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Aitah for cheating on my wife when I thought she cheated on me?
I'm M57 and my wife, let's call her Jane for privacy reasons is F45. Jane and I had been married for twelve years, within our first year of being married we had two beautiful boys, twins, Jake and Sam.
Jane and I met at an annual work party during Christmas time. She was the new hire who didn't have many friends or anyone to talk to. I started paying her more attention, by the end of the night we hit things off pretty well. We started dating a month or two after, casual dating nothing more. It started getting more serious as time went on, one thing led to another and I was down on one knee and she said yes.
Jane grew up on the farms with her dad and brothers so we decided it would be nice to have the ceremony in one of her old barns. We did it up nicely with lights and decorations. I felt like the luckiest man alive. Soon came Jake and Sam. As we weren't expecting twins it was definitely a shock, nonetheless we loved them both. I felt like such a proud father, taking them on strolls in the pram to walks in the park, soon enough I was taking them to soccer games and movie theatres.
After about six years after our boys were born, I noticed a shift in Jane's mood. She no longer liked getting into it when the boys were asleep. She was never home, which was odd to the fact she worked less hours than me. She was always at a yoga class or a friends tea party. All these excuses she had made up made me feel like something more was going on.
I tried ignoring it and focusing on work, as the last thing I'd want it to be was cheating and breaking our family up. I didn't want to believe she could do such a thing. On November 1st, she told me she'd be home early, it was our anniversary. She had a day out with her friends in the local garden centre. I started getting worried when it hit 6pm. Who can look at plants and drink coffee for 9 hours? Not Jane, she gets bored of activities an hour or less in. I assumed maybe she's picking up a nice bottle of wine or something after, but the selection isn't big in the town we live, surely it wouldn't take her long.
I left her some calls, messages even sat on the front porch waiting for hours. It wasn't until Jake came out saying he had a nightmare to when I went back inside. I ended up falling asleep with Jake as I read him a bedtime story. The next morning when I woke up, Jane was in our bed, her clothes scattered all over the room like she was trying to play the floor is lava with her cashmere jumper and denim trousers.
Confused, as anyone would be, I headed to her side and gently shook her away. I'm not the sort of man to start arguments, nor do I like them. I'm not a fan of conflict. I felt as if accusing her of cheating was the worst thing I could ever possibly do. Yet I went ahead and asked her to which she declined and yelled at me for even thinking it.
I felt horrible about myself, like I had just lost her with that question. After that I started relying on work to get me by, it was something to distract my thoughts. Jane became more distant, even if she was home, she'd either be on her phone or the laptop, both to which she changed the passwords on. I'd never be the one to snoop at her phone. The only reason we had each other's phone passwords was for emergency, and well the laptop was actually mine for work. It was my at home computer when covid happened. I don't use it as much now, just a couple games online when I'm bored, yet Jane took it over, changed the passwords and reset the whole thing.
It didn't really matter to me as I never used it, it just made my stomach drop. What if she was hiding something from me? I felt guilty asking myself that question every time she did something odd. Whether it was telling me to sleep on the sofa or to work longer hours. There was a change in her and it wasn't just me that noticed it, Jake and Sam did too. They were too young to understand why mommy didn't want to hang out with them anymore.
I decided to stop trying with Jane, to focus my work hours on work, get a baby sitter for the weekdays and on weekends I'd always take my boys out to fancy restaurants and fun things they'd enjoy. Jane didnt like that. She didn't like it when Sam said the two of them prefer me.
It started an argument between Jane and I, the first conversation we had in months. She told me it was my fault, that she knew I was trying to be their favourite to get back at me.
I didn't know what she meant, infact I was done, our marriage was over, but I needed to salvage it for the kids. My parents divorced when I was ten. It's a horrible experience for anyone of any age. My dad acted like it was my fault. He'd always send me off to mom's house then when I come back he'd act like I wasn't even there. Mom however, tried winning my love with money. Buying me the latest xbox games, consoles, a new phone. Whatever it was, she got it for me. I never asked, never asked her for anything, she'd just show up and shove it in my face as she stood at the door to dad's house with me before passover.
I didn't want my boys feeling upset, angry, thinking its their fault, I needed to stay with Jane till they were old enough to be able to manage their emotions.
Then came along another woman. It had been three years since I asked Jane if she was cheating. For privacy reasons, I'll change her name. F50, her name was Lucy. She was our new neighbour, moved in with her elderly mother. I met her first in the local library as I was picking up some books for myself. She was there signing in for a book card. I introduced myself, told her she's welcome to the block, a formal and nice welcoming. I seen her every Thursday at the library, she'd either be writing, reading or just looking at the bookshelves. Over time we started having some conversations. She knew I was married with kids. The longer this friendship went on, I opened up to her about Jane and I. Something I hadn't told anyone.
She was really supportive, was really there for me. It was comforting to say the less. As time went on, we started hooking up, going on dates and seeing each other on days that weren't only Thursdays.
Lucy was a kindhearted person, she even had her mother take care of my kids for free on weekdays. I felt bad when she said she'd do it free of charge, that she missed when her kids were young. We made a deal, I'd cook her my famous pasta bolognase and she'd mind my kids. Occasionally Lucy would bring Sam and Jake out when her mother was feeling too tired. She'd bring them to the zoo, the ice rink or even out for a day of shopping. I really started to fall in love with her, I don't know if I should have felt guilty about her, having a wife. But I didn't. I felt as if our marriage was over without the documents to show.
Things were going good till one day I was in a rush for work, Lucy had the keys to my house, only for emergency. I would never of taken her home.
I told her to just go inside, the kids lunches are already packed and to just drive them to school. She did what I said however one thing neither of us expected was Jane to be home. As my wife answered the door, I couldn't even imagine what Lucy felt. She said she was the new baby sitter. When I came home that night, I dropped in some pastries to Lucy and her mother then headed home. Jane sat at the kitchen table, a portion of bolognase infront of her, untouched, steaming hot.
She didn't speak for minutes, it felt like hours. I knew I had to tell her, tell her everything.
I began with knowing she cheated on me, how it made me feel, the kids feel. She watched, with zero emotion on her face. Her hand swinging her wine glass around before she'd take a sip.
She laughed, and laughed. She didn't stop. Infact as she stood up, she threw the boiling hot plate at me, to which I had dodged.
She didn't cheat, infact there was a reason she was distant. My wife was graped numerous times in three days by her coworker. My best friend, M52, John. John had too became distant, I guess I thought he was busy.
I fell back, kneeling on the floor as I heard the kids waking up upstairs. My wife stood still, tears in her eyes as she yelled, how I cheated on her when she was graped.
I felt miserable, there's no work in the dictionary that could muster up how I genuinely felt in that moment. Jane and I filed for divorce two months later. She didn't want the boys. I took them. She wanted far from me, from this house. She moved in with her dad back at the farm while Lucy and her mother moved in with me and the boys.
AITAH?

I've started dating her around almost a year ago, and in the honeymoon phase everything was perfect - she was sweet, caring, easy-going, and just a lot of fun overall. But after a few months things began to deteriorate and I have no idea what to do next. Just to write down a few examples:

• She has very serious jealousy problems - I knew she was insecure, but it gets overwhelming very often - there was a time she checked my social media followers/following every hour or so, made me unfollow/block/cut contact with multiple girls she deemed a threat (for example a girl left a realmoji on my bereal too fast, she made me block her), we got into a pretty big fight over my female friend a while ago, at a fancy party (my close friend's birthday, with all my other friends and his parents there in a restaurant)
• She gets hysterical and starts crying over literally anything - one time she kept bugging me about something politics related, to which I left a half-assed reply (I don't follow politics at all), she began to cry and scream that I just want to make her mad and her feelings do not matter to me at all
• Just a few days ago we were supposed to meet up at a big city-wide party in a park (like a city festival), I mixed up the roads because I'm not familiar with that city at all, came back a moment later to find her, and she started crying and screaming at me that she's been "waiting for me and I went right past her", then when we came back to a group of my friends, she kept screaming at me, running off, finally decided to run back home, she almost got hit by a car and later texted me that "she's sad she didn't get run over by it". ???
• I have a pretty busy lifestyle right now, with a lot of stuff on my plate (work, exams, friends etc.) and I awfully dread the moment when I have to cancel a date because something else just came up - afterwards she keeps guilt-tripping for a long time that I do not care about her at all
• She seems unable to take responsibility for the things she messed up - after a temper tantrum she comes up with half-assed excuses like "my mother has temper problems too, I have inherited the attitude" or "people just get mad and it's normal, it's hard not to cry and scream when I get mad". I rarely ever hear her apologize.
• She often re-reads old texts and arguments just to feel bad and get mad at me for absolutely no reason (even drama from 6 months back, she just keeps it screenshotted in a folder and re-reads it whenever she needs a reason to get mad again)
• Every 3 months or so she gets scared that she's pregnant (keep in mind we haven't had sex at all for the first 6 months or so, yet the fact hasn't stopped her from imagining things)
• She gets mad at me when I'm not in the mood for sexual activity, she gets sad and just distances herself from me.
• I also hate how she treats other people - she cut off all her friends last year, and for the entirety of this year she's constantly sad that she has little to none friends now
• Just a lot of controlling behavior, wear this/don't wear that/unfollow heblock hedo not talk to hedelete this photo/stop smoking/don't go around partying with your friends. As a notable example, I was going to a musical event she wanted to attend, right before I was leaving she called me crying that I shouldn't go there.
• One time she got jealous because she found out some girl followed me, I was out with my friends in another city. She wouldn't tell me what's exactly the issue, cried hysterically over the phone, she tried to break up with me over text, and when I finally convinced my friends to drop me off at her house (about 60 km from where we were hanging out!), she told me that "she followed you and I don't like her".
• She has an annoying tendency to tell my best friend about our relationship problems - often calling him and crying or screaming on the phone. They go to the same school, and he told me multiple times that it's exhausting and he doesn't want to deal with all of that. Is it an attempt to isolate me from my friends?
• After a big argument at a party (where she lied I hit her, even though no such thing happened), she thought my friends had turned the back on me - when I told her that they thought she was a crazy lunatic, she cried and cried and still cries to this day that "my friends hate her!!!!"

I don't know what to think about that. I really do love her and I think that deep down she's a good person, but it often takes too much of a mental toll on me.
TL;DR
I'm left confused and I don't know what to do next after a series of temper tantrums, jealousy and control issues by my girlfriend.

I have a 36 gallon bow front tank. I was thinking it’s way too small for any kind of gold fish, but someone told me I might be able to put one fancy in there. I was wondering what yall think.
For now it has 4 sponge filters running (3 of them being the corner ones where there’s 3 layers of media and one is the one with two big sponge and little bio balls at the bottom). I’d be able to take the decoration out. It is a big castle and some fake plants. I had real plants but almost all died off. I have floating plants and pothos in it currently. I could get a HOB filter to add if the ones I have for now aren’t enough.

Let's get in the context :
I built my first gaming pc on december 27th, and it's been a pleasure to use it. I installed some games, they all run well, except one day, a problem occured.
See, whenever I'm playing with my friends, for an hour or so, everything's fine. But, sometimes, my pc crashes. And by "crash", I mean it shuts down my entire pc. If I want to boot it, I need to unplug the power supply connector, reconnect it, and then I can hit the power button and it boots. It started with fortnite, then others.
Before the problem happened on other games, here are the things I tried :
uninstalling and reinstalling fortnite,
reinstalling the ram,
reconnect the cpu power cable,
and, the thing that kind of worked, deleting "users settings" in the folders of the game. It only worked for a short period of time (about 4-5 days) and the problem came back.
Yes, I keep my gpu drivers updated.
Here are my specs if you need them :
Geforce RTX 4060 (8Gb)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600 (~3.5GHz)
16Gb ddr4 ram (3200MHz)
MSI mpg B550 gaming plus
Be quiet! System power 10 650W
I play on 1440p with settings kinda high for the most part (idk how I play with these settings and still can get above 60 fps though)
I thought it could be the cpu or gpu overheating but I can't have any answer to this (when I reboot my pc after the crash it's low (about 50°C each))
Then another thing that I thought could create this is the lack of power on the power strip that connects everything in my setup (the pc, the 1440p screen, and the 1080p screen)
About 2 weeks ago, I found out that when a game is above ~70 fps, it can crash my pc. But yesterday I was playing Enotria: The Last Song Demo and even on 60 fps, it crashed. On other games, fortunatley, it doesn't on 60 fps.
I am asking for help because I tried litteraly everything I could think of. Even underclocking (is that a real word?) My cpu to 95%
Any tips are welcome
(English is not my native language sorry if I made mistakes writing this)

I just found that among the >thousand packages, qjackctl is what I needed to manage my audio connections. That in order to get good latency with a VST on Carla, I need to edit /home/uname/.config/pipewire/jack.conf.d/10-carla.conf with a particular format of command.
The functionality is amazing and it usually is there, but how does one find it? By haphazard googling, generally. Perhaps by blindly selecting all the man pages that match the names you have a hunch about, though the config files are not always documented. You could try to find those by strace or lsof for a given program, perhaps. You find them: what do you write in them?
I feel like this is something fixable. Something where a unified method can be designed, so one can find (some of?) these things without having to read the Arch wiki for each of your daemons that you might not even know about.
I'm curious about any ideas others might have for how this could be improved. I believe it is the #1 usability problem in all distributions that everything one needs is right there, but the user may not be able to find it without substantial effort.

People always told me that after i finished my regional exams, I'll be able to finally relax and enjoy my summer, but this whole school year I've experienced many stressful situations such as a full teacher strike across all of my country, my father getting in an accident which forced me to leave and go to the hospital in the middle of one of my exams (not the regionals)... I was also forced to study subjects that i completely hate like History & Geography, French... This hate combined with the amount of things i had to learn and memorize combined with the fact that my regionals and 25% of my total grade depends on them, made me develop some sort of fear from learning new information, even in subjects that I like. When i pull up a notebook or a textbook to learn something new (even without a deadline or an exam or anything) my heart starts beating and i start stressing and sweating, and it got even worse. Next year I'll be studying Math, Biology, Physics and chemistry, English and philosophy. I really like all of them except for the last one. But now just sitting in peace and thinking of all the things I'll have to learn makes me anxious and stressed, And I start thinking "what if I don't understand them in time? what if i can't memorize all the philosophers' opinions? The nationals are 50% of my final grade, what if I don't get a good grade on my nationals (the exam is literally 12 months from now lmao)" and all of these thoughts are making me feel like i need to learn them right now (the summer break just started), and me not learning them makes me feel like I'm wasting my time which in turn makes the activities I am doing a lot less enjoyable. But at the same time I'm scared of studying and learning because of what was mentioned before... So it's basically a cycle of contradictions. Do you have any advice for my situation?
Please excuse my writing. English is not my first language. I posted this in another subreddit so it can reach more people

I live in Eastern Europe. Winters here are grey and pretty depressing (it's early June and I already dread the fall), so we try to escape to the south whenever we can. We have a summer house in Spain and a small apartment on the Amalfi coast, we take Ryanair to get there (pretty much a shitty bus with wings). Any city breaks from our local airport are also operated by low-cost airlines, given our airport is pretty small. I'm not a primadonna and can clench my butt and live in discomfort for a few hours, but adjusting to airline schedules sucks. Sometimes I want to be back on a certain day, and that turns a quick flight into a 12h ordeal with layovers. The connection to Spain departs at 4am and that fucks us as well for at least a day, every time.
I did charter a few times, but it feels like setting money on fire, especially given I'm not doing a popular connection, so things like Netjets aren't an option.
So... I'm tempted by the Cirrus Vision Jet. It seats 7 passengers (I've got 3 kids), 1.2k nm range, super safe (autoland, and a fucking parachute on top of that). I used to fly gliders for fun, I'm comfortable in the air and could commit to doing a getting a license. Financially it's also surprisingly sensible, I could lease this on my LLC and write-off a nice chunk of this. Plus, it seems to hold value relatively well.
At this point the idea is in it's honeymoon phase, I'm romanticising taking my wife and kids on trips and it's all smiles and rainbows, so what I need is a reality check and a slap on the face: why is this a dumb idea? Anyone owns a small plane and regrets it?

So me (18m) and my gf (18f) have been going out since december last year, this being my first 'serious' relationship and for the first while everything was going great but in the last ~3 months its not been so good and im not quite sure what to do.
I've always tried my best for her because i really do love her but lately its been feeling one sided for me. Whenever i would buy her smth, write a love letter or even just a paragraph, plan a virtual date night or smth for her all i get is an "aw thats cute" or things along those lines, I never get any of those things in return so its getting harder for me to keep going with things like that (which i still do) which shes told me makes her feel like i dont love her as much.
Theres also this thing where she says she loves me one week but then the next it can be "idk how i feel" and every so often she says we should break up but when i ask why or whats wrong she says she doesnt have the energy to talk abt it and then a few hours everything is suddenly fine, it fucks with my head so bad and it ends up making me feel like absolute shit and like im not worth anything or that im not good enough. She says she never wants to talk abt it because shes "broken" after bad experiences w ex bfs and her really shitty childhood (bullied, father left, groomed) and thats why shes kinds fucked she says.
Im just not sure what to do now, last night she pulled the "i wanna break up thing" in the middle of my 2 weeks of finals after we had previously talked about how it made me feel when she did that and after trying to fix whatever was wrong (again, wouldnt tell me). I messaged her multiple times but she didnt respond for 5 hours until it was 1 am just saying "hi" and when i asked what tf was wrong earlier and what made her say that she just said "nothing" and changed topics. Both her and her friend that ik say that im the healthiest bf shes had and that shes always been like this but i really dont know
I honestly dont think i have it in me to talk her back into staying next time she pulls this, its so draining and ive lately just been having thoughts of inadequacy about myself non stop. Is this normal? I have no idea what im doing here (first ever serious relationship) so ig im just looking to vent and maybe for advice if anyone can give it, im also good to answer any questions if someone needs more info

People always told me that after i finished my regional exams, I'll be able to finally relax and enjoy my summer, but this whole school year I've experienced many stressful situations such as a full teacher strike across all of my country, my father getting in an accident which forced me to leave and go to the hospital in the middle of one of my exams (not the regionals)... I was also forced to study subjects that i completely hate like History & Geography, French... This hate combined with the amount of things i had to learn and memorize combined with the fact that my regionals and 25% of my total grade depends on them, made me develop some sort of fear from learning new information, even in subjects that I like. When i pull up a notebook or a textbook to learn something new (even without a deadline or an exam or anything) my heart starts beating and i start stressing and sweating, and it got even worse. Next year I'll be studying Math, Biology, Physics and chemistry, English and philosophy. I really like all of them except for the last one. But now just sitting in peace and thinking of all the things I'll have to learn makes me anxious and stressed, And I start thinking "what if I don't understand them in time? what if i can't memorize all the philosophers' opinions? The nationals are 50% of my final grade, what if I don't get a good grade on my nationals (the exam is literally 12 months from now lmao)" and all of these thoughts are making me feel like i need to learn them right now (the summer break just started), and me not learning them makes me feel like I'm wasting my time which in turn makes the activities I am doing a lot less enjoyable. But at the same time I'm scared of studying and learning because of what was mentioned before... So it's basically a cycle of contradictions. Teachers, do you have any advice for my situation?
Please excuse my writing. English is not my first language.

I thought it might be a good idea to clean up/normalize a bit my video files so i god a new (well not soo new) GPU and tried out tdarr. Set up a flow; all looked good so lets start.
First thing was i noticed the node was using the iGPU instead of the GPU - so whats wrong? The flow did seem alright and could transcode with the GPU on the system...
Turned out tdarr prefers to use its own ffmpeg (when not otherwise configured). And NVECC wasnt included there. Is it weird to think it might be a good idea to check PATH instead of using a "local" version?
I wanted to try tdarr out a bit first - check if everything were up to date and stuff - so i ended with "copy to directory", result being "Final working file is still in the transcode cache, not allowed:". I mean if i have a flow and every step is successful and I just left the last step, then shouldnt that be considered a successful run? I mean if i d tell him to just transcode in its cache to keep my system busy and clean up again afterwards, then this wouldnt make any sense, but i dont see why this shouldnt be allowed (yes, i found "move to directory" in the meantime). (And ofc the "fail" reason is not seeable in the "Failed transcode overview).Besides: if there are strictly defined allowed end states then why on earth dont you run a simple validation on the flow when saving (or selecting)?
On top of that (i know i might have screwed up in some cases), the user running the services only has read access for some directories-> "Location not writeable:...". Here again: Would it be so hard to check if you even need write access beforehand?
Then the payment: I dont mind paying for a useful application - but subscription? Really? For whats basically a gui for ffmpeg/handbrake? I wouldnt also mind to have a "free" version and a "paid" version, but why on earth wouldnt you just remove the paid stuff instead of placing those big placeholder above the workload graphs?
From time to time i lose connection to the webgui - and of course it seems trying to reconnect in the background or doing nothing at all (maybe show a taostr?) is not possible. Nope the site just reloads when one maybe take a look at a report - that is already loaded).
Didnt even get the android app to connect (but i assume this is just another paid feature - why on earth would you need an account to connect to a local instance otherwise?).
Sry for ranting here - i wouldnt mind getting recommendation for alternatives to tdarr. Heard from unmantic, but didnt try that out yet.

Looking back on this after writing most of it, I’m realizing that I kept typing “pedestrians” when I was really talking about pedestrian vehicles. Just be mindful of that as you’re reading through.
So I was trying to build a city where the emergency services are all in one section of it. The problem is, I want them to get from point a to point b as fast as possible without running into traffic. I could try a one-way highway but it might get used by pedestrians leaving the hospital or their workplace. Could also have traffic from post office cars and garbage trucks traveling between the medical services.
I also want to clarify that I don’t need them to get from point b back to point a very quickly. I just want them to get to my main city as fast as possible. Are there any suggestions at all that could help with limiting use of a highway so there is basically only emergency vehicles? I’m not sure if they’d be able to use bus lanes either.
I will also be calling emergency vehicles: “emvs” for simplicity.
Here are my possible options that could work. (Not sure how well they work because I don’t want to spend the money only for it to be a waste):

1. Using bus-only expressway (or divided bus-pedestrian highway so that pedestrians can use it and emvs will be able to use bus lanes) This only works if emvs will go on bus only lanes.
   
2. Several One way highways that don’t combine This only works if emvs are able to prioritize routes based on traffic. Also, these routes would be to a highway that all major roads in the city derive from
   
3. Tolls on a highway This only works if emvs will be able to bypass tolls. If so, I would have one or two toll booths with high prices to limit as much pedestrian traffic as possible. pedestrians will have a separate road they can use to get back. This is not an ideal strat because it involves unnecessary upkeep on the toll booths which also sap up power.
   

I'm the creator of the webcomic "The Wild Blue" (ThWiBl for short), and I'm looking for some volunteers to help give me feedback on my story content and critique each new episode as I complete them. We would be using a discord server as the main communication hub.
The Wild Blue is a slice-of-life sci-fi comedy/drama following an ensemble cast attending The Cyrian Flight Academy, the top flight school in the galaxy. The cast all experiences their own forms of culture shock from life at the academy, and the way they've lived their lives up to that point is constantly being challenged in wacky and sometimes heartbreaking ways. Later on in the story, hints of corruption at the academy begins to paint a different picture of the formerly idyllic setting of the story, and that further exposes that the world of The Wild Blue may not be as utopian as it may have seemed. The story is commentary on high society, the dangers of blind loyalty to one's family and the worldviews given to you by your upbringing.
The world the story takes place in is sci-fi, but the ground-level setting of the comic is very contemporary to keep things relatable to the audience.
The art style for ThWiBl is primarily made from 3D assets to speed up production time, with characters created in VRoid studio. The characters' facial features are drawn over the models, to maintain a hand drawn feel. This has been a point of contention for some, but I spent 5 years drawing my last webcomic every day and I was pretty burnt out, so I needed to streamline the process this time around.
ThWiBl currently releases differently on different platforms. The story is released in chapters on platforms like Tapas and Webtoon, but on social media like Facebook and Instagram, the chapters are split into smaller episodes, labeled as subchapters, (eg chapter 13.2, chapter 13.3, etc), each made up of 8 slides and a title card. The episodes release every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, but I complete new episodes on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays.
At the time of writing this, I'm currently working on chapter 62.8, which is the 313th episode, so there would be some catch up required if you're not already familiar with the series. I'm also very far ahead of schedule, so that early access can be given to my Patreon supporters. My goal is to reach the end of the story by chapter 150.
As an editor, I would be looking for story feedback, constructive criticism on the overall plot, character development, pacing, and dialogue, as well as a sounding board for future plotlines. I'll also be looking for detailed feedback on each individual episode, focusing on things like narrative flow, engagement, and any inconsistencies. Despite being silly and wacky on the surface, each character is fully fleshed out with their own perspectives and motivations informed by their childhoods and the traumas that they experienced therein, so someone who likes to look deeper into character motivations beyond what's on the surface would be preferred.
If you join me as an editor, you'll receive credit on my website and The Wild Blue's social media pages, you'll get to read episodes of The Wild Blue before they are released to the public, even before the highest tier Patreon members get them, and you'll get to work closely with me and influence the direction of the story.
You can take a look at the comic for reference here
And just as a content warning for those with reservations: ThWiBl has sparse elements of violence, sexual themes and dialogue, plot lines involving LGBT themes, and anthropomorphic characters, but none of these elements are the focus of the story. If you find any of this offensive, this role may not be for you.
Anyone interested, please send me a DM or an email to [BrianLSComics@gmail.com](mailto:BrianLSComics@gmail.com).
Thanks for your consideration and I look forward to hearing from you!
— Brian LS

I am very new to investing. I keep seeing all these sites to sign up for the newsletter and get great tips on what to invest in. Only problem is, when you get it, they just mention a new company or something along those lines and never actually give the info. They want you to then click a link and do 100 other things. My question is, are there any newsletters that just give me the information? For example, we see so-and-so stock is on the rise, and we think it is a great opportunity to invest now. I know that is how they make their money, but friggen say that. I don't mind paying a fee, within reason ofc, to get insider info and knowledge from people who know what they are doing. So I guess my other question would be, are there any good sites, for a fair fee, that I can just get the information, straight to the point? It is annoying trying to just find some information, but there are a million guides out there, all saying something different. I know there isn't 1 straight correct answer but geesh. Any help would be great guys, thanks. Oh, one more question. What is a good AI trading program/app/site? I am looking for ones that tell you something has the markings of probably increasing soon so buy now and then lets me know when it thinks it should be sold I am sorry for so much writing in this post, but I am trying to find things that can help me, and I am sure many of you on here probably know much more than I do.

The Characteristics Of Al-Mu’tasim
Foolishness
Al-Mu’tasim was foolish. Historians described him that when he became angry, he did not care whom he killed or what he did.
Dislike Of Knowledge
Al-Mu’tasim disliked knowledge and hated learned people. There was a servant with him who read with him in the book. The servant died and ar-Rasheed said to al-Mu'tasim, ‘O Muhammad, your servant died.’ Al-Mu'tasim said, ‘O yes, my master! He died and rested from the book.’ Ar-Rasheed said, ‘The book will rest from you. (to his men) Leave him! Do not teach him!’ Al-Mu'tasim remained illiterate. When he became the caliph, he did not know reading and writing and his vizier was unlearned. Ahmed bin Aamir described him by saying, ‘An illiterate caliph and an unlearned vizier.’3 He was divested of knowledge, virtue, and any good quality, by which he was supposed to deserve the caliphate in Islam that was the highest and most important position on which justice and equity among people depended. Al-Mu'tasim’s heart was full of spite and malice against Imam al- Jawad (a.s). He burst with rage whenever he heard the virtues and exploits of Imam al-Jawad (a.s) being mentioned. His envy towards him had led him to assassinate him as we shall explain later on.
Bringing Imam Al-Jawad To Baghdad
Al-Mu'tasim had ordered Imam al-Jawad (a.s) to come to Baghdad and he arrived in it in Muharram, 220 AH.9 When Imam al-Jawad (a.s) came to Baghdad, al-Mu'tasim house- arrested him to know all his affairs and activities. He ordered his men to watch him and he prevented him from connecting with his followers and those who believed in his imamate. Mu'tasim ordered Umm al-Fadhl to poison the Imam, and her brother Ja'far ibn Ma'mun, the accursed one, also helped and provoked her. she poisonedn bunch of grapes, and placed it in front of him. When the Imam had eaten from it, she regretted and went on to cry. He-asws said: ‘What makes you cry? By Allah-azwj! May Allah-azwj Strike you with sterility not to be restored, and affliction which cannot be veiled!’ She died in an illness, a hole appeared in the most covered of places of her body parts (private part). She spent her wealth and entirety of what she had owned, upon that illness, to the extent that she became needy to be nourished. And it is reported that the hole was in her private part. The accursed Umm al-Fadhl also contracted leprosy and descended into Hell in disgrace in the desert, and the dogs tore her body apart.
hemlock poison, whose characteristic was that it made the blessed feet of the Imam so heavy that he could no longer walk, and it made the Imam extremely thirsty, such that like his forefather Imam al Husayn a.s he said: 'Al-Atash, al-Atash' (The thirst, the thirst)... The wicked Umm al-Fadhl ordered the maids to beat drums and tambourines and dance so that his voice would not reach anyone's ears. Finally, Imam Jawad, peace be upon him, was martyred in loneliness on the dirt of his room while in exile. For three days, his blessed body remained on the rooftop of the house, and after that, Umm al-Fadhl threw the pure body down from the roof to the ground. The Shias took the blessed corpse and buried it on the 2nd of Dhu al-Hijjah in the presence of Imam al Hadi, peace be upon him.
‘When allegiance was pledged to Al-Mutasim, he went on to check his situation. He wrote to Abdul Malik Al-Zayyat to dispatch to him Al-Taqi-asws and Umm Fazl. Al-Zayyat dispatched Ali Bin Yaqteen to him-asws. He-asws prepared and went out to Baghdad. He honoured him-asws, and revered him-asws, and sent Ashnas bearing the gifts to him-asws and to Umm Al-Fazl Then he sent a drink of citron juice to him-asws under his seal upon the hands of Ashnas. He said, ‘Commander of the faithful has got Ahmad Bin Abu Dawood, and Saeed Bin Al-Khaeyb, and a group from the well-known people to taste it, and he orders you-asws to drink from it with the water of snow, and he has made it just now, and he says, ‘Drink it at night’. He-asws said: ‘It is beneficial (when) cold, and the snow has melted’. And he insisted upon that, so he-asws drank it knowing of their deeds. (The book) ‘Al Manaqib’ of Ibn Shehr Ashub –V4 p 416
وَ لَمَّا بُويِعَ الْمُعْتَصِمُ جَعَلَ يَتَفَقَّدُ أَحْوَالَهُ فَكَتَبَ إِلَى عَبْدِ الْمَلِكِ الزَّيَّاتِ أَنْ يُنْفِذَ إِلَيْهِ التَّقِيَّ وَ أُمَّ الْفَضْلِ فَأَنْفَذَ ابْنُ الزَّيَّاتِ عَلِيَّ بْنَ يَقْطِينٍ إِلَيْهِ فَتَجَهَّزَ وَ خَرَجَ إِلَى بَغْدَادَ فَأَكْرَمَهُ وَ عَظَّمَهُ وَ أَنْفَذَ أُشْنَاسَ بِالتُّحَفِ إِلَيْهِ وَ إِلَى أُمِّ الْفَضْلِ ثُمَّ أَنْفَذَ إِلَيْهِ شَرَابَ حُمَّاضِ الْأُتْرُجِّ تَحْتَ خَتْمِهِ عَلَى يَدَيِ أُشْنَاسٍ وَ قَالَ إِنَّ أَمِيرَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ ذَاقَهُ قِبَلَ أَحْمَدَ بْنِ أَبِي دَاوُدَ وَ سَعْدِ بْنِ الْخَصِيبِ وَ جَمَاعَةٍ مِنَ الْمَعْرُوفِينَ وَ يَأْمُرُكَ أَنْ تَشْرَبَ مِنْهَا بِمَاءِ الثَّلْجِ وَ صَنَعَ فِي الْحَالِ فَقَالَ اشْرَبْهَا بِاللَّيْلِ قَالَ إِنَّهَا يَنْفَعُ بَارِداً وَ قَدْ ذَابَ الثَّلْجُ وَ أَصَرَّ عَلَى ذَلِكَ فَشَرِبَهَا عَالِماً بِفِعْلِهِم « مناقب آل ابیطالب ج ۴ ص ۴۱۶، بحار الانوار ج ۵۰ ص ۸، منتهی الآمال ص ۱۸۰۵»
(The book) ‘Uyoon Al Mojizaat’ – ‘When Abu Ja’far-asws and his-asws wife, the daughter of Al-Mamoun went out as pilgrims, and Abu Al-Hassan-asws brought out his-asws son Ali-asws, and he-asws was young, he-asws left him-asws behind in Al-Medina, and submitted to him-asws the inheritances, and the weapons, and texted upon him-asws in the witnessing of his-asws trusted ones and his-asws companions, and he-asws left to go to Al-Iraq, and with him-asws was his-asws wife, daughter of Al-Mamoun. And Al-Mamoun had gone out to a city of Rome, and he died at Al-Badeyroun during Rajab of the year two hundred and eighteen, and that was during the sixteenth year from the Imamate of Abu Ja’far-asws. And Al-Mutasim Abu Is’haq Muhammad Bin Haroun was pledge allegiance to during Shaman of the year two hundred and eighteen. Then Al-Mutasim went on to plot in killing Abu Ja’far-asws, and indicated to his-asws wife, the daughter of Al-Mamoun, that she should poison him, because he was aware of her turning away from Abu Ja’far-asws, and the intensity of her jealousy upon him-azwj due to his-asws preferring the mother-as of his-asws son-asws Abu Al-Hassan-asws over her, and because she was not graced with any child from him-asws. She answer him to that and went on to poison in a bunch of grapes, and she placed it in front of him. When he-asws had eaten from it, she regretted and went on to cry. He-asws said: ‘What makes you cry? By Allah-azwj! May Allah-azwj Strike you with sterility not to be restored, and affliction which cannot be veiled!’ She died in an illness, a hole appeared in the most covered of places of her body parts (private part). She spent her wealth and entirety of what she had owned, upon that illness, to the extent that she became needy to be nourished. And it is reported that the hole was in her private part. And he-asws passed away during the year two hundred and twenty from the Hijrah during the day of Tuesday of the fifth (day) vacant from Zil Hijjah, and for him-asws were twenty-four years and some months, because heasws was blessed (to his-asws parents-asws) in the year one hundred and ninety-five
Bihar Al Anwaar – V 50, The book of History – Muhammad Bin Ali-asws, Ch 1 H 26
لَمَّا خَرَجَ أَبُو جَعْفَرٍ عليهالسلام وَ زَوْجَتُهُ ابْنَةُ الْمَأْمُونِ حَاجّاً وَ خَرَجَ أَبُو الْحَسَنِ عَلِيٌّ ابْنُهُ عليهالسلام وَ هُوَ صَغِيرٌ فَخَلَّفَهُ فِي الْمَدِينَةِ وَ سَلَّمَ إِلَيْهِ الْمَوَارِيثَ وَ السِّلَاحَ وَ نَصَّ عَلَيْهِ بِمَشْهَدِ ثِقَاتِهِ وَ أَصْحَابِهِ وَ انْصَرَفَ إِلَى الْعِرَاقِ وَ مَعَهُ زَوْجَتُهُ ابْنَةُ الْمَأْمُونِ وَ كَانَ خَرَجَ الْمَأْمُونُ إِلَى بِلَادِ الرُّومِ فَمَاتَ بالبديرون فِي رَجَبٍ سَنَةَ ثَمَانَ عَشْرَةَ وَ مِائَتَيْنِ وَ ذَلِكَ فِي سِتَّ عَشْرَةَ سَنَةً مِنْ إِمَامَةِ أَبِي جَعْفَرٍعليهالسلام وَ بُويِعَ الْمُعْتَصِمُ أَبُو إِسْحَاقَ مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ هَارُونَ فِي شَعْبَانَ مِنْ سَنَةِ ثَمَانَ عَشْرَةَ وَ مِائَتَيْنِ ثُمَّ إِنَّ الْمُعْتَصِمَ جَعَلَ يَعْمَلُ الْحِيلَةَ فِي قَتْلِ أَبِي جَعْفَرٍعليهالسلام وَ أَشَارَ عَلَى ابْنَةِ الْمَأْمُونِ زَوْجَتِهِ بِأَنْ تَسُمَّهُ لِأَنَّهُ وَقَفَ عَلَى انْحِرَافِهَا عَنْ أَبِي جَعْفَرٍعليهالسلام وَ شِدَّةِ غَيْرَتِهَا عَلَيْهِ لِتَفْضِيلِهِ أُمَّ أَبِي الْحَسَنِ ابْنِهِ عَلَيْهَا وَ لِأَنَّهُ لَمْ يُرْزَقْ مِنْهَا وَلَدٌ فَأَجَابَتْهُ إِلَى ذَلِكَ وَ جَعَلَتْ سَمّاً فِي عِنَبٍ رَازِقِيٍّ وَ وَضَعَتْهُ بَيْنَ يَدَيْهِ فَلَمَّا أَكَلَ مِنْهُ نَدِمَتْ وَ جَعَلَتْ تَبْكِي فَقَالَ مَا بُكَاؤُكِ وَ اللَّهِ لَيَضْرِبَنَّكِ اللَّهُ بِعَقْرٍ لَا يَنْجَبِرُ وَ بَلَاءٍ لَا يَنْسَتِرُ فَمَاتَتْ بِعِلَّةٍ فِي أَغْمَضِ الْمَوَاضِعِ مِنْ جَوَارِحِهَا صَارَتْ نَاصُوراً فَأَنْفَقَتْ مَالَهَا وَ جَمِيعَ مَا مَلَكَتْهُ عَلَى تِلْكَ الْعِلَّةِ حَتَّى احْتَاجَتْ إِلَى الِاسْتِرْفَادِ وَ رُوِيَ أَنَّ النَّاصُورَ كَانَ فِي فَرْجِهَا وَ قُبِضَ عليهالسلام فِي سَنَةِ عِشْرِينَ وَ مِائَتَيْنِ مِنَ الْهِجْرَةِ فِي يَوْمِ الثَّلَاثَاءِ لِخَمْسٍ خَلَوْنَ مِنْ ذِي الْحِجَّةِ وَ لَهُ أَرْبَعٌ وَ عِشْرُونَ سَنَةً وَ شُهُورٌ لِأَنَّ مَوْلِدَهُ كَانَ فِي سَنَةِ خَمْسٍ وَ تِسْعِينَ وَ مِائَةٍ.. «
عيون المعجزات، ص ۱۲۹، اثبات الوصیه ۲۱۹، دلائل الامامیه ص ۳۹۵، بحار الانوار ج ۵۰ ص ۱۶؛ جلاءالعیون ص ۹۶۷، منتهی الآمال ص ۱۸۰۴»
Cause of Imam’s martyrdom
It is mentioned in Tafsir Ayyashi that a man named Zarqan was a close friend of Qadi Ibne Abi Dawud. He narrates: One day when Qadi Ibne Abi Dawud came to me, he was highly distraught. I asked him what the matter was and he told me in a plaintive tone, “Alas! If I had only passed away twenty years ago instead of being humiliated!” When I asked him to explain, he said, “Today, Abu Ja’far Muhammad Ibne Ali humiliated me in the presence of the chief of believers, Mutasim.” “What happened exactly?” I asked. “A thief came to the chief of believers and said: I am a thief. Please issue the Islamic penalty to me and purify from my sin.” Mutasim summoned all the jurists including Abu Ja’far Muhammad Taqi and asked us from where the hand should be chopped. I told him from the wrist. When the Caliph asked me for the proof, I said that the Quran has mentioned cutting off the hand of the thief and the word of ‘yad’ implies the hand from the wrist as mentioned in the verse of Tayammum: “…then wipe your faces and your hands…”Surah Nisa 4:43 And the whole nation has consensus that here the word of ‘yad’ implies the hand from the wrist. So it similarly applies for the thief as well and his hand must be cut from the wrist. For some time there was dispute among the jurists with regard to my verdict and some suggested that his hand should be cut off from the elbow relying on the verse of ablution: “…and your hands as far as the elbows…”Surah Maidah 5:6 After that Caliph Mutasim glanced at Imam Muhammad Taqi (a) and said, “Abu Ja’far, what is your opinion regarding this issue?” “The jurists of the community have mentioned their views; now what is the need of my opinion?” Inspite of his reluctance, the Caliphate insisted. He said, “If you are insisting so much; then listen: all the jurists have erred and issued a verdict that is opposed to the Sunnah. The Islamic legal penalty for the thief is that his four fingers must be cut off from the root leaving his palm intact.” “What is your reasoning for that? Mutasim asked. “It is the statement of Messenger of Allah (s) that during prostration (Sajdah) comprises placing the following seven parts of the body on the floor: forehead, both hands, both knees and toes of both feet. If the hand is amputed from the wrist how that person would perform Sajdah? Whereas Almighty Allah has mentioned in Surah Jinn: “And the places of prostration are Allah’s…”Surah Jinn 72:18 It implies the parts placed in Sajdah. “…therefore call not upon any one with Allah.”Surah Jinn 72:18 That is along with those places of prostration do not include anyone else with Allah. Hence whatever comes into the ownership of Allah cannot be cut off.” Mutasim was highly impressed at this reasoning and he ruled that the fingers of that thief be cut off. I was shattered by this verdict and I wished that I had died before issuing such a judgment and facing such humiliation. Zarqan says: That same Qadi visited Mutasim after two days and said: I am here because of my concern for you and I also know that as a result of that my abode shall in Hell. “What do you mean?” asked Mutasim. Qadi said, “O chief of believers, when you gather the scholars and jurists in your court and inquire about their legal verdicts, at that time not only scholars are present, on the contrary, your family members, ministers and your scribes etc are also present and later on these reports are circulated all over the country. But last time you really did something extraordinary! Ignoring the views of all the scholars and jurists of the Ummah, you adopted the verdict of Abu Ja’far. Whereas you should have taken into consideration the fact that from before also a large number of people from the nation believe in his Imamate and they imagine that you have usurped power that was rightfully Abu Ja’far’s. In spite of that you overlooked the verdicts of all the jurists and applied his opinion. This would weaken the foundations of your rule.” Mutasim’s became terribly infuriated and he said, “You have rendered a good advice; may God give you a good reward.” After that the Caliph ordered his minister to invite Abu Ja’far for dinner and poison the food. So that minister invited the Imam for dinner, but the Imam excused himself. The minister said, “We have only invited you for dinner, so that your presence would bring auspiciousness from God and so and so ministers of the Caliph would also like to meet you.” Finally the Imam attended the dinner and then realized that the food was poisoned. He asked them for the mount in order to return, but the host said, “Why the haste? Please stay some more.” Imam said, “It is better that I leave your place and go home.” After that he was in severe pain for a day and then finally passed away Tafsir Ayyashi, Vol. 1, Pg. 319; Biharul Anwar, Vol. 50, Pg. 5.
: الشيخ محمد بن مسعود العيّاشي في تفسيره:
باسناده عن زرقان صاحب ابن أبي داود و صديقه بشدّة قال: رجع ابن أبي داود ذات يوم من عند المعتصم و هو مغتمّ، فقلت له في ذلك، فقال:
وددت اليوم أنّي قدمت منذ عشرين سنة! قال: قلت له: و لم ذاك؟ قال:
لما كان هذا من الأسود! أبي جعفر محمّد بن عليّ بن موسى- (عليهم السلام)- اليوم بين يدي أمير المؤمنين [المعتصم] .
قال: قلت له: و كيف كان ذلك؟
قال: إنّ سارقا أقرّ على نفسه بالسرقة، و سأل الخليفة تطهيره بإقامة الحدّ عليه، فجمع لذلك الفقهاء في مجلسه، و قد أحضر محمد بن عليّ- (عليهما السلام)-، فسألنا عن القطع في أيّ موضع يجب أن يقطع؟ قال:
فقلت: من الكرسوع، قال: و ما الحجّة في ذلك؟ قال: قلت: لأنّ اليد هي الأصابع و الكفّ إلى الكرسوع، لقول اللّه في التيمّم: فَامْسَحُوا بِوُجُوهِكُمْ وَ أَيْدِيكُمْ [ النساء: 43.]، و اتّفق معي على ذلك قوم.
و قال آخرون: بل يجب القطع من المرفق، قال: و ما الدليل على ذلك؟ قالوا: لأنّ اللّه لمّا قال: وَ أَيْدِيَكُمْ إِلَى الْمَرافِقِ [المائدة: 6] في الغسل دلّ ذلك أنّ حدّ اليد هو المرفق، قال: فالتفت الي محمد بن عليّ- (عليه السلام)- فقال: ما تقول في هذا يا أبا جعفر؟ فقال: قد تكلّم القوم فيه يا أمير المؤمنين [قال: دعني ممّا تكلّموا به، أيّ شيء عندك؟ قال: اعفني عن هذا يا أمير المؤمنين] قال: أقسمت عليك باللّه [لما أخبرت بما عندك فيه، فقال- (عليه السلام)-: أمّا إذا أقسمت عليّ باللّه] إنّي أقول: إنّهم أخطئوا فيه السنّة، فانّ القطع يجب أن يكون من مفصل اصول الأصابع، فيترك الكفّ، قال: و ما الحجّة في ذلك؟
قال: قول رسول اللّه- (صلّى اللّه عليه و آله)-: «السجود على سبعة أعضاء الوجه و اليدين و الركبتين و الرجلين»، فإذا قطعت يده من الكرسوع أو المرفق لم يبق له يد يسجد عليها، و قد قال اللّه تعالى: وَ أَنَّ الْمَساجِدَ لِلَّهِ- يعني به هذه الأعضاء السبعة التي يسجد عليها- فَلا تَدْعُوا مَعَ اللَّهِ أَحَداً الجنّ: 18. و ما كان للّه لم يقطع، قال: فأعجب المعتصم ذلك، و أمر بقطع يد السارق من مفصل الأصابع دون الكفّ.
قال ابن أبي داود: قامت قيامتي و تمنّيت أنّي لم أك [حيّا] قال زرقان: إنّ ابن أبي داود قال: صرت إلى المعتصم بعد ثالثة ، فقلت: إنّ نصيحة أمير المؤمنين عليّ واجبة، و أنا اكلّمه بما أعلم أنّي أدخل به النار، قال: و ما هو؟ قلت: إذا جمع أمير المؤمنين في مجلسه فقهاء رعيّته و علمائهم لأمر واقع من امور الدين، فسألهم عن الحكم فيه فأخبروه بما عندهم من الحكم في ذلك، و قد حضر مجلسه [أهل بيته] و قوّاده و وزرائه و كتّابه، و قد تسامع الناس بذلك من وراء بابه، ثمّ يترك أقاويلهم كلّهم لقول رجل يقول شطر هذه الامّة بإمامته، و يزعمون أنّه أولى منه بمقامه، ثمّ يحكم بحكمه دون حكم الفقهاء؟!
قال: فتغيّر لونه و انتبه لما نبّهته له و قال: جزاك اللّه عن نصيحتك خيرا، قال: فأمر اليوم الرابع الامراء من كتّابه و وزرائه [4] بأن يدعوه إلى منزله، فدعاه فأبى أن يجيبه و قال: قد علمت أنّي لا أحضر مجالسكم.
فقال: إنّي إنّما أدعوك إلى الطعام، و احبّ أن تطأ ببابي و تدخل منزلي فأتبرّك بذلك، و قد أحبّ فلان بن فلان من وزراء الخليفة [لقائك] ، فصار إليه.
فلمّا طعم منها أحسّ السمّ، فدعا بدابّته فسأله ربّ المنزل أن يقيم، قال: خروجي من دارك خير لك، فلم يزل يومه ذلك و ليله في حلقه [في المصدر: في خلفه، و قال محقّق البحار: إنّ الصحيح في خلفة و هو بالكسر: الهيضة، و هي انطلاق البطن و القيء.] حتّى قبض- (عليه السلام)- تفسير العيّاشي: 1: 319 ح 109 و عنه البحار: 50/ 5 ح 7 و ج 79/ 190 ح 33 و ج 85/ 128 و الوسائل: 18/ 490 ح 5 و حلية الأبرار: 4/ 580 ح 2.
ـ أَحْمَدُ بْنُ إِدْرِيسَ عَنْ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ حَسَّانَ عَنْ أَبِي هَاشِمٍ الْجَعْفَرِيِّ قَالَ صَلَّيْتُ مَعَ ابي جعفر (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام) فِي مَسْجِدِ الْمُسَيَّبِ وَصَلَّى بِنَا فِي مَوْضِعِ الْقِبْلَةِ سَوَاءً وَذُكِرَ أَنَّ السِّدْرَةَ الَّتِي فِي الْمَسْجِدِ كَانَتْ يَابِسَةً لَيْسَ عَلَيْهَا وَرَقٌ فَدَعَا بِمَاءٍ وَتَهَيَّأَ تَحْتَ السِّدْرَةِ فَعَاشَتِ السِّدْرَةُ وَأَوْرَقَتْ وَحَمَلَتْ مِنْ عَامِهَا.

1. Ahmad ibn Idris has narrated from from Muhammad ibn Hassa’n from abu Hashim Ali-Ja‘fari who has said the following. “Once I prayed with abu Ja‘far (a.s.) in the Mosque of Ali-Musayyib. He lead the prayer with us and as to the direction of Makka he stood up facing straight. He also has said that a berry tree that was in the Mosque had dried up and had no leaves. The Imam (a.s.) asked for water and prepared himself under that tree for prayer. The berry tree came alive with leaves and fruits in that year.”

Al-Kāfi - Volume 1, The Birth of Abu Ja‘far, Muhammad ibn Ali, the Second (a.s.), Hadith 10
ـ الْحُسَيْنُ بْنُ مُحَمَّدٍ عَنْ مُعَلَّى بْنِ مُحَمَّدٍ عَنْ أَحْمَدَ بْنِ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ عَبْدِ الله عَنْ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ سِنَانٍ قَالَ دَخَلْتُ عَلَى أَبِي الْحَسَنِ (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام) فَقَالَ يَا مُحَمَّدُ حَدَثَ بِآلِ فَرَجٍ حَدَثٌ فَقُلْتُ مَاتَ عُمَرُ فَقَالَ الْحَمْدُ لله حَتَّى أَحْصَيْتُ لَهُ أَرْبَعاً وَعِشْرِينَ مَرَّةً فَقُلْتُ يَا سَيِّدِي لَوْ عَلِمْتُ أَنَّ هَذَا يَسُرُّكَ لَجِئْتُ حَافِياً أَعْدُو إِلَيْكَ قَالَ يَا مُحَمَّدُ أَ وَلا تَدْرِي مَا قَالَ لَعَنَهُ الله لِمُحَمَّدِ بْنِ عَلِيٍّ أَبِي قَالَ قُلْتُ لا قَالَ خَاطَبَهُ فِي شَيْءٍ فَقَالَ أَظُنُّكَ سَكْرَانَ فَقَالَ أَبِي اللهمَّ إِنْ كُنْتَ تَعْلَمُ أَنِّي أَمْسَيْتُ لَكَ صَائِماً فَأَذِقْهُ طَعْمَ الْحَرْبِ وَذُلَّ الاسْرِ فَوَ الله إِنْ ذَهَبَتِ الايَّامُ حَتَّى حُرِبَ مَالُهُ وَمَا كَانَ لَهُ ثُمَّ أُخِذَ أَسِيراً وَهُوَ ذَا قَدْ مَاتَ لا رَحِمَهُ الله وَقَدْ أَدَالَ الله عَزَّ وَجَلَّ مِنْهُ وَمَا زَالَ يُدِيلُ أَوْلِيَاءَهُ مِنْ أَعْدَائِهِ.
. Al-Husayn ibn Muhammad has narrated from Mu‘alla ibn Muhammad from Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Abdallah from Muhammad ibn Sinan who has said the following. “Once I went to see abu al-Hassan (a.s.). He said, “O Muhammad, has something happened to the family of al-Faraj (the governor of al-Madina )?” I said, “Yes, ‘Umar (a member of al-Faraj family) has died.” The Imam (a.s.) said, “All thanks and praise belongs to Allah.” He said it twenty four times. I then said, “My master, had known it would make you this happy I would have come to running and bare foot with the news (to congratulate you).” The Imam (a.s.) said, “Do you not know what he –may Allah condemn him- once had said to Muhammad ibn Ali, my father?” The narrator has said that I said, “No, I do not know it.” The Imam (a.s.) said, “He spoke to my father about an issue and then said to him, “I think you are drunk.” My father then had said, “O Lord, if you know that I have been fasting this day, then make him test the taste of al-A ‘war, and the humiliation of captivity.” By Allah, in just a few days his belongings were looted and he was captured and know he is dead-may Allah deprive him of His mercy. Allah, the Most Majestic, the Most gracious, has exacted revenge from him and He continues to exact revenge for His friends from His enemies.
Al-Kāfi - Volume 1, The Birth of Abu Ja‘far, Muhammad ibn Ali, the Second (a.s.), Hadith 9
ـ عَلِيُّ بْنُ إِبْرَاهِيمَ عَنْ أَبِيهِ قَالَ اسْتَأْذَنَ عَلَى ابي جعفر (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام) قَوْمٌ مِنْ أَهْلِ النَّوَاحِي مِنَ الشِّيعَةِ فَأَذِنَ لَهُمْ فَدَخَلُوا فَسَأَلُوهُ فِي مَجْلِسٍ وَاحِدٍ عَنْ ثَلاثِينَ أَلْفَ مَسْأَلَةٍ فَأَجَابَ (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام) وَلَهُ عَشْرُ سِنِينَ.

1. Ali ibn Ibrahim has narrated from his father who has said the following. “Once a group of Shi‘a from the suburbs asked permission to meet abu Ja‘far (a.s.). He granted them permission and they came in his presence. In one meeting they asked him thirty thousand questions. He answered them all and at that time he was ten years old.”

Al-Kāfi - Volume 1, The Birth of Abu Ja‘far, Muhammad ibn Ali, the Second (a.s.), Hadith 7
ـ عَلِيُّ بْنُ مُحَمَّدٍ عَنْ سَهْلِ بْنِ زِيَادٍ عَنْ دَاوُدَ بْنِ الْقَاسِمِ الْجَعْفَرِيِّ قَالَ دَخَلْتُ عَلَى ابي جعفر (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام) وَمَعِي ثَلاثُ رِقَاعٍ غَيْرُ مُعَنْوَنَةٍ وَاشْتَبَهَتْ عَلَيَّ فَاغْتَمَمْتُ فَتَنَاوَلَ إِحْدَاهُمَا وَقَالَ هَذِهِ رُقْعَةُ زِيَادِ بْنِ شَبِيبٍ ثُمَّ تَنَاوَلَ الثَّانِيَةَ فَقَالَ هَذِهِ رُقْعَةُ فُلانٍ فَبُهِتُّ أَنَا فَنَظَرَ إِلَيَّ فَتَبَسَّمَ قَالَ وَأَعْطَانِي ثَلاثَمِائَةِ دِينَارٍ وَأَمَرَنِي أَنْ أَحْمِلَهَا إِلَى بَعْضِ بَنِي عَمِّهِ وَقَالَ أَمَا إِنَّهُ سَيَقُولُ لَكَ دُلَّنِي عَلَى حَرِيفٍ يَشْتَرِي لِي بِهَا مَتَاعاً فَدُلَّهُ عَلَيْهِ قَالَ فَأَتَيْتُهُ بِالدَّنَانِيرِ فَقَالَ لِي يَا أَبَا هَاشِمٍ دُلَّنِي عَلَى حَرِيفٍ يَشْتَرِي لِي بِهَا مَتَاعاً فَقُلْتُ نَعَمْ قَالَ وَكَلَّمَنِي جَمَّالٌ أَنْ أُكَلِّمَهُ لَهُ يُدْخِلُهُ فِي بَعْضِ أُمُورِهِ فَدَخَلْتُ عَلَيْهِ لاكَلِّمَهُ لَهُ فَوَجَدْتُهُ يَأْكُلُ وَمَعَهُ جَمَاعَةٌ وَلَمْ يُمْكِنِّي كَلامَهُ فَقَالَ يَا أَبَا هَاشِمٍ كُلْ وَوَضَعَ بَيْنَ يَدَيَّ ثُمَّ قَالَ ابْتِدَاءً مِنْهُ مِنْ غَيْرِ مَسْأَلَةٍ يَا غُلامُ انْظُرْ إِلَى الْجَمَّالِ الَّذِي أَتَانَا بِهِ أَبُو هَاشِمٍ فَضُمَّهُ إِلَيْكَ قَالَ وَدَخَلْتُ مَعَهُ ذَاتَ يَوْمٍ بُسْتَاناً فَقُلْتُ لَهُ جُعِلْتُ فِدَاكَ إِنِّي لَمُولَعٌ بِأَكْلِ الطِّينِ فَادْعُ الله لِي فَسَكَتَ ثُمَّ قَالَ لِي بَعْدَ ثَلاثَةِ أَيَّامٍ ابْتِدَاءً مِنْهُ يَا أَبَا هَاشِمٍ قَدْ أَذْهَبَ الله عَنْكَ أَكْلَ الطِّينِ قَالَ أَبُو هَاشِمٍ فَمَا شَيْءٌ أَبْغَضَ إِلَيَّ مِنْهُ الْيَوْمَ.

1. Ali ibn Muhammad has narrated from Sahl ibn zd from Dawud ibn al-Qasim al-Ja‘fari who has said the following “Once I went to see abu Ja‘far (a.s.) and I had a few questions on three pieces of materials with proper markings and they were mixed as such that I could not distinguish. I felt sad. He picked one and said, “This is the letter of Ziyad ibn Shabib.” Then he picked up the other one and said, “.This is the letter of so and so.” I became awe struck. He looked at me and smiled.” The narrator has said that the Imam (a.s.) then gave me three hundred Dinars and asked me to deliver them to the certain persons of the sons of his uncle and said, “He will ask you to show him a professional person who would help him to buy goods, help show him one.” The narrator has said that I then went to him and gave him the Dinars and asked me, “O abu Hashim, can you show me a professional person who would help me to buy goods.” I said, “Yes, I can do so.” The narrator has said that a camel man asked me to speak on his behalf to abu Ja‘far (a.s.) to take part in certain matters of his affairs. I went to see him (abu Ja‘far (a.s.) to speak to him but he was having meal with a group of people and I did not get a chance to speak to him. He (abu Ja‘far (a.s.) said, “O abu Hashim, eat. He placed food before me. Then he said, initiating and without any question from me, “O slave, take good care of the camel-man that abu Hashim has brought for us. Keep him with you.” The narrator has said that one day I entered a garden along with him and said, “May Allah take my soul in service for your cause, I am addicted to eating fig. Pray to Allah for me.” He was quite and then after three day on his own initiation he said, “O abu Hashim, “Allah has removed your addiction.” Ever since it is the thing that I hate most.”

Al-Kāfi - Volume 1, The Birth of Abu Ja‘far, Muhammad ibn Ali, the Second (a.s.), Hadith : 4
ـ عَلِيُّ بْنُ مُحَمَّدٍ عَنْ بَعْضِ أَصْحَابِنَا عَنْ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ الرَّيَّانِ قَالَ احْتَالَ الْمَأْمُونُ عَلَى ابي جعفر (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام) بِكُلِّ حِيلَةٍ فَلَمْ يُمْكِنْهُ فِيهِ شَيْءٌ فَلَمَّا اعْتَلَّ وَأَرَادَ أَنْ يَبْنِيَ عَلَيْهِ ابْنَتَهُ دَفَعَ إِلَى مِائَتَيْ وَصِيفَةٍ مِنْ أَجْمَلِ مَا يَكُونُ إِلَى كُلِّ وَاحِدَةٍ مِنْهُنَّ جَاماً فِيهِ جَوْهَرٌ يَسْتَقْبِلْنَ أَبَا جَعْفَرٍ (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام) إِذَا قَعَدَ فِي مَوْضِعِ الاخْيَارِ فَلَمْ يَلْتَفِتْ إِلَيْهِنَّ وَكَانَ رَجُلٌ يُقَالُ لَهُ مُخَارِقٌ صَاحِبُ صَوْتٍ وَعُودٍ وَضَرْبٍ طَوِيلُ اللِّحْيَةِ فَدَعَاهُ الْمَأْمُونُ فَقَالَ يَا أَمِيرَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ إِنْ كَانَ فِي شَيْءٍ مِنْ أَمْرِ الدُّنْيَا فَأَنَا أَكْفِيكَ أَمْرَهُ فَقَعَدَ بَيْنَ يَدَيْ ابي جعفر (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام) فَشَهِقَ مُخَارِقٌ شَهْقَةً اجْتَمَعَ عَلَيْهِ أَهْلُ الدَّارِ وَجَعَلَ يَضْرِبُ بِعُودِهِ وَيُغَنِّي فَلَمَّا فَعَلَ سَاعَةً وَإِذَا أَبُو جَعْفَرٍ لا يَلْتَفِتُ إِلَيْهِ لا يَمِيناً وَلا شِمَالاً ثُمَّ رَفَعَ إِلَيْهِ رَأْسَهُ وَقَالَ اتَّقِ الله يَا ذَا الْعُثْنُونِ قَالَ فَسَقَطَ الْمِضْرَابُ مِنْ يَدِهِ وَالْعُودُ فَلَمْ يَنْتَفِعْ بِيَدَيْهِ إِلَى أَنْ مَاتَ قَالَ فَسَأَلَهُ الْمَأْمُونُ عَنْ حَالِهِ قَالَ لَمَّا صَاحَ بِي أَبُو جَعْفَرٍ فَزِعْتُ فَزْعَةً لا أُفِيقُ مِنْهَا أَبَداً.

1. Ali ibn Muhammad has narrated from certain persons of our people from Muhammad ibn al-Rayyan who has said the following “Al-Ma’mun did all he could to prove that abu Ja‘far, Muhammad ibn Ali al-Rida (a.s.) was only a young man of worldly desires. However Al-Ma’mun could not succeed. When he became frustrated he gave his daughter in marriage to abu Ja‘far, Muhammad ibn Ali al-Rida (a.s.). For the ceremony he sent two hundred most beautiful entertaining girls each with a bowl in her hand with a precious pearl in it to well come abu Ja‘far, Muhammad ibn Ali al-Rida (a.s.) when he would sit on the special seat prepared for him. They, however, were not of any attraction to the Imam (a.s.) to disturb him. There was a man called Mukhariq who had a voice, musical skills, a guitar and a tall beard. Al-Ma’mun called him and he said, “O Amir al-Mu’minin, if he is a worldly man I will prove myself as dealing him deadly blows on your behalf.” He sat in front of abu Ja‘far, Muhammad ibn Ali al-Rida (a.s.) and began to bray a hee-haw that made all the people of the house gather around him. He began to play his guitar and sing. He did it for an hour but abu Ja‘far (a.s.) did not pay any attention to the right or left. Then he (a.s.) raised his head and said, “O you, tall bearded one, be pious before Allah.” The narrator has said that the musical instrument and guitar fell off his hand and he could not use his hands thereafter until he died. When Al-Ma’mun asked him about his condition he said, “When abu Ja‘far (a.s.) expressed his disappointment at me it struck me with a huge degree of fear from which I have not been able to relieve myself ever since.”

Al-Kāfi - Volume 1, The Birth of Abu Ja‘far, Muhammad ibn Ali, the Second (a.s.), Hadith 4
ـ الْحُسَيْنُ بْنُ مُحَمَّدٍ عَنْ مُعَلَّى بْنِ مُحَمَّدٍ عَنْ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ جُمْهُورٍ عَنْ مُعَمَّرِ بْنِ خَلادٍ قَالَ سَمِعْتُ إِسْمَاعِيلَ بْنَ إِبْرَاهِيمَ يَقُولُ لِلرِّضَا (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام) إِنَّ ابْنِي فِي لِسَانِهِ ثِقْلٌ فَأَنَا أَبْعَثُ بِهِ إِلَيْكَ غَداً تَمْسَحُ عَلَى رَأْسِهِ وَتَدْعُو لَهُ فَإِنَّهُ مَوْلاكَ فَقَالَ هُوَ مَوْلَى أَبِي جَعْفَرٍ فَابْعَثْ بِهِ غَداً إِلَيْهِ.

1. Al-Husayn ibn Muhammad has narrated from Mu‘alla ibn Muhammad from Muhammad ibn Jumhur from Mu‘mmar ibn Khallad who has said the following. “I heard ’Isma‘il ibn Ibrahim say to al-rida (a.s.), ‘My son feels heaviness in his tongue. I intend to sent him tomorrow to you. Pass you your hand over his head and pray for him. He is your Mawla (slave).’” The Imam (a.s.) said, “He is a Mawla (slave) of abu Ja’far (a.s.). send him tomorrow to him (abu Ja‘far (a.s.).”

Al-Kāfi - Volume 1, Tacit and Explicit Testimony as proof of abu Ja‘far al-Thani’s (the second) (a.s.) Divine Authority over the people after abu al-Hassan al-Rida (a.s.), Hadith 11
ـ بَعْضُ أَصْحَابِنَا عَنْ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ عَلِيٍّ عَنْ مُعَاوِيَةَ بْنِ حُكَيْمٍ عَنِ ابْنِ أَبِي نَصْرٍ قَالَ قَالَ لِيَ ابْنُ النَّجَاشِيِّ مَنِ الامَامُ بَعْدَ صَاحِبِكَ فَأَشْتَهِي أَنْ تَسْأَلَهُ حَتَّى أَعْلَمَ فَدَخَلْتُ عَلَى الرِّضَا (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام) فَأَخْبَرْتُهُ قَالَ فَقَالَ لِي الامَامُ ابْنِي ثُمَّ قَالَ هَلْ يَتَجَرَّأُ أَحَدٌ أَنْ يَقُولَ ابْنِي وَلَيْسَ لَهُ وَلَدٌ.

One of our people has narrated from Muhammad ibn Ali from Mu‘awiya ibn Hakim from ibn abu Basir who has said the following. “Al-Najashi once asked me, “Who will be the Imam after your master? I wish you ask him so I will know.” I then went to see Ali al-Rida (a.s.) and informed him (of al-Najashi’s wish).” The narrator has said that the Imam said, “The Imam will be my son.” Then he said, “Can any one say that my son will be the Imam when he has no son?”
Al-Kāfi - Volume 1, Tacit and Explicit Testimony as proof of abu Ja‘far al-Thani’s (the second) (a.s.) Divine Authority over the people after abu al-Hassan al-Rida (a.s.), Hadith 5
ـ عِدَّةٌ مِنْ أَصْحَابِنَا عَنْ أَحْمَدَ بْنِ مُحَمَّدٍ عَنْ جَعْفَرِ بْنِ يَحْيَى عَنْ مَالِكِ بْنِ أَشْيَمَ عَنِ الْحُسَيْنِ بْنِ بَشَّارٍ قَالَ كَتَبَ ابْنُ قِيَامَا إِلَى أَبِي الْحَسَنِ (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام) كِتَاباً يَقُولُ فِيهِ كَيْفَ تَكُونُ إِمَاماً وَلَيْسَ لَكَ وَلَدٌ فَأَجَابَهُ أَبُو الْحَسَنِ الرِّضَا (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام) شِبْهَ الْمُغْضَبِ وَمَا عَلَّمَكَ أَنَّهُ لا يَكُونُ لِي وَلَدٌ وَالله لا تَمْضِي الايَّامُ وَاللَّيَالِي حَتَّى يَرْزُقَنِيَ الله وَلَداً ذَكَراً يَفْرُقُ بِهِ بَيْنَ الْحَقِّ وَالْبَاطِلِ.

1. A number of our people has narrated from Ahmad ibn Muhammad from Ja’far ibn Yahya from Malik ibn Ashyam from al-Husayn ibn Bashshar who has said the following. “Ibn Qiyaman wrote a letter to abu al-Hassan (a.s.) in which he had said the following. ‘How can you be an Imam when you do not have a son?” Abu al-Hassan al-Rida (a.s.) replied him with signs of anger, “How do you know that I will not have a son? By Allah, not many days and nights will pass before Allah will grant me a male child through who He will make the truth distinct from falsehood.”

Al-Kāfi - Volume 1, Tacit and Explicit Testimony as proof of abu Ja‘far al-Thani’s (the second) (a.s.) Divine Authority over the people after abu al-Hassan al-Rida (a.s.), Hadith 4
Ali ibn Ibrahim has narrated from his father that ’Isma‘il ibn Mihran who has said the following. “When abu Ja‘far left Madina for Baghdad the first time of his two journeys on his leaving I said to him, “May Allah take my souls in service for your cause, I am afraid about you in this condition. To who, after you, will belong the task (Leadership with Divine Authority)?” He turned to me laughing and said, “The disappearance, as have thought, will not take place this year. When he was about to be taken to al-Mu‘tasam (179/795 —became caliph 218/833 — 227/841), for the second time I went to him and said, “May Allah take my souls in service for your cause. You are leaving. To who, after you, will go this task Leadership with Divine Authority)?” He wept until his beard become soaked. He then turned to me and said, “This time you should be afraid about my life. The task (Leadership with Divine Authority) after me will go to my son Ali Al-Kāfi - Volume 1 p323
عَلِيُّ بْنُ إِبْرَاهِيمَ عَنْ أَبِيهِ عَنْ إِسْمَاعِيلَ بْنِ مِهْرَانَ قَالَ: لَمَّا خَرَجَ أَبُو جَعْفَرٍ ع مِنَ الْمَدِينَةِ إِلَى بَغْدَادَ فِي الدَّفْعَةِ الْأُولَى مِنْ خَرْجَتَيْهِ قُلْتُ لَهُ عِنْدَ خُرُوجِهِ جُعِلْتُ فِدَاكَ إِنِّي أَخَافُ عَلَيْكَ فِي هَذَا الْوَجْهِ فَإِلَى مَنِ الْأَمْرُ بَعْدَكَ فَكَرَّ بِوَجْهِهِ إِلَيَّ ضَاحِكاً وَ قَالَ لَيْسَ الْغَيْبَةُ حَيْثُ ظَنَنْتَ فِي هَذِهِ السَّنَةِ فَلَمَّا أُخْرِجَ بِهِ الثَّانِيَةَ إِلَى الْمُعْتَصِمِ صِرْتُ إِلَيْهِ فَقُلْتُ لَهُ جُعِلْتُ فِدَاكَ أَنْتَ خَارِجٌ فَإِلَى مَنْ هَذَا الْأَمْرُ مِنْ بَعْدِكَ فَبَكَى حَتَّى اخْضَلَّتْ لِحْيَتُهُ ثُمَّ الْتَفَتَ إِلَيَّ فَقَالَ عِنْدَ هَذِهِ يُخَافُ عَلَيَّ الْأَمْرُ مِنْ بَعْدِي إِلَى ابْنِي عَلِيٍّ. کافی ج۱ ص ۳۲۳

In August last year I (M 56) began dating a woman (F 51) that I had known since high school. To be honest at the time I couldn’t remember exactly who this girl was until we went on a couple dates to learn more about each other. She knew who I was the entire time. We had fun together but we weren’t really compatible long term and I could see the writing on the wall. We mutually broke up around Thanksgiving the same year so we were serious for about three months. No one cheated. No one did anything bad to the other. I felt that any time I brought up my future goals or ideas or really anything, she would say that I’m wrong and explain alternative ways of doing things that just didn’t align with what I was looking for. We remained friends. No hard feelings. She had helped me move from my apartment last January to a new place. Neither one of us have dated since our breakup and are both still single. We both understand that we are friends and nothing else and we are both fine with that. I had bought myself a ticket to a concert for this past Friday and had planned to meet a couple of friends at the concert. Last weekend I called my ex and asked if she would like to go. I knew she liked the band and it was her birthday coming up. My treat. To my surprise she said that she would love to go. Great, I bought her a ticket and looked forward to the show. I live closer to the venue so it was decided that she would drive to my house and then I would drive to the show. We get to the show and parked but spent about 40 minutes in the car just catching up. It was a pleasant conversation but the first band had already started and I was anxious to get inside. Once we were inside, I saw some of my friends and we chatted briefly. She had met my friends before and talked to my friend’s wife so all is good. She wanted to go over to the merchandise table. She bought 2 vinyl records, a hat and a shirt which took a while. The venue is a very small amphitheater. They had food and drinks and the merchandise table where you couldn’t see the stage. I excused myself to by a beer and a jack and coke for her. The bar counter was close and we could see each other the whole time. I made it back to her before she finished her purchase. She kept calling her adult kids (in their 30’s) to see if she could pick something up for them. She was on her phone a lot. The first band finished and the second band had already started. I mentioned that I would like to grab a bite to eat and asked if she wanted anything. She agreed to meet me at concession stand. Like I said this is a very small venue and everything was close. Between each band, a lot of the audience would walk out to the concession area. It is general admission seating. First come, first served. I ordered the food and was waiting for it. Right after she joined me the food was ready. She said she didn’t want anything but I bought her something just in case thinking I would eat it if she didn’t. She ate half the food so I’m glad I bought extra. While we were standing there eating she would wander off leaving me to watch her purse and merchandise. If she wasn’t wandering off, she was texting on her phone. I felt a little weird about this. I’m not a baby sitter of her stuff while she just walked away looking around and she is ignoring me when she isn’t wandering but so far I’m cool. We are just friends and I bought her ticket as a gift. We finish eating and by now, the 3rd band is setting up. There are 4 bands total. I had explained to her before that I really wanted to see the final two bands. But now she has to go to the bathroom. The 3rd band starts playing. I’m like go ahead and once again I’m watching her stuff waiting for her. She comes back and says there is a flyer in the bathroom that she wanted to take a picture of but she didn’t have her phone. She retrieved her phone and goes back to the bathroom. I still haven’t seen any bands yet and I really wanted to see this band. She comes back and starts texting. I’m like maybe we should go find seats. She doesn’t say anything and continues texting. I mention again that we should go find some seats. She ends texting and starts rummaging through her purse doing I don’t know what. Between the merchandise table, eating the food, the texting and bathroom trips we lost a lot of time. I say for the third time we should find some seats and whatever she is doing, she can once we’re seated. Finally, we go inside and sit down. She mentioned that she would like to see if she can get the headlining band to sign her vinyl and she wants to go near the stage right before they come on and I agree if that’s what she wants to do. The rest of the time that the third band plays (3 songs because we had missed so much) she is seated next to me but isn’t watching the band. She is facing away from me and is texting the whole time. The third band finishes their set and up she goes to use the bathroom again and I’m left watching her stuff. When she returns, she grabs her wallet and runs off to buy herself another drink never offering or asking if I would like something. The headlining band begins. I guess the signatures weren’t that important since I am still holding her record. A little time goes by and I look over to the end of the isle to see her dancing and talking with some dude. Really, I don’t care that she is talking to someone but I am beginning to feel a little disrespected. We missed most of the overall show and she began ignoring me as soon as we stepped inside the venue. The headlining band is now halfway through their set and I see her in the aisle doing I don’t know what. She looks up and sees me and I give her the hand/arm signal like what are you doing? She waves me to come over. I can’t leave her stuff and I know that if I move, someone else will take our seats. Besides, I don’t want to stand in the aisle when we have seats. I don’t see the point. Two more songs and we meet eyes again. I give her the what are you doing signal again. Two more songs and she still hasn’t returned. Now, I’ve had enough. I feel totally disrespected. Missed more than half the show. Never see my friends again so I grab her stuff walk out to her, hand her all the merchandise and say I want to go home and start walking. She follows and asks me what is going on? I explain to her how she has made us miss half the show, she is on her phone texting the whole time and has basically ignored me the entire time that we have been there preferring to watch the show from the aisle instead of our seats. She says hey we are only friends, I can text if I want. I said sure you can but it was rude and disrespectful and friends don’t treat each other that way. She doesn’t want to hear it. She wants to go to my car, grab her things and stay. She wants to get an Uber home. So, we walk out to the car, she grabs her things, closes the door and walks back to the venue. I would have given her a ride but she just walks off. AITAH for leaving her there?

Introduction
1) Will this be your first dog? If not, what experience do you have owning/training dogs?
I had a dog for around a year when I was in 2nd grade and I don’t remember a thing on caring for her, so probably I’ll be classified as a first time owner.
2) Do you have a preference for rescuing a dog vs. going through a reputable breeder?
I would LOVE to rescue a dog but since I don’t have any experience, I know that’s a long way to go since most of them have other needs than a pure bred dog that didn’t go through things.
3) Describe your ideal dog.
A dog that is happy, greets me with a wagging tail, can be left around 5 hours alone unattended in a crate or a designated space with food and water provided, I don’t have a problem with shedding or barking
4) What breeds or types of dogs are you interested in and why?
I don’t have any specific breed in mind, I just am not fond of really small (chihuahua) or really big (Great Dane, Bernese) breeds
5) What sorts of things would you like to train your dog to do?
Basic commands like sit, stay and so, respond to their name, any fancy commands they can learn, like high five or play dead, don’t know if it’s right to train that to a dog, but generally to protect me from unwanted people (aka people following me around at night and so)
6) Do you want to compete with your dog in a sport (e.g. agility, obedience, rally) or use your dog for a form of work (e.g. hunting, herding, livestock guarding)? If so, how much experience do you have with this work/sport?
No, don’t want to compete to anything
Care Commitments
7) How long do you want to devote to training, playing with, or otherwise interacting with your dog each day?
Training as long as it needs, I can train every day, playing whenever I’m home, aka more than half of the day
8) How long can you exercise your dog each day, on average? What sorts of exercise are you planning to give your dog regularly and does that include using a dog park?
I can exercise my dog daily for 2+ hours and go with him/she to a dog park
9) How much regular brushing are you willing to do? Are you open to trimming hair, cleaning ears, or doing other grooming at home? If not, would you be willing to pay a professional to do it regularly?
I can brush every day for an hour or so, I can learn how to trim nails and for things I can’t, of course I’ll go to a groomer
Personal Preferences
10) What size dog are you looking for?
Any size, just not the really small and really big breeds, as mentioned above
11) How much shedding, barking, and slobber can you handle?
I don’t have any shedding or barking preference, I’m not too fond with slobber
12) How important is being able to let your dog off-leash in an unfenced area?
I really want to train my dog to a level where he/she can roam freely unleashed without being in danger or causing problems
Dog Personality and Behavior
13) Do you want a snuggly dog or one that prefers some personal space?
A snuggly dog wouldn’t be bad, but not as snuggly in terms of it can’t be left alone due to high desperation anxiety, if that makes sense
14) Would you prefer a dog that wants to do its own thing or one that’s more eager-to-please?
A dog that’s eager to please
15) How would you prefer your dog to respond to someone knocking on the door or entering your yard? How would you prefer your dog to greet strangers or visitors?
I want a dog that can protect me when needed, so I can’t say for it to be nice to strangers
16) Are you willing to manage a dog that is aggressive to other dogs?
Not really since I’m not that experienced
17) Are there any other behaviors you can’t deal with or want to avoid?
No aggression towards other animals mainly
Lifestyle
18) How often and how long will the dog be left alone?
Around 5 to 6 hours a day, mostly in the mornings
19) What are the dog-related preferences of other people in the house and what will be their involvement in caring for the dog?
No other people in the house
20) Do you have other pets or are you planning on having other pets? What breed or type of animal are they?
I would like to get a cat in the future
21) Will the dog be interacting with children regularly?
Only other people’s kids and not really often, a few times per year
22) Do you rent or plan to rent in the future? If applicable, what breed or weight restrictions are on your current lease?
I would rent sometime and there are no general restrictions
23) What city or country do you live in and are you aware of any laws banning certain breeds?
I live in Greece and from what I know, there are no bans
24) What is the average temperature of a typical summer and winter day where you live?
In the summer the weather comes to around 40°C and in winter almost never under 10°C
Additional Information and Questions
25) Please provide any additional information you feel may be relevant.
I can’t think of anything else

Really looking for advice on how to handle this situation and whether we might need to pursue legal recourse.
We moved into a new construction townhome development in Fall 2023. The HOA board was assembled shortly thereafter and management of the development was handed over from the developer's property management group to the HOA (or so we were told; there is also a ton of verbiage in our bylaws about the official "turning over" of the development to the HOA after the last certificate of occupancy). Before we moved in we inquired as to whether we would be allowed to install a deck with a small hot tub (we like most folks in the neighborhood opted to build the deck onto our house later on after closing to save on costs). Our HOA documents originally stated "the board will publish decking guidelines to ensure consistency throughout the community", and when we inquired about a hot tub we were just told the board was still deciding on formal deck rules but they were considering allowing hot tubs.
Fast forward to March 2024: the HOA board formally published their Executed Deck Resolution, in which it states "hot tubs are allowed on decks provided there is privacy fencing on both sides." Perfect, great! We started getting plans together for our deck build, hired a contractor, and put a deposit on a hot tub to ensure the timeline to source it would align with our build.
The Executed Deck Resolution also stipulates that we must procure all permits from the township prior to even requesting approval from the HOA, and that each deck request must still go through HOA approval. So we went forward and paid many hundreds of dollars in permit fees to obtain permits for the deck, the hot tub (spa permit), and necessary electrical wiring to install an outlet to power the hot tub. This all seemed fine to us at the time because our HOA board president verbally stated at a community meeting that the board was starting to get a lot of deck requests rolling in and as long as they were permit approved by the township the board was basically rubber stamping to approve everyone's request. AND, the board had officially approved hot tubs.
Well, sometime between March and now the board has apparently decided they DO NOT plan to approve our hot tub request. We have 4 days left until our architectural change request is automatically denied for having sat too long without being ruled upon by the HOA (everything gets assumed denied after 30 days if not ruled upon, which is asinine). We've been prodding the board periodically asking if we can ease any concerns or answer any questions for them before they approve our request and have been ghosted except for one message from a board member demanding that we "speak with our neighbors first to get their feedback." I'm sorry, what? Since when do I need my neighbor's approval for a project?
Yesterday I prodded one more time and then received a text from another board member that the president is out on vacation and hasn't voted yay or nay on our deck build, which means our request will expire in a few days and will be an automatic no. Then she dropped the bomb on me that even if the president gets his shit together in time and votes yes, our request STILL has to go back to the property management company (???????????) for approval. There is nothing about this in our bylaws. It clearly states "unit owners shall have a right to construct a deck subject to containing the consent of the builder (prior to issuance of the last certificate of occupancy), the Association (after issuance of last certificate of occupancy), and the Township."
My impression is that the board is completely incompetent and failing to do their job. My question is: when they inevitably deny our request, either via a direct "no" or by just ignoring us for 30 days, do I have a legal case here? I am acting within my given rights as a homeowner and my architectural change request falls very squarely within the published HOA deck guidelines. I also feel my request is being treated unfairly and held to a different standard than the other homeowners simply because the board changed their minds at some point and are trying to dodge the situation.
I have a letter of appeal drafted already that I plan to submit the moment our request expires. But is there anything else I can do here? Hire a lawyer to write a threatening letter? Build my deck and put a hot tub in anyway and let them place a lien on my property in the hopes that a judge will rule in my favor?
On the surface this is about me wanting a hot tub (as is my right according to the Executed Deck Resolution) but underneath this is a deeply concerning issue about the board's complete and utter failure to act within the best interest of the community. Please help!

I've had him since 1.2 and got JL in 1.4. I didn't get her to replace him or anyathing; I'd invested in them both and used them to mostly clear the same content. I actually wanted to use them together and thankfully her siphon doesn't turn off Soulsteel Sync. I've found the gap between their performance to be overall negligible thus far. I'm not saying there are no differences. This is gonna be a little long and the first part of what I'll write prolly could go to the general sub but it kinda explains how I look at things/am approaching this. I'll be using Lv.10 Traces in any skill examples for the sake of simplicity.
Before I go further I want to outline a few things:

• Supports do the heavy lifting regardless of which character is being used. (Not limited to this.)
• "Character A is carried by Support Σ" is contextually a point for consideration; not an invalidation of a character's capability to be useful.
• "Low Investment" and "High Investment" have their place in discussions but I think are misused for topics like this. Often they are brought up to write something off rather than consider the weight of impact various degrees of investment change things.
  • e.g. Boothill has a high floor and can be considered low investment while arguing his ceiling is high investment because of how much he gets boosts from character synergies.
  • Both are valid considerations but the first is likely the main one brought up for example.

With that in mind I'm saying the following to make a few points, not to be a definitive baseline:
Low investment is often a baseline barometer in Live Service games, MMOs, and even some RPGs when it comes to various aspects of community discussion. It's good for early game due to resources being more limited and even beyond that as a way to judge opportunity cost. Some individuals would even opt to do a low investment challenges. All of that is fine but general discussion oftentimes is heavily imbibed with the consideration of "low investment" as a baseline to the point it can and does detract from discussion of a character's kit/utility. It tends to breed a mindset along the lines of "Why invest in U when I have J?" but w/o necessarly considring what "U" brings to the table.

• e.g. Fu Xuan is valued highly as a sustain in part due to role compression. She mitigates damage, has a minor heal, confers debuff resist, and buffs CR (and CD at E1).
• Getting and investing in her w/ that mindset can thus lead to the disinclination to engage w/ other options regardless of what they provide.

Again just stating this to get the ideas across.
About YQ:
I think some of the exaggerated negativity is in part due to March and Gepard not being viewed as highly as other sustains despite their capability to solo sustain even outside of YQ. Aven isn't exactly a FX but the fact he just works w/o too much input adds a level of comfort that makes YQ more appealing to use for some.
March's general build is ~80-100% EHR and ~3000 DEF which allows her to freeze pretty much anything w/o Freeze Resist & a 2470 health shield assuming she has exactly 3000 DEF and isn't on 4p Purity (which would be 2964). I use her as the example b/c her Freeze being on Ult means she's used the same way "Welt Sustain" is while also actually enbling YQ's E1. I admittedly only invested in her beyond lv60 earlier this year because I was using Welt to do her job and get some damage amp at the same time via his Vulnerability debuff & Resolution & don't have his E1 but her FUA was useful for recent Cycle Buffs. Still March is a bit easier to use to some degree due to her FUA giving her extra energy even at E0.
YQ and JL:
Element, role, Base ATK, preffered supports, wanting to stay in a stance, and buffing crit; they are extremely simiar with a few caveats. So "Why is their damage so similar in single target?" and "Why does YQ lead by 5-10% in single target?"
This is because they achieve the same-ish endgoal in slightly different ways. I'm using 135+ SPD JL on I Shall Be My Own Sword and 135+ SPD YQ on In the Night for my main comparisons. (127+ lets YQ hit 160 w/ TY + his A1 and her E1 but SPD boots allow for better substat distribution than getting ~7-9 speed subs.)
Jingliu * At E0 JL's talent can convert siphoned HP to 180% of her Base ATK. * This is 2174.4 with Aeon and 2269.8 with her Signature. * Tends to use Rutilant Arena for the DMG% * 135 SPD JL tends to have ~2200-2400 ATK on the character menu depending on subs. * This means JL has ~4400-4600 ATK for her 250% skill and 300% ult modifier.
Yanqing * Planar Set depends but Galmoth is the angle with ItN usually. * A2 adds a 30% ATK modifier as a bonus hit to any damage he deals to ice weak enemies. * This makes his modifiers effectively 130%, 250%, 380% and 80%. * When his FUA triggers that correlates to 210%, 330%, and 460% from using the basic, skill, or Ult respectvely. * His E1 works the same (afaik) using the frozen status as the conditon check for a hit of 60% ATK. * ~2700-3100 ATK w/ SPD boots
I guess I can't use tables for this? * Attack used E0 non-Ice Weak E0 Ice Weak E1 Frozen E1 Ice Weak + Frozen * Basic 100% 130% 160% 190% * Skill 220% 250% 280% 310% * Ult 350% 380% 410% 440% * FUA 50% 80% 110% 140%
His FUA is slapped on to the end of whatever he does so his E1 is effectively +120% ATK modifier whenever it triggers vs a Frozen enemy. A lot of videos where he is E1+ the people using him didn't even attempt to freeze via Break or Debuff (March) directly before his turn so I had to scrounge around and watch ~8h of gameplay at x0.5 speed to double check this.
A lot of abilities use damage splits so yes I counted hits manually. A2 was fine since I could do it myself. So his A2 and E1 add 1 hit individually and 2 if triggered at the same time.
His E2 on its own seems underwhelming but has very relevant impact.
Tl;dr is TY gives 60 @ E6 so he only needs to provide 90. Ult, 2 Skill, and 1 FUA is (5 + 30 x 2 + 10) or 75. 75 x 1.1 = 82.5 so 2 kills (TY E2 5 x 2) or a second FUA (11) will let him hit 90 energy to get topped off.
The important thing to glean from this is his effective mods being so high closes the gap & his self buff on ult is usually what drags him ahead a little. I've used them with mostly the same combinations of buffers, 2 harmony (often Bronya & TY) with a sustain or Welt/Pela, and running them on their own + each-others gear. While there 100% are differences, like JL's easier SP management w/ Bronya, they aren't anything that actually makes him feel bad. At most he takes some extra thought. And if that's a reason some don't opt to use him I completely understand.
I get some of the frustrations with his kit too. I wish his FUA was 70%+ because the 10% would make a big long term difference for resets & consistent toughness damage but I also kinda understand it's likely not 70%+ b/c thats a 42.9% Freeze roll against 40% RES enemies if Pela is on the team or he otherwise has 10% EHR. Many enemies that aren't ice weak don't resist Freeze so across 3 FUA you statistically have a 78.4% cumulative chance to freeze them 1+ times.

• As a consequence of all his raw mod stackiing his E4 is better than it looks on paper.
• I still wish his E6 was elsewhere in his kit but thinking about it last year led me to the PoV of looking at his Ult like a failsafe & guiding line. If you have 50% CR Soulsteel brings you to 70% CR which is decently consistent. If you lose Soulsteel post Ult and need to basic or whatever you'll be at 100% still b/c getting hit doesn't remove the uUlt buff.
• My biggest gripe about him at this point is the fact his "Sig" feels like bait even if you look at it like "it's supposed to offset ult uptime".
• Needing a shield to safely gain energy when he inevitably does get hit is a fair point to raise & a minor annoyance but, again, heavily overblown as a downside imo.

I think the craziest parts of sitting down to get all this out has been the insistence I've seen in various places that March can't solo sustain bothh in general & for YQ specifically. That YQ is "carried by supports" that get used for the same/similar clears w/ JL or other dpses. JL is straight up more synergystic w/ Bronya than most chars on some level b/c you aren't going -2 sp nearly every time you Bronya skill & like I said at the start supports do the heavy lifting that allow us to push characters further no matter who the character is. So this is an odd form of downplay when we could objectively acknowledge the SP thing as an issue the YQ team will face w/o undermining it.
Aside from that I didn't have Gepard till losing Sparkle's 50/50 & despite being able to hyperbuff YQ w/ triple harmony he's still been a very comfortable to use support in the 4th slot that's allowed me to do ~3-4 cycles just as well. I'm sure he'd feel better if he had more speed and an EHR chest so I could freeze on skill more often even at E0. I don't have RM (failed 50/50), Aven, or Robin (both skipped for now) but I've used him w/ everyone else not named YK thus far and it's been fine. Some stat tweaking and a few mr gamplay consideration's than whacking stuff w/ JL but nothing all that frustrting or infuriating.

Original post with an update:
https://www.reddit.com/AITAH/s/ps9DerJ1JV
Update:
https://www.reddit.com/AITAH/s/9xlFdxiIG6
Related Post:
https://www.reddit.com/AITAH/s/ktQ8qm85S2
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I wasn’t planning on updating again until after the baby was born, but a lot has happened since I last posted.
I found a very nice couple to adopt my unborn baby. They have two sons and one daughter already. My dad and lawyer did background checks and everything. They’re a nice family who want a large family. They have two biological children, but can no longer have any more, so, they want to adopt as many as they’re allowed. But unless I get their permission, that’s all I can tell you about them right now. I don’t know how much they want out there. But they said they would give their daughter any letter or note write to her once she reached fourteen or fifteen depending on when they think she’s ready and can comprehend everything.
I know a lot of people have been getting on me because I say uncle and aunt instead of aunt and uncle. I think someone even corrected me on that. I get aunt and uncle may sound better, but I say uncle first because he’s my dad’s brother and my aunt married in. If my aunt were my dad’s sister, I would say aunt first. Maybe that’s wrong, but that’s how I put it.
But getting to them. My uncle is in jail for getting drunk and then getting into a verbal fight with my dad and a physical fight with some people in public. My aunt is in a psychiatric ward after threatening suicide after I continued to deny her my unborn baby. It only got worse when she found out I found a couple.
My grandpa had a mild stroke and was temporarily placed in a different home than grandma. He sincerely apologized for saying everything he said and did, but still thinks I’m being ungrateful. Still, he said he supports my decision and won’t stop me.
My grandma apologized to dad but refused to look at me until a few days ago. She said she was sorry and that she understood that being a mother at fifteen is difficult. But that was why I should have let my uncle and aunt have my unborn baby. However, I’m going to be sixteen in two weeks, so I’ll be sixteen when my baby is born. So, seeing as I will be sixteen, I should be able to handle being a mother. Not only that, but this may be my only chance to have a baby. And that got me thinking about what if she’s right. What if this was my only chance? But I also know I’m not ready and that I would feel awful if I backed out of the adoption when I really liked the couple. So, my grandma is back to refusing to have anything to do with me.
I decided that if this was the only chance I got to be pregnant, then it’s just not meant to be. If I can’t have any babies in the future, I’ll get plenty of ice cream and maybe some more cats, dogs, hamsters, or whatever. I would love to be a mom in the future, but whatever happens, happens.
I’m just starting to become comfortable and my therapist says keeping the baby could throw everything off. But she also says it’s my choice.
I must be blind or really stupid because I didn’t realize my dad was gay (or bi) and that his best friend who is always over helping is actually his boyfriend. I didn’t know and just thought he was a very good friend. I accept them because they seem very happy together. And I believe love is love. However, I really wish I didn’t find out the way I did.
Short version: it was late at night and I got up to use the bathroom. I heard noises coming from my dad’s room that I didn’t recognize, so I went to investigate. And that’s where I’m leaving that.
My dad’s teaching assistant came over a few weeks ago and I met him. He’s very, very nice. He just turned nineteen. He knows I was attacked and that I’m putting the baby up for adoption. He also knows that certain family members are against it, but he doesn’t know any personal details. He asked me out on a date last week. Dad said fine, but it had to be supervised. My friends and their partners were supposed to go with.
The date was supposed to be Friday afternoon. However, I became sick and it only became worse as the days went by. Dad finally made me go to the ER Thursday night. I have two blood clots: a small one in my chest and a medium-sized one next to my right lung.
So, I’ve been stuck in the hospital since then. And I will be stuck here until they say the clots are manageable outside of the hospital. However, the nurses and one doctor recommended that because I am pregnant and am due soon, I should just stay in the hospital until after she is born. I don’t know how I feel about that. I don’t want to stay in the hospital any longer than I have to.
Originally I was told I was due at the end of July or beginning of August. Now they’re saying most likely July.
Please, can someone give me any advice because everyone I know is telling me to listen to the doctors.
My cats are still kittens and would destroy the cords, so they can’t be here. I feel like I’m losing my mind.

My wife and I will be doing a 3 week road trip mostly through California starting mid august, and we are unbelievably excited! The dates and locations are mostly set in stone and we're aware there are some big driving days in there, so we have our fingers crossed not to have too many recommendations to change the plan :). We're hoping this gives us a reasonable overview of the main parts of the state for 2 newbies, starting and ending in SF.
We're interested to hear what some locals think of the itinerary, what things would be worthwhile doing in the time we have, and any favourite food spots or exciting things or events that would be interesting for a couple, or spots to see along the general routes we'd be taking. We love food. We love markets and we absolutely love american culture in general (pop-culture, westerns, ghost towns, ). We also fancy doing things a bit off the beaten track, but in saying that we are hitting most of the biggest tourist spots at the same time so not sure how feasible those off the wall sites/things might be if doing a lot of the main city attractions (ie universal studios, hollywood bvd etc)
Our basic outline is as follows:
Day 1 Arrive SF - pickup Car - Highway 1 Drive to Monterey
Day 2: Drive to Santa Barbara
Day 3: Drive to LA - ?ventura, malibu?
Day 4: LA
Day 5: LA
Day 6: LA
Day 7: Drive to San Diego (best route?)
Day 8: San diego
Day 9: San diego
Day 10: Palm Springs
Day 11: Twenty Nine Palms - explore Joshua tree
Day 12: Drive to Vegas (anything to stop and see from joshua tree to vegas?
Day 13: Vegas
Day 14: Vegas
Day 15: Vegas
Day 16: Drive through death valley, Arrive Mammoth Lakes
Day 17: Yosemite, via tioga pass
Day 18: Not booked ? San Fran or somewhere cool between yosemite and SF. Another night Yosemite?
Day 19: SF
Day 20: SF
Day 21: SF
Day 22: SF
(Apologies, that looks horribly formatted but wasn't sure the best way to do this)
We'd love to know what the must-do things are to see and do while in LA, and around it for that matter! Is the best way to get to San diego from LA to drive down the coast, or is there anything cool to see if coming further east, ie down through temecula etc as we'll miss that part on our way up to Joshua Tree?
Aside from that, does anyone have any really quirky or weird things outside of the usual tourist traps to do in any of these locations? We'd love to hear any and all recommendations! What are y'all thoughts??

Im a 18 AFAB person who doesn’t take medication or any substances.
My issue is that sometimes when I get up from relaxing, my body goes limp and I fall on something. It’s gotten bad to the point where for like a minute I’ll just stare in confusion and not remember where I am. And just now as I’m writing this it happened again at work. I fell and my body shook during the period of confusion. It sucked but after like a few seconds everything was ok.
I thought it was a low iron thing but my mom has low iron and that doesn’t happen to her.

Hi! This question specifically relates to media consumption habits; I do not imply reading books or course material here.
I read The Hindu daily and do not think I will leave it anytime soon (non-UPSC-aspirant here). In addition, my university's library account allows me to read the Financial Times, which is equally erudite. However, due to workload, I have become more erratic in reading newspapers; though I skim through them, I read them thoroughly only occasionally. For instance, I never skip the editorials/opinion of FT and The Hindu.
I was curious since I may be moving back to India after completing my postgraduate degree here in the UK. Since it was a degree in IR, FT was a must-read, though, once I have shifted back, I understand it may not be so critical for my line of work, and its subscription will come dear. I shall continue to subscribe to TH.
Would you suggest reading a pink paper instead or as a complement to TH? While it is recommended for understanding policy and economy, which will be crucial for my work, I believe the right mix of podcasts can supplant the need for a financial daily. If I am driven to believe by you that a financial daily is paramount, I would place my bets on Mint, which I have read in the past, though I am open to suggestions.
Furthermore, being an avid reader, I appreciate the well-written, incisive, and analytical long-form. My studies necessitated a reading of The Economist daily and whereas I am not loathe to continue it, I have always questioned its editorial stance and Eurocentrism. Having said that, it remains a comprehensive primer on the week's global issues which is not easy to replace. However, in spite of its abiding relevance, would you recommend any other magazine? I read articles from The Caravan but have never picked it up from the news-stand. My TH subscription comes with Frontline for which I used to eagerly wait in my undergrad but now tend to read in a pack of two-three on the rare weekend I get time. I must say Vaishna Roy has vastly improved the tenor and look of the magazine, though its ideological edge has slightly blunted. Nevertheless....
So, what mix do you guys recommend? Consideration of time and the considerable cost of subscription will top my agenda. I do not want to subscribe to a publication and not read it after all. I know, with an element of certainty, that I will not have force myself to read, since I love to read and write, although time and cost will be realistic determinants. I encourage you to discuss your reading and news/opinion consumption habits as well. I may have missed the odd newspaper, so please recommend any daily that does not indulge in disinformation. The only two financial dailies I have read are Mint and ET, so please go ahead and recommend anything else too. Surely, there are numerous quality magazines out there, which I may not be aware of. I won't read showbiz and gossip mags ever but occasionally pick up The New Yorker and The Paris Review, the latter only for its interviews. Literary magazines, in Hindi or English, are not out of consideration. Policy, politics, foreign affairs, and literature are what I may prefer. Magazines are intended for information but also as a hobby.
The ideal mix that I am looking for would be one national daily (TH, convince me otherwise) + one financial daily/podcast (let's discuss) + one magazine.
Thanks!