1st grade context clues

When I was first diagnosed with cancer (Stage 2 Grade 3 IDC +++) in February of this year, I immediately jumped into problem solver mode, as I have always done in the past. I am happy to say I am now half-way through chemo and handling it surprisingly well. Not to say it's a walk in the park, but it also has not been as awful as I truly thought it would be.
Unfortunately, everything else in my life has fallen apart.
In just the last few weeks:
-our car was stolen
-my fiance, who struggles with colitis, missed his meds because he was caring for me and ended up in the hospital because his appendicitis acted up. thankfully, he is now out of the hospital but his health has not fully recovered.
-my mother moved across the country with her husband to be closer to me and his children as we have determined they are not able to take care of themselves. But they are still 4 hours via train away from me. My mom has been recently diagnosed with a dementia-like condition called normal pressure hydrocephalus and her husband has parkinsons and dementia. They cannot care for themselves at all and my mom is rapidly deteriorating. She has always been a difficult person, but the dementia has made her even worse (paranoid, thinks we're all out to get her). She is also being scammed by a Nigerian she thinks is her boyfriend. There is no talking her out of this delusion. I am trying to manage her health care while out of state, and traveling to her on my "good" weeks.
-my Dad is being scammed by someone by the tune of tens of thousands of dollars and says he "can't remember anything." His girlfriend suspects he might be on drugs or is being blackmailed. He texted me 2 days ago asking for $850 which is extremely out of character for him. When I confronted him on why he broke down and admitted he felt bad for a woman whose car was re-posesed. I told him off and he was deeply hurt in a way I have never experienced. For further context, my Dad has handled my cancer diagnosis very poorly as I am basically his everything (we are extremely close) and his wife (my stepmom) died of cancer so he may be spiraling. My Dad also lives 3 hours from me in the opposite direction of my Mom.
-A brother of mine who lives on the other side of the country (where my Mom lived until 3 weeks ago) is a longtime drug addict and is homeless living in his car. He used to live off the "generosity" (taking advantage) of my mother, but now he's all alone and on the verge of losing his son. He texted me last night saying he wanted to kill himself.
Needless to say, I have developed an eye twitch.
Thankfully I do have another brother who has his shit together. He's trying his best to step in since he knows I can't. But he can only do so much as he's a father of three young kids. He's in the process of becoming the power of attorney of both our parents, just flew out to be with my Mom today, and says when he gets home, he's going to move my Dad in with him. He's honestly my saving fucking grace right now.
I am unable to do what I have always done, and throw myself at the problem. My "fix-everything" personality has been really struggling with this limitation and I feel powerless. I know I have to put the oxygen mask on my face first, but it certainly isn't easy. Everyone in my life keeps saying "when it rains, it pours" but this is more like a flood and I am drowning.
I don't even know why I'm posting this here. I just needed a place to put this all down because I can't believe this is my life.

Lately, I've been very curious as to where a lot of these far out claims that unbelievers make come from (i.e. Lilith allegedly being Adam's "first wife," the Bible allegedly endorsing rape and slavery, Jesus allegedly coming only for the Jews, etc). So, I posted in a sub of unbelievers, to inquire as to how they go about studying the Bible to determine what they think it actually says.
Do they just google "what does the bible say about ____?" Do they look to see if what they're reading is referenced anywhere else, or makes reference to another passage? Do they just read the Bible, cover-to-cover, taking notes, dog-ear pages, or maybe even consulting a commentary?
When the first few responses came back, I thought maybe my question wasn't clear enough, or had been misunderstood; no one was actually addressing the question I'd asked, but rather, they were referencing studies which claimed that atheists know more on average about Christianity than Christians, Catholics, and Mormons, or stating "there's just no evidence," or mentioning how they saw different people behave during covid. But not one person responded to the actual question: how do you study the Bible to determine what it actually says?
As more responses came, however, I realized my question was posed just fine; people (online, in the sub I'd posted to, anyways) simply aren't interested in having such a discussion. They would much rather just ignore the question, and sling whatever "evidence" they find most compelling at you in an attempt to prove to you that "the magic sky daddy is fake, your faith is a sham, the religion is a scam, and your book teaches monstrous morals." I think this is worthy of note, as something similar seems to occur during a majority of my interactions with unbelievers on social media.
This brings up two points I think many Christians need to be reminded of:
First, don't waste your breath.
If you're engaging in a conversation about Christianity, and your questions or points are being completely ignored, you might want to consider ending the conversation. It's simply not beneficial to engage with someone who is only there to argue and to prove you wrong. Now, what I am not saying is that we shouldn't be advocating for the faith, evangelizing, or sharing the gospel. But if the other party is not engaging with the goal of actually listening and reasoning with you, the conversation will devolve into an argument, and that argument will be of no benefit. I personally have taken to beginning/joining such conversations with the question, "If I could prove to you that the Christian God is real, would you believe in Him?" If the answer is yes, there's a pretty good chance you'll have a good conversation with such a person. If the answer is no, depending on the reason why (because it's pretty much always a "no, because..." answer), you may want to consider just leaving the conversation there. Don't waste your breath trying to convince someone of something they've already told you they will not believe even if you could prove it to them.
Second, trust in God's word, not your own argument. If you do run into someone who answers yes to at least considering God if you can prove Him to them, then it will be God who draws them to Himself, not your opinions, arguments, personal experiences, etc that lead them to God. What I've found during my conversations with unbelievers is that a vast majority of them have absolutely no clue what the Bible actually teaches! They may know a good deal about what the Bible says, but only what it says in this verse or that, specifically, which supports their argument; regardless if they have to take said verse out of context, disregard where another verse, in context, directly refutes their argument, etc. 8 times out of 10, what I've found is that any verse an unbeliever may use to show what they think is some horrible thing, if read within the chapter it's in, will gain the context needed to at least show their claim is incorrect (the remaining 2 out of 10 you may need to go a few chapters before or after to gain a better picture of the context).
Which leads me to my final point: unfortunately, in order to have a beneficial conversation with even fair and reasonable others, we as Christians must simply be more knowledgeable of scripture. You will not have time, for example, to read the surrounding 4 chapters of a verse to provide a full picture of its context in the middle of a conversation. You will typically need to just know it off the top of your head, or be able to find it quite quickly. This means that, among the other reasons why we should be doing this anyway, there is a benefit to reading your Bible daily. As Christians, we should know our Bible best. Are we not called to always be prepared to give a defense to everyone who asks an account of the hope that is in you (1 Peter 3:15)? Should we be content, engaging in such conversations and struggling to deal with random claims which we should know are being taken out of context, and be able to refute, rather than derailing a conversation to focus on one point which isn't even scriptural?
Remember, the scriptures are the literal, recorded word of God (2 Timothy 3:16); do you reckon that you are more able to bring others to God than He is Himself? Do you think that your stories and reasoning are superior to the Almighty's? Trust in God's word rather than your own.

I know this girl for several years, I asked her out in 3rd grade and she rejected ofc. I’m not in the friend zone, but idk what to do. If I ask her how her day was or how she is doing she would find it weird of me asking her that (At least thats what I think). I think I have a chance, but idk a conversation starter with her💀 Maybe ask her to play freaking Brawl and then talk abit, because straight up calling her out of nowhere is akward. I also have no clue what to talk about after starting a convo, cant ask “where are you from” or “what do you do in your free time” cuz I already know after years of knowing her.

I hate two very horrible matches with a Cammy player.
Things I noticed:

• Not knowing when is my turn. Even after watching the reply there were some instance where she was -2 frames but when i tired to jab out i get countered.
• When Cammy does the drive rush MP i have no clue how to react even after blocking the first few hits.
• Not reacting to DI properly
• There were a few anti air opportunities i missed because she was still a bit far.

What can i do to improve?
2nd Match:
https://reddit.com/link/1ctnwbe/video/eosmes4qru0d1/player
1st Match:
https://reddit.com/link/1ctnwbe/video/c151246qru0d1/player

I feel like my whole life is ruined and it’s all my fault. Im on my second year of highschool which is about to end. If I could start highschool all over again i would. I slacked off my 1st 2 years. Last year as a freshman Is when my ocd and dpdr started it was hard to focus on my classes and I ended the year with a 2.8. Now I’m on the same path too, because another strong episode hit me 2nd semester. I blame myself for all of this ofcourse it’s my fault, I had no motivation and I shouldn’t have procrastined.
I know it’s my 2nd year but I’m so sad. If I worked hard and stopped being so lazy maybe I would’ve had good grades. Maybe I would’ve had a 4.0 by now. Maybe I wouldn’t feel like I ruined my own future and there’s nothing I can do now because the past is the past.
I know it might not seem like a big deal, but I see all these people bragging about their good grades and it makes me feel like I haven’t done enough, and i probably didnt. I just wish I had a chance to start over again, actually try hard because I realized it all last minute. I would’ve made my parents proud too.
This is just me venting because I feel like I’ve failed, and it’s too late.

Currently, I feel a sense of impending doom surrounding the actual exam results and recently find myself searching up about resists because I genuinely believe I will fail everything. I have no clue why I have regressed so severely and it's all amounting to the point where I'm so overwhelmed; I'm having panic attacks during my exams, I'm constantly crying into the late hours of the night, I am entirely exhausted. I have no clue what I should do to either pick myself up and carry on as is or to search up about what I need to do about failing any of my subjects. I'm stuck in this constant back and forth, in my mind, as I have no idea what's going to happen if I really do end up with unacceptable grades for sixth form. I know I'm not the only one in this boat but everyone in my life, my age seem to just carry on as is and maintain a cool composure.

So, for some context, I am a 13 yr 8th-grade transmask Caucasian (basically white lol), and the girl who is bullying me is 13, African American, cis, straight, and a popular girl. Every time she sees me sitting on the bus, she makes a disgusted face and says, "Uggghhh I don't wanna sit by you!" I constantly hear her talking shit and misgendering me, "She's a freak, she smells bad, she's annoying, she's ugly, I hate her, etc." And today, I heard her say something about me and told my best friend over text Apparently, she was looking and said, "you wanna talk about me? " In this super passive-aggressive tone. And then later, she sprayed her terrible-smelling perfume on me and called me a racist because I told her to stop. And, here's the thing, I take showers every morning, put on deodorant every two hours, put on two spritz of perfume (coconut scented btw), and brush my teeth three times daily. What should I do? The bus driver won't do shit, and I'm too scared to fight her. Help me.

So before I start am 10 year old male in fifth grade, so let me explain. So me and 2 of my friends were playing in class and 1 we will call eleven so eleven says he is going to fight someone who we will call class clown but that’s not important so everyone is getting hyped up and eleven says it’s a joke A JOKE he has been saying he going to fight for 2 hours to now say its a joke what kind of hickery is this so I say then you could have said it’s a joke earlier eleven gets mad says I’m not going to be your friend WHAT then I say okey then don’t be my friend he says I never said that but he did eleven says I said do you even care I say you never said that so heres where I get close to the part he punches me so he says if you think I’m lying then don’t be my friend so I say okay then then he starts crying saying no no no I don’t want to to not be my friend then he says ok then heres the contexts he always says he doesn’t wanna be my friend JUST TO BE RUDE TO ME so then a few hours go by in the school day and it’s 1:14 we go to pe 1 hour goes by we have to leave pe and as we leave he stops walking until I’m far enough and runs to me punching my back this was may 15 2024 right now It’s may 16 2024 this was yesterday so this next part may be violent to some people so I grab ho by the shirt punch him 2-4 times in the face while he‘s on a headlock and i throw him on the ground and next thing you know i get in trouble eleven gets in more trouble because i got i big bruis my mom came to pick me up bc i got paralyzed for 1 min after he punched me in the back so that’s the end of the story bye

Only rarely have we been shown her "mild" fear of men, so it is not surprising that she has no male friends.
Even her friends but mostly Kobayashi are aware of her fear and protect her on several occasions.
Do you think Norio will give more context about this in the future or will it remain a small detail?
I think we got clues when she and Hanzawa were being chased by several guys on their date in Shibuya, which is why Anna was forced to call Ichikawa to come with them.
She has even said that many men often flirt with her, so that's probably where things are going.
I wouldn't be surprised if he touches on this topic later, Norio is very realistic when it comes to Japan, harassment and nampa is horrible.

So, a little bit of history. I finished secondary school in 2013, and got horrific grades. My only passing mark was in English Language. Between then and now, I've been employed once for a period of 4 months in 2021. I'm fortunate enough to have very supportive parents. I've got a number of significant physical and mental health complications which have prevented me from working as I would like to.
My original plan was to get as many IT certs as possible and start applying for remote 1st line support positions (or whatever). But, it's come to light I'm very likely to receive a high six-figure windfall. This isn't enough to "retire" (not that I've worked much) but is enough to afford me a few options. I'll be honest and say I basically feel like I have the social and adult skills of a 17 year old, despite my age.
What should I do? I'm considering getting a degree, but have no idea what I actually like or want to do.
Thanks!

First off, congrats to everyone for the past application cycle! No matter what your outcome was, it's a big accomplishment to have gone through the whole process. I'm a non-trad who was accepted to Queen's this year, on my 2nd application cycle. I will be 27 when I start this Fall. It feels surreal and I always told myself I'd write a post about my journey if this day ever came - and here we are.
I didn't decide to apply to med school until after I finished undergrad, and while doing my research, I always wished I could read/hear perspectives from others with my background. Even though everybody's path will be different, I hope that my story can provide some insight (or even hope) for other non-trad applicants out there.
Before we start, here are my stats because that's important:

• cGPA, OMSAS: 3.53
• wGPA, UBC: ~85%
• MCAT: 515 (127/129/130/129)
• Casper: 4th
• IP: BC and ON

I'll go in chronological order, briefly describing some of the major events that led me to today, starting from high school. Please ask me any questions in the comments - (almost) nothing is off limits :)
TLDR: I was a software engineer who quit after a year to go to grad school and pursue medicine. It took me 4 years from when I decided to pursue this to getting accepted at a Canadian school. I did a Masters in stats and applied 2 times. My biggest takeaway is to do a lot of what you are passionate about, do it well, and take it far (for me, that was teaching and research).
Some demographics:

• My parents and I immigrated to Canada from Asia when I was 3
• I grew up in the GTA and did undergrad in Ontario
• I'm the first person in my family to pursue med school. My immediate family and I are the only people in our whole family who live outside of Asia, and nobody in my parents' network of family friends is in healthcare either.

High school, 2011-2015: I was always interested in medicine as a kid, but math was always my favourite subject. I applied to several science and math programs, and was choosing between Western Med Sci and Waterloo Math. I did not apply to Mac Health Sci and looking back, I'm not sure why (perhaps a sign that I didn't believe in myself). I ended up choosing Waterloo Math and giving up on the medical school route in grade 12, for a few reasons: the math program had 6 co-op terms, meaning I'd graduate with 2 full-time years of job experience, and I wasn't particularly good at biology and didn't have strong reasons for pursuing medicine back then. Med school also seemed like an impossible goal, especially since I didn't have any mentors in the field.
Undergrad, 2015-2020: This was honestly a fun time for me. I double-majored in stats and CS and I did 6 co-ops, 5 of which were in software engineering roles. I had originally planned to do actuarial science, but quickly saw the earning potential in the tech industry and made it my goal to get a job at a big tech company. A lot of personal stuff happened during this time as well that affirmed my decision pursue a software engineering career. One part of it was that I didn't want my parents to worry about me, and being able to show them that I was able to do well for myself in tech felt really good.
Halfway through my co-ops, I realized that I wasn't feeling the most fulfilled in software roles, but management roles also didn't appeal to me. I didn't really take the time to fully explore this feeling, and it was easy to put it away in light of the high income and getting to live in big cities for internships. Still, I did well in my co-ops and built up my software skills. After realizing that "grades don't matter for getting tech jobs", I let my grades slip. It wasn't until 4th year that I decided I wanted to keep the door open for grad school, and starting taking classes I liked and getting better grades. I graduated with an 82% average, with my grades all over the place (which I'd later learn was bad for calculating my OMSAS gpa lol).
Throughout undergrad, I still wanted to be involved in clubs and stuff, so here's a list of all my undergrad ECs. All these were only 4-8 months long.

• 1st year: I was a member and president of my first year residence council
• 2nd year: I was in a leadership position at the statistics club
• 3rd year: I was an event coordinator for co-op students in a city away from home
• also 3rd year: I was part of a club that builds software for non-profits

Another activity from undergrad that made it onto my application was a research project I did at one of my co-ops. It was in NLP and I worked on it even after finishing that coop term. It ended up taking 4 years to get published.
Full-time software engineering, 2020-2021: I signed a return offer from one of my co-ops, and had planned to move to Seattle in the summer after graduating to start working. But Covid changed all that. I moved back home with my parents in the GTA and worked at my software job remotely for the full year.
It was during this year that I was really feeling unfulfilled in my job, and did a lot of thinking about how I wanted my career to look. I started to remember that med school was something that I once wanted to do, and I also started reading/watching a lot of content from people in medicine with non-traditional backgrounds. My partner, who is also from Ontario, was accepted to an international med school, and many of our friends were also getting into schools in Canada around the same time, so this reaffirmed to me that it was actually possible. While working for the year, I made a plan to apply to grad school (academia would be my back-up) and take the MCAT. Here's what my 2020-2021 looked like:

• July: started full-time work
• December-January: wrote personal statements and applied to 5 Masters programs in biostatistics
• February-April: acceptances to Masters programs came in, and I was studying for the MCAT
• June: took the MCAT, scored 508, and told my manager that I'd be leaving by August to start grad school

During this year, I also wrote out a 3-year plan that included my masters and 2 application cycles. I wrote out what courses I would take to fulfill prereqs, which schools I would apply to each year, and what my back-up plan would be. I think this was important to do rigorously since it gave me a clear idea of which schools I was eligible for, and how much work it would take me to become eligible for the rest of them.
I will also add that this is a rather objective recount of my process that year. In reality, I completely recognized how insane it was to quit my job to go to grad school, and I'm super lucky that I was able to.
Grad school, 2021-2023: I moved to BC to start my Masters in statistics in August. This choice was partly to gain IP status in BC, but mostly, this was really the best program for me out of the schools I applied to. Even looking back now, I would have chosen this program even without the IP consideration.
Here's a breakdown of everything I did during the first year of my Masters:

• Started a new volunteering role (tutoring) right away. Still doing this today, almost 3 years later.
• Took a first year English class to fulfill the UBC requirement. Side note: it felt very odd being a 25-year-old in a class of 18-year-olds, but I did well in both classes probably because of being older. At first, I dreaded taking these classes since English was never my strong suit. But being older meant that I allowed myself to be truly curious about the topics being taught, and I treated it more as an experience to learn more about the world than to just check off some boxes.
• Took the MCAT again, at the end of my first year of MSc. I had already confirmed a supervisor by then, and thankfully she is/was incredibly supportive of my goals. I took it in June 2022 and got 515.
• TA'd stats courses throughout the year
• Started working on my thesis research with my supervisor

First application, 2022: I applied only to UBC for my first application cycle. In retrospect, I should have just applied broadly right away, but I didn't feel like I had enough references built up by then. And UBC doesn't require references unless you get an interview. I honestly had very high hopes of getting an interview this year, and was crushed to receive a rejection in December with an NAQ of 50-75. I thought that my application was unique, but upon reflection, I realized that the lack of volunteering and community service was a big gap in my application.
So here's a breakdown of everything I did in my second year of my Masters and beyond:

• TA'd stats courses throughout the year, and was the head TA for one of them (I think this showed leadership and commitment to teaching)
• Started another volunteering role at the food bank
• Took another first-year English course
• Continued my research with my supervisor
• Got offered (and started) a lecturer role for an undergrad course at the university, which was such an amazing opportunity. My supervisor helped me a lot with getting this position, since I TA'd for her one semester and she recommended me to the department. This was a class of 150, and I was also in charge of a few TAs. I ended up teaching this class 2 more times after this!
• Finished my Masters in August 2023
• Started working full-time as a biostatistician in September 2023
• A first-author paper I started working on during undergrad was accepted in Fall 2023. I had been working on this on-and-off for the past 4 years so it was incredible for the work to finally pay off!

Second application, 2023: This time, I applied to UBC and every school in Ontario that I was eligible for: Queen's and Mac. I was rejected by UBC pre-interview again. Same NAQ, and my total score didn't change. I was totally crushed and thought it was over for this year. I was very honest with myself about the Ontario applications - Mac was a total throwaway application and Queen's felt like a complete gamble. I was rejected from Mac pre-interview but one fateful day in January, I received an email from Queen's. It had a very generic "Application Status" subject line and I opened it fully expecting a rejection. I was totally shocked when it said I was invited for the MMI! And a few months later, I was also invited to the Panel.
Some of my thoughts and preparation for the interviews:
MMI - Aside from the usual resources that are posted here, I also took advantage of the following:

• Support system: I had a lot of support from my partner, who had gone through MMIs from non-Canadian schools, and many of my friends who were already in med school.
• Resources: I paid for a prep session on AcceptedTogether and had a positive experience there. I also used the BrightStudent question bank and although the questions were good, the explanations and overall experience were mid. But their YouTube video was extremely useful.
• Mindset: Throughout my whole MMI prep, I was honestly very interested in exploring each prompt, and I think this mindset was extremely beneficial for making my answers both unique and genuine. During my Masters, I also took a class that covered topics in social determinants of health, and I semi-regularly enjoy reading about current events in this area, so both of those pieces of background were super helpful for me.

Panel - I was so happy to receive a panel interview, and knew that I could not mess this up. I prepped with a few different friends of mine who were in med school, and another friend who was going through Ontario interviews too. Going in, I felt very prepared, and in the days leading up to it, I even felt like my answers were on autopilot and a bit over-prepared. So I really tried to relax and "be myself"/answer genuinely during the panel. The real panel felt quite cold - I didn't get any feedback from my interviewers, and was a bit thrown off by some of the questions. I was also cut off by the Kira Talent timer at the end, and didn't get to say goodbye or thank you. For the rest of the day, I ruminated on all my answers. The content of my answers felt somewhere between "why would I say that" and "just fine" and "great", but I was definitely feeling a bit bad about the whole experience.
Decision Week, 2024: That brings us to this week! In the week leading up to the decision, I flip flopped between "My panel hated me, there's no way I passed the vibe check" and "My answers were good, my MMI felt good, why wouldn't they accept me". I opened the email at 6am (Pacific time) with zero expectations - I truly had no idea what was waiting for me on the other side. The first word was "Congratulations!" and I didn't read much farther than that before I started celebrating :)
So that's it. I told a lot of people I work with, my Masters supervisor, my parents, and my friends, and it felt amazing to deliver this good news. My closing thoughts about my whole journey are that even though I do think my application was great, I still got incredibly lucky. At any point in the process, I could have gotten an undesirable outcome, and there was nothing I could do to control that (other than my efforts prior). I also relied a lot on my support system, and was so lucky to have had + made friends who are in med school or were practising already.
I just feel so grateful to be starting this Fall, and I'm happy to say that my high school self would be in absolute disbelief if she could see where I am today. That statement is a sign to me that I'm on the right path, and I'm just so excited to be starting this long, hard career that is medicine.
If you've made it to the end, thank you for reading!! If you can relate to any part of my journey and have questions, please send me a comment or DM - my inbox is always open.

Hiya!
Does anyone know of some sort of equivalent to Bartok's Mikrokosmos, but in an earlier style? As in, a collection of little exercises to help teaching piano, gradually getting harder from very basic up to actual pieces?
I've been teaching myself piano for a few weeks now, using Bartok's Mikrokosmos. I've been using the little pieces to gradually improve, and it's going alright! I make sure I don't move on from a piece until I've fully gotten the hang of it, so I don't rush ahead. The issue I'm having is with Bartok's style. While I do enjoy *listening* to some of his pieces, I find them a little disorientating to play, due to the... unorthodox harmonies, which make me feel like I'm playing an error, when it's actually correct. I think if I had something with a similar concept, but with perhaps more baroque, classical, or romantic style, I would find it easier to progress. Any suggestions or advice at all are welcome :)
For context, I'm a fairly decent violinist, working on stuff largely from around the grade 8/diploma syllabuses (ABRSM), so I already have pretty good theory and audiation and such. I'm planning on starting piano lessons with an actual teacher soon, but as I'm moving country in a couple months, I'm waiting until after then, so I don't have to change teacher so soon :)
Thanks again !!

For context, I’m familiar with a few Filipino flavors/cuisines such as sautéed shrimp paste & green mango, pork blood stew, lumpia, chicken/pork adobo, and taro/ube dishes thanks to being surrounded by a large, wonderful community of Filipino people in my part of the world.
I’ve never really MADE any besides sinagag, and wanted to ask, what dishes did you start out making?
I love the dishes listed, but have no clue where to start. Thank you in advance.

KEITH R.A. DECANDIDO: "Nor should one of them be able to put herself into a position of power on a Breen dreadnought. I’ve said all along that Moll and L’ak reminded me of Honey Bunny and Pumpkin from Pulp Fiction. And that’s the problem—the characters played by Amanda Plummer and Tim Roth in that 1994 film would never have taken over, say, an Army regiment. Hell, those two characters were pretty much undone by bumping into two only-very-slightly smarter criminals in the diner they were robbing.
And that’s the problem with Moll’s storyline here. Ever since the Breen showed up looking for the pair of them, she’s been punching way above her weight class and the scripts have insisted that she win those fights, and I have yet to actually buy it. At one point in “Labyrinths” Moll casually mentions that Discovery has the other four clues, which is the first time the Primarch even knows there are other clues. At that moment, the Primarch should’ve shot and killed Moll. Which, frankly, would’ve been fabulous, a great twist that actually would make sense. Usually what undoes criminals is getting too big for their britches, as it were, and getting hammered.
The Primarch is perfectly happy to blow up the Archive, even though it has some important Breen artifacts, even though he swore on the bizarre-ass alien oath that he wouldn’t. So why does he even let Moll live? She’s proven to be untrustworthy and he’s got the bigger ship and now knows that Discovery has all but one of the clues. [...]
Which leads us to where the episode falls down, and again, it’s the Breen. On the one hand, we get a great visual of the Breen all tapping their glowy staffs on the deck of the dreadnought in unison. It’s very effective and menacing in the same way that the Cybermen moving in stompy concert with each other on Doctor Who is effective. The thing is, on Who it conveys their menace as a united, mechanized front, where individualism is subsumed. Which would make sense for the Breen, given that they all look the same on the outside. [...]
I do want to pause here to sing the praises of Elena Juatco, who does a wonderful job playing Hy’Rell. As the child of librarians, and someone whose first job out of college was as an assistant editor for Library Journal magazine, I really loved seeing a librarian be a helpful and heroic character who is devoted to the preservation of knowledge, but not to an absurdist degree. As an example, they invite Book to join Burnham on the away team because they have an artifact from Kwejian. They want Book to provide context for it, and also offer to let him take it with him. My wife kept thinking that the Archive was going to be some sinister thing where they’d imprison Book in order to preserve him as the last survivor of Kwejian, and I’m so glad she was wrong, as that would’ve been tiresome. Instead, the Archive is what a library should be, and it’s a wonderful thing. [...]
One final note: This is yet another episode without Doug Jones as Saru, Emily Coutts as Detmer, and Oyin Oladejo as Owosekun. I know that the staff didn’t know this was the final season when they wrote and produced this season, but it’s still disappointing that we’re getting so little of these three—especially Saru, who is the best thing about Discovery. Sigh"
Keith R.A. DeCandido (Reactor Mag)
Link:
https://reactormag.com/the-mind-doesnt-lie-star-trek-discoverys-labyrinths/

I (F20) and my partner who I’ll call C (M26) have a great relationship for the most part. He’s funny, kind, and emotionally intelligent. He brings a lot of joy into my life and while the idea of breaking it off hurts my heart SO bad, there’s one glaring issue in our relationship: sex, more importantly, the lack of it.
So my bf struggles a lot with ED, body image issues, and the feeling of vulnerability with sex. We’ve been tg for almost a year and have had sex maybe 3 times, and all three of those times were stopped halfway thru bc he got into his head. For me, I’m not particularly hyper sexual and I don’t need a lot of it, but all I’m asking for is like 1/2x a month. He has a lot of baggage, as do I, and while he HAS been making progress (I want to make that clear and I am very proud of him) the progress has been verrrrry slow. We’ve had a lot of convos abt it, and while I almost exclusively initiate, he’s always receptive and willing to hear me. (He has avoidant tendencies while I lean more anxious. I’m very direct and want to solve problems) For the record, I have so much empathy for his situation and I want to help, but have no clue how. I’ve offered toys, other forms of sex, foreplay ideas, etc..
On one hand, I have a wonderful partner in literally every other way. He meets 85% of my needs. But that 15% is a doozy man…
I’m not at the point of breaking up with him or anything yet, but I wanted to get feedback and advice from older ppl as this is my first meaningful relationship. If you need any additional context or info feel free to ask, I just wasn’t quite sure what info to put on this post. Thank you!!

David Grusch has claimed in his resume and in the media that he was the "Senior Technical Advisor for UAP/Trans-Medium Issues" for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency where he was the "NGA lead for Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) and Trans-Medium Anomaly issues. Executed new program of record responsive to direct tasking by the Congressional Intelligence Committees."
This claim has largely been accepted as fact, though no explanation for what this alleged role entails has ever been provided.
Grusch has also strongly implied in the media that he was explicitly tasked by Congress with investigating UAPs in this role AND that he had Title 10 and Title 50 investigative authorities. He does not claim these authorities in the Congressional testimony he provided.
Oddly, despite allegedly being tasked by the Congressional Intelligence Committees (if he is to be believed) and having Title 10/50 clearances (again, assuming he is to be believed), he was allegedly denied access to relevant programs he was investigating.
From his NewsNation interview: "Grusch says he pressed to gain direct access to the program, and that’s when the trouble started. He claims his investigation was stymied, and his requests for access were rebuffed. “They shut the door in my face. They denied me access to these programs,” he said. Soon after, he says he endured reprisals and retaliations from above. He reported that information to the intelligence community inspector general and eventually filed a whistleblower complaint."
When pressed as to why he should be believed, he has stated, "Well, we provided the proof internally to the inspector general and went into all the details,” he said. “I mean, I have the credentials. I was an intelligence officer on the UAP Task Force.”
I am somewhat surprised seemingly no journalists have made any effort to validate any of these "credentials" claims given that Grusch relies 1000% on his credentials for his credibility by his own admission. This lack of investigation is even more worrisome given that nearly all former government / military personnel attached to the UFO Media have been caught greatly embellishing their credentials (looking squarely at you, Lue Elizondo, but others as well).
Grusch has posted his resume, so I think it is worth seeing what can be deciphered there because I think there are some potential clues there. That said, I am no expert on the US Air Force, so it would be helpful to hear from those who have this experience.
Some interesting tidbits from the resume:

1. Many of his jobs have overlapping dates. I am guessing this isn't terribly unusual, but it becomes quite confusing to understand when and who he was employed by, which is compounded by the fact that many of these positions seem to be him working as a USAF Reservist.
2. At the time he has claimed to be the "Senior Technical Advisor for UAP/Trans-Medium Issues", he also lists "Lead SME for USSPACECOM National Support Team (NST) for cross agency program integration" which clearly seems to have been his main job.
3. Would a "Senior Technical Advisor for UAP/Trans-Medium Issues" actually be given ANY investigative powers or authorities to look into UAP-related SAPs as Grusch has claimed because it certainly sounds like his actual role was likely answering technical questions that might arise from any intelligence the agency he worked with provided to the UAP Task Force. This is important, in my opinion, because pretty much every military and intelligence division had similar liaisons to this task force AND YET only Grusch has implied that he was actually tasked with investigating UAP-related SAPs and had the clearances required and "need-to-know" that warranted access to these programs. Why haven't any of these other liaisons come forward?
4. Much of Grusch's resume (March 2016 - November 2021) was time he apparently worked for a PRIVATE contractor called Blue Sky Innovators. In this time period, his other jobs seem to have been as a Reservist. While this isn't unusual, it seems like the bulk of Grusch's career was actually spent as a private sector contractor rather than directly for the government/military. It appears he was only active duty Air Force for less than 7 years before joining the Reserves and working for a private contractor. What does this tell us, if anything.
5. He doesn't come back into a full-time government role until November 2021, a full 5 years after his last active duty, but is apparently (if he is to be believed) immediately tasked by Congress with the powers to investigate UAP-related SAPs. This seems quite unlikely, but perhaps someone more knowledgeable than me can explain why this would make ANY sense.

My working hypothesis since Grusch first emerged on the scene is that he has greatly embellished his credentials and is relying on an impressive looking resume to make it seem like he was a more senior member of the intelligence community than he might have been in reality.
For example, much has been made of his GS-15 pay grade being equivalent to a Colonel to demonstrate that he was very senior. I do not have a lot of experience in this area, but I work in tech and remember many years ago that when friends went to work as software devs for the government they were often brought in under similar sounding levels because it was the only way to pay them the rates they required.
Again, I'm not knowledgeable enough in this area to understand this, so hoping others can chime in.

So I (M20) just finished my second year at uni, and even though the year wasn’t bad in terms of grades I really feel like I fell off. I had a really good start to college, I had a really good diet, worked out nearly every day, joined lots of orgs, made friends with a lot of people, woke up early, and overall was very good at managing my time. I ended up getting sick with bronchitis over the summer and that completely destroyed everything. I had to stop going gym, I ate less so I went from 180lbs -> 150lbs by the time I recovered. I’m pretty insecure about my looks (which was the whole reason I would work out), and now that they were ruined I didn’t have the confidence I had before which lead me to talk to people less, join less clubs, and I ended up not making many friends in my 2nd year compared to my 1st. I recovered from my bronchitis by September 2023, and I really wanted to get back into it all. But no matter what I tried I just couldn’t start where I left off. If I tried waking up early and going to the gym, I would get tired and skip meals. If I ate my usual 5 meals a day, I wouldn’t have time for school and orgs, and on the off chance that I was able to complete my routine for a day, I was too tired to do it the next day, I’m honestly surprised that I managed this stuff every single day for a whole year. Kinda feels like when I start trying, I just end up back in square 1. I really don’t want my 3rd year in Uni go to waste, how can I seriously start my routine again and make it sustainable enough for me to continue for a long time like before?
TLDR: I used to have a really nice, sustainable, daily routine for school, work, gym, and friends. I got sick, had to stop this routine. How can I get it started again?

Hi,
TLDR: looking for advice for 'deep recovery' from autistic burnout, venting/rambling a bit about my situation
Sorry for the long post, my life hasn't been great the last few years and I'm hoping that if I describe it in detail then someone might have some advice for where to go next, or be able to tell me if I'm missing something obvious. I've bolded the bits where I'm asking for advice.
I (24F) am not officially diagnosed with aspergers or anything autism related, but am recovering from what I suspect is autistic burnout. I had symptoms of moderate to severe CFS last summeautumn but am slowly recovering from it without any major crashes. When I read the description of autistic burnout I identified with it completely. The loss of skills and extremely reduced tolerance to stimulus on top of the fatigue is something I have really struggled to describe or explain to people (not helped by the loss of skills i.e. barely being able to put a sentence together to speak to someone). I've read Strong Female Character and Aspergirls, and am currently reading Unmasking Autism. I haven't completely self-diagnosed yet, but I am researching it and think it's a strong possibility. The first half of Aspergirls describes my childhood pretty well. I was often called a 'Highly Sensitive Person' and Unmasking Autism states that the creator of this term has said that the people she was talking about have since been diagnosed with ASD. Even if I am not Autistic, I often find Autistic people more relatable and easier to understand that non-Autistic people and find their advice for rest, sensory issues etc helpful to me. I am not looking for a diagnosis or diagnostic advice.
I currently feel like I'm starting my life over again, and I'd really appreciate advice on how to build a sustainable life when I have a lower tolerance for stimulus and find communicating more tiring than many people.
Context/life story: I'm from the UK. I have a degree in maths, was feeling burnt out and was going to take a gap year before doing a masters, but the pandemic happened and I moved back into my childhood bedroom. I couldn't face being stuck there again with no 'escape plan' so one afternoon I (impusively) signed up for a masters at a not so great uni and didn't do well academically. At the time I was considering a PhD and going into pure maths research. I don't have the grades to get funding for this. By the end of the masters my boyfriend had broken up with me and I'd lost touch with all my friends. The only person I 'spoke' to was my mother and even she'd say this was pretty one sided. In my dissertation presentation on zoom, I read a pre-written script and answered 'I don't know' to all the questions because I hadn't spoken to anyone in months and couldn't hold a conversation with the cashier in the supermarket about the weather let alone one with an academic about advanced maths. I scraped a pass.
After this was over (October 2021), I really felt like I needed a break. I decided I was going to have 2022 'off'. I was going to rest, get a job that didn't use my brain, move to a city so I wasn't so isolated (I live in Wales) and recover and rebuild before figuring out what I wanted to do next. I couldn't figure out how to move to a city without getting a professional job. I asked some family for advice but they didn't know either. I didn't know how to get any job near the town where I live. It's very cliquey, I don't know anyone who's got a job through a formal application process, it's always through a family or friend connection, and I'd lost touch with everyone by this point, my mother doesn't have any contacts and the rest of my family lives in another country. I get filtered out of formal applications because I'm overqualified and bad at lying. Spring 2022 I got sick of it and applied for about 5 software dev jobs. I got one basically without being interviewed. In hindsight that was the first red flag.
I moved to a city 5 hours away. I won't go into the details of the job but it wasn't great. I discovered they had a vrey high turnover for a small company. The new hires previous to me had lasted weeks, one only lasted days, before going on stress leave. I did 10 months. I signed a rental agreement for a year and was too exhausted to search for another job to pay for it. It was full time in the office because I was a junior. I had one friend who lived 3 hours away and every time we met up it was me driving to them, and my sibling needed a lot of help with uni and job stuff so I drove the 5 hours back home most other weekends. I did too much, but I didn't know how to not do too much. Within a few months of each other, my dog died, my grandad died and it was the 10 year anniversary of my dads death. I never had a bad performance review and I quit due to 'personal reasons'. The final straw for me was when I noticed in the office I was physically shaking from exhaustion when I reached for my mouse or keyboard. I think I must have been running on adrenaline or something because it was 2 months before I properly crashed. In this time I moved my stuff back to my childhood bedroom, and that is where I am now. July last year was when I crashed and thought I had CFS etc.
I would say I'm mostly recovered from the physical fatigue. I walk 10k+ steps a day and this helps me mentally. I know I should do more restorative yoga, I see this more like stretchy meditation than exercise and it also helps mentally. I used to enjoy powerlifting and I've tried a few times recently but I think I need to take that super slowly because I get carried away and it wipes me out for a few days after. Skills-wise, I am able to read books again, albeit books I've read before or childrens books. I sometimes have 'high energy' days when I'll read more non-fiction and try to plan my recovery. I am not up for doing technical computer stuff. Things I used to know still go completely over my head. Sensory-wise, I struggle having the big light on for more than 10-15 minutes at a time. I try to reduce screen time. I barely watch tv. I've deleted most social media so I only check instagram once or twice a week on my laptop, and I go on reddit or youtube if I'm looking for something in particular. I try not to listen to too much music otherwise the brain fog gets worse, but that's hard becuase it's one of the few things I feel connects me with the outside world at the moment. When family come round and there are group conversations, I cannot follow anything that's going on and it may as well be white noise. I haven't been in a public space for a while, so I don't know how I am with the background noise. I've reconnected with school friends and am going out for dinner soon, so I'll find out then. I will also find out how I hold up in conversation.
In the next few weeks I plan on looking for part time work. Any advice on suitable jobs would be welcome. I also start a compassion focused therapy group next week, after going to the doctors about this in october of last year *sigh*. I plan on working part time and living at home while figuring out what I want from a career and how to build a life. I wish I could just move to London but it's so expensive.
I see pure maths as closer to the arts than the sciences, and also enjoy fiction books (esp fantasy) and music. I played classical piano and violin/viola as a child to a reasonably high standard. I have no interest in computers really, it was just a job thats related to my degree and that I was good at. As a child I wanted to be a writer or a musician, but as a teen I prioritised moving out of my hometown and told myself that was something I didn't need to study and could work on in my free time. I had a 'maths brain' so it was easy enough to coast this path while I was grieving. I have learnt that the first things I let slide when I am stressed or busy, are the things I am interested in. Then it's chores, then my physical health. I have no idea when to stop or when to say no people. Not because I want them to like me, simply because saying no doesn't occur to me until after I've done it. I also don't notice when I am stressed or doing too much. I have gotten better at that the last few months.
In future, I think I need to prioritise my interests more than I have. I think I tried to 'fix' the stress from the things I 'had' to do with exercise and being very physically healthy. I think the solution is to prioritise working on my interests and passions. The thing I've found most helpful is keeping a diary. I started this last July. I'm now writing music and learning how to produce using Ableton. It's going very slowly but it's going. I've found creating things is better for me mentally than consuming them, even if I'm doing that using a screen. I am interested in the links between maths and music (group theory, geometry, topology etc), and plan to read more about this when I'm able. It would be a dream come true if I could somehow work self-employed doing this one day. I can't imagine working full time in an office again. It exhausts me too much to be able to do anything in my free time. I don't know how demanding it would be to work remotely full-time. I'm lucky I can live with family and work part-time for the forseeable future. There is no rush. I am 24.
Any advice on building a career your interested in, moving to a new city, managing stress and having healthy relationships would be very welcome. Or anything else you think it would be useful to hear.

Hi,
I'm currently still in my privation period and am a member of PEF. Earlier today I had a Notice of Interrogation emailed to me by my department's HLabor Relations. It said that this is a mandatory "disciplinary interrogation for work-related matters" and that I'm entitled to PEF or private representation. My supervisor, someone else I wasn't familiar with, and the director of operations were cc'd on the notice but not the email. I went to my supervisor thinking that they cc'd her just because she's my direct supervisor, and she told me she'd received the same email but can't comment.
Has anyone gone through one of these? I consider myself a good employee; all of my evals so far have been good and I am generally a friendly person. I have no clue what this could be about, but it seems like it was my supervisor making the complaint or reporting something based on her not commenting. The only issue we've had is a gentle reminder not to be on my phone too much (this was when I was new with little to do and I'm pretty sure I have undiagnosed ADHD, and I need little breaks sometimes), and then an interaction during a meeting on Monday where she said something completely incorrect and pretty morally disgusting. After she was done ranting and other people had given their opinion/thoughts on the matter I gave some further context about the topic and sent a follow-up email to everyone with some articles because everyone seemed misinformed. I said my thoughts pretty neutrally and politely, but did reference what she had said. Is that even a Hdisciplinary issue??
Im an anxious person and have been figuratively shitting myself all day because I have no idea what to expect, have little idea what it could even be regarding, and am worried about my job security since I'm still on probation. Do these typically result in disciplinary action???
Thank you!

So, a little bit of history. I finished secondary school in 2013, and got horrific grades. My only passing mark was in English Language. Between then and now, I've been employed once for a period of 4 months in 2021. I've just started pursuing certifications (Comptia A+, Microsoft, etc). I'm fortunate enough to have very supportive parents. I've got a number of significant physical and mental health complications which have prevented me from working as I would like to.
My original plan was to get as many certs as possible and start applying for remote 1st line support positions. But, it's come to light I'm very likely to receive a high six-figure windfall. This isn't enough to "retire" (not that I've worked much) but is enough to afford me a few options. It isn't guaranteed, but should be settled by the end of this month.
What should I do? I'm considering getting a degree, but I believe I'd have to reseat my GCSEs, then do a foundational year, and then actually start Uni.
(also not sure if this subreddit is appropriate, but it's a career question not personal finance)
Thanks!