ve been in a state of derealization for around 7-9years and they said with time you learn to manage it and it gets easier. In my case it goes away and comes back sometimes but I know that it’ll be okay and it took me a long time to come to that understanding. It’ll take time for a lot of people to understand that but it’s seriously is possible and you can and will work through it. There’s no way out of it you can only go through. I’m writing this because I got another little episode of derealization and depersonalization and I just told myself that i’m gonna be okay. Which is true you’re gonna be okay. I just wanted to share this in hopes it may help someone <33 feel free to ask questions etc.
(i am aware of what drug use does to the brain at a young age. I was dumb and I understand that and I live with the consequences now, so don’t lecture me)

After googleIO and openAI announcements, it's pretty clear, that big tech has no solutions for the fundamental problems infecting AI today, and they both hiding these problems under the carpet with fancy useless demonstrations. Now you can check your car registration plate in your photos. Wow! I know zero people who don't know his car's plate. You can search for emails from school. Wow! I can do that more easily with a simple filter. But now you can play rock-paper-scissors with AI, or introduce your dog to it, or you can walk with a camera, and ask AI completly obvious questions about everyday objects! Amazingly who the fuck cares about these? Also you can do most useful things with a simple classifier AI for years. But you can do dad-jokes, or you can generate rhytmic noise effects, that people can already do for decades.
But you can now translate real time, only bad thing is there were zero benchmarks, zero realistic situations, we don't even know what languages you can use, and how effective the whole thing is. You can use vision, but where are benchmarks, showing how and AI can read a sensor, recognise a thief, or a fire, or anything practical use cases?
Meanwhile, no big tech said they are on a way to make AI more intelligent, more thrustworthy, less hallucinations, etc. These important things are something that they not like to talk about. What is with alignment and safety? Oh, we work on it. Any benchmark about it? No. They have still completly no idea how to solve these fundamental problems.
Why these demonstrations not showed ANY useful usecases that avarage people can use to help his work or his life, etc? Seems generative AI is stay as it is, can be used for niche things in some fields, but stays completly irrelevant for 99% of avarage people.
No suprised that Ilya Sutskever just left openAI. I guess he already realised that to build AGI it needs completly different approaches, but sitting back to the drawing board is not what bigtech wants after invested billons of dollars into sophisticated uncontrollable bullshit generators and work so much to sell the hype that these bullshitgenerators will be magically intelligent in no time.
At least these demos were good to demistify mythologic things like "exponential progress", AGI soon, and other things that AI belivers saying day by day. Instead of these, we had generative AI renessaince with big data, it lasted a short perido of time, we maxed it, and now it's time to realise that we have no innovations in the field, and AGI is still decades or more further if it is possible at all to achieve.

What is happening with Goodwill? About 6 months ago, on a Thursday evening, left the So Cal Atwater store feeling bullied, humiliated, and ganged up on by employees. It was the worst experience in that it has left me traumatized and still reliving it… Had been a customer of this store for years spending thousands of dollars and mostly for charity. Some of the other managers and employees working there can attest, I pretty sure.
That evening, I had been waiting for a cashier to show up to help for about 15-20 minutes, when a new checkout clerk showed up whom I had never seen in that store before, started to ring up the items of the person behind me because his items were placed by her register. When I pointed out to her that it was my turn, she simply ignored me and rolled her eyes. When she started ringing my things, she looked up at me and said “what are you staring at?” She was agitated but not loud. I thought I had misheard and asked her to repeat, and again she said the same thing. That’s when I paused and asked her louder if she had a problem with me.
The manager on duty, who was helping the other cashier for at least 30 minutes with a customer with 5 gigantic bags of clothes to exchange, and while already frustrated, without knowledge of the situation jumped out of her station, and in a loud tone told me to not talk to the cashier in that tone. I told her what had happened, and she had a stone cold look and did not care at all.
Next thing I know, a very aggressive security woman comes over and tells me to “step outside” so she can match my energy implying she will get physical, very eager to show her power in front of everyone without a care about the incident itself. Then the customer exchanging what seemed her and her children’s entire closet, pulls out her camera to film it all as if it’s entertainment while the security guard asks her to film it and pass it along to her for TikTok and is laughing. This happened as I was walking out. That’s when I got upset with the security guard and said if she does that, I will bring a lawsuit and shortly after went back to take pictures of the people involved. Unfortunately, did not catch a pic of the very aggressive and loud security guard. Her picture in an animated pose would be very. These employees were the WORST! Bored and hateful. They have no business dealing with customers. I couldn’t sleep for a week after that I was so shaken up. With my heart racing, after a couple of weeks, on a Saturday, went back to that store knowing that the Saturday staff knows me and treats me with respect. Was wondering if I can somehow get the name of the security guard and file a complaint with Goodwill. Entering, passed the hallway security guard (a different one) and once in the store was greeted by the cashier on duty who knew me as a customer, and I decided to proceed with the shopping and let things go. About 15 to 20 minutes later 2 store employees and a security guard approach me with a piece of paper in hand telling me it’s a traspass warning due to an incident that happened a few weeks ago (referring to part 1 of this story)and that I am banned from that particular store and if I have questions to contact either the head of security or store management. The cashier who approached me with the trespass note said that he knew I was one of the long time and best customers and apologized profusely but said the ban was mandated by the security and that there was nothing he could do. So humiliated and upset and with no former experience in being banned from anywhere, I left contemplating my next steps. I was so angry that I was entertaining the idea of calling an attorney, but decided that instead I would escalate to the people mentioned by the cashier. After going in circles for a few weeks and leaving messages for the retail customer relations representative and receiving no call back, I somehow had the luck of my call being picked up by a HR person who gave me the work cell phone number for the person (Jose Garces) I had left messages for without a response. After leaving a message on his cell and saying I won’t give up, he finally calls me back and gives me the cell phone number for their head of security once I share the story. After leaving multiple messages for the head of security named Joe Suarez, and never getting a call back, called from a blocked number and he picked up. Needless to say, once he finds out who I am, he is very rude on the phone followed by an email from Jose confirming that the ban remains and threatening that if I speak to the employees about this matter, the ban will get extended from a year. A month and after some research, I located the email information of their president and CEO. Sent an email to several of them about this horrible experience, and FINALLY, the director of their customer relations called me back and I felt relieved. I believed I can finally talk to someone about this farce of a situation, the horrible injustice and humiliation, and she will set things straight. Her name is Shavone Turner. Boy, was I wrong. She gave me the run around for 5 more months to only do NOTHING. She kept citing vague and illogical excuses why I need to call back. Yesterday she told me to call back in August which would mark 10 months since the incident and 4 procrastinations and requests for my callback. Does she really underestimate people’s intelligence to that degree thinking she can fool them in thinking she is taking action? Shame on Goodwill SoCal. The so called points of contact for escalation related to a bad experience in a retail store or with a power hungry security guard were useless to say the least. I feel they are not there to help anyone, so not sure why they are even identified as points of contact. Donations including mine are wasted on their salaries? Joe Suarez should be fired. People shouldn’t get away with this kind of behavior. People who have their jobs because of others good will… There are many truly hard working and qualifying professionals that could be filling these high paying positions who would actually do their jobs instead of posturing.

Gf lives with me and we have been together 1.5 years. I am previously divorced, no kids.
Gf has many amazing qualities to her and I am happy 98% of the time. The 2% however is very dark and generally rooted in jealousy and insecurity.
She frequently accuses me of checking out other women when I am not. Any action I do to another female is considered flirtatious. She refuses to has friends of her own and says that all friends do is betray you, family is all you need (she is hispanic).
Last night got out of hand. I work a high stress job with a significant mortality rate and already had leftover stressors on my mind throughout the week. The morning before, I woke up to a text from a longtime female friend where I had asked her about activities we could do as couples in the area. Gf insisted I didn’t need to ask her for ideas since I have google. She then told me then I should have this friend make me dinner instead of her.
Later that evening, she demanded access to my phone. I denied her this request as I found it unreasonable and have never given her a reason to mistrust me. She then refused to let me use the bathroom without her standing in the doorway to make sure that I wasn’t doing anything i shouldn’t be doing on my phone and accused me of not trusting her and hiding something.
Then she told me that she saw me look at a 13 year old female child in a sexual way in a restaurant three months ago. I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about and was horrified to hear this. She then said something to the effect of “maybe I should tell your boss about this.” I then had a panic attack. I called my parents even though I was unable to speak. I am not close to my parents but did not know what else to do.
My dad rushed to me even though I said he didn’t need to come over. He found me in a mess and eventually after I gained some composure, I asked him to ask gf why I was so upset. She repeated the accusation to which my dad was disgusted. She then implied she didn’t really believe it but just said it because she was keeping it inside her.
After my dad left, gf was inconsolable. She then said we should break up because she was “embarrassed” and that she never would have involved her parents in our problems the way I did. The next day, she went back to how much she loves me and wants to be together.
She recently has begun seeing a therapist due to the insecurities and her own traumas of past domestic violence. She has admitted the jealousy is a problem and toxic. I am now living in fear that she will make an accusation like described above again when she is upset. The trust I had is shattered. I really love this girl and I now am scared.
What can I do to save this or should I?
TL;DR Gf has extreme jealousy issues that now make me fearful of her.

I am in biosciences and would like to aim for a good program in my field, although I do not know if it is even possible for me at this point. My undergrad major was BME and I ended up with a GPA of a high 3.6, but I basically had no research experience. My first two summers I was focused on industry. During my school semesters I tried to work under various PIs, but all my projects never went anywhere and petered out, to the point I do not list them on my resume. I specialize in dry lab and a lot of the time I was just not assigned any work. Without any meaningful supervision from my PIs it was easy for my self-guided research work to become second priority due to pressure from courses.
Regardless, I currently only have one significant research experience, which was during my junior year summer. I think I will eventually get a middle author publication from that work. I’m currently enrolled in an 18-month MS program with a significant thesis component, and I plan to do as much research as possible during that time. Still, I am worried it will not be enough. I’m wondering what my long term plan should be at this point. Should I aim for lower-tier PhD schools? Should I plan to do lab work after MS and then apply to PhD? Could I salvage my application with a good MS thesis? Is PhD not in the cards and should I am for industry?

Now that i have your attention and i know most people here have the attention span of a drunk pigeon ill try to somewhat make it quick and straight to the point here are some points on why you should Slide in my Dms Or maybe points on why you shouldnt? your choice really

• i am 23, i am soon not gonna be in my early 20s and that is... shocking, like where tf did the 18-22 years gone to, i have no idea, prob have memory loss :D
• cats i love those mf's, those evil bastards have a choke hold on me, no wonder they tricked the Egyptians into making them their gods
• my attention span is that of a flat earther brain, aka it does not exist. tiktok ruined me send help
• i have few hobbies but u can always use that to progress the convo later so need to mention them now
• i dont get offended at all so try your luck at roasting me.

i have no issues assuming the dad position in the friendship and show u the care u never had
now to why you MIGHT not want to be my bestie

• random bursts of roastness/flirtatiousness take that how you would. i will roast you like a bully and compliment you like we've been married for decades
• high maintenance so i expect to text frequently but i dont mind if you disappear during the day

-Jack
Every kid growing up in Gympie in the early 90- 2000s knew about the Love Tunnel.
The love tunnel was located over the hill from the skatepark on the Riverbank. It was a massive storm water drain filled with spray paint and lore unbound throughout the generations; the glowing dick, whose name is the furthest in, the people who live inside, the bull shark that lived under the bridge just outside, all that fun stuff.
It collapsed in the late 2000’s in a flood and was eventually rebuilt, but it was all fancy, modern, safe and not the same. Back in the day it had decades of graffiti, crumbling cement, jagged metal pole framing bent and jutting out from the sides. You know, real character.
I remember when I was just a kid at the skatepark and I spotted a bunch of other kids at the metal grating of a drain. I joined them and gazed down a few metres to some older teenagers, they had trekked through this “love tunnel” under the massive hill all this way. Badass I thought. LEGENDARY.
I talked about it at school, about this mysterious “love tunnel”. It was in view from the road when I crossed the bridge everyday on my daily commutes from the backseat of mums car.
I would gaze down at the weir and see the top of the love tunnel, sliightly hidden from view by a hill. It fascinated me.
I learned all these mysterious tales; this person slept with this person there, someone took a dump at the entrance and some other girl stood in it and now she had a nickname, someone found needles, another found a homeless woman and she screamed at them. I was pumped for the next weekend. I was going to go see it for myself.
I saw too much.
Early Saturday morning I was riding my push bike through town and toward destination adventure! I started out at the skatepark, met up with a few of the regulars, a mix of 5-19y/o everyone on the half pipes and ramps had a code of comrady that I've never found in a public place anywhere else and you always had someone to hang with.
My usual crew slowly arrived through the morning, a bunch of other 10/11 year old misfits like myself and we headed on our first place on our journey, Hungry Jacks. Now we never technically stole, we found a loophole…
One or two would order a stunner meal, then we'd take privilege of the free refills and fill up the empty plastic 4L juice jugs that we all had prepped in our backpacks. Coke and red Fanta for days.
So we got our supplies and headed behind HJ, past the volleyball courts and headed down a bush track down to the river.
We walked along the banks to loop back down to where the bridge was, we passed a few teenagers fishing and a couple other groups of kids swinging from rope swings into the water or huddled in groups smoking things they shouldn't.
We eventually arrived at the weir and the stormwater drain that I had been so intrigued by. The Love Tunnel.
Climbing up the hill and seeing it up close when you were just a tiny human. It was like staring into the dark abyss of hell.
There was a small stream of water flowing out of the big grey cylinder and it was covered in multicolored quotes and crude pictures that was very eye opening at the time.
Our voices echoed as one by one we climbed up the grassy, eroding clay edging that was the makeshift path into the mouth that probably changed each time it rained. Each of us had pulled out clumps of grass that we thought were handholds. If you fell, you fell down an embankment of slippery jagged rocks poking out from the fast flowing river.
So were inside and began to walk a couple of metres in then around us the light abruptly disappeared into complete darkness. And I remember the way the sounds traveled you could feel it through your chest it was mesmerizing.
I remember bravely stepping into the darkness and taking five or six steps in. That thick darkness was something else, I ran myself back to that entrance and light, heart pounding from the adrenaline.
This turned into a game of who could go in the furthest. This stopped when one of the boys screamed out from the darkness in pain.
He was back in the light teary eyed a few moments later wet on one side and feigning a laugh. He'd slipped down and cut open his knee, it was hilarious. We teased him saying he was going to get gangrene and leprosy and a myriad of other ailments we had no idea actually was.
We decided to bail, we forgot torches, we didn't plan that part out too well, and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon being little menaces.
We met the next day with a game plan, we had an array of various sized torches, from small ones that didn't do anything, one of those giant rectangle ones that was our main light source, a couple of handheld ones, one which flickered and the other stopped working before we even got into the tunnel.
We got in safely and tested out our torches and began walking into the unknown. It was pretty much the same as before, but there were strange things, old makeshift bongs, shopping bags, random shoes, a shopping trolley, a mattress that was all moldy and rotted. I still to this day do not understand how people managed to get that shit in there.
We passed a section where someone had thrown a can of red paint all over the walls, the amount of those ‘S’ symbols was more terrifying.
We saw light up ahead, we were passing our first grate. It was kind of daunting looking up towards it. Even getting on each other's shoulders we couldn't reach. There was an array of broken beer bottles and glass was everywhere, under the grate was a dead snake amongst some debris.
We had a debate whether to go further, we ended up going on at least until the next grate, we came to a fork, one seemed like a smaller offshoot so we stuck to the bigger side.
There were more offshoots and we came to a part where the big pipes split off into three under another grate. We gazed up hoping to get an identifier of our location, but all we could see was blue. We called out to see if we could get anyone's attention.
“Cooooweeee” we shouted in unison, the sound echoing in all directions.
We were laughing and having a grand time until something shouted back, something that still shakes me to my core to this day.
Some yobbo crackhead chick in her fifties with this ratty pink tank top that was all stretched half showing her saggy titties. “What the fuck you think you little cunts doing down here.” This chick screeched at us through her few teeth or something along the lines of that. She just exploded at us with a barrage of threats.
We were shocked silenced moving together to make one mass.
One of the boys screamed when a skinny guy emerged from the darkness. He was covered in tattoos with scraggly hair and a beard, he was all crazy eyed and pantless.
Someone yelled out to run and it was all the motivation we needed.
We could hear them screaming and the guy ran after us, we heard glass shattering behind us, they must have thrown a bottle. We were legging it.
We got split up in our running, I fell down, tripping over some rubbish, one mate stayed back to help me, this left us without a torch. We came across the same kid who slipped over yesterday, he had slipped down again cutting open his other knee. He wore those with badges of honor at school, but he was blubbering like a baby at this point.
He had the flickering torch and it disoriented us more than helped, as it turned on and off every time he took a step. I thought we were lost but we found the other grate, then eventually the entrance.
The others were already climbed down, we were soon by their side panting in the grass and wiping away our tears so the others couldn't see.
We ran back over to the skatepark and immediately told every kid we saw.
That was the wildest shit we had ever experienced. Sure we’d seen crazy up on the street but to have it jump out at you from the shadows in a storm water drain was next level.
By that night one of the other boys had spilled to his parents about our escapades and a couple of other mums got phone calls, three got in trouble, two of us didn't, including me.
I never stepped foot back in that tunnel, I swam at the weir more times than I could count afterwards though and never encountered anyone else too sketchy.
I think only a year or two later I saw on the news people dying in storm water drains somewhere else in Aus, we never realized how dangerous they could be back then. Lol.
Every party or get together afterwards it was a crowd favorite to bring up. It was a good conversation starter and joined the tales amongst my friends of the weird shit that happens in ‘Helltown’.
Growing up and looking back they were probably just homeless drug addicts freaked out from a bunch of children's voices yelling out coooweee from the underground where they thought they were alone. That would have scared the shit outta me if I was them.
Good times.
.VJ
Tl:Dr kids go into storm water drain and find creepy couple who scream at them.

Hii! I’ve been looking for this song for a long time and I have no idea how to find it with the little info I have, so here goes: it’s a sad song I believe, something sufjan steven-like if I remember correctly, the only part I can recall is the chorus, where the singer (male) sings in a high pitched voice (thin head voice, sorta like kodaline) in an ascending pitch. syllables sorta like duh duh (pitch up) duh duh (pitch up) duh duh (pitch up) duh duh (pitch down a little) duh duh duh duh duh. I think the lyrics are something emo like “now I’m standing in… cold… shadows… rain” but I’m not sure, maybe something like “face” or “lips” involved. I realize this is so little info there’s probably no hope, but this is a big brain worm I’ve been carrying around

I was stressed so much for a while because of this and have been feeling my emotions go in a wreck. In mainly chemistry it just makes me feel like I’m fucking stupid and can’t remember and understand anything at all, thinking about this around a few hours ago really hurt me and I cried for a little bit just because of how stupid I feel and how stressing it is. Also I’m stressed from all the homework I need to do, like for example, how I had to ask my parents about some context thing for a story we’re gonna read, study for a geometry test, (the main stress) having to complete a prelab for titration and a bit of a packet, and also having to do an entire study in AP world on a certain question I made and have to do it in some random format. My mind just hurts and it’s all just been getting to me lately.

I do t know if it’s just me or if this stuff is suspicious. We’ve been together for a year now. Here’s the reasons I think she might be cheating:

1. We used condoms at the beginning of our relationship. Then about two months in we stopped. Now all of a sudden she wants to start using them again. She said it’s because she doesn’t like the smell we both produce when we have sex and that the condoms help.
   
2. We barely even have sex anymore. We’re going on two months now.
   
3. She accidentally turned off her location services on her phone and I can’t see her location. She can still see mine. When I asked her about it, she said she didn’t know how to turn it back on. I walked her through it and got it back on. A day later, they were off again.
   
4. She doesn’t wear her engagement ring. When I asked her about that, she said it’s because she doesn’t like being asked personal questions about her life while she’s at work. That kind of makes sense, but when she goes out with friends, she doesn’t wear it either.
   
5. When invited to go out with friends, her friends don’t invite me to tag along. Our group of friends is one that we have both known since high school. We’ve both been friends with this group for almost 20 years.
   
6. She’s been distant. We used to cuddle every night and now I barely get a kiss good night.
   
7. She recently started doing her makeup and hair in the spare bathroom. She’s always done it in our shared bedroom or bathroom. When I asked her about it, she said it’s because she doesn’t want to wake me up. I’ve told her that she is the only person in this world that could wake me up and I’d have no issue with it.
   
8. It took her two weeks to tell her family about our engagement. When I shared it on Facebook, she got upset with me.
   
9. She always keeps her phone unlocked. That’s not the issue, but she used to always just leave it lying around. Now she never lets it out of her sight. My phone is locked because I use it for work and have sensitive company information on there. She has the password and has her face assigned to it, so she always has access.
   
10. She used to take calls while I’m in the room and always used speaker phone because she said it’s easier for her to hear it. Now within the past month she leaves the room and uses the regular speaker.
    

I really hope this is me just being paranoid. I don’t know how to approach any of this with her without making her uncomfortable or without it seeming like I’m accusing her of cheating. I don’t want to secretly go through her phone or anything like that. We signed a lease together a month ago. If she is cheating and I find out, I’m stuck with her for another 11 months. Any help would be appreciated.

I know it is unlikely that anybody can give me a close estimate of my chances of getting a TSCI clearance, but I would like to know how my case looks as I am considering going into the Air Force OTS after finishing college.
I am a dual-citizen American (By birth) Colombian with non-citizen parents who live in Colombia.
They lived in the States under student visas for approximately ten years, so my sister and I were born here and left for Colombia with our parents when I was five years old.
As a result, I moved back when I was 17, and now, five years later, I am in my last semester of college. I still keep in touch with maybe 10 Colombian friends from high school who are also attending college and my cousins, since most of them have lived and continue to live in Colombia. Therefore, I still visit the country yearly for Christmas as it is a family costume to be together during those dates.
Additionally, I would be open to renouncing my Colombian citizenship as I do not see myself benefiting from it or intend to participate in the country's electoral process.
Overall, besides making the process of assessing my associations longer, will these connections and my background jeopardize my TSCI clearance or significantly affect my chances of getting one?

I remember doing this one act play(?) script in my high school theatre class. It wasn’t performed we just worked on it for a bit for fun. It had many characters, and they didn’t have names they were just called by their personality. There was a character named Slut, another named Invalid. I can’t remember the rest but there were at least 10 characters. The characters go around introducing themselves and telling a bit about who they are. Other character names could be Country Girl, Widow, Comedian…? The script had various options for the Slut characters name like Tramp.
Does anyone know of this random one act play?