I often wrote silly limericks just to make my gf laugh but we aren’t together anymore. Recently i saw a girl and out of no where some silly lines came to my head. Perhaps i should have told her how gorgeous she looked to me (i had no intention to ask her out but i guess could have made her laugh at least)
we are worlds apart i guess, like night and day;
to get a chance to know you, i won’t mind pretending i am gay.
You are like moon and i could be Selenophile,
It doesn’t really matter even if it takes a while.
Anyway, if we never speak, i’d still wish you well,
thinking that we are just going to be strangers, puts me through hell.

My last post went over surprisingly well, that said you should check out my new subreddit Talesofzippy for more content, because I'm definitely going to posting in more places around reddit and I'll be cross posting them in the tales sub for more people to enjoy!
With that, I don't remember any good stories about Zippy, but the place I work at is fucking filled with loonies, so tonight I'm going to introduce you to Katniss.
Katniss is about 63, tiny, and absolutely loved to talk about how good her guns are, even if she can't shoot or generally understand how they work. She tried to tell me that her Girsan was a high quality gun because the barrel is pinned in place.
I'm a competitive shooter, I grew up shooting and learning about guns.
When a pistol fires a round, a floating barrel will be pointed at an upward angle at the end of the stroke, while a pinned barrel doesn't. The floating barrel doesn't effect accuracy in any meaningful way because it is held in place by several seers, and doesn't begin to move until well after the bullet is out of the gun.
I tried to explain that, she didn't listen. She also can't shoot. Katniss.
She also wears boomer shirts about "snowflakes" and shares memes about the good old days when you could say whatever you want and be offensive.
This gets funny later.
Katniss and I worked together running gas pumps, and we generally got along great, in fact for a year I considered her to be a friend.
And then my dad killed himself.
I got the call at work and got a ride home as quickly as possible. Katniss was on shift with me and Yawn, who is the most chill person you can imagine.
They were incredible, Katniss broke into my apartment (at my request) and took my shotgun for safe keeping. She also took my keys and made me wait for a family friend to pick me up.
I called the night manager and told him I was going home and why, He offered me a ride.
I came into work three days later and stuck my head into my boss (Elk Daddy's) office. He simply said "how long do you need?"
"Two weeks."
"Okay."
I mention this because Anything less than this is a cancerous work environment. If a manager tries to negotiate with you when you've experienced a true tragedy, they're not a manager, they're a slave driver.
I had severe PTSD, nightmares, the whole shabang, for months I would stand at the desk and hear my mom's voice telling me my dad was dead, the first night back at work I witnessed some dumb janitorial drama (not zippy) and I started smelling the sickly sweet smell of human brain before I ran home and had my first panic attack.
(I'll tell the story of Elk Daddy, and make good on a promise I made my dad as a bonus at the end.)
Six months passed, my PTSD wasn't even beginning to heal, and she pulled me aside.
"Okay. It's time to stop now."
"Stop what?"
"This, you're in a rut, and you need to get out of it. It's high time you moved on and stopped being sad and moved on. See my sister was in a car accident and went into a coma when I was about 20, and I had a dream about her getting up and walking out of her hospital room and saying "it's about fucking time." The next day her heart gave out and she finally died. It was this freeing thing for me, because I felt like she was finally free of the broken body and the pain."
"Katniss I just don't feel like I'm... There yet. I'm still hurting, and I really don't feel like I'm ready to let him go. Things aren't that easy."
She didn't like that answer.
At the time I just felt broken, and just laid there and took it, but today I'm genuinely angry about it.
I was hurt, and now that I've rebuilt myself I realized how truly broken I was as a person.
She had no right to say anything to me about how it was time to stop. I'm still healing four years on.
That was when we stopped being friends.
Last year I was going through stickers for our local pride, the second one our community has ever had! I had come out as bi the year before, and had a side project that had grown large enough to have a booth at the local event. I was showing off some cool and funny stickers to Yawn, another cashier.
Yawn is great, he has no blood pressure, everything is just really cool and chill, and he really just wanted to be friends with everyone.
Genuinely nice person. I always get him a Christmas gift and he's always grateful, no matter what it is.
I turned around and handed a sticker to Katniss that said "be gay, so crime" with a little picture of a fabulous criminal goose on it.
She took one look at it and just went "No" rather forcefully, so I just backed off and moved on.
The next day my boss, Elk Daddy, calls me over.
"Op, you handed Katniss a sticker yesterday, and I just want to tell you. Stop talking to her. Please. For me."
"She really complained about that?"
"No, she threatened to go to HR because you "assumed her orientation" and tried to give her a sticker."
It is at this point that I'd like to add that Elk Daddy is gay. Like... Really gay. Him and his husband both donate their time and money to pride, and have been instrumental in making it happen. They are the gay uncles that stepped up to be dads for their nephews when Elk Daddy's brother couldn't.
He knows Katniss, and both of us know her HUSBAND.
So. We didn't talk outside of necessary conversations, and haven't really said anything to each other for any reason.... Until I transferred to my current department and ran out of pens.
I walked over to the cashier desk "hey Katniss, can I get a handful of pens? I ran out."
"I gave three to morning shift last night, what happened to those?"
"I don't know, and it doesn't matter, can I get some?"
Yawn walked over to the drawer where we keep the pens and opened it, while Katniss sighs and opens up her drawer and drops a pen on the counter.
"Come on Katniss, I need more than that."
"I don't have that many pens, they're not giving them to us, here, this is all I have."
She angrily throws down two more pins on the counter as Yawn retrieves an entire box of pens from the drawer and begins walking over. She sees him and motions for him to stop."
"Don't fucking bullshit me Katniss, I see Yawn with the box. Just give me some pens."
She drops six more down on the counter, I take them and walk off. "Thank you."
Ten minutes later she comes over to the deli and slams a box of pens down on the counter for me
"Don't ask me for pens again."
"Wouldn't have it any other way."
She then told the MOD that I cussed her out. I told my side, and several people in the management chain pointed out that she wore tee shirts under her uniform that said more offensive things, one of them even saying "don't fucking bullshit me."
She is no longer allowed to wear her tee shirts.
She's also had it pointed out to her that she says "don't fucking bullshit me" all the time, and management has gently reminded her that she should not swear.
A few weeks ago she very dejectedly told me that she was done trying to help people, and I had to bite back a "good, we don't need it."
And here we are... End of another post about the weird boomers I work with.
BONUS STORIES!
As for Elk Daddy.
My boss has only ever taken his husband out hunting one time. When they did, they ended up trekking across the country on deer trails and through the brush. After 12 hours of being dragged through the brush and not shooting anything, his husband said something to the effect of "I hate this. I can't keep up with you and you just disappear all the goddamn time." He took my boss's phone, logged in, and yells "in fact HEY SIRI, FROM NOW ON CALL ME ELK DADDY."
nickname earned. He has it monogramed on his wallet.
And finally, my dad, who was another Boomer, used to love taking me out camping.
He was an electrical engineer, and was most certainly on the spectrum. He was brilliant in his own way, but absolutely unhinged when it came to teaching things.
A lecture from my dad could cover cleaning the stove (with diagrams on proper wiping techniques) to the finer points of building and firing a nuclear weapon. (With math included. No mercy.)
He tried to teach me calculus when I was six. It didn't work.
Anyway, on this particular camping trip he pulled me aside and said "op, I want you to make me a fire using nothing but two sticks, your knife, a match and the chainsaw"
Now. I knew where he was coming from, he wanted me to make a fuzz stick. I knew because he had only brought up the topic of making a fuzz stick every night for the past three days of camping. He then very helpfully added "and the chainsaw is a distraction."
Uh huh. Okay dad.
I Start cutting up the wood and making a teepee fire, and I hear a little "hmph" I look up and I see the smile. The grin he used to get as he started planning one of his little lectures. He was picking out the right words, deciding if he needed to demonstrate or just use a pen and paper.
I then opened up the gas tank on the chainsaw, dumped in a tablespoon of gas, lit the match and "whoof"
Fire.
Then the argument began.
"I said you couldn't use gas!"
"You said I could use the chainsaw, that includes the gas tank!"
"The chainsaw was a distraction!"
"Still gave it to me!"
"You cheated!!!"
"How?"
Long pause.
"I won, admit it. I beat you in a way you didn't expect. You will never live this down. I'll tell this story at your funeral!"
And I did. Three years later I tore up my hastily scribbled notes and told a group of the friends, neighbors and coworkers that he knew and loved about the time I finally beat him. We laughed.
I think he'd be proud, and a little indignant.
I miss you dad.

My last post went over surprisingly well, that said you should check out my new subreddit Talesofzippy for more content, because I'm definitely going to posting in more places around reddit and I'll be cross posting them in the tales sub for more people to enjoy!
With that, I don't remember any good stories about Zippy, but the place I work at is fucking filled with loonies, so tonight I'm going to introduce you to Katniss.
Katniss is about 63, tiny, and absolutely loved to talk about how good her guns are, even if she can't shoot or generally understand how they work. She tried to tell me that her Girsan was a high quality gun because the barrel is pinned in place.
I'm a competitive shooter, I grew up shooting and learning about guns.
When a pistol fires a round, a floating barrel will be pointed at an upward angle at the end of the stroke, while a pinned barrel doesn't. The floating barrel doesn't effect accuracy in any meaningful way because it is held in place by several seers, and doesn't begin to move until well after the bullet is out of the gun.
I tried to explain that, she didn't listen. She also can't shoot. Katniss.
She also wears boomer shirts about "snowflakes" and shares memes about the good old days when you could say whatever you want and be offensive.
This gets funny later.
Katniss and I worked together running gas pumps, and we generally got along great, in fact for a year I considered her to be a friend.
And then my dad killed himself.
I got the call at work and got a ride home as quickly as possible. Katniss was on shift with me and Yawn, who is the most chill person you can imagine.
They were incredible, Katniss broke into my apartment (at my request) and took my shotgun for safe keeping. She also took my keys and made me wait for a family friend to pick me up.
I called the night manager and told him I was going home and why, He offered me a ride.
I came into work three days later and stuck my head into my boss (Elk Daddy's) office. He simply said "how long do you need?"
"Two weeks."
"Okay."
I mention this because Anything less than this is a cancerous work environment. If a manager tries to negotiate with you when you've experienced a true tragedy, they're not a manager, they're a slave driver.
I had severe PTSD, nightmares, the whole shabang, for months I would stand at the desk and hear my mom's voice telling me my dad was dead, the first night back at work I witnessed some dumb janitorial drama (not zippy) and I started smelling the sickly sweet smell of human brain before I ran home and had my first panic attack.
(I'll tell the story of Elk Daddy, and make good on a promise I made my dad as a bonus at the end.)
Six months passed, my PTSD wasn't even beginning to heal, and she pulled me aside.
"Okay. It's time to stop now."
"Stop what?"
"This, you're in a rut, and you need to get out of it. It's high time you moved on and stopped being sad and moved on. See my sister was in a car accident and went into a coma when I was about 20, and I had a dream about her getting up and walking out of her hospital room and saying "it's about fucking time." The next day her heart gave out and she finally died. It was this freeing thing for me, because I felt like she was finally free of the broken body and the pain."
"Katniss I just don't feel like I'm... There yet. I'm still hurting, and I really don't feel like I'm ready to let him go. Things aren't that easy."
She didn't like that answer.
At the time I just felt broken, and just laid there and took it, but today I'm genuinely angry about it.
I was hurt, and now that I've rebuilt myself I realized how truly broken I was as a person.
She had no right to say anything to me about how it was time to stop. I'm still healing four years on.
That was when we stopped being friends.
Last year I was going through stickers for our local pride, the second one our community has ever had! I had come out as bi the year before, and had a side project that had grown large enough to have a booth at the local event. I was showing off some cool and funny stickers to Yawn, another cashier.
Yawn is great, he has no blood pressure, everything is just really cool and chill, and he really just wanted to be friends with everyone.
Genuinely nice person. I always get him a Christmas gift and he's always grateful, no matter what it is.
I turned around and handed a sticker to Katniss that said "be gay, do crime" with a little picture of a fabulous criminal goose on it.
She took one look at it and just went "No" rather forcefully, so I just backed off and moved on.
The next day my boss, Elk Daddy, calls me over.
"Op, you handed Katniss a sticker yesterday, and I just want to tell you. Stop talking to her. Please. For me."
"She really complained about that?"
"No, she threatened to go to HR because you "assumed her orientation" and tried to give her a sticker."
It is at this point that I'd like to add that Elk Daddy is gay. Like... Really gay. Him and his husband both donate their time and money to pride, and have been instrumental in making it happen. They are the gay uncles that stepped up to be dads for their nephews when Elk Daddy's brother couldn't.
He knows Katniss, and both of us know her HUSBAND.
So. We didn't talk outside of necessary conversations, and haven't really said anything to each other for any reason.... Until I transferred to my current department and ran out of pens.
I walked over to the cashier desk "hey Katniss, can I get a handful of pens? I ran out."
"I gave three to morning shift last night, what happened to those?"
"I don't know, and it doesn't matter, can I get some?"
Yawn walked over to the drawer where we keep the pens and opened it, while Katniss sighs and opens up her drawer and drops a pen on the counter.
"Come on Katniss, I need more than that."
"I don't have that many pens, they're not giving them to us, here, this is all I have."
She angrily throws down two more pins on the counter as Yawn retrieves an entire box of pens from the drawer and begins walking over. She sees him and motions for him to stop."
"Don't fucking bullshit me Katniss, I see Yawn with the box. Just give me some pens."
She drops six more down on the counter, I take them and walk off. "Thank you."
Ten minutes later she comes over to the deli and slams a box of pens down on the counter for me
"Don't ask me for pens again."
"Wouldn't have it any other way."
She then told the MOD that I cussed her out. I told my side, and several people in the management chain pointed out that she wore tee shirts under her uniform that said more offensive things, one of them even saying "don't fucking bullshit me."
She is no longer allowed to wear her tee shirts.
She's also had it pointed out to her that she says "don't fucking bullshit me" all the time, and management has gently reminded her that she should not swear.
A few weeks ago she very dejectedly told me that she was done trying to help people, and I had to bite back a "good, we don't need it."
And here we are... End of another post about the weird boomers I work with.
BONUS STORIES!
As for Elk Daddy.
My boss has only ever taken his husband out hunting one time. When they did, they ended up trekking across the country on deer trails and through the brush. After 12 hours of being dragged through the brush and not shooting anything, his husband said something to the effect of "I hate this. I can't keep up with you and you just disappear all the goddamn time." He took my boss's phone, logged in, and yells "in fact HEY SIRI, FROM NOW ON CALL ME ELK DADDY."
nickname earned. He has it monogramed on his wallet.
And finally, my dad, who was another Boomer, used to love taking me out camping.
He was an electrical engineer, and was most certainly on the spectrum. He was brilliant in his own way, but absolutely unhinged when it came to teaching things.
A lecture from my dad could cover cleaning the stove (with diagrams on proper wiping techniques) to the finer points of building and firing a nuclear weapon. (With math included. No mercy.)
He tried to teach me calculus when I was six. It didn't work.
Anyway, on this particular camping trip he pulled me aside and said "op, I want you to make me a fire using nothing but two sticks, your knife, a match and the chainsaw"
Now. I knew where he was coming from, he wanted me to make a fuzz stick. I knew because he had only brought up the topic of making a fuzz stick every night for the past three days of camping. He then very helpfully added "and the chainsaw is a distraction."
Uh huh. Okay dad.
I Start cutting up the wood and making a teepee fire, and I hear a little "hmph" I look up and I see the smile. The grin he used to get as he started planning one of his little lectures. He was picking out the right words, deciding if he needed to demonstrate or just use a pen and paper.
I then opened up the gas tank on the chainsaw, dumped in a tablespoon of gas, lit the match and "whoof"
Fire.
Then the argument began.
"I said you couldn't use gas!"
"You said I could use the chainsaw, that includes the gas tank!"
"The chainsaw was a distraction!"
"Still gave it to me!"
"You cheated!!!"
"How?"
Long pause.
"I won, admit it. I beat you in a way you didn't expect. You will never live this down. I'll tell this story at your funeral!"
And I did. Three years later I tore up my hastily scribbled notes and told a group of the friends, neighbors and coworkers that he knew and loved about the time I finally beat him. We laughed.
I think he'd be proud, and a little indignant.
I miss you dad.

Just over the past few months I've had a bunch of interest shown in me but I guess I'm too scared to act on it? Most of these are from work/college,
One of the girls always follows me around and sparks conversation pretty much all day. We have a very flirty way of talking and lots of dirty joke and shit. She mentions a lot how we're good friends so I think thats that.
Another one is ALWAYS finding ways to bump into or touch me. She leans into me when walking beside me, always reaching out her shoulder to brush past me when we walk by, and just has some wack ass reasons to put her hands on me. Also very aggressively "fake flirty" kinda relationship. She also texts and calls to see if im working her shifts or not.
Third one would always invite me to group hangouts and drinking scenarios. At one point said I could stay the night to sleep the drunk away but I declined.
The girls I chased back in my highschool days didn't show interest in me. I'm an average at best looking guy. Only thing I got going for me is my personality which I guess is like super goofy in a way. Im a bit aloof.
I'm also 6ft tall but I really cant see that being a factor. \
But yeah ever since HS I've made myself feel like I wont ever find someone that likes me, but now im getting all these signals from women all around me and I dont know if im a bit delusional, if im looking too far into it, if they all feel bad for me, if I give off some "gay best friend" energy, or if by some miracle they actually enjoy being around me?

TL;DR: Touch starved girl wishing for romance, being burned alive and need relief or maybe just borrow someone's ear.
I just need to vent to anyone right now! Like how do you deal with this torture?? I'm trying to date again after my last relationship and years of stringing together relationships, typical serial monogamist. I took a couple years to be purposely single and work on my relationship with myself. I started therapy and seeing a psychiatrist, got my future planned, am well into my transition, and I decided to put myself out there again.
Now, I'm confident in my looks. I'm tall, fit, and (please forgive my vanity) rather freaking adorable. One nights or short-term relationships never interested me before. I always considered myself demisexual, not anymore. However I have this constant burning fire of longing in my chest, it's new and exquisite! The idea of a beautiful woman's weight against me, laying on the couch watching some silly rom-com, or in the kitchen making dinner together. These ideas always excited me before but after fully realizing myself it's an absolute wonderful agony!! I feel like it's tearing me apart.
I find myself constantly fantasizing about intimacy with anyone. Online dating has proved difficult, I set a personal boundary not to date co-workers, and I don't drink so bars seem less than ideal to meet anyone. I don't care if it's one night or a passionate and disasterous fling for a few months, the need to quench the flame in my heart feels all consuming. Random selfish crushes that I know are futile ideas that won't come to fruition. What can a girl do to survive this?
Does anyone have tips? I've thrown myself into my hobbies and picking up overtime to keep my mind busy. Nothing is helping. Hanging out with my friends as often as I can to fulfill my social needs and cuddling with my cat for the warm comfort of another living creature has only magnified the yearing that being touch starved has instilled in me. There isn't many queer spaces in my city and the ones that are here cater mainly to gay men.
I didn't know how badly I missed being with a partner, how much I missed looking into someone's eyes and leaning into their body. Sharing time and getting to know them. It always came so effortlessly before, taken for granted and squandered.
Thanks for listening if you made it this far. I just needed to get this off my chest even if spoken into an uncaring void.
<3

I’ve watched the documentary on Peacock but honestly, I haven’t dug incredibly deep into the details of the case like some of you have. I do, however, have personal connections to some parties involved in this case that have helped me develop a theory about Robert’s death.
As a queer person, I’ll say, it is ridiculous to assume that just because Robert had gay friends that he was gay. But what if he was?
Robert came from a traditional Chinese family where things like homosexuality were incredibly frowned upon.
What if Robert was homosexual, and had been hiding it from his family his entire life? Even going to the extent of marrying a woman (who I am sure he still loved and cared about nonetheless).
What if Robert found out he, like so far too many gay men, had contracted HIV? At least two of the men Robert saw that night were HIV+ at the time, what if he had been intimate with any of them in the past? How would he tell his family? What would he tell his wife? He would have to tell her to keep her safe if they were to continue to be intimate. This was more than 6 years before PrEP came out and HIV/AIDS was still considered by many to be a death sentence.
Perhaps Robert felt helpless and wished to end it all. Suicide would is also considered shameful in many cultures and religions. Maybe Robert was worried his wife and family would feel guilty if he were to kill himself.
What if Robert trusted his closest friends to help him with an assisted suicide? What if he came to them out of desperation to help him end his life on his own terms and make it look like a crime as to place the blame on an entity and not cause any suspicious to his sexuality or disease?
Joe’s brother was in school for phlebotomy at the time of the death, and it was confirmed that he skipped class that night. His alibi was only corroborated by two other close friends who could have easily been covering life him.
What if the five men, together, had a premeditated plan to help their friend end his life and had it all planned out. Joe, the lawyer, of course would plan the story down to the fine details and they would go over it many times before cops were ever called. They could have been planning for weeks it months. What if Robert showed up that night knowing it would be his last. What if the men gave him paralyzing drugs and put him in the bathtub where Michael used his phlebotomy skills to drain Roberts blood to reduce the mess/ cover the use of any agents or drugs used in the process. What if they stabbed him and then realized there was a finger print or something on the original knife so they had to fake a second one that was “clean”.
What if they packed up everything with blood and evidence and bagged it up and Michael left the house to dispose if the evidence before the police ever showed up? What f he was the person that was heard/seen using the back door but it was in exit not entrance? What if the remaining three men all took their showers and put on clean robes before calling the police to report the “stabbing”?

For context: I was born into a failing family. My dad is a rageful alcoholic with food addiction and hoarding issues. He could be cold and cruel. My mom fluctuated and is inconsistently reliable. At her best, she is warm, nurturing and funny. But she can be vulnerable, manipulative and controlling or distant and in-her-own-little-world at times as well. My elder sibling was resentful of any attention I received and bullied me regularly. When we were very young, my elder sibling violated my physical boundaries intimately in a way I believe left me with long-term fallout that my parents failed to notice due to their self-absorption.
In early childhood I was "painfully shy," even going so far as to hide under furniture when family or friends would visit. I failed my preschool screening not because I could not answer the questions correctly, but because I refused to speak to the person administering it.
We had a turbulent childhood--a messy divorce between our parents, during which we were more pawns than kids, and so much moving around I lose track of how many times I was "new kid." When I started getting bullied for seeming gay (I wasn't out yet, even to myself) in high school my parents didn't notice, even though I went from A student to failing list one semester.
In those preteen years, I started seeing a ton of doctors for what my mom believed was physical distress but what I clearly felt was mental. I went on and off of tons of anxiety meds and antidepressants, but eventually tapered off when I went to college.
Though I flourished as much as was possible for me in college, I was still basically living a half-life. An obsessive amount of worrying went into all the possible ways of humiliating myself. I had very pathological plans to make it to "safe" bathrooms. I went through a huge amount of panic when the university suggested that they might require me to live on campus and share a room (I got out of it). I could not take the kinds of jobs my friends were working in retail and restaurants, only a campus job with very few hours and very little pay because it allowed me to dip out before the panic set in and reasonable access to a bathroom.
When I went to grad school, things got even worse. Insomnia set in. The only night I was guaranteed a full sleep was Friday because I had no obligations on Saturday. I wandered through life as a zombie, clumsy, foggy and with extremely heightened fight-or-flight due to the sleep deprivation. Sometimes I would call in sick because I could not operate my vehicle. In classes where all graded assignments were written, I got straight As. My only Bs came from classes with midterm and endterm final exams, because I was in such a panic being wedged in between two people in silence for three hours that I would not be able to devote my full attention to the exam.
I collapsed and had to return home, where I languished for a year or so. I returned to academia, where I clung on by the skin of my teeth for several years but it was the same exact story: caught between a deep loneliness and desire for belonging and a deeper fear of rejection and utter discomfort in social settings. The insomnia returned and I burned out.
I have been in therapy three times. Once for several months between stints in academia. Once during a grad program to help cope. And most recently for two years during my second languishing period.
I am horrified by how long I've struggled with "launching." I've been seeking help for this life-ruining social anxiety problem since I was a preteen. People have known I have had a deep fear of others since I was a child. It has been so terribly lonely and there have been low moments I've felt so hopeless about ever being to sustain a life in the ways that matter that I have called hotlines. This has probably been fewer than five, but it's been happening since I was eighteen or nineteen.
I feel like every resource I visit underestimates how pervasive this is in my life. If I am correct, the pervasiveness and enduring nature of something like this is precisely what makes it a personality disorder. This has been permanent for me, and even the most recent two years of therapy have not budged me much. Yet no authority has ever made an official diagnosis, not even for anxiety and depression.
It stresses me out, because I can see the severe consequences of this and I worry at times they're endangeirng my very life, but all authorities seem to be somewhat dismissive or act like what I'm going through is typical and something everyone deals with. I'm not insured, so if an emergency happens I'm probably broke for life. I was considering my situation today. I'm wearing glasses with one leg broken off because I can't afford to replace them. I haven't had my hair cut since Christmas because I live in a small town and don't want to answer personal questions from the barber. I have about one pair of jeans and a hoodie that fit. The last time I went to the dentist they said I had bone loss because I wasn't visiting enough. When I get sick I try to wait things out because I'm both terrified of being in public, answering employment questions to the receptionists and also because I can't afford it.
At what point does it stop being "shyness" or even social anxiety? When can we admit that this is something worth naming?
I came across this subreddit via the comments section of a post linking to an article about AvPD. The article discussed the disorder and how it was understudied. It profiled some people who'd been diagnosed with it, and I have never related to anything so much in my life, especially the paradox of wanting to belong but sabotaging all attempts to try. I cried when I read it and came here immediately.
Anyway, I'm sorry for the novel. If you've made it this far, thank you so much for letting me vent. I suspect many people on this sub might be people like myself who simply haven't had doctors, therapists or psychiatrists who recognize how extensive this pattern goes. I hope you all are able to find full care that treats all the many manifestations of this terrible thing we're struggling with.

I (19M) have been in a relationship with someone (21M) for a few months. I have a best friend who is gay that I’ve known for about 5 months now. My boyfriend and my best friend haven’t yet been introduced in-person. However, yesterday, my friends and I were at a party and my best friend was there. He lives in another city and my other friend he was supposed to go home with kinda bailed out and went with someone else. So he was stranded here at around three AM at night, so the only nice thing at the time to do would be to ask him to stay at my place until morning since my place was right down the street from where the party was being held. For context, my best friend asked to sleep over a couple weeks ago but I refused since I felt like my boyfriend would be uncomfortable with it and to some extent I was too. When I told my boyfriend about it, he told me that he’d be okay with it after he’s met my best friend at least once. Right now he’s a stranger to him and doesn’t know for sure if he can trust him with sleepovers. Yesterday when I told my bf he was sleeping over, he didn’t take it very well and said that I let my best friend sleep over even though in the conversation we had two weeks ago I said I wouldn’t do it until after I’ve introduced them both. Which I understood and apologized for. However, it wasn’t a planned sleepover and I was only trying to help my friend out. Am I the asshole here?

Similar to two years ago-it appears the overlap with Folsom weekend means there will be no Midway afterparty (in addition to even more traffic in the area) on Saturday night
There is a gay circuit party going on that weekend, so unless they move it (unlikely if they didn’t two years ago), Midway is a no go (unless you want to go to Xoxo!) for Saturday
Disappointing they couldn’t lock this down on Saturday and all the Folsom parties mean fewer event spaces are open for afters so look for Saturday especially to be a bit less active with afters vs last year
https://www.xoxopresents.com/event-details/xoxo-and-cecil-russell-presents-matinee-pervert-xxl-on-folsom-leather-weekend-2024-at-the-midway-saturday-september-28

I've been wrestling with the best way to come out to my friend and would love some input from all the lovely people in this subreddit <3
So, for context, I am 21, have been tranisitioning medically for well over a year now, and have been generally passing quite well.
Now, I met my closest friend from being housemates with her last year, which was my second year of uni and her last year. She graduated and moved back to her country, but we still talk and play games for hours each night. She does not know that I'm trans, but knows that I love generally to do makeup and most of my clothes are from the women's side. She also knows that I have been lasering my face. She knows that I exist in online spaces as female (voice included) and actually goes along with it so well, has never misgendered me online or even messed up my name irl when i poliety gave her a new name to use for me, abeit a shortened, feminine nickname. We've done makeovers and photoshoots and just overall done "girly" things together with no issues. She did ask me if I was gay one time but I said that I am not because even though I am gay (lesbian) I know she meant am I a gay men.
I never came out to her before because honestly I never thought we would become so close and stay friends for so long to the point where she has actually brought a ticket and will be staying with me for two weeks during my graduation. The need to come out never really happened and I was happy with how things were so I never saw the point in telling her, like I can present completely femme, use a female voice and she uses the right name for me.
In the time that she left the country, I doubled my dose of E which is when the majority of changes, including me being able to pass as a cis woman have happened. I'm at the point where most people in my life know me as a woman, and I would like to come out to her.
The only reason I'm a bit nervous is that she may not actually view me as a woman. I know that she is completely fine with people being gay/trans or just queer in general but I need more than that, I need her to view me as a woman and use the correct pronouns and everything for me. She's said a few things before such as not accepting trans people as their correct gender until they actually start to tranisition medically which make me think that she may accept me and being trans but not view me as a woman.
Now, of course I don't want people in my life who cannot view me as a woman (in fact I recently cut off one of closests friends for this reason) but I really hate argueing and really enjoy her being my friend, It's almost like a sort of if it aint broke then dont fix it sorta thing, because I have pretty much everything I could want considering im not out to her but I also think being out would help explain some things such as boobs when she comes. Overall I'd just love for her to accept me fully as a woman, and to be honest not that much really needs to change in our friendship and I generally feel like she treats me like one anyway but for some of the reasons I mentioned earlier I'm just kinda nervous and think it may be smart to have some extra talking points for when I do tell her with how some of the things that she says can be problematic sometimes.
I really hope this made sense, my brain feels very scattered currently during the last week of my uni and honestly typing this out made me feel like I am 15 again, confused about identity and pretty much all things trans as well as how to come out to people in my life at the time.

The novel begins September 3, 2006, a Sunday. In "physical time," our reality, Andre Agassi played and lost his final match of his career. Steve Irwin, the croc hunter, would die the following day from a stingray's three barbed venomous spinal blades puncturing his heart. Senator Barak Obama was still denying he was intending to run for President (he would announce in February 2007.) The number 1 song in America and the UK is Sexyback by Justin Timberlake. Egypt warned of Palestinian terror attacks against Israelis vacationing in Sinai. Charlie Sheen turned 41. 200 Taliban are killed in a major battle in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Iraqi leaders announce the capture of the #2 leader of Al Qaeda. Europe's space agency purposely crash-lands a lunar probe into the moon.
In short, nothing, on balance seems to have happened in the world that has any particular world-historical or even US-historical import. Just a day. Even searching back 4 extra days from September 3 - since we are told that the man viewing the art installation is now on his fifth straight day in the museum - nothing all that *important* seems to have happened on any of those dates, the way saying a novel is starting on June 6, 1944, or (obviously) September 10, 2001, or July 16, 1945 or November 22, 1962 would be of course trying to tell us something.
Q: why is Delillo's purpose (is there one?) for telling us this specific date? Why is it important that the man is there on September 3, 2006 watching this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a31q2ZQcETw over and over.
Q: who is the man? Delillo himself? Just a random unnamed character? Is it definitely Finley and Elster who are the two men who come into the room? The description of the older man "long white hair braided at the nape" [p.7, Scribner] certainly seems to suggest it is Elster, described in Ch. 1 as a man "with silvery hair, as always, was braided down into a short ponytail." If it is definitely them, what does it mean they attended a museum show together? Anything?
This is not the first Delillo novel to open with a scene where a movie, and anonymous characters' responses to watching it, is central to the narrative - Players opens with a movie being shown on a plane that is basically a silent movie of a terrorist machine-gun attack on waspy golfers, only accompanied by a pianist (yes a pianist) in the airplane bar filling in the suspense with improvised show tunes - and it is not the first to open with an examination of an art installation - Underworld, after the fantastic baseball game section - opens at Klara Sax's airplane bomber art installation commune. But this opening seems to introduce two characters obliquely, and of course only if you've paid close attention to the description of Elster's hair could you think back to it being him, perhaps.
"The nature of the film permitted total concentration and also depended on it." "The less there was to see, the harder he looked, the more he saw." [p.5, Scribner]
Q:Who is this person watching and why should we care?
Q: Did the opening sequence provide you any insight other than , perhaps, confusion? Something other than "what the hell did I just read?" What? Does your reaction to the opening sequence change when you know (if you did before this post) that the Psycho installation was and is real?
Moving on to Chapter 1 [p. 17, Scribner], we learn that we are on Day 10 of a 12-day period of time that relates the initial relationship between Elster and Finley. Finley, who is probably in his early to mid-30s and 73-year-old Elster are spending time at Elster's house in the desert to record a one-take movie of Elster's testimony of what it was like to serve in an administration that went to war under less than honest circumstances.
Our narrator is Jim Finley, a documentary filmmaker who has made exactly one film about Jerry Lewis's telethon appearances - Lewis, a "rampaging comic" to whom Elster would merely be a "straight man." [p.27] Elster, who Finley also describes as "not a man who might make space for even the gentlest correction," [p.22] is a non-political theorist being brought in to an administration to provide narrative to their war. I've seen references to him being based on Paul Wolfowitz, the political scientists who became Deputy SecDef in the Bush II Administration who famously nearly swallowed his comb to wet it to comb his hair in an image that likely sealed his fate in D.C. as unserious and ridiculous who was then shuffled off to the World Bank, but would Delillo ape the man AND mention him in the narrative? If so, that seems clumsy.
Q: Do you even take Elster serious as a character or believable as a "brain" behind the narrative of an administration going to war? A man who speaks in bad koans and aphorisms like "Time becomes blind." [p.23] and who reads Louis Zukovsky into the night? (Zukovsky famously worked on an epic poem called "A" for over almost 50 years, finally finishing it a few years before his death in 1978.)
Finley tells us: "To Elster, sunset was human invention, our perceptual arrangement of light and space into elements of wonder." [p.18, Scribner]. Elster has come to the desert to seek - something - we know not what and are not told definitively - but his narrative of what his role was in Washington was to create a interpretation of the "closed world" for the "plotters, the strategists" [p. 28] and ends up delivering to Finley what I think Finley was after - the cynical idea that Elster was giving form and shape to the government's bullshit narrative - "The state has to lie. There is no lie in war or in preparation for war that can't be defended. We went beyond this. We tried to create new realities overnight, careful sets of words that resemble advertising slogans in memorability and repeatability."
Q: Is Elster ultimately right? Did the country have a "shadowy need" [p.34] for such a narrative? See, for instance: "Let's roll." [probably in reality, "Let's roll it" referring to a beverage cart to break into the cockpit.]
"Shock and awe." "Global War on Terror" "Slam dunk" "WMDs" "The Surge" And perhaps most infamously "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques"
At the ends of the chapter, we get what counts as a cliffhanger in this slim novel: Elster's adult daughter would be coming for a visit, Jessie who was "otherworldly" [p. 36].

I am not The OOP, OOP is u/Glitter_Mask
AITAH for not cooking for my husband's friend?
Originally posted to AITAH
TRIGGER WARNING: Manipulation, misogyny
Original post May 4, 2024
So I 24F got off work a bit ago. My husband 24M had some friends over playing card games for the evening and I knew that before I got home.
I came home and saw they had ordered pizza and I don't overly like that pizza brand (dominoes is nasty imo) so I said hi to everyone and started making a frozen ramen. Now my frozen ramen are from a local place and are delicious and not very cheap, but they are my favorite lazy meal.
So I was standing at the stove making my ramen and one of my husband's friends, Brian (fake name) started saying it smelt good. I replied that yes it is delicious and he should try them out sometime but they are pricey (about 16 CAD each). As it kept cooking he just kept saying things like "man that smells good" and "I'd kill for some ramen right now" and such. I just eventually told him that they run a special of buy 10 get 1 free (as I said they are fancy ramen, and very filling). He then said "Oh so you have more? Could you cook me one?"
Honestly I was put off by that. I had just worked for 8 hours and I had told him they aren't cheap.
I said "Well no, they are kind of my thing. I really recommend trying them out though". He clearly got a bit angry and had stopped their game at this point. He said "well its kind of unfair you are making one for yourself then and not making one for a guest. You should have just had pizza."
To be fair at this point my husband and the other guys stepped in and told Brian to chill out. My husband also told Brian that it was my food and I don't like the pizza.
It was pretty awkward and once my ramen was heated I took it to my desk in the other room and started typing this out. I was admittedly eavesdropping and I heard Brian leave shortly after I came to my desk.
I'm really wondering if I should have just made him a ramen because I feel the atmosphere of my husband's group might be ruined because of me.
So. AITAH for not cooking for my husband's friend?
Small update, the rest of the friends left, and husband came to talk to me. He apologized for Brian's behavior and explained that after I left, Husband asked Brian what his problem was. Brian said "whatever let's get back to the game" they all sat in discomfort for about 5 min, then Brian just got up and left. The rest of the gang finished the game, and then they went home. According to Husband, the group agreed that Brian was acting weird and rude. One of the guys volunteered to check on him tomorrow and tell him to apologize to us. So I'll update on that tomorrow, I guess. lol.
RELEVANT COMMENTS
deathtoallants

NTA. Brian should’ve written down the name of the store/brand and flavor on a memo so he could go buy it later. This might be pushing it, but at most he could’ve asked for one bite on a small plate so he can at least taste test it before committing to buying 10 portions of an expensive ramen.
I’ve never heard of frozen ramen. Wtf

OOP

The store is a ramen restaurant and they simply sell their fancy homemade ramen as frozen for a few bucks cheaper. It is just noodles, meat (spicy chicken in my case), broth, and some veggies. Honestly I could make it at home but I'm lazy lol.
But I'm really relieved to see people saying I'm nta. I was getting really into my own head as I was sitting here so that's for the judgement

Update May 5, 2024
Hi all! I was very overwhelmed with the responses to the post. I was honestly just working myself up last night and needed to vent somewhere, I didn't really expect such a response. Thank you all for judgements, it was helpful.
Anyways to the update. Sorry it took the whole day, a lot happened.
The other friend that went to check on Brian, (Sam again fake name) tried calling him in the morning and didn't get a reply. Eventually Sam went to Brian's place and asked to talk.
Sam said it basically went down as him saying,
"You were being weird as hell with ME, what was that"
"I just didn't want dominoes and you guys didn't listen to me. I just wanted other food."
Sam and my husband also say that when the group was discussing food and one of them said just get dominoes, Brian didn't say any objection.
Sam then told him along the lines of "okay well you need to apologize to Husband and I"
Brian then said "yeah I'll apologize to husband"
Most of you readers will pick up what Sam picked up on, Brian didn't want to apologize to me.
Sam told him he mostly needed to apologize to me, it was me he spoke to and me he was rude to.
Brian then told him he'll "think about it" and asked Sam to leave.
Sam then came over and told us the conversation and I started writing the update for you guys.
As I started writing Brian called husband. He was talking very rushed, and I could hear him almost a room away.
"Yeah I'm sorry for last night. I don't think I want to attend game nights at your house though. I don't get along with Me"
Husband started getting kind of heated at that point, because Brian was talking very rapidly, like in a panic almost.
The argument kind of dissolved into a lot of what the comments brought up, my husband asking him was his problem was, is he just that misogynistic, why was he acting this way and such.
Husband said that Brian didn't really make sense during the "talk", making weird comments about other significant others of the guys (some of them are gay or poly), talking about the guys not 'sharing their time', and 'they (I assume he was talking about me and other partners) always ruin the energy and I can never enjoy the time with everyone".
Husband was a bit to angry to ask more and just told him to get himself sorted out and not to come over again.
The other guys are more concerned and think Brian is having a manic episode or is getting into Andrew Tate, as Brian is the last single one of them group. My husband kind of doesn't care through and told them to not involve him in Brian's issues.
For me I kind of don't know what to make of it. I feel bad for my husband because he is very stressed after it all. This isn't his only friend group but he has known these guys for many years. I think most commenter clocked it correctly, he is misogynistic and was just angry at my existence.
I doubt there will be another update, husband wants to step away from the whole thing for now. So thank you all again and have a good night!
THIS IS A REPOST SUB - I AM NOT THE OOP
DO NOT CONTACT THE OOP's OR COMMENT ON LINKED POSTS, REMEMBER - RULE 7

[JUNE]
Week 1, June 2001
________________
[1.6 ROAD TO GREAT AMERICAN BASH!!] “EIGHT MAN MAYHEM”
[Hard Rock Cafe & Casino] The Championship Committee make Flair an offer
◆”WCW Niro” TV Show
Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in front of 1,586
Overall Rating 58
Kevin Nash and Booker T exchanged words to end the show
Booker T, Diamond Dallas Page, Rob Van Dam and Ric Flair beat Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner, Jeff Jarrett and Mike Awesome
Gene Okerlund spoke with Vampire and Goldberg
Dustin Rhodes beat Curt Hennig
Buff Bagwell beat Bam Bam Bagwell
Yoshihiro Tajiri & Sting beat Kanyon and Lex Luger
Sabu beat Jim Duggan
A confrontation between Sting, DDP, Lance Storm, Rena Mero and Mike Awesome
Sabu and Rob Van Dam were with their manager Bill Alfonso and Gene Okerlund
Bobby Henan and Kanyon addressed Lex Luger ahead of their match at Great American Bash
Vampire & Goldberg beat 3 Count (Evan Karagias & Shannon Moore)
Shane Helms, Lizmark Jr, Rey Misterio Jr, Super Crazy, Volador Jr beat Chavo Guerrero Jr, Damien 666, La Parka, Vilano V and Masato Tanaka
Lance Storm beat Hugh Morrus
The Championship Committee (Arn Anderson, Steamboat, Piper, Funk) and WCW President offer Ric Flair a spot on the Championship Committee. He turns it down to focus on his and Dustin Rhodes WCW Tag Title match at Great American Bash
[DARK] The Mamalukes beat Elix Skipper & Kid Romeo
◆Show Notes
Cash, Jamie Knoble, Big Vito and Johnny Ace were fined due to behavioural incidents.
Curt Hennig was injured in his match (out 16 days)
◆Business Notes
WCW Nitro was rated 0.11 with 82,885 viewers with 1,316,070 views overall.
◆Roster Changes
Jim Duggan was released from his contract, a cost of $103,200 to the 2001 budget
Johnny Ace was released from his contract at no cost to the budget
Jimmy Hart was released from his contract at no cost to the budget
Miss Jones was released from his contract at no cost to the budget
Ernest Miller was released from his contract, a cost of $78,600 to the 2001 budget
Don Callis has agreed a one year per show handshake deal with no downside.
Dory Funk Jr has agreed an ongoing per show handshake deal with no downside.
Harley Race has a greed an ongoing per show handshake deal with no downside.
Fit Finlay has agreed a one year per show handshake deal with no downside.
Larry Zbyszko has agreed an ongoing per show handshake deal with no downside.
Scott Hudson was released from his contract at no cost to the budget
Week 2, June 2001
________________
[7.6 ROAD TO GREAT AMERICAN BASH!!] “WHOSE NEXT?”
[Hard Rock Cafe & Casino] The final stop before the Bash
◆”WCW Niro” TV Show
Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in front of 1,601
Overall Rating 61
Goldberg beat Masato Tanaka
Kevin Nash and Booker T discussed their World Title match at Great American Bash
Diamond Dallas Page and Sting Jeff Jarrett and Shane Douglas
La Park and Rey Misterio trash talked each other
Booker T, KroniK (Brian Adams and Bryan Clark), Rob Van Dam and Sabu beat Kanyon, Lex Luger, Buff Bagwell and The Steiner Brothers
Vampiro beat Big Vito
A video promoted Legacy (Ric Flair and Dustin Rhodes)
Fit Finlay beat Hugh Morrus
Jamie Noble beat Elix Skipper
Bobby Henan and his client Kanyon confronted Lex Luger
Kevin Nash beat EZ Money
Director of Talent Acquisition spoke with Stacey Keibler and her client Vilano V, Don Callis and his client Damien 666
Konnan, Billy Kidman, Rey Misterio Jr, Silver King and Tajiri beat Vilano V, Damien 666, Chavo Guerrero Jr, Lance Storm and Mike Awesome
There was an confrontation between Goldberg and Vampire and Shane Douglas and Jeff Jarrett.
Gene Okerlund is joined by Tajiri, James Mitchell and Buff Bagwell to discuss their Great American Bash match.
Goldberg is getting ready backstage
The show opened with Sabu/RVD and the Steiner Brothers fighting backstage.
[DARK] Alex Wright, Bam Bam Bigelow, Norman Smiley and Lash Leroux beat Mike Jindrak, Mike Sanders, Evan Karagais and Shannon Moore
[DARK] Super Crazy beat Sean O’Haire
◆Show Notes
Stevie Ray was fined for a behavioural incident.
◆[GREAT AMERICAN BASH]:”ALL MATCHES CONFIRMED!”
Booker T v Kevin Nash - WCW World Heavyweight Title
Diamond Dallas Page v Lance Storm
Sting v Mike Awesome
Jeff Jarrett & Shane Douglas v Goldberg & Vampiro
Dustin Rhodes & Ric Flair v Rob Van Dam & Sabu v Scott & Rick Steiner v Kronik - WCW Tag Team Titles
Buff Bagwell v Tajiri
Lex Luger v Kanyon
Shane Helms v Chavo Guerrero Jr v Billy Kidman v Super Crazy- WCW Cruiserweight Title
Rey Misterio Jr v La Parka
TV Title Battle Royal
◆Show Notes
WCW Nitro’s TV rating was 0.11 with 86,294 viewers with 1,377,515 viewers overall.
◆Roster Changes
Jeremy Borash was released from his contract at a cost of $33,600 to the 2001 budget.
Billy Gunn has agreed a six month per show agreement with no downside.
Steve Corino has agreed a one more handshake per show agreement with no downside.
[13.6 A NEW!] “WCW Great American Bash Live On Pay Per View”
[Oasis Hall, CA] Turn Up The Heat
◆”Big Bang” Pay Per View
Oasis Hall, CA with 8,633 in attendance
Overall Rating 63
Post Match Booker T and Nash shook hands.
Booker T beat Kevin Nash to retain the WCW World Heavyweight Title
Steiner Brothers beat Legacy (Flair and Dustin Rhodes), Rob Van Dam & Sabu and Kronik to become the new WCW World Tag Team Champions (fall at second defence)
Diamond Dallas Page beat Lance Storm
Gene Okerlund interviewed Ric Flair and Dustin Rhodes about the WCW Tag Team Title match tonight
Rey Misterio Jr and Kevin Nash bumped into each other backstage
Sting and Mike Awesome went to a double DQ
Sting was getting ready backstage
Vampiro & Goldberg beat Shane Douglas and Jeff Jarrett
DDP ran into Lance Storm backstage
Yoshiro Tajiri beat Buff Bagwell
Kevin Nash spoke about Booker T ahead of the main event
James Mitchell and his client Tajiri confronted Buff Bagwell ahead of their match
Rey Misterio Jr beat La Parka
Mike Tenay caught up with Booker T ahead of the Main Event.
Super Crazy beat Shane Helms, Billy Kidman and Chavo Guerrero Jr to become WCW Cruiserweight Champion
Kanyon beat Lex Luger
The Championship Committee (Arn Anderson, Ricky Steamboat, Terry Funk and Roddy Piper) with WCW President Eric Bischoff present Fit Finlay the Championship belt
30 Man Battle Royal for the TV Title: Fit Finlay wins, Masato Tanaka made the most eliminations with the final four being the debuting Steve Corino and Billy Gun alongside Konnan.
[DARK] Lash Leroux beat Kid Romeo
◆Show Notes
Yang and Hugh Morrus were fined due to behavioural incidents.
◆Business Notes
WCW Great American Bash had a buy rate of 0.10 (54,714 buys)
WCW Great American Bash was shown internationally with a TV rating of 0.11 (86,151 views) with 150,637 viewers overall.
Week 3, June 2001
________________
[21.6 WCW LIVES ON!] “THE FALL OUT FROM LAST NIGHT”
[Hard Rock Cafe & Casino] Tag Main Event
◆”WCW Niro” TV Show
Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in front of 1,791
Overall Rating 60
Kevin Nash and Goldberg carried on their disagreement
Steve Corino and Jeff Jarrett beat Goldberg and Kevin Nash after a miscommunication from Goldberg and Nash
Bobby Heenan with Kanyon confronted WCW World Champion Booker T.
Booker T, Sting, Diamond Dallas Page, Vampiro beat Kanyon, Shane Douglas, Lance Storm and Mike Awesome by DQ
Billy Gunn beat Bryan Clark
Rey Misterio beat Rick Steiner
Rob Van Dam & Sabu beat Buff Bagwell & Lex Luger
Fit Finlay beat Alex Wright to retain the WCW World TV Title (first defence)
Team Canada (Mike Awesome & Lance Storm) and Sting, Diamond Dallas Page have an in ring confrontation.
Goldberg is walking backstage
Vampiro cuts a promo on Curt Hennig
Ric Flair beat Vilano V
Yoshihiro Tajiri beat Terry Funk
Ric Flair discusses his match with Vilano V
Championship Committee members Terry Funk and Roddy Piper are confronted by Tajiri and his manager James Mitchell
[DARK] Scott Steiner beat Dustin Rhodes
◆Business Notes
WCW Nitro’s TV rating was 0.11 (87,155 viewers) with 1,375,028 overall.
◆Bash at the Beach ~CARD SO FAR
Booker T v Kanyon - WCW World Heavyweight Title
Goldberg v Kevin Nash
Vampiro v Curt Hennig
Lance Storm v Sting
Diamond Dallas Page v Mike Awesome
Week 4, June 2001
________________
[28.6 WCW LIVES ON!] “STEINER AND RHODES DO BATTLE”
[Hard Rock Cafe & Casino] More matches are made for the Bash at the Beach
◆”WCW Niro” TV Show
Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in front of 1,761
Overal Rating 60
Scott Steiner beat Dustin Rhodes
Diamond Dallas Page beat Booker T and Masato Tanaka for the WCW United States Heavyweight Title, with Kanyon watching on
Goldberg beat Lex Luger
Cash, Chavo Guerrero Jr, Damien 666 and La Parka beat Jamie Knoble, Great Sasuke, Yang and Kaz Hayashi
Champion Committee members Arn Anderson & Roddy Piper were in the Control Centre hyping up Konnan & Rey Misterio Jr v Jeff Jarrett & Shane Douglas and Tajiri v Super Crazy matches set for Bash at the Beach
A confrontation between Kronik (Brian Adams & Bryan Clark) and Totally Buff (Buff Bagwell and Lex Luger)
Steve Corino, Billy Gunn, Curt Hennig and Fit Finlay beat Hugh Morrus, Bam Bam Bigelow, Air Paris and Sean O’Haire
Kevin Nash and Goldberg then brawled in the back
Yoshihiro Tajiri & Kevin Nash beat Super Crazy & Vampiro
Bobby Hennan and Kanyon talked trash of WCW World Champion Booker T
Rick Flair & Dustin Rhodes come face to face with Steve Corino & Billy Gunn
Rey Misterio Jr beats Mark Jindrak
A video recaps the feud between DDP/Sting and Lance Storm/Mike Awesome
Kronik beat Big Vito & Johnny The Bull
Video plays showcasing Rob Van Dam & Sabu
[Dark] Kanyon beats Norman Smiley
◆Show Notes
Jamie Knoble suffered a grade 1 groin strain, he will be out for 2 days
◆Business Notes
WCW Nitro rating 0.11 with 86,167 viewers with 1,379,409 viewers overall.
◆Roster Changes
Sean O’Haire requested and was granted his release, he departs at no cost to the budget.
//END OF MONTH REPORT
◆Company Info
Size Small, second in the world
Next Event Bash at the Beach (pay per view)
TV Shows: WCW Nitro (Monday)
◆Financial Summary
Revenue $2,2m ⬇️ $300k
Wages ($2,68m) ⬇️ 220k
Of Which Are Terminations (215k) ⬇️ $172k
Loss ($3.5m) ⬇️200k
Performance ($1.3m) ⬇️ 100k
Reserves $7,4m
◆Active Roster
[FACE]
Singles
Alex Wright
Bam Bam Bigelow
Billy Kidman w/Tygress
Booker T - WCW United States Heavyweight Champion, WCW World Heavyweight Champion
Diamond Dallas Page
Goldberg
Great Sasuke
Hugh Morris
James Mitchell
Jamie Knoble
Kevin Nash
Konnan w/Tygress
Lash Leroux
Lizmark Jr
Norman Smiley
Rey Misterio Jr w/Tygress
Rob Van Dam w/Bill Alfonso
Sabu w/Bill Alfonso
Shane Helms - WCW Cruiserweight Champion
Silver King
Sting
Super Crazy
Vampiro
Volador Jr
Yoshiro Tajiri
Tag Teams
Air Raid (AJ Styles & Air Paris)
Kronik (Brian Adams & Bryan Clark) - WCW World Tag Team Champions
Legacy (Dustin Rhodes & Ric Flair)
Jung Dragons (Yang & Kaz Hayashi)
The Mamalukes (Big Vito & Johnny the Bull)
[HEEL]
Singles
Buff Bagwell
Cash
Chavo Guerrero Jr
Chris Harris
Christopher Daniels
Curt Hennig
Damien 666 w/Don Callis
Elix Skipper
EZ Money
Fit Finlay
James Storm
Kanyon w/Bobby Henan
Kid Romeo
La Parka
Lex Luger
Mark Jindrak
Masato Tanaka
Mike Sanders
Rick Steiner
Scott Steiner w/Midajah
Shane Douglas
Ultimo Dragon
Vilano V w/Stacy Keibler
Tag Teams
Team Canada (Lance Storm w/Rena Mero & Mike Awesome)
3 Count (Evan Karagias & Shannon Moore)
◆Unavailable
Sid Vicious - Leg Break 10 Months
Ultimo Dragon - Broken Arm - 56 days
◆Personalities
Arn Anderson - Member of the Championship Committee
Eric Bischoff - OwnePresident
Dusty Rhodes - Director Talent Acquisition
Roddy Piper - Member of the Championship Committee
Ricky Steamboat - Member of the Championship Committee
Terry Funk - Member of the Championship Committee / Part Time Wrestler
Larry Zbyszko
Paisley
Mike Tenay
Stevie Ray
Tony Schiavone
Gene Okerlund
[IN/OUT]
In
Don Callis
Dory Funk Jr
Harley Race
Fit Finlay
Larry Zbyszko
Out
Jim Duggan
Johnny Ace
Jimmy Hart
Miss Jones
Ernest Miller
Scott Hudson
Jeremy Borash
Sean O’Haire
Summary
5 signings and 8 departures
[JULY]
Week 1, July 2001
——
◆Bash at the Beach ~MORE MATCHES CONFIRMED
Booker T v Kanyon - WCW World Heavyweight Title
Goldberg v Kevin Nash
Vampiro v Curt Hennig
Lance Storm v Sting
Diamond Dallas Page v Mike Awesome
Flair & Rhodes v Billy Gunn & Steve Corino
Super Crazy v Tajiri - WCW Cruiserweight
Konnan & Rey Jr v Jeff Jarrett & Shane Douglas
Totally Buff & Kronik
[1.7 WCW LIVES ON!] “THE BRAIN IS OUT FOR BOOKER T”
[Hard Rock Cafe & Casino] Huge one on one matches scheduled
◆”WCW Niro” TV Show
Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in front of 1,782
Overal Rating 54
Booker T and Kanyon w/Bobby Henenan closed the show in the ring.
Rob Van Dam beat Steve Corino
Mike Tenay interviewed DDP, Sting, Lance Storm, Mike Awesome and Reno Mero.
Kanyon beat Dustin Rhodes
Yoshihiro Taijiri, Sting and Super Crazy beat Billy Gunn, Shane Douglas and Jeff Jarrett
Control Center segment promoted Steiner Brothers v Rob Van Dam & Sabu, Vampiro & Curt Hennig, Super Crazy v Yoshihiro Taijir and Vilano V v Bam Bam Bigelow for Bash at the Beach
Ric Flair beat Mike Sanders
Diamond Dallas Page beat Curt Hennig
Rey Misterio Jr & Konnan beat Totally Buff (Lex Luger & Buff Bagwell)
Goldberg and Kevin Nash bumped into each other backstage
Legacy (Ric Flair & Dustin Rhodes) tussled on the microphone with Steve Corino & Billy Gunn
Goldberg beat Vilano V
Jeff Jarrett & Shane Douglas went face to face with Konnan & Rey Misterio Jr
Rick Steiner beat Sabu
[DARK] AJ Styles beat Volador Jr
[DARK] Vampiro beat Chris Harris
◆Business Notes
WCW Nitro was shown to a rating of 0.10 with 80,029 viewers with 1,252,174 viewers overall.
◆Talent Relations
Norman Smiley's current contract is set to expire at the end of July. He has now agreed a per show handshake agreement with no downside.
◆Roster Changes
TAKA Michinoku has agreed a three month per show handshake agreement with no downside. His WWF contract is set to expire at the end of the month.
Big Vito has been released from his contract at a cost of $45,600 to the 2001 budget
Johnny the Bull has been released from his contract at a cost of $30,000 to the 2001 budget
Chris Harris has been released from his contract at a cost of $16,200 to the 2001 budget
Week 2, July 2001
——
[8.7 WCW LIVES ON!] “FOUR SUPERSTARS MEET IN THE MAIN EVENT”
[Hard Rock Cafe & Casino] Plus... Flair v Booker T
◆”WCW Niro” TV Show
Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in front of 1,748
Overall Rating 58
Goldberg beat Lance Storm, Goldberg and Rob Van Dam in a non-title match
Scott Steiner beat Dustin Rhodes
Promo with Lance Storm, Mike Awesome, Rena Mero, Diamond Dallas Page and Mike Awesome
Booker T beat Ric Flair in a non-title match
Bam Bam Bigelow, Vampiro and Kevin Nash beat Curt Henning, Vilano V and Fit Finlay
Goldberg is getting ready backstage
Rey Misterio Jr beats EZ Money
Vampiro confronts Curt Hennig
Shane Douglas & Jeff Jarrett beat Yang and Kaz Hayashi
Mike Awesome beat Masato Tanaka
Control Centre segment with Dusty Rhodes, Ric Flair, Kevin Nash, Booker T, Goldberg, Steve Corino, Vilano V and Bam Bam Bigelow
Goldberg and Kevin Nash come face to face
Rey Misterio Jr & Konnan confront Jeff Jarrett and Shane Douglas
Rick Flair v Kanyon v Sting ends in a no contest with interference from Mike Awesome and Sabu
Rick Steiner & Scott Steiner fight with Sabu & Rob Van Dam
Kronik (Brian Adams & Bryan Clark) fight with Buff Bagwell & Lex Luger backstage
Scott Steiner and Rob Van Dam open the show with promos in the ring
[DARK] Yoshihiro Tajiri beat Chavo Guerrero Jr
[DARK] Totally Buff (Buff Bagwell & Lex Luger) beat Norman Smiley and Hugh Morrus
◆Business Notes
WCW Nitro was rated 0.11 with 83,270 viewers with 1,321,854 views overall.
Roster Changes
Brazo de Platino has agreed a per show agreement with no downside.
Week 3, July 2001
——
◆News
WCW will once again go on the road from August, no longer taping Nitro exclusively at the Hard Rock Cafe & Casino in Las Vegas.
Alex Wright & Hugh Morrus are set to debut as a new heel team 'Futurewave'
Essia Rios turned down an approach from WCW and extended his WWF contract
Masato Tanaka has one month remaining on his per show handshake contract, he has indicated he wishes to leave
◆Roster Changes
Tommy Dreamer has agreed a one year per show handshake agreement with no no downside.
[13.7 WCW LIVES ON!] “THIS IS NO DAY AT THE BEACH”
[Hard Rock Cafe & Casino] Two huge main events
◆”Bash At The Beach” Pay Per View
Toyota Sports Centre, CA in front of 8,418 people
Overall Rating 66
Goldberg beat Kevin Nash
Booker T beat Kanyon to retain the WCW World Heavyweight Title (third defence)
A video hypes up the Goldberg v Kevin Nash main event
Kevin Nash is seen getting ready backstage
Golderbg is seen getting ready backstage
Rob Van Dam & Sabu beat The Steiner Brothers to become the WCW World Tag Team Champions (fall at first defence)
WCW President Eric Bischoff and Championship Committee Member Terry Funk meet with Bobby Heenan and his client Kanyon ahead of his World Title challenge
Diamond Dallas Page beat Mike Awesome to retain the WCW United States Heavyweight Title (first defence)
Sting beat Lance Storm
Kevin Nash speaks to Gene Okerlund about his match with Goldberg
Yoshirio Tajiri beat Super Crazy in a match for the WCW Cruiserweight Title by count out, Crazy retains the title
Scott Steiner, Rick Steiner, Rob Van Dam meet with WCW President Eric Bischoff and members of the Championship Committee Terry Funk, Arn Anderson and Roddy Piper ahead of their WCW Tag Team match
Vampiro beats Curt Hennig
We see a promo video on Sting
Legacy (Ric Flair & Dustin Rhodes) beat Billy Gunn & Fit Finlay
Bam Bam Bigelow beats Vilano V
Head of Talent Acquisition Dusty Rhodes announces Steve Corino will not perform tonight, Billy Gunn will now team with Fit Finlay to take on Ric Flair & Dustin Rhodes
Curt Henning and Vampiro ran into each other backstage
Totally Buff (Buff Bagwell & Lex Luger) beat Kronik (Brian Adams & Bryan Clark)
WCW World Champion Booker T was seen backstage
Konnan & Rey Misterio Jr beat Jeff Jarrett & Shane Douglas
[DARK]Futurewave (Hugh Morrus & Alex Wright) beat Air Raid (AJ Styles & Air Paris)
[DARK] Billy Kidman beats Chavo Guerrero Jr
◆Show Notes
Arn Anderson was reprimanded for a behavioural incident.
◆Show Notes
Steve Corino's contract expired the morning of the show, no agreement could be made.
◆Roster Changes
Steve Corino's contract has expired and has departed WCW.
◆Business Notes
WCW Bash At The Beach received a pay per view buy rate of 0.12 with 61,931 buys
WCW Bash At The Beach was shown internationally with a rating of 0.12 with 90,010 views with 162,518 viewers overall.
Week 3, July 2001
——
[21.7 ROAD TO FALL BRAWL!] “TAG CLASH”
[Hard Rock Cafe & Casino] The fall out from Bash at the Beach
◆”WCW Niro” TV Show
Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in front of 1,762
Overall Rating 59
To close the show DDP, Sting, Booker T, RVD and Sabu challenged The Steiners, Team Canada and Fit Finlay to an Elimination Tag match at Fall Brawl.
Diamond Dallas Page & Sting beat Curt Henning & Billy Gunn
Sting and DDP were seen backstage walking to the ring
Goldberg beat Jeff Jarrett and Konnan in a triple threat match
Goldberg and Nash went nose to nose backstage
Fit Finlay beat Shane Helmes to retain his WCW World Television Title (second defence)
Legacy (Ric Flair & Dustin Rhodes) crossed paths with Don Callis and his client Damien 666 and La Parka
La Parka, Chavo Guerrero Jr, Damien 666, Vilano V bear Lizamark Jr, Brazo de Platino, Jamie Knoble and Great Sasuke
Terry Funk and Dusty Rhodes cut a backstage promo
Dustin Rhodes beat Masato Tanaka
Sting/DDP and Team Canada (Lance Storm/Mike Awesome), Booker T, The Steiner Brothers and Rob Van Dam went at it in the ring
Scott Steiner beat Bam Bam Bigelow
Rey Misterio Jr beat Sabu
Rob Van Dam beat Cash
Futurewave (Hugh Morrus & Alex Wright) beat Air Raid (AJ Styles & Air Paris)
Booker T and Fit Finlay crossed paths backstage
Vampiro bumped into Vilano V and his manager Stacey Keibler backstage
[DARK] Lance Storm beat Yoshihiro Tajiri
◆Show Notes
WCW Nitro's TV rating was 0.11 with 85,945 viewers with 1,327,423 viewers overall.
Week 3, July 2001
——
[21.7 ROAD TO FALL BRAWL!] “TAG CLASH”
[Hard Rock Cafe & Casino] The fall out from Bash at the Beach
◆”WCW Niro” TV Show
Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in front of 1,771
Overall Rating 59
A video plays confirming the Goldberg v Kevin Nash rematch is set for Fall Brawl
Booker T beats Jeff Jarrett to retain the WCW World Heavyweight Title (defence four)
Legacy (Ric Flair & Dustin Rhodes) beat Kanyon & Billy Gunn
Booker T is getting ready backstage
Kevin Nash beats Shane Douglas
Sabu & Rob Van Dam are attacked by The Steiner Brothers
Booker T and Fit Finlay talk to WCW President Eric Bischoff
Rob Van Dam & Sabu beat Futurewave (Hugh Morrus & Alex Wright)
A highlight reel of Diamond Dallas Page and Sabu was shown...they'll meet next week!
Goldberg beat James Storm
Funk, Rhodes, Flair, Vampire and Dustin Rhodes challenge Totally Buff, La Parka, Vilano V and Damien 666 to an Elimination match at Fall Brawl
Goldberg is seen backstage
Fit Finlay beat Konnan to retain the WCW Television Title (third defence)
Vampiro and Kronik (Brian Adams & Bryan Clark) beat Curt Hennig & Totally Buff (Lex Luger & Buff Bagwell)
Jeff Jarrett and Shane Douglas talked backstage
Bam Bam Bigelow beat Mark Jindrak
Diamond Dallas Page beat Scott Steiner, La Parka and Tommy Dreamer to retain the WCW Unites States Title
WCW President Eric Bischoff and Championship Committee Members Terry Funk & Arn Anderson confirm Super Crazy will defend his WCW Cruiserweight title at Fall Brawl against Yoshihiro Tajiri and one other!
[DARK] Elix Skipper & Kid Romeo beat Air Raid (AJ Styles & Air Paris)
◆Business Notes
WCW Nitro was broadcast with a rating of 0.11 with 86,713 views with 1,328,284 viewers overall.
◆Bash at the Beach ~MORE MATCHES CONFIRMED
Goldberg v Kevin Nash
ELIMINATION TAG: Mike Awesome, Lance Storm, Rick Steiner, Scott Steiner, Fit Finlay v Sting, Diamond Dallas Page, Sabu, Rob Van Dam and Booker T
ELIMINATION TAG: Dustin Rhodes, Ric Flair Dusty Rhodes, Terry Funk and Vampiro v Buff Bagwell, Lex Luger, Damien 666, La Parka, Vilano V
Super Crazy v Yoshihiro Tajiri v ???
//END OF MONTH REPORT
◆Company Info
Size Small, second in the world
Next Event Fall Brawl (pay per view)
TV Shows: WCW Nitro (Monday)
◆Financial Summary
Revenue 1.9m ⬇️ $300k
Wages ($2,47m) ⬇️ 203k
Of Which Are Terminations (91,8k) ⬇️ $123k
Loss ($3.3m) ⬇️200k
Performance ($1.4m) ⬇️ 100k
Reserves $6m
◆Active Roster
[FACE]
Singles
Alex Wright
Bam Bam Bigelow
Billy Kidman w/Tygress
Booker T - WCW World Heavyweight Champion
Brazo de Platino
Diamond Dallas Page
Goldberg
Great Sasuke
Hugh Morris
James Mitchell
Jamie Knoble
Kevin Nash
Konnan w/Tygress
Lash Leroux
Lizmark Jr
Norman Smiley
Rey Misterio Jr w/Tygress
Rob Van Dam - WCW World Tag Team Champion
Sabu w/Bill Alfonso - WCW World Tag Team Champion
Shane Helms -
Silver King
Sting
Super Crazy - WCW Cruiserweight Champion
Tommy Dreamer
Vampiro
Volador Jr
Yoshiro Tajiri
Tag Teams
Air Raid (AJ Styles & Air Paris)
Kronik (Brian Adams & Bryan Clark)
Legacy (Dustin Rhodes & Ric Flair)
Jung Dragons (Yang & Kaz Hayashi)
[HEEL]
Singles
Buff Bagwell
Cash
Chavo Guerrero Jr
Christopher Daniels
Curt Hennig
Damien 666 w/Don Callis
Elix Skipper
EZ Money
Fit Finlay - WCW World Television Champion
James Storm
Kanyon w/Bobby Henan
Kid Romeo
La Parka
Lex Luger
Mark Jindrak
Masato Tanaka
Mike Sanders
Rick Steiner
Scott Steiner w/Midajah
Shane Douglas
TAKA Michinoku
Ultimo Dragon
Vilano V w/Stacy Keibler
Tag Teams
Team Canada (Lance Storm w/Rena Mero & Mike Awesome)
3 Count (Evan Karagias & Shannon Moore)
◆Unavailable
Sid Vicious - Leg Break 9 Months
Ultimo Dragon - Broken Arm - 25 days
◆Personalities
Arn Anderson - Member of the Championship Committee
Eric Bischoff - OwnePresident
Dusty Rhodes - Director Talent Acquisition
Roddy Piper - Member of the Championship Committee
Ricky Steamboat - Member of the Championship Committee
Terry Funk - Member of the Championship Committee / Part Time Wrestler
Larry Zbyszko
Paisley
Mike Tenay
Stevie Ray
Tony Schiavone
Gene Okerlund
[IN/OUT]
In
TAKA Michinoku
Brazo de Platino
Tommy Dreamer
Out
Big Vito
Johnny The Bull
Chris Harris
Steve Corino
Summary
3 signings and four departures
Week 1, August 2001
——
[1.8 ROAD TO FALL BRAWL!] “BACK TO THE MID-ATLANTIC”
[Greenwood Civic Center, SC] Icons collide in the main event
◆”WCW Niro” TV Show
Greenwood Civic Center, SC in front of 2,188 people
Overall Rating 63
Kevin Nash and Sting go to a non-contest when Goldberg runs in
Ric Flair beat Curt Hennig
Gene Okerlund interviews Rob Van Dam & Sabu and The Steiner Brothers
Ric Flair, Terry Funk, Vampiro, Dusty Rhodes all out Lex Luger and Buff Bagwell.
Diamond Dallas Page beats Sabu to retain the WCW United States title in his third defence
A hype video plays promoting Goldberg v Kevin Nash at Fall Brawl
TAKA Michinoku is confirmed as the third person in the WCW World Cruiserweight Title match at Fall Brawl
Goldberg, Booker T and Vampire beat Fit Finlay, Lance Storm & Mike Awesome
Rob Van Dam beat Jeff Jarrett
WCW President Eric Bischoff meets Mike Awesome, Lance Storm and his manager Rena Mero
Yoshihiro Tajiri beat Billy Kidman
Championship Committee member Terry Funk deals with The Filthy Animals, Jeff Jarrett, Shane Douglas and Kanyon. A 3 v 3 Match is set for Fall Brawl.
Bam Bam Bigelow, Jamie Knoble and Kronik (Bryan Clark & Bryan Adams) beat Lex Luger, Buff Bagwell, Shannon Moore and Evan Karagais
Rey Misterio Jr beats Shane Douglas
Nash arrives at the building
Sting is backstage
Kevin Nash v Sting is set for tonight's main event
[DARK] TAKA Michinoku beat Chavo Guerrero Jr
◆Business Notes
WCW Nitro's TV rating was 0.11 with 86,806 viewers and 1,377,944 viewers overall.
◆Roster Changes
Mr Aquila has agreed a three month per show handshake agreement with no downside.
Week 1, August 2001
——
[8.14 ROAD TO FALL BRAWL!] “ACTION AT CENTER STAGE”
[Ceenter Stage, Atlanta] Icons collide in the main event
◆”WCW Niro” TV Show
Center Stage, Atlanta in front of 1,050
Overall Rating 65
Goldberg beats Buff Bagwell
Goldberg is heading to the ring
Booker T , Diamond Dallas Page & Sting celebrate in the ring before Mike Awesome, Lance Storm and Fit Finally interrupt
Booker T , Diamond Dallas Page & Sting beat Fit Finlay, Jeff Jarrett & Shane Douglas
Legacy (Ric Flair & Dusin Rhodes) beat Chavo Guerrero Jr & Cash
Kevin Nash beat EZ Money
Tommy Dreamer beats Masato Tanaka
A video plays hyping Rob Van Dam & Sabu v The Steiner Brothers
Lex Luger beats Lash Leroux
The Steiner brothers cut a promo on Rob Van Dam & Sabu
Control Center segment promoting Super Crazy v Tajiri v TAKA Michonoku, Konnan & Rey Misterio Jr v Jeff Jarrett & Shane Douglas at Fall Brawl
Rob Van Dam and Sabu beats Kevin Karagias and Shannon Moore
Kevin Nash hypes his upcoming match with Goldberg
TKA Michinoku, Mr Aquila and La Parka Damien 666, Lizmark Jr and Yoshihiro Tajiri
Ric Flair is joined by Terry Funk and Dusty Rhodes before La Parka, Damien 666 and Don Callis interrupt.
Curt Hennig beat Norman Smiley
Bam Bam Bigelow beat James Storm
Vampire beat Mark Jindrak
Announcers confirm Ric Flair will be speaking later in the show
[DARK]Scott Steiner beat Billy Kidman
◆Show Notes
Volador Jr was fined for poor backstage behaviour.
Lex Luger suffered a Olecrannon Fracture and is out for 24 days.
◆Business News
WCW Nitro received a 0.12 TV rating with 90,880 viewers with 1,447,334 viewers overall. The most watched Nitro since the reboot.
◆Roster Changes
Franklin Foley has signed a two year contract with a cost to the 2001 budget of $8,800
Franlin Foley has joined M-Pro on a 12 month excursion at a cost of $13,2000
Masato Tanaka's contract has expired and he has departed WCW.
[8.20 FALL BRAWL!] “IT'S A BRAWL LIKE YOU'VE NEVER SEEN BEFORE”
[Norfolk, Virginia] Teams collide
◆”Fall Brawl” Pay Per View
Norfolk Scope Arena, Virginia in front of 10,859
Overall Rating 65
Kevin Nash beat Goldberg
Goldberg left his locker room to head to the ring
Sting, Diamond Dallas Page, Booker T, Sabu, Rob Van Dam and Bill Alfonso celebrated backstage
A video played hyping the main event
Diamond Dallas Page, Sting, Booker T, Rob Van Dam and Sabu defeated Fit Finlay, Team Canada and Steiner Brothers in an elimination tag match.
Yoshihiro Tajiri defeated TAKA Michinoku and Super Crazy to win the WCW Cruiserweight title (
Dusty Rhodes and Terry Funk had a heated debate backstage
The Filthy Animals (Billy Kidman, Konnan and Rey Misterio Jr) defeated Jeff Jarrett, Kanyon and Shane Douglas in an elimination tag match
Kevin Nash was getting ready backstage
Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes, Dustin Rhodes and Terry Funk beat Buff Bagwell, Billy Gunn, Vilano V, Damien 666 and La Parka in an elimination tag match. Dusty Rhodes and Terry Funk had a miscommunication in the match.
The team of Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes, Dustin Rhodes, Vampire and Terry Funk hung out backstage
Gene Okerlund interviewed Yoshihiro Tajiri and his manager James Mitchell
Bam Bam Bigelow beat Curt Hennig, Tommy Dreamer and Chavo Guerrero Jr
Futurewave (Hugh Morrus & Alex Wright) & Kronik (Brian Adams & Bryan Clark) beat Elix Skipper, Kid Romeo, Shannon Moore & Evan Karagias in an elimination tag match
The announcers put over the main event of Goldberg v Kevin Nash
The team of Lance Storm, Mike Awesome, Scott Steiner, Ric Steiner, spoke to Gene Okerlund
Silver King, Air Raid (AJ Styles/Air Pairs) beat Cash, EZ Money and Christopher Daniels
◆Business Notes
WCW Fall Brawl's buy rate was 0.12 with 61,932 buys
WCW Fall Brawl was shown and received a 0.12 TV rating to international audiences, 90,378 viewers with 163,339 viewers overall.
Week 3, August 2001
——
[8.20 WCW NITRO!] “No.1 Contenders Tournament”
[Punta Gorda, Florida] Who will face Booker T, next?
◆”WCW Niro” TV Show
Charlotte Harbour Center, Florda in front of 2,000 (SUPER NO VACANCY!)
Overall Rating 65
Show closed with a promo video hyping Booker T v Fit Finlay
Kevin Nash challenged Goldberg to a third match.
Fit Finlay beat Rob Van Dam to become the new World Heavyweight Championship No.1 Contender
Booker T & Goldberg beat Curt Hennig and Billy Fun
Ric Flair and Dustin Rhodes have unfinished business with La Parka and Damien 666
Fit Finlay beat Jeff Jarrett in a semi final match of the No.1 Contenders Tournament
Team Canada (Lance Storm & Mike Awesome) beat Yoshihiro Tajiri & Vampiro
Gene Okerlund interviewed new WCW Cruiserweight Champion Tajiri and his manager James Mitchell who spoke about their win over Super Crazy
Championship Committee Members Terry Funk and Roddy Piper tried to cool things over with Director of Talent Acquisition Dusty Rhodes.
Jeff Jarrett beat Diamond Dallas Page in a No 1 Contenders Tournament Match
Fit Finlay beat Ric Flair in a No 1 Contenders Tournament Match
Rob Van Dam defeated Scott Steiner in the No.1 Contenders Tournament
Kevin Nash and Goldberg are backstage; an argument breaks out
Sting and Kevin Nash went to a no contest when Goldberg, Lance Storm and Goldberg all interfered, both men are eliminated from the No.1 Contenders Tournament
Goldberg arrives at the building, he's not happy
◆Show Notes
Volador Jr was fined for poor behaviour backstage.
◆Business Notes
WCW Nitro's TV rating was 0.11 with 86,481 viewers with 1,375,613 viewers overall.
——
[8.20 WCW NITRO!] “No.1 Contenders Tournament”
[Omaha, Nebraska] Who will face Booker T, next?
◆”WCW Niro” TV Show
Omaha Civic Aud Mancuso, NE in front of 1,541
Overall Rating 65
Goldberg & Fit Finlay beat Booker T & Yoshihiro Tajiri and Kevin Nash & Super Crazy
Mike Awesome beat Brian Adams
Goldberg was getting ready backstage
Dusty Rhodes and Terry Funk crossed paths
Diamond Dallas Page beat Mike Sanders
Scott Steiner beat Dustin Rhodes
Kanyon beat Konnan
Billy Kidman & Rey Misterio Jr beat Cash & EZ Money
Rob Van Dam beat Rick Steiner
Sting and Reno Mero were backstage
Ric Flair and Dustin Rhodes crossed paths with La Parka and Damien 666
Scott Steiner and Rob Van Dam went face to face
Vampiro beat Tommy Dreamer
◆Show Notes
Konnan was fined for poor backstage behaviour
Booker T suffered compound frontal bone fracture and was initially set to be out for a year. Surgery was unable to produce a significant improvement and he'll now be out for over a year.
◆Business Notes
WCW Nitro was shown to a TV rating of 0.12 with 91,046 viewers with 1,484,015 viewers overall.
◆Breaking News
WCW World Heavyweight Champion Booker T will be out for over a year. This news comes as the company is rumoured to have made a seven a fourth month of $1m+ losses.
//END OF MONTH REPORT
◆Company Info
Size Small, second in the world
Next Event Wrestle War (pay per view)
TV Shows: WCW Nitro (Monday)
◆Financial Summary
Revenue 1.8m ⬇️ $100k
Wages ($2,2m) ⬇️ 100k.
Of Which Are Terminations (13k) ⬇️ $78,8k
Loss ($3.2m) ⬇️100k
Performance ($1.3m) ⬇️ 100k
Reserves $4.6m
◆Active Roster
[FACE]
Singles
Alex Wright
Bam Bam Bigelow
Billy Kidman w/Tygress
Booker T - WCW World Heavyweight Champion
Brazo de Platino
Diamond Dallas Page
Goldberg
Great Sasuke
Hugh Morris
James Mitchell
Jamie Knoble
Kevin Nash
Konnan w/Tygress
Lash Leroux
Lizmark Jr
Norman Smiley
Rey Misterio Jr w/Tygress
Rob Van Dam - WCW World Tag Team Champion
Sabu w/Bill Alfonso - WCW World Tag Team Champion
Shane Helms -
Silver King
Sting
Super Crazy - WCW Cruiserweight Champion
Tommy Dreamer
Vampiro
Volador Jr
Yoshiro Tajiri
Tag Teams
Air Raid (AJ Styles & Air Paris)
Kronik (Brian Adams & Bryan Clark)
Legacy (Dustin Rhodes & Ric Flair)
Jung Dragons (Yang & Kaz Hayashi)
[HEEL]
Singles
Buff Bagwell
Cash
Chavo Guerrero Jr
Christopher Daniels
Curt Hennig
Damien 666 w/Don Callis
Elix Skipper
EZ Money
Fit Finlay - WCW World Television Champion
James Storm
Kanyon w/Bobby Henan
Kid Romeo
La Parka
Lex Luger
Mark Jindrak
Mike Sanders
Rick Steiner
Scott Steiner w/Midajah
Shane Douglas
TAKA Michinoku
Ultimo Dragon
Vilano V w/Stacy Keibler
Tag Teams
Team Canada (Lance Storm w/Rena Mero & Mike Awesome)
3 Count (Evan Karagias & Shannon Moore)
◆Unavailable
Sid Vicious - Leg Break 8 Months, 2 weeks
Booker T - Frontal Bone Fracture - 1 year, 2 weeks
Great Sasuke - 6 days
Lex Luger - 4 days
◆Personalities
Arn Anderson - Member of the Championship Committee
Eric Bischoff - OwnePresident
Dusty Rhodes - Director Talent Acquisition
Roddy Piper - Member of the Championship Committee
Ricky Steamboat - Member of the Championship Committee
Terry Funk - Member of the Championship Committee / Part Time Wrestler
Larry Zbyszko
Paisley
Mike Tenay
Stevie Ray
Tony Schiavone
Gene Okerlund
[IN/OUT]
In
Franklin Foley
Out
Franklin Foley (Excursion)
Masato Tanaka
Summary
1 signing and 2 departures
//- EXECUTIVE NOTES //-

• I am using a TEW 2016 data converted to TEW 2020, it has a lot of issues mainly around personality attributes, everyone - even the most godly person seems to have a hard drug issue or cause issues. This really impacted the moral (0%) and therefore hurt my initial shows. I'm not a fan of playing around with data during a save but it was required to make it playable.
  
• Despite slashing the wage bill with $700k in terminations, and signing replacements on per show deals my basic wage has not changed dramatically, only about $100k.
  
• One unintended consequence of slashing the wage bill has been a massive reduction in Merchandise. I'm making $750k less than my first month. While my live event merchandise sales have increased, I'm $775k down on worker sales.
  
• As one of the few that did watch WCW in 2000, I am surprised you start as small (made even harder by being based South West). Also Hogan was still under contract with WCW until 2002 (just sitting at home), on this data he starts unemployed. Having said that, if he was on your wage bill the challenge would be even harder.
  

Please give me some advice on this! His ex, him and me!
Background information: I (25 Male gay) am seeing a guy (29 Male gay) who still contacts his ex often even if I am not comfortable with. I started to see this guy a few months ago and we had good communication and often hangout and things go well. However, things started to get weird. There was one time he invited friends including me to his house for crawfish boil and he told me his ex will also be there. They have broke up for 6 months and he told me he would never go back to date his ex. I was okay with going there even if his ex is there. However, he wouldn’t want to admit we are seeing other or knowing each other from a dating app, so when his friend asked us how we met. He wanted me to say we know each other through a mutual friend and to avoid awkwardness, I agreed with that. Plus we just started to see each other at that time, but there was always something in the back of my head that I don’t want to lie about it and I don’t feel comfortable that he doesn’t want introduce me as we seeing each other. After that party, we got much closer and had more conversation and went to my friend wedding together (at the wedding I wanted to say hi to my ex, but he said i don’t feel comfortable if you do that, so I cared about his feelings and didn’t say hi to my ex) and things were going well.
One day, I was hanging out at his house and his ex drove by and saw my car there and started to text him and blocked him because his ex still has feelings about him. He told me “you should’ve parked your car in my garage” and he became panic and nervous and didn’t know what to do and try to explain he is just hanging out with a friend. His ex threatened him to come over to his place and to check who is he hanging out with. That made me really uncomfortable so I just left because I don’t want any drama before we date and I also think he didn’t handle this situation with his ex well. at that day I also find out they hang out every Wednesday night at his place. They also had sex after they broke up. But anyways, he came over to my place that night we had a conversation and he talked to his ex the second day and the situation get better. He promised me this will never happen again.
Then there was one weekend where we were supposed to go carting with some friends and include his ex and me. He told me if I don’t feel comfortable about his ex coming he would tell his ex not coming. So I told him I don’t think that’s a good idea for us to co-exist together because I have to hide that we are just friends. He also never told his friends that we’re seeing each other. And we already lied about how we know each other at the crawfish boil party at the beginning, so that’s why I don’t want his ex to come. He said yes, but he called me two days later that his ex already paid the ticket and that his ex partially planned this event with him so I was OK for him to go even if I don’t feel comfortable with. Btw, I always introduce him to my friends that we are seeing each other.
Recently he has been very busy about his work so we didn’t hang out too much and he told me he couldn’t even call me because his busy schedule which I don’t feel comfortable but I also know that week he has been very busy about his work, but I was also thinking you can’t even call me for like five minutes to share your day with me which also made me uncomfortable and annoyed.
This week his work is not that busy, but he wants to invite his ex and other friends to get together again to another event next weekend. I was very annoyed by him inviting his ex this over and over again, even if I don’t feel comfortable to be with his ex at the same event, and I have communicate with him many times. Last time his ex went there because his ex already paid the ticket but this time I think he shouldn’t invite his ex. He told me that he just want everyone to be happy and not to be left out and he’s also figuring out our situationship. I understand his concern because he is out of country for 10 days and his ex will take care of his dogs so he scared if his ex was left out he might not want to take care of his dogs anymore, but I offered I can do that for him too.
Now I have some concerns that should I continue with this guy or he is not ready to date someone or start a new relationship? I honestly think I made some many compromises and being very understandable, but I feel like he might not be ready to move on which I am fine with just being friends with him cuz I know my worth.
Please give me your honest opinion and advice for me and him.

[I wrote this article about Macbeth for my college's newspaper, and I thought this subreddit might enjoy reading it!]
I have joked before that Shakespeare’s two favorite subjects–surpassing love, murder, madness, and crossdressing–are botany and birds. If you’ve been to New York City you might be aware of the “Shakespeare Garden” in Central Park, whose theoretical aim (though it proves nigh-impossible in practice) is to house specimens of all the plants which Shakespeare mentions in his plays. As it turns out, Bard quotes make for quite a diverse garden: there are roses which assuredly would smell as sweet by any other name; there are daffodils, that come before the swallow dares, and take the winds of March with beauty; there’s holly, heigh-ho; there’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance, there’s pansies, that’s for thoughts, there’s fennel for you, and columbines–no word on whether or not they could find any violets, though. I suppose there’s no objection to be made against those who complain that Shakespeare’s language is “flowery”; even as vicious a villain as Iago deigns to express his philosophy on life by way of botanical metaphor: “Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners.” And, of course, the plot of A Midsummer Night’s Dream revolves around a magical flower which makes people fall in love.
I doubt anyone will object to my claiming of birds as Shakespeare’s other poetical fixation: I suspect that the majority of falconry knowledge which most non-falconers have today comes from reading footnotes in their copies of Shakespeare plays, explaining exactly what Richard II means by “How high a pitch his resolution soars,” or why Hamlet says “Hillo, ho, ho” to Marcellus. But while plants are so common in Shakespeare that I don’t know of one play which we might say is especially densely forested with references to them, there is one play that stands out as particularly full of birds in comparison with the rest of the Shakespearean canon. That play is Macbeth.
This is the sort of thing that one only notices after having read a play so many times that the actual events of the plot become akin to the meter of a poem–beats which must be hit, and which start to feel so natural that one hardly notices them–and one’s attention drifts away from the big, important speeches and toward the more utilitarian words and odd little moments that bridge them. I am not the first to point it out, but it is, all the same, a delightful quirk of the play, and could be a good way for Sophomores to throw their classmates for a loop in seminar [Note: Students at our college study Macbeth during their Sophomore year.]: why are there so many birds in Macbeth?
KING. Dismay’d not this/Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo? SERG. Yes,/As sparrows eagles… -Act I, Scene II
LADY. …The raven himself is hoarse/That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan… -Act I, Scene V
BAN. This guest of summer,/The temple-haunting martlet, does approve/By his loved mansionry, that the heaven’s breath/Smells wooingly here: no jutty, frieze/Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird/Hath made his pendent bed and procreant cradle… -Act I, Scene VI
LADY. Hark! Peace! It was the owl that shriek’d, the fatal bellman… -Act II, Scene II
LADY. I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry. -Act II, Scene II
PORTER. …come in, tailor; here you may roast your goose… -Act II, Scene III
PORTER. ‘Faith, sir, we were carousing till the second cock… -Act II, Scene III
LENNOX. New hatch’d to the woeful time: the obscure bird/Clamour’d the livelong night… -Act II, Scene III
OLD MAN. …On Tuesday last,/A falcon, towering in her pride of place,/Was by a mousing owl hawk’d at and kill’d. -Act II, Scene IV
MACBETH. …Light thickens; and the crow/Makes wing to the rooky wood… -Act III, Scene II
MACBETH. If charnel-houses and our graves must send/Those that we bury back, our monuments/Shall be the maws of kites. -Act III, Scene IV
MACBETH. Augurs and understood relations have/By magot pies and choughs and rooks brought forth/The secret’st man of blood. -Act III, Scene IV
LADY MACDUFF. …the poor wren,/the most diminutive of birds, will fight,/Her young ones in her nest, against the owl. -Act IV, Scene II
LADY MACDUFF. How will you live? SON. As birds do, mother. LADY MACDUFF. What, with worms and flies? SON. With what I get, I mean; and so do they. LADY MACDUFF. Poor bird! Thou’ldst never fear the net nor lime,/The pitfall nor the gin? SON. Why should I, mother? Poor birds they are not set for. -Act IV, Scene II
FIRST MURDERER. What, you egg! -Act IV, Scene II
MACDUFF. …there cannot be/That vulture in you… -Act IV, Scene III
MACDUFF. …O hell-kite! All?/What, all my pretty chickens and their dam/At one fell swoop? -Act IV, Scene III
MACBETH. The devil damn thee black, thou cream-faced loon!/Where got’st thou that goose look? SERVANT. There is ten thousand– MACBETH. Geese, villain? -Act V, Scene III
Above I have listed every ornithological reference that I’ve found in the Scottish Play; as we peruse them, we certainly cannot conclude that every individual reference is of the same kind, or carries the same import. I will not pretend, for example, that, just because geese and ravens are both birds, the Porter’s invitation for the imagined English tailor to cook his goose in Hell merits as much attention as Lady Macbeth’s ominous declaration that “the raven himself is hoarse”. Nor do I think that any individual reference particularly demands explication; by itself, any one of these bird-invocations seems perfectly natural. Shakespeare’s talent is such that he can repeat a motif in such a way that on the macro level it is obvious yet on the micro level it hardly feels present. But that macro level is what interests me here: what impression is created, on the whole, by the presence of so many birds in this play? I have a theory, which, though it may seem far-fetched, I think merits at least some consideration, and which, at the very least, I have not seen stated elsewhere, and so may make a novel contribution to the conversation.
Macbeth is both Shakespeare’s most supernatural tragedy and his most Sophoclean; these two superlatives are inextricably related. The appellative Weird given to the opening scene’s three Sisters–derived from the Old English wyrd, meaning destiny, and famously given its more familiar connotation by Shakespeare himself in this very play–is, among the Bard’s works, unique to Macbeth; and just as that word appears nowhere else in Shakespeare, so is the concept it represents absent in all tragedies but this one. Though Hamlet may cry out against outrageous fortune, and though Othello may rhetoricize about how no man can control his fate, it is only in Macbeth that we truly feel that the events we see play out before us are fated, predestined, inevitable. [See Note 1.] The ghost in Hamlet commands his son to revenge his foul and most unnatural murder, but does not tell him it is certain that he will succeed; indeed, would not the drama be sapped of its intrigue if that level of certainty were present? Meanwhile, the supernatural interlopers in Macbeth offer the Scottish thane not a mission, but a prophecy: All hail, Macbeth! that shalt be king hereafter! From its mystical opening word–When, not If–the Scottish play makes us aware of the certainty of all that is to befall our tragic antihero. Macbeth is thus a different sort of tragedy than Shakespeare’s others, and it works by an inverted mechanism. While the tragedy of, for example, Desdemona’s death is that it may have been prevented, the tragedy of Macbeth’s destruction is that it represents the fulfilment of fate; and this is the very same mechanism by which Oedipus Rex operates, complete with its own “Weird” character in the form of the seer Tiresias. Though Calvin managed to accept that some men are destined for greatness and others for ruin, this idea is, to Shakespeare and Sophocles, nothing short of agonizing–the stuff of tragedy.
Now: what does all of this have to do with birds? Consider these words from Antigone, spoken by Tiresias to Creon:
You shall learn, when you hear the indications of my art! As I took my place on my ancient seat for observing birds, where I can mark every bird of omen I heard a strange sound among them, since they were screeching with dire, incoherent frenzy and I knew that they were tearing each other with bloody claws, for there was a whirring of wings that made it clear… (Lloyd-Jones translation)
Consider next these words from Oedipus Tyrannus, spoken defensively by Oedipus to Tiresias:
Why, come, tell me, how can you be a true prophet? Why when the versifying hound was here did not you speak some word that could release the citizens? Indeed, her riddle was not one for the first comer to explain! It required prophetic skill, and you were exposed as having no knowledge from the birds or from the gods. No, it was I that came, Oedipus who knew nothing, and put a stop to her; I hit the mark by native wit, not by what I learned from birds. (Lloyd-Jones translation)
The practice of divining the future from birds–be it from their behaviors, their cries, or their innards–was, to Sophocles and his contemporaries, not superstitious hokum, but a practical science at which one could be skilled or unskilled, and it bodes ill for Oedipus that he is so quick to disregard it in favor of his own native wit. [See Note 2] By Shakespeare’s day, the practice had long been relegated to the realm of outdated hocus-pocus, but the Bard still saw some truth in it; in Macbeth, there is a recurring sense that, when the world is sick with some great wrong, its first symptoms manifest in the behavior of birds. When the “fatal bellman” the owl shrieks in the night, Lady Macbeth takes it as a sign that her husband is about his bloody business. The day after the murder of Duncan, as Ross converses with an Old Man about the strange things they’ve seen the previous night, “unnatural/Even as the deed that’s done”, the killing of a falcon by a mousing-owl–an omen straight out of Sophocles–is mentioned before the madness and cannibalism of Duncan’s horses, even though the latter would surely be more immediately noticeable and ghastly than the former.
These are the most obvious examples of birds as ill omens in Macbeth; yet even the more innocuous invocations of birds throughout the rest of the play continually turn our thoughts back to the ancient Greek understanding of fate and prophecy, and thereby remind us that, however savagely he may fight at Dunsinane, Macbeth’s fate is as fixed as that of Oedipus. The birds have already foretold all.
Note 1: The closest thing there is to this kind of fatalness in another Shakespearean tragedy is the several superstitious occurrences in Julius Caesar–both the soothsayer’s message of “Beware the ides of March” and the bestial portents such as the lack of a heart in an offering and the whelping of a lioness in the streets. Still, I will insist that these omens do not convey a sense of fatedness to the audience as strongly as the Weird Sisters in Macbeth by virtue of their being told to Caesar himself, not to Brutus, the play’s true protagonist, and by the fact that Shakespeare elsewhere uses dialogue to throw some doubt upon the idea of predestination: "Men at some times are masters of their fates:/The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,/But in ourselves, that we are underlings." -I.ii
Note 2: The Liddell-Scott Greek Lexicon identifies at least two separate verbs referring to bird-based divination, both of which are present in the quoted passages: Tiresias uses ορνϊθοσκοπέομαι, observe birds, interpret their flight and cries, while Oedipus uses οιωνίζομαι, take omens from the flight and cries of birds. The latter term comes from οιωνος, a large bird, bird of prey, such as a vulture or eagle, and so distinguished from a common bird, while the former comes from ορνις, which more generally refers to a bird, including birds of prey and domestic fowls. Birds of both kinds are present in Macbeth; there are οιωναι, such as the “falcon, towering in her pride of place”, as well as ορνες, like the Porter’s goose and cock. I therefore see little value in interrogating the kinds of birds invoked by Shakespeare, the specific cultural associations and significance of the owl, the raven, or the wren; rather, if we reduce them down to their barest existence as birds, animals of the class Aves, and consider them in an ancient Greek light, then things become a bit clearer.

For context, I’m living in a major city and my current lease ends at the end of next month. My current roommates and I are splitting up. A friend of mine from my first year of college is planning on moving back to the city to finish school and work, and jumped at the chance to find a spot with me.
To start, he’s a good friend. He flew back to the city this past weekend to tour apartments with me. He spent about five days at my apartment while we checked out different spots and hung out.
I wasn’t too sure about living with him when he brought it up originally. He’s a good guy, but seems to only be committed to something for a couple weeks/months before losing all interest. He dropped out of 3 colleges before quitting school to focus on work. Even then, he wasn’t able to hold a job and quit most of them after only a few months. If he does the same while we’re on a 12 month lease, I’m fucked.
Additionally, there were some things this weekend that threw me off. He would wake up really early while my roommates and I were asleep and would have loud calls, play games, and just generally not care about keeping it down. I talked to him about this and he did get better, but would still smoke and cough so loud it woke us all up.
One day, I tried talking to him about a roommate agreement and my expectations (I’ve lived with some bad roommates before) and he shut me down entirely. He got defensive, called roommate agreements “gay as fuck”, and tried to call me out for my own mistakes in staying on top of cleaning freshman year. I was trying to calmly lay out simple guidelines for us and what I’m looking for and he got flustered and wouldn’t even humor the conversation.
Finally, last night, we were going over the apartments we toured and which ones we wanted. He was dead set on one that at the end of the day I wasn’t that interested in. It happens, I wasn’t expecting to get exactly what i wanted and was willing to talk it over. But, again, he wouldn’t even humor a conversation and got loud and defensive when I tried to talk about what I saw in the apartments. What really bothered me was him claiming that he was being generous by “letting” me search for the apartments, schedule the tours, and keep us on track all by myself while I’ve been busy with school. I dropped everything to hang out with him and do these tours this weekend and let him crash at our place, and by the time he left he didn’t even say thanks.
Sorry for the bit of rant, but that brings you up to speed. We did end up getting applications for the apartment he liked more, and he left this morning. It’s just now that he’s gone, I don’t think I want to live with him. But I feel like an asshole if I tell him after we did all those tours and agreed on a place to live.
So, WIBTA for bailing on living with him after all of this? After he went out of his way to come to the city and we toured and settled on a place to rent? Or does ESH?

Background information: I (gay) am seeing a guy who still contacts his ex often even if I am not comfortable with. I started to see this guy a few months ago and we had good communication and often hangout and things go well. However, things started to get weird. There was one time he invited friends including me to his house for crawfish boil and he told me his ex will also be there. They have broke up for 6 months and he told me he would never go back to date his ex. I was okay with going there even if his ex is there. However, he wouldn’t want to admit we are seeing other or knowing each other from a dating app, so when his friend asked us how we met. He wanted me to say we know each other through a mutual friend and to avoid awkwardness, I agreed with that. Plus we just started to see each other at that time, but there was always something in the back of my head that I don’t want to lie about it and I don’t feel comfortable that he doesn’t want introduce me as we seeing each other. After that party, we got much closer and had more conversation and went to my friend wedding together (at the wedding I wanted to say hi to my ex, but he said i don’t feel comfortable if you do that, so I cared about his feelings and didn’t say hi to my ex) and things were going well.
One day, I was hanging out at his house and his ex drove by and saw my car there and started to text him and blocked him because his ex still has feelings about him. He told me “you should’ve parked your car in my garage” and he became panic and nervous and didn’t know what to do and try to explain he is just hanging out with a friend. His ex threatened him to come over to his place and to check who is he hanging out with. That made me really uncomfortable so I just left because I don’t want any drama before we date and I also think he didn’t handle this situation with his ex well. at that day I also find out they hang out every Wednesday night at his place. They also had sex after they broke up. But anyways, he came over to my place that night we had a conversation and he talked to his ex the second day and the situation get better. He promised me this will never happen again.
Then there was one weekend where we were supposed to go carting with some friends and include his ex and me. He told me if I don’t feel comfortable about his ex coming he would tell his ex not coming. So I told him I don’t think that’s a good idea for us to co-exist together because I have to hide that we are just friends. He also never told his friends that we’re seeing each other. And we already lied about how we know each other at the crawfish boil party at the beginning, so that’s why I don’t want his ex to come. He said yes, but he called me two days later that his ex already paid the ticket and that his ex partially planned this event with him so I was OK for him to go even if I don’t feel comfortable with. Btw, I always introduce him to my friends that we are seeing each other.
Recently he has been very busy about his work so we didn’t hang out too much and he told me he couldn’t even call me because his busy schedule which I don’t feel comfortable but I also know that week he has been very busy about his work, but I was also thinking you can’t even call me for like five minutes to share your day with me which also made me uncomfortable and annoyed.
This week his work is not that busy, but he wants to invite his ex and other friends to get together again to another event next weekend. I was very annoyed by him inviting his ex this over and over again, even if I don’t feel comfortable to be with his ex at the same event, and I have communicate with him many times. Last time his ex went there because his ex already paid the ticket but this time I think he shouldn’t invite his ex. He told me that he just want everyone to be happy and not to be left out and he’s also figuring out our situationship. I understand his concern because he is out of country for 10 days and his ex will take care of his dogs so he scared if his ex was left out he might not want to take care of his dogs anymore, but I offered I can do that for him too.
Now I have some concerns that should I continue with this guy or he is not ready to date someone or start a new relationship? I honestly think I made some many compromises and being very understandable, but I feel like he might not be ready to move on which I am fine with just being friends with him cuz I know my worth.
Please give me your honest opinion and advice for me and him.

What should I do?
I 17M have been friends with this girl Ash 17F for over three years now and I would say we are pretty good friends. Last year I found out from a mutual friend that she liked me. I have struggled with my sexuality and thought for a while I was gay but when I heard that she liked me I thought maybe I was bi. I couldn’t stop thinking about Ash and I finally got the balls to ask her out. We went ice skating and it was fun. I asked her if she’s told anyone about us going on a date and she said her mom and best friend. We had the plans to go on a second date but something happened and she got really sick and didn’t come to school for the rest of the year. During the time she wasn’t at school I started to overthink and I thought I was gay again, I got this really bad crush on a guy I felt really guilty because we never officially started dating but never ended things (idk i’ve never been in a relationship so I don’t know how it works). We didn’t talk much during the summer but I was so worried about seeing her the next time i saw her because I didn’t like her anymore and we never spoke about it. When school started up again everything was normal and we kept hanging out. A few months ago I found out she only started hanging out with me and my friends in the first place was because she liked me.During this whole school year we have talked about other people we have liked. Recently I have figured out that I am bi and started to like her again. I really like her now and legit cant sleep im up all night thinking about her. Now she has a crush on another guy and is ranting about him and asking for advice and i’m giving it to her. I really wanted to ask her out but I font know if she even likes me anymore and she likes that guy. Its almost summer break again and I know its bad but i’m hoping that she doesn’t ask him out and wondering if it would be bad to once summer starts ask her out if they don’t get together. Or should i give up
Side note, I love giving gifts so I think before I knew she liked me I may have lead her on because I always gave her things
Also sorry for how messy this is I rushed through it because i really need advice

i'm not really sure where to even start with this, but i have a friend (also gay) who i've grown fairly close to over the past year or so. he lives nearby and so we hang out a lot,.
at first things were fine. i always thought he was cute but never really thought anything more than that. over time i've definitely developed some fondness for him, he really is a great person. But it never got to a point of thinking anything would come of us.
well the other day we went out and somehow we ended up making out a lot. i honestly don't remember how it happened or who initiated it, my memory is very spotty. but it happened multiple times in the night, and he touched my dick too.
well the next day he texted me to check in and asked what i remember about the night. i said that i always found him attractive and i enjoyed it, and apologized if he felt uncomfortable.
then he basically responded that he didn't feel uncomfortable, but it "caught him off guard", and that he makes out with friends all the time, like it was a normal thing. He brushed me off and ignored that i said i enjoyed it, and basically told me he doesnt want to lose me as a friend.
well i love him as a friend and really value our friendship, so i've been trying to just continue our friendship as normal and respect his wishes. for a few days it was going fine, but as time goes on it isn't getting any easier. he constantly flirts with me, and he's brought up the fact that we made out pretty much every time i've seen him.
a particularly bad moment was the other day when he was telling me about how badly he wants a partner, and started describing qualities of a partner he wants that are pretty much exactly in line with me. that hurt pretty bad.
then today he told me about a date he went on that went poorly, and part of me really wanted to respond with "well, it should have been me taking you on that date".
all of this fucking hurts and i really dont know if i can continue our friendship. it feels like one of my close friends has me under his palm and is just manipulating my emotions. i don't know if it's on purpose, but that's how i am receiving it, and i am really struggling coming to terms with what happened and moving on. i haven't felt this way in a long time.
do i move on from this friendship? i'm lucky to have other supportive friends, but i'd really hate to have to move on from this friendship. i just want to feel okay again.

This might be a bit of a long post, so I apologize in advance. TL;DR at the bottom.
For context, I’m living in a major city and my current lease ends at the end of next month. My current roommates and I are all splitting up and going to different places, and I originally planned to move in with another friend before those plans fell through. A friend of mine from my first year of college is planning on moving back to the city to finish school and work, and jumped at the chance to find a spot with me to live.
He’s a good friend: he’s fun, can socialize, and we share a lot of the same interests. He actually came back to the city this past weekend to tour apartments with me, and spent about five days at my apartment while we checked out different spots and hung out. It seems like a good deal, but at the same time it feels like he’s one of those friends that you love, but couldn’t live with.
I already wasn’t too sure about living with him when he brought it up originally. He’s a good guy, but seems to be really into things (whether it’s school, a hobby, or a job) for a couple weeks/months before losing all interest immediately. Freshman year he dropped out of school halfway through the year and moved home. He then transferred to a different school, lasted there for a maybe a year max and dropped out again. He did this a third time with a community college in his home town before quitting school altogether and focusing on work. Even then, he wasn’t able to hold a job and quit most of them after only a few months. My biggest concern is that he’s going to do the same thing here, but this time we’re going to be on a 12 month lease and if he bows out, I’m fucked.
Additionally, there was just some interactions this weekend that threw me off. He would wake up really early while my roommates and I were asleep and then immediately start having loud phone calls, playing video games, and just generally not giving a fuck about keeping it down. I asked him to try and be quiet in the mornings, and he did get better about it, but would still rip weed and cough so loud it woke all of us up.
One day while we were out in the city, I tried talking to him about a possible roommate agreement and my expectations (I’ve lived with some really shitty roommates before) and he shut me down entirely. He got defensive, called roommate agreements “gay as fuck”, and tried calling me out for my own mistakes in staying on top of cleaning freshman year. I wasn’t even accusing him of anything, just trying to lay out simple guidelines for us (literally the most basic roommate etiquette) and what I’m looking for and he got flustered and wouldn’t even humor the conversation.
Finally, last night, we were going over the apartments we toured and which ones we wanted. He was dead set on one that at the end of the day I wasn’t that interested in. It happens, I wasn’t expecting to get exactly what i wanted and was willing to talk it over. But, again, he wouldn’t even humor a conversation and got loud and defensive when I tried to point out the pros and cons of the two places we were deciding between, and what I saw as a better deal for both of us. The worst part was him claiming that he was being generous by “letting” me search for the apartments, schedule the tours, and keep us on track all by myself while I’ve been busting my ass with school. I dropped all my responsibilities to hang out with him and do these tours this weekend and let him crash at our place, and by the time he left he didn’t even say thanks.
So yeah, sorry for the bit of rant/vent, but that brings you up to speed. I ended up requesting applications for the apartment he wanted more, we got them, and he left this morning. It’s just now that he’s gone (and after reading this all out again), I don’t really think I want to live with him.
How do I tell him? Am I a piece of shit if I bail on this now even though his hopes are up? Is it too late and should I just bite the bullet and hope for the best? I don’t want to lose him as a friend because, despite how bad this post might make him look, he’s genuinely a really close friend of mine and we get along really well in most other ways. I’m just pretty damn positive that cancelling this plan will ruin our relationship.
I’m confused and frustrated and more than a little unhappy. Any advice on how to approach this situation would be appreciated. Thank you.
TL;DR - My freshman year college buddy is planning on moving back to the city and living with me. He came up this past weekend, we toured apartments, and found one that we can manage and that he really likes. It’s just that I got more and more frustrated with him over the weekend, it didn’t seem like he cared about being respectful while here, and I’m nervous due to his previous unreliability. I’m not sure about living with him anymore or how I should tell him this. Ideally, I’d want to stay friends with him, but no matter how gently I break the news he’ll probably blow up. Any advice on how to approach this is welcome.