Chinook concourse 2004 floor plan

Let’s be clear, I’m not seeking financial advice on whether I should buy more or sell; I simply want to know how you handle FOMO. I'm not sure if this qualifies as FOMO since I already hold a significant number of GME shares, which represent a little over 50% of my portfolio. However, I have this persistent feeling that I want to buy even more, like I want to YOLO and sell off the rest of my portfolio. Instead of buying into GameStop immediately after my funds settle, I was planning to patiently wait to see where the price averages out.
I first bought into GameStop on the second or third day after Roaring Kitty started tweeting those memes. I bought in around the $29 mark. During that first weekend and the beginning of the following week, I experienced significant losses. But during one of the dips, I bought more at $20 a share, and another time at $26 a share. Even though my initial purchase was at $29 a share, I’m already in the green thanks to buying during those dips.
I want to sell the rest of my portfolio, but instead of investing immediately, I want to be patient and see where the price goes. However, I struggle with patience, and part of me just wants to buy at whatever the current price is and then forget about it for a while. It’s during the times when I practiced patience and observed the price fluctuations that I managed to buy at some really good dips, but I had to watch the price be in a steady decline for at least two days or more. That took a lot patience not to just jump in and buy before it hit the floor and went back up.
I also get impatient and frustrated if I see a major jump in price because I’m afraid to buy in above my previous purchase points. If it jumps to $30 on Monday and doesn’t drop below $30 for the next week or so, I’ll be beating my head against the wall, wishing I had just bought in at $28 instead of staring at the computer screen all day, expecting it to go down to $26. Based on the trend, it looks like we’re consistently hitting higher lows, so I wouldn’t be surprised if $30 becomes the new support level.
Do you guys struggle with this feeling of wanting to buy more because you don’t know where the price is headed? And when you have cash on hand, are you able to maintain your patience before buying?

Each mission/level was either a battlefield or a sort of floor plan of a house which you would work through killing enemies. The weapons menu was insane -- I remember having a minigun and a "splitter" grenade which would have a multiplier effect the more people it hit. I want to say the title of the game had "Warfare" in it and I think the logo had a camo component. Sort of addictinggames esque.

So I (21F) and my boyfriend (25M) moved in with his manager (47F) bc I’m strapped for cash and wanted to finally get an apartment with our two cats after being separated from them for months due to housing.
The move in is…less than smooth. She inherited the apartment from another coworker who lived in it with 2 other single men in their 30s. Let’s just say cleaning was not their strong suit. I’m talking 5 years of husky hair in the carpets that caused my vacuum to smoke. Dust caked to the ceiling fans. Baseboards that were white were BLACK. Looked like someone had a bonfire in the oven. And the bathroom had poo all over the seat and slobber and dog hair cemented to the bathroom floor. And when entering….the house smelled like dog, it punched you in the fucking face. Wet dog, piss and shit completely bombarding your senses.
Also let me go on to say that I have lived there only a week and I have hardly even started with the issues…
First off, her and her boyfriend were meant to live in the apartment together. They have been together on and off for 2 months and are now planning to get married within the next year. While she’s been dating him she has been divorcing her previous husband (one out of 3 ex-husbands) who was abusive. Her boyfriend fled from Alaska with a DUI and DoorDashes full time. Days before they are going to sign the lease he says he’s backing out and breaks up with her. She says it’s fine bc she has a new roommate lined up. He freaks out when he finds out it’s her male coworker (my boyfriend), gets back together with her and signs the lease. Can’t say this was out of jealousy or insecurity, but actions speak louder than words.
Moving on… it’s Friday and me and my boyfriend are meant to move on Saturday, but we still don’t have a key. We ask her to drop off the key at some point on Friday. She responds back at 9 PM saying that she’s at the apartment now we meet up with her only to find out how awful the apartment is. This is the first time that we had seen the place this was also the first time that she had seen the place, and we were both absolutely disgusted. We ask her for a key only to find out that she only has one key due to the other roommates not being responsive or moving out their possessions. We open up one of the bedrooms to find it is littered with empty bottles of alcohol, a boxspring, a bedframe and just literal trash everywhere. Supposedly this roommate was coming by to pick up his belongings, but had yet to do so and didn’t even bother to give his keys back to his roommate. Apparently he had been moved out for over a year but was “storing stuff” in his room that he had yet to clean up. So we only had one key. Knowing that she was likely not going to show up bright and early tomorrow morning for moving, we took the key So we only had one key. Knowing that she was likely not going to show up bright and early tomorrow morning for moving, we took the key.
Moving onto Saturday me and my boyfriend are deep cleaning the apartment top to bottom once we clean up our room we get all of our possessions in there and move in the cats. This goes on until about 6 PM. We had started at about 7 AM. the roommate has not shown up all day, at this point we had cleaned the entirety of the disaster apartment and we had not heard a thing from her. Eventually at 7 PM she pulls up with a trailer with her belongings. she said she meant to bring the trailer yesterday but attire popped and so they had to take everything off the trailer and put it onto a new trailer Saturday. Even after we deep clean the apartment and move in our own stuff. She asked us if we can help her unload her trailer. Meanwhile, she’s let her dogs into the apartment and not one minute into going in the apartment with her dogs her one dog, a two year-old unspayed dachshund pees on the floor the floor we just vacuumed and shampooed at this point after all the events of the day I’m ready to start screaming.later, I find poop in one of the other I’ll keep later, I find poop in one of the other unoccupied rooms. I asked my boyfriend if she told him that her dog has a potty training problem. He says no he was totally unaware and also tells me he’s pretty certain that the dachshund is in heat. Her vulva was inflamed, her behavior was off, and the peeing on the carpet pretty much sealed the deal. My boyfriend told his manager if she was aware that her dog was in heat. She said she had no idea.
Moving on, we introduce the dogs to the cats. She has the dachshund as I mentioned before and a large elderly, morbidly obese mutt with tumors all over his body. The poor dog is absolutely pitiful. all sorts of red flags are ringing in my head that this woman is abusing/neglecting her animals. My boyfriend then disclosed to me that she had SEVEN cats, was euthanizing three of them giving away three of them and keeping only one. This fact about the cats isn’t really relevant, but I believe it describes the kind of pet owner. This fact about the cats isn’t really relevant, but I believe it describes the kind of pet owner she is. We introduce the cats and the dogs in a monitored environment. Immediately, the big dog scruffs, one of my cats that is really friendly and runs away with him. My boyfriend is screaming at him to drop the cat and prize his jaws open to get the cat out. We then push both of the dogs out of the door and stare at each other. My boyfriend is extremely protective of the cats. He’s even declared that if anything happened to his cats, he would literally die or kill for them. The one cat is an emotional support animal that has been with him even in times of homelessness and substance abuse. He tells his manager that the dog nearly killed his cat. She dismisses it and says he’s probably anxious from moving but he has lived with cats before so he’ll be fine. This obviously does not alleviate any stress from the situation. It’s super dismissive of the problem.
Moving forward, it’s Sunday and his manager also has the day off. He asked her if she was planning on bringing more of her items today. She said that she had not fully packed everything at her apartment despite being told that she was accepted for the apartment three weeks ago. This means that there are no groceries, no cookware, no dishware, no silverware. she said she would bring all of these items so we wouldn’t have to worry about buying some of our own. as I am writing this, it has been a week and she still has yet to bring anything else from her apartment to the new apartment. my boyfriend really likes to cook and eating out is expensive so this is not ideal. Her and her boyfriend are eating out every night, but don’t even have utensils for eating their takeout.
At my boyfriend’s job, she works during the day and he works nights, so he spends most of the day at the apartment and she spends the nights at the apartment. I was out at work and my boyfriend was staying at the apartment for the day when the dachshund pooped three times and peed twice on the carpet. He asked his roommate if she would do anything about it and she said that she was at work and he would have to take care of it. And he did only for her to proceed in peeing and pooping more. It’s about Wednesday when my boyfriend decides he’s tired of cleaning up the pee and the poop after stepping in it one too many times she gets angry at him and ask him why he didn’t take care of the mess only for him to reply that it’s not his responsibility, she says he’s being immature and it takes two seconds just to clean it up. When it comes to scrubbing carpets of pee, it does not take two seconds. Any pet owner can tell you this.
I’m really pissed off at this point and she decides that her dog will maybe stop peeing and pooping if we scrub the carpets. I said that I had access to a carpet scrubber and so she asked me if I could just do it. I come to the apartment with my parents carpet scrubber to start cleaning the carpets. I’ve been there for two minutes, and her dog has pooped and peed already. Both times right in front of her owner and both times her owner did not scold her or do absolutely anything about it. Eventually, her and her boyfriend leave not even offering to take stuff off of the carpet so that we could clean them eventually I tell my boyfriend I’m not going to clean the carpets and he is in agreement with me. There’s no way that the peeing and pooping on the carpets is going to stop after cleaning them. It would be entirely useless at this point they were just going to get dirty again. I mentioned in passing that the dog needs to be litter trained. If it can’t even go outside and she asked me if I could do that for her. I’m fucking. She won’t even take responsibility for her dog’s potty training issue! Instead, she would rather have me take care of it! not only that, but I asked if she could buy a baby so that we could find her to the laundry room where there isn’t carpet when she’s not being supervised. She said she didn’t have the money for it right now. I don’t even have the money for it right now, but I went to Walmart and bought a cheap baby gate for her only for her to tear it down saying that she feels bad if the dog is isolated.
So it’s been a week of living like this. My boyfriend and I are applying to other apartments. Thankfully, we are not listed on the lease of this apartment so we can leave whenever we want, but this has been an absolute nightmare. This weekend we asked her if she was planning on getting more stuff from her apartment to which she replied. She had done enough last weekend and was taking this weekend off. I invited my boyfriend to my parents house with the permission of my parents because of the absolutely disastrous condition of the apartment.
Honestly, this whole experience has been a nightmare. I never thought I could’ve moved in with a worse roommate. I genuinely thought people were joking when it came to disastrous roommates. I thought she would be OK since she was an adult, middle-aged woman, but I was grossly mistaken, this was made really clear when she started bitching about her daughter like a teenager who had moved out (been kicked out?) of her mother’s house at 16 for micromanaging her relationships. Which to be fair, she probably was rightfully worried for her mom as she had several pretty bad past relationships. I had the experience of meeting her daughter who looks like a lovely girl, total polar opposite from her mother.
At this point, her boyfriend is slowly moving things out of the house, but he has made no comment on if he is moving out or not, but I expect him to be gone within a couple days with no trace left behind. I suspect he’s fed up with it as we are.
That’s all i have so far. This is a very long read. I acknowledge that, but it has been a long week. The apartments we apply for aren’t ready until next month so we’re probably going to have to endure this for the rest of this month.
Wish us luck. 🤞

I just found out yesterday that I’m pregnant for the first time ever!! However, I have scheduled pest control to come to work tomorrow.
I work at a large historic house and part of the service wing has an ant problem. It’s pretty far and on a different floor from where I need to be for most of the day and one of my coworkers will be present in the morning to let pest control in. There is a door near the affected part of the house that needs to be closed for the alarm system to engage, so my fear is that someone will forget to close it properly and I will still need to be near the pesticide at the end of the day to close it.
I plan to tell my coworker that I have health concerns that mean I can’t be anywhere near the pesticide, and hopefully that will be enough. If I end up needing to go near the pesticide, should I wear a KN95 and nitrile gloves? Sorry if this seems like worrying over nothing, I’m a very anxious person 😂

Hey everyone — I’m planning on starting the process of finishing my basement this summer. My goal is to have insulation and frame up and ready to go by the fall. This will be my first DIY project and I’m extremely excited (and anxious) to get started.
I’m framing a 530sqft basement that is new construction (2018). I plan on doing 1inch foam board insulation on the walls, which seems pretty straightforward and shouldn’t give me too many issues. The framing is where I am a bit intimidated. I recently bought a laser level and have been trying to see how I can make sure my walls will be as straight as possible. My question is regarding this — how do I make sure my walls are… straight. Especially walls that are upwards of 15ft? Do I mark 5inches (insulation + wood + drywall) from the cement wall and do this every foot or so down the length of the wall and then use the laser and try to line it up with each pencil mark on the floor?
Naturally there would be imperfections for each 5inch coming off of the wall, how would I know which ones to trust to make the wall perfectly straight?
Any suggestions would help! Thanks in advance.

I am having my 120 year old house re-wired, that still contains a lot of original features. We are replacing Knob & Tube. We went with the most expensive company because we were promised legal requirements would be met (permits, bonding, insurance, which to my knowledge ARE all good), quality work and that our home would be handled with care. It was made clear that we (myself, significant other, 2 roommates & 3 dogs) would be living in the house during the renovation and that workers were to clean up after themselves. We were quoted 4-6 weeks and the first Monday they came, they were supposed to put together an action plan. That first Monday, 6 guys came in and just immediately started cutting open walls all over the house. Only one guy spoke English, but made no effort to speak to us. No prep work. After a few days of this, we bought plastic to throw over a much stuff as we could, even though everything was already covered in dust. A lot of my furniture is ruined. My original hardwood floors are ruined. Almost every single item in my home has been covered in 120 year old plaster dust for 3 months. They put some deep scratches in my kitchen floor. Until we saw them doing it and stopped them, they were cutting drywall with power tools inside the house. Tomorrow marks Day 1, week 15 of this project and lately I'm lucky if I get 2 guys showing up 3 days a week. I keep getting excuses as to why no one is showing up. They keep telling me they are almost done, but per the contract, they still have a lot to do. We have been confined to our bedrooms for 3 months and at this rate, the job will not be done for another 3 months. I have attached like 10 pictures. The work has also not been great quality. We keep joking that we're gonna buy these guys a tape measure and a level. And I don't know how big of an issue this is, but I guess they have re-used a bunch of the original wiring?
I guess my question is: Is this normal? And what do I do? Sorry. I'm a millennial, so no one ever taught me how to adult. I'm just figuring it out as I go.

So here's the situation; I currently live with my spouse in a one bedroom apartment built in 1922. For this reason there are some real issues with the loads on the electrical circuits between my network storage, gaming PC, HTPCs and so on. Plus just 'physical space' and noise limitations.
As such, when my 16 drive UnRAID server ran out of drive slots, the only solution was to build a second server which is in the Livingroom, in a 4U Rosewill case, sitting discretely in an Ikea Lack table with caster wheels. The main server has a Ryzen 9 3950X and does all the dockers and stuff. The secondary server has an Intel E5 2697v2 and sits there eating electricity for the sake of letting me run 12 more drives.
But we're moving! Three floors! Gonna run ethernet in all the walls. There will be a finished basement area for 'the gaming goodness' and I can finally set up network and storage in a real rack, on the unfinished side of the basement, with it's own 15amp circuit and where no one will care how much noise anything in there makes. That means I an get disk shelf and make all of this way less stupid!
The main plan is to retire the server inside the 4U rack case, then transplant the main tower server into that 4U rack case and expand it's drive capacity with a disk shelf. So here's where I have questions:
Firstly, things like the NetApp DS4246 and related seem to be what I'm looking at. All my drives are SATA, to these disk shelves support SATA out of the box, is additional hardware required for SATA drives, or do I need to look for something alternate/specific?
Secondly, these shelves offer up to four PSUs for redundancy, but how many are needed at minimum assuming 'up time' is not a major concern? Also what kind of power consumption should I see beyond the drives it's powering? I should def see an advantage over a whole 11 year old Xeon running, right?
Thirdly, for the 'host server' to access this kind of disk shelf, I should only require something like an LSI 9201-16E and a quartet of 8088 to SFF-8088 cables, right? From there on, the host device should just have an LSI controller which see's up to 24 drives on it, and it's all happy and 'just works'?

I've been thinking about the feeling of Catherine's nightmare gameplay recently, and have been having a hard time nailing down exactly how to describe it except for in (seemingly) conflicting terms: Reactionary and Intentional. Lacking the proper language I've been comparing it to other things.
Catherine (Reactionary and Intentional): Movement and blocks with rigid rules, with an incentive to do so quickly (score, a collapsing floor), with enough leighway within the puzzle layout to be intentional but forgiving (with redos to enforce this). A good counter example would be any of the spiral corridors "10 story wall" levels, which (to me) feel at odds with the games usual pace.
Spyro The Dragon (Reactionary, and Pretty Intentional): The gameplay often consists of following rigid patterns (with enemies that respond to your two attacks differently) at breakneck speeds. It's often telegraphed well enough to be done very quickly, even if the platforming (spacing of platforms, for instance) gives more leighway to be forgiven for over or undershooting.
Tomb Raider (1996-98) (Intentional, and Somewhat Reactionary): The gameplay works on a blocky grid system with movement specifically tailored to navigating it (high jumps ascend two block heights worth, and running jump lets you grab the edge of a block 3 blocks away. The player is (sometimes) expected to do this within a fast paced environment (like the beginning of tomb raider 2).
Far Cry 3 vs. 4's Outposts (Reactionary vs. Intentional): 3's outposts are often more reactionary due to a lack of ability to plan ahead of time (hemmed in walls, no high points), where 4's often enable more planning (high points to scout, open areas).

Our landlord owns two properties right next to each other. We were originally renting the smaller one but as they fixed up the other house, we were asked if we'd be interested in moving next door. We were planning on having another child, so we took it for the extra bedroom.
Fast forward and we're given about two weeks notice that it will be done and we can move in June 1st. A few days later, I'm messaged (with less than 24 hours notice) that they need to have a showing of the house we were moving out of. I'm informed then that they want to have that place rented June 1st as well. So no turnover time for them to check the house, make sure it's ready for the new tenants, etc. I let it slide because I was pregnant and didn't want to deal with the drama. So we quickly move all our boxes out to the garage and try desperately in a few hours to make the house look decent and not like a mess of moving.
May 31st we are in the processing of moving everything next door since the neighbors will be moving in to our old house the next day. Our landlord comes into the new house we're in the process of moving into and bitches about how "disgusting" our stove looks and some paint that had chipped in an archway from squeezing our fridge through. (The paint I had already told him about and informed him I would touch up.)
They then proceed to do a walkthrough of the old house and tell me I have to fix small chipped paint and paint over the holes I filled from screwing a baby gate into the wall. If I don't do it, they'll knock $100 off our deposit.
Around 10 at night, I start bleeding and have to go to the ER. I'm told to say on rest over the weekend and come back Monday to confirm if it's a miscarriage. After being ridiculed once by the landlords, I still rushed over to the old house late that night and cleaned up as much as I could before bed. My miscarriage was confirmed Monday. I was told to take it easy until the bleeding stopped, which was impossible with moving. I let my landlord know what was happening and that I'd do what I could given the situation.
Today I'm called by the landlord, told that the house was left in "awful" condition. They claim the floors weren't mopped, which they were and that the basement smelled like dog and must've "never been hosed out". The basement had been swept and mopped multiple times; I had even hosted my daughter's birthday party in it a few weeks before our move. We also couldn't "hose it out" since the outside spigot was broken. They say "We're just worried you won't take care of the place since so much work was put into it. If it looks bad, we'll just ask you to leave."
Mind you, he painted all the walls with cheap landlord paint that chipped from using a tape measure to check if our stove would fit. The flooring is missing in corners around doorways. One bedroom door has water damage at the bottom and won't shut. The bathroom door has a huge hole in it. The kitchen sink has a large crack down the middle. Two of the kitchen cabinets are cracked at the bottom and caving in. Our bathtub faucet is loose and will likely fall off completely one day. He left a huge pile of trash in the basement. When I moved in, I had to spend hours wiping out all the cabinets because they were full of mouse droppings. "He must not have checked in there, but the house was empty for three years." was the response I got to reporting the droppings. We found a dead mouse in the upstairs closet yesterday and if they continue to harass me, I will be reporting it and telling them to hire an exterminator or I'll be putting our rent in escrow.
I told them on the phone call that I miscarried over the weekend and did everything I could. "Sorry to hear that" in the most apathetic tone. My hormones are so out of whack right now on top of the mourning of my dead baby, I almost yelled at them. I've been very quiet and passive the entire time we've rented from them and I'm done.

Our situation is sorta specific so I'll try to explain everything and can answer questions after.
My wife and I have been in the same industry for just over 10 years. I quit for health reasons in February, was unemployed for a short time and had a job as a bartender for about a month before we accepted jobs in a new city. They are in the same industry we have always worked, decent pay and benefits. We jumped at the chance as our curremt employer has lots of issues, and we have been looking to get out, but we're definitely not ready for a sudden move.
Here's the part that many of you will tell me we're wrong or stupid. We cashed in our 401k, yes we know exactly how much it will cost us in the future, we're doing it anyway. To do that my wife quit her current job, so neither or us have income currently. I don't need to be told why we made bad decisions, we've made these decisions after a lot of talks and plans.
Once everything settles we'll have about 50k-60k liquid (though we dont want to put all the cash down), along with a ~2 acre peice of land we planned to build on but are now selling (paid 15k last year), to use as down payment/collateral. We have very little debt, no credit cards, no car loans. I have just under 12k in student loans, but that is all we have, so DTI is optimal. Both of our credit scores are mid 600s. Our income is also not completly traditional, I'm a table games dealer and my SO is a floor supervisor. I make $10 per hour plus tips, which are expected to run in the $20-$30 an hour range, but since it is a new department there is no proof of what that pay will be. SO makes $30 hour no tips. So not counting tokes, casino term for tips, at all we have over 80k in income, with nearly zero debt, and well over 20% down, we'd like to get approved for up to $250k. What are our chances? Should we just give up and buy an RV for 6 months? Or will we be able to find a lender?

Aidin didn't need another cautionary tale about the Phaal, but he could tell from the slight crinkle of Isa's forehead that he was about to hear one.
"There's something else you should know," she said.
So predictable. "If you're going to tell me how deadly-"
"It's not that," she interrupted, and it suddenly occurred to Aidin that he was probably just as predictable to her as she was to him. "It's something else. Something worse."
"What's worse than-"
"They can read minds. They can read your mind. Human minds. They might be reading your mind right now."
"I see," nodded Aidin, digesting the information. "Actually, I don't think I do see. Why is that worse?"
"Because the only way we're getting out of here is if you can beat them at Phaal's Poker."
Aidin and Isa were sat on the floor of a holding cell, but it was unlike any of the cells they'd found themselves in before. And they'd found themselves in plenty. For most artefact dealers, there was a fine line between running a successful operation and staying on the right side of The Expanse's arbiters. Usually you had to pick one.
Their cell was shaped like the number 8, with two, circular chambers separated by a gap just wide enough to squeeze a human arm through. They could've passed items to each other had they been allowed to keep anything worth passing. Instead, all they'd exchanged so far were words and glances. And thoughts.
Each half of the cell was empty save from a polymer bucket, and a singular light hung in the gap, half-heartedly illuminating both halves at the same time.
It was hard for either of them to know how long they'd been there. There were no windows, and besides, time moved strangely in these far-flung corners of The Expanse. Still, Aidin's stomach had given way to a deep, aching growl. They'd clearly been here for too long.
___
Phaal's Poker. Aidin had only heard the rumours. Invented by the Phaal, mastered by the Phaal. It was said that nobody could beat them at their own game, least of all humans, and now he understood why. How do you deceive something that knows what you're thinking?
"Can't you play?" asked Aidin.
Isa shook her head. "They can't read me. They'll insist on playing you."
Aidin's eyes dropped and settled on his moaning gut. He was used to hunger, but this felt different. Like his body had resorted to feeding on itself.
"Right. Excellent. And if I lose?"
Isa raised an eyebrow. "Don't lose."
Aidin sighed. This was not what he had envisioned when he took the job, but jobs like this rarely went as planned. That much he knew. "So what're the rules?"
"Ah, yes." Isa straightened, her eyes widening with an enthusiasm that felt at odds with their current predicament. "It's actually a rather elegant game."
"Well then, lucky me," said Aidin, his patience eroding with every gurgling hunger pang. Isa persevered.
"Two players face each other. Each player takes a coin - but it can be anything small and flat - and places it - secretly, mind - into one of their hands - or whatever they use to hold stuff." Isa's excitement continued to build. "You win by finding your opponent's coin and tricking them into missing yours."
"What if you both find each other's coins?"
"Then the game starts again. Same if both players get it wrong, but-" she caught herself. "But-"
"-Phaal don't get it wrong." offered Aidin.
Isa slumped back against the wall. "No, they don't. At least, not when they're playing humans."
"So if the Phaal never miss, it means I can't win," reasoned Aidin. "I can only delay the inevitable by forcing a rematch."
"Yes. That's the long and short of it," said Isa. "But perhaps..." she trailed off, and Aidin interrogated the slight narrowing of her eyes. He'd seen that squint before.
"You've got an idea, haven't you?" he said.
"What if," ventured Isa, "there is a way?" At this she stood up, her dormant bones clicking back into action. She paced back and forth across the diameter of her half of the cell, moving in and out of Aidin's view through the small gap that separated them. Her lips moved silently, her fingers traced patterns in the air.
"I'm listening," said Aidin, veiling his intense relief as best he could. She always had an idea. "Whenever you're ready."
After what felt to Aidin like an age, Isa stopped in the middle of her cell and moved close to the gap, locking eyes with him again. The light hovered above her head, and it reminded Aidin of the cartoons he used to watch back on Earth. This was an idea alright.
Isa pointed at him: "You have one advantage over the other humans who have played Phaal's Poker, don't you?" Aidin nodded, but he didn't know what she was talking about. Isa sensed it. "Aidin, you know they can read your mind. The others won't have known. We can use that."
"Okay. Yeah. I can see it. Fine." He stared at her blankly. "But how exactly? If I'm thinking about lying about which hand my coin is in, they're still going to know I'm lying."
"Sure", said Isa. She was confident now, like a detective about to reveal the culprit. "But what if you don't think about the game at all?"
___
Aidin's eyes burned into the silhouetted backs of the two human guards that escorted him down a dark, seemingly endless corridor. "You can talk to me y'know," he spat. No response. Fucking traitors.
The width of the corridor fluctuated. In parts it was wide - almost palatial - but then the wood-panelled walls would tighten inwards and suddenly it was so narrow that the guards had to walk in single-file. Then they'd open up again. Intermittent lights along the ceiling made their shadows shorten and stretch.
He hadn't seen wood for some time, let alone wood-panels. These Phaal were wealthy - trees didn't grow on planets in these parts. If not for his bounds he would've reached out and ran his fingers along them.
Without warning the guards stopped outside a door. One turned to face him, and Aidin opened his mouth, ready to tell him what he thought about humans that had crossed over. But all he could muster was a stifled gasp.
The guard's eyes had been gouged out, leaving two, pitted caverns in their place. Two smaller holes punctured a flat, scarred surface where his nose should've been, and his mouth was sewn shut with rusted, blood-stained wire. His ears were still in tact.
The guard reached for the door handle with a gloved hand, and Aidin scrambled to gather himself. This is what could happen to me, he thought. This is what could happen if I lose.
The door swung open. Aidin's hunger continued to eat away at his insides.
___
A small, wooden coin was placed in front of each player by one of the mutilated guards that had escorted Aidin to the room. Like his cell, the room was empty save for the metal table and chairs on which they sat and a light that glowed above them. But unlike his cell, this one was square. Disgusting place, he thought.
He glanced up at the Phaal sat across from him, remembering with a spike of panic that his thoughts weren't private anymore. But it was unclear to him whether it was listening: just like the two human guards stood either side of them, the Phaal were faceless.
He had never seen one in real life before, but Isa's description was pretty accurate. Humans are mostly carbon and oxygen, Phaal are mostly calcium and keratin. Imagine if you tried to piece together a human using only bones, teeth, nails and hair.
Its whole chest was covered by a wooden-beaded necklace, which, based on the differing shades of brown, looked like an assortment of various woods. More posturing.
With a sudden lurch, the Phaal raised a hand and placed it on top of its coin. The hand was human-like in shape, but paper-white and hard. Thick cables of hair coiled around each finger, digging grooves into their surface like a vine eroding the brick of a decaying building. It dragged the coin off the table with a screech that felt like it was peeling away at Aidin's eardrums.
Aidin - his bounds cut once the door to the room had been shut - took his own coin in response, passed it between his sweat-lined hands and recited Isa's words in his mind over and over, like a mantra. Grip one half of the coin with your left hand, and the other half of the coin with your right. Then focus on what you'll eat when we get out of here.
The Phaal angled its head slightly, and Aidin wondered whether it was listening now. After a moment, the blank oval of bone, hair and teeth rocked back and fourth very slowly. It was nodding. Then it placed two clenched fists on the table.
Grip one half of the coin with your left hand, and the other half of the coin with your right. Then focus on what you'll eat when we get out of here.
Aidin closed his eyes and thought about food. He knew that the food he'd be eating if he ever escaped this place would likely be the same food he and Isa had eaten since they'd met all those years ago. A grool of proteins, most of which could be harvested from even the most barren atmospheres of The Outer Expanse.
But his mind was a pantry, and he had stocked it with a myriad of memories. He remembered melted cheese on home-baked bread. He could almost taste his mother's cinnamon apples and golden custard. He could recall the smell of fried potatoes with such precision that it almost felt to Aidin as though they, and not his own coiled hands, had just been placed onto the table in front of him.
Focus on what you'll eat when you get out of here. Fruit. Grapes. The juice of those grapes. God damn I miss grapes. Fucking grapes. I never even wanted 'em when I was a kid. Now I'd kill for a grape. Fuck it I'd die for a grape. I'd-
A cold, callous touch to his right hand dragged his mind away from the grapes and back into the room.
The Phaal had made its choice. And as soon as Aidin realised what was happening, the Phaal knew that it had chosen wrongly.
The coin had found its way into Aidin's left hand.
Now it was Aidin's turn to choose. My turn, he thought, and the Phaal nodded again.

We live in a 1910-ish semi and have embarked on a "let's strip the hallway woodwork" adventure and...the novelty is wearing off already. The existing woodwork is in varying states of repair and manually stripping it seems to be taking a very long time so we're wondering about DIY soda blasting, which seems to be filling up my Instagram feed of late and looks excitingly quick (albeit messy).
Would really appreciate any advice / experience re

1. how much would it *realistically* cost to get a non-crap set up - I've seen lots of review comments on cheap sprayers / compressors along the lines of "runs for a minute then has to calm down for 10" - and I can't seem to find a ballpark figure for media cost; I'm assuming there must be some sort of "£2 of stuff cleans a square metre" metric out there? On the compressor, it seems like I need something that can produce at least 8 bar of pressure and shift >200l/m, but are there other factors here? Is it better to plan to just hire a good one for a week for £200 than buy one for £400? etc...
   
2. or is the idea of doing it ourselves just nuts and we should get a grown adult who knows what they're doing?
   

The house is on 3 floors and our thinking is that if we had an appropriately powerful setup we could actually strip the woodwork, skirting, doors etc from top to bottom, which would look great but which we're assuming would be vastly expensive to get someone else to do and vastly time consuming to do ourselves by hand / chemical / heat stripping.
Anyone got any experience? Incidentally, yes, we have now made more progress than the photos show :-)

~Part 3 Luna~
A woman like Chang’e lived on a moon. Far away.
You can refer to me as Luna.
At the age of 19 I was diagnosed with a severe nerve pain condition. It is called trigeminal neuralgia but you can call it TN for ease.
I was frustrated. I had completed a degree in international finances from Chongqing University of Business and Technology. The boom of the economy was not the same. There was an urge to “lay flat”—to not try as a form of opposition to everything going on in a waning economy in China.
All are elephants chained for an audience. People love to peek and stare as though they are glass doors without hinges—to be made feel useless.
I developed TN at the age of 19, and was now 22. It came as an arrow, and quite literally to the face. It’s a rare nerve pain disorder often considered one of the most painful conditions known.
The illness involves intense nerve pain throughout the left side of my face. It felt like someone was trying to pull all of the teeth on the left side of my face without anesthesia. The pain can leave me falling to the floor unable to speak or move while screaming profanities while choked by pain. A feeling of a knife to my face over and over again. It leaves me in absolute shock. Like Roman candles to the face. An absolute hindrance. The anticipation of not knowing when it will happen again is a nightmare at times.
The disease is often called the suicide disease, apparently up to 26% try to take their lives. In a state of panic during one of the nerve attacks I began swallowing any pill near to me. I went to the hospital to have my stomach pumped when I was found comatose by my mother.
I want to be Chang’e and on the moon and away from a world I have had enough of.
Gossip spread around the workplace that I attempted suicide over an affair with a married man. There was too much guilt to return to the workplace. COVID did have an impact to the economy. I still remember my hometown having dirt and trees piled onto the exits and entrances to the city keep people in their places.
The work I did find felt beneath me. China has what is called the great firewall that keeps something in and out of the country’s networks. A VPN was necessary to access American TikTok as it was used as opposed to the Chinese version.
Feels humiliating the nature of the outcome for me—I gave up in many ways like so many Chinese youth. For work I would go to a local office building. Amongst a long hall would be rooms for live stream performers. I would entertain with watchers while trying to obtain virtual gifts for actual money. I despised it—sometimes the conversation could be funny or interesting but it felt hollow.
I would paint flowers on my face and wear hanfu clothing while doing ASMR. Competing in battles while dress cute and facing off with others. I would encourage and flatter those that send virtual gifts that could be exchanged for gifts. I would message and ask for WeChat account numbers to talk to them and I would be an emotional prostitute pretending to love and be interested in them for the hopes of more gifts. Methods of manipulation would be used as in begging, guilt tripping a viewer, and love bombing them. Often middle aged men would pretend to be the female host.
I had a mind of sparklers burning until it burnt and stung like wax—like I had the option to stop and cry and those tears stuck as wax and burnt or I soldiered on and grew accustomed to the pain. I was an elephant chained. The audience watched and interacted with me on the live. I was a chained elephant when it was found out about my previous attempt and when the rumors spread.
Too many thorns in life. Nails hitting at the wrong points like an equation for something terrible to eventually happen—a life set to end in misery—a fate.
My favorite dish was Henan noodles. I often cooked it with my mom. It provides great memories of childhood. I hadn’t talked to my mother as much as before. She moved to a job in Taiyuan.
Sometimes I would go up to visit her. But it was harder as she worked more and more hours. Sometimes voids build even when going through extreme nerve pain. And with trigeminal neuralgia, the pain was so intense that I would freeze and scream in pain. It cannot always be hid. It made me an elephant tethered.
Life can be like a pressure like no other. Too much stress. Makes one feel irritable with a mouth like a sprinkler of napalm when someone is too close. Life feels like a lit fire cracker held—in the end it would tear my hand up. Things kept building while the other side of my face began to hurt too recently. This was rare and not so common. My eyesight was becoming blurry too and it seemed I might have multiple sclerosis as the pain was on both side, it was not common for my age, and the blurry eyesight. An appointment was scheduled and I felt terrified to know what was going on and wondered if it was best to not even know my health.
I walked out of the studio and had a cigarette. My boss came out and joined to talk. He was concerned about view count and wanted me to do things to increase it that made me feel uncomfortable. He made a few comments I found incentive.
The boss sure liked to criticize and apply pressure. He was not impressed with my work and thought I could do something different. In China an application is used called WeChat. This application has many uses. People can display and share moments like a Facebook wall, message each other, send money, video chat, and even has a feature to find people near to you who are also looking for people near to them. I was to attract people onto dates. The idea was they would be lured in and the men would go to a set destination to a planned tea house that served snacks. When the men arrived (they had no knowledge of the setup) the bill would be at an absurd rate and if the men refused to pay larger men would use their size to force them to pay up.
I was not sure at the time yet if I wanted the job. Being worried about ethics and safety. It was something I would have to think about.
My medical expenses were growing and I knew the nerve disease could be expensive to treat with surgery. All I had was thoughts while looking at the moon.

~Final~
I watched Luna from Zhengzhou. On a screen. My name is Luo. I tap away on my phone in a dormitory in a Foxconn factory. I was a migrant worker from Luoyang in the province of Henan. My wife was in Guangzhou and I was in Zhengzhou. Far from each other. We could not be together. We were migrant workers. In China we use Hukos—a government document used to list family members like a tree—and it determine where you were tied to geographically. I could only get access to government resources if residing in your home province that your family originates from. This meant my daughter could only go to school in the province and city she originates from. I was stuck in zhengzhou at a Taiwanese own factory making iPhones. It was during the pandemic. COVID and restrictions. Felt claustrophobic. Could not leave the factory grounds due to orders. But my alienation was okay—manageable. I did it via numbing myself via sending virtual gifts to Luna. Like a noose around my neck in debt.
Workers were getting mad because we weren’t being paid our allowances. And we found ourselves restricted to staying with workers who were positive for the virus. Anger was growing. And I was feeling upset like everyone else. Isolated on a moon with Luna to talk to.
Pressure grew—discontent. People rushed to the courtyard where people in hazmat suits came with batons to face a mob of angry workers. Shouting and throwing of projectiles. Chaos grew. I stood amongst them just as angry. Fists clenched.
The feeling towards Luna was polar to the situation at hand. I figured I would be pulled apart into shreds. Hooks everywhere. A piñata to be busted with all my anger and frustrations to fall out like candy for Luna to eat on. In three weeks I grew exhausted and found my own moon off the edge of a bridge —parasitical love is thin.

I just a post saying that this game is tiring and I agree. I do agree that playing a game for a long time and getting sick of it is a valid point. That's what happens to me with with Sims, but I also left because Gamelodt gave off the impression that they weren't money hungry and big on microtransaction. You know how EA is but that was until they went back on their word on Dreamlight Valley being free to play while still advertising it that way 6mo before said release. Then they said characters won't be behind a paywall and yet Wall-E, Ursula and Belle exist. And I can tell Adam will be behind one too.
Then not to mention the glitches and bugs. So many bugs in this game that are not being fixed with urgency. We bought the exapnsions just for it to not live up the hype. Barely any updates and I'm assuming the last update will be this summer? Unless we get a years worth but even then that's not worth 30 bucks, cause there's 6 or 5 more ports behind the castle. I'm gonna pay $150 dollars every 6-12mos for 3-6 free updates??? Big biomes with barely any decorations unique to these islands and not enough game buildings that don’t come from the premium shop? That doesn't seem worth it to me unless they will continue to pop out updates like they have done for the main Valley.
I really think after Tiana drops they need to stop making new content. They need to 1. Fix all the bug, glitches and constant crashing and freezing. 2. We need to have our levels updated. I think it goes to 40, we need to make it go to 80. The tabs should be better organized. We need a multilayer tab. A 3. Multi-player needs a very big update. I'm not paying for it after my subscription is over because it's a waste of my money. Not much to do especially being a PS player and no cross-play. 4. They need to add some character to the game, some more touch up as well as adding search bars like people have asked. Ad characters should get new animations animations dialouge. Especially the older one.

1. We need to be able to really customize our valley. I think we should be able to reskin every building we get. Premium or no premium and it SHOULDN'T be in the premium shop either. It should should money and moonstone free. I like visiting my friends valley but we all have the same Scrooge store and Remy restaurant, and bakery, ect. Not too crazy but like being able to change change brick color, and the windows, and the color of those top things. Just color swatches basically. The ability to add walls inside a room. For either a bathroom or just a division. And they need to fix the alignment in the game as well as letting paths touch. That's a must. I hate the gap. And it's been two years. That little they update they did was cool, yes, but they need to go ahead and update the Scrooge store with a whole new catalog of clothes and furniture. Because them adding furniture and and clothes to the premium shop just about piss me off. And not to mention the furniture frequently has a red dot to stuff you have definitely already bought and just remove L couches, cabinets and chandeliers from the displays and just have them in the tab to avoid this issue because they thinknits funny but it's actually annoying. They just invented more space to see the same things. And I'm not sure how the sandbox works. I know it can't be like the sims but I like to have one flexibility on our homes. Open floor plans, windows actually having lighting no matter where they're placed and just the ability to not have everything so boxy and straightforward. It's really giving Sims Freeplay and I don't like that.
   
2. We need LIFE. I love being the Queen, Ruler, Empress- whatever of Dreamlight Valley but I need a life. I'm not sayingbthey need to go full blown siks with jobs, care and toddlers, but something. I want to have the ability to have the Forgotten either be more human like; like they look like me but they have visuable features. Like their skin is either black or purple or vitiligo with black and purple, they either be your twin, or you can dress them up. I want to be able to assign them a room in my own and you actually see them in it. Sleeping, by the fire, something. Walking around the house, things like that. With a voice too or not but speech bubbles or be able to change the tune of their voice. I want to be able to have needs like in the sims. We have to eat, sleep, we can't actually sit to the tables and not so far back. Interact with objects like the toaster to cook, watch clips/trailers of movies or series as TV and that be a need of fun or entertainment. Using the bathroom is option but I would like to use my garden tub and glass shower and my Moana sink lop. Interact with merlijs items or the Tangled spindles and art easel. Pick up a book. Certain interaction with certain characters, like you're able to read to stitch(7 second animation or whatever), cast spells with Merlin, things like that. I'd like to be able to have relationships too, like our own NPCS, with either a room in our house or their own. Like siblings or spouses, pets - not companions, marriage or things like that. I thought we were getting cars or be able to drive the carriage, Oswald car or bus but even being about to ride the bikes/motorcycles would be cool. And just deeper lorr and gameplay like combat or just being able to hold a weapon and fight a villain or something. Basically being able to do disney/fantasy things in a Disney game.
   

Not all this needs to happen but something lol. I feel like what the game mostly is about now is giving us a buggy game and premium shop. And yes, the game is amazing, but every update we have said there's problems so they don't think about buying every system and having testers play game a week before releasing??? I feel like that makes sense because soon there's going to much bugs to fix like the Sims 4. It's just new content, premium shop, dreamsnaps and boring star paths. Too many motifs and why the hell did we have an AMUSEMENT Park starpath but Slinky was in the shop and NOT the star path????
Like I love the game. Almost 1k hours on this thing, but after the main story, a few character levels for their missions, a few crafting here and leveled up attractions it gets boring. I do think after I have decorated every biome, leveled up every character, and gotten gotten 100k mist and Dreamlight I won't play the game as much if nothing is gonna change.
And don't get me wrong, I'm aware it's most the company not the game people but it's still frustrating. The star paths haven't seemed worth my time. Dreamsnaps being repeated gets tiring. Nothing new, it's a lot. It's just idk. I play other games like RPGs and stuff and you know they can take 70+ hours to complete, if you're a pro that is because I can replay those over and over and over because they have that much to do.

I am really not sure how to introduce new habits. I nurse to sleep, then try to transfer to his floor bed, 1 out of 3 times it works the other 2 times results in his nap being ruined. And pretty much the rest of the day because he skipped a nap. I can never seem to get him back to sleep, it's really breaking my heart because I can tell I'm getting impatient and frustrated at my attempts that I just don't even want to try.
I am the double parent dad is not here to pass off to. While away at work grandparents can rock to sleep just fine and sometimes put baby on cot, pat his back til he falls asleep their chances are 2 out of 3 times. (And the patting on the back literally does nothing when I try to do it)
Any helps guys? It's almost been a complete year of contact napping and co sleeping. I get lucky sometimes at night where I can leave the bed and quietly get few things done.
I've spent the last 30 minutes trying to get him back to sleep after failed transfer all I wanted to do was be hands free and monkey nip free, I get so touched out when this happens, it's a prolonged nursing session
Not interested in crying it out AM or PM
At 11 months do they need shorter naps? How can I plan my day or have routine if he literally only contact naps or cosleeps? How can I implement new strategies if it throws off the current momentum

Hi all, After reading a lot of post here recently, I kinda wanted to tell my story to give others perspective about treatment options. Obviously, this is MY story and everyone here is different. My experience will not be the same as yours, and I am not a doctor telling you to try these options. But I have had a lot done, and I think it might be helpful if people understand what they can try.
I appreciate everyone who reads even one section of this saga. I am happy to answer any questions that people might have. Again, this was my journey and these things might not be the best options for you. But I want to highlight that pain, itself, is not the disease. It is a symptom. Find doctors who will help you find the cause of it. Sometimes it's difficult to pinpoint the source of pain, but there are options to try different things.
Part 1: How it Started
In 2007 I was 17 years old. During the summer, I got a job working as a bus boy at a reception hall. One night, I was sweeping the floor, nothing different than normal, but I suddenly had intense shooting pain down my hip and leg just from the way I bent down to sweep. That was all it took to set me off on what would be a long life of pain.
I remember the sciatica being really bad during this period. My parents and I were taking care trips to look at colleges and sitting in a car was torture. At some point they told me to see a chiropractor so I started doing that on a pretty regular basis. I went to college in 2012 and continued to have pain. There was always constant pain but I would always have times when it was much worse and it was painful to even walk normally. I recall having my parents visit and I was limping all day because I couldn't extend my left leg out fully.
I continued to see a chiropractor in the area for maybe two or three of the years I was away at school. Chiropractor never really helped though. During one of the summer breaks, I went to a chiropractor who had this decompression machine that would literally strap you down and pull you apart in an attempt to relieve pressure. It never helped. I am pretty sure by this time I already had an MRI done that probably showed some level of lumbar herniation so I guess that is why I wanted to try that type of treatment.
Chiropractics is not a legitimate science. I hadn't realized this until later in college (I was a biomed major). Their theories on spinal health do not align with known medical science. Some chiropractor align more with real medical science, but a lot of them only believe what the area of chiropractics says. I strongly recommend NEVER seeing a chiropractor, especially if you have back pain. It could be dangerous.
Part 2: The First Surgery and More Treatments
So when I graduated from college in 2012, I sought out an orthopedic surgeon. We did more MRIs. I can't recall if we tried anything more conservative first, but I did end up having surgery with him in 2013. We did a microdiscectomy and hemilaminectomy on both L3-4 and L4-5. Recovery from this was about what you would expect. Lots of bed rest for maybe 6 weeks or so, but I recovered well and went to PT for a couple of months. I think the surgery was successful in treating a lot of the serious sciatica I was having. But I was still having some level of back pain months and months after. I was then seeing the pain management doctor at the same office as the surgeon, and we tried a LOT of different additional things. Facet joint injections specifically, trigger point injections, medications. Nothing ever helped. I still have this pain in my low back and it was difficult to bend over without bracing myself, and there were times when I would get sciatic pain but not nearly as bad as it was before the surgery.
At one point I went to a rheumatologist because the pain doctor did some blood work and found I was positive for a gene that is related to ankylosing spondylitis. I was never actually diagnosed with this, but we tried to medications (I think maybe methotrexate but I could be wrong). The rheumatologist ended up putting me on humira, which looking back was a odd decision without actually officially diagnosing me with anything. Humira is a monthly injection, and I think after two months, my pain actually got a lot worse, and I stopped taking it and never went back to him.
For the most part after this, I was just taking Tramadol an naproxen to deal with my pain. I was going to the gym and doing what I could, but often the gym would exacerbate my symptoms. It was just difficult to do anything without feeling weak and obviously, it definitely contributed to some depression.
Part 3: New Pain Doctors and Spinal Cord Stimulator
In 2016, I got a new job that brought me into NYC and I now had access to great insurance and a wide array of great doctors. I found a new pain management doctor and tried a lot of things with him. He put me on Nucynta at some point, which is a narcotic, though I would only take it when I had break through pain. Pretty quickly, only a couple months after in 2017, we decided to try a spinal cord stimulator since I had already tried all these other things with other doctors.
I had to see a neurologist who would be doing the actual implanting of the device. I also had to see a phsychiatrist to get I guess "mental" clearance that I was in sound mind to be making this decision about a medical device implant. Not sure if that was just for the insurance or something the doctors also require. Before doing a full implant, they actually do a test run. I guess I had gone under general anesthesia for this, but they implant the wires (explained more below) and the wires come out of my skin to an external device and all of that is taped down to my low back. They do this so that they can make sure you actually get relief from the device before all the time, energy, and money is spent doing the full implant. I had it for a couple weeks, and decided to move forward. They had to remove the wires from me and scheduled me for just a regular office visit, and I was thinking well how the heck are they removing these wires from me. Well, it was very easy. They literally just pulled the wires right out of my back. Didn't feel anything. It was wild.
I have a Nevro brand stimulator impanted inside me shortly after. Surgery and recovery were as you would expect. I don't thinm recovery was as long as my back surgery was. There is a little 1x1 inch square box that sits above my right glute, around where my waistband would sit. There are two sets of wires that run over my spine to the left side (so I can actually feel the wires right under my skin at this part) and then they go between my vertebral space and then all the way up my spinal canal to my thoracic area. At the end of the wires (aka "leads") there are several evenly spaced electrodes and these are the functional part of the device. From what I understand, they send small electrically pulses very rapidly against my spinal cord and the idea is that these electric signals will over power pain signals coming from below, effectively making my brain blind to sciatic pain. It came with a remote to change the settings and a charger that uses a wireless pad that you hold over the box to charge. I had to charge it ever two or three days. The technician from the company does the initial set up (they device doesn't operate until you are recovered from the procedure and see the technician at your next office visit, I believe). The technician will turn the device on wirelessly and play with the settings and ask you to tell them when you feel something as the increase the magnitude of the stimulation. When you feel it, it does feel like a little electric buzzing in your back. But you aren't supposed to feel it at all, so they the turn it down just below where you felt the sensation. The remote has a couple different programs that I could change through that the technician programs, I guess changes in the frequency of the pulsing or things like that. I could also increase and decrease the magnitude within a set range, but for the most part I never messed with any of the settings. Nevro has a care team that I can contact at any time with questions or concerns and they will follow up with me occasionally to see how I am doing.
Part 4: Life After the Stimulator
I always had the stimulator on, and always said that it did help alleviate the residual sciatic symptoms I had, but I still had this low back pain that wouldn't go away. I continued to see the pain management doctor and we tried so other things. More trigger point injections, medications, etc. He had me on what is called "Low dose naltrexone" which is essentially a very low dose of an existing drug, used off label for chronic pain. It had to be specially made at a compounding pharmacy because the dose you need isn't commercially available. I tried that for a couple months and can't say it helped. In fact, I think it made me very nauseous a lot of the time. I remember I had to stop drinking coffee at one point because the taste of it would make me feel queezy, and one or two times I ran to the bathroom because I felt like I was going to throw up. I decided to stop taking it.
After that, I mostly just lived with my stimulator and dealt with any pain I had (hadn't seen the doctor since 2020). I was going to the gym someone regularly at this point, but like before it would often increase my pain symptoms so I would need to take extended breaks from exercise.
Part 5: Recurrent Herniation
At the beginning of November 2023, I started to feel something new. I was starting to slowly get sciatic symptoms again and was having flashbacks of my symptoms when I was in college. I was starting to get sciatica in both legs, and my right foot would sometimes start going numb if I stood for too long. It was getting more and more severe. Within a few weeks, I had to stop commuting into work because the pain was getting so bad. I contacted my pain management doctor who I hadn't seen in years. Their office was telling me how since I hadn't been there in so long I had to be treated as a new patient and the first opening for a new patient was like 2 or 3 weeks out. I was pretty angry at them about this. I mean, this doctor did the implant of the medical device that I have...should that not exempt me from this rule? Its not like this was an appointment for an unrelated issue. Anyway, the first available appointment was with a different doctor, but I was desperate so I saw him. He was not helpful. I was basically begging for pain meds and he was like welllll the other doctor should really prescribe you something because he knows your case better. It was such a a waste of time.
About a week or two later I did in fact see my original doctor, and he had the Nevro technician come because he thought it could potentially be an issue with the device. The technician found that there was "impedence" on one of the leads, a couple of the electrodes weren't working as they should. So she did some adjustments to compensate for that. I have it a week or so, but that did not fix the problem at all. I stopped charging the stimulator altogether because it wasn't doing anything for me. I had to start using a cane to get around because if I was standing, I needed something to lean on so I didn't have to keep my back straight. It was getting very difficult.
The doctor had me get a regular CT done, because I cannot get an MRI due to the stimulator (the stimulator itself is actually MRI safe and I think most of them are not, but because of the issue with the electrodes, my Nevro care team told me I could not get an MRI). So I and the CT and I could see it myself. It was absolutely clear that there was a herniation at L4-L5. Clear as day. So I had a video call with the doctors assistance soon after and to my dismay, they suggested treatment was to get an epidural to reduce the pain. Here I am, knowing full well that my symptoms and the results of the MRI are definitely worthy of surgery, and they want to give me just an epidural. I asked her about surgery and she said something about not opting for surgery until exhausting other options. I said okay. After the call, I immediately reached out to my friend who worked at the Hospital for Special Surgery in NYC. She actually works with the director of Spinal Surgery. Immediately, I was in contact with him and his entire team and they moved quickly to get things moving. I regret not having reached out sooner.
Part 6: Prep for Second Surgery
So the first thing to do was get better imagining. Since the MRI was out of the question, I had to do something called a CT Myelogram. Oh boy this was not a fun diagnostic procedure.
You need to be accompanied to the appointment because they will be giving you some very light sedative. You are hooked up to an IV, and they bring you into a room with a special x-ray table that rotates so you can be either laying flat or raised up so you are nearly standing, and the X-rays can be taken from many different angles. The doctor there take a couple of initial scans to find the location where they go in. I am queezy just talking about it right now. What they need to do is inject contrast dye right into my spinal canal. An epidural goes AROUND your spinal canal, but for this they need to pierce the dura and go in.
So they do local anesthesia and then take quite a large needle and go in. It is painful because it is going so deep. But God, you can feel the piecing of the dura layer when the needle goes through. I immediately feel my body hating it. Then they inject the dye, and you can feel that sort of cold sensation spreading across your back. And then he takes the needle out. I start to get VERY hot and am about to pass out, so they put some ice on the bacm of my neck and give me a minute to come back down. They also gave me some IV zofran to help with nausea and some IV sedative for the pain Thankfully it passed. But that wasnt even the difficult part.
Next, they have to make sure the dye gets into all the crevices. So the doctor rotates the table to different angles and has you try and bend in specific ways. It was incredibly painful to do. When he had me in an almost standing position, and the pressure of the dye was increasing my leg pain beyond anything I had experienced so far. It was really difficult. But once they are satisfied with the X-ray that shows the dye has spread well, they send you to the CT scan. Once I was laying down again the pain subsided and I was feeling better. They did the CT scan and then rolled me back to the recovery room, and by the time I was back in there I was feels 100% back to normal and had no issues getting up and walking. So that was that.
The image results were very telling (gunna try and include them here or in a comment if I can). The point of this type of imaging is that the contract dye with spread anywhere that the CSF can go. You should be able to clearly see the space all around the spinal cord, and if there are spots where you don't see the dye, you will be able to see what is causing some problems. It was plain to see how severe this herniation was. It was compressing my spinal cord and pushing it all the way to the back of the spinal column.
So the doctor said we have two options. A microdiscectomy or a fusion. We decided to do a MD though I would be okay with a fusion. Well guess what, two days before the surgery the doctor changed his mind and said that after reviewing the imaging again the best course of action would be to do a fusion. I was very excited for that.
Part 7: The Fusion
So at the end of Feb 2024 I had my fusion done. It was your standard surgery, nothing too crazy. Recovery was tough though. Basically with a fusion, they take out the herniation and most of the disc and they put this rubbery block in there that contains bone graft. That is what is going to grow to fuse the two vertebrae, but that process can take a year to fully fuse the bones. So they put in four screws, two in each vertebrae, and join them together with rods. This holds the bones together completely so that they do not move independently. They are essentially fused at this point, but only with the rods.
For recovery, the first couple days were difficult, mostly trying to stand up from laying down because I had like no low back strength. The pain was also pretty constant so I was taking a lot of muscle relaxers and narcotics to help me stay asleep as much as possible.
The surgery area was quiet large. There were two large bandages and two small bandages and the entire area was covered in a large adhesive patch to keep everything clean and dry (it was also very orange from the iodine). So I could shower without worrying about it. Within two weeks I was moving around a lot better. I might have stopped using my cane at this point, though anything that required me to reach forward, like washing my hands at the sink, was difficult because it would require back strength. By 2 weeks, the bandage had because really really frustrating. The huge adhesive patch was causing my skin to become itchy and irritated, and I could see they I was starting to develop some red bumps like pimples underneath. Thankfully 2 weeks was the point I could remove it (after my first follow up call with the doctors team). So I took it off which was not easy. The whole area was soooo sticky, I tried to remove a lot of the stickiness with either rubbing alcohol, soap, or Vaseline. I was able to get a lot of it off but some stickiness still lasted for several days. There will tiny bandages over the incision sites that covered the stitches and those would eventually all fall off themselves. I had two larger scars at the top where they did most of the work of cutting out the disc and putting in the graft, and then two tiny scars lower down where I assume they put in the screws for the lower vertabrae. My back does not look pretty.
I started PT at four weeks was doing better but still had a weak back and was very cautious with my movements. Did PT for 12 weeks and made a lot of improvement. I was back to how I was. The fusion 100% fix the issues that this new herniation had caused, and it was such a relief to finally have a procedure that was totally effective. However, the back pain that I had already had for many many years was and is still there and I am still not certain what is causing it.
Part 8: Now
I am about 20 weeks out of surgery and am still doing great. I still do not use my stimulator and don't plan to, but having to get it removed would be a really huge pain. I have started to actually go to a gym again and life weights to stay active. I am mostly convinced that this low back pain I still have is really muscle related, caused by the years of instability, and that I can address it by strengthly my core muscles and following my PT exercises. I think a lot of these muscles issues, like trigger points, can mimic sciatic symptoms. Knowing what REAL sciatic symptoms feel like again, this pain doesn't feel like I have a herniation pushing on my nerves. So I am going forward with that in mind and trying to deal with this pain muscularly.
As for the fusion, I don't notice any new limitations in my movement. I avoid rubbing the area because I could feel the rods if I rub it hard enough. But I feel normal. I had a follow up with the doctor with another X-ray and everything looks great. I am hoping that this can be a turning point for me to really live as close to a pain free life as possible.

I moved in with a family friend 6 months ago and signed a 6 month lease with her. We both put down a deposit of $3,395 (which we split) she works as a car dealer and has a side business of doing nails and waxing (unlicensed) but I figured hey money is money and she seemed responsible.
I knew going into this she had 2 dogs, but I had no idea how little she cared for them. When we first moved in she kept them blocked off in the kitchen (with broken pieces of a baby crib) it was so annoying having to move these to get into the kitchen. They would urinate all over the kitchen floor and on the cabinets and fridge. One of them is not neutered so would mark everywhere and the other would follow and she would never buy pee pads but even if she bought peed pads they are leg lifters so there is still pee on the walls and cabinets and trash can. It felt like pulling teeth, asking her to get them a playpen to keep them contained. It took her months to do so. Once she finally got the pen, the dogs were moved into the living room where they lasted for a while, but there was issues with the water bowl spilling onto the wooden floor and she refused to buy a mat to put their food and water bowls under. So it was back to the kitchen. Where she recently started opening their pen up and brought back the prices of crib to contain them in the kitchen. I decided to leave after this.
The abuse: -she leaves them in their pen for 15+ hours at a time -I have asked her to come on her lunch to let them out since she lives 6 minutes away from her day job and she refuses, she even refuses to stop by after her day job before she goes to do nails at her nail room which is 30 minutes away from her day job. -our ac system only stays on for 2 hours at a time and we live on the 2nd floor so it gets HOT -both dogs have severe dental disease -she never walks them -she takes them out in the front yard maybe once a day if they are lucky -never picks up their poop not sure how neighbors have not complained -the blankets in their play pen smell like urine (and so does the whole apartment) -they are able to jump out of the pen and have no access to water or food for hours -she refuses to take them to the vet -one of them has had a hotspot on his back since we have moved in (it’s been 6 months) -they have fleas, I have given her meds but she refused to give them the meds because she thinks it will hurt their stomachs -I’m a vet tech and I have offered to have them be seen at my hospital but she refuses to put any money towards the dogs There’s probably more but this post would be longer than it already is.
Anyway, she is refusing to give me my portion of the deposit now that I am moving out. She decided she is staying and will be signing a one year lease. She told me she has no plans to bring in another roommate and it will just be her and the dogs and possibly her boyfriend (who she cheats on 🥴 - and that’s a whole other can of worms) im thinking she might bring her nail/waxing business in the 2nd room. Her dogs also ruined the couch that I brought (we have no furniture in the house only the small couch because the dogs pee on EVERYTHING) One time when I went on vacation before I put a lock on my door she had opened my window during the rainy season to “air it out” because I had mentioned there was a new paint smell and I found 3 puddles of dog urine in my room some fresh some dry. She did not have much to say about this and was shocked when I told her I found their pee in my room. There have been multiple occasions where I accidentally left my room door open and the dogs would pee on the foot of my bed and on bags I would have on my floor.
She told me once her 1 year lease she will be signing is up only then will she give me my portion of the deposit. I don’t want to be liable for the damages these dogs are going to cause once I leave. Our lease clearly states that the landlord has nothing to do with the division of the deposit so I’m lowkey screwed. However she did text me she would give me my deposit when the lease was up before (where she did not specify it would be after her one year lease) but now that I have reminded her she said she’ll pay me once she gets the deposit back when she moves out…. A year later. Since the 6 month lease we both signed is up by the end of this month, I’m getting out. I’ve decided I will take her to small claims court if she does not pay me my portion although I’m not sure that text will hold up in court.
Any tips??? Would be greatly appreciated!!
There is a happy ending I got approved for a 1 bedroom apartment and will no longer have to be dealing with any roommates at all!

Let me break this down for everyone, the title was meant to be alarming. My older sister (40F) is a single mother to three kids, a 9 year old girl, a 2 year old girl, and a 4 year old boy. All very sweet kids. Unfortunately my sister was messing with some really sketchy people and about 7 months ago she got arrested. Either the kids got split up in the foster care system or they were taken care of by immediate family. Which is me and my husband. We gladly opened our home to the kids because we love them and we’d do anything for them. We live in a three bedroom house, so we let the two year old’s crib stay in our room, then the other kids get their own room. We thought it would be temporary as my sister was adamant she would beat the case but from 6 months ago, from the trajectory of the court case, she looks like she’ll be facing about 5 years minimum.
Being with the kids has been bliss, for the most part, but if it was all sunshine and rainbows i wouldn’t have made this account. My husband and I don’t have any kids, nor did we plan on having any kids. Because we are of “parental age” (that’s what the social workers called us) we are just expected to know what to do in terms of raising them. I mean, we got the practical part of it down. A breakfast routine, school, sleep time, homework, practices. All that stuff we’ve got down, in terms of that the kids haven’t been very fussy.
Everything was going well up until about 4 months ago, and everything just seemingly changed overnight. The 9 year old became extremely rude, mouthy, swearing, just all around disrespectful towards us. After many “you will not talk to me like that” she stopped listening. She throws full tantrums. Throws cutlery, completely refuses to do anything at all. During a tantrum she will completely destroy her bedroom and refuse to clean it up. Her younger brother has started to copy her behaviour by also being destructive. He spills rice and sugar on the floor, throws temper tantrums be it at home, in the store, at a restaurant. Completely destroys the house, drawing on the walls, our cars, with permanent markers.
We acknowledged that the kids might be acting out due to the overwhelming feelings of uncertainty they’re feeling. They just stopped living with their mother whom they barely see anymore, they live in a new house, they don’t know when things will feel normal again. I thought maybe they’re acting up because they think that we will send them back to their mom? I don’t know. The social worker judged us a lot when we told her we really don’t know what to do. She didn’t help much. A friend told me to try a behavioural therapist, but I think it’s too soon to send them to that just yet.
They’re not bad kids, we know what they’re going through, but we genuinely don’t know how to help them or make anything easier for them. So here I am on reddit, as my last resort, asking for any sort of help. If i was vague in my explaining ask me for more detail if that will help.