As a maintenance man, I’ve definitely seen my fair share of oddities in peoples homes. However, the story I’m about to tell you is definitely one that is new to me.
So as I stated before I work in maintenance. Commercial and residential. Been doing it almost 10 years now. Everyday is something new and that’s why I love this job. Helping people. Seeing their smiles whenever something that was broke is fixed and they are able to go about life normally again. It really makes my heart swell.
The incident in question happened on a day that started out like any other day. I got to work, went into my office, started some coffee and began checking over my workload for the day.
My first work order for the day was in a unit that had a new resident in it. I have yet to meet the young lady in question so as procedure states I gave her a call to let her know I would be stopping by today to take care of the issue she submitted. She had a clogged sink, which, in the years of doing this I know isn’t going to be a long job so best to knock it out early.
When she answered her phone she sounded out of breath. “Hello?” “Good morning Ms. [redacted]. My name is Jimmy the maintenance tech here at [redacted] I was wondering if I could come by and take a look at your sink for you this morning?” There was a long pause. So long I had to see if she was still there.
“Ms. [redacted]?” “Yes! ….I mean yes. You can come by this morning. Umm… yes. That’s fine.” “GREAT!” I respond. “I will be up in about 30 minutes. See you soon!”
I hung up and finished the coffee I had poured while on the phone with her and began gathering any tools I may need for the job.
About 40 minutes later I was standing on her porch and knocking on her door. “Ms.[redacted]? It’s Jimmy with maintenance.” A loud clatter could be heard from the other side of the door before a petite young lady snatched the door open looking very distraught.
“Is everything ok? I can come back later if you..” “No no. You can come in now” she cut me off. “It’s the kitchen sink, right here.” Pointing just passed the threshold into the kitchen. I nod and make my way in closing the door behind me.
I’ll save you the boredom of the explanation of how I fixed the leak but regardless, it was fixed. The odd thing was that she stood there in the doorway to the kitchen the entire time. Not necessarily watching me but seemingly blocking me from the rest of the house.
Although I thought she was acting odd it is not in my job description to be a psychiatrist to people. I fix their sinks, not their heads. I gave her a clean bill of health for her sink and said my goodbyes.
Two days later I get another service request from the same unit. If there is anyone out there familiar with RealPage you know that there is the section that the resident can fill in what the issue is. This one simply said “Other- see comments.” Under the comments says “Please help.”
I make my way back up to her unit to investigate the problem. I was not ready for what was waiting on me on the other side of the door.
A rush to the door and a breathless, petite woman stands in front of me.
Good morning Ms. [redacted]. What seems to be the issue. She takes a deep breath, “I have another clog.” “Oh no. Where is it? Let me take a look so I can go grab my…” Before I knew it she had snatched me inside by my shirt and slammed the door behind us. “You have been extremely nice and so willing to help since I’ve been here.” Even though I had only been here once. “You seem like a really great and trustworthy guy.” “Thank you.” I say trying to hide the shock and uneasy feeling I felt creeping up my gut.
“I have something very important I need your help with. Follow me.” With that she started back towards the steps and beckoned me to follow her. Once at the top of the steps I could see into the bathroom and could see this was going to be much bigger than even I was ready for.

I saw a few of these that were helpful so I thought I'd do one
My application was mailed out on the 13th of April from Florida and arrived in Gatineau on the 22nd of April (5 business days).
I was able to check the status of my passport starting on May 2nd (8 business days), at which point it said "we are now processing your application"
Today, May 14th, my passport arrived in the mail ( 8 business days). For a total of 16 business days, including shipping on their end.
Today was the first day my passport status changed from processing to printed and shipped. I checked on my lunch break and it still said processing then an hour later FedEx attempted delivery to my house. I checked out of curiosity after I had my passport in hand. I never received any communications from the passport office and had to request my application number myself.
Overall a simple process. I sent my expired passport just as a precaution and they sent it back with my new one although I didn't check the return box. I did get the new design. I used Staples as my photo location and my regular bank card for the payment. It came to about 190 US dollars.

As a maintenance man, I’ve definitely seen my fair share of oddities in peoples homes. However, the story I’m about to tell you is definitely one that is new to me.
So as I stated before I work in maintenance. Commercial and residential. Been doing it almost 10 years now. Everyday is something new and that’s why I love this job. Helping people. Seeing their smiles whenever something that was broke is fixed and they are able to go about life normally again. It really makes my heart swell.
The incident in question happened on a day that started out like any other day. I got to work, went into my office, started some coffee and began checking over my workload for the day.
My first work order for the day was in a unit that had a new resident in it. I have yet to meet the young lady in question so as procedure states I gave her a call to let her know I would be stopping by today to take care of the issue she submitted. She had a clogged sink, which, in the years of doing this I know isn’t going to be a long job so best to knock it out early.
When she answered her phone she sounded out of breath. “Hello?” “Good morning Ms. [redacted]. My name is Jimmy the maintenance tech here at [redacted] I was wondering if I could come by and take a look at your sink for you this morning?” There was a long pause. So long I had to see if she was still there.
“Ms. [redacted]?” “Yes! ….I mean yes. You can come by this morning. Umm… yes. That’s fine.” “GREAT!” I respond. “I will be up in about 30 minutes. See you soon!”
I hung up and finished the coffee I had poured while on the phone with her and began gathering any tools I may need for the job.
About 40 minutes later I was standing on her porch and knocking on her door. “Ms.[redacted]? It’s Jimmy with maintenance.” A loud clatter could be heard from the other side of the door before a petite young lady snatched the door open looking very distraught.
“Is everything ok? I can come back later if you..” “No no. You can come in now” she cut me off. “It’s the kitchen sink, right here.” Pointing just passed the threshold into the kitchen. I nod and make my way in closing the door behind me.
I’ll save you the boredom of the explanation of how I fixed the leak but regardless, it was fixed. The odd thing was that she stood there in the doorway to the kitchen the entire time. Not necessarily watching me but seemingly blocking me from the rest of the house.
Although I thought she was acting odd it is not in my job description to be a psychiatrist to people. I fix their sinks, not their heads. I gave her a clean bill of health for her sink and said my goodbyes.
Two days later I get another service request from the same unit. If there is anyone out there familiar with RealPage you know that there is the section that the resident can fill in what the issue is. This one simply said “Other- see comments.” Under the comments says “Please help.”
I make my way back up to her unit to investigate the problem. I was not ready for what was waiting on me on the other side of the door.
A rush to the door and a breathless, petite woman stands in front of me.
Good morning Ms. [redacted]. What seems to be the issue. She takes a deep breath, “I have another clog.” “Oh no. Where is it? Let me take a look so I can go grab my…” Before I knew it she had snatched me inside by my shirt and slammed the door behind us. “You have been extremely nice and so willing to help since I’ve been here.” Even though I had only been here once. “You seem like a really great and trustworthy guy.” “Thank you.” I say trying to hide the shock and uneasy feeling I felt creeping up my gut.
“I have something very important I need your help with. Follow me.” With that she started back towards the steps and beckoned me to follow her. Once at the top of the steps I could see into the bathroom and could see this was going to be much bigger than even I was ready for.

Published 3 hours ago
Updated 58 minutes ago
A House of Commons committee is considering probing failings in Toronto-Dominion Bank’s anti-money-laundering practices as U.S. regulators and law enforcement continue a lengthy investigation into Canada’s second-largest lender.
The House finance committee will hold a meeting Friday afternoon to discuss – according to its agenda – allegations that TD failed to “report money laundering related to the trafficking of the illegal hard drug fentanyl.” This would mark Ottawa’s first public conversation on the matter. The committee members will then consider whether the issue warrants a deeper review of the gaps in the bank’s anti-money-laundering practices.
In early May, reports emerged that the probes by U.S. officials – which derailed TD’s major acquisition of Tennessee-based First Horizon Corp. last year – are tied to a US$653-million money-laundering and drug-trafficking operation.
Separately, Canada’s financial-crimes watchdog imposed its largest-ever monetary penalty on TD after a compliance examination found the lender had faulty anti-money-laundering controls.
The assessment from the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, or FinTRAC, found that TD committed five administrative violations. These included the bank failing to submit suspicious transaction reports where there were “reasonable grounds to suspect that transactions were related to a money laundering or terrorist activity financing offence,” FinTRAC said in a news release earlier this month.
U.S. regulators and law enforcement have not disclosed the nature of the anti-money-laundering weakness they found at the bank.
TD stressed that it was “important not to confuse the administrative findings from FinTRAC with our ongoing regulatory matters in the United States,” according to an e-mail statement on Tuesday from TD spokesperson Lisa Hodgins. “As the FinTRAC findings clearly stated, the administrative violations were ‘not for criminal activity for money laundering.’”
The revelations, both from FinTRAC and from the United States, provided the first glimpse into TD’s anti-money-laundering gaps since the bank disclosed in August that it expects monetary and non-monetary penalties stemming from the U.S. probes.
Analysts have estimated that monetary penalties could be as high as US$2-billion, and they have pointed to concerns around non-financial penalties that could limit the bank’s growth prospects.
The Commons finance committee will also discuss whether it should explore other money-laundering violations across the financial sector in Canada. While the group has scheduled a conversation for Friday afternoon, a pending matter from a previous meeting could delay the matter on TD.
In January, The Globe and Mail revealed that last year, TD hired Herbert Mazariegos – formerly an employee of Bank of Montreal in Chicago – to oversee the bank’s anti-money-laundering unit.
Since then, the bank has tapped other experts with regulatory experience, including former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent Dandridge Myles; former U.S. Department of the Treasury executive Andrew Jensen; former U.S. Department of Homeland Security director Marcy Forman; and former Citigroup chief compliance officer Jackie Sanjuas, according to a source.
The Globe is not identifying the source because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
TD’s chief executive officer, Bharat Masrani, has said that TD is mending its anti-money-laundering program by hiring hundreds of employees, redesigning controls, building new processes, deploying new technology and implementing improved training. The bank has also invested more than half a billion dollars in remediating its practices.
In recent weeks, Mr. Masrani and senior executives have done a tour of internal meetings with executives to discuss the steps the bank is taking to resolve the issues.
“We did not meet our expectations or our regulatory obligations to monitor, detect, report and respond to suspicious activity. As a result, criminals broke through our defences and used the bank to launder money,” Mr. Masrani said in an internal memo viewed by The Globe.
“This is absolutely unacceptable. While our systems stopped a lot of activity, I am deeply disappointed there were serious instances where we failed to stop these criminals. It goes against our values and everything we believe.”
The U.S. probes and the cost to remediate the issues are weighing heavily on the bank.
In late April, TD said it is setting aside US$450-million to cover penalties stemming from the investigation but added the provision does not reflect the final amount of the potential monetary or non-monetary penalties.
Last year, the bank said that it expects to post an adjusted net loss of $200-million to $250-million a quarter this year in its internal corporate segment, driven by investments in its risk and control infrastructure.
source: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-house-of-commons-td-bank-probe/

For context, I’m not Thai, I’m American but I’ve always been curious about what serving in the Thai military is like. Im currently in the US military and from what I’ve read about Thai military service, it’s horrendous and is a far cry from serving in a Western military (much less the U.S. military). I’ve heard of beatings, extreme hazing, corruption at the higher ranks, conscripts being used for menial labor, etc. Conscription itself seems to be hated by nearly everyone. And IIRC Thailand has a shockingly high number of flag officers for a military of its size.
How much of this is true though? Are there any “positives” to serving in the Thai military? Even if the service itself is horrible, does the military at least provide those leaving the service with the knowledge and resources to prep for civilian life?
For example, here in the U.S. we have the GI Bill which covers 4 years of college and depending on which variant you choose, you can be paid a decent amount to literally breathe and go to school. There are also a ton of post-service benefits too along with resources for those who are still in. The military can even pay for you to take part-time college courses while you’re still active duty. It’s not perfect but I’m grateful for the benefits that we receive.

Three more states are holding downballot primaries tonight, and there's a huge chance to flip a major city's Mayoral office! Here's what we're watching:
Results via DDHQ unless otherwise indicated
West Virginia (polls close 7:30pm ET)

• Senate: The GOP primary between Governor Jim Justice and MAGA Rep Alex Mooney has received the most attention, but Dems also have a contested primary between Wheeling Mayor Glenn Elliot, progressive veteran Zach Shrewsbury, and conservative idiot Don Blankenship.
• Governor: A slew of Republicans, including nearly every statewide officer in WV, are battling to take on Dem candidate Steve Williams, the Mayor of Huntington.
• Wheeling Mayor: Following Glenn Elliot's decision to run for Senate, there's a six-way non-partisan race for Mayor tonight. Notably, City Councillor Rosemary Ketchum is running to be WV's first openly transgender Mayor. You can find out more about the candidates here.

Maryland (polls close 8pm ET)

• Senate: The Dem primary is a crowded race headlined by Rep. David Trone and Prince George County Executive Angela Alsobrooks. On the Republican side, former Governor Larry Hogan is the GOP's top Senate recruit in the country - but will primary voters agree?
  
• 3rd Congressional District: Rep. John Sarbanes' retirement opened up a twenty-two-way Dem primary - and yes, it's first-past-the-post.
  
• 6th Congressional District: Maryland's only swing district has open Dem and GOP primaries, and the results will be crucial for November.
  
• Baltimore Mayor primary: Incumbent Mayor Brandon Scott has been controversial in his first term, but has gained approval following his handling of the Francis Scott Key bridge collapse. Tonight's primary winner should easily win citywide in November. RESULTS
  

Nebraska (polls close 8pm CT, 9pm ET)

• 2nd Congressional District: Dems will run State Senator Tony Vargas a second time, but the GOP primary could turn interesting. Rep. Don Bacon, who's outrun the top of the ticket for years, faces far-right businessman Dan Frei. If Frei pulls off the upset, this race is suddenly a huge pickup opportunity for us.
  
• Omaha Public Power District 8: This group helps regulate utilities in eastern Nebraska - and yes, they're elected! Nebraska Dems have endorsed Morgan Rye-Craft in this race. RESULTS
  
• Lower Platte South Natural Resources District subdistrict 1: This regulatory body looks after a number of environmental factors. The Dem candidate for this race west of Lincoln is Carla McCullough Dittman. Since this is a primary, if she places in the top two she will advance to the November general election. RESULTS
  

Alaska (polls close 8pm AT, 12am ET)

• Anchorage Mayor runoff: We've got a big opportunity to flip a Republican-held city! Dems are backing Suzanne LaFrance, who received the state and local party's co-endorsement despite being an independent. RESULTS

Hi guys! We had an interview today for i130/i485. Officer said he is going to approve both petitions and I should receive my green card soon. He gave us a document stating our case is under review.
Did any of you have similar experience? How long have you been waiting for your case to be “approved” online and to receive green card?

As the title says—we need to get loud, make our voices heard. This manipulation/crime/fraud—whatever you want to call it—has to come to an end, and we need the people in charge to step up and regulate. I don't think anything will come of my call, but if everyone calls her office asking her to look into these matters, she can't ignore millions of us.

• Boston Office: Phone: (617) 565-3170
• Washington Office: Phone: (202) 224-4543

I called her because she sits on the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, Subcommittee on Economic Policy (chair), Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection, Subcommittee on Securities, Insurance, and Investment, Committee on Finance, Subcommittee on Health Care, Subcommittee on Social Security, Pensions, and Family Policy, Subcommittee on Taxation and IRS Oversight.
It seems like this is probably under her umbrella. If there are other offices/politicians, please put them in the comments, and let's all leave POLITE but concerned messages as American citizens. Apes together strong.

Please join us at the Rail Users’ Network’s Spring Virtual Conference, which is taking place on Friday, May 17, 2024, from 12:30 – 5 pm. This exciting event will highlight the work of rail advocates who are working to expand long-distance rail service in the U.S.
https://www.railusers.net/annual-conference/
The list of confirmed speakers includes:
12:30 – 12:40: Richard Rudolph’s introductory remarks.
12:40 – 1:05: Todd Liebman, President All Aboard Arizona – Sunset Limited Campaign.
1:05 – 1:30: Steve Williams, Mayor, Huntington, West Virginia – Daily service on the Cardinal.
1:30 – 1:55: Mike Christensen, Executive Director, Utah Rail Passenger Association – Restoring Desert Wind from Boise, Idaho to Salt Lake City and Las Vegas.
1:55 – 2:00: Break
2:00 – 2:25: Knox Ross. Chairman, Southern Rail Commission – Amtrak’s daily Crescent from Meridian, MS to Fort Worth and Dallas, Texas.
2:25 – 2:50: David Strohmaier, Chairman, Big Sky Rail Authority – Restoration of the North Coast Hiawatha.
2:50 – 3:15: A success story – Passenger rail from Duluth, Minnesota to the Twin Cities. Ken Buehler, Executive Director of the Lake Superior Railroad Museum.
3:15 – 3:30: Federico Gazzolo, Amtrak VP-Product Development & Customer Analytics, who will talk about the company’s effort to order new long-distance rail car equipment.
3:30 – 4:05: Possible restoration of part of the Floridian route from Indianapolis, to Louisville, Nashville to Atlanta and onto Savannah, Georgia. Richard Rudolph moderates: • Mike King, Director, Office of Planning, Louisville Metro • Tim Kelly, Mayor, Chattanooga Tennessee. • Clement Solomon, Division Director- Intermodal, Georgia Department of Transportation.
4:05 – 4:10: Break 4:10 – 4:20: J.W. Madison, President, New Mexico Rails, will briefly talk about the organization’s effort over the years to establish a Rocky Mountain Flyer from New Mexico to Montana.
4:20 – 4:50: What is needed for startup of new service – equipment and relationships with Freight Railroads. Andrew Albert, RUN’s Vice Chair, moderates: • Josh Coran, Directo Product Development / Compliance, Talgo / RUN Board Member. • Phil Streby, retired Amtrak Conductor / RUN Board Member. • Jim Blaze, railroad economist, Railway Age.
4:50 – 5:00: Closing Remarks. David Peter Alan, Contributing Editor, Railway Age / RUN Board Member.
The conference is designed not only for rail advocates, but also for civic and business leaders, environmentalists, planners, real estate developers and members of the general public who are interested in knowing more about passenger rail and rail transit in America. Please note this is a free event for RUN members, but registration is required. A registration fee for non-members is $25, which includes RUN membership through 2024. Please be sure to register by May 10 so that we can send along the info needed to attend RUN’s Virtual Spring Conference.

We have almost all experienced it,we have a friendship with a person we have met via Reddit and are chatting for days on end and they all of sudden, one of us decides to ghost the other. Well how about we try something different and not ghost.
I kinda suck a describing myself, other than saying I have love handles and a beard. I currently work fulltime as banker spending half the time in the office and the other half working from home. In my spare time i have the usual hobbies (watching TV, going to the gym, and cooking). However I am also a third degree black belt and I like to build legos and read as stress relief. If your up it feel free to send me a message?

So this is a long one. Like, I'm going back over it and damn. This is longer than I thought it would be. Throwaway account, I've only made one other post to this relating to what's going on. Instead of updating the other post, I figured I'd make a separate one about the whole shit show I experienced, and the shit circus I uncovered and avoided. I'll try to keep this in as chronological an order as I can.
As the title says, my abusive/narc mom and pos/delusional/golden child brother started trying to reach out to me a few months ago wanting to make amends and build bridges with me again. There were a few people that commented on my previous post in another subreddit that may be a little disappointed in me for how I handled this, and a few that might enjoy that I handled it the way I did. Someone commented to not let them use my good nature. My nature is dependent on who I'm dealing with, and when it comes to that side of my family, I'm more stick than carrot. So their attempts did not go ignored, and did not go unpunished.
Growing up, I was always closer with my Dad than my mom. My brother was the epitome of "pampered mamma's boy". He started having seizures as a child and was diagnosed with epilepsy, which I thought was why my mom babied the absolute fuck out of him long into adulthood. He would go a year or 2 without any seizures, and then there would be a few months where he'd be having them every other day. At Anytime he got in trouble at home or school, my mom would find a way to blame me, for not making sure he knew whatever he was doing would get him in trouble, or she would blame my dad for not being "involved enough in their baby's life." My dad was in the Navy and I remember any time he'd deploy, I'd dread every day until he came back. My brother would taunt me that he knew whatever he did, I'd be the one to get in trouble for it. My dad would always make things up for me when he got back from his deployments though. We'd often have weekend trips just the 2 of us. And then around my 12th birthday, my mom insisted on sitting us all down and explain to that she and my dad were getting a divorce. We got the whole talk about how they still love us and they just can't be together anymore, etc. my dad told us both that he still loved us and he would be there for us whenever we needed him. He explained that he would be moving out, but he would be by to pick us up to spend the weekends with us. I was nervous and honestly scared of what it would be like without him. But I was looking forward to the weekend when I got to see him again. That never happened though, and that was the last time I ever got to see him.
Right before his weekend with us, my mom explained to us that my dad didn't want anything to do with us anymore. There was some news story about a father that killed his kids when he had custody of them and she used that to terrify my brother and convince him that our dad wanted to kill us to start his life over. We left damn near everything behind and moved in with my mom's brother in Florida (from Virginia) a couple days before my dad was supposed to come get us. After that, she went to great lengths to make sure we had no contact from him.
Years went on, my mom seemed more indifferent towards me than ever. She never seemed interested in anything I did unless my brother also seemed interested in it. She didn't show any interest in my wanting to learn guitar until my brother also showed interest in it. Then we got one guitar that we had to share, I'd take lessons on the condition that I taught my brother whatever I learned in them. My brother eventually wound up breaking the guitar and I was blamed for not storing it in the case it came with. I had to share my N64 with him whenever he wanted to play it. I was playing perfect dark one day and having a hard time killing the skedar leader at the end of the game. My brother burst into the room saying he wanted to play his MegaMan game, to which I just replied "give me a minute, this boss fight is hard, once I'm done you can have your turn" He didn't like that. He left the room and came back with a hammer and smashed the console while I was still playing. My fault for not letting him play it. The only thing I had that he could not use was a pair of roller blades my aunt got me for my 14th birthday. I specifically asked for roller blades to get around instead of a bike because my brother and I had different shoe sizes, so he couldn't wear them Because of constant shit like that, I never really put much value in having things growing up. I didnt want to buy something or get something as a gift just to have it fucked up in a few weeks or months. At some point, my "little" brother became the larger one, so my clothes all became "hand-me-ups" as he outgrew everything. So, because I didn't really have any distractions at home, I turned into a high achieving student, rarely got in trouble. made the honor roll all throughout school. But that wasn't something to celebrate as it was expected of me. I had long since decided that I was moving out as soon as I could once I turn 18. I got a job working at a Walgreens as soon as I could and started saving up for a car. My mom however took issue with this and would never agree to take me looking for one and absolutely refused to ever have it put on her insurance. This is where my Aunt comes in. She and her son are the only 2 on my mom's side that aren't some sort of degenerate. She had her son young, but put herself through college while raising him alone and eventually got her MBA and a cushy upper corporate job. She told me to tell my mom I had to go in to work on one of my days off, that she would pick me up and she would take me car shopping. So that's what we did. I couldn't quite afford a cash car, but she helped me with the financing. I put down what I had as the down payment, the arrangement she made with me was that 1- as long as I was in school, she would cover the insurance and payments for me, however, if I got into an accident, I was responsible for paying the deductable. And 2- as long as i was living with my mom, the car remained in her (Aunt's) name. And if anything happened to it, to let her know so she could get the appropriate authorities involved. My mom was PISSED when she found out I now had a car. Her reasoning (that she said in front of my aunt) was that she didn't think it was fair for one of us-either me or my brother- to have something the other couldn't use. Due to him being 13 and having epilepsy, he couldn't drive, so why should i have a car if my brother doesn't? That turned into a long shouting match between my mom and Aunt that basically ended with my aunt explaining that since it was her car, and all paperwork on her name, I was just on the insurance for it so I could drive it. But if anything at all happened to it while I was living at my Mom's, that the police and insurance companies would get involved. My mom still kept track of all the miles on the car to "make sure I was only going to work and school and wherever she told me I could go". Most of the time, when I hung out with friends, I wasn't the one driving. From that that point though, my mindset was very much "keep my head down and nose clean until I can leave." I graduated a month before my 18th birthday. After graduation, my mom and i got into an argument about me contributing to her bills. I eventually dropped the ball that I planned on getting back in touch with my Dad and leaving. She started laughing. Something about that laugh made me really uncomfortable. She then said "well, you can certainly meet up with him whenever you want! I'll supply the gun if you buy the bullet!" And told me my dad had died when I was 15. That. Fucking. Broke. Me. Later that night, i called my best friend and vented everything to him. He was in the DEP program for the Navy and would be shipping out in a few months, he told me to come by first thing in the morning and talk with him and his parents about the whole situation. I basically packed up all of my clothes and left the day after my 18th birthday. I just left my house key and a note that said "I'm not your problem anymore." I couch surfed for a little while until after my best friend left for boot camp, then I was able to move in and live with his parents (chosen parents basically). My only real rules were keep the house and my space clean and make sure I had a job and/or going to school. I spent a few months mourning my dad and kind of in a haze. Since he was in the Navy though, that meant I was reliable for financial aid for school. My second dad helped me get everything put together to start receiving that so I could start college.
Well, after a couple years of this, my brother, who had spent his time at school more as "forced socializing" instead of learning, was expelled from public schools for allegedly setting off a fire extinguisher in a classroom. He had to enroll at an alternative school called "the drop back-in academy" that was specifically for dropouts or anyone that got the boot from the public school system. My mom reached out to me and asked me if I would drive him to this school in the mornings, she'd pick him up in the afternoons, and she'd pay me $20 a week.I agreed to it thinking this was out of character for her, but she surprisingly held up to that agreement. I drove him for a couple years until I was ready to start my bachelor program. My second parents were getting ready to move back to their hometown and I was going to start school on the other side of the city. So, I was moving to that side of town and couldn't really drive out of my way to pick up and drop off my brother anymore. He continued his enrollment at this place for another 3 years (5 years total) and it turned out, he was never attending. I would drop his ass off there every day and he'd just walk home immediately after I pulled out of the parking lot. He'd just tell my mom that he finished his work early and decided to walk home instead of wait around for her. One afternoon, I'm coming home early from work and my brother is just sitting on the steps to my studio apartment. He tells me that he and our mom got into a really big argument and he needs a place to stay. I (reluctantly) let him in. I'm stuck thinking he must be really desperate if he's coming to me for help. But I start thinking at this point, he's 24, jobless, and probably needs to learn some self discipline and responsibility, and our mom just never did that for him. So I try to help. I ask him what their fight was about and he tells me that he started dating this girl at his alternative school. She was 21 and got the boot from the school system for being too old to attend (we actually have several relatives that were kicked out of the school system for the same reason) and that he accidentally got her pregnant and our mom did not take kindly to that. I called my landlord and explained the situation to him. He was okay with it, so I let him crash on my couch for a little bit (until the end of my lease, then I'd be moving) and just told him to clean up after himself, take care of himself, etc until we could all work this out. He crashed there for a few months and did Jack shit. He would complain that I didn't have a computer for him to use (I only had a laptop I bought for school) and I didn't have any video game consoles for him to entertain himself with. So he was stuck there bored all day. I got tired of the complaining and lack of effort and told him he had to go back to our mom's if he wasn't going to be an adult. We started shouting at each other until he dropped this little bombshell. He yelled "I can't go back to Mom's!" And when I asked why, he just blurted out "because it's to close to that elementary school!" That stopped the whole thing. "And why is that a big deal now?" I asked him. I already knew why that would be the problem, but 1% of me was holding onto the hope that he was got jumped by a gang of 5th graders and the trauma was too much for him to bear. I told him he could either tell me what's going on, or I could make a phone call and get every last detail I needed. He confessed that he had been leaving that school and going over to his "girlfriend's" house and waiting for her to get home. And that one day, her mom ended up catching them in the act. I explained to him that he was leaving out important details if that was the reason he couldn't be near a school.
He told me she was 14, not 21. I. Lost. My. Shit. Everything after that is kinda fuzzy, but he was arrested, mom posted bail, and since she lived right around the corner from an elementary school, he couldn't stay there. So they told his parole officer that he'd be staying at my address until his court date.. his PO had swung by a couple times, but I was always either at work or school or out somewhere. At this point, I told him the lease was up in 6 weeks, I couldn't stand to be around him. I packed my stuff early, moved out into a storage unit, and I stayed at an extended stay hotel until it was time for me to move. Called my landlord and told him what was going on, and if my brother was still there the last week of the lease, nail him for trespassing. My landlord was a good guy. I never had any problems with him. I paid up the last 6 weeks and threw him since extra cash for his troubles as I knew I wouldn't be getting my deposit back. That was the last time I saw my brother. After I moved out of state, I cut all contact with everyone in that family except my Aunt who was the only one that ever helped me out or even had my back. But even then, it was just through email. We'd mainly email birthday and holiday wishes to each other. Updates from my side on how life and career are going.
I never had a myspace or a Facebook growing up. I either never had a computer to check it on, or I was just so accustomed to not having any online distractions that I just never got around to making one. I did finally make a Facebook and I did get in touch with my dad's side of the family and reconnected with them. I hadn't seem most of them since I was 4 or 5. Some of them had been in contact with my brother (he fucking knew our dad died) and was spinning some sort of web about how he graduated high school early, had gone to college for pre-med and then got some sort of full ride scholarship to some prestigious medical school in Florida. He told them I wasn't on social media because I had been arrested for selling drugs and that he was taking me in after I got released. He was also using my senior portrait as a profile pic. They were surprised when they saw me and how I "looked just like my brother!" I had set the record straight. They looked dumbfounded when I told them that he couldn't get himself out of the 9th grade in 10 years, and now would likely never complete his high school journey due to the fact he can't be within 100 yards of a school.
So, fast forward to last week. I checked my email for the first time since late January (for my aunt's birthday) and noticed a few from her saying my mom wanted to reach out, then several emails from a new address. It was my mom's first initial and last name. Subject lines usually read "please respond" and "let me know you're okay" and stuff like that. I'd copy some of them over, but holy shit this is already a novella. Basically she got my email address from sneaking my aunt's phone (aunt did not sell me out). She's trying to apologize for how she treated me growing up and trying to excuse it by saying I reminded her of my dad and then she was going through menopause and just any excuse to dishes full accountability it seems. She acknowledges that it was wrong to hold me accountable for my brother's fuck-ups but dismisses that by saying he didn't know any better and she needed me to be a good role model for him. Things have been hard for her since I left, since she "had" to take my brother back in (I would've left him on the street or in jail), she had to sell her house (she was only 10 years into her mortgage) and buy another smaller one further from a school for him. He never did get a hs diploma or GED because how can he? And she's been going through breast cancer treatment for the last several months and just doesn't have the energy to take care of her 33yo baby anymore. She asked me if I lived close enough to them to take him in for a little bit while she focuses on her health. I left Florida 8 years ago and haven't even lived in the same time zone in 6 years. She can only check her email at work since she no longer has Internet at home. She had to cancel her home Internet service because of him. So, I decided to just put my brother's name into a search bar and the first thing that pops up is a FDLE sex offender's page. And holy shit has he gone downhill. He had a second arrest when he was 27 for the same thing, and then was caught in communications with another girl (like Chris Hansen sting) and was released from prison at the beginning of the year. And the mugshot.... You know the pale lady from the scary stories to tell in the dark movie? Think that, but with a patchy beard. Beady eyes, bad skin and all. According to the sheriff's office inmate search, he's been arrested 5 times in the last 10 years. Twice for lewd and lascivious battery of a minor (aged 12-15), once for solicitation of a minor, and twice for probation violations.
The TL/DR: abusive mom took all her frustrations out on me, blamed me for everything my brother did, hid my father's death from me until I was almost 18, and reaches out after 8 years of no contact and wants me to take care of her pedophile son while she's in poor health.
I'm attaching my response to her below.
Hi. I'm alive. I'm well. I'm also not okay with you contacting me, especially under the circumstances that you violated the privacy of your own sister to get my contact information. I have read your apologies and excuses and I do not accept either. You say I reminded you of Dad? He spent more time with me and showed more interest in my well-being than you ever did, and that's including the 6 years he was absent from my life by your own selfish design. Menopause? I find that hard to believe as this went on for the better part of half a decade and not once in that time did your attitude towards brother change. You always treated him with the same coddling infantile obsession and patience that one would show a toddler. It was and is clear that you have a preferred child as that adult-sized pile of shit is still living comfortably with dear old mama. I'm guessing no one else is willing to take him in? Are Uncle and Cousins afraid of him doing something to their daughters or grandchildren? I do believe you when you say you want to rebuild the bridge that you nuked from orbit years ago, but I can't believe it's not for your own selfish desires. And I can't find any reason or way my quality of life could be improved with your presence. The reality is, my life has been far better without you than it could be with you. I've never said this to anyone, but if there is a sense of karma and balance in the universe, your current situation is proof of that. The next time I see your name on my computer screen, had better be for your obituary. But since you and the monster you raised both decided to keep Dad's death a secret from me, and remove any choice I had to mourn or pay my respects, I'll return that kindness to you.
Please die away from me.

TL;DR: I'm a Graphic Designer with one year at a company. I make $45k. My Marketing Director, who makes $65k (I know) is leaving and I'm eligible to replace him but don't want to lose touch with my creativity.
So our business is pretty informal about many things (admin is like 3 Execs and a dozen or so Directors). I've been dropping heavy hints that I planned on promoting myself to Creative Director on my 1 year date, June 5th, while I would push for a review and a raise. We were also flirting with hiring an intern to work under me.
I was hired as a Graphic Designer but have voluntarily begun to handle our visual marketing, much of our copyright, and have launched a 3D printing studio to assist with product support and even production. This is on top of all of my design work like packaging, logos, brand books, sales sheets, email blasts, etc. My Marketing Director was totally cool with this and assured me the execs "don't give a shit - just pick a title."
I LOVE what I do but only make $45k. (Wife is the breadwinner and makes more than double what I do.)
So yesterday - out of the blue - Mr. Marketing Director puts in his resignation with plans to return to his old career. I am IMMEDIATELY concerned about my workload, as the two of us were already at 110%. The Execs have told him "there's no way we can replace you within two weeks" and are scared to death I am going to leave as well. Our National Sales Director laughed at the Indeed draft and said it will be "impossible" to fill the position for $65k.
The two of us are meeting with the Execs tomorrow to address the transition but MD has already recommended me for his position and said he has my back 100% if I want it. He makes $65k, which is SHIT for what he does, but it would be a substantial raise for me, especially after only one year with the company. I would love to ask for a more position-appropriate salary - like $90k - but doubling one's salary after one year is practically unheard of, right? I've got some serious leverage here but not THAT much.
So here's the problem: I'm an artist at heart and don't really want to handle logistics and emails and Teams meetings and all of the other technicalities that come with his position. I have to be creative. I CAN handle his job but am not sure if I WANT to. I DO want that $65k+ though.
How do I position myself to take his job and maintain a creative influence within the company? If I take the job of Marketing Director, they may want me to then hire someone to take control of what I do now - which I don't want to lose. If I say "well, I'd really like to be Creative Director and can help share the load until we hire a new Marketing Director" I'm going to shoot myself in the foot; they'll give me a $5k raise and an intern and that'll be the end of it.
Is there a way to take his position and then decide how to handle my new hire? Maybe search for someone with more of a marketing background than an artistic background? The execs are so disconnected from our "department" as it is, they rarely know who handled what and don't seem to care, as long as it gets done.
FWIW: I'm 45yo but this is my first office job (after a life of freelancing and small business ownership). I am still new to a lot of the intricacies involved in this environment, however, so any advice is much appreciated!

Happy Wednesday, Barkada --

The PSE gained 4 points to 6608 ▲0.1%

Shout-out to financial freedom for the dividend card design advice, to Mike Tan for supporting the idea of the dividend cards, to Jing for hoping that competition would fix FMETF's iNav problems, to Justin Angelo Bantang for providing the equation that let him to "give up" on FILRT ("declining stock price + declining dividend payout = give up"), to VodkaMartini_007 for the OGP meme suggestion ("Doom Guy in Hell"), to Cheerful2_Dogman210x for the OGP analysis ("might take a quick peek if it hits a strong support"), and to arkitrader for the REIT Police vibes.
I know I still owe an update to the MB Underwriters League table, and I'll have that ready for tomorrow's send!

▌In today's MB:

• Citicore Renewable sets IPO for June 7
• MREIT to acquire P13-B in buildings through swap
• Vista Land approves P5-B prefs offer

▌Daily meme Subscribe (it's free) Today's email

▌Main stories covered:

• [UPDATE] Citicore Renewable IPO pushed back to June 7... Citicore Renewable Energy Corporation [CREC 3.88 pre-IPO] [link] pushed its IPO back one week to June 7, with a revised offer period between May 27 and May 31. This is the second time that CREC’s IPO has been rescheduled. CREC was originally intended to list in March, but the listing was pushed back to the end of May after sticky inflation prevented central banks from lowering rates. CREC raised ₱5 billion from its sale shares in its subsidiary, Citicore Renewable Energy REIT [CREIT 2.85 ▲0.7%; 107% avgVol], to SM Investments [SM 887.00 ▲0.2%; 163% avgVol] back on March 31. The offer is 1.786 billion common primary shares at a maximum price of ₱3.88/share. Together with the overallotment option, the total IPO is worth up to ₱7.97 billion.
  
  • MB: I don’t have any insider information about why the IPO was delayed a second time. I know that the PSE is usually hesitant to schedule IPOs too closely together for fears of oversaturating the market with new equity issuances, and given how heavy the OceanaGold PH [OGP 12.36 ▼1.1%; 31% avgVol] listing has been so far, perhaps the PSE and CREC together decided that it might be worth it to get a little (more) space between OGP and CREC’s listing just to be sure. Edgar Saavedra’s group has been clear the whole time of its intent to list CREC in Q2, so a reschedule by one week to June 7 doesn’t seem like anything other than a bit of fine-tuning. Not sure how deeply we can read into anything. Just excited to get a look at a new IPO.
• [NEWS] MREIT to acquire ₱13.15-B worth of office buildings through share swap... MREIT [MREIT 12.80 ▼1.2%; 380% avgVol] [link] announced that it has applied to the SEC to approve a property-for-share swap transaction with its parent company, Megaworld [MEG 1.79 ▲0.6%; 136% avgVol], where MREIT will acquire six “Grade A buildings” from MEG in exchange for 926,162,000 primary MREIT shares. The transaction is valued at ₱13.15 billion (~₱14.20/share). The properties that MEG will inject into MREIT are One Fintech Place and Two Fintech Place in Iloilo Business Park, Davao Finance Center in Davao Park District, and Two West Campus, Ten West Campus, and One Le Grand in Fort Bonifacio. The transaction will increase MREIT’s gross leasable area (GLA) by 48% to 482,000 square meters.
  
  • MB: This property-for-share swap structure is how the framers of the REIT Law imagined REITs would grow. I’ve seen some comments talking about how the issuance of primary shares by MREIT to MEG dilutes MREIT shareholders; this is true from a voting perspective, but not from a dividend or yield perspective. Starting from the point when the SEC approves the transaction, MREIT will begin generating revenue from these properties, and that revenue will flow into the dividends that MREIT will declare in future quarters. According to my calculations with the PSE’s data, this swap would push MREIT’s public float below the REIT Law’s one-third minimum public ownership threshold to 32.29%, so perhaps MEG will look to sell a small batch of shares in a private placement to prevent the possibility of suspension. Who knows when the SEC will approve the transaction? All I know is that it’s not a good look to get caught flat-footed by a surprise approval, like what happened to Leandro Leviste back when he still owned SP New Energy [SPNEC 1.13 ▼0.9%; 45% avgVol]. I’m interested to see how MREIT will react to the shifting fundamentals of the office market. Anyone here tried GPT-4o? Things are changing at a rapid pace. A year ago we were laughing at having text translated into Jar-Jar speak. Today, I had a full 10-minute conversation with GPT-4o (“Sky”) about how to use Google Looker to produce a financial dashboard using my Google Sheets data.
• [NEWS] Vista Land board approves ₱5-B preferred shares offer... Vista Land [VLL 1.50 ▲2.0%; 0% avgVol] [link] disclosed that its board has approved a ₱5 billion preferred shares offering, consisting of 50,000,000 Series 2 Preferred Shares priced at ₱100/share. VLL said that China Bank Capital and SB Capital will be joint lead underwriters on the deal. The company did not provide any information about the potential dividend or the timeline for the offer period and listing of the shares.
  
  • MB: This prefs sale comes after VLL had to kill its disastrous attempt to sell $700 million in US Dollar-denominated bonds back in late January. Back then, VLL’s bonds were simply not shiny enough to compete with the yields of other (better) issuers. When it pulled the bonds there was an expectation that VLL would try again once rates had come down a bit, and while rates have not gone down, perhaps this smaller offering is intended to deal with whatever short-term needs the company has while it waits to make a bond offering at some future time when rates are lower.

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All the RCAs in my office are required to come before their routes and clerk. This puts us all an hour or two behind everyday. CCAs aren’t asked to come in even though we could absolutely use the help. The reason given was that their pay structure is different. Is this true?

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• Welcome to member's vlog #6 which she did on Thursday. She's sick again. Had a nap. Says she's sleep deprived.
  
• She's about to make dinner. No light in the kitchen. She's making rib eye steak. Opens the pkg, shakes seasoning at the camera. Morty is in the kitchen. She says the stray didn't eat what she put out for him.
  
• She says she doesn't consider throwing steaks in the air fryer cooking 'but it's more than I usually do." (ugh She's cooking both of the steaks rather than cook the second fresh when she wants to eat it because lazy.) She flips them and they are not even a little browned. Pale and flabby just like her. No maillard effect for our skinny kween. Takes too long and she's busy busy as we all know. She's about to eat and shakes a coke zero at the camera.
  
• Segue to the bedroom door. She dyed her hair purple but it looks cherry red to me. She likes it. She has something on her eye...could be flaked off makeup.
  
• She's gonna take care of her plants. Why the fuck doesn't she get some of those plastic bowls you put under plans to catch run off? She takes her plants to the sink to water them. As lazy as she is, it amazes me she doesn't save herself the extra steps.
  
• Still fucking with her hair. Rambling incoherently as she waters the plants. Says someone told her to call the tradescantia a 'wandering dude,' only she says wondering dude. She's got her customer service voice on.
  
• Segue to sitting at the desk. We're eye fucking ourself in the camera because we did another application of the purple dye and we love it.
  
• Shaking basil incense at the camera. She thinks her 'allergies' have turned into a cold. (lol, she's such a freaking moron) She had a great time on the weekend wih Lodane. It was super fun. She vlogged it but it hasn't been published yet.
  
• She spent her 41st birthday all alone by choice. She went for a hike (sans dogs, I'm sure.) and did fun stuff she wanted to do. Lodane inspired her to play sims 2.
  
• She has errands today. She has to go to the pet store. She's not feeling well so sorry for her train of thought. She did a red eye shadow. She hasn't used the green or blue and the color of the day won't cooperate until the end of the month.
  
• Segue to driving (sans glasses) waxing poetic about the 'sea of green'. Wants to take us on a nature walk. It's lovely. We're at Petco and she shows us a chinchilla. She's buying milk bones and dog food.
  
• She's whining that she doesn't have enough time to go to TJ Maxx and the book store. (wtf does she do all day?) Turns her camera to show her driving out of the plaza.
  
• She's at the post office. Waxing poetic about the mountain. Opening her po box and there's a big box. She'll open it in 3 or 4 vlogs. Now she's going to Sonic.
  
• Segue to the desk. Thanks for watching. There's public livestream coming soon. She appreciates us. Bye.
  

Everything sucks.
Hybrid job, 3 times in the office. I have to find a free parking spot near the office or pay $10/day near the office. Why? Because the building charges me $25/day.
There are people who overcomplicate things that were already complicated for no reason.
We have a sort of pager application in their phone. Do we get paid if we are on call? You fucking kidding? We work for a very "small" multi-billion-dollar company, we don't have enough budget for that. Why would the company care about us?
Oh but the bonus and the raise must be real nice. Yeah right. That's why everyone felt insulted after the performance raise&bonus review.
I LOVE THIS PLACE SO MUCH.
Every morning, when I get off the elevator, I get so excited that I need to go the ground floor to calm myself and come back.

In order to strentgen the USSR's position in the Baltic sea, and prop up the failing economy or some shit, Brezhnev decides to invade Finland, leaving Afghanistan's Communist government to fend for itself against the Mujihadeen.
Soviet military generals are aware of their strength in Western Europe and are confident they will crush the Finns with overwhelming numerical superiority in short order.
Brezhnev declares "I'm like 78% this will work comrades, Finland's neutral, Nothing will get out of hand, Carter's a fucking bitch lol, I am a genius"
On December 24, 1979 the Soviets send some 50,000 troops accross the border into Finland with the objective of annexing the country with thousands more on the way.
How does US/Europe react to the invasion?
Do the Soviets succeed, or are they bogged down?
Finland is offically neutral. Does the conflict elscalate?
How does no Afghan invasion affect Middle east?
How does the rest of the Cold War play out?
What is modern Russia like and what is the legacy of the Finnish invasion?

Union Organizing Update
Over the past few weeks, several of us from this subreddit have joined together to form an organizing committee for unionization. We have organizers from across the United States, including organizers from Washington, Virginia, New Jersey, Florida and more. They are among some of the most frequent posters and helpers that you’re familiar with already, like ( u/mamabroccoli and u/Inevitable_Laugh4569 ). We have already been in contact with a couple unions for guidance, including a union with an office within a couple miles of the TDC main office in New York City. While our numbers are sufficient and I think we’re making great progress thus far, if you are still interested in having an active role, we’d love to have you. The more people helping, the better! If you would prefer a more passive role by simply giving your support, that’s always appreciated too!
We have been discussing our plans for near future of our potential tutor union. Most of the work from here will be contacting people and spreading the word about unionizing the tutor base. We will be providing more information over the next couple/few weeks. Later in the week, there will be a post about the benefits of unionization. Next week, we will post about the demands we’re going to state at the beginning of any negotiations. We have ideas for further informational posts. This is truly a group effort. I think you will like what we’re offering and will be glad to vote to unionize in the future.
The following letter is an open letter to tutor.com / The Princeton Review. You may notice that it is written a bit differently than the writings I usually produce. The reason for the tonal shift is because of writing help. I wrote the initial draft, which was edited by our committee to have a nicer flow, be less antagonistic, and add further pro-union arguments. We are committed to work together, and this is just the start of what we can do when we work together!
Also, if you haven’t yet signed the video petition, please do so. https://www.change.org/p/oppose-tutor-com-mandating-video-sessions-for-tutors?recruiter=300829309&recruited_by_id=b62a6030-fe40-11e4-95d0-ef524b399632&utm_source=share_petition&utm_campaign=petition_dashboard_share_modal&utm_medium=copylink
Open letter to tutor.com / The Princeton Review regarding attempts to unionize
Since we're starting the process of putting together a union proposal, we're publicly requesting tutor.com and/or The Princeton Review to voluntarily recognize that we're attempting to organize, and provide the resources necessary to hold a vote. From discussions amongst the committee, we know the main office is aware of this subreddit, and we'd imagine that someone is paying particular attention to our recent discussions about unionizing.
We understand if there's resistance from TDC to seeing their workers unionize, as that's a normal reaction in the business world. However, we urge you to instead be proactive and helpful as we attempt to organize.
We believe a tutor union can work in tutor.com's favor, to a great extent, for a variety of reasons:
* It would be a very good look publicly if you were to openly support the effort to unionize. We're in the education industry, a famously unionized industry, filled with people who will be more sympathetic to companies with unionized workforces. Being the one tutoring company that can truthfully say "We supported our tutors' right to unionize from day 1" could be a major selling point when seeking contracts in this industry.
* From what we've seen from your social media posts, tutor.com does seem to project a degree of progressivism. As an example, you've made posts taking pride in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at tutor.com, and you always try to highlight tutors who receive awards and recognition. You could significantly further this image by taking a union-friendly stance here. You've had executives post about how the tutors are loved - here's your chance to prove it.
* A tutor union would work to infinitely better the company itself. Tutors would feel better compensated and better heard, and as a result feel better and more enthusiastic about the company and their work overall. The better conditions would set tutor.com up as the de facto best online tutoring company to work for, and attract more and better talent to the company. It would be reasonable to set stricter quality standards and, in time, tutor.com would gain a reputation for being *the* premium tutoring service - the tutoring service that has tutors who rise above and beyond those at other services. Retention rates would skyrocket, institutional knowledge would accumulate - we'd become a company of true professionals.
* Were tutor.com to support the unionization process, it would start the relationship between the union and company off with mutual respect, a willingness to cooperate and compromise, and general friendliness and good will. This would ultimately serve us all better than a relationship borne out of malice, a refusal to acknowledge our existence, or open antagonism.
* tutor.com has faced some recent backlash from some right-wing government people regarding where we've ended up through corporate acquisitions, to the point where some are beginning to attack the military contract. One contract has already been lost for this reason. Being seen as a pro-worker company that broke industry norms and went out of their way to support their worker's right to organize, even if the effort ultimately fails, could easily work to gain the company some new allies on the left, shielding it from pointless attacks about its ownership.
We want to be clear that we're not asking for you to come out and endorse a "Yes" vote on unionization - though of course we'd be delighted if you did. What we're asking is for you to provide the resources necessary to hold an informed vote. Let us send out an email to all current US-based tutors with information regarding our efforts, and help us hold a vote to unionize at some point in the future. Offer your support or your neutrality, but please don't openly oppose or ignore our efforts. You've mentioned that "9 out of 10 tutors rate themselves Satisfied or Very Satisfied with Tutor.com" before - let's put that to the test. It may be that we hold a vote, and fail - and then, so long as you maintained neutrality and enabled us to make our case to the other tutors, we'll at least have our mutual good will, and you'll still be the pro-worker company that enabled, rather than hindered, an unsuccessful attempt to organize.
So, tutor.com / The Princeton Review, the ball is in your court now. Our attempt to organize will continue with or without your help, but we believe the best path forward is clearly the one where we work together on this. Doing nothing at all here is the easy choice, but it's also the cowardly choice. Support us, and we'll work together to better this company for its tutors and its students.
-The TDC/TPR Union Organizational Committee

We have been together coming up for 6 years and engaged for 10 months, no date set we're not in a hurry and he's just started university. Generally we get on well, we both work away a fair bit so don't see each other everyday but do live together. Last week he became what I'd describe as down and distant. Quiet and sullen but defensive and said nothing was wrong when I asked what was up.
At the weekend we got together with friends for a birthday and got drunk, which isn't very common for us. He had smiles for his friends but was still off with me and didn't spend time with me. We ended up having an argument about it all. The next day when we'd cooled off and I apologised for my part in the fall out, he claimed I didn't like who he was as a person or any of the things he values about himself. I tried to say this wasn't true but he would not hear me. He said the things I like about the relationship are things just having anyone would fill and weren't specific to him. I got angry that he kept telling me how I felt and wouldn't listen to me telling him my own feelings. Anything I brought up to try and prove I like him he just said he knows I love him and that's why but I don't like him. He didn't have any suggestions for things I could start doing or stop doing to make him feel liked. He was really negative and not like himself.
He suggested going on a break to give me the time to figure out if he actually made me happy. I said I didn't want to, I wasn't the one having second thoughts. And if he felt I wasn't right for him anymore he should break up with me. He said fine let's stay together and keep bumbling along. He said is so casually like it didn't matter.
When we go home I wrote him a long list of all things I like about him. This seemed to help and he put it up on his office wall. He's been acting much more normal again but I can't help feel he has one foot out the door and isn't sure if he wants to be together now. I also don't want to just avoid talking about this outburst and kind of forget about it if it is a big issue that needs resolved. I asked him to think about if he still wants to be with me while he is away and he said he would be too busy and it wasnt long enough to decide But he gave me a hug and a kiss goodbye which seemed at odds with what he'd said.
I feel like he feels unlikeable and is putting it on me. And it's more something he maybe has to deal with himself rather than something I can do much about.
Has anyone experienced this in a partner or felt like this themselves? I don't know what to do to help things improve. He's away for a few days now we both have a bit of time to reflect. I don't even know if I should wear the engagement ring right now as he seems unsure if he even wants to marry now.