Hey guys! So, I posted in here recently about my alcohol problems. I've been talking to my psychiatrist about this and coming up with a plan to stop. However, that's not my concern right now.
Info about me: I'm about 6ft tall and 1in, 204lbs, I do smoke (barely less than a pack a day), I drink every other night. My daily medications include Pristiq, Buspirone and Clonidine. I am diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, PCOS, and GERD; and my mental health diagnosis (don't know if it's important for this) are schizoaffective disorder, depression, anxiety and insomnia. I'm a female, 25 years old, not sexually active with anyone as of 6 months ago.
Now on to the issue at hand... I recently had a UTI. Went to urgent care and got antibiotics for it, was told to have a follow up with my primary doctor which I scheduled. I go tomorrow to see him so I'm just looking for some info about what this could be and maybe some reassurance because I am a hypochondriac.
A few days in to the antibiotics, I noticed that it began to smell like infection around my vaginal area, and there is some yellow discharge. I felt down there recently and there was a hard knot right at my vaginal opening. It made me panic immediately and that's when I called to schedule my appointment with my primary doctor.
It is very uncomfortable to even sit down. Not painful, but very uncomfortable. I've been told it could be a cyst, which if I'm being honest is much better than my other concern.
About 3-4 days BEFORE the smell started and I noticed these weird symptoms, I had just gotten off my period. And being an idiot I had gotten pretty drunk. I do not know if I took my last tampon out or not. This has been about 2-2.5 weeks ago. When I push/strain, like going number 2 for example, I feel something weird around my vag almost like a tampon trying to come out. However, noticing this today, I went to the bathroom and tried to search for a string or something while squatting. Couldn't find one. On top of this, (NSFW warning) I got a new adult toy which I used in the bath after I possibly lost the tampon, but before the knot/infection smell appeared. Nothing felt out of the ordinary when using said toy. It didn't seem to bump into anything or feel weird.
Again I go to the doctor tomorrow at 1:30 so I am going to see a doctor in person; right now I am just looking for some possible answers and some reassurance to ease my anxiety until I go in. If I notice a fever or anything before then I will go to the ER.
So... If it were a stuck tampon, would I have been able to use that toy without feeling the tampon in there? Is it more likely to be a cyst?
TIA.

Hei all! I'm a 27 year old American building out my itinerary for my first solo trip abroad this July! One leg of the journey I am planning is to spend a week in Norway going from Oslo to Bergen and stopping along the way to hike the Trolltunga! I've written up this itinerary and was just curious if anybody familiar with this route (it seems a pretty touristy/common one from what I can tell) might have any advice, input, guidance, tips, tricks, thoughts, etc. on the feasibility of this plan before I commit to reserving spots, and buying tickets. I'd be especially interested if anybody had anything to say about how best navigate Norway's public transit systems in these areas I'm planning on going to. Unfortunately, I'm a car dependent American, and I've never really used a train or a bus to get anywhere in my own country. I'm a bit intimidated by figuring these things out in a new country.

1. 19th July
   1. Fly from Dublin to Oslo. Arrive late afternoon (probable layover in Stockholm or Copenhagen), get to hotel and relax.
      1. Get off plane, take train from airport to central station, walk to hotel.
      2. Staying at “Citybox Oslo”
      3. Prinsens gate 6, 0152 Oslo, Norway
2. 20th-23rd July
   1. Spend time in Oslo
3. 24th July
   1. Take the 10:30 train from Oslo to Odda. Arrive in the late afternoon ~17:30ish.
      1. Get off bus. Walk to Hostel and check in, grab something to eat, Relax.
      2. Staying at Blue House Dormitory
4. 25th July
   1. Wake up early (06:00) and hike Trolltunga
   2. Get back to Hostel and relax.
5. 26th July
   1. Check out of Hostel and take an early bus from Odda to Bergen
   2. Arrive in Bergen about 12:00 and get to Hotel
   3. Staying at “Citybox Bergen City”
      1. Nygårdsgaten 31, Bergenhus, 5015 Bergen, Norway
   4. Spend half day in Bergen exploring around the hotel.
6. 27th July
   1. Spend day in Bergen
7. 28th July
   1. Spend half day in Bergen, get to airport, catch flight to Berlin.

Preface:
Getting scores in a high percentile like these is uncommon and should differ from what you expect of yourself. I was surprised at the score I got, and glad I got it, but I would've been happy for less, and so will Dental schools!
Also, I want to mention how I felt about resources and what worked for me, but that is coming from someone with a learning style that is likely different from yours; only take my advice if it works for you! You know you best, so I encourage you to study in a way that works. On the other hand, if anything I did sounds promising, definitely use it! A big part of learning how to succeed on the DAT is understanding how you learn. Gotta know yourself before you can conquer this beast.
I hope this helps!
Unofficial score report: https://www.reddit.com/useCompetitive_Case4180/comments/1dc0agg/dat_unofficial_scores/
(Also, see picture in my comment)
Scores:
PAT - 23QR - 19 RC - 25 Bio - 30 GC - 24 OC - 25 TS - 26 AA - 25
Background: I am currently a senior with a 3.7~ GPA. I am also a first-generation student, and my unconventional educational background basically equated to no real education before college.
Materials Used (in order of helpfulness):

1. DAT Booster - A wonderful resource for exam preparation. While I didn't have the opportunity to try other resources, I have heard a lot about them, and it sounded like DAT Booster does a better job at focusing on the most critical/high-yield topics, especially in the sciences. I didn't feel like I was doing too many practice problems while still feeling like I was getting enough practice. In other words, I never felt like I was "grinding my gears" when studying and practicing the three sciences tested. While the DAT booster presented a more challenging version of PAT than I experienced on the DAT, it also does an excellent job of preparing you because of that challenge. Stay encouraged if it always feels hard; you may do better than you think on PAT. Reading comprehension practice tests were a great tool to practice under timed conditions. I recommend taking as many full-length tests as possible, which helped me the most. Finally, the QR materials from DAT Booster gave me more of an issue than anything else because of my background; I often felt left behind, confused, or like I wouldn't understand the material. I had to go to external resources like Khan Academy or chat GPT to get my questions answered. That being said, I hear the DAT Booster team is working on improving it, and the QR practice tests are a fantastic representation of the actual test. I got a lower score than my Booster scores predicted on QR, so the scoring may be a poor measure, but the tests themselves felt very accurate to the exam.
2. Quizlet - When it came to reviewing material or, in some cases, learning it - Quizlet was my best friend. I studied as much as I could in a "learning" format for the critical memorized details of the sciences through watching videos, reading bio-notes, and taking notes on what I learned to retain information. Still, I never felt like I'd have enough time to get all the most critical information down before my test date, and that's where Quizlet saved me. I studied new units of DAT Booster's quizlet decks almost every night before bed. I also habitually pulled up Quizlet instead of social media whenever I could. I found that as I would go through the flashcards until I swiped right on each one, confident I knew the answer, I retained that information much better. After getting the same flashcard wrong multiple times in a row, remembering the right answer became much more critical. If you can do all the booster quilts with >80% accuracy (assuming you understand the topics, not just the card's phrasing/answer), I believe you will reach your goal DAT score in at least biology.

Study Timeline: When I started studying, I had three months before my test date. I set a goal to study for at least three hours each day alongside my lab and course load, and I got overwhelmed. At least for me, it wasn't until I changed my goal to an "amount" goal instead of a "time" goal that I started making progress.
I did not get time to study until about a month and a half before my test date; before that, I had only gotten about a week's worth of studying over my semester. I followed Booster's 10-week study schedule rigorously, but because I was behind, I tried to study 2 days of material daily. I ended up having to skip over the material I felt good about during the learning phase to get enough time to study the topics, which I felt more shaky on. That being said, I never skipped a practice test date. I prioritized getting a test in, and if I ever felt overwhelmed, I would do it section by section instead of full-length (although full-length tests are essential).
After I got into the practice/review phase, I noticed the days in the study guide had much less structure than the days in the learning phase, so instead of following the schedule, I spent my days going over topics I felt I wanted to improve based on how I felt during my practice tests. I got to this phase about three and a half weeks before my test date and ended up doing a practice test almost every other day, sometimes separating them when I felt studying would be more productive than testing again (usually when I thought I knew what area I had to improve, and I didn't feel like I made enough progress for a practice test to be practical; I already knew where I needed to focus my study).
The most important thing I did during this time was review the practice tests, seeking to understand not only the correct answers to every question (including what I got right) but also why the wrong answers were wrong and what would have made them true. Since the DAT uses multiple choice - and those choices are almost always real terms or definitions/options - you can learn a lot when reviewing them. This is less relevant for mathematics questions, but conceptual questions always benefit from this.
I also took day-long breaks. For religious reasons, I never studied for one day of the week. Whatever the reason, though, making a standard during this time to not study for some time during the week, almost an unbreakable self-rule, creates a space in your hectic studying to be not allowed to think about or study for the test. With this time, you can truly relax and recuperate. Your brain needs rest, too!
Day of Exam

• Bio (30): I was surprised how many questions were similar to practice tests or were mentioned as high-yield topics. I felt confident about most of my answers, but I always used the process of elimination to ensure I was being as accurate as possible.
• GC (24): I was glad I didn't neglect simple topics in favor of complex ones. There were questions on here that getting right only required a second of review, but without it, I would've missed them. Make sure you feel good about the topics that feel easy! If you get easy questions wrong and only hard ones right, you'll do poorly on the test.
• OC (25): Memorized reactions/conditions, aromaticity, NMR, IR, stereochemistry, and specific experimental reactions were tested. Again, I feel I got the most points by knowing the general reagents and conditions for most reactions, not by memorizing each exception to the rule. Get points on the easier things to memorize if you feel you can't get it all.
• PAT (23): Honestly, having fun here was helpful. It is a stressful section, but it can feel more manageable when you start seeing houses, ducks, hole-punching patterns, etc. I found that the keyhole, TFE, and folding questions were easier than a booster, while the angle ranking and hole-punching were about the same. Cube counting almost felt more difficult, but I marked the difficult ones and came back. The biggest thing here is not to lose points on more straightforward questions by getting caught up on hard ones.
• RC (25): Unlike Booster's representation, the questions on my RC test were more vague and or inferred knowledge and less directly pulled from the passage's wording. My strategy was to speed through the passages and mark only words that were names, dates, numbers, things in "quotes", and any new or odd terminology. I would also mark things that seemed to portray the tone or the author's opinion. I think setting a strict guideline for marking helped me move faster. The marking tool worked slightly less smoothly than Booster, so I used the tutorial to practice single-word/paragraph marking with speed.
• QR (19): This whole section is a trick question; getting caught on difficult questions is a trap. Despite booster predicting a higher score (20-22), I didn't do as well here, but I feel the rule of guessing, marking, and skipping is still valid. I would also mention that you'll often be tempted to double-check an answer, but if you got something that matches exactly, I would just review the logic used to reach the conclusion and then move on. Most questions were word problems; getting proficient at converting into algebraic format is crucial.

What I Think Helped the Most:
If I could distill everything I learned from this experience, it would be

1. Don't worry if you're having a bad day. I had a lot of practice test days where I felt awful; somewhere, I was almost throwing up because of my anxiety, but I still was able to perform better than I anticipated. This knowledge helped reduce anxiety on test day - I knew I did okay even at my worst, so I felt it'd be okay.
   
2. Focus on high-yield topics: Pay attention to what is often repeated, quizzed, or shows up on practice tests. THESE TOPICS MATTER AND WILL SHOW UP! I remember usually thinking, "But what if studying this is a waste of time because it won't show up?" while that is true when you're low on time; if it's a high-yield topic, do not overlook it. Please ensure you understand those topics and can do them well; these are where easy points can be made, and crucial points can be lost.
   
3. Have a support group: I didn't mention it above, but without my family and friends being there, checking on my progress, helping lighten the burden of my daily tasks, and being there to listen during stressful times, I would've done terribly on this test. Even if it's the lovely pre-dents on social media, connect with people and get support.
   
4. Keep studying. Even when it feels like you have it all down or maybe that you'll never be able to learn it all (like how I felt), never stop giving your best, whatever that is, to study and practice. Don't expect the same level of effort or performance from yourself every day, and make sure to take breaks before you break, but also just keep putting in an effort. You can do this!
   

So basically, I tried to log in to a VERY active Valorant account, which was forced logged out last May 25th (a day before I started my vacation), I've been trying to login thru phone until yesterday (just got back from vacation) and thought I just couldnt access it because im in an entirely new region, but since I got back, I still cant log in thru my phone nor my PC. Tried the Recovery Process but I cant remember the email entirely... AND I'm very sure of the username and password since i actually have it written down and no, never shared my account with anyone nor have I used it on a public/non-personal computer. Please, I love that account t.t Any advice?

Hello everyone,
So on Friday June 7 I went to go get my helix pierced but it was not pierced like straight, it was pierced kind of slanted so it’s like lower in the back and higher in the front so it doesn’t look completely parallel to the on I already have. I know that in these situations I can get it re pierced and it’s either free of charge or will be charged less however my issue is that my piercer already re pierced my surface tragus since he didn’t pierce deeply enough.
Backstory:
Roughly two months ago I got my surface tragus pierced on both sides and I loved it, however like two or three days later I noticed that one side was sticking out more than the other so that meant that it was not pierced deep enough. I consulted with a couple of piercers because he went on vacation for a couple of weeks and they all said I should take it out and wait for it to heal. When I went to my piercers piercing shop I asked the other piercer working there to take them out and she did. I also texted him about my issue and he said that he would do re pierce me in a couple of weeks so I can wait for them to heal free of charge.
Fast forward to Friday he re pierced them and they look great ! No sticking out of anything and I’m genuinely happy for this. However I also decided to get my helix pierced ( I already had one I just wanted to have a double helix ) and he marked it and everything and when I got home and started to clean it with the saline spray I noticed that the back was slanted further down than the front so it’s not parallel to my old helix. The front looks fine but the back is what is bothering me because I worry that when I try to put a hoop ( I know I have to wait like a year before changing it to a hoop ) that it will look wonky. I hope it may just be that it’s swollen and that’s why it’s slanted but I’m not sure. I might wait a couple of days to see what happens but in the case that it’s not because it’s swollen, should I ask him about it ? However I feel like because he already pierced me free of charge I might sound demanding ??? I’m not sure because on one hand I love getting my ear pierced and save up for that on the other hand $30 is like 2.5 hours of work for me which I would not mind if my job wasn’t so physically draining.
So basically how do I ask him again to fix the piercing without sounding rude or like if I am very demanding and that it needs to be perfect but also it is on my body and I would like things to look good since I do think about it a lot and it is bothering me.
Important information:
He’s been piercing for roughly 25 years. He’s had many apprentices that pierce to this day at professional piercing studios. He is switching from standard jewelry to only titanium which I think is great ! He always answers any questions I have about any of my piercings and genuinely loves what he does. I was pierced with standard jewelry since the change will not happen until like August or something like that.
Sorry for the long post ! Thank you !

So.. my baby will be 6m tomorrow (🥳) and we stared purees about 1.5weeks ago.
For the last few days (4-5~) she's started to not take her full bottles a couple times a day. For reference, she was doing 8oz after wake up, 7oz for brunch, lunch, dinner and bedtime but always offering 8oz just in case. Shes been on this schedule/pattern for weeks. But now serving puree in between dinner and bedtime, roughly 30-60min after dinner.
She'll take her full 8oz bottle after wake up, but after that it's 3-4oz here and there. I expected some sort of cut back after starting purees.. but I'm starting to raise both eyebrows when I think about how little formula shes intaking now. I'm going to be getting in touch with my doctor as soon as he's available, but before I get too worried.. has this happened to anyone else? Was it a phase? Is it teeth? Was it because the moon and the sun we in the wrong positions during feeding time? 😅
I'm trying not to worry too much as I'm not noticing any illness like behavior or symptoms but being a ftm I have no idea what I'm looking out for to begin with 😅

There is so many unlikeable traits about Taylor, but the most annoying is what she did to the pop culture/music industry.
The music industry and pop culture has always been shady. However Taylor did change that, but not for the better.
Her career began as a teenager, and she didn’t have the normal high school experience she wanted. Which is understandable, if the high school experience you wanted was good for you and all classmates, but hers was not. Ex classmates have said she was a mean girl before high school. She wanted to continue that, but with her career taking off she couldn’t.
So she turned the pop culture and music industry into her high school experience with her as the top mean girl.
How did this happen?:
Being born a spoiled rich girl started it, but Kanye interrupted a speech, and so the mean girl with a victim complex disguised as America’s sweetheart was born.
How did she do?:

1. Slut shamed Camilla Belle so bluntly that it ruined her career, and made the world believe Camilla stole her boyfriend.
   When in reality they had broken up before Camilla. She was angry her ex moved on so fast.
   

Her excuse for it was “I was young” and to this day has not apologized to Camilla.

1. Went after Katy saying “she tired to hire a BUNCH of people from under me and sabotage an entire tour.” Got a bunch of people to make a violent revenge video rub it in Katy’s face how many people like her more. Then when Katy releases a new album the same day Taylor puts all her own music back on Spotify to block the attention from Katy’s new album. Katy gets suicidal because of all the backlash, and other personal struggles, and ends up apologizing to Taylor.

When in reality, it was three back up dancers that originally worked for Katy. Told Taylor from the beginning they were going back to Katy in their contracts. They even put in a 30 days notice. When Katy tired to work it out Taylor refused to talk to her.

1. Went after Kim and Kanye by saying she had no idea about Kanye’s song Famous until after it’s released. Made a whole Grammy speech about “…people are going to take credit for your fame.” and paused knowing people knew she was talking about the song.

When in reality, Kim recorded Kanye telling Taylor most of the lyrics. She laughed about it and thanked him for calling and said “that’s so nice”.
After the video was posted she backtracked her what she said at her Grammy speech saying she didn’t approve being called a bitch. Using the only excuse she had left to make herself not a lair.

1. Went after Harry Styles in the song “I knew you were trouble.” Portraying him as a psychopath womanizer.

When in reality the idea for the song came to her before they started dating. Made the music video while they dated. Promoted the hell out of it after the breakup. She used him to promote a song that couldn’t have been about it.
(This one is debatable because I don’t have clear dates but I have heard this claimed before.)

1. Went after ex Joe Alwyn claiming he kept her locked away from the world for six years. Claimed he was terrible for not wanting to marry her.

When in reality, he felt his depression was too strong for them to marry at the time and she wasn’t willing to wait for him to heal. Despite he totally stood by her when the world called her a snake. Emotionally and mentally cheated on him. Then left him the second she had another man waiting for her.
And he didn’t keep her locked up. Covid 19 did….for everyone not just her.

1. Went after Nicki Minaj for pitting women against each other.

Returns out, Nicki was upset about awards show not praising the bodies of women of color after her viral Anaconda music video was snubbed. Taylor made it about herself.

1. When after Scooter Braun for stealing her music, and telling the world she had no idea about losing her masters until the world did.

When in reality, her father invested into Big Machine Records and was a shareholder (I believe is the right word) so there is no way she didn’t know before the world did. Was offered to buy this but didn’t want to. It was simple business that she is to spoiled and petty to understand or try to understand.
IF I AM MISSING ANY EXAMPLES ADD ON.
This is why the more she is in public the more unlikeable she is. She is the embodied of every high school mean girl we knew or know.

Actually it wasn't really that dramatic. I think I'm done with this for a little while. I get a government pension so my situation is probably different than yours.
In the movie, we see Michael Douglas trapped in bumper to bumper traffic. It's summertime and his windows don't roll down, the AC breaks and there's a fly buzzing around in the car. He loses his s*** and then abandons his car on the road.
Anyway,
So I get the shop and pay order for $25/ 8 MI. 30 minutes of shopping turns into 1 hour and I still have like 20 items to go. I'm now getting a little nervous because this was supposed to be a 1 hour operation at the most and I would still need to drive 8 miles to get to the customer's house.
She ordered from one of these supermarkets that carry international stuff and of course she selected a bunch of obscure items. That takes a little longer
I wrap this up in an hour and 20 minutes and start the drive. I had to change out a bunch of products and she was immediate to respond. I drive the 8 Miles and pull up to this apartment complex when I noticed there's no apartment number or gate code. What's worse is she decided to vanish. I'm at the gate more than 10 minutes now and getting a little pissed.
Finally I follow someone in but I still can't go anywhere. I don't have a fucking apartment number .. total time of me waiting around now is a little over 20 minutes. The order stopped being worth it a long time ago but I also know this would be an immediate deactivation if I just left the s*** at the office.
She finally springs to life when I tell her I'm going to put it on the curb by the gate. That tells me she was there the whole time.
I get the apartment number and of course it's the third floor. I made four trips up and down the god-damned steps.
I close the order out and there's no tip.
Now, the close to 2 hours I spent on this wasn't really the problem. The 8 miles I drove also wasn't the problem. I expected not to have a gate code if this was an apartment but the fact they didn't leave an apartment number either was kind of a problem. Me waiting around for 20 minutes also wasn't what set me off.
This lady had the balls to complain about a bruise on one of the dozen apples I got her.
I absolutely lost my shit.
Some of you will no doubt criticize me because this is Reddit, but after everything I just said she wants to complain about a bruise on one of her apples? I just got done wasting 2 hours for this person and she didn't even leave one single cent for tip. It was all pay from Uber .
I obliterated her in response. I know it sounds like a small thing to get upset about, but c'mon. What I said to her is irrelevant, but it could absolutely 100% get you deactivated. There was plenty of swear words. This was a few days ago so it's pretty clear deactivation isn't going to happen. Some of the words used were idiot, trashcan,lazy, inconsiderate and dumbass . How they were used isn't important. I was a guy, at that moment, that absolutely didn't give a s*** what this person was saying. What's more, I cared even less what Uber would do.
I think if we ever get to that point it's probably time to do something else
It's not the million drivers on the road or the non-existent tips that are killing us. It's the restaurants never having anything ready when we get there and the GIG companies thinking they should get 75% of everything. It's also the people that have become super cheap in the last few years. Tips would be a small factor in our business if Uber didn't take the Lion's share of everything
I don't think this business model is sustainable any longer

Some background: a few years ago I had a tumor removed from my left breast. Which I feel like may be contributing to this. We just had babe 3 days ago. I pumped colostrum while pregnant and it got to the point I probably had about 16-18 oz of it stored. So when I gave birth I didn’t have any issues with producing. They were locked and loaded. My midwife helped me understand how to get babe latched and since then we have been set.
Issue: I woke up from a good sleep at about 2am today and I slept a bit longer than intended and my boobs were ROCK SOLID. I woke up just as my husband was feeding babe some stored colostrum. I took her from him and finished the feed on one of my boobs to help relieve it.
Anyways she only ate some on one breast and fell asleep. I’ve seen here before people recommend when your this stuffed up to pump until you get relief and store it. So that’s what I did and I made 1oz in 5 mins of pumping. Since this morning they are filling back up within like 30 mins to an hour. So I’ve been doing some cold compresses, took a warm shower and did gentle massage, and took an ibuprofen in case it was from swelling not milk. These are not helping the only thing that helps is pumping or feeding.
I pumped again for 5 mins a little later in the day because my boobs were so freaking sore. Now I’m noticing her preferred breast (my left one) is way more engorged than my right. I know when I got the tumor removed it left an empty cavity so I’m thinking this boob just lets down quicker and has more room for storage?
I have always fed her in this way: Feed1: start right finish left Feed2: start left finish right Repeat.
So I don’t know why else they would be uneven I think that is the pattern everyone recommends right? Either way I need help my left boob is sore without even interacting with it. When I fed babe an hour ago I’m pretty sure I almost drowned her with how much poured out.😭 💀
How do I make sure they stay remotely even? Should I keep pumping to relieve the pressure? Should I pump for less minutes on the left than the right? I always wanted a slight over supply so my husband can feed but I really don’t want to over produce to the point of constant pain from milk. I’m struggling to understand the balance.

We'd like to find others interested in meeting up for brief (<4 hour) get togethers at a regular day of the week and time to build together in creative mode.
What is it?

• A weekly get together where a small group of people can make a tiny build in their own style
• Most of the time a 'template' will be made before everyone arrives so when we don't know where to start, we have somewhere to start.

How long does it last?

• Each session will be < 3 hours for the main event
• Session can go longer if individual wish to, or want to keep working on their project

Is this a competition?

• Nah. People volunteering to share their builds with others is more than enough.
• All are welcome to 'team up' or 'help' with others if asked/accepted
• Some times we do group builds with multiple parts.

Will I get to keep what I make?

• 100% Every week we'll share a world download, or structure blocks at minimum.
• Creators have the ability to request their build be removed before the world download is shared.
  • This is asked before the wold download is shared.

When does it happen?

• Typically during the weekend (Saturday/Sunday)
• Typically between UTC +0 300 and 700
  • Time and day of the event is determined weekly by asking interested parties
  • There will be a 'count down timer' site so that all parties can easily convert to their local time zone

Can I steam/record/etc. this for my viewers/audience?

• No.
  • We're a tiny group, and if you're not getting enough affirmation from the group, let us know.

Do I have to be in voice with everyone?

• No.
  • Most communication for the event will be done in voice, so the ability to hear through Discord is greatly useful. Text accommodations for those who use screen readers will be made.

Are there ranks? Unlocks? Etc.

• Nope. This is very low key event. With the most basic of Discord. No additional bells or whistles.

Do/Would you use X mod/addon/plugin?

• Nada. We meet up and build in vanilla Minecraft creative mode
  • We'll change game rules based on the build or majority participant request
  • The data pack we use are created by us, not imported from anywhere else. They help us quickly set all game rules to the desired, as well

Do you have any anti-greifing measures?

• Yes /ban.
  • We're all adults. Rude/aggressive/invasive/inconsiderate/dismissive/etc individuals are swiftly dealt with and removed.
  • If individuals have a concern others may react negatively to something they'll say/do/or build. Ask, and let it be known before you do so. Again, adults, pretty straight forward how to not step on toes.

What's the application process look like?

• A few written questions to establish user name in Discord & Minecraft
• A build submission (We send you a world with a custom build, you build it, and send it back to us.)
• A brief voice interview (No voice required, it just saves us a lot of typing).

Thanks for readin' on through! If you'd like to join, comment down below, and we'll send a discord invite.
Other FAQ:
Why don't you let people stream/record/etc.?

• Multiple reasons:
  • We're here to enjoy and interact with each other in Minecraft, not perform for private audiences.
  • All skills and abilities are welcomed, even if they're super shy. Taking pictures/video of strangers to share with others is weird.
  • We respect the privacy of others. Questions are welcomed, responses are accepted as is. I.E. If a person doesn't want to share a personal detail, we don't press them on it. This also extends to the right of any user to delete their messages or images, we don't look down on that as Digital Footprints are a thing.

Do you allow players to PvP, or build thing to blow each other up?!

• PvP - Absolutely not.
• TNT - No? Though, if an build event was proposed to have each participants build explode in a creative way, that would be possible

Will/Are there any long-term builds?

• If a build really hits it off with party members, we may return to it.
• Typically we like to keep the builds small, as that prevents burn out and massive time constraints.

Are NSFW/18+ Material/Builds/etc. welcomed?

• No. Not in Discord, voice, text, game, etc. This is echoed in the earlier "if you're concerned something might not be accepted..." ask first.

I'm getting toward the bottom of my gigantic, overdo pile, so some of these may even be from within the last 30 days :)
u/t3ctim: Love my Australian dingo card related to my Golden Ratio offer :) That is a very cool picture! Smooches to Honey :)
u/which_flan_9504: TY for my very cool hand made stickered up postcard with the awesome stamps. I love your printing. So sorry to hear the message you sent-Let me reassure you that you ARE NOT ALONE, friend! You have a whole community standing behind you here, and a friend willing to listen in me! Sending you lots of positivity and good vibes!
u/vanish-inks: TY for my super cool Mr. Waffles TY p/c! I can just picture him taking his Baby Yoda everywhere! None of my dogs have been big on taking their toys with them, and I think that is so absolutely adorable! I lost my sweet pittie a couple of years ago, so the household is down to me and my cat at the moment. I've promised him no other interlopers, so no new pets are on the horizon. I do help a local dog rescue transport dogs between facilities though, so I get a little fix in that way!
u/rennbrig: TY for my very cool mystical forest, fairy tale-esque postcard! I love that style and that one in particular is beautiful!
u/cswl x2: I got a jam packed envelope from you last week-two awesome cards, plus some goodies! Your dream vacation sounds awesome! I was supposed to go on an Alaskan cruise a few years back, and we couldn't do it. We've just never gotten it together to make it happen!
u/Reasonabl_Ad1688: TY for my very cool postcard of the Albert in London! I loved reading about Powell's and in fact, they were one of the cards in my bookstore p/c set. IDK if I chose that one for you or not, but wouldn't that be funny if I had? I would love to visit there one day. I've been to the Strand in NYC which is also massive and that was pretty cool. Love the buy back feature too-sounds like a great place!
u/purpleroots: TY for my Franz Kline postcard from earlier this spring. Loved your pen drawings, and the cool effects you used on my name. It has inspired me to doodle more! I'm getting back into some artsy/crafty endeavors after not doing much on that front. I am dipping into watercolor and found postcard blanks in watercolor paper, so I hope to be able to send out something with them soon! Also, the postmark from Big Dog Race Station was so cool!
u/DianaPenPal: TY for my random mailing in mid April! I loved the pretty postcard, llama coloring piece and stickers you sent and decorated with! I have been saving the llama, and I'm glad I did. I just got watercolor pencils and I want to try them out on this cutie! TY for the rec on Britney's memoir. I too would have been unlikely to pick that one up, but maybe I will. I just finished Ella Minnow Pea yesterday. It was good, funny, creative, but also disturbing given the political times we are in. I recommend it !
u/annoyinglangers x2: TY for my two adorable Easter cards. My favorite was the pastel colored chicks popping out of eggs in a carton-SOOO cute :) All the envelope stickers were awesome and your personalized return address labels are always so cute-I love seeing them. Sending you lots of good vibes, my friend! I haven't sent out much lately, but I've been thinking of you and hoping all is well!
u/princecowboy: I cannot tell you how much I absolutely love this whole thing you sent me (geesh, maybe even in late 2023! So sorry I'm so late, especially for such a touching card!) I adore everything about it-Cowboy as royalty, his story, the story of Pups On Parole, your compassion for the inmate who worked with Cowboy, the 3D model of Cowboy (which sits on my desk so I can gaze upon his cute when writing or working upstairs!), and the gorgeous black and gold theme with the envelope. I miss my pit mix who's been gone almost 2 years every day, and my heart isn't healed enough to bring home another sweet dog yet, so everything about this just brought me a lot of joy and peace-this is one of the most special cards I've ever gotten here. TY to you and Cowboy, and please give him all my love!!
u/FollowingTheBeat: How did you know that I have an affinity for lightening bugs? I loved this sweet card from our own special baby raspberry :) I loved the heart and star doodles you added :)
u/thecaledonianrose: girrrrl-you send me so many awesome postcards! I am always behind just on your TY's alone :) This is for the "treasured romance" postcard of the watercolor style woman with a parasol and child in a wildflower field, from way back in April! So pretty-TY for always being a faithful postcard pal!!
u/onebadjoke: TY for my blue fish notecard! I haven't always lived here-I grew up in the midwest and lived in Philly for decades. When I wanted a bigger yard for my dog, I decided to look over here vs. the PA suburbs and the rest is history! I would love to explore your adopted country more; been there once and just loved it! I made it to the shore for a few day trips this spring. I'm hoping to stay for awhile in the early fall! I leave the busy summer days to the hard core beach crowds, LOL!
u/mallorn_hugger: OMG!! I think you win the (unfortunate) award of absolutely latest TY!! I believe this letter from you is from LAST SPRING :( when I made a strawberry themed offer! I LOVED your strawberry cake stationery from S. Korea and all the beautiful strawberry stickers you used and sent me. I love all the cool, quirky, unusual stationery items found throughout Asia. I have cousins in Japan and a friend who periodically travels to Hong Kong and they bring me fun stuff like sometimes. I really loved this, and I feel terrible that I forgot your TY for so long!

Perfect social media trading platform for especially suitable for beginners, but also professionals. Trade yourself or copy successful traders. Highly recommend!!
Use the following link please: https://etoro.tw/447TrjE
Terms and Conditions:
eToro (Europe) Ltd. Refer a Friend Terms & Conditions (the “Terms”)
Any friend of yours is a friend of ours. eToro (Europe) Ltd. (“eToro” or “We”) will credit your account (the “Referrer”) whenever the below qualifying terms have been met, with the following:
For Referring friends who are residents of the following countries: France, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Ireland, Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Bulgaria and Slovakia:
Referring Friend’s Status\*
📷
Award
📷
Bronze - Italy
US$30
Bronze - France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Ireland, Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Bulgaria and Slovakia
US$50
Silver, Gold, and Platinum tier members
US$200
Platinum+, Diamond tier members
US$500
*Status as of the day the qualifying terms have been met.
For Referring friends who are Popular Investors** and residents of the following countries: France, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Ireland, Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Bulgaria and Slovakia: US$200.
** Referring friends who are Popular Investors as well as eToro Club members shall be eligible for an Award solely based on their Popular Investor Status.
As used herein, “Status” refers to a Referrer’s eToro Club status and/or Popular Investor status.
The rewards to the referring friend shall be defined herein as “Rewards”.
The “Refer a Friend” promotion is available to residents in the following countries: France, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Ireland, Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Bulgaria and Slovakia (the “Territory”)
The Rewards will be credited to only the referring friend’s account within seven (7) days after the qualifying terms have been met.
The "Refer a Friend" promotion, is subject to the following qualifying terms:

1. As the Referring friend you are required to meet all the following terms:
2. Click the “Refer a Friend” link (for clarity, without using your unique URL link, you will not qualify for this promotion);
3. A fully verified account holder of eToro Trading Platform;
4. Registered as a client of eToro (Europe) Ltd.;
5. A resident in one of the countries within the Territory;
6. Completed a first time deposit of at least $100 USD to his/her eToro Trading Account;
7. Opened one or more trades of at least $100 USD in total; and
8. The applicable qualifying terms with respect to each of the referring friend and the referred friend as set forth in these Terms have been met.
9. The “Referred Friend” is required to meet all the following terms:
   1. A resident in one of the countries within the Territory;
   2. A new eToro (Europe) Ltd. customer who has not registered with one of the websites or mobile apps of eToro or any of its affiliates, prior to the referral;
   3. Who has completed his/her registration with eToro;
   4. Who has completed his/her account verification pursuant to eToro policies and procedures;
   5. Registered as a client of eToro (Europe) Ltd.; and
   6. Who has within 90 days from the date completed his/her registration with eToro to:
      1. Complete a first time deposit of at least $100 USD and;
      2. Opened one or more trades of at least $100 USD in total
10. Customers of other eToro affiliates (i.e., any other eToro entity which is not eToro (Europe) Ltd.), shall not be entitled to participate in this specific promotion, either as a Referring friend or as a referred friend.
11. The Reward under this Promotion is available to the referring friend up to ten times. In each case, the limitation shall apply per account, person, means of payment, household and/or any environment where computers are shared. Users participating who have more than one trading account will be eligible for one Reward only. Users opening or operating multiple accounts to benefit from the promotion will not be entitled to receive any benefit/reward under the promotion. For the purpose hereof, eToro may determine, in its sole discretion, that several accounts maintained under the same household/control/ownership shall be considered as a single account.
12. The Reward amount is withdrawable in accordance with, and subject to provisions of eToro terms and conditions which apply to Users of the eToro Platform generally, including Promotion participants (and can be found here). The Rewards are intended to be utilized on the eToro Trading Platform. By participating in the “Refer a Friend” promotion, the Referring a friend is agreeing that when granted with a Reward, he/she will not attempt to withdraw amounts attributable to the Reward during the first 30 days from the date the Reward was funded to the Referring a friend’s account.
13. The Referring friend is solely responsible for all applicable taxes related to accepting the Reward. eToro shall make deductions from any Rewards’ amounts granted pursuant to this Promotion, to the extent required under any applicable law.
14. eToro may, in its sole discretion, alter, limit, or modify these Terms, the rewards, at any time in its sole discretion, with or without prior notice. We reserve the right to terminate, shorten, stop, deny, withhold or withdraw the “Refer a Friend” promotion, or any promotion at our sole discretion at any time.
15. If we suspect that a user (whether alone or with others) has manipulated or abused (or attempted to do so) a promotion and/or Rewards and/or otherwise acted in bad faith towards eToro, then, we reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to take the following actions with respect to any such user and/or to any person we consider is acting in concert with such user:
16. Temporarily or permanently block, suspend or terminate the services in the eToro Trading Platform to such user in the or any portion thereof and close the related eToro Trading Platform’s account, and/or
17. Remove and/or deduct any Reward which might have been granted to such user (taking into account any loss sustained which will be fully recognized); and/or
18. Remove and/or deduct any profits gained by such user as a result of such manipulation or abuse, including by closing any open positions in the applicable account(s), and/or
19. Deny, withhold or withdraw from that user such promotion and any future promotion.
20. For the avoidance of doubt, in such circumstances, Rewards or any other bonus granted to such user and any profit or gains obtained by such user may be withheld, while any loss suffered by such user will be recognized and sustained. In addition, if any participant is attempting to compromise the integrity or the legitimate operation of the “Refer a Friend” promotion or by cheating or committing fraud or manipulation in any

way, including by providing false details or by false registration, eToro may seek damages from such participant to the fullest extent permitted by law. Further, eToro may refrain from granting rewards and/or deduct any such amounts that were given to such participants under the “Refer a Friend” promotion and/or ban it from participating in any of eToro’s future promotions.

1. In any case of contradiction between these Terms and any publication circulated via an email or push notification sent by eToro or by any such other communication elected by eToro in connection with this promotion, these Terms shall prevail unless specifically stated otherwise within such promotion publications.
2. The "Refer a Friend" promotion is not valid in conjunction with any other promotions, discounts or promo codes, unless otherwise stated.
3. The Promotion is provided by eToro (Europe) Limited, a Cyprus limited liability company authorized and regulated by the Cyprus Securities Exchange Commission with reference number 109/10. The Promotion will be governed by the laws of Cyprus. For any questions you may have, you may communicate with us via our Customer Service Center at https://www.etoro.com/customer-service/. We reserve the right to amend, retract and/or cancel any and all Promotions at any time.

So, a week ago today I came back from a 10 day vacation with my long distance girlfriend. We hadn't seen each other or had sex in about 4 months, so naturally we were going at it quite a lot, all unprotected (she uses NuvaRing). My GF has genital HSV-1, but she was infected almost 3 years ago and she takes viral suppression drugs whenever we're going to be together. She hasn't had any outbreaks besides her first one.
My only symptoms right now are an occasional, very slight but noticeable burning sensation during and after urination, and an occasional very slight itching of the urethra near the head of my penis, which I can only relieve by squeezing just below the head of my dick. Occasionally, some watery discharge that looks and feels like precum. I also had a random sore throat starting the day before I left to go home, which lasted for 3 or 4 days, but it wasn't scratchy or painful except for when swallowing, and my lymph nodes weren't swollen.
It's worth mentioning that I tested positive for chlamydia once a long time ago, in December 2020. I did the whole treatment regimen and tested again 9-10 days later, came back negative. Given my previous experience with chlamydia and the slight chance of exposure, I'm feeling a tad paranoid. What could be causing this? Possible non-STI bacterial infection from all the unprotected sex? Not always urinating after ejaculations? Using lubricant that's 3 years old? Non-specific urethritis from oral sex? My GF and I have been each other's only sexual partners for at least 11-12 months.

After a very long and tedious year of buying our first home we moved in a little less than 3 weeks ago and we’ve been disappointed by bad neighbours.
We noticed this within the first 5 minutes of walking into the house, loud banging, screaming children etc. the lady who sold us the house had left her number and a few gifts for us and we decided to message her and thank her. Her and my partner were talking over text for quite some time just about the house and helping us with a few things and he decided to ask if she had any issues with the neighbours and at first she said no but went on to list all the issues she had in the next 5 messages.
The messages went along the lines of ‘the kid is the boss of the house’ and ‘I ended up moving my TV and chair into the attic room to avoid the noise’. This really bothered us as we felt it was something that should have been mentioned during the sale.
The house we have purchased is quite large and so is the attached house so we expected a family and a little noise however we are just a couple who purchased this house to use the two spare rooms as offices as we both work from home / hybrid. I respect that a home is not a work space and we do not expect them not to live their life around us but we absolutely would not have purchased if we had known the noise would be this bad.
We’ve been woken up at 6am everyday since moving in and around 4 days ago I woke up to the noise and decided to go over and address it. He was slightly defensive but not too unreasonable and he said he’d try and solve it. That night it was possible the worst out of all the days and my partner decided to go over and address it again as it almost felt like he was retaliating to our complaints. I didn’t go over however there was a lot of slamming and my partner came back to tell me our neighbour was getting really angry and told him he used to ‘bash heads in for a living’.
We contemplated filing a non emergency police report to cover our own backs but after being on hold for 30 minutes decided not too. My neighbour came over yesterday whilst my partner was out to apologise and say how embarrassed he was about how he acted and that he also had issues with her being quite loud, but when I asked him if he had any problems with us being overly loud his wife responded saying we hear foot steps but only every so often. Anyway, he left his number and told us to text him if it becomes too much, but the issue we have is that it is almost constant banging or screaming so it’s always ‘too much’.
I have absolutely no doubts that when we viewed the house she had an agreement with the neighbours for them to leave for the day. We were in the property for close to an hour and didn’t hear one bang.
We have proof that she had issues with the neighbours and we have considered taking legal action as were under the impression she should have made us aware of any disputes or noise concerns with neighbours but we also don’t want to cause any further stress for her. Is there any advise for this situation?

So I'm not a professional game critic, but I am a person with thoughts after spending the weekend taking advantage of the opportunity to play TopSpin for free on the XBOX Series S, and Reddit seems like a pretty appropriate place to verbalise them.
Note: I haven't interacted with the online game modes, so all of my thoughts and opinions are based around my experience with the offline career mode. Full 3-set matches.
Gameplay
Truthfully, I'm hooked. The controls were never going to be too complex given the nature of the game, but the pick-up-and-play factor is off the charts for me right now. As I stated before, I'm currently playing through a career mode based around full-length matches and I've found myself enjoyably playing through matches that are at least 30-40 minutes long. The timing system is one that's easily learnt and mastered, but equally as easy to get wrong should you lose focus. Truthfully, that feels like the core mechanics of actual tennis to me. It's made for equally enjoyable and frustrating rallies and experiences, and they generally fall on the favourable side.
The serving mechanic is a little more complex, it's hard for my tiny little brain to negotiate using both thumbsticks simultaneously in an effective way, but serving at full power into my opponents forehand seems to work pretty effectively without ever really having a chance of an ace, which I'm fine with at this early stage.
I have occasionally noticed a few things that seem to be more glitches within the gameplay as opposed to user error such as second serves being much more effective against me than I'd like, and my player occasionally leaving a ball that I definitely deem to be reachable, but those moments happen so few and far between that they're more something that I would hope to be cleaned up in future patches than I would think of as gamebreaking glitches.
Overall, I'm a big fan of the gameplay TopSpin has to offer, and I do think it's far better than anything we've gotten in a tennis game for a long, long time.
Graphics
This is a bit of a weird one. Some of the players in the game are perfect lifelike representations of themselves, and then you have Alcaraz who looks like he had his character model designed by the latest intern 2K decided to take on. It really makes no sense to me that there's such a disparity.
Also, some of the characters (both licenced and unlicenced) look a little too cartoony for my liking. Some of them have really exaggerated features, and some others look like they belong in the best-looking video game you've ever seen.
Outside of the players, everything else looks gorgeous. The courts, the tournament-specific graphics - all of it. Overall it makes for a mixed bag, but if I told you TopSpin looked like a bad game, I'd probably be lying.
Career Mode
So this is my space to talk about the content within Career Mode itself, because coming from a guy who's been playing sports games since before online competitive gaming was really a common thing, single player modes are my favourite way to spend most of my time.
Truthfully, I've again been impressed with the content in TopSpin's CM. The schedule feels fleshed out with a mix of licenced and unlicenced tournaments every month, there's seasonal rankings that show the best players on each individual surface throughout a season, and the minigames/challenges method of gaining XP & VC is a nice touch that just has you spending even more time playing the game.
Speaking of XP, player progression is something that I've found to be extremely positive. Having started on Hard difficulty, I'm already almost a LVL 6 player having just completed my fourth tournament, which was also my first tournament won. There's a boost available for purchase if you want to get to LVL 10 instantly, but I thought I'd see how the grind was and I've been pleasantly surprised. You can earn points to purchase XP boosts without spending real money, and even on Hard difficulty I've found that I can at least be competitive if not always 100% successful against the AI at the lower end of the rankings. I know my opinion might change once I find out how difficult it is against the very top players or how much is required to gain levels the more I progress, but as for right now I'm happy with the speed of the grind.
I like that they included Coaches to the mode as a nice little realism touch, and they do give some nice boosts - but I do wish the experience was a little more fleshed out. I wish there was a cutscene or two of my player with their coach during training, and even during matches, maybe some sort of communication between us that felt semi-realistic. It all just feels very meh, and that's a bit of a shame. Still though, it's not entirely awful either.
From a purely aesthetic POV, it's nice that you can customise almost everything about the way your players look is put together, from racquet to kitbag, and there's a plethora of options available in every area. That was always going to be the case, but with 2K being such a global brand that have the finances to secure the necessary major licences, the options are there and they're appreciated.
Overall, if you like tennis then I think you'll enjoy TopSpin's Career Mode offering. I can eventually see the limited selection of real-world players and cycle of tournaments becoming repetitive once you become an established player at the top for a number of seasons, but that seems so far away at the moment that I only really have minor negative comments to make about my experience to date.
Microtransactions
It's a 2K game, of course there's a section about mictrotransactions. But the truth is, I don't think they're too bad in this particular game. Of course the option is there to spend money on XP boosts if you're not willing to level up with hard work, and you can have every cosmetic item in the game if your heart really desired it - but they all feel like nice optional extras.
I did pay the £8.99 for this Premium version of the Pro Pass, but beyond that I haven't felt compelled to spend anything else. There's a plethora of items available in the pass, you get in-game currency to spend on cosmetics just by playing the game and there's even a few unlockables within career mode itself completely for free.
Now, whether or not a fair and balanced system between money spent and being free-to-play means that 2K continue to invest time and effort into something that doesn't make them as much money as something else remains to be seen, but as the player base I feel like we don't really have much to complain about.
Roster
This was probably my biggest concern going into the game, and honestly it is disappointing. I completely understand the cost of licencing and image rights is a huge factor in why there isn't a roster of hundreds, but it's still underwhelming to enter the player selection screen and see so few options. I feel like even if they'd licenced ten or so lower-ranked players from each of the tours, it would have made such a huge difference in both single-player and career mode.
I believe I have seen rumours of players being added into the future and it is exciting to think that could be the case, but as it stands right now I wish they'd done slightly better off the jump. Moreso, I don't think I've seen any of the legends in the game included in the career mode a bit like Fight Night used to do with their game way back when, and even that would've been a nice touch to keep things feeling fresher than I fear they're going to.
Game Modes
Another slight negative in my opinion. Discounting the training centre, you pretty much have 3 options: Career Mode, Online & Single Player. I personally can't see me playing single player outside of career mode unless it's with a friend, and even then it's a bit of a long game to jump in and play for a bit of fun.
My biggest wish for a game like this would be some kind of Ultimate Team mode, which I think could easily be implemented given the amount of team-based tournaments that exist within the world of tennis. I think that would be the absolute best way of making the game enjoyable long-term, and also probably the best way for 2K to make money from their product. Imagine adding a card with Swiatek's signature or a dynamic of McEnroe's famous outburst to your collection, the possibilities are plentiful. Seems like a missed opportunity.
Failing that, I would enjoy some kind of offline minigames that you could play instead of full-length matches against a friend. Just a quick, fun, pick-up-and-play option.
The options are there for those who enjoy online play or trying to become the best in the world in a single-player career, but they can and probably should have gone much harder with the variety of options they made available.
UI
A mix of aesthetics and importance in terms of being easy to navigate, I had to give a mention to 2K for how the in-game menu is designed. There are a lot of different game areas, and the tiles are all laid out in a way that looks fantastic while also making the menus very easy to move around.
Also, the soundtrack is great. It's made up entirely of up-tempo, high energy music that fits the tennis theme incredibly well. Whoever was in charge of this stuff did an absolutely incredible job.
Summary
Overall, I've been pleasantly surprised by my TopSpin experience this weekend. I know you shouldn't ever take anything you read on here as Gospel, but having seen such negativity surrounding the game I really didn't go into the game with any expectations.
Having played for a few days, I highly recommend it to anybody who likes tennis and wants a video game to pick up and play for a little bit whenever they feel the urge. I'm looking forward to playing online a little at some point, and I'll probably be on the virtual tennis courts for at least the next couple of weeks having purchased the full copy.
Now after spending the last hour of my life writing up this review, I have an itch that only dominating the Occitania Open can scratch.
Yours, the 2024 Turtle City Cup champion.

This subreddit really helped me prepare for this exam, so I thought I'd try to help out others here.
The first word of advice I have is to learn from a textbook and not so much Modernstates. I thought the lectures barely scratched the surface of what needed to be conveyed, and the textbook wasn't great either. I used the textbook: Precalculus: Mathematics for Calculus by Stewart, Redlin, and Watson. This textbook is great because it makes itself easy to understand, has a LOT of practice problems for every lesson, and has chapter tests at the end so you can test your knowledge. My only real complaint about the book is that it doesn't tell you when you should or should not use the calculator, so I wasted time on problems I should have punched into my calculator and done in 30 seconds. I paired this textbook with the Khan Academy course, and I feel like the Khan Academy structured some topics differently, which helped me deepen my understanding of the material. However, you SHOULD NOT USE EXCLUSIVELY KHAN ACADEMY to get a full treatment of precalculus. The trig unit on their Precalc course is incoherent if you haven't already learned trig. You have to use their separate trig course, which still doesn't cover what it should in enough detail to get a full treatment of the subject.
With that said, definitely do the Modernstates questions after you have learned the material. I don't recommend doing the questions while learning because the questions can be out of order. For example, it asked trig identity questions before any were introduced. Other than things like that, I thought there were a lot of genuinely challenging questions on the Modernstates, and they forced me to fill some practical gaps from my Algebra 2 class. They are also identical to the Collegeboard exam guide questions, so there's no reason to buy that (don't make the same mistake my dumbass did).
In the few days leading up to the exam, I used the Math Quantum playlist of 65 review videos to ensure I hadn't lost anything. While these 65 questions are repeated from Modernstates, the guy doing the videos solved many of the problems differently than I did. Seeing these different methods helped me to understand the few questions I couldn't when I was on my own.
I also used the Peterson's CLEP review exams to help me prep. They were okay at best. The exams were filled with actual errors (The solution solved something that was not the question, or the answer it reaches is incorrect and very easy to prove so with something like desmos). I scored 80-90% on these tests after correcting for such errors. Apart from that, there was one type of trig question it asked that was a word problem, but it was written such that it was impossible to accurately draw the diagram to answer the question correctly (due to grammar mistakes). It is, according to others, the most challenging review out there (go figure when there are so many mistakes), and there are many challenging questions on it. I would say if there's another resource with fewer obvious mistakes, you should probably go for those. If you must have the hardest problems, it's fine, but you have been warned.
I aimed to answer every question in around a minute on my first go around of each section during prep exams, so I would have plenty of time to work on the questions I needed to return to. Be sure you can do almost every question without a graphing calculator. This will make questions so much easier and force you to understand the properties of everything in your review, so you won't have to stress out as much and lose time computing things you don't NEED to.
Finally, I'd like to recommend a YouTube channel that helped me out a lot when preparing for this test: The Math Sorcerer. This guy is a math professor who has many videos teaching precalc topics (as well as full lectures on the Calc series, differential equations, and other videos teaching topics from Prealgebra to Abstract Algebra and Complex Analysis). He teaches very well and I can't recommend his channel enough. Additionally, if that textbook isn't to your liking, he has at least a dozen videos reviewing and recommending different precalc textbooks, so there will be something for you there. I hope this can be of help to anyone looking to pass their Precalc CLEP. Seriously, if you've already got College Algebra/Algebra 2 down, you can get through all this stuff in just a few weeks (It took me 3 weeks to prep for this test). It may seem like a lot, but with some dedicated practice every day, you will pass with flying colors.

Kind of a long post, sorry. TLDR; dm let's girlfriend be the BBEG and make all decisions about the game. Special cameo from alien Cyborg furry chimera from the future.
I just joined a group a couple weeks ago and have been meaning to make a post about it in RPG Horror stories, but here goes:
DM posts online looking for players. I haven't played or DMed in about a year and am desperate for a game, so I sign up. There's a few questions for me that I answer (standard stuff, how long have you been playing, what kind of character are you thinking about, are you OK with no evil characters, etc.) I answer them, but as someone who has DMed for a decade I have questions of my own.
How long have they been DMing? About a year. This is their second game and it started about 2 months before I joined.
How many players? They're trying to set the foundation for a living world where other people will be able to dm in the setting, so they currently have 20+ players but only about 6 or 7 show up for a given session. They run 3 days a week so if you can't make it, no problem. Everyone just uses their Discord names rather than real names.
Any homebrew or house rule changes to 5e I should know about? Yes, a few of them.
As they start to go into them I realize this is not going to be a great game, but I don't really care that much. Im just here to play, im not super invested. They tell me to start at level 2 with 150 gold. Okay, cool. Use DnD beyond for sheets. Sure. Roll for stats, cool. End up rolling really well, 17, 14, 17, 17, 13, 17. Dm watches me roll and is amazed. Put the 14 in Wis and 13 in int.
If an attack meets a creature's AC exactly, roll to dodge. Whatever, lots of newer DMs do this.
There are apparently glowing scrolls in the world that allow you to INSTANTLY level up, no matter how much xp you have. Red flag.
The campaign is going to Level 100, switching from Xp to milestone after level 20. Huge red flag. Pause. I ask how that's going to work. What features do you get at level 21 of fighter? 22? 47? They say they're going to be pushing for multiclassing at Higher Levels or using not class feature rewards for higher levels, so I'm assuming things like feats and epic boons. Still very weird though.
Everyone can suggest custom Race for their character and the DM will discuss with another person about it to see if they believe it fits the world (this other person helped design the setting). Okay, great! I've been wanting to play a sentient undead character for a while, we'll circle back to it.
Same as above, you can create a custom item for your character to start with. Cool. I ended up asking for a Greataxe with the finesse property and was granted it. Sweet. Barbarian/rogue, here I come.
There is a homebrew banking system in place, and in order to "encourage" players to use it, you cannot carry more than 2,000 gold on your person at once because "it is too heavy". Strength of 8? 2000 gold. Strength of 24 when the barbarian hits level 20? 2000 gold. But that's fine, my character is a vagrant who doesn't use money and scavenges for everything he needs, and carries everything he owns on his person in a torn up duffel bag.
There's some custom items that can be bought so I spend my starting 150 gold (with dm permission) to get one of them, which is a special gemstone. It says "gives advantage on perception, Stealth, medicine, and Insight checks. Allows for 2 points of advantage on listed checks". Fuck yes, barbarian rogue who rolls 3 times and takes the best on Stealth, Perception, and Insight? I'm set.
Now for my custom Race. I want to play a leng ghoul from the Sandy Petersen Cthulhu Mythos book. I know they're a little overpowered, so I even volunteer to lose the ability to gain Skill bonuses and to lose the claw attacks. DM tells me no, I'll need to pick a different race. Okay, that's fine. I knew it was a long shot. I decide to just be a half orc and ask "out of curiosity, was there something specific that was too OP?" "No, we just felt that the race didn't fit the world. Nothing wrong mechanically" fair enough I guess.
First session:
My character is introduced alongside another new player. They are a paladin. We decide we've been traveling together for a while after Paladin helped get my character out of a bad spot a while ago.
Every player gets a bag of holding my first session in. But wait, a bag of holding makes items within weightless. Can't I just put gold inside the bag of holding? No, you can't put money inside these bags of holding. Other ones you can, but not the free ones we're given. Whatever. Vagrant. Don't care.
We exit the tavern we were in after some fun RP. group is very friendly and fun, and they seem to gel really well together. As we are leaving, we notice something strange glowing on a nearby tree. "K <3 M" is written in glowing script. The other players have been playing for a few sessions so I'm thinking this is probably something important with some NPCs they met previously, so Paladin and I don't have any idea what it could mean. Other players talk it over for a while, and the DM just keeps repeating "think deeper about it" and "you're not thinking realistically. Think realistically". Literally says those phrases like 5 or 6 times each. Nearly 20 minutes of players trying to figure it out and the DM giving us nothing and it changes to be full names rather than initials.
One of the players finally puts it together. This is the DM announcing they started dating someone IRL. I get pretty pissed off at this point, saying I think it's pretty irrelevant to do this. The DM says "sometimes a literal irrelevance is needed". I respond "Yeah, I agree. But this is the first session for 2 new players and you decided to spend a third of it so far on a dating announcement. Like. Congrats dude, but I really don't care about your love life. I'm here to play Dnd, not make random guesses about your love life." Other players agree and are also angry, so i feel a little more justified. Again, we all use discord names, so most of us didn't even recognize the DM's name.
After a while DM has to take a break for 10-15 minutes and leaves us for a bit. Here's where things go incredible. Most groups I've been in, if left alone for 15 minutes, will either just go to the bathroom or check social media or whatever. But this group instantly falls into very natural and authentic role play, asking the new players what their characters have done up to this point, offering to help them learn about the new land we've found ourselves in, talking about wanting to teach my character how to make some nice stews out of foraged foods and rabbit or squirrel. Genuinely some of the best role-playing I've ever been part of.
DM comes back while we're talking about rabbit stew. Instantly cuts us off, says there's no rabbits, and jumps into whatever they were saying. I would KILL for a group that role plays that freely as a DM, and this one is actively squashing it.
DM decides we're going to another town. We get there and are asked to help with defending the city while they rebuild after a raid. Cool. Nothing happens though. We spend the day sitting at guard stations waiting for raiders to return and nothing ever shows up to the town. They thank us and send us on our way with some gold (I give mine to paladin).
DM decides we are returning to the first city. We have discovered that there was a lot of corruption there (the other party members in previous sessions). So we're coming up with a plan to take the city back from the organized crime ring that is running the place. We get to the town and apparently one of the other players is a VERY influential person in the world because they were able to call in an airship of dozens of fighters for backup with this operation.
At some point during this, I I asked to make one of the relevant checks for the item I bought and so I roll with advantage. DM asks why I rolled 2d20s. I say "the item I bought gives advantage." The DM responds Yeah, advantage means +1 to the roll". I say no, advantage means you roll twice and take the better result, or it gives +5 if using the optional method. DM responds that "the double advantage means you get +2 to those checks. You don't get to roll more than once". So I tell them okay, but that they should really change the wording to just say it grants +2 because that is not what advantage means in 5e. They say that they know what it means so it doesn't matter.
Another player that is a rogue had a plan to use his extensive connections to trace the crime ring and find exactly how expansive it was so we can be sure to snuff it all out. DM just brushes over it and ignores the idea. Instead, we head directly to a front owned by the ring.
We show up to what is apparently the head of the crime syndicates' place of business and are prepared to fight. The DM "rolls to see how hard the fight will be" and gets a natural 1. The DM then narrates the player that found the place easily defeating the boss and the rest of us cleaning up the henchman. I once again was pretty upset. "So you just roll a single d20 and that means we don't get to do anything?"
"Yeah, they just were so confident that no one would ever stand up to them that they stood no chance. They didn't even have weapons or anything"
"An organized crime syndicate that has been running a city through force for years had 0 plans for if anyone ever tried to stop them, to the point none of them had weapons?"
"Yeah, that's just the way the dice roll sometimes". "You probably shouldn't be letting major plot points and large battles be determined by a single d20 roll that the players have no influence in." "Sorry, it's just the way things go sometimes." "Yeah but it shouldn't. The outcome of a major plot centric fight should be based on how well the party prepares and uses their resources, not by the DM before it even starts."
End of session 1. I message paladin and he agrees this was really bad but that he's gonna give it some time. I say the Same.
I find out between sessions that the DM has not read ANY of the books and learned how to play exclusively from the DnD beyond character sheet and watching live play YouTube videos (critical roll and dimension 20), and in fact they do not know how to read and have been teaching themselves. Yes, the DM never learned how to read as a child.
Session 2 is going to be much less in depth because literally nothing happens that any of the players have a say in.
Dm decides we're all going to the bank so my character can set up a bank account. "DM, my characterlives a nomadic lifestyle scrounging for scraps. Why would I go to a bank?" "To set up a bank account of course!" "Right. And I have 0 gold. So there's no money for me to put in a bank." "Well you might in the future, so you should set one up now!" "My character has already refused payment and charity twice in this game though. I doubt he's ever going to have any amount of money on him. He is a rogue though, so I guess he can find SOMETHING to do in a bank." DM quickly decides that there is zero reason my character would want to be in a bank and has the party leave.
We try to get horses from a stable so we can travel between towns faster (since the DM keeps deciding we're all leaving town multiple times per session) we are seeing if there are any horses that are trained to not flee from combat, like a warhorse. The DM says "No, you'll have to find a war horse out in the wild. Stables aren't going to have them." I'm a little confused as to why combat trained horses would just be out in the wild, so I ask about it. "The war horses are bright red and have manes of fire" "That's not a warhorse, that's the fucking Horse of War from the apocalypse" "Yeah, it's just a fun little reference" "So we can't have Combat trained horses because of Red Dead Redemtion and the Bible?" "Yeah, that's what the War Horse is" "So like, there's no militaries or militias in the country that ride horses then?"
Dm changes the subject. We're leaving town again!
We get to a new town and the place is being ransacked. We are hiding over a hill and watching the raid happen to try to get a good understanding of the situation when the BBEG appears. We know this because the DM says "and then, the BBEG appears. This is the BBEG for the campaign right here. She's very powerful, you do not wanna mess with her."
After the introduction, DM hands the game over to his girlfriend that he announced in the previous session, revealing she is playing the BBEG (she is also a player in the party, mind you) and is the person that helped design the setting, so is sort of co-DMing.
The BBEG starts talking to us. One of the players says "she's in the middle of town and we're outside the town on the other side of the hill, how does she even know we're here?"
"Great question. My love?" "OH, I can just see you guys." "There you go, she can see you"
"I had a 29 for my Stealth check" "I still see you" "Cool."
So the BBEG(big bad evil girlfriend) monologs about how powerful she is and how we are powerless to stop her and the DM asks if we want to stay and try to save the town or run away. I say "look, guys, I think we can take her". I've got 10 years experience DMing and more playing, and the DM obviously is not aware of how the game works. I am fully confident I can outmaneuver this enemy. Other players agreed they wanted to try to defend the townspeople.
"She's the maximum level"
"Yeah, but this is 5e. I'm level 2, I can probably take her. The difference in numbers between level 1 and 20 is like +10 at the max."
Another player interjects here. "You're level 2???? I'm level 8" "What?" Another player "Yeah I think 7 is the lowest level of any party memebers" "Oh, cool. I was told you were level 2 by the DM last week."
DM: no, I'm pretty sure I said to make yourself level 6 or 7. "Check our messages, it's like the first thing you told me. Dm: huh yeah, I did say level 2. Oops. Level yourself up to level 3 then."
We still want to try to save the Townspeople, maybe we can avoid her specifically or someone xan keep her busy long enough to help people.
Girlfriend declares she summons 150,000 troops to the city.
The DM narrates how we all run for our lives because we have no chance of beating her as BBEG calls in an army of thousands of soldiers who wear armor that resembles one of the other party members.
Now is a good time for me to say that I am absolutely not having a good time in this campaign, but that the other players make it more than worth it to deal with the DM.
Remember how my sentient ghoul was deemed "not fitting" for the setting? The other player asks "they look like me? Do they have the autobot or decepticon emblem?"
Record scratch. "Sorry, wait. Are you a transformer? I thought you were a bugbear." "No, I'm a half bear, half bat from the future that can transform into a robot because I'm partly cybernetic." "Okay. So ghoul that is intelligent is too far fetched for this world, but alien Cyborg furry chimera from the future is perfectly fitting. Gotcha."
The DM narrates us running away and going to the next town, where the invasion BBEG called is also happening. They narrate a girl being kidnapped and the party says that she is the love interest of another player who is not at the session, and the group agrees they want to try to free her bc party member would be upset if we let her get taken without even trying to save her. I agree and charge in.
"They're so far away, you wouldn't be able to reach them in time. You'd have to be able to move 45 feet at least."
"I'm a rogue. Move speed 30, cunning action dash 30, action dash 30. That's 90 feet. I can cover the distance there and back."
"Well. There's guards between you and her" "I'll take my chances. I've got a pretty good AC, with your roll to dodge mechanic AND uncanny dodge. I'm willing to risk it to save her"
"There's also 40 guards surrounding her" "They're have 40 guards escorting this 1 random girl? Is she like a princess?" "No, they just really want her kidnapped" "Okay, I guess I'll try to push through them."
The girlfriend interjects. "The BBEG teleports in. She laughs a wicked laugh about how futile your attempts are, and then teleports the girl away".
Oh. Cool. Great. Excellent.
Session ends. Another player messages asking what they missed this session. I respond "nothing that any player had any say in".
2 sessions in. 10 hours of "game play". 0 combats. 0 skill checks that weren't instantly nullified by an NPC immediately anyway (i didnt bother mentioning it, but i have rolled 3 total skill checks, all stealth, and all 3 i was spotted anyway despite getting 23+). 0 decisions made by any player. The DM just tells the party where they are going, asks what they want to do, and then makes an excuse to not let that happen and tells them what they actually do instead.
I would say the DM should write a book, but they can't read.

I have a tenant with no lease in VA who has been given 30-day notice to vacate which expires July 1st, after which I can start formal unlawful detainer proceedings.
Said Tenant has changed the locks to a shared living space which I need access to so I can remove a basement stove, which is against county code, and so I can show another prospective tenant the area. Is it legal for me to change the locks after giving 24 hour notice? I would only be changing the locks to the shared living space, not his personal room. Can I remove the door the shared living space so he can't do this again? This is a major headache.