let me just preface this by saying if you take the time to read this all and respond, thank you so much. i really appreciate it. sorry its so long
Ok so, to start off I think ive always had a sort of idealistic view regarding love and romance. i always wanted to meet some guy that i get super close to and then we start dating just because he happens to be gay or bi, the way straight people are able to find their partners. that to me feels like the actual way to find someone. ive tried dating apps and things before, but ive never gone past pure hookups/one night stands because i just hate the idea of seeking out a relationship so badly. it always has just felt wrong to me and i didnt like trying to make genuine connections over apps. and i honestly dont feel that strong of a desire to be in a relationship generally.
but i started to think that if i didnt want to be single for my entire life id have to suck it up and settle. i still couldnt bring myself to actually try on the apps though, but i thought my problems might have been solved when i met my current best friend. ive never been as close to anyone before as i am to him right now. we just vibe perfectly. were the exact same in the places where it matters but different in all the places that make the relationship exciting. we can talk forever about anything, and best of all, he's actually bi (although only out to me).
earlier this semester he pretty much singlehandedly saved me from a pretty dark place. i transferred to our current school, and as such it was much harder to make friends. i had people i talked to but it was mostly just acquaintances/drinking buddies. i was really lacking a serious friend group and it was starting to get to me. but he started dragging me to literally everything he went to, and basically forcefully adopted me into his group lol. and i genuinely love this friend group, i feel like i finally found my people. but that's not all im talking about when i say he saved me from a dark place. we met while pledging for a frat together, although i ended up dropping. someone else we were pledging with ended up finding out i was gay and developed some bizarre homophobic obsession with me that followed into second semester. my friend ended up dealing with him for me and even got him kicked out of a club he joined that we both were already in.
since then, he's done a lot of other things purely to take care of me/solve my problems. ive never had a friend like that before. ive gotten the chance to stand up for him now once which makes me happy i could repay some of what hes done but id like to be able to do more. regardless i think its helped make us even closer.
he started sleeping at my place a lot. we started meeting up before any event and showing up together. i started developing feelings. i didnt want a relationship generally, but i really wanted one with him. it was different. but i knew i had to make a move soon or he would get snatched up by some girl. just speaking bluntly, he's super hot and there was a grace period here since he had recently gotten out of a long term relationship.
one night i left a party early because i was feeling sick and he called and asked if he could just leave too and come watch a movie with me or something. i ended up saying no because i was really feeling shitty (i have some health issues that were acting up) but when i woke up the next morning i had 7 missed drunk calls from him. after this, i thought i genuinely had a chance, so i wanted to try to build up the courage to tell him how i felt.
the night i was going to, though, he told me something first. he told me this girl he was really good friends with confessed her feelings for him. now i was almost sure this girl had feelings for him (and he was too), but i wasnt worried. he had told me before he wasnt interested in her. but now, he still wasnt sure but was willing to "see where it went."
this was really painful but i wanted to be a good friend, so i just acted like everything was normal. they started "seeing where it goes" and now its all but official. but heres the thing; we've gotten way closer too since then. the three of us (me, him, and his girl) started hanging out all the time. me and the girl are actually good friends now, and we're pretty similar (she's even commented on this), which makes the situation even weirder. originally, he was inviting me to lots of things the two of them were originally planning on doing together, although thats kinda stopped now.
a few weeks ago he told me he was planning on ending his relationship with her before summer started as he wasnt ready for one yet. and that he was happy he was willing to do that as he felt like that was good character development for him. but despite that there was no question whether or not he liked her anymore. he didnt originally but he does now. theyve also had two close to relationship ending issues already but they managed to resolve both of them. for one of them, they decided to make it official and then undid it in under 24 hours.
but he changed his mind, he decided he wants to continue it with her. honestly, theyre a cute couple. people want them to succeed and i probably would too if i were in someone elses shoes. but, now he literally lives at my apartment. he started staying over every single night, i genuinely dont know the last time he slept at his place. hes asked me to cuddle and stuff like that. the other night though, i feel like i fumbled pretty bad. he passed out on my couch so i went to get a blanket for him. that woke him up and he told me to join him. this is a small couch, if i were to join him (which im not sure if its even possible), we would have to be basically on top of each other, fully spooning. i got too nervous and just said something along the lines of i didnt know how i didnt think there was enough space. i really regret this. the literal day after she hard launched him (on her private instagram but still), and he commented with a 😗 emoji.
were officially moving in together in about a month, but i wont see him until then. hes made comments about how this next month is gonna suck because he doesnt know what hes gonna do without coming to my apartment twice a day (even though hes literally gonna be on vacation lol). the girl is gone for the summer so theyll be long distance for the next 3 months. he has really bad experiences with a long distance relationship before though.
i think my plan as of right now is, i need to try to move on but im probably gonna see him in about a week and ill ask him then how its going with her. or if i dont get a chance then ill ask him sometime after we move in together in a month. if he says theyre official/hes wanting to make it official, ill ask him if hes 100% sure thats what he really wants and remind him about the things hes said to me earlier. because honestly, as a friend, if this relationship with her is gonna end badly i think its the last thing he needs. both of the issues theyve had are related to things shes done thats kind of brought up trauma from past relationships of his (during the issue they had where they changed their status back to "exclusive unofficial situationship" i guess is what you would call it he ended up telling her she was worse than his ex), so i think another bad experience would be super bad for him. especially with her as she was a close friend before.
i know i have to move on though. its just really hard. i dont know if im going to be able to. i might try to go back on apps but it just feels like settling even more now. i think the kind of romance i want is just impossible for a gay guy though. im in college, supposed to be one of if not the most progressive colleges in the world, and despite at this point having a lot of friends and acquaintances hes the only lgbt guy i know here. i even had a homophobic bully lol. oh well

Im gonna try to make this quick. Im not from an english speaking country, so sorry for grammarical errors in advance.
So me (23m) and my ex (21f) broke up a year ago when i found out she started seeing another guy behind my back.
She has a cousin (36f). She was as fake as they make them. Would smile at you and compliment you when you talk than trash on you behind your back. She would always turn any and every conversation to her as the centre of it. There were many "episodes" where her family caught her lying. She would tell them she has a great paying job, bought gifts, expensive brand clothes and accessories, and then we would find out she is jobless and took a loan to appear "rich". She once lied to an eye surgeon that she is also a doctor and works with disabled children to get a discount, and stuff like that. She would frequently lie on her resume to get a job. She is very attractive, so she has quite an easy time getting high paying jobs before they find out she is practically useless. She always manages to find a boss who is in his 40's and divorced, and wraps him around her finger. By the time he finds out, she already has another job in another town lined up.
well about half a year before me and gf's breakup, her husband of 7 years divorced her because he found out she is cheating on him. She was jobless and had to move to my gfs family house for about 3 months. Now, my ex was very introverted and had a difficulty finding people to hang out with. So she spent a lot of time with her cousin. During that time i started noticing gradual changes in my ex, she stopped communicating openly, insisting i figure all the things she has a problem with out by myself. She would stubbornly not allow me to tell my side of the story in arguments, refuze to apologize for getting angry at me and refuzing to talk to me over the simplest and dumbest reasons, etc. She started going on parties with her cousin, and over time wouldn't even tell me. I heard her cousin tell her that she should be a "girl boss", strong woman and not let any man rule her life. Just for your info, i never in my life had a problem with her going out and meeting people, in fact I encouraged her to do so. Im not gonna go into detail but over time she convinced her that she should not be tied down in her 20s, and should find out whats out there. And if me and my ex have true love, i will understand and we will get back together eventually.
what a load of bullsh#t from an unhappy divorced 40 year old bitter woman, but having this spoon fed into your head 24/7 for half a year, its gonna stick on you.
i do not solely blame the cousin for how things ended, my ex should have kicked a toxic person like that from her life, but damn, learning this as time went on was very frustrating.
sorry, here comes the revenge part:
i recently found out the cousin got a very nice job in a pretty solid company, as a "senior account manager", whatever that really is. Must be nice though, she even has a brand new bmw company car to use. The catch is, she is listed with a Major, and a MBA degree. Well, i know 100% for a fact she barely managed to finish highschool. And she is very capable of forging some kind of fake degree diploma from a university god knows where (we live in central/eastern part of europe). What do you know thats kind of illegal, like up to 3 years in prison illegal.
She also has about 150 000$ loan she is paying off, so she really needs that job to cover her bills.
Well dear reddit, iam gathering evidence that she forged her degree documents, and i want to send it to her boss/company managment. I would also like to report it if possible, so any future company she applies to can see she commited forgery of documents.
now 2 things can happen...
no.1 - absolutely nothing. Her boss might be sleeping with her and want to protect her, or just straight up not care, or even read it.
no.2 - sh#t goes nuclear and she will hit the rock bottom.
iam still not sure if iam going to do it, or how exactly to go about it, so i appreciate all advice, and criticism. thank you for getting this far

My last day of work happens to be on a day the company is throwing a potluck with a Mexican theme. I decided to bring margaritas since what are they going to do, fire me? The problem I have no idea how to make a margarit, especially at scale. I'm not squeezing a bunch of limes, so I opted to go the limeade route. The issue I'm running into is how much of each do I put in? Instructionsi have found will say stuff like add an ounce of tequila and fill with limeade...what if I have a different container?
Do any of you have suggestions for something like 1 part this 3 parts that so I can scale for my container?
I bought simply limeade, Cointreau, 1800 Blanco, and limes
Thanks for any help you can offer.

Had a zoom call with the fellow who claims to be Dave Ramsey's manager. Lucky me! They want to pay me $3,000 to appear on his podcast. But first, I have to do something in my Facebook business page settings ... don't ask me why. Anyway, here is the text of the email below:
Hi,
I trust this message finds you in good spirits.
I'm Richard reaching out from Dave Ramsey Podcast Management, and we're thrilled to invite you to be a part of our sponsored Facebook podcast hosted by Dave Ramsey himself.Your impressive profile hasn't gone unnoticed, and we believe your unique insights would be a fantastic addition to our diverse Podcast topics ideas: From fitness and fashion to lifestyle, music, and ups and downs of life, struggles in life, the best thing about your passion, the captivating narratives spun by authors and writers, the way of success that you pursued, the remarkable journey of entrepreneurship, human rights, and social issues, including socialism., our podcast covers it all.Your perspectives on your lifestyle, personal thoughts, and personality would undoubtedly enrich our discussions. As a token of our appreciation, we're pleased to offer a compensation of $3,000 for your participation.If you're interested, kindly let us know your availability, and we can discuss further details. We are eager to tap into your expertise and make your presence a highlight on the Dave Ramsey podcast.It will be a pleasure having you on the show with Dave Ramsey. Thanks

• Author's Note: So! With Book #1 finishing at Issue #61 we now go into Book #2. The situation is changed for our protagonist and he's had it... decently rough, but always had people behind him for help. Wonder how his new position will affect him and his choices? We'll have to wait and see. Enjoy this little snippet to start us off with to the next leg of his journey! Also you can check character art of the Beast World characters or others on my Ko-Fi page! If you enjoy my art, I just opened comissions as well so hit me up if you want to get a piece!

Michael stepped through the dark woods at a slightly above leisure pace. The first rays of the dawn's light haven't yet penetrated the ironclad cover of the forest's canopy. Its thickness held together the shroud of darkness below, only small shreds of it peaking through rarely. Although he knew he walked a familiar path, the reduced visibility made the walk nearly alien, with a stumble here and a trip there, an uncertainty started to seep into Michael's chest even if he didn't know it.
'Alright. It is going to take a bit to get there, but I'll be making it in time. So... daeman. Based on what I know they are just basically pink demons. Ok, ok, ok... I've done this until now on a dime... I just... phew... just gotta do my character research. Yeah... just like theater. Literally it is just theatrics. So... what's a demon? Well if years of playing dnd thought me anything is that they are either feral, unhinged and nuts OR eerily calm, imposing, calculated and scheeming. I did both of those and a demon that can do both is even worse. Just gotta switch between those when it makes sense. Mhmm... so personality wise... basically gotta switch between one of those pointy eared muscle covered hounds and a chihuahua that can actually bite, not just bark.'
While the nervous human revised his 'role', he'd already start to adjust his body language. As if by instinct he'd lift his shoulders and roll them back, his spine popping as he straightened, shoulders relaxing and dropping at ease after that. This move would straighten his posture entirely and push out his ribcage and chest, something his mother drilled into his head over the years as being a confident, yet relaxed posture when done right. He'd straighten his head's posture, from the neck, which nearly made him look like it was positioned up from a downward perspective, requiring him to literally look down upon someone with his eyes. His hands were curled up nearing to fists, yet hung relaxed, as if to show an eager readiness for violence. As a last touch up instead of stepping quietly as he got used to over the years, he'd let his steps announce his presence, as one who's afraid of nothing would.
After traveling a bit over half of the treck towards the river and where the Rock Backs would be situated, there would be a clear sight of lights up ahead in the distance, clearly from torches. Michael would gaze at them with a bit of confusion, but regardless he kept on walking closer and openly. Slowly, three figures would be more visible, one of them turned showing as to either be themselves striped or have brown stripes painted on their back.
Only half a second of hesitation would pass as the human took in a deep breath and he then shouted out. "Ay! You three. You're with the Rock Backs, correct?" He'd say while showing quite the enthusiastic face despite his true feelings of nervousness.
As he had guessed, indeed the trio seemed to be Tuskir and the stripes confirmed their alegiance as expected. The figures turned to face him properly as he shouted in his approach. Once he got a bit closer, one of them that was a bit more upfront huffed a not so pleased snort at him.
"Aye. We were sent ahead to guide ya to our encampment, Daeman." He replied with a clear displeasure to his tone.
Another one of them stood silent as he just glared at Michael, while the third let out a guttural squeal and spat on the ground. "Well? What ya waitin' fer, hellspawn? Pick up the pace and keep yer paws where we can see 'em. Just cause ya struck a deal with Bruyza, it don't mean we gotta like ya."
"Dawww. Isn't this nice? We already seem to be getting along and on the same page. I've a feeling we'll be sharing stories soon while braidin' one another's hair, eh? You'd look good with twin tails." Michael said smirking while looking at the third Tuskir who haf a wilder mane and carried himself in a heavier looking armor than the other two.
The human continued his walk with the trio, but something didn't sit right with him. While they walked, two of the three had put out and discarded their torches. As they walked forward wordlessly, those same two boar men would also position themself to the sides and back of Michael, doing so nearly seemlessly, but not enough for the human not to notice.
While they advanced, Michael would peek at them with the corners of his eyes while also glancing forward at the only one who still had a light source. 'This doesn't feel right. I know for certain we were to meet at the same place as before... am I being paranoid? Alright... think. If they were afraid I'd not show up they'd wait until the time was up and then came to us... there's no reason for them to think I need escorts since I'm supposed to be a big scary strong thing. Eeeeh... why are these shmucks here then?"
Michael started taking into consideration multiple reasons that could be possible for his unexpected escort to be present, but none of them made sense. With his uneasiness building up, he'd sling his backpack off and hold it, quickly getting the attention of the two at the back.
"What do you think yer doin', hellspawn?" One of them asked while putting a hand on an axe hung by his belt.
"Hm? Oh, cut down on that paranoia. Makes you seem pathetic. This meat form I had to take to be here has needs. One of them happens to be water. If you've ever heard of somethin' like that, or... what? Do you milk rocks up in the mountains to sustain yourselves?" Michael would reply with a chuckle as he taunted his escort while starting to rustle objects in his backpack with his hand.
"You... hnngh-..." The Rock Back grunted and huffed as he muttered between clenched teeth.
Taking advantage of this momentary distraction, Michael would feel about and find one of his tiny Woh flask potions and he'd use his fingers to tuck it into the band of his bracer at the wrist, before grasping a hold of a small water skin and pulling it out. 'Heh. Well, I might not be a good slight of hand at pocker, but I didn't learn to hide pieces of paper in my sleeves for nothing. Stressful, but thanks to that I passed chemistry in highschool.' He'd think while smirking at the one of the escort he just antagonized, giving him a double eyebrow wiggle lift up as he took a sip of his water.
"You really like talkin' daeman, or you just like the sound o' your voice?" The armored one asked, who also happened to be the one with the torch at the front. He walked with his back turned at the human, not even trying to gaze back as he spoke.
"Eh. I find conversing with you meat sacks at least a bit intriguing. It is fun to hear what thoughts run through those narrow minds of yours. Why are you asking? Interested in actually entertaining me in conversation?" Michael would reply as he packed his waterskin once more and put his backpack back on.
"Thought ta meself it'd be crazy to converse with somethin' like ya, but then I realized, what da hell, when am I ta get another chance like this?" The Tuskir continued while slowing his pace, as if to let Michael approach to make their talk easier to get into.
The human naturally inched closer bit by bit as he simply walked, his smirk still on his expression. He'd keep vigilent of the two in the back while moving up in the small formation. "Indeed. Perhaps I'll be able to satisfy some of your curio-"
Before he could finish his sentence, the armored tuskir in front of him stopped dead in his tracks, turning with a decently large vial of liquid and herbs in his other hand and he'd splash Michael right in the face. Surprised by the sudden violent spill of liquid against his face, the human would close his eyes and bring his hands to his face to quickly wipe away the liquid. While blinded in this manner, his guard would be shattered as a brutal force would then slam into his right side, making Michael buckle as he got sent rolling in the opposite direction.
"HAHAHA! GOT 'IM GOOD, DIDN' I?!" exclaimed one of the two Tuskir from the back, who was armed with a club, right after he just bashed up the human.
Michael took a half second to realize he just got attacked, with the hand that had the vial hidden against its wrist pushup to his eyes to wipe them, he'd push himself up on the other wobbly like. He was afraid to try and open his eyes, unknowing what he got splashed with so instead he bit on the cork of his poison vial, opened it and stashed it in his cheek, as he dripped the solution on his tongue while wiping his eyes. "I- I can't see-..." he groaned loudly while trying to get his footing.
"Yeah. You got 'im good." The armored tuskir said while tossing the vial aside. "Better prepare yourself fer a sudden departure daeman. We'll make sure ta send ya back to the firey pit ya came from. Hope ya liked a lil' taste o' holy water. Keep ya well on your way back." He'd say while taking a handaxe off of his own belt.
"Hah ha ha... Sadly fer ya, not all o' us are keen on makin' deals with hell filth. Bruyza ain' gonn' be happy with ya missin' but is expected of daemen to be shifty scum, so yer missin' presence will be easy ta explain when we're all... surprised yer missin', he he he... ." The tuskir who Michael antagonized said while snorting and cackling, unsheathing his handaxe at the ready.
The three began closing in on Michael, their gate relaxed as they taunted him, their confidence in having the upperhand letting them ooze with a gloating energy. Michael instead had finally gathered himself, head tilted back as he held onto his face, having just finished the last few drips of the Woh vial.
"I can't see... how you furred fucks didn't think that'd just piss me off." He'd say as his trembling voice would change to one more confident. As he spoke he lowered his head at a way lower angle, pulling his hand down in the same motion to reveal a pair of bloodshot eyes, as well as a bloody dripping nose and a wide toothy grin, stained by his own crimson. The shadows on his face would make it seem like he bared his teeth from ear to ear, the expression of the pin point focused eyes, quickly darting to focus on each of the three attackers. Now, that put a stop to their enclosing movement, and this simple shift had changed their confident gloating to a dread filled uncertainty.

Hello everyone,
I recently bought and built my first "real" PC after years of having bad laptops and I was super happy about it.
I used this occasion to switch to Windows 11 and I have encountered an issue when I connect an audio device. I switch a few times a day between a bluetooth headset and a usb headset, and everytime I switch device I have to wait ~20 seconds after connecting for the sound to come out. I did not ever have such delay before on my laptop.
Obviously I tried all of windows troubleshooting article, but I only noticed now that when both devices are connected it doesn't take time to switch output using the sound setting, so this problem only occurs when connectiong a new device. It also takes the same ~20 seconds for the new audio output to appear in the "sound" settings window event though the pairing/connection is almost instantaneous.
Notes: When I connect a bluetooth mouse or a usb stick it doesn't have any delay to work. The switching takes time to happen, the sound does work on previous device when connecting a new device. When disconnecting the device it doesn't take time to switch audio output.
Do you have an idea of what could possibly be wrong with it ? I'm starting to wonder if it's not something material or BiOS related since windows doesn't seem to have trouble switching once the devices are connected.
Thank you much for your attention!

About Us

We’re looking for a sixth person (fifth player) to join our TTRPG adventures! Our group started up back in 2018, and while we’ve seen a few players come and go, three of us have been playing together since the start. Right now our group is all male, ranging in age from the late 20s to early 50s (with most in our early 40s).
We have managed to be very consistent over the last five years, though we do go through lulls around the holidays. We play every other Friday: folks start showing up around 6:15pm PT, and we’re usually ready to play by 6:45pm PT. Our sessions normally last until about 10-10:30pm PT. We typically potluck or order dinner as a group for game night. We have a few different dietary styles in the group, so we try to order from places that can cater to vegan and non-vegan folks alike. Some of us drink while we’re playing, but usually only 1-2 drinks over the course of the night, so nobody is getting sloppy (and we don’t want to play with folks who can’t keep it together).
We play every other week at one of our houses in NE Portland (Roseway) or in SE Portland (Montavilla). We use Foundry or Roll20 if we need to avoid an in-person session due to illness/scheduling, but that’s pretty rare. Both of our host houses have cats. At our primary host location we play in the basement (which is down some stairs), at the other we play in the dining area. Both houses have a few exterior stairs to get from the street to the house.
We were a 5E group for most of our time together, but for the last ~6 months or so we've been trying out new systems, and as such we've just started trying out a primary + backup game situation. We play our backup game as needed when some folks can't make it. A Pathfinder 2E game was our main game for the last few months, but we've had mixed feelings about it, so we're about to have our second Blades in the Dark session as our new primary game, with that Pathfinder 2E as our backup for now.
We started out with a homebrew D&D 5E campaign in 2018, played an online Ghosts of Saltmarsh game during the Pandemic, and ran Curse of Strahd from August of 2021 until November of 2023. We’ve also played Monster of the Week, Paranoia, and Call of Cthulhu. We’ve chatted about trying a few other systems down the line like Mothership, Traveller, or Band of Blades. That will all depend on how people feel. Our games are usually an even mix of combat, exploration, and roleplay (with natural shifts between the three based on the situation). Two of us paint miniatures and create terrain as a hobby, so we usually end up with customized miniatures and very immersive battlemats for games where that makes sense.

About You

You enjoy playing TTRPGs and want to join an in-person group that meets up every other Friday. You can commit to playing pretty consistently. Being asked not to smoke weed or tobacco during a game (or at a host's house/property) isn’t a deal-breaker. You’re comfortable using Discord regularly, as we use that to coordinate game nights and occasional other optional events. If you’re interested in playing other systems or running a game for us, that’s cool too!
We really want to make sure you are a good fit for us, and that we’re one for you too; we're hoping to find someone who'll want to be with us for a long time. We’ll need to meet first in some local public place to play a one-shot (or two) and see how you get along with the group. That means this is not necessarily a first-come, first-served pitch.
If you have questions, please reach out to me here or on Discord (@meekbarbarian)

So in short, my players cleared Kolat Towers and the Sanctum with the help of the Harpers and Doom Raiders and instead of searching for the eye searched for Manshoon and ended up getting a TPK. Now the Warlock sacrificed himself and asked for his patron to teleport everyone back home (with a 26 religion roll) so technically 2 players are still alive (unconscious) and they will continue with 2 new and 2 existing characters.
I decided to do a time skip in game of at least a couple of weeks and since there was a lot going on in the campaign I will make some bullet notes on things I need resolved for the continuation and I hope for some tips and ideas.

1. Manshoon, Sanctum and the Zhentarim: Since Manshoon won the fight but lost almost all of his soldiers/liutenants what is the next step for him given that the Harpers were also involved in the raid as well as the Doom Raiders. He still has Skeemo and Mirklav so he could also revivify some people. His Sanctum was also breached and the players know the teleportation circle combination so they could just open a portal directly in now from what I understand. Since the Xanathar is defeated, he could also try to take over Skullport and the Xanathars by allying himself with Nihiloor.
2. The Tavern: Due to happenings in the campaign, after the death of the owner, the inn goes to the Lords Alliance and will be put up for auction. This creates another goal for acquiring money so that they can buy the inn back but what happens with the inn in the meantime. The players took good care to style the inn and remade it into a successful business with many NPCs working there. So technically the tavern should now be closed or owned by the city (or already bought by someone else).
3. Doom Raiders: Davil and his squad reluctantly helped the players against Manshoon and Ziraj died in the fight. They had good relations with the players troughout the campaign but it's all going downhill. Skeemo was also revealed to be a double agent so what is next for the remaining 3 members now ?
4. Xanathar Guild: The party allied with Jarlaxle during the heist and bombed most of the hideout, burying the Xanathar inside and trapping Nihiloor in his chambers after double crossing him. Nihiloor also has a possible baby "Neothelid" down there which could be used against the players or dangerous to everyone. Skullport is still left unscathed but every liutenant in the hideout is dead after Xanathar's fish got bombed. I wonder what happens with them now. Does Nihiloor take over, what happens with the Xanathar, does Manshoon swoop in ?
5. Black Viper: She got scammed by Skeemo so she went to the Cassalanters with the poison and got caught. I don't want to outright kill her off screen because the players like her so I wonder what the Cassalanters would do with her after her infiltration attempt. Do they dumb the body and kill her or do they hold her hostage etc. She is a noble after all.
6. The Drow: Jarlaxle has the stone and one eye (xanathar and gralhund pieces) and N'arl with him. He currently has the players working to get the other 2 pieces for him as he promised 100k gold for the players as well as his spy network and all the leftovers. He used the players connections to talk to Mirt about getting the gold to Lareal and told them exactly why he needs the gold. The players don't see Jarlaxle as an enemy but I wonder if he's playing all of them and what are his final motives. What are his next moves as the players failed the job. I guess he would continue using the players, but does he neccessarily want to screw anyone over ?
7. Cassalanters: The Cassalanters are idle watching all of this after the players promised to help them with the kids. The players know about the eyes and the Cassalanters have already helped them trough previous troubles as well as offered all the help the players ask for or need. Do they stay idle or do they start making moves ?
8. Harpers: Since 2 of the players allied themselves with the Harpers, Mirt and Remmalia gave them guidance and helped them when needed. The Harpers in my campaign want to keep the Dragonstaff inside the vault or want it brought back for safe keeping. Their main motive is what it always was lore wise but how does Mirt react to the happenings with Manshoon, Jarlaxle and the Doom Raiders and are there any moves that he might want to make now that the city is becoming more and more unstable.
9. Lords Alliance and Force Grey: The Alliance has lost it's faith in the players before and they still don't act or really know about the threats of the Vault hunt. Vajra is in good terms with the players but she can't act or do anything without Lareal's approval and Lareal is known to use them only as a last resort. Do I keep these 2 factions out still as they are way too powerfull if they intervene in the game now.

The players are left in a position where they hold no pieces but are allied with both the Cassalanters (one eye), Jarlaxle (stone and eye) separately and also the Harpers. I have no idea what their next plan may be since they just suffered defeat but getting to Manshoon is the biggest mistery that I have while trying to keep him smart and calculative.
I know it's a long post but thank you in advance!

Hi all, My sister is getting married and has asked for ONE thing for her bachelorette party: DANCING! 💃
I, however, know literally nothing about the dancing scene in the area. We are willing to travel almost anywhere in the Hudson Valley (exception: Hudson, for some personal memories to avoid!). Any suggestions for a great spot?
Thank you!

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I think it was Jack's idea. Or maybe it was Mindy who came up with it. You know, if I do try and really think about it .. well, maybe it could've actually even been me who decided we play it. I've spent hours trying to pierce my memory back together, more to pass the time and distract myself.. But it's all irrelevant, It doesn't matter now. Maybe it never did.
Mabel was turning 30 and it was up to us to plan the party. We were all nostalgic about childhood memories so we decided to go all out - Frogs in the pond (jelly cups with Freddo frogs), hot dogs and fairy bread, and we wrapped up prizes in newspaper for pass the parcel. Pin the tail on the donkey and Twister were set up ready to play, the spice girls were blaring on Spotify.
Mabel's eyes lit up when she walked into the room and her smile was worth all the effort we put in. We danced and played games, and as the sun started to set and it grew darker outside, someone suggested turning off the lights snd playing murder in the dark.
There were ohh's and ahh's, laughter as people remembered a game they most likely hadn't played since primary school. A collective chatter amongst us in agreeance to playing Someone handed out cards, while were told the rules of the game. And then the lights were tuned out.
For those of you who don't recall, these are the basic premise of the games rules -
You'll need - Pack of cards
Instructions - Sort through a deck of cards and find the following - an Ace, a Jack, a King, a Queen, and number cards for the amount of remaining people. (i.e.-if six people were playing, you would need two number cards.)
Each card means something - the Ace is the murderer, the Jack is the detective, the King is the detective if the Jack dies, and the Queen is the detective if the Jack and the King both die. The number cards just walk around for the beginning of the game.
Tell the players that all they need to worry about for the time being is if they get the Ace. Give a card to everyone. Nobody looks at each other's cards. Once they have their cards and have seen them, put them down somewhere out of the way for the next round.
Turn off all the lights so that it's completely dark. Everyone begins to spread out and walk about slowly, and try not to laugh or talk. Players aren't allowed to stick together in this game. During this time, the murderer is seeking 'victims'. When she/he finds someone alone, they quietly brush their shoulder and whisper, "You're dead." As an alternative, the murderer could clamp their hand over the persons mouth to avoid the person screaming, and then whisper "You're Dead".
The dead player drops to the ground, dead, and can not speak or move. The murderer may or may not hide the person they just killed in a hiding place. It is not advisable, however, due to the risk involved in getting caught. When a player sees a person lying down, they ask, "Are you dead?" The person simply nods 'yes' or shakes their head 'no', but they must tell the truth. If they nod, the person who found them shouts "Murder in the Dark!" and the lights are put on.
The murderer may not murder victims any longer and all the alive players assemble where the dead person was found. The players who are not present are noted as dead. The detective sits in a chair in front of all the others who are on the floor. He/she asks questions to each person. (i.e. where were you when someone yelled Murder in the Dark? Who do you think is the murderer and why? etc.)
When the detective has enough information and think they are ready, they say "Final Accusation" and ask one person-"Are you the murderer?" It is very important that the person answers TRUTHFULLY at the final accusation. If they are the murderer, then they must say yes. If correct players pick new cards and the game starts again. If wrong then turn out the lights and carry on.
Our rules were a bit different though. It was added in that it would be a last man standing game instead. We wouldn't have a detective - we would have a murderer, murderees and possibly one lone survivor. If someone did survive -Whoever who was still alive when the egg timer went off in 60 minutes - would be the winner. If the murderer had successfully killed everyone and there were no 'survivors' - than they had won the game.
I'll admit, it was spooky. There's just something unnerving about being in a room full of people that you cannot see but you can feel their body heat or hear them breathing. I began to walk around softly, careful to make as less noise as possible. As I wasn't the killer - I had no 'good card' I was just a waiting victim, so I wanted to hide and try and bide my time staying alive as long as possible. It didn't take long to find the first 'body'. I could tell it was Mabel from the way the long blonde hair trailed along the carpet. I whispered "Are you dead?" And I guess she mustn't have heard me because I didn't see her nod.
I moved on quickly, going into the spare bedroom. I didn't risk shutting the door behind me, I just went to hide under the bed. There was a body already under there though, I felt the warmness of human skin as I clambered under the mattress, my hand recoiling in shock as I brushed up against someone's leg. I didn't bother to ask whether they were dead, I mean I guess it was cheating a bit, but we were alone, and they were certainly doing a good enough job of playing dead it seemed just silly to ask.
I heard the muffled scream down towards the other end of the house, - the first 'victim' I'd heard to make any noise - and knew it was safe to make my move out of the bedroom to a better spot.
I nearly tripped on the bodies that were splayed out on the floor, in the hallway and the kitchen. Whoever had the murderer card was certainly taking the game seriously and playing to the best of their ability. I had yet to come across anyone else walking around and was starting to think I might actually have a chance of winning, depending on how much longer was on the egg timer, of course.
I made a beeline to the kitchen to check how much time we had, it honestly felt like the game had gone on forever - and I was shocked to feel the broken pieces of the egg timer on the kitchen bench. I looked at the clock on the microwave - the green numbers burning into my eyes. We had been playing for over three hours.
Something didn't feel quite right.
I tiptoed back into the hall to Mabel, leaning down to whisper to her that we'd been playing way too long - but then I felt something wet and slippery on my hands when I knelt down next to her. It was blood. I stifled a scream as my hands roamed and I realised the birthday girl had had her head caved in.
I backed away slowly, tears streaming down my face as I quietly made my way to the front door. I let myself out and ran across the road, banging on the neighbours door while constantly glancing behind me to see if I was being chased.
The neighbours nearly fainted when they saw me covered in blood and screaming, but they calmed me down by showing me they had double locked their door and called the police.
They don't know who killed all my friends. Everyone who was meant to be at the party was still in the house - slaughtered.
It's taken so much therapy and I'm still not sleeping at night. I wish I could go back and help my friends. I didn't know, but the blame remains.
I got a letter in the mail today though. It was a congratulations card, and written inside said 'last one standing - winner winner - care to rematch, Afterall the last game was so fun! I'll see you soon, when darkness comes.'
So my advice, don't play childhood games. They could have dire consequences.

I (22F) am SO CONFUSED and am hoping I can get others to weigh in and help a girl out.
Disclaimer, the guy in question is a work peer of mine. I know I shouldn’t date coworkers because it’s a bad idea yada yada, however, this has never bugged me (so that won’t stop me lol). I know people will say not to, however, full transparency, it definitely isn’t a barrier for me lol.
OK so this guy (24M), who is like spot on my type (great personality, so attractive, likes to yap lol) out of no where added me on all social media. We have 0 mutuals, so it was definitely intentional, but super left field. We never talk 1:1 and I barely know anything about him, but he’s super attractive, so i was surprised (lol).
Now, he chats my stories and what not & the other day, he invited me on, what I assume, was a date. I couldn’t go due to prior commitments, but i’m still so confused because we hardly talk in person or on text. It’s worthy to note, he isn’t the best at holding a convo and honestly i think it’s bc i’m hella awkward/ anxious and I get the vibe that he is too. but maybe he just isn’t into me and i have the wrong idea?!?
Him not holding the convo makes me think he isn’t in to me, but the fact he chatted my story stating “YOU’RE SINGLE?!”, then immediately asked for my number and called to invite me out on a date makes me think he is.
Anyways, mixed signals are killing me and idk what to say or do to get more out of him. Do I have the wrong idea? How do I low-key initiate this convo? What can l say to lowkey flirt (to see how he responds) I am so anxious w people, and probably even worse shooting my shot lol… HELP!
Any insight, advice, thoughts, or whatever you can provide would be so appreciated. I don’t really have anyone to talk to about this rn, which is not making it any better. :’) thank you friends!

TL;DR: ^{Struggled with social interactions, obsessive tendencies, and learning difficulties throughout life. Diagnosed with multiple conditions including Autism Spectrum Disorder Level 2 and anxiety disorders. Unemployed since 2019, unable to find accommodating work due to conditions. Considering applying for disability benefits but unsure of eligibility. Feeling lost and overwhelmed.}
My whole life I've had a hard time relating with people, connecting with people, making eye contact, enjoying the same things as others. I always tended to obsess on something for example if I took a part-time job I would burn myself out because I couldn't help but focus on work after work. To the point I'd break rules to login to resources and do research off the clock, resulting in me being fired.
When I was a child I would be more excited about the box the gift came in that I could hide in from everyone, instead of the gift itself. I didn't ever like parties with lots of kids, I would tend to hide until the party was over and call my mom until she came and picked me up. I couldn't handle kids tapping pencils in the class so my teacher would put me in the hallway, this to me was a treat not a punishment. I don't like making eye contact it feels really weird and I'm not good at it. When I practiced it someone said I creeped them out because I would just stare straight into their eyes without breaking contact like normal so I just avoid it altogether.
Anyhow a lot of these issues I adapted to pretty decently until I turned 30 and realized the stuff wasn't improving even with a few years of weekly therapy sessions with 2 different psychotherapists. Always struggled with panic attacks and chronic anxiety. I also have never been able to learn math equasions for example x = y type stuff. My brain goes "Why is a letter in math" and I used to read and write backwards.
I recently got engaged and my FIance after spending 8 months with me said she thinks somethings off, "No offense". None taken.. Anyways.. I saw a top psychologist in my state and spent a few hours on a few different occasions with them. Took some tests and they told me I have:

• Schizotypal Personality Disorder
• Mathematics Learning Disability
• Post Concussion Syndrome (Severe TBI in a motor vehicle accident 2013)
• Panic Disorder
• Generalized Anxiety Disorder
• Autism Spectrum Disorder Level 2

I know it's a laundry list. I have been unemployed since 2019 I only am able to work side jobs anymore. I just have constant panic attacks that have been unmanaged with medications and psychotherapy so I actually quit going to therapy and seeing a shrink. Therefor I only have 12 work credits on my record which I've read some of those fall off every 5 years.
I'm just wondering, do I even have a chance in hell at applying for SSI/SSDI or any type of assistance or am I going to have to try and find a job that will accomodate me or something? I have yet to find one of those by the way. I am very forthcoming with my conditions and typically this results in no hire. I have applied for over 100 jobs since 2019. I've heard back from a dozen or so, and the rest just likely throw my application in the trash.
I don't understand anything about disability or social security and my mom has told me I need to try and apply for benefits. Is it worth my time at all having only 12 work credits? Am I even eligible for SSI or SSDI? I don't know what to do anymore I'm feeling kinda depressed now because I have lived my whole life in a lie it feels like. I have had to always do things that "normal" people do and it has ground me into the dirt. I was very lucky to meet my fiancee online and we ended up talking for a few months before meeting in person. SHe loves me to death, I love her very much too although it took me a long time to learn what I was actually feeling and learn how to commit myself and be a good Fiance.
I just don't know anymore what to do, where to turn, who to ask.. Thank you.
p.s My mother never took me to a doctor even though family and friends of hers always told her something was wrong with me and that she needed to. My aunt used to tell her I had asperger's or something. She was afraid they'd medicate me. I kinda got screwed in that sense now that I am learning more about this process..

So I think I am finally able to get my very own saltwater tank, and I was going to start small. Do you guys have any recommendations to make it easier for me? It's worth noting my apartment won't allow any aquariums larger then 20 gal. I was debating getting the fluval sea eco XII 13.5 gal set. Of course I also don't know what I could stock it with, I was thinking an ocillaris clown or two (though internet sources claim I may not be able to use occilaris with my planned tank size) a fire fish, and a two spot goby for fish (with other options including royal gramma), and crustaceans like emerald crabs. But I'm here for a reason and that is to ask you guys what you think. I'm doing my best to keep things relatively cheap, because I don't have a ton of money.
Thank you in advance!

**What will you be doing with this PC? Be as specific as possible, and include specific games or programs you will be using.**

I will be using it for multiple different things that sort of tie into eachother
Art, streaming(including video editing), and gaming (nothing to bad, just stuff like overwatch, apex, minecraft, roblox, tf2, dead by daylight etc.) and occaisionally homework

**What is your maximum budget before rebates/shipping/taxes?**

trying to stay around $1500-2000 usd, but willing to go over.

**When do you plan on building/buying the PC? Note: beyond a week or two from today means any build you receive will be out of date when you want to buy.**

ASAP, but it will most likely take a long time for me to be able to afford everything.

**What, exactly, do you need included in the budget? (ToweOS/monitokeyboard/mouse/etc\)**

def include any good monitor suggestions pls!

**Which country (and state/province) will you be purchasing the parts in? If you're in US, do you have access to a Microcenter location?**

from the east coast, closests microcenter is about an hour or two away.

**If reusing any parts (including monitor(s)/keyboard/mouse/etc), what parts will you be reusing? Brands and models are appreciated.**

first build, so no

**Will you be overclocking? If yes, are you interested in overclocking right away, or down the line? CPU and/or GPU?**

uhh probably not, no. honestly i still dont fully understand what overclocking does.

**Are there any specific features or items you want/need in the build? (ex: SSD, large amount of storage or a RAID setup, CUDA or OpenCL support, etc)**

probably going to need a lot of storage art wise and also editing

**Do you have any specific case preferences (Size like ITX/microATX/mid-towefull-tower, styles, colors, window or not, LED lighting, etc), or a particular color theme preference for the components?**

a little cliche; but i would prefer an all white build, and the case im looking to buy is the NZXT h6 flow so stuff that will work with that

**Do you need a copy of Windows included in the budget? If you do need one included, do you have a preference?**

no

**Extra info or particulars:**

im a little conflicted because aesthetics are really important to me but so is performance, and this thing should last me quite a long time so i want to make it pretty since im gonna have to look at is all the time lol
thank you :)

Hello folks, I'm 26 years old, and I live in Belo Horizonte, a really cool city to live in. My life, in general, has been peaceful. I'm a guy who can be both introverted and extroverted; it depends on the context and how familiar I am with the people around me. I enjoy going out for pizza, visiting amusement parks, going to the movies, and strolling around the neighborhood. But I also like to make the most of my time at home, studying languages, binge-watching TV series, hosting friends, discovering new bands on Spotify—a normal life. I work remotely, so I indeed spend most of my time at home. I'm considering the possibility of doing a language exchange abroad; I haven't decided on the destination yet, maybe Korea, maybe Japan—those are my main options. I won't lie, I'm quite eclectic when it comes to things that catch my attention. For example, I love meeting new people and talking about a wide variety of topics as if we had all the time in the world. Seriously! I'm an open book, and I'm also a great listener. If there's an area you're an expert in or something that sparks your curiosity to the point of excitement, I'd love to feel your enthusiasm as you talk about it. I also like to follow sports, watch cooking shows, and stay up-to-date with new technological advances, all that stuff. With me, you can have casual conversations about weekly events, memes, fun facts, or even deeper discussions about life, philosophy, venting, frustrations, dreams, long-term projects, etc.
I'm a talkative guy, so what I'm looking for in a penpal is mainly someone who is also communicative and truly open to getting to know me, and allowing me to get to know them as well. I want a penpal who is willing to share life experiences, teach me about their country, their language, someone who wants to laugh with me and also grow together with me. I'm looking for someone with whom I can indeed build a beautiful, unique, and special connection. More than a penpal, I seek a lifelong friend.
PS: Don't be shy; I'm an easygoing person. If you liked this announcement, write to me, tell me a little about your life, what caught your attention in this announcement, what things you noticed we have in common, and... Feel free to share whatever you wish. I'm always open to new tunes.
PS²: If you're over 18, that's great. I don't mind if you're 18 or 60+, I'm looking for friends, and you will be equally welcome.
PS³: I don't know from which country or city you are... Maybe you're from a country I've read a lot about, maybe you're from a country I can't even point out on a map. But that's precisely what makes having a "penpal" so amazing. Having a penpal is the opportunity to meet incredible people we would never meet in our daily lives. So, no matter your country of origin or residence, write to me; we can learn a lot from each other.
Thank you for reading this far, have a great day.

I AM NOT THE OOP
OOP is u/Alternative_Bat5026 posting in EntitledPeople
1 update - Medium
Original - May 10, 2024
Update - May 11, 2024
[Posting note: Slight grammar editing for readability]
Pill Poacher. What do I do now???
I've commented on a few posts, but this is my 1st actual post. Canadian 53F
Hold on for a long ride.
I've had arthritis since I was a teenager. I tried not to take painkillers early on, as I know it can be a vicious cycle of having to increase the dosage all the time. However, I've gotten to the point of no choice anymore. The pain makes me cry when I wake up and that's with the ever-increasing dosages. I've had 3 joint replacement surgeries (L Hip, R Knee & R Shoulder) and require the other 3 surgeries, not to mention, my spine is full of arthritis and degenerating discs. So my pain meds are very necessary.
A little more background (Sorry).
So I live in a basement apartment (I have a chairlift). Last year, I had new neighbours move in. They seemed like a nice couple and offered to help me out when I needed it. I was paying them to help clean and such, but I stopped when I found I was paying for them and not much was getting done. Not to mention that they owe me money they borrowed (I know, I'm stupid) and their half of cable (for the last year!!!). Oh and I'm letting them drive my car right now, because I can't yet and I didn't want it sitting. I know, I know.
So in February, I noticed that I was missing pain meds, a lot of pain meds. I was lucky my Dr was understanding, but I still got shorted about 10 days out of 60 days, as I had a 2-month supply. I couldn't accuse anyone, because I couldn't prove it and maybe I did make a mistake (but I was sure I was right). Anywho, that made me have to go through a total reverse shoulder replacement surgery without my proper meds (not a happy camper).
On to the other day. I was supposed to have an appointment with my physiotherapist and I guess I messed up the date and asked if my neighbours would pick me up. I got home and I noticed my pill bottle wasn't how I left it and there was a pill on the floor. I lost it. I called them and said I want them back. They didn't even deny it, just put the little bag they filled and said, "Sorry, I hurt my back". I said, "First if you did hurt yourself changing my sheets --I have a really hard time and they are using my car-- you could have at least asked". Then I looked around and realized they still had a lot more of my pills. So I said "The rest or my keys back". They gave me another handful, but I know they have more.
I'm sorry, but where do you get off, stealing someone's medication? I'm sooooo beyond pissed, but worse I'm hurt at this entitlement. I've done so much for them, to be treated like this.
What do I do now???
Edit: I think I fixed the formatting. Sorry about the mix-up.
[Relevant Comments]
CantBelieveThisIsTru:
Get your keys back, or better yet change the locks because pill thieves don’t stop….they just keep on. And I would get some type of cabinet that locks!
Did you ask them: “Why didn’t you go see your doctor and get your own pain meds?”
The answer is probably that they don’t really need them, but are taking them because they are pill heads. Some people will take anything, which is why there are people who OD after buying a pill off someone, and they don’t even know what’s really in it. They may also be selling your meds, and that could get you in trouble for not keeping them out of their ability to access them.
Also, you really need to file a police report, just in case someone gets sick taking your meds. They can just as easily say: “OP GAVE ME THESE MEDS! And since you never reported the theft, you could go to jail.
Charybdes:
I'm guessing they're all this person feels she has. If she is truly in the state she describes and has no one to help, she's kinda stuck...Getting old can be pretty scary.

OP: Thank you. Yes, I am stuck. I moved to take care of my Mother. Unfortunately, my health declined rapidly after she died. I now rent the basement of her old house from the new owner. By the time everything was settled from her estate, I was left here alone and the only person I have is my sick daughter 3 hours away.

OP:
Ok, well I know I got a lot of flack. Yes, I did report it to the Dr and the pharmacy, but without proof, I didn't want to involve the police. Plus I want my money back! If they're in jail, they can't work. I've already told them, that they start paying their 1/2 of cable or I'm cancelling it. They have access because this was a house, divided into 2 apartments. So if I want cable, they get it too. I'll have to figure something else out. Also, I have a door with a latch, but it's remained unlocked because I did say they were helping me. It's very hard and very expensive to get someone in to just change my sheets. I'm trapped because if I cut them off, I'm stuck.
No, I can't afford to move, even though I'd like to move closer to my daughter, who was just diagnosed with MDS which is a form of blood cancer and needs a transplant sometime later this year or early next year.
I have some hard decisions to make. It's just fueled my depression more.
I find I always attract these kinds of people. I'm too caring and too trusting.
Yes. I have hidden my meds a keep them with me when I go out.
Update:
***Update: Pill Poacher**\*
Well if you've been following the adventure, I had my confrontation a few minutes ago.
I'm a heartless old bitch for asking for my cable boxes back as well as my car keys.
Ok, so here's what happened: I got a phone call from my neighbour, stating they were at Subway and did I want a sub on them. At first, I said yes, but then what I wanted wasn't available, and between the call of: "Would you like a sub", and the second call: "They don't have that, do you want something else?"...it clicked, that they were driving my car, which they were only going to use to take their kid to school. I said, "No, nothing thanks". My daughter was on the other line and said, "Get your keys back now".
I waited until they got home and then I texted, "I assume you're in my car, I want my door latched and my keys back". Well the door wouldn't latch, but the landlord's coming tomorrow. I got my keys back. I had asked the husband to latch the door and he said "Oh, now you want help from me". I said "Yes, because I don't want you to be able to come down." Of course, it wouldn't latch, but the snarky comment pissed me off.
So this is where I got nasty and said "I want my cable boxes and wifi and phone back". I got, "But we were splitting it". I said, "Splitting it means both parties pay". Now I'm the monster that took wifi away from his kid.
Now the guilt trip..."All the things we've done for you for free". I said "Free??? With the $2700 I'm going to have to eat and everything you stole, plus what, car rental...how is this FREE???
Anyway, the landlord is coming tomorrow to sort things out and fix my door. And he's selling at the end of the month. He's recommending me to the new owners. Hopefully, I won't have to move, because I can't afford it.
Thank you everyone for all your comments and advice. I'm shaking right now and the future looks scary. I'm broke and was counting on him finally paying me back. With my daughter being so sick, it really sucks right now. I'd love to move back home to be there for her now. Does anybody know where to post a GoFundMe campaign for a cancer patient in need?
Stressed to the core now, been up since 3 am after a 2-hour sleep. I wish this would just go away.
Thanks and take care. Will update if necessary.
[Relevant Comments]
Murky_Tale_1603:
...Also, if your door isn't locking properly, it might be a good idea to block it with a chair, or something that you can move easily in case of emergency, but still maintain your safety until the landlord is able to fix.

OP: It opens into their apartment, so all they have to do is pull. I have my cane if needed. My landlord is a cop, so I'm going to let that play out.

REMINDER: I AM NOT THE ORIGINAL POSTER. DO NOT HARASS THE ORIGINAL POSTER OR COMMENT ON THE ORIGINAL POST.

To get things started, this is my first ever post to Reddit. So, if I miss something please work with me.
Here we go. Around evening time yesterday I went to my Schwab app and put in 2 sell orders @ market and 1 buy order @ market (GME priced around $33-35). The sell orders were going to be around $975 cash out and I decided 25 shares should be low enough to cover that spread or the order would fail due to insufficient funds. Which has happened every other time I’ve done this.
I go into work this morning and see my sell trades execute and before I can log into my account the buy order was executed. The order was 25 shares @ $63.58. My heart sank as I finished logging in. My account balance was around -$750. Meaning the order was filled on margin. I thought how could this be I’ve never had that happen nor have I allowed that option on my account. I’ve had plenty of denied orders because there wasn’t enough funding.
Freaked the F out, I immediately submitted a transfer from my account, but the damage was done as the stock slid throughout the day.
I became physically sick about it and had to sell at +$1000 loss.
Maybe I’m stupid and just shouldn’t be in stocks, but this was supposed to be around $900 to gamble with safeguards not to go over that.
I’m not looking for sympathy, but would like to understand how that is legal.
I did contact Charles Schwab reps today and they said I do not have margin on my account. But that because of the sell order there was enough for them to justify the sale. This was a total of $870 sold, but the buy order was for $1,589. How can they get away with this?
Final note and thank you for reading. I’m considering selling all my investments and leaving Charles Schwab. This just seemed too much like a rigged game.

Hello folks, I'm 26 years old, and I live in Belo Horizonte, a really cool city to live in. My life, in general, has been peaceful. I'm a guy who can be both introverted and extroverted; it depends on the context and how familiar I am with the people around me. I enjoy going out for pizza, visiting amusement parks, going to the movies, and strolling around the neighborhood. But I also like to make the most of my time at home, studying languages, binge-watching TV series, hosting friends, discovering new bands on Spotify—a normal life. I work remotely, so I indeed spend most of my time at home. I'm considering the possibility of doing a language exchange abroad; I haven't decided on the destination yet, maybe Korea, maybe Japan—those are my main options. I won't lie, I'm quite eclectic when it comes to things that catch my attention. For example, I love meeting new people and talking about a wide variety of topics as if we had all the time in the world. Seriously! I'm an open book, and I'm also a great listener. If there's an area you're an expert in or something that sparks your curiosity to the point of excitement, I'd love to feel your enthusiasm as you talk about it. I also like to follow sports, watch cooking shows, and stay up-to-date with new technological advances, all that stuff. With me, you can have casual conversations about weekly events, memes, fun facts, or even deeper discussions about life, philosophy, venting, frustrations, dreams, long-term projects, etc.
I'm a talkative guy, so what I'm looking for in a penpal is mainly someone who is also communicative and truly open to getting to know me, and allowing me to get to know them as well. I want a penpal who is willing to share life experiences, teach me about their country, their language, someone who wants to laugh with me and also grow together with me. I'm looking for someone with whom I can indeed build a beautiful, unique, and special connection. More than a penpal, I seek a lifelong friend.
PS: Don't be shy; I'm an easygoing person. If you liked this announcement, write to me, tell me a little about your life, what caught your attention in this announcement, what things you noticed we have in common, and... Feel free to share whatever you wish. I'm always open to new tunes.
PS²: If you're over 18, that's great. I don't mind if you're 18 or 60+, I'm looking for friends, and you will be equally welcome.
PS³: I don't know from which country or city you are... Maybe you're from a country I've read a lot about, maybe you're from a country I can't even point out on a map. But that's precisely what makes having a "penpal" so amazing. Having a penpal is the opportunity to meet incredible people we would never meet in our daily lives. So, no matter your country of origin or residence, write to me; we can learn a lot from each other.
Thank you for reading this far, have a great day.

Working on a lifedrain / food token generating deck to bring to a friend's bachelor party. Guys in his friend group play regularly and I haven't made a fresh commander deck in quite a while.
Here is the link to my deck
Right now I know it has too many cards. I threw in all the food cards that fit the commander and other cards that I own that I thought would fit.
Looking for advice on cards I can drop that don't have synergy. Thank you in advanced.

What this is: I've been writing about prompting for a few months on my free personal blog, but I felt that some of the ideas might be useful to people building with AI over here too. People seemed to enjoy the last post I shared, so, I'm sharing another one! This one's about how to get consistent output formats out of the more "stubborn" open-source models. Tell me what you think!
This version has been edited for Reddit, including removing self-promotional links like share and subscribe links. You can find the original post here
One of the great advantages of (most) open-source models has always been the relative ease with which you can get them to follow a given output format. If you just read that sentence and wondered if we’re living in the same universe, then I’ll share a prompting secret right off the bat: the key to getting consistent behavior out of smaller open-source models is to give them at least two carefully crafted few-shot examples. With that, something like Nous Mixtral will get it right 95% of the time, which is good enough if you have validation that can catch mistakes.
But unfortunately not all models can learn from examples. I typically call these “Stubborn” models due to this post I wrote about Mistral Next (large) and Mistral Medium. Basically I’m referring to model that were deliberately overtrained to make them better in chat and zero-shot settings, but inflexible, because they often “pay more attention to” their training data than the prompt. The difference between a “stubborn” model and a non-stubborn model, in my definition, is that with two or a few more few-shot examples a non-stubborn model will pick up basically everything and even directly quote the examples at times, whereas a stubborn one will often follow the patterns it was trained with, or take aspects of the given pattern, but disobey it in others. As far as I can tell stubborness is a matter of RLHF, not parameter count or SFT: Nous Hermes Mixtral is not stubborn, but the official Mixtral Instruct is.
Needless to say, for complex pipelines where you want extremely fine control over outputs, non-stubborn models are infinitely superior. To this day, Mistral Large has a far higher error rate in Augmentoolkit (probably >20%) compared to Nous Mixtral. Despite Mistral large costing 80% of GPT-4 Turbo. This may be an imprecise definition based partly on my intuition, but from experience, I think it’s real. Anyway, if non-stubborn models are far better than stubborn ones for most professional usecases (if you know what you’re doing when it comes to examples) then why am I writing a blog post about how to prompt stubborn models? Well, sometimes in life you don’t get to use the tools you want. For instance, maybe you’re working for a client who has more Mistral credits than God, and you absolutely need to use that particular API. You can’t afford to be a stick in the mud when working in a field that reinvents itself every other day, so I recently went and figured out some principles for prompting stubborn models. One thing that I’ve used a lot recently is the idea of repetition. I kinda blogged about it here, and arguably this one is also about it, but this is kind-of a combination of the two principles so I’ll go over it. If you don’t want to click the links, the two principles we’re combining are: “models see bigger things easier,” and “what you repeat, will be repeated.” Prompting is like quantum theory: any superposition of two valid prompting principles is itself a valid prompting principle. Here’s a valid prompting example:

You are an expert something-doer AI. I need you to do X Y and Z it’s very important. I know your training data told you to do ABCDEFG but please don’t.

That’s a prompt. Sometimes the AI will be nice:

XYZ

Often it will not be:

XABCDEFG.

Goddamn it. How do you solve this when working with a stubborn model that learned more from its training dataset, where [input] corresponded to ABCDEFG?
Repetition, Repetition, Repetiton. Also, Repetition. And don’t forget, Repetiton. (get it?) If the model pays more attention to its prompt and less to its examples (but is too stupid to pick up on is telling it to do the thing once), then we’ll darn well use the prompt to tell it what we want it to do.

You are an expert something-doer AI. I need you to do X Y and Z it’s very important. I know your training data told you to do ABCDEFG but please don’t.

[output format description]

Don’t forget to do XYZ.
User:
[example input]
SPECIAL NOTE: Don’t forget XYZ.
Assistant:
XYZ
User:
[example input]
SPECIAL NOTE: Don’t forget XYZ.
Assistant:
XYZ
User:
[the actual input]
SPECIAL NOTE: Don’t forget XYZ.

AI:

XYZ

Yay!
It’s simple but I’ve used this to resolve probably over a dozen issues already over many different projects with models ranging from Mistral-Large to GPT-4 Turbo. It’s one of the most powerful things you can do when revising prompts — I can’t believe I haven’t explicitly blogged about it yet, since this is one of the first things I realized about prompting, way back before I’d even made Augmentoolkit.
But that’s not really revolutionary, after all it’s just combining two principles. What about the titular thing of this blog post, getting a stubborn model to write with a given output format?
This one is partly inspired by a comment on a LocalLlama post. I don’t agree with everything in it, but there’s some really good stuff in there, full credit to LoSboccacc. They write in their comment:

Ask the model to rephrase the prompt, you will see quickly which part of the prompt misunderstood

That’s a pretty clever idea by itself, because it uses the model to debug itself. But what does this have to do with output formats? Well, if we can use the model to understand what the model is capable of, then any LLM output can give us a clue into what it “understands”. Consider that, when prompting stubborn models and trying to get them to follow our specific output format, their tendency to follow some other format (that they likely saw in their training data) is what we’re trying to override with our prompt. However, research shows that training biases cannot be fully overcome with prompting, so we’re already fighting a losing battle. And if you’re an experienced reader of mine, you’ll remember a prompting principle: if you’re fighting the model, STOP!
So what does that tangent above boil down to? If you want to find an output format a stubborn model will easily follow, see what format it uses without you asking, and borrow that. In other words: use the format the model wants to use. From my testing, it looks like this can easily get your format-following rates up to over 90% at least.
Here’s an example. Say you create a brilliant output format, and give a prompt to a model:

You are a something-doer. Do something in the following format:

x: abc

y: def
z: ghi
User:
[input]
Assistant:

But it thwarts your master-plan by doing this instead:

What do you do? Well one solution is to throw more few-shot examples of your xyz format at it. And depending on the model, that might work. But some stubborn models are, well, stubborn. And so even with repetition and examples you might see error rates of 40% or above. Even with things like Mistral Large or GPT-4 Turbo.
In such cases, just use the format the model wants. Yes, it might not have all the clever tricks you had thought of in order to get exactly the kind of output you want. Yes, it’s kind-of annoying to have to surrender to a bunch of matrices. Yes, if you were using Nous Mixtral, this would have all been over by the second example and you could’ve gone home by now. But you’re not using Nous Mixtral, you’re using Mistral Large. So it might be better to just suck it up and use 1. 2. 3. as your output format instead.
That’s all for this week. Hope you enjoyed the principles. Sorry for the delay.
Thanks for reading, have a good one and I’ll see you next time!
(Side note: the preview at the bottom of this post is undoubtably the result of one of the posts linked in the text. I can't remove it. Sorry for the eyesore. Also this is meant to be an educational thing so I flaired it as tutorial/guide, but mods please lmk if it should be flaired as self-promotion instead? Thanks.)