I want to quickly dismiss a couple associations that this post will have.

1. This is not masochism (ie pleasure through pain).
2. This is not a method of achieving or "proving" self identity (ie "challenge yourself and find what you're made of, bud!!!")

This is a direct shot across the bow at what I see as the major cause for mental illness in the entire 1st world. In the physical health world, you have stages that lead towards obesity: there's the early stage (often termed "pre-diabetic"), then there's full on metabolic syndrome. Somewhere in between, you go from 20 lbs overweight to 100 lbs overweight. It's much easier to save someone in the early stages, as permanent long-term weight loss is extremely rare. Thus, to complete my analogy, it's my belief that there is an equivalent to this "pre-diabetic" stage of poor mental health across most of the 1st world, and the people we traditionally label "mentally ill" are merely in a more advanced stage that has become more difficult to recover from.
What ails us is that we were born into a successful society that provided for our needs without much effort on our part. Consequently, our primary daily concern is pleasure, rather than survival. We seek pleasure from the moment we wake up until the moment we go to bed through: food, entertainment, sexual gratification, and more broadly ego gratification. These are the things that give meaning to our lives. In other words, we create short and long term goals that ultimately result in the fulfillment of these objectives of pleasure. People pursue whole hobbies and careers solely for sexual gratification (get fit, make money, get chicks!). We fill up all of our spare moments with entertainment (most recently, in the form of social media, but older media forms still apply, particularly streaming television). And given that something like 70% of the US is overweight, we literally cannot help ourselves but overeat.
We'll blame these things on anything that we can. We're pursuing entertainment only because we're lonely! We're only overweight because we eat poor quality food or don't exercise! We only pursue porn because we aren't getting laid enough! No, you lack self-discipline.
But alas, this is not a post about self-discipline either. This is an attempt to illustrate your current orientation, it's core failing, and what it could be instead.
The feeling of surviving something is euphoric. Surviving a hard work day, a stressful moment around a wild animal, a taxing hike or workout, a risky move in an extreme sport, or even an act of heroism... all of these things trigger something extremely satisfying in the brain similar to what pleasure is doing for you now. Imagine if you could get yourself addicted to this form of success instead of pleasure chemical success. You would have new capabilities, a satisfaction with yourself, AND you would also be happy like you feel for brief moments right now. Now imagine how you could build up this feeling of happiness all day by pursuing these goals because your brain would be rewarding you in anticipation of more success. This is what pushing yourself can actually do.
Note: the amount of joy you feel from surviving something is NOT equivalent to the amount of pain experienced during the activity. At least, not in the narrow sense of physical pain telling you not to touch a hot stove, for instance. This is why this is not a masochistic philosophy.
To be blunt: instead of recoiling from pain, lean into it. Accept it. Think about how hard you can make yourself, and the cost/benefit for basic decisions in your life will be transformed in ways that I can hardly describe. If you were born in an era that wasn't so comfy, or you were born into unfortunate circumstances that made your childhood difficult, you already know these things by heart. But if your life thus far has been comfy, it might be time to experience something else.

Planning to sell rights to my business to a colleague.
We've had sales of 300k, 550k, 850k the past 3 years, profit is consistently 25-35%. I want a 5 year agreement with him that gives him basically control over everything and I get 2k per month.
I don't have the time or health to run it anymore, and he's qualified. I honestly just want it out of my hands for a while, possibly forever. I just can't get rid of it fast enough. It's a great business...but. We grew too fast and I'm not qualified to be running it and it's destroyed my mental health. ANYWAYS,
Is it possible to make an agreement for this that also stipulates something like, if he runs our Google rating into the ground or starts losing money, that he forfeits the control of the business back to me, perhaps even with a penalty?
Anyone who's done this please let me know your experience. I know absolutely nothing about this topic, and if anyone has tried to research legal matters related to business before you know it's a fkin headache.
Obviously going to get a lawyer for this but flat rates surely won't apply and I'm not trying to waste $400 hours. Professional or personal advice welcomed, thank you.

Hey guys, I’m a 22 year old male. I’ve had so many posts recently about anxiety because the last 2 months have been tough. Something is physically wrong with me and i feel like im alone because it keeps getting blamed on anxiety. I’ve never been this anxious, my whole life has changed the last 2 months. It’s led to depression and extreme panic because everyday is something new.
Basically after reading quite a bit I’ve discovered pots and I’m almost positive I have it and think I finally might have an answer. It started with really red and splotchy hands, though it was odd and went to ER. They said HFMD. Then they started turning purple and red that comes and goes (worse after shower) brain fog, dizziness, poor tempature control, short breath when simply eating, high heart rate that gets much higher when standing or adjusting myself (makes me feel faint), cold/hot parts of body, now the last 3 days my veins are turning blue/purple and much more noticeable, as well as me dumping buckets of sweat.
This is not a mental health issue, this physical problem has driven me to mental health issues. Truly feel like I’m crying out for help. I see my doctor tomorrow and i don’t know how to go about this. What are your guys thoughts? Thank you

Hi everyone!
New seed for this week:
Game Details

• ROM build: 2023-09-22
• Accessibility: items
• World State: open
• Swords: randomized
• Goal: ganon
• Permalink: https://alttpr.com/h/qMleVOwxvd
• Code: Shovel, Somaria, Empty Bottle, Quake, Hammer

Logic Settings

• Glitches Required: NoGlitches
• Item Placement: advanced
• Dungeon Items: standard
• Accessibility: items

Goal Settings

• Goal: ganon
• Open Tower: 7 Crystals
• Ganon Vulnerable: 7 Crystals

Gameplay Settings

• World State: open
• Entrance Shuffle: off
• Boss Shuffle: none
• Enemy Shuffle: none
• Hints: off

Difficulty Settings

• Swords: randomized
• Item Pool: normal
• Item Functionality: normal
• Enemy Damage: default
• Enemy Health: default

Results for last week:

• Orbital1646: 1:24:18 130/216
• gogogoanon: 1:31:37 140/216
• DDRKirbyISQ: 1:38:00 150/216 VOD
• doggiedolphie: 1:39:47 149/216
• Ejigantor: 1:43:46 146/216
• Ellis_D-25: 1:45:15 151/216
• zellyman: 1:45:55 144/216
• skepticCanary: 1:50:41 161/216 VOD
• scanlor: 1:51:10 158/216 VOD
• I_pity_the_aprilfool: 1:53:49 161/216
• caitsithx: 1:55:54 158/216
• PixelFan05: 1:56:36 164/216 VOD
• CommodoreToad: 2:05:22 155/216
• LimpBagel: 2:05:28 152/216
• Sam5253: 2:10:35 151/216
• ABBeachBum: 2:15:52 156/216
• AcuityNPC: 2:19:34 160/216
• 8Cinder8: 2:20:33 164/216
• scrolltoe: 2:39:30 167/216
• butchlecolosse: 2:42:28 185/216

The lowest collection rate was 130/216 by Orbital1646.
20 results were submitted. The median time was 1:55:54. The median collection rate was 156/216.
Congrats to Orbital1646 for taking the top spot with a result of 1:24:18.
Orbital1646's comments:

130/216 - 1:24:18
Baited into Hera early when pearl was just in escape. First sword on blacksmith felt bad.

As always, the rules:

• Timing is based on the in-game timer, not real time
• All "thinking" time should be done in-game on the clock
• Reset using save quit to preserve in-game timing
• Halting the game (turning off the clock) to do real life stuff is fine
• Fast-forwarding is fine
• VODs are welcome, but not required
• Rewind and slow motion aren't allowed
• Save states can be used to halt/continue the game, but not as a way to revert mistakes
• Competitive glitches are permitted, as per the ALTTPR Racing Ruleset.
• At the end of the run, put your total time and comments
• Feel free to submit disqualified times; simply note that the time was DQ and mention why

So this friend of mine for many years has multiple pets. About 10 years ago I took care of them for a while when I was jobless. However since then she has slacked off on house-cleaning, and increased the number of pets. She currently has 5 cats and a dog.
She doesn't have many friends so if she has to go out of town on a weekend, she will ask if I will pet-sit.
Unfortunately for the last several years, and worse since I had Covid, I've had allergic reactions every time I pet-sit at her house. Originally I felt it was just changing the litter so I told her I could pet-sit but wouldn't clean litter boxes.
I would get flu-like symptoms every time I stayed at her place overnight. Often congestion, but also headache, fever, etc. A couple of times last year it was so bad I was convinced I had caught Covid again, though I tested negative.
So this past weekend she had to leave town suddenly due to a death in her family, and I agreed to pet-sit Friday & Saturday night. No litterboxes to be cleaned, she has automated litterboxes now, that can go for longer between cleanings...
So ... Saturday morning, I wake up with a pounding headache.... It seemed to get slightly better so I went about my day, but it was nagging me the whole day. I had to leave for a few hours as well. I had noticed my heartrate was up higher than normal, but just noted that to the side. I wasn't having any congestion so hadn't realized it was the allergies again. Thought I lucked out.
By late evening I had to cancel my plans, I had a high fever, much higher than normal heartrate, etc. My plans involved a lot of activity and the extra activity pushed my heartrate out of a safe range and I was starting to get lightheaded and feel faint, so I immediately cancelled the plans and went to a family member's house for a few hours. Heartrate went down but was still elevated. I do take a single medication, which lowers my blood pressure and heartrate normally, so having it up is something I watch closely. I connected it to the allergies at this point.
I was feeling a little better, but still lousy, and went back to my friend's house for the second night of pet-sitting. Ended up having chills when I went outside even though the temps were only in the upper 60s. Slept terribly, and basically had no energy all day Sunday. Heartrate was down but still higher than my normal base heart rate. Ended up sleeping most of Sunday. Managed the drive home. Back at my own place, I slept great and felt perfectly normal this morning.
The reaction this time was so strong, that I'm afraid I'm going to have to tell my friend I can't ever stay at her place again. I know part of the issue is she does not keep a clean house, so it smells strongly of her pets. That's never going to change.
Would it be worth trying an allergy medication? I know most of the allergy meds on the market are basically placebos. At this point though it has moved beyond simply congestion to something that actually is a health risk.
Opinions?

So. Recently posted about my EMU visit, how anxious I was that I'd get smacked with a hysteria diagnosis. I had a lot of stuff happen. Most interestingly, in my second sleep deprivation day (basically self-administered, might I add), I had some pretty intense episodes. One of them I fell into some kind of microsleep and emerged extremely sexually aroused, which I was able to identify as the same feeling as my sexsomnia which baffled a sleep doctor. Another one, during sleep dep, I felt this profound and abnormal sense of mental clarity, got excited, felt aggressive, almost like I took amphetamines, faintly hypomanic, and had an extremely intense visual aura with my migraine symptoms an hour or two afterwards, along with a host of my typical seizure symptoms and impairment, though without headache. My final one, after being up for 32 hours, I slept for about two and woke up still dreaming, with extremely impaired awareness, confused as hell, feeling like I was in danger, not able to make sense of what was happening, didn't know where I was, and took about ten or fifteen minutes to return to awareness, typical of what I suspect to be nocturnal seizures I have. Despite getting all of these, by the second or third day they had already told me this was PNES, they weren't catching any epileptiform discharges. I sort of figured this would happen. Whatever.
This part may be ever so slightly out of order, because I didn't record it. Not a mistake I'm ever going to make again. I'm going off my memory, and the memory of a family member who was there and agrees this is what happened.
Today, I'm getting discharged. A doctor I'd never seen comes in. Don't remember her name. She tells me that because there was no epileptiform activity it's PNES and that I need to see a therapist for treatment. I start to have a conversation with her, saying that feels a little "circular" because my three mental health providers told me to pursue neurological care, and that I'd been receiving mental healthcare for twenty years with no improvement. I'm working towards having a conversation with her about how some epilepsy, like TLE and FLE, may not actually present on an EEG. Before I get there, she asks me what symptoms I have that make me think it's epilepsy. Give her a brief rundown of my history, which she didn't know at all despite the fact that I gave some decent history the day I was admitted. Talk about sleep issues I had, all these psychiatric diagnoses I got which didn't do anything, how I couldn't function as a kid and my life fell apart. I mention, among my symptoms that make me think I specifically have TLE, dissociation is one of the most significant ones. I think among this she asked what my triggers are, and as I mention THC is one, she laughs and interrupts me loudly saying "well that should be easy to avoid!" and I try to say alcohol is also a trigger, but I'm pretty sure she spoke over me. She says that the dissociation is a sign of the mental health issues that would be causing my seizures. I say the dissociation precedes the events which caused my mental health issues and begin to describe childhood experiences that make me think it's epilepsy. She seems a bit blindsided by this. She moves on to say it actually isn't PNES but instead it's that I'm hypersensitive to minute changes in my body that other people wouldn't be aware of. This is something I agree with, I mention that I'm able to zero in on really fine stuff and I've spent the last couple years not taking anything for granted and noting all the strange sensory experiences I get. She suggests biofeedback therapy, I tell her I have a long history of neurofeedback therapy and it didn't really help much. That my neurofeedback therapist told me my brain behaved in weird ways, looked strange on EEG, and suggested I see a neurologist about it. She seems to be getting frustrated at this point. I ask if I'm being diagnosed with PNES or not, and she says no I'm not. She says that she's not telling me it's all in my head, or that it's psychological, but that it's sensory things I'm just noticing too strongly. I believe at this point, my dad chimes in and says that I was diagnosed with autism as a child, that I had sensory issues which overwhelmed me. Which, might I add, pissed me off. The doctor seems relieved, leans into that and says that's what would cause me to be oversensitive to sensations. I mention some of my lifelong sensory issues, largely tingles that climb up my spine and make my shoulder jerk, or cold chills that wrap around my head. I mention that I've grown to be very tolerant of my sensory issues, and that the symptoms that concern me are my episodes of memory loss, emerging from sleep in bizarre altered states of consciousness, motor symptoms, and primarily the cognitive issues I have. I emphasize how I'm unable to drive. She then says it's my sleep. She says it's a sleep disorder that's causing all of this and that I need to get a sleep study. When going over my history I emphasized that I had sleep issues as a kid, especially with emerging from sleep and with daytime sleepiness (one of the things that makes me suspect TLE!) and have already had multiple sleep studies which showed nothing, but that I have another one scheduled. She seemed to grab onto that, saying yeah that's definitely what it is, make sure to get to that, and quickly changed subjects and asked me about 10,000IU doses of vitamin D I'd been taking, asking if that was from my PCP. Now. I'm seeing an endocrinologist to treat hypogonadotropic hypogonadism which I have had probably forever, none of my T tests were within range for my age going back to my early 20s and I had symptoms since I was a teenager, and it's just gotten worse in tandem with my suspect epilepsy. I have read several papers which say hypogonadotropic hypogonadism is a condition which presents with TLE in a fashion that is clinically significant, drawing links. I believe some say it's an outright symptom. I say to her "That's from my endocrinologist, actually, and that's one of the things that I'd like to mention which made me think this was TLE--." I am abruptly interrupted. Through an obviously frustrated smile, toothy and saccharine, this doctor interjects to emphatically say "Which it isn't! haha It's not epilepsy!" and continues to say she's going to write this up and send it to my doctor. I sort of checked out at that point, frankly. I don't remember it very well, but she left the room shortly after. So, she didn't read any of my history, didn't read any of my notes I gestured to, didn't give me an opportunity to discuss things I have concerns over, and eventually got frustrated enough to simply interrupt me altogether in order to put her foot down. Tells me to move forward by attending an upcoming sleep study. Whole thing very clearly felt like the doc trying to reverse-engineer some bullshit excuse to justify the conclusion that I just have hysteria, more or less, regardless of what the actual truth of the matter is.
A little while later, I get my discharge packet. One of the very helpful nurses shows me the "patient communication" section in the packet and says this is what she said to my doctor. I find this interesting, but I'm too pissed off to dive right into it. Eventually, after spending a while bitching to my dad about how weird this is once we're alone, I take a look at it. She wrote: "Some of your spells are consistent with psychogenic non-epileptic events. The recommended treatment is therapy focused on identifying and coping with psychological stressors. Please follow up with psychology as an outpatient. Other spells are more likely due to hypervigilance of normal physiologic symptoms." She had explicitly told me she is not diagnosing me with PNES when I asked her earlier. What she ended the conversation on, after I provided context to my history of care (which I specifically mentioned previously and she had absolutely no awareness of) explicitly telling me it's not PNES and that it is a sleep disorder I'm experiencing. Another point in this packet highlights that, according to Minnesota state law, I cannot legally drive for three months following any event with a loss of awareness or voluntary control. Which she actively disregarded in order to settle on each of the four or five different diagnoses she offered before settling on telling me it's a sleep disorder.
I have a followup with the epileptologist who ordered this EMU study. I'm sharpening my swords, so to speak, and trying to find as much substantiative evidence as I can through studies and what resources I can find to explain why it is I suspect I have TLE. I'm finding a lot! I'm more convinced than I ever was this is, in fact, lifelong TLE which has been very difficult to diagnose. I'm reaching out to previous mental health professionals who urged me to seek neurological care to back me up, reaching out to my other providers, and I'm going to begin looking for another epileptologist just in case. But I'm really, really kicking myself for not recording this discussion like I've been meaning to do with all my communiques with doctors. Wondering if I should try to initiate some kind of administrative action against this particular doctor.
The strange thing is the doctor who was interpreting my EEG, different woman, spoke to me several times. She had told me on the second and third days that there were no evident epileptiform waves during my episodes. I would like to add that my blood pressure shot up like fucking crazy during these, and my eyes were always open during them, and it sounds like PNES is typically with eyes closed and causes far less heart rate and blood pressure variability than epilepsy does. Just as an aside. But I mention to her that I'm aware of some kinds of epilepsy which sometimes don't show up on EEG, specifically temporal lobe and frontal lobe, because they happen deeper in the brain. She says yes, that is true, explains a little bit of it to me, but says that this is the gold standard of diagnosis at the moment, with our current technology. We spoke a little about how I have almost 20 years of mental health care under my belt, how circular this all feels. She was sympathetic and laid this out as: as per our technology, VEEG is currently the gold standard of epilepsy diagnosis. According to this gold standard of diagnosis, I do not have epilepsy. Given my history, it would be reasonable to conclude that my issue is not psychological either, and that I'm just unfortunately in a "gray spot." Which I did admire, even if I didn't have a chance to totally voice my concerns, and felt it was sort of bullshit.
So! If anyone in Minneapolis knows an epileptologist to look out for, that would be cool, I guess! Or maybe a lawyer! Who knows! Not really sure what to do with any of this! Because what the hell! Would appreciate any input at all or tips on how to actually get somebody to read my fucking chart in the first place, let alone the notes I shove in their face, and listen to what I have to say. Because this only made me more convinced this is epilepsy, and goddamn I need care ASAP.
p.s. do you guys think i might, maybe, perhaps, a smidge, present the hypergraphic compulsion to write with this two thousand words of bullshit i just hammered out and didn't proofread or anything? lmao. sorry!
tl;dr: doctor i never saw prior rotated through several different diagnoses in the span of a single conversation, obviously did not read any of my history, ignored my notes, interrupted me when I tried to explain concerns, landed on telling me it was a sleep disorder, and then soft-diagnosed me with PNES when she explicitly said it's not PNES and she isn't diagnosing me with PNES

I've seen this argument proffered in dozens of published papers. For example:
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/research/publications/index.html

Reported rates of myocarditis or pericarditis were higher after receipt of the Moderna vaccine than the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and were higher following dose 2. Vaccine safety monitoring has been ongoing globally, and the risk of myocarditis appears highest among adolescents and young adult males following dose 2 of the primary series. However, the risk of myocarditis after COVID-19 disease remains greater than after COVID-19 vaccination, which remains the most effective way to prevent serious complications from COVID-19 infection.

How is this an acceptable level of risk for any product for any individual for whom COVID would not be deadly?
Can you think of any other products that are sold to people to ostensibly protect them from harm for which the potential harm from that product is allowed to be so high unless these individuals are already suffering from a severe illness?
And how do these comparisons even make sense when you consider that fact that these injections don't stop anyone from getting COVID and are recommended for (and are still in some cases even mandated for) perfectly healthy people at effectively zero health risk from COVID (including all of those with superior natural immunity)?

I applied for a position with a well known company and each location is individually owned and operated through franchise agreements. The position was Sales Manager. I was told after I got familiar with operations that I would be starting in that position. Two months later, I am told a co worker who is not the best worker and does the bare minimum to get by, has also been promised this position. I was having health issues so I didn't pursue the position any further. When I came back more work and expectations were put on me, that were in line with Sales Manager. So I figured they were getting ready for my review. As I was doing inventory and found my direct competitor was not properly tracking or checking the shelf life of the products. Over $3k in retail products were expired more than a year. Then this same person was treating her now 4th boyfriend to a discount rate Again, and lied about him getting the subscription membership. I was upset and expressed how this was not the first time this has happened and we need to hold everyone to the same standards. I was told to calm down. Fast forward to today. I found a new job doing what I was promised over a year ago. When I quit should I be honest about the misleading promises that was made, and the double standards?

On my main account, I tend to hover around high masters low GM. I think it's a pretty solid place to be considering I've never played Overwatch before, and I've even got an alt account to play with low level friends and try new heroes. One thing sticks out to me though. Everyone in my games on my main account is permanently tilted, passive-aggressive, and are more neurotic than a fifteen year old My Chemical Romance fan. I feel that every game I have to try and combat my teammates poor mental on top of my own. I get into every game asking people how they're doing, and try and strategize what we can do to win the game. No one communicates until the end of the game where they proceed to flame one another, or me of course (assuming they're in voice.) Does anyone know what the secret to ascending out of this dumpster fire of an elo bracket is, or why everyone seems hell-bent on ruining your day for picking the wrong hero? I've played with people of every skill rating, and only in these matches does it seem this terrible.

As a school environment, it is not uncommon for students to bring pet bottles into the campus. The school also has a vending machine serving beverages packaged in plastic PET bottles. As these are frequently seen in and outside of school, almost everyone has seen plastic bottles everywhere they go. However, the usage of these bottles can have a massive impact on the environment that surrounds us.
Pet bottles' impact on plastic pollution is one of the most critical issues they raise. Because these bottles are unable to biodegrade, they often end up in landfills or bodies of water, where they can linger for hundreds of years and destroy ecosystems and marine life. In order to mitigate this environmental impact, schools may play a critical role in lowering the usage of pet bottles.
Pet bottle manufacturing and disposal have a big impact on resources and energy. Fossil fuels and large amounts of water are used during the pet bottle manufacturing process, which increases carbon emissions and water shortages. Further energy resources are used in the distribution and transportation of these bottles. Schools may contribute to global efforts to tackle climate change by conserving electricity and reducing their carbon footprint by lowering the demand for pet bottles.
It is tough to ignore the effects pet bottles have on health. Research has indicated that extended exposure to specific chemicals present in plastic, such phthalates and bisphenol A (BPA), may have negative effects on human health, such as alteration of hormones and increased vulnerability to specific illnesses. Schools may encourage students and staff to reduce the usage of pet bottles and promote the use of safer, alternative choices like reusable water bottles or water fountains that are found around the school.
Another common everyday product that is used everyday and seen in schools are plastic bags. People often get plastic bags in stores across the world for free or cheap and this has grown into a serious problem. They are composed of LDPE, a polymer that is well known for being softer and having a greater stretch ability than other forms of plastic, when compared to water bottles or food containers. This is just because of LDPE's high air permeability and loosely packed molecular structure; it does not suggest that the material is fragile.
Another form of plastic that is frequently used to make plastic bottles and bags for products everywhere is called LDPE, and it is one of the main causes of water pollution. The material is composed of ethylene monomer and is a thermoplastic, which means that it may harden and soften at temperatures that vary. Due to its special qualities, it may be quite helpful in cold climates but is not the ideal material for hot temperatures where it may be weak structurally. This makes it one of the best options for plastic bags since plastic bags need to be able to expand under load while maintaining the majority of their form.
As an IB school based in Japan, I do believe that respect for enviorment is a big thing that needs to be put out there in the school community. By any chance, does anyone have any suggestions on how the school board can resort to other alternatives? (Or try to convince the school board to resort to other alternatives)

Started in 1960 and it was rough. Heating issues, water cuts, backed up sewers... but I made it to 10k people. In 1968 I had to enable cheat mode for a one time "loan forgiveness". I built up debt into 1980 but finally turned the profitability corner. So here's what I'm going to try to do in my next play:
Macro Layout
Pollution is king. When things ramped up, 400 meters wasn’t enough. Put the edge of housing a full kilometer from industry and waste handling.
Rail is important early. Lay in a single rail line to pull gravel for construction, coal for a heating plant + bricks, and connecting the farm to the industry. Build your construction industry on one side of the border and your manufacturing industry on the other side of it.
City layout
Start with a bus stop and building your residential buildings 200 meters max away from it. Put paths parallel to roads. Create redundant paths to everything so upgrading to gravel, asphalt, etc. doesn’t break things. Build all your housing on one side of the bus stop initially.
Put city services based on vehicles (police, fire, etc.) outside the core of the city. They’ll only be walkable to half of the city compared to the bus stop but the city can be larger. Same with university and schools. Schools, kindergartens, etc. may become overcrowded as the city grows. Build the large hospital in the core as despite having ambulances it is primarily a walking building.
Transfer for big waste (large) should be at the edge of your city and connected to a rail line. Technical services delivers to there. From there, a rail line eventually exports it for handling. Until the rail station is built, use a distribution office to export waste. Sorting is key and should be researched early. Use Stand for big waste containers (small) attached to roads to collect waste whenever possible. Stand for small containers (large) can be used when footpath access is the only option but it’s remarkably less efficient. Citizens produce about 1:3 biological waste to mixed waste so allocate containers accordingly. Within the city only hospitals create hazardous waste and nobody creates aluminum waste.
Build the small party headquarters to start, then the large technical university. You'll need the numbers for faster education and faster tech tree climbing.
Import 3rd world immigrants once you have a minimum educated base to staff your schools. They're way cheaper. Quality housing > dense housing. Dense is great but dense and poor quality = high resource intake and low productivity. Densify in your second city, or rework.
Monuments only get your to 40% loyalty so don't lose your mind on it.
Water and Power
Redundant and parallel. Every time you place a transformer, place a high six way high voltage splitter with it. You will branch your power network to more places over time and need to reroute wires which you can only do while online with open switch ports. Never use the last switch port without building another chained switch.
Similarly, always branch your water and sewer. Unfortunately you can’t have multiple inputs to a line, but you can at least make sure that you can keep branching until the upstream has nothing left to give. Pay attention to pressure. Build the large water tower to supply the town.
Intake water quality is key. Your wells must be placed where pollution won’t reach. Industry should be fed directly from a well so you’re not spending chemicals purifying water. The more polluted the water is, the more chemicals you’ll have to spend to clean it up and that gets expensive very quickly.
Treating wastewater gives a massive reduction in pollution but also takes an expensive amount of chemicals. Best to put your outlet far away if possible instead of trying to treat the water. Drop a sewer switch (remember, always an empty outlet on every switch for infra changes!) before the outlet in case you change your mind.
Roads
Vehicles use the same amount of fuel as long as they’re in motion. If your vehicle top speed is a fraction of your road speed, you’re wasting money. Road stretches of ~500 meters need to be paved and should probably be divided highways. Tight industrial roads with lots of turns can be gravel because you won’t accelerate much anyway. Panel roads are also pretty good as intermediates here. If you’ve got advanced roads on, make sure to set give ways at every highway intersection or your vehicles will drop down to 50 km/h at every one.
Your center of town road probably gets congested and you can help that by banning heavy goods vehicles except supply.
Industry
Focus around one large long warehouse with a train connection at the end and factories directly connected around the warehouse. Central warehouse should have:

• Food factory
• Fabric factory
• 2x Clothing factory
• Chemical factory (possibly 2x)
• Livestock farm

The livestock farm is a bit of a wildcard. It consumes a lot of water and generates a lot of wastewater. Plan for this and consider whether it should be located near your farm or near your factory. I lean towards keeping it with the factory for the sake of concentrating your workforce on one high-throughput passenger line. We'll see how the next playthrough goes.
Mining
Steel is my highest cost and getting to a steel mill that runs even at 5% of capacity seems highly worthwhile. Find coal, colocate with coal mining, attach to train line. Attach transfer to large waste and manage as needed. General separation on site may be reasonable.
Farms
Grow locally. Farms are basically the one thing that doesn’t require people to produce profit or at least reduce cost. As the input to one of your early money makers (clothing)
Economy
Clothing is a top export and accessible early which is key. Build for it, use your own crops, and fill in the rest of the supply chain as you can (chemical plant). Same for steel after some time: find the iron, move it over… but start with making the plant run even with imports.
The republic runs on steel. Want to move something efficiently? You need rails and steel. Want to store it? More steel. More efficient building or process? Going to take steel.
Find coal, make steel. When you have steel, get the radio station going. Yeah, that's not an industry but the productivity boost from loyalty boost is huge.
Now that you have clothing and steel going, make a refinery.
From this point, find the most expensive import and produce it locally until the most expensive doesn’t matter. From there, climb the tech tree into autos and nuclear power. Expand to new cities.

I get like random sensations all over the body like rushing in the head, tingling all over but especially the head front and back, pain in the mouth or teeth randomly, headache, pain in the lower head and neck, pain in the legs/feet, upset GI, high heart rate sometimes with any kind of movement, this has had me bed bound convinced I’m dying cause it’s getting worse everyday the worst is the head and neck stuff cause the sensations can get so intense, along with my heart rate like just getting out of bed and it’s at 140.
This has become debilitating. I’m trying to avoid going to the hospital but it’s getting worse everyday, been ongoing for a week today the start off of this getting so bad was having a panic attack while out for a walk my HR went from 140 to 200 in just a min and I collapsed outside alone took an hour to get back up. (I have PTSD, Panic Disorder, Major Health Anxiety.)

I did some reading here this weekend about permanently disabling the Telematic Control Unit (TCU) in my 2021 Mazda 3 and wanted to share my experience for others interested in doing the same.
Yesterday, 05/12/2024, I unenrolled my vehicle from Connected Services and deleted my profile via the app.
Today, 05/13/2024, I called Mazda customer service after reading the following paragraph on Mazda's privacy policy website here:
"IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO DISABLE OUR COLLECTION OF DEFAULT DATA FROM YOUR CONNECTED VEHICLE REGARDLESS OF MODEL YEAR, PLEASE CONTACT OUR CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE CENTER AT 1-800-222-5500."
The customer service representative I spoke with was extremely unhelpful. When I asked about permanently disabling the TCU, he questioned me several times as to why I would want to do so in the first place, stating it was used for diagnostics, to track my car if it was stolen, helps Mazda with R&D, etc etc. When I made it known I was aware of what disabling the TCU does and wished to proceed, he attempted to walk me through unenrolling from Connected Services. I informed him I'd already done so and asked for confirmation that this was what permanently disabled the TCU and he said it was. I knew better, but was at work at the time and couldn't go back and forth anymore. Even with Connected Services unenrolled, the vehicle is still collecting the following data:
“Driving Data”: driving behavior data, which includes the acceleration and speed at which your Connected Vehicle is driven and use of the steering and braking functions in your Connected Vehicle (Driving Data is collected for each driving trip and transmitted at each Ignition Off); and

• “Vehicle Health Data”: includes Vehicle Identification Number (VIN); odometer, fuel level, and oil life readings; Diagnostic Trouble Codes (DTCs); and data from the Connected Vehicle’s OBD system (“OBD Data”). OBD Data includes, but is not limited to, engine coolant temperature, fuel injection volume, engine Rotation Per Minute (RPM), and the status of doors, hood, trunk, and hazard lights (Vehicle Health Data is transmitted at each Ignition-Off).

Note: Model Year 2019 – 2021 Mazda3 and Model Year 2020 – 2021 CX-30 vehicles collect geo-location coordinates of the Connected Vehicle’s latitude and longitude each time the Connected Vehicle is turned off as Default Data.
I called back later and spoke to another representative who attempted to have them permanently disable the TCU again. The representative I spoke to was very nice, but didn't know what I was even asking for and had to "look it up." She gave me the same speal mentioned earlier, but finally agreed to go through with the process. Unfortunately, she instructed me to delete the vehicle from Connected Services and when asked several times if that disabled the TCU affirmed that it was.
This, again, didn't seem right, however I took her at her word and hung up. An hour later, I thought it would be wise to get it in writing that the TCU was disabled so I called back again. The third rep I spoke to was far more knowledgeable and confirmed my suspicion that my second call was unsuccessful. She, however, did know how to complete the process and said she would have to escalate to another representative who will call me back in 24-48 hours and will actually send the "kill" command to permanently disable the TCU once and for all.
It's baffling how many hoops I had to jump through to have this done. The fact I got three different answers, or maybe I'll say 2.5 since the second representative did try to help me, is slightly ridiculous. After what I read here and on other forums, however, I should've expected as much.
I hope this helps anyone else interested in disabling their vehicle's TCU. I read that dealers may be able to do it too, but since I only spoke to Mazda directly I can't confirm that.

It's not currently an emergency. 35, male, in the US. Thanks for reading my novel, I've tried to cover everything. TLDR I _think_ I'm pretty healthy, but I've been having a few pangs of chest pain that are out of the normal for me.
I've had no health problems as an adult other than seasonal allergies, common colds, and I got covid twice (after vaccination but everybody's a statistic eventually). My BMI has been 23-29 as an adult, recently closer to 23 because I got into bicycling and I do it around 15 hours per week for both commuting and exercise. I've never smoked cigarettes or used drugs harder than marijuana. I socially drink alcohol two to three nights a week but not to the point of feeling unwell the next morning. I take a multivitamin daily, a Claritin daily during allergy season i.e. now, and I eat vegetables when I see them but otherwise don't closely monitor my diet. One parent survived a heart attack in their 60s, no other family heart problem history.
My concern: a couple weeks ago, while I was out on a long brisk walk of around 2 hours, I felt a single beat of pain in my left chest, around where my heart is. That's happened maybe three times before in my life, and it wasn't overwhelming pain, but it naturally occupies all of your attention when something like that happens in that region, where I normally feel nothing. I didn't experience any spreading pain, didn't feel dehydrated, and was able to carry on with the walk. My smartwatch said my heart rate then was around 115 (it's 65-ish resting).
Normally, no harm, no foul, but the next day, on another long walk, the same thing happened: a beat of pained panic with a very definite but not overpowering or sharp pain point, centered on the left chest, then I'm able to continue normally. It didn't happen again for several days after that, and I haven't noticed it during anything more intense like bicycling. I did feel another one yesterday, Sunday, that lasted around twice as long as the previous ones, again during a long walk. This is certainly the first time in my life I've experienced multiple of these in a short time span. I felt generally shitty yesterday but my HR and blood pressure were both normal when I checked them. Feeling fine again today.
I figure I should "get this checked out," but I don't even know where to begin. I haven't had a primary care doc since childhood and I'm currently on a self-granted long break between jobs in a stressful industry so no traditional health insurance.
What info have I left out? What tests should I ask for? What kind of conditions are *probable* / should I expect based on my info? Is it fine to keep going on long walks? Anything I can do to manage the risk if I need to wait until I'm on real health insurance? Is my heart going to pop like a grape any day now?

Looking for a sunscreen to use on a regular basis- I’m kinda a health freak and the chemicals in skin products turn me off.
Anyone have a non-toxic sunscreen they love?

I just found out today that my thyroid biopsy results show papillary thyroid cancer Bethesda category VI (idek what that means).
I am freaking out, I am sorry but I had to get this out. I’m typically a facts/ statistics type of person and upon reading about this type of thyroid cancer you would think that it would help me feel better. Since it has a high survival rate and what not, but I just don’t know how to feel.
Obviously I’m scared because no one wants to hear that they have cancer. It’s such a scary negative word. I’m 28 and have 3 kids all who I love so much. I just had the thought “wow everyday from now until my surgery could literally be my last”. I know realistically everyday could be your last anyway but now knowing that I’ll have the surgery has me super worried.
I have my consultation with my surgeon tomorrow and I’m trying not to think of it but I can’t help to think of all the what ifs. I’m trying to be positive and not worry but I am just so afraid of leaving my kids. I know that the survival rate is high, and that after the surgery things should almost be back to normal but I still can’t help but panic.
On top of all the what ifs that could happen during the surgery, I don’t even want to think of the cost of all this and future appointments. It’s so sad that when my doctor told me about the cancer my first thought was “how expensive is this going to be”. I have health insurance so I am fortunate but I know that I will still have to pay a nice chunk my self.
I’m sorry I don’t even have any direction in what I’m saying but there is so much going on in my mind right now. I do not want to worry my fiance or friends with my concerns. I normally try to be very stoic and I feel like I have to put on a brave face for my family. I just felt like I had to take everything going on in my head and post it somewhere.
I’m just scared.

Hi all! With TFS looming over the horizon, I wanted to take a look at some Exotic weapons we have in that grand ol’ arsenal of ours that haven’t been doing too hot in a while… or ever. We have a lot of strong choices nowadays, and even some fun niche ones too, but there are a lot of picks that just don’t make sense, have better legendary variants, or are outdated asf (looking at you specifically, DARCI). In this post, I want to share some fun ideas I had for how to rebalance these exotics, adding new functionality in both their intrinsic abilities and catalysts. I don’t even think all these exotics necessarily need a huge intrinsic buff: sometimes a catalyst is all it takes; just look at how nice Trinity Ghoul is with its catalyst, and that’s just a teeny tiny change.
What I count as an underpowered exotic is a weapon that doesn’t really have a place both in regular play, endgame activities, or as a niche weapon with certain uses. So something like Tractor Cannon, although not a DPS/adclear option, is super super useful against certain bosses like Crota or in certain situations, therefore, in my mind it is not underpowered as it has its place. Something like Hard Light, though… yeah.
I’m swinging the hammer kinda heavy with the buffs because it’s more fun that way. I hope you all enjoy, and please share your ideas too! Bonus if you make a bingo card to see how many of these exotics Bungo actually changes in TFS. We’ll find out soon enough, I’d imagine.
Oh, yeah, and this is just my opinion. I know some or a lot of these weapons are usable. But alas, this is what I think.
KINETIC WEAPONS:
Sweet Business: Adds intrinsic Overload capabilities. Once this weapon is spun up, it will remain spinning until reloaded. This assures that once you enter combat, you won’t be stuck having to get ‘er goin every time a new enemy jumps you. Catalyst now adds Killing Tally. This perk would make the weapon much stronger (duh) but also it has good synergy with Sweet Business, as the playstyle opts for keeping the weapon out, in use, and continuously fed from ammo pickups or actium war rig.
MIDA Multi-Tool: Adds the ability to change the rate and mode of fire, so that the weapon can behave like a pulse rifle and an auto rifle by changing perk options in the gun’s menu. Scoping in now highlights information about enemies and distance, just like DARCI does.
Crimson: Perhaps this sounds repetitive, but for weapons that sustain fire, Killing Tally is really solid. This would reward the user for continuous precision kills to maintain Killing Tally, a strong bonus on top of Exotics have a 40% buff against red bars.
Cerberus+1: Damage againts elite (orange bar) and major (yellow bar, non capitalized names) also increased by 40% to match the minor (red bar) enemy increase. New intrinstic perk: Interial Quakes: sustained damage on one target causes shockwaves to summon at the location of the target, disorienting them and dealing high damage. This offers Cerberus+1 a variant of Kinetic Tremors that has increased functionality, as it’s an exotic, as well as the ability to activate off of non-precision hits since.. yeah hitting crits with Cerberus is ass.
Bad Juju: Catalyst increases super energy gained from a kill closer to D1 levels, to make it more of a super battery. We get our super back so quickly in PvE with the amount of orbs we generate; let’s ratchet Bad Juju up to make it a competitive super generating option. The catalyst also gives Desperado.
Bastion: I wish I knew what to do to make it better. But it needs help.
Traveler’s Chosen: This weapon was designed back when Bungo was like “lol we hate damage perks”. Gathering Light now grants an escalating damage bonus in addition to its previuos effects. Consuming Gathering Light increases this weapon’s RoF for 10 seconds to compensate for being reset to its baseline.
Cryosthesia 77K: Here’s a dousey. Every third precision shot applies x25 slow to enemies. The special “reload after kill” show now loads the gun with a projectile that is akin to a coldsnap grenade, seeking out and freezing a target. Catalyst grants headstone so you can make more stasis crystals with this bad boy.
Wicked Implement: Make this thing a 260rpm scout. That is all.
ENERGY:
Coldheart: Catalyst adds voltshot. Increase the damage ramp-up for sustained fire.
Borealis: Why does this thing not have anti barrier. Half of its gimmick is breaking barriers. Give it anti barrier lmao and it’ll be top tier in GMs. That’s literally all you need to do?
Skyburner’s Oath: Increase rate of fire for Scout Rifle mode. Make it unstop intrinsically.
Merciless: Catalyst gives Controlled Burst, further decreasing charge time and increasing damage.
Hard Light: Add incandescent, voltshot, and destabilizing rounds depending on the elemental mode that is selected. Catalyst allows it to swap between Stasis and Strand, giving Headstone and Hatchling respectively.
Fighting Lion: Just revert some of the nerfs on this poor guy for crying out loud. Life was more fun when he was still kickin’.
Prometheus Lens: Sustained damage will this weapon can cause enemies to ignite prematurely.
Tommy’s Matchbook: Buff the scorch this weapon deals against enemies. Increase hipfire accuracy further to make sure you can hit your shots. Allow for kills on scorched enemies to trigger brief health regeneration.
POWER:
D.A.R.C.I.: Ammo type switched to special, damage is decreased to compensate. Deals further increased precision damage after hitting 3 shots in a row. Catalyst adds Reconstruction and High-Impact Reserves.
Legend of Acrius: Add one-two punch, as well as the ability for Acrius to add a solar centurion shield if you are within close proximity (melee range) of an enemy.
The Wardcliff Coil: Buff the damage! This weapon and EoT deal less damage against bosses since they fire a salvo but it’s too weakkkk. Also, catalyst jolts targets if 5 or more rockets hit the target.
The Prospector: Grant this weapon a GL variant of bipod” grenades deal decreased damage, but this weapon can carry double the amount of grenades. Grenades chain lightning between themselves and targets when exploded, and the catalyst now adds auto-loading holster.
Worldline Zero: Uhhh….
Sleeper Simulant: Buff that damage Bungie. Make it a powerhouse again.
Black Talon: I’m not gonna lie I have no idea what to do to make this thing better.
One Thousand Voices: Make this thing hurt, Bungie. Buff it’s fuckin damage. And make it guarantee ignite enemies if the entire beam hits a target. Chain reaction is added as well to chain explosions from target to target.
Truth: Rockets have a larger blast radius than normal, and debuff nearby enemies with Volatile. Bipod is added to the roster of perks. Rocket tracking becomes closer to its D1 level of aggresiveness. Catalyst reloads this weapon whenever a void debuff is cast to double capacity.
Deathbringer: Too much setup, too little payoff. Void orbs now weaken targets. The void orbs now take less airtime to reach max damage increase.
Eyes of Tomorrow: Make it do more damage against bosses. Stop being a pussy. We have Gjallarhorn, Dragon’s Breath, and whatever the fuck else. Make. Them. Fear. It.
Deterministic Chaos: Removes the sustained fire requirement for triggering weakening and volatile rounds. Enemies are made volatile AND weak at the same time (every 4 shots), and every 16^th shot is now a quadruple damage bullet.

I adopted a 4 year old male cat about 3 months ago. Recently, for the past week or so, he's started licking my hair. At first I thought this was cute, like he was trying to groom me, but it's started to become a problem. First of all, I dye my hair and use products like hair spray regularly, so I worry he's ingesting these chemicals when he licks my hair. Secondly, he'll start licking my hair at night which makes it impossible to sleep. Does anyone have any advice on how to discourage this behavior? I feel honored that my kitty wants to groom me, but I worry about his health and it's really affecting my sleep.