So, my father and I started our long-awaited 2-week vacation in London and Switzerland. However, on the first day of the trip, we received an urgent phone call telling us that my grandmother, who had been unconscious after a serious car accident, had just passed away.
We had to quickly book a 14-hour return flight and attend my grandmother's funeral. To clarify, I wanted to attend her funeral, and I'll never regret being there. My father couldn't continue the trip, and I was also deeply saddened by her passing.
I feel better that I was able to attend my grandma's funeral, but I can't get over the fact that our trip, which I had been really excited about for months, was cut short.
Have you guys ever experienced something similar? If so, can you give me some tips on how to eventually get through this situation and return to my ordinary life?

I've been using Active Trader Pro for years, and I'll admit I have a love/hate relationship with it. I love how powerful it is and how easily I can do whatever I need to with it. However, I hate that it's running on a Windows emulator and crashes daily—sometimes more than once a day. (I use a Mac mini M2 Pro.) I'm hoping for a Mac native or web-based version of Active Trader Pro with at least the same features, but I'm not holding my breath.
I recently tried using the new Trading Dashboard on the web to see if I can make it fit into my workflow, and so far, it has come close. I regularly place similar options trades across multiple accounts, and in Active Trader Pro, I like being able to set up the orders in separate order windows so I can submit them all at about the same time rather than set up an order, submit, set up the following order, submit, etc. That said, here are my suggestions so far.

• Support the ability to set up orders multiple orders at the same time.
• Support automatically updating option prices in the Option Chain. Currently it takes two clicks to refresh the option chain and doing so resets any changes I make to the Option Chain view.
• Support the ability to change the font size. I'm running the browser window in full-screen mode on a 4K 32-inch monitor, and not only is the text small, but there's a lot of wasted space.

Other than that, the Trading Dashboard is off to a great start!

I fucking love everything this guy's ever written but have officially run out of stuff to read.
Anyone have any recommendations to hard sci-fi books with a similar style/humour about them.
(Fun fact for whoever's about to mention the expanse, the martian is debatably canon in that universe)

Hi everyone, new to this sub. I have just discovered the huge world of "bilingual" support out there on social media, but I have to admit I don't really have the money to shell out on a 1-to-1 support, so I thought there must be a reddit community for this.
Long story short: we are a multicultural family, I am Italian, my partner is Hungarian, we have lived in the United Kingdom for 10 years and have a 6 year old daughter, born and bred here. Her main language is obviously English, as it's what she has been most exposed to. Due to the fact neither me nor my spouse speak each other langugage we both endeavoured to speak our respective mothertongues to our child as much as we could, but have obvious limitations, as we always spoke in English to each other.
None of our family members live close-by, so her exposure to mothertongues, barring the occasional family trips back to the two homes, is very limited. Things are better with Hungarian, as there is a big community of her L2 where we live, lots of other kids etc..
Italian is the one she speaks the least of. I know she understands me when I talk to her, and I try to speak to her in Italian as much as I can, read her books, watching movies and cartoons...but it is such a struggle, as I am the only one, and due to the environment and other constraints I often have to switch between languages and end up speaking English with her because she talks to me in English.
Things have gotten worse since starting school last year. Her exposure to English has obviously increased exponentially (classmates, school..) and there are no ways around it, it is her first language, as it's the community language. We have however noticed she has almost regressed, in both languages, like she understands less and is much more reluctant to speak in either of them.
It is very frustrating as we have endeavoured to great lengths to try and expose her to both cultures as much as we could. We know we can only do so much, even with the fact we have no support around it.
Has anyone had similar issues and if so, how did you manage to, minimise "damage" so to speak? I know it may be a bit late now, as she is 6 year old, and it is highly likely she will just speak both languages as secondary ones.

ESCANABA — Swearing in ceremonies for the winners of the Delta County Board of Commissioners recall election held last week and a reorganizational meeting that was planned for Wednesday were scrapped Tuesday evening, after the Delta County Board of Canvassers failed to certify the election results.
“They’re basing their decision on the ratio of the votes, because two of (the races) have the exact same ratio and the third one was a similar ratio, so they think that that shows that the machines were somehow programmed with (an) algorithm,” said Delta County Clerk Nancy Przewrocki.
The results of the May 7 election were unusually consistent, with challengers Kelli Van Ginhoven and Matt Jensen each receiving 72% of the vote in their respective races, to incumbent commissioners Dave Moyle’s and Bob Petersen’s 27%. In the race between challenger Myra Croasdell and Incumbent Commissioner Bob Barron, the percentages were 73% and 26%, respectively.
Such results are atypical across races in elections for a number of reasons, including differences between the candidates, population density, and the cultural factors that make people choose to live in more- or less-populated areas.
But just because the results were unusual doesn’t mean they were wrong.
“I tried to tell them that the machines have been tested and the results came out exactly as they should. I have every confidence in our voting equipment because it’s always tested and in the recounts and the audits we have done, the ballot hand count has always come out exactly very close to … the tabulator results,” said Przewrocki.
It is also not the place of the board of canvassers to take results into account when deciding to certify the election. They serve a more administrative role, doing things like comparing the precinct poll books to reports from the precincts to look for internal consistency in the number of votes cast. According to Przewrocki, there were no inconsistencies that would warrant the election not being certified.
That didn’t stop two Republican canvassers from voting against the certification Tuesday. Bonnie Hakkola, who also serves as the local Republican party chair, and LeeAnne Oman, an alternate canvasser who also serves as the local Republican party secretary, both voted not to certify — splitting the board of canvassers 2-2 and blocking the certification.
A second meeting of the board of canvassers has been set for Monday at 9 a.m. It is possible that Oman would not participate in that hearing if Sema Deeds — the Republican canvasser Oman replaced Tuesday — is present. Deeds was unable to attend Tuesday’s meeting due to illness.
It is unlikely that Hakkola’s vote will change. A press release dated Monday but sent to the Daily Press late Tuesday by her son, Seth Hakkola, indicates local citizens working with members of Michigan-based groups that deny the validity of the 2020 presidential election have “identified certain statistical anomalies and suspicious voting ratios.”
Specifically, the release references local citizens working with Joanna Bakale, a prominent member of the Election Integrity Force, who is perhaps best known for advising poll watchers to call 911 if they see suspicious activity around voting machines in 2022; Citizens for Electoral Justice member Scott Aughney, a self-described “independent election investigator and whistleblower” who attempted to obtain a copy of Escanaba’s electronic poll book raw data file through a failed Freedom of Information Act request last year; and Former Republican State Senator Patrick Colbeck, of Michigan’s 7th District.
The release states the local citizens are “formally requesting a hand recount and forensic audit of the results.” According to Przewrocki, Hakkola had also requested a hand recount, but the board of canvassers is not authorized by law to conduct recounts as part of the certification process.
“I would love to do a hand count just to show them that there is absolutely nothing wrong with our tabulators,” said Przewrocki.
A recount of the ballots could still take place, but only after the election is certified. If it were to happen, it would have to be at the request of one of the candidates.
Technically speaking, Moyle, Petersen and Barron still serve as the county’s commissioners until their replacements can be put in place. If the election is not certified Monday, those board members would have to vote whether or not to hold the regularly scheduled meeting slated for Tuesday.
However, if the election is not certified Monday, there could be bigger issues. The certification process would be taken over by the State Board of Canvassers, which means Przewrocki and other local clerks would have to travel downstate with the ballots, election machines, poll books, and all other necessary documents and equipment to certify the election.
“Everything that we would have at our fingertips doing it here locally, we would have to bring downstate with us in case there needs to be a retabulation,” said Przewrocki.
The cost of the canvassing would also fall on the county.
Until the certification, Van Ginhoven, Croasdell, and Jensen cannot be sworn in and a reorganizational meeting cannot be held. Jensen and Croasdell were expected to be sworn in Wednesday morning and Van Ginhoven was slated to be sworn in Monday, but all three ceremonies have been postponed. A reorganizational meeting also set for Wednesday was postponed, pending the certification.

Recommendations?

Sorry this post might be kind of long.
So there's this world I've been building in my head for as long as I can remember, but it was only recently that I decided I want to flesh it out, with the goal of writing a book series on it. I haven't fleshed out anything about any of these ideas, I just kind of got some concepts down.
The magic in this world has always been elemental-based, akin to Avatar. You'll have people born either with or without an element. The world spans the whole globe with multiple continents. Each one will have many civilizations similar to our own; there will be empires, tribes, republics, kingdoms, theocracies, and so on. Not every civilization will have one element that it's founded on. There could be an empire founded by people with both the Earth and Wind element, another with Fire, Life, and Water. I think this could make for some pretty cool cultures, religions, warfare, maybe even caste systems of sorts.
Since the world will be the same size or a bit bigger than Earth, I'll tackle the problem of languages by having multiple "lingua francas," maybe 3-5. I haven't thought out the history or reasons why these languages came to dominate, but the plan is to have each one be a common language over a large area. There will obviously be more languages, with each civilization having a different language or dialect.
Here is a draft of the biggest continent I made on Wonderdraft last December, which I've posted under a different account: https://imgur.com/gallery/2UKZVss
The world will also have the phenomenon of "Dragon globalization," where, contrary to the name, mostly wyverns and lesser dragons have allowed for fast communication and trade between nations of the world, hence increased political, cultural, and economic integration. This will mean many nations will be multicultural, with cosmopolitan cities where people of every element, race, and culture live together. This "Dragon globalization" also means wyverns and dragons are key in the world's economy, with significant Dragon trade routes being fundamental in the world.
The elements that I've always had in mind are:

• Fire
• Water
• Electricity
• Death
• Life/Nature
• Light
• Dark
• Void/Space and Time
• Air
• Earth
• Dragon
• Mind
• Soul

The idea is that for each element, there will be sub-disciplines. For example, Water could have the disciplines of Ice, Mist, River, Flood. These aren't thought out at all, and the disciplines will be called something else. Like ice would be "Way of the Hoarfrost" or some shit like that. The idea being that no one person will be able to use all the disciplines of a specific element, let alone master more than one. Each discipline will have been founded or refined by certain civilizations. For example, one of the empires in the world could be a water elemental civilization that has adopted the "Way of the Hoarfrost" as their core discipline. This will play a role in the way their culture, religion, society, and warfare developed. Maybe this empire has the most prestigious Way of the Hoarfrost academy, where other water elementals from all over the world come to learn.
Most of these, like Fire and Water, have enough to be standalone elements. However, I've had problems with how Light, Dark, Death, Mind, and Soul would work as standalone elements. Dark isn't really anything, Death, Mind, and Soul seem too abstract to be an element, or they will be overpowered or not have enough. So I was thinking of combining some of them into one element.

• Light/Dark
• Life/Death
• Mind/Soul

I think this would work better and give each of these elements more to work with.
This magic system is still quite barebones, without anything "special" I guess, just like Avatar with more elements. That's how I've built the world to be like for all those years I've daydreamed about it. So I'm not sure how to make the system more unique than just being an Avatar clone without changing much of the core idea.
What do you guys think of this whole thing? What could I do to male the elemental system more, and do you think there's any element I should remove or combine?

I had transferred to a new school in year 8 along with someone else who transferred to the exact same school. Let’s call her Ava. She and I immediately clicked as friends and we were close but still distant. I was trying to find my place among my peers and she seemed to find hers.
Last year, she started dating a guy, James, and they hit it off pretty well. A couple weeks into dating they were sexually active and she was very open about it. At the same time, I had been going on dates with my current boyfriend, Henry.
Henry and James were childhood friends and Ava and I were already close so it was a perfect match. We would go on double dates and spend time at each others houses. Our relationships were perfect. Ava was very open about her relationship to me and unfortunately to other people as well.
Our prom started being discussed around the school and the boys were talking about what they were planning. I, however, had no interest in going to prom. I’m not one to dress up all fancy or enjoy a night out. During the boys conversation I pulled Henry aside and told him that I don’t plan on going to the prom because it’s not my setting and I would prefer he ask a friend to go with him.
This upset Henry a little but he didn’t want to make me upset and told me that if I won’t go then he won’t go and we can spend time together instead of going out. James overheard this and said that he wouldn’t go either. This gesture was so nice and I insisted that they still go but Ava wasn’t having it. She called me selfish for not wanting to go and said that I need to think more about other people than myself all the time because if I don’t go then Henry and James won’t go and she’ll be all alone.
This disheartened me and I felt obliged to go so I simply nodded and agreed and said I would go as to not upset the apple cart.
Fast forward a couple weeks and we find out that the prom will be held on my birthday. This then arises another disapproval of the ball for me and I decided I didn’t want to go again. The exact same conversation happened and I felt as though I should go.
Ava was so excited and started asking me what dress I was thinking of wearing. Since my favourite colour is red and it was going to be my birthday I told her that I wanted to wear a red dress. She was quick to tell me I wasn’t allowed to because someone else in our group was wanting to go in a red dress. This deeply upset me and once again I didn’t wish to go.
I ended up breaking down in front of Henry’s mum and she told me to wear whatever dress I’d like and that I should go and not thinking about anyone else, just Henry and my friends. So I agreed and decided to start talking with my other friends instead of just her.
Finally, two months to go and everyone was so excited for prom. Our teachers had sent out a message saying to book a table as quick as possible because positions will be running out soon. I put forward my friends names plus Henry, James and Ava. I took a picture of the message and sent it to everyone. After receiving a thumbs up or spoken approval I sent the message off and was approved of our table.
Everything was finally going smoothly and I was somewhat excited for prom until I get home after work and have my sister running to me, crying and squeezing me tight saying she loves me and doesn’t want me to die. Of course this scares me and I wrap my arms back around her and ask her what’s going on. She tells me that Ava sent her a message saying that she’s going to murder me and she doesn’t care if she has to go to jail because she’ll do it.
This made me absolutely furious. I opened my phone and found similar messages to me. Some on discord, Snapchat, instagram, group chats and direct messages. All of them referring to how she didn’t approve of the seating plan (which she did) and that I have to remove it right now. How dare I put that through without thinking of others before me.
Apparently, James’s friend group was wanting to organise a seating arrangement that included Ava, James, Henry and I and were pissed that I put a seating arrangement through, even though they never told me.
I messaged in the group chat as everyone was wondering what I did and how cruel I was, asking if Ava was okay because whatever I did must’ve been bad. I responded with a message explaining what happened and that she is to never contact me again. This argument went back and forth for 48hrs before she finally had nothing else to say and just left me on read.
This whole argument has caused a rift between our friend group and legal matters may be coming into action which I can go into further detail in a part two if people are interested.
Sorry for the long explanation! Thank you so much for reading xx

My Asexual Girlfriend writes fanfiction starring herself
Hey all,
First post, looking for some advice on this.
I (M29) and my partner, (L, 26) have been dating happily for 4 years. We're both Asexual.
She is heavily involved in some fandoms and enjoys writing fanfiction. Its not my thing so I never asked too much about it, when I did she never implied it was anything sexual, but I recently found out that she has some extensive stories (multiple books spanning many chapters) featuring her and a crush from one of these fandoms. These are HEAVILY sexual. There are a lot of other stories that don't feature her as well, which I questioned but have no real problem with (just surprise), I asked her about it and she told me she doesn't identify with the character, its a seperate entity to her. But it uses her name, her likeness, the character speaks like her, enjoys some things I know she enjoys, the characters even have children named names I know she likes.
A lot of these are from before we were together, but some were posted while we were dating. She claims they were written before we started dating and she just felt like posting them.
Now I trust her, but im struggling to get over some of the things I read. Her character being overtly sexual, very intimate details about the scenes. They're stuck in my head like I imagine an allo being if they find out about their partners past sexual experiences.
So my question - how do I get over this? I trust everything shes told me albeit questioning it. Am I being insecure and it means nothing? Any other ace fanfic writers in a similar vein who can reassure me?

Lore of Athel Loren

The Lore of Athel Loren is a bit of a weird one to adapt, since some stuff straight up doesn't work in Total War. But the same could have been said about Lore of Ice, and they handled that pretty well. Also there's a bunch of additional spells from the Roleplay game that could also be adapted, but since I don't own that book (and I don't trust the wiki) I'm sticking with the 6th edition spell lore.

• Tree Singing: Would either move tree terrain or do damage to units in forest on TT. Which is way too situational in Total War. I think it could be interesting to have a spell that turns an area into forest (since visually Lore of the Hags kind of does that), but it would be pretty useless unless they MASSIVELY buff the bonus welves get in forest terrain. Most likely just be made a damage spell, and maybe it has increased damage if the enemy unit is in a forest or something.
• Fury of the Forest: Would be a pretty straightfoward direct damage spell
• The Hidden Path: This is an interesting one. On TT you used it on a unit and it treated all terrain as open ground (so Strider basically), but it also couldn't be hit by an non-magical missile weapons. I'm not sure exactly how they could implement this, but it would be a neat to have a spell that makes a unit temporarily invulnerable to non-magical ranged fire. Or maybe it could be a variant of missile mirror, except you cast on a friendly unit instead of an enemy? Except maybe balance it out by not doing the projectile reflection, only negation of it? I think this is the most unique one for sure.
• The Twilight Host: Kind of neat one, it gives a friendly unit Fear if it doesn't have it, but if it already has Fear, then it bumps up to Terror instead. I think in addition to this, in Total War maybe if it is a unit that causes Terror, then it further bumps it up to also remove Immune to Psychology?
• Ariel's Blessing: A pretty strong healing spell, but the flavor text also mentions "restoring life to those who have fallen" so could be interpreted as restoring lost models too? Also gave a unit regeneration temporarily afterwards.
• The Call of the Hunt: A spell that buffed up attack and made a unit charge towards the closest enemy near it. Other than attack and charge bonuses in Total War, I'm honestly not sure how to adapt this properly. I think things like this are usually interpreted as Rampage in Total War, but that's not really fun. So maybe it would grant Devastating Flanker temporarily or something? Maybe Glorious Charge?

Lore of the Dark Master

Be'lakor's unique lore of magic from 6th edition. He was later changed to be a Lore of Shadows caster, and Total War went with this direction. But I think it's a real missed opportunity to not include these spells in some fashion in his campaign. Making a unique lore of magic useable by only one character might not be worth the investment, so maybe instead interpret it as Bound abilities, or maybe a spell lore option for the Undivided Daemon Princes. Dark Emissaries would also use them if they are ever added as a generic lord/hero option.

• Bolt of Dark Light: Magic missile, not much else to it except hitting pretty hard
• Betrayal in Death: Idea of this spell is that the spell is cast on an enemy unit, and when they die they would strike their own allies in a zombie-like manner (not actually turning undead). Easiest way to interpret this is maybe a Morghur-like ability where you use it on a low health enemy unit, and they are replaced with a unit of your own. BUT I think it would be more interesting if you cast it on an enemy unit, regardless of model count, and when one of their models dies it causes damage to it's own unit. Kind of like how the Phoenix Guard RoR has models explode on death, but it is self-harming.
• Curse of the Dark Master: So this was kind of a crazy spell. On tabletop it could be cast on any unit on the battlefield, and they suffered -1 tot their ranged and melee attack rolls. With it being permanent and the debuff remained active until the opponent dispelled it, the player who cast it chose to end it, or the wizard casts another spell or is killed. In terms of Total War I think it would probably just be a straightforward Hex spell that reduces attack and weapon strength stats. BUT I think it would be interesting to actually implement it like Tabletop. Maybe instead of it using up Winds of Magic on cast, it instead has no duration but slowly drains the WoM until either disabled by the player, the caster is killed, or the caster uses a different spell. It would be a neat option that could differentiate the "normal" debuff spells from ones that are meant to be kind of crazy.
• Fog of Death: Another kind of crazy spell on TT. It literally affected the entire battlefield, and you had to roll for damage on enemy units and roll to see if your own units would take damage as well. I think this would probably be best just as a normal stationary vortex honestly.
• Nightmare: Pretty classic leadership debuff, forced a unit to take a panic test. I think in Total War terms it would probably just inflict Terror on any unit that didn't have Immune to Psychology.
• Coils of the Serpent: An instant kill on a model if it failed a toughness test. In Total War terms this would probably be interpreted similar to Yuan Bo's executioner ability. Maybe an instant kill depending on HP thresholds again? Since it's a reusable spell and not a bound ability, it would either need a crazy high cost to balance it out, or a different requirement for the instant kill.

Lore of the Lichemaster

Kemmler's unique Lore of Magic from White Dwarf #310. It's not actually a unique lore of magic, more like enhanced versions of the Lore of Vampires, meant to represent how Kemmler is one of the most powerful Necromancers around despite only being human. I think this would actually be a way of making Kemmler stand out more than just the resident Krell summoner (who really should be a separate Hero now instead). Especially since they gave Ghorst a Grave Guard summon instead of the guy who was THE Grave Guard guy.
He is THE original Warhammer named character after-all, so he really deserves it imo. I'm not going to really go in-depth here since you can basically interpret these as charged up versions of the standard Lore of Vampire spells.

• Invocation of the Lichemaster
• Desiccating Grasp
• Eternal Vigour
• Withering Gaze
• Kemmler's Danse Macabre
• Curse of Eternities

Lore of Change

So this is kind of a thing and kind of not? Tzeentch's magic has gained and lost a lot from edition to edition. The one we have in-game is the 8th edition version of the lore which HARD focuses on damage. But Tzeentch had a lot of more spells that had more variety in uses in prior editions. I could see them doing what they did with Lore of Ice, by splitting these "leftover" spells into a separate spell lore.
Some of these are from the Roleplay supplements, specifically the Tome of Corruption, while others are from Storm of Magic. Which was an 8th edition supplement so those ones have a higher chance of being added.

• Invisbile Fire of Tzeentch: Magic Missile from Storm of Magic. Was pretty damn strong, but the other option Daemonfire Vortex was more of a Cataclysm spell.
• Dispel Mortal: Yeets a person into the Realm of Chaos. I don't think it is likely, but I think it would be hilarious to reuse the Blue Scribes death animation, where Tzeentch grabs them and pulls them into a portal for this. Maybe an instant kill that has an animation on humanoid characters to drag them in? Pipe dream material here, but fun to think about.
• Gift of Tzeentch: From the Realm of Sorcery RPG book. Basically gives a mage a spell they normally wouldn't have. I think this could be implemented similar to the Blue Scribes gimmick, except only for one spell slot. Like you press it, and it swaps itself out for one random spell before swapping back.
• Transformation of Tzeentch: Could be interpreted as a Morghur-like ability that turns units into Chaos Spawn of Tzeentch. Specifically doesn't work on Undead, and probably wouldn't work on Constructs/Elementals either.
• Destroy Magic***:*** Would be very interesting to have a Tzeentch spell that negates magical attacks or silences spell casting by the enemy. Tzeentch not only emphasizing his own strong magic, but shutting down other's magic makes a lot of sense. We have the former with things like the Lammasu's passive aura, and the latter has been implemented with things like the Jet Lion's contact effect. So it could work as a spell too.
• Tzeentch's Blessing: From the RPG, and it was just to gain a random mutation. But I think it would be fun to have it give random buffs. There's a lack of fun RNG in these games, so the idea of maybe randomly making your unit have stalk, or a random chance of regen for a short time would be neat.

There's also the various "coloured" fires of Tzeentch from older material, like Yellow Fire would give a shield for example. But I don't think they would make it in, since the 8th edition spells were a direct replacement for those.

Misc. spells from existing Lores that aren't in-game

There's a TON of spells from various supplements over the years that aren't part of their respective spell lores in game. So I'm not listing them all here, but things like the Tomb Kings had some interesting Incantations prior to the Lore of Nehekara being made, and there is a TON of stuff in supplements like Storm of Magic we could possibly include in-game.
Anyways those are my thoughts on some potential spells that can be added in the future? Any other obscure stuff I missed? Any interesting spells for Lore of Athel Loren from the RPG book that could be added instead? Would love to brainstorm more on this with y'all.

So I am tandem reading Empire of Storms and Tower of Dawn so I am getting close to finishing the series (ugly cry). Any books that are similar to this series or ACOTAR? I will look into the third series by Maas but thought I’d ask for any other great books.
Thank you!

This is a follow-up post to my Two Year Update and One Year Update. For those who haven’t read it here’s a short summary of my first 2 Years

• First Month: Learning Kana with Apps like Duolingo and some basic vocab/grammar and figuring out if I actually like learning Japanese
• Month 2-3: Doing RRTK and watching Cure Dolly for Grammar on the Side
• Month 3-4: Core Anki Decks for Basic Vocab (Tango N5, Core Anime Deck)
• Month 4-6: Reading and Sentence Mining Satori Reader with extra cards from Anime via Morphman
• Month 6-9: Finished Satori Reader and moved on to Anime with Japanese Subtitles + Sentence Mining
• Month 9-12: Added Reading Novels to my Routine for about 1h a day. Continued with Anime for the rest of the time
• Month 13-24: Continued my Routine of reading books + watching Anime and doing Sentence Mining with Anki. I increased my reading to about 2-3h a day for a while and cut back on Anime

Stats

• 2646 Anime Episodes Watched (Year 1: 715, Year 2: 1428, Year 3: 503)
• 68 Movies Watched (Year 1: 19, Year 2: 28, Year 3: 21)
• 115 Novels Read (Year 1: 6, Year 2: 64, Year 3: 45)
• 20000 Anki Vocab Cards (Year 1: 6517 , Year 2: 8664, Year 3: 4819)
• 27520 Morphs (Year 1: 8204 , Year 2: 13650, Year 3: 5666)

I am not as diligent with tracking anymore, so some of it might be missing. My Anime watched and Books read has gone down quite a bit from last year, but I also played some Games in Japanese this year and watched a lot more Youtube/Variety Content. Although I didn’t track it, generally my daily time spent has gone down from 3-4h daily to around 2-3h nowadays.

Current Daily Routine

My Routine has not changed much from my second year, but I tried exploring more genres and media. With better comprehension and less reliance on lookups (thanks to Anki), I am able to enjoy media without subtitles or games where lookups are a bit more annoying, much more than before. I still aim for 2-3 hours of immersion daily, with books remaining the backbone of my immersion since I enjoy them the most. Recently, I’ve replaced my before-bed anime watching with reading books accompanied by audiobooks, thanks to tools like Jidoujisho and Kanjieaters’s SubsPlease tool for syncing audiobooks with books. I’ve also played more games in Japanese, a big highlight being the Metal Gear Solid Series. I’ve also watched more Youtube and Variety Shows as filler content.
In terms of Anki usage, my daily time has tapered off to around 10-15 minutes, primarily because I don’t find many new words anymore. Nowadays, around 90% of my new cards come from reading. When I’m reading challenging books, this number can jump up to around ~20 new cards, but on average, it hovers around 6.
Very recently I’ve also added about 5-10 mins of Minimal Pairs Pitch Training on the コツ Site to my Routine. I’ve only been doing this for about 2 Weeks, and I’m already noticing a big improvement in my Pitch perception. I still don’t have any ambitions regarding Output, but feel like being able to recognize Pitch unlocks a new way of perceiving the language, which I find fascinating.

What my Comprehension feels like

Reading Books

While my reading speed hasn't changed drastically, improving from about 12k chars/hour to around 13-14k chars/hour, the range of variation has decreased significantly. A year ago, my speed could drop to 9k chars/hour with difficult books; now, 12k chars/hour is more of a baseline for me. But my comprehension is where I feel the most improvement, I don’t need to check DeepL at all anymore, if I don’t understand a sentence, I can most of the time understand it when I read it again. And there are a lot more nuances, I now notice which I didn’t before. I noticed this the most in my reread of また同じ夢を見ていた which was my first book I read in Japanese, after rereading it, ~100 books later, I noticed a lot of new nuances, subtext and word play.
I also started using more Audiobooks, in combination with SubsPlease and Jidoujisho to get a synced Subtitle file with the Audiobook. I read along while listening, and my comprehension got fast enough that I generally can just let it play, only occasionally needing to relisten to a line. Even for more difficult books, like 鹿の王 which I recently read. I also read a physical Book this year. If the book is not too hard, I’m now comfortable reading it without a dictionary. The one I read had about 20 words I didn't know, but I only felt the need to look up 2-3. I was able to get the meaning from the others based on context and kanji.

Watching Content with Japanese Subtitles

I felt pretty strong in this area a year ago already, but it has definitely improved a lot also. I noticed this the most when I played the Metal Gear Solid Series. All dialogue does have subtitles, but the content is quite difficult both on a vocabulary level and also on a meaning level, since they are dealing with deep themes a lot of the time. But I was able to play it mostly free flow, only needing to look up a word here or there, getting most of the meaning from the kanji if I didn’t know a word.

Watching Content without Japanese Subtitles

Ironically even though I never intentionally did pure listening practice, always using Japanese subtitles if they were available, I’m noticing the most progress in this area. A year ago, I was not comfortable with most non-subtitled content. Nowadays I would say, easier content like most youtube videos or variety shows, I’m quite comfortable with, although I definitely still miss much more compared to using subtitles. But with Anime or Movies in general, where I’m also much more picky in my comprehension, since I don’t want to miss anything, I’m still not comfortable watching without subtitles I feel like in scripted content people are more likely to use rare words, and even if I technically “know” them, it's still often hard for me to recall them without seeing the characters. But as with all things, that will work itself out with more input. I’m glad my theory from my 1 Year Update, that doing pure listening practice is not needed and using subtitles does not impede progress in listening, turned out true for me.

Closing Thoughts

Although I was able to do all the things I can do now a year ago, I feel like I can do them much more effortlessly. Consuming Japanese is now much closer to English or my native language German, although it’s still not quite there. Both in terms of listening, I usually listen to Youtube videos in English at 2.5x speed, that's not possible for me in Japanese at the moment. Similarly, despite doing a lot of reading, there’s still a lot of room to improve to reach native-level speed.
But it doesn’t feel like learning anymore; it’s more about enjoying the exploration of a new culture through its media. I still love learning new things, which is why I started focusing more on pitch, even though I still have no plans for output.
Adding to my Closing Thoughts from my 2 Year Update, I still feel like this hobby has been the most enriching thing I’ve ever done. Being able to get better at something, feeling the progress gradually, while exploring new ways of thinking, not just through the language itself, but also the vastly different media compared to western media, really broadened my horizon. I feel like learning to appreciate and understand what the media is trying to say is also in a way like learning a language. It got me to read books or try out new genres I probably would have never considered otherwise. For example the Metal Gear Series got me interested in history, which I didn't think I liked before. I also learned a lot about learning new things. I think I can apply all the techniques I discovered learning Japanese to any other skill I want to learn in the future. Being consistent on a daily basis and always practising the same way you would in a real scenario would be the biggest factors for me. (For example, no JLPT grammar questions, rather seeing, looking up and understanding the grammar in native content)
I very much look forward to how my Journey will continue in my 4th year. Thank you for reading!

OCR data extraction involves extracting text from scanned documents and text images. These include financial documents, ID cards, passports, medical records, and more. Since these documents contain personally identifiable information (PII), securing OCR data extraction is imperative. Moreover, depending on the country you’re operating in, you may be bound by regulations like GDPR or CCPA to ensure data security. This is where biometrics identification can be beneficial.
Biometrics identification involves confirming the identity of a person through fingerprints, facial recognition or iris scanning. It can serve as a powerful technology to secure OCR-based data extraction security.
If you’re an Angular developer looking to secure your OCR data extraction functionality, this guide is for you. In this guide, we’ll explore how integrating biometric identification with OCR (Optical Character Recognition) can create a powerful system for robust security.

Enhancing OCR with biometric identification in Angular applications

![](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/0*gK5dLN9dWcEWf4U8.png align="left")

Security enhancement

Integrating biometric identification with OCR-based data extraction adds an extra layer of security. This integration in Angular apps can significantly enhance access control, identity verification, and authentication processes.
For example, the healthcare industry utilizes OCR to extract extra data from patient records and automate data entry. This digitization of patients’ documents helps improve patient care and streamline administrative processes. By integrating biometric identification, healthcare institutions can ensure the security of sensitive medical information.

Improved verification processes

Integrating biometrics with OCR has significantly enhanced the verification processes in various sectors. These include healthcare, finance, government services, etc.
For instance, the combination has strengthened the security process at airports. OCR is used to accurately extract information from documents like passports, visas, or ID cards. This data can include the traveler’s name, date of birth, passport number, and ID number. This information helps verify a person’s identity. Moreover, biometrics is used to confirm the identity of a person through their fingerprints or facial detection.
Thus, by combining OCR with facial recognition, airport security systems implement a multi-layered authentication process. This process significantly enhances security and reduces the risk of fraudulent activities, such as identity theft or document forgery.
Similarly, the banking/finance sector can utilize biometrics and OCR to prevent fraud. For instance, a fraudster can get access to a genuine customer’s checkbook and forge their signature. While the OCR will extract the person’s signature accurately, biometric authentication can prevent unauthorized transactions by confirming the identity through fingerprints or facial detection. This means even if OCR successfully extracts accurate data from forged or stolen documents, biometric authentication helps detect and prevent fraudulent activities.

Automation and efficiency

Another benefit of integrating OCR with biometric identification is that it automates and speeds up the authentication process. The manual verification process is time-consuming and prone to human error. This results in delays and inefficiencies.
Users can quickly authenticate themselves using biometrics, while OCR extracts relevant information from documents in real time.
Take, for example, a personal finance management app. Users can scan their receipts using OCR. They can then authenticate transactions using fingerprint or facial recognition. This automation reduces the need for manual data entry and verification. Thus, it saves time and enhances the user experience.

Choosing OCR and biometric solutions

When choosing an OCR software solution and a biometric solution for your Angular app, consider the following factors can help:

• Assess the OCR solution’s ability to extract data with high accuracy. Consider factors like algorithms used by the OCR engine (such as ML-based feature detection), its ability to handle a diverse range of fonts and complex documents efficiently, etc.
  
• Assess the processing speed of the OCR engine.
  
• Choose a scalable OCR solution.
  
• Assess the accuracy of the biometric solution.
  
• Check whether the biometrics solution supports the features you need. These can include fingerprints or facial detection.
  
• Evaluate the security of the OCR and biometric solutions.
  

Also read: Filestack OCR Guide for Text Extraction & Recognition.

Popular OCR and biometrics technologies for Angular

OCR solutions for Angular

![](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/0*T-KidbL7LTU0rBcS.png align="left")

Tesseract.js

Tesseract.js is one of the most popular options when it comes to OCR for Angular. It is an open-source OCR library for JavaScript to perform data extraction from text images or documents. Essentially, Tesseract.js supports functionalities to process images and recognize text content. It provides the extracted text in a machine-readable format.
Tesseract.js is easy to integrate into JavaScript/Angular apps. Moreover, it utilizes the Tesseract OCR engine, which is widely recognized for its high accuracy.

AWS Textract

AWS Textract is a fully managed OCR service by Amazon Web Services (AWS). It leverages machine learning algorithms to extract text and data automatically from:

• Scanned documents
  
• PDFs
  
• Scanned images
  

You can integrate AWS Textract into Angular apps by using AWS SDK for JavaScript.

Biometric solutions

Crossmatch DigitalPersona SDK

Crossmatch DigitalPersona provides a U.are.U SDK. The SDK enables developers to add fingerprint capture and recognition capabilities to their apps. Crossmatch also offers a JavaScript API to integrate fingerprint identification into web apps. Apps can get fingerprint data from a compatible fingerprint reader connected to the user’s device.
Here are the key features of Crossmatch DigitalPersona SDK

• Supports automatic 1-to-many fingerprint identification
  
• Support various data formats, including an ISO fingerprint
  

Microsoft Azure Face API

Microsoft Azure Face API is a cloud-based facial detection and recognition service provided by Microsoft Azure. It allows you to detect, identify, and compare faces in images or videos, enabling biometric authentication based on facial features.

Filestack: A cloud-based solution

You can also utilize a cloud-based solution like Filestack to streamline your file management, delivery, image processing, and OCR processes. Filestack offers a diverse range of powerful tools and APIs for:

• File uploads
  
• File delivery through CDN
  
• Image processing and transformation
  
• OCR, facial detection, object recognition, and more.
  

Filestack also offers a specialized Angular SDK, which is updated for Angular 14. This enables developers to integrate Filestack service and functionality into their Angular apps seamlessly. “filestack-angular” is essentially a wrapper on filestack-js SDK. The Angular component supports almost everything that the filestack-js supports.

Filestack OCR

Filestack offers robust OCR capabilities as a part of its intelligence services. You can use the OCR via Filestack processing API.
Filestack’s OCR is powered by advanced machine learning models and neural networks to recognize and extract text with high accuracy. It has an advanced digital image analysis system, and it accurately detects features character by character. Additionally, Filestack OCR leverages sophisticated document detection and pre-processing solutions. This enables it to detect complex documents, including rotated, folded, and wrinkled documents.
The illustration below shows how Filestack OCR works:
![](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/0*2C0Kl7hsR_k3fm8X align="left")

Advanced image processing

Filestack supports a wide range of advanced image processing and enhancement techniques. These include:

• Image transformation, such as cropping, rotating, resizing, compression, and more.
  
• Various image filters and enhancements
  
• Facial recognition can be used as the foundation for building your own biometric verification systems.
  

Filestack preprocessing features can be used to enhance the images and improve the accuracy of OCR and biometric analysis. Moreover, Filestack utilizes a robust CDN to deliver images quickly and efficiently to users worldwide.

Filestack Security

Filestack implements robust security mechanisms to ensure your data is always secure and protected. Here are Filestack’s key security features:

• Filestack implements end-to-end encryption to encrypt data throughout its entire lifecycle.
  
• It adheres to GDPR.
  
• Filestack employs powerful authentication and authorization mechanisms for API calls. This ensures secure access to its services.
  
• Filestack employs “signature” and “policy” to enhance OCR security.
  
• It implements HTTPS encryption for its processing API.
  

Integrating OCR and biometrics into Angular applications

• Integrate an OCR library or API such as Tesseract.js or Filestack OCR into your Angular app.
  
• Configure the OCR library to pre-process images and extract required text from specified regions of interest.
  
• Implement core logic to extract text from images using the OCR library.
  
• Handle text extraction errors or inconsistencies efficiently. Provide feedback to users if text recognition fails.
  
• Integrate biometric functionality into your Angular app using a biometric API or library.
  
• data, such as fingerprints or facial images, from users.
  
• If you’re creating biometric functionality from scratch, implement biometric matching algorithms to compare captured biometric data (fingerprints or facial detection) against stored biometric templates.
  

Code snippets

Here, we’ll show you how to integrate Filestack File uploader in Angular apps and use Filestack OCR.
Install Filestack SDK:
xml npm install filestack-js npm install @filestack/angular
Include FilestackModule in app.module.ts:
```xml import { BrowserModule } from '@angulaplatform-browser';
import { NgModule } from '@angulacore'; import { AppComponent } from './app.component'; import { FilestackModule } from '@filestack/angular'; @NgModule({ declarations: [ AppComponent ], imports: [ BrowserModule, FilestackModule.forRoot({ apikey: YOUR_APIKEY, options: ClientConfig }) ], bootstrap: [AppComponent] }) export class AppModule {} ```
Use in .html file:
xml
You can then perform OCR on uploaded images using the following CDN URL:
xml https://cdn.filestackcontent.com/security=p:,s:/oc
You can also integrate an OCR library with a biometric module within an Angular component.
Here is an example of how Filestack OCR data extraction works:
Input image:
![](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/0*mZjcg9V9zmfdwVO6.png align="left")
Output:
![](https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:754/0*ulGoNGaxFzXQvB9o.png align="left")

Building scalable and secure applications with Angular

• Leverage Angular’s component-based architecture to create modular and reusable components for image and document processing, OCR, and biometrics tasks.
  
• Implement lazy loading to load Angular modules and components dynamically as needed.
  
• Manage the app state efficiently. This is especially important for complex workflows and high-volume data processing tasks. You can utilize state management libraries like NgRx or Akita for efficient state management.
  
• Implement security best practices to safeguard sensitive data. These can include HTTPS for secure communication, data encryption, and proper authentication and authorization mechanisms for access control. This is especially crucial for OCR and biometric workflows as they deal with personally identifiable information.
  
• Implement robust error handling mechanisms to handle errors efficiently.
  

Conclusion

OCR data extraction involves extracting textual information or structured data from documents, such as financial documents, ID cards, and passports. This extracted data is often used for identification verification. However, this process can be at risk from fraudulent activities like forged documents or stolen identities. Fortunately, we can enhance the security of OCR data extraction with biometrics integration. This will ensure that even if OCR extracts information from stolen or forged documents accurately, biometric authentication will detect and prevent fraudulent activities.
Sign up for Filestack and leverage its OCR today for your business!

FAQs

What is the meaning of OCR extraction?

OCR data extraction means extracting text from scanned documents (printed or handwritten) and text images automatically.

What is the difference between data extraction and OCR?

In traditional data extraction, a person extracts information from documents manually. OCR automates this process using AI and ML-based feature extraction and text recognition algorithms.

How can OCR and biometrics improve the identity verification process?

The combination of biometrics identification and OCR data extraction can significantly enhance identity verification and business processes. OCR data capture can be used to verify identity from a scanned document like a passport or ID card. Biometrics confirms the identity of a person through fingerprints or facial detection. This adds a multi-factor authentication mechanism.

I had PPROM at 31 weeks. This was a few days ago and so far I have not gone into labour. I’m being monitored at the moment for signs of infection, but hoping to keep baby in a little longer if we possibly can.
A few questions:

• Anyone have similar experiences they can share? How long did baby stay in after PPROM, and how did everything go once they arrived?
  
• Did you find out the cause of PPROM?
  
• What is something we can do to prepare? I can’t work out what to put in baby’s hospital bag since I don’t know what size they will be. At the moment I’m sleeping with a couple of blankets so baby can have them in the incubator.
  
• Any tips for how ready our 2.5 year old for what might be coming? I’ve found surprisingly few kids books on this subject, which is often how we ready them for new things.
  

This is all for a TTRPG that I'm running for some friends. If this isn't the right place for this please let me know.
To start off with, if you're playing in a game where the phrases "President Andrew Garfield", "Clowns of America" and "an imp wielding a fan blade" sound familiar to you, stop reading. This is about our campaign. ........................................................................... ........................................................................... ........................................................................... ...........................................................................Context: So, I am currently running a game set in a near future (2075) where magic has slowly been returning to the world, but is still mostly hidden, for the last 100 years. In this world their are 9 "gods" that rule over the following: 1. Urbos- cities, civilization, law, order 2. Fabulaz- Stories, legends, myths 3. Libertas- Freedom, liberty, Justice, fairness 4. Messor- Death, fate, burials, afterlife 5. Vita- Life, nature, wildlife, predatoprey relationships 6. Technos- The internet, technology, engineering 7. Penucia- Merchants, gambling, wealth 8. Null- Undeath, necromancy, secrets 9. Vaccus- Emptiness, vaccumes, nothing.
The big secret with all of this (and the big thing the party doesn't know) is that all but one of the gods listed above are not actually "gods". They are all creatures "blessed" by the 9th god with insane power over something mortals fear. The 9th god, Vaccus, is the only real god. However they are closer to a lovecraftian diety and the entire campaign setting takes place in Vaccus's dreams.
The Story (the party doesn't know this either): A cult, being lead by somebody who was cursed with immortality and wants to die, is going to try several methods of killing their leader. Their last ditch attempt will be to try and wake up Vaccus, as if this being wakes up it would result in the end of everything in an instant. The best and most efficient way to do that is by turning Vaccus's dream into a nightmare. They plan on doing this by "forcing" the creation of a new god like entity that will embody a fear of destruction and a comming apocalypse, I am tentatively calling it Apolyon, but I'm not entirely sold on that name. Their first step in doing this was to take over large portions if the world's government by killing and replacing important officials with dopplegangers. They've done this without issues in Russia, China and Sweden, but they fucked up in the US when the president's (if you read the above, yes the current president is Andrew Garfield AKA one of the spidermen) daughter escaped and the assasination "attempt" got leaked to the news.
What the party knows: The attempt on the president's life was orchestrated by an unknown entity using dopplegangers. To cover their tracks, the "president" (who they correctly assume is actually a doppelganger) anounced that it was his daughter who made the attempt on his life, saying she has fallen in with a group of eco terrorists who have supposedly taken responsibility for the attack. They know this isn't true because they saved both the president's daughter AND a secret service agent from a car crash/doppleganger attack and both are now traveling with them. The goal is to remove the way the dopplegangers are tracking the president's daughter and bring her to an military base that has been both decomissioned and wiped from any US database. The only reason they know about it is because the president verbally told the Secret Service agent about it in the past as a "if all other options to protect my daughter fail, go here."
What the party will soon discover: The military base in question is actually an abandoned neighborhood that the government used during the mid to late 70s (when magic was first starting to return to the world) to conduct MKUltra style experiments. Their plan was to try and spy on people through their dreams. They had the most tangential success with artists of varying mediums but they could not control who's dreams they were entering and influencing, with many of them going insane. The reason many of them went insane was because they were entering the subconsious dreams of Vaccus (almost like if you were to lucid dream but instead of you realizing its a dream, the people and characters in your dream realized they were in your dream), meaning they were 1. Witnessing incomprehensible things that a eldritch creature would dream of in their deep subconsious and 2. Seeing the entire history of the universe play out before them in what felt like in real time, but was acually only done in the span of a few minutes to a few hours if they were lucky. This lead to those who were still somewhat coherent to make art depicting some of the things they saw, but in a stylized way. For example, poems about something that should not be, paintings and sculptures of the birth of each god, stories that, when you read between the lines, speak of a world ending calamity that would cause Vaccus to wake up, ect...
What I'm looking for help with is comming up with different pieces of art that will make the full puzzle. So like a poem tells part of one story, a description of a short film depicts another, a painting, children's book ect... I want at least 9 or so different pieces that can describe the reveal mentioned above with 1 for each worshiped god and the 9th being a description of creating a nightmare for Vaccus. The idea is that each description/art piece tells a different part of the same story, but the party won't get them in order. I have come up with some ideas for the different art pieces, but I want some more ideas or suggestions. I also want different people to give their descriptions and I feel that if it was just me making all of these descriptions, they would all feel way too similar and give off the feel of "one person trying 9 different mediums" than "9 different artists telling the same story". I have an idea for the 1st one chronologically that takes the form of a children's book that decribes a little boy who is tormented by his older siblings and thus escapes to his dreams to find friends (the other gods) and go on adventures. It would be unfinished with the party only finding the first few pages depicting the boy make the Gods Vita and Messor to populate the world and give life meaning. I plan on refining it a bit more and using more symbolism than what I described above but I think it gives the general idea.
Sorry for the long post, I've been thinking of this idea for a long time and only now the party is getting close enough to it for me to really start planning for it. TLDR; What are some different descriptions of art works (poems, stories, paintings ect...) that when put together tell the story of the world's creation and reveal the fact that the setting takes place in the dreams of an eldritch entity. I would love to hear what you all have to offer to this.

I've been trying to get back into reading and so far I've read kokoro by natsume soseki and No Longer Human by Osamu dazai. They both speak to the human nature albeit in drastically different ways and I liked kokoros approach much better. If anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear them. Thanks.

Hey all,
First post, looking for some advice on this.
I (M29) and my partner, (L, 26) have been dating happily for 4 years. We're both Asexual.
She is heavily involved in some fandoms and enjoys writing fanfiction. Its not my thing so I never asked too much about it, when I did she never implied it was anything sexual, but I recently found out that she has some extensive stories (multiple books spanning many chapters) featuring her and a crush from one of these fandoms. These are HEAVILY sexual. There are a lot of other stories that don't feature her as well, which I questioned but have no real problem with (just surprise), I asked her about it and she told me she doesn't identify with the character, its a seperate entity to her. But it uses her name, her likeness, the character speaks like her, enjoys some things I know she enjoys, the characters even have children named names I know she likes.
A lot of these are from before we were together, but some were posted while we were dating. She claims they were written before we started dating and she just felt like posting them.
Now I trust her, but im struggling to get over some of the things I read. Her character being overtly sexual, very intimate details about the scenes. They're stuck in my head like I imagine an allo being if they find out about their partners past sexual experiences.
So my question - how do I get over this? I trust everything shes told me albeit questioning it. Am I being insecure and it means nothing? Any other ace fanfic writers in a similar vein who can reassure me?

SPOILER-ALERT WARNING!
I may spoil something NOT just from PLL but from other stories, as well. Read at your own risk!
The Ezria relationship stereotype/trope is certainly not the first nor the last of its kind, to be represented nor displayed in entertainment via books, movies, TV shows, etc. Not everyone is into the following stereotypes/tropes:

• Forbidden Romance
• Romantic Tragedy
• Bad Guy Falls in Love with Good Girl
• Obsession

Yes, I get and understand how these tired out stereotypes/tropes may not be "love", in the proper (or even healthy) sense, but you really can't understand us Ezria fans without, first, understanding these stereotypes/tropes that resonate with us.
From a writing perspective, these tired out stereotypes/tropes is what best describes the Ezria relationship and tend to resonate with a younger audience (teens). Some adults (raises hand) remain to continue to love these subgenres of "romance", in their entertainment.
There are other romance stories that share similar themes, as the Ezria relationship:

• (1997 - 2003) S1-S3 Buffy the Vampire Slayer / Buffy & Angel and Buffy & Spike
• (1998 - 2006) S3-S4 Charmed / Phoebe & Cole
• (2001) Moulin Rouge! / Satine & Christian
• (2011) Jayne Eyre / Jayne & Rochester
• (2015) Crimson Peak / Edith & Thomas

Just some examples. They're quite common, and the Ezria couple fits in this mold. And, yes, ALL of these relationships (not just Ezria) are messed up, even if some of these are adult stories.
It's meant to be messed up (for our enjoyment), and I reckon it'll continue to be so, as long as there's an audience for it.
Just something to think about.

Hi there 👋 I'm a dedicated (in early 30s F) professional from South East Asia, navigating through a particularly challenging phase since late last year. Things haven't been going well, but that's life—let's just keep going. Right now, I'm not actively seeking a relationship (and I'm not interested in flings—I have no time for meaningless things). I aim to become the best version of myself first. However, it could be uplifting to connect with someone who is also an introvert/ambivert focusing on their life and career for now. If you're in a similar place and just want someone to talk to and share experiences with on a daily basis, let's chat—maybe we could be best buddies.
Looking forward to meeting someone who understands the importance of personal growth and is on a similar journey.
A little about me: I enjoy good and deep conversations. I'm a simple person with simple happiness. I'm kinda active with joining running events. I love food—I'm a massive foodie, so I love cooking. I love traveling, though I haven't been to many places yet; I dream of traveling the world. We could meet in person, if we really vibe.
I'm not into tattoos (though I love art, I just don't prefer it on skin) and not into parties. I'm into computemobile games, even though I've always been a beginner. I've recently started watching movies and series since I didn't have much time before. I've also recently started reading books.
I love to learn more about technology (career-related). My work is related to tech. I'm into nerdy people; I love learning new things from others. I'm a good listener, but I also yearn to be heard. I really appreciate people who know how to ask questions, listen well, and are curious. I love a good sense of humor and enjoy funny people. My humor is a bit sarcastic, so please don't get offended. I love calls and video calls once I get comfortable.
*One thing to note: I couldn't be with people who are undergoing mental illness, those who are clinically diagnosed. While I support mental health advocacies, right now I hope to connect with people who are not experiencing mental health disease. I'm sorry.
Also, I strongly consider having a childfree life. This is not an important topic for now, but just FYI.
I prefer talking to 32 y/o and above. If you're interested, please send me a well-thought-out message. I'm only for good intentions—no fooling around, please. Send me this 🤍 if you've read my entire post. See you!

We have booked a gp appointment for tomorrow but just wondering what illness we might be looking at for my 11 month old, if his symptoms are common with any particular illness. He has just started childcare this week so assume he has caught something.
Yesterday he was off his formula a bit, still ate solids and had water. Today he still ate solids but much less bottle than normal. Tonight he totally refused and bottle, and the dummy and medicine both also difficult to give him when we normally have no issues. He has no temperature. Yesterday he was more sooky than usual but slept fine at night. Today he was very sooky and tonight he has so far been quite unsettled.
He does have a tooth coming through, the symptoms are similar but just way worse than with his previous 4 teeth, so I’m not quite sure it’s teething.
Wondering if maybe gastro due to lack of appetite (but still ate solids without issue) or is it something mouth related like hand, foot and mouth, a cold with a sore throat?
Thanks