I'm from Germany and use PayPal for most online transactions. I also have a Girocard. Is there any way for me to subscribe to a substar account?
I have no clue how Credit Cards work or how to get them. Neither do I really trust them. Don't know what exactly the difference for a debit card is either or which ones work and if they cost money to use then they're not an option to begin with.

Had a message to say I am expected to attend a compliance interview tomorrow, and needless to say, I am bricking it, and my anxiety is making me spiral to the worst case scenario.
In the message it says: "We have information to suggest that you and/or your partner have capital, or, have had capital during your claim over the limit of £6000".
Truth is that I do have an ISA that I opened in 2018. I began claiming with my partner in 2020, and thought I had declared this when applying. The maximum amount that was in there was around £6300, and I very recently withdrew £1000 to put in my current account to pay off some personal debts.
Just hoping that someone else has been in this situation or heard of someone who has, and can reassure me that I'm not going to prison for fraud. I'm happy to pay back any money we have been overpaid, but as I said, I'm getting myself so worked up that I wouldn't be surprised if a panic attack is on the cards this afternoon.
Thanks in advance for any advise. And thanks for taking time to read my venting.

Hello, I was looking for advice on what to do. I have a call into my doctor but it’s a little time sensitive. I started this medication back in March and it’s truly been incredible. I’m down over 25 lbs.
I have been titrating up every month but I decided to stay on 7.5 for another month. My doctor was fine with that and sent in the rx to my local Walmart where it sat for a couple days. I called and they said they haven’t been getting much in stock but I would be first in line. I decided to call some other pharmacies and my 3rd call, I found it!
I was on my way to pick it up and the pharmacist called and said my insurance declined it. I called my insurance, they said I needed another PA for a 2nd fill of 7.5. I was wondering if I should use my savings card and just buy the 7.5 without insurance and have my doctor write me another rx for 10 since my original PA was only for 8 months.
I wasn’t sure how a 2nd PA would affect my first one and with the shortage I don’t know if I have time to wait for authorization and still grab that 7.5 on hold for me.
Anyone else have experience with this? My insurance covers it and with the savings card I’ve been paying $25 per month. Advice?
Thanks in advance!

I have reached my limit. Or maybe I had reached my limit before.
I can't live in my home because I can't feel safe and rested. I can't study at peace, I even got even more severe burnout than my last time I had a burnout to the point of transfer to another school and shifting to another course after my dad ask me to wash the dishes and now I can't even bring myself to hold a pencil and do my one week late assignment or to bring myself to study. I had lot of assignments to do and yet my parents ask me to do house chores as if I have more time than my brothers who are not in school anymore. My family is heavy reliant at me in chores, I even had to skip college just to clean the fucking house that smells like 3 day old piss.
I want to run away, but I don't have enough money to live and to go to college.
I'm scared of running away because I live in a poverty country where college degree is a must. I don't even had skills to work, so I'm scared.
I'm scared of being homeless, I overheard my dad even threaten my eldest brother to eat food or else he will give up his job(he even said that he wanted to kill himself and this is first time I heard, the giving up his job part is the one I often hear because I or my brother ended up not cooking with the ingredients he bought but can't cuz we're busy in studies, although my brother is free most of the time now because he's graduated and is now mostly doing hobby and study for licensure exam).
Sometimes, I get jealous of my brother having time to do hobby even the house smells like a virus and he is in the house most of the time in this season.
I am losing my mind. I don't even know what I job I want to work in. I don't even have someone to talk to and I can't trust everyone anymore.
I want to get out of here, my mind keeps telling me that but I know I can't. I can't bear my family keep relying on me.
I can't study in peace because they will use my studies against me. "You are a nursing student and yet you get angry over this. I don't think you can be nursing because you will be dealing with different kinds of people and there are people who are like this."
I don't want them to be in my graduation yet I feel like they will ended up in my graduation anyway. (Because I would feel like a hypocrite)
I am starting to get angry at everyone, look down on everyone and create a scenario where I get the upper hand while someone is on the verge of getting angry or is hurt.
I can't escape my home. I can't even steal money from parents because it's on debit card now and I dont know the password. I will get in jail if I steal the credit card and hack and flush out the money because they have cameras.
They say they support me but they will always find ways to keep me on this house. They always see me as incompetent and child that need guidance even though I am an adult.
I don't want to stay here any longer. I'm tired dealing with them.
Even if they would support me like make me enroll to trade school where I train for a year and then I can go job hunting, it feels so wrong. They would say things like "we supporting you and yet you complain?"
They make me feel like I'm the wrong even if they are the ones making me feel this way. They are the ones restricting me too much to the point I don't have confidence of myself. It makes me question a lot about my thoughts and feelings and my purpose.
My brother scold me in the college while I enroll this course that this course is too hard for you, you shouldn't enroll it with the tone as if I did something wrong in front of many seniors and students.
My mother say "you shouldn't be enroll in this course because this is for very smart people and look at you now", "you should return to your previous course because it's easy and I think it suits you, that school makes you feel safe". "Maybe if you enroll to the trade school, you would change your mind to returning to that school and you become a second year ". I even thought about following the advice and I feel disgusted of myself. I feel like I can't decide on my own and whatever I decide will lead me to my downfall.
I can't find a course anymore that helps people while I don't feel like a hypocrite, and also a job that helps me survive and gives me time for my writing.
I'm lost and confused. I want to seek help from my cousin outside of this country but they are not obligated to help me and they hate me.
I don't know what to do anymore.

Hello everyone,
I really need your advice on how to fix a return issue. To keep it as brief as possible:

• Attempted to return two laptops totaling about $2000.
• The only return options was UPS pick up, so I chose that.
• The UPS driver picked up something (not my laptops, I was never in contact with them) and shipped it accidentally as my items.
• When I reached out to Amazon, they said you have to wait a month for the return center to process it and then we can try again. Can't make a label for you now.
• I reached out 6 weeks later, they are saying we need to wait at least 60 days now. Every person I speak to hangs up on me when I try to speak to a manager because this is obviously nothing to do with me. UPS made a mistake and they are holding my money hostage.
• I want to make it clear, nobody, even when I get put to a manager, is offering to help. They transfer me to a "specialist team" and then they say yeah well your return policy is over.. sorry the previous reps told you "X" info, you were lied to do, etc.
• I made the purchase with my debit card so I don't think I can do a charge back request like a credit card..

Am I screwed? I have somehow, after 3 hours of being in calls with people able to get a label for one of the laptops but the email says I will loose like 20% of the value in the refund because of the time frame, even though it's not my fault.
Is this even legal? Lesson learned: only buy electronics from in-person retailers. But still.. I need my money back. I feel very much held hostage.

My cc limit as a student is $500 but I need to place a hold on the card this weekend for a rental vehicle costing about $700. I’m not able to increase my limit as a student, but if I overpay my bill by $200 bringing my balance to -$200 will the transaction go through for the hold?

Just to balance out all the negativity on this sub, I started a new job just over a month ago after previously holding a middle management role at my previous place, I now work in my new employers customers office embedded in the client team using my experience and specialist knowledge to oversee some crucial projects.
I have no line management responsibility, I have a far better work life balance, I earn more (over 70k) and as my employer is getting a good profit margin from "pimping me out" they are happy as long as the customer is happy. The customer has just told me they want to keep extending me for as long as possible, at least for 12 months.
There are good jobs out there, not everything is negative.
Just for balance, I am more than aware I could earn more as a contractor, I know my employer is making raw profit from me but quite frankly I don't care, I earn enough for me and my family to have a nice standard of living and chasing money only leads to burnout

I work at a small/mid-size nonprofit organization and we frequently receive donations of items for auctions or raffles in the mail, sometimes unsolicited. Yesterday we received an unsolicited mailing with 32 gift cards inside for restaurants and retailers throughout our state, ranging from $20 to $200 each (none of the businesses are very close by, but it's a small state). A typed note came with them, with an out-of-state return address, saying we could use or distribute the cards as we see fit. Some of them look worse for wear, like they've been in someone's wallet. A few of the cards have Toast QR codes where you can check balances, which we did and they appear to be valid. Is this is a scam? If so, how would it work to benefit the scammer?

basically im a teenager and want to start earning some money so I thought " why not start from reddit?". As i have mentioned i will design 3 logos and 3 business cards for your business for only 20 dollars. thank you.

Heads up - I wrote a longer than anticipated into to this topic...if you want to skip the background and get to the meat, you can skip to the list toward the bottom!
Background:
My childhood was a pretty typical middle-class, suburban existence.
I went to public schools growing up. I went to an average state university. My dad passed while I was in college and my mom was a public school teacher so I was more or less on my own to figure life out after my dad passed.
I share that because cruising often and being able to afford to stay in suites is relatively new for us.
I'm an entrepreneur and when COVID started we were on the verge of bankruptcy, not just my business, but my personal finances as well.
I had quit my last corporate job in the tech industry 4 years earlier and hadn't taken a paycheck since. We were surviving on my wife's teacher's salary and the savings and retirement I'd built after a decade in the soulless troughs of corporate BS.
After 4 years of not paying myself while trying to raise two kids, a mortgage, and living the American dream we were at the end of our ropes financially.
I'd drained my retirement (I never touched my wife's incase something ever happened to me), drained our savings, and racked up $250k in credit card debt.
Just as COVID was beginning, I came home from the office one day, handed my wife a credit card, and looked her in the eyes holding back tears and told her, "there's $400 in this account before it's maxed out - buy all the groceries you can because I don't know when I'll have anymore money for us."
Faced with $250k in CC debt, if I couldn't turn things around we were going to going to have to claim bankruptcy so with nothing to lose, I cashed out our home equity as one final cash infusion into the business before closing shop and starting over financially.
With the money from that loan, I resolved to do three things:

1. I hired a business coach to figure out why despite growing revenue, we couldn't make consistent profits.
2. We're located in a rural community so we expanded into a much larger city 90 minutes from us...my hope here was that I didn't know how long the shutdown was going to last (it definitely hit us hard early in the pandemic), but by marketing to a larger area we'd hopefully be able to make enough money to survive.
3. I was going to finally begin paying myself after 4 years of not taking a paycheck and reinvesting everything into the business.

I've been extremely fortunate that this was a turning point in my business. In the 4 years since then we've grown by nearly 1,000% and we're now making a very healthy profit and I've built the business to where it runs without me (I work 8-12 hours/week on the business on high-level activities, primarily guiding my leadership team and handling the financials + some tech innovations periodically as I identify them). I've repaid all of our debt and I'm working on rebuilding our retirement while investing a percentage of the profits into building a new business (one that will be less employee intensive).
This is all relevant because this has put me in a place where we can afford to cruise often (6-8 weeks/year) + I have the luxury (privilege honestly) of not having to worry about PTO.
Side Note: For those of you who hate capitalists like me - my lowest paid employee last year made $50k (+ full benefits) in an area where the median income is only $33k...half of my team made $100k+. We're quite possibly the highest paying company in our region (definitely in our industry) and as a result have extremely low turnover and I'm able to hire the best of the best so we have an excellent culture.
So back to the main reason for this post - having the opportunity to cruise often, about 75% of the time in suites, I've noticed the folks we meet and interact with in the suites tend to fall in one of six categories:

1. The Status Cruiser: These are the folks we all see on social media and unfortunately on cruise ships whose entire identity is wrapped up in their loyalty status and their suite class. They are absolutely the main character and its of absolute importance to them that everybody know this. You can typically spot them from across the room before you even talk to them because they're dressed to the 9s and carry themselves in a way completely stereotypical of what you'd expect from somebody who truly believes their farts smell like roses.
2. The Retirees: There's a good amount of overlap between this persona and the Status Cruisers mentioned above, but they're not all like this. The ones who don't overlap with the previous group tend to be extremely friendly and I've had many great conversations with them learning about their life experiences and imparting with wisdom with me on my own journey. They tend to stick to the recommended dress codes and are sometimes put off by people who don't share the same motivations for structure and etiquette.
3. The Bucket List Cruisers: These folks often save money for years, pinching pennies so they can afford what may very well be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for them sailing in a suite. They often want to squeeze as much value out of the suites as they can since they may never be in one again (I don't fault them for that...make the most of it!). They're often dressed to the 9s as well but sometimes appear less comfortable in the various social situations you find in the suite areas (i.e. grabbing a drink in a lounge, having a nice dinner in the suite restaurant, etc).
4. The YOLO Cruisers: I don't encounter these cruisers on every sailing, they're definitely more common during holiday sailings (i.e. Spring Break, Christmas, etc). These folks are living their best lives. The fellas are often wearing flip flops and neon tank tops and their wives/girlfriends in cut off jean shorts and a see-through cover-ups over their bikini tops. Fortunately they typically aren't over the top obnoxious, but they couldn't care less about any recommended dress codes or societal queues. They're there to have the time of their lives, everybody else be damned.
5. The DINKs: These couples are often from the LGBTQ+ community (not hating, just the reality), but not exclusively. They have good paying jobs and often are able to work remotely from the ship so they don't even need to use PTO. They typically keep to themselves and associate mostly with other DINKs. You can usually find them enjoying a drink in the suite lounges later in the evenings after a fun night out partying. One evening you may see them dressed to the 9s and the next they may be in beach attire - they march to the beat of their own drum but also don't really interrupt anybody's vacation (aside from maybe the folks in the first two categories who care more than they probably should about dress codes).
6. The Family Cruisers: There aren't many sailing in suites with kids, but the ones who do tend to have well-paying corporate jobs that they're not able to fully disconnect from (even on a cruise ship). They have good to great paying jobs but have limited vacation time so they prefer to pay a premium to make the most of their time off when they're able to get away. Often you'll see these parents responding to emails in-between parenting. You can sometimes catch them in the lounge grabbing a drinks in the evenings after their kids have gone to bed for the evening. We fall into this category with two kids under the age of 10.

I don't know if this is interesting to you guys but I was randomly thinking about it earlier and thought some of you may find it of interest.
What do you think? Did I leave any categories out? Do you disagree?
Random food for thought! Whatever category you fall into, and whatever type of cabin you happen to cruise in, happy sails everybody!

I (25M) am going to be marrying my lovely fiance (27F) in 6 months. Let's call her Gabrielle (G). She's fantastic, love her to bits, and am excited as hell for the wedding. Her mother (M) however, is (and this is mutually agreed upon by us), an abuser. For as long as I've known G, every couple of months, they will get into a fight fabricated by M, culminating in M sending vile things to G. I encourage G to stand up for herself, however, she handwaves this abuse (after being incredibly upset for a time of course) since M is the only parent that she has.
Throughout wedding planning, M has flipped between helpful, to toxic. For brevity I'll avoid examples, but this oft has surrounded money, and how she has "put so much towards the wedding". But, this has almost always been contingent on doing what M wants with the money; often outside our budget and what we want at the wedding. In most cases though, we just give in. It then gets lorded over us how much she is contributing. Any pushback over "ideas" that M has is immediately responded to with a tirade on 'disrespect' and how much she has contributed, how we should be grateful etc. This has mutually annoyed G and I to no end.
It came to a head today. M wanted to pay for a thing she really wanted, but then explicitly said that she wouldn't pay for something else that she wanted and we didn't. G, with my support, presented some pushback, which went down the familiar path of disrespect. However, this time it got vile, personal, and about as abusive as you can get in text format. It was shared with me (by G) and was one of the most disgusting passages of text I've ever read. M said she wasn't going to come to the wedding, and demanded we give back the money she already provided.
My immediate response to G was that I don't want to negotiate with someone playing the emotional blackmail card. She could have the money back and that's that. G tended to agree, saying that if that's what the mother really wanted, she couldn't stop her...
However, M tried to wheel everything back a few hours later, pretending the abuse didn't happen. However, I was done with it at this point. We're this far out from the wedding, her behaviour was spiralling. I have a personal gripe with bullies and abusers, so I was ropeable; Previously I was only hanging on for G's sake. With this, I told G that I wouldn't accept this wheelback from M, and she wasn't to come. She can have her money back, that's that.
G understands where I'm coming from and is accepting of this, however of course is still somewhat upset that it has come to this, and that M, who as said is her only parent, cannot come to the wedding. I refuse however to share a wedding with an out and out abuser who has for years, terrorised G to no end, and bringing no end of strife to the wedding planning process with her consistent emotional abuse of both of us.
So, AITA?

Is your heating system performing poorly, sometimes overheating sometimes under heating?

If this is the case it is probably because it is not being serviced regularly in accordance with manufacturers instructions. You will burn money over the long-term unnecessarily on fuel due to poor efficiency that could be saved by maintenance and have a system that works properly too!
Problems could be anything from minor control adjustments, strainer cleaning, malfunctioning control/balancing valves, pipe work silting, right through to ‘the old inefficient boiler’.
The solution, ask CPL Service Response to undertake a full survey for you and provide necessary maintenance.

What content is included in the Early Access Phase? The Early Access phase of Eyes of War includes a Strategy Mode, where you can develop your village by recruiting soldiers, advancing with various technologies, and improving your town to destroy your enemies. In addition, you can play in the Arena Mode, where you will encounter either real players or AI opponents and face off in exciting duels. Finally, there is the Battle Mode, where you can play as a single member of your infantry and live the battle firsthand against human or AI opponents. While playing in Strategy Mode and Battle Mode you can control the action from an RTS camera perspective and switch to a TPS PoV to individually control members of your army. In the Arena Mode, you will only experience Eyes of War with a Third Person Perspective.
When are you planning to release Eyes of War full version? We plan to release Eyes of War in September 2024.
On which platforms is Eyes of War available? Currently, Eyes of War is only available on Steam.
Is there a content roadmap available for Early Access? We plan to unveil our updated roadmap soon.
How do I keep up to date with the latest news on Eyes of War? You can follow us on our Steam page and social media accounts listed here ⁠rules-info⁠
How do I play against other players? You can play against other players by creating a lobby within the game or by joining the lobbies of different players in the Multiplayer section.
Are you planning to add more Nations? Other Nations could be added in the future, but our current focus is elsewhere.
Will you add new game modes in the future? We are planning to add new game modes for Eyes of War. For instance, we are planning to add a Roguelike experience.
Will the price increase once Eyes of War is fully released? Yes, the price will increase when Eyes of War will transition to the full version.
What are the system requirements for Eyes of War? What kind of hardware is needed to play the game? You can find the system requirements for Eyes of War in the Steam store page. Generally, it requires a 2.5GHz CPU, an AMD RX 580 or GeForce GTX 1060 graphics card, and 8 GB of RAM.
Are there any in-game payments? Currently, we do not have in-game purchasing features.
Is there community involvement in the development of Eyes of War? If there is community involvement, how can players contribute? Yes, there is community involvement in the development of Eyes of War. Players can contribute to the development process in various ways:

• Feedback: Players can contribute to the development process by providing feedback during the game's early access phase. Feedback on gameplay, balance, bug reporting, and suggestions is an important resource for the developers to make the game better.
• Community Events: Players can contribute to the development of the game through events and competitions organized by the developer or suggested by community members. These events can encourage community participation, for example, in best user creations or strategies.
• Beta Tests: By participating in beta tests of new features or updates, players can help test new content and provide feedback. This can contribute to a more stable and balanced release of the game.
• Community Guides and Resources: Players can help others by creating guides and resources on platforms such as community forums, wiki pages, or video content. This can help new players better understand and experience the game.

so i’ve been trying to find the best pc value for money to run the sims on highest graphics with A LOT of custom content , whilst also streaming… so far i’ve been using my mac and it gets soo hot as soon as i start to stream whilst gaming.
i know it’s not recommended to buy prebuilts pcs but i am a total noob, so clumsy and don’t really know anyone who could build me a pc… are prebuilts upgradable tho ? because i dont want to buy one if its never gonna be able to be upgraded down the line… i also require ALL peripherals including a microphone, wifi, monitor, mouse, windows, etc
if anyone can recommend pc parts for what i need and i’ll try and find someone to build it for me, or help me find a prebuilt pc that is upgradable as i know some aren’t.
idek my budget tbh so just recommend anything, i also got gifted a 100 £ amazon gift card so that will also be a big help
thank u so much!!
NOTE: i have seen awd it and vibox and their prebuilts seem so cheap for the specs so i am very confused as it seems to good to be true

In the past enterprise development model, scale determined the business volume, and the same is true for contact centers as an industry that is both technology-intensive and labor-intensive. However, in today's economic downturn, the marginal returns of traditional business scale are diminishing, and "saving expenditures and increasing efficiency" is being regarded by more and more enterprises as the first choice for survival and development.
For this reason, contact centers have shown a stronger need for cost-saving and efficiency improvement, and lean management of efficiency and cost has become particularly important. In particular, the human resource structure that relies on manual agents needs to be optimized urgently.
Among them, there are the contradictions between low human resource utilization and the continuously expanding business capacity, as well as factors such as uneven customer service levels and difficulty in stably outputting high-quality speech skills.
In addition, the slow response speed of manual agents, low efficiency in handling customer complaints, weak customer access channels and scenarios, single service strategy, and simple functions have all become multiple obstacles that restrict the service efficiency of the contact center.
In response to this change in the industry, contact centers are gradually focusing on the balance between operational efficiency and customer experience.
Nowadays, enterprises hope to improve the efficiency and production capacity of contact centers by introducing new technologies, that is, without reducing efficiency, they can maximize manpower savings, reduce overall operating costs, and simultaneously improve customer service experience.
​
Take the financial industry as an example. Compared with the previous "racing for land" and "increasing scale", this year there is more emphasis on "saving money" on human resources.
​
According to Cloopen Zhongfei, the 4,000+ voice robots provided by Cloopen Contact Center AICC for a financial institution can complete the workload of 6,000 human agents, including notifications, reminders and other services with relatively fixed processes and speech techniques. All can be completed efficiently through intelligent voice robots, thereby achieving significant savings in labor costs.
​
For another example, for the onboarding of new employees, with the help of intelligent auxiliary functions such as "Speech Map" and "Gold Medal Speech" of Cloopen Cloud Contact Center AICC, complex knowledge points are sorted into real-time speech recommendation that can be used for dialogue with customers. Employees can start working after passing basic training, further reducing costs and increasing efficiency for the company.

hii can i transfer my paypal balance to another paypal account without linking my bank account or debit card to it?

My mind keeps going back to the symbolism of the Two of Pentacles card, which came up in a tarot reading I did for myself the other day. I had asked the cards how to get through the next nine days, with the two-year anniversary of a trauma hanging over me - the trauma being that someone I had loved and trusted for years broke my trust and turned out to be just a compulsive womanizer, a pathological liar, a sick and emotionally abusive covert narcissist.
The way I see the cards working is that they can’t tell a person anything the person doesn’t already know - but our subconscious and unconscious minds know a lot that doesn’t rise to the level of our surface consciousness. The imagery and symbolism of the tarot cards gives the mind a puzzle of trying to interpret how a given set of cards drawn and placed into a meaningful pattern relates to the question they ask. So it prompts a meditation that can help bring the knowledge of one’s intuition and instincts and subconscious up to the forefront of consciousness. It’s a very powerful tool even if you don’t believe in serendipity and grace, but in my experience, there’s a lot of serendipity and grace at work too behind the seeming randomness of the cards.
Anyway, the Two of Pentacles is someone trying to juggle and balance things and dance against the background of a roiling sea. And the suit of Pentacles is about practical life matters, money, career, domestic concerns, and so on. So yesterday, I was thinking what that meant for me was that I needed to spend the time focusing on practical things to distract myself from ruminating and worrying, by juggling all my efforts towards various goals like being productive at work, managing my finances, getting exercise, spending time with friends, and taking care of errands and tasks at home. The problem with trying to use distractions to escape from trauma is that, at the end of the day, you lie down in bed, and then everything you tried to run away from by keeping busy during the day swirls up in your thoughts, and the pain comes crashing in on you.
So that happened last night. It was a bad night. I went around and around and around in the same circles in my head. Why would someone treat me that way? Did I just misunderstand him? Did I judge him too harshly? Was it all my fault? What could and should I have done differently? Is there something I still could do to fix things, to change things, to make things better, to heal, to find closure? What was going on in his head, who was he really, what happened to him to make him this way? The endless circle of questions, and going through my crazy-quilt patchwork of memories where some things have faded and some things have stood out and grown larger, seams have ripped and torn, and nothing adds up into a coherent story that I can make sense of.
I finally thought: Why can’t I just settle on the narrative that makes the most sense and then put it behind me and move on? What happened was that someone I trusted turned out to be a dysfunctional dud of a person. Clive was a messed-up jerk. As for Oonagh, I thought she was a friend too, but really I didn’t know her very well, and she turned out to be just another flaky, immature scene person. And John was probably only so nice to me because he was hoping we could date, and when he finally understood that it was Clive I had been in love with and that I was shattered by the breakup, John lost interest in me. So that was what happened. It sucked, it was horrible, it triggered my PTSD symptoms that had been in remission for 20 years before that. But I do have a narrative about it that makes sense, and what I need to do is just write it all off as a loss, write all three of them off as former friends who just turned out not to be good friends to me. I still have a lot of friends and resources and joy and blessings, and I need to focus on the happy possibilities ahead of me instead of the grief and hurt that I suffered through for the past two years.
So then, with those thoughts, I calmed down, and I finally fell asleep, after all the crying and loud sobbing and shaking. Mornings and evenings are always some of the worst times for rumination, but it was just really a bad night.
So now I think this is what the Two of Pentacles was foretelling for me: emotionally, I am sailing on stormy seas for the next two weeks. I will have ups and downs, I will be struggling to keep on an even keel, to keep from floundering or capsizing. On a practical level, I have lots to keep me busy, though everything is really pretty great. But it’s a precarious time, and I have to be very strong and brave and focused and mindful to get through it safely.

I suppose we won't get nerfs for a long while, maybe never. Anyways, Elder Dragon needs a nerf, namely his origin, and I thought I'd give my views on a good way of balancing him. Now be aware I am not nerfing ED to oblivion and I see a lot of untouched potential in this card, but I will tackle the core strength of why he's broken. Let me go over the problems and solutions semi-briefly.

1. His Origin: ED can basically make any 6+ drop good. Any deck will run any big unit that works well with their deck just to get those boons active. It's not that the boons themselves are super powerful on their own, but the fact that players only have to run 1 ED makes it incredibly valuable, since one card is generating a ton of value and it's neither on board or in your hand. Essentially, you are running one card that is ever-present off-board, and can close out a game if needed on-board (which is just the cherry on top).

Solution: Make it so the number of possible boons chosen when a unit is played is based on the number of Elder Dragons started in your deck. Okay, this sounds like a buff because if you run 3 EDs you essentially get to choose one of 3 boons. But remember, the boons are not essentially the problem, it's that you get to cheat out the boons without needing to draw dead on EDs. If people opt to stay with one ED they will be forced to gain a random boon instead of having the choice of 2, which should stop people from just running one. If they have 2 ED's this adjustment will make them have to run an extra ED which is a blatant nerf. And if they go with 3, they are adding 2 extra dead cards in their deck for the choice of 3 boons. The third option is of course what players would choose, and that is why this would not be the only change in the package.

1. ED's ORIGIN (pt2): ED's main problem is that there are many diferent decks running him. I believe he has 3 meta decks that are swarming the ladder for the past few months that all have different play styles but still benefit greatly from him. His origin allowing you to run any 6+ drop is messed up man, plain and simple. There's no lore in having random big costing units to affiliate with ED. Elder Dragon is a dragon. What's he got cooking with Captain Arrika? And if you're not playing against a ED deck that out controls you, then you're up against his combo deck: Matron into Cithria, or Matron into Heisho into Cithria, or Matron into Heisho into Heisho into Cithria. If you know you know.

Solution: Make the origin only allow dragons, and when you play a dragon choose a boon. This won't ruin ED, it would give dragon decks a more aggressive game style. Imagine playing your midgame dragons and getting to choose one of three boons to put on them (bc you would be running 3 EDs). This would actually make the boons impactful, not just valuable, and change the style of ED decks from combo/control oriented to midrange with an ED finisher if needed. There are many powerful dragons, and dragon synergy in Demacia so ED would pair up nicely there. Alternatively, Targon with Aureleon Sol or Frejlord with Volibear.

1. The last adjustment I bring to the table is a nerf on Elder Dragon's level up as personally I think it needs a tweak. It is a game ender, sure, which isn't the problem. I'm fine with him being the way he is to an extent. There is no way to deal with ED, unless you can win off fast burn damage, or stop him from leveling in hand, or simply win before op plays him. You can't block, stun or frostbite ED, which is fair. But why can you not silence it?? The entire point of silencing cards is to take out their text. ED should be treated the same way.

Solution: Make silence stop the Unstoppable effect. There would at least be some way of teching against ED, and it would be limited to one region, Targon (my fav region :P), which is the only region with burst speed silence cards (Hush) and can target champs.
All in all, I think my changes would benefit the game greatly. Dragon decks in general are pretty weak imo and ED doesn't slot in those decks unfortunately. A lot of people complain about the boons being overpowered. I don't see it as that, ED needs those boons to be good to do his work throughout the game as he only comes down during the late game. He's like a better Sion imo. Anywho, I have a midterm to get to, but I had to flush this out of my mind because it's been bugging me for a while. If you think this is a dawg shi' post let me know your own thoughts of how to address ED nerfs.

• CntrClockwrk (Top 5 Masters Eternal)

Almost everything that’s been changed or added in the last 6 months has been designed to make the player feel like if they don’t make a purchase, they’ll likely have to wait months for that variant or card.
When I first started playing I was collecting cool variants indiscriminately. Obviously that’s a waste of currency, so I only focused on Peach, Venomized, Artgerm, Rian, and Inkpulp. Not only does it take forever for the variants you want to show up, but even focusing on a few doesn’t really help. Now I get Peach 90% of the time, and it still took like 5 months to finish a deck, ofc without the cosmetics I like.
Heck, before they added customization, I had no incentive to spend credits excessively, and got pretty smart about keeping a huge stockpile with minimal spending.
Most days I go to the shop and see like 2 overpriced bundles, claim my free credits, see some cool variants that aren’t worth my free gold, and skip over the rare reasonably priced bundle, since it just looks stupid next to the $99 bundle. As if I wouldn’t think I’d be equally/proportionally as screwed as a customer when I get my tokens and boosters.
The spotlight system just made me skip more cards I would’ve otherwise tried if Second Dinner didn’t make it painfully clear that if I spend my currency, there’s a high chance of regretting it within a month, which is why they even took efforts to impede datamined spotlight schedules. Wouldn’t want you skipping 3 weeks because week 4 is a smarter choice.
All of this FOMO has just conditioned me to stop expecting anything reasonable, spend less, scrutinize every bundle, etc. I have a greater fear of wasting my currency than I do of missing out on a card. Which is honestly how it should be I guess. It’s just funny since it’s not their intention.
Overall, I still enjoy the game, but I went from playing 3 hours a day to like 3 hours a week. A lot of these grievances could be reduced if FOMO wasn’t so deeply ingrained. All my friends are falling off this game because missing a few weeks now and then derails the experience.
This system works for Fortnite, which has secured their popularity with children and their economy AKA parents wallets, but the amount of money Snap is asking for, I’d wager it’s an adult demographic supporting the economy, and I don’t know how long they expect adults to keep up with FOMO. Everyone has jobs, emergencies, weddings, etc. You can hop on Fortnite after a year and at worst you’ll have to wait for a Spider-Gwen skin for 6 months, but Snap? Good luck. Sure, you can still have fun, but how many months are you willing to wait to get the cards you need? If you took a month off and missed 2 cards you really wanted on top of 2 you were already missing, is 2 months worth it? 4 months?
Idk. Just food for thought. I think eventually they’re going to start giving out a lot for free when the player base starts dwindling. If they want to practice FOMO, there’s still a way to be consumer friendly. I really wish they’d have digital exclusive variants from comics, in-theater movies, Disney+. That’d be a cool way to drum up hype and future sales, while making it achievable and rewarding.
Here’s hoping when Pokémon Snap—, I mean Pocket comes out, that they really embarrass Second Dinner.
tl;dr: Marvel Snap is an ice cream truck that circles the block 3 times a day, and when you go outside they want $15 for an ice cream every day except Monday. How badly do you want that ice cream?
/rant

I left an extremely coercive abusive relationship in 2020. He would berate me until I would give him money, he threatened to rpe and kll me, and would destroy my most sentimental items when I tried to escape his abuse. He got me falsely imprisoned. Leaving was so so hard because I still loved him somehow with all my heart even though the abuse was daily.
Now I find myself in a similar but different situation. It’s ‘less bad’. I started dating someone new and at first everything was amazing, but over the past year it’s become clear he has a serious drug and alcohol problem and has lied to me chronically about it.
He’s unemployed but he buys drugs instead of paying me our shared bills (he hasn’t paid a single shared bill in a year). He’s stolen my card out of my wallet to buy small things. I’m not very good at watching small transactions so I have no idea how bad this has really been. He’s bought drugs and used to ‘punish’ me. He’s gotten belligerent on special nights out and berated me, including in front of my mom. He chooses to play video games and use drugs most every weekend instead of planning or doing anything for us. He smashed some mugs when I tried to get help and talk to his family about his drug use.
This is abuse too. It sounds clear writing it out but I still feel confused now because he was so sweet and loving and gentle at other times and the worst stuff was rare. It’s mostly just lie and promise after lie and promise. Day in day out. It’s so draining this false hope. Not having a space free from illegal drugs. Not having a partner that cares about paying bills because ‘he’s good for it’. This is still emotional abuse.
Well, he’s off the lease and I have to stay strong and not forgive him, even though I want to with all my heart. He’s crying and begging and then scary and menacing and god it’s just all so much I hope I can do this again.
Thank you for this community ❤️

My brother, who is in his early 50s, had a severe stroke a few years ago, and went on SS disability. Stroke left him mute, and impacted his cognitive abilities in a mild-to-moderate degree. He was supposed to fill out and submit a continuing disability review form late last year, but lost the form, and his monthly payments were stopped.
He lives with our elderly mother, who had a less severe stroke after him. She is a bit more functional, but can't deal with bills or paperwork either.
I have had to organize both their finances and medical records. My brother just recently found the SS review form, which had been buried in his bedroom for months. I am filling out the form and about to submit it. Meanwhile, my mother has been giving him money from her savings.
My concern is, my brother cannot handle money wisely. He pays no rent, utilities or insurance. His only expenses are cell phone and food. Yet he spends money on needless stuff like dog clothes. He impulse shops and has a credit card. Also, he has a 'friend' who I believe is using him financially.
I can represent him informally, such as helping him fill out a SS form, without having to file any form for myself.
Then, there is a form SSA-1686, to appoint a representative, but I don't think this is applicable, because it would only be filed with an initial claim. He is already receiving benefits, they were just put on hold, pending review of his medical status.
Lastly, there is a 'representative payee,' which my brother's doctor would have to approve, but if approved, I understand all SS documents and payments would go directly to me, abd then I would dole out money to my brother, maybe weekly, so he doesn’t blow his monthly payment in two weeks.
Do you think my brother is a good candidate to have a representative payee? Do I submit the RP form to his primary care doctor, or his neurologist?